MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 310

Episode Date: January 4, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Holly Holm, Frankie Edgar, Tyron Woodley, and Marc Raimondi. Ariel and @NewYorkRic hand out their 2015 The MMA Hour Awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Oh, my chair just fell down. There we go. On this Monday, January 4th, 2016, hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani. Welcome back. We missed you. I missed you. We haven't done one of these in three weeks.

And what a stretch it has been. The world of mixed martial arts, another crazy, wild, exciting, exhilarating stretch When we last said goodbye, we were on the heels of UFC 194 and that epic weekend in Las Vegas, we were getting ready for UFC on Fox in Orlando. And what a show that was. Wow, Hafeld Dosangos defeating Donald Soroni in a matter of seconds,

I think, 66 seconds. Of course, since then, we've come to find out that Seroni's returning next month as a welterweight to fight Tim Means. So much happens when you take time off in this sport. Nate Diaz putting on a show during his fight after his fight, calling out Connor McGregor getting censored all over the place on Fox. Alster Overeem coming into that fight as we found out a few days before it against JDS as a free agent, winning via knockout,

ending that rivalry at least for now. So that was a lot of fun. Then we had Risen with their debut show in Japan. Some good, some bad, the good I thought King Mo's tournament victory. Chrome Gracie. Those were some fun things. Even the Gabby Garcia fight was kind of good in a weird way. And the bad, obviously, was Sakuraba getting mauled.

The Fador fight, to me, was like, I get why people wanted to see it, but it was uninteresting to say the least. And by the way, who's the one that reported Jideep Singh back in October and no one believe? Oh, yeah. I had no interest in that whatsoever. Hopefully they get him a more. Hey, like, I'm not going to hate Fador for it. Take the money.

if you're going to fight, you know, essentially a 1-0, because he was really 1-0, in my opinion, they gave him that fight on three days notice to become 2-0 and become the deep champion. If you're going to fight a 1-0 guy for the same amount of money as an accomplished guy, do it. But, you know, Ryzen should, if they're going to be a credible promotion, put together a better, a better opponent for Fador in his next fight. We'll see what happens there. And then, of course, UFC 195. I don't know if I can say it's the greatest title fight I've ever seen. I don't know if I could say it's the greatest welterweight title fight I've ever seen,

but I think I am confident in saying it was the greatest fifth round of a title fight that I have ever seen. That fifth round between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit, if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it. It's a super close fight. It's not a robbery. It comes down essentially to one round, that third round, and people are split, maybe a little more in favor of Carlos. It's somewhat heartbreaking when you hear him afterwards talk about potentially retiring after this fight,

It's so close to becoming champion, but what can you say about Robbie Lawler at this point? It seems like he gets better as the fight goes on each and every time, and it's just impossible to break this guy. It's impossible to break the new Robbie Lawler. The welterweight Robby Lawler is virtually unbreakable at this point. And what's next for him? Of course, there's a lot to talk about there. So much to get to on this show. UFC 195 in a nutshell reminded me why this is such a special sport to be a fan of.

and to cover because it didn't have the pomp and circumstance of 194. It didn't have the buzz of a 194. But if you look at the emotion, the victories, the performances, the losses, I mean, it just had it all. And it reminds you that, you know, here we are in the dead of winter. NBA season, it kind of goes, you know, goes through the motions, even the NFL season to a degree as well. NHL, same deal.

You see it in baseball, soccer, and all the sports, there's a lull in the schedule. And while MMA and in the UFC in particular, they don't have an offseason, every single fight means the world to these guys. Look at that emotion that came out of Sipaymiocchich after that victory. Look at the emotion following the Condit-Loller fight. You'll never see the emotion that you see in game 65 of the regular season between the Bucks and Sixers. That's just, that's emotionless. You'll never see that in MMA.

It's never mundane. This event had nothing to do with Boston, has nothing to do with Newark, has nothing to do with London coming up, and that's what makes it so special. So we can complain about so many events being back to back, and I feel like I've kind of gone on this rant before, but it just reminds you, man, it's just such a beautiful sport when it all comes together and men and women rise to the occasion, and that's what we saw Saturday night in Las Vegas. All right, what are we getting to today on the show? This is one of my favorite shows of the year, by the way. This is our award show. We're recapping the entire year. We have 22 awards to give out.

It's going to be New York, Rick and I. We're going to be doing that in the back end of the show, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Maybe our best award show yet. I think we've been doing this for three, four years now, so I can't wait to get to that. In addition to our award show, we're going to be talking to Mark Romandy of MMAFight.

com. We'll recap UFC 195 at around 2.15. We're going to talk to Holly Home, the UFC Bantamweight champion for the women's division. She may have won a couple awards. It's kind of funny. Last year we had the male fighter of the year, Robbie Lawler on. Is she our female fighter of the year? We'll find out. Around 125, we'll talk to Tyron Woodley. He was a very interesting observer, I should say interested observer on Saturday at the Fox Studios, because he wants to fight the winner of Lawler Condon, and that's Robbie Lawler. Does he get that opportunity? We'll find out. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in a man who had a very big 2015.

just a few weeks ago we were in Las Vegas and saw him rise to the occasion with perhaps his best performance yet, his best victory yet, a knockout win over Chad Mendes. They all said it couldn't be done. He did it. He's Frankie Edgar. He's the number one contender in the UFC's featherweight division. He joins us on the phone right now. Frankie, how are you? I'm good, man. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you too. Would you say 2015 was your best year yet? Is that a little too crazy because you've been a champion in other years? What do you think? I don't know. I feel like the cream is rising to the top, you know, that's for sure. So, you know, things are going upward. That's all I know. And I'm happy with my past year for sure. So there's a lot to get to talk to you about here. But actually, I want to start a little bit out of left field because your fight, your second fight against Gray Maynard at UFC 125 was five years and one day. I'm going to botch this prior to UFC 114.

Does that make sense? It was January 1st of 2000 and, what was it? 2011. There you go. 11. 11. And that fight, did you watch the Condit-Lollar fight? I did.

Who'd you scored for? You know, I sorted at a bar and people bother me. Okay. But, you know, the rounds, I thought it was close. I really did. You know, I would have been surprised either way. You know what I mean? So, you know, I thought Robbie definitely overall.

the momentum was with him, I think, just based on how he closes out fights. But, man, it was a great fight. It's funny that you say that you were at a bar and people are bothering you. I hate watching sporting events and in particular MMA events at a bar, and I'm not Frankie Edgar. I'm not this worldwide celebrity. Why in the world would you go to a bar to watch a fight? I feel like you couldn't watch a second of it.

I know. It was in my buddy's place. I was being cheap. I didn't feel like buying it. What? Are they not paying you enough? I just wanted to get out of the house. I wanted to get out of the house.

It was my buddy's bar. I thought we usually go upstairs. We ended up watching with the masses. The common felt. It was a good fight, so yes, yes. Okay, so Wyatt, somewhat reminded me of your fight. It's because afterwards there's a lot of controversy about judging and scoring and what's a 10-8 round and who won this and that. What's your take?

Because you know about this better than most. I mean, your fight against BJ, the first one, 112, there was some controversy there. What's your take on the state of MMA judging, the 10-9 system, all that? Is it time that we really rectify this issue here? Are you okay with it? it is i think it is you know obviously because this issue keeps coming up and it's because it's it's flawed you know i don't know if i have the answer um i think i've seen someone say something about maybe more judges more eyes looking at it yeah i think even oh you know i think they

should do overall like all right who overall score of the fight you know like the momentum like pride kind of did a little bit you know like i said cond it may have won one round the round but it felt like the momentum was robbie that fight you know that's a great point i actually asked someone that afterwards, if this was pride, who would win? And I think it would be Robbie Lawler. It makes a lot of sense, although that's subjective as well. I just think my main problem is 10-9. We don't know. It's so hard to decide what's a 10-8, and you know that better than anyone. But then a 10-9, like the fifth round couldn't be the same score as the third round or the second round. It's just, that's a boxing model. It doesn't work for MMA. And I don't understand

why there's not more of a push to fix this, because I feel like guys are getting robbed. And you know this. Victories mean a lot. You need a victory. If you're trying to get a new contract or advance your career, get a title shot, I think it's high time that we fix this. I agree, man.

It's people's lives on the line. Literally, I mean, it's that we make our living. And for someone to take a win from you that maybe you should have won is definitely a heartbreak. And you know what's also weird? These judges are making peanuts. They're making nothing,

but yet they're deciding fights that, you know, seven figures on the line, if not more. Right. That seems a little skewed as well. Your buddy, Ricardo, Alameda is a judge in the state of New Jersey. Does he ever talk to you about, you know, what he thinks, you know, what the issues are?

Because I know he did a show recently where he was in a room all by himself. I think it was CFFC. And that seems like an interesting concept as well. Yeah, now, Jersey is definitely a pretty progressive, I think, with some of the things. They're trying to, you know, see what works and see what cool. Recorder even said, it was just a little weird, just not watching it out there and being on the headphones and whatnot. But, yeah, I mean, you've got to try something. It is flawed.

But then, you know, I'm not saying that, I mean, I think conned, I wouldn't have been upset if either one of them. I mean, we all want an athlete. When you watch a fight like that, do you enjoy it? Like, do you say, because as a fan, I think we enjoy it. But as a fighter, are you like, man, that's a lot of punishment? Like, because you're looking at it through different goggles. How do you digest a fight like that? Yeah, it's tough.

Sometimes you look at it as a fighter or sometimes you want to look at it as a fan. But I think it's when it's not my weight class, it's definitely easy to look at as a fan, you know. especially those two. I mean, they're both really classy guys. They're easy to get behind them. I was trying to watch through a fan's eyes, that's for sure. Do you cringe at all, or do you enjoy the brutality? I mean, you cringe a little bit.

I'll be real. You know, I mean, you enjoy it too, though. It's just like anything, man. Like in the Roman days, people I'm sure cringe, but they cheer for it, too, at the same time. Right, and I'm sure you feel for Carlos, right? I mean, getting so close and... Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a couple times, too, now.

Right. You know, against George. I mean, it was when maybe wasn't as close fight, but he's been knocking on that door and it hasn't been able to get it done. It's definitely tough. Now you've got to think how many opportunities you ever going to get again.

Right. I don't think we understand that these guys, you put everything into a fight, you climb that ladder, you climb that mountain, and then when you lose, sometimes you have to go to the bottom of it again, and that in its own right is a daunting thought. Okay, so let's transition to you here

because you were a big story in December, you're still very much a big story. Where are we at with you? Do you know what's next? Do you know if you're getting that title shot? I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know.

I'm like in limbo here. You know, I was promised that I get whatever I want one night, the next night saying, I guess, Connor gets whatever he wants. Right. Are you pissed off? For sure, I'm pissed. You know, I've been at this for a while now.

I've been knocking on the door for this title shot for a while. You know, I mean, it started with a cub. Cub was promised a title shot. He beat me. He's promised a title shot. I beat him. I finish him in pretty dominating fashion. And, no, I'm not even considered for that title shot.

I mean, it's just, uh, and I take it in stride. I do everything in stride. I mean, I do a way thing I'm a company man, but, uh, it's not really, uh, it's not really panning out for me being that way. But at some point, you can't keep taking it in stride, right? And at some point, you're going to break. You're going to, you're going to lose patience. I would imagine.

Yeah. I mean, I think I'm, I'm there. I'm there already. But I'm not one to sit there. and cry about it. I mean, it's funny. You know, people, my whole career, you know, as a recent, you're too quiet. You need to say stuff. And then you say stuff, they're like,

oh, you're fucking crying, blah, blah, blah. You know, come on. You just can't win with these people. That's true. You know, and that's what you really can't pay attention to them. And the people I need to be talked to is Dan Lorenzo, and they seem like they're not listening to me either. So when's the last time you talked to them about this? This is the night.

The night of Conner's fight, I talked to Dana a little bit, and I walked up to going to, into the cage. Someone grabbed me to go into the cage. I mean, one of them was Ali, and the other one of Lorenzo's assistant. So I thought they wanted me to go in the cage. And then as him, he was about to walk in, Danes walk out, he's not going there. He's the guy, Connor's going up, blah, blah, we don't know. What he's doing? He might give a Valvo rematch. We don't know.

You know, I just kind of, I've never been, I mean, granted, I guess Connor put himself in that position where he's in charge, but I've never been there. So, you know, usually I'm doing what they ask of me. So you're actually walking into the cage and you get Stonewalled? Yeah, yeah, Dan, it gives me the, you ain't going in there. Is that embarrassing? You know, I don't know, man.

I don't know who planned to brought me up there anyway. So, you know, I don't know if anybody's seeing me embarrassing. I mean, it's embarrassing as I don't get to the damn title shot. Right, right. What an amazing 24 hours for you, and I couldn't help. I think I even asked you this question in our post-fight interview. You win in emphatic fashion. No one does that to Chad Mendez, and then they see.

You're getting the title shot. And then in the back of my mind, I'm like, in 24 hours, Conner's fighting Aldo, a whole host of things can happen. They could take this away from you in 24 hours. Like, I can see this happening. And so what's the range of emotions that you're dealing with? You're so excited, yet are you a little bit, like, hesitant to really embrace this moment? And then you see what happens to Aldo, and then it's complete. Like, I felt like you went home to New Jersey a couple days later, like with more questions and answers when you should have had the answer that you were looking for.

I agree. I was deflated, man. I was on sky high one day, and the next day literally like someone rained on my parade. And it was just bad. It was eating at me. It was like, I thought one of the best fights in my life. I shouldn't be feeling like you should be going home, you know, riding high right now. And I just wasn't. So that's unfortunate, you know. I mean, you don't only have so many of those moments in this career

and for it to kind of get taken away from me just by the next day. It's tough. So if he does go up to $155, what are you going to do? I don't know. I mean, I don't know what they're. Like, again, I know nothing. I'll be honest. I know nothing.

And are they going to let him keep the belt? What? I don't know. You know, I remember when they were trying to get me go down to 45 when I was a 55-pound champion, I said, they said, I have to let go with the belt to do that. Hmm. You know, but I don't know if it's going up. I don't know what it is.

But here we are. So I'm not fighting for the title. Are you sure about that, though? Are you 100% sure of that? Like I said, I really don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I think if...

I think Connor needs to say it's 45. I mean, he hasn't even defended the belt yet. I think he has to say of 45. That's what I think. If he moves up to 155 and doesn't drop the title, how would you react to that? What am I going to do? Scream a shout? What can I really do?

What can I do? I mean, Dana and Lorenzo, they know what I want, man. I mean, they're people like, oh, you need to call them. They fucking know what I want. to bother them and for what? For them to say no? Or promise me something one day and then say no the next? Come on.

If he fights in March, his team has said that they want up to fight in March and then maybe comes back for UFC 200. Would you be okay with waiting? Because, you know, things can happen. A guy breaks his foot, breaks his hand. I don't know. Who knows what can happen? Would you be okay with waiting?

Because you've waited before and it hasn't really panned out as well. At the end of the day, you want to make money, you're a prize fighter. you want to be champion too, but you have to provide for your family. So what would be your mindset then? If he fights on 155 in March, what do you do? I know. Some people are telling me I should wait, but I'm going to wait so they could take it away from me again.

I don't think I can do that, you know? Like you said, man, I got a family to feed. This window's closing. You know, I mean, we all know this ain't a long career. And I'm 34. I feel great. I feel young. Everything feels like I'm getting better.

But, you know, time wins over everybody eventually. So I feel like I'm just missing opportunities left and right. How many more years do you think you have left in you? I don't know. I don't like to put a number on anything. I feel great. You know, 40 has always been a number in my head, but, you know, 34. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll take one fight at a time at this point. What's your stance on 135 these days? I don't know. I don't know. You know, my idea is to get that 45-pound belt before I do anything, before I make any decision on whether I want to go 35 or not. But the way things are looking, who knows?

I mean, if I'm ever going to get this freaking opportunity, but it's not getting easier to cut weight in the sport with everything they're doing. Sure. Who knows if I really want to get down all the way to 35? When you did 145, like now when you're fighting 145 against Chad, obviously you couldn't use an IV in the past. Could you use an IV?

Did you use it? Yeah, I used it. I used one. I didn't need it. I really didn't need it. I just used it because everyone did. And this past time, I didn't use it. And I probably felt better than I ever have. So, yeah. For me, it don't think it matters. Well, I mean, you just knocked out Chad Mendez. So clearly... Well, yeah, but I mean, you really can't say all that because of the idea... Sure.

You know, I'm just saying, the way my body felt the night of wanes and the day of the fight, I didn't feel bloated at all. I felt pretty good. So, you know, no IV don't matter for me. At least that 45. Right. Who knows what 35 is. Most people, including myself, were blown away that Connor knocked out Jose in 13 seconds. What was your reaction to it? Yeah, I was just like you, blown away. I mean, I don't think anybody expected that.

Not that I didn't expect a knockout to happen. I just didn't think it was going to happen in that fashion, 13 seconds. You really can't take anything from it, you know? Did you think that, okay, like, were you not a believer of Connor and now you are, or were you a believer beforehand? Like, did that seal it for you? No, I've always been kind of, you know, talking up Connor. You know, I'm not, like, I think the way he talks and carries himself,

a lot of people don't want to give credit because it's kind of a dick at times, you know, certain people in the UFC and they're in my weight class. But, you know, I call it spade of speed, man. He definitely shows up and performs and puts on good shows. He did that again against Albo? I mean, did I expect that to happen now? I don't think anybody did it. Do you have the blueprint in your mind how to beat this guy?

Do you already see it? Yeah, I do. I do. I mean, you know, you've seen shades of it with Chad, and I'm definitely a different fighter than Chad, but can do some of the things he can, you know? And, I mean, it's not going to be easy fight. All fights are hard.

But, yeah, I think I'm the worst matchup for McGregor. I think he knows it. I think you know it. I think the UFC knows it. I just need that chance to get my hands on him. So do you feel like that's why you're not getting it? No, no. I mean, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. You know, if he goes up, fights for, doesn't fight, if he goes up to 55, doesn't fight for that title, yeah, then I say there's a reason he's not fighting me. If he fights for the title, I guess he's all right, you want to fight two titles, I mean, you know, what can I say? I still think it's, you know, if you make everyone else have to let go a belt, he should have to leave that belt behind.

But first and foremost, though, I want to fight McGregor for the belt as soon as possible. That's what I want. Am I going to get it? I fucking doubt it. What if they say March? Would you be ready to fight in March? Absolutely. Okay. And, you know, I'm curious. I want to ask you the same question I asked your manager and friend Ali Abdel-Aiz in December after the Dosan just went. He's in an awkward spot because you guys go way back. He's your manager. He's also RDA's manager.

And he seems to be in the running as well. Is that weird for you that your guy kind of manages both guys that's in the running for this fight? No, not really, because obviously it's not up to us. Ali's calling him saying All right He's fighting Frankie He's fighting those signs Fight this guy It's up to them

You know So it kind of don't matter You know So let's just clear something up here Because a lot of people Like to make jokes about You went on kind of this Twitter rant

A few days ago And then there was a mix of where it seemed Like Ali was doing some of the tweeting Are you running your Twitter account Is he? Let's clear it up Ah okay It's so funny

People write stories about this I guess Amate hurting And he's hurting for stories. You know, they got Sherlock Holmes out there. Checking Twitter saying, oh, my God, this guy switched names. I believe it was the day before Christmas Eve. Yeah.

Ali's like, brother, you need to do Q&A. Brother, Q&A. I said, I don't feel like doing it. He's like, do you care if I do it? I said, go ahead. He's like, I'm going to tag Lorenzo, Connor, blah, blah. And yes, I said, go for it. Now, all the stuff he said, do I believe it?

Yes, I believe I fight Connor. I believe I beat Connor. I believe all the stuff I said that he said. I pretty much do believe everything he said. Would I have worded it the way he did or spelt it the way he did? Maybe not. But I got the point across, and I got people talking. That's true.

God well done. So you don't mind if he goes under you and tweets and shakes things up a little bit? No, no. Usually it's promotional stuff. This time he said he wanted me to do it. I didn't do it. Or I didn't want to do it. He asked if he could.

I said, go ahead. You know, but. He freestled. These guys, they're just too slick. Twitter's. He freestyled on you a little bit. He did freestyle, you know. Usually he's got a sister with him to help him spell.

I think his sister was off for today or something because it was pretty bad. So what's your reaction when you wake up the next day and you see this is an actual story that, you know, he messed up maybe in Brooklyn. I was, you know, I was like, man, what I do now? But, you know, whatever, man. People are talking about it. This is what I want. Do I say it.

I was like, oh, you don't say nothing. You need to talk more. You need to talk more. All right. I fucking talk more. Now people are dogging that. So these can't win. Either way.

It's kind of funny. Ali reminds me, and I say this with the utmost, you know, respect and love. He's like an old school pro wrestling manager. Like one of those guys who, you know, he has some guys that are a little reluctant to really say what's on their mind. So he goes out and does it. I have no problem with that, to be honest. It's part of the game. I mean, he's a character in this game of him.

He is, you know, and it's his heart's in the right place. That's all. He just wants what's best for us. and he sometimes goes on a limb to do it. Man, I got to say, though, I love the passion and the motion. I don't think I've ever heard you swear this many times in an interview. You're pissed. Yeah, I mean, I'm letting it all fly, all right?

This is me, too. It's not Ali, as you can tell. So what's the motivation now? You wake up in the morning, you go to the gym. Are you just pissed off, taking it out on everyone? Do you not have motivation to train because this is frustrating? How do you go about your day these days? Yeah, I'm training, man

I'm in a gym already, man There's no lack of motivation I just go about doing what I do I'm not worried about You know, I'm trying to You can't get upset over things You can't control And I'm really trying to take that approach with this

You know, it's hard though Because this is my life This is everything I put into And it's really hard not to get frustrated But you know Everyone around me is getting frustrated I'm trying to keep them like Yeah, and so

If they come out and say he's fighting anyone else How will you react to that Do you have any idea? realistically I mean come on if that's what's going to happen I'm fucking setting myself up for that already I'm not to set myself up for

for anybody hope for the best expect the worst I'm expecting the worst expecting the worst so I guess if it comes out of left field and a surprise you know reaches your doorstep

then it's a good thing but right now you're not expecting to fight Connor yeah I'm not I'm not you know the only way that I could fight Connor if Connor says I want to fight Frankie yet, that's it.

And I don't think he's going to say that. Why not? Why don't you think so? I just think he thinks I'm the most risky fight out there. Why would he want to risk that? He wants to go make all his money, spend all this money. He doesn't want to, you know, he blames it on the weight cut. If it's the weight cut, then you can't fight 45 no more.

Right. You know? And you don't feel like... Go ahead? Go ahead. No, go ahead. You're good. You're good.

And you don't feel like if you call Lorenzo, I feel like you've had a really good relationship with him and Dana, you don't feel if you make your case that they'll see the light here, you think he's calling all the shots? Yeah, I mean, from what I think, yeah, he's calling a shot. I don't think it matters with Dan Lorenzo. And really, I don't think

I'm the best fight that they want. I don't think they want him to pick me either, you know? So I got all three of them against me. Wow. All right, well, I do appreciate the emotion, like I said, and I said on this show not that long ago, I feel like, And I even said on UFC tonight, if he fights you and let's say he gets by you,

then he has cleaned out the division. But let's just get this one out of the way. This is the guy who deserves it. They said he deserves it. He's the one who... Agreed. You know, he cuts a boatload of weight because, you know, he's the baddest guy in the world, but he cuts a boltload of weight to make $45.

You know, and he's saying he wants to have two belts, this and that. But if you cut so much weight, it's not going to get easier. Mightn't do it now. Get it out of the way. Get it out of the way, yeah. It doesn't look like New York will get done, But wow, could you imagine Frankie versus Connor in New York, New Jersey guy against the Irish guy at MSG? Biggie and Tupac?

You come out with Biggie. He comes out with the notorious song? Wait, you're both coming out with Biggie. That's weird. Biggie, yeah. Yeah, that's kind of weird. You know, I was there first, man. That's right.

Well, I do appreciate, like I said, and good luck trying to get it. And I hope it all works out. You deserve it, my man. What you did to Chad? No one's done. And, wow, I mean, what can you say about your year? A very impressive year. Congratulations on that year and good luck in 2016. Frankie, always great to talk to you. I hope you get what you deserve, my friend.

All right, thanks so much, man. I'll see you soon. Okay, and be careful on that Twitter, by the way, all right? Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely changing passwords. Fuck him now. All right. Go ahead, bro. All right, there he is. Frankie Edgar. Wow, never heard that side of Frankie Edgar before. Coming out, guns blazing, first interview of the year. No better way to start it. Well, how about this? I think we're going to get some emotion out of our next guest.

He's Tyrone Woodley. He was working on Saturday for Fox. He was watching with bated breath, the main event. He's joining us right now, I think via The Magic of Skype. There he is. Look at Tyron Woodley, the ultimate pro. Where are you right now, Tyron? Oh, no audio.

Wait, wait, hold that thought. Can't hear you. We got audio. We got audio. We got it. I got the headset on. I got the broadband. I had to mute it because TSA was talking about the airplane

and getting everybody ready, first class board and all that crap. I'm at the airport, and I am not going to be quiet. I'm not going to wait because we don't have that much time. I'm with Frankie. I heard the homie on early. Frankie should fight Connor, number one. I think Frankie will be Connor. I think that's part of the reason why Connor is not asking for Frankie

because he knows he's going to be in shape. He's going to be prepared. They won't be able to spring up a two week. Hey, man, you want to fight Connor? He's going to be ready for it. I think that style is horrible for Connor McGregor. And, you know, I'll be excited to watch it. But talking back to myself.

Yes, yes. I was watching the fights this weekend, for sure. Yes. And my damn time was all messed up on the air because I was excited. You know, I was watching the fight as a friend of Robbie's, as a fan of the sport. You know, it was a crazy pivotal moment for the World's World Division. And as a fighter, you know, I feel like you should honor what you say to a fighter. We are putting our life on the line, our health at risk.

Why am I going to keep knocking off top 10 guys if I'm not going to fight for the world title? I think it was a close fight. I mean, I don't know how you. had it, Ariel, watching it. You know, we're not watching it as judges. We're emotional. Yeah. So we're looking at what's going on.

I knew, for a fact, Carlos won the first round. Which, what I said in my analysis, if he can win that first round, it changes a fight. Because he usually loses that first round. He comes back and win later rounds. He won that first round. That had us scared. The second round, Robbie won. The third round is the round that everybody's throwing up in the air.

I thought Carlos clearly won four. I thought Robbie clearly won fifth, the fifth round and almost finished him. So I thought Carlos won the fight when I watched it. I'll go back and look at it again. Really, I just need to go back and look at the third round. And then from that point, it really doesn't matter to me. You know, I mentally was prepared to have to face a friend and teammate if I had to and finish up what I started with Carlos Conant,

so everybody can zip those lips because they figured he was going to miraculously come back and beat me. So I was excited for either way. I love this. I don't even need to ask you any questions. You can just do the whole thing. I just want to make sure we got that in because when they start doing that, I didn't want to get cut off. Yeah, yeah, no problem.

And I know that you're short for time here, so I'll make it quick. But when you're watching that fight and it gets to the fifth round and it turns into one of the greatest fifth rounds of a title fight ever and they're doing that, what's going through your mind? Like, are you thinking, man, my title shot is slipping away here. They're going to do a rematch. How are you processing this? You know, even before that last round, let this lady speak real quick. No, Brian, we hear you more than her, so you can go through her. Oh, perfect.

Perfect, and I'll talk a little louder. No problem. Even before the fifth round, the way that the fight was going, I already was thinking, God damn it, they're about to do this fight again. We're in the era of the rematch. People want to see a rematch every other weekend. How many rematches have you saw?

Think about Kane fall on JDS a couple times. Robbie Fall Johnny a couple times. You know, they wanted to see Holly Holmes immediately fight, you know, Ronda Rossi again. I think a rematch is preserved for controversy. if someone got knocked out real quick and you didn't get an opportunity to see the fight but when it's a clear, concise of win

I don't believe a rematch should be warranted I feel like these guys behind you waiting that are grinding that if you're at the top you're one of the top guys in the world you will make your way back up to the top and then you would win it the next time around in this situation unfortunately

it's a little bit of damn controversy but it's more variables than just that Carlos Connets mentioned he's mentioned in retiring you know so it's two ways that go. He can retire and then it's obvious who's fight next, man right here, or he can go up to, you know, Dana

White and be like, hey man, if I don't fight my next fight for the title, I'm going to retire. And what do you think they're going to do? They're going to line his pockets and they're going to make it happen. For me, this is my year, man. You can delay, but you cannot deny. I need to make the T-shirt. That is going to be my mantra for the entire year. I will be the world champion. I am

the best in the world. Watching those, watching that I was in his pocket, but I also had the in the notepad there and I saw a lot of opportunities where I would have seized the moment or I would have not engaged into that freaking all-out brawl. I know you guys love watching it but Carlos Conner could have found a way to get to a clinch, drop some elbows and knees, bring Robbie close to him and avoid letting him win that round. Let's play devil's advocate. If they go the immediate rematch, what do you do?

Shit, I have to tune somebody up, you know? Somebody's going to get whooped bad, the whooping they don't even deserve. And, you know, I just think that if they do the immediate rematch, shall preserve that fight for UFC 200. I should quit talking because I'm giving a UFC too many goddamn ideas and I need to cut that out. But you know next... For wine.

Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm fighting the next guy. But come February, you have not fought in a year. And you're healthy. You're healthy. You know, this is the prime of your life. So, I mean, don't you want to get back to work sooner? I'm super healthy. I'll never stop working. I mean, just... Okay, let's... Think about this area. If you say,

hey, you know, I can fight, that's... turn you down? No, no, no, no, I hear you. I can fight for a world title, right? Or you take a fight in between, per se a Matt Brown, beat his little old body up or something like that. You know, Matt Brown. And then you fight him. What if he, what if, what if I slip on a banana peel that Carlos Conn slipped on when we fought? And then I'm out the fight. Now, does he jump ahead and fight for a title had never defeating a top 10 guy? Do I fight Damiena? And it's a wrestling confess that no one enjoys watching. Nobody wants to see me do another Jake Shields fight. That's the risk that I put myself into. I would rather preserve my body, stay in shape, stay mentally sharp, be

prepared, and get the world title fight and seize the moment. The money comes in at the champion belt. There's no hidden secret. You know, I'm trying to change my family life. I ain't trying to just keep collection checks and a few months later scrape again. I'm trying to secure longevity for my family, wealth for my family. I'm trying to leave a legacy. The goal is to be a champion. is not to be a contender. So these are contender fight. I feel like I've done enough. I feel like I've done enough

to already fall for the World Titer before. So why should I have to do more? Do we have a couple minutes still? We still got a couple minutes. Okay. This is the guy that you need to call, by the way. This is the one that you need to worry about, in my opinion. It's that guy in Montreal, GSP,

because I feel like they're going to try to get him out to fight Robbie. What do you think of that, even more so than Condit? Well, as I said before, I need not, I need not play my cards out on the MMA hour because I know everyone watches the MMA hour. That's true. But my goal is to become the champion, and I get the fight against GSP.

Oh, you can't watch. That'd be fun. He's the actual number one, the number one welts away. He's a lineal number one guy. You can't watch his guy sitting on a throne that long defeat. Three different generations, the up-and-coming guys,

he beat the guys that were just jiu-jitsu guys were just strikers. He beat the guys that were mixed martial artists, like Carlos, I mean like Kachek. Then he beat the generation which I'm in, which is Johnny Hendricks, the heavy-handed wrestler that can stop a shot and also can strike. He's done it.

He finished at the top. He retired his champion. If he comes back, I want to be in position that I'm the world champion, that I get the big pay-per-view check, and that I get a chance to at least know for myself where I measure up against a guy that was the best in the world. Okay, so here's a big question. Have you talked to the UFC brass since Saturday night? Do you have any idea where you stand?

I'm letting it marinate. I feel like, man, I've done that route before. You know, I'm in a position now where, you know, you remember where I came from. I came off a loss and strike force. You know, I came out and let the UFC and let the entire world know what I was made of with that 36 knockout of Jay Haran. Then I went and I annoyed Dana White to oblivia. I blew him up. I told him what I wanted.

I took the big fights. I've never asked for a fighter that wasn't either a number one contender or former title holder or title challenger. Think about my route. Jake Shields fall for the title. He was a strike for his champ. Carlos Conner was an intern champion champion fall for the title. Roy McDonnell. Everyone I've asked for Johnny Hinger, it's not by design. People say Tyrone pick fight. You're done right. I pick fights. The fights I pick are hard. They're harder than the ones people offer me. And they're the people that are either the number one contender or have formerly fought for the title. That's my goal to the top. I want to leave no

question. So with that said, I have not talked to them. I think they know the right thing to do. some things got to sort out and I'm also logical I know that people want to see Carlos Kahn and versus Ravi Loller too and you know I'm just preparing myself to be heartbroken again

but I'm telling you if I get heartbroken they can get somebody hurt oh okay they'll get somebody hurt real bad I feel like in the past you've had success calling out Dana White and bugging him and stuff so why not do it again you know what I'm gonna take your advice

I'm gonna give him a call when I get to piss I'm like you know what area of Hawaii he told me to call you. No, no, no. And I agree with him, Dana. What are we going to do here? I'm always a professional. These dudes freaking coming in, weight pregnant, missing weight by 10 pounds.

And all of a sudden, I'm the one that's, like, what do you need me to do more? I'm the professional. I've been winning fights. I knocked out, you know, two top ten guys. I went to freaking Macau and fought Hector's fight when he was hurt. You know, I've stepped in for you. What do you need me to do? Do I need the break dance?

Do I need the, you know, what do I need to do to get the, you know, what do I need to do to get the world title shot. So, yeah, I'll give him a buzz. I'll let him know you sent your love. Yeah, and then he'll accuse you of being a clickbait baiter and full crap and all this other stuff. So I don't suggest you do that part. The other part, do it.

How'd you like working for Fox? I know you were looking forward to that. Man, I loved it, man. I loved it, man. I appreciate you. Give me some tips as well and some good words of wisdom and some good nudge. Hey, man, you might want to get this dude in here.

It was fun. I have to look at the Post-Fight show because the other parts I was prepared for man, I got a speech coach. I was really trying to be serious about it. And the post-fight show came, man. We all were emotional. Like, I was not trying to hide it.

I know you don't suppose to cut off the holes. But when she started talking about these rematch, I'm like, time out, KB. Time out. I'm tired of these rematches. We got enough of those. We had a rematch last week. Go and watch that one again.

So it was fun, man. I think I'll be back. And I'm only going to get better. And so was it hard for you to separate? because, you know, when you're up there, you're supposed to be, you're supposed to be the unbiased, you know, the unbiased analyst and things like that. But come post-fight show, you're saying, if anyone missed it, you were just, you were, you were, you were this Tyron Woodley, right? So it was hard to kind of separate. I was this Tyrone Woodley.

I like this Tyrone Woodley, but I was still, but I was still the logical one. I was the one that was being respectful because these guys just went out there and they gave us a definition. Webster's going to change their dictionary. Oh. When someone put, leave it into Octagon, it's going to be a picture of Carlos Condent and Robbins. and Robbie Lawler hanging their hands on the top of the cage, breathing, because they left everything they body even, stuff their body didn't even have. They grabbed stuff from the atmosphere and put it into their body.

They left it in the cage. So I was, you know, I was opinionated, but I also was respectful of what just happened. You never want to steal a moment for those guys. They made history that night. That fight will go on the record books. But I told people that I won it next for sure. By the way, if you fight Robbie, would you train in Florida at all? I heard that you were considering training in Florida for that fight.

which could make for an awkward situation now. Hey, I'm considering training with Robbie. Why are we going to waste all this money getting simulations? Hey, Robbie, me and you can train together for six to eight weeks, beat each other but and then spar on Saturday night in Vegas. So, um, really? I mean, you got to, you, no, probably not, but you have to know Robbie, man. I'm more bent out of shape about it.

I've been calling Robbin. I'm like, man, we're getting closer to fighting each other, man. This sucks. I hate the thought of it. And you know what Robbie's response is? Man, don't worry about that. go out there and beat Johnny's ass. He's not worried about it.

It doesn't, it's like him fighting me is not like something that makes his heart rate jump up. He will fight anybody. He is literally the only person left in the sport that came in a fighter that's become a competitor and a fighter.

So he can compete and he can fight as you've seen last, I mean, not last night, Saturday night. And do you have a time frame? Like, you not want to wait until X month. Do you want to get,

you know what I mean? No, you know, I don't have a time frame. You know, my spirit is usually right. usually know people always say tyrant's not going to get this fight you're not rank you're not going to do that you know erra you've seen man i've been pretty pinpoint accurate when when things happened that people didn't think we're going to happen so right now i feel like i need to get ready whether it's for a title shot whether it's for another fight in between my body my mind my spirit tells me tyrant it's time to get ready if you were not inspired i don't care what line of work you in

if you were not inspired by two people operating in their gift operating in what god created them to do and leaving it all out there like i don't know know if you're your heart works because those guys motivated me to get in a gym to really put myself in bad situations, fight through them. So when I get into that world title fight, I can match that, I can match that type of performance or even better take one of those guys out and finish him. Okay, let me let you go because I know you have a flight to catch, but give us a couple of plugs. You have a new podcast and you're going to do something cool in Pittsburgh. I don't know if you want to share that. What do you want to plug? Yeah, for sure.

Man, I'm always doing stuff. I'm new commercials, movies. Right now I'm heading to Pittsburgh. I'm working with Dick Sporting Goods. I'm motivating these guys for 2016 so they can boost their cells. I'm going to do a little workout. And I'm going to talk to them about, you know, pretty much what we saw Saturday, leaving it all on there, going out there and chasing these sales. So, you know, I do things of that nature as well. Wow.

I have the podcast of Morning Wood Show with these nuts. The first episode was my main area, Hawaii. I appreciate you, brother. And it is hard to book guests, man. And now I see what you go through. It's hard to book guests. There you go. And have those technical difficulties.

So it's been going great. Myself, Dean Thomas, T.J. DeSantis, produces, excuse me. But it's been a phenomenal show. Make sure you go to SoundCloud and iTunes, The Morning Wood Show with these nuts. It's a great show, man. We give guys an opportunity for you to get to know them.

Like our next episode coming out tomorrow, Al Jermaine Sterling. Man, have you interviewed this kid? Oh, I love him. This kid is the bomb, man. I'm a forever fan of him now. So check that out, and I appreciate the opportunity to plug that.

Absolutely. Safe Travels. You're the man. What an appearance. great job. I hope you get what you want, my man. And great job at the studio in L.A. this past week. And I heard you did phenomenal. Thank you, man. You take it easy. All right, there he is. Tyrone Woodley. Wow. If the first two interviews of today's show are any indication, these guys are bringing it strong in 2016. Holy moly. This is fun. Now, of course, we have to take a little dip in the intensity department and in the, well, the intensity department, because Mark Monday is coming up next and he can be sometimes a little bit of a womp womp negative Nancy party pooper if you know what I'm saying we're going to be

joined by our own Marker Mundy in a matter of moments but holy moly what about Frankie Edgar and then Tyron Woodley two guys who are in tough spots who who feel like they need to speak up I mean the facts are the facts they were sort I mean I even think Frankie more so than Woodley but to a degree they were both told they're next and They could both see those golden opportunities slip away again. So you can understand their frustration. You can understand where they're coming from. You can certainly appreciate the emotion, the passion, sometimes in the sport.

Look, squeaky wheel gets the grease. If Nate Diaz never went on Fox, dropped all those F bombs, said what he said beforehand, and afterwards, he wouldn't be in that discussion as well. You got to do it. That's the sport we're in. So I'm happy, especially for Frankie, who's recognizing that you need to speak up. You just do. And it has to be authentic.

It has to be real. Well, you heard from Frankie Edgar there. I've been interviewing Frankie Edgar since I think the first time I interviewed him was UFC 98, maybe a little bit before that. Never heard him swear this much. And that's real. That's the real guy right there. So it's going to be interesting to see what the UFC does with both Connor and Robbie Loller.

Because they've got options. And as Connor told us, numbers and options. That's the fight game. All right. Let's move along. Let's bring in our own Mark Romundi now, who has some big shoes to fill. He's coming off two of the best guests of the year. The best guests of 2016, our first two guests.

But I've got to say, what is going on with the internet connection over there in West Hollywood? This is by far the best internet connection of the year. Look at that. It looks like you're right here. I think that it's just my face that brings out the crystal clearness of the connection. No, seriously, what is this? I don't know if people can actually appreciate it. This is unbelievable, right? It looks like you're in 3D. I have to invest in good internet if I'm going to have a job covering all these fights. That is true.

For a website, right? We have a great internet here. It's fantastic. Well done. See my little friend here? Yeah, who's that? That's Rubella. This is Esther and Casey's dog Yeah, yeah And why do you still have Rubela

Aren't they back? They're Well, I think they got back Like late last night Or something like that They're gonna come get them today Okay, let's talk Enough about dogs and internet connection

Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit Yeah The majority of the public Media fans Scored it for Condit You did not, right? Oh, I did not You scored it for Lawler

Tell us Break it down Why? Well, I think, first of all, I watched it live and I scored it for Waller. The third round is obviously is the round that everyone's talking about. That's the one that is the most imperative. I think everyone can agree that Carlos Condit won the first. Waller won the second.

Condit won the fourth and then Waller won the fifth, right? I think that's pretty much unanimous at this point. Yes, although when I interviewed Condit, by the way, my math was completely off. I said he won the fourth. It was very confusing. But yes, what you just said is accurate. It's fine. So the third round is really what it comes down to.

And live, I scored it for Lawler. I went back and I rewatched it again yesterday. And I still scored it for Lawler, but I will concede that I thought it was an extremely, extremely close round. I don't have any problem with someone saying that Con didn't want it. I have no problem with someone saying that Lawler won it. I think it was just a really close round, and it was a close fight. And I don't think any score is wrong. There's no robbery.

Anyone who's saying is a robbery doesn't really understand how to score. and judge fights. It was a close fight. Close fights like that do not equal robbery. Robbie Lawler did just enough to win, so did. But that's how this game go. That's how that's how this sport goes. Yeah, I don't think it was a robbery. I mean, when it comes out to one round and a moment here or there, this has... Did you watch the round again at all yesterday? Yes, yes, yes. How close was that round? I mean, that was like... By the way, the first and second are close as well. It's not like... They are close. It's not like

there's a clear-cut winner in any of these, maybe the fourth. So this, once again, as usually is the case, it brings into question, you know, the state of MMA judging and what we can do to fix it. You're one of the few guys in the media that's actually taken a course and has shadowed judges, and you really understand what goes into all this. I think one of the biggest issues, by the way, there's two big issues, and I want to get your take. First of all, the judges make nothing. They're literally making peanuts. And they're deciding the fate of these multi-million dollar fights. That in its own right is bizarre. And the 10-9 system, this is not news. It doesn't work. It's wrong. It's a boxing model for a 12-round fight back in the day, 15 rounds. This doesn't

work for a three- or five-round fight. How do we fix this? What's the problem here? Well, yeah, to your point about judge's not making any money. Remember, I came out before the McGregor-Aldo fight that John McCarthy only made $1,900 for that event? That was outrageous to me. That's outrageous to me, considering how much money that fight was going to bring in, that the referee, the third man in the octagon for that fight, was making so little. I couldn't believe that. That was crazy. But that just speaks to how little that these guys actually get paid.

So it's hard to expect. I mean, yes, that's their job. You expect them to do the best of their abilities and to be very good at their job at that high level, but they're not getting paid very much. As far as the 10-9 system, I'm not in love with it. But I don't think this event was the one that demonstrated so much how bad it is. There's been other cases where, you know, I think that the Johnny Hendrix-George St. Pierre fight was probably, like, example A of why that system is a little pinky and why, you know, it's not always the greatest. But in a case like this, it was a close fight. And no matter how you're going to score, and no matter what kind of system you're going to use, whether it's 10-9 or the prize system, it's going to be a close fight and they're going to be people mad either way.

You know, that's just how it goes. I mean, and I think part of me thinks that's kind of the cool thing about the sport. This is not baseball. This is not the NBA where, you know, it's clear. Someone scores the most points they win the game. Someone scores the most runs they win the game. This is a fight. It's not like that.

As much as I love of the guys that, you know, I fight metric and all the stats and their stats are incredible, stats don't necessarily tell the tail of a fight 100%. Just because Condit outstruck Lawler by that far margin, that's not how you score a fight. You don't score a fight by how many strikes. No two strikes are created equal. It's the harder strikes, the one that do the most damage, one that's the most effective that you score.

You weight that over the jabs and the leg kicks and that sort of thing, which is why I also had Tuminoff beating Larkin. Interesting. Now this may surprise some people, but this controversy, what you were just talking about is actually one of the things that I love about MMA, what I called the barbershop component of MMA that you can sit around, that we can sit around, go for lunch, get a coffee, something, and actually talk about

Lawler Condit for like three hours, and not just the fight itself. Where do they go from here? The match, man. That's what makes the sport fun. That's the difference between combat sports and in particular our sport, as opposed to the major sports, the button-up sports. I kind of love this sort of thing. Okay, so Loller wins, that's it.

What do you think they do now? That's the big question, right? Rematch, going a different direction. Woodley, GSP, what do you do? It's an enigma because who wouldn't want to see that rematch? I mean, who wouldn't want to see that rematch? You know, again, Condit, it was so close. Condon could make, you know, how could, can you say Condon doesn't deserve a rematch?

You know, how can you say that they shouldn't run that back? But then you have Tyron Woodley. You know, he's been out there for a while now. He's been promised a title shot. You know, he's been given that lip service by the UFC. You know, there's, who knows about GSP? You know, I don't know if he comes right into a title fight. But again, he's one of the greatest of all time.

He held the bell for, what, six years, you know, how could he not come back and get a title shot? how can you not come back right into that spot? So there's really, I don't think there's a wrong answer. There's going to be some fans and some fighters upset along the way, kind of the same way that whoever doesn't get the McGregor fight next is going to be upset and their fans are going to be upset. But it's almost a nice problem to have for the UFC because, you know, any way they select to people are going to be mad,

but there's really nothing, there's no wrong way to do it. You know, if they do, Waller Condit again, how could anyone really be that upset about that outside of Taron Woodley and his fans? I mean, I know that sucks, but, God, I mean, that fight was, that was the best fifth round I've ever seen in my entire life. That was absolutely insane. That was insane. Okay, so if you're Joe Silva, Lorenzo, Dana White, you're sitting there, all the options are available to you, right? What do you do for Loller next? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is need to see where GSP is.

I just said all the options are available. GSP is ready and willing to fight again. So he's ready and willing to fight again. Yeah. Okay. I don't know if I throw him. him right back into a title fight and what rory mcdonald said over the summer about gsp maybe only coming back for big fights you know maybe some super fights that kind of thing maybe that's the path they take with gsp maybe not the title i think that i think they do it again man i think they do it again i think they do car cond it again i think tyron woodley it really sucks that hendricks

didn't didn't make that fight you know it sucks that he got he went to the hospital and it really it's not fair to woodley at all but there's so many things that aren't fair in this sport it just happens, just the way it happens. And Woodley didn't look all that impressive against Gastilum in his last fight last year, and it was a long time ago. I wouldn't mind seeing him get one more fight in there if it's during that title shot. And I mean, again, there's no wrong answer. But to me, you know, that fight was so close. There's so much controversy. Even though I scored it for Lawler, I understand people scoring it for Condit. Why not just run that back? Okay, so then let's go to Mr. McGregor, the man who holds all the cards.

So the last time we spoke on this show, he was coming off the wind, but we had yet to obviously watch UFC on Fox and Orlando. Everyone was calling him out. I don't think Charles Oliver is getting him. I think Nate Diaz has a great chance. I think RDA has a great chance. I think Frankie should have a great chance. But I do agree with him.

I think he's out of luck, at least for now. What do you do with Connor? Again, I really think there really is no wrong answer here for that one. And I feel for Frankie, man, because it really has been his title shot for over a year. It's horrible. He should have been playing for the title like a year ago. And just the way that things have fallen into place, it hasn't worked out for him. That's just the nature of the business.

And I'm glad that he came on today and he really spoke his mind. Did you hear that? Fired up, man. I love it. I love it from him. I know that he has that in him, but he's, you know, Frankie Edgar is one of the true, true nice guys in the sport. And he's always been a class act. but good for him for taking, you know, going on the attack today.

You know, I think that if Connor truly is going to go to 155 and he's going to fight for the title there and also keep the featherweight belt, I think that still leaves open a Frankie Yeager fight for this year. So maybe Connor goes up early first half of the year or so. Oh, she's awake now. Hello. She's a McGregor. You said Connor and he's like, oh.

So maybe he goes up. He fights RDA for the lightweight title early in the year, March, April, something like that. And maybe if he's not hurt, win or lose, he's still the featherweight champion. He can go back and fight Frankie, you know, at UFC 200. My thing, and I don't know if I still, I'm very, I don't know if MSG is going to go down, you know, and I'm still, I don't really have a good feeling about that. but man, Connemer-Merreggard versus Frankie Edgar at Madison Square Garden. And an Italian guy from New Jersey from the shore against an Irish guy in New York would be, I mean, I grew up in New York. You lived in New York.

Those are two of huge populations in New York. That would be insane in that city. Let me ask you this. A question I've been asking a lot of people, if Connor McGregor and Frankie Edgar fight at MSG. And by the way, I sit here today, January 4th, I don't think it's happening. I think we're too close to the date, April 23rd. Let's just say, perfect world, wow, we get the gift we've all been asking for, especially East Coast guys.

If that fight is happening in MSG and Jones Cormier is also on the table, what's the main event? I think it's McGregor against Edgar, honestly. Tell that to John Jones. Well, I mean, okay, so John Jones is from New York, but he's from upstate New York. You know, all due respect, but people living in the city don't really consider people who live upstate New Yorkers. I know that sucks to say, but we don't consider them New Yorkers.

New Yorkers. You know, we're from the city. So, uh, McGregor Aldo Bigger fight. There's a huge, huge Irish population in New York, man. And same, you know, Boston is probably a little bit, I think there's probably more Irish people in New York, but there's a greater percentage of Irish people in Boston. It's a huge percentage. And, and Italians and Irish, Italian Americans and Irish Americans in New York, that's the two largest ethnicities probably as far as like, you know, like white dudes from Europe. So I think that would just be, just be off the wall at MSG.

I think that's a big fight. would sell out in seconds. I wonder what the gate would be. I mean, they could just put on those two fights. They could just put on those two fights and people would be happy. Um, they put on both them, forget. I mean, that's just, that's madness. That's just madness. It is very interesting when you start to consider UFC 200 and the options and the slots they need to fill up beforehand. Like, will the stars align for UFC 200? We'll see. We'll talk about that at a later date. I want to ask you about Steve Amyochich. So he made a, he made a, you know, he made a big statement. He came out there and he knocked out Andre Arlofsky, who's

tremendous. And then he made an even, much like Frankie, a guy who's been reluctant to speak, he spoke. And he got him Dana's face, Lorenzo's face, and said all he had to do.

And they even, you know, they even shook hands afterwards. Do you like this call? Does he deserve the next shot at the title? I mean, does he deserve is a funny word. Sure.

And I don't know if deserved really means anything. You know, yeah. I mean, you could certainly make a case for him. There's no doubt about it. I mean, this guy, to knock out Arloffsky, and under a minute like that is super impressive. But then you got to look at Overeem.

You know, Overeem just knocked out Junior Dos Santos, the guy that beat Steve A last year. You know, so how do you weigh that? There's no, you know, exact way to weigh it. I think what will be most interesting moving forward is is what happens with Overeem's contract. Yep. He's a free agent now, you know, will the UFC, you know,

ante up and give him what he wants? Is someone else going to make an offer today have to match? And one of the things that he may negotiate in this deal, which I believe Gilbert Melendez did as well was a title shot. So I wouldn't mind that. You know what? I mean, if you're a free agent and you have that leverage, go for it, man. I think I don't see anything wrong

with negotiating a title shot if that's what you want. You know, I'm all about fighters trying to get as much as possible from promotions. And that's what Overeem wants to do, and if that's what the UFC agrees to, I'm all for that happening next. I have no problem with Overeem fighting for the title next. I think we have to wait and see what happens

with Verdum against Velazquez. If Verdume wins, how can you not say Overreem should be there? He's already beaten Verduem. He was the Strike Force champion. Verdun was the challenger, and he beat Verdum. How can you not say Overim deserve that shot? If Kane wins, we don't know. I wouldn't mind seeing either one of those guys against Kane,

but it's really up to Overim. If that's what he wants, if the UFC gives him the contract, matches the deal, whatever, it's going to be that's going to be what decides it probably. And also, don't forget, January 30th, crossed the river in Newark. What if Ben Rothwell, who has a win over Overeem, comes out and annihilates Josh Barnett? He has a strong case as well. He does. And I don't see that happening.

I actually love that fight. I think he's going to destroy him. I think it's going to be an awesome fight. Yeah, yeah. But I think that even though Ben Rothwell has beaten Overeem, I don't know if his stock is that high. But again, we don't know. If he does destroy, let's say he does destroy Josh Barnett. We don't know.

You know, then you have three guys who could vie for the title. And there's no wrong answer. I think Overeem, as far as, like, a draw is probably a little bit better than those other two guys. I think that he's a more well-known guy. He's been around for a long time. He has, like, a cult following Overeign. I think a lot of people like him. And I think if you want to do the best draw and the best possible, the biggest fight, it's probably Overeem.

But you can make a case for any one of those guys. and I don't think, you know, you shouldn't be upset if any one of those guys gets it if Rothwell does destroy Barnett. Speaking of cult followings, no one in MMA, maybe in the history of MMA, has a greater cult following than Fadour Emilianenko. And he returned late last week, Risen, new promotion, headed up by former boss of one Pride FC,

Nobuyuki Sakakibara. Wow, what a show this was, yes. And it was, it was, there were, There was pomp, there was circumstances, there was the freak show aspect. It was everything you love out of Japanese MMA, New Year's Eve. I believe you watched most of it, if not all of it, all of it. Which, I mean, being on the West Coast kind of helps a little bit. But what did you make?

What kind of grade would you give Risen for their first couple events? Maybe like a C plus, a B minus somewhere in that range. I thought the fan boy and you would have given an A at least, maybe an A minus. Look, look, look. I mean, I really enjoyed it. I really had a good time, you know, watching it. Especially, I think people said that the better fights were on the first day. I actually really enjoyed that last day a lot.

And it felt like it flew by to me. It was like, oh, it's only 3 a.m. already. I can't believe it. Like, I really, I enjoyed it. There was some terrible stuff. The Bob Sap, Akimono fight. I don't know what. I don't even know what that was.

That was my favorite fight, coincidentally. That was interesting. That was very interesting. Crying. the upset win? It was unique. But overall, I really enjoyed it. But if I'm being objective,

you know, there wasn't, you know, was there a lot of high quality? You know, the thing about a prize that they mixed the weird freak show stuff with some really, really good fights. The best guys in the world at that point, you know, there was so much talent on that roster. It was crazy.

So it didn't quite have that, but it had the entertainment aspect. There was plenty of, entertainment. There's no doubt about that. I think that if you can't sit and enjoy that, at least just to let yourself go and enjoy that, I'm not really sure. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a prize fighting at the end of the day. You know, this is, I know, I know people like to paint it a sport and everything. And yeah, it's a sport. Oh, are you doing this again? Are you not calling MMA a sport again? It's sport, but it's supposed to be fun. It's 2016. I'm trying to give you a new persona, a new gimmick,

and then here you go back to being the heel, hating on the sport. It's going to be even worse. At least you didn't call it beautiful violence. It was, I think that if you can't sit and enjoy some, just the weird stuff, it's, it's, you know, it's fun. What's, what's the point? Yeah, the fights don't mean anything. Yes, there's no, you know, there's no one's ranked. Sure, sure, sure. I agree.

I agree. I can enjoy it. Although, although, I must say, like, what King Mo did, there's something about King Mo wearing shoes in Japan that equals magic. And, and quick side note, to walk down to the lobby of our hotel on Saturday morning, it see King Moe rocking the Bellator sweatshirt sitting in the lobby, came all the way from Japan to corner his guy, Robbie Lawler. And what's funny about that is, on Friday,

a lot of the ATT coaches made a point to tell me that he might be the greatest teammate in the history of ATT. Like this guy goes out of his way, he's unselfish, and then I see him just chilling there. Wow, what can you say about King Moe, who won that tournament, who seems to have reinvigorated his career as of late?

I thought that was the performance of the whole thing, you know, like his, he was kind of the breakout star, There was other stuff that, you know, was fun. I thought Gabby Garcia was fun as well. I just, I want to see, look, King Moe versus Fedor, I feel like that's the fight to make for them, right? Isn't that, especially for Japan?

But does Fador actually want to fight legitimate opponents? That's the question. I mean, that's really the big question. If he's just back to make some money and fight some guys, you know, who are borderline and maybe they'll be somewhat exciting fights, that's fine. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with that?

I'm fine with that, man. You're fine? I don't know. You're fine with that. Like the supposed greatest of all time, if you want to call him that, that's fine. Don't forget, I was on TV arguing with Dana White about whether or not he was the best. So don't come at me with like I'm a hate or whatever. But.

No, no. I understand. This is like, this is akin to Michael Jordan coming back and playing in the D League. Or the CBA if it existed. Like, I kind of want, right? No? You can't compare this to other sports, man. I know, I know.

From the perspective of a fighter, from, you know, get your money, man, you know, get that paper. I don't care. You know, if that's what it comes down to, that's what you got to. That's what I said. But the promoters should be doing more, no? But, yeah, but, you know, you work in conjunction with the fighter. You know, Fador is not going to come back and fight someone who he doesn't want to fight. That's just not the way it works.

You know, he has a lot of leverage in the situation. He's headlining these events. They're building everything around him. Listen, if that's what he wants to do, I'm cool with it. Would I like to still see him against some of the top guys in the world? Do I think he can still compete at that level? I don't see why not. Honestly, I mean, there are guys, how many guys in that UFC heavyweight division

did we say were washed up five, six years ago? A lot of them. That's why I want to see. Okay, let me ask you this. King Moe fights Fedor in April, June, July, whatever. Who wins? I think King Mo wins, honestly. I think King Moe win.

I'm on the King Mo bandwagon right now. With shoes. I'm yes It's all about the shoes It's all about the shoes I think I think King Moe man He had a lot of injuries

And issues early in his career Guys got a complete game Got a great training cam Well coached I think the guy is He could be a top 205er I don't see any reason why not Okay a couple more things

I want to talk to you about Before we have to let you go Holly home We'll be joining us in a matter of moments Talk about going from the outhouse To the penthouse there on that one As far as back to back guess do you share

I don't this is kind of like McGregor Aldo to me for different reasons but Cruz Dillishaw happening in less than two weeks I still can't really wrap my head around that and then they dropped this this I don't know what it was called

this back and forth with John Anick I had some people text me that they hated that because it made Dillishaw kind of look weak it did in a sense that Cruz was winning that exchange but I can't even fully verbalize how I feel about this fight, like how much I love this fight, the feelings I have towards this fight.

I can't even believe it's happening so soon. It crept up on us, and I'm happy with that. I'm okay with that because I don't want anything to happen. Can you share, do you share my excitement here with this fight? I feel like this is my fight for 2016. I can't think of anything better than Cruz Dilleshaw. It's unbelievable. I love it so much. You know, I don't think it's going to be the sheer violence that Lawler against Condon provided, but as far as technical, you know, Acumen, these guys are incredible. I mean, I can't wait to see that fight. I agree. I'm right

with you there. And that little snippet they showed on Saturday Night from Ultimate Insider with John Anick, man, I would rather fight Dominic Cruz than get into an argument with that guy. Man, he just beats you down. He just when he, I mean, that dude is just

a verbal, like, savage. He doesn't, he gives zero F's Dominic Cruz when in front of the cameras. He'll just smash people. verbally. I think it's phenomenal. I love when that guy is in front of a mic, I want to watch it. Underrated talker. Underrated talker. And great analysts as well. It was a shame that we only got him for like 66 seconds when Seroni fought RDA. So I was arguing with our pal Casey about this. So Delish tweets a picture of Lance Palmer and Joseph Benavides in Denver helping him train for this fight.

And that's cool. But when you consider the fact that your eye of Faber is next and at least you know, unless we are in the dark here, they're still members of Team Alpha male. How do you feel if you're your eye and you see that? Is that cool as long as they don't help? Because at some point, these guys are going to have to decide, right? If Dillishaw wins, you're going to have to choose if you're on Team Faber or Team Dillishaw.

Well, I think, didn't Lance Palmer say, I think, a few weeks ago that he isn't sure who would corner. Yeah, I'm on this show. Right, yeah, he said, yeah, yeah. He said, he isn't sure who would. corner Faber against Silloshah. I mean, look, that's a really awkward situation. And unless you're actually there and you're actually like involved and in it with those guys, you don't really know exactly what's going on. But it's got to be a little weird for sure. I, you know, I don't

know what exactly is going to happen, but there's got to be some, some weird, strange, awkward feelings on both sides. No doubt about it. Yeah. I'm very curious to see if they bring favor to Boston. I know there's been some talks of that. That will be, because I mean, you can't, you can't lose if your favor in this situation. You fight Cruz again, third time, you get Dillasha. I mean, it's amazing that the guy continues to be a part of the next. Sorry, you know, Jafiel, Al-Sanso and guys like that. Favors next, no matter who wins that fight, no doubt.

By the way, where are we at with the whole weight-cutting issue in MMA? You went to that seminar. Yeah. A lot of bigwigs were there. Is anything going to change? You know, one-FSI is making some radical changes. Anything going to change this here? Honestly, I don't know.

I'm not confident that anything is going to change. I think that they'll take, everyone's going to take a long look at what one FC does. And, you know, I think, I mean, I like it. I like it. But, you know, anytime you make these sweeping changes, then you don't really, like, consider the fighters and the fighters don't really have any kind of collective bargaining in that. It's tough. But it seems like a plan that will be hard to game, you know, because you have to almost be at wait eight weeks out.

And they're going to be doing, like, you know, hydration tests and whatever. As far as the states, it's so much harder to get things changed. One of C can snap their fingers and say, okay, this is how we're going to do it now. In the U.S. with all the commissions, every state has to agree to it. The U.S.C. has to agree to it. You know, it's like, you know, the association of boxing missions has to, you know, send it through.

It's hard to do. If the U.S. said tomorrow, hey, we're going to do this, I think everyone else would probably fall in line. But I don't know if that's going to happen. It's a huge, it's a huge change. It's a big, big change. A lot of fighters will not be happy. It's interesting.

Biggest year in the history of the U. UFC last year. They said they made around 600 million. But yet, we are often reminded just how young this sport is with the judging, refereeing, weight cutting, drug testing, the IV, all the I mean, it's just amazing. Even even in the sponsorship and Reebok. I mean, the sport is still so young and fresh and has yet to truly evolve. Like we're in the 1930s of pro baseball. Okay, we have like five years from now, we're going to look back and say like, wait, wait, guys really cut like 25 pounds the week of the fight and thought they were actually going to be more effective than the fight. It doesn't make any sense.

And no one is more subjected to this than me, I have to say, because I'm back there for those weighing shows for Fox and I got to interview these guys. It's so awkward. They can hardly speak, their faces. I mean, it's not good. And... The only reason why fighters cut is to be bigger than their opponents. But if there's a system in place where everyone is actually fighting at their true natural weight, There would be no reason to cut weight, right? You would think? Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Right. Okay. What is this? Yes, New York, Rick, we are. Okay. We have four minutes left. I want to play a little game with you, all right?

Man. It's called factor fiction. Have you heard of it? It's very original. I just came up with it myself. I'm stealing it from John Pollock. John Pollock likes to have me on his show, the M.M.A.

report we play likely, unlikely. So I'm just going to switch it and do factor fiction. I'm going to run down a few things. You tell me, factor fiction, these things will happen in 2016. okay? Yeah, let's do it. Joe Rogan leaves the UFC.

Fiction. Zufa sells the UFC. Fiction. Bjorn Rebney returns to MMA. Fiction. Non-compete, son. UFC 200 breaks the UFC 100 pay-per-view record.

Facts. Cyborg fights in the UFC. Fiction. GSP fights in the UFC. Fiction. Jesus. You're a, you're a, boatload of fun.

Gina Crano fights again. Fiction. Conn McGregor becomes a two-way class world champion. Fact. Anderson Silva fights for a UFC title.

Fiction. Carlos Condit fights in 2016 again. Fact. Dallas Cowboy Stadium, whatever it's called, AT&T Stadium, will host an MMA event.

Fiction. but we'll get seven more questions about it on conference. World Series of Fighting Ceases to exist. Fiction. Ben Ascran fights in the UFC. Fiction. Have you said any facts? Nick Diaz fights in 2016.

Nick Diaz? Yes, Nick. Facts. Facts. Facts. Holly Home fights someone not named Ronda Rousey before fighting Ronda Rousey. Ooh, that's a good one. I'll say fiction

Ronda Rousey fights at all She'll fight, yeah fact Stick to the script here You have to say fact Fado Romanoi Fyko fights inside the UFC Octagon Fiction

Someone not named Ariel Hawani will host the MMA hour Fact This guy That wasn't a question That man will be a guy named New York Rick Fact

That's definitely wrong Frank Yeager will fight for a UFC title. Doesn't matter the way class, UFC title. Fact. Joseo Aldo will fight for a UFC title. Fiction. Sage Northcut will remain undefeated. Ha. Fiction.

Herschel Walker will fight in MMA. Fiction. Two more. Havibnur Magamatov will fight for the UFC title. Fiction. Luke Rockhold will be UFC middleweight champion this time next year. Fact. There you go. Was that fun or what?

That was fantastic. Did you enjoy it? We're going to take this clip and we'll play it next year and see how wrong you were. I think you had like three facts in there. Yeah, well, you know, keeping it real. Keeping a real. When keeping it real goes wrong, you get Mark Romney. There you have it. Mark, great job, my friend. That was good insight. Joy your work. Appreciate your work. Keep it up in 2016.

And try not to get us in too much trouble. all, right? I'm going to hang up on you now. Sounds good. Thanks, man. There he is. Our own Marker Mundy, great stuff from him, as always. A little factor fiction here on the MMA hour. All right, let's move along now. And what a pleasure it is to kick off our first show of the year, our award show, with someone who made perhaps the biggest impact of them all in 2015,

the one and only Holly Home, the UFC Women's Bantamway Champion. She joins us on the phone. Holly, how are you? I'm doing great. are you guys. I'm doing so great. I'm so happy that you're back. You spoke to every single media outlet. You went around the world, but you're back where you belong right here on the MMA hour. I'm so happy you guys have the time from M back. I've been traveling, but it feels good to be back in the gym. Sorry, it's kind of a lot. I'm actually walking out of the gym right now. Oh. I've had some good training this morning. Is this your first time at the gym since winning

the belt, not to visit the gym, but to actual train? No, I've come in a couple times just when I've been home for a couple of couple days, you know. I always said this is the one place where I can feel the most normal, you know, kind of get out of all the busyness of everything and just kind of get into the gym. And, I mean, that's what it's all about. All this media has been around the win, you know, and the win is with victory because of something I'm passionate about, you know, it's all about the training and what's kind of in my heart, and that's just loving the sport. So it's good to just get in the gym and just train.

You've won titles before, but that first day back at the gym to try to, you know, rev it up again and sort of outdo what you did in Melbourne. Was that kind of tough? Like, is it hard? I know you're motivated always. You want to defend the hell of that. But is it hard to, like, get going again after you go on this victory tour? You know, I think the biggest thing is just, I mean, I don't want people to think that this is like some kind of a one-hit wonder type thing. And so I have the motivation to get into the gym.

and just be better every day. I don't want to stop here. I don't want to feel like I've made it somewhere. I want to feel like I'm still climbing the ladder. I don't feel like I'm going somewhere, I'm shooting for something big. I have some guesses, but I want to hear from you. What was the coolest thing to happen to you as a result of winning the belt?

Something someone said, someone that you met, a moment. Is there something that comes to mind? The coolest part of this whole, I mean, it's been an unbelievable world. win less than two months for you. Is there something that sticks out? You know, every time somebody asks me that, the number one thing I think of is, oh, the win is just so exciting.

Nothing beats that. But, yeah, I did just, I mean, there's a lot of people I got to meet. My gosh, there's a lot of celebrities and everything, but, I mean, getting to meet John Lowe was, he's a legend, you know, and that's just something, who gets to say that, and that is definitely something that I'll always remember.

And not only that it's him, it's that, you know, sometimes you have this, like, idea in your head and you, like, admire someone and think how awesome they are, and then you need them and you're like, well, I don't know, they're not that cool, like, you know. But with him, it was like, oh, my gosh, I don't even know if it's possibly to be more of a fan of John L.A., but he was so awesome, just so down to earth and so, you know, kind of patient with, I mean, how many people do probably ask to meet him, you know, at every game? And I just told him, I said, you know, that's only if he's not busy doing stuff.

I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be that fan. So, because they asked him to meet him. And I said, only if it's, you know, not an inconvenience because they got business to do today, you know. And they're like, no, we wouldn't say that if he wouldn't be happy to meet you choose. So, I mean, just one of the coolest guys ever. I'm just really impressed. and he knew who you were yeah but I mean

who knows maybe he knew exactly who it was and maybe they prepped him hey this is Holly she just fought for the title he knows who you never know I'll take it either way the picture that you post on your Instagram

it's your wonderful husband Jeff one of my favorite people in the world what a guy you are a lucky woman he's just such a sweet man and then you and then John Elway but the look on your face

you are glowing in that picture like you could just see the happiness oozing out of your face it's a beautiful picture Oh, thank you. It was, it was, uh, I'm so glad that, you know, I can have my husband there to, I mean, some of the stuff's no fun to experience if you don't have the people with, he'd experience it with, you know, so, um, and he's always so supportive and, and some of the things that I want to do, you know, even outside of fighting. So, uh, it was just, it was a really good day. It was a really fun time.

I asked you on the Thursday before the fight in Melbourne, have you envisioned what it would be like to win and how your life will change. Did you think it would happen like this? Like, did you think it would be this crazy? Um, I guess, you know, I just thought, I don't want to think too much of how it will be. I want to visualize just to have that in my head, but I also just want to focus on, you know, the task at hand and then kind of just go from there. And I didn't think that it would be this much, this back, you know, it was like immediate. But I guess I didn't really think about it.

I mean, it was a big victory, and of course, that's because Rhonda's been so dominant. I give her credit, because there's no way that this win could be that big, because she wouldn't have been that dominant. You know, it kind of goes hand in hand, so I don't think it'd be this big, but it's been definitely just an awesome experience. I had the pleasure of being in Albuquerque just a few days after the win, and it was like an emotional experience for me just to be there, and not only talk to your teammates, which we put this video together, and I have to say,

it was so cool of you to give it a shout out on the Huffington Post. That blew me away and says a lot about who you are as a person, but getting a chance when I went with John Jones to these schools, and he would go to kids and say, do you guys know who I am? Some people would raise their hands. Then he would say, do you know who Holly Home is? This is after the win, and everyone raised their hands, started cheering, started clapping. It was just amazing to see, and it was such a pleasure to see just how big of a star you. I didn't really quite understand it. And then we see the parade that you get.

Did you, did you recognize? Did you know how big of a deal you were before all of this? You know, Albuquerque's always been so supportive. And that is one thing. I'm not going to say that I wasn't surprised. I mean, I'm blessed and honored that that many people were that happy. But Albuquerque has always been that supportive that I, I've seen them be that great, you know, and that supportive.

So it's not like out of character for Albuquerque to support, I guess, is what it is. It's not like this is the first time that they've come together and supported me. I don't know if that makes sense. It was that big of a deal right now. So I don't want to take away from that when I talk about them. But I want to say that it didn't surprise me that much because their character has always been supportive. and a lot of people were you know some people have asked me like oh my gosh is it nice to get back home and get back to the peace and quiet aren't you so glad you don't live like in a big city and i'm like oh you guys understand how crazy is like crazy you know like they love it they are the biggest fight town ever and it's big enough that you have a support and small enough that everybody knows you you know so um it's kind of a next door neighbor type of um and everybody's is really loving and supporting here.

I'm definitely very blessed. What was it like to see the emotion on your teammates' face faces in that video, but also when you got back to the gym and you see just how much, it's rare in life that we get to see how much respect that our peers have for us, our friends have for us, how much they love us. I mean, you sometimes hear this when someone dies, but you're getting this amazing coronation and shower with love in the prime of your life after the greatest moment of your life. and these people are just talking about you.

Like, you could tell no one is lying. They truly love you and think the world of you. Like when John Dodson said that if they could send someone to space just to show the greatest of humanity, they should send you. You feel that he actually means that. What's that like for you to hear all of this? Well, that video, probably the best video. Thank you.

Just when people ask about our team, I tell them it's like family I think a lot of people say that but they don't really realize our team really is like family you know and I think that finally got displayed publicly

what was it like when you got back to the gym what kind of reception did you get oh it was awesome I came in the middle of training and uh you know people just in the middle flying just kind of ran over and gave me a hug like

oh my gosh I'm so happy for you and you know just kind of I know I had told my husband, I said, I'm going to go to practice today. I said, I'm going to go down to the gym today. He's like, oh, you're going to go practice? I was like, no. I'm just going to say I. I literally had like 72 hours to be home before I was gone again,

and I just thought, you know, I'm just going to go in. I just want to go see the team. I just want to go say thank you, because this victory is not possible without them. And that's all I wanted to do. do is just go go see the team and i could see you know you speak of that family atmosphere i can kind of i saw you backstage after um the condid fight and you could see you know how upset everyone was i don't know if i've ever seen gregg jackson that upset before uh what was that like for you to see a fellow albuquerque native but more so a friend and teammate comes so close yet again and now talk about

retirement how much pain do you have for your friend now you know um I truly feel like Carlos won that fight. And it's disheartening. And a lot of people say, well, in your heart, you know you won. You know, at least you know it. And it's like, well, that doesn't really do it. I mean, and this is not to take nothing away from Robbie Lawler. I really like Robbie Lawler.

I think he's a great champion. He's always shown a lot of potential, never been over, you know, cocky, nothing like that. But in the simple fact, I really feel like, you know, I really feel like Carlos won the fight, and you can't go back and change any of that. And I just feel like, especially for a title, I think a lot of people just, you know, you put so much time and effort and energy into a training camp and then they're not, you know, come out with the win.

And don't get me wrong, Robbie had some awesome moments in the fight. I just really felt like Carlos won and it's just heartening when you see how much work your teammate goes through and then to have it come out like that just kind of is a sour feeling you know.

Did you say anything to him afterwards? And if so, what? I can't imagine going up to a friend after a moment like that. You know, I just saw him for a second in the back he was walking up, I just gave him a hug, and I said, that was you. You know? And you did what it took.

And that was kind of it. It was just in the middle of a walk, you know. I didn't really talk to him too much, and that was about it. You're actually the best person to ask this question to 10-point must system. It's a boxing system. Does that work for MMA, or do you think MMA should have its own system for scoring? You know, and I think it works. because the only thing really different in boxing

is standing eight counts and you don't even have that in MMA you know if the fight stopped is just stopped I'm sorry well you don't have standing eight counts in boxing but you and I don't know if you know that means so like if you're standing up

and a ref has to stop you that means the fight's over if you get dropped to a knee and you get back up then you get an eight count and that no of that obviously is an MMA if If you stop it, it's just done at any point. If the rest comes in, you're just stopping it at any point. That means somebody's about to go out, you know.

But I don't know. It's kind of a hard one to tell. I think the, I don't know, and there's a little difference in MMA too, you know, because if in boxing, if you get dropped on any and you get back up in the MSNIA count, that's an automatic point deduction. When in MMA, that's not necessarily the case. If you get dropped from a punch and get back on. up and keep fighting, you know, and so I actually think that it is more catered to M.A.

It's not the exact scoring as boxing. But when I look at the fight, you know, I think that Carlos had three rounds, and even the rounds that, I mean, the last round, Robbie really had him hurt, you know, so you can't take that away from Robbie. Carlos still was doing a lot of scoring beforehand, but Robbie really had him. I mean, he almost had him out in the last round, you know. But it's still just a round out of five, you know. Round two, he equipped Carlos.

So, you know, if I would have been judging the fight, I probably would have done three rounds to two. And I think that that's still, you know, as far as the scoring system, I think that it's fine. I mean, I guess it depends on who's actually scoring it and how they're looking up a fight. Okay, let's transition to your present because I know your time is limited. And again, thank you so much for coming on.

You have been very much in demand, so I really appreciate it. Um, ESPN.com reported late last night that you've signed a new contract with the UFC. Is that accurate? It's accurate. Can you tell us about it? Well, if I, uh, if I fight sooner than later, it'll be, uh, it won't be a rematch, but they're still possible for a rematch. They haven't really announced anything, you know, exact yet.

So, um, I guess we'll just kind of wait. wait and see how the cards unfold. But I'm not going anywhere. I'll be fighting. Hopefully soon or them later. And just get back in there and do what I love to do. So that is your preference. You don't want to wait July or after. You want to get in there sooner rather than later.

When you say that, is there a month that is perfect for you, an ideal situation? You know, I don't really think of an exact time. I just don't want to wait around for things if they're not set in stone. A lot of people have been talking about the rematch, but nobody's really even knows for sure if Rhonda, they haven't really even heard if she really wants it yet or not or if, you know, she's occupied with some other things right now.

So I think that's the hardest part for me is that if I need something that's going to be for sure set in stone, maybe I would think about it a little more. But I don't know. I just, I don't want to wait around for something that may not happen. You know, I want to be able to fight soon. I like being active because I love the sport, and I want to keep that true. To me, I don't want to get so involved with all this traveling around, but, you know, I lose sight of what I don't think I will because I just love to fight.

I think that's why I like to fight soon and later. It's like this is now, this is the time, this is what I love to do, and I want to keep doing what I love to do. Is it fair to guess that if Rhonda is in next, it will be Misha Tate? That's a fair, that's a fair guess. I think that that fight makes a lot of sense to people. You know, she was kind of the one that was in line for the title before they gave a fight to me. and I think people are curious to see how it will go

because this is a whole different title fight now. You know, it's a big talk about, is there going to be a third, you know, Ronda Misha fight? And here we are with a whole new situation now. So I think that a lot of people want to see it. And I think it'd be awesome to challenge myself with another fighter. If the rematch comes, then great. You know, but I definitely want to keep.

fighting whoever's in front of me. And are you happy with the new deal? Like, did they up things because you're the champion on? You're this mega celebrity and all that. Did they do right by you? I'm happy with it. But I'm always happy with it because I just see it as an opportunity, you know. I mean, I never felt like I would actually...

I always fought and thought, you know what? I think I can support myself with fighting. I think this can be my career. but I never really felt like, wow, I'm actually going to be able to, like, put some money aside and have money for the future. And, you know, so I'm very happy with it. I'm happy for the opportunities. And I want to make sure and make that all worth something, you know, and I want to have this new contract and then be a letdown. I want to show them that I'm worth something, and I want to show them that I'm going to be a good champion.

And that's my motivation to just keep getting better. By the way, an interview just came through on foxports.com by Damon Martin with your longtime manager and promoter, agent and promoter, I should say, Lenny Frescas. And he said, quote, the UFC will be having an announcement this week and they'll be announcing it regarding your next flight. Yeah, they'll be announcing it. Oh. You can do it here if you want. No, I can. I can't because I know he's so mad.

You know, I'll let them announce it. it and um most you know i'm pretty sure it'll be with them the next it'll be soon it will be soon um by the way side note that uh that serenading that you got from the irish fans that one guy in particular did you enjoy that was that awkward for i thought it was is unbelievably uh endearing and it was it was everything you liked it okay okay i wasn't sure no i loved it um i i I love when people are just loving life, having a good time. And, you know, a lot of, actually some of the Irish fans came up to me. They were like, oh, man, like, you know, we're kind of sorry about the Q&A.

Like, some of the people were kind of being, like, you know, a little crazy. And I'm like, you guys, I would much rather have a Q&A like that with, like, fun and personality and having a good time than, like, you can hear crickets in the background in between each question, you know? Yeah. Like, I like to have fun with people. I'm serious all the time in the gym. I'm serious, you know, in training, and I just, I thought it was awesome. And I think that, I don't think that's ever happened before in a Q&A, so I'll take it.

You know, I got the first serenades. I loved it. I thought it was fun. If you were Ronda Rousey's coach manager, do you think it's in her best interest not to fight you in her first fight back? From a fighter's perspective, does that make sense to come back against the person who just, you know, took you out in spectacular fashion. Should you build yourself back up?

Well, I have two thoughts about that. So I got knocked out by Anne Sophie Matisse in the seventh round of a boxing match in the very end of 2011. In December 2011, I had no fight in between. I rematched her in June of 2012, six months later.

and I came back and I avenged my loss. So I think I would be foolish to think somebody else couldn't do the same. I've done it before. On the other note, the flip side of that, in that fight when I got knocked out, I actually was doing very well for the first four rounds. Round five, she kind of clipped me with a shot. Round six, she dropped me around seven. She knocked me out.

So I think it's just, you know, but I knew that I, was technically doing well, I knew that I was competitive. So in my mind, I knew that I could do it. And I think that, you know, was maybe something that I took, so in a positive way, to be ready for that rematch. So I guess it just depends on where her mental game is, but I will never undress me. You know, she's done well and had a lot of victories. so if she comes back, I will expect the very best Rhonda.

I've done it before, so I'd be dumb to think that somebody else couldn't. By the way, how do you feel about Ronda Rousey right now? Because on the one hand, I can see there being some animosity. I mean, she went in front of the world and said you're fake, and that attack seemed a little bit. I mean, and especially after talking to everyone that knows you and doesn't know you, I mean, no one says anything remotely close to that, and you fought her and you took her to all that. But on the other hand, her whole life has changed and people came out of the woodwork and danced on her grave and just, you know, so how do you feel about it? Like, what are your thoughts towards her as just a human being?

I don't think anybody deserves that. I do think that she put herself in that position just kind of, you know, she, I mean, she's even said herself that, you know, if people don't like her style, then she doesn't care, you know, is who she is, and she doesn't tend to be anybody else. And I don't have any animosity towards her. I mean, I just, I don't know. A lot of people feel like maybe I should, but I just don't waste energy with stuff like that. You know, I think she's been a champion for a reason. She's been confident in herself,

and she's been wallow with a lot of things like that. So I don't know. I mean, I don't have any animosity towards her. I don't think that some of the negativity that she's received is necessarily. I mean, that's not. some of it's not necessary. You know, people get pretty brutal about stuff. But I think she's tough enough she can handle it.

I don't think she's ever felt like something like this before. I think she is going through a really rough time. I'd be dumb if I said anything different. Does that make you feel bad? Not bad enough that I would change the decision. Right. I mean, I always sympathize with my opponents no matter what. If you win, they're going home with a bad day, that doesn't mean that I want to give them a victory,

but I do sympathize with it and I have compassion towards it. You know, I don't ever want someone. You feel sadness when you lose. I'm like, I don't want anybody to really feel sadness. You know, I think that if any, the things that can make me feel the most sad for other people if they feel lonely or kind of by themselves in this world. And I think right now she might be doing some full searching and kind of just keeping herself a little bit.

You know, I hope she can bounce right back from it because she hasn't a good champion, you know. I do have some sympathy for it, but like I said, not enough to change it. Two last quick things. Were you disappointed? You know, she came out with a small statement on Instagram, did one interview since.

you know, she didn't say congratulations or anything like that. I don't know if she did it in person. Were you disappointed about that? No. I just like to know that for me I want to carry myself a certain way and I don't really mind how other people do it because

that's their deal. As long as I carry myself how I feel is disrespectful I'm only in charge of myself and um she has to be kind of bitter right now, and that's okay.

You know, I'm just, I'm really, I really just want to do my thing and represent myself well, and I'll give her the respect along the way. And however she handles it as her own deal, you know, I don't want to lose sleep over it. Yep, very well said. And this is the big one that we've been debating, and I even asked Coach Wink about this, did Holly Home kind of play Possum in her first two UFC fights? Were you holding back a little bit to shock everyone when you fought Rhonda? Did that really happen?

Because if so, you deserve all the awards in the world for that. I mean, that's been thrown out there. Is that true? Yeah, I think I could have done more in those fights, but I was being a little cautious, maybe learning along the way. But there was nothing intentional. like I was never thinking oh I'm not going to show anybody until you know the big fight I mean that never crossed my mind I do feel you know I kept telling people I know what I have better potential than what I've shown

and I did feel true with that I knew I was capable of more and but I knew I had to perform it and you know I never sat aside and thought I'm going to just play possum you know I'm I wanted the victories in those. And there was a few things going on for those fights. You know, my first UFC fight, I was coming off really big injuries, you know, and I've never been injured like that in a fight before. I've never had to pull out of a fight from an injury. I've never had to, you know, kind of go through a lot of that.

And so a lot of it was kind of those nerves. And but I didn't play POSPAs. though. Okay. I just knew I was capable of more. You could have said yes, and it would have made you even cooler, but I appreciate the honesty. I know. I didn't want to lie, though.

I appreciate that. That sums you up very nicely. Okay, so this is our award show, and what an honor and treat this is. So before I let you go, how about I give you the awards that you won from this show, and I know you've won the title, and you've met everyone, Floyd Mayweather and all these Beyonce, all these people, but I have a feeling that the honors that I'm about to bestow upon you greater than all of those combined. Let me hear me.

Okay, so both my producer and I in New York, Rick, we have given you the female fighter of the year. So congratulations. You, uh, there you go, some applause. I'm honored. Thank you so much. Female, I mean, easy. That was an easy one.

I have given you the knockout of the year. Easy. Oh my God. Easy. No applause for knockout? Okay, there we go. There's applause. I have given you the upset of the year.

even though I know you didn't believe it was the upset, but that was the upset of the year. And New York, Rick, has given you the moment of the year. You had the moment of the year when the world stopped. So how about that? Five awards. Holy cow, I don't even know what to say. Life just gets better.

I'm so honored. You guys are so great. And I'll keep trying my best to not let this be the only time that there's something exciting like that. I want to keep showing you guys, and hopefully I'll get another award because that means I'm keeping getting better. Well, you deserve it all. Again, congratulations. Really appreciate the time, and it couldn't have happened to a better person. Keep enjoying the victory, but can't wait for the next one. Even though you didn't announce the news here, I'll let it slide. We're cool. I understand. I'm in trouble. I understand. I don't want to get you. That's the last thing I want. So enjoy it. Again, thank you, and we'll talk to you soon. Really happy for you, Holly. Happy New Year.

Thank you. And thank you for my words. I'm so honored. Have a happy year. All right. There she is. Holly, home. What can you say? about Holly Homme, the preacher's daughter. What a joy. That was fun. Last year, remember, we had Robbie Loller on to give him the fight of the year. Now we just gave her almost all the awards, but that's not true because we have 22 awards to give out. So let's do it. You guys ready? We're ready. We've got the whole crew back here. Nice applause, by the way. Yeah. I'm stepping it up. So what do you think, by the way? Do you think that it's Misha Tate? It seems that way, right? Yeah. Are you okay with that?

love that fight. No, but do you think it's smart to do because, you know, it was sort of debated. Do you risk it? It's a big money fight. From his perspective? From the UFC's perspective, from a business perspective. I think it is a risk, but they're banking on Hollyholm. And I think it's a reasonable thing to do.

And you have to wonder, can she turn around? And you also have to wonder, I'm starting to hear, I don't know if Ronner Rousey's going to be available in July. I mean, it's already January, multiple injuries, like physical injuries, emotional injuries. I mean, there's the movie stuff. So I feel like you kind of have to, you can't revolve your whole year around UFC 200, right? I have a feeling that that's part of the decision. Right. That makes it so it makes it a lot easier.

If Rhonda can't be ready by then, then you have to keep Holly active. She wants to be active. And Misha, I mean, you can't go, Amanda Nune. It's got to be Misha, right? It's got to be Misha. Who's your pick? That's a tough fight. I would go Holly. It's hard to get over what we just saw. I'm not about to use MMA math and say that Holly beat Rhonda who beat Misha. But I think the performance that we just saw from Holly is pretty good. And I'd be confident picking Holly at this moment. Will Holly be the betting favorite in your opinion? For sure. Yeah? Yeah. It's fine. I wonder what they do. But it sounds like we're going to get an announcement soon. Remember, I'll tell you this. She won't be as big.

big a betting favorite as Rhonda was over her. Of course, yeah. U.S. 107 is looking for a fight or two as far as headline, co-headline, looking for a venue. I knew this drew the ire of some, but it does not appear to be in Rio anymore, March 5th. I would expect an announcement. From what I heard, they wanted to announce this weekend. It didn't happen. Let's see what they come up with, but, you know, read between the lines. Let's get to the awards, shall we? Here we go. One of my favorite. favorite episodes of the year. It's award season. Did you bring your tucks? No. What do you got? What do you got? Okay. So we got 22 categories. 21. Did I count one twice?

I think you counted one twice. Okay, whatever. 21. We added one or two new ones. And I don't think we did this last year, but this year we're actually going to tell you who we picked last year just to see, you know, if there are any changes, maybe repeat winners. I think that's a fun little wrinkle. Correct. We did not do that last year, but I think it'll be interesting to look back because we did those at the end of the year and some of it's indicative of what happened in 2015. Those are the people who were at the top at the end of 2014. How do you feel about the award show taking place in 2016? Are we ready to move on from 2015 or is this the right way to go about it? You have to do it properly. You have to get all of them in. Risen had an event. The UFC had another event since our last show. So you're going to move on from 2015 or is this the right way to go about it. You have to do it properly. You have to get all of them in. Risen had an event. The UFC had another event since our last show. You have to do it properly. Okay, let's do it. First category, mail fighter of the year. Easiest one on the docket.

Where's my lower third? Alex's sleeping back there. I need the lower third. It has to be right. Don't worry, it's there. Okay. First category, mail fight of the year. Last year you picked...

I picked Robbie Lawler. Yeah, so I don't have your picks. You've got to tell me who your pick is, all right? I picked Robbie Lawler. I picked Robbie Lawler as well. This year, your pick is. is Connor McGregor. Why?

No doubt about it. Just if you take the three wins, Dennis, Cever, Chad Mendez, Josie Aldo. That's an impressive list on its own. Those are three high level guys. Chad Mendez, a perennial contender. Dennis Cever, no, you know, slouch himself. And then Joseoaldo, what we considered

one of the pound for pound best ever. But then you take into account the fact that he was likely injured in the fight with Chad Mendez. You know, the reports are whatever they are. Oh, he was injured. and we don't know, you know, they want to downplay the extent of the injury because they don't want to, you know, make it into a story. But he was injured. When you consider all the stakes that he was continuing to raise the bar and continuing to up the stakes himself in 2015.

When you consider all the media obligations that he never missed any, that he continued to be the poster boy for the UFC. When you consider that after all that, he coach tough, you know, whether what you thought of him as a coach or how, you know, directly involved he was aside. he took on the responsibility of coaching tough. And when you consider all that, and that none of the fighters that I mentioned in those three fights lasted more than two rounds, including Josealdo, only lasting 13 seconds, nobody had a better 2015 than Connor McGregor.

And I'm not even going to mention the numbers, Ariel. Not even going to mention those. Which numbers? Like the actual gate... All the paper views, the gates, everything. Off the charts. Connor McGregor, I'd say the best year anybody's ever had in MMA history.

Yeah, because let's not forget... Well deserved for Connor McGregor. Let's not forget, broke the record for FS1 in January, and then what he did at 189 as far as the gate was concerned, then he broke that record at 194. Obviously, my choice for male fighter of the year, no surprise, I have to agree with you on that one.

It's Connor McGregor. This was a very easy decision. One, three fights was active, beat a guy that everyone thought would be his kryptonite while injured, beat the greatest of all time in that division up until this point. in 13 seconds, quick, I mean, I can just repeat everything you just said. It's Connor McGregor, what a year, and I can't wait for, you know, the, the, the, the, what's it what's called, the encore?

I mean, what does he get, how? He can actually top it because he likes to be active. He wants to go up to a new weight class. If he does everything that he sets out to do this year, he could very well be the fighter of the year next year. And we'll get to that category a little later on. But it's just been such a joy to watch this guy call his shots. We put out that best of the MMA hour with Connor. what did it get like 150,000 views on YouTube?

Yep. People just, they eat up everything that he does and says, calls his shots, he's captivating in and out of the cage. I want to see more of him. I feel, that's the beauty. Even with the Ultimate Fighter, you want more. I want to see what he does next. I want to see what he says next.

I want to see more press conferences. It's just like you can't get enough of the guy. Wow. Honorable mentions, Hafeld Dosandos deserves an honorable mention. I don't think a lot of people were picking him against Anthony Pettus. He annihilated Pettus. Then he followed that up with a different kind of annihilation.

This one, a very quick one of Donald Soroni, in a rematch. Just a couple of weeks ago in Orlando, Dosangos is a dominant champion, and he could be next for Connor McGregor. So I think he deserves an honorable mention. Demetrius Johnson deserves an honorable mention. He does it sort of under the radar with very little fanfare, but what he did to Horaguchi, getting the finish in the end with the second left in Montreal,

what he did, John Dotson, who everyone thought would be the toughest opponent of his as champion. I mean, one more can you say about Demetrius? He is without any peers, at least right now, at 125 pounds. The Sohudo fight will be interesting, but DJ is the most active and most reliable champion in the UFC and also the longest reigning one as well. And then another honorable mention for me, Luke Rockhold, finishing off the year very strong against Chris Wydenman. A great performance, and he was battling some stuff as well.

Tremendous win over Liota Machita in April. Luke Rockhold deserves a lot of credit, and it could be up for other awards as well. So that's Malefighter of the year, 2015. Before we move on from that one, did you mention Donald Soroni in yours? Because I think if he had won, there's a very, very good case. He could have almost pushed McGregor,

which is incredible considering the year McGregor had. If he had won the title against Hafeel dos angios, that would have been one of the best years ever also. That would have been a really, really impressive year. And even though he did lose, he had a great year as well. Yeah, that is a good point. And I didn't mention my fighter of the year of 2014 was also Robbie Lawler. So we agreed on all of those, right?

We did. Okay. Now let's move along to female fighter of the year. The suspense. Yes. I gave mine away. Last year, by the way, you chose... I chose Yawanna-Jay-Cet.

Oh, that's right. And we had a whole big argument about it. Correct. And you're still wrong about it. Now, what she did this year, by the way, what she did this year has nothing to do with how ludicrous that pick was last year. No, it was not ludicrous.

It was not ludicrous. She had a very solid year. And remember, what I said was the wins on tough did not count. I would have likely given it to like a Carla Asparza, but the wins on tough did not count. The best year in the books last year was Yohanna Yen J.Chi. She was coming off a super close decision win over Clyde Gidea Gidelea.

That she won. Yeah, I know. Anyway, you picked Yian J. Check. I picked Ronda Rousey. That was the right choice. This year, who'd you pick? This year, I picked Holly Holme. Okay.

There it is. Well-deserved guests of the show just moments ago. I mean, what a guest, right? Getting all emotional, almost made me cry as well. it's impossible not to like her it's impossible okay so why is she is this is this an easy one i already gave my choice it's not easy because joanna had a great year again joanna jacek had a great year again um and i also think that uh ronda rousey we can't this is what i was talking about with donald saroni even though she lost this fight we can't downplay the year that ronda rousey had she became a megastar

um picked up you know uh two big wins she she submitted kats zingano in 14 seconds She knocked out Bechkoheya in 34 seconds. So, you know, typically in any other year, that'd be enough. But this year, it was Holly Holmes year. She picked up three wins. She beat what was considered the best female fighter on the planet. And she's undefeated still. And it was historic.

It was unprecedented. Everything that you want to say, huge upset. It was Holly Holmes year. By the way, when you tweet these selections out, I'm not usually a huge fan of this, but throw in the person's Twitter handle so they can. can get some love here. You see how emotional she was getting our award? This means a lot to these fighters. Yeah, but then we're running into characters and all this stuff. No, no, no, you got to do it. You got to do it. We need to show the people. Take away some hashtags. You figure it out. I trust you. Okay. Now, my pick, Holly Holie home, I just gave it to her. That was a lot of fun. You know, actually, Yawanna this year has a very strong case. I mean, she had a fantastic year. She became champion. And then she successfully defended it against Jessica Panay and Valuelo-Lotrino. Her name will come up later. Have no fear.

But Holly Holme, to do what she did to Ronda Rousey, to rise to the occasion the way she did in front of the biggest crowd in UFC history, one of the most watched shows as far as pay-per-views are concerned in UFC history against the behemoth that is Ronda Rousey against the media darling, the locomotive, everything you want to say, I mean, Ronda Rousey was that. She was a beast. And then to do what she did and to execute that game plan was just, it was a thing of beauty. It was one of the best performances in a title fight I've ever seen, and she deserves it. And to see what's happened to her, it's kind of funny, as I noted on Twitter, that fight was actually supposed to take place this past weekend before the Robbie Loller injury.

Just think about how different the last couple months would have been if we had not seen that fight yet. And who knows, you know, different, you know, more time to prepare, less time, you know, who knows how it all plays out. I have a feeling, though, they fight 10 times. Home wins the majority of those fights. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to her against me. Tate and how she responds to this fanfare and this whirlwind and all that. She deserves that new contract as well. Holly Holie Holm, without a doubt, female fighter of the year. Honorable mention goes to Yuanio, Jacek, as I mentioned. Misha Tate had a solid year. You know, she had a big win over

Jessica I. She has done everything that the UFC has asked her to do. And she also had a big win over Sarah McMahon. Mish Tate had a solid year as well. Amanda Nunes had a good year. And she's kind of been forgotten. I hope she gets back in there sooner rather than later. But Like I said, without a doubt, Holly Holie Holm, female fighter of the year. Congratulations to her on an unbelievable year, a historic year. What she's done is nothing short of amazing. Okay, let's move along now to Fight of the Year. Fight of the Year last year, I had a controversial one.

Not a lot of people agreed with me. I had T.J. Dillishaw v. Hennon-Barr. Oh, yeah. That was another dumb one. No. You were really dumb last year. It was not, it's not about being competitive. It's about the fight that was the,

best of that year. Everybody was captured by it, and that was that fight last year. But why, I mean, when I think of a great fight, the first thing that comes to mind, the very first thing that comes to mind, honestly, is how competitive was it? Like, that's what makes it a great, a great game, right? If a great basketball game, it's not a blowout. It's a overtime thriller. If it's special, if, so a great game can't be some, you know, a great basketball team

blowing out the most... So if the New Jersey Nets beat the Golden State Warriors by 30 points this year, which game will be more talked about that? Or a mid-season game between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs, that's a shootout?

By the way, the New Jersey Nets don't even exist. What world are we living in? Sorry. Brooklyn Nets. Shout out to Brooklyn. Which game will be more memorable? Which game every moment will you remember every second of that game? Okay, okay. If the Brooklyn Nets blow out the Golden State War

in 30, by 30 points, right? I can guarantee, and let's say this happens in February. Yep. Okay? I can guarantee you the double overtime thriller between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors from December will be more remembered at the end of the year. Completely disagree.

Crazy. You are completely disagree. Crazy. A blowout? A blowout. A blowout. A blowout is not going to be a greater display. The worst team?

of basketball versus the best team, theater. No, disagree. Okay, hopefully you've, you've, you've righted this wrong this year. What's your, okay, let me tell you my pick. My pick was the easy one. Hendrix Lawler, number one, UFC 171. That was amazing. That fight, come on.

That fight was decided in the final minute of the final round, the championship fight, the entire fight was played out in the phone booth. Back and forth they went. It was incredible. And you could have made a campaign. that Loller deserved to win that fight. He ended up winning in December against Hendricks. That is, that fight's the best of MMA. This year's fight. Also, you could say the same. Not taking anything away from T.J. That was a great performance. That was a breakthrough performance. That was amazing.

But Loller Hendricks won was the United. I think it won. M.A. not that's more, you know, fans voting and things of that nature. But Lala Hendricks won. Anyway, let's not argue about last year. What's your pick for this year? My pick for this year is another Lawler fight. It's Robbie Lawler versus Roy McDonald from USC 189. Yes. Competitive, but also delivered on every moment and was the most memorable fight of the year. The stakes were at its highest.

It was a championship fight. It was back and forth. They gave it to each other for nearly five rounds. And we had that moment in the fourth round where, where after the bell, Robbie Lawler spits out the blood and then they're staring at each other in the middle of the ring

with Big John between them. It was incredible. It delivered everything that we could have hoped for and it's becoming a thing with Robbie Lawler. This was the fight of the year with Roy McDonnell.

Did he win the fight of the year of the year before that too? Or am I crazy? Before the one with Hendrix? Yeah. I can't imagine. Last year he won fight of the year for me and also fight of the year.

Oh, okay, this is what I'm thinking. And this year he won fight of the year. he won fight of the year. I agree with you. It's Roy McDonald, Robbie Lawler, number two, UFC 189. And then he may win fight of the year this year for 2016. Correct. After what just happened and round of the year. That fight was great for a lot of reasons. The first that comes to mind is it was flying under the radar and they were okay with that. It was the McGregor show. And then they end up stealing the show. It was amazing theater because Roy was so close to realizing his dream of becoming champion. Somehow, Robbie digs deep.

as he continues to do in the fifth round. And, you know, that punch was, was so painful to watch because you could tell, Roy McDonald wanted to continue. It was like, it was like that R. Kelly song. My mind's telling me no, my body's telling me, yes, well, this was the opposite. His mind was saying keep going, but his body just, you know, it just crumbled. And there's that gif of him sitting up and then falling back down. It was, it was heartbreaking to watch, but it was also, I mean, how do you not commend and respect what Robbie Lawler did in that fight with that huge gash on his lip? And then what he said afterwards, the emotion showed up the next day to the tough finale. His face was all messed up.

That picture afterwards of both of them. Even Rory's saying that that was the greatest moment of his life. It was just an amazing fight. It was so much fun to watch because there were highs and lows. One guy was winning. The other guy started to take a bigger lead. Then the other guy comes back and finishes him off. There was no controversy, nothing.

It was a clean victory. What a great fight on the biggest stage of the mall. So, yeah, that's my pick. Lawler-McDondon, U.S.C. 189. Honorable mention, Daniel Cormier versus Alexander Gustafson at UFC 192. Justin Gajee versus Luis Palomino, the first one. Benson versus Brandon Thatch, Jeremy Stevens versus Dennis Bermudez, Andre Arloffsky versus Travis Brown, LC-Davis versus Hideo-Tokuro,

Chad Mendez versus Connor McGregor also was a great fight those are some that come to mind any others for you did you mention Gustav San Cormier

I did can you pay attention Ortega Tiago Tavares I did not mention that one another great comeback and Ortega seems to be doing that again

Almeda picket Grasso and Mizuki Inouet from Invicta really fun fight That was a lot of fun yes It was early in the year

so a lot of people it slipped off the radar but that was really fun Ferguson and Barbosa Yeah, I think we hit a lot. But, you know, this was a great year. Fight of the year was difficult for me for the second place. The first place was Robbie Lawler versus Roy McDonald.

Just knew from the moment that that happened that that was going to be it. But the second place, there were so many honorable mentions, it's really tough. Okay. It was such a good year. Round of the year, last year you chose. I chose Varner and Trujillo, round two at USC 169. Incredible. That was a great fight.

incredible. And I think that was yeah, that was here in Newark. But wait, who won that fight? Now I'm blanking. Abel won, yeah. I can't know. That was a brain fart.

My pick was Matt Brown versus Eric Silva in Cincinnati. That first round was bananas. So that was, I mean, I think you gave respect to that one as well. Oh, for sure. It was debatable. This year, I'm curious to hear.

And by the way, I just want to make mention of this, we haven't shared our picks. Last year we did, but this year I didn't want to tell you my picks because I was afraid, A, you were going to steal them. And I want some authenticity here. I want us to have natural reactions. And I know sometimes you like to go off the grid just to be a contrarian. So I really want to react to the craziness of some of your picks. So you're... I think you'll agree with this one. Okay, go ahead. 2015 round of the year, John Linnaker versus Francisco Rivera, the first round. I disagree. But go ahead. It was only two minutes and eight seconds, so you can barely even call it around.

But the way they were just exchanging, you know, throwing those like, you know, shots that would topple over buildings with the kind of power that you don't really see in that weight class was incredible. They threw, according to fight metric, thanks to Michael Carroll on Twitter, I saw this. They threw 100 strikes in those two minutes between them. Wow. And not only that, the best part of this, my favorite part of this is that it actually ended in a submission, even though they were throwing all that leather and they have so much power

it actually ended in a submission after all. Best two minutes it was amazing. I was losing my mind. Linneger versus Rivera. That's interesting. Great fight but to me this was maybe one of the easiest ones to pick. One of the, I'm not

going to say it was easier than Holly and Connor, but how you do not pick Andre Arlofski versus Travis Brown that first round at UFC 187 is beyond me. This might be your biggest blunder yet. How do you top that? It's an honorable mention. What? That was crazy. Come on.

Yeah, it didn't, it didn't quite have the, it didn't quite have the horsepower. What? It had all the horsepower in the world. No, that, it was, it was not as action-packed for that amount of time. I'm not arguing that there weren't, it had, it had greater momentum swings, no doubt about it. That round was bonkers from the fact that it seemed like each guy was going up and down and up and down and up and down, whereas this one was them exchanging at the same time. Rivera and Lineker were exchanging at the same time, and it felt like either guy could drop at any moment.

This was more, each guy took his turn rocking each other. Great round, honorable mention. That was a video game. That was a video game. Fair enough. That was a video game. That was the equivalent of like some street fighter, Mortal Kombat type of game.

At one moment you thought Arlofsky with the weak chin and all was going to like an accordion didn't happen, comes back and then the embrace afterward. I mean,

it was just, and also it was a little longer. That was the round of the year. Round one, UFC 187 Memorial Day weekend Arlofsky Brown.

You're crazy. Other rounds? Daniel Cormier against Alexander Augustuson, round three. Tony Ferguson, Edson Barbosa,

round one. Justin Gachey, Louis Palomino won, round one. And how about that fifth round of Robbie Loller

and Roy McDonald? That was an amazing round. when he finished him off. Any others that come to mind for you? Let's see what else I had an honorable mention. No, those were the ones. I mean, clearly, Linneker Rivera and Brown Arlofsky for me were the ones that stood.

Is it weird that Linneker Rivera didn't even make my honorable mentions? I have nothing to say about that. Yeah, that's weird. I mean, you know what you need to do there. Okay. Event, no, no, no. My bad, because my things aren't in order. Knockout of the year.

last year I went with Dung Young Kim versus John Hathaway in Macau remember that's spinning back elbow what did you go with

I went with Joe Schilling knocked out Melvin Manhoff at Bellator 113. That was tremendous Yes so what's your pick? My pick this year I think many people

are going to disagree with this but it was my favorite Frank Muir knocking out Todd Duffy at Ultimate Fight 971 Oh yeah what happened to the applause for the last one.

Yeah, I mean, round of the year gets no love. Who's sleeping behind the wheel there? I loved this knockout. It wasn't the stakes weren't the highest. It wasn't the most meaningful fight in the world. But when Duffy face-planted into the canvas, it was crazy. It was insane because typically you see you guys bounce. You see, you know, them kind of wake up when they hit the mat.

He went straight down, laid there flat, and Frank Mier went off and celebrated. it was bonkers. But like a fight of the year, there's a lot of really, really good contenders here for knockout of the year. I imagine mine is not going to be one that many people have picked in the past, but this was my favorite. Yeah, it's a good choice. Very good choice. Great win.

And it was part of a great story for Frank Meir, the sort of comeback that he was on. But as you heard earlier, my knockout of the year was Holly Holme over Ronda Rousey. And not only because of the magnitude, not only because of the magnitude, not only because it was Holly Home defeating Ronda Rousey. It was an amazing knockout. I can watch that sequence over and over again how she decides to go with the kick to finish her off. That was video game-esque. That was her saying, okay, these are the weapons that I have in my back pocket. I'm just going to finish you off with the most spectacular kick anyone's ever seen to finish off a title fight. I mean, that was just amazing. It was flush. Our own Esther Lynn got an amazing shot of it,

an iconic photo. How is that, how is that, explaining to me how is that, how is that, how is it? Explain to me, that not the knockout of the year? When you add, you know, the stage, magnitude, the stakes, plus the actual execution, it all equals out to knockout of the year. And that's what Holly Home did to Ronda Rousey in Melbourne. To me, another no-brainer. It was, it was, I didn't want to forget anyone in the honorable mentions, but the actual winner, boom, easy. Holly Home, Ronda Rousey. Now, you can make a strong case for Connor McGregor over Jose Aldo, because all those other things I just mentioned. Stakes, magnitude, rivalry, all that, boom.

History, 13 seconds, it all equals up to McGregor and Aldo as well. I can live with that one. And that was tough. It was kind of a two-horse race for me, but nothing else. Nothing else. Why didn't you pick Holly? Why don't you pick Connor?

The aesthetic was the big factor for me. This one, many of what people are calling the knockout of the year weren't one-hitter-quitters. They were were follow-ups, TKOs. This one was a one-hitter-quitter. As was some of the other honorable mentions like Thomas Al-Media's flying knee on Brad Pickett, one-hitter-quitter. And that matters to me. Now, on the opposite end of that spectrum, the tecking combo that Uriah Hall unleashed on

Geigard Musasi, that could have been up there, even though it wasn't a one-hitter-quitter. And then Joe Schilling on the other end of Hisaki-Cato's Superman Punch was another beautiful one. there were a ton this year. But for me, I don't know. There was something about this one. And I went back and forth. I had a million different thoughts. But this was the one I ultimately chose.

Okay. So like I said, it was tough to include all the great ones. You mentioned a couple. As far as Honorable mentioned, Aldo O'Connor is almost, to me, is almost like one B here. But I got to pick one, so I'll pick home over Rousey. Aldo McGrath. Because it was also, it was just a great knockout.

It wasn't a fluke or anything like that. and it was clean. It was just amazing. Musasi Hall, the David Loazzo, as I like to call it, you mentioned that one. He also mentioned Caddo Schilling, a couple others. Santos Bosse, that was amazing. I mean, Bosse's body, I don't know if we'll ever see Steve Bosse again.

After that, that head kick, he turned into a stiff board. Thomas Almeda, Brad Pickett, that was brutal. Paul Feldar against Danny Castillo. man, Rumble Johnson against Alexander Gustafson. That was in Sweden, no less, in the middle of the night, 4 a.m., almost early morning.

That was a tough one to watch. Wonderboy Thompson against Jake Ellenberger, incredible. I mean, any other year, these are all winners. It was nuts. Tiago Alvese, liver kicked to Jordan Mian. Really, really nice one. A couple others. Frank Muir against Bigfoot's.

Silva. Frank Mear again. Remember that? Yep. Andrei Alofsky against Travis Brown. That could certainly deserve it as well. How about this one? It will fly under the radar a little bit, but it was equally impressive. Yuanio Jacek against Carlos Sparza, the standing TKO. Very rare. It's very, very impressive. That barrage, that beatdown was, ooh. I mean, again. And I feel like people have forgotten it now because she was on the receiving end of the knockout of the year. But Ronda Rousey's one-punch knockout of Bechkohea would win in many other years as well. Don't cry. For, oh boy.

For fight of the year and knockout of the year, this was really stiff competition this year. Okay, let's move along. Great ones. What a year for knockouts. And I feel like I forgot a ton. Okay, let's move along. The next one is submission of the year. Last year I had Ben Saunders, Chris Heatherly, Omoplata, a lot of fun.

I think most people gave it to Ben Saunders. Did you as well? I also gave it to Ben Saunders. Yeah. Okay, this year... History. It was historic. Yes, it was historic.

Sort of like... Holly Home beating Rondarousie or Conno McGargett. Sure. Go ahead. My pick this year is... Now, you were talking about the context. Last time I disregarded it. This time I'm including it.

Oh, so you're picking and choosing. Okay, that's interesting. Hey, this is my award. This is my award. Okay, go ahead. Benson Henderson submitting Brandon Thassette. via rear naked choke. Now, second place for me was Ronda Rousey

in the 14-second arm bar over Katzangano. Really, really impressive. But for me, the circumstance of Benson Henderson coming in, moving into the Walterweight division, slaying a giant, and getting it done after, you know, absorbing a reasonable amount of punishment in the first couple of rounds, weathering the storm, getting it done,

taking it to the mat, and choking Brandon, Thatch out. Incredible, inspiring, shades of the great BJ Penn. And, you know, he was on a losing streak. He stepped up at Walterweight, took it out, you know, took Thatch out, and now Walterweight Benson Henderson, the money weight was born. I thought it was an incredible moment. That's my submission of the year.

So the way you set that up makes me think that you think I'm going with Rousey Zengano. But I'm actually going to agree with you on this one. And I'm surprised, pleasantly surprised, that you picked Benson Henderson over Brandon Thatch, UFC Fight Night 60 in Broomfield, Colorado, because if you go back to that show, it was mid-February, I believe it was right after my son's birthday. I was incredibly emotional after that fight. Remember I started the show? I tried so hard to get Benson Henderson on that Monday following that fight. That show could only start with one guy. And you remember I was showering with praise, and I was.

equating it to the old days of UFC when the smaller guy slayed the giant. And he was very reluctant. And if you recall, he was coming off a loss to Donald Seroni, a controversial loss. He takes this fight on two weeks notice, fights the bigger guy. And remember the way in and Brandon Thatch was towering over him? And people are like, what is Benson doing? This is a huge mistake. And remember it started a little slow, and then it starts to pick up? And remember that takedown in the final round when he just changed levels and took the wind out. And it took the wind out of him, took him down, and eventually got the submission, the rear naked choke. That to me was what I literally, I remember sitting, and this happens a lot when I'm home, and I'm watching

these fight night shows, which tend to drag, and it's 1 a.m. And I'm starting to fall asleep. And I perked up for that. And I saw, I was like, wow, what, I couldn't even, because I was remember there was like a really bad co-main event that night? Remember in, in Colorado? I forget what it was. I think of, I think it was, maybe there was an Austrian. Australian fighter involved. Anyway, I don't want to pin it on someone who doesn't deserve it. But there was, there was, it was like a bit of a lull. And I was like, man, I'm so tired. I just want to go to bed. This event is dragging way too long. And then they get to the main event. And everyone thinks it's going to be the destruction of the former champion. And he rises to

the occasion. He does it in his reaction afterwards when he's like putting back his hair and looking through the crowd. It was just, I get emotional thinking about it because it showed the best, the best of an athlete, an athlete rising to the occasion, an athlete just kind of going above himself, and everyone's counting him out. He was the underdog, the betting underdog going into that fight. Benson Henderson, submission over Brandon Thatcher, The Thing of Beauty.

It was one of my favorite moments of 2015. One of my favorite moments in UFC history, honestly, and I'm not overplaying it. Months later now, I can truly say that. Honestly, sincerely, I loved it. And what a year it was for Benson. We'll get to comeback fighter of the year and all that, but he turned things around,

and now he's a free agent, and he's about to hopefully cash in, and he deserves it. Did we just get a preview there? Maybe, maybe not. But again, I can't say enough about that fight. I actually just rewatched it. I love that last round.

That takedown, you know the one I'm talking about? Sure. You could feel it. When you're watching it, like you could feel the win getting knocked out of it. I had a very similar reaction to that fight that you did. It wasn't just a submission. It was a very special fight.

Yeah, it was. wasn't just a submission. It was it was a guy, you know, everyone counting him out and the size difference and the state of his career. It was, it was everything that I love about this sport, just a thing of beauty. It was, it was watching someone who will on a, on a stage, athletically, do more than you can ever imagine. Like, I can never pull off something like that. I, that's, that's, we're just, you know, we're just regular Joe's compared to someone like him. So, I mean, I could talk about that fight all day. Love it. Okay, so that was our pick for submission of the year. honorable mentions, obviously, as a lot of people would pick, and it certainly is deserving.

Ronda Rousey against Katzenegano back in February, up until the knockout by Connor McGregor over Jose Aldo, that was the quickest finish in UFC history, 14 seconds, and really ignited her into the superstar that she became. How about Fabrice Ovidum with a huge win over Kane Velazquez? Who saw that coming in Mexico? In that fashion, that was a lot of fun. Demetrius Johnson. The final second against Kioji Horaguchi in Montreal, four minutes and 59 seconds of the fifth round.

Talis latest, Tim Boch, Jake Ellenberger, Josh Koshchek, Pippel Strauss, Al Jermaine Sterling against Takami Zugaki and Newark. And Luke Rockhold, Diotomichita, another great submission as well. A lot of great ones this year. Two more for style points. Got Afredo Pepe submitted Andre Feely via Flying Triangle at Ultimate Fight Night, 62. That was fun. And Angela Lee submitted Natalie Hills. via Twister in one FC.

We don't often see those. I think we saw two this year, but that was one of them, and that was a lot of fun. But yeah, you nailed all the honorable mentions. A lot of important and really good submissions this year. Okay, so last year, we had prospect of the year, and we changed that.

Last year, remember I gave it to Will Brooks? Who did you give it to? I gave it to Will Brooks as well. Yeah, and you remember it cost some controversy, like he was a little bit insulted by it, and it was just all weird, and maybe we didn't word it right. changes to Breakthrough Fighter of the Year.

This is kind of the evolution of prospect. So it's important to know last year was Will Brooks, who had another good year. He's still the champion. Kudos to him. A very entertaining follow on Twitter as well. So this year it's Breakthrough Fighter of the Year. Who's your pick? My pick is Max Holloway.

Interesting. That's a great pick. Now, my pick was actually the same when we had Prospect of the Year. Because originally, as you said, we started with Prospect of the Year. I had Max Holloway. And then when I thought about it, he's also the breakthrough fighter of the year for me. At the start of 2015, Max Holloway, he was riding a three-fight win streak, but it wasn't, you know, the most recent was a knockout of Akira Khorasani at the time. It wasn't like people were proclaiming that he's the next big thing.

A fun fighter, always good to see scrap. But slowly but surely over the course of 2015, he proved that not only is he, you know, a fun fighter who's really, you know, technical on his feet, but he proved that he's worthy of being in the talks for title. contention at 24 years old, which is, you know, incredible and a huge jump to make in 2015. He outstruck Cole Miller, had a really good performance there. Best performance to date, in my opinion, against Cub Swanson, quick work against Charles Olivaire. Another one over Jeremy Stevens. He was active.

He was impressive. It was his year, 2015, Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, Max Holloway. Yeah, that's a great choice. Also, to do what he did on Fox, too. That was a big opportunity for him and against a veteran like Cub Swanson. Great choice. My pick for a breakthrough fighter of the year

is Yana Yowin Jacek because even when she won on the prelims of a Fox show in Phoenix, as I mentioned earlier, it was a close win against Clyde Godelia. She was still this unknown fighter and we couldn't even pronounce her name. But then she gets put in a title fight

and remember, it kind of came out of the blue. We didn't expect Carlos Sparza to return that quickly. It was just sort of announced when they had to change that card around. We still didn't know a lot about her. And then she gets the fight week. And she starts to steal the show with her face-offs,

with her trash talk, with her attire. Remember the overalls and all that? And then the cookie. And then the performance in the cage, the standing K.L. I was blown away. And then she comes back against Jessica Penae. She headlines the first headl fight on fight pass,

which is a sign of things to come and gives her the necklace. and again what she does, you know, smantles her face. Penae gets, you know, nose surgery afterwards. And then plays second fiddle to a degree with Ronda Rousey on the biggest show ever. This time last year, we weren't talking about Yawani on Jacek like we do today. Oh, and by the way, on top of all that, she has legitimately turned into one of my favorite guests on this show. Name that poll in studio.

She got the Reebok deal. She's been on a few times. incredibly entertaining, a lot of fun to watch, a lot of fun to talk to you outside of the fights and all that. Ioanna-Jechek is someone who this time last year I wasn't thinking about on these terms and has become champions. So to me, that defines breakthrough fighter of the year. What a year for her and has really carried that division on her back in the sense that

she wasn't a part of the ultimate fighter. And we were kind of wondering, like, will that division have a face? Will it have its own dominant leader to give it some credibility? And there are some candidates, but she has. has really, in my opinion, taken that division and given it credibility and told the world that, like, more so in many respects than the fly weights for some weird reason. Like, I think that she has really stamped it and people get excited for strawweight fights because she's a part of it and she's the face of the strawweight division. Congratulations to her on a fantastic year.

Other breakthrough fighter of the years, breakthrough fighters of the year, Holly Home, you know, this time last year she had not fought in the UFC yet. She's a UFC rookie. Yep. We don't have rookie of the year, but she would certainly be in contention for that. Liam McGarry, what a year for him. The Belator Light Heavyweight Champion. Sage Northcut.

Now I know it's just two wins, but we were not talking about Sage Northcut. Makwan Amir Kani, great year for him. Burst onto the scene around a year ago in Sweden. Joseph Duffy, now I know he came off a loss, but we're talking about 2015. He had a great year as well. Tuminov, who just won this past weekend, Sterling, Al Jermaine Sterling, and Thomas Al-Meda are others that come to mind. I had all those as well.

Yarya Rodriguez. Somebody we weren't really talking about at all, and all of a sudden he's everybody's favorite fighter. That's a good one. But I think, did you mention Henry Sehudo? I did not. He's, you know, even though he debuted, I believe, in 2014, he had three wins in 2015,

looked good on his way to a title shot. pretty soon. And Tom Breeze from TriStar. But I think, you know, we hit a pretty comprehensive list there. A lot of good young talent coming up. Now, the next award is Most Improved Fighter of the Year. Last year, you chose... I chose T.J. Dillashaw. Interesting. And that's a great choice. I chose Donald Seroni. This year, you chose... This year, I chose Ryan Bader. Oh, that's a good one. I like that one. This was one of the tougher categories for me, but when I really sat down and thought about it, I didn't think anybody made the leaps and bounds this year, not in the end of 2014 or any year prior, but this year specifically that we saw from Ryan Bader, really, really tightened up his boxing,

you know, toned down his aggressive style, made a workable style that I think is going to keep him in title contention for a while, looked really good, picked up some big wins, and I like the way he looked in 20. 2015 heading into 2016, possible title contender. I liked Ryan Bader's improvements this year. He was my pick. Yeah, and he has a big fight January 30th in Newark. It's going to be interesting to see if he wins that fight. I mean, where else does he go? He beats Rumble Johnson. Where else does he go? The timing of Jones leaving and then coming back,

screwed with him, but if he beats Rumble Johnson, hard to deny him. That's a great pick. I went with Hafeld dos adjos because, again, this time last year, I did not think that Halfeldo Sanjos would be the UFC champion and turn in the kind of performances that he has turned in. This is a guy who started his UFC career, O and 2. He was a 500 fighter. He was just kind of there. He was like a, you know, not to disrespect these guys, but he was like a Glycine T. Tebowar, is like one of these lightweights that would just kind of be there and be around for a long time and have a solid career,

but just never kind of break through. And he has turned into this. He has turned into A, one of the best fighters. fighters in the UFC, but not only that, like, he is a killer. I mean, what he did to Donald Seroni just doesn't happen. Now, I agree with you on everything you just said. Yeah. But I feel like we saw this already at the end of 2014. Man, to do what he did to Anthony Pedest in a title fight, and then to do what he did on Fox, Donald Serroney is a different level than what he was doing in 2014. Possibly at a higher level, but the, the style, the hard work that was put in,

was already there. Cordero got him set for that at the end of 2014. I can't disagree with you because that was one of the selections I considered, but I just thought, if we're encapsulating 2015, I feel like the jump in that year was bigger for Ryan Bader. Fair. Whereas Dos Anjos, absolutely incredible. All the credit in the world is deserved. But I feel like he laid this down at the end of 2014. It was pretty clear that we were looking at something completely different. Fair, although in 2014 he lost to Habib Mn Mugamagimedov. Now, he rebounded with wins over Jason High, the Benson-Henderson win. Yeah.

It was a little controversial, but still, I think in hindsight, everyone gives him a lot of credit for that, and then the Nate Diaz win. But then to go from those guys to a title fight and to do what he did to Anthony Pettis. I mean, that was like the T.J. Dillishaw win over Brown. That was just a five-round beat down. And then to come on Fox in a rematch against a blazing hot fighter and to beat him in 66 seconds, to me, he took a step. And even after the Diaz fight,

I think a lot of people thought like, okay, he was not going to beat Pettus. He's still going to be, you know, in the top five. Now he's number one. And he's number one by far right now until Nirmagamatov comes back. I mean, wow. So to me, he's the most improved fighter of the year,

and he continues to improve. And that's kind of the scary part. Other honorable mentions, Bader is there. 100%. I agree with that. Dave Branch. How about Dave Branch,

what he's done? I think he was one of my honorable mentions for last year. I mean, the guy just continues to get it done. Yeah, Dave Branch deserves a lot of credit. Max Holloway, you know, to a degree, the breakthrough and, like, some of these, you can make a case for a guy in multiple categories. Max Holloway, Tony Ferguson has had a great year, and I'm curious to see what happens in. He could get a title shop very soon as well. Robert Whitaker and Amanda Nunes. I think Amanda Nunes has really turned the corner. Remember when Amanda Nunes came on the scene in Strike Force? She was fighting in the

the wrong way class and she wasn't as in shape and we thought that she might be the one to challenge cyborg and she stumbled a little bit but i think she has really put it all together and credit to our team at ATT for that i also put verdume on this list at the very end because another guy like rda from the same gym coached by the same guy who continues to put it all together what's that music is that a phone yeah uh you know he just every time i feel like i'm sort of doubting him and he continues to get better and we what he did against Kane, altitude or not, was outstanding. So I think when you talk about a guy who has improved,

and maybe this is a lifetime achievement award for him, Redoom, in my opinion, needs to be mentioned. All right. Any others, you want to mention there, by the way? No, that was it. I mean, for me, it was kind of tough because of the reasons I mentioned. I feel like Verdume and Dosan just were kind of looking in that direction already. But certainly this was their big year.

Holloway you mentioned, but Bader was my pick. That was it. Okay. Let's move along. Comeback Fighter of the Year. By the way, what happened to the applause? I know, right? Geez.

Oh, well, we didn't give out the award yet. We're getting applause for remembering to applause. Yes. Comeback fight of the year. Last year, I had Dominic Cruz. Who did you have? I had Dominic Cruz, returning to action. Yeah, that was great.

Great win. And now, comeback, I mean, I have not put any limitations here. You can say, okay, comeback is a great comeback in a fight or a career comeback, whatever you want. So last year, we were on the same page, Dominic Cruz. This year, you chose. This year I chose Patricio Pitbull knocking out Daniel Weishel at Bellator 138. Okay, explain.

I mean, there's almost no explanation necessary. Pitbull was saved by the bell at the end of round one. Looked like he couldn't even stand, looked like he couldn't get to his stool. Completely, he was shot. It looked like it was over. They went to the commercial, I believe, and everybody was wondering what the hell is about to happen.

Round two starts. He's still on shaky legs. Daniel Weishel's pouring it on. gets a little too aggressive, gets clipped, and goes down. One hitter, quitter, quitter, Patricio Pitbull. Craziest turn of momentum I've ever seen in terms of one guy looked like he was on his way to a win, and it didn't even look close, and then backing up against the cage, he hit that left hook and completely dropped him.

Crazy comeback, especially with the way, the idea of the way round one ended and us going into the break completely contributed to the story here. and when it looked like he still wasn't even recovered in round two and still pulled off that win, nuts, just bananas, bonkers. So it's interesting that last year you gave the award to cruise for a career comeback, but this year you went with an actual fight. It was too overwhelming of a comeback fight. Interesting.

I went with Giuliana Pena, who not that long ago suffered... Well, thank you very much. There you go, Giuliana. not that long ago suffered a devastating knee injury multiple places. There was a lot of controversy surrounding it, and we thought she would be gone for around two years. She came back a little over a year later, and apparently, according to her coach, Rick Little,

wanted to come back sooner, and she won, and then she won again in Houston. To me, this was a fairly simple one. I mean, this was a pretty clear-cut winner. Did Julianina Payne come to mind at all, or were you thinking fight the whole time? because of the way this fight played out, I was thinking fight the whole time.

Because this is kind of Cruz-esque in the sense of... Disagree. Cruz was three years, yes. But the injury was incredibly devastating. And then she wins twice. There was not the same level of attention and doubt placed on Juliana Pena that Dominic Cruz. You remember that? She was mulled.

She was attacked. Dana White started campaigning for her to leave the gym. Yes, but... And that was a year. For A.C.L.M. She hadn't established herself in the way that Dominic Huss had. I think, you know, Julianneau. Apena coming back is an incredible story.

A great comeback, and I'm happy to see her back. But this fight was just insane. It's indescribable. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor. Belator 138. It's a great fight, but Julianna Pena, in my opinion, deserves it. And, you know, she's arguably one fight away at this point. And that's maybe, you know, more of an indictment on the state of that division and perhaps

how shallow it is. but to come back from that in its own right is tremendous. And I know she's, she was involved with some little controversy recently and had some run-ins with the law. A very, I had some time to spend with her. Remember that my interview with her in Houston for her fight, she's wearing the sunglasses.

She's a very interesting character, but a very, she's a complex character, I should say. But I'm very curious to see how she puts it all together. And she's not even 100%. Her coach told me she's like at 70, 80% at this point. And that's, again, commendable that she came back and won twice in 2015. So honorable mention, a couple other ones. I know he lost.

I thought he won the fight, Frank Meier. That would have put him at 3-0 in 2015. Now, did you have any fights, or did you only have? I thought, I thought career. And you could go either way. I was the opposite. I only had. That's funny.

I only had fights. Let me tell you my fighters. Frank Meir, Damien Maya, Evan Dunham, Benson, Benson, Rosedama Yunus, Tam Dan McCrory, Nate Diaz, Alster over him. I forgot that I did think of Evan Dunham. I didn't mention him, but I did think of Evan Dunham. He was on a losing streak, and 2015 was a winning streak over some really tough guys. So I did think of Evan Dunham, actually.

But other comeback fights, Brian Foster coming back into the WSOF tournament after losing and then winning twice to win the whole thing. Great call. And Gilbert Burns dropping two rounds to Alex Oliveira before he pulled off the submission in there. that one was a great comeback. akin to, you know, what we just saw from T. City over the weekend. Very similar. He was dropping two rounds. It looked like it was over. And he came back and stayed undefeated. It was really impressive. But, man, for me, Pitbull knocking out, Vichel was

bonkers. So I like the fact that you thought of it from the fight perspective. And I went, That's what we do here. That's what we do. That's what we do. Okay, let's move along. Let's go to Upset of the Year. Last year. It was T.J. Dillishaw for me over Hennon-Barr. UFC 173. Who is your pick? My pick was T.J. Dillashal over Henan Brow. Okay. Which is also a little bit...

Well, no, no. We don't get a applause for last year's pick. Jesus. Although, you know what? I'll take it. I'll take applause for last year's pick. Again, it feels contradictory to your whole fight of the year thing.

But anyway, let's... How? How does it feel contradictory? The fight of the year can't be an upset? Fine, fine, fine. Who's your pick this year? My pick this year, I forgot to mention was Holly Holm.

Oh. When we were talking about it. I skipped over that, but Holly Holier-Hawks. So she could have won six awards. She could have won six. Jesus, we robbed her of one. Yeah, we did. We didn't have to get her back on.

There's no other one. Now, there actually were, this will be an interesting tidbit, there actually were bigger underdogs betting-wise, statistically. Tell us. Frankie Signs was a bigger underdog to Yuri Al-Contara

at Ultimate Fight Night 61. He walked away with the unanimous decision, Frankie Signs, that is. Afael Carvalho was plus 900. dog before closing it around plus 700 when he defeated Brandon Halsey at Bell'shor 144. So actually, Home defeating Rousey was not even the biggest upset betting-wise of the year, not even the second biggest, which is very interesting.

But in terms of the circumstance, it was clear that this was the biggest upset of the year because the people that were tuning in, the millions, were not ready for what was about to happen and Holly Holm shook up the world. By the way, how do you find that? Like, how do you find... Well, the betting site best fight odds has a tracker that keeps track of all the odds as they've come out and how the lines move. So I think that was as of the lines at five dimes. But again, this is not like an exact science because different books have different lines or anything like that.

But you can roughly keep track of how much that was. But by no book was she the biggest underdog of this year, though. Still, my pick is Holly Home over Ronorowski. I told that to her earlier in the show. I don't care about a little... There we go. Very nice. I don't care about a little, you know, a couple odds here, there, whatever. Points, whatever you want to call it.

The magnitude of the moment, it was... No one was giving her a chance. And I can't even put Holly Home over Rondraussi in the same discussion as some of those other fights because, like, those were just fights. At the end of the day, they were just fights. That's fair, but the Bellator one was a title fight. Let's not diminish that. But I completely agree with you.

Hey, I'm just trying to give credit where credit to do. It was a title fight. Yeah. By the way, Tyrone Woodley needs to stop responding to everyone on Twitter because he's just making it worse for himself. Like he's responding to Damien Miley. You can't do that, man. You're going to fall into a fight. I'm sorry.

I just noticed that right now. That was just such a big deal. Again, big stage. I've said it all about the fight. That's the pick. Without a doubt, in my opinion, Hollyholm, Ronda Rossi, another pretty easy one as well. Now, as far as honorable mentions are concerned, I don't recall if you said these, but RDA over Pettis, to me was an upset because I felt like everyone was picking Pettus, like everyone was picking Ronda. No one was picking Holly over Ronda. Uriah Hall over Musassi. Rumble against Gustafson to go into Sweden. It kind of felt like this was Feta Compli. It was the Gustafsson show. He was going to get a title shot afterwards. Goes in there, does this thing. It's just so much fun to see someone rise to the occasion and defy the odds. And, uh, Eddie Holder over Tiago Silva, much lesser scale.

But another one where everyone was like, this is an easy cakewalk, and the guy flips the script. So those are honorable mentions for me. But upset of the year, there's only one. Holly Holm, Ronda Rouse. You'll be talking about that one forever. Forever. One honorable mention for me, Uriah Hall, knocking out Gagar Musassi.

Also an honorable mention in knockout of the year. Just out of nowhere, a lot of people, you know, get up and down on Uriah Hall. Really pulled off a nice upset there. Yeah, he lost, you know, shortly thereafter. doesn't take anything away from the Loazzo finish, as I like to call it. Okay, so that's upset of the year. Congratulations to Hollyholm. Who did you pick again? I forget now. I picked Hollyholm. Oh, you did. Oh, that's right. Okay, let's go to Coach of the Year. Last year, I picked Hafeel Cordero. Who did you pick?

Last year, I picked Hafeel Cordero. This year, who did you pick? This year, I picked Hafeel Cordero. So did I. Now, is, okay, so last. year we obviously picked him because Verdum won the interim title and Dosangos was doing his thing and Kings MMA was rolling. Why did you pick him this year? For the same reason, he picked up two champions this year and I felt that there were other contenders. Obviously, American kickboxing academy had a good year, but if you look at a head-to-head right there, you had

Fabricio Verdum beating Kane Velasquez so that was one in his favor and yeah I just think that he's one of those guys that gets very closely associated with his two champions

in terms of being directly hands on and being their coach and I think that was a difference but for me and I said this last year the gym of the year and the coach of the year very similar it's kind of like a flowing thing but for me coach of the year this year was Raphael Cordero again

so I agree obviously dos angios for doom we've talked about them as someone was telling me this i won't say who but they were talking to me about just how good of a coach cordara is and of course he's a legendary coach been doing this for a long time shoot a box people are starting to flock to him and he's really established flocked him again i should say and really established that gym is one of the best in the world and it's a smaller gym with a smaller team but they were talking about what he was saying going into the seroni fight and they were saying that his line of thinking was okay, what does Donald Soroni do a lot?

He drinks. Let's attack his liver. What did Dosangos do in that fight? I mean, that's just brilliance, right? No one really talked about that. That's pretty amazing. So just a little snapshot of who HaFel Cordero is and how smart he is. I agree.

He was my pick last year. He's my pick again. He deserves it. And I think there were other, this was a tougher one for me than it was last year. Others that definitely deserve a mention. Javier Mendes, AK had a great year, somewhat marred by the fact that he lost to, you know, Kane lost to Verdoom, so that was kind of AK versus Kings. Mike Winklejohn deserves a lot of credit in particular because of what he did with Holly

Holme. And I just love, I just love watching him in the corner. He whispers, he shouts out Travis Brown. I mean, that's a brilliant mind as well. And Greg Jackson, obviously, his partner in crime. Dean Thomas deserves a lot of credit. He's become one of a, you know, one of those great minds in M.A. and he's doing that MMA analyst thing,

or I think it's called a scouting report, whatever it's called. We had him on the show. I think it was last year at this point, but he's become a great mind, and the guys at ATT think very highly of him, speaking of which Mike Brown has become a great coach as well. I'd love to see Mike Brown's record

when he's cornering someone because I feel like he's always in the winter circle. Again, this weekend with Dustin Porier, a couple others. John Kavanaugh, I think, deserves credit. Now, you know, Connor is Connor. He's the fighter of the year, so you can get credit just for that. But even, and I know that they stumbled a little bit, Patty Houlehann and Gunner Nelson,

Gunner had a big win earlier in the year, but what he's done with Ashley Daly and really just taking that gym that's just sort of this Irish gym and become worldwide. And now you've got guys like Makwana Mirr County and others that want to train there. Kavanaugh is a brilliant mind. one of my favorite guests on the show, one of my favorite people in MMA, he's very smart. And I also, this has nothing to do with Coach of the Year, but I love the fact that never goes to the press conference or anything, like just is off doing his own thing, doesn't want limelight, doesn't want the spotlight, doesn't want acceptance, is just happy doing his own

thing, a very, very unique guy. And I know Wyman faltered, but Longo, I think, deserves credit for what he did. up until that point with Wyman, Sterling's year, ally Quinta's year, Longo, one of the best in the business as well. So those are some that come to mind. Just wanted to mention,

you know, it goes beyond Dosangos and Verdume. B'Neil D'arouche had a good year. Shogun was won for one for the year. We forget about that, but he's a King's MMA guy. Gabby Garcia, you know, won her MMA debut. You have to give some credit there. And there were a lot of guys.

out of that gym. So I think, you know, as I said, it's, it's tough to separate Coach of the Year and Gym of the Year, but Raphael Cordero was clearly, if not Coach of the Year, you know, one of the in the conversation. Okay, so this is tied, as you mentioned, Jim of the Year. Last year I chose ATT, American Top Team, Coconut Creek. As did I. You did, okay. This year you chose. Jackson Wink, M.M.A. Oh, interesting. So, so you just said moments ago that coach. that's this is why I well I'll give my reasoning in addition to the idea that I wanted to split them up and I did that last year as did you

you pick Cordero and American top team but I split them up to give awards to two different gyms and coaches and things like that but I think that Jackson Wink MMA is a lot of it is you know when we think of that gym we think of a lot of coaches it's not just one coach whereas for King's MMA everybody instantly thinks of Raphael Cordero, he seems like the easier fit for coach of the year.

When you think of the gym, you think of Jackson, you think of Winklejohn, you think of Brandon Gibson, you think of Izzy Martinez, all those guys that are in there as a unit. So I think that that's why their success as a gym is easier to outline, and that's why I split it up the way I did. This year, they had John Jones, we forget, John Jones at the beginning of the year, beat Daniel Cormier, Holly Holme, nothing left to be said. We've showered her with accolades this year. Alistair Overeem, Andre Arlowski, they turned back the clock this year, or rather last year in 2015. Carlos Condet was getting himself ready for a title fight, which many people thought he won in 2016.

John Dodson beat Zach Makovsky and fought Maddie Meuse for the title. He didn't win that one, but he was in the title picture. Michelle Waterson made a successful UFC debut. They had, you know, highs and lows. John Jones's personal issues were some of the lows. Holly Holmes, you know, triumph and victory were some of the highs. but I thought overall it was an incredible year for them as a gym. So Jackson Wink M.MA is my gym of the year.

Very strong candidate, certainly deserving of your award, but I got to go back to Kings just for Dosanjos and Verdume doing what they did. Well, thank you very much. And, you know, as you mentioned, some other fighters coming and going there, to have two champions is very hard coming out of the same gym. We got that now with AKA, who is certainly deserving as well. Jackson Wink could have had three at this point in the span of a month. But unfortunately, Carlos Condit and Donald Soroni stumbled as of late.

But Kings, to get two undisputed champions in one year, that's got to be the gym of the year, in my opinion. Other, I mean, it's the usual suspects. American top team, American kickboxing academy had another great year, and they can have an even bigger 2016. Jackson Wink always has a big year, it seems. Star had a very good year and I feel like TriStar is starting to get back on track to a degree. Even though, you know, Duffy lost recently and Rory, maybe George potentially coming back could lift everything. And SBG, I think, deserves mentioned because when the best fighter in the world, as far as 2015 is concerned, comes out of there, you deserve to be mentioned as well.

Okay, several more awards to go, but let's take a quick break for Inside the Vault. How about that? Let's go to UFC 143. Let's go to Carlos Conda. in a role reversal from this past weekend, he beat Nick Diaz in a controversial one, and he became public enemy number one, and I had a lot of people say to me, oh, you're forgetting it wasn't that bad. Yes, it was bad.

People hated Carlos Condit after that fight. He was vilified, unfairly so. People had eye expectations. They said he was running and all this stuff. The Diaz fans came out of the woodwork. Carlos Condit walked away as interim champion. You know, it was close, just like it was this past weekend. He was on the receiving end of the judge of scorecards and walked away with the belt

and ended up staying in term champion until he fought GSP at UFC 154. But it's kind of funny to look back now because this past weekend he was everyone's darling, came up short, but still kind of considered the king without a crown, the young crown champion. Everyone's showering with praise and love. And then back in February of 2012, everyone hated him because they thought he was walking away with the belt when he shouldn't have walked away with the belt. So here it is inside the vault, my post-fight interview with Carlos Condit at UFC 143. Post-fighter UFC 143 alongside Carlos Condon and Carlos, congratulations on winning the big fight. How does it feel to be holding that belt? It's pretty crazy, man. You know, honestly, I need a little bit of time to process it and let it sink in.

But, you know, I'm a happy man tonight. Why do you think you deserve to win this fight? It's a little controversial, of course. I punched Nick Diaz in the face and hit him with harder shots. You know, was able to, you know, take him out of his game. I won the fight. Were you 100% confident that they would score it for you when the fight was completed? Yes.

No doubts. No. Which fights, oh, excuse me, which rounds do you think you won decisively? I felt like I won the first four decisively. You know, if I lost, if I lost that last one, it was because, you know, took me down and had my back for, you know, for a little while towards the end. It seemed like your confidence grew as the fight went on. Was that the case? Yeah, absolutely.

You know, I kind of laid the groundwork in those first rounds, hitting him with leg kicks, you know, slowing him down, taking his mobility away from him, which, you know, is a huge part of Diaz's game, walking guys down and trapping him up against the cage. So basically by taking that aspect of his game away, you know, I was able to open up a lot more. What was he saying to you during the fight?

You know, he was telling me to fight a couple times. He, you know, told me my nose was bleeding, asked me why my nose is bleeding. And, you know, I don't know, my nose is bleeding before I even went out there. I just, you know, I don't know. Picking you too much, right? Yep, absolutely. Yeah, I've actually had a cold. There were some talk that you were actually sick this week.

Is that true? Yeah, I've been under the weather for the last two weeks. The week before I came out to Vegas, I was pretty sick. I've had a chest cold, and all this week I've been hacking stuff up. You know, but I've been sick. Sick, you know, I had a cold. You know, I'm not going to let that deter me from doing what I came out here to do. Okay, two last quick questions.

One, did he hurt you seriously at any point in the fight? No. And number two, if George does come back in November or maybe even later, would you like to fight between now and then get another fight in? probably not you know that's something that I would have to discuss with my coaches and my management team but most likely we would we would wait for george all right thank you very much Carlos i'm sure you're going to hide from the cameras now right enough of these cameras all right all right arile take it easy right congrats the the parallels there to saturday night interesting

um you know obviously one time he's wearing the belt the other time he doesn't have the belt but even the george question is kind of interesting as well back then coming back from injury now feels like he's looming in the wings. So that's Carlos Condit, February 4th, 2012 interim champion. Will that be the only time he wears UFC gold? He remains to be seen. Could be on Saturday night. Could have been his last fight ever. It's going to be interesting. Okay, let's continue with the awards. Now it's time for event of the year. Last year, I chose UFC Dublin. Magical event in July. It was Connor McGregor versus Diego Branden. Dow, the passion, the emotion, it all came together.

I mean, one of the best events. Biased. No, biased to what? I'm not Irish. What am I biased? You were there? So, right, of course. That's part of the game. I have the privilege of attending many events.

That biased remark, maybe your dumbest remark. What do you mean they sauce me up? The Irish crowd sauceed you up. It was amazing. It was amazing. Got you all liquored up before you get out there. Anyway, what was your pick? Last year, it was the Australian event.

the Rockhold versus Bisbing one. All finishes. Every single fight was a finish. Solid, but didn't have the same motion. Anyway, let's go to this year. Your pick? U.S.E. 189. Oh.

There it is. Okay, why? I mean, the entire main card was just incredible. Thomas Almeida and Brad Pickett went to battle for three rounds, ended with a flying knee. Gunner Nelson,

knocking out Brandon Thatch. Or maybe, he might have ended in a submission, but I know he knocked him down, showed off his hands a little bit. Jeremy Stevens and Dennis Bermuda also ended with a flying knee. And then Fight of the Year came from this card, Robbie Lawler and Rory McDonald. And, oh yeah, some guy named Colin Magoober won a belt. Colin McGillicuddy. So, you know, 189, the main card of 189 should just be put in a time capsule

and shown to future humans because it was amazing. I think it will be very hard to ever top that main. card. And also, what made it special was they introduced the new graphics, they had those intros on the cage, the walkouts. It made it feel as great as 194 was, and that was a little different, and even 193, they were kind of the same. This one felt fresh. It felt new. It felt different. It felt unique. So I agree. UFC 189. It didn't end up being the main event that we were hoping for. It all ended up, you know, working out in the end. But it was an amazing. made it was a great fight the McGregor show was a lot of fun to to be a part of and

follow the co-main event ended up being the fight of the year the other fights as you mentioned the undercard was great it was middle july it was international fight week the the wayans were the best better than 194 more people were there it just had it all it had everything that you want out of an m m mma event and more it was it was magical it was uh you remember afterwards how we felt like i felt i felt i felt i felt exactly exhausted emotionally. It was a roller coaster. And even, and we'll get to this a little later, but to cap it off, you know, this guy who had been so brash and cocky and all, everything you want to say about him, but to see that side of Connor where he got super emotional with his family and almost

was at a loss for words, he was bloodied. Amazing event. And credited UFC for pulling it off, you know, the main event we all wanted fell through. And major credit to Chad Mendez for taking that baton and not missing a beat. And it was the right call then and he was the right guy for that situation. Unfortunately for him he came up short. But that was, I mean, I think that's another one that was pretty easy. Others that come to mind, UFC on Fox in Sweden. Fun event, obviously very unique in the big stadium and all. The main event was very memorable. Some great finishes. Remember Makwan's finish? Remember the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Sicilia, a Karakor Sani fight.

Hendo Musasi was a little disappointing. The main event finished. I mean, that was just a cool, unique scene to be a part of, and it was in the middle of the night. It was so strange being there in Sweden, by the way, because I never got used to Swedish time because the event was on, you know, American time. So it was on at, I think, 4 a.m.

The main event happened at, like, 4 a.m. So what I did was I just stayed on New York time. So I would wake up, I would go to, bed at like 6.7 a.m. Swedish time, which was like 12 or something back here. And then by the time I woke up at like two or three, it was dark already. The days are so short there in Stockholm in the wintertime that it was dark, but it was very cool to walk around. It was amazing city. So that was a great event. UFC 183 happened a long time ago, but that was Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz. Run through the rest of the card. That was a great one as well. UFC on Fox.

In Newark, Machita Rockhold, some amazing performances that night. And that kind of felt like a changing of the guard where a lot of the younger fighters stepped up. They were Max Holloway, Paige Van Zant, Luke Rockhold. That was a great card as well. And two others, UFC, New Orleans. I think that had like eight or so finishes on it. Something like that. I remember that one, headline.

That was supposed to be D.C. and Bader. Ended up being Hendo and Tim Boch and his great finish. And then the Scotland debut event was very memorable as well. kind of like Dublin, lesser degree, but a lot of emotion, local fighters doing well. The main event was a lot of fun, Bispingt House Ladies, so Scotland deserves a mention as well. Any others? No, you said it all. Okay.

Let's go now to walkout of the year. Last year I had Noad Lahat in San Jose. This is more of a bias pick. I'll give you that. That was, you know, a Facebook fight pass, I don't even know if fight pass was around. Maybe it was. That was the curtain jerker, but he came out to Matisiyahu. in the midst of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, and he was about to go to war,

he was about to go back to Israel. It was a very emotional one for me. I made a point to be in the arena. I got emotional. It was something, you know, it was very memorable, and it was touching and personal. So that was my pick. I know everyone disagree with me, but whatever. What was your pick again? That's fair enough, because I was also biased. My pick was B.J. Penn's last walk to the Octagon at the Tough 19 finale. Which was a horrible pick. Oh, my God. Because it was a remix. It was a remix. Like, I wanted, that was a sign of what was to come. I wanted... How dare you? But do not agree.

Do not... It was a bad choice. It was a remix. Do not question the greatest of all time and his choice of walkouts. I have erased that entire fight from my memory. Perfect. I love that. Okay, so that was your pick. I remember he's like the second half of his career from him. What do you got for this year? Walkout of the year was Ashling Daly, walking out to zombie by the Cranberries at Ultimate Fight Night 76 in Dublin. Yes.

It wasn't, you know, the biggest stage. It wasn't the debut in Dublin. They had already done that. But the entire crowd singing along with her just made it feel special. And now, you know, it's hard to stand out in terms of walkouts. You know, we see so many and there's a lot and you tend to forget them. Obviously, the Chenate O'Connor at UFC 189 and Chad Mendes also having, you know, live music was something new and fresh. But even with that, I still think Ashling Daly's walkout was more.

genuine and it felt very sentimental and it was a really touching moment. Yeah, actually, I didn't really know about the connection between that song, the cranberries, and I'd even know that they were from there. So that's a great choice. It didn't come across as well over Fight Pass. I don't know why. Like, I've seen some videos afterwards from some, you know, in the crowd videos, YouTube and all that, and I got a better sense for how special it was. I wasn't there, so maybe if I was there, it would have meant more. To me, my pick is UFC 189. Again, Connor McGrueger, Shnade O'Connor.

I have a unique perspective on this one because we were doing, thank you, thank you. We were doing the, we were doing the Way-in show. Remember, back in July, the tough finale was on Sunday, so it was the day after. And we were doing the Way-in show in an empty arena. The Wayans were taking place at the Sands at the Convention Center there at International Fight Week. So it was DC, I believe Brian Stan and I doing the Wayan show for FS1. I think that was FS2, whatever. And she was rehearsing.

And it was, you know, there were rumors of her being there that she was going to perform. And then there she was rehearsing. And I got to hear it over and over again. And I actually think she did better in the rehearsal than she did live. It seemed like something was wrong, you know, bothering her with the reverb. I don't know. But it seemed like she was a little off. Nevertheless, the moment when he walked out and he turned around.

to her and just seeing her come up like that. And what made it special was the UFC has never done anything like that before. So it felt different. It felt bigger, felt unique. And the connection there singing that song, Foggy Do, it's unfortunate that they couldn't get Rihanna for Josealdo. That might have topped that one. But the connection to Ireland and who she is, she's a megastar from way back in the day. And the way he embraced her was just a super, a super cool moment. So that's my pick. Do I have any honorable mention? no. I only had one. Mine was yours.

Okay. There's others as well. I mean, every time Rhonda comes out, every time Chris Wydenman comes out, a lot of great ones. Robbie, by the way, has vaulted up my rankings for walkout of the year. And even the ones at Risen were great as well. But this was the culmination of it all.

And I hope that they don't do it too often. I mean, it's cool the way they did it. I don't mind doing it sometimes. Like Joan Jett with Ronda would be super cool. the way that they executed that and the way it played off on television and in the crowd was very special. Let us debut one. Let us debut what?

A category. Oh, yes. Crowd of the year. So last year, we didn't do this, but I thought it would be good to give the fans a nod. I wanted to give the fans who go to the events and make the events. A crowd can make a break in an event. Look at UFC 186. Maybe the most depressing event that I've ever attended because the Montreal crowd just wasn't

there. in Lange, it's not their fault, it just wasn't the right card for them. And it was a card that was kind of decimated and it was supposed to be Dill Shab Row, which wasn't the right fight either, but Rory was supposed to be on the card against Lombard, didn't happen. Anyway, that made the card very depressing for me. A strike force in Cincinnati back day, tremendous card, but no one was there. So it kind of ruined it for me. So a crowd can make or break a card. This year, your choice for a crowd of the year is? Easiest one of the whole bunch. Wow. Fight Night 63 crowd in Fairfax, Virginia.

That's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a tongue-in-cheek award. That is the best crowd of the year because it produced one of the best moments of 2015. It's good call. Which was raging out Ayakinta, asking if the crowd was booing him, and it turns out they were, and they were also giving him the middle finger, and he gave it right back to them. Incredible moment. I mean, this, this award goes to the crowd. and Al. It's a joint award. But the crowd at Fairfax, Virginia, for having the gall to boo Al,

they get the crowd of the year for me. Okay. So if Al doesn't respond the way he responds, and that might be the post-flight interview of the year if you want to do that. We don't have that category. Are they still the crowd of the year? No, it's a, it's a given take. It's a given take. And they gave and then they took. And by the way, this was a Saturday afternoon show. in early April, first day of Passover, if my memory serves me correct, this was not exactly like, I mean, you're taking liberties and I'll accept it. Excuse me. I'll accept it because of what they produced. They, they were a part of the show in that sense. But let's be honest. Not exactly what I think of when I think of the credit year, but I'll take it. My pick is Scotland because they had

been banging the door. They had been berating the UFC in, in particular Dana White. They had been asking for a debut event. They've been asking for the UFC to come there. They got this new arena is all good. And they showed up. And it came across on television. They were boisterous. There's moments where fighters are jumping into the stands and all their heroes won. Joanne Calderwood won and Robert Whitaker and Stevie Ray and Michael Bisping. UK fighter wins. Very big and important fight for him. So Scotland to me was a great crowd. I mean, I could have gone to Dublin again. I could have gone to UFC 189 here. there were a couple that came to mind. Sweden was a solid crowd, but Scotland to me was far in

away. This was the easiest. I mean, I keep saying that about a few, but this was a pretty easy one for me. Others, Manila was a great crowd. Seoul was a great crowd. Mexico, UFC 188, another great crowd. Interesting that it's a lot of the international ones. Boston was actually, remember Boston in January? they showed up when the Patriots are playing in the conference championship. So that was a great crowd. Actually, surprising to me, UFC 184 a great crowd. Wyman Belford fell off, but man, the way they reacted to Ronda, it was a pack crowd. A lot of celebrities there, it felt like a big deal.

So L.A. UFC 184 deserves a mention as well. Any for you? Any more? No, I mean, it's tough. I don't get to go to all the shows, so it's tough for me to kind of really gauge that. But I thought this was... I'm surprised you're not picking Glory in Oklahoma or something. How dare you?

That was not this year. And also, it's not MMA. But the Amsterdam show would damn sure be up there. Yes. Okay, let's move along to Feel Good Story of the Year. One of my favorite categories. Last year, I picked young Jake Stone King who attended UFC 171.

Beautiful story. I won't go over it again. But if you want to learn more about him and his story, just Google Jake Stone King. King, so that was my pick for a feel-good story of the year. What was yours? My feel-good moment was it was a tie, actually. I had two. I cheated, but it was a tie because I couldn't pick between Justin Wren coming back to M.MA.

Wait, last year. We didn't do this last year. Yeah, yeah, we had feel-good story last year. No, we didn't do it. I just told you what my pick was. Yeah, you might have written it down, but we didn't do it on air. Strange, okay. My pick was this year, Sorry. This year was Justin Wren coming back and tied with Mark Munoz leaving.

So it was one guy coming in and one guy coming out. You can't pick two. It was a tie. I couldn't separate. I had a lot of tough decisions to make, and you got to pick one. No, who's your pick? No, ties. Tie.

B.S. That's a cop-out. Especially for this award. Okay. My feel-good moment of the year, Cody Garbrandt walking out with young Maddox Maple at UFC 189. we've talked to Cody about this on the show young man they both made a deal you beat cancer I'll make it to the UFC and when I get there you're coming out with me

so that's just beautiful stuff and then I got to interview them afterwards together for FS1 Cody walking out with Maddox Maple was just amazing UFC 189 against Enrique Briones honorable mention Mark Munoz and yours are good as well

but you got to pick one tied feel good moment of the year Cody Garbrandt Maddo Mariple All right. Let's move along to story of the year. Now, remember how I kept saying that there were easy ones, easy ones?

This might have been my toughest one. Story of the year. Last year I picked the UFC's expanded schedule, plus the rash of injuries that they had to deal with, made for a very bad year for the UFC. What was your pick? My pick last year was the rise of Connor McGregor. Interesting.

What's your pick this year? My pick this year is the fall of UFC champions. interesting because I feel like it'd be it would be disingenuous to kind of pick one I feel like this encapsulates it very nicely you know one of the big story of 2015 John Jones was stripped of his belt Kane Velasquez dropped his belt Chris Wydenman dropped his belt Anthony Pettus dropped his belt Jose Aldo dropped his belt and Ronda Rousey dropped their belt all in one year's time so at this time now having said all that at this time last year I said Connor McGregor's rise was the story of the year And in this year, that rise continued, as did Ronda Rousey's.

So we saw, you know, two champions at about the highest you can get, potentially Connor McGregor could continue to ascend. And at the same time, we saw all these champions fall. So I thought it was just an interesting year. And especially when we come to feel that a lot of the champions in the UFC are invincible. People talk about how long they're going to rain and how they'll never be beaten. In 2015 alone, we saw a litany of champions dethroned. So I think that overall encapsulates a lot of stories,

but that was the singular story for this year, the fall of UFC champions. So that's a good one. Actually didn't even make my honorable mentions. There was so much here, and this is what made 2015 one of the most interesting years to cover the sport and the best years. And it was just unbelievable when you think about every month something massive.

And that's what made the MMA beat in particular a lot of fun to do as well. These are my honorable mentions first. Reebok, I mean, it's been a whole show just on their year and their inclusion in the sport and their involvement in the sport, but just the beginning of the Reebok era, gigantic, the beginning of the USADA era. I mean, these are things that we're going to be talking about for years and years to come. These, you know, these two stories in particular change the face of the UFC, the shape of the UFC, the future of the UFC, change the sport, changes the way fighters decide where they want to fight. I mean, just gigantic. Others, the rise and fall of Ronda Rousey, which kind of goes under

your umbrella, the rise of Connor McGregor and the World Tour playing off of that. World Tour was just an amazing execution by the UFC and putting it all together and how it culminated in Dublin was stealing the belt. That was amazing. And playing off my pick last year. The UFC rebounding for maybe their worst year, they're having their best year. Incredible turnaround for the UFC. That was a huge story. The return of Kimbo Slice and Bellator, their best ratings, and finally doing that Ken Chammock fight.

The potential breakup of Team Alpha Male and the definite breakup of T.J. Dillishan, Team Alpha Mail was a very big deal. So those are all big stories. But to me, oh, and one more. this one was kind of tied to my my final pick but it's not the fall of john jones and then his his comeback which will actually play out this year that was i mean that could be the winner right there the fall of john jones sure huge and what would happen and him getting arrested and going to jail briefly it was just mind-numbing it was surreal but and and i hate to do this but there was one

story that kept coming up throughout the year and they're even tied to some of these and it's it's the madness that is the Nevada Athletic Commission. They don't deserve that applause. Take that applause away. But I hate to say it, when you go back to January, right, and you see John Jones, it comes out that he got busted for a cocaine when he shouldn't have been tested. And then he has to go and do these interviews and stuff like that.

Who is to blame there? The Nevada Athletic Commission. And then Anderson Silva gets pop. And of course later on, we have months later, his hearing. That was under the Nevada Athletic Commission. Nick Diaz. One more could you say that could be the winner. But that was because of the Nevada Athletic Commission and what they'd done to him.

And hopefully they will fix this sooner rather than later. I hear that business is picking up there, by the way. Again, Nevada Athletic Commission. Nevada coming out with their new guidelines, punishments, and not even adhering to them with the Nick Diaz situation. situation and completely ignoring the USIDA stuff, Hussimar Paul Harris, being completely inconsistent there, and then, and then refereeing and judging. It always seems to come back to the Nevada Athletic Commission. So to me, the story of the year, and it's cheating a little bit, but when I

started to think about what happened to Jones initially, what happened to Nick Diaz, what happened to Anderson Silva, Hector Lombard, and that was a good thing. But it just kept feeling like the Nevada Athletic Commission was a part of the biggest stories of the year. So story of the year, Nevada Athletic Commission and how they became these figures on Fight Pass. And it's just, and I hate to do it, but I got it. It just kept coming back to Nevada, the fight capital of the world, kept coming back to them. Do you feel me? I feel you. You mentioned a ton of of storylines that are going to play out that played out last year and will continue to play out. Yeah, I actually hate this one. Because I feel like Reebok and Usada and Diaz on his own and Jones on his own, his two stories, Anderson.

I mean, those could all win. But it just felt like the Nevada Athletic Commission kept coming back and rearing its ugly head. By the way, by the way, funny thing, I see them from time to time at the events. None of them say hello to me anymore. Well, you've been hard at work. Yeah, hard at work. Okay, let's move along. That's the story of the year.

What a year it has been. What a year. It's just been an amazing year to cover. MMA. Can't imagine how they top it in 2016 as a sport. I mean, we are so lucky. I know you're not a journalist, but you do a show. I am. And I know some people don't like to believe that, but I have a piece of paper that says I'm actually a journalist from Syracuse University. I'd like to see it. Yeah, it doesn't. It's, I'll print it for you. The, the amount of stories that come out, like big earth-chattering stories, just amazing. I feel like we are, we're very lucky to be covering this sport. Okay, let's move along to moment. of the year? What was the moment that defined 2015? You gave it up earlier when you when you talked to Holly. For me, it was the moment Holly Home knocked out Ronda Rousey. I feel like there's almost no really no other choice for this. It was one of the easier ones just because simply the world was one way, then she knocked out Ronda Rousey and the world

was a completely different way. In fact, an opposite way, where Ronda Rousey was, you know, a punching bag. And she was at the bottom when she was formerly at the top. And people couldn't wait for that opportunity. And Holly Holie Holm was the plucky underdog and then became the invincible champion. No swing of momentum happened in a greater way in 2015 than Holly Holie home knocking out Ronda Rousey. It was the moment of the year. By the way, Ally Quinta chiming in on Twitter.

You see that? Yep, Jabroney. Jabroney crowd of the year. What a guy. Allie Quinta. Gotta love him. A great pick. And honestly, did I say this already?

Much like Story of the Year, a moment of the year is very, very hard because Connor winning is a very big deal and DC winning the belt. What a moment that was. And the post-fight interview was fantastic. Holly's knockout is a moment in its own right. Holly's reaction to the knockout

and the win and the way she was like, look at me, world, you know, that moment and she's crying. That was a great moment. UFC 189 and Connor's, reaction to winning. And in particular, I'm thinking of snapshots here. Like, if I could tell someone, this is 2015, jumping on the cage and embracing John Kavanaugh and then embracing his family and how emotional he was backstage. Remember that moment with Kormier going backstage after he lost

to Jones and crying? And even him at the press conference, that was a year ago. So, I mean, what, that was an amazing moment. Nick Diaz lying down. in the middle of the cage. I mean, what a moment that, what a year it was. The UFC 189 Wayans, and in particular that picture of Connor going like this, you know, flexing from his back and looking out on the people.

But in the end, I picked one moment, and I'm thinking of a snapshot here, I'm thinking of a moment where I was just like, holy shit, these people are on a completely different level than me. I will never be able to top this. I will never be able to be like this. this. They have something in them that I don't have. This is, if I could show someone why I love the sport, this is a surreal moment.

This is a moment that I feel like I'll remember forever. It was the moment right at the end of the fourth round, Robbie Lawler, Roy McDonald, when they just stood there. Sure. And looked at each other. And no one was going to move. And they had just been beating each other, and they were going to the final round. And Rory was on the cusp of maybe becoming a champion. He didn't end up.

But like that moment, and John McCarthy has to get between them. these two guys wanted to keep going. And they were literally going to go until they could not go anymore. And that's what happened to Roy McDonald. So I could have picked any of those other moments I just mentioned. I went with that one because it's my fight of the year. And it's just, like, there are great fights. And like what happened with Robbie and Carlos, where they held hands, that picture is iconic.

And that might be my moment of the year for next year. But those two guys staring at each other was just like, what in the world? These guys are zombies. They're literally zombies. They're inhuman. Unbelievable. So that's my moment of the year. Great moment.

Okay. Now, let's look ahead to 2016. Three more to go, and they're not so much awards, but it's fun to look ahead. Last year, we said our story to watch in 2015 was, can the UFC rebound? And hey, they rebounded. So I was sort of right there. I mean, that was a story, and they rebounded more so than ever before. They had their greatest year ever.

What was your story to watch? My story was the MMA careers of Brock Lesner and C.M. punk. What's the status? What are we going to see in 2015? Hmm. And not much of anything. Nothing. Brock Lessor. Not the story of the year for 2015.

Wow. Okay. That was a swing and a miss. Story to watch in 2016. What is it? The greatest of all time is back. GSP? Incorrect. Oh. Jonathan Jones. Oh.

The greatest of all time is back. And in any other sport, this would be celebrated in a remarkable way. and now John Jones, having taken some time off, is coming back. And I think the people who he's going up against are in big trouble. And I think he's going to have a big year in 2016. And I think this is the biggest story of 2016. The moment he steps into that octagon, all hell is going to break loose. And this coming from an unabashed Cormier lover.

I love Daniel Cormier. But make no mistake about it, John Jones is the best light heavyweight right now. He's the best light heavyweight ever, and I think he's the best fighter ever. And him returning in his prime to this sport is the story of 2016. All the other stuff is window dressing for him returning.

So that's a great one. New York is obviously one, the return, potential return of GSP, see M. Punks eventual debut. These are all great ones. But to me, the story to watch in 2016 is free agency in MMA because this has become a growing trend, especially as of late, tail end of the year. Benson Henderson, Al Jemaine Sterling, Alistair Overeem in particular, fighters are going to fight out their contract. And this is good. This is healthy. This is a good part. This is evolution. This is how sports should be. This is not, you know, a fighter

turning their back on the U.S. you're being grateful. This is what they should do. And sometimes you gamble and it works. Sometimes you gamble and it doesn't work and then you kind of have to come back and take a little less than you want it. But to me, I'm curious who else is going to do this and who else is going to talk about it? You know, some people like Al Gore-Overeign didn't want to talk about it. Others like Al Jermaine wanted to talk about it. Benson didn't really want to talk about it. There was another one that I think I'm forgetting. That was a high-profile one. But I know of others that are about to come up. And I think it's going to be really interesting to see, does one of them go sign with Belator? And does that start the Dan Henderson trend? The snowball effect?

You know, will someone go off the grid and go to one FC or a World Series of fighting? What happens? So I think that's a really interesting new story to watch this year. There are a couple here and there, Gilbert Melendez and Dan Henderson, as I mentioned, but never quite like this. And I feel like a lot of guys are starting to talk about playing out their contract and just doing what other athletes do. Fight out your deal, become a free agent, test the market, see how much you're truly worth. It's going to be really interesting to watch. That's my story to watch in 2016. My fighter of the year for 2015, boy did I screw up on this one. I said it was going to be Anthony Pettis that did not, of course, come true. He ended up losing his title in March, who saw that

coming and didn't fight again. He was supposed to fight in July, got injured. is going to be fighting in a matter of days now in Boston, hopefully against Eddie Alvarez. That was my fighter of the year for 2015. I picked that last year. Who was your pick? One Daniel Cormier, who I picked for two years before that as well.

I think, yeah, two years before that as well. Daniel Cormier has been a running tradition for my fighter of the year looking ahead. Okay, so, I mean, you could have made a case that he was, I mean, I know he lost early, but he rebounded with big wins over Rumble Johnson became champion, and then the gusts of fight. So that actually is a solid pick.

Who's your pick for this coming year? I mean, after what I just said, it could be nobody else other than John Jones. He's coming back. And if we thought he was good before, imagine he just took a year off to rest himself, not due to injuries, cleaned up his life. I can't imagine how good he's going to be. And I'll say this. I think he's got a better chance this year of being a two-division championship. champion than Connor McGregor does.

And that's scary. That's a scary thought. And, man, John Jones is going to come back with a vengeance this year. He's my pick for Fighter of the Year. Now, obviously, this is a tough one because it all depends on activity. Some guys are not going to be as active as others. Donald Seroni's always a perennial contender. Guys like that, Robbie Lawler, he just started off the year with a huge win.

So it's tough. But I think even if John picks up two wins, he's going to be that. guy just because we've missed him. It's a great point. The main thing I was looking for was activity on a big stage. So you got to look at who's fighting, you know, at least three times. Who's going to be active? Who's going to win? So look, I know he wants to do this. I know he wants to be active. And he's going to be fighting in big fights. So I had to go with Connor again. I just feel like he's going to be really active. Can we get some applause, please? Yes. There it is. I just feel like he's going to be very active this year.

And so it might be an easy one, but I got to keep riding that train. My pick for 2016 Fighter of the Year is Connor McGregor. Okay. Last category, and it's a personal one for us, it's who's the guest that you want to hear from the most in 2015? My pick last year? No, in 2016.

Oh, yes. Well, yes, 2016. My pick for last year was Lorenzo Fertita. and I struck out on that one. I tried to get him episode 300, wanted nothing to do with it. So I didn't get him. Still the one guest that is eluding us.

Who was your pick? My pick was one, Bjorn Rebney. Oh, interesting. Okay, we didn't get him either. So we struck out on both. Who's your pick for this year? My pick is one,

Bjorn Rebney. Wow, me too. You know, I didn't even remember. I did not even remember that you're stealing my pick right now? No, I didn't remember that you were actually you were actually on that bandwagon since last year.

Yes, I was. And the Yawanna champion bandwagon as well. So obviously, Mexico. The Mexico tweet. We need to know what's going on. And I have some other ones, or do you want to weigh in on Bjorn first?

No, go ahead. Some other ones that, I broke them into a few categories. You know, ones that we've seen many times, but are some of my personal favorites. Alla, Quinta, Will Brooks, Tyrone Woodley.

We got those. Dominic Cruz. Yeah, but I'd like to see them more. I'd like to see them throughout 2015, Connor McGregor. Now, some that we haven't seen in a while. Here's a list. Joseo Aldo, Josh Koshchek, van der LeSilva, King Moe.

Did you know that we didn't have King Mo on in 2015? You're kidding. King Moe was actually supposed to be on this week. I'd love to have King Moe back. We didn't have them on once? Yeah, I checked into it. Fador Emilienenko. Yes.

Gina Carrano. Yes. Jonathan Brooking. Brookins, I'm sorry. I want to see what the hell is going on with that guy. Yes. Andre Drummond, proven himself to be an MMA fan. We've had NBA players before.

Let's get Andre Drummond. The Rock, I think that would be an interesting one. Almost had him. Morrow Renalo and Boss Routon. And then Prebeck, who disappeared. Yes, that's a great one. Wow, you killed it on this one. That's the list.

Way to end strong. I got nothing to add to that. I did pick Bjorn just because I find it fascinating that not a single person has talked to him. He hasn't done any interviews. And, you know, I mean, just, wow, what a story to be told there. But I agree with every single other choice that you just mentioned. Wow, that was a great list. Mexico. Mexico. And you know he was saying that because of the World Cup, but it's still just funny. One of these days, if we ever go back to Mexico, I have to do a video of just asking the locals there if they've seen or heard of him. So there it is. Our awards,

2015. That was a lot of fun. there we go hope you enjoyed it thank you for following along do you have any questions we have three minutes left should we address anything else yeah let's do some questions

let's do some questions quick just tweet out our final award okay do you think that Bjorn Rebney is actually still on Twitter and we'll see us talk about him oh of course he's down there in Mexico

looking at it yeah right should kind of get an immediate rematch plain and simple if all options are on the table all options are on the table Woodley Hendricks do they get a title shot

GSP it has to be GSP well because here's the thing let's not forget about one thing as great as that fight was as amazing as that fight was as much as I think Condit won the fight and you think so as well right I do

third round you give it to him I do he did skip over a few people right in particular Tyron Woodley so okay yeah his chance and the Nevada

Athletic Commission doesn't put the right people in again rearing its ugly head but if GSP is available GSP versus Robbie Loller is a gigantic fight and I actually disagree with Rory GSP's coming back for a belt he's not coming back to just be you know some guy fighting in quote unquote super fights now do you think the timeline for that makes

sense though is it not possible for Condit to get that rematch and then GSP fight the winner of that well first of all I mean that was quite the beating so when does he come back and I think I think they need something big for UFC 200. If you look at the way things are going,

I don't know if the stars are aligning just yet. So who's there, ready, willing, not going to fight before then. The return of GSP is UFC 200 worthy. Wow. So if all options are available, then I go with GSP. We had some controversial decisions

on Saturday. Soto versus Tanaka, Ansaroff versus Kish, Nevada. Athlete versus Rono. Larkin versus Tune. And of course, Loller v. Condit. What did you think of the judging this weekend?

Can I just add something? Have you noticed that the judging really hasn't been a big issue as of late? Florida, this. You know what I mean? Sure. But when we come back to Nevada, look what happens. Because they keep putting these dinosaurs who know nothing about MMA or these unqualified people. It's just amazing.

So, yeah. What do you expect? Nevada Athletic Commission. Steep bass performance. next in line for the title shot. What do you think of that? Man. Should he leap over an Overeem? What's what's the thoughts on that? I couldn't help but think of Frankie Edgar during that whole exchange because I could see as Mark mentioned I could see them being like look

Overim we want to resign you. What do we got to do? I want a title shot. Okay. You know, I could see it and he certainly is deserving of it given you know, a win over JDS. So man, believe it when I see it. That's what I'll say. Dustin Poyer and Joe Duffy, the incredible performance by him, did great on Fight Pass. I think Dana said that it was the most watched fight ever on Fight Pass. A, what do you do with Dustin? And B, do you think they'll do more fights like this on Fight Pass? Okay, so to answer the second part first, yes.

I mean, just look at Anderson Silva fighting Michael Bispen. We haven't had a chance to talk about that. That was announced over the break. That's on Fight Pass. Wow. Unbelievable. And just look at, you know, Page and Sage and that event. So I actually think it makes a lot of sense. And if you're already subscribing to Fight Pass,

I don't understand why you don't like it, especially if you're a European fan. Like, if you were a fan of Joseph Duffy, the fight is happening earlier. You don't have to stay up until 4 a.m. to watch it. I had a couple opportunities this past weekend to speak to Eric Winter, who's a guy I'd love to have on this show, who's the new head of Fight Pass.

They hired him from Yahoo. and he is a brilliant mind, and this guy gets it. I mean, the stuff that he was telling me I was just blown away, and his goals and his aspirations for 2015. Aunt Evans, another guy who I love who works over there as part of that team, and they have some big things. I mean, just looking for a fight show that is actually coming out today on Fight Pass, this episode, without giving away too much,

you get a glimpse of potentially the man who will be the first to face CM Punk in his UFC debut and another potential sign. I mean, it's just the way they're doing it is great, my man, Rory Karp, is producing that for first row films. What they're doing with Fight Pass is ahead of the game. It's smart. It's everything that you should be doing with a platform like this. It's not putting, you know, these lower-tier events.

So you take some gambles here and there. You ruffle some feathers here and there with your partners. But to me, it's very smart what they're doing. So I do see this becoming a trend. And I also see bigger fights being put there, like, Fight Pass prelim headliner. that's going to become a thing. So it's going to be real.

That's another story to watch that we didn't mention. The rise of fight pass and how much stock they put in it because I think they're going to put a lot. What about what's next for Dustin? Oh, Dustin. Well, he's got a shattered nose. Credit to him for continuing to fight and sticking around to do interviews.

Mazel Tov to him and his wife on the news that they're going to be parents, that's beautiful. Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, he looks great at 155. Clearly, that was the right move. Love the confidence. So young, too.

Let me look at the rankings here very quickly. Man, I Quintas got some time, but maybe that would be an interesting one, right? 10 against 12? I love it. Or Daryush? Those are something to come to mind. There's a lot of options. Haven't done them?

Haven't done them? Yeah, lots of stuff opened up with that move, so I love that. Okay. What about Duffy? With this loss, does that end any of the Connor McGregor shine? No. As we've said before, a loss doesn't mean as much you win one or two in a row. It's still a big fight. It's still a fight that means a lot for that particular market. How many could he lose before realistically? A couple. And maybe in a row. But showed hard and maybe it was a step up too soon. Who knows? But that's still a grudge match. And don't forget, Connor could sell anything. And you put that fight in Dublin, that's a big deal. And with the idea of him possibly making a move to 155,

maybe he doesn't get a title fight first. Maybe he faces Duffy. He will not face Duffy in his first fight. That's obvious. Well, at some point, faces Duffy and then fights for a title. It definitely stunts it, but I don't think it kills it. What about the Fador fight? I think you covered this a little bit with Mark.

What did you think of it? I mean, it was exactly what they promised it would be. I just didn't feel the need. Like, I went to bed. And I was in Vegas, and I went to bed, and I woke up. I stayed up and watched it live. The whole thing? I watched it, both nights.

Both nights? What time did it happen at? It started at 1 a.m. Eastern. No, what time did the Fador fight happen at? Six, I want to say? What did your wife think of this? She was up with me. She watched it, too.

Well, she works till midnight, so she was up with me. It was us watching. Would you watch the stream and you put on your TV? Yeah. It just, I had no... I had no expectation going in. I mean, it was going to be what it was going to be. It was fun.

King Moe was, as you said, was the story of it, and that was awesome. That was awesome. That was awesome to watch. Actually, the story of that thing was how Belator, they came out looking good. Yeah, all their fighters did really well. Yeah, Brennan Ward as well. As did Bob Sapp, a friend of the show. There is a place for Horizon, and I hope they succeed, and it's just fun.

It's nostalgic, the ring, the showmanship, the walkouts, the presentation. It's fantastic. There's a special place. I'm not hating on it. But I just, okay, I'll go. him a pass. Like, it's great. Having him back, showcase. It lost in the ratings.

It lost in the ratings to Kid Yamamoto, but there's a place for it. But I just, I don't want to see him just fight nobody's. I mean, could you imagine here in the States if anyone of his stature fought someone who was 2 and 0? Come on. That's all. I just want to see where he's at, because I actually think that he could be a player.

To be fair, he had an extensive kickboxing career. 2-0 in MMA. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Look, I'm not claiming it was. wasn't a squash match, but what I'm claiming is that let's not act like, you know, they threw him in there with somebody who was straight off the streets. Fine, fine, fair enough. And it was fun to see him again and the walkout and everything.

Loved it. But again, it was a squash match. No, no doubt about it. But the rest of that card was fun. King Moe, that wasn't a squash match. That tournament was tough. I have nothing bad to say. I even like the Gabby thing.

It was fun. I have nothing bad to say. Yeah, that's another one. They were evenly matched there. They were both low on experience. So it wasn't like, you know, somebody was being fed to a lion. Soroni at Walterweight. What are your thoughts on that?

I wonder if it's too soon, you know? I know he didn't take a lot of damage, but that's a quick turn. He's lost to Dosanjos twice, though. Yeah. Oh, you know, actually, here's a little plug. I did an interview with Serroney. He didn't do much media, but that's going to air this weekend. Oh, excuse me, this week, at least I think it is, on UFC tonight.

So Donovan, if you're listening, you better air that because I don't want to sound stupid. And he talks about the line of thinking and, you know, if he's, if he's, if he's, going to stay there, so I don't want to give too much away, but I just wonder if it's too soon. But then you have to think, Donald Serrani, like, the best medicine for him coming off a loss is just fight again. Yep. So I can't even, like, rationalize it because I'm not really cut from the same cloth as him. And his WEC brother Benson Henderson did a similar thing. Yeah, so maybe it's not too soon.

He does have like a month and a half. So what the hell do I know? It's a fun fight. It's definitely, it wasn't their first choice for that, obviously, because he just fought and he could have been champion. but I don't hate it for a fight. What do you think of it? I think, man, the thing with Donald Seroni is I legitimately believe he doesn't give a shit about the belt. I legitimately believe he wants to stay active.

If he's fighting the best in the world, whether it's for a belt or not, it's all the same to him. Get paid, hang out on the ranch, you know, do water sports, whatever else. So, cool. Let's get him some more fights. I will say this. I think the IV comes into play here. You know, he can't use the IV. He was using it before.

He has a legitimate intestine injury, got a huge scar. Now he doesn't have to worry about that as much. So maybe, you know, and yeah, he's lost twice to the champion. So fresh coat of paint, make a run on 170, Benson, playbook. Why not? We make New York's resolutions. Perhaps it's getting in shape or smoking. What resolution should the sport of MMA as a whole make?

Man. That's a tough one. It's a good category. Look, we can talk about business. and stuff. We could talk about judging even. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is health and safety. And I still feel like weight cutting is an issue. And is banning the right thing? I don't know. But I just feel like we're one decision here or there away from something really bad happening. Well, it already happened in one FC.

The only thing, I'm talking about, I'm talking UFC, biggest stage, because God is my witness. If something happened like that in the UFC, I mean, the pitchforks would come out. Sure. We'd all be in trouble. But absolutely, I don't want to. Diminish that. I don't want to devalue it. What happened there is an absolute senseless tragedy and shouldn't have happened. And I'm happy that one of C's least trying to fix this. Shouldn't have even gotten into that. So that's got to be it, right? 100% agree. Yeah. Fighter safety, the weight cuts need to stop. And credits of 1FC for taking swift and drastic action. Now, I don't know how practical it will be, how that will actually, you know, turn out for them. I'm sure they're going to lose a lot of fights if they stick to it, letter of the law. but taking steps in the right direction is how this change comes about and credit to 1FC for doing that.

At least trying, yeah. At least giving it a shot. I mean, what else can we hope for? A few from Twitter and then we're out of here. All right. What needs to be done with MMA scoring? And it's not just the Nevada thing. It happens all over.

What do we need to do? Is the 10-9 system outdated? Is that what it is? I think that's it. Now, I don't know if the Pride way works because that's so subjective. Okay, but let me ask you this. You thought Condit won, right?

I did. If it was pride, who wins? Tough, but I guess... I mean, that's also tough, but I guess I'd say Lawler. So me too, but it shouldn't be, I guess, you know, because I don't know what the right answer is, but I do lean towards Lawler, but that just proves that the pride way doesn't work either

because that's like, okay, look, a fight, it starts, and then it ends, and usually the way it ends is, okay, that guy's the winner of the fight. That's the way it was back in the, you know, in the playground. So that should be the general way of thinking. However, if it's so close toward the end, what do you do? Well, I think one thing is when we were watching Risen,

the 10-minute first round is really a good thing, in my opinion. God, that's asking for a lot. I love that. I thought it really made a difference, and it really, you know, it made it a lot easier to determine the winners from the losers. Yeah, I see your point, but I don't see that ever. I'm not saying that that's realistic to be implemented,

but it's a thought. It's better than getting bad 10-9 rounds. 10-9 system doesn't work. I'll tell you what does work. And what I mean by this is I hear a lot of people saying, you know, to be the champ, you've got to beat the champ. But that's wrong. That's 100% wrong.

When a fight is over, the judges don't think, okay, like, did he do enough to beat the champ? Well, that's pride. Yeah. But here we're scoring round, round, round. And I'm not necessarily against that. I just don't like the way they get to that decision. You know what I mean?

Like I'm not against saying like, look, here's a fight, here's a fight, here's a fight, here's a fight, here's a fight, here's a fight, five fights within one fight. And who won, you know, every five minutes. I'm not against that. I just don't like the way they come to that decision. I feel like there's got to be a better way. And I've thrown out points here or there. There just has to be a better way to decide who wins. This system doesn't work.

The pride system works to a degree. but I also think it won't work because you'll get people who don't know what they're looking for so that's a whole other show but to answer the question it's wrong

and it's time it's high time that they fix it educating judges is one step yeah and the other thing that I brought up multiple times today judges make nothing so there's really no incentive

to get better or to find the best or for people to want to do it how could guys who are making peanuts decide the fate of multi-million dollar fights

it doesn't it doesn't equate after cona mcgregor is dominicruz the best trash talker in m mhm a may even be better than connor mcgregor in your opinion is he it's a different kind of trash talk he's more cerebral

like he tries to like get under your skin in a different kind of way like a like he chaste to nag you or the way he argues a point like when delisade is like i'm gonna knock you out but how tell me how it's just it's a different kind of way and it's almost not fair to compare the two

but he is tremendous I think one of the big differences is Connor McGregor talks about himself. He pumps himself up to the highest degree. And that, by association, makes you lower than him by pumping himself up. Dominic Cruz is ruthless. He's going to tell you why you suck. Rather than just pumping himself up. He's going to pump himself up, but he's also going to tell you why you're the worst.

Yeah, make you start doubting yourself. Which really is an aggressive and effective way to break somebody down. I felt bad for T.J. Dillishaw there. But at the same time, it can be a big grading for the person obviously involved, but also the fans. Whereas Connor McGregors is a lot more lighthearted, it's a lot more showy. Dominic Cruz can rub people the wrong way. Personally, I think it's amazing, and I think he really is underrated in that department.

But I think this fight with T.J. Dilloshal is going to make people see that he's the real deal when it comes to trash talk. So it is very entertaining, and he's really coming to his own as a personality. I remember doing the versus shows with him, and he showed up. and he didn't really know what he was doing. He's really turned into a great analyst, a great mind, great trash talker. But this, and we sometimes throw this out when it's unnecessary.

This is a legacy fight for Dominic Cruz in the sense that he has put it all on the line. He is claiming that this guy copied him, that this guy has been the fake champion, all that. He's trying to discredit him and his coach, and it's an alpha male thing, even though he's no longer with alpha male, T.J. This is a legacy fight.

If he falls short, the way we remember Dominic Cruz won't be the same, in my opinion. He has to win this fight because of everything that he has said. So it's all well and good. Let's see how he does in Boston. This is our last thing we mentioned, Giuliana Pena. Is there any more info about the UFC and her interaction after being charged with assault?

So I want to be responsible here. I have talked to some people about it, but it was nothing on the record and it wasn't in official capacity as far as the UFC is concerned. So I will look into that. give me a mulligan on that one and try to get some kind of statement. That one sort of flew under the radar. I don't know if it was because of the holidays or whatever, but I know she's okay, and I actually did text with her, and she said she was okay,

but I don't have an official statement from the UFC as far as what they're going to do, if anything. That's it. How about 2015, huh? How about 2015, yes. Why did that person write, thanks Ronda? Is that their name or? Yeah, no, thanks. See, thanks period.

Ronda. Oh, it's very rare for someone to actually sign And also that's the classic MMA fan spelling of Ronda with the H that came out of nowhere. And Connor with two ends. Sure. Why do people mess that up so much?

Anyway, what a year. Great job on the awards. Thanks to the guys in the back as well for the applause. One more applause. Come on. Uh-oh. There it is.

You can hit my music. A great... I mean, look, if this year is going to be judged, you know, on the performances of both Frank Eager and Tyrone Woodley, we are in store for a potentially great year or it's all downhill from here

because those were tremendous interviews. I mean, those guys brought it. And the right kind of guys to start things off because they got a bit of a chip on their shoulder, they want to get something off their chest, they feel like they're being wronged or potentially wrong. So that was fantastic stuff. Love doing the awards.

But it is time. to put 2015 to bed. Perhaps the best year in the history of the sport, perhaps the best year in the history of the show, perhaps the best year in the history of MMAFighting.com. A great year, all in all. And by the way, thank you to the good people over at the World MMA Awards, Fighters only,

for not only nominating MMAFighting.com and myself, but this show for the first time. So if you're interested in voting for us, go to worldMMA Awards.com and do that. I really appreciate that. Very nice, very kind to them. And if we win, New York Creek is going to fly out and get the award. Actually, we won't even know.

Maybe you'll fly out next year to get the second award. Who knows? I'm just very excited that we got nominated. Anyway, I want to thank Frankie Edgar for stopping by. I want to thank Tyrone Woodley for stopping by. I want to thank Mark Romundi for stopping by as well. And Holly Home. Wow, so great to have the female fighter of the year on the program.

And she got emotional. And that got me emotional. And it was just a lot of emotion. But this was a great way to start the year. Thank you to all of you. I missed you. Thanks for watching our best stuff shows. Thanks for asking where we were, where we've been. But we're back, baby.

See you next week. Same time and place. Until that I say, peace. So, Maria. Support for this show comes from Figma. Figma is the place where teams turn ideas into the world's best digital products. And now, Figma is introducing a faster way to make those ideas real with Figma Make. It's an AI-powered prompt-de-code tool that turns your ideas,

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