MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 338

Episode Date: July 11, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to John Pollock (00:08:23), Malki Kawa (00:27:59), Eddie Alvarez (00:47:38), Brian Stann (01:08:42), Mike Dolce (01:26:23), Daniel Cormier (01:45:12), NewYorkRic to take your questions (02:16:55 & 03:29:25), and Joanna Jedrzejczyk (03:11:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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I'm Ariel Hawani. Inside our New York City studio back from Las Vegas. And you're going to want to remember that date. Monday, July 11, 2016, the great sport of mixed martial arts as we knew it has changed forever. This is a date that we will be talking about for a very long time, and it's interesting, July 11, 2009. Another important date in the history of this sport, that was the date of UFC 100. Seven years later, earlier this morning, we get the news that the UFC, the ultimate fighting championship, the worldwide leader in all things mixed martial arts, has officially been sold.

I woke up at around 1230 last night, or early this morning, check the world. my phone, check my Twitter, a ton of text messages, some missed calls, some people trying to give me the heads up, I was tired. I go on Twitter and I see a tweet from the New York Times. The New York Times reporting very early this morning that the UFC was going to announce its sale later on today. It was officially announced at around 8 a.m. Eastern Time. This was the press release. WME, William Morris, Endeavor, IMG International Management Group. Today announced the acquisition of UFC, the world's premier professional mixed martial arts organization. It's been reported on, it's been talked about, it's been rumored for quite some time, but now it is official.

In that press release, it states that Dana White will remain president of UFC. It states that Lorenzo Fertita, the CEO of the UFC, is stepping down from day-to-day operations, though he now has a small, silent portion of the company. Silver Lake Partners and KKR will join WME slash IMG as the new strategic investors, along with MSD Capital LP and MSD Partners LP, which will provide preferred equity financing. Later on today in Las Vegas, the employees of the UFC

will be addressed for the first time since this news came out. The fighters have been notified as well. A lot of people wondering, what does this mean for the sport? Where do we go from here? What will change? It's all very fresh.

It's all very new. It's all very fluid. But we know the deal is done. Not that long ago, the UFC told us it's not true. They're not for sale. The reports were erroneous. Apparently not. The UFC has new owners.

The Fratita Brothers bought it a little over 15 years ago for $2 million. They reportedly now sell it for $4 billion. The largest purchase in sports history, the greatest return on investment, maybe in history period, an unbelievable transaction. And there's two big takeaways right off the bat. The Fratita brothers and Dana White need to be celebrated. They need to be congratulated. They need to be told by us that we need to remind the world that if it wasn't for this trio, there is no mixed martial arts in 2016. They saved the sport. It was dead. Remember, when they bought it, hardly legalized in North America.

They did a lot of work to revive the sport. They pumped in a lot of money, lost a lot of money before things started to turn around 2005, 2006. That was an unbelievable purchase. When they bought it from SECG around 15 years ago, from Bob Meyerwitz and his crew, they were buying three letters. That's true. There was nothing to it. and now they sell it for $4 billion reportedly. So that's an important thing to note. It's also important to note a big takeaway, in my opinion, these fighters, as I've been saying for the last few weeks, are and were worth more than we all thought they were. Because again, what is the UFC?

UFC 200, which we will of course talk about. And of course we'll be talking about perhaps the most newsworthy week in the history of the sport. since I last said goodbye to you on Tuesday afternoon, think about what has happened. But UFC 200, if it is headline by, let's say, Michael McDonald and John Lineker, it's not the event that it was. The UFC more so than any sports entity is star-driven, is personality-driven. If there are injuries, if there's a disaster of some kind, if there's no new talent,

the business goes down. The Yankees, who knows what they're worth, will always be worth something. That brand will always be worth something because people are buying the hats, the shirts, the jerseys, the history. That is a brand that will never lose. That will never depreciate.

But the UFC is cyclical, and we've seen that. Two years ago, bad economic year. Last year, tremendous economic growth. And so while the sale from SEG to ZUFA around 15 years ago, now looks like the greatest business move of all time, the sale today to the WME slash IMG group from the ZUFA group to me is even greater

because they knew when to get out. They knew that the time was right and the time is right. It's never been hotter. There's some things coming down over on the horizon. Sell after 200 with stars, established household names, international superstars. you couldn't do this two years ago. Couldn't do this four years ago.

You couldn't do it a decade ago. 2016 was the time to do it. The growth of fight pass. So that to me is perhaps a more shrewd business move than the one that they pulled off around 15 years ago. There is so much to talk about here. There is so much to dissect. And let's not forget the fact that UFC 200 happened on Saturday.

Brock Lesner returned successfully, defeated Mark Hunt. John Jones was pulled from the event, 72 hours. before two titles changed hands, three events. Daniel Kormier fought Anderson Freaking Silva on two days notice. Amanda Nunes is the new women's bantamweight champion. There is so much to talk about let's not waste any more time. Let's run down the lineup very quickly here and then we'll get to our first guest of the day. Lot to talk to him about. Four 10, Ioanni, on Jaycheck, the reigning defending UFC strawweight champion will stop by to talk about her big win over Claudia

Godelia. Let's not forget she, she helped me avoid the embarrassment of having to wear a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey and I will forever love her for that. 245, we'll hear from Daniel Cormier, who beat Anderson Silva, who did not fight John Jones. We'll hear from him. 225, we'll talk to Mike Dolce. A lot of things to talk to him about as far as early wins are concerned and whatnot. 205, Brian Stan will stop by. A lot to talk to him about as far as Usada is concerned and the week that was. 145, the brand new UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will stop by. He defeated Hafeld dosangos in one of the best performances of the weekend. And at 125, John Jones's manager, Maliki Kawa will stop by.

to talk about Jones getting pulled from the event around 72 hours before due to an ad of competition drug test on June 16th. He was flagged by Usada for two banned substances. What a mess it turned into. Where does he go from here? What kind of suspension is he facing? There's a lot to talk to Maliki about. But first, let us go to our first guest of the day. He is joining us via the Magical Skype. He is the Fight Network's own. And my fellow Canadian, John Pollock, joining us from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. John, how are you, my man? I'm doing great, Ariel. You know, a massive day in MMA history.

I mean, how else could you have started your show than having me on? Well, you know, you joke, John, but you have a very smart mind when it comes to these things, so I'm looking forward to talking to you about it. I kind of ran down quickly my two big takeaways from this news. Perfect time to sell. Obviously, we know the ROI was brilliant, $2 million, $4 billion. That speaks for itself. But my two big takeaways, perfect time to sell, and the fighters were worth more.

more than we thought they were. When you heard this news, now that you've had some time to digest it around 12 hours or so, what's your takeaway? Well, I'm with you. I think that this was an opportunity for the Fratita Brothers, where after the year they had in 2015 and this year as well, all of the hurdles that were ahead of them when they bought this thing, even getting into New York. I mean, it's really incredible when you put it down all on paper what's been accomplished in 15 years that you may never see an offer like this for this company. And I think that there's going to be so much speculation over the next couple of days as to what this means, because no one's going to have that magic answer.

This is going to be something that's going to play itself out over years. And maybe two years from now, we'll be talking about the real impact of today and how the UFC changes. Does $4 billion look like a great price two years from now? If they can get into China, they open up that part of the world. if the digital world completely changes, if the domestic rights deal sees a gigantic increase, all these factors are going to be played out over numerous years.

But I'm with you on the fighter's value to all of this. I mean, you look at this sale price, and I think that now more than ever, when you see this rights deal that's coming up in two years, and the sale price, if ever there was a reason and a time for these fighters to really come together and say that collective, bargaining is something we need here. I'm very pessimistic to that happening just based on the

history of this industry, but you just look at all of this on the table, and it is, the onus is on the fighters to take those steps forward. Yeah, a tremendous point. I talked about this last week when comparing it to the NBA deals after the big TV contracts, seeing what those players were getting paid. How, if you're a fighter, do you sit there and say, how are we not getting paid at least a percentage of the TV deal. And now you see this number. If I'm a fighter, I'm thinking the same thing. You know, it's interesting. Dana White, when he went on a media tour two months ago, said that we're not for sale. But if you give me $4 billion, we're going to be for sale. Of course, now we know that's the magic number and they sold. He also said, which hasn't been

brought up, in particular in that Dan Patrick interview, when the Fertitas leave, when they sell, I'm gone to. I don't want to do this without them. And today, we're being told that he, he's staying on. It's business as well as I do. Business as usual in MMA does not mean business as usual. Do you believe that Dana White is in this for the long haul? Or if you're buying this company, you want him to stick around because he is so important, because he's the face of the UFC, but really at the end of the day, this is going to be a transitionary period. And soon, soon enough, he will be gone as well. What do you think? My gut reaction is with a purchase of this size, $4 billion, you want to make that transition seamless as possible. And taking Dana White

out of the picture immediately, I think that would cause a lot of panic amongst people. And I think you want to have the endorsement from Dana White, that this is a positive move forward for your fighters, for your employees. I think they want to have that as much as having that public face. And I think you can look at Dana White. You can talk about a lot of positives. You can also talk about a lot of negatives. He's a tremendous promoter, and I think that is the value here. You want to have that frontman. And I mean, you could really scratch your head about who could facilitate that role, if not for Dana White. It's probably a very small circle that knows what the long-term play is for Dana White. Maybe he's keeping that one super close to himself. But I would feel that

in this transition period, I think he was almost essential in getting us from one era of Zufi into the next and he is the blue that that binds the two together. So I feel that you're going to see him around for at least a year. And beyond that, it's going to be interesting because he's made a ton of money off of this deal. What other things does he want to do in his life? Does he want to just commit himself to this? Does he have other opportunities out there that he wants to explore? As, you know, a father, does he want to be spending less time on the road? We've already seen him reduce his schedule to a degree. So I think those are all interesting questions that he's probably been dealing with over the last two months. Now, when you hear this $4 billion number, and again, you know, we don't have access to their

financials, it's not a public company. But when you see this and you compare it to the sale of the Star Star Wars franchise, the sale of the LA Dodgers around $2 billion, the sale of the L.A. Clippers around $2 billion as well, when you see this and you compare it to other major sports purchases over the last decade or so, do you think that this new group got a good deal? Is the UFC worth $4 billion, in your opinion? It's probably something that I keep looking at China. I think if China becomes, everyone is trying to get in there and maximize that part of the world, I think if this deal is structured to get them into mainland China, open up that entire population to fighting, how well MMA can export into that part of the world, $4 billion.

may look like something crazy on paper, and two years from now, we look at how much business they have added because of this. If the television sports rights deals continue to increase and increase, and they get this massive deal at the end of 2018, maybe. $4 billion sounds like an incredible amount. You're just citing the comparables right there,

how much it dwarfs those. So, I mean, at first blush, you have to say, is this overvalued? They clearly have confidence that their purchase, this company with the belief that they are going to make a further return on this much larger investment. And you bring up them being a private business aerial, that becomes another interesting question. Does the new ownership, do they look at something like taking this company public, which is also something Dana White said, if this ever goes public, I'm gone.

How much does that change as well? Because that's a surefire way to raise capital out of this. when they bought it for $2 million, obviously there was a lot of room to grow. I wonder how much room there is to grow from this point. The TV deals, the international expansion, yes, they haven't really put a footprint in China, but how much room is there to grow from $4 billion? That's what I'm wondering. Is there that kind of growth there for this new ownership group? Now, let me ask you about this.

And also hindsight is always 2020. But if you look at the last couple months leading up to $200, no expense was spared. I mean, Brock Lesnar, what they paid him, the show, the reported show, and it's way more than this, I'm told it's closer to 10. But they said it was $2.5 million for just his show money. When you see the negotiations with Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz and what they're reported to make and other fighters as well, the writing in hindsight looks like it was on the wall, right? I mean, they were going out with a bang. They were putting everything into $200, everything. So now let me ask you about $200.

Did it live up to the hype for you? you know, now that we see everything that they put in, and yes, they were dealt some bad hands, but you were there on Saturday night, was 200 the perfect way for them to go out? It felt like a Super Bowl. It felt like you had all of these stars all put onto this one card. It was like, here is our public showing of everything we have worked towards, trying to get as many names onto this card as possible. I think the expectations were so high.

And that's why you have had some criticism. Was it card of the year? No, it was not. me, UFC 199, that to me was probably will end up being the show of the year, for myself at least. I think with UFC 200, though, I don't think it was a bad show. I would give the car to be, I think overall. I think it started tremendous on fight pass. And I think you got a lot of interesting stories coming out of it. I mean, Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt did not have the fight of the year, but that was something to watch. I thought Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, that was an

outstanding fight. People were critical of Daniel Cormier, and to me, that was maybe the best story of the entire week how everything. That could be a 30 for 30 right there. What happened in those days. So I think all told, I would not be too unhappy if you purchased that pay-per-view and what you got out of it. It was, to me, not the card of the year, but I think some people have been overly critical just because of the expectation level being the highest of the year.

So you saw Brock, the guy defies logic. It's unbelievable. He is superhuman. He is larger than life. and he brings this amazing element to the press conferences. I mean, he truly is when you're sitting in there and he's up at the dais. The guy is larger than life. Few have his kind of impact and energy.

He goes in there. He defeats Mark Hunt, who's no slouch, who's no cupcake, does what he does, cuts this great baby face promo, I thought, in the cage, and then shows up, you know, in the tent afterwards at the press conference and his just loving life seems to be the happiest guy in the world. Now, you know this, this, this, this, this, this, dual role that he's playing as well as anyone covering MMA. He's going back to WWE now. He has a date, SummerSlam against Randy Orton. And he has no other deal that we know of as far as MMA is concerned. But after what you saw in the cage and what you heard from him

afterwards, do you think he's going to keep fighting? Do you think he's going to come back for more? They're going to cut him another deal. What do you think? My gut says yes. I don't think there's any question he wants to do it again. I don't think there's any question the UFC would love to have him come back and fight again. The decision maker is going to be the WWE and how they assessed this. It very much felt like they treated this as a risk that they were not all in on. This was never once promoted on television by the WWE. This was limited to their social media and a web presence. And now that he's won, I don't think they're going to be too shy tonight on Raw and holding probably a parade for the sky when he returns, which

will probably be next week. So the WWE looks at this. To me, I never believe this was this gigantic risk. I mean, the worst case was he gets knocked out immediately by Mark Hunt, and he comes back to the WWE, perhaps somehow damaged, but to me, not beyond repair. In this case, he comes in, he wins. He got tremendous.

He was the biggest star to me on this show. And that was before John Jones was removed from the card. Incredible promotion. he was on mainstream outlets. He was the focus of the sports world last week going into Saturday's card. So the WWE got a tremendous advertisement in Brock Lesnar all weekend long, and now they get this property of theirs back for SummerSlam. So I think the WWE gained something out of this,

and it's curious how they view it now in hindsight, and whether they want to roll the dice again, and put them in that situation. How much value does he bring back to the WWE? And if it's a positive enough one, then maybe they do take the risk again. But my gut says yes, he'll fight again. UFC was obviously dealt a very bad hand with the whole John Jones situation. And again, another reason why I think it's a good time to get out.

I mean, you get thrown these curveballs on the Wednesday of Fight Week. And yes, they brought in Usada, but who needs that headache if you're Lorenzo Fertita and company? But they had to adjust. And initially, I was thinking, wow, they're going with Misha Tade and Amanda Nunes as the new main event for UFC 200. And of course, they were almost dealt another bad hand there when Misha Tate almost missed the window to weigh in Friday morning. But then upon thinking about it, I thought that they made the right call. I thought that they made the right call, even though it didn't feel like UFC 100. Remember, UFC 100, it ends with Brock Lesnar foaming at the mouth, cutting that amazing promo, beating up Frank Mere.

I remember that next Monday morning watching all kinds of sports shows, everyone was talking about the UFC. And it's not so much the same this Monday morning. Maybe they're talking about the sale. Not so much UFC 200. But I thought that they had to do that because if Brock Lesnar would have came in there and knocked out Mark Hunt in the first round in the main event and it ends with this guy who doesn't have a contract, who then cuts some kind of crazy promo about going back to WWE and saying that, you know, I killed the UFC stars, whatever. That was too big of a risk to end the show on. So I thought that they had no better option. They couldn't go with Cormier and Silva non-title fight.

You devalue the women's title. You couldn't go with the interim title fight. So in hindsight, I know they were criticized for the show ending sort of on this mediocre note, but I thought they made the right call. What'd you think? Yeah, it was kind of interesting the way they went about it. I mean, it was such a short window that I don't know how much of a big impact, which fight you went with as your quote-unquote main event really had on the public. I think by that point, you were either buying or not buying that card.

And I think just Brock being on the card was a big factor for the fringe audience. To be honest, I would have really designed your promotion that Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt, I would have made that the focal point and still put Taiton, Nunez on last. I don't think you necessarily had to put the quote-unquote main event on last. But from a public interest standpoint, I think it was the Lesnar Hunt fight that is going to reach the furthest amount of people. But in the same sense, I think Misha Tate often doesn't get enough credit for the attention she has brought and the fan base that she has cultivated over the last year. I think from Holly Holmes win over Ronda Rousey, she was able to inherit a lot of that audience for 196. And

Tate conversely brought a lot. I don't think those two women get enough credit for how well that show did, and Misha Tate having her audience as well. So I think the way everything was handled, I still feel that people were largely on board that late into the week of whether they were buying the show or not, that it wasn't of giant consequence. And if this were day one of the promotion, I think they probably would have gone ahead. And if these were the fights available to them, probably promoting Brock and Hunt as the main event. Well, it's a good point. point that you raise, Misha is a draw. People like her in Las Vegas in particular. And I think that ending with Misha versus Holly, which I thought all along should have been the fight, would have been a

much bigger deal. Holly's a big draw. So in hindsight, I feel like that was somewhat of a mistake. We know about the history there with the management and Lenny Freska as Holly's manager. She was going to get pay-per-view points. Maybe they didn't want to split up that pie. But let me ask you this then. We'll end on this note. Now, with Misha losing, she had the built-in rivalry with Holly home. She had the built-in rivalry with Misha Tate. I'm talking about Ronda Rousey. And we don't know when she's coming back, but we assume she's coming back at some point. She has no rivalry, no history with Amanda Nunes. Did they lose a lot of money by not going with the safe fight where you have Misha Hawley fighting each other? The winner, doesn't matter who it is, has that rivalry, has that history

with Rhonda. Amanda doesn't have that. Did they gamble and lose in that sense by putting Amanda Nunes in that fight to begin with. Of the available fights for Ronda Rousey, Amanda Nunez is the weakest of what I would say are the four options if you are to include Cyborg with Holm and Tate. I'm with you. I felt that Tate and Holm, the rematch was the fight to make because it was a win-win situation because Ronda coming back, you have the title on one of those women on top of the backstory.

That's incredible. If you were to do Rousey and Nunez, that's by no means a flop. That's still going to be a big fight, but it loses something with Amanda Nunez being part of that equation. So in that sense, you lose something. Or you could just simply go to Rousey against either Tate or Holm in her return fight at this point and bypass the championship picture at this point for her. But that was definitely their philosophy going into it. And now you have Amanda Nunez as champion, which is going to be someone that I think it's very much going to be contingent on who her opponent is

in terms of how well she can draw, and maybe she becomes someone that does defend that championship on Fox. Obviously a very entertaining fighter. A lot of people don't know who she is, but she is marketable from her fighting style. She's had fun fights, and of course the item that she is the first openly gay champion

in UFC history is something that they can use to their advantage as well. John, tremendous stuff. It's never a dull moment in this sport. Perhaps the craziest five-day stretch. We could have gone two hours just talking about everything, but we have run out of time. Appreciate your insight.

Great to see you out there in Las Vegas and I'll be watching your coverage over on the Fight Network as well. And remember, Ariel, the sale, 5.25 billion Canadian. Oh, wow. Even more impressive. That's why we have John here.

Thank you, John. Appreciate that. John Pollack of the Fight Network stopping by reminding us that if the UFC was based in Canada, they'd actually be making more money. See? It's always better to be in Canada.

As Brock Lesnar taught us over the weekend. The Pride of Saskatchewan, Brock Lesnar, they are partying over there after his big win. Okay, of course, one of the big stories this past week, it happened around five days ago. We found out late Wednesday night that John Jones, who was supposed to headline UFC 200,

opposite Daniel Cormier, was pulled from the card after Usada notified his team that he had failed an out-of-competition drug test on June 16th. Somewhat unprecedented here because this was just, again, three days before, a landmark event and a historic event for the UFC John Jones, Dana Cormier, with their longtime rivalry at play. John appearing to be in great spirits in Las Vegas, I had asked him just hours before the news came out

if he felt like he needed to get this fight under his belt in order to put last year's hit and run accident behind him. And he said unequivocally, yes, he needed this. And he doesn't get to put that behind him now. And so there are a lot of questions Thursday morning. He met with the media alongside his manager, Malkikawa, his publicist Denise White. It was a tough sight to see. He was very emotional a couple times, had to leave the press conference to gather himself.

didn't say a lot as far as what transpired, as far as what the substance is, or was, I should say, but did apologize to the UFC, did apologize to Daniel Cormier, which I obviously thought was the right thing to do, and then we were left with a lot of questions unanswered. Later on, that evening, Thursday evening, word broke that Anderson Silva of all people, and they did reach out to Gagar Musassi, and he was obviously, you know, very much willing to take the fight, but at the 11th hour, Anderson Silva was able to pass all his medicals,

Anderson Silva, who two months prior had gallbladder surgery, the former goat, the former UFC middleweight champion, took the fight on very short notice, fought Daniel Kormier, and now you know how that went. Kormier wins for unanimous decision. I want to talk to Malki Kawa about this unbelievable news story and a whole lot more.

He joins us now via the Magic of Skype. Malki, how are you? I'm good, sir. How are you? It is a historic day, and of course, I want to talk to you about John, but you are very much entrenched in the business of MMA. You represent some of the biggest fighters in this sport, John Jones, Anthony Pettis, Frank Meir, Carlos Condit, Derek Lewis. I mean, the list goes on and on, really an impressive who's who. What's your reaction to the news?

I like how you put Derek Lewis in the top five of my client. The Black Beast is the man. The Black Beast is the man. I love that guy. I love that too. What is your reaction to the news that the UFC has been sold for $4 billion. Well, I think that's, I mean, for Lorenzo and Dana, that's awesome. You know what I mean? The $4 billion, the largest sports, you know, transaction in the history of sports. That's, you know, congratulations to them. How that affects us at the end of the day, we won't know until, you know, time really, you know, plays this thing out.

But the one thing I can tell you is that, you know, Ari Emanuel is just a terrific, he's been a terrific guy to us to me and John and my team and stuff. So, you know, I look forward to working with him and seeing what that's going to be. all about and going from there. So you bring up a great point and a very important figure in this transaction because Ari Manuel, who some don't know, the character Ari Gold from Entourage based on him, a very powerful and influential figure in the world of sports and entertainment from WME is a big part of this. And he has been a part of the UFC from the sale 15 years ago to the Fox Deal. But WME also represents UFC fighters, most notably Ronda Rousey and John Jones, your client, works with them as well. Is that still the case?

Yeah, I mean, we've, you know, we've had a, you know, it was kind of like an indirect relationship. Yeah. We worked with each other for a while. Is that Ari? Huh? Is that Ari calling you? No, so, okay, okay. Go ahead.

No, so, you know, I mean, it's an interesting thing. We've had a really good relationship with them. And, you know, Ari obviously was responsible in opening some of the doors for us and some of the historic deals we did, which Nike and Gatorade and things of that nature. So, like I said, he's always been good to us. He's always been good to me. You know, he's a guy that I've called on the phone, you know, numerous times and talked to him about whatever. And he's a very smart guy and just has a lot of things, you know, to offer anybody that works with WME. So, I mean, you know, like I said, he's an agent.

So the good thing about him is that he's kind of in my role, but for movie stars and, you know, properties. So hopefully, you know, that helps certain things going forward with the UFC in general. But is that a conflict now that he's part of the ownership? forget the part of representing the fighters because at the end of the day they don't really handle the the contract negotiations like that or marketing and stuff of that nature so for me it's more about like okay you understand now my job as an agent right so you know in the past a lot of the times you know you'd always hear you know uh USC executives hate agents and they don't want to deal with managers and all this other stuff Ari is one in a sense, but for movie stars. So how that changes things, how that helps us when it comes to negotiations, what that really means. Like I said, we really won't know. You know what I mean?

When you spend $4 billion for something, you've got to make money. So, you know, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I really don't know at this point, Ari. I mean, Ariel, all I can say is that, you know, what your hope for is that, you know, or at least what I hope for is that the same guy I've dealt with over the last couple of years is the same guy that, you know, has some input on this thing. Your slip up there is an interesting one because my big takeaway was that there's now another Ariel in this sport, and that pisses me off. I was the only one for a very long time,

and now I have to share the pie with Ari Emanuel of all people. But honestly, one of my big takeaways was $4 billion, the fighters were worth more than we all thought they were. This thing is a fighter-based organization. If you don't have fighters, if you don't have draws, the UFC makes no money. It's not the Yankees. It's not the Knicks. It's not the cowboys, those are brands that will live until the end of our days. But the UFC, if there are no fighters, it goes down. We saw that a couple years ago. Last year they had a great year. Tons of profits. So when you hear that, $4 billion, are you saying to yourself the same thing? Like, wait a second, we have more leverage here. We should be asking for more. We should be

getting paid more. That's always been the case. When you say that, when you just said that we, your statement was something to the effect of, you know, that, that, that, um, we realize now that that the fighters are worth more. I've always known that. I think everybody known that. I think fighters have known that. I think we've all known that. I don't think that,

that, listen, they could have sold it for $2 billion. Sure. Could have sold it for $8 billion. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, the thing is worth whatever someone's willing to pay for it, right? Time will tell if this was a smart buy on these people's behalf or if it was,

you know what I mean, if they paid too much or maybe they paid too little. You know what I mean? But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. The issue in MMA when it comes to pay is, you know, people want this union and they want this idea of, you know, let's pay guys. more, but who you're really talking about? Are you talking about the guys people come to see the guys that people come to see a fight night?

Or you're talking about just the guy who shows up in fights anyway? You understand what I'm saying? This is, at the end of the day, dude, let me put it to you like, this is the way I see it. The UFC has done a great job in making it look like it's a league. In reality, it's still a fight promotion. You still have to promote fights and you have to promote fighters. And those guys that are headlining these cards, the main and co-main events deserve to get paid more absolutely 1,000% across the board.

I don't care who are you talking about, whether it's a fight night card or if it's a fight pass card or whatever it might be, those guys at the top of the cards. When we tune in to watch are the guys that drive this business. 1,000 percent, but that's something I think everybody should have known. If they didn't, well, maybe now they know. Right. When's the last time you talked to John Jones? Last night.

How's he doing? I mean, you know, he's upset. I mean, he's obviously very disappointed and very hurt. Can you take me back to Wednesday? How did you find out? So, you know, I had, earlier in the day, I was talking to Jeff Novitzky about, you know, Frank Mir and the situation with Frank Mir and the comments he made on your show

last week. And, you know, we were just going through that and talking about that. And then, you know, we just went through the normal stuff. The team was getting ready to go train and I get a call from Novitsky. So I'm thinking he's calling me about Frank. And he's like, hey, dude, listen, I got to tell you, you know, this is what's going on with bones. I started laughing. I'm like, bro. All right, cool, for real, bro.

Listen, talk to me about Frank, what's going on? And he's like, no, no, Mark, I'm being dead serious. I'm like, he goes, if you haven't gotten the email from Usada, you'll get it any second. And then, of course, I'm on the phone with him. So, you know, I put him on speaker and I do one of these things. And I go look and I'm like, oh my God, I got an email from Yusada. So I start looking at it. And, you know, that's how, you know, basically I found out. And were you the one who informed John? Yeah. What was that like? You know, it was heartbreaking, bro. It was really heartbreaking because, you know, you tell him this. And he's looking at me like, what are you talking about? He thought, you know what I'm saying? That it could be for real. Like, this can't be happening. You know what I mean? The team thought the same. thing like you know it went from everybody was outside my room because my room and john's room were right next to each other okay like it was only like a a corridor not not a quarter but it was like his room was here you know what I mean and mine was was here and everybody was right in between both our rooms so I could hear everybody outside so when I got this phone call I was like bro

I can't believe this and everybody was just excited where you know we're going through fight week things are going as planned everything is great weight cut is awesome he's in great spirits the team is fired up everybody's around them we're doing our thing and and basically I walk out into the away and, you know, basically have to break the news to everybody. You know what I mean? We're not fighting. And it's just like, you know, it went from excitement to straight. Like, it's as if I told somebody, you know, somebody died. It was that quiet. And obviously he was very emotional Thursday morning. You guys did that press conference. And I give you and obviously John, a lot of credit for facing the music less than 12 hours later. A lot of people wouldn't do that. During the press

conference, you said you couldn't really disclose much about the two substances. Is there anything more you can tell us about them. The C-era, here's the thing. I want to explain everybody why I don't disclose anything about it. It's not that we're trying to hide anything or that we're not trying to, you know, get ahead of it and tell people what it is. I'm going to stand by our comments at the press conference.

John, at no point in time is a cheater, has never cheated, has never taken any substance that, you know, he knowingly knew of that was on the ban list, right? Same thing I did with you, O. Romero, if you remember I came on your show, I said, hey, guys, look, you know, he didn't cheat. We have an idea of where this thing could have possibly came from. You know what I mean?

and that's only because we get notified. It's not like you take something and you're like, all right, I'm praying to God that I hope we don't get caught. It doesn't work that way. Yeah. You take supplements. It could be anything. I mean, dude, you know, you can take freaking, you know, I mean, protein powder.

Yeah, on a basic form, B-CAA is anything, right? And if it's, you know, tainted with anything. Because remember, the things people don't understand, these supplements get made in manufacturing plants. And although it's just supposed to be protein, you know, the batch before you. that might have been some sort of testosterone booster that had something illegal in it. So if they don't clean the machines out,

and all of a sudden that can be in that batch. You know what I mean? Every person that's an athlete, I don't care who they are across all sports are responsible for what they put in their bodies. You see what I'm saying? So every athlete is responsible for that. Same thing with your well, same thing with Frank.

Same thing with, Carlos Ferreira. Same thing with, with bones. But what I've always said about Yusada and what I've always tried to tell everybody is that, you know, a guy who walks into GNC and buys some supplements and goes home and takes them and then he gets in trouble for that.

You know what I mean? Isn't a cheater. He's not a person that's trying to cheat. You get what I'm saying? So before I can come out and say, hey, look, he took this at this supplement. I have to go get those supplements. I have to get them and put them in my hands

so I can get them tested, right? If I come out and say, these are the products that we think he took and this is the substance he failed for, then the people at the stores will start to clear their shelves out and all that other stuff. So before that happens,

I got to grab the stuff, get it and have it in my hands, and then I can come out and say, look, here's what it is. Here's the substance we think, you know, caused it. We're having it tested. And then, you know, in a couple of weeks, we should know the answers and really get down

to the bottom of it. So are you saying that the two substances came from supplements? It came from something. I can tell you that much. Whether it's a supplement, you know, there's medication that he took that was prescribed to him by a doctor, that it could have come from there. There's a whole bunch of different things that lead to these things across all athletes. You see what I'm saying?

So at this point right now, I don't know. I have an idea. Okay. But I have to get that tested before I can sit there and say it. One thing I can tell you is this. Gat has gotten a lot of heat for this. And Mark Post is a person that I've known for the last 10 years. He's worked at other nutrition companies.

He was actually the first person I ever did a deal with in MMA. And one thing I can tell you is that Mark Post, when we did this deal, you know, knowing the history that Gat had in the post, in the past, Mark Post has done his best to get all those things out of there, clean those supplements up. He ensured me that John's stuff was coming from, manufacturing plants that only had, you know, substances that were legit. And so, you know, again, we don't believe that they came from a Gap product. Although I got to test everything and go through

the process. You know what I mean? I don't think this is something that necessarily came from a Gap product. And worth noting that Gat was the first company to back John after the hit and run accident when he lost all his sponsors. By the way, speaking of that, are we seeing the same thing again? Is he losing sponsors as a result of this? Where do we stand? No, I mean, listen, I think this is a completely different story. It's one thing when, you know, you make a mistake, like, you know, some of the stuff he's done in the past and, you know, doing things that have haunted him in the past. You know, the part that I think that people don't really get about this whole situation,

when John came out and he was crying in that press conference and all that, it's not that, oh, he got caught or he's off UFC 200. I think all of that plays a part, right? Like, you get in trouble, but it's more about the fact that, you, you're, you get in trouble. but it's more about the fact that you work so hard to just do everything right. Get them coming from and live your life a better way and to prove to people that you're not this person that everybody, you know, portrayed you to be. And then it's like, boom, this comes out of nowhere.

And you're like, what the hell? Like, what do I got to do? And that's, I think, you know, where a lot of disappointment and stuff came from. But as of right now, you know, he's sponsored by Monster Energy. He sponsored by Gat Nutrition and he's sponsored by Everlast. I've spoken to everyone. You know, they were just happy to know that it wasn't any type of street drugs and that, you know, obviously they understand the situation and everyone's going to wait until, you know, all the facts come out as the time goes on.

Unfortunately for you, you've been down this road before with YOL Romero, with Frank Mears, with Romero, it ended up being okay. in fact, his suspension is up tomorrow, coincidentally. Six months. Yeah. He still believes that he should have received nothing, and there's a strong case to be made there with Frank Mear. It seems like he's going to take the suspension and pursue other avenues. I don't want you to be, you know, a fortune teller here,

but putting you on the spot, and I recognize that, what do you think happens? Is he gone for two years? Do you think it will be... Again, you got to remember, the way this works is that, you know, you get a two-year suspension if you're cheating, and that's what it is, right? if there's other circumstances that play into this stuff, obviously that can get reduced.

Now, with your Romero situation, we ended up finding that there was a tainted supplement, okay? Frank Mears situation, Frank has other things in his mind that we may be able to prove or not prove. So that's why he's talking the way he's talking. You know what I'm saying? I don't necessarily agree with the way Frank, you know what I mean, is talking about, you know, asking for his release and taking a two-year suspension. You know, in my mind, if you didn't take it, they didn't do anything wrong, this shouldn't be the case, right? So I know for a fact that John isn't a cheater. I know for a fact John didn't take anything knowingly that I'm going to stand by until

the day I die. I don't care how this thing turns out. You know what I mean? That's just one thing about this guy is that he is not a cheater. So with that being said, if I can locate this, the stuff that he supposedly popped in one of these supplements, then we have a good case. Good feeling that this will be, you know, a reduced sentence. If we can't, then obviously it is what it is.

So I can't tell you that until I actually have everything. tested and then go from there. And of course, you've been down this road before with John, and as is often the case, you start to receive some heat. People say that you're an enabler, that you're doing him no favors. What's your response to that this time when people come out and say that he should get rid of you and that you're the problem? He's the one taking this stuff, but somehow you in Florida is the problem. What's your response? Ariel, what do I say to that? You know what I'm saying? To be honest with you, what can I say to

that. You know what I mean? I just keep saying that I'm in Miami and he's in Albuquerque when these things happen and people put two and two together and realize that I'm not and enabled, I mean, think about this for second area. You're talking about an eight figure payday, eight figures. Connor could talk about whatever he gets and all that. John by far is the highest paid guy in the USC and the numbers that were shown that day for everybody from Brock all way down. John was making more than all that. You know what I mean? So for me, it's like, you know, we're we lost out on an eight figure payday including myself. I mean, I didn't wasn't going to make a figure.

Sure, sure. But I would get a percentage of that. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? The team was going to get a percentage of that. If you think that by any chance, I'm going to sit here and be like, hey, man, yeah, take this supplement. Then I'm just as stupid as anybody.

I'm just as stupid as the people who think that I'm going to enable it. I'm feeding him the damn steroids. And, you know, I know what you're referring to? And at the end of the day, he can make all the comments he wants. You know what I mean? When the media called for him to get fired, Lorenzo stuck by him. And you know what I mean? At the end of the day, there's obviously a reason for that.

You know what I mean? and when you know the truth of what someone does behind the scenes, you don't make moves based on, you know, somebody calling for someone to clean house. So at the end of the day, again, it's a stupid comment. The people who think that are stupid to me, and I just don't care. It doesn't really bother me anymore. How does John proceed? Like, just as a human being with one blow after the next, like, are you afraid?

Like, what does he do on a Monday afternoon after losing out an eight-figure paid air? Is someone watching him? I'm being honest here. Because he was obviously distraught. I've never seen him like that. You don't see many athletes like that. What are we doing to make sure that, okay, that he weatheres the storm and is able to rebound again? Well, believe it or not, Ariel, everyone around John that cares about John, the real people that care about John, you know, I'm calling them almost every hour on the hour, and I'm calling John every few hours.

You know, we've got a lot of things to do here. And one thing I can tell you is that his mindset hasn't made me believe that anything, you know, he's got a good family, his brothers, you know, have gone through their own share of stuff. so everyone's supportive right now. You know what I mean? And I don't, I ask the same thing because I was really down too. You know what I mean? And today's Monday and I just realized

I got to get up, I got to go to work, and I got to move on. I think he's doing the same thing. I think he's right now he has a task at hand. He knows what that is. We know we've got to get to the bottom

of this stuff and figure it out and we got to face the music some more and we got to keep moving. And I think that's all he can do. I don't know if there's anything else realistically he can do. It's depressing. After a while,

you start to feel defeated. You know what I mean? And it doesn't help when you got people coming out and start to attack without really knowing what's going on. And, you know, either you got two choices. You can crumble or you can just, you can fight. And I think that, you know, one thing he said in that press conference, which is a true statement, is that he's a fighter and he's going to fight. And I think that that's really where we're at right now. He popped up on social media late last night and said that he watched UFC 200 but didn't really offer any thoughts. Did he share any with you in particular about Daniel Cormier's performance against Anderson Silva?

I would have whoop that guy. The Daniel Cormier that showed up that night, I would have killed that guy. But I mean, listen, you know what? Can I tell you something at the same time? You know what? As a team, we congratulate Daniel Cormier. He deserves everything that he gets. I feel horrible that they cut his pay in half.

I don't think that was warranted at all. I think the man deserved to get paid no matter what. I think the men deserve to get paid even more money going through all that. But I think now Daniel Cormier can understand and so can fans around the world. When John went through that whole situation with UFC 151, he, OSP came around, right? And everybody called it the worst performance and all this other stuff, although I thought it was a good performance.

And so did, you know, a lot of other people that really understand them at may. But when you get an opponent switched on you last minute, and for D.C., it was really last minute. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's a tough adjustment to make. There's emotions that go into this, and mentally it can throw you off. And, you know, the fight was competitive in a way.

D.C. got hurt by Anderson at one point. I mean, people started screaming and yelling. I mean, you thought maybe something, you know, was going to go opposite of D. DC's way. So I, you know, again, like I said, I'm, I'm happy for Daniel Cormier. You know, I congratulate him. I think that, you know, he showed what a true champion is and he continues to fight. And I think that's something he should be commended for. I don't think people should boo Daniel Cormier like that. You don't mean the way they do? But I also think that, you know, cutting that man's pay like

that, I think was just, you know, a tragedy. He didn't deserve that at all. Yeah. If that's what really happened, sure, sure. Again, who knows what he got paid behind the scenes and all the other stuff, you know, all that stuff is up for debate, but I'm just saying, that's my opinion. That is a great point, and we'll be talking to him a little later on about that. Malki, we've run out of time. I wasn't expecting to have to talk about a UFC sale here today, but your insight was great. Thank you so much. I appreciate the transparency as well, and, you know, good luck to you guys.

I wish the best to John, and I hope it all works out for him. I appreciate you. Thank you, Ariel. All right, there he is, Malki Kawa, the manager for John Jones and many others. A trying week for him and his team, but here they are. And, wow, it's going to be interesting to see how this whole thing, shakes out for Mr. John Jones. Okay, let's move along. One of the big stories this past weekend was Eddie Alvarez, the former Bellator Lightway Champion, a man who was on this show just a couple

months ago saying, I don't care about where this fight airs, what happens, I'm going to go out there and finally realize my dream of becoming a UFC champion. He did it. He called his shot on Thursday. He defeated Hafeld dos Santos in maybe the most impressive performance of the entire week. And we have the honor of speaking to the new UFC Lightweight Champion. Eddie Alvarez right now on the phone. Eddie, how are you? What is up, Ariel? Congratulations, my man.

Wow, what an amazing moment for you and an amazing moment for those who have been watching you for quite some time and have been through your ups and downs. Here we are around four days later. Has it sunk in that you're the UFC lightweight champion? No, no, really. I'm home in. I just had some breakfast with my family.

We go to the same place usually on Sunday, so we just got some breakfast and about to go for a swim with my kids. I don't know. Just kind of hanging out. My block welcomed me with open arms. I had some balloons and stuff all around my house. Oh, wow. I know it's neat, man. Pretty cool.

So when did you get home? I got home yesterday around 7 o'clock. And when we pulled up, basically like a big part of our neighborhood was just sitting outside the house. Wow. drinking some beers and hanging out. All the kids in the neighborhood were here, and it was really cool. Wow, you're giving me goosebumps. I can't imagine what that felt like.

Thursday night, I was going to say Saturday night, but Thursday night was the fight. When you got back, when you were away from the press conference and maybe with your wife, your family, your friends, your coaches, I mean, because to me the story isn't just that you're the champ. It's you overcoming everything. I mean, two years ago, it seemed like you were in purgatory. It seemed like this might not even be a reality. for you that you would never even get the chance to fight for the UFC belt.

What was that like on Thursday night when you were back, you know, amongst just your people? It was all quiet and you're staring at that title. Do you recall? Yeah. You know, I'd look like I went back to the hotel room to meet my wife. I think my two brothers were there with their wives and stuff. And I just looked at my wife and I really was just, I just said to her, I'm like, that just happened. I'm like, that just happened.

It's just something it's something we harped on and been working toward and talked about and talked about and talked about and obsessed about for years. And then when it happens, it's like, nah, it was real, I guess the cool part of it was just trying to work toward it.

Because then when it finally happens, it just feels like it was supposed to happen. I don't know. Kind of weird. When you were preparing for the fight, dreaming about the fight, working towards the fight, Did you think it would go like that?

Did you really think it would end that quickly? You know, when I look back on my career, and I told people that's going into the fight, whenever I get a guy that everybody's high up about, that he's really dangerous, that he's killing opponents, I usually knock them guys out. And it has nothing to do with me being good or me, having some certain technique, I get scared. I literally get afraid to the point where my body reacts in ways that it just makes for phenomenal performances. So in the past, I've always wanted guys who are super dangerous because my body responds in ways that, like, surprised myself.

And I've always done that, especially against South Poles. Every South Pole I ever fought, But mostly, I think, were my most vicious knockouts of my career. So, there was that guy. That's why I said, you know, he probably shouldn't be real violent with me the way he was with Pettis and these other guys because I react, I respond differently when people attack me like that. And I think it's just because I'm a little bit afraid, to be honest with you. Wow.

And when you say afraid, like you legitimately mean afraid? Like, you are more nervous. you're expecting the worst. It's very rare to hear a fighter use the A word, afraid. You're legitimately afraid? Afraid, you're scared. And the way people say that in this sport, and they look at it as a sign of weakness,

like, oh, a fighter shouldn't be afraid. And I have a line that says, be afraid, be very afraid. Because that fear throughout my whole career has gotten me my most vicious knockouts I've ever had when I was, when I had them nerves, and I turned them into, I'm okay with being afraid. I can embrace it. As long as I make the walk and I show up to compete,

being afraid is perfectly normal. So I just, I think against guys like that, when the guys are super dangerous, I respond differently. There was a nice moment there, or an interesting moment, I should say, when you had them rocked, and then you went for the incredible flying knee. And for a second, I was wondering if that would backfire on you.

Looking at from your perspective, I was like, oh, no, was he a little too aggressive there? What was going through your mind? Were you just saying, I got him? I'm going to go for the home run right here. And do you regret? I mean, it all worked out. But in hindsight, was that a mistake? No.

The flying knee was something that Dosanius's training partner did two fights before ours. So when I was in the back warming up, we were working to defend. that flying knee because their camp likes to do it. Rosanias does it, his trainer partners do it, and his trainer partner landed it and put a guy away two fights previous, and I was watching in the back when I was warming up. Wow. And when I was watching it, I said, oh, man, if I get him hurt, I'm going to do that.

So when we were in the fight and he was hurt, and the scene kind of replayed itself. He started stumbling back. He was going into the cage. I had a lot of space. So I just, I mean, at that point, I'm like, I was sort of in the zone. I just, I let me go for it. I think it'll be something, something cool. And I sort of went for it.

Not taking anything away from your previous coaches and teams, but there seems to be something magical brewing between you and the team now headed up by Mark Henry. What's going on there? Why is it working so well for you? It's a, it's a group. and I think I found the way, I found the right way to do things and I think eventually MMA will come to this as well

because boxing already has. It's one fighter with five, six coaches paying attention to that one guy and it makes for a way faster learning curve when everybody can pay attention and everybody can keep adjusting and keep communicating. When you have these giant camps, it's hard to keep up. How do you pay attention to 40 guys and make 40 guys better?

It's like quality over quantity. So we have a very small amount of guys. We have a great amount of coaches who are emotionally invested and have the energy and the passion to put into our small group of guys. So it's a mix for success, man, like a terrible mix for success. And we are all vibe and we're all pushing hard. And I think just that small group is the key to the success. When you were involved with that issue with Bellator a couple years ago,

do you recall a moment where you sort of mentally gave up and said, okay, this isn't going to happen and I have to come to terms with it? And I'm wondering if you did and that makes this moment today, that much sweeter? It does, man. The fighting in general, I correlate everything in life. You know, like there's times in life, there's bad points, and we define them as bad,

and then we get down on ourselves, and sometimes maybe we want to quit, doing whatever it is we're doing, and fights are the same way. You're in a fight, you're in a terrible situation, maybe your mind goes sour and you start thinking for a way out. but the way I fight is the way I like to live my life so I try not to make them any different you know if I'm going to not quit an occasion I'm not quit in my everyday life if I'm going to be

patient inside the cage and be patient in my everyday life so it's really what I what I try to do inside the octagon is it's an expression of who I am so that's really that's really how I want to fight. I want to just be myself and I express who I am. And I think a lot of people appreciate that about you. You do kind of feel like the every man. The great thing is you have a lot of options now as champion. There's a big bullseye on your back. Your old friend Will Brooks was successful in his debut on Friday. You talked about the easy fight in Connor McGregor after the win. What do you think is going to happen for you next? Do you have any idea yet? No, no, we haven't. I mean, we're so close. You know,

the fight just got over with. But more than anything, I would just really love for the UFC to come back to Philadelphia. Okay. I really want to campaign for that. I really want to push for that. If it's not in Philadelphia, like it's somewhere nearby.

This town is just screaming at the top of the lungs to have a UFC here. And I think we can sell out the Wachovia Center. We can sell out the Wells Fargo Arena or La Cora I think it's an easy sellout.

I think it's an easy sell for the city of Philadelphia. Okay, so speaking of sales, as the new UFC Lightway Champion, I'm sure you heard the news today that the UFC was sold, right? Yes, I have. When you hear that number, $4 billion, what's your reaction? I want some of that. I want to get me some of that. $4 billion is a lot of money, man.

action is I'm at a position right now where I just want to fight in my city and I want to grab as much as I can I got I got kids they got to go to college I got a lot of responsibilities uphold so I don't get me some

Yeah so are you looking Are you going to renegotiate? Renegotiate I don't know I'm to be honest with you I have some sitting down to do to figure out what's next I don't know typically how this process works when you become champion and things like that. Sure.

So we have some sitting down to do, some discussing to do, and figure out who's next and where it's going to be at. And that's really the only thing that's really important. I said at the top of the show that my big takeaway was that you guys are worth more than we all thought you were because the UFC is apparently worth $4 billion. Do you feel the same way? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, not... No fighter gets paid enough, man. Yeah.

We're literally, people don't recognize. I don't even think the fighters do. You know, people are, we're putting ourselves in danger at risk. There's no amount of money that's ever going to pay enough to say, hey, I'm getting inside of a cage and risk my maybe, my retina being detached, never being able to see again, or risk, you know, my ACLs being torn, never be able to be athletic again. There's no amount of money.

So, I mean, the more money, the better. And considering what other athletes are getting paid, you know, we should be at the top of the athlete list getting paid for what we do. That's a no-brainer. Are you going to pay close attention to that fight on August 20th? Because I feel like you can, you have that history with Nate, Diaz, and of course, Connor, you were on this show talking about him, spoke about him on Thursday. Is that the one that you're kind of really going to eye for what's next for you, the winner of that fight? Oh, hell yeah. Where are they fighting at? Vegas, August 20th, T-Mobile Arena.

I'll be there. I'll be there with a bullhorn on the side of the ring. So that's the one you want. I'll be there with a bullhorn to that freak show. The highest paid, you know, least best lightweights in the division, highest paid. Wow. It is. It's true. It's bullshit. What do you mean? These guys are making dollars, the highest.

dollars. They're both, I'd consider lightweights, I guess, making the highest dollars of all of us. And you got guys like Rafael Dosayno's, Donald Serroney and myself, like top, real top level guys who are, you know, we're just kind of getting by. You know what I mean? Yeah. These two guys need to be taken out and taken out viciously so we can get some of that money. Are you rooting for one over the other as far as your concern? As far as you know, if you get that fight. Is there one scenario that you prefer over the other? No, not necessarily. I mean, look, me and Nate almost got in a fight in Mexico.

I think Nate got a little emotional because I was fighting, I was fighting Gilbert Melendez. And at the way-ins, you know, he, I don't know, he does what he does, the whole mean mug and shit. And I approach him about it. And I don't think he liked the way I approached him. So we have a small history And Conner's Connor I just think I don't

I never I thought Connor was good At the one thing he did And he is He's very good at the one thing He's good at But this is mixed martial arts You can't

You know, you can't do that You can't do what he does You can't fight Dennis Hever And get a title shot It's bullshit You can't get You can't get knocked out

By Nate Diaz And then try to fight Mayweather This has become a circus. What is this? It makes no sense to me. You got knocked out by Nate Diaz, who is a 500 fighter at lightweight,

and then you offer out Mayweather. What kind of nonsense are we dealing with? So with that being said, since you're the champion and the standard bearer now, why do you want to give him a title shot? Why not a Habib or a Ferguson, one of those guys? Is it because you... Money.

Money. Money. Yeah. Money. Money. I don't blame you. Money. You get, look, you get a small amount of time to sharing pay-in-p-p-view buys ever.

Yeah. When you have the belt, that's when you get the sharing pay-per-view buys, ever. So what makes sense? You know, I'm no different than the regular work in me. Yeah. When I go out to work, I want to make the most money for my work. I'm no different. And to be honest with you, this division is so stacked,

I didn't fight Dennis Siever to get a title shot. I literally fought the top guys. the division and legitimately worked my way to the top to fight Raphael Dosanis. I didn't fight Siever and go after these top 30 dudes and be giving my shot.

Man, what a tough road it has been, right? Soroni, Melendez, Pettis, and then RDA. Yeah. Give me a night off. You need a night off. Pay me some vacation time or some. Who do you think wins that fight, by the way, the rematch?

Who's your pick? I think Nate, I think Nate takes it. I just don't think, I don't think you can become a five-round fighter in that small amount of time. I think it takes years. I think in boxing, you start off as a four-round fighter, and then you go into six rounds, and you go into eight rounds, and ten rounds. They do that because the body doesn't adjust within six months to become a championship fighter. It takes years to be able to build your body.

and that system to be able to fight and be efficient for five, five-minute rounds. I believe Nate Diaz has the ability to do that and stay calm and be cool and collective doing it. I don't think Connor does. So no matter how bad the fight gets or whatnot, I don't think Connor puts Nate away. I don't picture that happening. I just see even if Connor's being dominant, I see him dumping out at some point and just rolling over. that's that's what uh you know that's what i can foresee again might to me it might be the same exact punch the same exact way in my head when i see that fight going down i just don't see there being

enough time in between the last fight to grow so much and to start making your body move and do things in a different way i don't see it what do we have years for certain things what do we have planned for you in Philadelphia the next few days? Are you getting a parade? Are we going to go to the Phillies game and get serenaded? How is Philadelphia going to treat, you know, it's champion coming home? What's planned? Yeah. I have a talk with a councilman today. Oh. About doing, about doing a parade on like Broad Street or something like that. Wow. We're going to speak and then see what, you know, what their ideas are and what they have in mind. and then, you know, mostly anything.

I think I'm headed down the Jersey Shore this weekend with my wife and kids just relax and chill out. These last four months have been a lot of sparring rounds. Yeah. Yeah, you spoke about that 150 plus. Amazing. And I owe you a visit, right? You could put me on blast right now, so we have it on the record, right?

Do you want to do it? I mean, I know you're a little bit disappointed in me, and I'll take that. Yeah. Yeah, so let's put it out there. So to the listeners Yeah I've been asking Ariel For maybe over a year now

To come visit To have our walk in Philadelphia Yep I honestly think he's scared To walk around the street to Philadelphia But I've been asking him And he's been promised me saying

Yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah And the only time the guy calls me Is when he wants an interview So Oh that's not true I put him one blast I told him

I told him You come to Philadelphia And I'll give you an interview So when is our deadline for you to make it to Philadelphia? Well, initially I said the New York event, but you wanted sooner, so I said by October 1st. So you guys heard it. Before October 1st, you will see a walk through the streets of Philadelphia with me and Ariel Hawani.

I'm sure he's going to bring a security guard. Stop it. Are you kidding? I'm from the mean streets of Montreal. Over here. Hey, Philly's a new Iraq, man. You got to watch out. Oh, geez.

On second thought, I'm going to back out again. No, but I owe you, and I know you don't believe me. I know actions speak louder than words for you, and they should. So I will leave it at that. I put it on the show. It's now for the world to see, and I will back up my words. Eddie, I appreciate you coming on, though. I really do.

Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations, man. So happy for you and your family. Enjoy the belt. Very well deserved. Hey, for everybody's watching me since MFC. bow dog

why are he fighting all them you there Eddie oh it went down there dang he was just about to thank everyone let me just give him that

that moment I was about to get goosebumps there I think he's been fighting since 2003 MFC Bodec Bodec

Eddie are you there hello Eddie we lost you just as you were thanking everyone I want to give you that opportunity thank you man

hey I was just I was just saying for everyone to follow me during the rowdy fight and bow dogs in Atlantic City and have all my my colored t-shirts and everything like that. Thank you guys so much for the support throughout the years and this journey is, uh, we're just, we're just beginning, man. Let's, uh, let's, uh, make some history, take on the best in the world and, uh, thanks. Thank you so much. Congratulations, Eddie. Thank you for coming on. All right, brother. There he is, Eddie Alvarez, the new UFC Lightway champion. Amazing story. And like I said,

very, very well deserved. Okay, let's move along now. A man who was very busy this past weekend in Las Vegas called two shows for the UFC. He was all over the place and then worked the desk on Saturday. No one worked harder than Brian Stan and now he's squeezing us in on this Monday morning. Brian, how are you? I'm doing well, Ariel. How are you doing? Oh, man, do we have a lot to talk about? First, let me ask you this. I got to ask as someone who covers the sport and works for the UFC, you hear the news this morning. What's your reaction? Not surprised. You know, I think

the rumors are out there. Sorry to interrupt, but could you have said not surprised mother Fers? I wanted to hear that out of your mind. It's funny. I knew you were going to ask you this question and so it was so funny

but the first thing that came to mind was Nate D. It really was. He's that influential and I just can't do it anywhere near as well. I mean, if Nate is 100, I'm like two. But I'm not.

I mean, at that price point they would be silly to turn it down. I mean, it's, for them, it's an incredible deal. And, and, you know, I've been through several major acquisitions before, except I was on the acquiring side. But still, you know, there's, in that case, there were certain redundancies. And so you go through the processes where, unfortunately, there were some people that stay, some people go, certain segments of the business had to move from different geographic locations.

And there were, there were some tough. times. There were some really exciting times. This acquisition obviously is much different. I'm just a contractor. So I'm not a full-time employee. Obviously, there's people that I work with and care about at Zufa. But this is different. This isn't like it's a company that does this already acquiring another company and they may get rid of people. So I think for the most part, a lot of people will remain intact. And so it should be an interesting process we go through. One thing to think about, you know, from my end is, you know, WME certainly represents a whole lot of broadcasters. So who knows if they've got clients that they want to become competition to me and other analysts.

I don't think they represent any fighters that are currently analysts. So I don't think that that'll be a, that'll be part of it. But there could be changes. But it's just like any other job. You can't take any job for granted because other people want it. And if you don't deliver value every single day, then you could be expendable. Well, that would be a great way to piss off a fan base right off the bad if they replaced buying sand. I have a very hard time believing that that's going to happen.

But as you say, it's good to think that way. It always keeps you hungry. Given your experience, though, is it naive to think that it will be business as usual? In this sport, that's the kiss of death right there. Oh, business as usual and nothing's business as usual when there's a new owner. So things are going to change, right? I mean, that's just a natural. We don't know what?

I would say, from my experience with varsity level leadership, their tendency is you come in and you observe and you listen at first you don't come in like a no at all and you really will not get people to buy in you come in you say wow you guys have done an amazing job we want to know how you did it but while they're observing while they're listening they're probably going to ask why an awful lot why why and there they may insert their own experience to try and make things better. How do we take this from what it was and continue this trajectory of growth? I would expect that. I wouldn't expect it within their first quarter of ownership, maybe not even in their second. But I'm sure there's going to be some changes. And, you know, the one thing, and I said this

at a Q&A added this weekend, I've said it on my radio show before. The one thing that I'm not worried about is a trajectory of the sport. And here's why. Aside from who owns it, aside from the promotions, aside from the commercials, the nucleus are the athletes. They're what makes this sport so special. The fights they put on, the individual stories. And I mean, it's the reason why I've stuck around in the capacity I'm in. I love the individuals who do this sport. This sport attracts people typically who come from a lot of adversity. They've had to overcome things in their life. They're inspiring. And they put on inspiring fights. And I think that's why the sport continues to grow. You're not always going to watch football, baseball, basketball,

and be consistently inspired. When you watch mixed martial arts, these athletes will consistently inspire you. So the general consensus, we just had Eddie Alvarez talk about it. I've talked to other fighters as well, and I don't mean to put you on the spot here, but since you bring up the fighters,

should the fighters be paid more as a result of the fact that the UFC was just sold for $4 billion? Look, I'm always going to advocate for fighters to get paid more. Always. I am a fighter. I want to see time now.

Every single fighter have their income double, triple. So I'm all for it. And I certainly hope that the new leadership will continue to find ways to do that. You know, their credit rating has been downgraded twice, which means they carry a heavy debt load, which is obviously going to make it more difficult to pay anybody more. But that's what I hope. I hope with this deal that they continue to move this business forward and they make the smart decisions so that they can reward first before anybody else those athletes who are out there putting it all in the line every single day.

Now I said earlier that this is the perfect time to sell. There's a lot going on. The company's never been hotter. It's the perfect time. And also, part of the reason why it's the perfect time is because of the evolution of the sport, there are certain things that are making it harder to promote the sport. And one of those things is Yusada. And I don't mean that Yusada is a thorn in their side, but they're catching a lot of people.

And major credit to the UFC for bringing them in and being as transparent as possible and for trying to clean up the sport. But no promoter wants to see their main event, you know, fall to pieces three days before. And that's what we saw last week in Las Vegas. Now, you've been a part of this USADA deal from the beginning, okay? And it receives criticism at times. But last week was a good week for USADA, right? It was a good week for the system.

Is that fair? Absolutely. Yeah, I think I am very proud of this program as a whole. There's nothing that's perfect. There's nothing that's free of criticism. Criticism helps you improve. It keeps you humble and keeps you moving forward. But I'm very proud of what this program's been able to do.

And I understand some of the criticisms, you know, in terms of fighter privacy, et cetera, there's no other way to have a program this effective without operating it the way that it operates. And unfortunately, it did. It did, you know, this program was part of a made event change at the last minute,

but that's not their fault. That has nothing to do with them. We as athletes are always responsible for what we put in our body. And, you know, we have and John will have his time for arbitration. That's going to go on right now. He's in that process right now where I'm sure he, he, within his 10 days to appeal,

has written his letter to appeal. Then he will basically go and start to deciding whether he wants one arbitrator, does he want two, does he want three? All of this is available on their website. I think every athlete in the UFC should go to that website and read all these processes so that they know their rights under the system. But I think, again, it's a good system because there are a lot of fighters out there. There's a lot of people who criticize this program,

and none of those people have ever been hit by somebody who's, on illegal substances. They've never been cheated out of their win bonus because they fought someone using illegal substances. It's a major swing. You're talking about being able to pay your mortgage for three months, vice paying your mortgage for six months, being able to put any money away for your kids' college fund, not being able to put any money away from your kids' college fund based on our winner loss. Those are the implications in the sport, not to mention the long-term concussive brain damage that can take place as well. You know, we're kidding ourselves sometimes. We don't think that those are risks in this sport. And I've trained with guys, and I can tell exactly when

they cycle on to something, and there is a massive, massive difference in their punching power, a massive difference. And it makes a tremendous difference in the result in the outcome as well. Do you like the fact that when this news comes out, we're not told what the substance, or in this case these substances are? Would you prefer that it's fully transparent so there's no guessing? I don't know if you know this, but Chale Sondon is on the Joe Rogan podcast today, and he He said what he believes John tested positive for. Now, I don't want to say that because I don't have that confirmed. But this leads to speculation.

Do you prefer if they just come out and tell us, or do you like the fact that this is kept quiet? Here's the problem with that. If they come right out and tell you that's prior to the fighter's appeal, right? I think they're trying to err on the side of the fighter. And really, you know, I'd want to know I'm not an active fighter anymore. But if I was an active fighter, I would want my chance to get my done. ducks in a row first before the world knows and the world starts to control the narrative on what I failed for. But other people may not have that opinion, right? If you fail, the substances

that are announced right away, you're going to have a whole lot of armchair quarterbacks out there saying exactly what took place here, what's going, lots of speculation. So I like the way it is now. I think the news comes out. All we need to know is that fighter can no longer compete at that point. So I don't mind it. I am sure there are other people that are fighters, but most of the people that I've heard complain about that are the media because they want to know the information fans. They want to know that. Of course we want to know that information. There's nothing wrong with that. I get that. You know, but I don't think the fighters would want that out right away. I think the fighters want to know, wait a minute. What did you find in my system? What is this? And I want

to use an example that happened to me in my own career because this is important. It's not only important for the fans and the media to know, but it's important for the athletes. I was sponsored. The biggest endorsement I had was from a supplement company. This wasn't some like backshelf company either. This was a major company sold in every supplement store, commercials, huge booths at the Olympia, all the big expos. They come out with a new product one time like, Brian, you're going to love this. You take it pre-workout. Tons of energy. It does this. It does that. And luckily, and I say luckily, I look at it, I don't know about this stuff. You know, I've never, never been one to go to GNC and like, hey, what's this stuff to eat you have locked behind this little latch here?

I was a way, I was a supplement for convenience type of guy, something with caffeine to get me going for my third training session or a protein shake because I can't cook right now. I've just got to have an op-agon and I'm exhausted, laying on the floor, right? This stuff was a little funky and it's already being sold in stores. It's on the shelves at GNC and something that serves across the country. I think four or five months later, my manager tells me, hey, this stuff, got pulled. I was like, really, why? He said it traces a meth in it. Meth. Wow. So, I mean, imagine me, I'm getting ready to fight Vanderlea, Sylvan. I'm on the M&A hour. I'm ready for me. I'm ready to go, you know, because I'm taking something that I think is a pre-workout

formula, you know, and then I pause about something. And that could have happened. Yeah. Right? Luckily for me, I looked at that. This is going to do. I've never had a supplement help me. I've had a supplement replace a meal. I've had a supplement give me some caffeine so I can go hip pads and I'm not dragging, but that's it. I've never found any of that stuff that works. So the point is, for all these fighters, if you're going to take something that's telling you it's going to boost your testosterone, it's going to make you stronger, any of that stuff, it's a very simple process. You need to notify Jeff Meditsky. They will research it. They will tell you, though, that, hey, look, this is a massively unregulated industry. So I would recommend you,

don't take this. Do you really think this is going to make a difference? Yeah. And in the O Romero case, he didn't even send it to them. They did it upon himself. When he said he had a tainted supplement, he didn't even know, they ordered a batch all on their own and found the same exact substance in it. They ordered it all on their own from the internet, and it had the same substance. So, I mean, he did actually have a tainted supplement. But that is my recommendation of these fighters.

And any nutrition, you talk to George Lockhart, you talk to Dolce, they're both can tell you the same thing. They don't care for any of that stuff. Nothing is better than real food for these men and women. And I think that that's the error work. these men and women need to be very responsible for what they put in their bodies. Even more so, if you're a guy or a girl who's had issues in the past, John should have known better.

His team around him should have known better, regardless of what was taking place. I don't know if it's tainted supplement or what took place here. But regardless, I'm proud of the program. And I know people complained a lot about the timing when the announcement was. What they need to understand is when these specimens are sent, to that lab in Salt Lake City, nobody, Salt Lake City doesn't know whose specimen it is. It's just sent

and it goes right in the queue with everything else. And guess what? That lab is independent of Usada. They don't care how quickly Dana White or anybody else wants that substance back. They do not. They don't care what the timing is a UFC 200. They have no idea that that testing sample is for UFC 200. So it goes through their normal

timing process and it just so happened that it came back a few days before this fight. Which, hey, look, it stinks. It stinks. for everybody. But the responsibility of that falls on somebody totally different, falls on that athlete. So we don't know what the substance is. The only thing that we do know is that it's not a street

drug because they don't test for that out of competition. But you've trained with John. You know John. I've been very vocal about this. I think he's the greatest fighter of all time. But if something comes out that he was looking for a short cover or whatever, it changes the way I view him. I view Anderson Silva a lot differently

after what happened to him. What was your reaction when you found out that it was John Jones, that this happened too. You know, when I heard that, I was, I was surprised, I wasn't surprised

that something happened that stopped this fight. I was just like, oh, we got so close to the finish line and something came up again. I was surprised at this

and in the timing because I knew right away what can't be a recreational drug. And at least when I trained with John, I never, nobody ever suspected him of the use.

anything anything I mean he shows up at the beginning of camp massively out of shape um and then gets in a shape during it would work hard and you know would shed shed but you know the games he made when power lifting were it didn't surprise me either because he had never lifted weights when I trained with him never and I mean it was one of those things like gosh if you actually started doing this you don't it's even better you would get if you started doing some performance exercising things like that so that did surprise me but john is you're you know, I think he might be an easily influenced guy and who knows who got into his life. Who knows, you know, what, you know, what supplements he's taken, a friend of mine who works in that supplement industry, you know, had told me that that GAT has some shady stuff.

And he potentially didn't know what was going to his body. But the fact, if he didn't send that off to Vitsky to look at, then that's a mistake. Yeah. You know, that is a massive mistake. If you're going to take something that's telling you it's going to do something for you other than a protein or a vitamin, that's a problem. And there's a lot of people making great points right now. Hey, look, they fought for years for over a decade. They never popped positive.

You know, why? Because they never cheated. They never put anything in their system that could compromise a drug test. And so it's very unfortunate. And, you know, my main focus is a guy who once knew John well. It's just concerned for him going forward. You know, he faces it to your ban. and any time, and I've been at a phase in my life where, you know, when I was a young man,

things would continually go wrong for me. I couldn't go a long period without having something go wrong for me. And it wasn't always my fault, but the tendency is for us to blame other people or blame the situation on it, when really I didn't overcome that time period until I really blamed myself and I was, look, regardless of what's going on, I'm the problem. I've got to change some things, you know. And so I think that maybe that could be part of the answer. there. You know, it's a, it's a shame because I think he was the best ever as well. I think

Daniel Kormier certainly deserved a chance to write that wrong. He was as focused as I've ever seen him. I wanted to see that fight. Everybody wanted to see that fight. And I don't know if we'll ever see it now. Good time to host a radio show, right? Yeah, right? Yeah. Your show is great. Tuesday nights, Tuesday nights, 6 to 8 or 5 to 7? 6.8 p.m. It's 6 to 8 p.m. on Channel 93 on Sirius XM, and I appreciate you saying that. I am still getting used to actually hosting a show, right? I'm typically on the other end. I answer the questions.

Now I kind of have to do it all myself, and it is a very unique and humbling experience. And so I appreciate whomever is listening now. I appreciate all that. I've had some really, really great fighters. Yeah. And guests come on, and they're fantastic. Yeah, no, I know.

I try to listen to it every week. You do a great job. When I grew up, I want to be you, Brian Stan. You do a great job of breaking things down for us. What a great week it was for you. You guys killed the stuff with John Anick, the two shows with John Anick, the work on Friday. Excuse me, on Saturday. You got the Michael Bisping News.

Again, like I'm saying to all the guests, we could talk for two hours here, but we have run out of time, Brian. Thank you so much for the time. Great stuff. Best of luck to you. And we'll be listening tomorrow to all the things you'll be talking about. Wow, no shortage of topics to discuss in MMA. Appreciate the time, Brian. My pleasure, man.

Thanks on me on the show, Ariel. Have a great one, brother. All right, there he is. Brian Stan, color analyst for the UFC, all-around great guy, host of his own show on Sirius XM every Tuesday, as he said, from 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern time. Okay, let's move along now. So this, I mean, like I said, wow, I keep saying this all day, but there's so much to discuss. One of the great minds that I wanted to speak to on this week's episode of the show, our good friend Mike Dolce, who is joining us right now via The Magic of Skype. One of the great things about Mike Dolce is that he always has impeccable internet connection.

It's like he's sitting here staring me right in the face. Mike, how are you? I'm great, Ariel. Only the best for you in the end of the way out. Thank you. Okay. I know you probably weren't expecting this question, but let me just ask it right off the top because I want to get the temperature of everyone in this community.

You hear the news about the UFC sold this morning. Your reaction? Awesome. I love it. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a businessman. So I understand the investment. Great job to Lorenzo, Frank Fortita, Dana White, and everyone involved, every athlete who's been a one-off all the way through to the George St. Pierre's and the Ronda Rousey's. And yourself and hopefully my team over here that we've all played just a little part, it's an amazing, amazing accolade, I think,

for everyone who's dedicated their life to the dream of mixed martial arts. And here we are having our own little part in the largest sale of a sports organization in the world. Fair enough, though, your bank account, my bank account, not getting bigger. That's just the truth of the situation. Are you surprised at the number, $4 billion for this organization? No, you know, like Stan, you know, I have some, you know, financial background, and I certainly understand the numbers. You know, I think they got a great number for what their net was, but at the same time, you look at their level of growth and what they have as far as assets. I think it's a fair number. Now, unfortunately, I was.

out in bed. I had about $4.00 I could contribute. But, you know, I think it's, again, it's awesome. Okay, a lot of things I want to talk to you about. One of the things, of course, big news last week is the John Jones situation. We were just talking with Brian and he was laying this out about how if you're not telling Usada and the UFC supplements that you're taking, if you're not doing your due diligence, then you're equally as reckless as the guy who's taking PDs, even if you say you don't know. How is this affecting the world that you're living in right now? what you do as a coach, as a nutritionist, as a trainer, when you have these guys taking these supplements, maybe not telling you, and it could then reflect, I mean, how has your life changed

since Usada gone involved with the sport? I love Usada. The only, you know, area that I'll always be firm on is I have a disagreement with their IV replenishment. I think that should be governed by medical doctors after an evaluation and a review. But that's a whole other conversation. Well, let's speak to that just for a second. So why do you feel strongly about that now as this thing has evolved?

Because bureaucrats shouldn't be determining the health and safety of athletes. That should be done by medical doctors. There are certain athletes, I won't name names, that actually do not cut a lot of weight, two, three, four pounds during all of fight week, but they have such extreme anxiety when they get the adrenaline dump on stage. They can't hold down a sip of water. They can't eat a meal without getting diarrhea. That athlete, an athlete similar to that, who are not big weight cutters, they should be

able to actually talk to a doctor, become evaluated, and have the access to medically prescribe, medically administered, medically supervised, USADA rep standing there, IV rehydration. They should have that ability to lower the risk of long-term TBI brain issues, health issues, that list goes on and on. So I'll always be an advocate for athlete health and safety. Okay, fair enough. Now, so going back to the original point, how has it affected you good or bad you saw to getting involved. Usada getting involved has actually been bad because we can't keep up with the business. That's a good problem.

I've continued to hire my staff. I have a staff of 10 here now in my office on my team, registered dietetetians, certified strengthening specialists, exercise physiologists, tech support, customer service, all this that we have to try and keep up with the demand because we are such a diligent team. But we have our athletes signed waivers and contracts that they cannot consume. any supplement unless it has been approved and cleared by my team, my office, where they owe us our full fare up front and we immediately dissolve service with the athlete. It's serious business.

Yeah. And for a guy like John Jones, who I agree with you, I think he's the greatest fighter on the planet, maybe of all time. It's going to be hard to make that argument because he's missed quite a bit of time actually in competition. But if we were working with an athlete with John Jones, we would vet it every single product, every single supplement. Now, right here, Jeff Novitsky's on my speed guy. I call Jeff, Jeff, hey, this XYZ product, it is not NSF certified, but it's not on the USIDLIF.

Can you let us know if that is approved? There's a whole list of supplements that are approved. Every supplement that you could think of is actually on that list, essentially. But to standpoint, we don't need supplements. You should be getting all your nutrition through food, through proper lifestyles, through periodization, through intelligent training, through rest management, through stress mediation. That's the way you can perform optimally. So if a fighter takes supplements without you knowing, I mean, this is, this is, you know, to be selfish, this is bad for your business, bad for your reputation, right?

Terrible. How easy is it, is it just as easy as calling Jeff Novitsky and saying, hey, can you look this up? Like, is it that easy to figure out if, really? That's it. Exactly. It's that easy. So there's no excuse for not telling them in advance. There's no excuse, especially at the elite level.

We're talking about millions of dollars off a scoop of some $20, you know, superlose-laden crap that's not. not giving performance anyway. And I will say there are supplements out there that are intentionally doped that the supplement store owner knows and they kind of lie under the fringe and they're sitting on the shelf and the supplement store clerk is like, this is the one like Stan said, had meth in it. I remember back when I was in high school, there was a product called Russian Bear that had trace elements of Diana Ball, one of the most powerful steroids on the planet.

All the high school kids were buying that up and eventually was taking off the shelves reformulated. Or you think about the Mark McGuire andro dates. hormones. That stuff is rampant and I'm not going to put my morals on other people and say you shouldn't take that. But if you're competing in sport that has rules and confines of conduct, you damn well better not be. You better vet that and make 100% short. And this is a world that is very foreign to me, but from your experience, I mean, how normal is it for these supplements to be tainted? I mean, all of a sudden we're finding out like every single guy saying taint to taint.

Is that a normal thing? Is it just best to just stay away from all of them? Is that what you would advise a fighter? Absolutely. I would advise all fighters to stay away from all supplements. What we do with our athletes, all of our athletes, they have to, of course, sign the waiver. And then they have to go to their doctor and they have to get a complete blood panel done. They have to forward the blood panel to us, to my team.

And we go through a list of deficiencies. We look at what their hormone levels are. We look at what their electrolyte levels are. We look at what their vitamin D would be or what their, you know, what their vitamin D would be, or what their B levels are, what their zinc is. We would look at all these levels and say, huh, you're a little bit of iron deficient. So we're going to tweak your nutrition first and foremost to see if we can fill that in and then determine whether or not there's some sort of medical condition or metabolic issue

or sometimes it's due to the geographic region. You're living in the Pacific Northwest hard to get that vitamin D, possibly difficult to get enough through diet alone. Then we may go to the USADA website and look at the list of USADA approved supplements and say, here's a vitamin D3 supplement that you should actually be using. Go to your doctor now and have your doctor sign on this also, sign off on this also. That's what we do. We make sure we have two and three and four different set of professionals that actually vet every protocol that we suggest.

This is what you must do at the elite level. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The early way in has become this new story, and we saw almost a disaster where Misha Tate almost missed the window and the fight would have been called off. How do you feel about the early way in? Is it beneficial to the fighter? Is it trickier for the fighter? What's your take on it? I love the early way in.

And I actually sat down with Jeff Novitsky prior to the California State Athletic Commission weight-cutting symposium. And this was one of the suggestions I passed on to Jeff. The earlier, the way in, the better because it's about the health and safety of the athlete. That fluid sac around the brain, it takes longer than 24 hours to fill back up.

36 hours is stretching it all the data that I and my team have found, it'll take at least 48 hours to fully replenish itself when you were even mildly dehydrated. We're talking about a three to five percent level of dehydration. That's a whole other conversation. I was almost going back to the IV stuff. The IV makes that easier to replenish, but it's not mandatory for a healthy athlete. They need more time. They need a larger window. So I love this idea. Now, we look at my athletes, you know, my, my, me, but, you know, and people kind of beg me on this. I saw the, tweets. But it's true, the athletes my team works with are typically on weight the night before,

so they can be fed dinner before they go to bed. They can have breakfast the morning and they go and step in on the scale. So this was very selfish. I want the athletes weighing in earlier so we can rehydrate them. They can be fully fed. They can be healthy when they step inside the octagon and they can lower their risk of long-term medical issues. It's not about winning or losing that fight per se. It's about holding your grandkids 20, 30 years from now. That's really what my team is after. And I love the fact that the UFC and all these commissions now are falling in line. So unanimously, it's just been a bunch of praise for the early way. And although it was interesting, I was talking to Will Brooks after his fight on Friday. He was successful in his UFC debut. And he said

that it kind of caught him off guard. He actually put on too much and he wasn't managing his weight well. And now I don't want to have you speak about him because, you know, you weren't there and it's not fair to him. But I know not every fighter can afford someone like yourself for, you know, they're coming up, it's just, it's a luxury in some degrees, but do you kind of wish at some point, and do you think it's necessary that the UFC in some way, shape, or form helps provide these guys with that information on what to do, you know, now with the early way and how to rehydrate? I know they give them a little pack of food and things like that, but is that enough at this point? Like, should more be done for the fighters who can't afford someone like you?

Should they put you on retainer? I don't know. I'm just kind of spitballing here, but do you get what I'm saying? Let me kind of be clear, because lots of false headlines have come out about what our rates are. We charge 5% of the athlete's purse, win or lose doesn't matter, is what we charge. And that comes for 52 weeks of year-round service by one of the most comprehensive professional teams on the planet. And Tiago Alves didn't fight for 21 months. Guess what? He had access to myself and my team every single day of those two years or so that he was off.

And then when he eventually fought, it was 5%. We, you know, as a business, you could say we lose thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. A kid like Mursad Bechtick, who's fighting for 10 and 10, 12 and 12, three times a year. Come on now. He's having access to dietitians that are making 85K a year in my office. So I could go on and on about what the true value is. I ask the professional athletes out there, is that minimal, that single-digit, minimal percentage, is that enough to compete at the elite level?

If you miss weight, you move 20% right out of the gate. You don't perform and you don't move forward in your career to bigger, better fights, bigger paydays. I like to say we add zeros to the back of our athletes' paychecks because our athletes have a very, very, very high win percentage ratio, which means they get to the next bigger four-fight deal and the next bigger four-fight deal. Most of our athletes fight at the top of the card because they're healthy year-round. Weight cutting starts 52 weeks before the event. So to answer your quest, I wanted to give more context because there's a lot of misinformation about that. That's a small percentage allows you the access to the most credible team,

I believe on the planet that has a specialty inside athletics and class dominated athletics, of course. That's what they have access to. So to not to gain too much weight, who's conducting your weight cut? Not a team of professionals, not a team of experts. That's the problem. Too many of these athletes, and Will's probably making a good piece of change. He's a super athlete. I really like Will.

It's not about Will. Athletes like them. I know Misha had trouble and Johnny had trouble and Kelvin had trouble. All these elite athletes that are making six and seven figures. they're having problems making weight come on now does this happen in the NFL the NBA the MLB the NHL the Premier League and soccer heck no because they have the best professionals behind them knowing these athletes are multi-million dollar entities within themselves and they should have the management teams subordinate to them that are working for them and that's what my team does um

I saw via your social media that you held some kind of seminar in Vegas this week what was that all about what was going on there so now we have what's called the dulce diet certification and nutrition conference, we are an approved continuing education provider by the NSCA, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, by NASM, by the AFAA, by three of the largest accrediting bodies in fitness. We are a continuing education provider for them, for their coaches, because of the curriculum that we have, the scientific evidence-based curriculum, to teach this next generation of coaches. We have medical doctors actually sit in and get certified in our system. We have certified personal trainers. We have CSCS, NSCA, CSCS is all sit in. So the highest level

of degrees are coming into our nutrition conferences to understand the true confines of nutrition and dietetics, what the scope of practice is, because if you're not a registered dietitian, it's illegal for you to prescribe nutrition medical therapy. Now, a lot of these guys and girls running around the industry praying, well, I say praying upon these athletes, they take a three-hour a three-day course. And they say, well, I can write meal plans. Those that come through our conference, we make it very clear, you cannot write meal plans. You can educate, you can administer our team of registered dietitians do all the prescription of nutrition. And that's one of the aspects that differentiate some of those professionals that come to us and what we're able

to actually support through science, but also following all legal criteria, all insurances. We actually have all of that covered. So that's what we're doing. And it was cool to see you out there. eating that's clean by the way good for you yeah thank you um i got to ask you about ronda roussey perhaps your most famous client what kind of update can you give us on her amanda nunez new champion every time we see that belt defended we think of her where is she at she is she's uh she's living a great life in southern california okay now i think that's my answer and to be fair i would never disclose athletes or clients personal information i love ronde i think she's truly one of the the greats of all time she's a legend yeah um in m m m ms

a pioneer, and whatever her choice will be moving forward, I support 100%. And I have no further information truly. As I sit here right now, I don't know what her next move will be, but I'm going to clap and support it. Do you think she fights again, though? I don't know if she does, but if I'm in her shoes, I don't know if I would, if I've amassed the career and the financial, you know, capital that she has. She's very intelligent.

She's very shrewd with her savings and her investment. This is a young lady that could live 100 plus years off of her savings alone and have a very nice life and not have to work again. But we know Ronda can, you know, she can command six figures plus for a single appearance. She can do a couple appearances a year and make more money, you know, than probably the entire UFC roster combined. So does she fight again? Man, I have no idea. As a fan, I would love to see it. No, that venue was electric when Ronda Rousey.

comes walking out. But as a friend, whenever she decides, you know, I support. Wow. Don't tell that to the new owners that you, you know, you want to buy that thing to get Ronda Rousey on board. You mentioned Tiago Alves. News came out that he's going down to 155. This is a guy who had trouble making 170 ally Quinta tweeting this weekend that he's fighting him at MSG. What can you tell us about that move? How are you going to get that done? So it's through science. The amazing team that I have here that works, you know, as a part of the Dolce Diet. in our larger corporation. We, what we do, we take a very scientific approach. So Tiago Alves, every six weeks, gives us a complete blood panel.

Every six weeks, he gets into a Dexas scan, which has a complete analysis of his skeletal muscle mass, of his bone density, of his visceral and subcutaneous body fat. We know where every ounce intra-exticellular water, we know where every ounce of Tiago Alves's body mass actually lies. And every six weeks, we complete and update prescribed nutrition programs to slowly and methodically in a healthy manner, bring his body weight down. As you may or may not know, Tiago Alves has been on weight the night before Wayans for his last three fights since that injury he had a few years ago. Now, this is a guy that was, you know, one of the worst weight cutters in

the world. Fortunately, we came in in 2010 and through that alignment has never had a problem making weight again. And moving forward now, he's in the position to actually fight at 155 pounds, and I believe win the lightweight world title, making him an immediate UFC Hall of Fame member and a legend. And all of it goes to Tiago and the hard work. You know, my team just supports that. Tiago definitely, he puts the work in and he makes it happen. He has big goals, big dreams.

This is a young man that's just in his early 30s. Yeah. You know, we've been watching him fight since he was a kid. And, you know, I'm happy. And we always said part of the plan was Tiago by 34, 35 years old to have a UFC world title, defended a few times and then move on to the big money fights into his late 30s. That was part of our plan in 2010 when we came up with it. And I love the fact that that's what we do here as a team.

We come up with a overall periodization approach, not just for this next fight, not just fight week, but the entire course of an athlete's career. And then we start to drop these little milestones as we go. Great stuff as always, Mike. Love the insight. Thank you so much for breaking it down for us. Continued success to you and the team and great seeing you out there in Las Vegas. Thank you. Always a pleasure, Ariel.

Thank you so much. And a big fan of the MMA hour. Oh, thank you so much. There he is. Mike Dolce. What a brilliant mind. He has some tremendous insight into everything going on in the world of mixed martial arts. Always great to catch up with him. Okay. In a second, we are going to be joined by the reigning, defending UFC light heavyweight champion. What a week it was for him. Holy smokes. Daniel Cormier came to Las Vegas around this time last week, thinking that he was going to fight

his longtime rival, John Jones. He ends up fighting Anderson Silva at UFC 200 instead. Wow. What a turn of events, and he is kind enough to join us from his familiar setting in his home in San Jose, California. There he is, the light heavyweight champion Daniel Kormier. Daniel, what's up? Oh, there he is. D.C. Can you hear me? Yeah, you hear.

What's up? What's up, my man? Thank you so much. Wow. Wearing the burnt orange, correct, of OSU? There it is. Go pokes. Go close.

Okay, we have a lot to talk about, Daniel. Of course, I want to talk to you about last week, the fight, all that stuff. But, hey, as one of the faces of the UFC, you wake up this morning and you find out that the company has been sold for $4 billion. What's your reaction? You know, man, honestly, I woke up and I didn't, I mean, I didn't know much about it, but I woke up and I was like, wow, it's been done. It's been talked about, you know? Sure. But I've actually been one of the guys that's experienced a sale before while I'm in an organization.

organization. So I kind of have an idea of what to expect. And the thing is, like, you, you can just jump to conclusions or you can kind of wait and see what happens and what changes. I'm a guy that likes to wait and see what happens, man, because when Strike Force was sold to the UFC, operational, some things changed. But the organization did not change all that much. So I need to see what's going to happen first before I passed judgment and see what happens. I'm hopeful, you You know, that there will be more funds and finances for the fighters, but you never really know. You're a big sports fan. Are you blown away by the number $4 billion?

And does that, you know, put a light bulb above your head and say, wait a second, here? You know, this is, this is, right? Big number, man. I mean, even, you know, it's like all these sports franchises now are selling for so much. You know, even a few years ago to Clipper's Soul for this outstanding, outlandish amount of money. It's like three times. Yeah, it's like two times. that. The UFC is sold two times what the Clippers sold for. And when the Clippers got sold,

it was like, that's an amazing amount of money for a franchise. But the UFC is a sport that's continued to grow. The UFC is a sport that draws in young fans. Everybody wants the young fans. And the UFC is a sport that's shown that it can bring the young fans in and droves. So a big, big, huge win for the UFC, huge win for Petita Brothers. And if we are to believe what Dana said, we're going to go to the next level, I guess. Okay, let me talk, because there's so much to talk to you about. Holy moly. So, so I mentioned this to you. I thought last week, in a small, weird way, sort of, it encompass what you are all about. You are a survivor, you are a guy who keeps standing, you've been there before, you have been dealt some tough

hands throughout your life. And then here you are about to, you know, realize this dream of headlining the biggest show in UFC history against your rival to avenge that loss. I mean, it couldn't have worked out better for you. And then you find out Wednesday night that it's not. happening anymore and you don't know if you're going to remain on the card you're not getting that money all that stuff have you ever in your entire athletic career and i know again the olympics i mean there's so much that you've been through but experience that kind of highs and lows where you're down you're high going into vegas down high you get the fight then you're getting booed for your performance i mean what the heck is going have you ever experienced anything like

that before in that 72 hour stretch no not not not athletically and anything i've dealt with personally it's like if it's bad it's like just straight Bad. It's not bad. Then it gets right back good. Right. In sports, it was always kind of like up. And then if I lost, it was kind of like bad. Whereas this, it was, I got to Vegas. I was excited, man. I saw my picture on the side of the T-Mobile Arena. The energy was great in the area. Everything was just fine. And then going to the presser, and then going the way that it did, having our stared on, everything was just like, it was great. You know, so I was on this high. and then when I heard about John being pulled out of the fight it was very disappointed and sad

and then they started talking about getting me a fight and I was like get me a fight get me a fight get me a fight and then my mind starts to play with me and I'm like well do I really want to fight someone different have I you know I haven't prepared like am I going to be okay and then um so when I left Dana and them like we're going to try to get you we're going to try to get you another fight

So I'm like, okay, I'll go try to make weight. I went to the gym and worked out and did things that I normally do, but then like I was so stressed every time I'm hitting pads and I'm asking Bob, cook him, like, Bob, you hear anything, hear anything, hear anything? And I finished working out, and I was like, well, I haven't lost as much weight that I normally would lose in this weight cut. So then I'm stressing and the weight's not coming off like I'm supposed to do all day long on Thursday.

I still don't know, but I'm still having to manage and monitor my weight, make sure I don't get heavy. when in reality, when I lost Rashad off the fight and didn't know if I was going to fight, Pat, 10 days before, first thing I did was went and got some food and just ate. But in this situation, I couldn't because if I got a fight, I wouldn't have been able to make weight. So it made everything more difficult, man. The weight cut was hard. It was taxing.

And then when I finally found out I was fighting Anderson, then I was like, high again, you know? So it was crazy, man. It was crazy. And then I hadn't fought eight months, which is not very, Good for me. I don't fight. I fight often. I fought John Rumble in Alexander last year in a matter of eight months. All in eight months, I fought those guys from January to October. I hadn't fought in eight months at all, so everything kind of felt foreign to me. It was weird. I don't want to be off that long again. Amazing footage of Dana breaking the news. That footage on embedded. Was that

when you really just found out? You had no idea prior to that? No idea. You see, Dana always has this guy with him. His name is Elliot. He takes pictures and he does videos. And Elliot was there, but I didn't know he was filming because me and Dana were just sitting there. And I was, Dana came in and he couldn't tell me because there's protocol to what everything, how it happens when stuff like that happens. So he wouldn't tell me what's going on. So I'm like, man, what's going on? Like, seriously, what is happening? And he kept going back and forth because they were having to notify everybody before they could let me know.

And so I'm just sitting there with this, there's my stomach. I've got this empty, this feeling the pit of my stomach. And finally he tells me And I guess he I don't know how he was filming it I just didn't notice him because I was so focused on Dana But it looks like he may have had the camera down You know sometimes you're like whole

Yeah yeah People are stupid stuff they put it down because the angle was very low And I know for fact he wasn't like squatting so he might have just was holding the camera towards us When he got the footage But that was exactly when I found out And for the record Yeah, it was amazing to see.

And it made you into a very sympathetic figure because you were willing to fight John. You really didn't care. You didn't ask about anything. You just said, let me fight him. Even if he's on steroids? Of course, man, because we're trained for combat. You know what I mean? I was trained for combat.

You know, I was there to fight John Jones last weekend and that was it. You know, so I asked if there was anything we could do, you know. And again, I didn't know anyone who was filming that. You know, if I knew that, you know, because I would never want to paint the organization in a light where people think that it's even possible that something like that could happen. Right, right, right. You know what I'm saying? So I just was asking for me talking to Dana as two men, you know. And we're working to a point here.

Thursday morning, he meets the press and is crying and is apologizing to you. Did you watch that while it was happening? And how did you feel about it? I was still having to train. Yeah. I had to prepare for a fight, so I didn't watch it live. Hold on. Shut up, Bird.

Shut up, Bird. Trying to get some air time. Salinas got this bird, man. But he's got this bird. Stupid bird just like, what's he doing? It's like chirping the whole time. Forget bird. There you go.

Okay. Bert's talking again. Every time I try to say something, birds start talking. But anyway, so I'm still training. And I'm in the sauna. And you hear that the bird's low. Birds chirping lowland. He's afraid of the champ.

So I'm actually, I'm in the sauna and we're listening to it. And he seemed very sad. You know, and I went back to my room before I did my final weight cut. and I actually watched it, you know, and and I could see that he was heartbroken. You know, so it was very sad, man. It's sad to see somebody who,

I don't like seeing people hurt like that. And I can see that he was hurt, you know? So I've been trying to, I try to do things for me, you know, things that feel better for me and for my mental and me as a human being and my spirit. You know, so I just made sure that he knew that his apology is accepted, you know,

and I do wish him the best in his journey. Do you feel like he was trying to cheat before your fight to gain an advantage over you? I don't know. You know, with the, when everything comes out, we'll know better. If it comes out that he was doing performance enhancers and he was obviously trying to cheat. You know what I mean? I can only be honest. You know, I call it like it is.

If it comes out that he was doing performance enhancers, then obviously he was trying to cheat. I don't know if it was because the OSP fight didn't go as he expected it to. I don't know. I don't know what it was that made him do whatever he did if it comes out that he was doing performance enhancers. Let's say he goes away for two years. Let's say he goes away for six months, whatever.

Given the emotional roller coaster, and I thought the comment that you said that was most interesting on Wednesday night was that he brings out sort of an ugly side in you and you don't feel like going back to that well over and over again. I know you talked about a trilogy, but now that the second fight didn't happen, are you kind of done with this? Like, will you even entertain the idea of ever fighting this guy again? Right now, I'm going to fight somebody else.

I'm going to fight somebody else because I need a chance to reset, you know, from my mental and for my, again, from my mind, my heart, my spirit, you know, for me. Because it does bring out an ugly side of me, you know, like I don't, I find myself not being my, being me. when I'm dealing with him and it makes me ugly. So I'm going to take some time and I'm going to fight somebody different, you know, and live in my world and take care of what I can take care of. This fight has been scheduled four times.

We've competed once, you know, so when the time is right, we'll fight again. But my focus is not on Jones anymore. It is on me and my reign as the champion and what I can do for the organization. You are the 205 pound champion, but do you're going to be. want to stay there at light heavy weight because it did seem like you were struggling a little bit was that just because of the stress are you comfortable still fighting as a light heavy weight yeah i'm comfortable you know it was uh it was uh it was the stress of the week the week but also too much time off you know if i'm off for too long i can get i can get big and um uh last time when i've had all

those fights in eight months i was making weight no problem i was just stepping on the scale was no issue last time was tough you know i i was i didn't fight you i didn't fight you for eight months. I was light too. That's the problem. It's like I was only 217 pounds on Wednesday. So it's not like I was like super heavy. But it was just once I started stressing over the whole situation, it's like the weight would not come off. And T.J. Dillishaw is a smart guy. He was telling me the word for why I wasn't losing the weight. I was building up something. But he told me how difficult it was for him when he lost his opponent 24 hours before when he had to fight Joe Soto. And he was saying how much harder the weight cut was and everything too.

But it's like I'm fine. I'm fine making the weight. Now, I've got the greatest nutritionist in the game, man, Daniel Leith. And even if I didn't make it as easy as we did the first time, we still got it done and I still thought I was able to fight as well as I could. Every time Anderson and I were on the feet, I was still walking him down and pursuing him. You know, it's not like I was backing up and just kind of holding on and taking damage. You know, I took essentially one shot the whole fight.

Okay. So now let's talk about the fight. We still haven't talked about it. What is going through your mind when you're dominating him, you're standing on the feet and you're taking him down, you're imposing your will, you're winning the rounds rather convincingly, and this place is just showering you with booze. You're doing what you need to do to win, to get your win bonus, all that stuff, and you're being booed for it. Are you even paying attention to that? Not really, you know, because I'm fighting. You know, I'm out there fighting, man. You know, I, I get. it. There have been times where

I'm watching football and I'm a huge Saints fan and I talk about Holden. I talk about the referees. I talk about the quarterbacks. I'm the quarterback. I am the armchair quarterback. I can do everything. So I get it. You know,

maybe Joe Schmole in Section 225 would impose a different game plan. But Daniel Cornier, the guy that is in there, knows what he needs to do to win. Daniel Cormier, the guy who is the UFC Light Heavy, way champion who's won 18 out of 19 fights and is one of the best

palm fighters in the world knows what he has to do in order to win against Anderson Silver. Do you take the hard fight or you take the easier fight? What do you do? I don't owe it to anybody to stand in there and just trade strikes with this guy and it makes no sense. I did stand with him. The last two minutes of the third round, we stood up the whole time. I could have just took him down again. He stood the whole time. And then in the first round, We stood. We traded shots in the second round.

We actually went for 30 seconds where we just stood and threw shots at each other in the second round. And I continued to press forward as we were on our feet. So I don't have to explain myself to these people. You know, if you make, if you go into the arena with an opinion that's not going to be changed, then it's fine. But if you say the last fight was boring, okay, that's your opinion. But Ariel, when you look back at my last three fights, Jones, Rumble, Gustafson, Two of those three fights I got fighter tonight, and the fight against Roomba got performance of the night. So I'm obviously doing something right in those fights.

I mean, I'm willing to go out there. I'm not going to fight everybody like I fought Gustafson. I don't want to feel like I did on Sunday morning because guess what? When all those cheers stopped, my children walked into my room on Sunday morning, and my daughter had to see me with my eyes both closed. And she was crying and didn't know what happened to her dad. That's my reality after these people leave from the arena on Saturday. you know, after being completely drunk and wasted, when they're done and they go home and they're all still fine,

when I'm all beat up and tore up, I have to deal with my four-year-old daughter looking at me like, what happened to my dad on my son, you know? So I fought the fight that I needed to fight. You just didn't deserve it. And I know deserve is a tough word, but what was the alternative? Not fight. They don't get to see Anderson. They don't get to see you. And I couldn't wrap my head around the idea why they were reacting to you that way. Now, it's one thing for Joe Shmo in Section 222 to do that. It's another for a guy like a Donald Seroni to insult you and your game plan, a fighter who's been there. And I know your styles are different, but what's your reaction to that, those comments yesterday? My reaction to Donald is shut up.

Have he lost his mind? I mean, what is this guy talking about? Donald Soroni, who made you the person, like, on what ground does he stand on to be able to say something like that to someone like me? he can tell me stuff if he had a problem with the way that I performed he could have told me in the back that day DC that wasn't a very good fight man I didn't like it but to do it publicly who are you you know are you the greatest fighter of all time are you the guy that went out there and got stopped in the first round by Anthony peddust got kicked in the side and fell down are you the guy that got dominated by by

uh by Sanjo's yeah well you just fell down I've been nothing but a gentleman to that guy and he just likes to talk maybe he was drinking a little bit I don't know but who is he to make that decision, you know, and so crass and rude about it. But that's the type of thing that's upsetting, you know, it's like, what are you, like, what are you doing? Who are you to say that you can say something like that? You beat a couple guys and then all of a sudden you walk around with that stupid cowboy hat. I'll smack you upside your head with that cowboy hat. Actually, I'll have Khabib do it for me. I'll make Khabib smack him upside his head. Is that guy crazy? Yeah, very disappointed.

Especially after the circumstance with everything that's happened in Orlando and everything, to use that word in those terms, you know? And it's like, man, nobody's exempt from just being like, you have to be, you have to have some class, man. You have to be okay. You know, you cannot just go around. Hey, Donald, this isn't the Wild Wild West where you can walk around with your stupid cowboy boots and your hat spitting tobacco and just talking crazy.

You have to have some respect and carry yourself with some class. And when I see him, he doesn't have some words to speak to me because you don't disrespelling. respect me like that. At the end of the day, I'm a man, you know, and when I see him, we will have some words and we'll discuss it. What do you think of John McCarthy standing you up twice when you're doing work? I mean, this is the preeminent referee in the game. Ironically, this was the guy that John Jones didn't want in there. You and McCarthy end up to the fight. John doesn't, but here he is, it seems reacting to the booze twice. The first one, the first one I thought was, okay, you know, whatever. You know, we weren't

advanced position as much as I could have. He was very clear in that Daniel. You have to be posturing to do damage. So I was trying to posture, but Anderson was doing a really good job of locking down my leg and grabbing me up the back of my head and pulling me down. So I couldn't really posture as much as I wanted. I would have invited more scrambles because if he would have gotten up and caused scrambles, I felt like I would have outscramble him and it would have exhausted him a little bit faster. But he didn't really do that. He kind of just held me in position. The first one I thought was okay. The second one I thought was a little bit iffy

because I had just finished hitting them a few times and I just went back to re-secure the position and the moment I re-secured the position is when he stopped this. But once again it doesn't really matter. Like it doesn't matter. You know, you stop the fight. It doesn't matter. I'm just going to continue to get back up there and

keep fighting. You know, I just go out there and just keep fighting. I'm in there to do a job. I cannot worry about what John McCarthy does. I cannot worry about what the fans say. All I can worry about is me and Anderson Silver. And if stuff would have got, if he again, I would have just took him back down. I don't care what people would have, how they would boo me. You go in there with a guy that can strike and stand with him whenever all you literally have to do is grab his legs and he'll fall down.

It's the craziest. It's the craziest start in the world. John Jones's manager, Maliki Kow was on the show earlier. Didn't say anything disparaging. But the one thing that he did say, which I agree 100% is I can't believe Daniel Kormier took a pay cut to fight Anderson Silva on short notice. This came out before the fight. Is that true? Did you take less money to take this fight to save the card?

Yeah, I did. You know, I wanted to fight, man. You know, this is the thing, man. Like, people like, I make, I make, hold on, baby. Hold on, Daddy's doing an interview. See, this is the bird. Now it's Marquita, you know. That's back to work.

Monday, dad's right back to work. It doesn't stop. I understand. And I appreciate the time. You want to come say hi? You want to say hi? Please. Please.

Do you want to say hi, baby, please? Please. And I'll put the pass quote for you. You got to come say hi. And I'll put the pass. code for you. Hi. There she is, my friend.

Say hi. Hello, everybody. You remember me? Hi. See, yes, I saw you. I saw her Saturday. She was very upset. She didn't get the seat that she wanted at the restaurant.

I know. Take this to Mom. She'll put it in for you. I love you. But I did it because, you know, man, honestly, man, as long as we're okay, like, we're good with our money. You know, we make a ton of money, you know, and, and, and, uh, my contract is, is different, you know, so.

So it went from being a title fight to a non-title fight. You know, my contract states a lot of different things in it. So I took the, I took less money to fight. You know, I wanted to fight and I'm still going to make a ton of money. You know, I didn't lose my piece of you and everything. So I still get my points and everything. And I'll be fine. And I don't waste money.

Like I don't waste money. So I just keep my money, man. So what's, you know, you know, it's fine. I don't like to say stuff like, well, what's a million dollars here? No, no. It's like, that sounds silly, but it's like, we're fine, you know? I could make the money that I made last weekend last me 10 years if I needed to. And just a couple more minutes left with you.

Thank you so much for the time. You know, when I was watching the fights on Saturday, I think maybe the most impressive performance of the entire weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Cain freaking Velasquez, throwing spinning wheelhouse kicks and doing what he did to Travis Brown. And I couldn't help but think, what is Daniel Cormier in the bowels of the T-Mobile arena thinking as his guy, you couldn't be there in his corner, but his guy, just moments before your fight, is doing that.

What did that do for you before the fight? Were you able to watch it, and what did that do for your confidence? Boost, man, it was a boost. I watched it the whole time. It's like, it is the weirdest thing with Kane and I, because we've done this once. And I went to fight Roy Nelson right before him, and he had to watch me fight, and then I ran back and went and cornered him. This time, I got to watch him fight.

And then he came back and ran back to the balls. Didn't do his interviews because he wanted to get back and get back with me as I finished my final preparation to my fight. Wow. You know, so it was intense, man, because Kane Velasquez is that dude, man. People don't realize it. Everybody wants to discredit everything. He's always injured in this. He lost the for doom.

Kane is the guy, man. He's the best guy. Overall, I'm telling you, all the weight classes, Kane's the best, man. If he's healthy and he can go out there and compete, he can do that to anyone. What I love the most was not only the spinning kicks was the pressure, but now smart pressure. It's like relentless but not reckless. You know, before he ran into so many jabs from Verdume, Verdum was just kind of putting his fist out there and Kane would run into it.

Now Kane's always moving his head. The pressure's smarter. He's touching Travis. Travis could have made it out of that round. All he had to do was move a little bit. He heard the clapper, but I think he was like, okay, this is going south. and if I stay in here, we're going to somehow go past Mexico into the ocean. This is going south.

We were going south out of California down towards Mexico. And if I get out of this round, it's just going to continue to keep going south. So he was like, all right, man, I think I've had enough. What was it like for you, considering how big of a pro wrestling fan you are, to share the stage with Brock Lester. Are you guys joking up there, making fun of my questions to him on Wednesday? He's doing his thing, has his own press conference. But I know you're a mark. You love this stuff.

What was that like for you? The Conqueror, the Beast Incorned. Hey, he was the back there. It was like the Brock Lesnar show. He's walking around. Like, Brock's so big. It's like, what? Brock is like so big?

Like, he, is even a human being? Like, dude, he's so big. And then he's like, he lost weight, right? Yeah. And he's like all ripped up. And I'm like, man, look at Brock Lesnar. Brock actually was leaving after the fight. and you know he's kind of got like a black eye a little bit

I kind of felt like Brock was squinting to make the eye look a little more damage than it was but uh but I see him in Sable back there and I tell Sable I'm a huge fan you know and I'm like Brock looking great I was like Brock why don't you stay around 270 even when you're in the WWE because you look so fit and she goes he looks good doesn't he I go he looks nominal the beast he's gonna smash Randy Orden Oh, bad. I mean, how do you do? But this is the thing, though, like, he goes back now to the W.

It's like, you can't lose. Yeah. You can't make somebody beat him. Right. It's like this dude actually just fought in the UFC. Yeah. Brings somebody else over here. Hey, how about we bring your boy Kevin Owens over to the UFC?

You know, and see how he does. And then if he wins, then he can go back to the WWE and be undefeated forever, you know. That's just how it is. They've been courting him for five years. Yeah, you know, he's a blue chipper. He's a blue chipper. He's Ben Simmons. He's Ben Simmons.

He's a blue chipper. Bellator's after him too. Dude, stop making me shit on Kevin Owen. Sorry, sorry. Does Kane beat Brock? Because I think that's the fight. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Okay, okay. I like Brock. But Kane beats Brock and the UFC and in the WW. Okay. Safe to assume that your next fight is the winner of Glover versus Rumble? That's what it seems like, right? I mean, that seems like it would make the most sense. You know, Glover to Sherer Rumble Johnson, a winner.

I don't know exactly who it is. I don't really care, to be honest with you, but it seems that though it would be the winner out of Glover and Rumble. You got to go? Rumble and I would be fun. Yeah. But Glover to share is a new matchup. But either one of them, I don't really care. Two last quick things.

Malky said that he spoke to John right after your fight, and his reaction was, man, I would have whoop D.C. What do you say to people who said that you would have lost to him, that you weren't fit? I mean, I was ready to fight. You know, I think I would have fought different if that was Jones out there. I had to fight a little bit different because Anderson doesn't have the same skill set as John. So I wrestled a lot more than I intended to in the fight with John. So I hadn't really trained as much wrestling as I did against Anderson. So we'll have to see, you know.

Hopefully one day, John. Hopefully one day, John, we'll get a chance. You are a class act. Sometimes I get killed for, you know, defending you too much or talking about you that you're the second best fighter in the world pound for pound. And now I think there's a case that you're the number one best pound for pound fighter in the world. But you, and you, do you believe that?

I beat Anderson Till who is middleweight champ. Yeah. I've got a 5-pound belt. I also beat Josh Burnett and Frank Mir who are UFC heavyweight champions. I've been the UFC champions in two different weight division boys. Back yourself on the back, who D.C., bat yourself with the back. See, back Did you have a word

with old D-12 who left your rockets and went to the Hawks? Did you see him on Saturday? I chased him out of the arena. I had him running. I said, get out of here right now before. I said, I'm just kidding.

I chased him right out the back door. Nah, I only chased him out the back door to say what's up. Did you see him? Yeah, I did. Just said, what's up, man? I had to do some media stuff, but yeah, the White Howard thing.

He's a great guy. Great guy. And then finally, what do you do to decompress now? I mean, this has been one of the craziest weeks of your life. How soon do you want to get back? But what kind of break are you going to take?

Not a long one, because last time it was so long that I did, everything felt new to me in the back again. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with those emotions. But as of right now in the short term, I'm leaving Wednesday to go to Hawaii. Today I'm going to go hang out with my family and we're going to just do family stuff. I'm going to hang out like a normal person, man, be a dad for a little bit. My family, they haven't really got me for six months now because I started training

for Jones in April, didn't fight Jones, and then had to train for Jones in July. So he's essentially taking a year of my life from my kids, half a year of my life. So now I get to give them some time. Much love and respect, D.C., thank you so much for coming on. This has become a tradition. Every month, every Monday, go pole. Pound, bomb. Pistols firing, boys. Pistols firing. Congratulations. And most importantly, congratulations on handling it all with such class, really. I mean, you really put out the blueprint DC. Thank you. Thank you, man. I can only be me, man. That's who my mom. That's who Audrey Cormier raised me to be. Well done. Enjoy your kids. Thanks, man. Talk to you soon. Daniel Cormier, the reigning defending UFC light heavyweight champion stopping by.

Tremendous stuff from him. And again, and I'll say it, how in the world do you boo this man? How do you boo that man? I mean, has never, it's just, it's unbelievable. Has it has done it all every step of the way. Rashad Evans pulling out. He fights Patrick Cummins. what's happened with John time and again taking the fight against Rumble Johnson on a month's notice this fight on two days notice without batting at eye

Musassi Anderson think about that that mental dump think about what he was going through there I mean that is just unbelievable that people would not recognize the fact that if Daniel Kormier doesn't accept that fight there is no Anderson

Silva on the card. There was no other option for him. And to say maybe that he saved the card isn't, you know, it's not, okay, UFC 200 goes on. It sells well. There's no doubt about that. But that whole drama, if there's no resolution to it, if Anderson doesn't come in to save the day, everyone was talking to me about Anderson. Thursday, Friday, everyone was talking to me about Anderson Silva around the streets of Las Vegas. In my opinion, he added. He had, it to the pay-per-view buys. The Anderson, just the drama of it all. People wanted to see the quote-unquote goat come in there against the champ.

He stand, go back and watch the fight. He was not stalling. He was not holding him down. He was imposing as well. He stood when he needed to and he took him down when he needed to and he won the fight. And for people, and I know drunk, whatever, for people not to recognize that and shower this man with praise for stepping up and taking that fight when most people in the UFC wouldn't, to me is just is mind-blowing.

Doesn't deserve that. Those fans should know better. It's a bad look for MMA fans. I'm sorry. It really is. If you are a true hardcore fan of MMA, you're paying that much to watch that fight. You have to recognize what this sport is all about. It's not just rock and sock and robots.

If that's what you want, go watch something else. This is the highest level. The name of the game is win. Because you make more money that. way because you provide for your family and he said it perfectly those people aren't with him Sunday morning. So I appreciate the fact that he is saying no skin off my back, but I just couldn't believe. I mean, it's one thing to boo a little bit. Brock was booed a little bit, nowhere near Daniel, and it's amazing because he did the exact same thing. But to be booed the way he was booed is embarrassing

to me as an MMA fan. Embarrassing. And by the way, I'm not trying to rip on the fans, you know, there's a lot more than the 18,000 that were there. And I saw some people say like, oh, I can't believe you would say that after everything the fans have done for you. No, no, no, no, no. This is, this is having respect for one of the greatest fighters of all time for stepping up. And let me say something about the fans in Las Vegas before we get to New York, Rick, and keep talking about the crazy news of the past few days. I have never in my life covering this sport, all the trips, over 150 or so, maybe even 200, experience what I experienced last week in Las Vegas and without going into it too much. I mean, every step of the way, walking outside,

it wasn't just people saying like, hey, Ariel, can you get a picture? It was people with genuine concern and interest in how I'm doing. Is everything okay? Are you doing all right? Is there anything I could do for you? One fan gave me a Carmelo Anthony authentic Syracuse jersey, another gave me a box of chocolates. People hugging me. It was mind blowing, let alone, you know, the reaction at the press conference and all that stuff, mind blowing in its own right. But I just want to sincerely thank everyone who came up to me. I've never experienced that. Walking from the hotel to the arena and back, the fans were just so unbelievable.

If you are one of those fans who came up to me in Vegas who maybe didn't want to come up or couldn't, a sincere thank you. I owe you, I mean, there was times I've been made fun of now, but there were times where I got emotional. I really did. for people who don't even know you who have never met you before to be that compassionate and that sincere is is really i mean i don't know if many people are able to experience that i wish everyone can people coming up to me on wednesday my birthday was friday and giving me presents cards written to

me i wanted to see you i didn't know if i would see you but here's a card what unbelievable mind-blowing surreal thank you so much it um You know, I will be honest, it has not been the easiest time for various reasons. And I didn't even really want to go to Vegas. And I will be honest without getting into too much, it wasn't the most pleasant trip for various reasons. And I will be honest that after 200, I didn't feel too great. And on the walk home to be stopped by so many people and to say thank you and I'm a fan

and keep your head up and all that, just the greatest gift that I can ever get. So really thank you for that. It meant a lot. All right. I really just wanted to say that because it was really, it was really appreciated. Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? I am here. So, we have a lot to talk about.

Are you sure? Yes. It sounds like a slow week. So I, we've had a lot of Skype interviews. All Skype. Except for Eddie. Eddie Alvarez was the only one. Is there anything that I've missed over the last?

the last couple hours. You did miss that Chale Sondon was on. Yes, I mentioned that a little bit. And had mentioned some details about John Jones. Yes. About what he tested positive for. Correct. What's up with Joe Rogan counter programming us? Usually he's on later in the day. Is that still going? Don't know. Yeah, that's right. If you would have said yes, that would have meant that you were watching. Don't know. Good, good answer. This is the show. Hey, by the way, before we get into all that, how about the double down? Congratulations. Well done, sir. You didn't think I was going to bring it up.

No, of course. I thought you were going to bring it up. I was so sure I was going to win. I was so sure. Really? Well. Okay, so let's recap. You went four in one?

Correct. Now, you had John Jones. Swapped him for Korean Superboy. Yeah. Du Ho Choi. Correct. Who defeated Tiago Tavares. Yep.

And looked damn good doing it. Correct. So you win on. that one. You win? Which other ones did you win? I also had something else from that evening. I also had Gilbert Burns before that. Yes. And then I had, um, and then I had on the, the next night on the tough card, I had, uh, Will Brooks, who won. And I also had one more fight on that card. Did you have something on 200? Musasi. Musassi. Oh, that's right. That's right. Now, I was thinking about that. It would have been crazy. It would have been crazy if Musassi fought DC.

Right? Oh, that would have been interesting. That would have been interesting because obviously I think D.C. wins that fight. Yeah, you would have been all messed up. Well, it didn't matter anyway because you won. But then on the last night, on 200, I had... Actually, before that, we had the tiebreaker. I had Claudia.

You had Joanna. And then on 200, I had... One more person. Who did I have? No, Musasi was on 200. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before that, I had RDA. That's where I lost.

That's where I lost my one. And then you had not many fights coming until USC 200. The majority of yours were there. Yeah. I kind of put all my eggs in that basket. I did have Mr. Joseph Duffy. Yep. I mean, super impressive.

Super impressive win over Mitch Clark. Then I had Sage Northcutt. Yikes. Danny Segura will tell it. I mean, he just lost his mind. I heard he was going nuts wherever he was watching the fight in. Mika Meraan was a tough out? I was eyeballing that as one of the ones you would fall short on.

Then I had T.J. Dillishaw. That one surprised me how lopsided it was, but I didn't think you would lose it. So at this point, I'm rolling 3-0, and at that point I only need one more. I only need one more to win. Correct, because you had the tiebreaker. So we knew at that point, as long as you tied me, you'd win. And I got Cain. And you got Cain.

And what a win that was. And then I lose with Mark Hunt. But it was all academic at that point. Yeah, it was all academic. And of course, the tiebreaker is the one that ended up winning it for me, Ioanniajacheck, unbelievable. Who we're going to have in 50 minutes. So no jersey, I'm done.

You can shove it, all you Cavs fans. Somebody here gave me the great idea that I had to upgrade it to a Reggie Miller jersey. Now, that would have been a payoff right there. Yeah, there are a lot that I would feel actually worse about wearing than the Cavs jersey. Miller, Michael Jordan. I mean, Miller's got to be number one. I don't like him. No.

You would not wear that. I mean, if I have to, I have to. I'm a man of my word. Sure. But holy smokes, am I happy not having to wear that. Congratulations. Well picked. Well picked.

Yeah. The ones that I thought you would, you know, falter on were hunt and sage, and those were the ones that ended up being tricky, but the rest really looked good. I'm so happy. Really was, really was the highlight of my weekend. It was fun. It was exciting. The fans seemed to like it.

Yeah. I thought it was fun. And, and we could do something like that. that again probably we can now um should we run over the events of the weekend is it covered well and the questions what do you got it's covered pretty well how about we work through them if there's any point we want to kind of divert from that we'll uh we'll jump on no let me just ask you before we get it to it because i've weighed in i mean you you find out about the four billion yep the sale and i didn't really allow you to answer the question about has anything changed since we spoke um any

news, no comments or anything like that? Is there, A, is there anything new? And B, what's your reaction? What's your takeaway? I didn't see anything new outside of what has already been reported in the sources that people should go to in New York Times and ESPN has stuff. Everywhere has covered it. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been anything since that.

No new news. No new news. Okay. My reaction to it is, I mean, I guess the same as everybody. I don't know what to make yet. It's just, it's too early. who knows how business is going to operate? It sounds like from what you were saying to the guests,

that you don't think business as usual is going to continue. At least maybe not in the long run, which I think we can all at least acknowledge, but you think that there may be more shakeups than we're expecting. Is that accurate? Yeah, because, I mean, even Brian Stan alluded to it. I mean, it's never business as usual. Remember that famous phrase in the strike force sale

and what happened there? They absorbed it. and, you know, most of the employees didn't come over. Now, if I'm buying the UFC, I want Dana White around. There's no doubt about that. I want to keep it relatively similar, you know, in the early stages, because if you shake up everything, I mean, that's a huge mistake. Think about Dana White, Joe Silva, Sean Shelby, you know, the real people who are making

the fights, you need those people around before you get a, you know, a good handle on what's going on and what makes this organization so successful. But to think that nothing's going to change and to be told that, you know, look, just go back to the interviews. Go back to every time Dana was asked about if the Fertita cell would he stick around. He's always said no. Okay, so then what changed? What has changed? To think that this is in a transitional period. And look, something may have changed. Maybe they gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. But I don't think we should take everything at face value here. I think they sold at the right time. I think they cashed out at the right time. And They obviously bought it when it was on death store.

They had impeccable timing then. They have even better timing now. But again, I don't think things are going to stay the same for the long term, short term, yes. And I also think it's time the fighters sit back. Again, as I was saying last week, like, wait a second, wait a second. What exactly does this mean for me? And why is this company being sold for $4 billion when I'm making this much? You agree with me though, right?

Absolutely. The UFC is a star-driven league. Absolutely. And I'd say that for all sports, really. You have to get your worth. You have to get your value. It's the thing that happens where somebody will sign a contract in the NBA or somewhere else, and somebody will say, oh, how is that guy making that much?

Because he made a good deal and because that's the market value. And I think these fighters have to seize this opportunity and use this as a point to negotiate that. Yeah, I mean, look, and as we talked about, last week. It's not happening overnight. It's a very tough thing to do. Kudos to some for even bringing it up and you know they're all thinking it because it's such an astronomically huge number. But I'll go back to my point about sports teams. The NBA isn't getting swallowed up. And even look at what happened with the New Orleans Hornets. They tried very hard the NBA did to find an owner. They helped that because they don't want teams to contract. That doesn't happen.

in Major League Sports. So the point is, if you're a Major League Sports owner, considering the TV contracts in 2016, considering the revenue that you bring in, that's a lucrative business to be in. The UFC is a completely different animal because if there are bad fights, if there are injuries, if there are disasters of any kind, if there's, you know, just fights that aren't, you know, materializing, if fighters are retiring, if new talent isn't coming in, it's very cyclical. We've seen that. So it really rests on the shoulders of the fighters. They're banking on the fact that this sport is going to continue to grow and the talent is going to be there and it's going to develop. And, you know, younger talent are going to want to come into this sport.

What if that doesn't happen? What if they don't break down those barriers overseas? You know, it's just, it's all on the fighters. UFC 200 isn't UFC 200 if Brock and D.C. and Anderson and John Jones prior to that and Edgar and Aldo and Misha Tate, it's not a big of deal if, you know, if those people aren't on. it. So back in the day, UFC, you know, was the draw on the, the Fertitas and Dana White made it the draw, and that was smart. That was brilliant. But now things have evolved where people want stars. People want to tune in when there's a big name involved. Those big names aren't there. They're not making money. So $4 billion to me suggest that these people are worth a lot of money.

Absolutely. But so do you think that, do you think that they couldn't create stars in that sense? Like, let's say we don't have somebody who's as charismatic. Do you not think that the marketing machine at this point, the UFC's brand value, could create stars if they're not a Brock Lesnar or Ronda Rousey who come from? No, they're always creating stars because people said when Chuck retired and BJ retired and all these people, who saw Rhonda coming, who saw Connor coming. But I will say, to suggest that it was the UFC who created those stars is very short-sighted. Rhonda had a massive part in creating Rhonda.

Connor had an even bigger part in creating Connor. And the list goes on and on. I mean, there's very few fighters that the UFC says, we're going to take you and make you into who you are and become a champion and a superstar. They have, dare I say, 50% of the power in this equation. You get what I'm saying? Yeah.

So they need those people to come in. What if there's a shortage? What if those fighters don't materialize? What if they don't come in? Who's going to take that torch? What if Rhonda doesn't come back? Did you see Mike Dolce's reaction to my question as to whether or not Ronda is coming back? Did you look at his face?

Did you see the way he respond? It's not a foregone conclusion. What happens if Connor McGregor does this or that? You never know. What if John Jones ever comes back, the greatest fighter of all time? What I'm saying is, it's a volatile business. It's a beautiful business. I love it being in that arena on Saturday and seeing the walkouts and the fights materialized.

There's nothing like it in all of sports and you know I love sports. But this is a gamble. This is a beautiful gamble. It's a great gamble. But holy smokes. The highs are highs, the lows are lows in this thing. You don't have the NBA and Adam Silver or Roger Goodell backing you. You don't have that.

The TV deal is up in a couple of years. What a fascinating thing. I'm not sitting here as some kind of financial analyst and saying, this is a bad deal. I'm just saying it opens my eyes to a lot of things. I'm saying that, wow, $4 billion this thing was valued at? Wow. Smart people thought that this was worth $4 billion? Amazing.

This sport is even bigger than we thought. So let's see it reflect that. and let's see what happens. Fascinating. Love it. Unbelievable. What a time. This is historic. We're going to be talking about this day forever. Zufa no longer owns the UFC. Think about that for a second. Wrap your head around that. People have always said that their greatest trait, Zufa, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertito, Frank Fertita is that they love this sport. They are fight fans. And in order to take those punches like they took last week, John Jones hitting them in the head.

You know what I mean? In order to withstand that kind of a sport, assault, you have to be a big time fight fan. You know what I'm saying? You have to love this sport. You have to love fighting. Will suits feel the same way? I don't know who's going to run it. But I'm just saying, are these people fight fans or are the executives who see dollar signs? You know, because at the end of the day, when they came in, when it was $2 million, when it was on desk door, you know, they had to withstand a lot. They took a lot of beatings. And of course, we've way gone past that point. But what's going, you know, basically my big takeaway is I can't believe CM Punk outlasted Lorenzo Fertita. That's basically what I'm trying to say. Let's answer some questions.

Okay, let's get into some specifics. Possibly we know the answer is some we may not. How does this affect the Fox deal, the Reebok deal? IMG has a lucrative partnership with Under Armour. So how does it affect things like that? And also referring to the conflict of interest, WME represents individual fighters. How would that affect now the ownership being WME? I've asked some people about that last question and I'm told it doesn't change it because who was it? Someone on this show said, oh, Malki,

they're not the ones negotiating the contracts. They're doing the ancillary stuff for the most part. Rhonda may be the lone exception, but I don't foresee any changes on that front. They're going to have to liquidate. They don't have that many to begin with. there's John Jones, there's Ronda Rousey, there's Chris Wydenman, there's not that many there. So I don't foresee that being a big problem. Now, it could be a problem, and I can understand

why people would view that as a conflict, but right now I don't think that it's something that they're going to have to address. I'm surprised so many people are asking about the contracts, Reebok in particular. Maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Contracts are contracts. Just because something is sold, it doesn't dissolve the contract. Rebock's not going anywhere, and nothing currently is going anywhere. Now, the Fox deal is up in a couple of years, and some have hypothesized that, you know, ESPN wants to get in the MMA business.

They're certainly covering a lot more. They were all over the place this past week in Las Vegas. So, I mean, who knows? But it doesn't affect it right now. It's going to be on Fox. There's a show on Wednesday, by the way, in Sioux Falls. Nothing's going to affect that. I mean, who knows what kind of relationships they have in two years' time.

That's going to be another fascinating story to cover. Do they do less shows on cable and do? more on fight pass, do they split it up? Do they do like every other major sports league a deal where they're a little bit on Fox, a little bit on ESPN? Every other sports league, the NBA, the NFL, they're kind of, you know, they're split. UFC is not split as far as the United States is concerned. So let's see. They have relationships. Harry Manuel, look this guy up. There's a lot of great articles about what WME and IMG have been doing the last couple of years as far as sports entertainment is concerned as far as their growth. I don't think

this is a bad thing. I mean, these guys are incredibly successful, and they pinpointed something here. They recognize something here. But if you want to learn more about their vision and what they have been doing and what they plan on doing, there's some great ones, variety. I believe Forbes had another one, just some really great stuff. So there's a lot out there on them. This is not something that they just kind of thought of last week. It's been brewing for quite some time. Sure. Point taken on the contracts thing. But if you know that there's an out in a couple of years on the contract, that could affect the relationship now, certainly. If you're looking at Reebok, if you're looking at Fox and saying in a few years we're going to bring in somebody else, that could clearly

affect the relationship now. This could be the beginning of the end. Exactly. Of course. Or it could be a beginning of a renewed relationship. There's all kinds of things at play. So it's going to be interesting to see that. That is actually a great point because Ari Emanuel, it was reported, helped broker the Fox deal with the UFC. Yeah. So those ties are very strong. The other thing that's not really being talked about is like, you know, there's a class action lawsuit, the Muhammad Ali Act.

Like, what kind of stuff are they taking on? You know, what kind of stuff do they have to weed through? There's a lot at play here. You have to imagine that they calculated this. Oh, 1,000 percent. I mean, multiple times over. 1,000 percent. But again, going back to my point that this was a good time to sell.

Absolutely. Okay. What does this mean for Dana, Rogan, Future of the Promotion? We've heard from Dana previously. We've heard from Rogan previously. The only... Did he address it? I don't know.

He did his show. Was there anything that came out? I didn't see anything come out of that. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, his deal is up. He has also said that if they sell he's out, although Dana is sticking around, at least for now.

So let's see what happens there. Also, worth saying, I mean, Joe Rogan is a massive part of the UFC, and it's amazing how many people have asked me that question as well. what does this mean for Joe Rogan? Only he can answer that question. What a way would be to go out with UFC 200? That's a nice little bow, but he has not addressed it,

so I can't really speculate. They certainly, in my opinion, one thing that the UFC has done, I don't know if they've lucked into it, and they've helped to a degree I know behind the scenes, especially in this new era with new producers, but they've developed a lot of great broadcasters and especially guys who are active or just, you know, shortly removed from their fighting career.

Like, if you look at other sports, it's a tough transition at time. But if you see guys like Stan, obviously, Kenny Florian, obviously. But even active guys like Dominic Cruz and Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier, I mean, they've got a pretty good talent pool where, yes, you're losing a lot when you lose Joe. 100%. I recognize his greatness. People love him and rightfully so. But they have done a great job of developing, you know, a beast. D-C-D-E-F option.

And they should be recognized for that. There's a lot of great talent out there in terms of breaking fights and being analysts. Dana White's value. This is much discussed. A lot of people asking why keep Dana around. Dana said he's going to go. What do you see as the reason

that they'd want to keep Dana there? I mean, you know the answer to that, right? He is the face of the UFC in many respects. Now, it's not as, he's not as visible as he once was. I was surprised he wasn't at the UFC 200 post-fight press conference. I thought that was the time to celebrate. How about the T-Mobile arena not having a media room?

We were in a makeshift tent outside the arena, and the thing was swaying back and forth. A lot of fans were complaining about this squeaky sound, and that's because the bars were swaying back and forth. It was bizarre. Equally as bizarre was the Brock Lesnar press conference, him just showing up there and saying, Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do. And is it me or did some people almost feel a little bit? intimidated in his presence some of the questions. I don't know if you saw it. But it was definitely, he is larger than life. There's no doubt about that.

I don't know. I got on that tangent. Oh, Dana, it's incredibly high. His value is incredibly high. But again, I'll go back to his interviews as of late. He has said that if the Fratita goes, if the Frititas go, he goes. So what changed? You know? Let's say there was a change of figureheads. Would that be something that you think fans would be receptive to or is Dana White now UFC? Is it too close? I'll say this. I think the UFC has done a fantastic job of programming the fans to be creatures of habit.

They love the UFC experience from Bruce Buffer to Goldie and Rogan, the look, the octagon goes, all that stuff. I mean, look at the reaction to the yellow canvas on Saturday. I appreciated the fact that they went. you know, outside the box, because in my opinion, UFC events look too uniform every time. They could be in Abu Dhabi or Sydney or Montreal, Toronto, Pittsburgh. It always looks the same. So I appreciated the fact that they wanted to celebrate it.

I think the color was a little bit off. It felt too much like cage rage to me or King of the Cage. Did you like it? I liked it because when you're looking back, you will never forget that that was UFC 200. Sure. You will always remember the moment you see that yellow, that that was UFC 200. I was cool with it. I liked it a lot, actually.

I didn't hate it. Like I said, I like that they actually tried to make it special. Yeah. But that being said, the reaction to it was, I thought, you know, at times, you know, just quickly glancing in my Twitter was people are bothered by this because they are creatures of habit. Exactly. I mean, people will say, can we get something new? It's boring.

And then as soon as they get something new, oh, I hate it. Let's go back to the old. People love to complain. never satisfy anybody. So I thought ultimately it was a good move and most people didn't seem to care that much. I don't know about that, but I guess somebody, nobody's turning off the fights of course, of course, of course, of course. Of course. So anyhow, these fans are creatures of habit. And I think that they're used to the Dana experience and everything. And it's been slowly but surely changing less media availability and scrums and all that stuff, which I don't necessarily think is

a bad thing. And now with the sale, perhaps we understand more. behind those decisions. And I think at first people will feel very strange about it if that happens. I mean, right now, again, we're being told it's not happening. Lorenzo wasn't much of a talker when it came to the media, although a big fan of the MMA beat. Kudos to him for that. How about that Ronda Rousey painting in his office?

Interesting. It's all I can say about that one. Yeah, so I think fans would be upset and who can replace him because, again, as we've learned, covering this sport and other combat sports. Look, I've said this about glory in the past. They're missing out on a figurehead. They're missing out on a promoter, Dana White, a Vincent McMahon, a Bob Arrim, and Don King.

I've said this about Scott Coker in the past. He's a great guy behind the scenes. He's a great mind. But, you know, breaking down fights and talking about them and selling them like Dana White does, he doesn't have that gene in his body. It's a very, very, very special thing for a promoter to have. And so they can't just

bring in some suit, a part of the UFC will be lost if that happens. They need to decide, you know, and that's exactly another reason why you can't just say goodbye to Dana White. You can't do it. You can't just do it right now. It's too important. Fans are too used to him. He has a skill that very few people on this earth have. They need to cultivate someone to do that. You know, I don't know who it is, if they have an idea, whatever. But it's, that, that is a very tough thing because that's a public figure. It's not someone behind the scenes. That's a public figure who's able to connect with the audience, and he has that great ability. This event was the closest to relationship we've seen between

WWE and UFC in the past. Brock Lesnar coming over, the WWE commercial playing during the UFC event. How do you think this relationship plays out going forward? What do you think this means going forward, if anything? Was this a one-off? Are we not going to see anything? Is there going to be a closer relationship now more than ever? What do you think about the future for these two companies?

companies together. I love it because all those people who have always said that there's, you know, there's no connection, you know, there are two separate things that they get all hot under the collar when it comes to us talking about WW. Now more than ever, I mean, this is being shoved in your face. This guy, Brock Lester, who was a freak athlete who tried out for the Minnesota Vikings with with no real football experience, at least not for several years, and made it to the last cut. Brock Lester's a freak. And he came into the UFC on one month's notice, virtually no sparring, hardly any training, and thoroughly dominated Mark Hunt. One of the best fighters in the heavyweight division, not some scrub, not some 25th rank guy,

legit top 10. That's amazing. That's unbelievable. It really is. He is the greatest negotiator in the history of MMA slash kickboxing slash pro wrestling. Now, Mayweather has made a ton more money, obviously. So I exclude him from the conversation. Boxing is dealing with a whole bunch of different circumstances.

But what Brocklesser is doing now is historic. No one has done this in North American combat sports. And so now he goes back to WWE. He's going to kick ass there. He only has more leverage. This helps him greatly, you know, going back to that world because they can, they can do things to make him look even more dominant. And then he goes back.

So now he's playing with both audiences. He is larger than life. I mean, the guy is standing to make. a hell of a lot more money. If you're the new owners at the UFC, you're not breaking the bank to get Brock back. He brings something that very few can ever dream of bringing. The guy is special. Let's pull Brock Lesnar away from it. Do you think there will be other working relationships? No, no, no, because he is one of a kind. He is truly one of a kind. So you think this is entirely contingent upon Brock Lesnar and his status as both an MMA fighter and a

Yeah, they can't, they can't, John Cena can do this. Again, we forget at times that Brock Lesnar has a great history as a, you know, collegiate wrestler. Yeah, but now what about sending somebody over from UFC into WWE? Oh, okay. You know, I wasn't really thinking of that. That's, look. You're thinking very limited to Brock Lesnar. Is there going to be an interplay?

I know, I'm thinking about the guys or females coming into our sport. I wasn't thinking of the opposite way. King Moe will tell you, Tito Ortiz will tell you that this is harder than a lot of people think, becoming a pro wrestler, being a pro wrestler. It's tough on your body, and that's what makes Brock. so special. Now, he doesn't have the schedule that a lot of the regular people do, but I can't foresee, let's say, Daniel Cormey is a huge pro wrestling fan, and I have no doubt that he would be good in that world. Do you really see him in his prime going over there and doing that? I just don't see it.

Maybe not his prime. Well, well, then we're talking about something different. I, I just don't see this revolving door of talent. I know the CM Punk thing, and maybe in a way this helps CM Punk. You know, maybe he, him coming back and beating him to the punch actually helps punk because, you know, I think that was a big win for WWE. They may not have been behind it going into it. Stephanie McMahon saying they're not supporting it. But Greenwich, Connecticut had to have been on fire Saturday night because that was an unbelievable night for them.

That was a huge win for them. And they had to pay $0 for it. You get what I'm saying? Absolutely. Unbelievable. And that's why I think the potential for something like this, it doesn't seem unrealistic. The potential for more stuff like this,

no matter how creative it has to get, seems like it could be a win for both sides. Yeah, they've always had a great relationship, despite what people will say about, you know, me breaking the news and potentially ruining that relationship. Never the case, won't be the case. And let's see now with the new owners, what happens? It's kind of weird just saying that, right?

The new owners of the UFC? Absolutely. Even though we've been, this doesn't hit us, you know. Right. The timing wasn't a surprise. People have known about this for a little bit of time. But now that it's a reality, reality. And I will also say this. We forget about it at times. The people who work for the

UFC, I mean, these people are, some of them are just some of the nicest people I've ever in my life. And the most hardworking people, I mean, think about it if you're in the marketing promotion side of things. You find out Wednesday night that UFC 200, which you've probably been working on for months, has now, you know, suffered this blow and there's a new main event and you've got to change everything. I mean, think about that kind of work, the promos, the commercials, all that, the posters, all that stuff. And these, you know, you know, you know, These people worked overnight and the promo that they did for the Cormier fight was tremendous. I thought it was great.

It was very transparent. I loved how they did it. But think about those people on a day like this as we're kind of talking about the future and the growth and all that. These people have families. These people have kids. They have mortgages and stuff. I'm sure it's not the most pleasant time and it's a very uncertain time. We could talk about it as a hot topic.

What's going to change business as usual? But I very much sympathize with those people in Las Vegas today and all around the world who work for the UFC because a lot of hardworking people who invest a lot, who at times don't make that much. And I'm sure they're a little uneasy today. And I hope that it works out for all of them and that the UFC does good by them. The new owners, the previous owners,

there's a lot of great people that work there. And I see them so often. So I just feel like we need to remember that at times. Two very related questions here. How long can we consider John Jones one of the best or the pound for pound best, whatever superlative we want to grant him, how long can we consider him that

when he continues to make these errors, you know, away from the cage? Does it affect his stock, or should it affect his stock in that capacity? I will say this. Once we find out what it is and get the full story, then yes, it can.

It certainly affects how I view Anderson Silva and the way that was handled and many others, but I'm thinking of the quote unquote goats. So yeah. And I was thinking about it. To me, it's, it's, there's three guys in that discussion. It's Cormier, Cruz, and DJ.

You can make a very strong case for all three. And that's pretty great territory. That's pretty great, you know, company. All champions in their own right. All dominant, all with very few losses. So it's not a bad place. The UFC has, has guys that they can sell and hang their hat on good people. You know, there's nothing.

Look, famous last words, but. for the most part, these are guys who have avoided trouble in their career and these kinds of issues. It would be a massive blow and it would certainly hurt his legacy if, if it comes out that he was trying to do something like this. So right now I kind of put him on ice and we'll see what happens. But yeah, I don't blame fans who will say, you know, like fool me once, fool me twice, you know, enough's enough. You know, I, you don't understand being there on Wednesday, seeing the kind of mood that he was in, seeing the way the fans were reacting to him and booing Daniel. I mean, that was the ultimate 180 from the guy who no one believed who thought was, you know, disingenuous, who was fake, inauthentic, seeing the way they were reacting to him. Daniel Cormier in a weird way brings out the best in John Jones. He makes him relaxed. People start loving him. He's throwing all kinds of quips his way. And then for that to happen just hours later, same day, hours later, he's out, 24 hours later, he's sitting in front of us, crying out of the fight. I mean, it was just surreal. all the fight weeks. And not only that, like, oh, oh, and later that day, that Thursday,

let me tell you about that Thursday, we wake up 8.30 press conference for John Jones, right? 8.30 press conference, him spilling his guts. 10 o'clock, open workout Mark Hunt and Brock Lesner. Brock calls him unprofessional, all this stuff. 11 o'clock was supposed to be the press conference with Connor and Nate. We haven't even talked about that. It gets delayed because they're both late. And then it's somewhat marred by all these technical problems, which was a big shame. Then, Wayans for tough finale. Then it's the fight night show.

Eddie Alvarez becomes champion and all the other stuff. Then we do it again on Friday with all other kinds of craziness with Misha Tate almost missing weight. I mean, it was fun. Don't get me wrong. It was also, you know, it was very hectic and dizzying, but it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom. If the John Jones thing didn't happen, it would have been hectic enough. I think on Thursday there were four press conferences.

There were four press conferences on Thursday alone. John Jones, okay, Connor Nate, Anderson Silva getting added to the card by the end of the night, and then the general press conference for the winners, Eddie Avra's and stuff for that fight night. That's insane. It was nuts.

What a sport. Okay, related to the previous question, do you feel the events of last week will make people, and you talked about the 180 that people had made on John Jones? Do you feel that they're going to make another 180 and go back to where they were, questioning John Jones and feeling like DC deserves a respect. Because myself included, I was one of the people who said,

Cormier's not the best. Cormier's championship is made of paper. I've said that many times, and I find it hard to defend John Jones at this juncture. I still think, if you ask me who the best light heavyweight fighter on the planet right now is, I will still say John Jones. But if you ask me if he's a champion, it would be hard to say that he's a champion. He doesn't carry himself as a champion.

He's, he's, Daniel Cornyi is a rightful, deserving, hardworking, honest champion. It's hard to defend John Jones at this point. Do you feel like other fans are going to come around that same way? Okay, what do I always say about Wonder Boy Thompson, right? This is a guy that I want to show my kids, that I want my kids to say my, my wife was telling me when I was away that my kids,

Oliver and Walter were playing with water balloons outside. And my son was saying, I'm going to MMA you. And he was like shooting it at his brother, which is a little bit troublesome. in its own right, but you get, you get the point. I want my son to see Wonder Boy Thompson. I don't mind if my son has a, um, a Wonder Boy Thompson, a Chris Widman, a Daniel Cormier poster in his room. I don't know if I could say that about John Jones at this point. Just given what we know. And yes, I believe people deserve second chances. And you don't want to paint everyone with the same brush and

you don't want to, you know, kick a man while he's down. I get that. Um, but, you know, the facts are the facts. The history is the history. Daniel Cormier is a guy that you can hang your hat on that you could say these things about. But John has, you know, he came into the sport, a young man, and he's failed in front of us. He's succeeded in front of us. We've celebrated him, but we have to tell it like it is. And so, yeah, reclamation projects are great. Comebacks are great. But, you know, what else is great? You know, people who just do right and, you know, don't mess up, too. So I do think people will take that stance. Let's see how he handles it. I think it's good that he didn't disappear that he's been posting on social media that he you know posted about the rainbow and all that

stuff i think that's that's smart don't just disappear you know don't just go away that's smart i like that um but he he's going to have he's going to have to deal with this it's going to be a blow and also we don't know the facts yet so it's not a point where he needs to feel guilty about anything at least publicly until we know what the story is so um i'm with you don't don't make it like you're you know you're guilty of something if you're not yeah and by the way it's smart to keep talking because if you disappear, it looks like you're guilty, at least to me. The court of public opinion would already have a verdict before we hear from what really matters and find out the real facts. Okay, DC versus Anderson. People had a problem with it.

You've come out very strongly. Too strong? Probably for my taste. Because I couldn't disagree more. I just feel like there's a difference between entertainment and there's a difference between winning. There's a difference between doing what you need to do to win. Sometimes those things will line up. Sometimes the way to win will be to be entertaining. Sometimes it's not. And we have to acknowledge that not every fight is going to be entertaining if somebody's doing what they need to win. Therefore, we can't confuse those two things when we're defending them.

Daniel Cormier did not put on an exciting fight. Period. End of story. And neither did Anderson Silva. Both of them were in the cage together. Not an exciting fight. You could argue with me until you're blue in the face. I would never ever say that that fight was exciting.

Can I just add something? Can I add something? I'm sorry? I don't drink. I don't know what it's like to be drunk. I don't know what it's like to go to a sport. I would never, in a million years, pay money and just go boo at a sporting event. That's just not the kind of sports fan that I am.

So I can't wrap my head around that. A, B, especially people in a cage fight of all things. I feel like I'm sane enough to recognize the kind of sacrifices they're making just being in there and I have respect for that. B, B, I don't think that was a boring fight. I really don't. I was on the edge of my seat.

At any moment I thought Anderson might catch him. Oh, no. Front kick, yes, look what happened in the third when he almost caught him with the shot to the body. And Daniel imposing his will, BS, I've seen way worse fights. Jared Rochel versus Roy Nelson, that's a bad fight. Sure, there's way worse fights.

That doesn't mean anything. There's plenty of voice fights. That kind of vociferous booing. And also, let's not forget, Daniel Cormey took this fight on two days' notice. And weird crap was going on in Las Vegas. This is what I'm talking about. Get your money and go home.

You're conflating the two things. No, because I'm smart enough to make that, to understand that. No, you have to separate them. No. It was not an exciting fight. If we were sold a bag of goods where it's like, what's a fight?

What's a fight? I can't think of one that it's like that it was hyped up and it didn't deliver Connor Connor McGregor if Connor McGregor fights Nate Diaz

and Nate Diaz just repeatedly took him down and laid on top of him without being held down I can understand being people booing because this is a rivalry

that we saw play out the first time it was nothing like that they talk a lot of shit all this stuff right this one was a fight that was made on two days notice get your money

get your win best path to victory That's like, you see people showering Tim Duncan with praise on this Monday after retiring. Tim Duncan going to, you know, playing in front of his home crowd. People didn't boo him. I love that you picked this. Because you know what they would say about Tim Duncan? What?

Boring. No. Boring. That's exactly what they would say about Tim Duncan. You picked the perfect example. Okay. It's one thing to say boring and you could dislike that fight. It's another thing to shower a man who has just essentially risked his life for you for your stupid

enjoyment with booze. I don't like the Spurs. I went to two NBA finals games when they played the Nets back in the day. I didn't shower the Spurs with booze. Those were boring games I can't even tell you who won. I don't remember. But I didn't sit there going boo throwing things. The freaking guy stepped into the cage against Anderson Silva, stood there with him, took him down and posed his will and go to Luke Thomas's Twitter. He did a great job of breaking down afterwards that the one who was stalling was Anderson Silva. Clearly Anderson Silva didn't want any part of that and he was just holding Kormia. No doubt about it. How about John McCarthy standing him up? Look, there were a lot of things. There's storylines here. And that's what I'm saying. The nuance,

if you're, if you're including the nuance, it's very easy to see that there's a reason why this happened. But objectively, we cannot make the argument that that that fight delivered anything. It didn't. Those fans, I mean, again, I'm not a, I'm not somebody who booze. I never boo. And I don't celebrate either. If I'm going to, you'll get a little yip out of me. That's about it. But I, There are people who will. If you went to a bull fighting show and it was just a boring one and there's no action, are you going to boo that Matador? No way.

Because that person has more guts and courage than you can ever imagine. And I'm not booing anyone who's getting into a cage. No way. Unless you're cheating. If he took down the bull and laid on him and didn't let the bull get up and try and charge in him, I'd probably boo. B.S. First of all, that's never going to happen.

Second of all, anyone who does that earns my respect and praise. Now, if you're kicking someone in the nuts and you're cheating, then I don't like you. Well, now we're talking a whole different game. Yeah, that's when it's appropriate to boo. It's not appropriate when you really, and I saw a thing where Donald Seroni said he bet $1,000 on Anderson Silva. Maybe that explains his comments. Yeah, that might explain that.

But again, as I said, it's one thing for a fighter, excuse me, a fan to say that for a fighter to then criticize Daniel Cormier for that game plan. I mean, there's a reason why Daniel Cormier is one of the best ever. There's a reason why he's a champion. There's a reason why he's an Olympian. There's a reason why he's, I think, 18 and one now or something like that. It's because he fights to win. It's because he's a smart fighter.

There's a reason why Floyd Mayweather is 49 and 0. It's because he's a smart fighter. And there's another reason why other fighters, you know, are dealing with issues now because they aren't smart. Because on that Saturday night, you wanted to get shower with praise. Good for you. What's going to happen when you're 50? Come on. Why are we encouraging that?

Not even wait until you're 50. Daniel Cormier said the next day. His daughter has to come into the room and say what happened to daddy. expect more from fans. You should be smarter than that. Fair enough. Okay. Brock Lesnar. Yes. I think we've talked about this real quickly. How would you evaluate his performance? I'd say like A plus plus plus plus. I was blown away. Look, I picked Mark Hunt and I just he defies logic. He really does. He's a freak. I mean, you just, you just look at him. He's a freak. What a story. And I hope he comes back because he brings something. He is intimidating as heck, but he is a fun

It's fun to be in his presence. It's fun to have him on the cards. I hope he continues. And I think he has a run in him. I really do. Yeah, I mean, it's tough to gauge, you know, the, whether he's back and the diverticulitis thing. It's impossible to really gauge his MMA career. It's so weird that we don't really know kind of where he stands because of how many factors were involved at the different times. I will also say this. I thought that performance, given the circumstances, as in impressive, if not more impressive, than any other win prior to that, including the Randi D'C Couture win at UFC 91, because the guy who was taking a fight on a month's notice, hadn't fought for five years, that was mind-blowing. He is a, if there ever is a Hall of Fame, he is first ballot without a doubt. Sure. Aldo's performance, read it, give it a quick one. I thought that he also turned back the clock, so to speak. I thought he looked that week quite old. I was very curious to see how he would respond from, losing to Connor mentally being back in Vegas, mentally knowing that Connor was there. And those

photos, unbelievable of Connor standing up looking. I see people passing around these photos. Can we get a credit for the photographer? I still don't know who took that photo. I think there were a few. Please credit the photographers. I mean, they deserve it. So anyhow, I wanted to share it, but I couldn't find the credit, so I didn't feel comfortable. So him just going there to fight a guy who we already beaten, but coming off the knockout 13 seconds, I know people didn't like it, but to me it gave me more respect for what Connor did, but I also had a ton of respect for what Aldo did to rebound like that. Very, very, very, very hard fight to score.

I thought the fourth round was the most decisive round in favor of Aldo. First three were just super close. You feel for Frankie, so close. He missed out on that payday. He should have fought Connor next, in my opinion. Now you don't know if that's going to happen. I will say also that this renewed my interest in seeing the Connor Aldo rematch. I wasn't that interested in it before.

if Connor can healthy, healthily, I don't know if that's a word. Yep, healthily. Successfully make the weight and he's okay with it. I think there's a real story to be told there. What did you mean by he felt,

he looked old during the week? I thought he physically looked old. Was it the goatee? The goatee, the hair, he shaved his, I don't know, just he looked old. Look at the pictures. He just really looked old.

I was like, what is going on here? Not in a sense that he looked over the, like, I'm trying to figure out. His hair was a little thinner up top. He had this new, facial hair, it just made him look older. I don't know.

It was weird. I was like, what is going on here? The performance was classic, though. Classic, Aldo. Virtuoso Aldo. Eddie Alvarez, real quickly, is he the best lightweight of all time? What?

I don't know if I could say that just yet. I mean, he's certainly up there. There's no doubt about it. Who else are you putting up there? As the biggest BJ Penn fan in the world, I find it hard to put his resume at lightweight up against Eddie Alvarez's. Eddie Alvarez is amazing.

What a great story, right? He made up for two losses. Chandler and he's only got four losses. Aoki, he made up for those two. Seroni's the one loss and then he had another loss early in his career. I'd say that BJ is probably the best guy who fought at lightweight or some permutation of that, but it's hard to say anybody's been a better lightweight than Eddie Alvarez, at least on paper by the resume. the list of guys he's beaten in every organization.

It's impossible to look at that resume and not be impressed. You're right. He deserves the credit. Again, what a great story. What a great performance. When we think about how good Hafelde dos Santos has looked as of lay, what he did to Anthony Pettus, what he did to Donald Soroni, annihilating those guys.

And then Eddie annihilated him? What's crazy about that is how good RDAs look lately and how, I wouldn't say not good, because Eddie Alvarez beat these incredible stretch of guys. leading up to this title fight, but not dominant in the way that RDA had been fighting. He'd been earning decisions where people said it could have gone one way or the other, and he was the one that came in and blew the doors off. I was completely shocked.

As you know, I picked RDA for our thing. I thought the odds were still a little off. I mentioned that. But Eddie Alvarez's performance was bonkers. Yeah, and what a time to be a lightweight. Okay, what do you do? Ferguson, if he wins on Wednesday, Habib, or McGregor Diaz,

because he has a rivalry with both and they are natural lightweights, do you do that? I think those are the four options, right? Too soon for Will Brooks. Yeah, too soon for Will Brooks. I think that Habib is the guy. The problem is you have to be reluctant to book him in a fight at this point.

Because the injuries? Because of the injuries. Yeah. Then Tony Ferguson, definitely worthy. I think there's no bad options there. That's what's good is any of those fights will be exciting. Now, granted, I think Diaz and I think McGregor would sell better. By the way, Diaz versus Eddie is a great fight.

Jeez, I would love to see that fight. Yeah, you just build back up that same... But just as a styles matchup, I love that fight. For sure. There's no bad options here, and Eddie Alvarez is in line for some great fights. Yeah. Alvarez and Brooks, both won. does this legitimize Bellator as a

as a proving ground for for fighters? What does it say about Bellator? I don't know if it says anything. Honestly, I mean, they have great fighters. If you don't recognize that they have great fighters, they have some really bad fighters, they have some really good fighters as well. Michael Chandler is a great fighter.

Sure. The Pit Bull Brothers are great fighters. King Mo is a great fight. These guys are great fighters. There's no doubt about it. They just don't have as many. So I don't really think that it's any kind of revelation. Well, I know, I'm not sure that that's fair because people look at Bellator and previously Strike Force and said, these guys couldn't make it. Or maybe they won't be as good when they come over.

And we've seen in Strike Force, and now with these two and there's other people who fought for Belator, that this has proven to be not true. But we've also seen guys come over. We've also seen guys and girls come over who have faltered. And that's what made Brooks's performance. especially on short notice, impressive to me. The octagon lights are bright, and we've seen time and again, people come over and falter. How about this?

Yeah. Did you think when Eddie Alvarez came to the UFC that he could reach these heights? Well, not after losing and how deep that division is, right? I mean, he got this title shot on a two-fight winning streak. Now, it was against the very best. There's no doubt about that. But just as Tony Ferguson, there's some politics involved, you know? There's some luck involved as well.

So guys can go seven, eight wins in a row. I remember George Sutteropoulos back in the day had this long winning street. Kurt Pellegrino as well. And they never got that title shot. Cairo Pradesh and all these guys. So at first I was like, oh, man, he's got a lot of work to do. Then he beats Gilbert. And remember, that was a close fight?

And then he beats Anthony. And people were booing him for that, remember? Yeah. And now he gets a title shot. So, uh, and wins. Amazing. The I'lladelf. By the way, I want to mention this because I don't want to forget.

I know we have to get to you on it too. Not this is not being talked about enough. Major props to Misha Tate for showing up to that press conference with a broken nose, holding a towel. I think some ice was under it as well. The thing is bleeding. She sat there like a true pro in class act and answered questions when she didn't need to. And we've seen time and again people sometimes not show up.

Wow. That should be, that should be really commended. She didn't have to do that. So I think that it was important to mention that. Okay. I'm going to ask you these and then I'm going to get our guest. Okay. It's a few questions about women's

Bantamweight. Okay. What happens with Nunes, the new champion? What's her next fight? Yeah. What happens with Misha? Yeah. What happens with Ronda?

Where does that leave Ronda? And do you think the UFC is now going to start instituting the bantam weight and featherweight divisions? All that. What do you mean the flyweight? What did I say? You said bantam weight? Yes. Flyweight.

Okay. It said straw weight here. And I was like, oh, that's not the right one. And then I messed up myself. But those are the questions. Okay, well, first of off, first off, major props to Amanda Nunes. Like I said on Saturday night, Misha Tate's greatest trait, in my opinion, is her toughness. She is unbreakable.

It is tough to finish her. What she did to Misha, and I wonder if the broken nose came into play because if you watch the rear naked choke, her arm wasn't exactly tucked in, Amanda's arm. It seemed more like a crank slash rear naked choke. and if you can't breathe out of your mouth, you're relying on breathing out of your nose. If your nose is broken, you're in a lot of trouble. So also, she had rocked Misha

and went for her back, and at first I was like, oh, oh, is this a mistake? Is she giving Misha too much time to recover? Clearly, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I can hear you, by the way, New York Rick, over the loudspeaker, I believe. So just be careful there if you're whispering sweet nothings. So that was super impressive.

If it's me, I'm doing Giuliana Pena versus Amanda Nunes next. Pena deserves it. Defeating Zingano coming back after losing the first round. By the way, I could still, guys in the back, I can hear New York Ricken here. You got to take him off the mic. You got to close this PA thing here. So anyhow. it's impressive what she did to Misha and now I want to see Juliana Pena.

I think she's done enough. She's won seven in a row if you include the ultimate fighter and it should be included because that was a very tough crew. Misha is going to need some time off. I don't mind if she fights the winner of Holly Schochenko or even the loser of Holly Chichichchenko. And I think they need to keep the train moving along because it doesn't sound. I mean, November is four months away.

Is Ronda going to come back that? quickly. I'm not sure about that. You know? So that's what I would do. That's the title fight that I would do. I would do Amanda Nunes versus Juliana Pena. Okay, let's move along. That was one big story. But in my opinion, Eddie Alvarez, Thursday night, Yawani on Jacek Friday night, the two most impressive performances of the weekend. Blown away by what Yawani and Jacek did again, weathering that storm, coming back in the championship rounds and defeating her rival Claudia Gedelia. What a fight.

Maybe top to bottom, full body of work, the best fight of the entire weekend. And we are honored to be joined by her right now via the magic of Skype. There she is, the UFC Strawway champion herself, the pride of Polska, Joanna Young Jacek. How are you? Hi, guys. Hi, guys.

Good to talk to you again. Oh, it is a pleasure. Congratulations on the win, Yuana. Overall, and there's a lot to talk to you about, overall, are you happy with that performance? Because early on, it seemed like you may be losing the fight and then you really showed a lot of heart. You came back. Does that please you? I'm very happy, you know, we expect pretty tough fight from the beginning. Like, we had few game plans, but we like, we had those feelings that Claudia might be very strong physically

in the first and second round and that she might like just trying to take me down. So this is what she did, but I felt like she couldn't do anything on the ground. And I felt like, okay, let's wait you, Anna, and take your chance. And I couldn't find the right distance in the first round. But after that, I felt like I'm going for the victory. And, you know, I never, I always believe in myself, you know, and even I lost the first round in the second round, I was like believing, like, in myself that I would,

win this fight and this is what I did, you know. Did she surprise you with anything, anything that you didn't prepare for in those first two rounds? No, like I said, we expect pretty tough fight. We expect like a few things from Claudia. And she did great job. She put on great performance. She was very strong.

But honestly, like, I can tell you that Valerilla Tournée hit harder than Claudia Kadaya. Wow. Did you notice that she was gassing? It seemed like she was getting really tired as the fight went on. Could you notice that as well? Yes, of course. Okay.

I felt like from second, like in the second round, I felt like Claudia is more weak, you know, second by second, you know. Wow. What's your corner telling you after the second that really, is there something that they said in particular to really allow you to adjust and then go dominate those rounds? You know, after first round, I said like, sorry guys, I don't know what's going on, but I felt really good.

I felt like I was fighting. that's the most important thing, you know. Like, I was losing the run, but I was like, let's do this. Like, it's a championship fight, you know, five rounds. Like, we still can win this fight. And they were like, no, you don't have to be sorry, you are now. Everything is good. Let's take your time.

And we go for the victory. And this is what we did, you know. Given the rivalry between you two, were you a little too emotional early in the fight? No, like, no emotions. Like, believe me. like I was so calm, you know, like, okay, during the preparations in Poland, I was like, when I went to bed, I was thinking about Klavia Goddaya, about the fight. How, how is it going to look like, you know, but since I arrived to Vegas two weeks

before the fight, I was so calm, so happy to be finally in Vegas. Really, I was super, super calm before the wanes, before the fight. and like just the right emotions you know good emotions the sport emotions you know like because I cancel everything what was between me and Claudia

a long time before the fight did you feel before they read the judge's scorecards that you had done enough were you worried at all that's something crazy I knew that I won the fight and like I knew that

I felt that and yeah I deserve it I'm the champion for a reason is it a relief that you don't have to think about her you've been thinking about her for so long, the reality show, all that stuff. Like, do you feel like, oh, now I can move on with my life? Yeah, I can take really deep brief.

Like, I did my job. I really needed that fight for my belt, for my championship. And I think I put on great performance. Like, I put the dot on E, you know what I mean? Yeah. So this is what I did. So I'm the real champion, and that's all what I can say about, you know. I'm focused on my future opponents, but I don't know who is going to be my next opponent,

but that's all, you know, I'm very happy that I want the fight with a really tough opponent who is Claudia Cadeo. After the fight, right after they announced you as the winner, it seemed like the beef had been squashed, even what you were saying. Then she goes on the mic, and I wasn't really sure what she was implying, but when she went to the press conference, it seemed like on her end, the beef wasn't squashed, that she still felt a lot of animosity towards you. Did that piss you off? No, I know mind, you know, like I like to be like okay with myself, you know, like we believe

in the same Godfiel, like that I like really from my, I said, those things which I said to her after the fight were from my heart and from my soul, you know, like it's all over from me. Okay, she can still like talking about, I know mind, you know, I said sorry, I asked her to forgive me, like lots of bad, bad, bad blood between me and Claudia was before, but not anymore, you know. So she said that she lost with the condition, not with me. Come on, it's a title fight. You want to be a champion, you must be ready for even 15 runs, you know what I mean?

So you cannot complain that your condition was bad, that you broke your foot, you broke your, I don't know, finger or toe. It doesn't matter, you know. You must be ready for everything. And if you want to challenge someone, you must be even better, you know. Did you suffer any injuries in the fight? No, you know, I can tell you, like you're the first one. I had an appointment with my doctor in the morning. We took X-ray and my hand is okay.

Wow. So I really want to fight in New York. If I'm not going to fight in New York, nothing is going to happen. But I think that I would like to fight there. and I hope that Dana and the matchmakers will put me on this card, but we will talk about now we're happy that we want the fight. Dana was happy, Sean Shelby, Joe Silva, all UFC. So I'm happy for them for myself as well.

Yeah, and of course they should be happy. It was a tremendous fight. I'm good. I'm good. Wow. So is that the hand, that's the hand that often breaks, right? So badly, it's broke, but everything is okay, you know. Were you worried that it?

broke in the fight? Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. I didn't feel that after the fight, so that's why I didn't go to the hospital. But after a few hours, my hand was so big. Wow. Now it's all good, so I'm very happy, very excited. Because in the fight from the third round, I felt like I was Muhammad Ali, you know. You were certainly chucking and jiving and shuffling like him.

It was amazing to watch. Are you worried that that's going to happen every time you fight, though, that it's going to swell up? Is that just... You know, like, I'm stroway. Yeah. But I hit pretty hard, you know. Yeah, you certainly do. You do.

Do you ever, let me ask you this, do you ever surprise yourself? Like, do you ever look back on your thing? Like, I can't believe I had that in me that I was able to do that. Because you are, I mean, when you talk about athlete, you are an athlete. You're not just some like brawler. You are an unbelievable athlete and striker and a great mixed martial artist. Do you surprise yourself? There's so many people who are believing in me.

but I know that just few of them they believe me from the bottom to the top, you know, but the most important thing is to believe in myself, you know, for me and I never give up. And I'm super excited that I proved that I'm the right person, you know, I'm the champion

for a reason, and that I deserve it to be a UFC champion, you know, and have my team. life, beautiful life. It had been eight months since you last fought. Did you feel a little rusty at first? Not really. I really like to keep on busy.

I like to fight very often. Like, you know, I did fight fights in 15 months. But, yeah, definitely. I want to fight as quick as I can. November will be perfect for me, if not, maybe December. But, yeah, I like to, I want to keep on, keep on busy, you know. want to defend my title one more time this year. In November, you were a part of the biggest show in UFC history, UFC 133.

Now you were a part of the biggest weekend in UFC history. The Friday night show, I know you went to UFC 200. And then we find out that women headlined the Friday show and the Saturday show, which is amazing. What was it like for you to get that vote of confidence and to be a part of that whole experience? It's amazing, you know. Who could think about three years ago? Yeah.

Four years ago. It's good. It's good. We rule the word. Was the best part of the whole weekend, the highlight of the weekend, meeting Justin Timberlake? Yes, it was like, I met so many famous people at the UFC events, but I didn't ask for the picture. But with Justin, I did, you know. I have crushed on Justin. It's correct. Yes.

What does your fiancé say about that? He knows that. Okay. We're all allowed one celebrity crush, right? Yeah. So what did you say? Did you go up to him or did he go up to you? No, like the Tiago, my manager, he texts to one of the PR ladies and let her know that

I love Justin Timberlake and I didn't know about, you know. And she took to the backstage. I thought that I'm going to have some interview or something. But I met Justin Timberlake. Wow. Did you freak out? Not really, not really, but I'm super happy, you know. You played it cool.

And then you asked him for a photo. Yes, I did So was that the highlight of the whole weekend for you? Look at you, you're blushing. Yes, even it was better than my victory. Wow, that is amazing. What was it like for you to be at 200? Did you enjoy the show?

Amazing show, very good card. Yeah, I feel sorry for John Jones and Daniel Cormier. This fight must happen, you know. So I hope that it was just a... some supplement and not the drugs. Sure. And John Jones will be back as quick. As a fighter, when you hear fans booing Daniel Kormier like that, does that bother you?

No, it's very, so much respect to Daniel Kormier, you know, it's very difficult to fight someone. Like, it's very difficult, you know. He's been preparing for John Jones. He's a champion, so of course he wants to defend his title. any time and the thing is like Anderson Silva he's still one of the greatest you know so it was difficult fight for Daniel Colmier but he did his job

that's all you know a lot of people sorry for him but I think people they should understand this little bit different way you know I agree looking at the division there's a big fight coming up between Rosamai Yunis and Carolina

Kovalkievich. Did I say that right? My fights are big. Just my fights. Maybe an important fight. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Is your next opponent going to come out of that fight?

What do you think? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Who cares? Do you have any problem facing a fellow Polish fighter in Carolina? Come on. We've been shooting commercial for ego drink.

Ego. Ego. energy drink in Poland. We had really fun together. We had really good weekend. We have really good a relation, you know. So if Carolina will deserve it to fight for the title, so I will face her.

That's all what I can say. But like I said, I will keep on doing what I'm doing and I want to be undefeated champion for a long time. Joanne Calderwood also said that she's the one who can fight you and give you a good fight. What do you think of that? Yes, why not? but

those girls are going back and forward how we say back and forth yeah yeah so I don't know I don't know I don't know

like Ariel I had like big fight with the probably one of the the best throwways in the world you know

like of course I respect everyone but I put on great great performers and I promise to you guys that I will do this one more time

and that's all what I can say so more? Just one more time? Or many more times? Yeah, this year, one more time. Oh, okay, okay. Do you feel like there is a massive gap between you and the rest of the division, sort of like Demetrius Johnson at Flyway? Do you think... Yes, and not. Yes and not. But because there is so many talented girls in the Stroh division.

Okay. This division is very big. You said at the press conference that you know that Ronda Rousey is coming back. It seemed like you had some inside knowledge. What can you tell us? No, I don't know. don't know about like ronda text to me a few weeks ago she was very supportive thank you ronda so much

you know I was hoping to meet her at the UFC 200 but I didn't I didn't see her oh I like this girl so much and I wish her all the best and I hope that we're gonna fight on the same card one more time did she tell you any plans

about coming back anything at all no no no I don't even ask you know It's her life, her career, but I just want her to know that I am very supportive to her, you know, for her. I know you mentioned New York and there's a big Polish population here. Remember you were on my show here? I gave you the Polish donut and the newspaper, all that stuff. Brooklyn, there's a lot of Polska's there. But what about fighting in Poland?

And he talks to that? That would be a gigantic deal, right? I think if Carolina, if Jan will win, then we might have a. big show in Poland. Oh, what do you? Wow, look at that. Victory donut, right? Which one we want chocolate?

Oh my, I'll take them all. Hey, I want to ask you about this because it's a very big story today. I'm sure you heard that the UFC was sold for $4 billion. Did you hear that? Yes, I couldn't believe. When I heard the story, when I was in Poland, I was like, no, it's bullshit. Isn't true, you know? It can't be true, you know.

Since I arrived to Vegas, I heard lots of different stories. And yeah, it happened, you know. So what I can say, like, just wish all the best to new owners. Of course, I will stay behind Dana and the UFC forever, you know. When you hear that number, though, are you a bit shocked? Like, you're like, wow, that's a lot of money. They deserve it, you know. They did a great job, you know.

They made a product, you know. So it's amazing. It's very big. It's huge. People need this, you know. Sure. Okay. So now you're in Las Vegas.

You're going home soon? Yes. I'm in Vegas. Hanging out with my family, with Tiago. Tiago is living tomorrow. But yeah, like, you know, walking around. Living the dream. Enjoying good weather.

That's all. That's all. Tomorrow we go. We're going to rent some boat. Just chill a little bit. Yesterday I went to Absin's show. Watch the Polish guys. Today I, I,

I'm going to see La Rive and other good stuff. So yeah, I'm really enjoying Idaho Vegas so much. You know that. It's a beautiful thing. Okay, two last quick questions. Have you talked to Sean Shelby about trying to get the 125 title, putting that division so that you can be a dual champion? Do you think that will happen soon? Not yet.

Not yet. Okay. Not yet. All right. All right. And the final thing is, is Yuanian. So my next fight. So because this year I want to fight one 15 one more time and then I will think about my future.

Okay. Fair enough. Is it fair to call you now the baddest woman on the planet? No Chris Cyborg, no Rondraussi, you're number one? I don't know. I don't know. Come on. I don't know.

You think it. I am, I am, but I feel like there is more bell asses, you know? I don't know about that. I really don't. Well, you don't want to say it. You're humble. Wow, it's amazing. It's good to see this.

Oh, that's a big surprise, you know. Yeah, I know. But I'll say it. Right now you are 100% because you're beating top talent. Congratulations, Joanna. Thank you so much. Enjoy the victory. You deserve it.

And I really appreciate you coming on the show today. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ariel so much. MMA fighting. Love you guys. And thank you for all the support. My friends from yours from all of the world. I really love you guys.

And thank you for everything, you know, because I could be not a champ without you guys. Thank you. Tremendous. And I'm happy to hear your hand is okay. Enjoy Vegas. All right. We'll see you soon. Thank you so much. There she is. Yanni, I'm Jacek, the strawweight champion of the UFC. Tremendous stuff from her. What a performance it was on Friday

night. And thank you to her manager, Tiago, great guy who helped us get her after her big doctor's appointment. They were afraid for a second that they would get more bad news. Remember, after her last four fights, no, I think it was two fights. She's just been plagued by these hand injuries. and that will obviously, you know, stunt a career. But not the case this time for Yanni on Jacek. Congratulations to her. What a performance. Wow, what a great fight.

Losing the first two rounds and coming back and winning the third, fourth, and fifth. That's amazing. That's championship stuff. Okay. Mr. New York, Rick? I'm here. Anything else to address? I feel like we should go a little bit.

I feel like we should answer a few more questions. If you guys are down. Well, let me address a few things. Okay. And then we'll, by the, the way, no one mentioned this, and I didn't mention it. Who's the one who always says, put three title fights on a card, it's the kiss of death. Once again, I'm proven right. There's something about three title fights. It didn't end up being three because of the Jones thing,

but look what happened. But was it the kiss of death? Do you feel like... Yeah. It always brings bad luck. UFC 33, they go over the pay-per-view time. My thought was just ultimately like, this wasn't so bad. Like, the alternative was pretty good. The event went off pretty... They did a tremendous job of making lemonade out of lemons. But that being said, it was pretty bad. Yeah. The main event falling out that way was definitely not.

I would just like to, you know, pat myself on the back on that one. Anyone ask us about Bisping Hendo? Yes. Oh, okay, so I'll save that. Demetrius Johnson injured. So Mr. Reliable is out of his fight against Wilson Hayes. Wilson Hayes telling our own Guillermo Cruz that he still wants to be a part of the card, UFC 201.

but that's a big blow for a card that's kind of flying under the radar. Did you see that promo for it that they aired? Yeah. Straight out of like WWF Judgment Day 2001 with The Undertaker. Like it's a great idea. The ashes, ashes we all fall down, but I don't know if maybe that fight needs it. Look, I like it better than the... Yeah.

Yeah. What's wrong with that? Every time it's the same... See, this is the problem. Yeah, I know. But if you're going to do the can like, oh, this is... Can we just like use different sound bites so they don't... all sound the same.

Yeah. I'm going to talk to Aaron Manuel about this. Right? Did anyone ask? I'm sure he's cutting the promos. Yeah, right? Did anyone ask about UFC 202 presser? No.

Surprisingly. Did you watch it? I did not. I followed it on Twitter, but I didn't watch it. Too busy. Yeah, come on. It was so, it was so exciting to see them back together. Connor had some great lines saying that the only reason why it's being valued at 4.2 is because

of me. But Nate, you know, Nate couldn't hear him. And this is the second time It was something with the microphones, right? It was just no, the acoustics in the new arena just were horrible and no one could hear it and so it ruined it. Yeah.

It was very depressing. All right. You want to answer some more questions? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Johnny Hendricks, important. I mean, the question goes into a bit of depth about the weight cuts and all that stuff. But what do you, I mean, does he go up to middle weight?

What do we do with Johnny Hendricks? I think the time is. now to stop booking him in Walterweight fights. Now, I was told by his team, shaking on the scale is an old, you know, a wrestling trick, whatever it is. He continues to

make weight. He's not looking good. There's something wrong. It has been a dramatic fall for him. Give him a 185 fight. Let's see if it changes. He needs to figure it out because we can't keep doing this. We're seeing a man hurt himself before the fight.

That's an uncomfortable reality. now typically he'd have more time and he'd be able to re-weigh was he was he hurt by that i i feel like there's a bit of a difference between this and the other times certainly he has a history certainly there's there's some there's a long history we can point to but i feel like in this very specific case it it may not have been that bad a thing like he he was off by a quarter of a pound he typically would have been able to sweat that off real quick or you know do whatever i don't know man he was you know, he shaved the beard before, and that was a warning sign to me.

Yeah. Look, he just needs to make weight successfully and have a good performance. He hasn't had a good performance in a while. Yeah. You know? So, man, this is a guy who I thought beat GSP at 167.

Yeah. But then stood toe to toe with Robbie Lawler and Ferenz squarely won the fight. And then after that fifth, and he had been in a lot of rounds, but after that second fifth round fight with Robbie, It has become this amazing, you know, fall from grace for him. And I don't say amazing in a positive light.

So really, really, really sad to see. It was a great fight, by the way. But, yeah, this is not the way it should be. You may not be able to do this. Hard to encapsulate favorite moment. Anyway, so just to put a bow, I'd like to see them no more fights at 170, put him at 185 for the foreseeable future. Like they did, Kelvin.

They moved him up, and then he went. back down. Okay, what's the question? James Glory, my man. Favorite moment or moments? What stood out? I mean, there's so many, but... Got there Wednesday morning, went to the press conference.

The reaction from the fans was just mind-blowing. It was cool to see the Cormier-Jones stuff, the Lesnar stuff. Then we go to the media day. There was a buzz in the air. You could tell everyone was very excited. Looking at the media day, and this was just the rest of the car. And it was TJ there and Sage there and Johnny. there and Jim Miller there and Gomi there. It just was like a who's who, Penaes and Gano.

Then we go to the weigh-ins for the Alvarez, our DA fight. Then we get the news about John Jones. Then we wake up the next day with the John Jones thing. I ran through Thursday. I mean, it was just one thing after the next. It was really an unbelievable week. Favorite moment. I got to say, I, there would was warmth in my heart when I saw Eddie Alvarez win, considering everything he has been through. I was really happy that Cormier got his fight. I was worried that, you know, he would miss out on that payday. I thought that was a beautiful thing. There were a lot of great moments. I mean, Amanda Nunes winning. Not a lot of people thought that she was going to win and what that

represents. Yeah. I mean, there was really something. I mean, the Yawanna fight was just tremendous. Derek Lewis falling asleep at the press conference, post-fight press conference was just amazing. what a personality he's become. How about Gray Maynard coming back after such a long layoff, four years without a victory and winning? How about Joe Duffy avenging his previous loss in Las Vegas back in December with a real emphatic win? How about Will Brooks realizing his dream and defeating Ross Pearson?

A lot of great stories, I thought. So there you have it. Every moment was our favorite moment. That's right. That's right. What are you going to do about it? Oh, also, the the next press conference with noah and brandon jennings uh UFC 200 uh did it live up to the

hype i mean it's such a funny question let's go expectations versus reality if i sat down and look it's hard sometimes to sit down for seven hours and watch these fights that was the first time that i sat in the arena and watch an entire card top to bottom with my own two eyes like i was in the act for arena not watching on a monitor and if i sat down at home and and watched that whole thing top to bottom, I would have walked away a content man, given all the problems, given all the issues, knowing what I was getting,

that to me had at all. You had great performances on Fight Pass. You had compelling fights, comeback fights on the FS1 prelims. You had Kane Velasquez looking the way he did. You had Brock Lesnar, who's, you know, a show in his own right doing what he did. The Cormier situation, I didn't hate it.

You had Amanda Nunes beating me. Like, what more do you want, really? I think that the, I am happy that UFC 200 has come and gone. I'm happy we can all move on with our lives. And I noted in our post-fight show that I'm sure that there are a lot of people in Zufa, or the UFC, I should say, WME, who are happy as well. It's a big burden. It kind of reminds me of like when I try to book a 300 episode of this show.

It's just a big burden. And you can obviously times that by a million. So yeah, it was fine. It felt big. It felt special. I thought they did some little things. I had no problems. I did not feel like I was cheated.

Was it an A plus? No. But I think it was a solid BB plus, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've been to worst cards. John Jones falling off ultimately helps or hurts? I think it helps the buy rate. In the long run, it hurts, obviously, because he's gone. Specifically the buy rate.

Did more people know about this event and then tune in because of that? ESPN was doing live hits. People were talking about it. Yes. Now, does that translate into people buying? I think Brock, I think the story of Anderson. If it was Musasi, D.C., maybe not. but because it's Anderson and his history and the gallbladder thing,

I actually think in a weird way it helped. I thought it was, again, as I said to Pollock, in the end I agreed with their decision to put the Tate fight last. It didn't end on the crescendo that 100 did, and that's just dealing with the hands you were dealt. That wasn't their original plan. But they didn't have to go to the, like, there were like all the promos and stuff in the arena who said UFC 200,

Tate versus Nunes. And that's their go-to because they don't have like UFC 200 Judgment Day anymore. They don't have those things. But UFC 200 is the one event that you can just get away with UFC 200. You know what I mean? You don't have to put the fight there. And so that's the only one thing that I would change, but that's nitpicking. If anything, I don't think it hurt.

If anything, I think it helped. Yeah, my mom texted me and said, what does that mean for your bet with Ariel? Get out of here. She was watching. People paying attention. Wow. I'm humbled. What should the UFC do differently for 300?

What's the changes? Are we really going to talk about this? I'm just so happy 200 is over. I feel like we can all move on with our lives. We've got to talk about Sioux Falls, damn it. That's a good point. Poor card. Poor fighters on that card, right? Completely getting overshadowed. I mean, you have to expect that that was going to happen. There's no way to avoid that. Especially now with the whole sale thing. Oh, yeah, that's another one. Although they'll be the the ones getting all the questions about it in the coming week. Yeah, is that a good thing?

You really think Michael McDonald wants to be answering questions about the sale? He has no choice. Yeah, that's right. T.J. Dilashaw. Faber or Cruz. Which one's next? I think you've got to go Cruz, right? I like that fight better, and I think there's time for favor down the line. Just get the title fight, you know, happening and then favor down the line.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I guess. I just don't, you know, there's a lot of guys coming up. There's Cody. Do you wait to fight, you know, the Cody fight? You're talking about for TJ? No, for Dominic.

Okay. That's what I thought. want to see. I think Cody and D.C. I was going to call him with Dominic Cruz have done a great job selling their little rivalry. There's the alpha male stuff there. But Cody's, actually, Cody's fighting in a month, you know? So you do Cruz, uh, Garbrandt, and you do T.J. and Faber, and then the winners square off. Is that your, although I don't know if you could do another title shot for Faber. Why? What do you mean? I don't know. I just don't know if we're ready for it. Stopping. They've got options, but I think because that first fight, I mean, there are a lot of people, don't

forget who think Dillishaw won the cruise fight. You know what I mean? So I think he deserves it. And Hendo gets the title shot? Yes. Now how does the rest of the middleweight picture shake out? We've got Rockhold. We've got Wybin. We've got Jokore. We've got Romero. What's... I will say this and I will also say... By the way, I think there's a little bit of an echo. I don't know if something on over there. It might be my headphones getting too close. Hand cut. I will say this and I will also say that I will preface this comment by saying that I saw Michael Bisping at the end of the night. like at 2 a.m. as I was going back to my hotel room. And I told him this. I said that I am, I'm very, what's the word? I don't want to say, I don't, I don't like this call. I don't like the

fact that the 13th ranked or 12th rank guy is getting a title shot. I understand why he would want it. I understand why he would take it for obvious reasons, the history, the competition. I get it. But what does that say to the guys like YOL Romero, like Jacques, like Chris Wyman, like Luke Rockhold who have been working, who have been sweating, who have been doing everything they can to be the top guys in the division. And why wasn't Michael Biss been calling for this fight two years ago, three years ago? There were opportunities after some losses, after some wins to take this fight. Now we're going to do the fight? I mean, that's, that's the title should not be the play. Look what Yuanah said. Look what Eddie Alvarez said. You know, the title is not the place,

in my opinion, to be like, okay, now I'm going to go, that guy. The title being the champion is now the time. Amanda Nunes said the same thing. Now that you're the champion, now's the time that you're like, all right, who's number one? Who's number two, maybe? Not who's number 12 or 13. What about who's not even in the division in Connor McGregor when he was getting a lightweight title shot? Well, first of all, I said that I, if you recall, I said that he should defend the title at least once. I was pushing for the Frankie Edgar fight. Go back. So don't try to catch me in no lie. I like when champions defend titles and fight the best. And if it means not losing it, for 10 years, it means not losing for 10 years.

But I don't, look, this to me might even be more egregious than, you know, when Nick Diaz is fighting for the belt after a loss against GSP. Misha Tate is fighting for the belt after one loss against Ronda Rousey. I mean, this, Dan Henderson, look, with all due respect, he just needs to pile together a couple wins to get a title shot. Being the champion doesn't mean settling scores. It means fighting the very best. But is the thought to do this before it's too late.

This fight may never happen. No, I understand that... You had seven years to do this fight. Yeah, I get it. You had seven years. What? Now we're doing it? No, no.

Man. And look, now that it's a reality, I do Wyman Romero. Yep. In MSG or at MSG. I think that's the perfect fight to make there. Luke Rockhold... Jocker, I run it back.

You just said it. Perfect idea. Perfect idea. Oh, man. You could do a whole middle-way tournament. Let's do that. Yeah. Yeah.

We decided it, so, you know, again, talk to Ari. We'll make it happen. But I still feel like it's just, and look, Hendo is a legend. I mean, the guy is the freaking man in all facets. But, come on. The best deserve to fight for the belt. That's it. That's it.

Action pack show. I ran through all my things. Oh, new Reebok. Did you like the new Reebok shorts? Was it new? I mean, it's just a splash color on something. Doesn't make it a new thing. I mean, it's an upgrade, right?

sure anything like I mean how about Gaggar Musassi's still going with the boring black and white Gaggar Masasi's the man he is the man he's I love Gagar Musassi but it was funny that he went with the boring black and white um yeah I think the yellow and all those colors were talking about Brock went Canada and you're talking about Gagar going to the black and white that thing is so weird with Brock I think he kind of felt bad towards the end and he gave this promo about the American forces and all that yeah I mean you know when you're when you're labeled as this like you know farm American country boy and then all of a sudden you're the Canadian Great White Hope it's it's it's it's gotta be something you gotta manage yeah I think the

yellow and all those colors will stick out when once the yellow cage the cage rage the canvas is no more I mean you gotta do something else other than oh yeah I mean I I don't like that they hang their hats so much on the whole nationality thing you know what I mean like like if people want to be patriotic let them be patriotic but like we were almost forcing Brock to pick a side there and other people as well that's just not who they are now the Venezuelan vixen it makes sense for Julianna Pena to represent Venezuela by the way her entrance song was incredible so in that case what do you do you just let them pick colors and then if you want to do a flag combination you can do that let's just let's just not stick to the script

yeah um but anyway that's that was another notable thing this past weekend uh final note before we go john linnaker Michael McDonald who do you got oh boy Boy, aye, aye. I haven't even thought about this fight because I've been thinking about all the other fights for so long. It's this Wednesday. I have to think that Linneker is going to pop them. I just...

Wow. I think Linneker is going to connect on something. Why be a big win? Another player at 135, by the way. Yeah, that guy... His power translates, as we've seen. I think Linneker is going to get it done. I just, I'm picturing it and I just see Lindiger Land in a shot.

Okay. And worth noting that Bellator makes its London, England debut this Saturday as well on Spike TV. Paul Daly, versus Douglas Lima, Matt Matrione, Ollie Thompson, Michael Page, Evangelista Santos, Cyborg, Frances Carmon is on the card. James Gallagher of SBG, the, I think 19 years young, prodigy of John Kavanaugh and Connemogre. I'm curious if Kavanaugh is going to go to London. He's in Vegas now to corner James Gallagher and his Belator debut. So that is worth looking out for as well.

All right, we are done, right? We're good. That's it. Peace. Congrats again. Thank you very much. You can hit my music. So like I said at the top of the show, July 11th, 2016.

Wow. We are entering a new era in the sport of mixed martial arts. So many unknowns, anyone who tells you that they know what's going on, what will happen, they're lying. There's a lot. that's about to change. I mean, there's a new owner. That alone is significant.

But again, regardless of what you may think about Lorenzo Fertita, Frank Furtita, Dana White, as people, as promoters, as businessmen, you do have to recognize what they did for this sport. For 15 plus years, they built the sport into the powerhouse that it is today. Mainstream not, it's a juggernaut. It's big enough to command a $4 billion price. tag. They revived a sport. If it wasn't for them, we're not sitting here talking about it. There is no UFC 200. There's no Brock Lesner. There's no none of this. And so if this is the end of their run, much respect to them, much kudos to them. They really did help revive this sport.

And I think that they were probably the only ones capable of doing so. The Zoufa era is over. We move along now to a new era, WME, IMG era. What's it going to mean? What's going to happen? It's going to be fun to find out. We'll be here at chronicling it all. For now, we say goodbye. Thank you very much to John Pollock. Thank you very much, Malikawa.

Congrats Eddie Alvarez. Thank you very much, Brian Stan. Thank you very much, Mike Dolce. Congrats to Daniel Cormier. Congrats to Yoni and Jacek. And thank you very much to all of you. The people in Vegas that I met, all of you watching today. Love you all. Peace. I'm out of here.

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