MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 316

Episode Date: February 15, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Aljamain Sterling & Demian Maia in studio, Alistair Overeem, Phil Baroni, Chris Holdsworth, and Marlon Moraes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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at O-D-O-D-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-com. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with a mixed martial arts hour back in your life. On this Monday, February 16th, 2016, I lied. It's actually February 15th. I'm so excited for February 16th. That is, in fact, my son Walter's second birthday, so I'm thinking about the 16th. It's the 15th. My bad.

Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio. Happy birthday. It's my son Walter. I love him dearly. He'll be watching this in 10 years. Why?

Because this is a historical. Day, my friends. This is a big episode of the MMA hour. You see him right there. The hottest free agent in sports today, the Funkmaster himself, Al Jermaine Sterling in studio, live and in living color. We'll get to him in a second. So just keep your hair on. I was going to say keep your hat on. We'll get to him in a second. Let me run down today's show because there's a lot to get to today. By the way, today is actually a holiday here in the United States. So if you're celebrating President's Day, if you're at home, kicking. back, relaxing, celebrating George Washington's birthday. I hope you're doing so, watching this show

live to find out where this man will be fighting next. If you are in the great province of Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, it's Family Day. Did you know that? Yeah. It's Family Day. Did you know that? Yeah, I have a very big family. Okay, yeah, that's right. We learned about that last time you're on the show in studio. That was back in April. Anyway, it's Family Day in Alberta. In P.E.I., it's Islander Day. In Manitoba, it's Luis Rialde. In Nova Scotia, it's Nova Scotia Heritage Day, but here on the MMA Hour, it's Funkmaster Day because, as I mentioned, Al Jermaine Sterling is going to announce in a matter of moments where he will be fighting next, which promotion he has signed with. On top of all that, at 2 o'clock, will be joined in studio by Damien Maya. Legend himself,

Damien Maya. Let me just play right over there. Okay. We'll also be joined at 310 by Phil Barone, 330. We're going to be joined by Chris Holdsworth to talk about his future. He's now coaching, as you heard last week on this very show. Chad Mendes told us that he's more of a full-time coach these days at Team Alpha Male. We'll also be joined by the World Series of Fighting Bantamway Champion, Marlon Morais. Will this man be fighting Marlon in the upcoming future? We'll find out. And at 4 o'clock, to keep with this theme of free agency and whatnot, Alastair Overim, who just announced at the top of the hour that he has re-signed with the UFC. He alerted the world via Twitter.

He'll be joining us at 4 o'clock Eastern Time to talk about why he has chosen to re-sign with the UFC, what's next for him, all that good stuff and more. We'll also hear from you throughout the show. Hit us up using the hashtag VMMA hour or leave our question or comment in the comment section below. But first, let us get to the man in studio right here. Funkmaster himself, Al Jermaine Sterling. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.

Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. So you're about to in a few minutes announce where you have re-signed. Have you actually put pen to paper or are you going to do that later? We've actually put pen to paper. So it's good to go, ready to go. And we'll see who's going to be the first opponent to get strangled next. Okay, but before we get to that, this process, which really came to light, like,

I think people started to recognize that you were a free agent right before your fight against Johnny Eduardo in December, right? Yeah. So it's been two months, December to January, January, January, to February, right? Just about. It's been two months. Did you enjoy it? Was it everything? Because this is a new trend.

Like in other sports, NBA, MLB, free agency is a normal part of an athlete's life. For MMA, it's becoming a new thing. Did you like the process? Was it everything that you thought it was going to be? I did enjoy the process. I was a little bit, I guess, uneasy about it at first. I just wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen. I mean, of course, because you never know where you're going to end up.

But it was an interesting process for sure, and I think I learned a lot from it. Okay. And yeah, so I'm excited, man. I'm excited about the decision, so we'll see what happens. Are you happy? Are you happy with the way things turned out? I am happy. You are? I'm 100% happy with my decision. And I think I got a better deal for myself than I originally would have had. Okay. So there were some talks before your last fight about signing a deal before the contract ran out. You think that by rolling the dice on yourself, by playing out that last fight, you ended up in a better spot? 100% I think

I believe in myself you know 100% confidence in my skill set and my team so for me to go out there and kind of shortchanged myself

and knowing that I'm going to be able to bring something bigger to the table and in due time when I actually get the opportunities to showcase my skills

on a bigger platform I should say so when I do get that opportunity I know I'm going to be bringing in that money so for me to take what was originally offered

would have been it would have been bad in terms of my, I don't even know, I got a loss for words right now, but it just wouldn't have been good for what I know I bring to the table. So I just didn't want to just go out there and just take anything just because it was the offer that was initially on the table because that's why they call it renegotiations. You know, you renegotiate and both sides should be happy. You know, it's not just, here's an offer, take it or leave it. It shouldn't be like that. And unlike some others, in particular, Alist Overeign, like, Overeign didn't want to talk about

his contract situation. Like, he was almost the first. offended when I asked them about it. You were very open. You were talking about the process. You did a great article with Mike Chippeta at Bleacher Report. Talked about it with me, with others. Why were you so open about it? Why did you say, all right, this is the right way to go. Just let me lay the cards out on the table here so everyone understands where I'm at. Why did you go that way? You know, mostly it was because I got some backlash for some fans was talking about me being playing the victim and I was implying the race card and all kinds of crazy stuff and I was just, I just wasn't happy with that. So I just wanted to lay down on the table exactly why I was feeling the way I was,

why I was so frustrated, because I felt like I did everything the right way. I finished my last three opponents. I won my last four fights. I won my all my fights. You know what I'm saying? So for me to do all those things and then kind of had that all fair place in front of me, it's kind of like, well, I was hoping that, you know, I would get something better because I'm like, before my, before me the last fight, the one with the Mizzogaki, I was like, all right, that was the money fight. I just, I came in unranked, choked out a guy in such a way that hasn't been done since 1999. Damien Maier hasn't even done that.

I don't think he's ever even done that before. So for me to do something like that, and I love Damien Maia, he's a great grappler, but for me to do that as an unranked fighter and come in and do that to the number six ranked guy in the world, who fought for a world title in the WEC, fought the top guys in the division, and get off of what I got off of it.

It was kind of like, you know, I'm on a high, and it was just like, ah, it just came, everything that came crashing down for me. And I was like, no, man, this ain't right. And I want something that's going to make me happy. and yeah so I feel like I did all the right things and I've been vocal and now people can see exactly why I felt the way I felt. It wasn't more so just complaining and having my hand out like I'm entitled to this. Sure.

I understand the market. I understand why it works the way it does, especially even now. I understand why it works the way it does even better. What do you mean by that? In terms of bringing in the numbers. Sure. And you look at Conne McGregor, he's a perfect example. He brings in the numbers so he deserves what he gets paid every single penny.

And I even understand Sage's point. So for them to pay him what they pay him, I get it. Although he's not a very talented fighter, he's going to put people in the seats. You know what I'm saying? And that's not a shot of him. I think he's got a crazy upside, crazy potential, but I just don't think he's there. And the exposure that he was given so early in his career at 19 years old, I think you let the kid develop a little bit more before you throw him in there with someone

who actually really knows what they're doing because now you kind of kill that hype train. And it's unfortunate for him. But now people are probably going to be looking at him. Like, oh, now I want to see how he bounces back. So I get it. He has a following. People are going to want to see how he does and everything like that. So it has to make sense.

So if you're asking for a number where you're not actually bringing in those numbers yourself, it's kind of like you're not really justified. But again, when you're in the highest organization, the pinnacle of the sport, all these young fighters, you know, I came up growing up, I can't wait to be in the UFC. I can't wait to be able to fight on TV in front of everybody. It was almost synonymous. the UFC. If you weren't in the UFC and you weren't talking about fighting in the UFC, people were kind of looking at you and it's just like, well, oh, you fight, but, you know,

I don't really understand what you do. But when you tell them, oh, I fight in the UFC, it's like, oh, now I get it. Now I see exactly what you do. You do that, do that crazy sport. I'm like, yeah, it's not really crazy. It's kind of, it's controlled, but yeah, that's in the cage and all that. Yeah, so that's pretty much the, that's pretty much what I came to understand throughout this entire process. You've got to bring in the numbers. I just feel like I didn't get my fair shake on getting a chance to prove myself to show that I can bring in those numbers if you give me the opportunity to put me on a platform where I can display my skill set. And I feel like even though I was burying on the prelims, I was able to do a phenomenal job

with promoting myself, promoting all my fights. And I think the message got out there that I'm a great fighter. And I speak well and I do all the right things. I'm not by any means a bad kid, I would say. So I feel like I'm a company guy. I do the right things. And good things are having to good people. You put in the whole working effort.

And that's a great point. I think that you are infinitely more popular today, as we sit here today on February 15th, than the week of the Eduardo fight. Like what you've done in the last two months to keep yourself in the news, to make this into a thing, even today to make this into announcement,

shows there's a lot going on here. Like you understand the branding side of things, the entertainment side of things. Would you agree with that assessment? Forget about the fact when you were here in April with Eddie Gordon before the Musugaki fight. Like you were really under the radar. Now it feels like you are someone that the fans on social media and everything talk about

because you were able to, you know, with the chain and all that. A lot has changed in the last two months. Yeah. Do you agree? Yeah, 100%. And I definitely agree with that. I feel like I was able to use the platform I was given and take advantage of the whole situation and spinning in a way where it played out of my favor with or without the help of anybody else, you know.

So I definitely want to thank all the media outlets for doing their job and helping to to promote my story and promote it in a positive way, not make it look like I'm trying to start a revolution or anything. Because that's not ultimately what I was doing. I was looking out for number one because at the end of the day, no one's going to look out for number one like you are. So that's the way I'm looking at this. I'm 26.

I got a couple more years before I'm 30. I want to be in my prime making the big money, you know, money where I can actually save up and put it away to do something. I don't want to make just enough and be able to just say later on in life, oh, I was a UFC fighter. Like, that's cool and all. But if you don't have anything to show for it, you're going to be all crippled up and limping everywhere and cuts a low your face and, you know,

I don't want to be resentful to the sport. I want to be able to leave the sport on a high note knowing that I got something out of it and I took advantage of it and use it to my advantage and hopefully develop some businesses along the way. And I'm thinking long term. I'm not thinking just about now. I am thinking about now, but I'm also looking out for my future. All right. Let's not beat around the bush anymore. I could just feel the people online telling me, all right, I'll get to it.

Where is he fighting next for damn sake? So here's what we got. Here's what we got. We've got the new, look at that World Series of Fighting logo. That is the new World Series of Fighting logo right over there. So we've got some logos here. That's going to go right over there. World Series of Fighting.

Okay, here we have, you know this one. This is Bellator MMMA. They just caught the big fish. Benson Henderson a couple weeks ago. You heard that first on this show. World Series of Fighting has, of course, Marlon Maris, their champion, who will be joining us later. That's very interesting.

So we have World Series. Excuse me. We have Bellator right over there. you know these three letters. That is the UFC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I don't know if you guys are familiar with them at home. That is where Mr. Sterling last fought, the UFC. There it is.

Put that over there. And of course we have one FC who's making some big moves over in Asia. They've got an interesting bantamweight name Bibiano Fernandez. So could this be the next home of one Al Jermaine Sterling? So I'm going to put that. I'm just going to slide this over. because my arms actually aren't long enough. So these are our four logos, in my opinion, the four biggest organizations, the ones that I feel

like, and after it's going to be interesting, you didn't consult with me. And also what you didn't consult with me about was, I don't even know where you're signing. Did you notice I didn't even ask you? I was actually happy about that. I want a natural reaction to this whole thing. And you've done a nice job of keeping this quiet. No leaks, no nothing. So we've got the logos right here.

Anything before you announce you want to say about this? Or did I miss an organization that you talk to that isn't here? or is this pretty much cover at all? The serious ones. I was going to say, I think you missed Cage Fury. Oh, no, no. Okay. That's why I used to fight, though.

I know. CFFC, ring of combat. I didn't think those were going to be major players with all due respect to them. Yeah, I know. I know. All right, fair enough. All right, so here it is.

Al Jermaine Sterling about to on live webstream. I was going to see television. Not quite. One day we'll get there. Is going to announce where he'll be fighting next. Without further ado, the floor is yours. Can we get a little drum roll here? There it is.

So here we go. The floor is yours, my friend. Let us know. Where will you be fighting next? There it is. Oh, oh, oh. He's picking it up. Oh, oh.

Okay, now he's going to World Series for a second there. All right, here it is, guys. It is the UFC. There it is. We're back. You are back. You are back. We are back.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. How do you feel? I feel good. I know there's a couple guys who claim they want to fight me now. All of a sudden. So let's see a little.

guys are going to stick to their guns and now that I'm back, let's see if they're going to actually want to step up and actually fight me. Okay, so wait a second. You, not that long ago, four or five days ago, I saw you talking some smack to the Belltor guys, Caldwell and Warren. He doesn't want that heat. Were you throwing us a curveball there? Because I think after that a lot of people were thinking, all right, he's going to Belltor. I thought Beltor was the frontrunner for a second because they need a little more juice at 135. Ultimately, why did you decide to stay with the UFC? The contract was a lot more lucrative than the original offer. So in terms of the upfront money and the back-end money in terms of becoming the champ

and things like that, there was a lot more to offer with those guys and they superseded. So ultimately, there's a whole bunch of different things that go into the marketing, the publicity. And of course, you can't really put a value on, I guess the UFC name, you know? That alone has value in itself where you, like I said earlier, you go out there and you say, I fight for the UFC, people automatically know exactly what that is. Whether or not they watch it, but they know exactly what that is, you know? So ultimately, I think I made the right decision and I got some extra incentives in there. Oh, nice.

I'm happy with the decision I made. So I'm excited, man. I'm excited because I honestly believe I am the best guy in the division. I think I have a style that a lot of people don't really have an answer for. People who, they're, I guess they're skeptical of my hands because I don't really box. I'm like, well, why would I need a box if I have the cheat code and you can't get past my legs? Right. It's like playing a video game and I just keep hitting the X button.

You can't do anything about it, you know? So I was like, all right, whatever, man. You can sit there. I know what I can do. My coaches know what I can do and I'm fully capable. So if the time ever comes when I need to do that, then I have to put some hands on somebody. Okay, so along with the new deal, do you have your next fight? Was this a package offering?

No. No next fight. not what I know. Okay. What I know? I don't have an opponent as of yet. Still waiting for that. What do you think? I got some, a couple guys who are willing to dance. Yeah? Yeah. I saw you reference Brian Carraway. Yeah. Is that finally going to happen? I don't know, man. The guy's saying I finally have something to offer him. I don't follow this MMA crap. So I didn't know you a free agent. I'm like, bro, you are lying. Who are you lying to? If you go on any website. Yeah. I'm like, there's no way you're telling me that you're so wrapped up on the Misha and doing all that stuff that you don't

know what's going on in the MMA world. What did you say at the pressant? You said that something about... I'll say if he ever stops hiding under Misha Tate's tit. Did you get a heat for that? From like, maybe like three people. Okay. Overall...

Not him. No, no, he didn't say anything. But that's my thing. Like, he didn't hear that. He didn't say anything to that. I'm like, as a man, you just got to, you know, grab your nuts and freaking say something back, you know? Don't sit there and just take...

I don't know. That's another story. But that guy's, I don't think he wants to fight. They've been trying hard to book him in a fight. The most recent one was Dodson. not going to happen. Yeah. They've been striking out left and right for various reasons.

Is that the number one choice? Do you want him? Like, do you feel like that's the fight that gets you into the title picture? I personally like that fight because, one, I already know I'm going to win, but two, on top of that, I think he's a phenomenal grappler. And I think there's a different stylistic fight for me. I'm fighting all these strikers and I'm making them look like they never grappled before.

So, I mean, Johnny DeWardo was supposedly a black bow night. That was like light work. You know what I mean? And I'm not trying to be cocky about it, but it's just like I'm just going by based on the performance. And for me to watch Caraway, he's got some pretty good submissions, had some close fight with some guys. But I think overall it's a different style of match up for me. And I think it would be a different fun fight. A lot of scrambles, a lot of different positions.

And I think it might force us both to probably stand up and box, and I think I'll kick his head off. When you signed the deal, was there any roadmap to the title laid out, like your X amount of fights away? UFC thinks that, what do you rank right now in those silly rankings? Fifth. Fifth. The rankings are a little whack. I don't know if you've ever actually looked at them. Look at the people. I mean, with all due respect to the people actually ranking them. I haven't heard of many of them. Anyway, we don't need to get into all that. But they go by them, apparently. So you're fifth right now. Have they laid it out and said to you, okay, X amount, two more, one more. What are you looking at? There's no clear-cut path. And that's another thing. When it came to making this decision, it was like, there's no guarantee, you know, with a title shot, whether you win or not. It's more so. the front runner and I think I will be that front runner after one more win so you give the fight to favor

that's the big money fight at our weight class yeah I've also spoken in favor but I'm like you you've earned it you you're the veteran you've been around for a very long time this rubble this trilogy needs to happen between you and cruz sure so after that happens I think I get one more win I think I'm the next guy in line and if uh tj wants to do something about it so I get back in there you could do it too but you're interested in that these guys I don't know I'm I'll fight all these guys. Sure. I have no doubt in my mind that these guys won't even be able to touch me.

Wow. It's just a different. My style of fighting is just different. I legit feel like I have a cheat code the way I fight in my style. It's just my grappling, I think, is elite compared to these guys. And not to say just my BJJ is really, really good. It's just the way I mix it up with my striking, my kicks. I think I have a better MMA blend.

It kind of reminds me of John Jones. I think that's why people were using that comparison a lot earlier in my career I just wasn't knocking guys out like he was early in his career but I was more so just submitting everybody but it's just that blend I think that's what MMA is

if you have a better blend of your skill set then I think it makes you a harder puzzle to figure out besides someone who's just looking to take you down besides someone who's just looking to lay on you or just looking to box I think I think I fight a lot differently than a lot of those guys

I get my hands on the crews take them down and I get them down like TJ did I'm on his back. He's not getting out and I'm going to put the end to kind of squeeze on him. Any one of those guys. And I'm just confident in that.

I truly believe that. So forget, okay, it looks like you're probably going to have to fight someone because they're doing all signs point to Faber Cruz. But you think you're ready for that now. You think you're ready for the cruises

of the world right now? I think so. Wow. And like I said, I've only been able to show glimpses of what I'm really capable of doing. I open up in the gym and I open up because

I know I need to be comfortable in case it happens out there. So it's MMA. Things are unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen, but I'm prepared for it. So I'm not really losing those sleep over that. People's opinions on my striking abilities. Like, all right, we're wearing little gloves and you expect me to stand in the pocket and trade. Like, no, I'm going to fight the smarter fight.

And I'm going to use my cheat code. Okay, correct me if I'm wrong here. I heard that World Series of Fighting made a serious push. They did. Was that number two? they were I would think so okay I would think so

can you tell us why you ended up so you're saying it was UFC then then then then Belator Belator and World Series were were neck and neck pretty much neck and neck but I think Which was the other

Obviously you chose UFC Which was the other that you were seriously weighing It would be World Series Really? How come? Just the money that they were offering Really? Were they offering you a media title shot? I think so.

I would think. One fight. I think so. Okay. But that was the difference. It was kind of like that upside of, excuse me. No problem. The first fight or am I going to wait?

There was a bunch of different things that play here. So for me to kind of just jump on that and not really look at the longevity of things in terms of the overall back-end income, then it didn't really make as much sense if I truly did believe that I can. could become the champion in the UFC. So I think I made the right financial choice, and I got the better offer. So I'm definitely a happy year with the contract that I got. Did you agonize over this? Like, did you have sleepless nights, or was it a no-brainer?

No, I think it was pretty close to a no-brainer. Okay. Yeah. Did you ever get involved in the talks? Did you meet with the UFC guys, Dana Lorenzo, Sean Shelby, or did you leave that to your management? mostly up to the manager but um i mean i did have a few conversations with shelby but nothing really in depth it's kind of you know we kind of talked about it but we kind of more so

said you know you guys will speak about this i don't want to that's fine i rather just have this drink with you and kind of just hang out yeah yeah and uh you were in Vegas not that long ago yeah i saw you at the awards the amma war show yep um you won i won yes congrats on that our website also won the one that you're on right now i'm may fighting and my submission wasn't up there What's up with that? It's really weird. I called them out on that. Did you?

You guys dropped the ball. Why did you go? Were you there for the fights? They brought me in to play poker. So I played poker. Did you win? Not very good. I did win a few hands, but I didn't knock anybody out.

Did you make any money? No. All right. I actually lost a lot of money. Really? Well, you know, it's interesting. Not that long ago, you were talking about how, you know, maybe I'll go back to school or it's better for me to be a teacher.

Do you still feel that way, or now do you feel a little more secure? I feel a little bit more secure. Okay. And that was one of the things I spoke to Dana White after the fight with Johnny Eduardo. I talked to him, I think after the press conference, we came over to the side. We spoke a little bit. Did he approach you or did you approach him? He approached me.

What do you say? He comes up to and he says what? He just pretty much congratulated me on the win. And just the way I handled the entire situation. I guess some people probably thought I was going to, because I was a free agent, I was going to go into a press conference and they were worried about that. I was just going to just be like a time bomb. And I'm like, dude, I'm not like that.

Have I ever shown any type of glimpse to be a madman like that? Wouldn't be very smart. Yeah. So, yeah, he just pretty much just told me like, congrats, man. You know, you handle yourself with like a professional. And I told him, like, you know, I just don't want to be a teacher anymore. I don't want to have to go teach. I want to do what I love full time.

And I want to earn my money. Let me earn my money. Like, I want to be able to make enough to cover what I would make as a teacher. So I'm happy. So you feel like you're in that spot now. I'm in that spot now. If I win the belt, when I win the bow, I should say, then it would be a lot better. More kicks in, obviously.

More kicks in. How many fights is this on this deal? This is... I don't know if I even want to say it. You don't want to say it? Fair enough. I'm just wondering if this is like... You've heard of the term like starter home?

No, no, no. A starter home is like the first house that you buy, and you're happy with it for a few years, but you have aspirations for the bigger house down the line with the big lawn and blah, blah. Is this the starter contract? Like, this is the first time that you've really gone through this. When you signed with UFC, there wasn't a whole big thing.

So is this the starter contract for you, or is this the one that's really going to, you know, secure your future? I think this is a starter for sure. I think, yeah, I think this is going to be the starter. Okay. So I'm excited, man, to get 2016 rolling and get back in there, man. Going down to Hawaii, get some training in with Max Holloway and those guys. Oh, that's interesting.

That's going to be towards the end of this month. How did that get set up? Looking forward to that. I spoke to Max about it. I spoke to one of his guys. And why him? And why there? I think Max is a stud, man

Max is a stud, Max is a beast. He's the only guy to go a decision with Connor. And he had some moments in that fight where he looked really, really good. So I think even now he's lighting the world on fire at that weight class. So I think that would be a good move for me to go out there and get some training with him. So it would be like a traincation. Okay. I've never been in Hawaii.

So that's good fun. You're going to Wainai? Yeah. Why not? I heard that's a tough place. Yeah. Have you heard this? I've heard some stories.

It's not quite Maui and Honolulu from what I hear. But, you know, I'm not. making any judgments. Actually, Wyden's wife is from there. Yeah. Did you know that? Yeah. But you're not leaving Seralongo. No, no, no, no. Okay. We're just doing a little cross-training, a little visiting, you know? I like that. So there's nothing wrong with traveling. I love to travel. Now, you were in Boston for the Dillishaw cruise fight. Yeah. You had a front row seat or relatively close. Relatively close. Close enough that I couldn't jump over and run into the tiago. Did you actually, did you actually consider that? I did, but then there was a bunch of security guards over there. I was

Like, yo, the moment I hop over this thing, I'm getting tackled by cops, is this not going to get. You didn't sign your contract yet at that point. No. I think that's the reason why I wasn't put in the front. Yeah. What did you think, though, from what you saw, like, were you impressed with the, you know, okay, Cruz wins. Who did you think won? I thought Cruz won.

I think he did a little bit more in terms of laying in the cleaner strikes, and I thought he made TJ miss a lot. And TJ was just kind of striking out, just whiffing at air. So for me to see that, I think that plays a factor as well as being the aggressor. but what about the guy who's making a mess? You can't touch him. You know what I'm saying? So he's laying in his strikes.

He's frustrating you. I don't know. There's a lot that goes into scoring a fight. I think Cruz lost the last two rounds. I think Cruz won the first three. Okay, so what did you think of his actual, like, did you think, okay, Cruz is back? He's as good as he was before. He's better than before.

Like, what'd you make of what he put out there? I think he's the same old Cruz. Same old cruise. I think he took Mizugaki down and caught him in a bad position, which is why he was able to get such a spectacular finish. So when you have that kind of a situation that just happens in the MMA fight, you never know what's going to happen. And then he goes into another title fight with a top guy like T.J. That's not going to happen. T.J. is not, you know, he's a really, really good and smart fighter himself.

So he's not going to put himself in any bad situations where he's going to get caught and potentially finished. So I think that was just a battle of styles. Both guys move a lot. Cruz moves a lot more. And he did his thing. He did the, I think that was the cruise we were seeing before he got injured. So you say that you think you have the cheat code. Even on cruise, a guy who's so hard to hit?

Yeah, what's he going to do? Take me down? And then what? Like, seriously, if he takes me down, what is going to happen when I grab a hold of his neck? You know what I mean? So he takes me down, then he's forced to scramble with me. That's not going to be good for him or his ankles or his knees because I'm going to be looking for limbs. I'm going to be looking to choke him out.

So I'm 100% confident anywhere that fight goes. He's not much bigger to me. I think he's maybe an inch tall or half an end. inch. He's going to press me against the cage. He's going to move. I think I have a perfect recipe for that. My coaches believe it as well.

What about just catching him? Just catching him? Yeah, like, okay, he doesn't take you down, but you want the fight to go to the ground. How are you going to get your hands on him? How are you going to take him down? You cut the cage off. You don't go running at the guy and start just throwing windmills at him. Hopefully you're going to hit him in the head.

You just look silly. It just doesn't even make any sense. There's a way to cut off guys who move a lot. And there's certain parts of the body you want to attack. And I think C.J. started to do that in the fourth and third round, fourth and fifth round. Yeah. When you start chopping down his legs the right way, chopping his legs down and getting out the way. And I think you start to see Cruz slow down a lot.

So that was an interesting fight. And I think that showed me that I definitely could beat this guy. And I was like, yeah. I think I'm 100% ready. Wow. Yeah. So. I would like to see that.

I'm just telling you, if I throw a body kick, he grabs my leg and attempts to take me down, I would be on his neck. so fast. It's not a doubt of my mind. What are you, like, sister, what are you going to do? I just really want to know what are you going to do because he's not throwing haymakers at me. Like, where's the real threat? Right.

So, I don't know. Obviously that you're oozing confidence. You're very confident, man. Were you this confident back in April? Like, the last time you were here pre-Mizugaki, were you this confident we just didn't know it or have things changed over the last few months for you after the two performances?

You know, I wasn't as confident. I won't lie about that. And, you know, I spoke to why a minute. And he said to me, he's like, you didn't think you could beat those guys before? Like last year? Like, we spoke recently. He was like, you didn't think you could beat those guys before? I was like, yeah, I don't know.

I just, you know, if I'm going to take a fight, I want to be 100% confident. He said, what's different than what you're doing now than what you're doing before. And I said, just the confidence, I guess. And I think that's what it is. I wasn't confident yet to, if they were to throw me in a title fight, I'd probably have some doubts if I would win at that point in my career. But right now, I feel like I'm the guy. What's the vibe like at the gym after Wyman's loss?

Still good. Yeah. We think it was just a setback. You know, one mistake caused them the fight. And I think they were both, you know, they both came to that fight hurt. Chris had the fracture foot. Rockhold had staff infection. So they both came in.

You could see after the first round they were both like exhausted. I've never seen Chris look that tired before. I've never even seen Rockhold look that tired before. So I think it was an even matchup and it was going to be a battle of just wills. I think Chris was starting to pull that fight away until he decided to throw that spinning back kick. and ultimately it caused him the fight. Some people were saying like he got dominated from the beginning to him. Like, what fight were you watching?

He got dominated at the end of the third, the last half of the third and in the fourth round. That's pretty much where the fight was decided. Chris took him down a bunch of times and all Rocco did was kind of hold onto his neck. He didn't really do anything. He landed some good body kicks. I think Chris won the first. Rockhole won the second in a close second round. I think Chris was dominating the third.

Not dominating, but he was definitely, I think clearly winning the third round before. you know, turn of events. All right, back to your situation. Have you noticed in other sports like, I don't know, when LeBron James signs his new contract, we know how much he's making, right? We know the years and the amount. When Carmel and Anthony signed with the Knicks,

we know the exact amount of years and the amount. In our sport, it's different. Would you like it to be that way in hindsight, as a free agent? So you could say, look, Dominic Cruz, T.J. Dilisha, Brian, I know how much these guys make. This is where I'm at.

Now I can compare, and it's better for me. It's better for you, it's better for everyone. Or do you prefer that everyone keeps it close to their vest? You know what? I feel like no professional wants people to know how much they're really making because then it kind of puts them in a situation with close friends and family where now there's a lot of eyes on you. So I like it private.

I'm going to say I like it private, you know. And even so it's not as private as people think. I mean, there's other back-end stuff on the contracts where, you know, there's things that they don't have to disclose whenever you do fight, but when you do fight, your show and when money gets disclosed, you know, by the commission. But you know sometimes it's not the full amount, right? That's what I'm saying. And that's the back end.

Right. But the upfront, what's actually on the contract or the fair and show and win money, that's always going to be what people look at and we're like, oh, my God, he's making so much money. I'm like, dude, you know what we had to do to make this money? Sure. It's not even like. Well, they think it's the 15 minutes in the cage. They don't see the three months leading up to it.

Exactly. Right. And they don't see everything else that comes off the top and everything you've got to invest before you even get to the fight. And then after that, you got Uncle Sam coming and dipping your hands in your pocket. Sure. If you're fighting overseas, you've got their taxes and then we got our taxes. So it's like, people don't understand. It's not as substantial as they think. Okay, let me ask you this.

Is there a big man bias? In other words, do you feel like if Al Jermaine Sterling was a 185 or a heavyweight, a 205er, do you think you would have commanded more interest? 100%. Well, why do you think that is? Look at boxing. Pachial Mayweather, I know they're a little bigger, 147, you're 135. But is it just because you're a small guy that people still think that you can't bring in the numbers? But I'm larger than charge. You are? No, I'm wondering. You were the one who was on the front lines. Why do you feel like that is? I don't know why. People think because I honestly, there's no real answer for that.

But you do think it's a real thing. If you were a 205 or right now, you know, two fights away from fighting Daniel Cormier, you think you could have commanded more? I think so. I think it just looks I think people look at it as like we're small people but I'm like I'm not a small guy I'm 5-7 I walk around about 160 You know I'm not a very

I'm not a small guy by any means I don't I don't know What about it's small we cut down And we blow back up sure sure I don't know It's weird because I Because if you look at the recent free agents Overeign Big Man

Benson 171 555 Still a little bigger like it still feels like There's that divider line Connor has changed it a little bit with 145, but for a long time it felt like it was 155, like the UFC and WEC way classes. And so you're the first guy to sort of test the waters and make a big deal about it in one of those smaller way classes. Like, can you imagine if a flyway tried to do that?

But I really think you've put out the blueprint. Like, are you hoping now? I know you said it's not about legacy who's about number one, but are you hoping every fighter out there just does this so that they can find out how much they're worth? Truly no? I think. Or does it work different for different people? I think it works different for different people.

And again, I'm confident in my skill set. So I'm going to do what I think is the best move for me. I'm going to gamble on myself. Some people who might not be as confident, and it might be like, you know what, I got a tough fight coming up, and I don't want to go end my last fight and on a loss. So I'm not going to take that gamble.

I'm going to just take the upfront money, which is guaranteed. At least I got a contract, everything. So I think it all depends on your attitude and your outlook on the sport. When did you have that eureka moment about all of this? I need to brand myself. I need to have a gimmick, so to speak, the chain, the hair, really putting yourself out there.

Because I feel like even in April, you didn't have that, right? No, I didn't. I had the part in April, and it was, I don't know what it was. What was the shift? I was teaching at my school. Yeah. And I was like, yo, the trend is starting to come back. My mom always tells me, like, trains always come back full cycle just in a couple years.

Sure. And the trend came back with the high tops and people rocking these crazy afros and the squiggly things on the top of the head. So it was funny to see. It was refreshing to see. I'm like, oh, this is a new era. I love this. This is what I was growing up on.

So to see these young kids doing this, I'm like, you know what? I didn't even think about that. I'm going to grow back my high top, just like I did when I was a little bit. You had this as a kid? Yeah. Okay. So I was like, I'm going to grow back and I'm going to just make it cool again. So I'm going to make it cool again.

I'm going to be the first guy to do it. I'm like, I'm not biting off for nobody. So this is something I've actually done before. So to me, it's not really a gimmick. I just think it's something that looks good and it's cool. But what about the chain and all? The chain's a little different. I had chains, but I didn't have such a, there you go, right there with the high top.

There it is. Oh, let me see that. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And the chain. Look at that. And the chain.

I don't know if they can see it. There it is. Oh, whoops. You're the one in the tank top, right? Yeah. Look at that. How old are you here? I was about six years old, I want to say.

So, okay, so this is legit. This is legit. My dad had a huge chain with a big medallion. Where's Pops at these days? You talk to him yet? No, we don't, we still don't talk. You think now that you announce this, he's going to come back? I hope not.

But, no animosity towards him. But I think he's doing it. You're just doing your thing. Yeah. We just stay out of each other's way. But, yeah. Okay, so you get the chain. You say, all right, this is.

And look, there's a Twitter feed, right? Yeah, so we made that. Everyone thinks I'm making that account. Like, why would I make this account? I love it. It is pretty hysterical. Yeah, it's good. People are attracted to that sort of thing.

You need to stick out, especially as a Bantamway, right? Yeah. I think it's cool. Yeah. It's cool. But you don't remember the moment where you were like, I need to do this and do the, you know, the dance after the Eduardo? April. It happened in April.

I was like, I'm growing back my hair because I had a little fade, but I didn't have a high top. So I was like, I'm going to bring back the fade, the old school look, go retro. And I want to bring back to fili. What's the fili? Fila, like the shoes? Yeah, like the old school stuff. Oh, you wear those? I used to.

Oh, wow. But as I'm saying, I want to bring all that back. Are those even around still? I don't know. Grand Hill. eBay or something, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not wearing Fila right now.

No. Those are tight, though. These are my polo boots. Polo boots. Yeah, so I went to bring that look back, and I was like, you know what I'm going to get? I'm going to get the chain, like L.O. Kuhi and those guys, Rakim and those guys. Yes. Do it up.

I'm like, oh, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it big. Yeah, yeah. Clearly you are a man of style. Are we going to upgrade the chain now now that you're a paid man or not yet? Uriah Fabor told me that would be a bad investment. He said, whatever you do.

Don't like, check. Yeah, he said, keep the fake one. Don't spend your money on that. I was like, yeah, but it would be nice to have something that I could pass on to my kids or something like that when I get a little. So I don't know. We'll see. So I respect your style. I love your style.

I grew up the same way. I mean, I always wanted to have the fade, to be honest, couldn't do it. But I do have, I do have brothers hair. I don't know if you. This is some thick stuff. It's like steel wool when it grows a little more. I used to have a fro. Yeah.

Legit frow with the pick. I saw you come out with the pick today. Yeah, yeah. So I want to play a game with you. Okay. It's called Funky or Nah. All right. Or nah. Or nah.

So Funky is obviously a good thing because you are the master of funk. Yeah. Originally it was going to be called Fly or Nah, but then New Yorkerick told me, no, you're the Funkmaster. You should be funky. So I give him props for that. So I'm going to show you 11 classic fades and some other styles as well. And I want to know from you being the funk master if this is funky or not. Okay.

All right. You ready for it? All right. Here's some music. We got some music? There we go. This man is Imon Schumper. Yeah.

Formerly of the New York Knicks, now playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Let's hear a little more of that music. You can bump it up a little bit. Yeah, there it is. So he's got the high top too. Reminiscent to yours, no part, but much bigger than yours.

That's kind of where I'm trying to go with it. Oh, you are? I was going to ask you about that. I want to be a fresh Princeton, New York. I like it. So you like that height. I like it. I think it's cool.

It's kind of like hit and play. Yeah, he looks like an eraser. Yeah. Although it's a little messy at the top. What do you? think of that like yours is a lot neater at the top i think he just finished playing a game okay so so he gets a pass for that what about that facial hair that's uh that's a no go no go it's not clean that up yeah we got to clean that one up too long here too too too long too scruffy too scruffy okay so you

like the hair don't love the facial hair yeah yeah the sides okay you trim down yeah a little bit but overall what are we giving this on a scale of one to 10 on a scale of one to funk the fun that's He gets a, I'll give him a seven. Okay, all right, it's not bad. He's no longer on the Knicks, so we don't really care about him. Let's go to our next one. Here we go. Here's our next one.

There he is, the legend himself, vanilla ice. Yeah. See, that's the old school right there. There he is. All right, so I don't even know what to call that. I mean, that is some kind of a high top. He, you know. A little comb over him on me.

Got the lines and the guy, bros. Oh, yes. Yes, of course. And on the side. I used to have the lines on the side, by the way, back in the day. Yeah. No joke. What do you think?

What do we think? Is this funky or now? Funky. Yeah. Funky for sure. Were you a fan? Were you a fan back in the day? Yeah, I listened. I didn't know who he was.

I found some pitches of him, but yeah, definitely listen to his music for sure. He is something else. I mean, look at that. He even has a little bit of a, I don't know, that's a little blonde in there. He probably dyed that in. Yeah. So he can rock it. Trendsetter right here.

I wonder what he looks like these days. I wanted old school vanilla ice. I think that, I mean, yeah. So on a scale of one to funk, what are we giving him? I'm going to give this man. and an eight. Wow. He's got the parts in the eyebrows.

There's not a lot of people who do that anymore. I don't think I could pull that off anymore. Really? Did you used to have that? I used to. Okay. You ever do the lines on the side? Yeah, race stripes.

Okay. What do they call it? Racing stripes. Okay. You do that now? Not anymore. I was thinking about doing it, but I was like, can't have a part in front.

Too much? It would be too much, right? I don't know, no, no. All right. Okay, there you go. Vanilla ice. All right, let's go to the next one. Who else we got here?

There he is. The legend himself. swag right there. That is a legend. What do you think? Funky or not? He's funky. The only thing is, I don't really know what's going on with that thing in the front.

What is that called? I don't even know. That looks like a football field. I don't even know. It's like a track or something? Yeah. I've seen pitches with that, but I never really understood what that was about. So he's got a part, but then he's got lines too.

He's like almost too much? Yeah. But I mean, back then it was probably dope. Sure. So what do you think? You're not feeling it. It's not? Nah.

Wow. It's funky, but I couldn't do that. Were you a fan of his back in the day? Nah, not really. Really? I knew he was, but that wasn't really one of my guys. Who were like your top three? I was a big L-O-O-J fan.

All right. Yeah. Yeah, he was the man. Where is he from originally? He's not East Coast, is he? I thought he was. Not New York. Is he New York?

Queens? I'll have to look at it up. Maybe New York can look that up for me. All right, so that's Big Daddy Kane on a scale of want to funk. What do you give that? Right now, Vanilla Ice is sitting at 8. He's the leader. Big Daddy Kane.

He's Big Daddy Kane. He gets a 7. He gets a 7. Okay. Fair enough. Big Daddy Kane. Looking very determined there in the barber chair. How often do you get a haircut, by the way?

About every, because I got to keep the part up to par. I got to keep the part up the par. Yeah. So I got to do like every week and a half. Every week and a half. Is it annoying to maintain or you like it? I mean. The fade too, right?

Because it gets gruffy and then you got to tighten it up. You can have it like half. You can't have it half-ass. No, you can't. It feels great when you come out of the bar. Is there a specific guy that you go to all the time? A couple different guys. I showed some love all over.

Okay, different places too. Wow, I'm the kind of guy I like to go to the same person because I don't want to explain different, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. I got some of my boys who cut hair and some guy I had since I was a little kid. Cut all my brothers here when we were little. All right. All right. Let's go to the next one.

Who do we got? Who do we got? There he is. This guy was one of my favorites back in the day. Bobby Brown. You know him from New Edition. Then he went off and did his own thing. Of course, married Whitney Houston.

That was a bit of a messy breakup. So that's the Gumby, right? Yeah, that's the Gumby. Now, what is the Gumby? Explain that to us. You ever watch the cartoon? The little Green Gumby guy? His hair just slanted?

It's just like... I like this, by the way. I feel like this is a thing now. This could pass now, right? This could pass. I just don't think there's anyone who's actually doing it and pulling it off right now. I haven't seen any of the kids doing this. I'm not going to do that.

Why? Because then it takes forever to grow back in and then just you got a mess on your head. Do you think he, do you think he combed it that way or they cut it that way? No, he definitely cut that. Really? Definitely cut that thing up. That is fascinating.

What about the lines? Not exactly symmetrical. They're kind of going all over the place. Yeah, that's, yeah, you're right. So all over the place. It's interesting. Have you ever experimented with glasses? Because those glasses are in now.

Yeah. A couple of my boys got them. All right. I like it, but I don't know if I could pull that off. It's like it might look too funny. I don't know. I think you could pull that. that off. Did you watch the All-Star Saturday Day? Von Miller. Do you see Von Miller

the Broncos? He was wearing some real, like, geeky glasses, but he looked like a G. He looked awesome. Yeah. Geeky is cool. Now, what about the chains? He's got two. You've got one. Why is two better than one? Or excuse me, one better than two? Um, it's not better. Will you ever go with like 10? I might go with like three. Okay. Maybe for the next. I might, I'm just going to get one for my team. Just get one for the corners, take them off. Oh, I like that. Long ago. There's one for you. There's one for you. Okay, I like that. I like that.

I think that's fun. All right, so we're going funky or not? It seems like you're going on the nah here. I give my, it's funky. Okay. I could just roast this guy, though. You know what I'm saying? What do you mean?

What's wrong with him? Because of the haircut. It's just, I think it's cool, but then you got the lines that are kind of all over the place. Yeah. You got the glasses. I feel like it's cool, but at the same time, you can easily roast him if he ever got out of line. Okay, fair enough. So on a scale of one to funk,

I feel like we're going low here. Nah. Okay. I'm going to give this guy seven, right? Seven. Get this guy seven. Who are you asking for validation? Your boy over there?

Okay. All right. Let's go to the next one. Who else we got? This is fun. There he is. My man, Juice. I got to say, this one looks a little familiar.

A little familiar. That is Tupac Shakur in the film Juice, one of the great films of all time. Did you see it? Yeah. Watch that movie a bunch of times. Would you like better? Juice or Boys in the Hood? Oh, that's a tough one, right?

That's a little tough one. New Jack City as well? You got the juice now. Okay, so this kind of looks like yours, no? He's got more of the pronounced... His part is coming kind of like... Yeah, oh, I see. It's one like...

Oh, I see. Now, how do you decide which way to go? Just right down the middle for me. I don't know. Have you considered this one? This is a cool one, man. This is great. You know, I think it looks cool, but not for me.

It's just weird to have like the poof at the side. I hear you. You got the big throw on the top. I don't know. It looks dope for him. I think it was a cool, badass haircut for him back in the day. Are people rocking this these days? Not like that.

Not like that. Kids are more so just the high top right now. Okay. They're not as creative. They're not even doing the part? Some are doing the part. Okay. Not as creative, though.

Were you a Tupac fan back? Tupac or Biggie? I like Pock. You were a Pock guy. I like Puck guy. I like Puck. I like Puck. I like Puck.

I mean, I'm not saying I don't like Biggie, but I like Pock. I like his music, his flow. I think he had a little bit more of different, more of different flows that he actually brought to the game a little bit more than what biggie did but they were both both dope when I was a kid man I dreamed of having hair like this I wanted this so bad I was just that no I don't know I can see you rocking that's a little too um want to funk what do we got here so far eight vanilla ice of all people vanilla ice is doing it is it's doing it I like it I like it right now you can go halves too I'm gonna give him two pot you get a seven all right everyone's sitting at seven but are we

going funky or no, by the way, for the record. Funky. Okay. This is funky. There he is. Tupac. May he rest in peace. All right, let's go to the next one.

Oh, look at that. Grace Jones. You know Grace Jones? I unfortunately do not know who that is. A very famous singer from back in the day, back in the Dizzle. Yeah, I look those eyebrows. Now, what do you think here? Because this is a woman, obviously, with a bit of a high top herself.

Yeah. She's doing her thing. It's all right. You're not feeling it. So here's my question to you. The woman with the short hair. Are you a man who likes that kind of style or no? I think if you could dress nice and pull it off and make it look good, I'm all for it.

Who's that one that has the shaved head that used to date Kanye West? Amber Rose. Amber Rose. You like that? Torp machine. Or do you like longer hair for your own? A little longer. Okay.

You've got to have a little bit longer hair on the top. So you're not even feeling this. This is not. This is, for me, nah. Really? Wow. I couldn't do it. What about those cheekbones, though?

On a side note. What was considered perfect cheekbones, they say? High cheekbones? But you're not a fan of the eyebrows, clearly. Clearly not. Okay. Definitely not. Too much?

They're just going too high. She looks a little mean. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what are we doing as far as numbers here? I'm going to give her a five. Five. Wow.

Not a fan of Grace Jones. All right. That is a legend right there. She's probably doing it up now, but... She's doing her thing? Right now. Actually, I saw a picture of her recently. A little funky.

And not in a good way. No. Not a good way. All right. Let's go to the next one. Who else we got? Bang. There he is.

Referenced earlier. Kid and Play. Look at that. See, so I was focused, that's Kid on the left, right? Kid is the one with the high top. Play actually, over time, developed a different kind of hairstyle, but this is a classic right here. There's a lot to work with, but let's focus on Kid first, because not only does he have the high top, Shumperdesk, it's a little different of a color at the top, right? Yeah, it's like brown?

Brown at the top. Burgundy? Do you think he dyed it like that? Was Kid. I think so. Was Kid African American or was he white? I never understood. I couldn't even tell you.

Yeah, maybe a mix? I mean, probably a mix. Okay. What do you think? What do you think? I don't know. This is kind of the guy who made it famous, right? Yeah.

Were you a fan? If you didn't watch Ken and Play, someone was wrong with you. House Party, one two and three. Yeah. The one where they went back to school. Uh-huh. I don't remember what that called. Maybe back to school?

I don't know. I love these guys. They were great. What great pioneers they were, rappers and actors. What are they doing now? I don't know, but these two guys were funky for sure. And is his hair that high still? It's a good question.

That is a good question. Now, what do you think of my man and playover? there. He's got the dyed part. Okay. I like that. Oh, that's died. It looks dyed. I don't know if it's a part or is it died. I can't really tell. Interesting. I didn't see that. Okay. I think it looks cool. All right. So what are we giving kid and play here? Let's give him a group. I'm going to give them 10. 10. Holy moly. These guys are originals. Legends. Yeah. These guys are the guys. Great dancers as well. Yes. Great actors. Those movies were so much fun. House party? Yeah. I love those. Those are great. Wow. 10 for these guys. How about that. Much respect to kid and play.

Two legends of their time. I wonder what they're doing now. Okay, let's go to the next one. Who else we got? Okay, so this is a bit of a different one. This is the great Ronaldo of Brazilian soccer fame. You know Ronaldo? See, back in the day, he was rocking this thing. I want to save my judgment

in case you're just listening to this. This is when he had like the sort of the half-moon front. What do you think of this style? I don't know if this is big in Brazil or what. I don't know what his barber did look like. He shaped him up with a rock. I have no idea what's going on with this right now. So we're not feeling this?

Not at all. Not at all. Not at close. I don't even know if he even gets points for this. It's a bad look, right? It's just awful. Awful. Yeah, I never understood why he did this.

You know, later on in life, he was heading up like a marketing firm, worked with likes of Anderson Silva. I don't think they work together anymore. But he actually has been around MMA events. Like he showed up to a few of Anderson's open workouts. Doesn't rock this hair. So that is the good news. I would bring my clippers.

Negative. So we're going negative here. This guy's negative. negative one. Negative funk. I don't know what's going on with this guy. All right. Get him off the screen.

Who's next? Who else we got? All right. This is Alfred Payton of the Orlando Magic. He's got a crazy hair. Have you seen this guy play? His hair, he's got the dreads and the, it goes up, but it kind of goes, like, it's like coming over his face.

Yeah. It's very, it's very unique. I like it. I think it's cool. It's all over the place. Yeah. You like that? I think it's cool.

I think that's what makes it cool. That's different. Totally different. But at the same time, it's like, it's not too crazy. And I think you could rock that and make it look cool. To me, it feels like too much weight on his head while he's playing basketball. It's probably just top-heavy. Do you want that when you're running around?

You want that? I don't know if you want that. I don't want that. Yeah. But I think it looks good. How much higher are we going with this? Can we go really high? I'm trying to go like something like.

So not that high. Maybe like that. Really? Yeah. So not Shumper. Not Shumper. Why? It's a little too much.

Do you think that's too much for fighting? Do you think I'll work against you? I don't know. Okay. Man, get punched in my hair. It's like weird. I don't know. All right.

That's be too high. All right. So what are we giving him? I'm going to give my man a... He gets an eight. Eight. Okay. Very nice.

Alfred Payton. Now, the next one I think, if memory serves me correct, is similar to Alfred Payton. Who do we got here? That is the weekend. Yeah. A Canadian brother. Yeah.

I don't know if you know that. No, I didn't know that. You're Canadian. I am Canadian. Yes. So it is Alfred like. Yeah. Do you like this?

I like this is all over the place as well. Are you fan of his? Yeah, the weekend makes good music. Yeah, yeah. I'm not a huge fan, to be honest. Of his hair or of the music? Oh, the music as well. Why is he called The Weekend also?

That, I don't know. I think it's a stupid name. It is a stupid name. I like his music. Yeah, respect him. So you like this look, right? Yeah, doesn't this feel like you're just all over the place? I mean, it's a little much.

Yeah, he's got the fake going on. He's got like dread twists at the top, but the different colors. But I don't know. I think he pulls it off. He makes it work. He's got different colors? Yeah, it's like blonde. Not blonde, but it's like, yeah, like blonde, I guess.

Okay. Well, you know, the thing about this kind of hair, like you could do so much with it, right? Yeah. The possibilities are endless. If you just got like the straight, you know, skinny hair, can't do as much. All right, so we like the weekend. What are we giving him? I give him a 10 for his style. Wow.

I'm really starting to figure out your style right now based off this game. That's why I wanted to do this for educational purposes. It's good. All right. Here we go. I think this is the last one. There he is. Eric LaSalle

You know who this guy is? No, I don't From the great film coming to America Just Let Your Soul Glow Remember that man? That is the man right there Yeah The Jerry Curl

The Soul Glow Did you ever have this back in the day? No Come on You don't like the soul glow Not for me You don't like the Jerry Curl Not for me

Come on I think I would just look weird Lionel Richie Michael Jackson Yeah but The wet look No Come on look

smile. Like a wet poodle. I can't have that. Do you think that will ever come back? I hope not. I hope not. I can't, I don't know. Look at that, Eric Lassau.

You never seen coming to America? No, I've seen it. Eddie Murphy, you don't remember this? It's like bark like a dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, now it's coming back. Look at that hair. How does he get it like that, though?

That's what I want to know. Like, what do you put in there to make it all curly and thin? I wouldn't even know. You've never even tried it? I've never done that. Never dabbled. Never. Any of your brothers?

I think one of my brothers did that before I like permed this hair. Oh my God. What a production this must be? Never done this. So the question is, is this lower than Ronaldo's negative one? No, I'll give him a five. Okay. I mean, it's still cool, but I think for me, I wouldn't do it.

Not for me. All right. So the winner is the weekend. The weekend. And Alfred Payton. And the kid in play. Kid and play, that's right. All right.

There we go. Now we've learned something. What's that? Okay, so Al Jermaine's friend. What's your name again? De Nardo. Donardo is letting us know that kids' mom was white, his dad was black. Yeah.

See, now we know. So he's half. The more you know. We learned that here on the MMA hour. All right, well, this was fun. Yeah. Yeah. It was a great day.

Great day for M. M. I think for M.M.A., I think, for free agency, for getting paid. Yeah. When do you think you'll fight? Let's wrap it up. I'm hoping for April. April.

April will be a dog. Fox cart. Maybe the same card as your boy, John Jones. Oh, that would be epic. Your ex-rommate. That would be epic. That's actually his roommate. For real.

Yeah, we trained together. You were on the same team. You know what I'm thinking of Joe Soto. Joe Soto was in Iowa Central. He was his roommate. I think Colby Covington as well. That's right. What school was it that?

Morrisville. Morrisville. With John Jones? Morrisville. Then I transferred out and went to Corkland. Did you know that he would be this good? John? Yeah.

I thought it was a freak athlete. He was a freak back then? We watched him, Russell. I'd be like, yo, this guy's just torturing these kids. I didn't even know he was. I didn't even know he was a state champ. Okay. And a, what was it?

Jucco College champ. Okay. I just saw him wrestling. I was like, you, this guy is a monster. I've never seen Russ and look this good, like, ever. Nice kid back then? Nice guy. Funny, real cool.

Down to Irv. Did he party back then, too? Oh, wait. We all party together. Okay. We all had a fair share of fun. But did you think that he would have trouble with it? I mean, it seems like for now he's kind of figuring it out, but...

Hey, the way I look at it as maybe if I had that money at that young of an age, I probably do the same thing. Yeah. A lot happened. Hopefully not as bad, but I definitely do a lot of the same thing. A lot happened quickly for him, right? Yeah. So he's hopefully figuring it out.

fighting. Are you picking him over DC? I like DC, but yeah. Okay. I would have to, I think that's a smarter bet. That would be a nice card. That's the money bet, I think. Wouldn't that be a nice card for you to be on? Yeah.

April, it's too bad it's not on an MSG. I know. How perfect would that have been. Hopefully this year. That would have been a great year for me. Yeah. Fighting MSG, new contract. Yeah.

Or money more problems. Oh, and I also have to shout out that prediction thing that you're doing with Oh, yeah, the Al-I Quinta. We got his book over there. He made me buy it. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made. It's basically just an open notebook. But you're doing these breakdowns called Al's Breakdown.

You can see them on. You have a YouTube channel on the UG, right? Yeah. This is fantastic, by the way. And I'm not being facetious. The editing is perfect. It's so sloppy that it works. It's funny.

I think it's historical. Who's doing that? Did you kind of stumble into this thing? Yeah, I've kind of just made it work. Are you doing it for every card? I think that's the plan. That's what we're going to try to do. You got to keep it up.

If there are any sponsors out there, I want to get on board. That's good. We'll discuss this at the round table at the board meeting between Raging Allel and the Funk. Oh my God. You guys live together? Yeah. What does that like?

He's cool, man. Yeah? He's really cool. You know, the thing about Al, he's like really mellow, really laid back and chill. So I think we all kind of get along, meet him and Pat DeFranco. And then we go out, man. We just like to have a good time. So we all rage out.

So I think it's fun, man. Is he doing all right? Speaking of Raging Now, if you guys, if you're in New York City or New Jersey, you guys got to come out to my contract. Celebration party this Saturday at the attic, the rooftop. Where's that? In the city. In New York City.

In New York City. Where exactly? The attic, the rooftop. I don't know where that is. I don't really get how much. I think it's lower Manhattan. So you're having an actual party. Actual party.

Holy moly. Who's going to be there? The funk. The funk is going to be there? The funk. My family. My whole BME crew, my boys. What's BME?

Black Monk Entertainment. What's that? It doesn't, don't take the name so literal. Okay. BME means like being me. Being yourself. So right now you're technically being me because you're area of wanting. You're doing what you love and you're being yourself.

Oh, I like this. You know what I'm saying? This is a new thing. This is the new thing. This is our group and it kind of promotes what you're about. Life should be happy. You should be not confined to what people are telling you you should do. Make your own decisions, make your own choices and be yourself.

All right. So I think it's a pretty cool concept. So I'm BME right now. BME. Respect. Respect, man. Just blew it up. Are you familiar with Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays?

He's actually from Long Island. No. Little man. He has this thing that he puts in his hair, HDMH. I think it's heart doesn't measure, no, height doesn't measure heart. Okay. That's his big thing. That's cool.

And so, man, that's, I feel like you guys can come together because he's from Long Island. And he's actually, like, one of the smallest starting pitchers. He's their top guy. And he's all about the fact that, yeah, I'm small, but my heart is bigger than all of you. And I feel like that's something that kind of represent. Marcus Stroman, originally from Long Island, pitches for the Toronto Blue Jays. He shaves it into his head. He's got that, he's got that Odell Beckham thing going on with the blonde on the top.

Check him out. Okay, yeah, yeah, for sure. There's a lot going on. The future is bright for Al Jermaine Sterling. Check him out at his party if you're in the city. Anyone can go to this? Anyone. This is open guy by.

If you say to the door that you saw Al Jermaine on the MMA hour, can they get something? Can they hook up our? I don't even know how we do that. I don't know. What if they come to you and say something? Can we get a shot? Can we do something? Could we get a dab something?

Yeah, of course. All right. We could dab together. All right, there it is. Okay. Everybody hit the phone. there he is all right there he is aljermaine sterling uh has announced today that he has re-signed with the ufc congratulations mazzletov as they say as they say in my country um he is back in the uc's

bantamweight division has returned tbd hoping to return in april or so and uh he has just put the rest of the division on notice this man is coming at funkmaster underscore ufc ufc you see right over there congratulations and in all honesty thank you for coming to our show for doing this means a lot i'm really happy for you i'm happy for you i'm happy that you're happy and this was a lot of fun it was i enjoyed the process and thank you for having all right there he is aljimae sterling so we're going to take a quick break um in a minute we're going to be joined in studio by damien maya what kind of a day is this this is a lot of fun so we go from a future title contender to a former title contender and a current title contender and damien he will be

in studio to talk about his great career uh so while we say goodbye to aljo and say hello to damien we're going to take a small break in the meantime we're going to play some old videos that i I shot with the late Kevin Randleman. Unfortunately, he passed away Thursday, a tragedy, horrible news. I got the chance to interview him a couple times back in 2010. One of the greatest of all time, Pioneer Legend. So this is our y'all must have forgot segment of the week. My interviews with Kevin Randleman, and in a minute we're going to be joined right here by Damien Maia.

We'll be back. Ariel Halwani at Strike Force St. Louis with Kevin Randleman, who faces Hajer Gracie this Saturday night live on Showtime. Kevin, good to see you again. Fans looking forward to seeing you back in action. You excited for this fight? Yes, I'm always excited to fight. Regardless, I'm always excited.

You told me earlier that you have enough energy to power a city. Explain. What does that exactly mean? I've just been training. I've been training real hard. I've been really dedicated to hard work and never quit attitude. And that's just my energy level right now. I just feel like I could beat anybody.

No matter who they put in front of me at 205, I think I could beat anybody on someone. Saturday. When they first approach you with Hajar Gracie as an opponent, what were the first thoughts that went through your mind? Okay. Did you know anything about him? Like, had you, you know, heard about what he'd done in the Jujitza world? Because in MMA, kind of a relative newcomer. Got a guy playing around with a stick. No, I've known Roger Gracie for years, you know. I've, we're friends. But in this sport, you know, it's a small community we have, so we all know each other. And bottom line is the bosses make the fights.

You know, it's up to Roger and I to go out and knock each other out or win, you know. It doesn't matter who I fight. Roger and I were friends before the fight. We're going to shake hands during the fight and be friends during the fight. And after the fight, win and lose a draw, we're going to shake hands and be friends after the fight. This is a business. This is not going to be personal. This is just business.

It's interesting because he says, you know, he won't lie. He wants to take you to the ground. That's his forte, Jiu-Jitsu. You prepare to go to the ground? with them? Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know a lot of people out there think that I haven't evolved and that my jiu-jitsu game is real bad and that, but, you know, I've got longevity in this sport for a reason. And if he can get me to the ground, of course. You know, I believe if we stay on our feet, the chances of me win are 80%. If we go to the ground, chances of him winning is 80%.

Chances of him getting taken down 100%. I think I got the percentages on my side. I think so. I'm not that good at math, but some. something is 80% something. Yeah. I got the math. I think I got it. I think it's on my side. Considering how your last Strike Force fight went, do you feel as though you have something to prove to the fans in Scott Koker on Saturday?

I don't have anything to prove to Scott Koker or the fans. Everything I got to do is, everything I do is to prove to myself. I mean, and this is not a diss against anybody, but I used to fight for the fans and go out there and be crazy and out of control. But with the power and the strength of my people, Ramon Montano and Maurice Jackson, you know, I'm a calmer person. Plus life is life, you know, I'm an older guy. Life has made me a lot calmer.

I'm really ready for this fight. And the bottom line is, I don't see it going out of the first row. Either he's gonna submit me or I'm gonna knock him out. Regardless, whether it's on the ground or on the feet, I believe I can punish him. And I don't have anything to prove to the fans, although if I go out there and fight my fight, the fans will be very happy and ecstatic,

so was Scott Koker. Obviously, we don't need to harp on it, but in your mind, what is the big thing that went wrong in that fight, that you would like to not see, yeah, would you not see, would like to see happen again on Saturday? No, if anyone, like, see, there's a lot of people out there that don't know the sport because they don't follow it. They just follow the two weeks before a fight.

But the last four or five years, I've had a lot of surgeries. My doctor didn't even clear me to fight the last two fights I fought, but I fought them anyway. But I have power back in my shoulders. I've had both shoulders done over the last two. and a half, three years, so they weren't strong. But I still thought I fought very well in that last fight that was here in St. Louis. And a lot of times you just figure out, you find a way to win. You find more about yourself every time you push yourself to the limits. And I have literally

been pushing myself to the limits in everything that I do right now. I push myself to be a better person and I push myself to be a better fighter. And on Saturday, I think that I'm going to be the better fighter. Is there one facet of your game that you've really zoned in on and tried to improve and last year or so? Oh yeah. Yes. Which one would that be? Watch Saturday and find out. No little secret or, you know, you can't give a secret. It's not a secret. I said it. I want to knock him out. I want to knock him out. Hey, Maurice, can you give me a favor and stand up for a second? Yes. This is my training partner right here. I know Roger Gracie's 6-4. This guy's 6-8-280. His jiu-jitsu is really good, although he's not Roger Gracie, but I believe that his power and his

strength for the last 14 weeks is going to give me an advantage as far as being able to handle his power and his strength. And the fact that I'm training with a guy this size, and Ramon Montano, my boxing coach, he's Floyd Mather's number one sparring partner. So I believe that I'm dangerous. And I believe that, you know, it's like a gunslinger. If a gunslinger don't have six bullets in his gun, he doesn't have that, you know, I have a lot of weapons and I've got them all loaded. And I'm sure you are aware of this. A lot of people sort of waiting to write you off, right? There's a lot of people who are like, Randleman doesn't have it. He's not the same guy as he was from back in the day. Will you take some satisfaction? Will you be thinking about those people to try

to prove them wrong? No, I don't care about those guys. I care about me. I used to fight. Like I said, I used to fight for the fans and the bosses would say, Kevin, go out there and just be crazy. I mean, every fight that I had, I was always injured. Whether there was a broken neck or torn shoulder or torn bicep, I've had them all fixed. There's no excuse for me to lose this fight, and there's no excuse for me to leave it in the ring. The only thing I'm going to leave in the ring is Roger, or Roger's going to leave me in the ring.

That's how this game works. Don't write me off. I'm a warrior. All right, Kevin, we appreciate the time. We're looking forward to Saturday night. Thank you. Very much. Well, again, there he is.

Kevin Randleman. May he rest in peace, a legend of mixed martial arts, a pioneer, a great man, everyone, the outpouring of emotion and support that he received following his untimely passing was really something to see. So our thoughts, our prayers go to his family and friends on

what was very sad news. Thursday night it came out. Kevin Randamamam passed. And later on in the show, we're actually going to talk to Phil Barone, a good friend of his about his great life and what he meant to not only fill but the rest of the M.MA community. For now, though, we are back in studio with a legend in his own right. That is Damien Maya right there. What a pleasure this is. Damien Maya in studio here and New York City. Welcome. Thank you very much. It was great to be here, you know, and you know,

you can invite me every time I come here. I will come. So I didn't know, I've learned this from your great manager, one of my favorite people in the business, Eduardo Alonzo. I love Eduardo. He told me that you come, you come pretty often to this area. What do you do here? Actually, when I come here, I go mainly trained wrestling at Hoboken. Yeah. At the Academy, named Edge. Yep. And also, you know, I come here and train with Marcelo Garcia, who is a big friend of my for many years we trained together we used to teach together in brazil like 15 years ago so you know i come and it's great to be here because you know marcel it's so for me you know joe rogan gave the best you know nickname for me he's like the michael jordan of jiu jiu jitsu you know so

and you know when i get there you know it inspired my creativity in jiu jiu jitsu so you know i like to be there to learn more stuff and and to create new positions and to see what he's doing so how long you've been doing this coming to the New York area? The last three camps, I think I was coming here for the wrestling, mainly. And of course, I was going to Jiu-Jitsu there, but mainly for the wrestling. But this time, because I'm not in camp yet, so I came more for the Jiu-Jitsu, because then, you know, like I said, I want to see new stuff, see new positions. And when you're in camp, you kind of, you know, you need to focus more and what you're going

to do. So the last three camps, you've been looking pretty good. So this is working. Yeah, for sure. This is a good investment. How long do you stay here for? During the camp, normally around two weeks. Two weeks, wow.

So you've been here for what, a week or so? Right now, yeah, about a week, yeah. And do you bring Marcello to Brazil to come train with you? No, he's got a lot. Yeah, I try to bring one of his students, but, you know, he's too busy. He had too many things to do, you know, two kids right now. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's crazy his life.

So, you know, I wish he could go, but it's impossible for him. Who gets the better of who? Like, do you actually go 100% roll with him on the ground? Yeah. You know what? You know, I was here a couple years ago, and he was trained with me, but he's just, now, it used to be, like, the biggest competition for each other in the academy when we are brown belt and early black belt.

But then, you know, you know, I just moved my jiu-jitsu towards the MMA technique. Yeah. And he kept doing, you know, the grappling stuff. So, you know, he was trained with me like a couple years ago, and I realized he was not going full parts. And Marcel, let's go. He said, no, no, I'm going, don't worry. I said, look, I don't want to train like that with you.

You know, it's just, you just take it easy on me. I don't need that. He said, no, no, I'm going hard, but I knew he wasn't. So, you know, I prefer. He has so, you know, good students, you know, like World Champions, like Matthews Giaz and Dylan Dennis, those guys, you know, and I like to train with that guys. Because when I go with Marcel, you know, I want to go,

but I feel like he's just taking easy with me, you know. You know, it's crazy. But, you know, that's how good he is. So because he's focusing purely on grappling, and you're doing, you've kind of evolved into an MMA grappler, you think that there's a divide there that it's different? Yeah, that's for sure. You know, when I train there, what I realize is it's just, you know,

let's see, we start on the ground and it's one thing. When there is with the guys there, if there is a stand-up and ground is different because, you know, I've been trained a lot of takedowns and this kind of stuff. If we use the wall, it's better for me, you know, because, you know, I learn how to use the wall. Yep.

And with punches is even different. So my jiu-jitsu nowadays, you know, I'm very good in using the punches and using the wall and this kind of things. I was talking to another friend of my who was world champion to Rodrigo Comprido. He's like absolute world champion a couple times. I said, I was trying to, he said to me, I was trying to do your guarding pass. And, you know, you do so easy during the fight. And I couldn't do it. I said, you know, in the train, I said, look, if I go to fight a good jiu-jitsu.

it's hard to do in the training too, but the thing, you know, in the fight, I have the cage, I have the punches, so, you know, I just adapted the punches and the grappling to use together. So sometimes even if I don't punch, the guy is afraid of the punch, so the positionings are different. So I think that's why, you know, I'm getting, you know, good in passing the guard in the MMA. And sometimes, you know, I go to the academy, I don't pass in the guy's guard because, you know, there's no punches or no, you know, fancy wall. And that's it. When's the last time you were in a jiu-tit-tournament?

That was back, g-or-no-gi, either. Guy was January or February 2007. Oh, wow. Yeah. And no-gi was December 2007. So my first fight in the U.S.C. was October 2007. Then I fought the last no-ghi-ghi-jit's competition one month after that, or a couple months after that.

And that's it. So now that you've become a lot more famous around the world because of your UFC career, no one's ever tried to get you, you know, like a metamora. Yeah, they try. We are talking to Haleig, you know. Yeah. They want me to fight there. Are you interested?

Yeah, yeah. And they were talking about Nick Diaz. I said, okay, it would be great. But then, you know, I don't know what happens. And then we keep talking, you know, it would be great. You know, it's just not my focus, but would be really, really great. You know, I like to fight. I like to fight Jiu-Jitsu.

Do you ever train with the Ghee these days? Yeah, I train. Mainly like now because I'm not in camp, like at least every Friday, you know, I put my gear and train with the competition team in my academy. Oh, really? Okay. But when you're training for an actual fight, there's no point in training with the game, right?

At least not for me because I've been training with Gis so long, you know. And, you know, nowadays I think we're looking for is to be the most specific as we can during the camp. Yeah. So I don't do things just because, you know, ah, it's different, you know, I got to focus in what I'm going to do. You know, I was, I was reading a guy, an author that he said, you know, a writer that he said, you know, we realize when you, when you, when you realize when you get to the point that you want, when there's not nothing, nothing more to add, but when there is not anything more to cut. You know, so I think

We need to cut everything And be very specific During the camp So, you know, I do the boxing Specific for my grappling You know, I do the grappling That I'm going to do during the fight, you know So when the camp starts like nine, ten weeks

Before the fight, I'm very specific You know, I'm very You know, into what I'm going to do So I'm not going to do ghee or something else But before it's okay So your next fight is May 14 It's May 14 May 14 against Matt Brown

Yes This is a card that's changed a little bit, right? Because it was supposed to be on FS1. All signs point to it being on pay-per-view now. Yes. Even Jacare's manager recently said that they were the main event, Jaceray, Belfort, but now it's been moved down.

And I think it's going to be Verdun-Myotich. At least that's what the talk to have you heard? Yeah. That's what I heard, true. Yeah. I heard that the main part will be Verdun and Miotich. Yeah. I don't know how official is that, but I heard that, you know.

And then, Comain, is Jacare. and Vitor, and then, you know, I think maybe I'm above that. That's a great pay-per-view. Very, very good, yeah. Very strong. Very strong. You know, World title, heavy weight? Yeah.

Very good. And then Jacquet, Belfort, you Matt Brown? Great, great, very. Is it real or Sao Paulo? Have you heard? They have many places, but I think it's not going to be real. I don't think it will be San Paulo. Okay.

You know, they were talking about another states. Like, you know, they were, I heard talking about Fortaleza or Brasilia or Curitiba. I heard those three places. Do you have a preference? Not really. Not really. Do you like fighting in Brazil as opposed to the U.S. or more U.S. than Brazil?

I like both. You know? I was thinking about that. The last, since I dropped to the Walter Way, I just fought in Brazil or Las Vegas. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, and I love to fight Las Vegas. I love to fight in Brazil. I think, you know, if I keep doing like that, that would be great, you know.

It's working out for you. And it's an interesting time for you because you've won four in a row. Four in a row, yeah. You're fighting map around. And before that, I won three in a row. then I was. And now all of a sudden, wow, what a fascinating time at 170 because Stephen Thompson just fought. Did you see that fight?

Yes, I saw. What did you think of his performance? Very good. Very good. Very good. Very impressive because, you know, was against, you know, the former champion. Did you expect that? No, not really.

Not really. So he has now become a player. Tyron Woodley is campaigning. Yes. You're there. Matt Brown's there. Carlos Condit's still there. Yeah.

Because I thought he won that fight. Did you see that fight? Yes, I was, you know, Cage, I watched in the first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. So, you came all the way from Brazil to watch that, right? Yes, yes. The thing is like, you know, I watch with too much emotion, the fight because it's in my division. Sure.

So I didn't, I didn't, you know, count the points, but I saw many people saying that he won. Some people said, Rob, he won. So I really don't know. I got to watch again. It was very close. Yeah, yeah, it was very close. That's for sure, yeah. And on top of all of that, there's still some rumors of GSP returning.

Yeah, I heard that, yeah. So my question is, where does Damien fit in all of this? Because I got to say, after your fight against Gunner Nelson, it seemed like it was a bit of a different, Damien, Maya. Like, you were a little annoyed. Yeah. Like, when am I going to get the respect that I deserve? Yeah, you know what?

You know, I just, you know, sometimes I don't talk too much, and that's myself. But, you know, like I said, you know, I really believe, I truly believe that I can be the champion. You know, and I feel, you know, and I can visual a lot. that, you know, I'm going to fight for the title this year. You know, I can visualize that. You feel it.

Yeah, I feel that, you know, and I feel that I can be the champion. You never know, you know, if you're going to be or not. But I feel that, you know, what I feel, because before I was too much, you know, with too much pressure, I was just thinking about, like, crazy title. I want to win the title. I want to, if I don't win the title, I'm not going to be, you know, happy when I finish my career. But then suddenly, you know, after I lost you, hurry, you know, I just relaxed and said, okay, You know, I love what I do, you know, and, you know, that's great.

You know, I make money do it what I love and I keep doing that. But, you know, let's see what happens. And once I relax, things start to flow better. And I remember a book that I read many years ago about the Zen archery. And the guy was saying to a guy who was trying to get the, you know, to hit the target with the bow and arrow. Yeah, yeah. And he said, you're not hitting because you want too much.

You know, your desire is too big. The wheel is too big. So that's why, you know, what he means is you don't relax. You know, you're not relaxing. And I didn't understand well. And I always very, very focused and very like you say, OCD or, you know, very much. On the title, title, title, title, title, just think about that all the time. Everything that I do in my life is thinking about that.

But that's, I think, add too much pressure on me. And when I relax, I said, okay, I'm doing what I love and, you know, relax more. even my performance is getting better you know so i think that's the way that's why now you know it's like it's not like i need to fight for the title i will fight for a title i will win i just relax and i i know i'm gonna you know i'm gonna fight for the title and i know i have a great chance to win that's why i want the chance so but i need to speak so you know i want to fight for the title so do you recall after and try to move a little so that we don't see just your face there you go you see that right there because i want to see uh of god uh do you remember uh do you

remember after the Rory fight saying all right i need to stop focusing like was that the change for you no it was just something natural you know it's something that you know that was not just the fight was that fight too but was also because that was the first and the only time that i lost two in a row yeah yeah because i lost to jakeshs before that i didn't think i lost but in any way they gave to him and then i lost to hoary but hoary was was different you know because after jakes i was really because it's you know split decision is the worst thing you know that you can have it was the the first one in my life but after horror you know I went there and I give my best and he gave his best you know what was really close fight yeah and that was

okay I was satisfying with myself you know and of course sad to chew-choo because I lost but after that you know there was that that event and also the problem with my health you know the the staff in my my bone my shoulder bone that made me rethink everything, you know, and see that, you know, the tire is not the most important thing in my life, you know, especially because I have my kids, I have my wife, you know, I have all my family, my friends, you know, I got to be a better person every day. I went to a Buddhist temple once in San Paulo near my house that you stay like for a couple days, you know, just meditating, and you cannot talk any words.

Wow. That's crazy. For how many days? For two days. You can do like for 10, for five, but, you know, the minimum is like two days. You didn't say a word. You can say nothing. Wow.

You just, you know, if you want a food or something, you just show, you have, you know, some mimics that you do, but you cannot say it's just like a silent, you know. Wow. Did you go alone? There's people also, but you cannot talk to nobody. I was alone, yeah. Wow. Why did you do this?

because I like these different experiences and it's crazy that you know when you're born since you're born and you start to talk you know all your life you always talk every day but if you go to a place like that and you don't you can't talk

for like even for a couple days you start to internalize more you know you start to look inside you you start to realize things and feelings and and you know that is very important to grow as a human being I think

You know, I always, since I start martial arts, you know, I think I start because I love, but the most and nicest thing about martial arts is, you know, you grow as a human being. Yeah. By growing as a human being, you know, you make the people around you better, the life of the people around you better. So, you know, I'm in this path, you know, to understand myself better. And that's a way that I did, you know. Was it difficult? No, it was easy.

Could you have gone more than two days? Maybe for some girls are very hard. Yeah, that's right. But, you know, I could do, yeah, I could do. Wow. How long ago? That was a couple years ago. Wow, interesting.

So I think, you know, I would do for 10 days, but it's so hard. Our life is crazy, you know. So with all the traveling and all the training, but I would do for sure for 10 days. A friend of mine in Brazil who used to be my manager, and he did like for a month, I think, somewhere in the middle of the... But it's just meditation, but the only thing is just you can talk, you know?

You cannot talk, you cannot speak. It was around a year ago or so that you had the staff infection, right? That was 2014, I think. 14? Yeah, around... Or was it after the Ryan Laflair fight? Okay.

No, no, no, it was before LaFlears. It was just before, it was after a Yakov fight. That's right. Yeah. This was a serious deal, right? Yeah, it is. Was there like any talk that this was life-threatening?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there was. Because, you know, I was backing for the hospital for three times. Okay, what happened here? How did it start? You know, I was going to fight Mike Pio. That's right. Right? So I had a little injury in my shoulder, you know, normal one.

Which one? Right shoulder. Okay. So I went to the doctor. and he did a little shot, anti-inflammatory shot, local shot. But because that is more rule, maybe the bacteria,

because I went back to training after that, you know, maybe the bacteria got in the bone there. Wow. So, you know, one day I woke up with fever, everything and a lot of pain in my shoulder and was in the bone. So we started coming back in four, but in the hospital,

because, you know, I tried to stay as little as I can, and leave to keep the fight, you know, with Mike Pio. But then, you know, after a week, my fever came back and we need to go back. And then we called Joe Sylvan and said, we can't fight. So then we came back and then he was scheduling another fight. And then we called him again, you know, because I need to go back. The fever starts again. And after that, you know, the third time I had like a drain thing, you know, like a...

Oh, intravenous. Yeah, intravenous. Yeah, IV. Yeah, IV inside my arm that was, you know, every day the nurse will come to my house to shot the antibiotics, you know, something permanent that you put here. Oh, wow. You know, how you call that? Like in your veins? Yeah, in your veins goes through the vein of the heart.

Oh, my. Yeah, it's crazy. Wow. So we didn't know if it was, you know, with bacteria or something. So when you come back, they start to make the tests. and there was nothing, you know, no bacteria anymore, bacteria was good, so we didn't know what happens. And the fever keep coming back every four hours.

So we start to research. I start, of course, in the Internet, me and my wife, and see that, you know, if you have cancer, you can have that, you know, and people don't know. Or if you have, like... The worst thing you could do is go on the Internet, right? Because then you start reading about it. The worst thing.

Like blood cancer, you can have the same. So all this kind of thing. So the doctor said, look, it's not in bed. your, you know, or your, your, your, your, your, blood test is good. It's just something, probably a virus, but we don't know because virus takes like three, four days to the test comes back, you know, get back.

So he said, but if you worry, we're going to do a pet scan. You know, a pet scan, you know, scan all your body to see if you have any cancer cell or something. Oh, my. So when I get in this point, and the fever keep coming back, you know, it's like, you know, it's like somebody beating you

when you, when you recover, you get beat again and again, you know, your mind, everybody starts to put you down and you kind of depressed, you know, inside that hospital room. So after that, I went to the PET scan. I was really afraid, you know, not afraid of my life, but afraid of my kids, you know, because I was thinking, okay, if I pass away, if I have something, they grow without a father, you know, so I was like, kind of, you know, really worrying about that, sure, because, you know, I have small kids. How many? Two. Two.

A girl should just turn five and the boy just will turn now in March three years old. Okay. So I said, what's going to happen with Pietre and Lorenzo and all my kids? So I was worrying about that. Then we went to the PET scan. There was nothing. Then I was happy. And suddenly the fever started to drop, you know.

And after a couple days, the virus scan or tests came back and there was some different virus there. and that was it, you know, it was just, it was crazy because I had the bacteria, the bacteria was good, it was healing, but then I got a virus at the same time. A normal virus that normally you get when you kid, but I didn't, you know, was, what's the name? I forgot the name.

But it was a staff infection, right? The first I was the staff infection. And then it got worse. Then it got worse. Was it like a big opening here? No, no, no, because it was inside the bone. Oh, my gosh. Have you ever had?

Osteomyelitis. Have you ever had a staff infection? like that? Yeah, yeah, many. In the bone? Not in the bone, never. You've had staph infection normal. Yeah, and in Brazil, it's not so bad, like here. Here in North America, when you get here in U.S., it's really bad, because I don't know if you guys use too much antibacterial stuff here. So there is just a strong bacteria is here. Oh, that's interesting. But in Brazil, when you get this normally, it's not so bad. Like here, people really get bad stuff infection. You've never had one where it's like your whole leg was all. Yeah, it was not whole, you know, of course, bad.

ones, but not like some that I saw here in the United States. So it was in the bones, so you couldn't see it? No, that was the problem. Oh my gosh. And the guy said, the doctor said to me, look, we need really to stay, you know, and get the shots in your vein, antibodies for, you know, I took like 12 weeks, three months of shot. Wow.

Because if we don't cure that well, maybe it ends your career. Wow. Yeah. So you were thinking about that. Yeah, it was thinking. But again, I said, you know, that's not the most important thing in my life. You know, that's the time changing for me. Because before I was like, you know, my obsession to win the tie was just,

that for me was the most important thing in my life, you know. For me before it was like, and I said at an interview that, you know, I was scary about just two things, something happened to my kids and lose a fight, you know. And now I saw that it's not that big deal, you know. You know, as an athlete, if I lose a fight, it would be really, really sad for months. But in the end of the day, you know, one day we're going to finish the career

and the life goes on. So that's why, you know, this mindset, when it changed, made me fight better and perform better. Isn't it funny how that works? Like, something like that has to happen for you to appreciate. It is.

It's a crazy world. It's crazy, you know. And something that changes, too, we know, after La Flores fight, you know, the fight that was coming back. I realized one thing Dana said to me, you know, by the press

conference, he said, look, you're doing great, your jiu-jitsu is great, you know, we're not asking you to stand up and, you know, striking with the guys because, you know, there's a lot of people want to see your jiu-jitsu. But when you mount in the guy, you've got to get a little bit more risks, you know, punch the guy a little bit more, try to go to submissions

because he just, you know, I was just like keeping the position and not really trying, you know, to win the fight. But then after that is sticking my mind. mine. I said, of course, you know, I have good Jiu-Jitsu. I can try that. You know, before I was trying. Yeah. So when I, the next fight with New Magni, you know, even if, you know, he didn't really give the back to me, he just turned a little bit. I said, I'm going to get the risk and I jump under.

Yeah. And, you know, I could lose the position, but, you know, I got the risk and I was reward for that. You know, I got the submission. That was great. And the last fight I tried to, you know, I tried to go to Gunnar's arm, but Guna is another level, you know, in Jujitsu-wise. You know, he's very good Jiu-Jit's fighter, you know, he fought Abu Dhab and all this. Sure. So it was harder, but, you know, I went to his arm, you know, I really punched. I tried to make him open his pace. So that's what I'm changing.

Also, you know, that was nice that Dana said that to me because, you know, that's something that clicks something also. Are you tired at this point? Like, you went through a stretch, La Flair, Magny, Gunner, where it seemed like they were putting these rising stars against you. Yeah, always. And Jakovlev. Yeah.

Are you tired of that at this point? Yeah. You know, I'm happy because I keep winning, but... But at some point, I mean, you want to... Yeah, no, no, I want to fight for the title. Yeah. After I won Guna, you know, I thought I could fight for the title. You thought so?

Yeah, I thought they could put... Because there was... You know, I was thinking about, okay, they can put... They're not going to put... If they don't want to do a rematch because, you know, he just fought. They're not putting Johnny Hendricks right now because he was going to fight the Wonderboy. Then they're not putting...

Who else? There was a Horry. Horrie because Horrie fought. And then there was me and Woodley. Yep. So it was beating me and Woodley, you know. So I said, okay, there's a real chance. But then, you know, they didn't decide.

Then I said, okay, but I told you, remember in Las Vegas? I said, okay, I think the fights that make sense now is Woodley or Matt Brown. And, you know, I'm happy there, you know. You're okay with Matt Brown? I'm okay. Yeah, I'm good. But you wanted title shot? Of course, but that, you know, the dream was the title shot,

but the next good stuff was finally, like a guy like Matt Brown or Woodley, you know, because if I know if I beat those guys, you know, then I really into that title shot. You never know, you know, UFC, it's crazy. You never know what's going to happen. But, you know, I think I would be really into the title shot. Okay, so what about Woodley? Do you think he deserves it next? Like, okay, it's clear you're not, someone has to fight Robbie Lawler.

Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. People's, I saw a lot of people saying the internet, okay, now Woodley, should fight Wonderboy for the top walk but who fights slower yeah you know if everybody forgets that he gotta fight you know so I think you know the fair because I'm fighting you know Matt Brown now I think it would be fair if would leave fight you know but I just hope they fight fast and no they fight yeah I think around May would be good you know what about this this is starting to become a thing it's gaining momentum uh huh Connor McGregor have you heard about this that Connor McGregor versus Robbie Lawler

after he beats Rafael dosangos, if he wins, there's some talk of him moving up to 170 to fight for the belt. How would you feel about that? Sad, you know, because that's crazy,

because we are athletes and we work very hard our way to the title. And I understand that this fight would make a lot of money, but, you know, as an athlete,

I don't agree with that. I can't disagree more, you know, I think, okay, if you go, you gotta work, you know, and do a couple of fights. at least to prove that you can fight

because it's a different division. But in the end of the day, I don't think he will win against Raphael. You don't think so. No, I don't think so. Because it's too much weight difference, I think. You know, I think he's different body types. Raphael is very tough.

He proved that in his last fights. But I'm sure he has his chance, of course, corner. He proved that also against Aldo. You know, at least most people, you know, didn't think about, you know, most people that understand the sport didn't think about he was going to win. And he did in, you know, in a fashion way, yeah, it was crazy. You know, I was shocked.

I just fought, yeah, I went to the corridor to watch what I said, okay, let's watch that fight and I'll just, you know, relax. Then, you know, when the things happened, I was shocked, you know, I was really, what the you know. You didn't expect that? No, not at all. Do you think all that was going to win? I think so, yeah, I thought so.

Not because, you know, I like him and he's my friend, but I thought, you know, if you think about athletes, I think he was more complete and more proven. But I feel like everyone picks against Connor every fight and he continues to surprise. No, no, he's, he's a great athlete for sure. So it was a part of you hoping that RDA wins on March 5th so that he doesn't move up to 170 because you know if he goes up there, he's going to get that title shot right away, right? I think so, yeah. Will you be pissed off? Yeah, I will, yeah. I hope he doesn't win.

Do you know RDA? Have you, Hafeldo Sanjos? Have you trained with him before? No, no. Never trained with Hafeo, yeah. I have a theory about you. I feel like to a degree, you are still paying for UFC 112.

Like, you're still being punished for that. Yeah, maybe. Maybe I guess Anderson. I feel like in some way that fight turned out to be this crazy thing. Not your fault, obviously. But in some way, in the people's eyes in the promotion deep in the back you're still paying for that yeah that's why you you're not in that discussion yeah maybe but at the same time that fight changed my career

how so you know after that everybody you know in that time undersone never had any challenge really real challenge so that fight aimed for like went for five rounds and you know I didn't did well, but in the end, there was a little bit better, I was trying to fight, but a lot of people start to recognize me, you know, as a fighter. Even though you lost. Even that I lost, you know, I got a lot of, you know, good, I would say, feedback? Feedback. Yeah.

Of course, you know, every time somebody is going to give you a feedback, they're going to give a good to your face, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, what I mean is like, it doesn't matter the feedback, but what happens is like everybody spoke about that fight, right? Because of what Anderson said and people are, you know, so the people are talking about that fight and that, I think, put me in a different level, you know. People start to recognize me more because it was that guy who fight with Anderson. Okay.

But yeah, maybe your theory is right, you know, maybe I'm still paying for that, you know. But, you know, I lost some fights also, you know, in the way after. that so after that fight i lost you know all my fights i have 22 in the u sirec 22 wow i am i am the with understone the brazilian who pull most wins in the ufc really yeah and was was was was was even with tibow too but i think because tibow you know the last one yeah so now you're tied with anderson yeah tied with i think with 16 16 wins yeah yeah 16 winning me and Anderson. Okay, so. And in all, overall, it was like number five tied with other guys. Really? Yeah. Wow. Where has the time gone? It's unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy. How long do you want to fight for?

At least, when I started the UFC, I said I want to fight at least till four years old, but now I think it'll go a little bit further. Now you're what, 30? 38. 38. Yeah, I turned 38 in November. Happy birthday? Thank you. So you want to go past 40. You're feeling good? Yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling great, you know. I'm feeling great. And I never had. had really like bad injuries you know training wise okay this one was my injuries like a sickness yeah yeah but like really like i never had probably with my ligaments or this kind of thing so going back to 112 i was at 112 i remember very few journalists there american journalists yes and it was surreal being there because not only were we outside and the sheiks were there it was just a very unique thing the first outdoor abu dhabi was crazy and then what was going on in the fight yeah was

bizarre afterwards at the press conference. Did you go to the press conference? No, I didn't. My, my my eye was too close so they sent me to the hospital. Dana was very upset Anderson, Ed Soros was there, it was all weird. For you, was that maybe the weirdest, most frustrating night as as an athlete period, jiu-jitsu, MMA, judo, everything. Have you ever experienced something like that? No, was something different, you know, was sad for me, you know, because what I think was sad for me for the first time in a fight in one point, I didn't believe that I could win. You know, after I turned, you know,

after the end of the third round, when I land the first punch, I remember I land two good punches during that. One in the third round and the other one in the fourth round. Okay. But, you know, the second round and the first half, first second and first half of third round, I was like in one point I said,

I think I'm not going to win. Maybe I'm going to get knocked out. Why are you started thinking that? So for the first time in my life, for the only time in my life, you know, I said, I can't find the distance, you know, I can't, you know, the training, I think the training was wrong for that fight, you know. Because we were training a strategy to wait for him to come,

to shoot, you know, and put him down. But with Anderswan and Cheo proved that later, you got to chase him, you know, and you got to throw, you know, overhands and great stuff, everything that, if you want to be technical with him, stand up, he's always much more technical than you, at least than me, you know, and most, you know, 99% of the guys. So you can be so technical, stand up with Finn.

You cannot be orthodox, you know, because I was trying, you know, to, you know, keep the distance and jab and go away, but he was just hitting me so hard with his jabs. When I said, okay, it doesn't matter, I just going to fight, then was better. Yeah. And I have a theory.

Yes. If I had fight him before my first lost, you know, when I just went there and throw, you know, over hands and clinch with the guys, maybe it would be different, you know, because, you know, after the loss to Nate Mark, when my first loss, I started to focus on boxing very much and I start to focus on, you know, keep the distance, you know, and be more patience to get in and throw more straight punches, you know, defend, you know, the punches with my leg instead clenching. So that's put me a little bit out of my.

my natory and that was good, you know, not for me, but it was good for him. What about the talking? Did that mess you up? When he was talking to you. No, no, I expected he was doing, he was going to do his stuff. What did he say? What did he say to you? He said something. What is our jiu-jitsu right now?

Why you call you Playboy? Because, you know, because, you know, playboy in Brazil is like a rich boy, but I never been rich boy, you know? So where does this come from? My family is not really, actually I help all my family, you know, and, It comes because, you know, maybe I studied and he didn't study, you know. I have college, you know, but I did that, but I work, you know, at the same time. Sure.

And I train, you know, and my family, we never had, like, you know, I bought an apartment from my mother like three years ago. He, she never had an apartment, you know. When we are like 16, we get kicked out of our house, you know. I was because my father and my mother were separate. Okay. So my mother, you know, we didn't have money to pay. And there was my mother, me and my brother, I was 15 or 16. 15 or six, and we got kicked out.

I need to live with my grandmother in a place that, you know, sleep in the living room, this kind of things for many years. Wow. You know, I was never a playboy, you know, but it's easy to say that because it's just a stereotype, okay, this boy, you know, he did college and stuff, so he must, you know, be a playboy. Did that bother you when he was talking like that? No, after that I was, you know, he's an asshole, you know,

doing that because, you know, he doesn't know my life. know what happens and everything that I passed through. But yeah, it doesn't matter, you know. What was your relationship like with him going into that fight? Did you have a good relationship? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, that was surprising because he met me at the hotel. And we had many friends in common, you know, like Noggeras were there and they were a big friend of mine.

Actually, they took me to train boxing in Salvador in Bahia. And they were with him then. And And And Dregalvoin, who is big friend of mine, I brought him to train with our thing. when he was a kid, you know, and he was training him in Jujitsu, you know, Josuel de Staki, who is Jakares,

you know, coach, was my coach back before UFC, you know, was my MMA coach. So we had no problem, you know, and he was,

every time he met me in the hotel home, he has, hey, how do me, blah, so I was kind of surprised, but, you know, it doesn't matter, you know,

I don't... How do you feel about him now? I don't care anymore. Like I said, I relaxed, But for a while, did it bother you? For a while, yeah, I didn't like him at all, you know. Did you ever have a run-in with him afterwards and be like,

yo, man, what was going on? Why did you talk like that? No, no, never, you know, never. Never, never had that. Yeah, no, no. But I don't care anymore, you know. I think everybody, you know, has his own way and he made his mistakes. I made my mistakes and that's it.

You know, I don't care anymore, you know. I hope he's good with his family and everything. When he got knocked out by Wyman, acting like that, did a part of you deep down say, And not so deep. Not so deep. You know, I was clearly, you know, I was, you know, I was, you know, thinking, okay, you deserve that. You got what you deserved.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because it was almost the same thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not quite as much as what he was. Yeah, he didn't talk, but, you know. The thing that I think was wrong in my fight that, you know, my jujurzzi coach Wagner was saying that I don't, I didn't remember that, but he said, in one point in my fight, I tried to chase Anderson, and he ran behind the referee. and you know and and start you doing like that you know and hiding behind you yeah yeah yeah and the he just loved yeah really i have to go back yeah i didn't i didn't i didn't i didn't remember but that's my

jihitsu coach said so that was crazy you know the other crazy thing about abudab was that if you see the fight undersond did have the the red the tape the red tape in his hands oh that's right that's right because there was no commission there so they forget you know if you see the fight i have the blue tape but he has nothing in his wrist. That's right. Why do you think that was? Because I think they just forget, you know? They just forgot.

I think they forget, yeah. How long did it take for you to get over that, where you were like, all right, I'm not going to think about this. Was it the next fight or was it a couple of years that you stopped thinking about that? No. Sometimes I still think, like I said, nowadays I relax, but sometimes I still think. Really? In one point, I said, I never said that to nobody, but I said, I'm going to win the waterweight

title and I'm going to challenge him, you know? In one point, luring my welterate career, but I don't care about that anymore. When's the last time you watched it? Watch what? That fight on TV. I just watched, you know, right after the fight, when I was in Abu Dhabo, I went to a hotel room and watch. And that's it. I never seen it again.

Never seen it again. No interest. No, no interest. Actually, you know, many of my fights, I watched once and I didn't watch it anymore. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Are you the kind that watches a lot on your opponent? Like Matt Brown, will you watch a lot of his fights?

Not a lot. I like to watch, you know, but this for me is like work. I really don't like to sit and watch my opponent. But I know it's important, you know. So I watch at least once his fights and my coaches, you know, my conditioning coach, my Eduardo, you know, my key, which is my head coach, my BJG coach, my boxing coach. They all watch many times. But I watch at least once each, each fight because it's important to see and get the feeling, you know.

I do feel like to a degree the Gunner Nelson fight was a turn for you because a lot of people were very much looking forward to that fight. Yes. You were above him in the rankings, but they were like, okay, this is going to be the match, the two Jitsu experts. Actually, they thought he was going to win. He was asking for that fight. Yeah, him, his coach. Everyone were asking for it. Joe Silva wanted it.

Everyone wanted it. Yes. You take the fight. And a lot of people wouldn't take the fight. Let's be honest, because he was below you in the rankings. You take the fight. Big stage. UFC 194, huge event, his teammate.

and you just completely dominated him. And I know that you're a very humble guy, but deep down, it must have bothered you that people were picking him, right? And then that was kind of like, screw you everyone, right? Finally, give me the respect that I deserve. I feel like now you get the respect after that fight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's changed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so, you know. And that is growing, you know. I need to grow, you know, this talking and confidence, you know, understand how to call for that title, you know,

and I'm working on that, you know. I need to be more outspoken. Yeah. You know. Did you say anything to him after? I mean, that was a real lesson that you gave him. Did you give him any advice, say, like, don't worry. You know, sometimes you see the, did you say anything to him or not really?

No, not really. We just, Eduardo, you know, met him and his father and said, if one day you want to go to our academy, we'll be a pleasure. Would you be interested? Yeah, it's okay. You know, it's okay. You know, my academy is open for everybody, you know. We're good with everybody. Where is it?

In San Paulo, yeah. It's the Damien Maya Academy. Yeah, Damia Maya Villa da Luta, yeah. Okay. That means house of... Villa is like a village. Village? Of the fight.

Of the fight. Yeah, yeah. Is this for professionals only or regular people? No, no, no, regular people, you know, mainly jujitsu, but there's some kickboxing, two and boxing. And we have the professional training, 11 o'clock, the grappling professional, and then the boxing afternoon, like six o'clock, something like that. Do you still believe at 30? years old,

the Amy my best jiu-jitsu in MMA. Number one. You could be honest. Yeah, I think, I think, you know, I adapt to well

for MMA. I think, you know, I studied a lot, you know, and the thing is, you know, there is fighters that when you go,

you know, you got to think out of the box. I think when Liotto won, you know, that title was because he was different, you know?

So when you're different, it's easier, I think to get there. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, almost everybody's like a good kickbox with good ground skills and, you know, okay, wrestlers and with small difference. But I think, you know, when you, you different, you know, if you ask me, are you the best one in the Walter Division? I don't think so.

Are you the toughest one? I don't think so. Or the best, you know, striker. I don't think so. But can you win the title? Yes, I think so. You know, because I. I'm different that the guy used to, the other guys used to fight, you know.

I'm different that normally they expect, you know. And, you know, I'm feeling well. I'm feeling healthy. And I feel that, you know, I'm learning more tricks to be even more different. That it's going to be harder for the guys to fight against me. Who do you think is number two? Like who do you really love watching? You say, wow, this guy.

Hurry, hurry, for sure. Horry for me is the best. For jiu-jitsu. No, no, no, no. I mean the welterweight division. Really? Wow. Horri is the best. Even though he lost the Robbie. Even he lost, you know, I think because he lost and of course, you know, Robbie he has all his, you know, he's great.

Yeah, yeah. He's the best actually. I mean, he's the champion. Sure, sure. But if you think about technique, you know, I think Horie is the best, you know. What about Jiu Jitsu only? Jiu Jitsu only in UFC. In MMA.

In MMA? Verduh is good Oh yeah What a comeback he's had Yeah Unbelievable unbelievable Like Robbie Yeah that's true

What about Paliaris Yeah palaearis Yeah palares is good But what's going on here With the whole thing This is a problem right Yeah it's hard to talk You know I don't know

You ever meet him Many times you know But I don't I don't know I don't know He deeply to judge You know But as a jiu jitu practitioner

This is the worst kind of thing Right to hold on too long I think it's Yeah It's not it's not right for sure. Especially leg locks and things. Yeah, I think you've got to learn how to release.

But I don't want to judge on him because I don't know what goes inside his mind. You know, I can't tell. Okay. I think, you know, like you said, I like those comebacks like Verdun, you know, and Robbie Loller. You know, I have a lot of respect for that guys. And, you know, what happens? I think it's the same that I said. That will happen to me when you relax, you know, when you relax and you think,

okay, for me that's it. I'm training because I like to train. I'm going to keep fighting. And then suddenly they come back. You know, because it was extreme for them. They were kicking out of the, out of the USC, you know. Of course. Something that would surprise some people.

You didn't start as a jiu-gizu guy. It was judo, right? No. Or tachwendo? Judo was the first one. It was four, five years old. Okay. And I just remember really, you know,

few classes and stuff, doing some stuff, and then one competition. And then when I was 12 years, 12 years old, I started to do Kung Fu. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, late, I moved to Jiu-Jitsu. Then I did some 16? 19.

19. Wow. Yeah. I think people would be surprised to hear that because we talk about your Jiu-Git-T all the time. But that's not. Actually, one day, that's, you know, nobody knows also, you know, just some friends. When I was 18, I did the MMA-Fai, you know. But not in my records.

And, you know, that was in a place in Brazil, in a beach, in like a warehouse. and I won and was like I was training just Kung Fu and I was doing some Jiu-Jitsu with some cousins you know but they were Brian Grace students but I was just learning some techniques not really going to the Jiu Jiu Jitsu Academy to do and I fought this one I won and I was 18 years old Didn't you fight someone who was like 260 pounds or something?

Yes I did. Was it that fight? No, that was the second. That was your official debut? Yeah my official debut. How much did you weigh? In that time was 8, 2 kilos is around 180. 18, you found a guy 260? Yeah, the guy was like 260, or more than 2.30.

It was 1, 125, 130. Why so big? Why such a difference? Because there was no. No one else? No, no, yeah, that's the thing. The thing I was going to fight another guy. Okay.

Who was like maybe 205. Yeah. And the guy just pulled out in the last minute. And I was there, was in Venezuela, in Caracas. Okay. So the other guy said, the thing. teacher of the academy, don't worry. The guy that was supposed to fight, the rest, I was like 22 years old and the guy said, the rest that was supposed to fight, he can fight you. I don't

need to fight, you know? I said, okay. And then they were trying to find first another guy. They fallen like a kicker boss. He was like 175 and I was 180. And then he said, he want to fight that guy? The guy said, okay, but he doesn't have any jiu-jitsu experience. You're going to kill him. And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then my friend Terereo and all. another jiu jitz fighter he said they mean he's just gonna kill this guy you know it was like a top level brown belt war champion you know okay and then i said yeah yeah yeah give me somebody tougher and then he said okay there's this guy you know it's and when he said i said oh maybe it's better the other way you know but then finally you know i thought that guy was crazy you know you beat him

yeah i beat him how'd you beat him i i stepped to his knee like a old hoist grace style and clinch and try to take him down but i could lock my hands well he was a little fat, you know. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I tried to rule, and he was a wrestler, so I tried to take him down. But he didn't fall. He fell on his own fore, you know, on his knees and hands. So I ran to his back, put the hooks and start to punch, and it was like a TKO,

where it was 45 seconds, something like that. So that's your official, but you say that you had a fight before that. Before. How did you win that one? That was crazy, too, because, you know, I started doing like the Kung Fu stuff, the punches. Oh, yeah. And the guy was a Capoeira guy. Oh.

He just put his. head down and he that was 155. Okay. He hit me and, you know, got connected to my shin and I'll fall down. But I didn't, you know, pass out. I just, you know, was a knockdown. Then I stand up again. And then he tried to hold me and I got underhook, you know.

And I had some experience in Jiu-Jitsu with my cousins, like I said. And I took him down mount and started to punch and then he stopped the fight. Okay. But, and I tried to go to. a Matta Leone, a Hebrew, naked choke. But the thing is that, you know,

I realized that was less than a minute fight that, you know, I've been training Kung Fu for like, in that time for like five,

six years since I was really young. And in the end, I did like three class of Jiu-Zitsu for my cousin. And what saved me was the Jiu-Zitsu. Amazing. And I said,

okay, maybe I got to start to do that, you know. So why don't they put that on your record? I don't know. I never, I never show this fight. You know,

maybe if I sent you share dollars, And actually, this is in a VHS tape. Oh, wow. I'm going to pass, when I come back to Brazil. You should. I was thinking about it. I'm going to pass to a CD and maybe, you know, download. Was it in a ring?

No, it wasn't like a match, you know. It's a warehouse. It was not, it was crazy. You know, I just go there. I remember my Kung Fu coach, he put the car really bit far because he said if the people try to beat us after, you know, many guys, if we're in, we need to run to the car. It was this kind of thing, you know? Crazy.

Yeah. All right. We are running out of time. What a pleasure this is, having so much fun. When are we going to see the Damien Maya show? Because one of the things I love about you is that you have a journalism degree. Yes. It's amazing.

Yeah. So you truly appreciate the MMA media. Yeah. You know the struggle that we go through. Yeah, I know. Now it's much better than before, right? It is better, right? It's come a long way.

Yes. You know, I love, what I love nowadays is the media that I love are podcasts. Podcasts? Yeah. That's this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just walk, you know, I just listening for that in the... In the car. In the car, yeah, I don't listen in music anymore in the car.

So I like, the Americans one. I like Joe Rogan or think fairies, you know, great. So not MMA? So not MMA? Some stuff. Other stuff. Yeah, but more to relax other stuff, to learn some new stuff. English?

Are they big in Brazil? No, no, no, because in English, you know. Okay, are there any Portuguese ones? Yeah, there's good Portuguese ones that I listen like another one's like nerdcast. Oh, wow, look at you. Yeah, it's very nice. Yeah. Yeah, MMA hour.

Yeah, exactly. So all this, all these different stuff that I like to. So maybe in the future, you know, some podcasts. Yeah, something like that, yeah. But not just about maybe about everything. Everything. Yeah. Do you want to be, do you want to do your journalism when you're done fighting?

Do you want to use your degree or are you going to just run your school? What do you think you're going to do? I don't have really, you know, big plans about that right now. Did you want to become a journalist before being a fighter? Like, why did you go into journalism? No, I always want to be a fighter, but in that time, when I get in the university, it was in 1997. There was not really like way to be a professional fighter, you know, for life, you know, at least in Brazil. Sure.

Or even before that, so I was always planning to do a, first I want to do college in veterinarian, you know, because I love animals in this kind of stuff. But then, you know, I did journalists too, and I passed in journalists, I didn't pass the trials on veterinarian. Okay. It was really tough, you know, for the public university in Brazil, which is the best. But my university in journalism was very good, too. Okay. So I passed for the journalist. I said, okay, let's do journalism.

And was better because it was last time easier, you know, than the veterinarian. So I could train at the same time and teach this kind of thing. It's easier to be a journalist than a veteran. Much more. I don't know if you heard this, by the way, before I let you go, Hoyst Gracie. You know Hoys Gracie. He's fighting this Friday. I know.

How do you feel about this? I feel great, you know. You feel good about it? Yeah, it's nice to see. Not too old? Yeah, but, you know, if there's people want to watch and I want to watch, you know. You will watch? Yeah, of course.

Wow. Did you ever train with him? No, I met him. Was great in China in 2008 in a event that the Shaq, the Shrek did, you know, in China. The one from Abu Dhabi? Yes. Oh, okay. Shik Tainoon?

No, it was not Tarnu. It's Muhammad. Okay. His brother. Have you ever gone there to train with those guys? Yeah, I went to Taranun once in, back in, after my John Fitz. John Fit. They fly you out there and everything, right?

Yes, yes, yes. First class. Yes. It's nice. Very nice. You stay in the palace? No, I stay in a hotel pretty close. Okay.

There was a world jiu-jitsu pro competition at the same time. So I was like a VIP presence there. Wow. And I went to train. There was me and BJ. Oh, wow. Yeah, because it was funny, you know. Me, BJ, Eduardo, and BJ's manager.

Oh, wow. We had a lot of fun. I was, you know, BJ is so fun, you know. We're making fun about everything. It was funny. So back to Hoyst Grayson. You met him in China? Yeah, in China was great because he came to me.

I never met. You know, I know many graces and I, you know, I'm friends with Haineso, Hickson. Yeah. And Crohn, you know, and the young generation. So I and Kira, you know. Of course. And I came to, to Horace and said, hey, nice to meet you, you know, a pleasure. One of my others said, oh, you were.

everybody said you the new Royce grace you know it was just after a chaos fight you know

so I was you know I never lost in that time I was like 12 or 11 no and was great to hear that

you know from him because you know one of the reasons that I started every all the the MMA stuff

is because you know of watching him so you support him fighting on on Friday for sure

no no gee this time though yeah yeah because now it's the rule yeah it's okay

you know like I said you know of course I'm not expecting, you know, to be like a UFC title fire or something like that, you know, but, you know, I'm curious to see. Of course, I am. All right.

Well, Damien, I have to say, what a pleasure this has been. So much fun. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed it. Very nice to be here. Yeah, yeah. You know, when I'm in town, you know, I may, you know. Anytime.

You are welcome. You are welcome. And I'm sorry about the cold weather. Wow. It's summer in Brazil, right? It's summer. When I left there, it was like 90. What are you doing here?

This weekend was horrible. It was cool. You know, I, don't care, you know, the side of my mother in my family, they are from Russia, so, you know, I don't feel so much. I didn't know that. Russia? Yeah, my grandmother and grandfather from the fathers, the parents of my mother.

Which part? I think it's near Ukraine or Poland. Okay. Wow. Do you go there? Never. I go probably in the second half of the year because now, you know, there's some academies affiliated with the Myanmar Jujitsu Association in Brazil, so it will be great.

That is great. Congratulations on your success. doing great. I wish you the best of luck. May 14th, Damien Maya returns to action against Matt Brown, a very important fight in the welterweight division. This man has been rolling. He wants your respect. He has earned your respect. Stop doubting Damien Maya. It's about time. Give me that title shot if I win. There you go. Right. Dana White watches this show every week. Yeah, he has, from your lips to Dana's ears. Okay, yeah, Dana is listening. And, you know, if I win that fight, I want to fight for the title.

Forget about McGregor. That's it. Say no more. Thank you so much, Damien. I wish you the best, enjoy your time here. Thank you. And, of course, good luck in May. I'm sure I'll talk to you before then, but again, good luck to you. So now we're going to go to another classic clip as we say goodbye to Damien Maya and reconfigure the studio.

We were just talking about Hoyce Gracie. So how about looking at this clip from April of 2011, right before UFC 129, I spoke to Hoyce Gracie. And he said he wanted one more fight. Well, five years later, he's getting that one more fight. So here it is, another classic clip. Y'all must have forgot me and Hoyst Gracie April of 2011. in Toronto gearing up for UFC 129 and look who we have bumped into the legend himself Mr. Hoise Gracie Hoist it is great to see you my friend thank you good to see you too

very interesting that you are here we're obviously about to enjoy this massive event for the UFC but we've heard some rumors about you that you want to come back and fight at the UFC event in Rio is that in fact true so rumors for now so we haven't talked nothing's been said but you're interested at least Well, UFC put me as an active fighter. So we'll see. Why did they do that? I have no idea.

We haven't talked, like I said. So you haven't officially talked about it. Is that maybe why you're here in Toronto? I came in, actually, to help out with the release of the DVD, the Oldman Hoise Grayson. So on the expo. So that could be gravy, right? The other stuff? Everything else on the air.

Let's just say this. If they did offer you a fight again, Are you interested in fighting or are those days over? No, I'm interested. I got one more. I got one more. It wouldn't make sense, right, to have a Gracie fight in Brazil? One plus one equals two.

UFC knows what he's doing. They know what they're doing. How about being here, 55,000 people. You fought UFC won. I mean, you really put the sport on the map. And now we're about to have a show in front of 55,000 people in a baseball stadium. Did you ever think back then that it would come to this?

Oh, yeah. My father fought in Maracanen in Brazil, so that's a lot of people over there too. They put it like 70,000, 80,000 in Maracana. And that was like, 50 years ago. So, yeah, we knew it was going to get that big. It's just a question of time, educating the crowd. Do you still actively train? Oh, yes.

Training and teaching all the time. So let's say on a scale of 1 to 10, how good shape are you in right now? Last night, I run five miles breathing through my nose. Not a problem. Do you have a dream fight? You say you have one more. Is there someone in particular that you would like to fight? Think about it.

Think about it. It makes sense? Yep. Give me a hint. I can give you any hints, man. It's right there. Have you fought him before? Yes.

Really? A sort of grudge match, if you will. Man, there's no grudge. There's no grudge. I were a betting man, and I had to put money on it. Will Hoyce Gracie fight again in the UFC, perhaps in Rio? Don't know. I have no idea about that. That I don't know. Right.

You're playing the cards very close to your vest, as they say in poker. No, I just don't know. You don't know? I just don't know. I wish I would know. By the way... I don't know. I need to start to get ready for the fight if I am fighting. And Jake Shields, GSP, who's your pick? Man, that's why my family invented the show. of the show. There's only one way to find out. He can go either way.

Very well said. That is a great promo for the UFC. Great stuff. Hoise, it is an honor to see you. Great to see you as always. And we look forward. Maybe once again one more time, Hoyst Gracie inside the UFC Octagon. Thank you. Hey. Never know. Never know. All right. Great stuff there. There he is. The legend, Hoist Gracie, who told us back in April of 2011 that he wanted to fight one more time. And now here we are are just days away from him fighting one more time, at least for now, who knows, maybe even more than one more time. So he has been very consistent in his beliefs. Who would have thunk that it would have been Mr. Ken Chamrock, but that's what's happening on Friday, Bellator,

Ken Chamrock versus Hoyce Gracie, and of course, Dada 5,000 versus Kimbo Slice. How much fun has today been? Wow! And there's still more to go. Today has been a fantastic day. far and we still have half the show left. Damien Maya, fantastic. Wow. Learn so much about Damien Maya. That was such a blast. That's the thing about the in-studio guests. It's fun, obviously, when they're on the phone, obviously when they're on Skype. But to have someone in studio, especially someone like him who you usually don't get a lot of extra time with, it's a whole different ballgame. You learn so much. He actually told me afterwards that he hasn't told a lot of these stories before. This is

new territory for him. So he was a ton of fun. Funkmaster was great. It was just, it has just been a blast. It really has. So in a minute, we're going to be joined by Phil Barone. Going on here. Okay, here we go. Let me just reconfigure that.

I mean, real credit goes to the guys in the back. Everyone who has who continuously worked so hard on this show. And also, if you notice, like, we are we are breaking this thing down and reconfiguring it in very, very quick fashion.

So that takes a lot of skill, and I appreciate their hard work immensely. Thank you very much to them. So like I said, in a minute we're going to be doing. I just really enjoyed having Damien and Funkmaster in studio. Wow, that was a lot of fun. Really a lot of fun. Congratulations again to Al Jermaine for resigning with the UFC, for playing along with our game. just really great.

I hope you all enjoyed it as well and I hope everything's going well in the tech land. If you're in Canada, enjoying Family Day, what better way than watching the MMA hour? So in a minute, we're going to be joined by Phil Barone.

As I said, horrible news late last week, the passing of the legend Kevin Randleman, the monster, former UFC heavyweight champion. If you have not seen or read Dave Meltzer's article

that just was posted earlier this morning on MMAfighting.com Monday morning. I mean, if there's one guy to write, Meltzer, you hate to say something like this because of course you don't want to read these things because that means that bad news has come. But there is no one better at celebrating the life of a mixed martial artist or professional wrestler than Dave Meltzer. I heard, I didn't get a chance to read it, but I heard that his article on Daniel Bryan, Brian Danielson, who retired last week as a pro wrestler was nothing short of amazing,

wrote a great article on the Life and Times of Kevin Randleman that was posted this morning. And I wanted to have Phil on today on the show to celebrate the life and times of Kevin Randleman. If you don't know, Phil Barone was a major part of Team Hammerhouse. A few years back kind of came out that, you know, it was, I don't want to call it a gimmick, but it was a different kind of team. It wasn't your typical MMA team. But they were a force in the Pride Days.

They were a force in Japan, him, Mark Coleman, West Sims, Kevin Randleman, Philbarone. They were a faction. They were a very important faction. And they were, they cost them hell. They shook things up in pride. And it was a ton of fun. Of course, Kevin Randleman's fight. against Miracle Krocop, against Fader Emilienenko, the slam, the knockout,

Morrow Rinaldo's call of the knockout. Kevin Randolphin has just knocked out Miracle Kov. One of the greatest of all times. So I really wanted to have Phil on. Kevin meant a lot to Phil Barone, and I thought it would be apropos to have the New York badass on to celebrate his life. So now we go to the Skype machine, and there he is, the NYBA himself. Phil Barone.

Phil, how are you? What's up, man? How are you doing? Okay, so this is what we're doing. We're doing Skype so that we can see you and your phone, Can you turn the audio off on your computer because we're getting some feedback? Okay, sorry, bro. Also, is there someone who wants to come out of the shower or the bathroom in back of you?

Sorry, my wife, hiding. Is she? She could come out. She could come out. She can help me with the computer. Okay. Help me with the computer. I hope she's not hiding in the closet there or something.

That's the restaurant. Okay. If she wants to come out, she can come out. It's going to make me anxious. She doesn't want to come out. No, she doesn't want to come out. Okay. She doesn't.

Hey, let me see what happens if I put my phone on speaker. Okay. Hear me now? I can hear you. Is that good? Yeah, that's great. Okay, let's do that. Well, Phil, I appreciate you coming on.

I know it's not the best of times. But again, I really wanted to talk to you about Kevin's, you know, life and his amazing legacy. First, let me just ask you. I mean, this was a complete shock. He was just at the World MMA Awards last week. How are you handling it all? Yeah, terribly. You know, it should have went, you know, to see the guy the last time.

I don't know why I didn't go, but, you know, hey. Yeah, it was a shock to everybody, I think. When's the last time you talked to him? Man, a couple weeks ago, you know, me and my wife and Elizabeth was supposed to get-get-get-get together. And, you know, it didn't happen? Then we were going to see each other at M-N-A awards. I ended up not going an MMA award. So, yeah, a couple months, man.

A couple months. And I know. He lives right here in Vegas, too. He lived on opposite sides of town. He lives in, like, Green Valley, and I live in Summaling. So, you know, like 45 minutes away. Okay. Vegas is like in the middle of us.

Just sure. Did you know that he was dealing with any issues, health issues, or was this completely out of the blue? No. No, he's never one to complain, man. You know, that guy's been through so much. I mean, everybody's sort of step-fetching a hole is going through his body. I mean, that guy is lived through so much, but he would never tell anyone. I have no idea.

I think it was a shit, no. I think it was a shock. I don't know how this happened, to be honest. So, you know, when I reached out to you about having you on the show, I mean, I knew about the Hammerhouse connection, but you actually, you told me via text message that this went far beyond Hammerhouse. Like, this was a man that you... Do you want to take a break, Phil? No.

I remember I remember watching in NCAAs when I was in high school. You know, he was the best NCAA wrestler ever. You know, he took second his freshman year went on to win two NCAA titles

after that. Won't won a title but with a broken jaw and his jaw-wise show. He was always super-stuck, super athlete, you know, had the best body, you know, super ups. And, you know, always someone I tried to emulate, you know. In high school wrestling, I wanted to be like, you know, Kevin Randling, you know, shoot double legs.

I mean, I copied his style, inside-out trip, you know, all the techniques he used, I used. And then I remember, like, the first time I met him, I heard DFC was in town. Before UFC 30, I'm not sure what number it was, but if UFC was in town, and I drove to, it was different back then. You can find the fighters, you know. It was a lot different than it was down. It was a lot of small. And it was in Atlantic City, and I remember driving from Long Island to Atlantic City with my workout gear,

and I found out where all the fighters were training, like the warm-up room, the first couple days before the fight, and I, you know, I camped out there. I remember when him and Randamman, I mean, when him and Coleman first walked down to the workout room, kind of like we would have open workouts now, but it wasn't open. Right. And I remember, man, I asked him, can I share with you and wrestle with you? And I remember that he was cool as hell. And Coleman was like, I remember Cole him.

He never called him, don't you know. I'm like, I can't hurt him. I mean, I remember he was just drilling on me, double legs, single legs after it. That's the first one I met him. I went down to the Atlantic City and signed a hotel that they were at, and I got to wrestle him. He was always my... The guy I looked up to, you know, as a kid. And, Phil, if you feel at any point you don't want to keep going, I totally understand.

So I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I really appreciate the stories. I'm wondering... I got so many stories. Okay, that guy's the best. but yeah, yeah, he, you know, man, I remember like, you know, I wrestled him, and I was like, hell yeah, man, I just, you know, I just wrestled the guy. I always wanted to wrestle, you know, I'll, man, I think I was, I think I was wrestling for Hofstra.

I was still, I don't know if I was out of college or I was wrestling actually for Hofstra, you know, and he was in the UFC, so I kind of emulated the guy, you know, when I was in Hofstra wrestling, I used to do big jumps, and I'm not quite as high as the job, but pretty high, you know, you know, and, and, You were just a kid. Like, you weren't the New York badass, so he let some kid that he didn't know, he never knew, just come train with him? Yep. Wow.

I mean, that's how it was. It was just Coleman and hidden there. Wow. And they were hanging out, man. And I... Were you freaking out? Like, how... This is, like, getting to...

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how I pulled her off. But, yeah, I was freaking out. You know, it was awesome. I was getting to trim my idol, you know what I mean? I remember I tried to like use the inside out trip which is a kind of a slick move I tried to inside a trip up and he like threw me off and like oh no no no I know that move you know he was it was awesome at that point did you want to be an m-mama fighter or was that what changed?

Oh yeah of course okay so I was course I was watching it you know what when I was in college I remember watching it's crazy when I think about I remember watching shamrock uh Frank shamrock beat beat Titor Ortiz and Sazza and retired. I remember thinking on my head I could beat that guy. I've got to fight that guy someday. And that ended up happening. I remember the Hannah-Haus and being on a team and I always wanted to be on that team.

It's pretty weird the way my career and life took off. All the guys that always emulated and wanted to be most like had somehow interacted with and, you know, have relationships with. So, you know, it was pretty amazing when I think

about it. And I never really thought about it until now, Did you tell them that day? I want to be an MMA fighter. I want to be... Yeah, yeah, of course. What did they say to you? Do you remember what they said? Like, did they give you advice that stuck with you?

Do you recall the conversation? They were super cool with me. They were like, yeah, man. They told me I was tough and I was strong, and I was up to weights too, you know? Yeah. It was like a little version of those guys. You know, I mean, I always want one of the NBA fighter. I was in Central Michigan, college wrestling.

I used to drive an hour up to Dan 7. He lived in Michigan. I sure worry. but who's an hour away. When I was supposed to be wrestling the stuff, I grew up there and train with Dad 7 a little bit. So I always want to be a fighter. So I knew a little bit, but when I

went to that room, you know, and worked out with those guys. I sat there all day. Every day, I guess, four or five days that they were there. I remember to see Randy Contour come down and I talked to him, wrestle with him a little bit. Wow.

I remember seeing Pedro Hizzo. I remember seeing all the old guys. You know, or the legendary guys, you know, I grew up watching it. So how long after do you actually become a part of Team Hammerhouse? How did that happen? What happened with that was Coleman, random and moved to Vegas, and he was trained at, I think, Mark Lehman. I know, Mark Lehman's Jim. He was training at Mark Lehman's.

And, you know, that's where we were at Hammerhout was learning some ground fighting, some jiu-jitsu. Lehman actually cornered him for a fight in Japan, but Coleman was there, and Coleman came in, and I guess he had a great result, he won the fight, so Coleman came out of here to train. And Coleman was staying at the... Kevin was Elizabeth and his wife, and Coleman was staying at the Palis Station. And I remember after practice one day, I said, hey, hey, Colman, he did the ride, so I drove to him to the Palisdia.

So, what time we're going to train tomorrow? So I just kind of looked up to him and you hear me. I can't see you guys. So your Skype. Yeah, anyway, I looked up to those guys and I just said, Coleman, hey, you need a ride to a hotel? And he said, yeah. He said, what time is we going to train tomorrow?

He told me. So I just went and picked him up. So I was basically, you know, Coleman was big fan and I was his chauffeur for his training camp. And, you know, Kep would come down once in a while and work out, and I would train with those guys. And I was probably one of the better wrestlers, not the best wrestler, in Vegas at the time. And I asked Coleman, if you want to the corner of me when I was getting rid of the fight, Pete fell, ended up getting choked out. He saw her that was, and he basically got me in pride.

And when I got the pride, I was just a member of my house. they took them under their wing after after I lost the EOSC when it was released Was that the best I mean you've had some highs Incredible high I mean but just being around those two guys who were kind of like in a weird way I'd even know that about the story at the you know in the back with the open workouts But to be a part of that team if you will in Japan like you kind of were the American bad guys coming over You know together everyone's coming in was that the best time for you? Yeah

Yeah when I look back for sure you know who who who was Ham the House first the world, you know. It was us first of the world. It was three wrestlers, you know what I mean? And, you know, we were taking on the bad guys, you know. Fandali Silver, Shogun, Ninja, you know, all those guys. We were taking them on. Those are the bad guys.

Those were the wild men from the charity team of jungles. Remember what's the name is to put him over? Quadro. She's flim over a wild man. The jungles of Curitiba, you know. And I was a kid, I believed that shit. I was scared shit. What did you think they were going to do?

Who knows, man? Who knows? You know, I thought, well, we ended up fighting, man. We ended up fighting, man, the Shogun fight. When Colman's Fort Shoghung, but I don't know. I didn't know what they were going to do.

I really believed the press. I thought they were, they were going to kill us. Yeah, the brawl, right? Yeah, we had the brawl in the ring. Yeah, Kevin was in that for that one, but... Right. If you were...

We won anyway. If he was, it would have been... It would have been a man. But, look, Kevin was, you know, the best. You know, he was... You know, I was... I never told him, you know, what...

If I just said one thing, you know, to him is that, like, he... You know, he was my idol growing up. He was the best wrestler in college. We did... with the best body. He was super muscular like he always was. He was hitting, you know, crazy double-legged.

And he always gave the best interview. I mean, if you... He's interviewed with his son when he had a broken jaw. And I think it was on CBS, all these interviews. He was cutting the best promos as a college wrestler. And then I remember when I was the college wrestler, I was watching him fighting UFC and then Pride. And, you know, in the UFC back then.

And I always, it was a funny project, but he was in the UFC. I always followed him. And I always wanted to be, be like the guy. You know, he was the one fighter that made the biggest impression of me. You know, he talks so good. He looks so good. He was good looking. He was so good with the fans.

I mean, he made everyone he met, you know, after meeting that guy, you could not be a fan of him. You know, you couldn't be a fan. of him. He was just a great guy to know and be around. And, you know, the amazing moments I mentioned, too, the Crow Cop, and by the way, we don't see you anymore. I don't know if you still see me. No, I don't see you. I don't know what to do. I suck at this community. It's fine. It's fine. It's totally fine. But the moments were fantastic.

The two that come to mind for me, the Crow Cop, the Crowe Cop finish and Moro's call, the Fade or Slam was amazing. What about for you? What about for Phil Barone? What about for Phil Barone? What's your favorite Kevin Randleman moment? Oh, the Crockel fight. Nobody thought it wasn't win that fight. Coleman is a much better storyteller to me. The story, you know, he's a much better story. There's the story that fight was.

And Coleman, I think he forgets how it was there. He tells me every time we talk, you know, about this moment was way in the back. And then Japan, you know, you have to. It's a lot different than this year. I mean, you'll be fighting 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night. They bring you in a bus to the arena at maybe, you know, 10.30 in the morning, 11 in the morning. So you're stuck there all day. You're stuck there in a little room and you see all the other fighters around.

It's like a big room separated by curtains. It sucks. It's way different than, you know, the UFC. And every time you fight, they bring in a – they have, like, maybe – say there's three guys there they'll have like six bentel boxes so like lunch and dinner and another

Kevin Randleman in Colman and Elizabeth would walk into the room and Keb was you know like I was always stressed out before a fight and he's like and he's like you know how he acts

these key bedel boxes these they don't get it what the fuck I need some food Food. I need some food. I need this shit. What is this? Every time we come, they give us six bento boxes, and we leave. There's six bento boxes. So he's going crazy. He's downing, oh, you know, and all the Japanese are running in, oh, Mr. Kevin, what's the matter? What's the matter? You know, oh, you'll call down, please. I'm going out. App getting some food. And I remember, no, Mr. Kevin, you can't go.

No, please. Like, you know, he was ready to walk out. And the Elizabeth was out. And the Elizabeth goes, Kevin, Kevin, calm down, calm down. Calm down. Everybody calmed down. Who was like, it was a male.

You can't imagine in Japan. Anyway. Oh. Did we lose Phil? I was loving that story. Okay, we'll call him right back. And I really appreciate Phil Barone for coming on. Obviously, as you can tell, it's still all very fresh and random.

And I actually, I didn't know about the story of Mark Holman and Randleman just taking some kid. Could you imagine that? Could you imagine if, you know, Kane Velasquez is preparing for a fight? And some kid goes, like, hey, can I train with you guys? And they would just, that was the Wild West back then. Phil, are you back? Yeah, I'm sorry. Where did I leave off?

Well, you said his wife was saying, okay, we're going to go. Oh, you know, Kevin's like, I'm getting out of you. I'm getting some fucking food. And I was like, calm down to Kevin, calling out Kevin. And she ended up going out, you know, going out in Tokyo. I think we're at the Chatea Super. I mean, there's not really around it. She ended up coming back with some fried chicken.

like Kentucky Fried Chicken, they have that there. I remember just seeing Kevin with a drumstick eating, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, he's eating like, don't they get it. This is what I eat. Some food. So I remember that, like, Elizabeth saved the day. That's, like, one of my, you know, memories, one of my craziest stories. And I just remember everybody acted crazy and then her going out and getting the food.

I just remember how happy he was just to tear open the box, you know, coming like a paper box just tearing it open. Just grabbed out of a chicken legger starting. It was awesome. Have you talked to Mark since the news came? Yeah, yeah. How was he doing?

Oh, he you know, he's as bad as me, you know. He's just a shock and I know he said Dana White calling. I think he told you you made it. It's a, you know, it's horrible, man. It's shocking. As close as I was

and as much as I, Emily and I welcome. So that was his, that was Kevin's college wrestling clothes coach. You know, he tells me

the story like, you remember, it's like after he had his first fight, Coleman did, you remember his calling Kev up and he's like,

all right, Kev, I got, I got something for us, man. You're not going to believe this, but this is how we're going to do. We got 30 days,

come down here, come down and hit Ohio. We're going to train and want to go to Brazil and he went down to Brazil with no real MMA trains to wrestle that could throw bombs and end up winning a three-man tournament that night down to Brazil. Basically, you know, not much training and just wrestling and street fight techniques. Amazing. What a different time it was back then. And you kind of, you know, you are left to

reflect on that and how, like I called it the Wild West, but it's amazing how the way the sport was, I was so small, open the door for someone like you to be able to train with idols of yours. I don't think that that can actually happen today because of where the sport is at, but that's a beautiful thing. I know he had four kids, right? Yes. And you mentioned his wife who has been with him for so long. Have you talked to her?

You know, a little bit. You know, a little bit. Most of you text. Okay. You know, they were so close. You know, they don't want to see like a... a punch made of heaven. It was definitely

those two. Right. Well, Phil, again... That's the sadistic, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. You know, that was like the... That's the S-Dar's staying. And there's a little son saying, you know, he's a baby.

You know? He's like, four foot tall right now. How old is he? He's going to be a monster. Just like his dad. You know, I... The crazy thing about a tragedy like this happens, you see the outpouring. I don't know if you saw it if you were on social media much,

but it was like amazing how every range of active MMA fighter, from the older ones to the newer ones, to ones that you wouldn't even think had any sort of connection or affinity. Everyone came out with their own story, their own tribute, their own mention. Horrible. But you never want to see it. It was just nice to see the respect that he was given from all corners. Yeah, I sat home all day and I couldn't go out and I just watched social media all day

and Facebook and everything else. Yeah, I mean, everybody, everybody reached out to the guy. I mean, they throw the term legend around usually these days, but that guy was a legend. I mean, him, Coleman, Chanlock, crazy. Those guys are the real legend, you know. Legend. Those are the real legends of the sport. Sorry, go ahead.

It has a GoFundMe too. Right. And I will plug that for his family, right? Yes, yes. For his son and stuff. Yes, actually, Boss Rutan tweeted it recently earlier today. It's gofundme.com slash 324NM as in Mary JSC, but if you just type in his name, it will come up.

Kevin Randleman Memorial Fund. If you just go to the GoFundMe website, that will come up right away. If you just type in Kevin Randleman Memorial Fund. Phil, you know... The thing is that said, too, I think, you know, a legend like that, you know, if he was around now, you know, how much money would he have made? Sure. You wouldn't even need this.

And I remember talking to a long ago and we were talking about a... And he did that one guy, did that one interview, you know, kind of like a holocaust of, uh, Mohammed Ali, that guy,

well, well, Kev would have been that guy. Kev, Kev was coming up now, you know, kind of Greg is great, but Kev was the best.

He, he caught the best promos ever. He was really good. That would have been the guy. That's one thing I thought about when he actually had been on a show. Like, we talked about who would be that guy for you. Yeah.

He made those great reviews. Who would have been Kevin? For sure. Yeah, I only had a chance to interview him twice. I played one of them before his Strike Force fight and then after the Strike Force fight. Michael Chandler actually reminded me that last year at the MMA Awards, Chandler and Randleman were the ones who gave out the Journalist of the Year Award. And I went back to look at the clip.

And I remember him just being so nice and gave me a big hug. And so I totally forgot about that, but happy that I was able to have those couple moments with him. I really appreciate you coming on, Phil. Did you want to say something? Sorry, go ahead. He's a super nice guy. If you meet the guy once in the next time you see him, he's like your best friend. Yeah.

It's almost too a fault because, like, when we make plans, and one of us, probably me, I wouldn't go, whatever. You don't feel bad, you know, the next time you see him, it's going to be like, you never, you saw each other yesterday. It's not like any, you know, there's no awkward. feeling or there's no like I haven't seen the guy in a while of what's going to be like it's just like you were just with him yesterday or you know what I mean he always made you feel comfortable he always made the fans and everybody just feel you know which is just good and I was going to add you called

them a legend I agree with that but the word pioneer isn't used that often uh definitely applies to Kevin Randleman a true pioneer of this sport without guys like him we are not sitting here talking about mixed martial arts. So again, Phil, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Hang in there, my man. Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate you coming on and celebrating his life talking a little bit about him. I know we could talk for two hours, more, three, four, five hours about what he has done for this sport. But it was an honor to have you on talking.

And finally, before I go, what's the latest with you, Phil? Where are we at? What are you up to these days? Yeah, I don't know. Who knows, man? Okay. I don't want to talk about me now.

All right, man. Thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. I hope I gave a couple of good stories about the day. Tremendous. Thank you. It was an honor. Thank you, Phil. Thank you.

All right, there he is. The New York badass, Phil Barone. Sharing some memories, as I said, and I appreciate him coming on. It's still very fresh. I hope that he is celebrated, continues to be celebrated. You know, who knows, put him in that Hall of Fame. I know the UFC Hall of Fame is a, is a, controversial, polarizing one, but Kevin Randleman, a former champ, and a man who inspired many

and had some amazing moments, certainly deserves to be in that Hall of Fame. Again, our hearts go out to his family, and if you want to contribute to that GoFundMe account, I actually just retweeted it from Boss Rune's account, so you can check it out there. All right, we shall move along and bring in our next guest. You know, last week on the program, Chad Mendez dropped the little nugget that I wanted to investigate a little further. He, he He mentioned that Chris Holdsworth, of course, Ultimate Fighter winner, was now transitioning into coaching and doing a fine job at that, so I wanted to have Chris on the program to talk about that transition and more.

He joins us on the phone right now. Chris, how are you? Good. How about yourself? I'm doing very well. Thank you for joining us. So, yeah, like I said, you know, Chad was on the program last week, and he was talking about the state of, you know, Team Alpha Male and the coaching staff, and he mentioned you.

So clear it up for us. Where do you stand as far as the... coaching position is concerned for Alphamel. What is your position there? Right now I'm an assistant coach. We have Justin Buckles who runs the majority of the pro classes. And then you have myself and Danny Castillo who have stepped up a lot and are kind of helping out with that.

I'm running the fighter jih Tjitsu classes. So we have three classes a week that, you know, the pro guys and along with some of the gym members and stuff, do that class as well. So I'm in charge of that and then breaking down people's fights that are coming up and, you know, focusing more on the jiu-jitsu area for the guys at the gym. So was this something that you wanted to do? Chris Holdwood said, I want to transition into being coach. Did your Raya or someone else on the team say that you would be good at this? How did you end up in this role? Yeah, it's something that, you know, I've been teaching and coaching since I was a blue and purple belt.

It's something I've always had a passion for. but as you know fighting careers getting away with coaching and that was my main focus for a while was just fighting and it's kind of hard to coach and fight at the same time

so I never took up any of those opportunities but since I've been out of the cage for two years now I had this opportunity and I had to make the best decision possible and I couldn't turn that down did you feel like you needed to step up because of this transitional period with bang leaving and then

campman leaving and i know you're doing something a little different than their fortays but it seemed like for a minute it seems like alpha male is settling into this coaching staff and you know it's it's actually kind of interesting buckles you mentioned castillo you the the fighters the young blood are actually kind of coming up and and giving back to the rest of the team did you feel like you needed to do that after all the you know the you know the the drama and the transition from the coaches of the past to now? I really feel like I needed to. I felt like I had something to offer the team and, you know, I'm all about giving back and, you know, sharing my, my experiences, you know, through what I've been

through and just from what I've seen, you know, during my journey, along my journey. And I feel like this coaching staff we have now, there's not too many people out there that have the experience as far as fighting in the cage and also coaching. So, you know, the squad we have now, Danny, Justin, myself, and along with Fabio, Prado, still, we still have Lance Palmer helping out. And, you know, Master Tong, of course, and Joey Rodriguez, our boxing coach. So we got tons of coaches and tons of resources. And this next generation of guys that are coming up in the team is they're going to make waves.

So is this the team here? Are we not looking for any other coaches? We're not, you know, going outside of the box. No, no, right now this is it, man. We're, you know, this is it. So, you know, right now we've got Justin, myself, Danny, and then Fabio, Master Tong, Joey. We all stepped up, took a, you know, took a part in the leadership part of things. And I think everything's running smoothly now.

December was a bit of a strange month for the team, I thought, because you had pages loss and then Chad's loss. Uriah bounced back. But then the following week, Lance lost. was there ever like a moment where you guys got together and said, all right, we need to put something in place here. We need to get a little more secure. Did you guys react to that, that two-week stretch? Is this the result of that?

No, I think the result of it was just, you know, the previous months leading to that. We never really found that. We had Martin come, and Martin did a great job. You know, some people didn't like certain things, you know, with what was going on, but, you know, everyone has, you know, different outlooks on things. I don't think Martin was necessarily the right fit for the team. So then we brought in another guy, and, you know, he was here for, you know, a couple months maybe and, you know, did some things. And a lot of the guys didn't agree with, you know, his coaching style. and these are all great guys and these are all, you know, great coaches.

But, you know, for the team, you know, to invest and to believe in, you know, a system, you have to, you kind of have to believe in the coaches as well. And it just wasn't happening for a lot of the guys. So that's why I think, you know, you're kind of talking about that, you know. And then with all those losses and stuff and then just kind of sparked the fire, like, oh, man, we need to step up a little bit more. We need to make things happen. And why not take advantage of the resources we already have on a team?

Why go outside and look for all these coaches when we have it right here? You know what I mean? We have the best coaches in the world right here. Like, you know, it's a – so kind of came in the terms with that. You know, had a couple, you know, team meetings and made it happen. So now, obviously, this is the thing that has been talked about when people talk about you is you're still an active UFC fighter. You're undefeated.

You're 6-0. Your former ultimate fighter winner, 2-0 in the UFC. But yet, as you mentioned, you haven't fought in almost. two years. It will be two years in May, your last fight, May of 2014. It has been reported. You've done interviews about the head trauma that you took in training, a concussion. Where are you at with that? How do you feel, are you still going to keep fighting? Do you want to keep fighting? Where are we at? Yeah, I definitely, you know, I definitely still have the passion, you know, to have some more fights and, you know, to do the best and become a champion. But right now at this point in time in my life,

I have to, you know, put the brakes on it a little bit, and, you know, we all have setbacks, and we just got to learn and grow from them. And, you know, I'm still taking some time, you know, and focusing on my recovery. There's no rush to just jump back in there and believe me, I can still hop in there and hang with the best in the world. You know, I'm still training every day. I still have the fire lit, but I have to be honest and, you know, be smart overall, number one, about my future. And that's kind of what I'm looking at. You know, I'm just being smart about my future, and there's no rush for me to get back in there. And I'm still enjoying what I'm doing.

I'm still involved with the team. I'm still involved with, you know, all the fighters. And that's pretty much what's going on. Do you have any idea? Was it just one concussion that you suffered, or did you suffer a bunch that you didn't treat properly? Do you have any idea? Yeah, I've had a couple. And, you know, a big thing, I think, with a lot of,

head trauma is just the lack of education. Yeah. People are not educated on the subject in that it can happen. And, you know, when it does happen, it's pretty serious. So, you know, I've had, you know, I've had some concussions and didn't know they were concussions and kind of just brushed them off and kept training and that probably wasn't the best thing. And then, you know, the last one I had two months before the Chico fight.

Wow. And, you know, I had symptoms, you know, leading all up to that. fight and kind of pushed through them and still took the fight and that kind of just made things worse, you know, taking some more trauma after you've already, you're not healed. Your brain is not healed yet, you know, and you're still taking trauma. So that's kind of what happened, man. And, you know, I saw some doctors after the Chico fight and, you know, just had to pull, back, man, and just kind of be smart about things.

and that's why I've taken all this time off. But, yeah, concussions happened in training and kind of fought through them and kept training through them. And probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but now I kind of look back on things and just hope I can educate the team and just educate fellow fighters and people that, you know, how to train and smarter and not harder. Would you be okay? I mean, you know, if you just feel like, you know what, I'm loving the coaching thing,

everything's going well, would you be okay if you never fought again? Yeah, you know, I've kind of had to accept that, Ariel. Like, I had to accept that in my, you know, that was a big thing for me. I went through this whole depression and thing, and, you know, I couldn't accept the fact. Like, I just couldn't understand why this is happening to me, you know, and just like everyone constantly asking you, like, when you fight next, when you fight, it's been a real sensitive subject, you know. And, yeah, you know, I had to accept that fact. I was like, man, what if I can't fight again, or what if, you know, I choose not to? And that was something I had to accept.

And after I accepted that, I felt so much better and just this overall outlook on life and in my future. So, you know, I accepted that. And it was hard for me to accept. But, you know, definitely I'm not quitting yet. And I'm not closing any doors because, you know, I still got that heart and passion, fire lit. I don't know how much you read mixed martial arts news, go to the websites, but the UFC continues to invest in the research for head trauma and do their part at least. They actually just had a little media gathering at the Lou Ruvow Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, and they announced that they would be investing some money, a million dollars into it. Do you follow up on any of this stuff?

Do you want to be included? I heard about it, yeah, man. And I would love to do anything like, you know, I got in contact Ray Longo. I talked to Ray Longo, and he gave me, you know, one of his doctor's numbers, and I'm supposed to be meeting up with them soon and doing some testing and doing some stuff. So, yeah, I'm kind of reaching out on my own and trying to, you know, do things necessary to get better. And I just kind of look back on some of these other stories, you know, like I heard Robbie Lawler went through some stuff, too, and he even spar for five years because of, you know, vertigo or whatever it was,

concussion symptoms and look at him now you know he's champ you know he had crews out for three years you know no one thought he would come back and you know he's champ and it's like it hasn't even been two years for me yet and I know my situation might be a little bit different whatnot but um I'm a fighter at heart man it's going to be hard for me to quit but at the end of the day it's got to be honest with myself and uh pretty much it you know But it seems like you enjoy coaching. I do enjoy coaching. That's the thing.

Like, I'm in there, and I love doing what I do. So I'm just very thankful. I'm able to do something that's still involved with something I love so much, you know. Right. If I wasn't able to do anything, if I wasn't, then I would be really, I'd be really sad. But, you know, I'm very fortunate and thankful with it. I'm still in the gym every day. I'm still, you know, I'm still training with the guys.

You know, I just can't train it at the level I'm used to, you know, where I'm, and I'm taking all that head damage so I haven't been taking any head damage just been training smart and keeping active. And it's okay, you feel okay to even train, you know, I know there's a lot of movement, you're still coaching, you're getting in there, you're getting your hands dirty,

you feel healthy enough to be able to coach and still be able to train. Oh, yeah, man, I held myths for Cody today. Okay. And speaking of that, I think we hear about Lennox's pulling out. What's going on? Like, what the heck, man? I heard you got Don J. Fever or something.

I don't know. Well, maybe it was a good thing that he was. didn't fight. Yeah, but, you know, it sucks for Cody because flying out tomorrow, this is a big fight for him. You know, he needs the money, and it's like, hopefully they find... Is he still flying out?

Is he still for him to fight? No, man, me and Cody are flying out tomorrow morning. That's the plan. So we just found out after practice. We got the news. What a bummer. Yeah, so I'm not sure how they go about it. If they still fly the fighter out, they don't have a decisive decision.

Yeah, I'm not sure how they go about it. That was the fight. most looking forward to on the card. Yeah, seriously. God, what a bummer that is. Well, I wish you the best, man. I really appreciate you coming on. And by the way, it's got to feel a little nice

that Faber doesn't have to fight Dillishah right off the bat here. Would that have been a little awkward for you? No, it wouldn't have been awkward for me. It might have been awkward for them, you know? Yeah. It's, you know, they're men. They know what they're doing.

What's your take on all of that? It's the fight business, man. You know, it's like you can fight anyone. I mean, you never count anyone out. You know, you can fight your teammates. You can fight your old teammates. How do you, you mean, Cody came out very strong last week. Chad was trying to say, how do you feel about, you know, Dillishaw leaving and Benavita's going over there.

Is this creating too much drama for the team? I don't know. There's no drama for me, no drama for the team, really. favor and TJ whatever happened between them or

you know whatever whatever decision TJ made he you know probably probably thought

it was the best decision for him and you can't I guess I guess I was you can't knock somebody

for doing what they think is best for them you know I can see both sides to it um but like

I can't hate on someone for you know like for doing what they think is best for them

you know hey more power to him. You know, hopefully he has a, you know, successful, you know, rest of his career and whatever happens. It's just, I try not to get involved in all that drama. Fair enough. I think that's a strong take and a positive one, and I appreciate that. Chris, I appreciate you coming on talking about this. I wish you the very best as a coach now as you transition to that. And good luck. I hope Cody gets a fight on Sunday. Again, I was looking forward to just, you know, watching him

fight and then on top of that, Lindigray, that's one of the best fights they can put on 135. So what a shame. I hope you guys don't go there for nothing. Right. Cool, man. Thank you so much. Wish you the best, Ariel. Yeah, we'll talk to you soon. Good luck to you. Thank you. There he is. Chris Holdworth stopping by.

Great to hear from him. Great to get an update and happy to hear that he is at peace with where he's at. And now focusing on coaching, which is very fun to do as well. And by all accounts, he's a tremendous coach. So we wish him the best. Let's stick with the 135-pound theme of the day. We had Funkmaster on earlier. on. He announced that he's signing with the UFC.

And we had, of course, Chris Holdsworth, who is a bantamweight himself. One of the very best bantam weights in the world is a man by the name of Marlon Marais. And he returns to action on Saturday for World Series of Fighting. World Series of Fighting World Series of Fighting, World Series of Fighting, he defends his world series of fighting bantamweight title against Joseph Barajas. And he joins us now via the Magic of Skype. There he is. Marlon Marius himself. Marlon, how are you?

Good. Thank you to have me on. It's a pleasure to be here and let you guys know how is my preparation. am i and everything you know well let me ask you this i know that you were asked about it last week aljimae was asked about it are you disappointed to hear that he did not sign with world series of fighting damn man i thought you you guys were going to say he was getting signed by the world series you know i'm sorry i like him i like him as a fighter you know he's one of the guys i look up for and it would be a pleasure you know having a guy like that under the roster so i could be be finding a guy like

like this and prove where I belong. Did you tell World Series of fighting, you got to sign this guy? This is the kind of opponent that I need. I need to get more attention, more respect. Signed Sterling so I could beat him. Did you try to tell him that? Yes, of course, man. Not just told, but I bagged, you know, because I knew this guy is a big name, man.

He's a great fighter. He works very well for the promotion. And I think it was a smart movie from the UFC keeping him because he can make a lot of noise at this division. So, all right, so as I mentioned, you're defending your title again on Saturday. And I think the trouble that you're in here is, to a degree, you're only as good as your opponents, right? Because if you're not fighting top-level guys or big names, you're not going to get attention, and you're not going to get credit for the names. How do you feel about the state of your career and World Series of Fight?

Are you getting frustrated? Is Joseph Brazz someone that gets you excited? Is that someone that you feel will get you the kind of attention that you deserve? How do you feel about it? Ariel, to be honest with you, I want to fight with the top guys in the world. But when I'm walking Saturday to that cage, on my mind, I'm going to fight the best guy in the world. You know, I know I belong to fight with the best guys. I know I can beat the best guys.

But I'm fighting Joseph Barra. So we work hard, and I try to improve every aspect of my game. And now I feel unbidable, you know. I don't think anybody at this individual can beat me. and Saturday I'm going to fight the best fight in the world that Joseph Barrahas and I'm going to beat him and prove to everybody that I am the best 135. How much do you know about him? I know he's a good fighter.

You know, he has like 13 and 1 fights. He's a well-round-up fighter. He can fight everywhere. And the only fight he lost, he fought against a tough guy. And he was winning that fight. So he's dangerous, you know. He's gamer. He can fight everywhere.

So we are prepared. I'm well prepared, and I'm going Saturday there, and I'm going to do my best, and I'm going to win. Does Marlon Marais feel like he gets the respect that he deserves when people talk about the best bantam weights in the world? Dominicruz, T.J. Dillishaw, Yariah Faber, Al J. Stirling, Cody Garban, John Lineker. Where's Marlon Marais? Do you feel like you get that respect? Man, to be – I got to tell you the truth. I feel like sometimes people don't think I'm that good, you know, because I'm not there. I'm not there with those big names, big stars.

But, man, I know I can beat these guys. And I'm a guy that watch every fight. I know every fighter, every 135 in the UFC. And I've been watching these guys fighting. And I see, man, I have the game to beat these guys. And I see guys like T.J. de la Chal, of course, man, he improves so much his game. He's a very good striker. In my opinion, one of the guys that more improved in the last couple of fights,

But, man, if he can hurt Dominic Cruz with kicks, man, Domini Cruz is not going to walk for one month if I kick him, man. It's a different level of kicks. I just feel like that, you know, and I can wait to prove. I love the world series of fighting. They've been doing so great for me. But at some point, man, I'm going to have to move it on. And when I move it on, I'm going to carry these guys with me.

They know I'm very thankful. And I know if I need, Ray Siff was going to be on. my corner and all those guys are going to be behind me. It's kind of like a tattoo, you know, that I'm going to have for the rest of my life. I have a very good identification with them. I like this guy so much. Yeah, there's no doubt that they helped put you on the map. They gave you the platform. You've done incredibly well for them. You are their champion. But it's interesting to hear you say that because correct me from wrong, you have two fights left on your contract, one after this fight on Saturday, right? Yes. Does that mean, and I don't want you to bite the

hand that feeds you, but does that mean that you're going to look to sign elsewhere after those two fights, if all goes well? Yeah, man, I hopefully, I can go to deep waters, you know. I want to put myself in deep waters. I'm a guy, and my coach always tell me, man, when you fight with these guys that people think they're going to do good, they're going to beat you, that's the best model, you know, and I want to take the best model, I want to find the best model, and I know to find that guy, I got to fight with these guys, you know, with that monsters. I'm going to become a monster when I fight with those monsters. So you want to be a free agent? You want to test the market like Al Jermaine Sterling?

I want to be a free agent. I just want to fight with the best, you know? And let's see what's going to happen. And the business, MMA, it's a new business, everybody doing different things now. And we never know the day, that tomorrow. We never know what's going to happen tomorrow but I'm definitely looking to fight with the best guys and this is what I won and this is always been my dream and this is why I started in a martial arts did you watch dillishaw versus Cruz did you watch that fight last month very good fight so so when you're watching that fight you could say great fight but I could beat these guys I'm just as good if not better than these guys definitely man definitely not even me but all my coaches everybody know what I belong and man I

Frankie with me and Frankie, man, my opinion is one of the best 45ers in the world. And man, training with him every day, it's not joke, you know. And I know, I know I can fight with this guys. And from what I understand, because some of these things are made public, World Series treats you very well. They pay you very well, right? Yeah, they pay me very good, man. I'm able to leave my dream, man.

I'm here in America. My wife's here with me. I just had a baby. I'm really enjoying life. Parabance. And my family in Brazil, my mom, my father, they never had a house. I was able to buy a house for them. They have a house now.

So I'm doing something that I never expect. And I never expect from the sport, you know. I start on a sport and I start to compete because I love. But end up going this way, so I'm very happy. Parabance on the baby. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Yes. I'm still Brazil. I live here, but I'm still Brazil. Of course. Very proud of Brazilian. Your first baby? Yes. Wow. A boy.

Yes. Sixteen months now. So do you want the boy to become a fighter? I don't know. Very tough life. Yeah. But I want him to be fighter as a man, you know. Sure.

And I think martial arts give you the right direction. Okay. So like I said, they treat you very well. Do you have to weigh that as well because now you have a family. It's all well and good to fight in the UFC. But if World Series pays you more, you kind of have to stick with the one that pays you more, right? I don't know, my friend. Oh, wow.

I don't know. My life now, I'm enjoying so much what I'm doing. But I know UFC is a great show. And when I step in that case, it's going to be for the right thing. You know, I know where is my value. and I bring it to the promotion. I'm a guy that I'm going to be training all year. And I know UFC is the biggest promotion in the world.

And if guys, like you just said, Corey Garman, he got no opponent. So I'm a guy that will take fights in short notice. I'll take fights in 10 days, you know. Yeah. I'm a guy like that. I always look up to Soroni and see how he does. And like, man, one day I want to do like this guy, you know,

six fights one year, seven fights. I'm still 27. I have a lot of things to go, and I just want to let go, you know. Well, Garbrandt was supposed to fight on Saturday. Wouldn't it be something if you fought on Saturday, a UFC debut, then, excuse me, you defend your title, World Series of Fighting Title on Saturday, and then you go make your UFC debut on Sunday? Yeah, if possible, but I don't think it's going to happen. No, I don't think it's going to happen. Especially if you were in Brazil and those jungles and those, and those. crazy tournaments, I would be able to fight on the day and the next day, but here the commissions won a lot, you know. Of course, yeah, it's not smart.

That would not be smart for... One week. Right. That was next week, maybe. Your last loss was in 2011. It has been quite some time for you. I don't know. How many in a row is this?

One, two, three. You know. How many in a row? Victories? Yeah. I had ten victories in a whole. Ten victories. Do you even remember what it feels like to lose?

Like, do you even remember that feeling or has it been so long that you don't even remember? I'm never going to forget that feeling, man. It's the worst feeling you can have in life, you know? And always when I'm in the locker room, wrapping my hands, getting ready for a fight, I do think about that, you know. I do think, man, how upset I was and those things make me strong, and I go out there and give a little more, you know. So what's the difference for you?

Like, you were on a two-fight losing streak there. That was your second loss in row, and then now you go 10 in a row. You've lost four times, but you haven't lost in five years. What has changed for you? What has made you become this dominant killer? This MMA game is crazy, man. People jump on MMA, they think just because they are one martial art, maybe Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, boxing, or either one wrestling,

that I think is the wrestlers have advantage against the other fighters. Yeah. But you jump on the world and you think you can beat everybody. And when you get there, you see, man, I need so much things. I need to know about on the ground. I need to know on the feet. And I knew I was a good striker. I was doing grappling, but I wasn't ready to put everything together.

And I moved here to America. I had an opportunity. And I started training, you know, I started learning, but wasn't still working. I was still feeling like I'm missing some. And Edson came here, trained with Frankie for Ben Anderson, fight and I came here and I think since I started training with Mark and he was able to put everything together on my game. You know, made me believe my wrestling was good.

He made me believe my jiu-jitsu, my boxing, my striking. Those things I've been working before, you know, but I think he made me really believe in myself. He believed in, Ricardo believed Frank and things are working well, you know. I'm going out there. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. and now I feel like a mixed martial. I'm a mixed martial arts.

I can fight anywhere and I can mix it up. What a great team. Perhaps one of the more underrated teams in MMA. Mark Henry, you spoke of one of the best striking coaches, the whole team, Ricardo. By the way, have you ever been to his pizza shop? Yes. Pino's pizza? Yes.

Have you ever had the Ariel Hawani slice? Have you ever had it? No, I never had that one. Every time I go there, I pick the most expensive. He gets mad And now he hides on the menu You can find on a menu It's the lobster ravioli

Every time I go there Coach, you're not making the lobster ravioli anymore Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm not And then my friend goes there And he eats the labsoravioli Because we never pay You know, so he hides Oh, that's what, okay, now I understand

Now I understand He is a smart man All right, so give us the prediction How do you extend it to 11 in a row on Saturday? Man, I'm going out there I'm going to do well, you know, and I'm ready to go, and I'm gamer, and I'm going to have my hand raise an hand. All right.

Remember the name. I don't think we're going to go to the season. The fight's going to finish before the fifth round. Okay. Good to know. Marlon, I wish you the best. I'm looking forward to it. NBCSN this Saturday, World Series of Fighting.

It's Marlon Marais against Joseph Brahas for the World Series of Fighting, Bantamway title, one of the very best in the world. It may not be the household name because he doesn't fight in the UFC. but he certainly is one of the best and deserves your attention and respect. It's a fun weekend. It's Belvoir on Friday, World Series on Saturday, UFC on Sunday, so no excuses. You can watch them all. Marlon, I appreciate the time.

Good luck on Saturday. Thank you so much, man. Big fan of yours. Thank you. Pleasure will be here Saturday night. All right, looking forward to it. There he is. Marlon Marais joining us.

Great to have him on the program. Okay, one more guests to go, and what a fun show this has been. As we said, top of the program, we talked to Al Jermaine Sterling. who announced that he has resigned with the UFC. Well, earlier this morning, our old pal Alster Overeem went to Twitter and officially announced that he too has resigned with the UFC. Perhaps the biggest free agent of them all, the Ream is back in the UFC. He is going for that title, and he is so kind to join us on the phone right now from Holland to talk about this big news. Alistair, are you there?

Correction. The ream has never left. That is right. Well, there was a minute there where we thought maybe you were going to leave, no? Nope. Nope, nope, no, no, no. Okay. Ariel, you're wrong. You're wrong as always.

They'll owe me that iPad. But besides that, no. Now, after the JIS fight, I was a free agent. Well, I'm happy to report. I've resigned with the UC. UC has been very cordial, very gentleman towards me. And I'm very happy and very excited. I feel very appreciated.

And I mean, yeah, these are all factors. And yeah, we reached a deal. And it was already, I think, there are two days. I actually forgot to post about my social media. Oh. But I was like, oh, yeah, wait, I signed the deal. So, yeah, I'm actually pretty excited. Let me share it with the world.

And the world appears to be excited as well. So you always wanted to stay in the UFC? Of course. UFCs is a prime prime fight promotion in the world Yep And did you even talk to anyone else

Did you even entertain any offers Or is it just the UFC for you? I didn't talk to anybody else Wow But I can tell you this also that You know UFC is where the best fighters at I consider myself the best fighters

I belong in the U.C That's just how similar it is Was a big factor for you you know, you want the K-1 title, strike force title, dream title. You wanted that last one. Like, it wouldn't be enough. Like, the career would feel like it was missing something. You wanted that UFC title, and that's one of the main reasons why you wanted to stay.

Is that, is that accurate? Well, you know, I look at everything. I look at appreciation. You need to feel appreciated. You need to feel respected. Of course, finances is a little part of the equation as well. But I do have to admit with you, the big part

is that UFC title, I mean, that's the one that's missing. I still have a couple of years left in me. So, yeah, largely speaking, that's the one that's missing. You're going to go for the highest that's out there, right? And that, I believe, is the UFC. Shrap.

There were some people, you know, you have a relationship with Scott Coker. They thought he would make a run. You know, you used to fight for him. But you said, no, don't even bother. It's all UFC for you. For me, it's all UFC. And we've all due respect because, you know, everybody's working hard. Everybody's doing their best.

But, yeah, like I said, I feel in my spot with the UFC, I think the UFC is the prime organization in the world. Yes. Really elevating the sport of mixed martial arts worldwide. They're doing a great job at that. And not only that, they're also promoting May 8th, in Rotterdam, my own country. Yes.

So I'll be headlining that card. We're basically bringing the UFC to the Netherlands. And these are all developments that for me are very exciting, and I'm very happy to be part of this. Was that a deciding factor for you as well? Like, wow, they're coming to the Netherlands. I have to be on this card. Or was that part of the deal? Like once they announced they're coming to Netherlands, it was because you had already resigned?

Did they use that to try to get you to resign? No, no, no. Did they use that? That's like negative. Negative tolerance. No, no, no. The negotiation have been very positive with the UFC. Okay. We've come to a very nice understanding and agreement.

And for me, you know, again, I have a couple of good years left in me. Do I want to just fight or do I want to create a legacy? Do I want to be part of it? And I chose for the letter. I want to be part of this bringing the UFC to my country. And everybody here is exciting, excited. About that fact, everybody's excited that I'm in the UFC. and then they're going to battle these other top heavyweights.

Yeah, and of course, you know, that title, that title is missing. I want to get my hands on a title. Somebody else is holding it for me right now. A man you know very well. Okay, so you said you're going to be fighting in Rotterdam. That's great news. Who are you going to be fighting? I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah, we're still talking about that. I have no idea. I need to touch base on that. But I will be fighting May 8th in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Main event? I think so. Okay.

Well, you certainly deserve it, in my opinion. Yeah, I think so. Well, who makes sense? To me, you know what makes sense to me, if I may? I mean, it seems like Verdume is going to fight Miochich, right? Were you told that? Our fantasy matchmaker of the UFC, Ariel O'Anne. Yes, go ahead.

Okay, so it seems like that's going to happen. Ben Rothwell is fighting JDS. We already know this in Croatia. What I would like to see is Alastair Overeign versus Kane Velasquez. What do you make of that? King Velasquez. If he not injured, I believe I heard something about that. Well, he had surgery.

It's a four to six week recovery. So he had it, what, two weeks ago, so we're already halfway through. I feel like he would be ready for May 8. That's in three months. Then he has a camp of two months. Yeah, how do you feel? You don't like that fight? You don't like that idea?

No, no, no. listen, I'm optimistic towards anybody. And that's an answer that I believe that I should have, because, you know, I'm in the U.C. I'm willing to fight anybody who's out there. Sure. Listen, if it's going to be U.C.'s choice for King of Alaska, I'm all for whoever the U.C. puts in front of you.

I think I have achieved a level that I can find anybody. I can beat everybody. I will beat everybody. I think I'm also in the right spot currently on my gym at Jackson's. Yes. in Albuquerque. In other way, we analyze and train for people. It just works for me.

It's like unknown any other gym that I've had a pleasure to work with. So I believe I can be anywhere. So whoever I put in front me, if it's going to be Kane, if it's going to be anywhere else, who else are the options? That's another question, right? Who else is out there which is available, who is not basically books to fight anybody? So you're coming with Kane.

I'm going to say, bring them on. Hmm, all right. It could be, I mean, there's some options. That's the one that I like. I know Travis Brown is out there. You have a history with him, but let's see what happened. They haven't talked to you about anyone, or maybe you're just not telling me. No, no, that I've not talked to me about anyone. I thought that maybe you had an immense amount of power because you were a free agent on a winning streak coming off a huge win over a former champion, JDS. I thought that it would be a packaged deal. I resign, I get a title shot right away. Did you try for that? why do you try I experience this as negative this is not negative you know what you're doing this is well deserved

I don't know what you're trying to do but I don't know I don't know you don't like it I'm saying I experience it as negative okay well I apologize I'm not trying to be negative

I'm saying it's well deserved and you had a lot of negotiation power I know you're not trying to be negative but what you're doing I experience that as yeah I don't know you're being a Salman Hawani

something okay fair enough I am sorry for that. That wasn't my intention. I was just saying this is a real thing. You have the leverage. You just knocked out JDS. That's all.

I'm giving you a compliment. Okay, thanks. You're in Holland right now. Yeah, I'm in Holland. When you decide... I'm having some lonely time, here. So are you on break? Like, how do you decide when you're going to be in Alba?

Is it just for your fight camp and then you go back to Holland? Because don't you also live in Miami? How do you split your time? Well, I actually, I'm a little bit everywhere. Yeah. I like to travel. But basically, I always train. I always stay in shape.

I buy my gyms everywhere where I do my work. And, yeah, I'm training right now in Holland, of course, because you got to keep up. Yeah. Oh, one second, I need to. One second, I need to hang up because there's some cops. Oh. and you're not allowed to phone while you're driving and I was parked in a really wrong spot

they caught you? Oh, are they going to step out or what? Yeah. Yeah, I got to hang up. There's cops. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to word to me. Okay.

Talk to you later. Okay, talk to you later. There he is. Alster Overeem. Well, that was an abrupt ending. Alster, where did you go? I don't understand why he thought I was being negative there, but at least we got to talk to him.

I was actually giving him a lot of credit. He had a ton of leverage. He was on a winning streak. He had won three in a row, not out of the realm of possibility to say, look, we're resigning. Where am I at in the title picture? Where do I sit?

But he is going to be fighting in Rotterdam, so that is exciting May 8th, and it makes all the sense in the world. You wonder if he's also going to have, or if they're going to have Stefan Strove in that, on that card, another Dutchman a few of them in the UFC

but none bigger than Alistair Overeux of him all right should we try to call him back or no what do you think near Greg I think we got to you know let them sit with the cops there but I had more questions

I think the legal I think the law supersedes can we call them like 10 minutes I just had like three more we'll call them 10 minutes we'll call him in 10 minutes I'm not expecting him to answer but we'll hope for the best.

Did you agree with him? Those weren't negative questions? No, it wasn't negative. Okay, because if you said they were, I was going to go there and slap you. All right, let's answer some questions. We don't have a lot of time. There's a lot going on today.

Wow, what a show, huh? I don't like the way... I need to say my proper goodbyes. I don't like the way that ended. I'm sorry, Ariel, the cops. The cops. Why is your head cut off? What do you mean?

It's a... I like to see your full man bun. Yeah, excuse me. We need to have... the full man, but yeah. Alex, take care of this. Thank you. How about, I haven't been monitoring, monitoring it, but it seems like we had a nice stream today, right?

A nice flowing stream. We always have a good stream. Strong, it was, it was dense, it was yellow. Healthy. Yes, a healthy stream. Okay, well, it was a good, I actually feel bad. I hope he doesn't get a ticket. I may have to pay for this.

Well, that's the thing. I mean, you know, you've been known to live up to my best. You're already down one for him, so. Okay, what do we got? Anderson, Silva, Michael Bisping, free-fight scrum, kerfuffle. It's a great word. Yeah, I love the title already.

What did you make of the exchange of words between the two of them? Is Bisbing trying to build the fight as he usually does? Where do you think Silva's failed test has riled him up? Well, I think it's a bit of both. Michael Bisping is one of the best at promoting his fights. There's no doubt about that, and I think he is a little bit annoyed at Anderson's past,

the way he dealt with it, what he's saying now still. I thought it was great. You know what was interesting about that? You could see that on our YouTube page. It was very clear that at first Anderson was like, oh, we're friends, we're friends. And then Bispin kept going. And then Bisping seemed to have struck a chord.

And then Anderson was like, oh, I understand that this is your title fight. Like he kind of, he threw a shot his way. Did you notice that? I think that the nice thing was an act to start. Like, I don't think he was actually trying to be nice. I don't think he was like, oh, we're friends. I think the we're friends was the opposite of what he was. He was trying to convey that we're not friends.

And we've seen this from him before. So I don't think it was like a shift in him being, you know, friendly toward Bisbing and then not friendly. I think his intention was to do that from the start. But then he got a little more specific. Once Bisbing started getting into his dirt a little bit. He tried to hit him below the belt. Yeah. Which was fine.

Fair game. Bispin was coming at him. Yeah, literally. Bispin's tweets have been great. I'm looking forward. I don't know if I announced this, but we're going to be at that event. We're going to be covering that event.

It's a fight pass, but it's a biggie. This is like his unofficial title fight. So I'm looking forward to going to London. Last time I was there, UFC 120. That was good. Not according to Anderson. Well, the same as title fight. Sure.

Will Brooks. With it being clear that Will Brooks currently isn't happy in Belletor and claiming he's fighting out of his contract. Do you think there is a chance we will see him fighting for the UFC in 2016? I actually reached out to Will Brooks on Friday, just to get clarification on his contract situation. It is an interesting time. I thought Michael Chandler's words were very strong last week, and since then, Michael Chandler, by the way, has re-signed with Bellatory. The latest that I'm hearing is that they're targeting him versus Josh Thompson in May.

So it's not Will Brooks. From what I was told, he has two fights left on his contract. Or there's like a time period. They have to book him within X amount of months. So we'll see what gets done. I expect him to fight at least one more time and they can get it done. Maybe the time period will come. That's kind of how Beltor's contracts are a little different.

That was the case for Michael Chandler's contract as well. So, you know, he's the champ and we'll see if they want to keep him. I think they should keep him. I don't like this practice of letting your champions go. I think it was a mistake to let Ben Ascran go. That was a different era. That was the Bjorn-Rebney era. But I still think as big of a pain in the ass as they may be,

champions need to stay because if they lose, if they lose them, if they leave for whatever reason, if you even release them, it devalues the title, in my opinion. Because now it's like, what are we doing? You're choosing entertainment relationships over, the champ, in my opinion, has to stay. And I don't like champions clauses forcing them to stay. But I do think as long as someone is the champion,

you should not release them. our buddy Tomas or Thomas Bost on Twitter is saying Alistair will probably get a fine. Phoning behind the wheel is roughly 255 U.S. or 230 euros. But he said he was parked. You're getting in deep with Alistair. Jesus.

All right. Just what I need, right? He was already getting mad at me and now I'm going to get in trouble for this. Kimbo and Dada 5,000 and the security issues. Just how much of these security issues we've heard mention from the promotion and how much of it is genuine concern.

Is there a fine line for Bellatory to balance promotional-wise that may in fact encourage security problems? Thoughts on this? Well, I don't know if this is the line, but I think it's a real thing. I mean, why would... Look, Coker is a promoter. He's a showman in his own right. Sure, he may be making this into a big deal,

but I have no doubt. I mean, you heard Kimbo on this show. Yeah. There is no love loss there. And Kimbo, you know, a showman in his own right as well, I got the sense he was being very genuine. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they do the old Lennox Lewis Mike Tyson routine where they have the line in the middle of guys of security guards.

That was amazing. Do you remember that? I do. They had the two fighters, Tyson Lewis, in the ring in Memphis, and they had a lot of security. It was incredible. So, you know, if they do something like that, that is a spectacle. That's a nice vision. You know, it makes it into, whoa, I can't wait until they get their hands on each other.

But I suspect everything. You have to remember if they get into a fight beforehand, that risks the actual payday. They seem smart enough as businessmen to understand not to ruin that. So I think we'll be okay. Venator, Barnott versus Mayhem. Is this a mistake by Mayhem and coming back to fighting? We all know the issues he has had, but he's facing a legit guy here. What are your thoughts on Mayhem's return? Well, you know, to me, there's a lot to unpack there with Mayhem. It's unfortunate what's happened, and I really truly wish him the best. One of my favorite people in MMA back in the day. obviously, you know, it's hard to watch, and that's just putting it mildly.

I'm hoping that this Venetor deal can help him see the light, get back on track, give him something to shoot for, as we've talked about with some other fighters who sort of lost their way. The unfortunate thing is that Mayhem Miller is the perfect Scott Coker Bellator fighter. If Mayhem was just, you know, regular Mayhem, he would be in Belator. no if ands or buts. You know this. His background with MTV, his stardom, his start-b, mayhem is perfect. And so you just wish he can get it together and just, you know, just it's fine to be eccentric, but just be sort of the old mayhem and not, you know, get in trouble as much as he has been as of late. So maybe Venetor could be that outlet. Last week was not a good

week right after the announcement. And so that was disheartening. And then how about Vennator's, I believe, president coming out with that quote-unquote

press release where he rips on the press for the way they've handled and covered mayhem, completely ignoring his pass. And also, you're sending out a press release to the press to

rip on the press. I mean, it got attention, so I guess it worked out. But that was, as someone who works in PR, I mean, I guess it made sense because it got attention, but that's not

that's not the stance that you should take, right? I mean, you feel like an enabler then. I don't think anybody's tuning in additionally for that. It got attention, but I don't know if anybody's going, well, that poorly written press release where, you know, he's calling out the media is going to make me tune it. That's not necessarily the end goal. So, yeah, I got attention, but not good.

Not a good situation with that press release. I hope as he begins to prepare if this fight actually happens, Well, I hope that he's able to get on track and figure things out and get the right people around him that are going to help him get back to the old Jason Miller that we all love. Should the UFC be having more creative fun with the Cowboy versus Cowboy promotion? There's a picture of two Cowboys dueling here with pistols, high noon, Battle of the Hats, what do you think about that?

Have we seen enough Cowboy versus Cowboy? I mean, there hasn't been enough time to promote the fight. It just happened. I mean, they booked it. I think it was February 4th. And here we are. I mean, it's just been 11 days. And, you know, they've had all this stuff going on with that fight night show.

And they had a break. It's, you know, there's Bispin coming up against Anderson. There's 196. It's probably not at the top of their priorities. It's still, you know, it's an FS1 on Sunday. And I expected to get a good rating because those Sunday cards do well for Fox Sports 1. It does kind of feel. like they booked this fight. This is just me completely hypothesizing, but because his nickname

is Cowboy, right? Sure. Alex Oliver. And I guess I'm okay with that. Short notice fight. Credit to Donald Seroni for taking this fight. The guy just fought for the belt, and I was fighting at 170 against a relatively unknown fighter for the battle. Can we officially throw out the stipulation, though, that this is for the cowboy moniker? Of course not. Why not? Why not? The winner gets to stay cowboy. This is old school Memphis wrestling. No, because there's one still left out, and it's the Dagestan cowboy. I feel like he's dropped that.

Nope. Okay. Well, okay, so... You can't take that title away from him. Okay, how about this? The loser just has to drop it, and then we move on to the next cowboy fight. I'm in for that. You can't call yourself cowboy.

Could you imagine if Soroni actually agreed to this and dropped, and he was just Donald Theronian had to walk around without the cowboy hat? That would be jarring, to say the least. At the end of this, there only will... There will only be one cowboy, and it will be the Dagestan cowboy. I know they can't do it because of the Reebok deal, but imagine if they come out in the spurs and the chaps and all that. Reebok can get on that quick if they...

Rebuck branded. It would be fun if they played into this. That's all I'll say. This is interesting. Speaking of Reebok and Soroni, what is your opinion on the resolution of the Soroni flag fiasco? He recently took responsibility on apologize because he had no other recourse. then there's a bit of commentary here.

I sure wish that the fighters have more power over their own careers. What do you think about the situation with the flag? It is important to note that the UFC is the one enforcing this rule. I mean, Reebok is a part of this story because they're the ones who, you know, sign the deal. But people have this idea that it's Reebok reps standing there and saying like, hey, you can't do that. The UFC has a team that does this. So that's first and foremost. I do understand that they reached out to him after he was on the show and talked about it.

So that is great news. that they at least tried to reach out. And he is turning the positive, excuse me, the negative into a positive, because he came out with that shirt, Ranger Up, made that shirt that he tweeted, I retweeted it last week. It's more than a cloth. I think that's what it says. And the proceeds are all going to veterans.

So, I mean, Seroni is a class act. And I wish that he could, we've said this countless times. I wish there was more uniqueness to the uniforms, personalization. Guys get to pick one thing, just one thing that they could. put. You still wear the uniform, still wear the kids, still wear the colors. Just one thing that separates them. And you'd have to think for Seroni that that would be the case. So I feel like this is going to evolve. I know they're coming out with new ones that I'm told are way better than the current ones. What has been told to me many times over is that usually apparel companies have

18 months to really put together what they're going to release. And, you know, Reebok says they had seven months, eight months, something like that. And so they're now really starting to get into it from what I understand. We'll see what comes of it. But I wish that they allow, the UFC allowed, just one little piece of personalization that let the fighters have something that meant some little momentum. Something you could put, I don't know, or even if it's a sponsor, just one, one that you can get. So I hope it evolves and it's unfortunate, but I'm glad to see that he, you know,

turned the negative into a positive by teaming up with Ranger up. This is a big font, okay? Marlon Marloraes We just had him on Do you see him ever coming to the UFC And how does he fare against the top 10? Well the problem here is that he gets paid very well I think his last fight was 70 and 70

I'm not sure if the UFC is going to offer him 70 and 70 And we talked about what that was Sterling Bantam weights and especially one that isn't proven in the UFC might not get 70 and 70 So he has to balance You know pay Competition pay spotlight Pay platform

It sounds to me like he's now leaning towards the latter. You know, just the competition. He wants to maybe roll the dice and he thinks he can be champion and then he'll get the pay. But he's in an interesting spot because he gets paid very well. But I sincerely believe that you're only as good as your opponents. And what I mean by that is you'll only get the amount of attention that your opponent garners as well. And the respect, if you're fighting guys who just aren't known, it's not going to come. You're just, you're almost in these lose-lose situations. Everyone's expecting you to win. And if you lose, It's just like, what the hell?

You lost to that guy? So, tough spot, but he is getting paid well, and at the end of the day, isn't the whole point of this to just get paid? I think you touched on the two most memorable ones earlier. But rest in peace, Kevin Randleman. What are your favorite memories of the monster? I mean, to me, the Miracle Crocop,

Kevin Rammellman has knocked out Miracle Crocup, the Moro-Ranallo call of that finish and the upset. The slam was incredible. but to me that, I remember I used to listen to Morrow's radio show when he was on the Fight Network, find network radio with the great John Pollock, and that was part of the opens. And it was five days a week that show. It was a great show, fantastic show. It was an hour, but amazing interviews that just had high energy like Morrow always brings to the table,

and that was a part of the open. So every day I would listen to that. I remember even listening to that show when I was not working in MMA in an office. That call was there. It was just that was the best of Marlowe. and obviously the best of Kevin as well. So incredibly sad, a legend, a pioneer, all those words. As Phil said, they get thrown around 100% they apply to Kevin Randleman.

Horrible. You have one. It's that knockout, obviously. But the Randallplex is truly special. Oh, the Fedor? Yeah, as one moment. Yes. It wasn't an entire fight, but as one moment, actually, it was almost an entire fight. I mean, Fodor didn't finish him that much after, but that that's, that suplex was bonkers.

It's, it's, it's one of those things like the, the Rampage or Rona Slam that just, you never forget it. It's always going to live forever. And it's just, it's just a feat of like MMA, of human athleticism. By the way, check your G-chat. Okay. There are some great clips on YouTube. of those guys backstage, the Hammer House guys, Randleman, Coleman, Barone, some really amazing stuff. I mean, thank God we have YouTube that if you weren't around back then or you want to relive those

memories, amazing stuff. He really was this sort of larger-than-life character. I'm happy we got to play one of those clips prior to the Haja Gracie fight, and that was sort of the tail end of his career, not the heyday of the UFC or Pride. But wow, he will be missed. and it was really beautiful to see the way the fighters reacted to him, reacted to his passing and gave him tributes. A lot of them that I did not expect as well. Legends, youngsters, veterans. By the way, I still hear you.

I think your mic is open. There he is. Yeah, old-timers. I mean, it was just, you know, MMA sometimes does not band together as much as it should, but it was beautiful to see them come. together and pay tribute to a man who went away far too young, I believe 44 years young, had pneumonia, and just horrible, really horrible. So again, thoughts and our well wishes to the

family of the late Kevin Randleman. So we are just about at a time, but it's like bothering me that I can't say properly goodbye to Alster. And he just tweeted that he got off, okay, Alster are you there? I'm here, my friend. Law wedding isn't right here. Alster, I got to say, the way that conversation ended, you know me, I'm so anxious, I'm so neurotic, it would have killed me inside if we ended at that. I felt it just wasn't right.

I needed to get you back on, so I appreciate you coming back on. It would have, I would not have gone to sleep tonight. It would have killed me. So everything okay? That would have been a bad omen on your side, huh? If I were calling with you, and then that would have given me a ticket. Oh, I would have felt, I know you don't believe me, but I would have wrote you a check for as much as that ticket and probably then some for the inconvenience. As like the iPad, right?

Listen, the past is the past, and we can go into the archives. And look, we're on our way. The deal was if you become UFC heavyweight champion, you get that iPad. And we are closer than ever. I feel, correct me from you. them wrong. I feel like the only reason why you re-signed with UFC is so that you can see me cash in on that and give you the iPad because you can't, it doesn't work if you're the Bell Tour champ or World Series of Fighting or any. It has to be UFC and that's the main

motivation. Am I right? You know what? I risk my care. I mean, I just stopped. But, okay, so you had another couple more questions? Shoot. Yes, okay. And no, I'm not going to tell you how many fights or how much fighters or, you know, I'm not going to go in that direction. So I'm just letting you know in advance. No problem. I just want to know a couple more things and then I'll let you go.

Okay? Do you have a plan now? Now that it's all out of the way, one fight and you get the title shot, how do you feel it's going to go down? End of 2016, you're going to be champion finally. How do you envision it when you think about it? End of 2016, I will be champion. That is how I envision it. May 8, whoever that put in front of me, I'm going to finish it.

that person and then it's going to be a type of shot after that I don't know when that's going to be it could be after summer it could be at end of the year yeah I don't know we're gonna have the title steep or Verdun both are great fighters both are tough tough as nails both are you know okay one is a little bit more attack stepe for doom is a little more tricky I I feel I can have I can take them both on taking them both out So whoever is going to be put in front of me now for May, we're going to go through him, and then end of the year, it's either for doom or steeping.

And I know, you know, Lorenzo thinks very highly of you. Did you get involved in the talks at all, or did you leave that to your management? Why do you keep asking these questions, man? Okay. Can you just be happy for me? I am so happy for you. Can you just be like, hey, I'm happy. I am so happy.

You know. Okay. I gave you a mazeltov. Do you know what mazeltov means on Twitter? You keep sneaking up all these questions and details in the damn it. Okay, okay. What's it like in Albuquerque with BJ Penn? Did you get a chance to hang out with him?

Oh, man, that guy is awesome. He's positive energy. He's funny. You know, I've known him from Japan. Yes. And this is like, I don't know, 13 years ago. I think we both fought for Inaki Bombay. I think you fought for Shita.

That guy's been in so many. different way classes. Yes. But, yeah, it was just very positive to see him again. He fits in the team and the crew, externally positive vibes. And, yeah, just a very nice guy. I mean, yeah, I didn't know him that well before.

Just like, hey, hey, how are you going? And that's it. But now I'm spending more time. And he's actually sitting a couple of rooms from me in my hotel. Oh. And, you know, we hang out. We play FIFA sometimes. Oh.

I beat him, of course. and they've invited me to do some yoga stuff, so I'm going to be doing that when I get back there. But he's an awesome dude, and his crew is awesome, too. Has he played Frisbee with you yet? He has, but that time I didn't play. Oh, all right. When did you go back to Albuquerque?

I don't know. I don't know. It should be within soon. Okay. We're in ASAP. You like it there? It's not Holland. It's not Miami, but you feel good there. I feel great there. I mean, and look at my results.

Sure. Sure. I have been happy great. And, you know, like I said, I'm 35 results is what matters. Yep. So, yeah, I feel, you know, the team is great. Albu cricket is not much to do, but it's very good to stay focused. And, yeah, Greg Jackson is together with my group of team as coaches.

Okay. two last things for you and then we'll let you go. And again, thank you so much and I'm so happy for you. Congratulations on this. I feel like I'm at peace now knowing that you've signed a nice contract. By the way, in that... And I didn't get a ticket. You didn't get a ticket, the most important.

In that picture that you tweeted of you signing the contract, there's like a little baby on the side. Who's that baby? Okay. That's actually a very funny story. Okay. So my best friend, who is actually part of my man. He's a huge part of my manager's team. He's basically in leading an adult thing.

He always when a fan comes up to me and that I think he can take a picture, he's kind of like always photo bombing that picture, always in the most funny, horrendous ways. And for that picture, he had his, it was not himself photo bombing, but it was his lovely little baby girl. He's six months old.

And she is photo bombing instead of him. I like it. It's great. Another inside humor joke. I'm actually going to add that to my Instagram post because I didn't explain that story. Yes. But it's funny.

It's just you sitting there. And then there's a baby right next to you that doesn't look like it's your baby, clearly. But I like it. It's nice to know that because everyone was asking, who's that baby? I don't know if you looked at the comments, but a lot of questions about the baby. By the way, is the Riem coming out again, the series? Because I saw Elder in Orlando. When's the next one?

Well, we have some plans with the documentary, but the next one should be within a couple of weeks, actually. Oh, okay. I'm very excited to keep that going, and we have some plans with the documentary. Okay. And one final thing, I know you mentioned him on Twitter. Do you have any memory?

We had Phil Barone on earlier to talk about Kevin Randleman, And I know you were part of pride together. Any memories that stick out? Did you ever talk to him? Did you ever share a moment with him? Oh, yeah, yeah. That was very sad to hear about Kevin. It's very sad.

And, you know, that's one of the realizations that I'm having a lot lately, you know, growing up. Because you start to support your young, you know, 15, 17, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20. You always have the feeling that everything is in front of you. But, yeah, recently I realized that, you know, we're all mortal. Time is precious. You know, I'm 35. You know, we're probably going to see a lot more people who we care about who we love pass. It's very sad.

You know, it's a part of life. And it just makes you remember you got to make the most out of now. and pressure the times of today and the loved ones you have today. With me and Kevin, yeah, it was a great guy, very positive, very optimistic. You know, you had the feeling if you have an issue or you had a problem where you wanted to talk, you could always reach him. I mean, lately I was not in touch with him a lot, but always during the Pride days. He was very, very positive, very, yeah, you know, just a great guy.

hard worker you know had some former champion had great moments and pride you know the knock on against crow cup was was amazing everybody already fought

yeah that he would be an easy walk over in any care so yeah yeah you know it's a shock it's a shock to see fighters like that pass

fighters who at one point were invincible and then all of a sudden you really like hey shit what's that right yeah yeah And it's also going to be a little bit sad because, you know, I was, I was, I remember him from the Pride I have not been too close to him lately.

But, for example, there's so much news coming out, you know. In two years, it's just going to be another thing of the past. Yeah. So that's how fast that goes. That's a little bit sad, I think. Absolutely. You know, I had a little bit the same with the ultimate warrior. He was like my big time idol.

And, yeah, all of a sudden, they're not there anymore. I always know some people who always had the thing like, oh, that's the person I wanted to meet and take a picture of it. And then it's like, yeah, you don't have that possibility anymore. And then before you know, it's already old news, you know, that's a little bit sad. And that's why I know it's a very small thing, but I hope he gets the, you know, the respect that he deserves forever by being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. And if there's ever a real Hall of Fame, which I think it's long overdue, I hope that they put him in there as one of the first, because he is a pioneer, in my opinion, of, of mixed martial arts. So thank you for sharing those thoughts. Alster, I really appreciate it. I'll let you go, because I know it's late over there. Thank you very much for coming back. Honestly, it would have

killed me inside if that's how we said goodbye. But I know you don't believe it. I'm very happy for you, and I really appreciate you coming on to talk about this. This is an honor for us. So again, congratulations on the new deal. I look forward to May 8th, and it is always a pleasure to hear your voice, my friend. Yes. Thank you very much. And yeah, we'll be, we'll be each other around. Okay. You know it. Great. Thank you. Okay, Ariel. I'll talk to you soon. Yeah, talk soon. Congratulations.

Alastair Overeem. Great to hear from him. Congrats to him. Congrats to Al Jermaine Sterling. On their new deals back in the UFC. All right, we have run out of time. Newark, Rick, any final words? We've got a few more questions, bro. Oh, okay. Well, I thought we were out of time. No, no, no, no. Okay, okay. Wow. Times have changed.

No, we got a lot. Okay. We'll see how many we can cram in before 5 o'clock. Okay, let me run through this. Quickly, fight pass is clear UFC is making a push in promoting fight passes here with bigger prelims fights, big fights like Silva Bisping, and now the addition of glory and EBI, which is great. What are your thoughts on the recent advances that Fight Pass has made? And how do you see the product evolving over the next couple of years? Well, how about Eric Winter? Eric Winter, who we've talked about on this program before, the UFC signed him from Yahoo Sports.

And it's not a one-man show. You know that. Our good pal, Aunt Evans, doing great things over there. and there are a lot of unsung heroes, but quickly, FightPass has become a real powerhouse here. I mean, now they're going out of the MMA space. Now that's on the table as well. Glory, Eddie Bravo. There's more to come, as I reported.

This is exciting. I think this is great. I mean, now we're getting what we thought we were getting from the beginning. It's not just, you know, six or so, you know, overseas events that are pretty thin, some prelims. We're getting legit cards here. We're getting a legit combat sports card. It's not just mixed martial arts. And I understand that there's going to be a bit of a redesign, if you will.

It's all very exciting. So, yeah, I think it's great. And someone asked me, what is the Glory super fight series? Someone asked me about that. And I said it's the prelims. And then Ann Evans got all upset of me. He's like, oh, it was going to be two title fights. It's not prelims.

But let's just call it what it was. It was the prelims up until this point. It was the undercard. And Glory does a fantastic job. of separating the two, giving it a nice name like the Super Fight Series, because then they can go out and shop it to the CBSes of the world to now UFC Fight Pass. And now, remember when they were getting all that crap for leaving Spike? Well, now they're on the ESPN platform, and now they're on Fight Pass, and they're going to get that push. Things are looking pretty interesting for Glory.

And I think that they're starting to figure things out. Now, explain to me this. All right? Two things. Yep. is February 26th, right? Joe Schilling on that card. Part of this deal was that the K1 Library would be included. Correct. K1 now coming out saying they don't have the rights to our library. What the hell is going on here?

Yeah, as far as that's concern, you know, Glory's understanding is that they're very confident that the library stands on its own. They own it. There's no debate. Okay. So that's... So they are going to get the K1 library because that's a big part of this as well. It's in process.

U.S. is uploading it. As we speak. And in, what is it, next month, there are going to be two title fights? That's right. There's going to be two title fights on the Super Fight series. So as you said, I mean, it's not unlike the UFC, in fact, in the sense that, you know, the UFC has fights on FS1 and then they have it on pay-per-view. It's very much a similar model where they'll build a card. And, you know, like we've seen Uriah Faber headlining FS1 portions of UFC cards before they go on pay-per-view.

and others, then that's a separate product that the UFC is now going to be carrying live. So Joe Schilling's fighting on February 26th coming up, that'll be the first one. Then in March, there will be two title fights on that. As well as the title fight, RICO Verhoeven is going to be fighting on the ESPN portion of that same card.

Yeah. That is big. I mean, as far as fight passes overall properties and just the idea, like, I don't know if when we started thinking about Bypass, we had conceived that they would even go outside of MMA. It's brilliant. I love it.

But the idea that they could be the combat sports hub for all these libraries is pretty impressive. Fight Pass has done some amazing things. And not only that, I mean, you're getting Bispings-Silva on Fight Pass? This is no commercial for Fight-Bass. They don't sponsor us. Bispink-Silva on Fight Pass. The Page Rose card was fantastic, and that was all on Fight Pass.

And now they're starting to do this thing where they're having, they're actually like putting fights that should be or were historically on FS1, like Crookshank against Paul Felder very recently. They're putting big fights there on the quote-unquote fight-pass prelims. The huge Mike Jackson versus Mickey Gall fight from last week, tremendous. Stop it. But yes. I mean, and, you know, I feel like fans are still not appreciating what they have with fight pass yet,

but hopefully, you know, this can go a long way. Now we're going to go over to Twitter questions. Let's try and hit these rapid fire. Bisbing gets the number one contender spot if he beat Silva. Yes or no? Has to be. Yes. Okay.

It wasn't touched on, but what are your thoughts on CM Punk picking you up off your feet last Saturday? Well, this is so ridiculous. This has gotten a lot of attention. I mean, really, are we really believing this? I mean, look, this reminds me of that interview I did with Dominic Cruz that we played before his title fight. Remember the interview where I was a little bit?

like, hey, Dominic, you're walking around. You don't have a torn ACL. Remember that? And he looked at me like... And he gave you the death glare. Yes, and I will kill you right here. Well, you know, the guy had a herniated disc, but he could still walk around. He can still do things. I'm rather spelt. So, like, for him, he could pick me up with one hand.

So A, to all those people blaming me for the injury, or A, or B, the people who are saying that he was a moron for picking me up, it had nothing to do with the injury. It didn't make it worse. It didn't cause an injury. It didn't do anything. I mean, it's just a non-story. It's, you know, as he called it, a bump in the road. It's the same injury that Kane had, the same surgery that Kane had,

and he maintains that he will fight in 2016. I'm not going to calm a liar. And I think I was pretty taken aback by the reaction to the injury and the surgery last week when we reported it. I mean, the vitriol that went his way was mind-blowing. And a lot of people including his Twitter handle in. So they wanted to send him that. I have a feeling he saw of that, and I actually think that it did the opposite. I think he's pretty motivated now, so we'll see what happens.

I also don't think anything to do is seeing Mickey Gall in person. The guy's just, you know, he's up there, he's close to 40, he's a pro wrestler, and hopefully maybe as King Moe very astutely pointed out, and this is a man who knows, being a pro wrestler is no joke. They put their body through hell. and in your late 30s you're going to be banged up and you know it's unfortunate that he couldn't have started this this journey earlier i say more power to him hopefully you could get relatively healthy and fight this year there's there's there's going to come a time where we're going to stop

saying that people are scared uh as professional cage fighters at this point hopefully that that day is soon but there will be a day and i'm waiting for it i don't know if that's ever going to happen because this whole thing is built on like alpha males this man better than this man and if someone pulls out for whatever reason he's scared. John Linnaker is scared. I bet that's being said somewhere. I'm sure John Linnaker is terrified. But when you think about it, it's like that's why people hate the CM Punk thing

because MMA is so alpha male that it's like, how dare this fake pro wrestler guy come into our world. I think he's an alpha male. I think it's a different kind of thing for him. No, but that's why people have this reaction to the news because it's so like puffed my chest out, I'm the tough guy in the room and this guy's a fake pro wrestler and he doesn't belong here and all that. And that's why people feel so like they get uncomfortable.

at the thought of a pro wrestler walking in there and actually fighting in the UFC and, oh, maybe having success. It's like, this is, no, no, no, no, no, I can't handle this. It's like, you didn't see, and I know this is on a completely different level. Please do not say that I'm comparing it. It would completely different. Like, if the same happened where Kevin Hart, right, Kevin Hart did a three, listen to me, Kevin Hart did a three-point contest. You didn't see Larry Bird coming up being, how dare he get in on an NBA court and do the three-point contest. It's not the same.

I know it's not the same. But there's like the sanctimony stuff is like, oh, how dare he? He didn't take anyone's job. In fact, he added two jobs. Mickey Gall would not be in the UFC now. Mike Jackson, of course, is probably gone at this point, but he would not ever, he added two jobs. He's not taking anyone's spot.

I can assure you Luke Rockhold is pissed that he's not fighting at $199 because that would have bumped the pay-per-view buys up. Let's call it what it is. It's one fight. out of a thousand. I'm firmly in the camp of Sien Pung should do whatever he wants. I don't agree with the people who are, you know, bashing him. But that analogy was piss poor.

No, that's what I just said. I just said, don't compare it. Well, then don't make the analogy. No, no, no. If we put Kevin Hart in the actual three-point shooting contest, there would be people complaining. But the point is that these fans, but it's totally different because in the three-point contest, there are eight slots. Okay, I'm sorry that I brought it up, but you get my point.

In NBA, they're comfortable with who they are. In other sports, they're comfortable with who they are. And let's not forget that mixed martial arts, as it is known today, Ultimate Fighting NHB, was sort of built on this. Sure. Right? I mean, Kent Shamrock is fighting Hoysh-Gracy, for God's sakes. It was kind of built on all that way back then in 1993 and beyond.

I don't think there's much logic in the people that... Muhammad Ali, Antonio Onoki, it was built on that. So, yeah, times have changed, I know. But it's not going to change. This is not the fall of the UFC. It's not the prize of the UFC. It's just, it's what it is. And I want to repeat what I said on the MMA beat.

The UFC signed CM Punk in December of 2014 at the tail end of maybe their worst year ever. Financially and luck-wise, would they do the same in December of 2015 after their best year ever? Is CM Punk or was CM Punk a product of the times? You know what I mean? Belator is making a little run. They need something. They're getting worried about 2015. Is our luck going to come back?

Do they do it? I don't know. It's a question that will need. never be answered because we can't go back in time. But you have to look at the landscape. You have to look at where the UFC was back in December of 2014, a much different time, a different spot than they're in today. Hey, Eric, this is definitely not something I can answer, but maybe you can. Can you and Ariel discuss where to watch in the clinch? This person missed episode one. Where can they find it to catch up? I actually tweeted a whole bunch of replay times. I don't know.

I think those are gone, but most cable networks, they have a search function. And you can just search for the, let me see, I have it right here. The last one was January 28th on my little sheet. I will ask, I will let you know, and I will get the word out there. It would be on Fox Sports 1 or 2. It would be on Fox Sports 1 or 2, and you can hopefully search, and they tend to replay, and that's why it's called an evergreen show, so that they can play it whenever, and it's not tied to a certain timeframe. We don't talk about anything happening in the moment, and hopefully sooner rather than later, we'll have some new episodes, so you don't have to just look out for that one. But yes, Fox Sports 1 or 2. And I would assume at some point, once it has run its course,

they'll put it online, but I don't think that time is now because they want people to watch the show on TV. The time is not now. Time is not now. Our last question from our friend, Brandon Gibson. You brought up the NBA. Now let's go there. Best Dunk of the Dunk of the Dunk Contest. I am still buzzing over that. My favorite non-MMA, non-MMA, not-MMA, get all, everyone getting all up in my grill when I said it was my favorite, my favorite non-MMA sporting weekend of the year is All-Star Saturday Night. And it kind of reminds me of when the UFC put a card after UFC 189 on the Sunday. Like the game is actually sort of the afterthought.

To me, it's all about Saturday night. I love Saturday Night. When I was a kid, I used to have parties. Everyone would come to my house. I would print out the field, whether it's the three-point contest, the dunk contest, later on the Skills Challenge, the rookie, all that. and we would pick our winners, MVP. I love it.

And this one, this was the best All-Star Saturday Night. And in 1988 is the other one because of Larry Bird beating Dale Ellis and having the finger up as he walked away with the three-point. And of course-Harton compete in that one? No, he was just like four. But Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins. See, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan 1988 can compare it to Aaron Gordon and Zach Levine, even though the dunks this time around were more spectacular because that was two all-stars and two. future Hall of Famers, like we knew they were going to be tremendous. But they were all-stars.

Gordon and Levine aren't all-stars right now. So there was something a little more special about these two legends at the time. And of course, we're looking in hindsight, but it was Jordan and Eak. It was unbelievable. But this time, with Carl Towns winning the skills, that was fantastic. And all the big men jumping on him and celebrating. And then Clay Thompson beating his teammate, Stephen Curry. And it went into overtime. That was great. James Harden's screwed up, by the way. He put the money ball rack on the third when you only have 30 seconds in overtime. What the hell are you doing, James Hardin? And then you have Aaron Gordon who was robbed. He was robbed. You agree with that, right? Don't say no. He was robbed. 48, 47. Aaron Gordon, the

judge has screwed him. So what's the best dunk? Okay, to me the best after all that. Gordon had the three best. Gordon had the three best. The one, I have maybe watched it a million times, the one of the mascot twirling on the, what is it called, the funky duck? hoverboard. I don't like what people call it a hoverboard because it doesn't hover. I think it's actually called a funky duck. I had no idea that there was a funky duck, but I've called it a hoverboard. So the one of the mascot twirling, because you have to actually appreciate it. And by the way, small, subtle thing about Aaron Gordon, did you notice after most of his dunks he was actually trying to explain to us what he did because it was all happening so fast? That's part of it. That's brilliant.

I love that. That guy is great. I didn't really know much about him. I went to a magic game in December, and I don't even think he played. Anyways, the one where he's twirling, because he has to time it and grab it with one hand and catch it as the guy's twirling. And just the visual of the mascot, that one was tremendous. Wrong. Wrong answer. Under the legs. Under the legs is number one. How does he not win off that? And by the way, even this one, the one behind his back, he touches his name and then brings it that. That was Harold Minor-esque, 1993. Baby Jordan. 1993, Howard Minor and 2000 Vince Carter up until this point was my favorite. It's still 93.

I love the Harold Minor. I love them. My goal in life was to get every single Howard Minor rookie card. they're now worth like 10 cents combined but I got every single hour of mine work I love them for some reason anyway that was tremendous and even the one where Peyton shot it off the side of the net the backboard

and he caught it Zach Levine kept going back to the well it was the same thing over and over again it's one hell of a well to go back to it was one hell from the free throw line between the legs but kept going back and even his first dunk was great but it was like kind of the same as last year

I'm with you so Gordon deserved to win but the under the legs dunk is bonkers that was the one incredible good for him i hope they do a rematch next year the dunk contest is back kenny smith every year says the dunk contest is back now it's finally back it was beautiful i love big all-star saturday night uh and now we had a big m m m m hour and now it's time to uh the m m m ms hour is back we never laugh as alister ovarie said it is back wow beautiful all right we are done

let's go home uh what a show you can hit my music who what a relief this is i have been terrorized everyone here at Vox Media for the past week saying we need to get this stream back on point and we are back now watch something happy next week but for now it's good two in studio guests that's the thing every time I feel like I let you down I try to make up for it two in studio guests one announcement Alstroverim almost gets arrested Phil Barone what more can you ask for So I hope if you had off today, whether you're celebrating Family Day, whether you're celebrating President's Day, whether you're celebrating Islander Day, whether you're celebrating Luis Real Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day, or just Monday,

I hope you enjoyed the show. Thank you very much, Al Jermaine Sterling. Congratulations to him on his new contract. Thank you very much to the great Damien Mai for stopping by. What a pleasure it was to learn more about him, his background. on really enjoyed that interview. Thank you very much to the great Phil Barone for coming on. Not the best of times, but I really appreciate him joining us today for a few minutes.

All the best of Chris Holdsworth. And good luck to him this weekend. Hopefully Cody Garbrant gets a fight against someone. He wants to fight. All the best of Marlon Marais on Saturday. It's Belvoir on Friday. It's World Series of Fighting on Saturday. UFC on Sunday.

What a weekend. After one weekend off, now get three, the three big dogs. And of course, thank you very much to the great Alster. O'Brien, congratulations to him on his brand new UFC contract. That is it for us. Back next week, same time and place. Happy birthday to my son.

Love you. Until that, I say, pay somebody. Ever feel like your work tools are working against you? Too many apps, endless emails, and scattered chats can slow everything down. Zoom brings it all together. Meetings, chat, docs, and AI companion seamlessly on one. platform. With everything connected, your workday flows. Collaboration feels easier and progress actually happens. Take back your workday at zoom.com slash podcast and zoom ahead.

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