MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 318

Episode Date: February 29, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Holly Holm, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Anthony Pettis, Herb Dean, Ido Portal, Mike Winkeljohn, Brian Stann, and Marc Raimondi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life. On this Monday, February 29th, 2016, Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani inside our New York City studio back from beautiful London, England, home for around 48 hours, and then it is off to the carnival, the circus that is UFC 196. Can't wait for that. So much to discuss what a week in our beloved.

sport. Wow. Pretty much from the moment last week's show ended up until Saturday night in England, it has been a world wind from Torrance, California, to Stockton, California, to Los Angeles, a lot going on in California, to all the way in England. It was strange being in England because it felt like, at least for the first couple days there, everyone's attention was on Connor McGregor versus Nate Diaz. Of course, you know by now that Connor McGregor is fighting Nate Diaz and not Hafelde Los Angeles on Saturday night.

The fight will be taking place at 170 pounds. As crazy as that sounds, that's actually happening. Dosangos breaking his foot two Fridays ago, forced to withdraw from the fight on Monday. The UFC scours the roster, but it was always the Nate Diaz show. That's what they did.

wanted from the get-go that's who they wanted and that's what they got press conference on Wednesday as advertised a lot of fun to watch and then it sort of quieted down a little bit focus turn to England and the main event of course michael bisping against Anderson Silva years in the making and wouldn't you know it finally Michael Bisping gets over the hump he defeats Anderson Silva in a fascinating fight a captivating fight and exhausting fight but he got it done on his home soil and it was a lot of fun to cover in person. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of UFC Fight Night London all week long from it felt like honestly it felt like I was in Detroit. I don't know. I could be one of these media guys who complains but we were kind of tucked away.

I didn't see anything about London but I was really happy with our coverage there. Got a Dana White interview. Got the walk and talk with Bisping which I really enjoyed as well. Got some great post fight stuff. So that's all that matters to me. But I might as well have been you know anywhere in america i mean really i just i was in a tiny hotel room most of the time uh it was fun though it's always fun to go to those european events the fans are so passionate i thank each and every one of the fans that came up to me it seems like for some reason they're i don't know maybe it's because they don't get uh as many shows there they're just so passionate and thankful and uh and loyal they come up to me they show me on

on their phone that they listen to the show i really appreciate so all the fans that i saw all of them who said nice things about me and believe it or not, New York Rick as well, we appreciate it greatly and we thank you for watching the show each and every week. Happy Carlos Condit Day, if you recall, last time Carlos Condit was on this program, he told the world that Carlos Condit Day is February 29th, so you only get it once every four years. That's how special it is. Holly Home got a month. He got a day on a leap year. So today is Carlos Condit Day. So happy Carlos Condit Day if you're celebrating in the 505 or anywhere else around the world, enjoy it and enjoy it responsibly. What a show we have for all of you.

There is so much to discuss. So let us not waste any more time and get right to it. I cannot wait for today's show, as I said. Fun stuff. Let me see here. Before it begin, I'd just like to make sure my internet's a little slow. Are we streaming? Everything good?

There I am. Yes. Sexy as always. Blueberries on the table as well. Did you notice that? Thank you to my friends from Montreal who stopped by earlier today and hooked us up with that. Ricky and Jamie. Okay, today's show.

Around 4 o'clock, we'll hear from you. Hit us up, as always. Like I said, a lot to discuss. Hashtag the MMR. Question or comment in the comment section below. You know the drill by now. At around 345, we're going to hear from Mike Winklejohn, head coach for one, Holly Home, big weekend for her. Y'all must have forgot Holly Home is fighting this weekend.

It's all been about Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz, but we got Holly Home. in her first fight since her win over Ronda Rousey this weekend as well against Misha Tate, Mike Winkle-John, stops by a lot going on in the world of Jackson Wink. At around 325, the aforementioned Holly Home is stopping by. How about that? The UFC's Women's Bantamway Champion will stop by to talk all things 196. 305, we're going to talk to Herb Dean. Lots to discuss with the referee.

Third round, what happened there? Bisp being Silva, he was the man in the cage. He was that third man. Talk to him about that and a whole lot more. 2.45, we'll talk to the one and only Edo Portal, Connor McGregor, as a movement coach. He is back. In fact, longtime fans of the show will recognize that this is the first time

since Connor McGregor's debut that John Kavanaugh is not on the show before one of his fights. The reason for that is he's flying to Las Vegas right now, so we couldn't get that done. But we got Edo Portel, who's on the scene with Connor in California. So that is a treat as well. 225, we're going to be joined by Jose Aldo, the former UFC featherweight champion.

In the long history of this program, we have never had Aldo on, one of the very few fighters, to never grace us with his presence. Aldo will be joining us at 2.25 p.m. Eastern Time. 205, one of the very best in the sport as far as calling the fights, breaking him down, analyzing them. Brian Stan will stop by to talk UFC 196.

At 145, Anthony Pettis will stop by, haven't heard much from him since his loss to Eddie Alvarez. 125, the fired up. Edgar will stop by. He was in the news all week long as well. It was a dizzying week in the world of mixed martial arts, like I said, really one of those weeks that reminds you how much fun it is to cover this sport, how unique it is. Imagine if there was a huge football game or basketball game, someone gets injured. They're just like, yeah, let's put in this guy, the fan favorite, the favorite team, whatever it is, and blow this whole thing up. It's crazy what we're about

to embark on. Conn McGregor is fighting at 170. pounds. No titles on the line. He just fought a 145 and everyone's even more excited now. He's right. He's bigger than any title. Beating Connor means more than winning any UFC titles. So let's talk about all that and a whole lot more with our first guest. Joining us via the Magic of Skype, you know, you talk about a stack show. There's only one way to start off a stack show and that's with our very own Mark Romundi who joins us right now. Mark, how are you? What's up, man? What's up? Yeah, it's going. It's going all right. I am excited. You'll be joining me in Las Vegas, the shackles are off, so to speak. Welcome back to the

shackles are off. So, okay, before we get to Connermania, 196, of course, you were at the press conference in Torrance. Let's talk about this weekend in England. Controversial, but fun, captivating, fascinating, heart-wrenching at times. First things first, how did you score the Michael Bisping-Anderson Silva fight? I had it the same way the judges had. I had a 48-47 for of Bisbing. I thought Bisbing won the first round, the second round, and the fourth round. Okay. And what do you make of the third round drama? And in particular, what Herb Dean did and didn't do? What was your take on that? Well, I mean, you can make the argument for sure that that Herb could have been a little bit more, he could have been quicker getting in there,

separating the guys. But if you're Bisbing, you can't stop fighting until the referee gets between you. What is that, what do they say, defend yourself at all times? Yes. He didn't He didn't do that. And he paid for it. You know, Herb Dean was maybe out of a little out of position, didn't get there quick enough. Biss Bing stopped fighting. Anderson Silva hit him with a flying knee from hell and dropped him in a heap. And then Slewtoe he won the fight. What a bizarre turn of events. And the bell sounded. I had no idea what happened when it first happened. I had no clue what just went on. Yeah. And if you were in attendance, there was no way that you can hear that horn sounding. So what did you think? Because it's clear. when watching the replay that the knee landed before the horn sounded, right? So do you think the fight should have been stopped? You can make the argument. I think what, from Herb Dean's perspective, I think that what he saw is that

Bisping got dropped and he was about to be finished, but Anderson didn't finish him. He just walked away and then the round ended. So therefore, Bisping wasn't, I mean, honestly, a lot of refs might have said that was it right there. It looked like he was almost knocked out, but Bisbing seemed to sit, you know, he said he was okay. A lot of fighters say they're okay. Sure. ... situations like that, but it's a tough one, man. It very well could have been a CO.

Shades of Hussemaer, Paul Harris against Dan Miller, U.S. 144, Shades of Chris Cyborg versus Shana Basler and Stockton, Elite XC on CBS. In those cases, the fighter who thought they won but had to go back and keep fighting ended up winning. In this case, Anderson didn't end up winning. He didn't speak to the media, but that's got to be a. mental letdown. You were like, I won, you're celebrating, you're on top of the cage, finally, you know, I'm back on track, and then you got to go out for the fourth round. Bisping won the fourth. Anderson, in my opinion, won the fifth. But it always felt to me like that little

stretch right there felt to me like, okay, that's what Anderson could have been doing, should have been doing, but for some reason wasn't doing. Like, it always felt like he was holding back. Yes, he's slower. Yes, he's older. But why wasn't he pulling the trigger? Did you get that sense watching TV as well? Like, it just always felt like he wasn't doing as much as he could have been doing. Like, it was there for him. And for some reason, he took his foot off the gas. So you have Bisbing in the end of the third round. He's, like, crumpled up in the keep in the corner against the cage.

He's a mess. His face looks terrible. His body language is awful. He can almost barely even hold his head up. And then in the fourth round, Silver does almost nothing. Yeah. And Bisbing wins the round. He never turned it on.

He never had that killer instinct. And part of me wonders, like, even in the first and second rounds, like, was he really, was he really trying? It almost was like he was more concerned with putting on, like, a fun show than actually trying to win the fight. He had he had opportunities to finish also in the fifth round. He hit him with that front kick to the face, which jarred Bisbing. And then he never went in for the kill. He never went to try to finish him. He just kind of hung out and kind of at the end of the fight in the last like 30 seconds, he kind of like circled away, didn't even engage. He had to win. I mean, he was in a position where he had to finish that fight. A lot of people had it

scored for Bisbing up until that point, even if still won the fifth round. So I don't know. I'm not really sure what he was thinking. I think that you just wanted to have fun and And maybe just put on a show. Maybe he was more concerned with putting on an entertaining show than actually winning the fight. Back in the day, he was able to get away with that because he was a little quicker. He was younger. He can't get away with that anymore. It's clear that he's a step slower, but I still felt like he almost lost the fight for himself.

And again, I don't want to take anything away from Michael Bisping. He fought the fight of his life. Show tremendous heart kept coming and was tagging him with shots. And, you know, Bisping's always been accused of not having power. Well, he rocked Anderson Silva a couple times, but still felt like Anderson was holding back. Now, here's the interesting thing. End of the third round, that controversial moment, and I thought of this, and I want to get your take on this as well.

You notice that once we reach the point where there's 10 seconds left in the round, they get rid of the clock, right? They get rid of the clock on TV. Why do they do this? This is the most crucial part of the round. It's like, can you imagine that that NBA game on Saturday was Steph Curry and they get rid of the clock with 10 seconds left? Yes, I know that there's a human element to it, but it's 2016.

Don't we need the clock? Why are they getting rid of the clock with 10 seconds left? Do you have any idea why? It really bugs me, and I feel like they should fix this. I think the reason and the rationale behind that is because the clock on TV is not 100% to the millisecond lined up with the actual commission clock at the arena. But it's 2016. Let's sink these bad boys up. They do it all over the world with sports, right?

Basketball, football. Right? Hockey. It should be done. It should be done. I mean, just for the viewer experience. Yeah, but also then we would have known was it actually, you know, did it land before? the buzzer sound you know what I mean is this important thing like in the NBA

someone let's go of a shot you can see it to the second to the tenth of a second whether or not the shot was on the guy's fingers or not right I don't know this is something that really came to mind after the fact it doesn't happen very often you know it's just a free it's just a free thing but by the way

it happened twice on Saturday Arnold Allen as well everyone thought that he won oh right right so it actually happened twice now he ended up winning no controversy there but you know these these things going to happen the more fights are put on. Okay, so I was surprised Bispink didn't go on the mic, say, yeah, yeah, you know, Dan Hardy, you stand over there. It's my time. I've won three in a row. I just beat the supposed greatest of all time. Finally, can I get my damn title shot? He said

afterwards he was relieved. He got over the hump. Finally, there was a lot of emotions. He was clearly very emotional, but he never actually campaigned for the title shot. Were you surprised that he didn't do so? Yeah, because everything that you heard all week from him, including in in the interview, the very good interview you did with him, you know, the walk around London. Yes. All that he was saying was that he wanted his title shot. Like that, it's been about time.

It's been 10 years. This was the fight to get him there. This was the fight that he didn't win in his career, the big fight. The criticism has always been, and he acknowledges that he can't win the big one to get him over the hump. Well, this was that one, but he didn't really campaign for the title shot. But I think I know why. Why?

I think I know why. Why? Because maybe there's a bigger, maybe there's a bigger fight out there for him. Nick Diaz? Maybe there's a guy. from Stockton, California, coming off suspension in August, who was a bigger fight than the title fight from Michael Bisbeck. How about that?

Okay, it's a very good point, and I see them going back and forth on Twitter. Yeah. But this is a lifetime's work for Michael Bisping. He's been searching for this title. He will go down if he never fights for the belt as the greatest UFC fighter to never fight for the belt. Do you agree with that? I'm not talking about not win the belt. Never fight for the belt.

You got to do it now. Now is the time. You just beat Anderson Silva. Forget about Nick Diaz. Well, I think that, I mean, personally, you know, Rockhold and Wyman are going to fight at USC 199, most likely in June. If Rockhold wins that fight, I really don't have any interest in seeing Bisbing fight Rockhold again. I think that was, I mean, that was a watch. That was a blowout.

He got headbutted. Wasn't close. He got headbutted. Come on. That's what he says. That's fine. I love Bisbing, but I don't think he's at that level right now. He's 36 years old.

Rockhole, to me, has the potential to be, like, a dominant champion. If he can get by Wybin, you know, who knows what's going to happen in that fight. But if Wybin wins, okay, I can see, sure, put Bisbing in there. He has as good of a case as anyone. If Rockhole wins, I mean, I don't know if there, I don't know if that would be a sellable fight. I mean, Bisbing would try his damn best to sell it with his mouth and he would do a good job. But as far as actually in the cage, I'm not sure who would really. I want to see it.

There's no unfinished business there. He completely blew him out. Yeah, he got a headbutted. There's the unfinished business. I want to see it. He's been in the UFC for 10 years. Okay, so if you're in charge, you're doing Bisping Diaz? By accident with a lot of knees and kicks and diocene.

It was a complete, it was a robbery. So you're doing Bisping Diaz if you're Joe Silva? Oh, absolutely. What is being Musasi? I like both of those fights. Can we talk about the new Musassi for a second? I mean... Oh, I love the new Musassi.

First of all... Why did we have the show today? Well, we spoke to him after. I don't care. Are you going to complain about... You're complaining about this all-star cast that we have? We can never please people in the... this damn internet world.

You couldn't have Bob him Sasan instead of me. Who the hell wants to see me? Very good point, and I agree. But he had the shirt. He's going off on the 15-year-old looking Leota Machita is swearing.

Now, sure, the fight wasn't the most exciting fight, but he did what he had to do to win. I thought the jab looked great. He beat up Talas Ladies, and he brings up a great point. Bissing had trouble with Talas Ladies. He had looked good prior to that fight. That was a solid comeback win

after the first knockout loss of his career. I had no problem with what Gagga Musassi did on Saturday. But I will say this. That crowd in London, by the way, very disappointing. They didn't back their guy. They were sitting on their hands the entire night. It wasn't that loud in there, to be honest. It was loud during the third round, you know, brouhaha.

But for a historic crowd, 16,000, the most ever for UK, I was actually pretty disappointed with the crowd in London. They were kind of half asleep the entire night. They weren't like Dublin or Scotland. those people need to remember why the UFC, I mean, let's be honest. It wasn't anything to glow about. I had to say that. Sorry.

Maybe some sussex. We also compared London to Detroit a few minutes ago. So you may not want to go back there for a little bit. And they showed me. They want to stay away. I was just saying I could have been anywhere. I'm not saying. And what's your problem with Detroit?

I mean, London compared to Detroit. I'm just saying we could have been anywhere. Anyway, okay, so what do you do with Anderson? Sorry for interrupting. There's a lot of options for him. Honestly, I think that, I mean, I don't want to say that I was impressed with him, but I actually, I think what he came out with actually somewhat exceeded my expectations, even though he didn't win the fight.

He did a lot of damage to Bisbing. You know, if you're scoring on pride rules, he probably wins that fight. He's the one who did the more damage throughout the fight, sure. But, I mean, I think that we have to look at that Vitor versus Jokkeret fight in May. and I think if Vitor loses that fight, maybe even if he wins that fight, I think that an Anderson Vitor fight in Brazil would be great. That would be good. You know, both guys are legends there.

They're toward the end of their career. Brazil needs a really, really big main event. I think that would be huge. You could do that in a soccer stadium. That would be a really big deal. So that I think for me would be my first choice. I know Vitor kind of, I think he might have turned it down. I saw some reports that he turned down the fight against Anderson earlier this year, but you got to run that one.

back that's a that's a great fight no tim kennedy you're not down with that he's been campaigning i mean i mean that's that's one of the options but if you're talking about historical significance biggest draw especially in brazil anderson versus vitor are the two most popular fighters ever from brazil that would be that'd be pretty cool well good for michael bisming again sucks that people are like oh he got rob the sylvo's controversial i really i really thought it was pretty cut and dry three to two but this stuff is always going to happen. It was nice that he got his moment, that he got over the hump. It was weird being there.

I got to say, it felt like no one was paying attention to what was happening. And this was such a big deal and such a great main event. And cool story of Anderson coming back to London and, you know, the journey for Bispang. But now we turn our attention to 196. And you were at that press conference in Torrance at the UFC gym. An unbelievable scene, Diaz and Connor. And yes, it looked a little, you know, cobbled together. but I thought that's what made it so special.

No backdrop. You got the security guards behind them. I mean, it was just, it felt like a boxing pay-per-view, like anything, excuse me, a boxing press conference, like anything could happen. It was just, you know, it was captivating to watch. What was it like being there, though? What was the scene like actually being there? Yeah, it was chaotic.

And, I mean, kudos to the UFC because they have, they had this open workout plan at UFC gym where it's a whole different format where the guys are going to get in the octagon. They're going to do workouts. The fans are going to watch them take pictures, and they're going to come in to the back and do scrums with reporters. So when Dosanjos dropped out, they had to call an audible really quick,

and it happened in a matter of hours. They made it into a press conference, and it's obvious why they made it into a press conference because who wants to see Nate Diaz and Connor McGregor just work out? They want to see them go head-to-head in a press conference setting. So it was a brilliant stroke by DOC to put that together. it was not now the UFC gym is not really a place where you have a press conference yeah it's a great place open workout but press conference no so it was it was like you said it was kind of a chaotic weird

scene where you have all these people flooded into a gym people hang on like the like the like the swap machine and people like you know leaning up against like the like the like the tricep you know machine it was it was really weird to see that but it also it kind of added to the press conference was kind of chaotic in itself with with mcgregor and diaz going back and forth and, you know, FU, FU, I don't give it. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's great. You have all this people just flooded, you know, on them.

And then when the whole thing broke up, I really thought something bad was going to happen because there's only so much. I mean, there was a lot. There must have been a thousand people there. There was a lot of people in that gym. And when both guys came off stage, there was an immediate flood. Oh, no. Because there wasn't any barricades. Yeah, yeah.

It was just like, like, like tape. Like, there wasn't anything really separating the fighters from the fans. So everyone kind of flooded toward McGrath. And there was just like these huge security guards who tried to step in and try to carved out a path for him to get to the back. And Nate kind of went out the front. And he was just mobbed with people that put a video on my Instagram. It was like it was like Justin Bieber was there or something. Like it was just, he was like a pop star.

Like a bunch of people just flooded Nate as he was leaving. And Nick, too, they were both there. I've never actually seen, you know, fighters treated like A-less celebrities like that. But that's what it was like. And then Connor went out the back way and got into an SUV. And there were just hundreds of people mobbing the SUV, like, trying to get, just trying to, like, touch them. It was nuts. It was crazy.

If that day that press conference was around in a fight, who would you score it for? Oh, I mean, McGregor, obviously. Was it a 10-9? Was it a 10-9? What would you give? It might have been a 10-8. Wow. But I think, well, listen, they have two very distinct styles when it comes to promoting plays.

And when you go ahead-to-head like that, Connor. almost always comes out ahead because he's so quick and he's so witty. And I feel like he does have some stuff prepared for the press conference too. Like I thought it was a huge bomb when Nate said everyone's on steroids. Yeah. And then Connor shot back. Your teammates, Bill and Jake were on steroids, almost like he knew that Nate was going to bring that up. I couldn't believe he had that, you know, queued up already.

But that proves that he wasn't prepared. How could he have known that Nate would go there? No one's ever accused Connor of that. I don't know. The brilliance, but he had that cute up. Yes, you know why? Because the brilliance of Connor McGregor is he consumes everything. He reads everything.

He can rifle off stats, height, reach. So he knows this off the top of his head. He comes back with that. What can you respond with? There's nothing to say at that point. That was, that was the, that was the, that was great. It was, it was fun to watch and the back and forth. I think people sometimes confuse Nate and Nick.

Nick has thrived in that setting, the, the press conference setting. GSP going back and forth. Nate's never been that guy, really. He gets on the mic after a fight, like in Orlando in December. You know, he goes off the cuff for like 30 seconds. That's his thing. But the press conference setting not really his thing. I thought he held his own.

I'm curious, this is a little inside baseball here. But as of right this second, if you look at the PR schedule for this week, there is no other press conference. It's a media day, it's a workout. Is that a mistake? That was such a success for the UFC. Over 2 million views on YouTube. Who knows on UFC.com.

should they go for round two to help build this up one more time before the fight? Well, maybe they'll tweak it. You know, maybe they'll do something different. Would you? Or should you keep it as that and now do the other stuff? Would you, if you're in charge? Personally, I don't mind because press conferences, I feel like I never get like a real answer from guys, so I like the other stuff. That's just a selfish personal thing.

But yeah, I mean, to that point, to promote the fight, you may want to do that again. But, you know, again, I think that's already been done. You know, I think the McGregor-Dia's dynamic has been done in that setting. It's not a bad idea to do it in a different setting. And you still have the face-off that people are really going to be interested in seeing. Those face-offs this week are going to be very intense. I hope I hope you get to a fight of Hope Schaller, you know, and gets his weedies and gets behind, you know, in between those guys.

I agree with you. You probably get better stuff at the media days. I think you've got to go with round two. That press conference was must-see TV. Everyone wanted to watch it. And I think given how successful the first one was, and now Nate's had a little more time to get comfortable. and certainly Connor will thrive and, you know, rise to the occasion.

I think you got to go. I think you do a press conference with those two alone. You don't put Holly Home and Misha Tate up there. And then you do the media day with the rest of that they get their shine as well. That's what I would do if I was in charge. How do you like them out of course? Can't hurt. Okay.

Can't hurt to do that again. We have a lot of time to break this down because you're going to be in Vegas. But let's end on this. UFC 196 now that it has Nate Diaz instead of RDA. And of course, we'll never truly know the answer. but do you think it will do better on pay-per-view than the original plan, which had, you know, this historic storyline of Connor going for two titles? That's a good question.

You know, I noticed when I was at UFC Gym last week, I don't know if it was a huge crowd. There were people waiting outside for hours to get in. And I just don't know if that would have been the turnout if it was, you know, Hafeel Dosanjas. No disrespect to him. He's a great champion. He's an absolutely an elite fighter.

But he doesn't have it. that fan base that that the Diaz brothers bring you know they have they have a huge cult following in m-ma they do move the needle you know unlike some people have said in the past you know both of them do move the you know people really really care about these guys and i do i think that it is it is a bigger fight in that sense because nadee s is just a bigger name and and the promotion for the fight has has already amped up and and you know what i like about this fight honestly i like the fact that it's just a fun fight it's not there's really no there's no implications there's really no consequences the stakes are not very high.

It's just two guys who people really enjoy watching fighting each other. And it kind of underscores the point that I always make about how MMA kind of leans more toward entertainment than sport. Because here you have the featherweight champion fighting at 170. Why not? Here you have like a lightweight contender going up and fighting him at Walterway. Why not? There's no rankings. There's no title implications.

It's just a fun fight if you want to see because of who these guys are. Like you said in the open, you don't see. that in baseball or football or basketball. You see it here, you see in the UFC, because that's what people want to see. Yeah, makes it unique. I like it. And I think it is a bigger fight. I know it was a little bit long winded, but I did get there eventually. Mark, great stuff, as always. I will see you in Las Vegas. I look forward to covering the event with you. And so rest up, you know, take your Wheaties, do your thing, drink up, your coffee. Okay, there you have it. Mark, Romandy, joining us. Great stuff, Mark. Appreciate the time. He of MMAfighting.com,

of course. All right, let's move along. Welcome in our next guest, a hot topic, no doubt about that last week as well. Very much looking forward to hearing his thoughts. Frankie Edgar joins us right now on the phone. Frankie, how are you? I'm good, Ariel. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Really appreciate you joining us, Frankie. Thank you. How would you describe the last seven days for you? Was this one of the more frustrating stretches of your career? Yeah, absolutely. You know, just a situation that came about last week or, you know, RDA got hurt and, you know, I missed that opportunity because I'm banged up myself. You know, I was upset originally just the way kind of things went down, at least the way the news was shared. But, you know, I have since calmed down.

Have you calmed down? You know, I mean, listen, I'm not going to sit there and dwell on every day. You know, it's kind of, it is what it is, and that I'm hurt. That's pretty much the bottom line. I couldn't take the fight. You know, it's unfortunate. It seems like I can't catch a break a little bit, but so it goes, and, you know, I just got to keep doing what I've got to do.

Can you tell us about the injury? What exactly is injury, and when did you suffer it? I think about four weeks ago now. Yeah, I tore my adductor tendon, my groin, and a couple muscles. Yeah, I've been having some issues with that area for a while. I had actually two epidurals for it. But, you know, that was just from kind of overuse and just the inflammation in the area. And this time something finally, you know, I actually tore it.

It popped. I heard it, you know, so, you know, I've been nursing that. What were you doing? What were you doing when you were rolling? Oh, wow. Just rolling jitzo. Yeah, I was elevator in someone on my butt, elevated in someone, and it snapped, you know. I heard that, you know, a groin injury of any kind, in particular, a torn groin, is.

is incredibly painful. What was this like? How does this feel? Yeah, the first week, I was having a hard time to sit on a toilet, you know? Wow. But it got better, and, you know, I like to stay doing something. I have to stay doing something because I go crazy. And, you know, I'm just doing what I can.

You know, I can't roll. I can't wrestle. I can't spar. You know, I can hit mits a little bit. And I've been lifting weights. You know, I'm just doing what I can do. It keeps in so much shape. Be honest, I'm kind of surprised on how long it's just keeping me out.

Most of my injuries in the past have been like overuse injuries where I, you know, bolts disc and, you know, nerve pain. This is actually something that actually happened to where it popped. So I thought I'd be well more ahead of where I am now. But, you know, again, I don't like to be stagnant too long. So I thought I'd be back training a little more than I am. But, you know, it's the way it goes. So when you injured your groin, did the thought ever crossed your mind like, shit, you know, Conner's fighting soon, RDA is fighting soon.

You know, you always kind of want to be ready, especially when the guy, that you're in the vicinity of is fighting. Did you think at all, like, this, you know, I'm in the off season here. I don't have a fight scheduled, but it's always good to be healthy. Did that thought cross your mind at all when you injured yourself? It didn't. You know, I mean, it was up at 55. It was, you know, I just thought RDA was going to, you know, he's been looking great lately.

Yeah. You know, obviously, we shared a same manager. And from what I understood, everything was going great. And, you know, I wasn't really banking on me, even getting a call, you know? That's kind of what pissed me off, too. It was like, I don't know how I'm sitting. here recovering from an injury and people are looking down at me because I didn't

take a fight on 10 days notice at a weight class I'm not even in or not even the title. You know, I just, that's kind of what got on my skin. And to be clear, if you were healthy, maybe not in the best shape of all time, they called you to fight at 155 on I don't know, what was it,

11 days notice. Would you have taken the fight? You know, I mean, I was even enticing that the idea of taking it now, but, you know, luckily I didn't, man. I'm in no shape to be fighting, you know, or training, to be honest. But if I was healthy and even half-fast training, for sure, I would have taken that fight. Okay, so you get the call when?

Monday, when were you offered the fight? I believe it was a Tuesday. Okay, Tuesday night? Who calls you? Does your manager Ali call you or Dana White himself? Ali called me. Ali called. He said it was within text that they said, would Frankie take the fight at 55?

Okay. And how, is that gut-wrenching? Yeah, yeah. I was upset, man. I was. I just like, you know, I've been waiting for this opportunity. Here it comes, and I just can't take it. You know, like I said, it's like been an uphill battle with this whole situation,

trying to get this opportunity. And really, you know, more importantly, I want to fight for the title. I do. But, I mean, to get the chance to fight Connor is second best, you know. And, you know, for a few reasons. Like what? I think, you know, well, I mean, everyone, I think I could beat him. Right.

I think I could beat him. Obviously, it comes with a lot of fans. watching maybe maybe some more money and and I think I went over him at 55 would definitely give me the title shot of 45 yeah did you even go for a run or anything like that or did you know it was it a no-brainer yeah it was a no-brainer I haven't done anything and you know of substance for you know for three to four weeks at that time so it was just tough I mean this is I just know I wouldn't be able do it so at that point when you tell your manager that you can't do it do you

ever talk to the UFC does anyone from the UFC reach out to or do you get the impression that they just moved on to the next guy? Yeah, I think they moved on to the next guy. I don't know the facts 100%, but from my understanding, they reached out to Nate, I believe, first, you know, and then he wanted some more money or whatnot. Again, I don't know if I'm 100% correct on these facts, but yeah, so they eventually got back to Nate. So you obviously, you know, you're obviously disappointed at that point and, you know, there's

some frustration, but it seemed like maybe things changed after you read a Dana White interview. I think with Yahoo Sports where he's kind of saying like, look, you finally got the opportunity and now you say no to it. Is that what bothered you? It did. It did bother me. You know, I felt slighted a bit. You know, I got a good relationship with Dana, and he knows I'm game.

I mean, don't forget, in July, they called upon me, and I said yes, it still wasn't given to me. So, you know, when how he conveyed the news, I was a little upset, but I've talked to him since then. And I get it, he was on the sports center or whatever for three minutes and they asked him some questions and he answered him. I guess it sounded like I just sounded like he was taking a little shot. I mean, that's all. Yeah. So did you actually reach out to him or afterwards?

Did you say like, yo man, what's going on? Or did he reach out to you to clear it up? How'd that go down? Yeah, he reached out to me. He reached out to me through text. You know, we had a conversation through text, but it's all good. You know, I mean, a lot of moving points in this game. So, you know, there's always going to be things that you don't go, that you don't like that go your way, you know?

The interview that you did with my colleague, Chuck Mindenhall, certainly caused quite the stir. You know, one of the things that you said was the C and UFC stands for Connor. Even Connor responded to that saying that, yeah, you're right. The C does stand for Connor. Do you feel like he gets preferential treatment? I mean, he does, but, you know, how can you say it's not just? I mean, he brings in the numbers, you know, and he performs.

So I'm not one to sit here and complain that he's getting better treatment than I am. I mean, he's kind of earned it, I guess you could say. You know, I feel I've earned it too in a different way, you know, through years of work and years of just doing the right thing for these guys. In that interview, I can almost, because I remember when you were on the show in January, you were fired up then because it seemed like you weren't getting it after you were told that you were getting it. And while reading those quotes, I was like, wow, I have never heard Frankie like this before. And, of course, I couldn't hear your voice. I couldn't hear the way it was, you know, coming across. But would you say that was probably the most pissed off that you've ever been?

in any interview or any point in your career because like if I closed my eyes or or didn't read the headline and and you just told me oh this is you know a guy talking about a fight you would never guess that it's Frankie Edgar it just doesn't sound like you yeah you know it definitely was the most pissed off at least in an interview and uh I mean look this is the way this sports going you got to talk you got to speak up yeah want and you got to get people interested and in and the cause you're fighting for and that's what I'm trying to do man I'm just I'm just following the lead of these guys that are going to perform me, I guess you say. You know, I tried doing it the old-fashioned way and just earning it and working hard, but, you know, there's more, there's more to

it nowadays. And, you know, I'm trying to do my best and getting my spot in whichever way I got to do it. By doing that, by getting it out there, did you feel some sense of relief? Did you feel like, okay, I accomplished what I did, or did that bring? Because I know, like, for that day, everyone was talking about you in that interview, so I can't imagine what it was like on your social media, people reaching out, like, did you feel like you accomplished your goal? Are you happy? You finally spoke out, or in hindsight, did it just bring upon, you know, more heartache? No, you know, I'm happy.

I mean, listen, it's a squeaky wheel gets the oil. Yeah. And again, people are talking about me, whether they're talking good or bad about me. Yeah. But I've definitely been steering clear from social media as much as I can. That is probably for the best. Yeah, there's a lot of Connor fans out there. I'll say that.

So this is the interesting thing. He's now fighting at 170, and every. Everyone kind of felt for a long time like, all right, he's going to fight this fight at 155, he's going to try to make history, and then at UFC 200, you know, you'll get the shot. But now he's fighting at 170 and you're hearing stuff about Robbie Lawler. Do you think it's possible that you'll never get a chance to fight him? I think it is possible that I won't, at least won't fight him next. You know, I don't know, man.

I think Nick can go in there and spoil this party, and then he's got to come back down to 45. I think that's the best case scenario, but, I mean, you know, and again, Nate's coming in on short notice himself. So it's no easy task for him to come in there and throw in Conner right now. What kind of shot do you give Nate? I give him a real shot. I mean, he's pressure and volume is tough to deal with anybody. And, you know, Conner's biggest thing is range and length,

and he doesn't have it in this fight. So South Pole against South Pole, I think, you know, a lot can happen here. And as long as Nate could take a shot, which, I mean, he's known to have a good chin. He's in this fight. So you met with the UFC recently, right? I saw a picture of you guys, I think, was Lorenzo and Dana there or just Lorenzo? This is, yeah, Lorenzo and Dana were there. This was, you know, a couple, probably a couple months ago now.

Was it a couple months ago? Okay, but it was after everything happened, right? It was after that it seemed like you weren't going to fight him next, after your fight against Mendez. What was said in that in that meeting? Like, what was promised to you there? Nothing, nothing really. I just kind of went in the same way. I left the same way I went in, not so much.

I think it's pretty much, at least at that point, you know, before we talk about Connor going up, at that point it was he's going to fight a 55, like you said, come down to 45, it's between me and Aldo against him. I mean, that's kind of where we left that meeting at. So did you ever say, you know, when I beat Mendez, I was told I was getting a title shot, why is it between me and Aldo? Yeah, of course, of course I said that. You know, I said, he told me I get whatever I want.

Right. I even joked, said, you know, that was on TV, I could hold you to that. Yeah, so what was the response? Yeah, I mean, you know, they're saying, well, hey, you know, we didn't expect, Aldo's, you know, was down the top for 10 years, I lost 10 years, and a lot of people are saying he deserved it. So, you know, I mean, I'm going to sit there. I feel like I'm pissing in the wind. You know what's only so much I can say? Right. At this point, what means more to you?

Fighting for the belt or fighting against Connor McGregor? Fighting for the belt. Really? Interesting. That belt's going to stay with you forever, you know? It would be a two-division champion. You know? If it's not for, I mean, be the first to do it before Connor does it, you know?

But, yeah, you know, ideally the best, the best, the best scenario would be fight Connor at 45 for the belt. That would be the best. Are you still hoping to fight in July? Would you be able to fight in July, given the injury? I think so. I should be able to, yeah. You don't need surgery, though, right? No.

I mean, it was talked about, but we kind of want to. out on let it heal. So we'll see. I'm going to probably go back to see the doctor when I get back from Vegas and this trip and see where we're at and take it from there. So this is interesting. You're going to be working this weekend. You're doing the Fox coverage, right? You're working as an analyst.

Yes, I'll be working at death for Fox this weekend. This is like old school Fox fight game with Mike Straca, Frankie Edgar. Yeah, man, I'm bringing it back, you know? Is it going to be hard for you to keep your emotions in check and be unbiased because you're still obviously a little fired up over all of this? For sure. You know, I mean, hey, that's what they want, though, right? They want realness. Yes. They keep telling me, come there with some energy. We'll see. I'm just going to let it fly.

You know, I'm going to try to be the best analyst I could be, but, you know, I mean, there's a storyline here too. Yes. Are you kind of, like, is it hard for you? Would you rather work a different fight so that you're not as emotionally invested, or do you think this is for the best? I think it's for the best Any time I can put my name With Conner's name And with the belt and all that stuff Yeah The better

You know I mean this is a numbers game And the more I get seen The more people talking about me Whether I'm an analyst Or an opponent or something You know

It's just good So give us a little preview How does Nate Diaz win this fight Put your analyst head on Nate Diaz I think he's got to win his fight The way he always does Just pressure

He's got to put pressure on Connor. And he's got to take the kicks away as much as possible. You know, Connor's definitely crafty. He's many different kicks. He's got to put the pressure close enough to negate the kicks

and just, you know, be like to be himself. Be like water, as they say. Be like water. Okay. Would you be okay with an Aldo rematch? Because I feel like that's something you've been wanting before this whole Congre thing happened.

Like, has that, Has that crossed your mind, and is that, you know, is that a nice consolation prize for you? Yeah, for sure. I mean, Aldo still probably, you know, I mean, Conner only fought us by the way a couple times, so, I know he did dismantle of Albo pretty quickly. But, you know, Albo's the best weight. Fetterweight there's been. So, to get another shot at him, you know, losing that close fight against him,

would definitely be a great consolation. If Connor fights at 170 in the summertime, would you like to see him relinquish that title? Do you feel like, all right, now you're fighting two-way classes above? And do you think that's even going to happen given the fact that you've called it the ultimate fighting Connor? Yeah, you know, I do think they have to let him go, let that go. I imagine. I mean, you can't just hold this weight class up hostas like that for that long. And, you know, I mean, the rumors are he probably can't make 45 again.

I mean, the guy caught a bolt load to have to be the biggest guy in there. Yeah. You know, and now if you can't make the weight, you know, it's not his problem. He's too big. Just let it go. and maybe we'll meet a 55 down the road, who knows? Will the belt still mean, you know, the same thing for you if you're fighting a belt that was just relinquished by a guy, like you can't beat the current champion? Does that change the way you view the belt?

It does a little bit, you know. If I go down and get that belt, I'll try to, I'll try to, this course, Connor, to come back down. But, you know, or, hey, maybe we fight him at 55 he has the belt there. Who knows? What do you think happens first? Frank Yeager fights for the 45 belt or the 35 belt? 45. 45 first.

Why'd you laugh, though? Ah, because I just, man, this is like a big, I don't know, it's a big guessing game. You know, there's so many ifs going on. And it's good that I have options. I do have options. But, you know, I just think I'm knocking on that 45-pound door for a long time. and, you know, I don't want to just run the 35 when I'm so close right now. Yeah.

But your coach, Mark Henry, told us recently, that's definitely in play here. That's something that you'd like to accomplish sooner rather than later, right? All three? I mean, yeah, I think I'm a unique position where it's even obtainable. I don't think a lot of guys can even do that just, but, you know, from cutting weight and whatnot and competition-wise. But, you know, I did it at 55. I'm so close to 45, so, you know, let's get the only.

let's get this one out of the way, and then we'll see what the future holds. But I can make 35. Okay, so to wrap this up, to put a bow on this, Frankie Edgar, currently, still annoyed, getting over it, needs to clear the air with the UFC. How do you feel about how this all went down last week currently? Yeah, I'm over it, man. I'm not one to dwell on anything. You know, it's a business.

You know, you can't take it home with you, I guess, and I'm not trying to do that. So I stay off the damn social media I want these people affecting my mood You know Just let Ali do it Yeah even better Half the people think he's still doing it anyway I know is that annoying

No I think it's funny People are like hey Ali You know I think it's just comical Well I learned my lesson I learned my lesson That is right I'll get the reins with that Twitter again Wow you put them in time out

That's it man No more Twitter privileges for that man Oh that is hilarious I would have loved to hear that conversation. Well, you handled it with class. You're clearly not as fired up, and I know it was very fresh, you know, what, five or so days ago, but, you know, I commend you for speaking your mind, and like you said, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and sometimes you've got to speak your mind, especially when you feel like you're being misrepresented.

So it takes guts to do that when you're talking about your employer, and you certainly did that. And then some. I'm looking forward to working with you, my friend. We'll be working together. Yeah, man, you're going to have to give me some, you know, some industry pointers. here before we get going. You are an understudy of the great Mike Straca. You don't need any tips for me.

That is true. It's going to be fun. And I want to see you bring the heat. Don't hold back when that red light comes on. Bring the damn heat. We're coming. We're coming. All right.

Thank you, Frankie. Appreciate the time. We'll see you out there. Thank you. There he is. Frankie Edgar joining us. A little less fired up than he was a few days ago when he spoke to my man, Chuck Minnall, but clearly still feeling, you know, look,

You get that opportunity. I personally think that beating Connor McGregor, fighting Connor McGregor, as Connor said last week, is bigger than any title at this point. That just goes to show just how powerful and how popular he is these days, but you respect the fact that he wants that belt as well. And I look forward to hearing his coverage this weekend from Las Vegas.

Okay, let's go and move along now to our next guest. He is joining us. He just found out not that long ago that he'll be fighting Etzen Barbosa in April, but his name was very much in the news last week as well. We're talking to Anthony Showtime Pettis right now. Anthony, how are you? I'm good, man.

How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for the time. So, like I said, you were in the news last week as well. Your reaction, when you found out that RDA was out, Connor was available, did you think right away, oh, this is something I want to go after? Because you were campaigning on Twitter.

Yeah, yeah, most definitely. I mean, I knew once they found out that RDA was out that would be his replacement. and I thought I was like the only guy I could make 155 at that time. So I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting my name right back in the mix and staying busy. So now I was in training camp. I was supposed to fight Nate Diaz in April, and then he didn't sign the contract. So that's why Barbosa stepped up and signed the contract. So I was in camp.

I was ready and the opportunity presented itself. So I have my name out there. Okay, a lot to impact there. Let's stick with the Conner thing for a second. Did you ever have a conversation with UFC or your manager? Maliki have a conversation with you. So, like, how close did it get for you? Yeah, yeah, I spoke to Dana.

I'm supposed to Joe Silva. I mean, it was all to him, honestly. They said, you know, RDA pulled out. They're not going to make him fight anybody there to let him choose who he wanted to fight. And I figured he wouldn't pick me, so, you know, I wasn't, I was a little excited about it. But, I mean, there was easier opponents and easier guys from the fight. Right. So you think he took the easier fight?

I mean, Diaz is a tough fight. I mean, going from 45 to 170, that's a huge. jump right there. So I wouldn't say, you know, top 10, lightweight, no one's easy, but I mean, there's a quicker route and easier ways to move. But I wouldn't say it's like an easy fight for him. It's just, you know, besides fighting me and on Cowboy, you know, Cowboy just coming off camp, you know, Diaz was just sitting right there for picking. Were you super bum that you didn't get the fight, or did you always feel like it was kind

of a long shot? A little bit of both. I mean, I definitely wanted to, you know, jump right back in there and fight again, but I figured it was a long shot. I mean, if it was his choice, I mean, I'm not sure he was going to pick me out of everybody. Now, I had heard that you were in talks, or at least the idea was thrown out, for you to sort of save that Super Bowl weekend card and keep it 196 against Diaz. Was that ever brought up to you? Yeah, I was brought up. I was a weekend right after my, right after my fight.

Yep. The injury happened, and they gave the call. They didn't actually call me and, you know, ask if I was ready to fight that quick. I wanted to do it, but my coaches, you know, Duke did give me different advice, so I'm always going to ride with my coaches. And, you know, he's like, oh, it's too quick. Let's just, you know, sit down, have a camp and get our mind right and go back after it. Why did you want to do it?

Why did you want to come back so soon? I mean, the Eddie Everett's fight, man, it wasn't even like, it was frustrating to have. You know, it's like some guy holds you in the cage for three rounds, and, you know, you lose a fight. And, you know, it definitely was my responsibility to get off the cage and make the fight happen. but his whole game plan was just to hold me in that cage. And coming off that fight like that, watching the fight, it's just frustrated and you see. So obviously, I'm assuming no major injuries coming out of that fight, right? Yeah, nothing. I was good. I was healthy. I was, you know, nothing at all really.

I came back out. Face was perfect the next day, and body felt good. So why did Duke say no? Why did he feel like it wasn't smart for you to take that fight? I have no idea. I mean, I had to Duke. I had to Israel Martinez. You know, Izzy was a little more on maybe let's try it could happen and Duke just said uh you know he's like let's not rush it he's like you know you're you got a lot to lose you know so let's not rush you right back into the act you go and take your time and have a good camp and just keep getting it better I think a little bit had to do with you know going from the elbow injury right to a training camp to fight at the alvarez I never gave myself time to just get better did he feel the same about you taking a

short notice fight against Connor no I mean that was a long time after we've been training you know been in camp at a date already okay so I think he was was a little more comfortable with me, you know, taking that fight. And so you also mentioned that you were supposed to fight Nate in April. Of course, now you're fighting Yitzin-Barbosa. What happened there? I don't know. I guess Nate just stopped answering his phone calls.

And I sent in the contract and, you know, I'm sitting here thinking I had the date off set. And all set it and all of a sudden Joe Sillow calls and says, you know, that's not the case. And they were trying to find me another opponent. And Edson was the only guy that was available. So I said, let's set it up. So you actually signed a physical contract with Nate's name on it? Yes. Wow.

Yeah, I signed the contract right when I got it And it just fell through somehow I don't know I guess I guess he said From when I heard he just stopped answering the phone Like I guess he didn't want to fight After he found out that I Didn't sit

You still there Yeah I'm here Can you hear me? Yeah yeah you broke up You said you guess Yeah so so So you know What I was told was he just stopped answering the phone

Wow Um Did ETS Feel like a good plan B Or are you upset that you have to fight Etton as opposed to Nate? No, I think Edson is a great fighter, man. I mean, he's one of them scary top ten dudes in the lightweight division, so, you know,

I'm excited to have another tough guy in front of me, and Edson's not going to try holding me down on the cage. It's got him to come to fight. So, yeah, let's go, because I haven't heard many interviews with you since the, if any, since the Eddie Alvarez fight. Did you feel like, I mean, you said what you just said about, you know, the actual fight in his game plan, but in hindsight, why couldn't you get rid of it? it. Why couldn't you avoid him? Why couldn't you get out of those traps? What do you feel

like you did wrong that put yourself in that position? Yeah, that was the flushered part about it. I think I just focused too much on the wrestling. I stopped doing, you know, I tried to train with Israel Martinez. I was out there from like Wednesday until Sunday pretty much. So most of my camp was out there wrestling. And, you know, I'm not a wrestler. I'm not going to catch up to these wrestler guys. I just got to go back to how I used to avoid the wrestling with knees and sprawling and my striking, not trying to become a wrestler. and avoid wrestling with wrestling. But I think, you know, Eddie got into these positions.

He felt, you know, a lot stronger than me. That was another issue I had addressed right away. I just didn't feel as strong as I used to feel in the octagon. So went back to training conditioning and, you know, just not consuming myself trying to become a wrestler. And I never was at wrestler. I was just always a M.A fighter, a complete fighter. And I kind of got away from that. I let people talk to me into trying to wrestle.

So did you do any strength and conditioning going into that fight? No, I didn't. The only thing I did for that fight was wrestle. I know some advice I was given me by some coaches, and I tried it with my first time trying it, and I won't do it again. Wow, that is interesting. So you felt considerably weaker in that fight? I didn't feel as physically strong as I usually do.

He was holding me in the cage, and, you know, the techniques were working. You know, I'd usually get wrestlers. So, you know, he knew the counters and where I was trying to go. And, you know, so the next step is to use the strength to get him off here. And, you know, he was just, you know, really, really, really, just focused on holding me on that cage. When you were preparing for the fight when you were thinking about it, did you think that there was a possibility it would go down like that?

Were you expecting that at all from him? I didn't think he was going to hold me in the cage. I thought he would shoot more open-mat, double-legs and singles and try to give you my butt that way. But I don't think he really even shot, really. He just kind of just walked me to the cage the whole time and just, you know, work from there. After the first round, I felt like he was already gassed out.

He was tired, and he stopped really, you know, exchanging with me. But then I wasn't exchanging with him as well. So there was just a lot of cool things that I need to tweak and get better. Did that remind you of the Clay Guita fight? It kind of felt like that was shades. Like, was that the last time you felt so frustrated in a fight? A little bit. I mean, I guess the Guita fight, at least I was attacking off my back,

and I felt like things were happening. And, you know, even though he wasn't just, this guy was just really just holding me on a cage. Like, he was just, that was his whole job was holding that cage. Yeah, and so it felt to me like watching the Guita fight all over again, but you actually felt like you got more offense in in the Gwita fight? I feel like I was more scrambling. I was shooting up arm bars.

I was shooting up positions, and we're on the open mat a little more. This guy, you know, that wasn't so much the case. It was him holding me in the cage, you know, by my waist. I was waiting for the rest to step in and, like, moving. But I guess that's the rules. And I got to figure out how to make these rules work. What's that like when you prepare for a fight, then you go back to the locker room afterwards

and you feel like the fight never actually happened? How do you deal with that? How do you cope with that mentally? No, I mean, I know the fight happened. It's just, it's just frustrating. We knew, I mean, we knew, we know most guys' game plans are going to be shut up. And I try to fight the wrestling with the wrestling,

and that's not, I don't think that's the recipe for me. You know, I'm not, I can't catch up to these guys that have been wrestling for 20 years of their lives or their whole lives. You know, my strength is my strength, and that's what I do out there and use not, not try to catch up on wrestling. And so now you're finding a guy like Etzen, that has to be somewhat reassuring that he's not. He is coached by, you know, some of the same guys.

Yeah. But I feel like you'd be pretty sure. shocked if he goes and does the same thing or do you feel like that everyone's going to try this now? That's not it since his game. Yeah, I feel like he's going to shoot a double. I mean, I feel like somehow this fight's going to, he's going to try take this fights to the met. I mean, especially

if he's listening to his coaches and these guys that he, you know, I mean, I think he'll already have even trains out there with him. Yeah. So I think, you know, he's definitely going to have a game plan that's not just straight striking. Who knows, though, I guess, my job is to get ready for anything. Will you still be training with Izzy Martinez?

Yeah, for sure. Not as much. This fight's more of me getting back to my roots and then, you know, just trusting my corner and Duke again and then just getting back to that, man. I think, you know, it was a rough, you know, from the RDA fight to an injury to a training camp for Alvarez and then you can go my way. A little rough spot for me right now, so I'm motivated. And, of course, a year ago this time, you're still the UFC lightweight champion.

Do you think about that all? Like, how much has happened in the last year? And are you getting the sense that people are starting to doubt you and your legacy and, you know what I mean? it's so much has happened so quickly definitely a lot change in a year I mean going from being the best in the world to now I don't even know where I'm at four or five or something like that um you know it definitely

a lot changed and I really stopped caring about what people think and and then like you see and all that stuff it really just it's me in there I gotta go out there and feel like myself again when I feel like myself I really tell it's unbeatable in the last two fights I haven't felt that that uh just that comfortableness and that octagon again so that's what I'm looking to get back

Do you stop listening? Like, do you stop going on social media and all that? Are you just blocking? Yeah, I've listened to that a long time ago, man. I mean, that's, I think that's part of the game. It's part of the phases that you go in there. You know, you go to the top, everybody loves you. And, you know, you've got a couple haters, but then you have, you drop one fight,

and the whole world is against you, and you got to, you know, it's not good for your day, you know, waking up and reading some negative comments. I don't need that. You know, I know what my goal is. I know what I've done in my career already, you know, about every organization I fought and I've got the belt. Now it's just getting back to that spot. How far, like, do you think if you have a spectacular win over Edson,

all is lost and you're right back in there, or do you think you're going to have to go on a bit of a run here? I don't know, man. I mean, the UFC's a weird place right now. I mean, you got guys, like, you know, an idea is getting this shot. Yeah. And then, you got, you know, RDA's hurt, so it's a weird place right now to be a lightweight.

And some guys are coming back, so I guess it just depends on who's active and who's fighting at a ton. Who do you think wins? Nate or Connor? Based on the press conference that I watched a little bit of it, man, Connor was way more confident. I was weird to see Nate like that. Nate, he's that guy in your face and mugging,

and, you know, this time he was like four feet away from Connor when the stardown happened. Wow. I mean, it's definitely a short-noticed fight. It depends what kind of shape. Nathan is in decent shape to go five rounds, then it's going to be a tough fight. I guess, I mean, it's not no easy fight for Connor,

but, I mean, somebody that's training for five rounds and tell me that wasn't training at all, that's the big difference. I mean, even Chad Mendes. You know, Chad looked amazing in round one and looked like a different person around two. Right. So, I mean, the Jolly Puzzle kind of shape made the easier. As someone who, you know, excels in the striking game, do you appreciate Connor striking, especially when he, with the kicks and everything,

do you, can you acknowledge the fact that he is an elite striker and, you know, right now one of the very best? I think his hands are his strength. I mean, his kicks are there just kind of disguised, but his left hand and his boxing his head. strength. I mean, the kicks, you know, he's throwing them, and they're not really doing too much. He's kind of still learning on how to spin and how to do all that stuff, but I think his hands is what makes up for it. The guys think about the kicks, and he lands that big punch and it lights

out. So it worked for him in the 145 division. Let's just see how, you know, that power goes up into 175, 155. These guys are used to getting hit by big guys and powerful shots, you know, all the time. Crazy. Okay, one last thing before I let you go. You're fighting UFC 197, April 23rd, and your brother is fighting on that card as well, right? Yes. I remember you telling me not too long ago you don't want that. You didn't like that when you guys did it last year. Why is it happening again?

You know what, man? I just got back to who cares, man. I mean, there's no luck. There's no superstition to this. I mean, there's a fight to fight. You know, he goes in there, he fights his fight. I go in there and fight my fight my fight. You know, the opportunity presented itself,

and in my mindset where I'm at right now, you know, I'm not looking at it like I'm an athlete and I need all my corner in my team. I'm a fighter. and I have to fight the same night he has to fight, and that's just so be it. Fair enough. And I feel he feels the same way. You know, he's with me now.

We're like doing training camps together. You know, it's a good time. And a big decision came from, you know, him not fighting for so long. I mean, he hasn't fought since October, and they were talking May or June until he get another fight. So we're like, man, just sign the contract. Let's make it happen. Anthony, I appreciate the time.

Thank you very much for coming on. I know you have to go train, so we'll let you go. Good luck in the fight in April. Thank you, man. All right. Anthony Showtime Pettis, of course, fighting Edson Barbosa in April, April 23rd, to be exact. UFC 197 this weekend. It's UFC 196, of course, main event.

Connor McGregor versus Nate Diaz, Holly Home versus Misha Tate, the co-main, a legitimate co-main. Rest of the main card looks like this. John Volante versus Alir Latifi, a rather quick turnaround for Alir Latifie. Corey Anderson versus Tom Waller. we haven't seen Tom Waller since his win this past summer over John Volante. And an interesting women's bantamweight fight. Good to see the women's bantam weights getting some shine.

Amanda Nunes versus Valentina Shevchenko, who had a successful UFC debut back in December, really like the featured prelim on the FS1 card, Brandon Thatch, against Ciar Baha'ar de Rosada, Eric Silva returning. Remember, we saw him in studio, not that long ago against Nordine Talibu. Vitor Miranda against Marcelo Gimaresh and Darren Elkins versus Chaskelly I should just run down the rest of the card here. This is interesting. Fight Pass prelims Diego Sanchez against Jim Miller. That's the fight pass prelim quote unquote main event.

So once again, Eric Winter, who you heard from on this program last week, the SVP and general manager of UFC FightPass getting a pretty big fight early on in the evening. I think it's brilliant. Good for him. Justin Salas against Jason Sago and Julian Arosa against Teruto Ushihara, I should say. So that is the UFC 196 card this weekend in Las Vegas. And, you know, I just want to say it was interesting. It was interesting in London.

I was surprised at A, the love that silver. got and look he's fought there before um he had a nice run in cage rage his last win against tony frickland came 10 years ago uh he he fought on some big cards there fought of course against lee murray so people remember him i get that he's a legend he doesn't fight there it was special uh i just felt like they didn't get behind their guy there was no chanting there's no singing and maybe it was because the night was a little slow the fights went back to back to back but i don't know i was expecting more out of the london crowd i had a funny thing happened to me i was sitting on press row this was a different one because i wasn't working for fox um so i wasn't in

the back i actually got to watch the fights in person and i'm sitting on press row and i shouldn't even be giving this this moron any uh any attention but it was just it was funny to me sitting in the back this guy comes up to me seemed a little bit drunk um and he's holding his his phone like this up to my face he's pretty close to me and he goes hey ariel let me ask you a question i was like Yeah, sure. Go ahead. You know, I like to interact with the fans. Love the fans. They're all very nice to me. When did you decide, he asks, to be a Zufa puppet and never asked Dana White any hard questions? And he's obviously recording me. He's trying to be a tough guy. I'm surprised it's not on YouTube yet. So at first I just pretend like I didn't hear what he said, but I was like,

no, no, I'll take the bait. So I say, all right, when was, when was, if it was you, what would you asked Dana. What's the hard, I love when people throw this out there, the hard questions. What's the hard question that I haven't asked Dana White that you've been upset about? Give me the hard question. What comes to mind? He's like, oh, there's so much that you can ask. Okay, give it to me. What is it? Give me one. Give me one that's been bothering you that you wish that I've asked Dana White in the past. He goes, ask him about the Reebok deal. Okay. You mean like when I was in July, when I was there in July, and we spoke about the Reebok deal or in December. And yeah, he doesn't do as many interviews as he once did, but I feel like I've asked him about the Reebok deal enough.

Like, what about it? What, what at this point can we say about it? What else is there to say? So then I was like, okay, whatever, buddy. I wanted to go over there and do something pretty dumb. But he obviously walks away, goes back to his friends, give him a high five, like he's the coolest guy in the room. I don't think I gave him what he wanted. And I'm surprised it hasn't surfaced anywhere. So that kind of was like, what, London fans, really? I was sitting next to someone who said, you know, please don't hate all the London fans, because that guy and I certainly don't. I think they're great. I love the European fans and the London fans were great.

They were so nice and kind, but I just felt like, I don't know, maybe they were nervous for Bisping, maybe they weren't, I don't know, there was something weird about it. I just didn't feel like they got behind their guy and the Brad Pickett fight showed you that if you get behind your guy, you can sway the decision. So I felt like they had it in them and they had the opportunity to do so. In the end, he didn't need them. But if I'm being honest,

I gave Glasgow the the crowd of the year award for last year, I thought London had more in them. But there was a lot at stake. Maybe they were nervous for their guy, who knows. Interesting time to say the least. Okay, let's move along.

Another man who will be working this weekend alongside Frankie Edgar is one of the very best in the game. My good pal Brian Stan who joins us right now via the magic Skype. There he is. Brian, how are you? I'm doing well, man.

How are you doing? I'm doing great. We have a lot of the game. lot to talk about as it pertains to this weekend. But first, I got to ask you about your colleague, fellow middleweight, guy who you fought not that long ago, Michael Bisping, he gets over the hump. Did you think he did enough to win that fight? I absolutely think he did enough to win that fight. And it's interesting because, you know, I kind of went into some detail there on Twitter. And, you know, what people have to realize, and some people are getting mad at me for doing so,

but there's a lot of new fans to this sport. And so I don't know if someone on Twitter has been watching mixed martial arts for years or if they've been watching it for months. And so I had to go and explain what is a 10-8 round and why round three, in my opinion, was nowhere near a 10-8 round for Anderson Silva. But I clearly thought that Michael Bisbing won round one, two, and four. And I think that while a lot of people are criticizing Anderson Silva for his taunting and his antics, they definitely did hurt him. Because while he's doing that, Michael's landing punches. scoring points of the judges. But in the past, those antics helped Anderson. Anderson was quicker when he was younger and his counter strikes were quicker. And when Michael didn't go all the way in,

into the pocket with him on those, Anderson tried to counter and there's a lot of punches in that fight that Anderson just missed. They came right to the edge here and just missed Michael Bisney. And Michael had very good head movement. He was very well prepared for that fight. And I thought he got a very deserving win. And I never thought I'd see the day where people tell me I'm being biased towards Michael Bisbeck. Never thought I'd see that. I think Anderson is awesome. I've always been a fan and the very few personal interactions I've ever had with Anderson Silva, I can tell you, he has been nothing but class to me and nothing but very, very kind. So I respect him very much, but he lost that fight. Okay, so for the uninformed, I'm happy you brought this up. We didn't

have time to do so with Mark at the top of the show. And I agree with you 1,000 percent. Why wasn't the third round a 10-8 round for Anderson-Silva, in your opinion? Because in mixed martial arts, a 10-8 round is a dominant round, where you almost completely not only neutralize your opponent, but you put, you do a lot of damage and you score a lot of points, but the entire round for five straight minutes is basically a beat-down. You can't just have one flying knee, severely hurt someone, almost knock them out, and think that that is a 10-8 round.

And what happens is it's very confusing because in boxing, that would have been a 10-8 round. If you get a knockdown, it ends up being a 10-8 round. And so that's what people are misinformed about. Is a 10-8 round is an extraordinarily dominant round. You don't even have to near finish them, but you do have to absolutely dominate them. Gray-Manor versus Frankie Edgar, there was a 10-8 round there. When I fought Phil Davis, the second round, was a 10-8 round in that fight.

So, I mean, there's good examples of them, and that was not it. Because up until that knee, you could argue Michael was winning that round, too. Yeah, 100%. People, I think, get confused because we use a lot of. boxing model, but the round is not scored like boxing. One knockdown doesn't equal a 10-8. What do you think about Herb Dean's decision to not stop the fight there and let it continue despite the knockdown? Well, it was obviously a good decision. You know, I think I think Michael was still coherent. He was able to still talk to Herb Dean. I think it was a good call.

You know, the whole mouthpiece thing, I have not watched the fight a second time. I did feel, you know, when Mike first lost the mouthpiece and he looked at the referee that was a mistake on Mike's part. Agreed. Anderson jumped on him exactly like he should jump on him, and Herb Dean cannot stop the fight while the other fighter is engaged and getting hit to put a mouthpiece in. So Herb did a good job not stopping it there. I did feel like there was a slight break in the action. The first Flurry Anderson landed, they separated. Mike had time to look back at Herb Dean again. Mike should not have done that. That's a mistake on Mike's part. But I thought that was a moment where Herb Dean could have gone in and grabbed a mouthpiece. is I will tell you when you do not have a mouthpiece and it is far easier to get knocked out

regardless of that when he hit him with that knee Mike was immediately arguing to Herb Dean he was not out he was not unconscious he was definitely hurt he could have been knocked out and Anderson's decision not to jump on him in round four

would cost him dearly last thing on this fight and then we transition to this weekend if you're the UFC brass do you finally give Michael Bisping the title shot or does he have to win at least one more No, I think he's earned a title shot. I mean, look, middle weight is a little thin right now. You're not going to get much better than a victory over Anderson Silva.

Depending on what happens with Jaka Ray obviously coming up next, look, you know, some of the things they look for in guys to fight in guys that can sell tickets, guys that can sell a fight. If Michael Bisbing has done anything over the years, I mean, he has taught other guys like Connor McGregor how to sell fights, how to make every fight personal and sell out a ring. is he does very well there. So I don't think the winner Luke Rockhold, Chris Wydenman, I mean, they could do a lot worse than defending that title against the Michael Bisby.

They could sell a lot less pay-per-views with another name. I don't think it sells as much. I don't think Joccuray versus Rockholder, Jokkeray versus Weidman, sells as much as them versus Bisman. And that is a perfect transition to this weekend because the UFC

has had to make a habit out of, you know, making lemonade out of lemons. They have the history fight. They have all that stuff. They got RDA versus Connor. It's a great fight. He's moving up.

He's trying to make history. It's no longer available. RDA breaks his foot. And now they have the pick of the litter. They have Anthony Pettis asking for the fight. They have Donald Seroni. Of course, Frank Yeager, unavailable. But you know there was a long list of people who wanted this fight.

They settled on Nate Diaz. Did they make the right call in your opinion? Yeah, they did. They did. And as much as I'd be intrigued to see Donald Theroni, who was in shape to sell the fight, there was more noise from the fans that wanted. to see Nate Diaz take the fight. And they spent more money to get Nate Diaz. I think Donald Seroni was willing to fight him for the last day. They had to spend more money to get who the fans

ultimately wanted to see. And Nate Diaz did himself a lot of favors by going on Fox and having an expletive film post-fights speech to call out Connor McGregor. And that's just fact. I mean, these Diaz brothers have a massive, massive following. And they deserve it. They've been to sport for a long time. They've won an awful lot of fights. And again, different than Michael Bisming does. They find a way, though, to make every fight personal, to sell every fight and make people want to see them fight. So I think they made the right decision.

You know, while I'd love to see other guys get a shot at this kid, I do think that Nate Diaz, Connor McGregor, sells the most. What Connor is doing is unprecedented. He's moving up 25 pounds. Is this a mistake? And I remember when Roy Jones moved up to heavyweight. He was never able to get back to his old self. Yes, he made history that night, but it felt like he put on too much on his body,

and it was just, it was tough to keep going up and down. Is this going to be a mistake for Connor? Should he not be jumping up so much? Not with Nate Diaz. So Nate Diaz try to run at 170 pounds. We all remember he was not a natural 170 pounder. Just because you wake up at the weight or you got to cut a little bit of weight to make it, doesn't mean that's where you belong.

Nate Diaz is most effective at 155 pounds, which is not a big jump for Connor. It's a more natural weight for Connor than 145 is. So this is not a mistake. If Connor tries to jump up and fight somebody like Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, that's a mistake. That's a big guy at 170 who is a real 170 pounder. That's legitimately jumping up two weight classes. You know, Nate Diaz is fighting him at 170 just because he doesn't have the time to cut the weight to get to 155 pounds and be effective. What do you think of the mind games being played up until this point?

A, it was agreed upon that they'd fight at 165. 11th hour, Connor says, let him get comfortable. Let's fight at 170. And then we have the press conference, and you saw what happened there. I know you were watching live. Do you think that Connor has the early edge in that regard going into this week? He does. He does.

You know, any time an opponent even hints at the slightest acceptance of defeat. It brings them only a step away from its reality. And Nate Diaz made two comments in there. where I thought there was a little bit of acceptance, a little bit of him leaving himself a back door there. And look, he's got a point coming in on short notice against a fighter, this kid's caliber. And with Nate Diaz's style, Nate Diaz's style,

is really dependent on elite level cardio. But him saying, look, it's killer be killed from me in this fight. It's killer be killed. That tells you right there he's already kind of accepted in his mind. Hey, look, if I got to get knocked out and put on a show, I'm willing to accept that. You don't hear that from Nate Diaz when he's had full-time repair for a fight, and he's confident and he's bringing all of his weapons in the op-gagon.

This is Nate Diaz, who in my mind is either playing possum, or at that moment in time, thought to himself, I'm not at my best, and I've got to make do with what I've got to make this money right now in this big fight. I thought Connor was giving us some insight into what he's going to do on Saturday when he kept talking about Nate's body and how he's soft in the body, and it seemed like that's what he's going to attack. He's going to attack the body, the long frame of Nate Diaz. Do you agree? Is that his best path to victory? It's the easiest. It's the easiest thing in the onset of the fight because it's always the hardest thing to overcome, in my opinion, and striking is reach.

Speed is number two, but overcoming reach is really, really difficult. And this is the first time where Connor McGregor is going to fight a guy who's longer than him. So it's easier to hit guys that are longer than you to the legs into the body. Because most people's natural inclination, you punch at them is to lean back, they leave the body and the legs exposed. And we have seen Nate Diaz's legs get chopped up repeatedly. And I think over time, though, Connor will work his way inside. And Connor isn't used to always be in the quicker guy. Connor is exceptional in a lot of areas.

He's got great power. He's got excellent balance, footwork, flexibility. Those are a lot of gifts you don't see a lot of fighters have all of those. One thing that I think he's very good at, but he's not exceptional at, is quickness. but in this fight he will be the quicker athlete. You know, Nate Diaz tends to, when he really extends on his punches, he's very long and there's a lot of volume. But because he stands so heavy on that lead leg,

it takes him a long time to retract those punches. And I think what you're going to see is Connor's going to look to counter a little bit more, and he's going to try to follow Nate Diaz's hand, specifically his jab. When he puts that jab out there, he's going to try and follow that jab back with his left hand, arch it a little bit with an overhand, and bring it back and beat that hand back to the chain. I think he's going to look to do that because you could see when he fought Michael Johnson, early in the fight, Nate Diaz didn't establish his range yet. He got a little too close to Mike.

He would throw that one, two in land, but he would take two as well. Michael Johnson was quicker than him, was able to get there. Round two, Nate was able to back up a little bit. It caused him to miss a little bit, but it also caused him to land. And then when he sit back, Michael Johnson couldn't hit him. The punches came right to about here over and over again. You know, Connor's going to be in better shape. It's going to be hard for Nate to put that volume on him, and Connor's going to get inside,

and I think he's going to look for those keys to beat those hands back to Nate Diaz's face. Fascinating. Great breakdown there. RDA had tremendous success attacking that lead leg of Nate Diaz when they fought around a year ago. Do you think Connor is going to try to do the same? I mean, he's a smart guy. He's got to hike. You have to. When something gives it to you, you're silly not to take it. I think it would be really smart. Nate, turning the tables around, thinking to himself, if I'm Connor, what would I do to me? Yeah. Right.

Stick a knee right in Connor's shin from the onset. Try to hurt because I'll tell you what. When people see kicks get checked in a fight, when you take a really good check to your shin, you saw with Anderson Silva, his leg broke. It hurts immediately. It's very difficult even for adrenaline to carry through you. It limits the amount of times you use that weapon. Joseo Aldo had one kick checked against Korean zombie, did not kick again until he threw

a high kick when he realized the shoulder is out of the socket. So I think he can maybe limit some of his weapons knowing, hey, he's going to kick my leg. I'm going to use it to either catch the kick and take him down or I want to check it and try and hurt his shin. You are the master of breaking down tape. So let's say I appoint you head coach of Nate Diaz. You are going into this fight as his head coach. You're in his corner. What are the holes that you see in Connor's game?

And he hasn't showed us a lot. Obviously, he's undefeated. What are you trying to exploit in this fight? He hasn't. He's hitable. He doesn't necessarily mind getting hit that much. And he's not easy to hit, but he doesn't mind it because his chin is so good. But the real key for Nate is he's got to use his reach.

He's got to maximize it. Even if he misses early, he's got to keep his range where Connor can't collapse in on him and hit him. And tag him at the end of his punches over and over again, over and over again, force McGregor to get a little frustrated and explode through the space sloppy. Get desperate to hit him. get desperate to reach him. When he does that, grab them, clench him, overhook him, look to try and wrap your arm around his head, do anything you can to create a scramble because Nate has very sneaky

chokes in transition. That's when Nate Diaz will catch you. Nate Diaz catches you in a submission when you start messing around with him in the transitional phase. If Connor gets on top of him, gets established, Connor's good on the ground, too. He'll avoid it. But if he can get his arms drawn in neck, if he can do something if he gets Connor frustrated, then I think he can maybe create a submission out of nothing.

But the big problem is if Nate works too hard, if he goes chasing him too much and he starts to get frustrated, that's going to eat away at his cardio. And especially when we feel like Connor McGregor's going to attack that body early to really test it. You know, he's got a long time to work. He's got five rounds. He wants to finish him in one.

So you can guarantee Connor may come out aggressive. Stay relaxed. Stay at the end of your punches. Make him have to explode through the space in a sloppy fan. fashion, ends up getting hit, ends up getting sloppy and gets out of his game. Then you start doing some of the DS taunting. Then you throw the finger in his face, start pointing and laughing at him and reverse the tables on Connor.

See if you can frustrate him. When Connor can't reach it, he can't hit you, but he's getting tagged over and over again with that jab. Now you get the crowd going on him for once. Instead of everybody cheering for him, how does Connor deal with that? How does he deal with walking back to his corner after round one a little bit embarrassed with Nate Diaz standing there like this? You know, with the tongue in the upper lip, you know, doing that number.

I mean, that's what I want to see. How does it? If I'm coaching Nate, that's what we got to create. We have to make that scenario happen round one. Wow. Just trying to envision these scenes is giving me goosebumps. And less we forget that the co-main event features Holly Home, your old friend fighting against Misha Tate. What kind of issues, if any, does Misha bring to the table here?

Because a lot of people are writing her off based off of what Holly did, of course, to Ronda Rousey. What kind of a shot do you give Misha? What's her path to victory? Misha has got the power punch. And here's the biggest key. She has to punch with Holly. And when I say punch with, it's not just counterstrike, because Holly is really good, pop, pop, and gone.

I mean, it's really the basis of Mike Winkle-John Stiley. He teaches every fighter to hit and be gone, hit and be gone, and Holly's his best student. But if she punches, as soon as she sees Holly trying to hit her, accept the fact you're going to get hit and land your own shots at the same time. I think Misha has the power advantage in this fight. We have seen Misha throw much heavier. Her boxing has gotten steadily better and better under the Tudelage of Robert Fawas

and their boxing coach Extreme Couture. She's starting to drop some girls at that right hand. Holly has a lot of time in the ring. She's taken a lot of shots. She's been knocked out before. Misha's best chance to win this fight isn't shooting takedown or after takedown, getting frustrated and not being able to get Holly down. It's waiting for the right time, punching with her, knocking her down with a point.

punch, then getting on top of her or knocking her out. And in order to do that, she's not quick enough. She's not skilled enough to hit Holly consistently with natural combinations. She's got a pressure and wait. As soon as Holly's going to go, you go as well. Punch with her every single time, try to catch with that big right hand and drop. I tend to believe that Misha's greatest attribute is just her toughness. Like she takes big punches, she keeps on going.

She doesn't quit. Do you agree? Absolutely. I mean, she is as tough a fighter as you're going to. see you know i there's there's there's a lot we always talk about the toughness of some of the guys you know chris leavens you know i mean he's uh forever gonna go you know he's a hall of famer in terms toughness right you get you get people you know on the female side we've seen it from page manzan girl can take a beating and just keeps going misha tate she doesn't get she doesn't

get she doesn't even get warmed up until you beat her up yeah i mean it's it's it's really fun to watch and i have a tremendous amount of respect for misha when she goes in there and she gets have done that way. The uglier she can make a fight, the better Misha Tate gets. Robert Follis has definitely brought more strategy, more tactics to her game, and when you combine that with her toughness, you have a much more capable and effective fight. We'll be talking to Holly in a bit, but I'm curious to get your take on this because you know her so well. Leading up to the Ronda fight, she talked about how emotional it was. Sometimes she would break down. There was a lot at stake there, a lot on her shoulders. And yes, she had fought in big fights in boxing, but never before like this, and in

particular in MMA. Do you feel like now that she's, you know, the Bantamway Queen, she's the one who slayed the dragon, she's getting a lot more attention, that she continues to feel that pressure, or now that she's the champ, she can settle in and do her things, she showed us her cards. You know, it's a different scenario now. She's the favorite. We're expecting her to win. You know what I mean? How do you think she's going to handle that? You know, from what I know about her, I think she's going to handle it well, but you're absolutely right. It's easier when you're the hungry person that has the targets on the other person's back. She's lived in the limelike.

Now she's got to deal with all the media. Misha Tate comes with her bag over her shoulder and her blue collar and her heart hat to the MGM to take this fight. And she's watching that queen get all the attention and everything she wants. It does make it more difficult. But Holly is a smart enough girl to know that. And Mike Winkle-John is a smart enough coach to know that. I mean, he'll almost, he kind of game plans against it.

I remember him, you know, when I started to rise a little bit, you know, he'll say things to make sure that your head doesn't get big. You know, hey, Mr. Stan, we run in tomorrow, are you hitting this, or you're doing this? And, you know, Holly's just been there before. And the other thing that Holly has, it makes it very fortunate. In Albuquerque, she has an incredible support network. Her brothers, her father, her closest friends that have been with her forever.

They were there when she got knocked out. They're there with her now that she's the queen of the band and weight division. And so I got to think that that support network has done a really good job of making sure she's focused and understands now. you know, what is at stake for Holly? Now what's at stake is, hey, how many fights can I win? How can I really set my family up for success for years? Because she's making the kind of money now to where Holly,

home doesn't have to do a whole lot, you know, a few years from now, for the rest of her life. Unbelievable. What great insight. You can hear more of it, of course, this weekend on FS1. You'll be working alongside Frankie Edgar and Dominic Cruz, right? Yep. He's the third man.

So that's a tremendous. trio there. Jay Glazer hosting. I'll be in the back for you. I know you love calling the fights. I know you love being the color analyst. But now that you're retired, and I saw, by the way, I saw you training. I saw that picture of you. Are we making a comeback with the Lima brothers? What's going on over there? That's just for fun? Every, look, I'll admit it every single day. Every single day when I put my headphones on that workout, I envision fighting again. I do it every single day. And it's tough, but the sports changed. I'm 35. My body is not the same as it was. Two years. ago, let alone four or five years ago. And it's tough. It's a really difficult transition

for all fighters to walk away and accept it and now turn that focus towards something else. But for me, I have to kind of revert and pretend every once in a while when I work out. You know, it keeps my sanity, keeps me hungry. But there's no comeback for me. It would not, it would not be in the best interest of my career or certainly my family. It would be entirely selfish if I were to come back now would be totally just for Brian Stan and I can't do that. But that being said, big weekend like this, you know, it will be buzzing in Las Vegas. Do you get some of that release? I know you're not fighting and it's not the same.

You don't get that same sort of, you know, adrenaline rush, but does it like you get, like, it's Monday now you're thinking, I'm going to Vegas. You get excited for this? Absolutely. I absolutely do. I get excited because the coolest part, you know, it's not as much when I'm on the desk, but the cool thing about being on the desk is we get to interview the guys. after you know you're literally in a position where you know previous jobs i've had you know there

there were there were days where i saw nightmares come true in in in this job every single time i call fighter get to be on the desk i get i get to be a witness and get to see someone achieve a dream and i get to you know you get to hear fans who off that performance now feel like they can go achieve their own dreams no matter how big or small and and i just don't take those opportunities for granted. I mean, it's so, it's so cool when you get to see someone who just did something unique. You just did something special and it meant the world and they put all the work into it. And you get to actually be there, see it firsthand, you get to see them afterwards and get all that inspiration. I can take that, take it home to my family, take it home to my company

and all the different things I want to do. And, I mean, that's really special when you get to be a part of that. On the flip side, you know, I also have to see all the fighters that had a rough night. And I've been there before and I try to do my best when I talk to them to let them know that in this sport you can't get too high, you can't get too low. And I mean, for me, I was almost, you know, I was on the edge getting cut in a year later, top 10 of the world. That's how fast things can swing in mixed martial arts. When you work at it, you see where you're weak, you go address it, you work really hard, you find the right people to help you get where you want to be. And you can absolutely climb the ranks and see those positive nights too.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, Holly Home-Aid, are you? she debut a year ago yesterday and now here she is one of the biggest names in the sport remember when she made her debut everybody said she's terrible yeah they did this big article on how her technique was terrible right all the other things and and now look at her she's a millionaire yeah she's on top of the world and i and i will tell you um of all the athletes in this sport i've ever been around i've been around some really fine fine people i i don't believe i've ever met someone with the character of holly home and i mean and i i had not Nothing against Ronda Rousey or anybody else in you see, but it's different.

You know, Holly is a different individual. Holly's the type of person when you're around her. You want to be better. She deserves and has earned all the success she's got. Great insight, as always, Brian, looking forward to working with you. Again, catch Brian, the rest of the team, FS1 all weekend long, live from Las Vegas. It's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you, Brian.

My pleasure. Thank you. All right, there he is. Brian Stan stopping by one of the very best minds in the game. great to get his insight, as always, breaking everything down for this weekend. Okay, how about this? What a treat this is. We've been doing this show for over seven years now, and, you know, we've been lucky to get most of, if not all, the big names.

One name that has alluded us over the years is one of the greatest of all time, and I'm so excited that he is joining us right now. I'm talking about Joseo Aldo, who is joining us from Brazil. Jose, are you there? I believe that is him. I believe that is him. He's being joined by a translator, right? We got a translator there?

Yeah, I'm here. Okay, fantastic. Well, Jose, thank you very much for the time. I appreciate it. So, okay, let's start first things first. We haven't heard much from you over the last couple of months. How would you describe the last two and a half months for you since the loss to Connor McGregor? Are you still getting over it?

Do you feel like you've gotten over it? How are you physically and mentally? You don't have heard of you after the Devote for a McGregor. How much is the 20th century mentally, mentally, physically

I think mentally. I think it's part in our sports. When we're just going, if we're just bad, unfortunately is a good for us. But I'm not too

tranquill. We'll be able to train at a little. I'll be so very so very tranquil. And then, and then, and then,

and then, He said, mentally I'm okay. This is part of the sport. We win, we lose. I've been working out physically for a few weeks, and I'm getting ready to go again. How many times have you watched the fight against Connor McGregor? You said how many times he did it? How many times did it?

No, how many times has he watched it? on his computer, on his phone. Okay. Okay, Gary. How many of you have you watched your DeRourg? Ah, yes.

I don't need to watch many because practically we've never just watched me even, I don't need to

see that's just I don't need that kind of because we've learned. The last was three seconds. So,

so we don't don't need to have to tell you to see him to I don't really watch it a lot because we saw the mistake, we saw what we had to do, and we saw we have to do next. In your opinion, what was the mistake that night?

In your opinion, what was the mistake that night? I think, for me, there was a mistake. The other person, had an opportunity to connect the bomb while we could have a couple of, when you see the other is that no

no there's that's really so I prefer prefer to see

by the other other other he's a better he got a

a bad and the and the bad was that he never and the

and the my and it could also I'm not

I'm a good I'm a but he's a

good a good a place a right I'm I didn't do any mistakes. I had a good punch.

He had a good punch. He had a better one. So he connected. The merit is his. It had been said afterwards that you didn't seem like yourself out there. Like maybe he got in your head under your skin. Is that accurate at all? Did he take you out of your game plan because of all the things that had been said leading up to that fight?

You You think that in the way He, in some manner He, in

your head to make your and make sure to be and affect your psychological in the

other I don't I don't get in this manner I was I was well,

I was very prepared I never never never never never never

never I'm never my so I'm so I'm think I'm

my good and I'm like As I said, I think they were to get to get a bomb lot and to end up with the other. If you're in the case of the contrary,

also, I think it was going to be able to put in the other side. I think, as far as far as he went to the other, and it was the other side of the other. But, you know, to go. But I'm going to say, or something. We should have to be able to. The two years are in front of the other, the war, okay, the voice very,

for it. He was a nice, a nice punch, a great punch. I wasn't in a bad day. He was really lucky. So typically when we've seen a champion hold the belt for a long time and then lose, we've heard calls for immediate rematches and seeing the fight again out of respect to the champion, wanting to see it again. When you lost, that didn't happen as much from all corners.

people weren't calling for it and it didn't seem like that was the direction that the UFC was going in. Were you surprised by that? Did that bother you that people weren't calling for the rematch after you had been the king for so long? The people who ended up with you. Not been talking about

a chance of you to give a revanch automatic, that it had been accommodated for something for you've been able to have been for a time and if not had to have been have you talked about in an event immediate? I don't

talk to me know I'm inrigue for what I'm think I'm in fact the same, I know that

I've done those chis and I say I've always the advance mediation so

those people that are so many to them about this I'm talking with what we think we're

in what we're in the conclusion that we're having to have been the revite the

right but we talk to me is a lot of people that in my mind, I deserve the rematch. The UFC things I deserve a rematch. So in my mind, I'm ready for it.

Okay, so it came out last week that the UFC called you to fight Connor McGregor on less than two weeks' notice to fight this weekend. Is it true that that happened, and is it true that you turned it down? And if so, why? is the truth. If this is the truth if you're

not I think I'm not sure I think I'm sure I think

I'm I think the Dede and the person on and it's on

the world for the month for the month for gal I'm I'm

trying I'm in the time I'm so so the

person so so a Okay, clearly, just one second, guys, we're having some technical issues. Let's just reestablish the connection. We're going to call you right back, because I want to hear what you have to say to this, okay? We're going to call you right back.

Okay, we're going to call Jose right back. A crucial part of the interview I was trying to bill to that, and I want to hear exactly what he has to say. Sometimes you rejiggered the connection, and we'll get him right back on the horn. Fascinating, as always, to hear his insight, despite the, the language barrier, and I do appreciate him coming on. Hasn't done a ton of interviews. He actually did a scrum recently as he opened a new burger shop in Rio, so that's pretty

cool. I think our man, Guillermo Cruz, tried to get a burger or two, but he was shut out. Understandably so. I'm not sure if they sell assaille there. As you know, I am a big fan of the assailles, but Dana White did say last week that his first two calls were to Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. Not sure if in that order. And curious to hear his take on that.

You work so hard for the rematch, people tend to forget that it's not, you know, you got to be ready. There's no doubt about that. But not the most ideal circumstances to, you know, try to avenge that loss when you only have, you know, 11 or so days notice. Because if for some reason you happen to falter, well, it's hard to get. that third crack when you're own too. So I think fans tend to forget that sometimes. Sometimes we we tend to look at these fighters like they're rock'em-sockom robots and they could just, you know,

be interchangeable. Like when I used to play with my old school, LGN, was the LJN? I think they were LJN or JLN, pro wrestling toys. And I would make cards. I believe we have Jose back. Jose Jose, are you there? You guys there? Yeah, okay, great. Yeah, that's a lot better. So you were in the midst of translating that question, so we can continue there. Do you need me to ask the question again? Yeah, okay. So, again, so on, on, on the second, about, about the two weeks,

you received a service or if you really received, so what you're not saying? I didn't receive a ligation. I think that's it. The last month, the other, we had to have taken to talk about it. I was going to be able to say and when we talked to us to say we're just the response to be military

after the point we're going to stay and they were in a chat and and even I was still a prospect for this activity

contact we had to be able to get riddened and we've been liberated and the G.G. He came and then he said,

and said that had a job of dawn but because I I've never said and I think did say this so on the

job he's he's not not in the family he's not never to have a

obligation or to whatever this does do it does it does it is a

better to be so so so that I'm so not

so that I'm not that's those who judge you who

they're who they're so in my part I'm too

for to try to me. So, I'm going to carry or whatever that's create

a bad sport and so I'm that's because I think for them

and I for them. Actually, Della made a call to my coach that I wasn't able

to train to Siberia level. I chose the UFC, I chose what they

put in front of me and I chose the match as they do. Were you disappointed, though? Were you disappointed?

Like, did you want to take the fight? If you had a little more time, or did you not even consider it, given the fact that it was less than two weeks' notice? You've got disaffronted a little. You'd have to spend more time to train us. It's logical. I think we always always

take time to trainers, for people, or whatever professional. We need to have to pay them. This is not a rhea of gala, that I'm going to get my rle of golf, bring. So,

sport. You're very good , but I'm the same for the

good to get a good job, so if I get a time to train to

any of any time, to go to go to place, that I think I can go

a hotel. First, we've accepted in order to put on a great show and do

a great job I needed more time to train to be ready for it. What do you want more

at this point next for you. A rematch against Connor or just a shot at the belt? If he happens to relinquish the title and stays up, will fighting for the belt be enough or do you really want the rematch

against Connor next? What do you want to be for you? You want, the super round of the vote more important for you or a revenge against. What do you peasant? What is your futureal? I think for me,

my grand family, I don't know if I'm going to take a week. I'm going to be a second the European and if you're going to say it. I don't care much about McGregor. The most important thing is my life now is to get the belt back to be the champion again.

When... Because I know, because I know if I get the belt, my next shot is with the corner because I won the belt first. Right. And after the Maguire. Are you worried, though, that he's going to stay up 170, 155, and vacate the title,

and then the title is not going to mean as much? If you're concerned, he can't be in the division of 50, 500 kilos, and I don't have... I think what I'm going to be content. It's with me. I don't know where he's going. The problem is his. I think the people are going to be in my family.

And for me, for me, for me, family. I'm worried that I care about my family and my friends. I don't care about McGregor at all. I don't care about me much. So in a perfect world for you, when would you like to return? It's a world perfect in this vision for you. It's a point that you'd like to go back. I guess you're there.

I think it's a pretty good. I think you're going to go to I'm going to get to because it's going to be a great event. You're going to getch from Europe. I know that's a good for Europe. I know U.S. 200 is going to be a great event, so I really would like to be part of this.

Would you be interested in fighting Frankie Edgar, even though you beat him if they say, okay, it's going to be you and Frankie, maybe number one contender, fight for the belt, but not for the title. It's just that. Or is it belt or nothing for you? You can't really try to fight with Frank Edgner to see who would be the recipient to the central, even, just as long-prepared of his own-faced

of his. I think it's probably a very much to be political. I've never been a good one way. And I've never been able to him, and I think he's a direct. It's what he passed over in my head. would not make any sense if it wasn't for a belt. So you need to be for a belt. So your next fight, you want to be for the belt. Have you expressed this to the UFC? Have you told the UFC this?

And do you feel like they're on board? Are you confident that your next fight will be for the featherweight title? You've said, I've said to be for the featherweight title. And you think that the WACSI is, you know, is with you, to you are you supporting this that you're not to be a approximately

for the end of the future I think I think we're seeing we're we've given our

story so I hope so he knows also I think I'm so I'm

sorry in the time I think I'm the same I think in the

point in the place so I'm so I'm thank you so I'm thank you with me. I think everybody wants to see. I think it has to happen, make it happen.

How would you describe the state of your relationship with the UFC now? In the past, you know, you've had some things to say. It seems like you guys weren't always on the same page. Right now, how would you describe the state of your relationship with the UFC? How do you would say you would say? I think it's normal. as you a job a

company and the I don't have a problem me, he's not a lot of their

parents, I think I just have a question and I don't care of I'm trying

to pay and I didn't attend them are good so they're good

so I'm so that will be in that that's my for me for the

time for the people because I off the fight. We have a good relationship. Everything is being messing them. They've been doing it. So, they're good. Okay, a couple more things, and then we'll let you go, and thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much. Do you miss being champion? Like, is it still strange for you to not have the belt?

Is this something that you think about a lot? You think of strange? You don't feel a champion? now, you think much on this? Yeah, so strange

for me time will be not the champion the world in the country

is the final. I think strange, but, I think there's pretty

to get to get to get used to get to be my capacity to go back

to go and get, he'd get to then, so he's going to get to

my hand to me because I've been a champion for 10 years, normally champions to them, but I think in a short future, I'll be able to get a best. Who do you think's going to win?

Nate Diaz or Kahnna McGregor? I think that's going to be Mr. McGregor. A little bit more than I'm saying. You know, I don't know, if you should have to meet him to switch it. I don't know what you said.

He doesn't know what you're I don't know if you're going to look at you. Yeah. They're going to go. Okay. I really don't care. I really don't care about who's going to win this. Actually, I don't know if I'm going to watch it.

So whatever happens. Okay. And final thing. How's the new hamburger restaurant doing for you? And why did you decide to open this? Uh, I decided to open this. who's going to the restaurant of hamburger

who you opened, and how's it? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And it's, it's very much very much. I'm not really,

for me, for the table of course of course of food and everything. It's a good. And the idea has to be a few

sop because of the a lot of a lot of a lot, but to try to my music, he knows

that, he knows that Every time when we used, we're doing this, we're always going to do, we always, and we always always always, we always always. So we used to pay a lot of the contractual. So we just said, we've given this idea, but we've got to come back in a concert, we've got to be very happy. I feel very happy.

It's just because I think I'm going to look at this. And, yeah, I think we've got a business in the market there. So, you know, I have been a lot of chance for example, and he, he, he, will figure so about this, you know, which is generally, the United, so much,

also, this and you. First of all, thank you for asking about it. This is a new opportunity for me after I retired in the future. I know I'm not going to fight forever, but this is a, have been late selling a lot

of burgers and there's Vegas okay and one more thing sorry

one one last thing I know a lot was said between you and Connor

leading up to the fight can you say that you respect him now as a

fighter do you have respect for him or is is that still not the

case um it's very for you know for you did

in a you feel something something different for him

I have a respect for him or I've the same thing. I think I'd this education, I'm afraid. So, I respect to everyone.

For me, it's a lot to do. He's also everybody's talking to say, and he's

not the fact and a bit of a seat. I'm the world or the woman. I'm

for me a point important important in person for me for a minute. I was raped

to be people live and you have to be a youth person, but I feel like that while doing it all. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Thank you so much, Jose. I really appreciate it. Obrigo, thank you for the time, and I hope to see you soon. And also thank you to Andre Pettanaris and your translator today for helping us out. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you, guys. There he is, Joseoaldo, the former UFC featherweight champion. All right, let us move along to our next guest. He was in attendance. in Las Vegas at UFC 194 when Connor McGregor shocked the world and became the UFC featherweight champion

when he knocked out Joseo in just 13 seconds. He has been working with Connor in California leading up to this fight. UFC 196. We're talking to Ido Portal right now. What a pleasure. This is. Ido, how are you, my friend? Shalom. Mr. Helwani. Ken? Manishma. How are you? Manishma. I am good. Kaube Sederdha. What a pleasure it is to have you. I know you're very busy, so I appreciate the time greatly. Okay, so let's talk about this. For this particular camp, when did you reunite with Connor and start working for March 5th?

A week ago. We all arrived together here. Okay, so just a week, you weren't even in Dublin with him. No, no, I was in Australia. He was in Dublin. Everyone was all over the place. So still living out of a bag you are? Exactly.

Okay, so when you regrouped with him, when you came to California with him, what did you see from Connor? How is he moving? Because now it's different. He's no longer 1.45, has more weight, probably a lot more, you know, energized. What did you see out of him when you first started working with him? The first thing, just happy, eating out, you know, jolly, jolly, man. So can you tell the difference? Like, the fact that he's not dehydrating himself, cutting weight, does that affect the way he moves? Oh, huge difference in just the pressure is all. you know now it's it's real everything is open all the all the possibilities are there he's energized yeah we can play with a lot more things closer and closer to the fight yeah it's a huge difference have you brought in some new techniques are you guys doing different stuff than you were doing

back in december always always changing yeah you know how the spig gang grows and i'm in the same mindset don't really prepare for specific opponents. So we just use every minute to develop ourselves and continue to develop new skills and new patterns. And yeah. Were you around him as this whole madness was going on last week with the change in opponent? And if so, what were you sensing from him?

How was he dealing with it all? I was. Yeah, it was, it was. was not a big deal. There were a few moments of disappointment with the belt not being on the line anymore. But then very quick kind of, you know, recalibration, continue on with the plans and just finding out who will be the man. And once that has been determined, yeah, everything on schedule as usual. Have you ever been around someone like him who truly doesn't care, who he fights, what weight? I mean, he doesn't seem to. He doesn't seem to. He doesn't seem to

to have a fear in the world and his confidence is out of this world. Have you ever worked with someone like this before? Well, I have to say it's on another level with Conner for sure, but all of the SBG gang have this kind of mindset, Gooney and Artium as well, which I've been around. So they're ready to fight. They embody the martial artist kind of always. is living on your sword kind of thing. Ready to fight, ready to deal with anyone, any size.

And what about the work ethic? Are you guys doing stuff at 4 a.m., 3 a.m.? Because I hear that he likes to work at odd hours. Out of hours. What does that like for you? This time I synchronized myself with them. Last time I was on a different clock, so it was rougher. Yeah, no, it's all good.

As long as we were moving, I'm good. So the last time we spoke to you, the only time we spoke to you on this show was right after the victory and you became this sort of sensation in the sport. Everyone's like, who's this guy? And now we learned all about you and it was just almost like you were coming down from that high. How has life changed for you now that you've become a lot more known in the MMA world? I know you're a world renowned in your world, but now that so many more people have learned about you, has life changed at all for you? Yeah, I truly believe it's not so much about the MMA world. It's more about Connor McGregor and the star that he is beyond the really MMA.

So that has definitely made some changes in the last few months since UFC 194. Yeah, just a lot more recognition, a lot more, you know, street photos and fans walking up. Yeah, it's a little bit transition point, a loss of privacy as well, I'm not so sure about. Do you feel less pressure though? Because we talked about this afterwards. I felt like a lot of the fans were freaking out all week long in Vegas prior to 194

thinking like what is going on here with the movement stuff? Who is this guy? You were a new face to the team. But now he won. He's comfortable with you. It feels like less people are focused on you in the sense that they want to blame you if he loses. Do you feel that?

It might be the case, but I don't work for them. them and the pressure for me is solely my students my the people I teach the people I work with and we've developed such a good relationship me in Connor and he's so pleased with with the stuff that we're doing and he sees the benefits every day and that that just that that diffuses all the pressure now that you're working with him and and I remember asking you this question after like okay what's the plan for the future You didn't really know. Like, you didn't know, or maybe you did correct me from wrong, like, if this was one and done,

if you'd be a part of the team. When did you guys establish that you would be coming back and working with him from here on out? It's all really in flow state. We're all super busy. We all kind of barely make everything happen when meeting up and doing this and doing that. And we're all in the state of mind of like no planning, no, you know, no big agreement. and big plans for the future.

We just enjoy what we're doing right now and we flow minute to minute. Wow. Yeah. Have you had a lot of other fighters or coaches, managers, reach out to you after linking up with Connor? I have, I have, yeah.

Fighters and also other athletes. Yeah. I'm so busy. I haven't, I'm not really in the place of a personal trainer for many years. So, yeah, I don't really have a lot of time to work with people. the same way that I work with Connor

but yeah when time is right then the person is right will do it so why do you say yes to Connor and not to these other people what makes him different first thing he was talking about movement

and bringing it into the into the audience awareness into the public awareness before he was already kind of pushing that message and then his own movements and the way that he can bring into into the octagon the various movement possibilities because of that coolness right he you know maybe the something i ran into lately is

a Wyatt erp he had this saying take your time in a hurry that's that's corner it takes his time in a hurry he can be he can be driving at the high 100 miles an hour, but for him it's 10 miles an hour. Right. So this ability can actually, he can bring into light all those possibilities in movement, various patterns, techniques. That was very interesting for me. And then, of course, just the public exposure, which is, you know, for me, it's huge

because I want to push this message. I want people to move. I want them to realize there is something beyond fitness, beyond traditional strength and conditioning. I appreciate your honesty there. So any big names that you can share that have reached out to you or that you might be working with now? Nothing solid yet.

It will be exposed when the time is right. Okay, fair enough. Are you the kind of coach, trainer, mentor that will look at his opponent now? Are you looking at Nate Diaz? and if so, what do you think of his movement? Not really. It's not my game.

And really, Connor himself doesn't really look much. Right. You know, you're aware as a South Pole Orthodox, you know, the basic things, or certain tendencies, but really not dwelling on it. You'll be surprised there in the house. Like, there is no talk about that. There is no planning. There is just, we're just having fun, we're just moving around, we're sharpening the tools,

all tools, regardless of opponent. And that's what allows Connor really to fight on different opponents, different weight classes, short notices again and again and again. Yeah. It's obvious that you're a deep individual. Do you ever just talk to him? Like, do you guys ever go hours with just speaking about different philosophies, life, things like that? And if so, are you impressed with what he says, the way his mind works?

Yeah, very perceptive, very intelligent. I think he plays around with the different hats that he has, which sometimes fools people. But you can see the sharpness, the quick-wit, his ability to look beyond. And, yeah, I enjoy it very much. Yeah, we have a lot of conversations. We grew closer this time. and had more time and less of that kind of the cut, just the cut pressure is off. So it's a lot more fun.

When do you go to Las Vegas? We go probably Tuesday, probably tomorrow. Okay. And were you at that press conference last week in Torrance, California? Were you there? I was, yeah. What did you make of that scene? That was fun.

It was fun. Yeah, it was loaded, it was fun, it was heated. I think it's great that finally, you know, there is a little bit of an exchange and Connor can play his game because with Jose, of course, language barrier and did not allow that. Do you have a moment where you're like, where the hell am I? How did I get into this? I mean, it must have been very intense there. Like you're around the world moving, flowing, all this stuff.

And then you're in that scene. That couldn't be further away from the world that you usually live in, right? That's, yeah. I think it's further away from most people's world. Yeah, that is true. That is a fair point. It was intense. It was intense.

Yeah, it's a feeling of almost like a street scenario, you know. It's a mixed between some, some, some. sports competition and a street scenario blended together. It was loaded. We were kind of standing on our toes and the whole thing is just like, do. It's amazing. So it feels to me like based on the videos that he puts out and, you know, the influence that you have on him, that in the next week, like, John Kavanaugh isn't even there yet. I understand he's flying out right now. So it's really a lot of personal time with you now. What's the plan for the next few days leading up to the way, and especially now that he doesn't have to cut so much weight. What are the things

that you're doing to get him ready? Yeah, the last kind of intense day was yesterday, and now we are just keeping everything sharp, and more than anything, something that is, you know, very often ignored, is keeping the mindset, keeping the motivation, the fun, everything flowing throughout the day. So small, small sessions that barely, barely fatigue and break out a sweat and a lot of coordination drills and just staying light on the feet and then letting the body also recover. So he can step in there totally fresh, which he is. So that would be great again to see. Will you be at the open workout with him? Will you be doing some stuff with him as well like last time? I will.

Oh, yes. Do you have any surprises for us? Yeah, we'll play with some stuff. Yeah, the open workout is always tricky to do, you know. You want to show, but actually a lot of the stuff is not to show. Right, right, right. Do you even plan what you're going to do, or do you guys just let it flow? I have some basic structure of what I'm going to do, but a lot of the stuff that I'm developing is, I'm just kind of.

of discovering and developing and bringing from various areas of development, movement development, some tools, and I don't really want to share everything that I do with Connor. So in the open workout, I put some stuff, we put on the media some stuff, we spice it up, we give people some bones to chew on, but then also a lot of the stuff holding back and keeping it for the guys. What about back home in Israel? Are you getting more attention? Do you feel like you're getting respect over there?

Yeah, the media has been running after me in the last few months, more and more. So doing some interviews there. I'm not sure how much I like it. You know, all of a sudden they wake up. But I respect it. I'll do it. And, you know, I'll put the message. out there as well. Yeah, you can use it to your advantage. Okay, what's the prediction? I want to hear

Ido Portals prediction. How is Connor winning on Saturday? No predictions, man, no predictions. Why not? It's not, it's not my, because that's not my specialty, you know, I'm out of my water. Okay. So, yeah, I need, I'll predict in my field, I feel more confident, but this game is, I just do my work and I step back and I let, I let Connor do his. Fair enough. All right. Will you be in his corner, by the way? I'm not sure yet.

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what's up when the guys arrive. Okay, going to be interesting. I know you don't love doing the interviews, but I appreciate you coming on. I know you're very busy as well, so it's fun to catch up and, you know, check in on your mindset leading up to the fight as opposed to after the fight this time. So thank you very much. I appreciate it, and I hope to see you out there in Las Vegas.

Thank you, Mr. Helwani. Todara Bah. There he is. Ido Portal, joining us from California. week for both him and of course Connor McGregor the whole team over there in Las Vegas this weekend UFC 196 holy moly it's actually going down Nate Diaz versus Connor McGregor wow at 170 pounds can you believe it holy moly okay like I said earlier this weekend it was UFC Fight Night 84 or

UFC Fight Night London we've been talking about it with both with both Mark Romandie we talked about it with Brian Stan talked about the main event, talked about that third round. Who better than Herb Dean, the third man in the cage, to talk about that whole scenario. And he is joining us right now. Herb Dean, are you there? Can you hear me? Yes.

I'm here. How are you, Herb? I'm doing well. How about yourself? I'm doing great. Really appreciate you coming on. I know there's a lot going on in your life. We're going to get to all of it.

But I would be remiss if I don't start with Saturday night and in particular that third round. A very hectic situation. So I kind of want to go through it step by step. Abisping loses his mouthpiece and you pick it up. And now he's signaling to you to stop the action. Why did you not stop the action? Okay. Well, because that's the way the mechanic works is that you replace the mouthpiece during the lull in the action.

And he signaled once and Anderson was actually in the process of attacking him. and for a lot of reasons that are pretty evident, you can't stop the mouth to replace a mouthpiece during a lull, I mean, during the heated exchange, and that qualified as a heated exchange. If we were doing that, we'd have guys getting their bail run, spitting out the mouthpiece to get a little bit of extra time, or sometimes you're feeling a little tired,

just spit your mouthpiece out, and, or, yeah, so obviously we can't do that in the middle of an exchange. And does that make for an awkward situation, for you because you're trying to tell the guy like focus focus for like stop talking to me and of course you see what happens to him he gets need and crumples to the ground how are you trying to get him to not focus on the mouthpiece not focus on you and actually as you say defend yourself at all times well that's i mean that that that has been you know that and that instructions given in the dressing room and that instructions also was given to him again at a championship match uh right

before the match started you know i told him uh you know protect yourself at all times what I told both the fighters, and they know that that is their responsibility. I don't know. At the same time, you know, an MMA match is very stressful, and, you know, people, a lot of weird things happen. People do a lot of strange things, and it's a stressful situation, and you do things that you look back on and think, hmm, why did I do that? Or maybe, you know what I mean? So I don't know why he did that, but it's definitely in the rules.

It's actually a written mechanic that was added to these rules probably, I don't know, maybe six years ago. Okay. We were doing it, but it's also actually in writing in Unified Rules, that the referee is to wait for a lull and the action to replace the mouthpiece. Okay, and then, of course, Anderson connects with the knee, and then there's pandemonium. Impossible to hear anything from where I was sitting in. I'd imagine most people, many thought the fight was over. Anderson thought the fight was over. He's celebrating.

Why didn't you stop the fight? Well, he hit him with a knee and dropped him, and then he did not. then he walked off and started to celebrate. I did not, he had been dropped, but, you know, in MMA, we don't stop a match just because someone gets dropped. You know, I saw that when he fell, he was not unconscious. He was facing Anderson. You know, Anderson didn't give him a threat to protect himself from.

So, you know, I don't know. I don't want to start playing what if, you know, what if he'd attack or what if not. But the bottom line, he didn't attack. The round ended. And, you know, but because Anderson was celebrating, there was some confusion as to what was going on. But I never had any confusion. I knew that I hadn't stopped the match and that the match was going to continue. Were you worried at all that like, you know, here he is celebrating, like, he's almost trying to convince you or the judges or someone that, you know, okay, look,

I'm celebrating, let's stop the fight. It was very, it was very bizarre because he was jumping and then we hear the audio and you're like, I didn't stop the fight. I didn't stop the fight. And then his guys are in the cage. It was kind of, it was kind of pandemonium, right? Well, yeah. So, I mean, I wasn't really that worried about that because it was pandemonium, and of course I can't run around and start yelling at everyone to get out of the cage. There's just too many people. But what I did do is I let people know that the fight wasn't over. And eventually I know that once I started expressing that it wasn't over to the right people,

the inspectors, the fighters, that order was going to be restored and we continued to match. Did Anderson or his coaches say anything to you? Did they try to campaign to end the fight? I don't really remember any of that. It's possible, but I don't really remember any of that. Whether if that was going to be the case or not, I mean, I was going to ignore that anyway. And, you know, so. Did you have to check in with Michael and ask him, like, are you okay? Do you want to continue? Is it okay? Or did you just?

Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to do that because he had received a big shot. And I want to make sure that he was, you know, rated. I just wanted to be certain. He had processed what was going on, but there's a lot going on. He had taken a big shot, and so he might have been a little daze while all these things were going on. So, of course, I want to do a timeout and just really quickly assess that he's ready to fight. And I often do that on my own because, you know, sometimes the corners are given such as, you know, an extreme halftime speech to get a guy back in the game, that I want to go over there and have some time to speak with him just for a second without a corner answering me, you know, that he's ready to fight.

I want to talk to the fighter. So that's why I took that time out. this didn't necessarily happen, but I was talking to a colleague of mine about this beforehand. If someone lands a knee like that and then he's out, you know, it lands at like one second left and then he's out. You're okay with calling the fight at that point, right? I mean, just because... Yeah, if he's unconscious, yes, I'm okay with calling the fight. As long as it was landed...

Now, what happens if it lands right after? Like, if it happens, he jumps, but, you know, the horn sounds, so it's clearly after, and then he knocks him out. What do you do then? Well, if he jumps after, he... then it was not a fair blow. Uh-huh. And so then there's a lot of things that we do then because there's a lot of different situations that can happen.

So, you know, then we can start playing what if he doesn't, and if he doesn't want to get back together, it depends on how long he's out for lots of things, you know. Obviously you were the ref that night, not the judge, but you know more about this sport than most people walking on the face of the earth. Why wasn't that, in your opinion, at a 10-8 round? Can you speak to that? You know, I really don't want to at this time

because I haven't watched it again. and I'm not watching it as a judge. I believe to give a 10-8 round is, you know, you really have to be focused on what you're looking at and know, yes, this is a 10-8 round. So I don't really want to talk about that. I mean, I'm definitely going to go look at it as a judge. Sure, sure.

But I haven't had a chance to do that yet. That is 100% fair, you know, worth a shot asking. As a referee, do you have any issues with some of Anderson's antics playing around, things like that? Do you have any problem with that? No, I don't like his No, I don't like that I don't have a problem with that

That's his style, you know And I think that that's one of the cool things about the sport Is that, you know, one thing is that you're expressing Who you are and what you want to do And you want to have some fun And I think some people enjoy his antics Other people don't, but you know You're not there to fight the way everyone wants you to fight

You know, they're to fight for yourself If it becomes something where it's too far Where I feel like it's That it's not, that it's kind of disturbing the contest Then you know, I'll say something but it was nowhere near where I was going to interfere with that. Did you have a chance to talk to Michael afterwards? I don't know if you saw my interview with him.

He had some harsh words. He said that the stitches were because of you. Did you have a chance to clear the air after what happened? No, I haven't spoke with him. I didn't know he had harsh words for me or whatever. What stitches were because of him? Well, actually, I have because of me. I have the clip.

If you'd like to hear it, I'll play it for you right now and you can respond. How about that? Well, I guess, sure. Okay, here it is. Here's Michael Bisping talking after the. fight. I was talking to Herb Dean, said, Herb, my mouthpiece, you know, the guy, thank you very much. The guy, I don't want to lose my teeth. Contrary to popular belief, the British all don't have bad teeth, and mine are okay. So, you know, I don't know, Herb Dean really needs to,

I blame Herb Dean for all of this. Ariel Hawan. There it is. That's what he had to say. What do you think? Well, I don't know, maybe he's not aware of the rule. A lot of the fighters haven't written. You know, most of them read the files, but They don't read all the rules on the mechanics, and maybe he wasn't aware of that. So you actually... That the rule is to replace the mouthpiece during a low in the action. Yep. And you...

I don't know if he's aware of that. You know what I mean? I don't know. You have a referee seminar coming up, correct? I do. When is that? I do. That's going to be in Pasadena at the Fight Academy.

It's going to be June, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. And we'll be talking about stuff like this, and we'll definitely show this match. Oh, that's interesting. So you guys will be breaking it down, and you'll be... explaining why you you did what you did? Yeah, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of, as a, as a, as a learning tool, I think there's a lot of stuff going on there in that, in that match. Now, so is this for aspiring referees, or is this for current referees?

Who should sign up for this? Who, people who want to receive, because to, to referee and in most places now, you need to have gone to a course that is ABC approved or ABC recognized, and this course is. And so people who are aspiring or people who have been referring and wish to get their certification, those are the people who should come to it. It's a real cool thing. We go over a lot of stuff. We spend three days on it. It culminates in a shadow event where we do some practical exercises, but then those who demonstrate competency and all the different parts of the course, those people actually will go to an event and officiate.

Oh, wow. Some of them will be for their first time, yeah. So where do people sign up? Or how do they sign up? They go to Herbdeen.com. Herbdeen. That's it. Look around on the page, and there's a place for you to put to ask questions or, you know,

you can leave an email at Inpload HerbD, and I get all that, and I respond to them. The course is actually pretty far. I didn't advertise it, but I just kind of cleaned out my inbox, and it filled up pretty fast. I just answered the emails that were in there. But I have a few more spaces. Would you encourage fighters? to attend these seminars as well so they can learn, like you said,

you know, maybe Michael doesn't know this rule, or is it strictly for referees? I think it's for people who want to be referees, because it's three days, you know, and there's a lot of stuff that's pretty specific. You know, if they would, that might be a good thing for us to do besides the rule meeting to go over

all these different aspects of the rules, and so people can know how, understand the judging system and whatnot, And that might be a seminar that maybe some of the promotions might want to put on for the fighters. Yeah. And I'd be happy to do it. I think that's because the sport continues to evolve and there's so many new things happening every time. I think it would be beneficial to everyone involved if they did something like that.

I think so, too. You know, a lot of energy is put into making this sport. A lot of energies are put into the matches, a lot of money. A lot of people work hard for it. There's a lot that's put into cleaning up the sport, you know, as far as for the efforts they're doing with Usada. and I think that for the development of the officials, it's kind of left up to us on our own. And, you know, we do a lot of stuff to do that,

and there's the commissions. But, you know, it's still at this point, I think that as a sport grows, I think that's going to be more centralized so we can get a little bit more put back in on to the officials. So we've talked about this over the years, and I'm curious to get your take right now. What's your take on the state of MMA refereeing at this point?

Are you happy with the way it has progressed, or do you think that there's still a lot more work to be done. Well, yeah, there's more work to be done, but there has been a lot of progression. There has. Okay. So I think that a lot of the athletic, in the beginning, you know, it was us just struggling just to get officials in there who were competent and who had experience in the sport.

You know, that would be the first thing we'd want. And that, believe it or not, it's been a struggle to get officials in there who understood the sport. And that's changed. A lot of the commissions now are making sure that they hire guys who have experience in MMA, experience training, or definitely understands position and submission. Those are really important. Do you think one of the problems is that the referees and judges don't get paid enough

so there's not enough incentive for you guys to actually do this and develop new talent? Well, I think, I don't think that part of it is, I mean, I definitely think that, compared to our contemporaries and other professional sports, we are the least paid. Yeah. And I think that and I don't think that our job is

by any means less difficult or less important. I think in some states it weighs it's even more. There's a lot more discretion. Sure. By these other sports, there's things, you know, basically it's about a line, right? Did the ball make it over this line or over that line? Or did this, you know what I mean? Yeah. But we don't have lines.

We're making these decisions other way. So I think it's a little more difficult. But I don't think that that's the reason why guys aren't developing themselves. I think if you are doing the sport, if you're officiating the sport, you're doing it because you love it and you're kind of continuing to develop yourself in the sport. You know, I'm doing this interview at the gym where I train, you know, and because it gets better signal than at my house. But, you know, that's something I do. I do this because I love the sport. And so I'm always training. I like to learn about what's going on. I'm always looking at matches. I'm always talking to other officials. So that's not it. I just think that some

input could come back from other parts. You know, I think that so often some of the promoters have ways, have things that they're unhappy with about the way the officiating is going. And I think that we need to develop something where we can have some sort of communication, even though we need to be separate, there needs to be some sort of communication because a lot of the rules and the way we enforce the rules is to ensure that the promoter are able to put on an exciting matches. That's why there's time limits. That's why there's stand-up and things like that. Right. And another hot topic, as you know, weight cutting. There's this ban as far as you saw that and the UFC are concerned of using IVs, California following suit.

And you actually have come out, and I don't think a lot of people know this, with a great new product that can help the fighters greatly. Can you shed some light on this? Okay, yeah, well, it's called Fight Formula. It's been something that Savon is my partner, and he recognized a need for it, and he was talking to his doctor because he had a really bad experience after rehydrating with an IV. And the doctor told him that it was actually not the best way to rehydrate for something like that as far as for performing. The IVs are good, because you instantly feel better, it's quick. And the other issue with it is that because when guys dehydrate themselves so much,

that a lot of things, not just water and electrolytes, their enzymes are depleted. And that's why it makes it difficult to get the water into their system. A lot of times guys can't even hold the water down, you know, or to hold whatever it is that they're taking in down because their digestive hasn't been activated. And so that was, he worked with worse, two. really smart doctors. Both of them are Harvard graduates. One of them is the director of applied sciences at the Keck School of Medicine over at USC. And he worked for two years to come up with this product. And there's a number of different nutrients in it, and they've been designed to work

synergistically together to get an athlete ready to perform at his best the next day. So not only is the water address, getting the water into the muscles, but the glycogen's address, your enzymes are in address so you can take in nutrients and be prepared to perform the next day. And there's some other things in there. There's a proprietary blend of vitamins and other micronutrients. Now, is this available in store? Like, how can fighters get this? Oh, yeah, you can go to F2Fightformia.com.

A lot of the fighters, there's been a few fighters in the UFC using it. Okay. Yeah, Cisco Rivera used it this weekend. And I talked to him on the plane on the way back, and he was telling me that what he liked about it is that he has a heart. He was really nervous. This is the first time using it. He was really nervous about being able to keep things down. And he was able to keep things down.

And that's something that the physicians who designed it work, they put a lot of thought to that as far as for people to be able to digest things, let alone keep it down, but actually be able to digest. And that so was good. It was really good for me to hear that feedback for me. And to be clear, the fighters take this orally, because I've heard in the past that they don't want to take things early because then they get bloated and things like that. Why is this different? Yeah, so we addressed that. Okay. That's why guys don't want to take things early because, yeah, because they get bloated because their enzymes aren't ready to digest.

They've depleted all that. And so that's one of the things that Fight Formula addresses. Okay, so F2Fordula.com. F2 FightFourn.com. F2 Fightforma. And Savant is Savant Young, who we know from, you know, he's been in the sports. for a long time and you have other five. So you can't go to a store.

You have to go through the website to get this, right? Yeah, the website to get it. The UFC is going to start making it available to guys in the green room. Oh, wow. That's great. Yeah, I just got that down. Well, because, you know, it's new, and so we had to do, they really liked it. Jeff Novinsky, he likes it.

I showed it to him. And he told me that we need to get our third-party certification. So we were working on that for the past few months, and we now have that so that guys, and that makes me feel really good. I didn't really think about it until I actually was going to hand it to someone. I handed to someone in there looking at me like, Herb, what's in this? I do not want to pop. I don't want to take something new.

So now I don't have to have that weird feeling when I handed to somebody that they're wondering what's in it. We have, through a company called Informed Choice, which certifies that there's no ban substances in it. Wow. And so since we got that, now the USC, that they're going to. make it available to the efforts. Well done. One more thing before I let you go, because it was a hot topic, and I'd love to get your take. I always want to hear your side of things. It was very much talked about the Chris Wydenman, no stoppage in that third round. Why did you let the fight go on, Herb?

Because there's a lot of things that are happening. I believe that he, that every situation is unique. Basically, let me frame that situation. Weidman lost. He was in a bad position. and he was going to weather a storm. There was a storm coming. And it was going to be about, it got heated for about eight seconds is where he's going to be going through that.

And so now in the middle of a round, I probably would have stopped that because I don't know when it's going to end, but I know there's going to be an end to it. And so what I'm really looking for is making sure that he hasn't shown any neurological signs, like he's getting days or that he's, the wheels there and the ability, there. So I'm going to have to look at his damage. People will want me to stop it because he's getting injury. And I don't think that there was an injury that I saw that he was receiving, right? He was receiving, it was what the doctors call soft tissue damage. Okay. And that's something that's

expected in combat sports. I think any time you step into the cage, you know you're going to get soft tissue damage. Okay. He got a little bit more in a short period of time, but I never saw him days and I never saw the will to fight close out. There's a doctor standing by who was observing it from very closely. I brought him in after a hard round, as you should. I brought him in to take a look at him. He says he's perfectly fine and ready to continue. Okay, so you actually do pay attention to the fact that there's 10 seconds or so left.

I thought the referees ignore that. No, well, they ignore it for some things. Like if someone has a broken leg, yeah, I don't care how many seconds are. Or if somebody has been days in their unconscious, I ignore it. Okay. Or if someone loses their will to fight, turns away, and their will is broken, and they say, look, I'm done. I don't ignore it.

But if someone's taking soft tissue damage, those are the hardest things to stop. Like, okay, wins enough enough. And yes, if it was in the middle of the round, I would stop it. But something like that, at the end of the round, with a little bit of time left, yeah, okay, he's going to weather a storm. I'll let him weather the storm. But, yeah, while watching him, if certain things happen, I would have stopped it, no matter how much time was left.

Fascinating stuff. What it is to get your insight, her. We could talk for hours, but I'll let you go. Thank you so much. I appreciate you plugging the... I hope that made sense to you. Yeah, it did. And like I said, we could talk forever, but I'll leave you alone for now,

and I know you just got back from England. So thank you very much. Good luck with the new hydration product, and, of course, the seminar coming up. And good luck this weekend, I believe your main eventing... Excuse me, refereeing the main event on Saturday night. Yes, I am. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the good wishes, and I'll talk to you soon. Okay, there he is. Herb Dean, one of the very best in the business. Appreciate his time. He'll be the third man in the Octagon on Saturday as Connor McGregor fights Nathan Diaz. Now, the co-main event is a highly anticipated one as well. Misha Tate going up against Holly Home for the UFC women's batto-way title, and Holly home is joining us right now on the phone.

What a treat this is. Holly, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you so much. It must be very hectic for you right now, so I really appreciate the time.

When did you head out to Vegas? That's tomorrow, and I, you guys almost missed me. What happened? Because they told me 12.25. Yes. Which is 1.25 for me. Right. And I literally waited for you guys.

I'm going to give you a hard time. Okay. And then I went and got my blood work done, and when I left, I literally got in my car right when you guys called the workout. Okay. But I will give you a hard time that I waited for you guys earlier. I do appreciate it. Although it's, it's, you're two hours behind, right?

Wherever you're at, it was supposed to be 1230 here. But you know what? I'm driving. It worked out. I just had to kind of call you out. Okay. There might be some miscommunication there, so I apologize for that. Please don't hate me.

I just mess with you. We're fine. Okay. I can't live with Hollyholm hating me. I mean, it would not make me feel right. So anyway, let's... How about this? How about this olive branch?

This is a perfect segue. I kind of feel, Holly, if I'm being honest, like you've been going into this fight the last few months, and I don't think you get a single question about Misha Tate. It's all been about your previous opponent, Rond Rousey. So how about this favor? I'm going to throw your way. I'm not going to ask you a single thing about double R.

How about that? I appreciate that because, you know, actually, when I was doing media on last Monday, they came in and were asking me all those questions about that and I said can we minimize this this and that because I do have a different fire that I'm facing in two weeks and the ladies that were done go oh yeah who is that anyway and I said exactly wow my point has been made I do not need to say anything else

wow that is unbelievable so I appreciate that let's talk about Misha yes let's talk about me yeah okay so the last time we had you on you had yet to to, maybe you knew, but you kept your cards close to your vest. You know, you didn't tell us that it was Misha. Now you know, obviously, it's Misha that's happening in a few days' time. What's your biggest concern when you know that you're fighting Misha Taita? What does she, what's the biggest threat that she poses to you inside the Octagon?

Well, I think Misha, it's no secret. She's got a different background. It's wrestling, you know. Totally kind of different style than anybody I've ever fought. she, I don't anybody I've ever fought, has had more time in the cage, the octagon, whatever, she's at the most time in there, and she's coming off two years being undefeated, she's coming off of being able to really dominate with some of the top-ranked fighters, and she's been in fight for she's been injured or behind and around

and been able to come out and still be victorious, and so she's very mentally strong. So you put all these things into the basket, and she's a very, very, very tough opponent. So I'm just, we've been training to be ready for any situation. She's really good in the scramble. She's really good, you know, even just in every situation she's going to try and have an answer for you. So it's very unpredictable, and I feel like to be a very tough fight.

So we were just talking with your old friend, the sandwich, I believe you used to call him, Brian Stan. That's right. You like sandwiches? Yes. I made up that name, by the way. I know. That's why I said it. You deserve all the credit. About this fight, and we agreed that her greatest attribute is just her toughness. And I know that's kind of a weird thing to say because it's not something you can touch or really point out. But it does feel like she could take a bit. It almost like she wakes up when she gets a little bit beat up.

Would you agree with that? And how do you get past that? She's there for the grind, for sure. And that's one of the things that you don't, you know, you don't want to, if you land to get shot, you don't want to assume that that's going to be the end of a fight. You know, you need to stay focused. And she waits for a mistake. She's in there. She's in there physically and mentally to just keep up a grind.

And those are really, and they can even make a fight look messy. You know, somebody that's sitting back waiting to only counter punch or maybe somebody that's sitting waiting to just, you know, for the right offensive punch and they're very, you know, she's just, she's gritty. And that makes it hard to make, you know, a real queen fight. That's hard to control that type of a fight. It is. I think that it's her, her strength is her grittiness for sure. back in November you talked about how I used to cry in the car and it was an emotional roller coaster is it the same this time around are you feeling those same emotions or is it different now

it's a little different because I feel like every fight is different and I try not to compare them trust me there's been plenty of days for tears on this one as well but it's every it's a different feeling I think it's a different feeling even for other people to watch um for this fight I never compare There's been fights in my career where I was so emotional, and then soon enough, then, you know, it's over, and the next fight is a different kind of emotion, and I just really don't compare the two of them. You can't. And emotions are different for this fight because this is a different fighter. This is a different fight. But that doesn't mean I haven't had emotional days in the gym.

It doesn't mean I haven't cried in my car at all. Just different. So are you the kind, are you the solo cryer or do you cry to your husband, your coaches, or you just prefer to do it by yourself? What kind of cryer are you? I don't plan it. It just happens. Okay.

And I might be by myself and I might be in practice, but I don't like, I'm not the type that, like, wait to talk to someone and then like, okay, now I'm going to talk about it and let it out. Like, if it's there, just let it out, then they don't let it. John was actually laughing at me the other day because I was talking about, like, just the emotion of a fight and, like, since tears started coming, I was like, hold on. I, like, took a deep breath, but again, and he starts laughing.

It's, like, it's funny. They just come, like, the drop of a half, but then, like, in 15 seconds, it'll be fine again. I'm like, I just got to get my composure sometimes, you know, and just let it out, and then, like, let's keep talking. So sometimes it's just a quick little one, you know? My emotions get to hang on me, and I think, all right, All right.

Chill out. I'm all right. No denying things are different now. You're a big favorite going into this fight. You're the champion. The bullseye is on you. Do you sense a difference? Is it different being the hunted as opposed to the hunter?

I feel like this pressure that I put on myself regardless. My last fight was, you know what? Nobody thinks I can do it, but I think I can. And the pressure was I was telling everybody I believed I could do it. So the pressure was, I didn't want to be a liar. I wanted to prove people that I really was feeling that way for a reason. And this fight is, well, okay, now there's pressure that I don't want to be this one-hit wonder. I want to be able to show another performance.

And this is, in a lot of ways, a tougher fight for me. Different fight, just tougher in different areas, obviously. I don't really like to compare one to the other. But, you know, I just feel like there's a lot of pressure on this fight. And whether the target's on my back or someone else, it doesn't really matter. I put the pressure on myself to want to perform and do well because at the end of the day, I want the victory. Whether I'm the underdog or the favorite one, it doesn't matter to me.

At the end of the day, I want the victory. So I put the pressure on myself. What is the vibe like at the gym as you prepare for this? Because you have John Jones really gearing up for his fight. He appears to be in tremendous shape. You have a legend like BJ Penn just appear out of nowhere. How is – and I know you've got that sort of cloud hanging over. with Andre and Alster, but it hasn't really come into effect just yet.

How would you describe the vibe at the gym? The vibe is a positive vibe at the gym. It's a lot of times an emotional vibe because we do have so many great fighters going for so many great things, and so there is a... When I walk into the gym, I feel this, like... There's just this, like, almost this, like, overhanging kind of passion in the air, and there. And even some of my training days, I was there for hours and hours and hours, and I would just say, you know, I'm just going to go down the street and get a coffee real quick

because I like me to give my mind a little bit of a break and just, you know, it's so intense sometimes, which trust me, when practice is over and things are over, drilling's over, whatever we're doing, everybody goes into the lighthearted, you know, joke around and stuff like that. And sometimes it's hard to leave the gym because that's when you finally get to kind of let it be at ease. But in the middle of training, it is. There's an intense feeling, and I just like being part of that. I would hate to be in a gym where you just hear crickets in the corner because, you know, nothing's really happening in there.

I love to be able to go in and look at who I get to train with and know two things. The reason why they're at where they're at is because we have the best coaches in the world and they coach them and lead them, and I'm part of that. I have those coaches. And secondly, knowing that I get to train and learn from these fighters is the other half of it. You know, it's like with the good coaches create champions, and then when champions get to train together, you're just getting that much better, you know. And I think it's great. We always have this philosophy to push yourself.

You're not going to get better by going with one training partner all the time. You learn our style. You learn what they do, and then, you know, you kind of know what's coming here and there. Like every round that we do here is something different. And it's a very talented fighter. So you're just evolving and it's just awesome. I don't know if you thought of this, if it occurred to you because you have this tunnel vision on, you're getting ready for Saturday.

But yesterday was the one-year anniversary of your UFC debut. Is it somewhat surreal to think back to how much has happened over the last 365 days? And even in that fight, you know, people are criticizing you after. Now here you are, you know, this unbeatable champion. And everyone's looking forward to this new challenge and this title defense. All this happened in 365. Are you the kind to think about those sort of things? I was just talking about that the other day.

And it was just, you know, I was talking with Michelle Waterson. I happened to, you know, take some of the time off with her hand from her last fight. And just kind of trying to relate with her because the frustrations is not being able to just, you know, go in right away. and I was just telling her, you know, I'm glad because she'll still go in and she's still working on our kicks and still improving, you know, techniques in other ways. And I just told her, you know, that's one of the best things that happened to me, which it's not the best thing, but, you know, I had a broken arm, and then a herniated disc, and I had, you know, pretty much almost a year off.

And I said, you know, it's crazy. and even the first fight I had in the UFC was postponed because of my injury I had to pull out and I said you know I was like but I still got to get in there I was like I wanted to fight in a couple months later I was like just keep your head up and then I started thinking about I said which actually I thought February 28 and I was like and it's just around the corner this was just last week you know I thought it's crazy what had happened in one year but I I'm happy with how awesome 2015 went. I'm not

surprised that it went so quick. You know, my manager, my coach told me right away, they said, you know, they're going to give you a couple fights and they're going to throw you right at the champ right away. I already know it. And so it's kind of something that

we knew was a very big possibility, so I guess it wasn't necessarily a surprise. I'm just really glad that everything, you know, within the year, I think, was very well. get criticized with my first fight in the UFC, and I knew it would be, you know, is it really going to live up to the hype? A lot of people, you know, no. There was so much hype going into that fight, but I'm glad I had that fight. I'm glad I had three full rounds of it. I'm glad

I had three full rounds with Marion Renau. If I would have had a 14-second knockout with one and a 34-second knockout with the other, I don't feel I would have been mentally prepared to go into the title fight for five rounds. So I feel like everything just kind of fell together in a great way and and it was good for me um i'm excited to see what 2016 has uh hopefully it'll be as as exciting as 2015 i had a lot of fans upset on your behalf last week when they were like what the the title fight is the co-main event and the non-tidal fight is the main i got the sense and i'd love to hear your take like connor fighting nate dyes that's great for you more attention more pay-per-views all that stuff are you bothered at all by the fact that you're not the

main event? No, I've never had a preference of if I'm main event, co-made event, versus second five of the night. The thing you get in there and get it done with, the more you can enjoy your rest of your evening. I love being able to, after a fight, be able to sit down and watch the main event. I mean, I think that's just awesome.

Yeah. Honestly, for me, that's selfish reasons. I think awesome. I'm going to be able to get in there. I hate fight night. I hate it. is sitting in your locker room and just letting your nerves eat you away, I'm happy to become a main event.

I'm happy. And I'll get to sit there and be entertained with the main event. I have no concern about being the main event because I'm not there for that. I'm not there to say I'm a main event. I'm not there to be, you know, for what is the main event? The main event is people, that's his headlining. It's for media. That's for the, you know, for me it's like, I'm here to fight, and I'm going to have to fight.

Meachate, March 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, doesn't matter to me. I'm starting to have to get in there and perform. So whether it's a co-main event, main event, I keep care less, I just want to win. It's amazing to hear you say you hate fight night, and you've been doing this while. You've had like 50 fights combined under your belt, and yet you hate something that you're so good at. That's a fascinating thing to hear. By the way, do you feel like the boxing community is behind you more now? Much was made of the fact that you weren't getting that loved.

Do you feel like they're pulling for you going into this fight? I do, and that's all like a two-sided thing there. It's like, you know, a lot of people, all these, there's probably been more articles in boxing now that I'm doing MMA. And in a way, it's like, well, great, I'm glad you guys are supporting me, but, you know, where were you? Yeah. my whole boxing career, and I'll calm out on it. I'm not trying to be sweet about it.

Yeah. I love to start supporting, and the fact that if it brings me attention to boxing, great. Because I want there to be more attention on women's boxing, because I always wish there was their opportunities. I didn't really, for me it wasn't like, oh, I need spotlight. It was more like, let's have opportunities so that women's boxing can grow. And so I'm glad that if it's going to bring attention to, you know, women's boxing great. But also, if they ever ask me about it, I'll also call them out on it and say, you know, why now?

Yeah. You know, you could have been covering this a long time ago. I like it. I like it. Okay, two last quick things. First, you know, a lot was also made of the fact that you kind of held the cards close to your vest and you showed us some surprises in your last fight. Are you going to do the same this time around? I feel like your takedown defense is actually very underrated.

People don't talk about it enough. Do you, can you confidently say you have some surprises up your sleeve going into the same? this one. There's things that I've improved on with wrestling, so you guys better see something new. Yes. Because that means that

the training was worth something. So my plan has always show something new because that means I'm constantly evolving as a fighter. I don't ever want to be predictable, and I don't ever want to be, you know, I don't want it to do the same thing over and over. I want to

constantly be learning, only be like a sponge, you know, just keep soaking up the knowledge and not only get the knowledge, not only gain it, but be able to get in there and in the midst of the chaos, be able to perform it and make it, you know, make it turn into an action. So I hope that I do perform. And if I do, then, yeah, if I perform with what we've been training, you'll see something new. And last, but perhaps most importantly, how is Holly Home celebrating Carlos Condit Day? You know what? I think he's actually in the gym and I just pulled up. I'm probably going to have to walk in and talk to him. Do you know today's Carlos Condit Day?

When we last, I got a text. I didn't know until I left the gym and I got a text about it. And he was actually sitting in the gym when I had left. It's very special. It's once every four years. He got it after he beat Nick Diaz. February 29th is Carlos Condit Day in Albuquerque. He got a day, you got a month, but this is a big day, and I hope you guys are celebrating responsibly, but also showing him the love. I am going to show him some love because I'll tell you what. Carlos has been one of those teammates and friends of mine for a long time.

We've started here, and really, you know, he's been one of the main people that have been around since the beginning that I've been able to look up to and really get inspired. from. I mean, if you can't get inspired from watching a Carlos Condit fight, then you're a dud. You know, I feel like Carlos is just, he shows versatility and fighting, and he shows heart, and that's just his fighting. That's not talking about how great he is as a, you know, a husband and a father and a teammate and a friend, and he deserves more than a day, I'll tell you that. Very well said.

Holly, I hope there are no hard feelings. I'm sorry for the mix-up. I'll take that one on the chin. Tell her feelings, you know, me. Oh, yeah, give you a hard time. Tell it like it is. I appreciate it. Best of luck to you. Thank you so much for the time.

I really appreciate it, and we'll see you out there in Las Vegas. I'll see you out there. Have a good one. Okay, there she is. The UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, Holly Homestopping by, and how about this? We get to talk to the champion that we got to talk to her head coach right now. Mike Winkle John is joining us on the phone. Coach Wink, how are you?

I'm good, Ariel. How are you, sir? I appreciate the time as well. How are you celebrating Carlos Condit Day, Coach Wink? Oh, shit, I didn't know it was Carlos Condit Day. I won't lie. What is going on over there? Yeah, you know what? I guess I don't watch the media enough, the local media.

But I'm excited for it. He deserves it. There's no doubt about it. It's ridiculous that I didn't know about it. It should be celebrated even more. Carlos gave us what I think is the fight of the year so far and won the best fights for all the time against Robert Lawler this year. I think it's a little weird that they gave him Carlos Condit Day on February. February 29th because that means it only happens every four years. Why not wait until March 1st?

That's true. That's true. You're right. You're right. Can't. That's okay. After he wins the title, I'd love to see him get that rematch Robbie Lawler. In fact, I'll come back there and say it now. That's what Carlson wants to do. I sure hope Robbie wants to do it. I wish the public, the fans, everybody start calling for that. What a great fight. Let's do that fight again. Do you think there's a chance, really, if he doesn't get that fight that he will retire? Do you think there's a chance we may have seen his last fight?

Yeah, I think there is a chance. There's no doubt about it. You know what, Carlos is smart enough to understand the game and that he always goes to war. He's taking a little bit of brain damage every time he fights. He doesn't want that. You know, he's a smart kid,

and no longer a kid, you know, dad himself, and he wants to be there, you know, to watch his son grow up and, you know, be the best daddy can for the first time. It's getting bigger and bigger. Okay, let's talk about Holly. How are we...

What kind of confidence do we have going into this? are you feeling good? Are you feeling everything's firing on all cylinders as we prepare for Las Vegas? How is Coach Wing feeling? Oh, yeah. She's firing on all 12. She's a high-tech, you know,

European race car. And same as, you know, going in for Ronda. You know, I won't lie. We're confident for that one as well. I think Holly is just going to dominate the fight and do real well. There's a lot of things you have to watch for. And Misha is very strong and very dangerous in many ways. but yeah she's been looking good so far what concerns you most about misha

scramble you know just just the no no give up attitude how many fights that she's been losing she's coming back yeah um she's tough as they come she's a competitor at the highest level um with skills so that's always scary i know you don't consume the media all that much but have you been a little annoyed at how much holly has been talked about ronda like it's ronda Ron. No one ever asked her about Misha. It's all Rhonda, Ronda, Ronda. Does this get on your nerves? Oh, irritates the crap out of me. There's no doubt about it. I think it's ridiculous. You know, Holly destroyed Ronda. Why all the attention going that way? I think it's stupid. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's a shame. I don't know why it is, what it is, and why the media keeps asking the questions.

I guess it's a question for me to ask you guys. I'll come you guys keep asking those questions. Well, I don't know if you know this. We just had Holly on the show, and I didn't ask her one question about Ronda Rousey. How about that? That's good. That's good. That's fantastic. Thank you. I appreciate it. So you're going to tell me you haven't done it in the past now? You know what? It just, I don't know.

I don't know a reason for it, but yeah, it is kind of irritating Holly's the world champ. I wish the PR machine would get behind her more. I think the fans want to see it. They always just a good role model. She's great at what she does. She's, I think, the best combat seen the last week ever of all time. And people are going to see even more of that this Saturday night. Are you annoyed at all that she's not the main event?

No, not really. You know what? Because Holly took care less. I know Holly and she's supposed to fight. That's it. And in some ways, it's nice not to be the main advantage because there's less stuff, less distractions. Yeah. And they ask for her.

So not really. It doesn't bug me in the fight. So how about the difference in mindset? Like the secret is out. It's obvious. Everyone knows her, even though she may not be getting some of that respect or attention. But we know how good Holly home is. There's no doubt about that.

and now she's, as I said to her, she's the hunted as opposed to the hunter. Is there a difference from your perspective there now that people know what she can do and how dangerous she can be in an MMA fight? Is there a difference from your perspective? Well, I think they're not thinking, oh, it's easy to take her down like always did in the past. I think now they know that she's double trouble and that she's very, very strong. Her clinch game is great. Her take down the fences probably, I'm going to say she's the best of all the women out there.

taking Holly down is not easy she goes to the guys all day long and it's amazing how she stuffs their shot and so I think that makes them second guess a lot of things which it's going to make it very, very hard to fight Holly at home. Have you felt that she has been

at any point feeling the pressure of trying to replicate the last performance now that she has all this attention on her? Again, she's at the top of her game and she is the champion now. It's much different than being the underdog. How is she dealing with all of that? She's doing great with it. There is a little pressure to have a great performance,

because anything less than a great performance, the fans and everybody's fickle that way. But she just wants to go out there and beat her up and do what she does. It doesn't have to be a crazy headkick because it's doing anything crazy. She's smart enough to understand. The win is the most important thing. Get the W. and keep going forward. If you're a visionary here for me for a second,

what do you think Misha does to start the fight? How do you think she tries to set the tone for herself? You know what? She's got a couple trips. She would probably think one thing and then do another. I won't tell you what I'm exactly thinking because then she'll change it. But we've got a couple protocols put in place because I think that – I think Misha – the two things are going to happen.

She knows it didn't do Rodney any good rushing in it, Holly. And then you already want to come in slow because Holly will pick you apart. So there's a dilemma for Misha Tate. and I do have an idea of what I think she's going to do and what her coaches will make her do, but I'm not going to show her hand. Fair enough. Would you say, though, that this is the toughest test for Holly right now

of all the talent out there at 135? Oh, yeah. Well, you know, she's number one for a reason. She's been around a long time, and she's pretty darn good everywhere. You know, she hits hard, and she's tapping people out. She's here wrestling is very good. you see, but she's beat jiu-jitsu people.

She's beat busers. She's beat strikers. So she's very good at what she does. I'll also ask you a similar question to the one I asked, Holly, but I'm curious to get your perspective. What is the vibe like at the gym these days? With John back in full swing, I understand BJ Penn is there. There's a lot going on, as always, at the gym. How would you describe the vibe these days?

That's great. It's competitive. People are getting better. They're pushing each other. it's a big team though they also understand they have to help each other to progress themselves kind of like the under the rule around here

and it's great you know everybody's helping each other out I know there's a big event that we throw just for everybody to go together and watch Holly fight so instead of stay at home on their on the couches or even here at the gym and watch the fights they're all going to go

to a big event to a big event and watch the fight together it's a big team Is that at the Route 66 casino? Yeah, yeah, at the Root 6th casino. Yeah, that's the official holiday home party. They've done well for Holly in the past. They're boxing, and of course we want to repay that favor.

That's kind of how, I guess, how we roll at the gym. We're trying to be loyal to people who've been loyal with us long term. So historically, you've always met up with John Jones at the beginning of his training camps. Now that he's been there for so long, have you sense a difference in him? Oh, yeah. He's starting earlier and in better shape than ever before. And I think it definitely matured in many ways, but I think, of course, taking it more serious.

You know, he sees his past mistakes. He knows some of the performance he's had when he trained a certain way versus another. And, yeah, it's fantastic. You know, he definitely worked on his strength off season, in essence. And we've got his speed up to par now, and it's going to exceed what he has done in the past. It's here soon.

And I believe the last time you were on this program, you talked about some of the people around him. Do you feel like he's cleaned that up? Do you feel like he's in a better place and surrounding himself with better people? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt about it. You know what?

People that happen. John's got to understand, and he's starting to understand. The same group of people that, you know, want all your free stuff until you're the greatest I first do believe when you fall. And I think, I believe it happens most celebrities out there, most sports stars. And I think Holly's had a real good influence on him that he's seeing her not change and what hard work has done.

And I think he knows that to become the greatest fall time, which he will, he's got to stay focused and, you know, stay on the right path. Interesting scenario popped up recently. you have two teammates fighting, Arlofsky and Overeem, and you'll be cornering Arlofsky, correct? Correct. Why did you decide that and not like we saw in the past, you know, I know Greg's his own guy and he kind of stayed out with the GSP Konda fight, but did you consider, Holly had a comment recently how you guys lost sleepover. It was a tough thing. This is somewhat of a different scenario. Why did you decide to, you know, say you'll corner Arlofsky? Well, the situation sucks. You know, you have two guys that we both train.

Yeah. And, you know, they're fighting each other. It sucks. And it's not for the title. It's even worse. Yeah. If it was for the title, that's a good, bad situation. But not for a title, it's kind of somebody's going to fall.

And, you know, you hate that. The reason why I, and I'm sure Greg is the same book with Andre's, he's been around longer. You know, and loyalty is real important to us. It's one of those situations where Andre's, you know, you know, and I'm a situation where Andre has been here a long time. And, you know, we've gotten real close, and that's just the way it is. It doesn't matter who's going to be the bigger superstar or whoever makes more money. That's always vulnerable with it is who's been here the longest.

They both, you know, I'm saying who makes more money out of those two guys, but that's just, in my mind, it's usually the home team that is more important. People have been here longer are a little bit more important if it's weird as that sound like. Don't even wrong. I really like Alistair. And so they made it really tough. but it was a decision to be made, and hopefully that's where everybody understands it, but I'll have a job to do, and afterwards we can keep going forward.

Did you try to convince them not to take the fight? Because as you said, it's a sucky situation, and it's not for the belt. Was there any of that talk going on? No, not really. First time, when I got a phone call, I actually heard it from Andre. He called me, and I didn't really get a chance to get involved and tell me how much I thought that was going to suck. I know is that he was telling me it was going to be finalized, and I was at a loop training

Holly, and he wanted to know about the cornering situation. So that's how that played out as far as I was concerned. And so they'll just be training at different times with different coaches? I think so. We haven't kind of figured out yet. I know that Andre is going to be doing most of our normal classes with us. He's been around. He has to be close with most of our normal guys.

and Alistair, you know, and we work in, I think, a little bit with Tucson, some of the guys at Gracie and some of the coaches outside the gym as well as maybe, maybe in nothing for a fact yet at the time with the gym. Okay, wow, interesting. I'm sure you're just hoping for that whole situation to end, though, right?

Not very fun. No, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure why they picked it. I think, you know, waiting for Kane might have been tough, and I'm sure if there is out there. I don't know. I don't know.

But it's going to be an exciting fight. They both have the ability to knock each other out. It should be great for the fans. No doubt it's going to get to the sport. And have you had a chance to work with BJ Penn? If so, what do you make of the state of his career right now? Do you feel confident that he is ready to return? I've worked with him quite a bit, and I'm definitely confident he's able to return.

He's impressed me in many ways, and I think people will see a lot of improvement in BJPen. I think I don't know exactly what happened or why, you know, he failed. His career kind of went the wrong direction, but he's got many, many skills, and he's just been the greatest guy since he's been here. He's constantly trying to help each other out and has an up attitude and willing to learn. That's what's most amazing is he's just willing to learn. He asks questions, and he just tries what you say, and we adjust it. That's pretty neat when you're talking to a guy who's been a legend as long as he has,

that he's going to learn anything. Commitment has always been an issue for him. Do you sense that he has committed, that he's willing to do whatever it takes to get back on track? Oh, yeah. I think he knows he's all in on this one. Okay. He'd be kind of embarrassed and not to.

And he can't just do it half-ass. He's got to go all the way. And nor would Greg and I would let him do it half-ass. Right. You know, he'd go somewhere else to him go if he wasn't going to try hard, but I'm confident he's going to try hard. Is he at the gym now? Is he back in Albuquerque?

Yeah, he just came back. He was just in the gym this morning, yes. Do you know, will he be fighting in April on the same card as John? I do not know. I do not know what happened. I know that the original thought had gotten changed. Okay. I don't know if that's going to be the card he can be on it or not.

I've had that discussion with my honest. I don't know. Okay, but did you have a conversation with him before and say, like, I'm not going to attach myself to you? I'm not going to put our gym's name on, on you if you're not. Like, did you have to sort of feel him out first before saying, okay, let's do this? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm definitely a standoffish guy, you know.

Yeah, you know, it's one of those things like, hey, let's start working. Let's see what he's got. And we can X him at any time. But, you know, I've shook him his hand down, and he's part of the team. He's been great so far. I think we as a team will be better for it. Okay. Final thing before I let you go, and I appreciate the time greatly.

I know it's busy now. What is Coach Wink's prediction? How does it go down on Saturday? Second round, K-O for Holly Home. Second round, interesting. So shades of 193. Yep, a lot like it. So as dominant?

As dominant, yes. Oh, can't wait. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate it. See you out there, and best of luck to you guys. All right, thank you, sir. There he is. Coach Mike Winkle-John,

stopping by second round KO. You heard it here first. It goes down Saturday. UFC 196, here we go. That was a lot of interviews. I need New York Creek to help me out now. Are you there? I'm here.

Welcome back. You were in Chicago. I was. I was. You were at Glory? Yep. How was it? Super fun. I always have a good time at Glory, but it was a really solid event.

And the main event was interesting. Who won? I'd even catch it. Simon Marcus won. There was a... Canada's own. There was a bit of controversy. Oh yeah, didn't he quit, Artim Levin?

Yeah, I mean, there was... Did he legit quit? There was some... You know, he wasn't happy with how the referee was, you know, dictating the fight. So he just said, screw it, I'm out of here? And he said, I'm... You're kidding. No, you know, it was a situation where there was a knockdown that he thought wasn't a knockdown.

Then there was a point taken away, and then there was another point taken away, and he was like, I'm done with this. What? Yeah. He just walked out. He waved it off himself What? What point in the fight? I think this was in the third round

What? He just said, I'm done and then just left. Did he even do an interview? No. And that was a title fight? He physically waved it off. He was just like, I'm done.

He turned his back and said, I'm done with this. Was that a title fight? It was for the belt. So he lost his belt. He lost his belt. What the hell is going on? Yeah.

Will you do a rematch? I mean, you know. Don't you call the shots over there? Yes, I'll But it was the debut on Fight Pass, right? Well, not that fight specifically. No, I know. Earlier in the night, Joe Schilling had lined that card for USC Fight Pass, which was also a great one.

Yes. Schilling took it on late notice and still look pretty dang good. Guto Inocench fought. Huge knockout. I'd even know that he was a kickboxer now. What happened? Yeah, he's with glory. He's, you know, he's trying to come up in that division.

and that was one hell of a way to make a statement. Yeah, I'd say so. All right. Huge knockout. Kudo looked awesome. It was fun, top to bottom. Did you get a chance to watch? Were you back in time for London?

I was back in time, woke up nice and early and put it on. I will say, you know, with all honesty, a lot of people come up and say, where's New York? We seem to be popular over there across the pond. It's true. We do have a lot of international flavor. Yeah, I don't want to piss people. off by, I'm just being honest, the crowd, I don't know if it came, did it come through on, on television that it was a bit of a subdued crowd?

I didn't get that vibe. Okay. I didn't think it, you know, I wasn't remarking on how, yeah, on how raucous or how amazing it was either. But I didn't, no, I didn't get the vibe that, uh, that it was subdued, really. All right. Well, I guess we got some questions to answer here. We do have some questions.

Let's do it. How you feeling about this show so far? I say this was a pretty successful show. I agree with you. I showed up on time. Yeah. I mean, what is there to say? Is there anything you want to comment on?

It was just tight. Got some good interviews in. Well, if I can be honest, it feels like there's this elephant in the room these days. Like, I'm in the business of stacking the deck, so to speak, and putting out the best show possible. And now, after some of your comments, I feel like you get a little annoyed when there's more than, you know, seven or eight guests. And so in the back of my mind, I'm like, like, oh, New York Rick's probably, you know. Oh, that's good.

I want you to feel that. You know, rolling his eyes. Here I am making history and getting all, getting the champ, getting the former champ, getting the sensei, Ito portel. And all I can think about is you, you know, saying, oh, this is too much on my plate. I love that. I love the fact that you're thinking about me. And I want that to be in the back of your mind because we have to make this show run back

here. How about this? Firing on all cylinders on a huge week. And we did. All thanks to you guys. We executed. Not me. I had nothing to do with it.

Well, you know, just sit there and look pretty. Yes, let's answer. All right. First question. Again, you're not going to see these this time. Oh, come on. For you. Sorry.

Title shot for Bisbing. Should Michael Bisbing get the next title shot? Yes. Yes. 1,000% yes. Now, he didn't push for it himself. Does that matter to you? No, because the good thing about Michael Bisping is he has many outlets.

He hosts a radio show on. serious. He's on the UFC on Fox coverage. You have to understand, I thought his answer is the first answer to my first question in that post-fight interview which you boldly proclaimed you did not watch, which

once again, a little bit of a slap in the face. I thought you consume all the content that we put out, but I guess good stuff. Okay. He said that the emotion that he was feeling was relief. This, Michael Bissping is now just the second man in Anderson Silva's 10-year

UFC run to have beaten Anderson Silva. That's an unbelievable feather in his cap. And here he is. He got over the hump on his home turf. He was relieved. And he had to overcome a lot. So I can understand. He was very emotional. He was emotional all week, to be honest, talking about what it means to be fighting in England, his family, and, you know, just everything that he's been through over his career. So I can understand why the first thing that didn't come to his mind after a legitimate, you know, battle, 25 minutes, bruised, bloody, all that stuff is not a title shot. But, you know, I fully expect him to campaign for it. I was a little surprised that he took the bait from Nick Diaz on Twitter.

And yeah, that's a big fight. But at this point, give him the title shot. He beat him. In my opinion, fair and square. And I hope that the talk of the controversy goes away. Then I was on the show or was on the show. Just give it. Just give it to him.

He's done enough. Don't you agree? Hey, no, I'm the last guy you need to make that argument for. How many times have I said? Michael Bisbing's always in contention for the title shot. Now he deserves it. He got that win over the contest. tender that he needed to get.

It's time for Michael Bisping to get a title shot. I'll admit, I am surprised that he hasn't, didn't campaign for it, and hasn't yet. But so was I. That's why I asked the question. You know, the emotion of it, you know, is certainly a factor. But, you know,

typically guys will know that that's the thing you do. And Bisping's one of those guys. So I was surprised. And I'll be honest, when I was sitting there, you know, I felt for him. I was like, you could see the whole thing happening. Loses his mouthpiece, complaining, gets knocked down, like, this is the way it's going to end. You were winning the first two rounds.

And arguably up until that point, you were winning the third. Don't let it end like this. And then we're going to hear him about it for years and it's controversial. No, please. And so I was thinking, I don't want it to end this way. So kudos to him for coming back and winning that fourth round. And then when he took that front kick to the face in the fifth, I thought, all right, close but no cigar. No one was really giving Michael. My mom predicted Michael Bisping. Kudos to Mama knows. She predicted Michael Bisping. I think I appropriately sat on the fence and came out looking pretty decent. You can never look decent. I said, I said Anderson would knock him out in the third round, which almost came to fruition. And then I said Michael Bisbing is a super live dog and that nobody

should be. That's sitting on the fence. Yeah. And I came out looking great. You can't give yourself close. That was about as close to both predictions as you can get. Of course. That's what sitting on the fence is. So I nailed those. And let's talk about Anderson now. Okay, okay. How do you feel about his performance overall? What did you, do you think he looked different than usual? It was frustrating to watch.

It was like, what are you doing? I still feel like Anderson has it. And yeah, he's older. He's in 40s, a little steps lower. You know, the instincts aren't quite there. But I felt like at any moment he could turn it on. And then look at that moment in the third. He noticed an opening.

and he capitalized on it. He was just, you know, and maybe he didn't capitalize enough. I just felt like he was playing around too much. But how is this different than any other performance? To me, I feel like it's very similar. Against Nick Diaz, he didn't play around this much. And I think that against Nick Diaz,

he was trying to get his bearings back, his mojo back, and he did what he had to do to win that fight. Here it felt like first, second round-ish, he was trying to get comfortable. And then once he felt like, okay, I'm better than this guy, I'm going to play around. And then he gets rocked. And, you know, it's like, and then in the fifth round, you saw, yeah, he had a great performance.

He won that round, in my opinion, pretty damn clearly, and still never jumped on his opportunities. But you could see, even when he was fighting, he was coming back from around which he lost, he still was getting the better of Michael Bisping. And again, I don't want to harp on this because I feel like it takes some away from Bisping. But I just felt like he was fighting at like 80%. But how is this different than, let's say, Damia Maya fight? Because he's not the same guy. He's older now. But the style isn't different.

Yeah, but he can't rely on that. You have to evolve. You can't rely on those games anymore. You have to fight like you fought against Nick. And against Nick, he was a lot more hesitant and didn't take as many chances. But he did what he had to do to win the fight. And in this fight, he didn't feel like he did what he had to do to win it. He was always holding back.

And now there's a report. Our own Guillermo Cruz came out with this. I'll read it quickly. Anderson Silva lost to Michael Bisping. And his coach Luis Doria, his boxing coach believes the former middleweight champion beat the count. Okay, fine. Wait, let me get. Okay, he felt a kick he landed in the first round and thought he cracked his leg and his screw moved.

So that limited his movements. He goes on to say, made him stop attacking for a moment. I asked him to attack, but he said, Professor, I'm feeling it. I have no confidence. So this explains a lot. If this is true, this explains why he maybe had to resort to some of those things. And by the way, it was working. And I think also important to give kudos to Bispen because I think the Bisping of five years ago would have fell into that trap.

He would have gotten frustrated, let his ego get the best of him. And when Anderson is standing there and saying, punch me, you know, Bisping took a step back. And he said, I'm not going to play this game. I'm not going to fall into this trap. So I think Bisspeng actually showed a lot of maturity. If Anderson had to overcompensate for the fact that he felt like his leg was injured and it was the same leg, and that's got to play some major tricks on his mind, then I get the reason why he did it. But while watching it, I was like, why aren't you going full speed?

Now reading this, you kind of understand why. Sure. I just think the style Your criticism is completely fair But we shouldn't expect anything different from Anderson Silva This is the same this is the same style He's just not as sharp or effective as he used to be That's why he shouldn't do this anymore

Hey but you know That's we can't expect him not to do this Because that's how he fights that's Anderson Silva Against Nick excuse me he was different And didn't look great Yeah did not look good Fair Came closer to finishing Michael Bisping than at any point he came to

finishing Diaz. Look terrible, in fact. I'd go that far. Did not look good. So you can make any claim that you want about whether the performance was, you know, good, bad, or the other. But I don't think it was out of character. That's what I'm saying. And by the way.

It looked exactly the same as every Anderson Silva fight. Fair. Although it's an older Anderson Silva. So that affects it. But those are super close rounds. You know, for the most part, like the first round was close. It just felt like Bisman continued to move connected. got the big shot in the second, you know, threw more, landed more in the first.

The third was close until the end. The fourth, I thought, you know, he did more again. Anderson didn't really do much. And in the fifth, the big, you know, the big, but it's all like little moments here or there. I got to say it was riveting to watch it in person because you felt that at any moment Anderson could do something. Bisping was hanging on, continued to fight, like being there. You know, some of those fights on that card, let's be honest, you know, a little mundane.

but that was as riveting of a 25-minute fight as you're going to see. Let's talk about the most riveting moment, the flying knee. Yes. Is that enough? Is essentially the person phrased it as if a man is flying knee to unconscious but is not finished, is that enough to warrant a 10-8? How do you feel about that? We've had a few people weigh in on this today.

Absolutely not. I think that's, look, people get confused because it's the boxing model that we're using essentially to score these rounds. And in boxing, when there's a knockdown, it's almost always, automatically a 10-8, but MMA is a much different sport, obviously, and a knockdown doesn't always equal a 10-8. If you have a very close round and then a knockdown at the very end, that's not a 10-8. So that didn't even cross my mind. I was surprised that people were actually talking about that afterwards. I actually think it was a 10-8. How? Because there's a difference

between being knocked down and being essentially knocked out. And you could make the case, Michael Bisping was nearly damn near knocked out. And I think that it should have been a draw. That That's how I scored it. Wow. Because I think that was a 10-8 round. If he is hanging on by the threat, like the tiniest little thread from essentially losing the fight via TKO, that's enough for me to call it a 10-8. And that's not the same as, you know, if the Anderson Silva being knocked down. I don't view those equally.

And you shouldn't. But, you know, based on the system we have, you're saying that we should. I don't agree with that. I think that there's a difference between the strike that Anderson Silva and Michael Bisbing's knocked down of Anderson Silva. And I think there should be more weight given to that. And therefore the 108 should be something that's at least considered, at least thought about. But I think when it's so close and there's one shot like that,

it's not a 10-8 round is a dominant one-sided round. What's more dominant than essentially finishing? That's a moment. He finished him. But he didn't. He didn't finish him. The fight continued. Damn here.

99%. Damn near is not finishing. But then my point is that varying degree should be considered. He didn't 50% finish him. He 99% finished him. And that matters. That should matter. And you're saying it shouldn't.

And I can't agree with that. No, because if he would have knocked him down and then had a minute of ground and pound afterwards and it's like Wyden and Rockhold, then I could see you saying 10-8. This was a knee landed and then he walked away. He got closer to finishing Michael Bisping than Rockhold. got with those punches against Chris Wideman. I don't know about that. Chris Wyth,

Chris Wythman got up in the next round, looking much more composed than Michael Bisping did. Bisping won the fourth round. Yeah, didn't look good in the start of it. Still won it. Looked like he was completely out of it. It's playing possum. It's called the rope-a-dop.

I think the 10-8 needs to be considered. And this is the problem with having varying degrees of, you know, what's a more effective strike than another. It's a problem. The 10 point must system is a problem. And again, it works better in boxing for this very reason.

It didn't even cross my mind, to be honest. Maybe I was just consumed by the madness of the moment. I had no idea what the heck was going on. And how weird is it that the same kind of thing happened in two fights on the same card? The Arnold Allen fight as well, I mean, a much different scenario

because Alan ended up winning. But it was bizarre. I thought he finished him in that fight too. It's so strange. The whole thing is so strange. What a crazy sport. Yeah. I got to love it. I mean, with that one, fortunately, there's not much like controversy because he was going to win anyway. I still maintain.

What do you think about my thing with the clock being removed? Like, can't they synchronize these things so that we can see the clock? It's weird that they take it away. I never really thought of it up until this weekend. It's the most important part of the fight, the last 10 seconds. I mean, strange. Okay. Someone, I never look at the YouTube chat.

Never. And they're going to love that I'm calling them out right now. someone just wrote 10-8 would be Reebok stupid and I think that kind of sums it up. Yeah, that's a brilliant comment right there. It makes it makes so much sense. It's like, you know, just such witty stuff. Bisbing's Post-Fight interview with you, which I did see, by the way. Bullocks.

I did see it. Bullocks. He was critical of Herb Dean. We've mentioned this. We played it. How about the fact that we had that clip queued up? Her was like, I didn't hear it. I was like, oh, how about we listen to it right now?

Did you agree with that? Is it Herb Dean's, you know, essentially responsibility or fault that he had, you know, those mark on his face? Did Herb Dean do anything wrong in that case? Well, I think, and I hope this is in the case because I really have the utmost respect and he was so gracious with his time. And in particular in that moment, I think he may have been a little bit annoyed with me in that moment, Michael Bisping. Because I said, how does a veteran like Michael Bisping who's winning this fight take his eye, off the ball essentially and allow himself to focus on the mouthpiece. And I know it's important. And I know you can get knocked out easier when you don't have it. But still, you know that there's

10 seconds left because you heard the, the Claxton, as they call it. And then you're focusing on this. And I don't think there was a lull. So I don't agree with anyone saying that Herb Dean messed up. I really don't think there was a law in the action. I think if Herb would have stepped in there, people would have said, wait a second, Anderson was threatening. He was moving forward. him on the ropes, so to speak. He had him up against the cage. So, ideally, you find that lull in the action, you give him the mouthpiece. But I think, as they say at the beginning of a fight, defend yourself at all times. And Michael wasn't doing that. So he was very lucky that he weathered that storm. So I had no problem with what Herb did. Completely agree. The, you know, the people

pointing to the moment where Herb is telling Michael Bisping to fight on as a possible, you know, breaking the action to give him the mouthpiece. It's not long enough. It wasn't, it wasn't a significant stop in the action. Anderson Sova, as we saw, like moments later, was ready to strike. So I don't agree with anybody criticizing Herb Dean's decision-making there. My good pal, Pizzie Carroll of Severe M.A, who did a great job breaking down the car with us before and after, as well as Simon Head of the Sun, said it had all the drama of a Shakespearean play. And it really did. There were so many highs and lows in that fight. Really an exhausting fight to watch, but a lot of fun as well. Speaking of referees, Mark Goddard, also a topic of conversation from that fight night.

What did you think of as no-nonsense performance? I guess no nonsense because, and this is me editorializing, because he seemed to be giving stern warnings, took away points, said, I'm in control of this fight, and then he later went on to explain himself. Great job, by the way. On Facebook. What did you think of that?

First of all, I love that we're getting some transparency. This is something that I've been calling for. We never get it from the judges, but I'm happy that Herb came on the show today that Mark went on his Facebook and explained himself. I loved it. I love the part when he said, I'm the referee.

I'm not your mother. I'm an authority figure. And there's 16,000 people there, and I have to, you know, I have to be an authority. What's the line from South Park? You will respect my authority. attack.

That's what I was, yeah, that's exactly it. Like, what do you want him to be nice to you? You want him to be kind? Like,

no, the guy was, he was clearly, the one thing I wanted to ask her, but we, we were running out of time. It's just like this, this idea that we've talked about, the warnings, right?

The warning should be before. The first warning should be before the fight. About everything. And then if you do one infraction, you should be penalized for it. And so I think that Mark was actually rather lenient. And it kept happening, and he put his foot down.

Like, people are offended with his, tone with the way he was talking, come on. That's, that is bullocks. He did exactly what he needed to do to take control that situation. A lesser ref might not have done what he did. Yes. And it would have been controversial. All the credit in the world to him, he took control of what he needed to take control of. And, you know, you'll see in the Facebook post he talked about the fact that Vera came up to him after and said what you did was right. So there's nothing there other than props for Mark Goddard. By the way, why are you responding?

to nonsense on Twitter in the midst of this is your segment to shine. You writing to these people on Twitter during all this? What does that even mean? What was I doing? Yeah, focus. I'm quite focused. Don't worry.

While you're reading. Well, I'm seeing it. YouTube comment sections, the cesspool of the internet. Wow. Wow. Them's fighting words. Whoa.

What do you make of Musassi's controversial comments to you? It's incredible. Yodo Machita. And is there, was there a fair criticism of him during the fight? Two separate things. But so what do you make of, you know, Musasi's comments about Machita and just kind of voicing something we haven't seen from him in general? I'll answer the second part first.

I think by the time his fight came, came around, people were getting anxious. They wanted to see the Bisping fight. And, you know, it just, there had been a bunch of, I almost feel like he, the reaction to his fight was a product of some of the other decisions leading up to that point. So I really had no problem with this fight. He did what he had to do to win and get back on track. This is a dangerous game and wins at the end of the day are most important. So he did what he had to do and it was dominant.

And you know, it's interesting. His manager came up to me after and he's like, do you want to interview him? And I said, yeah, of course, I would never turn down an interview, especially with someone coming off a win and with his resume. But he wasn't really the story of the night. It was just a fight and everyone was talking about Bissing Anderson. And then I do the interview and he drops these bombs left and right. First at the press conference, I got the same.

sense that he was getting annoyed. Actually, first at the end of the fight, I don't know if they showed him on TV, but he was egging on the crowd when they were booing him. It looked like he was annoyed. He gave him a little hand gesture. Oh, did he? Oh, I did not see that. You know, I forget what they call this one, but when you put your arm onto your other arm, the, you know, maybe it's like an up yours or something. The fungou. That's what he gave. Something. He gave the crowd. Right away. So, oh, that's great. And then, so he's annoyed. These guy's fighting for his life and you're booing him. And then, you know, you get sense that he was getting annoyed over talking about the rankings and everything. And then at the press conference, he did his own thing,

had the little subtle mic drop. But then in my interview, like, I thought he was going to ask for Bisping, maybe Vitor. That's been a fight he's wanted for a while. I didn't think he was going to start talking about Machita, greasing, steroid use. And even they were telling, the weird, the thing that people don't know is they were telling me to rap. He had to get on the bus. So I couldn't really expand on that and ask him a follow up. But he's like, no, no, no. And they're like, just hearing him swear in the shirt that he was wearing. Talk about, you know, stealing some headlines. And after that, everyone was talking to me about the Musasi interview. And no one was really talking about him after the fight.

So great job by him. That's the perfect segue. What did you think of his performance? Was the criticism of him fair? No, no, no problem with it. I completely agree. Yeah, no problem. And you oftentimes see this, and guys will mention this,

after they get knocked out for getting a little sloppier than they would have liked, they come back with a more conservative performance. But by no means, was it not a dominant performance? Musasi looked completely dominant in that fight, and there's almost no criticism you could have of that in terms of there was no point where he was threatened in that fight. Musazi was in complete control. But yeah, he admitted himself that he tried to tighten up his game after getting knocked out, which makes perfect sense, and you can't really knock a guy for that.

Proof once again, speak your mind, let it out, more good than not usually happens. How about Mr. Finland? What's next for Makwan Ameriqani? Or Mackers, as they call him now in Ireland. Oh, this person is suggesting Cole Miller or Mursad Bechtick. What do you think about those? Wow. That's a bit of a bit. Those are top 15ers, they're saying. So is it time for him to jump into that mix. Interesting. Yeah, cool. You know, it was interesting what he said. He has said in the past, he likes to not take any damage. He's got his pretty face. But he like taking the damage. He said the women, the women like that. You know, he didn't have a lot of time at SBG. Kavanaugh wasn't in his corner. Now he's going to have a longer camp. And, you know, he hadn't fought in a while. He hadn't fought since June. He had quite the tumultuous, you know,

last few months with leaving All-Stars and everything that happened in his personal life. So I thought it was a solid win. I thought he showed a lot on the ground. Him and Wilkinson, that was a lot of fun. He's sort of coming out of nowhere, the back and forth there between them. Wilkinson's a tough guy as well. Tried to get under his skin. So yeah, I had no problem. with his victory. I thought it was a nice, you know, three and O now, take a step up. Those fights are, those fights are interesting. I'm down with that. I love those fights. And I also don't think it came out of nowhere. I think Makwan is that kind of guy. Like, he's going to create a storyline for himself, even though he's not, you know, near the top of the card. He's, he's an interesting character,

and he knows how to promote. I really like him, and it's good to have him around. Okay. Do you think that Europe is the main focus for the UFC now, with, you know, the number of shows in Brazil, dwindling and the ability to broadcast on fight passes as a viable option. Do you think that they're going to focus more on Europe? No, no. If anything, they're doing more in Vegas these days than anything. I thought it was interesting that they broke the record for tenants. It sold out in 25 minutes. The gate was $2 million. All this happened with just one fight essentially announced originally. It was Bisping and Musasi. And then they get, you know, think about how unprecedented that is. people bought tickets in record fashion for a fight and a card that really had one fight on it.

And then they say, you know what, we're going to give you a better fight and we're going to throw Anderson Silva the, you know, the quote-unquote greatest of all time. That's crazy. The UFC never does something like that. So it's sort of like a reverse injury bug, if you will. I think they should, you know, like I said to James Elliott on Saturday, the VP and GM of AMEA, Europe, Middle East and Africa. there is a fine line between, you know, capitalizing and growing a market and going there too many times. I feel like they go to London too little. They should probably go more than once every two years. And I think London, you know, prove that they're into this. But as far as the entire European region, yeah, they're going to Zagreb.

They're going to Rotterdam with Overeem. That's great. But I still feel like North America is the bread and butter. I mean, that's where the big fights are going to go. There's no doubt about that. And the time difference is a major reason. reason why. Next move for Connor.

Okay, this person is supposing that he beats Nate Diaz. Okay. What happens next for Connor? Is he fighting at 145? Is he fighting Dosanjos? Is he fighting at 170? What's next for Conrader? If he would have beaten Dosangos, I feel like he would have fought Lala for the belt.

Now that that's not happening, that's a trickle-down effect here. Like, he can't make history. And so it's kind of weird to jump over 155 to fight at 170. So my gut says 155. against RDA at 200. But, I mean, honestly, December 13th, whatever it was, the day after 194, did you ever in a million years

think that Conno McGregor's next fight would be at 170 pounds? Like, we can't even sit here and predict these tings anymore. It's unbelievable. This is absurd. This is, no one predicted this. So, who knows, but I have a hard time seeing them. I feel pretty confident it won't be at 145. He looks so much happier and better, healthier.

walking around now, so why go all the way down? At some point he has to decide, you know, where he's going to stay. Here's the rub, though. Yeah. If Dosangos can't, in a reasonable amount of time, face Connor, sure. He's going to have to defend the 45-pound belt, if not for any reason other than to keep having that belt when he, you know, eventually fights for the 155-pound belt.

He'll need that to make that history. He'll need that to have both of those belts. So if Dosangos, you know, can't get healthy or can't get right in any, you know, quick amount of time for Connor McGregor, he may have to do that 45-pound fight again. What would you prefer? Edgar or Aldo? I think Edgar.

I think Edgar's earned it. There was nothing about the Aldo performance that made me think that this needs to be an immediate rematch. I'm not a fan of those in general, but this one certainly, he knocked him out clean in 13 seconds. I mean, I think Frankie Eggers earned it, let Aldo get back on track with another win. And Aldo may end up facing Frankie Egger or, you know, any permutation like that. It may not even be Connor McGregor. So I think there is, you know, some, I don't know what the word is that I'm trying to think of.

But there's multiple ways this could play out. It's really not set at all. And Connor McGregor is kind of in the driver's seat of it. I want to see Aldo versus Max Holloway, but do you agree with what I said at the top? Connor is bigger than any title? Like fighting Connor? at McGregor weight. Do I believe that or does Connor McGregor believe that?

I believe that. I'm asking if you agree with me. I think that beating Connor McGregor means more than beating anyone else. So it doesn't matter if there is a belt or not on the line. What do you mean by means more? Like long term, having that win? Now, do you mean the first guy or just like? Because my thing is having that UFC title matters a lot.

You are the champion of the premier mixed martial arts organization in the world. And that extends beyond you, it's at least two fights if you win it because you've won it. you defend it. Fair. That's at least two big fights for you. Yeah, but if you beat Connor McGregor, you get the rematch. Think about this. I asked Aldo and Edgar this question.

What means more, fighting Connor or fighting for the belt? And they pick the belt, and I think that fighting Connor is the answer. That's the lottery ticket. I'm not 100% sold on it for a one-fight thing, for a guy like Nate D.S. 100% fighting Connor McGregor makes more sense than jumping into a title shot with short notice and that kind of situation. Connor McGregor is a lottery ticket, as he tells us every time, and he's right about that. He is right. But if you're a fighter fighting in that division, I'm saying that the belt is still more prestigious than beating Connor McGregor.

Disagre. You're setting yourself up for much more long-term success, and you're setting yourself up for something in history that's more important than one fight. Don't you realize that all he cares about are his checks, and they weigh super heavy weight? Yes, but that's not the rest of reality. Connor McGregor is in his own world. And it is his world. Make no mistake about it, I realize the value of getting in there against Connor McGregor and beating him.

But if the option is UFC Championship or Connor McGregor, I think it's still in the favor of USC championship. But it's closer than it's ever been in any other point in history. Nobody else matters as much as Connor McGregor. Unbelievable. Home versus Tate? Yes. What do you think about Amanda Nunes

possibly jumping into the next title show? Oh, great question. She is fighting on the card lest you forget against Valentina Shevchenko. I believe that there's a strong chance if Holly Home wins and if Misha wins as well that the champion will fight before fighting Ronda Rousey. Holly Home has made it very clear that she wants to remain active. She's been around this game a long time. She's not sitting around.

And if Rhonda really is going to return in November, that's in eight months. She's not waiting that long. So I could very well see. And I think there's a reason why that fight is on this card. I could very well see that happening. They also proposed, if it's not a title shot for Nunes, what about Zingano for a number one contender fight at like UFC 200 or something like that? Isn't it amazing? We were talking about Holmes debut being a year ago yesterday.

That was Zingano Rousey. What did that last? That's like 14 seconds or something. Was that 14 seconds? Yeah. Or 16 or something like that? I think it was 14 and we haven't seen Kat since. Crazy.

I'd like to see her back. I'd like to see her fight Juliana Pena. Oh, I like that fight. That's the fight. But what this tells us is there's a lot of options now at 135. Yeah, it opens things up. It opened things up as it always does. It was 14 seconds.

If Misha Tate wins. Yes. Who would Rhonda fight in her return? Would she be fighting Misha Tate? That's a good question. Again, I, I, I, still think there's a possibility that the champion fights again before Rhonda comes back. But that's not the question here.

Who would Rhonda face in her comeback, regardless of what? Misha, for sure. She goes for the belt. That's, believe it or not, that's almost best case scenario for Rhonda. I know she said otherwise recently, but that's someone you've won against twice. You have confidence when fighting her. I mean, that's the best case. And now she's the champ.

That's great. Absolutely. I agree. Best case for Ronda, for sure. Yeah. What's your best guess at the UFC 200 main card if Connor and Holly both win this weekend? First of all, will they be on it then? I guess that's what the question is presupposing.

This is a very smart man. I think that that's a possibility for sure. It's in four months. You know Connor wants to be on it. Absolutely. Holly won, yeah, like around four months ago. So it's not, you know, like I said, wants to remain active. That's a good thing for the UFC.

They need that, especially, you know, with things getting changed a little bit. you know i i think it's getting too late for gsp at this point i don't know i'm not i just not feeling it um Anderson losing uh they they need something they need Connor is an obvious one holly would be great as well um yeah so i i like that a lot what happens now if if either of them or both of them lose what are we looking at for u s c200 geez uh hoist gracie can't charm rock i'll stop it stop it i don't know that that is this is this is what makes Saturday so interesting. Okay.

This is a completely out of left field one. Okay. Let's check in with our friends Sean Jordan and Matt Mitreone. Have you heard anything about their free agency? Oh, I thought they were on the phone or something. No, no, no. Let's check in with them. Sean Jordan, I haven't heard much, to be honest.

Matt has been talking to people. I can tell you that. I believe it came out today that he is in the midst of filing an appeal about, you know, what happened, a grievance. about what happened with Travis. You know how these things go with these commissions. I don't think that there's a great chance of it being overturned, but that's what he's been focusing on.

And he's been fielding offers, but nothing's set just yet. Okay. And this is the final one from the website. Then we'll go to Twitter. Okay. Two fights left with Rampages deal with Bellator. Yeah. A lot of fun options out there.

What do you think, at least one? If you can't do two, at least one of the matchups. And now these are the names proposed. Okay. The first one here. shoot over. Oh, yes. Kimbo, King Mo.

Yeah. Lashley and Phil Davis. I would go with Kimbo. That's the first one or the last one? Or does that matter? That's the first one because if Kimbo, I mean, they're not going to do it. But I think that gets them the most amount of ratings and it kind of helps legitimize this whole experience a little more. But if you do it on the second one and he wins, then he kind of leaves.

You know what I mean? I think they have to be very careful with the way they book him. I don't think he'll get a title shot because it's a two-fight deal, no champions clause, so you can't have him leave with the belt. Could you drum up some more heat with King Moe again? Well, Kimmo's fighting Phil Davis. Well, after that or before that or... I feel like if King Moe before that is not going to happen, it was May 14th.

Oh, wow. That is pretty close. Yeah. And I have a feel... I mean, if he loses, then maybe, but if King Mo beats Phil Davis, he's getting that title shot. Right? So he's not going to fight McGeeery. He's not going to fight Phil Davis.

Not going to fight King Moe. That's why I feel like... Lashley? I don't think anyone wants to see that, including Rampage. The wrestling? It's not a big fan of the wrestling. I don't know if you heard. I've heard that, yes.

So now... And now the question of the day, shootover. Do they do it? Yeah, do they do it? Are we missing an opportunity? I mean, Rampage made a convincing case. Geez. I don't know.

That might be a little too crazy for me. but I hear that they're interested. Oh, boy. And it's on Spike, and this feud, you know, was born on Spike, so don't put it past them. All right. We're going to move on to the website. By the way, is there anything about Dada? No, there was not.

Well, I just want to, you know, follow up on that. Okay. I obviously got some phone calls and texts afterwards. You can guess from who and people saying, look, your anger is misplaced. It should be towards his family and not us. and, you know, and again, all I was trying to say was, off-the-record conversations happened in this sport every single minute. I mean, that day, last Tuesday, when the whole RDA thing was going down,

I mean, I was having a thousand off-the-record conversations. No one was even willing to do that. And the tweet that Coker put out, you know, in the midst of our show, that was fine, but that's not what they were giving us at the time. And so they were hanging their hat on, you know, we put out something on Saturday. and they do deserve some credit for, they took a statement that was put on Dada's Facebook page and disseminated it to the media.

So they deserve a lot of credit for that because they didn't have to do that. But that was on Saturday. Come Monday afternoon, that's 48 hours old. And no one's talking off the record. That's very concerning. And oh, by the way, they were saying that he's progressing. Well, he's going to be out at the end of the week.

Well, he's still in the hospital, according to the last update. So obviously the concern was very valid. And so I heard from a lot of people who were fine with talking off the record after the fact and saying that, look, you know, we were trying and this, we were traveling, all this stuff. I was like, well, where were you before? That's all I was saying. I wasn't trying to take any shots or, you know, I know anytime I criticize anyone outside of the UFC, people were like, oh, you're just a, you know, Zufa, shill and all that stuff. But I feel like I had a legitimate point there. It's, it was a very scary situation. And, uh, and obviously it was very

serious because he's still in the hospital. And, and, and no one was even willing to talk, say, look, this is the situation, this is where we're at, this where we're doing this. They weren't even doing that. And the fact that they weren't doing that was very alarming to me. So I'm happy that Data 5,000's Facebook page is updating. Thank God for that. And, you know, I hope the best for the guy. I hope that everything works out and he could be released very soon.

Yeah, my dad even asked me about it this weekend. Wow. Your dad's all over things. Yeah, he might well. My dad is, he keeps up with the MMA world now. But yeah, he was, he was wondering, you know, what's the status of Data 5,000? Rampage versus Tito, another one that someone throws out, which is fine. Nico the Greek.

Yeah, I'm cool with that. There was a time where they were trying to build that up. That was a fight. You remember? And he pulled out a week before. That's right. Okay. King Mo.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. The pay-per-view. Bisming, Hall of Famer or no? Hell yeah. UFC or MMA or both? That's a good question. I'd love if there was an MMA Hall of Fame.

It's long overdue, but yeah, 100%. Lock for both, yeah. He's a pioneer. in a way. And I know he fought in this post-Tuff era, tough one, I should say. He's a pioneer, so yeah, 100%. And that's why I'd like to see him

at least fight for the belt once. It would be a shame if that never happens. The time is now, hashtag. Agree with you completely. Bismings a no-brainer. So is Brock Lesnar, by the way, but that's a different argument for a different day. I wouldn't argue with you there either.

Wow. Silva, should he expect to face any consequences for his post-fight interview? Oh. I believe there was something about, total corruption or, he made some kind of comments. That's the beauty of having a translator. You're like, oh, it was translated.

Wait a minute. Was that an Anderson Silva impression? Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, boy. No, no, no. I would have liked to hear it again if it was. It's normal. It's not bad.

It's a good show. It's a good respect to the crowd. Okay, I think we found a Facebook clip for this week. Parabins. Oh, bigado. Thank you, Master. Hafeo Coder. No, no, no.

Hafejiao. That is not bad. Nogera brothers, horse. Sensei's a guy. This is it. This is the Facebook clip for this week. But ultimately, obviously, he's not going to suffer any consequences from that post-fight interview.

I don't think so. Okay. I don't think so. The heat of the moment, motions are high. Actually, two questions. This one's my own. Okay. What's next for Anderson?

What do you want to see him? Like, do you want to see him in big headlining fights is his title contention over though like what do you think i'm a sucker for the tim kennedy fight because there's bad blood i was told that they were interested in that had he won uh maybe this is the fight that gets gsp back do you think it's possible or my crazy they were interested in that had he won yeah i don't know not the title shot weird this being title shot this was brought up this was this was brought up no no no they not being the ufc they being other people close to him oh um yeah you should still be interested

interested in it first of all. Sure. Why not? I mean, look, they're both coming off losses. Yeah. Tim Kennedy's last fight was a loss to you all Romero. So I think that's fun. If you want to see him in like some legend fights,

one was brought up to me and I forget what it is now. I don't really want to see the rematch. Do you? It was special. It was fun. I don't want to see the rematch. But now, do you think Anderson Silva is of that same track?

Do you think he's the guy who is... Well, I think they're kind of calling for it. Ed Sores I saw on Instagram. No, no, no, no. What I mean by that is the guy to take fun fights and not be chasing the title, not be really concerned about it, kind of take a fight to that headline cards. Or do you think because he's likely not going to be fighting for the belt, possibly walking away? Like what do you see Anderson Silva in that scenario? I think it's interesting that I just saw that I got a text from Holly home that she was, oops.

Anyway, there was a miscommunication there 100%. But way to go. No, not on me. Trust me. Anyway, I feel like it was interesting that he was talking about the title all of a sudden. You know what I mean? And not, you know, like after the Wyman fight, he felt like he was, you know, free to the title. So I still think Anderson's a big enough name in a thin enough division.

If he would have won, I think they would have done the title fight after Wide Man. Now I think he won one, but who knows how this changes? I mean, if his foot is really cracked, his leg is really cracked, that's a big problem as well. Sure. So there's still a market for Anderson Silva. Let's put it that way. And you mentioned Yul Romero? Yes.

Do we have an update? No. I actually checked in on that. There's no update just yet. That's it for the questions for today. That is it. All right. What about, did you see that promo for Connor and Nate, the one that aired on the broadcast?

I didn't. There's one online. You got to find it. It's just like this is one of those times where the UFC, they have a guy there who's been putting together some promos where the UFC promos are getting better than the fan-made promos. It is just, the whole thing is so crazy. I mean, I was at the open workouts,

and we jetted home to the hotel. And it was so strange covering a big event like that when everyone's just talking about Connor, even the fighters themselves. And I'm sitting there in my hotel room and just watching this scene unfold. I have no problem with saying that I'm pretty exhausted right now. but I cannot wait to take part in that whole scene in Las Vegas.

It is going to be insane. The Irish, the Stocktonians, what do you say? Give me a prediction right now. Connor McGregor. Okay. Holly Holme, you should take. Holly Holme. Okay.

I've looked at the odds, obviously. Yeah. Because I'm very interested in this card. I mean, I cannot believe, I cannot believe that Jim Miller is only a slight favorite over Diego Sanchez. Wow. That's the pick-to-click? I think that's got to be the pick.

Jim Miller, he lost to Michael Kiesa, but I still think he's got enough. And, you know, Diego's been on a rough run lately. And I think Jim Miller, yeah, I like that one a lot. Trying to see if there's anything else that jumps out of me. No, not particularly. I like Jim Miller. And I'm definitely with Connor McGregor.

I mean, even at minus 420, Connor McGregor might be a good bet. He's minus 420? Yeah. That just feels like... That's perfect. That feels like it's rigged. That's perfect. You know, it would have been better if Diaz was plus 420, but, you know, we can only get what we have.

But that's pretty good. Did you like the walk and talk with Bisping? I love the walk and talk with Bisping. Why, you're trying to test me? Think I didn't watch it? Our man Casey brought out a new camera. I thought it was really cool. It was a lot smoother.

I'm not, like, technically proficient to, like, a tune to, like, figure that stuff out and, you know, notice that. but it was awesome. Michael Bisbing is great. Michael Bisbing is fantastic, and you guys have a good rapport. So, yeah, I did see the walk-and-talk. It was awesome. All right.

On that note, we say goodbye. There he is. Edo Portals understudy, Mr. New York, Rick. What do you think of his hair, by the way? I mean, on point. Just beautiful. It's beautiful. Mr. Helwani.

The greeting was fantastic, and needless to say, the hair was fantastic. Oh, one last thank you. Shout out to Josh and James from the MMA complex. dudes. The hell is that? Just a shout-outs to random people. All right.

Anyway, we are done. You can hit my music. We are getting ready now. Going to get my beauty sleep on. Hope you enjoyed the program and all the hard work that went into it. What a show. So much going on. Never a dull moment.

I try to explain this to people over and over again. The best sport to cover. The best sport to be a fan of. I mean, where else do you get this kind of stuff? One guy's about to fight for the belt. He's about to make history. He's about to fight in two different weight classes. And then the next minute, you've got this guy from Stockton, California.

There he is. The 209. You see that interview? At the airport? What's the game plan? Get out of the way. Hit him with some stuff. Come home with a pocketful of cash.

That's the game plan. American Ninja versus Irish Ninja. This is going to be fun. And who would have thought? would actually feel even bigger. Crazy! Still hope we get that RDA fight, but for now, this is going to be fun.

We'll be there starting Wednesday. Anyhow, thank you very much to Mark Romandie for stopping by. Great stuff, as always. Thank you very much to Frankie Edgar. Looking forward to having him a part of the Fox family this weekend. Thank you very much to Anthony Pettus. Best of luck to him, April 23rd. Thank you very much to the great Brian Stan.

Tremendous insight, as always. Thank you very much to Jose Aldo. Junior. Thank you very much to Ido Portal. Great stuff from him. Thank you very much to Herb Dean. Thank you very much to Holly Holm. Best of luck to her.

And thank you very much to Mike Winklejohn. Thank you very much to all of you for listening as well. Back next week, same time and place. Until they say, peace. I'm out here. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision. a network of 130 million of them, in fact.

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