MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 342

Episode Date: August 9, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Dan Henderson (00:04:12), Chris Weidman (00:37:05), Alistair Overeem (01:05:27), Emil Meek (01:28:40), Mirko Cro Cop (01:47:14), Benson Henderson (02:19:22), NewYorkRic to take your questions (02:49:54 & 03:32:28), and Bubba Jenkins (03:13:34). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Great to have you with us. Hope you had a nice weekend. I did. Thank you very much for asking. A relatively quiet weekend in the world of MMA in terms of news. Of course, there was an event in Salt Lake City, which featured a pretty much.

Pretty solid main event between Jaire Rodriguez and Alex Casares, Rodriguez, improving to 5 and O inside the Octagon. And if you ask me, they need to keep giving him sort of mid-tier fights, showcase him, but continue to build him up. Let him go 12-0. That should be the thing with this guy. He's a big draw. He has a great future, a ton of potential.

Maybe not quite there as far as the contenders are concerned. I know he has a pretty impressive winning streak, but I would build him up rather slowly and keep giving him these kinds of fights. So that happened this weekend in wonderful Salt Lake City. And of note, this coming week, this is a rare UFC buy week. This weekend marks the only weekend in the next two months where there will not be any UFC events. Think about that. August 13th is UFC action-free. August 20th, it's UFC 202, 27th. It's the Foxxie. show in Vancouver. The third, it's Hamburg, the 10th of September, it's Cleveland, 17th is Hidalgo, 24th is Brasilia, October 1st is Portland, October 8th is Manchester. I'm not even reading this. I did that

off the top of my head. Can you believe that? That impressed me. I didn't even plan that. I didn't write that down. There's nothing on my screen right now. Believe me. So yeah, so it's a rare off week, and I think it's good for the UFC that they did this. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but it gives them now two weeks to build up UFC 202. Of course, that is headline by Connor McGregor versus Nate Diaz. They did a conference call on Friday. We will talk about that later on in the show. But it's a good time to really ramp up and focus all of their energy on what is shaping up to be, obviously, the biggest show of the summer for them.

And that is noteworthy and important to bring up because this summer also featured UFC 200. Okay, I love this lineup. I'm so excited for today's show. I can't wait to get into it. Let's run down the lineup and get to our first guest. 405, we're going to be joined by Bubba Jenkins of Bellator fame. He returns to action August 26th, Belator 160. He will be fighting Georgi Karkanian once again, looking to avenge that loss. Bubba's got a lot on his chest, has been wanting to come on this show. I'm looking forward to talking to him. 305, we will talk to you. Answer your questions. Hit us up. As always, the MMA hour on Twitter, leave a question or comment in the comment section below.

245, we will talk to Mirko Krokop. Mirko Krokop, I've been wanting to have him back on the show for quite some time. He will join us at 245 to talk about coming out of retirement, fighting for Risen and their upcoming Openweight Grand Prix, all that stuff and more. 225 will talk to Benson Henderson. He'll be headlining that show on August 26 at the pond in Anaheim against Patricio Pitbull, Pitbull moving up to 155. That card, of course, is Belator 160 as well.

Emil Mech of Norway fame. We'll stop by a 205 to talk about why his UFC debut on September 3rd has been delayed. 145, we're going to talk to Chris Wyden. He's got a lot of interesting things and exciting things going on and also get an update on his neck. And at 125, we'll talk to our good pal, Alster Overeem, who is a little less than a month away from his big UFC heavyweight title fight against Steepam Eochich. But first, let us go to the phone lines and talk to a man that I've been dying to speak to

for the last few weeks. The legendary Dan Henderson is on line one. Dan, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing, Ariel? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for the time today. Wow, so much to talk to you about.

And I kind of want to start in chronological order, if I can. You fight at 199 in June. what an amazing win, what an amazing moment it was when you defeated and knocked out Hector Lombard. And this is my question right off the bat. In the cage, surrounded by your family, on the mic, a little bit emotional, how much did you believe that that was your final fight in the UFC? Was there a great chance in your mind in that moment that that could have been your final fight inside the Octagon? Yeah, absolutely. It all depends on what my options were afterwards.

as far as employment goes, you know, I was ready to kind of have that one to be my last fight, depending on, like I said, what options I'd have. And for whatever reason, you know, the stars aligned and the fans asked for one more fight, I guess. And that's a beautiful way of putting it. The stars aligned. Would you have been content going out like that? Would that have been good? good enough for you? Yeah, absolutely, especially being able to go out with a win, not necessarily on top, but with a win is always nice.

But, you know, to have an opportunity to actually go out on top would be much more desirable, I guess. And when you say on top, you mean as champion, right? Yeah, absolutely. In that moment, you know, right after that fight, as you're talking to the public and everyone's chanting your name, what a beautiful scene it was in Englewood, did you have a new contract offer on the table from the UFC? No, not at all. I hadn't even spoken to them about anything yet. I just kind of wanted to finish my contract up and then, you know, have a talk with Dana about, you know, either representing them and in some capacity outside of the cage. you know, and working for the UFC. That was what I was going to kind of speak with them about,

not necessarily about fighting again. Okay, so how long after that win in early June at 199, do you sit down and talk to Dana about your future? I think it was a couple weeks later. They called me and, you know, wanted me to fight Bisman. So do you not even talk about the role, you know, They call you and say, do you want to fight for the belt? Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't I do that instead?

Of course. My body didn't feel good, but yeah, I'm ready to be done and done training and everything else and focus on family and other things a little bit more. So were you surprised that they came back with this offer? I don't know if I was surprised just because I saw. you know, on my social media and all over the place that how many fans wanted that fight, and, you know, the UFC does listen to the fans sometimes. And it didn't hurt, like I said, that Michael Bisbeng wanted the fight also.

I guess the amazing thing is, like, you've been so honest about this process, even dating back to Tampa Bay when the Machita fight fell out and said you were kind of getting ready to move on, and you were looking for an offer in terms of being some sort of ambassador, etc. And then instead of being offered that, you're offered the ultimate. You're offered a shot to win the UFC belt. That's been the one accomplishment that has eluded your career. So that didn't take you by surprise at all that you're going into this conversation thinking, okay, you know, what are they going to offer me in terms of a job for the future or whatever? And then they come to you with this great, amazing deal that sort of came out of nowhere. That didn't surprise you?

Not a whole lot just because I've been watching on my social media and Bisbing's asking for that fight and I guess the first time they said, well, we're considering it then I was pleasantly surprised and you know, then the offer came and I was more than happy to take him up on their offer. When Bisping won the belt that same night, did you start thinking that as well?

even before the public. There's a photo of you at the press conference sort of looking at him from afar as he's getting up. Are you starting to think, wow, this could be my shot at the belt? You know, this could be it. He won. We have this rivalry. We have this history.

I knocked him out. Did that come across your mind as well? No, not at all. I actually found it amusing because right away, people were, all my friends were texting me. As soon as Bisbon won that I should fight him again, And I was like, no, you know, that wouldn't happen. I didn't think that was a possibility.

And it really didn't enter my mind that I'd have that opportunity. So, you know, at the press conference, I was just amused at him and Luke going back and forth with each other. So it was entertaining. So when you hear your fellow fighters, fellow middleweight, say, you know, how is the 13th rank guy fighting for the bell? there's a part of you that kind of understands where they're coming from, right? Yeah, absolutely, for sure. And that's why I kind of made it clear. I never even asked for this fight.

It was offered, and, of course, I'm going to take it. And, you know, it was more about what the fans were asking for. You know, so it's, like I said, it's something I didn't think was going to happen. And now it's happening. and I'm going to make sure I make the most of it. So did you sign just a one-fight deal now with the UFC? Like, have you signed that new contract? No, there's more than one fight on there,

but I'm only planning on fighting the one time. If you go in there in October, knock them out like you did the first time, you really are going to walk away, you're not going to want to stick around and do a few more as champion? in? No, it's, you know, why?

You know, it's pretty much the last goal that I had said for myself. And, you know, a couple of years ago, as I lost a couple of times here and there and wasn't having the best of luck, you know, I kind of figured that I wouldn't have that opportunity again, but I was still satisfied what I've done with my career and satisfied you know, with myself

with not having that UFC belt you know, but it is the last one that that I don't have. Have you told the UFC that you will retire if you win the belt on October 8th? Are they aware of that?

Yeah, I told yeah, I've told them and I don't think Dana quite believes me, but I've no desire to fight again after this one. Wow, that is amazing. Because you know, like just being around the fight game, it's very rare to see someone go out on top like that. If they win the big one, they're going to try to squeeze in a few more, make some more money, you know, be the man. It's almost, I mean, it's almost, I mean, it's the rarest. It's like the unicorn of combat sports to see someone do that. You are the unicorn of combat sports if you pull this off. You don't think there's going to be something

in your body that says, wow, I just did this to the champ. How about I squeeze in a couple more? Yeah, I don't know, maybe. I'm sure that I'm definitely going to miss the competition, but you have to understand, I've been competing my whole life, and I've been on top more than once and, you know, kept fighting. So, like I said, it'll be nice to have this opportunity to finish in that way. And you mentioned that your body's, you know, obviously a little beat up.

You've been doing this for a very long time. Do you feel like you have one more training camp in you? Because as you know, when guys start talking about retirement, they have a foot out the door, sometimes the motivation isn't there. And I know you don't need motivation to punch bisming in the face or try to win the belt. But do you think that this is going to be the next two months? Is it going to be a bit of a chore? Is it going to be tough for you and just getting your body going?

Well, it's always tough, you know. and I don't know the last, I don't know how many years, it's gotten tougher, and, you know, but it is what it is. I just keep on going, and, yeah, I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to a lot of things with training, and, you know, where I'm lacking, I have somebody to yell at me and get me going. So, you know, I've, you know, made sure that I've focused on certain things, but, no, this isn't going to be any different than the last training camp.

You know, it might be even easier knowing that there's a belt there, and I get to attempt to shut Bisrin's mouth up again. And did you even look around or have a cup of coffee with any other promotions out there, you know, test the waters, so to speak, once you finish that last fight in June? No, but, I mean, they pretty much have a lot of, all made it clear that they want to have that conversation with me. But, you know, it was, those conversations never happened. So I wasn't overly concerned about it. Right. Like I said, I was more concerned about, you know, trying to represent the UFC outside of the Octagon.

If you win the belt on October 8th and walk away, do you think that job, that particular role will be waiting for you? Do you think that ups your chances of getting it? Have you even discussed that with them while, you know, discussing this new fight? No, I didn't get any type of commitment out of them for that, but it's been discussed. So we'll see what happens. I don't think I'm concerned about it, you know, but I would think that they would like to keep me around. Yeah, I would think, especially if you're the champion and go out on top.

And just to be clear, if you weren't offered the, the Bispink fight if you were offered like a Wydeman or a Romero a Rockhole, I know your friends, that probably doesn't happen but is the Bispink fight the only fight that made you want to come back? Any other fight, non-title fight, you're probably not fighting anymore?

Well, with the exception of, you know, if I didn't get offered a job to not fight, then I probably would have you know, entertained the idea of fighting a couple more times. But, you know, I'm pretty much, like I said, done and ready to be done mentally.

You know, and physically, like I said, I think my body could handle another few years. But, you know, I'm ready to kind of move on. But don't get me wrong, I'm going to be extremely motivated to make sure. sure that I do well in this fight. Do you have any idea why they have yet to officially announce the fight or the card, the UFC that is? No, I have no idea. They haven't even given me an exact date or place.

You know, I'm guessing it's just them trying to figure out the logistics of the arena or wherever they're going to have the fight. I think that that must be the hold up. Because usually they, you know, if they know that they have an arena or something locked down and a date, they'll announce things right away. And, you know, especially as much as this has been talked about. And then, you know, Bis being kind of announced it on his own. But I still haven't been told, you know, that it's confirmed for Manchester. Have you signed a contract for it?

Yes, there's been a bad agreement that I sign. So as you mentioned, Michael Bispeng hosts a radio show on Sirius XM. It's called The Countdown. And on Thursday, he announced the fight himself. He said that it is happening in Manchester, October 8th. Other outlets, including this one, reported that the main event will happen at around like 4 or 5 a.m. to accommodate the North American pay-per-view times. How do you feel about that, fighting locally at around 4?

or 5 a.m. Yeah, it's not the best scenario, but I've done it before a couple times. I'm not sure about quite at 4 a.m., but, you know, pretty early in the morning, two and three in the morning. But I just, when I get somewhere like that, I just pretty much try and stay on my same time zone, California time that I came from. and, you know, the fights are always aired at the same time here, so I might as well just try and stay on that time zone

for at least the time that I'm there before the fight. Right. Yeah, I wonder if the media obligations will mess that up, but that certainly seems like the right... Yeah, usually that's the only tough part is having media obligations earlier in the morning where I'm not, you know, where I'm trying to sleep. So Biss being said this about you,

and I just want to get your reaction. This is a quick clip from that announcement of his on his own radio show on Thursday. If you don't mind, I'll play you the 22nd clip and then I just want to get your response, okay? Lining does not strike twice, okay? Struck once in the first time, it will not strike twice. There will be no TRT, no drugs, no steroids, no performance enhancing drugs. Dan Henderson, I challenge you to announce to me at the press conference that you will not take any performance enhancing drugs. that if you sort of show up on any day, any time, they can test you because I think he's going to cheat.

I think he's going to go out there and have some sneaky PEDs because he's going to think, well, screw it. If I get suspended, so what? I'm retiring anyway. So that was courtesy of the countdown on Sirs XM, Michael Bisp being talking about you, Dan Henderson. What's your response to those comments? It just makes me chuckle. Was that you laughing or laughing or the host? I couldn't tell. That was me. Okay.

Yeah, it's, you know, something, and you know that I've been asking for this type of testing for, I don't know how many years now, and they finally did it. And, yeah, I've never tested positive for anything. And, you know, yes, I was taking TRT for a while, but before I even did that, I made sure the Athletic Commission approved it.

And even that, it was a tough consideration, for me and I just took the, you know, the advice of my doctor saying, you know, it would be good for me to get on it. And listen, I was, I didn't have a problem getting off of it and moved on just the same because I was barely taken to me. I wasn't abusing anything like some of these other guys that, you know, have noticeable differences in their body. You know, I looked the same now as when I did when I was on it. You know, I was, I wasn't taken very, much and it was just enough to stay within normal limits. So, you know, and I have no problem doing any type of drug testing, never have any. I'm the only one that's been asking for it

for that kind of testing. You know, I didn't see him asking for that. Does it piss you off at all when he says these things? Like you're trying to avoid it? No, it just, it amuses me and it makes him look ignorant. Uh-huh. What do you think the reception will be like over there in Manchester if it is in Manchester? Yeah, I don't know. I'm pretty sure I have a few fans from the UK that'll be there. Yeah, I don't know how many times I've heard from people that say, you know, I'm from England

and I'm so glad you'd knock him out. I don't like him. He doesn't. He's arrogant. He's this, he's that. And I'm thinking I might have a few fans over there. I'm sure he will have the majority of him. But, yeah, I'm not real worried about it.

I just need to make sure I get the job done inside the cage and not worry about what's going on outside. I know you're looking forward to the fight, but are you a little bit dreading the two-month process of having to go back and forth of him doing the press conference, all that stuff? You went through this on the Ultimate Fighter, USC 100

6 years ago 7 years ago now Is that the worst part of this scenario for you? No, it is what it is It doesn't bother me at all It's, you know

Like I said, it'll make me Chuckle a few extra times And that's about it, you know I don't feed into that very much And it doesn't It doesn't irritate me Or piss me off at all I just kind of get amused

I know what the truth is in myself and and that's pretty much all it matters. I don't really care what Michael thinks. Are you shocked? Honestly, is it like a little bit surreal that Michael Bisping is the UFC champion in 2016?

Does this not compute for you? Yeah, I definitely was shocked that he won the bell and knocked out, you know, Luke Rockhold. it was, I think the whole world was kind of shocked. You know, I was surprised that, because he's not, Michael Business is not known for knocking people out. He's known for, you know, a lot of TKOs, just wearing people out and picking them apart. And, you know, so I was surprised that he won in the way that he did.

Yeah. He seems to take exception with the logo, your logo of the flying, you know, the flying punch when he was out, which was taken from that famous scene. What is your response to that? I don't know if he's more offended that he's not in the logo or I don't know. Like I said, he's not even in there, so why would he get offended? Okay. I think he seems to be upset that you're...

I can add him back in there. Was he ever in there in the early version? No. No, not at all. I mean, I can add a little chalk line version of him. Okay. Two last quick things. What is your message to the other middleweights in your division,

the contenders who have been complaining about you getting this title shot? Is there anything that you would say to them? I don't know. I mean, it's really nothing I can say. It is what it is. And, you know, they can complain to the fans. I didn't ask for this fight. Obviously, when offered, I will absolutely take it.

Sure. Especially knowing it's my life. last fight and, you know, and being that it's my last fight, it really doesn't disrupt anything in the whole scheme of things with, you know, win or lose, they can still have dishing back when I'm done with them. And finally, since that was such a, you know, it was such a memorable finish on such a big stage, is there any pressure to top that, to replicate it, to do something even more spectacular than, you know, the first time that you guys met seven years ago?

No, I mean, there's absolutely nothing I can do to make that a better, a better finish than it was the first time. Yeah, I've known that for years. I mean, there's no way I can do it better than I did the first time. You know, at this point, I'd be happy with any type of win. Not saying I'm not going to be trying to do it again, but, you know, it's, it, it, it, that was hard to be, and that's going to be there forever. I mean, there's nothing that, win or lose that Michael can do to change the fact that that'll be one of the best knockouts ever. Sorry, one last quick one.

Do you think he is better from the time you guys fought seven years ago? Would you say he has improved a lot since then as a fighter? Yeah, I think we all have, you know, the guys that are serious about it, Michael definitely puts in the time of the gym, and you can tell that by his improvements and his conditioning. You know, he's always in shape and ready to go, and he goes out there and fights, and he does a good job doing it,

and he's definitely improved. Okay, fair enough. Appreciate the time, Dan. Thank you so much. Congrats on getting the fight and sticking around for one more, and good luck leading up to it in training camp, and, of course, on October 8. Thank you so much.

no worries thanks ariel all right there he is dan henderson uh what a story this is i mean how how unique is this story uh he is open that's one thing i've always loved about dan as honest as they come when it comes to the state of his career he was honest when talking about you know the contract negotiations uh he was honest when talking about leo and machita back in april um and honest now saying if i win on october eighth and yes they have yet to official announce it. But if I win, I'm going to walk away. What a unique scenario. And it tells you, and by the way, just to dispel one story out there, I mean, he said it himself, he did not ask for it, and I believe that. From all the conversations that I've had, Bisping never asked for it as well.

It's really a UFC idea. And you can understand why it's a money-making idea. And we've talked the ad nauseum about what it means for the belt and what it means for the other contenders. But this was really an idea that the UFC came up with and said, okay, let's capitalize on this. Let's capitalize on Michael Bisping, UFC champion. So this idea, and I've asked him point blank, like, you know, why are you picking a fight as champion with the 13th rank guy? I know you have that history. I know you have that beef.

I know it's very real. I know you've wanted the fight. but is this the right time? And I've been told from Bisp being and his people that, look, this isn't something that we campaigned for or asked for. Of course, they're not going to turn it down. This is what they want. They're going to take it.

But this really was presented to them. This was brought to their attention. And I think that's very important to note. So hopefully that gets officially announced sooner rather than later. October 8th, Manchester. The interesting thing is what kind of a turnout will they have? Because they are, you know, they are going to sell a lot. of tickets in that arena. Important to note that Michael Bisping is from Manchester, so you know that

he is going to sell a lot of tickets, you know that he is going to be a draw, you know a lot of people are going to be interested in seeing him defend the title for the very first time. But are they going to want to stay up till 4 or 5 a.m. to watch the fight live? Forget about on television, I'm talking about in person. Because if the main event is supposed to go down at around 4 or 5 a.m., that means that the main car, the actual card itself is going to start around like 11, something like that, if my math is correct. I mean, forget about the little kids. How are the grown men going to stay up? I suspect that they'll figure out a way. I was in Sweden and Stockholm for that UFC on Fox event headlined by Alexander Gustafsson versus Anthony Johnson. and it wasn't quite 4 a.m.

It was around 2 or 3. If memory serves me correct, that the fight actually happened. And it was pretty packed. It wasn't quite a cell, but there was around 30,000 people there. And the worst part about that one was it ended on such a sour note with Gus of Son getting knocked out brutally by Anthony Johnson. Everyone left in a very depressed state. It was kind of weird.

It would have been better had he won 3, 4 a.m. everyone goes home happy. Now they feel like crap that they stayed up so late and they just saw their hero get caoed. That card is shaping up to be a pretty good one. We reported last week, well, two weeks ago we reported Gaguer Musassi versus Vitor Belfort. Last week we reported Jimmy Manoa versus Ovin Saint-Prue, Rashid, Ruslan, excuse me, Mago Medov versus Stefan Stroove.

I think that there are some others as well. But what an interesting scenario. If Henderson retires after winning the belt, now we have a situation where the belt is vacated. And, you know, maybe that impacts the MSG show. If you've got, you know, if you've got Chris Wyman fighting on that show, potentially against a Luke Rockhold, if you've got YOL Romero fighting on that show. And they do some sort of tournament to crown a new champion or a number one contender.

imagine if Dan Henderson wins the belt. Imagine if Dan Henderson wins the belt vacates the title and then they make, I don't know, Rockhold versus Wydenman at MSG for the new championship, you know, the new champion. That now becomes for the belt. You know, could you imagine something? That would be kind of, I mean, I guess that would add to the allure of that card, but a very unique situation because most guys aren't that honest. about the state of their career and saying that, hey, I'm going to walk away upon winning the

belt, thus vacating the title and leaving this mess of a situation. It's not the worst, but certainly very unique. Makes for a great story. Definitely makes for a great story saying, hey, I'm going to walk away. Win or lose. That is going to be a big part of this promotion that's going to be a big part of, you know, the countdown show, everything, all the interview is going to be talking about this. I mean, when, I can't even recall someone fighting for the belt in MMA in the UFC to be exact and saying, win or lose, I'm walking away. How freaking unique is that? Different. Okay, so in a couple of minutes, I think we're going to be joined by Chris Weidman. Alster Overey, my guess, is playing a little bit hard to get. He's playing

in hard to get. And then everything will go back to normal. So we'll get an update from Chris Wybman on his next situation. Overim, of course, headlining UFC 203 September 10th in Cleveland, Ohio. Wanted to talk to Dan about the Olympics, which kicked off, I guess, in full Saturday, opening ceremonies on Friday, but we ran out of time there. Had I known Overim was going to go MIA on us, I probably would have stretched it a little bit. but they have been enjoyable.

Our own Guillermo Cruz reporting the heck out of them, doing a great job, right? Covering the combat sports and all that. I love the Olympics. I am a sucker for the Olympics. I know that they are very controversial. I know that they are very polarizing. I know a lot of people get all worked up about them and rightfully so. And I do think that over time they need to adjust where they put the Olympics,

how they construct the Olympics, how they decide where it's going to be held, trying to put a fresh coat of paint on some cities that, you know, just aren't equipped to host such, I mean, I come from a city, Montreal, which needed like, I think it was 30 to 35 years to pay off the stadium that they built for the 1976 Olympics, which became somewhat of an albatross, but the citizens of Montreal had to pay in taxes for that stadium well, well after the Olympics came to town. And so this is something that we've seen in many other cities. Stadiums are being built, never used again.

We see this with the World Cup. Interesting that they go back to Rio after the World Cup was just there as well. But if you put all that aside and you just actually watch the games and take them for what they are, these athletes who do not get paid a lot, you know, training, working, dedicating their lives for four years, for sometimes seconds of glory. Walking away with the medal. I always think about what Ronda Rousey had to say about her Olympic experience

and what she was left with afterwards. Of course, she was left with a bronze medal, but not much else. So those thoughts are always in my mind when thinking about the Olympics. But when you're actually sitting down and just watching them, it is a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun, especially when you're someone who happens to work from home as well, because you can have it on in the background, and all of a sudden get into, you know, China versus Croatia ping pong. That stuff's amazing. When would I ever watch that? But for some reason I get into it. I can't get enough.

My only complaint about it is I always find it hard to really know what is going on, what is live, what happened. I mean, I know there's a little bug up there that says that it's live and, you know, if it's not there, I assume that it is taped. but I never know what's coming up, who's racing, who's competing. It's all very confusing. I have Direc TV, and they have a great channel that shows you all the channels, you know, all the Olympic channels, Bravo, USA, NBCSN, NBC, there's a soccer channel, there's a basketball channel.

I have all of those things, but I don't really know what, you know, it's just, it's just all very, it's all very overwhelming. But when I'm actually watching it, and I love the basketball, but I try not to watch the basketball too much because I can see Kevin Durant and, you know, and, you know, Carmelo, Clay Thompson, Boogie Cousins. I could see these people throughout the year. I actually kind of prefer watching the unknown people, the unheralded stars, compete and do their thing and learn more about them.

I don't know. I really enjoy that. So I look forward to it for the next two weeks. I say this, of course, because Dan Henderson competed in the Olympic Games. Daniel Cormier as well, many others. Okay. Let's move along. Since we're talking about the middleweight division,

I think it is apropos that we bring in our next guest, get his thoughts on the situation, get an update on him. He is the former UFC middleweight champion. Recently underwent neck surgery, shooting for a return at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden, November 12th, the UFC's first show. He's done a lot of campaigning, a lot of work to get New York to legalize,

and it is almost here. I believe we have Chris Weidman On line one Chris, are you there? I'm good, man How are you? I'm here. I never actually asked you

if you were good or not. I just said, are you there, but I'm happy to hear that you're good. Well, I couldn't stop thinking about you use the word apropos. I was trying to figure that one out.

So that's why. It's a big one. He threw me off. That's a good one, man. You definitely just checked out on the dictionary recently, huh? Yeah, yeah. So are you at a farm right now? I am at a farm.

What kind of farm? Oh, white post farms. Basically, it's got, you know, got like a petting zoo, got some water slide park stuff, and a bunch of cows and deer and stuff for the kids look at.

Wow. Environment, got some fresh food. Good. So I appreciate you squeezing us in while you're doing this on a Monday. What a life that is to just go out to the farm on a Monday afternoon. By the way,

do you echo my sentiments on the Olympics? I don't know how much you heard of them, but do you enjoy them as well as a wrestler and an athlete your entire life? Do you enjoy watching the Olympics? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Has wrestling started yet?

No, it hasn't, but just, you know, appreciating what... Oh, man, yeah. I think wrestling is, you know, one of the best sports in the world. And I was just in a grocery store. I put a post up, and I was taking all my older food out of the basket, put it in the car.

And next day, note, I'm looking at Jordan Burroughs in the face. He did a, I guess he's sponsored by Chabani, the yoga company. And it's just awesome to see that they're getting some love now. And because they deserve it, those guys are so tough and work so hard. And so absolutely, I'll be watching them and support them. Okay, so let me ask you about your health situation first. You recently underwent neck surgery. You spoke to us right before the neck surgery.

can you tell us which one you opted for? Because at the time you were sort of weighing several options. Yeah, so I went through the most non-invasive one. It was a lamin. Lamin dechitis. I haven't said that word in a while, so I can be wrong on that. But basically it's real non-invasive. They just go through the front of my neck,

and they scoop out the herniation with, like, the special tool. And then they stitch me back up, and they're out of there. It's almost like going into doing a knee-scope. and I woke up doing so much better. My strength was back. I was down until I was doing a push-up before the end. I could get one push-up, and it was a struggle. So right out of surgery, I felt so much better.

And then the pain was finally gone. It was so much pain I was going through for a while there. So I just feel rejuvenated and excited about training again. And as far as limitations now with the neck, with your body, what do you feel like? What can't you do? I could do anything. So six weeks out, I went back to the doctor, and he completely cleared me for everything. So that was about, I guess, three, four weeks ago.

Okay. I've been completely clear to do anything, but I still'm taking it slow. I'm not doing any hard sparring yet. I'm not doing hard wrestling yet, even though I'm allowed to. I just feel like there's no reason to. So I'm focused on drilling and just getting better. Just trying to enjoy it. you mentioned that your goal was to return November 12th and MSG obviously is that still the case

yep yep November 12th will be back no idea we're fighting yet but I'll be there so we just had Dan Henderson on the show and as you know he is getting the next title shot how do you feel about that um I think it's I think it's kind of stupid but I also don't like complaining about something that's already done you know it is what it is and uh because Because it's a done deal, you focus on the facts. And the fact, you know, it's a cool thing for Dan Anderson. He's 46 years old. And he has a chance to retire winning the belt.

So, you know, you've got to be happy for him. You know, I can't complain too much. You know, I was complaining when it mattered because I just didn't think he deserves a shot at all. And to set the precedence for the future of the sport. That is not good. You know, it kind of takes away. from working your way to

final for the title. You know, I can go to his stats and you know, his losses he's had recently and, you know, I just don't think he deserves it. You know, I don't think he could argue that he deserves it, but he's getting it. And so,

you know, all the best for him. He just told us that win or lose, if he wins the belt, he swears, he will retire. He's going to walk away as champion vacate the title, and he sort of understanding. ends why people like you are upset. Like he did not ask for this. He didn't see it coming.

It, you know, it sort of fell in his lap. Do you believe him when he says that he will walk away if he becomes the champion in October? Well, you know what? That would be a gracious way to end his career. I mean, he's one of my favorite fighters of all time, even though I've kind of crushed his last couple of years in what he's, and like his fight that he's lost just because I don't think he deserved a shot of the belt. but he really has accomplished so much in his sport over the years. And for him to end up being a champion and retire that way, it would be amazing.

But I see it hard for him. I still don't 100% believe that's going to happen that way. If he does win, which I think there's a good chance he does. I just think you have to realize when he becomes champion, you have more opportunities. Then you get that your next fight will be, you know, for pay-re-reve-point. And that's when you make the real money. So for him to retire on top and knowing that he can make millions of dollars his next fight

would be hard to actually play out. I can see him, even if he thinks he's going to lose or whatever his body hurts or not, I can't see him turning down a million to a couple million dollar payday. So you actually favor him in the fight? You think he's got a great shot? I think he has a shot. I think he has a great shot. I wouldn't say he's favored to win.

But I'd say he has the same shot he had to knock it out his being as he did the first time. I don't think much has changed. Does it kind of bother you that they would book this fight knowing that he is going to walk away like in short it's like what's the point then you book title fights to crown a champion and have him defend the belt and you know do his thing

if you know that if he's telling you which he has this you being the UFC that he's going to walk away does that does that you feel like that in some way devalues the belt like what this feels more like a prop more than you know an actual championship that you're now going to defend as champion yeah

I agree with you I mean but what are you going to do I'm not going to soak about it. I believe I'm the best in the world, and no matter who I have to fight to prove that, I will. And so that's really my mindset. My mindset has shifted to that, and I'm just sticking with that. Does it still feel surreal that Michael is the champion? I'm sure as the former champion, you sort of still view the belt as yours.

Does it still feel weird to see him with that belt and being called champion, et cetera? He's definitely very weird. It would have been, I mean, there's a chance he's beating Dan Anderson, but I don't think there was much of a chance he's beating anybody else in top five. But he's a chance to win and holding the belts again. So it's definitely surreal to walk around and people ask who the weight who's the champion is in my weight class. I'd say Michael Disney.

It's a little embarrassing. It's the way it goes. Why embarrassing? I just don't honestly man Old Powered hit to him he went out there on short notice and and beat Luke Rockhold and knocked him out of the first

I whole power to him but I just don't think he is the best champion machine you know he's not like I'd never thought he was championship material to be honestly it was far fetched from to get a title shot ever again he happened to be in the right place

right place right time when I got injured and he happened to have an opportunity to step up and fight for the belt and he made it work but before that he was in the UFC for how long he never even fought for the belt. So for now for him to fight for the belt and become champion, I know where it's definitely

a weird thing to soak in. Are you a little bit mad at Luke that he did this? No. I'm not mad at anybody. Okay. Sure, he went out there to win and he lost. Right.

It's the fight game. Yes. So has anyone even reached, like, was there ever a chance that you were going to be the next? Because you brought up a great point when he said that he was going to defend the title first against you, and you were supposed to fight for the belt, all that. Was that ever in discussion at all from your perspective, or were you never in the running? I don't really know, man. I thought I was in the running.

I wasn't hearing much from the UFC. I remember, it's been a weird time, I think, with the UFC, them selling and everything. I wasn't having a communication that I was used to having. with the UFC, things changed a little bit. And so I didn't really know what was going on. I felt like I deserved it. I felt like it would make sense for me to fight the title. You know, rankings, Luke just got knocked out by him, and I'm next in line.

The shot out of the four-time UFC champion. I've only lost once. So I thought it made sense, and I'm in the prime of my career. So I always thought it made sense to give me a shot to get that belt back. You know, you got Bisbing, who's at the end of his career, who just had a, you know, the best win of his career. But it's definitely his time to join around down. And I just think it would have made sense sure

for the belt to come back to my hands. But I'll wait a little bit. Have there been any talks about who you'll fight? I mean, I'm assuming you're going to fight MSG. That's what you want. You've done all that work. It's a natural. Any talks at all about who you might fight?

Nope. I haven't heard of word. I've reached out, haven't heard anything. Huh. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. and I'd like to have the biggest fight I could possibly have at Madison Square Garden and Junior wanted to fight at MSG's.

I would like a fight that everybody's getting excited about and a fight everybody really wants to see. And I don't really know who gives that to me. I think the redemption on Luke Rockhold was probably the biggest in my eyes, and so I think the fight I want. And you have Jacquet, you have Yoramara, you have Yoramara, and you have, and, you have, you have, you know, some of the other old-timers with the big names, and he's silver and other guys with that.

And I don't know. I don't know who it's going to be. Honestly, I'm just kind of putting the UFC hands, whoever they decide to give me to me, but I had to probably take it to be Luke, because, you know, I want that. I think we're the two best in the division, and I would like to fight the best guy,

and especially the guy who beat me, and I want to get that one back. So that's especially in front of, in front of a home crowd in MSG. That would be a great one? And would you be okay with that not being a main event, meaning not a five-round fight? Do you like that?

I'm not a... You know, obviously, when I always visualized me in front of MSG, I was championed and defending my belts and definitely made an event. But things have changed. So I don't expect... I'm not expecting anything. You know, I would love to be the main event.

That's what I was. want to happen, but I don't know what's going to happen. It depends. Okay, so top choices, Luke Rockhold, getting that rematch. There is a chance. Have you thought about this? Talk about turning a negative into a positive. Dan Hendo wins on October 8th. Sticks to his word, walks away, retires, vacates the title. If you're booked against Rockhold, I could see them making you versus Rockhold for the belt right away, right? Yeah.

Yep. So, yeah, I think that would be. be pretty cool. So yeah, that would work out good. So hopefully they make me and Luke, I think that makes perfect sense. So, but I'm wondering who you're rooting for, though, because are you rooting for Hendo so that scenario plays out, or do you, I mean, I think you versus Bisping is a big money fight, you have a history, are you rooting for him to keep the titles that you can get your hands on him? Who will you be rooting for? That doesn't matter. Bisman will run from him as much as he possibly can. And

Dan Hennon could retire. I really don't I really don't want to wish that on anybody. I hope this guy gets killed

or beat. I really don't care either way. Either way, I just got to keep winning and I'll have that strap back

and have these big fights to be away. And just curious, have you told the UFC that you want the Rockhold fight? Like, do you know how they feel

about that? No, I haven't had contact with that. I mean, I texted, I put some texts out there. I haven't heard anything back. I don't know if things have changed, you know, with the new ownership and anything. I really don't know what's going on with the new ownership, to be honest with you.

And what changes have came about? Usually, like, if you were working for a company, a big corporation and you're an employee for them, which I guess we're not really employed. So I guess maybe that's the difference. but if a big corporation came and bought that corporation took it over, usually the new people that came in would probably have a huge meeting with everybody who works for them and said these are new changes. These are the people.

Maybe we want to lay some people off. Maybe we want to bring more people in. This is a new mission statement for the company and how we want to grow it differently. I haven't heard anything. Nothing is nothing. I don't know what the goals for them are. And I don't think anybody knows. I don't know what changes, what doesn't.

So a little bit of a weird time, I think, right now with the U.S. year. Yeah, from what I heard that they did have one of those meetings, the day was announced with the actual employees of ZUFA, but I guess since you guys are independent contractors, you got an email or something, but not much more than that. You've done some work with WME. Maybe you'll be in a good spot. Have you inquired about that?

I can inquire about my inside source. My inside source, the things that are going to come good out of it. I'll just have an inside connections. Can't tell you that. All right. Well, I'm sure. I'm just kidding. I don't think anything comes from that.

It did get you backstage at WWE, though, right? You got to meet John Cena, Seamus. That wasn't through them. That was actually through my Instagram. That was kind of interesting how that played out, but it was cool. What do you mean? That was awesome. I put on my Instagram that I would love to, you know, have my son meet John Tina and this and that.

Like, it would be awesome. But the people I was with who, work at MSG, like, you know, WWE security is really tough right now. It's going to be hard to get backstage. I'm like, it sucks. So I don't ever really use any connections I have for anything for myself, but now it's like an opportunity to really make my kid happy. Yeah.

Which I've never really been in that situation before he's finally at the age where he loves something. And I possibly get up connections to get him to meet these people that he's kind of like obsessed with him right now. So I pulled every string I had within like an hour. And somehow I, I, someone got in touch with my gym manager, like actually my gym

out here and had them call me and then they got me, someone got me backstage, man, but I, it was awesome, man, it was like a dream come true to that. My son meet people, he's like, in love. Yeah. It was really fun, man, it was a great experience. Yeah, you're son, he just got a shame

his haircut. He's, he's that big of a fan? He is. Like literally a year ago, all he did was talk about me. It was perfect. He was talking about me, UFC, but but mainly, It was just his dad is the best and it could beat up everybody. And then he goes to his cousin's house one day and I guess he watched him

WWE and specifically John Tina and he just became up shaft with them. And next day I know he's telling me John Cena could beat me up. And I'm like, no, you're wrong. Like arguing with him. And now I just kind of gave up and realize he likes these people better than me. I got to deal with him to support him. But it's definitely a cool thing. And so your son is like, is he watching Monday Night?

Ronald, you let him stay up to watch that stuff, or do you just do it in doses? No, no, no. He's more, like, on his iPad, YouTubeing. Okay. YouTubeing stuff. Like, I just brought up to WWE

and type of Johnson, and his Royal Vumble matches he watches. It's unbelievable how he remembers all these guys' names. She knows everybody. Yeah, yeah. I have a four-year-old. He doesn't know anything about that stuff. Probably wouldn't show to him, but that's a different story.

You're a better parent than me, I guess. Yeah, I guess, right? Put me down? You want to let your son watch that? No. No? I'm not, I mean, to be honest,

the WWU world. They're not very happy with me the WW world right now, but in general, the more I've grown up, look, WWE is a big part about, you know,

why I do this. Like, I was a WVU fan, wrestling fan, before I was an MMA fan and I think that there's a connection. But the more I learn about the sport and the way they, they conduct themselves backstage

and the injury, I just, I feel a little, I feel a little weird about it. The more I've been exposed to it. Not the sports, sports entertainment. You know what I mean? So would you let your son ever watch it,

or is it just like the certain age? No. Look, if he gets into it, I'm not going to stop him. That'll be incredibly hypocritical. I just don't like what I've seen out of it over the last few years. Gotcha.

So you're not going to be going to a WWE show and introducing him to it through you. If he goes, I'll support him. fun. I will let him enjoy it. My dad used to get so pissed when I used to watch it, and I don't want to do that to him. So I'm not going to go out of my way. I'm just going to let, if he, if he discovers it through his friends, like he's discovered everything else, like Power Rangers or PJ Mask, things like that, all power to him. But I'm not going to be like, hey, let's sit down and watch this because I just, I feel a little, I don't know. But I feel like that's a- Yeah, I hear you. I wouldn't know,

I was not letting my son watch WW in my house. I still don't know if I'm going to let him watch. I still have like a weird thing with it, but it's happening through, like, you know, the iPad and everything like that, and I did bring them to an event, so, um, I asked somebody else who's pretty conservative parents and they don't let their kids watch UFC. And I let my kids watch UFC only because I'm always with them as well as their dad does. And I can explain everything to them and make sure, make it very clear. You can't do this other people. And I just make it very clear. Like, and this doesn't mean that my kids are going to be innocent for the rest of their lives. I, I hope they don't have to do anything to anybody, but so far it's working out.

My daughter is like a little angel when she's six years old, so she's not going to be hitting anybody, but my son can be a problem in a year, too. So I have to be really careful with him. By the way, your son versus Frankie Edgar's son, I saw that on Embedded. Who went? Like right now, if you let them wrestle, real match, who wins? Frankie's son smokes my son. He's like two and a half years older, but they're the same size.

So they look like they're the same age, but my son's four. His son's like six and a half. So it's unfair, but it's great for my son. And I'm so happy because when my son first started, like, kind of met, I would even say he wrestled at this point. Like, he's not like taking classes and he's not taking it serious, but he loves to wrestle, like, with his friends, when friends, when kids come over, his cousins come over,

he just loves to wrestle. You know, we don't take it. It's nothing serious. But Frankie's kid, I think, actually, he takes classes and stuff with Frankie. He's really good, but I was just happy because my son, first started kind of of wrestling around.

If he lost, he would cry and move around and I hated it. And now finally, like, he's on his back and he's still smiling.

I love it like this. The key, I think, for kids, especially at this age, is just have fun. If they're not having fun, you've got to get them out of it

because they're going to end up hating the sport, hating you. I've seen it happen too many times with kids. So, I just, I just,

I just, I'm going to support him with everything you want to do. If you, if he starts something, he has to finish it. But the main thing

is, He has to be having fun. Otherwise, he's out of it. I'm not going to push him in anything. Yeah, yeah. That is beautiful. That's great parenting. Right now, right now at age of four, he loves fighting,

which obviously I love secretly inside. And then he loves wrestling, and I love that as well. And I get super into it because I love it, but I have to be careful because I don't want to show that much passion for him doing it because that could kind of turn him the other way. You can see how much I love it. And then he's going to, you know, go the other way, on that works with relationships.

So there's a fine line with parenting, and you'll never get it right, but you try. We could do a whole interview just on parenting, and I would love it. Maybe just you and I. Yeah. No one else is going to like you. Let me ask you about this before I let you go,

because I don't want to take away more time from your family. You're doing something very cool with Cage Hero, comic book. I'm good, man. Take your time, man. Look at you. Am I boring? No, no, I just, you know, you're at the farm.

What's going on with Kate Chiro? What role are you in with them? Do you have with them? I would say I'm a spokesperson for them. I own it. I'm a part owner of it. And it's real exciting stuff. I wanted to do something a little bit outside of fighting on the business side.

And this felt like it was a part of me having kids. And this is so a case here was like, you know, I started with comic books. But eventually, and it just came out the novel. And it's eventually going to go to my kids. merchandise and, you know, action figures and different things like that. And I think it really could blow up. I think it's a really cool concept. The owners of the Ninja, or the creators of the Ninja Turtles, they're on board with it.

So they endorse this now, and they have all their connections that they have through everything they're done with the Ninja Turtle. So hopefully you could follow suit with what Ninja Turtles did and just continue on that path and be the new generation of Ninja Turtles being K-Jero. so I'm excited about it. So where can people buy? I see them on Amazon. Where can people buy these?

On Amazon? It's actually, so the novels in Barnes & Noble's now. Oh, wow. And all the comic books, I know you definitely get on Amazon. And I believe there's other places, but Amazon's always a good one. Now, are you doing any writing, any illustrations, or you're just promoting them? I'm involved. I'm involved with kind of the direction of the company.

Okay. But more, I'm not, I'm not sticking my nose and then trying to be like a writer for them. But I'll, as this starts developing, it's in the beginning stages, as it starts developing more, I'll definitely have more influence in the direction of it. What about a Chris Wyman character? Hey, man, we'll see. We'll see. Can't disclose anything now.

Really? Wow. That is fun. That is fun. I like that. An All-American character, Chris Wyman. I've always. kind of felt like you were a superhero in many respects.

Now with the bionic neck. Thanks, man. Yeah. You can buy me and you can play with me. It'll be awesome. You'll be in heaven. Well, I don't know about the action figure. I just mean a comic book character.

So you're more into like reading the comic book. I do like comic books. You don't want to play with the action figure. Well, no, no. I like the action figures too, but there is a comic book store next to where I live, and I take my sons there and they seem to like it. So we go from time to time. I show them the pictures.

It's a fun little activity. Oh, so you endorse the comic books with the kids. bring them for that. There's nothing. You're not worried about that. That's good. No, we're looking at Frozen and, uh, you know, Ninja Tour. Frozen? Yeah, Frozen. You know Frozen? Boys? Yeah, boy. Nothing wrong with that. They're nothing wrong with it. They like Frozen. They, they, they, they, they enjoy it. You sing it with them? Of course. Let it go.

Awesome. Let it go. Wait, you and Demi Lovato. Oh, never bothered me anyway. That was me, ladies and gentlemen. That wasn't the radio, they didn't voice over. I was actually You're tight with Demi Lovato who sang that song. Yes, she's great. She's a big MMA fan. She taught me how to sing. Okay.

All right, I think we're good here. What do you got for me? You got it? That's it. And you're going to end it with Frozen? Me singing a song? Can you do something better than that? No, I mean, I think we've covered... Yeah, nothing really to talk about, huh? Well, we've covered it all. We've been talking for more than 20 minutes here. We've covered the next. Well, what are you got any nuggets for me?

You got any nuggets for me? Anything I should know about the me, world? People don't know this, but this is actually how our real conversations go behind the scenes. You call me up, ask me for the scoops. I tell you, why don't you just go to my website and read the scoops, but you want the scoop behind the scoop? I want the scoop before the scoop becomes the scoop that everybody else knows about is the scoop. Yeah, well, I can't. I need the pre-scoop.

I can't broadcast that. Otherwise, I don't feel like a scoop anymore. I can't broadcast that. Okay, Connor or Nate? Who do you got? Nate. Wow. Why?

What do you mean? Are you surprised? Well, I don't know. I'm surprised. I feel like a lot of people are picking Connor now with a full training camp, all this stuff. Yeah, but what do you mean with a full training camp? Nate had no training camp. So, listen, anything could happen.

I'm not saying it's a done deal. But Nate should definitely be the favorite. He won on, what, nine days notice. He was out drinking his videos of that. He wasn't in shape, which is what he relies on is his shape, which actually got him through the fight, even though he didn't have a training camp. So for him to have that much more confidence knowing he is prepared and going to be in the possibly the best year of his life,

I think he's going to give him a huge confidence boost. And as much as you won't see, as much as Connor's mindset seems bulletproof, it's going to be in his head a little bit that Nate's going to be prepared, you know, 100% for him. And I know Connor, obviously, on the other side, Connor is going to have guys coming in, and he's going to be way more prepared as well. but at the end of the day you go into the fight and you did a full training camp

and you're in the best fight at best shape of your life the opponent changes you still you still run the best shape of your life and you're still ready for a fight you know so not as much of the excuses

taking a fire to us I suppose yeah I know I understand where you're coming from okay great insight check out Cage Hero get it on Amazon get it online

get it anywhere you can great product Barnes and nobles buy them out take them out Yeah, go to the actual store and pick it up yourself. Chris is supporting them. They're great people, Ian Parker and those guys.

I support them as well. Chris, great to hear that you're doing well. Enjoy the day with the family. Appreciate the time, and I'll see you at MSG. And feel free to come visit us in studio. It has been a while. We miss you over here. Yeah, man.

Really appreciate you having me on. It's an honor to be on this show. Thank you. I thought that I wasn't big enough to be on this show for a while since you didn't ask me, but to be on here again, just brings me back to my head and makes you feel like I'm in Florida. You're always welcome here, Chris. All right. Thanks, buddy. Have you going. Much love. There he is. Chris Weidman.

There he is. Chris Wydenman stopping by. Okay. I think we have located Alasdair Overeem. Is he around? Is he alive? Is he on the phone? Alistair, are you there? Yo! There he is. You're making me... The last child I've been found. Where have you been? Where did you go? Oh, yeah. I...

I clicked it away quick because I was right in the middle of something. Oh. Okay. Well, it's good to have you. It's good to see you. How have you been? It's good to speak to you, I should say. I was expecting to see you on the Skype. You promised me Skype.

I was going to see your face, and now you're not there. Yeah, my connection is not so good where I'm at. I have two out of five stars. And, yeah, we can try Skype if you want. No, no, it's okay. I'm just happy that you're on. I'm happy we found you. I was getting a little worried.

Listen, I don't turn out my good friends like some other people do. What are you implying? Just joking. Okay, so here we are, Alster. We are a little over just 33 days away, I believe, from your big UFC title fight, finally going down, you versus Stipe Miotich, Cleveland, Ohio, UFC 203. Let me ask you first, you had to do a media day with him

on the day of the Cleveland Cavaliers parade, right? You were there that day, weren't you? Yeah, I was there that day. It was insanity. There was like one and a half million people in that. downtown Cleveland. It was crazy. It was great to be there, enthusiastic fans, grung people in the street. Actually, it was free shootings within one block. I didn't see any of it, but yeah, there was free shootings.

Whoa. It was madness. Did you feel like you were sort of being overshadowed? Like, here you are doing this media day and everyone, understandably so, is talking about the Cavs. Like, do you kind of wish it was a few days later, or did you not mind? No, it was a very nice experience that. I mean, it's a city party. City parties are always crazy. It's always hectic. I was actually happy I was able to experience. Did you go to the

parade? No, no, no, no, no. I just did my appearances. And, you know, other than that, I've been very focused on training. So, you know, I'm not celebrating anything. I walked around through the city a little

bit to grab something to eat. But other than that, I've been very focused on training the last, yeah, the last month, actually, the last last period since actually since the last time and before we last two and a half years have i go back to it so there's not much celebration there's not much um looking around partying it's just work work ethic now okay so so you were with him for the day i'm assuming not he's a kind of quiet guy but what was it like just behind the scenes what was the tension like was it okay were there

any incidents what can you tell us zero incidents we were not to get it that much to be honest I think Steve is a cool guy I mean we didn't really talk that much right yeah we're going to compete against each other and that's a strictly business

but yeah I mean on the other side he's riding on a real high you know he's the hero of Cleveland he's celebrating it he got married he's doing the Vegas thing

he's partying but yeah I got one message that the wolf that is hungry is going to run a little bit faster than the wolves that is chilling on on top of the mountain who has his belly full. And that's a little bit what I'm seeing here. He's, yeah, he's enjoying the life. He's

enjoying the high. But I've been working. After a loss year, I went straight back in the gym, and I'm just working, working, working for that date, which is coming up September 10. That is very good insight. So you've been sort of noticing from afar that he's going through the parades, he's being serenaded, honeymoon, all that stuff. And in the meantime, you're in the gym. So that gives you motivation? Do you kind of view that like, oh, I am here working while he's partying? It definitely gives me confidence, and it definitely builds, yeah, it builds me up. I'm putting in the extra work, and you need to do that as a champion, and I'm doing it.

Wow. And how do you feel about fighting in his hometown? Do you think it's going to be hostile? What do you think it's going to be like? I'm actually very excited about that. Obviously, you know, the whole arena, 99% of the arena, we'll be rooting for SEPA. But, yeah, you know, it is what it is.

And, you know, when I got my hands raised, I mean, I have my fans all over the world, but that moment, the crowd will be a little quiet. I raise my hands. I'm looking forward to that moment. You mentioned going back to the gym training right away, after the Arlovsky fight. That one was a little strange because you were fighting a teammate.

What's it been like coming back to Albuquerque and being with Arlofsky and the rest of the coaches and all that? Well, it's been actually very good. You know, it's good to be back in the gym. I kind of did my trainings at different times, different locations. I would come in at Jackson's late in the evening when we know he was around. So now it's good to be back in the team, but back in the vibe. You know, I miss the team.

It's all all good people there. With Oloskey's a little bit quiet. He, yeah, he's kind of like ignoring me a little bit, not looking at me, not saying anything. But I take that as a good sign. Why a good sign? Yeah, and the coaches, the coaches are just like chills always. I mean, we had spoken out that we would continue

where we left off after the Oloskey fight, and we're doing that just now, and it's just positive positive facts. And so you didn't have any conversations with Andre, like sit down, you know, away from everyone, behind the scenes privately and just sort of clear everything? No, I suggested that, but he didn't want that. And I respect his feelings. It's all good.

Are you bummed out by that, that you can't just move on from the whole thing? Oh, but I am, I have moved on. Okay. I mean, I'm focusing on the next fight, and yeah, if he doesn't want to talk, I doesn't want to train, that's okay by me. I mean, I'm not aligned on him. My career is not relevant to him. Before we had fought, we hardly trained together.

So it's not a big thing to me. Would he have been someone who would have helped you train for Stepe? Because he's fought him, you know, has a similar fighting style. Like, does it, is it unfortunate that you can't use him as a sparring partner? No, not really. Like for the JDS fight, we moved around a little bit. We understand this. I've been training at Jackson's now

will be two years and all we did was we did like baby four rounds sparring. Oh wow. And that entire time. And then and then we moved around maybe two rounds. Okay. So he might be part of Jackson's but he's not

team over him. And of course after the May 8th UxC. Rotterdam, of course he's going to dislike me even more. And you know if you look at all the media stuff he had a problem with me before that but I don't necessarily have problem with him, but it's all good. Good. You know, it's, you don't have to get along, I don't have

to get along with anybody. If it's there, if the chemistry is there, if the flow is there, fine. If it's not there, also fine. See, I'm so sensitive that, um, I would feel the tension and it would bother me and I would try to seek it and squash it. You don't, you, you're able to just block that out. Yeah, of course. That's commendable. Listen, Ariel. Yes. You're in the limelight. I'm in the limelight. I'm a little bit of the I'm like, I think, but you're, you know, you have your exposure. You're like on the media every day. There's people that dislike you.

They're going to say hateful things. They're going to, you know, have attitude. You have to have the ability to not get bothered by that. Otherwise, you're in the wrong business. You've got to quit your job. You got to do something different. Yeah. You're right.

And I kind of like what I'm doing. You like what you're doing? Oh, yeah, for the most part. But you're right. That's great advice. So you're able to put it in a box in the items. care box. My box is pretty big. I don't care. You just put it in there. And yeah, you focus on the good stuff in life, man. There's a lot of good stuff. There's a lot of good people. There's a lot of

positivity of your family. Kids, right? Your dad yourself. Focus on that and you get it back. And if you're the thing too with negative people is if you're going to, if you're going to focus on it, if you're going to acknowledge it, engage it, it becomes more. So to me, the best way to deal of Just ignore it. Just let it be. Man, this is words of wisdom. Some life lessons. Some ream lifelessness. I like it. This is great. I really appreciate that. Thank you, Alster. What about the coaches? Who will be in your corner for this fight? Do you know?

My blood decided that yet. But we're working on it. You working again with Greg and Winkin those guys? Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, okay. We're with all the coaches at the gym and grab great chemistry. We're working hard. Very happy to you to be able to say that the training camp is going excellent. And what about coming off that high in May, in your home country? Would you say up until this point, greatest moment of your career,

what happened that night in early May, winning in front of your people? I mean, it was just amazing watching it and the reception that you got. Is that fair to say, even though you didn't win a title that night or any kind of tournament, was that the greatest night of your fighting career? Yeah. But I don't think you can top. I mean, I've had so many great nights in my career. The K-1 championship was definitely one high.

The Strike Force Championship was a high. Even my first championship that I won in that same arena where I fought versus Oloski, I won my first world title to hold the handle. People probably don't remember that promotion. But at the time, it was kind of like big, kind of like, yeah, like a one-fc. is today. They had a budget to bring in fighters from all over the world. And it was home and it was my first World Championship, light heavyweights. It was super proud.

So, yeah, there's been so many heights. I mean, the K-1 fight versus Bunn versus Peter Arts. Of course, me versus Saki, me versus Taran Spong. These are all killers and we did tremendously good against them. And, yeah, you know, it's another peak now. I think this victory coming up September 10 will be the biggest one. Yeah. But, yeah, and that's also the reason why I've been so dedicated

the last two and a half years that truly dedicated in my life and all my actions into achieving the most, being the best I can be. And I'm very proud of what we've achieved. And not only me, but also the team, the coaches here, the people in Albuquerque, the Spartan partners. We're coming. September 10. Oh yes, I can't wait, a month away.

Now, is it fair? Because you were supposed to get the title shot a few years back. It didn't happen. Is it almost better now because you can appreciate it more? Because you've been through so much, the injuries. You've had ups and downs. You're coming off a high. Do you feel like you're more mature now to the point where, wow, you know, I know how big this is, how hard it is to get here,

what I had to do, what I had to sacrifice? Like, do you feel like you appreciate this journey a little more to the belt? I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. And I also think that, you know, it sometimes you have to take a step back or maybe even two steps back to come back harder. Shows the true character.

And, you know, that's also a little bit life. You know, if you're going to have your downs, you've got to resuffle the deck. But I think that I've proven, you know, if you're willing to work hard, if you're positive, if you surround yourself with good people, you're going to turn out just fine. Yeah, because I know you were pretty close to what, you thought your career was over not that long ago, right? Well, I had an injury. Yeah.

I fought the Bigfoot fight. I went into that fight, but obviously, you know, the whole world was watching, et cetera, et cetera. So I, and the injury was kind of like weird. It was lower back. You know, you can't see anything. You know, I can just walk. I can do everything, but I can't time my own shoelaces. So it's like, it's an injury that, you know, the physical therapist at the time didn't

really know what it was. So it's like a little, little weird thing. And then that fight went like a disaster, lost the fight. But then, yeah, after the injury got a little bit worse, and then I seriously thought, hey, this could be the end of my career, what I'm going to do after my fighting career. So, but, you know, I took hard. I flew back to Holland.

I did my physical therapy with the team there. They're really good. They got acupuncture and oral therapy. They don't have that in the States, but they kind of manipulate your bones and your joints. And I recovered. It was a long road to recovery. It took like six months from pretty severe to like normal.

And it was right exactly on the Travis ride. But yeah, in that period, it was a lot of uncertainty because you think your career is done. And of course you don't want to take surgery because surgery is never good, right, fusing your vertebrates together, this or that. Right. But that's why, yeah, very happy I made that decision back then, go back to Holland, fix my body, rest my body. And basically, after the Travis fight, after that, it was all positive. Around a month ago, we thought, wow, Overeign wins the belt.

His first headle defense could very well be against Brock Leicester, who returned and looked great. Now, obviously, that doesn't look like it's going to happen. If you don't mind me asking, what's your take on this whole Brock Leicester situation? Well, you know, I don't have much information about it And I'm getting my news from the headlines So apparently filled an in-competition test Well, yeah And out of competition, two tests

Okay, in and out, yeah Yeah, I don't know I don't think I'm the right guy to ask Okay, fair enough I think, you know, justice will be served to him He's got to answer to the USADA and to the Nevada Athletic State Commission.

You know, I never thought he would come back in the first place in the Ushy. And, yeah, he made the comeback, and Brandon, he's going to be his last because I definitely don't see him coming back after this, after this, yeah, see-asco. When you were watching that fight, though, did you think, oh, wow, he looks amazing?

This could be my chance to fight him again. Were you thinking that at all? I was thinking that it's been four years that I fought with him Yeah Four and a half And he looked better now Than he did four and a half years ago when we fought Yeah

That was my first initial fights When I saw him I mean he did good He didn't do spectacular But he did good He did good against Mark Because Mark I fought Mark 2 in 2008 Beat him by an arm bar

But that was seriously the strongest guy I ever felt and he was just manhandling him, taking him down at will, and just controlling him. So that was a little bit, yeah, a little bit of surprise. Yeah. And, of course, now we'll see what happens to him. By the way, I wanted to ask you, I know you had a very good relationship with Lorenzo for Tita. Are you sad that he is leaving the company, that he sold the company?

Well, I mean, things happen, right? I had a good relationship with Lorenzo. I think I have a good relationship with Dana, too. Yeah, it's going to be a little bit different, I guess, but it's going to be a mystery for everybody. Nobody really knows how it's going to continue. But, you know, the U.C. has done great business in the past, and there's no reason to wander, to question if they're going to do it in the future. They're going to make that good decisions. And as long as you perform and you do your best, it's all going to be fun.

Yeah, yeah, but I always kind of felt, and maybe I'm wrong, that you and Lorenzo were like, that he was a big fan of yours. he worked very hard to get you in the company. I don't know. I always kind of felt like you were a Lorenzo guy. Maybe I'm wrong. Am I wrong? What makes you think that then? I don't know.

I just kind of felt like he really liked you. He appreciated you. He always spoke very highly of you. He was very excited. When you signed the contract, you were with Lorenzo, right? The initial contract. Yep. I was, I agree with that.

I agree with your thoughts. Oh, all right. Well, it was good to hear. Okay, so let's wrap this. Yeah, you're always doing your thing. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I mean, it's just an observation.

That's all. That's all. No, but, um, okay. Okay. Let's, uh, okay, I know you have to go, so I'll wrap this up. It seems like you don't know what to ask area. Come on. No, I definitely know what to ask.

I was waiting for your response. How do you envision, how do you envision the fight ending on September 10th? Two or three rounds, not round. Two or three rounds. How do you feel about sharing the bill with CM Punk? Are you excited about that? Yeah, I'm curious how he's going to do, of course. But, you know, I think he's him for a hard time.

You're not confident. I don't know who he's matched against, but this is definitely different than pro wrestling, especially in his weight class. He's a welterweight, I believe. Those guys are tough, man. And he's going to experience it, the first end. And you know what the thing is, too?

if he does bad, the whole world is going to be on top of him. If he does good, the next guy will be in line for him, and the next guy is going to just keep on coming. So many good guys in the Walter way. So that's definitely somebody I wouldn't want to be right now. Are you kind of happy he's on the card? Like it gives us a little more attention to the card? Or are you one of those traditional fighters

who doesn't really like the idea that he got into the UFC right away? No, no, no. I love the idea he got into UFC, see, because I love tests, and he is about to test himself. Okay. You know, I'm going to have extra respect for him if he keeps on going. If he wins, even if he loses. If he keeps on going and he wins in the end, I'm going to have extra respect for him.

But now we're going to see what he's made of. Now we're going to see the true character. Because, you know, everybody wants to be a fighter right until they get hit, until they get their front face broken. Yeah. So we're going to see what's going to happen. And then there's going to, you know, all these guys are lined up. They all want to break him.

They all want to break him mentally, physically. And it's not going to be fun for him. He's a hunted prey. Why? Because he's a big name, because he's a big money fight. So he's going to be the hunted. And it's going to be a lot of respect if he's going to be able to hold up and stand his ground and become victorious. And I'll be watching that fight definitely.

And, again, I like people who take challenges. That's how I went into the K-1. went in there, my MMA guy, you go in there, death, and we're going to see what's going to happen. It's either going to be, you know, and to come back on that, I went into K-1, I lost a couple of fights. I remember my first big K-1, was in 2011 in Holland. I fought the A-class. I was not A-class. I was like C-class, maybe, maybe B. And that guy destroyed me with low-kicks.

Oh, my God. And it was like 7,000 people in the arena, that time pretty big. and it was embarrassing because you're getting your ass kicked, you know, mentally too. But at that moment in 2001, nobody ever thought I would win the K-1-9 years later. So it's also about character. It's also about perseverance. And it's a test. And we'll see, we're going to see what happens with the pro-wrestor.

I know this might be a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway, is there going to be a ream leading up to this title fight? I would assume, yes, right? It's got to be. Of course. All right. When's the first one coming out? Well, we're actually discussing with the team right now because it's like a little, there's not been many episodes, right? Yeah.

I was actually just realizing that the other day. We've had like one episode a year. It's like nothing. So we're going to overhaul it. We're going to do more episodes. Okay. And so I can't give you an answer on that right now when the first dream will be. But it's not going to take too long, of course.

In any way, one or two before the fight and then after the fight. I'm going to not pick it up. Okay. Higher pace. Two last quick things. What's the vibe like at the gym with John? Have you been able to train with him? Is he around these days after what happened to him last month?

Yeah. Yeah, he's positive. He's training. You know, he's helped me in my camp. I really like that guy. You know, he's humble. He's nice. I know he has that other side too, but I appreciate it for what he's doing to me.

He's helping me in my camp and being, being, yeah, just being a positive in the gym. Okay. I don't know anything about his case. Can't say anything about that. But he's in the gym and he's training. And he's looking forward to come back. I know that. He's very hungry to come back in the Ockxnut.

And last thing, you know, I asked Tyrone Woodley this question a couple weeks ago before his fight against Robbie Lawler. I love to ask people this before their first UFC title fight. And I'm curious about you considering your road, considering all the belts that you've won, all the high moments you've had in your career. Have you allowed yourself to dream about, to envision what it will feel like

when they put the belt around your waist. Do you think about that sort of thing as you prepare? Do you use that as motivation? No, it's not part of my motivation, but not part of it, but of course you think about those moments sometimes. And, yeah, it gives you butterflies in your stomach. But, you know, you got to,

what I'm mostly doing now is focusing on what I need to do. And that's the workouts, and techniques, techniques, trainings, you know, getting the sparring partner's in, and getting all the details right. I'm very involved in my own training camp. And, of course, you're doing it for that one moment. You envision it.

But don't dream too much because, yeah, there's work to you. Yeah, well said. Great catching up with you, Alster. Thank you very much for the time. Thanks for squeezing us in today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. No problem.

Okay, great to talk to you. I'll talk to you later. Yes. Okay. Take care. See me. Yeah. All right.

There he is, Alster over him. He has to run, and I understand that. We'll speak later. Okay, let's move along. Let's go from one European fighter to another. A few weeks back, we introduced you to Emil Mek. He defeated Hussemaar Paul Harris over in Italy. Well, shortly thereafter, he signed with the UFC.

We were hoping and expecting him to debut on September 3rd in Hamburg, Germany. That is no longer happening. Wanted to talk to him about that and his decision to sign with the UFC, and I believe he is joining us via the magic of Skype right now. So let us welcome in. Valhalla himself. Yeah. Amel Mac.

How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for taking out some time and joining us today. So I think a lot of people are confused by your situation. Can you explain to us why you're not fighting on September 3rd?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, as everybody know and everybody has. been watching the news and everybody's been taking from from everything with you saw that and it's been a big like it's a serious serious organization and it's i never been a part of anything like that and i'm sorry i haven't been in it before but but i haven't so um as the enrollment started happening and uh i delivered a list of all the subsistens i from my knowledge that i put in my body medical, like supplements, like everything. And they had some trouble with some of the medication I have taken.

And they chose to or they asked me to document it with some paperwork. And I started doing it. And then all of a sudden it's a vacationary Norway. and when it's in a vacationary in Norway, it's everything except MMA fighters goes away and it closes down the whole town. So I couldn't get some significant paperwork done and they wanted to have it, of course,

to make the fight happen and for me to compete as a clean athlete. And then I had to have it, to wait. So if this wasn't during the vacation time and you were able to get the paperwork, do you think that you would have remained on that card? Yeah, absolutely. It's like small stuff. Like I have asthma. We use my inhalers. And that's also on the Vavas doping list. And if I can't, like, it's a long story. But it's hard to do it when doctors away. And I tried to call him. He was in a sudden bed in Puerto Rico, you know, like, I'm calling it up.

Hey, I was wondering about, like, maybe you can send me some papers when you're down there. It's hard to do that. Sure. Yeah. Has this been difficult for you? Because when people hear about the USADA stuff and a potential violation, they say, oh, you're a cheater. You know, you're trying to do something. You were caught.

No one really, as you may know, people don't read the articles. People just read the headlines and things like that. So has this been difficult? Have you been getting a lot of that? stuff? Yeah, of course I have like, some people are going to talk shit anyway. And like Ulbreen just said, like you just need to let it go and put it in the I don't care box. So of course, it's a little unfair and especially for in Norway where MMA is such a new sport and everybody has had trouble like, oh, it's just a pure violent sport, it's just street war, it's just whatever it is.

And then, like, the main character from the M.A. like, get a headline with some violation of the antedoping policy. And, of course, that sucks. And I think it's a little unfair, as you say, I haven't done anything wrong. And it's just taking precautions that I'm. that I don't want to why like any rules that I didn't know

wasn't allowed six months ago you know Right Was it your decision to do this Or did a coach or a manager tell you Did the UFC tell you

Who ultimately said You know what It's best that you Don't go ahead with this? Well it was We made an agreement With the UFC Talk to the managers

and of course the UFC also and figured that it was the best since I couldn't get the documentation until around now I guess they're back today and the fight is getting closer

and by respect for my opponent that wants to know who is he's fighting that I don't have to pull out like one week before or you've seen like scandals like that when I just had to pull out real close to a fight and just cancel the whole

stuff and we didn't want that to happen either. Was there a specific thing that you were taking that caused this concern, one or two things? What in particular raised these questions for you? Well, it was my asthma and I had some cortisone shots in my toll. And also I used the IV for, for my fight against Polaris to rehydrate. Yeah.

So even if you did this before, like those things aren't illegal outside of the U.S. I mean, there aren't, you know, PDs or anything like that. Even if you did this before, it's still in your system. You would get flagged. You would get potentially suspended. Wow. Yeah.

Because they don't know when you put it out. No. And that's the problem. So they want me to join the four months. four months period yeah enrollment and I think that's fair I think that's maybe it's something that everybody should do

but you know it's fair I'm just happy they cleaning up the sports it's just sad when it's when it causes problems to people who doesn't cheat and because I got signed up with the fight before I got involved with the USADA So if they would enroll me first and then give me a fight, it would be a lot better.

But, you know, it is what it is. So when do the four months end for you? I think it's like I heard something about early December, like third of September, the December, I think. Okay. So yeah, I think that's it. I haven't, I'm still waiting. I'm still getting, returning my paperwork and everything.

And if I'm lucky and then like everything is in order, maybe I can fight before. at least the four months or if not it's at least a four months period so and um during this period are you getting tested a lot have you been tested a lot um you know i have to put put out we got this what's called this app where we yeah where we had to put in what's it called the usad the updater and I have to put everything yeah everything yeah I do everything wherever I go if I go to the store for more than one hour I had to put it in and if I go yeah if I change the training yeah if I if I change us from my gym for one day I had to change it and if you go to a cabin if I go to like whatever I do then I

then I need to put it in there and it's a little hassle but yeah yeah I think everybody has it the same way. So it's a little violation of privacy, but... Yeah. It's crazy. So even if you go to the store, like if you're going to go out for the day, you have to update that? Yeah. So basically, if I haven't put in where I'm...

If I don't have put anything in, they will expect me to be home. And if they show up at my door and I'm not there within one or two hours, they will flag me like hey you missed a test and uh and yeah it's kind of crazy because it would be a lot easier if you just called me and like hey i'm coming to your house please be home and then i could be home sure but they don't call me unless like they come home to me if i'm not there within two hours they will go to my secondary location which is my gym and they will stand there for two hours and if they don't find me there they will call me and then they will like so So they could just call me and make it a lot easier.

Has this happened? Have they showed up to where you live and you're not there? No. Okay. I've been a good boy. That's good. That is good. So you ultimately decided to sign with the UFC.

Had you known about all of this, these quote unquote hassles, would you have still done it? Are you still at peace with the decision? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, of course. this good thing and the sad thing about the UFC that everybody knows about it and everybody that watches MMA or had remotely any idea what MMA is they watch the UFC and especially in countries like Norway they if you don't if you're not in the UFC then you're nowhere so I can be a champion of the Belator I could be champion of the World Series of fighting or whatever

this and they were just like yeah but he's not in the ufc so so yeah he's not the biggest organization so um so i'm happy that that's well for sure i'm very happy to be with the ufc before signing with the ufc did you talk to some of those other organizations did you get offers from them after the win over paul harris yeah i had some offers from from from from a couple like a run serious of fight thing and uh uh well some other like i think one fc was interested in but but i didn't uh i didn't like you know i didn't want to be an asshole you know i i wanted to decide with you at yeah what do you mean an asshole why an asshole what does that mean oh what does that mean oh like you're like hey do you want my like you want this and then like

yeah maybe oh tell me more about it and then just like don't know after they spent a lot of energy. So, you know, I knew what I wanted. So I just had to, like, well, let's see if I get with the UFC first, and then I get back to you after that. I wouldn't call it an asshole. I would call it negotiating, right? I mean, isn't that just part of the game? Yeah, yeah, of course.

But I don't think, like, I don't see how I should be tempted to do anything else in the UFC. Fair enough. Fair enough. Did Venetor try to get you back since you were their champion? Well, they said, like, the Venetor guys are really, really good guys. And they just tell me, like, told me, like, if you're not getting signed with UFC, then you have to fight for us or then we want you to find for us. And we think that we could provide you with everything you need and so on.

And we're really just happy about me getting signed with UFC. They were just calling me up and said congrats and was just really happy about it. Okay. Well, that's good to hear. Was this big news? Did you have to do a lot of interviews in Norway and explain yourself for a lot of people talking about this when it came out a couple weeks ago? Yeah, absolutely. We had some ugly headlights and headlines and had to explain some of it.

but yeah yeah you know nothing that that to be honest i would expect like more heresy like people just go go ap shit on me but uh i don't know like maybe they do it maybe they do it like behind my back or maybe they're talking sit to each other but not a lot of people have said anything bad against me and and a lot of people are writing me like okay it's just a post phone victory and and keep going, keep going strong, and they feel sorry for me. Of course, I feel really bad about the people that bought tickets for the show and all that stuff that really hurts me.

And I want to go down there and buy everybody up there and be friends with them and have a good time at the fights. But it really hurts me to, like, so many people want to go and see me. And, yeah, you know, I wouldn't say it's my fault. but it's yeah um i was kind of i was just about to ask you that will you still go to the event yeah absolutely oh okay so you are going to hang out with people of course how are you going to tell them where you're going to you're going to tweet i'm here come hang out with me i'll buy you beer yeah something like that wow you're going to buy a lot of people beer even people that didn't

buy tickets to see you are still going to show up yeah but you know they have to be most of them are probably Norwegian sure okay A run a little language test. That's right, yeah. A secret word, a secret question here or there, and then you'll weed out the impostors. Would you say that this is like, how could you describe the mix of emotions here from that win over Paul Harris that got you all this fame to becoming this free agent sort of signing with the UFC, you get your debut, and then it gets pulled away from you?

How can you describe that emotion and how are you still dealing with it? Is it still eating at you? Does it still feel annoying that this has all happened? You know, it's pretty good. I think it's pretty good. But how could you put this? I want to, after the fight, I had like a long training camp for that fight. And I was really, you know, I was ready for a little vacation, just a little of time, you know,

fix my body, get my injury straight and everything like that. And then I just jumped straight back into it. I went to a TV show in Norway and we did, yeah. And then I just jumped straight back into training camp again. And my body didn't really feel so good. So I did all the work. I went twice a day and everything like that. And, you know, I would be ready and everything would be good.

but I needed some rest, and I'm happy I got that. So, yeah, I'm happy I got the rest, but I'm not happy I had to pull out of a fight. So perhaps that's the silver lining. That's the blessing in disguise, right? Yeah, maybe. Maybe it is. Okay. And we'll see. No, I still have my four fights with the UFC, and I still have a contract with them,

and I haven't violated anything. I don't have a suspension. I don't, you know, everything. it's like that and now I can have some time off and you know there's only one time at the year

Norway is beautiful and that's in the summer so it's fun to not just be down in the basement and pushing each other in the face all the day so sure.

It's good. Yeah. Too early to talk about opponent? They haven't mentioned that now, right? I mean, since it's the summer. They haven't mentioned anything. Okay.

I haven't mentioned anything and, you know, if I were to choose it all of a fun to to fight the CM Punk or or Mickey Gall

or someone like that with a lot of hype behind them and no that would be fun I think CM Punk versus Valhalla would be a very good fight

so what you're saying is you want the winner of the UFC 203 bout between Mickey Gall and CM Punk that's what you're saying wow that is big

and you know yeah it's not too big you know you can ask for you can ask for a lot of worse opponents than that I guess

sure You know, like Cowboys Soroni and them in Maya or Brown, all of them would be like super, super good fights for me, but it's a lot to ask coming into like the rooster with no fights in the U.S. But you're thinking big names here. You're not thinking like newcomers. You're thinking the top dogs.

Yeah, but you remember who I beat the last time? That's true. Hussimar Pal Harris. So if they talk to you about a Seroni or whatever, you take that fight. You don't think that you need a tune-up fight or anything like that. No, I don't think so. I feel as long as I can prepare good for a fight, I think I can beat everybody.

And if you don't believe that, if you truly don't believe that in your head, then you're probably in the wrong sports if you think you're just coming up secondhand, like if you write big names. And like in the UFC, you're going to fight tough guys. Like, even if there's a name or not a name, it's going to be a tough and hard fight. And I think that the difference between a good newcomer and a veteran in the UFC is pretty small. And with the right edge and with the right training, I believe that anything is possible. And I believe that with the right preparation and focus, I can beat a lot of guys there.

Great stuff, Emil. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for clearing the air. to catch up with you. Good luck with everything. We'll talk to you soon. Absolutely. All right. There he is. Valhalla himself. Amil Meck, stopping by. Wish him the best. And unfortunate to hear that he will not be making his debut on September 3rd, but looking forward to hopefully him debuting inside the Octagon come around December or January. Okay. Let us move along. So excited, as always, it is always a very special treat. It always feels like a very big

deal, and this time is no different when we have the great Mirko Krokoop on the show. Been wanting to talk to him for quite some time. Of course, you heard the news not that long ago that he is returning to MMA. He is fighting for Risen in their openweight Grand Prix Cubs September. Want to talk to him about that and a whole lot more. Have the honor of being joined by Mirko Krokop right now from Croatia. Mirko, how are you? Hey, Ariel.

Hi, I'm fine. How are you? I'm doing great. It's great to talk to you. Thank you for coming on the show. So it's been a few months since we last spoke. The last time we talked to you, you kind of said goodbye, Temima. You said you were taking a break, that it was time to go.

You had the incident with Usada. And now you're back. Why did you decide to come back? Once a fighter always suffice. Well, I don't know. Listen, I received the call from Japan, from Mr. Takakibara. And as you probably know, he was the owner of pride. and I had a really good relationship with him,

and it was the reason why I decided to return. And plus it would be a tournament, and I like a tournament system in the MMA. And after all, I managed to heal as much as possible all kinds of injuries I had, you know. Of course, some things will stay temporary like it is, you know, and, but I feel good, you know, and I just decided to take the challenge, you know, and more rest that's it.

So when did Sakakibara first reach out to you? Well, first, after my Friday's, we met, what, almost two years ago in Japan, and when I had a fort last time, then we had a dinner. Then we had a dinner together and, uh, we, um, we, we had a dinner together and, uh, we, we, we, He talked me about his plans to start a new organization, et cetera, et cetera. And, of course, he would like to see me there. But at the end of the day, I signed a contract with UFC. Right.

I signed a contract with UFC, and the rest of it is history, right? Right. Sorry. And then after, you know, when you say that you're going to walk away and all that, he reached out to you again to try to get you to come back. Was that an easy conversation, or did he have to convince you a lot to sign with them and, you know, start fighting for Risen. Listen, I'm not, I'm not a child.

You know, nobody has, nobody has to convince me or not, you know. Sure. He just, he just makes me an offer. He asked me if I would like to participate, Rising in the Open Way Grand Prix, and I said I needed, I need some time to think about it. And I talk with my trainers and with my team, and decided to take the challenge.

That's it. That's it. No much philosophy. And at the time, you still had a contract with the UFC, right? So you had to get them to release you? Well, I was released. But it doesn't matter. Listen, I'm trying it anymore, and I just don't want to come all over again.

Do you see the UFC, et cetera? I had a great time in UFC, you know, and I'm really sorry that it happened, it happened, what happened, you know. And even I wasn't guilty at all, but you say that, you said, I decide to do what they did. etc, et cetera, et cetera, but it's behind me. I don't want to go behind, to look behind me and let's watch the future. Fair enough, fair enough. I'm just curious, when we last spoke and you were a little bit emotional about your future and not fighting anymore, deep down inside, did you think that you would come back eventually?

Like, were you mentally prepared to really stop fighting then? No, no, no. When we talked, I was 100% sure. But, you know, people are leaving their coverage, you know, he's coming back again. You know, when you are once a fighter, you always stay a fighter, you know. And I would like to fight as much as possible. But life is something different, you know. Life writes different stories, you know, injuries, you know, and all kinds of things.

Everyone to stop fighting, you know. So far, I made a deal with Risen just for this Grand Prix, you know. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able. to compete again after that. I really don't know. It depends. It depends of my health. It depends on my health.

I don't want to put in danger of my health. But some injuries that I can get in the fight, but it's about the injuries I already have, you know. And I had nine surgeries, and after everything, I have to put ice on my knees, and, you know, to cool them down and et cetera, et cetera. It irritates, you know. but still it makes me happy.

Today was my first training of the last stage of preparation. And now I have six weeks final preparation, and it was madness, you know. And after so many years, I started with 10-minute round. It's really hard. It's really hard. Like in the pride days, the first round is always 10 minutes. And in rising, it will be also 10-minute first round.

So it was so hard, but after training, I was so happy, and I just finished training 20 minutes ago. Wow. And how do you feel, like physically, injury-wise? And like, do you feel pretty good? Physically, I feel good. Staminate is okay because I was training whole summer, you know. And actually, I train all the time. If I'm injured, for example, if I have some injury on the knee and training,

something, other things, that knee doesn't have to be involved, you know, or if I have a fist injury, then I'm doing a lot of jogging, riding bicycle, jumps, whatever, you know. I cannot do anything with my arms, but I can still, you know, maintain my body and condition. When you were back there in Japan a couple weeks ago around Sakakibara, and it kind of felt and looked like pride, were you getting nostalgic? Did you kind of miss?

That whole scene with the Openweight Grand Prix and everything, did it feel like the old days of pride? Yeah, I did. It was so nostalgic, you're right? And I stayed in the same hotel that I was staying during my pride career, and it was really amazing, you know. And it was not just about Sakakibur. It's about other people around him, the same stuff from Pride days, you know, and to see the people again.

And I just felt like, you know, Like I returned 10 years in the past. Wow, that is amazing. Kind of gives me goosebumps that you're able to recreate that whole scene. So the first fight is September 25th, and then if you win that opening round fight, then there's two fights back to back in the end of December, right? There will be three fights. Three fights?

Well, three fights in total. If I keep winning, there will be three fights. Yeah. This will be in September, it will be opening round, and then it will be quarterfinals December 29. And then December 31st will be a semi-final and final. Oh, my gosh. Actually, in three fights, three fights in a two days. How do you feel about that?

Do you think you'll be okay with that? Yeah, I like the Roman system. This will be a little bit different. I never, I was never going through a system like that. One fight and then one day rest because the key will be to stay out of injury, you know? Yeah.

If I, if I, it's much, it would be much easier to do a three fight in one night. Because after the fight, if you hurt, for example, your foot, your knee, whatever, your fist, it's okay, three, four hours,

as long as adrenaline works, you don't feel nothing, you know. But after five, six, ten, 12, or 24 hours, you will feel pain, you know. So the key is, key for the victory will be to stay out of the injury in the first fight.

Wow. That is a real fighter right there. So you say that you actually prefer fighting multiple times on the same night because the adrenaline helps you forget about the injuries. Yeah, of course. I would like to do three fights in one night. That is the best. And it takes a lot of strength, a lot of concentration,

a lot of everything, believe me. It's very hard. It's very hard to go outside. fight three times in, let's say, about three hours. Have they talked to you about who your opening round opponent will be yet? I don't know yet. I'm expecting every day my opponent to be confirmed. Every day. It should be confirmed already, but they asked me to wait a few more days. Any names that they've been mentioning to you? Any sort of hints as to who it might be?

Yeah, they mention a few names, but I don't know. There is no sense to mention anyone particularly, I don't know who will be opponents when they decide who appoints, but it won't be federal. If you think about federal, it won't be federal. There was a poster poster made with Fedders in mine and my

face on the poster. It says, it's a rising, opening around 25th September, but it's just kind of commercial, you know. And I'm not sure if Fedor will be, I don't think actually Federer will participate to the tournament

Would you like that he participates? Do you want the opportunity to fight him? Of course I would like. Of course I would like, but I don't think he'll participate. Did you ask? That's my opinion, man. I don't know what can happen. I don't ask, nobody told me nothing, but I don't think he'll participate tournament.

How do you feel about Vanderlae Silva getting a buy? Do you think that you should have gotten a buy or do you not want to buy? He doesn't have to fight on September 25th. He got a buy in the first. round. It's because of his injury. He has some car accident, and he cannot, he can't prepare himself for a fight in September. Oh, okay, okay, okay.

But as a legend of the sport, and he'll get a ticket direct to the final. You had a chance. I saw you were next to Gabby Garcia. What do you think of her? She's very nice person, now. Very nice person. amazing, amazing groundwork, multiple world jiu-jitsu champion. A very nice person.

You know, very nice person. And she's a very nice person, you know. She's a big, strong, you know, but very nice, very nice. The best part about that whole weekend of you being in Japan was that video of you, I believe, in the airport, playing Pokemon Go. I love this video. Are you a big fan of Pokemon Go? No, it was a joke. It was a joke. Really?

That breaks my heart. Yeah, yeah. So you guys... Yeah, really? We were waiting on the airport for our plane to Japan, you know. And then I read on my iPhone some article that some girl was hit by a car on the highway. Because she wasn't true. She just ran through the highway looking for Pokemon.

I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe in me and my friend, Steve, my coach. And I said, Steve, I take a phone and record me. I mean, I was joking, you know, but I thought the people really realized that I'm joking, but some people saw that I was so serious. I was searching Pokemon. People loved it. We wrote an article on our own website about you playing Pokemon, and quite frankly,

I don't play it. I don't understand it, but I thought it was so funny that you were playing it. I couldn't really picture you being into it. I wasn't playing, but I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling, you know, for people who are playing it, who like that game, you know, but it was just a joke, you know. It was just a joke from my side. Wow, that is amazing.

Do you recall when you started to get that itch, that feeling, I want to come back, I want to keep fighting, do you recall when that happened? Excuse me, what, you know, I didn't understand. Well, you know, again, when we last spoke, you said, okay, you're pretty much done. was there a point where you started to feel like I'm getting bored, I want to fight, I have more in me, I'm getting that adrenaline,

I want to keep going, like, do you remember when that happened? Not special, not special. Until that call, in the meantime, in the meantime, I received multiple calls from different organizations to participate on their events, and I turned them down. I turned them down, and I just didn't want, I just didn't want to go and fight anywhere.

And since Stagia for pride days, and since everything will be the same except the name because pride was sold. And so they cannot use pride names. But I was thinking, you know, and fight again inside Tamasupra Arena and feel that atmosphere. And who can pay that? Who can pay that? It makes me happy. Some people don't understand.

Some people, believe me, some people don't understand. And I don't expect them to understand, not because they are stupid, because it's just because they had never feel that kind of experience I did, you know, and for me that is something special. That is something special.

Satama Super Arena is where I feel happy, excited, you know, and it makes me happy. Some people will never understand that because, and I understand, MMA is brutal. Some people, some people commentated that I'm desperate

for the money. The money, The money was on the last, last, last, last, last, money was the last reason why I took, why I took the challenge. And it will be hard, you know, and I will do my best to prepare,

well, and I will do, I'm going there to win the tournament. If I don't believe I can win the tournament, I will never go there. Will I win the tournament? I don't know. Competition will be hard.

There will be, there will be young lions, excellent fighters, but I will definitely do my best, believe me, I will do my best, and I will be in, I will definitely be in the best possible shape.

And after that, everything is in a guard's hand. But I will do my best, and it makes me happy. It makes me happy. Whatever some people will think about it, you know, it makes me happy. It makes me happy. And plus, plus on top of everything, on top of everything, to be completely honest, I wasn't, I was so depressed and I was so happy, you know, to go. away at the end. Even I was, I'm 42, you know, it's normal time to go to retirement and

but I train every day. My body is in a really good shape. It's a really good shape. And the whole thing that happened with you said, you know, it just, it just, it just didn't, it just shouldn't suppose to happen, you know. It just shouldn't supposed to happen, you know. I could be warned, or I could be at the end of the day suspended a few months, six months, or whatever, you know. And but when your tests come

comes completely negative and you suspend that person for two years, same sentence like some other fighters who was, who was caught after the fight, so they did the fight

under doping, under doping, under prohibited substance that was found in their body. and we get the same sentence. Is it, is it, is it justice? Do you call it justice, Ariel? No, no.

Can you imagine that, can you imagine that two of us we met in the prison and asked you, what did you do? And he said, I slept a guy. Ah, what was the sentence? Two, three years. And what did you do? I kill a guy with a gun. And I get the same sentence.

Is it justice? Is that justice? No. is the justice and the way they treated me, you know, and I just fell bad, you know. I'm trying, asking, asking, asking a fighter that, offering a fighter that he will be, that the stranger will be reduced, pull over, whatever. If, if I snitch someone, I mean, it's below, it's, it's, it's, that's how I see it. That's how I see it. If I'm guilty, punish me, but don't, don't, don't come with that.

of offense, you know. And if you punish me for being completely negative, which means I didn't use any prohibitive substance, you cannot give me the same sentence for the people who did their fight. People who did, I don't want to mention any particular means, but in the last few months, there was some cases, some famous names. They were caught after the fight. So they put the money in their pocket. They fought, they earned. They earned the money, and they get the same sentence like it. Like I did. I mean, it's not fair.

It's not fair, but let's not talk about it anymore. I just had to mention it. I mean, from my point of view, that's not just... From my point of view, that's not just... Is that part of the reason why you don't want to stop fighting? Like, you couldn't end this way? You're going to use that as motivation? Because you were very emotional.

Well, if I didn't get... If I didn't get the call from Risen, I would stay retired. Believe, I would stay retired. Even I have, and I just want to thank everyone who called me and offered me a fight, and I just didn't want to go to a fight. But since Japan is Japan, that's my second homeland. And, of course, there was always, you said there was always small reason, you know. It was a small reason, you know.

It shouldn't. I haven't had such a rich career, and it shouldn't end that way, you know, especially when I did nothing wrong, you know. I didn't nothing wrong. And at the end of the day, who cares, you know, it's behind me. I don't want to break my head with that anymore, and what happened happened. It's behind me now. I will participate in the Rising Grand Prix, and I'm sorry, you know,

and I could, maybe I could even even be ready. Maybe I could in the Zahar. The U.S.C. came first time in Croatia, you know. Maybe I would, maybe I would even participate if they would, if they didn't give me two years sentence. I mean, there is no sense, you know, for the, for, but anyway, anyway, I had a really, really good time in U.S.C. and I wish them all the best, and they treated me well.

They was correct. I know the day to me, but my destiny is now to go in Japan and to do my best, you know. I will really try to win the tournament and I will try to get my body in the best possible shape. But what happened, you know, what happened. When we last spoke, it was end of November, November 30th, to be exact. The last, you know, the few months afterwards, before you got the call from Sakhaakibara, what were you doing, like on a daily basis, how are you spending your days? I was taking care, most likely I was taking care for the injuries, you know?

Okay. I was going every day for some kind of therapies, you know. In the meantime, once a day I was doing running, a lot of stretching, and I was doing some exercise. I never did before, you know, like plank exercise, you know, to stabilize my core and to get rid of the pain in the back, et cetera, et cetera, you know. know, and I did different kind of training, and nothing special, nothing special, you know. And I didn't start working something else.

At the end of the day, there is no need for that, you know. And I made some smart investments during my career, and my life is killed, you know, and I'm going to fight again just because I like it, and it makes me happy. Even my family is unhappy, of course. they are happy my mother and my wife

you know but they are keeping their mouth shut but I can see they are not happy you know they were so happy when I decided to quit but now they are getting upset again you know I understand you know this is violent sport and anyone can get injured

can get injured you know can get serious injury but I will prevent that with the hard preparation and explain that that is my passion and I'm professional and I will definitely be in a good shape and I will

decrease the risk to the minimum of getting any kind of injuries. Is it fair to say that you were getting bored that it was like a little depressing not having a fight to prepare for or not having a training camp? Did you miss that sort of thing? That's a huge stress for everyone

for every fighter who has such a long career. I had a first fight, first professional fight in 1996. So it's 20 years in Japan and K-1. So it's 20 years of Korea. And the feeling is, how should I describe? The same thing like people who spend 20, 30 or 40 years in prison. And then one day they release him.

And they don't know how to function in the normal society. They just don't want to go outside. They just don't want to stay in the prison. Even prison is prison, you know. But for them, it's their home, you know. The only home they know, you know, when you spend 30 or 40 years in the prison, it's strange, you know. You remember the legendary movie. I think it's Shoshank Reditation.

Yeah. Shawshank Redemption. Yeah. Yeah. And with the guy is coming out and. He hanged himself, you know, because he didn't know how to survive in a normal life. I mean, it's not such a critical case with me, of course, but you feel strange, you know. You're doing something for 20 years and now you're supposed to stop.

Okay, you can train every day, but there is no traveling around. There is no that adrenaline. There is no that stress, whatever counts with the fights, you know. It was a little bit strange. It was a little bit strange for me here. Wow. What a comparison. I actually just rewatched that movie a week or so ago, and I remember that scene very well when he hangs himself.

He doesn't know how to live in society. You didn't get to that point, right? I mean, it wasn't that bad for you, right? No, I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad. Don't worry. Okay, good to hear.

But the most important thing, it makes me happy, you know. And some people, is it most. of the people or not. It doesn't matter. Makes no difference. People don't get it, you know. People who never try this, they don't get it. But I spent 20 years in one regime

to train it two times a day, traveling every two, three months traveling for the flight, having a camp training, you know. No matter how hard it is, it is very hard. It is very hard. Two trainings a day and I had a disgusting, disgustingly hard training tonight. Wow.

Two people were changing on me and we are doing pets first try, 10 minute rounds. and then two five-minute rounds and then grappling then all kind of cardio things etc. This morning it was running on a treadmill stretching, repeating the high kicks

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But at the end of the day who can pay it, I feel excellent, I feel happy and that's most important thing. That's my life and then at the end of the day I bring decisions for myself, right? That is a beautiful thing. I like that.

The last thing for you, Mirko, So is it fair to say that Risen is your last stop? Like you're not going to fight anywhere else after this run in Risen? No, I made a deal for this, for this Risen Openweight Grand Prix and I don't know. I don't know. Really, I don't know, because it is getting harder and harder for me to prepare. Not because I'm 42, but I don't feel old at all, you know,

because my cardio is excellent. Everything is good. I went through so many testing now before these preparations, and everything is really good. My recovering, there are two things that you need to pay attention, you know, when the fighter or a sportsman is old. First thing is when you are not able to recover between two trainings. Recovery is slower and slower and slower.

There's a normal process. Some people are finished in 32, 33, 30. some people can manage to extend it to 45 46 remember Randy Couture for example remember Dan Henderson you know and they're

extraordinary extraordinary fighters you know and they they manage to extend they they fighting fighting life period you know and but I feel really good

but the problem is those injuries I had you know and after every hard training had some kind of a liquid inside my knee. Nothing serious, nothing serious, you know, but I need to put ice every time after jogging

or every, every morning, every evening, and it makes you, it makes you depressed, you know, it makes you depressed, sometimes it hurts, but the good thing is, the good thing with this injury, you know, sometimes it hurts when I'm laying in the bed and I just feel some vibration in that knee. But the best thing, best of all, is that I feel, I feel nothing.

I feel no pain when I train. That's good thing, you know. In the training, I feel nothing. I feel really good. And that's the best thing. That's why I like to spend as much time in the gym as possible. When I train, I don't know how to explain it. When I do kicking, boxing, grappling, I feel nothing.

But sometimes when I'm sitting, especially when I drive a car, longer than 50, 15, 20 minutes, then I feel pain in my knee. but I can train three hours and I feel nothing. Well, this is great news. And so training still makes me happy and I can't wait for the next fight. And that's it. That's it. I hope that I explained everything.

But of course, there will be people who don't get it, you know, who don't get it. This is my life. This makes me happy and they don't get it at the time aware of all kinds of risk. but I will decrease that risk of course with the hard trainings and so we'll see what happened and I would be the happiest man

on the planet if I would be able to win the tournament and one more once more I don't know if I will win the tournament if it will be hard competition but definitely I will do my best I will do my best and one more thing

two years ago I watched he's one of my favorite heavyweight boxers really big ball yeah and uh he had a fight in Thailand in uh

in Thai box I don't know have you seen that fight um I don't think so he was doing he was doing he was doing to Thai box Thai box and

he was he looked awful you know fat old and uh he fought it some 25 26 years I think it was a Russian young Russian

guy. He kicked his ass so badly, it was really hard, it was really hard to watch. The guy destroyed him with low kicks. And Riddick didn't know actually how to block it, you know, he destroyed his low kicks. He fell down,

he was going on the ground, I think, four or five times. It was really hard to watch because he's a boxing legend, you know, and I remember his fight with Ivander Holofield. I think that's one of the best heavyweights It's a bad heavyweight fighter fights ever, you know.

And that is said, I just mentioned his case because I would never let myself to get in that kind of situation, you know. Never, never. So it means most likely the money was the reason that that's obvious, right? Who would go in such a terrible shape? And you are aware that somebody is going to kick your ass. If I don't believe that I can win the tournament, I would never go there. They can offer me, I don't know how much money. Money, there isn't such money that is worth that is worth that I, that I, that I spit in a way on my career and on my reputation and on my achievement in this post, you know.

Of course, there is no guarantee that you will win the fight, but I will definitely never come in the fight out of shape, fat, and completely dead. That's out of the question. That's out of the question. As long as I can prepare myself to fight on a high level, that's okay. That's okay. And I'm reasonable enough. I'm reasonable enough and I'm aware of everything,

but I'm telling you, I'm training really serious, training hard, and that's most important. Well, Mirko, this warms my heart. I'm so happy to hear that you're in such good spirits. It was tough to listen to you last time on the show. But this is a great story, and I wish you the best, and I really appreciate you coming on and doing this interview with us. I know you don't love to do a lot of interviews,

so this means a lot. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you on September 25th. We will be watching, and hopefully we'll talk to you after you win the whole damn thing. Good luck to you, my friend. Okay, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. There he is. The legend, Mirko Krocop. Amazing stuff from him, and what a difference. from seven months ago or eight months ago, nine months ago when we last spoke to him. Let's move along. He's been very patient. Appreciate his patience very much.

Benson Henderson is waiting for us on line number one. Benson, are you there? I'm here with somebody. I apologize for the delay. Miracle had a lot of you wanted to get off his chest. No worry. Don't need to apologize. I'm going after a legend in Bearcrow, Corrop.

I'm a patient man. Patience is a virtue. So when waiting for a guy like that, and take your time. Thank you. It's kind of fascinating to hear him speak about the end of the road

and not wanting to embarrass himself, especially when you consider how you've dealt with your career and saying, at a certain age, I want to stop and things. I don't know about you, but as a fight fan,

I found that to be fast, just the way his mind was working. You know what I mean? Yeah, I've been left enough to talk to him a few times. We've talked to him and I about, you know, coming towards the end of a career

and then you can you occur longer and making sure you do the right things take care of your body. And Merckham was very correct. And when he talks about like, with the science of sports, with the science of plates for a longer period of times, we're learning how to take care of our bodies into a longer, you know, longer periods. People are living longer. People are learning to eat healthier and all the little tiny, tiny small things that you can do to take care your body knowing to take care of your body from a younger age. Don't wait until you're 35 and then start taking your body, but taking care of your body when you're 23, 24, 25, knowing that he might,

if you do it correctly, you could have a nice, long, good career into your 40s or so. So, like, knowing all that, keeping everything in perspective, like, Merco was a super intelligent individual. The reason why he held a seat on his, in his national government, he's very aware and knows what he's talking about. sometimes I think we you know obviously speaking English sometimes some things are lost in translation or we don't realize how smart an individual is but he's super smart individual if you talk him in his native language like he can go on in even more super detailed depth but his English

is good enough more than good enough that he can explain to something in English also but sometimes you don't really fully understand how smart the dude is okay so let's talk about you you return August 26th, you're fighting Patricia Pipple, who's typically a 145er. This is happening at 155. It has been said that a title shot, I guess, could be at stake here. Were you surprised when you were told that it was Patricia Pipple, who's typically a 145er, former challenger there, that he would be your next opponent and not one of the usual suspects at 155?

I was a little bit surprised. But then when I heard their reasoning, they said I could fight Chandler or Tom. Thompson next. I said, of course, you know, Chanma, I always want to fight for a belt, so Chanler has a belt. Let's go get after him. Actually, this was right before,

right when Chen was scheduled to fight, you know, for the open belt in the raft for a draft team. Like, okay, well, he's the guy, you want to fight him next, but then he had a broken hand from his fight, so he was going to take a little while.

He's going to be out. Thompson has concussion problems, concussion symptoms from his training partners. And you guys know me. Like, I want to fight. I want to say busy. I want to say actor or I want to see after it. Like, oh, well, you can fight or you can wait until the challenge gets better and heals his hand.

I'm like, come on, man. You know the question. You know, the answer to that question. I want to fight. Put me in there. Give me against somebody. You got to find somebody. Do something, guys.

I want to say busy. I want to stay active. And so they took out Petrucio's name. I think he had a little bit of reluctance saying yes to the fight. But eventually, he said yes. And I agreed to it. And there you go. My next opponent, you know, they're building as a super fight, you know,

a lot of times you wish guys could fight from this week class or that way class or this organization. So, you know, you get a former, you know, 45, you myself, a former 155-pound champion. And you're going to see two guys throw down who have a lot left approved. You know, both of us feel we have a lot less approved, a lot left in our tanks. And you're going to see it, you know, August 26. So this is my first time talking to you since your debut back in April. And so I'm wondering, in hindsight, obviously didn't go your way. Was that all Koreshkov or did the new cage, new surrounding, just the experience? Was it all a little too much? Like, did you put too much on your plate, moving up,

fighting for the belt in your debut, the hoopla surrounding your signing, you know, the media, all that stuff, new cage, new surrounding, new organization? Was it all just a little too much in hindsight? I think for sure you could say that there was a lot. Like, played into the factor. I don't make excuses. I lost. I got my butt kicked. Andre threw me a whipping.

I'm mad enough to accept it to take it and move on and get better from it, grow from me, you know. But, yeah, he whooped my butt. But, you know, I wouldn't say it was just, you know, any excuses of this happened and that happened and this happened. And, you know, like the bellator case jitters first time, you know, in a new organization, you know, this and that. whatever, you know, wherever the case may be, on top of all that, you know, of course, he was really good. He had a great game plan. He executed very well.

Just plain kick my butt. So a guy, you got the head off to him. He did a great job. All of that being said, when I fight him again tomorrow, five rounds, absolutely absolutely. No problem. No hesitation on my part. I felt he was a better man that night,

and he definitely did what he needed to do to his handraise. But could I beat him, you know, tomorrow? tomorrow tonight, five rounds, for sure. No problem. Let's do it. But that's not the route. For me, it's going to be $1.55 and getting a belt that way class. Are you done with $170 for now? I would not say done.

I think there are some really actually super intriguing matchups at $170. Some of the VPs of Bells are throwing some names out there. I'm sure you can think of some names yourself who they might be thrown around on the cast. It's really interesting. I would be okay with that fight, you know, not for a belt,

but some interesting matchups, and that's the reason why they sign me. They sign me, Bells are fine me. They're paying me a whole lot of money because, you know, I have a good name, and I put on exciting fights,

and I am willing to, I'm open to, going to $1.75, wherever the most interesting fight is, you know, give the fans a great showcase. So, you know, that's what they sign me for,

where they sign me for big fights. I got to deliver on my end. considering you had been with Zufa for so long, what was it like just going through a new system, new employees, new people, new staff? You know, when you left, you made a point to thank all the behind-the-scenes staff, which was a very classy move. Now, all these new faces, I would imagine it kind of felt like the first day at school when you were, you know, a youngster.

Oh, for sure. Was it weird? Yeah, for sure. How would you describe it? Definitely weird. Definitely, definitely different, you know, I try not to, I wanted to, you know, give everybody their due time and not just say, oh, man, that's wrong. do things that way.

You're not supposed to do A then B and C. You're supposed to do C, then B, then A. I want to give it time and, you know, see how they operate, you know, behind the scenes. And it's just super different. It is a lot different than the way Zupa does things, not bad or good or worse or anything, just different. And my first time, you know, being a main event in Bellator,

she knows how they do this, how they do that. I was like, huh, that's different. I didn't know you guys did that. Oh, that's weird. different. You know, my second time, for sure, having that experience, knowing what to expect, knowing what data show up on, and who's there, and knowing the names and all that stuff, I think for sure I'll be a lot more comfortable going into this second bell to refine.

How about the circle cage as opposed to the eight-sided octagon? Did that mess you up at all? I'm going to have to say circle cage, eight-sided octagon, no difference. Okay. Yeah, cage around you, just cage around you. I was running quite a bit. And the last one against Andre, so no, no, no, no, a whole lot of big difference. Would you say that was the most frustrating night of your athletic career?

No, no, for sure. The most frustrating night of my athletic career was my junior year in college. Presby and at Dan of college, I couldn't make it to the national finals. I lost because I looked at the freaking clock. Oh. Seven seconds left. I got inside, inside leg trip by Kid Name Jake Diffenbach. Oh, I was so mad.

I went backstage and I tore apart one of the rooms, tore down the TV from the mount, smashed the mirror, like very out of character for myself. You know, I'm more composed now. I'm older and stuff, but I was very upset that night. For sure, like Andre beat me up. I was sad about that. I wasn't happy. but you know a bobbled and a bubble and you got to learn from it you got to grow from it

sadly at this point my career I've had a few tough losses losses I did a sudden agree with but you know judges gave to this guy or this guy got his hand raised whatever it happens you know so I'm okay with taking losses and taking on the chin and manning up and moving forward you know that's no problem in life you know you need to have that quality you have to be able to do that if you lose and then you know you're undefeated champion you're a the best ever and you're the greatest, and you end up getting your naked joked, and then you lose and you fold, and you lose pre-ball in a row, that's not good, and you don't want to do that.

You've got to prove your championship medal. You've got to prove your character who you are deep down and bounce back. You can't have three losses of the road. That's not good. You can't lose some girl, and then that's the end of your career, and you fade away from M. And you never fight again, you never do this, out of that.

But I'll prove your champion. All seven times, get up eight. Is it fair? You know, I remember talking to you in studio before the fight, and you said you didn't know much about Koreshkov. And I know the way you handle your career and the way you handle the upcoming fights, but is it fair to say that you were,

I don't know what's the best word, like, and I hope you don't take this in a negative way, like a bit arrogant, like thinking like, oh, I'm the UFC guy, I'm going to smoke this guy, he's not on my love. Like, did you take him lightly? Andre? Yeah. No, for sure not.

I don't take any of my opponents slightly. Okay. I don't care who I paid off against. I could be doing a local Arizona State tournament, you know. You know, Joe, you know, just some guy Joe down the street

who, you know, works a 40-hour work week in the Judiciary Tournament. I'm not taking him lightly. That's not how I am as a person. It's not how I compete. I know for me, whoever I compete against, especially on that high of a stage doesn't matter who I go against.

They were going to bring their best, they're going to try and beat me up bad. Andre, I knew he was tough. I knew he was good. I didn't know much about him, but I was ignorant more than being arrogant. I just said I didn't. I was not aware of him. I did not know how good he was. I take everybody.

I don't know who I compete against him. I was that freaking, not the local YMCA. It's like an aquatic center, but local YMCA down the street the other day. I didn't pick a basketball with some kids. I took those kids very seriously too. They were surprised by my bracity a little bit. Did they whip you? They got their hands raised at the end of the game.

I would say it was more because of my, you know, that's all the team sport. It's hard. You can't do it all yourself. That's right. Most kids are freaking high school all-stars, and they were, don't know, and stuff was like, oh, you tall bastards. Did they know who you were? Yeah, they knew who I was.

They, you know, a lot of respect. The kids are super nice. High school kids, you know, they're cool. Took pictures with me after and whatnot. Yeah, but they knew what I was. That is hilarious. I wish I had footage of that. And thus, once again, confirming my suspicions that you ain't got game.

Oh, I wouldn't say that. I'd say that you still wouldn't want to seem to court aerial. Okay. No offense, but I know your game now. I'm wise to how you are, talk a big game. Oh, yeah, we'll play basketball, but I go to your city. I was in your city with basketball shoes and like, oh, wait, no, but my league doesn't have room and I don't have the time. And my friend showed up and I understand, man, I understand.

Fair enough. You don't believe me? I tried. I really did. I made an honest effort, but one day will happen. I'm looking at our poster right now. Our poster of our match, you dunking on me. It's a little weird, but it will happen.

We're going to do it. We're going to do it. It's going to happen. that match on Spike TV would outdraw any Bellator show this year. You know that, right? You think so? Maybe, maybe. Did you feel at all like you, like, was there any part of you that was like, man, I let them down, they invested a lot of me, they paid a lot for me, I was the big free agent catch, and I came up short.

Did you feel that at all? A little bit, I suppose. I think it's like, I would use the analogy of an NFL star after his rookie contract. He got the big payday and went to his new team and then has a bad first year. Like, oh, I'm better than that, guys. I'm sorry. I had a bad year. You know, for me, it's one fight, but I had a bad fight, but I'm better than that, guys.

I'll prove myself. Don't give hope on me just yet, guys. Come on. So I got you. I would use that analogy. I used to a couple hundred before. being a big free agent signing, coming over, you know, trying to make a big splash. Didn't quite go my way, but I'm a true veteran sport.

I've been through quite a bit of ups and downs, and I know what it takes to bounce back and to not let it truly faze me, not let it, you know, crumble your spirit or crumble the belief that you have in yourself. I still know, you know, the best 155 pound around the planet. on the right night, you know, me performing 100% versus any other 70-pounder performing at 100%, I think I get my hand raised. But if I perform at like 95% and they perform at 100%, then I'll probably lose to some of the 70-conners out there. But at 105, I don't think there's a lot on the planet who can touch me.

At 170, you know, I have to be firing all cylinders. That night against Andre, I was not firing at all cylinders. And Andre threw me a whooping. The next big free agent is Roy McDonald. also fights at 170. Scott Koker has said there's interest in him. Are you going to do any recruiting like we see in the other sports? Are you going to try to get Rory to sign with Belator?

Have you reached out? Has he reached out to you? Anything to report on that front? I have not had any talks with Rory or any of Rory's people. Okay. He has not reached out to me. I haven't reached out to him. I think yes, it was best for him.

He has to best for his family. You have to take stock. You have truly look at the numbers, break it down. And he's a smart kid. He'll do what's best for him. Hopefully he does his best for him. And, you know, whether staying with the UFC, coming over to Belator, I mean, right now as a free agent, the world is always sure he needs to enjoy this

and take, you know, advantage of this, you know, small opportunity that we're afforded to do his best for him and family. Are you happy with your decision to sign with Belator? Oh, yeah, for sure. there's no look at some of the past 55 pound champions from the UFC from Zufa look how much they're getting

yeah look how much I'm getting right I am not complaining man you had mentioned that the Reebok deal was a major reason why you decided to leave can you compare for us what you made in your last UFC fight from Reebok and what you made in terms of sponsorship

for your Bellator debut yeah I'm for my My last Bells for fight, I had one sponsor, and in that one sponsor, just one, I was just shy of what I made for the Reebok sponsorship. But I am aware, I do know that it's going to take a while to build up those sponsors again. Sponsors in the UFC was at one point a very high, high dollar amount. You know, you got paid quite a bit of money. After, you know, the Reebok thing took over and all the companies kind of heard about that, the value went down a lot.

And me, I know, playing with Bellator, the value is not going to be exactly what it was at his peak in the UFC. You know, I have to build back up to that. I'm a patient, man, and I know my worth. I'm not going to sell myself short. If the Rich Carlson has, you know, 100 rooms, and then 75 of the rooms are empty, do they rent out their room for any cheaper?

Do they rent all the rooms for only $100 bucks instead of, you know, the $700, $800 range that they normally rent out the room? for one night? No, they know what the value of the room is. They know what their worth is. So they hold to their worth, both of me all $700 and $800 a night. I'm not going to sell myself short. I know my value is, I know my worth is it is going to be harder to find some sponsors to be back at that point, but I'm not going to sell myself short. I can't do that. Why did you just have one sponsor? Was it tough to get people on board? hard?

Tough to get people on board a little bit. Like I said, with the sponsorships, you have to build your bills back up to that range. The one sponsor starts seeing some of the TV numbers, the viewerships, how many eyeballs will be on their product? For me, as a fighter, it took me a while to learn all this.

And you always have managers trying to explain to you, agents trying to explain to you. You always have the sponsor themselves trying to explain to you, hey, man, we want to give you this money, but we don't know. We don't know the R-O-Y, the return on our investment. We don't know if I give you this much money, or am I going to make this much money back?

Like, there's no way to really truly judge that to weigh that. So some sponsors are still, you know, wary of dropping the same amount of money that they were dropping before, and that's my job to prove to them that I am worth it. Like, no, I understand you guys are hesitant about, you know, sponsor nappy for this much money. But when you see the numbers, when you see freaking, you know, Spike TV pulling 1.1 mil, peak rating. And there was a playoff game that night. So if not for the play.

In the playoffs game, I went to overtime, I think was the Thunder versus Steph Curry's team. Of course, the Warriors. So, like, yeah. So that game definitely hit my target audience, males a age into, you know, whatever the age is. So that kind of heard of some of the viewership. But when, you know, companies start seeing viewership, they start seeing the Nielsen ratings, you know, 1.1, 1.2, 1.5. And they hurt the same to mind a little bit. So it's my job to prove that I am worth it.

I am worth this number. I am worth that number. But it's a process. It's not going to be easy. But I never was looking for the easy way out either. Recently, you publicly supported Mark Hunt. And I'm wondering, and you said that, you know, you would be in support of a union. Do you feel like because you are a part of Belator, you might get left out of that?

Meaning, if there is a union, there's a good chance because the structure of Belator and the UFC is different, that it would be just sort of a UFC association of sorts and not a Belator one. And will that bother you that you can't be a part of that? Or am I wrong? And do you think it will be more of an inclusive one as opposed to exclusive one? I am not as up on all of the information. I have talked to Mark Hunt.

people. I've talked to Kung Lee and John Fitch's people. Both want the same idea, the same thing. A fighters union, fighters association. Looking at different models to follow through with, whether it's the tennis model or the international football

model, soccer model, whether it's the basketball model, of which you know, we are individual sports, so we can't exactly follow the NFL model, you know. We can't exactly follow the NBA model. But it, but it, because we are individual support.

It won't necessarily be just a UFC Fighters Association, won't be just a Belvoir Fighter's Association. It will be a fighters association, the fighters union of all fighters everywhere, and then say you're not quite to the UFC level. It's going to have to start small. Like everything, you have to start grassroots, build your way up,

establish good, solid fundamentals, and build your way, build your fires. So you have to start smaller, like small, small, low-key. You have a few big-name fighters. You know, then start smaller out and have all the local shows. So the smaller local shows, they're all going to have to be whatever, certified by the MMAFA, the MMA fighters association, or whatever the name ends up being, they have to be certified by them.

Otherwise, you can't get all the fighters who have the MMAFA cards. They won't fight for you. They can't fight for you. They refuse a fight for you because you're not certified by the MMAFA. You're not doing it. So being a part of that, it means you. You have to give up certain things. You have to establish certain things.

You have to do certain things for the fighters. You have to give a certain percentage goes to the fighters. If the live gate is, you know, $10,000, you have to promise to give at least maybe 30% or 40% or 50% or whatever the percentage is, goes towards the fighters. And then the fighters will have our own lawyers and our own diss and our own that to make sure that we get the profit percentage. And then that percentage goes towards the fighters. And then they're paid, you know, wherever their rate is.

And on top of that, you know, the, you know, the. there's a whole lot to it but no it will not be just a ufc fighters association or a belliger fighters association i'm from what i'm told from mark khan's people from uh kungli and um john fitch's people we're we're looking at one association one fighters you need uh any body trying to separate the fighters if they're doing it for a reason they're trying to separate to make our voice smaller, to make our pull, our demand smaller. So it would be very bad for us, detrimental for the fighters to separate at all. So we need to stay strong.

We need to be smart about it. We need to hire smart people to work for us. We can hire smart lawyers and intelligent people who help guide us in the formation of this Fighters Association or Fighters Union. Are you confident that in your active career span that this will happen, that you will be a part of something like this? I started looking up some of the history

of the Tennis Association in how many years it took them to forming. They were founded in like 1940, something I remember correctly. I started looking up even the English Premier League, how they formed their association with when they came together. And it seemed to take quite a while. It's quite a lengthy process to

really form. And then a lot of those organizations like the Tennis Association, they were actually formed in association with the actual governing world tennis tour or whatever it's called. I actually with the acronym is for it, but they were formed in association with them. So they even had the support of the main governing body, and they still took a while for them to form their tennis association. It'll seem to take a while.

It's already been, I don't know, a lot of guys have already been working for a couple of years now, but I'm not sure. I still am looking to retire and, you know, not too long. So I'm not sure if it'll get done in my fighting, you know, time period. But definitely it's not while I'm fighting, I would say probably a couple of years after that. You still there, Benson? Did I lose you, Vince? You got me, area.

Okay, yeah, yeah. I thought you cut out there for a second. No, sorry. And this is fascinating stuff. I feel like I could talk to you about this stuff forever, but I'm just curious. You saw what happened to Cyborg Santa. with his skull getting fractured. Does that give you any pause?

Does that make you rethink the sport, your place in the sport, your future, your health? How do you internalize that? I would say to that. Like, the Olympics, the guy on the... Yeah. The vault of the beam and their light shattered.

There's always, you know, horrific, bad accidents in any sport. If you're in equestrian, dear large, some of the accidents they have because they're dealing with horses and stuff. So you're going to have horrible, horrible, sad accidents no matter what sport you do. For MMA, that was a pretty bad one. Your face, your skull, your forehead being broken like that. Yeah, it looks nasty. But, you know, it's a part of sport.

If you ride horses, you got to be aware. A horse, you know, you walk the wrong way, not paying attention, the horse just kicks back. There were just an accident recently with a horse breaking, you know, some new, ribs and like it being like uh life-thurning so to speak so like there's there's always risking dangers about what sport you do playing softball and then you take a you know a fast fish to the face like that's that's pretty scary stuff too i've seen plenty of organs broken in softball and baseball so it's a part of sport it's one of those things you have to realize you have to accept and you have to go forward with um last question for you benson and again thank you very much

for the time and the candor and the patience, as always. You were in McKenzie Dern's corner for her debut. What do you think her ceiling is? And how long, realistically, because she's talking about UFC in 2017, how long before she can compete with the best in the UFC, in your opinion, as someone who helps train her and corner her? I would say, first of all, McKenzie Dern, if you have not heard of it yet, let me be the first one to tell you,

She will be bigger than Ronda Rousey before Ronda Rousey got, before she lost. Wow. She's going to be huge. She's going to be big. She has an excellent work athlete. She's a multiple, in case to my listening does not go look her up, she is a multiple-time Jiu-Jitsu world champion. She's won 80-C.

She's won Abu Dhabi. She's won the world. She's the current number one ranked female judicious practitioner on the planet. Well, she has an amazing work ethic. She's an amazing athlete. She definitely needs to work on her MMA skills, her ground games are phenomenal. Any woman on the planet

gets ghost to ground with McKenzie, and McKenzie's going to tap her, you know, or dominate her like she did, her first opponent. Her jiu-situ is so good fundamentally that transitions well into jiu-s. It's not like some of the jubesu people who tried to transition over to M.M.A. It's all about flashing, fancy leg lots

and this and that, and then they're getting punched in the face. and you had more than a good handful of guys trying to segue over into MMA, but their Jiu-Ti-T game is so particular that they don't really transition very well in the MMA. They don't really have the sort of success that they had in Jiu-Jitsu. They don't have that success in the MMA because the fundamentals aren't very strong. But Kingses' game is great for MMA because their fundamentals are so strong. Because the fundamentals are so strong allows her to do some fancier stuff on the ground.

and then because of fundamentals because the fundamentals are so strong it allows her to do well in MMA also I think her organ her butt off staint you know grounded in the MMA world being better growing

she's super young like she's gonna be a big huge star you're gonna see her in 10 years you'll see her in movies and stuff and she's gonna do great she'll be awesome she happens to be my son's godmother she's gonna be amazing And my wife's are my wife's best friends.

You know, a good training partner. She's trained with us for ever since she first started thinking about training MMA. She's trained at my game. And she's going to, you know, the world's going to be her oyster. Wow. Glowing. I don't think you could beat that kind of praise from Benson. It's really hard.

The problem is living up to it. Yeah, that is true. You get punched in the face. You get kicked. You get sad. You try and you get a triangle choke and you get, you know, knee to the ribs. Living it up is going to be hard. But I think she has all the tools.

She has all the skills to do just that. But when you do have that much praise, it is that much tougher to have that success. So it's almost a gift and the curse, you know. It's almost a good thing, bad thing, kind of a thing. She has a ton of, you know, me personally, I think she can do great. But, man, it's going to be hard for it to live up to it.

Well, she's very lucky that she has both you and John Crouch, two of the best in her corner. And it was fun to watch her debut. I'm looking forward to seeing if she lives up to all. of that promise in the next few years. For now, thank you so much, Benson. Really appreciate the time. Best of luck to you, August 26th in Anaheim, California, the pond site of so many great MMA fights. This time, it will be the venue for Benson Henderson versus Patricia Pitbull. A. very, interesting card for Bell Tour, by the way. Some other names, Bubba Jenkins, who will be joining

us later, AJ McKee on that card. How about Kimbo Slice Jr.? also on that card? So thank you very much, Benson. Appreciate it. Best of luck to you. you. Thank you very much, man. Many of you guys. Tune in free on Spike TV. God bless, brother. All right, there he is. Benson, Smooth, Henderson stopping by. Great stuff from him. Actually, we will be talking to

one, Bubba Jenkins in around 20 or so minutes about his fight on that card. He has a lot to discuss as well. For now, let us welcome in Mr. New York, Rick. Things got a little bit delayed. We can blame the potentially future heavyweight champion, Alster Overeign for that. But nonetheless,

a fun show, thus far. Still a little bit more to go. Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? I'm here. Oh, how are you, sir? I'm doing well. A bit of a different angle this time for you, camera angle. It's a little bit...

Maybe. A little bit zoomed out. I'm used to getting up close and personal with the pores. You know what? Then maybe this is what we'll go with from now on. I usually check in with Newark Rick before the show as he's working on the graphics and whatnot. True or false, New York, Rick, you were playing Pokemon Go back there as you were working on the assets for this show.

I'm never not playing Pokemon. Your phone was, I mean, the lack of respect and regard for your coworkers was just, I mean, the phone was just there and I saw something like level up 24, right? Let the people know, 24, baby. Was it 24? 24. I don't even know what that means. You think I don't see you eyeball in it?

You think I don't see you? I made a mental note. Yeah, come on I'm never not playing Pokemon Scale of 1 to 10 How crushed are you That Mirro Cropub Ann wasn't playing really Pokemon

One of our Ena Who often writes into the show Let me know on Twitter That he wasn't playing Pokemon Previous to this And I was heartbroken When she knew

She seems to know everything about Mirro and Croatian Fight Sports So shout out to her she let me know and I was crushed then. Now, you know, it was just the second time I heard it. I wasn't too... Well, thanks for telling me.

I wouldn't have wasted a question on that. You know, she tweeted both of us. Some people pay attention. Some people don't. Maybe instead of watching what I'm doing on my phone, pay attention to the people tweeting at you. Well, you know, yesterday I made a cardinal mistake. I promised myself after the Kevin Owen's debacle that I would stop addressing the pro-wrestling

community in any kind of negative light. I guess you can call it that. And I made the mistake. I was at the pool of my kids and they were swimming. I wasn't. I checked in on this whole Connor McGregor versus WWE thing. I said, I'm not touching this one. In fact, someone texted me about it and I said, I am tempted to touch it.

I am not going to touch it for this very reason. And then I was alone for a few minutes. And then I fell into the trap. I touched it. And then hell ensued because I got every 13-year-old bugger eater writing me things on Twitter. trying to, I mean, could they have not proven my point any better, right? I mean, they actually just prove my point. You prove my point. Like, stop, care. You remember when Dana White did the same thing where he called pro wrestling? I think he called it fake and that pissed everyone off. It was the

night of a pay-per-view and Randy Orden weighed in. Do you remember this? Like a year or so ago? I do remember, yeah. I think they were comparing the network to fight pass and he's like, well, we don't, you know, do fake stuff, something like that. And someone asked Paul Heyman about this. at a show that he was doing a Q&A and asked his comments or his thoughts on it. And Paul said something to the effect of, I couldn't care less what Dana White thinks about my sport, and he shouldn't care less what I think about his sport. What I'm trying to say is, why do they get this worked up?

Like, Kahn O'Regger said something that you hear on a playground among, you know, third graders. and this prompted a response that you would only hear from fellow third graders like, oh yeah, you're the size of my leg, I could beat you up. Oh, yeah, I can make more money than you. Oh, yeah, like we don't have the featherweight division in WWE, thus your, like, these were the comebacks. To me, the only thing that I could come up with was that, like, they sent a mass email to all the wrestlers say, like, oh, you know, take the bait here, get some notoriety,

get some publicity, and let's try to run with it. because I can't imagine them really being that insecure. Now the fans writing to me and some of the other wrestlers or personalities writing to me, I think they were really just trying to prove my point. I don't know why they would. Why would they care? But I was just baffled by these responses that I couldn't take it anymore. I had to say something.

I was just amazed. It blew my mind. You got gotten to. That's all I can say. You got gotten to. You are advocating them to forget about it and not respond. Why did they take the bait? their third graders.

Well, guess who took the bait as well? One Ariel. I didn't take the bait. I didn't take the bait. They baited you. And you responded. Well, I guess. No, but the difference is they were being serious.

They were being serious. They were actually legitimately offended. Insecured. Like, we are. Do we know this for a fact? Oh, well, I've reached out. I've done my due diligence. You know what's the funniest thing about it?

I said that at the end of the day, shouldn't they be more annoyed at Brock Lesner? he's the one who Connor was talking about. He's the one who failed the two tests. And he's the one who, in light of his drug test failures, exposed the wellness policy that they do such a great job of promoting and saying is on the up and up for what it really is. He's the one that exposed that the quote unquote part timers don't get tested. And I mentioned this.

And everyone wrote, I got so many replies, aren't you a real journalist? shouldn't you know that the wellness policy is only for the part-timers? Well, again, I did my due diligence. This wasn't public knowledge. This wasn't public knowledge before Brock popped and this news came out. And WWE sort of exposed themselves saying, look, we don't test this guy. This wellness policy isn't for him. It's for our day-to-day people.

Now, who's day-to-day, who's not, we can only guess. But you get what I'm saying? These people who are like, we all knew this. No, actually you didn't. Brock exposed it. So this wellness policy that you all keep, and what the hell is a wellness policy? Like, why don't we just call it a PD policy, a drug testing policy? What is a wellness policy?

This wellness policy that you keep saying is like, you know, so clean and we like to, you know, weed out the drug teach. No, it actually didn't exist for your biggest stars. Some of their biggest stars are quote unquote part timers. They actually weren't being subjected to any kind of drug testing. That's who you should be upset at if you're a fan of the sport and care about the sport. and I have the utmost respect for pro wrestlers. I really do. I mean, I wasn't taking a shot at them necessarily.

I was taking a shot at these, you know, sports entertainers who should know a thing or two about selling an angle, selling pay-per-views. You know, at the end of the day, what was he really saying? And then they come out and like, it's this insecurity that, no, no, no, if you criticize my sport, let me show you how tough I really am. That's the part I don't get. Like, why do you care when he says this? unless you're trying to get a match with him at WrestleMania, then I get it.

But otherwise, the guy calls you a P-U-S-S-Y and says he could slap your head, and this is what prompts this amazing amount of tweets and reaction. I mean, to me, is just baffling. I couldn't believe it. Could you imagine Andy Kaufman in 2016 saying things like this? How would Twitter and fellow pro wrestlers react to his comments? Do you get what I'm saying? Like, of all people, they should be the one to understand what Connor was doing.

I think you're getting worked. I'm not getting worked. I'm actually not getting worked. It, to me, it was just so mind-blowing that they were reacting this way. And then I sent out my tweets, which I instantly regretted because I'm now subjected to like the most, I mean, I mean, I mean, the lowest coming down. I'm being subjected to this. And thus, in their responses, they are proving my point. That's the amazing part about it.

They are proving my point. The WWE wrestlers, who I was strictly referring to, I wasn't talking about anyone else. I was talking about the wrestlers trying to show who was the tougher man who was the bigger guy I wasn't talking about the fans I mean I guess so the wrestlers are responding

and saying No and thus after my tweets You see I think there's two things here I think the wrestlers are working you And you're by you're eating it up You're not eating it up I just can't believe that they're This is their approach

Why it's it's working It's elementary About them The same way that the wrestling world Is talking about Connor McGregor I don't subscribe believe it or not to the notion that all good press, or all press is good press. Just because we're talking about it doesn't mean it's good.

Sometimes it's stupid. I think both sides achieved their goals here. I think Connor McGregor brilliantly got the wrestling world to speak about him. Oh, is he going to fight at WrestleMania? Is he going to do this and that? He's got a fight upcoming. It was brilliant. And I think the wrestling world is now back on the radar in our sport.

After Brock just stepped away now, now there's even more wrestling talk. I think everybody got what they wanted out of this. scenario, except for you and you got the fans responding to you and, you know, not getting it. I understand that. What cracks me up is a lot of the responses are, aren't you the guy who cried on his show to get his credential back? Yeah, you see that. Which is actually not, I mean, it's actually not factually correct.

But to me, anyone, and I've heard this from all walks of life at this point, anyone who uses that as any kind of insult, to me, you're saying a lot more about yourself than you are trying to say about me. Like the fact that you are resorting to like, aren't you the guy who cried? Like, this is some sort of great sin, this great crime that I, that I committed. I think you're really just exposing something about yourself. And I am open to it. I know it's going to come. I knew it was going to come. The day it happened. And I don't even know if crying is the best way to describe it. But whatever the case is, whatever you want to say, it's all good. But I just, the part, what I'm, the point I'm trying to make is all these responses did was prove

what I was pointing out that there's this insecurity like to me if I was a fan of this stuff I would read what Connor said and I'd be like ha ha I'd even retweet it when he said it because it's like oh that's Connor being Connor this is funny let's move on

and then to see you know the way that they reacted to it to read the way they reacted to it is just I mean to me it was just mind blowing I just couldn't believe it but I guess you know you know John Cena is the toughest guy in the world and they have to defend that

I understand it I got some other wrestlers being like and the funny thing is I'm like, oh, cool, Taz is writing me. This is great. You know, like, this is awesome. What did he say? Oh, I don't know. He's like, oh, we're defending our sport and, oh, how, you know, this is what's sticking up? Okay, okay. What are you defending from? Like, some attack? That's, that's now, now I'm lost. Oh, just do me a favor and read my mentions over the last 24 hours. I didn't know that the wrestlers themselves. Yes. Man, they're either taking this really far,

or there's something. No, I just couldn't believe. That's the thing. I just couldn't and believe it. All right. It was just amazing. They were like, they were actually, I got Mark Madden, the former WCW announcer. Like, I have respect for all these people. I have nothing. How dare we stick up for our sport and what we believe in?

What are you talking about? He just, he was talking about Brock and he was talking about your, your sham of a quote-unquote wellness policy. That's it. No one was criticizing you as entertainers. No one was putting you down. No one was degrading you. No one was trying to say that you are not worthy of the attention and money and praise

that you all received. no one was saying any of that. And yet one stupid comment resulted in all these big names talking about it. Did you get what I'm trying to say? It was just like, what? Come on, guys, you're better than that. That's what I was trying to say, you are better than this. Don't fall for it.

But maybe there's a bigger picture here. He shows up, wrestles one of these people at a WrestleMania and we're the dummies, right? Connor has done it again, as always. Okay, let's talk about MMA now. Yes. Three questions, I'll fold them into one. Wow. We've got Yaya Rodriguez.

we've got Teruto Ishihara obviously and Cub Swanson talk about you know those three performances what's next for these guys never asked me a question with talk about at the beginning of it I mean that is the pet peeve of all pet peeve I'm not listen to listen to me I am not a journalist I am not a journalist and you are not my interview subject excuse me Stefan talk about the third quarter what how did you feel yeah that Yair your Yair Rodriguez yes how do you feel his performance How would you grade his performance on that? Okay. Okay, how about this? I'll give you a pro wrestling example right now when speaking of Yehira Rodriguez. Yeah, Eir Rodriguez against Alex Casares, reminded me of a 2000, and this is for my boy John Pollock, if he's listening, a 2006 TNA Spotfest.

Do you know what that means? Yeah, like high stunts, right? Like one after the next, after the next, after the next, thus sort of desensitizing us to the entire thing altogether. You know what I mean? It reminded me of like, who was that guy in TNA that was a Canadian guy who used to do like this crazy flip and he would wrestle AJ styles? And the whole thing would just be flip after flip after flip. And this is what ultimately, in my opinion, was ECW's demise because it was just too much of a crazy thing and too much of a crazy thing then just becomes a normal thing.

So the spinning after the spinning after the spinning after the spinning after the spinning. By the end, it was just like, okay, this is, I mean, I feel. like we kind of, we're shooting blanks now come to fourth and fifth. All that being said, I reiterate what I said at the beginning of the show, which was he's a big star. They need to keep building him up. He should probably be fighting if he's healthy in Mexico City. I mean, this is someone that they can really do something with. I mean, I don't really know why he was fighting in Salt Lake City of all places, but regardless, he's got something. And I actually think that he could be a bigger star than Kane over there if he's not one already. So I enjoyed the

fight. I just thought it was a lot of the high spots back to back to back. You get what I'm saying? I completely understand what you're saying. I thought it was a good fight. I wasn't, you know, Twitter seemed to be blown away by it. I didn't have the same reaction to it. I thought it was good. It was a solid performance.

But I definitely understand what you're saying, that it was a bit of here's trick after trick after trick. Let's kind of see an actual fight at some point. Yeah, and I don't know if that works against the creme de la creme of the division. I mean, that's yet to be seen, but creative strikers are, are a thing that's been successful recently in particular. So I'm not sure that we'll see, you know, this fight replicated anytime soon.

I think it'll be a little bit different. And a lot of people are not going to be like Alex Casares as he climbs up that ladder and be equally as inventive and kind of, you know, wild. So I think we'll see something different. But either way, like, it was a fine fight. I enjoyed it. But it wasn't. It was what it was, right?

The whole card really was what it was. Well, how about this? Yeah. How about sexy horror? Talk about it. Talk about it. I just want to say, like, I felt like a lot of people were willing this card to be one of those, like, oh, it was unharalded going in and look how great it was. It was what it was.

Well, until the main card, it was that card. Yeah, I know. But you know what? When you're watching the main card at like 1130, 12, and it's going the way it was, I mean, can't even get a freaking tell us latest walkout, three little birds. The whole thing falls a little short. You get what I'm saying? The moment that main card started, it. dips. Yeah. So ECR, I want to say this about Teruto. He is incredibly entertaining.

Yep. The interviews are fun. The fighting is fun. Most importantly, the post fight was fun. The shout out to the mother was fun. The Twitter post are fun. It's all very fun. It's somewhat different. It's unique. It's refreshing. Especially for a Japanese fighter. Often, like if you compare him to some of the other great Japanese fighters of the last five years, I think of like a Kawajiri, a Gomi, a Yushinokami. They're all very reserved, right? For the most of the most, part. Yep. He's the complete opposite.

But I will say, though, the reaction is interesting because, I mean, like, I often see people getting offended by certain comments. Like, we get offended when Sterling calls Brian Carraway, Mrs. Carraway. No, no, wait, Mrs. Tate, right? Or Mr. Tate. Mr. Tate, yeah. Screwed that one up. Mr. Tate.

But, like, he is skirting the line here, right? I mean... Is he? I mean, he's calling females bitches. Is he calling females bitches or all his fans' bitches? I mean guys included Yeah, why not? I don't know

I mean I don't see a lot of guys in those parties that he's posting pictures of I think he's choosing which bitches to spend some time with is... I just look, I'm enjoying it I just want to say like

he needs to be careful the bigger he gets sure and I don't want to be Mr. PC police because you know that stuff annoys me I just hope he doesn't get himself in trouble because

the reaction has been so good he's getting this feedback you continue to push push push push push push push I can see. Remember when Connor was getting bigger, bigger, bigger, and then he had that picture of the girl at the strip club with the butt, and then he got a little bit of hot water for that. And then there was another time where he mentioned something about Misha Tate and Ronda Rousey and toes. I think there was toe sucking involved. Do you remember that whole thing on Facebook? I think he learned his lesson that you can only push so much. So I hope, and maybe English not being his first language will help him. I hope Teruto doesn't suffer the same kind of fate. You know what I'm saying? I do. But I think for now this is something fun and I don't think it's gender specific. I think we're all his bitches, to be honest. I don't know.

I think you're doing some selective listening there, but fair enough. You are a Taruto Mark, aren't you? Oh, for sure. He's just, he's got something. What it is, I think is yet to be seen because so far he's been hitting one note. Let's see the second one. Yeah. But I like it.

It is exciting to have a prospect coming at a job. Japan, and I will just say this about the Cubs Swanson fight, you could have made a case for that being the main event, to be honest. Sure. I think that was the best fight of the night. And it certainly delivered, and I think very telling that they would put that fight on fight pass.

I mean, they could have used that fight on the FS1 main card or prelims, right? So I thought that was very telling about the direction of the UFC and, you know, what they're putting on fight pass as opposed to FS1. Okay, I'm going to leave you with this one. Connor and Nate, they seem to

be in partial agreement, there was a press conference. A conference call, to be exact. Another pet peeve of mine when people call a conference calls, press conferences. Oh, my apologies. I apologize for questioning the sanctity or for infringing upon the sanctity of the conference call. Connor and Nate, they seem to be in a parallel track. They seem to be on the same page much more so than they were in the lead up to the first fight. How do you, you know, what are your thoughts on that?

What are your thoughts on them seeming to be more in sync than enemies, if you could call it that, leading into this fight? And what do you think about the idea that they both seem to be open to a rubber match, which is more cooperation from them versus saying, you know, I don't want to fight this guy again or anything like that? Well, how about this breaking news here? You know the guy who created the Korean zombie t-shirt? Remember the infamous Korean zombie t-shirt? Yeah, tricosta, the company. Yeah, but the guy who created the Korean zombie t-shirt. who designed it, who drew it.

This guy named Ted Park. And I think it was Tri Costa, by the way. Or Costa. Maybe it's Costa, you're right. Anyhow, aside note, Korean Zombie coming back in around two months. I'm just looking at my Twitter here. Ted Park, great guy. He actually made me a couple logos, has drawn some things.

I mean, a real great guy. And I just saw that he tweeted this, which I found to be fascinating. I've only ever used Twitter to sell, brag about, or ask for something. And now knowing I'm blessed to have everything. and deserve nothing. Goodbye and praise God. I mean, what a way to go out. Right? There you go. Retiring from Twitter. That's big news. Is it? Okay. Anyhow, back to your question. If you recall, if you saw the UFC 202 pre-five press conference that happened two days before UFC 200, the first question, was it the first question? Maybe it was the second question, or it might have been the first. One of the top two questions

that I asked Connor was, yeah, I know that you want the fight back, you want the rematch, you want to get him back, all that stuff. But deep down inside, there seems to be a respect brewing between the two. There seems to be this bond that has been forged since 196, the 200 drama, and the buildup to 202. And he said that, yeah, you know, there's a common bond, but make no mistake about it, I want to be in him, and all that stuff. And I think we got another glimpse of that on Friday during the conference call. I think we saw once again that, look, there wasn't a lot of crap talking. There was some comments here or there, but both these guys know that they make the most amount of money right now fighting each other. Both of them recognized what they did for each

other, which was Connor giving him the shot at 196 when he could have gone to Soroni and others, which was Diaz turning down any other fight at 200 and waiting for Connor. And it was them agreeing to fight at 202. They've helped each other out. They've made each other out. They've made other a lot of money. They are on the same page. And so that's kind of fascinating to see in its own right. And I'm curious to see what that is going to transition into come fight week next week in Las Vegas prior to UFC 202. I think that's a really interesting thing. And by the way, so much so, there's so much respect between the two that Connor's talking about the trilogy even before the rematch. And I will say, and this is for all those people that are saying, like,

I'm coming to Connor's defense. Make no mistake about it. Connor McGregor doesn't need me to back him up, to defend him. I was not doing that. I wasn't tweeting about the wrestling thing to defend him, to come to his defense, to be a white knight. I was just simply noting that the reaction was a little bit overblown and felt like it was coming across as insecure, while I do have a lot of respect for the pro wrestling community.

But Connor's saying that the trilogy is coming, that he feels like they're going to do business beyond this second fight on August 20th, to me feels like a misstep from a promotional standpoint. Dare I say it is promotional malpractice. Why? Because you need to tell the world that this is one night only, that this is going to be the rematch of all rematches, that if you miss this one,

you're going to be the only person in this entire world that is going to miss this fight, that the world will be watching, that it's going to be fireworks, that it's going to be can't miss, that it's going to be something unlike anything you've ever seen, that it's going to be unique. If you're telling the world that if you miss this one,

there will be a third one, to me, it makes the second fight feel not as special. You know what I'm saying? If you're telling the world that there's going to be won after this one, now people might skip it. I don't know if that's actually going to happen, but why even say that? Again, I appreciate the honesty, but from a promotional standpoint, from a promoter standpoint, and he is as smart as any in this game currently, I was surprised that he went that route. I was surprised that he said that. He has said that in the past, but this close to this one, you're basically telling people August 20th, it's going down.

But oh, by the way, if you miss it, there's going to be one more. And that feels like a missed up. So it wasn't all home runs on Friday during that conference call. It wasn't all amazing. And for the most part, it was interesting. Good comments back and forth. If you missed it, the replay is up on our website. For now, let's go to our last guest of the day.

excited to talk to this guy. He fights Georgie Caracanian on August 26th. That same card that Benson Henderson is headlining against Patricia Pitbull. His name is Bubba Jenkins and he is joining us right now via the magical Skype. There he is. Bubba half his face, but I do see him. Bubba Jenkins, how are you? You see me, my man? Oh, now I see you. There are those lovely eyes. Get that facial features in there, baby. That's right. Okay, there's a lot to talk to you about, my man. You are a, is it fair to say you are a bit disgruntled right now? I mean, I've seen you go on Twitter. You're tweeting up a storm. You are pissed off that you are now on the prelims of this card. Is that accurate? Yeah, well, I just wanted to create some noise so I can, you know, get all the

people to watch me as much as they can wherever I am, whether it's on the prelims or on the main card. I basically wanted to pull some, uh, a Connor card as you was talking about Connor and, you know, get everybody involved on social media to follow me, basically. And it definitely went trending number two, so I was happy about that. Okay, but this is an important fight for you, for the division. When you were offered this fight, when you were first approached by Beltar, were you told initially that it was going to be on the main card? Yeah, I was told initially it was going to be on the main card. The first fight that I actually had with Georgia, this is Georgie Bubba J2.

And the first fight that we actually had was co-main event. So it was pretty disappointing to hear that it was on the prelims. I obviously have friends back home and tons of people who want to play. go Bubba J fight party, so to not have that opportunity, kind of was like, oh, man, but, you know, I'm excited either way. The results will be the same. The fight's going to go the way I planned it, and I'm excited about it. What was the reason that you were given as to why they bumped you to the prelims?

I believe the show got shortened. I think it went from a three-hour broadcast to maybe a two-hour broadcast, so, you know, I think, I mean, that's the reason I got. And here you are tweeting about it and being very vocal about it. Have you heard from anyone at Belator? Like, hey, man, can you cool it on this stuff? Like, do you think they're upset? What do you think?

Has anyone reached out to you? No one's reached out to me, but I think it's, you know, along the lines of promoting the fight. You know, if people want to see me fight or if people are making a noise about it, they're going to go to the prelim cards on, you know, SpikeTV.com and check out the fight or they're going to look for it on Spike TV, regular TV and try to, you know, see if I'm actually, if Bellator actually push me up or did whatever. So I think I'm promoting the fight like they want me to do. And I don't think it's, you know, I think any publicity is good publicity.

Yeah, to a degree, yes. Not all the time, but I do think that you're doing a good job of promoting the fight. I mean, here you are talking about it on this very show. I got on your show doing it. That's right. And I heard that that was on the bucket list, right? You've wanted to be on this show for quite some time. Come on, man.

The MMA hour, that's definitely on everyone's bucket list. I don't care if they lie to you and tell you that it's not. Oh, wow. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Correct me if I'm wrong. You have two fights left on your Belator contract, correct? Correct, correct.

So obviously you want to win this one. Are you going to try? I mean, I remember when you first came into MMA, there was a ton of buzz, but one of the big prospects coming out of college and national champion, all that stuff. Are you going to try to test the waters, or do you want to stick around in Beltoor and try to sign a deal before you officially become a free agent? Well, you know, I never bite the hand that feeds me, and I don't want to give you no, no cliche answer, but my bread's being buttered at Bellator.

You know, it's going down in the BM. I don't mind Bellator. And they like me too. So, you know, I'm pretty excited with everything that I have going. I want to be at the top of that division in Bellator. So I don't see myself leaving anytime soon without getting that strap. You know, I came into Bellator looking for that belt, and I would feel like I would wasted, you know, 10, 11, 12 matches or fights in that organization

without getting that strap. So, you know, I'm headed for the gold, and that's all I can see. I'm focused on Georgia Caracanian and everything else is going to fall to the wayside because I don't get distracted too easily. Recently you changed your nickname, correct? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now this is interesting because you used to be called the Highlight Kid, correct? That's right, that's right. Now you're, I'm a bad man.

So Bubba, I'm a bad man Jenkins. Yes. But the, go ahead. The reason for this change is because of Muhammad Ali, correct? Absolutely, man. And, you know, like most of the young black kids in America, you know, I wouldn't even say young. Around the 20, 30 years, I mean, we grew up idolizing Muhammad Ali. And, you know, I wanted to meet Muhammad Ali when I was at Arizona State, him living out in Phoenix at the time.

You know, I had a couple opportunities to meet him, but the schedules just never met up. And I was like, oh, when I get big, when I get big, I'm going to meet him. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. And his passing really did something to me like it did to a lot of the people in the combat community, and just in America in general. So I was thinking, man, I was already thinking that I wanted to get a name change. So I was thinking, man, what can I do?

I was thinking, butterfly Jenkins. And I was like, nah, nah, that ain't going to work. That ain't going to work. Then I was going to think, handsome Jenkins. And I was like, nah, I'm not that. But after I start watching, you know, more Muhammad Ali interviews and I'm watching Muhammad Ali all the time to just check his footwork, I was thinking, man, in Memorial of Muhammad Ali could be an acronym for IMMA, you know?

So it was, I'm a bad man. And he's always like, I'm a bad man. I'm a bad man. So IMMA stands for I am MMA and it stands for a Memorial of Muhammad Ali, Badman Jenkins. Okay, now this is a lot to process here because when I think of a nickname, I think of like, I mean, is Bubba your birth name? No, it's not. I was 11-pound baby, so I, you know, I was Bubba on day one regardless of what my name was. Okay, but isn't Bubba your nickname then?

Yeah, technically. If we want to get technical, yes. my nickname. But I mean, I can't even say that I can stick to a nickname because they call me the unicorn slayer. They call me the robust brown one. They call me the highlight kid. They call me the bad man. I mean, every other week, they call me no cliche Bubba J. So I mean, every other week I got a new nickname. So I'm just putting one down so people can actually have something to go by. But okay, and again, with the nickname, like you're at the gym right now. People aren't saying like, hey, I'm a bad man. What's up? How is your night? You know, good, right? And

Isn't that the point of a nickname? Like, like, you know what I mean? Again, going back to Bubba. So what, I guess I'm trying to wrap my head around why you felt the need to change it when you're not really using the nickname for what it is. Right. Well, a lot of people do call me a bad man. So they wouldn't say, hey, I'm a bad man.

It would just be like, hey, bad man. You know, it would just be like, bad man, bad man, bad man. Fair enough. All right. A lot of it, a lot of nicknames in the sport are self-proclaimed. Yeah. A lot of people have given me my nickname. So, you know, when people call me certain nicknames, it's not one that I actually go by.

And this is one that I was like, you know what? Because of Muhammad Ali and because I'm already looking for a name change, this is one that I'll actually go by that I self-proclaimed. I feel you. And by the way, Butterfly is a great name. I love Butterfly. That's an awesome name. Well, I couldn't think of like how I could make it look mean. You know what I mean?

Because it was like, oh, butterfly. And then, you know, my boy's back home from Virginia. they ain't going to be, they ain't gonna be too hyped about that one. Let me tell you something. Bubba, the butterfly Jenkins is money. You're gonna get tremendous amount of press and coverage

and cash if you are the butterfly. I'm just saying, I don't know like if you had an executive community come up with this nickname, but there might be something there, my man. There might be something there. I would find things to the wall, see what's stuck and it didn't stick.

So, you know, Maybe Twitter can say differently. Fair enough. Now, on a less lighter note, you fought the late Jordan Parsons. You beat the late Jordan Parsons, not that long ago. In fact, you were his last opponent. And I was reading this. I think you did an interview with Bloody Elbow.

Amazingly, this fight is on his birthday. Yeah, man. I had a couple of his friends reach out. And leading up to me in Jordan's fight, we were talking trash. We had conferences where we were both on the phone. and, you know, on the MMA podcast, MMA roasted podcast. And, I mean, we were going back and forth. He called me out.

I answered the call. And so there was a lot of animosity leading up to this fight. And, you know, so after I got the victory, you know, it wasn't, I'm not a classless person, nor do I call people out. I wait to someone calls me and then I respond. So after the fight, you know, he was just like, man, much respect to you. You got the win. I thought I was better than you. I thought I was this.

And I, and I reciprocated that. I was like, you know, you were tough opponent. We went all three rounds. I pull it out by split decision, and I was excited about getting that victory. And so we left it as friends, you know, even though leading up to the fight, I did not like the guy. We almost got in the fight twice before the fight even happened at the way end. And we were just walking around the hotel, and we actually ran into each other. And honestly, we had to be separated two times before the fight even happened.

So, you know, after I was hearing that he had gotten hit and run, and this is before he was dying. This was when he was in critical condition. And I'm with Tip of Fighter. I started this organization with a friend of mine to basically help fighters make more money, you know, inside and outside of the cage to basically capitalize on their time that they're in the cage. So I started Tip of Fighter and I was thinking if I can get a profile for him on my Tipofiter.com page so people can tip, you know, and help with his bills. It's just like a GoFundMe almost, but it's for combat for athletes and stuff. So it was just like that, but I was telling all his friends to let me know, give me some information, let me know what's going on with him.

I was calling people who were at the hospital with them because I truly, truly care, not only cared about Jordan Parsons, but I care about all these other people that are in this game. You know, a lot of people don't realize that we're humans that, you know, our Twitter we can say this and do that on Twitter. But, you know, we got to care about each other because we're in there putting our lives at risk in this sense. So, you know, I reached out to his family, his, I think he was his girlfriend at the time. And, you know, she just let me know that, you know, his birthday is actually on the same night that we're fighting. And, you know, I did everything I could to basically raise money. for him and it was just a sad situation and I you know I prayed for his family and you know it comes

full circle because you know I fought him we met up in the cage that same night and anytime anywhere it could have been me instead of him so it just makes me think about it in that kind of concept given that history did it sort of give you chills when you found out that you were fighting on his birthday yeah absolutely absolutely it wasn't something that you know I used to deal with death very hardly my dad died when I was nine I had a lot of friends die leading up while I was in high school. So in the beginning, when people would die, I would be sickened for, you know, three or four days. It was hard on me. But as I got older, you know, death happens. You know, as I got closer to God and knowing, you know, my spirituality levels, it just,

it happens. And that's something that we deal with with life. There's happiness and their sadness. So when I heard about Jordan Parsons being, I was his last opponent being high, I knew I was the last person to know how good he was and how good he could be and how good he was going to become it definitely you know raised the hairs on the back of my neck when i heard that you know one he died and two the next time that i fight you know is on his birthday so like the connection between me and jordan parsons is undeniable i'm not sure what it is uh the fire that we had leading up to the fight the friendship that we had after it the death me trying to do a tip of fighter for him and the fight and the find out that i'm fighting on his birthday i mean there's just a connection there that

it's you know it's just crazy but you know i definitely want to stay focused on the fight but I'm definitely after my fight, after I get this win. If I do get the interview, I definitely will be shouting out his family and the fact that people need to remember him for the great athlete that he was and the good person that he was. Tip a fighter, by the way, how is that doing? Do you find that a lot of people go to the site and do tip the fighters? Absolutely, man.

It's doing great. I'm excited about what it stands for, and I think it needs to be a little bit bigger later down the line. I don't think people really realize how much the fighters are lacking as far as compensation. And when it comes to, you know, really helping other fighters, helping the community, helping us as a unit together. You know, I'm not saying unionize, but I'm just saying, really getting a situation where

we all can help each other inside and out the cage. I think it's doing great, man. And I think the more people who understand the concept, the bigger it will become. You know, I think some people are misled on the education of the concept. It's simply, these fighters go out there, they have a good time. You guys go to the bar, you tip the waiter, you tip the waitress, you tip the taxi driver and the fighters are giving it all out there. And, you know, it's just like showing your appreciation for that hurrah moment,

showing your appreciation for when you win. You know, you put a bet down on these fighters. You win $3,000. It's like going to, you know, tipofiter.com and say, man, you won me $3,000 and you was losing. I thought I was going to lose $1,000. Here's my appreciation. It's just basically a platform for people to show their appreciation for us fighters. Now, can I tip any fighter out there or do they have to have a profile on the site first?

They have to be on our roster. But what we ask for is that people who are fans of TIPA Fighter or people who want a TIP, they just hit up those guys on Twitter. Everybody's reachable now. So we hit up everybody on Twitter and say, hey, we want you to be with TIPA Fider. I know plenty of people who have come to Tipper Fider Page and was looking to give money away to fighters who are not with us. I know that there was a guy. I'm not going to say his name, but he lost a fight that everyone thought he won.

You know, it happened in the UFC. Everybody thought he won this fight. And there were so many people hitting me up, like, hey, how can I tip this guy? I thought that was a bull crap call. I think he won the fight. I think he won the fight. So it was like, hey, man, I hit him up. And I was like, bro, you probably missed out on a good $3,000, $4,000.

So many people wanted to tip you because you got cheated in the cage. And it's really tipping for any reason. You can tip for not getting choked out. You can tip for doing something that they've never seen. It's just an amazing platform. I think people just need to be more educated about it. So they have to be on the roster. They have to have a profile on our page.

They can just contact us and we'll put them up there. It costs them nothing to be a part of. I mean, I don't ask them for anything, but to say, yeah, I want to be a tip of fighter, and that's it. What about tipping reporters? Is there any, I'm just joking. We'll set you up. By the way, you were talking about the finance,

if we were just speaking to Benson Henderson about this, do you support the idea of an association? As you know, this has gained a lot of steam slash union, that type of thing. Do you want to see this happen in MMA? Absolutely. It's hard to have uniforms and things like that that had the word union in it and actually not have a union.

You know, it's a little bit, it's a little bit. As a fighter, you know, you don't want to say anything that makes you become on the outside of the cage. But now that it's getting so much steam, I always felt that us fighters need to stick together. Us fighters need to say, hey, man, you know, we're, that's the U.S. just sold for $4 billion. Viacom's got crazy money in the Bellator. So, you know, it's smart for them to keep it where it's at, you know.

If I was one of the owners, I would be like, hush, hush, I don't want you guys to talking about it, but as a fighter, you know, I want to get us together and say, hey, let's sit down. You know, they got a Players Association in NBA where, you know, they come together and they agree on things. Same thing with baseball and football, all the major sports. And I do truly believe MMA is a major sport and it's one of the fastest growing sports. With them bringing uniforms involved in it, you know, I think that it was obvious that we need to come together and have some kind of union when there's uniforms involved. So, you know, I think, I think it's, I think it's, you just makes it obvious that it's coming. The people who speak up in the beginning who aren't big

names probably would get some backlash. But, you know, I think the more press and the more people who back it will, well, it would definitely happen. It just, it's just going to take some due time, you know, and I think the quicker we talk about it, the more we talk about it, the more big name guys get on it on your show and promote it a little bit more, then the more traction of people will be like, you know what? That's an interesting concept. You know, there's some people without fighter insurance. There's some people without, you know, a fair compensation. There's some, there's two guys fighting for the same title, fighting for the same thing, and they're getting paid lopsidly. You know, it really is about the community of fighters who need to stick

together. And I think it takes one big fighter and say, you know what, I know I'm on the main card. I know I'm, you know, I know everyone's waiting for this fight, but I'm pulling out and I'm not going to fight until they get something where we all can be equally compensated. Because I think, you know, I don't know numbers seriously, but I know about three, four, five percent of the Big name guys are really the only ones in MMA really getting paid. Everybody else is getting crumbed. So it takes those guys to say, hey, you know what? I am my brother's keeper.

I am my fighter's keeper, and I want everybody to get paid equally. Wow. Well said. Have you been told by Bellator that if you win this fight, you will get a title shot? No, I haven't taught title shots with them. I don't really talk about or look into what Bellator is going to do with me. I really focus on what I have to do, you know, my steps. I know that I'm no cliche, Bubba Jay.

I don't like to have those cliche answers, but honestly, I focus on what I do because I don't put my trust in man. You know, the world didn't give me my peace and the world can't take my peace away. So if I start trusting a man and thinking that they're going to do this and they're going to say this and they're going to say that and then they don't, then that starts to distract me from my main goal. And as long as I continue to win and continue to be Bubba Jay, continue lacing these interviews with some incredible elocution, I'm going to do what I got to do. Bubba, great to have you on the show, my man. All the best to you. Great debut.

I look forward to it, August 26th. Let me add to the chorus and also say that you should be on the main card. I mean, you and Georgie alone, that's great. Your first fight was great. I mean, it's a bit of a head scratcher, but if they ran out of time or, you know, they've got names like, isn't your boy A.J. McKee on the card as well? What's up with that? He's fighting a tough opponent in hearing Corralis.

We got a couple people from Body Shop on that car. Take them out. Take them out. Take a spot. You know, I don't do any of that. I focus on me, baby. Let everything else fall away. If it's the good road, it's the narrow road.

So that's the road that's traveled alone. So I'm going to just do that. What a pleasure. Great stuff, Bubba. I appreciate it. I'll be watching on Spike.com on Friday, August 26th. The return of Bubba Jenkins. Really appreciate the time, my man.

All the best to you. Thank you, my man. I appreciate you for having me on. next time you need someone to fill in a couple five, ten minutes. I got you, son. All right. Thank you very much. There he is. Bubba Jenkins, one of the top stars in Bellator's Featherweight Division. He is fighting on the main card, excuse me, the prelims, wants to be on the main card, has made that very much known and deserves to be on the main card, especially against someone like Georgie, but them's the breaks and he is making the most of his opportunity.

Okay. Mr. New York, Rick, hello. Any final thoughts? Anything else you want to say? Any other contradictory statements, trollish remarks? Excuse me, sir. How about Bubba Jenkins? Great character, huh? I think he's climbing up my rankings with one appearance. Yeah, he's great.

He said it was, I don't know if I'm getting the exact quote here, but he said it was a lifelong dream of his to appear on this program. You see, some people take it for granted. Just trying to see if there was a follow-up to that. No, that was it. the bit about elocution a plus but Bubba gets really high grades for that one did the stream die said that what's happening here no appears like this is I mean what's the point right stream is alive it's not alive it's not alive it's dead someone hacked us you know who it probably

was the people who put them on the w e fans or them no I was going to say the people who put them on the prelims uh anything else that we need to talk about That's it. That's it. Wow. We're done. Uncle creepy is back. He's fighting September 10th against Ray Borg.

Melvin Galard was suspended for a year for a non-PD. Stop me if you want to weigh in on any of these. Chris Seaborg is back. What a strange fight that is? What do you feel about that fight? It's bizarre. Is it weird that she would be fighting somebody who is relatively unknown when there's so many names out there for her? That's exactly it.

yeah I don't get it either I really I'm not sure I'm sure there's some reason I almost feel like does it really even help Chris at this point to to fight her this is like a fight that she would get in Invicta I mean Megan Anderson I think is more worthy and and probably a better fight I mentioned that and people said oh don't push her too quickly she's not ready and I guess that's that's a valid argument but she's a bigger name you know what I mean like like like I don't, I don't know. I mean, I'm not taking anything away from Lansberg, but she's just, she just wasn't on the radar. I mean, I feel like there's enough women at 135 in the UFC who would have gone up to 140 or even 145.

And this idea, again, of having her fight at 140 makes no sense. It's not a real division. Like, what are you trying to prove? Yeah. It is, it is a weird booking. It almost feels cruel to me. Like, you saw the way she looked, right? I mean, obviously she's agreeing to the fight.

so it's not like she's being forced to do it, but I don't know. Okay, how about this? There is one more thing. Okay. MMA is an Olympic sport. Will it ever happen? Oh, that's it? That's a question.

Not in our lifetime. You see how hard... Our lifetime is a long time. Well, I don't know. That's quite a few Olympics. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let us not go with this death thing again.

Well, first of all, it's every four years. You see how hard... I mean, baseball just got back in. That was a karate just got in. Jiu-jitsu's not even in. I don't know. There isn't an infrastructure. There isn't an amateur system in place.

I don't think that the promoters would want the fighters to go and devote four years. They'd rather them, you know, like the Ed Ruth's of the world and the Ed Pico's. It just doesn't mesh with wrestling. It would, we wouldn't see the best. I just can't see it happening. I really can't. Let's say it did happen. Let's say overnight.

Let's say next Olympics. No, let's say this Olympics right now. It was happening. Yeah. What is the dream team for MMA? Actually, that doesn't, you know what? If it was Olympics, it would have to be U.S. dream team versus Brazil dream team versus... No, you can't have dream team.

Because if it's like boxing, it would have to be amateurs. Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, maybe it's not like boxing. Maybe it's like basketball where they do professionals. You think that the UFC would allow the George St. Pierre's and the Conno McGregors of the world just go fight for free and them not making money. You say this, like, the guys who are making quadruple and ten times as much as they make an NBA are not doing it. Yeah, because, well, first of all, they're not getting punched in the face and risking injury. Like they are risking injury every time they go out there.

It's not the same. Am I wrong? Did Paul George not? Yes, I know. But that's not take, like, them playing in the Olympics, them playing in the Olympics, doesn't take away from them playing in the NBA regular season. This is why the baseball players in the summer Olympics aren't, you know, MLB is not. letting the baseball players go. Because they're not going to risk, you know, the Josh Donaldson's of the world going

over overseas and not playing for the Blue Jays for two weeks, two plus weeks, or even more to practice. It's not going to happen. I feel like that might be short-sighted because the exposure that you have by making this an Olympic sport and your athletes being on that stage is way bigger than missing them for one fight. UFC won't even allow guys to go and do grappling things sometimes. Yeah, you're making the wrong comparison because the, you're, you're making the wrong comparison because these grappling things are not going to raise their profile.

Who cares? What do you mean? Who cares? Being part of the Olympics, having your stars on the Olympic stage, you're comparing to going to do like a grappling tournament? Like a grappling tournament is much less, much less risk. There's hardly any risk involved. And much less reward. Zero reward.

Versus. Trust me. Did you just start listening to this sport, like following this sport? Did you start paying attention? You really think that the UFC is going to say, all right, guys, you can go spend. I mean, how long are they going to have to compete to properly perform in the Olympics? Like, how long are they going to train for? Like, what, four, five, six months?

We're going to take you off our roster. We're not going to capitalize off you. We're not going to sell pay-per-views off of you. You could go out there and we're going to make zero money off of this. For that four or five, for one fight, yes, for one fight. And by the way, how could it even be one fight? How could it be one fight? How could it be one fight?

How are you going to crown a winner in the Olympics if there's just one fight? There has to be a tournament. So maybe a tournament, but either way. What do you mean? So now they're going to allow these guys to fight three, four times in the span of two weeks? You're saying the UFC is losing multiple fights. They're not. They're losing that one fight.

They can't use them for that four or five months, which is how long they would take to turn around. Before, four or five months after? No. What do you mean? That's too long. You're making this way longer. If you're going to try to win a gold medal in the Olympics, you're going to have to fight at least three times. Yeah, but the turnaround time is not going to be as long as you're saying.

What do you mean? Could you imagine someone fighting for? three times, do you think he's going to come back two months later? What kind of concussions are you advocating for? You're predicting doom and gloom and injuries and all this stuff. I'm not. You're living in a fantasy world. Also, the UFC, if they made this decision and sacrificed one pay-per-view for long-term gain

of having somebody on an Olympic stage, I think that that's worth it, and I think it's something they consider. It's not, is it a guarantee? No, not by any means. I don't think it's even... But you are ignoring the fact that they have to win three to four fights at least in order to win a gold medal. So why else are they going to do it? They're going to have to compete.

Or maybe they headgear. Maybe they're headgear. Geez. What an exhilarating experience that will be. Let's watch guys. First of all, how are you going to submit a guy wearing headgear? What do you mean? How are you going to submit a guy?

What? Oh, like wrestling. I was thinking like the headgear that they wear in boxing, the big ass thing. Even that. You can't get a guy in a guillotine wearing that. Maybe not, but you can still do arm locks, you can still do leg locks. Look. Swack.

You're just completely, you're just criticizing. You're being difficult. You're being a contrarian right now. Me? I'm proposing that this be put forward. You're being contrarian. No, I'm being a realist. The UFC, in a million years, the UFC, I can't even believe we're actually arguing

this. In a million years, the UFC is not going to let its biggest stars. Yeah, Ronda Rousey, great. We would love for you to go compete on NBC. Oh, and by the way. How's Fox going to feel about this? Fox who pays 100 plus million a year, and they don't even get the big fight.

So I don't even talk about that. But they're going to be like, okay, great. Ronorasi, you're going to go compete on NBC. We're not going to make a dime off of this. This one time, you won't make a dime. What do you mean? Why can it be three, four Olympics? This is Carmelo Anthony's third or fourth.

The opportunity cost, what they're sacrificing is not using her on pay-per-view one time. What they're gaining is Ronda Rousey fighting in front of millions. It's a year. If she's going to go and try to fight for a gold, it's a year that she's missing. It's the buildup. It's the aftermath. So, how about not sending Ronda Rousey?

How about sending somebody from the bottom of the roster? Somebody who may not have a fight booked anyway. Okay, like we're going to send Darren Elkins. Yeah. Great. Why not? Okay, then why don't boxers do it if you've got it all figured out? I don't follow boxing.

I don't know why boxers wouldn't do it. But I can imagine that the exposure... Because the... Because they want to make money. Yeah, I can imagine that the exposure is worth some kind of risk. I have to imagine. That it's not a no, this is a completely ridiculous scenario. If tomorrow the Olympic Committee said we can have MMA in the Olympics,

we'll work with you on how this happens, what level of athlete, you know, what rule set, what protection, I have to think that they'd consider it rather than going no. The only way can work is like the IMMF, which is amateur. and, you know, they do that tournament during international fight week and others here and there. That's the only way it could work. I guess that could work, but those guys are amateurs. They're not pros. There is literally no chance in hell.

I feel very confident saying that in our lifetime, as MMA currently stands and is structured, there is absolutely zero chance of seeing pro-MMA fighters in the Olympics. I will go out on a limb and say, as MMA is structured today, there is absolutely zero chance, and it is almost a futile mission to even argue for the chance that they will compete in the Olympics. There's no way, unless you're just trying to be a contrarian, which I can understand and appreciate. No. But you know there's no way. There's absolutely no way.

I would not think it's likely. Definitely not. But I do think... It's less than likely. I think there's... Of course there's a chance. No chance. Zero chance.

Have you not met MMMA promoters? Do you not realize that they are in the business of making money? Yes. and also thinking long term rather than just short term. If you've got this amazing entity that you make money off of, you are not going to share it with someone else. And by doing that not benefiting, it just doesn't make any sense. You keep saying not benefiting, but they will benefit.

In the long term, they will benefit greatly. They will say, you know what, let us benefit over here. Yeah, great idea putting these people on NBC, having the Olympic movement behind them, we'll just keep them over here and capitalize off of their efforts. That's fantasy world. It's a nice idea.

It would be awesome. I mean, yeah, I mean, that's really like the sport that we all dream of. Anyone could fight anyone. Oh, great, you know, Michael Chandler will be in a bracket alongside Habibnir Magamagamadov.

It would be super cool. There's literally no chance of it ever happening. I think that may be accurate, but I think you're really, reason for why is not, I think, what do you mean? The long-term gain is something that I think a smart promoter would recognize. You're saying, oh, they can't capitalize on it, but you're wrong. They can't.

They can't now. They can't do it at that moment because they're giving their athlete to the Olympics at that time and they can't put them on pay-per-view. But long-term, their star will be brighter than ever. They competed in the Olympics and won a gold medal. You're also forgetting the fact that the Olympic MMA fights would not get primetime treatment, just like the boxing matches aren't getting. Now, that's a very good point, because they may not. They're showing if you watch, yeah, yeah, you're watching swimming at night,

you're watching gymnastics, you're watching running, even the basketball stuff. Yeah, the early stuff is on NBCSN or some other channel. They're not putting MMA in prime time. Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. They probably put like one fight total. Maybe. If even. I don't think one boxing match will be in prime time. Yeah, you're right. That is a, that is a huge sacrifice. You're right about that. So can you finally concede that this is dumb? No, I will not concede that it's dumb. I think it's very unlikely. I think you've made some really, really valid points that I don't think it will happen. But I do think that if there's a way to make it happen, I can guarantee you they will. I do think that they would pursue it.

Who? The IOC? The Olympic Committee, the MMA promoters, the organizations themselves. If there was a way to make this happen, I am very, very confident that they would try. to. Zero chance. I don't know. Absolutely zero. I've never been more sure of anything in my life. Well, no. All right. Wait, last one. Last one. One more. One more. CM Punk, rode to the octagon. They've been filming that. Yes. Do you have any idea when that's coming out? Yes. Okay. Hit me. Hit me with your best. I'm looking it up just one second. Come on and hit me with your best shot. And are you going to do a situation? And are you going to do a

down with Mr. Punk. I can't divulge such sensitive information. August 15th is what I'm told on FS1. Boom. Multiple parts series. They've been filming him for like, was it two years almost? Almost two years now, right? And I'm excited.

I will say this about Mr. C.N. Punk, according to good sources, you know, there was some talk early on that it wasn't going well and, you know, he was having a hard time transitioning, of course, he was picking up a brand new sport, one that he didn't have an extensive background in. I am told that a lot of eyebrows are being raised. And this is not coming from him. This is not coming. I mean, I have no dog in this race, but I'm being told that he has turned the corner, that eyebrows are being raised. I know people are going to scoff at this, and they're going to say, oh, yeah, right, yeah, right. That's all I'm going to say. I mean, you do anything for almost two years, and I know there have been setbacks, you're going to get better at it. You would

think. Now, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm being told that the guy who started off isn't the guy who's currently training in the gym. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, that's encouraging. I mean, look, I was, you know, people are going to be interested in this no matter what. And I think that, even, even that, the people who wanted him to fail from the start are the same people who are wanting, are wanting them to fail now. But it is encouraging to hear that, you know, we're at least getting a closer to finish product. I'm excited about it. I hope it has. I hope it has. I hope it happens and, you know, I like Mickey Gall a lot. And of course, you know, I have an affinity for seeing Punk. I did think of him yesterday, tying this whole thing back together. I mean,

here's a guy who has been publicly mocked, who people have tried to say, you know, he's just in it for the notoriety, for the publicity stunt, et cetera, et cetera, who has stopped short a very lucrative career to go out and put his neck out there and expose himself potentially and potentially get embarrassed, get beat up, knocked. out, a whole host of bad things can happen. Here's a guy who really put his money where his mouth is. He has not been paid over the last year plus for his training, for his troubles. And meanwhile, you have other people going on Twitter and trying to pick a fight with Conradger. Do you see the difference there? Do you see why I have a ton of respect for CM Punk? He's the real deal.

I mean, the guy went out there at an older age, beat up, and said, I'm done with this. And I want to do the real stuff. He's not resorting to third grade. insults on social media. There's a big difference there. And that's why I have a lot of respect for the guy. And I hope it. And Brock too. Brock also did this.

Absolutely. But although, you know, it's been marred. Sure. No doubt about it. And win or lose, in my opinion, CN Punk is a winner. You know, people can get worked up about his comments about title shots, all this stuff.

Win or lose, if he goes into that cage and fights Mickey Gall, which, by the way, is a very tough fight for him. And the odds would represent that. to me, this guy is someone that you can call a winner. Because, you know, forget about whether he deserves it. Forget about whether or not, you know, the UFC made of his, all that stuff. The guy stepping into a cage in front of millions of people who are hoping that he fails, who have publicly berated him and all that stuff and actually put his money where his mouth is,

one through the training camp, went through the surgery, all that stuff. And he's fighting a younger, hungry, I mean, there's a lot to respect there. And there's a lot to be. you know, to be impressed by there. And I think that really ties in everything that we were talking about. All right, we are done. That's it. That's it.

That's it. The stream is back. That's good news. Lost all our viewers. No, no. Poor Bubba Jenkins gets bumped and then he gets bumped again. We will get, I can't buy a break. We will get not only a clip on MMA fighting.

We will get the full show back on YouTube. Everybody will be able to see Bubba Jenkins. Audio will come out. Everything like usual. Look for it at the usual spots. I will say this. The audio is coming out a lot quicker, so I appreciate that. you're welcome thank you for the love on iTunes the ratings the comments the downloads all that and more we appreciate it greatly you can hit my music I have to get home because there is a fantastic water polo match that I have to get to tonight I cannot wait for it just kidding but if there is one I will be watching it because I enjoy it immensely there's nothing like the Olympic Games I got to cover them in 2010 for the late great fan house

Those were the Winter Olympics, which Canada killed gold medal, all that stuff. That was one of the greatest experiences of my career. And I am somewhat jealous of Guillermo and some other friends that are over there. I mean, not to say that I want to be over there, but it's just, it's a fun time. It reminds you why you love athletics, sports, the pageantry. When I competed in the Maccabi Games in 1999, Pan American Maccabee Games, I got to represent my country. Much smaller stage.

No doubt about that. but it's cool. And yes, I know the Olympics are very controversial and corrupt and all that stuff, but in a vacuum, it is fun to watch. Anyhow, let us say goodbye. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for tuning in.

Whether you watched it live or after the fact, we appreciate you greatly. Thank you very much to one Dan Henderson for stopping by. Good luck to him on October 8th. Thank you very much to Alistair Overeem. for stopping by as well. Yes, you were tardy, but you showed up, and that's all that matters. Thank you very much to the great Chris Wyman. Good luck to him as he prepares for UFC's debut in Madison Square Garden.

Thank you very much to Emil Meck. Appreciate his time. Vincent Henderson, the great miracle, Crowcock. Best of luck to him, September 25th. And Bubba Jenkins, good luck to you and Vincent Henderson on August 26th. Back next week, same time and place. Until that, I say, pay you. Support for this show comes from Figma.

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