MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 308

Episode Date: December 7, 2015

Ariel Helwani speaks to Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Benson Henderson, Chad Mendes, Tyson Fury, John Kavanagh, Ray Longo, Makwan Amirkhani, Charlie Brenneman, Guilherme Cruz and Seán Sheehan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, December 7, 2015, Logan, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani. Inside our New York City studio, my friends, this is a big one. It's not so much big because of today's show and who's on the show. It's because today, on this Monday, December 7th at 1 p.m. Eastern time, we are kicking off what in my opinion is the most exciting, the most stacked, the most anticipated fight week in MMA history. Sure, that sounds crazy.

Sure, that sounds like insane hyperbole, but I believe it. Because when UFC 194, my friends, was first announced when we first found out that on December 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada, the sometimes so-called fight capital of the world, but this time it's actually living up to its name. When we found out that Connor McGregor and Jose Aldo would finally meet inside that Octagon after months, years of buildup, it was big. When we found out that Chris Weidman would finally fight Luke Rockhold in the co-main event, it was gigantic

when we finally found out that there would be three cards in the span of three nights never been done unprecedented for the UFC and this is what makes this week coming up so special when you think about the big fights on the cards

when you think about the ones that we're really looking forward to we've been saying for quite some time a year or so we need page to fight legitimate competition she's getting it on Thursday How long have we been talking about Chad Mendez and Frankie Edgar? Years.

Ever since Frankie went down to 145, we've been talking about Chad Mendez and Frankie Edgar. We're getting it on Friday. How long have we been talking about Aldo McGregor? Over a year, in my opinion. We're getting it on Saturday. How long have we been saying that Chris Wyman? Yeah, it's great to see him fight Machita. It's great to see him fight Belford and Anderson.

But Rockhold, his contemporary, the magic to his bird, that's the one we want to see. I mean saying that for a long time. We're getting it on Saturday. How long have we been saying that, yeah, Gunner, yeah, you lost to Rick Story. You beat this guy's that coming. Yeah, that's all well and good. But we want to see you against Damien Maya, BJJ Heaven. We want to see it.

We're getting it finally on Saturday. Romero Jaceret, we've been teased about this one for what feels like over a year now. We're getting it on Saturday. The beauty of what's to come in the next few days, instant city, in the now fight capital of the world, once again is that we've been waiting for these fights for what feels like forever. And they're in the midst of a crazy schedule and there's more to come next week. And I wish there was some time to breathe. But if you just lock in on what's to come, it is so exciting.

It's everything we love about MMA. It's everything we tell our friends about, why we love this sport. It's the culmination of athletes, feuds, styles, backgrounds, countries. all coming together to meet, to settle it once and for all. I cannot wait. I've got a pep in my step. I just imagine people flying in from all corners of this great world, whether they're draped in green coming from Ireland, whether they're draped in gold coming from Brazil, whether they're coming from the great state of New York, whether they're coming from Texas, California, Australia, Europe, up Germany. It doesn't matter where you're coming from. I picture them on the plane, firing up this

podcast on their phone, MP3 player, whatever the hell you use, and just settling in for the next three and a half hours to get as ready as possible for what could very well be the greatest week in UFC history. I cannot wait. I am honored to be here. I can't wait to get it started. I am Jonzing for some MMA hour talk, so let's get right into. We have a tremendous show. We have a stack show. A lot of people to talk to. All for the most part, somewhat related to the fights to come. A couple off the beaten path, but they're all very much warranted. Let's get right into it. As always, we want to hear from you. I've heard from some fans, some who told me that they're going to all three events. You are unbelievable souls. You are lucky souls. You should be very, very, very excited and thankful that you get the opportunity to do that. I'll hear from you throughout the entire show. I love hearing stories like that. Around 4 o'clock, we'll talk. take your questions and comments also here from New York, Rick, who will give us a nice little parlay for this weekend's fights. At around 345, we're going to talk to the hottest man, the most wanted man in MMA today. The free agent to be Benson Henderson joins us to talk about

what is next for him coming off that big win over Jorge Mazvedal. But more importantly, his contract is up. That's very interesting. 325 will talk to Chad Mendez. He'll be joining us from the airport. He is ready to go to Las Vegas back to the scene of the crime, this time fighting on Friday, but if he beats Frankie Edgar, my, oh my, what does that set up for Chad Mendez? 3.05. We're going to talk to the brand spanking new heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Tyson Fury, a lightning rod, a polarizing figure. The man who nine days ago defeated Vladimir Klitsko handed him his first loss in 11 years, 22 fights, I believe. Tyson Fury joins us. And he is a, he's not a huge fan of MMA. At least he wasn't in the

past, but he does have some deep ties to our great sport. We'll talk to him at 305-245. We're going to talk to Yowana, young Jacek, who is in Las Vegas right now coming off surgery. We'll talk to her about what is next. Charlie Brennam, longtime friend of the show. He has a book coming out. And also, I was thinking of Charlie last week. I'll tell you why. Something in particular came to mind, and I wanted to talk to him. So he's going to be joining us at 225. Ray Longo joins us at 2.0. 5. Chris Wyman's head coach. He has a busy week to come. Also, Al Jermaine Sterling fighting. 145, we'll talk to John Kavanaugh. It is a tradition now to have him on our program. The week of a Connor McGregor fight, people ask me, what's the people's main event? Come on now. You know better than that. 125. We'll talk to Makwan, Ameriqani, who's a free agent of a different kind. So he'll be joining us in around 20 minutes. But first, this is all about Brazil versus Ireland. That's what we're building towards. That's what we're building towards. That's what we're. we can't wait for. That's what Connor McGregor versus Josealdo is. So I thought we'd kick off this unbelievable fight week with Brazil versus Ireland. So joining us right now via the magic of Skype

is our very own Guillermo Cruz with crystal clear Skype. That's why we love the Brazilian beast because on a fight week like this, he steps up his internet game and he brings us crystal clear Skype. Look at that. It's beautiful. It's like you're sitting right here. Where's the SIE? Where's the SIE? No, SIE today. Ah, you blew it. Guillermo. Gilairecruz is joining us

via the magic Skype and joining us via the magic of phone all the way from I believe Limerick, Ireland long-time friend of the show man who has stepped up a man who has made a name for himself

in this MMA game. He went from just being a lowly tweeter who I carried on my back for so many years. Now he's doing it on his own. Sean Chian of SevereMMA.com joining us on the phone right now. Sean, are you there?

I'm here, I am here, I am. How are things? Things are just grand, Sean. I am very pleased that both of you are joining us this weekend. Look, I've been billing this as Brazil versus Ireland, Guillermo versus Sean, but that's actually not what I want to do here. I just really want to get the perspective from both of you. You guys are on the scene, on the front line, so to speak, and I want to talk to you at the same time about what's to come on Saturday. So, Guillermo, I actually want to start with you. You know, you've been covering this sport for a long time, and you've been there when Anderson fought big fights, Vitor Belfort, the Ogaro brothers, and whatnot. It has always felt like Aldo has been in their shadows. It has always felt like he didn't get the respect from not only the community here,

but in his home country that he deserves. Does this one feel different back home? Yeah, it feels. Aldo is getting more attention from fans and media, especially now that the UFC doesn't have a big champion like Big Nag or Anderson or Shogun, someone with a bigger history in the sport. And now they can look at Aldo and take care of him, announcing better, do more media days with him and he's opening himself to the media more recently he wasn't used to doing this

in the past so this feels like really the biggest fight for Josie Alden in his career not only for for Conornerner but for the way that you've seen Brazil is taking care of him is promoting him and the way he's changing his mind towards the media and what

he has to do to become a big star and that's exactly why around 12 months ago I said to a degree Aldo needs McGregor more so than McGregor needs Aldo because look what's become of Jose Aldo since this this feud started. Sean, let me ask you. I mean, Conner's had big fights. We know what he means to Ireland and July was a gigantic deal.

Does this one feel different? Does it feel a little less than July? How would you compare? I suppose it's early in the fight we get, but it's definitely building. You saw over the weekend all the papers had McGregor Axel in it. Even for the last couple of weeks, you saw the kind of demand side building up with articles on McGregor from when shown all the new carathy boss and to obviously Andrew did the interview with him in SBG. And kind of that was the start of it.

It's really building up even, like if you look at something like Facebook, just the normal people not fans, people are talking about it, like the hype is starting. And it's really going to get big noise. A couple of people asking me today, where can I watch the fight? a lot of people don't have BT sports watches that they want to know they can buy it once off and I think

you know people joke about Ireland's standing stand in for a McGregor fight but I think in Saturday night that kind of could be the case there's going to be a lot of people up five or six of a morning watching this fight and it's going to be big

and without doubt we say it's a lot but without out it's going to be the biggest MMA fight in Irish history Guillermo it feels like to me the turning point for Brazilian MMA as far as this new era's concern was Silva versus Belfort, right?

UFC 126, would you agree with that? Yeah, sure. Is it possible that this can be bigger than that in terms of another turning point, another major milestone for the sport, or because that was two Brazilians, two icons, nothing at least right now can compare? That fight was the biggest one

because even if it wasn't as close as it is right now and the last five made it change. The UFC began gigantic after that fight. So it's already big in Brazil. So to become another level, it's really hard. But I think it's going to be an important fight. It might change a lot for the UFC in Brazil, especially if Jose Aldo wins. And the best part for the UFC is the soccer championship, the next soccer championship.

Just saying this last weekend. So they have nothing to talk about. They don't have any sports events. This last weekend was the final round of the national championship. it's over. They don't have any sports to talk about. So this might have the UFC to get more attention, more headlines for papers and TVs all of Brazil. Sean, prior to 189, I was getting the impression that some Irish fans, and maybe they're just looking for something to complain about, but they were getting a little tired of the antics. They were saying that he wasn't representing

Connor, that is, the Irish people, and they thought he was being too cocky and things of that. I think that's what endears him to many, but some were feeling a little uncomfortable. Now that he has decided to do this camp in Ireland. He's back home. He's done a lot less media leading up to this fight. Have things changed as far as the way people are backing him? Have you noticed a difference there?

I think there might be a little bit. As you said there, he was away from the spotlight. The tough house was kind of a good thing for him. He kind of got away. People were saying we don't want to see him on top because there'd be more exposure. But in one way, when he was in the house for six weeks, we didn't hear from him, obviously. And then when the show was going on,

we didn't really hear much from him as well, because he was in training camp and stuff. But as you say, come up to that fight, and even after, especially with the World Tour, you know, the World Tour in Dublin, a lot of people, including myself, weren't big fans that the way the fans acted and stuff. And I suppose he got to blame for that,

maybe a little bit unfair, but that's kind of what happened. Ireland and Irish people, you know, it might look like we have a lot of kind of blind fandom towards our sports heroes, but there really, a lot of the people, a lot of people don't, aren't like that. A lot of people are very begrudging and don't like McGregor

because of the way he acts and because of, you know, the way he's so cocky and stuff. We like every other country. We like humble sports, as we like people who go out and win and, you know, act humble. But McGregor, McGregor's different, and he divides opinion.

Look at Chal Sand was the same before him and Mohamed Ali, the right opinion, everyone, going back through the years of his office, by the opinion. For McGregor, people, some people love him. People love the body. voice-risk talk, they love his antics,

they love the way he fights. Some people hate it. They're absolutely despise it. They wish he'd just take quiet and do his business in the ring. And that's always going to be the case, but as he says himself, as long as people care, that's all that matters. And I think, as you did say, there hasn't been as much

of it, even on their conference call this week. He had a few things to say, but he didn't really attack Al, although it wasn't, you know, there wasn't any major. And I think those big headlines that are not being made, maybe help them a little bit, and people are getting on his side now as his fight gets closer. Guillermo, is there any concern on your part or the media's part or, you know, just the casual

fans' point of view back home in Brazil, that Aldo might be fighting a little too emotionally in this fight? You hear him, you know, say things that we haven't heard him say before on the Embedited show. You hear from his wife saying things like she wanted to strangle him and whatnot. You have that iconic photo now of him flipping the bird towards McGregor during one of their first meetings. This is an unbelievable fighter, truly one of the greatest of all time. But when people fight emotionally, sometimes they fight outside of themselves and they make mistakes.

Is there any concern there? He started some interviews that he has to stay calm and let those antics and those things Connor said outside the octagon. So he might get in trouble if he gets you emotional. But I spoke with some of his teammates and they said that. Which is true. When Josiah is fighting and he gets pushed in the face, he gets angry and he wants to give it back the punch. So that might be an issue if Connor hits him and he lets that emotion fly in the fight because Connor is a dangerous fighter. And you don't want to be impatient. They don't want to be too angry fighting a smart guard like Connor.

Sean, yesterday in Albuquerque, we saw 20,000 people, according to reports, show up for Holly Home Day, a parade to celebrate their own defeating the throning Ronda Rousey. I noted that I don't think there's another fighter, male or female in the UFC, not named Connor McGregor, who upon winning a massive fight like that one, comes home to their hometown and receives a reception like that. I think he could receive a similar one, if not an even bigger one that speaks to how popular he is. Do you, A, agree with that, or am I, you know, far off, you would know better than anyone? And, B, do you expect something like that if he wins on Saturday? There probably will be something they usually like to do things in the seven-bancho. So like the kind of the mayor's also, the only of every, and Katie Taylor, when she won't earn an Olympic gold medal, had tons of people out in the street.

But they probably would do something for them. And I definitely agree if they did something big, big, big. crowds would turn out. You remember back to that day when Dana White was in, when Trinity College before McGregor was even in the UFC, I remember I was in there that day when we came out afterwards,

maybe 2,000 people were standing out there just waiting for Dana White just talked to him and he was some free points, so maybe that was a part of it as well, but the fan best was there even before McGregor, and since he came obviously there's a lot of new people coming in.

If you want to call him, bandwagon, bandwagon fans, whatever, but there's a lot of new people come to the sport. When he kept home there to the airport a couple of weeks ago, just the Stacey's training camp, there's a lot of people there as well at the airport, even though it was Dublin in the semi-final of the All-Ireland at there. So most people

would have been at that game, especially in Dublin. But he has a huge support in Ireland. If they did some of him, I'm sure it would definitely be huge, but he'd have to get throughout the before he would have to get throughout the Sure. Guillermo, I sort of lied about not pitting Brazil versus Ireland here. I just typed in Google, Brazil versus Ireland, and a website came up

if it were my home.com. And the headline is, if Brazil were your home instead of Ireland, you would dot, dot, dot, be 24.1 times more likely to be murdered, die 7.28 years sooner, be 5.1 times more likely to die in infancy, be 57.78% less likely to be unemployed, be 3.6 times. more likely to be in prison, make 70.7% less money, spend 71.51% less money on health care, use 58.35% less electricity, consume 57.05 less oil, experience, 53.1% more classified, and finally, have 3% fewer babies. Does that sound accurate to you? I don't know. I have no idea. Probably. You're a hundred percent happier, in my opinion.

Despite all of that, huh? That sounds, nothing about assaye here on this thing. I think you'd have 100% more assaye. Probably a lot more sunshine as well. But in all honesty, in all seriousness, let me ask you about Aldo, because it has always been fascinating to me why he is not as big as Silva and the Nogarev.

Considering his run, who he has defeated, is it just because he's never had that legendary fight, and is that why this is so important to him? And is it possible because this is so big, second biggest gate in UFC history one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history is it possible that he becomes bigger than all those guys if he wins on Saturday

in particular if it's an impressive fashion is that possible I don't know just one fight I don't know but it really isn't one fight right but I get what you're saying yeah yeah yeah this fight to change everything Anderson Biggna had those iconic fights iconic wins and even if all the guests won

Saturday I don't think we're going to make him bigger than then just like that, you know. But it would definitely help, but I don't think he's going to be immediate. Thus, on the Sunday morning, he's bigger than all of those. Is he doing it? I know he, in the past, has trained with Andy Sauer, and there was some criticism of his training leading up to the fight. He also trained with Zahar for this fight.

Okay, so is there anything different this time that you've heard of that maybe he's not going as hard? Like, did he learn anything from 189 from what you're hearing? I don't know. He said that he trained with a special shirt that UFC gave him. And he's a shirt with protection, to protect with ribs. The only thing that I heard that he changed for this fight, and this hour came with five Dutch strikers.

And he did basically the same game that he always does. He said he wouldn't change anything, and I didn't hear anything about him changing. Sean, you have started to develop a reputation for great breakdowns. I know you have one. Has it come out yet or has it not come out yet? It'll be out about an hour. In an hour.

Can you give us a taste? Can you tell us, because, you know, a lot of people listen to this afterwards anyway. How do you envision this fight going down on Saturday? Can you give us the prediction? And I know you're unbiased, but I just want to remind you try to be unbiased. Yeah. I pick this fight who I think is going to win. When I'm doing my things like if I think, if that doesn't matter for the Irish,

Brazilian, American, Canadian, whatever. Yes. But I really think Carter will win this fight. honestly. We talk about all the talk and the smack talk and getting in Aldo's head and all that, but that won't matter

once the fight starts, in my opinion. I don't think it ever matters unless someone is a, you know, purely and mentally gone altogether, and Aldo won't do that. Aldo's a strong-minded guy, he knows how to fight, he's proven that, and he gets in there

and he'll fight his best, and I think Conham McGreg will do the same. He's proven his mental strength, so I don't think that'd be an issue. I think the biggest issue in this fight is range, and who can win the battle for range. Joseo Alto, what he's best at is keeping his might-type style through the whole fight.

He'll come out there, he'll come out in his stretch and he'll try his jab, he'll try his leg kicks, he'll blitz forward, he'll try to hit you. Connem O'Brien will come out. He'll try to... As Robin Backal's at the flim, he'll try his big kicks, he'll spin, he'll kick to the body, he'll try to keep Josialdo at a range where he can hit him, but

Aldo can't hit him back. And that's going to be very difficult for Aldo. Because he's never fought anyone like that before. And I know McGregor has never fought anyone like Aldo before either. But McGregor is more of a difficult task in an unarchist kind of way. You can find people who can mimic Aldo in a way. McGregor bought him this guy called Keene Cowley, who's a Mike and a champion from Ireland. He's been over in Thailand and has been sparred him and lead up to this fight.

But I really think McGregor will be able, to fight Aldo in such a way where he doesn't get hit as much as he can hit Aldo. And if you're going to a battle like that with McGregor, with his power, it's going to him badly. I can see Aldo gone for wrestling, I can see him going for take downs

because of that Mindana. We all saw McGregor putting his back in that Mindana's fight, but I think you might be a little bit surprised. I don't think McGregor's wrestling is as bad as it looked in that fight. We all know about the injury and stuff. Whether it asked, say the partner not,

We want 100 to let no until Saturday or until the next time someone wants to try the rest of him. But I think, I don't think it will be as bad as that. And I think McGregor has tough to take downs and I think you'll beat him on the feet. Guillermo, final word to you. How do you envision it going down? I pick Joseph's win, not be a size and anything. If you record prior to one, to UFC 1 179, I actually picked Chadman to beat Jose Aldo in Rio. And, but this is the type of fight that brings the best Josiello when he's fighting someone that forces him to fight at his best.

And I think he's the Charity Manas fight against Connor showed him, it's me imagining him. Sure. Showing him what he should do in the fight. So maybe if he fought in 189, he would try to stand him and just go to war. but after seeing corner being taken down despite the injury or anything, he might try to do that. Not just go for takedowns right away, but striking and knowing that you can go for a takedown

if you're not getting the best of the striking game. So I believe Aldo is going to fight smarter than he always does. Tremendous start to the show, guys. Thank you so much. If you're not following these two, this week to get the perspective from Ireland, from Brazil, and everywhere in between you are missing out. That is Guillermo Cruz of MMAFighting.com. He has really great stuff about Aldo coming out later this week on the site, so I do suggest you check that out.

And on the phone, once again, our old friend, Sean Chian of SevereMMA.com, one of my favorite sites out there. Guys, thank you so much for the time, Guillermo. I appreciate it. Obrigado, Sean. I love the way you say Mai Tai. It's fantastic. We'll talk to you very soon. Thank you, man.

Bye. Thanks, Sean. All right. All right. there they are great stuff from them as always and thought it would be a lot of fun to go to the front lines as i said brazil ireland let's see what the people are thinking of over there it feels like this is one of those fights that can i mean it it doesn't feel we we know that that is the case this will change and i and i always believe in m m m a as opposed to in boxing

losses don't mean as much as they do in the sweet signs that's a fact i mean in boxing i feel like it takes two to three, four years to really, you know, gain back what you lost in a fight. But because this one is so big for both men, because it has been brewing for so long, because there's such an intense rivalry there, you know, Connor, he's going to hear a lot. And I know he knows that it's the least of his concerns. But he has talked a lot. Aldo, this is his legacy, in my opinion, on the line. All is well and good up until this point.

But if he doesn't get past McGregor, I mean, you can make. the case, that's pretty much it for him at 145. Yeah, maybe there's Max Holloway out there, but as far as the big guns, you know, from Chad, twice, Kenny Florian, Frankie Edgar, Connor, he hasn't been as active as McGregor, but he has beaten them all. Mark Hominick back in the day, Cardalamas, Mani Gamburian. It's going to be really interesting later on on the show. Chad Mendez is the only man to have fought both guys. Fortunately for him, he came out on the losing in. But I'm very curious to hear what he has to say about. And he has a, he has, he has, he has, he has his own business to take care of on Friday in Las Vegas. I just can't wait

for the, the madness of it all. I can't, if you, you guys aren't privy to this, but the, the PR schedule, the PR schedule for the upcoming week in Las Vegas, which starts on Tuesday, I get there Tuesday night, so I'll be missing the first day. Um, it starts to choose. for the fight pass card. It is unbelievable. And yeah, it's a lot. It's dizzying. I'm taking it one PR event at the time, and I'm including the events, the way ends, all that stuff. Of course, also my duties for Fox, which I'm very excited to be able to have that opportunity as well. It's just, it's one thing after the next, and I love it. It reminds me almost of the Olympics, where it just felt like there were events going on 24 hours a day, and you just had to kind of like think about,

okay, this is the next one. All right, we have to go, you know, we have to go to Whistler and cover this, and then we have to come back down and cover this. That's what it reminds me of. I had the opportunity to do that in 2010 in Vancouver. So really, really, really cool stuff, and the UFC has definitely stacked it.

What's going on? I just spoke to, this is a big one that we have to be, let's see with my mojo here. This is one that we have to be in sync. everyone has to be on time here because we've got we've got a lot we've got chad mendes who will be squeezing us in from the time that he goes through security to the time that he needs to board that plane in las vegas macuan is a is an interesting guy he's got it he's got a weird Skype situation i can

only get him anyway uh hopefully in a second we're going to be joined by mr macuan amir canny who has uh has been subtly in the news these days because um he he he he he he he he he he he he's He came out in the middle of last week's program and said that he's a free agent as far as his gym is concerned. He's looking for a new gym and has even been sort of flirting with the idea, it seems, according to his social media, of going to Ireland. Could he be the newest member of Team SBG? Maybe he was going to Team Rhino. But I wanted to catch up with him because a lot of people were. wondering what's going on there. We haven't heard from him quite some time. Certainly problematic

here. We'll get him after that. We're going to be joined by John Kavanaugh, so that's going to be very interesting. And then Ray Longo, the head coaches. I was talking about this on Twitter very recently as I was coming in. The way that they have promoted that fight pass card in Las Vegas, and it almost feels like the fight pass event is getting more, at least right now, and I feel like they're all going to trickle into each other here. Like they're going to start transitioning over into the 194 card. But it truly feels like that one is, at least right now, getting more pub than the 194 card. And they've been doing an unbelievable job of building up to those two fights and those four young fighters.

Cody Fister and Sage Northcut, the juxtaposition of their lives back to back. I don't know what it is. Sage reminds me of some sort of, it's like some sort of South Park character. One second here. It's impossible to do this at the same freaking time. Trying to, it's hard when you don't have commercial breaks to,

sorry for the dead air. When you're trying to connect with someone and you don't have commercial breaks to do it, so you have to see it happen in front of your face. But as I was saying, the juxtaposition of Sage and Cody, when you have this wide-eyed youngster who's 19 years old, who lives in this fancy house, who seems to have a pretty good life.

That's no knock on him. His upbringing seems to be a pretty solid one. And then you cut to Cody, who's living in this small apartment or house, who is doing his own laundry, who's saying that his dad is saying his dad is the one packing for him. It's just a fascinating

back and forth. Cody talking a lot of subtle sort of I mean the trash talk that is coming. I mean, who knew anything about Cody Fister? I certainly didn't know a whole lot about him. A lot of subtle, you know, trash talk about Sage Northcutt in that sort of Texas. this accent. I just love the back and forth. And then you have Paige and Rose. Rose just cut her hair.

Paige is always happy jolly. Rose is kind of like no nonsense. I mean, the buildup for that. And I've seen, on top of all that, I've seen Michael Kiesa on Twitter, he does have a point to a degree, although for, I mean, A, who is expecting an embedded for a fight pass card? B, if you're getting an embedded for a fight pass card, are you getting, you know, three fights off the top? Doubtful. So you got to make a decision, and I'd say that the top two fights, while Jim Miller versus Michael Casey, that's the thing about this card. That's the thing about this weekend. If you just kind of, the top fights are the ones that we keep talking about, but if you actually, like, run through the cards, there's really something interesting there for everyone. It's unbelievable.

There's fights like Mike Pierce versus Ryan LaFleer. That's just kind of chilling there. It's just tremendous stuff. What else? Uriah Faber. I totally forgot Uriah Fabor was fighting Frankie Science on Saturday. If you just go up and down the cards, there's really something for everyone out there. Or is it?

Okay, it seems like we got Maquan. I mean, this is completely, you know, ruining my mojo here because we were supposed to be on time. We were supposed to be rolling. We were supposed to be back to back to back to back, hitting it, firing on all cylinders. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. So we got to make up for lost time.

Mr. Makwana Mir, Kani, are you there? I'm here. What happened to you, my friend? We got to be punctual here on the show. Listen, I barely can hear you. Why can't you, can you hear me now? Hello, hello. One, two, three, four.

Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you, but the quality is not so good. Okay, well, let's try to fight through it, okay? Okay. How are you? Long time, no speak. Yeah, a long time. I've been working hard. Okay, well, let's get into it because last week, around this time,

you went on social media and you said that you were looking for a new gym, that you were a free agent. What happened at All-Stars? Well, I don't want to, first of all, it has nothing to do with All-Stars. I have nothing bad to say about All-Stars in the gym, but there was a few persons that kind of started me in the back, and I have a, I don't know.

look, that kind of shit, I come from the area where you really need to be careful what they say and do for the other people. So, like, Nicholas Blackstone, he told me, it would be better to hit

with the baseball back, but I was cool and I just hit the flight and flew over to Finland and left everything there. like that? Yeah, brother,

just like that. Can you shed some light as to what happened? Can you say it again? Can you explain a little bit what happened because it seemed from everything that I was seeing

and hearing that you were very happy over there? Yeah, I was really happy. I had, you know, I'm a really social guy and

in the short time I I start to have, you know, really good friends and the places where I went to eat. Everybody was just so nice to me. But this is not the time to me to stress over one person. And if the person is at the gym all the time, so I decided it's there to me, just leave everything and go back home. So you had an issue with one particular person at the gym?

Yeah, actually. It's like that. Who was this person? They really want to know. Yes. I do. I think it's, you know, I have heard some stories like, yeah, it was my fault and all kind of shit. But the people who I care about.

Sweden, they really know what really happened. And when I go to sleep, I can, you know, sleep with the, what is the thing when you have a clear conscience? Yeah. So I knew I haven't done anything bad, and I knew that I have my reason to leave. Like most of the people who heard about the story, they said that was the smallest thing what you could do just leave

they would have done something really bad to that person so okay if we go year back

yeah in my life and you would have done the same thing to me you would be in the hospital oh my

yeah okay but you won't tell us who it is or what happened right let's say like this okay

I'm gonna be a nice guy okay I'm gonna be a person who doesn't want to, in Finland, we say, doesn't want to put water on a sauna where you cut weight. Yeah.

So I don't want to make a big deal out of this. But I swear to God, if I hear one more thing, one more God thing, I will wound that person's life and everybody from the househouse that the gym won't exist anymore. Okay. I mean, just two nights, like everybody said, you know, I shouldn't left like that. I should take the person and, you know, handle the things within. But I knew that if I stayed there, I'm so, you know, I can turn from zero to hundred really fast.

And I just said that it's the best thing to me just me. And, you know, it broke my heart. You know, some of the, when I went straight to the airport and I didn't care even, I didn't care even. I have to stay in the airport for six hours to wait a flight. And suddenly I'm, you know, back at home and my mom was, you know, wondering why I'm not going back. And I had to lie to her that it was, I just wanted to change the environment and find a new place where to train. So, and like I said, this thing has to do with only few. person and not with the gym.

I love the people in the gym, especially you know, Alan's info, I would miss him a lot, but like he said, wherever I go, he will come with me. And like most of the guys said, if I need any help with my camp and, you know,

preparing myself for the fight, they will come to Finland wherever I am. So I know that I go ahead, sorry? Can you say? Oh, no, I was just saying, I've also noted, okay, so now you're looking for a new gym. You're looking for a new team.

That's clear. And you've been saying, Ireland, it is. And I saw that there's been some back and forth between you and John Kavana. Are you joining SBG? Yeah, this is my plan. You know, John asked me to, before I was, before he told me anything, any more details about the German and the Ireland, He said to me like this, can you tell me why he left from the office? And when I told him, and I swear I didn't lie to him, not a single word.

I told everything. And he said, okay, I heard enough reason. Welcome to Ireland and now. And he said, he's going to send me more details about the gym. And I'm more than happy to go there. It will be exciting. and you know when you go to a new gym you want to show that

you're, you know, you belong there and that's like something that I love. It was the same thing with the office when I went there. I just wanted to show that I'm, you know, kind of a young guy and with John,

he knows that I have shown how I, you know, after my two-fights, so he knows who he's dealing with So he just said, just after the corner, five people send me more details, and I will join them. So when are you joining them? I'm going to go to 15th of this month. I'm going to spend my business in Thailand.

I'm going to train there. I don't know where, probably in the tiger, my type. But after that, I would immediately fly from Thailand to Ireland, and I'm going to be there one month. And then again, I'm going to do the same thing that I have always done. I'm going to gather all my best friends and the training partners. To my hometown, we're going to stay at my family's place, and we're going to train together, and just to know, have a company

and feel that I'm not alone in this case. Right. in the past you've been asked about Connor McGregor. You said you wanted the fight. If you just Google your name and his name, you know, you've talked a little smack his way. How do you feel about joining his team? Well, I don't care.

If the scoring will go like it will be emotional, I don't care. It's a, let's say, me and Connor, we understand this sport. We just want to make it, you know, more interesting for the audience, you know, a little bit more color, not just the fight, what happens before the fight and after. So, of course, as long as we are not in the same things, we can show this, you know, talk shit about each other. But right now, I just wish that he would use his flight, and when he come back to Ireland, he would have to. me to prepare myself to the fight. Do you know what's next for you, when your next fight is?

My fight. Yeah, when's your next fight? We haven't heard from you in a while. You haven't heard about Mr. Finland for a while. Well, I'm going to fight 27th of February in London. Oh, against? Against. Yeah, Mike.

I don't remember his last name. Yeah, Mike Wilkinson. Wilkinson. Yeah. Right. I knew that, actually. I'm sorry. Close to you here.

I was just, I just wanted to hear you say it. What about management team? I know, I know. That's why I was, I knew it, my team. Hey, you were waiting for that. What about managers? Are you looking for new managers as well? The managers.

What was that? I'm not looking for any managers. The things that manager handle, I'm saying to this, you know, to every fighter, If you are not capable to handle few papers in this kind of level with USC and sponsors, then you should not even fight because I think you are pretty stupid then. But when you are in a level where examples Joseph Alba Conner are, then of course you need, you know, you are dealing with big money. But right now I have realized things that managers.

handle. In my position, I can do it by myself. Okay. You know, I can pay for one person for the work that he is doing, but I'm not going to pay 15%, 20% from my fight for doing nothing. So you're going solo? Yeah, I'm going solo. Are you happy? Are you happy with the way things? things have turned out here? Is this a bit of a transitional period for you?

Well, I thought that I had a few persons in Sweden that I really liked, and they became more like a brother to me and a few jokes, of course. But what the thing is that so much go on. I'm not going to worry about that I'm going to start my camp in a place where I don't know nothing about that. It will make me just more motivated as I know that there are a lot of people who want that I get knocked out, I lose, and my career goes down, but I'm not going to let that happen. How's your mother doing? My mom. Yes. She's happy when I'm home.

Yeah. They always complain that everybody's complaining that they don't really hear about me more than from the TV and the newspaper that all the, you know, feet of my mom's just to even she has Facebook now. Wow. Just to follow the news that she knows how am I doing. but she's doing really good. Thank you for asking.

All right. Well, I wish her the best. I wish you the best. Good luck as you transition to a new team. I'm sorry to hear that things didn't work out, but I appreciate you coming on the show to at least explain some of it. If you ever want to explain the full story, you're more than welcome, but I obviously respect your decision and your privacy.

Makwan, good to catch up with you. We'll talk to you very soon, all right? Thank you so much. We will do that. All right, my pleasure. There he is. Makwan Amirakhani, joining us from Finland. All right, let's go to the man we were just talking about one of the favorites on this program.

And as I said at the top, it has become tradition. Beginning of every Connor McGregor fight week, we must talk to the man behind the man, the brains, this whole operation. Coach John Kavanaugh of SBG Ireland, he joins us right now via the phone. Coach, are you there? As you know, Coach, part of the tradition is to see you in your robe getting ready. the tranquility, this doesn't quite feel like the same. What's going on over there? Yeah, I'm sorry.

Sorry, I let you down there. You're going to have to just have a good image in your head of me sitting on my road, but I'm actually sitting in a busy Starbucks. Down the road from the house, the house is beautiful. It's right on the beach, but it's very echoey. You're in, Conner's Leap downstairs, and you know them upstairs, and you're talking or walking around. It's like, I don't know, just a...

The sound bounces around the house and everybody wakes up, so it was better I did the call outside. Okay, fair enough. Are you using speakers or are you just on a, like, a computer or something? No, I'm just on my phone. Oh, okay. Wow. Just regular phone, but I guess it's not too good, is it? It's just very loud, the background, but just hearing your voice makes me very happy. I'm going to step outside. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. In the meantime, okay. Yeah, what's this like? A thousand times better. Oh, okay. I'm in the clean L.A. air. Well, that's a perfect transition for my first question.

A lot was made of the fact that you guys stayed in Vegas for that entire fight camp leading up to 189. This time, most of it was in Ireland. In the last couple weeks, you've been in L.A. Why did you decide to go back to the old way leading up to this massive fight? You know, we're still figuring this out, to be honest. you know, we're a new team. It's our first, you know, this wave of fighters I have now at this high level.

It's our first time doing it. We don't have the experience, so it was, that one was, we tried it that way. I felt it was a bit too long. Maybe peaked a little bit early while we're out there, or it was kind of hard to keep up the momentum for 10 weeks, you know. But I think we're getting it, we're getting better anyway. This one was a hell of a lot better that we stayed in Ireland

for the majority of the time, which obviously that's where we've done. That's where we've been brought up. That's where we've done all our training. And then just when the weather was kind of starting to turn back home, we came out here. So we've got the last two weeks here, which has been the weather's being beautiful.

And, you know, those last two weeks is when the calories start getting reduced and everybody starts getting a bit sore. So it was nice to be able to change things up and training on the beach or in the park in the day and then going to, we have a use of a very nice gym here in the evening, so it's, it's got to working out really well. Because you are in such a fishbowl over there in

Dublin, is it tough now that, you know, because Conner's become this gigantic superstar, people showing up to the gym and bothering you and, you know, coming to, because you didn't have that when you were in Vegas. Was that challenging at all? I'll be honest, we didn't get, we didn't get that too much.

Okay. We get the odd person showing up. And, um, uh, it books, like, every day, there's, you know, cues of people outside. That's not how it was. And, you know, even the guys in the gym, maybe the first one or two times, Connor walked in after they hadn't seen him for a couple of months,

they might have felt a bit, oh, that's the guy off the TV. But then, you know, within a day or two, that's the old news, and then you just get home with it. And, you know, it was just felt normal, like in the gym. And I heard Connor say last week that you guys are actually going to drive from L.A. to Las Vegas.

Is there any particular reason why, upon leaving Ireland, you didn't just go straight to Vegas? You stopped in Los Angeles first? Well, it's nice. There's Dublin to L.A. direct. We don't do Dublin to Vegas direct.

So we had a direct flight here. Just one long-ass flight, but just one flight. And then, you know, we landed that morning, 8 a.m. And we were on the beach by lunchtime. We did a session, a long session, that evening. And we've done two a day since. The energy here has been crazy with the guys. There's been no times where I'm like having to encourage people to get up

can get out. Everybody's, you know, we're getting two sessions in the day every day. It's just imperfect. This is your second time preparing for Aldo. The last time, two weeks out, you find out you get a new opponent. Had that fight happened, you compare this training camp, if you will, if you want to call it that, to the one back in July, you know, leading up to the July fight. Are you preparing, in your mind, is it the same plan of attack, or over time, have you modified it? have you developed new thoughts on the fight?

Is it a completely different plan of attack than had the fight happen in July? Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, I do, yeah. Well, you know, July, as is well known, as well documented, it was a very restricted conner that would have been going into that contest. So I'm not too sure what exactly the key approach would have been because there was very limited movements available. I also saw a joke to you today, a meme or something.

was like a reporter asking a coach, so what do you think of the game? And he replies, sports cliché, sports cliche, sports cliche, sports cliche. And I kind of feel like I'm going to drift into that when I start going on about the best training camp of all time. And, you know, we feel the best now and everything is going perfect. But it literally is that. You know, we had to kind of keep our cards close to her chest about the last fight

and trying to come up a ways of moving around and injury. But this one now, like I genuinely am looking forward to. this as a fan because I just I just get to sit in the corner and be quiet and watch you know and I'm

I'm really looking forward to the teams things have changed in the last even in the last few weeks I've noticed some changes in Connor and it's

people are going to be very surprised by this fight and it's there's a lot going to be happening I'm looking forward to it can you expand a little more on that

what exactly has changed I don't know like yeah I know I know him a long time and it just He seems a lot quicker now. Well, that's faster now. I'm not sure if I'm starting to imagine things. What is it?

We have Ido portal here as well. Who's at the, who's at having some great insights and then giving us slightly different ways of looking at things. And, yeah, it's just I really see. I don't know how anybody would prepare to fight Conner, to be honest. Like, I always, I've always kind of done that in my head. Like, okay, I was preparing some of the fight one of my guys.

Okay, he has, here's his strength. here's weaknesses. Let's focus on this and let's try and pull him into error area and so on. But with Conor right now, I don't see anything. I don't see any errors. You know, it's pretty special and it's just coming together at the right time. You're always very confident. He's always very confident. Your team is very confident. That's something that I think a lot of people admire. But in the back your mind, if you can be honest and go back to July knowing about the injury, was there some doubt there that this all might go awry? And if you compare it to now this week leading up to the fight, feel like, oh, a lot more relaxed, like you can breathe a little easier because there are no

problems this time? You know, I think it would have been in a closer context in July, but I still could only picture one winner, just because of how Connor is. As you watch that, UFC embedded things. Yes. And Aldo's wife is like saying he's a, he's a psycho or something like that. Yes. He's lost of mind.

But that's actually true. Like, he has loss of mind for this. He would, he would openly admit that. And when he's going in there, I mean, it's not sports. It's not like, oh, I did my best. You know, he's going to the depth. And he's been dragging himself across the octagon on one leg. We would have still, I couldn't see anything else other than I'm winning.

But this one now, I think this one now is going to be special. I think it's going to be like a Bruce Lee movie or something. Like it's just going to be pre. Like I said, I'm really looking forward to it. We are five days away. is there any part of you still worried that this is not going to happen or do you feel pretty confident it's finally going down? You know, you hear these rumors online every now and again.

I heard one about two days ago, which came me a scare. But I think it's just rumors. Really, at this stage, what, over five days, that we would 100% would have heard something now. So now it's just making the wait, which I don't believe all those ever missed. Conner's never missed anyway. So, yeah, I'm doing a jinx in the way.

I put up a thing, all the hard training over, fight, you know, in seven days, and people start jumping down my throat, those going to jinx it. So I don't want to jinx it, but I can't imagine a good reason why it's not going to happen at this stage. And the whole card, you mean, the top to bottom is fantastic, and it seems to miraculously held together.

So it's going to be a special night. We've talked about this before, but because you also have Gunny versus Damien, I know that's a fight that you've been personally wanting for a long time. Because this is gigantic, this is one of the biggest fights of all time, largest gate in Vegas, all that stuff, the Connor one. Does this almost feel like a culmination for you as far as your journey, as a martial artist, your journey as a coach?

Does it feel that way, or is it not fair to say that? Is nothing that big, in a sense? You know, it's almost like every fight we get to have this conversation Yeah. And it is. I mean, for each fighter, each fight has to be the most important because, you know, you're as good as your last performance kind of thing. But, yeah, I mean, this one is, you know, the unifying boat belts and Goody's first time fighting. I think Myers ranked six, five or six. So, you know, it's his first time getting a very tough test like that. But then I had this kind of image in my head of USC 200, the Connor headlining for the lightweight belt. and Gooney co-main event for the Walterway belt,

so maybe that's going to blow it out of the water. But who knows? I mean, it just seems to... The beast seems to grow every show. And speaking of that, Connor has been talking about, you know, winning on Saturday, sitting back watching what happens

the following week in Orlando and then challenging for that belt. Are you on board with that idea? Yeah, 100%. You know, I think this is this 21st fight, maybe. a lot of times making this weight class anyway and each time it's a chore and you know when I get into martial art

it wasn't so that I could help someone cut five pounds you know that wasn't the part that interested me the part that interested me was the you know martial arts the techniques and strategy and trying to you know obviously beat somebody and that's the idea of the sport

and that was what got my interest of wasn't about certain food groups and how to lose weight so when he goes to the lightway, I think it's going to be a lot more comfortable, and I think we're even going to see a much better version. Unbelievably, it's hard to imagine, but I do think we will, and it'll be a lot more relaxing for me anyway. You made headlines recently. You said that you were talking to the 42.I.E., and you said that this could end in a minute or less. You truly believe that.

Yeah, you know, like I said, there's two parts of me. One part of me sees that, going to fight with emotion and look to exchange in the middle. Sometimes when I'm reading people's breakdowns, I actually think I worry, I'm I massively diluted. I'm losing my grip on reality, but I haven't seen Aldo show incredible stopping power in his fight. Very fast, very clean technique. But I've not seen him just rough people with his hands.

Again, if I'm way off, okay, fair and not. enough, but I just haven't seen it, whereas how many first-round knockouts is Connor have? He has, he hits different. That's not my opinion. That's just a fact. So if Aldo just get caught up in that storm and meet him in the middle and trade, factually speaking, one of the two will go down. That's just his, you know, based on previous performances.

So one part of me sees that, and then the other part sees it a more reserved and more calculated and somebody just trying to initiate grappling exchanges, which will possibly get it into the second. I've talked about this on this show and other shows as well. One of the things I'm most excited for this week is just to hear from Connor and study his body language, because I feel like there's something brewing there between him and the UFC.

Is there anything you can tell us about that? Where's he at right now? I don't know anything about that. I'm just here to coach and do sessions, and that's as far as my role goes. Fair enough. In a perfect world, do you wish it was,

as much as you want that gunny fight, and we're assuming Artem's fighting as well. He's so close he's there with you. And even if he wasn't, I mean, did you kind of wish that you could just focus everything on this one because it's so big, or are you okay with dividing your attention?

Oh, I actually prefer having more fights because we spoke about this a long time ago. It was just one. It can get, you can get to be too big a thing. You know, it sort of builds up in your head more than what it is. Now, that's absolutely not a problem for Connor, but I like, I personally like to have a couple of fighters in the same card

and that, you know, your attention is sort of spread out and you're, I don't know, I just find it a bit more relaxing, whereas if it's just, if it's just one and there's a six-week build-up, it can become a bigger team than what it is. It is at the end of the day, it's just a fight. It's just two guys. They can strike, they can grapple, and that's it really. you know, it's not really any more complicated than that.

And obviously, this one has a lot more eyes on it, a lot more attention, maybe the most attention any UFC fighters ever gotten. But when the door locks, and that's Conrad's most relaxed state, he's always kind of walked over as he walks into the corner and, you know, I'll be leaning over the cage and maybe hand on the water, and he just always says, I'm home. This is freedom. This is the easy part.

This is the fun part. Yeah, I love what he's. says about the shackles coming off as he walks to the cage. Yeah, I heard an analogy, and it makes a lot of sense. It is literally, and then we can all sort of take a breath and relax. I don't know, maybe some coaches kind of nervous in the corner and very strong game plans in their head and have to say this at this time and that at this time. But for me, it's just, just to be quiet.

Just take a deep breath, get into good posture, and enjoy what's going to be a pretty fantastic exchange. Can Conner Mania back home get any bigger than it is? If he wins this fight, like yesterday in Albuquerque 20,000 people showed up to celebrate Holly home. If he wins this fight, can something like that actually happen

or do you think that it can't get any bigger than it is right now? I saw that and it was fantastic. It was great to see and, you know, congrats to Holly again. Well, deserve. Yeah, well, what can happen next? How big can I get?

I don't know. Ireland's kind of getting bashed by a storm right now. What's called, Desmond? I've heard the weather is treacherous, and people should stay indoors and not be swimming in the sea or some being some idiot swimming in the sea. That's a different story. But maybe they're going to have to call the next storm, Connor,

because that seems to be what it's like. Oh, wow. So how big can it get? I don't know. Every time it gets a lot bigger. I know that. When do you go to Vegas? Actually, yeah, so today, what are we now?

Monday morning, Monday afternoon. We're going to do one more session this afternoon with Ido, probably in the park, and then come home, pack up, and then we have one of these massive kind of, you know, like what rock bands tour of the country on, one of those big tour buses, one of those big tour buses, collected us this evening. and we get into Vegas late tonight. And actually, this house was nice.

But when we do our follow-up next Monday, I'll be in some serious, salubious surroundings for our Skype. I'll make sure that give you a tour of the house because the house we're going to tonight is absolutely ridiculous. Better than the McMansion? It's absolutely beautiful. It blows it out of water. Wow.

It has its own golf course. Let me just say that. The house has its own golf course. Wow. And an infinity pool. I always wanted an infinity pool. So, but yeah, no, this house is the real deal. I love how you...

We're staying, me and all are staying in the Zen room. Are we, the Zen room or... There's one called the Zen room. There's one called the Zebra Room. I'm not going to say that. Okay. But, yeah, so it's very... It's very rock and roll.

I love how you subtly mention that you'll be back for the victory tour next week. I love that confidence and I appreciate that greatly. Two final things before I let you go very off the beaten path here, but we just had them on. Can you confirm that Makwan is going to be joining the team

in a few weeks' time? Yeah, actually we're sitting here at Starbucks. I had a good chat with him about a week ago. You know, for me, like I've got a lot of people now contacting me about coming over to do a training camp or come over for a week's training or two weeks training and for that the door is very open.

And we have public sparring classes and, you know, grappling classes like that, but anybody is welcome to come along. But every now and again, someone contacts me about moving to Dublin. I want to join the team. And for me, that's a very different conversation. It's a much bigger step. My team is kind of big enough to the moment. I don't really need any more fighters. I don't need any more fighters. I don't say it's I don't really want any more fighters because it's getting tricky enough

to kind of give everybody the right man to their attention. So, you know, it's a big thing to accept somebody new to the team. So we had a long conversation about his situation that he's been in. We've kind of hit it off right away. He's going to come over and we're going to see how it goes

for the first few weeks in January, and then we'll have an honest sit down and see if he fits in with us and do we fit in with him? because, like you say, Norman Park is coming down to do some sparring to get ready for his next fight. That's different. To me, that's no big problem. He's just coming down for the sparring classes.

Everybody's welcome for that. But if you want to, you know, me in your corner and to represent a straight for last game, that's a much bigger commitment. So I'm excited. I've seen, I've seen, as Orta said, we're going to call him Macris if he does move over. We're going to Irish his name up, so he's going to be Macrish. if he does become part of the team. But I've watched a couple of his fights.

He's a very exciting prospect. And he's a very just a good human being as well. So we'll see how it goes for the first few weeks and have it fits in. Great. Well, definitely keep us posted on that. Final thing, as I've been saying, I'll show long in the weeks to come, it has, in the weeks prior, I should say,

this is the culmination of everything for us as MMA fans. It's the biggest fight week, in my opinion, the granddad even all, our Super Bowl, our masters, our World Series, everything and then some. For you, what are you most looking forward to? Obviously, the fight is big, but is there something in particular as a coach with your guys that you

built from the ground up? Is there something in particular that you're really looking forward to experiencing this week? I don't want to be petty and say the I told you so moment. That's cool. That's going to be nice too, you know. What now? You know, how many more questions have to be answered now? But that's part of it.

Yeah. But there's the kid of me as well. it's just the MMA fan and, you know, I was just thinking last night about all the big fights. I remember the excitement getting ready to watch Fado

and Krokoff. I mean, that, that was, you know, that fight had such a build-up, and it was two of the joints meeting or when BJ Penn and Matthews got in now, so I was so excited about that one.

You know, I'm going up a weight class and fighting the Unstoppable Ressler, and there's been such great fights like that. Chuk O'Dell and Randy Couture But this goes on, and I'm now to think that from this little team of Rugrats and training out of a garage in Dublin that we're the culmination of an amazing USC week, and it's this fight has the spotlight on it. This fight will probably be the most watch fight in history of mixed martial arts. You can't help, you can't help but take a deep breath and feel a little bit of pride for that. Yeah.

Well, you most certainly should. It is gigantic, and I'm so thankful that you would take. I know you're very, very, very, very busy, incredibly busy. Thank you so much for coming on. I can't thank you enough. So happy for you guys. Can't wait to get down there and see everyone and just experience this whole thing. I wish you the best.

Looking forward to it. I know it's a big one for you in the country. What's that? You be at the ultimate fighter show, too. I will be at everything, my friend. Yes. I look forward to catching up with you. All right.

All right. All right, brother. Take care. There he is. Coach John Kavanaugh of SBG Arlen, Arlen, a mammoth week for him. Mammoth Week. Oh, you go from two my favorites. Go from Kavanaugh, a guy who built a team from the ground up to another man who did the

very same over on Long Island. Coach Ray Longo joins us right now. Ray, are you there? I am here, Ariel. How are you? Sorry for the delay, a lot going on, as you can imagine. And, you know, it's actually funny that you're back-to-back with, John. I don't know how much you know him, but there's a lot of similarities there.

You know, he just took a bunch of guys from around the way, built them up at the champions. You've done the same, of course, with Chris Wyman, who's in action on Saturday. Does this one feel any different for you? Because of all the attention, and I know he's not the main of him, but for me, I would pay $500 just to watch that fight alone, Wyman v. Rockhold. You've been in big ones before. There's no doubt about it, more so than even John.

Does this feel any different for you coming up? No, not really. Just really concentrating on the task at hand, and, you know, obviously I just want to see my guys perform to the best of their ability, and that's really it. I mean, it's, I think, you know, again, it's such a huge week of fights, and there's so many great fights that are going on,

that it's nice to be part of it. And just listening to Kavanaugh-R-Torke, you could see the passion and, you know, the, you know, all the good things that are coming out of, like, just being a part of a small group coming up. I mean, he's got to be on top of the world. I kind of know what that feels like and just listening to, like, a younger guy talk about it.

It's, you know, it was nice hearing him while I was waiting to talk to you. But this is an important fight. But I really, I like to fight. So I'm really psyched to see Chris do his thing. I think he understands, you know, Rockhold strengths, his weaknesses, and I think you're going to see a great fight. So why do you like the fight? From your perspective, why is this a favorable one for you? I think he's been running his mouth a little bit, and I think, you know, I think people are starting to buy into what he's saying.

So it's going to be great to see Chris go out and prove him. everybody why he's the best in the world. I don't know if you pay attention to this stuff, and I'm sure some of it is gamesmanship, but Rockhold, I mean, he's pushing back, and in the past, Wyman's opponents haven't done that. I mean, he's fought a lot of guys who, you know, obviously English isn't their mother tongue.

Belford can obviously speak for himself, but Rockhold has said a lot, and I thought the trash talk, the subtle trash talk on the conference call last week was very interesting. I wonder if he truly has respect for Wyman's game. Like, deep down, do you think that Rockhold believes that he's just that much better than Chris Wyman?

I tell you one thing, he better believe that he's not much better than Chris Wyden because he's going to find out soon why Chris is the champ. And I think he's trying to almost psych himself up. And I think I heard him say he's going to toss Chris around. I mean, I think he's, you know, he has to do what he has to do to keep himself in the fight. But he's going to get a reality check in a couple of days. Again, from your perspective, and I don't want hindsight.

to cloud this, but Anderson was gigantic the first and second time. No doubt about it. Machita was big. Belfort was big. But as far as the matchup, is this the toughest one yet as champion? Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to make that case considering who Rockholds fought

and, you know, what Anderson Silva had done in the game. I mean, so I mean, listen, Ariel, they're all huge fights. Every fight is going to be big from this point on. So it's a weird question, but you know, look, we're taking this fight like any other fight. Definitely didn't overlook of it.

That's what you're asking. You know, it's definitely not that. But I don't think, you know, I think going into the first Anderson Silver fight, I mean, if you were human, you had to be a little, you know, worried. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the guy was considered, you know, unstoppable in the greatest of all time and all of that stuff. And, you know, I can't see it, you know, taking on a different life than that. But we do.

Rockhold is really just. a well-rounded, talented kid. He really is. I just, you know, think that I have the better guy, and that's, and that's where it's going. What concerns you most about Luke? Yeah, I think he fights long. I think he's,

he knows how to use his height, so it'll be, you know, his range. I think that'll be interesting to see how Chris deals with that, but I think, you know, I think we did a good job and preparing him for that. But, you know, he seems like, you know, he fights good going backwards like that, you know.

We looked at a couple of things, but I would say that's it. Like again, I think he's an opportunist. If he gets a chance, he jumps on top of it. I think he does that good. But other than that, I think, you know, Chris does everything better than him. What's it been like as far as Chris's demeanor in the gym, no cameras, no media, nothing, leading up to this fight? Because I've said, I feel like Luke is the magic to his bird.

And what I mean by that is, you know, two young American, in prime fighters who, for the most part, have had a lot of success in their careers. Of course, Chris is undefeated. Luke's had a couple setbacks, but they've been fairly dominant in their careers. I think there's a respect there. I think deep down, they kind of like each other and would hang out with each other, obviously not now, but they can't even stomach. They can't fathom the idea of losing to one another. And when it's all said and done, they'll be cool, there won't be, but they might fight two or three more times in the future, who knows. Do you get the sense that Chris and his mind, like the jock, the competitive nature of,

Chris Wyman, what makes him so great, is really coming out in this fight, or am I just kind of, like, imagining all this? I mean, look, Wyden's a competitive dude. I don't care if you're playing checkers with him or you want to see who could throw a bull for. I mean, he's just, he's really just a competitive guy. But, you know, magic, you know, the Magic Johnson, Larry Bird thing, I don't know. We'll find out, you know. East versus West? Yeah, it's got its own little, uh, it's got its own little, uh,

It's got its own little thing going on. Yeah, it should be interesting. I'm really, really psyched for this fight. You know, each fight is different. And, you know, if you look at it the way you're saying, yeah, I get it. And it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. It really will. And I think, you know, maybe if, you know, if the McGregor fight wasn't on there,

it would have gotten, you know, more of that type of attention. Yeah. And that would have been cool. But, you know, like, again, it's such a crazy week. Not that it's flying under the radar because I think the people that are real fans MMA know this is a really good fight but yeah, it'd be interesting

if he becomes his Magic Johnson, that'll be cool. Has he mentioned to you at all that he feels like he's not getting to love? Have you felt like he's not getting to love? I mean, it has all been about Connor and Aldo and in the days leading up on the Embedded show it was great.

The training camp, and I'm not just saying this because I work for them, but I thought they did a phenomenal job just highlighting your team on Fox Sports One that aired on Friday. I think you could see it online now. That's a fantastic 30-minute special. But do you guys feel like you're getting the love here as the champ as the legend killer as the guy who beat the supposed goat? Or would you like to get a little more? No, I feel we're definitely getting a love. But, you know, look, I'm always going to push for my guys to get more or more. So if you're asking me, I'd love to see him get more. But do we feel the love 100%?

I think, I mean, like, again, Fox and, you know, Sonny's one of my favorite people in the world. I mean, they did a, I thought they did a super job with that and everybody. I mean, the calls I got and the way they captured the closeness of the team and what we've done from nothing is it was a, they did a phenomenal job. And I don't think it was easy to do because the dynamic of what we do is is different from everybody else, but not under one roof. And, you know, I think they, they showed the relationship of me and Matt and how close. we are and, you know, how close Chris has become to us, and, you know, me and him have a gym now. It's a crazy story.

It really is. I thought for 30 minutes or whatever amount of time they had, they did a brilliant job with that, absolutely brilliant. Yes, the great Sunny Solberg of Fox Sports One, definitely deserving of a shout-out. She's a fantastic job with that show. For you... I mean, and a

fantastic human being. I mean, the presence and, you know, you just feel the, you know, the goodness of her when she walks in the room. I think she's dynamite. Now, for you, is it Thursday, Saturday? You have nothing on Friday? You have Al Jermaine on Thursday, right?

Yes. So you have a break in between? Well, you've got to weigh in. Sure, but as far as... Total break, but... No, no, but in the sense that, like, it's very rare to have to corner a guy three straight nights in a row in the same place. I mean, this has never been done.

So I was just wondering if you like that sort of thing, like, do you like the fact that on Thursday, you're locked in on Algeman and then you got to... You know, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of balls that are up in the air for you, right? No, this is a huge weekend, but I'm just really trying to stay focused and compartmentalize, you know, each guy and what they have to do. And, you know, again, we'll find out when I get there, but I'm just trying to catch up on all my sleep now. So I think it's going to be really hectic.

Matt's already out there, which is good. So he's already working with Aljo. And, you know, we got, you know, Volante, Dana has going out. So we brought people that, you know, just in case, you know, you know, me and Matt. in one place. He'll always have coverage with other people. And I think, uh, yeah, it's just, it's really, really an exciting time. And they both had, they both have really big fights. And they both have tough fights. And, you know, that's what, that's what it's about, man, you know, just, uh, you know, proven who you are and what you could do. So I'm excited for both guys. And, uh,

I'm looking for a really good weekend. I feel like some of that Ray Longo style has rubbed off on young uh, Algeman. There was a clip in that train training camp. of you. I love how everyone shows up to your movie premiere, all in leather coats. This is a team you don't want to mess with. But now I'm seeing Al Jermaine with the high top fade, the gold chain. What is going on over there?

Is he morphing into... What's happening? About anything, he's going to morph into Sarah. That is a scary thought. He is really one unique dude, man. He's funny. And I think he's getting funny or funny. I think I get a kick out of Al Jameen.

And a super talented guy. So I think when you have a great sense of humor and you're super talented, that's a great combination for success. You know, we were talking about this with John. Once you become a team that's known for breeding champions, especially homegrown, I bet you get a ton of people wanting to join the team. How have you dealt with that? Do you have to say no to a lot of people? Because you don't want the wrong person to infiltrate that, you know, close-knit family that you have in ruining the whole thing, right?

Yeah, listen, we're a weird team to get close, though, I would say. If you're not, I mean, it's, that that's it. We're really tough to break into, I think. So, you know, we keep it small. I think that came across on the special. We're not really looking for anybody. But, you know, every so often we get guys to come in. And like we had Comosey come in and Wonderboy, these are really just good guys, man.

I mean, they fit right in. And it's great to see that. And, you know, that kid Elias Theodore came over with his, you know, you know, He was a lot of fun. You know, he's doing his own thing. He's a young guy. He looks like he's really enjoying everything about the sport. And, you know, it's just, it's fun.

But, yeah, you've got to be a certain type of person. Well, you're definitely going to get weeded out. You know, I mean, it goes back to, you know, water seeks its own level. I mean, we have really a bunch of great guys around right now. And, you know, I don't know what we'll do in the future, but for right now, it's almost like John said, you know, to come down for sparring is one thing. but to really take somebody on right now. And again, we're really going on that homegrown talent thing.

We love. There's nothing better than that. You know, you even sort of would, like, for the first time, I saw it, and I could be wrong on this, but Winkle John and Holly home. You know, he had that kid from the beginning, but he seemed like a different person when he was speaking about her. You know what I mean? It just seemed like you saw the connection as a passion.

It is, there's so much. much more than just, you know, taking a guy that, you know, maybe didn't start with you or something like that. It's a deeper connection. I really saw like a more animated winklejohn. I watched that thing you did walking around the gym. He seemed like a different person to me. And I really think that's because, you know, he watched his girl grow. He's been with her from the beginning. And what's a better feeling than that, you know, go out and, you know, pull off a great upset like that. So, you know, I like it because I know I've experienced it a couple of times. And even, when I see other people talk about it and look, I really, I love it. You know, I think, you know,

I'm not really close to Wink, but he looked like, to me, look like a different person and just listening to Gavinor Talk. You could, you could see it's a different, it's a different vibe. I don't know if you're picking that up. One thousand percent. You nailed it. I mean, I feel, right? I mean, I thought, I thought Winkle Joe was totally, look how happy he is. Pepping a step. You know, it's crazy, crazy, crazy. But that's the beauty of doing what we do. And you could take people from the neighborhood, let them accomplish their dreams, get them to the big show. Man, I'm cool. If it ended tomorrow, I walk away a happy man, you know what I mean? So it's been a great ride, and it's those moments that I'm going to cherish for a long time.

Do you allow yourself to smell the roses here? On a week like this, I feel like this is one of those fight weeks that you'll tell your grandchildren bag. Like, all eyes were on us. It was my guy, you know, fighting one of the biggest shows ever. Do you allow yourself to sit back and relax? or are you so stressed? Because sometimes I see you after those fights. You are dripping. Like, you were just in there. No, I'm totally stressed.

There's no relaxation. Believe me, I think, I think, Ariel, I might be coming to the end of the line. The stress is not, there's no relaxation. It's really all about winning. That's it. That's all I'm focused on. And, like, again, making sure that these guys could just perform, the best that they could perform.

And anything I could do to get them to that point, that's all I want to concentrate on. Everything else is, You know, which I don't even know if it's a good thing, but I put everything on the back burner until after the fight. So, yeah, I'm a wreck. I think what you're reading is totally correct. But once I say, you're just joking now.

You're not really coming to the end of the line. I mean, I've got to be the oldest trainer in the game. Come on. How old are you? Yeah. I'm 50, 57, going to be 58. Really? Wow.

That is shot. I would have said 41, 42. No joke. This is why I do the show. This is it. This could be my new Sarah. I don't think I could do that. What do you got?

Like a year, two, three, four? What do you got? It's one fight at a time. Okay. Wow. This is kind of a bombshell. It kind of actually depressed me. I'm trying to get...

Oh, no, no. No, no, no. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm just saying it is. What you're seeing is, I mean, I'm really stressed out for these guys. I take each fight, really the heart, you know?

And, like, again, you've got to remember, Even, you know, before I left Friday night, we had six people fighting Brooklyn, and we had a great night for the team. You know, we went five and one, and it's just, you know, emotionally, I really try to be there for everybody that I corner it, like, 100%. And it's a lot. It really is a lot. If you're doing it the right way, it's a lot.

I can't, and I can't do it any other way. So, you know, that's what I'm kind of saying. We have a lot going on. We had a kid win a boxing belt. somebody won the gold and a jujitsu thing. It was a great weekend for the school. And, you know, it's, it's crazy. So with it, it's a great thing.

I think people would die to be in my shoes. So I love every second of it. But it's what you see after the fights, I'm sure I'll be sweating again, trust me. By the way, what's going on with the weight situation? Chris has said it's different. He's smaller. He's walking around like he was fighting in a welterweight fight.

What's going on there? No, yeah. He had, you know, he had his nutritionist. had his house cooking for him, and I think just, you know, the change in the food, he just, you know, between the hard workouts and eating rate, I think he just, uh, it's all just naturally occurring, so it was all good. Okay. So, strong and fast, you know, healthy, so everything's good. Is he eventually moving down to 170? No.

No. Okay. If anything, I thought he'd be going up to 205 to meet the other New Yorker. Well, I think, you know, when he does, though, he'll, he'll be able to pack the muscle on the right way. so it would be great. Okay, let's go on the record here. Final thing. How are we getting it done on Saturday?

Man, I think I'm predicting a knockout. Wow. Early, late? I think it's early. I think it's going to be early. I think Wyatman's going to do what he always does, man. He's very confident. He's going to walk across the ring.

The other guy thinks he's going to meet him in the middle, which I hope he does, and we'll see what happens. That walkout song, when that hits, won't back down Tom Petty, there's nothing like it in the sport, in my opinion. For everything it represents, you know what I mean? I mean, there's nothing like it. No, I'm with you, man. You know, even just doing this interview, it's almost become like a ritual, but, you know, my heart's pounding right now. I'm not even joking around.

I just want to get to Vegas at this point. I am short of breath. I can't. I'm not lying. I am short of breath right now thinking about Saturday night in Las Vegas. We'll let you go. Thank you so much, Ray. What a pleasure and honor.

I wish you guys the best. Thursday, obviously. Saturday, gigantic one. It's old hat for you by now, but I know you will be sweating like always. I can't wait to see you out there and the rest of the team. Appreciate a couple minutes today. Awesome. Always a pleasure,

Ariel. Best look and I'll see you out there. Yes, there he is. Ray Longo, coach to the stars, coach of Al Jermaine Sterling, who meets Johnny Eduardo, coach to Chris Wyden who of course meets Luke Rockhold on Saturday. No joke. I am short of breath right now. I am so excited.

I cannot recall the last time I was this excited for just a trip to Vegas and the madness that is coming. I mean, usually it's, you know, it's one big fight and that's it. But this time, three in a row, and they're all three fantastic cards. There's really nothing to complain about. It's unbelievable. Okay, let's move along. Last week, I said I thought about Charlie Brennam.

I usually think about Charlie Brennan. One of the great guys in this sport, but I thought about him in particular last week because the UFC announced that they were coming back to pit. Pittsburgh for the first time since that wacky event in June of 2011, I believe. That's when on 24 hours notice, Nate Marquart was pulled from the card, kicked out of the UFC, of course, eventually came back in. But Charlie Brennan stepped up and fought Rick's story. And what became the co-main event, it was supposed to be the main event. It was Rick versus Ney Markhart. Nate Markhart failed the drug test. So they put in Charlie Brennaman. Pennsylvania's own,

comes in their wins, shocks the world, an unbelievable moment in this. sports history. So I thought of our old friend Charlie's got some interesting things going on, so I wanted to check in with him right now. We'll be doing that via the magic of Skype. And if you haven't seen him in quite some time, you may not recognize the man. The hair is gone. There he is. That is, in fact, Charlie Brennaman. How are you, my friend? I'm doing extremely well, and you were saying how nervous you were getting. I thought maybe it was the apprehension for this upcoming interview, but it just may be next week's extravagance. No, no, it's catching up with an old pal, and that makes me nervous as well. By the way, when did we cut the hair and

why because I know that was a big part of your identity. Yeah, you know, actually I cut it before the, or right after the Castillo fight. You know, that kind of shook me to the bone and I woke up and I was like, eh, I think it's about time to go for a chain. So I cut it and I kept it off. You know, my wife kind of likes it short.

I'm getting to the age where you kind of do what your wife likes. So I keep it short. Did you have the same feelings, thoughts, deja vu when they announced Pittsburgh last week? Did it bring back those memories? Yeah, absolutely. And I got a good bit of feedback and it got my gears turning and I thought, wow, how cool would that be for a rematch? And the UFC does all kinds of crazy things. And yeah, I started having those visions to go back through my mind. I'm just so it was, it was June of 2011. Unbelievable. We're approaching, you know, four and a half years since that fight. Isn't that amazing? Does it feel like it's been four and a half years or less? Not at all, man. It feels like it was yesterday. It's like a lifetime in the sport has happened since then. But, you know, we all kind of go in different ways. We all do our own things day to day. And then, you know, it's like we have young children and my daughter's already two years old. You look back and it's like, holy cow, where'd that time go? But you break it down and you realize, hey, man, I've lived a lot since then.

So we haven't seen you in action since your last UFC fight, November of 2014. So it's been 13 months. What's up with you? Are you retired? Are you taking a break? Where are you at? I'm kind of in a hiatus. I have not officially retired, but kind of what I ran into, you know, following that defeat, I, you know, I was hungry. I want to fight, and I talked to Rich Chu, and I talked to Ali and World Series, and both them said the same thing. We're not going to sign you. You're coming off three losses.

A lot of big organizations are signing guys off of multiple losses. I'm not one of those guys. So it's, you know, go back to the drawing board and fight for literally two and two against UFC-level guys. And I just, you know, at this point, I just, I don't see the payoff in it. So what do you do? How do you stay busy? Well, I've been doing a multitude of things. I decided after that Castillo fight that the next phase of my life was going to be dedicated to professional speaking.

And basically, like a lot of former athletes do, I put my experiences together into a package. Basically, my success principles, I'm not unlike every other fighter out there. I just put it down on paper. I formed a curriculum. I delivered that curriculum to kids and adults, and I just penned a book as well. Yeah. So that took a lot of work. Driven.

So, yeah, and I'm working today on the next thing. So it's a lot's going on. What's the next thing? Well, just developing my program further, you know, creating different avenues for young people and professionals to kind of pick my brain and learn from my experiences. So online courses, speaking, school programs, executive programs. programs, that kind of thing. So the book is called Driven. You can get it now at places like Amazon. I've seen it up there. There's actually a link on our show page right now if you want to

check it out. What inspired you to do that? Is it like, did you need, in order to get these jobs as a speaker, did you need to write the book first? No, yeah, that's a good point. And no, I mean, the answer is no, I didn't have to do it. But I have known ever since I was a Spanish teacher prior to fighting my first fight, prior to even thinking about it, I used to tell the students, So you say, correct this, you know, save this paper, you know, with my signature on. I'm going to be famous that day. And I certainly don't think I'm famous, but I've been able to accomplish some pretty neat things. So I've been taking notes, you know, like principles that my dad taught me when I was a kid,

surround yourself with the best, avoid negativity. And I thought, wow, man, I could probably write this into a book. So when I got knocked out by Castillo, man, I was lonely. I was down. It was like the most vulnerable position I'd ever been in. And I thought, how can I turn this around and use it for me? and that's what I did, and I just started writing, and 35,000 words later, I had a book. All by yourself, no ghostwriter.

No, no ghostwriter. I wrote it all by myself, and I had three friends slash family members who are English professionals, and they helped me edit it and revise it and put it into a chronological order. But yeah, I mean, I spent many an hour sitting at home alone when the whole world was working, thinking, what am I going to do it myself? Right. And so I just started writing. It's interesting that you keep mentioning the Castillo fight.

You fought him at UFC 172. That was April of 2014, but you had another UFC fight after that. Why do you keep – like, were you a zombie in that Silva fight, the last one? Because the Castillo one was obviously like, you know, it was sort of a shocking loss. And it was a highlight real thing. But you did have another chance after that. Why do you keep referencing the Castillo fight? Well, the Castillo fight was just a big learning experience in my life.

You know, I had some training differences. A lot was changing over in Jersey where I was. So I was changing a lot of my training. And then, bam, when you get knocked out cold on TV, that leaves an imprint. The Silva fight, that was just a product of maybe a strategy mistake. I was firing on all cylinders. I was performing well. I was winning that round and felt great, looked great.

My mind was great. And it was just kind of like a mental lapse. And I can't really, I didn't take anything away. from that other than, man, I wish I would have had a different strategy and trained a little bit differently. What is going on with that team over there in Jersey, AMA? Are they still around? What's happening? No, everyone's kind of disbanded. I would equate it to kind of life. Life just happens. You know, I had a wife or I have a wife. I had a child. I moved back to Pennsylvania. I transitioned my training over to Philadelphia. There's a great group of guys over there.

The Miller brothers opened their gym. Shorty went with them. You know, a lot of guys kind of just disbanded and won our separate ways. It's sad because what we had at AMA was, it was great, man. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. So if you never get another fight on a big stage, if you never take another one, even a small one, would you be okay with that or do you think it will bother you for the rest of your life? No, man, I would be okay with it. And people might put that different ways. I've learned that, you know, people on the outside, everyone offers opinion and perspective, and they don't know because they're not in the driver's seat. I know what I did with my career. I know what I made of myself.

One thing I pass on to people that I work with or that I talk to is just about maximizing your abilities, right? So not everyone's going to be the UFC champion. And for everyone to say that if you're not going to be champion, you shouldn't fight, I don't know, man. Then you're saying that everyone that steps in the octagon could be a UFC champion. I just don't think that's true. I think it's about maximizing yourself. And I can look at my life and my career and say, you know, if I never stepped foot in a cage again, I did a pretty darn good job of being a non-eastern.

two athletic kid in central Pennsylvania who got to the UFC and won on the biggest stage. Oh, your story is the greatest. I mean, to me, one of the greatest tragedies and oversights in this sport was that they never told the world, especially when they were on Spike TV, that you won Pros versus Joe's. Why? I still don't understand why they didn't capitalize on that. It made no sense. It was like the perfect tie-in. You and my brother are the two guys that think that more than anything. My brother gets saying, Spike TV, Spike TV, Spike TV. It says it. Perfect. Even now, yes, of course. Even now with Beltor, crazy.

You know, you told me this in October of 2012. After the first time you were released, you said, quote, this is what you said, I'm not okay with being the guy who beat Rick Story in Pittsburgh. I want to be, I want that to be one of the things I did. That feeling, I don't think I will ever feel that again. 99% of people won't feel that. But I want to feel that again. And I'll do my damnedest to get that again.

Of course, you came back to the UFC shortly thereafter. that run. Did you ever get it back? No, absolutely not. But here's the thing that my philosophy on life and my philosophy on what I'm doing is, you know, I'm very real, I'm very realistic. You've got to leverage. You've got to pivot. You've got to take the most of what you have and make the most of it at that time. And right now, physically, and I'm still training, I'm getting better. I'm hopefully soon to be belted my next belt. So I'm only getting better physically, mentally, if I can never, you know, experience that in the cage in front of a million people inside the octagon, then I'll experience it on a stage in front of 35,000 people when I'm

speaking to them. So I'm going to take whatever I have and I'm going to make the best of it. How often do you think about that night in Pittsburgh when it felt like you were on top of the world, you stepped up, you were the company guy, story was so close to a title shot. I mean, it really was an unbelievable moment. I was so lucky to be there in attendance working for verses at the time. How often do you think back to that night? Since we started this conversation 25 times. Really? It just creeps up.

Yeah. My name is Charlie. I am from Holidayburg. I thought Rick's story. It just goes over and over. No, I mean, I think about it.

I mean, to put a number on it once every two weeks, maybe something like that, it'll come up. It's not every day, but I do. I say my prayers and I'm very grateful

for what I've been able to experience. And I mean, literally, nope. I mean, Rocky experienced it. I experienced it. And maybe like a couple other people

experienced it. I mean, that was like everything I ever wanted came together. So if I never experienced it again, I'm going to talk with young people. I'm going to talk with professionals, and I'm going to tell them how I got to that point. Rick Story's still around. He's coming off a win. It has been a while since he fought. He's coming off next surgery as well.

But of all the guys in the UFC, do you kind of keep your eye on him the most? Like, do you sort of root for his success so that you could be the guy who beat the guy? Yeah. I mean, yes and no. I like him. He's, I love watching him fight. You know, I want him to win except for when I fought him. So, yeah, I mean, I root for him.

I think he's an awesome. I love watching him fight, man. He just goes in there, he beats people up. I remember watching him beat up Dustin Hazel and thinking, man, I hope I never have to fight that guy. And then I fought him and then I beat him. So, yeah, of course, I root for him. One of the funny byproducts of that whole thing was, I believe, if memory serves me correct, you were supposed to fight T.J. Grant that week, right?

Yeah. And then he got injured. And then you guys became good buddies, like training partners afterwards. And unfortunately, what a shame, what's happened to him? He was so close and never got that title fight. But are you still close with T.J? Yeah, we still communicate. And, yeah, I would consider him one of my best friends from the UFC.

And, you know, it is a shame that that happened to him. We joke all the time. I don't know if I would beat T.J., to be honest. I'm kind of... It all worked out for you. I'm kind of glad. Yeah, it really did work out. I owe him a little bit dinner here and there, but...

So do you watch, are you still able to be a fan of the sport? Do you still watch it, consume it, or are there hard feelings? No, man, I am a fan of it, and I do watch it, I do love it. But here's the thing, like I said, I want to fight. I want to fight. I want to sign with the UFC would have me back. I love to fight for the UFC, but that ship is probably staled. I want to fight for Bellator.

I tried to fight for World Series, but they just won't have me. And it's really frustrating to sit here knowing what I have and knowing what I can do, and I'm sure I'll get all kinds of comments about how terrible I am. But when you look at Bellator having Dotta 5,000 and Kimbo fighting, I mean, seriously, come on. And I, it's like, I sit at home and I shake my head and I say, you know what? Maybe it's, maybe it's just not for me. I don't know. Well, there's other options, of course, an old friend, Andy Main, doing very well over in

Pancras in Japan. Have you explored overseas at all? I have a little bit through Andy, but again, it comes, it's not all about money. It's certainly not all about money. But at 34 years old with a family and a mortgage and house setter, it kind of is. And from what I've been told, the money is not very plentiful over in Japan. And so, you know, I'm getting some things going in my other career that maybe I wouldn't have to rely on that as much, you know, so I could fight for the experience. I could put in the time like I did two or three years ago, but it's increasingly more difficult to do that.

If someone wants to hire you to speak to a group, kids, whatever, how do they contact you? Very, very, thank you very much for asking that. But my website, charlie dashbrenumann.com, I just had it updated. You can go to the work with me section, click on it. It'll explain my programs, explain how to get in time. contact with me and then I'll kind of take it from there. Okay. And let me ask you since we're all very excited for this weekend in Las Vegas. Conor, Jose, who do you got? Man, I really enjoy Connor McGregor a lot. I think he's awesome. I think he's maximized his ability, his performance potential.

But I just think Outo is going to tear him up, man. I just think he is on a mission. I think he is a dangerous, dangerous person. It's Scarface, man. I think he's going to pull Scarface out and go hardcore. Like completely annihilate him. I mean, maybe not like embarrass him, but no, I think that he will probably finish him within three rounds. Wow, interesting. Wyden & Rockhold? Man, that is a tough one.

I love Ray Longo, and I just heard him on there. Rockhold's a man, man, but Wyman has taken it to another level. So I'm going to give you an answer because I hate when people don't. It's a great fight, but if I had to tip my hat one way or the other, I'm going to say Chris Wydenman. Okay, and I feel like I know the direction you'll go in here, but I'll ask it anyways, Chad Mendez. Frankie, okay, there it is. How did I guess? How did I know? Frankie's been, honestly, Ariel, you and Frankie are two of the most authentic real people that I've met in this sport. You haven't changed.

Thank you. It's MMA rated, you know, how to taste my pee, all that stuff. Thank you. You and Frankie haven't changed the, you know, at all. So I value that and I appreciate it, but I'm sticking with him always. Well, that is a great company. I appreciate that very much. Very happy to hear that everything's going well. Pick up the book. It's called Driven. I look forward to reading it. Let's see that cover one more time so people can be familiar with it. You can get it on Amazon. The link is on our page. Just type in Driven.

And Charlie Brennaman, you'll find it on Google. My unlikely journey from classroom to Cage. Great cover there as well. Charlie the Spaniard, Brennaman. Great to catch up with you, my man. Loving the hair. I wish you the best. And we'll talk very soon. Thanks, Ariel. I appreciate it. Charlie dashbrenumannman.com. get it. There it is. Charlie Brenman stopping by. Appreciate his time. One of the good guys in this sport as well. Oh, yes. Mr. New York, Rick. He writes me questions throughout the show, which is very interesting because it's like, I am talking to people, but as I've said time and again, there's really no other way to interact than in front of all y'all because there are no breaks. That's when people regroup. That's when people talk. That's when people, you know, get their business out of the way.

But we don't have the luxury of doing that because there's just so much to talk about, so much to ask, to break down, so many people to talk to that we don't have time for commercial breaks on this particular program. Anyhow, thank you very much to Charlie Brennaman. Great guys, well, another one who has not changed, as he just said. And interesting to hear his breakdown of Joseo versus Connor McGregor. Wow. A little later on, hopefully, if we have time,

fall goes well, we're going to look at the odds. I haven't looked at them in a bit. I wonder if they've changed since Connor came out as a slight favorite. That is wild to me. And it'll be very interesting to monitor that as we approach Saturday night

because, you know, we saw with Holly Home, people were, you know, they started to change their mind. fine. Oh, okay. Again, I don't know what the guy's writing to me. He's like writing me messages. It's like, I don't know if you notice this, but we're doing a program here, Mr. Newark, Rick. Keep it together over there, all right? Anyway, the odds, they're interesting. We'll talk about them later. In a minute, we're going to be joined by the UFC strawway champion of the world.

Sometimes I love when they say of the world for like those smaller belts when it's clearly not of the world. but I feel pretty confident saying that Yawani Yanjachech is one of the very best fighters in the world, period, and of course the best straw weight in the world. I would say that she's the best straw weight in the world regardless of sex. I will say that. I dare you to argue with me on that one. She's in Las Vegas right now. She was in Las Vegas last week when they were breaking ground at the new UFC headquarters.

They're opening a gigantic new campus with like a rehab center for injuries, for the fighters. Anyone can come in and rehab injuries, see their doctors, things like that. There's going to be a media lounge. There's going to be a gigantic facility for production and all kinds of stuff over there. They had this big to-do in Las Vegas last, I believe it was Tuesday. Yawanna was there. Chocledell was there. Bignog was there. Forrest Griffin was there. Joseph Benavides was there. A whole bunch of people

were there. It was a big to do. But in my opinion, no one bigger than Yana, Yom Jacek, who was in attendance shoveling the dirt. This grand ceremony. And what a year it has been for her. Around exactly a year ago in Phoenix, she really burst onto the scene, big fight, big win over Clyde Gidea. Now she's being invited, flown all over the world to groundbreaking ceremony. ceremonies and whatnot. And to top it all off, she joins us once again via the magic of Skype. There she is, although she's sideways. We're looking at you sideways, Joanna. There it is. Yes, much better. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Just woke up. Oh, well, I'm sorry to wake you up. It is 1145 over there.

You must be living the life of a champion over there in Las Vegas, sleeping into 1145. And now it froze, unfortunately. but it's a beautiful smile. Okay, let's get her back. It appears as though the Skype has froze, but that is proof that she is with us. As I said, coming off hand surgery, she defeated Valerie Littourneau.

That completely flew under the radar in the aftermath of the Holly Home Ronda Rousey fight, upset, shocker. But it was, A, a tremendous fight. I don't think it won a bonus, by the way. And B, it was a fight in which early in that fight, she actually broke her hand.

There she is. Once again, Yohana, are you there? I'm back. I'm back. Okay, good morning to you. Thank you for joining us. Okay, so let's get into it. How is the hand feeling?

Yeah, it's good. I'm good. I can move. I can make feast, so everything is okay. So the cast is off already. Yeah, it is. It is.

Sometimes I wear some other cast. I can move it. but I can do some exercise wherever I want and it's good. This is the same hand that you had surgery on before, right? Yeah, same right hand, yeah. But not the same spot. No. Last time was Tomp and this time was Inger.

Do you have any idea at what point in the fight you injured your hand? It was for Trant, I gave her hook and I felt this after. that. So, yeah. How much did it hurt? Not really. Just after surgery, you know, I took some pain killers for maybe 20 hours, maybe a little bit longer, but no pain before the surgery and a few days after.

We talked about this immediately afterwards, but now that you've had some time to take it all in and gain some perspective, just why were you so emotional after that win? I had never seen you like that before. You were crying. It was nice to see, but I'm wondering. why, you know, it hits you so hard? You know, I was just happy, you know, it's like, it's pretty difficult job to be a champion, you know, and I'm trying to be the best as much as I can, and this is what happened, you know.

I've been training so hard, like always, but, you know, I was just super happy, you know, that my other biggest dream came true, you know, and that I defend my title, and, and, you know, And that's all. I was just super, super happy about, you know. Because there was so much talk about this being, you know, four women headlining the biggest show in UFC history and all that, did it feel different for you? Did it feel like there was more pressure on you this time?

No, no pressure, no stress. Same as always, but, you know, the emotions. We're acting tough before the facts, but we're just humans, you know. So I don't know what happened, you know. I was just super, super happy. Lots of emotions, but, you know, it's good. No emotions, not emotions before the fight, but after the fight, it's time for those kind of emotions. When you looked at Valerie, when you were sizing her up and everything, it felt like she wasn't, she wasn't intimidated. She wasn't backing down. And in the past, you could say that maybe some of your opponents were somewhat defeated before based on what you were doing.

Did you get that sense as well? I mean, she lost and you won rightfully so. But this wasn't. someone who let herself lose before ever entering the cage? Yeah, she was tough, you know. You know, she's not a girl, you know. She's got daughter. She's a real lady, you know. She's a real fighter too. So big respect to Valerie, and I wish her all the best.

But, you know, I couldn't break her before the fight, you know. Yeah. And I like that. I really like this fight. I watch for one time, but I'm going to do it again. but I like this fight. I think we put on show and I'm very happy, you know. You definitely did.

I know A, you were emotional. You were probably in pain after the fight. Did you even get a chance to watch the Ronda Rousey fight against Holly Holme? Not really, not really, no. I went to doctor and they kept me for a long time there. So I had some photo shoot and I heard that Ronda is fighting. So I was trying to watch, but it was difficult, you know, and I really missed this chaos.

and I just saw the reply and it was crazy man. What was your reaction? No, it was like, man, like somebody, I don't know, like somebody took part of my heart, you know. I was like super hurt and I didn't know what to say, but, you know, it's MMA. It's a beautiful sport but very brutal in one time, you know. So you've developed a relationship with Ronda,

Did a part of you feel for her? Like, were you sad for her? Yeah, I do. I am. I was super sad about, you know, and I still, like, I would like to contact her, but I'm like, and what are you going to say to her, you know? Right. We should all give her some free time, lots of space, and she will be back.

She's simply the best, you know. We cannot forget about what she did before, you know, before this fight on NFC-193. So Ronda comes back fights. Do you think that she would beat Holly Home based on what you know? I don't know. Holly, she's one of the greatest too. She's got lots of experience in boxing in MMA 2. She became a champion.

She did her job in Melbourne. I don't know what's going to happen, you know, but she must get the chance, you know. Who's a better striker? Holly Holm. Or Yoham Jacek? Come on. I'm the best in the Strovi Division.

She's the best in the Bantan Division. I don't know. Don't do this. I mean, it's an interesting debate, though, right? Yeah, it is. We're different, we're different, you know. Okay. Is there a lesson to be learned, though? What happened to Rhonda? So much was going on around her and so many obligations. Is there something that you took away from this whole experience? Wow, I mean, I can't let it get to that point for me. Maybe we don't know really what happened, you know?

If Holly was that good, if the game plan was that good, it was. but we don't know, you know, Ronda, she's like super busy. I've been traveling with her to Australia and to New York for media. I was busy, but she was super busy, you know, and I was like, how she can handle it, you know? And I don't know, I don't know, it's a question for Ronda if she had some pressure, some other private problems. I don't really know, but it's a sport. We're just humans and sometimes, you know, we don't have this good day, you know. So what are they telling you as far as your recovery?

When could you fight again? I cannot have any contact for 10 weeks, but I do some cardio trainings. So I need some time off. So I would like to fight in the middle of New Year. So maybe UFC 200, maybe a little bit later. You know, I think it was a second sign from my body that I need vacation. I did five fights in 15 months, so almost every three months. So it was a crazy year.

Yeah, I mean. Crazy months, you know. Like I said, it was almost exactly around this time last year when you were fighting Claudia on the prelims of Fox. Have you had a chance to sit back and say, wow, what a year? I mean, look at you now. You're a champion. You're being flown all over the place. You're part of the team there with Lorenzo and Dana.

They have you everywhere. It's been unbelievable for you. And a year ago, no one could even pronounce your. name? It was crazy. I was thinking about but I just let it go and the biggest dream came

through. I'm happy to be part of the UFC and this big deal between Dana Lorenzo and I very appreciate that because I remember really bad times in my fighting career, you know, when I had like five euros for all a week and I didn't know

if I should buy a ticket and go for training or buy a bread, you know, and there's something to eat. I remember those times, and it was crazy how I survived, and I'm very happy to be here, you know. Somebody saw me, and they gave me a chance, and still giving me other opportunities, and I'm very happy. And, you know, I'm just happy, you know,

not as like a fighter, but as like a human too, you know. Sure. How long ago was that you only had five euro? You know, it was like a long time ago when I've been training in Holland because the life there was so expensive. if I was maybe 18, 19, maybe older that time, older, yeah. But I was like, I had the money, you know. I was a hard worker, you know.

I always had money before, but I put so much money in this sport, and I was just losing money, you know. And I was supposed to have fights, so I was spending money, but then they canceled the fight. I didn't earn new money. It was kind of crazy, you know, and everyone was like, stop doing this, you know, my parents, everyone. But I was like, no, I'm going to survive.

One day I'm going to become a very big star, you know, and this is what happened, you know. And I've got this chance and I'm here, you know. Last week, go ahead. Now I have really good life, I remember about those bad times and I'm very happy, you know. Last week when you were at that groundbreaking ceremony and you're surrounded by Dan Lorenzo, but, you know, Chuck Laudel and Antonio, like these legends, what are you thinking? I'm small-legant, you know, and I, you know. going to become a legend i wish i wish i just want to people know about me and that's all i i don't need

to be a really super super star i just want to make other my dreams come through i want to defend my title so many times maybe if they're going to open a 125 division i would like to become a champion in this division too ah is the weight cut getting to be too much no isn't isn't isn't it's part of my job I like this part of my job, you know, so it isn't difficult, you know. Is it true that they got you a title belt that actually fits you now? Yeah, I've got it in Melbourne, but I forgot to take it because it was some, you know, everyone was super busy and, but I've got new one. It's heavy, it's origina.

but yeah, it's well on me, you know. That is good and well deserved as well. Now, I saw some footage of you coming home to Poland. There was some media there. What was that like for you? No, no. It was just a media day at the airport. That's cool.

So lots of media, a few fans, and that's all. I was super busy, but honestly I spent at home like 20 hours maybe. So, yeah, I miss my home. Is that the first time? Are we seeing the belt? So look at my baby, guys. Wow. That is something else.

Unbelievable. Yeah, it is. It is. Did you ask them for one that fits you better? No, they had this idea, and they did it, you know, just for us. So I'm happy. Now, what are you doing in Vegas now? It isn't ladies' birth, you know, guys, come on.

No, no, no, no, no. I am not. Why aren't you home right now? Why do you still have to be in Vegas? You know, I had surgery in L.A. So I'm supposed to, after the fight, I'm supposed to spend home four days and go to UFC fight night in Seoul. But Dana spoke to Dr. Sheen and they said that I must have this surgery as quick as I can, you know. So I came to L.A. I had surgery.

And I want to watch UFC 194, you know. I've got some media, some other stuff to do, but I'm not really super busy. I think this week going to be really busy. But I won't watch this fight, you know. I want to watch all three of UFC shows this week. Oh, wow. You're going to all three of them? Yeah, sure, I will.

Okay, I will see you there. Okay, so give me your prediction. Excuse me, Paige versus Rose. Who do you got? On the beginning, I was with Rose, but I know this fight. is a main event, so it's going to be five runs. And I think that Paige is going to be in better shape. I like both of them.

I don't know who's going to win, you know. I think that Rose is really tough opponent, and first that tough opponent for Paige Van Zanzan. So I don't know. I don't know. I just want to watch it and enjoy this fight because they are both very talented. And I don't know who will I win.

Connor? Yeah. Conoraldo. Conoraldo? I don't know, man. Oh, come on. You got to give us something. Aldo is a tough guy, you know?

He's a real, real champ, you know? Yeah. But Conor is different, you know. And somebody going to get knockout, you know. And I don't know who. I don't know who. Okay, what about Wyman Rockhold? Oh, I like those guys.

I like both of them. I like everybody. Everybody, geez. Yeah. I don't know. I really don't know. You're just sitting back and enjoying. You're not a better.

They say so much. So many good stuff about me. Now I cannot give you predictions. I respect it. I can do this. You're just too nice. You don't want to offend anyone. Yeah.

I really like in my regular life, I like to have good connection with people. I don't like to fight, just with my opponent in the cage. Okay. So then let's. send on this note. Claudia Gidella, you say you want to come back

mid next year. Are you hoping that they save her for you so that you can settle this once and for all? I really don't know who is going to be my next opponent, maybe Claudia Gadela, maybe Paige or Rose. We don't know who's going to win.

Because Paige, she has a few wins in a row, probably four, yeah. So I don't know. I don't know. If it's going to be Gadela, okay. If not, so okay. Okay.

I must say that I'm enjoying your Instagram, Twitter. You have the very entertaining videos with the Olaf hat from Frozen or you're eating. You're showing off your kicks as you like to call them. You've become a must follow in the MMA world. Am I? Yes. I think a lot of credit should go to your manager and friend Tiago who does a great job with you as well. But all the credit really should go to you.

Come on, man. Instagram is my, you know. It's good. it's very helpful you know thank you so much okay yeah i i love it you know i like i like uh instagram you know my friend is helping me with facebook uh marchin and and because i'm super busy i really do not have time to respond on or on all messages and comments but if i have time i'm trying to do this you know and people don't believe me that that i did this you know that i'm doing this but i am i am you know a final thing what's the what's the what's

the thing that you're most looking forward to experiencing this week? This is the biggest week in UFC history in my opinion. As a champion, as one of the greatest in the sport right now, as one of the faces of the sport, as a pioneer in many ways, but also as a fan. What are you looking forward to? You know, I miss my home. I'm supposed to go home just after the surgery, but I was like, this show is going to be huge and amazing. I've been on UFC 189. Yeah. And it was amazing, you know. So I expect more emotions.

Like, I don't know. It's going to be huge, you know, and I just want to be there and watch all the show. Of course, finally, Connors and Addo's fight. All right. Well, great to catch up with you. Thank you so much for the time, Yon. I'm sorry for waking you up, but I appreciate you waking up. I'm good.

I must go to the gym. Okay. You know, because I eat too much here. I know, I see that as well. The chicken wings, everything. You're... Yeah. Heal up soon. I hope you have a great recovery, and hopefully we'll see you in Las Vegas. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, thank you so much. Bye-bye.

All right, there she is. The UFC Strawway champion, Yuaniyom Jacek, one of the very best in the sport. And if you're around Las Vegas, there's a very good chance that you'll be seeing her this week leading up to all those big events. All right, let's move along now. Very excited about this. incredibly excited about this. You know, around nine days ago in Dusseldorf, Germany, all eyes were on a boxing ring over there. Vladimir Klitschko, not lost, 11 years, 22 fights, a man who was somewhat polarizing in his sport because, of course, he was the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, the unified champ. Some people felt that his style was a little boring. Some people felt that,

you know, as heavyweight champion, there's a responsibility there, and he just wasn't doing enough to represent all those belts that he won. In comes Tyson Fury, who leading up to that fight said a whole lot, did a whole lot, but then defeated the king. And now he is the king of the world as far as the boxing heavyweight championship is concerned. And in many people's eyes, if you're the boxing heavyweight champion, you're the baddest man on the planet. And how about this?

He's joining us right now via the phone. What a great pleasure and honor. This is Tyson Fury is joining us right now right here on the MMA hour. Tyson, how are you? I'm fine, thank you just living it up after my great win in Dussela off Germany Well congratulations and again

Thank you very much for the time What has the last nine days been like When you were envisioning beating Vladimir Klichkechko And becoming the champ Did you think it would all happen like this Or is this beyond your wildest dreams? To be honest I've not really been doing a lot I've just been with my family

Just living a day-to-day life basically I've not been doing any money bad stuff, not been out party, not been out celebrating. I've not done any celebrating at all, actually. I got on my knees and I thank the Lord for giving me the victory. And I've done a couple of interviews, but I've had my phone switched off for a lot of the time. No one's been able to get old of me. I've been like Mr. Hard to get hold of. But, you know, I'm just taking some time out away from all the glitz and glamour of the sport, away from everything, just to be with my family and I have two kids and a wife and one on the way. So just spending some quality time with them,

I've been away from him for such a long time. Six months nearly in training camp. Is that what the plan was from the beginning? Did you know in the back of your mind that once you beat him, you'll need to take this time off, or was it just so overwhelming the build-up and everything that you kind of decided right then? Because it's rare to hear the new heavyweight champions say

that he's really done no celebrating. Yeah, I honestly, I haven't done anything, any celebrator. I've not been out drinking. I've not done nothing. The only celebrating I've done most praying. and thanking the Lord for the victory. That was it. I've not really done a lot. What do you say to the people out there who say, yeah,

congratulations on being the champ, but the fight wasn't all that exciting. Does that bother you? To be honest, it doesn't bother me because they're not the unsputed every champion of the world. They're just people with a pick. So their opinions mean squat to me, nothing. Until they can go and achieve something better than I have, then it's a hard pity for them, isn't it?

Just to be jealous of somebody doing something like a life. So it ain't positive. So, of course, I would be remiss if I don't ask about, you know, some of this controversy that's come out with statements. I know you were doing a debate recently. You're up for a big award in the UK BBC Sportman of the Year and all that. Has this tainted? Has this not allowed you to enjoy? You had some comments that, you know, that has offended some, that you've gone on Twitter and tried to explain yourself a little better.

I mean, now that all eyes are on you and, you know, there's good and bad that comes with that, has what's happened in the last seven or so days for you kind of, kind of, kind of, ruin the moment in a sense? Not really because I don't pay attention to what people say. If it takes one idiot of a journalist to come out of a load of a ball to sell some newspapers,

that's up to them, isn't it, as a newspaper printing company, to do what they've got to do to make some money, but, you know, no one can take what I've done away from me. You know, I've said what I've said, and I'm off to back it up. I'll never change. I'm a real person. I'm a realist. And I'm not a yes, man. Nobody can

stay in my back and tell me what to say. I am Tyson Fury The heavyweight champion of the world And the baddest man on the planet And if people don't like it Don't watch it simple People say I've got a lot of responsibility on me I've got my own wife

My own kids to look after Don't care about what other people In my bills They don't walk in my shoes I'll say what I do what I want When I want No one's gonna stop me What was that debate light

Like a couple hours ago that you just had Well I had some human rights activists And some gay activists and some sexist activists and all that. And they couldn't do anything. I tried them up in knots because they can't talk, because everything they say is backed up on to make that they don't and nothing about.

So whatever they come at me with, I had 10 answers for them, and they just left. It just sounded like fools, to be honest, because it was three guys on one, and I come out on top, so it doesn't say much of them, doesn't it. So if someone Googles your name right now or searches for you on Twitter, all this stuff about your views on homosexuality,

that all comes up. In short, that's not the main reason why I want to have you on, but in short, can you explain your stance? On what? Stance on what? On this, on this controversy.

Why do you feel like it's just one journalist trying to sell newspapers that you've been sort of misrepresented here? I'm gathering that's where you're coming from, right? What they're trying to say is that I'm a gay hater. and I can't tell a difference between a paedophile and a homosexual. But it's quite simple to tell a difference in a paedophile and homosexual and homosexual. And even as stupid as I am, I can tell a difference in a homosexual and a pedophile.

A homosexual is somebody who consents to have gay sex with a man or woman. I'm saying, and a paedophile is somebody who messes about with children. So there's no confusion there. What the debate was about is, because I'm a big Christian, I believe in my faith. Yes. And I said, before the world ends, homosexuality needs to be made legal, abortions need to be legal, and pedophilia needs to be made legal before the world comes to an end. And that's just my opinion.

So two of them are already legal. Homosexuality is legal, and so is abortions. So the only thing is made legal now is pedophilia. And then when that one gets made legal, then we're in trouble. the end is very, very close then. So I'm waiting on Armageddon. And I'm waiting for the world to end because I can't wait for Jesus to come back

because I'm going straight to heaven with him. Okay. Your name... That's where I'm coming from. I'm a religious person and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the devil's so strong now that the devil doesn't want me to talk about Jesus. So try and twist it and talk it inside out,

try and say I hate people and that my gods are hate, he teaches hate. But Jesus doesn't teach hate. He teaches love. My God's about loving. He's a loving God. He loves everybody. There is no right.

There is no wrong. As long as you repent, you will be forgiven. Have you always been this religious, or is this relatively new in your life? No, no. I've always been a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's always been the Lord Satan.

It's living proof that he exists, because, well, I went over to Germany. I beat a guy he couldn't be beat. I've done it easy in his backyard in Germany. And before I went, I had no chance of winning. So nobody gave me a prayer in winning the fight. I was just a big useless bum, really. But then I had some miracle had the power and had the ability to outbox

one of the greatest boxers in heavyweight history in his own country against all the odds. So that's living proof, is it not? Well, yeah, I'm sure a lot would say that it is. So in our sport, in mixed martial arts, you've been a hot topic for the last several years. Around 2013, you told ESPN.com that you think that the sport is rubbish. I'm wondering if your views have changed at all. Not really.

I think MMAs are people who can't box, basically. That's just my opinion on that. It's not really entertaining, for me. The only time it's entertaining is when they stand up and punch each other. And that's what I think the fans like as well. I don't think anybody likes to see people all about the floor. I think people want to see to stand up a punching. Even the referee, when they're on the floor, tell them to get up and get into it.

So I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people that the best parts of MMA is when they're standing up trading punches. Some people might not know this, but when you were coming up, used to train in the same gym as the likes of Dan Hardy and Paul Semtex Daily, right? That's right, yes, up in Nottingham's UK. And then I was recently, a couple of years ago,

I was over in Holland of all the best kickboxes and a couple of MMA fighters as well. And I know... Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven and former champion Dan champion Daniel Gita, I've sparked a lot of these guys trained with them as well. But in particular, the MMA fighters, when you say that it's rubbish, some people might think that you might disrespect what they do.

Do you have respect for a guy that want? No, no, I don't disrespect what anybody does. If they're achieving something that's being positive in their life, that's very good, and they deserve credit for it. Anybody you can do something big in sports or in life in general deserves lots of credit. What I'm saying, where I'm coming from is the best part of our MMA for me is when they stand up and either kick each other

or punch each other. Stand up, I'm into stand up combat, you see? Right. Anything that stand up one and one combat for me, I'm into,

as soon as you start grappling up and down the floor and scoring points of not too sure how it works, but when I see it, I'm not really too interested in and sometimes I can spend the floor for quite a while

and then a referee says, get up, nothing's going on. So that's where I'm coming from. I just like to see the strikes getting blowed, punches, kicks, knees, whatever you like. all stand-up action. As recently as two days ago,

Bellator President Scott Coker said that you still are interested in fighting for Bellator. Is that accurate? Most definitely. Most definitely. Me and Scott Coker's had many of their conversations in the past that come into Bellator and fights. You know, I'm now the company of the world in boxing, and I'd like to unify and switch. I'd like to fight the UFC every great champion.

I've been calling King Blasco's out for two years. and then he got beaten, so it showed you what I said was about right. Yeah, he lost the Fabrice Radoom. So what's a perfect scenario for you? Is it fighting for Bellator? You seem to have a good relationship with Scott or getting a shot at the UFC heavyweight champion who currently is Fabrice Radoon.

I just want to fight the best, best stand-up fighter in the world. Whoever the best stand-up fighter is in the world, I want to fight him because I believe I'm that man. I don't care if he wants to kick, whatever he wants to do, we can have an all-in fight. because I believe I'm the best combat fighter on the planet. Well, one would say in kickboxing, the best heavyweight striker is your friend Rico Verhoeven.

Would you fight him? Listen, if the money was right, fight anybody. Now, if you say that... And I'm not just talking about M.N.A. Or kickboxing, I'm talking about everything, because obviously, an MMA fighter can't box with a boxer, and a boxer can't wrestle up and down the floor of an MMA fighter, because it's not going to work.

But if we could meet in the middle somewhere on middle ground, and I'd fight any one of them guys, no problem at all. But when you have these discussions with Scott Coker, is it about having an MMA fight or some sort of hybrid fight? Some sort of hybrid fight. Ah. So you're not interested in a 100% only MMA fight? No, definitely not.

I'm not really interested in a 100% MMA fight because, obviously they're not going to stand up and bang with a heavyweight champion in the world, are they? Right. I just want to take me to the floor, and that's not my forte. My forte is full-action-packed fighting, whether it's stand-up, kick, conch, or everything goes, or something like that. But not wrestling up and down and up and down the floor and whatever all in about. I'm not into that sort of stuff.

Have you or your management team ever had a discussion with UFC President Dana White about all this? Yes, I believe that Dana White knows about me. challenging came Velasquez out for many times, and he made quite a few comments on it. Dana White's quite a big boxing fan as it goes. But like I said, any time, any place, anywhere he wanted Mr. Weiss to get their heavyweight champion. No problem. Let's sort it out, sort out of a hybrid fight, and let's get it on. I know you have Irish roots, Irish blood.

Are you familiar with a man named Connor McGregor? I haven't familiar with a man named Colin McGregor. I think he copied me in everything he does. You think he copied you with everything he does? Beard? Yeah. I was the first trash talker midtime in Neeshawks, Britain and Ireland. And all of a sudden, he started copying me, this Connemagreggar guy. I grew a big beard. He grew a big beard. I talk bullshit about everybody. He starts talking bullshit about

everybody. So it works for every champ of the world. It must work for Conor McGregor. Some guy who's like 140 pounds, whatever he is. So you're actually not a fan of his? No, I'm a fan of his. But he's copied my style. So I've got to admire him for it. Have you ever met him before? I've never met him, but you guys are very entertaining character. Are you familiar with the fact that he has a gigantic fight, maybe one of the biggest this weekend in Las Vegas?

And are you at all interested because you do share some kind of heritage to watch him fight on Saturday? Yeah, is he fighting Josie Aldo? Yes, he is. Okay, yes, that fight's been building up for a while, hasn't it? Yeah. Colin McGregor got me actually. physical watching MMA

and wanting to check the results because the way he was carrying on I thought this guy has definitely definitely got a bit myself in this guy

so I'm going to check him out and I saw the fight with the Mendez guy the interim champion the end-trimed champion yeah and I will be watching the Algo fight

because he's had a lot to say hasn't he Connor McGregor and it's a bit like my fight with Clitchgo Albo is the reigning champion for many years and he's a young kid on the block coming up, shouting his mouth off.

Some people say he's a pretender. Some people say he's a real deal. As they did with me and Klitsko. Klitschko was a long-braining champion on the block. I was a young guy. Somebody said was a pretender. Some people think I can fight. Some people think I can't fight.

So it's very, very much similarities between me and Connemagreger. And I'm living proof that it can be done. I beat Critchco. He can beat Josie Aldo. Why not? For sure. Are you surprised that more combat sportsmen, don't try to do what you did.

leading up to that clitical fight, get inside the opponent's head, play mind games, things of that nature, or can you not, you can't fabricate it. Either you got it or you don't. You either can talk or you can't talk, basically. You either can play that game or you can't play it. Not everyone can do it because a lot of people have to be told what to say, and you have to be scripted and you have to be controlled.

Everything I do is just myself type of thing. Nobody tells me to do anything or whatever. Everything that I think of, it comes from, me, not from anybody else. So if you haven't got that character in you to begin with, you can't be taught it, you can't learn it if you're not there. So is next for you the Clitchco rematch? Or do you think you'll get Wilder, who I know,

obviously, has been talking as well. What do you think is next and when do you think it will happen? Well, I think Clitchgo is next. We've got a rematch clause for Clitchco. Looking at about March or April time. I'm looking at the UK or even go back to Germany. wherever it makes more sense to do the fight,

more financial sense, then we'll go there. But until we've decided a venue and a country and whatever, and it's still wide open. I don't think I can fight anybody else because I'm clauses into the contract with Colichico and he wouldn't even take the fight

the first time that I didn't sign the rematch cause. There's a lot of talk of me in Wilder doing a unification fight, but Wilder's going to have to wait because the rematch So it's a bigger fight as well for the Union. Well, that one is brewing very, very nice between me and Jontze Wilder. He can hope. I'm the great British and Irish hope.

So when that fight does happen, there's got to be a big, big fight, one of the biggest heavyweight fights in history. Because we're both over 6'5. We're both heavy weights. We're both young. We're both undefeated. We both talk a lot. So that will sell big time.

Do you think after what you did to Klitschko, how you frustrated him, that he is going to exercise that immediate rematch clause? I think so, because Coachco is a very, very, very clever guy, and he knows the massive fight the rematch between me and him. That'll be one of the most huge heavyweight fights ever, a rematch between me and Critchco, so hopefully he does take it.

But if Critchco doesn't take it for whatever reason, I do want to unify straight away. I want to take Deonté Wilde himself off him. And just curious, you know, much has been made of the fact that your parents named you after, Mike Tyson, have you heard from Mike since becoming the champion? No, I've not heard from Mike since coming from the champion. I've not heard from anybody, like I say, I've not been in interviews. I've just done this interview for a favor of a friend of mine in Canada,

or else I won't be doing any interviews, even tonight. Nobody. You're done one interview this afternoon with the BBC. That was it. But just to get my point across, I think of all this stuff that was going around. But I've not been doing any interviews at all, so I've not been doing any interviews at all, so I've not spoke to anybody apart from my own inside family. Wow.

Well, I appreciate that greatly. Let me ask you one final question. The song, you sung to your lovely wife in the middle of the cage. Excuse me, the ring, I should say. The aerosmith. That was fantastic. That was very entertaining. Where did that come from?

Why did you do that? Well, that was the Armageddon song, wasn't it? Yes. The aerosmith Armageddon song on the movie, Armageddon. And they saved the world, and I conquered the world. That's why I sang that song. because I saved the world from a boring European stiff fighter who all along I said what he was

and nobody believed it until a day happened when I come and dethrone the great, great champion. I made it look easy as well. So that's not something you'll do... That's what that song will be doing that after your big wins or was that a one-time only thing? No, it's become a trademark for me

because everywhere I go now, people, every time I've got the microphone, people want to hear me sing, sing songs. So if that's what people like and entertains people, then. Why not? Why not sing? I've sung after quite a few of my fights now.

So it's become like a trademark, like I said. And are you cool with Lennox Lewis now? Have you squashed that beef? Listen, Lennox Lewis is a hater of Tyson Fury. Oh. He's a jealous old man. He's a jealous old man, Lennox Lewis, because I'm active, and I'm on top of the world, and he's a husband.

House been a world champion. Great, great for him. Well, listen, whenever Lennox Lewis wants to come out of retirement, I'm here waiting for him. Because I'm the best ever British fighter to come out of these shores. I don't care how old he is. If he's that good, if he's that good, let him come back and beat George Foreman's record. All right.

And I'm open to that fight whenever he wants it, any time, any place anywhere. Final thing for you, Tyson, is there a lesson to be learned from what happened in the last week or so for you? Will you be doing less media in the months to come? Do you feel like people are twisting your words or trying to misrepresent you? Is there anything that you can learn from what's happened now that you become the king? Listen, there's nothing that you can learn that I didn't expect already. when you're successful and when you're doing well, people, it breeds jealousy and breeds hate, especially in Great Britain.

People love to build up the underdog, and they want the underdog to win all the time, and they build their guys up really big, and they try and crash them down even bigger and harder. But they're not going to do that with me. They're not going to be able to do that because I don't believe in anything they say. All my stuff comes from the Lord, and my faith is very, very strong in the Lord Jesus. So they can knock me, they can beat me, they can burn me, they can spit me, on me, but it can never take my faith away. And that's what makes me the man I am today. Appreciate the time, Tyson. Congratulations on the win. Thank you very much for coming on the show today.

No problem. God bless. All right. There he is. Tyson Fury, the boxing heavyweight champion. Certainly some controversial comments there at the top. Obviously, do not echo or share those sentiments. Feel like I have to say that, but I do appreciate his time. And he is someone who is turning that boxing world upside down. Very interesting guy. Certainly also when it comes to his comments regarding mixed martial arts and Bellator as well. Let's move along. This man is hopping on a plane right now to Las Vegas. Let's get right to him.

Chad Mendes is joining us from the airport in Sacramento. Chad, are you there? I'm here. How's it going, man? Where are you right now? I am in the airport. I'm actually watching Justin Buckles and my boxing coach wrestle in the Starbucks. What?

Why? That is crazy. Is Buckholz's shirt on or off right now? Yeah, both shirts on. I don't think I'd let him take them off in here. That guy always finds an opportunity to take off his shirt. I know the whole no shirt nation, but he finds the weirdest opportunities. Yeah, he's looking for any way possible to take that thing off.

So have you been to Las Vegas since 189? Other than the press conference there, has there been any other trips? Yes. Joe's wedding. I was just there. That's right. Not too long ago, actually. Well, I'm wondering now that you're embarking on this trip to go fight, not do a wedding or a press conference training,

is it feel like we're going back to the scene of the crime where we're trying to exercise the demons of July and all that? Is that what you're thinking? No, man. I mean, this is, you know, the taxi hand right now is fighting Frankie. You know, I've been studying and watching and thinking about this fight a ton lately. And, you know, it's what's on my mind and what I'm focused on. So, you know, I'm going to try to not think about much else other than that for the next, about week. Do you think it's going to be hard because of the title fight the next night and because it's all grouped together,

that you're going to be asked all these questions about something that you're not doing on Friday, which is fighting Frankie Edgar? I mean, I'm expecting to get a ton of questions about it, but like I said, I mean, I just got to try to stay as folks as possible. You know, I know there's going to be a ton of Irish fans, tons of briefs, Brazilians, you know, it's going to be a crazy, crazy week here in Vegas. I'm curious to see if any of these rowdy Brazilian and Irish fans getting any crazy brawls through the lobby. So I'm trying to stay clear of all that. I kind of feel like because of your connection to Aldo and McGregor, because of the fact that

for the most part they've shown you respect, you're going to be the one who's cheered in that fight by the Irish and the Brazilians if they're in attendance. Do you get that feeling as well? I don't know, man. I mean, I think probably the Brazilians, yeah, but I still get a lot of Irish people talking crap. So I don't know, man. We'll see. Very recently, Connor said that, obviously,

you hit, like, a woman and all that stuff. Has any of that kind of re-sparked the fire? Like, is this the perfect time, in a sense, for someone to talk trash to you as you're embarking on this fight? Is it annoying? Like, how would you describe it? I mean, honestly, right now, I could really care less. I mean, he's got a huge feat in front of him.

you know, fighting Aldo. And for me, I got a, you know, a tough fight ahead of me with Frankie. So, you know, like I said, I'm staying focused. I'm not going to get in these stupid arguments and, you know, arguments back and forth with Connor

and, you know, all these crazy Irish fans. So, like I said, I'm going to be as focused as I possibly can and focus on what I have to do with Frankie and get after it. I've heard from people close to you that this has been a different kind of training camp. You were secluded for a long time,

time you started it earlier. You were a different kind of cat leading up to this fight. Is that true? And if so, why? Yeah, I mean, this is a fight that, you know, I've changed some stuff up. We did some altitude training, you know, off and on, which was unbelievable, kind of secluding myself getting away from, you know, some of the drama, you know, with the whole T.J. and all that stuff with the media.

And I just kind of wanted to shut my mind off from everything that was going on, get a good group of guys. And get up, get away, and get after some hard training and some altitude, which was extremely difficult, but I absolutely loved it. You know, we changed up, we changed up stuff training camp as far as certain things go, like punch count, you know, strike count. You know, we focused on that where I've never really paid attention to that in past camp.

And I'm just trying to get my output a little higher, you know, going to get the guy like Frankie, I feel like his best chance to beat me is. is, you know, higher output, outpoint me, basically. And so that's something we really focused on. And, you know, all in all, I feel very confident in this entire camp and how training went and everything was gone. And I'm excited to get in there and perform for everybody. This is a fight you've wanted for a while.

Why did this one interest you so much? You know, it's a fight that in my mind, you know, I know for a fact a lot of people have wanted to see this. I hear all the time we get messages on my social media nonstop about let's make the mend their frankie fight happen blah blah blah you know talk to people in interviews and you know it's just a fight that i know a lot of people wanted to see but for me all that aside it's a fight that is going to put one of us to win that fight right back in line for that title you know to stay at the top to stay relevant as one of the top contenders you know you have to

fight the best guys in the division you know and frankie is one of those guys and uh you know he's been on a tear lately so to get in there and beat a guy that's been a legend of the sport, he was a champion at the weight above, you know, it's going to be huge for my career, and that's just what I wanted. It was confirmed today that you'll be fighting in that 25-foot cage, the smaller cage, a.k.a. the world extreme cage fighting cage, I should say. It's a lot of cages in that statement. Is that a good thing for you? Because I feel like when I, when I hear that, that's good for Chad. Frankie's, you know, very active, likes to go. Chad likes to go in there like

a bulldozer. Is that, is that sort of a check on your side? Yeah, and you know, we got another thing that we changed up the training for this camper. We got an octagon, and that's actually the size of the one that we got. So we got to do a lot of training, a lot of sparring, inside that, and really fine-tuned, cutting the cage off and pressure in, you know. I feel confident and comfortable going into a smaller cage, especially against a guy like Frankie who uses a lot of footwork, moves in and out. You know, this is the type of guy that, you know, you've got to cut off and close the distance.

So, yeah, I think it's a great thing. And so, okay, have they talked to you at all about what's at sake here? Because, you know, Connor keeps saying if he wins, he's going to go up. We don't know about Aldo. Of course, you know, you had two cracks. Edgar had a crack. Do you know what you're actually fighting for here other than, you know, the chance to beat one of the greatest ever? I mean, honestly, I haven't heard much other than that.

So, you know, whether I have or I hadn't, like I said, I got to focus on this fight. You know, it's a very tough fight, and this is a fight that's going to bring my legacy up to that next level. So, you know, I haven't heard anything from the USC at all, but, I mean, it's definitely something that's there. Uriah, your good friend, recently fought Frankie. That was his last fight. What are the lessons that you learned from that fight? Did you watch it a lot? What are the things that he did in that fight that you can't afford to do in your fright?

Oh, yeah, man, I've watched that fight tons of times, sat down with Uriah and the coaches and you get in the camp and watched the fight and, you know, pick things apart and set up the game. plan. Obviously, I don't want to talk about the things we've seen, but there's a lot of stuff that, you know, Uri did that we changed through our camp that I feel like it's going to work better for me.

You know, and obviously focusing on the tendency to Frank Yeager and seeing the things that he loves to do and building our game plan off of that. So, all in all, man, I'm pumped. And you alluded to this earlier, of course, it's the elephant in the room, all the stuff that's happened with TJ.

Has it been at all a distraction? I mean, if that doesn't happen, do you not go and seclude yourself? Do you not do those things? Did you need to get away? I mean, it hasn't been when it all was going down in the beginning. Obviously, it sucked pretty bad. You know, it's just a, you know, big kick to the nuts, honestly. I mean, you know, him in favor had some, you know, falling out a little bit, you know,

saying things back and forth in the media, which, you know, puts all of us kind of in a weird spot. But, you know, we all love TJ. You know, obviously we love favor. You know, I'm still friends with T.J. I'm going to be, you know, it just sucks, like, basically losing a brother. So, you know, T.J. is doing his thing, you know, and that's what he thinks he needs to do. So all the power, too, man. You know, I hope T.J. keeps fighting and keeps doing well.

You know, but all that aside, I probably would have went up and tried out this altitude, you know, seclusion kind of stuff anyways. I actually really love it, and I'd love to start doing that, you know, every single training camp. This was kind of just the test run on it, and I fell in love with it. So, yeah, we're definitely going to try to keep that part going. How is your relationship with TJ now? I mean, honestly, nothing's really changed. I mean, I still talk to TJ.

You know, obviously don't seem as much to we used to, obviously, but, you know, we're still in touch. You know, I actually just started a new business, and TJ is one of the, like, pro-staff guys, do that business. So, you know, I'll be working with TJ outside of fighting. So, yeah, I mean, our relationship's still good. And what's that business? It's called Sins and Feathers. It's a celebrity guide service.

Basically, we just started a website, Sins and Feathers.com, both fins and feathers. So it's the D. And basically what you can do is you can go on the website. We have a list of pro-staff athletes. There's different UFC fighters, Delta Taurus fighters. There's professional baseball players, actors. we have just like a cool mix of different athletes and celebrities that people can go on there. We have a list of a few different hunts that they can choose from.

So they choose the hunt that they want. They can choose the athletes or celebrity that they want to hunt with. And then basically we book it to where the athlete goes on that hump with them and a professional guide. So basically, in a sense, they get to hang out and hunt or fish. There's fishing trips as well with these celebrities and athletes. So I think it's something that's pretty unique and original, and I'm pretty excited for it, man. We just launched the website a few days ago. Wow.

Well, congratulations. Do we have three more minutes? Yeah, we actually, we're headed to the plane right now. Okay. I'll be super fast. Okay, yeah. I know you've been doing stuff with homeless people recently, with the homeless community. Explain what you're doing.

Yeah, so we, Danny Lascaquistia is church. They work with this program. that helps families that have been homeless, helps them get their feet back underneath. And, you know, getting the home and, you know, doing stuff like what we're doing where we donate stuff for different holidays. And we picked the family with three little kids, the mom and the dad. And it was pretty exciting, man.

I got them all new bikes and, you know, warm clothes for the winter. And, you know, we got to go drop all that stuff off yesterday. It's just awesome, man, to be able to give back and help people, you know, they don't need like that. I'm sorry, they're calling me on the plane, man. I got to get going. Okay. Last thing. How do you win?

How do you win on Friday? Obviously, my, you know, I'd love to get out there and get a knockout, but I'm expecting a war, man. I got a, I got to, hold up, hold up in mind. You know, stick to the game plan. I got to keep my mind solid through that entire fight, basically. and I think I walk away with the win. All right. Best of luck to you.

Thank you so much for doing this, Chad. Really appreciate it. Awesome, man. Thank you. Safe travels. No problem. No problem at all. What a great guy, Chad Mendes, coming on as he's boarding a plane to Las Vegas.

I had one more question. I wanted to ask him his pick for Connor Aldo, but I have a feeling that we'll be talking to him a little later on the week, so you'll have to wait for that. A very interesting time for him. He gets a return to Las Vegas where he fought at UFC 189 on short notice. Another question that I've loved to ask him. I mean, look, he feels like he didn't get enough time. He took the fight, no excuses. But, man, Chad Mendes, in some people's eyes, I don't believe that.

But in some people's eyes, may feel like he has something to prove on Friday. And this is one of those fights. Like I said at the top, Frankie Edgar versus Chad Mendes is one of those fights that we've been talking about. Just the perfect styles matchup. I've been wanting to see that fight for so long. What a great booking that is by Sean Shelby and the UFC. And just the perfect appetizer. You know, the problem with 189 and what they did last year, 175, is that they had these fights on the fall, you know, to have a BJ Penn fight after Wyman Machita, Ronda, and Alexis Davis, it just didn't make sense.

This year, it didn't make sense with Wonder Boy. But to have Chad and Frankie on the Friday before the Saturday extravaganza makes all the sense in the world. It's the perfect appetizer. and if you're a fan and some have written to me and I appreciate that who have been lucky enough to get a ticket for every single night. Wow. What a great week that is in Las Vegas weekend, I should say. All right. Let's switch gears here for a second. I have been trying to get a hold of this man for a little over two weeks since two Saturdays ago. Over in Seoul, South Korea, he defeated Jorge Mazvedal and then, you know, the captain. was really let out of the bag. We all found out that Benson Henderson is embarking on a pretty unique thing in our sport, and hopefully that changes over some time. But he's about to become a

free agent, and he bet on himself, and he did so in a big way. And guess what? It looks like he won, because he may be hotter now than he ever has been. And that includes his time as champion. I've been trying to get a hold of Benson. We finally have tracked him down. He is joining us via the phone right now. Benson, are you there? I'm here, Earl. How you doing, buddy? There he is. Benson Henderson. in the flesh, sort of, via the phone. Great to hear from you. Congratulations on the win in South Korea.

What a moment that was for you, right? I know for a fact that's something you've always wanted to do. That was a bucket list thing for you to fight big show in South Korea. Was it everything you imagined and more? It was. It really was great. You know, the stepping from the fans out there, everything out there is freaking crazy, amazing.

Like, it's pretty overwhelming, you know, but it's really cool to be a part of such a, another, you know, historic first time in Korea, um, fans were crazy. I thought it was sold out, but I guess I'm hearing that I was not sold out. It was, uh, like 90 cents sold out. So I can't say that with a sellout, but some of the, uh, more tricier tickets on the floor, I guess they were not sold out.

All the, all the seats were, uh, all the seats were, uh, all the, uh, real expensive ones on the floor seat were sold out. But yeah, overall, man, just a great experience. I was very happy that I had experienced that, you know, before it was not ever going to happen, you know. Right. And it really felt, at least to me, watching from home that they embraced you. They were chanting your name. It seemed like a great crowd.

Did you feel that way as well? For sure. I think, you know, like I said, every time I go out there, they're definitely amazing. It feels like a... actual, like, big deal celebrity sort of, like, reception, which is, I'm kind of used to, but whenever I go out and create, it's like a hundred times more. So, yeah, the reception, the fan going crazy to share my name, I loved it. I like it very much, you know, having, I think having any one group, any group in particular,

you know, like the Irish with Connor, the Brazilian. all their Brazilian fighters having that sort of like a reception that's a sort of dedication, you know, that sort of passion behind something that you do, behind the work that you put in, it's definitely appreciated. The last time you were on this program, you talked about a very serious injury that you sustained, that you, you know, that forced you to pull out of that fight in July, but you wouldn't want to talk about it. I'm just wondering if, were you not 100%? Like, did you come back a little soon just to fight on this card, or can you confidently say that you were 100% in that fight?

No, I can confident say I was 100% as far as I could, as much as I could be. If I weighed any longer, I would not have gotten any better. I'm pretty much 100% the most I'll heal up. Okay. Can you tell us what the injury was now? I'm still just not going to, you know, heart-porned too much, too much negativity. I'm trying to be positive and keep the positivity. keep everything, you know, in that light.

So I don't, you know, try to talk about too much. So I'm saying exactly what it was or anything else. But it was, you know, help me grow. Help me be better. After the fight, you asked someone, you asked them if that was impressive enough for them to warrant meeting you. Who are you talking to? This has been the big mystery in our sport.

Who are you actually speaking to? Is that a mystery? I don't think that was a mystery. I didn't think that was a mystery. It has been a big mystery. We're all trying to figure out, relistening. I mean, just spill it first right now.

We need to figure this thing out. We need to sleep at night. I can't figure it out. Who were you speaking to there? Oh, I heard there were rumors about George St. Pierre coming back and how, you know, the guy he faced off against how they have to have impressive performances. I always kind of have an impressive enough performance to warrant face off against George St. Peter.

I think that I have a lot of. always wanted to prove myself as the best, you know, fighter on the plan. No, ifs and the answer, or bust about it. I know I have a long ways to go. I know where I work my butt off. I know, you know, I got a way to go, and I want to prove that.

I want to, you know, back that up, so to speak, by squaring up with, you know, perhaps the greatest boulterweight in the U.C. history, George St. Pierre. I'll move up to 170 now, so I heard he was, I heard he was training again or think about fighting again. I don't know the truth to any of that, you know. Right. It's all kind of rumors from what I hear.

I have heard much. But that's what I was talking about, if my performance was impressive enough or not. Well, you know, I wish you would have told me this last week because we had George on the show. I could have asked them myself. Oh. We could have figured it out.

We're not have any riddles. Yeah. Okay, okay. How about this? You also took off your gloves. Why did you do that? Typically, that means you're done. Um, I took off my gloves, gloves, plural, uh, in case, uh, you know, you got to have insurance

just in case things don't turn out the way they want to, uh, you think they're going to turn out or turn out the way you hope they're going to turn out, but just in case I want to have that, um, have that done, you know, that moment. Right after a fight, yeah. Okay. So it is, it is, it is confirmed. It is 100%. You are embarking on free agency, right?

you have no more fights left on your contract with UFC? Yes, I have no more fights left on my contract to the UFC. We live in a free market society. I figured since we live in a free market society, why not go ahead and embrace that and go ahead and embrace the free market and try out free agency? Now, did they try? Were there any talks with you or your management team about trying to get?

Because typically they'll try to sign a guy of your stature before his deal, runs up. Did you say no, I would like to go and test the free agent market play out this thing? Yeah, they offered my old manager, Malki Kawa. We spilled ways right after the sole fight, but they offered him a contract twice, I believe. The first time we said, no, no, thank you, or we want to wait it out. They offered him again, I think they came with slightly better numbers. The second time we said, no, we really do want to try free agency and, you know, see what we can get if we can get to go more what we think our work is, and go from there. So I did not know you split ways.

Why did you split ways and who is your manager now? Now my manager is my head coach, John Crouch. He's been the manager behind the team anyways who did most of the things who dealt with everybody. I think as John Crouch who reminds me that you, you, you know, had texted me and hit me up and to make sure I hit you back and do the show, do your show today. But he's the one who's been doing most all my stuff anyways.

Like all my managers before, they contact him and then they contact me or, you know. So we figure we just cut one more middleman out of the way and him and I have enough experience now. We've been in, you know, this game long enough that we have our own connections. You know, we feel that we know enough people that we've seen it. We've been around enough. We've seen enough that kind of handle it ourselves. Okay, so here we are.

And typically UFC contracts, there's like an exclusive negotiation period, right? Do you have any idea how long that is? Because already we're hearing from other organizations who are interested in, or are saying, we're going to wait, we're going to do this the right way, we're going to be kosher here, but we are interested. Well, when can you actually talk to people? I think it's six months from the date of, that's the match period. I get confused.

It's either three months or six months, one of the two, but I think it's around nine months. It's altogether total, but there's a period in which only the U.C. can offer a deal, and then after that period is up, then there's a matching period of where I can talk to whoever else, and the U.C. has the right to match that. and then after that I'm a true true free agent and can do wherever the heck you know so it's still a little bit of a wait

so I know you are the kind of guy who likes to stay active are you willing to wait until all that you know expires and you are a true free agent or in the back of your mind do you want to maybe get this done beforehand in a perfect world I would like to resign at the UFC in five minutes or in 10 minutes or later tonight or you know The student's possible. Every time at UFC, get what we feel we're worth. And then fight, you know, I'll fight in December.

It is December. If they need somebody, it falls out in somebody third, I'm ready to go. To fight with the muscle, you're taking injuries. I'm not the worst for wear at all, you know, and I want to fight. I want to make a legacy. I want to prove stuff. I want to prove that I'm the best in the planet. But you need to fight to do that.

You can't talk about it. You can't say this. You can't say that. You can't. Some people do. You can talk a big game. Right. That works.

So some people are great at talking. That's not what I'm good at. That's not what I practice. I don't sit in front of mirror for, you know, hours at a time, practicing. Oh, I'm going to say this. And then he's going to say this and I'm going to say this. Yada, yada, yada. I crew inside the cage, inside the Akkaran.

To do that, I need to get in there. I'd love to sign, re-signed with the UFC. Oh. I love to resign with the UFC and get right back in the cage. So if you are willing to resign in the next five minutes or so and you want to fight in the UFC, why did you not sign before the Mazved al-Fa fight? Why did you feel like you needed to play this thing out? I feel it's, you know, testing the free market is the same thing.

You need other offers. You need other organizations to say this or to say that. When you when you when you when you bid on construction for a house, you have to have two or three other you know companies build on the house and see who gives you the best deal. That's what we feel we did with the UFC. We had a couple of good offers not officially because we're not allowed to officially talk with any other offers. But the UFC now knows how much roughly the other companies are taking it seriously like hey, oh no, this guy's a free agent.

We're no way we're serious about getting him. We want that guy. We feel he's worth this much, whether it plays along with how much, you know, we feel we're worth. But that would be the reason why you do that. That's why he tests free agency. That's why he tests the free market. Was there a point when you decided you recall a time when you said, okay, I'm going to play this thing out. I'm not going to sign beforehand.

This is what I want to do. Like, how long? Because, you know, it's interesting. I wonder, is that why you were trying to take all those fights so quickly to play out your contract so you can become a free agent and test the market? When did you actually decide that this was the plan of attack? that would be a widely move I did that that would be pretty sly there

and you're a sly guy I think that pretty early on you know once you sign with the UFC it's cool it's awesome the biggest organization of planet it's like you know

signing with major league baseball you're in the MLB the biggest show on the planet for baseball but then what if you get a pretty darn good contract offer

more than MLB is willing to pay and you go over to, you know, Korea to play or you go over to Italy to play. They have other baseball leagues, you know, Japan. Baseball is huge in Japan. You go over there, and they're willing to pay you top dollars to go play over there. You know, then you have to consider that, you know.

And that's what ultimately you want. You want to be able to take care of your kids. You want to be able to take care of your kids. Kids, kids don't want to have a trust fund set up for my sons, grandsons. That's what I'm looking to do. I'm looking ahead seven generations. So hopefully I can get started in that right direction.

But that's why we wanted to get the best offer in the way out the contract and just be smart about everything. Try to be smart about anything anyway. I try my best. I'm not perfect, but I try my best. To the best of your knowledge, have you been offered a new deal by the UFC since the Mazvedal win? Has there been any talks? With the best of my knowledge, no.

Since the Mawc's sort of a fight, we have not talked. I think John Crouch was out of the country. Yeah. For a while, and then he had to go somewhere else. Now this weekend, he was going to be in Vegas. So he's a busy man. We have a ton of fighters at the M.M.A. lab. Jocelyn Jones, Leibarter, is making her UFC debut.

You have a ton of young kids at the lab who are – you're going to be talking to. You're going to be doing – you're going to be doing interviews with a lot of the guys at my gym pretty soon. Drakh close, Jake Roberts, we got a ton of guys. And since he's so busy, he has not yet had a chance to call the UFC. We're hoping they maybe call us first, but, you know, that didn't happen. So we're going to hit them up and talk about them, but this is a busy weekend for them, right? They have a bunch of pipes going on this weekend. So we might have to wait until after weekend when they're Dana and Lorenzo are not as busy.

Now, when you look at other promotions, just curious, I know, I know you have Will Brooks were going back and forth on Twitter. There was all respect there. Ben Ascran has expressed interest. It seems to me like, yeah, there's one or two fights out there for you and other promotions. But you feel like there's a run there, there's a legacy there. There's something that, you know, there's enough there that will keep you interested and focused and motivated in these other promotions, not named the UFC? I think whatever promotion I do go to, I am highly self-motivated.

I don't need any, oh, this is your first time in the U.C. So you should be really excited. Oh, this is your first towel defense. You should be really excited. I've never been one of those guys who need a reason or an excuse to get excited and to be motivated to train. I am extremely highly self-motivated. I want to get my hand raised no matter what it is we do. When eventually we play basketball, I'm going to beat your butt on the court.

Oh. Oh. You know, that's just me. That's just who I am. That's just how motivated I am at whatever it is I do. Oh, that's interesting. I wasn't going to bring that up. I thought you just sort of dropped that whole thing. Like, you had seen the light. You figured it out. This wasn't in your best interest. I thought you were playing it up just to like, you know, sell some viewership and get it for years talking to talk about baseball or basketball.

And then, you know, you just like stop talking about what you played it out. Come on, man. That's what I thought. That's not me. Come on. You know better than that. At this point, it would, look, just like you bet on yourself, could you imagine if, you know, some scrawny, out of shape, journalist, beat you in 101. What would that do for your free agent status? What would that do for your stock? That would be horrible. I can't do that to you.

After everything we've been through, I can't do it now. Maybe if you sign that big lucrative deal, but not now. I don't want to embarrass you. I think you're going to be an idiot for the fights. Are you going to be there? This weekend, yeah, of course. This weekend, yeah. I got my little sister, Dawson, Don't Blibar, making her U.S.A.

debut. So my wife is one of her main training partners. Oh. So I think she wants to go watch. So I think I'm a surprise her, but it's not really surprised because she's saying here, he's listening to me. Right. But I think of my surprise her, we'll go up and watch.

So if I make up to Vegas, make sure you have your basketball shoes, wrong thing. Oh, wow. Look at that. Okay, on the record. Here we are. Okay, very nice. All right. Well, that is noted.

Would you agree with me, though, that you're hotter now in terms of popularity than you were as a champion? I feel like after the thatch fight, things really changed for you. you? I'm not sure about that. I think maybe in like a broader sense or perspective-wise, but for me personally, all I ever get is a lot of, you know, positivity, a lot of love. I'm not too much of a negative guy. I would talk to back to the people on Twitter. I don't talk smack to any of any of the fans who don't have to like me. So it's hard to be negative, you know, with such a positive outlook and whatnot, you know. So all I ever received for me personally is a lot

positive, great vibes. Oh, you're a great fighter. We, you know, we love you. I love you. You're my favorite fighter at the Washington since I was a little kid, blah, blah. I've always gotten that. And I got that the same after that fight. So for me it wasn't that big of a deal.

But I've heard other reporters yourself, and I've heard other people say that. Like, oh, maybe I don't go on any forums. I don't go on any like that stuff. You know, I don't read any comments on YouTube because that's just silly. Yes. But maybe in that sense, on those forms. forums, there's more positivity about me. But for me, my own personal experience, it's always been pretty really good.

It's always been pretty positive. When you have the belt, of course, you're going to have your haters who, oh, you suck, you shouldn't have the belt, and oh, this and that and this and that. But that happens to everybody. It happens to shoot. When you lose, oh, it sucks. It happens to even the best and greatest of us, even if you're undefeated and no one's ever touched you and no one's ever made out of the first round and blah, blah, blah.

You're going to lose. You're going to have the other person get the hand raised, and it's all about how you handle the situation, all about how you, you know, you want to come across it positively. You want to be negative about it, you know. You mentioned that the top, Benson, that, you know, you are a 170-pounder now, right?

But if Donald Seroni wins next week, and even if those Angeles wins, you have a history there with those two guys at 155, do you change your mind? I go on 155, no problem. You know, I can go a 170 short notice. I can make 170 tomorrow if you need to me to. I would beat the heck out of whoever it is going to beat up.

155. Only problem with that is I can't take it as short notice. I couldn't make 55 on like, you know, two days notice. Maybe like two weeks notice I could get down, but, you know, it would be a little bit of a struggle for me. But do I have to, do I feel I have the skill set to get my hand raised against half ails-asno? down with Cowboys Tony, absolutely.

I would bet my house, when I face off against them, I'm getting my hand raised against anybody at 155. But, you know, there's a waiting line, there's a petting order. I understand that, you know. I'm not downplaying the, there's an order. Well, they're supposed to be. There's not always an order, but they're supposed to be an order, too. You know, this guy's number one, so you get the next shot,

this guy's number two or this guy's number three or this guy, they're supposed to be an order. It's not always the case in our sport. but I respect the order and if there's somebody in front of me or whatever no problem but do I feel I can beat anybody on a planet at 155 absolutely

I think this is the most interesting free agent in MMA since Dan Henderson was a free agent many moons ago coming off wins and then he ultimately you know decided to go with strike force you're in a spot like that coming off wins stock is up all that stuff

are you hoping that more people follow this lead in the future and you know the sport becomes like any other regular sport where guys just, you know, play out their contract and then see what's out there? You know, I think whatever is best for the sport. It's hard to say what's best for the sport. But for me, my situation, I think it would, you know, it makes sense. Like, for the UFC, you know, they have a guy who's in the top five at lightweight or the top whatever at welterweight who's going to give a competitive matchup against anybody.

No one's going to just go out there and, you know, beat me up or anything like that. I'll take some short notice. They need somebody on short notice. I'm your man. I'll step up. I'll help you out. I help them out for the brand of fast fight. They need somebody in two weeks.

They called me up. I was like, yeah, sure, no problem, guys. I'll help you out. And a bunch of other situations. I'm a company man. I'm always going to accompany man. They need me to fly to Mexico City on short notice. Three days notice.

My wife, she was my girlfriend at the time, or fiancee, maybe. She was not happy. But I said, do you know what? Hey, for the company, yes, I will. Sure, no problem. I had two things over with her. But it's what you have to do. You know, when you're a company man, that's what those are the things you need to do.

There's a whole list, a long list of things I've done for the UFC behind things like that, like that Mexico City trip, short notes, oh, we need you do this, oh, we need to go here, oh, we need this. I've always just said, yep, sure, no problem. Yep, sure, no problem. I think it's smart to have that. I think you need guys like that in your company, and I think you need guys who are positive. If in your sports, if in your job, you're always promoting, like, not negative,

by your porn morning, like, not exactly good looks, but, you know, brash, loud, and, you know, a little bit on the rougher side, you also need, you know, good guys. You also need good girls who can represent the sport well. I think that's a good thing. I think the UFC need more of that. They need to promote the heck out of Demetri Johnson. He is a stand-up, great dude, awesome. You know, he's had the belt for how long now, how many times of the face is?

and he goes after finishes in the fifth round. He's still going after finishes. You know, he's just awesome. He's grateful for it. Why in the world is not, you know, the million-dollar commercials off him? You know, he needs his due. I think the UFC has a ton of guys like that, like Janice Johnson, who need their due, who the UFC, if they chose to put more money in marketing behind them,

chose to put a spot on them on them a little bit more. they would do great. They would represent the sport well. They would help the sport of MMA grow, which I think what you should invest in, the sport of MMA, the sport of mixed martial arts, not just the bad mouthing, not just the sports entertainment, not just being brash and talking smack, and you know, you need the good guys too. Okay, just a couple more things, and I really appreciate the time. I'm wondering, would you say that you have a good relationship with Dana and Lorenzo? I think I have a good relationship in the sense that you know that has a good relationship with their with their CEOs of their company.

How many times have you talked to the CEO of your what's the company that owns you, your, your show? They're called Vox Media, V-O-X Media. And who owns that? Who's the CEO of Vox Media? A wise man named Jim Bankoff. I know you're getting at. I don't speak to him every day now. You don't speak to everybody.

Exactly. I'll speak to Dana or to Lenzhenza every day. Lorenzo was super thoughtful. super nice after my injury after my surgery. He actually took time out of his day and he called me twice, I believe, in a couple of months. During those phone calls, you know, like checking up on me, make sure I was okay, seeing how things were going, all that stuff. You know, it was super thoughtful, super nice.

Like, I have the CEO of your company give you a call. I definitely appreciate it. My wife appreciated it. She thought it was very thoughtful. But we don't have like a personal relationship. It's like, you know, I go to Vegas, I hang out with guys. Right. But, you know, from my limited interaction with Lawrence Randana, they're good guys.

They're, you know, good family guys. I'm all about family. And they're good family guys. You know, talk about, brag about their sons, you know, brag about their kids. And, you know, you got to that. Yeah. Well, speaking of which, I remember standing in our backstage area in Phoenix with you last year, around almost a year ago. And that's when you subtly mentioned that you were going to become a father.

And that was tremendous news. And now I hear a young baby crying in the background, which warms my heart. How's fatherhood changed you? It's made me a little bit more responsible, I think. It has to be more on time. I have to be more, you know, rally the house at two. That means I have to be packed up and ready to go and get started around like 1230. So I think it's definitely helped me be more responsible, be more aware.

the time or whatnot. And just in general, like, you know, we talk about, fatherhood is awesome, it's amazing. I am a big, big fan of it. And however many of my wife wants to give me, I'll take. In 2013, Benson, you told me that you want to retire when you're 33. You just turned 32. Is that still the plan?

That's still the plan. That's why I want to hurt and get these fights on the way. If you want to make a legacy and be known as the best fighter ever, I mean, you have to fight a whole lot. I'm not going to be fighting for very long. So, I mean, in the limited time I have, I need to hurry and get it done. So come November of next year, you're done? You're not going to sway on that a little bit?

No, when I am 33 in like six months, or 33 and nine months, or 33 in 10 months. But as long as I, before I turn 34. And why 33? It's a good age. I think it's a good age. I think in this sport, we get beat up quite a bit. People don't realize how hard it is on your body, how hard is on you mentally. I can't imagine how the big sports are, the big sports, you know, like football and basketball.

Well, not basketball. They're kind of soft. But the NFL guys, how much abuse their body takes and how much pressure they're under and how much, you know, how much of it takes like a mental toll on them, like, oh, I can't even imagine. But for us fighters, it's pretty hard. It's pretty tough. And I'll be excited to move on to whatever my next career, whatever the next thing is I decided to do. I'll be excited to move on to that.

And do you have any idea what it is? What do you do come 33, 34? I own my gym now, so probably, you know, be a little more invested in that by my own actual personal attention. And then, you know, I'm just hoping for a lot of different opportunities, you know. Whether it's commentating, you know, guest analysts or doing this or doing that, I'm just looking for a bunch of different opportunities and see which one I like the most. I would like a wide variety of things I can try out, things I can see if I like, see if I'm any good at it. Obviously, I'm not going to do it.

But just a wide-ride opportunities afterwards. Hopefully my career in Mixed Martialiart opened some doors for me and allows me to try this, try that, and that sort of stuff. And that's what makes this big contract coming up, all that more important. final thing, what does your gut tell you? Your next fight, will it be in a Bellator cage, a one cage, a UFC octagon? What do you think? In your heart of hearts, where does your career go? In my heart and heart, I will absolutely admit, I wish to have my next fight be in the UFC. In my heart of heart of heart, I wish to retire from the UFC. But as far as where my next fight will be, I'm not sure. In my heart and heart of hearts, I will say for sure. I wanted to be in

UFC. But like I said, I want to be able to pay for my sons. Sons, I want to pay for their college. I want to have their college taken care of. And to do that, you know, I got to do some stuff now, take advantage to capitalize on the small wheel opportunity I'm afforded. Benson, I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. I know you're very busy. A lot of people coming at you. Thanks for coming on and clearing things up. And I'll be looking for you in Las Vegas, my friend. Good luck to you and the team. And good luck, obviously, with this upcoming big contract stuff.

I wish you the best. Hey, thanks all. I appreciate, man. Sorry for not hanging you back also, man. That's my bad. No, no. I know how you like to do. You make us work for it, but in the end, it makes it all that much more better.

All right, all right. All right. There he is. Benson Henderson, aka the most wanted man in the sport, the hottest free agent in the sport, all that and then some. It's going to be really interesting. And look, I appreciate him being honest. He says, hey, I want to be in the U.S. UFC, but as a wise man named Quentin Jackson once said,

the Cheta done make it better, right? All right, let's move along. Let's go to your questions and comments. I am out of breath. It was a dizzying pace to get to this point, but now we can check in with New York, Rick, who is probably just sitting back, feet up, hands behind his head, just chilling back there.

Look at him. I mean, not a care in the world, not a worry in the world, writing me long soliloquies on the computer. I mean, what's wrong with you? I'm sorry, what? Yeah, that's what I thought was going on back there. A sleep at the wheel. We had a little pep talk at the beginning of the show.

Everyone needs to be on time, on point. Second guess, boom, late. Yeah. I blame you. I will take zero blame. I will take none of it. None of it is a great place in Canada, by the way. Wait, what?

None of it. That's an actual spot. It's in the Northwest Territories of Canada. I feel like this is a haggis scenario that's being cold right now. Not true. But yes, I will take no blame, and I think that we had a pretty good show. Should we go to the questions first or the odds first? Up to you.

I want to go to the odds first. Let's switch it up. Let's talk odds. So at the beginning of today's, actually not even before we went live, I said, look, New York, Rick. That's how I refer to you. we've got three unbelievable cards coming up in Las Vegas. And before we get into that, you share my excitement.

This is not BS. This is not hyperbole. This to me is the biggest fight week ever. It's bigger than 100. It's the culmination of all these fights that I've been looking forward to for so long. Am I crazy, or do you see where I'm coming from? I think 194 on its own would have been massive. Yeah.

Because on paper it's the best card in UFC or MMA history, as far as I'm concerned. but when you get, you know, a fight like Mendez-Edgar the night before, it makes it even more amazing. And, you know, that card's not bad on its own. Dunham Lozahn, Barbosa Ferguson. Crazy. So you're looking at a solid card, and then you get another one with Van Zana and Namajunis. So I think, you know, the excitement is warranted. In my, I'm equally excited, for sure.

The shocker in all of this is that you haven't been watching the embedded fight passes or the fight pass embeddeds, I should say. Didn't do it for me. What? I love embedded. I saw the first one for the fight pass embedded, and it just, I wasn't interested. Trust me. Can you just trust me you are missing out. Sage Northcut may be the most fascinating man in the NBA.

I don't know who he reminds me of. It's some sort of character, a cartoon. I don't know what. but just him opening that box on the last episode. Somebody who says like Ghali regularly. Yes, but there's a character that he really reminds me of and decorating the tree with his family and then cut to Cody Fister, like doing laundry.

I mean, it's just amazing. And Cody's been doing a great job. I mean, for a guy who's never been in this spot before doing a great job. And then Rose and Paige, why? Why are you not even giving this a chance? Or did you give it a chance? I gave it the first episode. And it just...

How? Look, I mean, at some point, maybe I'll catch up, but I just... Embrace it. That first episode didn't do it. I'd rather see, you know, the actual embedded show for UFC 194, not the one that they showed, you know, on Foxx. Okay, so are you disappointed?

It's 4.13 p.m. Eastern on Monday. There's not one yet. There's been a Fox one, but not like the... That's not embedded, as we've talked about. The Rousy home one, that was not embedded either. Okay, so are you disappointed? Did you think? I am.

Yeah. It's weird. I am disappointed. It's interesting. I wonder why. But, I mean, apparently they'd made the right move. You're eating this fight pass one up. Yeah, but I shouldn't be.

I mean, I really should be focusing a lot more on, you know. You're loving this. I'm sitting in bed watching Cody Fister do his laundry on the biggest fight week. I shouldn't be doing that. I want to see Connor McGregor and Dustin Porre, you know, crossing each other in the lobby and having heat. I don't want to see Sage Northcutt at the karate studio looking at his trophies and, and, And, you know, Cody Fister doing laundry. I want to see, you know, the real heat.

But there's still time, and I think we probably will get at least one abetted. Hopefully, I mean. Oh, for 194? Yeah. Oh, of course, of course. I think I read that they're going to do like six or something like that. It's going to be interesting if they skip Edgar Mendez, though. If they're going to do six, I mean, we're running out of time here.

Yeah, well, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That would be six. The first one has to come today. Yeah, well, let's get them, let's get them cracking. Then I'll be watching Embedded. Okay, so we have these three cards, and I asked you, I said, give me some kind of parlay, a monster parlay here. You know, because I look at best fight odds.com,

which is the best side of my opinion for all this stuff. And other than the tough finale fights, I think in total it's 35 fights in the span of three days, but some of those tough finale fights, they're not there yet, whatever. There's enough there to play with. Do you got something for me? Do you got something for the fan who's in the air right now? He's about to land in Vegas.

He can't wait to meet up with his friends and just revel in this madness that's to come. The violence. The violence. Yes, the violence. You got something for the fan that could go to the sportsbook and say, my man New York Rick told me to do this. I do. Okay. Now, this comes with a disclaimer.

What do you got? I hate parlays. What? Especially big parlays. Parles are the best. Don't like parlays. I think, especially with this one, because these are the picks I'm pretty confident about, and a lot of them you can play straight. You shouldn't have said that, by the way.

No. Do not listen, listen to this man, Ariel Hawani. Parley's, and especially ones bigger than two fights, I mean, max-max-3 are silly ideas and you should not be doing them. Wait, wait, wait. Could you imagine if you're a fan on vacation with your friends, you're about to go to all three cards, you win your two fights on Thursday, now you're really excited. You win your couple fights on... You can do the same thing without risking it on a parley. You can win those fights. You can take that money and decide whether you're going to keep some of the winnings or put some of it on other fighters. I do not recommend big parley's. That said, if you're having fun, and this is not the... Fun, fun. This is not about winning a ton of money. This is not about going home the richest man in the world.

These are some of the fights that I like, and that I think might make for a decent parlay. Okay, what do you got? First one. Rosnam Yunus. She's an underdog here. Wow. Are we surprised?

She's plus 160. I mean, I'm not because of the popularity of Paige Van Zant, and as you know, that affects the betting lines. That's true. I think that she's got to be part of this. And now my recommendation would be to play her straight, but in this case, we're going as part of the parlay. Wow, there's a ton of props as well.

I didn't notice that. All the way on the right side, you can click down on time. There's 30 props. Can you use a prop as part of a parlay? You can at certain books, but I didn't do that in this because not every book's going to take that. So let's make it the most simple way to get paid. Book-friendly.

So we're going with Rosedom Unis, who right now is a plus 164. And that's great value, in my opinion, for Rose. Because I think not only is she going to win outright, but I think that that's a really good line. Now we're looking at... By the quick side note, how about my take-down defense against Alster over? We'll get into that. Don't worry.

People ask about that. Chad Mendes versus... No, I'm sorry. I skipped that fight. That was not. Edson Barbosa versus Tony Ferguson. Okay. What's the line?

Tony Ferguson is the favorite minus 165 Barboza plus 145. I love Tony Ferguson here. Oh. I think that he has the style that is kind of... almost custom built to beat Barbosa. Barbosa is great when guys are sitting back and he's able to be the aggressor. But when somebody gets into his face, especially with somebody who has a lot of power and is a good striker like Tony Ferguson is,

it's going to be a problem. I don't think his chin's going to hold up. And if it goes to the mat, we've seen how slick Tony Ferguson can be there. I'm really not liking this stylistically for Barbosa. I think he's not one of those guys who is going to let Barboza sit on the outside and pick him apart. I think he's going to get in his face and he's going to be able to take him out. So I really like Ferguson here. And I really like Ferguson in general.

That matchup with Nirmaga Madov would have been an all-timer. So I like Ferguson here. He's the second part of this. Interesting. So you're going with a favorite. In the parley? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now this is, so those were two from the first two nights.

Now we're going to the third night. And this is where the final three out of this five-person parlay is going to be. The next fight on it, I had Tisha Torres. defeating Jocelyn Jones Leibarger, who Benson was just mentioning stepping up. I really like Tisha here. She's minus 275. Liebarger's plus 235. I just think Tisha Torres is a really, really

well-rounded fighter, and I think that at this time, she just has all the reps and all the experience on her side. So I'm surprised that even the line's this close. There's a lot of heavy favorites over the course of this weekend. I thought she'd be a little bigger of a favorite, so I like her here. Okay. Tiny tornado.

Next going down. And now, so that was the biggest discrepancy. That was the biggest favorite or underdog that I'm kind of picking in this parlay. The rest have been relatively close. The other ones were less than minus two to one. So now we have, sorry, I'm just putting in the odds so we can give a final calculation. Where are you putting in the odds? On a calculator so that we can do the final number.

Okay. My next one is Colby Covington. I think he's going to beat Worley Alves. I think Alves is a really good problem. I like him. I think that this is just a bad matchup for him. The wrestling's going to be too much. And I think Covington's going to take him down and be able to at least keep him there for majority of the fight. There's going to be some tense moments because Alves has finishing power. And he has that through all three rounds. But I think Colby's going to be able to wear him down and at least get a 29, 28, if not a 3027.

People are very high on the Brazilian. I think he's fantastic. I bet on him myself several times. I think stylistically, it favored. Covington in this one. And then the last one here is Damia Maya. I like Damia Maya, big over Gunner Nelson. I just think, you know, people are expecting this to be some kind of jujitsu war. One thing I'll say about that is I think you're really underestimating Damia Maya's jujitsu. I think there's a bigger gap than a lot of us are, you know, willing to give credence to. And I think Damia Maya is that top of the food chain level jujitsu player. He's creative with his takedowns.

I think he's going to be able to crowd gunner who's not, let's be honest. He has a knockout recently, but he's not the best striker in the world. I think Maya's going to be able to get in there, get a hold of them and take him to the ground. I mean, outside of the Dung Young Kim fight, Maya has looked really, really good recently, and I think this is going to be no exception.

I'm surprised it's as close. Maya's minus 145 gunners plus 125. I think that's a little closer than it needs to be. I think Maya is going to be able to get it done. in a weird way, it kind of reminds me a little bit of the Neil Magny fight where it's like this guy who's streaking. It's like, oh, here. Have a word with Damien Maya. And then reality sets in out.

Magni, Nelson, different fighters. But I can almost, you know, I can envision it going that way. I can envision Nelson pulling it off. But I think people forget, like, yeah, it's a BJJ, you know, fanatics fight and all that. But obviously it's a different ballgame. I'm not, you know, I'm not telling anyone. want anything they don't know here, but his MMA BJJ and his MMA grappling is second to none, Maya. He's in a class of his own in that regard. The way he's able to get, you know, to advance

position, to advance through people's guards is just unmatched. And I think that's going to come into play here. People, I've seen people, you know, saying a lot about how Gunner's going to neutralize Maya's BJJ. I really don't think that that's the case. And I think, and I think, Gunner is fantastic, but I really don't think that's the case. In his last two fights, he's fought LaFlair and Magny, two guys who were streaking, who are like, oh, if they beat my... And in a weird way, he's kind of in that gatekeeper, but I don't want to call him a gape key. I know we were talking about someone else in this regard as well.

I really don't think he's a gatekeeper. I think what happened is he hit that hiccup where he got hurt. Yeah. And I think he lost a little bit of steam, but man, he's looked really, really good. Those top four fights, 194, I know you're very much looking forward to Jacques-Rae as well. Yes. We could talk about, let's talk about betting a little bit on these other ones. Okay, first let's do this.

I will tell you exactly what that pays out. Okay, yes, please. So if you put in $10 on that $5.5.5, parlay, you get $16.66. So it pays essentially $16 to 1, or 16.5 to 1. I can feel you. So that's the parley right there. Again, I hate parley's. Stop saying that.

If you're going to have fun, if you're going to have fun with it, go for this. Okay, let me ask you this. Yeah. Page Rose, you're picking rows. Like money line. Outright, yeah. Miller, Kiesa. That one's a tough one that I would have avoided betting-wise, but I think Kiyasa gets it done.

Sage minus 1,100? Yeah, it makes sense to me. It does? All right. You're not picking Cody? No. My new favorite fighter? No.

Elias Theodore. Makes sense. The line makes sense there. Minus 244. This next one is interesting. John Howard, Timmy. John Howard? I think is a live dog here.

I pick him a lot, in fact, just because people forget that he likes to go to his wrestling a bit. Tim Means has serviceable takedown defense pretty decent, but I think Howard is good at mixing up his striking and his wrestling, and I think he's a live dog. I'd pick Means, obviously, if it's a 50-50 flip, but John Howard, I think is live here. By the way, I didn't ask you about this,

but Miller's the underdog against Keisa. Yeah. Wow. It makes sense. I think at this point in their careers, it makes a lot of sense. Okay, we're running out of time, so I don't think we go through all of them. Let's go to some of the bigger fights. Mendes Edgar? I really think Frankie Edgar has all the tools to get this done. He's a favorite. I think he's going to be able to get, you know, stay on the outside and pick Mendes apart. And I don't think the wrestling is going to come too much into it. That said, every time there's been a good offensive wrestler against Frankie Edgar or somebody who would consider a good grappler,

he usually ends up taking them down, which is such a credit to his overall game. I think he's, you know, criminally underrated as one of the best fighters of all time. My concern is I really am scared that Chad Mendez, and my concern in analyzing this fight from that perspective, is that Chad Mendes has so much power, and I think there's a point where he may be able to clip Frankie Edgar, who recovers really well, but in that small cage, it's going to be a problem to deal with Chad's power over five rounds.

And let's be honest, you know, Frankie Edgar is not known to take guys out early. So he may have to be in there for five rounds with Chad. That could be a problem. But I think Edgar's able to get it done if he can avoid that. Faber Science? Come on. Okay. Faber is minus 600.

Yeah, Faber gets it done. It's not a title fight. Faber gets it done. Well, he lost to Edgar, but, you know. Max Holloway, minus 500 against plus 44 Jeremy Stevens. You know, Stevens is always live with the power he's got. He's got some of the best power on this, you know, entire weekend. but no, Holloway's really, really putting it together right now.

Jacqueray just a slight favorite over Romero. I'll say this. I want to really, really go hard on Jacqueray, but I'm, you know, I'm stopped a little bit. I'm not having doubts, but what I'll say is Romero, ever since the Brunson fight, he's been utilizing his wrestling to a much greater success. And Patrick Wyman from Bleacher Report was talking about this on Twitter, and this is something I visually saw, but now it's been reinforced by his statistics

and actually looking it up. But, you know, he didn't train his wrestling going into that Brunson fight. He didn't train wrestling all up until that point. And then afterwards, he started going back to the well. And that's where you'll see that his offensive wrestling in MMA completely shifted and he used it much more effectively as well as using it defensively to keep people off him. So, you know, Jokkeray's not this guy who's going to blast in with a, with a power double and get Romero to the mat.

So if he can't get them down, it's going to be tough to stay on the feet with Romero. That power is scary. Even though Jokrari has power himself, Romero is on a different level with that. So I think Jokkeray wins this fight, but I'm not confident enough to bet on it. You know, it's super fun about these top six fights, if you will,

the four, in my opinion, at 194, and then the one tough finale and the one on Thursday. All of them are super close as far as the line. Fantastic matchmaking. And they're all like minus 100 something to plus 100 something. Rockhold Wyman. Wyman is a slight favorite minus 140 against plus 138. Who are you going with?

Betting wise wouldn't even have a clue in the world. Flip a coin. No idea. It's hard. In these situations, when it's close like this, you get this anxiety about betting against the champ. For some reason, you want to lead toward the champion. As far as, that's for me.

I think other people are in the same boat. You start to just say, oh, he's the champ. Why would he not be the champ anymore? So I feel like I'm getting into that a little bit with Weidman, whereas I feel Rockhold, they're both so well-rounded that it's almost impossible to pick. I have no idea who to pick in this fight. No idea whatsoever. You got to pick one right now.

If I'm picking one, I'm going Weidman, but it may be me falling into what I said about just picking the standing champion. I have no idea who's going to win this fight. None. McGregor Aldo. I'm picking Josie Aldo. Right now as we speak, minus 122, Conor, Aldo plus 115. I think Aldo's going to get it done, but it's not going to be a cakewalk.

I don't think he walks through him. I think Connor is way too tough. I think this, though. If Joseo is interested in using his offensive grappling, he can make his life a lot easier. You know, there was no secret that when Chad Mendes was winning that first round and, you know, being successful against Connor McGregor. He was utilizing his, his offensive wrestling, and he was taking him down, and it didn't look like, you know, Connor McGregor had much of a chance off his back. Granted, he was injured. It seems like, you know, and granted, McGre, uh, granted Mendez was, was on, not on a full fight camp.

He was on a short camp. But I think if Aldo mixes his striking well enough with his offensive grappling, I think he's, he has enough to get it done. And, and I don't see McGregor being able to put him out. so I'm leaning Aldo but that could change if he if he gets into you know the thing about McGregor is he's so fluid he's so unique he's so interesting whereas Aldo's very like meat and potatoes

he hits hard and he knows how to do it and you know not since the the flying knees to to Cub Swanson have we seen that kind of you know surprise from Aldo he just goes in gets what he needs to be done and he's done it against the best in the world he made Frankie Edgar look like you know a pedestrian fighter

I thought Josie Aldo cruised in that fight. And that's a credit to him. I think he's very good at what he does. But I think Connor McGregor's uniqueness, his unpredictability is going to be an issue to deal with, but I think ultimately Aldo will be able to deal with it, and I think he gets it done. I can't believe that this time next week,

this fight will have actually happened. Here I am knocking on wood. It's amazing. Well, now you just ruined the fight, so congratulations. But holy moly, I can't believe we're actually going to see it. Okay. We are running out of time. Yeah, let's get some questions here. Let's get some questions.

While you do that quick update on Rhonda Rousey, she has apparently spoken to ESPN the magazine. There are some snippets that are out. She calls herself really eff and sad. And here's another quote. She said, maybe I can't do it all before my prime, before my body is done, but eff it, maybe I can. And there's another quote here.

that I just want to get to. It's going to be out there everywhere. Oh, God. I just had the quote. Give me a second. Okay, get this stuff. Where the hell was it? I just had it in front of me.

It was something about that she'll need three to six months to totally heal up. Oh, here it is. It might be three to six months before I can eat an apple, let alone take an impact. So that might mean that she would not be ready for UFC 200. And that might mean that Misha Tate might get what? which she has been dreaming of, right? She would slide in there if Rhonda can't go. I mean, who else is it?

It's got to be Misha. Yeah, and I know Holly wants to remain relatively busy, so interesting. And I'm sure ESPN the magazine's coming out with a large feature on her, so she has apparently finally broken her silence. It actually came quicker than I thought. It's going to be interesting to read that. Okay, I'm going to summarize these. You also keep a brief.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. $194, the production. We saw at 189, they increased the production, the live musical accompaniment, the graphics, the canvas. Are we going to see

something similar at 194? What do I look like? Dana Freaking White? No, I really don't know. I'll have a better sense. You heard it here first, folks. Ariel has no idea.

I have no clue. I think they'll make it special, but I don't, like if you're asking about like Sheney O'Connor and that sort of thing, I don't think that's going to happen. It's hard to recreate it,

but let's see. If Aldo drops the time, title, does he get an immediate rematch? You have to think. Of course. See, people get confused. Like, people were upset when I was like, oh, yeah, I was upset. Oh, Dillard Rao, what do you do? But it was more about how quickly they were turning it around. That's the problem that I had. And it seemed like, you know, Barow took a beating. And I just don't put him in that category of Aranda or Analdo. If Aldo loses, I think it makes sense, especially if Connor wants to move. move up.

Like, if he'll loses and you don't do the rematch and Connor moves up to 155, then you're leaving a lot of money on the table and I think Connor recognizes that as well. So it's going to be interesting

to see what happens, but yes, he certainly deserves it. What fight is flying under the radar the most this weekend? Dare I say, Wyman Rockhold? I mean,

Wyman Rockhold is such a... What? You don't agree? I don't think it's getting a lot of attention. It's Wyman versus freaking Luke Rockhold. This is a dream matchup for me.

Maybe. Dream matchup. And I don't, I'm not making a stink here. I'm not, I mean, anything would fly under the radar with McGregoraldo and the emotion involved there. But Widman Rockhold is everything I love about him. It's just two guys in their prime. I can't wait.

And I can't even imagine how it's going to go down. Like the vision of them in the cage together excites me greatly. I feel about Wyden Rockhold the way I feel about Sean Marion during the prime of his career where... What? Everybody has called him underrated or not talked about so many times. that it's become too much. No, no, no. But here's the thing.

I believe he turned the corner after the Belford fight. It's not that. If this was the main event, I'd be sitting here saying this is such an incredible main event. It's just like, like if Brock versus Fador

was the co-main event of Aldo McGregor, I think it would be overshadowed. Everything is overshadowed. So it's nothing to do with Wydeman, as nothing to do with Rockhold. It's just the fact that they're under one of the biggest fights ever.

That's all. That's a lot of power, that title fight, that top one. Yeah. Predictions for by rate, 194. Now, you said Australia is number one. I'm going to go with, you know, it's a quiet night as far as college football is concerned.

I'm going to go 880. And shout out to John Pollack, who predicted that this would be the number one. Though he was comparing, I believe, what was it? He was comparing 195. Correct. But he was comparing the rousey fight. Essentially, yeah. He is 100% right.

But yeah, well, we'll see if he's right. But yes, he did predict that the Rousey fight would be bigger than this. Actually, his prediction was more impressive because that was coming after. Rousie coming before might affect 194 if you get what I'm trying to say. Sure. Considering Connor pissed off everyone at the September U.S. Go Big press conference, how great would a cowboy versus Connor match up if they're both successful? Would you think they would do that right away?

Title versus title? If he wins, I have a hard time seeing. it because I just think the Aldo fight is too big, the rematch. Yeah. But it is interesting. If he wins, now there's another sort of story leading up to Orlando. Again, I'll reiterate what I said, nitpicking here, which Orlando was this past weekend so that we could end the year with Aldo McGregor.

Glacent Tebow, what are your thoughts on his random test failing out of competition? Well, you know, what can you say? I mean, we're starting to see them more now. you know, the Crow Cop situation while his was a little different, the T-Bow, I do like, for the most part, the way he handled it with his statement that he gave to Glamy Cruz. You know, of course, I saw a lot of people saying, oh, you know, of course, of course we've got, although EPO is a different kind of one, right? I mean, EPO is not so much, you know, to get big and strong, although he was massive. That's more of a cardio thing. So that's good, that's, that's super interesting. Provisionally suspended because he does have two weeks to appeal it. So that will be interesting as well. Does he go that route? Does he appeal it or does he take the suspension? So I guess now he has a little less than two weeks.

This person is asking, do you think we've seen the last of him in the U.S.C.? No chance, right? No reason. No reason to do that. He just picked up a big win, even though that was also controversial, but it was a big win for him, and I think he's fine. Okay. Cyborg, she's defending her title.

Is this the nail in the coffin for the Rousey fight? She's fighting at 145 rather than 140. As I said on Twitter, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, fool me three times, fool me four times. Now I'm 100% convinced she just doesn't want to do it. And fine, you don't want to do it. I'm surprised. I thought she had George Lockhart on our team. I thought she was doing all the right things.

But like at this point, enough to enough enough. Drop down to 135. But now Ronda Rousey's not the champion. So she can't claim you have to come down to me because there's a belt on the line. But is there a reason that this fight couldn't happen at 145 or even 140 or whatever the case maybe. I don't foresee the UFC doing it because they don't have that way class. And as I said in the past, I don't really care

if it's at 140 or 1405. Let's just see the fight. But now at this point, I feel like they're going to stick to their guns. There's a beef there because of her past and all that stuff. The Holly Home Fight is still a big fight in my opinion. The Misha Tate fight. These are all bigger fights than she can have in Invicta. She's under Zufa contract.

Are they just holding her now so that she doesn't go to Bellator? Are they getting even what they bargained for? I mean, what is going on here? And how come she's not fighting at 140. Shannon App was on this show saying she's fighting at 140. The whole thing is so strange. I'm growing a little tired of it. I'm with you that, you know, the back and forth, the dropping and not dropping thing is troublesome, but the idea of now this fight being off, in my opinion, is unjustified. Because if ever there was a time, it's after Ronda no longer

holds the title that any weight, at any weight class, it could really happen. Yeah, never say never. I mean, in this sport, it's, look, combat sports, sports period, crazy things happen. who thought we'd ever see Mayweather and Pacquiao after the loss and all that and all that time. But I'm just saying, like, what, why do we keep flip-flopping? I thought this was part of the deal that you were going to move down to 140, and then go down to 135, and then Shannonap and now's it like, what's going on here, really, truly behind the scenes? If you don't want to make it, if you can't for your health, just come out and say it.

And we'll stop talking about it. And then we could start thinking about maybe this fight happening at 140, 14, 145, Holly Home fight. But the back and forth. is just too much at this point. Come on. Something must have happened after she announced it, and then they come back and they say it's 145. Also, the opponent changed.

What's going on? Sure. Question about Glory. They want a recap of Glory 26. Did you watch it? Do they really? Do they really want a recap? Says it.

Right there. I watched the Rico fight. Believe it or not, I went out, I turned on ESPN3, and it was just starting, and then I had enough. What? It was an amazing.

amazing fight card. Mosabam Rani, two knockouts. He was in a one-night tournament, two knockouts via body shots. Two in one tournament. That's... I was saving myself for this coming weekend. How dare you, sir. But, but, but let's call it like we see it. It had been a long time since our friend Rico Verhoeven had a knockout of that caliber. Comes on this show, look what happens. He got the rub from the M.M.A. Hour. But it was a, it was a fantastic event. Let that be a lesson. Nikki Holskine got a win over Myrtle Grownhart. Check it out. It's still on ESPN 3.

Also, can you tell the people over at glory to keep putting on those events in Europe? When they do them in Oklahoma, it feels like I'm watching high school basketball. Now, this one was a little special because kickboxing had it, as you talked to Rico about, had it been back. This one was... When they went to Croatia for Kroko, be strategic. Sure. There's opportunities in Europe, too. But enough of trying to, you know, fit that square into a circle.

It's just not working. Well, I mean, if you notice, the U.S. shows haven't been in locations like Oklahoma recently. But the real, not that long ago. Las Vegas is... I feel like the greatest thing, and you can say what you want about the contract, the greatest thing to have it to have it to glory is that they got off Spike because it felt like with Spike they were trying to cater too much to the American audience, with all due respect.

Spike doing fine things with Bellator, but they were trying to cater too much to the American audience, put too many Americans on those cards. I want to see the very best. Glory should be the very best. It should be the very best in kickboxing, fighting on the biggest stage possible. And it didn't feel that way. after some time.

Now... Friday felt that way. It's feeling that way. So I'm curious to see what happens with ESPN. Any updates on A, Rampage or B, Nick Diaz? Nick Diaz thing we talked about, I think, last week. Every week, we got to have a check-up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, but I wanted to know if I gave you the update or not. I did. Nothing new there. Rampage. I did reach out to him maybe... Three weeks ago, four weeks ago. Remember he was in St. Louis for the Monster Energy thing. He was at a Bell Tour show, but that was...

because of a contest and I was reaching out to him, unfortunately nothing new there. Porriere and Duffy are on the prelims on 195. What's the deal there? Well, I'm happy you asked. I actually reached out to the UFC earlier today about that very question and what I was told was, quote, we will be announcing something relative to that in the days to come. That's what I was told. So stay tuned. I will say this. I know it's on fight pass right now on ufc.com let's just say it's fight pass or fs1 why do people get so upset about a fight being relatively free i know you pay 10 bucks for fight pass and you have to pay cable for fs1 but why do you if you truly care about that fight if you truly love that fight

why are you asking for it to be $60 why are you asking to be charged for it you know what i'm saying it's a riding for their for their fighter kind of thing it's a prestige And stupid. Stupid. If I loved a fight, why would I be like, hey, UFC, do you mind putting this on the pay per view so I could pay 60 bucks for it? Who gives a crap? In this day and age, the prelims are often seen by more people than the actual main card.

Sure, Uriah Faber is not the one who's caught on to this very quickly. Stop it with this. What are you doing? Speaking of this, this is perfect. Yes. Perfect transition. We're talking about paying money. If you had $50 or, let's say, 60 or whatever the HD prices and could only watch one card,

do you watch 194 or do you watch one of these free cards and use that money for food, drinks, all that stuff, have a party for yourself? Is this the dumbest question in the history of the MMA hour? I think it's a reasonable question. If I only had $50 from now until December 31st and it means that my kids or my wife can eat for the next month, I am buying UFC 194. Are you crazy? Guys, can we cut that clip and send it to Ariel's fan? What is going on here? Are you crazy?

That is the craziest question in the history of the show. I'm with you. As I said, I think 194 is the best card ever. Let's not get crazy with the card. I don't know about the prelims and all that. I haven't really had it. But the top four fights, there's nothing better. Number five is Holloway Stevens, I think.

Yeah, but it's not as close. I'm just saying the top four. And in particular, let's go to the top two. The top two are the greatest duo, one-two punch in UFC history. Without a doubt. In their prime, belts, rivalries, without a doubt. I'm unashamed in saying it's the best ever. Fair enough.

As a connoisseur of haircuts and facial hair, this is for you, obviously. How important is Thug Rose's new haircut to female MMA? What do you think about that? Yeah, I think it's very interesting. Look, she's not trying to make any fashion statements here or anything. She's not doing it for this or that. She just said it gets in her way, and it's not a beauty pageant.

I respect it. Also, you missed it embedded. She actually goes and gets it, like, lined up. I love that. Thug Roses is a special kind of character. Best part of Embedded, by the way, is Pat Barry driving a minivan. So is it fair to say that this is your favorite embedded ever? It might be.

There's so many subtle fun things about it. Pat Barry riding a minivan says, we're saying goodbye, we're going to the airport, but I guarantee you in three minutes we're going to have to come back here because we forgot something. And lo and behold, they have to come back and get her mouthpiece that she's forgot. It's great theater. Pat Barry's a great character. Another great subtle thing. Justin Gaichi appearing in one of the scenes saying that, hey, Bruce Buffer, don't mispronounce my name. That's fascinating in Sonrae because he's the World Series of Fighting Lightway Champion. But oh, by the way, the lower third, the graphic, they misspell his name on it.

I saw this on Twitter. It's unbelievable. What a great, what a great series. Embedded. Fight Pass Embedded. It's among the pantheon of great moments in MMA history. I hope it never ends. Were you upset or puzzled that the fact that it did not feature Jim Miller or Mike Kiesa on the fight night embedded? I'll tell you this. Much respect to Mike Kiyasa for speaking up and doing his thing on Twitter and why.

I love that. And that just gives me another reason to be interested in this. It's a fantastic fight. Young versus old. Miller looking good as of Lake Kiyah. He's been talking. I like it. But your answer is no,

because they're doing such a great job. Who cares about these guys? No. I won't say that. I hope that once they all converge on Las Vegas, you know, they do that sometimes. They follow, you know, two fights, but then once everyone's under the same roof,

then they start to split up. A, I find it fascinating they're doing an embedded for this card, period. And I have a feeling come, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, they'll start to build up to it. But yeah, sure, you want the love, you want to love. I will say... Close mouths don't get fed.

I won't... I wouldn't take it personally. They usually focus... I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot to invest, right? Sure. But good for Mike. Good for Mike. what do you think about the looking for a fight for the CM Punk opponent? Dana White confirmed that this is what he's doing with looking for a fight. Among many other things.

Well, one of the things. I think it's brilliant, right? I mean, this is a great way to get people invested in a guy from the ground up. You can find out how they found. And people are like, what? You're finding an opponent for him on the regional circuit? Yeah, what did you expect? Did you really think that he would be fighting Damien Maya?

What did you really expect? It's going to be a guy who's 1-0-2-0, 3-0 maybe. He finds him that moment where he tells him he offers him. him, then he'll probably call up C&Pont. He's brilliant. This is the perfect way to use that show. There's no better way to find an opponent. Look at what happened to say.

It's the perfect way. Does your excellent take-down defense change your opinion on the Overeem Junior Dos Santos fight? Do you give Junior a big advantage now? You mean the lightweight, Alster Overeign. Oh, wow. Look, look, I stuffed it with one hand, essentially. I was still holding the mic, never let go of the mic,

got those underhooks in, sprawled, And then at some point, after like five minutes of fending him off, I said, look, this guy's got a big fight. He's fighting on national TV. For his own sake, for his own self-confidence, I'll pull guard here, I'll let him do this thing. He resorts to tickling. He ignores the tap multiple times. Worse than Hussema-Paharis has ever done. Actually gave me a few bruises on my hips, really digging it deep there, employing some dirty tactics.

And then everyone stands around and watches. I thought they were friendly over there at Jackson Wink. No one came to my aid. Although I will say Carlos Condit did yell out. He tapped, he tapped. So I appreciated that. Also gave you my phone that fell out of my pocket. But all I'm saying is, you know, if I'm really, you know, digging into that JDS

over-rame fight, I take a look at that footage and I start to question. But do you think it's possible now overreem tickles JDS and gets him to submit that way? Look, if I'm overreem, I use that tactic because his tickling is on point. I mean, he digs deep into your hips there. Yeah, it might be tough with the gloves. You got your fingers poking out. Yeah, he's got it. Yeah, yeah.

100%. Yes. If you see JDS crack a smile while they're on the ground, you know why. Last question. Ariel, have you watched any episodes of Hunting Hitler? Is it crap reality TV? Is there substance? What do you think about Tim?

Look, I'm not a liar. I will say that I have yet to watch it. There's been a lot of traveling. There's a lot going on over in the Halwani household. Anytime I get a free moment, I'm watching my man, the future, the legend that is the future Hall of Famer, the future rookie of the year, KP6, 3-6 Latvia, Christaps, Porzingis doing his thing. But when I don't have a Nick Game to watch like I do tonight, I don't really have a lot of time to do anything else. So it's on my DVR. I'll tell you that,

I just haven't gone around to it. Have you seen it? I have not seen it either. I'm pretty similar. I pretty much pay $150 a month for a cable package that I watch live sports exclusively on. It's a real disaster. What about 36 Latvia? He is quite a good player. Remember when we met him? Yes, we did. You took the photo, that's right. What about Josh Thompson not asking for a title shot?

I mean, is that one of the weirdest things? I mean, why don't you just, you know... Well, here's my thing. Take a dump on that title. I believe he told this was Mark Romundi, I think, was the one who had the article first. Still. And he's saying that people are calling for the Michael Chandler fight. Sure.

Who? Who are these people? Yeah, yeah. I mean, one or two on Twitter, maybe. Is there like a crowd of people who's coming to his door to ask for Chandler v. Thompson? I think Will Brooks is just as worthy, and I think he's the champion, and why wouldn't you want to go for him? And Brooks coming out, Brooks should have said, oh, what do you scare? I mean, come on. It's a little too much respect there. I thought once that interview came out, someone in Bellator says to Josh, hey, you know, our title, you know, it's all about the Bellwomen.

Can you just not maybe say that? and like, you know, we need to be gunning for the champion. That's why, I don't know, that's what I would have done. But, hey, at least we know they don't tell them that sort of thing. I mean, Will Brooks, you know, he needs an opponent. Why not be the guy? And Patricke lost. Maybe it's Benson Henderson.

Oof. There we go. That's it. We're done. We are done. We've gone way over. I apologize. You can hit my music.

It has been an action-pack, jam-pack show. By now, I envision that person. Who got on that flight, sure, maybe the flight is longer than three and a half hours, but he got on that flight. Maybe he took a break, you know, to take a nap, have some peanuts. These days, these flights, they don't offer you all that much. Maybe crackers and cheese. And now he sees the bright lights of Las Vegas.

He's envisioning, catching up with his friends, having a blast, taking a load off, and then buckling down. Wednesday. Wayans. Press conference. Thursday. Wayans, Fight Night, Friday, Wayans, Fight Night, Saturday, the granddaddy of them all, UFC 194. We made it, my friends.

We actually made it. We're going to be there all week long. I feel like I'm losing my voice because I've been way too excited all show long, but this is real, my friends. This is, this is authentic. This is a man who has been dreaming of this fight week since it was announced, dreaming of the stars aligning. No one getting serious. couple as some people felt, but for the most part, it has stayed intact. And thank you very much to the MMA gods. Hopefully they smile down on us for the next five days. Okay, thank you very much,

Guillermo Cruz, Sean Chian, tremendous job. Thank you very much, Makwan, Ameri Kani, best of luck to him. Thank you very much to John Kavanaugh. Best of luck to him. Thank you very much to Ray Longo. Best of luck to him. Charlie Brennam, get the book. It's called Driven. Yawanna, Yon, Jacek, get well soon. Appreciate the time. Tyson Fury, congratulations. Chad Mendez, good luck to you on Friday. and good luck to Benson Henderson. Back next week to recap it all. Close out the year.

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