MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 292

Episode Date: July 27, 2015

Ariel Helwani speaks to Dominick Cruz, Duane Ludwig, Edmond Tarverdyan, Jake Shields, Tom Lawlor, Stefan Struve, Manny Gamburyan, and Robert Follis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, July 27th, 2000. And 15. Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, it is so great to be back home in New York. A great trip to Chicago. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of UFC on Fox Suite 16. Hey, tra la la la la la la, la, la, la, happy birthday, sweet 16.

It was a great event, fourth year in a row, and for the fourth straight year, we had our sit-down interview with CM Punk. You knew that we were going to do it. Of course we were going to do it. I just didn't want to jinx it beforehand, but you knew. You knew for my answer, my no comment,

and you seemed to enjoy it. Amazing how that series, if you will, has evolved over the last four years. It started out as just a, you know, a guy who happened to be a WW champion who loves MMA, then slowly but surely, You start to see him get less and less interested in pro wrestling and more interested in MMA. And now here we are months before his Octagon debut.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's on our YouTube page. It was really cool to be at his home. This time he's a married man. You could tell he's just a happier guy. He's in a much better place in his life. He just, he kind of, he gives off this vibe of just much more at peace and happier person. It's very clear from the moment you talk to him. And his lovely wife was there, who's an amazing person as well, very upbeat, very supportive.

He's a very lucky man. And she's a lucky woman as well. And what was interesting was we got there on Thursday to see him Punk's house. And he lives in a really cool house. And in the basement was Josh Barnett, Caitlin Young, Jessamine Duke, Shane and Bezler, they're all working out using his gym as their own private place, cutting weight. It was really cool. So thank you for all the great feedback. on that interview.

And thank you for the great feedback on the hosting stuff. That was a lot of fun. Got to host the Wayans, got to host the pre-fight show, the post-fight show. Appreciate Fox giving me that opportunity. You people are very nice. I appreciate the encouragement, the words of support. Love doing that.

I hope I could do more. And it was a really fun show to cover top to bottom because once again, as has been the case over the last few events, prelims a little slow main card. incredibly entertaining. Joe Lozahn with the walkaway to end all walkaways just telling Herb Dean,

yeah, trust me on this one, he's gone. And I was so surprised that Herb took so long to actually stop the fight, but Lozahn knew what he was doing. Incredibly classy. It's not the smartest thing to do because they tell you, they legitimately tell you,

do not stop until we tell you to stop. The referee says that. So it's not the smartest thing to do. In fact, it's not the right thing to do. It's a classy thing. thing to do. It's the right thing to do from a sportsmanship standpoint. It's not the right thing to do from a rule standpoint. Nevertheless, Joe Loz on back on track, go me, you have to wonder where he goes from here. Feldor Barbosa certainly lived up to the hype and then some one of those

fights where both guys stock goes up, in my opinion, in particular Feldar. I think a lot of people were impressed with his toughness, took a tough shot to the midsection. Really tough. Spinning back kick, boom, right in the nuts. But he fought through it. And, um, Unfortunately for him, came up a little bit short, but I think a lot more people are interested in seeing his next fight now. Know who he is. He made a lot of fans this past weekend, in my opinion. Misha Tate wins. She's now the number one contender.

Is she really, though? We'll talk about that later on in the show. It's four wins in a row, very impressive wins. So we'll see what the UFC does with her. And, of course, UFC 190 is this weekend in Rio. So good timing, of course. And we'll see what happens, Ron Rousey. If Rhonda loses.

If she loses. something crazy happens. Obviously, she's going to get an immediate rematch. But if she wins, well, I actually think this opens the door, even more so to the cyborg fight, as opposed to a third fight against Misha Tate. We'll see. We'll see after this weekend.

And, of course, T.J. Dillshaw proving that his win at UFC 173, no fluke, he thoroughly dominated Hennebrow once again, a different kind of fight, but still a very, a very impressive and somewhat one-sided fight, finishes him in the fourth round with a barrage of 27 straight significant strikes. Amazing. T.J. Dillashah, the only man in UFC history, to have four straight fights where he landed over 100 significant strikes.

No one has ever done that in three straight fights. He just did it in four. So really impressive stuff. A lot to talk about this week. A lot to talk about, as it pertains to what happened last week of the world of MMA, a very busy and somewhat crazy week. And, of course, what is to come this week as well? So what's going on on this show?

At around 4.15, we're going to talk to Dominic Cruz, who is the young crown champion, the king without a crown. He had his bantamweight title taken away from him, of course, due to the injuries. He's on the comeback trail. Again, recovering from another knee surgery, but that's the fight we all want to see. That's one of the very best fights that the UFC could put on right now. It may not be the fight that will sell the most pay-per-views.

It may not draw the most amount of money, but as far as actual talent versus talent, style versus style, very hard to be that one, in my opinion. That and McGregor-Aldo, as far as actual fighting style, is going head-to-head, a lot of fun. Probably the two most interesting ones, in my opinion. At around 320, we'll take your questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag DMMA hour.

Leave a question or comment in the comment section below. 315, we'll go inside the vault. This is an old-school one, very old-school. see how much myself and my interview subject, how much we've aged since this interview. It's kind of crazy. 305, we'll talk to Jake Shields. World Series of Fighting is back this Saturday with a very good card, but it's going to be overshadowed by 190. Very crazy that they're on the same night as a Rondorowski fight. Why? I don't get it. It's not their fault. It's NBC's fault. But still, Jake Shields versus Hussima Pal Yaris, that is an amazing fight. That is a fat. That's one of the

best fights that WSOF could put on right now, regardless of the weight class. And then Morais versus Morize at 135, Shaman versus Marlin, that's a great fight as well. Nirmagamatov's brother is fighting. Why? Why are they doing this? Do it on Friday. What a shame. 245.

So we'll talk to Jake Shields at 305. 245. We'll talk to Mandy Gamburian about what's next for him. He's coming off a win over Scotty Jorgensen. 225, we're going to talk to the head coach of Juan Misha. Tate and Brian Carraway, who were both in action on Saturday. The third time they were on the same card, the first time they both cornered each other. Robert Follis is their head coach.

He has turned things around at Extreme Couture, looking forward to talking to him. Stefan Struve is in Rio. He fights Bignog on Saturday. U.S.C. 190 will talk to him about that fight. 145. We'll talk to Tom Lawler, who knocked out John Valenti on Saturday. Great comeback for him. He has not fought in over two years and look pretty good at 205.

his return to light heavyweight. Emin Tarverdian stops by at 125 to talk about Rousey's fight on Saturday. And in a matter of moments, we are going to be joined by Mr. Dwayne Bang Ludwig, the head coach for T.J. Dilshot. But before we get to that, let me remind you that the National Academy of Sports Medicine is looking for people who want an exciting career in the fitness industry, where you wake up every day doing something you love. NASM trainers improve people's lives by helping them reach their health and fitness goals. Don't miss the opportunity to start a career where you get to stay active and change people's lives. It really doesn't get any better than this. NASM guarantees you'll land a job within 60 days of earning your CPT certification or your money back. Get a 14-day free trial of fun online programs at myUSATrainer.com.

MyUSATrainer.com restrictions apply. See my USATrainer.com for the Dietz. All right, let's go to line number one and welcome in the man who was a very happy man Saturday night, his guy, T.J. Dullesha, successfully defended his title and proved to the world that his win over Barow at U.S.C. 173 last year, Memorial Day weekend was no fluke at all. He is the better man by far. We're talking to Bang Ludwig right now. Bang, how are you? Doing good, doing good. Thanks for having me on, Ariel. Congratulations, my friend. So let's look at this fight as opposed to the first fight. Which performance were you happier with? I was happier. Well, I'm not quite sure which one I was happier with, but, you know, what we did or what T.J. did in the first round, staying there a bit more in the pocket and actually pushed the pace wasn't the game plan, but still it was a good idea to make sure that Henna knows that we can fight there as well.

So there's a couple aspects to that, but that wasn't necessarily the game plan. I want to make sure we're a bit more focused and move around and make sure we're not getting hit and taking those chances out of the playbook. but obviously it worked out and I'm happy with both performances and then TJ he's just a ninja. What was the game plan? Well, if you're going to fight someone that can hit pretty hard, let's not stand in front of them.

Let's move a little bit. Make sure we can capitalize on the areas that are going to be opened off the motion because when you move and they try to follow us, openings appear, and we've got to take advantage of openings that actually were created. So that's interesting because, as opposed to the first fight, correct me if I'm wrong here,

but he came out Southpaw this time and, in my opinion, was moving a lot more. It wasn't switching as much as stances. It just seemed like a completely different fighter. And maybe in hindsight, that's smarter because you threw him a curveball. But are you saying that he did that on his own?

You guys didn't talk about that beforehand? No, it's good to switch up stances as such, but we're talking about the actual footwork in motion a bit more. We just stood in front more than was originally canned. What's going through your mind when he's doing that? Just making sure I'm making adjustments on the fly a little bit and just realizing that what needs to happen. When I mean to that, that was working, of course,

but we'd be a bit more successful, which a bit more motion, just so we're not getting hit. So we got hit more than we needed to do, even though it was still at one set of the fight, we got hit more than we needed to. What did you make of Borough? A lot has been said about just, you know, his demeanor, his body language.

He just seems a lot slower. Like, he doesn't have that same pep in his step as he once did. Perhaps it's the weight cut. Perhaps it's just TJ's presence that does it to him. What do you make of him? Do you think it's time for him to move up at this point? I'm not quite sure how hard it is for him to make weight or what goes on in his training camp. That would be for them to decide, but I wouldn't mind seeing him do a couple fights at 45

and then to see how that performance is before I can make an educated, you know, giving an actual answer on that. How hard is it for TJ? I recall talking to him at the Wayans. His face very sunken in, and that's no, you know, that's not special in MMA. Most guys are like that on Wayne Day, but I'm just wondering from your perspective, is it a tough weight cut for him? It's not that tough, no.

I mean, he's been wrestling for years, so he knows how to cut weight. And it's not a hard way cut, no. It's not. It might be hard for other people, but he doesn't struggle with it. It's a mapped out process. You know, he knows exactly what he's doing, when to do it. So this was, you know, the Soto fight was a weird one, because you had been preparing for Barow,

and then, of course, at the 11th hour, he doesn't show up. This, you know, this fight actually came to fruition. What was it like now that you have been preparing for this guy in your mind for essentially a year and a half? going into 173, going into 177, going into 186, and now finally the fight happens. And just that journey as champion as opposed to as challengers who are trying to shock the world. Was it different for you? No, no, necessarily different because the end result is just to make sure that we're improving each and every training camp

and each of Dave, challenging, just getting better. So it's always good to be focused on the opponent, but the end result is to always make sure that we are improving and getting better. and TJ. TJ is a lot better than most of the guys in the division. So I just want to make sure that we're doing that. So it's not necessary to beat somebody because I feel we can already do that.

So again, to actually make sure that we're getting better as a martial artist. So you say a lot better than most of the guys in the division. Why most and not all? Well, because there's a couple unknowns with Cruz. And I feel he's a lot better. But to actually say that and be certain of it, we have to have the fight. And we'll get to cruise in a second, but I want to clear something up because you made a lot of headlines last week. You were on Sirius XM and you made these comments, which I spoke to you about on Thursday.

You said essentially that T.J. Dillusha is the only member of Team Alpha Mail that truly wants to become a champion. And this caused somewhat of a firestorm. You had Cody Garbrandt and Lance Palmer of Team Alpha Mail tweeting you. And it just felt like an uncomfortable situation. I give T.J. a lot of credit for saying the right things beforehand and kind of blocking out all of that drama. but from an outsider's perspective, you know, you can't help but think this caused a distraction. And when I spoke to you on Thursday, it almost felt, you know, props to you, you kind of stuck your guns on this one.

You said you don't really regret the comments. But it appears maybe after some time you want to clear the air. Is that true? Yeah, definitely because, you know, I say some stupid stuff sometimes. And, you know, they're training at their full potential. But just T.J. just has he just really. wants it. And if you look at it in comparison, there's a

difference. And, you know, if someone is training a certain way and not just coming out to Colorado or whatever, just the focus and the intensity and the desire in the room, you can just see it, you can feel it. And it's just different with TJ. And I feel

if it's helping him become a champion, then that's what it's supposed to become a champion. But they're doing, all they can do is now say, well, that's a nice They train their butts on. And for me to say they don't want to be champion, that's not fair. That's not actually true.

I mean, it must be. But T.J. just puts in a little bit of extra effort, a bit more focused, but more desire, I see. And that's what I was truly meaning not to discredit anybody because those guys train extremely as anybody to train as hard as them. Other than T.J. I haven't been around the other champions in the world, like Aldo and Edgar and, you know, Chris Feynman, the actual champions of people who have been championed before. they possess the same qualities, I'm sure.

But if you have someone in the room training with the same intensity and desire and focus, you need to follow that pattern. So that's obviously proven to be successful. So would... Go ahead. They train their butts off, for sure, period. And it's just not fair to me to say that. And that's right.

I said now I thought about it for two days. And it's okay, that that was pretty exacted for me to say. Because for sure they're putting in all they can, but they're just, I want more for them. I think, I don't think I know. Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavitas will be champions. They can't be champions. The only thing that's separating them is just a little bit more focus and desire. So fair to say now you do regret the comments.

Yeah, I regret it because I can't, you know, that's, I can't, you know, I see how they took it as a jab or a shot at them. That's not fair. It wasn't really a shot at them. If anything, I want to make sure that I'm just highlighting T-J's push for the belt. You know, that was the main thing. It wasn't to putting anybody down. She actually brought up the team, but that was the people that I,

trained so that's what was my reference guide was for and there's a difference when they train I mean there's a distinct difference you can see it you can feel it but and I just think if you're going to be champion then you need to do what he's doing with the same focus and desire and intensity can you because go ahead they're going to be champions if that if they turn up to focus with their intensity that we're on the bell and Chad has to do three things to win the bell what's that I'm not to have to keep that out I'll text that to Chad Oh, but there are specific three things that he needs to do. There are three specific things that I could be doing to win the belt.

I mean, one, he's got to get his cardio up, training between camps a bit more, like little things like that. But on the technical side, on the technical side, there's only one thing he needs to do to fix. Man. And then he would have to be all done. It's one thing. And to me, it's simple, but I'm not in the cage. And Benavides has to fix one thing as well. I think it's just one thing for each guy alongside of, I think, a bit more, I want to say.

They just need to do exactly what they do with the intention to be in focus. Because, I mean, they can be a champion, literally. And that's the only thing that's pulling apart. So you have this one thing in mind, and you're not going to share, I'm dying to know here. This is the ultimate tease. I'll let them know if it's for them, yeah. Wow. That's no fun.

Can you give us a hint? I'm sorry. It's a technical thing. Okay. It's striking. Well, I would imagine that. Even though I thought Chad won the fight in Brazil period. Yeah.

But, you know, being in Brazil, I think, you know, it's a close fight, but I thought we won the fight. But I think we could have easily won the fight or won a bit more – it would have been more in our favor if we would do this one thing. And I think that was my fault. I guess it should have some responsibility because I left Sacramento a month before his fight. Month before Chad's fight, we had trained together. I'm about to Colorado. I'm the planning that's supposed to come to Colorado, and if something's going to work on,

or I could have just stayed in Sacramento. I could have been to put the business on hold. But I put the business on hold for a couple months. I didn't want to do that anymore. But anyway, I got to accept a little bit of responsibility for Chad not having the belt. There's just one key thing that he could be doing to be wearing the belt. But he's not going to be able to do that technical aspect. And nice he's going to shape, though, as well.

So there's a couple elements to it. Did T.J. sit down with you and say, you know, I wish you didn't say this. It was an ad distraction. Anything like that? Did you have a heart-to-heart with him? We talked. Yeah, you know, that was unneeded, especially at that time. I mean, it's unneeded experience to say that. And I was just bad timing. But I just, you know, just get in fight mode and get excited.

and speak from heart. It says, you know, TJ, again, if you see everybody in the room, he sticks out. Okay, and if he's doing things that are separating him,

they need to do the same things, period. So, and of course, everyone wants to be champion, but, you know, I can't discredit their efforts. Can you tell us what?

Yeah, we talked. Yes, we talked, and I talked. Was he upset? A little bit, you know, it's bad timing for sure. And bad timing aside,

that's not, that's not fair. for me to say. But I say stupid stuff sometimes. Obviously. But it's not going to ruin your relationship with TJ, right? I hope not. No, it didn't seem to be a fight week at all.

Yeah, no. I mean, that shouldn't. I mean, that's just my opinion. Do you wish that he did his entire camp in Colorado? No, because that's what they in Colorado. We have excellent coaches. Obviously, I'm good when I do. We have Leachia Bowen, who's a really good wrestling coach for M.

We're really good jih Tijuana, which is Elliot Marshall. We have a great strength of the interesting coach out here, which is Lauren Landau. So we have really good coaches in all fields out here. And we have a couple decent guys to train with. Like, not decent, actually, really good guys. Like, Tony Sims is a really good training partner, Brandon Fasch. We just have a handful of good guys to train with

rather than 20 good guys to train with. So Alphamel, like, that's the best place to test your skills against to improve, but the coaching in Colorado is better. As far as the alpha-mel guys are concerned right now, Castillo comes to you, obviously, Dilleshaw. Does anyone else... He looked a lot better, huh? He did. Unfortunately, you know, it didn't work out.

But yeah, I'm wondering, does anyone else from the team come to Colorado these days? They have before. If you just came out, Mann's came out, Holdworth came out. So they've come out before. Not for training camps, but just to train for a little bit, but not necessarily for their upcoming fight. Do you think that will continue? We'll see. I'll reach out to him a little bit.

They're not, they're not, Benavides, yeah, they're not replying. So, you know, I understand. They're upset. Because Ben Vez has a fight coming up in, like, a month. Yeah. So you don't think he's going to come now? I think he's not replying on the deck, so we'll see. Okay.

I'm open to help the guys, you know, I just say some stupid stuff. But, I mean, Benavis can be champion, period. So can Chad, there's just some things just need to be changed up a little bit. And it doesn't involve, even coming to Colorado, it's just a bit more focused, desire and push. and now that you're not an exclusive head coach why do you think other

why doesn't Joe Schmo fighter come to you who's a UFC fighter? I'm not doing the fight thing no I have a martial academy I'm not training fighters I reserve a little bit of extra time on the side for certain individuals

from the team that's it Ah okay so it's only because of the fact that you have that relationship with those specific guys If I'm a new fighter who's two and O in the UFC you're not available Not for Or what I do for TJ and the team, no.

But they could come in and do the classes and train alongside of the other guys and such. But as far as, like, what I, the extra things I do for him, the holding the game planning, the talks, like the other things that go on. No, it doesn't happen. I'm not running a fight gym. We have a martial academy. For the uninformed, can you describe what's the difference between T.J. and these other guys? What exactly is it?

What do you see in him? He does it more focus and desire? Like, when you see him and you're around him, like, you know, there's a difference between him and someone who's, like, not a chance. champion, there's a different or, there's different presence, there's a different intensity. You mean, he just, he wants it. Out of everybody that I've seen, he just seems to want it the most. I'll say that.

You know, everyone wants you to get it, but he wants it the most. That's what I should have fucking said. Did you hear from Yorah Fabor? No, but we don't really keep in touch. You know, I just thought because of this firestorm, if, you know, if he reached out to you at all. No, and he, you know, he's a super-natured. intelligent guy, he, you know, it just, he doesn't really care about it. I'm sure he, you know, understands I made a stupid comment.

And there's nothing to, you know, talk or text about, I'm sure. Is it, I mean, it was a mistake. I mean, it sucks too hurt their feelings, of course. But, man, like, you know, TJ just doing some next things that I don't see other guys doing. And I just had to said that it's weird. Is it hard for you to watch those other guys knowing that if they change one or two? Yeah. Yeah.

That's why, like, especially specifically Chad, man, I know Chad just, I think if you lose a little bit more muscle and has better cardio and then does one technical thing, he'd be one on the belt. I mean, if he was in shape, he would have to beat Connor if he was in shape. Yeah. So that aside, he didn't have to do a technical thing that I'm talking about to be auto specifically or a striker, I guess. But to meet Connor, as far as because the wrestling advantage of Chad and the ground game, the ground control and the ground of pound. If he's in shape, I thought he could be Connor. Okay, let's switch gears.

Are you happy with what we discussed? Yeah, I just want to tell the team, yeah, sorry, I say some stupid stuff. But they know what I'm talking about, hopefully. Okay. Before I let you go... Thank you for bringing me out. Let me speak my mind, too. Oh, for sure.

But I really want to hear your thoughts on Cruz versus Dilsha. I said on Saturday, like... Yeah, 100%. Okay, so... I think... Go ahead, sorry. I just want to know when you see the match. I mean, does anything, it's kind of funny when you watch Dill Show, especially in that first brow fight,

very similar fighting style to Cruz. How do you think he matches up with Dominic? I think he matches it well. I see T.J knocked him out within two rounds. Oh, wow. Like stopping the fight within two rounds. Why? Because of something that we train.

Oh, man. You're just full of secrets today. You know, yeah, there's things that I think differently, and I know my athletes and there's another level of, martial arts available now. Do you think he's somewhat damaged goods? Like all these injuries, he's not really as good as as he was. I mean, but, you know, so many surgeries and time off,

even though he looked great against, who did he just fight? Mizugaki. Yeah, he looked phenomenal there. But, yeah, you know, but it didn't seem in that fight, then of course gets hurt again. So the fight gets booked, we would have to have another guy on the back burner

as, like the same case that Carmen Greger-Aldo and had Chad on the back burner, it has to be something like that. Are you hoping, though, that that's the next fight that they don't give him another tune-up fight? Yeah, that, I mean, they can give him a two-up fight, I think that'd be fair. But, man,

that fight needs to happen just because Cruz also knew his title, you know, he didn't lose it via a fight, he lost because it's just being stripped. So just to do what ethically right, that fight needs to happen. And that fight needs to happen anyways. It's a big fight, and just to make sure that it's truly undisputed. Because, I mean,

obviously, he's an unspically champion now, but You know, there's a little bit of a gray air just because of the cruise. Did you watch a lot of cruise tape in your effort to shape T.J. It's like when I bring people down and do all this video and all the extra stuff that I do, I can't do that for everybody. So I found a reserve the fight stuff for a good, just a short handful of people. But is it fair to say that you looked at a lot of crews and implemented that into T.J's game? Did he inspire you when building T.

T.J. did that himself at first. You know, he's coming in. He's like, I've been doing a lot of crews and doing that. this and that. And I was like, yeah, good. So we start rolling with it. And that's one thing that a training needs to do is listen to the athlete. You know, I didn't make TJ.

I just, my potential, I just got to pull the potential out of them is my job, is my duty. Is there anything Cruz does, like the best cruise that you've seen? Anything he does that concerns you? Not really. I mean, not really. The things that he's successful out with other guys, you're not going to be able to do that to TJ.

That's the thing. And what TJ is very good at and what TJ, I'm serious, man, he can knock him out in the second round. Or he can knock him on the first round. but I see him stopping him in the second round. Once he finds the timing and accuracy of a round, and the second round, he's going to go out. So are you saying that Barow is a tougher matchup for T.J. than Cruz?

Well, it's because of some certain things that Cruz does differently than Brow that's going to give T.J. the opening to stop it. Like what? I can't tell you what the hell. You want me to tell you? This is the difference in Cruz and Brow. I can't tell you. Why?

What's the difference? Because then everyone's going to know. That's secret. Something very specific, yeah. Very specific. Really? And it's pretty easy. Did you see it in the Mizugaki fight or is this the old rules?

I've been seen it for years. Really? You've been doing the same thing for years, yeah. Wow. So second round finish. Yeah, yes. Knock them out. Yep.

Neither knock him out or TK or, you know, ref stoppage. Stop him. He'll stop him in the second round via strikes. Do you have a preference as to when this fight's happened? Do you think he needs some time off? I know he hasn't been very active. I would like to see TJ. Yeah, because TJ trains, I'm seriously, not to be just bringing him else,

but he trains a different intensity and pace, and he can't do that all the time. Because the way he trains is, man, it's just, I haven't seen it before. And that, that comment's getting me in trouble, but I haven't seen him train, I haven't seen that training before. So he can't do that all the time, so he does need to take some time off and then build up that fire and that hunger. You know that fire and the hunger is always there, but just something that has. to happen this from expense of the years. I mean, my candle is lit for some of the year.

Your candles lit for only so long. Right. You can be a, you know, a supreme athlete for only so long and then dwindles down. So I want to make sure that that, the time that T.J.'s candle is lit is the time to, for preparation for a belt. We've got to stay sharp in between camps, but not burn out. So do you think he's done for this year? I don't know what they're going to do.

It depends on what's happening with Cruz. Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing a fight at the end of the year. Okay. Take a couple months off. do a small mini train-up camp and this kind of stay sharp at things and then get the camp rolling.

So you will see him even though let's say he's fight his book for January or February you'll still see him, you guys will still work together a little bit like a mini camp and then he'll take a break and come back? That's what I would like to see, yes. Okay, is that what's going to happen or you haven't talked about it yet? Well, I don't know if the fight's, yeah.

We haven't talked about yet. No, I just want to focus on this fight and get that done and then then enjoy his vacation, it's time off right now. and then we'll get back to it. But we haven't talked about it yet, no. So, like, you know, he's crazy busy right now, so much. So we got to let stuff settle down and then talk about that here in a couple weeks, I'm sure. And final thing, what do you do?

Like, what happens now that you're out of fight camp and you don't have a champion preparing for a fight? What happens your day-to-day life with the gym with the school? I run my academy, my big martial arts, and just focus on my academy and my bang-with-high-affiliate program, online course. And just, you know, my dude is martial arts to spread the martial arts. And that's what gives me life and purpose. That's why I'm here is to teach martial arts. It's what makes me happy.

And I'm extremely blessed to have someone such as TJ learning. And I learned just so much from him, man. It's awesome. Like this level of martial arts hasn't been here on the third before. So as a fight nerd for me and just a martial artist, man, I love the game. I love to watch him shadow box and train and come up new drills of combinations, to bounce things off each other and Dr. TJ. And it was really good tattoo as Benavitist, man.

He's a creative little ninja, man. So I get a lot of good that I mature from the guys. It's just good just to play the evolution game of martial arts. But, yeah, I'm a fighting there. This is all they do with martial arts. Did you give him a free seminar on Saturday as well? No, I think he charged him this time. Bang, congratulations.

Amazing stuff. It is truly a pleasure to watch this fighter, T.J. Dilshaw grow into the champion that he has become. And also your relationship is a lot of fun to watch as well. So congratulations. Enjoy the win. looking forward to the next one. I got to tell Tim off Mel. I love you guys.

Sorry for being stupid. Okay. Well said. Make that more headline, please. Okay, fair enough. Bang Ludwig. I appreciate it, guys. There he is.

Sorry for being stupid. He apologizes and tried his best to clear the air here on the show today. Okay, let's move along. Let's go from one championship coach to another. Another man who, all right, so Bang Ludwig was on display on Saturday night in Chicago. On Saturday of this coming week, In Rio, our next guest will be on display because his prize pupil, Ronda Rousey, will be defending her title. Once again, this time against Betcha Hay.

We're talking to Edmund Tarverdian, who is joining us from Brazil right now. Edmund, how are you? Good brother. How are you? Thanks for having me on. I appreciate you coming on, especially because you are overseas. So when did you guys get to Rio? Sunday, last Sunday.

And is this something that you wanted to do, that you felt like you felt like. you needed to get there earlier? Yeah, you know, time zone change here. So every hour I counted approximately a day, you know, just to adjust hours a little bit, we're going to be fighting at a.m., you know, 1 to 2 a.m. So I just want to come in early to get, you know, settle down. And then we're just going to check in tomorrow,

get, you know, the UFC wants us to do. And this is a little bit different. And of course, Ronda is no stranger to competing overseas, but as far as her MMA's career is concerned, it's a little different, you know, just having to deal with a foreign country and all that. Are you comfortable there yet, or do you feel like it's going to take a few more days? Oh, no, comfortable. Actually, our last training session, she looked amazing and great.

You know, we're ready to go. How big is Ronda over there? Are you sensing that she's as big of a star there, if not more, than here in the U.S.? You are, you know, here, and people are so passionate about MMA results here. And, you know, they love her. But we've been in the hotel, so not getting outside, not trying to go crazy. You know, just staying focused around is very focused. Actually, we tell her leave the room a little bit.

Let's go out for a walk so she could read some of her. She just, you know, is really focused. And just staying in the room, training, eating, resting, ready to go. So, Edmund, I've got to be honest with you. I'm a little bit worried about what we're going to see on Saturday because in talking to Rhonda briefly when she was in New York, listening to all her interviews and all that, she really appears to not like this woman. And it appears as though this has taken on a whole new level of, you know, personal for her. I mean, what she says about extending the fight. Just when you say Betchko has named to Rhonda, something changes. You can see it.

You can clearly see something changes. What is your perspective on this? Have you ever ever see? I mean, I know she's had issues with Misha and other people, but this seems to be on a whole different level. Are you seeing the same thing? Yeah, I see it, you know, Rhonda regarding, you know, she said about family. She's really just, you know, how Ron takes that to the heart. And she does, like, because of what she said, she does hate her, but it's not only about the hitting part, it's about she loves that's behind her, you know, she fights for it. whatever loved one she has next to her or behind

that she doesn't have with her at this point of her life, which is her father. And she spoke very intelligent of that situation. So Ronda's really focused, you know, nothing, none of the emotions are you going to get in the way when she goes when the doors of the oxygen closes. Rhonda's a professional. Everybody has seen that Ronda gets better every day.

improves three day, whether it's in the gym or whether she fights, she's been showing that. And right now, Rhonda is so dangerous. He's dangerous for all these groups that step in there with her. So, you know, she's going to do what she's best at on Saturday. How do you get her to not fight emotionally and make this into a personal fight? Because one could, you know, understand if this is a little different for her and that she is emotional. How do you stop that from happening? No need to even talk about it because Rhonda's a boring fighter.

So I'm going to talk about those kinds of situations with her. I know what she's capable of doing. I know she's very intelligent what she's supposed to do to get the work done and to get the win. She's just a born fighter. So it makes my job easier. So you never had to sit down with her at the beginning of this camp and say, look, I know you don't like her. You're offended all this stuff.

Let's not forget. No. No, no, we're past that level, not the best fighter in the world. Right. Period. I need to speak about stuff like that word, period. When you look at Betch, it's funny listening to analysts talk about this fight because everyone's very quick to dismiss her.

I mean, they're only arguing about how long this fight is actually going to last. When you look at her, is there anything that she does at all that concerns you? No, nothing concerns me. Like, Ronda's ready for everything. You know, she's not better at any area from Ronda. But, you know, she has her home crowd. She'll be excited to fight, you know, emotional, maybe happy. You're excited, you know, to get in the oxygen in front of, you know, all the Brazilians.

And she has, she's the main event. And there's a lot of good fighters from Brazil fighting there on the undercart. So, you know, it seems to me that, you know, me, her personality she's a girl that might get excited about stuff like that the way she finishes the fight and mozegovir and stuff you know she might be over excited and that excitement is you know it's a little bit crazy is a difficult to deal with a certain point but you know chams look great at everything she's not have anything for her you know so those are the only plus as i see that she she might have being in bris

Brazil and so excited because of her personality. So that's about it. What's her take on Ronda saying that she might let this fight go longer just so she can punish her? As her coach, don't you want her to finish it as quickly as possible? Yeah, again, I did not talk about that with Ronda. Why I don't talk about that what Ronda is because Ronda is capable of doing anything, especially in this fight, any second, whatever she wants. Ronda's too elite, too smart, too intelligent.

for a bachelor's career so I haven't spoken to Rhonda about that but I know Ronda's personality Ronda's born a fighter like I say when you're born a fighter regardless what you want to do you want to take it a little into the deep waters whatever you want to do you could always get the best of it but I know in my heart that

Ronda will taggers sorry that this girl can know where she is so a fight can and within seconds you know I do not doubt that the way Rhonda punches now with both hands. It's just too much for all these

girls. Even I would say a guy you know, holding those punches is going to be difficult. By the way, I refuse to ask you about Floyd Mayweather. I'm not getting into all of that because I'm tired of that discussion. So just I know you went the guy right. It's like this whole Ronda Floyd thing is just getting it to be a little much. But I understand that you won't talk to her about it. But

are you at all concerned that she will let this act. I believe this is the respect that we have for Rhonda. We all believe that if she wants to let this go around just to punish betch, that she can actually do it. She's that damn good. Are you worried that she will do that? No, not worried.

Okay, so you think that she's actually going to go out there and finish the fight when she can as soon as she can? Yes. So you're so good at predictions. How long do you think this actually lasts? I am going to leave that up to Ronda's fight.

That's the only thing I spoke to her about that this, but I'm going to leave it up to you. Okay. She's that much better, and she's going to exactly do what she wants, and she's going to get the wind, whether it's going to be very early, whether it's going to go a little bit, and it's going to be exciting for all the fans to watch, because it's going to be in a beautiful fashion. But do you have an idea? Like, do you think this even lasts a minute?

Yeah, I have an idea, of course. I'm not going to give it. I think I made two predictions back-to-back. know, for shot knockout. Yeah. I love your predictions. We did it. Yeah, we did it.

It's not difficult to predict for me. When I know the fighter, I see the fighter every day in my gym, you know, performing with elite fires, you know, dropping people less and right with 14 pounds, gloves, nobody can take those punishment, take those shots. And, you know, that's why I'm so confident at saying. And we all know that Rhonda does what she's best at in, not only the gym, but when she gets into the octagon, her ability, she does it to the potential. lot fighters out there that's whatever they have they get in there you know do 70% 60% of what

they can't Honda does 200% not even 100 she does 200% she does more or it's you know too much for everybody I love knowing I love looking after the fact and seeing just how accurate you were with your prediction so you're not going to give us that privilege not this time because we're in real we want everybody to be excited here fair enough of the Brazilian fans. When you look at her, when you look at her last opponents, Zengano, Davis, McMahon, Olympian,

all that, Misha Tate, do you put Betch on their level? Do you think she's on their level, below them, above them? Experience-wise, I would say no, you know. She has nine fights. The other girls have nine fights, too, but some of them had background in wrestling,

you know, in different martial arts competitions. So I would say, no, she's a bit green, but, you know, she is undefeated, and, you know, there's things she did to get that paddle shot, and if you're feeling a little bit, you know, fat about not getting it with Rwanda will get that tense, you know, so still a fight. We have a fight in front of us, and, you know,

but she's still in the top ten, you know, undefeated still in the top ten, so top ten, any of the top ten fighters, the UFC thinks it's that right opponent. and they deserve this. It doesn't matter how, you know, it is a fight for Rwanda. Did you guys watch the event on Saturday? I did. I did watch it a little bit.

And we have to do some training so they didn't see the main events, but I did see the girls. Oh, great. So it appears as though they said Misha Tate is going to get a title shot. How do you feel about that? You already beat her twice?

Well, you know, the thing is Ronda beat her and the strike first title away from her. So Ronda beat her once in this LFSI. So basically she's getting her second shot at Ronda in this LFC, which a lot of fighters get two fights, you know, two title shots. And she did win, you know, last four fights she's winning. She's been, you know, doing a bit better, it seems like, you know, for her. But it's cool.

I like that fight. I'm real excited for that fight, actually, because this time I'm going to make sure Misha really gets really punished and knows what she's getting into. She's not going to be good for her career. You know, this one is going to be for sure. She's going to get a lot of damage

and she's going to make sure she's not healthy for her career. They're going to see that. So a lot of the talk on Saturday was she's evolved. She's a better fighter. Did you see any of that? No, no. I know exactly what she's doing right now and I'm not going to get into it.

but I promise everybody the next fight when she gets in there with Ronda. You know, I never, at this level having an elite fighter, like Ronda having the best fighter in the world, there's no need to, wherever I'm saying about my fight or anything to give them extra confidence or extra, you know, stuff about their opponents for my fighters to feel more comfortable about. But, you know, Ronda's two camps with Misha Pait, you know, there's no need to make excuses, but, you know, fight first time ever fighting for a title in your third fight, you know, sick, keeping the weight low, I was about to cancel that fight.

Fever, second one, you know, we had a lot of movies for her came in. We had a 40-day camp, you know, hurt her hand and, you know, so much. And she's just a lucky girl because of that. This time it's going to be a totally different fight. And rounders and proof and is just going to be too much further. This girl is going to get hurt in there. She's not going to know where she is. This time she's not going to know where she is.

She's not going to know where she is for sure during the fight. So I was kind of happy that Misha won only because I feel like it will open the door finally to the cyborg fight, that they'd rather do that than a third fight against Misha Tate. Do you feel the same way? Do you feel like if she gets past Betch-Gohia, the time is finally now. There's no one else. Let's get this thing done. So we got Mish and then after that get Cyborg.

Is that what you're saying? No, past Betch and get Cyborg after-Bch. Fresh fight, the biggest fight of all time. Well, we had meat typing next, right? That's the talk. Yeah, but I'm just saying now that, you know, we've done it already twice. We've been there, done that. We've seen it.

Let's chill on that for a second. This opens the door. Because if it was Jessica I who won, all right, that's fresh. She won against Misha Tate. All right, she deserves it. You know, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's on to her and her camp, you know, to make 35. And, you know, they know exactly where Ron is.

and they go down in 35 that fight can happen. There's nothing I can say, but at this point it seems like I saw some stuff that Dana said, you know, Misha's next on line. So, you know, I like the fight. She says she's been improving. She thinks she's been doing better, and she's won four fights,

and I think she does deserve a shot again, you know. We're ready. I like that fight. I do like that fight because she's still been talking crap a little bit, and she thinks she gets into the third round with round, and she thinks she could do better right now and go for the decision or something like that. She's mistaken and we'll be ready for that height.

This is why I love talking to you, Edmund, because 25 minutes ago before this show started, I had no interest in the Misha fight, and now just by what you're saying, I would pay you've just gotten me so excited to watch it just by the way that you're actually subtly, very calm, cool, and collected in selling this fight. So kudos to you there.

All right, so fair enough. We'll see what happens. Is there any chance, by the way, last thing on the cyborg thing, is there any chance you do 140 just to prove, like, look, you can't make it a fine. We'll do 140, just get this out of the way. You're a boxing guy.

You know that catch weights happen all the time. Yes, catch weights will happen depending on the situation and depending on the circumstance, Cyborg had cheated and she has done stuff that she shouldn't have done in a career. And because of that, I don't want any exceptions

with my fighters. It's not that I'm worried. It's not about that. It's about doing everything properly and correctly. So that one counts for me is an issue. Why? Because of what she's done and the way she has behaved herself. And I believe that if she does it the right way,

she can make 35. So she makes 35, you know, that fight will happen. But if not 35, I don't want to talk about that fight because I want, when I say a fair and square for my fighter, that's what I want. It's not that I'm worried about my fighter, but I'm worried about every little situation for it to be fair and for everybody to be healthy in the sport.

That's why my worry. We wear a headgear when we're sparring. We do everything properly because of safety in the future. So that one pound, two pounds, nobody should have an advantage or an age over anybody, especially when you have cheated your way. If it was fair and square that never happened, I could have made an exception. But right now, I don't want to pick an exception for her. Fair enough.

Last thing for you, Edmund, and again, thank you so much for the time. I read Rhonda's book. It was amazing. I gloat about it. I think everyone should read it. And amazing, this little section of it was her trying to get your attention as a coach, her journey to be accepted as your student and to just be a part of the team over there at GFC. was that just what you do?

Is that just your typical thing? You want to test the fighter to see how motivated and dedicated they are to the sport and to the team because from my perspective, it seemed like it took you a while to really get her on board

to get her, you know, to get a piece of your time. What was that all about? Absolutely, you know, when Natalie comes to my gym, I don't jump on them, you know, depending they have a manager, management team brings them.

I take a lot of, I had her work ethics and their personality, you know, and if I could put in the time and break. And Rhonda, you know, she was a female. I was like, you know, Judo Kai, I heard she's a medalist in the Olympic Games. I was like, okay, you know, she should still be doing Judo, spread her knowledge, and why MMA, you know, what fight could she make pure out of this and that? I just stayed away and she really wanted me to work with her.

But my hands were full also. I had the boxing world champions in my head. gym was working with you know she coach she really wanted to do it and she trained hard and it just it it was meant to be i didn't do it intentionally and it was meant to be if you put it intentional i think it wouldn't work out the way it has our our relationship because it's not meant to be it wouldn't happen if you really do try or try to keep yourself away from somebody so you could just turn and look at them to you think okay they're training now i could do them something It isn't that.

It was all real, fair and square. I was like, whatever, that I'll come train. And she came so much until when I gave her the key, I was like, at least the best thing I could do for her is just do something generous. And here you have a key, and she was sweating in her car. And I was like, we'll come open it at least, you know, come inside and start hitting the bag or something. So it just came together. It's my personality.

It's not things that I do intentionally. But, you know, it's right. I believe that it's more right. There's no need to run after anybody or, you know, chasing, but they know what my gym is, and Ron came and saw. And, you know, she wanted me to look at her, and she did deserve that, and she got my attention, and I started to work for her.

Well, it has certainly worked out and then some. Good luck to you guys on Saturday. Can't wait for the fight. Can't wait to be there to witness it. I think it's going to be very special. And again, thank you so much for the time on this Monday afternoon. Really appreciate it, Edmund. Thanks, guys.

Big here. Thank you. All right, there he is. Edmintar Verdi and the head coach over at the Glendell Fighting Club head coach of the one and only Ronda Rousey. She will be on display this Saturday at UFC 190. On display on Saturday in Chicago, one of the great moments of the night was the return of Filthy Tom Loller. He had not fought since April 6, 2013.

He knocked out John Volante in pretty darn impressive fashion in the second round. His return to Light Heavyweight won a performance of the night bonus. He joins us right now. via the magic Skype, there he is. The go-tee wonder himself. What's with the new facial hair, Tom? Any questions for you, but let's start there. Well, actually, the reason why I have a go-tee, Ariel,

is about a month ago, before the fight, I came down with a really, really bad staff infection. And it was in my face. So I woke up one morning. The side of my face was puffed out, pretty big, like a golf ball. And it took me a couple days to get the right medication. and I was on three different kinds of antibiotics. I was in bed for about eight days.

And after the infection was gone, I don't know if you could see. I could see it. About right there, there's a spot. It's like a crater in my face. And the hair doesn't grow there. So I had a full beard. There was no hair there. So I decided to shave it down to a goatee right before the fight.

Wow, staff infection in your face. How much does that hurt? It was the worst pain I felt in a really long time. Way worse than the reconstruction I had on my knee. It was worse than the pain from that. It was about eight days of just intense, intense pressure on my head, headaches. I didn't leave. I basically was in bed for an entire week.

How'd you get it? Hey, man, I'm filthy. That's true. What do you want? You got to live up to the gimmick, right? Yeah, yeah. I think part of it was, you know, obviously, you know, it starts as like an ingrown hair. And I was like, ah, playing on my face. And I picked it at the wrong time.

Part of it, I think, was, you know, I was burning the candle at both ends, doing a lot of training. So my body just had a, you know, a bad reaction, everything that was going on. And there was a time where I thought I wasn't going to be able to fight. I thought I would have to pull out of the fight. But, you know, I made it through. So yeah. Luckily, I did. Yes, it all worked out. And it's interesting because when I saw you with the goatee, and then of course you weren't your typical jovial self

at the way-ins and walking to the cage because you had been, you know, I don't want to use an overdramatic term but things change because of the Reebok deal

and we'll get to that in a second. So I was thinking, I was like, man, this is kind of like a Tom Lawler heel turn. And then in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan,

it wasn't necessarily a heel turn but like you turn dark on us. The jokes are over. You're serious, you're making a run. Are we witnessing the evolution of the filthy Tom Lawler character here, have you actually changed on us?

It's not as fun as it was, Ariel. Let me just say that. I didn't have as much fun this week during Fight Week. To me, it was kind of more about going in there, punching in on the clock, cleaning Valante's clock and then clocking out. So, you know, I took a little bit more of a workman-like approach. It was very apparent to me.

when I got there on Tuesday. This is the first fight that I've had since, you know, there's been a lot of backstage changes. Obviously, the departure of Bert Watson is, you know, the most notable one. But there's a lot of other like paperwork and stuff. It's just stuff that goes on that wasn't there before and dealing with different people and the staff. You don't know them as well.

It's a little bit different mood. And on Tuesday, I kind of realized that and made a decision that, you know, this is a work week. So is it accurate? it's like less familial and more business-like? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's more, it's weird. There's like more paperwork to be done. There's, you know, it's just a different regime.

And there's benefits to it and there's, you know, downsides to it. But, you know, either way you look at it, you know, it's just not, it's not the same that it was two years ago to me, you know. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm getting old. Was that your mind? mindset flying into Chicago or did you only come to that, you know, conclusion that this was going to be workman like once you got there and saw these changes? No, I think the writing was on the wall well before that.

When I got to Chicago, I'll tell you the biggest issue I ran into was dealing with the Reebok people. So I know you said we'll get to that later, but this kind of tie. Yeah, yeah. My plan was to be Connor McGregor at the way-ins. okay so i had uh asked if i could wear the connor mcgregor fight kit you know they give you they give you the rebox stuff and i said okay well they said do you have any questions i said yes i have i have a question can i wear connor mcgregor's fight kit and the the way it was met to me was like why would you want to do that why would anyone want to do that don't you want your family to buy these jerseys

with your name on them so uh right there uh it kind of you know it clued me in that that perhaps the people that were in charge of some of the stuff weren't as familiar with the product as I would have liked. It was just the way the reaction was when I asked that question. It kind of upset me. And, you know, from that point on, it was, I was pissed the whole week, basically. Why did that bother you? They were giving you a compliment now? Well, I said, you know, why I want to wear this the way is. Why would you want to do that? Okay. Okay.

Because that's what everybody wants me to do. You know, that's what the fans know me as. Now, I don't expect, you know, everybody that's an MMA fan to know about me. There's 500 guys in the UFC. Everybody has, you know, different personality, stuff like that. But instead of, you know, trying to, you know, instead of like saying, okay, we'll look into it, it was kind of like, like, I was looked at, I was insulted, basically. Okay.

They're like that. That's a silly question. Yeah. Yeah, basically. To a degree. And then so you came out there and you wore all the Reebok stuff at the Wayans. Why? I did not wear all of it. Most of it. There's a... There was, I think, two more pairs of socks and three more pairs of underwear. But it got to the point where I thought, like, okay, if I really go out there and put everything on in this bag, you know, somebody might get pissed at me. There might be some backlash. So let me tone it down a little.

little bit. I thought I was actually at one point going to put another pair of shoes on my hands and walk out with those on all fours like Khabib Nurev Agamatov's Buddy the Bear. But, you know, unfortunately, I got to save something for the future now. But even when we saw you walk out, and you came out to a nice song and remind me of Triple H when he had his big comeback, you know, the U-2 song, right? Is that what? Yeah, but you know what? The reason why I picked that song is and Jordan Breen nailed it right on the button is there was a great. So I was a great Sakaraba highlight video that used to be on Sherdog back in the day. Okay.

You know, he was at the height of hunting down the graces. And there's no surprise to you, Ariel. I'm a big-time pro wrestling fan. And I consider Sakaraba, one of the greatest pro wrestlers who fought in MMA, obviously. And, you know, I'm a big fan of his. So that song always, every time I hear that song, it reminds me of Sakarabu. But knowing that you were a wrestling fan, do you remember that Triple H package before he came back from the, I think of the groin?

Was it the groin injury? I think it was when he tore his quad or hamstring. In the match with Benoit and Jericho. Correct. Yeah, it was the two-man power trip versus Benoit Jericho right after Stone Cold C, Boston had kind of turned. And him in Triple H had the world, the Interconno, and the tag team titles. And then he came back at Royal Rumble, remember?

Yep. And they played that song. They had that song. So I thought that you were coming back from an knee injury. I thought that was the nod, but I guess not. No, I'm just, I'm not that big of a triple-H guy that I would, that I would, that more of a Sakaraba guy, who's come back from many a beating to stake his claim in New Japan Pro Wrestling at the moment. But even your face, I mean, it wasn't the same smile. Was it just weird for you that you couldn't dress up? Because that's, I would imagine that's part of the fun for you. That's part of why you like doing all this, right?

Entertaining people, putting on a show. Yeah, that's part of the fun, but, you know, I'll kind of let the result and the performance speak. for itself at the end of the day, maybe I shouldn't be looking to have fun. Maybe this isn't, you know, maybe this isn't a fun time that maybe I've just had it all wrong for the past few years. You never know. Yeah. And so that was actually my next question. Has this actually put a light on in your head and say, wow, I should, maybe this is a blessing in disguise, all this stuff that you said, you know, took away some of the, you see it? There it is. There it is. Open it on me right now. I'm very excited to see what this means for your career because maybe this is the

change that you needed. Yeah, yeah, perhaps it is. At the post-fight press conference, I even mentioned that, you know, perhaps this Reebok deal had it been done a few years sooner, I'd be in an even better position in my, in my fight career. You know, the times that I haven't done, you know, walkouts, I've won all those fights. Wow. You know, I have to look at it kind of from that standpoint now. And, you know, realistically, Ariel, you know, my post-flight little talk with Joe Rogan there, you know, he said, I said that a lot of people view me as a joke. And he said, you know, nobody views you as a joke. Okay, those are the people that have actually been paying attention. Most of the people that you hear backlash from, whether it's on the internet or on the streets

or what it's not, you know, those people don't really pay attention to MMA. So they just look at me at some guy who walks out, a guy that got choked out by Chris Wyden, because I get a lot of TV time for that whenever he's fighting. And people kind of discount my fighting ability. And, you know, I'm getting a little long in the tooth. And it's time to make people, you know, realize that I put a lot of hard work. I put a lot of dedication in this craft. I've been doing it for years and years and years.

Basically, you know, since I was a teenager, since I was 12 years old, I saw UFC 2. And I've been building up to these moments my entire life. And I don't want to be looked at as a guy who just went out there and squandered opportunities and wasted them in the future, you know. I love it. I love it. So you came back. It's been two and a half years since you fought.

How much did you miss that feeling? Because you were coming off a win. I mean, you looked good in your last fight. How good did it feel to get back, you know, on top? I should be on a four-fight win streak. Yeah. You know, I was, I lost against Francis Carmont in a fight that he didn't really do a whole lot, you know. before that I had knocked out Jason McDonald.

I submitted Michael Kuiper in my last fight. So when I look at my past performances, I really feel that I should be on a four-fight win streak at this point. The feeling, I don't know how to describe it. It was the most relaxed I have ever been going into a fight. That was really the most important thing to me. Fox came to the gym. I'm at Syndicate M.MA in Las Vegas.

And, you know, I've been fortunate enough to work with the coach here, John Wood. Me and him have a really good relationship starting to build. We're both on the same page. So I felt like my skills, as far as the MMA artists, were getting better and blending things together. But when Fox showed up to do, you know, some recording for the broadcast, they put the lights on in the cage and I froze. You know, I tightened up, I stiffened up. I was not myself. And I just ever since that moment, I thought to myself, like, look, this is a blessing in disguise.

Because if the first time you would have gotten in front of these cameras out there in the cage with the lights on, if this would have been the first time, you would have definitely lost. You know, you would have frozen up. You would not have performed like yourself. So every time I've stepped into the cage training since then, really the thing I've been most focused on is relaxing and, you know, just kind of taking in the moment. And I lost that first round with Volante. but I'm not surprised at that. You know, about midway through, I saw, midway through that first round,

I saw how things were going to go, and it was playing out exactly pretty much like how I had thought in my head. So, you know, I stayed relaxed and got the job done. So you expected to lose the first round? You expect to start it slow? I did not expect to lose the first round. You know, in Valante's past fights,

he has not pressed the action as much. He kind of, he's happy to be drawn into a striking back, but at the pace of the other fighter. You know, his last fight with Corey Anderson. Cory Anderson threw a lot of strikes, and Volante would walk with him around the cage. This time, Jean, much to his credit, came out a little bit different

and took the center of the octagon as opposed to, you know, kind of counterfighting. And that surprised me a little bit. I wasn't able to, you know, push the pace on him as much. I think if I was his coach, I would have been worried about him getting pushed against the cage and getting grinding, grinded down and getting tired there.

So I think that they probably adjusted their game plan. And for a little while, I mean, it was working pretty good. I obviously have some battle scars on my face from them. And we were both swinging pretty hard in there. I mean, we were both cracking each other with some good shots. I would say when I threw a kick, I watched the fight yesterday, I threw a kick and he caught it and kind of tripped me down. I was able to get butterfly guard and kind of elevate him, go out the back.

At that point, I was like, okay, I probably gave away this round. And I could see him starting to slow down. I could see him starting to breathe a little bit harder and a little bit harder. So the last minute of that first round or the last 40 seconds, I kind of danced around, used a lot of movement. And he was throwing kicks, still throwing punches. And he was getting slower and slower. It was like a video game. His energy was just draining down and it was never building back up.

This was your return to 205. You weighed in at 203. Are you confident that this is the best spot for you? And usually when someone comes in, you know, two pounds under, it's a sign of maybe they miscalculated their weight cut or something. What was the case there? Yeah, I cut too much. Okay. Wear all that Reebok stuff.

Maybe sweat off four pounds. Or maybe you had to add too much. Yeah, when you're weighing five or six layers of clothing, and it's not, it wasn't exactly cold in Chicago. Right. I may have lost, you know, a pound or two, two months. much. But if you look in the past too, Ariel, even when I was playing at 185, there's a lot of times I'd weigh in at 184. You know, I'd just like to be overly cautious with that weight cut deal. And I sweat a lot. So even right now, I'm pouring sweat. You can't really tell.

But yeah, I miscalculated the weight cut. I was 215 the week of, which is about, yeah, I feel really good at that weight. You know, I am going to try to put on, you know, about 5, 10 pounds in the future. Hopefully I can keep that weight on. I weighed about 225 when this fight got signed, but obviously as training camp goes on, it's tough to keep the weight on. Plus, with that staff infection for a week, I had, you know, very little appetite with all the antibiotics I was on. All right. So what do you want next? Well, the plan was to issue a challenge to Jimmy Manoa for October. However, I didn't know how bad the cuts were. and now I have a bunch of stitches in my face, so I don't know that I'll be ready for that.

Fabio Maldonado apparently texted Joe Silva. Oh. You know, immediately after that fight, said he wanted to fight me. The problem with that is I think there's a date, a specific date attached to it. Okay. And that's early November. And I have my first child on the way early October. Congrats.

So, yeah, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. So, you know, I'm not exactly sure what the deal is. I was hoping to fight in December. I have like a 45-day suspension, I think. We'll see when I get these stitches out. Well, all this heals up. So, you know, perhaps I'll be in good enough shape to take that Maldenado fight.

Maybe they'll find somebody else. As soon as I got on the bus, Joe Silva was in the front seat. And, you know, first I told him O'Doyle rules. And then I told him, let Valdenado know I'm in. And he told Alex Davis immediately. But I was not aware that there was a November 7th. Well, yeah. That there's a date.

They haven't announced it. There's a date attached to it. I got to say, I am so excited about this new Tom Loller from, you know, the jokes over about new father. This is a really interesting story to watch for the back end of 2015. I could just feel it's that even when you came on earlier this year, talk about rest of my mind. This is a different guy right now. Look, you're hardly even smiling. You can't even smile right now as I'm giving you, uh, showering you with accolades.

It's a different person. I think this is fun. This is like when Sting put on the black and white paint. You know what I mean? It's no more surfer sting. Yeah. Well, I think part of that too could have been how hard John Valante hit me. You know, there was quite a few moments in the back where I'm looking at the lights and they're getting a little fuzzy.

So I may have a little bit of a mild concussion. Okay. But yeah, like I said, it's time to, you know, I'm going to punch in. I'm going to clean some clocks and I'm going to clock out. Final question. Just need a word. Brock or Taker? Here's what's going to happen.

Taker's going to win. Taker's going to win in Wesslemania next year in Dallas. He'll probably retire. Brock's going to win at SummerSlam. Oh. There you go. Well, wait.

They're going to fight twice now, two more times? Yay. Taker just came back. He came out of nowhere and surprised Brock. My guess is Brock beats the odds. You would think that they'd have them one-in-one going into WrestleMania next year.

My guess is Brock Lesnar wins at SummerSlam. and then the Undertaker will defeat him at WrestleMania in Texas, and then that'll probably be a swan song. Will you be there? Hopefully, as long as I don't have a fight scheduled, yeah, that's the plan. I was there this year in San Jose, and it was one of the best times I've ever had in my life. So I plan at being at every single one.

And I'll tell you this, Ariel, I'll give you a scoop right now. Please. I'll be winning another performance of the night bonus at UFC 200. That's my goal. Oh, yeah. Any opponent in mind, do you have a scenario that you want to see play out? No, it doesn't matter who it is. Line them up, you'll knock them down.

Hey, look, I called out at UFC 100, I won the submission of the night. I called out Brock Lesnar, BJ Penn, George St. Pierre, Jose Aldo. I've been waiting seven years and not one of them's answered that call, all right. Wow, so you're going to go bonus UFC 100 and bonus UFC 200. That's historic stuff. I love that. Yeah, that's a lot. the plan?

Clock in, clock out. I could see a T-shirt being made there with filthy Tom Lala in the back. How about that? It may happen. If I continue down this road of doing my best Gunner Nelson impression, you may see that t-shirt in the future. Wow, this was a lot of fun. I know you're very busy today.

You're coaching. You're doing a lot of stuff. So I appreciate you taking some time out. Congratulations, my friend. Very impressive performance. Great to have you back in the mix and looking forward to the next one. And also, Mazel Tov, on the upcoming bird. That's amazing stuff.

Yeah, thanks a lot, man. I appreciate it. You've always been a stand-up guy and a great guy to me. So I'm really happy when I can come on this show and talk to you, Ariel. Awesome. Thank you, Tom. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks.

There he is. Filthy Tom Lala. Great stuff from him. Wow. A different Tom Lala, right? I mean, this guy has changed in front of our eyes. He has matured. He has evolved.

That's what fatherhood, upcoming fatherhood. That's what being out of the game. That's perhaps what having to change your outfit. does to you, but it's interesting. I like this sort of thing. So congratulations to him, back on track, picking up a performance of the night award and looking to get back in there. How about that? Could you imagine if he wins a performance bonus? No longer submission of the night and knockout of the night, but a performance bonus at UFC 200. That'll be amazing. Love that. All right. Great stuff from Tom. Appreciate his time. And now let's move along. Let's go back to

UFC 190 talk. You know, UFC 190, one of those rare cards, it's like the anti-card of the last few years, because last few years, of course, every single damn card gets hit with injuries. At least it feels that way, especially the big ones. This card, not only has nothing really changed, not only have they not lost any fights,

they've actually gained fights. They gained fights. They gained two tough finale fights, tough Brazil fights. So there's seven fights on the pay-per-view. Seven fights on the pay-per-view. on Saturday. And none of the big fights have been canceled.

They're all there. Mauricio Shogunhua versus Antonio Haudrigo Nogera. Antonio Silva versus Soa Palleli. Claudia Gadellia versus Jessica Aguilar. Of course, Ronda Rousey versus Betchkohead, two tough Brazil fights. And the return of Antonio Rodrigo Nogera versus Stefan Strove. That's on the main card. Undercard, Damien Mae versus Neil Magni, which is pay-per-view-worthy, in my opinion.

Magny finally getting a step up. in competition. And if he could beat Maya, the guy's the real deal. Fajiao versus Patrick Cummins, Worley-Alvesz versus Nordine Taleb. It's great stuff. Yuri Alcantara versus Leandro Issa. This is a very underrated card. Of course, it's all about Ronda Rousey, but when you put Shogun and Little Nog and, excuse me, Big Nog, Antonio Silva, I mean, this is a great card for the Rio scene. I think this is going to be, this might be the best Brazil card as far as the atmosphere, the interest in the card since the first one back at UFC 134, the return to Brazil. I love it. And I'm really intrigued by the Big Nog, Stefan

Strew fight because if anyone was at UFC 134 and you saw Big Nog fight Brendan Schaub, you know that this guy means the world to those fans in Rio. Big Nog who grew up not that far away from the HSBC Arena. He is a legend. They call him an idol over there. He has not fought since April of 2014 when he was knocked out by Roy Nelson. He returns to action against Stefan Struve,

a very important fight in the heavyweight division. So we wanted to talk to Stefan about that. He is going to enemy territory. He joins us now via the Magical Skype. There he is. Joining us from Rio. Stefan, how are you? I'm great.

Thank you, guys. I'm great. Thank you for joining us. When did you get to Rio? What's it like? weather is good although it's winter it's so cloudy but breaking through now and then

we're getting a host right on the ocean it's amazing so like I was saying before you came on the show Nogera is a legend in Brazil you know that you don't need me to tell you that but I feel like they they feel so emotionally attached to this guy

more so than even Anderson because he's been around for so long when you're walking around the city and you're a very recognizable person because of your height. What are people saying to you about fighting the legend Big Nog in Rio? Most of the time they're surprised by how big I am, that first of all.

Everybody's really friendly. Just, you know, read and wish me well off. Probably don't mean it, but, you know, everything has been great so far. I really, you know, I know what his status is here. And I respect him a lot, too. You know, who doesn't respect that guy? He's an absolute legend. And I'm looking forward.

forward to this experience fighting in front of his hometown crowd. Are you concerned at all about what the reception, the atmosphere will be like on Saturday? They are going to shower you with booze and all kinds of crazy chance. Yeah, no, it's tough to me to make sure that they turn it out a little bit real fast. I had an amazing training camp and I just feel like this is the best I've ever been. And that's what I'm going to bring to the cage. and it would prove seven truth. So speaking of that training camp,

you now train with the Blacksillians in South Florida. Why did you make that move? I'd go to the U.S. earlier in my career, but I had a lot of stuff on the last full year in the hospital. And it never really came to the point that the first days for a long of period of time. I went in the beginning of the shoot as to see how I like it in there. I went home for two weeks, and then I came back for another two in a month.

And I just love South Florida. I love the Dug's Billions, and it's my new home. I love it. We're having a little bit of trouble hearing you because of the connection, so I'll see if it gets better. If not, perhaps we could call you on the phone. I'm wondering if you, did you bring in anyone in particular to emulate Big Nog there? I don't know if they have anyone that fights quite like him over there.

He's the scariest dude I ever roll with I felt like a baby for the rest Stefan I don't mean to interrupt Is it okay if we call you on the phone? It's getting all chopping Is that okay? Yeah, let me just walk

for my manager, let me set up so you guys can call him Okay, thank you, I appreciate it So Eric, call his backup number there you know which one I'm talking about, and we'll get him on the phone because it was hard to hear him. Over there in Rio via Skype, perhaps the hotel Wi-Fi isn't quite the same. Of course, the last time we saw Sevin's True of an action was in December when he fought his fellow Dutchman, Alistair Overeem.

In fact, he has lost his last two in a row, but he had a layoff. Remember, he was supposed to fight Matt Matrione at UFC 175 and had some health problems. conquered those, returned in December, in Phoenix, lost to Mitrione, excuse me, lost to Overeign. Prior to that Overeign fight, he had lost to Mark Hunt, the fight in which he had broken his jaw towards the end of the fight. But prior to that, he had won three in a row, defeated Dave Herman via TKO, submitted LeVar Johnson,

and also perhaps the most impressive win of his entire career, a TKO win over Steve A Miochich, who is oh so close to getting a title shot. Curious to see if that, Stefan Struve, is back, now that he is training with the black civilians. And, you know, people say it all the time. The best training camp, great environment. I'm curious to hear who he was talking about that he said he was on the ground with

and felt like a kid rolling around with him. Who was that? Stefan, are you there? Yeah, I'm there. Okay, that's a lot better. Thank you so much. You said that you were training with someone who made you feel like a kid on the ground. Who was that?

It all broke up, so we couldn't hear you. Are you there? Oh, he had him. It sounded so good. I guess we just lost them. It's tough over there in Rio. The connection, apparently, is not so good. We'll get him.

I promise. Stefan, are you back? Yeah, can you hear me? Yes, I got you. It's good. Who were you talking about that made you feel like a kid? Neil Melanson has been a new addition to the team as a coach. And training with him on the ground is,

is a new experience. He's close to my weight, but his technique and power are just insane. So rolling with a guy like that for the last couple weeks really, you know, helped me bear even more for the site. So was he in South Florida? Is he a member of the Blacksilians? He's been coaching a lot the last couple of weeks,

and I think he's going to stick around, yes. Wow, that's a huge addition. Will he be in your corner as well? No, he's not here. I believe he's in Las Vegas coming week with. with Tiago Sova. That's right. For World Series of Fighting.

Okay, so when you look at Big Nog, at this point in his career, he's coming off a knockout, he has not fought in around a year and a half. Do you think he's got anything left in him, or is this the perfect time to fight him, in your opinion? You know, he's fighting in his hometown. He's a little older, you know. There's no secret in that, but he's still very dangerous. He's got really good boxing.

He's got an amazing ground game. So I need to be focused going into this fight. I cannot absolutely not underestimate him, and I'm not doing that. I do believe that if I fight my fight, to my potential and fight how we train for this fight, then this is my fight, and there is nothing in that case for him in the fight with me. I remember talking to him a few months ago,

and he specifically said that he wanted to fight you. What did you make of that? Yeah. Well, you know, I've had a... a couple rough years and a couple bad fights because of some things that happened in my personal life and I think he he got a chance if I fight the way I fought the last few

fights but I can tell you that that's not going to happen he's going to fight the best stuff and true of the world has ever seen so you know I'm not sure if that's the reason why he wants to fight me wanted to fight me but I got a feeling that is so when you mentioned some of the personal stuff, are you talking about the stuff we've already discussed your father's passing your heart issue? That's up or anything new?

Well, you know, the stuff with my heart I had my entire life, you know what I mean? It just got really bad in the fight with Mark Hunt. And then I had a lot to do with after the fight, of course, with my father passing away and getting back on track, problems with doing medication and not fighting for almost a year and a half, and then finally fighting against Alasterovian,

and then I was just feeling out of my body too much instead of just going in there and fight my fight. So, you know, having that fight behind me, you know, I lost. And, you know, of course, that sucks. But I did get to fight and feel how it is like to be in the cage again. So I got that behind me, and I really feel like I'm going to put it all together this coming Saturday. Are you confident that all the health issues

are in the past, there's no lingering effects at all? No, for sure. You know, my heart is over 90% output now, and it was around 60% in the fight with my car. I've never felt as good. I gain a lot of muscle. That's a really good sign because my body's just getting a lot more oxygen now. I take my weight this morning, and I was 273 pounds.

Whoa. I just feel amazing. You know, this really is the best I've ever been. And really, I can't wait until Saturday to show it. So you actually have to cut weight? Yeah, I'm going to have to cut like six, seven pounds. Have you ever had to do that? No, this is the first time.

But, you know, I feel amazing. I feel like this is the most athletic I've ever been, the strongest I've ever been, you know, with the best cardio. So Big Nog is in for a surprise this Saturday. Are you comfortable with cutting weight? Do you know how to do it properly because you've never had to do it? Yeah, we talked about it with the people we have in the gym for the Black Zions, and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It's going to be a water cut, and for a heavyweight, my size, it's not going to be a lot of trouble. So I did a workout this morning, and I already caught like three, four pounds, so it's easy. So no assayee for you before the fight? Not on Friday. The rest of those days, I'm not going to let that, you know, get in between me and my assayi. Isn't it amazing? I'm obsessed with it. I'm only going to the fight so I can have some assayi.

Yeah, they get really good assayi right here at the hotel. Oh. So I think you're going to be very happy. Oh, wow. That's great news. I'm very excited. Did you see that picture of Bignog sparring or training with a guy who was standing on a stool? Did you see that?

Yeah. A lot of opponents. in the paths I've done that too, yeah. And then, you know, it's about right. It's about the size I am, I think, so. Do you think... But you cannot... You cannot emulate the reach of my arms and legs.

You know, you can stand on a stool, but you cannot emulate that. Do you think he's actually doing that, or is that a joke? No, no, that's a joke. Okay. There's no way... You know, if he's really doing that, then he's not moving around. Then it's just like hitting a heavy bag, right? Right, of course.

And you mentioned the overreem fight. Did you just chalk that one up to your inactivity? You had been through so much. Was that not the real you in there looking back? You know, I had a really good training camp in Holland, so it had nothing to do with that. But about five months before the fight, I was the fight with the medication.

So finally getting in the cage, feeling great, feeling excited to fight, I got in there, but there was a lot of doubt in my mind. to really push or start fast. I just wanted to feel out my arms, my legs, how my breathing was going. And when I finally had that down, you know, he had me on my back and I doubt if I had to get back up to my feet

or just wait until the round was over because the round was almost over. And if you go in there and you have too much doubt in your head instead of just fighting, you know, things like that can happen. But I'm going to make sure that's not going to happen this Saturday. it. Because he's such a big name, because you're fighting in his hometown, do you feel like the last two fights and everything that's happened last few years, it can all be erased in one night? Is that the way you're looking at this? With a really good performance, for sure. I think people won't be talking about all the stuff that happened anymore if I put down a performance that I can put down. And I really believe in myself, and I see what I can do in the gym. And if I just put it together in the cage, then people will forget out of it. about it. And, you know, I really believe, I'm still the only ranked heavyweight in his 20s.

So I really believe I'm going to take over in the years to come. That is amazing. That's an amazing stat. Are you hoping to end his career? Because people said that he should be done after the Nelson fight. Do you want to put the final, you know, stamp on it? No, no, I don't think that way at all. I got a huge amount of respect for his man. He needs to do what he thinks is right for him. If he wants fight after this fight, then it's up to him. You know, he's an absolute legend. I've been watching his fight since it was about 11, 12 years old. So I can't, I don't have anything but respect for this man,

but that, you know, won't come in between what I want to put in the cage of Saturday. And that's an absolutely dominating performance with, you know, leaving no chance at all for him. So how do you see it playing out? How do you envision it? I just need to start and hurt him from the first second. If he gets a little comfortable in there and, you know, it may get a couple things in, then he gives the crowd behind him and he'll feel even better.

So that's not going to happen. I'm going to hurt him for the first second. And he's going to break down after a couple of minutes, and I'm going to finish the fight in the first round. Wow. That will be quite the scene. And get out of the cage as quickly as possible if that happens, okay? Yeah, I think.

they won't be too happy, but you know, I think they respect me too. Yeah, and, you know, I was there at UFC 134 when he fought Brendan, and this fight kind of feels a lot like that, and a lot of people were counting him out in that fight, and it just seems like that crowd has a way of inspiring him, even when he's down

and out, so I'm sure you are preparing for an emotionally charged, Big Nog, right? Yeah, for sure, you know, if you got 23,000 people behind you, going crazy, that gives you energy. But, you know, this fight was announced four or five months ago,

and I've been thinking about what's going to happen in that cage every single day since the fight was announced. So I feel comfortable. I know I'm going to get booed, but no big deal to me. Stefan, best of luck to you. Thank you so much for the time today and dealing with the technical difficulties. Really looking forward to this fight

and happy you are back and in a good place. Can't wait for it. Thank you. No problem. Thank you very much. All right, there he is. The skyscraper, Stefan Strove, some big plans for a second.

Saturday night. He is fighting legend. I am not overstating this. I am not hyping this up. That moment at UFC 134 when it appeared as though Big Nog was on the ropes was at the end, came back, finished Brendan Chob. That place went insane, ballistic. They were throwing things. Men were crying, women were crying, media was crying. There's something about Big Nog in Brazil. There's something about Big Nog in Rio. kudos to Stephen Struv for stepping up. I mean, why wouldn't you step up? This is an amazing opportunity.

This is a great way to erase the last couple of years. If you can beat Big Nog, regardless of the fact that he is older, a lot more beat up, coming off a knockout. If you could beat him in Rio, it sends a message. It puts you back on track, and he brings up a great point. The only top 10 heavyweight,

haven't looked at it, but it sounds about right. Maybe even in the top 13-14, who knows, who's in his 20s, I'll look at that in a bit. Perhaps Mr. New Yorkerick can confirm that for me. But that is a strong statement that this man has a lot more fighting left. If he could just put it all together, it sounds like he's doing so. At the Blacksillington, how about this?

He won't have to cut. He's actually cutting weight for the first time in his career. That is crazy, walking around at 273. That is pretty interesting. So another reason to watch the weigh-ins on Friday from Rio. Okay, let's move along. Big night this past Saturday in Chicago for our next guest, Brian Carraway picked up a big win over Eddie Wyneland

and Misha Tate looked very good. After starting off a little slow against Jessica I, I'm talking to now the head coach over at Extreme Couture, head coach for both Brian Carraway and Misha Tate, Robert Follis. Robert, how are you? Doing great, doing great. Thank you so much for the time. You're still in Chicago, right?

I am, yeah, having a great time. I went out with my girlfriend this morning. She just took off and we went up to the top of the gym. the Hancock Tower and saw it, Erichel go by. It's been, this is a great town. Have it a great time here. Yeah, and it continues the good feelings from Saturday.

It was a great night for you. Interestingly enough, you had, you know, Brian fighting first, you had Misha fighting second. They fought on the same card before, but this time, for the first time, they were cornering each other. Did you like this idea? You know, up front I wasn't real happy about it,

but, you know, in talking to them, and, you know, there's things that you look at logistically and then there's things you have to understand emotionally. And sometimes the logical answer is outweighed by the emotional content of what needs to happen. And they were both very certain that they could step up and play those roles and not have a crossover and they both did it absolutely wonderfully. I mean, Misha was on point in the corner for Brian and Brian finished his fight, got focused for her and was on point in the corner.

And the fact that they've worked with each other for so long, I think it was important that they were there for each other. I'm glad it worked out. Were you thinking at all early in the caraway fight? Like if this goes bad for whatever reason, this is going to mess her up, screw with her mind. This could go really bad for us? We certainly could.

You know, one of the things that I love about Misha is she's just as solid as a competitor as you can find a man or a woman. She has an ability to compartmentalize and put things in place. So really, I was only worried if there was some kind of crazy injury and he got sent to the hospital. Okay. You know, obviously the loss isn't good. I mean, I don't even like it when someone loses that's in the same room as us in a corner.

You know, I mean, energy and momentum can have an impact on things. So obviously it played in our mind, and, you know, you prepare for those things. And, you know, mentally I was prepared to put a stopgap, if you will, in there and say, hey, that's done. It's over now. We've got to focus on you. And like I said, Misha is a professional, professional fighter. And I'm sure she would have stepped up regardless, but the good news is we didn't have to worry about that. So in the future, would you like to see them fight on the same card more often?

Or is this too stressful for you? Absolutely not. Okay. Why? It went well. It did go well. You know, I prefer to be able to just one, give 100% attention to just one fighter at a time like that. And, you know, the fact that they're dating and that they're cutting weight at the same time

and their whole camp had kind of an extra stress. But usually the majority of the time, they're able to kind of bounce back and forth and kind of be there for each other, one's helping the other one, get ready, you know what I mean, and back and forth. So, you know, for me, optimally, I would like to see them not fight on the same card,

but, you know, at the end of the day, if they come to us and say, hey, we're, we want them on the same card again, then we'll go fight. I mean, it is what it is. Why did things start a little slow for, for Misha? It seemed like I was rocking her, lighting her up a little bit.

Does it ever start fast for me? That's true. That's a good point. That's a very good point. But she was getting tagged. I was actually really pleased that we picked it up before the first round was over. Okay. You know, she's notorious for kind of the first round being a little bit slow unless someone's way, way in her face.

I mean, she just has had a tendency in the past to not get super worked up and necessarily hit the ground running like she needs to, but she always finds a way to pull it out, even if she's starting. a little slow. With something we've actually been addressing mentally, we've been talking about, things we've been working on for the past few fights since we've been working together. And so she didn't start a little slow.

She recognized some things physically to make some adjustments. And mentally, I think she was there. I think she was in key to start out. And I think Jessica was just giving the better of her. She had a quick, quick, quick counter jab. She was pulling back and making Misha miss by just a little bit and then getting a good combination going.

Misha recognized that, started to faint on her own, get her drawn out, and stepped in a little deeper. That's when she landed that right hand. And so she made some great adjustments on her own even before we got back to the counter, which I think was really key. So I actually was happy with how fast she got back in the fight, even though we started off a little slow. Do you think it's possible to make her into a quicker starter, or do you think she's always going to be like that? I think we already are. You know, people have tendencies and you work within their natural abilities. but she definitely has the ability to,

and it's things that, like I said, that we've been working on on the mental side of the game where we're kind of keying in and working on how the warm it needs to happen so that she's a little more activated when she steps in. And like I feel like we've made great strides now in the last couple of fights, and this one in particular in getting right back in the fight.

I mean, that was a great start for her, I thought. Your first fight working with Misha, was that the second Ronda fight or the fight right after the Ronda fight? it was a yeah my first fight was the ronda fight okay so since then she's won four in a row against very tough competition can you confidently say that she's a better fighter now than she was against ronda a couple years ago and if so why she's much better i mean we worked very hard at adding on a deeper level of striking she's been working with gift

out in vaga and her hands are getting better and better and better as we're adding kicks in a little bit more Her wrestling is getting better. We continue to work on her judo. I mean, she's a confident professional, like I said, both her and Brian are constantly looking to evolve their game and get better, which I think showed up in these fights. I mean, you know, this was a fight where she went out

and dominated standing up with a girl that I think everybody fought should have won on the stand-up. And I think we showed that the skills we've been working are definitely showing up in the ring, which is where you need them to or in the cage. No secret that over the last few years, Brian and Misha have bounced around gyms, you know, they found a home here, they had to leave, they're just kind of nomads, and they seem to have found a home with Extreme Couture, and in particular, you. What changed?

Why has this worked over the last few fights? You know, I mean, I think we connect real well. I think there's a few reasons. One is, I've known them both since they were teenagers. I mean, where they started up in Washington, they would come down and actually train when I was at King Quest. So I've actually had a somewhat of a relationship with them from way in the back. I think the other thing was that some of the coaches in the past didn't like them working with each other and thought maybe that that was a problem and stepped on their toes a little bit.

Where for me, I'm like, what works for you guys? Let me step in and help fill this role as opposed to saying, here's what you have to do. I said, what can we do to make this better? And I think that was a big piece for them in letting them have a big. say in how their camps go. Again, including cornering each other. I mean, like I said, my idea up front was I didn't like that, but when we sat down and talked about it and they articulated how they felt about it,

and why then it was a go and we moved forward with it. So I think there's some important things with that, and I think we've also got a great team vibe there at Extreme Couture, where everybody's there for each other, great sparring partners that'll step up and give a look and work within the needs. So I think it's been a lot of things that have helped them feel uncomfortable and at home there. That's a great segue, because I was just about to ask you about extreme. You know, not that long ago as well, that place was kind of, you know, it had hit hard times

and its reputation wasn't the best. A lot of the old guard had left the gym. You come in and you've really changed things up and that's a huge credit to you. You have made that place from what I hear an even better place than it was in its heyday. How big of a mess was it when you actually got there? Well, you know, for me, there wasn't much of a mess because there was so few guys there. Who was there when you got there? Like, who was actually left? A big name guy, Brad DeVarroes was training there, but not really a team.

Okay. A lot. I mean, I don't think there was anybody that was going to the pro team practice that was in the UFC left that I can remember. Wow. Okay. You know, there was, we had a guy, that was in Bellator, I think, a couple of smaller shows.

But it was, you know, it really changed. I mean, you know, Vegas kind of has that nomad, bounce around what's the hottest new place to go. And, you know what I mean? It's an interesting thing to work within still. Very different than anywhere else I've been. And fighters that I've talked to is that, you know, Vegas kind of just has its own weird energy for that fight community.

But, you know, we have a great facility. We already had some great, I mean, Ray Seppos there. Dennis Davis was there, who's an amazing coach. We've trained together for over 16 years. We started back in Oregon when he day one walked into an MMA gym, and started training enemy, and he's there coaching. So we have very like minds. Eric Nixig took over manager of the gym,

and also helps coached the team, which was actually also very, very instrumental, and instrumental in the resurgence of the fight team. It's been a combination of a lot of people stepping up. I kind of feel like I brought an energy to spark to it, but, I mean, there's so many people, like I said, Ray Seffo, Eric Nixick. Davis. I mean, there's a lot of people pushing and helping. And even the teammates that really

came in and got on board and bought into the program and have helped spread the war. I think it's a true team effort. Why do you think things went wrong? Like at first when they came on and they had, you know, Gray Maynard and Tyson Griffin, of course, you had Randy there, Gina was there for quite a and they were considered one of the very best gyms. And then, as you mentioned, no one was left. Why do you think it ended up that way? Well, you know, I wasn't there. So I hear some things said, I mean, so I don't really know for sure. I think the biggest thing was when Randy retired and kind of stepped out from the team,

there was kind of a hole in the coaching staff. There was a few switches. Some other gyms kind of stepped up and made some offers to do some things and train guys for free to get them started. And I think that's really about all it was. It just was, you know, people don't. like change even if it's for the better. And I don't know if what happened was for the better or not.

Like I said, I wasn't there at the time. But I think it just kind of happened where people felt like since it had changed, it wasn't what it was, and they were looking to find a new spark. Did they contact you, or did you contact them? Well, you know, I moved to Vegas to do some other work. But I've known all the guys, I mean, obviously I've got a relationship with Randy that goes way back, Dennis Davis. Like I said, we've been together for 16 years, and he was the main.

coach for team at that time and I was really happy to see him step up and be in a lead role and wasn't really all that issue and taking the position it had been offered me a couple times and finally Dennis came to me and said hey I really want you on board I think together we can do far more with you here than I can just with this by myself and at that point I sat down I talked with him I talked with Eric Dick Sick and really got excited about the people that I was going to work with. And I thought, man, this is a spot we could really build and something we could grow that I think would be fun. I had a great time when I had done Team Quest. And there was kind of that question in the back of my mind that I think I did it once, but it was, you know,

was it a fluke? Was it just the timing? Was it, you know, is this a repeatable thing for me or was that a one-off? And so there was a bit of a challenge there in my mind just for myself to step in and say, I could build a program that had been there and disappeared and needed a spark and let's see if we can get this going. And I felt like we had the right pieces because, you know, doing that by myself would have been impossible. Like I said, we've got such an amazing staff around it that's made this really streamline of work.

You've been around this game a long time, as you mentioned, dating back to the TeamQuest heyday in Oregon, but it feels like you're being talked about more, getting more respect, more attention. Is a part of you saying finally, like, I'm finally getting the credit that I deserve? You know, I never got into this for that. It's nice to get it because it helps the team. You know, I didn't get into this coaching to be recognized. It helps.

It helps. It helps with getting paid. It helps build the team. I have some things that would like to springboard off of this and that helps. And, you know, really early on, the heyday of Team Quest, there wasn't really much media coverage on us. I mean, there was Sherdog and a couple of, you know, small Internet sites. But, you know, there wasn't any interviews on Fox. ESPN didn't touch it. I remember when Nike said we wouldn't touch that sport with the 10-foot pole.

It's, we want nothing to do with it. I mean, there was no corporate behind it. No Reebok wouldn't have been interested. And so I think at the time, you know, we made some great success there. And I had some amazing success as a coach. But it just wasn't at a notable time. And then I kind of took a little bit of a breather. And during that time, the sport really blew up into the mainstream.

So stepping back in now, I think it's a natural fit that there's going to be a little bit more talk about it. But I don't think it's because I'm doing anything. so much better than I did before. It's just that there's coverage for it now. Got to ask you about this around an hour ago. We had Edmund Tarverdian, who is the head coach, of course, for Rhonda Rousey on the show. And he said that he's excited about the possibility of a third fight against Misha, but he also said that it would be unhealthy for her to fight Rhonda. Ronda is really going to punish her. It's going to take years off her career. What's your response to that?

Or say, let's fight and see it. I mean, it's, you know, it's, you know, it's, a great say, but I mean, she hasn't taken years off her career in the first two fights. I mean, she beat her, she's got an arm bar, you know, in both those fights, but I feel like we continue to make progression, and we've earned a title shot, and that's, that's a spot. I mean, I think we feel like we're going to go in and dominate, and that's why you take fights. So, I mean, I would be surprised if he said, man, we're really nervous about fighting Misha because we think she's going to hurt our girl. I mean, that's what I mean? That's what the coach has to say.

So we're excited for that opportunity. I don't really get into the, you know, talking about it. You know, for me, it's let's get prepared and let's let the fighters go do their thing. And that to me is what it's really about. And I think that Misha's proved that there's not another woman in the division that's earned a fight with her more. And we're looking forward to a chance to prove it again. I'm sure you've thought of Ronda. You were there game planning for the second fight.

She has been virtually unbeatable. I mean, the only feather that someone could put in their cap right now is Misha, who took her to the third round. Do you have an idea right now how to beat her? Do you have a plan already in place? I mean, there's outlines of a plan. There's stuff to detail. I'd like to really see first what happens with this fight. I mean, each fight that she has, I think, gives more things to study and see her tendencies and what she does.

I mean, she's obviously a very talented athlete and a dangerous fighter. I mean, to say anything other than that would be just silly. But I don't think she's unbeatable. I mean, everybody's got a spot that they can be beat, and we're going to be looking to expose what we think are some of those weaknesses. Do you think Betch has a chance against her? I mean, I think anybody has a chance by it. I mean, Beth is undefeated.

You know, I mean, I wouldn't say she has a great chance, but I think she has a chance. We'll see. Do you have an idea what you want next for Brian? because we have a guest coming up in a matter of seconds, Mani Gamburion, who really wants to fight Brian, but when I asked him about it on the post-fight show, he kind of dismissed it.

Al Jermaine Sterling, campaigning as well. Do you have a preference? You know, I really didn't look past this fight at all. I mean, there's a ton of talented guys. I feel like we've moved, you know, I mean, for Brian, this was a huge fight. I mean, we went and fought what I thought was one of the most dangerous strikers in the division and showcased the Brian.

could actually stand up and bang, which I was really happy for. Obviously, I always want Brian to get someone to the ground, because if he does, I think he's the most dangerous submission guy in that division, and one of the top guys in USC for submission work in any way class. And he really hasn't had a chance to showcase how good his stand-up is and what he can do there. So I really hadn't looked at who would be next. I mean, I really wanted to see how this played out. I mean, I didn't even really like hearing that, you know, Misha was going to get a fine at Ron because we weren't looking past Jessica.

I mean, she was, again, both of their opponents were very tough, very game. We didn't take either of them lightly at all. So, you know, Manny Gambry, and I don't think that's a fight for us in the right direction. Right now, I think he's got a couple of wins to prove that he's somebody that would be in our way, because right now we're looking for wins that are going to move us toward the title fight. That's really where we're at. I mean, you know, we just beat the number six guy. I don't know why we would drop out of the top 10 now and start fighting.

Has he figured out the mental side of the game yet? That always seems to be an issue for Brian. Do you feel like he's conquered that? You know, I don't know if any fighter ever conquers it. I mean, it's something you always deal with. I think he's struggled with it to a degree, but he's also won fights in spite of, you know, how he gets in his head sometimes. I think one of the things that Brian and I have connected on the best

because he's already a very talented athlete. You know, it's not like there's a whole lot of moves to teach him that are going to make a big difference in his game. Really, for me, it's been to focus on stylistic changes and those mental, controlling those mental states, and I feel like Brian and I communicate in a way that allows him to go out and compete. I think this was a fight that saw some really big changes. You know, him walking out, he was in the back, you know,

let him let out some loud, oh, and had a game face on, you saw him step out into the third round, how he finished the second round, third round went out and was actively getting after him. You know, I don't think the things that he has going on mentally are going to be in the way of winning a title at all. I think he's actually very strong, especially once he gets in the cage. I mean, he's a competitor. He doesn't know how to give up once he gets started.

He just gets himself freaked out sometimes a little bit of pregame, but that's not a big deal. We've got that handled, and he's showing up and continuing to win and perform better and better. Like I said, I think it's pretty awesome to have both Brian and Misha moving towards title fights right now. Well, Robert, I know you're relaxing a little bit in Chicago. I appreciate the time.

Great to have you on the show for the first time. Congratulations on everything you've done over there in Vegas. Congrats on a big night on Saturday and continued success to both you and the team. It's been a lot of fun to watch the resurrection of Extreme Couture led by you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It was awesome to be on the show. I look forward to doing it again.

time. All right. There he is. Robert Fawas, the head coach over at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas. Big night for him on Saturday, both Brian Carraway and Misha Tate victorious in Chicago. So right after, I'm telling you seconds after Brian Carraway's win on Saturday, I get a text from Mani Gamburean. He said, I want that guy. And this is no surprise. This is not really news. He's been talking about this for a little bit now. He wants to fight Brian Carraway. It's coming off big win over Scott Jorgensen earlier in July, July 15th in San Diego. So I thought it would be fun to have Mani Gamburian on the show. He joins us right now on the phone.

Mani, how are you? Good, good. How are you? So, Mani, you texted me right afterwards. You were very eager to get this fight. Why do you still want it so badly? You know, it's one of the fights I want to have for a long time. When we're on the show with Ronda, you know, things weren't going well.

between me and Brian Carraway, but I'm in a fight game, so why not, you know, getting there and fight since Michian Ronda today fight, you know, I'm looking for the third fight, actually. You know, after Saturday night, it's going to be

the third fight, hopefully. Right. Most likely, you know, if everything goes well, you know, me and Brian should be on the same court also. Well, that would be something. You versus Brian, Rhonda versus Misha, at three, that really puts the whole

rivalry together. That's what you want. Yep. Yep, definitely. Have you told that to the UFC brass, Sean Shelby? Not yet. You know, I'm going to be honest. This guy doesn't want to fight me. Why?

It's plain and simple that he doesn't want to fight me. He says, I got really offended. This guy says one thing that, you know, you're really good and go to my head. She says I have

something to work hard. I need to work on some stuff before me fighting him. Let me tell you something, man. When I was fighting in the UFC, this guy was still changing diapers. I've been to the U.S. for nine years. I've been fighting since

when I was 16 years old. I started up my career in a crazy way. Even a very, very heavy heavy weight for me, 170 pounds. I finished a couple of people in 170. I finished 55, I finished in 45, I finished in 45, I finished at 35. So I don't know what the hell he's talking about. Me, I need to work on some stuff.

Just say it out loud, I don't want to fight you. I'll move on and I'll never call you out of it anymore. But sitting there and telling all the people, all the media and everyone else to, you know, me, I have to work something. I have to, I need to work on something. That's not, that's not, that's not the problem way. But whatever you want to talk about, you know, he can man up and tweet or go on your show and say, you know what, Manny, I don't want to fight you.

I promise you guys, I'll never call about. So it's interesting because I spoke to him on Saturday night on the Post-Fight show on FS1, asked him about you. I just had his coach on, asked him about you, and both of them had, you know, very similar responses that it's a step back. You're not ranked. They want to move up. Like I said, Ariel, Mario, I'm not a step back.

I've been in this game for so many years. I've been in this game for so many years. What is exactly he means if a step back, because I'm going to rank? I'm one of the biggest names out there, won't they? I promise you. He never fought a bigger name than me. So you think he just doesn't want to fight you because he's... 100%.

Isn't it obvious that you don't want to fight me? He doesn't even want to grapple with me on the show when Dana White offers us a grappling challenge. What do you expect with this guy? What is that? When did that happen? Did that air on the show? Am I forgetting some?

On the show, and when Dana White called him to his office, when he was sitting down with Ronda, he said, man, I got a plan for you. How about after the show, you're on Brian Carrey to do an expedition, you know, grappling, grappling, you know, just grappling, no fucking nothing, just grappling. I looked at his face, I'm like, did you call me for this? A lot of it can't answer you for you, you know?

Of course I'm in. And all of a sudden, he doesn't want to do it. I guess he was hurt, or my weight was the issue because I was 45 of him back then. But now I'm in his weight, and dude, dude, this guy is the last book. Who is this guy? I know you were watching on Saturday. He's not even a Brian Carroll. He was Mr. Tate.

That's funny. I know you were watching the post-flight show. What was your reaction when you heard what he said about you? I just felt real disrespectful.

I really want to punch his guy's face, dude. Even if I see him on the street or anywhere even if I fight, he better walk with the thing a bodyguard

and do like that because I want to push him and punch him. But he better say sorry for that because me being in the sport for so many years,

me doing a lot of crazy stuff and I start my career for 170 now you know treading from my game and going to my natural way 135 you know I worked so hard fighting for so many years I've been

training for 24 25 years now and he didn't disrespecting me like this saying you know I need to work on some stuff you know really who the hell are you dude who the hell are you what really bothers you about him his attitude dude

he's attitude he thinks you know of a lot. When we fight, I'll show him what he should work on. He's a great fighter. Don't have it wrong. He's good everywhere. He's a whole lot of fighters. But for some odd reason, really, he doesn't want to fight me.

What do you think of his performance on Saturday, defeating Eddie Weinland? I promise you, I swear that I didn't watch his fight. Why? Why not? I was busy making barbecue, dude. I'm not going to waste my time watching his fight. But aren't you curious? I mean, you're about to fight the guy,

or you want to fight the guy, so why not see what he's doing? I didn't want to watch the fight, because I know he's going to fight me, so I want to watch his fight. Even though if I sign the contract to fight him, I'm not going to watch his tape. Because...

I'm not watching any tapes of him, I promise you. Is that because you think the fight will never happen? Not... That will never happen. It's just... I don't need to watch what he does. Let him worry about what I'm going to do to him. Mm-hmm.

Well, let me ask you by your timetable, because after your win on July 15th, you said that you had a pretty serious hip injury, right? How is it feeling now? It's really much better. I did. I did. It was something pretty crazy. I was wrestling with – after sparring, I started wrestling with my boy, Sergio, great wrestler. He helped me out, threw up my out camp.

I wrestle And all of a sudden I pulled my hip or it was I think it was a hip Yeah Upper upper my right leg

It was really painful And I'm like I can't I can't I have to stop This hurts really Really bad Then

He goes Let's call it And I Then next day I woke up And you know I was really painful And then when I was

grappling It was bothering me The whole time I was All the time It was really hurt The whole camp Even in the locker room when I was warming up, for some stupid reason, I started kicking, and I heard it again.

I didn't show it to my cornerman, obviously, because I didn't want them to know that, you know, that pain is kind of back. But I was really in pain. Nothing away from the Yogetson. I know it was going to be a tough fight because Yorgensen is a true veteran. He was a crafty guy. But I was hurt before the fight. the whole camp. How is it now?

I won't say 100%, it's not 100%, but I'm ready to go to Sananooga stairs and do a crazy, strength and condition, what's what happened? So do you think it'll be gone for the rest of the year, or do you think it'll get better

you can fight again this year? I think I'll be fine, fighting in. It's just, I have a lot of stuff to do right now. I'm fighting my biggest fight in November 7th, which is my wedding. Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. So I don't know what I'm going to do with it. So if I can get a fire probably in September, I don't know if I'm looking for, you know, like a lot of, you know, like, you know, Armenian, traditional weddings. It's not like something. We take it very serious. And we do a very crazy big party and, you know, a lot of food, a lot of drinking, a lot of partying. And he goes all night. So, yeah, I'm well-prepared for that.

And, you know, I'm looking forward to it. You know, a little more than three months away. Wow. Mani is settling down. How long have you been dating this woman? I've known her for like six years. Okay. And we've been, you know, August 30th will be one year that we've engaged.

Oh. Oh, engaged. She's a very unique girl. She's a very unique girl. You know, I've known her for a long time, and I really respect her. You know, I really respect her. I didn't want to call love because, you know, love for me's respect. When I respect and love, I mean, you know, I really,

respect her. Wow. I'm looking forward to, you know, spend my whole life to do it. She's okay with the fighter life? She's okay with that? Well, like I said,

she's been around for six years. Yeah. She's been me hurt. She's been me bleeding. She's been, you know, sweating, fighting, training. She'll be there for my last two fights, and, you know,

she's, I don't know if she's nervous, but the people next to her, my friends say, you know, she really gets nervous. And, you know, but she's been liking it, so she has other choice. Right.

She loved fighting. Well, again, congratulations on that. I want to go back to the Jorganton fight. Do you think he was greasing? Man, I hate saying this. But you alluded to that in your post-fight interview. When I went for the guillotine, you know, I mean, he's got a mohog. He really doesn't got a mohawk.

And I don't have a hair like. him or anyone else. So I don't know how Mohawks work, but I heard, you know, he has to put a lot of, you know, grease on it or whatever, that child to hold that Mohawk. So when I hold his neck and try to, you know, go for the guillotine, I mean, he's, he rolled pretty good, but at the same time, he was, he was very slippery.

He's an upper body, was slippery. So you've been around this sport a long time. What do you think, what do you think led to that? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you know, UFU is doing an amazing job with this, you know, testing and all that, you know. I'm very happy that. They should have done this long, long time ago, but, you know, I'm very, very happy.

I want one of the probably one of the few athletes out there that don't even drink protein shape. Wow. I've never done anything in my whole entire life. People come off to me, and they look at your body. You're on something. I mean, dude, they can taste me before the fight after the fight. in camp, off camp, in my honeymoon, when I'm partying, anytime you want. I'm open to test any given day, any time of the year.

So you're not going to go ahead and say that he was doing some monkey business. All you're saying was it was a little slippery. And it was later on in the fight, though. Well, any fighter fights me. They try to do something crazy. Oh, really? You know this? Of course.

Any fighter fights me. They change their style. They change their attitude. They change their camps. or they can do something because, you know, I'm not for my power, I've known for my grappling, this and that, but, you know, I try to be more war-rounded fighter.

I see myself being a world-wound fighter because, like I said, I've been in the game for so many years, so I think I'm a war-on-a-fighter, and they're fighting me, you know, I always expect something crazy. Something crazy, I mean. So 2-0 now at... Greend up or, I don't know.

2-0 at 135, what's been the difference? here. Why are you undefeated at 135? I think it's a perfect weight class for me. Although I caught a lot of weight, though. My last fight against you're saying, you know, May 11th, it was Monday I woke up.

I think it was May 11th. Yeah. I woke up. I mean, I got nothing to hide from you guys or even from the fighters out there. I was 174 pounds. Whoa. I was 39 pounds of the weight, but I feel it in shape.

If you go see my Instagram page, if you're not following me on Instagram, then as you're missing out, but whatever. I was 174 pounds. I texted my girl.

I'm like, I'm 174 pounds. Should I call Goldfield or what? I didn't want to bother him. I'm like, you know what? I'm a big boy. I can do this.

So I started a week extra, you know, advanced for the camp because I knew it was going to be crazy. cut. Two months out

exactly 54 days, I was 164 pounds, which a lot was good. But making the weight, you know, it's never easy. If anyone knows making me making the weight for 135 it's easy, you gotta be kidding me.

It's always a hard cut. But I'm always excited to make that weight. Every time I make the weight, I get excited. You know what? I'm like, I did it again. Because I never thought, when I was fighting, started my career, when I was studying on 170.

I never thought I could make 55. And then I never thought I could make 1-45. And then after 45, I never believed in myself that I can do 135. And thanks to my goal chair, after my last fight of 45, when I was fought Nick Lenz, he came up to him with Mani.

Please, listen to me. I can help you drop to 135. I don't want you to play with big guys. And since then, when I stepped out from the Nick Lance fight, I said, next time I'm stepping in the game. Octagon, I'm fighting 135. So did you use Dolce?

I have goals to fight 135. People won't, you know, people in my radar to fight. Like people ask me, did you do this for Brian Care? No, I didn't do this for Brian Carrey. But I don't mind fighting him next. Did you use Dolce, by the way, to get down to 135 for this fight? Yeah, of course. Okay, you did.

Now, were you around Ronda at all? heading into her fight on Saturday. No, no. I haven't seen her for a couple weeks now. How come? But, you know, she was in camp, and I was in camp, and I didn't see her with her in train for this fight together. I haven't seen her training, but, you know, she's a phenomenal athlete.

She's a beast, and, you know, I mean, I don't even know why she's fighting this girl, but I feel for her for this girl. Well, she says that she's going to, you know, let the fight go longer than it should, that, you know, she's going to hurt and all this stuff. Do you believe that? Yes. Ronda is a beast.

I mean, one time when I heard it on Twitter, when Misha Tees said, Mani, you never grappled me. So how do you know where, you know, she's so much better and she's in different athletes and that. And I, you know, I've trained with a lot of people and I train with her.

On the ground, you don't want to mess with her. I've seen, if I give her the arm bar, if I don't defend the way I'm supposed to, because I'm a strong guy for a 35er and have powerful hands, if I don't behave, she'll tap me out too. I've seen her tapping guys out with my own lives. But, okay, so you weren't around her. Are you still training at GFC? Not for this camp.

Why? This camp, how he wants. Because I want to go back to my roots. Okay. But the grappling, judo, wrestling, my grind style. It's just, you know, I'm still good with Edmund. You know, it knows my boy. He's a great coach.

But I just wanted to, you know, switch up all the camp and, you know, just want to do my thing with my boys. And, you know, it worked out pretty good. So you're going to stick with that for the next fight, whenever it is? We'll see what happens. Okay. I have nothing. I don't know if I'm fighting or what I'm fighting or what. I'm fighting, who I'm fighting.

Right. You know, it's all against right now, so I'm on deck. I'm waiting for Sean Shelfbizkov. What's what happened? By the way, how's your relationship with Caro these days? You know, it's good, and I see him. You know, he actually trained with me for this fight. Oh.

You know, he was on the mat, actually, you know. He was with a grappling, with his sparring, you know, with his wrestling. He was actually on the mat. You know, he looks good. He looks better. He looks healthier. and, you know, he said he's going to fight again, so I don't know. I'm not making any decisions of him.

Sure, sure. I see him fighting again. I don't know if he's going to fight in Beltoe or UFC, any other organizations. But, you know, I want to see him down by 155, though. But mentally, he's in a good spot, you say? He looks, it, yeah. It looks like it, yeah. It looks like it. He is, you know, he looks, he doesn't look in perfect shape, but he looks good.

Okay. Well, you know, I think it would be a lot of fun if you fight Carraway and Tate fights Ronda on the same card, that would be... You're being out forever, are you? You know, one of the most recognized people in the UFC. Do you even want to see that fight, me and Brian Carroll? Be honest. I would like to see it, yes, I think it would be fun. And by the way, all you need to say is, you know, when they keep saying that it's a step back, I mean, let's not forget that number 12 ranked, Brian Carraway fought number six ranked Eddie

Weinland. So Eddie Wineland took a step back on Saturday. Why can't he do it? That's something, right? That's a lot. I didn't say you said it. There you go. I'm one additional defense.

I just want to thank everyone in Oakville came out in San Diego supported me. Even my Armenians, outside Armenians. I see a lot of our means in the audience, my friends, all my good friends, my coaches. It was just a phenomenal night. I love fighting in San Diego. It's like second home. It's like a two-hour drive for me, 120 miles. It was amazing.

You know, I'm looking forward to it. More fights even in the Staples Center. Or I don't know when is the Super Weekend fight, but I think that would be awesome. If you run to Beats the Skill and then Misha Tehran-Ral-Zee 3, or what you want to call it, 2, U.S.C. that would be really awesome to fight or be on the same card. And if it doesn't happen, I'll move on. I'll fight someone else. I'm not going to beg anymore because I think I did it enough.

I think I'll be talked about enough. Now it's up to the UFC, Joe Silva, Sean Shelby, Lo and Lo and though if they think this fight should happen, make sense. And let's do it. I'm down anytime, any place. Even his garage, he's training, please, extreme couture, anywhere you want.

Let's make it happen. getting the fight. Congrats on the win a couple weeks back and congrats on the wedding a few months away. Always great to have you on the show, Mani. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And thank you for letting me dog. All right, there is. Manville. Manny Gamburian wants Brian Carraway. If they could put it on the same card, as I said, that would certainly be a lot of fun. Good luck to him and getting that. All right, let's move along. Saturday is a very busy night in the world of MMA. It's not just UFC 190. World Series of Fighting is back. World Series of Fighting number 22. It's at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And I got to tell you, as I said on the top of the show, this might be the best fight in the history of World Series of fighting, the most interesting top-notch fight that they have ever put on. They put on 22 events, a couple of Canadian shows here, there, but this, to me, this is legit stuff. This is arguably two top tenors going toe to toe for their belt, their 170-pound belt, so fascinating from a styles matchup. I cannot wait to see this fight.

talking about Husseymar Polyaris going up against Jake Shields, and Jake Shields is joining us right now on the phone. Jake, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good, Ariel. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for the time. I got to ask you because, you know, you've talked, obviously, a lot about Polyaris

and his reputation and how he is in his fights. When they offered you this fight, given his reputation, given what he's done, did you think twice at all? Were you a little worried that this guy may actually try to hurt you and cross the line? No, I didn't think twice. You know, I'm down to fight everyone. I mean, of course, in the back of the head, you worry a little bit because you know this guy is going to try to hurt you.

There's no doubt, but if you get this mission, he's going to try to break it. So that just gives you a little more motivation to take this fight seriously and make sure to win it and, you know, also makes me want to go out there. Like I said in the past, makes you want to go out there and not actually hurt this guy. Why do you think he does that? I just think maybe he just, you know, enjoys hurting people. Some people are sociopaths and enjoy hurting people. I can't say that for sure, not really knowing him.

That's kind of how it seems because he's done it, transmission matches as well, and supposedly does it in training. So he just goes out there and cranks it. It might be a head thing, you know, try to get people who are scared them as well, thinking, you know, people might have to have a little earlier if they're scared he's actually going to break their knee. So both him and his team, they always say,

oh, he doesn't mean any malice, no ill will, blah, blah, do you not buy any of that? No, I mean, like I said, I can't say 100% out of the home, but I'm not really buying it. You know, he's done it over and over. I feel like to cover up, and, you know, he hides behind him behind the, oh, I'm Mr. Nice guy, Mr. Jesus.

That's even worse. I'd respect him more if he's just like, yeah, I hurt you to get over it. But the fact that he pretends like he's so nice makes you the worst to me. Given your background, of course, your BJ background, how, like, what kind of a perception do you have of this guy? Like, is this the worst thing you could possibly do? Like, if you're that good on the ground, especially at leg locks, and you crank and you and you cross the line,

from your perspective, from the world that you come from, this seems to be, like, other than, you know, blatantly cheating or, you know, doing something, this is almost like the worst thing you could do, right? Yeah, definitely. And to me, it more so bothers me in that jitutesu matches. It definitely bothers me in a fight, but at least you are fighting.

I still think it's ridiculous. In fact, you've done in jiu-s matches, you know, where there's, like, not money or not much money, and it's just a skill of martial arts versus martial artist, and he still goes out there and tries hurting those guys. To me, that's even a...

That's the one that really pissed me off. Have you ever encountered someone like this before? Have you ever prepared for a match or a fight where you thought a guy was seriously trying to cross the line and hurt you? I mean, maybe it made you with punches, but never was submission. It's really unusual for a guy with submissions to hold him.

It's like, I can't think of anyone else that has a rep for doing this. He's the only guy I can think that's done this multiple times. Given that reputation, is this a fight that you've wanted for a long time to nullify him on the ground and to teach him a lesson? I was on a fight I thought about a fight. He's in most of his career 85s, and he's a guy that have always watched him fight. I actually enjoy watching him fight. I think he's a phenomenal jitsu guy and amazing leg locks,

but he's never a guy really thought much about fighting. until recently. Okay. And, you know, it's funny because it's one of those things where we know exactly what he wants to do and he does it. I mean, especially as of late, it's amazing. You know what he wants and he actually does it.

He's like the leg collector. He's like a shark that just goes for the leg and we know that that's what he wants to do. How do you avoid that? Do you know in your mind the way that these fighters are messing up what they're doing to put themselves in this position? Yeah, you know, he attacks him everywhere. He's really good at what he does. I'm not taking any way, so he attacks him every angle from,

if he can hit a leg lock from anywhere. It's really impressive what he does. So, it's, you know, I've watched his tapes, and I've got it's ready as I can be. I'm really confident in leg locks. It's a position I'm really good at. I mean, you can't say with certainty what's going to happen, but I feel confident there.

Have you ever competed against anyone who is that good at leg locks, in your opinion? Honestly, no, I don't think so. I think he's arguably the best in the world. It's hard to say you've gone against a level. But, you know, for this fight, I've gone and trained with the best. I'm going to train with Dean Lister, when John Donah here,

guys that are known for leg locks and trained with them. So I feel a lot more confident. All right. So you went outside your comfort zone. You pinpointed who's the best of this to work with them? Yeah, exactly, because I felt like I was decent with leg locks before. But I feel like I shot way up to this fight. I feel like this fight actually, the long one will help me a lot.

I feel like my own offense first, you know, learning to the attack. I feel like it shot my own game way, way up. Do you think he's actually going to go for this right off the bat, or do you think he's going to try to, you know, throw a curveball at you? I think he'll put right up the bat. I think he's, you know, I don't think he's necessarily the brightest guy. I think that's his game, and he's really good at him, and he just goes and attacks leg locks. I doubt he'll do anything else.

I mean, yeah, he'll throw some punches. He might throw some things down. He has some other weapons, not that he has nothing. I think his other two gets overlooked a little bit. He has some good arm bars, good triangles. He has other stuff, but by far his best weapon for leg locks. What did Lister, Dan, or her? I mean, obviously you spent a lot of time with him, but is there something that in particular

you did not think about, that you didn't use to do, that they taught you about defending this? You know a lot of different things. It's not a question. His game is so complex and so far beyond what most people are doing it, I learned a lot. I'm actually really happy to work with these guys

because my own leg locks has just shot up. My own submission game is more than doubled how much I'm tapping people. Like the leg locks, the whole new whole new element that opens everything up. So it's definitely sat back and tried learning leg locks.

But again, he's doing a lot longer than me. So I'm not going to say, I would love to leg lock him, but it's probably the best game plan to go out there and try. to play that game with him. Oh, wow. Could you imagine that if you turn the tables on him and actually leglocked the guy?

That would be fantastic. I mean, what a scene that would be for you, right? That would be a pretty awesome way to beat him. Yeah. That's the best way to beat him. That's the most... It's risky, but I would love to go out there and he'll look them. And so you obviously worked on defense.

Did you work on offense as well for the leg locks? Yeah, definitely. I spend a lot of time trying to really... I feel like when you want to learn something, for me, I think it's best to learn both angles. Just on the defense, you're missing half of it. Right. So you have said that this is a guy who deserves to be punished, deserves to be hurt. Are you going to try to hurt him as well?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm not going to hold a submission too long. I'm not a dirty fighter. But if I get an arm bar, get a hill hook, get something, I'm going to grab it and crank as hard as I possibly can and try to break it. More so than usual? Yeah, definitely. I'm going to go out there with intention. If I get something, I'm just going to try to snap it.

Oh, my. Have you ever felt this way before a fight? No, not really before the fight. You know, that you guys haven't really cared for it. There's no one of really disliked and wanted to hurt. So I guess it makes it a little more exciting to go out there and actually want to hurt the guy. Yeah, and are you afraid at all, or has anyone talked to you about just being too emotional? Like, when you go with that mindset as opposed to just going into compete, things might change a little bit, right?

Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to, you know, I've got to fight long enough, but I'm not going to try to get all hype. It doesn't make it all crazy. So I'm going to go out there with a little bit extra and try to put a little extra on them. What's it been like in World Series of Fighting for you? Two fights down, you've looked very good, very dominant. How's the experience been? It's been great. You know, I felt good.

You know, I was a little burned out in the UFC, so I felt mentally motivated again. I did last two fights, you know, both first round finishes. I think going out there both of these fights, I made a decision. I need to change my style and go out there and get a first round position. And luckily, I was a first round finish, and luckily I was able to do that both of the fights. Do you think that's the fight, I'm not going out there for a decision. I'm going out for a finish. Do you think that, you know, the impressive showings in the last two fights for World Chairs of Fighting,

is that a product of, you know, you fighting, perhaps talent that's, not quite as good as you or the new surrounding or maybe a mix of both. What do you think it is? I definitely mixed a both. I think I went out there both those fights with a more heavy intention. Not because I'm going to win, I'm going to end this fast, end this fight, and it in the first round. And both the guys that fought were both really talented. But again, they weren't like, you know, there weren't guys like Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condent and guys that had been fighting.

Do you have any intention of ever going back to the UFC or are you happy in World Series of Fighting? I don't have an attention of going back but I'm not going to rule it out either it's like right now I'm happy and no world's fighting

but you never really know if they'd offer me a succumbum for title fights to fight someone like well it would be hard to say now right and what about

the actual organization like the way they run they're relatively new how do you feel comparing them to some of the other organizations you fought for

what's the like behind the scenes I think they do a good job I mean like said they're a new company so of course they're trying to figure things out and there's a little

inconsistences but overall they do a great job for being a smaller company and new. Everything's gone smooth. I've got no problems. Are you a little disappointed? This is the same night as a Ronda Rousey fight. Like I said, it's the best fight they've ever put on, in my opinion.

But some of the attention will be taken away because of a UFC pay-per-view on the same night. Yeah, I mean, of course, I would rather it be a night when this is the only fight, you got all the attention. But, again, it's one of the things. My job is out there and win. It is what it is. I mean, of course, Ronda's a big star is. But at the same time, I think, the fight has not been so fast.

It's not been quite as much fight. I found this fight of hers. So that's a good thing for me. Yeah, maybe. Who will be in your corner for this fight? Bringing out Gil and Tark is always there for me. Yeah. Just them two?

Yeah, I might bring out a junction on two, which is a standard that he's coming out as well. Okay, so no Lister, no, Dana He, those guys aren't coming. No, I didn't bring him those guys out. Perhaps the guy who defended the leg locks the best, in the UFC at least, was Alan Belcher. Did you ever talk to him? I talked to him real briefly by text and picked him a few things. Yeah, I watched that fight a bunch. He did a great job at the beginning it.

He worked with Lister as well, so Lister had a lot of the same stuff that he does. Do you feel like he did the best job? I mean, I know Marquard being that was kind of a weird one, though. Do you feel like he kind of put out the blueprint how to do it? I would say, yeah. Like I said, Marquard did a good job, but his was just escape one and so fast. And Beltzer escaped, you know, three or four, if not five and one. So that's definitely the fight I watch the most.

What did he do that others aren't doing these days? There's just some small technical details, which, you know, I don't want to go over too much. Okay. You can give anything away, but definitely it's not some details that he was doing. And you mentioned Gilbert, some shocking news about him recently. What's your take on that? Yeah, you know, honestly, I've barely talked to him since then. You know, I'm pretty pumped out about it.

I don't know too many details. I'll finally get to see him on actually this weekend because I barely haven't really talked to him since then. But, yeah, I mean, I'm really surprised. and don't know the details yet. Did you know that he was doing anything that could lead to a positive test? Definitely not. I was really surprised, so I don't know. Like I said, I don't know the details.

Don't want to get into his business, but I'll get a chance to talk to him this week coming up. But you don't know how he's dealing with him mentally, anything like that? I mean, it's a big shock because we never thought. Yeah, I know. I was really shocked. I mean, he's been out of town, and I've been out of town training, so I don't know how I had a chance to talk to him very, very briefly. Okay.

How do you win on Saturday? I mean, that's always a tough question. But I'm thinking submissioner TKO was in the first three. Okay. I like it. You enjoying things? You're still happy with your career? You're still happy fighting?

Yeah, no, I'm still enjoying fighting. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't. Luckily, I'm not one of those guys. I talk after, you know, luckily I got money invested and I've been doing well and other things. So I'm just still fighting because I enjoy it. How many more years do you want to fight for? Oh, man, that's a tough question.

I just kind of take it. I think it one fight at a time, you know. Probably, you know, a year, two years, but it's one of those days I don't want to give an exact answer because if you'd happen a couple years ago, I'd probably said it'll be retired right now. Right, okay. So you're kind of surprising yourself. Well, I'm happy you're still fighting because I love this fight.

I'm looking forward to it. Wish you the best of luck, Jake. Thank you for the time. Awesome, thank you. All right, there is. Jake Shields. Going up against one of the most dangerous fighters in the sport, a guy who has wreaked havoc all over

World Series of fighting, of course. he was of course he was essentially kicked out of the UFC for cranking a little too hard on Mike Pierce's leg and that was really the last draw for him

and let's be honest. In World Series of fighting, there have been some close calls. There have been some calls where you're like, with your reputation, you know, Steve Carl, that looked like it. John Fitch, you can make a case.

You remember after every one of those fights? He hasn't fought since December of last year, but it's always felt a little weird. It's like a little bit of a delay when the referee comes in there. And someone with that reputation, we were talking about the Joel Lozond thing. Yes, I know the referee says, stop the fight when I tell you to stop the fight,

but there is some sportsmanship involved. There is a little bit of professionalism involved, some class involved. And it always seems to be, there always seems to be that question out there. So he's won three in a row. His two fights in World Series of Fighting have lasted an average of like a minute and 15 seconds,

130 against Fitch, 109 against Steve Carl, he is their champion. But, wow, given Jake Shields' ground game, his resume, his skills on the mat, his background, this is an amazing fight. This is by far the most interesting fight in the history of that promotion. And they've been around for a couple of years now,

so it's not the craziest thing to say. I love it. I just wish I could watch a live. very happy, very excited, privileged, honored to be at 190 in that atmosphere for a Ronda Rousey fight. I will be taping World Series of Fighting. I'll be falling along. That is a really interesting fight on Saturday in Las Vegas. And you hear a guy like Jake Shield say, he deserves to be hurt, that he's going to crank on the arm or the leg. And you know about Polyaris's background.

This is intense stuff. Can you imagine them on the mat, on the ground? It's going to be great. I'm looking forward to it. So that's this Saturday World Series of fighting. 22, two title fights. Marius versus Morais at 135. I think this could be also Marlon Marius' toughest fight

as bantamway champion in that promotion. Shane Marius looks good, man. Coming from Team Nogara, he looks very good. So that's good stuff. NBCSN this Saturday, alive and somewhat free on cable TV. Okay, let's go inside the vault. we haven't done this for the last couple weeks now. Back in August of 2009, right before Gina Crono fought Chris Cyborg in Strike Force, of course,

at the time the biggest fight in the history of women's MMA, one of the biggest fights in Strike Force history. I took a little trip. We were in San Jose. I took a little trip to the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, of course. And there was a fresh face there. A face we knew a little bit about, but not all that much. face that we know a whole lot about now. Her name, Misha Tate.

And she was coming to check out, aka, not really sticking around full time, but doing a little training there. Obviously, a lot younger. I mean, this was six years ago, April, excuse me, August of 2009. She was actually just coming off a loss to Sarah Kaufman in Strike Force.

Her second Strike Force fight. I actually attended her very first Strike Force fight when she was just one in one coming off a loss to Caitlin Young. She fought Elena Maxwell at the Melendez-Thompson-One fight, in June of 2008. And then she beat Maxwell,

went on to win like five in a row, met Sarah Kaufman, Strike Force challengers, lost that fight, and then I saw her just a couple months later at AKA. So we weren't quite sure, you know, what her ceiling was, how good she'll be. She was involved in a bit of a war of words with Kim Kouture, which kind of tells you where she's at.

We didn't know if she was just kind of a pretty face or someone that would actually turn into a champion and be a legit, she had won a belt in a regional promotion, but, you know, a legit contender at 145 or 135. Caught up with her, and it's a lot of fun now seeing her, you know, capture that number one contender spot once again, become the star. She's one of the biggest stars, in my opinion, into UFC. She gets a huge ovation every time she fights.

She's really put it together. She's probably the best right now that she's ever been, thanks in large part to Robert Follis. so I was cruising around my YouTube page, and I stumbled upon this old school, around six-year-old interview with a fresh-faced Misha Tate, a six-and-two Misha Tate, a lot of unknowns in her career, and just someone who had yet to really fully realize and we didn't even know what her potential was. I thought it would be a lot of fun to look back at that interview this week,

inside the vault, August of 2009. my interview with Misha Tate for the now deceased AOL fanhouse. Here it is. I'm at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, being joined by Misha Tate, Strike Force Female Star. Misha, what brings you here to AKA? I just decided to come down for the Gina Carrano and Cyborg Fight because it's a big step for women's MMA.

I want to be here to support it and see them fight live. I'm really excited about it. And I also decided to come down a few days early and check out A.K.A. I think everybody knows, you know, my biggest hole in my game is my stand-up, so that's where I'm aiming to improve the most. Well, since you brought it up, who do you think is going to win that fight, Gina or Cyborg? I'm rooting for Gina because, you know, she's just, she's my girl. I just really like her. I've always looked up to her, so I'm hoping, but I think it's going to be one hell of a fight.

They're both big girls. They're both very talented. Cyborg's really aggressive. I think Gina's a little more technical, so it just depends on who executes their game plan better. I really think may the best women win. You got to be here when she was doing her media workout. Was that the first time that you guys hung out before, or you actually trained or hung out before in the past? No, we've hung out a couple times.

I've actually never trained with her, but I have hung out with her, and she's a pretty cool girl. All right, well, let's talk about your career. Last time we saw you in action, Sarah Kaufman, obviously a disappointing loss for you. Looking back now, I'm sure you've had a chance to digest what occurred over there. What do you think ultimately went wrong? I think I just didn't stick to my game plan quite as well as I wanted to. I got wrapped up a little bit too much in the striking, and, you know, she's one of the best strikers in the game at this point,

and so it wasn't the smartest thing for me to do. But I learned from it. I learned, you know, I want to make my chain wrestling a little bit better, too, so I can transition from one shot to another until I can complete a takedown. So there's a lot of failed takedowns in that as well, so I learned that. And I just want to come down here and cross-trained a little bit and open my game up and see what I can do.

Is your next fight lined up yet? I have a fight actually just got scheduled October 3rd. It's a hometown fight for me at the Emerald Queen Casino. It's a smaller fight promotion in Tacoma, Washington. And, yeah, like I said, it's October 3rd, so I don't have an opponent yet. And after that, I'm hoping to fight maybe sometime in October or November for Strike Force. Looks like that's what's on the plate for me. So you're not done to strike force.

You're just taking this bout in between your next bout for them? Correct. Yeah, I had to run it through them. I am contracted for a year with them, so I'm guaranteed at least tomorrow. fights. They cleared me to go on October 3rd, so it's just kind of something to keep me in the group of things while I'm waiting for a strike force fight. Is there someone at 135 right now? I know there was a lot of talk between you and Kim Kutur. She actually has recently talked about wanting to come back to strike force. Other than her, is there someone at 135 that you'd like to face for strike force?

Yeah, I really like to face Caitlin Young. She was my first professional loss, and it was on a tournament night, so, you know, things get a little, you know, you fight one person that's a little tougher and easier or whatnot. You can't really tell who, when you just match those two people up evenly, who's the better fighter. And I really want that opportunity to fight her again. I think it would be a great style matchup. I think it would be a fun fight to watch.

I respect her immensely as a fighter, and I love the opportunity to fight her again. Still interested in the couture fight? You know, I'm kind of over that, but, you know, if it came my way, I would definitely take it up again, but I'm just not really going to pursue it because I think that I have more to gain in other areas than there. And how about your overall career? I mean, now that you're fighting for Strike Force, we see you in Fight Magazine, you're doing a lot more stuff to get your face and, you know, your career out there.

Has life changed for you at all since you joined Strike Force, or do you feel as though you're still kind of under the radar for now? No, I definitely think things have changed. You know, the Sarah Kaufman fight was really good for me because it got me a lot of exposure. You know, it was my first time fighting on Showtime and, you know, such a big organization. I fought for Strike Force before, but they were still on a smaller scale,

and it was only on HDNet. But the showtime really helped me out. Then coming out with Fight Magazine, it's all like coming together. And I feel like I'm moving up quickly, you know, which is what I want to do. I'm a very, you know, aggressive person in every style of my life.

And I want to make the most of my career and, you know, whatever I can do to do that is what I'm going to do. All right, well, October 3rd, Misha Tate returns to action. Then maybe a month or so later, she'll be back for Strike Force, unsure against who just yet, but I'm sure it'll be a great fight.

And Misha always enjoy watching you compete and we look forward to your next fight. Thank you so much. I look forward to it, too. I want to hear a joke. You got any jokes? No, I don't think I have any jokes out of the top of my head. Paul Buentel is asking Misha Tate to tell a joke onto camera, and she's freezing up right now.

I'm like, um, way to go to the pop quiz over there. You got nothing? I don't know. I got a couple knock-knock jokes, but that's kind of cheesy. Go for one. Ask Paul the knock-knock question. Okay, knock-knock. Who's there?

Banana. Banana who? Knock, knock. Who's there? Banana. Who's there? Orange. Orange, you glad I didn't say banana.

That was like, that's like from fifth grade, man. I knew that one like way back in the day. That was weak. I like people to make me laugh. I'm not. Yeah, I guess, because you're making me laugh. You know, she, Brian Carraway, he could, he can, you know, beat you up if you keep this up. I can probably beat him up, too, you know, but, you know.

Wow, look at that. Paul Bwantello, completely stealing her shine. Great memories there. I forgot about the Paul Bwintello cameo. But, as you can see, six years ago, Brian Carraway is still a very big part of the picture. But as I said, a fresh face, Misha Taiti, has come a long way. I don't know if many people thought she would turn into the fighter that she is today. Legit, respected. Over there, she was a youngster just trying to find her place coming off a lot. loss. That would be fun to look back at that one. One little quick anecdote before we get to today's questions and comments. I just want to give a shout out to a certain guy who I ran into on the subway today who I've actually seen a few times on the L platform, Bedford Avenue. This time I actually saw him. Where did I see him? I was coming from Bedford, but it was maybe one or two

stops in on my way to the studio. And this gentleman, maybe in his mid-30s, African-American, big strong guy, comes in, playing the guitar and has a great voice, John Legendesque. And I kind of knew in the back of my mind that I've seen this guy before. I recognized him. I was standing in the subway. Mining my business was pretty packed as it usually is. Comes on, starts singing, singing a song. Everyone's tuned in. Everyone's locked in. They're in. enjoying it, listening and listening. All right, it's cool. Yeah, this guy's good. I feel like I kind of recognize him. But I don't know. Finishes his song and then yells out, what's up, Ariel? You're the man. Love that Connor

interview. Listen to it 10 times. And at first, it took me a second to actually digest that he was talking to me. It didn't really register at first. I was like, holy crap, this guy just called. Of course I've seen you before. And I don't remember his name. We've talked before. I think I actually tweeted him out. But I wanted to give him props because that was a pretty cool thing. thing. All these people on the subway and then he gives me a shout out and then everyone's looking around like, who is that guy? And they all thought I was really cool. They're, you know, a couple of cool people. They thought they were cool. But then they're like, ooh, there's someone even cooler than me on this, on this subway. An actual performer is shouting him out? Who is this guy? Tell me about

him. We had our little what's up, what's up, Connor interview. And I felt like a million bucks. He really up my spirits. Not that they needed to be up on the way to the show, but that was a really cool thing. So whatever that guy's name is, I want to give him a shout out. Have I met him? We have met him. You know this guy. I just, I just appreciate so much how he gave you the Ariel Hawani shoutout. Yeah. And his return is that what's that guy's name? I don't remember his name. I mean, I mean, I don't, you know, I'm sorry. I'm giving him a shout out. But yeah, I did see him with you as well. I'm hoping he, he listens to this or we'll hear about this. And then I can actually find out his name once and for all and tweet him out and give him

because he's really good. He's very talented. He's a great performer, great at playing the guitar. Man, it'd be great if we knew his name. It would be good. Can you find out? You didn't help me out with the Stefan Struev question I had. I'm sorry, there was a question. I didn't hear it.

Well, I know you guys are falling asleep back there. I mean, for God's sakes, the Jake Shields interview, we had to go to like 10 beeps in the busy signal after he hung up. I don't know what's going on back there. I mean, let's not get into the fact that you're not showing up for work next. next week. Do you want to tell the people why or should we not address this right now? I am showing up for work next week. No, you are not. Don't give me this Monday business.

Good time to remind the people, by the way, that next week's show is on Tuesday, same time, 1 p.m. It's not Monday. Why? Because for some reason, if anyone could explain this to me, I'd love to know why. Why can't you leave Rio de Janeiro Sunday morning? Why are there no flights to North America on Sunday morning? You have to wait the entire day and don't give me this. Oh, it could be. be worse. You're hanging on Rio. Stop complaining. By the time the show's over, you want to go home. And yes, it's a great place to be. I enjoy it. I'll probably eat two bowls of us. I eat. Still, I'd rather be going home. I have to wait till 9 p.m. So by the time I actually get home, it's, you know, late morning, can't do the show. So next week's show is Tuesday, as has been the

case every time I go to Rio. This is, I believe, my fifth time. And lo and behold, even though I told him about this two months ago, New York Creek will not be showing up. I will not. So what's the second time in the last... This is my second show I'll miss. In the last six months or so. I mean, you had a good streak there. What do you mean? But now we're getting a little loosey-goosey.

I don't even remember. It was like October. It was end of last year, yeah. Yeah. How do I remember this and you not? It rocks my world. Listen, you know... So what's happened?

One would hope that, you know, the show would be canceled without my presence, but, you know, I think the people will be okay without me for this week. I'll be in Las Vegas for glory. Yeah. Upcoming glory show. Quite frankly, I don't think it's a good enough excuse. We could have figured things out. We could have planned accordingly.

There is no planning accordingly. This is the cards were dealt, and I will not be here next week. But you've heard of Wally Pipp, right? Are you familiar with Wally Pipp? Yeah, he's the guy who lost his starting lineup position to, who is it, DiMaggio? Lou Gehrick, there you go. I don't know too much about baseball. I mean, come on.

Lou Gehrig. aren't you from New York? And then he ended up playing like 2,600 or, no, 21, I believe. 2100 straight games. This could happen next week. This is a real possibility. Adam Porter is going to come in and he might, you know, knock this one out of the park, and then you're done.

And all because of a flight. I mean, we could have changed things, gone a little later, all because of a flight. Seems unfortunate if you ask me. Post Ronda Rousey, we're not going to celebrate your birthday. I don't believe in this celebration before. So I know you're turning 28. on August 1st. No, that was going to be the birthday celebration. It was going to be a show dedicated to you, all about you. In fact, I'll come out and say it right now. Sounds like an excuse. In fact,

I'll come out and say right now you're actually going to host the show. You were finally going to get to host a show, and now you can't. Man, that's a shame. I can't believe I missed out on such an opportunity. It sounds legitimate. Yeah. I mean, I would have probably, you know, needed a heads up to start booking guests on the show and do that type of stuff. I'd help you out with that. Oh, okay. I got the inside track. I mean, most shows people do book the guests for them, so I would just be doing that role. Of course, on this show, I kind of, you know, jack of all trades, but I would help you out. Well, I mean, you'll be able to interview them.

We'll let you host. Oh, thank you. And you can book those same guests that I was going to book. All right. Well, we'll miss you. Doesn't sound like it. Well, no, of course. That's why I'm so upset.

Why else would I be upset? Why else would I give you the opportunity to host? It's a great birthday. present. Last year for your wedding, I gave you a spot on the beat. Remember that? Yeah. I give the best presents. They don't cost me a thing, but they're great opportunities. Well, maybe my reputation and the reputation of this show. Could you imagine New York, Rick, sitting here? What did that be amazing? You sitting here interviewing people and just... I just got an email that the flight has been changed. Okay. Let's do it. Who we leading off with. Can you get me Ronda Rousey?

Well, I mean, I just heard this news now. So give me a little bit of time to it. To book it. Okay, so you are coming next week. Well, it worked. Fantastic. Okay, let's get into the questions. Oh, actually. Thanks to Bill and to Ash.

No. I said we can't celebrate. For sending birthday stuff. Sorry. What's going on with the hair? Is this Connor ask? Are you going to shave the sides? Shides are pretty short right now? No, no, no.

Remember when he fought Porier? I'm never going to go that short, but I'm going to keep him trim. You should go corn rose. on the top. No, no corn rows. But are we actually going to walk around on the streets like this or is this just for the show? Of course we're going to walk around on the streets like this. Okay, just checking.

First question. Dilashaw versus Cruz. It feels that after Saturday, Dilashaw Cruz is now one of the best matches the UFC could put together. How do you expect this fight would go? And do you believe this will be the fight the UFC looks to make or do you think they could be hesitant to rush it with Cruz coming off an injury? How about I say Dilashaw smokes

Cruz like 40 minutes before he comes on the show? that'd be fun. All I'll say is this right now. I've heard some people say, give him a tune-up fight. I've heard some people say, you know, it's a little dangerous. It's not fair, blah, blah, blah. He's been out. It'll be around a year.

Hopefully if all goes well, another ACL injury. You can't risk it at this point. You know, we had the tune-up fight with Mizugaki. I know this is a different injury, but you've got to make that fight happen, especially considering the fact that a Sunsau re-injured his ankle. There's no other good fight out there. It's down to a sunset. Look, Dilshaa has options.

There's no doubt about it. I don't want any of this talk of him fighting DJ. Maybe at some point, DJ has less options if he gets by John Dotson. Dillshaw has options. The problem is his two best options are injured. Cruz is probably closer than a sunset at this point. That's the biggest fight.

That's one of the best fights they could put on. It's one of the most fascinating fights. It's one of the most interesting. Whatever word you want to use, that's the fight to make. You have to make it next. You have to. Is T.J. Dillishaw,

the true bantamweight champion? I remember at UFC 187 when Cormier beat Johnson to become the new light heavyweight champion, people were saying that he was not the true champion because he had him beaten John Jones. Does that mean that T.J. Dillashaw is not the true champion until he beats Dominic Cruz, because Cruz did not lose the title in the octagon,

just like Jones didn't. As Matisiah who once said, he's the king without a crown. Now, contrary to what I said to D.C. on Saturday, I believe D.C. is the champion because he's the guy with the belt. I mean, you've got to honor that. I believe Dillishaw is the champion because he's the guy with the belt, then also he beat Browell out twice.

So I have no problem with him calling himself the champion or the best. But I do believe that Cruz now deserves a chance to redeem himself, to get that title back. He never lost. Let's not forget. You're the one who feels strongly about this stuff. So what do you say? I think that it's a different circumstance. In the case of Cormier and Jones, months earlier, John Jones beat the brakes off Daniel Cormier and proved it in the Octagon.

So it's hard to, you know, call yourself the champion. Now, obviously, he is holding the belt and you have to respect that, but it's hard to, you know, consider yourself the best, which is what that belt is supposed to signify when the guy who, you know, is on the shelf right now beat you pretty convincingly not that long ago. In this case, Dominic Cruz and T.J. Dillosh had not fought yet. So it's a different circumstance in my opinion. Now, there's a limit. There's a time limit on this. If John Jones doesn't come back for quite a while. Oh, time limit now.

I've said it all along. There's an expiration date. How long? Don't know. When it feels right. If John Jones doesn't come back for... If you're going to throw out the expiration date thing, you have to have a date. It's like, I can't buy a carton of milk and they put XP, EXP date and then have it don't know.

Interestingly, I just saw something recently about how those dates are kind of... a nonsense. Yeah, but still mentally, I like to see something. So what's your date? Give me a year, year and a half, two years, what is it? Yeah, maybe two years, maybe three years. Don't know. That long. Yeah. Jeez. Because I still think John Jones in two or three years could be the best light heavyweight in the world, and I think he probably will be. And there's no doubt in my mind that he is the best light heavyweight right now, which is what that belt should signify. So in this case, I think you could make a convincing case that T. J. Delishaw is the best in the world. But, Dominic Cruz has an opportunity to prove that wrong when they eventually do fight.

Let's talk about the very best fight that the UFC could put on in each division, right? Okay. Okay, let's start with Flyweight. What do you think? It's Dotson. 100%. Yep. Okay, let's skip Bantam wait for a second.

Let's go to Featherweight. It's obviously Aldo McGregor, right? 155. What do you say? Do you think Pettis RDA at this point? Nirmagamatov RDA maybe? Okay, great point. Yes.

Nirmagamadoff RDA. 170, what do you say? Robbie versus... I would say Robbie versus Rory again. I'd love to see that. Or Hendrix, I mean, those are close fights, but fair enough. That was a great fight. 185, Rockhold, Widman, obvious.

205, D.C. Jones, obvious. Heavyweight, would you say, Verdume Kane again? No, maybe Verdume JDS. Hmm, interesting. Okay. For Doom JDS. Over on the women's side of things, obvious Rhonda Cyborg, if that's a possibility, if not, I guess Rhonda. Misha again, and then 115, I guess, Janjicchek versus Goodelia, because that was such a close fight.

Okay, given all that, where do you put Cruz Dillusha? Under Jones Cormier. Jones Cormier, to me, is still the one that I absolutely have to see again, and this one would be second behind that. Second, so you don't even put Rockhold Wyman up there? Because that, to me, is, who. No, not to me. Really? Really?

Yeah, I like this fight better than that one. one. So this is second. That one's third though. Rockhold. I'm surprised you put Jones Kormier so high because we've seen it already and it was 401. The storyline is significantly important here. But here's the thing. Believe it or not, I'm excluding storylines right now. Because let's be honest, Dillishaw Cruz, as great as it is, it will not sell that many pay-per-views. It will sell more than Dillishaw, probably more than Berao Dillishaw, if they put that rematch on pay-per-view like 186 or whatever. Dillard-Cruz is the very best that they could put on.

So forget about story, forget about grudge match, forget about all that. Just fighter versus fighter, style-wise, I think it's up there. My order doesn't really change. Really? Because I, you know, I've made a case against Daniel Cormier, you know, as the true champion or whatever the case may be. I still think he, you know, if John Jones was not around, he would be champion, which he's proven. and I also think he could be championed at heavyweight. So those two combined are probably the best fighters we'd have in any of those matchups in Cormier and Jones.

And then you could do a toss-up with Rockhold and Weidman and T.J. and Dominic. So my order doesn't really change much if you take out the storyline. But when you add in the storyline, that one's number one by far, Jones and Cormier. To me, it's a three-way tie for first. Aldo McGregor, Dillard. Cruz, Rockhold Weidman. Those are the very best that they could put on. Maybe you're eliminating the story and Aldo McGregor still is that high? Absolutely.

I don't think so. The biggest threat by far to Aldo's thrown, a guy who's a great striker who, of course, there's some questions, but I don't think Aldo's really going to try to take him down. And if he does, how does he do against him? Oh, I mean, yeah, of course. That one doesn't intrigue me stylistically as much. The storyline a lot. Okay, Hennon Barrow.

Just to put a bow on that, Dilloshaw Cruz is really amazing stuff. It's a great thing. I mean, it's better than great, in my opinion. Everybody seems certain he's going up and wait. This is Henan Borough. But his friend Jose Al do is the champ there for now. How many wins would it take Barow before there will be an awkward situation for the featherweight title where the champ is a teammate of the number one contender?

I think he needs to not worry about that right now. Just get your career back on track. You know, I don't want to dismiss the Gagnon win, but I think most people thought he wasn't as dominant. He didn't look as impressive as he did when he was champion. I think Chuck Mindenhall put it really well before the fight. If you read his pre-fight article just talking about, you know, it's time for Hennon Brow to step up and prove to us that he was really that great.

I mean, he brings up one of those things that's classic hindsight 2020. It's classic Monday morning quarterback. But you start looking and dissecting his record. And it's like, okay, what was he really doing for nine years? What was he really doing in those 35 fights in which he was unbeaten? Oh, wait a minute. What was he really doing in those 22 wins? Yes, you have to.

Wait a minute now. The wins he has in the UFC. Wins in the UFC? Fantastic. But I'm just saying what we were throwing out there was this is on par with Fador Emilienenko. This is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, which, by the way, I never bought into. Not with John Jones around.

Fedor's got some ones on there that you could point to the same way. Fedor's got some wins on that record that you could point to the exact same way. Not as many. Not as many. Look at it. my point is he just needs to get back on track. He just needs to do what's best for him. And if it means being a little stronger, healthier at 1.45, when you look at him,

look, another anecdote for you. I was at the Open Workout on Thursday, and it was at the UFC gym. And let me tell you something about this gym in Chicago. It's a very nice gym. The turnout was great. It was a fun scene. I love the fact that Paul Felder asked to be there. It was great.

One negative? It was freaking boiling there. We were all sweating. That's why, in my season, CM Punk interview, his dog kept licking my arm because I was so sweaty and salty and sticky. I was sweating like a madman. And the only guy, the only guy, and like I wasn't even doing anything, I was just standing there. The only guy that wasn't sweating at any point in the cage during his scrum, during his one-on-ones,

the only guy that wasn't sweating was burrow. He just was not sweating. And this is 24 hours before the wands. And everyone was kind of like, why isn't this guy sweating? A sign of a dehydrated person is you just stop. You know, you've heard this before. You just stop sweating. Your body stops producing the sweat.

There's no more liquid that can come out of you. I think he's doing himself with disservice at this point by fighting at 135. So go to 145. Get your confidence back. Get back on track. Who knows? Forget about Aldo. Forget about the belt.

Just get back on track. I'd like to see him do that. I'd also like to see him take a little bit of a break. He took some big shots. I mean, that final sequence, 27 unanswered significant strike. up against the cage. That was brutal stuff. He complained a little bit,

but that was the right stoppage. Totally the right stoppage. I don't think any of this is fair to Henan Burrell. Why? Being beaten up by T.J. Dilleshaw. Things change. And the only person to do this, let's remember that.

But things change. Once you take that damage, things change. But so, but we have to see him against somebody else. We put him in there against somebody else, and he won. He finished them. But what did everyone always say

when he was champion that if if if aldo moved up he would move up like this is not like I don't think he's big enough but um I don't think that this is a move that needs to be done we he he he I think he's fine at this weight class now certainly I'm not arguing that he shouldn't be cut it wouldn't be it wouldn't be better for his long term health to be cutting less weight but at the same time I don't think that we can close the door on Hennon and Barow being a top uh bantam weight at this point we just need to. He's number three behind those two guys that we were just talking about. So if he's number three, then, and we haven't seen him versus Cruz yet, I don't think that, you know, this talk of him going to 145 is necessary. Let's see what happens. I think he's fine at 135 as long as he can continue to make the weight, and he made it for championship weight in this fight. I think the rush to push him up to 145 is based on him getting, you know, know, starched, getting, you know, beaten decisively by T.J. Delishaw, but almost anybody who stepped

in the cage with him would have gotten beat just as badly. I think we need to pump the brakes on that. Certainly, you know, weight cutting is a serious issue, but if he can get a handle on it, I don't think that he needs to go up to 145 yet. Okay, forget about the health, forget about how he looks, the weight cut, all that stuff. When you lose to the current champion twice, typically, it's time to make a move because you're not going to get a third crack. In my opinion. So the alternative is going to chased the belt that is held by your teammate? No, no, no, it's not about chasing the belt at this point. It's just getting back on track, like I said.

He could get back on track at 135. Same way. But same exact way. He's in that Joseph Benavides, Uriah Faber, Chad Mendes spot. Misha Tate, right? Misha Tate, yeah. And she's getting that crack. But, you know, let's be honest, there's no one else.

135's not stacked? Yeah, I don't know. By the way, Michael Carroll telling me that it was, in fact, 22 unanswered significant strikes in that final barrage, not 27. We said 27 on the post-fight show. In fact, the accurate number is 22, so that's from the guy at Fight Metric that would know this sort of thing. 24 for the round in total. Way too many, regardless.

But I don't think he needs to go up. That's my opinion. Next question, right on the same subject, or on a similar subject, Rousey versus Misha Tate 3. Are you interested in Rousey versus Tate 3 at all if Ronda wins? It's interesting that they put if Ronda wins because everybody, you know, so far has seemed to think that's a foregone conclusion. I'm finding it hard to get into the fight considering how one-sided the first two fights were. I know there's nobody else to put in there

except maybe Holly Holm. This kind of situation could even put pressure on a cyborg. Okay. Before I specifically answered this question, I do want to clarify that I feel to a degree it could be viewed that I was being disrespectful to Bechko Hea earlier

in the show, like dismissing her. But again, remember that everyone's saying, I'm just going off of what the people are saying in particular, Rhonda, that she's going to let this fight go longer, that she's going to dictate the length of the fight. So I don't want to just say, I mean, I'm traveling to Rio to cover this fight. If I thought it was a circus and she's just going to finish her in five seconds, it wouldn't be so keen on it. But I really truly want to see Rhonda in a setting like that against an opponent like that. I mean,

I don't want to be disrespectful. Anything can happen in this sport. Anyone can win. They're in a cage, small gloves. So I just want to sort of put that out there in case. someone was, you know, getting a little confused or can misconstrued what I was trying to say. Before we go off that, actually, on that pre-fight show, you were talking about the biggest upsets. Yeah. You had a list there. Yeah. Where would this one rank if it happened?

This might be it. This would be over Sarah GSP over... I think so. What do you think? That's a great question. It'll be humongous. I think it would be number one. I think it would be.

And I'm happy we're saying this right now because if it does happen, you know how everyone's like, this is the greatest event ever. This is the great... Like, this is what we do every time now after you. UFC. But honestly, as I think about how dominant Ronda, what are the odds? I have them right here. Do you know them? I don't have them offhand. Okay, so Ronda is a minus 1,300. Betch-Koha is a plus 1190. Is that the biggest ever? It's not the biggest ever, but it's very big. Biggest for Ronda? No, because I mean, I believe, like, Little Nog was like minus 1,800 over So could you. Like, there's been bigger, but. But maybe not for Ronda. Not for Ronda, maybe, maybe not for a championship fight.

I think it would be the biggest upset ever. I think so too. Okay, let's move to the actual question. Back to the question. Am I interested in that third fight? I'll tell you this. Before going into Saturday night, I was not. I thought Jessica I would just present a new challenge, a new face for Ronda Rousey.

And then when Misha Wan, I was like, all right, well, this is going to put more pressure on the UFC to finally make that cyborg fight. I used to be of the thinking that, look, it has to be for the belt. I don't like catchweight fights for a champion. I just don't like it. I like it to be for the belt, and we'll see who's the best of that way. Now, let's just make the fight. It's the biggest fight by far for both women. It's one of the biggest fights the UFC could put on, period.

If it has to be at 140, just make it at 140. Test the crap out of her. Just make sure it's clean, it's kosher, and let's make it happen. Let's get it on. So I was thinking that, all right, Misha wins, opens the door, but they seem to be, at least right now, maybe this is negotiation. Who knows, but things change. We know that.

on Saturday they seem pretty adamant that Misha is going to get a crack at Ronda, of course, if she wins. If Betch wins, they have to do an immediate rematch. So this is what I'm going to say. So then Edmund comes on the show, and just his tone and his demeanor and his delivery, I'm a sucker for that stuff, and I kind of want to see it. I mean, is this such a bad alternative, to be honest? It's not a bad.

Take versus Roussey. It's a money-making fight. It's a, you know, we're already counting out Betch-Koheja or, you know, Most people are counting out Betch-Koheia. How is this any different? Just count Tate out again if you want. You're going to count everybody who goes up against Ronda Rousey is going to be counted out again. Why not have somebody with a history, why not have somebody who, you know, has essentially

to this point earned the right to be back in that title picture. So I don't see this as, you know, people are poo-pooing it or some people are. I don't really think that this is such a bad alternative. I'm okay with Tate versus Rousy 3. Other than Cyborg, it's the most lucrative fight that they can put on for Rondraussi by far. Ronda Rousey has created this by being such a dominant champion. But I just feel like we saw it, and not that long ago, by the way. It was like a year and a half ago.

Yeah, I'm still okay. The dark horse, the person to look out for that no one's talking about is Giuliana Pena. She's not there yet. Wow. One or two wins, but that's a very sellable fight because there's some history there. And yes, people have been pushed a little too soon. But she's pretty darn close, in my opinion. Whether or not that's a good thing for her, I don't know, but we've seen in some of these divisions, people get pushed a little quicker.

She's after, you know, Tate Cyborg, she's the one. She's the only one, really, that Rhonda hasn't defeated. Joe Lozon and walking away from Gomi, what was your take on Joe Lozon walking away, on the Joe Lozon walkaway finish, rather? I thought it showed Joe was all class. Also, Gohmi is a legend, but is it perhaps time he dropped down a level in competition, in your opinion. Also, before I answer this question, I just say, I appreciate James. Glory so much, the guy who asked this question. I mean, I truly, truly love this man. And he is so positive and so supportive of us in this show. And MMA fighting in general, I see him always popping up. I don't love reading the comments. But when I see this guy, and he usually has a way of writing his comments, so they stick out and also his picture, I truly, truly appreciate James Glory. So

that guy's the man. I wanted to mention that. So as I touched on earlier, it's not the smart thing to do. Technically, it's not the right thing to do. It's just the classy thing to do. And I thought Herb was a little late on this one because it was clear that Gomi was out. His body went a little limp. Major props to Lozon for just walking away. And I'll clarify what I'll say. It's not the smart thing to do from the perspective that the referee tells you beforehand. Don't stop until I tell you to stop. But it's kind of smart in the sense that you're essentially forcing the ref's hand. You're walking away and I'm like, no, I'm done, I'm done. And we've seen before, like with Polyaris celebrating against Dan Miller, with Cyborg against Chana Basler, a referee, and I believe Herb was involved in at least one of them, if not both.

A referee will tell you to come back. And you could see that he was kind of, you know, leaning in that direction. So you can maybe sway him and force his hand. Gomi standing up and was out, it was clear at that point. So kudos to Joe for just being an amazingly classy guy, a pro, the guy who's been there before knows what an outfighter looks like and feels like. It's really the best walkoff ever because he was right. I've never quite seen it go down like that before.

Different than a Mark Hunt walkoff. And, I mean, you know, it also looked like he was prepared to continue. Like, you know, he turned back toward it and was like, you know, what's going on, ready to kind of continue if he had to. But for sure, that was awesome. And a huge win. But, yeah, you know, nobody likes to see Gomi go out like that. Lozon has an amazing ability to kind of have a bad performance like he did against

Ali Quinta. what was happening on the feet there. He was completely outclassed and then come back and do something like this on a stage like this and no one remembers it. There's a reason he wins a bonus every time he fights. He makes it happen. He makes it happen. Did he get one on Saturday too?

I don't know. If he didn't, I'm sure the next one will be a bonus. But the point is unlike in boxing, it's very easy to erase bad losses and he does a great job of that. As for Gomi, I don't know, I think the days of fighting top tier guys

maybe over still a marked a boy. I saw him, by the way, in the elevator with Mizu, the legendary translator with a pen and all, and he's rocking the blonde hair. And I got to admit, kind of like when I see BJ Penn, like I get a little starstruck. I mean, these are legends, walking, living legends who have fought him pride for a very long time. He's fought for around 17 years now. So he is a guy that deserves our respect and attention. I just don't know if he can beat the best at this point. Now, while Lozahn was, I believe, the biggest favorite on the card because most of the other fights were relatively competitively matched, that was a winnable fight in the sense that if Gomi could have stopped the takedowns, you know, Joe Lozahn has been clipped before and has gone down before. So I think that, you know, this is just showing that, you know, Gomi needs to be fighting a lesser caliber of fighter because stylistically, this wasn't the worst possible matchup for him and he still, you know, did not look great. but kudos to lozahn he looked awesome and by the way he did not win a bonus joe lozahn

dilasha barbosa feldr luller all good choices uh luller versus condit hendricks versus woodley i've heard these fights are finalized and scheduled for december is this true has the uc confirmed that these fights are going down for december people are yeah they have not confirmed it they are not finalized it is the direction that they are leaning towards i believe jeremy botter of bleacher report was the first to report these on Twitter. That's the direction, and you've seen Johnny Hendricks come out and be a little upset. I don't think Woodley's all that upset.

Even though he beat Condit, it's because I think he recognizes, because, you know, after that fight he lost to Roy, and I think he recognizes that he needs to get one more win, and he really wants that Hendricks fight. I don't think he's upset. Obviously, Condit isn't upset. I don't think Lala would be upset. I mean, just stylistically, that's a very fun fight. But they are not 100% just yet.

It is the direction they're leaning towards, and quite, frankly, I don't know if it's happening in December. I've also heard November thrown out. I don't think Calgary is a done deal just yet. So I'm sorry to say, if you're in Calgary and are planning on attending a UFC fight on December 5th, that is not 100%. I wouldn't even say it's close to 100% at this point. A lot of things up in the air right now, a lot of different options, a lot of possibilities.

All I can say is these four fights or these four fighters in two fights. That is the latest what I heard, but things could change. How do you feel about those matchups? Well, it is a little weird that Condit is jumping over two guys that he lost to recently. You know, these days, title shots are given, you know, different circumstances, different things happen. Look at Gustafsson getting a title shot. As far as the best matchups possible, yeah, Condit Lawler is a lot of fun because we've never seen it. And, I mean, those guys, it's just, I hate when nothing pisses me off more these days when people say, like,

amazing violence, violence, violence. Like, it's everything that mixed martial arts and martial arts in particular should not be about. Like, I don't, I don't, I don't tune in to see violence. You know what I mean? I tune in to see great fights, technique, you know, that kind of thing. I don't want to see a car crash. And I always find a weird that people highlight the violence aspect of it.

It strikes me as a little bit weird. Maybe the terminology, maybe the semantics of the, of it are what's wrong, but is the violence, you know, there's no other way to describe what has. happened in Lawler versus McDonald. It was violent. And that's what made it so compelling. I think that if you try to sanitize it and remove that word or, you know, maybe that's not the word that would describe what you're, you know, appreciating about it, but that fight specifically stands out to me. And the violence is what makes it a compelling thing, in my opinion. Violence to me has such a negative connotation attached. Possibly. In all other walks of life,

violence is just a bad thing. No one wants violence. You know, no one strives to, be put in a position where violence is inflicted upon them. Now, I know that we're talking about cage fighting here. Yeah. It's just weird. Why can we just say that's an amazing fight? Sure. You know what I'm saying?

And while we're at it, because I brought him up, and I could just say to him to his face, but maybe he's watching, maybe he's not. I know sometimes he says the whole no pants thing is a little damn weird. I mean, I don't want to think that you're doing what I think that you're doing when you say that you're getting rid of your pants. Do you get what I'm saying? Do you agree with me on this one? I get what you're saying.

I think it's funny. I don't know. Why would you throw away your pants when you're happy? Can someone explain this to me? Jeremy Botter, can you explain this to me, please? Anyway, going back to the fights, yeah, I get why they want to make those fights. Rankings-wise, what they've done lately wise, it doesn't make all that makes sense. I love that tournament.

Like, it's a mini-tournament. I love it. I want to see the winners of those square off. No opinions allowed. Can anyone give a dissenting opinion about the Reebok deal? Shob gets his kit pulled. Stitch gets his walking papers, and I'm left wondering if anyone is allowed to give their opinion. well, let's quickly touch on Stitch.

I don't know if he actually gave his opinion as opposed to just stated facts. I mean, if you missed it last week and you're watching the show, I'd be surprised if you missed it, but Stitch Duran was essentially let go from his UFC duties because he did an interview with bloodyelvo.com

and he stated that he lost all sponsors because of the Reebok deal. There's nothing for the cut man. Now, I will clarify, from the conversations that I've had, I don't think it was so because of that bloody elbow.com interview. I do believe that there had been a series of incidents is the bad word, but you get what I'm trying to say,

the things that have come up between the UFC and Stitchdran, which this was sort of the last straw. And because the UFC hasn't really commented on it, I know Dana answered one question on the post-fight show, but it wasn't necessarily the reason behind the dismissal. It's hard to get both sides of the story here, But from what I heard, there was a series of things. That doesn't mean, you know, I'm okay with it.

That doesn't mean I think it was the right call. Of course I don't. Of course I think that he is a legend, the greatest ever at what he does. And it would have been nice if they disagreed with what he said, or if there were some issues that maybe, you know, he was put on the sidelines or something could have been worked out where they spoke to him. Don't talk about this, et cetera, et cetera. Let's figure it out because at the end of the day, what is stitch there for?

It's to protect the fighters. It's to protect their hands, protect their cuts, their faces, all that stuff. and he truly is, in my opinion, the best of what he does, and I kind of think an amazing human being, a great guy. Unlike some others who people wax poetic about and shower with accolades, I have never met a person who actually ever said anything negative about Jacob Siduran. He really truly is well-respected by everyone. So going back to his thing, in that interview,

I don't actually think he was criticizing. If you look at what he said, he wasn't even all that negative. He was just kind of stating the facts. He, in fact, said that he doesn't think there was any malice involved. what I understand, there was a conversation that was going to happen not too far down the line about rectifying this. Unfortunately, this happened for whatever reason. Very unfortunate.

That's the word I use. I know some people got annoyed about that, but that's the word I use. I really think it was an unfortunate turn of events. But I don't really think he was criticizing it. Shob has talked about losing money as well, and maybe he has Chris. Is that true? I get that from some people that his kit was taken out. Is that actually true?

I haven't really investigated it. I know at least initially. I'm not sure if that's the current status, but yes, I know initially that that was the case. I kind of feel like there's some issues with that website. You know, I think there were some people who said, like there's no T.J. Dillashaw championship kit. He was wearing one.

Thomas Lawler, Philip Brooks, a ton of typos. So I don't know if I could chalk that up to, you know, some punishment. And also, didn't Brandon Schaub say that he's taking a break? I don't know. That to me is nothing like the Stitch situation. So, I don't know. I kind of want, I don't know if there are any other questions about the Stitch thing, but it was obviously a huge deal.

It was a massive story. There was a lot of emotion involved, a lot of feedback, a lot of takes, hot takes, all that stuff. I wish that something could have been done because at the end of the day, regardless of what you think of the guy, he is really damn good at his job. And his job is to protect fighters, and I feel like that's the most important thing here. He prolongs careers. But, hey, again, the UFC is a private company. They can do what they want if they feel like this was a buildup of things

and they don't want to work with them, more proud to him. Thankfully, for someone like Stitchko's, he works with the Klitschko's, he works with a lot of top-line fighters. He's going to work with Andre Berto. If he gets that Mayweather fight, I don't know if it's official, whatever. But the guy is going to do okay because he has all these other jobs. And I know he's obviously been around for a long time, so he's not going to lose out all that much.

I don't know if the other cut men have that luxury. It's just unfortunate that the best of what he does isn't going to be there anymore for the number one organization. It sucks. I don't know how else to put it. Okay, this one specifically for me, so you can kick back. Okay. Andy Sauer revealed on the Dutch UFC on Fox that he's willing to fight MMA only in the UFC. As I notice, you watch kickboxing.

What do you think he would do? In the UFC, he got it if he could get a chance. And another kickboxing question, Glory, Walterweight champ, Nikki Holskine. that's actually not accurate. The vacated belt is on the line August 7th. Challenge Paul Daly to a fight at Bellator Dynamite event. Paul immediately responded and accepted to fight him for the glory, Walterway belt.

What do you think of this match? So first thing, Andy Sauer, obviously an amazing kickboxer. Obviously, you know, in the striking department, does not need help in that regard, would fit right in on the feet. But the thing about Andy Sauer and pretty much anybody who's a top-level kickboxer getting into MMA is going to be the takedown defense. If that's there, then I think he'll be very, very successful. But that's the same thing that you have to worry about with Daley.

That's the same thing you have to worry about with Spong. All the high-level kickboxing guys, when they transition to MMA, it's all about can they keep it standing? And can they adapt? And then Paul Daly versus Nikki Holskin. And again, Raymond Daniels is fighting Nikki Holskin for the belt on August 7th. So he may be the champion at that time. Either fight there.

Paul Daly versus Nikki Holskin or Raymond Daniels versus Paul Daly, those would be some incredible matchups. So I'm excited about where kickboxing is going right now. And, you know, Bellator is getting into the fold as well with that co-promoted event with Glory. And now this is the last one from the website, Ariel, give a little insight into the personality dynamics of everyone on the post-fight show panel. specifically how irritated is Brian Stan with Cormier's personality. How fun is it to dish out verbal jabs to the 205 pound champ? You had some really sharp zingers. And how long they've been using,

and how long have they been using that cool 360 matrix-like effect? I thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen on MMA coverage. Okay, I had so much fun doing this. Of course, I would ask you what you thought of it, but I know you didn't watch. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I did watch it, my friend. You were very open with your,

with your viewing, which leads, I mean, it's obvious, leads one to believe that you were not watching, because when someone's so open about doing something, it's clear that they're overcompensating for the fact that they're not actually doing what they claim to be doing. Don't reveal your own Twitter secrets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep those in the bag. In any event, I had a great time. I thank them for the opportunity and the crew is really fun to work with. I really appreciate everyone.

It's just, it's an incredible rush. afterwards you're like you're buzzing like like no other it's it's a lot of fun wait keep the questions up there I have to remember what they said I just wanted to give that as as the backdrop here so it's it's a lot of fun and I hope to do it more anyway as for that 360 thing there's actual name for it I don't remember I think this was the first time they used it it's super cool if you haven't seen it

really show a highlight they can actually twirl it around and you could see it from all angles really really cool stuff And it would be cool if they use that during a fight. Imagine that, like in between rounds or something like that. I don't know if they could turn it around quick enough, but that would be super cool. Stan and Cormier, beef? No, not at all. They have a great working relationship.

I think they're amazing together. They compliment each other very well. Stan, you know his strengths, you know his style, his personality, and you know everything about D.C. It's a great duo. I really love working with those guys. and you know, I just like to... DC loves to get under everyone's skin. I mean, the guy is unbelievable backstage

in the trail and everything, and he never stops. He's just ripping on everyone. So when I saw Dillashah there, it was an easy one. By the way, he had an easy comeback, a very easy comeback. He could have said that Dill Shah's not the real champ, right?

He could have easily said that because of Cruz. But, you know, when you get dropped with a shot like that on live television, and obviously you don't know how to respond. But it's a lot of fun. I love the dynamic, hope to do more. And, you know, Pettis kind of knew at it,

but I thought he got a lot better as time went on and a lot more comfortable. It's tough to do it live. You've got a lot of people talking in your ear and all that, but it's a ton of fun. Again, I'll say that. And I appreciate the crew helping me out and making the show as good as possible.

Okay, I'm going to read this one from Twitter. Then I'm going to call up our guests. Any thoughts on the HBO MMA domestic violence special? Wow. Well, that's a heavy-duty one. So Tuesday night was, super heavy duty because in the span of like an hour, the stitch thing happens, and then this thing airs. Now, I will preface this by saying I used to work at HBO Sports and I used to intern

at real sports. In fact, one of my first things that I ever got to do in 2003, I was sitting in the intern room and they pop in a tape of Rottie Roddy Piper and I'm wondering why are they looking at this at HBO and they were doing that story about wrestler deaths. And I got to go to to WWHQ at the time it was WWF, I think. No, it was WWE. And I saw when Vince McMahon hit the papers that arm and contains hands, it was super intense.

It was a great learning experience because I got to work on that wrestler death story. Very depressing, but a great learning experience for a young kid not yet out of college. They are incredibly good at what they do. They are incredibly talented. They are thorough. They do it all right.

It's one of the best shows for sports journalism, by far. It is the best. in my opinion. And I thought, for the most part, it was a well-done piece. It was tough to watch. It was disturbing. It made your stomach feel weird, in particular for me. The most heartbreaking part, to a degree, I mean, the Christy Mac stuff, I mean, the whole

thing was just was hard because you love the sport and just as a normal human being. Listening to the 911 tape, Christy Mac and War Machine was very disturbing. Seeing, you know, the Mayhem interview was quite bothersome as well. to say the least. I didn't like the fact that they used a clip from our show. I don't want to be affiliated with any of that. It's just unfortunate, again, sad, depressing, all that stuff.

I had no problem with any of it, journalistically, ethically. The only part that I was bothered about was when they compare MMA to the NFL, it's not really apples to apples. You have to compare the UFC to the NFL, or at least to put UFC, Bellator, you know, World Series together if you want.

The UFC, if there's not enough fighters involved, UFC, Belator, WC, strike, if you want to use that. But to say, MMA versus NFL is not accurate, because who are you using in this MMA pool? You know, using guys who are 1 in O who did something, you know, horrible, horrific a couple of years ago,

you know, who were we using here? So that, to me, felt like the only thing where I could, you know, really pinpoint as being off. But if you're going to zero in on that, you're really missing the point because they are they are talking about specific examples, specific, frightening, horrible, criminal, disgusting examples. There's obviously an issue. There's an issue with all the people discussed, and there's an issue with many more not discussed.

And everyone who said, well, why aren't they talking about boxing? Why aren't they talking about the NFL? They are. They do. You don't watch this show. This was a segment, a 20-minute segment on MMA. It's not on the history of domestic violence and sports. There were other stories that night as well on the show.

So you're missing the point. You're just turning a blind eye to a very serious subject. If you're just going to zero in on the fact that they didn't talk about boxing, which they did mention Floyd Mayweather and the NFL, which they did mention in the piece. But this was a story about domestic violence in MMA highlighting certain horrible, horrific examples as of late. How is that the complaint? How is that the excuse used to,

to just ignore what was being reported. It was fine reporting, in my opinion. And if you're going to ignore it, then you're doing a disservice to the sport that we love. And I think, quite frankly, the UFC has done a much better job, and they should be commended than it. There was an easy out for them,

and they put a statement. I can understand why they don't want to be interviewed for something like this. But I think what they've done lately with Rumble Johnson and Michael Johnson and Tiago Silva, they've certainly put their foot down. Will Chope wasn't even brought up in the story. So there's a couple holes there,

I think the UFC should be commended. I think that Bellator should obviously say that this regime wasn't the one that rehired or hired war machine to begin with. It was the old regime, and they got rid of him rather quickly. I think the UFC right now is doing their best to clean up things from PEDUs to this stuff, domestic violence. So, you know, times are changing, and that's what we should want, and that's what we should strive for. And that's the takeaway. It could always get better. Hopefully it will get better.

But I think it's a story worth telling. That's kind of my take on the whole thing. Sorry, it was heavy-duty stuff, but let's go now to our last guest of the day. He was probably patiently waiting throughout that little rant there, but I had to get to it through it out there before my last interview here. Very excited to talk to the man who will hopefully be fighting T.J. Dillishaw soon rather than later. The uncrowned champion, the king without a crown. Dominic, are you there?

Who about Ariel? Thank you for the time, Dominic. I almost called you Donovan Tar. How about that? You know, Donovan, I would never, ever in a million years compare you to Donovan Tarr. You are on a whole other level, my friend. Thank you for the time. What did you make of T.J. Dillshaw's performance on Saturday?

T.J. did what he needed to do to beat, you know, Borough. I think stylistically, nine out of ten times Dill Shaw beats Borough, no matter what, just because of the style matchup, you mean, Delshaw knew what he needed to do to offset a conventional counter-striking Brow. And he did it. So he did his job to look sharp on that night. Do you think this win, this second win for Dill Shal over Brow

signifies the fact that Brow should move up? Are you seeing something in his game that's telling you that this guy is hurting himself by fighting at 135? No, I don't see that. I think he'll be very successful. I think that I think that the sports, evolving and the guys who aren't choosing to evolve with the sport are getting beaten. I never thought Burau was as good as everybody said he was, but I couldn't say that because

I've been on the sidelines, and Dana White was preaching about him like he's, you know, the next Jesus's incoming. So you just kind of got to hear what Dana says and let him say what he wants about people to build the 135-pound division. With me gone, let's face it, they needed to build anybody they could in that slot. Burow was the guy that needed to be built because I wasn't there. and then when TJ came up, now he's the guy that's got to be built

because I'm not there. That being said, the division's just been trying to strive and build with me gone. Now that I'm coming back, it can get back on its feet again. That's the truth. Which TJ impressed you more,

the one at 173 or the one on Saturday, because he fought a different fight, right? He did not. He did not. He did not fight a different fight. He fought the exact same fight. The only difference is DJ is getting more comfortable figuring out who he is.

The truth in this whole matter is T.J. didn't know he was a champion until he beat Barrow. Then he beats Barow and says, wow, I'm a champion. I didn't know that. Then he goes on and he beats Joe Soto. Then he's like, oh, well, maybe I do belong here. Then he goes back and he beats Barow again. Yes, I belong here.

So what's happened is you saw the first fight with Barrow, and then you saw transformation in Dilshal where he's starting to move into his position as champion, starting to believe it into himself, getting comfortable in his own skin out there. you know, doing some shellboating, listening to Bruce Bucer say his name, all that stuff is getting comfortable in his own skin. And that's what made the fight look different. It was not the style at all or the way that he fought at all. It's just his comfort levels in there, I believe.

But did you think he moved a little less? He switched stances a little less. It felt like he was a little more uniform in that sense. He fought more, he fought in his South Paul stance more than anything. But what won this fight was the race. Barrow's never willing to race. Once he gets hit, he's looking for that big counter shot because he doesn't want to step in and get hit again when he's trying to be offensive. Every time he tried to be offensive, Dill Shaw wasn't there, so frustrated

Tend to miss. Then when he starts missing, Dill Shal's up and starts looking for counters because he knows if he counters Dill Shaw, he knows where he'll be. The problem is, you can't counter somebody who faint and who switches stance because after they faint in a conventional stance

and then switch to South Paul, now the counter that you thought was there when you're fighting a conventional fighter has now switched to South Paul, so the counter you were looking for is no longer there. That kept Hennon-Barrell completely offset the whole fight, and that will always work against Hennon-Barrant, no matter who you are. What's it like watching a T.J. Dillishaw fight in 2015 or late 2014 alongside Dominic Cruz. Are you like, this guy's biting my style? This is the junior me. How do you react to what you see in his fights? I see absolutely no similarities between my fighting style and T.J. Del Shaw's. And the reason I say that is we do different things. He's switching stance and I'm not. I'm doing something totally different that nobody understands. I don't know if you remember this, Ariel, but you could have watched my fights and listen to the commentary on my fight four years ago. And when I was doing things, it was awkward, herky jerky, never seen before. It was just weird. I got this weird. I got this weird.

style, it doesn't make sense. Now four years has gone by. People can get a degree in four years. So the game has changed in the last four years. Now you're hearing the commentary of T.J. Dill saw moving his feet, using faint and switching stance. And instead of being awkward, different, and weird, it's beautiful to everybody else. So the point is, the sport is evolving.

People are starting to see the use of switching stance, the use of faints, the use of angles, the use of moving, the use of amazing people miss, the use of footwork. That's happened over the last four years since I've been out. Now, my style is being appreciated. When I go out there, people will see T.J. Dilshaw is nothing but I want to be. And I look forward to going out there and proving that I'm the best in the world. I'm in an extremely awkward position, Ariel, where you can only talk so much and only be so confident on the outside where people are going to listen to you when you can't go out there and compete. So there's only so much I can really say, you know?

I have to sit on my words right now. I have to sit on my hands because I'm injured. And that's all you ever hear from Twitter. Yeah, keep talking, Dominic, as you sit on the sidelines. You're nothing but a hurt individual. These are the things that people are saying. So this is the way that the general public is thinking when I talk. That being said, I'm very careful with the words that I choose

because I can't go in there and compete quite yet. T.J. Dilschaw is out there competing. So kudos to him for staying healthy and be able to, being able to keep the division rolling. When I come back, you know, the real fights are going to get started, and people are going to see what this division is really capable of with me as the champion. How difficult is it to hear people say, oh, he's like Dominic, to hear people say, oh, you know, stop talking, you're injured,

to see T.J. walking around with that belt now, defeating Brow. People saying he's the best band to win in the world. How difficult is all this? Really, I don't really take much advice, or I don't really take much advice. or I don't really take much, like when people make a statement about me or when people make it a comparison, they don't know what they're comparing. Like I said, four years ago when I used this style, nobody knew what it was. I had coaches, I had Joe Rogan, I had all these people saying that it was just awkward and weird. Now it's a style because T.J. Dill Shaw took faint footwork and switching stance from the style that I created.

Those are the only three things he took from it. now it's now it's become something that's respectable so i got to say it's a good thing tj went out there and kept fighting and kept getting famous and kept winning because now when i come back i have a match i had cleaned out the division four years ago yeah completely cleaned it out and it hasn't changed aerial the division really has not changed much your i favor could have the title right now but he's scared to fight t j and get beat by him so he's just going to stay in that miscellaneous floating area and then you have uh also in South who's hurt. So really, it's just in Borough and TJ that are there to fight. I haven't

fought those two, but other than that, I've beaten almost everybody else in the division, or they've dropped to 125 pounds. So where do we stand right now? End of July 2015. When do you think you'll be 100% and ready to fight? You know, my goal right now, Errol, I'm feeling really good. I just literally finished my strength workout here at SSL with Gavin McMillan. I'm still working with him on my strength stuff for getting strong and stability. And I'm looking at me back with the new year. That's my goal. The new year is my goal. Either that first new year card or the one before it. If my knees got feeling good by then, then I'll push it back. But the truth is, I don't need to say it in the exact date because I have nothing that I need to hold up on.

You know, I'm not the champion right now. Right. I'm not in the top five rankings right now. I don't have anything that people are waiting for to try to take from me except my fame. So when I come back, the only thing T.J. is looking for is my fame to bite off of it because nobody believes he's champion right now. I mean, they think he's good, but they don't believe his champion. And that's why they couldn't sell the fight in Chicago. The gate was terrible in Chicago with Hennon Burrow and T.J. Dilsall. They couldn't sell it. One, they knew that it was a perfect matchup for T.J.

Two, they know that T.J. is just using things that I've used to be successful. He admitted that. and three, they knew that that was a perfect style matchup for T.J. against Hennon Borough to give him another win under his belt. If you look at the wins that T.J. has had, he doesn't know if he's a champion in at Ariel. He has to fight me to believe that. The reason is he only beat Hennon Borow. That's the only guy in the top five he's beaten. He lost to Ust and Sal. Austin Sal. Souton's in the top five when he lost to him. He lost to John Docton when John

Docton was in the top five. And now he's only beaten Hennon and Barra. Then he beat Joe Soto, who's now, I think he might be, is he even in the UFC anymore? Well, he did lose his last fight, but I don't know if he got cut. There you go. So that's my point. He hasn't fought anybody to be a champion. T.J. Delschaw still needs to fight somebody as good as me to even believe in himself.

He has no clue what he's facing. And he has no clue what a championship, what it is to face a real champion because he got given the opportunity for me being hurt. Kenyon was already an interim belt holder. And then he beat the interim belt holder to think he's champion. I don't think so. He's lucky I've been hurt. I asked T.J. about you on the post-fight show.

I want to play you what he said and get your response, okay? Okay. Here it is. Are we going to see you versus Dominic Cruz next? Is that what you want? Because he was tweeting about it tonight. As long as he stays healthy, you know, I mean, I don't know if he can. You know, I mean...

You're worried? Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, he keeps training. He keeps getting injured, but... Tell him. Tell him. He'll see. Come on, Dominic. He'll that chicken leg up and let's get after him.

Wow. But is that the fight you want in a perfect world? Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, he's the guy that used to be the champ and went out on top due to injury, and I definitely feel that I could beat the guy. You know, I'm a lot more of a harder hit. He likes to footwork, but I'm going to hit him a lot harder.

You know, I'm going to beat the guy out. What did you make of that? Well, I mean, he can stay all that. That's the same stuff that everybody said. What did Faber say? He doesn't hit hard. I'm going to beat him up. I'm going to cut him off and he didn't do none of that.

What did Scott Jorgensen? say. I'm going to out-wrestle him. I'm a better D-1 wrestler. He doesn't hit hard. I'm going to cut off the cage and beat him. What did Joseph Benavita say? I'm going to switch stance. I throw switch kicks. I'm going to throw high kicks. I mix in my wrestling. I've got a good Bucine. I'm going to commit him, and I'm going to knock him out. What

is Demetrius Johnson say? I'm going to keep him moving backwards. I'm going to cut off the cage. I'm going to keep moving. I'm going to knock him out. He doesn't hit hard. What's T.J. Dilschaw saying? I hit harder. I'm going to knock him out. He thinks he's champion. He's not. It's all the same stuff, Ariel. This guy doesn't even know what he's talking about. He learned the style that he's won a championship with

by watching me fight. He learned from me. Just like you see kids dunking the basketball with their tongue out trying to be Michael Jordan. You see T.J. Dillshaw trying to switch stance, trying to look like Dominique Cruz. That's all there is to it. He needs me to be who he is. The bottom line is, I make his career worth anything. I'm the only fight he needs to be worth anything. So he should be thanking me for being out as long as I have because of the giving him the chance to have a spotlight. Otherwise, he'd just still be the least of alphas at his team alpha-fail team. After he loses to me, he will be basically the alpha male of team alpha fail.

I will have beaten them all. I look forward to that day. So he can make fun of my chicken legs and he could sell this stuff, but I can't help injuries. Trust me, I'd much rather be stacking up money like he is fighting, you know, intern champions. But I'm hurt. I'm on the outside, giving him pointers on how to beat these guys on Fox Sports 1, and he's learning. So I look forward to getting in there and fight, Ariel.

And the truth is, I hit my hat to him because he's been able to get in there and keep the ball rolling at 135 pounds. But he just can't beat me, man. He just doesn't understand. He's never fought somebody who he can't hit. He talks about the power he has. I have 80% striking defense. I don't even know what his is. but I promise you it's lower than mine.

And that's going to be the difference in this fight is the fact that he cannot hit me, no matter what. Don't care how strong he is. He won't hit me. So I guess there's no need to ask you about Bang Ludwig saying earlier in the show that he's going to knock you out in the second round. No, it doesn't mean anything because Dwayne Ludwig is the same guy who told Benavita, just keep going forward on Demetrius Johnson. He doesn't sit down on his punches. He can't knock you out.

What happened to Benavita? Yep. He got knocked out. And that's because Dwayne Ludwig told him, don't worry about Demetrius Johnson knocking you out. Just go forward. He doesn't hit hard. Dwayne Ludwig could learn something for me.

I could be Dwayne Ludwig's coach. That's straight up. And so could Eric Delferro. So he is smart. The smartest thing T.J. Dilshaal ever did was leave Team Alpha Mail because he's not going to be able to do nothing with those guys. Ludwig already said that. He already told AlphaMail that.

They got all sad and started crying about it on Twitter. but I see the same thing that Dwayne Ledwig does, and that's what T.J. Dilschow sees also, and that's why he's not at alpha male training anymore. He's up in Colorado. Well, he is doing a little bit there, but I get your point. Yeah, so, I mean, that's what I'm trying to say is he's talking about that, but how do you knock somebody out who doesn't get hit?

Let me ask you this final thing. Perfect World. I've heard some theories thrown out, oh, you should get a warm-up fight, you've been out, this, and that. When you're 100%, you're 100%, you want the title shot, right? Of course. I fought Mizugakson when I came back after that.

I was out three years. I was two ACL injuries and a torn quad. Three injuries back to back to back. So after that, I just wanted to make sure I could get in the role of things. That was three years. This one has been nine months. You see, that's nothing compared to three years. This will be a cakewalk compared to what I went through before.

I eat ACL surgeries for breakfast, man. This is nothing. I'll be coming back, strong as ever, looking just as sharp as I did against music hockey, and I'll be winning my belt back. And when I win it, it's not going to be for me anymore. It's going to be for everybody who thinks that people are counting them out. That win is going to be for everybody who says, you know, you can't do something. Just all you have to do is believe you can do it yourself.

That's the only thing you have to do is just believe that you can do it. And then all everybody else says is just a bunch of crap. Dwayne Ludwig talking a bunch of nonsense about knocking me out. He doesn't know anything. Have you heard him on an interview? He's stuttering the whole thing. time. The guy's been hitting his head too much already. Well, the bottom line is,

these guys don't understand what I bring to the table. They don't understand the style I bring. They don't understand any of it. They think they do, but everything is a trap. I'm going to trap TJ, and he's going to get slept. Sweet Mother Mary. Wow. Dominic, I have missed you. I have missed this, Dominic. This is amazing stuff. I said earlier on the show,

this is the fight, this is the best stylistic fight that the UFC could put on, and it's one of the most interesting, fascinating fights that, you know, I mean, it just doesn't get any better than this. And now you've made me want to, I would pay all the money to watch this fight. Wow, you have just gotten me so damn excited for this. I wish we were January right now. Amazing. I love the fire. I wish you nothing but the best. I can't wait until you return to your 100%. As I said on the show, I'm praying to the MMA gods. Everything goes all well with you and that you can't come back and we can finally see this thing. Thank you so much for coming on. I know you're probably tired after PT.

really truly appreciate it and I wish you the best, my friend. You know, Ariel, I just want to say one last thing to everybody who, you know, agrees with TJ, agrees with all these guys saying, you know, Dominic's just going to get injured again. I can't control that at all. I'm working as hard as I can to be a world champion and I'm doing everything I can to make that happen. I'm training safe as I can and I'm doing everything I can.

So that's all I'm going to continue to do. I will get in there healthy and the bottom line is I always follow through with my word. If there's anything you can look back at throughout my career, it's when I say something, I do it. So keep a lookout, because I'm going to school T.J. Dilshawn. He's going to stay number two. Wow. Love it.

Thank you, Dominic. I appreciate it. Thanks, sir. Have a good one. Wow. Holy moly. Dominic Cruz. That was unbelievable.

I have never heard Dominic Cruz like that. Have you ever heard him like that? I'm just throwing that out there. Feel free to respond. I have never heard Dominic Cruz like that. That was unbelievable. See, the thing about Dominic is he can talk smack, he can say, but this guy is so smart, analytical, that when he talks smack,

he's also kind of breaking it down for you as well. He's not just saying, like, I'm going to knock you out, period. He actually kind of, you know, like he's just such a great mind, one of the very best as far as TV analysts are concerned. And he just, I mean, you just feel a lot dumber as far as your MMA knowledge is concerned, but it's just you just eat it up. I've never, I've been interviewing Dominic Cruz for a long time. I have never heard him like that before.

Is it January yet? Wow. Think about that buildup. Forget about the rivalry with Alpha Male. I mean, wow. Could you imagine watching a Dilashov fight and listening to the commentators compare him to Cruz, sitting next to Cruz, listening to that?

Wow. I don't even smoke. I've never put a cigarette to my lips ever in my life. I need a cigarette after that. Amazing. All right. Thank you to Dominic for doing that. Thank you to Leah for hooking it up.

She's the best. I love her. And I love that Dominic Cruz. That was a lot of fun. Are we done? We've run out of time. There's a UFC 190 conference call. Wasn't it like two quick Twitter questions?

Should we answer them very quickly? Isn't New Yorker live or has he gone on his trip? He's not there? He left. Where is he? Tell him to speak. That's it. They're kicking us out.

Why can't he just speak? I want to hear his voice. Outro. That's it. What is? Is the police there kicking us out? All right. Well, then hit my music.

I guess I have no say. They're kicking me out, friends. How about that? They have kicked me out after the interview to end all interviews. That was like Joe Lozon. That was like Joe Lozon walking off. Yeah, back there, they're Herb Dean. I decide when this show ends.

I call the shots around you. You don't call the shots, I call the shots. But all obliged. We have heard, we have done it all. We've seen enough. Call it off. Dominic Cruz just hit us with a knockout blow and holy moly walked off

better than Joe Loz on. That was incredible. What a way to end this show. Woo! Great stuff there, Dominator. Come back soon. Let's see that fight. let's get it going.

Forget about Aldo McGregor. I want to see that fight. All right, thank you very much to Bang Ludwig. Congrats to him. I'm still catching my breath. Thank you very much to Edmund Tarverdian. Good luck to him.

On Saturday, UFC 190, I'm going to Rio. Can't wait to have nine bowls of assay. Thank you very much to the new Tom Lawler. Thomas Lawler. Maybe that was Thomas Lawler. Thank you very much to Stefan Strove. Good luck to him on Saturday. UFC 190.

Thank you very much to Robert Follas. Congratulations. Thank you very much. to Manny Gamburian. Good luck. Wedding, nuptials, fight, all that stuff. Thank you very much to Jake Shields.

Best of luck to him on Saturday. WSOF number 22. Stay safe. And thank you very much to the one and only Dominic Cruz who just turned my world upside down with that interview. Thanks to all of you for tuning in,

sending in your questions. Sorry we couldn't get to all of them. Back Tuesday. Off Monday, back Tuesday. Same time and place. I'll see you after UF2 and 90. I'll take you. support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder

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