MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 353

Episode Date: October 24, 2016

Ariel Helwani speaks to Randy Couture (00:05:45), Marc Raimondi (00:30:24), Marlon Moraes (00:48:55), Kevin Ferguson Jr. (01:08:51), Urijah Faber (01:27:24), Michelle Waterson (01:51:57), NewYorkRic to take your questions (02:20:53), and Matt Brown (03:10:54). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. I hope you had a great weekend. I sure did. Lovely time of the year here in New York. Thank you once again for joining us on a Monday afternoon to talk about a little mixed martial arts. It was a relatively quiet one in the world of the U.S. as far as this past weekend is concerned. A relatively quiet week, quiet little stretch.

As far as MMA action is concerned, the UFC is coming up in around two weeks. And I don't know if you're feeling the same way as me, but this kind of feels like just what the doctor ordered. I mean, this is sort of like that sense of yearning that we don't get when you talk about the UFC schedule. This is sort of that separation anxiety that I think is good, that I think. thinks makes us think like, oh, when is UFC coming back? Two straight weekends without an event? Oh, I kind of miss these guys, you know, November 5th, Ferguson RDA, November 12th, New York City. I have a

chance to catch my breath. This is good. I can do something else on a Saturday night. Now, no shortage of MMA action. Belator had an event in Memphis. That was pretty noteworthy, I thought. Alexander Schlomenko looked fantastic in his return. Vicious body shot. The storm is back. former Beltaur middleweight champion defeated Kendall Grove Bobby Lashley looked dominant once again unfortunately no baby slice Kevin Ferguson Jr. His opponent pulled out around

I don't know 36 or so hours before the event because he was 17 pounds over craziness but I thought it was a excuse me a solid broadcast. I had this debate between Chal Sunna and Tito Ortiz we'll talk about that in a bit but otherwise as far as action was concerned it was a relatively quiet one. News-wise, well, the news never sleeps. A ton has been going on.

The big news last week, as we continued to try to sift through this GSP situation, he was on the show a week ago today, talking about his contract situation, his lawyer, James Quinn, who you learned about last week, has been doing some interviews, some bold words, a little bit of an update on GSP, a little later on the show as well. some fights were announced or reported yet to be announced, but I thought the big news was all the layoffs. The UFC letting go around 60 to 80 employees, some very big names, some top level executives, and this is all a part of the new era that is coming into play with WMEIMG taking over, buying the UFC for around $4 billion back in July. The sale was official in August, and this was expected, perhaps not in the way it went down, but anytime a large corporation is going to buy another changes are going to happen.

That is inevitable. And I have some thoughts on the changes, the layoffs, how it went down, the future, and we'll get to those a little later on in the program as well. No shortage of things to discuss, as always, on today's show. Let me run down today's lineup and get to our first guest of the day, who I'm really excited to talk to because, if you recall last week, I actually spoke of him a few times saying that the GSP situation very similar to his, which happened around nine years ago amazingly.

Crazy how quickly time goes by. At around 4.10 p.m., we were going to be joined by Matt the Immortal Brown. It was announced last week that Matt Brown will be facing Tarik Safedine at UFC 207. UFC 207 rapidly becoming a very, very, very solid show. We could say that about 205. We can say that about 207. Not so much about 206. 206 is struggling at the moment. It really is. I mean, 206 is one main event injury away from I don't even know what. And of course, they haven't filled out the card. I mean, if you just look at the lineup, but it's a very, it's a very interesting lineup for that Toronto card on December 10th. 207, though, is great. I mean, Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes. We're expecting Cody Garbrand and Dominic Cruz to be added to that one any minute now. And another one that was added last week, Matt Brown versus Tarek Safedin. 305, we'll take your questions and comments. 245. Michelle Waterson, who main events,

UFC on Fox 22 in Sacramento against Paige Van Zent will stop by the karate haughty, looking to make her long-awaited return to the UFC. She's only fought once. So looking forward to talking to her. Uriah Faber is in Mexico, I believe, on vacation, but he is going to join us at 225 to talk about his upcoming fight with Brad Pickett, also on that Sacramento card. The aforementioned Kevin Ferguson Jr. We'll stop by at 205 to talk about once again his Belator debut falling through. This time it wasn't his fault.

His opponent, as I said at the top, was 17 pounds over, so they canceled it. Hopefully we'll see him in action sooner rather than later. 145, Marlon Morais, will stop by to talk about resumption. signing with WSOF, fighting on that NYC card, his new opponent and more, 125 our own Mark Romney will stop by to talk about a lot of news that he reported last week. Pat Lundval leaving the NAC issues with the New York State Athletic Commission and a whole lot more. But first, let us go to the Skype machine.

Excuse me, let me go to the phone lines, I should say, and welcome in our first guest of the day. Very excited to talk to Randy Couture. I talked about him several times. week when we were sort of digesting the whole GSP situation and there was no one else, you know, more, you know, sort of closely related to that story than him. I really wanted to talk to him on today's show, so I'm very thankful that he is coming on to start the program today. Randy, are you there? I'm here. How's it going, Ariano? I'm doing great, Randy. Thank you very much for the

time. First, before we talk to you about the similarities between your situation nine years ago, as amazing as that may seem and GSP's. I just want to quickly talk to you about your son, Ryan, who was in action on Friday. You were in his corner. Unfortunately, a tough night for him, suffer that submission loss. In your opinion, as his father and cornerman, what went wrong out there for Ryan? It's just, you know, one of those things. Got a little out of position.

He went for a seatbelt technique, tried to trap his bottom arm in the takedown transition, missed the trap, got his arm stuffed. underneath Yamauchi and Yamauchi's, you know, as good a grappler as there is out there right now. He's quick and quick with his hips and caught Ryan out of position. So it happens. Ryan, you know, his elbow popped a little, but he's not seriously injured at all. Probably more damage to his ego than his body. But, you know, it's tough coming off the loss with the tricky.

We were hopeful this is a great style matchup for Ryan. and wanted to test himself against the top grappler, and he just got out of position. It happens. How difficult is it for you as his father to corner Ryan to be there? I mean, it's got to be difficult, you know, just from a standpoint of you're cornering someone and you want them to win. But I can't imagine, you know, being there with your son and the disappointment and all that.

Do you enjoy doing that or would you rather not? You know, it's something we've been dealing with for a long time. Ryan started wrestling when he was nine years old. He wrestled all through junior high and high school. He used to get pretty nervous watching him wrestle. It was a little less part of the process when he was wrestling. He had coaches and was on teams. Now, you know, him training at Extreme Petour.

He started his fight career with us through the amateurs and now went to the pros for 15 fights. I'm part of the process. I sit down with him. We watch video. I see the work and the work ethic. I see the passion. I don't think you could ask for more from any athlete, let alone your son.

So I don't worry about him. I certainly as a coach and someone who wants him, as you said, be successful. It's frustrating to have setbacks, but it's part of the game. And taking all that in stride and keeping it in perspective is a big piece of it. So I don't mind it. I see that Ryan is doing something he loves to do,

and I'm all for that. Well, certainly he is very lucky to have you in his corner. Now, okay, one of the main reasons why I wanted to have you on was last week, GSP comes on my show, talks about his issues with the UFC contract that he has, declaring himself a free agent, and instantly I was reminded of your situation. Amazingly, that happened nine years ago. Could you believe that? I mean, that's just unbelievable.

October 11, 2007 is when you put out that statement. We all know how the story turned out, but I'm wondering, when you heard about this story, Were you reminded of your situation nine years ago? Was it sort of like the sense of deja vu? Did you see the similarities as well? Well, I certainly saw the similarities. And, you know, I have, I'm not privy to George's contract, to the language in George's contract,

but I'm sure it's in many ways very similar to what I was dealing with back in 2007. And maybe, unfortunately, for George, some of the issues that were pointed out in their contracts back then that were the impetus for me declaring my free agency back then and trying to make that fatal or fight happen

and having injunctions file and spending a lot of money on attorneys and stuff all. A lot of those things were closed. They contract to some extent to try and prevent athletes from doing what I then. But I'm

honestly not sure what George is contract. Generally, it's a, you know, a number of fights over a period of time, kind of, you know, whichever comes first. I'm sure there's a retirement clause in there and how that's worded and determined. I didn't hear George say he was retiring. I heard him saying he was taking hiatus from the sport, which is different than retirement. All those things factor into how, you know, George's attorneys are interpreting the language and then certainly how if they end up, litigation, how a judge or jury is going to interpret the language in the contract. But it's definitely going to be an uphill climb.

These guys have controlled fighters and controlled this situation for a long, long time, and they're good at it. So I think George is certainly going to be up against it. If George were to call you today and ask for your advice, since you probably know best what he is going through or about to go through, what advice would you give him? Would you say better not to go down this road, this legal road, better to try to figure this out, or 2016, a very different climate than 2007, in your opinion?

Well, I certainly think it's a different climate. Obviously, you're still dealing with Dana White, but WME is another thing completely than Zufa and the Fertitas. And I think that adds another layer to this whole thing. You know, George is represented by CAA, CAA and WM. you go way back as far as button heads and kind of fighting over things. So I think that there's probably some of that going on here as well. I certainly hope that George is ready to spend a considerable amount of money and legal fees and all that to fight this battle. That's the first thing, is that these guys are going to try and drag this out as long as they can drag this out

and get George to spend as much money as they can possibly make him spend in hopes to bleed him, to make him want to give up and just give it up. I think this is one more indication, in my opinion, that we as fighters need to come together, get behind the Fighters Association. As 1099 employees, we fit the Fighters Association model a lot better than a union or something like that. And as a united voice, I think we can come together and fight some of these things, get the ALE Act amended to take away some of this power that the promoters have to force us to sign some of these very coercive, frankly, awful contracts.

They're the controlling, control, rankings, control, who gets battle fights when and where. It's just there's things there that the boxers have been protected from through the ALE Act for a long time. So I think all those things are things that need to happen, and this is one more indication of why that is. You talk about, you know, the amount of money that George may have to spend. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you have to spend on your legal issue? How much did it cost you? It was more than $500,000 over the 13 months that I fought the company, both in Texas and Nevada, and it was considerable.

And at the end of the day, all I wanted to do was fight. Right. You know, at 44, it wasn't getting any younger. wanted to continue to eat. Certainly it made sense at that time to find a way to fight happen. And we know we're ranked number one and two in the world. Although we were different organizations, we should have been able to make that fight happen.

And it would have been a huge fight. And, you know, it didn't come to pass. But at the end of the day, I still felt like I had competition that I wanted to get done and decided just to give it up, to hang it up to not spend any more of my money fighting the system that was in place. Are you surprised that nine years later this issue still persists that guys, I mean, it's a different time. There are different issues at play with the sponsorship and whatnot.

But again, it very much reminds me of your situation. Are you surprised that the contracts haven't really evolved in almost a decade? No, I'm not surprised. I think we as far as our place. and I think the company selling for $4.4 billion was a big red flag. There are a lot of fighters that stood up and took notice as to what those guys made off of the sale of the brand that we've all been representing for a long, long time, and recognize that less than 10% of what they've been making,

we've been reaping as the product, as the fighters that are stepping in that cage. And that's just wrong. That equation's way out of whack. And I think it's so we, frankly, to come together and use our voice to fight these types of things, it's going to continue to happen. How confident are you that that's actually going to happen this year, next year? As you know, there's MMFA. I know you've done some work with them, spoken on behalf of them. Other groups have popped up like the PFA.

There's some dissension there, which I think is not good for anyone involved. Do you feel like there can be a united front given? you know, the discrepancy in pay from the top guys to the bottom guys, the fact that this is an individual sport. I mean, are you confident that this can finally happen? I'm confident that it can happen, absolutely. And obviously, again, I think that the MMAFA model, the fighters association is the right model for what we do

and who we are as independent contractors. I think obviously a huge step in the right direction is getting the Ali Act. amended. And then that level is the playing field with federal legislation on some level. Obviously, I think the ALI Act has to be adapted to fit mixed martial arts because there's still some differences between MMA and boxing and how it applies to both boxing and mixed martial arts. But I think that's a huge step in the right direction. And yeah, I think it can definitely happen, but it's going to take guys having the strength of backbone and get over their fear of the repercussions or potential repercussions with the promotions like WME and the UFC, you know,

everybody's scared they're going to get dropped. They're going to get blackballed. They're, you know, they're going to be those kinds of repercussions. So they're not willing to exercise their voice and come together. In a way, do you feel like this is the perfect time to come together because of the new management coming in, the new ownership? There's a state of transition. You can kind of hopefully start on the right foot with a new regime. I know there are still some, you know, same faces around, but this sort of feels like a good time to start fresh. Is that sentiment prevalent among those involved with the, you know, MMAFA or any other group? I think that that definitely is a factor. You know, WME deals, they're a talent agency. They're one of

the biggest talent agencies in the world, frankly. And they deal with the actors. And they deal with the actors and people who were part of the Screen Actors Guild, which is a very similar thing that the MMAA would be. And so they're used to, or Zufa, the Pretitas, and Dana White didn't, and don't want to deal with unions or associations like that. They've been kind of against that sort of thing in some of their other businesses all along. So I think all those things lend themselves in my beliefs that we, if we come together as fighters, can level the playing field and get a much fairer shake than we've been getting for a long time. For those that may not remember, you know, ultimately why did you end your legal battle

with the UFC and come back to fight Brock Lester? Was it because the Brock Lester fight was that intriguing? Was it because they, you know, extended an olive branch. You didn't want to pay anymore in legal fees? What was that sort of nail in the coffin as far as ending it? Well, I think all those things. I think I'd spend 13 months not competing at 44 years old. The clock was ticking. Spent more than $500,000 of my own

money to try and fight over my interpretation of the language in the contract. It just to continue for who knows how much long, you know, ruling and be able to go one way or the other.

And at the end of the day, I want to compete. I want to fight. I'm a fighter. When you when you when you when you hear GSP Anderson Silva Jose Audeau I mean we've never seen this kind of public dissension from top UFC stars what do you think do you think to yourself like hey guys you you know this is your fault you signed these contracts you should have looked at history how do you react when you I mean 2016 has been sort of unfathomable when when talking about all these you know massive stars speaking up finally how does Randy Couture take that in?

their fault? I don't think it's their fault. The organization has ruled with an iron fist. I'm an example of somebody that they've tried to black out. They've tried to and that's because of my stance with them almost from the very start over ancillary rights and the language and the contracts that they were trying to make me sign. they've still been the number one promotion in the sport. Now, the other promotions like the World Series of Fighting and Bellator have made up a lot of ground because of things like the uniforms and the implementation of USADA without any athlete's voice involved in that process. Some of the things that that promotion is doing has allowed some of these other promotions to get traction.

They've got good people behind them at NBC and with Viacom and the other. the places that they're showing our sport. But at the end of the day, the gold standard, if you will, has been with the UFC. It's synonymous with the sport in a lot of ways. So a lot of people aspire and want to fight in that organization. Well, if they want to fight in that organization, they're going to have to sign that contract, as bad as that contract is. How often, if ever, do fighters reach out to you for advice?

I get it here and there. People at various levels, obviously, at extreme patrol, work with a lot of different fighters. And, you know, I tried not to let our relationship with the company bleed over and affect the athletes that train at my gym. But unfortunately, I think that that's still been the case in certain circumstances. Certainly with my son, Ryan, I think they exercised their power and used, My son, Ryan, as a fighter, as a way to poke at me.

But, you know, it is what it is. Ryan and I communicated about it from the start on a regular basis. And, you know, it is what it is. Now he's with Bellatorre. I'm happy he's there. They take care of him. I get to corner him and, again, be back in part of the process for him, which was taken away, you know, by the other company.

So do you think eventually we might see top stars just start their own promotions like, you know, a Mayweather promotions? You know, this has been brought up in the past. You know, why can't someone just do their own thing? I know we, we don't really take into account how much that costs. But do you foresee this dissension leading to a more boxing style sport in terms of the way the promotions are built? I don't know.

I don't think that that's going to happen right now until fighters. start making a lot more money off of the fight careers. But the amount of money that it takes to run a promotion is pretty significant. A guy like Mayweather, who's making $40 million a fight, can afford to spend some of that money in an endeavor like that. But I don't think any of the MMA fighters, even the ones at the top of the rung, are wanting to or probably willing to spend their harder than money

and try and get a promotion off the ground. It just doesn't make sense. I ran a promotion with Dan Henderson and Matt Lennon for a while up in Oregon, a professional and amateur show called Sport Fight. And it's a lot of work, especially as athletes who are still competing, to connect all the dots and get everything done and make it viable and build a brand and all those things. So get exposure in the market. I mean, there's just a lot of things to go into that.

And of course, sorry, go ahead. I don't know if I had anything else to add other than I just think there's considerable difference between boxing and mixed martial arts, certainly in regard to what boxers are able to make and what the top mixed martial arts. And we can't forget that Mark Cuban also tried to help out and probably spent a lot of money. Do you have any idea how much money he spent on trying to put together that fade or fight? I'm not sure what Mark ended up spending, but he was certainly part of the process with creating a venue and negotiating with Fador to try and find a place for that. And obviously that served what he was doing at that time.

He had, you know, in the American Airlines Arena down in Dallas, his own shows that he was putting on HDNet at that time. So it was creating content or potential content for him and his network. and he would have potentially been largely responsible for helping put together one of the biggest fights at that time in 2007, 2008. So I think, you know, it was money that he was willing to risk and spend to make that happen. And frankly, I don't think he was very happy when I didn't want to spend any more of my own money to fight that fight.

It was frankly, I don't have nearly as deep of pockets as he does. Right. Yeah, wow. What a fascinating time that was. If I can, before I let you go, ask you to look into your crystal ball. And I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but what do you think happens with GSP? Just given your insight, I know you don't have that information in the contract. You're not privy to that.

But, you know, what is your gut say? Well, I mean, I'm sure that if he moves forward as a free agent and tries to make the fight that he wants to happen somewhere else, there will be injunctions filed. And then it'll be a time. period where they'll be, you know, they'll be interviewing everybody from everybody. There's this time process to see any of that come before a judge and get ruled on. And just like in the situation was in, how long is he going to want to wait? How long is he going to, you know, he's been out for a little while now and not competed?

How long is it that he wants to wait? How much money is that going to cost him to continue to fight that battle when he's unable to fight or compete or make any money anywhere else. Questions. And then what's the likelihood? What if they rule all of that, and then they rule that the contract is still enforced and he still owes fights to WME and the UFC?

Now he's back to renegotiating and trying to make the fights happen that he wants to happen with that organization after all of that. what's your guess as far as when an association will be formed realistically a powerful the association is there now the m m m m a f a you can get on the WhatsApp and get on the thread there's there's going on 200 athletes on there communicating on a regular basis about the MMFA and all the things and basically there's an education process just like there was a world teaching people what our sport was about and that we weren't

crazy thugs and criminals. We're just martial artists that want to be professional athletes. So I think the same thing is true about what we're doing as athletes now educating ourselves about what the difference is between a union and a fighters association. How does that affect us as 1099 independent contractors? What does the ALE Act do for us? There's been an education process for all of us as fighters for 10 years. I've been hearing this talk.

I've been involved in trying to see us come to. together as spiders and unite our voice for quite a while now. And I feel like the best shot we have right now is the MMAFA. Okay. And by the way, I wasn't trying to put down the MFA. I meant more of having, you know,

a promoter like the UFC, recognize the association so that you guys can actually go in and do what you want to do. You know what I mean? I know obviously that they've been around. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I didn't feel like you were trying to put us down. I think it was an honest question.

And again, I think, you know, there, out there, I don't think the World Series of fighting or Bellator are against us forming a fighters association. In fact, I've heard Scott Coker in interviews talk about the Alley Act and talk about the need for or potential need for a fighters association. I don't think he thinks those are unreasonable things. So I think, you know, it's going to take some more time. I think we're going

to continue to educate fighters. I think fighters are fed up with, with, kind of taking it in the shorts, frankly, and we're starting to come together and realize we have power, and only if we stay united. By the way, when was the last time Scott Coker asked you to fight for him, and did you consider it? I feel like it was like last week. You never really directly asked me to fight for him. Obviously, when Fador threw his hat back in the ring and came out of retirement, my phone went off. Yeah. And I happened to run ambassador work for a fight at the Mohegan Sun with Scott Coker in New York City doing a bunch of interviews and just about to an interview every single one asked me about coming out if I was

going to come out, it was going to come back and try to fight Fadour now. So I think it was, you know, he was just sitting there smiling. But, you know, I think he understood where I was at and why that just didn't make a lot of sense to me at 52 years old. If anyone can do it, you can. But I figure Scott would at some point throw that out there, being the guy that he is knowing the way his mind works. But I respect you nonetheless for knowing when to say when. That's obviously a very important part of this game as well.

An honor as always, thank you so much for the insight, Randy. Really appreciate you coming on and talking about this and sort of going down memory lane. I know it wasn't a highlight of your career, but a very important part. and it's amazing that nine years later, there's still very much a clear, you know, a clear link between the two stories. So I appreciate it greatly. Thank you.

You bet. Thanks. Have a great day. All right. There he is. The Natural. Randy Couture. Remember that?

Remember when he put out that press release? I think it was the Fight Network that first got it, Loretta Hunt, and then he had that press conference. Just a fascinating time. In fact, that was the very beginning of my MMA journalism career. I think it was October 19, 2007, when I launched Jerrypark.com, my own website,

and Randy's initial press release saying that he was swimming upstream, that he was going to no longer fight for the UFC was October 11, 2007. So a fascinating way to get into this board now. Here we are nine years later. Still talking about this sort of thing. All right, let's bring in our own Mark Romundi, who's joining us via the Magic of Skype. Come on, Mark.

I mean, really, you're going to do this to me? Unbelievable. Mark trolling me, as the kids like to say. You want for doom? You got for doom. Who? I'm not familiar with him. Thank you for joining us, Mark.

I appreciate it. Morning. It feels like you're joining us from Kabul or something. There's like a five-second delay. Really? Yes. Usually my Skype is on point. Yeah, it feels like you haven't paid your bill late.

What is going on? Why is there such a delay here? It's very strange. Do you guys see this? Do you guys feel this? Do you hear this? Maybe let's reconnect with you because it's, first of all, I'm hearing myself. Maybe put the volume down.

Now speak. No. All right. How's this? Any better? Hello? Okay, that's better. Mark, thank you for joining us.

Good to have you on. Don't look so confused. Technical difficulties happen sometime. I don't know what's going on. What's your take? Maybe I need to do mask, but. Maybe you screwed up the whole thing with that mask. What's your take on this whole GSP?

situation. Hearing from Randy, hearing from GSP last week, hearing from James Quinn, GSP's lawyer last week, talking to our own, Sean Alshaddy and others. How do you think it all plays out? You know what's funny? I was reading the quotes that Sean got from James Quinn, GSP's lawyer last week, and they almost mirror word for word what Jeff Boris, the head of the Professional Fire Association, was saying about when he saw UFC contracts, in, I guess, earlier this year before the first McGregor-D-S fight, almost word for word, the exact same things he was saying about them being contracts from the past, you know, being almost like a form of slavery, that kind of stuff.

It was very weird to see two people who don't know each other say almost the exact same thing about UFC contracts. I think that this is a situation that will need to change eventually. I just don't know how it gets there. You know, I think that we're at point A. Point B is a little bit more of an even playing field between the promoter and fighters. I just don't know what's in between. I don't know what that path is. I think that the PFA is on to something.

I think the MMAFA is onto something. I think that fighters need to decide what they want to do and they need to unify in some way, shape, or form. I don't see it happening right now, honestly. I see a lot of skepticism among fighters. Some of them are all for it. Some of them don't know, don't trust. and a lot of them really fear because this is their livelihood and they don't know if they want to get in bed with certain groups

and go against their employer, the people who find their paychecks, which I understand too. I think that eventually something will happen. In every other sport, it was a process. It took many, many years. I think that'll be the same thing here. I don't think that this is something that's going to happen overnight. I know that the PFA kind of came out this summer

and they were guns blazing, but I think this is something that's going to take a very long time. time. It's not going to just be a snap of the fingers and all of a sudden, hey, we have a fighter's union. I don't think it's going to be anything like that. Yeah, I mentioned this on the MMA beat. It's always fascinating to see someone who's not an MMA person, who's obviously very well educated, perhaps, you know, a lawyer, someone like that, learn about MMA, learn about MMA contracts and just be flabbergasted about what goes on and the stuff that the fighter sign. I think that the deadline is the new TV deal. I think, you know, after we saw what happened in the NBA this summer and how other

athletes and other sports get a cut of TV deals, I think that the TV deal in America, which is up in two years, should be their deadline. They need to have something in place, a unified front, some sort of collective bargaining in place before that big next TV deal is signed. My one little quick update is, you know, these reports and M.A. Junkie reported, I mean, there's no coincidence. You can kind of make it out for yourself why GSP was in Las Vegas. So I wouldn't last week. There was a report that came out that he was in Vegas last week. We all know why.

I wouldn't put Toronto to bed. I wouldn't say that, you know, it's not going to happen. The clock is certainly ticking on Toronto. I know there's this boycott out, which I don't think is going to get very far. But you look at that Toronto card. I mean, do you agree with me? It's, and I'm knocking on wood, but it's one main event injury away from, I don't even know what it is. Yeah, it's severely lacking right now.

I think they were probably thinking that GSP was in. They were probably banking on him being in that spot. And now that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I heard something, some rumors today, Bisping possibly. He kind of shot that down last week that he could be fighting on that card. He has the medical suspension. Have you heard anything about Bisbing fighting on that card? Well, I mean, try not to turn the tables on me on my own show here.

I mean, I ask the questions here, Mark. But look, I'll say this about. Yes, yeah, no, I know. I appreciate that. You're so, you're so good at just steering the ship, you know, whether it's pilot, co-pilot. You know, as well as anyone. Those medical suspensions are just sort of, you know, suggestions. There's a very easy way to get around those. We'll see what happens. I'm not, I'm not ready to put, you know, the final nail in the GSP fighting in Toronto coffin, but certainly, I mean, look, Brock Lesnar was announced a month before 200, so we're not quite a month out. So crazier things have happened.

I do believe, and I hope everyone agrees at this point, the guy wants to fight. I mean, anyone claiming that he doesn't want to fight, you're just, you're sorely mistaken. The guy wants to fight, so let's see what happens. I want to ask you about a couple of... One more thing about the union situation. Just last week, the NBA players and the NBA owners came to an agreement that the players would get 51% of revenues. That was about how it came about, 51% of revenues sharing with the owners. Obviously, we know that UFC fighters make considerably less than that. 51% is a nice little chunk. They're obviously getting a portion of the broadcast rights, which is a lot of money, as you mentioned. So something like that, you know,

it may not be 51% for UFC fighters in a few years, but it could get incrementally closer, at least. Absolutely. I think we all want to see that. You reported on Saturday that the great Pat Lundval is leaving the Nevada Athletic Commission. Why now? Good question. And a lot of people have assumed it's because of Conn McCrigger saying he doesn't want to fight in Nevada for the foreseeable future. I did ask about that a number of people, and they discouraged that kind of talk. They said that's not actually the case.

Apparently, the governor, Governor Sandoval, Nevada wants to limit these appointments to only two terms. And this is actually Pat Lomboll's third term as a commission. on the Athletic Commission. So I think that that's what's going to happen. I think that you'll see that more and more with the commissioners. But only going to serve two terms instead of longer than that. I mean, Pat Lundball has been on the commission for nine years. So that's what I was told.

Again, the timing is quite ridiculous, right? It is a bit of a coincidence that just two weeks ago, Conn Regger says, I'm not fighting in Nevada. And now we find out that Pat Lundball is leaving. And Pat Lundval is like the, she's like the prosecutor up there, you know, for the commission. and she's really the one who plays hardball the most with the fighters and with the athletes. So it is a bit of a coincidence. I would not say for sure that there is no direct link there,

but I've been told otherwise that it's actually just the governor wanting to limit terms for commissioners and other boards in the state. She's like the Michael Bloomberg of the Nevada Athletic Commission. She's got to go for a third term and rewrite history. Can you explain to me what Bob Bennett was telling you when he was saying that the media didn't get it when reporting his punishment, the $150,000 fine. I mean, what exactly does Connor have to pay? And is this spin on his part?

Did we get it? And they tried to sort of fix it after the fact? So this is their side. The commission is saying that when they threw out the $150,000 number, that was including the value of the public service announcement. So they were only going to find, actually just to only directly find, McGregor, $75,000. And they estimated that the PSA would be a value of about $75,000 as well. So they lumped it all together as one lump sum.

But he only has to write a check for $75K to the commission. That's what their side of the story is and that it was misinterpreted by the media and by others and by maybe even McGregor and Dana White, that it was actually that number that he has to pay when it's not. it's only half that number. If you're asking me if that spin or what have you, I don't know. You know, I listened back to the hearing. I listened to it over again,

and I kind of heard both things. Like it, I think maybe they were even confused at the time, about what they were voting for. At one point, I think Pat Lumpwell did say that, you know, the value of the PSA was included in there. And then someone else said it wasn't, it's all very confusing, but I will tell you that what we do know is that

McGregor only owes the commission $75,000. Other than that, I can't tell you for sure what the heck is going on over there. What a mess. And the next hearing is November 10th. That's a big day for John Jones. He has his USIDA arbitration a week from today. And I think it was important for him to get that out of the way first to try to, I mean, I think he's pretty confident that he's not going to get as stiff of a penalty from

Usada. Hopefully they can set the precedent. But we all know that the NAC is, you know, they, are an entity that plays by their own rules. Will Pat Lundval be involved in that November 10th hearing, or will she be gone by then? October 31st is her last day. Wow. Huge.

Speaking of commission stuff. It'll be Jones, Nate Diaz, and probably Brock Lesnar all on November 10th. Yes. Can't wait for that. Two days before UFC 205. How about that? Speaking of commission stuff and 205, fantastic piece of reporting on your part about the New York State Athletic Commission.

For those that may have missed it, and I do urge them to go back yesterday morning it was posted your weekly click debate article. I do urge you 100% to read this. But for those that missed it, what are the issues right now plaguing that commission? I'm not sure if we have time to discuss that on the show. I mean, it's unbelievable. Okay, so pretty much the main thing going out, the NYSAC, the really the big cog in the wheel, the elephant in the room is that lawsuit against them from the 2013 boxing match with the

Dagestani fighter, Magamad Abdu Salamov. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that the correct way, but he basically they found a state inspector general investigation found that Nysak was culpable, or at least they were negligent in how they handled him post-fight. He was beaten in the fight. He was injured, and the doctors there pretty much rubber-south. stamped it and said, oh, yeah, you may have an orbital fracture, just go to the doctor when you get home next week in Florida, when really it was much worse than that. He had bleeding on the brain.

He actually had to take a cab to the hospital. They didn't put him in an ambulance because they just rubber-stamped it. They said, oh, yeah, you're fine, essentially. And he had to take a cab to the hospital, went to the hospital, had bleeding on the brain, was in a coma for a long time, was in the hospital for 10 months, and he's disabled. He, I mean, frankly, he's disabled. I mean, frankly, He's going through a rehabilitation process. He has a lot of neurological deficits. He's in bad shape. So the commission is being sued for that.

Before that, and during that, and after that, there was an inspector general from the state investigation into the commission, and that investigation was made public over the summer. And it just, it was a laundry list of issues that they have. Pretty much the regime that was there resigned after the, the investigation came out. Tom Hoover was the chairman. David Berlin was actually asked to step down. He was actually a bit of a whistleblower. He contributed to the investigation and he kind of blew the whistle on some of his colleagues. He was the executive director. He stepped down

before the investigation even came out because they asked them to step down because there's too much turmoil, something like that. It's a really, really confusing situation. On top of that, there's a, there's no other commission that has this. There's a $1 million insurance policy. policy for brain injuries that promoters have to take out every single pro fight card that happens in boxing in MMA in New York. Now, that has kept boxing out. There has not been boxing in New York since before September 1st when this policy went into effect. Right now, there is no actual cost figure for promoters because no insurance companies actually underwrote this insurance policy yet. I mean, it's an unprecedented thing, a $1 million per fighter.

Per fighter. So if there's 24-5,000. fighters on the card, you're paying $24 million? No, it's, it's $1 million. That's how much the insurance policy will be worth it. They will get, uh, okay, injuries their brains later on. Gotcha. You know, after the fight, because of the fight, there is no, we don't know how much that will actually cost a promoter yet because no insurance company has actually said they would sell this yet.

Yeah. Now the NYSAC is working with insurance companies trying to see which ones will actually sell this kind of insurance because it's unprecedented. That has not been approved yet. We're only a few weeks now out of UFC 205, and they still don't have an insurance company or two insurance companies that will sign off. There are two AIG being one that have said they would sell it, and they have filed for approval. Wow. That process is still going down.

But the issue here is that mid to small level, MMA and boxing promoters are going to have a hard time running shows in New York at that cost. I spoke to Rob Haydack, who is the president of Alliance MMA, this new body that's, that has gone public and they've joined up with the promotions across the country and they're going to be like a feeder system for MMA, which is a great idea. He was telling me that he expects that to run a show in New York will be four or five times the amount of running a show in New Jersey where he runs CFFC and other places. I mean, four or five times, that's an incredible amount of money. These promoters, and you know this as well as I do, these regional level promoters don't make that

much money, if at all. A lot of them take a bath on these shows. to have it cost four to five times more is insane. And boxing has taken a huge head because boxing ran in New York all, you know, for decades, for a century without this provision. And now they have to, now they have to take out this insurance policy. And boxing is leaving. I mean, Danny Jacobs fought less than Redding, Pennsylvania.

The car should have been in Berkeley Center and broke in his hometown. That stuff is moving out of New York because they're afraid of this insurance policy. Joe DeGuardia and Lou DeBella, two of the, the, well-known boxing promoters have said that boxing is basically ceasing to exist in New York because of this issue. So it's just a mess right now and maybe it'll change in the future. We don't know. But right now it's going to be very hard for the smaller level boxing that I made promoters to run shows in the state. Do you foresee it changing? Like is there pressure to change it or is it going to remain this way for at least, you know, the foreseeable future?

They doubled down. They doubled down just a few weeks ago. Last month, they doubled. double down and approved it. I mean, it was part of the original bill when we watched the crazy hearing in April, the, the House. February. It was part of that bill. And they actually, the commission doubled down on and said, yeah, we're going to move forward with this provision last month. So, I mean, it's not going to change any time soon. Maybe there is some hope that once MMA kind of gets off, gets off the ground and the ball starts rolling, that they'll see that it isn't quite, maybe quite as better they think it is. Basically, what critics are saying is that this is a provision that doesn't really help the athlete. It helps the athlete after the fact. Yeah. If they do indeed get these,

these brain injuries, but it doesn't help them on the front end where it doesn't help them not get any kind of brain injury. And that's the big criticism. It protects the commission and the promoters later on if an athlete does get injured, but it doesn't actually help an athlete or prevent them from getting injured in the first place. And obviously, you know, because of the investigation, the commission in New York has shown some negligence in that regard. So it's a bit of a, it's a bit of a mess right now. Always, always an interesting time. Never dull in New York State. One last quick thing before I let you go on. Great stuff there. Great reporting. Again, I do urge you to check out that article that Mark wrote Sunday morning it was posted on MMAFighting.com.

Do you agree with my spiel at the top of the show that there's this sense of yearning for UFC action, like the two weeks off, another weekend off? Like, this is good for the soul, right? It's nice to miss the UFC. It's nice to have that separation anxiety, right? 100% agree. Yeah, yeah. This is just... It's a little weird having free Saturday nights.

I know. I'm not going to lie to you, but I actually have a social life in some case. Shocking. You found it. I did. I found it after all these years. So, yeah, I think it's not a bad thing to have a little bit of a break once in a while. Having a UFC card, ever...

There was that one stretch just last month where it was just like, what, five weeks in a row of UFC, and it's just draining. You know, a lot of them were fight night cards, FS1 cards, which can drag because of the commercials because of the scheduling. Yeah, it's not a bad thing. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Very well said, Mark.

Very well said. And I know they didn't draw it up this way necessarily. I know the Manila card was canceled and then the two weeks off, but I think it's perfect going into that New York card to have people sort of foaming at the mouth for the UFC, longing for it, missing it, et cetera, et cetera. Great stuff, Mark. appreciate it as always again read that story on m a funny dot com the two stories that we talked about

the pat lumval one and the one about the nysack as mark put it thanks buddy talk to you soon all right there he is mark romundi of mma fun of the very best in the business and you saw why right there okay speaking of the new york state athletic commission uh the second major promotion to hold an event in new york city will be world series of fighting that will be december 31st at the theater at Madison Square Garden, New Year's Eve, four title fights. They just announced the fourth. David Branch is fighting on the card, too, against Louise Taylor. One of the big names on the card is Marlon Maris, one of the very best bantam weights in the world.

He joins us now via the Magic of Skype. There he is, the 135-pound champion for World Series of fighting. Marlon Maris on the show right now. Marlon, how are you? I'm very good, man, and happy to have a day to perform, you know. Yeah. And it's such a great platform like New York City, you know, be fighting near home, big stage, you know, Madison Square. I know it's in a theater, but we're going to be an NBC and, man, I'm very happy now.

Okay, so there's a lot to talk to you about Marlon because the last time we saw you in action was end of July, much publicized that that was the last fight on your World Series of Fighting Contract. Now, here you are back defending your title. Ultimately, why did you decide to return to WSOF? Man, you have to understand. I have a very good relationship with the worst series. And Uncle Bruce knows me. He knows my wife. He knows her name.

You know my son. He knows my son's name. And it's kind of hard when somebody takes you for a dinner, give you a truly hug, you know. And keep explaining to you. He knows me, you know. He took me for a nice steakhouse. He knows my favorite food.

And man, the meat keep coming, you know. I was eating very well. And man, he knows me, you know. He understands about my life. And I like the idea. And he makes an offer that I couldn't refuse, you know. I have a family. I have a beautiful wife and a beautiful, beautiful son.

I love to perform. He showed me the platform, the channel 4, NBC. And such a great promotion, man. I fight for me, you know. we are the best promotions in the world, you know. And man, I couldn't refuse, you know, and I felt like, man, I got to do this, you know. And I talked to my family with my coaches and, especially my wife, you know, and that was the decision, you know. Keep fighting for the World Series of Fighting, keep performing and fight everybody, you know, because in the World Series, I can fight anybody.

I can fight anybody. I can fight people from, like, everywhere in the world and people that we don't know in the UFC they know who they're going to fight they know who's doing well the champions worry about this guy about that guy man i'm in a tough spot you know can come guys from everywhere you know guys that we never know guys that that do great you know guys that have like great records and and this is what i'm looking for i'm looking to fight with the best and i'm not going to choose opponents i just want to be in a big stage and i want to perform who is this uncle bruce that you speak of by the way Uncle Bruce is one of the owners, you know, the work cheers are fighting and, man, he's just an awesome guy, you know, he knows me, you know.

It's kind of hard when you have a relationship like that with the person, you know. And he knows my family, you know, and I was very, very grateful to have him in my life and see how he cares about me and my son, especially my son. Did you or your management speak to other promotions? Did you field offers from other people? We kind of felt outside, you know, but, man, the words of finding did something for me that I couldn't refuse, you know, and that's it. Hmm. Can you tell us how long of a deal you signed for?

Like, how many fights? Man, it's such a great deal. Oh. And you guys got to talk with my manager. My manager will like to know, and he will explain you why, you know. and it's something like lifetime. You know, I'm very happy and I'm very grateful, man, for what they've done for me. So is it fair to say that you are content with ending your career with World Series of Fighting?

Like, you are happy there. That's your home. You don't want to think about anywhere else. Man, I kind of feel like I hang with the best, you know. I feel like I'm the best right now. Like, of course, you can say five good names, you know, the top of the rankings, the other promotion champions. but I'm in a good spot man

they're gonna keep fighting good good opponents man they are happy with me as a champion but man wouldn't be bad you know if somebody coming in you know do great you know people wants to see good fights and man right now I feel like

I'm able to prove where I belong in the world series you know was there any part of you said man I just want to fight Dominic Cruz so I can beat him and there's no question in anyone's mind I could be the king of all kings, that's what I want. Was there a part of you that felt like you needed to do that?

Or do you think that people already consider you one of the best, so it's not necessary? Yeah, I think he's a great fighter, like his contender, Cody Garber and like John Linnaker, like all those guys, man, they're all tough guys, but it's just a matter of a day, you know, I know if I fight those guys three times, maybe I can beat 10 one, I can be two, you know. It's close fight. I know I know as good as they are, you know. So man, I'm happy right now and I think a lot of people know who I am and what I can do. Does being a father and a husband change the way you make your decisions as opposed to maybe you're in the same situation 10 years ago?

And maybe your ego is the most important thing. And you say, oh, I want to just be the best. I'll go fight anywhere. But now that you're a father and a husband, you have to think about finances, security, being comfortable. Do you feel like that changes the way you think now? I could say a little bit but I have a great team man Mark Henry and Ricardo

Almeida they like my friends they're not just a coach for me Frankie also Edson Barbosa and I spoke with all of these guys I spoke with Eddie and man everybody everybody stick to my side and everybody gave that opinion you know and that was very important

and I think I have major support from everybody to still be fighting for the worst series of fighting you know and like you see man, you see Eddie, Eddie went right there, and he finished Rafael in the first round. Yeah. And he was the ballot to a champion, you know? And can I do that?

You know? That's the question. Contractually, you can, but do you dream of a day where you can do that, where you can actually go and fight other champions? Do you think this time will ever come? I think it's a matter of time, you know? It's a meta time. We don't know if I'm going to have to go out there or we're going to have, I don't know,

things might change, you know. All promotions, now the MMA, it's kind of leaving a different time, you know. We don't know what's going to happen out there. We don't know what's going to happen out here. We don't know what's going to happen with all the promotions. A lot of changes are happening right now. And I feel like I'm in a very comfortable position and I'm able to perform. And, man, I'm leaving my dream.

I'm going to do what I love in New York City, man. Yeah. 31st, December 31st. December 31st. I'm used to watch Van der Leys Silva fight December 31st cards in Japan as a kid sitting on a couch. Now I'm there, you know,

and this is a kid's dream becoming reality, you know? Yeah, well, congratulations. And that, of course, is on NBC, big NBC, not NBCSN. They announced today that you're fighting someone named Joseinaldo Silva, which at first I was like, is this a mix between Josealdo and Anderson Silva? I have to admit, I've never heard of Josezano Silva. Did you ever hear of him before you were approached with this fight?

Yeah, he's just the number one fighter in Brazil at 135 pounds. And I watch a lot of Brazilian promotions fights, you know, on Canal Combat. And man, this guy is not joke, you know. Yeah. He's a great fighter. And I think they couldn't find a better opponent for me. And this guy's 18 and all his last, how many fights are? Robert got?

Yeah, yeah. Is that true? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, a guy, he's 18, no, his last 18 fights. But the level of competition, not the same, right? I mean, do you know all the fighters that he's fighting? Yeah, but who knows, you know? Yeah.

We don't know. It's a matter of opportunity. A lot of people get that opportunity early. A lot of people get that opportunity late, you know. And I'm an example. I try out for the UFC and I got no. They said no to me, you know. and I could be good or not.

You know, now I'm here. So we don't know. We never put that guy right there, you know. But I know he's a very good fighter and I know he can do well. I was just joking about the 10 and 0. Oh, no, no. That's okay. I like that.

I like that. It's definitely a huge number, you know. Totally. He hasn't lost since 2011, an unbelievable streak. By the way, when did you try out for the UFC? What year was that? I think 2012, the first seat, you know, the year, first season the Ultimate Fighter, Brazil.

Ah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. 45. I tried out for the 45. And they said, no, you. Yeah, they like me as a fighter, but they said, oh, I don't, I don't think they like me as a person, you know. I think I'm not cool. I think I'm not cool enough, man, to be there, you know. Screw those guys.

So now I support you not resigning or signing with them, you know. They didn't want you. They can't get you now that you're a star. I guess, I guess you have to, you have to have a big green hair, beer, you know, cursed, smoke cigarettes. I'm not that guy. I'm cool. I'm fine that I didn't get my opportunity because of that, you know.

Well, it all worked out for you. That's for sure. Is it frustrating? Like, do you feel like you're in a tough spot where you have to tell people what you just told me like, this guy's tough? He hasn't lost in 18 fights. He hasn't lost. So everyone kind of expects you to win because you're fighting someone who's not known

in America. Do you feel like that's a tough spot for you as opposed to saying, oh, some name that everyone knows? Yeah. That is tough, right? Yeah, it's tough, you know, because I need to fight the guy. I need to beat the guy and people ask me and I still need to say he's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And different than a big name, you know, like I would say a TV name, you know, because those names are on TV all the time. Everybody that's a MMA fan, they're watching them. So they are popular guys, you know. They got tattoos on the face. I don't have a tattoo, man. I got to get some, man. I guess.

That's not who you are. You don't have a single tattoo? Do you have a tattoo? No, I don't. I don't have a tattoo, man. I just can't fight. Is that now? No, no.

You have enough going for you. But you're interesting. I thought they were going to put you the main event. You're not the main event, right? On NBC, I think you're the first fight on the televised card. Is that accurate? I think I'm the second fight. invite, okay? I don't care. Where's my spot? But I have some to say, like, man, I'm a good

fighter, you know, I can beat a lot of guys. But that's, I'm a big fight, fight fan. And I think Gage got to be in that main event, you know. Wow. I, I can't agree. I can't agree, man. He's a fighter that the things he does. Oh, that's Justin Gage, thanking you for the the compliment. Yeah, he just sent me a message. I'm sorry. No problem. One second, I'm just going to make the scream big here.

Yeah, that was Justin Gate. I'm sorry. One second, I'm going to turn it off my phone. Oh, yeah, no problem. Because it's connected to the computer. So Justin Gatesy's the main event. They also announced David Branch versus DeS Taylor, Marlon Marlon Marais. And like I was saying.

Yeah, go ahead. Like I was saying, man, I love to watch that guy fight. you know bro he's he's a great fighter and not just a lot just technique you know bro what's gonna happen that guy fight you know we never know it's always something crazy i'm 100 i'm 100% cool and i think he earned that spot you know i would say that okay fair enough uh you talked about your team and a lot at that spot i had to fight him i think he's two divisions above me oh no i think it's too much for me yeah

Your team is on fire these days, led by Mark Henry, Ricardo Almeida, as you mentioned, Eddie Alvarez, Frankie Edgar, Etzim Barbosa. I mean, it's really a who's who. And a lot of those guys are actually fighting around the same time as you. Can you tell us about the confidence these days of the team? What's it like when you go to the gym around all these guys? Man, first of all, like, these guys are such a great example as a fighter, as a champion that I was always looking for. You know, back in the days, I see some champions and I like, man, I don't want to be like this guy. And I came here to New Jersey.

I saw Frankie and said, man, I think I want to be like this guy. I think I want to be a champion, you know. He kind of bring that fire to my heart again. And Frankie, bro, he's humble. He's there every day. He's there early. He's going to work. He's going to work again.

And he's looking great, man. You know, like you all know, Frank is going to be a tough fight for anybody. Anybody in the world. And it doesn't matter the division. He fights a. 45, 55, 35, it doesn't matter. He's a phenomenal fighter. And I think he makes some adjustments from the last fight.

And I think he's going to do great. And he's very excited about the fight near home, you know. He's from Jersey, man. Frankie's going to bring the hit to New York, man. Yeah, it was interesting. I saw you at the press conference, right? Yeah, I was there. What's it like for you to see that?

It's cool, man. It's cool. You want to be a part of something like that? Do you say, ah, I want to be a part of a big press. Because World Series doesn't do a lot of press conferences. Sometimes I feel like I want to be and sometimes not, you know, because I's a lot of crap, you know. Yeah. A lot of talking, a lot of, a lot of, the game is changing, man.

Definitely. I agree with some of the fighters. But we got to be like the fans like, you know, and we got to be a little bit as a good fighter and we got to talk a little bit too, you know. Yeah. And I just said about Frankie and now I want to say about who else, Eddie. Eddie is looking good too, you know. I don't want to be in Connor's skin, you know. It's something like...

I'm very confident. Ed is a monster and I think it's a very good matchup for him. And he's going to do great, you know. What's your prediction on that fight? What do you think? Eddie, Connor? Eddie. No, but how?

Of course, Eddie. But how do you foresee him winning? I think Eddie is going to knock him out the first round. Oh, wow. TKO, first round. Geez, the world will explode if that happens. Especially. Yeah, exactly.

By the way, I want to ask you, I saw on your Twitter, like you were kind of going after some of the haters talking about World Series of Fighting. I never seen you talk like that before. Where does this come from? Man, I don't know, man. I just want to stick with the team that I love, you know. I want to stick with the worst series of fighting,

and I feel like they are doing great. And sometimes I feel like the fan, they love us. They want us to get paid. But when we are getting paid, they complain, you know. They want to give some, but they don't want to give at all, you know. I don't know, man. This is a weird people, you know. I feel like mostly of these guys are guys that work out, train in the gym,

but they don't have the balls to go out there, you know. Oh, yeah, I like it. So you were getting. I like to say like, I got to get a little bit of Nick Diaz, eight years word, you know, I don't give a fuck about those guys. Oh, yes, I like it. So you were getting some crap for resigning World Series and you got annoyed about it? Because you're getting paid, right? Yeah, man, this is all about, you know. It's all about who take cares of you. We got to be honest to each other, you know, and it's about opportunities, you know, and they gave

me a great opportunity, a great platform, great show, and I'm ready. I'm ready to perform. I didn't say about Edison. Edson, too, you know. Oh, Edson is here, man. He's training, you know, he's ready. And if somebody from the UFC, like, watching, you know, they know. They know, like, Edison is asking for fights. And if somebody get hurt in the next shows and if somebody got balls to fight him, he's ready, you know. He's ready to fight.

Yeah, I know he is anxious to fight. He is looking for a fight and he's looking very good as a play. But I like what you said. Somebody got to get this guy a fight, man. Okay. because he's going to keep fighting on. I thought it was very important in what you said. The days of just taking a smaller contract with the UFC,

just to say that you fight in the UFC, it shouldn't be like that. You should try to go where you can make the most money so that you can be secure and comfortable and provide for your family, and that's what you're doing. That's basically the bottom line here, right? Yeah, man.

That's, man. Like in any job. It is. is what it is. It's that big part, but it's definitely, man, I got to say I'm very proud to say I'm going to fight in New York City for a great promotion, man. It's like the guy was before I was listening and he was saying how hard it is to put a show in New York. Man, we got to appreciate the hard work these people they're doing every day, man. I'm not saying just about the World Series, man. It's hard to put in a show. And I see how hard.

hard the UFC people work in the backstage, how hard the war series, and all the shows. You know, we got to appreciate the hard work these guys done, you know? Yes, very well said, especially after last week where a lot of those people lost their job in the UFC, so I appreciate you saying that very much, Marlon. Yeah, it's kind of sad, you know, you see people that they kind of give their lives for the sport. Like I see reporters, like you, like you, you know, when you were very upset. Yeah, yeah. because you had some issue.

And I see a guy that really love the sport and give a lot of time. And like in one second, everything is done. What are you going to do, you know? That's not MMA outside those three promotions, you know? What are you going to do, you know? Well, Marlon, you're a very smart man. I am very happy for you. Congratulations on the New Deal.

Congratulations on the opportunity to fight in New York City, December 31st on NBC, the Peacock Network, against Joseinaldo. Silva that is coming up in a little over two months' time. I appreciate the time very much again. Congrats on the New Deal, Marlon. Good luck in the fight. And we'll talk to you very soon. Thank you so much, Ariel. It's pleasure to always be here with you. And, man, mark my name, man. I'm the best five in the world. And, man, December 31st, NBC Channel 4, man. It's going to be a great show, man. You guys not going to want to miss this. I look forward to it. Thank you, Marlon. Appreciate it.

Thanks. Ronald Marius, the WSOF Bantamweight champion. Okay, let us move along now. One of the big stories last week was supposed to be the Bellator debut of Kevin Ferguson, Jr. Baby Slice, the son of the late gray Kimbo Slice, unfortunately, his opponent, missed weight by 17 pounds. Wanted to talk to Kevin about this and when, in fact, he will debut for Bellator. He is joining us on the phone right now.

Kevin, are you there? I'm here, man. How's it going? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. and I know, I believe you're at the airport right now, so I appreciate you squeezing us in. So two Bellator debuts now have come and gone.

You were supposed to fight in August. Unfortunately, you got injured. And now this situation, but this time, I mean, you went through the media workouts. You were there in Memphis. You were a little over 24 hours away. How do you come to terms with that? As you're gearing up for this big debut,

there's so much hype, so much excitement surrounding your debut, and then you have to take your foot off the gas. How do you do that? You know, it sucked, you know. I found out when, like, an hour before weigh-ins, I was trying to, I was cutting my last pound and a half, and, you know, they told me, and it was just like a drain, you know, because I wanted to get in there, you know, I worked hard for this,

and I was ready to go in and hurt this guy, you know. I was going to get the knockout, or the ref was going to stop it, you know, one of the two was going to happen. And I think he got scared, man. He definitely must have got scared, saw the open workout. I don't know. But I don't know. I was just ready, man.

It sucked. So you still weighed in and you still got your show money, correct? Yeah, that's correct. I still waiting. I weighed in actually a pound underweight, but 164. How pissed were you? I mean, like, what was your immediate reaction when you got the news? You already weigh in, you did all the work, and then 17 pounds.

If he was truly scared from seeing you, I mean, he must have known that he wasn't going to fight, and we're talking about Ray Bing, who was supposed to be your opponent. He must have knows it because 17 pounds is kind of like he didn't really try, right? Right, right, man. 17 pounds is a lot of weight. I would have fought him at 170, even 175, you know. But he weighed in at 180, 185, 181. Wow.

And I was 164. I still would have part in 170. But, you know, they was like, no, you know, don't do it. But, you know, I'll be back November 19th in San Jose, you know, and I'm going to get that knockout, man. So is that a done deal? Your debut now is set for November 19th? Oh, yeah, set for November 19th in San Jose.

Okay, on Spike TV. Do you know who you'll be facing? No, man. I didn't know I don't care, man. in the work, I'm going to train hard, and I'm going there and get the knockout, or I'm going there to hurt my opponent, as long as I get that W, you know? Are you feeling a little anxious now about the debut? Like, you just want to get it under your belt because this will now be the third time

that you're trying to debut for Bellatory. Like, are you a little bit, I guess anxious would be the best word. You just want to have it go down, step in that cage, and do it? Well, yeah, I wouldn't say I'm anxious, you know, because it just gives me more time to become more dangerous, you know, to shop at my skills, shopping my tools. You still there? Same. Oh, I think we lost you for a sec.

Yeah, can you hear me? Oh, yeah, yeah, now we got you. You were saying... I'm really that anxious, you know, I'm just going to get back into the gym and better my skills, you know. I'm just going to become more dangerous than what I would have did in October the last week. So, you know, I'm just going to be more prepared, you know, have more cardio, you know, more technique, more power. You know, my skills is just going to get better. So I just feel bad for my opponent

Whoever the guy is He's gonna get hurt in there So you have one amateur fight Which happened in March And this will be your pro debut as well Correct? Right, I have a couple of smokers as well Okay

Did you ever street fight like your father? Yeah, I got in a couple Street fights, yeah After all my street fights I end up getting in trouble Or getting the police called on me You know, so I had to stop that Did you ever attend

Any of your father's street fights? fights? Oh yeah, definitely, man. I went to a couple of his fights and I went to even some of his professional fights I was there, you know? What was it like, okay, not the professional ones, but just seeing your father in the sort of backyard environment. What was that like? I mean, you, I'm guessing you were probably, you know, early teens when that was happening, right? Maybe even younger. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was like 17, man. Well, what's that like for you to see that as a kid? I loved it. I've been around it my whole life, You know, always been in the gym, you know, since I was like seven or eight.

You know, I was always in the gym. I was always watching fights. So to see my dad do it, it was just like, man, I want to do this. You know, this is something I want to do. You know, I feel like all my nerves and everything got out back there. Now it's more like I'm ready to fight. I'm prepared for it. I know what to expect.

Did, you know, did watching that, because it wasn't there a point where you didn't want to be a fighter? You went into photography school in San Francisco. Like, do you feel like it was always there? you were always going to cross that bridge. You just wanted to do a few other things, or was there a moment, a discussion, an incident, you know, something that you witnessed that said, okay, this is what I was born to do.

This is what I should be doing. No, man, I always wanted to be a fighter. I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to go to high school. Honestly, I just wanted to be in the gym and fight. But, you know, my dad, he was like, no, get education first, go to college, you know, learn some things. And if it doesn't work out, then fight.

Okay. That's what I did. You know, I listened to him. I went to college for a couple years, and I was supposed to graduate with associates, but I started working for Team Kimball taking pictures for the crew. You know, that's why I was at all the pro fights taking pictures. I even went to Thailand for the Scorpion King III. I was taking pictures for that.

Wow. So, you know, that's like my second passion, but fighting is my first passion, and it's something I love to do. You know, when I'm walking up to the cage, you know, I just love it. I channel that energy, and I know how to use it to my advantage, you know. I love being in that cage, you know, it's my home. By the way, it's kind of amazing how much you sound like your father, and he was very good to me. I miss him dearly.

He was just such a kind man and sort of different than his public persona. So it's kind of a trip to be talking to you right now. I think the world of your father. Were you there in Florida when he lost to Seth Petrazzelli? Yes. Yeah, I was there, man. I was at that fight. What was that like for you to see that chaos?

I mean, like I said, you know, I never showed emotions to nothing. You know, I know when you're stepping in the cage, if either somebody's going to get the W and somebody's going to lose, you know, I just want to expect to him. My father to lose like that, but, you know, he did. And after the fight, I just told him, you know, he's going to come back stronger. He didn't get better, you know.

I really didn't, you know, show no emotion because I know how the game goes. I know what a part of the game. At a young age, I knew that. So, you know, it wasn't no pressure from me. My family is what really, they didn't understand it. So they was all upset and going through all the emotions. I thought it was good.

you know. When your father's on the cover of ESPN the magazine and main eventing shows on CBS and maybe the most famous MMA fighter on the planet and still is to this day, people who don't know anything about MMA still know who Kimbo Slices, when your father is that guy, what is that like for you? Do you feel like a lot of people are coming up to you who are trying to be your friends but are just trying to get closer to him? Do you feel like kids are trying to pick on you, trying to start fights with you to see how tough you are? Like, what's it like growing up as his son? I mean, in high school, it was like that in high school, you know, a lot of guys, you know, they, uh, I used to wrestle and I play football. So they used to tackle me. They used to like, yeah, we tackled them, we got them. And then on the wrestling mat, you know, they used to, you know, go harder. I saw the raise that they had just, you know, competing with me. And at the time, you know, I wasn't really, I didn't have no disaggressiveness. You know, I was just going through the motions. But now, you know, all these guys calling me out, you know, I wanted them to call me out. I wanted to think that they could step in the ring with me and step in the room with me and step in the way. occasion with me because then they're going to be in for a rude awakening, you know? I've been doing this

for a while, so I'm just ready to showcase my skills and, you know, let the world know. There's really no pressure with him being my father, you know, it's just more eyes on me. You know, I've got a bigger fan base now because of him. You know, all his fans are my fans. I got the older fans and then I have some of the newer generation's fans. So, you know, I'm just, I'm just ready to fight, man. I'm just training hard and ready to fight. What does your mom think about you becoming a fighter? Oh, she loves it. She knew this was going to happen.

I've been toward it is that I was going to fight. You know, I've been to her this. So she's been prepared, you know, she knows. And then my grandmother and my stepmom, my dad's wife, they all used to it, you know. They just, they're accepting it now, you know. And how close were with you, how close were you with your father, you know,

over the last couple years? I mean, as you were really getting ready to do this, your amateur debut happening in March. Was he there? Was he, you know, I don't think he was actually in Massachusetts where it happened, but was he following it? Were you talking to him before? Did you train with him in Florida?

How close were you guys? Well, we was actually pretty close, and they knew I was going to fight him and my manager, Icy Mike, was the same manager of my dad, you know? He's your manager, too? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, it was only right, you know.

Yeah. Okay, sorry, any means to interrupt. Yeah, but they knew I was going to fight, man. They knew it, and I didn't tell them, you know. They knew I was training, but they didn't know I was going to fight. I didn't want to, you know, reach out to him and ask for help. You know, I wanted to do it all on my own, and that's what I did. You know, I found a gym in Connecticut, plus one defense was a great gym.

Sincere, Duran, you know, he taught me a lot. And I actually did jiu-jitsu for a year before I did any stand-up. Wow. I was doing that was in a G. So, yeah, and I didn't tell him. So after the fight, you know, he called me and we had a long conversation. And then I talked to Mike and me and Mike had a long conversation. And like a month later, you know, he called, we, we, we were talking through this whole time.

But then he called me again like a month after everything and was like, you know, Bellator is interested. You know, this is something I really want to do. This is my chance, you know, to turn pro and to do it. And I was like, yeah, this is what I want to do. And, you know, I turned pro with Bellator. and, you know, I'm here now. So he had, when you made that debut in March, the amateur debut, he had no idea that you were fighting that night? No, he had no idea.

Wow. No, I'm like, was he annoyed? Like, was he mad at you at first? Like, man, why didn't you tell me? No, he was happy, man. He was happy that the fact that I did it all on my own. Wow. I didn't actually help.

I could have reached out. It would have been easy to reach out to you guys and for them to get me a fire. That would have been easy, a piece of cake. I didn't want to do it like that. You know, I worked at a gas day. at a gas station job, minimum wage. I was paying for training. I was paying for my gear.

You know, I didn't ask for any help. You know, I wanted to show these guys that I was serious about it. And this is something I really wanted to do, and that's what I did. And now, you know, I got the help that I need. I have the right guys in my corner. Who ultimately told him that you debuted? I think he just saw it, man. Maybe I can't even say it, you know, because after that, you know, it was big.

It got over a million views. It was on, you know, all the social media. media site. So, you know, I'm pretty sure you saw it, but I called him right after, you know, and when I called him right after, he already knew about it. So maybe he knew the whole time. Wow. Just didn't say nothing to me, you know. Who gave you the nickname Baby Slices? I came up with that myself, man. That was all me.

And was he okay with it? Did you like it? Oh, yeah, of course. He liked it. I mean, I was going to keep it regardless, you know, but I just figured, because, you know, he's a heavy way. You know, and that was around 250, 250, so that's a heavyweight. You know, I'm a smaller version of it. and I'm fighting at 160, 155. That's like a, you know, it's a big jump. So I came up with, you know, I was like baby slice, you know, it sounds good. I like it.

I'm going to stick with it. Does a party you wish that you had a few more fights under your belt before you went to Bellator? Like maybe, you know, if you're fighting on the amateur scene, the local scene, you could fight almost every week or so. Do you feel like you needed that? Or are you content with the way things are working on? You're still sitting on that one fight. Here we are seven months later. Yeah, well, I'm good. I didn't just have one amateur fight. You know, I had a couple smokers as well.

Fair enough. You know, they're on the internet a little bit and I've been training for my whole life, so I feel like it was only right. You know, I'm prepared. You know, you guys didn't see when I step in that cave, you guys didn't see what I bring to the table and you're going to be like, yeah, this kid, he belongs here. You know, I love it. So it was only right that I signed in turn pro. I would do amateur, more amateur fights. I would just hurt those guys. They wasn't prepared to step in there with me. So, you know, I needed to turn pro just to get that, you know, that level of experience. And I'm getting paid for it. So, yeah, of course.

That is a very good thing. Your dad's passing. Did that expedite anything for you? Did you feel like, okay, this is the time? Hold on, bro. What's up? No, said again. Did your dad's passing expedite anything as far as your fighting career is concerned?

It made me, I take it more serious now, you know. It means a lot more to me now. You know, it's not, like at this point, it's not even about the money or about the same. It's just about continuing the legacy. So, you know, that's my goal now, just to continue the legacy and take the slice name to the next level, you know, to show the new slice, you know, the new Kimbo slice, the new baby slice, you know, so I'm here to do. Two more questions for you, and then I'll let you go, what's the best piece of advice that he ever gave you about the fight game or about life? Just to keep my hands up

For the fight in a fight game You told me to just keep my hands up You know hit hard Chin tuck and move fast And in life you know If I don't stand for something I'll fall for anything You know

And I stick by that And I stick with it you know Do you ever think man I wish you know I wish you could be there November 19th I wish he could be in Memphis Do you do you sort like

Oh man every day Yeah Every day man Every day Yeah I even watch you guys You know Before the fights

I was watching your interview with him You know I thought that was pretty cool. I was like, I can't wait to do anything to do with this guy, you know? Oh, man, what a trip. Such a great guy and really so kind to everyone. He is dearly missed,

and my condolences to your family on his passing, but very happy that you are taking that torch and you're doing your own thing in Belator, and I'm looking for it. Your debut. I'm sorry what happened last week, but November 19th it is. Kevin, go catch that plane.

Thank you for squeezing us in, and I wish you the best of luck, and we'll talk to you soon. All right, man, talk to you. All right, there he is. Kevin Ferguson, Jr., the son, of Kevin Ferguson senior, Kimbo Slices. That's his son, Baby Slice. What a story this is.

I will never forget that day when Kimbo Slices passed away. That was just hours after I did that show, after UFC 199. And really, unfortunately, put everything into perspective. He was such an important figure in this sports history. Still, to this day, one of the most recognizable faces in mixed martial arts history. And at the time, we had just found out that his son had this amateur fight, which, by the way, Chuck Minnonhall of MMAFighting.com, he was there and wrote a great story about it. If you Google Baby Slices, Kevin Ferguson Jr., MMAFinding.com, that story will come up. It's a really nice feature about Kevin's amateur debut. And then a very smart move, I think, on Bellator's part. They sign him. And now he is a part of this sort of new breed of fighters.

You saw them if you were watching on Friday, sitting alongside A.J. McKee, they have a lot, you know, this is to me, as I've said before, when AJ was on, a lot of young guys who, you know, were starting to see the Scott Coker fingerprints on Bellator coming to play. I think when he was putting together those, you know, those quote unquote, you know, fantasy freak show fights, that was a quick way to get people watching, to get people noticing. the new Bellator, but I think Scott's MO has always been to find young talent before they go elsewhere, groomed them. I think he did a great job of that, a fantastic job with that. If you look at the names that were built up in Strikeforce, especially from the Bay Area, Cormier, Rockhold,

Kane Velasquez, a lot of the 135ers, 145ers, I mean, a lot of those, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, a lot of those names either were resurrected in Strike Force, were born in, strike force, and we're starting to see a lot of that these days in Bellator. We're seeing less of those sort of freaky fights. I think the card, November 4th, Mohican Sun is a very good example of that as well. MVP is on the card, one of those names that they're trying to build up. But, you know, Lee McGeery, who's a Belator guy from the previous regime, let's give them credit against Phil Davis. For me, they've come a long way from the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, they were sort of lost a little bit, trying to find their way. And I feel like we have a better sense

of who Bellator is. Now, I do maintain that they should be putting on less events. Everyone should be putting on less events, if we're being honest. And all indications seem to be that the UFC is going to be doing less events. Putting on, you know, eight straight weeks of events, you know, I know television stations need programming, but I don't think it helps the product. One of the best parts of Strike Force back in the day was that there were only, you know, I don't know, in their prime, eight to ten events or so.

and that way you can have very solid main cards from top to bottom. And you can have these smaller shows, Challenger series, whatever. They did a lot more of that once they teamed up with Showtime. But as far as the big events are concerned, I think it's important to put on less is more. And quality, in my opinion, is always more important than quantity. But I understand that they have contracts and TV networks want to plug in things on Friday and Saturday nights. And they have to sort of weigh the two and figure out what's,

what's that sort of magic number that they want to, that they want to occupy as far as dates on the calendar. And I think they're figuring that out as well. It's a very interesting time, though, for them as they start to sign these new guys like Ed Ruth coming up and, you know, hopefully we'll have Aaron Pico debuting. I like the direction now a lot more than I did around 10 months ago. And Kevin Ferguson, in my opinion, Jr., is a big part of that and a nice indication of that as well. All right, let us move along. Another fight that was announced last week was for that UFC on Fox

22 card in Sacramento, California, Sacktown. It's going to be their first event at the brand new arena over there, home of the Sacramento Kings. And of course, you cannot put on an event in Sacramento without the California kid, the king of Sacramento. He joins us right now, I believe, via the Magic of Skype, this event taking place on December 19th. It is the one headline by Paige Van Zand versus Michelle Waterson, December 17th, I should say. And there he is, the California kid himself, who was on vacation and is so kind to be joining us on the show while on vacation in Mexico. Uriah, how are you? Doing good. I'm actually coming home in a few hours. I'll be back in fact.

Oh, great. Well, I missed you very much. Thank you for squeezing us in. Is this business or pleasure? We went with the UFC gym. So both, I guess, really. Like the corporate, we got a contest, and a bunch of us came out. It's pretty cool. So you're opening a UFC gym in Mexico? Yeah, right here.

We named it after you. It's the Ariel Hawani signature UFC gym in Cancun. No, no. I'm serious. I'm serious. I didn't know. No, it was a UFC gym corporate. Oh, okay.

And they took a bunch of the franchise owners and, you know, managers out here. And I was invited to come along. But I actually did just open a Rockland UFC gym, which is about 35 minutes from your right favor's ultimate fitness in downtown sack. And it's kicking butt, man. It's doing good. And just so I understand, because I'm not a business guy. I'm not as smart as you are when it comes to the stuff.

Who are a business guy, Ariel. Why, even though I'm Jewish, honestly, I'm not a business guy. Why open up a UFC gym? What's that supposed to mean? Oh, come on. I know you were thinking. They were all thinking it, all right? You're a business.

And you're a business game. Why a UFC gym and not a Uriah Faber's ultimate fitness gym? Why would you open sort of a competition? You know, I've had a relationship with the UFC gym guys for about six years now since before they even started. And I own just a small piece of the UFC gym out in Rockland. and it's not a conflict. There's no actual sparring this allowed there. It's a real fitness-based about learning,

and it's a different look than our team. And they've actually been a huge support system in our next gym, the Uriah favorite ultimate fitness gym, and our new location that we're working on, as far as, you know, kind of mentors for getting that thing cooking. So they've been a real ally, and it's about 35 minutes away. Okay. So it's just a different gig.

Team Alpha Mel lives out of your I favor of the fitness. We're moving into a massive new facility. It's going to be pretty awesome. All right. So the news last week pertaining to you was that you're coming back, you're fighting in December, in the new arena. That was a natural. Everyone wanted to see you fight on that card.

You built that market, very important to that market. You're fighting Brad Pickett. But since you fought in September at 203, did you have to think long and hard? Like, was this a quick turnaround? In other words, if they weren't fighting in sack, would you not have come back this fast? Absolutely not.

And to be honest with you, I'm super excited to fight in sack. You know, those are all my people out there. I built our team, team out of the mail, it's like an extended family to me. And I was raised in the greater Sacramento area all the way through college. And, you know, it's going to be a really cool event. I've been kind of waiting for this. And this is actually going to be my last fight.

And it just feels right to do it in sack. in this new arena and, you know, it's, it's, uh, it just feels like the right time and the right place. And, and, um, so I've, I've been waiting for this new arena to be built. I was waiting for that dominant cruise opportunity. And, and I, I feel like, you know, this is a, going to be an epic event and I can't wait to do it in front of the people I love. Wait a second. Um, this fight against Brad Pickett is going to be your retirement fight? I think so, man. Wow. I, uh, I, I, uh, I, I, I, I, I, I just feel like it feels like it's the right time. I've been super blessed with this career.

I'm very thankful for the health that I have right now and the success that I've had. And, you know, I'm excited. I'm pretty proud of being able to give back to the next generation of guys from creating contenders and champions and being a leader of that team. And it just feels like now is the time to have a homecoming in audios at the same time. Wow. I have goosebumps.

I had no idea that you were going to announce this, and I appreciate you doing it on the show. When did you come to this conclusion? When did you decide that this was the perfect time to have your last fight? You know, I've been teetering with it for a long time. The thing that I'm lucky is, like I said, I have my health, and I really love what I'm doing. but just as far as the passion goes,

I have a passion for what I'm doing still, but it doesn't get the same emotion that it has in the past. I remember, you know, my favorite fighter of all time is Roy Jones Jr. I remember them talking about him kind of feeling that where he was playing full basketball games, you know, the same day as a boxing match, and just, you know, it took a long time to get to this point

where I'm skilled enough and I'm in a position up to where I can fight and have a great time. But like my last fight, in the last couple of fights, I haven't found that emotional rise or fall. That is kind of a strange thing for me. And I still love what I'm doing. That's the reason why I'm doing it. But I just feel like this is going to be something that's going to be an emotional thing for me.

It's going to be a passion thing. I'm going to train my butt off. And I just feel like right now is the right time. We've got, you know, Cody, hopefully, about the challenge for the, for the world title, bringing back. We've got Paige Van Zant that is a saw on the rise. And I've had a hand in so many other folks that are coming up in this sport. I think, you know, moving forward, I'm going to be more of a GM for the team.

It is kind of a general manager recruiting, making sure that things are moving forward and building the biggest, best team in the world. And I just feel like, I feel like I can be with anyone right. now my health is there my body's there but uh i want to get that emotion have that last last fight and make it a uh kind of stand wow because i fight so every time somebody offers me a fight i'm going to accept unless i make it happen i mean i'll right it till i'm just like that did you tell the ufc this like did you reach out to them and say i want to fight on this card i want this to be my last fight can you give me a slot no no i didn't say anything about you're the

first one to hear, Ariel. Wow. This is amazing. I am honored. Honestly, sometimes people come on the show and give me a heads up about an announcement. You just dropped this bomb on me, and I had no idea that it was coming. So they have no idea as well. Yeah, it's all good.

Uh-huh. I know what I've told you stuff before, you try to act around like you don't turn around at it. But this time you didn't, right? But I did. I know. I like that. I appreciate it.

that. Was the opponent important for you or you just wanted to fight? No, the opponent hasn't been important to me. Yeah. I tried to do that with Frankie Edgar. I just was looking for bigger fights and hoping it was going to drum up more emotion. I went up, away class and things like that. But, I mean, honestly, it's like, like I said, I enjoy competing and I love to get out there and I feel like I can compete with anyone in the world. It took me a long time to get like that. but, you know, it's just, it's just changed for me a bit.

And I'm hoping that I have that adrenaline and the hair on my next thing up with this fight. Oh, man. hometown and being the last fight. That's what I really enjoy about this thing. And I've loved, you know, just being a part of other people's success. You know, even guys like TJ, I mean, I enjoy the fact that, you know, T.J. and Chad and guys,

like Munoz, Munoz and Scotty Jorgensen, like all these guys that I help get into the sport and I've seen some of them go, you know. I don't know, it's just, I feel like it's kind of like a perfect time for me to make it exit and work on building this team. I have some, you know, entertainment stuff I've been working on shows and some movie stuff. I've got business stuff that I've been working on, but I'm most excited about going the next generation of fighters, bringing multiple belts back to the Sacramento area. And I want to go out with a massive win against a great opponent and you have my hometown.

What was it like for you as you walk back to the locker room after the fight against Jimmy Rivera, UFC 203? Like, were you starting to think, okay, this is, you know, the second to last one? I know that Sacramento card is coming up. Because I remember looking at you, I actually made it a point to come sit on press row for that fight because I always feel like it's a special thing to watch you fight. I was in the back up until that point. And I remember trying to, like, read your frustration.

You seemed obviously disappointed. You lost. But were you starting to think those things even that night as well? No, not necessarily. You know, I think that fight was kind of a, it was kind of a weird one for me. I feel like I knew there was going to be a tough fight because he's not, like, offensively he stays pretty closed up. It was hard to find openings.

But I feel like we could have used, like, two. three more rounds in that fight. Yeah. I don't know. One of us was fatigued, that either of us had really, you know, even barely got started. So, you know, it was kind of a weird feeling. It was anti-climatic, and it wasn't like a real, I don't feel like I got beat up. I didn't beat anyone up.

It was like, I only got, barely got started that fight. So I wasn't thinking about that, no. Any regrets? No, I don't have any regrets. no regrets that's right I remember that you don't strike me

as the kind of guy to have regrets but of course I'd be remiss if I don't ask you about the UFC belt does that does that bother you at all that you never got the actual UFC title I know you were the king

for so long WAC and those that don't recognize that are fooling themselves we all know what it meant to be the WEC champion but does it bother you do you think it will bother you one day that you didn't

get that actual physical UFC title no absolutely not I mean to be honest I was 32 years old when the UFC brought my weight class into the division. Yeah. And I actually thought I won that fight.

It was a very close fight with Dominic Cruz. You know, depending on who's judging by what, I feel like, you know, I very easily could make a case for me winning that fight. But, you know, at 32, they introduced my weight class for the first time for the UFC. It was the same owners. It was Dana and Lorenzo and Bert and everybody involved in, I was case to me as being the champion of the world and all the best fighters i mean at that time it was aldo and and pettis and and you know on and on and demetrius and all these guys venson henderson those guys

were all part of that group so um cowboy and you know the list goes on i mean i'm not fooled about i mean i've had 14 years in the sport and and my entire career has been at the top i've had title shots i've held the title for years and years um i don't live about you know what somebody calls something i know what it was right and uh you know i i think for me it's it's uh i'm just a very thankful guy man i really am yeah never a serious injury right never won not one serious injury wow i've never been not conscious in my tire here i've been i've been wobbled a couple times but i've never been knocked unconscious in in practice or in or in a fight i'm knocking on win right now yes i've been very very

out to get the big hitter. In any way, shape, or form, I feel like my mind and my body, I feel like I'm in better shape or just as good as shape as I've ever been, and I want to continue with that. I'm going to stay competing in something. I'm going to stay training every day. I'm going to stay sharp because that's what I love to do. But I have a lot of interest, a lot of passions that can kind of distract me from time the time and and you know i've been lucky enough to be dedicated to a sport to where i've reached

a point where i can do you know i could do 10 rounds with anyone in the world i feel like and it's it's not it's not a difficult thing so yeah i thought i fought everybody in the sports so i don't know i'm excited for the for the next generation i'm excited to grow this team i'm excited to get into entertainment, into business, and everything else. And, you know, I feel like it's just the right time. And I'm super thankful for my relationships with the WC and the UFC, Dana and Lorenzo. They've always been so good to me.

And, you know, I'm just thankful. And I want to go out, feeling good, and have an amazing fight. And, you know, go to the next chapter. Selfishly, I must say there's mixed emotions right now because I think there's nothing cooler in combat sports than when, an athlete who is healthy knows when to say when walks away on his own terms, doesn't get released and have to fight elsewhere, and it's kind of a shell of himself. But you sort of represent an era in mixed martial arts to me, and it will be sad to see you go,

but I'm happy that it's, again, your decision, your terms, you said it, and no one else is telling you, no one else is pushing you out. I think that's very commendable. Well, thank you. I'm just doing what I want. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah, what have been announced about, I've been in Mexico for a week, so I don't know what's going on. As Cruz's next opponent have been announced? Well, I reported it on Thursday. It hasn't been announced.

I don't know why it hasn't been announced, but, you know, according to my very good sources, I'm told that it is Cruz versus Garbrand December 30th, UFC 207. Are you hearing the same, Yuraya? I have heard some rumors about that, but we're not sure. I've heard a lot of rumors, you know, all sorts of rumors. Sure. About a bunch of... But, you know, it's exciting for me, you know, to think about that,

and I think about the future of, you know, the team in general. Like I said, we're just revamping. I'm going to be acting kind of as... Of course, I have value as a coach, but I think that's a big commitment, and our coaching staff is doing amazing right now. Yeah. all guys of our team.

And I'm excited to get that belt back to Sacramento and, you know, helping this next generation. I believe Josh Emmett and Paige Van Zant are on the card also in Sack. And hopefully we get Philly or a couple more guys. We'd like to get Alexander Ball on the map there. And it's going to be a massive event, man. I'm enjoying the buildup already. I'm on vacation, but, you know, vacation for me is an active, active thing.

I'm in the ocean like hours upon hours and running around exploring and things like that. So I'm happy to get back and have my last killer training camp with the best team in the world and go out in my city and end on a high note, get a big win and build the next generation. What a beautiful thing. And you get to do it at that new arena. Let me ask you this before I let you go, and maybe December 17th will top them all. But as of right now, best moment of your career, what was the high moment? The one that when you think back, you know, wow, it was never more fun than that night.

I feel like I have a guess, but I'd love to hear it from you. I think it's going to be this last one. Oh, wow. That is beautiful, man. Giving me goosebumps. I think it'll be this last one. Okay, up until this point, is it the Jens Pulver fight? Yeah, I would.

say that was definitely it. I mean, Jen's Bowl was a former UFC champion. He's a guy that I followed and looked up to. It was my first big fight in the Sacramento Arena where we're at the ARCO, which was a big deal. I've been to the ARCO a couple times as a kid in nosebleeds

because we didn't have a lot of cash. You know, it wasn't at the game at the front row. So to be a main event there, it was really cool. And to have an epic fight with Jen's was really big. And, you know, I think that it was the first time it was really put out there on a big, big platform. Yeah. No secret that your father is a very loyal viewer of this program.

Is he hearing the news for the first time as well, or did you give him a heads up? I've talked to my, I see my dad every day, man. Okay. He's a favorite construction. We're kicking butt right now. New gym and, you know, building houses and all that good stuff. So I talked to him on the regular on the construction front, and he won't stop. I mean, he's worse than you asking questions. I have to cut him off. He knows what's coming.

I didn't tell him, I didn't tell anyone I was officially going to talk about this on this, this show or anything. It was kind of a last-minute decision, you know. Wow. Yeah, too. Sure, sure. What an honor. I sincerely mean that.

Thank you so much. And thank you for all the memories, man. Thank you for all the great moments. Hopefully we'll get to talk to you before the fight and, you know, be there in person and take it off. I can't imagine what is going to feel like in that arena when California love comes on. Wow, that is going to be something. Oh, it's going to be nuts. I mean, I've got people from everywhere trying to get tickets right now for that show.

It's going to be insane, man. I mean, I can't. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. And there's something somewhat poetic about, you know, a product of Team Alpha Mail, Paige Van Zand, headlining, like you're sort of passing the torch. You know what I mean? There's something kind of nice about that. It's beautiful. And the cool thing is, I mean, the best is yet to come with our team. Especially with the way that coaching staff is right now, Justin Buckles has been doing an amazing job, Danny Castillo, Chris Holdsworth, Fabio Prado.

You know, Master Tongis just went back after 11th. 11 years. Yes. To see his wife and everything, which is an emotional thing. But we've got his lineage here with us and Coach Joey and all the contributors. Our team is on point right now. I've got Josh Espy, who is one of the guys that's become our CEO for our team and our gym, who used to be with On It, who's helping us bring everything in the next level as far as the team goes.

We've got a lot of cool stuff in the making. I've got kids that are now my main training partners, like Joseph Morales and Andrew Coyne, that were nine, 10 years old, and now are, you know, 6 and O is professional at 22, married having kids. And it's just nuts, man. I'm super stoked about this next generation of guys. And I've been talking to these amazing recruits that have been, you know, have kind of like-minded personalities for Team Alpha male that are coming out like Alex Munoz and Jordan Oliver. and Mike De Palma, these are all guys that are talking about coming out to our team that are high-level wrestlers that fit the mold. And so, you know, it's an exciting time.

And there's going to be a lot of Sacramento headliners from Team Off Mail for the future. And it's going to be more and more of a staple. And it's going to be an exciting thing. So I'm pumped about that amongst all the other things that I have going on. Yeah, and you seem sincere when you say that as opposed to just saying it for the sake of saying it. that feels like a greater accomplishment. I feel like you feel like that's a greater accomplishment than any win, any title, right? The team that you built.

100%. Yeah. 100%. And it's also the highs and lows are bigger. You know what I mean? It's a different feeling when it's not just you and your efforts on the line. You know, having guys leave or having new guys in, the pride, the heartbreak, you know, all that kind of stuff is, that's real stuff. So it really is like a family.

It's a cool thing. It's going to get bigger and better. This new gym is going to be amazing. It's going to be an iconic place. We're working on a building that was Buzz Oates, who's a massive, this world, who's a great for building over. And a local artist, Gator Garvey,

that is going to be doing a massive mural on the building. It's going to be neat because there as an athlete representing Sacramento. and everyone involved. So, I'm up here. There's already an article about our return. Good job, Eric. That's the way we roll at M.AFighting.com.

That's the way we like to do. But, you know, this gym is going to be an iconic spot for Sacramento, and it's going to be a really cool thing to have for our city, and it really needs to, I mean, it's really need to be the guy that's built that, you know? Yeah. The Wi-Fi is breaking up. I have one more question if I can't squeeze it in there, and I hope it gets better for this last question.

You strike me as a very happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I've known you for quite some time, and I've never seen you really upset or sad or anything like that. Do you think leading up to the fight, you'll ever have a moment where you smell the roses and get emotional or sad or maybe afterwards? What are you expecting emotionally as you approach this final fight? Yeah, absolutely emotional for sure.

I mean, it will be. 100% Okay. But you go lucky doesn't mean you don't have to the motion.

Sure. They're actually more intense. That's right. Well, Yariah, what an honor this is.

Thank you again for coming on the show and breaking this news with us. But more importantly, congratulations on a Hall of Fame career,

a legendary career. You're a pioneer. You're a trailblazer. Without you, the sport of MMA isn't what it is today. And I don't just say that because you're on the show.

I mean that sincerely. You have been so kind to the media, so kind of, to all of us, but it has been truly an honor to watch you compete, and I look forward to doing it one more time on December 17th. All the best to you, my man. Thank you. Safe Travels, Home, and good luck in training as you approach that final fight. Thanks, guys. Love everybody. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is. Wow, how about that? The California kid, your eye of favor. And unfortunately,

the Wi-Fi, it kind of felt like we were on a borrow time there. The power of Wi-Fi in Mexico sometimes not very strong. But you heard it loud and clear at the top. Uriah Faber announcing that on December 17th in Sacramento, California, it will be his final fight as he competes against Brad Pickett, live and free on Fox. How about that? The end of a Hall of Fame legendary career, and you heard it here first. I had no idea that was coming, and I have goosebumps, just hearing that from him. Thank you very much for your eye for doing that. Wow, what an honor and a privilege that was. The main event that night is Paige Van Zand versus Michelle Watterson, and Michelle Waterson is joining us now via The Magic of Skype. I do believe she is waiting patiently for us,

or did we lose her? Oh, there she is. Michelle Watterson, how are you? Wonderful. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. How about that? I don't know if you heard it, but you're fighting Paige Vanzant, her teammate, your eye of favor, who built that market. Sacramento is going to retire that night. I thought already that you were walking into enemy territory. Now I feel like you're really walking into enemy territory. You know, at the end of the day, I fight so fight. I don't think anybody's maddening.

You know, it's just where she's trained. Okay. So I think I'm going to get some looks in Sacramento. I think you will as well. I was just wondering, opining, it's going to be a very emotional night. And what an honor for you to be headlining that show on Fox, on Big Fox. What was your reaction when you got the call? You know, Paige has been built up.

She's a big star now. She's got a lot of momentum. Tim, you're going to be her opponent on Big Fox. I think I was more excited to be headlining. You know, it's been a long time since I've fought. And I've just kind of been getting injury after injury and just trying to stay positive to the whole thing. And, you know, I guess they say it really is true what they say, you know,

patience is the virtue. And I was just trying to stay patient through it all. And I got the news that we were going to headline, and I was just really excited. Yeah, I bet. What an opportunity. We had you on the show in July. That's when you were preparing to fight Ashling Daily in September, and then you injure your hand again. That setback, I mean, I can't even imagine, because you've had a lot over the last year and a half, how did that one affect you?

Like, did you ever say enough is enough? I can't deal with this anymore. I feel like at that point, it was almost comfortable. I was I just I was so close I was two weeks away you know we had already

I did all my medical I mean the light was up in the tunnel you know our flights were booked me and my husband were planning on staying out in Germany and doing a road set down to France we had everything was mapped out and planned

it was just you know for Gaxon and I was sparring and I hit the ground top of the head and I felt the tinkle go down my arm and I was like, okay, you know, that's just your bone getting used to punching me then. And I was just trying to shake it off, shake it off, and it just was not feeling any better.

And when the rounds was over, I took my glove off and I saw this huge lump in my hand, and I just got a huge lump in my throat and searching for the coach and, you know, just trying to be positive still, I guess. And, you know, I showed it to Coach Wink, And I said, just please don't tell me it's broke, you know. And I looked at it and he's like, yeah, peanut is broke.

Oh, no. And I was just, I was more crushed that I couldn't fight that I was so close to fighting. And that, you know, it was just all taken away, you know, and it was still second. Is this the same hand that continues to get injured or is it a different hand? It's the same hand. Okay. So this is that I broke in my fight against Magana. And so I broke in this hand a total four times.

Wow. So the first time I was the knuckle, and that was maybe six years ago, seven years ago. But when I fought against Magan, it was actually this bone right here. And, you know, the doc advised me to let it heal on its own, to let it heal on its own. And then it blew my knee out. And then when my knee got better, I went back into some. and I broke my hand again. That's when I had to pull out against Tisha.

And then same thing. Doc was like, you know, I think we just have to really make sure we just have to therapy on this hand. We don't have to get surgery. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Six months later. And it broke you. Did you have surgery this time?

I did. Yeah. Talking to the doc and he was just like, you know, hindsight, looking back at it all, we probably should have just gotten surgery. to begin with, but, you know, there's no point in trying to be mad and upset about the time, which is, you know, it's true, but at the same time, it's just been a really tough year because, you know, while I'm here still training to fulfill my dreams of an MNA fighter, so we still have to pay the bills, and so my husband is really, he's been working really hard

and, you know, working over time to ensure that, you know, my daughter can go to the school that she goes to and that we can continue to live the way that we live and that I can continue to train and not have to go out there and get me a job. Yeah. And credit to him for doing that. Did you ever feel the pressure? Like, did you feel like you need to get a job in the interim? I get, I mean, outside of being a fighter, I am a mom and the wife. Right. And I have responsibilities as those things. And, you know, when I'm not bringing money financially, it just kind of pulls on me.

It's just not the type of person I am. I don't want my husband to feel like I'm taking advantage of him. I want to be, I want to feel like it's contributing to the family. And he never, ever makes me feel like that I'm not. You know, he knows what kind of career this is. And he knows that in a split second, he can take it away. But on the other hand, you can, you know, your world can be full cuts up down and everything can be given to you in a split second.

So we just try to remain positive. And he never let me, he never let me go good. Okay. I mean, I did. I picked up some, I started doing cardio kickboxing and picked up some, like, seminars here in there to help out. But when I, when I was like, you know, I think I should just. the job.

And he's like, you do have a job. You're a professional bad. Yes. I like that. What a great guy that, Josh. What a mensch, as we like to call him. Do you know what a munches? No.

It's like a Yiddish word for like a gentleman. Yes, he's very much so a gentleman. I mean, since the first day, madam, he's been very chivalrous. Yeah. And he's still that way. One thing that I would really, that I think would help your situation is that documentary that was made about you. When are we going to see this documentary? Fight Mom, right? Yeah. You know, it's right there. It's just right on the cuss of breaking through.

There's just some contractual issues that we're trying to work out right now. But, you know, we're just waiting for the right moment for it to come out the way that we want it to shamanizing. You know, it's his baby. He doesn't want to just. Yeah. let it go to anybody, you know? He just, he wants to make sure that when he does let it go, that it flourishes and is able to blossom the way it should. Yes, well said. And just to be clear, did you ever think about stop, you know, no more fighting because all the injuries? I mean, that's an important part of your arsenal, your hand. Did you ever consider that?

No, I just, it's just too soon. I just got signed to the U.S. Cidder. I think I would just, I would, I would be a Bitter old lady. You know, that's just something coach Jackson and Coach Week, they all talk about the fight game, you know, whether you like to admit it or not, is not learned through the fight. It's learned behind the scenes and nobody's watching, you know. Right. It's overcoming the adversities that we have to deal with in the shadows.

You recently got cleared, right, medically? any apprehension when you're using the hen when you're punching i mean is there a mental block that you have to get over um you know this being the third time that it's woke i think i kind of was over it you know yeah um it's just weird now that there's a plate there's a plate in there and it's it feels really stable actually um i'm not worried about bumping into things or anything like that. But the only thing that I do have to get used to is there being a plate in there. And I think probably grappling is the worst.

It just feels weird, you know, rubbing up against your skin. I feel like there's, you know, tissues in there and pudlage. It's like trying to build around the plate. And every time I'm scraping up against the cage or against the, floor or even up against my own body, I feel it's just something we have to get used to. Wow. This fight is less than two months away. Is that a good time frame for you? Is it a little soon, but it's a big opportunity so you're taking the fight as far as the recovery of the

hand is concerned? I think it's perfect timing. I feel like I've been in camp for over a year. Yeah. That is true. So, you know, the more veterans that I talk to and that I watch, you know, John Jones and Cowboy, even Cowboy who likes to throw down and bang is like, you know, sparring's overrated.

So I think that was my biggest thing, and I can't spar, but who cares? I can do everything else, and I have been. Okay. While my hand's been, you know, out of commission, I've been running every day, hitting sprints, shadow boxing, really just trying to use in a visualization,

doing the strength and condition that I can do without using my hand. Basically doing everything, what star in so I'm in great shape. What are your thoughts on the rise of Page Vanzant? Are you impressed? Is it a little too much hype for your liking? Let's hear the real thoughts of Michelle Watterson.

You know, I think it's great. I actually even sent her out a tweet when she was on Dancing with the Star. You know, I can't, you know, they say don't hate to play, I hate the game. Yes. So I can't hate on that. She's a beautiful person. She's a great dancer. As far as her fighting skill, I want to go as far as to say she's, like, amazing.

But, you know, she's where she is now because of her hard work. And I look forward to fighting her in December. So fair to say you don't think that she's on your level fighting-wise? Is that fair? Yeah, for sure. What in particular, as far as holes in her game, are you seeing right now? I feel like she's just very green. in the whole

aspects of fighting and that's not necessarily a bad thing I feel like that's the reason why she's been leaning a lot of the fights I mean it's just like dancing when you ask

to someone that don't know how to dance they throw you off they throw your rhythm off and that's what Paige is doing in a sense in the fight game

you know her style is very erratic it's unpredictable and it's throwing these girls off because they're used to sparring with people that have a fight rhythm

and it just doesn't have it. that so it's throwing people off. And she's very durable. She's very tough. Like she doesn't give up. I mean, I think that's one of her great assets.

Even in that loss to Rose Nama Yunus, a lot of people are praising her for not giving up. Do you consider that to be one of her better attributes that, you know, it's going to take a lot to finish her to beat her? Yeah. Yeah, I guess, I mean, durability is an asset, but I also think it's dangerous. I don't think you should be okay with taking that much damage. It's not good to bring.

Interesting. So you're not a big fan of durability. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, we all have our instincts. It's fight or flight. It definitely has a fight instinct, you know, but, you know, durability can only take you so far until you're only surviving. Sure. What about that kick that she landed back in August against Beck Rawlings?

Were you impressed by that? I feel like she's been prepping that kick for a long time I went back and watched a lot of further fights against the other girls was coming against Rose out of desperation in the third or fourth round and she came out with it so it's not like I don't think it was like pulled out of her butt you know I think she she throws that and you know you can throw something

how many of her time then eventually it'll land just like take down you can have tried to take the way down you know, forever and ever in a five-round fight, eventually we'll get that pressed down. Do you think it was a mistake on the UFC's part to book her against you? Like, you're a little too advanced for her? I don't think so. I mean, I feel like with her rise in the fight game,

in the main, even outside of the fight game, I mean, she's been, how many fights that has she had in the UFC over four, five, you know, I've been out for a year? you know, so maybe they're thinking that that might be kind of evened it out a little bit. I don't know. I don't know what their thinking was behind making it a match, but I know that they thought, hey, let's put this together. I think it would be a great mean event, you know.

Yeah, and of course, I mean, let's be honest, the elephant's in the room, like when we reported it, all the comments where you're both very attractive women, do you think that that comes into play here when booking these fights? It's like, oh, let's put these two women who are attractive together, main event on Fox. That is the elephant. That's something that people don't want to talk about. But that is the truth, right? You know that.

You're no dummy. Yeah, not at all. You know, I've heard it all. I've read it all. It's a Battle of the Baves, you know, hottie versus potty. Right, right. And, you know, at the end of the day, MMA, UFC, it's entertainment. You know, people want to sing.

It's why to put us the main event, you know. Yeah. So I'm not going to knock it. You know, I'm just going to go with the punches. And that's what, if being the coronavirus event, then I'm going to take it. Yeah. Did you see that poster that that one guy, Boss Logic did of you, like half of your body, half of her body together?

Do you see that? That was amazing. I really liked that one. Yeah. I really did. Yeah. Yeah. My mom, my mom likes to get all caught up in all the social media about it.

She's, you know, she's very passionate about her daughter. And so she can, I think she can get wrapped up into it. And she kind of tries to start to pull me in. And I kind of have to tell my mom, like, I don't, I don't want to hear anything stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like what does she say to you? What kind of things does she come at you with?

Well, so I'm going to start to do this thing on my Instagram, but it's basically things my mom say, you know. So my mom's asking me, you know, what you're going to wear for the, uh, I'm sorry, let me get my accent right. It's good, it's good. What are you going to wear for the press conference? My mom, I don't know, maybe like some hands in a nice shirt. No, you know, you know she's going to dress up like a little princess.

Look, you have to dress better than her, okay? You know, make sure you more sexy. Wow. It's not about that. You know, I just want to be comfortable. and so it's okay you put the shirt on underneath and maybe you have to tick her on the face

or something is okay Wow your mom's an instigator I like it Yeah she If she was better at typing on the computer And on her phone she would definitely Be at war with all these people that are packing crap Does she respond to some of them

On your Instagram or Twitter Well I think she has in the past And then she just gets really flustered and emotional all. Okay. So then I just tell her like not to, you know. She could be like your manager, like in pro wrestling, your mouthpiece talks on your behalf and builds you up since you're, you know, like you're all nice and quiet and shy. She could be the one talking smack about your opponents.

She definitely could be. She's, yeah, you can, if you go to my, she's at almost every one of the fights and if you go, she's the one, you know, screaming off the top of her lungs. Kick her ass! She'll ask! That's amazing accent. Will she be at the fight in Sacramento? Yeah, she should be. By the way, do you read your Instagram comments? I think I do and I don't.

Okay. I do. But if there are bads, I just delete them. I don't let it affect me, you know. But I think you've got to take the good with the bad, you know. and it's whatever, that's what social media and doing about. Yes.

Having their, having that availability and access to the fighter is that, I mean, I think MMA athletes more than many other athletes are more in tune with their fans. Yeah. You know, that can, that can be good or that can be really that,

depending on how well you take, you know, criticism and hatred, I guess. I feel like you don't get a lot of criticism in hate it. hatred, to be honest. I just feel like you get a lot of weird comments, like, you know, a little bit. But I don't think you get a lot of hate, like, Daniel Cormier, go on his Instagram. He gets a lot of hate. I don't feel like you get hate. You just get, like, freaky people. I know. I know. People are, right. Because, yeah, people, people can't say that into its face.

Of course, yeah. Yeah, I do. Weird ones, you know, let me smell your feet, stuff like that. It's just, my husband doesn't read it at all. Yeah, I don't blame him. Do you, as part of the appeal in this fight as well, you beat her main event Fox, like it's not a shortcut, but it's a way to really jump a few steps. Like beating Aschling Daly on Fight Pass is not the same as beating Paige Van Zent on Fox. And I know you didn't turn down that fight for this opportunity, but this is really a way to jump, kind of make up for lost time.

Do you view that as well? I do. I do. I think you put it perfectly. You know, I, you know, I, you know, You're having to pull out with Tichita as a National Daily. I kind of feel like I have to play a little catch-up, but Paige is the perfect person to do that with.

She's ranked in the top 10. I'm not sure what she's ranked. But outside of her ranking, just her popularity amongst just the mainstream audience is what I'd like to be able to take advantage of it. Yeah. What an opportunity. I'm very happy for you.

Welcome back, Michelle. It has been a while. I'm looking forward to this fight. What a great booking by the UFC. It's December 17th, live and free on Fox from Sacramento, California. Michelle Waterson versus Paige Van Zandt. Long time coming. People are excited.

I wish you the best in training, health, happiness, all that stuff. And then I look forward to seeing you in Sacramento. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you. All right. Talk to you soon. And keep us posted on the documentary, by the way. I will.

Okay. It is fantastic stuff. I look forward to that. There she is. Michelle Waterson, the karate-hadi returns to action in a little less than two months' time, December 17th on Fox, Sacktown, New Arena, Sacramento Kings, and now all of a sudden, that card just got a hell of a lot more interesting with the news that Uri of Favor will retire that night. One more fight for him.

It's Brad Pickett, his retirement fight. How about that? Amazing. You heard it here first. Okay, you know what's something we haven't done in a long time? That's y'all must have forgot. And you know what? I want to do y'all must have forgot. This week, we're going to take a trip down memory lane five and a half years ago, February of 2011. New York Creek is fighting against it, but no, we're doing it because he's fighting against it. Bigfoot Silva defeated Fyodor Romainenko in New Jersey, East Rutherford. East Rutherford.

excuse me, former home of the New Jersey Nets, probably his greatest win ever. And why are we highlighting this? Because it was announced on Friday, or at least it was reported on Friday, that Bigfoot Silva has been released by the UFC. Long time coming, probably best for him. I wonder if he's going to continue to fight. In fact, I asked him to come on the show today, but he politely declined. He's been knocked out a bunch of times lately. He's been fighting a who's who. I mean, it really has been a tough road for him as of late. No give me fights for Bigfoot Silva in the UFC and, well, they finally cut bait. And I think that's best for his health.

I mean, if he goes somewhere else, I think it's important for him to fight lesser competition to build himself up. Last three fights, Mark Hunt, Stefan Strove, Roy Nelson. K-Oed in his last two, T-K-O by Mark Hunt. His last one came in August of 2015. Prior to that, he lost via CO to Frank Mir, Andre Arlowski, the war with Mark Hunt, the Kane Velasquez fight. I mean, a lot of damage.

But he was on top of the world on February 12, 2011 when he defeated Ferda Menenko, handing the legend his second loss in a row. And I just remember the... One thing that I'll always remember about that night, and if you recall, that was the first night of the... Strike Force World Grand Prix. That's when they had all those great heavyweight fights. I will remember forever, excuse me, well, it was Strike Force, but it was Scott Coker standing in the

like entranceway into the arena. He was wearing this trench coat. And I remember him standing there and there was a camera crew following him. And I don't think I've ever seen that footage, but he wasn't sitting in his usual cage side seat. And this is something I've actually never asked him. He was observing, he was taking it in, it was a packed house, we found out later that the ratings were fantastic on Showtime, and then exactly one month later, we find out that Zufa had purchased Strike Force. That to me was Strike Force's last stand, part of the, what was it, the Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment Group. I think the name of the ownership was, you know, there was an event early March a week before the announcement.

But that was kind of a done deal. I kind of wonder if he was nostalgic, if he was observing, if he was taking it in and saying, like, this is my last time. This is our last great event. It was weird because I remember seeing him there and thinking to myself, like, why is he standing here? And why is he looking at it this way? I don't know.

The whole thing was just bizarre. And I wonder if in hindsight he was being reflective, appreciative, and just watching. and just watching from afar because he built something truly special and it was sort of taken away from him. It wasn't his doing to sell. The owners wanted to sell. Owners of the HP arena,

the SAP Arena, I should call it, and the San Jose Sharks. So anyway, Bigfoot Silva, no longer in the UFC, his contract was brought over after that purchase. He has been released. We don't know about his future just yet,

so I wanted to take a trip down memory lane. February 12, 2011. The night, Bigfoot Silva defeated Fyodor Emilienenko via doctor stoppage after the second round. Here it is, y'all must have forgot. Ariel Hulani post-fight at Strikeforce in New Jersey where Antonio Bigfoot Silva just shocked the world and defeated Fyodor Mellinenko via doctor stoppage.

And Antonio, a lot of people did not think you would actually defeat him. How are you feeling right now? What are the emotions going through your body? Look, it's an emotion very great. Because this was a fruit of my work, I'm very, very happy right now. This was the fruit of a lot of hard work with my camp,

with all the guys that trained hard with me, and I'm very, very happy. Were you surprised that the doctor stopped the fight between the second and third rounds? Yes, but when I looked at him right side of the ring, I saw to his eye was very swollen, and I would have caused more damage to his eye and apparently him bad.

Are you aware whether or not he asked for the fight to be stopped, or did the doctor say, that it needed to be stopped. Certainly it wasn't him. He's fought the best. He's beat the best. And he wouldn't ask to stop. It had to be the doctors.

When you were dominating him in the second round, do you think the ref should have stopped the fight? You were landing some big shots on him. I don't think so because a good fighter has to fight in the good and the bad. And he's an excellent fighter and he knows how to fight in the weather the storm. You said you expected to face the best Fador out there. Do you feel as though you fought the best Fador? Well, I think that, for me, is the better.

He veiled in his maximum, but I also worked very hard. I trained very hard for this fight, so I deserve a victory. Just about yourself, I mean, it's taking you a long time to get a lot of respect in MMA. It's taking you a long time to crack the top 10, and a lot of people didn't even give you any type of chance going into this fight. Do you feel as though you've proved a lot of doubters wrong tonight? Well, I think that for the lot of the lot of them to be respect, it's a long camille that he has to front.

He has to confront the more, and I've been doing this, All of a little, it takes a while you have to beat the best. I've shown the world that I can do it. And you just have to keep on fighting to be the best. Do you think he will retire? No, I think no. I think he has a lot of the show still.

I think he's going to come back, fight again, and he's going to come back better, and he's still going to do a lot of good fights. Final question, who do you want next? Alistair Overeem or Fabrice Ovidum? Look, I don't want to look to look with a Brazilian, I wouldn't like to fight Ferdun. He's a Brazilian.

He's my friend. But at the same time, I'm going to route for him very much to make sure that the final will be a Brazilian final. And if I may, Alex, to you, I know we're in a rush, but it's been such an emotional last couple of weeks for you. What does this mean? You've been with this man for so long and to have some positive news in your life

for the first time in many weeks. How are you feeling? I can't even describe how I feel. We always joke me and him. He's life. joke that we were one day we're going to get to the beach and I guess we finally got there. Well, congratulations to you guys. It's an amazing victory. We look forward to big things from you in the second round, Antonio. Thank you everybody. Thanks for come watch. Strike force. Showtime.

This is the best tournament in the world. Thank you everybody. Great moment there for Antonio Silva and his longtime manager and friend Alex Davis, who is still with him, by the way. Very cool to look back at that. If you recall Antonio Silva went on, of course, to the next round of the tournament. He ended up getting knocked out by a young man named Daniel Cormier. A lot of people didn't think Daniel Cormier would knock out Antonio Bigfoot Silva. That was on the card in Cincinnati. The Josh Barnett, Sergei Harytonov card also made famous by the fact that on that night, Luke Rockle became the Strike Force champion defeating Jacereseosa.

That was a stack card, one of the best Strike Force cards ever. Now, at that point, we were in the Zoufa era, and that fight ended up being Bigfoot Silva's last Strike Force fight before they moved over to the UFC and his debut came against Kane Velasquez, went on a nice little run defeating Travis Brown and Alistair Overeem, very famous knockout, stood on top of him, over him, I should say, and yelled a few things at him. But then after that, it was a tough go for Bigfoot Silva. Just one win in the span of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight fights, a lot of damage. and now his UFC career has come to an end.

Wish him the best, and I think a lot of people wouldn't agree with that call. Hopefully he doesn't take any more damage, and maybe he could take a page out of your eye favors and move on to something else. Let us bring in Mr. New York Rick at this point. New York, Rick, are you there? I'm here. Oh, there he is.

What's up? What do we rock? Well, there's a lot to talk about. There's a lot to talk about. What are we rocking over there? Well, I mean, we're rocking the bringer of raincap, obviously, from our friend Hayden Noreen. You may remember from back, I want to say it was, I'm forgetting what month it was, but it was a few months ago. I braided my hair on the show.

Actually, Paige braided my hair on the show. No, who was it? It wasn't Paige. It was Sarah. Sarah. It was Sarah who braided my hair on the show. And then Hayden graciously donated $100 to Movember. I matched that. We did some good for men's health awareness. And as a thank you for that, he sent us some ball caps. Me, the Josh Donaldson, obviously. And then yours is right behind you on the shelf over there. Oh, is it? Oh, wow. So you got the, whoa, there goes my Noad LaHad hat. You've got the bringer of Rain hat. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a week late, because as we all know, I'm trying not to... Yeah, he wanted, he, I remember him telling me when he asked the address, he was trying to get it here last week.

And I've got the HDMH hat, which is Marcus Stroman's catchphrase, if you will. Do you know what it stands for? Did I tell you? Something about height not mattering? He said it in the note. He doesn't measure heart.

Ah, I like that. That's what Marcus Drummond is all about. It's not as cool as Donaldson, but it's cool. Yeah, I'm very sad about all of this. I'm very sad that the Blue Jays are no more. But I am excited about the Cubs and the Indians. Do you realize what's going on? I know you're not a baseball fan,

but there's history being made here. Come on. 1908 was the last time the Cubs won the World Series. Last time they made it to the World Series, 1945. Last time the Indians made it to the world, excuse me, won the World Series was 1948. And it's crazy because all of a sudden

the 216, Cleveland, which you know I feel very strongly about it. I got a lot of love for Cleveland. Don't even try this. On Tuesday, tomorrow, a little over 24 hours from now, will be game one of the World Series and game one of the NBA season.

They're putting up banner. It's unfortunate though that my beloved New York Knicks are going to spoil said party and beat the Cavaliers. You've actually segues perfectly. We have two questions here. Oh wow. Literally asked by the fans, ready? I'm going to full screen it. First one,

which bandwagon are you jumping on? As the fans know, you are the hugest bandwagon jumper in sports. This one is regarding the playoffs. Cubbies or Indians, which bandwagon are you jumping on? Actually, before we go to that, thank you, Hayden. Really appreciate it.

You can follow them, R-H-N-A-R-I-N-E on Twitter. Good dude. Yes. I love this. Thank you so much for the hat. Really. Really.

Really. It's a lot. Oh, you know what's funny? It says inside the hat, you never know, which is something I like to say a lot of times. Okay. So, you know, I don't appreciate this.

The people know. The people already know. This insinuation that I'm a bandwagon jumper. I live and breathe with my teams. When have I ever, okay. All 30 of them in. NBA and all. You know as well as anyone that I'm the most tortured sports fan living on earth.

Montreal Exposed don't exist. Okay, I now am a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays only because I don't want to be a total asshole and make my kids root for a team that doesn't exist. I mean, it's the least I can do. It's not be selfish. No, you have to pass down the suffering. That's how it works. There is no suffering to be passed on.

They don't exist. Yeah, that's the most suffering. Oh, stop it. You can't do that to a kid. You'll understand one day. And then the Knicks, I will never waver. I will never jump off that bandwagon. Except when Steph Curry's involved.

Oh, stop it with that. I have to pick a team. If you're asking me, who do I want to win between the Cubs and the Indians? I'm going to pick someone. I like to have the Cubs, of course. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah, 1908.

No, but is there also not this feeling of the Cleveland, which has been tortured for so long as a town in general? Now they're getting all these champions. It would almost be poetic. This is a sports teller. television executives dream. Fox is over the moon.

I mean, the ratings are going to be fantastic, probably better than the ones when the Red Sox made it in 2004. You can't go wrong, but the... Are the Browns any good? No, they suck there. They suck? They're 0 and 6th. They got all the suffering from Cleveland and the Indians and Cavs. But they're both kind of lovable losers.

Right. So you can't go wrong. I just think that everyone deep down is happy. I mean, most people are probably happy for the Cubs, except for the Indian fans. Cleveland fans are so insecure. Like I gave props to the Cubs. I was like, hey, Cubs fans, congrats. And they're like, what about us?

When I did give them props when they beat the Blue Jays. But they're so like, what do you care? What do you want my props for? But all the twos are like, what about us? Where's the love for the Indians? We're with let's start with your team name. How about that? And then while we're at it, let's start with changing your team logo.

I feel like they're kind of slowly moving away from it because now they go with the C as opposed to the mascot. Yep. But come on. Okay. So, Cubs, it is. History. Yeah.

Put up for the Cubs. Okay. Now that segues into our next one, which you also addressed. Yes. Is, you know, as you're the biggest Golden State fan in existence. I'm not a Golden State fan. Can Golden State break their own record? Who's going to be MVP?

I know it's going to be one of your boys. Probably Steph Curry, right? Your hero. Shut up. Are you trying to take away from my Knicks who are going to spoil the party? The second part of this is how many points difference are my cavalier is going to destroy your Knicks by? Less we forget a couple years ago when it was LeBron James' long-awaited return to Cleveland. Who was the team that he played in said return?

A New York Knickerbockers team led by one Travis Ware, who completely urinated all over that party. And so we've been there before, and we shall do it again tomorrow night. NBA champion, J.R. Smith. Okay, we don't have time for this nonsense. Okay. Your eye of favor, your thoughts. Yes. I mean, what's there to say?

Obviously, Hall of Famer in a Hall of Fame that doesn't exist, but in every Hall of Fame, in every Hall of Fame that does a unanimous selection for Hall of Fame, interesting that, you know, the way he put it, it's a downright, reasonable argument saying, I didn't get it done in the UFC, but I was 31 years old by the time that opportunity came around. I dominated that weight class, my weight class, when, it mattered and that that's the story that he'll tell and that people will remember and he's he's right about that. I don't think anybody is going to look at your eye of favor and said, you know what? He never got that UFC title because he was the featherweight king been for

so long. Yeah, I mean, it's a it's kind of a stupid question to ask where I hate asking that question because he deserves better. You have to ask it, but anyone who doesn't recognize that he was the king of the lighter weights, that he put WC on the map. He's one of the major reasons why they were so successful as an organization. He was the face of that company. Yeah. He literally carried that company on his back. The first ever at WC.

pay-per-view was headlined by him in Sacramento. Highest rated show was headlined by him in Sacramento, the Jen's Pulver fight. When he lost to Mike Brown, remember when he lost to Mike Brown? Like that felt like, like an earthquake. Yep. It was seismic.

It was surreal to see him lose. Yeah. At the time, that was one of the biggest upsets ever. It just felt like, it could never happen. But there is an era of fans who grew up with only recognizing the UFC, and they might not know about Yerah Fabor and what he was able to do before he entered the UFC. But at the same time, his career in the UFC is nothing to, you know, raise your nose out either.

He had a damn good career. He just never, he got into the title fight plenty of times. Some will say at times undeserving. Some will say, who else are they going to put in there? He was one of the only guys in the division at that time. But overall, just, you know, one of the most stellar careers in MMA history. Absolutely. And going out still as a viable contender, a viable fighter, not a guy who's, he's been fighting this long and he's not going out.

Like you said, as somebody who you need to drag out of the cage, he's, as he said, he's never been knocked unconscious. It's really been an incredible career. I mean, you can almost run out of things to say about him. No serious injuries as well. He's built a team. And when he was hurt, he would fight through it. Yeah. I used to always tell him that, like, and I still have told him this.

I said recently to him that he reminds me a lot of Oscar Delahua in the sense that you get the sense that he's going to be very successful in the fight game from a business standpoint, that he can be a promoter, that he could be a manager, that he can be a gym owner, that he can cultivate new talent. You know, he had, what was that name of that brand, that he had, form athletics. Remember he had that? And then he has Torque, which he's a big part of. I mean, if you follow him on any kind of social media, you can see that Rai Faber has his hand in a lot of different departments, a lot of different businesses.

He's just a very smart guy. I mean, the Faber construction. And what a beautiful thing. Like, to me, it's just as commendable to know when to say when, to recognize, wow, the UFC is coming to this new arena in Sacramento. I think it's called like the Golden One Bank Center or something like that. And that's his hometown. That's the Golden One Center.

And that's, you know, where he was made famous. That's where he sold out so many shows. Wow, this is a perfect opportunity on Fox. This is great. I wonder if Brad Pickett is going to retire after this fight. Like, we can have a retirement versus retirement fight here. Loser and winner leaves town match? Yeah.

Well, Yerai is not going to leave town, but I get your point. I just think it's super commendable in this day and age to really recognize in combat sports when that moment comes. Because as we know, not a lot of guys do that. And he had, he's done it all, he's accomplished it all. No one wants to see your eye favor go through the motions. And I wonder how hard it is for him to get up for some of these fights. You know, fighting at Jimmy Rivera on pay-per-view, with all due respect to Jimmy Rivera, is got to be tough after losing to cruise again and maybe not being in that title hunt anymore with all the young guns coming up.

So I think this is a great call in favor. And I don't doubt that he can beat most of that division still. Yeah, still. I don't think I'll have a problem getting up for this one, though. Oh, no. Wow. And what a way to end it. What a scene it will be when he comes out to that song, California Love, says the hi-mom.

I hope that they show that on television. I don't know if they will because it's Fox and they've got commercials, but they need to show that. Oh, man, my mom walking them out. She's going to love it. So that's a new piece of news. There's a lot to get to. Okay, let me run down some things here. Did you watch Bellator on Friday?

I did not. I was at Glory. How was Glory? Good show, really good show. Any news there? He was retained. Simon Marcus back on track. Dustin Jacoby blocked the kick, broke his arm.

Simon Marcus really packed a wall up in that one. So Simon Marcus wins? Simon Marcus wins. He is the champion? No, no, no, no. He just lost his belt in Jersey. Come on. Okay, sorry. It's very hard to keep up with all this. But was it a good show? Really, really good show.

I believe T.J. Dilsha was there. T.J. was there. Joseph Benavides was there. Neil Magni was there. Wow. Who else? Neil Magny fighting Johnny Hendrix at 207 also. Johnny Hendricks saying last week, I think it was to ESPN that if he loses to Neil Magne, he's going to retire.

Did you hear that? I did not hear that, but that's... What do you make of that? I don't know if that's the... Why I put that all on the line like that? Maybe you've got to get yourself up, but that's not something I'd probably be... I feel like every time someone says that,

like the if I lose, I'm going to retire, they never actually retire, but they always lose. Remember Vinnie Maghoyesh saying that against Anthony Perj? It seems like you're really trying to motivate yourself more than anything else. There's really not any stakes there.

You could just renege on that. It does sort of feel like this is, not do or die, but a super duper duper, important fight for him. Like, thinking back, no? After the Kelvin Gaslam loss and the Wonderboy loss? They're all important. It's like, you lose a few in a row and this one's important.

The next one's important. They're all important. It's like football. You don't get, you don't get to play the next night. So they all count. They all really count and they matter a lot. So I don't know. I don't think stuff like that.

That added motivation stuff is that great. but especially against a guy like Neil Magni. If anything, Neil Magny, the opponent, can use this as some sort of insult and be like, what? Yeah, what do you mean? Yeah, what are you trying to say here, buddy? And use that as motivation. I like that fight a lot.

We'll see how it shakes out, but I like that fight a lot. Okay, so the reason why I asked you about Bellator was that they did this quote-unquote debate, which didn't really end up being a debate. I ended up seeing that. Okay, so you saw that. Yeah. I mean, what did you make of it? Because I have very strong thoughts on it.

what did I think of it? Okay, let me tell you my thoughts. Yeah, why don't you? I'm just so, I'm tired of the Tidor T's schick. And at first I was like, oh, this is smart Bell Tour. First of all, it wasn't a debate. Did you notice that, okay, there was clearly a producer that told them, you guys are, like, you're going to be here, Chale,

you're going to be here, Tito, and you can look at each other. But did you notice that they kept looking at each other? They're not in the same room. No. What were you looking at? You were looking at a wall. Like, does anyone, who's watching that, think that they're actually looking at each other when they're making these

fake faces, there is a fine line, and I get what they're doing. And Bellator does a nice job of embracing the pro wrestling, the showmanship and all that. But there's a fine line between overproducing and underproducing. Organic rivalries and trash talk. Chale Sunnan does not need to be overproduced. Chale's Sunnon doesn't need to be told, look in this direction. Chale's Sunnan doesn't need to be put in a debate kind of setting. That's overproducing, in my opinion. and if you overproduce a Tito Ortiz, who is always overproducing, if you get what I'm saying, it doesn't feel real, it doesn't feel authentic. To me, like I was saying on the beat on Thursday that I am over this feud, I'm over this rivalry.

I'm just over Tito in 2006. Now, if he wants to reinvent himself or if he wants to go back to the Huntington Beach bad boy, then okay, I could get into it. But this was so cringeworthy. I was like, oh my God, what are we watching? And then the juice box, that's overproducing. You plan that. I don't want to see that.

you have to make it feel real. It felt like a bad TNA skit. That's like the worst thing that you can do. I'm echoing your thoughts. Interestingly, as you were just speaking, you said you're over Tito Ortiz in 2006. You meant 2016, but that's almost, that's almost effort off. Because his schick is so 2006.

But I was okay with the faux stare down. Oh, come on. It's not real. Yeah, but I have a surprise for you. Those posters, they actually weren't in the same room Oh, stop it. It's the idea that someone said, hey, he's going to be on this side. You're going to be on the side.

Look at each other and make evil faces. Yeah, that part was the least hokey for me. The rest of it was just not good. I mean, let that. That bothered me so much. It would have been interesting if they just didn't tell them, didn't prep them, gave them a topic, let them speak on it. And also, there were no topics.

Had some kind of real debate. Yeah, like, I thought they were going to debate. I mean, obviously, you have to sell the fight. Yeah, of course. But there were no topics. Like, what are you going to do to do this guy? And what are you going to do to do to this guy? Yeah.

And also, Chale, God bless him. Now, he was talking about something so inside. Like, I think he was referring to the fact that Tito had his car repossessed. Yeah. Who the hell knew that? Chale Sondin. He's coming with the deep cuts. Yeah, maybe that's good.

I mean, we're all talking about it, so it at least got that done. But are we sort of mocking it? Like, did that make you any more interested in the fight? No, not more, but I mean, you know, I'm still interested. But no, not anymore. Absolutely not. And there's, it's weird, like the Phil Davis, I don't know if you saw this commercial. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

I actually feel like that's good producing. Like, that's a way of getting the guy. No? No, I'm saying that's not lie. Like, there's many more elements in play there. That was very well done, but that's not, you can take multiple takes on that. You can do it right. My point is, here we have a guy in Phil Davis, who's not the most eloquent speaker.

Like, he's just a guy who speaks well. He's not a trash talker per se. And in fact, he has been criticized for, you know, having hokey trash talk, remember? Yes. So here we're. we go, we'll put him in this scenario where he's playing off the election and it's sort of funny, but it also kind of makes me like him. He's endearing. That's good producing. Now you have Chale who all you have to do with Chale Sondon is give him a microphone. That's it. And you put him up against,

it's just, come on, guys, come on. We don't need to do it like this. Just let them speak to each other. Just let them go. Don't do the whole. It's, it was very disappointed. You just put them on Skype. You have Chale, close the laptop, say kaboom, and then say good night. Yeah. Or have them there in person. Well, then you do the real stare-off. The real steered-down. And it will be much better. Yeah.

Okay, so that kind of, I mean, I was already down on the whole thing, and then they did that. And I have to admit, maybe I'm not that smart, but it took me a minute to understand what he was doing with the juice box. No, I think it took a lot of people a minute. Okay. I don't think you're alone in that. Now, in hindsight, everybody's starting to realize it and recognize it, but now it's become a bit of a punchline. Not in a good way, though. A fruit punchline?

Yeah, but I think it was apple juice. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, it wasn't well executed, and if you have to explain it, it's not a good joke. Exactly. If you have to explain it, it is not a good joke. Bobby Lashy, Victorious, there's something weird about Bobby Lashley. What is that? He's dominant.

It feels like he wins all the time, yet I don't feel like he's really truly improved. Well, what do we really know about Bobby Lashley? We don't know much of his personality. Sure. I haven't been really exposed to Bobby Lashley. I know he's a tremendous physical specimen, but that's about it. What else do I really know about him? I don't know.

I mean, I feel like, look, he helped Donald Trump shave Vincent McMahon's hair. I didn't know that, but that would be interesting for me to know. He did that at WrestleMania, a very famous moment. I think it was in Detroit. Anyway, it just kind of always feels like the same fight. First of all, he has been fighting no-name guys for long enough. Like at this point, let's just put him in a title fight. Wow.

No? He's been doing this for a title fight? Well, how long are we going to fight no names for? I mean, every fight, every fight he's fighting sort of an out of shape heavyweight. It's the same fight. He mulls them. Ground and pound, ground, ground, upon, ground, pound. Sometimes it extends to the second round.

He'll take them down again. There's nothing really... No, maybe one more step up instead of the title fight. It was interesting that Josh Barnett was in his corner this time, but I don't know. Yeah, I mean... Give him a step up. Step up. There is no step up in the Beltor heavyweight. Yeah, it's just title fight. Bobby Lashy for the title fight, I'm in.

Who is the Belator heavyweight champion? There isn't one. Isn't it? Didn't they just vacate? Yeah. So just put them in a title fight. Bobby Lashley versus another tomato fight? Why couldn't this fight be a title fight? Oh, geez. Why couldn't it? Oh, geez. No? Yeah. Are you confident that the GSP situation is going to be resolved? Yeah, I just think it doesn't behoove anybody to spend this, uh, this, uh, this, um, time, you know, fighting. In court, that is.

Sorry. The fact that he was in Vegas a couple days after, does that give you? Yeah, it makes me think, you know, it seems like all the disgruntled people are all of a sudden in Vegas. Jose Aldo is showing up in Vegas. GSP showing up in Vegas. Oh, by the way, speaking of Jose Aldo, he put out that tweet that he's now rethinking his retirement.

Yeah, all of a sudden. But then at the end, he said, thanks Russia. Did you notice that? I didn't notice that. Yeah. And I thought it was like, you know, it was bad translation. It was supposed to be, you know, thanks for the cheese. His, I don't know, Russian dressing.

You remember when Connor retired? This was his way. But actually, I gained some clarification on that. What? Is this a Habib? Shut up? No, no, no. Oh, that'd be interesting, though.

Where is it? Oh, here it is. I just want to read it. How do you translate something? I know you could do it on the Twitter app. Oh, I got to do that. Anyway, he put out a tweet. It was October 21st at 714 saying that he's rethinking things.

And I was told that Joseoardo receives an incredible amount of love from the Russian fans. He was in Russia recently, and he was blown away by the love that he received. And he gets apparently a lot of love from the Russian fans on social media. And so that was his way of being like, thank you guys for reminding me why I do this, for the love, for the encouragement, and now he's rethinking things. And I was told that the meeting was very cordial. It wasn't contentious. It was a good meeting with his team and the UFC.

but yeah, that's what the thanks Russia man. Maybe you could have explained it a little better. Habeb versus Aldo in Russia. Could you imagine? The main event. The Latina-uporten? Wow. There we go.

Yeah, so that's the Aldo situation. But you're right. Even Anderson Silva. All of a sudden, you come to Vegas. He didn't go to Vegas, but he kind of backtracked as well. It's amazing. You speak up. This is what happens.

They get disgruntled. They speak up. The UFC calls them, they meet. And then they... GSP's a little, you know, more than that. Yes, of course. Aldo and GSP are a little bit, you know, but as like, I just don't think, I mean, I can't imagine. GSP has the means to wait this out, but I just don't think he has the time.

I don't think, you know, at his age he can afford to, not monetarily, but just with time, I don't think he can afford to sit this out and fight this battle. The other thing about, about Aldo is Connor fights in 19 days. Yeah. So at this point, you might as well just wait it out, right? See how it shakes. out after. It's not like he has to wait next to three months. Yeah. That's what I would do. Well, we'll see. Speaking of Bellator, yeah, I took the family on Saturday to Dave and Busters.

Yes. And I texted you about this because we were sort of on the fence looking for something to do, and we took them to the Dave and Busters in Times Square. Wonderland, my favorite place. And you're obviously a big admirer of all things, Dave and Busters. So I figured, you know, look, New York Rick is a man of many fine taste. obviously if he likes this place it's going to be a great time for all involved i mean to say that i was blown away by how crappy this place was oh don't you to say that i wanted to run home run home to take a shower uh what was it what is going on to this hygienic it is not i go to this place first of all this is the one in time square and it's like a department store you got to take a thing is the time square

one not a good one to go to i mean you know you've been through times square yes yes i mean look at the rest of it. Yeah. I go out to the one in Long Island. That's my movie. Oh, you go all the way there? I'm not that far in Queens. Is it much different?

Completely clean, much more space. There's a lot of different things. Like, you can sign up for this, play, drink, eat. And so I thought that we get a seat and then we can go play the games, which are all too old for my kids anyway. But the amazing thing about having kids four and two is that you don't actually have to pay for any of the games. They think that they're playing.

They just look at it. playing the demo you know like one's just put them on the papa shot on the basketball no this they're way too short you have no idea about i don't you have no frame of reference yeah but there were some that they liked uh drastic park and all that stuff yeah yeah the lady sits us down and and i'm like okay we're just going to go play and she's like uh excuse me i don't know if you've ever been to any restaurants before but in this world you cannot go to a restaurant and not sit down when you're seated. And I was like, oh, wow, thank you for the lesson on restaurant etiquette. And then at that point, I was afraid that she was going to spit in my food. So we went to just play the games.

And of course, my kids want to cash in. And I thought of you because of the card. And you get I chose the option of paper tickets. Paper tickets. So they get the excitement of. Smart move. You can't get anything. I got like 30 tickets and you can't even get like a piece of gum. You and your kids need to get better at the games, my friend. It's too hard. So my kids were super sad. So then I took the rest of the card and I went to play a game quickly like a, it was sort of like a roulette. No, it was, what was it? You spin the big wheel, no?

I know, it was, what's that thing called? When you go with, like, you got to get three of the same slots. Yeah, yeah, I did that. Got a bunch of tickets, got them a couple of gummy hands that stick against the wall. That's a good time right there. It was not a good time. And then we got the heck out of there. And now you all have very bad diseases.

Bad illnesses. Yeah. No, Dave and Busters is a great place. What do you possibly do there? Like, what exactly are you actually doing there? I'm getting myself some tickets. I'm saving up. I've got like, I don't know, 60,000 tickets or something like that.

What are you saving up for? Like a video game system? I don't know. Nothing I actually want. What could you possibly get for 60,000 right now? Like, I think an old last generation video game system or like a speaker. Really? I don't actually care.

It's all about the compilation of tickets. Pop a shot. That's one of the main ones. Isn't it? Didn't you go after your wedding to Dave and Busters? I 100% did. I mean, that to me is just... My wife loves it, I love it.

So you went in your outfits or did you change? Bring me that sponsorship. Yeah. Bring it to me. I kept thinking of like Josh Thompson and Tito and King Moe. I'll be right there with them. I'll sell this. Yeah, I bet you will.

I will sell this. Dave and Busters, come talk to me. And for the record, I saw a poster there for UFC 204, Hendo Bisping, which they haven't updated yet. I saw no Bellator signs there. That's what I'm saying. Maybe you stripped that and put the Bellator signs up.

Jesus. Yeah, where are the Beltor signs? Not good. Yeah. Do we have any questions? Yeah. Let's get to some questions. Okay.

A lot of changes, a lot of upheaval in the UFC. Oh, yes. I wanted to talk about this. This fan, Lamont, always in the comment section. Really appreciate his comments every week and questions every week. He's saying he can't help but feel slightly concerned following all the departures, voluntary and non-voluntary, that have helped build the UFC into what it is today.

So a lot of the names that have either been let go or left voluntarily are names that people were familiar with. These are the people that they recognize. They feel that they built this brand. What's that impact going to have for fans? Do they have anything to worry about? What are we looking at for the next couple of months into the next years? You don't have anything to worry about. The UFC's in closing.

It's not going under. No, not necessarily. Not at all. But those people created the product that they love. are they going to have a different product? It does sort of feel like the times they are changing, the sport is changing, the personnel obviously changing. This is what I'll say about the layoffs.

Again, as I said at the top, once the company was sold, especially bought by this media giant in WME IMG, obviously changes were coming. Now, the tough part for the employees, some of whom are now the ex-employees, was that, They knew that changes were coming. So a lot of them, I mean, think about this. The sale happened three and a half months ago. Let's talk about everything that has happened pertaining to this story. First, the reports come out, the rumors, right?

I mean, these rumors started way back in March or April. Then they really start to get hot and heavy with some of the reporting by Darren Ravelle, Jeremy Botter. I contributed a little bit. And this is now May June. Dana White's going on Dan Patrick and other shows saying, we're not for sale. They are putting out internal memos saying that we're not for sale. Okay, all's well and good.

UFC 200 happens. Three straight night of shows. And not only that, it wasn't exactly smooth sailing. It was John Jones getting pulled, having to change things up, the Brock Lesser thing, Misha Tate main event, all this stuff. I mean, they had to work very long hours to pull off these three straight nights. And it's just hard enough to put on three straight nights. It's not like they're adding personnel to put on these events, even if they're happening in the same city.

The Monday after UFC 200, one of the most. you know, hectic fight weeks ever, it's announced, actually it was late Sunday night, Vegas time, that it's first reported by local news outlet that they are selling the company. Official press release around 5 a.m. Vegas time Monday morning. So a lot of these people may be waking up to this news after probably needing like a vacation, a week off, certainly a day or two off after that UFC 200 week. A lot of them are waking up to the news that the company has been sold, new owners are coming in. They didn't have a percentage in the company, most of them.

Oh, by the way, your future is probably uncertain. Not a lot was said. It was like a 15-minute state of the union address. New owners do not talk to the employees. So think about that from early July till mid-October. There's a ton of uncertainty. And I kept checking in with a lot of people. I mean, you get to know these people.

You see them all the time. You know, some of them become friends. And I was being told like horror stories that it was, it was, the mood there was like a morgue, that it was depressing, that people were leaving at 5 p.m. No longer were they putting in the extra hour or two. 5 p.m. comes, everyone's out. Everyone's worried about their jobs. People are jumping ship. People are looking for other jobs. People are nervous. People are anxious. I mean, I was told that the morale was lower than low. And then the rumor starts to come that it's happening, you know,

three weeks ago. And it has been pushed back. And people are feeding me this info. People are telling us this. So you can't imagine what it's like at Zoof HQ. Finally, Monday of last week, a large percentage of the Asian office gets let go. And then Tuesday, what I was told the scene was straight out of that film, what's that film, up in the air with George Clooney, where they come in and they let you go, like an outside company comes in and lets you go, that everyone was just sitting at their desk, waiting for the email,

waiting to be summoned to go meet with WMEHR and being told, called, okay, thank you for your services. Here's a packet or two. Here's a box. Appreciate your time. That was the scene. And it wasn't just like, you know, low rank in file employees. We're talking about, you know, top level executives. We're talking about like Marshall's Lasnik, who has been there for over 10 years, who started that UK office, essentially, Gary Cook, who was a top, you know, level executive, Shanda Maloney, or is it Mahoney? Excuse me, Shannon Mahoney of, you know, the social media team. So these are like the bosses of employees who are being let go, but some of the employees are remaining so you can understand.

It's kind of like a rudderless ship now. But I was told it was around 60 to 80 employees or so who were let go all told Tom Wright in Canada the next day. They delayed the Canadian office layoffs because Cormier and Rumble were in Toronto that Tuesday doing media. Tom Wright is squaring them off in Toronto less than 24 hours later. He is being let go. That's incredible.

And so, you know, I was told that a lot of the familiar face. You can probably guess who I'm referring to. We're not there to say at least say goodbye. I'm not talking about holding their hands and allowing them to cry on their shoulders, but at least to say goodbye. Some people have told me that, you know, Lorenzo Fertita, watching from afar, was a little disappointed in how this was handled and has offered jobs to people within his own company, Red Rock, Stasia Casinos, et cetera.

I just feel like it could have been handled from start to finish, including with the Lorenzo, you know, denials, the Zufa denials of, the old regime, it could have just been handled better. Those people work incredibly hard. There are some amazing people that work at Zufa. And, you know, I have no reason to sort of, you know, bang the drum for them. I mean, look, when my thing happened, I didn't hear from anyone. I heard from maybe one or two people there. And I get it. They were probably, you know, scared or whatever. But I know I know where their hearts are and I know that they're very, very, very hardworking and good people, moms and dads. They deserve better. And let's be

honest. I mean, we've criticized their promotion. We've criticized their marketing. We've criticized their marketing. We've criticized their PR. Let's not pretend that the old regime was this, you know, amazingly well-oiled machine that was just putting on amazing events, promoting them the right way, putting on the best kind of marketing. You know, let's not pretend that it was all, you know, hunky dory. Let's not pretend that WMEIMG isn't a beast when it comes to media. They don't know how to promote. They don't know how to market.

I mean, a lot of the people that they say goodbye to, they have people who they believe are in position right now. now to do better work. And I don't blame them for doing that. I mean, that was to be expected. You buy something. If I buy a house, I'm going to put my own spin on it. I'm going to put my own touch on it. And that's what they're doing. I don't think that they should be begrudge, reprimanded, criticized for doing what they did. Maybe it could have been done a little more tactful, but that's business. I just think fans are kind of, wow, look at all these names leaving, and they're kind of shocked by it all. And maybe they didn't really understand what was going to happen. but this was to be expected.

Probably it took a little longer. Maybe they had to really gain, you know, an understanding on what goes on. They don't run a fight promotion. It's a little different than some of these other businesses. But it is a little bit sad to see these men and women leave, especially some of them after a decade who worked so hard in building the UFC what it is today. There's no denying that it is a giant that it was incredibly successful. They're part of the reason why it was sold for $4 billion.

And now they're just, you know, they're just gone. And a new era is coming in. New people, new faces are coming in. And it's kind of, it's a little scary for all of us involved. Like, what are they going to do? How are they going to change the company? What kind of personal touch are they going to put on the organization? So the unknown is always a little bit daunting.

It's always a little bit, you know, frightful. And we're wondering, is this going to be a good thing for the sport, the growth of the sport, the evolution of the sport? I just, you know, my big takeaway was these people deserve maybe a little bit better. And I hope that they're being taken care of. I hope that they're getting good severance packages and they're getting paid as they say goodbye, sort of equal to what they put in. Obviously, you can never put a number on that,

but I hope that the ones that put in a lot of years, a lot of time are getting paid nicely as they're moving on to their next endeavor. It's scary, man. There's one guy in particular, like this guy, Peter Vessie, who was working in the New York office, left Fox to go work for the UFC earlier this year,

and he's out of a job. I mean, there's countless stories like that. And so, yeah, it was a bummer to see, but I think we have to remember two things when we talk about these layoffs. A, the old UFC wasn't perfect. Everything top to bottom, it wasn't perfect. And B, there's no, there's no telling what the new people will do, what the new leaders are going to do. They may make it better. Don't dismiss them because of the new ones. You know, they were going to do this at some point. They bought the company to do it their own way,

to run it their own way. So don't dismiss that. Just the human side of me felt bad for all those people who lost their jobs. Well said. And just the way it was handled, you know? Sure. I can't imagine. I mean, and people were asking me like, oh, you've never worked in the real world. I worked for MMA rated.com that was owned by the Waserman Media Group.

And I put everything into that. That was my first job in MMA Media in 2008. I was in San Jose covering a Strike Force show. I get there. New York, San Jose, it's a long trip. And I get a G-chat saying that we're all out of work to tomorrow night. Friday night is our last day. I was there on a Thursday. And so I was like, what, you guys couldn't have told me before I left? What am I supposed to do at this event?

Of course, I've told the story before about the Strike Force guys, excuse me, the AKA guys losing their jobs, John Fitch and all that stuff. It was a weird time. But I've been there before. Someone buys your company? That time, it happened right away. It was bought and we all were out of jobs. This time, it was kind of a slow death. I think that was the unfortunate part of all. Or maybe that's the good thing they could have prepared. Who knows? But don't, um, don't be afraid. I mean, I think the UFC is going to be in a good spot. They paid a lot of money for this company. There's a lot of debt. They got to get back their debt. And I actually think that for the fans, it's a good thing because they're going to try to stack these cards. Look at 205,

look at 207. We know what they're trying to do with 206. They are going to try to stack these cards as much as possible to make as much money as possible via pay-per-view to try to get back some of that money, you know, to try to limit, you know, to try to end that debt, to try to get back into the black. So I actually think that if you look at it from a purely entertainment and fan standpoint, it's actually a positive for the UFC that they paid so much, excuse me, for the UFC fans that they paid so much for the company because they're going to try to put on the biggest and best events possible. Do you get what I'm saying? Absolutely. They're not going to try to cut corners. They may actually limit the amount of events next year, but that, to me, equals a better

experience and a better product for the fans because now you are stacking the deck. The cards are going to get better at that point and we're going to start missing the cards like what I was talking about at the beginning of the show. So I don't really necessarily think that there's all that much negative for the fans who just care about the product are concerned. For those that care about the business, the relationships, you know, the familiar faces, yeah, it's a bit of a bummer. Yeah, I mean, that leads to the next question. Are we going to see the roster take a trim as well? I think so. And I don't think that the news last week that 13 or so fighters, were released. I mean, that happens all the times. Yeah, that happens quite frequently. Sometimes we get the news. Sometimes we don't. It's hard to keep up with that. But I do think that less events means less roster, you know, a smaller roster. Less roster spots, yeah. Yes. I also believe, by the way, that there's a lot of fighters in the UFC who aren't UFC caliber, who, you know, it would behoove them to go somewhere else, fight for someone else, build up their repertoire, get a few more fights under their belt, and then come. I mean, we've seen a lot of guys who, you know, we've seen a lot of guys who,

you know, six, seven, eight years ago just wouldn't be in the UFC. So I actually think that less events is a good thing as well. And it's probably better for the competition, too, because then the competition has more fighters. John Jones, we've been hearing a lot about his appointment

coming up, his hearing date, and that there was, you know, I don't know if it was news, was reported. Something about USADA, finding that there was a contaminated substance. I don't know if that was confirmed in news or if that was just speculated. I think that was Howard Jacobs on Luke Thomas' radio show. There you go. So what impact is that going to have? Do you think we're going to see John Jones anytime soon?

Or is it going to be a situation like Yo-Romero where they're going to give him a punishment retroactive? The great unknown here is Nevada. So I think that the reason why John Jones delayed his Nevada Athletic Commission hearing that was supposed to happen earlier this month to next month, November 10th, is because he wanted to get this arbitration hearing out of the way. That's scheduled for a week from today, Halloween, in Los Angeles. If it does actually happen, he will be the first UFC fighter to take Usada to arbitration. Now, he is facing from Usada a one-year suspension. He's hoping for no suspension, obviously.

Howard Jacobs is one of the very best at what he does. If he gets a six-month suspension, remember, it is retroactive. it's dating back to actually the test happened in June. It'll either happen, and it'll either be, you know, dating back to June or July, but the point is we're already three, four months in. So if he gets a six-month suspension, like a Yo-R-Ramaro, he only has a couple months left.

Nevada, though, plays by their own rules. They could give him a two-year suspension. They can talk about his hit and run and say that you've shown no respect for this sport and commission. Who knows what they're going to do? I mean, they gave Vanderleigh a lifetime band for not taking that test. They gave Chale a two-year ban for failing that test.

So I really don't know what they're going to do, but I think it was important for them to get the arbitration hearing out of the way. So hopefully, Nevada looks at what Usada does and takes a cue. I'm not that confident they're going to do that, but worth a shot. And this is a Nevada Athletic Commission without Pat Lundval, as Mark Rumundee told us at the top of the show. So in the past, Pat has been the one who has, campaign for stiffer penalties than all of them.

So maybe that is a promising sign for John Jones. Timing couldn't have been better then, huh? Okay. Yeah. PFA, any update on that? Not a huge update. I mean, I know that they've been going to a lot of gyms, talking to fighters. I know Leslie Smith has been doing a lot of work.

It's not dead. Maybe it's not as gung-ho as it was when they started, but that's to be expected. I mean, you're going to come out and, you know, try to make a splash and get people educated. but I think that they're realizing that a lot of groundwork needs to be done, a lot of grassroots work needs to be done, and that involves going to gyms and talking to fighters. It's important, to me it's more important to go to gyms and talk to fighters than to go to events and talk to them while they're there for a UFC event,

for a Bellator event because they feel a little uncomfortable. When they're at their, you know, gym, hometown, there's no one around. That's when you're going to get a lot of work done. And I think they recognize that. It looks like we're going to get Dominic Cruz versus Cody Garbrandt. Yes. Any interest in following that, Cruz versus Demetrius Johnson? No, not at this point.

There are too many great bantam weights now. You know, that division is way too interesting now. Dilleshaw is in the mix. John Lineker is in the mix. There's still Al Jermaine Sterling out there. Halfel Sunsau is still out there. And there's just too many guys. Jimmy Rivera is out there.

That's just off the top of my head. I think bantamweight is one of the most interesting divisions in the UFC. So I like to see dominant champions, and that's what Demetrius is, and that's certainly what Dominic is becoming once again, and I have no interest in seeing that. Would it revitalize Demetrius? Let's say, I mean, if he wins, obviously I think it would give him a lot of shine. But even if he loses, would have revitalized Demetrius a little bit

and bring some shines to flyweight, because while you're talking about bantam weight being absolutely ripe with contenders, flyweight not so much. Yeah, I just, I want to see Dominic Cruz against Dilleshaw again. Sure. I get it. So, yeah, I feel like I saw that fight. Well, you did see that fight, but I think the circumstance, I mean, totally. I'm not gung-ho about this fight, but I could see a reasonable reason to. Will I spit all over it?

Of course, am I more interested in DJ versus Cruz than I am, DJ versus the tough winner? Yeah, obviously. Or any other guy right now? I mean, Louis Smokalke losing is a big blow because I thought he was going to be that next guy. There's still Wilson Hayes who probably deserves the shot because he was... Promised it? Yeah. But no, I don't think it's fair to the 135ers.

Sure. This person is asking about bringing some games back. How do you feel about that? What games? The MMA hour. You know, we used to do the faces, no prizes, just bringing games back. Lighten it up. Geez, are we too serious these days?

Well, earlier today, you're dogging Dave and Busters, the game capital of the world, the greatest entertainment venue. I was trying to, you know, keep an open mind. I was trying to enjoy what, you know, I was trying to get on your level and take an interest in your interests. But how about we do one right now? So we've got. What's the game? We've got 25 minutes. Okay.

How about best for favor? Maybe no shirt. Go no shirt. Have we done that before? I feel like we might have even done that. Topless. Yeah. Sure.

Let's do it. Yeah. In honor of favor. In honor of favor. So send us. Your best, your best, no shirt nation.

Now, are we just limiting this to males? No, not at all. Okay, all right. We're open to all. Babies. Well, let's not get, you know,

in trouble with the government. No. Like a little like eight-month-old boy. Yeah, but even, I mean, with his diaper. I love that.

That's where you're going. No, come on. That's right. That definitely came out wrong. And what are you getting? What's the prize? No,

we're just going to feature them. At the end of the show. So you're going to talk to Matt Brown during that time. I'm going to collect some of the best ones. Okay. We'll feature them at the end of the show. In honor of your eye of favor, we are now accepting, and in honor of this person,

Sebi Militor. Sure. I hope I'm, hello from Romania. Greetings. And I hope that he. Salutations. And how can people submit these pictures? Hashtag.

Yes. The MMA hour. Yes. Hashtag. No shirt nation. That's it. And include the picture. Oh, wow.

And include the picture. Let's see them. See him, baby. I want to see you at work. No shirt. Represent. Yes. Do this for real.

But there's got to be a reason. I mean. What do you mean? Oh, what? No, you get some shine on the MMI hour. Come on. That's enough. We have some swag.

Yeah, maybe we can send them some swag. What about this World Series of fighting John Fitch's sign club? Okay. Or how about this? A box of cards from Topps that we always feature. Let's do that. All right. Tops is going to hook you up.

We're going to get you that box of cards. Yeah. Best submission wins. And if there's only. one submission, guess what? You win too. In the meantime, I'm going to get our next guest. Well, we still got a couple more minutes. Okay, I'll give some updates while you do that. Shane Carwin update. He spoke to the Rise in promotion out of Japan. There is interest there. There has been some talks of him fighting for them maybe later this year, perhaps against

a Fedor-Mulianenko, tweeted out a picture of their gloves, but nothing is official just yet. So we'll see. He's talked to a bunch of promotions. He would be a nice fit for them, I think, because you know, he's big heavyweight, got a fun style. I feel like the Japanese would like Shane Carwin, especially against Fador. That's a fun one. So look out for that. It was reported last week by us that Gunner Nelson is out of the Deng Yun-Kim fight November 19th in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The new main event is Gagra Musassi versus Uriah Hall, too, which is interesting because Gaggar was on our show last week, saying that he would love that fight, even if it doesn't make a ton of sense.

Ranking-wise, UFC hasn't announced that either. I don't know why they're sitting on these announcements. Maybe they're waiting for the dust to settle and they can then announce it and make a big splash. I don't know. Maybe the person who's in charge of that is no longer at the company. I have no idea. But that's what I'm told November 19th, Musassi v. Hall is a damn good main event. I mean, it's not Gunner who has the connection to Ireland, who, of course, trains at SBG,

but Musassi versus Hall is a damn good main event. I saw some people complaining about that. Come on. Damn good main event. And Musassi is active, and he gets to run that one back. And also, most importantly for him, he gets to fight around when the other top middleweights are fighting. Widman Romero fighting November 12th. Rockholds, Jacques,

Ray fighting November 26th in Australia, so it's good to keep him active around that time as well, in my opinion. Talked about Johnny Hendrix, Neil Magni, that has been added to 207. That is one of many interesting fights. Also, Brandon Thatch has been added to that card as well. So we'll see about Johnny Hendrix and his retirement statement. Cody Garbrandt, Dominic Cruz, expected to be officially announced for that in the coming days as well.

last Monday night I reported that Jordan Mian, remember him, he retired, youngster, coming back. He's fighting Emil Mech on December 10th on that UFC 206 card that hopefully can be salvaged by GSP's presence on it. I know Daniel Cormier wants GSP. Kudos to Daniel Cormier for being in a really tough spot. The day after GSP's interview on this show, Daniel Cormier is doing media in Toronto and everyone's asking him about the GSP situation. kudos to him for actually, you know, saying what's on his mind and saying that, look, it would be a good business for me to have GSP on the card. You know, I don't want this card to be forgotten about.

It is sandwiched right now between 205 and 207, and it's a tough spot for everyone involved. You know, here you have a situation where 205 is going to kill. It's going to make a ton of money. 207 is going to kill. It's going to make a ton of money. And you have 206, which is, you're going to kill. in the same month as 207, so you're asking people to spend $120 if they're buying the HD broadcast on pay-per-view, it's a big ask, especially when you have a card, which isn't all that stacked.

You know, there's no real reason for people to go out of their way to buy that one. They saw the main event already. I'm not saying the same thing is going to happen, not saying that something crazy won't happen. I mean, that's a great fight. And there are some good fights on the card. Cub Swanson versus the Korean Superboy and Emil Meek versus Jordan Mian, among the many others, but that one's in a tough spot being sandwiched between the two. So I know DC, who also gets paper viewpoints, is hoping that that one gets done as well. He would stand to gain

a heck of a lot. Now, speaking of UFC 207, another great fight that was added to that card as well. Tarik Safedin versus Matt Brown has been added to that card. What a card it is turning into. And now we are being joined by the Immortal One himself. Matt Brown. Matt, how are you? very good how you doing I'm doing great thank you very much so what was your reaction when you got the call that you were going to fight on this Ronda roussi card against tarik saffine

was he on your radar was that card on your radar what did you think when you got that call to be honest I mean I was coming off two losses man I had no idea who they might have given me so I was just pretty open to whatever you know I felt like I was at the mercy

of the matchmakers and you know it's cool you know fight to fight So, you know, Terrick's a very, very good guy, a very, very tough guy to beat. So, you know, it's going to test me and it's going to take everything I got. Being at, quote, unquote, the mercy of the matchmakers, is that an uncomfortable position to be in for you?

I guess not really because it's not like I've ever really turned down a fight anyway. Yeah. It's not a huge deal, but, you know, I don't know. Maybe if they threw me, you know, something I really didn't want. I didn't have much room to negotiate, I don't think. We don't feel like it. Sure, of course. And around a week ago, you put out that picture, that screen grab of the Joe Silva email,

but you crossed out the opponent. Did you, I mean, one report out in Brazil was that you were fighting Mike Perry. Of the names thrown out, the guests thrown out, was there an option that you liked better than Tarek's hefty? Like, it came your way and you're like, ah, I kind of like that fight more than the one that I'm getting. I don't know what you mean, really. I mean, that was the fight that gave me, so I just took it. They didn't offer any other fights or anything. Normally they would.

Normally, you know, Joe has many times said, you know, would you rather fight this guy or this guy or this guy? And he knows I always go for the highest ranked or highest profile guy. And, you know, this time it was just said, you know, that was the email right there. Yeah. That was it. That was the entire conversation. for me saying yes. Wow. My question was, like, a lot of people were speculating who this person was, the name that you crossed out. And so I was wondering if you saw any of these guesses, and you were

like, oh, I kind of like this idea better. And you thought about bringing, you know what I'm saying? Because a lot of people were trying to guess who that opponent was. I guess I don't really get into the ideas of fights as much as just fights. Put me in there, put another guy on the other side, and let's go. I don't care who he is. after UFC 201 did you take a break mentally physically did you feel like you needed to take a break to recharge and to get your head in the right the right space i absolutely did this was uh i said a few times this that was the first time in my entire life that i've been dropped with a headshot and sparring um at all you know anytime my life even street fights anything so i i just wanted to learn from everybody

else's mistakes. I see people all the time coming back real soon and they end up saying maybe they shouldn't have. Of course, you see the boxers, you know, that's been well documented for years, the issues they've had with concussions and brain injury. So I took some time

off and I've done some things are the best things that I can do to try to keep my brain as healthy as it can be for as long as it can be and hopefully come back, you know, with these injuries healed up and have a fresh camp and be to perform at a higher level, and

ideally, yeah, that equates to a win. You know, sometimes it doesn't, but I just want to be healthy and fresh and have a strong mind coming in, and that's all I can ask on myself. What were some of the things that you did to keep your brain healthy?

Probably the main thing outside of not the part was I've been doing a ketogenic diet, which is kind of getting a little bit more popular in the mainstream these days. It was originally a cure for epilepsy, and there's a lot of research in the past, I don't know, 10, five or 10 years, you know, for cancer and diabetes and all these things. And one of the things that I was reading about was it's helped with TBI,

traumatic brain injury. So I thought, hey, you know, what's the worst thing that could happen? And since I've done the diet, I've absolutely just loved it and fell in love with it and I could talk about it all day long, but I won't bore you with all the details. But that was one of the things, and then not sparring as much. And then I do some games on the computer.

You know, like to help the reaction times and stuff. And just little things like, yeah, you know, it's just play puzzles, even like, you know, Shidoku or Shodoka, however you say it. Yeah. You know, just constantly keeping the brain working, you know, I treat it like a monster.

like a muscle like any other has to be exercised to stay strong. Did you see the story last week that Jordan Parsons, who tragically passed away in that hit-and-run car accident, was diagnosed with CTE after they examined his brain? Did you read about that? I seen the story I did not get to read any details. Well, he was just 25 and only, you know, only had one loss, and this wasn't a guy who has been in wars or anything like that, pretty young in his career. That was kind of scary to read, you know, and thinking about some of the

the older guys in the sport. I was just wondering if you read that and if it, you know, affected you at all. You know, I plan on reading here. I think I put it on my little list of things to read or whatever. You know, man, I mean, that's a perfect example. You know, these kids die of concussions in high school football every year. And, of course, we see, you know, the Meldrich Taylor's and the Muhammad Ali's, you know,

I think that's probably the biggest indicator, you know, when you see that those guys, I mean, Melody Taylor is one of my favorite boxes of all time. And when you look at what happened to him after he fought Chavez, you know. Yeah. I mean, it's just as tragic as it gets. And, of course, he fought more fights after. And, I mean, just listening to a guy like him with so much talent, gold medal in

boxer and just a, you know, a flashy young guy that had all the potential in the world. And I just went away from, you know, probably gym wars and, you know, just a lot of different things I got. But, you know, I have kids and I want to be able to speak in sentences to them. I had a concussion last year for the first time of life. And I'll tell you, man, it's no fun. I had a serious concussion, you know, real concussion. And, you know, I wasn't finishing sentences to my kids sometimes.

I actually fell over. That was when my wife made me go to the doctor. I literally, like, got up and fell down. And, yeah, you know, and you start, you know, things like that happen. You're like, man, this sport's real. This ain't just fun in games and a paycheck anymore. How did you get the concussion?

Was it as a result of a fight or through training? No, it was a fight. Yeah, yeah, it was a fight. So, you know, I don't like to really talk about too much. The thing is, you know, if I, it was one of the fights I lost, and if I don't want it to be an excuse for losing, you know, But I haven't really missed it all. But since then, now I'm starting to see all the ways to help your brain

and learning about how to minimize the risk of concussion. But that's why I like to talk about it, to bring it up and tell people, you know, show other people that it can be done. You know, I've had 22 fights now, I think, in the UFC, you know, and I've taken care of myself very well. So, you know, I'd like to be an example for younger, up-and-coming fighters that, you know, you can have a long career in the sport by taking care of yourself. Yeah, and I should know just to correct myself that Jordan Parsons had two loss,

only two losses only knocked out once in his career. It's still very surprising to read that. I'm wondering for you, who taught you about this method to keep your brain healthy? Like, who showed you that? who opened the door for you and explained that this was, you know, important for you to do to remain healthy? Well, the various sources, but, you know, the original thought process came from myself. Wow.

Yeah, I mean, once I had it, I never thought about it in my life until I had my own concussion. I always thought that, I guess I was one of those old school. You know, I was an old school dummy, you know, you'd hear about concussions. I'd be like, oh, you're just being a pussy, you know. and, you know, people having headaches and just go train, you know, what's your problem? But then when I had one myself, I thought, man, this is a real thing. So, yeah, I just started doing my own research. Of course, the first person I talked to was my sports doctor when I actually was diagnosed with my first concussion.

And I've done a lot of research since. The guy's helped me most with the ketogenic diet. for me, it's been a fantastic help to my brain. That was, his name's Paul Falcone. He's a scientist at Muffle Farm. So, again, I thank them so much for providing us with the recovery tools that they provide us. But outside that, I mean, there's a place I get through called Neuroperformance Training. Of course, the Cleveland Clinic does their thing, which I was a part of when it started.

I need to go back. I need to hit them up and go back soon. but yeah and I do a lot of my own research I mean I don't necessarily like to rely on the others for for information I always do it myself um you know you've been in this sport for a very long time uh over a decade now looking back on the things that you did when you were younger less educated are you are you mad at yourself or are you recall like being like oh man I was I was too hard-headed I was a dummy I didn't listen to my body like does it does it bother you that you didn't know as much as you did now about, you know, health and how to treat your brain? Well, it doesn't bother me. I don't hold it over my head or anything. I don't hold against myself, so speak. I don't have any regrets for anything.

I've done a little difference of me than most people in the sport. I didn't come into the sport until I was, like, 24 years old. When you look on my record, I think I was 24 years old, 23 or 24, if you look at my record on, in a shirt or whatever, my first amateur fight, like that was when I first stepped in a gym. Like I had fights before I'd even been in a gym but the first one that was on record

on amateur was like I stepped in a gym like a week or two before that. So I haven't been taking the damage you know a lot of kids even in you know wrestling or you know boxing or whatever kind of sport they were in they were taking damage years before that.

I was only taking damage to you know whatever kind of damaged drugs to do to you. is a little bit different, not impactful. Sure. Not high impact damage. So I didn't play high school football anything I guess. So I think for me it's a little bit different in that regard.

But I never would look back in and regret anything I did because I think I've done a great thing coming from nothing, a low life, you know, headed for prison or dead or whatever to become, you know, close to a champion so far. UFC, and I still plan on being a champion in the UFC. So I'm happy with everything I've done so far, and I don't have any regrets. I remember being at that fight in Atlanta back in July when Jake Ellenberger, who was kind of going through his own struggles as a fighter, you know, he finished you. It was shocking because, like you said, we've never seen you in that position before. It was relatively quick. Emotionally, how did you deal with the loss? That was part of the, emotionally,

the toughest loss in my career. And I'll tell you what my, my reasoning is that I, I'm I always, wins and lockses have never really been a huge thing to me. It's never really like the primary focus. I just want to do the best I can, be happy with myself on Sunday because I know I gave it all that I had, win or lose. That one, I just didn't tell I could give it all that. I think I took it way for granted. I didn't show Jake enough respect.

You know, I learned the hard way, you know, the hard thing about their sport is, you know, a bad day at the office, you know, can be like that, you know, where you, you know, it's a really bad day, right? So, you know, so I mentally, that was the, the first time I think in my career that I've ever had a mental slip-up like that where I just didn't respect my opponent, was overconfident, and I don't like that out of myself. So I have to go back and change that, and I plan on doing that, you know, so I don't know if I'm a win my next fight or not, but I know that I'm going to.

I'm going to have a lot of respect for my opponent. I'm going to come in better than I've ever been before, and that's all I can ask out of myself. Wow, well, I appreciate you being so honest about that. I don't think a lot of people would admit that. So did you just not train as much? Were you just like, ah, Jake Ellenberger's washed up. I'm going to roll right through this guy?

No, actually, I trained pretty good. I mean, like I said, a lot of injuries, but I always train good just because I just can't help but get in there and train every day. But, like, in the fight, I mean, normally, you know, like, you know, I stare at my opponent pretty hard and I get pretty pumped up, but I kept looking at him like, man, like, why is this guy even in here with me? Like, I'm just going to walk through this guy. And then I'm sure, you know, if you remember the fight, he knocked me down right away. And I thought, oh, okay, you know, that you got one, okay? And then I walked up with my hands down. I've never, I never put my hands down, I guess. I just thought, you know, I mean, I don't know. I don't know why it was, but it's not going to happen again. all I know. And when you got to the back, when you got home, how did you deal with that?

How did you handle that? Knowing that you probably didn't give it, you're all as far as, you know, giving him the credit that he deserves. Like, did you need to take a break from the sport? Did you not train for a couple weeks? Emotionally, how did you deal with it? And mentally? You know, I dealt with it really tough.

It was a really tough one. And, you know, I probably felt like Ronorowsy and wanted to kill myself, which is after every loss. You know, we're all the same. and we all want to do it. But you know what? I got kids, man. I got three kids.

You know how to come home and be a role model to them. So I had to get up the next morning and make breakfast and show them that no matter how many times you get kicked down, you get your ass back up and do it again. Do you really feel that way? You know, that's a pretty drastic thing to say. Does that really cross your mind? What's that? Saying that you want to kill yourself?

Well, my point, I guess. is you really do feel like you want to kill yourself. Like you feel like that low of a person. Like you, you know what I mean? When you just, you know, you get beat up like that in front of, you know, millions of people, your friends and family. And, you know, I mean, it's not right to feel that way and you shouldn't feel that way. But you do feel that way.

And, you know, unfortunately, you know, I'm mature enough to be able to handle those feelings and, you know, not actually. on them obviously, but, um, yeah, of course. I mean, I guess it's more of an expression that you really do feel, feel, uh, that, uh, that low at that time. Um, and so, okay, so, so, so you have that and you have to go home to your family, like you said, make breakfast and things like, like your, your, your oldest sons, they are twins. How old are they? Uh, they're six years old now. Are they at the point where they ask you, of course, they ask you, I'm sure, did you win or lose? Do they, do they, do they kind of understand what you do

now and is how do you explain to them that you didn't win and what happened or do you try to like keep that away from them? No, I talk to them about it completely. And that, again, like when you talk about like the sadness of losing the tragedy, yeah, I have to tell my kids, yeah, Daddy didn't do it. They see the black eye. They see the, you know, the marks on the ribs or, you know, they see the cuts. They see all that stuff.

So I have to explain to them. And then, you know, sometimes you hear them say things. But, like, you know, all you're going to fight, I'll help you win because you didn't win last time. Or, you know, they don't understand that, you know, if an adult said it, you'd be, you get pissed, right? But it's a kid. So, yeah, that's a very difficult thing. But, you know, again, it's all about teaching them the lessons. I think there's obviously there's a lesson you can teach your children out of any situation that arises in life.

So this just happens to be a great way to teach them a lesson. And sometimes you're going to get knocked down, but you always get back up and keep moving forward. Right. Did you tell the UFC that you will tell them when you're ready to come back or did they come to you? How did you decide that, okay, I'm ready to accept the fight, I'm ready to get back in there? You know, I've been around the UFC for long enough. Me and Joe has still to have a good relationship. And back in the day, they would just call me and say, this is who you're fighting, this is when you're fighting.

And so now, you know, I have some tenure, and I called Joe and said, look, you know, this is my personal timeline. And if that works for you, I appreciate it. If not, just let me know so I can figure it out. And he was totally cool with it. So it worked out. That back and forth is going to come to an end. Are you going to be sad when Joe leaves? Yeah, you know, I mean, I just, I hope Joe, is a person is happy and lives a fulfilling life and everything.

And that's an important thing, but I don't have any idea how it's going to change, so I don't know if I'll be happier status from a business perspective. That's true. That's true. And so you have this important fight. You've lost two in a row now. Do you feel like this is do or die for you? I mean, you've been there before. You've stared at a four-fight losing streak, and you've overcome that.

Does this feel reminiscent of where you were a few years back? You know, it brings back some old memories, you know, and not the good times. Yeah. I don't know. You know, I'm just going to, I always say that I looked at each fight as my first fight and my last fight. But that's always, you know, that was another one, I guess, with Alenberger. Like, I didn't really have that mentality going in. I think I came in like it was a stepping stone, you know.

That's how I looked at him was a stepping stone. Like if they put them in there for me to just get back on the winning track just to be a W on my resume. and get rid of him, what I was assuming. So now, yeah, I have to change that mentality back, man, and I have to really practice what I preach here. And this is going to be my first fight. It's going to be my last fight. So, you know, January 1st or December 31st,

we'll see what happens from there, but I have no plans beyond December 30th right now. So if I ask you, like, Perfect World, how many fights would you like to fight, you know, before you move on? You can't even answer that? Well, I could answer that. So I'm not, when I do say that, like I, you know.

Yeah. And if it was a true thing, you know, like December 30th was my last fight, like I would change a lot of things, but no, I mean, I want to, no, I want to have the most fights in the U.S.D. I know this thing, I think, has the record now. You know, I'd like to have over 30 fights. You know, I want to keep going until I can't go anymore. That's the goal.

And I wanted to be in the UFC, though, and I want to be at the top level. It can't be, you know, having, you know, a bunch of fights on the fight pass, you know, fighting taking two fighters because I can't beat the top 10. So, you know, I have to make sure that that is fulfilled also. Are you going to do anything differently from a training perspective for this fight to get back on track? Yeah, I'm going to train a little smarter and train a little harder. Okay. So I'm trying to do everything.

fight so but you know i mean i feel better too this time so i think the ability to train smarter and harder will be there um one last thing for you mad and again i really appreciate your honesty it's uh you know you've always been that way so this is no surprise but i appreciate you talking about some maybe not so pleasant things um earlier in the show uriah faber announced that he's going to retire in december that his fight on december 17 is going to be his last fight and i'm reminded of what you told me in Atlanta prior to 201 saying that you kind of consider yourself, you know, last of the Mohicans, a dying breed, so to speak, in the UFC. How many of your kind do you think are left? Do you think that you're the only one left? Do you think that there are like two or three left?

The things are changing. It's sort of a new era coming into play here with the new ownership and fighters retiring. Do you think about that sort of thing? And do you have any idea, like, how many are like you left? there's definitely some like me to that that's for sure um yeah sometimes I say shit that I don't know even know why I say it

I don't know I mean I think I feel that way like it you know there's not you know there's a lot of prima donnas coming in and everybody you know everybody wants to get on Twitter and talk about things instead of just fighting that you know I really I'm kind of a traditionalist

you know I really like back in the day when when you know guys are just fighting man, and that's what it was about, was about the fight, and it wasn't about the hype and the talk. And, you know, I really love that. You know, I'm kind of a purist for the sport, and, you know, so that's, you know, that's kind of kind of what I was alluding to, I guess, but, I mean, I don't know. I guess, you know, I sit there and talk about it, but I don't know.

I didn't put enough thought into it to really be out there saying it in public either, so I don't know. Well, let me ask you this then. is it important for you to stick around to teach the younger generation how it should be? Like, do you take that responsibility? Well, I got, you know, I got to be intelligent too. You know, what happens a lot of times with people that try to do that is, you know, they don't evolve, right? They don't, you know, the new breed has something to teach us too.

So, you know, I want to stick with the time to not be caught up in the old school way of doing things. And, you know, but I, yeah, I do feel a responsibility to pass my knowledge. you know, the idea of getting things and say you have something to give. So, you know, I do want to give back to the community and be a, I like to be a role model, you know, for the younger generation and have something to give to them.

And but that's not a static thing. It's not, you know, you just have something to give. And I say, you know, you got to keep developing yourself too. So I'm not going to be that old school guy, you know, acting like that. You know, I think, I think you guys, you guys, but I'm going to do it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainly hope there's a lot of young fighters reaching out to you for advice because Lord knows you could teach him a thing or two about this

fight game. I hear your youngest in the background, so I will let you go, Matt. Thank you very much for the time. I appreciate it. Thank you for the honesty and the candor. Really, really appreciated you coming on. So I wish you the best of luck in training and looking forward to your fight against Tarek Safenian on December 30th. Good luck to you. Absolutely. Thank you for having me, sir. All right, there he is. Matt Brown. Wow. Great stuff from him. And again, no surprise. there, always been one of the most honest and interesting interviews, especially later on in his career, even when he was winning and on that impressive winning streak and got to the Robbie

Lawler fight a couple years ago in San Jose, has always been a fascinating interview. So when I heard that he was coming back and fighting Tarek Safdine, which should be a great fight style-wise, I mean, on paper, that's a fantastic fight. I thought it would be good to have Mon and very happy that we did that. All right, that does it for today's interviews. Mr. New York, Rick, did we get anything or was it not enough time for the people to come through? Oh, we got stuff, my friend. We did? Yeah, what do you mean?

I mean, I expected, you know, you announced this like 25 minutes ago, so I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. Hold on. I just got to get them up on the screen. Perhaps I, uh, I didn't give our viewers enough credit. Well, what's wrong with you? The people always come through. Any good ones? All right, we're going to go through them now. Hold on.

Okay, here we go. Anything that's NS. Oh, there we're going. That's what I'm talking about. You asked for it. He just happened to get his vaccines done today. Well done. This is at the doctor's office.

No shirt nation. How about that? Alex Conway. That's a good one. Look at this little cute guy and a little angel with those little chubby legs. I just want to take a bite. Do not do baby talk on air right now. Do not.

You know what's my favorite thing? The bracelet, as my mom likes to call it, the wrist. You see the wrist right there? Yeah. That's called the bracelet. There's nothing better than the bracelet. The little fold? Yeah, the little fold is just.

amazing. I can eat it all day. What? I love the fold. Oh, wait, wait. I went the wrong way. No shirt nation. Get out of here. See, now, I love Steve. I know Steve. That's Photoshop. Many, many, many times. Really, really good dude. Met him in Vegas. Met him in Chicago. Comes to Glory. Comes to Invicta.

Fantastic dude. But you're disqualified for this one. Because this photo's old. You can't use it old. Whoa. But is it legit? Oh, that's him, for sure. Okay, so I've met Steve as well, Shark Attack 316 on Twitter, and I could tell that he is jacked. In fact, when I saw him, when I saw him at 203 in Cleveland, I was like, oh man, you're on the TRT. He looked jacked. I didn't know he was this kind of jacked. Well, this is from 2008, but I mean, he's still pretty.

First of all, he shouldn't have said the year. He could have lied. He could have told this 2014, and we would have believed it. Yeah, no, but I don't know. So Shark Attack 316 was a professional bodybuilder? It's looking like it I mean he's definitely He's got the physique there

Holy smokes For today's game Unfortunately This does not This does not fly I think it It flies higher than them all Disqualified

Alright Gotta take it It has to be now Has to be right this moment Do you think that he would admit to us If he was on the juice I don't know

I mean he's got to be on the day I mean look at that Okay what do we got A doctor I think That can't be true I think Where did it go

Wait, uh, hold on. Did we lose it? No, no, no. I'll get it back up. Here we go. I started this, so here you go. Doctor at work. What does he mean by I started this?

He's the one who suggested the question. Oh. From the website. This is the guy from Romania? He's got a win, right? Oh, no, but we can't send you anything in Romania, Sebastian. I'm sorry. Okay, is he really a doctor at work?

I mean, first of all, it's got to be like 10.30, 11 o'clock at night in Romania. If you have a U.S. mailing address, you're going to win this, Sebastian. If you don't... Wait, what if there's a better one? No, this is the last one. Oh. If you don't, then the baby wins. You know what?

We should probably send the baby something anyway, right? I mean, we should give him a onesie, an MMAR, onezies, something like that. And here's the last one. Sean Sheehan likes the return of the pose. So we're going to flash back to the last time we did this. I asked if we did this before. It turns out we have. We have?

2013. Over three years ago, April 2013. Oh, yeah. That's amazing. with the same hashtag? With the same hashtag. But he's not shirtless. I think at the time we were doing,

you had to pose like them. So he had the little hair band thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is my effort at the... You know, it's the funny thing about this. He has two retweets. Now of a sudden he's this media darling, the pride of Limerick.

He's hosting his own podcast. I mean, I remember when Dana White went to Trinity College and he was talking about Connor McGregor for the first time where people were asking him. And I started to retweet Sean. He was just a kid there, and now look what he's become. Look at this media giant that I've created. I mean, I should take all the credit for it.

Even though I'm not that much older than him. He's writing breakdowns. He's all over the place doing interviews. I mean, where's my props? Oh, God, you're so self-serving. Enough. So wait. How did you find this, though?

Same hashtags. There's only that many. The last time was back in 23rd. Well, you thought we got a thousand new ones? I thought, yeah. You got me all excited. No. But, okay, let's do this.

Alex Conway, yes. Email me, New Yorkrick at gmail.com. Yes. Sebastian, if you have a U.S. mailing address, email me, New Yorkerick at gmail.com. Thank you for submissions today. Also, can I lick your baby's legs?

I'm just joking. What? I just joking. What is going on here? There's nothing better. Let me tell you, there's nothing better when my kids, when they give you the kiss,

but sometimes, like yesterday, My son gave me open-mouth kiss. It's fantastic. Yes. Now that's your son. Is this TMI? Now you're asking to lick some other person's baby's legs. I think, all right, that's it, folks.

He's reached delirium. We've got to get out of here. Any father out there knows what I'm talking about. Yes, but not on somebody else's baby. Well, you know, I'm just talking about in generalities. You know what I mean? Jesus. Okay.

Thank you for these. We'll try and have more fun with somebody in future shows as well. I do think it's time we brought back the picture. And I also think it's time we brought back Rick's picks. And I don't know how we could do that. I mean, I've actually recommended this, but you're like, oh, it's too much work. It's too much work. What about for 205?

Is it possible for 205? Is there anything that can be done? Speaking of 205, yes. Don't forget. I want this. Oh, yeah. You know. You know what's funny about 205.

The entire MMA fighting team is coming to New York for that. They're not all covering it. So I'm getting everyone being like, can I be on the beat? Can I do this? Can I do that? I want one thing that I've been campaigning for since the start. And I want it. We should do one of those Twitter polls. I don't know how to do those Twitter polls.

Are you serious? It's very easy. I haven't figured it out. I want it. I want it. Well, you could do, I mean, I see you popping up on these, you know, low-rent podcasts. Oh, stop it. Stop it.

All right. That's it. Okay. We're done. Yeah. One more thing. Glory 34. We were talking about it.

Yes. Replace to more. Tomorrow, ESPN 2, 9 p.m. It's weird. I was looking through the guide yesterday. Yeah, forget it. 9 p.m. tomorrow. ESPN 2. Last things, welcome back Alexis Davis. She returns against Sarah McMahon at the tough finale December 3rd in Las Vegas.

Welcome back Korean zombie. His military duties are up. He's back. He is free. I'm told by his manager that he is hoping to return in March. He's talking about BJPen. I don't know if that makes sense. But welcome back.

Welcome back, Dan Henderson. What do I mean? What do I mean? Well, he's already talking about a trilogy and said he would be back. So how about that? And finally, welcome back, Bill Goldberg. What a great promo that was on Monday Night Raw. I did watch it.

And I have to say, the way he hugged those kids and talked about his own kids brought a tear to my eye. Absolutely. Bill Goldberg, a true minch. You get my music. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Steve, former NPC. champion. Incredible. Sebastian, legitimately a doctor.

In the doctor, he sent us an updated picture. What's he doing at the office? He's got the... He's got the little x-ray. Is it a Halloween costume? No, stop. And one more, our buddy's skybeards. Yeah. It's amazing. Here he is. He looks a lot more professional

with that pose. Yeah. No, I mean, he's no shirt nation. Sure. Who knows? If he's in the U.S., we'll take care of him. Anyway, thank you. out. Peace. And again, thank you to our friend who hooked us up with these hats. What's his name again? Hayden Noreen. Hayden Noreen. Up in Canada. H.D.M.H. Good dude. Go J's. You can hit my music. Fun show, everyone. Thank you very much. I have to say, mixed emotions about your eye of favor. I mean, on the one hand, here he is. His way. As Frank Sinatra once said, again, I have so much respect for

fighters who know and say when, who recognize a moment, a perfect way to go out. It's a beautiful thing. But it does kind of feel like the end of an era. This guy put the lighter weights on the map. This guy was the face of WEC. He carried that company on his back. I mean, he was big business for that organization when there were no sub-155ers in the UFC. And for a while, there were no sub- 170-pounders in the UFC. He was the one guy who didn't need, you know, there were a few, I think of Mayhem Miller as well, but one of very few who didn't need the Zufa machine, or the UFC machine, I should say, to push him, to get people behind him. So incredibly well-liked, so good with the media, so good with the fans, his fights always produced, never a

boring fight, first ever, only WC pay-per-view. Comes on this show, doesn't tell anyone, and then announces his retirement. Wow, what a moment. What an honor. What a privilege that was. Really was. Well done. Your eye of favor. Not to say that we won't see him around for a long, long time. He's going to be around this sport, developing new talent. And the thing I always respected most by Uriah Fabor was that he always pushed his guys and girls. He always pushed his teammates. No matter the platform, no matter the circumstances, coming off a loss, a win. Always was a great leader and captain. Well done. Congrats on a great career. Thank you very much to Randy Gattour, Marlon Marais, Kevin Ferguson Jr., Uriah Fabor, Michelle Waterson, and Matt Brown.

Tremendous stuff as always. And thank you to you for checking us out once again this week. Back next week, save time, play still here. Peace. Submaria. Support for this show comes from Figma. Figma is the place where teams turn ideas into the world's best digital products. And now Figma is introducing a faster way to make those ideas real with Figma Make. It's an AI-powered prompt decode tool that turns your ideas or your Figma designs into interactive code-backed prototypes in minutes. And because it's all in Figma, you can use your team's existing design building blocks,

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