MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 339

Episode Date: July 18, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Marc Raimondi (00:05:45), Derrick Lewis (00:26:16), Valentina Shevchenko (00:48:22), Campbell McLaren (01:04:27), Amanda Nunes (01:25:58), James Gallagher (01:46:38), NewYorkRic to take your questions (02:15:32), Lando Vannata (02:51:22), and Urijah Faber (03:11:55). 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?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier.

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I'm Mario Hawani inside our New York City studio, mid-July, great weather outside. And in fact, this is a historic day in the history of our great program. For the first time in my professional career, I have come to work wearing shorts. Yes, I'm wearing shorts. see this, I didn't really have to tell you that, but in the interest of full disclosure, I felt like I needed to get that off my chest. I've always been against the idea of wearing shorts to work, but it is very hot outside. I'm not complaining, by the way. If it was July all year round, July, I'd be the happiest man in the world. I've already told you that I think July is

the greatest month of the year. It's just a little hot and it's a little uncomfortable. And I come to the studio all sweaty. So here I am doing the show, business on top, party on the bottom, it's still the same old show. Don't worry. I actually saw someone on my way to the studio today, a fan. I believe his name is Stephen. Was it Stephen? The name escapes me right now,

but I think it's Stephen saying that he was on his way to his office to go watch a show. And I have to tell you, one of the things I love most about doing the show in the summertime is when people send us tweets showing where they're watching or listening to the show. So last week, someone was in Melbourne saying, this is where I'm enjoying last week's episode of the MMA hour. I often get pictures of people on the beach.

I love that. Send more of those to think that someone's on vacation and maybe not on vacation, but just using this show as an escape valve as a way to unwind, as a way to check in on the world of MMA. That to me is the highest compliment possible. So I love those tweets. And I'm not envious. I'm happy to share in your experience.

If you're at the pool having a great time listening to the show, I feel like I'm at the pool. having a great time listening to this show. So that's a lot of fun. It's a great compliment to me. I appreciate those comments very much. Okay. As always, much to discuss in the world of MMA. You know, it's interesting. After last week's show, there was, okay, going into last week's show, there was a ton of news. And then a few days after last week's show, it was kind of quiet. And I was thinking to myself, come Friday, oh, you know, this has been a relatively quiet week in the world of MMA. And then Friday evening happens. And then the Brock Lesnar News happens. And among the many things I

thought of when the Lesnar News came out was this is the third time in a row that a major USADA violation breaks on a Friday evening, which, as I think I've mentioned on the show before, I've definitely mentioned it on Twitter, is PR 101. I mean, if you're going to break major news that is sometimes not very complimentary, you try to break it Friday night. That's something any PR person will tell you. It happened with the Chad Mendes news, the Frank Mirr news, and now the Brock Lester News. Coincidence, quite possibly, but I thought of that. Like, wow, another Friday night breaking news, Usada story. Crazy. Lot to unpack as it pertains to Brock. We'll talk about that. Talk about the Bellator card on Saturday, which was, I thought, entertaining, but has

now since been somewhat marred by a devastating and horrific injury to Evangelista Cyborg. There's some breaking John Jones news today. There's a lot going on. And of course, UFC on Fox 20 is this Saturday in Chicago. So let's get to today's rundown and then let's start this show. All right. 410, we're going to be joined by Uriah Faber. Last week, it was announced that he'll be fighting Jimmy Rivera, not Francisco Rivera, UFC 203, in Cleveland. Cleveland on September 10th. First time we get a chance to talk to your eyes since his lost to Dominic Cruz. So we'll touch on that as well. At 350, Lando Vanada. Yes, Lando Vanada, who was relatively unknown coming into UFC Sioux Falls Wednesday evening and was the talk

of the town following the event. He took a fight against Tony Ferguson on short notice, around two and a half weeks notice and almost finished Tony Ferguson. What a performance out of Jackson Winklejohn's Landau Venata. He'll be joining us at 350. I'm looking forward to talking to him. 245, we'll talk to James Gallagher, the 19-year-old prospect out of SBG Ireland, protege of the great John Kavanaugh. He made his Bellator debut successfully Saturday evening in London.

So we'll talk to James about that. 225, we'll talk to the brand new UFC women's bantamway champion Amanda Nunes about life as champion, avoiding hand surgery, it appears, and what's next for her. 205, the UFC co-founder and current Combatte America's CEO Campbell McLaren will stop by. He has an interesting connection to the recent sale of the UFC. And by the way, in case you're wondering, not a ton of news to come out regarding the sale, but of course we'll talk about it on this show. 145. Valentina Bullitt Shevchenko will stop by.

she faces Holly Home in the main event of UFC on Fox 20 this Saturday in Chicago, and at 125, we'll talk to Derek Lewis, who's coming off a big win over Roy Nelson last week in Las Vegas, or I should say at this point, two weeks ago in Las Vegas. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and welcome in my colleague and pal, Mark Romondi, owner of what used to be the best Skype connection, internet connection in West Hollywood. But I got to say, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's lacking this week, Mark. It's a new laptop. It's a new laptop.

What happened? Maybe that's the answer. I don't know. Well, you don't mess with a good thing, my man. It's not my fault. My laptop cropped out. I'm using our beautiful SB Nation brand laptop. New SB Nation, not Apple Laptops.

Wait a second. You have an SB Nation laptop? I don't have an SB Nation laptop. What's up with that? You have an SB Nation studio right there in New York. I'm over here in L.A. Come on. But you got the Dojo Studio.

you're killing it with the Facebook live every night, late night, after hours. It's great stuff. Okay, let's talk. We got a lot to talk about. What are you drinking there? Coffee? Of course. Okay. I'm putting you on the spot here because this news is an hour old, but there was a hearing in Nevada this morning. One of the big topics, John Jones, they temporarily suspended him because they're going to have the full hearing. We expected that. But of note, they officially said that. he tested positive for two anti-estrogen blockers. And this is something that Rashad Evans said before 200. This is something that Chal Sondon said after 200.

But here's the commission coming out and saying it. For those that don't understand why the heck a fighter like John Jones would be caught with anti-estrogen blockers in his system, can you explain this to the common man? Yeah, it's actually not that it's pretty common anti-estrogen medication and pills because basically what it does, it's almost kind of like a TRT type situation where if someone has low testosterone, anti-estrogen pills and substances kind of suppress the estrogen and kind of try to stimulate the testosterone in people's systems. So men take that for many reasons, if they have hypogonadism, which is one of the things

that you can take TRT for. It's a similar type of thing. mostly though it's people who have taken steroids in the past and as we know steroids and that kind of stuff testosterone can make natural testosterone go down and make those levels go down

so people take anti-estrogen medication to suppress the estrogen and make testosterone go up now I don't know what John Jones has done in the past but we don't even know if he took this intentionally he's saying his team is that he's never knowingly taking any banned substances this kind of stuff is actually pretty prevalent in

supplements which is interesting You can go to GNC and get anti-estrogen medication right now. It's not that, it's not uncommon. It's an over-the-counter type deal. So maybe it's one of those situations where he wasn't paying attention to the label and it was in the supplement. Actually, John's sponsor, his supplement sponsor, Gat, actually sells over-the-counter anti-estrogen supplements. So I don't know if he took those. I don't know if it was unlabeled.

As we know, as Mike Dolce put very well on your show last week, the supplement market is the Wild Wall West. I mean, there is no regulation at all. The only time the FDA investigates supplements is when someone complains about it, when there's a file open on it. Otherwise, they can put anything on the shelf they want more or less. So given this information, do you think it's still too early to say whether or not he's going to get the full two-year punishment from Yusata from Nevada? that you, because, you know, initially some people would be like, okay, this is not, you know,

your typical, oh, you know, I took this supplement, there's something in here, I'm crying foul. What do you think? Do you think it's still too early? Do we still need to really hear his side of the story before trying to guess how long he'll be out for? Oh, yeah. It's definitely way too early because these things are so prevalent in supplements that maybe Jones took a supplement that didn't list anti-estrogen medication substances inside of it. but the way these supplements work is that sometimes if you're in the same factory,

there can be cross-contamination, there can be tainted supplements. It happens all the time. So maybe he was taking something from Gat that Gat produces, and there was anti-estrogen substances in there, and he took them unknowingly. They weren't on the label. That kind of stuff is not rare. It happens all the time, actually. It's pretty common.

So there's still a possibility of a tainted supplement defense in this case. I think that's the way they're leaning. and as we saw with as we saw with Yowell Romero and Tim Means, if you can prove to Usada that you took a substance unknowingly that it came in a supplement that you were taking and it wasn't listed on the bottle, you can get off, you can only get six months suspension. Yeah, that could, that's the situation here.

But, and I want to note this too, because it's interesting today that the Nevada Athletic Commission was the ones to announce the substance that he tested positive for. Regardless of what happens with Usada, he still has to go before the commission. So Usada can say six months, the commission can say two years, three years. They can really do, they don't have to go by Usada at all. They can do whatever they want.

He can be in a situation where he can get a very small suspension from Usada and the commission can still throw the book out. Yeah, but I think that's interesting because Nevada isn't the one who administered the test. So I feel like, you know, they don't really have a like to set. Yeah, I know. I get that. Because the commission has to pay for it. So it doesn't make sense to test guys twice. It doesn't make sense of the commission and Usada to be testing.

So they're sharing their testing. Fair enough. But I just think that if let's say Usada decides that it's six months, I don't like the idea of Nevada piling on. But let's see. It's very early. No, I know. I get it. Yep.

Yep, I get it. Okay, so the Brock Leicester thing, right? There's a lot to discuss here. My first thought is, look, I understand. And, oh, one second. I just want to say one more thing about the supplement thing. We're new in the Usada era. The sport is evolving.

Everything is evolving. But I think it's time, like, we need to put a cap on the supplement excuse. There's no excuse anymore for not telling Usada what supplements you're taking. Like the idea that I took this and then I got screwed because it was tainted, that could have worked in January, February, March. It's July. Enough people have gotten caught. You can't use that anymore.

If you took a supplement and didn't report it and there's something unknowing, I think you deserve the biggest punishment possible. You can't. You just, you have to. have to disclose everything at this point. Haven't you guys learned? That's just my take on that. Anyway, let's go to Brock Leicester, all right? You're giving me this. I agree on that one 100%. You have to. Why not? You're playing by their rules. Now, the T.J. Dillishaw thing about like we're contracted and all full time. That is a great point. I agree with them 100%. But the system

hasn't changed yet. So if you don't want to get screwed, you have to play by the rules because you guys agree to this. You guys are the ones that signed off on this, right? Is it realistic to not take any supplements at all? Just tell them. But even when you tell Jeff Novitsky and you email them and say, hey, hey, Jeff, I'm taking X, X, X, X, X, X, X. All he can really tell you is that these are a low risk. He can't say for sure because you never know about cross-contamination. So there has to be at least a checks and balance system in place just in case an athlete legitimately went through all the right steps and still got screwed. That's how bad the supplement market is. There has to be checks and

But this is what I'm saying. The ones thus far haven't even gone that step, right? The ones who have been caught with the supplement thing. I don't know about it. They haven't. I mean, they haven't said it. Why wouldn't they say it? You get what I'm trying to say?

Okay, I want to talk about Brock. My big takeaway when I heard this news. My big takeaway when I heard this news is, yes, I understand that the test results and the whole process of the samples, it's all anonymous. And they're going by system. And I like that, it shows that, look, they don't care about the event. They don't care about the date. They're doing their own thing.

and it's all in the up and up. I respect that. But we can't keep finding out that a guy tested positive from a result or there's a potential violation from a test that happened two weeks before the event.

The fight happens. The opponent gets his head bashed in and now we have to deal with the consequences. If we're going to be in this arrangement where fights are happening and people are being tested beforehand, well, they need to figure out a way to expedite these results.

Don't you agree? To happen before the... I wonder. percent agree. But first, I do want to say that, to clear this up, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, no, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I know. I know you're not saying that, but I've seen people saying, oh, you know, they knew about it before. They didn't. Listen, if they pulled John Jones from UFC 200, the main event of the car, the best fighter in the world, three days before the event, there's no corruption going on. They're obviously

doing their due diligence. But this is one of those things where I think it's still a work in progress as far as far as side of the UFC and yes 100% they need to get these tests back before the fight especially in a case like Brock Lesnar where they waived that four-month period they waived that four-month period that he was supposed to notify Usada before coming out of retirement they waived it so they tested Brock five times we know before June 20th right all of those five tests came back clean so the UFC was operating under the assumption and he was fine because he passed five tests but usada wasn't done they went back a few days later a week later tested him three more times before the fight, and those three tests didn't come back

until after the fight, and that's one of the ones that he popped on, essentially. Yeah. So the UFC, I don't think there's any impropriety at all, but yeah, you side of these things. From what I understand, it's not even that expensive to expedite these tests, but I know that when you test as many times as you side of those, that kind of thing can add up, but in this situation, I think it's a special circumstance. they waived, the UFC waived the policy rule about the four month notice. You have to make sure you get all eight of those.

If you're going to test Lesnar eight times, you got to make sure every one of those is back before July 9th. Yeah, and we saw this sort of thing happen with the Anderson-Silva and Nick Diaz fight, but that was pre-Usada. Yes. If, like I said, I feel like they need to come to the understanding that, look, Mark Hunt has a reason to be upset right now. Do I think he's going to get his full purse?

No. Do I think he's going to get half? No. But he has a reason to be really pissed off. now and asking some serious questions. And from what I understand, he's not getting many answers. So right now, they come out with this result. And, you know, there's been all kinds of, you know, reports, hot takes, articles. I thought Mike Chippeta, Bleach Report, put it best, where he said, look, you know, Brock failed the test, but the UFC kind of failed the test as well here for rushing

him back, for waiving that. Do you agree with this sentiment that, look, UFC 200, when it was announced last year, we were dreaming of Connor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Chris Cyborg, the return to GSP. Then we were left with Connor and Nate. That didn't happen. Then we were left with John Jones. That didn't happen. And now we get the rushing of the Brock Lesnar fight. And look, like the UFC 200, the story, once it's all really said and done, will be one of like many, many missteps in my opinion. And this is just the latest and perhaps maybe the final one. But in hindsight, is the UFC somewhat at fault here for trying to rush this guy back in? Who knows what he was doing pre-WWE, but it's a bad look.

It's just really a bad look. Promoters are going to promote. I think that's just the name of the game. I don't think that they're at fault in a sense that they were doing anything with Improparity, like I said. The one thing I do take, I do take umbrage with the fact that they waives at the four-month notice. And it's funny because I was saying before the fight that it wasn't that big of a deal. But now that we know that they may not get to test back until after. sometimes, he needs to be tested and make sure all those tests come back in time before,

like I said, before the fight happens, because you don't want Mark Kahn going into a fight against someone who may be on something. And we don't know what Brock took yet. We don't know what the substance is. We don't know if it was a PED. And there was some stuff that came out this weekend, some rumors. Another thing I want to say about Yusada, just tell us what the substance is right off the bat. Why let people spread rumors before this can come out and speculate?

Because now people think that Brock Leser is using some. kind of steroid. We don't know if it's a steroid. It could be something else. It could be a diuretic for all we know. But you side is not telling us. So it just leaves room for speculation. And once that speculation happens and it travels the world, it's hard to come back after that. People already peg you as a user. So just be transparent and say it right away. Okay. Let me just interrupt you there because you're the one who said to me like, look, it's part of the process. Because I said, if you come out and be transparent about things and I like that, right off the bat, you're in this day and age, you're guilty until proven innocent. And you, I think,

equated it to someone getting arrested, right? I mean, you're arrested, then you go through the legal process. You know, the legal process. But here's the difference. And I agree with that, I agree with that comparison, but here's a difference. If Joe Schmoe gets arrested and if he's a public person, we usually know what he's getting arrested for. He's getting arrested for domestic violence. He's getting arrested for hit and run, blah, blah, blah. Here, we're being told that this guy did something potentially bad, but we have no idea. There's a thousand things under the sun. That leads to too much speculation. It's the Wild West then. There's hundreds of substances that he could have had to posit for, and we have no idea which one.

So now we're just playing a guessing game until Yusada tells us or we're probably the commission because Brock will also have to do the same thing that Jones did. Oh, God. To go before Jones and something. I don't know if he's going to show up in Vegas that remains to be seen, but he's going to have to go to that whole process too. So who the heck knows? But we're still waiting to find out that substance. I asked you after 200, do you think Brock is coming back?

Given his performance, given his demeanor after the fact, we all, agreed the guy wants to fight again and it would make a lot of business sense to have him fight again. What do you think now? Do you think he comes back? I think it really depends on what happens with Usada. I think it's too, it's too early to say because if he goes away for two years, if it is a two year's suspension, we're talking about a guy who's going to be probably 41, right? He just turned 39 in July, your favorite month. I think, I don't think he comes back if he gets suspended. But again, Who the hell knows? I mean, 41 is not even that old. Mark Hunt is older than that now, and he just fought Brock at USC 200. So I still think he's going to come back. I still think that even after

a suspension, the question is, can he come back and not fail a drug test? If you side is still in place in two years, if that's the case. Yeah, and WWE put out a statement, which was not much of a statement. That was like a two-liner. Basically saying that Brock is scheduled to return August 21st for us, that's SummerSlam and he hasn't been on our television, you know, for weeks. So pretty much washing their hands of the situation and say, we have nothing to do with this. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, what else do you expect? Okay, there's so much going on. I want to ask you about Cyborg Santos. I mean, this was a devastating injury. If you missed it, Michael Venom Page in London, lands a beautiful flying knee. And you could tell right off the bat to me it was reminiscent of

John Jones breaking Brandon Vera's orbital bone a few years back. the way his legs were moving, the kind of pain that he was in. You know, yeah, the sound was just, was just horrific. And then we come to find out that he suffered a fractured skull. I don't know how you come back from that. What made me feel a little uneasy about it was this GoFundMe account being spread, saying that, you know, he needs help with his medical bills. But Scott Coker has recently told MMA junkie that they're going to cover the cost.

I mean, shouldn't that have been cleared up right off the bat? I mean, I don't want, this is not me trying to pile on. but, you know, someone goes to the hospital for a fractured skull, the GoFundMe thing shouldn't even be set up. We shouldn't even be talking about that, right? Well, the GoFundMe is not from medical expenses. The GoFundMe is essentially, Sliporg is not going to be able to fight probably ever again. And if he does fight again, and I hope he doesn't, it won't be for a very long time. So this is basically the GoFundMe, as I understand it, is more for living expenses because the guy can't make an income now for an X amount of time.

So it's more for that than medical, because Belator is going to take care of the medical. It's good for them. They're doing the right thing 100%. And I think Sacco Girl said that they're going to pay Cyborg his win bonus as well. So that's good. That's good news. But the goal for me wasn't, I think, for that initially. I think it was for more living expenses after the fact because we know that these fighters don't make that much money.

And who knows how much Cyborg has saved, which is very sad because the guy has fought how many times, 40, 50 times. He's been fighting since 1997, and he probably still doesn't have any. true life savings. Jimmy Smith, the Bellator color analyst, said that he spoke to an EMT after the fight, and the EMT said that he had only seen that kind of injury in a severe car crash. Let me ask you this. When you see what happens to Cyborg on Saturday, when you see the Brock thing, the John Jones thing, and other things that have happened in the last month, do you ever just remove yourself as an MMA journalist, just be Mark Romandy right now. Do you ever think to yourself like, man, what are we doing here?

What is going on? Do you ever have that conversation with yourself? Because I will admit, after I saw the cyborg skull picture, I had that conversation with myself. I do. And this began with one of those times. Yeah. All these drug test failures, cyborg, that picture is really, I saw it about 10 times on social media yesterday. And every single time I felt like a feeling in the pit of my stomach, that's awful.

I mean, and, you know, what can Michael Page do? And also, good for him for sharing the GoFundMe and for, and putting it out there. And also Nate Diaz and Shell Sondon have donated, which is great. But Michael Page, like, he's not nothing to apologize for it because he was just doing his job and he did it well. But that's the inherent nature of MMA. If you do your job and you do it well, you stand to inflict a great deal of pain and suffering on your opponent. And that's something to be reminded of from time of time, I think. Because these are not action characters. These are not video game characters. These are not guys in movies. And I think fans see them as that sometimes when they say, oh, this guy should fight this guy. Like they're just playing like they're pieces on a chessboard. They're not. They're human beings who have to go through a lot of pain and suffering. And maybe it's good to remind us of that stuff from time of time.

Yeah. I saw some people tweet MVP that he should be ashamed of himself, that he wasn't acting professionally. Here's my thing on that. MVP has been acting this way from the get-go. It's not like he did this, you know, out of of the blue and, and to his credit, didn't even try to punch him. There wasn't really a lot of time to do that. But once he landed that knee, he walked away. Now, I know he did the Pokemon thing and all that, and it got him a ton of attention. I have no problem with his, with his antics because it's consistent to who he is. He's always been that way. And he's always been a gentleman outside of the cage.

So I say lay off on him. Final question for you, as we ran out of time, we can talk two hours here about all this stuff, talking about Cyborg and not having a lot of money and all this. and you wrote a great article Sunday morning for MMA fighting about whether or not the sale of the UFC will be the trigger to lead to some sort of fighter association slash union. You spoke to some important people, some smart people. Do you think this is it? Or do you think this story is going to sort of wash away in the coming weeks?

I don't know if this will be the full catalyst to start something like that. But I do think fighters are starting to notice more than ever now, especially when they see that $4 billion number. I mean, that thing really hits you over the head, and it makes fighters who are making like 20,000 and 20,000 say to themselves, like, what is going on? T.J. Dilloshaw was public the other day last week about the UFC and how they treat fighters

and about them treating fighters more like employees rather than independent contractors. I don't remember him ever saying that kind of stuff in the past. When the sale came out, fighters like Neil Siri, ally at Quinta, Jeremy Stevens, all tweeted, well, how come we're not getting our share? I think that sentiment is growing. I think the sentiment is growing. I don't know if this is going to push it over the edge, but I think certainly fighters are now thinking about this more than ever.

And they should. Every other major sports organization, league has a union, has an association, has some kind of collective bargaining for athletes. There's no reason why MMA shouldn't be like that as well. Great stuff as always, Mark. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, man.

All right. There is Mark Romandi of MMAFighting.com. This insight, as always, if you're not following him, reading his work, you are missing out. But before we move along, let me quickly tell you about our good friends over at Casper Mattresses. Casper is a sleep brand that created one perfect mattress sold directly to consumers, eliminating commission-driven inflated prices. Its award-winning sleep surface was developed in-house, has a sleek design, and is delivered in a small, how'd they do that size box?

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casser.com slash mMA and using offer code MMA terms and conditions apply. Now back to the show. One of the big winners two weeks ago in Las Vegas, Derek Lewis, huge win over Roy Nelson. He continues to be one of the rising stars in the UFC's heavyweight division,

and he joins us now, I believe, via the magic. Oh, no, via phone. Derek, are you there? They didn't let me do the Skype because I ain't had no clothes on. so I saw. You were naked? Yeah.

Oh, man, I wanted to see that. It's over 100 degrees on here in Texas. I know, I know. I'm at my house. Well, it's good to see you, Derek, or hear from you, I should say. Congratulations on the win. I've a lot to talk to you about, but I want to ask you right off the top. I mean, it's your division.

What was your reaction when you heard about Brock Lesnar? Oh, it was no surprise. It was like late years. I wasn't surprised about it, you know. and come on man look at the guy everybody knows he was juicing but it don't affect me at all you know I'll fight anyone I'm ready

so you would still fight him if they booked you against him next month and you think that he's doing that stuff you have no problem you know for sure I'll fight him you know when I was fighting in a lower lower league you know I was fighting a lot of guys that was on juice you know It doesn't matter.

That don't help you fight any better to me You know Because I still be eating fried chicken And McDonald's Day before my fighting I feel fine Are you really doing that

At this level Yeah But you know I just switch it up And just drink diet coke Instead of regular Coke So I feel pretty energized

So the night before The Roy Nelson fight You're eating McDonald's Yeah I was Actually not McDonald's In it out Oh, yeah.

That's the good stuff. Yeah. What'd you have? Three in and out burgers with, I think, those animal size, animal size or something like that, fries. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah.

Oh, that's the one with all the cheese and everything on it, right? Yeah. Man, you went all out. Yeah. Did you go bun or bunless? I went burn. Okay. I went all the way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I respect that. I respect that. But you don't think that there's a, I don't know, I mean, there's dangers involved. You, look at Mark Hunt. Have you seen his reaction to the news? I mean, you go in there against a guy that big with those kind of hands, that kind of power. That doesn't concern you at all.

I know you're a father, you're a family man. That could be very dangerous. Nah, I guess it is, but, you know, I don't know. I guess you got really got insecurity problems, you know, got to do all that. You know, but it really don't affect me. I don't care. The sport itself is dangerous. Yeah, that's true.

You know, anything can happen. So if you want to juice, go ahead and juice up. It's still aren't going to help you. He's just going to make you more depressed afterwards because you're still going to get your blood walk. Has anyone ever come to you and tried to convince you to do that? Yeah, of course, you know, a bunch of guys said, oh, they won't. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to worry about nothing.

I'm sure. I got another. the fighter that does it, and he passes his drug test and this and that. And I'm like, no, I'm good, man. I don't need to do all that. Good, yeah. Well, I respect that. Go ahead.

You know, whenever you win your fight or whatever, it just, you'll feel much better about it because you know you did everything. You really push yourself to the limit, you know, and feel good about doing it. One of the more fascinating things that happened a couple weeks ago in Vegas was just how upset you were with your win over Roy Nelson. Here you are coming off the most high-profile win of your career. Solid victory. And if someone just walked in and missed the fight, they would have thought that you lost. You were like depressed up there. Have you gotten over that? Do you feel a little bit better about the win? No, I really wish I would have finished him,

you know? But I guess he is what they say he is. You know, he got an iron chin. You know, so I hit that guy pretty hard, like one of the hardest punches I ever hit anyone standing up. and he didn't go out. So it was just a little mind-bying, that's all. You recall telling yourself like, wow, I can't believe this guy's taking these punches. Did you have that inner discussion with yourself? Yeah, for sure, especially in the first round like that. The motherfucker is tough.

What was it like going to distance, getting the victory but going to distance? That's the first time in your career that's happened, right? yeah um i went to distance two other times it was just like i knew um but you lost those didn't you it never in a good favor yes yeah yeah yeah it's never in a good favor as me so when every time i go the decision anyway i'm thinking the worst but you go the distance and win i mean cardio wise strength wise i mean did you feel like you were still going as strong in the uh in the final minutes of the third round as you were in the first or because you haven't done that before did you feel like it was waning on you?

I believe I was just in neutral mode. It was just in cruise control. I couldn't get any tired of what I was. And even if I had to go two more rounds, I'd really do it. Oh, yeah, championship rounds. Yeah. What about him hitting you?

Did he ever really truly hurt you? No, you didn't hit me at all. You know, he just, he kicked me one time on my leg. It didn't hurt me. It just felt weird. That's all it did. I haven't been been a long time

Yeah those guys that you're fighting aren't big kickers But what's been the difference lately I mean it really feels like you've turned a corner You've won four in a row All impressive victories The talent keeps going up and up As far as your opponents Has something changed

Do you feel like you've turned the corner as well I believe it's just My coaches You know my coaches Spending more time with me You know Or one-on-one Time

Crew died I'm just putting more in my training You're putting more Sorry, you broke up there You're putting more what in your training? I'm putting more time into my training You know, I'm training more hours In the day

Stuff like that Trying to take a series Besides my diet part You know, I just can't leave out of long right now So in the past How long were you training a week And how long are you training now? In the past

I probably really started training Probably like Four weeks out before my fight, but now I'm just trying to start doing like eight weeks. Oh, like that. Nice. And this is your full-time job, right? Yes.

Nice. So after the fight, you said that you wanted Roy, even though you won, which was very unique. Have you gotten over that? Because I don't know if it makes a ton of sense for you. No, I still don't Roy, because after all, I was going to try to go from Brock Lesnar, but since... Oh. He ain't going to be around for a while. or mark hunt

right but I just want to fight real soon whoever is ready to fight like in September or even the end of August I'll fight them

no matter who they are you're ready to go no no vacation no vacation I'm good it's too hot right now be out there well you could go somewhere else

on vacation nah now I'm good I'm just ready to fight I'm ready to go so have you you had any talks with the UFC about what's next? Yeah, I should find some, we should hear something back this week.

Oh. Then let me know. What are you thinking? Yeah, so. What do you think they're going to come up with? I don't know. I think Mark Hunt makes the most sense right now. To me.

I wonder if he's going to be ready to come back. Oh, but Todd Duffer guy. I don't know if he's still on suspension or what. Oh, yeah. That would be a good fight. I just saw him. Yeah, I saw him at UFC 200. He's ready to go, he said.

He's looking for the, he's waiting for that phone call. Oh, okay. I know where it could be here. Oh, okay. We'll see. And then at the press conference, you fell asleep, which was amazing. Were you that bored? Yeah, I don't really like doing all of them interviews.

They don't talk to me anyway. They probably just wanted me to sit up there and look at my pretty looks. Yeah, that's right. Were you really sleeping, though, or was it more of a message, like, hey, please, you know, please don't bother me right now. No, I was sleeping. I took a PM. I was tired. Oh, you took one of those, like, cold pills? Time, no, PM. Yeah. Time on PM. Yeah, I'm tired, man. It was around 1 o'clock. Come on. That's true. I'm in Houston time. Houston time is different. Yeah. I don't blame you. I

was tired too. It did look like you were legitimately sleeping. When they woke you up, you were yawning and stuff, rubbing out your eyes. That was amazing. Man, I don't care. I'm just being myself. I don't care. If people say all this disrespect, all this is disrespectful. You sit up there. If it was up to you, you would do no interviews before and after your fight. No, I don't like doing interviews. Saying that during an interview, I don't know how I should take it. Like, are you upset right now? Is this annoying?

We're not doing an interview right now. We're just chilling. We're just chilling. Yeah, I'm just playing this like we're just on the phone, you know? Yeah, yeah. So if I called you up now, like it's Monday afternoon, I'm like, hey, Derek, what's up, man? What are you doing? Like, what would you be doing on a Monday afternoon if I was just a friend?

I'm chilling with my kids. Okay. How many kids do you have? Three. And the oldest is how old? Two boys and a girl. What age is? She's 12.

12. 12 and then what? point three oh wow I saw a picture on your Instagram your son does you really sleep with a clenched fist yeah he was

yeah yeah he did that wow how would you feel if your son says I want to be a fighter how would you react to that it doesn't

man I'll let him do whatever you want to do you know I'm giving a bunch of opportunities and see what he what he likes to do best but right now I'm just really trying

to let him focus on school him learning as ABCs and stuff like that. Yeah, the ABCs are important. What's it like, like, do the other parents at the school know what you do for a living? Yeah, they do. You know, I really don't try to go up there and get their attention. So I don't do this for their attention. Sure.

Like I told other guys before, I just do it, put food on the table. I don't like all the spotlight, really. I really don't. Do you actually enjoy it, though? Do you enjoy the, the, preparation in the actual fight? Yeah, I like the fight. I love the fight. That's what I'm saying.

I'm ready to go now. I like fighting, you know, but just the attention that comes with it, I'm not with all that. It's interesting to hear you say that, though, because your social media game is pretty top-notch if you were not. Yeah, it's just me being myself, you know, I'm just being myself. You know, I like to laugh. I like to crack jokes or whatever, but I'm not trying to get a, attention from it. Is that all you or do you have an assistant? I mean, some of that stuff is really well done.

Yes, Adam Sandler. He, he, um, another admin on my account. Yeah. You call him up in action. Yeah. Is he your favorite comedian? No, Martin Lawrence. Martin Lawrence, yeah. Back in the day, Martin Lawrence, that show was great. I seen him a few weeks ago here in Houston. How was he? Yeah, he's real good I was hoping that he would be good But he came out real good too He really was He's still kicking it, huh?

He hasn't done a movie in a long time Yeah You say They might be working on Bad Boys Street Oh wow He broke some news Yeah, that's what he said at the concert Wow

All right How do you feel about Dwight Howard, by the way? Yeah What Dwight Howard? He left Houston. What's that?

Dwight Howard. Yeah. How do you feel about him leaving? Well, it's good. He was soft anyway. You know, I hate whenever he files somebody or do something stupid, he just start laughing and all. I hate that.

Don't be laughing. He's supposed to be mad, man. Yeah, yeah. Just turn the ball over. So you're happy to see him go. Yeah, I'm glad he's gone. Wow. Yeah.

He was complaining that he wasn't getting the ball enough, but if you look at the stats, he was getting the ball more than any center. Yeah, it was getting the balled a lot. It was just soft. Right. Do you feel like life has finally turned around? Like now you are enjoying the fruits finally of your labor. You're getting the pay that you deserve.

Because, you know, your story has been well documented, the ups and downs that you've been through. Do you feel like it's all coming together for you now? Yeah, I believe so. I believe, I'm strong to believe everything happened for a reason. Okay. You know, if I didn't go through those situations, I wouldn't be there. the man I am today. So I thank God for that.

Does it keep you on your toes, though, because that wasn't that long ago? I mean, it's amazing you've been in the UFC for like, what, two and a half years, a little bit, a little bit less maybe. You're reminded of that, so it doesn't let you take your foot off the gas, so to speak. You know what I'm saying? Oh, for sure, for sure. You know, and I look at my kids and see myself doing things stupid and leave my kids here, you know, having some other guy take care of my kids. My kids call some other guy dad.

So it's all about my kids, you know. Yeah. As long as they're happy, as long as I can still provide for them, everything's good. When you were dreaming of a better life, was it this good? Do you still have loftier goals,

or is this better than you ever imagine? Oh, yeah. This is just on time. You know, everything happened, falling in place as we speak right now. You know, everything's good. You dreamt of this, this type of success and all that? Yeah, for sure.

You know, you got the house and stuff like that. And my business opened up like two weeks ago, my salon. Oh, what's that? What's the business? I opened up a salon. Oh, wow. Congrats. Appreciate it.

It's called Beauty Galore. That's the name of it. Okay. So you're on a lookout for it. And where is it? Give us the location, the address. It's here, it's here in Cyprus, Texas. Okay. And Barker Cyprus.

Is it men and women? Yeah, there's men and women. You come down and get wax. Nice. You know, back wax. Bikini wax, you know, eyelashes, get your hair done, haircut. Do you go there? Do you go there?

Yeah, I went there. you know, get my Brazilian wax, you know. It's hot, man. You got to get all that done. No, I respect it. Is this something you've always wanted to do, own a salon? Yeah, I own a barbershop, really. Yeah.

But salon opened up, so yeah. Are you the sole owner? Yes, I am. Wow. That's amazing. Now, why didn't you call it, like, Beast Salon or something like that? The Black Beast Salon. That's not pretty, you know?

That's not pretty. You know, there's got to be something beautiful. Right, you're right. You're right. I'm trying to attract more women. It can't be called beast. Well, that's great. Congratulations on that.

How far, by the way, how far do you think you are from the title talk at this point? Four wins in a row, UFC heavyweight division. How far away are we? I'll say about next year sometime, you know. You see these guys be falling out because they got a broken nail, broken toe and stuff like that. But I'll say probably like a replacement fight next year sometime. Wow.

Do you envision the title fight against someone in particular? What's the dream scenario? Who do you take the belt for? Maybe I guess Over. Oh, wow. Why him? I don't know if I thought he had beat Steepet. You think he's going to beat Stepe, huh? If Aubrey could stay clean, you know, I know he's tempted right now.

want to take them sterose right now. I know he's him. But if he could stay clean, I'll say we'll probably get out on by next year. Wow. What percentage of the heavyweight division do you think is juicing? Probably like 70%. Wow. So you think more often than not, when you're fighting these guys, they're doing something. Yeah, for sure. And that doesn't piss you off? No, they don't piss me off at all. They're just stupid for them to do that because they know that they're getting random drug tests.

Sure. You know, they were willing to risk thousands of dollars for something so stupid like that. That's not going to even help them. Do you think we see Brock again, or do you think he's done? Depends on the suspension. You know, I think he's like 38, 39 years old. Yeah, yeah.

We'll see. It's a shame. Because I know I was talking to some of the people in the know when we were saying, Oh, Black Beast versus Brock, that would be. fun. Jeez. Yeah, it would be fun.

He'll keep trying to take me down, too. I just know I just need to work on my wrestling and my take-down defense. Yeah. If I do face them. You feel comfortable with it, or not quite yet? Yeah, I'm feeling comfortable

to anybody. I don't fight anybody. I fight steeper. I fight O'ring. I fight Brock. Mark Hood. Anyone in the division, I fight him. I'm out of F-D. Top 15 or top 10. I still fight him.

one last question for you Derek and I and I respect that stance who's your favorite fighter to watch is there someone else in the UFC when you hear that he's fighting you're like oh I got to watch this guy Anderson silver really Anderson why him because I just like the way um he clown in the rain you know I wouldn't have a clown like that in the cage or octagon whatever y'all call it and acting I wouldn't ever do that but I just like him the way he acts every way he treat his opponents

And given what happened to him after the Nick D.S. fight, that didn't change your stance on him? No, not at all. Not at all, shit. He said he took some sexual pills. He got his stuff like that. Sure, sure. No, I believe him.

No, I'm bullshit. I don't believe him, but it's still, I still like him. So you were probably one of those fans booing when Cormia was. taking him down. I was just shaking my head. Why? He was doing what he needed to do to win. Yeah, I know, but still bored, though.

I know it's part of him in May. Sure, sure. They say. Yeah. But I really like to see him stand up. You know, he took the fight on two days' notice. Crazy. You know, he still did pretty good.

Still hurt him a couple of times. Yeah. He's unbelievable. Did you stick around the whole week for the fights? Did you go Friday and Saturday? Yeah, I was forced to stick around. Why? Because they say if I wanted to change my flight, the UFC was going to charge me $200-something.

I'm like, all right, I'm going to be out here. I guess I stay in Vegas. Did you go to the fights? Yeah, I went to 200. You enjoy it? Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Did it give you a good seat at 200?

It was okay. All right. I was probably like the 11-roll back, but... That's not bad. Yeah, Roan Nelson, he was in the tent roll back, so I really liked that. Oh, what's a... I used to sit in front of me. Did you talk to him?

No, I didn't talk to him. I just try to see if he had any missing teeth. No, I didn't talk to him. Congratulations on your baby, by the way. Oh, yeah, I appreciate it. I think it's a boy, though. What are you going to call him? Herbert.

Oh, Derek. You're the man. Don't ever change, Derek. I love what you're doing. I want, man. I appreciate it, man. Much respect to you. Congratulations on the win,

and I hope you get the fight that you want next. Thank you very much for stopping by. And just let me know, again, like he told me earlier, about the Ron the Rousa fight, who should fight next. But I'm not going to tell about what you told me, though. All right. Thanks, Derek. All right, man.

Appreciate it. Trying to get me in trouble. There he is, the Black Beast. Much respect to him. Great stuff. a very entertaining man in and out of the cage. That was a lot of fun. Okay, let us move along now and welcome in our next guest.

UFC on Fox 20 is a mere five days away. The main event is Holly Home versus Valentina Shevchenko. What a fun fight. That's going to be five rounds in the UFC women's bantamweight division and the bullet Shevchenko. Valentina Shevchenko is joining us right now on the phone. Valentina, are you there? I'm here.

just finished in my morning training Monday morning training and I'm feeling very good and a lot of energy starting the week so I'm ready in my 100% for the fight Oh, I love it

You're out of breath You were just working out? Just two minutes ago I finished Oh my gosh Well thank you for coming on Thank you for squeezing us in I appreciate it

Thank you so much for calling me Okay so my first question is When you got the call That you were going to fight Holly home big stage, Fox, main event, after the Amanda Nunes fight, were you surprised or did you think that they would go in that direction? Because you can make the case that this is a bigger fight than your first two fights in the UFC.

I'm just waiting for the calling from UFC and giving me an opponent or the date for my next fight. Of course, for sure, when they asked me to fight Holy Home, I was very glad to have this opportunity because it's a very good fight. I think it will be a great fight between two strikers. So I didn't think accept or not accept. I directly accepted the fight and started my preparation for this fight.

Is given her background how good of a boxer she is and your background in Muay Thai, is this a fight that you had sort of been thinking about and dreaming about for a while? Wow, I wonder how it would go if I fought her? Every time, like, I wanted to fight with the best fighters. I never had during all my career like easy fights, and I never was looking for some easy fight. So this is, I think, every time I wanted to fight with the best fans, so this is a great opportunity for everybody to see the good fight,

good level of strike and fight. So obviously you were involved in this very scary situation, your coach Pavel Fedatav. Is that how you pronounce his last name? Yes, it's correct. Awesome. You guys were eating dinner, not that long ago in Lima, Peru. Robbers come into the restaurant, they start shooting.

He tries to defend you and everyone else. He gets shot as well. Will he be in your corner on Saturday? Is he doing okay? He's now feeling much better. He's recovering. It was really very scary, this situation for me, because I was in shock all one week,

and I could not train, couldn't, like, did much things. but now he's feeling better, now he's recovering, and yes, he will be in my corner this Saturday, and I'm very happy because of it, because it's meaningful for me a lot. Okay, so I know you've probably talked about it. Do you mind telling us exactly what happened when you were there, like from your perspective?

Would that be okay? You're saying it's everything correctly. We had dinner with our friends waiting. I'm my sister from World Championship. she should like come in one day after what's happening in the next day so she won gold medal in the world championship for more Thai we was very happy for her in that moment like I saw the robbers coming to the restaurant and like like shutting these guns to everybody in the restaurant like hitting everybody there and in this moment like Pavel he decided very quickly like

like to protect me and everybody who was in the restaurant, one against four people with arms. So it was very, very scary. But everything like was not 100, this could be happened. So I'm very happy now that he's very good. Now he's okay and helping me allow him how he's doing. all this time in my trainings in preparation of me and I'm very happy that he my sister

my old team my mentor Roger Allen Pedro Caballero he's near by me in this moment and I how I say I'm very ready for the fight and just waiting the Saturday 23 of July did you do you consider withdrawing from the fight because this was going on obviously a very scary and traumatic event for you and your team and you're about to fight in the biggest fight of your MMA career, did you ever consider not taking the fight anymore because of what happened? Even being in the hospital on the next few days, Padole said, doesn't matter what's happened, you should take this fight and don't think about nothing. So I didn't think, I didn't consider, like, not one small opportunity to refuse the fight.

I was really, like, mentally, that I will continue my preparation. I was, like, physically in the shock. I could not train in this all week because it was very, very, very deep situations for me. But I knew that in a few days I will start my preparation. And when I started my preparation, I was like totally in this process, thinking only about a fight, thinking only how to put me in the very good form, to sharp me. And so I was thinking only about it.

And this is how it was all the situations we go through it. Wow. How long was your coach out for? Like how many weeks or days did you not get to train with him because of the fact that he was shot? He just feeling now better, but every time he was like speaking with me and like saying what I need to do, how I need to train. Every moment he was maybe not physically but spiritually near me. So every moment feeling this influences that he gave me every time. Are you comfortable with going back to Lima after this fight? Do you plan on still living there despite what happened? Sure, because I'm living in Lima in Peru already eight years.

It's very good and beautiful country, very good people, very good nature, have ocean, mountains, a lot of different beautiful things inside of Peru. That's why I love this country. doesn't matter what happened because every in every part of the world have bad people but it's good that good people say every time it's more than bad people well said do they know who who the robbers were did they found did they find them after after the fact i heard that uh they already know the names but i didn't like what's following this situation because i'm i'm really really focused on the fight and i'm trying to keep all my mind

in my preparation. So I was, and now I am focusing on the fight. Okay. My last question on this story is, obviously, you've called Pavel, your coach, sort of like a father figure to you. Once he got better and you knew that he was going to be okay, what do you say to someone like that who's trying to defend you and is putting his life on the line, someone that's so close to you?

Like, what kind of, I can't even imagine the emotions involved, but did you have a chance to really sit down and talk to him about this and thank him for what he did or are you guys going to deal with that after this fight? I'm training with him already since five years old, already more than 20 years. And we are now in like our relationship. It's like we are understanding each other without many words. So it's like he can see me and already say what I'm feeling, how I'm ready or preparing, how I feel this moment.

So it's like, I can say it's like next level of relationship. So I think in this situation, it's not pretend to say many words because the real feelings that I have and like I have for him, it's like inside me. And he's every time no it. It's like without many words. Wow, wow. That is beautiful. So you've been with him for over 20 years.

You never separate. you've always trained with him since you were five years old, no one else as like your head coach? Yes, he's every time with me. Wow. It's the same with my sister, Antonina. We are traveling together around the world, training in different places, and it's like a very team. In a weird way, is it possible that what happened to you before this fight now that everyone's okay, kind of give you a new sense of your career and you know, you recognize that this is just an athletic event?

and maybe puts less pressure on you. Is that possible going into such a big fight? Have you been able to turn it into that? Every time I try and to superate every situation what gives me that, like, it's possible to say the destiny, and I know every situation what it's put in our way, in our life, we need to superate it to become stronger. And I know this situation, it's like, did me more stronger.

I tried every time in my moment to take, concentrate me on the preparation, concentrate me on my life, on everything what I do it. It is more like power with more feelings to do my job, what I like, because martial arts, it's not my job, martial arts, it's my life. I do it more than 20 years. Martial arts for me, it's all my life, my philosophy, my style of life. And I very love what I do. I'm very happy to have this kind of life.

Okay, so you saw, I'm sure, that Amanda Nunes is the new champion. Your last fight was against her. It was a very close fight. What was that like for you to see that the woman that you were close to defeating, not that long ago, is now the champion? How did you feel when you saw that whole thing unfold a couple of weeks ago? Yes, I saw the fight. She's a strong fighter.

She has very good distance, very good ground techniques. So it's her chance and he takes this chance. So in the future, I know I will have my opportunity to fight for the title. So I'm keeping me busy. I'm like every time preparing, every time in the form and just waiting my opportunity. Have you been told that if you win this fight against Holly Holme that you will get the next title shot? I don't want to speak about the future plans because I really, really concentrate in my fight

Saturday, and I put everything over there, and this is what I'm focused in right now at this moment. Okay. I saw your coach mentioned that, you know, Holly's the kind of fighter that likes to use the distance. Obviously, she likes to box, kickbox. And other fighters, you know, prior to the Ronda Rousey fight, when she fought Marion Renault, when she fought Raquel Pennington, had trouble closing that distance and, you know,

really getting a chance to connect with her. And your background is Muay Thai, so obviously you need the distance to be close. to really be effective with your knees and elbows and things like that. Are you concerned at all that it's going to be that kind of fight that you're going to have to chase her a lot, that you're going to have to work very hard just to close the distance before you're able to actually inflict damage? Do you get what I'm saying?

It could be every type of the fight. It all depends on that moment in the fight. So how said my coach, M.MA fighter, a fighter of Mixer Marshal a lot, he could know every technique, stand up, wrestling, ground, everything so this opportunity he can have like more arms and more arsenal in this techniques so I try to be like the very different fighters and I will be using all my techniques what I know in this fight it's all what all will be depends of that moment in the octagon so I will using everything it doesn't matter what I need to do

I will do it. How do you think you win? I don't want to think about how it will be possible or how it will be. I don't want to think about this, but one thing I know, I will do everything all with my heart to put in that fight. Because it's very like responsibility, very big responsibility to be the main event of the old fight night of the U.C. and I know it will be good fight because I know me and Holly we are preparing very good for this fight. He will put everything to do everything. And I will 100% to put on the octagon to win the fight.

I know you've been competing for a long time, but does this feel different? Does this feel like a bigger fight? Do you think you're going to be a little more nervous before this fight because it's a main event on Fox? I'm in the sport during a lot of years. I know how controlate means all feelings, all nervous, because if you have a lot of nervous, it doesn't help. If you had not nervous, it also doesn't help. So you had to have this much nervous and all pressure, what you should have. This is what I need.

And I'm a professional. I know how to control all this kind of stuff. So I'll keep in all my energy before the Saturday, 23. of July and this moment I will be like explode everything. Oh, all right. Final thing for you. Why do they call you Bullet, by the way? Where did that nickname come from?

It's my ring name. It came from my coach, Pavel, and he did me when I had my first professional fight because long training, a long time training together. He knows every like part of me and all my qualities in the training. So he gave me this ring name. because of speed, because of power, because of everything. And I'm very happy that I have it because it's like every time with me during all my fighter career. That's great.

All right. Well, I wish you the best of luck. I'm so happy that everything turned out well for both you and your coach a few weeks ago in Peru. And I'm happy that you made it to Chicago and you're getting this big opportunity. Best of luck to you, Valentina. Great to talk to you and looking forward to the fight on Saturday. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Goodbye. Goodbye. There she is. Valentina, Shevchenko, the bullet facing Holly home in the main event of UFC on Fox 20. This Saturday, the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, the other big fight on the card, Gilbert Melendez making his return to the UFC after his one-year suspension. Crazy that it's been a year. He is fighting Etzen Barbosa in a very important lightweight fight. Remember, the last time we saw Gilbert, he was losing a very close decision to Eddie Alvarez in Mexico. UFC 188 and it does feel like Etz and Barbosa is finally putting it all together, doesn't it? I mean, it really feels like this is a guy who in the past has won a few and then lost the big one.

And he, I don't know, something feels different. Maybe it's because he moves to New Jersey. He's living there year round. He's training more with Mark Henry, who you know by now I think very highly of. Something seems to have changed with Etz and Barbosa. So that's a very important fight in the lightweight division. We'll talk more about that card a little later on. Let's move along now to our next guest.

We'll go to the Magic of Skype. There he is joining us. Via the Magic of Skype is the co-founder of the UFC way back one and the current CEO of Combatte, America, is the one and only Campbell McLaren joining us right now. Campbell, how are you? Ariel, I'm very well. Thanks for having me on.

Good to be back. Yes, it is a pleasure. As always. Okay, so there's a lot I want to talk to you about, but I want to start with this. Around a month or so ago, you were talking to the guys at submission radio and you broke your own news that you had put in a bid along with others to try and buy the UFC for around $2.8 billion. Is that accurate?

You know, that's very accurate. You know, but you don't brag about getting the losing bid. Sure. I mean, there's no point to that. And, you know, the private equity firms are notoriously secretive. Yes. So, you know, guys don't want to come out and say, I didn't get it. But But this all came out of conversations I had with Lorenzo back in February, and I think it was pretty clear sitting in the room with him that he was thinking about football. He was thinking about his kids playing football. He was thinking about maybe buying a football team. He loves football like he loves the UFC, and I thought the time would be right to go in there and make a very, very good offer. $2.8 billion, by the way, sounds like a lot of money to me.

I thought we were in a good place with that, but, you know, obviously the market dictated a higher price, which is great. Why were you there in the first place? Why was I talking to Lorenzo? Yeah, why were you there in February talking to him? Obviously not about the sale, right? You know, Lorenzo and I have ongoing conversations. He's been very supportive of Combate Americas. The first thing I did four years ago when I decided to get serious about this is I went out to see Lorenzo and Dana, and I said, this is what I'm going to do.

You know, they're pretty powerful guys to have his enemies, and I think of them as friends. So I've kept them informed. Lorenzo's been too much to say an unofficial advisor, but he's had some opinions on Combati Americas that I appreciate it getting. So while you're there, you get the sense that this is a guy who might be interested in selling. So you go back to your people, and now you start to gather a team to try to buy the UFC? Is that how it went down? that's exactly right that's exactly what happened that's amazing um you know combate americas is you know a very serious enterprise with uh you know uh rachal bank as advisors and uh joe plumeri one of

our investors you saw that kkr was one of the purchasers yeah of the ufc so joe plumeri is a long time associate of henry cravitz so you know uh the the m ms it's funny you started off saying i co-created the ufc way back when it's really only 20 years ago. It is amazing. And now we're talking about this as a very, very established sport with some very big dollars, you know, connected to it. So it's kind of funny, right? I mean, the UFC is, when I was working on it way back when, as you say, was very successful. You know, it generated a lot of money. It was the period before Lorenzo and Dana came in when it was really down in the dumps. So it's had two pretty successful periods. Obviously, the first one not as successful as $4.2 billion.

billion. But, you know, we needed a big truck to collect a pay-per-view money back then. It was a big hit back then, too. So did you guys actually submit a bid to buy the UFC? Did it get to that point and then you were turned down? No, no, no. We were in, the group I went in with very, very disciplined investors. And I'm really not going to name them. Impressive group, powerful group. And the last thing they wanted to do was get into a bidding process. Okay, okay. And I think that's where, you know, you've seen the numbers quoted in the press. Fox supposedly offered $2 billion a few years ago.

You know, it's been inching up, inching up. It's been leaping up. And I think my group just didn't want to get into a process where they were, look, the UFC stated EBITDA, roughly their profit last year was $200 million. So you're doing 20 times that as an offer. If you know, you know anything about the financial world, that's a big multiple. Yeah. You know, so my guys didn't want to go.

They were looking at 12 to 14 times that. Okay, so then let me ask you this. When you hear the news that it sold for $4 billion, what's her reaction? Are you floored by this number? Do you think that that was, you know, that? No, you know, when Lorenzo and I were getting into it, he had a great point. He said, look, I've built out Europe. You know, we're working on South America.

We're working on Asia. We've spent the money doing it, but none of the money is starting to flow in. I want some credit for the platform I built that hasn't come online yet. Okay. That's a pretty good argument. Not good enough to sway my guys. Sure, but you said 20 times the profit. Usually, I've heard it's 14, 15, 16.

12 to 14 is a pretty comfortable range. And that's for a sexy company. too. You know, if you're going into the drapery business, you might not pay 14 times there. That's true. Good to know. I was considering it. It's a backup for all of us. So when you hear about the 4 billion, you think that, wow, WME, IMG and others, they got a good deal here, or do you think that it was a little too much? What's your reaction to that number? You know, again, I've come back to the sport is 23 years old. Yeah. I think it's got nowhere to go but up.

Okay. KKR doesn't, if they bought it, you know, at a $4 billion price tag, they think it's worth eight. Okay. Those guys don't play. Right. You know, it says they're not going in and going, hey, let's roll the dice here. Sure.

They're deep in their analysis. I think, look, you've got to look at, you know, where the UFC is, and I can segue to combate easily from this point, but primarily, I think the UFC has been successful in English-speaking markets. Okay. Right. U.S., Canada, Australia. in the UK. Germany, as you know, is a huge combat sports territory. They love boxing. Boxing does

very well on TV there. But the UFC hasn't really gotten any traction in Germany. Hasn't in France, hasn't in Spain, not much in Portugal, starting the Middle East. I would say not a ton of traction in South America, getting there a little bit in Asia. So you've really got the world to go yet. And you know, I mean, you've been, everybody reads box office. now. You see what happens. You can have a bomb in the U.S. and if it's a hit in China, you're still making a lot of money. So U.S.E has really only been making money in the English-speaking country. So I think, I don't know if the sky's the limit, but there's a lot of growth yet. If SEG doesn't sell to ZUFA in 2000, are we even talking about MMA? Does MMA even exist,

or do you think that the sport would have died? No, I don't think it would have died. I mean, And there was a couple guys back then, certainly Scott Coker was starting to pay attention back then, right? And I, how old is King of the Cage? Doesn't King of the Cage go back to the about 2000 or late 1990s? It does. Yeah, but I'm wondering if you think that the Forteat, is it fair to say that the Fortitas and Dana White saved the sport in the sense that? Oh, absolutely. Okay, all right.

Ice coffee and salute to them for doing so. No, it's good for all of us. Okay. why are you getting back in the sport? Well, you mean, what do you mean? Emotionally, psychologically. Okay, okay, here's my, here, when I... It's a deep question for me, Ariel.

You threw me. I'm a deep guy. I'm a deep guy. I wait for you to drink your coffee and then I hit you with the one too. So here's the thing. I find out that, you know, Campbell McLaren is getting back

in the M.A. business and he's going full steam ahead, and this is his new venture. And I think to myself, wow, this is a guy that was there from the beginning left. I'm sure there are times. when you sit back and you're like, geez, these guys got $4 billion, I wish I had a piece of that.

I wish I stuck around. I wish I was getting that kind of money credit-wise for the work I did in the early days. And now you're getting back in it from the ground up. That's an exhausting process because you know what it takes to build something from the ground up. Why are you doing it again? You only have one life to live. Why are you going back to the M.MA world? That might be the answer. You only have one life to live, right? You should be something you really love. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Bata Americas is about four years old. So you're right, building something to ground up does take a lot of effort. Here's the, you know, when you go out to raise money, you always have an anecdote, right? And you have your origin story, is what they call it in Silicon Valley. So you go out and you have your story. So here's my story. I'll give it to you quickly. Sure.

So UFC, Indianapolis, this is going back, I think, about five years. My mom was very, very ill. I went to high school there. my family continued to live there. I got out of Indianapolis and went to California, went to school out there and didn't go back. But my mom was sick. So I went back to see her.

Very sad time. If you've had an aging parent, it's just, it's a very sad, sad time. And the UFC was in town. And I've been thinking a little bit about alternatives to the UFC and what might work and why do something

when it's already perfect at the UFC. So I wasn't going to go, but I called Rogan and I said, dude, I'm very depressed. You know, my mom is sick. She died after that. And Joe said, well, we don't have any seats. Ah, we don't have any seats.

I'm sitting there to be in moves. And so if you watch in that show, you can sort of see like this much of me, whatever side, to the left of Joe. And I'm sitting there. And Joe told Dana, you know, oh, Campbell's mom's very sick. He's not feeling great. And Dana said something like, go back in the octagon. girl's trailer, that'll cheer you up. And, you know, look, I just celebrated 30 years of marriage. I'm not

looking for an octagon girl or a la hala girl or any other kind of girl. But I did go, you know, because those girls are pretty, you know, and I was back there. But I tell you, I was looking at, I go, they're all really pretty, but they're all really skinny. They're like Asian model skinny. Okay. And I've been thinking about a little bit about Hispanic fighting. And I thought, well, the first thing is, I'm going to get different girls. Okay. I'm going to get girls with a, you know, a little more happening. Sure.

And then as I got into that, there are a lot of aspects of Combat de Americas that I think are very different from the UFC. You know, I have to work very hard not to beat up on Bellator. Don't work. I have to work at it. But why? Why is there a Bellator? For what purpose?

Look, there's some great athletes over there. I was a big Eddie Alvarez fan. I was a Kimbo. Why is there Bellator? There's no substantial different point of view in what Bellator does than what the UFC does. Scott's brought in, you know, some Scott, let's be, let's call it what it is. He's using my guys in Bellator. What do you mean?

What do you mean? He's using Shamrock, Gracie. Okay, okay. The biggest stars in Bellator guys that I started with 20 years ago. So, you know, with Combate, we did some number, we were looking at some numbers. Combate, because the guys are coming in from boxing in Mexico and Puerto Rico and U.S. Hispanics, the martial artist box Ayo, right? So the guys are coming in with a boxing background and they're learning grappling arts. They're learning jujitsu primarily.

In the UFC days, primarily we had grapplers that learned how to strike, right? And Hoyce didn't even think he needed to know how to strike. He used that as a faint to get in and get you. So I think Combating Americas is sort of the flip side of this. We're finding guys that are boxers that are learning mixed martial arts. The UFC primarily has found grapplers and taught them striking. So what happens is in Combating Americas, you see a faster sport. I don't want to say more exciting because I love the ground game.

I really like watching a really good ground game. I'm not going to say more exciting, but more fast-paced, more stand-up fighting. We also saw this year, we saw Combati Americas goes to a finish. The fights go to a finish 78% of the time. So if you're not a numbers guy, that means it's a fuck lot, right? It's 78%. Like, that's a lot. The UFC, by way of comparison, 54% finishes the rest of the time judges, and Bellator, 37%.

So if you look at that and you go, Combati-Americans, my guys want to fight stand. up in the tradition of Mexican and Puerto Rican boxers, they can be ahead on points on the 12th round. They still come out swinging. But why limit yourself to just Hispanic fighters? Because that's a small talent pool. Well, the hell it is. So why? So why?

So why? So why? In the Hispanics in the U.S.? Plus, I have Mexico and the Caribbean to pull from. I think it's an overlooked talent pool area. I think it's actually a great place to look for new talent. And I think, again, to not beat up on Bellator. What you've got to do is establish new talent.

if you want this sport to grow. And I'm going in and I'm looking at guys that are 20, 21, 22 years old. And they're very hungry. This is a great opportunity for them. And they really fight. And you know what? UFC's got Brazil covered pretty well. Yeah.

There's a lot of Brazilians in the UFC. So I wasn't looking in Brazil. But let me look in the Caribbean. Let me look in Texas or Chicago and find new Hispanic fighters to fight. Remember, UFC and MMA are used in, changeably. But they're not the same thing. The UFC is a style of fighting, just as Combat America's is a style of MMA fighting. And I'm looking for guys that, you know, do fight in a certain style. I tend to find most of them with Hispanic fighters. If I can offer a counterpoint

to your question, I think it was a rhetorical question, but I'll use it as just a general question as to why Bellator exists. I mean, I think that there's a very good reason why they exist. Oh, okay. So please answer. Don't you think it's good to have a Bellator round? Don't you think it's good to have a Viacom around to give fighters and other outlets so there isn't only one game in town? I mean, you guys are just four years old. I don't think you're getting into a bidding war for Roar & McDonald, right?

So Roy McDonald wants to test the market and see how much he's really worth as opposed to just taking any deal from the UFC. Isn't that at the end of the day good for the growth of the sport? Well, you're quoting, this has gotten to be an economics discussion. So you're just quoting open markets are better for consumers. consumers better for... Not consumers? Well, I guess for the athletes.

Yeah. So, yeah, the answer is yes. So let me tell you, it seems to be the other way around because just this week, Bellator has come after two of my fighters that are under contact. Kira Batara and Ray Rodriguez. So what's that? What do you mean coming after? What does that mean coming after?

They paid offers for them to come and fight for them. Oh, they were free agents? They're not free agents. So how could they do that? Not legally. Okay. So that... Not.

not ethically. Right. So what are you going to do about it? They can't have Kira. You know, I've seen on some rankings in 105, she's number six in the world. Okay. She's fighting for us August 11th. Yeah.

Ray, if somebody wants to call, you know, Mike Ophromowitz and talking through that, we might hear that on Ray. Ray wants to kick some bell to her ass. Okay. So, you know, look, it's a good promotion. and Scott Coker knows what he's doing. I just don't, you're right. It's better if they're choices in places.

But there's also in this world of so many media options and so many entertainment options. How do you see them? This is not rhetorical either. How do you see them? Like, I consider the UFC world-class athletes. I consider Combati America's the best new athletes. and I consider Bellator the retirement home for the UFC. And I don't think that's really their brand.

How do you see the Bellator brand? I think that the Bellator brand under Scott Coker, because it's changed dramatically since he came on board, was a brand that was looking to find its face because they tried to use the Kimbo's, Shamrocks, Ortizas, as you mentioned, and in ways in which I didn't agree, but the ratings would suggest that putting them in these positions in these main events was actually successful

and then trying to use those guys to help trickle down to the rest of the card and build up new talent. And I think to suggest right now in July of 2016 that they're just a retirement home is inaccurate because they have guys like Michael Venom Page. They have guys like Michael Chandler.

They have some actually good young fighters. Oh, and by the way, Benson Henderson is signing there. They're talking to Rory McDonald. You know, they just signed Matt Matrione. So I think it's starting to evolve. I think the early direction was, hey, let's get these big names from yesterday year just to attract people to get away from the season format and now we'll get to work. I always said when Scott came aboard, it's been a little

more than two years. And this doesn't have to be a Bell-Tor discussion, but my last point is, I always said it's going to take five years to truly, to truly understand whether or not it was a good idea on Viacom's part to bring in Scott Coker. Now we're two plus years in. So let's see. Let me ask you this. Are you happy with where Combaucha is four years in? You're on FightPass now. You've got a show coming up August 11th. You know, you're slowly but surely gaining some momentum. Is this where you wanted to be? Is this quicker than you thought, you know, the place that you're in, a little slower?

Where can you tell us about the growth of the company? I think I'm ahead of schedule. Okay. You know, we've done very well with NBC Universe, so that's NBC's Spanish cable network. I've been offered to jump ship and go to three other networks, so that's pretty good. Our ratings, we did a series of shows throughout May, four Mondays in a row. The ratings were up 50% from last year. That's good.

FightPass told me I had made the night for them. They don't release numbers like most OTT platforms don't, but they said I'd made the night. And we have a huge offer to bring the franchise to Mexico. So I'm in Mexico City this week and maybe going to work that out. So going international, Fight Pass, NBC. Yeah, we're in a really good place. And I think the fights, look, if your fights aren't good, I can talk all this financial investment bank bullshit, you know, branding bullshit. But the truth of matter is if you watch fights, like if you watch our guy Ricky Palaccio's in his last fight, I mean, that was one of the best fights I've seen this year.

We're putting on great fights. And, you know, and I really stand behind that. That is both hype and true. Who owns Combaite? You watch Combatte. It's a lot of fun. a group of investors including myself okay and do you feel that in this day and age with around 45 or so ufc events a year with around 20 something or so bell tour events with around 10 or so

world series of fighting events is there enough room for another organization is is there is there is there ever too much mMA for the consumer great you know what that's a great question that really that is a really good question everybody should be asking that yeah and maybe you do ask everybody that comes on the show. You know, but for the hardcore fan, I don't think there is too much. Okay. Right? But in terms of that you've got to make money, you've got to sell tickets, you've got to sell

advertising, you've got to sell pay-per-view, so yeah, no, there's too much. I think this is a pretty interesting time right now. I think with the UFC being sold, the really fast rise of women. MMA, turning into now what looks like a free-for-all to a great extent. I mean, there's a bunch of factors now that I think are really making the sport in the industry very, very exciting. But I think as we look around the dial, I think a lot of the companies you're watching now aren't going to be here in a year.

Wow. Okay. Remains to be seen. Combatsya returns Thursday, August 11th at the exchange in Los Angeles, California, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific. That's on UFC Fight Pass. If you want to watch the English broadcasts, they are gaining some steam and very much in large part due to this man, Campbell McLaren, joining us the CEO of Combate Americas. I wish you the best, Campbell.

Sorry that your $2.8 billion bid didn't work out, but look, I think that you're in pretty- More to invest in. That's what I tell you. All the best to you. Thank you very much. Good to catch up. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks.

Appreciate being on. All right, there he is. Campbell McLaren, the CEO of Combate Americas, who is, who is returning on August 11th. Okay, he mentioned the rise of women's MMA. Pretty good segue right there. The brand new UFC women's bantamweight champion. Amanda Nunes is joining us right now on the phone.

How about this? Very exciting stuff. Amanda, are you there? Yes. Hello. Hi, guys. Hello. How are you?

Thank you very much for joining us, Amanda. It's great to have you on the show. Thank you so much to have me. Thank you. So it's been nine days since you became champion. What's life like? How would you describe your life as UFC champion? I'm sleepy.

Very good, you know, last night. What was my, the best sleep that I have? Because being very, like, it's a dream coming true for me, you know. And, like, true, having these bells at home, like, making me so, like, unbelievable, you know, and everything's getting so crazy. and now that everything is normal.

I saw that you tweeted a picture of you sleeping with the belt. Have you really been sleeping with the belt every night? Only one night. Only one night. I put the belt by myself in the bed. Wow. What was it like? It was very nice to see when you came back to the gym, American Top Team, with the belt.

What was that like for you to come back to the gym in Coconut Creek and share the belt with your teammates and friends? You know, it was very, very happy for me back with this belt, you know, make the group more strong, you know. And it was amazing, was amazing walking the gym with the belt. Everybody waited for me in there. It was an amazing moment. How many times have you watched the fight against Misha Tate? All the time when I have a chance of watching again.

Wow. Watch you get a point of time. You know, it's interesting. I remember watching the fight and you rocked her, and then at one point you went for the rear naked choke, and I was wondering, oh, you know, is she giving her an opportunity to sort of recover? Of course, it worked, so it was the right call. But I thought it was very symbolic that you would go for the rear naked choke,

and that's what won you the belt because of your nickname. How do you pronounce your nickname? It's layout. Is that correct? Leoa. Leoa. Leoa. And the...

Leoa, yeah. The Matalao is the rear naked choke. That was sort of like your signature move. Did you think about that as well? Yeah, actually, my best move, I always work in everything. I always work in everything, but the real naked choke is the best move that I have. And every official, I always finish in that position. And that's right.

Work better well. Did you go for the submission because your hand was hurting? Is that why you decided to go to the ground and try to submit her there? No, actually, I don't feel my hand in the fight. I feel my hand right after when I walked in the cage, right after. And when I saw, you know, she's already done on the feet, and then I decided, you know, like I saw she's hurt. I saw her nose, you know, very...

Blea la and I decided to go to the submission because it's always very easy to get. I don't want to like, if this fight go, you know, I don't want to make any mistake. When I saw, she's available to get the choke and then I went full. Were you expect, when you were preparing for the fight, did you expect that you'd be able to finish her that quickly? Did you think that this would be a relatively short fight for you? Oh, I know I'm better than Misha everywhere. Like I said, my whole interview. And I know whatever moment in the fight that is finishing her on the feet, on the ground.

But I don't think it's going to be in the first round. I think we're going to go to the second and the third and then we're going to get the victory. But I'm surprised. I mean, I saw a couple of times. I saw she's like, her in the first jab. Wow, I don't think Because I thought Misha's was tough, you know

Because I watched her fight against Orally Holmes, you know She keeps it going But when I thought you I saw my hand was very heavy And I knew I'm going to get it So it's possible Yeah, I thought it was so impressive

Because Misha, her greatest attribute Is that she's hard to break And you broke her very quickly So I thought that that was incredibly impressive and before the fight, she was saying that she thought that you were easy to break. She said a lot about you going into this fight

in a very sweet and friendly way, but if you actually listened to what you was saying, she was taking a lot of shots at you. Did those bother you? Were you insulted by those? No. I think at that time, the fight is to, you know,

tell the fight. I think she only has this to tell about me because she knows them better than her, you know? Only because my old fight happened things, you know, But you never take this, like, take the fight for her last fight.

You know, I always back to the game to come back stronger and stronger. And I think she only has talk about my mental, something like that, but she was very wrong. Do you think that maybe she looked at your last performance and said, oh, it was split decision, you didn't get a finish, maybe you got a little tired, and said, oh, okay, this isn't going to be as hard. And there was some talk that she chose you over Holly home. Do you think that this all kind of played into her being too confident going into the fight? Yeah, for sure. I think she watched the whole time in my last fight, it saw, with my gas tank or something like that was broken.

But I'm very, like, I'm very focused for that fight. I prepared my mental, I prepared everything, like, to be ready for that moment, my career. Whatever my last fight, it was the way, you know, like I got tired in the 30 rounds, but I know my next step is going to be for the title. I know I'm going to be ready for. And speaking of the mental part of the game, did it affect you at all that you became the main event, that there was more attention on your fight,

that you were last on the card after everything that happened to John Jones? How are you dealing with that all week long? Oh, it's like smooth. everything's okay. I walk in that week, everything changes very fast. And the day, the fight I walked like I walked in my first fight in my career.

Wow. It was like unbelievable how calm, how control about myself I was. Like I'm shocked too because I work a lot, you know, and in those things, like getting calm energy. Sometimes I don't know how I control, but now I know, and this is making me

more interesting to see how I'm going to be my next fight, you know, and always that is moving. The whole situation over there, go to the main event, I take, like, everything very smooth. Why do you think that you were so calm before the biggest fight of your life? Usually it's the opposite. Why do you think that was? exactly like I was prepared I don't know

I was very calm I don't think like the whole time I'm going to walk for the main event into the title and tell you

I I was that day I thought I were gonna like fight the same way I walked in my first fight

in my career was like crazy I feel that I talked to Nina about that actually I look in Nina the whole time

You know, me Nina have a very good connection. We train together. We do everything together. We have, like, amazing relationship. And sometimes in the fight, I look at Nina, she's, like, more neighbors than me. Wow. And for this fight, even Nina, I look at her, like, I look at her eyes. I can read things, and I saw she's very calm.

She usually tell me things. This fight, like, you have everything. Go have fun. And always, like, unbelievable. Wow. I can explain this kind of thing because you want to connect. Only me, need, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's amazing. What was it like when you actually felt the tap and that you became champion and it starts to sink in? Did that feel like you expected it to or was it different than you had dreamed of? You know, when I get missions back, I know I'm 100% I'm going to submit to her because that position, I love that position. I work in that position a lot. and when she talked

like everything shut down like wow I'm the champion now the dream you come to and like he's so happy if you see like for a little bit of time

I know I don't believe you know and then like when then why you put it the bell like yes this is happy

what is the best moment of my life I was going to ask you that so the happiest moment have you ever felt emotion like that before in terms of positive emotion, that moment where you realize you were the champion, they put the belt, we actually have a great picture of you sort of screaming when you got the belt. Would you say that's the happiest moment of your life?

The happiest moment of my life, because a lot of people did this with me, you know? Yeah. And I don't only make me happy with my family is happy, my team happy, a lot of things, like a lot of people there, you know, true for me. Like, in one moment, like, not only for me, like, for everybody, you know, where it's amazing. Okay, and so your hand, it's not broken, right? No broken.

It's a little bit slowly right now. Yeah. But I'm going to do the MRI to, you know, make sure, because it's still slowly. Okay. It's a nerve or something, but no broken. They're good news. That is great news. Congratulations.

So when do you want to come back? Have you thought about that? when would you like to fight again? You know, I have to go to Brazil, see my family for two weeks, and soon I come back from there, I'm going to start it. And I'm going to be ready for, you know. So there are a lot of options. And, of course, the biggest one is Ronda Rousia.

Are you hoping that she's going to come back in your first title defense is against her? Is that what you want? Whatever happened, I'm going to be ready for, you know. for sure if Rhonda comes back is going to be huge. Yeah. You know? Of course, a lot of people want to see Ronda come back again. And I'm going to be ready for her.

But if she don't come back, have all the girls in the line. I take it too. Do you have a preference? Like, you probably can make the most amount of money fighting Ronda, right? Yeah. Yeah, but I don't want to stay in the gym only train, you know. I want to prepare for the fight. If Ronda don't come back, please give to me somebody else.

I think. After the fight, I don't know if you were listening, but Juliana Pena Pena was saying that she really wants to fight you, that she dragged all you, things like that. Did you get a chance to see her fight against Katzen Gano, someone that you know, I know you were preparing, but if you did get to see it, were you impressed with her performance? Yeah, I saw her fight, I saw.

I'm not impressed her at all. Oh. And I'm not impressed with her performance, and I watched the fight in the locker room. but congratulations to have B, Kat, but I know

I'm going to be the champion for a long time you know, and whatever coming, Juliana, Bronda, whatever, you're going to be ready for. Why weren't you impressed with her performance? Because I think like

go to the fight, you know, to like, to finish the fight. You know, I So she like, take too much time. I think she don't know, I don't know, I don't know how to explain. Like, she can give it to her a lot of space to finish. She did she fight on the feet, on the ground, but she don't know how to take that moment.

You know, I think like this is the mistake. Okay. And Julianna, I'm no impressed because she don't know how to see the moment of the fight she can finish you, you know. I remember when you came into Elite XC, a lot of people were saying, way back when, a lot of people were saying, oh, this could be the one, the woman to defeat Chris Cyborg. You remember that when people were talking about you versus Chris Cyborg a long time ago, and now... Yeah, I remember that. I remember. And it didn't really work out back then, but now Chris is in the UFC.

can't fight at 135. I'm wondering if you're still interested in fighting her, maybe at 140 or 145. Does that interest you at all, or do you want to stay at 135? I'm in 135 champion, you know, and I'm going to stay there. Okay. He's fighting my division. You know, it doesn't make any sense for me and go up, you know, because I want to be the best in 135 division.

Okay. So you're going to stay there, and if she can make it, she can make it. Speaking of those days, what has been the difference for you? Because I remember you came in, Strike Force, the Alexis Davis fight, and then Sarah DeLelio and Invicta. Now you've looked amazing as of late. Do you feel like something changed? Is it you teaming up with ATT? Is there something going on in your personal life?

What is the secret to the success that you've been enjoying lately? Yeah. You know, I never stop. Always when I back to the game, when I lost fighting back to the gym, I always think like better. I watch the fight again and see what I think at that moment, what the things go wrong in that moment, you know. And then it happened the same against Cat Dengano. Right after, Minina, we talk about and we decided we're going to switch gym and then

pick the best team on the planet. And we decided a medical top team and work very well. And of course, it worked a lot of things. personal thing and being working very well. Do you feel like it's important to hold the belt for a long time to prove that this division isn't, because the belt has now changed hands three times? Are you looking forward to saying, okay, it's not going to move for a very long time. Is that an important thing for you?

Yeah, for sure. I'm going to keep this belt until I retire. Oh, wow. And I'm going to, yeah, until I retire, I'm going to keep this belt. And I'm going to prove everybody. I mean, the best and I'm going to stay that until I retire.

Do you feel like people still don't believe that you're the best? No really pay attention, you know? I don't really like care about people's safe and I try and go all the time in my social meetings, stuff like that, I post something I give attention

but I don't care, you know. I believe in myself. My coach believe in me and is the thing I care. about. And move it fall

and then keep proving keep proving to people prove it to myself and go forth and then

people anyway people are going to talk you know because have a friend things you know

long I have mischief things and then have my thing and this is

you know all the fans talking anyways you want or if you lose it then is going to keep talking

then that is going to stuff. And what about the fight coming up this Saturday, Holly Home and Valentina Shavchenko, that you know, who do you think is going to win that fight? I think Hollyholm is going to beat Valentina J. Chekko. Okay. But he's going to go to five rounds. Yeah.

Fight. Going to go to the season in this fight. A lot of people seem to think that as well. Two last questions for you. The night before your fight, or was it two nights before? No, two nights before, Hafeld Dosangos lost his belt. and for a while there were no Brazilian champions for a long time now. I know Jose Aldo is interim champion,

but you're the only official champion. Was that an important thing for you to bring a belt back to Brazil? And when you go back to Brazil, to see your family, are they going to make a big party for you? Oh, yeah. Everybody right away after they fight, they go to Brazil. But I have to do a couple things in America for it. And then next week I'm going to back to Brazil,

and then for sure is going to have a huge party day. everybody wait for me. Wow. I have a national way for me. That is great. And my last question is, you know, a little bit was made of the fact that you're the first openly gay champion in UFC history. Is this something that you're comfortable with?

Do you like when people talk about your personal life like this and sort of put this label on you or would you rather people don't? Yeah, that's okay for me. I'm happy. You know, this is more important. She's love it, love it. That's why I open to help people see if you don't need to. care about nobody, you know,

care about yourself and show people you're happy and everything's going to change, you know. But if you, like, hide your happiness, you never is going to be happy, real happy. You have to open and then let it go, you know. The life is beautiful. You have to live your life. I think if I help at least one person

to be strong to go through this, I'm happy. Wow. That is a beautiful thing. Congratulations to you, Amanda. Very happy for you. What a performance. Enjoy the belt.

Enjoy your time back home in Brazil. And thank you very much for coming on the show. I know you don't sometimes love to do media, so I really appreciate you coming on and talking to us today. Thank you so much. Appreciate. Okay. Obrigado and parabenz to Amanda Nunes,

the new UFC women's bantamway champion. I mean, those words. Obviously, her English isn't, you know, isn't, she's not fluent in English, I should say, but you can totally understand what she was saying there in her last answer and pretty beautiful stuff, especially in this day and age. Really, really great stuff from Amanda Nunes. And certainly, I mean, when you think about what she did to Misha Tate, and again, considering that Misha Tate's best attribute is that she is virtually unbreakable in the sense that it is hard to finish this woman via strikes early in

fights. She's tough. Amanda Nunes defeated her in around three minutes, the biggest stage possible. So it's going to be interesting to see where she goes from here and there are a ton of options for her at this point. Obviously, if Rhonda comes back, that's option number one. If Holly Home looks great on Saturday night, that would be option number two. Julianna Pena, in my opinion, if option one or two aren't there and you can even make a case for her to be above option number two, Julianna Pena deserves to be in that discussion as well. So all of a sudden, a division that has felt shallow over the last couple of years is one of the more interesting ones.

And hopefully that can trickle down to other divisions. Because if you look at the light heavyweight division right now, it is shallow as heck. Wow. Outside of Rumble Johnson and Glover-Teshirea, there aren't a lot of options there. So it's an interesting time in the women's 135-pound division. Okay. Let us move along now. Bellator on Saturday had a fantastic show, I thought, a great lineup as far as the main card

was concerned. Their debut event in London, they were at the O2. We talked a little bit earlier on about the injury to Cyborg Santos, and of course that is somewhat of a dark cloud hanging over the event. But if you look at the actual performances, Lima's win, great fight, Mitrione's win, great fight, MVP's performance, great fight. I mean, there were a lot of great performances on Saturday. A lot of the talk going into the card centered around a 19-year-old from Northern Ireland, the Strabanimal, they call him. Now, I'm being told, his name is actually pronounced James Galaher,

not Gallagher, as I said earlier, so I apologized to him for this. But this is a man who was taken under John Kavanaugh of SPG Ireland's wing when he was just 15 years old, when he signed with Bellator a few months back. It was very big news. In fact, I have a pretty funny story to share with him, but a lot of people, especially in Ireland, are excited about James Galaher's future. He was successful in his Bellator debut on Saturday, and I'm excited to talk to him right now on the phone. James, how are you, my friend? I'm good, Earl. How are you? It is a pleasure to talk to you. So am I correct? Is it actually Galaher, not Gala Gala Gare? Yeah, that's correct. All right. There we go. So I'm happy to get a right. So this is an interesting story, and I'm really excited to have you on.

I know a lot of your fans are excited to hear from you as well. Congratulations on the win. Is it fair to say that you're actually pretty disappointed in your performance? Now that we're 48 hours later, I know what you said in the cage and what you said in interviews, but now that you've had, you know, 48 hours or so to digest the victory, are you still disappointed, or do you feel like there were enough positives to make this a successful night for you? Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm still not happy with stuff.

my performance, I come, I want to finish my fights. I mean, I've had a, especially in my last first three professional fights, I've had around submission finishes, and I was coming after the same thing here, but I didn't get it, unfortunately. So I'm not happy that I got to finish, and I know it was a very different opponent. I've never really faced someone who, who didn't want.

want to really engage in a fight, but that's not, people use that as an excuse, but I should have cut him off and baited him into a fight if he didn't want to. I should have made him fight. So that's something to work on, and it's something to bring back to the gym and there's loads of positives to take away from it and stuff like this, but I'm not happy that I can get the finished, but I'm happy with myself and happy that I got to win, and it was an unreal experience to be on Belltor, you know what I mean? It's one of the biggest promotions in the world, and it's something I've always dreamed of since

when I was a young kid that when I started training to be on one of the biggest promotions in the world, do you know what I mean? So I'm delighted about all that, but I'm not happy that I didn't get to finish. So I know that you were tweeting and saying before the fight done and won, obviously that didn't happen. In hindsight, were you putting too much pressure

on yourself, given the fact that this was your debut on such a big stage? No, I didn't feel like that I was putting any pressure on myself. I actually, I think I perform better when I have like a lot of hype and a lot of so-called pressure on myself, as you could say, but I think it boosts me to go in there and perform better, do you know what I mean? But it was just done it more, and especially like on the ground instead of working for the choke and stuff. I felt like I should have softened them up more with shots and more them down.

rather than always just searching for the submission that I should open them up with the elbows and stuff and nearly almost in a bad way and then took him out, do you know what I mean? Because he was definitely a tough guy and he was very strong, like unusually strong. Okay. So he was, but that's the way it goes.

I'm going to learn from him. I'm young and my 19 years old, and I feel like that night I didn't perform at my fallibility, but the good thing that I can take about that is when I show up to Belador again and have another fight, hopefully it's soon and I perform at my fellow ability that I will shock a lot of people. So that's another positive to take for me. So this is a very interesting thing. It is Monday, July 18th, right? July, 2016. July 18th, 2014, I met you for the first time. Do you remember that? I remember that in the Huy and

Dublin? Yeah, exactly two years ago today. How crazy is that? That is weird, and I said I'd be on your show. Yes. The night before... We were in Dublin for the Connor McGregor, Diego Brandau Fight. I'm sitting in the arena for the way-ins. I'm sitting next to a fine journalist out of Ireland named John Balfe. And you come up to me and say, I haven't begun my career yet,

but I guarantee you that you'll be interviewing me soon. You'll be talking to me very soon. And that was on July 18, 2014. That's insane. That is mad, isn't it? It is. You know what I mean? I wasn't too far wrong. No.

But now, now tell me this. Did you think that it would happen this quickly for you, that two years later you'd be fighting on a big stage like Bellator and on television worldwide? Did you honestly think it would happen this fast? I thought it would be quicker. What? No, I'm not. Let me do again.

Yeah, definitely. I know what I mean? I started, like, putting in the work and rocking up the winds, and I definitely thought it would be around this time. Do you know what I mean? That's something big would happen. and wasn't thinking about that, you know what I mean? Because I think if you try and rather than focus on just what's now rather than what's ahead,

you know what I mean, you can get caught up a little on that and then miss out and what's happening now. So I try to think now just like what is happening in the moment rather than focusing too much on the future, because you can miss out on the moment if you do, to tell your focus on in the future, but it's nice to be the ability to just say that it would be sin and it was sin after, and I here I am, you know what, I mean, on your show, like I said.

And so this is unbelievable for me, you know what I mean? I'm like, I've got goosebumps here just speaking to you on the phone, you know what I mean? It's all bit nuts, but I'm just rolling with it and enjoying it and just young, you know, just follow my dream doing something I love, so

I just, I'm just blown away. about all and join it all. I'm going to get back into the gym, nice in once my body's healed up and tend that work and hope to go again nice in. We're trying to get another fight lined up very soon. What was it like for you as a 17-year-old, a part of SPG, but obviously you hadn't really begun your pro career, and you were in Dublin for that night to see the team go undefeated,

to see what happened as the night, you know, from Patty all the way to Connor, and being a part of that team, what did that do for your confidence? Do you recall watching it and just, you know, because I felt like I was on Cloud 9. I had nothing to do with it. I can't imagine what it was like for a young team member like yourself. Do you recall the emotions that you were feeling? Oh, yeah, it was unbelievable. Patty Hilton let me do his corner.

Oh, wow. So he did for, it was his debut in the UFC. And I remember walking out and just thinking, like, what is going on here? You know what was nuts? And then I walked out and then Patty put on a maze. performance and I was nearly in tears in the corner. I was like just blowing away by the crowd and everything. It was like a bit like overwhelming, you know what I mean?

It just motivated me so much to really like see like all my teammates are getting this and they're doing this, you know what I mean? So I'm going to do what they're doing and try and do more and get that as well, you know what So that's just what I've been doing since. I'm not here at all, you know, I mean. I've been out there, tonight to me open. Unfortunately, last Saturday night, I didn't make the statement that I wanted, but I'm going to work hard and put everything I got into it.

I mean, I've dedicated my life to you. I've been my since I was 15. I quit school. Yeah. John took me and let me live with him, and I've dedicated my life to it, and I'm going to keep working until I achieve all my dreams. John Kavanaugh wasn't there in London with you,

because he's in Las Vegas with Connor preparing for that fight. What was that like for you, considering how important he is to you? Yeah, definitely John's very important to me. You know, I mean, he's a big figure in my life. You know, I mean, he's in all surrounds of life, but I'm a couple of Mueller fights. He's a busy man. He can't sell two things, you know, accept these things and get on with it.

But I have my teammate and a very close friend of mine, Kiever Krosby with me, We're the ultimate dream team, do you know what I mean? And then when John's there, it's just a big bonus. Okay. So it is, but thanks to Kiefer coming out and taking a John's place as such, and he was the next best man for the job, and I feel like we're a dream team, do you know what I mean?

It's a good pact. Why did you leave school at age 15 to dedicate yourself to becoming a fighter? I just I hated school I wasn't never interested in school and I never got on

with the teachers because that's it in training in MMA and didn't want to do work and I didn't do homework or anything

and I was always getting in trouble for that kind of thing and they used to be in class watching videos like highlight videos

of Gunner Nelson on my phone and the teachers would have been like trying to get my phone off me and stuff because you're into

the loud phones in school and And so I was just having a hard time with the teachers and stuff and the half day and the teacher back from training. I was like training at 6.30 that morning and went into school at 9 and the teacher just like I'm not doing this. And the teacher like started giving out to me and like I just stood up and I was like I'm done. I've had enough. I can't handle this anymore.

I just want to train and I get up and walked out and walked home and the parents were like, what are you doing back to? You know what I mean? It's school not over and I just explained that I can't do this anymore. And they've got my back in everything. My parents do and they took my back in MMI and should be able to give me money to go and train in Dublin because I live four hours away from Dublin. So how to get the bus up and stuff and John let me live with him. So they based my parents, basically, they work to be able to go for my training and stuff. So I'm on a big mission to repay them.

Wow. That is amazing. So they are fully supportive of your career. Were they in attendance on Saturday? Yeah, of course. My father was in my corner, along with Kiefer, and my parents have got my back to. I mean, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. They funded my train, and they, because I don't come from a wealthy family or anything.

I just come from a small town called Sturban. I grew up on a piece called Drive. It's called. It's a console. license did, and my parents just worked hard to be able to get me to Dublin to train it and stuff, and I just convinced them that I would put in the work and make a career out of this for myself. And they were never really interested about me, like, making a career or anything. They were just really happy to see that I was happy doing something I loved,

and that's all that matter to them. But now I'm on a big, big mission to really retire my parents' young. Wow, that is amazing. What were your friends saying when you're 15 years old and you leave school to go live with some coach four hours away and start training in mixed martial arts where you viewed as some, you know, like this crazy kid could your friends

not really understand what you were doing or were they supportive of you as well? Yeah, most of them weren't, they were like, you're strange, you know, because when I was in school, I brought like a healthy lunch and eating healthy and they were going out at the weekend,

drinking or whatever, and I just wasn't interested in nothing. I was like, I'm going to training this weekend there's time off schools you know i mean i just trained all weekend and and stuff and then when i eventually left and they were still like what the buddy quits like how you're going to do anything you know you need to his job are you going to get a job or whatever and and stuff like this and then i just cut them kind of negative people out of my life and have a couple of friends that that stuck with me and they're they're still here they come watch my fights and and stuff like that you know what i mean so

they're stand with me and other people are dropped a long time ago. Yeah. Does it bother you when you're always being asked about Connor and compared to Connor? Is that annoying? Being compared to one of the greatest fighters of all our compliment, but yeah, people ask me in a stupid way, and it's just very stupid, you know what I mean? I don't say it at all, but people can ask some ridiculous questions, and you're just like, man, come on, you know what I mean?

You're meant to be a well-educated journalist, and you're asking me, like, a stupid question, you know what I mean? But I just got to deal with it, you know what I mean? Unfortunately, I can avoid them hard questions pretty easy, you know what I mean? I can slip them either than I can slip punches, but I'll just have to keep on the ball, and that's that, you know what I mean? Of course, I think you do a good job of avoiding some of those questions. or at least answering them in a polite way. Lennox Lewis was there, and I heard that he was front and center

actually cheering you on at the press conference. Did you have a chance to speak to the great Lennox Lewis? Of Canada, I might add. He sort of defected and went to England. But anyway, a great guy and a great fighter, a legend in his own right. Did you have a chance to talk to him? Yeah, definitely.

It was something else. I mean, I remember sitting there before the press conference, me and Michael Page, we were the first one there and we're just chatting as in the conversation and then the next minute

it looked around and seen the giant coming through the door I was like that's Lennox what's going on here I mean he's like a legend

of the game and boxing and stuff and it was taken back by it you know what I mean I was like wow

like this is this is surreal and then he sat down and had a little bit of food and we rolled out rolled out to the press conference and then when I give my introduction, he stood up and I was the only fighter, I believe, that he stood up and gave a big cheer to you. Wow.

I got goosebumps, you know what I mean? It's like, I'm just young, following my dreams, nothing more, nothing less, and I'm getting this kind of attention from one of the grace of all times, you know what I mean? That just blew me away. That's the kind of stuff no one can ever take away from you, do you know what I mean? I mean, it's very humbling and it's such like an honor to have that kind of thing happen to me, you know, I mean, it's surreal. Now, around 11 months or so ago, you went to Bahrain to sort of be a part of this KHK team,

and I'm wondering, A, you know, what that means for you now? Like, are you still part of that team? And B, what it was like for a guy who had yet to make his pro debut to be sort of plucked from the crowd and say, okay, you're going to go to Bahrain and train with these important people. We're sort of pinpointing you as the future of this sport. What was that like? Yeah, that was a wonderful experience. Thanks to KHK and Sheikalee for involved me.

I'm so they part of KHK and pride to be. It's just a great thing, you know what I mean, that someone can help promote the MMA. You know what I mean in a country where MMA is not that big, and is doing positive things for the sport. Do you know what I mean? So to them to come to me and help be an ambassador

to try and promote something in a country where something's not that big is, that's a pretty big, big thing, you know what I mean? Especially coming from the Sheik and that blew me away at the start, you know what I mean? I was only 18 years old

and I came back from Vegas after competing in the IMMAF World Championships and John was like you're going to Bahrain, the sheikh of Bahrain wants you to come over, and she's Khalid, and I was just blown away, and went over and had an amazing time there, and met some amazing people, and I'm very happy to be a part of KHK.

Okay, so you're still a part of them? Yeah, of course, yeah. And here's the big question. You predicted that you were going to go 3 and 0 on Saturday. I know about the one, about two and three? I predict, say that again? You predicted that you were going to go three and oh on Saturday, correct?

No, well, they go in four and oh. Oh, you went four and oh? Yeah. Oh, wow. I didn't know. You didn't predict the four or no, so you actually got one that you weren't expecting. What do you? No, but I'm, I'm, I'm three, five.

You, you, you took a picture with the, the ring girls and said that you're going to get three victories on Saturday, right? Yeah, I went 3 and O that night, of course. It was a successful night for you all around? It was a very successful night all around. Well done, James. I was actually, this is a funny thing that a few weeks ago, I was like, speaking to my brother, it was away in holidays, and it, I was like,

I was like, oh, so, like, it was like, nah. And I was like, do you want a good tip on how to get girls? And I was like, it's like, it's signed to the Altar. Wow, so life has changed for you, even before your first fight for them. Sorry? Life has changed for you even before you ever stepped foot in the Bell-Tor cage. Yeah. Wow.

It's crazy here. Like, actually, like, tonight, like, there was, like, kids coming up to my door and, like, asking me to sign, like, pictures and stuff, you know, I mean, just where I come from. And I'm, like, walking down the street, like, people stop me for pictures. And just little kids where I live, just. you know what I mean, like just seeing me is something to look up to you. And that's something I take great pride in to be able to help people come up, you know, because where I come from, there's not much.

And if I can help anything, you know what I mean, help anyone to inspire people along, that means so much to me. Wow, that must be surreal for someone of your age. I'm guessing your friends who thought you were a little crazy for leaving when you were 15, don't really think that anymore. No, exactly, you know, I mean, that's the thing. know, when people, especially where I come from, people, when someone has a vision, people get critic for it to insulate it and be like, what are you doing?

No, I mean? Like, you're stupid doing that rather than when someone has a crazy vision, they don't be like, do you know what? Go for it. Don't put everything you got, go for it and give it your damnedest. And if it doesn't work, at least you tried, you know what I mean? But people around here don't have that kind of attitude. But luckily, I did and my parents did.

And the people, a few people to surround the boy had that same dream and pushed me positive, you know what I mean, to really go and treat my dreams. You know, I mean, even though it was, it's probably a crazy thing to do. Yeah. But that's all you need. Yeah, that's all you need. I mean, it shows. Well, if you're going to do something, you have to go 100% half-hearted and be like,

I hope this works. You know what I mean? I was never thinking, oh, I hope I get into a big show and start anything. good money. Do you know what I mean? I had the attitude that I am going to get into a big show and I'm going to get all that and I'm going to become one of the greatest fighters in the world, you know what I mean? And I have that vision now and I'm going to put in the work and I'm going to give it

everything I've got to become one of the greatest fighters of all time. Well, I know already that you are a visionary because you predicted exactly two years ago today that we'd be talking. You didn't predict that it would be exactly two years to the date, but close enough. That is amazing. That actually occurred to me this morning. People were saying John Balf, the journalist that I was sitting next to you that day, reminded me on Friday before your fight that you were the young fighter who came up to me. And then this morning I was thinking, wait a second, that Dublin show was July 19th. That means I met him, July 18th. That's today. Two years ago, just blew my mind. Just really blew my mind. That is, isn't it? That's blow my mind. I'm just chilling here, trying to get a condign from, you know what I'm just taking it all in and nicely. on the phone to you and hearing that and stuff, you know what I mean? So I'm literally thinking here, like, imagine what's going to be like in another two years?

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? I just had, I think I had my, I had, like, 10 amateur fights then, but I had he take a rest because John wouldn't let me fight until I was 17 again. And I think I just had the, I was just coming up to my first fight under John at that time. And, you know what I mean? So coming from amateur to now fighting on one of the biggest stages in the world and so. two years and been only 19 and I'm hungry than ever for it, you know what I mean?

So just imagine what it's going to be like in another two years. Can't imagine. But I wish you the best man. Last quick question for you. So when, do you have any idea when you'll be back against who? What can you tell us about the next one? I have no confirmation on anything, but I'm in for September, I hope to be. Okay.

on it in September, I hope that works out, but I haven't got any confirmation on anything or no contracts, no opponents or anything yet, but we're only two days after my first fight, you know what I mean, so I'm going to let things settle in, and I'm on an adrenaline dump here, so it's pretty crazy, but my phone and stuff just blowing up, so I'm going to head away for five days now, somewhere sunny, and turn my phone off, chill for a bit, and then come back, refreshed and ready to go again. Well, I wish you the best, James. Congratulations.

Thank you so much, Cheryl. Yeah, yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. I appreciate that very much. Congrats on the win. Don't be so hard on yourself. Great performance. I'm looking forward to watching you grow in Bellator and seeing what's next for you.

Really a pleasure to have you on the show and good call calling your shot two years ago. It's really cool to see it all come together for you. So congratulations again and all the best to you. Thank you so much. I hope we'll be speaking again soon. Absolutely. I look forward to that. There he is. James Gallagher. Same here. One of the newest members of the featherweight division in Belator.

Juan has debut, like I said, the Strabanimal, they call him. A good young lad who is doing big things over there and a very smart signing, in my opinion, by Belator to get in on the ground floor. That has been part of their MO. And going back to what Camel McLaren said, you know, the idea of Belator being the retirement home and they have made some questionable decisions. decisions. There's no doubt about that. Ones that I have questioned, ones that I did not like. But slowly but surely, you're starting to get a better vision for what they want to do. And I thought the Bellator 158 main card was one of their better ones. I think the matchmaking is getting a little better. I think the Benson-Henderson versus Patricia Pitbull fight in August is an interesting fight. And, of course, playing off the potential feud between Pitbull and the current champion, Michael Chandler, is smart.

and of course Benson going down to 155 is the smart call as well. I think them being in talks with Rory is smart. So slowly but surely, I've always said that we need to give them a couple of years. That doesn't mean calling them out when they make questionable calls because no one is exempt from that. And I'm happy to hear that they are helping Chris Cyborg, you know, by any means necessary because he certainly deserves it. I should say Evangelista Cyborg.

that is just I mean it is hard and I really do let me just finish my point on on on on on Beltor you can see that you know they're starting to get the younger guys the Ed Ruth's of the world the the the wrestlers Aaron Pico and James Gallagher is a smart guy with a fan base from Europe it's it's a good move by them just to expand on what I was saying to Mark Romundi at the top of the show there are moments where you just kind of think to yourself I mean what is this is a brutal spruce I know that. And it's sometimes a tough sport to defend. I was talking to, I was at my son's friend's house yesterday and the mom's mother-in-law, I hope you are following, was there. And she asked me what I did

for a living. And I said to her, I'm a mixed martial arts journalist and I work on a website. and she could not wrap her head around this idea that someone covers this sport full-time, let alone online. Now, this is someone who's in their 70s. This whole thing is brand new. The sport is new. Working on the internet is new. But when you experience something like seeing Chris Cyborg, excuse me, Evangelisa Cyborg's injuries,

the Brock Leicester story, the John Jones story, and all the other ups and downs that we've experienced in this sport alone this year, there are times when you think to yourself, Like, what is going on? I mean, with the, I mean, just the injuries. And I truly believe that we've dodged some, some major tragedies from poor weight cutting injuries, things of that nature. And I really truly hope that, you know, it stays at just that. Now, you can make the case that a fractured skull is tragic and horrific and it is. I hope we don't see worse. I really don't. So it's, you know, sometimes you just feel uneasy about it. And I don't really know how to verbalize how I'm feeling,

but my heart really goes out to Cyborg and his family, and I really hope that he can recover from this. And maybe that's the end. You know, great fighter, always brought it. But God, it actually hurts me talking about it. Like the feeling that I get right here, thinking about that injury is very painful. And again, I don't think that MVP deserves one ounce of criticism.

He was doing what he had to do to win an MMA fight. He's always acted that way. if that was a new thing, if he punched him after the fact, after the knee landed, then you could criticize him, but he's always been that kind of guy. He's always celebrated that way. That's been his thing. Now, if you don't like that from the get-go, fine, but you can't criticize him for that one celebration because of the fact that cyborg suffered this injury. That celebration was very smart because it got him all over the place. It was like one of the top trending things on Twitter all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday. That video has

well over a million views from the Bellator account alone. And it's just because he was playing off the whole Pokemon thing, which I can't understand. I don't get it. I finally caved in. I said everyone's play. I saw this video of people go into Central Park and jumping out of their car to try to find these Pokemon's. And then I said, you know what?

I saw people outside where I live doing it. I said, okay, let me just see. I feel like I should know what's going on, what the heck this game is. And it won't even let me download it. It won't let me play. one person who I am certain has been playing this game all weekend long is New York Rick. Am I right or am I wrong? You are correct.

I knew it. I knew it. And I didn't even ask you. And I knew that you wouldn't be able to play it because you are not a Pokemon master like me. Okay. First of all, are you really able to play it because I tried downloading it Saturday morning and it just won't let me sign in? So you downloaded it during the time where it was being hacked and it was,

all the servers were down. So you picked the worst time to experiment. It actually is working, functioning, everything's okay. But the time that you chose was actually when it was down. And it's still down. I mean, I checked another time. By the way, there's a bit of an echo. If we can eliminate the speaker.

But, okay, maybe it's getting a bit better. I think it was a set of headphones. Anyway. Okay. So what the hell is this? So did you ever, well, first of all, let's start with, did you ever play the Nintendo? Did you ever play the Pokemon?

So then you won't get it. It's like, you know, there's a nostalgia factor. I get that. Wait, so has Pokemon been dead for the last decade? Oh, pretty, I mean, you know, for all intents and purposes in the mainstream, it's been dead. So Pokemon's dead, and then all of a sudden they come out with this app and everyone freaks out? Yes, because what it allows you to do is previously you were playing as a Pokemon trainer who's catching Pokemon. Fair enough.

You're playing a video game. You're playing as somebody who's doing these activities. Now, it's been brought into the real world. I'm the trainer. I'm catching the Pokemon. in the real world, it's incredible. Pokemon are bad things? No, they're fighting creatures?

Why are you trying to capture them? So that you can... Actually, it sounds kind of bad now that I'm verbalizing it. You're capturing them so you can train them to fight against each other. Oh, man.

It's kind of like dog fighting. Okay, so let me ask you this. Okay, so there was that video of Miracle Kroko. Miracle Krokoe walking around the airport on his way, we come to find out later, to Japan to announce that Miracle Krook is back and fighting in this open-way tournament. in Verizon. He is, okay, so he's walking around trying to find these things. Let me ask you this.

If I'm standing there next to him trying to find these things as well, like, are there, like, could there be a Pokemon here or is everyone's phone bringing up different Pokemon? There is not a limited number. So you will both see the same Pokemon. And you'll both be able to catch it. Wait, so you're answering my question. So basically, there could be Pokemon here that it's, it's not just my game and that's unique to me. No. They have somehow wired this entire planet to have these Pokemon's in these... Correct.

It's based on a map of the entire... You're kidding. That is insane. And now you will see the same ones because I... But if she catches it, it's gone. No, no, no.

Because if that was the scenario, people would actually kill each other. That is true. If you were the only one who could catch that and I was standing next to you, we would fight to find out who really catches it.

Yeah. Did you see that video of people at Central Park? I did. What is that all about? Now, I'm playing this, but I'm not playing it like that. Have people fallen off cliffs and stuff? I've heard that.

Why is someone playing this while they're next to a cliff? It is, I have to tell you, it's very simple, very captivating. Like, you feel like you're spending only a few minutes doing it, but then it turns into, I'm spending a few minutes here, spending a few minutes here, and it has gotten away. Someone, Sam Gossnell on Twitter notes, elderly woman doesn't get MMA, MMA journalist doesn't get Pokemon.

I guess that's true. It's fair. I'm not putting it down. I just don't really get it. I don't understand. You're missing the nostalgia for it. That's what it is. Fair enough.

But Michael Venom Page's celebration was incredible. Yes. Did you know right away what it was? Oh, of course. It was interesting that the announcers had no idea what he was doing. I mean, that says it. Yeah. There's a generational gap.

I wouldn't have known. Also, but then, like, when he did the thing with the piece, he actually kind of looked like the character, right? He did a great job. What's the character's name? Ash. So all you guys were like, oh, you were texting. all your friends, you loved it. I don't know about that, but I did enjoy it. I rather liked it.

And it's, I mean, who's smarter than him? Who's a better, who's a better self-promoter than Michael Venet Page? He's amazing. He's, he's a, I mean, when he came in studio, he mentioned a team, so I have to, you know, if that's truly the case, we have to give credit to everybody. Well, he talks about how, you know, it's not just him coming up with the ideas. He has a team that he spitballs with and all that type of stuff. So if it's not just him, give them credit as well, either way, whoever is behind it, Michael and Michael and his team or whatever, they are brilliant. Capitalizing on this trend, that was much, I mean, I saw that much more than I saw the knockout in terms of online buzz.

Now, since the pictures from Cyborg have come out, I've seen more of that being prominently featured. But after the fact, it was much more about him playing Pokemon than anything about the knockout. And also, you understand where I'm coming from regarding the injury, right? Did I verbalize that correctly? I did. Look, you have mixed emotions, right? We are in a sport where the objective is to, for all intents and purposes, hurt somebody until they cannot continue. That's the simplest way to describe what the objective of the sport is.

In this case, the injury is more significant than one we're used to seeing. It's going to happen. It's happened before. It's going to continue to happen. What we just hope is that they're few and far between. and that obviously no blame is in the corner of Michael Vennon Page. He was doing what he had to do. He was in a cage fight that Cyborg agreed to get into.

There's no blame to be given out here. It's just an unfortunate situation. And it certainly makes us all feel uncomfortable. I had a difficulty looking at those pictures and thinking, you know, what are we doing? And at the same time, it really is something that doesn't occur every day. We have to accept that reality, though. Yeah. How about Cyborg sending selfies smiling to Guillermo Cruz? That guy's something else. A little bit of breaking news. UFC announcing that on this September 17th card in Hidalgo, Texas, the hotbed that is Hidalgo, Texas, Dustin Poirier, will meet Michael Johnson in the five-round main event.

Also, Derek Brunson versus Uriah Hall. And I guess, doesn't say Komen, whatever, it doesn't really matter at that point. And a couple other fights, I think, were announced for that card as well. Those are two scraps right there. You know what's interesting. There's a UFC on Fox event, August 27th in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tickets go on sale this week. There's no main event for that. And they just announced one for a card that's three cards later.

Very strange. There's Anthony Pettis versus Charles Oliva. There's Paige Van Zandt versus Beck Rawlings. But those tickets go on sale this week, and there's still no main event for it. Do you get the sense that the Fox events, like I don't really know how. to best describe them, but you can make a very strong case that the FightPass events, look, the Fox deal is already bought and paid for. They don't make extra money on those cards outside of ticket sales and whatnot. They make extra money on pay-per-view, extra money on

FightPass because those are a subscription-based, those are, you know, pay-per-view, you know, you order them on your phone. The Fox events are already bought and paid for, so I'm starting to feel like there's less of an incentive to load the deck on those. I mean, you look at the last three Fox events this year. The one in Newark was headlined by Rumble Johnson versus Ryan Bader. I mean, go down the line on that card. Relatively weak, the one in April was marred by the injury to Habib Nirmagamatov and then the Machita thing happened, but also relatively weak. And this one, you've got, you know, the two big fights, but then after that, there's a big drop-off in talent. And then you compare that to, you know, just this fight pass card that we had

with RDA and Eddie Alva's title fight on there. I don't know. Have you noticed that the, the the allure of the the fox event now we're approaching the 20th one it just doesn't really it feels like it's just another event it just so happens to be on fox it does but i i think that there i mean there is obviously incentive sure you're right that putting um things on your own property where there's not a partner involved um is better for building your own brand and that's why you know there's such a focus on fight pass at the moment but um it definitely helps to get those eyeballs on some of the guys you want featured on Fox. Good point, though there has never been in this, what, for your history,

any correlation between fighting on Fox in a big fight and then becoming a pay-per-view draw. Correct. Look at Demetrius Johnson and many others. No one has really been able to. Benson had that moniker for a long time. No, first, it just, I don't know if it's worked out the way they thought it would. Maybe not something that can be measured or any kind of correlation or even causation. but I think that

there you you know I'm not I guess I compare it to like in basketball when you're talking about you know statistics statistical analysis versus the I test I think the eye test is Fox

it is still the big name it is still where you want to put guys that you want to feature for for down the line that maybe not that maybe aren't pay-per-view draws I think you know the focus the excitement the focus all that stuff has obviously

Wayne. You're absolutely right about that. But I don't think that it's a case where it will be just overlooked completely. I think it's still a valuable platform. I do agree with putting Holly on that platform. I think that it's a great way to capitalize on her recent success. Let me ask you this. Holly wins on Saturday. Rhonda not ready to return. Although it seems like there's something brewing here with the Reebok commercial and she had some sort of chat last week that gained some steam. Let's just say Holly, let's just say Ronda's not quite ready to return.

Holly, Juliana Pena, who do you go forward with the next title shot? And throw out another one in case you feel like there's someone else that deserves it. I think, now when you say, I have to ask this, when you say, who do you go with,

do you mean if I'm UFC? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, if you're UFC. If you're you, you do? Sure. Yeah. Her star was made, you know, after that Ronda Rousey fight,

you put her back in. there and you give her a shot against a new opponent. And now, who do I think from a competitive standpoint? From what, if I was doing it, I would put Payne in there because Holmes should have to work her way back up more than one fight. But, you know... I don't agree with that because I think home deserved the immediate title rematch. But that's not the case anymore. That's a different scenario now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Either way, I think home is the one who will get it and is the end. You think so? Yeah. I wonder. I wonder if this fight goes the distance. I think she is. I mean, she, look at who she's being in.

No, not from that standpoint. That's, as I was saying, I think she's the one who should get it. But is she there as a name as somebody that you could put into that fight? Look, because remember. If home goes the distance, I say they don't give it to her. I say, uh, wasn't Alexana. I think it depends on how she wins. Remember that Amanda Nunes is not, you know, a household name for people.

So putting her in there with with Pena is, is, is. not a good recipe if you're trying to build that title picture up. I think home brings the cachet and brings the name value that you'd want in that fight. All right. Let's answer some questions. We're going to be joined by Lando Vanada, the star of Sioux Falls. Landos coach Brandon Gibson thanked us for our education on Pokemon via Twitter. Well, they all, you know, they got to catch them all, as they say.

Gotta catch them all. I'm on the hunt. Okay. Drug cheats and punishments. So essentially, it's clear that, you know, cheaters are motivated, no matter the repercussions. Hunt had a request that he wanted more pay on behalf of Brock Lesnar failing some kind of test. What should be the punishment? And now this person is proposing a suspension plus the win money because Brock Lesnar tested positive and one should go to the opponent every penny and then they should get a loss.

Is that too harsh? Is there a middle ground? what should happen essentially in this situation because there isn't a repercussion from the monetary side yet we haven't well there there is um here's here's my big takeaway though the real question that we should be asking the real thing that we should be talking about is why is someone getting tested before a fight and the results are coming out after the fight that makes no sense that to me seems counterproductive why are you even going through the trouble of randomly testing someone before a fight if the results are only going to come out after the fight. The point of random testing, in my opinion, is to catch someone who may be potentially cheating

before he steps foot in the octagon or cage to avoid any kind of injury and to not give someone the opportunity to fight if they're gaining advantage over their opponent. If you're going to come out with the results after the fact, then what the hell is the point of the whole thing? Oh, is that, I mean, I feel like you're cutting off your nose despite your face here. What do you mean? Because if it was not feasible or possible to have the results before the fight, there's still a value to having this test. There is a value, obviously. But you don't agree with the fact that if we're going to be engaged in this relationship with Usada,

if we're testing guys on the upcoming UFC 202 card, we need to make sure that all the random drug testing that is taking place for that card is coming up before the card. It is a bad look on the sport. and it is a bad look when a guy is fighting, especially one with the kind of power that Brock Lester possesses, and then it comes out after the fact that he may have been potentially cheating. Now, again, we don't want to accuse him of anything. He still has his say, due process, all that stuff, but you can't come out with it after the fact.

Again, this thing is evolving, and I hope that they rectify that. I hope they realize that it just doesn't make any sense. It's one thing to come out with it after the fact when there's a race. It's another thing to come out with it after the fact when there's a cage fighting guys are getting punched in the face. I could not agree with you more on that point, but what I'm saying is, logistically, that may not be feasible. It's feasible. And I think testing should still be done, regardless of that.

No, no. Of course it should be done. I'm not saying stop doing it. 1,000 percent. Look, if this is the only option, this is the only option. That's my point. But I believe it's feasible because there's a lot of money invested in this USADA deal. There's a lot of money going from the UFC to USADA.

I feel like it behooves them to figure out a way, okay, all the guys, it may be, it may be, you know, completely anonymous. but we know who are the guys being tested for this card. I mean, there has to be some system in play. I feel like they have to figure that out. Let's look at an example that's more extreme than Brock. Let's say it's somebody filling in on two days, a week's notice, and they get tested and the results come out after. There's going to be situations where we can't avoid this.

Going to be situations, the only time that I think that the test should come out after is if you're being tested that night. And that is still happening. Now, we know that you've got to be pretty dumb at this point to be failing the fight night test. It still happens. but you know that that one is coming. You know that that one is coming.

Exactly. So that one obviously is going to come out after the fact because it's happening the night of the fight. But a test that happened on June 28th is coming out on July 14th. What was it? No, 15th. June 28, that's 17 days later. Yeah.

Come on. That doesn't make any sense. So you can understand why Mark Hunt is livid right now. Now, is there, what should the repercussion be? Because as far as I know, he doesn't get compensated for the loss. Mark Hunt doesn't. He's asking to be. He's asking to be.

Do you feel that that's fair? Do you feel that he should be? It's a very difficult situation because he lost. It'd be... You know, it's not something that I feel like I can just sit here and be like, okay, take 50% of his purse, you know what I mean? But I feel like there has to be some kind of justice. There is, there is.

No, but there is. I think it is in the 50 to 70 range, but it's up to their discretion. I have to look into that more. But there is definitely a monetary puner. involvement 1,000% it's not just a two-year deal or whatever it is there's there's definitely money coming out of the pocket but it doesn't go to hunt uh does it no it goes to the to usata no to the commission no well this has nothing to do with the commission oh you're saying there's a

punishment yeah yeah yeah for not from the athletic commission but from usada themselves yeah yeah yeah i'm not talking about the athletic commission right now i'm talking only usada right now of course Usada's the one who administered the test if you sided didn't do the test now Nevada's different

because they're one of the few commissions that's doing their own random drug testing but if we're in Hidalgo Texas and someone fails you know the Texas commission

ain't doing you know pre-fight drug testing at a competition four weeks before I'll look through this I know it's there I just don't want to pass

along the wrong number sure but what what Hunt is bringing up is interesting he's saying look this guy went in there and won and was potentially, now he's not going to get it now because there's still that due process,

the B sample, et cetera, et cetera. But he does bring up a very good point that no one really brought up before. Like, look, I should be getting this money now. That's the least you can do. The punches aren't going away, and that's the tragic part. That's the part that people overlook.

The punches that he, the damage that was inflicted upon him will never go away. And who knows what it did? We'll never know. Sure. Do you believe on a whole that the UFC

regrets, you know, partnering with USADA. Oh, I thought you're going to talk. Okay. So a lot of people are reaching out to me about this. Oh, Brock Lesnar. To me, the first takeaway was the one that I mentioned about, just moments ago about, you know, it coming out, you know, doing the test early and it coming out.

The second one was Lorenzo Fertita, Frank Furtita, Zufa, are bigger visionaries than we all thought. They're getting out at the right time. about this last week. And maybe the Usada deal makes even more sense now. I mean, think about it. Partnering with an independent body who is going to essentially try to mess up your plans constantly.

You know what I mean? There's nothing good. And they used to talk about how the media was obsessed with this stuff and we were just harping on Vitor Belford and all that. Who wants to be in business with someone whose sole mission is to essentially screw up your plans? Now, of course, Usada isn't trying to screw up their plans, but that's what keeps happening. Right.

Machita, getting pulled, a job. John Jones getting pulled. Brock Lesnar's out. Yel Romero's out. I mean, all these guys, and it's going to continue to happen. And so, yeah, it's a great PR move. It's a good move, but it's a good problem for someone else to deal with. Not you.

You know what I mean? And that's why I'm like, man, these guys, they got out at the perfect time. Because imagine we're going to New York and something happens there two days before and there's more people. I mean, who needs this headache? The UFC was purchased in 2000 when it was the Wild West. when very few commissions were on board, very few territories worldwide were on board. And slowly but surely, they did a fantastic job of running towards legislation,

running towards, you know, the commissions accepting them and overseeing them and all this stuff. And then we had all these other steps with the TV deal and with Usada now and Reebok, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But back then, they could do whatever they want. It was their show. There was no talk of Aliak. There was no talk of class action lawsuits. There was no talk of unions. There was no talk of USADA.

There was no talk of any of this stuff. It was their show. They were the only game in town. And that's why when I hear someone like Hamel McClaren say, what's the point of Belator? I get that you're involved in a sort of competition with them. Although, let's be honest, Belator is over here. Combat is over there.

That's just, you know, they've been around longer. Of course there's a reason for Belator. That's why I thought it was a rhetorical question. You get what I'm saying? I do. Absolutely. Let's address this specifically. Go back to that moment where the UFC decides to partner with Ysada,

or at least announces, let's say, the very final hour, do they do it again? Knowing what they know now, seeing how it's played up. They do it again because they were planning on selling it back then, in my opinion. And you think it was necessary. They didn't wake up overnight and say, we're going to do this. Is someone buying them for $4 billion with or without you said out? I don't know.

But I feel like it's been a nice bit of PR. It's something that they could say we have the strictest drug testing program in all of sports, and they are right. Yep. And then let's let someone else deal with this. problem. Fair enough. I don't think they want to deal with it on their own, you know, on a daily basis.

It is a freaking, it is a nightmare to run this sport. Dana White always says, first thing he knows, when he wakes up, there's going to be problems. Fires to put out. That was before you, Sada. Can you imagine what it's like now? Yeah, five press conferences a day is what it's like now. Okay. UFC 200's pay-per-view buy rate.

Any latest on that? Do we know anything further? I believe Dave Meltzer reported last week that. it was in the low millions. I had someone call me up and tell me a number. I don't know if I could believe it. It's one source. This is not my wheelhouse.

I don't have sources in that world. So I don't know what the motives are. So I'm going to stick to Dave on this one. I will say, I will say, though, I was surprised at the number. I will say that. I will also say that, you know, if it was Meltzer's number, kind of what I expected, right? I mean, I don't think, look, it's very hard in 2016 with the amount of shows

that the UFC puts on to put on the mega show and to make it feel special like UFC 100 did. It's just a different era and I give them a lot of credit but man, UFC 200 could not disappear quick enough

I feel like for the UFC it's just been one headache after the next and that's what happens when you try to stack the deck and I believe 202 is going to dwarf it I really do

I think it's going to beat it whatever number it is I still think 202 is going to beat it listen to Helwani and never put three title fights on a card yes that's the other thing I'm happy you mentioned that. Cyborg, this person, and I've seen this before,

that's the reason I put this one out, should essentially knees to the head in MMA be banned? No. Do you think that there should be anything be banned? Yeah, should there, yeah, soccer kicks. See, I'm on the other side. I think that nothing should be banned. No.

Jesus. Let me walk that bad. Eye gouging, fish hooking. No, not I guess. Essentially, all the rules that we currently have, except soccer kicks and knees to end kicks to grounded opponent should be allowed. I just feel like if we're engaging. If the unified rules of MMA except soccer kicks, I'm out.

Really? I'm out. Really? Yeah, don't come to me with your stats or your tweets or whatever. I'm out. I just can't. First of all, it's called soccer kick. I mean, there's not even a technical name for it, for God's sakes.

It's called freaking soccer kicks. It is barbaric. Come on. There's a guy lying on the ground. More often than not, he's pretty hurt. and we're just going to field goal his head into the next... I mean, you can kick him in the ribs. No, I'm...

But the head is usually where they're going. Now, okay, now you bring up a good point. Soccer kicks to everywhere, but the head is interesting to me. Now I'm starting to open up a little bit. Soccer kick to the head, down the opponent is a bad look. Too dangerous, too gruesome. I don't want to watch it. But I'm open to your suggestion about...

No, that's legal already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can kick anybody wherever I want. As long as it's not the head. No, no, but I'm saying because we're talking about banning everything. Like, I'm okay with the bat. You're okay with that. Yes.

I'm fine with it. I can live with it. But soccer cake's in the head. No. Is this a bit of a knee jerk and no pun in general because of the need? I've said this all the time. No, no, no, not you. But we, every time there's some kind of, every time there's some kind of brutal kind of strike, we have this, should this be banned?

You know, there was a while where it was 12 to six elbows. Do we essentially overreact every time something like this happens? Or do you feel? feel like this is necessary and kind of keeps us in, it keeps things in perspective about how dangerous this sport truly is. One second. I just want to respond something. Someone on Twitter just said, Ariel Hawani implied that the Fortitas may have purposely,

purposefully signed the Usada deal to sabotage the next owners. That is not even close to what I implied. I implied that they said they want to clean up the sport. It makes the sport look good. It makes a sport look more professional. It makes it look nicer. But they were not trying to screw the new owners. Get out with that crap.

That's not what I was implying at all. How could they even possibly plan that? That's BS. Don't go with that. Okay. That's silly. Maybe we lost the thread on this a little bit. Let's just move on.

Enough with the knees. Okay. Bellator tape delay. Did they drop the ball? Yes. People in the UK were even watching it live. It's 2016 with the internet, with Pokemon Go, with Twitter, with Facebook, with all this nonsense. How are you not live?

And oh, by the way, they were tweeting the freaking videos of the finishes. I saw the MVP finish. on my phone. Yeah. They were sending emails out with the results. Like if you're going to go with the tape-flight thing, you need to hide that bad boy, you know, all the results, everything.

You need to pretend as much as you can that this is happening live when it's airing. Spike has been doing this since day one. I don't know, since they were airing UFC. I don't get it. Air it from one to four and then replay it if you want. I don't know, but it doesn't, to me in 2016, you should not be,

especially sports, which has proven to be the one televised. television show that fans, viewers like to watch live, you got to stick with it live. Yeah. You got to. Everything else is on demand, is on Netflix, but live sports, it's got to be. It's got to be live. Such a bummer.

Was this show, and based on your thoughts earlier, it sounds like it was, was this show a success for Bellator? Do you think they'll come back to the UK? Well, I don't know if it was a financial success. A lot of people were tweeting me that they actually got bumped down because they were trying to fill up the arena. people were being upgraded, their seats were being upgraded. So I don't know if it was a financial success.

I'm sure Kimbo not being a part of the card hurt them. And Michael Vennepage is a rise. I don't know if he's a household name just yet in a massive draw like a Bisping is. That's the same arena that Bissping and Anderson Silva fought in. It's a very big arena. So I was surprised when they even went to that arena. So I don't know if they'll be back. I suspect that part of the reason why they're back is because they have a very good TV deal in England.

and the TV companies, they like to have the entity come and have a local show because it's important for advertisers and just for building the market from the ground up. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're back, but I can't really speak to whether or not it was financial success. I was surprised that they were forced to upgrade people. And I mean, I'm sure you're kind of bummed out if that happens because imagine you paid a lot of money for a ticket. And then all of a sudden, you know, Joe Bloch from the upper deck is kind of. coming to sit right next to you and he paid 30 quid. Sure. All right.

Talk about a Brexit, huh? Huh? Huh? Brexit. Brum, bra. Um, yes, but at least the card itself, you, you, you thought that was a strong card, good performances. Oh, yes.

I actually thought, I thought the main card was a very solid one. Look, it was one of those main cards where it felt like, okay, this is Bellator. This is what we want Bellator to be. what it should be. Lima, daily, great main event, I thought, and it delivered. It was very entertaining. Young stud, like James Gallagher with his story. Michael Venom Page against a cyborg. And I saw some people after the fact criticizing that matchmaking. I thought that was pretty damn good matchmaking. I mean, given what they had to play with, a big step up, a veteran, guy who was a lot more fights, tough to beat. I mean, that felt like a nice little move up for Michael

Vennon Page. Matt Mitreone, fighting Ollie Thompson. That ended up being an entertaining affair. Nancy's Carmel getting a nice finish. He hasn't been known to do that. I mean, all in all, if you sat down and watched those five main cards, and I know they sprinkled in some other nice finishes there, hard to complain with that. Rory McDonald? Yes.

What do you think would be the best move for him if he leaves the UFC? Let's assume... The best move for him is to get paid as much as he can and to get as much money as he can, regardless of who it's from. At this point, Roy McDonald just became a father, by the way. Mazel Tov to him. Congrats, Rory. Look, if it's one FC,

if it's Bellator, if it's UFC, if it's, I don't know, combate America's GDP, as King Mo would say, right? I mean, that's really it. It's clear to me that Royne McDonald's a different kind of cat. I don't think at this point he cares if he becomes UFC champion or not. I mean, I think he would like that, but he's not going to stick around and take a pay cut for that. The guy wants to get paid.

The guy's been doing this since he was, what, 16 years old? He's been in some pretty brutal fights. I think it would be a blow to the UFC to lose him. I still think, look, if Tyrone Woodley becomes champion next week, Roy McDonald fought Tyron Woodley pretty damn well and neutralized him pretty damn well. You don't think that he'd think that he could become champion. You don't think that I think that he could become champion. You know what I'm saying?

So, in my opinion, Roy McDonald's still one of the top five best welterweights in the world, period, regardless of promotion. Still a lot of great fight for him at Welterweight, but he wants to get paid. And it sounds like he was a little soured on the whole experience. And so I think it's smart. look, I don't know how much he moves the needle per se from a ticket sales standpoint outside of Canada or from a rating standpoint outside of Canada. But I'm happy that at least Bellator is engaging in these discussions with him to see,

you know, they should, if they want to grow as a promotion, they should be involved in these discussions. Now, whether or not they always sign the guy that is a different story. But you have to be in that game. It's smart business to be in that game. It's smart business to at least reach out and see, okay, what would it cost to get this guy? What's he looking for? Et cetera, et cetera. That's good for the growth of the sport. The fact that these negotiations are happening, I think is a healthy thing for the sport. Lineker, Venata and Smolka. Yes. What a card. This question focuses primarily on Smoka. What's next for him? Does he get a title shot?

Can I just tell you that I thoroughly enjoy watching Louis Smolka fight? I mean, that guy is so much fun. The Holohan fight was tremendous. The action on the ground against Ben Wend on Wednesday was just as entertaining, if not more. The guy is relentless on the ground. It is such a pleasure to watch him compete. And when's the last time that we had a guy climbed the ranks as a flyweight when four in a row. And there's actually some talk of, okay, how would he look against Demetrius Johnson? I really love that he called out Wilson Hayes. I thought his idea of having them fight for the interim title was a little crazy concerning the fact that DJ has been so active and has defended the title so many times. And I was holding out hope as someone who is covering UFC 201 that they

would book Wilson Hayes versus Louis Smolka. Figured that he didn't take a lot of damage. Wow, what a great fight that would have been. Concerning the fact that Wilson Hayes was scheduled to fight for the belt and that would have been a nice second option for him. And then they go with Sean Santella and then he gets pulled from the card. And now they announced that Hector Alex Sandoval of Team Alpha male is getting the call. And that's kind of fun playing off the whole Team Alliance Team Alpha male thing. But I was hoping that it was going to be Luis Smolka. Now we'll see what happens. You know, if Sandoval wins, there's a void there. I know they have the ultimate fighter coming up, but DJ has wanted to remain active. I don't know. I really, I would love to see Smolka versus

DJ. And maybe he gets another fight. But man, I am a fan of his. So yeah, I was super impressed with that card. Chukagian was great against Murphy. I thought that was a really impressive performance considering her, it was her UFC debut. Lando Venata, who'll be talking to in a couple minutes. I thought he had a great performance. Tony Ferguson coming back was great.

Freaking, John Lineker has looked even better at 135. Who expected that? And he's definitely a player. It was a great card. And I'm forgetting a couple other ones. Tim Boch, great win for him. That was fun.

I like the Wednesday, the midweek card. I don't mind it. What about you? They tend to deliver. They tend to deliver. No, just like I like the idea that it's not Saturday. It's a little different. The main cart starts earlier.

It was quick. The main event was done by 1140, which is a pretty manageable time. If you're living on the East Coast, I thought it was nice. It was solid. It was fun. John Lineker is incredible. Who do you want to see him fight next? Brock Lesnar?

I don't know. Brock Lesnar. Anybody. What kind of response is that? Anybody. It doesn't matter. Heavyweight all the way down. To me the two options were John Dodson or Cody Garbrand.

Either one sounds great. Jeez. Got faith in John Lineker's hands. Okay. I'm going to leave you on this and then I'm going to get our guest. Okay. Fador Maldonado. What do you think about that fight being overturned?

Now there's a bit, you know. It's not really overturned though. Well, yeah. So what is that? Well, what do you mean? At least one jurisdiction or one organization with jurisdiction decided that it was a draw. Cool. That's the one you're leaving me on?

That's the crappiest question. That's all you got nothing for? I got nothing. You don't even care? I mean, I already talked about it. It should have been a draw. What is this? Give me another one.

T.J. Dillashaw. Yeah. One year removed from his decision to leave Team Alpha male. Was it a good decision? Holy crap. It's been a year? Now I will get our guest. Okay.

Think of it. I can't believe it's been a year. T.J. Dilashaw. Wow. I think it's been an okay decision. I mean, he's probably had to deal with a lot more stress and drama than he wanted to. But, you know, he did win. in, did he leave? Yeah, he did leave Alphamette. Well, I was kind of brewing, right? It was sort of brewing

around this time when he fought in Chicago against Hennabrow. He looked fantastic in that fight, almost beat Domina Cruz. I do believe that there are some who still think that he deserved to win that fight. And then he eventually lost to Hafele Sunsau, so it hasn't been horrible for him, I think. Go back and listen to that interview that he did on Stud Show Radio, one of the greatest MMA podcasts out there, by the way. Those guys are so, their fans, well, mostly them. I don't know if they have many fans. They're so insecure.

You say anything about that show, and they get their panties in a bunch. Stud Show Radio, fantastic show. Great guys. And they had, there's a team alpha male show, and they had T.J. Dilshaw on. And he was talking a lot about employees versus contractors and having to do the USADA stuff, some very interesting comments from T.J. Dilleshaw. I thought it was good. We had a write-up of it on

the site. I think it was yesterday. I think so. There was a lot of news this weekend. After the Brock Lesser thing, Risen announced that they're doing an open-weight Grand Prix tournament. Vanderlei Silva involved Mirka Krokop after he found all his Pokemon's. He's involved

as well. So Mirko coming out of retirement. Remember Mirko was on the show, very emotional, saying that he was done. and now here he is back and appears to be in great shape as well. So it's an open weight Grand Prix. Do you know what that means? That's lightweight. That's heavyweight. Anything goes. Old school pride. Amazing. Speaking of amazing, our next guest had a amazing UFC debut. It didn't go his way in the end. But a lot of people were talking about Lando Venata come Wednesday night who weren't talking about him prior to that who maybe didn't even know who he is.

but this close to defeating Tony Ferguson, and really, if you're going to talk about moral victories in MMA, that's pretty much the moral victory in MMA, what he did Wednesday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Lando joins us on the phone right now. Lando, how are you? Hey, I'm doing well, Ariel. How you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. So let me get this straight. Is it Lando or Lando? Because on Shurdaug, they have you as Lando. On the broadcast, it was Lando. What should I call you? Lando. Lando. Is it a lot? Is it a land in? Is it a land in. It's a show. it short for Landon?

Yeah, it's a nickname for Landon. Okay, I like it. Well, it's weird to say congratulations to someone, you know, after a loss, but I kind of feel like I should say congratulations to you. Do you agree with my assessment that moral victories suck? You don't get as much money. You don't get the W. But that kind of felt like one to me.

Yeah, you know, actually, I've gotten a lot of congratulations, and it's definitely a moral victory. You know, I'm still disappointed in myself for the way I acted during the time. to that fight and let myself down during it. But nonetheless, man, it's still a small victory. I think a lot of pressure off my shoulders. If I want to beat me until it's like it's a lot more pressure. Oh, that's it.

So you see a silver lining and not beating him. Were you not ready for that pressure? No, not that I'm not ready. Definitely feel like I will be ready for it just, you know, just now it's not there. Okay. Okay. I want to work backwards here and get to the fight.

You get the call to replace Michael Kiesa around two and a half, three weeks before the fight, and it's against Tony Ferguson, who you can make the case as the number one contender. He's on this amazing winning streak. Were you surprised that you got that offer? People come into the UFC on short notice all the time, but it's usually not against an opponent like that. What were you thinking when you initially got that offer? Yeah, I wasn't surprised. I mean, the orchard guy could be on the same notice.

but what I was thinking I was just like, yeah okay let's go let's do it 100% in so there was no doubt you didn't have to think about it you took the fight

nah my manager called me he said hey you want to fight for the seven two weeks I said yeah let's go and what kind of shape were you in

well actually I had just that was the first day of my training camp for another fight and you know I was kind of ended out of the gym the weeks prior to that

nothing too serious and I was in good shape, but I wasn't in flight shape, wasn't in great shape. But, you know, I was a decent shape. Yeah, and your last fight was April 30th, so it wasn't like you were out for a very long time. How much did you know about Tony Ferguson?

Like, when you heard that it was him, was there something about his style that made you even more confident going to the fight? Like, yeah, this is a good opportunity. No, actually, I don't know much about him. I know he had chokes, and he had long arms, you know, a big reach. And at first, I was like, great. These are all the things I hate.

Guys were a long reach, guys with a good choke. impression fighters. All right. Yeah, so there's three things that I hate, and, you know, then we sat down and watch tape, and it felt my confidence up a lot. Okay, so then you start, you know, you're taking the fight, you're getting ready for the fight, you're a part of this great gym with, obviously, some of the best coaches in the sports, some of the best fighters in the sport.

Did you feel at that point even before the call that you were ready for the UFC, like you're around these guys every day, you're training next to them? Are you thinking, like, what is it going to take for me? Because obviously, when you're dreaming about going to the, you're doing to UFC, you don't want it to be under these circumstances. You want a full training camp. Usually you want to be as prepared as possible. Did you feel already that like, all right, my time is coming, like I should be getting this call already? Yeah, I've been saying everybody, everybody's been asking this year.

I'll be telling them I'll be in the UFC by the end of the year. It's just a matter of time. Did you ever flirt with them before? Were there ever any close opportunities to joining them in the past? Yeah, we were trying to get a few fights in the past. It just kind of fell through to give them to different people. And we just knew what was going to be right around. the corner is going to be soon. Before you left, any of the fighters in the gym have a pep talk with you, try to give you a few pointers about what it would be like fighting in the UFC? You know, it's just the normal things.

Cowboys traffic down outside. It was like, hey, man, don't want the big lights to get to you. Don't want that stuff gets to you. It's just another fight, you know. But just the normal things. They know physically, mentally I'm prepared for. They're just like, hey, with me big lights. It's going to be these famous people around you,

these famous referees and announcers and all those stuff. just don't be distracted by it. I get the impression you're not someone who gets easily rattled, just doing some research on you. You like to do a lot of meditation and, you know, be calm. I mean, you don't strike me as a very nervous, Nelly kind of person. Is that true? Yeah, I'm actually extremely calm when it comes to fight.

Sometimes I'm so calm that I go, should I be like a little more excited right now? Yeah, I'm very, very calm, you know, going into a fact stage. I'll be joking around, having a good time. For cracking jokes, I walk out, smile and dance. I just look good. I stick everything in. You've been with Jackson's for several years since you were in high school.

Is that true? Yeah, for the first time I came out here, I was actually 16. I was going to go to a wrestling camp and decided I try to see if I can come out here for a month. Turned out I could, and I was out here for a month in the summer of 2008. That's when you joined full-time.

No, that was my first trip. That was my first trip. I was 16 at the time. Okay. Where were you coming from? I came from Florida. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So why? I came from Florida. Why there? Why did you go there? Why Jackson? Yeah. Yeah, I was just looking for a wrestling camp.

My brother just goes, he should try to go to Jackson. I think there was a time when GSP just rewanted fell or something, and Jackson was a talk of the town. Okay. And plus, like, you should try to go there. He's just joking around. I was like, yeah, sure, I might as well try. And then I ended up going, fell in love with the place,

and made a lot of good friends and just feel like to come back. So you go there when you're 16, 2008, but you're still in school. You didn't leave school early to join the team full-time? No, I went to Rushville at Tennessee Chattanooga. Okay. I was there for a semester and just hated it,

and then I dropped out, looked out here right after. So were you going every summer, though, up until you joined full-time? No, I was just not one. summer. Oh, okay. But you still had aspirate. When did you decide that you want to be an MMA fighter? I was like 10, 11 years old. What? I saw, yeah, I saw UFC 30, U.S. 31. My aunt got me those VHSs. And I come home to school and I've watched them every day, especially the Pedro Hizzo, Josh Barnett, the first fight. Yeah. I love that fight.

And yeah, I come home to school and I watch him every day and it took me a couple years to find my first gym. But I just don't know how else is like this is what I want to do in my life. I was going to be a little champ one day. Why did she get you those VHSs? Oh, my aunt was in Vegas. She met very much or something at her. She's at the UFC party. I don't remember exactly.

She just had like this gift bag, the U.S.D. gift bag. And she was like, hey, I think you like these. Turns out I love them. That is incredible. So you just watch them over and over again. How many times do you think you watch them?

I don't know. A few dozen each. Wow. That is amazing. And so your fight was Hizzo. It wasn't like Titor T's slamming of it, Tanneri, it was the Hizzo Barnett fight. Yeah, it's still to this day

one of my favorite knockouts. He rocks them, and Barnett just, you know, folds forward a little bit, and he's just so dazed, Hizzle steps off to his right, fires that right hand, clean on the temple, and just put them down. It's just one of my favorite knockouts. And in 31, Couture beats Hizzo,

you didn't know who any of these guys were, so were you kind of bummed that in the next, you know, the next VHS that the guy loses? No, I wasn't attached to, like, the fighter, I was just a fight. Yeah. Have you ever met him? No, I haven't met Hizzo. Also, the five ones in fighters.

I have met, what did he say, those coaches name? I always forget. Men with California. A half-all Cordero? No. King of the Street, what's his name? So on the USDA way back in the day as well. Big heavyweight guy.

For Hizzo or Barnett? Hizzo's coach. they'll come to me. I know you're talking about. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, I can't think of it on top of head. No, I've never met his, though. Okay, so at that point, are you a big wrestling fan,

like pro wrestling or boxing fan? Like, were you a combat sports fan at all? No, I mean, I watched some WWU and I was a kid, but, yeah, I wasn't a big fan of any combat sports at that time. Okay, so then you find, okay, so now we speed up, you're finally joining the team full time, and you decide that you want to become an MMA fighter, and you're around all these great fighters and all that.

Was there ever a point where you were, thinking like, ah, this isn't, because, I mean, it's, it's been four years since you've been doing this full time. Did you always believe that you would make it to the UFC? Oh, yeah, 100%. You know, I've always been having great rounds with everybody in the gym, and I knew my my sister-in-lawful-lawfuls there. It was just one of those things where you have to take it a day at a time, you know, one step

has to the duck. And, you know, I know it's a long, largest process, and some people will never get that shot. I just happen to be lucky enough to get that chance. But, yeah, I always knew it would come. What was it like when you got to Sioux Falls? And, of course, we're not in Vegas. We're not, you know, it's not the bright lights. But, and of course, it was after 200, so there was less attention.

But just being a part of that process, because I know there's a lot that goes in, and it's very professional behind the scenes. What was the experience like for you going through it the first time? Oh, it was fun. You know, it was the first time for me to do it personally, but I've been there with Cupswantz and I've been to the process before, as a friend as someone who was there to help another. So it's not necessarily the first time.

But it was fun. It was definitely fun to go through the whole thing to myself. And the nerves never got you, right? Speaking of what Cowboy said to you, you go into the cage, it's all just another fight. Yeah, that's exactly how I viewed it. That's what I said when I first got it, it's just another fight. Yeah.

That's what I thought all the way through. But then in the first round, when you're looking as comfortable as you are, when you're rocking him, when all this is happening, when people are, like, you know, obviously you can't see what people are saying, but like, this is actually unfolding. You're about to pull off this mammoth upset. What is going through your mind? Are you still remaining calm? Or are you kind of like, holy shit? I mean, I'm about to do this.

Yeah, you know, I like to think that, uh, I approach flight blank. I'm on autopilot. It's no thoughts, really. The only thought that came to me during that flight, and I remember it just the other day, and it was very weird. we were circling around each other and moving. I look at them, I think for myself, either having deja vu right now or I've dreamed about this before. I'm not sure a way.

Yeah, and then it just went right back to get and punch in the face. But that's the only thought I had the entire fight. Wow. That is amazing. And so when you go to your corner, the second, between the first and second round, what is your corner saying to you? I had no idea. You don't recall?

I was so exhausted after the first round. I was in there just trying to catch my breath. They were saying things, but I don't remember. Have you watched the fight since? Yeah, about a dozen and a half times. What's that like for you to see how close you were to finishing him? It's very sad. Every time I watch, I go, why did I do that?

Why did I follow him to the ground? I would have just given an extra inch of space when I let that uppercut go when he was back against the cage. It would have been a good night. But, yeah, so it's a small mistake. It's kind of sad to watch, but at the same time, I sit down analytically and watch it and do the things I did wrong, and I know what to work on in the future. The next one.

Is that why you said earlier that you kind of let yourself down? Yeah. What do you mean by that? Like, I just, there's like, you know, it's just some mistakes that I shouldn't have made that I did. And that I have made in the past, in the past, I've been more controlled about it. And this time I just made it happened to make a mistake that I shouldn't have made. What about protecting yourself? You feel like you...

I mean, it's a great style. It's very exciting. And he nailed you with that Superman punch, and you took it, and it was unbelievable to watch. But is that something that you usually do? I know fighters do that. I mean, it's a common thing in this sport. Fighters, some of them don't like to protect themselves,

have their hands down the whole time. Is that what you usually do in all your fights? I usually protect myself through footwork and head movement, like I was doing in the first round. Yeah. And that second round, so before the fight, there was a time when I was talking to my coaches. I was saying, you know, I'm probably, I think after I hit him a couple times,

I'll get Tony to go backwards. Nobody makes this guy go backwards. I'm confident that I'll get him to control the face. And in that second round, I was making him go backwards the whole time. So that kind of, it's soaked my ego, stoked my ego a little bit. And I got a little too excited. And then he was hitting me, and I didn't feel like he hit that hard.

There's a point where he ripped a body kick. And I blogged and I said, all right, come on, go another. and give it another one, and I put my hands down. I was like, what, that's all you got? It was just a little bit of an ego thing, man. I got a little carry away with it. Man, it was something else to watch, you know, relatively unknown fighter on this big stage

coming in and almost knocking off the top guy. Do you recall what, like, when you got back to the locker room, what that was like, what your coach has said to you, I'm sure you were dealing with a lot of mixed emotions. Yeah, yeah, there's definitely mixed emotions. At one point I was high on it, and I felt great about it, and that next minute I was, you know, on the verge of peers, and then the next moment I just wanted to hear my coaches could be an analysis

of things to work off. Yeah, it was just a little over the place. It was my first loss. First loss in that, May. My first loss in anything in a very long time. So, yeah, it was just a mixed portion. It was an open place. A foreign feeling, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You got the $50,000, though. That's right Yeah And I saw that you said afterwards That you're going to get a car I was told that you

You ride your longboard to the gym Are those days over? Oh no I got a car But I'm still I'm still gonna be longboarded to the gym I love I love skating

Uh wait Skating riding the bike walking You got the car already Yeah I'm sitting in there right now Wow What'd you get I got an 05 Nissan Frontier

Nismo Edition 4o drive Got a little lift on it. That's the offer of a package. Wait, so you got home Thursday, I assume? Yeah, I got home Thursday. And so funny thing is, you know, I've been sharing a car on my girlfriend for the past couple years. We've been

supporting each other and really helping each other out. That car had 170,000 miles on it. So we're driving the other day to go get some errands done. The car breaks down and dies on us. Yeah, the day after we get back. So the car breaks down. We shoot over to the Hyundai dealership and walk in, she was going to buy a new car anyway. So she walked in, buys a new car.

We come back the next day to finish up the paperwork, and there's this nice Nissan Frontier sitting in the front. And then I take it out for a test drive. I go, yeah, I like it. Check it out, everything's clean. I go, okay, let's buy it. So now you got two cars. Yeah, so now I have my own car.

Wow. Yeah, she has her car. I got my car. It's great. It's good to be Landovanada. Yeah, life just changed a little bit. It's very nice. I saw a video where you go on your roof and meditate.

Do you still do that? You know, that's when I was living in the mountains. I was living on the other side of the mountains from Albuquerque here. I just moved, actually, just a few months ago. Okay. But up until I moved, yeah, I was up there, you know, every morning. My coffee, doing a little meditation. That's great.

What about this purple suit that you were rocking afterwards, which a lot of people noted as well? Was that, did you pick out that suit because you knew that you were going to win and you were going to sit up there and everyone was going to be talking about you. Was that what you were thinking? I said, yeah, yeah. I was like, I got to go get a suit for the Post-Five Press Conference

after I beat Ferguson. You know, I didn't have the money to go get a tailored suit, so I just want to grab that to the some few hours and a little shopping. Yeah, people liked it. Look good on you, the purple.

Thanks, sir. Yeah. Okay, so now, obviously, you got, you know, a little banged up. Any serious injuries in the fight? No, no serious injuries. just some scrapes, some bruises. So we're all good to go.

When do you want to return? You know, I'm going to take a try three or four weeks off. Just let my body heal up for the past few years. Yeah. Been grinding. Probably late October, early November. You know, if they give myself a few weeks off and then be able to get a full camp going.

What was it like when you got back to the gym? Because you've been one of those guys, like you said, grinding, and I know a lot of people are rooting for you. It was cool to see some of your teammates on Twitter after. and even before the fight, but when you got back, what was that reception like? Oh, and just everybody that I've seen so far just give me that to pull up. Like we were saying earlier, I just got congratulations to everybody. I think I'm the only person that we get congratulations for moving a fight.

It's a weird thing, right? What do you say to that? Say thanks, I guess. Yeah, I say thanks, you know, because even though I lost it, like, before, it's more victory than it's a lot to be gained from. there's a you know, I gained thousands, thousands of defense from it, so it's really got my name out there. So it's still, they're still silver lining. Absolutely.

Well, it's good to see you take that approach. By the way, Marco Huas was the fighter that you're referring to, yes. Yeah, yeah, sent to his gym a couple times in California with the cup. Thank you to everyone for calling me an idiot for missing. Look, I've been talking for the last three plus hours here. My mind works very slowly, but I shouldn't be complaining to you. congratulations. I'll add to the congratulations. I was blown away, man. It was so entertaining. That first round to me, when we're doing our awards in December, I have a very good feeling that we'll be

talking about that first round for round of the year, and what a performance, what a debut was even in defeat. So you have a lot to be proud of. Congrats on the new car. Congrats your girlfriend as well. And I'm looking forward to watching your career now in the UFC. Great stuff. Thank you very much, brother. My pleasure. There he is. Lando Venata, who was so successful in defeat in his UFC debut, which is a very rare thing for people to be congratulating someone in defeat. I don't have to tell you that. But that first round, if you missed that card, if you said that there was, you know, if there was too much MMA and to a degree, I don't blame you. But if you said that I was

not going to watch the Wednesday card in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, because you were a little bit tired of MMA, you missed a good one. You really did. That first round was so, there's nothing better than potentially watching an upset unfold. one that no one saw coming. Tony Ferguson had looked so good up until that point. And let's not take anything away from him. He weathered a pretty, pretty strong storm and came out in the second round and was able to get back on track and submit Vanada.

But wow, what a first round. To see that unfolding, to see Tony Ferguson on roller skates, to see him almost get finished, guy that no one really knew of, you know, three weeks ago is exhilarating stuff. That's the beauty of MMA. We were talking about some of the things that make me a little bit depressed when it comes to MMA. That is the beauty of MMA. Guy coming out of nowhere taking a fight like that, almost changing his life and did change his life to a degree in defeat.

Great stuff there. And I know his coach, Brandon Gibson, as we were talking about him earlier, I know he's very high on him, one of those guys that's been a part of the team for a while, They've helped cultivate, grow from the beginning, now getting an opportunity to shine on the big stage. All right. Last guest to go. Let's talk to my man, Uriah of favor.

UFC 203, he returns against Jimmy Rivera. Oh, there he is. Yariah. How are you? Hey. What's up, man? Good, buddy. How's life?

I'm doing good. It's excellent, man. You were going to say something to me. I was going to say, good to see you and better spirits. Watch that sad show, man. I was a tear jerk. Did you cry? I was rough.

Did you cry? Huh? Did you cry? I got a little choked up. No actual tears, but I got a little beclench. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for watching. It's good to see you, man.

Well, let's talk about UFC 199. Yeah. What happened? I lost, man. Yeah. I think you saw it. You know, I came out. I had an amazing training camp first off.

I felt really good. And came out. It was a back and forth, first round. And I feel like I had a little fatigued going into the second night. I mean, I felt like that was the sense I got. And came out in the second round, and he just caught me a minute in with like a looping left hook that landed right on the button. And, you know, this is the fight game, fight for World Championship. I got rocked just a tiny bit.

Came out of it just in time to land. up kick and start scrambling, but I think I was skating the rest of that second round, kind of trying to regain composure, and just wasn't on point after that. I feel like he got more into his groove. I feel like I was less creative and more kind of lulled by his awkward movement. And, you know, it was a frustrating fight for me. It was still, you know, like I said, a decision that definitely went his, way. Last time I felt like the fight could have gone anyway. This time I felt like it was definitely

his fight. So, you know, at least at least I had that I was able to put it all out there and, and take away something from the fight. You can't really remember what happens in a fight so you go back and watch it. I waited about a week to watch it. And I still look good, but just wasn't able to connect, wasn't able to get creative and really fought his fight. Considering your history with him, considering where you are in your career, was that one of the tougher fights to deal with after the fact? Not necessarily, man. I don't like to dwell on things.

I mean, obviously, it's not the best feeling to lose, but I'm not defined by wins and losses. That's not what makes me who I am. I know that. I love the sport. Like I said, going into this camp, I had an amazing camp, and I started coming down from like 163 about 10 weeks out, just because it had been a while since I had fought

and put on some muscle and put on some little body fat and by the end of that camp I felt on point I felt I was going to win and it just didn't go my way so I can't really, the preparation was amazing whenever you prepare like that it's hard to really feel bad about anything because I did what I need, what I can control

I did and you can't control of outcomes of fights unfortunately but the preparation was on point and so it's frustrating if you aren't able to prepare like you'd like to, and then you have a, you know, excuse kind of, but I don't have any excuses. Who's throwing a ball up and down in front of you? That's sneaky Tommy. Sneaky Tommy.

How'd you know that? I can see everything. Are you kidding me? I have a nose for these things. Sneaky Tommy. He's a sneaky little bit of a inning. I love that guy. That's Dash Senior.

We call him Dash Senior. That's his son is Dash Jr. or maybe just Dash. Yeah. Yeah. I just, which exotic island did you go? I feel like you always go to like a nice place afterwards just to decompress. Where'd you go?

I didn't go to nice island. I just went to Santa Barbara for a few days. Okay. That's actually where I was born. I was born in Santa Barbara. I have my family there hung out. I didn't go to any exotic island. I went to Santa Barbara.

I hung out for a little bit. End up doing some hot yoga. Then I got right back in the gym. We had Cody who was up. And then we had Paige. It was up. And so, you know, like I said, it's a process to get my weight down. And I just feel like, you know, that's what I do for, you know, some people pay to do CrossFit.

They compete in these games and they're, you know, people have all these different things. I know guys that do the 100 mile marathons and stuff like that. This is what I do for my passion. I luckily get paid to do it. And, of course, I'm always trying to be the best in the world at it, just like a lot of folks when they're following their passion. But got right back in the gym, you know. able to be in the gym and not necessarily do the stuff you don't want to do, just jump in the sessions you do want to do,

but just being there and getting the next generation going and stay and prepared. And then they offered me a fight, and I'm like, you know, I have a hard time turn down and fight, especially against a tough opponent. Like Jim Rivera, I've got a chance to watch him and really impressed with the guy. So I've got nothing to protect and I'm doing what I love and I'm excited to get back on the horse. Yeah, I was a little surprised that you're coming back so soon, but this has sort of been your thing.

typically do come back soon if you're not that that hurt so they called you you didn't tell them like hey i'm ready to come back no they called me i apparently i think per usual i think caraway was offered the fight and he's waiting till till november december to fight because he's in i actually talked to caraway and i was like bro did they he's like i haven't heard anything in the ufc i'm like well they told me they offered you this fight and he's like yeah it's not a smart fight the vera's very tough it doesn't do anything for me and this and that but i got nothing to protect, man. I'm in there to scrap. I don't want to not give another guy an opportunity or a fight because I'm, you know, it's not a smart fight or this fight. Dude, none of these fights are smart

fights. It's a dumb profession. We shouldn't be doing this. But what the heck? It's not a smart thing to do ever. You always feel that way or have you come to that conclusion in your older days? You know, it's funny. I like to think about, you know, a lot of people, the biggest fear for a regular is a physical confrontation. And I do that and have been doing it on the wrestling circuit for 20 some odd years and in the fight game for 13, almost 14 years. And not only am I getting in physical fights on a daily basis, but I'm doing it with some of the best guys on the planet.

So it is a little bit of weird when you think about it. But like I said, some people are doing CrossFit. Some guys are doing these marathons. And some people are doing things for their hobbies. I just happen to love, compete, love fighting, and have a desire to be the best at whatever I'm doing. And so, yeah, it's not the smartest things. I think I've just, when you sit back and think about it, it's just, it is what it is.

But yeah, it's more of a new concept, I think. Are we done with the cruise thing? Like, have you moved on from it? Can you just, like, let it go now? Yeah, I was never, I was never, I was never stuck up on it in the first place. It was a good opportunity for me. And like I said, I thought I was going to win. We have our history, but you know how I am, man.

I don't really pay attention to things unless they're in my face. And it happened to be in my face and it was what it was. But I've got to, I've had a weird relationship with Cruz throughout the years, just basically having to be in each other's face, you know, in and off the mat, you know, I mean, in and out of the octagon. So it is what it is. I don't waste any time thinking about him or, you know, what has happened. in the past or anything else. It's just, you know, my life is my life and I'm working on

on powerful things in it. People throw around the word captain a lot in this world, but you really truly define that word, and I'm not just blowing smoke up your butt. You've done this twice now, and I want to know how this works, because here you are, you, you're at UFC 169, you just lose very controversially to Hannah Burrell, and one of the first things that comes out of your mouth is T.J. Dilleshaw. He's the next guy. Here you are. UFC 199. You lose a heartbreaker to your rival. And one of the first thing that comes out of your mouth, Cody Garbrandt. How does this work? I don't see this from other people. And maybe it's unique that you have all these guys in your way class. But at what point you think to yourself like, oh, I got to now plug my guy.

You're doing the post-fight interview in the cage after your loss and you're plugging the other guy. It's incredible. I don't know. I've always, I think it goes, I have serious. I have like ego and I love giving new guys opportunities and it's funny because in the in the in the post conference cruz is like you make it money off all these guys I'm like bro if you had any clue how much money I've wasted building this this amazing team you know you could just be shutting your mouth at the point and I was like you know I love I enjoy bringing up the next generation I think people have to understand like a guy like Cody garbrand has looked to me for for guidance He's like poured his heart out.

I've heard his back surrounding the same with TJ. TJ lived in my house when he was down and out. I've, you know, made opportunities for him. I've brought him along on on me, you know, working with great trainers throughout the years until, you know, these guys get their feet wet. But bigger than that, I've got guys like Joseph Morales and Angelo Trevino and Solomon Amahar,

who have been with me since they're 10, 11, 12, 13 years old, Andrew Coyne and Colin Bulldog, these guys have been with me since they're, I mean, before they hit puberty into new opportunities. Like now they're about to be, you know, 5 and 0 and 6 and O and, you know, the top training partners in the gym and things like that. And I get a lot of pride and enjoyment out of giving back and seeing the next generation go because, you know,

At the end of the day, you know, money is money or whatever, but, you know, the people you're surrounded with and the people that are your network, I mean, that's what's important. You know, I have, I have friendships that have lasted since before I can remember that are, you know, childhood friendships and built friendships along the way. And I enjoy seeing new opportunities for people. And I really believed that it was T.J.'s chance because I had trained with him in the gym. And I really believe that it's Cody's opportunity because I train with them in the gym. and we've had these discussions before, and I need all my guys to believe that.

And me being on the stage and being able to hand down the torch, you know, per se, is a good opportunity. And it doesn't take anything away from me. You've done a great job of building yourself up for these big money fights and having these options. I still feel like the Dillishaw fight is a big money fight that's waiting for you. Big money for who? I don't know. You told me, think about that. There's a certain couple, there's a certain couple of scenarios where that would be a big money fight.

But, uh, tell me with them. You know, which scenarios? If it was for a belt. Okay. You don't think, that would be, you don't think Dillishaw, Faber at the new arena in Sacramento is a big deal? I mean, is it a big money fight for everyone else? Yeah. Sure.

You know. Because you don't make a cut from the ticket sales. I don't make it come from anything. Right. Unless the title, you know. Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. So is it fair to say you're not interested in that fight anymore?

No, I never was really interested in that fight. When I think of T.J. Dillishaw's situation, it makes me more sad than anything else. It's not like a fighting situation, you know, it's just kind of a weird gig. You know, I never rule out anything. You never know what's going to happen, but it's not like I'm setting my sights on that fight. That'll be an uncomfortable build-up. That'll be uncomfortable all the way through, and then it'll be a, you know, then it'd be a, you know, then it'd be a fight. So I'm not, I'm not ruling anything out, but I take one fight at a time. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm a very spontaneous guy. So I would like to fight in Sacramento at the new arena. That's been a monumental thing that I think should definitely happen. Who is that going to be? We don't know. We'll see. This next fight, I've got to focus on this next guy. These guys that are ranked in the top 15, it's not because they're below anyone necessarily. It's because they're

they're brand new and people don't know who they are. There's a time when people didn't know who I was. There's a time when people that know who T.J. was and Burrow and everyone else. This guy that I'm fighting is very, very tough. I've had a chance to watch some of his interviews and I see how dedicated he is to perfecting the game. I know that he's a well-rounded fighter. He brings a huge skill set. He's a young, hungry athlete. So I take this fight just like I'll take a championship fight. You know, I take it very serious. What did you think of T. T.J.'s win over his Suntel, since you, you know, obviously beat a sunset not that long ago maybe five or so years ago now maybe more six i don't know it's been a while um i haven't watched it yet i'm still going to watch it wow yeah you didn't watch

i was there at ufhundred but i got there just a little bit late we were dealing with this the ufc put us up in the week in these seats that were like difficult to get to and then it ended up being a bunch of drama with the younger fighters because everybody was confused about where they're going and and uh i mean i saw tj walking out after his dwind but i didn't get to see the fight. Yeah, and I haven't, I haven't, so I'll watch it. Oh, but so let me ask. Like I said, I don't really like watching. Yeah. You know, I hear it. Something doesn't make me feel good. I just shut things out. But I'll watch it just because it's a, it's a, it's a relevant fight for me. Did you enjoy what you saw from 200? Did you enjoy the experience? It was kind of a weird

experience, to be honest. I mean, I was dealing with, uh, it's, it was just weird matchups, weird, everything was weird about that. That whole, I don't know if you felt the same way. but like the drama leading up to it and the sale of the UFC was kind of overshadowing things and then you know the the seating situation was like had like 60 fighters all up in arms because they're getting mobbed by crowds like up in the yeah in the section of the seating so they're dealing with you're trying to figure out what was going on there because people were confused and everything else so um i enjoy i always enjoy fights that's my passion but uh it was just weird I like to see, you know what's funny is the whole Brock and Hunt thing.

You know, we've seen Brock. And first off, I saw the interview before Brock's fight. And that's what I would have liked to seem from the guy the very first time he stepped into our sport. I mean, he was humble and he was realistic. And he just seemed like a different guy, you know. And that's like kind of what I remember from him as a wrestler, you know. It was like a humble guy that was coming in to perform. and, you know, I like to see that.

I just watched that recently. And it was cool to see a Division I wrestler who is a favorite in my mind, no matter what, who kind of became an underdog because we've seen him not be real comfortable under fire. Just kind of prove again that wrestling is a super important part of this game. Sure. Although what happened on Friday mars that a little bit potentially, right? See, I don't really, I'm like in my own world, so fill me in. What's going on? Oh, well, Yusata announced via the U.S.C. that he has been flagged for a potential PD violation

stemming from an out-of-competition drug test that happened June 28th. So what is it, 13 days or so before the fight. How does it work? I thought, from what I understand, and I don't know how this whole thing works. You saw it as an independently hired governing body. And the UFC has the ability to pull some sort of exemptions. And I guess because Brock had been in the WWE and not the UFC, they gave him some sort of exemption. But now the exemption doesn't matter. But I'm assuming they knew something was up,

but we're giving him some sort of exemption because he got short notice, if that's really the case. Well, I think you're combining two things. If you come out, let's say you retire right now. You decide right here on this show, you retire, that you're walking away from the sport. If you want to come back to the sport at some point, you have to give them a four-month heads-up before your next fight. So they'll test you and make sure that you're all on the up and up, right?

But that's because the four-month thing, what they're saying is, is because you have been a part of the sport in the Usada era. They said, okay, Brock Lester wasn't a part of the sport in the Usada era. So we're going to waive this four-month. period of testing and allow him to come in and fight in a month. Now, a lot of people thought like, look, you're kind of picking and choosing, you know, this guy may not, you know, have the four-month that guy. It just seems like a bit of a weird thing. But important to note that he passed, I believe, five drug tests leading up to that June 28th day. So he was being tested a lot leading up to that.

And then for some reason, this one particular one, and we still don't know what the substance is. So let me ask you this question. He gets tested June 28th, but the results only come out. out after the fight. As a fighter, doesn't that bother you? Like, what's the point of doing out of competition testing pre-fight if it's going to come back after the fight? That's what Mark Hunt is very upset about. He's like, wait, you're testing him before, it's coming out after. He could have gotten hurt. Something could have happened. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, it puts things in perspective when you see, like, cyborgs' head get crushed. Yes. Skull get crushed. And, you know, there's the human body and certain individuals or have

certain abilities. I mean, is there a legal, like, attempted murder if you're using, or something like that? If you're using potentially, you know, using something to make yourself a weapon that's illegal, and then you crush somebody's skull or something like that, like, yeah, it's a weird thing. That's one of the reasons why, you know, we have rules in this sport is to make sure that stuff like that doesn't happen. I mean, I don't know. I haven't really done all the research on what should or shouldn't happen.

I know that, you know, the cheaters are going to try to find a way to cheat over and over again. I've never been that guy. I pride myself on that. I have a real, you know, feeling of pride in the fact that I've never done anything like that. And I know that guys, even though they've passed drug tests and everything else, they don't have that same pride some people and not saying any names or anything like that. But, you know, they know who they're out there. But this is a sport to test yourself and to see where you stand up.

and it's like a chick with like fake lips, fake boobs, fake hair, fake teeth, fake tan. Like when she has a kid, the genetics are not going to show any of that stuff. Sure. You know, it's one of those things where you're looking at where do you really stack up. And I have a lot of pride in the fact that I've been a top contender, a world champion for over 14 years. I'm 37 in the sport, feeling amazing. and never have cheated. Everyone else, it is what it is.

That's your own internal battle. People get bothered by this or that. That's the way I look at it. And so I'll just be proud of myself and that's it. What was your reaction when you heard the $4 billion number that the UFC sold for? I've always said you have been one of the smartest business minds in this sport. I've told you that. Four billion.

Were you surprised? That's the fastest turtle, by the way. Fair enough. Fair enough. What do you think? That's like you're one of the best. best looking interview guys or whatever. Oh, wow.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I actually take a really compliment. But what did you think? What do you think of that number? First off, you know, I've had a chance to build a relationship with Lorenzo Furtita and Frank Furtita. And I've had, you know, got to know Dana and everyone else.

I mean, they're business guys. That's their fight game. So as long as they're not breaking any laws and they're able to. to turn a company like that into a $2 million investment with a lot of hard work and a lot of money behind that into what it is today. I mean, I had to take my hat off and say, congratulations and thank you for my opportunities. Now, would you also like to see the fighters getting a bigger piece of the pie 100%?

Will that happen in the future? I sure hope so. I know William Morris Endeavour, IMG, has dealt with football players and basketball players and baseball players and the screen actors guilt. So they know about, you know, what's fair and what's not. Are they going to make a move to give a bigger piece of the pie? I don't think it's going to be their big conscious decision, but it may be something that happens for us.

$4 billion is a lot. I'm not going to complain about the money that I've got. It's not a scratch in the, you know, it's not a scratch on the surface of any of that kind of money, but I'm just doing my little part, and there's been a lot of moving part. So it was pretty cool to see how the sport's going, but it just makes you wonder what's next for us. True or false, before he retires, before he walks away from the sport,

your eye of Faber will get another crack at the UFC title. Oh, come on, bro. Of course. Yeah. All the haters, you know what I mean? Hey, here's something to think about. Yes. I have been fighting, well, the UFC, what year did the UFC,

integrate WEC to the to the UFC I believe that was 2011 the 2011 so that was five years ago so I was 32 when the UFC brought

2010 2010 2010 I was probably 32 when the UFC brought the WC into our into our sport I mean I feel like

you know and it's been I've been a top contender right now I'm ranked number two or number two contender, I think, on the rankings for the weight class. And I've been a world champion. When they had my division in the WC, even before the WC, I was the King of the Cage, the Gladiar Challenge,

fighting for the WFA, for, you know, all these organizations, you know, grab these opportunities and being a pioneer. But this UFC, everybody talks about missing the opportunity for the UFC, it's only been five years since they've had my division in the weight class. And I mean, you can say what about whatever matchups or whatever opportunities that I've had or haven't had. But how many guys have been able to stay at the top for this long and be able to knock down contenders and get yourself positioned for big fights at 145s and 135s? You know, this all comes down to matchups in good days.

The last time I fought Cruz, he rocked me in the second. He kind of rocked me in the fourth. with two punches. I feel like that was good for him. The last fight I fought him before that, I rocked him in the second, and I rocked him in the fourth. I rocked him in the first. I rocked him in the fourth. You know, this is a game of millimeters and centimeters, and I'll be poised, ready for opportunities. That's the way I play this game. And that's why I don't shy away from, I'm not looking for the right matchup. I've fought guys that no one's heard of. I've fought guys that are legends, like, like,

Frankie Edgar, I just love this fight game. And I'm passionate about it. I feel great about it. There's big things happen. I like to be an example for my guys and a bunch of different levels. I like to see the next generation go. So I'm just excited about being poised to take any opportunity and keep myself in tip-top shape because that's what I love to do. Man, I wish I could be as positive as you.

It's unbelievable. Thank you, buddy. You're something else. You're pretty positive. I am pretty positive. Although you do shed a tear on occasion. Listen. A heartfelt, well-deserved tears.

There's nothing wrong with that with being in touch with your emotions. Oh, dude, I'm, hey, bro. I've been choked up before. Yeah. I've been choked up. Hey, what's up? No, it was all, eh, it was pretty cool to see that all the other, all the other journalists and from all over the place to get your back on that thing. You know, that was, that had to make you feel good.

Oh, to say that would be an understatement. And the fans as well in Las Vegas, I talked about this last week. They don't need to hear it again, but blew me away. their support, really. It did. It really did. And I know I had your support as well, even though you didn't really, you know, you were dealing with some other stuff, let's be honest. Yeah, I don't even know when it was. It would actually, I didn't get to see the post-fight interview because it was going down, if case you're wondering. We were both, we were both experiencing lows at the same time. That's why we're always going to be. But, you know, it's funny. In that, Cruz was talking about me like,

oh, you're just pumping up your guys, this and that, and he goes, I go, man, I got a whole generation of guys that are coming up that I'm going to continue to pump up. Oh, well, you make money off of them or this and that, you know? And then he's like, I got guys that are coming up too. Guys like, and he started naming off guys. And I go, hey, it feels good to give some recognition to other people. It feels good to pump up your guys, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah, it does. I go, all right, well, now you understand. And the feud, the feud continues. Ray Sandoval of Team Alpha male fame fighting Wilson Hayes. Alex. Alex. Why do I say Ray? Because it's Hector and everyone keeps correcting me that it's

Alex. Why do I say Ray? Anyway, Alex Sandoval. But is it Hector or is it Alex? His name's Hector. He goes by Alex. We call him Jose. Perfect. He's fighting Wilson Hayes. Because he's been, because he's so fast that we'd use him as Jose Aldo for training. We call him Jose Alex. And then we, and then his real name's Alex and then his real name's Hector. That's amazing. Okay, so he's fighting Wilson Haste in a little less than two weeks. My final question to you.

Yes, go ahead. Okay. No. This is the final question. What'd you want to say? I was going to say this guy's roller coaster story has been nuts. Who? Alex.

He's Alex Animal. He's been stay at home dad. He's been very close on a couple occasions to get this opportunity. Then he gets almost gets on the ultimate fighter and then something happens where he can't. At the last minute, he can't go. Then, so he lost his opportunity. And then we get the call for Wilson Hayes on like a couple weeks notice. And then he says, yeah, we'll do it.

And then Wilson Hayes chooses some other guy. Then the other guy gets kicked out. And then Alex gets the opportunity again. Wow. You know, he had like a going away party with his family and all this stuff. And I mean, he's poised. He's ready to take this fight. Wow, I love that.

Now I'm emotionally invested in the fight. You just did a great job of promoting it. Okay. All right. And he's, he's also been Joseph Benavita's top sparring partner, Cody's top sparring partner, T.J.'s top sparring partner, my's top sparring partner, but just has not had the opportunity yet. So, I mean, he's going to come in game.

It's going to be a good fight. What does it say on your bracelet? Eat. Eat the truth. What does that mean? This is pride, pride over profit. This is the new supplement company, Pyrus Labs.net. Okay.

And I told you, you know, I've been smarter about my training. I've always been super healthy about, you know, the way I live my life. But these little advantages, like amino acids, you know, right after that you step off the mat, a little bit of caffeine, which I've never used until the fight before Frankie Edgar. You know, a little pre-workout, little noxygen, little amino D, like all these little things that are giving me a nice little edge. and, you know, looking for every opportunity. You know, I learned that from, from Vitor Belfort.

He's calling me asking about, like, some, like, special butter that we use in our coffee, and he's asking about, like, different things. He's always looking for this edge to help, you know, keep his career going and staying on top of things. And I'm like, all right, Vitor. I mean, he may not always show the line, but he's looking for every advantage. Yes, they don't call them the young lion for anything. Okay, now my real final question is, what's it? Why do the alpha male guys have this connection with somewhat large comedians,

female comedians? You and Rosie, Cody and Roseanne, what is going on over here? This is a strange phenomenon brewing. You already asked me this, but a good way to circle back. Did I? I don't know. They're good people. They like, well, I would say Cody's a handsome dude.

and he's a passionate guy and says it how it is. He's incredibly handsome. Brutably, well, I'm glad you think so. He's got that quad. Brutably honest. Go ahead, go on. He's got the neck tattoos. I mean, how can you resist?

Although he's spoken for, I met his lovely girlfriend, so I don't want to infringe on his territory or on her character. Yeah, we change his name to all of. We change his name to all of him. Oh, wow, man. He's becoming a softie? He gets us. He's got his, just in the right moments.

Okay. You're right. I don't know. We love that support. Sure. You know, Rosie, Roseanne Barr. I mean, these ladies are, they're alpha females without a doubt. Game, recognized game, homie.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Okay. Well, this is great. Hey, by the way. Yeah.

I've got a couple new recruits that were, We're talking about having come out. Jordan Oliver is one guy that's going to be coming out to our team. He's right now one of the most decorated U.S. wrestlers in the nation, and he's good friends with D.C. He's been talking about going to AKA and going out with Aaron Simpson and those guys, and he's coming out to Team Alpha Male. But folks, keep your eye out for Jordan Oliver.

Okay. And then we've got Mike DePalma. Mike DePalma took fifth in nationals, and he's actually showing up today for his first week of training with Team Alpha Mel. He's another tough, tough wrestler that's going to be making the transition. So we're excited about the future of the team. We've got a new gym that's brewing. Oh, you're building one? About three miles. Yeah, changing locations to a new bigger location that's going to be top-notch facilities. So we're excited about that. And it's cool, man. We've got a bunch of cool stuff going on.

So no one breaking into your house anymore and dropping a deuce in the pool, all that's all Well, you never say, never, never, never say die. That's my thing. I like to step it up. That was a big girl that came in. Next time I like her to be a little bit bigger and drop a bigger deuce. Where are you, by the way? It's a beautiful office or room that you're in.

This is, okay, this is Tommy's office right here. There he is, Tommy. Look at those guns. So we're having a meeting over here about. the new gym. Oh, wow. Over there. We also run MMA Draft,

which is about to relaunch with the MMAU University and online university for mixed martial arts. We do that out of here. And this is also Brightway dental headquarters. It's a business that I'm a part of. So this is kind of like,

this is a headquarters for a bunch of different business stuff, Team Alpha Mail, you know, a lot of different things. So we're out here handling business. I thought Tommy just picked up your dry cleaning. Which is part of the reason why I don't know about all the BS

it's going on in the MMA world because I'm doing not like you're not on Twitter scrolling through I thought Tommy just picked up your dry cleaning that was it apparently he does more than that dude Tommy's a Tommy's a I'm kidding let me tell you something about mother F and O let me tell you something Tommy Tommy's Tommy's wife is that is that his wife that's it I mean if if it's actually in here too she's she's actually in here there's you're gonna take a little tour here here here's Tommy's office This is Josh Espy, who's the CEO of Team Alpha Mail now, baby. Wow. How are you, sir, Josh?

He used to be on it. This is Dave. Dave used to beat me up when he was a coach in a junior college, and I was a freshman or a senior in high school. Here's Handy Candy. Hello, Candy, how are you? I was going to say, what I wanted to say was, Wow, you have a nice office.

I wish they can all be as on the ball as Candy. You text Candy about getting you on the show. She gets back to you within seconds. sure can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And these are some lovely ladies that are waiting. They're about to do a radio commercial for the new UFC gym that we're doing in Rockland. Wow, look at you.

Business is booming. This is also a ping pong table. This is a ping pong table in case you want to get whooped up. Okay, okay. Wow. People are actually thriving in the business world in Sacramento. Who knew? Well, you got to stop being so ignorant.

All right, all right. It's not all about, you know, Ariel's world. There's other things going on. That is true. Okay, I've taken up enough of your time. Get your meetings. Get that paper, as they say. Get that paper.

Cheta, cheese, cash, grilla. Cheta makes it better, Rampage Jackson, my man. All day. I'm happy to see you're in good spirits, Your Eye. I'm looking forward to your fight in Cleveland, Ohio. Did you expect anything last, be honest? I didn't. hoping for like a big retirement announcement and all that stuff but we'll save that one for a

different day well i'm glad that you are hoping to me to retire that's great i hope you're retired too no i'm just kidding it will be you know what i'm hanging it up if you retire at some point i'm never doing the show again i'm kidding i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna go home and read your book now third time you you acted like you read it a bunch of times third time i'm like bro you asked me a question i'm like you thought you read my book uh thank you All the best, too. We'll talk to you soon. Tell your mom. I said hello. I appreciate her support. Oh, my God. She's about to lose it. She's going to text me in a minute right now. She's watching.

Thank you, man. I appreciate that. Mama knows. Mama knows. That is right. Yariah Faber. What a class act, this guy. Unbelievable. He returns at UFC 203. Wow. Got a tour of his office. You can't beat that. That's the MMA hour for you. All right. I've gone a little too far. Are we done, Eric? We're done. Everyone's had enough of me back there. Okay.

That's it. Yes? You back? That's it. Any Pokemon updates? Anything happen? No, come on. You think we're playing Pokemon while we're watching the show here?

Possibly. No. Could you turn on your phone and tell me if there are any in this room right now? Like there could be one chilling right next to me. It could be, but I'd have to be next to you. Meaning like... Okay, what about in your studio? It's one to one.

All right, hold on. Okay, here we go. This is not going to be exciting. I just want to know. I want you to tell me if there's one in that room and then we'll say goodbye. Come on, hurry up. We've got nothing, Ariel. Zero? There's nothing in this room. Except for human beings. We're being held captive. All right, all right, all right. You can hit my music. I am done. There it is. I was kind of, oh, there's my mom. She loved it. She thanks your eye favor for the shout-out.

watching the show every single week. You got to love that. You talk about support. That is support. Fun show this week. We go from Derek Lewis's beauty salon. James Galaher. Campbell McLaren.

Your eye favor? I mean, we had it all. Something for everyone on today's episode of the M.A. Hour. How about that? So, UFC back on Saturday. UFC on Fox 20. Holly Home.

Can she? Get back on track after that devastating loss to Misha Tate. We shall find out in five days. For now we say goodbye. Thank you very much to Mark Raymondi for stopping by. Thank you very much to Derek Lewis. Congratulations on his win. Congrats on the new beauty salon.

Thank you very much to Valentina, Bullet, Chefchenko. Good luck to her on Saturday. Thank you to Campbell McLaren. Good luck to him. Combacha returns August 11th. Congrats to Amanda Nunes, becoming new champ. Congrats to James Gala Hur. On his successful debut.

Good stuff, Landon. Vanada, thank you. Lando, Venata, I should say. Thank you very much for stopping by. And always a pleasure to talk to Uri Fabor as well. Rate us on iTunes. Check us out, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, all that good stuff and more. Back next week, same time, place, tell us so many.

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