MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 299

Episode Date: September 28, 2015

Ariel Helwani speaks to Rafael dos Anjos, Rich Franklin, Scott Coker, Aljamain Sterling, Dan Hardy, Javier Mendez, Andy Main, and Dave Meltzer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, September 28th, 2000. And 15. Hogan, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani inside our New York City studio. So very excited about today's show around 48 hours, less than 48 hours removed from UFC Fight Night Japan. That was a fun event. It's always fun when the UFC goes to the Saitama Super Arena, legendary arena. You get to see the legendary translator, Mizu, doing her thing.

Without a doubt, pound for pound, best translator. That's my big takeaway, by the way, from Saturday night, Sunday morning in Japan. Also of note, Josh Barnett picking up his first win in 25 months. 25 long months. Of course, he had fought Travis Brown at UFC 168, lost, and then took a very long layoff, came back in a familiar setting and dominated Roy Nelson. I was talking to a friend before that fight and he was saying, oh yeah, Barnett's got this in less than two rounds.

And I think people still underestimate just how tough Roy Nelson is, especially now. He's pushing 40 and I know what Mark Hunt did to him, but it's pretty damn hard to either knock out Roy Nelson or even submit the guy. You forget about his ground game. But I think Saturday night in Japan really cemented the fact, at least for me. And I want to preface this by saying that I'm not trying to disrespect Roy Nelson at all.

I have the utmost respect for Roy Nelson, what he has accomplished. I feel heavyweight champion, tough winner, all that stuff. But I think he's become a gatekeeper. And I don't mean that disrespectfully at all. There are contenders, there are champions, there are gatekeepers. And he's one of those guys where, okay, if you put a heavyweight up. up against him, and he wins. If he beats Roy Nelson, all right, this guy's a player at heavyweight.

If he loses, he's not. That's what I mean by gatekeeper. You have to be very good to beat Roy Nelson. And if Barnett would have lost that fight, I don't really know what else they could have done with him. And he certainly would not have been a player at heavyweight. He won. He looked dominant. He looked svelte.

He looked to be an amazing shape. He beat Roy Nelson. Didn't finish him, didn't knock him out or submit him. I didn't expect them to. But he showed a lot. That post-fight interview was great. Loved hearing him on the mic, speaking Japanese, bringing over Roy. It was a great scene.

And, of course, the co-made event, Uriah Hall, shocking everyone, finishing Gagard Musassi, knocking him out the first time that has happened in Gagard's career. Shades of U.S. 53, my main man, David LaCroa Lozzo. Remember what he did to Charles McCarthy at UFC 53, spinning back kick, flying knee. It was almost the exact same thing. Uriah Hall's spinning back kick and knee. Those landed on Gaggart's face and Loazzo's were more to the body, but very reminiscent. Go back and look at it. I love that. What a big win for Uriah Hall. Finally steps up to the plate, delivers without a doubt the biggest win of his career. We have a lot to talk about.

out on this show. Of course, this Saturday, it's UFC 192. I was going over the card. And man, this is a great card. This is actually, I mean, if you look at every single fight on this card, interesting characters, prospects, contenders, big names. I love this card. I can't wait to be there. I'll be hosting, by the way, for FS1 all weekend long. Wayans, pre-show, post-fight show with Dominicruz and Brian Stant. So I can't wait for that. Of course, I'll also be there for M.A.-futting.com pre-fight coverage. So a fun week ahead. We have a lot to discuss. Let's get into it.

We'll take your questions and comments at around 345. So hit us up, as per usual. 325, late addition to the show, Rich Franklin, the former middleweight champion, just announced his retirement. He wrote a great piece on the Players Tribune, which is Derek Jeter's website. And I do suggest reading it very well written,

well said, as expected. Rich Franklin, one of the great legends of this sport, a trailblazer, if you will. New York, Rick and I were debating whether or not you can call him a pioneer, regardless former champion and a great representative of this sport. Someone that you could say, that guy is the face of my organization, be proud of it, one FC using him to degree in that same light. So he'll join us at 325 to talk about his announcement and his great career. 305, we're going to be joined by the Belator President Scott Coker.

Talk about Dynamite 1 and where they go from here. Dan Hardy just hit Rio. Remember, he was supposed to be on that ill-fated show around a month ago. He took part in the Clipper Round the World yacht race, and he was a part of Team Great Britain, and he just hit Rio. He's been on a boat for like a month, and he's going to talk to us about that experience. Can we for that? Andy Main, formerly of Tough 12.

fights NAM fan, our good pal NAM fan, for the King of Pancras Featherweight title this Sunday morning, Pancras 270, and that's on Fight Pass. Looking forward to talking to Andy Main, one of the best non-UFC featherweights

out there. Two of five, we're going to be joined by Hafeld Dosangos, who's all over the news. In particular, because of that Wheaties box over my shoulder, lightweight champion returns action in December. Aljamee Sterling has been very vocal as of late. We'll talk to him at 145, 125. We're going to talk to the head coach over at the American Kickboxing Academy. That is Javier Mendez, about Daniel Kormier versus Alexander Gustafson. I look forward to that. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and welcome in my colleague over at MMAFighting.com and, of course, of the wrestling observer newsletter, the one and only Dave Meltzer joins us. Dave, how are you?

I'm doing great. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Yes. Do you agree with me? 192 flying under the radar, but you look at every single fight on this card from the fight-pass prelims to the FS1 fights, pay-per-view, there's an intriguing aspect to every single one of these fights. Yeah, and again, like, you know, I always do an article, in fact, I actually was writing it right when we started this thing, where, you know, I kind of like digest what happened over the weekend and what mattered and things like that. And I'm already thinking about next week's matches because there are so many guys. You know, I always do it about five guys, and I'm looking at that card going, like, there's probably 10, 12 guys on that show that career paths are, going to change in some fairly significant form based on if they win, lose, and how they perform. And yeah, there's the main card, I think, is a really deep main card. You know, a lot of good matches

from the first matches with Jessica and all the way up. And they're not, none of the, to me, all the fights are interesting because I don't know, you know, I don't feel like I know who's going to win any of them 100%. Yeah, which fight you like the most? I mean, to me, the main event is a, is a real big one. I mean, I kind of am intrigued by the Hendricks and Condit fight because I think that a win by Hendricks, he really has to get the next championship fight. A win by Condit pretty much derails him. I mean, Woodley. Woodley. I mean, Woodley. Of course. And I mean, and that storyline of the fact, and you know, you and I have probably heard about this for years about that 2005 match in the Big 12 championships, Big Ten championships, whatever it was, where Hendricks won that very controversial decision

and Woodley's wanted him for 10 years. So that's a really interesting story right there. Cormier Gustafson's interesting because the winner perhaps gets John Jones or the Evans and Ryan Bader winner. We don't know which one. But they're also, so we've got that whole, I always like it when we have a weight class where there's a couple of key matches in the weight class. So when it's over, we've got an obvious direction.

That being said, I know you watched on Saturday night the telecasts from Saiton, I was very underwhelmed by the promo that aired a thousand times. Like, to play up the size difference between Gustafin and Cormier as the main selling point, seemed like you're really selling Daniel Cormier former. I mean, that one one, that one, that one, his trials and tribulations, way better than that one. I know it's longer, but I don't know, I think they could have done a much better job selling this fight.

Yeah, well, I mean, that's the funny thing you say. I love that other promo. Yeah. And they played it, I think they played it once. And the size thing, it's like, we've had size difference. And hey, look, unless it's John Jones, pretty much everyone that Gustafson's going to fight, he's going to be really tall, you know, next to it at that weight class. And Cormier's a little shorter than some of the guys.

You know, it's the same. And, I mean, I think that's what intrigues me in the fight, though, is the one thing is, the only guy who's ever beaten Cormier is John Jones. And a big part of that was the huge height and reach difference. And now he's going against someone with that same height and reach difference. So it's absolutely part of the strategy, but to be the main selling point, I don't think to the public, you know, we've got a six-foot-five guy against five-eleven guy. You know, that's not that unusual in fighting. No, and there's a whole lot more to this fight.

I know you can't talk about everything. You're not going to talk about the knockout and all that. But to me, that comeback story is intriguing enough for Gus of Stiff's. You throw in the storyline, if you will, that John Jones has his plea hearing tomorrow. All of a sudden, light heavyweight. I mean, they couldn't have scripted it better with that happening tomorrow, and I don't want to make light of that at all. That's real life. That's important stuff.

But for that to happen, you know, just five days before the title fight is, I think, great for the UFC. Well, John Jones returns going to be huge business, no matter which one it's against, whether it's Jones or Augustivson. I mean, we're a Cormeier or Gustafson, yeah. So, yeah, I feel a lot of stuff is all falling together this week when it comes to that division. ask you about Rich Franklin, this just happened, so I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, but he just announced his retirement. I think a lot of us were expecting this last fought in November of 2012 against Kung Lee. But when I say the name Rich Franklin, what comes to mind? You know, one of the early stars when UFC got television, I think he was a key player,

because I think he, you know, when we started, I think that there was this mentality about fighters, you know, that they were all thugs and this and that. And Rich was such a, you know, anti-stereotype of fighters, I think it was a great person to have in the UFC as a champion. He was middleweight champion very shortly after UFC got on spike. So he was the first middleweight champion most people knew. They saw the newcomers would have seen him win the title from Evan Tanner. And then, you know, until Anderson Silva came, he was the dominant guy. And I mean, when you look at his career, you know, even after the two losses to Silva,

most of his fights were either main events or very high on the card and almost all against big names. I mean, he, you know, he was, he was the classic utility guy. We've got a pay-per-view, we've got a big television special, and we need, you know, we need a main event. And Rich is always, from that first year as being champion, he was his name was always big enough to where he would be in the main event. And it didn't always do huge business, but it was a viable main event, no matter what. And he won some and he lost some. He won a lot more than he lost. And, yeah, he was a, I consider him one of the guys like Matt Hughes, who was a,

key to the building block of UFC when it first hit on television. I know you don't forget this, but I'm sure some do. I know for fact, some do. Some people seem to think that the main event of that first show was Griffin Bonner won, but in fact, the main event was Franklin Shamrock. So after that amazing fight, everyone's tuning in, ratings to grow up. You get to see Rich Franklin against a legend like Ken Shamrock. I think that helped them a little bit, right?

Oh, of course, it helped them a lot because you got to remember, Everybody knew Ken Shamrock from the old days of UFC and from WWF. And I think most casual people, I mean, I remember in a, I think it was Sports Illustrated. I could have the magazine wrong, but I don't think I do. And it was like a TV preview little thing. And it was like almost making fun of it, like the world's most dangerous man is fighting some math teacher. And I remember reading that going like, you know, the math teacher is probably winning this fight. You know, and, you know, because he was younger and, you know, and all that.

And I thought that, you know, the idea of that, and, you know, the Mr. Franklin TV commercials, I thought those were kind of cute in the early days of UFC in the sense of like Matt Hughes' country breakfast. That's why I kind of like kind of put those two together in the sense that those were characters that were made by television commercials right as UFC hit television on Spike. And, you know, that was when the thing started taking off. And who would have thought Ken Chamrock would actually outlast Rich Franklin because he fought just a couple months ago?

But I could see the UFC. I know he worked for, you know, one championship, but the UFC could use a guy like Rich Franklin in that sort of ambassador role. A great career. I'm looking forward to talking to him a little later on. I want to ask you about Saturday night. Josh Barnett wins.

First win in 25 months. What does that win mean for him? And do you agree with me that Roy Nelson is really the quintessential gatekeeper? And again, I don't mean that to sound, I don't want to be disrespectful, but it just seems like you put a guy in there against Roy Nelson. If you beat him, then all of a sudden,

all right, you're a player in this division. If you lose, you're not. And that's, and that's what I mean by gatekeeper. Yeah, I think that there's a line and there's guys in, in all divisions like that. I think Musashi is, is kind of in that role now. Yeah, good point. In a sense, you know, especially after that, the losing to Uriah Hall. But, you know, because I don't really see now Musashi in any thoughts of even one, two fights down the line of a championship fight, but still, you beat Musashi, you're a player. Yeah. And if you can't beat Musashi, you know, look, you're not going to, You're not going to be getting to the top guys, I don't think. And so I don't think you're disrespectful.

I think that's the role that the guy has, especially at the stage of his career. And Josh, it depends on where he goes next. I mean, I guess my gut feel is Andre Arlobski. Yeah. And I think that that's, and that's a fight, again, the winner, the winner at that point can be talked about in a pretty high level, and then the loser is going to be, you know, no longer in that mix, I guess. I think we might forget the fact that in around, oh,

less than a month, Rothwell-Miochich are fighting in Dublin. I kind of would prefer to see the winner of that fight Arlofsky and maybe have Barnett, since we don't really know about his upcoming schedule, he's doing a lot of coaching and movie acting, maybe have him fight if Mark Hunt can win, or even Bigfoot. They have that long rivalry. You know, I know that that fight is in a month and a half, but I don't know if Barnett should be in like a number one contender fight just yet. Well, I don't know that it's necessarily number one contender fight because we've got Dos Santos and Overeem. We've got other fights. But I mean, all of those guys are kind of like in the mix, in the sense that there's, you know, five, six guys waiting for the championship.

And I think that he can be with one more win, one of those guys pretty close to that mix. You could put him against Mears as well. Sure. You know, which would be, you know, so any of those guys are Rothwell, you know, the winner of that fight, you know, and there's a lot of different guys. Yeah, the first time he fought against Meir at 164, which was, you know, his last win. somewhat controversial, so I'm sure they could sell that as well. Are you a believer in him, though? Do you think at this stage of his career, given the fact that all these heavy weights are enjoying this revival and looking at his new body, which he appeared to be in maybe the best shape of his

career, do you believe he can actually be a player at heavyweight? Well, we know his ground skills are good enough to be a player. I think the big question, and with Roy, I mean, Roy was such a weird opponent for him because I thought he looked so good in that clinch boxing and knees and everything like that, But it was five rounds, and you look at it and go, well, he didn't put him away. But it's like, you know, except for Mark Hunt, who does put Roy away? Right. I mean, Roy is just so damn tough. If Roy wasn't so tough, Josh probably would have looked a lot more impressive.

So that's why I think that we need one more fight to have a judgment on him. I'm not sold on him right now as a guy, oh, you know, I want to see him in a championship fight. But I am sold on him in the sense that I want to see him against one more top guy who's not so ridiculously tough as Roy Nelson. and also perhaps faster than Roy Nelson and see what Josh can do against top level, you know, another top level guy that's different. Are you sold on Uriah Hall after being Gagar? Because, I mean, we can't forget the fact that he was losing that first round. Tremendous finish.

I mean, like I said, it reminded me of David Lozzo back at UFC 53 against Charles McCarthy. I'm just not sure if he is at the level of, you know, a Jaceret, a Romero, and, of course, the top two guys were fighting for the belt. but that's where I put Gaggard, like right beneath those guys. What do you make of Uriah Hall after Saturday? Yeah, yeah, I thought that Gaggard and Machita are, you know, right below the big four. Yeah. At that division.

And now, I mean, you know, it's one of those things where I watch that fight where I go, you know, if they fought 10 times, what would happen? Sure. Would Uriah Hall really win six? I don't know that he would. It was just like, it was an incredible move. Those things happen in M.A. It's one of the great things of M.M.A. But Am I sold that he's better than Gagga?

guard or that he's in the level of Machita, no, he's going to need a win over, you know, someone, again, I would see him as between, those guys between, like, say, six and ten, that he should probably fight one of those guys. And if he can beat them, well, then he's, then he's convinced me. But right now, I meant like, okay, you know, he's got to fight one more top 10 guy. And then we'll see if that was, you know, a fluke or not. I think a nice test would be someone like a Tim Kennedy, even Machita or even maybe a Michael Bisping who's fighting in November, they have some history as well. It was interesting to see the UFC back in Japan. They're trying to revive that market. No one knows it better than you. And this coming,

just a few days after, Saki Kabara coming on Spike TV, announcing the fate ordeal, I'm wondering from your perspective, can Saki Kabara revive that market? Do you believe that he has what it takes, given his history, his relationships with the networks and sponsors to do what it takes to revive Japan? Well, the two things that you need. Number one is you need the network. Yeah. So if he's got that, part of it. But the other one that you need, and this is the hard one, this is the really hard one. You need a Japanese guy. He doesn't have to be number one in the world, but they've got to believe that he's got a chance against number one in the world.

I mean, that's where Sakaraba was. Yoshida, I mean, Yoshida wasn't the greatest fighter, but the Japanese believed in him because of the gold medal in judo, and he had some big wins early in his career. And Kid Yamamoto, who was, you know, let's face it, at his peak, was one of the best, you know, whatever it was weight class that he was in, because I guess was originally 145, even though he now he's fighting 125 and he missed that show.

But, you know, his day is gone as far as being a top guy. Akiyama, who was another top star there, his day is gone as far as being a top guy. We need, you need the guy. Horiguchi was to me the best shot. He's only 24. The problem is I'm not convinced that he's going to be the flyweight champion or even, you know, a rival for the flyway champion. But that's the other thing that you need.

is you need a really charismatic Japanese guy who can be at the championship level. When the Japanese boxing really hit big, you had the Kameda brothers, and they held these various lightweight or really lightweight, you know, like 108-pound weight division. But they were in the world title picture, and that's where Japanese boxing revived. So you need – and that's the problem. I'm actually writing a story on it right that you brought up, and the whole thing is it's like we don't have that guy.

Horiguchi was the closest, and I thought he was the biggest native story. on that show, but he's not there yet, and Sakuki Bar won't have Horoguchi, so he's got to find someone, and that's the biggest obstacle. Is he really paying Fedor $2.5 million? That's the number going around in Japan. Wow. I haven't seen the contract, but yeah. Wow.

They've got, you know, they've got some big backers, at least for this first show, and we'll see. I mean, again, they need that network TV, and they need an intriguing opponent for Fador and get those casual Japanese fans to watch that thing on TV. that's the building block. If you don't have that, it's like you're just spending a lot of money for a show that's not going to mean anything when it's over. I understand there's going to be a press conference in the coming days where he'll announce everything, but are you hearing that he has partnered with any TV network yet? I haven't heard anything. I haven't, not a word, not, I mean,

you know, we hear the rumors of opponents, but nothing substantial. And as far as, yeah, TV network there, I haven't heard anything. By the way, what was your reaction when they brought out Fador and said he'll be fighting on tape delay on Spike TV, not for Belator, not for the U.S. UFC in 2015 or almost 2016. Were you kind of hoping, like many people as well, that we'd finally get to see him in the Octagon and it would be kind of the great end to his career, or do you understand why he did this? Money-wise, I understand.

I wish it went the other way, though. I was actually hoping for once that they would actually get him. You know, it's one of those things as a fan. It's a chapter that I'd just like to see is Fador in the UFC. It came really close several times. and it never happened. And this time, I thought, you know, there's really nowhere else for him to go, but there was somewhere else for him to go.

But it's a two-fight deal, right? Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, by the summer of next year, if, you know, Sakkibara's thing doesn't take off, again, then there's where else could he go? And if he looks good, you know, he can revive. And again, whatever it is, and there is something about this. The heavyweight division, unlike, you know, most of the other divisions, you get these guys in their late 30s, and I think it's because of the power, you know, the power's the last thing to go,

that they can still compete at the high level, whereas, you know, you get like a, I can't imagine us ever seeing a flyweight or abandon weight at 39 years old or 40 years old competing for a championship. I mean, maybe it'll happen. But in the heavyweights, I mean, look at the top guys. You know, with the exception of Kane, I mean, you know, and junior, I mean, most of the guys are 35 plus. Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at the top 15, Defen Struve is the only fighter under 30 in the top 15 of the UFC. So, I mean, I think that says a lot as well. By the way, go ahead.

That's amazing. But it also, you know, there's the flip side of that is that it tells me that a lot of, there's an opening. If you're a really super athlete who's big, you know, and wants to do this sport, and I know it's a super tough sport, there's an opening because, again, a super athletic heavyweight. champion, and the sport can make a lot of money. If you, you know, especially someone who was like a great heavyweight wrestler, who also takes up boxing at a young age. I'm thinking, like, if you're like a really big kid who's like 16, 17 years old and

you're just a killer high school heavyweight, you know, or national level heavyweight, take up some boxing or kickboxing because by the time you're 24, 25, I mean, look at this division. It's going to be wide open for a great athlete. By the way, what did you make of the dynamite ratings? I think everyone would say, A, surprising, B, disappointing, not what we have expected from the big tent pole events that Scott Coker has done for Spike TV since joining Bellator. What did you make of them? Yeah, I was expecting a lot bigger number, and then when you look at the match by match, I mean, the keys, they opened at a usual level, you know, of where they would have grown to this big number at the end.

I mean, if you look at like the King MoFite and what it did, it did equivalent to what the openers of these other tent pole events did. At the beginning of the show, it did have that base. What it lacked was the big fight that, and Tito Ortiz and Liam McGeeleyer just wasn't that fight. If you had Tito Ortiz against, I mean, I thought it was a very, a learning experience because it's like a guy like Tito, I mean, we already saw with Bonner that he can draw

in the right environment today. But what you need, you need to Tango and Liam McGeery, you know, one of these guys who's a Bellator champion that doesn't have a mainstream name, he's going to not bring in the mainstream fans. I mean, you're going to need those two main, you need the two stars against each other, and that's a tough thing because Belator doesn't have a lot of the Bellator guys.

And the 800,000, I mean, that's essentially your Bellator audience, you know, the audience that's going to watch a better-than-a-verage Bellator show. So you didn't have Josh Thompson, didn't bring it in, but again, he was against a name nobody knew. The tournament didn't for whatever reason. But, I mean, the key really was the Tito fight, just like the key in all those big Bellator shows is the main event. And you just didn't,

Liam McGarry wasn't that guy as good of a fighter as he is. That's the reality. Two last quick things before I let you go. Just curious, any idea as we pivot towards 192 this weekend? Any idea what 191 did on pay-per-view? And what are you hearing about 193 ticket sales? 193 is Australia.

Yeah, yeah. The record record record show. Are they doing... I don't have a number. I mean, I know you've seen, and I've seen the newspaper report there. I asked earlier in the middle of the week, and they said it wasn't sold out, but it was going to sell out. So they must be exceptionally well. As far as the buy rate, very low for 191.

You know, again, if it's 100, 135, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. It's in that range, though. you know, if I said 100 to 135, I think that we pretty much have it, yeah. All right. A wealth of knowledge, as always. Thank you so much for the time, Dave. Always love having you on. Appreciate the work and the insight.

There he is, Dave Meltzer of MMAfighting.com, and of course the wrestling observer newsletter. Tremendous stuff. I do suggest you check it out. Thanks, Dave. Okay, thank you. There he is. Dave Meltzer. Love having them on.

The guy knows it all. And it's kind of interesting. We're going from San Jose to San Jose here because Dave Meltzer, of course, calls San Jose home. these days, I'd love to go to Dave Meltzer's house and just see what he puts into that observer and newsletter, because if you've never held the thing, it's just, it's an amazing piece of work that he puts out each and every week, sometimes twice a week. It's incredible. So we go from Melters' home in San Jose to the head coach of the American Kickboxing Academy, which is also located in San Jose, California. Javier Mendes joins us right now. Haveyer,

how are you? Doing good, Ariel. How are you? Have you ever been to Dave Meltzer's house? No, I don't even know where he lives, to be honest with you. Okay, because I'm just curious. It seems like a very interesting place to visit, and you are next to each other. But anyway, no problem there. A big week for you, Javier.

You got another title fight coming up, and, you know, the last time I had you on, we'll get into this in a second. You were very confident going into the cane fight. Are you as confident going into this title fight? Cormier versus Gustafson? Yes. I'm very confident going into this fight. Why?

Daniel's did his work. He's had great sparring. He's in great shape. He's a good mental spirit. He's healthy. He's a better athlete. So some people are, you know, even the promo, it's all about the height advantage

for Augustuson, the disparity there, the reach, all that, and you think of the John Jones fight, his loan loss. Does any of that stuff concern you? How do you try to negate that? Well, you know, it's obvious, you know, everybody knows that you've got a shorter fighter,

and you've got the longer fighter, and the longer fighter knows how to use his weapons really well. You've got to get in the inside and work your inside. So it's no obvious secret of what we're going to do. What do we have to get in the inside? You know, we have to work, you know, with Daniel's strength there. Are you surprised that Gustafin is getting a title shot after being knocked out? I would normally say yes because of the fact you do lose

but the way this has been going, no. I'm not surprised at all. He's a bigger name. Yeah, but do you think it's your advantage? I mean, here you have a guy who's just knocked out and his next fight. Sometimes you like to get back in there, get your feet wet. His next fight is against an incredibly tough opponent,

one of the very best in the entire sport for the belt. Is that your advantage that you're getting him at this time? I'm not so sure, you know. He could come back stronger than ever because of what happened. You know, I'm not sure. It can come out weaker. I'm expecting a stronger distofferson. So I would say it's not to our advantage to get him at this time

because we've got a stronger guy in front of us from my view. I'm really curious to see how D.C. looks because I feel like a lot of people almost forgot just how good he was after the Jones fight and even him winning against Rumble. You know, there's always that talk that, yeah, he's not the real champion until he beats John. but it seems to me like we because of how he got the belt

everyone is quick to discredit him and you truly forget just how amazing this guy is how good he was at heavyweight how good he was at light heavyweight prior to meeting John I feel like in some ways he still has something to prove even though he's the champion you get what I'm saying? No 100% he does have something to prove

and by doing what I feel his to do to Gustafuson is going to show everybody why he is the best guy right now and why he should be the champion with the exception with Jones being out until he comes back, you know. Oh, definitely. He's one of the best in the world,

and he's proven it. I mean, nobody looks at the stats. If you look at the stats, he's never lost any rounds, except when he fought Jones. Everybody else, he beat every single round. Do you feel like he still doesn't get the love and credit that he deserves?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. He deserves more credit than what he's getting. He's getting some, but he deserves a lot more. I think, and I don't think anybody can say he doesn't. I think he's the most underappreciated champion in the UFC. You know, I would say Mighty Mouse is only because the crowd doesn't follow him. You know, and he's an incredible fighter.

I would say he isn't, but I would say he's in that group. Just considering who he has defeated, I mean, Mighty Mouse is tremendous. I don't know if he gets the level of competition that D.C. faces, but it's certainly a case to be made there. What about for you, these title fight weeks? Do you enjoy them? Are you nervous? What kind of a person are you on the Monday before one of your guys is fighting for the belt?

Well, you know, depending on the opponent, you know, when Kane was fighting the Santos all three times, I was a wreck. Why? Because Del Santos was so dangerous. I was afraid of him in almost every area with the, you know, almost every area was afraid of him, but the rest of him. So he was one that was a hell of a guy to be in front of, you know. and I was a little bit of a wreck with, you know, with Luke and Machita. I was definitely a wreck when Luke caught Belfort the first time. And, you know, it's big fights like that,

but I think we have a chance to go the other ways, and that's, yeah, pretty good. So what about a fight like this? This one, not that bad. Not that bad. I feel very confident. and what D.C. can do. I just don't see Gestopsin knocking D.C. out.

I don't see him out-grinding D.C. I don't see him out-grinding D.C. And I don't see D. Stapson on the outside where Gustafsson could use his great kickboxing ability to keep him out of outside. So I don't see it. There is a case to be made that Alex, as, as D.C. has brought up, is overrated

because of the fact that his most notable fight performance was against John Jones, a loss to John Jones. I think it was close, but I don't think that's controversial at all. Do you agree with that sentiment? You know, if you really look at it, yeah, because they're making them tough with what you really is. He is tough, but, I mean, let's face it, you know,

look at the stats, the stats speak for themselves, you know, and once D.C. brought that up, I looked at it, then I started, and I looked at it a little different also. Before that, I didn't really, I just looked at him, he's a toughest guy out there, but his credentials of what he's accomplished are not that astonishing. They're really not.

He's that good, but he has not met as many quality of opposition and mold them down like his reputation is saying. How much sparring did Daniel do part of this fight? He did quite a bit of sparring.

The majority of it was with Gruslan. You know, who's on the card. Bruglouzla is fighting Jordan. Yep, Sean Jordan. He did a lot with him. I did some with Kane. And then he had a few with a few other people. Those are the two main ones he had was Ruslan and Kane,

were the main sparring partners for him on this one. No Luke Rockhold. No, Luke was out busy doing a lot. Luke was there, and Luke was available, but Luke didn't get to get in there too much with him, maybe a few times. Luke was always gone, you know? He's such a celebrity now.

He's traveling the world. You follow him on Instagram. The guy is everywhere. But you didn't feel like you had to bring in someone to replicate the height and reach that Alexander's going to bring to the table on Saturday? Well, we have Rouselon. Ruslan 6'4.

He's a better kickboxer. He's a better kickboxer. He really is. You feel that way? Yeah, oh, yeah, Ruslan's a badass. He is a hell of a kickboxer. You know, so, no, we had who we needed, you know. And Rouslan's very fast, too, for heavyweight.

Yeah, Daniel was actually telling me he's very high on Ruslan. He calls him a bear, but really, thinks that he hasn't shown us everything that he can do in his first couple fights in the UFC. Are you as high on him? What's his ceiling? Oh, yeah, 100%. He hasn't shown what he's really capable of doing. He's getting better all the time.

Are you going to see a better improve, Guzlan? I see Sean Jordan's own chance, of course, as a KO. I don't see him beating him the other way. He's not going to out-strike Ruslan. And, you know, we'll see what happens, but he's not going to out-strike Ruslan. Rouslan can out-strike him. he's really, really good. Really good.

By the way, like I said, the last time I spoke to you was prior to the Kane fight, and I know your relationship with Kane, and I know you said about the fight going into it, how difficult was that for you? How hard did you take the loss? Because just based on some of the interviews I saw afterwards, it seemed like, you know, obviously I would imagine it bothered you, but it really bothered you.

Oh, no, it really bothered me, because, you know what? It's like I did my homework a little too late, you know, and basically I tried to get him out to go after a month out when we first got the fight. And he didn't want to do it. He said, no, he does it before he's trained there, et cetera, et cetera, you know, that he's fine, you know, working out there. And what ended up happening is two days out. I got him to the commit to at least 13 days, you know.

And so I said, oh, that's fine with your cardio. No problem. We should be no problem with that. So I didn't argue with him or anything. Left alone. So here we are going into the fight. I contacted Victor Conte two days before. we were leaving, you know, just, just in my mind thinking,

I should check, you know, and then Vic de Conte tells me you need to be at least three weeks to get activated. You never really fully get activated, but you need at least three weeks. He said the second week is the first week of all while you're there. And all of a sudden I'm starting going, oh, FIF stuff. I should have done this way before, and I did it. So then going into the fight, you know, when I was in Mexico, too, I was doing cardio myself. I was doing everything there.

And I was saying, no, that didn't seem too bad at whatsoever. And I was working with Kane on the pads. It didn't seem too much problems on that. You know, it wasn't much problem either. I think I started there. Well, there wasn't much problems. And all of a sudden, you know, come fight time, you know, I noticed that when I was hitting the pads, you know,

I pushed him a little harder. He didn't quite go as well as he needed to. And then he wanted me to punch at him. And all of a sudden, I ran out of gas within like 10 seconds, and I couldn't even breathe. And I was doing cardio there. But when you push yourself, it's a lot different over there. I was totally shocked.

So watching Kane after he takes Fabisha down, it gets up, he takes a huge deep breath. And I knew we were in trouble then. I'd go, oh, oh, I'd never seen that before. So, you know, kudos to them. They did a great job. You know, they did their homework. You know, that's what the fight came's all about, you know.

And I screwed up. I was a little too late on mine. If that fight happens in Vegas, do you think he wins easily as you predicted? You know, I think he wins, but I don't think he wins as easy as I predicted. did get a lot better. And I was impressed with what he did,

but I definitely feel he wins, but not as easy as I predicted before. And, you know what? I think sometimes I better stop that. Because sometimes I'm too high on my guys that I need to watch. The other guys just a little bit, you know, more carefully.

And then see their strength. I saw what Probecio had. He didn't surprise me with anything per se, but, you know, I should have been paying a little bit more attention. And what about this idea that he's, you know, he's helped. There are no major injuries coming out of that fight, yet he has to wait an extended period of time again, February, March or so, to fight.

And I recall after the fight, even Daniel was telling me that he wanted to fight in Houston this weekend, just to get back in there, get his feet wet again, get the ball rolling. Now he's out for an extended period. Are you happy about this scenario? No, obviously not. You know, I want him back in there as soon as possible because he's really hungry to get in there. But, you know, he was asked if he won the title rematch, and he said absolutely. so, you know, we just have to wait to see when that date comes, but

I was hoping it would be January, you know, or February, but I don't know. I don't know what it's going to be. No, I'm not happy with the waiting, but, you know, we don't know what's going on. Behind closed doors, you know, what the real holdback is. That obviously is a good reason.

But as his coach, would you have preferred him fight someone else like a contender fight just to get that confidence back and then fight for the belt? Because of the layoff, I would prefer that, yeah. This amount of time, I would prefer him fight one. Yes, definitely. It's not because of the confidence, just because of an activity.

Right. A very hard guy to reach, so I'm wondering, how is he dealing with the fact that he's no longer the champion? He keeps it to himself. He doesn't say too much unless you bring it out of him. It sucks. I know that. I know he doesn't like it.

And I know he wants his title back. But he doesn't, he won't really, he won't really let his feelings out right away. He really won't. I mean, I really haven't asked him. I really don't want to ask him either, you know, because I kind of feel deep down inside. It's burning them up. Yeah, I'm kind of afraid of the idea of Kane Velasquez without the belt going for the belt. Like, I just, he, like, he almost scares me because it's like this quiet killer, if you know what I'm saying.

Yes, 100%. And, he, he is that, you know, he doesn't let him. you know his feelings, you know, and that it's there. It's there. It's burning them up. I know it is, but, you know, I have not asked him, but I just know it's there. Any sign of Habib Numa Gamerinov these days? Habib will be coming to train 50 days out before his fight. I'll see him in Houston this week because he's going to be cornering Islam and then he's going to be helping me with Gruselon also. Oh, wow. Okay, but any concerns about his health? I know you said that you were worried that he came back, you know,

maybe a little too soon last time. How do you feel now as he prepares to fight in December? I feel great about him now because now he's, you know, he's signed with that, that, that, H.K. Yes. Yes. And they're taking really good care of him. They're doing, they have the rehab guys out there on him all the time.

And they're doing really well with him, so I'm very happy with it. Because now I'm very confident that when he comes back the 50 days out, you'll be ready to go. You know, so, but, you know, I'm definitely 100. 100% expecting him to be the next lightweight, you know, UFC World Cup, for sure. He, as you mentioned,

will be there for Islam Makachev, who is fighting Adriano Martins. He was at A.K., right, for this camp? Yeah, he was with us six weeks. Ruzwan was with us eight weeks. What do you make of Makachev?

Undefeated? Look tremendous on his debut. He's unbelievable. He's good everywhere. He's everywhere. Wrestling. You know, submission, you know, boxing, kickboxing, you name it, cardio. He's got everything.

What about Betch Kohia? She was at A.K.A. What's she doing over there? She's still there, by the way? Yeah, I think she's coming back. The UFC sent her to do some kind of promo. She came to A.K. Through Leandro Vieira, a jujutor coach. And it looks like she's joining Team A.K.A. with Leandro Vieira.

Leander Viera is going to be her basically manager, head coach, type of thing, and I believe that, you know, she's going to. She hasn't. As far as I know, I don't think she has as of yet, but I believe that she is very happy with Leandro and the work he's done in A.k.a. So I

believe she's going to come on board. Wow. But not 100%. So her next camp, full-time, she'll be at AK in San Jose. It's potential. Yes. It's a very strong potential, yes. Not 100% of Leandro has his talk with her, but it sounds like

it's probably going to happen. Do you like that? The other one that excites me. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I liked it. The other one that excites me a lot is Buccecha. Yes, I was just about to ask you about him. He's making his MMA debut soon?

Well, you know, when he first came to us about years ago, I put the rat, the thing of his ear, because I really liked him. I think this guy's unbelievable. And I just kept saying, you know, you could be the million-dollar baby, blah, blah, blah. And I wasn't, I wasn't joking. That guy's unbelievable. And I think he didn't like getting hit. He goes, I don't know how weird.

I don't like him hit. I still got Jidih Tzu in my blood. I said, okay, okay. But, you know, if you ever decide to change, you know, I think you got what it takes. And, you know, he felt like family and, you know, Kane and D.C. really took them really well. And I think he feels really comfortable with us. So I think he does make the change.

I think he will come to us. That would be a very big news in the world of BJJ. But do you know? Because I saw some reports that he was considering it or had told people he was going to make his MMA debut. Do you know if it's 100%? No, I don't know if it's 100%. Leandro told me that he mentioned it, that if he was going to do MMA, he would come with us.

That's what Neanderl said. I didn't hear it from Uccecha directly, so I can't say it was from Wuchech. I can say Leandro did tell me that, that if he was going to come, and I know that, like I said, I would talk to his ear off. Every test I got an opportunity, I would tell him about

what I think he could do, and, you know, I didn't think it worked, but that if he's making that kind of talk, then it might have worked a little bit. Before I let you go, just want to get your thoughts on last weekend. Scott Coker, who you've had a relationship with for a very long time, return to San Jose for his dynamite. I know Josh Thompson was on the card, one of your guys, victorious. What was that like for you to see Coker back in San Jose in that arena, the Shark Tank, SAP Center, whatever you want to call it? You know, it was a very happy moment to see that, to see Scott there and to see him be successful, you know, having the biggest live gate for Bellator since the promotion started. You know, that was a big accomplishment for him. He's always looking to break, you know, records and do things that are different that people want to see. And, you know, he's not the guy that wants all the accolades.

He doesn't want the praise. He doesn't care less about all that. He just wants the accomplishment that he knows he does. did it and the people are happy with it. And, uh, no, I was extremely happy for him. And for a kickboxing guy, did you like the idea of the, the hybrid show? Um, well, personally, I'm more than MMA guy. I love MMA. And kickboxing for me, I'm just, man, it might have been what I did, but it's not what I love anymore.

Really? Why is that? Uh, you know, I just love the, it's like to me, I look at it like playing check. and playing chess, and I'm a chess player. I like using all the whole board and using all these pieces that can do so much, you know, instead of one dimension. Oh, there's so many dimensions you can go. There's so many avenues you can go to win. All right.

So you'd prefer just an MMA-only show? You don't even watch Kikwax? Yeah, me personally. I'll watch some here and there, but I'm more of an MMA guy. Wow. Even though it's weird to hear that for me, but, but I, no, I'm, I'll take you know, I'll take

MMA any day over a kickboxing event or even a boxing event, I would take MMA any day. Nice. Okay, final thing. How and when does D.C. win on Saturday? Man, I never really thought of that. I just thought of P.C. winning all five rounds. Let's just, let's just say five-round decision.

All right. We're going conservative this time. Yeah. I like it. always a pleasure Javier. Thank you so much and good luck to you this weekend. All right. Thanks, sir. There is. Head coach over at AKA. Big weekend for him, Islam Makachev. Look fantastic in his UFC debut back in May. Ruslan Magamadov.

Big fight for him against Sean Jordan, who's looked very good as of late. And of course, Daniel Kormier in the main event, don't sleep on 192. Look at this card. Every single fight. There's an intriguing aspect to every single fight. We'll go over the card a little later on in the program. but this is a good one coming to Houston. I don't know anything about ticket sales or anything like that, but that's a solid card.

It's a nice card. Very good. Something for everyone on this one. Look at it. It's good. All right, let's move along. One of the interesting stories of the past weekend, really it's one that has been playing out for the last few weeks,

has been Al Jermaine Sterling's efforts to just get a fight. This is one of the best fighters in the Bantamweight Division, one of the best young fighters in the sport, and it seems like he's having a hard time just getting a fight. He's taken to Twitter, Facebook, all kinds of social media to voice his frustrations as of he wanted to talk to him. Remember, he was in this very studio alongside his teammate Eddie Gordon, part of their last fight in April and Newark. That's the last time he fought.

Here we are approaching October and the man just can't get a fight. So I wanted to talk to him about all that and a whole lot more. There he is. Al Jermaine Sterling joining us on the program. Al Jermaine, last time you were on the show, you were happy, you were excited, you had a fight coming, coming up. What's your mood like these days? Aljo for president. Aljo number one. You come in peace. El Presidente. My mood's, I want to say it picked up a little bit, but for the past few weeks,

I've kind of just been going on this kind of downward spiral, I want to say, you know. Just being a little bit frustrated seeing that I made such a big amount of money at one time and then I was kind of hoping I was going to get back into the octagon soon and get another fight. Because I had some goals, you know, some realistic goals that I sent for myself, barring that I had enough fights. So, yeah, I ended up coming up short of that. So hopefully I get this fight in December. And actually, I do got some fight news for you guys.

Oh, what are you got? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's just been rough thinking about it like that. Because I did the math. You know, I'm 26 now. Just turned 26. I'll be 30 soon in the next four years. I'm just thinking I probably don't want to be fighting past 30, 30.

one years old. If I'm only fighting once or twice a year, that's just not going to be enough to make a dent in the sport or enough financially for me to really get myself to where I want to be and position myself. So that's kind of where my frustrations were coming from. I'm a numbers guy. I look at the numbers and I try to make everything makes sense and put into a perspective and just try to make the best of every situation. But it just kind of got to me and I just vented out. I'm like, man, if I'm going to have this idle time, I might as well be in school or something and do something positive with what I'm not just wasting my prime years and not getting something else in return. So if I'm in school and I'm still training, that's okay. I did

that in college. It worked. I can do that now and it still works. So that's just kind of where my frustrations were coming from, just kind of just sitting and letting this time just pass me by. Quick side note, the hair looks fantastic. I love what you're doing over there. Thank you. Well done. I'm going to take this thing up for the next fight. Nice little high top. Can you play. Yes. Get the rope chain. Oh, yes. School rope chain. I love it. I think that's going to be dope. Yeah, it's Keep it going. Okay, so what's this fight news? All right, so, man, this is the weirdest thing.

It's like, I've been told one thing. I was that all these guys are turning me down, XYZ, and then I take the Twitter. Some of these guys are like, yeah, I'll take the fight, and then you don't hear anything of it for the next few weeks or whatever it is. And I end up, I guess I complained so much that I end up getting a fight. And it was just like, dude, this is all I want. I just wanted a name on paper so I could have a peace of mind and security that, you know, something's definitely going to happen and I'm not just sitting here waiting, twiddling my thumbs, and nothing's going to happen, you know?

So I ended up getting a fight. I'm fighting number ninth guy, Johnny Eduardo. I've been calling that guy out for the longest, so I finally got the fight. I would love to have photo him in Orlando, but now this fight's going to be December 10th on Fight Pass. So I think my complaint was good and bad at the same time. I think it worked into my favorite that I got the fight finally, got the security, piece of mine. But then I went from a big slot on a card to kind of, I mean, it's going to be a big weekend anyway, so hopefully the fight just gets the promotion, deserves, and just the card in general.

So a lot of people are tuning in to make sure they watch this because I'm going out there, just freaking pop this guy's head off and squeeze the hell out of them. And the pay is the same, right? So at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Exactly. Just the exposure, I think. Yeah. At this point, it's kind of glass half full. So it is what it is. I got a fight. I got what I ultimately wanted and I got one of the guys I called out one of the guys I would like to fight I think it's just a perfect stylistic matchup for me and uh I think I think this one is gonna be good it's gonna show my uh my true colors this is why I love the funkmaster you come on here I'd even

know you're gonna do this you break some news on the program that's how you make an impact my friend thank you very much so so I like it uh why why is this one of the fights that you wanted why was he on your mind uh I think he's a good grappler in terms of jihitsu and I think that would be fun to me just to kind of see where I stack up with a guy like like that and uh because i know the fight's going to hit the ground it's definitely going to hit the ground is definitely going to be taking place a lot in the clinch and there's going to be a lot in the open space i think i could take the guy down pretty much whenever i want i think he's good enough to get back up or fight off his back and put me in some dangerous positions and i think with that being

said it makes for an interesting matchup and um i think i think i still definitely pull it out and i think i still get the finish i think father time has caught up to uh old man adduado by now and uh And I just think the guy fights once every two and a half years, once every one and a half years is just, there's something up with that. There's something that just doesn't make sense. So it's either the guy is not training or he's trained too hard and his body's kind of falling apart on him. So I think it'd be nice for me, a young gun to come up and take out a veteran who's been around for so long and done so well in the sport of MMA and kickbox, not kickbox in Muay Thai. So I think it would be a good fight. It's going to be a fun fight.

Speaking of training too hard, like I said, your last fight was in mid-April. Here we are approaching October. You're going to fight in December. I'm assuming you were healthy coming off of that fight. Tremendous win for you in Newark. How have you been able to not push yourself too much? Because, you know, A, you're frustrated probably. You want to get a fight.

You're probably taking it out on some people in the gym. But also, you don't have a fight lined up until right now. So how do you play that game? I try not to spar as much. If I'm going to spar, I try to do it with the guys that definitely need the sparring and they don't have anybody to work with. So I try not to beat my ball. body up too much. Right now I'm kind of doing jihitsu competitions. I did one I think was last

weekend and I end up getting double gold, Ghee and no Ghi. Wow. Congrats. I have five matches. So yeah, thank you. I got two I got two finishes, red naked choke and a knee bar. So that was a, I think it was a great show and I beat some tough guys, Purple Belt Division. And I'm going to do the pans this weekend at 149. So I'm just trying to stay, stay busy, stay active and just get better in every single area. Just like little stuff, little by little. I think if I get better just a little bit every day, then overall I'm going to be a tough guy to beat. So I just want to stay in that competitive mindset. You know, competing jiu-jitsu is kind of like going out there for a fight

or for a wrestling match. You get the same nerves, same butterflies. Even if you know, for me, it's like, I don't care. You know, if I lose, I lose. It is what it is. It's not like I'm getting paid for it, and it's not like I'm doing it religiously. Like, you know, the guys who are actually competing,

they're doing it pretty much every day. That's what they do. So if I do well, I think it's a pat on my back and I think it's a feather on my cab that what we're doing over here works. And I think I'm a pretty good student. I think I pick things up pretty fast. So just got to stay focused with that, man, because this way when I step into the octagon,

I'll be like I never left. I feel like prior to the Mizugaki fight, you were sort of a little bit flying under the radar. That one made you explode. You're in the top 10, whatever, if you want to pay attention to those rankings. Do you feel like now a lot of guys are hesitant to fight you after that fight?

And then after, I want to ask you about one person in particular. But do you feel like after that fight, things changed for you? Yeah, I definitely think so. Like I said, man, I've been told by the matchmakers that they've been trying to get me fights and they're trying to get the right matchup, which makes sense from a promotional standpoint. It has to make sense. And I think it has to be a guy that's ranked and it has to be a fight that makes sense.

But with all the injuries and everything and then me being told that guys are turning down fights. So it's kind of makes me think, like, I don't know what the hell is what's happening and what to believe. So now I got this fight and it's kind of like, man, if it was that easy, man, I wish we could have just done this from a while ago. But actually, I actually forgot the question that you originally asked. That's fine. Let me ask you about Brian Carraway. I was told, turned down the fight.

He told me he was never offered the fight. See? Okay, what do you make of that? But that's my point. He comes on, Mishitae comes on, they're saying, oh, we were never even offered the fight with him or Manny Gamburion. for me, it's like, well, I don't know who to believe. I'm getting told one thing by the guys who, you know, run everything in terms of matching everybody up, and then I'm hearing them say something else.

It's kind of like a, well, it's just kind of like a, I don't even know. It's any mini-money-moa at this point who you want to pick and believe. So I don't know. I hope I was off for the fight. He said he wasn't. So I've been, I asked for the fight. I thought it was the only fight that made sense with everybody that was hurt. And just the stay of the division and his style of grappling, I think.

I think the guy is really tough. I might bust his balls about his stand-up, and I think it's pretty horrendous, but for the most part, you don't get to be number six, number seven in the world by being a slouch. So I think he's very good at what he does, which is grappling.

I think I'm very good at what I do, which is grappling. So I just think overall it would be a fun fight. Is that Misha Tate in back of you on that calendar? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, I'm joking. Oh, it's Rhonda. There's she.

After Eduardo. Oh, that's cool. Where are you right now? I'm in the office right now. I'm in Chris Weidman's place of business. Celebrity champion Chris Weidman.

Yeah. Has he changed? No, I think he's the same old funny guy. He's been funny before he had the bell. He's just as funny with the belt. So I don't think nothing's changed. I think he's the same guy. Okay.

Because if you had gone Hollywood, you know, would have been a problem. He doesn't strike me as the type to do that, but you're there, you know, you're there on the front lines. Yeah. Yeah, I forgot what was that question you asked me. What was that question you asked me? Well, I just wanted to know, okay, so let me ask you this.

Eduardo, you get past him December 10th. Do you still want Carraway after that, or are you kind of done with the Carraway thing? Do you think after Eduardo, you'll be more in the title talk? Oh, personally, I just think Carraway doesn't want to fight. I think he has Misha Tate doing super well for herself right now, and that's not a knock on her and it's not a knock on him. It's just I think she's doing really well, and she's probably the breadwinner at this point for those guys.

So I think it's okay for him at his age where he's kind of like, well, I don't need to fight up and coming guys where they're much younger, probably much faster, and they're probably just as good at what they do that I do. So I might as well take the fights. I think I have more of a higher percentage chance of winning. Like a Michael McDonald fight where I think he sees, oh, this guy's been going for two and a half years. If I jump on this, I think I could catch him coming back

and he'll be a little bit rusty, a little bit slow. I mean, it makes sense. Like I said, I can't knock the guy for planning out his career the right way. But I think he has Misha Tate right there doing everything, the right way and he doesn't really need to fight right now. So he could turn down fights and just kind of wait for the perfect matchup to come along. But yeah, I'm kind of done with him. I think after one more fight, I think I should be positioned to fight for the belt.

You went on social media last week. You were very frustrating. And of course, you got what you wanted. So I guess it all worked out. Look at that. It is nice, man. It is tight. You know, I did this myself?

Get out of here. Yourself? I swear to God. Wow. I did it's myself. How did you do that? All right, though. All right.

I got these mirrors, you know. That's true. Well, I did a little haircuting back in my days in college. Multi-talented. How frustrated were you? To get to the point where you have to go online and write this whole long thing about going back to school and all that,

you're talking about your employer, so it could have gone either way. Thankfully, it all worked out. You got to fight, but where were you at last week mentally? Yeah, I just think I was definitely a little down, a little depressed about it, because like I said, I'm a big numbers guy. I look at my account, and when the account, just sees a lot of money going out.

and not a lot of money coming in. Thank God I got my one sponsor's new resource funding. Those guys are still hooking me up and taking care of me. If it wasn't for those guys, I'd be in a much worse place right now. So I thank God I still got those guys on my side and looking after me. And yeah, it was just a, it was just a crappy time, knowing that, you know, you got your months away from fighting. It's kind of just sitting idly and just figuring out how hard do I train. Do I do two a day?

Do I do one of days? Do I even train it at all today? And it was like no motivation to really do much. But thank God. I think I'm pretty good at staying motivated and I found something to keep me motivated, which is competing in jiu-jitsu. And then in November, hopefully I don't get hurt, but I'm planning on competing in a wrestling tour.

I'm going to try to qualify team Jamaica for the Olympics for the wrestling team. Get out of here. I think that's going to be fun as hell. I mean, if I qualify and I don't place, I mean, it is what it is, it is what it is, is just the experience in itself. So I think that would be pretty, yeah, I think that'd be pretty amazing. So I think I still have what it takes to compete in wrestling. and even in the whole jitza realm.

So I'm a pretty confident guy, and I believe in my team, and I believe in my athletic abilities and my practice and my training overall. What are the steps that you need to take to qualify for the Olympics for Jamaica? I think there's like for, I know there's not, I don't think there's really a team right now. I spoke to one of the guys, No Thompson,

and he said, you know, there's a tournament in November. He's like placing that, and then we'll talk and he'll further try to guide me in the right direction of how to qualify. But I think there's another big qualifier in March. I think if you win that, then you qualify. I think if you win that or you place top three in that, then you get to qualify to go to the Olympics or something along those lines.

So I think it's going to be fun, man. I'm definitely excited to do that. I think that would be something I always wanted, you know, just coming up short in the NCAA's not being able to afford to go D1 and having to go D3 because I didn't have the grades or the money to go to a D1 school. And just being able to show that I can compete with the top-level wrestlers in the world if I really want to.

You're like the 2015 version of cool runnings. Cool running is, man. You're done, no. Yes, I love it. As a pro athlete, can you still go to the Olympics? How does that work for wrestling? Whatever. We'll worry about that later.

We'll worry about those little funners later. You know, I love you on Twitter. I love how vocal you are. You're a lot of fun to follow. The Twitter handle is right there, Funkmaster, underscore UFC. You were one of the few guys very vocal. in favor of Nick Diaz after what happened to him, the crime that happened against him by the NAC, suspending him for five years. I want to hear it from you, and I want to get it officially.

Are you also one of those who's refusing to fight Nevada? Because it seemed like you were at the time, but here you are fighting in Nevada, or at least it seems, right? What's going on? Yeah, like I said, I was supposed to fight in December 19th in Orlando. I was penciled in. I was told I was also penciled in, so that was my slot. So I guess my rinse kind of got me pushed off. I just want to make this clear. I wasn't attacking the matchmaker Sean Shelby, and I wasn't attacking the UFC for not trying to do their job.

Like I said, I'm pretty sure they were trying to do their jobs. Just things had to fall into the right places that make sense. My frustration was with the time layoff and kind of just hoping I'm going to get something, and then I could have been doing something else. In the meantime, just to get by and kind of further my education and just my future overall. So that was my frustration. So I don't know if it's a punishment to put me on fight past because I did openly say I wasn't going to fight in Nevada

But at this point, man, I have no other options Because they told me, they told me December 19 if it's off the table And I can't fight on that card anymore I don't know how overnight it just gets full But so whatever that is, whatever that's about, who cares, I guess But you would have preferred to not fight in Nevada? That was my, that was the whole thing. I'd rather fight on that card, but they're going to put me on this card

There's nothing I can really do about it It's either that or I sit out and tell them I don't want to fight in Nevada, and then they have the right to not make me fight for, like, the next three, four months. Sure. So it's kind of one of those weird positions where I'm not trying to piss nobody off. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to stick up for what's right. And I think what's right is people standing up and boycotting Nevada.

I think that's a thing that I think Nick Diaz gets a bad rap. And I think he's misunderstood. I mean, I watch people. I think they play into too much of, they're buying to too much of him being a bad guy and him not wanting to do social media and all this stuff. But it comes from something. It doesn't just happen overnight,

and it definitely comes from his upbringing and things, and people just kind of just say, oh, you're playing the victim, and you could change your future. It's like, yeah, you can, but when you're dealt the really bad hand in life, I think not everything is easily changeable, and you can kind of directs on and stuff. I think you're handed a certain amount of opportunities,

and sometimes it's tough to make the, those adjustments and capitalize on each one. I think, I just think the guys just had a tough time. And, man, it ain't hurt nobody. Smoking weed ain't hurt nobody. It's Friday, Craig. You ain't got nothing to, too. In your opinion, are enough fighters sticking up for Nick Diaz?

Are they being vocal enough in his favor? I don't think so. I think it would be cool to see a lot more champs getting up on the bandwagon and rallying behind them because I think that's where the power comes. from the chance ultimately. I think Ron DeRossey did a exceptional job with that. Even Floyd Mayweather said something about him. It was just like, he got in trouble

for smoking weed five years. He was like, man, let that boy smoke his weed. Like, who cares? You know, I think if you're not coming into the fight high, you're not smoking the day before. It's kind of like who's it really hurt? It's not hurting nobody. It's out of your system in and now. It's not like you're going to have an advantage the night

of the fight from smoking marijuana the day before or the morning of. But I I don't think you should smoke the morning of. That's just what I'm saying. I just think there's no, I don't think there's any numbing, what would you call it, enhancements from smoking weed. And also, let's not forget the fact that they have no idea when he smoked the weed

because you can't find that. Exactly. And B, I mean, he did three tests on fight night. He passed two of them. And, yeah, that's what it was. I was about to say that. He tested him three times. And it's like they were just trying to get a negative result.

It was just like, dude, you guys are, you guys are just picking this guy and you're just trying to make him the victim. And not even make him the victim, you're trying to make an example out of this guy. For what reason? It's like the guy passed two tests and you take another one for what? It's like you obviously have an agenda. And that's what my issue comes from. When it clearly looks like you have an agenda and you're going to, you're kind of ego tripping in my opinion. I think it's a little bit of a power trip.

Just saying, all right, you know what? We're going to throw the book at this guy. Well, I understand three, your third offense is supposed to be 36 months. Yep. So how do you go from 36 months and say, you know what? Lifetime ban or five years. Five years is a lifetime ban. So it's kind of ridiculous, in my opinion.

I agree. I like that you and Floyd Mayweather. Look at you guys agreeing after you tried to steal your girl. We're friends again. Yeah? I still like to fight the guy. Well, I guess we're friends again. No, we're not friends.

I don't know the guy. But you agree. So that's a good thing. Well, great to have you on the show, man. Always love talking to you. You're so great on the mic. I appreciate it. I'm very, very, very happy that you finally got a fight.

It has been a while, and I can't wait to see that hair come December, so we're letting it grow out. Wait, too serious. Wait, to you see this. I'm going to have the nice part of everything. It's going to be freaking badass. You guys just wait and see. That's worth... I'm going to get a human anaconda.

That's worth the 999 for Fight Pass alone, just to see you fight with that hair. Congratulations on getting the fight. Great job, as always, and looking forward to it December 10th in Las Vegas. Thanks for the time, man. Thank you, guys. All right, there is. Al Jermaine Sterling, one of the very best at 135. in the UFC, and he breaks some news.

He finally has a fight. He has been very vocal, trying to get a fight with virtually anyone that made sense for him. And late last week, he went to Twitter, he went to Facebook, he voiced his displeasure with the whole situation, and wouldn't you know it? Sean Shelby listens, and he gets a fight. How about that? Beautiful. Congratulations to him. All right.

Let's move along. Let's go now from the Bantamweight Division to the Lightweight. division. Let's talk to the UFC lightweight champion. He will be fighting in Orlando. He'll be fighting on December 19th against Donald Seroni, highly anticipated title fight. Some bad blood there. I can't wait to

talk to Hafeel Dosanjos. He joins us right now via the phone. RDA, how are you? Hi, Harry Al, thanks for having me. I'm doing great now. Great to have you on the show. By the way, since you've become this big star now, a lot of people calling you RDA. Do you like when people call you RDA? Yeah, of course. I don't have any nicknames, and I think that was the first one, and people start calling me like RDA.

I didn't like it. I like it. Okay. I just want to make sure. So we booked you on the show a few days ago, and a lot to discuss with you. But then this morning, I wake up, and all kinds of new things happen. So when you and Anthony Pettis, you tweeted a picture of his Wheaties box, which I actually have right over here, the Wheaties box, which had Anthony and his... belt on the cover and you kind of said, you know, beware of the expired box. He comes back with a Frankenstein joke on another box. I mean, where is this all coming from between you and Anthony? Why did you feel like you had to do that? Yeah, it was just a joke. I was at the supermarket

with my son and he was asking for some, like a cereal box. And then we was looking for some boxes. And when I, when I saw his, his speech on the box with a belt, and he was asking, and he, And I felt like kind of fun. And then I asked my boy, do you want to that? He said, no, this one should be expired. There was good. And I just thought it was fun and I posted.

And it did, just a joke. Was this in response to him, actually to Donald Serroney saying last week on the Joe Rogan podcast that Pettis reached out to him and said that he'd love to help Donald prepare for you because he hates your guts and all this stuff? Was that why you did it

Did that bother you that comment? Not at all, man. I think it wasn't because of that. I just made a joke, too, you know. And I think he's just confused because he's talking about in goal for 145 to face my crap. And he's kind of confused. He wants with me.

Actually, he doesn't know what he wants. And also, I think he's the only way for he gets his back, his belt back is if he helps him, because he knows he can beat Serrani, but he cannot beat me. I think the only way, that the only way that he can get his title back, if he helped Serrani get the belt, and then for sure he'll get back from Serrani,

but I think it's the only way that he can get his belt back. Do you think that you made him a confused fighter? I mean, he had so much confidence. I remember when they unveiled this Wheaties box, he was on top of the world, and he meets you, and things have changed since, obviously. Do you think that what you did to him in Dallas made him not really sure where he's at in his career?

Well, I think so. That's how he's been showing there. He wants to help Seroni. He want to rematch with me. And that's what he's been saying. I'm not saying anything. It's just like what he's saying, you know. He want to help Theroni.

He want to get rematch against me. He want to drop for 45 to five-knack-neck gravel. I think he's kind of confused, you know. What do you make of, you know, the shots, the steroid shots? and Sironi did the same. Does that bother you? Yeah, not at all, man. I have a clean record.

And, you know, Ceyrani, all those guys that didn't talk about, they don't have a clean record. I have a clean record, you know. I'm interested in all my fights, and, you know, I'm clean, you know. I think the only thing that don't show on blood tests is hard to work, you know.

And, you know, I work hard. You know, I'm, I did, I very day. Sireke, you know, I put on a good train, you know, and I think that's, this thing don't show on blood tests. Seroni and Pettis aren't the only ones who have made this accusation since you have become champion. Do you feel like you still don't get the credit that a champion should get in the UFC because of this? No, not at all. I think this guys, these guys, you know, I did that, I did their bowl. And, you know, the Seroni's already making excuses.

and you know and I just work hard and I'm I have the belt I'm on the property division and I don't want to just be a chito and I'm done with that now I want to I want to be a lightweight lesson I want to make history on my decision and not just because I got the belt I'm comfortable with and I feel I'm all hungry right now I just finish our training at king's now with with Master Raphael, and I'm looking to be the best like whatever, you know. What's the biggest difference in your life since you've become champion? Anything drastically change?

No, man. Not many things change, you know. A lot of, like, kind of, you know, the fans they didn't recognize me more. Yeah. But, you know, I didn't get any, like, crazy sponsor. I didn't have any extra sponsor since I got the belt. So not many things change on my life, but on my mind, anything changed as well. You know, I still hungry to training.

I still feel that I have a lot of things to do under the video. So are you surprised that you haven't gotten a big sponsor since becoming champion? Yeah, because that's why I thought once I become a champion, a lot of things will happen for me, like as a sponsorship, things like that. But God knows everything. you know and and I feel that it's just the beginning of my legacy you know I I'm still 30 years old I still have a lot of things to do on this division and I think things will come you know once I get the respect that I deserve once I start beating my keep keeping my belt for a long time I'll get

I'll get this thing will will happen like normal you know I can force those things and my goal is keep my belt, keep working hard, and making my friends and my team proud of me. So where are you at Healthwise here? Because I know you were banged up after the pedestal. You were actually banged up going into it. And, of course, afterwards, are you 100% yet? Yeah, I'm 100%. I just finished a heart session here at King.

Okay. We just finished five rounds of six minutes, like meets and round game, wrestling, and I feel 100% right now. I'm three months away, weeks going down. I lost 14 pounds in four weeks and feeling great, you know. My needs 100%. So, man, I just like want to get on December 19 and keep my belt. You're fighting in Orlando, which coincidentally happens to be the last place that you lost, since then you won four in a row, you became champion.

Are you happy to be going back to the place that you last loss, or are you kind of bothered by that? you know, how do you treat those things? Yeah, not, not at all. I'm not, I'm not this kind of guy, you know, I think. I just had a bad night that day. And, you know, I'm not, that's not bothering at all. And I'm just going forward, looking forward to go there.

And show the world why I'm the chance and all. I'm not the chamber by luck. I'm the chance because I'm working hard. And I know, I know who gave, who make this happen for me, you know? And for sure, the only, only, only, only person that can take this away from me is God, it's God, nobody else, you know. And then I'm really confident for the 7-19. Your main eventing a show on Fox, there's still some prestige involved with fighting on pay-per-view,

yet Fox is seen by a hell of a lot more people. Are you happy about that, or would you have rather fight on pay-per-view again? No, I'm happy to be fighting. on Fox. So a lot of people will be watching the fight, and I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that opportunity. So very interesting scene in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago at the Go Big Press conference. You were all over the place. I first want to ask you about the stare-down between you and Donald. I'm actually going to play it right now as we speak.

It was one of the very best of the entire afternoon, and it seemed like you guys were saying some stuff to each other. What did you say to him, and what did he say to you? Yeah. First of all, he said to me to stay hell. And I told him, you too. And he told me that he told me to stop talking shit. But I don't know, I'm not talking shit. He's been talking shit.

And he's making an accusation. And I just say, man, you're not going to get any closer to this belt now. You know? And that's what I told him. And then I put that belt on my shoulder. And then I told him, he's not going. you're not going to get any closer to the office. I like that out of you because for the first time it felt like as champion you were being

confident a little bit cocky. I like seeing that side of you. Yeah, man, you know, I just want to, you know, people don't believe in me so much, but I'm glad I have my friends. I have teammates. I have my family that believe in me so much. They see how hard they work. And I guess, man, I got to show some confidence, some confidence. And I just told that guy the truth, you know, he fought for the WC belt twice. And I think he's just happy to be fighting for the title.

And for me, like he was saying on Inside MNA, he told that he don't give a shit for the USC chanter. And I give a lot of value to it. You know, that's how I support my family, it's my life. and it's not this kind of guy they're going to take my belt away. In the past, as you alluded to,

some have said that, you know, and he's even talked about this, when he gets to the big fight, he stumbles, but as of late, he's looked very good. Do you feel like that old Donald is still there, like he's going to get to the title fight and stumble, something mentally is going to go on, he just overthinks it, or do you think that he's changed a little bit? He's matured, he's evolved as a fighter, and especially mentally.

No, no, I think he still, he still, he should have seen a guy. You know, I think it's like a soccer player, a good soccer player, when they are on the finals, and he has a penalty to score, have that chance to score, and he's going to kick the ball out of the goal. I think he's that kind of fighter, no. And when I have big tests, I always go over it, and that you might be different on the 7-19. So in other words, you think that he chokes in the big moments? Of course. I think so.

And he knows. Go ahead. He knows that. And you're trying to remind him of that. Yeah. Did you watch his interview with Joe Rogan last week? Yeah, I just heard of all. He was saying that that that has helped.

I offer him help. And I think that is just, like, he's joined the wrong team. I think he should join those teams. instead of try to play against me. Would you have welcomed him on your team? Yeah. I'm just kidding, man. Of course not, but I think he's joined the wrong team.

Right. He got to join the winner's team. And then what about that scene with Connor McGregor? I thought for a saying, you're usually a calm guy, but then when he started talking about your wife and everything, I thought that things were going to escalate. What was going through your mind when he was saying all that stuff to you at the press conference? Yeah, I'm going to tell you it true.

Please. And how God is good because I couldn't understand what he said about my life. You know what I mean? If I did, the thing is going to become even worse over there. And I just realized that he said that right after when I was seen there, because he has a strong accent. Yeah. And I don't speak English perfectly.

And then I have a hard time to understand. And then I didn't understand. He said about anything about my friend, about my wife. but when I saw later, I watched later, I saw the third titles, and I saw he saying that about my wife. And it's fine. We're going to see each other in the future, like face to face, and we'll see.

What would have happened had you understood him right then and there, if you completely got what he was saying about your wife? Yeah, I don't know, man. I really don't know. I'm a calm guy, but it's hard to say, man. you know, I, but a human being, you know, it's hard to say, man. I'm a fighter, you know, and, man, it's hard to say, man. I will lose my mind, man.

I would get so pissed up. I'm glad I didn't understand. So, so in a perfect world, if I offer you, you get by Donald, if I offer you, Habib Nurmaghameh Medov, a rematch against Tim, rematch against Anthony Pettis, or Connor, for your next title defense. Which you choose? Oh, man, I, I, I, I would get Kabid man.

I want all you next against him. I want to fight him. Over Connor. I want to fight. Over Connor, man. Because, man, I'm not going to get anything with Connor. You know? He's just a small guy.

He's on Federal Division. I don't want to fight him. I want to, I want a big name. And I want to fight the guys that beat me on the pass. And the only guys that did it was Kabid. And, man, I would fight Kabid. You know, I would fight Kabid. But whatever you have you see

give to me, I will take it, I will make sure I keep my belt. But if you give the option to fight one of the three guys, I want to fight against the guy that I lost in the time. I get that, but don't you think you'd make more money? Don't you think it would be a bigger fight, bigger name

if you fought Connor at this stage? No, actually, you know, I fight, you know, because it's a way to perform myself. family, you know, but now I think the money is not the most important, you know. And my heart, my heart is not on the money, you know. I just want to do a good career. I don't want to fight against somebody that, like someone McGregor, you know,

he didn't do anything yet, you know. He just, you know, because just he talks, you know, I want to, I want to, my heart is not a money. I just want to. But if I had a chance to choose, I would start a guy that beats him on the fact. Do you think Aldo beats him? I think so. Hmm.

And, of course, that is a week before you. By the way, when's the last time you watched your fight against Habib? No, I don't like to watch so much. I think it was over a year ago. I don't like to watch the fight. I think I was, I looked terrible on that fight. I don't want to make any excuse. But it was better than me that day.

But we see he's out for a while. And so we'll see how it's going to show up on December. But, you know, I'm going to look for me, you know. I want to, you know, wash my soul. Wash your soul of that loss, right? Yeah. I can understand that. When's the last time you watched your fight against Pettus?

maybe like three months oh wow I don't watch too much my fights you know some people they fight

they watch like a lot but I think I watch their fight probably like five or six five not that much I would think you'd watch it

every morning I like to live on the present you know I don't like to live by old things I'm looking forward to do new things you know to getting ready

and to be Toronto keep my belt that's what I'm looking for How do you foresee beating him? Excuse me, sorry. How do you envision beating Donald Seroni on December 19th? No, I'm going, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to hit me hard. I'm not going to try to do extra hour on the oxygen, you know.

And I think it starts going by knockout. I really do. Hmm. I really do. I really do finish me back now. Will you watch your first fight against him in the lead up to the fight? Yeah, I did. I did last week.

I watched this fight, and I think I was a completely different pattern. So I change a lot in two years, and I can tell that. You know, I made a lot of mistakes on that fight. I did a bad way cut, and I got a little five in the third round. You know, I try to eat so much. by after the wait and I felt kind of heavy on the third but I will not make this mistake anymore.

Early knockout or late knockout? Yeah. I think before the third. Before the third, all right. I look forward to that very much. Great stuff, Raphael. Great to have you on the show again. I can't wait for that fight.

I'm really looking forward to it. I love the stare down. I love everything that's going on. Keep it up, my friend, and we'll see you in Orlando in December. Yeah, thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. There he is.

The UFC lightweight champion, Hafeld dos angios, main eventing UFC on Fox, 17, December 19th in Orlando. You can tell that, you know, there's only so many shots that you can take from all directions. And I mentioned earlier that Daniel Cormier, in my opinion, is the most underappreciated champion. It was interesting on UFC tonight. We actually spoke about that. Cormier picked. RDA for that answer. And you could certainly make that case as well. It feels like people think that

he either cheated his way to the title, got lucky against Pettis, hasn't done enough to prove himself, which is kind of crazy, just given the fact that in his last three fights alone, he defeated Benson-Henerson, Nate Diaz, and Anthony Pettis. Prior to the Chabeebiz, defeated Donald Soroni, Evan Dunham, who's looked good as of late. So the guy has been rolling, and it still feels feels like people aren't sold on him 100% for whatever reason. He even talked about the sponsor thing, which I thought was very interesting. I probably would take the Connor fight. That's by far the biggest fight that really anyone, I mean, it's Connor and Rhonda at this point, but got to respect the guy who says he wants to clean his soul of his last loss, and that was to Habib in Orlando of all places.

So that's an interesting subplot as well. Chabib returning on December 11th against Tony Ferguson. two-week stretch. That is going to be December 10th. Just found out that Al Jermaine will be fighting Johnny Eduardo on that card. And then you got December 11th. December 10th, of course, is headlined by Paige Van Zand against Joanne Calderwood. December 11th, Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar, and then Jose Aldover is Connor in the following week on Fox. Great card as well. RDA versus Donald Soroni for the belt.

This Saturday is UFC 192 in Houston. and we have a fun little stretch coming up because, a fun little stretch of hours there, because it's 192, great card, as I've been talking about, all show long. And then just a couple hours later, at 2 a.m. Eastern time, Sunday morning, early Sunday, 11 p.m. Pacific, late Saturday night.

The UFC will be broadcasting Pancras 270 on UFC Fight Pass. And it's a fun little card. I mean, it's really cool. The UFC is showcasing these, These non-ZUFA promotions, they just aired fight nights from Russia on Friday, doing pancreas now. And the main event for that show is one featuring a couple of familiar names. In fact, a little bit of history here. This All-American main event will mark the first time two non-Japanese fighters have squared off for a pancreas title since Ricardo Almeida versus Nate Marquart in November of 2003.

It's going to be Namfan going up against Andy Main for the King of Pancrase featherweight title. And we're being joined by New Jersey's own Andy Main right now via the magic Skype. There he is. Rockin the beard. I'm happy it's back at one point. He lost it, but it is back. And he's about to head off to Japan in a matter of hours. So we appreciate his time greatly.

Andy, thank you for the time. By the way, did you know that you'll be making history on early Sunday morning in Japan? I did. Yeah. I was really excited about it when I found out. I didn't even realize that. I mean, obviously, you know, I know a lot about the history of Pancras and everything, but, yeah, when I found out that this was the first time since Marquart,

Hercardo Almeida, which was kind of like, for me, one of the most iconic fights in Pancras history, and that it would be the first time to non-Japanese would be squaring off. I was pumped to hear that and, you know, to be a part of it. What's been your experience like with Pancras? Legendary promotion, as you said. they've been around forever. So many great fighters have come out of there. You've been with them for a little bit now.

What's it been like? It's been incredible. Yeah, I mean, I was absolutely thrilled when I got the opportunity. It was actually two ironic things. One, the first was that literally about a week prior to me getting the call to fight out there for the first time, I had gone to my manager at the time asking if there was any opportunities for me in Japan just because as a lifetime martial artist, you know, really, a martial arts to my core, and a fan of pride, pancreas, Shudo, dream, all those Japanese

events, I really wanted to be a part of that event. And then a week later, I get a call from none other than Nam fan to asking me if I could fill in a late replacement to fight for pancreas. And yeah, it's been incredible. I think, you know, it's really cool seeing them kind of make a resurgence. You know, signing this deal with UFC Fight Pass has been awesome. It's been huge for them. And I think, you know, this along with, you know, the recent announcement of the

creator of Pride coming back and creating whatever he's got under wraps and Fader getting involved. I mean, it's just an awesome time to be involved with Japanese MMA, you know, really no better time outside of back when Pride was in his heyday. Yep, and the UFC was just there, had a successful event, Josh Barnett, a staple of that market, victorious in his return to the cage. it's interesting that Nam Fan was the one who recruited you, you're now fighting him, and you're on Tough 12 with him.

You're actually on the same team, Team Costcheck. Were you buddies? Is this weird for you to be fighting him at this stage? You know what? I look at it two ways. I mean, I always said that the only way I would ever fight a friend is if it was for a big title. And it just kind of worked itself out that way. After he got released by the UFC, he's had success in Japan.

He had only one loss to Mike Richmond in Belmont. tour and then you know but he was winning out there and as soon as he started fighting in Japan I figured it might it might happen so it was a little weird you know I kind of reached out to him we don't talk like every day or anything like that but you know I reached out to him when it was looking like it was going to happen and I just said hey man it looks like might be you and me and you know he just said if it is you know we'll both do our best and then we'll you know reconvene as you know whatever relationship we had prior prior to the fight but yeah it's just it's just crazy how it worked out that way. And the other way I look at it is, you know, had NAM and I both done

our best back in 2010, we would have been fighting anyway for the ultimate fighter prize. So, you know, it sort of just came full circle and it is what it is and, you know, hopefully going to be a fun fight. Speaking of history, you were a part of history for this very show. You were a part of the very first live episode of the M. May Hour. I don't know if you remember this. This was back in the AOL days. We had the whole team there, Miller Brothers. It was great to have you there. But you were fresh face. You were a youngster. I remember you were like super shy and everything. The bright lights of the MMA hour was a very big deal.

And shortly thereafter, you get on tough. And it's interesting. I can imagine even, you know, somewhat hardcore fan might have forgotten that you were a part of tough. And I remember watching that show in particular. I was a lot more interested in tough back then. But just because you had been on the show and I knew of you this area, you were a complete non-factor on the show.

Like you never got any airtime whatsoever. Why was that? Why did you completely fly under the radar on that show? And how do you look back on your experience on tough? Well, I think that, first of all, I do remember that show with Charlie and Mike, a couple of the guys on the show. And that was a good time. And yeah, just looking back on tough, I mean, I think the reason I kind of flew under the radar was because in my heart, like, I knew I wasn't really ready to compete with guys at that level. You know, like on any given day, I could submit anybody or knock anybody out.

but I had only been fighting for less than a year. You know, it's almost like, yeah, I like having that attached to my name, having had that experience. But at the same time, I'd almost like people to forget, like, the kind of fighter that I was on that show, because it's nothing like I am now. I mean, I literally less than a year of professional fighting under my belt. And I'm, you know, I'm in there, if you remember,

I lost to Kyle Watson, who at the time had 30-something fights and, you know, had been around the world. I mean, I just, I don't know. I think that that's kind of how I look back on it. And I want it, I want to recreate the image for myself. I don't want to be remembered as, you know, that young kid on Tough. I want to be remembered for the performances that I've been putting out lately against veterans. You know, the guys that I've been fighting both in Japan and in New Jersey have been, are guys with experience.

I literally haven't fought anybody except for my last fight was the first time since Tough that I fought somebody with less fights than me. I'm fighting constantly guys with winning records and a lot of experience. So I think that's kind of why I was a little bit, like you said, I was shy on that show. I was a little bit shy on tough. And, you know, so I didn't get a lot of play. I wasn't creating any havoc in the house. And, you know, my performance wasn't stellar. So, you know, that's why now I'm out there and I have the experience.

I've been in the battles, of fought the guys that, you know, the experienced guys. And, you know, I know where I stack up now. And given the opportunity, I'm ready for it. So how do you look back on tough? Was it a good thing for you? Do you kind of look back on it and say, I wish I didn't do it? How do you view it?

I definitely don't say, what wouldn't say, that I wish I didn't do it because even just like this opportunity in Japan, I probably wouldn't be fighting in Japan had I had that not been on tough. You know, having the, you know, tough alum attached to my name is, you know,

part of the reasons I get the opportunities that I've gotten. And I've headlined literally every single fight or co-headlined every fight, except for one, maybe since tough. So, you know, I've been getting fights that I want. I've been getting attention locally, regionally. Obviously out in Japan, I've been able to build a good fan base out there. And a part of that has to do with being on tough. And I definitely wouldn't take away the experience.

And so I think I'm actually fortunate that I was as young as I was to give me time to then move on and do all that I've done up to this point and still only be 26 years old and, you know, really at the beginning of my career as far as I'm concerned. And then on the other, on the flip side, it's also allowed me to develop, you know, build my gym. So I opened a gym after I was on tough and having the name, you know, it just makes it easier. to give legitimacy to a niche market and, you know, give me the ability to fully immerse myself in training, you know? So now that I have a successful academy, I can train full time. I don't have to worry about working a nine to five. I don't even have, and the other thing

is cool, too, is that when I go fight, I don't have to make decisions based on how much money I'm getting paid because I already have income coming in through my academy. So it allows me to say, you know what, this is the fight that I want, even if like, you know, I get a last minute replacement fight for WSOF offer or something like that, which is a great fight, a great opportunity. But maybe I'm like, you know what, it's not the time for that fight right now, even though they're going to pay me more than I've ever been paid. I can make decisions without the, you know, I could really use an extra thousand dollars or here. You know what I mean? Like I can make more cerebral decisions about my career. So I'd say in terms of that aspect of it,

tough was 100% worth it and I would never trade anything for for for for it. Let's be clear though. You want to get back to the UFC and I say get back. You never got that shot of the UFC really. I mean those tough fights don't count back in the day. The the tough fighters who didn't make it to the the final fight usually got a shot on the finale. You didn't get that opportunity. Is that 100% the goal here? I mean pancreas is great. King of all that stuff is great, but from just talking to you a little bit behind the scenes, that seems to be what's really driving you here. Yeah, 100%.

I mean, I don't know if you remember. And again, it's sort of something that I look back on as a blessing in disguise. Like, yeah, I was bummed out at the time that I didn't get an opportunity on the finale show. But like I said, I don't think in my heart of hearts that I believed that I was one of the best in the world like I do now at that time. And had I gotten into the UFC, maybe I could have put together something. not. Maybe I would have been one of those guys that grew and was able to be successful inside of the UFC. But nonetheless, I'm at where I'm at now. And yeah, my goal is the UFC

for sure. And like I said, going back to just me as a martial artist, I mean, the money side of thing aside, you know, for me it's about doing what I want to do. That was where actually fighting in Japan, like I said, came from. I wanted to fight in Japan. I wanted to fight in Japan. I wanted to be a part of the history of Japanese MMA and I wanted to be a part of what was going on and right now I want to be a UFC fighter I want to test myself against the best out there and you know I don't want to close any doors

with the UFC not right now you know I want my goal is 100% to to stack myself up against the best guys in the world and in that division and that's my goal so you've turned down opportunities that may have blocked you from going to the UFC recently um You know, I wouldn't say they were 100%, but, you know, like, I received a call about, you know, like a Bellator tournament, I think maybe a year or two ago.

But it was like a short notice thing. You know, it wasn't like whatever, but it was like a short notice thing. And it wasn't that I said no, but what I said was that I wanted the ability, I wanted an immediate release if I didn't win the title. If I became their champion, obviously I'm not going to demand that they release me. But I said, like, if I didn't win this tournament, I didn't want to be then signed to the division. Just because at the time, I mean, Belator has changed a lot since then. Yeah. With new management, obviously.

But at the time, I had heard a lot of horror stories that I just didn't want to get involved with. You know, it's like, if I did lose, if I, at any point in the tournament, I wanted the ability to get out of there and go build myself back up in whatever way I wanted to, not wait around until Belator said, okay, here's your next fight. And then same thing with WSOF. It was another short notice fight. I think it was against Frodo, who used to be in Bellator,

but it was like a three-week notice fight, and they asked me if I was interested in it, but the same deal. I said, you know, I have my King of Pancras title fight coming up. It was far enough out that I could have taken the fight, but you never know. You get hurt, you mess your career, you mess something up that way,

and then I don't get this title fight, which right now I think just the trajectory that I've been on has been leading, to this moment. It's like, this is what I've been working for, and I'm not going to detour even if I can get paid and, and especially if I could potentially shut the door to the UFC, which is my ultimate goal. So, yeah, I wouldn't say, like, I wasn't like, no, I'm never fighting for anybody else, but, you know, I just kind of objectively made the decision that it wasn't the right time for me to do something like that. And I know you're not in the UFC

right now, but I saw a tweet from you this morning where, you know, you saw that they had posted like a promo on. their YouTube channel because it's a fight patch show and they're going to promote that. What's it like kind of being in but still being out but still having that, that, you know, that logo next to you. What's the experience like for you as you are striving to get to the UFC finally? It's awesome. I really think, like I said, it's coming full circle.

Even with fighting NAM, it's like NAM was one of the guys that did get an opportunity with the UFC over me, you know, from the show. Obviously, he did better than me on the show. but it's like it's coming full circle the fact that I'm fighting a UFC veteran who had wars in the UFC you know obviously towards the end he had a couple of tough losses but he had some great performances in there against some really tough guys he fought some of the some of the best guys in the divisions and you know if I can go in there and show that I'm clearly you know the better fighter I really think and and hope that you know Sean Shelby and Joe Silva Dana White whoever you know and I'm

actually kind of hoping since this is their first stream maybe they'll take a look at this you know watch this on fight pass um and see me fight and see that i'm nothing like the fighter that was on on the ultimate fighter i mean if you you know aside from the face maybe i mean that's it i don't fight the same way um i don't move the same way and i think it's coming full circle and i really think it's i'm on that trajectory right now that with a good victory um it's it's going to be time for me to to step up and and and jump into that division so hopefully they see it the same way. And got a lot of respect for you, man, because you're doing it on your own here. You just opened that new gym, as you mentioned, pure mixed martial arts. Where exactly

is it in Jersey? It's Rockway, Rockway Borough. Rockway Borough. So you're doing your thing there, and congratulations on that, because I know how hard it is to do that. You also manage yourself, right? And I'm wondering if you feel like sometimes that may hurt you with a Sean Shelby type, because as opposed to having someone call up and be like, look at my guy, Andy Main, look what he's doing. You have to probably do it yourself. Do you feel like that hurt? to you? Well, you know, it's been, it's, it can, yeah. Why don't you have a manager? Well, I mean, you know my manager used to be Mike Constantino who did a great job at the time, but his focus has switched over to being a promoter. He's the president of CFFC, which is awesome

for him. And I was pumped for him. And for a while, it was sort of like, you know, well, you know, he was still getting calls here and there, and he'd say, you know, like, if I get you in, you know, we'll still work out the deal or whatever. But ultimately, I've come, I came around where I was, for everything else, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to do it on my own because, you know, I don't need somebody to get me these fights. I do actually have a manager out in Japan. She is exclusive to Japan, and she's awesome.

She's been setting all this stuff up after the, after Nam got the first one. She's been managing the rest of that. But recently I actually just started talking to Kurt Pellegrino. He's kind of taken over since he, last year or the year before, he decided officially to retire. He's been really fired up about managing guys. And he just got, I don't know if you know, he got like Jimmy Rivera and Lyman Good. He was in part responsible for getting them in. And I've been friends with Kurt forever.

And I just gave him a call. And I said, hey, man, like, you know, is this your thing now? Are you doing this? and he said 100%, and he's also a veteran of Japanese MMA, and he was pumped about the title fight, so he just said, he's like, man, you get that title, and I will do everything in my power to get you in. So it's looking like I'm going to be, yeah,

it's looking like I'm going to be going to be going in that direction, working with him. Wow, that is great. A fellow Jersey guy helping out another jersey guy, Kurt, one of the good guys in the sport. I'd love to hear that. I didn't know he was getting into the managing game. By the way, the sort of fall of AMA, has that hurt you at all?

It was a transitional stage, but it was, like I said, it was Mike, you know, Mike went on to do different things, and I'm pumped for him. I still have a good relationship with him. And, you know, I have my gym, so I started bringing more guys in. Jim and Dan Miller opened their own gym about a half hour for me. So I go up there and a lot of, like, the guys that used to train over at AMA train up there. And I've also gotten on board with the Tiger Shulman's, like the pro team, like the Lyman Good, Jimmy Rivera. Nick Pace, those guys. So I started working out with them. So I've always been a traveler. Even when I was, when I was working out with the AMA team, I always travel around. And I also travel around the country. I go out to Vegas every couple of months and, you know, travel around to get training wherever I can. So it's just, there's no rhyme or reason to this sport in any, in any facet. When, you know, a curve of the ball comes at you, you slip it, and then you start, you know, you take whatever track you got to you got to take to get, to get you want to be. So I'm not worried about it. I feel as good as I've ever been. I've been working with different coaches at different gyms and I'm just excited for the next, you know, the next chapter of my career. Final thing, I've always wanted to attend a Pancre show. I love the feel of them from what I've seen on television. I got to attend a Japanese pro wrestling event while I was there for 144 and I would imagine it's a lot more like that to a degree as opposed to going to a UFC event in

Japan, but for those that haven't had the pleasure of being at one, and I know fighting at an event is different than attending one and watching it. But what's it like? Compared to here in the United States, what's it like for you fighting over there for an organization? Different world. Different world. Why? Different world. It's just on so many levels. I mean, in Japan, like, martial arts is a part of their culture, the way like football, baseball, basketball is a part of our culture. You know, so they appreciate martial artists. And they appreciate the performance. They appreciate you in a different way.

And every event has a little bit of like pro wrestling-esque promo in it, which is really cool. And like I said, it's just a different world. And then the crowd, I mean, even last night or this weekend, if you watched the show, the crowd was almost silent for most of the fights, you know, until something happens because they're educated fans. You know, they're not just waiting. They understand the feeling out process. They understand the taking your time and setting up a submission or setting up a position.

And it's pretty unreal. I mean, there was moments when I've been in fights and it's silence. So the other thing that's kind of weird is as in the fight is that like my corner is literally just talking and you can hear him. Everybody can hear me. It's not like, okay, let me try to listen to my corner. You can hear your corner. The other thing that helps is he's the only guy speaking English. That's right.

So, yeah, so, so it's really cool. But there's just so many different facets of it. It's just, it's really, it's about respect. They respect you in a different way. I respect them. But, yeah, I mean, it's something that a true martial arts, true fight fan has to experience. Actually, a pro wrestling show in Japan is something that I haven't gotten to experience it that I really, that I really want to go see because, you know, I've never had really too much

interest in pro wrestling, but out there it's a different thing. They just, they do it right. So it's just, there's so many different things I could go into about fighting out there. It's something that you have to experience for just from the crowd with the fighters, the, the promos, everything. It's just so cool. And this will be in a ring, right? No, they switched over to the cage and they've adopted unified rules. So my first two fights there were in a ring and they were like the old school pride rules. You know, soccer kicks, needs to the head on the ground, the whole deal.

They switched over to the cage in March of last year. And I actually fought, I'm not sure if my fight or if there was one more, but my second fight there was the last, I believe it was the last fight in the ring. Wow. And then they brought the cage in. And I think just, I think that what the new president is doing, I mean, he's been there a little while now,

but since the resurgence of pancreas, what he's been doing is, trying to, as much as possible, even with signing with fight pass and everything else, he wants to be a world, like a global standard. They want to adapt to the rest of the world. And right now, obviously, the UFC is the standard. And so they've adopted the cage. They've adopted their rules and, you know, sign on with the fight pass and everything else.

And I think they're just trying to appease fans globally, not just the Japanese fans, who obviously they like the ring better, I think, at the time, you know, they used to. but he's just doing a great job. And I think it's showing by the fact that he's gotten so much attention around Pancras more than, you know, more than they've had in probably 10, 12 years. Yeah. Well, this is great. Fascinating stuff. So very happy for you, man.

I'm happy for your success. I wish you the best of luck. It's Sunday morning here on the East Coast late Saturday night. It starts at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, 11 p.m. Pacific. and it's on UFC Fight Pass Pancras, 270. It's Andy Main versus Namfan in the main event, King of Pancrae's featherweight title, two Americans going at it first time since 2003.

Again, happy for you and your success. Congrats on the gym. Good luck in the flight, and thank you so much for the time here before you head out to Japan. Thank you, Ariel. It was awesome being on the show. And hopefully next time I'm talking to you,

I'll be under contract with the UFC. I look forward to it. There he is. Andy Main, big opportunity for him on early Sunday morning over in Japan. Also, Victor Henry, who we profiled recently on MMAFighting.com, also fighting on that card. Colleen Schneider, the girlfriend of one, Josh Barnett, also fighting on that card. So check it out. It's early this Sunday on Fight Pass, Andy Main. Great guy. Really happy for him.

And Nam fan, great guy as well. So that should be a lot of fun. All right, let's move along now. I'm very excited to welcome in our next guest and so very honored that he would join us after a crazy month for him. Remember, late August, we were supposed to have Dan Hardy on the program to talk about his upcoming experience on the Clipper Round the World yacht race. Well, we didn't get him due to some crazy technical difficulties, but how about this? We're getting him now after his leg of the race is over. He's in Rio de Janeiro right now, went from England to Rio, and he was on a yacht the entire time. So he's just stepping on soil a couple hours ago. He just, he docked And here he is.

He's joining us on the phone. I'm so excited about this. Dan, are you there? I am here, mate. How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for the time. So, I mean, I feel like this is an obvious question right off the top.

What was the experience like? It was intense. It was very, very intense. You know, moments where the sea's dead calm and there are moments where you get back and knocked around. We had a couple of knockdowns. We approached a few times. We've had a broken forearm and a bad tear into somebody's arm. crack rhythm.

We really got put through. It's been a success for the whole crew. But we made it. We got a third place. We battled it out in the last sort of 200 miles with the top four teams. And it's been a fantastic experience. But one of the most difficult things I've ever done, for sure. So more difficult than you thought it would be?

Oh, far more difficult. Yeah. There's just no respite. It's constant work. I mean, you know, you're on shift before. hours, then you rest four hours, but even when you're resting, you know, the boat's moving, rocking back and forth, and you can't really sleep properly, and you're always listening for, you know, a man overbord cry or, you know, a sail change that needs doing in a storm,

it's absolutely exhausting. I mean, I've been going for 28 days now, and I've lost a bunch of weight, and I've grown a beard, and I'm, I feel strong, but I'm going to need a few days off to recover from this. Wow, and again, I really appreciate the time. I can almost sense like some, like almost a sense of urgency in your voice, like you haven't quite caught your breath yet? Is that the case? Like, you're still a little rattled from all this? I am, yeah. I mean, to be honest, it's just weird being, like, back amongst people. I mean, I've been, I've been around my crew for 28 days and, you know, there are 20 people

around me all the time, but eventually you just kind of get used to living in amongst them and functioning as one unit. So then, you know, as soon as you just start seeing, you know, different people and people do going about their daily life, you know, just being around. It's quite weird being back in a city. I mean, I'm still on the boat at the moment. We're doing the deep clean, so we've got the sales down, and we're doing all the maintenance stuff ready for the next leg of the race. But, you know, I've wandered around the streets a couple of times, and it's just strange

being amongst people again when I've been so far removed for so long. Was there ever a point throughout this process where you were like, what the heck did I get myself into because, I mean, well documented that you didn't have a lot of experience doing this. I think just a couple of months you did a tutorial. You obviously got yourself ready, but this hasn't been your lifelong thing. You are a martial artist.

Was there ever a point where you're in the middle of nowhere in the ocean, there's no one around you and you're just thinking to yourself, am I going to make it? What have I done to myself? Well, most definitely. Most definitely. To be honest, that after the first couple of days, we had a wonderful parade where we went down to the Thames in London

under Tower Bridge and out towards the coast and the race start was really dramatic. That was really good because you've got all 12 boats and we're competing against each other to get an edge out before we start crossing the channel into the Atlantic. But then when you start to lose sight of the other boats

and you lose sight of land, literally there's nothing around you. And to the point where you don't see planes or anything, I mean, there are points in the race where the nearest other people other than your crew are on the space station. When that blows my mind, just to be so far away from everything

that I'm used to. No emails, no calls, no nothing. Our media station went down so we couldn't send or receive emails. All of our navigation equipment sailed after the first few days, so we didn't have any way of actually predicting weather forecasts or anything like that. It was all done based on charts and looking at the sky, basically like reading the clouds and trying to figure out the best way through with the right sail set. And there were times, I mean, we had a couple of really bad experiences with, you know, the boat being knocked completely down, And so the mass was effectively in the sea. All the sails were in the sea, and the boat was at a completely a 90-degree angle to the water.

And that's a very scary thing. Everyone's obviously clipped onto the boat and holding on as best they can. But, you know, we're looking if we didn't lose somebody overboard in that situation. This is not something that I typically follow, but was following because you were a part of it. And I read that a British crew member actually tragically passed away. Is this someone that was on your boat? and did you know this man? I didn't.

He wasn't on our boat, but he was on the I-Cocall, which is the South African boat. Because the levels of training we did, we all mixed in, so all the crews know each other, we all have friends on different votes, and I have some friends on that boat as well.

And, you know, just to hear about something like that, obviously, I didn't know Andrew, and it was a very unfortunate circumstance, you know, out there doing what he loved, but you just stop for a second and look around with the crew. And I know all those people so well now after spending just a week with them on board a boat.

You get to know each of it. It's like a crash course in relationships. And the idea of losing one of those people really puts everything into perspective. And obviously knowing people on that boat as well and knowing what they're going through and they had to obviously change course and turn the motors on and head over to Portugal

to how that dealt with and pass the body on and have the investigation done. But it really affected the whole crew. And although obviously it is a race, you know, there are 12 boats in the fleet, there are 690 crew members across the fleet, you know, that are doing either partial part of the race or the whole race.

And we're all one crew, effectively. You know, we're competing against each other, but we're all sailors. And we, you know, when someone is lost, it's felt throughout the whole company, it was a really sad day. So did you find out about this while you were, you know, competing?

And what does that do? to the morale, you're already dealing with these other elements, and then you find out about that. It's just very sobering more than anything. I mean, obviously, we were a week into the race, so we'd lost sight of most of the other boats. We were chasing out to Elmax, which is the French boat, and they were getting away from us. So that was our focus. But then all of a sudden, you know, instead of them being the competition, we were all, you know, we're all a part of the same process, and more than anything, you just want everybody to get to their

destination safely. And the first thing that hit me was, you know, one person that got on a boat in London with us a week earlier will not be making it back to his family. And that was, you know, it's a very, very sober and very saddening thing. And then immediately, because, you know, because I didn't have any contact with my family while I was out there, my fall goes to my parents and my wife and my sister and thinking about what, you know, what they're going through now because, I mean, my mom was nervous before I left, knowing how dangerous it is. And there was a guy that they lost overboard a couple of years ago in a race and it took him

18 minutes to recover him. And had he not been wearing the correct foul weather gear, they would have been pulling a body out of the sea. It just kind of puts things into perspective. You know, we're dealing with the elements. We're dealing with very, very unpredictable forces of nature

that could just basically tear of the part in a second. I mean, we had a guy who was up the mast doing a rig check and we had light wind that wasn't too bad. But we had a squall come from nowhere, just a gust of wind. Knocked him off balance me and he lost,

he lost his grip on the mast and it swung him around, broke his forearm, gave him a really bad laceration under his arm. And we did that, we did our best to, you know, to repair it. He's got,

you know, 17 stitches under his arm and we reset his forearm, which was a very unusual experience for me. I've broken a few of other people, but I've never reached that one before. And then he's, you know, he's basically sitting on the boat for 10 days with a sprint on his arm,

hoping that the bones are regrowing, because we're so far away from land, comments about it. Wow. You know, you put yourself out in danger. It's an intense environment and you've got to rely on your crewmates around you. I just hope that, you know, you email right decisions and you're vigilant enough to keep yourself safe. And now this is around the world race.

So your guys are continuing. What's it like for you to hop off and now you get to go back to, you know, your daily life and try to get acclimated again. And they're continuing on this journey for a long time. and how many more weeks, months do they have left? They have another 10 months to go. Wow. It is going to be very, very strange to see them, see the boat leaves. I'll be on the spectator boat as they cross the start line on the 7th October,

and they'll be heading out from here to Cape Town, which is a slightly shorter leg, but they're going to start getting into some really fierce ways now, some deep ocean. And that's when it starts to get really scary. So I'll be watching every day. I'll be thinking about them every day, and I'll be looking to get back on the boat if possible, and I'd like to rejoin them and assist as much as I can. Do you feel somewhat guilty that you're going back home,

at least you're on ground for now, and they have to continue? Not guilty. I don't feel guilty. I feel sad that I'm not there for them. I mean, to be honest, I'm glad to be off the boat right now. I'm glad to be able to sleep on a flatbed

and shower in a proper shower. I mean, I've been washing in a bucket of seawater for a month. You know what I mean? I can imagine I'm kind of gross. So it's nice to be able to have a shower and to have a proper meal of fresh food. I've been craving fruit for three weeks now. And just simple things like that.

So I'm glad I'm those things. I've got a lot of thinking time. I've got a lot of plans in the pipeline, a lot of things that I want to be doing with my life. And that's been a real motivating factor. So it's good that I'm back on dry land. and that I can focus on the things that I want to do, but at the same time, I am a part of a crew now,

and I feel somewhat reluctant to step away and not be there to assist them, because, you know, the amount of things I've helped out with in this past month, what with injuries, and obviously, you know, basic sail-changing evolutions and stuff, I've been quite a valuable crew member, and I'd just like to support them to the rest of the race because it's, I mean, we're going to be hitting some rough weather soon,

and it's going to be a real success for all of them. How much weight did you lose? Say that again, sorry? How many pounds did you lose while on the boat? I'm not sure. I've not managed to weigh myself yet. I've certainly leaned down quite a lot. I would say I've probably lost, I don't know, maybe six, five, six, seven pounds. It's hard to tell just from looking, but I actually feel stronger, surprisingly.

I mean, it's difficult to actually develop any kind of muscle strength because you just don't sleep for long enough when you get, you know, two, three hours at a time. but certainly my mental strength is different now I definitely feel like I'm it's kind of like my trip to China it was very similar to that in a lot of ways you know when I got back from China I felt like a very different person

I felt like I could take on the world and I really do feel like that now and I have actually taken on a part of the world a good portion of it I mean the Atlantic Ocean it's a huge space a massive expanse of ocean and you don't really get that perspective when you fly across it I mean you can see it on the chart water on the plane but to actually connect with that distance and to see it all day every day

for a month and, you know, to be traveling across it on the surface. It really puts into perspective actually how massive this planet is and how little bit we see on a daily basis. Wow. I can't even imagine the experience. It sounds equal parts terrifying but also

kind of, you know, life altering in a good way and perhaps in a bad way as well. Does this change? You know, I know you want to fight and you said that you're going to, you got your Dublin show coming up on fight past, that you'll be working with John Gooden, and then you want to put in two months to really get in there and test yourself and prove to everyone that you're healthy. But what you experience over the past month change at all, how you view your future?

Not really changed anything. Just add there a lot to it. I still feel very competitive. It was nice to be in a competitive atmosphere again, although it's very different not having your opponent right in front of you, you know, seeing them on charts and knowing roughly where they are in comparison to where you are. it's difficult to stay motivated. So I like the,

I like the competition side of mixed martial arts, and I do miss it, and I am planning on getting back to it. Other areas of my life that I want to develop up, I want to really focus on commentary and on analytics or mixed martial arts. I think that I have an interesting perspective, and I think I can continue to develop these skills

and to give people more of an insight into sport than what we're getting now. And just the general, just the general, thought process around being a martial artist, being a combative athlete. I've been giving that a lot of thought, and I'd like to get some more writing done. I do a lot of writing anyway, but I think publishing a book is one of my next goals. I'd very much like to get a book out there.

What was the hardest part of this whole experience for you? I think waking up three times a day, honestly. I'm a control-free. When I'm in training camp, I have control of everything, down to the, you know, to the finest detail. So I know how much sleep I'm getting, I know what I'm eating, I know how much I'm eating,

and I have control of all of that. Whereas when you step onto the boat, you become part of a crew, you're just a cog in a machine. So you're told when to wake up and you're given food of what to eat. Obviously, my dietary requirements are a little more strict than everybody else.

So I was lacking, you know, animal proteins for the most part. I mean, you know, tins of dehydrated chicken and beef. I just couldn't, I couldn't have faced that even if I did eat that kind of stuff. so my calories were quite low and I had to take bars to supplement myself. But the nutrition side wasn't as difficult as I thought,

you just kind of get into a routine and you just eat the fuel like you're doing training camp. The constant going to sleep, you sleep kind of restlessly for two, three hours, and then you wake up and you, you know, you're straight away, you close on, you're back on deck, be right back to Salem. And, you know, you're on it for four, five, six hours, and then you get another couple of hours sleep. And it's like that continuously. There's not a point where that stops.

There's not a day off. There's not a weekend. It's every day you get up, you sail for most of it, and you sleep for as much as it can. So you hit Rio yesterday. What's the first thing that you did? How did you try to unwind after all this? I had a cup of shower, which was absolutely amazing.

And I had the biggest fall of forever I've ever seen in my life. Loads of watermelon, loads of mango and melon stuff. and yeah, just gorged on fruit and a bottle of a nice cold bottle of mineral water because the water that we're drinking comes to a water maker so it's effectively sea water

that's been put through a crazy process of filtration and it tastes foul and it's got no minerals in it at all and nothing's cold I mean we were hot and sweating and gross all the time so just the idea of a cold drink

was something that was keeping you motivated to get to Brazil and as soon as I got to the deck got to the pontoon at the marina. Someone brought me a bottle of cold water, and that was, it was like liquid gold. Absolutely amazing. When do you get to go home and see your family?

I'm here for a few days. I have some more work for Clipper to do. I'm going to be, I'm going to go to a couple of M.N.A. jims in Rio. I'm going to be meeting some local M.A. fighters and some talent that's in the area. I want to do a little bit of tourist stuff. I want to do Christo Redeemer and go and do a bit of shopping.

I want to buy some nice crystals, We've got some good gem mines in Rio. And then we've got to do the boat. The boat's got to be deep cleaned and pretty much taken apart and put back together again to make sure that everything's in working order ready for the next leg. And then I'll be flying back to London on 7th, ready to do some work for the UFC.

We've got a couple of breakdown shows to do for Unibet and to the UFC with the upcoming shows. And then to Dublin. And I am absolutely beside myself with excitement to Dublin. I remember the last one was fantastic and this next one is going to be just as good. Yes, I agree 100%. By the way, excuse my ignorance here

as far as, you know, the actual race, but do you guys get paid for this? And if so, do you get paid enough? No, no. They actually, the crew are paid to do the race. It's an amateur sign-up process. So anybody

that wants to do it, they can sign up and you pay per leg, depending on how much the race you want to do. Obviously, if you want to do the whole thing. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunities as a sponsored athlete so I could help promote the race and kind of, you know, talk about the experience because this is something that most people wouldn't hear of and wouldn't even think about doing. And it's, I mean, Clifford doing a fantastic job. So Robert Knox Johnson was the guy that set it up and he was the first person to travel around the world solo without stopping. He did that in 1969. And so it just crossed the

Atlantic with the modern technology that we've got. I have nothing but respect to the guy. I mean, he's a hell of a tough old sea dog. And for him to have created this opportunity for other people to go out and experience that, it's a fantastic thing they're doing. So I'll help promote them as much they can, and hopefully

give them a little more insight into, you know, perhaps how to approach more professional athletes for future races, because I can see some areas in which I can help, so I'd like to continue working with these guys. Wow. Well, thing but respect for you. You have certainly brought a lot more attention. I didn't even know about

this whole thing until you got linked to it. And I can't say enough, I have so much respect for you to go out of your comfort zone and do something like this for even a month. It's just unbelievable, mind-blowing stuff. Really appreciate you coming on the show, Dan, just around 24 hours after reaching Rio. I'm so happy to hear that everything went okay with you, that you're healthy, that you're okay, that you're able to walk around and enjoy Rio now. Looking forward to your call on October 24th in Dublin and looking forward to your return to the Octagon in 2016, my friend. Thank you, mate. It's been very good talking to you.

Thanks, having me on. All right, there he is. The Outlaw. Amazing stuff. Unbelievable. Wow. That sense of urgency, that sort of rush out of breathness in his voice early on was unbelievable.

It was just like he got done some kind of triathlon. Kudos to him. And what an amazing thing. These guys, they don't even get paid to do this? Unbelievable. The Clipper Around the World yacht race. Wow. I do not know if I could do something like that.

I think he is, I mean, the fact that he fights in a cage definitely puts him above me, but to do something like that with very little experience, more of a man than I will ever be. That is for sure. Tremendous stuff. Thank you so much of Dan Hardy for the time. That was enlightening to say the least. And very happy that he is okay.

All right, let's move along now. It has been a while since we talked to the president of Belator MMA, but he has been gracious enough to give us a few minutes of his time on this Monday afternoon. We're talking to Scott Koker right now. Looking forward to this. Scott, how are you? Doing great, Ariel. How are you? I'm great.

Thank you so much. It has been a while, as I said. So we are a little over a week removed from dynamite. This was a big deal for you. It was back in your home and it was promoted. It was different. It was kickboxing and MMA. I mean, it was it was, it was.

Scott Koch were all over the place. Your fingerprints were all over that thing. Nine days removed, how'd you feel about it? Did you feel like it was a success? Yeah, I feel really good about it. I mean, to me, we had so many great stories and so many great things that came out of it. And that was something that was really a dream of mine,

you know, I wouldn't say 10 years ago. And I was in the back, and I remember Gilbert Melendez coming up to me and saying, hey, you know, I remember when I first started fighting for you, and you said, hey, what about if we put a ring in a cage? And the four, and this was back in 06-07. And here we are nine years later doing it. It was just a magic night for me,

and to be back at the SAP Arena formerly HB Pavilion. As you know, we built strike force there. And the dude in our hometown, it was just a great feeling. And, you know, it was our biggest gate ever, our biggest attendance ever. So, you know, I think that San Jose in the Bay Area delivered in a big way. Yeah. And honestly, for me, that was the coolest part of the whole thing,

just to see you back there and getting to promote a show at the Shark Tank. I know how much that arena has meant to you and means to you. And for a while there, when you were working for Zufa and that sort of advisory role, you were still kind of heading up Strike Force, but you didn't have as much of a say. They did go to the Shark Tank. They did put on events at SAP. And I'm wondering, what was it like for you? I can imagine it's almost like seeing your ex-wife sort of sleep with a new guy or

a new guy in front of it. I mean, what was that like to go back there? But it wasn't your show. it wasn't your thing. Hey, listen, the fights were great, and I went to a couple, you know, UFC fights there, but the fights were great. And, you know, but when they, when they decided to shut Strike Force down, you know, to me that was the moment when I said, okay, well, you know,

there's just going to be UFC here. And then when I decided to come back into the marketplace with Spike, you know, I had an opportunity to come back here much earlier, but I said, you know, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait to bring something big back to the area. And so a year and a couple months later, here you are with our biggest show ever, Dynamite. And, you know, I watched the broadcast a couple days after the live event.

And, man, it just looks fantastic. Great production. I think the crossover between the MA and kickboxing worked. There's just a lot of great things about it. So, you know, don't be surprised, you know, if you see some more dynamites down the future. Sooner rather than later, or is this a one time a year type of thing? You know, I mean, we'll see. But I think that, you know, for right now, we're looking at something once a year.

Obviously, a lot has been made of the ratings. We're all experts when it comes to this, but I want to ask you, were you disappointed with the number? Well, listen, I mean, we had some heavy competition that night, and, you know, were the ratings lower than the Kimball's Fice? Yeah, they were. But, you know, I look at the ratings as a overall ratings for the year, and we're still up, you know, 34% from before I took the helm,

and our paid attendance is up 78% since I took the helm a year a couple months ago. So, you know, this is a brand that's definitely made a big change. And just the philosophy of working with the guys inside the company now has changed and working with Viacom, that relationship has changed. And even with Spike, the relationship has changed. And there's so much, you know, we're all on the same page, a lot of congruency here. And, you know, we're going to do a lot of great things. And think about this.

It's long been a year, pretty much, right? It's been a year. And we're doing some fantastic things here. and mix martial arts. And give me another year. Give me two more years. We're going to make some, you know, good things happen in and make martial arts. For one reason or another, glory and kickboxing in particular, they've been sort of blamed for the rating. Is that fair? No, no, I don't think so. I think that, you know, there's a couple things. I think we need to

tighten up, which we will. We have a meeting, I think, this week, Thursday or Friday. we'll jump on the phone with Fishman and all of our guys internally and we'll figure out, you know, some of the details of the production and maybe, you know, to me I felt like when we matched it all out, I thought it was a great plan, but, you know, I think we maybe had one fight and maybe two fights too long, and we got, you know, we had to take that into consideration than the next time. But, you know, I think Gloria Keeboxy, you know, did well, and that was the beauty of this thing here as a brand, you know, that's on spike,

that's on Friday Night Lights Out, and now they get to have the MVA audience watch some great world-class kickboxing and vice versa. But I think that the show started out extremely well, and when Glory came on, I think it held, the first two fights held over a million rating for each one. Do you prefer Friday or Saturday for your brand at this point? Well, Friday nights are our night,

condition that we're going to be broadcasting mixed-marchar. And it's worked for us. I think it's held a really good rating, and we've done some great fights. But it's hard to go to the West Coast and do a Friday fight, just because, you know, to try to do a 6 o'clock start so we can make a 9 p.m. telecast to try to get the Bay Area or L.A. audience or even the Diego audience down to the venue and be there 4 o'clock or 4.30, and Friday is going to be a real big task. So, you know, I think on our big, big fights on the West Coast, we're going to hold them to a Saturday show.

Okay. And I'm happy with that. I mean, you know, that's where in the history of my promotion business, all the big fights that we did on Saturday, you know, were, you know, that was the day that we promoted them. And I think it works for the West Coast. So I think that's kind of going to be the game plan moving forward. I do remember some, Thompson Melendez, one, I remember being on a Friday. I remember some of your pre-show time shows. being on Friday. I believe Caesar Gracie, Frank

Shamrock was on a Friday. Am I crazy here? Yeah, I think you're crazy, Errol. I think that all those fights were on the battery. I don't know about that, really. You know what? No, you know what? I think you're right. And I think that we had a deal with another network. Yeah. Yeah, it was HGNED back then, and

those fights were on a Friday. Yes. And so, but when we switched to Showtime... Don't test me, Scott. I know, you're the man. I can't mess with you, or you're like the encyclopedia. Are you really considering adding boxing or maybe pro wrestling to the next one? Well, pro wrestling

would never take consideration. But, you know, when we first mapped out dynamite in my mind at least, it was like, would it be great if you go to an event and watch the best MA, best boxing, and best kickboxing?

And so, you know, but I'm happy with the way it went. I'm happy with a kickboxing and the MMA. I think it was a great message. I think it looked great in there. And to have, you know, we almost have about, I think it's close

11,000 people in the house. It was a great feeling, man. It was, you know, it felt like old times. Back in the day of, you know, Shamrock Kung Lee or Fadar Milianenko, Fadhi Fabrizio,

Carano Cyborg. I mean, those were the big fights. And then Frank, of course, sold out, you know, the first fight with Caesar Gracie. But, you know, those were the big fights that we had

in San Jose, that we had 10, thousand plus and it just felt really good to hit home run in that sense. Great segue. Speaking of Fador, how aggressively did you go after him to actually try to sign him to Bellator? Well, you know what? And I went on record with many reporters before saying we didn't really go after Fador

and we never really negotiated with him. Never? I did. No, never. We never made an offer for Fadour. And the reason was, you know, we knew that Second Cabot was coming back. We knew that he was in the running for Fianor services and that he wanted him really bad. So we just kind of stood down.

But what we did do is we said, okay, well, then let's be your broadcast partner. And Kevin and John and Sekibara kind of deal where they were broadcast the event from Tokyo. And at that time, I don't think it had theater on it. But now it's an even bigger card with Fador on the main event bill. So that's kind of how it went down. We kind of stood down and waited and just kind of, you know, wanted to see if Sucki Bar was going to get him. And I think he had an inside track,

and I know that they work extremely hard to negotiate with him. And I think he has a certain comfort level working with their team. And I think he has a certain comfort level working with our team. So, you know, don't be surprised if you don't. If you see Fador, you know, here in the future, playing some fights. But, you know, but for the first one,

we thought we were just standing down and let's like you want to do this thing. Is he fighting Randy Couture? No, that's, that's not the fight. What's the fight? I know you know. You know what? Actually, I don't know.

I think they're trying to put it together right now. But you wouldn't give them Kimbo, right? No, no. Kimbo is a Belfer fight. We have other plans for Kimbo. What are those plans? Well, we're going to, I find them early next year.

Okay. And I think next year you're going to see Kimball Flies fight three times in Belator. Oh. Well, who's his next opponent? That's still to be determined. I really thought that we were going in that direction right here, that you were going to drop the bomb. Well, there isn't really a bomb, but there is one fight that I'm really taking a close look at. Yes.

That's happening here. James Thompson, Bobby Lashley. Yeah, maybe so. We might take a look at maybe the winner of that fight. and Kimbo. The winner gets, the Kimbo sweepstakes. I'm not promising,

I'm just saying. What's going on with Will Brooks? Went on Twitter. It seems to be very frustrated and upset. Are you able to figure out where this all comes from? Have you tried to clear the air with him? This is your champion after all.

Yeah, you know what? I mean, the thing we've done this, not just with Will, but a lot of different fighters. I mean, you know, it's like, you know,

they start getting the training mode and they start, you know, put that their, their, you know, their hat on to get ready for a fire.

and start getting a little bit meaner. This is just something we've seen over, you know, you know, in the past 30 years of being in his fight business, this is not something that's uncommon. So I wouldn't, you know, just say this is a Will Brooks situation, but I think that, you know, a lot of fighters go through this. So, you know, he's putting his game face on. He's got a big fight coming out.

Held is a guy that's, you know, proven to be extremely dangerous, and Will's going to go do his thing. Any idea when you will book McGiri versus Phil Davis? Yeah, you know what? That's a fight. And that's what I love about, you know, these, like the tournament that we just had. Yeah. It's like now, now we ended up not just with one big fight between Phil and Liam,

but what about King Lowe versus Phil? That's the fight that didn't happen. Yeah. So now we have two fights, you know, that when you reshuffle the deck, you know, here we end up with two fights out of that night. So I'm extremely happy about that. But the answer to your question, I think they will probably have that fight sometime in the second quarter of next year. Was it some kind of oversight that your heavyweight champion, Vitali Minikov, fought on Fight Pass this week, last week, I should say, Friday. What was up with that?

Well, you know, I know that he's fighting some fights for a company out of Russia. Yeah. And, you know, so we're in dialogue with, like I say, and, you know, hopefully we'll have him back sooner than later. Okay, so do you think his next fight? I mean, you want your champion to fight for you, right? Yeah, of course. I mean, to me, it's like, you know, maybe he needed a couple tuna fights. I haven't talked to Lyssey directly, but I know that Rich has been in touch with him,

and, you know, maybe he gets a couple more fights. He'll come back into Venice title. And why roll the dice and not have Kosteck fight Paul Daly right off the bat? Such a great rivalry, there's a history there. Why have Kostech fight someone else, and do you know who he will fight? You know what? The Cossack fight has not been determined, but you will see that fight in mid-16

between Cossack and Daly. And we're going to want time to promote that properly and really build it up and really make it a big show because I think that's one of the fights that's going to be something that we have a lot of eyeballs on. So you don't feel like even if you put them in there against someone else, you're again rolling the dice? You know what?

I mean, you always roll the dice, but look at Daly. I mean, we put them in a kickboxing. I don't think if you lose is to, you know, a big boxer or Fernando and then the city lost and then you know, they goes fights, you know, constantly at a later date

that it makes that fight any less attractive. I think that's a fight no matter what happens that people are going to want to see that fight. Any concerns at all about Melvin Manhoff at this stage? He's taken some big blows over the last couple of years and he's fighting for you very soon.

Any concerns at all there? you know I tell you I know that we gave him the athletic commission suspension time he wasn't allowed to fight for I think six or eight months and I know you know that Melvin likes to fight a lot so we were monitoring and make sure hey Melvin you got you gotta

you know stay low and you can't go take these other fights sometimes like you like to and the whole world's watching and then you know I know that we're going to send him to the clinic when he gets here to make sure he's medically cleared. But all my indicators are that he should be fine. But, you know, it's like when a fighter gets to that point where, you know, they've been knocked out a certain amount of time,

I think that we've really got to put the brakes on it. And, you know, this is a big fight from Melbourne. And, you know, if he gets stopped again, I mean, we should maybe try to have that talk with him. A question here from a Twitter user named Nolan King. wants to know about Michael Venom Page, one of the most exciting fighters on your roster, most exciting fighter, period, in MMA. Definitely one of them.

I know he has a fight coming up, but we don't know against two, right? Yeah, I think that's something that we're going to announce here shortly. That's a great stage. Yeah, you know what? I'll have to get back to you on that one. Classic, Scott.

You have a lot of rabbits in your hat. I know that. What can we look forward to in 2016? You brought us dynamite. Anything out of the ordinary, out of the blue, you're working on. I remember that PowerPoint presentation when you showed me the tournament way back when in St. Louis. What do you got?

And actually, it wasn't in St. Louis. I thought we were in New York. No, we were in St. Louis in your hotel room. Scott, your memory is something else today. I said, hey, Eric, come check this up. You're going to want to, and I gave it to you first, right? I mean, come on. Well, you sort of gave it to me first. You said I couldn't do anything with it, which is almost like the worst thing in the world for me, because I'm dying here. I know, but how great was that? I mean, that was an amazing.

tournament. And you know what? To have, you know, Fador and Fabrice Redoom and Alice O'Reem and Bigfoot and Josh Barnett and, you know, Andrei Alowski and all the guys. I mean, to me, that was an amazing moment in time where we could put all those guys together. And I don't know if there'll be a tournament like that, you know, in the future because that was just a very, very unique, you know, moment in time, like I said. And to be a part of that, man, that's one of my, my, my, proudest moments as a fight tomorrow was putting that group together.

You know, the tournament took a little bit of time to unfold, but not only was Daniel Corrie. Yes. The first, he wasn't on the first alternate. He was the second alternate to the tournament. So he works his way into the tournament, and then he wins the whole thing and becomes a big star, and look at him now, I'm so proud of him. And I think he's accomplished.

And it all started back then in San Jose, Ball watched him with this guy saying, hey, you know, he's an Olympic wrestler. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. I don't know. And then he starts talking. I said, oh, my guy, I could get this guy

to where he needs to go if he could fight. And so that's really what made me turn the corner with Daniel. And, man, he's done great, and I'm extremely happy for him. And I tune into all his fights.

So to me, it's like, hey, I'm a fan of Daniel, but he was part of that tournament as a second alternate. And that's why I love tournaments is that stars are born.

I mean, look at Phil. I mean, people say, hey, what happened to Phil Davis? He didn't do that at the UFC, but he's doing that Belator. And, you know, I think stars are born and created, and it's always nice to have new stars

of the league pop out. Great plug there for his fight this Saturday, but you avoided the question. What about a big thing coming in 2016? I know you're working on something. Yeah, you know what? We have a lot of top secret meetings here going on at Bellator. Okay. But listen, you know what, thinking about this, you know, we are now, I feel, have turned the

corner and you know we're going to continue doing big tent pole events where we're going to probably add a couple more instead of doing you know four we might go to seven or eight next year and we're going to continue growing this brand and you know we got uh spike behind us it's a great feeling really working with uh kevin has been unbelievably uh positive and and they always have such a great outlook on the sport and they believe in the sport and think about it if if kevin k didn't give uh you know the green light to the UFC back in 06 or 07, whenever they got on TV. It's like, you know, would it be where it's at today?

You know, maybe, maybe not. But that was a very volatile time. But Kevin's a little guy that said, hey, let's do it. And so, you know, he gets half the credit. And to me, it's something that I think people overlook that the commitment behind MMA, the spike has really is we should all be thankful. We should all be happy. because, you know, not only do they keep M.A. on TV or launch M.A. on TV and launch the, you know, the ultimate fire back in five to six, which kind of saved a sport. And, you know, to me, you could have died three or four times before that or in between that time. But now they're committed to Bellator is just as much or even more. And you're going to see some great things when you have a great network like that behind it and you have ICOM backing it. And I think that we kind of, we kind of

to know how to promote. I'm saying me and my team or guys that have done this for many years. I think it's a good combination. And I think that's why, you know, let's face it, in the first six months of Velator, we were, you know, changing staff, changing locations, moving things around, figuring things out. And we had to go on the road for 10 weeks. And so it was right around October, November, when I started getting my feet dug into

the ground. And so if you look at it that way, it's been about a year. I think we've done some great things. and we got some great things coming in 16 and beyond. Happy for you, Scott. Congratulations on Dynamite. Congratulations on, again, to go back home and promote a show at the Shark Tank. I know that was huge for you.

Looking forward to what's next. And appreciate the time, as always. Good to talk to you again. Hey, Errol. Don't forget, I got those warrior seats. He's down and say, I had to Curry. Go, Doug. I would love to.

I love Stefan Curry. Wow. I love him. That's a different discussion for a different day, but I appreciate that offer very much. All right, thanks, Carol. There is. Scott Coker, stopping by the president of Beltor.

It's interesting. He talks about. first show, Spike TV, all that good stuff. As I said at the top of the show, the man who headline the very first live UFC show on Spike TV way back when, decade ago. It's our next guest. What a great segue that is. At around 1230, 12 o'clock today, Rich Franklin, former UFC Middoway Champion, went to Players Tribune, great website led by the great Derek Jeter and officially announced his retirement. An amazing piece that he penned. I do suggest you read it. Really, great stuff, and I'm so honored that he'd come on the show just a couple hours later to talk about

his decision to hang up the gloves once and for all. Rich, how are you? I'm going really good. Actually, that was a great segue. I'm going to comment on that. How about that? Amazing stuff. You defeated Ken Shamrock that night. A fight that a lot of people forget that you headline because it was all about Griffin and Bonner, but you got to close out that show with a big win. I love what you wrote. And again, congratulations on an amazing career. We'll talk about that, but why now? Why did you feel like you, this was the time to announce your retirement? Well, it's been a couple years since I've been in the cage,

and I've been saying all along that I planned on for film that contract by doing the last fight, but it just, I guess the timing now really kind of came up. I turned 41 in a week, and you start looking at things and realizing, like, the amount of time I've been out of cage and the fact that I'm turning 41, maybe it is time to actually hang up the gloves and move on to something else, which is what I said when I was writing. I'm not announcing retirement. I'm just announcing one chapter of my life and starting another.

Right. And I'm happy that you corrected that because that definitely struck a chord with me. And why did you choose to go that route, not do some sort of press conference interview? Why did you go to Players Tribune? It's something that I sat down with my PR team, and it was something that they recommended. for me. And, you know, it's just, I've kind of been a quiet guy about things. I've never been one that bolsters or puts myself out in front of the crowd or like,

here I am everybody. So it was just a good way to kind of quietly kind of bow out, considering that I hadn't fought in a while. But I will say that it was quite difficult writing the piece that I wrote, just putting all my thoughts together. and what I basically wanted the last piece of writing to represent my career to look like. That was actually my next question. I can't imagine doing something like that and trying to pick the right kind of voice and message

and, you know, the anecdotes that you wrote about. How long did it take for you to write that? Oh, not as long as you would think. Maybe, I mean, I sat at my computer probably put it together in about four days worth of time. but you know I spent probably three or four days thinking about it and I started it over once and completely deleted everything. So restarted it a second time and completely deleted everything and then started that third time and that kind of became the framework for what I had written.

And mostly when you start deleting things, it's about like you said, it's the voice that you want to tell the story in like what you want to be able to tell. Are you happy with it? Yeah, I am. I'm happy with it. And with anything else that you do in life, as a competitive athlete, you always look at something. It's like looking at an old fight. And as you watch the fight, you sit and think, like, oh, I could have done this better.

I could have done that better. And so me personally, I did the same thing with my writing. So I know it's just like around three or so hours old. And it's interesting how these things kind of spread via social media and whatnot. But have you heard from anyone in particular that really stood out now that you've officially announced your retirement? Anyone say anything, anyone in particular, or something like that? No, I mean, there have been a lot of people that have just reached out through Twitter and Facebook, through social media and whatnot. And it's kind of interesting just seeing some of the names of the people that are basically like, hey, congrats on your retirement or that was a good read.

I really enjoyed reading that. But, you know, I had one of my training partners actually reach out to me today. And with my Facebook being a public Facebook, I don't have a personal Facebook. I've just never much been a personal Facebooker. And he had sent me the post that he wrote about me, one of my old, one of my longtime training partners, Chris Mearsweck, who's now up in Denver. And he sent me a post that he had written about me today.

And it was just like one of those things where you sit and read that. And I'm like, right, it's kind of an emotional day already, so quit sending me that kind of crap. You don't want that. You don't want to celebrate yourself. No, no, I think I should probably be better about that, but I'm always one of those people who are always looking at what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next. Did you reach out to the UFC brass?

At the end of the day, you are a UFC fighter still. You still have a contract with them. How does this sort of thing work? Do you reach out to them? Do you tell them or do you figure they're just going to find out via the Internet here? Oh, well, they've already found out via the Internet because I know, like, UFC Fight Pass has, we saw that come across social media today that UFC Fight Pass has, like, watch Rich Franklin's career. you know, type of thing.

So I know the UFC knows, but I will send them a formal letter of resignation. I have my manager who's checking on that and the proper channels to go through to make sure that if there's anything that I need to do, that I do that properly. But, I mean, other than announcing retirement, as an athlete, I have an open-ended contract with UFC. So three years from now, which is more than highly unlikely, but if three years from now, I decided that I wanted to come out of retirement and fight, I would have to do it with the UFC. see anyway, so I don't really think there are any significant things that I have to do to make that official with them. But as a, you know, out of courtesy, I definitely would for sure reach out to them. I know you've had a great relationship with Dana and Lorenzo over the years. You didn't

talk to them at all beforehand? No, I hadn't. Since it's been so long, look, if this was in the middle, if I had fought a couple months ago and this was a big surprise or a shock to people, because I know that, a lot of people, there are some people that come across social media that are like, well, I thought you had retired already. You haven't fought in a while. And it's like, well, I'm just making this official announcement now.

I don't think it's any shock to the UFC if I was in the middle of between fights or something like that, and they thought that I was going to fight maybe like, you know, before the end of the year or something that I definitely would have coordinated this with them. But I don't think it was necessary at this point. Since your last fight in 2012, how close were you? Was there one particular point, a fight offered, a period of time? I know your name has come up here and there. Was there ever a point where you were super close to coming back?

There were a couple things that were talked about that kind of had me excited. At one point, there was some talk of me and Bisping, and then something was mentioned to me about a rematch with Dan Henderson, and those two things got me excited. They're both excellent fighters, but more importantly, I think they would have made for exciting fights. but just for my duties with one championship and the things I have going on with Armour Gel

and all the other work that I'm doing is just is proven to be a bit too busy for me. By the way, last time you were on this show, you were talking about Armour Gel. Recently, my wife, we were packing and she cut herself,

and I remember that I had a tube that you sent me, and I appreciate that greatly, and we put the armor gel on it, and it actually made her finger feel a lot better. I don't know if we used it the right way, we should have put it on there, but it worked. So I appreciate that greatly.

Did it help her heal faster? Do you know? You know, I'll ask that question this evening, but I know it reduced like the stinging and I just remember it working. And I was happy that I had and remembered that I had it. Well, the most important thing about the armor gels that you don't have to worry about the bacteria and all that stuff building up. Like it keeps the cut clean and that's the primary function.

But like we talked about before, there's so much other stuff with that. But this isn't this, you know, we're talking retirement here and everything else. Fair enough. I just wanted you to know that. I appreciate it, man. Yeah. I'm glad that you're getting used out of it. And if you need more, you know how to find me. I appreciate that as well.

Are you the kind of guy that looks at your career and says, man, if I fought now with sports bigger, I could have made more money, I could have gone this and that, or do you kind of like that you were part of that era that really helped revive the sport, launch the sport into the stratosphere that it is today? How do you view the way you, the era in which you fought? I think I look at both possibilities. I think about the possibilities of today, and you see the sport. Like, I was part of the era that helped the sport go mainstream.

And like I wrote in my article, we really did. We went from state to state, and we were talking to Associated Press everywhere, and really were spreading the word of MMA, and they specifically used me to kind of debunk the stereotypes that went with all the fighters. And I really do enjoy that timeframe in which I thought. But when you look today and you start seeing more mainstream sponsors getting involved and the number shows that they're doing and stuff like that, you know, I was just part of that first wave and miss those paydays

where the decimal places start increasing and stuff like that. Do you consider your... Go ahead, sorry. Think about that stuff. I was just going to say, yeah, you think about that stuff. But I really am blessed to be part of the era that I was part of. Do you consider yourself a pioneer? Well, I don't know because I don't want to discount the things that the original guys like

like Hoyce and Ken and Dan Severn and Mark Coleman, all those guys of the UFC of yesterday did. But I think that when you start looking at how MMA transitioned from the way it was perceived to the modern-day MMA, then yeah, I was definitely a pioneer of the sport. What about the Hall of Fame? Does that mean anything to you? Do you want to be a UFC Hall of Famer? I think ending up in the Hall of Fame would be any kid's dream.

Any kid that grows up dreaming of being an athlete would say to themselves, if I could have the kind of career that would put me in the Hall of Fame at the end of the career, basically saying that I was a good enough athlete in my sport to be amongst the best of the athletes in that sport, then, yeah, that's pretty much what kids dream of. So, yeah, it would be great. But that's not for me to decide. That's for the fans. Sure.

Whoever else both on it. One thing I love about your Twitter feed, you've got a great take on the world and life, and I appreciate it. It seems authentic. And so I'm wondering, you seem like a very positive guy. I'm wondering if you have any regrets. Any regrets? No, not really.

I just, no, I always try to maintain a positive outlook. Look, I'll tell you, Ariel, when I think about life and I think about things that are in, I always talk to people. When I do public speaking, like motivational speaking, one of the things I talk about is like things that are in your circle of control. And if you had listened to my TED talk earlier,

I think you and I talked about that, I talked about losing and things that were in the past. In the past, like, if you're the kind of person that dwells on your past, like focusing on the past and especially mistakes, like it will only create regret. And if you focus on the future, it'll only create anxiety.

And when I say the future, I mean problems in the future. And so I try to focus, And I've got to be careful about the way that I say this, but I focus on the now because the now is what you can control. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that I don't look to the future because the sum of the nows between now and the future will end up being the future. But each step of the way, I basically focus on that point with a future goal in mind. But I rarely look to the past, like even with my accomplishments, I'm always, like my accomplishments are behind me. and that's why I wrote about, in that article,

I wrote about closing a chapter and opening another because it's not something where I'll be identified. 20 years from now, I won't be identified just as a fighter. I'm hoping between now and the next 20 years that there are many other great things that I accomplished in my life that I would be identified by. So, no, I don't have regrets like that that I think of. And so with that in mind,

I feel like I know you're going to say here, but I feel compelled to ask, after the hearing last month with Anderson Silva and the excuse that he gave for his positive test. Did the thought go through your mind at all? Like what was going on when I fought him twice? Look, I would be a liar if I said that I didn't think that. You start kind of going back and looking at all the people that have kind of been associated with PEDs in one way or another. But I really believe, like, I mean, Anderson's a, he's an honorable guy.

I would believe that he used that as just to help himself heal. And so it just happened on the tail end that he got caught, but it makes him look bad for his entire career that people start questioning that stuff. So, you know, I'll tell you, I try not to. It's something that I work on in my Christian walk, but I try not to pass judgment on people with things. And so not for me to say. Fair enough.

I just wish he would have just said just that. You know, he needed to heal and not this other excuse that they brought to the table. But that's not your problem, my problem. He has to deal with that. Final thing, and I know you address this in your piece. And again, I urge everyone to check it out. You tweeted it earlier. It's on the Players Tribune.

It's wonderful stuff. People ask you all the time about your greatest moment, the moment that sticks out. Is there a moment that didn't happen in the cage that happened behind the scenes as you were trying to blaze that trail in the locker room, a moment with the UFC brass, something before the U. UFC that when someone asks you about your mixed martial arts career, your career as a fighter, sticks out above the rest? Well, I mean, you have the story that I wrote about about my dad, and that was truly, you know, a piece of, like, when I look back, because it just made my career come full circle. But I'll tell you, one of the things that happened to me that I'll probably never forget.

It was the night after my title fight, I was in, I had beaten Evan Tanner for the title in Atlantic City. And the next day, we had to get on the plane. And I was pretty banged up because it was a long fight. And when we were getting on the plane, we were heading from Atlantic City, and I had to go straight to the taping of the ultimate fighter for season two. And as we're heading to the airport, like, we're leaving the, leaving the hotel. And Dana looks at me, and he said, you ready to be a rock star? And MMA at the time was just kind of like breaking out of that. niche, like it was, it was just starting to become mainstream. And I just kind of, in my mind, chuckled.

I'm like, eh, you know, it's like MMA wasn't anything like, like a sport like football or basketball at the time. And just, you know, I just remember that. And then within the next, like, three or four years of my career, I mean, it just, the whole sport, myself, everything, it just blew up. And I just, I think that kind of explains the whole career for me. Like, it was just something like, like I said, the whole thing was just surreal.

start to finish. Well said. That story about your dad is amazing and another reason to check out the piece. That really, that hit me right in the heart. I appreciate it greatly and I appreciate you coming on. I know it's probably a hectic day, busy day to come on on short notice and do this means a lot. Congratulations on an amazing career, a legendary career, a Hall of Fame worthy career. And thank you from, you know, people like me who when you were fighting, when you were on Spike and headlining that show, I wasn't involved in all of this. I was just a fan. man, you were such a great ambassador, you were such a great role model, you were someone that say, look, cage fighters aren't barbarians, they're teachers, they're clean cut, they're good

people. You were one of those guys that I pointed to. I remember this vividly. Thank you for being that guy. Thank you for a great career, great fights, all the great memories, and hopefully our past, you know, across in the future, because it's always great talking to you, interviewing, you always appreciated it. Yeah, hey, it's always, always great interviews with you, Ariel, anytime you need me on. Look, we're both going to be in the same industry for quite some time, I'm sure. So just because I'm not fighting anymore doesn't mean that I'm not going to be around. Thank you, Rich.

All the best. Yep. God bless, brother. There he is. Rich Franklin, announcing his retirement earlier today via the Players Tribune, a great piece, as I said, multiple times, a great career. It ends with a 29, 7 and 1-0 contest, 29 wins, 7-defeats, 1-0 contest. His last fight in November of 2012 was a log.

to Kung Lee, and he's had some amazing moments. His last win, UFC 147, a unanimous decision win over one Vandrele, Silva. Who can forget his win at UFC 115 over Chuck Ladell knocking him out, ending the Iceman's career, but he's had so many great moments inside the Octagon prior to his UFC career. A true legend of the sport, former champion, guy who gave us a lot of great fights and gave us a great interview once again here on the show. Wish him all the best. Who's breathing into my microphone or my headphones over there. Is that Mr. New York, Rick? Is it me? It is you. I hear you breathing. Like the madman that you are. So we have some breaking news here as we transition to your questions. Is there something you want to say? You don't usually jump on this quickly. No, I think they

just brought the mic up early so you could hear my... Oh, okay. Well, we do have some breaking news. A lot of people getting very excited about this and asking for my opinion. It happened in the middle of, I believe, our Dan Hardy interview. And of course, I don't want to be... disrespectful to our guests and start talking about something else. But in the, in the middle of that interview, the UFC sent out a press release stating the following. UFC today announced a series of important steps to bring mixed martial arts events to New York. These efforts include the scheduling of the organization's first professional MMA event in New York since the state's ban in 1997. This event will take place at Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena,

on April 23rd, 2016, featuring UFC's top champions competing with other world-class athletes inside the Octagon UFC is also taking additional steps through the federal courts to ensure this event's success. Now, this is very interesting, of course, as we know right now, we are in the state of New York, the great state in New York, the Empire State, MMA still banned. This has been well documented. Here's a quote from Lawrence Epstein. We believe the quote, we believe fight fans have been waiting. have waited long enough to experience live events in the state of New York, and we are thrilled to announce our first event at Madison Square Garden. Professional MMA is legal around the world.

A little bit of a typo there is legal around the world, and it is about time New York followed suit. In August, U.S.C. filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Federal Appellate Court with jurisdictions over New York, stating that New York's prohibition of regulated professional MMA events violates the First Amendment rights of athletes and fans throughout the state. On September 28, the UFC filed a new case in federal court, reiterating its claim that the New York law banning MMA events is unconstitutional.

This out-of-date law is too unclear for the public to understand and has allowed regulators in New York to pick and choose arbitrarily what events they will permit. Events featuring every combat sport except MMA seem to be allowed in New York, though this is not explicitly stated in the law. This statute and the state's pattern of enforcing it violates the Constitution's prohibition on unconstitutionally vague laws. And finally, later in the week, UFC will ask a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against New York state officials enforcing its unconstitutional law. Without such an injunction, the event at MSG will not be able to proceed. So that is gigantic in its own right.

The whole thing is gigantic. The UFC has floated with this in the past, but they are. They are going for the big blow here. What do you make of this, New York, Rick? What do you make? Obviously, they are trying to go a different route because the New York Assembly refuses to allow its members to vote on it. We know about the history.

We know about the politics. We know about the union. Are you confident that this will get it done? I mean, that type of insight I wouldn't have, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll tell you that much. Gosh. We're trying to have some,

some fun here. Celebrate. There's nothing to celebrate. Nothing. You feel like this is semantic? This is almost like politics right here in its own right? You know, they've reserved the date at MSG for forever now. They've been doing this, yes. So what's different in this case? I mean, well, you know, obviously there is something different,

which is the injunction part of it. Yeah, that's huge. I mean, that could be meaningless. I don't know how likely that is to succeed. So I'm not getting my hopes up, because I've gotten my hopes up already. I've been hurt too many times. Yeah, I mean, this is interesting.

I always feel like the UFC would wait for the government and the athletic missions to be on board. And obviously, if the government got on board, the athletic commission would fall as to. They've already come out and said that they want to oversee these events. They just can't because of the fact that it's still, you know, the bill hasn't passed. It's still illegal. But this is definitely, I mean, this shows just, A, how desperate they are to get it done, how much they want to get it done, how big it is. We've talked about that.

I do think the UFC needs New York. I still think it's important. I know there are a lot of people around the world who say, screw New York, take those events elsewhere. I think they need New York. It's strange to be considered a mainstream sport and still be illegal in the media capital of the world, the number one market in the country.

So, hey, why not? Go for it. Try something different. Clearly what they've been doing the last few years hasn't been working. Clearly, the tentacles of the union reach pretty damn far. I'm all for it. But I agree.

you. I think we need to... Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. What? When I said what I said, you're like, oh, we're trying to... Well, I'm excited. But I want to be excited. I want to be positive. But I do think I need to curb my enthusiasm as the show states. Because, yes, you're right. They have booked to date. They've announced a date. They've played with our emotions. And this is personal for maybe people who live here who want to just jump on the subway and go to an event at MSG, the best arena, of the world's most famous, all that stuff, it would mean a lot. And you know that they're going to bring a big event. And you know that they're going to go to Albany and Syracuse and in Rochester.

They claim Buffalo, and that's good for Canada as well. But I don't know. I always feel much like with the Nick Diaz case. And by the way, we are 14 days into the fact that Nick Diaz is still suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which is a crime and a horrible injustice. Government doesn't really like to argue with government, right? They don't like to, I think Luke said that last week on the show. it's hard to get the government to go against the government. So I don't know. But if it happens, I'll be the first to throw a party.

We'll have a party right here on the show. We'll have a party. Piniadas. What else? And once again, I'm throwing my name out there. You know what for? Oh, the preview show. I want it.

I want it. That's the one you want, huh? That's what I want. So we've gone from the M.A. Can we just clarify something about the M.A. B for a second, because. every time we do the beat, you get a couple people here and there who say, oh, where's New York? Sounds like a lot of people.

Let's be honest. It's worth mentioning, I mean. It's died down considerably. But it's worth stating because I always feel like you play this game with the retweet there, the reply there, the smiley face there. Gosh, even sometimes a selfie, for God's sakes. And you never tell the people why you're not on the beat. Why you're not considered?

When we have a person out, we'd love to have you. but why can't you do it? Go ahead, be honest with the people. Tell them the reason so we can end the show. Okay, okay, okay. The reason is because Ariel Hulani is oppressing me and doesn't want to put me on them and may be. And that's okay.

That's not true. You have a real job. You have a fair boss, a great boss, but he feels like when you do the show on a random Thursday, it is taking away from your duties at that job. It's true. I work in PR the rest of the weekend. And it's not always feasible.

So you have been ruled out. unless I've been told, unless I am told otherwise, you are no longer an option for the show. So please set the record straight so I can have these people stop tweeting, putting in the comments. You are not eligible to be on the show. Is that not true? I appreciate the support and continue to tweet your grievances to Ariel Hawanee. That's BS. At Ariel Hawanee on Twitter.

That's just ego pumping, in my opinion. So, moving on. Let's do some questions. Let's. I want to start with Twitter this week because there's a few less. We can just knock them off and then go straight to the website. Okay. And I think I want to slip a call in there as well.

We got a call? We have somebody who's been dying to get on and it couldn't be more timely. Okay, so just go on. Well, let's do, I have to call. So let's do Twitter first. Oh, what kind of a call or do you have to call? Don't worry. First question from Twitter.

Yes. What's next for Josh Barnett? I'm sure that Josh would love a rematch with Travis Brown. Well, that's interesting. Hmm. I'd even think of Travis Brown, to be honest. I was kind of thinking Matt Matrione for Travis Brown since they've been going back and forth. Sure.

But it's interesting that they haven't booked either of them. You know, Dave mentioned Arlovsky. I thought of Arlofsky off the bat, but I kind of feel like at this point, if Arlofsky's only going to fight in like January, February or so, and he's not fighting for the belt. For the record, I'm not on board with the Frank Mear idea. I know I reported down on UFC tonight doesn't mean I'm on board with it.

I think that the first time they fought, it didn't make a lot of sense. It wasn't the best fight. I don't foresee the UFC just doing that right away. They don't usually do that sort of thing. I'd rather see Arlowski fight the winner of Rothwell-Meochich and then have Barnett. Honestly, I'd rather have him fight the winner of Hunt Bigfoot.

Okay. What do you think of that? I love those. But I mean, I think that at heavyweight, there's so many good matchups. It's not a division where, like, we're running out of options for for guys. And also rematches at heavyweight to me because of A,

their power and their ability to knock each other out with, with more frequency and, you know, changing the outcome of a fight using their power, whereas at the lower levels, it's not as prevalent, makes rematches a little more exciting. Because, you know, one punch from a heavyweight can knock anybody out. Almost all heavy weights have that kind of power. So I like rematches at heavyweight more than I like them at other divisions. So I feel like there's no bad heavyweight fights.

I really just feel that way. That I love heavyweight fights. Even when they're sloppy, even when it's a grinding affair. Could you imagine Fador versus Josh Barnett at this point? What's that? I would love to see that. No, I know, but we're not going to get it. There's only great fights for Fador in the U.C.

And this is, you know. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's on Fador. That's not on. As I said last week on the show, by the way, Kimbo Slicse. I don't know about that. No, no, no. Remember what I said?

There's no way Scott Coker would give Kimbo Slices to another promotion and he confirmed that today. Yeah, and he confirmed that. Okay. Answer this one, and I will dial up. Uriah Hall. What were your thoughts on Uriah's impressive victory against Musassi? Where do you think he fits in the division after beating the number six rank fighter? And who would you like to see him fight next?

That is a great question. Well, let me ask you this, or are you jumping off for a second? Okay, you were jumping off. I mentioned Tim Kennedy, because I know he's been looking for a fight, and I think if you can beat a guy like Tim Kennedy, I mean, that is a tough son of a gun, that is a top contender, somewhat wronged in that UL. Romero fight. That would be a great test, because, look, that was an amazing win for your eye a haul

over a badass, contender, veteran. I mean, a guy who's never been stopped before via strikes, ever. Gagar Musassi, think about all those fights, never before. And to pull off something like that, a spinning back kick and then a flying knee, amazing stuff. Finally, Uriah Hall steps up and picks up a big win, and I know he's not a fan of the media, which I don't know if it's a hundred percent fair.

I feel like the media has been pretty good to Uriah Hall. Like, I don't know. I just feel like we've pumped them up and talked about him and been excited about his fights and things have happened here or there, but I don't know if, you know, there are a few fighters who could say, oh, the media hasn't treated me fairly. I don't know if you're Riah Hall, with all due respect, is one of those fighters, but hey, his prerogative, he can feel how he wants. I feel like a fight against someone like Tim Kennedy would be a real nice test. And of course, there's always Bisping. Bisting's always out there. They had their back and forth. Bisping talked

about him prior to his last fight, and he took offense to that. And then remember his son tweeted him go have a Snickers, which I thought was pretty hilarious. And there's Machita who told me he wants to return January February, and what a test that would be. I mean, let's not forget that as of right this second, Dry Hall is not even ranked. And kudos to Gagga Musassi for being one of those guys who doesn't say, oh, you know, I'm not going to fight him because, you know, because he's not ranked. He was supposed to fight Jukka-Karnero. Carnaro got hurt. He's not saying he wants to fight Hall. I know Derek Brunson is interested as well. He tweeted that. So I'm curious to see where Hall fits in, he should be ranked now over a few of those guys, but that division is definitely

getting interesting. And now you have a new face and new player in your eye hall, a guy who we've had big expectations for for quite some time. Is he top four, you know, we talk about that fad four of Wyman, Rockhold, Jacerang, Romero, not quite there. But if you can get a fight against a Kennedy, Machita, Bisping, you win that one. Then you're there. Let's not forget way back when, also Chris Wydenman, five. him at ROC, Ring of Combat and beat him. But that was a long, long time ago. But a great win and definitely one of the highlights of Saturday, a huge win, the biggest of his career by far. Now, let's go to the phone lines. It's been a while since we've taken a call, and this

particular gentleman was actually very patient last week, and we had to bump him because of Uriah Faber. And by the way, I want to mention something about the Uriah Faber. I got a lot of people who gave me props and said, great interview. One of your best interviews is all that. I don't know. I don't I don't really know if it was my best interview. I don't even know if it's fair to call it that because I think I asked like five questions throughout the whole thing. But I really appreciate people liking. In fact, at one point, last week we were number three on iTunes.

And I don't even know how the iTunes ranking work. I don't even know what goes into it. A lot of it doesn't make sense. But I don't think we've ever been that high. So I appreciate everyone who commented or download, spread the word. And I appreciate your eye coming on and opening his heart and just laying out the whole whole story. That was definitely memorable stuff. Anyway, this guy was on hold and we had to bump because we went too long, so happy that he

called back. Johnny from Long Island, long time listener. Back on the show. Johnny, what's up? Hey, H. How you been, brother? It has been a while. Where have you been, my friend? Oh, man, living life, man, trying to fight this Nick Diaz thing. What the hell is going on in your sport today, brother? My sport. It's all our sport. You are part of us. Yes, 100%. And you have always fought for us. And I have been dying to ask you one question and one question only. Yes. Do you think the Nevada State Athletic Commission should be arrested?

Whoa. Or press charges for, fined, or just called out in a real court. Do they have to be accountable ever? Yes. Yes, 100%. As I've said multiple times, that was an abuse. use of power to the highest order. It was appalling. It was disgusting.

I've called it criminal. And what I mean by that is, I believe that they did not give him a fair shot. They did not even... Isn't a criminal that Pat Lumval said he better testify? Isn't that just like... I honestly don't think that they understand the concept behind the Fifth Amendment, and they actually used that against them, which is wrong.

Now, I think that he... nowadays, if you're a constitutionalist, they think you're an enemy of someone. This is, you know, they have to realize, and did you hear Doug Crosby? The corruption in his way of talking to

jail funding on his podcast? You'll answer one question about accountability? Doug Crosby, what does he have to do with Nick Diaz? He's a judge in Nevada, no? Oh yeah, but that's a whole different thing. I mean, you're talking commissioners and judge. I'm talking personalities and professionalism. He couldn't answer why they don't have accountability.

Put them in a room, put their mics on, tell them to write down what they see. There's real refs out there. The real fans might have to start becoming a rep. Well, the judges. The issues involving the commission have long been discussed. They're all boxing. There's a lot of issues there. This was the grossest of the mall, because these are commissioners.

These are supposed to be the ones overseeing everyone, and they come in with biases and all kinds of problems. So I have a lot of faith in his team, his legal team. We had Lucas Middlebrook on the show last week. These are smart people. These aren't MMA people. He has a strong defense, and that's the thing. Look, I see some people talking about marijuana, things like that. It has nothing to do with Nick Diaz.

It has nothing to do with weed. Really, it doesn't. It has to do with an abuse of power by commission, who went in there with an agenda. What about Anthony Porcupine on the commission? Marnell, yeah, he has his history as well, but this is what bothers me the most. They came out with these laws. these rules, these guidelines, that if you fail three times for marijuana,

you get three years. Where do the extra two years come from? And oh, by the way, he took three tests that night and passed two of them. And the one that he failed went to a non-wide-accredited lab and there are all kinds of issues involving it.

So, I mean, this thing, in my opinion, should have been thrown out. He should have gotten zero punishment whatsoever. He took more drug tests in one night than Anderson, GST, any of these guys. and to top it off, who do they have in charge of when the fighter needs someone to stand up for them? They got Matt Hughes. Matt Hughes is one of the only people that will never admit that he dodged Nick Diaz his whole career

and could have gave him a fair shot. Never did, never spoke on it. And you've got to call these people out. And we never forgot what Phil Nurse did to BJ Penn. These type of people should come out and say, what we did was wrong, but what they did was worse than Nick Diaz. All right, man. They can call themselves out. Thank you for the call. I appreciate it, man. Keep calling.

Oh, definitely, brother. And if you want to drop the mic and say free Nick Diaz to end the show, we'd love it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Look, I don't think I need to say that in particular because I've been saying a lot, and I will keep saying. There used to be a writer, and I'm happy you call them, I'm happy you brought this up, because this needs to be discussed every single week. There used to be a writer that I used to read in the Montreal Gazette every Monday. He wrote a column called the Monday Morning quarterback, and I know that's not the most original name, but this is a writer. This is really before Peter King and all that stuff, but he took it from someone, I know. Every Monday I would read this column where he kind of recapped the week in sports and talked about the highs and lows.

And at the end of the column, he had this section called Heroes and Zeros. And you talk about the Heroes of the Week and the Zeros of the Week. Often they were Montreal sports personalities, but I enjoyed it. It was different. It was fun. It was lighthearted. And what I loved most about it was every week for three, four, five years, I don't remember how long every single week.

The last three zeros were Bud C. League, David Sampson, Jeffrey Loria. Bud C. League, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball, Jeffrey Loria, the former owner of the Montreal Expos, and David Sampson, his son-in-law, who was the president or whatever, and they killed baseball in Montreal, and now they're kind of doing the same in Miami. Horrible people, liars, cheaters. I wish they never had gone involved with that team. Every single week, he would put them in the zeros. Even if it was January and there was no baseball going on,

nothing was doing with baseball. They had no reason to be that they didn't do anything. He put them there every single week no matter what. They were the zeros of the week. And I love that. It made me so happy to see that every week, every Monday morning. That's how I feel about the Nick Diaz thing. every single week, every single show, no matter what's going on, we need to talk about this.

We need to remind the people, the public, we need to talk about it. We need to let everyone know that what happened to him two weeks ago was unconscionable. It was disgusting. It was wrong. It was appalling. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be righted. It needs to change.

What happened in Nevada two weeks ago was one of the ones. worst moments in MMA history. It really was. This shouldn't happen. You can't take away someone's livelihood. Not that way. It just isn't fair. And it needs to be fixed. And by talking about it, it's our small part. And we're doing things. Trust me. I'm not just talking about it. I'm trying, behind the scenes. I'm trying to do my part. I understand that as a journalist, as a public face, there's a certain level of responsibility. And you've got to walk the walk. Trust me. Trying. And again, it has nothing to do with Nick. We've had our ups and downs.

We have a great relationship now. But it really, this could be, you know, Tito Ortiz, who probably doesn't like me, or Rampager who doesn't like me these days. This could be any one of those guys. It doesn't matter. It was wrong and it needs to be fixed. And I hope his team is doing the right kind of thing to the right steps. They're, from what I understand, doing the right things to appeal and to get this

fixed, but we need to do our part as well. and kudos to Senator Tick Seegerblom of Nevada who came out last week and also echoed that this was wrong and that this needs to change. And what they did two weeks ago was a huge injustice. So I'm happy that Johnny called to bring that up because we need to talk about it every single week. All right, let's get back to the questions. Going on the same topic, what is the CO of the year so far because of Uriah Hall, who's for sure on that list now? And by the way, I knew it didn't sound right when I said it unconscionable. That's what I said, right?

Did I say inconscionable? I think you said unconscionable. Well, it's unconscionable. It's hard for me to wax poetic in the 3 o'clock hour. Just want you to know. It takes a lot. Anyway, back to the questions. What is K.O. the year?

Uriah Hall. Was that it? Was the one we just saw it? You're putting me on the spot. You've had some time to think of this. What was the K.O. the year? I think this is probably it. A few that come to mind

Thomas Almeda's knee on Brad Pickett was pretty great Oh yeah, that was great Macwon Amirconi's Like 15 second KO of Andy Ogle was pretty special What? It wasn't as clean That was awesome He blitzed him in the first move of the fight He did, he did

That was incredible I got love for Maquan For me, you know what holds a really special place is Travis Brown and Arlovsky That fight was bonkers Oh yes Not the CO itself wasn't, you know, like the greatest thing we've ever seen, but just the circumstances right before the COO,

how they were knocking each other senseless. That was a pretty great one. But in terms of technique, this one's pretty hot. It wasn't 100% clean, though. I mean, what he pulled off was great, but I don't know if he'll win. What do you think? Well, yeah, he didn't go straight out. He had to hit him with the spinning back kick and then the knee and then the punches.

so he might not beat like a one hitter quitter, but it was an amazing chaos. Do you remember the David Loazzo sequence that I keep talking about? UFC 53, Charles McCart? Vagely. Oh, it's unbelievable. Spitting back kick to the body and the flying knee, unbelievable. It's like you shot out of cannon.

A couple other ones, Tiago Santos against Steve Bosse. Remember that? No, what was? Oh, yes, yes, yes, I do. I do, I do. That was unbelievable. And what about a guy who Melvin Manhoff is fighting? He's Sakikato again.

Joe Schilling. Against Joe Schilling. Superman Punch. That one was a one hitter quitter. That was a pretty good one. That was pretty brutal. Yeah, that might be up there. Justin Gachi, Palomino, just recently.

Last week. That was good, but I mean, it was a little obscured when it was on camera. I feel like that one's not going to get as much credit, although it was a really clean knockout. It was amazing. I think this one is probably the highest degree of difficulty, especially because it's Musasi as well. Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll see. We'll see at the end of the year when we'll see. we give out our awards. It's fun when a new contender emerges, especially one who we had high hopes for, who stumbled early, who stayed with it. What a complex character, Uriah Hall is. The guy just seems to have many layers to him and is slowly bringing it out. The worst part about knockouts like this, honestly, is just that it brings out all the violent tweets. What an amazing display of violence that was. I got to be honest, when I saw that, I wasn't thinking, wow, violence, yay. You know what I mean? I was like, holy crap. That was

was amazing athleticism. That was unbelievable. I can never imagine doing something like that. That was a professional athlete doing what he does best. It wasn't, oh, I can't wait to see that a thousand times so I can see Musassi's head fall against the mad and bounce a couple times like a car crash. Yeah, but can you separate the two? I can. I can't. I mean... You can't? No. The idea is he's throwing fists and knees and feet at somebody else's head to cause a concussion. And at the end of the day, that's a violent act. And regardless of how we try to frame it, I think violence is inherent in the sport.

I don't, yeah, of course it is. I'm not blind to what's going on. But I don't watch, like, I'm not watching this weekend, Daniel Kormor and Gustav, to see someone's head get smashed off. I want to see. But if it happens, it's the most exciting part of it. I mean, you can, you know, you can vote for a great, you know, back and forth fight.

But a lot of times that includes a lot of concussive blows at a head as well. That's the worst part to me. The violence is inseparable for me, and I feel like we, by nature, have that appreciation for it. Not me. Diego Brandau, speaking of complicated characters. Was the former tough winner lowdown on the card? Perhaps the kick in the behind Diego needed to get his career back on track. It's only one win, but it was impressive.

Should his next fight be back on the main card? That was another great. knock out a great win. It was. A quick one as well. I mean, he was on the main card, but he got bumped up because of Kid Yamamoto having to pull out and that fight getting scrapped. I don't know. You know, Brando is a fun fighter and exciting fighter, but I don't know if we are going to see more out of him against better competition. I think we know who Diego Brando is at this point, and that's an exciting fighter who will beat a certain kind of fighter. And, you know, he's not Roy Nelson, like I was talking about him earlier, but to a degree, like,

Connor beat him and then went to step up. I don't know if Brando has a title run in him. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Is that being harsh? No. I mean, that's... I just think there's certain, you need certain players and certain divisions and every division has them.

There's only one belt. Not everybody's going to be the champ. So, I mean, Cuckuno, I think we kind of know what we're getting out of him at this point as well. So I don't know. I thought it was fun. He's there. He fills out a card. And you know what you're going to get.

And there are plenty of those in the UFC. But I don't think this is a sign of a time. title run or anything like that. Have you read Gagard Musassi's replies to the fans regarding his upset loss to Uriah Hall on social media? With him countering with your mom jokes and even in some of the cases wishing a few of the disrespectful fans to kill themselves. Since none of them would be missed.

If so, what is your opinion in the matter? Surely this is taking it, uh, taking it, uh, taking it too far, I guess. Gagher Musassi, did he really do this? I feel like, uh, he, I definitely saw something about him responding to people on Facebook. And to be honest, I have no problem with it. Honestly, I did not see this at all. I saw him right, today was not my night. Congrats to my opponent.

Yeah, but there's some people who come back as soon as you say that with, you know, you suck. You know, you should have never lost that. I lost money on you. Like all kinds of, you know, things that are. And he replied, because I'm looking at his Twitter. He probably deleted all of them. No, this is Facebook, I think. Facebook.

Who the hell goes on Facebook these days? Nobody right now, because it's down. By the way, there's no one worse. then these people on social media that are going to kick a pro athlete while he's down. I mean, they do it to me. I want to go and strangle some of them. That's why I have no problem with this. Yeah, I have no problem with this.

If you're throwing that kind of stuff at him, then expect it back and stop complaining about it. This is on a whole other level. It's way lower. I mean, it's not even in the same stratosphere, but when people write to us about the tech issues during the damn show, like we're not trying to fix them. Like, why do people feel the need to kick you while you're down or celebrate your demise or you're a parent-em-minded. And to do that to a guy who just lost

after this build-up of weeks and months of preparation and you're fighting on the stage, we can't even imagine, we can't even fathom what goes on, their body, the nerves, the anxiety. You're fighting in a cage. They lock the door and you falter. And you falter like you've never faltered before.

And then you go online and people are taking shots and you're making funny, people that will never, never have the courage to do anything close to what you just did. screw those people. I mean, he shouldn't even respond to them. That's the worst of social media. There's sometimes I hate social media.

I'm not going to go through this whole thing again. But, God, it could be so great and it could be so freaking horrible. It can really be bad. And I hate the fact that back in the day, like five years ago, someone talks smack about you. It's on a forum somewhere tucked away. You never see it. Now it arrives right at your damn doorstep in the mix, you know, with your emails and your personal stuff. And that sucks.

And it sucks that he had to. endure that if he really did. So I'm okay with it. Tell those people, F off. Who cares? Why is UFC 192 flying under the radar? I live in Houston, and to tell you the truth, there isn't a big buzz. In fact, the card's not up on me. Yeah.

The card is pretty epic, and I'm sure it will be a success, but why the limited promotion? The Countdown Show hasn't even aired yet. No love for H-Town or D.C. Well, typically the Countdown show air is Saturday or Sunday, oh, excuse me, Monday, and it's airing tonight on FS1, so have no fear. I heard it's actually a really good one. I look forward to watching it. I haven't seen it yet.

I don't know why it has come out of nowhere. I mean, look, let me just go through the car right here for a quick second. Francisco Trevino versus Sage Northcut. That's the first fight. Did you see that new reality show, the Dana White thing? I haven't watched it yet, but I've heard good things so far. It's produced by Rory Karp, who's the guy who's doing the CM Punk series, who also, and I'll say this, he put me on that 30 for 30, so I love him forever.

but he's incredibly talented. He's done the Book of Manning. He did that Christian Leitner one, the Snoop Dog series that was on ESPN recently without his son. He's tremendous. So this series, if you want to call it that, is called Looking for a Fight where it's Dana White, Matt Serra, and Nick the Tooth. They go around grassroots MMA looking for talent.

And it just so happens that they go to this legacy show on the first episode and Sage Northcutt is fighting. And before the show, they're actually making kind of making light of him because he looks like an Abercrombie model. Incredible shape, amazing bodies, hair is all spying. I mean, he looks straight out of those like holster ads. It's unbelievable.

He's 19 years old. Super young, but incredibly talented. But they're kind of making fun of how he looks. And then he goes out and puts on an amazing performance. And they put this thing out. And now he's fighting. He's making his debut. And he's from Texas.

So I'm really looking forward to say, I mean, I think it's maybe a little soon for him. Who knows? Five and no, 19 years old. But that's a great story. I mean, what an amazing way to introduce a new character into the UFC mix. That's why a show like that, I think, makes a lot of sense.

You hadn't yet, Matt Serra. Oh, Matt Sarah. Matt Sarah gets into an argument with the announcer. I'm not going to tell you the whole thing, but with the Cage announcer, it's amazing. You've got to watch it. It starts a little slow and maybe a little force, but it ends up being great, and there's definitely potential there.

Derek Lewis, always a lot of fun to watch. I mean, big heavyweight, awesome. Sergio Pettis returning against Chris Carrioso. He needs a big win. Sign me up. Islam Makachev, who looked amazing in his UFC debut, Chabib's guy, sign me up. Rose Namibunis against Angela Hill, sign me up.

Rose finally getting another crack. She didn't get the fight in May, remember. Gayer Rodriguez, after his amazing fight in Mexico against Dan Hooker, sign me up. Benevides versus Baggaotinov. Bagotino's first fight back at UFC. Remember, he fought UFC 174 for the belt, tested positive for EPO against Benavidez, arguably number two behind DJ and 125, sign me up. Jessica I versus Giuliana Pena, sign me up.

Maybe a number one contender fight for Pena. Sean Jordan versus Ruslan Mago Madov we talked about Ruslan with Javier Sign me up Bader Evans Woodley Hendricks

Kormey Augustusen it's an amazing card it really is I don't know why it's flying into the radar but I can assure you we'll pick up over the next few days

I love it I'm excited legitimately for every single one of these fights and it's very rare that I say that our next question proposes a possible answer to that

yes how bad is UFC 192 hurt by having the title challenger coming off a loss there seems to be a distinct lack of buzz around Saturday's event, particularly considering there's a title on the line and some good matchups below it. What do you think is hurting it the most? Gustafsson coming off a loss.

Perception of DC as quote unquote not the real champ, lack of major events leading up to this one, or is the UFC just not working hard enough to promote it and playing up intriguing storylines? I don't love the promo that they put out. Do you agree with me? Did you see that one? I did.

Talking about the height and the reach. Even Dana tweeted something about it just before, and DC replied, it's just the way that they're positioning this about the height, it just to me, there's a lot different ways you can go about and that wasn't one of them, at least in my mind. Maybe the Gustafsson thing, maybe the DC thing, they don't think he's a real champion, whatever.

If DC was fighting Gustafin as just a normal fight, that's a great fight. That's a fight that we've been talking about for a while now. And that's when the height and reached stuff, oh, when you start breaking down the fight and thinking about it, that's when that comes to mind. I don't know if I'd use that as my number one selling point, but that is definitely an intriguing part of this fight.

I don't care if the, who cares? Excuse me, Jones is having his hearing tomorrow. Hopefully everything turns out well, and soon he returns, and we'll get the rematch with either D.C. or Gus O'Sin, that's why they made this fight to make it a clear path for a great big return fight for him. But the timing works out very well for the UFC. You know, I know how you feel about Cormier, and even Gususon coming back. Look, I wasn't a fan of the idea.

I'm still not a fan, but I'm over it. And there's a lot of intrigue with a guy getting knocked out, coming back for a title. I mean, screw all that. Just appreciate the matchup. It's great. And then you have this mini tournament with Bader and Evans, and Evans hasn't fought since 167.

What kind of shape is he in? How's he looking? Bader has a chip on his shoulder because he didn't get a title shot. And then you got Woodley Hendry. I mean, what more can you want as an MMA fan? Yeah, even if you don't love the main event, the rest of that card, as you outlined, is really, really good.

Yeah. So just enjoy. John Jones saga, what is your prediction for how the John Jones storyline will play out? If he pleads guilty and gets no jail time, do you think the UFC will immediately reinstate him and fly him out to Houston for a face-off with Cormia and Gustafson? A quick side note, Ferris Keeper reminds me, Ronda Rousey, Betchkoheer, definitely a contender for a K.O. of the year. I think John Jones should not be in Houston, regardless of what happens. If it works out, I think that's a little soon.

I agree. ease your way into it. Don't make light of the situation. He has some very serious things that he needs to attend to. We'll see how it all plays out tomorrow. Hopefully we're not putting the cart before the horse. If he's free and clear, if everything's okay, if there's an agreement and he's, he's free to go about his life and resume his career and wants to resume his career. We still haven't heard from the man. Remember, we still have not heard from him. And I understand why. And I think it probably was the smart thing to do. Then let's see where we go. I still feel like you, UFC 200 would be the most ideal scenario for him.

We've already booked all the way up until essentially Super Bowl weekend at this point. Wait a few months. The return of John Jones, Super Bowl, excuse me, UFC 200, July New Arena would be gigantic. That's what I would do if he wants to return, if he's free to return. Maybe you hold out until April for Madison Square Garden. You know what? That is pretty damn awesome too. Yeah.

There you go. That's a good point. What do you guys make of the Pettison RDA back and forth? Yes. Is it amusing? or is the undercurrent of PED accusation spoiling it? I'm all for it. I like that RDA is coming out of his shell a little bit and sticking up for himself.

I think there's something to this, though. I'm a little sick of like the PED stuff being hurled around. Well, it's such a like, it's such a trite kind of just, I'm just sick of that being the default. Like when any time two fighters get into into an argument, whether it be in Twitter or real life, it's always about, yeah, yeah, you're doing PEDs. Like, it's such a like easy. cop out.

But say this for RDA, a guy whose first language is in English, to come out with something, maybe he's getting help, whatever, to come out with a thing where he's showing off the Wheaties box. Oh, no, I love that stuff. I'm talking about how the other stuff is just so trite at this point, the PED stuff. But the Wheaties box stuff is hilarious. Okay, and what about... As was the Frankenberry reply.

Yeah, it's great. It's, it's very creative. But what about Soroni throws it out, says on this show that he was just trying to round him up, whatever, and he comes back with, hey, I'm not the one who failed a test in the past. I mean, yeah, pointing to facts is okay, but even that, I'm like, all right, it's, it's so long ago. Like, it's, it's, it's worth noting that RDA is kind of, he's, he's holding his own. Oh, no, there's no doubt about that. I guess my general just displeasure with, with all the PD thing is like a, as like a barb.

But, yeah, for sure, I like this. And this is, yeah, we need more cereal. That was great. That was very clever. I'll say this. When RDA beat Pettis, I think people were wondering if it was a blow for the UFC. He's not as marketable. He's not, you know, showtime, all that stuff. And there's still something to be said there. That being said, I'm surprised at how interested I am in a slew of upcoming fights for RDA if he remains champion. I'm really into the Seroni rematch, really into that. And I love the fact that it's on Fox.

I'm really into the Habib rematch if he can get by Tony Ferguson. I'm really into the rematch against Pettis. if he can win as well against Eddie Avres. They're still waiting on making that official, but it seems like Eddie told us last week that it's going to happen. And then, of course, the Conner thing. And all of a sudden, when you got a champion that has that many, you know, possibilities in the air, that's good. You've got a good situation on your hand.

So hopefully he can get out there and promote and connect with the fans, and particularly the Brazilian fans. I'm surprised at how into I am into the RDA era as champion. a year ago, this person asked you the question, are you happy to see Ronda Rousey walk through every opponent? You said that you were fine with her knocking off every opponent placed in front of her. Do you still feel that way? Absolutely.

I like seeing dominance. I like seeing greatness. What Ronda Rousey has done, I was just talking to someone else. Even people, there used to be this taboo, you know, towards MMA, advertisers, things like that. Ronda Rousey has opened so many doors for all of us. You know, we talk about the word pioneer Trailways. I mean, she is all that and then some. she continues to do that.

I'm not rooting for it, but that's a major byproduct. Everyone benefits. So I like to see the matchups. I like to see her tested. I'm on board with the, you know, the Holly home fight. I'm fine with it. I obviously want to see the cyborg fight. And I think, you know, Julianna Pena is out there as well.

If she wins, I'm fine with all of that. And I definitely think that there's interesting fights for in the future. But dominance, look how people respond. People want to see that. The Tyson thing. They don't mind seeing 30. second knockouts. I think it's great. Okay, last thing. Let's preview

192 using the betting odds. Yes, I want to do it for you. Oh, you looked at it? I mean, I looked at it. Mother. They're easy, though. I feel like. So, Northcut and Trevino. That's interesting. Don't overthink it. I'll go with Northcut because I think people are kind of getting on his

bandwagon a little bit here. He's a big favorite. Really? Miss 360 Trevino plus 300. Wow. What do you think of that? I mean, it's... Watch the show. For me, I don't like betting on guys debuting in the UFC just because, you know, it's a different stage and I kind of like to see one under the belt

before I even consider it. Yeah. But, you know, based on everything I've been hearing, this seems, you know, okay. But I would stay away from it completely. That's just my rule. Derek Lewis versus Victor Pesta. Lewis.

No, close one Pesta's minus 160, Lewis is plus 140 Okay Chris Cariaso Yes versus the young Pettis You know

Jury kind of still out there But I'll go with the Pettis Sure, minus 170 Chris Carrioso Plus 150 Another close-ish Yeah Islam

Makachev Makachev Him, Islam He is a very very slight favorites Minus 115 Over Adriano Martines Wow minus 105

The Thug Rose Versus Versus Angela Hill Are you okay with this matchup? Do you think it's too soon for Angela? She's got some tough ones. Yeah, she's just had a tough, you know, set of opponents in the UFC.

It's, you know, it's a sink or swim, you know. Who could they, you know, really build her up against in that division? It's, you just got to... I can think of a couple people, but that division is great. It's very interesting that division. Right? Yeah. The rankings don't really mean anything in that division.

We've said that before. I'll go with Rose. She's a pretty big favorite, minus 265, Angela Hill plus 225. So so far you're doing good. Albert Tumenov versus Alan Jiuwan. Oh, the male model. Alan, of course. He is an underdog.

Tumanov is minus 240. Tuminov, yeah, he is very good. I shouldn't have picked him. My bad. He is very good. Yeah. Uh, Yair Rodriguez versus Daniel Hooker. Definitely Rodriguez.

Yes. Minus 290, Hooker plus 245. Joey B. versus Ali Bagatinov. Beltran, he just fought. Joseph Benavides. Benevides. Minus 335.

Oh. Biggest favorite, right? No. Northcut is actually the biggest favorite. Wow. But he's second biggest. Holy moly. That's a good reference point right there.

Sean Jordan Yeah versus Ruslan Magamadov Hmm I'll go with Ruslan He is a slight favorite Minus 155 Jordan plus 135

Julianna Peña versus Jessica I Wow That is a fascinating one From a From an odds perspective I'll go with Julianna She's a big favorite

Minus 245 Is that considered big 205 Jessica I Well I mean that's pretty big For this card By the way, isn't this an indication of a great card when the lines are that close? We've had lines much closer than cards like this. But, you know, just because the odds are like this, that doesn't mean that it's not a good card.

Right. I am a little surprised by that one. Now, I'm not saying that I disagree with it. What I'm saying is there's outside factors. I might take a shot. I might take a shot. But, I mean, every time Giuliana Pena has, you know, been showcased for us, she's done really, really well.

So it'd be tough to do that. But I might think about it. It hasn't had that many opportunities. But every time she has, she's really made the most of it. Tyrone Woodley versus Johnny Hendricks. Oh, my. Holy moly. This is going to be tough.

Woodley? No, Woodley, big dog here. Plus 265. Hendrix minus 325. I cannot wait for that fight. The stare down is going to be great. I cannot wait for that. Yeah, that's going to be a good one.

Rashad Evans versus Ryan Bader. So this is also interesting too. I'm going to say Rashad, but I don't think it's, you know, who knows what we're going to get? The guy has been out for two years. He is the favorite minus 160, Ryan Bader plus 140, but completely agree with you.

Like, you really have to consider the fact that we haven't seen Rashad Evans since 2013. That's a big deal. Huge deal. And two ACL injuries. So you might be getting value in Bader. But if the Rashad Evans that, you know, we did see in 2013 shows up,

he's likely going to win here. And finally, the main event, Alexander Gustafsson versus Daniel Cormier. I say they'll go with D.C. D.C. is a big favorite, minus 340, Gustafsson plus 2A. Is that the biggest favorite? No, it's Sage and Northcutt. Still? Oh, he's the biggest favorite of the whole card. He's the biggest favorite of the whole car.

That is bizarre. Yeah, I mean, that can fluctuate a little bit. I have a feeling Cormier may get, you know, become a bigger favorite come fight time. But Sage Northcutt, making his debut. Is Cormier win? Yeah, Cormier wins. and I don't think it's going to be very difficult. Really? I just think stylistically,

there's two things here. I think Gustafsson gets hit a little bit too much, which is a problem when you're facing, you know, a striker. And Daniel Cormier is a significantly better wrestler, and I think that's going to come into play. I just, I don't see, I don't see a path to victory for Gustafsson because the reach and that type of stuff is highly overrated. especially when it comes to Daniel Cormier,

who's been used to facing heavyweights and he fought John Jones that was able to get inside. There's not really going to be a way for Gustafsson to use his reach to keep him off. And as I said before, he gets hit a lot, even for a guy with that really long reach. So I don't really see many ways that he's going to give Daniel Cormier problems.

Yeah. That's the weird thing about that promo, right? Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, it were, I don't know if it worked, They promoted the John Jones and Gustafson thing with the reach as well. And, you know, I guess it's a thing for Gustafin. I don't know.

You know, so what would your storyline be for Gustafsson versus Cormier? Well, look, if I'm trying to be as I know, they don't like to highlight these things, but this is a guy who fought John Jones tooth and nail, who stumbled on the biggest stage possible and the comeback, you know, of trying to, you know, regain his fans and to get back on top and, you know, the low of getting knocked out in the middle of the night in Sweden and getting this big opportunity. It's both of them getting redeemed.

It's like a redemption story. I wouldn't say Cormey's getting redeemed, but, you know, there's a respect and his journey and his mission to get that rematch with John, and as long as he is champion, he is in line for that rematch. If he loses, he doesn't get that rematch,

it's not discrediting anyone else, but this is a guy who's still trying to prove to everyone that he's one of the very best. Pound for Pound, one of the very best doesn't get the respect he deserved, just took the biggest shot from Rumble, came back and defeated him and life is champion and finally he's become a champion in something

he tried and all these different levels and that promo that they put out on him is amazing look there's only so much you can tell in 30 seconds I think that's what it comes down to really there's too much nuance I think in the story for both of these guys I'm not trying to harp on that but it just when you watch it a bunch of times

during one night it's like no I definitely agree with you on that front But I also think that there's too much nuanced to tell the real story there. So it's tough. Countdown. Hopefully countdown. Yeah, there we go. That's it. All right. Great stuff, my friend. Great to talk about 192 because I'm excited for Houston.

Houston's a great city. Great arena. Always love going there. The U.S.C. has had some good shows there at 166, 136, I believe it was. They've had some good moments in H-town. So I'm looking forward to that as well. All right, you can hit my music. What a fun show.

you, I was excited and for good reason. And we had a late edition in Rich Franklin, some breaking news, MSG. It's a good time to be alive, my friends. Good time to be an MMA fan. Congratulations, by the way, to Josh Barnett. Longtime friend of the program, my client, as you can see above my shoulder over there. That was cool hearing him speak Japanese on the mic afterwards. Really love that. Great moment from this past year. What a year it has been. Holy moly. I can't imagine when we recap the year. So many things have happened and so much to go really gears up everything the UFC has planned and the other organizations as well for a very big final quarter of the year. And that feels like the territory that we're in, the fourth quarter of 2015. Anyhow,

I want to thank Dave Meltzer for stopping by. Great insight as always. Thank you very much to Javier Mendez. Good luck to him. Three AKA fighters on the bill this Saturday in Houston. Great stuff from Al Jemaine Sterling Funkmaster bringing it with the news and the haircut tremendous. Great stuff from RDA. Hafeldo Sanjos,

good luck to him, December 19th in Oatown, Orlando. Great stuff from Andy Main. Good to hear from him. Good luck to him. Sunday morning in Japan, Pancras 270 on Fight Pass. Amazing stuff from Dan Hardy.

Thank you so much to him for his time. Thank you very much to Scott Coker. for his time as well. Great to talk to him. And all the best, happy trails. The one and only ace, Rich Franklin, amazing career.

Congratulations to him on retiring. He's one of the very best. Former champion, appreciate his time as well. We'll see you next week. If you missed anything, catch it. iTunes, Central, all the good stuff. Peace. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen.

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