MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 334

Episode Date: June 14, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Daniel Cormier (00:06:02), Frankie Edgar (00:31:02) , Rampage Jackson (00:47:57), Jared Shaw (01:20:02), Josh Barnett (01:41:41), Dominick Cruz (02:01:46), Michael Bisping (02:18:40), Fedor Emelianenko (02:56:57), and Mark Hunt (03:27:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, June 13th, 2016. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio. It is so very good to be back. And I mean that in a couple of ways, by the way. Great to be back doing this show. Great to be back after last week's craziness.

And, of course, we will get into that. I promise you. it's great to be back doing a normal show. And as you know, I've said this before, when I feel like I've let you down, when I've felt like, all right, I left you hanging for whatever reason, I like to come back with a one-two. I like to come back with a super stack show. And I think that we've done that on this particular Monday. Now, before I move along, I just want to say off the top that on a Monday like this, sports feels very irrelevant and unimportant. And I just wanted to say to the great people in Orlando that our thoughts are with you

and my heart is broken for you. And, you know, I just, there's really nothing that you can say, but I felt like it's necessary to say that at the top of the show. So, so tragic and senseless what transpired early Sunday morning. so we are thinking about you and certainly will not forget what happened yesterday morning in Orlando. Of course, last week was a surreal week for myself. And in around two hours or so, in the third hour, I'll give you a post script as to what happened. I'll give you some background.

I'll tell you about the rest of the week. In the interest of full disclosure, in the interest of telling it like it is, I feel like I owe that to you. So I will discuss what happened last week with everything that happened with UFC, UFC-199, all that stuff a little later on. But the best way to move on, the best way to keep doing what we do is to do a great show. And I'm very excited to get back to where we should have been last Monday and to get back to interviewing the great fighters in this sport. And boy, am I excited about this week's show. I am so pumped about this week's show. What a lineup we have.

So let's run into it. And like I said, a little later on, I'll give you more information about what happened after last week's show. and I do feel like I have to just say right off the top a huge thank you to all of you out there. You know who you are. Every single one of you who wrote and tweeted and emailed and called. I mean, it's just, it's still mind-blowing to me. I owe my career to you and, well, I will work for the rest of my career to repay you for what you did for me and my family last week. So thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

I will never forget what you guys did for me. Okay, let us move along. 415, we'll be joined by Mark Hunt. Of course, you know by now that he'll be facing Canada's own Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. How about that? Yes, in fact, he will be wearing the Canadian kit, as crazy as that sounds. At around 355, we're going to be joined by Fyodor Amillionenko. Yes, Fyodor Amelianenko, who fights this Friday, EFN50 against Fabio Maldonado.

He'll be joining us at 355. 305, the brand new UFC. middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, will be joining us at 305 to talk about becoming the new middleweight champion of the UFC. 245 will be talking to Dominic Cruz. You know, I didn't get to interview Dominic Cruz and Michael Bisping at the end of UFC 199. So I felt like it would be only fitting to talk to them this week and get their thoughts on their big wins, in particular Michael Bisping. So 245 will be joined by Michael Bisping. Excuse me, Dominic Cruz. 305 will be joined by Michael Bisping. 225, we'll talk to Josh Barnetti as a big fight coming up against

Andre Arlofsky. At 140, excuse me, 205, we'll talk to Jared Shaw, horrendous news, late Monday night, Kimbo Slice, the great Kimbo Slice, the iconic Kimbo Slice, the Trailblazer Kimbo Slice, tragically passed away. We'll talk to his good friend, Jared Shaw, 2.0. In fact, today is Kimbo Slices' funeral. And I think it just wrapped up, so we'll talk to him. Jared was there. 145 will talk to Quentin Jackson about his Bellator fight against Satoshi Ishi. 125 will talk to Frankie Edgar about his fight at UFC 200 against Jose Aldo.

In a matter of minutes, we're going to be joined by Daniel Cormier. New York Rick is connecting with him. Do we have him, New York Rick? Okay. In a matter of moments, we'll be joined by Daniel Cormier, who is in fact in New York City doing a media tour. Yesterday was a very big day for Daniel Cormier, the reigning defending UFC light heavyweight champion. He, of course, headlines UFC 200 in less than a month against John Jones. And he was in New Orleans yesterday for a big homecoming. This is something that has meant a lot to him over the years. This is something that he has wanted. And you have to think that this gave him a little. a little extra boost as he heads into UFC 200. So he went to New Orleans yesterday, met with a bunch of fans, inspired him, got him all emotional.

Now he's in New York doing media, and tomorrow he is heading to ESPN to do more media, but he is kind enough to join us for a few minutes on the phone before his media day resumes here in New York City. Daniel, are you there? Daniel Cormier, are you there? Guys, guys, calm down Come down.

Hold on, guys, calm down. Do you not see that I am on the phone right now? Sir, we really need to go. Hey, sir, yeah, we really got to drive. This New York traffic is really, really something else. And, you know, I... Wait for it. Juani, can you hear me?

Do you see, I can hear you just fine? Hey, wait for it. You see me in here holding court? Look at you. I'm in here holding court. You know, I mean, you know, it's just... this champion lifestyle you know having to make sure everything is in order

yeah as my coach as my coach Rosendo fills his little face with sushi fresh out of the New York corner market you know I have to make sure that he is quiet you know sure sure and and as a matter of fact you may be just a block or two away from me right now we are finally

in the same city we've always talked about being in the same city doing the show with you in studio now here you are yet you couldn't squeeze us in but I'm not going to hold you to it I know you wanted to be here I'll say you this right now I would love to have made fighter versus writer in person come to reality. But, you know, Paige has insisted that we do this on the phone. That's fine.

I appreciate the time. So, D.C., tell me, yesterday, you finally go back home, you get that home coming in Louisiana. What was it like for you? It was great, Hawani, man. We did this on two days. You know, two days, everything was finalized, and we started blasting out some social media stuff. and it was packed. It was so full, so many people showed up to take pictures, get autographs.

The GameStop appearance was full. Buffalo Wild Wings was tremendously packed. It was great, man. To feel the love was like a great emotional boost as I had into this last few to train in for this big fight, man. It was exactly what I needed, honestly. Really? Why was it important for you to do this? You know, man, it's part of my journey.

You know, this is my journey, man. This is my journey and my career. And being a part of something so big, UFC 200, I wanted to make sure that my state got to be involved in some way, shape, or form. Would have loved to have, like, a press conference or something there. But not enough time. And for what we had and what we were able to work with, I thought it worked out great. But now the people in Louisiana got to see me, the guy from there, their champion,

before I go into this huge event. So I feel like they were a part of the journey, man. It's my state, and I love it. Was there an interaction, a story, a person that came up to you that kind of blew you away, someone that you knew from, you know, when you were a little kid, was there something that happened that really made the day special for you? You know, I've got a lot of family, and they all came down, like maybe 70 of my family members came down from last year yesterday.

And they all just sat in Buffalo Wild Wings, and everybody just ate. and talk and hung out. But one thing that really touched me was this guy and his wife and their friend. They came up with their tickets and all of their stuff. And they were like, D.C., look, we know that there's a line. We know there's a lot of people, so it's hard to sign everything. But we went to see you at the Fan Expo last summer, and the line was too long we didn't get in. They said we've been to Houston for your fight.

We've been to Vegas when you fought Jones The first time we were in Vegas when you won the last fight Against the Rumble when you won the belt They said we've been following you forever And you know just you being able to come home It's so great And they said We know we can't ask you to sign everything

But if you could sign whatever you can It would be great And I was like yeah It was like honestly Daniel We're your biggest supporters And they said could you sign these first And they showed me their UFC 200 tickets Ro A C

two, three, and four. So they bought the most expensive tickets in the arena in Las Vegas to make sure they could be there and watch my crowning moment, you know, when I beat John Jones and shut up all the naysayers and everything and all the doubters. So they made sure that they bought whatever they, they spent the most that they could in order to be in attendance as my journey is complete, you know. So it just meant a lot seeing people from home that have followed every step of the way and are willing to go whatever lends to be there and be there close. They said, we'll be the crazy Cajuns yelling and screaming at him right next to the octagon. That's amazing.

That was great. That's amazing. That was great. So now here you are in New York, kind of John Jones territory, although he's from upstate New York. What kind of reception? Because you're doing the big dogs here, the mainstream media, all that stuff. What kind of reception? Are you feeling like they're pro-Jones?

Are they treating you like the champ? What kind of reception are you getting from these folks? They've been treating me well, man. You know, I did Opie, the Opie, and it's not Anthony, Obey and Anthony, but it's not Anthony anymore, but I did that show this morning. And we had a great time to show. Interview is supposed to be 10 minutes. We went 45 minutes. You shit out and talking.

We had a tremendous time. I told them about my schoolyard bully. And the guy goes, wow, you're about to fight John Jones. all I can think about is Gilbert Francis, the guy that's 99 and one against you in your career. And we hung out. And, you know, he said, I became an instant fan. He goes, you're a really nice guy.

Tiki and Terrany. Those guys were great. And they've all been nothing but nice. You know, man, nobody, everybody, I've got this, I've got this hot 97. I've gotten one statement many times as I've done this media. and they're all like, you know, John's a great guy. They go, but every time we're around them, it seems as though he's holding something back. You know, it's like they said they don't, they, everybody kind of feels as if he's holding

something back. They're not exactly sure what it is, but they said they don't feel as though they're getting the complete John. And they said with me, they don't feel that. They feel like I'm being 100% just open in me. And they really appreciate me for it. How many times in the last day or so have you been asked if John Jones is truly balls deep in your head? How many times you get that question?

I've been asked that so many times. It's great. You know, it's actually great because he goes and says something weirdest things ever. But, I mean, he really, you know, honestly, man, it really is like, and I am part of it, too. But we really are like 12-year-old kids with the insult. The level of insult to this terrible. I mean, we've got to be able to do better. Like, John, your ball's deep in my head.

Is that the best you could think of? Like, really. But Ariel, I would tell you 100% confidence. John Jones is not deep in my head. The fact that he actually thinks that it makes me smile every day because you could tell in his novel, because he's deep in my head, but he's the one writing novels about me in response to anything I do,

in his novel, you could sense his, like, his smile. You know, he's walking around his chest pulled out, like, I've really gotten to this guy. Come on, buddy. You really have. Are you okay? Bless you. Yep. Excuse me.

I'm not sure if that was a sneeze or a cough. That was a sneeze, bud. That's what men do, you know? Like, we always keep you off off base. You don't know if I'm sneezing a car. That's some real manly stuff right there. Is it fair to say that you are a different person than going into 182 because even you like joking and being able to talk about the feud

and whether or not he's in your head, it feels different than, like, I remember going to your hotel room. Now we're talking Fight Week, a couple of days before the fight in January of last year. And it felt like everyone was kind of on edge. This was such a big deal for you. And you had been preparing so long for it and this was the war to settle the score and all that stuff. How have you tried not to put that kind of pressure on yourself and not make it into a bigger deal

this time around. You know, Ariel, when you came and you sat down with me and you sat down with John, honestly, still to this day, I think it's some of your best work. Because you got both perspectives from inside the room, behind the battle lines. And in my room, it was pretty somber. You know, the guys were quiet. Everybody, you could feel the excitement, but you can feel the expectation of something so big coming. But then when I watch you and John, I saw him at ease.

And I think that the difference in our mentality as we headed into that fight. He was at ease. He had been there before. You know, this was nothing new. This was a big fight, sure. But he had eight of those. He had nine of those big fights. I didn't have fights like that before.

I was up in my chair. I was up on the stool. He was laying on the couch. Just so relaxed. That's me today. You know, there's no worry on my behalf. There's no, wow, I could become the UFC champion. I already am.

I've done that. You know, I just got to go defend that now. I'm a different guy. I'm a different guy, man. I don't let this rivalry drive me anymore. I'm letting competition drive me. And when competition drives me, I don't feel like anybody can compete with me. And that's why I feel so confident going into this fight.

But you're right. I'm a different guy. And I'm mentally at the best. place that I've been in a really long time. It was interesting to watch you Cajside and in the cage after Luke Rockholds lost to Michael Bisping. Obviously you were hurting for your

friend and you guys are very close and you've been through a lot together. What does that do for you mentally a month before your fight to see your friend as champion lose the belt, go through all of that? How does that affect you in either way, positive or negative before your fight? It's very negative.

I care tremendously about the guy, you know, and right after to the fight, you know, we were standing there and we were kind of talking as he was taking off his gloves. And I said, I said, you know, don't worry about it. You know, I was like, don't worry about it. You know, you lost a fight. You're, you know, you'll get it back.

You know, what else can you say to a guy that's worked so long for something? And then he gets knocked out in the first round of a rematch, you know, so it was very hard for for me because I really do care about him. You know, he's my friend. He's one of my best friends in the world. and it was tough to watch. But reality is, you also think to yourself, that's not going to be me. You know, I've got to make sure to do everything that ensures that I don't lose this title.

We work so hard for these, we work so hard for these positions that we're in, and watching him go out like that was tough. As the face, as the captain of AKA, do you now feel more pressure like I can't? You guys went from maybe talking about four champions in 2016. there's currently one left and that's you. Are you thinking yourself, like, I have to win this now for my team, for the morale of the team?

Nah, man, you know, this is the thing about the American kickboxing academy. We've been with our UFC champions before. This is all lately. You know, like, Kane was the first guy from our team that ever won a belt. So we've been winning all these titles because everybody's gotten better.

There's no pressure from my coaches saying, we can't be a gym with no champions that's not that's not that's not the issue they care about me and making sure i compete to the best of my ability and if i do that they know i'll win the fight so i don't have any extra pressure in that sense but i do feel like i want to represent my academy and my team to the best of my ability and when for them nobody does that to me i would only do that to myself if there was pressure but there is no pressure there is no pressure because and I know and secure in the training and the preparation that we've put in. I'm good, Ariel.

I've got all my bases covered, man. I have the greatest coach of staff in the world. I say that without any questions. Ariel, I have a coach in every phase of my life right now. I have a mental coach. I see a therapist to help me with my preparation. Everything that I need to do, I am doing. So I feel good in my space right now.

I'm not worried about anything. last week on this show I went on a bit of a rant about the way that they are promoting this fight and I said that they are they are dropping the ball in the sense that this could be the very first time or it is the very first time in UFC history where it's number one versus number two pound for pound not only are you fighting for the UFC light heavyweight title but you are fighting for the title best fighter in the world and it baffles my mind that Daniel Cormier isn't considered the number two best pound for pound fighter in the world now of course we have to concede that john jones beat you fair and square at UFC 182, but you're the lone guy that was up there at heavyweight,

higher weight class, undefeated, probably could have been champion, but didn't go for the belt because your friend was the champion at the time. And then you go down and beat guys in their prime like Rumble Johnson, Alexander Gofferson, Dan Henderson, look how he's doing. And yet, you're not considered number two. This to me is baffling. Do you think about these things? I know, I know fighters say about the rankings, all that stuff, but come on. How is this not number one versus number two? And more importantly, how is it not being promoted as such? Do you think about this? You know, man, I never used to.

But now as I've gotten older and I look at it, I'm like, you know, man, it does kind of suck that whoever does the rankings don't pay attention to what I've done in all and also what I've done in regards to other people that are ranked ahead of me. You know, now this is not a personal attack on any person in these rankings that are above me. but if you go back and you really look at guys' careers outside of their weight divisions, no one's really done it like I did. I was undefeated at the division above me and then went down and became the champion. Love Robbie Lowe.

But Robbie's the champ at 170, but when he was up at 185, he has losses to guys like Lorenz Larkin and so on and so much. Cona McGregor, another guy who's a tremendous fighter at 1.45, he's up a weight class, and he has lost to Nate Diaz, but not only Nate Diaz, he's also lost to Joe Duffy. And I don't know if he's lost three fights or two fights in his career, but whatever that the case is, he's lost multiple times at the division above him, whereas I was undefeated. I'm the only guy that's done it at two divisions and been successful at both. I only lost the Jones, who was considered by many, the Palm Pound number one fighter, and maybe the greatest fighter of all time. So I don't know where it gets lost on people, my accomplishments and the things that I've done in the sport. But whatever, you know, you just keep proving them wrong until they can't ignore it anymore.

Because once I beat this guy on July 9th, I don't expect to be number two behind Demetri Johnson. I want to be number one pound for pound. and if I'm not, I'm just going to go around the country, kicking reporters ass. You should. It's unbelievable to me. It feels like a crime. Do you have any idea why people seem to miss this? Is it because you won the belt when he was out?

Like, you were legitimately undefeated as a heavyweight. You beat Josh Barnett, Frank Meir, Roy Nelson, to name a few. I mean, those are no slouches. Those are former champions. Why do you think this is? The crazy thing is, when I beat Antonio Silver, he was ranked number four in the world. When I beat Josh Barnett, he was ranked number four in the world. When I beat Roy Nelson, he was number seven, and I was number three or something like that.

When I beat Frank Mear, he had just fought for the belt to fight right before me. Then when I beat Dan Henderson, he was number six. I was number four. Then obviously Rumble Johnson was number one, Alexander Gustafs and number two. I've got a lot of wins in the top ten of two divisions, you know. So I really don't know. I don't know if my wins don't resonate enough because I'm not just knocking guys flat. I really don't know.

I don't know what it is as to why I've been looked at in the way that I have. I mean, I saw some rankings recently, and I'm behind, I mean, I'm behind a lot of guys that I feel if Pompu Pong was what it's meant to be, a guy who skills translates weight divisions, I feel I should be way up higher. But what's it matter really? Right. Two last quick things, and I'll let you go because I know you have to go. What was your reaction when you found out that Brock Lesnar was going to be on the same card as you?

I mean, this has to help, right? Were you freaking out? What was your reaction to this news? So I started to ask, I started to ask everyone when I heard about it. You know, I got it from a pretty reliable source. you know who that guy is. Anyways, I got it for a pretty reliable source. I usually trust

if it's on, you know, from the guy that wrote the article, I trust that he knows what he's talking about. But, it's Brock. I was like, hey, Brock, is it Christmas time in the Corby household? Because Brock Leznor equals pay-per-view buys. Yes. And he didn't respond. He didn't respond.

And then finally, after the commercial ran, I got a response for Brock that said, Merry Christmas, D.C. Wow. Like, you gotta be kidding me. Yeah. I was like, I had to take a moment, you know, wet and sit in the corner a little bit

and try to compose myself before Rocco went out and fought. Wow. It's tremendous, man. It's a big event. You got Brock Lesnar, who, I mean, you can argue, is the biggest star in UFC history. And I believe you have the most important fight that the UFC can put on right now.

Love Nate, love Connor. It's a huge fight. But what's it for? It's not for a belt. It's not going to lead to a title shot. It's the fight that people just want to see because it's an attraction. When it comes to John and I, you have the most important fight the UFC can put on at the most important event. Well said.

Last thing. True or false? True or false now, okay? Draymond Green deserved to be suspended for game five. You know, man, since I have long been a diehard warriors fan, I'm going to say no. but ask me in two games if the Cavs win the next couple games and we're going three three in the game seven between my two favorite teams in the NBA yeah the answer may be a little different you know you know how why I got to ask

you a question yeah you know I get a lot of crap from being a bandwagon jumper but why not what's wrong with liking a winner I don't understand the issue would like in a winner why would you not want to feel good don't people like to feel good when my teams win championships, I feel good. So I ensure that four times a year, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and in Major League Baseball, I get to feel good at the end of the season.

I see nothing wrong with that. I couldn't agree more. And especially as a father, you want your kids to be happy as well. You want to teach them right and wrong. Why have them root for a loser? Exactly. You know, my kids will know, wow, every spring,

dad's extremely happy because one of his NBA teams want. And then in the wetter, oh, dad's super happy, his favorite football team won. You know, it just goes on and on. I mean, I don't understand why everybody's not bandwagon jumping all over every major league sport there is. I don't get it. You're a smart man. Well said. Exactly.

D.C., thank you for squeezing me in, man. I appreciate it very much. Hey, thank you, man. And listen, great job last week. Thank you. It's refreshing to see a guy laid all out on the line and really, let me. people end. I think that's probably the most candid interview and the deepest look into our sport that most people will ever get. So congratulations, man. Very happy for you and very proud of you.

Thank you very much for that. It means a lot and thank you for tweeting about it early on. You know, given your standing in the sport, that meant more than you know. So I appreciate it very much, D.C. and I really appreciate you coming on and I can't wait for July 9th and I'm very happy that I'll be there because I told you that was, that's where I wanted to be, July 9th in Vegas when you defend the title against John Jones. So I sincerely appreciate it, my man. Thank you so much. Amen. You are one lucky human being to be there as I get my hand raised. Thanks, man. Congratulations, bud. Congratulations, Ariel. You made it. Thank you, D.C. Talk to you soon. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you. Bye-bye. There he is. Daniel Cormier, the one and only.

A great man, a great champion, and we all look forward to that score being settled. At least, you know, if he wins the second one, you have to think there's going to be a third fight. But we'll see what happens on July 9th. That is the main event of UFC 200. And Brock Lesnar versus Mark Hunt will be on the card as well as you know by now. And it now feels like an event. It feels like a big deal. There's no doubt about that. And with the three cards back to back to back, title fight on Thursday, Hafeld dos Santos and Eddie Alvarez, title fight on Friday, Yawani on Jacek and Claudia on FS1 on Friday. And then three title fights. Not to mention the return of Brock on Saturday.

Feels like a pretty big deal. One of those title fights, the interim featherweight title will be on the line. It will be Jose Aldo versus Frankie Edgar. Rematch for them as well. They fought several years ago. That one was won by Josealdo. Frankie looks to settle that score on July 9th. But before we move along with the show, let me quickly tell you

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refund you everything, and the best part is it's made in America. A great Canadian like me appreciates that. So get $50 toward any mattress purchase by visiting www.cars.cester.com slash MMA and using the offer code MMA. Terms and conditions apply. Now back to the show. Frankie, are you there? I'm here, Erie. How are you? I'm doing great, my man. Thank you so much for joining us. So a big weekend for you, right? You opened up a gym in New Jersey? I did. I have my grand opening of UFC Jim Frankie Edgar in North Brunswick. And it was a great turnout. Had a bunch of people out, Hensel Gracie, Eddie Alvarez, Etta, Maboza, Marl, David Branch. Whoa.

And all the troops came out. It was an awesome day. Wow, so is this something that you've always wanted to do, like your own branded gym? It says your name on it, right? It does. Wow. It's just like BJ's in Hawaii. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I always wanted to get into it, even when I was wrestling, you know, I was going to open a wrestling club or something like that.

And then obviously I moved on to MMA and you had the UFC, you know, I actually went to a grand opening in Long Island for the UFC gym, and that's when I got the ball rolling with it. And that was about, you know, almost three years ago at this point. Now, how, like, will you be at the gym? Can people just go train in? you're just hanging out there, or is this just one where it's your name and you have your own private thing?

No, I mean, you know, I'm not going to be there every day, doing the day-to-day, you know, things, but I will definitely be popping in, you know, on a weekly, maybe bi-weekly basis, for sure. Okay. And whether I'm working out myself or even teaching classes from time-time. Oh, wow. Interesting. And are you hoping to open more, or you just want one? Yeah, you know, I don't want to put anything on.

You know, obviously this has got to be successful before we move on. But, yeah, I'm always looking for the future. I was looking to grow. You know, if I can open more in New Jersey and possibly even in my hometown in the future, that would be definitely someone looking to do. Last week, of course, as I said, you're fighting Jose Aldo. There were some rumors that he was injured. He came out and said, I'm fine, I'm fine.

Did you freak out when all this came, or did you not even pay attention to it? What was your reaction to all of this? Yeah, I really didn't worry about it. I didn't hear anything. You know, obviously, you heard rumors. You know, I just looked at it as I'm going to be there no matter what. You know, I'm going to be there. I'm going to show up July 9th ready to fight.

And whoever may be, obviously, I want it to be Jose Aldo. You know, I think he deserves it. And I think, you know, that's the fight that I want, obviously, based on the fact that, you know, I was close to beating him last time. So a little revenge in the air and whatnot. And I think he's just for the guy to fight for the title. When we last had you on the show, it was around the time that it was announced that, you know, I think it was right before the Connor and Nate fight.

and you were hurt, and you were obviously disappointed that you weren't in consideration and the way the whole thing was handled. Would you say that the relationship with the UFC brass has been improved? Do you feel like you're on the same page? Do you want to still sit down and talk to them and clear the air about that whole thing? How do you feel about it all? No, we got through it. I actually texted day and pretty much, I think that day or made the next day after,

and we squared everything away. Obviously, I was just upset the way it went down, and maybe it was just the way he relayed the news. It wasn't the way I liked it. But, you know, I don't think it was a stab at me or anything. It was just the way it went down. And, you know, here we are. I'm fighting for the interim title.

And I guess it's the next best thing instead of fighting for the real championship. Does it still bother you that it's the interim title, especially because Conner's fighting, again, Nate Diaz in August? It does, but, you know, I can't really focus on that. Again, if he does come back down to 45, if he ever does, know, and I have the interim, he has to fight me. Yeah.

So that's a positive I'm looking at it. But, you know, I have a feeling he's not going to come back down, and it becomes the real title anyway. Have you been told that, or is that just a gut feeling? That's just a gut feeling. You know, if the guy doesn't come back down, it has to be, right? Yeah. If it's for the interim title, I think it happened with Cruz.

I believe Brad had the interim title for a while, and Cruz couldn't come back because of injury, so he ended up being the champion. So when they offered you this fight, your initial reaction, like, did it take a while to, because I haven't talked to you, since they offered the fight, I wasn't in New York for that press conference when you guys were at MSG. Did they, like, did it take some convincing, or did you, were you already mentally prepared to

fight Aldo even before they offered you the fight? Yeah, I had a feeling it was going to be Aldo. Okay. You know, I'm not really one to, I'm pretty easy to talk into fights, I guess. You know, may not be a good thing at times, but, you know, Dana Call and said it's going to be for the interim, and, you know, I'm going to call Aldo, and if Aldo says no, you'll be fighting someone else for the interim. So, in other words, if I said no, he'd be fighting someone else for the interim, you know?

So I just figured, I figured it even before it kind of got brought up to me anyway. Okay, so you said yes even before he said yes. Yes, yes, exactly. But he said, I believe he said yes right away as well. Okay. How many times have you watched that first fight that you guys had? I believe it was UFC 143, if memory serves me correct. How many times have you watched it, do you think, over the years?

Not much. I'm not a big guy to watch a fight. I've definitely been watching clips of it as recently because of our fight coming up here on July 9th my coach, Mark, kind of forces me to do that. But I'm really not a guy that likes to watch too much stuff. We watch certain things that maybe I didn't do the correct way or some things that maybe I did well

that we could use in this next fight. But even fights I win, I really don't like to watch myself that much. So you mentioned Mark Henry, and I'm happy you did. I was talking about this recently on another show of ours, the MMA beat, how A, he might be one of the most underrated coaches in MMA and B, your entire team, and you mentioned most of them when you were talking about the guys who went to the gym opening over the weekend, doesn't get the attention and respect

that it deserves in the MMA world. And I think as crazy as this sounds, I think the reason for that is because you guys don't have some kind of name. I know it's like Rikaral Mado, B.J., but it's not an A.K.A., it's not a Jackson wink. It's not an ATT. of black zillions. Have you ever thought about that? Do you even care about that sort of thing? Because people really should be talking about you and Mark and the rest of your team a hell of a lot

more. Yeah, you know, I think it's also about to do with the fact that, you know, Ricardo and Mark is just not big egos. I think Mark kind of downplays his greatness a lot, you know? And I think all of us, I really don't have big egos. We're all kind of here to help each other. And that's just the way I think Mark likes it, you know? We're like that little team in basement, in other words. And he kind of likes it that way. And he kind of come around undetected is not a bad thing. Okay, so you don't say to yourself, I wish Mark would get more credit in the, you know, the coach of the year talking all stuff. Because when you look at what he's done for you and some of those other fighters, it's nothing short of amazing. He really should be talked about more,

in my opinion. No, absolutely. He deserves all the recognition in the world. You know, but he's like the best kept secret, I guess. You don't want him to get too big for his britches and then maybe we'll lose him. That's true. I doubt that would happen. But yeah, you know, people will recognize it. You know, just like myself, I feel like people haven't recognized what I've done for the longest time, but now, now they're finally starting to. It's funny that you say the little team in the basement because you guys actually do train in his basement, right? We do, yeah, we train in his basement. You know, he comes obviously to spore in other areas or other places, but, you know, when we do our just mid-sessions, they're in Mark's basement. What was your reaction when you

found out what happened to Chad Mendez, who was your last opponent. What did you think of that over the weekend? I was surprised. I really was. I didn't think he was one to dabble, you know? Apparently, I'm wrong. I don't really know the specifics, you know. I don't know if they're even out yet. You know, I'm just saying a violation. Who knows what the violation is. But I was surprised. I didn't think Chad was one of them. Are you surprised that they don't come out? They tell us that he's suspended provisionally, but they don't tell us what it is. So it could be a supplement, it could be a steroid, it could be marijuana, who the heck knows? Do you think that they should tell us more so that people don't, you know, call you guilty

before you're proven innocent type of thing? As a fighter, would you rather? I mean, I get, yeah, I don't know, man. I figured, for me, I should, I'll never have to worry about it. Sure. However they want to, however they want to break the news is, it's fine by me. But yeah, I think they should kind of give us a, give the guys a fair shake. I mean, look at BJ.

BJ, it was just an IV thing. It wasn't like he took anything illegal. It was just a simple IV thing. And I believe they did say that they broke that news like that. They didn't say he was suspended and then we had to wait a couple weeks to find that it was just an IV. But, you know, maybe that's the case with Chad. Who knows? Your manager and friend Ali Abdel-Aziz reached out to me recently and he was fired up because

according to the Usada website, Jose Aldo hasn't been tested at a competition in the second quarter. so in the months leading up to this fight. Have you been made aware of that, and are you as bothered about this as he is? You know, it is what it is, man. He's going to get... I actually, believe it or not, Osata came and got me today this morning over our carlos at Shih Tzu got me

and now that's in Barbosa. Oh, wow. So I'm assuming he's going to get tested soon as well. And it's just, do you want to risk it? Do these guys really want to risk the fact that they come in and get you and you're using. I don't know. I think that just the fact that the, just the risk of him, them coming, even if they don't come,

the risk should keep these guys straight. I mean, it should, but then, you know, we see Chad. I guess it didn't work for him. Sure. But did you tell them when they came to you, like, oh, are you going to my opponent as well because he hasn't been tested yet? I didn't know. I don't think, I don't know how it works.

If that's the person that comes to me, have any, you know, insight on who gets tested and why or what, you know, so I just, you know, did my thing and went to work afterwards. Ali's all fired up about this. I'm sure he's told you. He is. I mean, you know, I get it. I mean, we all want a fair shake.

Who knows? You know, I guess historically, because Alba's team has been busted, you know, quite a few times before. And, I mean, yeah, we want a fair shake. But, you know, I think that you really want to risk, you know, getting banned for two years or whatever it may be, you know, by popping for a positive test. After the way in which he lost in December,

Are you expecting a different, Aldo, from the one that you fought when he was so dominant and was on that run, undefeated run? I mean, when you get knocked out like that, that quickly and that precisely, do you feel like it drastically changes a fighter? You know, we just don't know. He's going to have to get through some things with his head. And, you know, even lost his mess with you when you're that dominant. But to lose that way and to the guy that he lost to that's been in his head for so long. I mean, Connor's definitely the worst guy to lose to in that fashion. Right.

I mean, he's going to let the, he already let the world know before it, and then he lets the world know after, and, you know, he digs better than anybody. So I think that's just probably the hardest thing for him to get through. And, you know, some guys get through it, and some guys don't. I mean, he may say this and say that in the lead-up to our fight, but even him, himself, not going to know, so he steps into putting that octagon. Do you think if you were some other kind of fighter, like a Barbosa type,

a striker primarily, that he'd be defending his title against you? do you think because of your skill set and because people believe that your kind of skill set is the worst matchup for him, that that's the reason why he has yet to defend the title? Yeah, I think that. And at 45, he just has everything to lose. At 70, he has nothing to lose. I mean, even though Nate's a 55-pounder and they just decided not to cut weight, you know, so they could go around and market the fact that he's going up two weight classes,

which is ridiculous because he's fighting Nate Diaz, who's a 55-pounder. And, you know, he loses at 70. it's, oh, he was too big. He needs to fight guys that are, that he's bigger than, you know? Yeah. And at 45, he loses, then he has nothing. I mean, you know, then he loses his title, and then what? He can't, he has a really hard time making that weight anyway.

He goes to 55. He's not going to be in the pedal talks, you know, for a while. So I just feel he's a smart guy, Connor, in the way he promotes himself, the fights he gets. He's a very smart guy. He's got good coaches around them, and they're making the rights decisions for his career. are you still thinking about one day going down to 135 you know i don't know i mean um it's doable it's definitely doable um but i just want this 45 pound first i mean wanted to sidetrack myself with the 35

pound title talk i got to take care of business uh against aldo and hopefully connor comes down and i get that fight as well is is is it fair to say that the dream right now is obviously you're victorious on july ninth and then you fight connor at msg for the real title to unify the belt i should say is I mean, that has to be it, right? Yeah, you can't write something better than that. Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't kind of want to fight MSG? I mean, there's definitely a big Irish contingency in New York, and, you know, it could possibly be the biggest fight in UFC history.

When talking to Dana, when he offered you the fight, did you lay that out, say, like, look, I'll take this fight, but can you at least promise me if I win that I'll get him at MSG or at some point down the line? Was any of that discussed? He knows what I want, you know, and to have these... promise me stuff just doesn't really work too well in this sport you know

so I kind of just take it one at a time and not really try to ink up anything for the future because you know how it goes sure that's it you would know better than anyone you've been there you've certainly been there before by the way what was your reaction when you found out that Brock was going to be on the card I was fired up I mean he's our biggest pay-review draw to date yeah you know he's recently just coming fresh out of the WWE he's going to bring over a bunch of

new fans and, you know, the more eyes on him, the more eyes on me. You know, I'm going to be fighting right before him. So, I mean, that's just, it's just great for everybody on the car, great for MMA. You know, people that, MMA purists are like, oh, why is this guy coming on? But who cares? You know, the fact that he's bringing an audience is great for everybody. What do you think?

You think this beats the UFC 100 record, the pay-per-view record of 1.6, 1.7? I do. I do. I mean, it's just a very big magnitude on it. You know, obviously, if Connor and Nate were on this card, maybe it would, it would shatter it, but I still think we have enough star power, and it's going to be a great, you know, they put so much promotion behind it. Yeah. And, yeah, I think we're there.

I love that commercial with you guys warming up. I could even hear Ali hyping you up in the background. Did you hear that? I did. I did. That's very true. That's how he is, too. Oh, that's real.

That's real, man. That's how he is. Always on, come on. You know, he's always on his mouth. He's your hype man. It's great. Did you enjoy filming that? It was cool.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. I really enjoy any working at all too much other than in the gym but yeah it was cool and it came out great they're definitely promoting this 200 you know more so than any fight I've been involved I think more so than any fight

they've ever had actually and it's great that you are a part of it let's end on this in the past I've asked you this question but given the stakes and given what could be at stake if you win this fight is it more important now than ever to finish Aldo

is a decision not enough in your mind or do you just want the W? Because, you know, after you beat Mendez the way you beat him, everyone in their mom thought that you were going to get the Tesla, that you had proved it, that there was no denying you, and we know how that turned out. But if you put that exclamation point on Aldo and actually finish him, do you feel like then you'll be forcing their hand once and for all?

If you get a decision, do you feel like you're giving them an out at all? Yeah, I mean, I'll finish, puts a stamp on everything, you know, and I felt I'm really coming into my own in this 45-pound division. I have three finishes in my last five fights, and I want to keep the trend going. And, you know, I mean, last time, every time I feel like I'm in a close decision, it seems like I don't take it. Right. You know, finish, I don't have to worry about that.

Amazing. Well, I can't wait for it, Frankie. Thank you so much for the time. Congrats on the new gym. Hopefully one day I can come check it out since I'm not too far away. And looking forward to the fight very much, looking forward to the entire weekend. Good luck to you in the team. I know Eddie Alvarez is also fighting for the belt on Thursday night.

Thanks a lot, my man. I appreciate it. Ariel, I'm in always a pleasure. Thank you, brother. Thank you. There he is. The answer. Frankie Edgar, stopping by fighting Joseo this July, July 9th, less than a month away at UFC 200. The UFC interim featherweight title

will be on the line, and you have to think that if the, especially if it's Frankie, if he wins, man, Frankie Edgar versus Connor in a title unification bout at Madison Square Garden, at the world's most famous arena, at the Mecca, at the home of the 2017 NBA champion New York Knicks. That just seems like the no-brainer of all no-brainers, right? It's got to happen. Okay, let's move along. Belator 157 is a little less than two weeks away. In fact, it's 11 days away.

It's on June 24th. My mama's birthday, and the main event that night is Satoshi Ishi against Quentin Rampage Jackson. Yes, he is back, and yes, he is on the show right now. Rampage, my man, how are you? What's up, man? How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. It's great to have you back on the show.

How's life? Oh, man. Life is good, man. Life is good. You're feeling good? You're feeling confident. You're feeling in good shape. You're in the right mental space to go into this fight.

Man. Yeah? Man, I feel good. Everything is great. Everything's good. going to this fight up on here on the, when is this final 24th? Everything's good, man. Everything is good.

You know, the reason, I don't usually ask that question, but the reason I asked you this right off the top was I felt the last time you were on, you were kind of, I don't know, it felt like you were a little bit down for some reason. Like, you weren't quite ready to go full throttle. Do you feel like that you've gotten over that hump and that, you know, here we are less than two weeks away, that you were actually looking forward to the fight? I think the last time I talked to you, man, I was going through a bunch of stuff, man, like going through a lot of negative stuff, going to like three lawsuits and stuff like that.

Man, all this stuff behind me, man. I got a lot more stuff to, you know what I'm saying, look forward to. You know, I did this, you know, this countdown show with Lee Simmons, Simon's Lee Simons. And that guy is great, man. The guy actually just doing one countdown show with this guy like changed my life, man. He let me direct my own, you know what I'm saying, commercial and stuff like that. Then he was like, man, you know what? I don't know why you're not doing more acting and stuff like that and everything.

And it got me to think. Like, man, I need to start my own production company and stuff like that and everything. And I told him, I said, man, that's a great idea. I know people go boom, boom, boom. My thing led to another. So now I'm jazz up again because now I'm starting my own production company and a lot of people are interested in it. So now I can go and, you know, I'm done fighting. I can go and make some cool action movies.

I got a couple of ones in mine I've been working on already for a while. And just now it just got me in a more positive state. You know, so I can go in and have another career after I'm done, you know what I'm saying? Busting people up, I can go and, you know what I'm saying? Bust people up for fake. Well, I actually read, is it true that you have four movies coming out? Four movies? No, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I've got two. Two? I'm tough of my head. I don't know about four. I read four. What are the two? I know one's called Vigilary Diaries

and one's called Good Cup, bad cop. Okay. I know that much. I don't know, but yeah, yeah. You were, when the A team came out, I felt like you were universally praised by critics. People were like, wow, this is the new action star,

Rampage Action First Movie and stuff. And then it seemed like, you know, the offers didn't come. Why do you think that is? I know exactly what it is, but, you know, so I'm not going to talk about that right now. I don't care about all that stuff. You know, that's like old news. But what I want you guys to do?

I want you guys to tune in to the show that I did, called, you know, Rampage Returns. It's going to be this Friday, June 17th on Spike TV. You guys check that out. I kind of went to in depth on some stuff that I never touched on before. I know, I know kind of like my family's going to kind of be upset with me a little bit because I kind of might have told too much, but, you know,

high as possible. And this show, it shows, it goes back to when I first moved to California, when I first left my family to be a fighter and stuff for you guys. Wow. Even in all our chats, our walks, you never talked about any of this? No, man, you never asked me about it. This guy asked me about it, and he brought up old memories, so I just went into it. You know, I'm mostly, you know, saying, going to stuff with, you know,

the reporter's asking me about it. You never really asked me about it. You never really asked me a whole lot about it. He just tested on. I guess this guy probably, like, did his research. You guys might want to look the guy up, man. He's the man. He's the man. He knows his stuff, man.

So I guess he must research the whole bunch of stuff. That's great. I know he's seen our interviews, and maybe he tapped in on some questions that you didn't ask. Sure. He didn't give you any matzobo soup, though. He doesn't know the key to your heart. No, no, he didn't give me any matzo balls.

You know what I'm saying? I'm glad he didn't because I didn't like your Matsubal soup. You can keep that shit. They were salty. You liked them, you said, I thought. You and your salty matto balls. I don't want that shit, man. Fuck around with shit.

This shit was gross. I'm never eating that shit again, man. I tell you what, though, when you come to Memphis, I'm going to have you eat some of my favorite stuff. So, poker beans and sausage. You know, you were in California. around two weeks ago doing a media day and I think you did a Facebook chat and all of a sudden all these people were hitting me up

and they were all saying that you told them that you were mad at me and I was like what? I thought we were good and here you are on the show did you really say that or were fans man listen people are weird people say I bully you man listen to man don't listen to people people are fucking weird I'm not mad you but I keep it real

people ask me like yeah you you know one of your interviews cost me a million dollars and then you broke up now you just broke up, now the last interview, I broke up my three-year relationship with my girlfriend.

Get out of you. You know what I'm saying? It ain't your fault. You know what I'm saying? It ain't your fault. It just, you know, you'd be asking me shit that gets me in trouble, man.

Damn. Did that really happen with your girl? Did that really have? Yeah, we broke up. We broke up like a week after that, and it came from that interview when you asked me was I in love. And I told her,

I told her two, like, no, I ain't love me. She bust out crying and stuff. You know what I said? She knew that, but I don't know why. I guess the other stuff I said, I don't know. You know, you asked me that question, and he was like, your interview,

broke up a three-year relationship, and she was really good, man. She was a good girlfriend, you know, she was good, man. Well, now I feel horrible. Did you, did you reconnect? Are you back on good terms? Because that was a few months ago. No, no, she told me that, and I broke up with her and I tried to be friends. She said, we either together or we're not, listen, man, I'm not, I don't even care

about none. I'm just excited for this, you know, I'm saying, fight on June 12th, man. Okay. Because I'm going to be fighting, listen, this is what I'm doing. I'll be fighting this judo gold medalist, man. I've never fought before. I never fought a judo gold medal. I'm like, man, this guy's a judo, but I'm like, I'm like, Mexican judo.

You know what I said? You don't know, I got a knife. You don't know I got a gun. You don't know if I'm a run. You know what I'm saying. Yes, I don't know. You don't know if I'm going to kick. You don't know if I'm going to wrestle.

You don't know if I'm going to punch. You don't know if I'm going to do. Jiu-jitsu, but wrestling beats judo every time. So I think this would be a good test for me, and I can put it in my scrapbook that I go medalist if I can take this guy out. What was your reaction when they offered you, Satoshi Ishi? Because he wasn't on the roster. I mean, it wasn't someone that we were thinking.

We were talking all kinds of names. He wasn't one of them. What did you think when they offered you him? You know, honestly, know much about him because I don't really watch a lot of things. I didn't know anything much about him. And then I heard he's the South Paul and he's a judo guy. I was like, oh, hell, this could be a good test for me because, to be honest, I don't do well against South.

And judo is kind of awkward for MMA. That's why I run a rousey. So bad, so swiftly because judo is, like, if somebody can, you know, do judo and MMA, they could be a danes. Look at Karl Peresian, the heat. I remember when he came out, he came out, smashed foods with judo.

He was the first one to really do it, put judo on a map in and MMA, you know, saying him, you know, with Gino, Gene LaBelle. Yeah. So, judo is very dangerous if you know how to handle it. So does this mean that you're actually going to use

more of your wrestling in this fight and less striking, you actually want to take him to the ground? Is that accurate? Well, I didn't say I was going to take him to the ground, but I just said wrestling beats you know. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. See, Erwana, you need to do a little bit more in the May so you can

kind of understand exactly what I'm saying like just because you wrestle don't mean you're going to take him down to the ground I'm not saying that I'm not going to take him down to the ground but I just want to clear it up that wrestling can null-nolify that means I can stop him from taking me to the ground and do more strike here if I choose

the Dominic Cruz because you can get my words twisted no no and then then you got then you got these these MMA sheep that go out here and and go and say oh right face going to take them to the ground.

Oh, the face going to take it to the ground. My page ain't just nobody in the ground 10 years. You know what I'm saying? With social media and everything, like people, like now these idiots can, can, you know what I'm saying?

They can put their little suggestions in the way where you can see it. You know what I'm saying? When I first started, like, you know, fighting, you know what I'm saying? You couldn't hear nothing that these sheep had to say because, you know what I'm saying? You just couldn't see it.

If not social media, they come right on your page and say stupid shit. So be careful what you say, motherfucker. Sure. sure um what you what you what you what why was that so fun the way the way you the last word mother effort it was just sometimes it's hard to tell if you're super upset or just

joking or i don't know it's it's i've been on the receiving end of that word sometimes with you yeah well listen what you need to know is i i don't i don't have any problems with you nobody else man i'm sure listen man i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm I'm happy. I've been trying to tell people, man, that, you know, when you try to live a positive life, you know, say you've got a lot of stuff to go. I don't care that you cost me a million dollars in a lawsuit.

Just for actually one motherfucking question. Who cares? You know what I'm saying? That's money. You guys are always making money. I don't care about money. And I don't care that you broke up my relationship with a perfectly good girlfriend.

Let me do anything I won't. That was, that was a, it's going to be hard to find a girlfriend. Let me do all the stuff. girlfriend let me do. I'm telling you, that girl, she let me do anything I wanted. Man, that was the, you know what? You know what? Fuck that.

The thing about that, man, you owe me another motherfucker girlfriend. Can I call her? No, you owe me another motherfucker girlfriend. I want a Hispanic girl that know how to cook and clean, motherfucker, and got a nice ad. And don't mind walking around the house and thong. Okay, and got a lot of hot friends that she don't mind bringing over and spend a night. and spend a night with us. You owe me a motherfucking girlfriend.

That's real shit. Fuck that positive. You owe me a motherfucker girlfriend. And a million dollars, you just did a 180 on me. I know, man. I was thinking about it. Let's move on.

A lot of motherfucking money. Damn, that was a good girlfriend. I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. Fuck you, man. That wasn't my intention. I swear. It was not my intention.

So let me ask you this. You signed a new two-year deal with Bellator, right? Do you feel like this is the last run? I don't remember signing a two years deal with Venetton. Two fight, two fight, my bad, two fight. Oh, okay. What are you getting your information from? Hey, I got actually some.

Sure. I got action stuff. What's going on, man? What's going on when you get put out of the fucking UFC? I'm going to talk about my shit. What the fuck? I'm streaming on Twitch. And people come in my stream and asking me,

did you see Aaron get put out the motherfuck of UFC? He said he was crying and shit. I'm like, hold on, man. I don't know anything about that because I didn't watch this fight. Let me ask you a question. What the fuck you getting put out of the fucking UFC for? Oh, man.

I could have used you that night, by the way. Well, I got kicked out of the building because I reported that Brock Lesnar was coming out. I did nothing wrong, Rampage. I was just doing my job. I know. That's what your job is with report shit. Yeah.

So what the fuck? And now we're back. 48 hours later, Rampage. great people of this community and other communities voiced their displeasure, and they saved my career. It was amazing. I'm back. Wow, man. How about that? It must be good to be, it must be good to be Jewish, man. My black ass would have put out. I don't know if they're left back here. They would have been mad at me for beating up their hero, Chuck. What the fuck? Who? Hey, you're lucky the fans love you as you. It's amazing. It's shocking to me, how kind they are to

me. It's amazing, I, like I said at top of the show, I owe them everything, and I will work, I will work to try to repay them. And one of the ways in which I like to repay them is interviewing you, because people seem to like it when you're on my show and when we do interviews. So that's why this week in particular, I felt it was very important to have you on the show. You more than anyone. I appreciate that. I don't believe that's true. I think, honestly, I think I have more haters than fans. No. Which is okay. No. Like, hey, God rest is so. Moham-Nal-Lah Lee has.

more haters than fans. True. It's okay. Some people, you know what I'm saying? You know, I love everybody and it's okay. But, you know, my main objective is the not worried about the haters, you know what I'm saying? I'm not worried about the, I love the Rampage fans. And they know that.

I'm still fighting. They went back and seen my joke and know that I'm... No, no. There's no way that's true. Are you enjoying the process, though? Like, do you enjoy going to the gym now to train? Sometimes you said you don't love doing that. Are you enjoying all of this, like, the journey?

Because you seem to be in a great place and this. warms my heart. I'm so happy to hear this. But are you enjoying everything that comes along with fighting? Well, you know, the thing is now that, um, yeah, me coached out of all here now in the is it on YouTube now? No, no, we, do you think it will be better than the reality show that you had on Spike or worse? Kiss my ass. You know what I'm saying? Kiss my ass. See, that's, see, that's the problem. See, that's why, that's why we go to our favor, we're not brand it anymore. But you know what? It's like, it's going to Hey, hey, fuck you. It'd be way better than that reality show that I had on Spike because I'll be directing this shit.

Yes. You know what I'm saying? I'll be producing this shit. I wasn't producing that shit that was on Spike and that wasn't no fucking reality show. That was fucking show the programming, motherfucker. Yes, yes. You know what I'm saying? It should have been a fucking reality.

Don't, don't fuck your big nose ass. Then you get back in now so you got courage, motherfucker. You want to bring up old booms and shit. No, no. That's why we stopped being friends and shit, because you talk to shit about my reality show, motherfucker. No, no, no, no, no. I'm kidding.

Put your address. I'm coming to New York. I'm coming to New York, motherfucker. What's your address? I'm in New York. I'm right next to Brian Park. Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm going to be there after my fight.

I'm going to take you out, and I'm going to put my matchy balls all in your face. So, okay, so you get this one with Ishi out of the way. Have you thought about, like, what the second fight will be? Have you thought about this yet? I haven't really thought about it, but I'm thinking about, I'm too old to be cutting weight. Yeah. Yeah.

How much you weigh now? Motherfucking business, man. You don't act no fighter. How much you weigh right now, man? You don't act no model. How much they weigh? What the hair wrong with you, man? I know you're a reporter and shit.

Yeah. Fuck you. I ain't talking about my... Okay. I wait like 2.30. Is that good for 11 days out? That seems to be pretty good. I mean, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. 2.30 when I only got a way to 15, 15. Shee, come on, I'm a rascal. I can cut 15 pound. Oh, it's 15? I thought it was 205. No, it's a catchway, hon. Wow.

It's easy. That's what I want to be a catchway because he's in the headway. This has got me thinking about going heavyway because, you know, I said, I don't have to have trained apart a couple of four. You know, so my teammates was in England. You know what I was always been like a lone wolf. I didn't train with other, like, A whole bunch of other, you know what I'm saying?

You know what I always train. Pam on me, trying to show me, you know what I'm saying? Show me up for them. They try to capia real fast and wrap so they try to go. Well, since you're talking heavyweight, can I just say that the fight I really want to see is you versus Matt Matrione, dating back to tough 10? Let's make it happen.

I just want to see that fight happen too. I really don't want to fight too South Carolina. Okay. I fucking hate fights South Falls. It's hard to even get spot on some type offals. But, hey, at the end of the day, it's my job to fight. I fight anybody. I ain't had no beef with matri-era.

I had beef with Tiddy. Did you? I really want, I really, I've really been trying to fight Tittittes, but better than I want to see it for some reason. I don't understand why not. It's all up in his face. And I told Titties, I told Tidtis, I told Tidt if I win, I'm a motorboat him, and I ain't lying.

Why are you still holding on to this feud? I don't understand it. Your career is so much. No, because. Because Twitter talking shit. Still? Why, you know, I'm saying, if you was a fighter area, you wouldn't be letting people come and talk shit to you.

No. Right now, you can't fight, so you can't say shit. Right. I'm not talking to you. You can't say shit. You just got to take it. Well, I mean, I don't have to take it, but... Well, what's you going to do?

You're going to stabbing with your nose? What the fuck you're going to do? You don't understand. When you're a beta, there's many different ways in which you can win a fight. It doesn't have to be with your fists. What do you're going to do? You're going to report? We're going to report on them, motherfucker.

I'm a fighter. I'm a fighter. I'm a fighter. It's talking shit to me and say like that. I'm going to fight. So I don't have to fight him in Belator. I can go to his house. But, you know what I said?

I get paid to fight. I want to be, you know what I said? I'm going to be civil. I can get your fat ass in the cage. You know what I'm saying? I understand. Makes your own. I want to fight.

But something from tough 10. That's who I had to beat with was Tidid. Not Mets your own. I fight Mets your own. But I'm just telling you who I really want. I want to shut Tiddy's ass up. So he goes on your Twitter and talks smack to you? Yeah, man.

on my Twitter fucking shit. Wow. That is... And he has his cronies. He have his cronies all with the... with the...

Combine's following of seven on Twitter as well. I'm like, what to hell? Then he gets mad because I blocked the...

The phoneers are so disrespectful and saying shit that's not even true. I'm like, oh man, fuck. I didn't... I didn't really...

Okay, now I understand why you want to fight him. You didn't tell me that last time. Now it makes sense. Bill Tor doesn't want to do it. That's unfortunate. The last one I'll say that I really want

is you versus Fador. That's the one. Could you imagine? That would be incredible. It would be an incredible fight. Yeah. And now we're a friend. In Japan, too. That would be something. Last quick thing. What about your son? How's he progressing?

The fighter. The fighter. I'm not sure that my son's going to gun. Oh. And I don't think a veganianianian and a fighter. And I let him make his own decision. He's 16. He just wanted to decide that he wanted to be a fighter, so I put him in the accident. And now he decided that he wanted to be a vegan.

So he's going to take his own journey the way he wants to go. But I said him as vegan. Wow. So that's that. But you know, there are vegan fighters out there. Jake Shields, there's a ton of them that have had successes. Oh, what? Name them.

Name them off. Well, I know Jake Shields. I believe MacDanzig was, was vegan. Man, there's so many. It's hard for me to remember them all off top of my head because I know some have done it and go back and forth. I think at one point the Diaz brothers were vegan.

Vegan, like... Yeah. Why does he want to do that? He just, he does... I don't know. I don't know who's got in his head. I don't know who he's been hanging around, but, you know, we have, like, teenage kids,

you know, they get influence or easy if they're eating as vegan or something, and you got talking to big in 80. 8 and then, but to me, he don't, he don't, he don't, he don't, he's full, like, yeah, right. Yep. Part of Antonio McKee. I remember the kid, growing up in a gym, he, you know, that was his life. And AJ, AJ, McKee's going to be, uh, a time watch.

He's going to be like Anderson Silver or better. Wow. And, you know, it's, like, it's a, it's a fine line, but, but, uh, you know, I didn't, I didn't do that great, William McKee, but my foot and stuff like that, but, you know, my son, none of my kids ever been to end of my fights. We don't talk about fighting in my house. We don't really watch fighting and stuff like that. We live like regular people and we don't live like...

Spoken like a true great dad, yes? Huh? I was saying spoken like a true great dad that you'd support him either way. I respect that. Sure. Because of me, take my kids away because I'm all over the place. You should have a book to raise kids. I did it.

I raised two teenagers and... And, you know, they just left Sunday. They just left yesterday, both my teenagers, they just left for the summer. Then my two young ones, they go to Japan. They leave on my birthday. They leave for the summer. So, you know what I'm saying? Every summer, you know, so I pretty much take a break for my kids.

But it's hard work, raising kids every day. And, you know what I'm saying? Me, because my kids, I don't play. I'm from South. You know, I'm sure they need a break for me, too. I can never imagine that. I could hang out with you all day long. And by the way, happy early birthday to you.

June 20th, you're turning 24 years old. What a great day. That will be just four days before your big fight against Satoshi Ishii. Rampage, we have to run, my man. But thank you so much for the time. This really means a lot to me. I appreciate you coming on. And it was great to talk to you before the big fight.

I wish you the best. It's always a pleasure. Make sure you tune in to that show on 17, so you can see all the questions that you forgot to ask me. Much love, my man. Thank you. I didn't want to ask you because I don't want to steal your thunder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

All right, Mr. Marshall Balls. Thank you. I appreciate the Rampage. Talk to you soon. All right, peace. Quinton Jackson joining us right now. Great stuff from him. Okay, let's move along.

As I said at the top of the show, horrendous news, late Monday night. The passing of Kimbo Slices affected us all. A pioneer, an icon, a trailblazer. One of the true greats in MMA, one who broke down a lot of doors, who headlined the very first. MMA show on broadcast television in 2008. Kimbo Slices did it all, said it all, and really helped bring MMA to the forefront. He was an even better guy. He was a teddy bear. He was kind-hearted. He was just always a pleasure to talk to, and he will be missed greatly by all of us. When he

burst onto the scene, he was very much linked to one man, and I thought it would be appropriate to have this guy on the show today. I haven't talked to him in a while. I've kept in touch with him a little bit, but I'm very happy on a very hard day that he has agreed to come on the show today. I'm talking to Jared Shaw right now, who I believe is in Florida via the phone. Jared, are you there? Hey, yeah, I'm good, my man. I'm sorry that you're coming on the show under these circumstances, but I really appreciate you coming on. It means a lot. First off, I'm sorry for your loss because I know you were great friends with Kimbo. How are you doing? How are you handling the news

a week later? I mean, it's still surreal right now, to be honest with you. Today was the funeral, right? Yeah. What was it like? Small private ceremony for family. Heavy. Heavy.

When was the last time that you spoke or saw Kimbo? December. I was in Miami. Okay. Oh, so you saw him personally. on face to face? Yeah. Yeah, I saw him post, I think he had a fight right before that.

Yeah. Or, you know, Shamrock, and then I saw him post fight, hung out a little bit. And then, you know, me and Mike Inber, we're very close. I see Mike, so he has a place from Malibu. I see him a lot more often. We were just, I was with him Memorial Day. We were talking about Kimbo and he said, you know, Kimbo's hasn't been feeling well. And we were just discussing, you know, there's upcoming.

about Thompson, whatever, but really, it was just really eerie because he had just said Kimbo's really not feeling well, and then all of a sudden, you know, two weeks later, the worst news possible. Wow. So did you know there's some reports now that he may have needed a heart transplant that he was having trouble? Did you know it was that serious? No, I don't know. I didn't know it was getting to that point, but, you know, in Kimbo's career, even early on, you know, he always had a problem with his heart rate, you know, high blood pressure, but it was never, it never seemed to be anything that was going to be a major concern. Okay.

And have you found out anything else as to, like, what exactly happened that hasn't been out that, you know, I have to ask, do you know exactly what led to his passing last Monday? No, honestly, I wish I didn't. At the same time, I'm glad I don't, to an extent, you know, like, I can't even think about a guy. You know, like Ferg, who was just, you know, in some ways invincible, you know, obviously not in a cage, but just like, you know, bigger than life type of human character. You know, just to think that he's no longer with us. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. But then again, there's some sort of weird mystique about, you know, Kimbo, you know, Little Slice, Baby Slice.

Yeah. And ironic that this kid was going around starting to fight MMA, not telling anyone training himself. And, you know, he's really, he's hungry for it. And he was just about to get that chance with his father. And now he's going to carry that legacy with a chip on the shoulder. That's really interesting to me too. I think the most beautiful thing is about Kimbo, there's been such an outpour of love. You know, condolences.

I get more emails, text messages, Facebook, everything, wishing condolences about Kimbo, more than a birthday, more than anything. Of course, you get a lot of birthday wishes, but to hear just my friends who don't even know Kimbo, all these people reaching out to me, speaks volumes about him. How did you first meet him? How did you guys first link up? So the first time you linked up is because I, you know, had seen him on YouTube like everyone else. And we were just studying this.

You see, he had a Leaw-Dex C. And I really thought he could be a great boxer because he had that natural bobb and weave. And obviously, he looked ferocious. And I reached out to Icy Mike. And at the time, they said, oh, we're fighting M.A. They just fought Mercer. They were going to have a second fight.

I think he was for H-Fierry, Ringafiri, whoever the New Jersey outfit is. and I guess Journey Lapin had gotten word or maybe Jaden depended one of them that fight wasn't that his second fight was going to fall through they weren't able to

afford it so we swooped in there down to Miami you know but a hefty briefcase for the cash and got the deal done with them I was in

California when they came in the next week and Gary and I went and had dinner or Kimmel loves to say you know break bread and we just hit it off right away honestly we ended off really

right away I've got a lot of fighters that are close to me in my life but only have one that I would consider a brother or use that term for 100% was FERG Did you guys think honestly did you think it would turn into what it did

I mean he had a tremendous look he connected with people of course he was a YouTube sensation. But when you guys were making this deal when you were sort of strategizing, okay, let's try to sign this guy and give him all this money.

Did you think it would lead to national television and cover of magazines and all this stuff? Did you really think it would get that big? Honestly, yes. I really did. Again, it's like a sea-smell touch effect.

You just know a star when you're around one. Yeah. And in the fight game, especially like more boxing, but even in the fight game as promoters, you're going to pick and choose the right fights

for him to grow with, assuming that you'd think he's going to win the fight. So there was no doubt that as long as he kept winning or knocking people out, this guy could be a huge, huge star. And, you know, look, he was thrust into the spot left by us, and it was a mixture of

we needed, you know, we needed that face. to begin Elite Xian get noticed and he was also coming in the height of what YouTube became in pop culture technically. You know, he had

12, who knows, but then 18 million hits. So there was an end, and I should say also, MMA was entering its prime limelight. You know, like where all of a sudden we were around and strike force and IFL and pride

was coming back. You know, like every everyone wanted MMA. So it was a mix of this is now a sport that all Americans want to watch, and here's this possible version of Tyson that everyone has seen in backyard balls. So

there was, you know, to me, it was like there was no, there was no way it was going to lose. Then once I got really comfortable with Kimbo, it's like you just realized there was Kevin Ferguson, and then there was Kimbo Slice. And that made him technically more genius when it came

to what you have to be as a marketable, you know, a fighter, especially in MMA. Is there a moment that sticks out where it was like sort of the height of it all? It must have been insane traveling with the guy because he has such a recognizable face and he was on Jimmy Kimmel. He was on all these shows. Is there one moment where it just kind of felt like, okay, this is insane? ESPN cover. Yeah.

That was pretty sick. Yeah. That was, you know, we're up there at ESPN Studios. David Blaine calling us asking if he could come down into the gym and get punched in the stomach by Kimbo. I remember that, yeah. How was in the nuts? It was like so surreal, like the weird, you know, like, so out of the blue, that's like what it was becoming. The, I'll tell you what the craziest one was.

Okay. CBS, we were going to, he was going to fight his first fight. Before that, they asked us, it was Kimbo, me, I see Mike, maybe a couple other, you know, of Team Kimbo. they flew the time of the country music awards in Vegas. They wanted him to present with Kelly Cucco. To me, he's wearing a big cowboy hat. Yes. You know?

Yes. And he's presented, and it's like, that's fucking cereal because he's my language. But really, like, what are we doing on a country music stage? Yeah. But that's how big he was. I remember those pictures. him walking, that definitely seemed like a strange juxtaposition.

Do you remember how, I mean, if it's not for Kimbo, with all due respect to everyone else on the card, you probably don't get on CBS, right? We probably could, but we wouldn't have been able to know we were going to draw a really solid rating.

Look at Bellator now, right? Yeah. They can put Kimbo in technically circus fight whatever, and he's still going to draw one of the highest ratings that's ever been on Spike. Yeah. Do you remember what that was like, like how that all came together to put him on CBS, and you guys are all of a sudden, you guys are the first ones to be on CBS, not the UFC,

not anyone else. It's your tiny promotion that could. I just remember back then, you know, because at Elitex, you were a lot of people wanting to play captain. So there was a lot of deals that honestly I wasn't privy to every single, definitely not the television deals. But what I do recall was CBS was it was a much better position for CBS and it was going to be for the promoter. And I think that wasn't what UFC wanted.

And for us, it was going to be risk, but that was the risk to get the reward. And, yeah, I mean, I don't think it was ever supposed to be like Kimbo is. the best ever. It wasn't about that. It was just, look at this, bigger than life personality who hopefully was going to knock

this next guy out, this next guy out. And to his credit, he never said no to anything. And I think he was in an unfair position because, again, M.A was really starting to blow up and he's a,

you know, highly paid fighter in a sport where he doesn't have many, you know, decorations. And there's a lot of guys grinding. for a long time and he's on the cover

ESPN and he's leading CBS and that was a bullseye. You know, I'm sure one of the things that Kimbo and I, our bond was so strong was over the fact that we had bulls eyes on our back together.

Right. You know? Yeah. Looking back, it was, first of all, when he came to Kimbo, he landed a clean punch on Tank Abbott. There's never anything that was ever fishing

about anything that Kimball Slice fought in. But was I biased? Of course I was biased. And only is he the important breadwinner for the company. But me and him had brotherly love, like real brotherly love. So when he got in that cage, I couldn't. I was too young to really tell you realize, you know. He could be silent the whole time.

My passion bleeds through because I fought with my fighters. And, yeah, we had them all. Nah, I didn't care. Kimbo mattered. Same way Gina mattered. Same way Nick Diaz mattered. If I was biased to anyone, it was those three. We've talked, of course, after the fall of Elite XC, and I know it was hard for you to look back, and there were open wounds, and you just, you know, you kind of wish you did things differently, that it ended up differently. But now, here we are, you know, several years later,

and you've moved on, and you have a successful career as an artist and all this stuff, And everyone's kind of moved on at this point. When you look back at that time, and especially your time with him and the stuff that you guys were doing, can you now look back with fondness? Can you be proud of the stuff that you did? Or does it still hurt a little bit? No, no. Listen, we all have hiccups on the roads and journeys, but we made history.

So that the hiccups, you know, subside history remains forever. When's the last time? Have you ever sat down? I don't know if it was maybe after this. You know, horrible news came out. You ever sit down and watch those shows, the tank fight, some of those other fights from back, you know, the town? I have not yet. I'm sure that would be, you know, I'd like to watch him.

I'd really like to watch the Thompson fight. Yeah. That's the most biased fight I definitely was because I did not like him on that cruisness. Right. That's right, man. And you know what? About that fight, another one where they question the endings, because it's one of the weirder endings. Sure.

We told Thompson to drain his year before the fight. I don't know why he did not want to drain his year. Wow. But I don't know how Kimbo popped it. It was like that was fateful. And of course they were supposed to fight in July. What was it like for you and your dad, Gary, to now watch him have this sort of second moment as an MMA star

and still kick ass, still break records, still be a huge draw. For you guys, what was it like? I was really out before him. Obviously, we have his boxing contract. Obviously, there were, there's, you know, contractual things in that contract that would say, hey, we don't have to let him do any of this stuff. But no one was going to stand in his way because for him to get back in the spotlight, to get back to six-figure paydays, help his family, that's what it's all about anyway.

You know, I think it was great that we got the boxing and it was off the bucket list. and he got 7-0. Obviously, it was a different time of his career, and he would have never been the champ, and he would never have been the fighter. Maybe he could have been at 24. Because one thing about Kimbo is just naturally, aesthetically gifted.

And, you know, who knows what could have been there. But what's funny is he always knew he was outgunned in M.MA. But he kept coming. Yeah. you know he really did he knew but you can't take

you can never take his heart from him even in the last fight and I really didn't like the way he looked at that fight and I text Mike and I text Richie you know because you can't knock out Donna

or you know you're like both gasping for for her life essentially in the third round you know, there comes in time, you know, that unfortunately

maybe it's not for you anymore, but his heart was so big, he just kept coming, and he was going to do this next fight, and I'm sure he was going to continue to fight. One thing that I always think about with Kimbo, I remember interviewing him before the Ken Shamrock fight in Florida

is my first time interviewing him in person, and of course he has an intimidating exterior. I was a little nervous because, you know, he had the whole entourage, and you didn't really know what he was thinking, but then you get to talking with him a little bit, and like I said, he was kind of like a teddy bear. He was a very kind man. He was a thoughtful man, and I'm sure you got to see that more than anyone because you spent all this personal time with him, and we got

to find out a little later on how much he loves his family and how close he was with his kids. Is that accurate? Did you, did you witness that yourself? I know he, obviously he was earlier. Yeah, he was really like that, right? That's not just something people say. No, no, no, he was really like that, and that's why I was saying even, The thing with Baby's slice is really interesting. He was like he was going to go, he was in San Francisco in photography school. He was a great football player like his dad, but he blew his knee out or something, junior year, sophomore year he didn't play no more.

He wasn't even thought he was an athlete. He was more than creative. All of a sudden, you know, a testament of the love in the family and the belief to do anything, and I think of the natural, you know, fight in all of them. He's in it now. His other son, K.J., who, you know, looked like he was got a blaspheming football career, but the Rinald was still a right part of that family. And he was even starting to train a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, Kimbo, the key things for sure stick out is he had that bodyguard mentality no matter what. If he had dinner with my mom and she went to the bathroom, he got up and took her. Wow. If there was time to go, he walked up in the car, opened the door for her. This is in the height of him being a superstar. Yeah. So those will always stick out to me. I think the most important thing that anything could come to light in all this is the relationship that Mike Inber played in Kimmo's whole life.

I'm going to about a lot of people in life have never seen a best friend treat somebody as good as Mike treats Kimbo. He never took a dollar from any of his purses his entire career. And it just speaks, it speaks volumes about the type of person like he was because he's been nothing but there.

you know, to help take the burden off of Kimbo in the time whether it was financial or job or, you know, help vice kids, anything. It didn't matter. Mike was always there for. And that definitely is a story, unfortunately, because Mike's a private guy. Yeah.

That no one really, really will ever understand the scope of the picture. but 100% there's nothing more beautiful than the way that they both had a relationship well Jared

on a on a tough day I appreciate you stopping by my man again I wish we weren't you know reconnecting like this but thank you very much for coming on and sharing some memories about Kimbo and keep in touch my man

you were a big part of I mean I can tell you for sure you love you thank you and I think you know we all came up together at a bit every time

and really you know what he loved all the fans and I know it'll never make sense but it's a street mentality you really did it

for everything because you know you don't have to fight that fight on CBS against Kentucky Zally we don't talk them into it yeah

and you won't let nobody down and I just think it's great that you want to you know, do some another that you asked to come and talk about him because it's beautiful

that everyone still, you know, holds him in a high regard personally that they don't want him to be a footnote. No. So, um, the other thing is,

you know, we got a lot of respect for, for the UFC, what they do, and he gave him a chance. And I think it broke that down the barriers. and I think that there are a lot of

what gets missed in it all is Kimbo is a hero to inner city kids period the man goes from the backyards you know one fight shooting to the major leagues of MMA and says you know you can fight your way out too

that's something positive you never heard in a world where all there is assault and Mr. You know, just telling me

everything about fighters or star celebrities there's no there's no there's not really no stories about Kimbo he never got himself

in trouble when he was there you know you never heard anything negative if you heard something negative it was just people clowning on him as a fighter

yeah that's very true I think you know that got missed but somewhere somewhere down in Miami somewhere in Day County 305 some fighter

maybe it's even a baby slice, but somebody is coming, and it probably wouldn't even happen if they didn't get to see Kimbo come first. Well said, Jared. Thank you, my man. I appreciate it, and we'll talk very soon. My pleasure. Ariol, thank you for having me on, and I appreciate you taking the time as well. Pleasure.

There he is. Jared Shaw, former Elite XC Vice President, remembering the great life of the late Kimbo slice. Okay, let's go to our next guest. Always a pleasure to talk to Josh Barnett. He has been patient, and there he is. I believe that's him. It looks like the ghost of Josh Barnett.

I think that's... I've had a plenty of those old movies from the 70s and 80s. They've covered Vaseline on the lens to give me that soft-like look. A great example of that is filmed by a little key called Spock Quest. Wait a second, Josh. Time out. Time out. I don't know if you can see me.

Time out. I can't understand a word you're saying. I don't think the connection is great. So let us just call you on the phone. As much as I love to see you, I'd prefer to hear you. So can we call you quickly on the phone? Yeah, please. Okay, let's call Josh on the phone because I don't know.

I don't know how we thought that that was acceptable connection. It appears as though he's at a gym, so sometimes the Wi-Fi isn't great. But we'll get in touch with Josh Barnett. He returns to action in early September. He is fighting Andrei Arlowski in a fight that I feel like we've been sort of talking, dreaming about for a long time. You know, Josh Barnett was in pride. Arlofsky was doing his thing in the UFC. even before they were kind of in the UFC at the same time,

and Josh Love is he there? Josh, are you there? I'm here. All right, that's much better. What were you saying there? I couldn't understand. Well, I was saying that I was doing the old technique of putting Vaseline on the lens like they used to do in the 70s and 80s.

Yes. A classic example of that would be Lucille Fulci's fantasy magnanimous named Conquest. It's right up there with all the kind of movies that make you go, what the, it's really. a piece of cinema treasure. Well, that's a great segue, because last week was a big week for you. You had a movie that came out, right? Never back down.

Yes, never back down, no surrender. Oh, jinks. Sorry. You owe me a Pepsi. Yeah, with myself, Michael Jai White, Ezaa Morales, the fight professor, Stephen Quadros. Oh. We flew down to Thailand, shot that thing initial over 18 days. and now it's out there for the world to see.

No hiding my acting ability or lack thereof now. Was this the biggest role that you've ever had in a film? It was. I was a co-star. I had a decent amount of heavy lifting in terms of dialogue in this one. And to be honest, I was looking forward to the challenge, but also the opportunity to try and pay back of a soul. sort to Mike, who has been a real advocate for me from the very beginning to get into acting.

Really? Yeah. How so? Well, you know, I've known him for some time just as a friend and fellow martial artist, and we'd chat a little bit, and he'd always bring up when are you going to start acting? When are you going to start acting? You need to get an acting class. You need to be on screen.

You need to be doing this because I really believe you have the potential to go somewhere as an actor. And so sure enough, I did get into acting classes, and I did start working on the craft. And then when this movie came around, he said, look, I need you for this role. This is a movie that I don't know if it could be done without you. So it was my opportunity to try and step up and be there for Mike

and also take advantage of a great opportunity. Okay, so I know you're, you know, you're brutally honest, you're, you know, you have an honest, um, take on your, you know, your, you're always, you're always great with that. How do you think you did? You know, if you, if you can be brutally honest, how, how do you feel like you did in your first big role? I think I did okay. Okay. But then I, uh, you know, I can, part of what, what shines to me and where I could be better also stems from remembering those moments, those feelings as I was on set and thinking, okay, now, if I could have only been maybe coming from this position on that

take, or maybe, you know, I should have tried to use this technique to try and convey what was most important. Or, you know, I think I could have, I could have taken a different approach. And maybe that would have been better. But I think there's always going to be a level of second guessing with acting because, you know, it's a fairly natural thing with anything we do. Always wonder if we really did get the best out of that opportunity or not. Okay, so is this the exit plan? Like, is this why you're doing, is this part of the exit plan, I should say? Are you hoping that, you know, we can't fight forever? Are you hoping that this is what you'll do when you're done fighting?

I'd like to be able to be a part of cinema. I never thought of it as an exit plan, but just more or less another opportunity in life to try and get involved in something that I've always had a very, a very deep love for in terms of movies and cinema. But I don't know how far it will go. Of course, there's always the equation of how much you, how much time you spend trying to build that ability to, you know, how much time you put into preparing for these sort of things is going to equate to how much success you're going to get out of it. So I'm not 100% actor guy yet because I still have a fight coming around the corner, September 3rd in Hamburg,

Germany against Arlovsky. So for right now, acting is something I'm doing in and amongst what I do as a fighter. This is the first time that I speak to you since the fight in Newark against Ben Rothwell, considering how it went the way it unfolded, how he beat you. Mentally, what did that do for you because you've always been proud of the fact that you were never submitted in a fight. That's something that you're very passionate about for it to go down like that. And I know you're confident going into that fight as well. How long did it take for you to get over it? It's terrible.

Losing is terrible. And to lose by submission because of a dumb mistake on my part and a great opportunity to capitalize on Ben's part, it stinks. I really do like Ben. And he did a fantastic job. And he really earned his win there. but, you know, I held myself to a very high standard, and so it was a matter of reflecting on how it even got to that, and then just thinking, well, I can't fix what has happened, but all I can do is try to move forward and expand from that point.

And this fight with Arlowski is that opportunity, and it's a fight that I've wanted for years. and it seemed to me that if I didn't get it now, this fight may never happen. So there was some talk of maybe you versus Verdume, and then you put out a Facebook thing saying you had some other plans, UFC Pride. Why is this fight? I mean, I know where you guys stood in time and where you were when you were in Pride and UFC, even when you were both in the UFC, but why does this fight, you know, a decade later, mean so much to you?

Well, I think that, one, people would still like to see to, classic heavyweight champions go out there and battle it with all the experience that we have between the two of us. But also, it's Pride versus UFC. When I was in Pride, he was touted as the greatest heavyweight in the world by the UFC at the time.

He was their champion. And we're over in Pride, of course, our opinion was, now the best guys are here. Yeah. So while that conversation doesn't necessarily exist in this immediate timeframe, because, you know, there is no more pride, and it is no longer 2006. But I still want to bring that up. I want to say, okay, come on.

I'm one of the top dudes of pride. You were the UFC champ. I was a UFC champ before you even had that opportunity. So I'd like to say, well, would you just do. even been champion if I was still there. I like that. That being said, as much as you like that fight, you were trying to get the Brock Lesnar fight, right? When you found out that this was happening,

this is something that you've wanted this for a long time. Do you feel like you were close at all? Yes. I really couldn't say. I don't know how the internal workings are. I know that I didn't get thrown out of the arena, at least. I'm sure that they already had their plans prior to me ever saying anything or even prior to the announcement that was made by a deep throat, Helwani.

So I would love to have thought that I was potentially in the running, but maybe we'll never know. But I did really want that fight. I wanted it because, you know, he's a professional wrestler, so am I. I wanted it because after five fights, they tried to say he was the number one heavyweight in the world, I felt was insulting to all of us. Not that he wasn't talented, not that he's not, didn't have the potential to be far better than he ever was able to really show out there, you know, with such a young career.

But it was just, it just felt like utter and absolute propaganda. And it was upsetting that there were media outlets that were supposed to be top of the pops that bought it. So, all right. And then there's, you know, also the fact that. he had an open invitation to come to CSW and train with us all the time in between fights and to prepare and grow as a fighter and never took up, never took us up on it, never came out, never really seemed to spend the time in between his fights to become a much better fighter. And I felt like, well, you know, that was part of the reason why his last couple fights went the way they did.

And so I don't know what he's done from then until now, but being out of it as long as he has, I don't think he's going to be stepping back in the cage a better fighter than he was when he left. The knock on him has been that he doesn't like to get hit, and he's fighting someone who hits really, really, really hard. Do you think he has a chance? Of course he has a chance. He's a tank. He's got an incredible wrestling background.

He's a great physical specimen. He's no dummy. Brock is a smart guy. And I still think that he is a massive wealth of untapped potential. It's just that It's just that It has not been tapped It has not been approached the right way

I don't And I would be surprised If his prep leading into this Is really what as myself You know hell I'm at the gym right now Training my fighters That all have matches coming up And

As a trainer As someone that's trained people For world championship matches I just don't I don't think that the right approach Is being taken with them What do you mean by that? I just, I don't know.

If he doesn't like to get hit, that's one thing, but you can work your way around that to a degree. You can at least even try to condition him to get more use to the idea of it with the right kind of drills and the right kind of setups. But at the same time, you need to make sure that that guy can go in there. And when everything is as tumultuous as it is in that cage, when the fire is on, he can go through it and not get. get burned.

Right. Did you hear this story about this exemption with Usada that, you know, someone who was in the Usada era, if you retire, you need to then give him four months testing all this stuff to then get back in it. But because he was fighting pre-Usada, he doesn't have to give him the four-month heads up and he could just come in a month before his fight and not have to go through all of that. This has pissed off a lot of people. Do you have any take on it?

Oh, well, I can see why they'd be pissed. it it it would it that's a very touchy subject but I haven't really

been paying that close attention to it other than just focusing on what I have to do and making sure I file my quarterlies and all that kind of stuff so that I don't have any issue

with them in any way but you know if he's getting some sort of a golden ticket I mean that's that's kind of unfortunate I would think that USADA would not would not have the sort of rule set where they could make it flexible defined on the individual and not

on the program. But, you know, my goal is to go out there and finish Arlovsky. And other than that's what I can control. Where do you view yourself now in the division? After the Rothwell fight, there's all kinds of craziness, Miochich is champion, Kane is coming back. I know, you know, going, I remember you're talking very much going to the Travis Brown fight that you thought maybe that you were one fight away from fighting for the belt. At 38, do you feel like that's still possible? This division is so wacky.

Probably the wackiest division in the UFC because you can never predict what's going to happen. Do you still feel like you have that title run in you? Or are you just looking for now? Fun fights, you know, these fights like Arlovsky they've won for a long time. How are you viewing your career at this point? The way I see it, if it's wacky now,

can only get wackier. I plan to come to the ring with a whole groucho March, Marx get up, being followed by, I don't know, a whole cadre of little people that will form a giant Voltron, sort of speak, as my corner man. So if you thought it was wacky now, just give me a minute. I'll figure out a way to make it wackier. Please. Whoopie cushions everywhere. Just make sure that it's, you know, whatever those guys are wearing, the whoopperish, that there's at least a Reebok logo on those things because I don't want to piss anyone off.

No, see, that's the great thing about it, is that it's just way more advertising space. Sure. Tons of Reebok logos everywhere. The more the merrier. Right. Rebock branded whoopie cushions, I'm on it. No, don't worry about I've got the little beanies of the spinner on top. Okay, so But I'll tell you what, if you stick me in the ring

With anyone holding a belt anywhere in the world I can beat them Absolutely I've proven myself far beyond Even what I've done here in this iteration Of my UFC run I've been there, I've done that I've fought the best in the world time and time out

So I don't need to prove whether or not If I can win a couple fights Whether to show that I'm deserving of anything I'm deserving of a title shot In any organization anywhere in the world tomorrow, period. Yes. You know, anytime the UFC wants me to go after their belt, just give me a call.

I'll go out there. I'll give my damnedness and I'll go after whoever is a champ at the moment. You know what I mean? I don't care who that is. I love it. Still as confident as ever. Still the Warmaster. Great stuff.

So you got never back down, no surrender. I believe this Friday you'll be co-hosting Inside MMA on Access TV. Is that accurate? it? Yes, it is. It'll be the second time I have co-hosted Inside MMA before, except this time with their new setup, I need to make sure to wear a full suit. You can't get away with just the top at this point. You got to be at the toe. Yes, that's important. But it'll be great to sit in there with boss and, you know, roll with the punches and call the action there from all around the world of mixed martial arts. Look at you. A real Renaissance man when it comes to all things

media, acting, hosting, uh, color analysts for, for the New Japan Pro Wrestling. I mean, really, fighting still, uh, a Renaissance man. I think that's the best way to describe you. I even have the puffy shirts. You just come out with those as well. Slapp a Reebok logo on those bad boys. Reebok branded pirate shirts for sure. Amazing. Amazing. I try corner hats. Um, um, and, and Colleen, is she, does she have a fight coming up? Not at the moment, to my knowledge, but I've got Shohay Amamoto is going to be fighting here July 25th for lights out promotions locally, waiting on an opportunity for Victor Henry over in Japan in Pancras, mainly. And then we have four athletes going to this Frank Gotch International Catch Wrestling tournament. It's going to be in Humbold, Iowa on July 3rd.

Shana Bazler, Laura Anderson, Travis, Neuaza, and Javier Garcia. So sending a group of four over there to get on the mats for the art of catches, catch-can wrestling. Wow. And man, people, possible fight for Jessamine Duke maybe. We've got a lot of stuff going on. People are being active, and they're in the gym, and they're making the most of it. I love it. Josh, a pleasure, as always.

Thank you very much for stopping by. Congrats on the new movie. Congrats on everything that's going on. and of course, good luck. September 3rd, Hamburg, Germany, the much-anticipated, long-discussed fight against Andrei Arlofsky. Looking forward to that as well, my man. Thank you. Cheers. Bye-bye. Thank you, man. Good to talk to you, as always. There he is. Josh Barnett, stopping by the Warmaster.

Good to talk to him. It has been a long time since I've spoken to him on this show. And, of course, the last time he was in action was against Ben Rothwell. good to see that he is in good spirits, back on track, feeling good, talking up a good game, and doing a lot of great things outside of the cage. Okay, in a minute, we are going to be joined by Dominic Cruz, the reigning defending UFC Bantamway champion. He successfully defended his title on June 4th in Inglewood, California against Uriah Fabor. A fantastic performance. Really put an exclamation point on that rivalry and distance himself from his longtime rival, Uriah Fabor. They went back in four.

and for a long time, we're sort of carrying the card and stealing all the headlines. Michael Bisping's big win was a massive deal as well, and it perhaps somewhat overshadowed Cruz's virtuoso performance, but that was something else. I mean, it showed just how far he has come since the second fight, which was UFC 132, and really cemented the fact, in my opinion, that he is the very best bantam weight in the world. And I still maintain, despite the fact that that was a dominant win, I still maintain that that division is the deepest, perhaps most interesting. It doesn't have the biggest names and draws, but when you look at, you know, the top 10, when you see the names who are on that thing, every one of them, to me, has potential future

title contender, title holder next to it. Look at these names. Dominic Cruz, T.J. Dillishaw, Faber still there. A Sun Sal's returning against Dilleshaw. Brian Carraway, killing it as of late. Michael McDonald. Al Jermaine Sterling. Cody Garbrandt.

John Lineker. John Dotson. Thomas Almeida. Mizugaki. Jimmy Rivera. I mean, that is an impressive roster of young, talented fighters. Like I said, not all of them are, you know, massive draws. but all very tough in their own right.

So curious where he goes from here, he's joining us on the phone right now. Dominic, how are you? What's up, Ariel? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. Great to talk to you, as always. Congratulations on the big win. How many times have you watched it since it happened nine days ago? You know, it's kind of a weird thing. I never really, I mean, you'd think I'd watch that stuff a lot because I'd break down

fights and I'm an analyst and all that, but I'd have to say I'd probably watch my fights the least of anybody that I watch fights. Wow. I just, I don't know what, I think that for me, I understand the mental battle that we all go through in there. And so I, uh, I chop that whole onslaught of my opinion of myself out of it by not watching myself. And because I'm always competing against myself, I'm my own worst critic.

If people think I say bad things to them or negative things to them or that I'm rude or mean or too blunt or too up front, they should hear myself talk, you know? Yeah. So I'm trying to, I don't really watch a whole lot of my videos just because I like to keep focused on the things that I can control. And those are all my innate abilities in there and my instincts. And so if I try to change my instincts, I'm going to change what I do. And by trying to be too analytical with my own fights, I take away my own instincts.

Oh, man. That is fascinating? So is it fair to say that you actually haven't watched it? once? I've watched it, I think, twice. Okay. Yeah, two times. Considering everything that was said going into it and the rivalry and all that stuff,

you've had big wins, is it fair to say that this was maybe the most gratifying win of your career? Well, you know, I'll be honest. I don't think so. Okay. I really, like, it was a huge thing to kind of close out an ongoing chapter in my life in the sense of that was the only loss. I ever had, and I needed to close that out just so I didn't have like any kind of questions

said by anybody. You know, it was, it could have always been a question with me in favor because we were competitive, the second fight. He beat me the first fight. And this fight, I just closed it out. Like, they know everybody, there's no question anymore. So that I needed for myself and I think for the fans, really, so I don't get that question anymore. But it wasn't the most gratifying. I honestly believe probably the most fun and the most. gratifying fight I've ever had in my career was against Mizugaki just because of the layoff that I was facing and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to do it again before that fight and I went out there and shocked myself and like I say it all the time I believe that's

why we do this we don't everybody says oh I want to I want to have the belt and people will respect me and and then I'll get them I'll get the I'll be in the rankings and all this and all that but really all you when you want all those things all you're really looking for is to validate yourself, not get the validation from everybody else. And when I went out there and fought Mizugaki after three and a half years off, I was able to teach myself something and validate my own thoughts of myself and make sure that I knew that I can compete and be there. And that was like winning five titles for me. Wow. So at this point, can you fairly, you know, can you fairly confidently say that you'll never fight this man again? Like, do you think that was really it?

no more. I mean, I think that there's no reason to have to fight them again. I mean, we did three fights. Yeah. I beat them two out of three times, and this last one wasn't close at all. So I don't see the reason. You know, I've also faced Benavides twice, you know. So I've had these rematch scenarios, and that's why you do three of them.

And fighting somebody two, three times is never an easy thing. So that's why they do it three times to see who can come out on top. We did that. Like, that's done. Do you have a theory as to why it was much less of a closer fight this time around than the second fight at UFC 132? Why has the gap gotten a lot bigger between you and Yariah? Well, I mean, I have my understanding of the reasons, and then everybody else has their own opinions. That's the crazy thing about this world today is everybody has an opinion.

Sure, but I'm curious about yours. Yeah, since you're asking me about mine, I've said it in all the interviews. used before that I didn't have to beat Faber because he's already been beating himself for years. I mean, I think that he's an extremely good fighter, and I think in any scenario, he's still top three in the division, even with how the divisions lined up now. Yeah. So he's one of the best in the world at this weight class. I mean, he doesn't lose three-round fights, and he's good, you know? So I knew he was talented, but I know that his ego in the

the fact that he's unwilling to face the things that have lost him, those eight fights before this last fight that I fought him, he's unwilling to face, he's unwilling to take responsibility for the reasons he lost, and all you hear are the things he did right in those fights and how he survived in those fights rather than what he could have done better and give kudos to the people that beat him. His own ego won't allow him to do that. He's a positive thinker, and as positive thinkers, I understand that.

But at a certain extent, you can't lie to yourself just to be positive. and I felt like his ego won't allow him to tell the truth to himself. He'll always make up an excuse. I'll always say why he's better than that if they fought again next time, how he got lucky, how his thumb was up when he was knocked out. You're not really admitting your loss, which means you're not really learning from it. If you don't learn from your losses, you can't grow. And it's hard to grow if you're not learning.

One thing that came up after the fight, a lot of people focusing on the way you breathe in your fights and they were saying, oh, this is an example of Dominic being gassed out or tired at something like that. But that seems to be a strategy that you use in your fights, right? That couldn't be further from the truth. Your emphatic breaths that you take before you unleash a barrage, right? Correct. I mean, you can look through all my fights, Ariel, and see that I do that.

It's not a new thing. I think that when people are watching me, they're trying to figure out all these little chinks and things that I could be doing wrong. or that they can critique because it's different. But me being different is what's made me successful. So instead of saying that I look tired, why don't you say maybe everybody should be taking deeper, deeper breaths in their fights to breathe better because I never get tired in these fights. I never stop coming.

I never stopped throwing. And if I got tired, I'd probably take more damage and that would help out my opponents. But I don't get tired. That's a recovery system that I use. and I'm bringing my heart rate down as fast as physically possible by taking those big deep breaths. And that's exactly all I'm doing is bringing my heart rate down, not up. Did you guys speak afterwards? Did you have a moment?

Do you feel like everything's kind of squashed between you two? Do you even care? I'm wondering if you talked at all behind the scenes. He just did the normal favor talk, you know, which is the thing with favor that you know after a while is he'll pretend as your friend for a moment to get you to let down your guard. Once you let down your guard, he'll make sure he uses whatever he gets you to say in media or a promotion in another event

or to hit you while your hands are down. So he was cool, he was normal favor, you know, but none of it's real. He tricks everybody into thinking he's a nice guy, but all he's doing is getting you to let your guard down. Once you let your guard down with him and let him in, he thinks that he has like the big,

brother over you. He thinks that he has a mental aspect over you. So I just listen in a favor, let him talk, let him say what he wants to say. I don't hate the guy. I mean, we got that done. I fought him. It's done. It's good. I got no issues with him. I mean, I'm moving on with my career, and I'm happy I'm moving on in my career. I just know the truth behind that guy. I've known him too long not too. So speaking of moving on, I know it was just nine days ago, but any talk yet about who could be next for you? No. I need to sit down. I haven't talked to Shelton.

or Dana or Lorenzo or anything. It's been a week, you know, since Saturday. I mean, Saturday was a week, but right now I'm just, I haven't even gone on a vacation or nothing like that. I'm getting ready to go to the lake soon. That'll be fun. But other than that, I'm just, I start, you know, I'm doing my water workouts, and I'm just working on this left plantrophagitis foot.

Yeah. Try to get that 100%. And then just focus on, you know, big fights. I want the big fights, Ariel. I've been a world champion in this sport for a long time. I left, came back, and became a world champion again. I don't need that, you know, anything except these big fights. I've been fighting for so long against the best guys in the world.

I want these big fights that people want to see that are going to pay the big money. So what comes to mind? What's a big fight right now for you? Well, you know, that's a solid question, but that's something that I'd have to wait, you know, and see where the division goes. We've got a lot of guys. 135 is looking amazing right now. Yeah.

The whole division is stacked. Everybody's pissed off. Everybody's fighting everybody now. Yeah. I mean, there was a time where you got certain guys like, hey, I'm not fighting this guy. He's my teammate. Well, how are you supposed to be the best in the world if you're unwilling to fight certain people? But right now we got Dillshaw fighting us and south.

We got Carraway beating Sterling, McDonald's fighting Linnaker. and, you know, Cody's the number seven guy, and he just beat the number 10 guy. So that being said, division's more stacked than it's ever been. The question is, which one of these guys sells out in the arena? Yeah. Which one of these guys does everybody want to see fight? Are they chomping at the bit to see any of these guys get in the ring and fight?

Will they fill up a stadium to come watch any of those gentlemen fight? I don't know, but I think that a lot of people would, would definitely come to watch me either they want to see me lose or they want to see me win. And I know that I can do that. So the question is, who of these people that I can fight next bring something to the table for me more than I make them famous? What happened between you and Cody in Inglewood? Was there a bit of an altercation? You guys were staring each other down.

He was talking about this on a podcast. Was there something that happened there? No, you know, those guys, first of all, it's an alpha male podcast. So they're talking about themselves, and they're always promoting themselves. That's what it's for. And then he just did the same thing that Faber did after I fought T.J. Dilshaw. He's taking, you know, his manager's approach, which Faber is his manager slash training partner. He collects money off promoting Cody Garbrand.

He collects money off promoting Page Vanzette. He collects money off promoting Benavides and he's with him. T.J. Dilsha, Chad Mendez, and half those guys left because they were tied. of writing the coattails of Faber. So Cody hasn't gotten tired of that yet. He's using the coattails of favor, and favors promoting him because he collects a percentage off promoting him. And they're promoting this guy on their podcast

because it benefits Team Alpha failed to promote him on their podcast. It's all just politics because they want their promotion and they want, you know, Favor wants that money by pushing his own teammates up there. I've been facing these guys since the beginning of my career. I said it a long time ago in one of my interviews

that I chop one head off and another one just pops right back up. Those guys are never going to stop hating me. They're never going to stop wanting to beat me. Faber's going to keep promoting these guys because he collects a percentage off promoting these guys. So to me, it was just normal Team Alpha failed business,

them talking, trying to skip positions in the line. The way I see it is, just get in line, man. Beat somebody that's ranked in the top three, you know? That's how I feel about those guys, any of those guys. And don't try to talk your way to the front of the line. It feels... It feels to me like the winner of Dillishaw and Assuncel will be the frontrunner.

Does the fight against either of them interest you at this point? And do you want to fight again in 2016? Yeah, I don't pick. fights I never have and that's not what I'm trying to say here what I'm saying is I want these guys to fight and do what you're saying which is be ranked and get in the get in the right position sell some tickets sell make people want to see you fight yeah like get you know sell something out we talk about Dilsha and in Burrell fighting they fought two times and had some of the worst ticket sales ever in the history of 135 pounds

they you know no one showed up for their fight and then Really, you're talking about Bill Shaw and Sal being up next. I mean, Carraway's beating how many in a row, and he just beat a guy that they were, that said he was going to beat me, which is Sterling. I mean, I've been called out six different times in the past month, Ariel. It's everybody's job to try to call out the champion. That's the easy part. The hard part is fighting to deserve it in the sense of beating the best guys in the division to challenge yourself. So you think that when you get in there with me, you're actually prepared for it.

You just didn't talk like you're prepared for it. Because those are two completely different things when you're facing me. The last time we saw you back in January, you were coming off the layoff. You talked about how you were just trying to get back to, you know, fighting shape. And, you know, when your eye was talking about your physique, you were just saying, like, look, I was trying to get back. Now this fight, now that it's over, is this the closest to 100 percent? You look to be in tremendous shape. You fought amazingly.

Is this the closest to 100 percent that you've been since? before all the knee injuries, you know, started, or do you feel like you're not quite there just yet? Now, you're right in saying that this is the closest I've been to 100%. I still have more I can work into, though. I'm still feeling my body out a little bit, because it really has been a brand new rebuild process. And you've got to think I've stripped both my legs down to the bone three times.

Total. So if that's not a rebuild process every single time you do it, I don't know what is, you know? And so I am still feeling out my body But I do feel better than I have since all the injuries at all Like that last fight With Faber I had no injuries the whole camp You know

No rib injuries, no anything Before I fought Dilshaugh I hurt my rib at eight weeks exactly I didn't want to pull out But I didn't spar for four weeks I did padwork and sprints I couldn't do any strength and conditioning There's so many little things I had to make up for in that camp

This fight with Faber I was able to do everything And so my body was sharp. I felt strong. My wrestling was sharp. I could kick more. There was a lot of things that just came together much better in this fight. And I really believe my next fight will be a step in a better direction again.

Because I'm just feeling better and stronger and everything's working for me. Wow. That is a scary thought. Again, Dominic, really appreciate it. Congratulations, my man. I know you're probably a little tired of doing interviews and stuff about this fight, but I thank you greatly for coming on the show and talking about the win and what's next for you.

I know you've got some Fox gigs coming up. You'll be working at 200, so that's great to hear as well. But congratulations on the big win over Yariah, and looking forward, as always, to your next fight. It's great to hear that you're closer than ever to 100%, because that is a very exciting thing for fans, in my opinion. So thank you, my man. I appreciate it.

Thanks, Ariel, and glad to hear you interviewing me again. Yes, good work. Always, my man. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. There he is. Dominic Cruz, the reigning, defending UFC, Bantamptonway, champion stopping by. What a great win for him on Saturday, June 4th in Inglewood, California.

He has, you know, it's interesting to hear him talking about connecting with people and having people care about him and having people want to buy tickets to watch him fight and selling out arenas. Something has changed in Dominic Cruz. People all of a sudden, you know, maybe it's being on Fox, maybe it's just being himself. Something has definitely changed. And people are willing to do that when it comes to Dominic Cruz. It's a beautiful thing to see. And he deserves it very much. Okay, I'm very excited about this one, my friends. This is big. This is huge for us. Right now, we're being joined, and, you know, how many of us thought that we were going to say this, that we could say this, that we can call this man this? Now we're being joined by the brand new UFC middleweight champion, Michael the Count Bisping. It still seems a bit surreal, doesn't it? He's joining us on the phone right now. Michael, how are you?

I'm very well, sir. I might be shot here in my living room. And above my TV. there is a world middleweight title belt. And yeah, you're right. It does seem a little surreal, certainly given the circumstances, but nonetheless, thank you for that kind introduction. Ariel, how the hell are you? I'm doing great, my man. Wow.

I mean, there's a lot of emotion involved in this, and what a special moment it was, in my opinion. One of the greatest moments in the history of this sport, you winning on two weeks' notice and, you know, the journey that you've been on, and many people thought you'd never get this moment. Does it still, like, have you been able to sort of begin to move on, or do you still feel like you're riding that high? Because I wouldn't be surprised if it lasts for several weeks. You know, to be honest, it's kind of a weird one. I mean, I guess now and again, I sit and take stock of it all and think, wow, wow, I'm the champion.

But then on the other side of it is just, you know, I'm just, it's just another day. You know, I've got three kids and a wife, and I'm just going about my business as usual. It hasn't changed me at all, but I'm very, very proud of myself, I'm proud of what I achieved. I know that, of course, I was the underdog going into that fire. And as I said, prior to the fire, I understood why. You know, I'm nobody's fool. I understood why.

But I always believed in myself. I know my coaches believed in me, my family believed in me. And I was able to get the job done. So, you know, it was a lifetime's work. Yes, it was two weeks notice. But again, as I said, going into the fight, I prepared for this moment my entire life. life. I've done martial arts since it was eight years old. I've always been a fighter. And,

you know, two weeks, two hours, two days. As I said, you know, it was, the time was inconsequential, the opportunity is what was important. Now, be honest, how many times have you watched it? Well, you know, the good thing is that there is a feed on Facebook where you can watch the full fight. So every time I scroll past it, I watch it, I watch it over and over and over again. Every time I I watch it, I'm not going to lie, it brings a big smile to my face. And I'm able to, I'm able to relive the moment. I'm able to see when my wife and kids were able to join me in the Oxagon and we all embraced.

It was an amazing time and as I said on the night outside of, you know, my wife and my children being born, you know, the greatest night of my life. It was a night that, you know, perhaps even though I was always confident I could do it that perhaps I would never achieve, maybe I would never be given the opportunity.

I was always confident in winning the fight but I was never confident in getting the title shot. Yeah. So, you know, it was something that maybe I was aware that I was never going to happen, but as soon as I got the shot, I was very confident. Was there ever a point where you had to come to terms with that idea, where you had to come to

terms with the idea that, yes, you would be a pioneer, you'd be remembered as a pioneer for the UK. Yes, you had a great career, you made money, all that stuff, but for whatever reason you'd be known as the greatest fighter to never even fight for the belt. Do you remember ever coming to terms with that, or did that never, because once you start to come to terms of that, maybe you're sort of conceding defeat. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I do know what you mean. I certainly did have that mindset at times, you know, but I never conceded defeat. I was comfortable with the fact that I was making a great career and I was successful in my chosen field, you know, and that brought some satisfaction. And, of course, the monetary rewards are great. So, again, I was satisfied with that type of thing. But deep inside me, I always wanted to be the world champion. I talked about it one time with Dominic Cruz and Daniel Kormier, we're on U.S. tonight and I was working with them and they both had a belt and I have a side and that

bloody that burnt my inside it really did it it made me sick with envy that they were sat there with belts and I didn't have one so the hunger was always there but also at the same time I'm a really I know that over the years I lost from number one contend the matchups albeit through you know certain circumstances so yeah I knew my chances of getting the title shot was slim but but I knew if I was to get one I would make the most of it have you seen that clip of your coach Jason Perillo the way he celebrated? I have seen the clip that you're talking about and it's absolutely fantastic. You know what?

I'm so happy for Jason as well because Jason doing that. You could see that that was him saying to himself and saying to the world. See? I knew he could punch. I trained my guy to punch correctly. You know, and it was rightly deserved. Jason's worked very, very hard with me on the physical aspects of boxing, but more importantly, as I've spoken about time and time again, the mental side of the fight game.

and there you go. The proof was in the pudding and we got the knockout. Perhaps the greatest celebrity, I should say, pose in the history. I mean, just him standing there, crossing his arms and saying, now what? Now what do you have to say about me and my man?

It was just, oh my God, I could watch that over and over again. It was a beautiful thing. So for yourself, I mean, you talked a great game going into it. That interview that you gave us around, you know, 10 or so days before the fight, I mean, you could show that to people

who have nothing to do with MMA, just about believing in yourself and motivational speak. I mean, it was just phenomenal the stuff that you were saying. But now, be honest with us, deep down inside, where you kind of thinking to yourself,

this is all a little mad. Like, what the heck did I get myself into here? Luke's been preparing for a fight, tip-top shape, he's in his prime. Did you, what you were saying, did you truly believe that all? Or was that a bit of a front to maybe try to get in his head?

No, honestly, I truly believed it. As I said, I stepped off the plane, and went straight to the gym, and I couldn't believe the condition that my body was still in. And then as I said, prior to the weight started falling off. I actually had the easiest wake cut of my career. I've had nearly 40 professional MMA-fights fight.

That was by far my easiest weight cut. Everything just went perfect. You know, I mean, I've talked about it, destiny and things like that. But certain things happened. And my conditioning was perfect. The weight fell off me. I had the easiest weight cut ever. I had no injuries going into the fight.

I felt strong. I felt explosive. and I believed in myself. Now, I know we talked about it, you know, the sparring match that I had with Luke, but as I said, I knew Luke, and I'd sparred with him, and I'd fought him, so I knew this opponent,

I knew I wasn't going into uncharted waters, and I knew I could compete with him, so I truly believed everything I said, that said, on the night, and this always happens regardless of the fight, the doubt always starts to creep in on the night of the fight, and that's what separates the men from the boys, and that's what makes this sport such a mental,

trip. If you let those inner demons and that doubts creep in and take control of you, that's when you know, that's how you lose fights. Of course, you can have the self-belief and still lose a fight, of course. But those, that doubts and, that doubts inside your,

those demons, they can creep in. And they were starting to creep in a little bit prior to walking out, but that's always the case with each and every single five that I have. Once I steps inside the opposite on, I think if you watch you back, you see, I was very, very calm, I was very happy. Yeah. And

I was great. I was happy to be there, but I wasn't happy to be there just for a payday. I was coming to win this fight. And as the fight started, I could read his movement. Every time he went to throw a shot, he was kind of telegraphed by moving his shoulder first. I knew what was coming. I just thought like I was a step ahead of him, to be honest. Obviously, you have to read your opponent, and I was able to do that very, very well. Have you noticed your life changed at all? Are people coming out of the woodwork, new opportunities? does it feel like something has changed in your life? Are you starting to sense that?

Yeah, if I'm honest. I mean, I haven't changed 100%. Sure. You know, I mean, it's only been a week. How could I possibly change in a week? And ultimately nothing important has changed, but more opportunities are coming my way for sure. You know, I mean, there's certainly movie offers coming my way.

There's more sponsorship coming my way. There's people getting in search. You know, it's opening doors already. It's only been a week. But I guess that's, you know, that's the landscape that comes to be being a world champion, I guess. So this is the spoils of my victory. Do you regret at all any of the post-fight stuff, you know, him saying that you can shake his hand and the press kind of, do you regret any of that? Or was this just, you know, you're an emotional guy?

Yeah, sure. Let me clarify. Sure. Sure. I said, story. Please. What happened was, I went over to lose, and I said, unlucky, buddy, you know, and a left I always did. We're not lose.

You go and shake your opponent's hand. And I went and shook his hand, and it was heartfelt. And then I was having my moment, and I was walking around the octagon. The octagon is kind of shaped like a circle, but just with square side. And I was having my moment, cheering to the crowd, and I found myself, walking past Luke again. So I wasn't just going to walk past him and ignore him. I walked past him, and I went to reiterate my sense of him and say, listen, you know,

again, unlucky, bud. And he said, I've already shaking your hand really aggressively, give me a dirty look. Excuse me, he said, I've already shaking your hand. And I thought, well, it's exactly. how you're going to be. You're going to be a sore loser. Well, then part of my pressure, but go F yourself.

You know, so then I did. And I said a couple of things, too, because I thought, you know, he was being an asshole. And yeah, I do kind of regret that a little bit, because even still, I wish I had, you know, been the bigger man and just ignored it

and laughed and said, whatever. But I'm an emotional guy, and there was a lot of talk going into that fight. He did discredit me completely. You know, so Sparks flew, and then after he was at the press conference, I walked in, And actually, as I was walking in, he was talking about how he is going to kill me.

He's calling me a maggot. I'm going to destroy this guy. I'm going to absolutely kill Michael Biskke. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. Buddy, buddy, buddy. You just got knocked out two minutes ago, just to be like. And then we did get into it back and forth.

But as you see, I was very jovial for a lot of the time, of course. It's easy for me to be jovial because, you know, I had won. I had got revenge. I had put him in his place. I had said everything I said that was going to come true. I had made that happen. But I do regret the negative connotations that surround with that. Yeah.

You know, when you were just a top 10 middleweight, everyone and their mother was calling you out. You were always, I mean, you were the guy. Everyone calls you out, no matter who. And no different now, of course, when you're champion. So he wants the rematch. Chris Wyman and you have had a back and forth. You know, Dan Henderson has expressed interest as well. So everyone's calling you out.

Have you, and again, I know it's fresh. And as champion, you can't really pick which way you're going to go. But are you kind of leaning in one direction? Are you getting a sense that the UFC wants one particular fighter or the other? Where do you think you stand as far as your first title defense is concerned? Well, you know, I mean, of course, you know, I'm not a spring chicken. I'm 37, so it's not like I've got 10 years ahead of me. There's a certain fight that I want.

There's certain people I would like to get revenge on. And there's certainly viable contenders. So there's many different ways you can go and many ways you can look at it. know Chris Wyman has been bitching on all week. He's getting on like a 12-year-olds on Instagram and stuff. He's talking about me and directing insults at me and this and that. The fact of the matter is that Chris just lost of the guy that I had knocked out. He wasn't scheduled to fight me.

He was scheduled for a rematch with Luke Rockold. So as far as I'm concerned, Chris Wyman needs to win a fight. So Chris Wyman's out of the equation. Chris Wyman is coming up a loss. Unless you call Chale Sonnen, you don't get title shots coming off a loss. so, you know, Chris needs to go away and win a fight. They'd beat Luke Rock or beat somebody, but he needs to win a fight. Jack Ray, of course, he's a very, very viable contender.

So, you know, he's certainly in the running. A rematch with Luke Rockold again. I think that Luke should rematch Chris, and then whoever wins that probably his number one contender. Luke, yes, me and Luke are one at one. The first fight was two years ago, and this rematch wasn't even close. And knocked him out in three minutes, knocked him out of cold.

So maybe Chris and Luke, they have the match that was scheduled, and the winner of that becomes number one contender. Of course, there has been talk of Dan Henderson, which kind of came out of the blue. Dan Henderson kind of tweeted something out, and then Joe Rogan put a picture on Instagram, and it seems to be getting a lot of traction. Of course, that is a fight that I would love.

It's not a fight that's been offered or anything like that, but it's a fight that I would take because, you know, everybody knows about UFC 100, and Dan Henderson still has an image of him. floating above my head whilst knocked out as his logo so I would like to put him in his place

but you know there's many offers there's many viable contenders the UFC hasn't come forward to me yet with an opponent as I've said many many times I've never turned down an opponent yet and I certainly don't intend

to start turning people down as champion one thing that I would like to do is defend the belt in the UK okay so I would love to defend the belt in Manchester later in the year year. And then also, I believe there's some other people floating around there as well, some potential superfired that maybe you know more about than me, Ariel. Well, actually, it's funny that you mentioned that because I was perusing Facebook

just a couple of days ago, and I stumbled upon this very lengthy Facebook post by the great BJJ coach and trainer, John Danaher, who has trained the likes of George St. Pierre. And if you haven't seen it, both you, Michael, and anyone else, it's a very well-written piece, and it's really an ode to you and what you accomplished. But it got me to thinking, he dropped a few things there. And one thing that came to mind was, you know, you now have 19 wins in the UFC. George St. Pierre has 19 wins in the UFC. Your win over Luke Rockhold tied George St. Pierre for the most wins ever inside the Octagon.

And he's talked about, you know, big fights. He's hinted at a return. He's wanted a big fight in his return. I start to think, you know, and he's sort of hinted at maybe 185. George St. Pierre versus Michael Bisping, to me, is maybe one of the biggest fights, considering the fact that they could sell it as not only for the middleweight championship, not only George's return, but for the title of most wins ever inside the Octagon, that sounds pretty damn amazing.

And not taking anything away from those other guys that we talked about, Yol Romero and Jacre and Chris Wyman, they all have their own argument. But what about Michael Bisping versus George St. Pierre? Has that come across your radar at all? It kind of had actually now you mentioned it. And I mean, just the words that you said there, I mean, those words really get exciting, you know. As you say,

finding George St. Pierre, the great George St. Pierre. And, of course, for the title of who has the most win in the UFC history, I mean, that alone is a fantastic tagline and great promotion.

So, and of course, the numbers will be fantastic with George St. Pierre. He's a massive, proven draw. And at the end of the day, we're all trying to generate

as much money as possible. I do want to defend the belt and I want to make as much money as I can in the process. So I would certainly be open to, you know, sending George's, St. Pierre back to a movie set because

that would be a fact that I would definitely win if George St. Pierre is listening, but anytime you fancy it, just just be a manned sign on the dotted line and your return will be short-lived. But whether it's George St. Pierre, Dan Henderson, Jacarer-Souza, whoever

it is, please line them up and I will knock them down. Wow. And just for the record, has anyone from the UFC even brought this to your attention, this potential fight against George St. Pierre? No, not as yet. I had heard a couple of little rumors and whispers.

I got a couple of text messages from people saying, hey, I'm hearing a rumor that GSP wants to find you. And to be honest, you know, I've got nothing but the greatest respect to George. George is, I always said this years ago in many of the interviews that I did, George is the consummate professional. Any young fighter looking to model themselves as on a fighter should model themselves in George St. Pierre, the way he handles himself, the way he trains, the way he carries themselves in interviews.

So, yeah, George is a consummate professional, a legend of the sport, a massive pay-per-view draw, and he retired a champion. And if he wanted to come back and find me, then that would be an honor, and it's certainly something I would not turn down. Wow. Well, wouldn't that be something? So obviously, there are a lot of options for you. For now, I'm assuming you're just going to enjoy life as champion, you're going to take

a holiday. How are you celebrating this with your family? Because I have to say, Michael, and I want to ask you about this, one thing that really stood out to me, there was a picture that I believe you posted on your Instagram. It was you. Your son was there. Your wife was there. I believe your daughter was there as well, not your youngest son, who by the way, didn't even, did you give him Crow? Did you tell him, how could you know, did you stuff it in his face? Did you show him the belt? I know he just asked you 10 questions there, but I want to ask you about Lucas because he didn't believe in you. What about

that? Yeah, Lucas is a little monkey. He never believed in me, but for all those listening and for a certain journalist by the name of Ben Folks who like to carry himself as an intelligent individual but he obviously isn't. He's actually a moron, I would say, because he wrote a lengthy piece and I noticed several tweets from him about how it must feel for me

that my son doesn't believe in me. The guy is an utter moron because it was a joke and I asked Lucas that on purpose because that's what he always does. It's called a little bit of banter perhaps in Benfold's got a sense of humor, he might be able to understand that.

You know, Lucas was very proud. He thinks the belt is awesome, and then after that, he's unbothered. He's more interested in Minecraft than Mario Kart, to be quite frank. Okay. Because he's six years old, Ben Fold. He's six years old. What about just being there with your family and your son,

who, it's clear, idolizes you. It was great to see him at the Wayans and everything. Your oldest son. You took a picture with them outside the arena, you're holding the belt. And I love that you're just wearing your tank top. Like you're just some regular California guy. You're not there with the suit.

You couldn't have a worry in the world now. You're on top of the world. You just showed up like you were going to the beach. And there you are after this entire journey outside the arena, this historic arena, with your family holding the belt. I mean, what was that? Do you even remember or is it all a fog because of what was happening? I do. I remember it very clearly.

You know, after the fight, we had the press conference and then, You know, my wife was there with my children, as you said. And that's what really, that's why I do this. You know, just like you, Ariel, you do what you do for your family, and everybody working out there, they're trying to look after the family. And that's why I do this. So it was important that they were there. Lucas wasn't there because he's a little bit too young, and it's a long time for him.

So, you know, he was with a baby sister. But the whole family being there, and then afterwards, as you say, I'm still just a normal guy. I jumped in the car, and I drove myself home with my wife and the kids in the car. Okay, we had the belt. In fact, the bell was on my daughter's lap. But other than that, it was just any older Saturday night. So we drove home and, you know, it was amazing.

My son Calum is so proud of me. I know he is. Everybody was proud. And it was an amazing moment. I had Fred flying from Canada, from Australia, from England. You know, people flew from all over the world to support me. And I want to thank all those people. Everybody to support me every step of the way.

Of course. Thank you to all those guys. Yeah, he's just incredible. It really is, you know. It puts a smile on my face every time I think of it. It puts a smile on my face to know that I proved a lot of people wrong. But more importantly, just, just, you know, just the, it's not about me. It's about what I'm trying to provide from my family.

And this obviously helps generate a little bit more revenue. Yeah. I retire and just solidifies my career, you know. And now that you experienced it, and I know this could be a tough question to answer, but is it fair to say that it all would have felt, somewhat incomplete if you never got this moment. Great run and all. But now that you actually felt what it feels like to win the title, especially in a fashion like that, do you think that it would have hit you maybe when you're 40, 50? Like, I was missing something. I didn't get what

I was trying to get. You know what I mean? 100%. You know, I've been champion of many different organizations in the past. Pretty much every organization I competed for, I was a champion, cage age, cage warriors. I was a British kid. boxing champion. I've won so many tournaments and belts and this and that. But the only one that matters is the UFC belt. That's why I don't mention that. You know, you see the fighters, they talk about being

champion of this and that. It doesn't matter. We're in the UFC, and if you haven't got the UFC belt, then that it matters. And you're right, maybe that. Up until the fight or being announced a title shot, it hadn't occurred to me, but you're right, when I would have retired, I would have felt that my career was

incomplete, that I hadn't achieved everything I set out for. Now, of course, Again, I set out in this career to provide for my family financially, so I achieve that. But on top of that, you have your personal goals, your wants and your ambitions. And it was to be the world champion. And now that I've achieved that, I sit here and I realize how much it means to me, it really doesn't. I plan on holding onto that belt for as long as I can. I plan on defending it as many times as possible.

And I want to retire as champion. And as I said, I won't turn down any fights. But the fact that I have the belt here, it's hard to. put into words. It really is, but it means so much to me. Yeah, a beautiful picture that you also tweeted of that belt atop your television. I love how subtle you are with it kind of posing and showing. It's amazing. It's really... I'm glad you picked up on that aerial because what happened was that, I tweeted a picture of, oh, I love watching this. People's Blinders. But above the TV was the belt. Of course. And all the comments on Instagram were saying, oh, yeah, I look

people like, no, I'm referring to the belt. Oh, God. I didn't want to be. That was trying to be subtle. No, I appreciate the subtlety. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Final thing, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting to ask you about this, but I was told that you wanted to address it, and I want to give you that opportunity what happened yesterday in Orlando. Was there something that you wanted to say about this, Michael? Again, I wasn't expecting to, but I'd love to give you the platform if you were willing. Well, well, I mean, I'm just, I'm just lost the words. Things like this continue to happen over and over again, and of course, I'm deeply sadden that I turned the news on yesterday when I got out of bed,

and I just can't believe that yet again, you know, we have a mass murder on our hands of people dying, innocent lives lost, and my heart, I'm sorry, my thoughts, and sympathy go out, obviously, the victims and the victims' families, and it just brings a tear to my eye and makes me so sad. And it's not, you know, Muslims, it's the fact that there's crazy people out there, you know? I mean, I know people are talking about Islamic,

fundamentalists and this and that. That isn't the problem. The problem is that there's crazy people out there. There's schizophrenics. There's people that have bad days. You know, it's not my place to speak about gun access because I'm not an American citizen, but the fact that people can go out there,

a fire machine gun, when they're unstable, and slaughter, innocent people like this, something needs to change. And again, you know, who am I to talk about this? I'm just a fighter in the UFC. So I've got no place to be getting on my saltbox and lecturing people, but again, my heart and sympathy goes out to all the families and the victims, and I'm truly sadden by this.

And it breaks my heart and, you know, me talking about it on here doesn't do anything, but something needs to change in this world. It really does. Good man, Michael. Again, congratulations to both you and your family. Very happy for you. Enjoy the belt. Enjoy life as champion. Much deserved.

It's been a long time. My friend. I intend to my friend. Yes, it's been a long time coming, but you certainly earned it, my man. you did it the hard way, and I guess that's fitting, considering where you are from and the upbringing that you had. So again, congratulations. And I'm looking forward to that first title defense, regardless of who's it's against or where it is, that's going to be a fun scene. So thank you very much, Michael.

I really appreciate you coming on. I know you're probably tired of talking about it now, but it means a lot that you'd come on on the show today. Cheers. Ariel, always time for you. You've always supported my career. So thank you so much. Thanks for everybody, my management, all my sponsors, my protein, Ruka, my coaches, the UK, UFSIs, the U.S.C. fans around the world. Thank you. Ariel, over and out.

Take care, Michael. There he is. The new UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, beautiful stuff from him, and it's going to be very interesting to see who they book him against. Clearly, he wants that fight against Stan Henderson. There is Chris Wyden out there. There is Yuel Romero. There is Jacques. Saucca. There's a lot of options. But go to that Facebook page and read that post from John Danaher. It's very interesting. and tell me if you walk away with the same thoughts. 19 versus 19

for the title of not only middleweight champion but also most wins inside the octagon. That's some kind of title. And not really something that was on my radar until this was brought to my attention. So we'll see. Okay, a bit of a small break before we go to our next guest, Fyodor O'Melienenko.

So let me during this time provide a rather quick post script, because I feel like we've all kind of moved on with our lives, but I do feel like I owe you a bit of a background to last week and, of course, the aftermath. Of course, last week was by far the most, I mean, as far as professionally, the most surreal time of my career. There's no doubt about that. You know, even walking to the show today and going through the steps again, the most recent time that I did that was last week and doing all the interviews and just going through the emotions, I was reminded of the fog that I was in. I was really in a fog. I mean, I've never quite felt like that before. You know, Sunday, Sunday, I don't even remember Sunday. I really don't.

And again, my initial intention was to just do this show and hope for the best. Never in a million years did I expect all these journalists to speak on my behalf, these media personalities. I mean, never in a million years did I expect the outpouring of support on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and who knows where else? I could have never imagined any of that. I didn't think that I would go on all these shows. I just didn't know how it would all unfold. And it all just kind of happened itself. Monday morning, I did a bunch of interviews before the show, did the show on Monday afternoon during this time, and I had nothing planned. I had a brief timeline. I really just wanted to live up to, you know, this Howard CoSell motto that I've been talking about for a while, telling it like it is,

and I felt so good afterwards that I just told my entire story. It really felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The biggest weight that was then put on my shoulders afterwards was just trying to reply to all the emails. I'm one of those guys. I have OCD and I like when there's zero emails in my account. I had over 400. And that was, that was a weight on my shoulders. I wanted to personally reply to everyone. And I hope I did because I took the time over the next few days to actually personally reply to everyone. Even if it was quick, I wanted to acknowledge the support. And on Twitter, it was impossible, but on Facebook, I tried to go through all the messages and acknowledge and it was mind-blowing. So when I left, I did a couple more interviews, and then I went home.

And I started to text people back. That was the other thing. I like to have zero text. And so it was tough to keep up with that. I remember walking home Monday afternoon, and now it's, you know, six. It was a little earlier. It was like five or so, five-thirty, maybe six. And I remember walking and thinking to myself like, okay, now, you know, great. For all these shows, I was the news of the day. this is my new reality. Now I have to come to terms with the fact that I'm the band reporter. And that's when it really started to sink in. You know, the show was over.

I told my story, what the heck is going to happen now? And I really didn't have great perspective of what was going on, you know, around me from all the fans and the flight past stuff. I couldn't, I wasn't sitting on my phone watching this because it all kind of hurt. So I was just, I remember just walking. home and thinking like, okay, this is my new reality. And I have to come to terms with it. And, you know, this is, this is what my family has to deal with. Because a lot of people were saying to me, like, why are you so emotional? Why are you, to me, this wasn't, I wasn't

talking on behalf of myself. This is, this is my family. These are my kids, you know, like, if you can't cover the UFC, if you're not on good terms of the UFC, then it's a problem. You know, whether we want to admit it or not, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, that's a problem. Of course, you don't need to be buddy, buddy with them. But that's, something that you have to deal with. And that's a new reality. And so that's the way I was taking it. I was speaking really on behalf of my family there. So I went home and it all kind of started to sink in, but I still had a few more things to do. A couple more interviews, one of which was being on Sports Center with Scott Van Pelt, who I highly admire. And never in a million years that I ever

think that my sports center debut would be talking about myself. So at around 915 on Monday, and at that point, I mean, you can see later on, it feels like my eyes are glassy. Like, I can't even really comprehend what's going on. But at around 915, Monday night, I did an interview with Scott Van Pelt about the whole situation. And, you know, of course, while I was doing my show, Dana White spoke to TMZ and said the only way that I would be allowed to come back to, to, to, to, to, UFC event or welcome at UFC 200 was if I bought a ticket. And so he kind of, you know, reiterated his stance and doubled down. Shortly after the interview with Scott Van Pelt, I got a call saying, you know, there's, there's been some communication with the UFC and we're going to sit down and talk.

I was like, wow, okay. You know, because I know historically the UFC doesn't relent when it comes to these things or reverse course that they had reached out to my bosses at SB Nation. And there's going to be a conference call, if you will. Shortly thereafter, I was told that they had decided that the ban had been lifted. 48 hours later. Could not believe it. I was in a state of shock. I could not believe what had just transpired.

And they put out a statement shortly thereafter, and a lot of people have asked me about this. You know, didn't say my name, took a little shot at me. Yeah, sure. I mean, as a guy who, again, feels like, A, he did. did nothing wrong, and B, I would do it again. And as a guy who's, you know, proud, yeah, that annoys you, but what does it all mean? It's just words. I don't care. You want that, you want that to be, you know, your victory over me? All good. To me, this was for everyone.

You know, this was for every single person in the sport, in the community. I was back. And not only was I back, my team was back, Casey was back, Esther was back. We were all, back. And that was an incredibly good feeling. Around this time, literally within minutes, we get the news of Kimbo Slices passing. And now, I mean, it's like the emotions are just Kimbo Slices, a big part of my, you know, when I was just starting with M.A. Rated, that's when he was starting. The first event that I ever, the first big event that I was credentialed for for MMA Rated.com was his fight against James Thompson in Newark. And that's when I started doing the video interviews and everything. I remember speaking to him for the

first time in Florida. I mean, this guy is an icon. And it's sort of the big, the first big scoop that I ever had was that Shamrock was out of his fight. And I tweeted a picture that he, he sent me, we were texting and he, you know, he was saying my man, Ariel, and he was showing me his necklace. So, I mean, that that was, that was devastating. So I ended up having to re-tape the interview with Sports Center, this time live, because the band had been lifted and they wanted to talk about Kimbo. So I ended up doing it twice. And at that point, you can tell that, you know, I'm just kind of out of it. I mean, now having to process the passing of Kimbo Slice who was supposed to fight in July, who had just fought, and the whole band thing being lifted was,

it was, it was all very surreal. And I couldn't believe when I went to bed that night that, you know, this kind of thing was over. Now, I'm not naive. I'm hopeful that, you know, we can all just move on and work together professionally and all that stuff. But, you know, we'll see what happens in July. But then it started to get a little more normal Tuesday, Wednesday. I promised a few people. I didn't really want to do any more interviews. You know, I wasn't there to rub it in anyone's face. You know, I just wanted to get back to normal. But I promised I didn't want to back out. And then come Thursday, Friday, it felt like when I woke up, okay, life is starting to get back to normal. I had written to everyone. And I'd still, you know, still up until this point, not talk to anyone in an

official capacity from the UFC or any of the top executives. And I don't think that's, you know, necessarily necessary at this point. I'm sure I'd be open to it. I would have no problem with that whatsoever because, again, I'm not here to have any issues with anyone. I'm not here to have any, any, you know, any beefs or I certainly don't want any, you know, misunderstandings in the future. But I do believe that I didn't. nothing wrong and I really am amazed at how people reacted to it all. So, you know, that's, that's the general story, you know, of the postscript. I just wanted to tell you guys what happened after the fact. I mean, a lot of great things were done. A lot of great articles. I highly recommend

John Pollack's MMA report. He put together this amazing audio documentary of those four days. I mean, just incredible of all the stuff that happened. He did a great job producing that. So if you want to relive it for whatever reason, everything that happened, the good and the very bad, I suggest checking that out. You know, I don't really feel like I need to address the Joe Rogan conspiracy theory, because that's all it is. I tweeted that it was 1,000% inaccurate. No one told me not to report anything. No one told me that if I did report something, people would lose their jobs. You know, it's obvious where that is coming from. And I wish that, you know, given his platform, his reach that, you know, some people wrote back to me. He's like, well, Joe said he didn't speak to you.

Well, then that's, that's irresponsible. You know, you're talking about something now that you don't know and you're getting one side of the story. And it's a very sensitive thing and it involves my career. And when, you know, trust and respect and confidence are, you know, very important things, then it's damaging when you come out with things like that. So, you know, no one ever gave me that warning and I didn't leak anything and I certainly don't have any moles. I have not planted anything or anyone in the company to find out this information. I hadn't gotten this information unethically or illegally. I mean, all that stuff, I can assure you, you can throw it all out the window. It's a lie. And I know other people are trying to hold the UFC's water by throwing this out

there and it's ridiculous. And quite frankly, you're just making yourself look worse when you're putting this out there. So stop it. Move on. It's over. Bygones be bygones. Cooler heads prevail. And let's all just be, you know, let's all just be thankful that this is over and we can move on and do our jobs respectfully and respectively. Funny thing yesterday, just to round out my crazy seven days, this will make you laugh. I'm at my brother's, I'm at my brother's house. and my son is in the water, and I'm trying to help him up from the pool. I'm trying to help him because there's these floaty things on top of him. And I reach down to get him out of the pool, and there was a loose tile, and I completely fell into the pool. All my clothes, my shoes, my phone,

my wallet, everything. Fully clothed in the pool, headfirst, phone broken. What a mess. And so I had to go a new phone and deal with all of that. So it was a nice little way to, uh, to end the seven days for me personally. But, you know, again, as we've been talking, all that stuff's irrelevant. Just happy that all is well and that we can move on. And one more time, I'll say it because I feel like I personally have to say to each and every one of you, whether you're a celebrity or just a fan, someone that wrote to me, you know, someone that thought it. I feel like I have to hug you all and thank you all for what you did because I truly believe that you saved me. And I was just speaking from the heart and trying to tell you what was really going on. And I didn't ask for any call to action. But I really want to thank

you all for what you did because I will never forget it and I'll work my entire career to, you know, to repay you in some way. If you ever see me, I mean, I want to hug you all. And I'm kind of a germaphobe. I still want to hug you. I want to kiss you all. And that's the truth. So that's basically the the quick rundown of what happened afterwards, and now hopefully we can move on and learn from this, not forget it, but move on and I'll enjoy our lives and not have to deal with this again.

Okay, one way in which I can repay you all is by getting great guests and big-name guests on this very show. And wow, how about this? Look at this transition. Right now, we are being joined via the magic of Skype by the one and only, the legendary. Look at that. Look at that. That gives me goosebumps right there.

Fyodor Emilianenko is joining us right now via the magic of Skype. What an honor this is, and he's also being joined by the EFN CEO Camille Gajiev. And I hope that I'm pronouncing your last name correctly, my friend. Thank you very much to both of you for coming on. This is a huge honor. Spasiba. You're welcome. I'm not only one of the only one of the only one,

Fyodor Imalya, and Mr. Gajiv, you've been if you're not correctly, please. We also need to greet you. We're glad to greet you as well. Great. Okay. Fyodor, let me start with you, because I haven't talked to you in quite some time.

And I know we're kind of... Let's let me start with you, because I've with you've never been talking. And I know we're kind of taking a few steps back here, but can you explain? to the public why you decided to resume your MMA career. When you walked away, we thought it was over. Why did you ultimately say that you wanted to keep fighting?

Fodor, we did I see a few steps back, but you could not be in the short public to explain, why you've decided to redone their career in MMA? Because the last time we talked about we, you were going to end up to end up. I've been missing you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, I'm a little bit of trauma, I've got to get and I've got to be able to be able to be able to even. Well, seriously speaking, I needed some time to recuperate, to deal with some of my injuries, to kind of basically get to the right place. But now that I'm whole again, I realize that I have it in me to fight some more. So when you walked away after the Pedro Hizzo fight, did you always know that you were going to come back? So when you went from that boy, you, which we said, you know, you with you said, you know what we were going to come back?

No, I didn't know. But, let's, say, in the soul, in the soul, it still, I'd still want to, not, to return. To go to return, but there was a chance, for the return. Now, and now, and now, now I'm going to be in the way of the God, I'm going to be doing to be to be sure me.

Well, it's not like I had it figured out back then, but deep inside, I felt that I still have firepower left. And, you know, it took some time, but basically I realized that I still have it in me. And thank God that I recuperated, and I'm back. I'm here with Camille. I'm here with my crew. And I'm back in the octagon.

And so you fight in Risen, you beat Jai Deep Singh. After that fight in Japan, did you say to yourself, okay, the old Fyodor is back, I feel good, I'm going to fight for many years. Did you feel like your old self? After the war in Japan, where you had had a victory, you have a feeling that I, that I'm, that I'm going to be able to to fight and I'm the third, who we all know.

Yeah, there's this feeling. Yeah, I've already stopped. I've got to be, thank you. But after the next year's will be put a point, I mean. Completely, not, but he'll have been, or not, Fodor, or not

he won't have, so, he'll be able to provide, I'm, probably, about the bestiastic O'Brien. Well, you know, yes, I did get that feeling, and I feel like

I'm back, but a fighter is measured by the last fight, so I'm looking forward to illustrate that I am indeed back in my usual form. Okay, so now, Camille, how do you enter this story? Because Fyodor has said that he's wanted to

fight in Russia again. That's where this fight on Friday, EFN 50 against Fabio Maldonado will take place, will take place in St. Petersburg. How did you get him to sign on the dotted line? How did you secure the biggest name in the history of Russian M.A.? Camille, the question I'm going to ask you, how you have been to this story? Because, Fodor, when we

with him back, he said he said, he wants to be in Russia, he wants to fight for Russia, and, so, and, so, now, now

you've got EFN 50, it's one of the most popular one of the most popular poedinco,

which will come over the future. Tell me, how you did it did allows? How you

did you have done Fodor to sign under this contract and

what your expectations and your and the I'm

thank so that I'm actually this a year

and we would be very if it will be

the world Well, first of all, thank you. And yes, this is an anniversary tournament. And we would be very, very happy if the MMA international community remembers this one. What about our partnership, you know, as I think, and I hope that Fodor with me, our partnership is a little bit more than the ramk of the tournament,

which we organize, and Fodor in him, as a As far as us and further I just wanted to point out and I hope that further supports me on this one that our cooperation

and our partnership spreads beyond this particular bout which we organize and further participates in we're very very shoddits of the perspective of the industry and MMA

as in the world, and in Russia. We have a very similar outlook as far as where MMA worldwide and specifically in Russia is going. And our partner, the owner, the company, Zeyuddin Mogamadha,

he has put before us a job to be a better promoter's company in the world. And our partner and the owner of our company, Zyudin Magamado,

puts in front of us the task, to be the best promoter of M.MA in the world. And, so, we think that with Fodor, we're, we can, we can, to get this success and to resolve this task. And as being partners with Fodor, we feel that we have a fighting chance to actually get that task accomplished.

We also have a big project in Russia, called the Soyuz MMA. We also have a big project in Russia called the Union of MMA. We also have also a working in the Union of MMA, and also we have a common look at the establishment of boycelsk clubs and the coming in Russia of new stars, new, new, young stars.

So we have a very similar outlook with the Union of MMA, we're partners and we're working hard to establish more fighting clubs in Russia and to bring up more stars that can then participate on the MMA scene internationally. So, Camille, is this a one-fight deal that you've signed with Federer or is it a multi-fight deal? Camille, so, you with Sodor, you with Sodoran putissal for one peatine, or you were you We would have been for We've got to be able to be a

one point, but I hope Fodor will say to me, that 18th of June, we, we're once after the end up to end up a stop of the At the moment, we have a one fight deal, but

I'm hoping Fodor will agree with me that after this fight is over on June 18th will be back at the negotiations table. Fodor, considering your history, with the UFC, how do you feel about the fact that this fight is airing on UFC Fight Pass?

Fodor, what's your story with UFC, what your feelings about the war of the game will be able to play face? I'm very glad that American public will see this fight. We've been very long time We've been We've been We've been We've been together with Camille

Our organizations We've been We've been together Fight Nights and the Soysmama Russia We've been Also I wanted to point out That it's been a long-term

relationship with Camille So far And it's not just us Personally on the personal level But it's also our organizations My MMA union and his fight nights. And we've been moving together forward.

I'm gladi, that he was going to join me to participate in this tournament. In him will be the strongest Russian boys who were who were in fight nights and in Palatore and in Risen. And the best guys, they'll see them. We're seeing the whole world.

And I'm actually grateful that, invited me because this the this the fn basically unites the best fighters the best Russian fighters

that are out there that also you know were on fight night that also were with bellator and basically were our non quantities in the various international competitions Federer Fabio Maldonado is a step up in competition from Jai Dip Singh the word is that you chose Fabio

why him why did you feel like this was the appropriate second fight in your return. Fodor, of course, Maldonado is a step in the first place from your previous opponent. And,

you've been out of course, and there's lulles, that you've specially have made for Maldonado. Let's say, I'm with you. I'm with you're saying, that Maldonado

is a different-sorning, more a trans-sor-sor-o-olde than Sindranive. I agree that Maldonada is a step up and he is a much more well-versed fighter. He's a more well-versed fighter. He's a more much more than me. He's a good, he's a good technique. But, of all Brazilians, he's a brazilcian Jiu-Jitsu.

He's younger than me. He has a very good strike technique. And as all Brazilian fighters, he obviously is an expert in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has a good experience in the UFC, and he's a good record in UFC. He has a pretty good record in UFC, and he's a pretty experienced fighter. Maxim, I want to two words, I want to add on to this. Yeah, sure. The deal is that I was doing the poise of opponent for Fodor.

Actually, the job of fighting the... fighting the opponent for Fodor was on me. Okay. I would, I would, say, why Maldonado? Because not only Maldonado was in the list of those who we wanted to see in Kletka,

and I'd like to elaborate, why is it Maldonada and not somebody else. Maldonada, obviously, was one name on the list of people that we would love to see as opponents for Fodor. There was many names and many names they had a lot of very heavy and it had many well-known quantities, many famous fighters. But all, all of them said, that would be to fight with Fodor. Maldonado, the only one who said, I will be to fight with Fodor.

But all of them said, we would like to fight with Fyodor, we would consider to fight with Fyodor, and Maldonado was the only one who actually said, I will fight further. And today he's here in San Petersburg, he's still so he's not going to be so much And I'm happy to say that he

Fabio just arrived to St. Petersburg So he's here with us So the fight is on And it's going to happen no matter what Camille, how big of a deal is this in Russia?

I know in the past when Fodor has fought there Vladimir is there Celebrities are there, big crowds, how many people are you expecting when he fights on June 17th? Camille, tell you,

how much a big about this war in Russia? Because I know that in the past few years Fyodor

was present President of Vladimir Putin, was with the world of European and were very much

important attention. Let's tell you, what, what's the scale of this boy and how many

you're you're going to I think that today the most that any event can, in first of the first of the point of the interest of

television audience? I think the right yardstick to measure the popularity of an event is the projected size of the TV audience. I'm going to say that

this boy will be watching, all our country, all Russia. We can say that all of Russia, all 13 times zones, will be watching. this fight?

We were also we've been translated on the UFC Fight Pass. American We've been

natural that UFC Fight Pass will be broadcasting this and also also also other other countries

who are in the air in the US is not the only country that basically

wanted to broadcast this we have several other countries that lined up If we're going to about

about the arena then it will be about 9,000 viewers if we're talking

about how many actual physical viewers will have in the arena we're talking about 9,000 guests okay

and it will it would it would fans, it will be celebrities, it will be the world-successes of the world's very much Vladimir Putin, nobody

can't know until the last moment. So we're expecting obviously M.MA fans from around the world. We're expecting prominent Russian sports figures, we're expecting celebrities and VIPs. Whether or not President Putin is coming, we won't know, obviously, until the last minute.

Okay. Fyodor, when you announced your intention to come back to MMA earlier this year, how close were you to signing with the UFC? Fodor, when you were you to sign in the UFSI? A little bit more than year, how much closer to contract with UFC? I'll say that now, I'm, rather closer. I would answer it like this. Right now, I'm much closer.

compared to when I just came back. Sorry, say that again, right now what? He's much closer compared to when he just came back to MMA. You're closer to signing with the UFC now than before? So, if you're closer to closer to the contract with UFC

than were earlier. Yes. Wow. Have they made you an offer? They've done your We have a proposal. Yeah, but, let's just new ones that I wanted to

be to help. Well, yes, we did receive an offer, but there are some finer points that we wanted to discuss. Can you let us know what those points are? You can't say what these nuances are? Well, I don't know

I have no right to disclose. Unfortunately, I can't disclose because this is confidential. And with all due respect to Camille and his great promotion, is it possible that your next fight will be in the UFC? With all of all of allureen, Camille to you and KFN, if it's a reality, Fodor, that your next boy will be for UFC? Well, we'll... 18th June, I'm open for all organizations. Let me put it like this.

On June 18th, I am open for negotiations with all possible organizations. Oh, my. Yeah, my command is open for everyone. But, as Camille, there is a priority. But I would point out that I'm sitting here next to Camille. And obviously, my priority is with Camille and EFN. Brock Lesnar is back. This is the fight we've wanted to see forever.

They've talked about you versus him in Cowboy Stadium here in the United States. Does him coming back interest you more to go to the UFC? Is this being discussed at all? Is this on your mind at all? Brock Lesnar, also. And now very actively observescence, or, or, actually boy between you and in Cowboy Stadium. Let's say,

that fact, that he's that fact that it may be a boy which will be any of the

any of the question about about this about this we don't talk about the question no, we haven't

discussed this yet and we never received a concrete proposal on this. He's just staring at me I thought you wanted

to say something else that was it for that. You're just I thought you want to say. Well, we'll just be it.

What was that? Sorry, you've interrupted, please, but again, no, no,

it's not it will be we'll be we're going to say is that for now, we never received a proposal for a match-up like that,

but if somebody were to make that proposal, definitely look at it closely. And again, I apologize for harping on this, but you know how big this is to people. Do you feel like your career will feel incomplete if you don't ever fight in the UFC at least once? Is this something that you want now? And I'm sorry, I continue to, I'm going to,

but you know, how it's important for many of our viewers and listeners. Do you think, you, that your career will be not full, if you, if you, even once again again, you, will be on ticket to UFC? It looks like to a It looks like you're pulling something on me. No, no. No. Not.

Not that, not that's not, I'd like to be a new. I would like to fight for UFC once again. I would like to fight for UFC once again. I'd like, I'd like, I'd, of, of, I'd like, to, of, of, I'd like, to do with a full of the un-o-painmentment So, that's, to be

it's just to be the other side, not only the other side, but I'm going to be able to be able to beckoning the contract. But so I would want to, I always say, but I wanted to point out that, you know, I'm reiterating that I always wanted to fight for UFC and I would fight for UFC. But at this moment we're looking at a deal, and that deal has to satisfy,

both parties, them and my organization. And until we have friction and until we are not, you know, 100% in terms of seen eye to I, you know, we are all basically in limbo. And Camille, feel free to weigh in on this as well. For a long time, one of the stumbling blocks seemed to have been, Fyodor, that you were associated with M1 Global and they wanted to co-promote. You don't seem to be associated with them anymore. So is that no longer an issue?

And who is managing you if it's not M1 Global and Vadim Finklstein? Is it, Camille, is it someone else? Camille, and please, pro-commentiore, if you want, Fodor, but, you know, one of the big problems in the question with your organization was that you managed M1 Global, and they always wanted to do something commarketing. And say, please, a, who you now now now are you now with you now, are you now with you, Fadm, or are you with now with you now,

Who are you now doing? I'm in a big commentary I'll let me allow a brief comment. We're not with manager Fyodor Emylienkine

no problem. We don't have any issues with managing Fodor Yemilienko. No, no, we with Ladim not

in the same of certain circumstances. Well, we don't have, we're not working with Vadim anymore because of a number of circumstances. Okay. I'm absolutely open to all in any suggestions. Wow. Well, I'm, I'm absolutely open to all in any suggestions.

Wow. Well, I, I need to... ...sov, I have to... Of course, I have to get this around this by my family, so I agree on all this. This is very exciting. It's very interesting. Thank you. Is it fair to say that we are closer than ever right now?

You get by at Maldonado. It works out on Friday for EFN, fight pass, that 2016, it's possible that we'll see you fight in the UFC Octagon. Do you think that's fair to say? Well, say, of all that we have said,

can't do you make this your point of your point of the point if the boy smoldanada will be

and all will be maybe we will be we see you will see you if we'll see you

see you've seen in the octagon UFC? The last five seconds is, can you once again

again? The question was, if if with the boy with Maldonado if it's

if there is the the possibility of the public us now will see in octagonia UFC. Yes, to answer your question in a word, yes, that possibility does exist. Holy moly, I can see the entire MMA world exploding. People are very excited right now, Fodor.

This is very exciting. I wish, wow, this is something that a lot of people have wanted to see for a long time, so this is exciting, potentially exciting news. I'm Freder, it's a great Thank you

thank you very much you're because I already know how I've how it's the reaction

in the world MMA and many people have had to this news

and I'm very I really I'm glad I know, I'm sorry Russia

is also part of MMA and in Russia in the last June

they're in first in first I I wanted to point out

that Russia is also part of MMA world and that's why in Russia everybody is waiting for June 17th. That is right. So first things first,

June 17th, EFN 50, live on UFC Fight Pass. It's the return of Fyodor Emilianenko to his home country of Russia fighting Fabio Maldonado. There are some very familiar names on this card, right? There's Peter Graham is fighting, Vitaly Minnakov. There's also Jack McGahn, who's a young up-and-coming prospect. Kareil Sedilnikov, who is the baby Fedor, as they called him, way back in the day, a lot of big names on this card. So it's a great card on Friday. And what a treat it's going to be to see Fyodor fight again inside any kind of case. Just seeing you back in action is a huge thrill for a lot of people. I don't know if you know this, Fyodor, but a lot of people think very highly of you. You are an inspiration to a lot of people. And I wonder, let's end on this.

I wonder if now you have some perspective as to why that is. Why do you think at this point of your career, why do people get so excited about just the thought of you fighting, just the sight of you gets people excited. Why do you think you have this connection to the world? Do you have any idea? And, of course, all the eyes now in San Francisco and on Boy of Smolandoada. It's not just a peedinac with him and with you, that's not a ticket to be a big number of good-issiveness names, which are either international and

and the Russian stars, and we're very we're very we're know, but Foddra, I wanted

you're still to ask what you think, why you do you make your question,

is that is a issue of you're in the society to be to be

to be able to get a number people people of the people people

people people still there he's thinking you're not hear you

know you know Yeah, of the truth. No, no. No, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what you. Well, to be honest with you, I'm at a loss for words.

I don't know what to answer you. What's the truth? Yeah, it's really really, but, maybe it's still a question more to, kind of, to them, who balling and is stilled, for industries.

Why, they, they, they're, they're not so, they're that's not so much well look I mean this is an honest truth but this is probably a question better directed at the fans themselves

sure you know people who who track the sport and whom we're ever grateful for you know being loyal followers and supporters why are they so excited to see this fight well you probably know this if you don't you mean a lot to a lot

of people people are very excited that you're back and I'm sure they're very excited that you may fight in the UFC for now. They're very excited that you're fighting on UFC Fight Pass this Friday. Keep doing what you're doing, Fyodor. Keep standing up for what you believe in and fighting the good fight, my man. And I look forward to watching you on UFC Fight Pass this Friday against Fabio Maldonado. Camille, thank you so much for the time as well. Thank you for translating and putting this together as well. Thank you. It's great to see you. And I look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Thank you so much for doing this. It means a lot to us. what you do with what you do. Thank you for you for your for you for your for you've you've got to you know you know you

are very much for many people in this country we're very you're very you're going to you'll see how you'll

will get your and will get how it will how it would and how it and we're to talk with me and bring in

studio and you're doing to do what you do you do for the good, thank you, that you're on the side of

and thank you. And thank you, thank you for us to talk to talk to us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for making the time to talk to us. Let me once again. And then God willing will do some more

fighting on U.S. soil. Can't wait for it. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you, Thank you, Camille. Thank you, Fyodor. Can't wait for that this Friday on Fight Pass. Holy moly. Take that all in, my friends. Let's move along. Let's go to our last guest. He's been patient. Can't wait to talk to this man. He knows a thing or two about Fyodor Emilianenko. He is the man himself. Mark Hunt who faces Brock Lesnar. U.S. 200 on July 9th. Mark, are you there? Yeah, hey, how are you? I'm doing great, Mark. I hear you just fine. Thank you so much for the time. Were you listening to that? Yeah, I listened to a little bit of the air. That was Fyodor, you know him

Yeah, he's good to see he's fighting again It's great Do you think he'll fight in the UFC And are you interested in that fight? Well, of course, you know me Of course It'll be great If Fiddor does

It'll be a long time coming anyway Yeah, I know that would mean a lot to you But you have your own You have your own date on July 9th So let's talk about that When did you find out that you were going to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. When did you get this news?

Pretty much the same time as everybody else, you know, eh. Yeah, how are you doing here? How are you doing, mate? I'm doing great, Mark. I appreciate you asking, and I appreciate you. Oh, nice. That's good to hear. It's all good, my man.

You were one of the first to reach out to me, so thank you for that. All good. Yeah, I heard about the same time everyone else's it, so pretty much. So when Brock Lesnar announced it to the world, that's when you found out you were told beforehand? I sort of, when, I actually guessed it was probably Brock a long time ago. I guessed it was him, but, and I was just told to stay ready for 200, but then I realized it was Brock Leibner until someone actually mentioned it.

I was like, oh, wow. But, yeah, I pretty much found out it was confirmed the same time everyone else was. Wow, that's amazing. Are you surprised that it's Brock Leicester? Like, I know they told you to stay ready, but are you surprised that he's coming back? And not just that he's coming back, that he's. he's fighting you. Yeah, I actually thought he was retired.

I thought he was sick or something. But, you know, it doesn't really matter anyway. It's all good. I mean, he's coming back. Yeah, it is what it is. In the past, people have said that he doesn't like to get hit. You know, that's been the knock on him. And now he's fighting you who hits really, really hard.

So I'm wondering if you're surprised that they made this matchup. Of all the matchup that they could have made, they put in the guy who hits maybe the hardest in the entire division, and maybe the entire sport against Brock in his return. Yeah, I don't know, to be honest. I don't know what the deal is. With that, I just... I mean, if you don't like to be hit,

you should be in a wrong sport. I mean, no one likes to get hit, but, you know, I mean, Schacht is a part of what we do for a living right as getting hit. What about the fact that he's coming back, and it's been just a month, like that this is all coming together so quickly? Do you think that it's surprising that, you know, it's surprising that, you know, the training camp is just coming together now.

You've been training. You seem to be in great shape. I see you on Instagram. You're slim. You're in tremendous shape. Do you think that he's budding off a little more than he can chew? I think he's been training a lot longer than people seem to presume he's been training. He probably knew a long time ago about this match.

But, yeah, so, I mean, yeah, training camps. I mean, I've got a good couple weeks to get into it. And then it's five weeks. So my guys are just coming into town now. And looking forward to going to get some work done. So, yeah. You're in Las Vegas now, right? Yes, sir.

I'm in Las Vegas. The nice place you got here. So, I mean, thanks, Dana for that. It's cool. It's really hot here, too. So I couldn't sleep the other night. I just went to sleep and I had to wake up at a couple of hours ago and do my

medical stuff so shock the time zone is kind of hectic but you know I get used to it before I'm over here

early trying to get time time zoned so that's what you're doing you're staying in Vegas until UFC 200

yeah just gonna stay because I the time difference is different you know I was

I got here yesterday and it was hard to sleep I was wide awake at about two o'clock in the morning yeah

So, yeah. Who are you training with there? Because I know you had great success recently at AK in Thailand. So who are you bringing over the coaches from there? No, I'm just training with the local guys, some guys that I normally train with. I'm actually just, I haven't trained in a couple days. I've just been playing tennis.

Just trying to get used to the time zone. Okay. And I'll probably do some training tonight. down the gym there and get some working. So, yeah, just trying to get the body used to the time zone. That's all I'm doing. It's good. But are you bringing your coaches over from there?

Like, who's going to be in your corner? Just someone that's going to give me the water. You don't know. I've got my coaches. My coaches there over here. I think Steve that's in Florida and all are coming. But I'm just, yeah, I got the guys I normally work with coming in. So it's good.

Well, maybe, is it fair to say that you're very confident and that you think that you don't need a lot of help in this fight? Well, it's not that I don't need a lot of help, it's just that I haven't got much time to prepare. I mean, I've really, and it's hard to get ready when you don't know what you're doing for a while. I mean, some of charge you to stay ready for a certain fights. You're like, oh, well, maybe you should or would or, I don't know. But, you know, it's a short-noticed thing, so it's all good. I'm just looking forward to the fight, actually. I mean, he's at four years off.

I've just finished the fight. So, yeah, I'm just looking forward to the match. It's going to be a great fight. And I'm not looking past Blockeme. He's going to be a tough fight. He's probably been training for ages. But, you know, I mean, getting hit in the face and everyone else in the body is part of what we do.

So I should get used to it because I'm going to try and do a lot of that on the fight. So last week you made some headlines when you talked about his, exemption, that he does not need the four-month grace period upon returning because he wasn't a part of the UFC when Yusada came on board. So now they're starting to test him a month out. You were very, you seemed very upset about this. I think that's fair to say, and you voiced your displeasure. Do you still feel the same way, or has anyone explained to you what's going on behind the scenes? I think it's just because he wasn't being, well, like you just explained to yourself, but I don't

but I mean he's getting tested now so I think that's the main thing I mean in the end I think everyone should be treated fairly if he's getting tested everyone should be tested but like he probably said he wasn't out of when a suit you side of can but I still think it should be tested I mean he's probably being tested now but I think everyone should have the same playing field yeah and if you're going to get tested like everyone else then everyone else to get tested I think he should be exempt from being tested like everyone else I have to have to be tested I have to make way and I've got to do all that so

especially. Did you tell the UFC this? Did you voice your displeasure to them specifically? Yeah, well, I don't think, I said that. I just didn't think, I think it was, I think I had got it wrong when it was like it was maybe testing after the fight or, you know, I thought it was after the fight. You didn't want to get tested, but I think it's because he wasn't even talking about being fighting part of the EOS.

That's probably what it was, wasn't it? Yeah, that's what it was. Apparently there's some exemption. Yeah. So, yeah, so I got it wrong in saying that. So, you know, I didn't know. I just thought, when they said it wasn't being tested, I just thought, wow, everyone should be tested.

Sure. So I might have got that wrong, but, yeah. But here's the thing, Mark. Here's the thing. If you decide to retire today and then in a year, you decide to come back, because you fought in this USADA era, you need to give them four months notice before coming, back where they're going to test you and do all that stuff.

But they're saying because he retired and fought pre-Usada, he's not subject to those standards. That, to me, and correct me if you feel otherwise, seems a little different. What does one have to do with the other? That's the era that we're in now. Everyone should be playing on the same playing field like you said, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right.

If he said like that, but then it comes down to, did they know whether he was going to be fighting? But, yeah, I think if you can say it like that, I think everyone should be tested in the same playing field. Otherwise, it's not fair. But, yeah, that's the way, you know, I mean, I think that's exactly right. I think that's exactly right.

I think everyone should be playing on the same field. Instead of someone getting exempt from it. I mean, Shuck State, the same thing happened with Connor McGregor, not with a drug testing, but with PR, right? Yeah. I think Daniel was saying he didn't want to make it. special privileges or whatever, but everyone's going to do a part of what they do for the job. So if it's PR stuff or if it's drug testing or whatever the hell it is,

well, then they should be doing it regardless. Everyone else is subject to it. Sure. Obviously, this is a big fight. You can make the case that it's bigger than any fight this year, any fight on that card. Did they sweeten the pot when they offered it to you? or is it the same contract, same fight, contract that you had for your previous fight? Well, I got a new contract.

I had a new contract before. I told them then I got a new contract before that. I got another six fights, and this is one of them. To me, I mean, it's just another fight. I mean, it doesn't do nothing for my rankings. What I'm excited about being here in America and the States side is taking my kids to Disneyland. That's what I'm excited about. Not about fighting block later.

It doesn't do nothing for my rankings. So are you taking them to Disneyland before or after the fight? After, after the fight. Go to work first and then afterwards. How do you envision it? Are you envisioning the clean knockout that we've come to know and expect from you? How are you seeing it going down? Are you, go ahead.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think, well, I'm happy he comes like a crazy man, and then I put him to sleep. That's basically what I hope he's going to have him, but I don't think he's that stupid. I think he's going to be smarter and test the ward his first. But we'll see what happened to the night.

I mean, in saying that, I mean, Bocles is a big name. Everybody in the world knows Bocleza. But, yeah, so. Obviously, his wrestling is his backbone, and that's his strength. But I think that you don't get the credit that you deserve as far as your takedown defense is concerned. and so I'm wondering if you're going to, you know, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think it doesn't, to be honest, I mean, I got taken down.

I will by Fifee, but I, you know, I screwed that one up because I had lost 10 kilos the day before, so I had no energy to do any defense. My take down defense is normally pretty good. I mean, I think I'll find people who try to take me down. They have a hard time with doing it. I just, if cap has gone right, and things go right, it's hard to take me down.

I'm a bit shorter than everyone else, but I don't really care he's trying to take you down wrestling or less than that doesn't really matter so you don't feel like if you beat Brock Lesnar that you're closer to a title shot you this is this a big fight I know he's not ranked

but I have a hard time believing that you're not one step closer to a title shot if you win on July 9th you don't feel that to be honest no I mean regardless I mean Brock Lesnar has done something I've never done he's become the world UFC he was champion in what four fights

that's a man that's a man for an athlete, especially one that came from a resting background, but I've never done there. But I don't think it puts me any step closer. I mean, if you'd ask any of the head weights that are in the top ten, that's probably to say the same thing. I mean, shucks, all the guys above me would say, well, he haven't got past me to get your shot of the title.

Why is he get a shot if he just fought by the Levin? I mean, Shucks, well, is Brock Lezner. I mean, he'd be sick or, you know, or something. So he was irrelevant in the grand scale. scale of things. I mean, regardless of his name being so big. Right. I mean, is there something, though, poetic about this whole story? Yeah, yeah. No, I respect that greatly. I respect your honesty. I'm just wondering if you feel like there's something poetic about all this. Not that long ago. You're on the outside looking in. You almost had to beg to get one more shot in the UFC and the debut doesn't go

well. And I hear you are. You got the lottery ticket in many people's respect, you know, many people's view, they wanted this fight. And you got it. You'd even have to work for it, really. in terms of campaign or, you know, begging whatever, is it, do you feel like there's something, you know, like the world kind of, you know, things have a funny way of working out? Do you think about that sort of thing, or is it really just another fight for you?

Well, to be honest, it's like me. I really say things to heart. I just, you know, I get up and move on. I mean, you're right, I wasn't, I wasn't even one of those companies, to be honest. And here I am, I mean, I get this fight here. I mean, and people, a lot of people wanted this fight, I think, but it's like, you know, I mean,

For me, it doesn't do nothing for my rankings, apart from Brock Lesnar being such a huge name. I mean, there probably wouldn't have been much interest in it. I mean, in the fight, though, you know. But him being who he was and such a superstar in sports entertainment, you know, it's made an interest for a lot of people, a lot of normal people. So, I mean, that is what it is. Like I said, I'm just doing what I'm supposed to be doing and doing what I'm doing my job. Are your kids...

I mean, I think UFC already knows that I want to take opportunities and fight whenever. So, yeah, so that is what it is. Like for me, I'm just taking it, I'm doing my job. And trying to get to that title shot, that's all I'm looking forward to. So if it's Brock Leisner, that's got to go through, then that's it. Are your kids pro wrestling fans? Do they know who Brock Leicester is from WWE? Yeah, yeah, they are.

I said before it was my son that was that was didn't know whether a toss up between blocking me but it wasn't no it was actually my nephew my brother-in-law's son

I was there and he didn't know whether to pick Brock Lesnar or me during the fight and then he sends a picture to my my wife's sister sends a picture to us and he's got Brock Lesnar's

arms and his head broken off so he must have chosen me and I said I'm very grateful for that you know thanks very much for that that is a beautiful thing so are you training at a specific gym in Vegas while you're there or are you just going to bounce around

I don't know I just got here we could just this place is big enough to train the back yard but we were driving around trying to fire places I saw a place down the road there a UFC gym but you know Ray Schiffel has reached out and said Randy and Tom actually wanted to do some work so it might go out to extreme even Roy's reached out and I think of the hand as well

so it's good that I want to thank Roy and Randon to offering their help, but it'd be good. I might go and do some work with those guys. And because they're both, I think they're both, Randy's fought Brock and Tom. Actually, has fought Brock as well, so. You can even call up your old friend, The Rock, to help you out.

He's fought Brock as well. He's, uh, who, sorry? The Rock, your buddy, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson. The Rock. I have so, my buddy He's someone I look up to But I think he's more Brock business, buddy, than mine

Oh, no, no He loves you He's always tweeting to you He said he read your book He's a big fan of yours Yeah Yeah, well, I mean He's done work with Brock

But it's all good But it's all good But I said, It's business and I'm excited for the fight It's amazing Well, I'm very happy for you That you got the fight

I think it's It's great It's I mean, wow The buzz surrounding this is a... The Davey and state you are, your trespass or what? I'm all back. I'm going to be there, my man.

I will be there. I wouldn't miss it for the world. That's good. Cooler heads prevailed. That's great. The people have spoken. And you are our king, as you wrote on Facebook,

in case Brock forgot, I'm the king. Right? And I said it long ago. I didn't like that. Well, someone wrote it. was written by someone else, but we'll see what happens. It's an interesting card.

I'm interested in fine now that Fox involved here, sir. It's a beautiful thing. Mark, I appreciate it. Thank you for coming on the show. I can't wait for it. I can't wait for your face off. That is going to be, I would pay to watch that. Just you two squaring off.

Holy moly, I hope they have extra reinforcement. It would be great. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, yeah. There's not going to be any kumbaya. Thanks for having me on the show, you all. Yeah, a pleasure, as always, Mark. and thank you for reaching out last week.

It means the world to me. And I wish you the best, and congratulations on getting the big fight. All right, thanks, Scott. All right, there he is. The one and only Mark Hunt, the KFC King himself, great to have him on.

He is fighting Brock Lesnar on July 9th. Wow, how about all that? I need a cold shower. That was intense. A lot of fun. Unfortunately, we have run out of time. Two weeks in a row, very little New York Rick. New York, Rick, are you still alive back there?

I'm here, but we got to go. Yeah, we got to go, you know what? Maybe it's for the best, right? Game five? Is there anything you want to say? Anything. A rally cry, show support, anything. Dream on green, dirtbag.

Yeah, right. Look at you. You're on your way out. All right. You can hit my music. We are done. Look, the bottom line is, I wanted a big show. I wanted a big lineup of guests.

It has always been about this show. It has always been about the fighters. It has always been about the fans and giving the fans what they want. And what did we have? Let us count it. Currently, three UFC champions, Michael Bisping, Dominic Cruz, Daniel Cormier,

arguably the greatest of all time, Fjorda O'Millianenko, former UFC champion in Rampage Jackson, Frankie Edgar. Oh, and by the way, Josh Barnett. The man who's fighting Brock Lester at UFC 200, Mark Hunt, and Scala.

What more could you want? What a day, what a show. Great to be back in so many ways. Thank you very much, Daniel Cormier, for stopping by. Appreciate you squeezing us in. Thank you very much to Frankie Edgar for stopping by. Good luck to both Cormier and Edgar, July 9th, UFC 200. Less than a month away.

Thank you very much, Rampage Jackson. Good luck to him. Thank you very much, Jared Shaw. Thank you very much, Josh Barnett. Thank you very much, Dominic Cruz. Congrats, congrats to Michael Bisping. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you very much to Fyodor O'Millianenko and Camille Gajiev of EFN.

Check them out this Friday on FightPass. Thank you very much to Mark Hunt. I had no time to mention it, but we'll be talking about it on Thursday. MMA beat. We are back. Holy moly, Rory McDonald, Wonderboy Thompson is five days away. Don't forget about that. But for now, we say goodbye.

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