MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 320

Episode Date: March 15, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Michael Bisping, Rory MacDonald, Stephen Thompson, Rashad Evans, Gegard Mousasi, and Matt Mitrione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

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So it is so very great to be in this studio, talking some MMA with all of you. So everything has kind of calmed down since last week. UFC 196 trickling away of course a lot to still digest from that event and we have come to find out that A it may have broken

many records for the UFC digitally, pay-per-view, social media-wise, all that and then some and the narrative start to change as the event gets further and further away in the rearview mirror now it has been about the sort of

oh, I don't know, this explosion of Nate Diaz love that has come about. And in particular, via the mainstream media, Nate Diaz showing up on Extra on Friday afternoon. And it's so cool to see how everyone's just so happy for the guy. Wow, Nate Diaz actually smiles. When he's not preparing for a fight, when he's not cutting weight, he's actually a pretty lovable guy. And that's cool to see. Good for him. glad to see that he is getting the love and respect that he deserves.

And like I said last week, cool to see him come out of the shadows of his brother Nick Diaz. A relatively quiet weekend in the world of MMA, but there was still some interesting stuff on Friday night. Invicta had a show in Las Vegas, and it was a solid card, some big names, some big performances. We will talk about that a little later on. New York Rick was in attendance, as was good old JR.

Jim Ross, how about that? New York Rick rubbing elbow. with JR in Las Vegas. On Saturday, World Series of Fighting had another show. Highlighted, of course, by Justin Gaci defeating Brian Foster, Chal Sann, with his new best buddy, Kenny Rice, calling the action, and called it a Charlie Horse. That's what Brian Foster suffered.

Many Charlie Horses, many kicks to the knees, the calves, the thighs. Great performance by Justin Gaci. and begs the question, are there enough interesting fights in World Series of Fighting for the Gachis and Marlon Maraises of the world? Gachy calling out Jason High, which I think is a perfect matchup for him, a very credible opponent, a very credible test, and the kind of test that he hasn't had as of late. So hopefully they booked that one for World Series of Fighting and Justin Gachey and Rico Verhoeven winning in glory that happened on Saturday afternoon. Solidwood for him. he wasn't all that impressed Tyson Fury, his good pal giving him the title, and now a very interesting story developing for Rico Verhoeven, who has, as you heard on this show, expressed

great interest in competing in mixed martial arts. He's 1 in O as an MMA fighter, and it's going to be interesting because his glory contract is now up. So does he go to a Bellator? Does he sign a kickboxing slash MMA deal with Viacom? And does he become that sort of star that Tyrone Spung was supposed to be before his hype got derailed. Is he, in fact, the real Bo Jackson of combat sports? Great look. Great fighter. Sometimes lacks that killer instinct, but a very interesting story to monitor if you're an MMA and kickboxing fan that is Rico Verhoeven. So great lineup today. A lot to discuss. A lot of interesting people on the show. So let's get right to it. At around 310, we'll take your questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA

hour or leave us a question or comment in the comment section below. At 305, we've got our y'all must have forgot segment. And by the way, I got a t-shirt from a fan in Las Vegas. There it is. Y'all must have forgot. Look at that. This is from Louis Lee J, the shirt MMA guy, at Louis Lee J. on Twitter. He gave me this in Vegas. Y'all must have forgot. We could just put the t-shirt here for the entire show. Who needs to see my face? Even got the MMA hour on the back there. Beautiful. Love it. Thank you very much for that. Underrated thing about New York, Rick, fantastic shirt folder.

He is Abercrombie-esque. So anyhow, y'all must have forgot segment. That is one that is related to the card this weekend that has very much flown under the radar. I think we're still all sort of feeling the effects of 196 and coming down from that high. Brisbane this weekend for the UFC, Mark Hunt, versus Frank Mear. and of course we'll talk about that later on. Michael Bisping will join us at 2.45. Of course, coming off his big win over Anderson Silva,

he has a busy weekend coming up as well. Talk to him about that. Roy McDonald will stop by to talk about his fight against Wonderboy Thompson at 225. Gagar Musasi, hopefully he brings the fire once again. Talk about his recent win and what's next for him. 145 Matt Matrione will be on. And yes, Matt Matrione on for the second week in row. He does have an announcement to make.

So get ready for that. 145. What will Matt Matrione announce later on? Well, we're 40 minutes away from finding out. 125, the aforementioned Wonderboy Thompson will stop by to talk about his upcoming fight against Roy McDonald's. What is going on? Love when this happens.

And in a minute, we are going to be joined by Sugar Rashad Evans. It was announced last week that Rashad Evans is now going to be fighting Glover Tashara. He was supposed to be fighting Shogun Hua at UFC on Fox in Tampa Bay, Florida. And this is now the second time that we were supposed to get a Rashad Evans versus Shogun Huah fight. Of course, they were supposed to fight at UFC 128. Many moons ago, if you recall, they were going to fight for the belt. And unfortunately, he got injured. Shogun stepped up to fight John Jones, and that led to a whole bunch of drama that I don't need to remind you about. So he was supposed to fight him at UFC on Fox, April 16th.

Shogun injured. The timing is interesting, not saying that he's not injured, but they are going to Curitiba in May, and Shogun, of course, from Curitiba, and I'm wondering if they're going to just put him on that card. So instead, Rashad Evans now faces Glover-Teshire on that Fox card, a very solid Fox card, headlined by Habib Narragamadov versus Tony Ferguson, but Rashad has been making all kinds of news as of late, so I want to talk to him about the new opponent and that news.

So let's get right to him. Rashad Evans, are you there? Yes, what's up, Ariel? How are you, Rashad? It's good to have you on the program again. Great to talk to you as always. How do you feel about the switch, going from Shogun to Glover to Shera? You know, it's definitely a tougher switch, you know, honestly speaking.

You know, Glover is somebody who's been gaining in momentum, you know, putting together a few good wins and not just, you know, just dominating different fashions, you know, showing his ground game, showing the fact that, you know, he can grind out some fights and, you know, not typical global fashion as before when he was just knocking people out. So, you know, he's showing that he definitely went back, worked on his game, and he's gotten better. So it's definitely a tough of fight. Did you think twice, did you have to, you know, considering you feel that way, was there any hesitation on your part in accepting this fight in almost a month out? No, it wasn't a hesitation. You know, honestly, I was excited for the challenge.

Glover was the guy I was supposed to hurt before I hurt my knee again at the second time. So it's a matchup that's been, you know, supposed to happen for a while now, and it's an idea that I've been comfortable with. But, you know, at the end of the day, Ariel, it's about going there and competing with the best guys. And, you know, I didn't look, you know, the best in my last performance, but I still feel like I'm one of the top contenders in the wake. class and I want to go out there and prove that and going against a guy like Glover gives me that chance to go out there and show that, you know, I'm still one of tough guys out there.

And I want to, you know, fight for the belt before I finish my career. And fighting guys like Glover is the kind of fight that I need to have. So what about that last performance against Ryan Bader? What do you credit that performance to? Was it the layoff? Did you not feel yourself? Why do you think you look the way you look out there? I think it's a little bit of the layoff, but for the most part, I don't feel like I was ready to step into the cage as far as, you know, having the trust in my need that I need to have in it.

You know, I went out there and I was, you know, hoping that I can go out there and return to my old movement, but movement was a problem for me, finding my time was a problem for me. And that had to do with how I structured my training camp. You know, my main goal in training camp was just to make it through camp. and I wasn't training with the team like I really needed to and I was having a lot of individualized training but it wasn't the kind of rounds that I need to get in like in order to make sure that you're in fight shape you got to fight you got to grind you got to be in there

you know making it ugly getting it dirty and not really too much worrying about if you're going to get hurt you know for the most part in training you know you hope that doesn't happen for the most part you're not training with that on your mind first and I was going to each training session trying not to get hurt and, you know, it was a little bit too pampered,

and I can't have a training camp too pampered, because if I'm going to win, it's got to be gritty, it's got to be grinding, it's got to be ugly, and that only happens when I train that way. That is really interesting. So are you switching it up this time around? Yeah, I have switched up at this time around. You know, Henry Hooft has been really instrumental,

and Greg Jones and Neil have been really good at putting together camp that's going to make sure that I don't get hurt, but at the same time, push me in areas where I need to be pushed and really help me get back to what I do. You know, there's no secret about it. When I don't wrestle, I don't win. That's just the truth of the matter. When I don't wrestle, I don't win.

So I need to get back to my wrestling. I need to start getting back to the things that make me who I am. I mean, there's so many things that you can learn as mixed martial arts and being such a student of the game, it's tempting to want to put everything into your breadbasket. But at the end of the day, when you get away from what got you to where you are, then you lose a big piece of what makes you successful. And I think I just need to get back to what makes it successful.

In hindsight, then, was Bader kind of the worst opponent to come back to because wrestling is his forte as well? You know, I think he was a perfect opponent to come back to. I mean, you know, he's top of the weight class. Yeah. And I think it's perfect because of what I learned from the whole situation. You know what I'm saying? I think the lesson that I learned in that whole fight coming away,

just realizing that, you know, that's not how I want to compete. That's not, that's not, if I want to be at this level, I've got to be able to blaze through opponents like this, you know. And it was a big wake-up call for me and just think in a mindset of like, how do you want to finish your career? How do you want to finish off? How do you want to go out and be remembered, you know? And it's something that really stuck in my mind,

and it hurt my feelings for me to go out there and to perform like that. And a matter of fact, I still haven't watched a fight yet. Wow. just because it was just, it just wasn't me. You know, after I got out of the fight, I walked out of the cage, and I felt like I didn't even fight, and I felt like that because, you know, it was just one of those fights that was just probably ugly to watch,

and it was even ugly to be in, and it just didn't give me a good feeling inside. So I had to do a lot of soul searching and just kind of, you know, think about what I really wanted while I was competing, not just to make a paycheck, but what did I really truly want? when it comes to compete. Do you think you'll ever watch that fight again? I don't know.

I don't know if I'll watch it. Wow. I think that just being in that experience was live enough for me. And, you know, feeling the mistakes that I was making along the way, you know, I was definitely internalizing as it was happening. So I don't know if it will serve a purpose besides just ruining my mentality for a day to watch it. But, you know, there's lessons to be learned in everything in life. And I'm very thankful for that lesson.

I'm very thankful for the fact that I got the chance to go out there and to compete and to see, yeah, my knee is okay, and we'll stand up to a fight. Now that I know that my knee will stand up in a fight, now that I know I can go on and fight, I don't need to be so careful anymore. I don't need to, you know, be so afraid to train how I train. I can go and push myself and know that my knee's not going to pop out. Did seeing what your Fox colleague, Dominic Cruz, did in January,

give you a little more confidence to see him come back and look like that and win the belt. You suffered a similar injury. Did that help? It did. It sure did. And I also inspired by Dominic. You know, Dominic is, you know, he's such a, you know, great inspiration for me just being able to come back how he did. And, you know, it was one of those things that made me believe in the fact that, yeah, I have been out.

Yeah, I have, you know, had a long role when it comes to this injury. But at the end of the day, it's not the end of the road. You know, Dominic Cruz came back and just showed what, you know, what determination focus and being very meticulous about a good training schedule can do for you. And, you know, I'm forever a student because of that, because I'm still trying to get there. So you're 36. How many more years you want to do this for? You know, I think about that.

You know, everybody asking that question. You're 36 years old. but I don't really feel 36. Oh. You know, I don't really feel, I don't really feel 36 at all. And I don't know how long I want to do it for. You know, I definitely don't want to be those fighters who fight for too long, and then, you know, somebody has to have that awkward conversation,

that retirement conversation that they don't want to hear. But I don't want that. But I want to be able to quit when I feel like I'm done. You know, and ideally I like to quit after, you know, I had a good performance in a cage. but you never know when that that final bell is going to sound

you know I almost got my final bell sounding not being able to return to fighting with the knee injury and something that happened in practice and you know the dream is to go out there and go out on your sword you know go out on your shield

and feel like the triumph that you had in the cage just one last time that's what the that's what you really really want you know to go out like GSP with the belt in hand that's what you really want and I hope that's for me, you know, but I'm in search for that, and however long that takes me, I'll get that, but if, you know, if my desire to pursue that goes further

than anything else, then I'll be done. But is there a chance, like, you knock out Glover-Teshirea on April 16th, and then you say, okay, I'm good, or we're not quite at that point yet? No, I'm not even at that point yet. Okay. You know, I'm still learning, you know, I'm still loving this whole, the whole pursuit of knowledge when it comes to mixed martial arts and just being in the sport and in the train, the grinding part of it all, I'm just in love with all of that, you know, and right now I'm

not ready to give that up, you know? Maybe I'll say, you know, maybe two, three years I'll decide to give it up, but it all depends. You know, I definitely don't want to fight too. I can't fight no more. I don't want to do that. At this point, are we done, you know, accepting fights against Shogun? Do you just kind of feel like it's never going to happen? Yeah, you know, I just kind of feel. feel like it's not going to happen, and it's kind of unfortunate. Yeah. It kind of feels like, you know, our stars are never aligned, but I guess, you know, it would

have been good fight. You know, it's something that I always think about if I ever got the chance to match up with Shogun. But, you know, I heard that he heard his knee pretty bad, and he probably won't return, you know, until a few months, and I think the next time it may be like in Brazil or something. So, you know, I guess if he wants to retire, then it's probably great for him to do a then and, you know, find upon him that he probably can have a good showing out again. So, you know,

good for him. But it is definitely a fight that I wanted to have, but everything is not for me. And in time, I'll get with mine. Now, here's an interesting thing. You have long been one of the best analysts in the game, but as of late, and this is sort of flying under the radar, but you're getting a little more credit these days for it, and rightfully so. You have been spot on in picking some huge upsets. Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, if I'm missing any, you call it. You call You called the RDA over Pettus Fight, right? Yeah. You called Holly Home over Ronda Rousey.

Yeah. You called Nate Diaz over Connor McGregor. Uh-huh. Two else did you call? You called another one. T.J. Dillishaw. T.J. Dillishaw. You called that one, too. What the heck? Are you making money off of these? I hope you are, because it was some big underdogs.

Yeah, I made a little bit of coin off of it, for sure. How are you doing this? I don't know. You know, when I see some of these matchups sometimes, I get, I start analyzing them and I start thinking them over and over again. And sometimes the favorite does something that kind of, it kind of sways me to feel the other way, you know what I'm saying? There's something really, really subtle, but I see it, you know?

And with McGregor, I felt like he was a lot different that last fight because he was he wasn't the same person it seemed like he was kind of putting on a little bit too much just for the show and I know

and I know the woes are putting on too much for the show because at the end of the day you're taken away from what makes you sharpen the cage and then I also another problem

with the fact that he didn't have to cut weight now every single thing that goes into a fight is a process you know for me putting on my suit They can show them suited in the booty before I go out there. That helps me get to my rhythm so then I'm not analyzing and think about every aspect of the fight before it's time to.

So for him not cutting weight, for him not having that on his mind, he then put other things on his plate that he wouldn't normally do because he would be cutting weight. So that became added stresses. And then if you just add the physical attributes to do it, you have a guy in Connemagrager who's doming at his weight class because really he, he's, he's tall and he has a cannon for his left hand. But he makes people make mistakes because he leads them to believe that he's a lot closer than he is and then he pulls back and then he catches them reaching and he's able to catch him with counterstrikes or he makes them have a huge range to fulfill. So he'll have his hands on the line.

He'll slip a lot of punches and they can't catch him, but then they'll offer themselves up with one of his hard shots leaving their chin out. Now with a guy like Diaz, he was going to do the same defense and he's going to pull back, but Diaz is going to be able to reach him. So then I felt like the reach would be a problem. Then I felt the punch is a bunch of your problem. So then I was like, Diaz is going to win. Wow. And now there's talk of a potential rematch. Would this be a catastrophic mistake for Connor? Or does it change when it's a rematch? For him to go against Diaz?

Yeah, to do it again. I don't think he should go against Diaz. Okay. I don't think he should go against Diaz. I mean, I think that it's not a fight that I think that he should stay in his weight class at 145 and dominated at 145 and be the best 145 punt he can be. I think the fact that he's ambitious enough to go up and all his weight classes and want to say there's no, you know, weight classes don't mean nothing. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

And when we've seen what weight class can do when he went to 170, it's there's weight class is real. It's real. Yeah. And he knows that now, but I don't think that him fighting Diaz will be. be a smart move for him because he did catch him with a few shots, but you got to think he fought a Diaz on 10 days notice. Yep. You see what I'm saying?

So if he goes with a Diaz who had much longer to train, he's waking up another animal. He's dealing with a different animal altogether. So I think that he should just let Sleeping Dogs lie and just take that as a lesson and go down on 145 and just dominate. A lot of talk last week about 196 being sort of a long-term bad night for the UFC because is Connor and Holly lost. Do you agree with that? Or do you think it, as I do, to be honest,

it sort of exemplified the beauty of MMA in that anything can happen on any given night? Yeah, I think I agree with you, area. I think the fact that, you know, once you have people losing like that, the favorites losing like that, it keeps everything fresh. And it keeps people wanting to watch it

because it's not scripted. You know what I'm saying? You know the UFC does not want Conno McGregor to lose. And you definitely, you know, you know that. So when you see that happen, you're just like, wow, this is, this is, this is as real as it gets. This is as real as it gets, you know, and it makes you appreciate the sport on a different, different level because you're not going to see that in almost any other sport. Like, you're not going to see it in boxing. You know what I'm saying? The favorites, most of the times they usually win. But in the M.A., you see the, you see the, the upsets.

and there's something in us that likes the CV upset it's refreshing to see the upset you know so I think it helped out more than anything and what about your old pal GSP showing up at this event last Saturday and sort of flirting with the idea of coming back

by the way that scene I think it was the first ever series first ever season of UFC Primetime when he was gearing up Was it for the BJ Panfighter? When you come to TriStar, you know that one where they see you, when they shoot you? That was the best scene in the history of primetime where you show up and there's the graffiti or whatever.

It was just amazing with the music. I don't remember what's... When they had me looking cool with the glasses. Oh, yeah. It was like, here he comes. Rashad Evans Sugar. It was just great. Anyway, what would you say to GSP?

Should I come back? Should I come back after two and a half years away? What would you say to him? And has he asked you if he should come back? he hasn't asked me but I know I know for a fact he's been really flirting around the idea you know and and I mean it's you know it's part of his competitive nature and that's made GSP who he is today because the fact he he loved to compete but wanting to come back I mean I just I would tell him no because of the fact that you can't script it any better like

There is no better way to go out. There's no better way to go out than with your belt, you know? And that's something that, you know, hindsight will maybe teach him after he does come back is that, you know, you come back sometimes and you want to come back for the wrong reasons. You want to come back, you know, just for your ego and stuff like that. But, you know, the bigger picture, just having that legacy, just being able to retire on top, that's worth his weight in gold. I mean, you just, you don't really see that too often.

You know, you don't see too many Peyton Mannings or Ray Lewis's retiring after they won a championship. You don't see that. Do you believe John Jones has changed? I don't know. You know, I really don't know. I believe that, you know, there's definitely have to be some part of change. I'm saying there's no change in them at all. You know, I don't think that would be accurate, just having to go through what he went through.

You're required to change now. When you say change, like change as in being totally different than what he was, I'll probably say no. I'll probably say no. He isn't totally different than what he was. Is he still doing drugs? I'll probably say no. But, you know, I don't know. It remains to be seen because when you have success doing something, it's really hard to not do it anymore.

You know what I'm saying? And if I've been having success and I've been, you know, blowing Coke and I've been successful doing that, then it's hard for you to tell me that blowing Coke is bad. You know what I'm saying? So, I mean, you know, there would have to be some things that he internalized from that whole situation where he just doesn't want to repeat again. And, you know, success is a monster in itself, you know. A successful John Jones who starts returning to his winning ways, does he go back and start doing the things he did before? who's in the only John is to, but I believe, I would like to believe he changed. Are you going to pick another underdog when your pal D.C. fights your other pal, John

Jones? Can D.C. beat John Jones, or no chance? I think D.C. can be John Jones, and I think this fight's going to be remarkably different than the first fight. And I think so, just based on pace. You know, I think that, I think that D.C. in his last fight, you know, he definitely fought a really, really hard pace and a really high pace and it was a really good fight, and I think that if he brings that kind of fluidity in a fight with John Jones, I think that John Jones can have problems,

and I think, you know, John Jones is a bit bigger than he was, you know, before, you know, in that first fight. So I think that, you know, John getting down to 205 and getting his weight under control and stuff like that and being, you know, I think, think it could pose some problems from John just because he gotten so big off, you know, in an off-season time, and then you're not allowed to rehydrate how we were before. You're not allowed to use IV bags, so then you have to worry about the, you know,

the hydration part of it all. So that's when, you know, having a very hard fight, a high-paced fight and never having to fight with the new rules and regulations can be a problem with Jones. but I think that that may be the variable that a lot of you may not see. But are we going on the record right now? Will D.C. beat John Jones a week after your fight? Is this another one of your upset picks? I can't say that right now.

I can't say that right now. It's too early to say it because I got, I got, I wanted the exclusive. I got to look at some, I got to look at some fight film and see how they're training and see how the body looks and then I'll be able to tell you. But I think that D.C. definitely has, he definitely can. I think he definitely can. You know, D.C. He seems different this time around. He seems different this time around, mentally speaking.

You know, and really, honestly speaking, this is the fight that D.C., he has to win. Like, if D.C. doesn't win this fight, then it's like there really is, like, he would have to retire if he doesn't win this fight. Wow. Retire. Why retire? I think so. Because what, I mean, it's like, what does he do then? Does he try to face John again for the third time? Like, once you take away a man's desire to be the best or he knows that he can't be the best,

then you, in a sense, you just kill that man off. So if he loses his fight, John would have killed him off. Like, there's no reason. Like, it's competitive grind to be gone. Wow. He maybe goes up to heavyweight at that point. Maybe.

Maybe so. Rashad Evans. I just don't have to retire. I just don't think like, you know, with D.C. being so successful with the whole the Fox gig and stuff like that, I don't think that the desire to put his body through it will be, will outweigh, you know, the life that he could have if he didn't, you know, he didn't do it. Rashad Evans killing it. Great stuff, Rashad.

Thank you so much. What a pleasure it is to talk to you as always. Thank you. I appreciate it. And we look forward to it. It got a whole lot more interesting in Tampa Bay. Rashad Evans versus Glover-Teshirea live and free on Fox on April 16th. I can't wait for that one. Thank you so much and we'll talk to you soon, Rashad. Thank you. I appreciate it. Bye.

All right, there is. Sugar Rashad Evans. Dropping knowledge. Woo! Interesting stuff there. Great breakdown. Great analysis from Rashad Evans. Looking forward to that fight very much. A much more difficult and interesting fight now for Rashad Evans next month in Tampa Bay. recently the UFC also announced a fantastic main event you know i tweeted late last week that there are very very very few fights on the upcoming schedule that interest me more than rory macdonald versus wonder boy thompson that's taking place june 18th in beautiful Ottawa Ontario Canada how about that the capital of the great white north but before we get to our next guest let me quickly tell you

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Put in the offer code MMA to take advantage of this fantastic deal for you. our loyal MMA hour fans. Now back to the show. And right now we're being joined by Wonderboy himself to talk about that fight and a whole lot more. Stephen, how are you? Doing great, my friend. How about yourself? I'm doing fantastic. What a fight this is,

but I have to imagine deep down inside, you were a little disappointed when you got this offer, right? You wanted that title shot. Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, after beating Johnny Hendrix you're the number two ranked guy before. and, you know, former World's Way champion, and somebody even said

his last fight was controversial with, you know, with Robbie Lawler. I definitely wanted that fight. I know Gloria McDonald fought him last July. I actually fought on the day before I fought Ellenberger and ended up losing, and, you know, I figured they would give the new guy a shot. That's the fight I wanted and still want,

but, you know, sometimes it doesn't go your way. When you guys were offered this fight, did you make one, like, because Robbie still hasn't been offered or at least been booked for another title fight. Did you make one last pitch to essentially what you just said right here to get that title fight?

Yeah, man, you know, we were really wanting it. Me and my management company, my dad and my coach, that's what we were shooting for. But, you know, the UFC wasn't happening. You know, I'm right number two. There's one guy in front of me at the number one contender, which is, you know, Rory McDonald's, and that's why I'm in the game

to fight the best, and I want that spot. And Warren McDonald's it is. This kind of feels like it should be a title fight. Like, I almost feel like we're getting it a little too soon. I can see you guys at some point fighting for the belt, so why do it now? I have to admit, I'm a little surprised. I love the fight, and I can't wait to be there and watch it and cover it in person, but I am surprised that they went this route now.

Yeah, man, me too. I don't mean to belabor the point, but I just, I feel like I need to talk it out with you here. Yeah, man. I mean, I don't know why, to be honestly. I don't know what the USC was thinking when, They matched us up. I mean, you know, everybody's saying, hey, you know, you trained a try star. Actually, the last time I trained to try to.

So, it was several years ago when George was still fighting. And I think it was before I was even fighting in M.A. Oh, wow. It was the last time I was there, yeah. But, you know, we always keep in touch, and George and Farras, and, you know, they're good friends of mine. And so it's, you know, Rory McDonald's. So that was kind of, A, I was wanting the Robbie Lawler fight. I don't want to fight a friend, but I know it's business.

And I actually talked to Rory before the press conference. You know, we're cool with it, man. And we understand this business, but, man, it is what it is, man. And, you know, you really can't do anything. What was that conversation with Rory like? What did you guys talk about? Oh, it was cool. You know, I saw him at the press conference and went over there and say,

hey, every time we see each other, we always talk. You know, I've been to a few after parties together. kind of hanging out and being up there, TriStar, and being new to the game, he's helped me out a lot at the time with, you know, being a good wrestling coach. We never actually sparred, but, you know, wrestling partner. So, you know, it was really cool. It's like, hey, man, you know, it sucks that we've got to do it, but, you know, he was like, you know, his business, and, you know, we'll be buds after, and we're just going to be friends that are going to punch each other in the face in 2018. So I was like, yeah, let's do it, put on the show.

In accepting this fight, did you say, okay, I'll take this damn fight, but, you're But, and I'm sure you didn't say the word, Dan, because you're just so damn polite. I just used it twice in the same sentence. But did you say, okay, I'll take the fight, but then, then I can't be denied a title shot. Was that ever discussed? That wasn't discussed, but I understand. If they don't give it to me, then there's something wrong, you know? Yeah.

And that's for my, obviously, my management, paranoid, to really push for, you know, after the fight. and I'm going to be pushing it like crazy. You know, I'm not going to, I don't want to be, I'm not the type of guy to really sit out and wait for anything, but I'm the number one contender. They have to give it to me. You know, I wouldn't know why they wouldn't at that point. It was really interesting that week in Las Vegas prior to the Hendricks fight

and then after the Hendricks fight because it was sort of unlike you. You know, you were saying, I want the title shot before and certainly after, and you're always so respectful in Palais, and I was like, man, this guy, if he's saying it like this publicly, then you must really want it. Like deep down, that fire must be burning. Was it uncomfortable for you to have to stump for yourself like that? No, you know, not really. You know, I think I did it in a manner, a respectful manner. And, you know, I just told you have seen the fans what I want. And I don't think there's anything really wrong with that. Now, if I was out there, you know, doing the Connor McGregor thing, then I think everybody would just be like, Stephen, you know what, shut up, sit down. This is not you. We know you, man. You're not like this. Come on. Yeah.

You're trying to, you know. And yeah, man, that's what I wanted. I knew what was going to happen during, well, I didn't really know what to expect when I was stepping off or in the octagon with Johnny Hendricks. I was figuring it was going to be, because he was a tough guy, five, five and around war. And, oh, man, I just felt comfortable out there. And I finished a guy who hasn't been finished in the octagon. So I was like, heck yeah, man, give it to me. Let me do this.

I mean, the number one contender already fought this year, or late last year for it. Give it to me, man. I know I can put on a good show, and I know I can be Robbie Lawler. I know I can be the World's Way champion. Man, what a fight that was. I got to tell you, if you tell me, like, what was one of the most enjoyable fights to watch as an MMA fan, period, in all my years of watching the sport, that one is up there. It was just such a joy to watch that.

It felt like you were fighting on a whole different level playing field, and you were this sort of video game character, And if you said, I want to do this now, you could do it. It was just unbelievable. And especially considering, you know, who Johnny Hendricks is and how much respect I have for him. And the fact that you were doing that to him was, I mean, there are very few performances that can outmatch that performance just a month or so ago. Have you ever felt like that in all your years of competing? Forget about MMA.

You had a 50 or so kickboxing matches. You were a youngster doing all kinds of combat sports. Have you ever felt like in that kind of zone before? You know, what I was up there, and I don't, you know, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to Johnny Hendricks or anything. Yeah, yeah. That was just my night, but after, I was just like, man, that was easy. You know, and I feel, I know I came late into the MMA game. I'm still learning.

I know I am. I'm still evolving. I'm 33 years old, but I feel like I'm even at my peak yet. And I know that I can give a lot more. And, man, yeah. So just the whole camp was just great. You know, the guys coming in to help me, you know, working with Chris Wyman, and I wanted to take my take down defense.

My wrestling coach Thomas Lee, Matt Miller, Ryan Hall, all came in to help with me with my camp. And, man, just the confidence I had going in there was unbelievable. And to be honest, I did more drilling than I did sparring. We knew exactly what Johnny Hendricks was going to do. He wasn't the type of guy to really make any dramatic changes. I mean, if you've seen Johnny Hendricks fight, But, you know, from the very beginning to the end, he's fought pretty much the exact same. Right side forward, throws a big left hand, get you to the cage, try and take you down.

And the type of guy to kind of stand there and duke it out with you. And so we did a lot of drilling, you know, when he throws that big left bomber, that right hand, what are you going to do when he gets you to do the cage? And we just drilled it over and over and over again. And there was no thinking out there. I just reacted to exactly what we worked on, and it was just money every time. As you mentioned, you were 33, you made your MMA debut around six years ago, and, of course, you had a great kickboxing career,

but I'm wondering, do you kind of wish that you got into MMA a little sooner? I do now if I knew where I was going to be, of course. You know, I would have started. I would have probably done some wrestling in high school or even in college. You know, I put all that on the background and I focused on my kickboxing. I was doing wrestling, I was doing jiu-jitsu. But for many years, it was just sitting out there, I wasn't really do anything with it because I was so focused on kickboxing.

And, you know, I did pretty much everything I could in kickboxing. And I was like, you know, where do I go from here? This was actually after I ended up tearing every league in my left leg, and I was training with George and these high-level MMA guys. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to give this a shot. You know, I'm learning a lot here. And I found myself actually modifying my kickboxing and learning the wrestling in jihitsu just to be a better partner for George.

You know, he would bring me in for his camps. And I didn't want to just be a stand-up guy for him. So that's when I made this list. They were kind of my inspiration to actually move on to MMA. And, you know, when I first had my first MMA fight in 2010, I feel like it wasn't ready. I feel like I wasn't ready when I got the call from the UFC. Like I just didn't have the ground game and the wrestling.

And, of course, after the Matt Brown fight, I knew exactly what I had to work on and just been killing it ever since, just trying to work on that wrestling defense by Jiu-Jitsu. And even getting better with my striking, even my weight cut. I mean, it was just on point this last fight. It was the best I've ever had. Does it feel like things have changed for you since that went over Hendricks? It got great ratings. It's funny that that event kind of blew up because of the whole heavyweight title fight injury.

So they put it on live television, but you seem to have benefited greatly from it because a whole lot more people saw the fight. I recall seeing, you know, Hope Solo tweeting you saying she's a huge fan of yours and all this stuff. Does it feel like your star is shining a little brighter now after that win? Are you noticing that? Yeah, I am, and it's definitely gotten a lot busier for me. You know, I went, UFC had me going out to Asia, did an Asia tour there. Oh, wow. We went to the Philippines for four days and spent two days in South Korea. It was unbelievable.

It was really cool to experience that in just the culture, and it was awesome. And then, you know, and then right after I got back from that, we were headed to Vegas to announce the Royal McDonald's fighting and just kind of, you know, snowballed from there. And, yeah, it's just a little bit busier, but I'm back in the same. South Carolina getting mentally ready for my training camp and, you know, scheduling people coming in for camp and obviously I'll be going up to train with Chris. But yeah, man, it's all been, it's all been awesome. And, you know, I think it's just going to get even crazier from here now. Yeah. So I got to get used to it.

No, I mean, the nickname, the way you fight, your style, everything, I mean, it could be, I feel like you have only really, and I don't mean to keep, you know, kissing your ass here, but the UFC has something special. Like there's, there's a market that loves what Connor does and when Nate does, and there's a market, I feel like if I show my son, who's four years old, look at this guy, he looks like a Power Ranger and he fights like a Power Ranger, there's a market there. You kind of look, because you were sitting at that press conference, and there was a lot of crap talking going on, and you'll never do that. I feel like even if you're baited into that. In the back of your mind, you say, I'm going to do things a little differently. I'll be the

clean-cut guy. I'll be the guy who can, you know, talk to kids and things like that, and take pride in that. Is that part of your thinking here? You know, yeah, and to be honest, that's just who I am. I mean, you know, I'm a Southern boy and going up in the martial arts and, you know, saying, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, you know, no, ma'am, yes, sir. You know, all that, it's just a part of who I am, and I'm not the type of guy to really talk crap. And to be honest, I'm not really good at it. But, uh... I would love to see you try.

I think it would be great. Oh, my goodness, yeah. I'm just horrible. I can't. I'm not as quick. I mean, if you look at those guys in Ireland, they bust each other's balls all time over there and they get really good at it you know i mean they're getting really fast you know and um just quick off their feet and but yeah that's just not not who i am and you know me being a martial

arts teacher and i teach the kids here at our gym and we got about 750 students and most of them are kids wow and i just want to be that inspiration for them just let them know hey man you know you can reach your goals and you know stay focused and um you know just just be that role model for them and give them back what I know the martial arts has done for me. So, yeah, to be honest, that's why I do it, man. I fought for many years for free just because I like doing it. And I like being that role model for them. It was a fun press conference because of all the crap talking, I must admit, it's a lot of fun to watch. And then the face-offs were fun because you had like Jones and D.C. and Wyman and Rockhole going back and forth, Yawanna and Claudia,

going back forth. And then you come up there with Roy and you. you like pat him on the shoulder and you're all just happy, smiling and stuff. Did you enjoy being a part of that? Was that fun for you a little different than what you're used to? Oh, man, I thought it was great. I thought it was all. I was just glad to be there, man. It was cool.

It was so cool to watch how it all goes down, you know, from where I was sitting. You normally watch those kind of press conferences on TV, and you're never really there. And I'm pretty much, you know, Chris and Luke and John Jones and Cornyette. They did all the crap talking for everybody on the panel. Yeah. So I feel like I didn't need to. But, yeah, man, it was super cool. And that whole weekend was nice.

So the fans there were, you know, were amazing there to see, obviously, Connor McGregor and Ireland fans. And, you know, the Ireland fans are ridiculous. They're just, they're awesome fans. And so they made it even more exciting, you know, when the fans got into and started yelling and going crazy. So I literally sat out there with a smile on my face the entire time. Who do you think we'll fight Robbie next? me

Are you hoping he just sits on the sidelines? I hope he does Yeah I mean Is that a possibility though? I don't know You know

I feel like the UFC Maybe coming up With something special here For Robbie Maybe something they're not announcing I'm not sure I know they're talking about Nate stepping up

Which I don't agree with I think that's bull crap Oh Wow Yeah man I mean Nate's normal He's not a 170

He's a 155 guy You know, he weighed in as heavy as possible. He was, what, 168? Why did he deserve the title shot? Because he beat another 1505er, you know? Yeah. Why did he deserve it? What if they would have given it to Connor, as was discussed?

You might have sworn. Yeah, I mean, after that, they had given the Connor, yeah, I would be pretty upset. And I think a lot of welter weights would be at that level would be upset that they gave it to somebody else. You know? What about Woodley? But Woodley, I don't know, man. I have no idea. I feel like, you know, I know he was promised to title fight and he's waiting.

I feel like maybe the UFC is like, all right, you want to play that game? And you might be sitting on the sidelines for a while if you want to play that, you know. They said they have given him a few opponents and I actually talked to him before the press conference. And he was like, yeah, man, you know, don't know who they're going to give me next. You know, obviously I want the law or fight. So I don't think Woodley is going to be sitting a whole lot longer. I think he's going to get out there and just maybe do another fight just to see where he's going to go, you know, just to stay out there. You know what I mean?

Stay relevant. You got to. You sit on the sidelines, people forget about you. Yep. So I feel like he, I think he's going to maybe step out there just the way he was talking. Not really sure who yet, but, you know, he's a fighter, I think he's going to do. And I feel like if I sit on the sidelines and that's what's going to happen, you know, so. I'm here to fight, and I'm here to wear that welterweight title around my waist,

and hopefully it happens sooner in 2016, so I hope he doesn't wait on the sidelines. Robbie, I hope. Actually, I do. I hope he fits back and see what happens this next fight, and we go from there. Two last quick things. Regarding Rory, do you feel after the damage he took in that fight last July against Robbie that he might not be the same fighter when you fight him in June? I don't know, man.

And, you know, everybody was asking me that about, you know, Henderson's weight cut and stuff, but I feel I'm going to be facing the best Rory McDonald's, man. I mean, usually after a lot of people come back way better. I know he took a lot of damage. I think he might have had some nose surgery going on, but I think he's going to, I feel that he's going to be the best Rory. And I know they're going to come out with a good strategy.

Those guys that try to start, good strategist. Maybe not the exciting all the time, but they come, you know, to play, man. they're a game and he's going to have a game plan. I feel, you know, he's got a great jab. I know he's going to use it, maybe try and tire me out up against the cage, which the strategies they've done before with George against strikers, and, of course, give me to the mat. So that's what I feel.

I don't see him going out there like he did against Robbie Lawler, staying there and trying to get out. I think he took too much damage. I think he learned from that, so he's going to come out, you know, and try and mix it up a little bit better. How do you feel about fighting him in our nation's capital? His home turf. You know, hostile Ottawa.

Oh, man. You know, I'll face the guy, you know, was it Chris Clements in his hometown. Yeah, that's right. I felt comfortable out there, and the fans are great. Yep. You know, I spend a lot of time in Montreal. So I'm very familiar with Canada, and it's not like I'm going, you know, to Brazil or, man, somewhere way over there. You know, it's a kid.

It still kind of feels like home. So I don't mind. I know the fans are going to be there for Rory, but I think they're going to be in for a great fight, man. And that's what I'm there to do. I've been fighting for many years, and I don't let that kind of stuff get to me. And by the way, I'm kidding.

They're a very polite bunch. I doubt anyone's going to throw anything at you or be very rude to you, especially in Ottawa of all places, so you'll have no problem there. And by the way, Mazel Tov, to you and your family, you're going to be brother-in-law with Chris Wydenman. Is that not right?

That is right. man, in May. We just actually last week and we had our brother's bachelor party. Wow, where'd you go? Oh, man, it was great. We actually, Friday, we went to a Thomas Creek.

They actually, you know, brew for, you know, many of the states in the U.S. and overseas brewery called Thomas Creek. And so we went to a brewery, did a huge tour there, sampled a lot of their stuff, which is great. I'm a beer guy. The darker, the better. If I can't cut it with a knife and chew on it, I don't want it.

And then Saturday we did some tactical shooting, man. We have a buddy of our here who trains with us. He's head of the SWAT team here in Greenville, and we did some tactical shooting out there. And it was really awesome a lot yesterday. We did some paintball. So it was a physical thing, so it wasn't like we were going out and getting wasted or anything like that. It was very active, a lot of fun. A bunch of athletes, so we couldn't do that anyway.

So it was great, man. I love it. So your brother, his sister, getting married, a match made in MMA heaven because everyone got to know each other after you started helping him train for Anderson, right? Yeah, exactly. It's amazing. My brother Tony, he went, he came down to New York, spent I think a weekend with me during the realtor camp with Chris, and we all hung out, and him and Colleen just hit it off from there, man. It was crazy how that happened. Beautiful. I love it. Oh, yeah, it's great. Now Chris can't avoid you. He has to help you train for fights.

He's got to now. Exactly. He has to. Well, what a pleasure it is to talk to you, and what a pleasure it is to see your rise in this sport again.

Can't say enough good things about that last performance. Selfishly, as a fan in the moment, love this Roy fight. I do feel like it should be for the belt. I know you agree,

but it's going to be a lot of fun on June 18th. I am looking forward to it very much. Stephen, thank you for the time. Appreciate it on this Monday and we'll talk to you soon. Yes, sir.

Thank you very much. It's definitely a pleasure. All right, there is. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, stopping by a man who makes a very strong case as far as the number one contender in the UFC's welterweight division is concerned. I wouldn't have hated it, certainly if he got that title shot. But what a fight that Rory fight is. Wow, unbelievable. Great matchmaking there. Although I maintain it should be for the

belt, you need fights. And if you're going to Canada, you probably need Rory on it these days. So there you have it. Roy versus Wonderboy on June 18th. Okay, let us move along. Last week on this program sitting right over here, we had Matt Mitrione, our old pal meathead. And he was talking about his future. He was talking about a whole bunch of stuff. And it appeared as though all of you really enjoyed it. Y'all must have forgot Matt Matrione used to be on this show on a weekly basis with his Mitrione. And then Big Sexy ruined it for everyone. But anyway, he's back for his second straight week. And this time, Matt Matrione has got some news. There he is. What up,

Matt Mitreana. How are you, sir? Good to see you as always. Everything good over there in Indianapolis? Dude, West Lafayette, Indiana, you sir? Yes. But, dude, everything's great, brother.

I've got no complaints. I'm a really happy man right now. Everything's good, brother. So was that insulting on my part calling West Lafayette in Indianapolis? Is that not all the same thing? I believe that we deserve our own reputation. You know, we're in Purdue University.

You know what I'm saying? I think we're doing all right. Fair enough. It's a typical New Yorker type of thing just to lump them all together, right? You know, it's like the same thing for anybody from Illinois that if you're not from Chicago, you're from down south. It's just how it is.

We're the stepchild. Okay, so this is it. I just laid it out. You were on this show last week. You got a tremendous amount of response. Isn't it funny that people were like, oh, you guys are so good together. I used to come on the show every week back in the day. They obviously forgot a lot of Johnny come lately's.

I have for sure. I missed a minute. I miss actually, I was starting to write a minute. Oh, no. Please don't do that. Maybe it's up. It was like, you know what, may not be the best decision for right now. Yes, yes.

Okay, so the floor is yours. You were a free agent. You talked about the process last week, but now I understand you have some news. So the floor is yours. Matt Matrion, what do you have to say? After a lovely free agency period, I decided I'm going to go to Bellator. I was really interested in the options that Belator. was offering and I was really interested in the conversation that they were willing to have.

And I think that, you know, I think that they're making the right moves. And I think that sometimes you get into a spot where the things you fall in love with one organization don't necessarily seem to be anymore. And, you know, greener pastures might be somewhere else. And I think that, I think that Belator sang a really nice song. It was like, hey, look, it's a little quiet over there, buddy. But, you know, I think that you can get into a spot where, that you're looking for more opportunities, other avenues of professionalism.

And I think that's what I got with Bellator. I'm really excited about it. So it's official. You have put pen to paper. You are officially a member of the Belator roster. I am. I am. I am officially a member of the Belator roster.

And as a matter of fact, I am actually going to send out my first highly aggressive tweet. Oh, God. To that mentioning Bellator, probably as we speak. I might as well send it right now. Okay. So. What are you going to send out? I saw one last night and I thought it was quite funny actually.

And so I'm going to respond to it. I just couldn't, I wrote it last night and it's like, ooh, don't send it, don't send it yet. What is it? Can you give me a preview? We'll see it in a second little buddy. I'm just about to tweet it right now. I haven't written. I wrote it last night and just didn't send it.

I can't check my Twitter an interview at the same time. All right, so I will check that out in a minute. Boom. There it is. Gosh. That's the beauty of cyber technology right there, buddy. Oh, they brought me in for exciting fights. and ratings, you provide neither.

You get other dudes pregnant, get your game up. Tony Johnson, Jr. How about that? There you go. Look at you. Talking smack already. Twism me said, hey, like, I want to fight Mitrione. Like, stop, dude. You, if I was, if I ran out of sleeping pills, I'd go ahead and grab me. You're already talking smack before you even announced where you're going,

or at least acknowledge it. You're talking smack to the guys there. I like it. Way to make a good first impression. Hey, it's not work, but. So, last week. you said you got a really good offer you were waiting for the ufc to provide some kind of counter offer did they even provide one um no they didn't which um you know i'm actually i'm really happy about

and i'll tell you there's a set of parameters here um that that that i was i like i said man i have no ax to grab the ufc at all i don't think that some of the options that i don't think some of the things that happened especially with like the sponsor and everything else were handled as well as i should have been. And I voiced that opinion directly to Lorenzo and I told Lorenzo my thoughts on it and how to make it better. And it just wasn't the conversation that I was hoping it would go. But I don't think that had a reason in my and my and I'm not offering me something else. I think that they know I have a value. But I think that, um, so one of the things when I was in New York last week, the reason I was out there, uh, and let me say this also as a precursor to this is that my audition had absolutely

nothing to do, nothing at all of me going to Belator. Nothing. whatsoever. It was completely aside. It was brought to me by an outside company that had actually no idea that was even in talks of Belatory. So I'm in talks of Belatory and they're going pretty well. And then I get a phone call from, remember, our good friend, you're just talking about Ottawa, my good friend, Jesse Palmer, who I used to play with the Giants on. I've been to Ottawa, you know, on his golf outing and everything else. For those you guys that don't know, Jesse Palmer was on The Bachelor. He was a quarterback for the New York Giants for a handful of years. He's now in college football game day, some other stuff. Jesse's a friend of mine. I told

I was interested in in some form of talking head career when I got done fighting. He put me in touch with his guy named Reed Bergman who owns Playbook Inc., who was affiliated with Scott Boris for a long time and a handful of other massive contracts and work. So Reed split off, started his own company called Playbook Inc. One of those days, shortly after I started talking to Bellator, his VP of Client Development, named Kristen emailed me. It was like, we have an opportunity that just came up. I think it might be a good opportunity for you.

So then they threw my name around. I got asked to come in for an audition, and that's the reason I was out in New York. So it's just not something that Beltor offered me to help sweeten the pie up. But I actually ended up landing. I do now officially have that job for Belator announcing for Belator kickboxing for the commentary position.

Wow. Congrats. Thank you very much. I'm very happy about that. And that's something I've been wanting to do forever. That's amazing. So you're going to be, so that show April 16th in Italy, you're going to be doing that? Yes, yes, sir

Okay. Who's play by play? So I'm not sure who's going to do play by play yet. Okay. But I know they brought in, I think, seven other dudes for auditions for color commentary, and I won that spot out of the auditions. Look at you. Look at you.

But see, if the UFC had matched my offer, then I would not, and if I chose to deal with the UFC, I would obviously not have had the job with Bellator. Right. And this is something that I wanted to do all my life. So the fact that Belator has owned my Viacom. and can do something like this, even though there are totally separate entities, is massive.

And that's something I've been waiting for. And with my contract, Bell Tour, like, I signed a multi-fight deal. Yeah. Every fight is guaranteed six figures. I can't argue that.

Have you ever had a deal like that before? In the UFC? No, no, I have not. I'm actually, I'm making more than double than what the UFC offered me for show and win.

So that's a great spot to be in. I'm really, I'm extremely happy. And like I said, man, it was, and it was the conversation as far as how everything went was, was spectacular, man. And they were honest. They were very upfront. And they know that I tell the UFC all the time that I'm down to fight whenever.

I'm DTF, baby, DTF. Yes. And I'm always, like, a short notice fight. I'm like, look off fly across the world and fight Ben Rothball again on 11 days notice. You know, like, cool, let me do that. And that was one of the conversations I had with Mike Hogan was, look, dude, I want to say as active as possible. and get in and grind. And so I'll be fighting very, very soon.

Don't exactly know the date yet, but they know that I'm actually looking and get working and start earning my keep. Have they talked to you about any opponents, any cards, things like that? Has that been discussed yet? Nothing yet. I think that they're still trying to find out my place

and who wants to fight and get down. But I think that any type of notice, I'm always down to go hard. So, you know, it's a great spot. Had some stuff in my life. You know, recently that was a little bit, a little bit stressful, a little bit anxiety-ridden. And it seems like everything else is really starting to take off and be great. Is there a chance you get an immediate title shot?

Because let's be honest, that division can use a bit of a shake-up. I guess there probably is. I don't know who they would want to offer. So I've done my homework. I know that Vatai Minnikoff is their title holder. But from what I understand, he kind of has a preference to fight in Russia. And I think that there's some kind of issues going on. with how they do whatever um so or how he's handling their his belator contract or what they're trying

to do or something i don't know but um and that's just from reading wikipedia on them but as far as i'm concerned i mean if that's the offer that's got to be made let's let's go hard man i i i'm only trying to get my name in the paper and get paid that's it so this is interesting because oh everyone everyone okay over there there's my it's my text messages coming through geez um this is interesting because all you knew as far as MMA is concerned was the UFC came on to the ultimate fighter. I'm just people asking for interviews right now. Look at shit.

You're hit, buddy. What do you mean? Asking for interviews while you're doing an interview? I mean, how disrespectful is that? For God's sakes, these MMA guys. All you knew was the UFC. You were on the ultimate fighter, the highest rated season. You come in, essentially as a rookie and you have a nice run in the UFC, but it ends on a

sour note for you, as we discussed last week with the. eye poke and Travis Brown and all that stuff. Was there any part of you that was like, man, you know, I don't want to go out like this. I don't want my UFC run to end like this. Or was the offer just too good? And at this point, I mean, you got to make money. You have a family, all that stuff. You don't really care about that.

No, I definitely, like I told you last week, I've got unfinished business. And now I have personal feelings against Travis. And that's the fight that I wanted to get down. You know, and it's unfortunate. And I'm sure we'll cross paths sooner or later. or maybe a Kabib Nate Diaz thing where we're scrapping in a parking lot somewhere. You never know. But, you know, hopefully not.

Yes. You know, I only fight when I get paid for it. But it doesn't look like he and I will have a chance to match up again. But I just think that I definitely have a sour taste in my mouth. Wow. So here we are in Belator. That's amazing. How many fights on the contract?

Can you tell us that? Yeah, it's a four-fight deal. Do you think that this is it for you? Do you feel like you're only going to fight for four fights? or are you planning on sticking around for a while? Dude, I'm maybe 37, but I'm young and spry for all the mileage on my tread, you know. So as long as somebody wants me to go hard and it's still a rapid organization where the checks don't bounce, whether that be for Bellator or the UFC or for Risen and I fight Fador.

I mean, it doesn't really matter to me. I enjoy what I do and the moment I don't enjoy it anymore, I said the moment I'll get out. What about... Like I said, my stipulations were, I need to be. to get paid in what I'm worth. And I think that we, with some clauses in the contract and with the money I'm guaranteed in, we're definitely having a conversation there. What would have happened if Belator wasn't as aggressive as they have been, as far as free agents are concerned? UFC offered you what they offered. Would you have just resigned with UFC or was a chance that you would have

walked away from the sport? With what the UFC offered me? Yeah, if there was only really, you know, one option out there for you. I would have I would have countered with excuse me I would have counted with a couple

incentive latent contracts and performance late in contracts and if they would have said no then I would have walked away Oh interesting and your old friend Kimbo is there of course in Belator

although some bad news for him as of late and they're sort of living a double life with fights like that and then you have you know guys like you now and Benson Henderson Darren Caldwell looking so good they've got some legitimate

great fighters, are you hoping that these new signings and whatnot will get Belator away from those kind of freaky fights, or do you think that there is a place for that as well? You know, man, that's what's great about that is that even though I'm getting paid more, I'd still wait about my pay grade. I don't need to worry about it. Very well said. Well said. All I got to worry about is bumping my gums and backing it up when I come out there and throw hands.

That's all. It's all I know how to do, brother. You know, maybe give an opinion or two every once in a while, but that's about it. So do you have a dream scenario for your day? you a dream fight? Yeah, man, I would love to be able to fight on the card that Benson's fighting on. I think that'd be awesome, you know. I think that'd be great.

I'd love to do it. I don't know who's available in the heavyweight division right now. But I think it'd be a great time. You know, I think that there's, you know, I think that it's a whole new world, man. I don't know how Belator works up behind the scenes. I haven't seen anything that they do as far as behind the scenes stuff. So I'm interested to see how it works. I don't know if they have a show.

When is Benson fight, you know? Well, this is an interesting thing because you said you're going to be working in Italy, right, for that kickboxing show? That's February, excuse me, April 16th. Benson is fighting, I believe, April 22nd. So that's six days later. Could you do that? Yeah, I can do that. I mean, if I need to, I'll fly Henry with me, you know, to go to Italy and make sure he gets some training.

Or Italy, I mean, or Henry will know some people that are over in Europe across the pond. I can bring on over and I can get work during that week. Okay, not to be a Debbie Downer. here, but Rashad Evans fighting April 16th, and isn't Henry his coach as well? Henry is his coach, so I guess that means that there's somebody else. I'll call whoever Henry says, hey, look, this is the guy you want to work with. Yeah. You know, if Daniel Geethe's over there working, I'll call it Daniel Geetza and see if I can get, see if I can learn something from him and get some time in. How comfortable do you feel calling and analyzing kickboxing fights?

I feel that I've been a student of the game, and I study a very heavy amount with Henry quite a bit. And so I think that I'm prepared enough and I think that that's another thing is that I'm a color guy. I don't need to be necessarily a play-by-play guy. I need to know depth. I need to know information. I need to know, you know, interesting information about the people that are going at it and their histories and their backgrounds. And I think I can learn on the fly. I mean, I'm no Joe Buck, you know, but I have aspirations and I have desires to get there. Did you enjoy the process of being a free agent? I did. I did. I thought it was really interesting to have an ability or the opportunity to monetize your worth as far as like performance.

That's a really interesting perspective. You know, like it's really, it's very humbling because you have to look at who's doing what, how they're doing it, what they get paid, what, you know, what your results versus their results are. And it's a very, it's a very mathematical process. You know, it's like, okay, look, this is here and this makes more sense and this how I feel I want, but this is more than what I'm worth here, you know, or I'm worth more than this. I know that for sure, and this is the way I know that. So it's an interesting situation. And, you know, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it mostly because it was a means to an end and it was a brand new start. And that's what I'm excited about. Are you also excited about the fact that you can now get sponsors, your own sponsors? Is that a game changer? Yeah. Massive role, man. Yeah, like the fact that I'm on, and that's another thing too, you got to remember, you cannot, it's very difficult now to monetize the name that we built for ourselves in the UFC. So it's very difficult to do that, right? So that's one thing.

So if you're Cowboy or if you're Rhonda or if you're Connor, you know, there's one thing, even Misha now, right? Right. And Misha and Cowboy are money. They're incredible characters. But, you know, it's, it was difficult to, do that. And it's, especially if you have a small mom and pop shop that wants to throw you five, six, seven grand, well, they're not going to get their money out of it most of the time because you, because they're not going to take out a print ad or something else. So now we can go,

start from ground from square one. I can go back to, you know, to wing stop who sponsored me forever. I can go back to rat protein. You know, I can go back to a handful of other places that have, you know, been very involved in my life, DNR market. Even though it's a small mom and pop shop for like barbecue, dude, they, they've treated me so well over the years. I can finally start to put them back on my shorts and say, hey, man, thanks. Thanks a lot for the opportunity and believe in me. It means a lot. Throughout this process, did you have any conversations with Scott Koker?

I have not communicated with Ms. Koker whatsoever. Wow, that's interesting. So all through Mike Kogan. A great guy, I might add, but I'm surprised. Not one conversation with Koker. Not yet. And then we worked with a little bit with Rich Choy. Okay.

Rich Chow, yeah. You got to get your new boss's name right here. I mean, really. So I'm assuming that was matchmaking stuff, right? No, no. It was just straight contracts up right now. Negotiations contracts moving forward. I have not had a matchmaking conversation yet. Okay. Anything I feel compelled to ask, anything change as far as the grievance in Massachusetts is concerned, or it's still early April business as usual since last week? Same thing. So business is usual. They couldn't get the link to work or the download to work. So they emailed off. or they mailed off a physical copy of the DVD so they can take a peek at it.

But there's been no change at all. How would you describe your mood right now, just everything? I mean, this is a big deal. You sign this new contract, new chapter in your life, new challenges, new organization. I mean, how do you feel on this Monday? It's now off your chest. You're free to talk to the world about it. What's the like?

Put us in your shoes right here. You know, it's just a great feeling. It's a feeling that, you know, it's a, it's, it's, It's a great feeling to know you're wanted. It's a great feeling to know there's an arrival organization that's willing to pay you, you know, what you're worth or close to what you're worth or even more than what you're worth because they're building something here. And they know that you're a key element and what you're doing.

So it's a great feeling of validation for sure. But I think more than even the validation aspect, it's a feeling that no matter what you do now, if you're a fighter, you're a man with options. That's the best part about it. And in the NFL, it's common knowledge in the locker rooms that the most dangerous person in the world is a man with options. So you start treating somebody wrong. I'm about to start looking around. Same thing in a relationship, right?

Like things go haywire, things don't work out the way you want them to, whatever else. Somebody starts, you know, snapping or chipping about way too much and make things miserable. You better slow it down. Otherwise, I'm going to go to the neighborhood bar and pick up Sally. You know, and that's the way that things kind of work. And that's kind of kind of a backwards interpretation of what happened. Yes. By the way, I see your finger over there.

and it's freaking me out again. It's just like flapping in my face. Oh, gosh. You would have heard the stories about this thing in college. I don't want to. No, thank you. I remember I was on a radio show the night before UFC 137, the night before you fought Czech Congo in Las Vegas.

And I said, I'm going to go out, and I haven't done this since, I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that in one year's time, a year from now, Matt Matreel will be the UFC heavyweight champion. Czech Congo derailed those plans. And I think I told you this. You were supposed to give me a shout out after that win. Remember, MMA hour? That was our big break, but it never happened.

I want to see that Congo fight again. I don't care how bad it was the first time. I want to see that rematch. That's the fight I want to see in your debut in Bellator. What do you think of that? You know, I appreciate that. It's interesting because all they want to do is fight. You see what he wants to do is pick up a paycheck, you know?

And it doesn't seem like there's a real interest in getting down and earning this money anymore. And like I tweeted, old boy, you know, like I was brought here for exciting fights and ratings. So if you want to get down, go hard, whether it's grappling or whatever else, awesome. Don't wall install me. Good luck doing it, first of all. But like, don't try to get me pregnant. If you're going to get down, if you're going to get down, let's go hard, let's earn our money. Let's get the fans of the show.

Let's make Belator realize the reason why they're paying me what they're paying me. Let's go get this thing done. Congratulations, my friend. Very happy for you. Thank you for coming on this and doing this. And I look forward to now watching you make a run at the Bellator Gold. and I think, to be fair, it was probably good to hold off on the minute for this particular interview. But this is great.

Thank you so much, Matt. Very happy for you and your family. And again, thank you for coming on the show and announcing it. Hey, thanks a lot, man. Thanks for having me on. And thanks for always giving me a platform. Appreciate it. Much love.

There he is. Matt Matrione, the newest member of the Beltor heavyweight roster coming on this program and announcing that he has signed a four-fight deal with Belator MMA. Congratulations to our old pal, Matt Matrione. Okay, let us move along. We were just in London a few weeks ago, and of course the big news on that night, Michael Bisping, finally getting over the hump and defeating Anderson Silva.

We'll talk to him in a little bit, but I got to tell you the aftermath was very interesting because my post-fight interview with Gagar Musassi got a lot of people thinking and talking and took away a lot of that attention that Bissing had for a minute because we saw a different kind of Gagard, a fired up Gagard, taking no crap from nobody, Gagard. And I needed some more. I needed to talk to that man again.

So he is joining us right now on the phone. Gagar Musassi, how are you, my friend? I'm good, Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. I understand you had a nice little weekend skiing. Is that accurate?

Yes, I'm here. I will leave tomorrow. Oh, where are you? I'm in Germany. Oh, look at you. Did you drive one of your fancy cars over there that you have? your, I don't know what it is... No, I don't have a fancy car, but

I have a normal car. All right. Again, I told you, just pretend like you have the fancy cars. No one has to know. Yeah, but they don't pay me that well. Okay, fair enough. What about the reaction that you got to that post-fight interview and all the things that you were saying? That was pretty amazing, right?

I think people really responded well to this fired-up Gagar Musassi, surprised? Well, I don't know if they react positive because there were also people that I'm a bad loser, I think. So, even, it doesn't matter. Even if I speak my mind, if I tell the truth, there are people that are going to be negative about it. So I don't know, maybe

it doesn't matter what you say. People are going to complain anyway. Yeah, that's fair. But I think for the most part, people were like, wow, it's finally good to see Gager come out of his shell, speak his mind, and see you a little fired up. Was there a specific reason for that? I mean, like, you talked about the Machita fight that was several years ago, and you brought it up out of nowhere. You just say, like, enough's enough?

Yeah, I was frustrated, you know, but, you know, I tell the truth. I don't know if people are going to like it or not, but that was the truth, you know. what can I say you know but it is what it is I hope I will get my rematch one day did you feel throughout your career

for whatever reason you were sort of biting your tongue and hesitant to tell the truth and now you just kind of don't care anymore well yeah obviously it doesn't you know the quiet guys don't get

I say I think people talk more about what happened after the fight than they were talking more about the fight that I won. They were more talking about the press conference or about the interview that I gave than I actually fight. So it shows that people like drama. I don't know, people like crap. So it doesn't matter.

I think even if you have a big mouth and you perform so-so, it is what it is. People are going to notice you more. Even if you're, it doesn't matter. Nice guys come last, let's say like that. So in a way, does that still bother you, even though you may have gotten a good reaction,

the fact that more people are talking about the press conference and the interviews rather than the actual win over Toslady's, is that annoying to you? Well, obviously, because, you know, I was number nine. I lost that, I won that fight, I'm still number nine. Really? Yeah, it didn't change anything.

I'm like, I don't know. You probably have to talk your way self-way up, you know? It is what it is. I'm just looking for the fight that's going to make sense. The Machita fight happened around two years ago, a little over two years ago, yet I've never heard you talk about it like that why did you decide to do it now two years later you know let's even the machida fight the problem was I took the fight in Brazil coming off injuries not being able to train or fight for a long time

it's not going to make you a better fighter so I think that was one of those things that cost me the fight but also him being greased up I remember remember one time I had his back. He just, he just, I, he just, he just, he, he just, he, I don't know, he put his ass up and I slipped down on his back, like a chimney or I don't know, why do you call it? Yes. I took him down. He got up like a fish. He was, and then later on I noticed he was so shiny. And then I understood, like, because if, he, some fighters they do, they grease up. And then once they sweat, the sweat, then the oil come out, and then you're slippery. And that, I can guarantee 100% that he did it, you know. But it's in the past, you know.

I'm telling the truth, people don't like it. People say he's a bad loser. Well, motherfucker, if that happens to you, you're not going to like it either. Yeah. But I'm wondering, why two years later, why didn't you say it after the fight? Because you feel like people would have reacted even worse? Well, no, because I'm always keeping my mouth up. I'm not a guy going to complain about everything

or to say what I'm thinking every moment. I'm just giving the right answer or being the nice guy. I don't know. Yeah. But lately I've been frustrated, especially with the last loss, it's, you know, I don't know. I don't think I get the credit that I deserve. You know, that's a fight that, you know, eventually you're going to see a kick or a punch.

You're not going to see. You're going to lose eventually. It doesn't matter who you are. Continue to fight long enough. There's going to be a punch you're not going to see, you know. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that you were the bad fighter. Maybe you were the better fighter, but the better fight doesn't always win.

You know, I don't know. Frustated, but about the people that don't know anything about the sport. But because of social media, they have an opinion. Unfortunately, you have to hear their crap. Yeah. Well, I got to tell you, I love this fired up, Gega Musassi. And that shirt you were wearing afterwards, fantastic. Where did you get that shirt?

I don't know, Hugo Boss Store, but it wasn't Hugo Boss. I don't know what kind of. It was something else. It was snazzy. It was stylish. I like this. This is great. I haven't been this excited about your career in years.

Thank you, thank you. But now, you know, the jockey fire after that, I was getting momentum. You know, I think even I'd lost the Uriah Hall fight. I showed dominance. I show dominance, I show take down, take down defense. You know, I ground upon, I have showed everything. I don't think people can say, I'm not well-rounded, or I cannot beat anybody.

You know, on a good day, I can beat anybody. It's simple as that. And, you know, but the frustration is that I'm now nine, and, you know, I don't know. I don't know which fight is going to get me up closer to a title shot. But I think Anderson or Michael Bishling, those are the fights that make sense. So last week, via your manager, Nima,

you put out a statement that that's the fight that you want to answer Silva, 199 or 200. This was around Wednesday or so when this came out. How are you feeling? Do you feel like you have a shot at getting him? Well, I don't think he's going to take the fight, simply because I don't have that name as, let's say, Nick Diaz, or he fought Michael Biersping.

It's more about popularity contest. You know, with me, he has more to lose than to gain. So I think in his career, they're looking for fights that makes sense for Anderson. and it's not to show that he's the best or he's still one of the best. It's just, of course, they're going to look for the fight that makes sense for them, you know. So I don't think they're going to give me the fight. But, you know, Nick Diaz is also good if he fights still mid-of-way. I don't know.

So what do you think they'll give you? What realistically, you know what's the fight that I've always wanted to answer that? Answer that, and I'll tell you what I was going to say. Sorry. Well, Phil of Belfort, I think everyone wants to see that. That's the one. That's the one that I want. Yeah, but, you know, I think he doesn't want, like I said, nothing to gain if he fights me.

Come on. Let's say he's fighting Jack Ray. If he wins, he can't get another title shot. So, you know, he takes fights that's good for him, let's say, you know. Of course, everyone's going to do that, so I can't blame him. But, you know, obviously everyone is tied up now. only Michael Bissing medal or Anna Silva that I think fans is a matchup that people want to see

and it's a good fight for me let's say style-wise also for what's going to do for my career has there been any talks of you fighting in Rotterdam because that's close to home for you? Well I asked for that but they said the cart is full

and they have the co-main event and the main event so I won't have a place for that they won't have a place for me to fight there was that disappointed did you want to fight on that card yeah obviously because now I'm getting fat

I'm getting lazy obviously it would have been good for me if I could fight and take a rest one week rest start slowly and then I wouldn't have to lose weight again

and now I'm getting chubby I don't know. How are you getting chubby? It's good to be active. What are you eating that's getting you so chubby? Well, I start with hamburgers and French fries now, even like, especially in Germany because I'm in a ski area. Oh.

They give me crap. And so, yeah, nothing healthy, let's say. It sounds like you're having a great time, though. You seem very happy about it. Yeah, it is good. It's good not to be fighting. But obviously, our goal is something. something else.

Sure. You'd rather be fun. My goal is, one day if I fight for the title, I'm going to, whoever it is, I'm going to win it. That I know for sure.

But, you know, a lot of speed bumps in my career, let's say. But, yeah, you see how it goes.

We don't, we haven't lost the hope. If you, if you don't fight for the title when it's all said and done, you've had such a great career, and you're still young, you're only 30 years old.

Will your career feel unfulfilled? Will you feel disappointed? Will you feel like you didn't live up to your promise, your expectations? I don't know. You know, the UFC title is like a carrot, like horses running behind a carrot. Simple as that. It's a race

towards the title all the time. Yeah, I don't know. No. You know, if I achieve it, it's a compliment for me. team, you know, it's not the, even I will be the Dutch, only Dutch fighter to win the title. So, you know, it's accomplishment that I want to achieve, you know. Yeah, it is what it is. I don't know.

Everyone wants to get the title. By the way, how did you celebrate in London, the big victory? Do you do anything fun? Yeah, I got drunk. I got drunk. Yeah. Where? Where'd you go?

Well, we stayed at the hotel, but we were with a couple, we were with a few people, so we had a good time. It was fun? You enjoyed it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was nice. And who are you skiing with right now? You have a big posse with you, a big group of people? No, no, I'm with three friends, and, yeah, I have a good time now.

Are you a good skier? Well, it's my third time now, so I'm learning. I'm now good. I can go now, yeah. But as a pro fighter with a lot on the line, is it smart to be skiing? I mean, I feel like sometimes you get into these crazy accidents. Is it worth it? Well, and now I know.

It's not that difficult anymore. And I don't take unnecessary risks. So the chances are very slim. Yeah, if you go high speed, of course something can happen. Sure. I don't take a big chance. Are we going to see the evolution of this fired-up gayguard? Maybe next time you show up with sunglasses and a suit

and maybe like with a girl on your arm, and you say, F you to the media, I don't want to talk to you and stuff like that. Is this only the beginning of this new Gayguard? No, that's not me. Oh, okay. I just I'm going to say what I'm going to think and

yeah they just you know like I said I think my real best thing is a great fight but obviously he wants to go for the title and what I heard he wants to wait to get the title

shot but I don't know the MMA fight is getting old you know the I don't know who's the next generation in the middleways, I haven't seen anybody new. All the guys that are high up in the rankings are 38, almost 40. You know, how long can they go?

Eventually I will get my shot. It's a matter of time. But it is, you want to get there as soon as possible, let's say. Do you watch Luke Rockhold? And if so, how do you feel like you match up against him? Like when you watch him, do you say, like, oh, I see this opening here. I would do this? Do you watch them like that?

Yeah, yeah. definitely. I think Luke Rockwell is he is one of the best. I see how he got the submission win over Michael Bisting and his kicks. You know, he does things great. What he doesn't have is wrestling. I never see him shoot. He doesn't go for takedowns. And so my team, if I look at how I would fight him, I'm not going to fight him like, let's say, oh, let's take him down, ground and pound or let's make points on the stand-up. With him, I feel like if I go, I will go 100% to knock him out as quickly as possible and just go for it.

You know, I'm going to risk it all. Then it's going to be 50-50. That's how I feel if I fight him. I'm going to go all out. And he's a tall guy, so he's not going to be able to take me down or shoot on me. So it's going to be a stand-up fight. And I feel like I have the better hands that I will go for it. Then it's anybody's game.

The fight I really want to see is you in the cage with all the UFC rankers, the people make up those rankings and just see you take them all out. I feel like that's the fight you really want. Yeah, definitely. I think Anderson Silver still people would like to see that. Fito Belford is a nice fight. Michael Bisting is a nice fight. You know, those are the names that I think fans would like to see.

style-wise, match-up-wise, just exciting fight. I'm finding now all top 10 guys. Yeah. You know, they're tough. You know, you see that you can win from them, but you can also lose. Anything can happen, it's sport. But I don't gain anything from that. And I'm much better fighter now.

So I feel like I'm at my peak now. and I want to fight the top top five or the popular fighters. It doesn't matter as long as they're popular. And by the way, what about Uriah Hall? How come you don't mention him? Do you not want that one back? Well, I ask for that.

And they said it's not a fight that making sense. They're not going to give me the rematch. I ask for it, but it's not a fight that they're going to... Well, at that moment, my manager asked, and he said he's tied up or he's going to take a rest. They said something like that or it doesn't make sense, something like that, they said. So you actually doesn't want to make that fight. I don't think people want to, they're going to get excited for the rematch, let's say. it's not a

I say let's say Chris Whiteman or Luke Raffel that they deserve a rematch or a let's say if it was a top

name then maybe but because he's ranked a little bit lower it's not that well-known name maybe I don't know okay

all right well I'm curious to see what they give you it's always good to talk to you Geigard enjoy your time try to relax try to put your feet up

eat some more it's okay to get a little little chubby and have some fun out there skiing in Germany and I look forward to seeing what they give you next or who they give you next I should say yeah thank you Ariel so I don't know we're gonna have fun till they call me yes and then it's back to not eating and not training so we see how it goes great to talk to you as always Geigard appreciate it again congratulations on the win last month in in London thank you Ariel thank you there he is Gaggar Musasi one of the very best at 185, bit of a chip on his shoulder, getting fired up. I like it. Okay, let's move

along. Earlier in the show, we spoke to Wonderboy Thompson, one half of that amazing main event in Ottawa on June 18th. Of course, the man he'll be facing in the nation's capital, our nation's capital, the Great White North, is the Red King, Roy McDonald, and he is back on the show. It's been a long time. Very excited to talk to Roy McDonald. Roy, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hey, Rory, how are you? I'm good, you? The best part about this is I don't have to keep bothering you every week.

Every week I bother you, and I feel like you're getting so annoyed of me wanting to talk to you. Now we can finally talk. Yeah, for sure. All right. So, you know, it's interesting. I love this fight. I love it. I love everything about it.

But as I was just talking to Stephen, it kind of feel, I feel like this fight is so good. When I dream of it, I feel like it should be for the belt. And he was saying he was a little disappointed. He wanted the title shot. He didn't really want to fight you. he likes you, all that stuff. How did you feel when they offered you this fight? You know, I was happy.

I think it's a big fight for me because of his win streak and his last big fight against Johnny. So, you know, if I put on a dominant performance, it really puts me back in the running for a title shot right away. So I thought it was a great opportunity for me. Did you watch this fight against Johnny? Yeah, of course. What did you think of?

I thought it was one of the best performances I've ever seen inside the octagon, period. What did you think of it? I thought it was excellent. I was really impressed with how he shut Johnny down and really made him look bad. So, yeah, I was very impressed. I know you guys have trained together in the past, never sparred, and this was a few years ago. Has he changed a lot as a fighter? Has he gotten a lot better since you were in the gym with him at TriStar a few years back?

Well, I can only assume so. You know, he's gained a lot of experience fighting in MMA. Before that, he was just doing his striking, kickboxing stuff. So, you know, I think he's gained a lot of experience and really matured. So I think that's probably one of the biggest things that I've noticed. You know, he's really matured in the ring and really been able to show his strengths out there. So the fight is still around three months away. Of course, the last time we saw you was in July.

This is a pretty long layoff for you. Are you missing the sport? Have you enjoyed your time off? How do you feel about it? I don't know. I'm looking forward to it. You know, it's been a long time and a lot of negotiations been taking forever. So, you know, I'm really happy about getting back in there.

What kind of negotiations? Were you a free agent? No. We were negotiating my next conflict. like seeing if I was going to like renew a new contract or just fight out my my last fight on my contract. And that was really, that was dragging along until just recently. How many fights did you have on the old contract? How many fights you have left?

I'm fighting my six fight out of, so I was, I have a, I'm on a six fight deal right now. Oh. And this will be my six fight. So, I'll be a free agent afterwards. So did you sign a new contract or are you, fighting out the contract. I'm fighting out the contract. Oh, wow, interesting.

And so you talked about negotiations. Did you just not come to terms and say, okay, now we're just going to write it out? Yeah, basically. Yeah, we didn't really come to an agreement. So, exactly. I'm just going to, I'm going to, you know, honor the contract and go from there. How do you feel about that? Were you disappointed with what they offered you, and that's why you chose to write it out?

Yeah, you know. Yeah, you know, we weren't too far apart, you know, when it really came down to it, but, you know, I felt that I was worth, my offer was fair. And, you know, I was going to stand my ground for what I feel that I was worth and what I brought to the table, you know. And, you know, they didn't see it like that, so, you know, that's okay. I'll just You know I'll try to make a dominant performance And really

Show my worth out there My next fight And maybe Maybe after that we'll come to something A new agreement So Is it in your mind Do you want to remain in the UFC

Are you interested in testing the waters As we've seen We just had Matt Matrione on Announced that he has signed with Belator This has become a new story in our sport Do you want to be a free agent And actually talk to a bunch of different promotions. I want to make the most money I can. I want to get paid for what I bring to the table.

You know, I've sacrificed a lot to get to the top, the top, to the world title, you know. I really sacrificed and I didn't really, I took, I took a lot of chances, you know. I did a lot of favors I felt like for the UFC and it didn't. I don't. think it got, you know, returned. So now it's all about making money. And whoever wants to pay me the most is where I'll go. You know, now it almost feels like, well, now this fight is even more interesting because you've told us, and I didn't know that, does this feel even bigger than a title

fight now? I mean, there's a lot at stake here. You're essentially rolling the dice on yourself, right? Yeah, but I believe in myself. So I'm not too. worried about it. How would you describe the state of your relationship with the UFC now? Oh, it's good.

I mean, I have no beef with them. It's not like we got into an argument or anything. It's just business, and, you know, that's all it is. You know, my relationship with them is good and it's healthy. And, you know, I plan on promoting this fight and putting on a good show for them and honoring this contract. I have nothing bad about them to say. You know, I'm just, I'm disappointed that we didn't, we don't agree on my value.

How long did you guys talk for? And at what point do you say, all right, let's just stop talking, give me a fight, and let's move on here? Well, I told them, we told them for the longest time, you know. If you guys don't want to negotiate anymore, like, I'm willing to fight out the contract. Like, it's, I, I wasn't trying to hold it up, you know, I was, I said either send a fight contract over or, you know, or we renew a new, or we get a new one going, you know, so, yeah, I was always up for just fighting out the contract. I was good both ways, you know, so it just took time. Do you think this is why you're fighting Wonderboy? You can make a strong case that he's the toughest guy in the division.

And now maybe it's shed some light as to why this fight is happening now. Do you feel like that's why they booked you against them? I think it was timing. A lot was just random timing, you know. The longest time, they told me I'm fighting Hector Lumbar. Yeah. And then out of nowhere, he gets booked with someone else, and then Stephen wins, and then I get booked with him.

So, I mean, I really don't know what their motivation was or why they wanted that, but, you know, my job is to fight whoever they wanted. And I've always said that. I always say yes to whoever they put me against, and that's it. Over the weekend, I saw an article, Hector Lombard did an interview with Fox Sports.com, and he was saying that you're scared to fight him and all this stuff, and they offered you the fight, you turned it down. That's a lie.

So what happened there? Was it just that you guys were still in talks and they didn't want to give you a fight? I'll tell you exactly what happened. Please. We had been in negotiations with my new contracts since my last fight, but they'd offered me to fight Hector next. So I said, definitely, let's do it. So I think they booked me for the London card, the last London card there.

Yep. Okay, and then I was like, no problem, no problem, let's get it. And so right when I was going to start training camp, they said, okay, we don't feel that you're ready because you haven't started sparring yet, but I never told them that I was not ready or I wasn't healthy with my nose or whatever. Like, they just asked me if I had started sparring. I said, no, I was going to wait until training camp started to get back into it. And it was like, okay, we're going to postpone it until the Australia card,

March. I don't remember what it was, whenever the Australia card was. This weekend. Yeah, okay So I was like Well, you know, I want to fight in London And I don't want to be flying all over I don't want to be flying that far

To go fight this guy So I was like tell you what I'll fight in Australia but give me the new contract They were They apparently weren't willing to do that Because the next thing that happened Was they booked him with Neil Magne Huh

But I don't know Are you are you disappointed I know you were supposed to fight him last year in Montreal. Is that the fight you really wanted in this last fight on the contract? Was that the perfect fight for you? It's a fight, so, I mean, I was happy with it. I think fighting Stephen Thompson does more for my career. I think that's a better fight for my career.

But, you know, Hector's still a tough fighter, and I would have loved to step in there with him and test myself. against that kind of style. Either one's a good fight. I don't think, but as far as, you know, good for my career and more recognition and putting myself in a good spot,

I think beating Thompson does a lot more for me. Stylistically, sorry, go ahead. I guess it just played out in my favor with timing. Not that it was meant to be, like I chose it like that, but that's just how it played out, I guess. Stylistically for you, which is the tougher matchup, in your opinion? Stephen. Yeah.

And I'm sure, though, you prefer fighting in Ottawa as opposed to Brisbane, right? Yeah, definitely. I don't really like traveling that far to fight, you know? That's why I said, you know, I'm not really down to travel that far, but if, you know, if you renew my contract and give me, you know, a little bit more money, then, you know, I'll do it, but I'm not fighting over there for 50 grand, you know. I'll fight, you know, London or somewhere a little closer, or in North America. It's a long-ass way to make a little money.

Have you been paying, like, are you the kind of guy that reads the news? Have you been paying attention to Benson and all this stuff happening with free agency and MMA? Did that peak your interest at all? I heard a few things that someone told me that Benson said, but I haven't been paying too much attention, well. Are you looking forward to that? Like, do you think it's going to be a fun process, or would you rather not go through that?

I'd rather not go through it. I mean, I'd rather just agree on something with the UFC and move forward. We'll see what happens. Overall, do you... Go ahead, sorry? I'm very willing to do it, though. It means making the most money. Did what happened in the Robbie Lawler fight, did that change your stance at all?

Like, the damage that you took in that fight? Did you say, like, you know, I need to start getting paid more after putting my... Yeah. definitely because you did call that the best night of your life and all that have your thoughts

feelings towards it changed no not at all I mean the experience itself the fight was great I loved that you know it was a great great thing for me

and my martial arts career but you know a performance like that and everything I did leading up to it in my career with the UFC you know

I feel like I should be left a little bit more financially stable, you know. You know, I still make good money, but, like, I still feel that I was worth more, you know, I brought more to the table than what, you know, I really got. So I just have to fight for what is right on the business side now. And I guess, you know, getting to that point to the world title and stuff, after a hard fight like that, and, you know, it just opened my eyes to it.

Like, okay, now it's, you know, it's time to get a little more business savvy rather than just do whatever just to get to the big fight, you know? It's amazing. You're only 26. I feel like we've been watching you for so long, especially because you started so young in this sport. Do you know how long you want to do this for? Do you start thinking about when you want to do something else? I'll probably always fight. I don't know if it'll always be against the best guys, but I'll probably feel. fight for a real long time. And, you know, I'll probably be like a dance ever and just fighting local shows. I don't know. That's what you want.

Well, yeah, kind of. But you never know what interest will take me down the road later on. We'll see. And, you know, I apologize if I'm prying here, but are you going to become a dad soon? Yes, I am. Congratulations. Thank you. That's incredible.

Does this change the way you view your career and how much you make? Yeah, definitely. Definitely, now that I'm starting a family, I want to look after them, you know, and make sure they're comfortable. I mean, I don't need much at the end of the day. I'm just a martial artist likes fighting, but, you know, when you have a family and responsibilities, you want to provide for them in their future, you know, that they're comfortable.

That's definitely a big motivation. When's the baby supposed to come? July. Oh, wow. So right after the Wonderboy fight. That's right. Wow, that's amazing. Wow.

What a time to be Roy McDonald's so much going on. Is that good that it's happening right before? Would you have preferred it? How do you feel about it? I think it's good timing. Yeah? Yeah. I'll probably be able to take a couple months

and, you know, just get stable with being, you know, with a new baby and stuff, and then hopefully get another fight again after that if the contract negotiations go smoothly. Hopefully they go fast so we can just get something lined up quickly. But we'll see. When you're doing these negotiations, are you the one talking to the UFC or is it your manager, Rodolf, or someone else? It's my management, yeah. Do you ever get involved in the discussions? No, that's not my job.

Yeah. that's probably for the best. I don't know if sometimes they try to reach out to you to talk, you know, just man-to-man or via the phones, something like that. Yeah, I mean, they can call me and talk to me if they want, but, I mean, if you want to start talking numbers and all that stuff, I mean, I'm just going to leave that the guys I pay to do that, you know? Yeah.

It was great to see you at the press conference a couple weeks ago, and I noted briefly when I saw you, the hair was back. You look great in the suit. And then you broke my heart. You said you're going to shave it again. Why are we going to shave it? You look so good with that air. I don't know.

I was just screwing with you. I don't know. I might shave it. I don't know. It's a good look. It's with the suit and everything. It's good. And it was fun.

As I noted to Wonderboy, everyone was talking crap to each other, facing off, having to be pulled up. You and him, you're like all friendly patting each other on the shoulder. Did you get a kick out of watching everyone else? Or was it annoying? What was it like for you just being there

involved in a fight that had no heat of that kind whatsoever. I'm always happy to be part of those fights where it's like, let's just do our job and be martial artists, you know? Yeah. It's weird now seeing how every single time someone gets in a fight with another person they have to hate them or there's some kind of drama now and it's a big story. I don't get that, man.

Too much. I'm just going in there. I respect all the guys that I fight and most of the time I get along with them, well because we have the similar interests. We like to fight each other. Right. You know? But I've, uh,

I don't understand why everyone's really going to the shit talking route. I guess that's what the UFC model wants now. They, they want that, that drama, I guess. The fans like that, I guess. I don't know why, but. Did you watch Robbie's fight against Carlos Condit? Yeah, of course. That was great.

Who do you think won? I think Robbie squeaked it out in the end of this last round. Interesting, okay. Yeah, it was close, though. Razor close, but I think Robbie really pulled it out at the end. I thought afterwards that they would give you Condit, that they would finally do that fight. I thought it made all the sense.

Was that discussed at all? It wasn't. It never said that at all. Didn't he say he was retiring or something? He wasn't sure what he's doing? He's taking a break or something. Yeah, he said that. Sometimes people say that after fights, and he does seem to be sticking to it.

He said either he gets a title shot or he's probably not going to fight again. That's his stance right now. Gotcha. Well, maybe if I win the title, maybe I could call him out and we can make it happen. Finally, after all these damn years. By the way, speaking of retiring, you got everyone crazy in Dublin when you talked about George. What news can you break for us regarding George? Now we got Faraz tweeting things at Nate Diaz.

Is he coming back or what? That would be fun. I think it would be good to see him fight a need or something like that or a con or something. It would be cool. I really don't know. He's so secretive. It's hard to get a read on it, you know, but he's training and he's doing good. So I don't know. I think it really comes down to the numbers, you know. You ever sit down with him? Like you guys are in the locker room or something like, George, what is going on? Because I feel like he's sort of in, he's sort of out, and that leads some more question, more people. bothering you guys like can you just he you know what he should have done he should have just retired and just not stuck to it but everyone would stop bothering him but

now that he's kind of being too honest and telling us he doesn't really know it just leads some more speculation yeah what do you think happens do you think he comes back I think he could come back if the right amount of money is on the table and the right fight is there for him that's my that's my guess But I try not to ask George about that stuff because it's pretty much anyone ever asked him about. And when it happens, it'll happen, you know. I'll just see it on the news somewhere or something. But I don't know.

He'll do what he ends up who he wants to do. He'll be fine. Do you get a kick out of seeing what's happened with Nate Diaz? It almost feels like people have forgotten that you guys fought each other way back when at UFC 129. Completely different. I mean, now he's living large. Do you think about that sort of thing? Yeah.

What's you doing? Well, he made a lot of money. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. He made a lot more than he's probably ever made combined. Okay, good. Yeah, well, you know, with pay-per-view and all that and how big, you know, they said that fight, that card did over 1.5, or around 1.5, that's what Dana said last week in the media. Wow.

He got paid big time. And now he's, like, on extra. He's doing all this mainstream. You like that? Yeah. Yeah, I'm super happy for him, man. I hope everybody gets paid like that, especially a guy who's been around for so long.

I've seen a couple of his fight numbers after, and I was absolutely pissed. I was like, how is a guy like this making that money, you know? I feel the same way about my fights, too. You know, sometimes I look at the numbers. I'm like, what the fuck, man? Right. How am I getting paid that?

So, you know, when you hear something like that, makes you happy for martial artists do you think that the times are changing now that guys are starting to feel like a lot more guys do you guys talk about that backstage you talk about that at the gym like it's time that we start getting paid

a little more definitely becoming a main issue in our sport you know guys really want to see themselves get paid you know they understand this isn't forever and there's no there's no

pension after this or you know anything like that you gotta make your money while you're in it and so it's it's a hot topic now you know

yeah do you remember the first time you started to think that way was it before the Robbie fight or after um always thought about it I mean it was always there but I mean

I just didn't put as much like stock into it you know I didn't put as much effort into really making it an issue. Now, it's more of a, more of an issue. Last thing, do you think that there's a chance in the lead-up to this fight that you come to terms on a new deal, or has that been put on the sidelines until this fight is over?

It's already, I signed the contract for Stephen already for the, my, the amount that I am making. So it's already, it's already locked and done. Okay, so there's no chance they come up back and say, You know what? We want to... It's done until the fight, until June 18th and beyond. Well, so far, you know, I'm signed into the fight the way it is. If they come at me with a new offer, it would be really surprising.

I wouldn't see... I don't see that happening. Okay. What's your gut say? Do you think you resign or... After the fight? Yeah, what do you think? Um...

My gut tells me, I don't know. I just... I don't even know. anymore. I just going to do what I have to do, what I can control. I'm going to go in there and try to have the best performance in my life, and then my job is done. And then GDP, as they say, get that paper. Yeah, that's the plan. Rampage Jackson once told me the Chetta makes a better. It does. It does. I agree with that. Well, wow, this has been fascinating. I did not expect this. Now I understand why you didn't want to come on the show before.

It all makes sense now, Rory. No hard feelings. So I appreciate... Yes. All coming together. All coming together. Fascinating stuff. Really appreciate you coming on and talking so openly about this.

I think that's important as well. And wow, now I'm really looking forward to June 18th. I was really looking forward to it before. Now I'm definitely looking forward to it. June 18th, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Rory McDonald versus Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. It does not get better than that, in my opinion, as far as MMA is concerned. What a pleasure to have you.

on the show, Rory. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you with everything, with the training, with the upcoming birth. By the way, being a father is the greatest thing times a million. Your life is going to change for the better. I say this is a proud father of two, so really happy for you that you're about to be a boy or girl. Do you know? Girl. Awesome. Beautiful. I love it. Congratulations on that. And I will talk to you very soon. Again, thank you so much. All right. Thanks, pal. All right, there he is. Rory McDonald's stopping by. I did not expect that. Wow. stuff there from Roy McDonald. Really interesting and as I said in December that is the story to

watch in 2016, free agency and MMA. Holy moly. All right, we will talk more about that a little later on but one guest to go and very excited to talk to this man back home enjoying the spoils of being just the second man in UFC history to defeat Anderson Silva. We were there in London. What a performance, one of the best fights of the year thus far, and one of the best fights that I've ever seen live. What a roller coaster of emotions it was. We are talking now to the great Michael Bisping, joining us from his familiar setting here on Skype. Michael, how are you? I'm very good, my friend. As you say, I am back home. Yes. It's very nice to be home. Of course, you know, it was a mission successful. As you say, only the second man to be Anderson Silver. So

So very proud of that. Took a little vacation, but now back home with the kids, back to business as usual. So it was interesting watching you on social media. You and your lovely wife, you are, oh, nice SpongeBob mug, by the way. Very manly of you. Always a Spongebob cop. The big SpongeBob fans in this house. What can I say?

You're wearing a violent gentleman T-shirt and drinking a SpongeBob mug, drinking out of a sponge bottle. I love it. Many levels. Yes, I like it. You're traveling all over the place all through Europe. So it was a nice trip, I'm sure. Were you going to do that regardless of the victory?

Was that always in plan? Yeah, well, see, that's the thing. It's kind of, you kind of were attempting fate a little bit because we did schedule the holiday, the vacation, whatever you want to call it. You know, typically we like to stay in the city or the country where the fire is and do a little bit of traveling. But I did say to my wife, I said, you know, this may either be the best trip we've ever had. Or the worst. You know, I could be limping around. I could be covered in stitches. Now, I was limping around and I was covered in stitches. But it was still one of the best trips ever. Of course, I got the victory, I got the nod. And that's all that matters. After that, everything else is just by the bye, you know.

Kind of like a victory tour. You were in Rome. You were all over the place. Are people coming up to you and saying, I just saw you? Because you're fresh on everyone's minds. What was it like around Europe where maybe UFC isn't as popular as it is here in North America, where a lot of people recognizing you? I wouldn't say a lot of people were recognised to me. Certainly it was happening in Rome. There was quite a few Italians came up, oh, Michel, Michel, great fight! And then Prague, funnily enough, there was a couple of people as well, but it wasn't, you know,

I wasn't being mobbed in the streets, that's for sure. But, yeah, you know, obviously we're on holiday, we're in Rome, going into nice restaurants, I'm walking in, I've got about 15 stitches in my face, two black eyes, so I thought they need to explain to everybody. listen, I'm not a thug. I'm a professional, but my wife was just like, Michael, shut up, say nothing. I'm not bothered. So I just ate my food and looked like a thug. As usual. Sure. Of course. How many times have you watched the fight?

Do you know what? I've only seen it, I think twice. Okay. Why? But I lived it. You were lived it. I lived it. What's going through your mind when you watch that sequence at the end of the third round? What are you thinking? Well, the first, two rounds I was happy with, of course. You know, I won the first round clearly. I won the second round big. If I had another minute on the clock, I could have finished him there. We're getting some good shots off.

Third round was more of the same. I was certainly in control of it. And then I'm not sure if it was a punch or whatever it was. As we know, my mouthpiece went flying. And of course, this is a, you know, well-discussed matter. You know, was I at fault? Was a referee at fault? And I know there has to be a break in the action.

And it's how you define a break in the action. For my part, I was backing on. after Anderson was coming after me, but there was no blows being exchanged. But it is what it is, you know, I mean, I made a rookie mistake. I really did. I pointed at the floor. I looked at the referee. As I looked away, Anderson pounced.

Listen, I'm not angry at anybody. I'm not angry at Anderson or the referees. One of those things, I should have known better. I should have known better. So I take that one in the chin or in the face or the eye or whichever, wherever it was. But, yeah, that's my lookout. So this is a bit of a shift because after the fight, you told me, Herb Dean is responsible for this.

Do you take the blame away from him now? Listen, I've had many nights sleep since then. Yeah. I've almost got my good looks back. Yes. I'm not bitter about these things. You know, it is what it is. Listen, I got the win.

Had I have been knocked out, then maybe I would have been looking to blame somebody. Yeah. Probably myself. But listen, you know, the fight went on. I was down. I was not out. Herb Dean actually made a good call

because it took courage for him to make that call because Anderson was trying to steal the victory, you know. Kind of like at the end of a fight, I'm sorry, at the end of a fight, fighters put the hands up in the air, you know, trying to claim victory, trying to influence the judges.

Anderson was doing that. He's a season pro. He knows what he's doing. But Herb didn't buy any of it. He knew I wasn't out. Anyway, I went to the floor. I was talking to Herb Dean. I'm like, hey, I'm good.

He's like, yeah, don't worry. The fight's not over. So, yeah, listen, it was one of those things. So, you know, I dust myself off, went out for the fourth round, won the fourth round, clearly. And in the fifth round, that was close.

He got a couple of good shots, the front kick to the face. He probably stole the fifth, but I clearly won that fight. For me, you know, it's very rare that I get to watch fights in person because I'm typically working for Fox backstage, so I have to watch it on a monitor. But this time it wasn't a Fox event, so I got to watch it in the arena. And during that minute of confusion, I couldn't help but think, like, how is, how, I thought the fight was over? Because I couldn't tell what was going on.

There was no announcer or anything. I was like, how is Michael going to live the rest of his career, life? that he had it and then he took his eye off the prize. When you watch that, like, if there was maybe 30 seconds left, who knows what had happened, ground and pound, who knows, you were so close from maybe your greatest disappointment and it ended up being your greatest thrill in a weird way. You know, it's amazing how your career could come down to that.

Do you think about that? You know, I guess you could sit there and analyze that a little bit, but I prefer to rest on the fact that I won the fact. Yes. Of course, what is, you know, there's many what-ins with everything in life. you choose to think like that, then you're not going to sleep at night. Fact of the matter is I won the fight.

I'm very happy to do so. I fought cheats my whole career. I finally face a legend on a fair playing field, and I'm one of only two men to do it. So that's what I'm focusing on right now. That's what I'm thinking about. Of course, you know, there was that touchy moment, and, you know, I had to fight through adversity,

a blood pouring out of my face everywhere. And in many ways, I'm kind of glad that happened. You know, it made the performance much more gutsy, you know. And, yeah, I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the whole fight. Adamson was a solid opponent. It was a great fight. The crowd were going crazy.

Everybody enjoyed it. I want to thank everybody that came out, bought a ticket, and I'll see you with the next one. That was a legacy fight. I feel like when your career is all said and done, that's the first fight everyone will talk about. And I'm wondering if in the fight, I know you're in the fight and it's hard to smell the roses. But did you ever tell yourself like, I need to freaking win this fight? Enough is enough. It's the fourth round.

It's the fifth round. I need to dig down deep. This is my fight. This is the fight that's always escaped. Did you ever have that in? internal monologue with yourself? Yeah, I'm not sure if I ever did. I mean, I had that mindset and those internal dialogues with myself throughout the entire

account. I'm not sure if there was a moment in the fight where I actually thought like that. But I know at the end of the third round, I was salt and was doing blue, was literally pouring out in my face. And there's some great pitches on Instagram and doing the rounds on social media. But I remember thinking, no, no, no, no. This ain't done. I'm fine.

I'm good. And as I said, I went out there and I won the fourth round. and, you know, some people at that point they can choose to quit on the stool or go out and fight with their heart and that's what I've always done. And I'm proud that I've done that in every time in my career. And as you say, I think that will be a fight

that goes down in my legacy. And that's what I wanted, to be honest, as we spoke about at length. You know, I know people have always been quick to criticize me, always quick to say, you know, he's a good fight, but he always loses the big ones. So for me, I had to win that fight, and I wasn't going to let a stupid mouthpiece incident.

I wasn't going to let a few cuts and a bit of blood rubbed that moment from me so regardless of what was happening I was going to finish that fight when the announcer Andy Freelander announced that you were the winner I asked you what do you think it will feel like

when they announced that you are the winner before the fight but now that you lived it do you recall what that was like what was that moment like I saw you jump on the cage it was a beautiful thing you seemed euphoric but you recall what it actually felt like when you realized that you were the winner you know it's always kind of hard to put that into words but uh of course as i said to in the night

relief yeah you know because the pressure that i felt to perform of course massive arena sold out crowd you know people want me to go out there and win of course i'm in london you know my own people uh for me massive pressure my wife everybody there my whole team we've worked so hard for this moment you know so there's a massive amount of pressure and of course for the personal reasons regarding my career so just huge pressure so when i won of course, relief, but also elation, you know, and I was just trying to soak up the moment. I jumped on top of the cage and then I saw my wife and my mother next to each other. First thing I wanted to do was go down and see them and embrace them.

And yeah, then it was back into the case to do my interview. Beautiful picture that I think your wife actually took and posted on social media of you and Anderson getting checked out by the doctors afterwards and you're exchanging words or something. What did you guys say to each other? Yeah, that's right. I was getting stitches. Anderson was in a wheelchair and having a few problems himself

and he was on the other side and just a curtain in between us you know so I think you'd have to be you know not a very nice guy to at least you know reach out and say hey man great fight you know and that's all it was

so I opened the curtain a little bit and excuse me so Anderson, awesome fight well done you know and he said the same thing kind of just shook hands and braced for a moment my wife being some kind of paparazzi she caught on a

she got a shot of that, which is awesome. I'm glad she did, because it was a great shot. He was very respectful, but then I found out some of the things that he said after the fight, you know, which... Like what? What do you say? Well, he's saying it was total corruption, which is the biggest joke ever. I mean, I clearly fight three rounds to two, if not four rounds to one. You know, so, I mean, for him to say, let's do the fight in Brazil. And for him to say, oh, it's total corruption like in Brazil, let's do the fight in Brazil, and then do the rubber match in Vegas.

I'm like, what are you talking about? So we're going to go down to where you've just said it's corrupt. We're going to fight again, which basically means regardless of what happens, you're going to win. And then we'll do a rubber match in Vegas. Sorry, mate, I just beat you. Now I'm going to move on with my life. I'm not going to repeat the same fight over and over and over again.

Just because the great Anderson Silver, you know, this is a guy that remember, there still denies that he took steroid. This guy has a problem with reality. See, this is the Michael Bissing that I know and love. This is what you wanted, Ariel. This is what you wanted. Well, after the fight, there was so much love. It was hugging and kissing and all this.

I was like, what is going on here? You said so much stuff about it. And now we're back. I did say things about it. I'll tell you why I said things. And when you're facing your opponent, you can't, you can't look at them of the public perception that they have. You know, you can't look at them as the majestic,

the magical Anderson Silver that destroys everybody. You can't let that image. You can't let that be your perception of your opponent in your mind. You've got to knock them down. You've got to tell them that. And you've got to believe that. You know, so when I say these things, I believe it, so therefore that will reflect in my performance. You know, I can't give him the respect.

I can't buy into his bullshit. You know, I can't let him, you know, do his thing up against the fence, you know, and I can't be intimidated. Above everything else, you can't be intimidated. So you strip them down mentally inside your mind and in their mind you try to. But the fight's done, it's over. You know, that's done. I won. My objective is complete.

And then I can say, well done and wish him all the best. I think a really interesting part of that fight was when he was trying to mess with you and stood up against the cage and dared you to hit him. And then you took a step back and you said, I'm not going to get involved in this. It was almost like in the past, I feel like your ego would have said, F you, I'm going to go for it. But this time you're like, no, no, I'm not playing this game with you. Did you think that way as well? Because there was a moment where you were deciding what to do there. Yeah, no, no, there was.

I mean, Anderson is very good at that. You know, he's got, you know, urban cat, like reflexes. And he always has. So I'm not going to stand there and let you make a mockery out of me, you know, of course he obviously does that he's done it in many many fights he obviously does it in training you know and uh you know i threw a few shots i connected with a couple but a few missed and i thought hold on a minute i'm not playing into your games and i did this in training camp we anticipated this in the training camp and we said if he does that just take a step back take a step back and he'll have to

take a step forward and that's what i did and it works perfectly so a couple of weeks later i maintain that you should fight for the belt next the time is now let's make it happen you want to none of this talk on that night. You didn't want to talk, and I get it. It was a big deal. Relief. It was not. I didn't want to talk about it. To be honest, I was overcome with emotion. I get it. And as I said, relief and all these things. For me, that was a big fight, you know. I mean, obviously, Anderson Silver is a big fight, but it was in London. And for the mental reasons, for me, it was a big fight. You know, people saying he can't win the big ones. So for me, it was, relief isn't the word because I knew I could win that, but it was, you know, I was enjoying the moment. I get it.

I wasn't thinking about the next fight, you know. So, of course, it was. Of course I want that title fight. Of course I want a fight. I think Luke Rockhold beats Wydenman again. No disrespect to Chris. You know, he was a great champion and a great fighter. But I think Rockhold gets the job done again. And I'd like that rematch.

You know, I've just beaten Anderson Silver. I think that sells it in itself. I've won four out of five. I've fought nothing but the best fighters in the world. And people have had title shots on Nate Diaz is looking, maybe getting a title shot. It's Robbie Lola for beating a 1.45er, okay? Regardless of who that 1.45 was, but now he gets a well-away title shop.

Come on, I just beat Anderson Silver. Okay, so have we had any talks with the UFC brass about this? Yes, okay. They called me two days after the fight. Okay. Hotel room. And first of all, you know, I bust his balls a little bit for his comments after the battle. I said, oh, thanks for ruining my biggest month of my career.

You thought Anderson won. Thank you very much. And then you know how it is when you watch fights and this and that? He said, Lorenzo went away and watched the fight again and called him up and said, Bispin clearly won that fight. He said, so Lorenzo thinks she won the fight. He said, now I'm going to watch it again. So anyway, we had a nice, you know, we had a laugh and we had a nice conversation.

And Dana said some lovely things. So I thank you for that. And then I said, right, listen, what's next? I said, you know I want that title shot, Dana. Yeah. And then, to be honest, I kind of messed up because I gave him his way out. I said, I know what you're going to see. You always say, let's see.

these things play out. I said, but I'm not in you out there, and I think I deserve that shot. And of course, he said, let's see how these things play. Come on. You, son of a bitch. But listen, I'm happy to wait.

You know, I'm happy to wait it out. I deserve that next shot. And, you know, in the past, I've been too eager to accept rights, you know, of the advisor. My manager, Ordie, I'm going to wait it out. You know, I think I deserve it. We'll see what happens.

I mean, the middleweight division is a complicated landscape at the moment, you know? so I don't really see who there is next. I mean, I see Jaceret beating Vitor. But whoever you look at, they're all rematches. Mine would be a rematch. Jacker Aure would be a rematch. Vito would be a rematch, you know.

Wyman is a rematch, you know. I think mine has a compelling case, and we'll see what the UFC want to do, but I think I deserve it. Deep down. And of course, and of course, I will, listen, it is about promoting. I don't like Lou Rockhold,

and he doesn't like me, and he can kiss my eye. and I know I can beat him. I kicked his ass as far and before for three rounds. And in the fight, he headbutted me and I couldn't see too well. And he did that on purpose because I already had stitches in my eye and he targeted that and he headbutting me. So there is mitigating circumstances in that fight.

He knows he took a cheap shot. And he tried to take me down. This is the great striker trying to take me down in the first round. He felt like a little boy. He was weak as piss. You know, I know I can beat that guy. He knows I can beat that guy. you know, just see what the UFC want to do.

Good Lord, Armline. How do they not book this fight now? I mean, you got my voice cracking here. And by the way, if it's Chris Wyman, we've got a little history there as well. Chris Wyman said that he can beat me without a train. Chris Wyman fought one of my previous opponents and got smote and was made to look like a fool.

Chris Wyman is easy to look good when he's fighting bombs. You've got the easiest route to retitles you're ever known in the history of the UFC. Jesse Bonfeld? Who the hell is Jesse Bonfelt? That's who we beat. And then Damien Mayer in what would be the worst fight you've ever seen in your life.

And then he gets a title shot against Sanderson Silver. You know, fights a couple of degenerate Brazilians who are no longer on the happy source. And he's done. So Chris Wyman can kiss my ass as well. Now, I don't want to get into this whole Wyman discussion, but we are skipping over your wrestling coach, aren't we? Mark Minos, yeah, we are.

I can't stop there, come on. Yeah, I know. I'm not going to accept that thing as about Mar Minos, but yes, we are. Okay, so this is... Yes, that's fine, that's fine. So, but we are going to hold our ground here, and that fight's happening in your backyard, right? It's happening in L.A., so you're going to attend... Is that the plan? Don't accept anything until June 4th.

Let's see what happens, and then get the fight. Yeah, well, I'm going to be working that event for Fox. Great. And no doubt, uh, is that. the the boss is over at fox who will be telling me, like they always do, Michael, this isn't about you.

So focus on the fight. Don't be calling out the champion or the challenger, whoever it may be. So no doubt they will have those conversations. But I will still take a moment to make it all about me and call out the winner. Now let me ask you this. But yes, I'm willing to sit out.

I am willing to sit it out. I mean, I've had a relatively busy schedule. I love fighting. I'm almost good to go. now my, you know, I've had all the stitches out. As I say, I'm looking, you know, as pretty as I was before, which isn't very pretty, but, you know, I'm almost back to full speed. So, uh, I would like to fight sooner rather than later. I think they're fighting May. No, June 4th, June 4th, June 4th. June 4th. No, August, September, I don't mind. I don't wait until then for a time of shot.

You can make a very strong case that Michael Bisping has never been more popular than he is right now. You're coming off the biggest win of your career. There's so many good things happening, worrying for Fox. By the way, you'll be back on UFC tonight this week, correct? It's Wednesday. Next Wednesday. Okay. So next week, yep. And then I get words. Somehow, like, at first I thought it was,

I don't know, a photo shot. I don't know what is going on. I get word that you're competing in a grappling match this Saturday against Chale Sunnan. Is this for real? This is absolutely for real. I'm just getting up the details here, so I don't forget. But it is... Is it this Sunday? This Sunday. This Sunday.

March 20th on your show.tv. It's a pay-per-view event. I'm taking on Chale. Sorry, it only costs $12. Okay. On Chale Sonnet in Metamor's rules, so a grappling match. Of course, on there, there's also going to be Ray Mysterio versus Kurt Angle.

There's going to be Dan 7 versus, I don't know, I think it's Ken Chambach in an MMA match. There's going to be Roy Jones Judy in a boxing match. So a little bit of everything for everyone. Hey, but I don't care. Listen, I'm taking on Chale Sonny. I owe that guy I owe that guy

for our fight in 2012 and I finally get to take a bit of revenge out of In a grab Where is this happening? Phoenix Arizona How did this happen Does the UFC know about this?

Yes, of course they know about this The first person that I call Your show So Chalester calls me up on a Monday morning Hey Mike Blah blah blah blah And he says There's good money involved

So I'm like Oh okay great He told me the numbers I'm like, oh, sure, I'm in. Plus, I always wanted to grapple channel anyway. Really? I wanted. I wanted to fight him is what I really wanted.

But I'm like, yeah, sure. You know, that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I called Dana, and Dana was super cool about her. Really? So, yeah, this is legit, as I say, your show. Dot TV. You are. You are.

You are. Yep. Your show. Dot TV. Grappling match. How long? Do you know what? I'm not sure.

I think, I don't know. I haven't read the fine print. I don't even know if we're fighting in a cage or a ring or what. All I know is Chelsan. I don't care about the details. It doesn't matter. It could be in somebody's back, in somebody's garage for all that care. Gee or no gee.

I've been teaching to get hold of Chelsa on him for quite some time. So I get to do that this weekend. Is it Gie or no Gie? No ghee. No ghee. What kind of shape are you in? I mean, you've been traveling. I see you eating at a wrist.

What kind of shape do you think I'm in, Ariel? Well, you just went on this vacation. The greatest fighter of all time, Anderson Silver. Chale Sohn has just been on the bloody celebrity apprentice. I just be the guy that Chale Sonner couldn't be on giving two occasions. He was finished both times. Okay. So you worry about Chale Sonner.

Okay. Is there a way in? Is there a weight limit? What are the rules here? I think he's open weight, actually. Oh, look at this. Wow. I'm going to Gregi gets all the props.

I'm going open weight. Yeah. I don't even care. Wow. This is going to come in about 225, something like that, I would assume. I'm a veldt 203. Is that true? That's it.

Yeah, about 203, I would say. After all those restaurants in Rome and... I know. I'm shocked as you are. No, I've, you know, I was going in the hotel gym. Is your son, your main training partner for this upcoming match? yeah my 14 year old boy is a great replica of chel son and the Olympic wrestler yeah no no he really is um no i've been working out down at mist fits m mhm a which is a place where i do most of my grappling

so i've been going in there blowing off the cobwebs i'm still in good shape it was only you know nine days after the final i started training again so yeah i'm good we talking six figures here what are we talking we're talking enough to buy everything that i'm looking at in your least you are that's 10 bucks that is yeah yeah 10 bucks you know

yeah it's decent listen is there a win bonus win bonus no there is not submission bonus flat

flat you just got to show up all good I'm probably gonna put a punch in the face I'm gonna say I'm gonna say

I'm sorry the rules the rules I'm gonna drop an elbow on it unbelievable seriously it's been a cheat

all these years any PD testing no So chel, if there was PED test, you know, I'm assuming chel stoner would blow the lab up, you know, so I'm under no illusions. I'm expecting a big, strong, juiced out chale. You know, the celebrity apprentice doesn't have USADA involved in it. So there's going to be no restrictions, thankfully for chale.

But myself, I'm still under USADA, UFC regulation. So there'll be nothing from me, but we can't say the same about chale, of course. Okay, so this Sunday, March 20th. your show.tv, that's where you can order the online pay-per-view. And if you go online, you can get all the details where it's at. By the way, final thing, what was it like? I was thinking about this. You know, I love to think about these things.

And I think you did shed some tears when we spoke in that cab before the fight when talking about your family, but you were wearing sunglasses. Did you get a little choked up there? I think there was something in my eye. It was beautiful. You know, sometimes I get choked up. Yeah, I'm an emotional guy, you know, somewhere. I can't remember what it was, but you know, you got me at a good time.

Yes, I like that. But what was it like when you called home and spoke to your kids after beating the Great Anderson-Silva? That's always the best thing ever. I mean, after every fight, win or lose, and for the record, 99.99% of the time, they all wins. But win or lose, the first thing I want to do is talk to myself, you know, because I know he gets very worked up when the fights are happening. you know even when i'm winning the fights he can't he can't really watch you know he's so emotionally invested he gets very touchy um you know he was yapping at his sister apparently apparently my sister was saying so his sister was saying is he winning is he doing good he's like yes of course he is

look at him you know so he gets very man and he getting walking out the room and coming back in and like oh he couldn't think of it all sometimes he doesn't watch your talk because he can't handle it he just comes and says what's happening walks off so god bless him the first thing i do is call him if i win of course to, you know, revel in my victory. Yes. But if I lose, I call them, of course, you say, hey, son, I'm all good. It's okay. Don't worry about it.

You know, we live to fight another day. So, you know, which is an important message, you know. So, you know, I call him to let him win or lose as long as you try your best, regardless of what it is in any facets of life, you know. So, yeah, I called home. And, yeah, of course, very, you know, it was nice. It's always nice. And I received some heat for this.

but I say shame on the London fans. I got to sit there. They did not support you the way you should have been supported. I don't know if you noticed this. Oh, I don't know about that, my friend. Shame on them. Yes, so that's what I'm saying. Michael Bispin coming home, fighting in the biggest fight,

there shouldn't have been one chant for Anderson Silva. What is going on here? I'm just trying to be real. You're not saying it. I'm saying it. You're not saying it. I'm saying it. I sat there and I couldn't believe my ears.

What's that? influential. They get everywhere. Come on. They're coming out of the corners like rats. I'm not saying Brazilians are rats. I'm just saying they come out of the corners and the shadows like rats. All right, fair enough. Trust me, I got a lot of heat.

When I came back on this show the following Monday, I said I was very disappointed. It wasn't Scotland. They didn't back you like they did in Scotland. It wasn't Ireland. Oh, of course you did. You couldn't hear yourself thinking there. Maybe when they were chanting and screaming. You know?

I expected more. Ariel, take off the glasses. Okay, fair enough. Whatever tins that they have. I'm trying to get you some love here. I was saying I wanted more. I don't need you love. All right, all right.

As I said, when I went in with Jason Miller, I don't need your love. He shoved out when the sun doesn't shine. I remember that one as well. All right. You've been very kind with your time, so we'll let you go. But I'm really happy for you. What a pleasure was to see that in person. What a roller coaster.

I mean, I can't imagine for your family. For me, just sitting there. I was like, up and down. It was just amazing. And what a great fight. Holy moly, you dug down deep and you came out on top. So again, congratulations. Great to see you back in good spirits.

And good luck this Sunday with that grappling match against Chil P. Sunnan. That's a lot of fun as well. So I wish you the best of luck. And thank you, as always, for coming on. Always a pleasure, Mike. Always a pleasure talking to you. As you just said, this Sunday, your show.tv, don't miss it. And yeah, it was a great fight.

I won that title show. Ariel, always a pleasure. Take care. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's make it happen. There he is. Michael Bisping, joining us for a few minutes here today. Great stuff, as always, from the count.

And I couldn't agree more. He has done enough to get that title. shot. He earned it. He deserves it. He's put in his work, his time. There's no other answer. There really isn't. And I know, you know, you all remember we'll probably be back at some point. And there are guys out there who have cases. I mean, once Jacerre wins, they'll be talk about it. If he wins, if Vitor wins, they'll be talk about it. Pisping is the guy. Look how he sells those fights. There's no doubt about it. He is the guy. Let's make it happen. That title fight is three months away, it's long overdue. He got the wind that he needed.

Enough's enough. All right. That does it for today's interviews, but we still have around an hour left in the program. So here we go. Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? I need to, I need, I I don't, I've never put a cigarette to my mouth. Okay. In my life. This is a claim to fame of mine. And I need to smoke right now. There's a lot going on. First of all, it's boiling in here. boiling. I like feeling super sweaty. I actually just got a hot myself. I'm taking off my... It is boiling. I mean, there's just a lot going on today. Rory McDonald, dropping bombs. I think the theme of today is real talk. That could be the subtitle for today's episode. Hashtag real talk. I kind of want to blow through. I'm too fired up to do y'all must have forgot.

Okay. Mistake? No, no, no. We can always go. I'm just too excited. I'm too excited. There's just a lot going on right now and I need to talk about it. I need to make sense of it all. What about Roy McDonald? I didn't see sometimes I'll be honest Vitrione I knew about it You know sometimes we talk about these things This one I did not expect This one I did not know

What do you think? What'd you make of that? I'm not going to make too much of it Obviously he still has one fight left And he said that he and the UFC Are not too far off from each other But I think that it's clear that A lot more guys are fighting at their contracts

At this point than we've seen in the past and some of it's due to competitors being available, and some of it's due to the fact that Connor McGregor is going on television shows and interviews every single time he can and talking about how much money he makes. So if guys aren't making as much money as Connor McGregor is making, why not? So I think we're in a new era. Nothing gets me more upset when people say that Roy McDonald is a bad interview.

Oh, that was incredible. He's so fascinating, the way he speaks. I don't know if it's the delivery, the tone, Once you get him to open up, there's few better than him. I just got an electric shock through my body. Did you see my body just twitch? I didn't. I was looking for that.

But it's because he has no reservations. He's completely himself. You know, whether you like him, don't like him, think he's quirky, think he's normal. Whatever the inclination you have toward him is, it doesn't change how he responds. He's completely himself at all times. And that's what's so fascinating about Roy McDonald. There's no measuring. He just says what he says what he.

he's going to say and that's it. And I think it's fascinating as well. By the way, I feel like I'm getting a short change tier. The man bun is cut off. Oh, come on. We need some headroom. What's going on? We need the man bun. Camera fix. You can't, you can't just adjust that thing with your, or maybe put your chair down, something. How confident are you? It's coming. It's coming. You are back from Las Vegas. I am, Invicta FC-16. How was it? Oh, there it is. See, that's a little better. Yeah, really, really good night of fights. Lots of, you know, standout performances. Angela Hill had a great one. Arne Aldana had a great one. There's nothing better than the way you pronounce Erene Aldana. You know, I try to... I like the role of the R there. I try to spice it up.

Hamasaki, retaining her title in the main event, Jennifer Maya, becoming the interim flyway champion in the co-main. There was a lot of good stuff going on. Oh, Roxanne Mada Ferry, looking, continuing to look fantastic since, uh, demanding a title shot afterwards. Yeah, I mean. So there's an interim title holder at 125 now. So she's probably not going to get a title shot. I mean, I don't know how. Where is Barb Hancheck these days? Yeah, I don't know how quickly Barb Hanchak is going to come back. So she may get a shot at that interim title. What is wrong with her? No idea. No idea. What was the crowd like? What was the scene? You got to, you got to rub elbows with the great Jim Ross. Good old J.R. Um, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was.

He was a pros pro, and really, it seemed like he really enjoyed the fights. He did an interview with UFC Fight Pass. Put the fighters of Invicta FC over. Talked a little UFC as well, but he had a really good time. Did you hang with him? Wasn't the only guy with a cowboy hat there because Andrea Lee travels with a bunch of... KGB Lee? KGB Lee travels with a bunch of people with cowboy hats.

So he was a little harder to pick out in the crowd if you were looking for the hat. Did you actually hang out with him? For a few minutes at a time. But he was very happy to be there, and we were very happy to have him there. No love for my girl, Jin Yu Fry. She had a big win. What do you mean no love for your girl? You didn't mention her.

You ran through the entire card. I didn't go to the entire card. But, yeah, a huge win for her. Technically sound, right? Yeah, no, really good. Dropped Erica Tibercio right at the end of the second, I think, really cemented that victory. Although it seemed like Erica thought she had won. but the judges in the crowd didn't seem to agree.

She is a physical specimen. You know those museums where they show you the human anatomy? You know those ones, the muscles? What's that one called? The bodies exhibit. Yeah, that's what she looks like. Esther took some pictures. Yeah.

It's insane. It really is. She is in very good physical shape. What's the next Invicta event? Should be in May. Oh, you haven't announced it. Well, not you. For all intents and purposes, it's going to be in May.

And I agree. I saw a tweet from Luke Thomas, my colleague, at him a fighting about T.J. Descentus. I think he does a fantastic job as an announcer for a play-by-play guy, I should say, for Invicta. Coo-J, Julie, Julie, Laura Sanko, everybody on that side of it is fantastic. Laura Sanko does a great job in the post-fight interviews. In fact, I've told the people at Fox that they should look at her more because, you know, she's actually fought. She has a great knowledge of the sport. I mean, she's doing the fight pass thing here, and I don't even know if that's an option, but I think she's actually very underrated as well.

Agreed. She is the best of the best. And then your boy, Rico Verhoeven, winning on Saturday and Glory, now a free agent. I'm curious. I think Bell-Tor is interested. If you're not interested in Rico Verhoven, you're missing the boat.

Although, did you see the fight? Yeah, of course. Was it, I don't know, was it the right kind of fight before you go into free agency? First of all, I think you're, you know, European kickboxing and and MMA don't have that same kind of,

they don't have that same kind of view on setting fights up and things like that. The best guys fight the best guys. And there's not much pomp and circumstance to it. There's not much, you know, worrying about putting this guy in his next step to get this thing. It's more best fighting the best. And at the time, this was the contender that was set up for Rico. I thought it was, you know, Rico's been on a streak of knockout. lately. But the thing about him is his technicality, and that was certainly not absent on Saturday.

Perhaps the most impressive lower body in MMA, excuse me, in combat sports. I mean, his tree trunks, absolutely stacked. Those thighs, I mean. And he's, he's hitting you with them. Break me off some of that. He's not just standing there boxing. He's unbelievable. Break me off some of that. I think it's probably because he, I don't know, in kickboxing, do a lot of guys. I I have a feeling he works out. I think that might be what it's from. But in kickboxing, do a lot of the guys wear tights or do they wear, because I feel like he's one of the few, or am I crazy?

He wears the compression tight shorts. It's a mixed bag. Some of the fighters come from a moitai background and wear the, you know, the looser, the skirt. But I think he is one of the few that wears that. You know, obviously Crow Cop wear, you know, tight shorts. Back in the day, but his were shorter. for sure

I don't know for some reason his get-up looks different but yes he's got fantastic hair most importantly

and he picked up a big win Tyson Fury putting the belt on him it's always a fun scene when Glory has a show and I was watching it on first I watched some of it

on Fight Pass then I was actually a little busy in fact I took my kids to see the film Zootopia I've heard that that's incredible I have a four year old a three-year-old

and a two-year-old and we got a huge I was alone with them and we got a huge bag of popcorn and a drink, and it was very exciting. I convinced them to come with me. They don't really know what's going on. You know, I'm telling the movie, they don't really.

We walk in, and there's like a minute left on the previews. So this is around like 4 o'clock, so I'm telling you the timeline here with the fights. We walk in. Prevues are about to come to a close, and you can tell, like, they're gearing up for the movie. It's a pack theater, and my two-year-old just starts freaking out. It's too dark. It's too dark. It's too dark.

It's scary. So we left. Is this his first movie? Second. First time he was fine. Maybe because his mom was there. Yeah, dad didn't really inspire confidence. You can't keep him safe. Bought three tickets and then I had to try to get my money back. I literally lasted 30 seconds in the theater. It freaked out. And so I went home and watched Rico Verhoeven.

So I guess it all ended up okay. Yeah, I think you did okay on the trade, but I think if he could have settled down, he would have enjoyed some Zootopia. Did you see it? I haven't seen it, but I mean, the reviews online are outstanding for it. 99% at the box office. 99% on Ron Tomatoes. That said it all for me. All right, so we got some questions. We got a lot to discuss this weekend.

So let's go. Let's discuss. Let's start with the first one. Okay. News that broke on the MMA hour. Oh, we're going with Twitter first? We're mixing it up. They're all going to be mixed in.

Wow, this is a new thing. Are you surprised that Mitri-on went to Belator? What's first for him? Matchups that you like, if any. Well, I'm not surprised because he gets to do the kickboxing, deal. And I mean, they're going, look, when I, when it came out that he was a free agent or going to be a free agent, I got the sense from talking to people at Beltaur that they were very interested in him. Let's not forget, he was on the highest rated season of the ultimate fighter, tough 10,

you know, the Kimbo-slice heavyweight season. So that was on Spike TV. So there's, you know, there's an affinity there. There's a comfort level there. There's, you know, there's, there's history there. And they need to, to build up that division. I mean, if they're going to remember, remain in the heavyweight MMA division. They need some heavyweights. And Mitrione, look, good or bad, top contender or not, winning streak or not. Typically, his fights are interesting, whether he wins or loses. He's a fun fighter to watch. And he's going to go out there, he's going to promote, he's got a great story. So, no, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised at all. This is the time that we live in. Are you surprised that the UFC didn't make an offer? I just think it would have been tough

to match what he got from Bellator, to be honest. You know, I think Bellator, with everything that they can offer them right now. I think Belator is in a spot right now where there are guys like Al Jermaine where they think, look, maybe this division is in the top priority. Maybe they don't think that they're going to sell enough tickets or that there's a ceiling there. I don't know. But they're going to go after select guys, guys that they think can quote unquote move the needle. And I think Matt is one of those guys. You know, I don't think he's going to be the best fighter in the entire organization, but he's going to drum up some interest. He's fantastic when he's interviewed. look, you can do the TV stuff.

I think that we deserve more credit on this very show for building the character that is Matt Mitreone. When he was on the Ultimate Fighter, he was known as the crazy meathead who heard voices in his head, right? Remember that? Sure. Now he's Mr. Lovable.

I don't think he, you know, thinking back on that season, I think he did not come off as a likable character. Oh, no. Whereas now he's become a much more likable. He was one of the most hated guys on that show. Yeah, they didn't treat him well in editing. Or maybe it was a conscious effort on his part.

to get more airtime, but I remember thinking that he was kind of abrasive on tough. This time, by the way, Bellator sent out a press release. Oh, they even showed a picture in the press release. This time, they didn't take any shots at us in our internet going down, so that was nice. But they put an interesting little note here. Can I find it? Yeah, they put this. Prior to his last fight with his former promotion, Vitrione was forced to participate in a media

session barefoot as his shoes didn't adhere to the. the strict company uniform policy. He will now have no such problems at Bellator where he is free to secure his own sponsors and keep his feet warm with the footwear of his choosing. Oh boy. It's just, it's just amazing. You got to love it. Okay. Yes. Moving on. We're going to stay on Belator for a little bit. Okay. Kimbo Shamrock, drug test failure. What are your thoughts on both Kimbo and Shamrock failing their drug tests following the recent Bellator 149 fights? Given how bad the situation with Dada 5,000 could potentially have been. How much worse would finding out Kimbo was possibly on steroids have made it? Well, first off, credit to my main man, Mark Romandie, for breaking that story on Friday afternoon on

on MMAfighting.com. That was the first thing I thought of. Wow. Now, it has not been released for various reasons what they failed for, but could you imagine if something truly tragic happened to Dada 5,000 and it comes out that he was on some kind of PED? Could that have been the end of Bellator? what do you think? I don't know if that... Holy moly. That would have hurt the sport. Because you'd have to really prove a causation there.

You'd have to really say that because of this, that happened, and I don't think that's the case. I don't think... Would have been a bad look. Certainly publicly, and for people who are not aware of steroids and not aware of this sport and not aware of those things, they'd be able to run and take this story and push it further. But I don't think there's, under any circumstances, you could say that whatever Kimball was on or not on or, you know, and obviously we don't know the details of this yet, would have led to what happened to Dada.

No, of course, but it just would have been such a bad look. Publicly, it would have been a terrible look. I don't know if it would have been the end, but it's not good. It's not good. And that's right now it's not good without knowing the details of what happened with Kimbo, and thankfully Dada seems to be okay. It's still very bad look. Here's another interesting thing.

This happened in Texas. Texas. Do you know what kind of drug testing goes on in Texas? Fight night urine tests. I mean, really. It has been said that if you fail a fight night urine test, it's really more of an IQ test. I mean, there's no pre-fight testing going on. There's no out-of-competition testing going on. There's no random drug testing going on. You know that you're going to get tested, not blood, urine only. How do you fail that test? Right? Sure. It's an IQ test, as they say. I just said that.

Oh, well, then as you say. Thank you for listening. Yeah, a bad look. I mean, it was kind of interesting. Typically when a big name, a main eventer, and unless I forget, Ken Shamrock also failed. But typically when this happens, there's some sort of, I don't know,

it happened, like, it came out Friday afternoon, but there's hysteria. This kind of, the story, I think everyone's just kind of tired of it, right? Well, I mean, it's just more of the circus. Like, it's a continuation. of what happened already. It's not really...

Typically, you know, we're looking at, oh, what are performance? This was amazing. And then all of a sudden somebody failed a drug test. This is more like, well, that makes sense. And if you're wondering,

Kimbo Dada is now a no contest. Officially. There you go. How about that? So there is really no King of the Streets or whatever the thing was built. Let's do it again. Let's run it back.

Staying, last one, staying in this realm, trying to figure out if Risen or Bellator can get any penalty from an athletic Commission in the United States for signing Vanderlai Silva and having him compete in in Risen in Japan. Yeah.

I'm aware he's allowed to compete in Japan because the NSAC authority has no bounds in Japan, but can an athletic commission penalize either organization when they hold a show in the United States a month later without Silva? Well, here's the thing. If he goes to Japan and fights over there in an MMA fight while still suspended, sure, the NAC doesn't have any jurisdiction over there. And technically, they don't have any jurisdiction anywhere outside Nevada, but they could come back and try to, you know, change the penalty, make it worse.

Just to clarify, this question is asking about Bellator or Risen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you see here, Belator sort of washes their hands because it's Risen. And Risen is not promoting events in the United States or North America. But Belator has an interesting dilemma on their hand. As I said on, I believe Thursday's MMA beat, I do believe they are going to try to get him to fight before his suspension is up. And I will also say that I maintain that he does not deserve any kind of suspension.

He was not a licensed fighter when they asked him to take that drug test. Now, sure, it looks bad that he ran away, but their statute clearly states that they have jurisdiction over licensed fighters. He was not one. He had yet to apply for a license. Now, they announced that he was going to fight Shell Sun in July. Posters were out. Press conferences happened.

Remember all that stuff? But he still hadn't finished the paperwork. hadn't submitted it, hadn't applied. So they didn't have the authority to ask him for a drug test. Same thing happened with Vitor Belfort, by the way, when he was asked to take that drug test at the MMA Awards, and that's why that whole thing was weird. They never technically gave him a suspension,

but they sort of unofficially did. And that's kind of what should have happened here with Vandale Silva. And guess what? Had he just taken the test, who knows? Maybe he would have gotten a nine-month suspension. This whole thing is done with. So now he gets a three-year deal. After first getting a lifetime ban,

and it expires in May of 2017, I still feel like they're going to try. Now, will they be successful? Will they, look, Beltor runs promotions, excuse me, they run fights on reservations. And so those kind of play by their own rules. Will they put them on one of those? Do they try to go to a commission

that's less friendly with NAC? But here's the question. I think they try. Not will it impact Vanderlei, but will it impact the way Bellator is viewed if they do this? That's what this person is asking. Will there other shows be effective?

Will it be viewed unfavorably by athletic commissions if they try to do that? If they, let's say they put it on an Indian reservation. It would certainly hurt Bellator if they're trying to promote events in Nevada. 1,000% percent. They would have to answer those questions. I mean, come on, with the people there? By the way, when I sit in the back, when I'm doing my Fox stuff when I'm backstage, it's a fascinating scene because there's people walking back and forth.

I mean, it's different from when you're sitting, you know, in the media room doing the scrums and all that. And UFC 196, I was back there. And I made eye contact face to face with the great Pat Lundval. I met her eye to eye. We locked eyes. And I kind of nodded. Is this a romantic story?

No. I nod in my head and she completely no-sold me. Like, I mean, just like, death stare, walk away. Well, you have not had kind things to say about that commission. Well, now I'm just very offended. Anyway, yeah, look, if they went and did that, if, who knows, Beltor probably has no interest in going to Nevada because that's UFC territory. That's all well and good. But if they did try to do it and have them fight somewhere else before May 2017, they'll definitely have to answer it if they ever want to run in Nevada.

Now, if they want to then go to New Jersey or Florida, they won't have to answer to it. But then how do those other promotions, excuse me, commissions band together and say, look, you went here when you shouldn't have gone there because in Nevada, you know, it's, it's, it's weird. It's weird. It's weird the way those commissions are. I don't know. There should be a national commission. That's what I think. The Connor effect, by the looks of the unstoppable press conference, it seems that everyone has stepped up their trash talking leading up to the fight. In your opinion, does this make MMA more or less interesting? And what does MMA look like when the Connor bravado is imitated widespread? So essentially, is everybody kind of copying Connor and are we getting

overwhelmed with it? Is it? No, we're not, because clearly the proof is in the pudding and the pudding is pretty rich. what I'm saying. I mean, 1.5, if that's what it did, that's fantastic. That's not, so everybody of the press conference

selling their own fights is now trying to step their game up to Connor levels. But here's my point. I think it's so lazy to make that analogy. I mean,

first of all, let's just look at those fights. Now, maybe they're ramping it up. But Wyman and Rockhold don't like each other. Clear. Dilashon Cruz, we knew they didn't like each other

since, you know, five years ago. So that was not fabricated. Jones, D.C., that's happening regardless of Connor McGregor. Now, little people here and there, maybe, that's just being smart. That's just finally realizing that saying, I'll do whatever the UFC wants, isn't actually going to get you something good. You know, finally, and maybe it's because of Connor, maybe it's not,

maybe they're just getting smarter. I mean, look, free agency, is that because of Connor? You kind of... I think that he has a very big hand in it. Maybe. and if he does, good for him. But I just think the fighters are getting a little smarter. As the sport continues to evolve and grow,

fighters are starting to realize that if you talk, you know, Chale talked too, and he got a second title fight against John Jones and all that stuff right after losing the belt, you know, the title fight against Anderson for the second time. I think fighters are just getting smarter, that's all. I don't necessarily think that, you know, Connor has a big hand in free agency

as much as fighters trying to know their value, which is an important thing and is obviously tangentially related to free agency because the way you can assess your value is by fielding competitive offers. But I think it's more about just knowing what you're worth. And I mean, Rory McDonald said it on the show here. He would look at the bouts, he would look at the payouts after the bouts and say, this is what I'm getting paid. Why am I not getting more? So I think that's where Connor McGregor's impact is felt because he's going on TV.

every time and saying how much he makes and other fighters may be thinking well now it's my turn but i think as fighters get older and they're just you know they're less happy to be in the ufc and they actually want to make a career out of this and they have a family and they see what other athletes get it's it's it's natural to start analyzing what you make and you know now with the rebuck deal you're making less on the um on the on the on the sponsorship side and you're going all right how am i going to provide. At some point, the wave of fighting in the UFC and just being happy to be there is going to come to an end and you're going to have to actually face some realities and face, you know, bills and things of that nature. And that's what I think we're seeing here.

Fighters just want to get paid at the end of the day. And it's no different than you or I or anyone else in this world wanting to get paid and provide for their families. It's cool to be a celebrity. It's cool to fight on the biggest stage possible. I'm sure at the end of the day, they probably all would want to fight in the UFC if that's who was paying the most, but they also want to make money. So, you know, I don't think anything bad is going on here. And if Connor gets the props for that, great. That's another thing that he helped change. Speaking of Connor, now that he's been choked out, he's no longer unbeatable, that aura's gone. Do you think that will affect the other fights? Even though this happened outside of his weight class, do you think there's something to seeing him

beaten that will take away something going into his next fights. Look at the greatest of all time. They've all lost. Randy Gattour lost double digits. B.J. Penn lost double digits. Chuck Adele. I think there's something to it. I think the next person that faces Ronda Rousey, whoever it will be, will not be beaten before they step in the cage the same way her opponent's up to that point where. Well, that's fair, but there's still a new level of intrigue that wasn't there before. How do they respond? So maybe that piece is gone, but something else is there.

This is from the fighter perspective, though. The other fighters who are facing them. Not the public's opinion, not the... But it's always something different because with Aldo, he knocked him out in 13 seconds. And there's all the... That's another thing to overcome from this side. So with everyone, I mean, again, I don't think you can make these blanket statements. But Connor, I mean, just look at the reaction to this fight

and how many people were talking about it afterwards. I still think that there's just as much interest in him going into UFC 200 if that's where he fights. Completely agree. I think there's just as much fan. interest, but I do think there is something to the idea that seeing him lose was something that could be good for a guy like Aldor, a good like, a guy like Frankie Edgar. Sure. Or if he fights at 155.

By the way, don't sleep on that rematch. No one's talking about the rematch. Now they're starting to a little more after I mentioned it on Thursday. But even if you saw Connor talk to TMZ, just knowing him and knowing how the UFC likes to operate these days and how well that did on pay-per-view, they like to run them back. and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the direction they go in. How would you feel if that's what they did? Don't love it.

Yeah. Don't really need to see it again. There was nothing. I didn't see anything in that fight that made me think I didn't, I was robbed of anything. I saw it play out the way it played out and I didn't, I'm not longing for anything. Whereas, you know, the fight with Joseo, I don't want to see that rematch immediately, but I'd love to see them fight for longer, those two. It's got to be, Frankie.

It really does. That's the fight. And I love what's happening with Nate. And I have no doubt that the second fight would be just as big. And I think the casuals would jump on it and they could sell it easily. I mean, just those two characters again. Yeah, but then how many times do you want to run it? Maybe go three.

Maybe go four. Like, let's stop. No, no, no. I'm saying it's got to be Frankie. What do you do with Nate, though? That's the big question. I don't know if this comes up here. He's in a good position.

How weird is it, by the way, to see Farah's kind of campaign for D. on behalf of George when they've never really been that like this is Nate Diaz he's always been the one who's tried to you know pick the fights and now everyone's coming after him how surreal was it to see him with Krista Thompson on extra just in that setting there and in Hollywood it was just so strange it's it's great oh it's a beautiful thing it is it is truly a beautiful thing and I think Nate needs will be the first to tell you and told everybody during fight week and after the fight that he paid his dues and it's about damn time Yeah.

Do you think another loss for McGregor, let's say he loses again, would increase his chances of doing a stadium show in Dublin. Another loss? Yeah, because, well, I guess the line of thinking is it would be filled with Irish fans no matter what. He may not be able to, you know, headline or fill the Americans show the same way with another loss. Would that be, would that open up more potential for that Dublin show? Strange line of thinking, but I feel like by the time it's all, said and done, he'll get that fight in Ireland in the stadium show. I mean, come hell or high water,

that's something that he wants to do. And the guy has shown that what he wants he typically get. So it may not be now. It may not be the next fight. But I feel like it's coming. And I don't know if a loss or a win or whatever. I think it's a strange, this is a strange theory. What does this man say? Conn McGregor is the one man to make me side against Adia brothers. And I pick him over. You got a Patty Irishman. What the heck? First of all, you went against your countryman A and B, you got to update your signature there. Can we give some props to John Crouch over at the lab for this Brian Barbarina? Bam, bam.

Look at that. Lunchbox. Now which of your children is going to be using it is the question? That is a great question. I didn't even think of that. It's a real lunchbox. I believe this was inspired from a Tommy Tollhold episode. See, there you go.

And they gave me a custom. This is like one of five. The Sage Northcut killer right there. Oof. The lab zone. Look at that. Bang. How awesome is that?

This might be one of our greatest pieces of memorabilia. And here's a prediction for you. It will be stolen within the next three weeks. The kleptomaniacs at this studio here. I mean, where's my Steve Rogers' bobblehead? You couldn't find it. Could you? He's around.

Don't worry. He's in the memorabilia box in the sky. How about my watch, my Anderson Silva, limited edition watch? Where's that? Still waiting for that, mother. Old Stevie is wearing it. B.S. Okay, the 170 pound lottery.

Should the winner of Thompson versus McDonald fight for the next title shot? Does Robbie fight Tyron Woodley? In the meantime, I know Dana said Nate versus Robbie makes sense, but does it? How do you see 170 shaking out? And by the way, can I just address the idiots online who watch this show? No. I love dearly. Who are like, oh, Ariel was only three.

talking about Connor McGregor all week. Do we not understand, first of all, do we not understand that the big story, yes, a guy won. I'm fully aware of that. And it was a fantastic, it was a, fantastic win. And here we are giving him props all that. But there's no doubt about it. The big story was that Connor, the money train, all that loss. And the interesting thing to talk about now is how this affects him, the UFC, all that. That's why people were saying it's a bad night, right? I mean, do we not get that? How stupid are some people? I couldn't believe some of the comments that I was getting like oh are still kissing connor's ass this is all it's 1.5 million in large part because of him now it's 100% if that was RDA that's not getting to 1.5 I'm sorry it's just not

and and Holly deserves a lot of credit too Holly's a much bigger star than a lot of people are making her out to be she deserves a ton of credit there and we can get into the whole manager thing I don't know if that's going to come up but we can talk about that but that was the story That was the big story that Connor lost. It wasn't that Nate D.S. 1. You get what I'm saying? There's a big difference here. And that's just the truth.

And if you don't want to recognize that, then tough Nuggies. Do you get what I'm saying? Do you get the distinction? Of course. I think it's a very obvious point. I feel like don't address them. Okay. Let it be.

170. How is it shaking out? Thompson versus McDonald. Do they get the next title shot? Let's break it down that way first. By the way, now that fight makes all the same. sense in the world. Now I get it, right? Sure. It's not an easy fight.

Well, it's like, oh, here you go. But let's say, you know, let's say Rory wins that one and then walks. Just killed off a contender for no reason. Yeah, that is a good point. Just killed off your top guy for no reason. Does Nate get the title shot against Robbie? If it's not the Conner rematch, does Tyron get it? Does GSP get it? My impression is that GSP is interesting. in coming back, but he doesn't want to come back for title fights.

He just wants to have fun fights, which, by the way, is what Rory McDonald said back in Dublin that got everyone all crazy. Remember that? Yeah, he's smart. So I really don't know. I guess it's a woodley fight, although I feel like he's losing momentum here. I mean, he hasn't fought in a year and change, 14 months. But it's safe to say the winner of that fight does get the title shot, Rory and Wonderboy. I would do it. I mean, you have to at this point. Especially if it's Wonderboy. Well, I mean, either one of those. Rory Baller 3 is not...

Can you do it? Even though he's 0 and 2? Oh, of course you can do it. It was a fight of the year. Yeah. It was fight of the century. But he is 0.2. You can do that one. I wouldn't care. Tyrone Woodley, let's focus on him for a second.

This person is going to call you out. Oh. You often state that calling out a specific opponent is the way to go. You like that. Call your shot. And that charisma on the mic, social media is an important aspect of the fight game. But last week, you suggested that Tyrone Woodley has been too vocal in calling for a title shot. How was that possible? Listen.

Contradicted yourself. Key of D minor. Tell it. What is that? A piano reference? Key of D. Minor? It is. Look, here's my thing.

I got love for Tyron Woodley. Me and him go way back. I'm responsible for that beard of his. And that acting performance and straight out of college. in straight out of Compton, who do you think was his coach? So don't tell me about Tyron Woodley and giving him love. But here's the thing. Just look at the comments.

Just look at the way that people have been reacting. He hasn't fought in almost 14 months. That's a long time. That's a long time. And there comes here. This is what's working against Tyrone Woodley, right? Tyrone Woodley was supposed to fight Johnny Hendricks. By no fault of his own.

By no fault of his own. Johnny Hendricks didn't show up. He missed weight. All right, fine. He doesn't fight. Johnny Hendricks then fights Wonder Boy Thompson, who smokes Johnny Hendricks. So now all this time, Woodley was hanging his hat on the fact that he was supposed to fight Hendrix and he didn't show up. And it was a very good argument.

But the problem is Hendricks then fought someone else before he got the title shot. And now it's like, well, wait a second. You're hanging your hat on the guy who didn't show up. But then that guy fought someone else and got smoked. And now we have this other guy who's like going to have to fight this kid. You know what I mean? But Wonderboy is not getting the shot. Who, by the way, has to fight this killer who beat you at UFC 174.

But Wonderboy is not getting the shot. If he was getting the shot, then you'd have... But you understand what I'm saying? Tyrone Woodley lost to Roy McDonald. Yes. Tyrone Woodley lost momentum. Certainly. That's the problem in all of this.

I'm not going to cry if he gets it. I'm just telling it like it is. I'm just telling you how the people are reacting and I'm telling you how it looks. So what should he do, though? He has to keep calling his shot. He has to keep campaigning. for that title shot. At some point he's, look, he's had a lot of good luck because, okay, at first, Condit leapfrogs him, right? That ends up being a super close fight, but Lawler wins, so we're moving on.

It seems, at least right now it seems. Who knows? Maybe they run that one back too. Then we had, you know, the Conner stuff, dodge that bullet. Wonderboy, dodge that bullet. For now, it seems GSP is not, you know, in the running, so he potentially dodged that bullet. And now he's kind of like the last band standing. It kind of reminds me of the Chris Wyman-Anderson Silva fight. Chris Wyman beat he beat Mark Munoz and then he was supposed to fight Tim Boch, remember? Blows out his shoulder and then all these people started losing

like Bispying and a bunch of others and he was kind of like the last band standing. Not a ton of momentum behind him. He fight to Anderson and wins. Maybe that's what's going to happen here with Tyne Woodley. I like that fight. I think it's a very interesting fight. And then the whole thing of them training at the same place, you know that gets me excited. But, you know, there's not a lot of momentum behind him. That's just the truth.

I think he has to stay the path, though. He has to stay the course. Keep talking. Just keep talking and keep calling for that shot. I guess, but at some point you've got to work too. Hopefully it's for the title. Got to get fed. Daniel Cormier, this is interesting because Rashad touched on this during the show.

If Jones beats Corby and April. By the way, how good was Rashad breaking it down, huh? I thought every, I mean, as I said, this was hashtag real talk today. Everybody brought this. Whoever books this damn show deserves a lot of credit. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Finally.

It's about time. Thank you. If Jones beat Cormier in April, I'm sorry, if Jones beats Cormier in April, does Cormier move up to heavyweight? That would be a second loss of Jones, and I don't see him doing anything else at light heavyweight. Rashad says he could potentially be done if he loses to Jones again. What do you think? What's next for Cormier if he can't reach on? We're already writing him off here?

That's it? Come on. That's no fun. How about this? Someone wrote this to me, and this might go over your head because you're one of these Johnny Come Lately fans. Sure, sure. tell me. But someone wrote me this,

said, okay, this is what they wrote. Now, I'm not going to, I'm not going to call the person out because it was sort of OTR, off the record,

that is. But this is what they said. They said, why is Daniel Cormier channeling Kurt Angles Circa 1999 and playing straight-laced Boar who lectures the public

on who to cheer? And I was like, gosh, damn it, that's a spot-on comparison. You may not remember this, but when Kurt was signed to W.

His whole thing was, I'm the real American hero, the Olympic gold medalist, and this is who you have to cheer, and these are the three eyes, integrity, intensity, and intelligence, I think,

and he was preaching. And the thing was, he was the Olympic gold medalist, but he was a bad guy because he was preaching too much. He was telling them what to do, and it's kind of what's happening here with Cormier. I think that was the best explanation

of what happened at that press conference. I see it, but I don't think of Cormier's, like squeaky clean. He's not that kind of guy. He's not the like, you know, eat your vegetables. And because he, he does bring it and he, he can talk S-H-I-T with the best of them. Sure. I don't know if it's that. Why are they turning on him? That I don't know. I really don't know. I guess there's some of that that he's, he's a little bit cleaner than John Jones. Look, there's a lot. There's definitely a lot going on. And it's not, you know, one-to-one here.

But I think the main thing really is that, you know, distance makes a heart grow fonder. They Jones. He comes back. He's all like happy go lucky. He's clean, all that stuff, whatever. But there is something to be said for, hey, don't cheer him. Cheer me. I'm the clean guy. I'm your champion. I'm the guy who doesn't let you down. I'm the guy who did this and that. I'm the Olympian, all that. There is kind of something to be said for that for people not liking to be told who to cheer for. You know what I'm saying? I think that was the mistake was saying, why are you booing me? That's never a good response unless you're Al, unless you're raging out, who did it about as good as you could do it. Raging Al, yeah, I missed that guy.

Anyway, I thought that was a fantastic comparison and it's really going to be interesting. I maintain, I don't know if I said it on this show last week. You know, I do so many shows. It's hard to keep up. Go to Louisiana, do a press conference there, Jones and Cormier, no one else. go to New York, do a press conference there, Jones and Cormier, no one else, in the weeks leading up to this fight. I mean, it's almost coming. It's in like, what, six weeks? How great would that be? How awesome would that be?

Go to New Orleans? I don't know if you want to do that because Cormier might get booed out of the building in New Orleans. No, no, that's not going to happen. I mean, at this point, I mean, I could not have foretold that there's no way I saw that one coming. I saw it. Some people think that because he picked a game. Connor McGregor the week of the fight that a lot of the Irish fans were booed.

Oh, well then, okay, then that's a perfect explanation for what's going on right now. I don't think those Irish fans watch USC tonight. So either it was a factor or it wasn't. Tell me. I heard some people say that to me, but I don't think they watch UFC tonight,

those Irish fans. They don't get that show over in Ireland. Maybe they do. Maybe that's the reason. I think that's a little too, I don't know. I say, just do it in New York. Forget Louisiana. Let Cornier continue his same...

I thought Cormier was your guy. Why do you want him to get killed out there? Because I think he'll embrace it. That's the thing. He's smart. He will embrace that. You've got to go to both coasts or both cities. That's not even, I mean, it's not, anyway.

What? It's perfect. It's not coasts. I know, I know. I know. I messed that up. I don't know my geography. Listen, go to New York City, do a press conference, get the media there, go to New Orleans.

UFC, wherever you are, on the house. Take that one, run with it. Trust me. Let's stay on John Jones and another opponent of his. Outside their cage, though. What do you make of the back and forth between Chuck Ladell and John Jones. Okay. Jesus. Can we stop this one already?

This has to be the most boring feud. It's never going to happen. What's the point? It's never going to happen. Can we stop that one? Does it remind you a little bit of the NBA people hitting on Steph Curry? A little bit of the old time? Yeah, a little bit of the like this guy's putting up, you know, 40 when I couldn't do it. And now I'm going to say that the game's a little different. Like Oscar Rob. Look, I have the utmost respect for the legends of the hardwood. I mean, those guys, they made the NBA into what it is today.

Steph Curry is better than all of them on his worst day, though. That's just the truth of the matter. I'm sorry. We're comparing a lifetime of work to essentially like three seasons. Like, that's really what he came. He's burning damn bright right now. He is, he is. Look, I got love for Steph Curry. One of the very first jerseys that I ever bought my kids.

Proud to wear. Banwagoner, perfect. Absolutely. And that's one guy. But you know what? I'm not a bandwagoner. I'm not the one whose email address was LeBron 93 or whatever the hell it is. That's the calves.

You have no connection to Cleveland, yet somehow you're a LeBron fan. Explain that one to me. Listen, you have no connection to New York. You're a Canadian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. First of all, the Knicks never won shit. That says it all. That's all we need to say.

That's not bandwagon if they don't win, for God's sakes. Although it's great, great, great buzzer readers. Yeah, yeah, Jose Calderon. Good win, good win. Anyway, so what were we talking about? We were talking about Chuck and John Ross. Well, now it's gone to the point where it's like, at me when you're going to, you're going to talk smack about me.

Yeah. I mean, come on. Now we're going to start arguing about Twitter. You're not feeling it. I'm not feeling this one. And it's been going on for a while. Yeah. Right?

And I think the facts are firmly in John Jones's case so far. What is the point of this feud? I could have beaten you back in the day? Well, yeah, that's the thing. I mean, it's a pride thing, not the organization, but the feeling. No. No thanks. Okay, current state of that division.

By the way, I got in trouble. Maybe I feel this way because prior to UFC 172, I got in trouble for asking John Jones about it. Oh, that's right. Some people weren't happy about that one, so maybe I've just blocked it out of my mind. Yeah, you're... Let's just leave it at that. You're done with it now, but you did care at one point.

Well, let's just say I was asked to ask the question. Okay. The state of that division, the division of Cormi and Jones. With no real young prospects emerging, almost every top fighter of the division is relatively old and or has already lost to John Jones, considering if John Jones wins in April and then defends the belt against Anthony Johnson, is it possible that we'll see him decide to move up to heavyweight at that point. Well, I still think he wants that Gustafin fight.

And I know Gusen's won. And he's called for it himself, John Jones, yeah. I think it's sellable. It would be nice if Gustafsson gets a win under his belt, gets back on track. Just one win. I think that's all we need here. So we got that fight in the, you know, in the shadows. What else is going on?

Glover, I think, is going to be tough. Rashad, if he beats Glover, might be tough. Yeah, you're right. There's not much going on. Don't sleep on my man, Alia Latifie. How about my mother recognizing Alir Latifie on the street in Miami? I mean, is that not a hardcore fan or what? Your mom actually texted me during the show one time.

Yeah, here you guys like the text. To ID somebody who she couldn't quite place who it looked like and happened to be Alir Latifi. She's got a thing for Alifi. And now it's burned into her brain, I'm sure. How strange is that? She sends me a text. Look who I ran into. I saw Alir Latifi.

So, Alir Latifie has a place at an apartment complex that my parents go to, and she just recognized them. But, like, I wasn't there to point him out. She watched UFC 196, so she recognized them. Anyway, give me Alir Latifie versus Johnny Bones. Stop it. Stop it. Why? You don't want that fight?

Stop it. Oh, the New York badass himself. Phil Baroni is weighing in on McCormier-Jones. What do you say? He says that the sentiment is fuck the UFC on Fox guy. No, no, he had a previous tweet. He had a previous one. He was saying that the...

Read it. Spot on. about DC. It's a little bit attitude error. People like the bad guy sometimes. It's not college wrestling. And then he goes on to say that the sentiment is fuck the UFC on Fox guy. We like who we like. The guy who's against the grain, not the goody-goody. Wow. I mean, if someone knows... Who knows better than the New York badass?

That is fight promotion 101. I hope DC is reading those tweets. Okay, so we have come to the conclusion that if John Jones continues, he's essentially cleared out every good fight for himself at Light Heavyweight. Yes? No, no, no, no, Gustafson. After Gustafson. Yeah. I mean, at some point he has to move up to heavy weight.

But it's always weird to say that because people were saying that about Anderson. No, I'm the one who always rallies against that. You've said that Connor McGregor cleared out the fight without facing anybody. No, no. I said Frankie. I said Frankie. There's much more than Frankie left anyway. Not really.

But for John Jones, there is not. There's absolutely nobody left. The division is too old. There's nobody that is coming up and really, you know, a young prospect for him to face. Nikita Krilov, Corey Anderson. Stop it. John Jones is I wouldn't be surprised

if he's looking at super fights We screwed up Anthony Johnson No, this person said that in the question So let's say he beats Cormier and Johnson Then what, and you're saying Gustafsson So that's three fights Well first of all now we're skipping over three fights Because we got Cormier, Johnson and Gustafsson

Yep Come on and he's going to win them all I mean let's be real Oh wait a second Now we're off the Cormier Van Wagon You loved Cormier I still love Cormier And I would not ever move

Daniel Cormiere because he truly is like a shining example of what you want your athletes to be. Yes. But I don't think he beats John Jones. That's just the... Imagine he comes out to that Kurt Angle music. That would be hilarious. All based on this one person who you can't even name who said this to you. Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Cormiere himself. Okay. To turn the tables on everyone? Robert Whitaker is the only... This is another one about the... Oh my God. Wait, what was that? What is this...

What is going on? Oh, this is, this is... What is this? Like a rap version? No, this is... See, you're such a frontrunner. You don't know that this is Kurt Angles theme song? No, but there was like lyrics just now.

No, no, no, that was because the YouTube was open. Oh, okay, well. I attended, little-known fact about me, I attended No Mercy 2000 at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York, with four of my friends, Ritchie Shime, Josh Neuple, Alan Dudkowitz.

I think that was it. Phil Dirkson maybe. Anyway, and we attended, and Kurt Angle won the WVF title. Oh, here's the tie-in, competing at your show.

Kurt Angle. Oh, is he on that thing? I think he's on the show. I thought he just retired. Wait, what? No, I think I have this right. Let me double check this while you're telling this. Anyway.

And we were there, and Kurt Angle won, and we flipped out, and we were stuck in traffic, going back, we said at the worst host motel ever in Albany. This is October 22nd, 2000.

I remember we're so excited to go to the No Mercy Paperview. This is the paper viewer Rikishi was revealed as being the man who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin. I remember Rikish. It was the worst storyline ever. It was like this guy was completely irrelevant when Stone Cold was injured and out for a year. And all of a sudden, the Rock says that Rikishi is the guy that ran him over. I mean, no sense.

Anyway, Kurt Angle wins and then we're in the car blasting this song. I made a CD of all the things. This is so lame. Please stop. Of all of these songs, we were blasting this. Oh my God. It was fantastic. Are you going to be blasting it when Kurt Engel faces Ray Mysterio at your show?

See, the your show name is too confusing because I keep thinking that it's my show. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah, I'll be watching. What is it? I think I'll watch it too. A wrestling match?

I don't know. Who knows? I mean, Bisming didn't even seem to know what kind of venue he's fighting in. It's the weirdest. He doesn't really know the details. Wait. A PD test. He doesn't know anything.

He's getting paid. He's going to punch. He's not, he doesn't even, he has no incentive to win the fight or match. Yeah, he's getting paid show money and that's it, right? This reeks. Okay, Robert Whitaker. Can we, can we cut the, can we cut the curt angle? I just love it.

Okay. Okay, Robert Whitaker. He's the only top 10 middleweight under 30 years of age. Do you worry about the talent pool in that division as well? Gosh, there's so much worrying going on. No, I do not worry about it. Michael Bissing is there. That's a great fight.

Jacaray. That's not quite setting up for after. We're talking like a few years down the line. We're worrying about a few years down the line. Who knows what's going to happen? I mean, for all intents of purposes, we may not be here next week. Are we really going to worry about a few years down the line? Uh-oh.

Stop worrying. Papa Widman's disowned bastard. Stop worrying. I mean, with a name like that, I can understand why he's worrying about things. That's one hell of an inside joke right there. I don't get it. Well, remember, his dad was so, you know, he was so proud to tell everybody that he's still his son. He's saying that this son was not so proud to acclaim this son.

He was disowned. Do you think that Wyman was annoyed when his dad said that? No, I bet he was happy as damn hell. My dad would do the same thing. After he got his ass kicked? Yeah, I would hope that my dad would do the same thing, and I think he would, and he watches the show every week, so. Respect to your dad.

Respect to my dad. One of our biggest fans. Happy birthday, Stefan Curry also. Oh, you are gross. We were talking about him. You are gross. Ross. All right.

Stefan Curry. Okay, we were talking about this earlier. A lot of rematches in the U.S.E. We were mentioning Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz is a possibility, continuing that trend of rematches. This person is pointing out the fact that every time there's a close title fight, for example, Rory McDonald, Carlos Cond, Alexander Gustafson, these were the losers of that fight.

They're less likely to get the rematch than those champions, even if they get starched, for example, Rousie, Hennebrow, Weidman. do you think we should be thinking more about some of the losers who were in closer fights than the champions who lost decisively for rematches? I do not understand this question at all. Roy McDonnell, Carlos Condit, Alexander Gustafin, went toe to toe to the bell, five rounds with the champions. Yes. Lost the fights.

We're not reigning champions. They were the contenders. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The champions in the fights in the case of Rousey, Brow Wyden, they got the brakes beat off them. but they're the ones who are in talks for a rematch. Shouldn't the ones who went to the distance, shouldn't the ones who were in those competitive fights, even though they weren't the champions,

they were the challengers, be in line for those rematches rather than the champions who got beat decisively. I think you get a little leverage since you were the champion, A, B, there was talk of Condit getting a rematch. There certainly was talk of Gustafsson getting a rematch, so this is not 100% accurate,

and no one really wanted to see it. Well, Weidman's booked. Brow got it. No one wanted to see the brow rematch. Let's be honest. And Roussey likely would have got it if she was healthy. Wyman got it to a degree because of the Romero situation. Rousie is the biggest star in the sport, and it was going to make a crap load of money,

so that's a no-brainer. So I think every – the point is every situation is very different and very unique. And there's a justification here for these. But I do think that sometimes the UFC gets a little too rematch happy. Verdum Kane wasn't the right call, in my opinion. and in particular because you want the guy who lost, and especially if it was in a pretty dominant fashion, I think you want to build him back up.

If he is truly going to be a champion and go on a run, well, you want to get him back on track, you want to get his confidence back, his mojo back. We've talked about this before, and I feel like sometimes they do a disservice to the former champion by booking an immediate rematch like they did with Henan Burrell. Where is he?

So I think, I think, they need to okay big win potential money-making fight down the line but let's build up this guy again let's get him some you know lesser fights i'm not saying cupcake fights but you know some lesser fights let's get the champion some fresh matchups and especially in the case of redume where we were kind of in this you know this this this this we were talking about that fight for like 20 months remember after ufc 166 and kane got injured sometimes you got to be a little more creative that's how i feel Invicta FC16. Invicta doesn't get the recognition that it deserves.

Some really solid fights are growing on out of there. What did you make of Invicta FC 16 and who were the standout performers for you? I touched on that. Did you have anything that just stood out to you? By the way, how many people were there? It was hard to tell because there was a point in the fight where I felt like I can hear the... I like when you hear the corners talk, but I didn't press that function on my... I understand what you're saying.

No, it was a solid crowd. Okay. Um, that's all you, that's all you have to say about that. It was, it was a, it was a huge venue. Like, it wasn't a, it wasn't a venue with, um, traditional like stadium seating. It was a, it was a hall. It was a banquet where the, the ground was flat and they laid out seats. So it was a very, very, very, very large room, um, actually. I'm a, I'm a very big fan of the Invicta product because I always feel like the, the fights are fun. I love when they try to group it up with a UFC event so that you can get more

media and more attention. They did that prior to you. UFC 184, and of course they did it in July. I'd like to see them do it more. I think it makes a lot of sense to do the events in Las Vegas, all kidding aside. And I think that this was actually, for whatever reason, maybe it was hard because we were all sort of suffering from 196 hangover. It's hard to top that. But I actually think that this card was one of their deeper cards. And I like that they don't load it up with like 11 or 12 fights. How many were on this? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's a nice number. And especially when it's on fight pass and there aren't, a lot of commercials to play and all that stuff.

It rolls pretty fast. So I really like the product. The Yaka Hamasaki fight was great. Nice comeback win there. What was the one fight that? Oh, well, Al-Donna, I feel like Al-Dana is ready for the UFC, don't you think? That was a strange booking. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a...

Having her fight, Jessimand-Duc is still a member of the UFC. She has a contract with the UFC, and she is a name from the ultimate. fighter and of course being associated with ronda goes down to try to build her up and you have her fight you know maybe the second best bantam weight in invicta behind the champion right is that fair sure um i think uh al dana is definitely uh super polished um i think there's still that was a short notice fight there's still a little more to prove uh for for for for for for for for jessman duke why have Why not have her fight some, you know, three and no fighter, or one and two?

You know what I mean? Why is she fighting the best Bantamate not named Tanya Evinger in Invicta? Sure. I think I'd like to see Aldana and Evanger again. But the thing is, like, when you get sent down to the minors, so to speak, and this is, I'm not calling Invicta the minors, but when you get, when the UFC is saying,

go get some fights, you know, build yourself back up, get some wins under your belt, get some cage time, all that. don't have her fight the best fighter in the division not named the champion who should probably be already in the UFC if we're being honest, right?

Sure. I agree with that. Right. I don't mean to put you in an awkward spot here, but these are my takes on the Invictive products. And like I said, I'm a big fan of Jin Yu Fry. I think she could be promoted very well.

What does she have? Like some crazy degree and she treats cancer patients. These are the kinds of stories that they need to put out there. She's got a great, I mean, though, the way-ins were fun. Roxanne was, it's a great product. Roxanne, what did she dress up as?

She was, I think, Katana for Mortal Kombat or Molina. I haven't played those games in a long, long time. The main issue is they have to try to get people to not, 105 and 125 should be the top priorities, and 145. And they have to, they're in an awkward spot with 115 and 135. and I think Shannon has done a fantastic job of revitalizing 135 even though all the big names are in the UFC and now it's slowly starting to happen again with 115.

She does a great job of finding a lot of talent and I think in large part due to the fact that she's the main game in town but they have to start getting people to not think that this is the minor leagues because it wasn't like that in the early days because they were the only game in town. That's the tough part. Cyborg and the UFC, what are your thoughts on Chris Seaborg recently campaigning for a fight at USC-198? Do you think the chances of this actually happening are? Do you have any interest in seeing her fight in the UFC,

given that they have no 145ers? The one thing I learned from all this stuff with, among many of the things, so I shouldn't say it's just one thing. But, you know, fans, especially when you're talking to the mainstream, the casual fans that are going to, you know, the Dan Patrick's of the world, the Bill Simmons's of the world, they just want to see great fights, right? And what does the 135-pound women's UFC title mean to them?

It's not the most prestigious belt in the world It has only been in existence for like three years Get cyborg on your cards Even if it's 140 Even if it's 145 just get her on the damn cards She's a UFC fighter She has a UFC contract She has a Zufa contract

Why is she fighting in Invicta? It doesn't make any sense to me So she'll never fight for the belt again You don't think Katzegano would fight her You don't think Misha Tate prior to becoming champion fighter I wouldn't even be surprised if she would fight her now For whatever reason Rhonda didn't want to do it but get her on your card.

So 198, you're trying to sell, you know, 40,000 tickets. Why wouldn't you put her on that card? And if you want to get crazy, put her on the fight-pass prelims. Put her on the prelims and say, this is an invictive fighter who usually fights on fight-pass and let her fight on the fight-pass prelims. I'm sure Eric Winter would love that. Absolutely.

So, yeah, I would do it. 100%. That's a solid card, by the way. If you actually look at the fight, like Matt Brown versus Damien Maya, and there's obviously Vitor and Jacare and Miochich and Verdume. Pat Cummins is on that card. It's a very solid card. Given that Misha wouldn't have gotten the title shot,

had Holly not advocated so strongly for her, do you think Misha should return the favor and advocate for Holly to get the next shot? That's a very good question as well. I mean, I think the big question here is, where's Ronda, when she's coming back, if she's coming back sooner rather than later, I saw some outlets,

in England, the Daily Mail or something, one of those tabloid newspapers, they had a whole bunch of pictures of her training again at the gym, which was curious timing. Obviously, this is a lot more appealing now to Ronda Rousey. She beat Misha Tate twice. She has that confidence. So if she's coming back relatively soon, that's the money fight. Of course, everyone wants to fight Rhonda. I saw Brian Carraway do an interview saying that the fight to make now is Amanda Nunes.

And I couldn't disagree more there. if Misha Tate is going to fight before Ronda Rousey, before she fights Ronda Rousey for a third time, there's only one answer and it's Holly Home. And if it's going to happen soon, it should happen at UFC 200. Because if Holly Home wins, you now have Holly Ronda for the belt.

If Misha wins, of course, you have Misha Ronda for the belt. That's the only fight. If Amanda Nunes fights Misha Tate and Amanda Nunes wins, well, you don't really have a story. Sure, you have the great Ronda Rousey story of coming back and all that stuff,

but it's not quite the same. She doesn't have a history with Amanda Nunes like she does with Misha Tade and Holly Home. She just doesn't. So, you know, solid win for Amanda. She's looked good. She's streaking all that stuff. But the timing just isn't right here. So it should only be Holly Home if she fights before fighting Ronda Roessie.

Yeah, it's a three-woman weave right now. Which is great. I don't understand why people think this is a bad thing. Silly. Any insight on to why the UFC schedule is relatively light in this month and the next month, March, and April? There are big cards and great fights, but the number of events. seems lighter than usual. I think the big news just came through the wire.

Page Vanceant, a 10 to 1... I don't know if that's a favorite? No, if someone's 10 to 1, what does it mean? Underdog or favorite? Well, it depends on what the other people are. 5 to 2, 6 to 1, 7 to 1, 15 to 2, 15 to 2... Well, whoever's 5 to 2 is... Well, the odds of Paige Van Zant winning,

dancing with the stars, according to Bovada, 10 to 1. which I think is a little crazy. Do they not know that she has a background in dancing? How about our own Paige Van Zand? All Grones Up in this studio, and then the next day, she was on Good Morning America. Who are the other people that are on this show? Wanya Morris, Vaughn Miller.

I know him. Oh, Von Miller. Yeah, Antonio Brown, also know him. Oh. Heraldo. Hell yeah. Kim Fields. I don't know who she is.

Misha Barton, I know her from the O.C. Nile DeMarco. I don't even know if that's a girl or a boy Doug Flutie, the legend. A lot of football players. Yeah, CFL legend. Marla Maples, wow. Donald Trump's former girlfriend, ex-wife.

I think that's correct, yeah. Was it a girlfriend? Jody Sweeten of Full House fame or Fuller House and Ginger Z. I don't know who that is. Page Van Zand is going to smoke these people. Don't the football players traditionally do very well? Page Van Zand, America is going to fall in love with her. she's going to kill it.

Anyway, 10 to 1, I'm surprised. By the way, the favorite, I guess, is Juania Morris. Five to two, would that be the favorite? Yeah. Okay, back to the question. No, I think it just goes in waves. And typically, you can see that the schedule is sort of the same every single year. You know, January is always loaded.

I mean, it's kind of the same just in different spots. You can kind of figure it out. So, I don't know, recently. But it gets pretty busy. They're in Brisbane. this weekend and then I think it's off. Is it off? No. Maybe they're off for two weeks and then it's Croatia and then it gets busy. Then it's Tampa Bay and then it's Las Vegas.

So I don't know. I think it's sometimes for the best. Take a little breath. It was good not to have an event after 196. I'll tell you that much for them. Do you think the UFC might try to put three title fights on the UFC 200 card? Big mistake. Historically, any time the UFC or any organization for that matter puts on three title fights on the same card. horrible mistake. Don't do it. Something bad happens. Question from our same friend.

If Hunt wins via knockout this weekend, will that be enough to put him back in the title mix? Of course. He's fighting Frank Meir. It's a big win. He's been looking good as of late. Hell yeah. I mean, there aren't that many options at heavyweight.

And I would pay to see him fight for Doom again. I would certainly pay to see him fight Miotritch if you win, so of course. Will the UFC be signing Justin Gachian Oh, that's interesting. I saw him tell, I think it was MMA junkie today, that he too is going to test the free agent market. Everyone's getting all crazy about free agency, and he should. Although I do like that Jason High Fight. Here's the interesting thing about World Series of fighting right now. They're two biggest stars in my opinion, Marlon Marais and Justin Gachey. Let's throw in David Branch, who's their middleweight and light heavyweight champion. Those are

their big draws, right? Right now? What do they all have in common? They're all managed by Ali Abdelaziz, who was once their matchmaker, decided, after talking to a few people, it's a conflict of interest. So now he's just manager for dominance MMA and has a pretty darn impressive stable, I might add. Now, they're all represented by him. They all have fantastic contracts. Was that a conflict? You be the judge. What's going to happen now that he left? Is he going to take him elsewhere? Are they still going to get that favorable deal? Are they going to get a pay cut? What's going to happen? This is fascinating because Marais and Gachi in particular are to me are worth going after, especially if you're a Bellator. I mean, say what you want about

Ali when he was, you know, running World Series of Fighting and, you know, doing the whole conflict of interesting. He made some pretty damn good fighters. He developed some great fighters. And the organization has a different feel now. It's really like a main event. And by the way, the Louis Taylor win on Saturday, the standing guillotine, that was fantastic. But it's, these cars are typically like main event and then just filler. Guys that you can't really promote or studs. He was doing a lot of that. He had a nice mix of names, veterans, and guys like Marais and Justin Gitchie, who we did not know before World Series of Fighting was around. So I'm really curious to see what happens here. Why do you think Branch doesn't get that same kind of rub? Is it because

he was already in the UFC? Yeah, I think so. And we've seen that, been there and whereas Gathe and Marias haven't? Which, by the way, I don't think is fair because I think that he probably got into the UFC too soon and got cut too soon. They didn't give him enough time to develop. Probably the best thing to happen to him was to leave the UFC and look what's happened now. He's damn sure good enough to be on the roster now. Yeah, he finished Yushinokami 100%. I just feel like those guys, there's a little more of an unknown. I mean, the UFC actually reached out to David Branch to fill in. I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, I might be mistaken here because it's late in the show, but I think it was when the whole Chris Komosi-Jakure 2 thing happened last year in April in New Jersey. So those guys

get paid very well. Ali treated them well. So what's going to happen? Are they going to want to stick around and continue to get paid, will World Series of Fighting cut back and offer them less? That's a really interesting story to follow. And can we stop with the damn Twitter feed tweeting out non-World Series of Fighting News? What is happening? If you go to their website,

we were looking at this earlier. Like the top story is a Connor McGregor story. This is like Pro Elite. I know you don't remember Pro Elite because this is, you know, before your time, but ProEleet.com was trying to be like the news site. And also, no, just focus on promoting your fighters. put out as much content about your fighters, your promotion, your organization, your upcoming events as you want.

Flood our timelines. Don't promote someone else. What are you doing? We get enough of that everywhere else. No one's going to World Series of Fighting.com, W.S.fdoch.com. No one's going to that website to read about Connor McGregor. Do you not understand this? I don't know.

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and that stuff does the best. Maybe that gets the most traffic. And then guess what? If that's the case, then it's the case. then it doesn't even make even more sense. What does that tell you about the way you're promoting your own fighters? Gets me all fired up. Do I have a point? Do you agree with me?

I agree with you that I wouldn't do it, but if that's the way that the traffic comes in and then they dig around the WSOF site and see some more stuff? All right, maybe you're right. What do I know? So you're saying they're baiting us with the Connor News. I mean, I can't think of another reason to do it. It's not your promotion, so I don't know.

Okay, how about this? Fantasy matchmaking. Nate Diaz versus Nick Diaz at U.S. 209. Oh, my Lord. What would it take to do that? I don't think they'd ever do it. No, but that would be insane. Do you think that gets over $2 million?

It would just be too awkward. I think the problem is they wouldn't sell it. Oh, domestic violence? What a horrible name. Even if they were to agree to this, they wouldn't, there's no way Nick is going to be like, well, you didn't eat your peas when you're growing up, and Nate, you know, comes back with something else from their childhood.

If you read that interview that Nick gave me after the suspension in September, you could tell that he has very mixed feelings about his brother still fighting. Now I'm sure he's happy that he's making money and he's all popular and everything, but I just can't see them punching each other for our enjoyment. I don't think it would ever happen. Yeah. By the way, we talk about teammates. I mean, this is the next step. Is it, am I wrong? Or are a lot more people talking about UFC 209 since we talked about it last week on the show?

now I see everyone talking about it. It's certainly a topic. Weird. Weird. NCA tourney time. Oh, yes. Are we doing the Helwani nose bracketology channels? I'm happy you asked.

A lot of people have been asking me about this and yes, it is coming. I just need to get around to it. Look out for it. There's a very select few people that are part of this prestigious tournament because I just go back to the same email. So if you were there from the beginning, you will be getting an email and I don't really know. What's at stake?

To be honest, I'm too lazy to then go ship something. out there give you, I'll send you a tweet. How about that? Is that good enough? I don't think, I don't think that's a sufficient price. How about this? Okay. No, I was going to say something from the set and I was going to pick the. Oh, no, no, no, no, not giving away anything. How about, I don't know. I have no idea. Throughout some suggestions. And by the way, here's something I've been thinking, oh, and I wanted to address this before we go. We've been working on it. I'm the kind of podcast consumer who doesn't like to subscribe for some reason. I'm starting to more now.

And I obviously understand the value in it. And I certainly appreciate anyone who does subscribe to this show and any of our other shows at SB Nation and MMA fighting in particular. But for some reason, I never do it. I always search for the podcast. And it appears as though the last two weeks when you search for our podcast, the show doesn't show up. But if you subscribe to it, it comes up on your feed.

It's a very peculiar thing. We don't exactly know why. but we're trying to figure it out, and hopefully for this week it will be figured out. I also feel, if I can be honest, so have no fear, just subscribe and it will come up is what I'm trying to tell you because a few people I've been tweeting me about this. Or you can get it at SoundCloud. iTunes is not the only way. Go to SoundCloud and download. That is true.

That's true. In iTunes, I feel like those rankings are very skewed. There's something Fugazi going on there. And I feel like I see these podcasts with 30 second clips, then all of a sudden vault to the top. And I think it's because they get people to comment and rate the podcasts. And I think that's why they get vaulted up. You heard the man. Comment and rate on iTunes.

I've never asked this before, but I'm just curious. I'm just curious to see what happens. If we could just try it out, let's just comment and rate and see what happens. And then I think my point will be proven that the whole thing is Fugazi, that the ones that you see at the top are only getting the love because people are commenting and rating whatever. Five stars, more New York, Rick, all that good stuff. Yeah, do whatever you want. I don't care. Ray, whatever you want.

subscribe, comment, and rate. And let's see what happens. And if we go to number one, we have just proven that the iTunes rankings are for Gaze. Can we do that? Are we on board with this? Or that they're on board with this? Or that they're legit.

Rate us five stars. Okay. Auto. There we go. Okay. Two more. Yes. This comes up.

The intro music comes up from time to time. What's up with the mariachi band? Spelled in a very... Yes, very strange. Strange way. But what's up with the mariachi? band in the intro. True story. Before there was a New York

Rick, there was a guy named Joshua Addy back in the AOL days and we sat there and they told me that they wanted this show to only be 15 minutes long. 50 minutes? I said 15 minutes that's the length of my intro for God's sake. So we agreed on an hour and originally as I've told before on this show was supposed

to be a Fight House radio. There was a gym in New York called Fight House so they told me I couldn't use that name. The first three episodes were called Fight House Radio. So then I changed it to the MMA hour. Pretty simple. And we an hour long so it made sense and when we sat down he said okay i have some some songs for you to pick for your intro the first one he gave me was the one that we're using now and i'll give you some insider information that i never told anyone before so that so we picked that song then maybe two years into it

lenny hart was on this show and she said my name i don't know if i asked her or if she just said it i can't remember and then we took that clip of her saying my name and that's in the intro but that we needed someone to intro the name. So Josh actually recorded his voice, distorted it, made it sound very deep, and that's what you hear. This is the mixed martial arts hour. That's actually Josh who does not sound like that at all. And he just distorted his voice and there's our intro. And at one point we had Bob Sapp laughing in there. Oh yeah. Brendan. Buzz Kill Brendan had inserted that. Yes. Whatever happened to Bus kill Brendan. Where is he? Kill him Buzz somewhere else. That's right. Slurporella.

She's back. She's watching and she wants me to wish her a happy birthday. So happy birthday, Slurperlla. From you only, from you, okay, not Ariel. You know how we do. Let me tell you something about Slurperella. She is an OG. I have not heard.

I think I blocked her on Twitter because she got a little crazy. Well, that's why she doesn't want to hear from you. Number one Miguel Torres fan from back to day. I think I'm actually going to go out and unblock her. She is an OG fan. Wow. gift. I have not heard that name in ages. Happy birthday, Slurporella.

Happy birthday, Slurporella. Do not just word to the wise. Do not ask her why. That's her name. I made that mistake once. Interesting. That's the truth. That was it for the questions.

Okay, quickly, let's run through the odds here. Let's go, let's go. Rindekai Leslie Smith this weekend, UFC, Brisbane, Saturday night, FS1. Leslie Smith, favorite, for sure. Good to see Rinne Kaibak, though. Yeah. Geez, where's she been? Yes, a slight favorite.

Ross Pearson, Chad LaPriez. Chad LaPrieze, for sure. Slight favorite. Very slight. Minus 125 plus 106. I can see that. Alain Patricke. No, I like Patrice there, but anyway.

Alam Patricque and what do you mean, LaPreeze? Yeah. Oh, you said Patrice. Alam Patricque versus Damien Brown. Patric. wrong Brown taking What there's two

What? There's a typo here clearly What is it? It should be It says plus 185 But should be Minus 185 So you're right

Walsh Andrudge That's Viscardi Andrudge Not Jessica Walsh Correct Slight Also very close Hooker

A Diva Hooker Hoker Slight Minus 195 Plus 175 Joe Ban O'Reilly Joe ban huge

Yes minus 140 plus 400 Beck Rawlings against He Ham Well that's a good one I think I think Ham But it'll be close

Or yeah hum I'll go home Don't try to show me up with your hum I said ham you said ham you said ham You're right though Minus 121 for Ham Minus 121 Yeah

Okay Oh, wait. James Tihuna against the legend himself, Steve, the boss, Bosse. Tihuna, for sure. Mine is 2.45 plus 221 for Tihuna. Antonio Carlos Jr., Daniel Kelly. Shoeface, of course. Who's that? Who's a shoe face?

Antonio, Carlos Jr. Why is he shoe face? That's his nickname. Is it? Yeah. Minus 500. God, I missed that one. More tough Brazil for me.

Jake Matthews, Johnny Case. Damn. That's a hard one. because I feel like people have come off Matthews a little bit. I'm going to go, I'm going to go case, but I don't know. Super close. Minus 103, minus 102. I mean, that's a pick-um.

But there's no real favorite on that one. Super interesting fight here. Hector Lombard returning against Neil Magny. Yeah, I think people are going to, I think Magni is going to be the favorite because of the reason Hector Lombard was out for a while. Very close. minus 130 plus 128. Is it Magni?

Yeah. Yeah, I think that, you know, why Hector Lombard was out plays into that a lot. Man, this is a really close card all over the map. Except for Joe Ben. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank Meir, Mark, the KFC King Hunt. I'm going to go hunt's slight favorite, but I think that Meir is obviously dangerous. I mean, if he can get inside and take Hunt down, which we've seen happen before,

I think it's going to be a short night. So I'm going to say Hunt's the favorite, but I think it's close, and I think Meir has real live dog potential there. Yeah, you're right. Minus 155 for Hunt plus 152 for Meir. A lot of close fights there. Yeah, I mean, other than Joe Ban and Tehuna,

oh, also, Patricke, but that fight was just made against Damien Brown. They're all in the 100s. Yeah. Crazy. So that's a Saturday on FS1. The prelims on FightPass are at 6.30 Eastern, then 8 p.m. Eastern on FS1 prelums, and then main card 10 o'clock on FS1 as well. Also one championship this weekend on March 18th. Okay, that's it. We're done. We are done. Peace out. Good show. Great show. You can hit my music. Thank you very much, New York Rick. What a show. Wow. How about this?

Just over the wire. I like to pretend that I have a newswire. Dan Hardy is going to be providing analysis on the Fox desk on Saturday for that card. That's cool. Good for Dan. He's fantastic. I saw some of those breakdowns that he does with John Gooden, my main man over in London. And they're really good.

They do a great job over there. So that's cool. Dan Hardy and Brian Stanner at the end. analyst. That's fantastic. So another thing to look out for this Saturday on FS1. What a great show. Wow. I still feel like I need a cigarette and I don't smoke. By the way, does anyone watch that OJ Simpson show on FX?

Holy moly, I've been listening to podcasts about that show. Fantastic. I don't watch any TV, ever. Other than MMA and the Knicks, I don't watch anything and I am hooked. Another day I'll tell you all about how I was obsessed with the OJ Simpson trial back the day and I did a project in the eighth grade about how he was actually innocent. I'm very ashamed of this, but, and I also met him in Dallas one time after the trial. Crazy. Anyway, for now, we say goodbye. Rashad Evans, thank you so much for the time. Great analysis. As always, good luck,

April 16th. Wonderboy Thompson, fantastic stuff. Best of luck to him on June 18th. Congratulations to Matt Mitreone, the newest member of Bellator MMMA. Fantastic. Thank you so much for coming on the show to announce the news. Gagra Musassi, great stuff. Love your shirts. Keep him up. McDonald, holy moly, I still need some time to take that all in. Great stuff from him. And again, congratulations, Sarman, Michael Bisping. Good luck this Sunday against Chal Sondon. That's it for us.

See you next week. Until then, I say, peace, so many. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more. savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences,

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