MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 370

Episode Date: February 28, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Khabib Nurmagomedov (00:12:18), Tom Lawlor (00:32:29), Marloes Coenen (00:55:55), Johny Hendricks (01:15:58), Derrick Lewis (01:36:06), Greg Hardy and Malki Kawa (01:57:28), Artem Lobov (02:31:03), Holly Holm (02:46:38), Tyron Woodley (03:08:23), and NewYorkRic (03:37:07) to recap the week in MMA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866533 or visitcomex Ontario.ca. With Instacart, you get groceries that over-deliver. Like when you get groceries that are the same prices in-store. With no markups that select retailers, you get in-store products for in-store prices, and the only thing that isn't in-store is you.

That means you could order in-store products at in-store prices while you're in sweatpants, in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in-store. So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with A mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, February 27, 2017.

Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a lovely one. It was my son's third birthday yesterday. You know, I love a good kid's birthday party, and I plod all the stops. So I had a great day yesterday. It was a relatively quiet weekend in the world of MMA,

which doesn't bother me all that much. Of course, it's going to get very busy this weekend, but it was a very nice weekend here in the tri-state area. The weather was fantastic. So much to be happy about, so much to be thankful for. And I'm very excited about today's show. In fact, one of the highlights of my weekend was I was walking in around Midtown Manhattan on Saturday. I met a young man named Jose, I believe his name was,

a budding actor here in New York City. stopped me on the street. And I got to tell you, it was one of the best encounters with a fan that I've had in recent memory. He was just so appreciative of the show and had so many nice things to say, including, you know, very nice things to say about Mr. New Yorkerick's hair, which was quite the surprise. But just talking about, you know, how much he enjoys the show, listens to it all week long. And then come Saturday when he's done, he's very excited.

you know, he's very excited for a Monday show. He's kind of Jonzing for it and things like that. So it was just very nice. And I always tell people like that, it actually means more to me when I meet someone like that who appreciates the show and enjoys the show and loves listening to the show, then it probably does, you know, for them meeting me. It really does. It means the world.

So thank you to Jose. Thank you to everyone who tunes in each and every week. And we're excited to kick off this particular week because it's a big one in the world of MMA, right? I mean, we've got Beltoire on Friday. We've got UFC 209 on Saturday, and 209 is one of the best cards of 2017. I know it's early, but thus far, things have been a little thin as far as cards are concerned. This is a very good one. This is one that is worth our attention. Obviously, the 209 card is better than the Bellator card, but Belator is making its own history on Friday night as well. 209 features Tyrone Woodley v. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson 2 for the Welterweight title, and then in the

co-main event, the people's main event, the return of the people's main event, Habib Nirmagamaghamedov versus Tony Ferguson, interim lightweight title fight. Okay, let me run down today's lineup and get to our first guest of the day, who is going to join us, hopefully, from the airport. At around 3.30, we're going to talk to Holly Home, her first interview since UFC 208. Talk to her about what's next, the appeal, all that good stuff. You've been following the story. 310, we're going to talk to Artem Lobov about his fight.

against Cub Swanson, November 22nd, excuse me, April 22nd, in Nashville, we thought it was going to be the main event. It's not looking like

it's going to be the main event. We'll talk to him about how he got the fight, why he wanted the fight, his placement on the card, all that stuff. 245, we're going to be joined by Greg Hardy.

If you're not familiar with Greg Hardy, you may want to look him up. To say he's a controversial, former NFL player would probably be putting it mildly, but you may have heard that he's transitioning

to mix martial arts and he's now training at ATT and I want to talk to him about that. Why is he doing this? What's his interest in MMA? When's he going to debut? Is he going to play football at the same time? What's going on with Greg Hardy? So I'm looking forward to that. 225 will talk to Derek Lewis coming off that big win over Travis Brown in Halifax last Sunday. So many people asked for him. It was amazing. An insane amount of request for Derek Lewis. He's very popular. 205 will talk to Johnny Hendricks about his win in Halifax, middleweight debut.

145 will talk to Marluse Kunin, who will be fighting Friday night, Bellator 174 against Julia Budd for the inaugural Bellator Women's Featherweight title. So now we've got our third featherweight title in a major promotion, and Victa has Cyborg slash Megan Anderson, although I don't think Cyborg's going to defend that title anytime soon. we've got the UFC and Jermaine Durandami and finally Belator who actually had plans to introduce the women's featherweight title

long before the UFC did back in early February here in Brooklyn they're finally doing it on Friday in Thackerville Marluse Kunin hasn't fought in around 10 months longtime veteran

Strike Force champion we'll talk to her about that 125 we're going to talk to Filthy Tom Loll He got some unfortunate news, but I think he was expecting it late last week. He was expecting to find out from Usada that he has been suspended for two years due to a failed out-of-competition drug test. We'll talk to him about this and so much more. In fact, he wrestled in a professional wrestling indie scene wrestling match on Friday in Las Vegas. So was that his ticket out of MMA now that he's going to be on the sidelines two years. We shall find out from Filthy Tom Lawler.

Unfortunate for him, but this is the era that we now live in. Last week, we found out that John Volante received a retroactive TUE from USADA. That announcement was made after his whole process played out, a little bit of a different situation from Cyborg. So it seemed like for a while Usada was kind of flying under the radar. last week they were very much in the news. And we'll get to that later in the show. But in a matter of seconds, we are going to be joined by Chhabib Nirmagamedov.

Chhabib Rmaghamedov is flying right now from Las Vegas to L.A. He's doing a media day. He is kicking it off with us. And we're lucky in that sense because his flight was delayed. And that's why we're jumping the queue here. So we're going to grab him at the airport as he's, he's about to board a flight to Los Angeles. Of course, this is a massive week for him.

Finally, after all these years, he's getting a chance to realize his dream of fighting for a UFC title. And now we're being told that he's in the restroom. It's been a fun start to the week, fun start to the show, and he needs a couple more minutes. I could certainly appreciate that

and sympathize with that. So what a roller coaster ride it has been for Habib Narmaghamedov. Of course, undefeated. not only in the UFC, but in his mixed martial arts career, 24-0, returned back in April after a very long layoff against Daryl Hortcher. This is, in fact, the third time that he's been scheduled to fight Tony Ferguson, and this is why I think everyone is kind of like, put them in, you know, bubble wrap, lock them away,

let's not get injured in the next five days. Ended up fighting Daryl Hortcher, as you may recall, in Tampa, beat him rather convincingly, and then fought Michael Johnson after the whole hull-balloo with Eddie Alvarez and the contracts and all that stuff back in New York and had his little back and forth with Dana White in the middle of the fight saying that he wanted the belt, went through a whole saga with Ferguson trying to get this fight made, Ferguson asking for equal pay, et cetera, et cetera, we are finally here. And for a guy who has dealt with his fair share of injuries, it's a nice story that he's finally getting a chance to at least fight for a UFC belt, I'll be it an interim one.

Although I think that Ferguson and Habib have done a very good job of selling this interim title as the real one, which is what they have to do, which is what Connor did when he fought Chad Mendes and beat Chad Mendes, you just kind of have to put over the belt that you won.

You kind of have to pretend like, all right, this is the real belt, and thus I think the people start to get behind it as well. And they certainly stole the show. Whatever buy rate this car does, And I'm not really quite sure because, you know, I think a lot of people skip 208. And then prior to that, the last pay-per-view was the Ronda show December 30th. So it's been a while, I think, since people have invested money in a UFC pay-per-view.

And this card certainly warrants it when you also consider Overeem Hunt on the card, the middleweight debut of Rashad Evans, Landauvinata fighting on the pay-per-view card. This one deserves it. No doubt about it. But have they done a good enough job of letting people know that it's happening? and let's not speak of that poster. Every time I see that poster, I still can't believe that that's the actual poster

that we're going with. I mean, the posters have become very formulaic. They become, you know, really just, you know, take one guy out, put another person in, and that's it. I mean, there's no thought put in. But this one, in particular, it's like they're not even, they're not even zoomed in. There's a lot of extra black space.

They look very small. The whole thing is just very bizarre when it comes to that poster. But, hey, people, I guess, aren't buying I'm a stickler for that sort of thing. I love a good fight poster. This is how, to a degree we remember cards, some famous posters like the Nick Diaz, GSP one. There have been some really good ones back in the day,

but this one, in my opinion, correct me if I'm wrong, takes the cake as far as the worst posters in UFC pay-per-view history. And it's unfortunate because this is a great card. I love this card. This is a really fun card. And on Thursday's conference call, Habib and Ferguson stole the show.

The back and forth, if you haven't heard it, and if you're kind of on the fence about this card, you need to do yourself a favor and go check out this conference call. It was amazing just listening to them, go back and forth. And yes, they weren't saying much. I mean, we could kind of recap it in two minutes. But just, you know, when you get that magic, when the guys kind of ignore the reporters on the call

and just keep going back and forth, and Habib is talking to him in a very slow and say, like, listen to me, listen to me. I want to tell you something, I'm the reason why you got this fight. And then Ferguson, who's completely dismissing him, It was just a lot of fun and kind of made me feel like we should be getting a press conference. We're not getting a press conference as far as these two are concerned. There's going to be an open workout on Wednesday and then an ultimate media day sort of thing on Thursday. But we're not going to get them on a stage and then facing off.

And I feel like when I'm all in favor of skipping the press conferences if you just have your sort of run-of-the-mill event, especially when you don't have fighters who are going to talk to each other a lot and interact and they're going to be fireworks. and something's going to happen that's going to get people excited. But in this case, I think this is one of those rare cases where the press conference actually helps the pay-per-view a lot more than not doing it. Because you would have gotten them going back and forth even more. They can't stand each other. They have a good dynamic.

They like to argue with each other. And then I'm assuming the face-off would be very entertaining as well. But that is not happening. Still, the back-and-forth has been very fun. So, yeah, hopefully he finishes up in the bathroom any minute now and we'll get Mr. Namaamaitov. It is interesting that Woodley and Wonderboy are in the spotlight again because we were all assuming that Damien Maya was going to fight the winner of that fight.

He was supposed to fight the winner of that fight after the New York event. And then, of course, Wonderboy and Woodley fought to a draw. And Maya waited. And now he's in the news about getting a fight five days before that fight is about to go down. Very bizarre situation. But let me put Maya on ice. because we do have Chhabib on the phone right now, I do believe,

Chabib, are you there? Hey, what are you, Arayah. Salam al-Qa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-lababab. How are you? I'm doing great. What's going on over there? Some flight problems, delays. What happening?

Yes, we sit down almost three hours in the airport, you know, flight. They, they, I don't know, I don't know, understand. I think they cancel flight, something like this. Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that, and I'm hoping that it's not too stressful, but I do appreciate you squeezing us in in the midst of all of this.

Thank you very much, Khabib. Let me ask you this, since we're talking about flights, there's a report that's out there that your father is not allowed to enter the country that his visa was denied. Is that true?

You know, he had before visa, you know, now he has a little bit problem. They cancel his visa, but I don't understand why. You know, but a little bit problem. He has a little bit problem about visa.

When did you find out about this? Before my last fight, when I fight with Michael Johnson, we try to make visa. This is all news, but this now is like become like new and new. Yeah. When I fight in USA, you know, when I fight in Science 2012, when I fight in UFC, he never can come and support him because he had problems with visa. No, one time you see him, in the USA gave him visa, and he fights when my brother is from fighting. And when you used to give me, fight with daughter of torture, like one year ago, when he tried to come to America, they cancel his visa.

Wow, and for you, I mean, so this isn't the first time, but does it mess with you? Like, do you feel uncomfortable without him being there, especially biggest fight of your career? No, no, no, I'm fighting eight times without my father. It's okay. Okay. He's supposed to me. I know he pray for me. He with me all the time, you know.

He is with my heart, you know. I think about him. We talk with him every day, you know. Every day we talk about my weight. We talk about my, you know, like my plan, my everything. My father will be over. Right. Okay.

Well, that is good to hear, and it's good that you're not too, you know, torn up about the whole situation. On Thursday, as I was talking about at the top of the show, it was a very entertaining conference call. Did you enjoy that? Did you enjoy that sort of back and forth with Tony as opposed to a fight like a Darrow Hortcher fight? There's no beef there. It's just kind of another fight. This one, there's a fun sort of dynamic. Did you enjoy that?

For me, it's fun, you know. I enjoy about this. You know, for me, it's fun. I feel Tony is a little bit nervous, but, you know, like all my opponents. But for me, it's fun, you know, I enjoy about this. I talk with him, you know, enjoy a little bit, try joke with him, making nervous. Why do you think he's nervous? What about what he's saying or doing makes you think that he's a little nervous for the fight?

How we talk. How we talk, I say this. How we talk. You know. now everything is finished talk finished everything finished we're here we in Vegas five days before five fight week I can't wait when cage closed so and March 4 this is gonna be a people main event and this is number one exciting fight in these fight cars this is I think this is truly man event

fight. It's very interesting fight. For me, for him, for everybody who are going to watch. So do you agree with him when he says that

this should have been the main event? He said that on the conference call. Yes, I agree. Everybody agree with me. Not only with him, like, you know, everybody agree about this.

This is, you know, like, a lot of people are going to watch this fight, you know. My friend base is huge, you know, and, you know, like, this is very big fight.

My opinion, this is the greatest light-track fight ever in the UFC. One thing that you kept saying on the call was like, hey, look, I'm the one who made this fight. You should be thanking me. Forget about the money that you offered, but, you know, you were offered, Aldo, there were other situations when they were frustrated with him, and you said to the UFC you wanted the Ferguson fight. Do you feel like he is not appreciative enough of what you did? Is that why you kept bringing it up to him on the call? I don't care about him appreciate him now.

You know, I just want to let him know who make this fight. Because, you know, you're going to make, I fight with Kyazza, I fight with Aldo, with other guys, because he don't take this fight, but I say, hey, no, I have to fight with him. And I'm waiting for him. You know, you have to say thank you about this. Because if I take with Aldo fight interim title or with Michael Kiesa or with other guys, what are you going to do?

Now we sit down in his home, you know, and don't fight for the title. Because I'm waiting because I speak with the USC, my manager, I speak with my manager, you know, my manager. I say, hey, I won't fight with Tony Ferguson because this is tough. as much up today for me. Speaking of appreciating, a couple weeks ago you were in Brooklyn in Brighton Beach and they had that media day for you. I was very excited to be there.

I thought it was a very cool idea. They don't do this often and it seemed like they're trying to push you. But correct me if I'm wrong, it felt like you were not very happy being there. You didn't like it. It was more of a nuisance to go out of your way and do it. Did you not enjoy that?

Oh, I enjoy about this. Why not? You should make this first time? Like, you know, without way in, they make this for me. Yeah. But I don't like because you see don't too much promote this Q&A. But, you know, when this happening, when I see how many people come,

when I see how many, like, a lot of media coming, you know, I understand. Now you're going to try and make my name big. They understand who's going to become a new U.S. in life, I'm defeated, on this video channel. Now I understand. Now I feel a little bit different, you know, than when I was in Brooklyn.

Because, you know, like a little bit different attention. Oh. You're feeling the love. Yes, I feel, you know, I love this. I love this. Now I'm here. Now I focus in my fight. You know, I don't think about this too much.

But I know after this fight, my life is going to change. Right. And you've talked about dealing with the fame and people recognizing you. If you become a champion, it's clear your life is going to change. Are you worried about that? Are you kind of dreading that aspect that comes along with winning a belt? To Beanos, I worry about famous. Of course, I want a belt, but I understand with belts coming like crazy attention.

To be honest, I worry about it because I like when people don't know me. I like, like, like, all the time people's coming, you know, like, talk about fights, talk about fights, fights, you know, all the time I'm talking about MMA, you know. I can talk with people like in other stuff, you know, not only MMA, but sometimes, sometimes I'm tired about this, but I understand, I understand, you know, this is like, MMA is like crazy now, like, this is not like five years ago, like 10 years ago, Now, Emma is one of the biggest spots in the world, you know. And I think after this fight, it's going to change a lot of stuff.

In a way, do you prefer living or do you enjoy living in San Jose more than back home in Russia because less people recognize you there? I love Dagestan when I'm doing. But San Jose, I feel a little bit relaxing because not too many people come. Like, you know, but my family, like my everybody, like very close people living in Dagestan. That's why I all the time want to go back to the Dagestan. And different.

San Jose is different. I feel in Dagestan, I feel different. But for living, I want to live all my life in Dagestan. This is, Dagestan for me is everything. Dagestan gives me everything, you know. My father born here, like my grandfather, everybody, you know. And I'm from here, Dagestan, you know,

You know, I learned, I learned her a lot, you know, like about mental, about physical, you know, about, like, everything. You know, that's why Dagestan for my life did everything. When you were dealing with the injuries, Habib, the two years away, the knee and all that stuff, was there ever a point where you thought the dream of becoming a UFC champion would not be realized, where you were just dealing with too much bad luck? did you ever have to come to terms with that or did you always believe that this would come? Yes, of course, I believe.

That's why I keep working, keep going. You know, when I first time I met my brother Ali and we, you know, like three years ago when I had surgery, when I'm living in Vegas, like almost half years and make recovery. Like, you know, this is like very, very hard time for me, you know. And now, We're here, you know, we're fighting for the belt.

You know, this is like my dream is come true. And this Saturday, I'm going to take this, inshallah. You know, this is not only for me. This is for my old friends around the world, like 1.4 billion Muslim people who follow me, who support me. This is like almost 500 million people, like a former USSR country, like all my friends around the world, then, you know, like, I have like crazy almost two million, two billion friends, you know, and I believe I can do this, and with God I'm going to do this this

Saturday. If you went on Saturday and get that belt, will you consider that the real belt? Sometimes we see people win the interim title and they don't put it around their waist. They want nothing to do with it. How will you react when you get the belt? I don't think about the belt. This is interim or real belt. Because, you know, people knows who is home.

People know. And Conor fight one time in the UFC in life like now, and he taught a lot of time. This Saturday, inshallah, when I become undisputed, undefeited like the champion of the world, I don't think he can change something. Only way he has to fight with me, but I don't believe. Has the UFC told you that if you win this fight, you will get him? As Dana White said recently, his next fight will be an MMA fight. Have they told you what the plans are?

No, I don't talk about this with nobody because I focus with Tony Fis. No. I focus, Tony Fulcus. I don't talk about this, but nobody knows what happened, you know, because maybe they're going to make money much, you know, like money fight, because this is big money fight, Floyd versus, maybe, Floyd versus McGregor, you know, this very big fight. Nobody knows what happened.

I'm focused to the Trump. I don't think about that. Not to get too political, Habib, but I feel compelled to ask, since you mentioned that you're very proud to be Muslim, I know that you are very proud. Do you feel uncomfortable with what's going on in the United States?

With regards to your people, with regards to the president, I don't think that your father's situation has anything to do that since you said it happened before Donald Trump became president, but do you feel uncomfortable being a Muslim in the United States right now? Ariel, I am professional athlete.

I'm not political. I don't talk about this. Okay, fair enough. What about this comment that Fador Emilienenko told me a couple weeks ago on this show? He said that he's not so sure if the UFC wants you to become a champion.

Did you hear this? And if so, what do you think he meant by that? I don't know maybe, you know, but if you see if you don't want, I become champion, why they give him title. Yeah. Before, the U.S. you don't give me title because I think because this is my wrong, because I have three children and a wrong.

That's why. But a little bit, I agree with him, but not too much. Not too much. Which part do you agree with? I agree with him, like, you know, in U.S. 2.05, they are supposed to fight for the title. But they make money fight. I understand because this is business. Right. Maybe, maybe that's why. But other things, I think everything is deserved. Okay.

I have injured because I broke my leg. I broke my ribs. Not UFC. Right. That's why. UFC 205, 100%. I'm supposed to fight a title and I deserve. But they make this fight.

You know, this is business. Everybody understands. Money fight. It's money fight. It's a business fight. You know, like, that's why I say, okay, you're going to make this fight? Okay, I want to fight with these guys. Same car.

And UFC give me this fight. You know? But I want to say thank you for Dana. I want to say thank you like the UFC, everybody. Because these guys, these guys make my name big. These guys promote me, you know. You know, I know if Dana is not perfect. Sometimes he's bullshit, but he put this, this MMA to another level.

No, this sport. This is why I want to say, thank you. Do you think that if you win this fight, your next fight will be in Russia? I hope. I hope, but I think 50-50. I don't know. This is up to, I think this is up to corner. Oh, okay.

Two last quick things for you. If you say, I want to go. If you say, hey, I want to go to Russia and fight with Habit, of course, you're still going to make this. But if you say, hey, I want to fight in New York or Vegas or Ireland, everybody follow him. You know this. Right. Two last quick things for you, Habib,

and I really appreciate the time once again. Ferguson keeps saying that he wants to take you into the deep waters, that he could finish you early, but he's going to make this go a little longer. And you've never been past the 15-minute mark. You've never fought, you know, in the fourth round or fifth round. Do you want to go longer with him as well? Are you thinking the same thing,

or would you prefer just to get this over with as quickly as possible? I think he's just trash-talking. I think you just trash talking and, you know, I don't know, nobody, nobody makes me tap, you know, nobody makes me quick, quick. Nobody. I don't understand what you're talking about about my condition, but you guys watch my fights when I fight three rounds. Like last fight, I fight almost three rounds. What do you think? If I have four and five rounds, I can fight? Of course, I can fight. I can keep going. When I fight with Dosanis, I don't have it. Right.

And I fight with him. I can fight more two rounds, you know. This is about like, about your mental. I know I have to, I should, I have to fight this Saturday five rounds and I'm going to do this. Or maybe I'm going to finish him, you know. But I don't think about which round I'm going to finish him, what I'm got, like, you know, other stuff. I know I have tough opponent. I have tough match up.

I have fight for the title. And I'm going to do everything for winning, for victory, for peg this belt. Okay, here's the biggest question last. Your manager, Ali Abdel-Aiz, tells me that you were there when he submitted Daniel Cormier at, aka. Is this true? Because I don't believe it. It's true. It's true.

Hey. What's the thing? We have to put inside the gym. What do you mean? I never lie. No, I cannot lie. Yes. It's true?

Cormier tapped? But I don't know. Hey, I don't know how these guys serious waste. think, but I see how it's up. I see how it's up. He choking. Arm triangle choke? Not like, yes, arm triangle, yes. But this is, sorry about this. I don't talk about what happened inside the gym.

This is Ali's job. Wow. There's a big problem now. I don't know what problem, but, you know, but, you know, this is not my job. You know, Ariel. Tell him this is not my job. Okay, so who's going to... Everybody knows now, this is my chicken. Everybody knows that.

Who's going to corner you, Habib? Who's going to corner you on Saturday? My corner, I'm Javier Mendez, Islam, here, Abu Bakr,

my brother, and one more, my brother, Magamad, and former Combat Samba World Champion, you know, and five guys,

and Ali with me. You know, I have five guys, and, I do, don't care about this because when cage closed inside inside the cage, me and only me and Tony Ferguson, I think about this. But that corner is very important too sometimes. Sure. Well, because everyone's freaking out about your dad not being here. So I want to make it clear that he wasn't

there in New York and you fought with him multiple times, you fought multiple times without him in your corner as well, right? So this is not as big of a deal as it's being currently made right now because everyone's talking about it. No, no. No, no, I don't know why everybody was talking about him now because I fight here like eight times. Last five years I fight without my father. Right. But he's with me.

He's in my heart all the time. Chabeeb, I appreciate it very much. I wish you nothing but the best on Saturday. I can't wait to witness it in person. And again, thank you so much for squeezing us in during your hectic travel day. It means a lot to us. We really appreciate it. Loyalty, my friend. It's all about loyalty, right?

Number one, loyal. Yes. No. Stay humble. Exactly. Salamalam alaikum. Alexa. There he is.

Habib Nurmaghemajemadov. Will he be the interim champion come Saturday night? We shall find out. I cannot wait for this. And, you know, it's hard to argue against them. One of the greatest lightweight title fights, fights in UFC history, if not the greatest, right?

I mean, there have been some good ones. But this one, as far as their resumes, their current winning streaks, what they've done, the dynamic, the style. the styles matchup, it's a lot of fun. It really is. All right. Let us move along. As I mentioned at the top, an unfortunate end of the week for Tom Lawler receiving the two-year suspension from Usada. I wanted to talk to him about this. So he joins us now via the magic of Skype, I do believe. There he is. Tom Lawler, taking a bit of a snooze, I think, not enjoying that interview with Habib,

or maybe he just had a long weekend. What is it? Oh, hold on, Ariel. Sorry. I've been waiting around for a while for this to get on air here. I'm sorry. I love to excuse me if I fell asleep. I know you just had a guy who's pretty good at wrestling on your show, but we've got a real wrestler here on now.

Yes, I actually saw this. I saw some clips. You were at an indie show. Is something like Future Stars, FSW? Is that it? Yeah, yeah. It's the filthy stars of wrestling. Filty Stars of Wrestling out of Las Vegas, this was your debut in the Squared Circle.

That's incorrect. Incorrect. Every week will be my debut as long as it gets more viewership. But no, it's been nine years since I've been in the Pro Wrestling Squared Circle, and I am now on a four-match win streak, and I'd like to keep that going. Perhaps I meant to say your debut for this particular promotion. Correct, yes, yes, yes. There you go. That would be correct.

Okay, let's talk about that in a second. First, let's talk about the USADA stuff. Were you surprised when you got the two-year suspension? Well, no, I wasn't surprised that when I received the two-year suspension, this is a process that's been ongoing for about five months. The initial surprise was when I received the first letter saying that there was an adverse finding in my sample. That's what was shocking. At this point, no, no resolution caught me off guard or anything along those lines.

I've been trying to do this the right way for the past five months and go through the correct avenues and try to find out exactly what happened. And unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with a concrete reason as to why this substance was in my urine. But, you know, the best option I had at this point was to, you know, take the two-year suspension and move on. The substance that was found was Austrian. Is that correct? Correct, yes. There were, according to the USADA scientists, and I am no scientist of my own, but the concentration or level that was found in my urine was 17 picograms of osterine, which to me sounds very, very low. Apparently, this is a substance that has a very short half-life, like a 24-hour half-life. So I imagine that, you know, it cuts down pretty quickly in the body.

The USADA scientists also told me when I was going through my records, to kind of focus on the week before the date of the testing, which would have been October 10th of this past year. The day before, I remember exactly what I was doing, it was my son's first birthday party. So I was able to retrace that entire day. I mean, there was not one thing in there that was abnormal that I consumed, you know, unless you're talking about like a birthday cake that I don't normally eat.

You know, the USADA was, I mean, I guess I would say pleasant to work with. They tested two samples of a supplement that I had sampled. Like, you know, I'm at the gym and there's a cup of coffee laying around, which happens to be a coffee supplement. I have a sample of it. And that was the only thing that I could think of that was abnormal out of my normal schedule, you know, besides going to somewhere like jamba juice or tropical smoothie cafe

or, you know, drinking a monster. energy drink. Those are really, that's all the supplements that I've taken over the past year. So as we sit here today, you have no idea how this came to be in your system. No. And initially, when the process was going on, I had sent Jeff Novitsky, who works with the UFC in these matters, a, you know, basically pictures of the substance that was in question. And, you know, we thought it was a viable route.

to go down to look into it. And lo and behold, two separate batches later, two separate tests, and they both came back negative for the substance. And, you know, honestly, financially, at this point, I'm not really in a position to dump a bunch of money into fighting this when it could possibly come out with the same exact resolution of a two-year ban. That was actually my next question. Did you consider appealing it? I'm sure maybe if you could of you would have liked to, but you're saying you just don't have those means? No, I mean, I could appeal it. I mean, I have the money to appeal it.

The problem is that there's nothing for me to go on. You know, it would be me going in there, and it's my word against the scientific test. And I think I know which one's going to win out in that battle. So, you know, I tried to work with you, Sada. I told them, you know, basically everything that I could remember. member or, you know, that I can think of and they were willing to work with me. But they also contacted me before doing the second test on the supplement and asked if I would be willing to, you know, cover some of the costs. And I expressed my concern with that right then due to the

fact that, you know, it's probably going to come back the exact same. Supplement come back the exact same. There's no guarantee that it's going to lead anywhere for me. And you thought it was nice enough to cover that test, but, you know, in the future, I think it was made quite clear that it would be, the bill would be on my foot, you know? That is interesting. So, again, like you, I'm no scientist, and this stuff is fairly new to all of us. Just reading a little bit about this substance, there seems to be no kind of medical use for it. I mean, the only reason someone would have it in their system is for a PD.

Have you ever heard of it? Because I know Tim Means was caught with it in his system, but they found the supplement that it was, you know, he took a tainted supplement, so to speak. Did you look into his story? Did you talk to him? Did you try to find any reasons how this could possibly end up in your system, even as small as a picogram as you said? Yeah, absolutely. I spoke to Tim Means the day after I received the documents stating that I had failed a test.

I see people on the internet, these keyboard warriors out there talking about, oh, well, this guy just took a two-year suspension. Why didn't he fight it? You guys are fucking morons. I've been fighting it for five months. Okay? I didn't just take a two-year suspension. I tried to find out what the deal was. I talked to every single person that I could.

I talked to Tim Means, who's probably the best example of this in MMA, because it was found in his creatine unlabeled. It was an unlabeled ingredient, and he was able to get a suspension reduced to six months. Now, one thing that goes along with that is it costs a lot of money to get that lawyer. And luckily, he had a substance that he knew that stuff was in. I have nothing that I can go ahead and point to when it comes to that. So hiring a lawyer isn't going to help me at all, going to arbitration, paying the $2,700 that you saw it in the UFC require a fighter to pay to go to arbitration. I didn't think that was worth it in this case either.

You've never failed any kind of tests prior to this, correct? Correct. I think I'm like 15 and 1. My question is now... Even if that includes spelling tests. Right. I mean, look, I'm sure not being able to... fight for two years is the real, you know, the real backbreaker here. It is an unfortunate turn of events, but just now to be labeled as a guy who was suspended, you know, for two years, for a PED,

when you, you know, truly don't believe that there was, you know, anything that you took that got this in your system. How much does that bother you at this point? You've gone your whole career without any infraction, and now here you are, you know, labeled as such. Yeah, not only that, but I mean, I've been outspoken against PEDs and I still will be. I mean, I don't think that you I don't think that USADA should be gone. I don't think that necessarily they should even change some of their protocols. There has to be things in place to safeguard against guys using PEDs. And unfortunately, if it requires there being a zero tolerance policy on these levels,

then there's, I mean, there's going to be casualties. In the long run, what the fuck does it matter in the grand scheme of mixed martial arts if Tom Waller fights again? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the UFC. it doesn't matter to the sport of mixed martial arts as a whole. So whatever, I'll be a casualty. We'll see what happens in two years.

I doubt I'll come back. Yeah, maybe the money will go up in between now and then. But I seriously really doubt it. So what's the point? That was actually my next question. Are you done? I mean, because your tweet when you posted the results seemed to imply that this could end your career.

Are you done fighting? I mean, you can't fight for two years now, obviously, but do you think that this will be the end of your career? I mean, if you look at it logically or realistically, I'll be 35 years old, which may not sound that old in the grand scheme of mixed martial arts, but I put a lot of miles on my body. I had my first fight in 2003 while I was still in college, and in between then, I was wrestling the whole time. I also did some professional wrestling, got into mixed martial arts. So it's been like 20 years of my body being through combat sports. And some days I feel really great, despite the fact that I'm almost 34.

Some days I don't feel so great. So we'll see how it goes. One thing, though, is that what's the point in me putting a bunch of time and effort into mixed martial arts and training if for two years it's not going to go anywhere? I need to find another source of income. I need to find another way to support my family. I have two kids. I'm recently engaged. I'm planning a wedding.

I've got a life I need to worry about regardless of the UFC or USADA. Did you consider trying to get released so that you can fight overseas where USADA isn't a factor? I've thought about it. At this point, I don't know what the UFC's policy is on this, because as long as, as far as, I'm sorry, as far as even doing professional wrestling, the contact with the UFC's changed over the past few years. You know, I was told in the past not to do some things on my own

that would have helped me out professionally, and now I'm being told I can kind of take those same opportunities. So I don't know if it's a shift in policy with WME IMG, or if this is the UFC's way of saying, you know what, we take a look at these on a case-by-case basis and we'll help you out here since you're in a tough situation. I'm not sure what the case is. The introduction of Usada has been a polarizing issue

for those who follow it because I think on the one hand we all want a clean sport and we want clean fighters. But the fact that the fighters didn't have a say in the matter and it was just sort of sprung upon you, the testing 365, 24-7, the whereabout stuff, some of the appeals process, the way that they announce things, you know, the provision.

Okay, so they don't have all the results yet. They haven't sampled the beat sample and all that, which generally comes back the same, but they go ahead and release these suspensions, and you see a case in which they give a TUE to Chris Cyborg, and now she's going to face all this public outcry. And regardless of what the deal is with that situation, is it really the better policy to go ahead

and announce these suspensions beforehand in when you don't have all the facts on Usada's end. Another thing is Usada will hand out these whereabouts failures for TUEs, for not communicating your whereabouts online or on an app. But they don't get back to you right away. It takes them days. I sent a letter regarding a whereabouts failure. It took four or five days.

My first point of contact from Usada was the DCOR showing up at my door. You know, Yusada didn't call me and say, hey, we're going to take care of this. They didn't discuss it with me. They just sent somebody out to test. So, I mean, on one end, you know, it's very imperative that the fighters communicate well. But on the other end, they don't offer the same reciprocation, I guess. So my question was, yeah, so my question was, as far as, you know, you are concerned, you're someone who now went through the entire process.

Do you feel like- I watched B-Sim. I drove to L.A. I watched them defaaw my urine for 45 minutes. Wow. And then run it through machines for six hours for the small little glimmer, this ray of sunlight coming through the window here, hoping that something would come back negative in that test and it didn't happen.

So I watched the whole process. Why'd you do that? It's my career. Yeah. I mean, I put a lot of work and time and effort into this. And, you know, if it's going to go down, I want to be there watch. I don't want to leave it to happenstance. You know, what if the scientist had something?

his gloves. You know, there could be a million things that go on in this situation or what if the chain of command was different than they said. There's a lot of things that go into these. You saw a test and, you know, I wanted to be there. I wanted to see what was going to happen. And unfortunately, for me, it can work out very well. So people think that I banged

this like association slash union drum way too much. But the reason I am interested in the topic and think that it is needed in some form in the sport is because I feel like in a case like yours, you're kind of just left on an island all by yourself. And let's not even talk about the way this was introduced. But once you get caught, there's no one really that you can turn to for help, for representation. How do I go about this? What's my best course of action?

You're left on an island. And when you're done to your suspension, you're left on an island as well. So my question initially was, now that you've been through the process, would you be in favor of changes to the process? Or do you think that it's the best, you know, the best case scenario if people want a fair and clean sport. No, I mean, clearly there could be changes made, but one of the things is if you start doing that, you open up the floodgates. You know, I take a look at the UFC, the past week, they've issued two retroactive

TUEs, okay? Well, in the case of Jean Valante, it's one thing, in case of Chris Cyborg, it's another, but in both cases, you know, it's the UFC, I believe, that's handling these things. And there should, I mean, why are there retroactive TUEs anyways, you know? If the whole thing is that you should be transparent, you should be putting these substances on your forms, then somewhere along the line Chris Cybor's fucked up. They don't put the substance on there.

Why is she getting a retroactive TUE? Hey, guess what? The one thing that they say Austrian is good for is osteoporosis, right? Who's to say my bones aren't all fucked up and I need a TUE? Yeah. Right? I've been beating the crap on myself for years. I don't drink that much milk.

Maybe my bones are hurting. You know, where does this begin and end is the question? Right. You know, you're either going to have to have zero tolerance like it is and maybe make some changes to the way that USADA announces things or... And just be clear, it's the UFC, by the way. It's the UFC's decision to announce, not USADA. When USADA takes care of the Olympic athletes, they don't announce until it's all said and done.

The UFC is opting for full transparency so they get the initial suspension. They announce. I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm just letting you know that it's their decision, not USADA's. Okay. I mean, well, then that needs to be changed, perhaps. You know, I'm not here to point fingers at the UFC or USADA. I mean, like I said, I think that they, the policy is the right thing.

There should be a zero tolerance policy. Otherwise, it starts opening up all these other things. Unfortunately, I'm caught in the situation where, you know, it just sucks. I mean, I don't know what to say about it. It's disheartening. Yeah. Is it driving you nuts, though, like how something like this could just enter your system and you have no idea whatsoever where it came from?

Yeah, but I mean, I have spoken to some other people. You know, Lucien Boutet. Yes, boxer who I'm sure you're familiar with, failed for this substance. Lucas Brown, who's a boxer in Australia, he failed for this substance as well recently, like right after I did. There's an amateur wrestler, and this is really the one that kind of gave me a little bit of hope. There's an amateur wrestler by the name of Obie Blanc, who was very high up on the Olympic ladder for a while. and he is currently a assistant coach at North Carolina State, but I think in 2012 or 2013,

he failed the USADA test, had over 25 things tested by his team, 25 supplements, took a polygraph, a lie detector, did all of that still two years. Wow. So after speaking to him,

you know, and I believe everywhere that he said, I think you can be in this situation and still just got the shit end of the stick at the end of the day. You know, so I've had people that have come out and I've had fans support me. I'm going to have fans support me maybe for the wrong reasons

because they're fans and they just want to believe what I'm saying. I'm going to have people that are against me because no matter what I say, they just think I'm a cheater. Despite the fact I never competed or did anything competitive in this time frame where I had 17 picograms of Austrian in me. I'm sitting around just training at the gym coaching. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't even know what the question was, Ariel. Sorry, I'm going on. No, no, I certainly sympathize. I mean, it's your career. This is everything you've worked for. So you mentioned the wrestling stuff. Is the goal now to try to be a WWU wrestler? Like, are you going to try to get to Orlando and do that? You mentioned trying to, you know, support your family, getting married, all this stuff. Is that the new career for you for the next two years plus? I don't know that WWE is the end goal. I don't know that that was ever my end goal, even when I was doing professional wrestling back in the end goal. the mid-2000s. UFC's got a pretty sweet schedule, Ariel.

I'm not going to lie. That WWE schedule 300 days on the road doesn't really sound too good at all. Full-time NXT schedule sounds great, but that's also a $50,000 a year job. So basically, since you sort of handed out the suspension last week, I've been taking it one day at a time. The goal is to kind of follow the path, I guess. that Matt Riddle has walked in those shoes, but I'm looking to blaze that path and blow right past them. Okay.

So, yeah, professional wrestling is the goal at this point, and I'm going to keep going. Any interest from, I mean, I will admit, I don't follow it as much, but I still know about the Ring of Honors and the TNAs, and I know Barnett recently popped up on TNA, any interest from maybe not the WWEs of the world where, you know, they're traveling a lot, but some of the kind of mid-level promotions, if you want to call them that. Yeah, I've spoken to a number of organizations, but a ring of honor hasn't showed any, if much interest. Same with TNA. So we'll see where that goes.

You know, I mean, I'm assuming a lot of people are waiting to see, you know, exactly how serious I would be in this situation. You hear a lot of people talking about wanting to get out of MMA and the grass is always greener. Yeah. But now that I'm actually doing it, we'll see how the offers come through. but I've already gotten some decent feedback. I've put a couple clips up on my Twitter and been contacted by some promotions. So as long as I can make that work financially

for myself and my family, I'll be kicking ass in that squared circle. I love it. By the way, what about coaching? I know you've cornered fighters. You know, you're a big part of the syndicate team out in Las Vegas and John Wood is there and you seem to have a great relationship with him

and the fighters all love you. So what about being a coach, not only cornering but just at the gym, yes? you're familiar with the policy that the UFC has where if you are under your suspension you cannot corner okay so you can't corner but come April 1st I know the policy is changing where you can you're allowed to train that there was actually a policy where you couldn't even train right right um does that change also April 1st the corner one not that I'm aware of I mean as far as I know and I was a lot of the information I got you

You mentioned earlier that in this situation, you feel like I'm kind of out on an island. That isn't necessarily true. I can't tell you enough how much of help Jeff Novitsky is during the process. I mean, very willing to help, willing to answer any questions. So I'm not essentially out on an island, but now I forget the original question. Well, I was asking, not even just UFC. I mean, there's Bellator. There's a ton of other promotions.

Will you corner, will you try to make a living as a coach now as well? fill out an athletic commission form. It says on the form, are you under suspension or, you know, some sort of regulation from another athletic commission? From what I understand, all the athletic commissions are going to honor that you sought a suspension. That's how I understand. That's what I've been told by the UFC. So, nope, unless I'm on an Indian reservation, I guess. But as far as coaching at the gym?

As far as cornering fighters. No, I'm talking about coaching now. Are you still going to be a part of the gym? Okay. All right. My heart goes out to you, Tom. I'm sorry. No, I'll be 100% honest.

As soon as I got this call, one of the first things I did, I think it may have been the first or second person I called was John Wood. And, you know, I told him the situation. He just said, look, you know, I believe you here. We'll do whatever we can and try to make it work. I understand it's not ideal for anybody. But, you know, any of these people take take. a look at this on the outside and easily go, hey, we're going to cut our ties with you. You know, this is a sport where we can't be having this sort of thing. And, you know, luckily,

I've got enough support where people haven't done that. Well, that is good to hear. My heart goes out to you, Tom. I'm sorry to hear that this happen. You've always been great. And I wish you nothing but the best as far as the wrestling stuff is concerned. And I want to see Matt Riddle versus Tom Lawler. I saw him in Cleveland at a show before UFC 203. And he was great. Shana Basler was there. I loved the style. And I saw some of your clips. So look, if Tom Loller, If you make it big, you will be the reason I get back into pro wrestling. I will hitch my wagon to your bandwagon, so to speak. You've been trying to deny it for years and years and years.

But see, now I'll have a reason. I'll actually know someone who's being successful, so I like that. Wish you the best, Tom. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you for being so honest and good luck with the wrestling. Yeah, thank you. And Ariel, this goes out to anybody that's out there. Anybody, if you have questions about this situation,

I will answer any question that you have. Please, I am trying to be as transparent as possible, and I am trying to figure out exactly what happened. I respect that very much. If you're having to help, please. I feel like this is unsolved mystery. Thank you, Tom. Much respect.

Thank you. There he is. Filthy Tom Lawler. An unfortunate turn of events really is, but look, he's got something else under his hat, something else that's cooking, and I wish him the best. I really was impressed with Matt Riddle and Shana Basler

when I saw them wrestle that night before. UFC 203 in Cleveland. And if he has that similar style, you know, that sort of MMA shoot style, I think it'll be good. I really do. All right, let's move along. It's a big weekend in MMA, as I said,

UFC 209. It's not happening in Stockton, by the way. It's happening in Vegas. So we could talk about that later. But the night before, in Thackerville, Oklahoma, Bellator is making its own kind of history because they will be crowning

their very first Bellator Women's Featherway champion. Long time coming. It's been in the works for quite some time and one half of that main event is Marluse Coonan and she joins us right now via the magical Skype. She's been very patient. We apologize for our tardiness, Marluse. It's great to see you again. It's been so long. How are you? You're looking good, Ariel. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I've been working on my dad bod. You know, when you become a father, you pack on a few pounds, but thankfully you haven't noticed. I only see your upper body, so it's fine. Perfect. So wow, this is, like I said, a long time coming for you, Marluse. They've been talking about this for almost a year. And the first time they talked about it, you versus Julia Budd, you were going to be on the prelims. And people were very upset about it. But this time you're in the main event. Were you surprised when you were told that you were going to be headlining the show?

Well, I was surprised that we were not the main event the first time. I mean, we were fighting for a title. So you expected to be on the main event. But I'm very happy. We're now on the main event. And I'm well prepared. I'm really looking forward. You were going to fight her, like I said, back in May of last year, and she got injured and you fought Alexis Dufrein, and then she shocked the world and submitted you. Did you think after that that this opportunity would not come, that you lost the opportunity to fight for the belt? Yeah, yeah, I was really, I thought like, okay, it ends here. But I have to say that Rich stole me straight away after the fight.

And he said, we believe in you, Marlouce. He didn't say you will fight for the belt again, but he said, we keep believing in you. So that was really good to hear. And yeah, I had just one thing on my mind in that it's a belt. So whatever it takes, I will do. And I wanted to fight de Fresny again, but she refused because she said, I only will fight you for a belt.

And then I was offered to lead a no-weira, and she didn't make weight either. So at that point, I was like, I'm not going to give up. You know, when you're on a weighing day, the difference is like, I don't know, like five, seven pounds. But you know it too. When you're in the cage, it can be easily fixed. 15 pounds and I felt it also. So I was like, I did my part, I made weight, so I expect we're

professionals, you know, like long in advance that you have to make the weight. So I'm not going to give them that opportunity anymore because in the end, even you say, and like, yeah, yeah, you lost, but, you know, she was way heavier than me. I didn't have to fight. I fought because I wanted to fight. And in my record, it shows there's a loss too. So I was like, I have to put my foot down. You know, my parents

flew out. My brother, he lives in London. flew out. So it was really hard for me to say I'm not fighting, although Bellat already said she couldn't fight. But I was like, no, I'm not going to do this again. You said, quote, unquote, it ends here. That's what you thought after the loss to Alexis. Do you mean your career? Did you think that that might be the end of your career? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a devastating loss to me. And I had it coming. I mean, I was arrogant, first of all. There are two rules. You know, don't be, underestimate your opponent and don't be emotional. But with everything that happened prior to that fight, I was so, I've never been so aggressive in a cage.

Normally, it's always a mixture of feelings that keeps you very, you know, like sharp. That's what I need. And this time, the only thing I thought was like, I'm going to kill you. I'm not kill you, but I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to put it like that. That was really stupid of me. And when I was on the ground, and that was the arrogant part of me, because I heard my corner saying, something like 10 seconds left and afterwards I heard it was 30 seconds and then I said to myself

like Marluse how can you let this get out of the first round and while I thought that she made it was a beautiful arm bar she made the arm bar so I've learned my lesson would you say that's the toughest loss of your career yeah definitely how long did it take to get back on the horse to start training again thinking about coming back did you need a break from MMA after that no no no no because I had a belt on my mind, so whatever it takes I will do. But, yeah, it was, you know, things happen and then I cry my eyes out in a locker room. They think, okay, everything is fine now, but then you don't sleep that well. When you're back in the Netherlands, yeah, you talk and everybody thinks everything is fine with you.

But, you know, when you're by yourself, the thoughts go through your mind. And I'm always training, like 365 days a year. But, yeah, it was tough. It was really, but it was in this weird part also a really good life lesson. And I think I grew from that as a human being, but also as a fighter, of course. It was tough, but I knew what I wanted to go for, and it was a belt. And Friday it's happening. So the biggest life lesson is just don't be too cocky, don't overlook your opponent.

Is that it? Or was it something else? No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. That's fighter lesson. Okay. I really knew that, of course. but I could be very hard and when you have lost on a stage like that

and it really hit me in my core and you feel so humiliate this is a hard word for me in Dutch I'll try it again try it one more time you feel so okay you're going to laugh now no no no no no it's 10 times humiliated there you go second try well done

and you know when you're on a And everybody can see it, can replay it, can judge it. And you're very vulnerable then. So when Rhonda lost for the second time, the first time when she lost, I was like, oh, she had it coming with the arrogance, blah, blah, blah. But the second time she lost, I could feel her pain. And I think in a weird way that it was a good lesson to learn.

Wow. And you've had to sit on the loss now for so long because, as you mentioned, you were supposed to fight Talita and Ogera. She misses weight badly. So now it's been almost, what, like 10 or so months, nine or so months since you last five. And that's the last, like you haven't been able to push that L down your record. How annoying is that? Annoying is especially because everybody who's interviewed me is referring to us.

I'm sorry. I haven't talked to you in a while. Yeah, no, no, no. It's part of the story. The redemption story. We want to get behind you. You know what I mean? Yeah.

No, no, no. I mean, I can handle it. All right. I cannot handle that. But, you know, everybody, like last weekend, I had to do like 18 interviews or whatever in a few hours. And every interview was, you know, referring to that. But it's also, I think, like, you digest it that way also.

It's good. Okay, one last thing about it. Would you have preferred fighting Alexis for this belt because of the loss because of what that whole thing meant to you than Julia? No, no, no. No. First of all, Julia is a professional. I respect her.

Okay. I don't respect Alexis. Why? Well, you know, if you don't make rate three times in a row, you don't respect the sport, the fans. I mean, Beloit is putting a lot of money down to fly us over with coaches, renting hotels, whatever, you know, and then you just don't make weight. And if it happens once, you know, with Toledo, I respect her too, because she cut 15 pounds on arrival. I mean, she put her effort in, so no problem with that. But then with Alexis, who couldn't make it three

times in a row that tells me something about a person and then she came really sheepish to me prior to the wanes and yeah i'm so sorry i had a baby well of course i understand hopefully i'm a mom one day and it will take a lot of time to get rid of the weight as well but you know then don't put your uh uh um signature under a contract or tell me in advance hey okay i'm not gonna make the weight let's do a catch weight i'm fine with that i would i would have respect that no problem. But then, you know, being like that and then in the cage, I didn't know because I actually, I shook hands with her when I was on the floor and I was so in shock and awe that I didn't really realize she was giving her hand to me. She wanted to shake hands.

And then in the case later on, I was like, oh shit, I should give her a hand. So I walked up to her in a corner and, you know, if you suck it up, if you lose, then you have to show respect. That's what we fight is do. Then I also went to her in the locker room. I saw her and I shook hands said good job you know so it wasn't uh well i think i did the right thing there yeah and then i a few days later i heard she had this really big mouth uh in the octagon like oh yeah melus was having this attitude and i knew then she had it coming but what i also heard from another fighter was that she didn't want to put any uh effort in making weight in the sauna she had a big mouth against a trainer after the way in we walked off stage she had a big mouth against my train i mean

I wanted to fight there at that point. I really had to contain myself. So, you know, that was why I was so men and so aggressive. And then having such a big mouth while you didn't make weight, you know, come on, where's your claws? Yeah. So now you're fighting for the belt. And this is the third women's featherweight title that's going to be, you know, in the mix, so to speak, as far as major promotions are concerned. And Victa has won.

Megan Anderson, now the interim champion, Cyborg, full champion. But I don't think she'll love her. You love her. Yeah, yeah. she's amazing. Okay, so we'll get to her in a second. And now you have Jermaine Durandami, your fellow countrywoman,

who became the UFC champion, and now you, are there enough feather weights out there to sustain three belts, in your opinion? I know there are enough, and only more will come. Because, you know, I'm from the Netherlands,

we're very tall there. And we have a lot of kickboxes. And I'm getting emails now, like, hey, I want to transfer to MMA, and they start to realize that kickboxing, you know, it will not be as big as, MMA and

only from the Netherlands already there will be a lot of fighters coming and you have now new generations of girls who will grow up or like judo fighters what's our name Kayla I'm really better names by way the Olima

Judo yeah I mean they will flock to MMA because it's you know it's entertaining it's growing spectacular I mean if you look at kickboxing and then you look at the MMA fight I mean I don't have to explain to you what's more

entertaining. Yeah. So are you hoping that you said you love Megan Anderson? She's fighting for Invicta, and I know that Invicta just doesn't let their fighters go, but they've done it for the UFC. Are you hoping Belator signs her so that you can fight her? Yeah, I think she's an amazing fighter. I really like her style, and I think she will grow tremendously in the coming years as well.

And, yeah, I really keep an eye on her. Were you surprised to see Germain become champion? No, out of Holly and her, I knew she would win. Oh. Yeah. And I mean, there are two stand-up fighters. Holly started grappling when she was 30. And I know I saw a progression in Germain as well. When she started out with MMA, she was a kickbox who was afraid to get to the ground.

And then she couldn't apply her tieboxing game in the cage. But in her last fight in Rotterdam it was, you saw the progression. She made in her stand. I still think she, of course, she has flaws in her MMA game. But I know she hits, of all the kickboxing girls I've met in the Netherlands, everybody tells me how hard she hits. And she's very fast and she has a really good mindset. And I mean, I love Holly too.

I respect her a lot. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, I already tweeted. I put it on my Instagram prior to the fight that she would win. How big of a deal was it when she won back home in the Netherlands? Oh, crazy. It was a big deal. No, really?

Yeah, because normally like, um, we don't get, first of all, we don't get attention. And if we get attention, most of the time we're criminals, we're weird people, you know, whatever. But in the Netherlands people, you know, you see what's there, and the Bellator is coming to Europe, and it's on Spy TV in the Netherlands, and people start to be aware of all these superstars in MMA and how big it is. And Colin McGregard did a big part too as well. Even in the Netherlands, they start to know him. And so the media is starting to recognize the momentum.

So when she arrived, it was the first time ever that martial artist was greeted by the Dutch national media. Wow. On the Apple Airport. And she was everywhere, in late night talk shows everywhere. It was really a big momentum for MMA in the Netherlands. So what are the chances? It's amazing that Belator UFC can have two featherweight champions who are both from the Netherlands. This is insane.

So do you feel like her victory made your situation bigger? Are you noticing more interest in your fight so that this kind of history can be made? Well, I don't know. I do see that I just had a big interview in a Dutch paper yesterday actually on Saturday. And when I see the responses to that interview is like crazy. And now the things, what I'm talking about is beyond fighting. It's also like empowerment of women and stuff like that. But yeah, you really see the momentum.

And I get all these requests for media to do. interviews and stuff like that. So yeah, it will add to it. And it will be aired on Spike and they're making a documentary of Spike. It will be aired. So it's really good. And you're doing... Yes, finally, after all these years, because I remember when you were fighting for the

Strike Force Belt, you were kind of flying under the radar and not getting that sort of attention. Aren't you also doing sort of studio analysis for UFC events on Fox Sports in the Netherlands? Yeah. Yeah. Do you enjoy that? Yeah, I do it. Yeah.

My partner is doing the commentary by the live fights. And, yeah, it's really lovely to do because now I'm only focused on the 145ers. And there's some other girls, 1.35, of course, as well. But, you know, now I'm seeing everything. And especially when I have to do a show and I prepare and I see all the old fights of the fighters who are on the card. And it helps me to become a better fighter as well. Well, what did you think of the whole Chris Cyborg situation? You have a history with her.

she was provisionally suspended by USADA and then she gets this retroactive TUE she says it's a medical issue and Usada agrees how do you feel because she is a polarizing figure in our sport there's no doubt about that she has the history with PEDs and people just were kind of quick to judge her and condemn her

and say that she's guilty right off the bat did you think that that was fair given her past or did you think it was unfair? It's very dual I hope that is English but the first time I was fighting in Chris, well, if you see the pictures of that back on Sherdog, you see like this really, really muscled woman fighting against another woman.

And I can remember it felt like she threw bricks at my head. It was so hard. I've never, before and after, I've never been hit harder in my life ever again. The second time I thought she didn't hit it hard anymore. So I don't think she did that on peanut butter and bread, I think. I'm not accusing her. of anything. But, so I don't think that's fair.

On the other hand, if a man gets a cut for using whatever they use, they will not get that judge that much. And she's always judged for her the way she looks and so on. It's because she's a woman and she draws a negative attention. And you can think, is it the person or is it the, I put it, the surroundings around it, you No, she's, there's a different paradigm between what's allowed now and what's allowed for women. Oh, I'm so messing this up because it's in English. No, no, no, no.

Anyway. I fully understand. I think, oh, that's very smart of you. But I think, like, there's a double standard in this. I know that the second time I thought in Invicta was, afterwards I heard how hard the cut was to make the 145. Like, it was extremely hard. And then when she was forced to fight at 140, I generally was afraid something would happen to her. I mean, that was crazy.

And I think if you are such a famous fighter and you beat up everyone who crosses your path, you deserve a title fight. You deserve your own division. People will tune in. I mean, in the end of the day, it's about entertaining. On the other hand, and that's what is so double about it. I don't think she has got it that fair. And I know it from like, I think it was 2010 when I was fighting her.

That was crazy. That was really not fair what we were doing. On the other hand, I love Chris. I like her a lot. So it's very complex for me. And yeah, if you are high flyer, people will judge you anyway. I've always wanted to ask someone who's involved in Women's Amendment this question. And I think there's no better person than you because you've been around for

so long. Arguably the two most famous women's MMA fighters of the last 10 years, Gina Krano and then Ronda Rousey, right? Gina Krona lost to Chris Cyborg and she didn't fight again. Rhonda lost to Hollyholm, came back but clearly wasn't over the loss and now it looks like we might not see her again. Why do you think, is this just a coincidence or, you know, I've heard promoters say, I've heard managers say, you know, dealing with women are different. They handle losses differently. They take it more to heart. They're very emotional as opposed, Is this just a coincidence that this happened to the two most famous female fighters? Or do you think that women do handle losses differently?

And we should, in that regard, kind of handle them differently. Do you get what I'm saying? No, I don't think there should be double standard in that. If you want to be a fighter and you want to get into the cage, you have to train like a fighter. And of course, the differences in making weight. Women do not lose that easy water as men do. We have periods, yeah, also. So, I mean, it influences us as well.

I think that Ronda has too much of her body and our mind for a long time. She's also a controversial figure. There are millions of people who love her and vice versa. And also a lot of people who don't like her. And she's, I think, a very intelligent and sensitive person. And I think it touches her core more than she would like to admit. And with Gina, she was like the pioneer. in having having having the face of women's MMA and she also had mostly she has more love but

it was an equally tough path for her so I just think as a you have this life cycle as a fighter and they've just burned out quicker than anyone else I think that's the reason why they quit okay fair enough great to catch up with you again Marluse so good to see you again I I wish you nothing but the best on Friday can't wait for it and I think it's great great for the sport it's Belator righted their wrong, so to speak, and took you from the prelims to the main event, because that was just absurd. Looking forward to it Friday night, Marluse Coonin v. Julia Budd for the inaugural Beltor Women's Featherweight title. Thank you so much, Marluse. All the best. Thank you so much, Erie.

It was good to catching up with you again. Thank you very much. There she is. Marluse Coonin stopping by one of the pioneers and veterans of women's MMA, massive fight for her on Friday, on Spike TV, coming out of Thackerville, Oklahoma. Okay, let's move along on Sunday. It was a very big night for the UFC this past Sunday, not the one yesterday, eight days ago in Halifax. We know about Derek Lewis. We'll talk to him later on. But the other big story, of course, the return of Johnny Hendricks, and this time at 185, and he was very successful in his middleweight debut, defeating Hector Lombard. Wanted to talk to him about that. He joins us now on the phone. Johnny, are you there? Yes, how you doing? I'm doing great. Congratulations on the win. Thank you very much for joining us. Is it fair to say, Johnny, after what happened two Sundays ago, that you are going to remain at 185? Yes.

I don't want to see 70s ever again. You are officially done with it. I'm officially done with it. Yeah, well, you know what? Man, it's been a while since I've... Like, that was probably the easiest way cut I've ever done. And, you know, I ate all the way up until Friday. I drank all the way up until Friday.

And the other reason why I didn't want to drink on Friday is because I didn't want to work it off. Huh. Wow. So this must have been, I mean, it seemed like in the early days you were having an easier time, but as far as your UFC career is concerned, maybe the easiest week of your career? Oh, yeah. You know what? I was sitting there and I was looking at my coach.

I'd constantly be like, man, we got to be doing something. Like, usually, I'm. I'm having to run. I'm having to do a lot of work to try to touch down. And I'm so used to my body not wanting to give it up. Where, you know, we would do the bare minimum in a sense, and we'd get a big result from it. So what we'd do is we'd just capitalize on that

so that way I could eat more throughout the week. As far as the actual fight is concerned, 24 hours after the way-ins, not having to go through that kind of hell. Did you feel like a different guy in the cage? You know what? I did. I pushed myself, but really, there's more that I can push my, you know,

like there's more that I can do in there. I was a little bit nervous because you got to think that my last, you know, my last fights have always been where the first round's good, second round, it's okay, and third round, I'm just, I'm trying to survive it. Right. You know, people don't see that. But in my mind and my body, I'm just, that's what I'm trying to do. And in the first round, I pushed myself.

Second round, I was like, hey, we got to be easy. You know, still move your feet, still bounce around and do that. But don't kill yourself. And then in the third round, I was like, wow, my energy level really never depleted. If there had been a fourth and a fifth round, I would, I think I would. have been able to get stronger. And for me to move forward, I needed something like that because, one, it made me where, like I said, more than anything, it just brought back the love that I had for the sport,

you know, not having to hurt myself, not having to do all these things. And not only that, but having the energy to be able to go out there and do what you want to do. I was a little surprised that you came back so quickly after what happened at 207. Was that your decision or did they call you with the opportunity and then you considered it and ultimately took it? No, that's the thing is, hey, now that I'm at 85, as long as my body's healed, I, I, if I could fight every two months if I wanted to. You know what I mean? Because cutting weights, you know, right now I'm at 205. I'm actually probably a little bit lighter than that because now that my, now that I don't have to slam my, you know, my body,

isn't saying you're going, hey, in 12 weeks or in two weeks, you're not going to get to eat anything you want to eat for the next 12. I'm actually not eating as much. I'm eating a little bit better. My diet's actually not super clean, but I don't jump off the deep end like I used to for the 70 class. So now I'm like, all right, you know, I think I woke up this morning at 202. so, you know, I'm 17 over. Did you consider retiring after 207? Well, the reason why I really thought about retirement is because I didn't know how the UFC would accept me moving to 185.

Okay. You know how that is. You put such a good damper and such a legacy into 170 that, you know, not only the UFC but also the fans, how are they going to accept that? You know what I'm saying? Like, are they going to open it with open arms? And, you know, all this kind of stuff. And so that's really why I wanted to retire because fighting was not fun. You know, it was 12 weeks of hell.

And you're just like, why am I doing this? I can do a lot of other things. Yeah. You know what I mean? And at one point, I was just like, you know, I'm going to retire. and then I had talked to a couple people about going 85. And they didn't turn their head about it. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. And then I was like, you what? All right, let's go 185. And then they offered me a fight. And I said, yes, I'd love to go 185. Let's do it. I don't care who it is. Let's just go 185.

And the rest is history. It was an awesome training camp. Don't get it wrong, I was sore, but I was actually able to train through. it, I was actually able to focus through it. And like I said, more than anything, it just brought back the joy that I used to have. You know, waking up, not knowing what to train, how to train, and going from there. So in other words, if they would have said, you know what, it's time to part ways,

were you not interested in fighting elsewhere? If the UFC would have made the call after the performance against Magni, would you have then called it quits? You know, I don't know. I don't want to sit there and say, yes, I would have because what if another organization would say, hey, we want you at 85? I'm not the person that's ever going to slam a door and say, I would never do this.

I would never do this. And that's one reason why I got in the fighting in the first place. Because if I thought that way, I would never got into fighting, I would have wrestled for the Olympics. Are you at all concerned about the damage, you may have done to your body by trying to make 170 for the last few years? You know what?

I have mind out of sight. I try to forget the last couple of years. Okay. You know, uh, uh, it was, it,

I know that after a fight, whenever your body doesn't kick back on for six days afterwards, you know that you've done some damage. Uh, and it probably wasn't even just from this. You know, it could have been from whenever I was, from,

since I was 13. doing damage. Because, you know, as a wrestler, like I said, you don't have to cut weight the right way. If you're going in there, you're losing 10 pounds of practice. Even in high school, I was losing 8. So you don't really have to focus on your weight that hard like you do in MMA. Where in MMA, you're getting a 6-pound practice. You're super ecstatic.

Would you like to see more weight classes in the UFC and in MMA in general? For example, some people have said 155, 165, 175, 175, 185. Do you think that would help fighters like you who are kind of maybe a little too big for 170, maybe a little too small for 185, that sort of thing? You know what I do, but I also talk to a couple of people from the UFC, and I get where their point is. You've got to look at the 55 and 70 class. You know, look at the 170 class. The top 15 are stacked.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, they're stacked. Well, let's say we do a 65 and a 70. Let's say seven of them are going to go down to 165 and eight of them go to 175. Well, now you're going, it's not 15 people stacked. It's only eight stacked or seven stacked. Now, don't get more than there's other people that have a chance.

But that's what makes the welterweight division so competitive is that there's, I mean, it's just ridiculous how many good fighters. there are at that weight class. Are you at all concerned that you may be too small for the upper, like the Luke Rockholds and the Romeroes of the world as far as 185 is concerned? You know what? Yes. But guess what?

You never know until you try. Yep. And, you know, and here's the thing. You know, for example, look at the last guy I thought. He had an 80-inch reach. How many times did he hit me? Not that many. You know, but he, I think he hit me twice.

You know, maybe I'll, okay, let's even say I'll give him 10. I don't remember 10, but he's so long, so long that whenever he throws, I mean, you might as well say, hey, I'm going to throw with my right hand. Hey, I'm going to throw with my left hand because it's so easy to see the punches come from that distance. So the taller the person is, the actual, the easier it is to read sort of where they're coming from. And that's why Carlos Condit. He hid me, but he didn't hit me that as much as people thought. He had, what, a 76 inch reach? Something of that, yeah.

So you're sitting there going, you know, most people that I fight have 73 to 76 inch reach. Yeah. I've had to deal with that my whole entire life. Now that I'm moving up, the only thing is that now I get to actually keep my strength because, you know, they were like Hector Lombar's a strong guy. Can Johnny hang with one of the stronger 185s? Well, I guess I proved that I'm stronger than he was. You know?

Yeah. Because he couldn't take me down. He couldn't do anything. You know, I used my take down because he was sprawling so hard. I just used mine to set up my knees, my hands, and everything else. I noted this after the fight, and I'm wondering if you shared the sentiment, it just seemed to me like you were so happy after that fight. You had this amazing smile on your face, and we've seen you go through so many ups and downs in front of us,

like at the weigh-in scale, and you're kind of, you know, you're, you look depleted and dehydrated. And in that moment when they announced that you were the winner, and I believe you were talking to Brian Stan, you just seemed so happy. Other than winning the UFC title, was that one of, if not the most happiest moment of your fighting career? You know, it's important to shut up all them haters. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Oh, Johnny's out of here. Johnny's this. Oh, he's not that. And not only that, but you're right. You know, we wrote a

roller coaster together. You know, my fans and I and everybody who hoots me, we wrote a, it was a rough roller coaster. And to know that now where I'm at, I'm happy. And like I said, it's almost right there with me winning that title. If that fight would have been in Dallas, I think it could have been almost competing with the title. Wow. Because it's just, like you said, you know, we were three fights down. You know, we're one fight away from maybe making it to the welterweight title. One fight away, one fight away.

And then, you know, we move up a weight class and everybody's going, man, you're small. You're a small 70-pounder. But realistically, I'm a big 70-pounder. I'm just a small reach. and you go out there and you fight somebody, you win, you're just like, you know what, that was worth it. That was worth it. Speaking of Dallas, UFC returning in May, what are the chances you're on that card? You know what, I'm hoping that I am.

Okay. That's sort of where my heart is, is I'm actually going to start campaigning for Dallas. No better time than now, Johnny. Exactly. You know what? I don't care who it is. Okay. I really don't care who it is. I just want to fight in Dallas.

You know, I mean, I like, that's one of my, I love fighting close to home, and I love being, you know, here in Texas, who better to help sell out the arena than me. But if they say to you, okay, we like the idea. Do you have an opponent in mind? Do you have an opponent in mind? I don't have an opponent in mind. And you know what, that's where I'm at. I'm back to that stage again.

Okay. I don't care. I don't care. I just want to fight. You know, like, realistically, I just want to get back in there and compete. And, like, today's been a week since I've been off. My hands are starting to, they're starting to heal back up, right? Everything's starting to feel better. And I can't wait to get back into the gym. I mean, realistically, after most fights, I try to take at least a month off. And I'm at a point where I can't wait to get back into the gym. Johnny, last time I spoke to you was before 207. We had that scrum where you were kind of challenging the media to cut weight and things like that. And it felt like somewhat of an erratic interview or scrum, if you want to call it. Looking back now, what was going on there? I mean, was the weight cut kind of, were you hurting there? It seemed like you were having a hard time standing.

It seemed like maybe you were lightheaded. What was going on there? Can you reflect on that now that it's over? Yeah, I can. You know, and yeah, it was, it was erratic. It was a little bit of everything. It was the fact that you're just, you're dying. You're trying to make a wait for, you know, a lot of people.

And it's just one of those things that life was probably at your lowest point. It just sucks. I mean, I really don't know how to I explain, except for that, in that moment, I was just like, I, you know, if they said, hey, you could retire today. And I, and people wouldn't be pissed that I didn't make weight or I didn't fight that day. I was pretty close to saying that's where I was at. Well, and when you say the word dying, like, you don't mean literally, right? I mean, clearly you were hurting yourself. Yes, yes.

And that's the thing is I wasn't dying, dying. No, my nutritionist, he was feeding me, you know, the best he could for me to get my weight off, right? He was doing his job. It's just the fact that, you know, there's a point in your life where your body just says, I'm done. You know, you're done. You're done doing what you're doing. And there's nothing you can do to change it. And that was at that point, I was literally sitting in there going, okay.

I got this. I'm four pounds over. We went and worked out, and we literally lost a half a pound. And then we had to do that press conference. Yeah. So not only did it, you work out really hard to lose a half a pound, which should have lost you at least two, you know, that's what we're expecting. And we lost a half a pound.

Then you go in front of everybody, you got to sit up, your stomach's hurting, your body's aching, and your mind is just going, you know what? Forget it. Forget everything. I'm done. You know, but your pride gets the best of you, and it says, you say, no, I can't do that because there's so many people here that want to see you succeed. For that fight, you were working with Lou Giordano as your nutritionist.

Did you work with him for 185? You know what, no. I mean, 185. You don't eat it? I just, no, I just missed one, literally, I missed two meals to make 185. Wow, what a pleasure. So, you know what I'm saying? That's why life is finally becoming fun again.

You know, I'm able to have energy. I'm able to do things. And so, you know, if I really wanted to, like today I could hit 96, so I'm 10 over, you know. and that's just one workout. I could hit 10 over. Wow. You will always be connected in some way with George St. Pierre in my mind

because I think that you did beat him that night, even though it was super close, thought you did enough, and it was amazing to see you return at 185 in some ways trying to save your UFC career the weekend he returned as well. Are you surprised to see him back three and a half years later?

You know what? I am. I am. I wish he would have stayed out. But you know what? A competitor is always going to be a competitor. We'll see how he comes back. And I heard that he might be coming to 185.

You want a piece? Oh, you know I do. Why do you wish he would have stayed out? Because, you know, so like I went through my rough period. Yeah. And I did something and I was able to bounce back. where whenever he went through his rough period, he got out, and now you look at these guys.

You know, yeah, you can train. Yeah, you could do these things. But has he done enough to where he's going to be able to come back a different fighter? You know, time changes. It always does. Just like I said, one day the time's going to change where I'm not going to be able to compete with these guys anymore. Right. You know, it's just the way that it is.

And once I showed how to defeat George St. Pierre, I think people are going to start using that game plan. And it's going to be so much harder on him. And, you know, you look at Chuck Liddell, you look at Randy Couture, these guys that didn't stay out whenever they were on top, they come back, and they're not the same fighter. You know, three and a half years is a lot of time for, or two years, whatever it is, for somebody to decrease or for everybody else to move up. Yeah, well, we will see. For now, what a story. I'm really happy for you, Johnny. Like I said, it was so nice to see you happy in there, not hurting victorious in the winter circle, so to speak.

And it's good to see that you didn't give up and that you kept on going and now reinventing your. yourself at 185. Congratulations on the win, Johnny. Thank you for not making me cut the weight as well. And dropping that stipulation. You're very welcome. And you know, I do want to say I do apologize for that. You got me at my weakest moment.

No problem. And I made everybody pay for it. And, you know, it does suck. But it is what it is. I'm sorry. No problem at all. Congratulations. And good luck getting on that Dallas card.

Okay. Thank you so much. All right. There he is. Johnny Hendricks. Back victorious. Looking good at 185. happy looking to fight at UFC

211. So that was the co-main event in Halifax. Main event, of course, featured Derek Lewis knocking out Travis Brown. You asked for him. You're getting him. There he is via the magic of Skype. The Black Beast himself, Derek Lewis. What's up, man? How are you, Derek? I'm okay. How you doing? No shirt

nation. Yeah, I'm at home, man. 80 degrees I saw right now, 85, actually. Wow. Summertime has hit Houston. It's not the... It was warm this week. but not quite right now. You're just loving life. What are you drinking?

Oh, those seconds. Oh, yeah, look at that. A little early. I like it. What time is it over there? That's 1.30. Why not? You got nothing better to do today, right?

Nothing. Just rest of my foot. That's about it. Okay, there's a lot to discuss with you, Derek. Holy smokes. I can't recall the last time after a win. I got this many requests, not just tweets, emails.

You better have the Black Beast on. We better hear from Derek Lewis on the show. Now, this was Monday of last week, and you were traveling home, so I had to give you a week. You wanted a bit of a break, and I felt that was only fair. But have you noticed the difference

in the way people view you now? Do you feel a rise in your popularity since the win? No, not at all. Really? I still got the same amount of haters than I do. Then I get the love, you know? It doesn't matter. I don't care.

Haters because of the post-fight interview? Hated because I'm black. You feel that? You feel that? Yeah. Yeah, of course. You know, there's guys out there. It's like they make themselves feel bad about talking down on me, which I don't care.

You don't feel like you get more love now than you ever did in your career? I haven't really paid attention to it. Fair enough. I did see this amazing video. You went to go visit your brother at school last week. Yeah. How many hands did you shake? You were just sitting there with a smile on your face.

These kids coming up to you, that has to feel good, right? It's probably like over 100. I didn't even bring no hand sanitizer. You know, I knew I was probably going to be sick right after with a nasty-ass-ass kid. Did you get sick? No, I didn't. See, there you go. It's a little confident about it.

But there was something kind of beautiful about, you know, a guy who's overcome a law in his life, who's now, you know, doing good, successful, going to a school, shaking hands with kids. I mean, it was a nice thing. I really enjoyed seeing that. Yeah, it was cool, man, you know. If I could change somebody's life for the better and they could look at my story and see, all the stuff I went through and see just to help them

to do better in life that'd be good. Did you talk to them as well? Like were you there to give a speech? Yeah, I talked to them a little bit just told them, just Google none of my post-fight interview and stuff like that.

Nice to meet y'all. Did you get in trouble for that post-fight interview? No, I didn't. I didn't think it was that bad. Do you regret anything that you said? No, not at all. For what?

No, I don't know, but you said, you know, you're telling kids not to Google your post-fight interviews. Oh, no, just my past, you know, I'm using bad language. Sure, sure. That stuff, like, did that all come off the, I mean, we've interviewed you countless times now and you're a very sort of off-the-cuff kind of guy, and I love your delivery. That's my favorite part. You're just very nonchalant.

But you had some great line. I mean, that, to me, was your best post-fight interview. Did you prepare any of that? No, I just freestyle. Yeah. Freestyle king, you know, off top of the time. the dawn. Just give me a beating

an alchapela, freestyle. But the mini belt, that had to be prepared, right? No, the guy I was walking back to, in the backstage and it was a fan with a Travis Brown shirt on, and he said, man, here, man, you're the real champion.

I said, you're down right, give me a belt. I tick the belt and just stopped walking through the crowd. They sell Travis Brown's shirts. I didn't even know that that was on the market. I don't know if he had Travis Brown's shirt on in the audience. I don't know. Wow.

So the fight started off a little slow for you with the kicks to the body and then you were able to regroup. At any point were you starting to get worried? I mean, because I don't know if you were doing a ropa dope-dope there, if you were really that hurt. I mean, I know you said you had to go to the bathroom, but they did seem to affect you.

Were you worried that the end was near? Oh, no, not at all. You know, I've been in deep waters a bunch of times in my fight. I told my coaches and I told a couple of fans and I told a couple of reporters before the fight, I could be in trouble the first or second round. And any fight, just know that that beast will be about to kick in soon or later. You posted a video of your broken foot.

It is broken, correct? Yeah, so it's two bones broken in it. The right or left? The right. Do you know when you broke it? Yeah, every time I kick this thigh, I broke it. I kicked him like twice in the leg and I broke it. So you broke it in the first round?

Yes. Could you feel that it was broken? Yeah, for sure. Oh, man. And that didn't phase you. No, that's whenever I started trying to do my whale kick, my spinning kick. That's whenever I started doing that. So the stuff.

I almost landed it. Yeah. Oh, shit, I'm going to land. I'm trying one more time. So the stomach stuff, that was rope-a-dope? No, it wasn't roper-dope at all. Okay, so you were hurting. He got me good.

just the gas like like I said it was the gas then whenever he hit me with that knee when I came in with the right hand and um that right there it hurted me were you were you having a stomach problem all week in halifax um you know I'm lactose so I had some some milk um the day before why'd you do that some milkshakes what's that why'd you have a milkshake if you're lactose and tall No, it was not like a million. It was at Starbucks, one of them. Rappuccino's. Yeah, yeah. Trying to stay warm, you know, so I paid for it. So what was it like? Your first time in Canada. Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, it was okay, you know. I didn't see too many snow bunnies, but I seen a lot of snow. But it was cool, though. Wasn't it like a really bad week as far as snow is concerned over there? Yeah, it was my first time really seeing snow, so I like that part of it. But after that, I was like, I was ready to go home, man. It's too much. And then the power went out the night before in the hotel, right? Yeah, the power went out.

That was for like about four or five hours the power was out. Wow. So what I could do, really, just watch Pornhub and keep myself warm since the heater went down. Well, on your phone. Yeah. But did you have Wi-Fi? Yeah. No, I had singular service.

Fire went out. Yeah. My battery's about to die, so I had to roll one out before my battery died because it was no more power in the building. So I had to keep myself warm and go to sleep. Desperate times desperate measures? Yeah, for sure. You know, survival. Right.

What about this Donair sandwich? Did you have that? I heard you were looking for one. Yeah, I didn't have a chance to get it, you know. Why not? But I'm going to see if I'm, next time, if I'm close by, whatever. up there to Canada and see if they go ship it to me or what

Okay Next time if you're just chilling up there Up north Yeah You know some random reason Right And then you said afterwards You were like

You know don't call me about any fights Don't call me about this I want to take a break Of course this is before we knew that You broke your foot But do you still feel that way A week later Do you still feel like I want an extended break now

Yeah for sure You want to take a reset Right Unless I'll take a rest break for it right now unless they call me for the belt. If they say, okay, um, Dosayno caught that jack mac again, caught that pussy. So, you know, we need you to step in and fight, um, steepe. Yeah, okay, I fight them. But you have a broken foot, so you can't do it anyway. But, you know, this stuff, stuff happens. You're the black people? We might

work around that. We might work around. You never know. Uh, how long do you expect to be out for with the, with the foot? Hopefully four weeks. The doctor said four weeks. Okay. Have you ever broken... It's on top of the foot. Okay. Have you ever broken any bone in your body? Yeah, I broke my leg before. Okay. When was that?

That's in high school. I got chopped block. Football. Wow. So what are you going to do for the next four weeks while you have a cast? Well, they say I could smoke a little weed, so I might smoke a little weed. So we'll see. They say I can't... It's got to be a certain limit. for me to smoke so, you know, I could smoke right now and try to,

well, only the medical part of you. Sure. Medical, medicinal. I'm just trying to smoke something in that and just cheer and relax. It was clear that you have no love loss for Travis Brown. Considering that, was that one of the more enjoyable fights of your career to finish it the way you did because of how you fell towards him? Yeah, for sure.

You know, I'm glad the fight ended up the way it was, you know, especially the first round and everything. You know, he's looking good. You know, I'm glad he got the chance to assure everyone that he's still the old Travis, you know, because I didn't want to go out there and really just demolish the guy in the first round, really, because I don't want the critics to be like, oh, he's still training with Edmund. So that's the reason why Derek went out there, did what he did, because I still wanted him, I wanted him to have the best campus life, because I didn't want no excuses at all, you know,

because I believe Travis is like one of the, he's supposed to be in the top five, really. You know, I believe that in his division that he was, him and Kane, probably the only one that could really give me any type of trouble. Wow. Because Travis is like more of a 205, 185, him, because he moves around pretty good. It's real technical. He doesn't move like a heavyweight. Right. So I believe that he was the only one that probably would get me any problems.

And so now everyone says, oh, we want to see Derek versus Francis Inganu. That's what everyone wants. How do you feel about that? Yeah. Why does everyone want that? Yeah, I'll fight him. Yeah? Yeah, I'll fight him.

You impressed with him? Impressed by him? Yeah, he's real good. Why do you think everyone wants to see that fight in particular? Because this is America. You know, they like to see Black on Black Crime? That's right. They drive on that.

They love that. And you want to give it to him? Yeah, I give it to him, yeah. So do you feel like that's the first? fight that makes sense next when you come back? Since, you know, we're in him right close to each other, I would like to fight like

more of a someone that's more of a challenge, you know? Ah. And I believe Mark Hunt is more of a challenge. So you'll be watching... It's like me being me being Francis is really, it's not going to really boost my stats or anything, get me closer to the belt

because he hasn't really fought like the top guys yet. He only fought one guy. They are really pushing him. He is running through guys. Yeah. He's getting his own media day in Vegas prior to 209 this week. Yeah.

The only reason why he's doing that because he's a clean-cut guy, he talked right to the media. Yeah. No, he ain't like me. You know, I'm a little bit. I speak my mind too much. And, you know, the UFC really probably don't really like that. So I really don't care. Have you been told to kind of cool it with your comments and your Instagram posts and all that stuff?

because I have heard that sometimes they get a little uneasy. No, they haven't told me anything yet. But I said about a year ago, Dana White told me the cooler down on they've been, but it's whatever. Clearly you didn't pay attention, and you're not going to. We're not going to answer that question right now. Well, it was a year ago, and I don't think much has changed. Are you worried that, you know, just because you are that kind of guy, you get on the mic, you get excited, you say what's on your mind, that this might impede your progress as a fighter?

Oh, I'm not worried about that. Okay. You know, I'm not trying to get in the spotlight, nothing like that. He could have his media that he tried to, he could get all the attention that he wants. They could have all that going on, whatever. I don't care about that. As long as they pay me good, that's all I'm caring about. Did you ever get, did you go to Dana's house?

I still haven't cleared that up because you weren't ready to answer that. Did you act? Yeah. No, I told you to ask Dana. Why are you, you said to X Dana? No, I haven't seen. I haven't seen him. He's a hard guy.

So why? you ain't been at the fights anyway. So you really banged from the fights or? No, I was there. I was in Brooklyn. I just didn't go to Halifax. Oh, so you can't come back to your own country, though. You're right?

You go to Brooklyn, though. Well, I do live very close to Brooklyn. I'm going to Vegas this weekend. Where are you at right now? I'm in New York, New York City. I'd love to have you in studio one day. Yeah, I got you. We can do that.

What's one of the famous things, y'all, the Jewish in the Jewish community? What's the thing y'all eat? Oh, there's many things. I mean, there's matzabal soup, there's schnitzel. I mean, it depends on where you're from. What in particular are you talking about? You try some of that mustard ball soup. Yeah, that is good stuff. I took a rampage one time to a Jewish deli here and he loved it. Hmm. Yeah, I'll try that. All right. Well, we'd love to have you. By the way, I had heard that, you know, you were very outspoken about domestic violence.

The reason why was because this is something that's near and dear to your heart. I hope you don't mind me asking. but you kind of grew up in a home where domestic violence occurred. Is that why you felt so strongly about it? Yeah, for sure. You know, and I know just about everything that really goes on with domestic violence. You know, of course, especially the guy like Travis being in the spotlight and this and that and his wife saying maybe he didn't do it or whatever, you know, maybe he did. Like, who knows?

But I really do believe that he'd done it. And since you have kids with her, and they probably did a bunch of investigation and stuff like that, and she was telling him, okay, we're not going to pursue it because we have kids and stuff like that. It's going to really mess up everything that's going on with their relationship with the kids. And so I believe that's why they couldn't really find anything that happened. But I believe it was pictures out there, wasn't it?

Yeah, but to be clear, I don't think the kids were with this, particular woman that accused him. I think it was someone before. Oh, okay. Well, still. You know, but this is something that's close to your heart. It's not just something you're talking about. You've experienced it. You've been a part of a home that's been affected by it. Yeah, for sure. You know, since I was probably eight years old, just about every day. I ate all the way until I was 14, 15 years old, just about every day. My mom and my stepdad, going around when I live where I'm fighting. Wow.

Did it ever get to the point... Did it ever get to the point where you got big enough where you felt that you can step in? Yeah, it was all the way until I was like 13 then. Okay. You know, back then I just used to just try to like pull my mom. I'll pull him off my mom and just like cry and stuff like that. Then, like whenever I was 13, then I just started, I just swinging on him.

He started attacking my mom. Are they still together? No, no. That's the one of the reason why we moved to Houston. We were living in New Orleans. That's the reason why we moved to Houston. Okay. To get away from him.

Are you still close with your mom? Yes. Does she appreciate when you talk about this? She really don't, you know, because she felt like that if she would never move, she knew I was going to kill him. if we didn't move to Houston. Wow. She said she's seen that look in my eyes

that she knew I was going to kill him. And I believe I was too, and so everything happened for a reason, so I thank God we did move out of that situation. Do you know where he is? Yes, I know he's up. But you have no contact with him? I don't.

My brother's and sister, because that's their dad. Okay, I understand. And so now here you are. I mean, you know how it is, heavyweight division, knockouts, things like that, life is good for Derek Lewis. It feels like it's all coming together for you.

Like for a minute, you know, the Mitrione fight, we weren't quite sure where you were going to go, but I'd have to say that you're one of the top prospects in this entire sport, or maybe you don't even consider yourself a prospect anymore. You're a legit contender. I feel like we're about to embark on something big here. Like this was that chapter closing where the next few fights are the big ones, maybe one, two away from really fighting for gold.

Yeah, for sure. You know, that's what I predicted. You know, it's in God's plan. So I believe, like, this year for anything, and this one I'll be fighting for the title by the end of Christmas, close to Christmas. Wow. I might be the next title challenger.

By the way, any sign of Ronda in Halifax? Actually, I've been, they gave me a phone number. I've been tweeting her and messenger in her. You know, I ask her, come on, I take you out to Starbucks. I'll pay this time. Sure. But, you know, so I never got nothing back yet. Who gave you her phone number?

I think it was Edmund Brother, I believe. Yeah, that's right. Oh, man, it's great. I love it. I love all the love that you're getting. It's an amazing story. I remember when you made your debut in Orlando, I think it was, in the UFC. And even going back to those early interviews, you were a little more, I guess, reserved with the media.

But now we're seeing the full, you know, the real deal Black Beast. And I think it's fun to see you blossom in front of us. You're a media darling, they call it. you know, media darlings? Now, what's that? Well, you know, the media likes, you know, covering you. They like hearing you speak. They like the things, for the most part, that come out of your mouth.

Oh, yeah. Like, get the bleak button. I'm ready for this right here. Okay. Sure dog. Whoever they can control the shirt dog that won't write to do, I don't know what's name or whatever. But fuck that guy, man.

I saw a tweet. Yeah, you weren't happy with, you're not happy with them for something? No, fuck him. Why? I don't know. I read this article and just talking shit. Fuck him. What did he say?

I didn't read the article. You got to go back and read the article. Was it disrespectful? Yeah, it was disrespectful. You're just talking shit. All right. I'll check that out. Are you going to celebrate?

Are any parties coming back home and anything going down? I just had a wine and cheese party last week. Yeah. A couple of my Caucasian. Caucasian fans Okay We had a good time You know

With our pinkies up Yeah Yeah yeah Yeah But nothing in Houston Yeah it was in Houston Oh it was I thought it was in the hotel

In Halifax Oh No All right I ain't celebrate I ain't got a chance Celebrate out there Okay

I celebrated this past week And I did All right Well congratulations Congratulations again Life is good Rockets are rolling They just got Lou Williams

Killing it Behind the The three point line, life is good for the Black Beast. Yeah, life's okay. Yeah. I got to pay these taxes. That's right. That's right.

So we'll see after that. I really can't take too much time off. Right. Shit, I get my money back up after these damn taxes. So we see what Trump do. Talk to your boy, Trump. I was just about to say that. Talk to your boy Trump about that.

Making America trill again. You run a rapper right now, man. It's crazy in the White House right now with Trump in there. It is. I was full of full of. him about shit. He fucking up. Oh. You know, he's going back on a lot of stuff that he was saying. You're not impressed. You know, I'm not impressed before. You regret voting for him? No, I didn't vote for. Oh, who'd you vote for? Hillary?

I didn't vote for no one. Oh, but you were wearing the hat. Yeah, that doesn't mean I voted for him. It seemed like a sight. Just like I wear Chicago Bulls hat doesn't mean I like the Or Atlanta Braves. I saw you wearing an Atlanta Braves hat. Yeah. It doesn't mean I'm in Atlanta Braves for him. Fair enough. Fair enough. They could use you in the White House, though. Yeah, and just like you got that pink shirt on.

Don't mean you're a sissy. Okay. We'll leave it at that. Derek, thank you very much for the time. Get well soon and we'll talk to you soon. Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me. Always. There he is. Derek Lewis joining us. Great stuff from him. Big win for him on Sunday night in

Halifax. All right, let's move along. One of the big stories late last week, excuse me, late last year, I should say, was that Greg Hardy, the former Carolina Panther slash Dallas Cowboy football player was transitioning to mixed martial arts. We had seen some photos of him training, but recently things have really ramped up as far as Greg was concerned, training over at ATT, American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, and garnering some interest from local promoters. I can add that he has recently signed with an MMA management team. He is now represented by first round management, which of course is headed up by one of the best in the business, Malki Kawa. And Greg Hardy is joining us right now on the phone

as well as his new MMA manager, Malki Kawa. Greg, are you there? Yes, sir. Thank you for joining us. Malki, are you there as well? Yes, sir, I'm here. All right, great. Well, let's get this start. a lot of interest in your interview, of course, Greg. I'm sure you're not surprised. First things first, as someone who, as far as I understand, had no background in martial arts, why did you decide to pursue this career in MMA?

Honestly, it started just watching when I was coming up playing ball. I had a lot of interest in the MMA and a lot of guys that were playing their wonderful athletes, man, and just really a beautiful sport and just the discipline that they have, you know, being an athlete, knowing what kind of discipline it takes to do the things that they're doing and watching guys like Chuck Lindell, Chuck Ladell, and George St. Pierre, man, it's a work of art. So I really was attracted to the allure of the sport, man, and it's

just a discipline that they had. And am I correct in saying that you have no prior martial arts background, even as a kid, karate, taekwondo, et cetera? Yes, sir, you are correct. And so at what point do you recall thinking, like, this is something I actually want to try? I mean, I know a lot of people say, oh, that'd be fun to find the cage, make some money. But at what point did you say, all right, I am actually going to pursue this. Do you recall? I was down in Carolina playing, and I just started, you know, on my franchise year, and just was honestly being an athlete, enjoying my time,

and decided that I wanted to get into cross-training to make myself better and started with the boxing. And once I got in the boxing, like I said, I started enjoying the sport, man, started enjoying the discipline, and just the learning and how hard those guys work is amazing. So it really drew me in. That being said, if you were still in the NFL, do you think it's fair to say that you would not be pursuing this? I do not think that is fair.

I think it's something that I've been wanting to do for a while, just as far as boxing and MMA and just getting into the business and cross-training because it's wonderful for football players. It actually helps an athlete, you know, take the next step into molding his game with something completely different. How did you end up going to Florida and linking up with American Top Team? Originally, you know, it started with just joining up with Mal, Mal, and joining the new team

and kind of just showing myself to these guys that, you know, I can be in this, I can do this, I can change, because that's a place where the best go to work. You know, they learn their disciplines, they train, and I felt like joining the team and joining those guys was something that, you know, It was stuff that I had to take to change what I had going on in my life, and it was a place where I needed to be. And, you know, being with Mow was a place I needed to be. So it just felt right.

I stuck with it. How long have you been there for? Three months so far. And is it true that you're living at their dorms? Yes, sir. Upstairs above the gym. What is that like? I mean, you're a multimillionaire.

You made a lot of money in the NFL. You're living in very small rooms, I'm assuming, with other fighters. mentally, how are you dealing with that? It's good for me. You know, it's a humble and experience, man. It's making me really, actually, it's making it really appreciative, you know, of everything that I've had and everything that I have

and the opportunity that I have to kind of come in and show myself as a guy that is, is not what everybody says on TV or he's not a monster. He's not a killer, a woman, beat, or that's that, any other. It gives me an opportunity to just come in and be a humble guy and learn. and, you know, I honestly just be at the feet of all these champions that walk around like they're, you know, just normal guys. You know, like I said, it's a humble sport.

So it's really been a wonderful experience, man, just being able to get in there, put in work, compete, train, and have the opportunity to, you know, make myself better one more time, one last time in sports and life in general. I recall when I reported that you were transitioning to MMA back in October, most of the responses were, oh, of course, given his background, as you mentioned, you know, domestic violence, things like that, this is the perfect avenue for him, a cage fighter, he's too aggressive, he likes to punch people, etc.

Did you hear those comments a lot? And if so, how did you react to them? Honestly, I just try to tune a lot of it out. You got to stay focused, especially in this kind of environment. Like I said,

these guys take their craft very seriously. It is a craft. I don't really believe, especially being there for three months, that it's about punching and knocking people out. these guys are some of the most disciplined people I've seen on the face of this earth. So, you know, it's about the kind of human being you are. It's about what you are, you know, who you are.

And I would say that the best way to just get to that is ignore everything around you, you know, kind of just make your space about being better at your craft, learning these crafts and becoming a person that can master these things, you know, from inside out. Do you have an anger problem? Do you feel like this kind of helps you? It's helped me in a lot of ways. You know, I have a lot of problems. You know, it's not something that, you know, you do just walk around saying I'm perfect

or I'm good. And I have a lot of different issues that, you know, I'm definitely working through and working on. I would say this helps me channel everything. It helps me just come back down to, you know, be humble. Because these are machines that, you know, the dusty every day. I get choked out and punched in the face. and lay down, lay down on the mat daily. You know, that's not something that a guy my size and my stature

and with my history has ever come across. So it puts me in a place to where those things can, I wouldn't say be, you know, be massed or worked on, but it puts me in a place to where those things are irrelevant. That's not really what it's about. It's a people thing. It's a person thing. And that's what you're learning,

and that's what you're practicing every day out there. You said that you have a lot of issues that you need to work on. Do you mind expanding on that? What are some of the biggest issues right now that you feel like you need to work on yourself? I feel like the biggest issues right now are myself, you know, right now, not exactly right now. In general, just, you know, throughout life, just the last little bit of my life of years that have, you know, led up to this moment. I need to work on Greg Hardy as an individual. And I made mistakes.

And I've heard people. I'm sorry, you know, that all that happened, I put those people in those situations. and there any of that happening because, you know, that's, that's not, that's not really me, you know. I've had a lot of personal growth being, being here, and those problems kind of just fold in the place and, you know, they help me channel anything that I got going on in life, you know, not just anything in particular individual. It helps me grow as Greg Hardy as the guy that I want everybody to see me as, not what, you know, everybody hears and says and talks about.

it's me learning about life and becoming better, honestly. And so when I hear you say that, I'm reminded of that interview that you did with Adam Schaefter last year and, you know, it was highly publicized and you were somewhat criticized afterwards for some of your responses. Do you regret your responses? Do you regret the way you handled that interview? Yes, sir.

And like I just said, it's me learning about life and becoming better. That was a moment in life where I wasn't a shining again. example of what I wanted to be. It didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to come out. So I would say, I wouldn't say I'm disappointed because I don't leave a, I don't want to leave at that that taste in anybody's mouth. But I want to say that it didn't portray me as a person that I feel like I want to be, you know, a person that I'm trying to become right now. Do you feel like you were truthful in that interview?

Yeah, I guess. I try to, I try to stay truthful and everything I say and everything that I do. So what do you regret about it? About the interview. Yeah, about your responses. You're talking about anyone in particular, just in general? Oh, no, that particular interview that I think was kind of like the last time people have seen you, you know, in a sit-down interview and heard from you in an extended period of time that received a lot of criticism afterwards because I feel like some people didn't believe your responses, to be quite frank. And I was wondering if you regretted some of the answers and regretted some of the things that you said in the interview in hindsight. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, it's pretty much, I kind of regret overall just the way it came across.

you know, it was a moment where I needed to portray something for myself, you know, not to make anybody believe anything, but just, you know, as a man and as a person, I wanted to get something across and that didn't get across, you know, the fact, the fact that I wasn't able to let people know how sorry I was about it. Like, that was something that really frustrated me, the way that, like, the outcome that, you know, people got from it. Malky, when did you sign Greg? I signed Greg probably about, I want to say a thing about a couple of months ago. about two months ago.

Three months ago, when he started an American time team, it was like right before that. It was about maybe two or three weeks before that. Was this a no-brainer for you, or did you have reservations as well? And if you did, what did you go about doing in order to find out that this was someone that you wanted to be in business with? Well, I mean, look, here's the thing, right? So from an athlete standpoint, you know, it's a no-brainer.

The kid, you know, I mean, look, we all know that the weakest division in almost all of sports is the heavyweight division, right? There's a few guys that are shining stars, like my client, you know, who you just had on, Derek Lewis. I think, you know, you get certain guys that can do this. And when you see a guy of Greg Hardy's athletic ability, from that standpoint, it was a no-brainer. But for me, you know, obviously, I'm a father to a little girl, and I understand the reservations a lot of people had. So, you know, I got connected with Craig, and we just got down and talked.

I just had a heart to heart with him. I said, listen, talk to me like a man. They'll talk to me like I'm somebody that you got to interview for a job. I don't want to be bullshit I want to know the truth and I want to hear it from your mouth. And, you know, he laid it all out in line and he told it to me

and I did my own research. I backed up some stuff. He backed up some stuff, looked at some things. And at the end of the day, you know, you know, we're not here to judge people, man.

And I feel like, you know, he wanted a second opportunity at things and he asked me if I would represent him and if I would, you know, help him with his MMA career and, you know, go from there. And I said to him,

okay, cool, but here's the deal. A, you got to train. And you got to train just like my fighters do. We're not training on some Greg Hardy special edition, P90X. You woke up one day and you have some idea. I call the shots. This is what you got to do.

And when you get to the coaches, they call the shots. This is what you got to do. And he said, okay. So, you know, when we got him to American Top Team, the funniest thing was seeing that little twin bed, he had to sleep. And I get something smaller than my own kid sleeps. And I'm looking at this and I'm like, oh, he's not going to make it.

And first week goes by and the second week goes by. And, you know, you call him and check up. on him and, you know, gets kicked in the head. And he's like, man, I got kicked in the head today, dude, and it didn't feel good. And I was real pissed, but you know what? I'm loving it. And he's doing his job and he's doing his thing. And the other thing is, you know, I talked to him about it.

I said, listen, you know, for me to really actively represent you and really get into this thing, you know what I mean, I want to help you. And I want to help you and I want to make sure that people start to know about you the way I know you and learn about you. But I also want you to, you know, get extra help. And he agreed. And, you know, Greg's going to, I told him that he had to, you know, go to, you know, rehab and anger management.

You know, get some help for anger management, rehab, and just, you know, say and talk to somebody on a weekly basis. And, you know, he said perfect. He said, no problem, we'll do that. So he's starting that on Monday. A week from today, he's got, you know, his last court case this week. We're hoping to get that out of the way, get that cleared up, and then, you know, have him enter that on Monday

and just to start working with the professionals. And he'll do that for as long as he has to. And, you know, he understands the role he has to abide by. And then I think he does. and he's done a great job so far, and I can't complain. What's the court case for next week? He has a situation with possession of a drug and stuff like that. And it's, I mean, it's getting dropped.

I think it's getting resolved. Obviously, he decided to do some things that the court asked, and I think that on Saturday he'll get a favorable outcome from the judge. Greg, are you on board with all this going to see a counselor, anger management, and all that stuff, do you want to do that as well? Yes, sir. I think it's a big part of me changing and actually just showing people that I want to change.

That's been a big thing for me, having an actual opportunity to show people being judged. Ariel, but my biggest thing with him was, you know, I don't have time to waste, right? I don't want to be in the business of the Greg Hardy business to do MMA just as some sort of like stunt.

Either you're in, you're in, if you're in, then prove it. And he's like, look, whatever you say. So I've kind of put some stuff that he might not even need on him to do, and he's, you know, he's done it all. And I just think that there's, the one thing I love about martial arts

is that, you know, you ask him a question. Have you ever done karate or this or that when he was younger, right? He said no. But he started boxing while he was in college, and he started boxing more when he got to the pros, and he started understanding the discipline and he liked it, right?

He goes off to the left, he got in some trouble, he comes back. And for me, I believe that between talking to people and martial arts and the discipline of martial arts, he can become a world champion. He could be, you know, the biggest bust that MMA has ever seen. We know this sport is not, you know, a friendly sport.

Whatever can happen. My thing was, I just wanted to give him a chance and help him, you know what I mean, get back out there for people to see him different. I mean, this is a guy that for whatever he's done or didn't do, you know what I mean? He's sorry for it, and, you know, I'm nobody to judge anybody, and if I can help him through mixed martial arts, that was my whole goal with this thing. But I needed him to prove that to himself and not just to me or anyone more than to himself. You know what I mean? He's got a family. He's got children. They've got to all look at this at some point. And he has to be able to look them in the face and say, you know what? I did what I did what I did, you know, for whatever it was, what it's not worth, whatever. But I did everything I could also to make it right. And, you know, he plans on giving back to the community afterwards and mentoring young kids. And once he gets, I think, to a point where he's comfortable doing what he's got to do, I think he'll, what do you call it, be able to be a bigger help to the society than not.

for that. Malki, I'll ask you this in a second, but I want to ask Greg first. When this news came out, Greg, one of the more famous NFL reporters, Jay Glazer came out and said that he hopes no MMA gym or coach gives you a chance to train in their gym, that you have no business competing in MMA, that it's a privilege. I mean, he was pretty vocal about not wanting you to be a part of mixed martial arts. Did you see those comments? And if so, what do you make of them?

I didn't see a lot of them. Like I said, I try to stay out of the negativity. but I just try to kind of keep a cool head and just, you know, accept my lessons and everything that comes with it. And that's just one of the things that I'm the situations that I put myself in. So I can't really be upset about, you know, people's opinion of how to view me and this set. So, Malki, you're a part of the M.A community. He was essentially speaking to you as well. What did you make of those comments?

Did you think about them when you were considering whether or not you should sign him? Yeah, absolutely. So I heard them, and it made me want to sign him even more. Because first off, number one, you know, who was Jake Danger to talk on behalf of the whole MMA community? That's number one. Number two, you know what I mean? I am the biggest fan of Mike Tyson, right? Love Mike Tyson at death.

I think we all do in the M.M.A community. But when you're a guy talking about another guy and he's not, you know, and you're wearing a Mike Tyson shirt who was convicted of, you know, his own crimes. And obviously that's in the past and it's all that. I can't take that for anything more than the fact that you just jumping on some bowing and it sound like some sort of like, you know, you know, you know, higher than thou type guy. And I don't know, Jay, he's a good dude, and I don't think he meant it like that.

I just think that maybe at the time, you know what I mean? He's upset. And, you know, everybody, every guy who's, you know, got a wife or a kid probably was disgusted by it and looked at it and, you know, doesn't really see everything or didn't see everything that I saw or other, you know, the fact of the actual situation. And, you know, when I saw, when I heard those comments, to be honest with you, area, it's what made me want to sign him even more because I felt like, you know, we do this in society. people get in trouble, instead of helping them, we kind of, you know, set them off on an island somewhere, and we don't try to help them. We don't try to rehab them or try to put them back out there. And at the end of the day, as an agent and as a manager, you know what I mean?

I realize some of the mistakes I've done in my past with some of my clients and where I could have stepped in and helped and avoided a lot of situations. And so here's a guy like Greg Harding. I'm like, you know what? Why would MMA turn us back on a guy when martial arts itself was there always since the beginning to help kids, you know, people in general that wanted to kind of like have an outlet to go in there and learn, discipline, respect, honor, courage, bravery. I mean, George St. Pierre, you know, talks about being bullied his whole life and what he used

to fix that martial arts, right? And there's other guys who will tell you that, you know, I was gangbanging. I mean, I think Tyrone Woodley today said that he was gangbanging when he is younger. People don't talk about that part of his story. He came from nothing, right? And he was doing a lot of things that probably would have ended him up in jail. and look, now he's a husband, a father, you know, a champion of the UFC. Martial arts is an outlet for people to do better and become better.

And I think that this is what this guy was looking for and needed in his life. And why would we as a community turn our backs on him? I think we give him a chance and we give him an opportunity to show, you know, to either prove us right or prove us wrong, right? It's wrong, Greg. So if I can help you that guy, then why not? Greg, when do you expect to debut in MMA? I would love to a day.

Yeah, I would love to debut tomorrow, man, but I guess I got a lot of respect for my coaches and the actual sport and seeing how crucial and how hard these guys work, man. It's pretty much going to be like my own set up to the coaches. Whenever they say I'm ready, I'm going to be ready to go. But until then, I'm just going to keep my head down and train and learn, you know, learn about what I'm doing, you know, perfect a profession entirely. Who has been taking you under their wing at ATT? Are you working with any group of coaches, fighters in particular? I mean, to my surprise, like I said, I wasn't expecting much, man, because I like to just, you know, stay quiet and, like, pretty much, so to speak,

take it on, take it on the head because I put myself in this position. But, like, to my surprise, man, I got there, and it was just, like, now, Miles said, like, it was a community of people that respect what they do. And I came in and respected what they did. So I got a lot of attention from, you know, everyone, Everyone was willing to help, man. I'm out there with King Moe and Bigfoot and, you know, Junior Dos Santos, you know, slam me around, a few face shots and working out with those guys and listening, you know,

just not even to fight, but listening to them talking and learning, man, learn what it's all about and how to do these things, not just fight, but how to be a fighter and how to, you know, have composure, you know, stuff that, you know, a young man needs to learn. And I feel like I just got, like it's not one guy. I keep getting it from everybody. I'm running every single discipline that I can. You know, I'm just really excited to be in a place to have the opportunity to show people that I want to be here.

Do you have? Sorry, sorry for interrupting. Go ahead. No, no, no. And I think that just allows me to work with everybody, you know, with Coach Dean, Coach Conan, and these guys are really, in all the kinds of their heart took me. and it's just it's a blessing I get to work with everybody. Do you want to go back to the NFL?

If you're given an opportunity by any team, would you like to sign once again with an NFL team? Yes, sir. Better? Yeah, yes, sir. It's hard to say no, because that's what I, it's a passion of mine. It's what I love.

You know, it's something like, I'm a martial watching me right now. It's something I learned to love over time, you know, and enjoying the work. So I would love to get an opportunity to do what I was born to do. Are you playing in a spring league? Yes, sir. When does that start?

I believe it starts in April. So what will you do as far as MMA training is concerned when that starts? It's the same as I've been doing my whole career, just cross-training. Like I said, this kind of training, if these guys do any condition of this, is above board. So it's going to have me and impeccable, well, it has me, and it's going to continue to keep me in impeccable shape and conditioning. So I'll just cross-trained and focus. Like I said, I'm in a dorm room, so this is my life right now.

But if you don't play for a Florida team, how will you continue to train with ATT? It was things we've got to discuss in the future. Right now, I'm just trying to keep my singular focus on what I'm doing and give respect to mixed martial arts and learning it. You know, I want to go in and put half attention on it and, excuse my language, half-assed it and not respect, you know, because that's a disrespect. that are there and the people that took me in.

My focus right now is being there. But let's say some, you know, let's say the Raiders, just for example, call you tomorrow and say, hey, we want you to be a part of the team,

come to, you know, mini camp, training camp, et cetera. Are you dropping the MMA dream? You can't do both, right? Hey, God says,

do whatever, it spills your heart, you know, so I feel like I would definitely go, you know, play football. That's what I do. Right.

I think I would continue to train me and Malc and me and Malc and I put my trust in him, so whatever he would work out for me to, make it happen and continue training. Because it's something that, like I said, it's something that I put my whole self because it's not just an athletic thing for me.

It's something that's kind of helped me mold myself in a way that I've never really had. It's just normally been me out there against the world. And now it's people and it's a community and it's a disciplines that help me be great, a better Greg, but you know, Greg in general. You said a few times, Greg. I was definitely a sick of this.

You said a few times that you put yourself in this position, that this is on you. What do you mean by that? I mean, because you've also said that you've never touched a woman and all this stuff. So how did you put yourself in this position? Honestly, I believe they all, you know, there's standards that everybody has. For, you know, Woodley and Tom Brady, there's standards for champions, or standards for pro-bo players,

or standards for the people that, you know, put themselves up there athletically in a good way. So there should be standards. You shouldn't be out at night. You shouldn't be just things like that. like God gives you opportunities and chances, you know, and you make those decisions and choices. And every decision and choice I made, I made it. That was one of the things he told me.

That was one of the things he told me when I originally met him. You said, you know, the biggest mistake I made in all this was the fact that I was even there in the first place. A lot of times, guys, when they get in trouble, it's never them, right? And that's what we always hear, and it's always around the people they hang around with or where they're at and what they're doing. and I'm not, I'm not in any way, shape, or form trying to blame this on circumstance or whatever,

but, you know, you can start to kind of see the growth of what he's going through, where he's starting to realize, like, hey, I don't need to be out at night, late night. I don't need to be drinking. I don't need to do drugs. I don't need to do this. I don't need to do that. You know, these were opportunities that I was blessed with that I need to take advantage of and, you know, maximize and have a great career and go from there and not put myself in

situations to where things like this happened. And I think that's, you know, part of it is when you realize, hey, you know what I mean? I may have not done this. This is what I'm telling the world, right? I didn't do this, but at the end of the day, you know what I mean? The fact that I'm here, I'm even in the situation is my fault. And then you begin to start taking, you know, accountability of everything that happened and go from there. And I think that's, you know, one of the reasons why, you know, when we talked is one of the main things that stuck with me was his, you know,

the way his mind was working was like he started to realize like, man, look, I don't need to go. When he came to Florida, he said to me, all I need is a place to stay and a way to get around. And I said, well, they have dorms on top of ATT. He was like, all right, that's cool. I really thought he was. yes and when I showed it to him we got there we looked at it. It was literally it's a twin bed it's small they're not you know huge.

Storms are nice, don't get me wrong. Dan Lambert did a great job but you know and when he went in there, he's been there and you know he sticks there for a couple of weeks at a time. Goes back to Dallas to check up on his on his mom and kid and comes right back down and look it again and you know it's been his

routine for the last couple of months so two last things for you Greg and I appreciate both of your times very much. the last time you had any kind of drug slash alcohol? It's been a while. I don't even think I can remember. It's been a while, man. I had an eye-opening experience. Like Mao said, man, it's just once you start realizing that it is your fault and that you were in a place that, you know, everybody wants to be and you remove yourself from that place, man, you start looking at the

reason. So there was a lot of reasons of why I wasn't there and I just started to eliminate most and trying to, you know, figure it out because it was, because I didn't know. you know, and that was... Are you referring to the arrest in September? All of it. Okay. And... You don't go from being a franchise,

tag defensive end to being nobody. Right. And everything right. Is that how you feel right now? Yeah, I mean, honestly, that's how it makes you feel just... Like, yeah, it feels like I did this to me, and it sucks. And I was... I was where I needed to be.

I had everything that I wanted, and... you know, the normal story is, man, somebody took it away, and I, like, I don't have it. Like, I took it away from myself. Like, now I'm nobody. You know, I'm nowhere. I'm just in the middle of where I put myself, so, yeah. And, you know, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but, you know, throughout this interview, I'm getting a lot of comments, a lot of people saying, like, you know, we don't want them in MMA, things like that. I think it's going to take a lot of time to get people back, you know, supporting you and,

wanting to see you succeed given the stories of the last couple years. But I would be remiss if I don't ask you the same question that Adam asked you last year. And that's this one because this is the one that people keep bringing up. Have you ever put your hands on a woman before? Have you ever put my hands on a what? Have you ever put your hands on a woman before? Oh, no, sir. So anyone accusing you of being a woman beat or anything like that, those are false, those are unfair?

Yes, sir. Like I said, man, it's something in this position that I'm in, I did it to myself, but at the same time, nobody knows the whole story. So I have to take everything with a grain of salt. Those people that don't want me there, I understand. You know, and like I said, God says, be understanding. You just got to, you got to take everything with a grain of salt. You know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, Junior Dos Santos who's been here and putting in the hallwork all these years. I'm a new guy coming into their sport that, you know, these guys built.

So that's something that's going to come along with it. Like I said, I just, like Mr. Lambert, like, I appreciate them guys, those guys in now let me come in and have the opportunity to prove that I belong here, that I'm somebody that can actually help the sport and bring, you know, a work ethic or something good, whatever I can bring that's good to it. So that, you know, people don't go to thinking instantly when you hear my name about Greg is a wife beater, Greg is a one. and be there. And I like honestly, I wish the stuff, I wish it never happened. Like, I'm sorry for everything, but everything and everybody that I hurt. And it's just, and like, coming from that place like that, it makes you grateful for the opportunities that you have not, you know, worried about the negative people that are coming in.

Like, they, they have a right to have that opinion. I'm telling, I answered your question, and then I stick to my answer because it's the truth. But because of what I did, like now said, the reasons I was there, any of it, all of it, I did the work. I had it all. And I gave it away. So they have the right to think those things. I'm glad that, like, Mr. Lambert and all these guys are giving me the opportunity.

I'm grateful to come in and not be nobody, be somebody that kids, like, that my son or like that my mom, you know, like my mom and my sisters and my aunts, these people that I've been trying to make proud my whole life. You know, we'll be proud of. And hopefully I win these people over. And if not, at minimum, I hope that I'll be. prove and show everybody that I'm a Greg Hardy that's worth putting somebody their name beside and behind and that you can respect and bring something good to a sport at minimum. But that is a major label to have on you that has to bother you, right? If you're saying it's the truth that you've never done this before and then you're saying

people have the right to believe that because you put yourself in those situations, that has to eat you inside that people feel, I mean, so passionately that you are this quote unquote monster that has been, you know, you've been called that many times. You've been called worse, to be honest. So that doesn't kind of beat you up inside. That doesn't kill you inside that people say that about you? It hurts.

Honestly, the closer to the people are to me, the more it hurts. But that's just the word that we live in the day. And I would honestly implore everybody to go check out the story. But find the facts, because this is not the whole story. That's not me. And I think that's what hurts. Like you said, that's what hurts the most.

It's not me. like I have to live with this stigma every day and I actually be okay with it and calm with it because like I said I had it you don't get to have everything and then lose it and then say that it's somebody else's fault no matter what happened you did it it, it doesn't matter but the hardest thing is to live with this stigma every day

and have the people closest to you live with it too like my mom has to deal with this my sister my mom's a detective you know in Memphis Tennessee oh she was a detective the police detective and then my sister's I take her my sisters and like these are the people that I I care about and I see every day.

And they know that I'm working to get better. And the hardest part is, you know, not having the world know that I'm working to get better, not because I'm trying to pull a stunt, but because I'm working to fix myself. Last quick thing for you, Malki, because we do have to run any offers on the table, any interest from promoters right now for Greg. Yeah, all over the place. I mean, I could get Greg a fight next week if I want to. I just haven't done it yet because I just want him to take his time.

And to really go through the process of training and, you know, getting better. at, you know, his skills and, you know, and like I said, also too, he has to go to, you know, rehab next week, and he starts counseling next week and all that stuff. And, you know what I mean? I just want to make sure I cross all my peas and dot all my eyes when it comes to him. And, you know, when he's ready,

I'm hoping to be able to bring a fighter to a cage somewhere that, you know, is a complete person. You know, not just a complete fighter, but a complete person. And that's the, that's the requirements I put on him. And that's the requirements I've got to kind of put on myself and managing him is to stick to all that. no matter how well he does or how long this might take,

that we just let it, you know, time take its course, and we go from there. So we're just trying to fix each thing, you know, step by step, and then go from there. And hopefully, you know, it all works out. And, you know, we can look back at this 10 years from now and say, you know what I mean? Thank you to the MMA community and to everybody else for giving them this opportunity. Greg, thank you very much for the time. Best of luck in your training. And Malky, thank you as well.

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. There you have it. So them's the facts. Make out of it what you will. And we can talk about it a little later on in the show, Greg Hardy, certainly a polarizing figure, more so than that, a controversial figure. He wants to enter the MMA world. He's got a checkered pass to say the least. Asked him as much as possible on it. And it's up to you now to decide whether you want to support his mixed martial arts endeavors. Let us move along now and welcome. in our next guest. Let's go to the Skype machine now and welcome in my good pal, the Russian hammer, Ardham Lobov, there he is. Nice to see a happy face here. Artim was not happy with me when I saw him in Manchester. I saw him at the Connor McGregor interview and he was not happy. You thought that I did not pay enough attention to your big win over Ishihara. Is that not accurate, Artem? Yeah, I didn't see you in Belfast and I didn't see you really tweet much about it.

even prior to the event. And I thought, geez, what's going on here? Is this not big enough for Ariel? He's getting a bit too big for this fight nights, and he just wants to report on the big cards. Sort of like Connor himself. Yeah, exactly. You're at the Connor McGregor of journalism.

No, I would never say such a thing. And I told you you were wrong. I tweeted all about it. I said it was your best performance in the cage. I thought it was your best performance. Did you see you finally felt comfortable out there was a big win over a big prospect. So I think you have to go back and look at the tweets,

but I'm happy to put that beside us, behind us, because you got a big fight now against Cub Swanson in Nashville. And when this was announced for April 22nd, a lot of people thought, wow, Cub Swanson is going from Du Ho Choi to Artem Lobov. This is a step back. You've heard these comments. What do you say to those people?

Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, it's a situation I like to be in. It's a situation I have been in before, you know, prior to this. I'm sure I mentioned this to you before. In my second fight, I took on Dave Hill, who at the time was a top 10 fighter in Europe. And that was only my second fight. And I actually have the video of the fight, and I was kind of re-watching it recently. And the commentators were struggling with things to say about me because there was nothing really to say about me.

The only thing they could say was that I come from Strait Blast Gym and that was it. But guess what? I won that fight. And I took that fight on four days' notice. So this is, you know, this is nothing new to me, you know, people will doubt you, that's fine, you know, I'm ready to go. This is exactly the position I want to be in. I have a lot to prove in this fight and I'm ready to do that. Do me a favor, Artem, can you lower your screen a little bit? Because there's so much headroom, I want to see your, there we go. Look at that. Now you're looking good. I like it. Got a little beard going. Very nice. You were, you were kind of going after Cub. You're being lazy. No, no, it's good. It's a good look. Yeah. Why? Why Cub? Well, you know, like, I watched there, too. To be honest, Cops Swanson, I've been watching him for many years, and he has a very good style.

You know, he likes to stand and he goes for it. And when I was seen his fight against Choi, you know, I thought, you know, that was a great fight. I'd love to be involved in one of those. And realistically, I thought that they were going to, they might give me Choi. I didn't actually expect to get Cobb, even though I wanted him. But I wasn't sure what they gave him to me. But, you know, in the end, they did, you know. All I had to do was message shown.

Wow. I did was a message on Shelby and I said, Sean, I know you probably think that Cubs will beat me, but please let me prove you wrong. And he didn't respond for many weeks. And then he goes, here you go, Aritam, Cubs wants some main event. Do you want it? I was that, hell yes. And that was it.

He was done. Okay, so you say main event, but now there are reports that they're doing Masvedal Maya as the main event. What's going on? Yeah. I've seen that. I'm not really sure. I haven't heard anything, but that makes no difference to me. You know, all that means to me that my fight is going to be there is going to be on.

a little bit earlier on the night. You know, I don't really care where I am, but I'm the first fight of the night or the last. It doesn't matter. I'm in the UFC because I wanted to take on the best guys in the world. And I'm moving in the right direction now, so I'm happy about that. But are you more in favor of a five-round fight as opposed to three rounds, or you don't care?

I don't really care. The preparation was going to be the same either way, you know. You know, it would have been nice probably to go the five rounds, you know, because I've never done that before. But it makes no difference, really, to be honest. If I was finding a wrestler, I probably would favor the five rounds. Because sometimes guys can try and make it boring, and they try and steal rounds.

And in a three-round fight, if you lose one round, it gets very like sketchy. You can't really take many risks anymore. Whereas in the five-round fight, you can really go for it, you know. And it doesn't matter if you end up losing a round because you can get it back. Were you surprised that he accepted the fight, that he took this one?

Yeah, to be honest, actually, the fact that it was probably a main event at the start, that probably helped steal the deal. So it probably turned out, you know, good for me this way. Because I'd say, you know, I'm sure, you know, he's probably looking at, like, you know, the top five guys in the division.

But the fact that this was the main event, that probably helped to sell it to him. So were you specifically told this was going to be the main event? Yeah. Wow. That was the message I received saying, you know, main event. And then obviously I got the contract as well, which said five rounds, main event, you know, so.

Huh, that is interesting. So, but you have not been told it's not the main event. I have no issue with that. Well, I haven't been told by them yet. I've seen the reports today that Maya is going to be fighting. And I have no issue with that. You know, all that means to me is that there is going to be more eyes on my fight when I prove everyone wrong. The comments that we often hear, and they were very loud when this fight was announced,

oh, you know, Conner's buddy, he's only in the UFC because of Connors, do you hear those comments, and do they bother you? All the time I hear them, but they don't bother me at all. You know, I've said it before, yes, me and Conner are, you know, very, very good friends, and he certainly has helped me get into the UFC. You know, it is what it is. It makes no difference to me. For me, it's my biggest sporting achievement being Conner,

my Gregor's sparring partner, you know, I said this before, it's not an easy spot to be in, and many try to be in the spot and failed. You know, I'm not in the spot because, you know, I'm good looking or whatever. You know, I'm in the spot because I'm the toughest motherfucker around, you know, and I have been for many, many years. So, you know, to me, that's not offensive. If anything, I take pride in that. So it doesn't bother me at all. Why did you look so good against Ishiara? Why? I mean, you seem like a much more confident fighter, the performance.

I mean, and also it was against the best opponent I thought you faced in the UFC this far. It all seemed to come together for you. Why do you think that is? To be honest, this has been a thing about me in the past as well. I seem to do a lot better against better guys. I think maybe it's because I spend so much time sparring Connor. And I expect certain reactions from finally. and when they're not as good, they don't have those reactions.

They don't react the same way. They don't do the same things. And then, you know, sometimes I can spend a little bit too much time and I'm expecting something and it doesn't come. Whereas the better guys, they're closer to that level that I'm used to dealing with. So I think it just seems more familiar and I do well. Well, that's my theory in it. But I don't really, I don't know.

Maybe I just rise up to the occasion or whatever. I don't know. What a nice moment it was afterwards when you won and Connor jumped in the cage. you guys were hugging. It was like the ultimate fighter all over again, right? That was really cool. Exactly. That's why I wasn't, I was asking him to jump, you know, I was screaming because he wasn't

going to do it. Obviously, you know, we're in Belfast and it's an actual event now. There's people around. So, you know, he, you know, but I felt like I kind of like twisted his arm a little because I wouldn't stop screaming. I was like, get in the cage, get in there. Just because, you know, I obviously missed his fight in New York. Right.

And like you said yourself, he had done this in the ultimate fight. So it was a great celebration of our two wins and it was just a very good moment. Will he corner you in Nashville? Probably not because his babies drew around that time. So I wouldn't expect him to do that, of course. And like I said, to be honest, by the time it comes to cornering, the work is done.

I am sparring him quite a good bit now in preparation. So, you know, he has, he will certainly, you know, give me what I need for the win, you know, in the sparring, in the training. So when the fight comes, all the work is done, there's no really in need for him to be there. In fact, I do think a video surfaced of you two sparring in boxing. There was no confirmation that it was you, but that was you, right? Yeah, that was me, yeah. And then you had all these sports guys, I don't know, in the United States,

critiquing this 10-second video and saying how bad he looked at sparring and how he looked slow and things like that. Did you see this and you find it funny? Of course, you know, it's all these experts, you know, like look at them. You know, the truth is none of them haven't got to breeze, you know, what's going on. You know, I was the one that after Brimish fight, I said straight away that he was going to destroy Aldo because that is, in that fight, you can actually see how he would be a very difficult fight for Aldo. But not a single one of them experts picked that up. And now suddenly they all seem to know, you know, oh, yeah, look, they all seem to say that they knew that he was going to do it to Aldo.

They didn't. They haven't got a breeze. In fact, in terms of actual stand-up fighting, there are very, very, very few people out there that understand it. Even that a fighter themselves and coaches themselves. In Jiu-Jitsu, you get a lot of people that actually understand that and know what's going on, but in stand-up fighting, very, very few. So break some news for us. Is this going to happen?

Is the Mayweather fight going to happen? I certainly hope it will happen. What do you got? It was a fight that... Oh, my gosh. I mean, I don't really know. You're better off asking, you know, Connor himself. You're the guy.

You're the one who's in there with him. You know what he's preparing for? Yeah, well, I mean, we're ready. You know what I mean? We're ready. We're getting ready for that fight. You know what I mean? We're, you know, make no mistake about it.

You know, Conner is ready to go. So he's a loaded weapon. So, you know, if whenever Mayweather wants to, you know, sign on the dotted line, you know, we're good to go. Because, you know, Mayweiler, he is big man for talking. but whether he will actually fight, whether he actually wants the fight, I don't know.

You think it happens, though? What do you think? Better chance yes or no? I don't know, I'll say this, right? I was the one that first suggested to Connor that this is the fight to make. Really? This was years and years ago, yeah.

Wow. This was before he even became a champion in the UFC, even before he became federal champion. I just told him, I said, look at boxing. This is a way forward, you know. you know there's especially at the time it was way more money you know in boxing and I just knew that Cona would be trouble for all of them including Mayweather.

Wow. So you deserve a cut. If this fight gets done, you deserve a cut of that pie, that $100 million, whatever. I want to see you get at least 20%. Stop. Come on. No, I just want to see it happen. All right.

It happens. That's it. That'll make me happy. I honestly, I would love to see it happen because, you know, all, like you say again, there's more and more haters and I would just love for Conner, to shut them up. He is so good at shutting them all up. He's the best out there doing that. And I would love for him to do it on this occasion. Again, it's Mayweather, because trust me, if I'm honest, and I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I don't see Maywater making it past the six rounds.

Wow. You think he knocks him out? If it was Paco, I don't see, I don't see Paco making it past two rounds. Wow. Wow. And look, and I was the one that predicted the one minute against Aldo. There is an interview of me. I can't find it now, but there's a video of me saying that Connor keeps talking about four minutes. He kept saying four minute, Mark, he's going to stop Aldo. And me saying right before the fight, no, forget the four minutes. It doesn't get out of the first minute. And sure enough, it was. And I'm sure I got a lot of hate for that back then as well. But, you know, trust me, I know something. I've inspired this man for a very, very long time. And I, you know, I've watched this game for many, many years. So I understand the thing or two.

So you're the real Mystic Mac. Right? Exactly. And you guys have made a habit out of calling your shots. So give us the prediction for Cubs Swanson. I know I've been saying this a lot now that I'm going to get the knockout and it hasn't happened. But against Ishihara, I almost got it. If you watch back at the end of second round, I should have thrown a left hand, right upper court,

and that would have stopped the fight just down the middle. But I kind of got overly excited a little bit and I landed a lot of shots on his arms. But that would have ended the fight. And at the end of the third round as well, he was finished. He stopped fighting. If I had 10 more seconds, that was getting stopped as well. But fair enough, I didn't get it. He hung in there.

He's a tough guy. But I think against Cobb, I get it done. He comes in, he's very open. He throws wild shots. And he has never, I promise you, never in his life felt power like I have. Even against Aldo. I'm the hardest hit. Say that again.

Against Aldo. Aldo doesn't have that kind of power in his hands. No chance. What Aldo is good at is the leg kicks. That's what kind of, you know, opened a lot of doors for him. You know, he would line the leg kicks and then the shots would come from there. But in terms of his hands, he doesn't have, I mean, he has power. Of course he does.

But nowhere near the power that I have. I promise you that now that Conrad has gone from the division, I am the hardest hitter in the division by a long shot. Wow. He told me that he is going to teach you a lesson about Mad. because you are very rude in calling him out. What's your response? Well, I look forward to that lesson, you know, because I'm going to be the one teaching him the lesson, not to fuck around with the Russian hammer. Artem, I love it.

But in all honesty, you know, I look forward to the fight. Honestly, you know, I can't even, I can't even bring myself to, like, hate on the guy or slack him. I actually am genuinely so excited for this fight. This is the matchup that I dreamed of, you know what I mean? this guy, he lets me show my skill. He is the guy that puts me out there. He's the guy that, first of all, going to help me break into the top 10, not that I care about the rankings, but still, it'll be nice to be ranked. And he is the guy that will really truly allow me to show my potential.

I love it. I'm looking forward to it. Sometimes it's fun. When there's no title at stake, two guys, they pick the fight, you know, wherever it is, this case, social media, let's make it happen. and a very fun styles matchup because with your striking, his striking, what he's coming off, what you're coming off,

I mean, it's just a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to it. It goes down November 22nd in Nashville, Tennessee. Artem Lobov against Cub Swanson. Great to catch up. Thank you for forgiving me, Artem, and we'll talk to you after the win. How about that?

Oh, good. No, there was nothing to forgive you for. I believe I didn't go back to check on your tweets, but I take your words. Yes. I believe you did then. All right. Very good.

We'll talk to you soon. luck in preparation. Thank you very much for having me on the show once again. There he is. The Russian Hammer, Arden Lobov, big fight for him. Will it be the main event? We don't know just yet. It's looking like not, but we'll talk about that a little later on in the program. For now, let's move along. Brooklyn, UFC 208, just a few weeks ago. We're still talking about it and really wanted to have Holly Holm on the program to talk about the fight where she goes from here a little bit removed from it all. And she's kind enough to join us on the phone right now.

Holly, are you there? I'm here. How's we going? It's going great. Thank you so much for the time. I understand you went on a bit of a vacation after the fight, right? Were you not in Peru? We had a friend's wedding down there, so it was a quick trip, but it was fun. Just, you know, home a couple days and then back out, but I'm back and kind of just training a little bit already here. I don't want to overdo it, but just a little bit.

So we're around three weeks removed from the fight. the kind of competitor that you are and you talked about the losing streak and all that before the fight is it still eating at you? How are you coping with it all? Especially given the controversial nature of it? I mean, I know a lot of people say that

that I won the fight three rounds to two regardless with the late hits and all this but I don't ever want a victory like that like for people like as far as you're feeling everything like I don't necessarily want overturned to where I'm like a win but I definitely want to

you know kind of just I want to rematch and so hopefully with the appeal that will kind of help with that. I feel like I had her also you know so badly rocked in the last round that I should have just stepped back and pick my shots and not even left up to the judges you know so there's a lot of things that I still look at myself

that I could have done better and I should have done better I know it could have done better. In hindsight, everything is 20-20, you know. I'm not so down and out. You know, I know that I'm still capable and I still want to move forward. And I just hope I get the rematch or whatever else comes.

But, yeah, it sucks to be in a position. I have a depressing spot, really. But I also know that I have big things for my future and I still know that I'm very capable. So what can I do? We can't change the past. I just want to move forward. Do you have an update from the New York State Athletic Commission

about your appeal? No, I don't know anything yet. And honestly, I just kind of left that up to my management team anyway. You know, they're just like, hey, you thought about doing that too. And also, you know, I'm always kind of followed their lead, like, their advice. I said, wherever you guys think is best, you know. And I just kind of. let it be. I don't really want to be

forcible on anything. I just you know, let's do what happens. And in the meantime, I'm just going to be me and train and still keep trying to get better. Are you confident that anything is going to happen? I mean, typically, even if something controversial happens, it's very hard. It never really gets turned, yeah. Yeah. So what do you think? I know. I think that it's, in this case, it's possible

only because of, it's not just like scoring you know, it's not just like the judge is scoring. It's kind of a, um, it's kind of like controversy with points taking away and stuff like that as well. I don't think they'll go through and say, oh, you have a win over it. I think that, you know, I don't know. So maybe do even in no contest or, I don't know. Regardless, I just, I want to be able to still have an opportunity to go forward. I mean, like I said, I wouldn't want to have a.

victory that way. To me, that's not like a real victory, but I would just love to be able to have the opportunity to do it again. Have you watched the fight again? No, I haven't. I mean, I've seen clips, and my coaches have watched it, and you know, we've kind of talked about

it. So, I haven't watched it now. Is it fair to put the majority of the blame on the referee Todd Anderson who didn't step in as opposed to Germain, or do you think as a fighter? Oh, hello, are you still there? I'm here, I'm here.

Okay. You know, there is that sort of rule that, you know, it's the role of the referee to step in to break you guys up. But as fighters as well, you are programmed. You know, you hear the horn, you kind of stop. Where do you fall? Like, now with some separation, and I know you said you were disappointed in Germain afterwards, do you feel like it's fair to blame her as well, or should all the blame be on the referee? Oh, of course she did it on purpose.

Oh, and not just waiting for the bell. You hear the 10-second, you know, tap before that. You know the bell's even coming. So, no, she wasn't going to hear the moment, especially not doing it twice, and especially, you know, kind of the copying and she had after it. But even still, I wish I would just kept going after the bell, too.

You know, I'm not trying to be like a wuss about it and whine. That's definitely not what I'm trying to do. I think that's a hard thought for me. people keep saying, well, she hit you off the bell, how to be, so it's like, I'm a fighter. I'm not going to sit here and whine about it, like, you know, complain. So there's a lot of things that I could have to fight just went on my own anyway. But, I mean, at least own it. She knows she did it on purpose, and one of them definitely rocked me.

During the fight, I, I mean, I felt that I sat down on the stool, and Mr. Winger was on asking me like, hey, how you feel? And so that one run with me, but I think that I'm not going to let it, like, I'm not going to let it, you know, put down my mind. Like, I think I can recover from it, so let's just fucking go. And, um, and that's what we did.

And I did recover from it from the part, you know. Um, in the fight, I, I felt like I held it together a little better than I actually showed. In my mind, I was like, ooh, I'm wrong. I just may walk to my stool. I don't want her to know I'm wrong, you know, I didn't want her to do that. I didn't want the judges to, like, see that or anything like that.

You know, I always just want to hold it together. And then when I watched the film, I was like, no, I was walking, like, totally, like, I was drunk. But, like I said, I mean, I was with it, I was with it mentally because I knew exactly what happened. And I, I mean, I had a conversation with my team, and I just told him, you know, let's go anyway. What are you going to do at that point? I'm not going to call a time out. That's just ridiculous. So, you know, I guess I should have kept going, too.

Let's just go through the rest of time. I'm ready to go. I don't even, you know. And, of course, she comes out and wants to tap up. Like, she's best friend at the beginning, too, which is much, like, usually when I'm fighting, I don't even like to do that. But I definitely don't want to be the disrespectful fighter either.

So, I don't know. I guess we did it again. Things would be a lot different on that aspect. So there's a whole fight that happened outside of those two punches past the bell. So I don't ever want to put all blame on that. Has that ever happened to in your boxing slash MMA career? I'm pretty sure not MMA because I've seen all your fights, but I'll ask it anyway, including boxing.

Have you ever been repeatedly hit after the bell like that? I think there's been like at the end of a combo, like, you know, they're throwing a four-punch combo and the last one kind of hit. I don't think they're ever, you know, maybe one time, one round. There's a couple times from the girls, like, after a round, they kind of, you know, when you're walking back to your corner, they, like, shoulder check you on the way or something like that.

Anytime that a fighter ever did something like that, like, just kind of a shoulder bump or I would just think, oh, they're frustrated, you know. Usually, if you really feel like you're winning a fight and you really feel like you're dominating when it's all right and you don't feel like you have to do that. You know, usually when fighters do that, I feel like it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, it's, comes out of a frustration thing for me, so it's not something I take personally. I actually take pride in it. Huh, that's interesting. When you found out that Chris Cyborg was exonerated, were you

disappointed because it seemed like, I mean, there's no options at 145. They haven't signed anyone else. Okay, if Chris is on the shelf, this opens the door for the rematch, now she might, you know, get it first. What did you think when you heard that? Well, I don't know, with all that, and I hate to be, you know, I think, I know I heard that she said that she doesn't think that I deserve a rematch, but if it would have been a different fighter in a different fight, it wouldn't be her, she probably wouldn't have said that. I mean, anybody else pointed a finger and said that she doesn't deserve to fight, but it's not what I'm saying. I try to kind of stay out of a lot of that. Nobody knows the real story. But I do think sometimes there's a lot being set out there.

And I think, to me, I feel like if there's somebody that deserves that fight, I feel like it would be me. But if they put that fight together with your man and cybor, then okay. You know what it's fine. I'm not going to, I'm just not one of those fighters going to sit here on the sidelines and whine and complain. You know, I want to do the best with whatever opportunity. are given to me.

So I hope the opportunity is given to me. If it comes, I'll just do the best I can with it. I mean, there's, you can spend a lot of sleepless nights and wasted energy on something that you can't control. Do you prefer 145 over 135? Forget about belts, division, like, just how your body feels in there. Do you feel the difference between the two-way classes? I mean, the weight cut definitely was easier.

I only have to lose, like, two or three pounds. So the weight cut was super easy, which made a little less stress. And there's something to say for that, but usually being at 135, I'm the bigger, taller fighter, so there's pluses with that. I mean, there's just, with either fight, there's just, whichever way it goes, there's, there's pluses in the minus, it's both ways. I don't know if you hear this, but when you hear people, if you hear people say that, oh,

Germaine is campaigning to fight you again, which she is, and not Cyborg because she wants nothing to do with Cyborg, she's afraid of cyber, whatever you want to say, does that bother you? Like, there's an insinuation that you're the easier fight

between you and Cyborg? Whatever. I mean, obviously, that's what she's thinking. That's fine. fine. Every fight has its own you know

results in the own way it goes and I know that anything can happen in there she could get in and she could hit me with one just right and I could get back in there and I already had her rocked before so I mean I hope she

had arrested me. That's all. I mean I know that type works really tough and she's very strong but Every style makes the difference. The rematch, it makes the difference. And, you know, I would never sit in for one person's better than the other because any fighter has their own strengths. So if she's overlooking me, then I think that that's just more of a problem for her.

Has the UFC reached out your management about what they want to do with you next? Have they come up with anything? No. Last time, German, Jermaine, is just going to the doctor. doctor to see how her, how she's doing. I don't know, something with her arm. I'm not really positive. We'll see whatever happens with that.

One thing that I, among many other things that I very much respect from you is how you show up to the press conferences even after some of these tough losses. Do you feel like there is a, I don't know, professional obligation to at least talk about, even though you probably don't want to, it's clear you're not enjoying this. you'd rather be somewhere else. You'd want to be sitting in front of all of us slubs answering these questions, but you do it every time.

And you give very honest and thoughtful answers. Why do you do that? Do you feel like you have to? I feel like it's... When people only want to talk to the media in victories, for me, my personal thing is, even in a loss, the sooner I face it and the sooner I'm more honest

with what mistakes I made, the sooner that I can learn from those mistakes can get better. So if I have to go in there and talk about my loss, to me, I might as well start facing it right away. The sooner I face it, the sooner I can learn from it. Have you always been that way? Yes. Do you feel like there is an obligation by, you know, like, you know, of course, you know, Rhonda didn't speak after she lost to you, after she lost to Amanda. Other fighters have not shown up, but you did every single time. Do you feel like there is a sort of responsibility when you're a professional athlete to do that?

In some ways, yes, because every athlete wants people to praise them when they're doing well, and then they want them to all be quiet when they're not doing well. But I never really think about it. For me, it is just a personal thing. Whatever obstacles in front of me, I need to face it, and I don't want to just disappear from it because then I'm going to sit at home and even go with my own doubts more. You know, I think the best times to learn are when you're honest with yourself,

A lot of people are thinking have a hard time. My dad used always say, you know, don't be afraid to sit along with your own thoughts. And a lot of times because your own thoughts are honest thoughts, you know. You have to self-reflect. And so I really don't mind dealing with those thoughts. Like I said, life is still going on and I can't change the past. So definitely I want to learn from it, not dwell on it. And so let's just face it.

Let's talk about it and move forward. forward. Are you still enjoying all of this? Yes, I love it. I just went to, I mean, right now, yes, I was a big hole in my heart that just, you know, an ache in my heart, having two losses and that hole just got bigger, you know. I'm not saying that it doesn't bother me. I think a lot of people, they think, you know, they see me still wanting to live my life and still wanting to push forward and wonder how I really feel. yeah, I cry. I have days where I'm

really upset about it, but I'm not going to hide under a rock for the rest of my life, and I'm still in charge of my own happiness. And the only thing to cure this is another victory, so that's what I need to go for. I don't want to just sit aside and, you know, just be in a dark place. I still want to surround myself

with my friends and my team and people who know what I'm passionate about and know that I'm wanting to still be involved in this passion that I have, you know. I do sometimes have to separate myself from people who don't do that, from the people that, you know, think I should be retiring and having babies and all that kind of stuff. I don't really like to even listen to it because that's not what my passion's at right now or what my mind's at. So everybody else is out there saying, oh, you're 35, what do you really want to do?

I'm still fighting and that's what I want to do. So I like to surround myself with the people that are supportive of my passion. Are you getting a lot of pressure to start a family to stop doing this? I think it's just the main question everybody asks. Like, oh, you're coming off of three losses. You're 35. You're a female. You're married.

I mean, it's like that big picture. I think that only people can really see. And so it's a lot of questions that I get. Not from, you know, my. team, no. Okay. They're like, screw that, Holly. Like, let's go forward.

You know, you know you're capable. You know, like, for sure. There's definitely the support from my team for sure. I don't get that from them. Okay. And, you know, so at this point, you know, when you're, when you're, like, I know, it's kind of a crazy question, but I'm just curious because the first, the first fight against Misha, that was, you know, it was a submission.

There's nothing you could do. Second fight, I don't think there was any controversy, but when you're dealing with a fight that's controversial where you think you won, where pundits think you won, does that, is it possible to say like that one bothers you more than the other because that's almost taken away from you? Do you get what I'm saying? I think for me, actually, it bothers me more, like my last fight wasn't controversial. Right, that bothers you more. And that means like I got beat. That bothers me more. Okay. For sure. Okay.

because that one was clear cut. There is no controversy. You didn't do enough to win. I lost the fight. Okay. But when you do enough to win... Because at the end of the day, it's all about the victory. That's it.

And I don't want a victory given to me either. Uh-huh. I want to win because I want to know I'm the better fighter. And, you know, when you get beat, you just get beat. And that sucks. I think that's the worst feeling to have. But when the win is taken away from you, doesn't that hurt? It doesn't that bother you?

It's frustrating. But in my own mind, I know the things that, you know, when everybody else is thinking that I did well, or it did enough, we all know I was capable of more. But to me, at the end of the day, I know the fact, and I know how things really went. And if I just get beat, that definitely bothers my heart more. like it um whether you go home with a win or a loss i mean i'd rather in my own heart know what i did and what i was capable of but i sleep better at night with that okay and as you get beat just because you get beat that that bothers me more yes i know like opportunities are different and money's different and career opportunities you know going forward are different when you don't

have a win but for me i've never done it for the money yes it is my career i'm not trying to be walked all over either and just take something for nothing but um I just, I don't know. In my own heart, I would rather know that I did well. If somebody takes away from me, I just want to be, just deal with it. I mean, life's not perfect, not pretty. In a perfect world, when do you want to... It doesn't mean that, like I said, I would just, I would rather know in my heart I won

than just knowing my heart I lost. I think that that bothers me more for sure. In a perfect world, when do you want to return? Oh, I don't know. I'm healthy. I don't have any injuries. I'm good. You know, I'm ready to go whenever they say.

Are you willing to take a fight at 135, 145, whatever at this point to stay active? Yes. Yes. Is it possible that we will see you fight next not for a belt? Is that, is that like, I know you want the rematch, but if that's not available because of the hand, are you willing to take a non-title fight? Yes, I'm willing. Okay.

All right. You wouldn't happen to have an opponent in mind, would you? I know, I probably know the answer to my question, but. I never do. Yeah, I know. I know. I feel compelled to ask. I have to ask.

Well, I really appreciate it, Holly. Thank you for being so. Thanks, thanks your time. Yeah, thank you for being gracious. And best of luck to you and looking forward to seeing you back. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, there she is. Holly Holie Holm. Always great to talk to her. I have so much respect for her and the way she handles her fights, wins and losses.

What a wonderful role model. And yeah, it's a tough one. Going to be very interesting to see what the UFC does with her because that was a controversial fight. Many people, including myself, thought that she won the fight. But now you have the return of Chris Cyborg. And, well, we all agree that Chris is the best 145, or she was the champion in Invicta. they made the division for her, but maybe the New York State Athletic Commission, as unpredictable as they are, throws us a curveball, and maybe they call it a no contest and we got to do the whole thing all over again. Could you imagine that? I mean, I know no one's expecting it to happen,

but what if they actually do it? What if they actually do it? Then what happens? Then you got to do it again, right? Because you have no champion. I would think, but I give her a lot of credit. You could tell that there is still that pain in her heart. You could tell that she is still aching, but she still faces the music. She didn't have to do it. She didn't have to come on the show. Okay, a little bit of breaking news here. The champ Tyron Woodley is making a surprise appearance now. We're getting a hold of him. I believe he's in... Well, I don't know exactly where he is because I didn't ask him, but he is five days away from defending his title against Wonderboy Thompson. they fought at UFC 205 in New York.

They fought to a draw. It was a super close fight. We didn't know what was going to happen as far as his next fight. It landed on March 4th. He is headlining UFC 209, and he is joining us right now on the phone. Tyron Woodley, are you there? I am here, man. You cannot have the MMA hour of fight week.

Yes. The best show. Yes. And I have the best most way in the world on it. Well, you know, I have to say, I apologize. I felt like I know you were doing some media today. I saw you were going to be on some show called Sports. or whatever, and I was like, you know what, I don't want to pour it on.

I hopefully will see you in Vegas. I don't want to add too much to your plate, but I... Some people should bring the news so unbiasedly, you kind of feel kind of honored to be on their show. Well, I appreciate it. Well, that, I mean, wow, that means the world to me. I heard that you said, you know what, all these rinky dink shows, they're not big enough, they're not good enough for the champ. Let me come on the people's show.

Let me talk to the people here, and thus you gave us some time. Is that accurate? That would be pretty accurate. How are the media rounds today? How are the interviews going? They're going fine, man. I have sports center. Everybody obviously is a hot topic.

They want to give me all revved up on race to sport, you know. But I think I've done a good job with, you know, on qualifying some of my statements. And speaking of, you know, I do want to give a shout out. I'm really kind of embarrassed and, you know, feel bad that this entire month of February is going by. And us in mixed martial arts as fighters as an organization, we haven't really seen. celebrated Black History Month at all. So I just want to shout out some of the pivotal guys that I watched growing up, guys like Lee Camp, Kevin Jackson, Baba Douglas, Molywood, Daniel Carmier, Joe Williams,

Jordan Barrow, Kenny Monday. These are all wrestlers that paved the way for us to really find wrestling as a sport. Growing up, I never really knew about wrestling. It was basketball, football, but guys like that superhero really made it possible for us to want to compete in that sport car wrestling and put on that terrible outfit called a stainless. Yes. Well, that is a classy move. I appreciate that. There's still one day left in

February, so thank you for doing that. Let me ask you this, Tyron. You were on the conference call, and it did seem like, you know, people were trying to go that route with you on Thursday, and, you know, I don't blame them because you have been outspoken, but you said something that caught my attention. You were like, you know what? I'm just going to say what I think everyone

wants me to say, I'm not going that route anymore. Why all of a sudden have you kind of backed off a little bit? Why have you, why are you saying I'm just going to give you what you want and give you these canned answers, when it seemed like for better or worse, people were at least paying attention to what you were saying, whether they liked it or not is one thing, but you were definitely creating some sort of buzz. Why back off now? In general, people don't like the truth. People can't take the truth. And people, I'm in general,

that are not exposed to certain things. If I'm not ever exposed to alcoholism, in my mind, in my reality, it doesn't exist. If I've never been exposed to people, people spend it. Do we lose them? If I'm not in the coaching, you know, you know, they're trying to kill each other. You know, I'm, you know, looking across the street to someone that's, you know, a different color and fear they're going to kill me. So I think that people that don't want to experience that immediate discrimination,

racist, whatever, I think they just, right, to the fact that it exists and they're insisting to get into solution and it's not really putting it. Hey, Tyron, I don't mean to interrupt, but you're cutting out. Can you hear me now? Now I can hear you. Yep. Are you in a bad area? Yeah, I'm in a horrible area called a damn sauna.

You're in a sauna right now? Hey, man, I'm an O-G. I do what I got to do. Holy Spice. Is that safe with the phone? Yeah, I'm underneath my son. It's the Woodley sauna. You sit up there. You sit up top and it's hot and sit down low in this cold. Are you at home? Yeah, I'm at home right now. Okay, I thought maybe you were at Bristol.

Okay, but now you sound good. Now you sound good. So can you just back up a little bit? Yeah, what I was saying is that people that basically, you know, don't experience something themselves. It doesn't exist in their reality. So sometimes it's easy for them to say a very insensitive statement or something that you say when they're not in your shoes. And once you realize that, you realize that these people don't walk with you day to day. They haven't seen what you've undergone and things you had to, you know, overcome to get to where you're at.

And the funniest thing in me is hiring Woodley is race-baiting and pulling the race car. Well, if you think about what that actually means, I've done the opposite, man. And I found a way to be extremely successful, not only in fighting, but in business and life. And, you know, just in all things that I put my, you know, put my freaking mind to, I've been successful in it. And that says something for me that I'm not the victim, that I found a way. when there was no way. And I kind of knew what the press conference would be like. When they called me, I said, man, I said, the press conference is going to be freaking Tony

Ferguson talking crap that only Tony Ferguson think is cool. He's going to take over the show. It's going to be, you know, trying to communicate with him and getting talked over it because obviously his first language is in English. It's going to be one of the boy being over-complimentary. There's going to be me basically being indifferent. And the conference was every bit of that. Okay, and so there was one point where Ferguson said,

I don't even know why I'm not the main event, and Chabib on my show earlier actually agree with him and said, yeah, yeah, we're the main event. I saw you kind of chime in there, or I heard you chime in, but I don't think he heard you because he was talking. Did you take offense to that? He said, I don't know why me and Khabi are the main event. Yeah.

And I said, because you're not a world champion. Flat out, because there's nothing else to say. I didn't either continue. you're not the world champion. And that's the thing I hate about the sport. When did our sport become this fashion show? Who can talk to most crap? These guys sit on couches and came up watching Shell Sunning

and some of these other great entertainers entertain them. This is a damn sport. Go out there and earn your key. If you're a world champion and you earned that key, he earned the key. He came on a show late. Tony Ferguson kept hanging up during a press conference. And he kept saying, let's get this show on the road.

I got stuff to do. Dude, if you don't sit your funny-looking stuff down somewhere, you are not the world champion. You need to calm down, fight Kabib, who you've been running from. And Khabib was trying to be respectful and trying to talk a little crap himself, and he kept cutting them off

because he obviously had a language barrier. And meanwhile, the number one contender and the world champion are sitting here having to listen to this genetigan. So, you know, I was just annoyed more than anything. Most of the comments I was muting and doing my thing. You were asked about GSP,

and you said the right thing. You said, I'm just going to, I have a fight in five days now. You know, like, I'm not going to focus on someone else. I've got to beat this guy first. But is it fair to say that the stakes have now been raised because he is back, because there's that carrot there. It is very possible you win this fight.

You fight him next. So that wasn't a possibility two weeks ago, three months ago. This is now a real thing. He is back. So does it feel like the fight is even bigger because he is back? Yeah, it was a very possible if I beat Roy McDonough, I was fighting a good world title.

And I put my eyes right on that big world title, and I got my butt kicked. So I've learned a lesson from looking too far down the road. Obviously, I prepare. I spend so many tens of thousands of dollars to get myself ready to fight Wonderboy. And at the end of the day, Dan Lambert told me this, winner conquers all, winter conquers off. You can say what you want, you can do what you want. But as long as I keep on beating, God,

after guys, after guys, guys, after guys, and nobody's left. I'm the best in the world. If you look at the top ten, Eric, look how many guys I fought in the top ten? Just the top five. The number one guy's won the boys. Some people can say I won that fight. The number two guys, Robbie Lola. Number three guy, haven't fought yet, which is David Meyer.

And the number four guy, I fall. Kevin Gasolam is in there somewhere I fall. Telling and Kim, I fought. You know, if you think about all these guys, I fought, people have a short-term memory on who I've actually competed against him beat. You know, so with that said, I can't focus on that. My manager called me. Maliki was like, man, I said, man, don't call me with that BS, man.

Don't call me talking about George. I've already heard, and plus you last minute news, I heard that two weeks ago. I said, anyway, I said, I got this guy to focus on. I don't want to hear about nothing. He laughed at me because, you know, you know our relationship. I talk crazy to him. We talk crazy to me. But at the end of the day, man, I'm a focus athlete.

I'm not going to disrespect Wonderboy. I'm giving them all my attention. And if I whip his butt and do it in great fashion, I at that point have the biggest stage to make my case. So earlier in the show, I was talking about this Damien Maya situation, but no better time than now with you to talk about it. Here is Damien Maya, who's been patiently waiting for a title shot. Had your fight ended conclusively in New York,

we assume he would be maybe fighting this weekend for the belts against either you or Wonderboy. I thought you won the fight, so it would be you, but he's not. And now here are some reports that they're offering him Mazvedal on some fight night show in April. And to me, this blows my mind. Five days before, you're telling the guy that he has to fight Mazvedal, who's not even in the top five. I'll do respect, great opportunity for Mazvedal, but for Maya, and I hate this word, but it's the only word that comes to mind. This doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem fair five days before he made it to the finish line.

Why are you making him fight someone else? How do you feel about it? If you're Damien Maya, what do you do here? Because you know he wants the title shot. He's been very clear. And now maybe they need a main event. They have too many shows. They don't think Lobov Swanson is big enough.

And so they're saying, go ahead, fight. You know, you have to fight in Nashville. Or maybe we're not going to give you. Who knows what they're saying to him? But clearly this is not what he wanted. What do you make of it? I mean, would you like me to say what everyone wants to hear? You want me to say the honest truth.

I want the honest truth. That's what I expect. The honest truth is I've been Damien Maya before. And I would love to feel bad for him. I would love to have compassion for him, but I've been that guy. I've been in, if Kelvin Gasselin be tiring, he's going to fight for a world title. If Roy McGowan will be tiring, he's going to fight for a world title. If Carlos Kahnett be tiring, he's going to fight for a world title.

I've been in those fights where my opponent in victory fights for a world title, but not so much myself. Unfortunately, Damien Maia style is not respected. This is a sport of mixed martial arts, and we as fans and spectators do not respect to Brazilian you just due aspect of mixed martial arts, which the entire sport was. was built off of if people have the short-term memory with the graces so they don't respect his ability to dominate take guys down take their back and completely you know being an anaconda on these top-level strikers and he's had a crazy one street he should be fighting me now yeah so if anybody wants to step down and say hey man you know what this ain't right hey man you know what he's getting he's

getting short an stick step even won the boy thompson who was in that opposite who know he didn't freaking win that fight, he should be like, you know what? It's only right and true that Damien Maya fight. I'll go and fight Mops without. I'll fight Cowboys-Sorani. I'll fight Joe, Robbie Lawler. And then if I win that fight, then I'll fight the winner. That's what should have happened.

But obviously, you know, we're not silly. We've got people that act like they're in it for, you know, the glory and all that other stuff. But it's about being a champion. It's about making a mite. Man, I just feel for him. The guy, I mean, just does everything right, so classy. And here he is almost at the finish line. and he has to take one more fight against a very tough opponent, Mazvedal.

I don't begrudge Mazvedal for taking the fight. Big fight for him. He's looked very good as of late. But Maya has done enough, and he's sat long enough. It's an unfortunate thing because in victory, for the Meteor or Wonder Boy, the conversation is already on the table for a potential fight against George. You know what I mean?

And that's just unfortunate. He would have to come out of his character. He would have to be somebody he is not. He would have to try to talk to mad crap. and be a person that can sell paper to be for him to get this fight. That's an unfortunate and that's an uncut raw of what he would have to do. I don't think he has enough time to bridge the gap. He speaks pretty good English, but not in the accent where we don't believe.

The Tiago Alves, if he started talking crap, we don't believe it. You know what I mean? He spent a lot of time perfecting his American language in his accent, and it's believable, so he can cross over internationally. So that's the sucks. you should only fight purely on the ability to beat top guys, and he's done that. But as a champion, I got to look out for myself. I can't go and look out for Mayo.

Sure, no, no. Yeah, I understand what he's at. I've been there before, but I've had to make some adjustments for myself to make sure that I'm marketable enough to be in this position. I've been trying to get the answer to this question, and I'm hitting walls left and right, so I come to you the champion. Why is Robbie Lawler no longer with ATT? To be honest, you know, it's kind of bizarre, you know.

He was giving a home court, of course, he was giving a home court advantage when we fall. You know, he didn't feel comfortable with me coming down there. Dan Lambert wanted me to come down, and I say, you know what, he's a champion. That's why I don't understand. Oh, how did yours tip here come through? Guys, have we forgotten respect? This is martial art. Martial art means you have to be disciplined to do it.

That's why they call them disciplines. So when you have a guy like George St. Pierre, who's been the greatest champion, if he would have came in and got the fight against Robbie Lola, I would have taken my butt and took two steps back and allowed it to happen and followed another fight and did what I had to do because he earned that point. I, even though I was there longer, even though I'm an original American top team member, at that time, Robbie Lola was a champion of the world. He didn't feel comfortable with me coming down in training,

and we were fighting each other, so therefore I did not come to Florida. So I don't understand how he would feel a certain type of way. I don't know all the details behind it, but I was more disrespectful more than accommodating during that entire time. So he couldn't have had a bad taste from me. He couldn't have had a bad taste from, you know, America Topton. And to be honest, he had all advantages. He had the warm weather.

He had the freaking all the flashy facilities. He had all coaches. He had all the training partners. He had all the, you know, the facility, the best weather. bells and whistles, and I just had the freaking, I had the grind. You know what I mean? So do you know why he left, though, after getting that kind of treatment? I think he was just, you know, for the first time of his career, I think he was kind of a

person that people were looking up to. I think he was kind of a leader, and I think, I'm actually lost me, and walking in a gym and kind of seeing my picture on the wall with the butt on it, and his line, you know, you started having an ownership to that, though. Uh-huh. No, you're like his your belt. I think he just couldn't take to looking at that. This is all assumption.

I've not spoken to Robbie. I called him a week after the fight. Make sure we were good and he was good. And we were. So since then, I really haven't spoken to him. Okay, fair enough. Speaking of speaking to people, very interesting scenario played out.

Dana White says you're a bit of a drama queen. Next thing I know, you're at the Super Bowl with him. So are we cool now with the boss? What's going on? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't... What do you mean? I see you there, like, on the... You're like 10th row, 50-yard line?

Dana, you are drama queen. How about that? What is that? Dana White is his drama queen. Say that again? Dana White is the drama queen. Oh, okay. He's a drama queen.

Really? Guess what? is it uh what is it isn't it called the teapot calling me the kettle how does that say and go why don't call me a drama plane he's the biggest robicane he's the biggest robicane i learned from the best what what do you mean by that can you uh can you elaborate well i just think that you know we've seen dana if you get dana mad he gets really mad and then really quickly you know he gets I think he had mad at so many people. He forget he was mad at you.

And he almost, you know, he was just licensed from his memory. So, you know, I didn't take, I thought it was actually kind of funny when he called me a drama queen. And he called me, and he told me that he was, he said that.

And I was like, man, you're a drama queen. So, so, yeah, I didn't take it person. I think what he was, what he was saying is that he feel as if some of the treatment that I was talking about, some of the, you know, bugs, he thinks that if I was more like,

Connor, then I would be a bigger star. Well, guess what I would never be anything like Connor? So if that's what it takes to be a star, and I would never be a star. So you can't tell a man to be like another man, and they're just not who I am. I won't ever be it. And I think his mind and his formula and model for what makes a superstar is just something that Connor has encompassed for him in an organization. But what I said was factual, what I said had merit, but I had actually had instances

in an actual, you know, things that took place, and I just didn't care to get in the great detail because it didn't make a difference. As long as the organization called me, I wanted to see what I was talking about, I made an effort to make some corrections. That was a goal.

Put the conversation on our table. Does not act like it does and it is? Does I act like I'm stripping to make the stuff up? And go from that point, and let's make some changes. And that's happened, clearly, because you were at the Super Bowl with them, right? I mean, you guys are on good terms. Um, I thought I checked

But then I got the damn drama I just kind of kicked me off guard I think he called me Because you know, you know Occasionally you say the paragraph And two words out of the paragraph Make the headline Sure

You know And I had to call a reporter too I said man We just got back on good terms Man you just got off the dangone Flagball list And you're gonna put on the internet The Tire and go back at

Dana Wyden Freakins Say to sell, you got to read the article. I know what the article is going to say, but you're freaking making the handline where I'm going to have to freaking get into the heated conversation with Dan in like 10 minutes. Did you enjoy going to the Super Bowl with him? It was fun, man.

The Super Bowl was fun was my first time. You're going to stay on that Super Bowl thing, aren't you? I mean, it was just great. I know. I know where you're getting that. What do you mean? It was great. There I am on Instagram.

I'm like, look at these buddies. This is great. Oh, yeah. Hey, it was a great time. All right, fair enough. Are you most, I mean, I know you love to fight, you love to make money, but come March 5th, when you're back on this show on Monday, because you know it's been somewhat of a tradition now after your fights, we're developing something here, it's fun.

When you're back on this show, are you just most looking forward to moving on from the whole Wonderboy experience? I mean, this is something that has been, you know, essentially since the second you won, July 30th, it's been Wonderboy, Wonderboy. And people have, you've tried to go in different directions, it's back to Wonderboy. And you fight him in New York and then the draw and then the rematch and all this stuff. Are you almost in a

sense, most looking forward to just moving on from the guy and not having to think and talk about him anymore? You know, I don't feel, I forget to talk about him, man, you know, he's not a part of my day. It's not like, I wake up brush his teeth, take a shower, talk about Wonderboy, go to take a coo, look at the internet,

talk more about Wonderboy. I think people in general, it's not a lot to talk about in our sport right now. You got Connor taking the cheer uphill. You got freaking, you know, no one knows what Rhonda's doing. Holly Holmes was giving the title shot, you know, her recently.

You know, people thought she might have won, didn't win. Now that's kind of going on the train. Just think about our sport, you know. If anything, people need to talk about, you know, the ball being dropped on certain athletes and potential stars

might have a marketing put behind and to project him to start them. Like who? We don't, like myself, maybe. Okay. We don't have a lot of guys

that are, you know, what happens if Cody Garbrand doesn't become the star that all the money put into him to make to become. Now, Cody's my boy, don't get me wrong,

that's the homie. And, you know, I'm a huge supporter of him. You know, I like Dominique Cruz as well, but, you know, Cody Garbrant is hurting everything he's got

because he's all working and I'm happy for him. But he gave some extra help to become a star. And hopefully he takes, you know, full advantage of it, he becomes a star. I think other athletes should be warranted and given that same opportunity, or you're going to find a situation where Paige Van Zan takes a few losses, you know what I mean? You know, my boy Sage, love him to death, you know, it's a lot of pressure on him to become a star, you know. He's a young kid.

We and Dean and Duke has taken him on our wing, and we're going to try to help him out, but he's got a lot of pressure to be a start. Anthony Pedersen, he had a lot of pressure in him to be a star. Some of these guys didn't ask for that role.

Some of these guys, you know, didn't even self-promote himself before to get that position. Now it's almost forced start them. It's guys out there. Think about Al Jermaine Sterling. Think about George Mosbittal.

I think about guys like myself. People that are, you know, I mean, we're already doing it by ourselves anyway. You know what I mean? Nobody has a better, you know, video blog than myself. I hate to suit my own arm,

but nothing's even close to the camp life and the champ camp. No. Not the Mac life, not anything. It's no content. It's done in high quality. It shows substance. It's not just flashy cars, suits,

talking money about, you know, talking crap about money. It's real life, real networking, real relationship building, real entrepreneurship. You know what I mean? When I get done, outside of your show,

I'm on a flight to Tampa to do a co-star in a movie. You know, I'm, my life is done. Wait, this week? This week? No, I'm next week. Oh, okay. Oh, you're saying, okay, I like that.

I like that. You've already booked your slot. You're that confident. Wow, I already got my plane flight, or let's see. No, no, I mean, you said, because you said after I do your show, I'm on a flight to Tampa. So I was like, today you're going to Tampa? I was thinking today's show. No, no, no, no, no.

What's the movie? What's the movie? I'm heading. I'm doing a movie called a favorite. So I play this MMA coach And I get to be this old-ass man So that'd be fun Wow

By the way And congratulations on that Any big stars in that That I would know Um It's a lower budget movie So I think Uriah

All's in it I'm in it A couple other guys You know I'm just trying to get my acting shop This would be like a supporting lead role So I get more lines So that you know

It's almost positioning me where I just get used to breathing and getting out of my own self. I can play myself. I can play gangster really easy. I can play tactical, special forces. I can do all that stuff really easy. I look like it. But, you know, some of these other movies,

like I did a movie called Offens Uprising that's coming out. I had to get out of my character on that. I did a movie called, the heck is it called. It used to be called Going Under. They changed the title of it. That's coming out with Bruce Willis, John Goodman and Wood Harris. I got to, you know, play something different in that movie.

week. So for me in general, it's called Once Upon the Time of Venice. Oh. That's coming out in somewhere. Yeah. I think I've heard of that one. Yeah, so. Okay, well, we'll keep it up. I have two more questions for you. The first one is, I mentioned this at the top of the show. On, like, the pound for pound scale, would it be fair to say that the UFC 209

poster is the worst one in the history of the sport? Oh, you mean the actual day on the face off and Photoshop. What is that? A bronze belt on my waist. Whose belt? That bronze belt. Oh, the bronze belt. Yes, that's right.

What is that? Come on. We can't do better than that? Hey, you know, I'm not trying to take up the U.S.C. But I'm just going to say this. Okay. They did tell me that they had some shifts in, you know, staff and somebody in the graphic design department. Sorry, graphic design department.

it might have, you know, shifted to a different employer. But to be honest, I could have done that shit. I could have done that, and I've never opened Photoshop on my computer. I don't even know if I haven't, and I feel like I could have done one better in the next five minutes. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to ask like I was down today. I wasn't. All right. Last thing.

I saw you teaching young Sage some cooking lessons. Does he got sold? Does he know what it takes in the kitchen, or does he still have a ways to go? My man, Sage, he was sure that I was about to use a bit of seeds. That little poor thing, they never had a piece of fried chicken until he went to Rosco with me. Oh, wow. He had three M&M's in his life and never had, like, you know, Arlene. He said, I had a pinch of a burger from fast food.

So, you know, sorry, Mr. North cut, Mrs. North cut, but we corrupted your boy a bit. We made him meet a chicken feet, a chicken foot. We bought these nasty chicken paws. We put him on a grill. He took a bite of it. He had a fried piece of chicken for rascar and waffles. Wow. And we made him meet some brownies. So we tried to get him a little culture. We took him down with skin raw. We took him to see birth of a nation. Whoa. And we picked him up and we picked him up on Monday's kid. So he is a sole brother. this is a show in itself

you teaching him all these things popping his cherry we decided that we don't make a show it's going to be called shopping with age or cooking with sage wow because you would be completely

you would be completely shot for hummus food he has never consumed in his life unbelievable what a pure soul yep when did you go to Vegas tomorrow

okay I wish you the best my man thank you for jumping in, I will see you in Vegas. I will be there and I look forward to it and let's not create too much drama before the fight now. We don't want to sell too many pay-per-views, all right? No, I'm going to create some drama. I'm just shaving it. All right, fair enough. But I do, I do really appreciate you coming on. Always great to talk to you and I look forward to talking to you next Monday. All right, sounds good. Thank you, Tyron. There he is. The UFC Walterway champion Tyrone Woodley stopping by.

Great stuff from him. How about that? Getting a call from the champion who's headlining Saturday night's show surprise call that is right before we close up shop today. That's a lot of fun. And yes, I know I'm pouring it on the poster, but it's only fair. This card is great. That poster does not tell the story of what Saturday night is all about. This is a great card. This is the best card of the year thus far. No doubt about that. Two amazing fights at the top. You got the return of Rashad Evans at 185. You got Alistair Overeign versus Mark Hunt. How about that? What a weekend for Dutch MMA? Marl's Kuhnan fighting for the Beltor title. Friday, and then you got Alster fighting in his return fight after losing the title fight to Steve Miochich in September, fighting on Saturday against Mark Hunt. Talk about a storyline and Lando Veneta. And if you haven't seen Lando Vanada's portrait video posted by our Casey and Esther yesterday, Sunday, do check it out. What a character, and he is on a role himself. So there's a lot to like as far as 209 is concerned. It's not happening in Stockton. It's a shame. No Diaz brother on the card, but we're over that. All right, let's bring in Mr. New York.

before we say goodbye. We have not heard from him the entire show. What a travesty. Or you're very happy. I hope they're not happy. There he is. Wow. Illuminated today. I feel like every week we get a little better as far as the lighting is concerned. That's it? Do you have nothing to say to that? I gave

the wink. Okay. Well, not everyone. In fact, it's funny that you say that. This guy, Jose, that I saw on the street on Saturday, who told me how much he loves the show, says that he never watches it. He always downloads it via iTunes around 8, 9. He knew exactly when it drops on Mondays and says, for the longest time,

he'd hear me talk about your hair. And then at one point, he was just like, I need to see what this guy looks like. And he Googled in. He said that, yes, my criticism was appropriate. I feel like that's revisionist. I feel like at the beginning of the show, there was support for the hair and not... For me? Yeah, you mentioned something about he liked the hair, so... Well, that was me just... Yeah. And just... No, I don't like it. Do you agree with my assessment of the Damien Maya situation? In case I wasn't very clear, I just feel like... I think you were pretty clear.

Okay. I mean, we got this far. He's five days away. It's not Damien Maya's fault that there are too many shows. It's not Damien Maya's fault that they feel like they need a main event for April 22nd. He is there. He made it to the finish line. And what happens if Tyron Woodley knocks out Wonderboy in 10 seconds?

What if Wonderboy knocks out Tyron Woodley in one round? And he's ready to go right away. Don't you want to see how it plays out? And let's be clear here, it's not officially done as far as I'm concerned. It's been reported by very good sources. Combate, I believe junkie as well. But what I'm told is it's not officially done. And I hope that they rethink this one, because I just don't think it makes any sense.

Forget about Maya's situation. Forget about what he's been promised, what he's done, his resume. Wait to see what happens on Saturday because you might have a situation where the World War I champion can turn around rather easily and then fight Maya in a bigger fight. Hard to disagree with anything said there. but I just think they don't want to give Damia and Maya a title shot. Why? He's actually been really entertaining.

He's finishing fights. He's not taking any damage. The guy's ready to go. I don't think, I think you're asking a question that a lot of us want to know, which is why they don't want to give him a title shot, but I think it's clear at this point that that's the sentiment.

There's nothing so far that's been indicated that they want to give him a title shot. Only things that have said, no, we don't want to give him a title shot. And this is just another one of those, booking him in a fight right before. the Walter Way title picture shakes out. Clearly, they don't want to give him a title shot.

I actually find him to be incredibly entertaining. And by the way, shout out to my guy, Mike Pendleton, for this Carmel Anthony signature jersey. It says, national champs. This young man gave you to give to me a Carmel Anthony Syracuse jersey. He let me know that he had promised it to you and that you... He mentioned it in passing. I wasn't expecting him.

You know, can't accept it, obviously. but I made sure it happened because it's a nice gesture and it looks good on the set. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I was there in 2003 when they won. It brightened my day after all the moves.

Nick's releasing Brandon Jennings, Jo Kim No-out for the season. Bit of a disaster. And then I show up and I have this jersey here. So thank you very much to Mike Pendleton. Yeah, this situation, we'll see how it plays out. It's not done. One fight that is very close to being done

and might even be announced tomorrow is Alexander Augusta Sins versus Gloverte-Teshara in Stockholm. Do we like this fight? Yeah, definitely like that fight. What's not to like? I mean, almost, there's really no combination of light heavy weights that I wouldn't want to see right now. It's very hard. There's not really a cue

that's properly ordered in terms of next challengers for the title. I'm up for all of it, and that's a great fight. No problem with it. We'll really tell us which guys ready to get back in the title picture and which guy's probably going to fade to the middle of the pack.

Which fight are you most looking forward to as far as this weekend is concerned? I mean, I'll throw out all five, but really I'm talking about the top two. I'm guessing you're going to choose between those two. Interim lightweight title fight? Alterway title fight. Interim lightweight title fight.

Not even a question? Not even a question. Who favorite? Two of my favorite fighters in general. Who? Habib and Ferguson? Oh, yeah. Since when? Never heard you talk about those guys.

Funny, good one. What are you talking about? I talk about them every time. I've said that Habib is the best fighter at 155 or below at least a dozen times on the show. Still believe it. This will prove if that's true because I think very highly of Tony Ferguson. So if Habib can make it look as easy as he's made all his past fights look, I think there's no question that he's the best lightweight on the planet.

And we'll definitely put himself in a different class. I think there's a lot of people that support him at this point, but getting that belt will mean a lot for his career. So that fight interests me a great deal. And if Tony can upset him, I think that's all. Or at this point, I think it might be close to even odds. So I'm a little hesitant to call it an upset. It is.

I'm seeing. Oh, now Habib has actually climbed quite a bit. But there was a point where it was nearly even odds. But if Tony can get the deal done, I think it says a lot about where he is as well. I think these are the two best lightweights. It's hard to kind of classify McGregor at this point. He has ambitions that are in boxing,

and he's also back and forth between featherweight. So let's put him aside for now. I think these are clearly the two best outside of that. I think someone at the UFC was watching today's show, not only my comments about the Maya fight, also Artem's interview, because Cub Swanson just tweeted this. I just got confirmation that I am still the main event for UFC Nashville.

So Ardham is still getting his five-round ass-whipping or he quits. And how about that? We've had a question. We've had a question about that. By the way, I never reported it, by the way, because it was not a done deal. But how do you feel about that as a title fight? We talked about this when it was first announced. Ultimately.

I'm a main event. Definitely not a title fight. As a main event, now it's official, it's official official. what's your attitude on it? I have no problem with it. I really don't. I mean, look, we've had worse. We've had worse main events.

I think that there are too many shows right now and the UFC is spreading themselves too thin. And like I said, last week, Fox bought an ale cart menu. So they have dates to fulfill. But it's not Damien Maya's fault. He doesn't owe them this favor, so to speak. He doesn't have to do them a solid because, let's be honest, when his time is done, they'll say goodbye.

You know what I mean? So you got to do what's best for you. And if they're not going to give him a title shot, well, then that's a different thing that he has to deal with. And he's 39 and, you know, the clock is ticking. But you got to wait at least five days, right? What if this fight lasts 10 seconds? And you could turn them around quickly. Maybe you'll have them, you know, main event Fox or something.

You know, I just, it didn't make any sense to me. And we'll see what happens. I mean, crazier things have happened. But I know it was discussed. I know it was targeted. I actually like the dynamic between Swanson and Lobov. I don't know how ticket sales, I don't know if they're on sale yet. I don't know how they will go.

There's Iaquinta Sanchez on the card. There's some solid fights on that card. This is a fight night card. It's not a pay-per-view. And so, like I said, we've had way worse than this. I think this is actually a fun fight between two guys who are going to, you know, for the most part, I think, stay on the feet. They've got a nice little, you know, back and forth going.

This is fun. I'm invested. I'm emotionally invested in it. Habib versus Ferguson. has the fight gain steam or lost steam after all the time it's it's love it possibly been put together it's only now the right time it's only more interesting in my opinion don't you agree i mean that conference call was magic i think um it's given the opportunity for habib to come out of his shell a little bit more oh it's great he's he's he was in the beginning stages of that now he's he's really

um taking that and run with it and i think now is is a great time for it i'm excited for it What about in the main event? Who do you got? I'm going to say, first one was so close. It's hard to say. I'm going to go, I'm going to stick with Woodley.

I've picked Woodley. In the previous one, I think he'll be able to get it done. Overim Hunt. Whoever lands first. That's not a prediction. Yeah, it is. Whoever lands first.

Who's going to land first? Whoever lands first. Oh, that is the weakest prediction I've ever heard. And yours is? Since when you sit on the fence, you're the prediction guy. Um, whoever lands first. Oh my lord.

Okay, Mark Hunt. Oh, wow. There we go. And then do you like Mark Hunt versus Derek Lewis, or would you rather Derek Lewis and Ganoo? Yeah, Derek Lewis and Gano is where I'm at, for sure. Let's see those two throw down. What do you think of Greg Hardy?

I think he came across well. I think he, now, you know, the idea of still trying to play football and entering camp and then having to figure out, you know, how that works around MMA makes me hesitant to say that he's all in on this. But at the same time, you know, living on the compound and doing all that type of stuff definitely shows that he's at least given it a legitimate shot. but yeah I mean all that's been said about about him in terms of his off the field issues and things like that

have already been said there's nothing really to add to that at this point he has to try and change and turn his life around and it seems like you know at least he's saying the right things and Malki has you know helped him in getting in that right direction so we'll see where this plays out but the idea you know right at the end you guys were talking about football and it's interesting which one he'll prioritize in terms of his career from this point on.

Okay, feel free to weigh in here. Some news and notes for those that rely on us for their news of the week. Few things. Ryan Bader update, still nothing concrete. They're still going back and forth. It's very much stalling. Even though Dana White came out and said,

we're not going to match it. For some reason, they're still stalling. They're asking for more information, which has stalled the process considerably, but there has been no interest shown as far as, you know, matching the offer. So I don't know why they don't just let him go, to be honest. Matt Matrione has passed all his stones,

even tweeted a picture of the catheter that was in his, you know, in his penis. And it was quite large. Not the penis, that is, the catheter. That was weird. Yes. The whole situation. They are still working on booking Fador Emilienenko

and Matt Matrione for later on this year. They are thinking about booking the Pitbull Brothers on the same card in April. So that would be Patricie Pitbull versus Mike Chandler and Patricio Pitbull versus Daniel Strauss. Do you like this? Someone said to me,

why is there this kind of infatuation with brothers fighting on the same card? I don't know. It's just a nice little storyline. Doesn't really swing me one way or the other. Huh. Okay. Yeah, like, I don't know.

I never think of it as a package deal. They're individual fighters. They have individual things to kind of worry about different matchups. It doesn't really get me amped Or it doesn't really bring me down And make me really consider it too much It's kind of its own entity

Nice little performance by James Galaher On Friday and then called out Agent McKee I love this fight This is a great fight for Bellator They had an event in Belfast Liamagiri got back on track So

I don't know I thought Galaher was the real star of the show And that post-fight interview was Was great I love that they're booking those two Right off the bat I think that's a lot of fun UFC 214 has been changed.

It's moved back a week, or I should say move forward a week. If it goes from August to July, last week of July, I think the 29th, does that mean move back or move forward? Moved. It went from August to July? Yeah. Move forward. Something like that.

Yeah, move forward because it's coming sooner. Yawani on Jacek v. Jessica and Judge was officially announced last week. We've been talking about that one. You are on the record. You've picked Andrage, right? I don't believe I have. Yes, you did. No, that one I definitely sat on the fence.

Wow. I definitely think she has the tools to make it happen. I don't know if she'll be able to. I'm still on the fence on that one. All right. Needs to be closer before I can decide. John Valante got that retroactive TUE. They announced it after Cyborg.

It was announced that she didn't disclose. Volante disclosed. Do you have any issue with them waiting until the end of the the Valante situation. Yes, he did disclose, but they waited until the end. Cyborg, they announced early her provisional suspension. You get what I'm saying. Do you have any problem with the way one situation was handled as opposed to the other?

Sure, but, I mean, that's the least of the problems that have been handled in all of these situations. Whoa. There's been way more damning stuff happen. And it's good to see that they're at least addressing it. They said it's case by case, though. Well, I mean, look, it's better than what it was before, whereas this is it and there's no recourse and nothing's going to change, now we're at least addressing it.

But, I mean, these were the least of things that happened that were damning from a fighter perspective. Ian McCall got an IV before his UFC 208 fight, which he never even made it to, and now they're looking into that. If, you know, I mean, I feel like,

come on, if the guy is, you know, he's dehydrated, he's sick, I mean, give the guy freaking IV, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, this is all crazy now. I suspect we're going to hear from GSP later on this week,

so stay tuned for that. Good on WSOF for releasing Shaman Marais comes out and says a lot of big things about WSOF, they won't release them and then two hours later after we post a story about him

Guillermo Cruz, they release him. How about that? Roy Jones Jr. is saying that there's talks of him fighting against Anderson Silva on the undercard of Connor versus Mayweather do you have any interest in this?

Not at all. Yeah, that one really kind of ruins it for me. I am in the, I mean, I'm down with Connor versus Floyd. If they want to do it, let's do it. I don't get the people who say like, I have no interest in this fight.

It's a stupid fight. You know you're going to watch it. If you're one of those guys who spends multiple hours on Twitter talking about MMA, do not tell me you have no interest in watching that fight. You are going to watch it. You are a liar if you say you're not going to watch it. You're not impressing anyone. You're not fooling anyone.

You're going to watch the fight. It may not be good. It may not be competitive. Who knows, but don't tell me you're not going to watch it. Well, I think there's a difference between not investing in it, not wanting it to happen versus not watching. I don't want that fight to happen.

Why? I think it's silly. Man. Will I watch? You're damn right. I'm going to watch because it's relevant to what I care about and cover and...

If Ardum Lobov says he finishes him in six, you best believe you're going to watch. Who doesn't want to see that? Now, Floyd is going on Showtime and saying, I mean, he's like, he's now doing the Rhonda Holly bit. He's actually propping up

Connor, you see this? He's actually saying, oh, he's good on the fee, he's tough, he's my biggest challenge. He's actually going to the hard sell. Yeah. If that's not an indication, this is going at least in the direction of getting done, what else is? Or at least that he really, really wants it to get done. Yeah, that's the smartest way to approach it. I guess.

It seems like every Friday he shows up on Showtime. He's Floyd Mayweather. Let him show up all day. Now, and most importantly, who do we blame for the situation last night? Is it Warren Beatty's fault for reading off the card? Is it the accounting firm? Is it, I mean, is it Moonlight? I mean, I haven't seen any of these films.

Warren Beatty didn't read off the cards. Yes, he did not. Okay, that was. He escaped blame there. He pinned it on Faith Dunaway. Yeah, to somebody else. After realizing that it wasn't the right card, he passed it off. So he gets blamed for that, no doubt about it.

That was a weak move. Yeah, that was a weak move. Um, who gets to blame? I think he gets the blame. I guess you can't really just like go by the script when you know it's wrong. I know. And pass it off. Worse than that, he passed it off.

You see the best supporting actress and you just pick the movie that this person is involved in and just read it? Like that's, I mean, could you imagine if he said, what was the movie? La La Land? Yeah. Wrong card went with it and they actually did win. Imagine that would have happened. What do you mean? thing would have had. We may have found out later. You know what, guys? How crazy is this?

I actually read off the wrong card and I got it right. I don't think we would have ever found out. Yeah, maybe not. You're right. That card would have been burned and buried and hidden somewhere. I love the fact that Emma Stone comes out and says, oh, I had the card. I was holding on to it. There's no way there was a second card and then they come out and say there's always super I think I saw this. I didn't have a chance to read it, but I think the whoever it is that, and it's escaping me, you know, one of the financial firms that does the accounting for this. It was probably, you know, waterhouse or something. It was probably, you know, waterhouse. they said that they made an error.

I believe I saw this on Twitter. Yeah, yeah. But I still blame Warren Beatty. He deserves blame for passing it off, no doubt about it. You can't throw the nice little old lady under the bus like that. She's just like, come on, let's read it, let's get this over with. And he throws her out there, like a lamb to the slaughter. I actually knew two people in attendance.

Ezra Edelman who won the 30 for 30. He had 30 for 30 OJ doc. Incredible. Worked with him at HBO, also a member of our Montreal Expo's basketball team, actually won the freaking Oscar for Best Documentary, and Brad Slater, who manages the likes of Ronda Rousey,

Michelle Waterson, does work with Chris Wybman, was sitting in the front row. Actually knew two people at the Oscars. Felt so cool. Oh, you are a special one. One of the highlights of my life. Okay. Got anything else?

Yeah, we do. What do we got? Did you think you were going to skate? I'm only doing one fight now. Did you think you were going to escape? I was thinking last week, it's BS that I've gotten roped into this three fights on a card. Whoever said, I never said that I had no three fights on a card. This, name any card.

You don't have to name any of these. You don't have to participate. No. But we're giving you the opportunity to flex your muscles on this. And you don't have to name any. You could say pass. I don't want to do it. Nobody said you have to name three.

That was a challenge to you. If you're not up for it, that's okay. You can just say so. But when did that become the challenge? The challenge has always been, throw out a card, I'll name you the main event. That's always been the challenge. Yeah, well, now the terms have changed.

I mean... Okay, just go ahead. UFC... All right, we're starting. Nomdi submitted these. USC 67. Ugh. Can't go that early, especially with the three card stipulation.

First of all, it was... Okay, last week it was, I said 65 and onward. He said that you never said that. Now... This is an easy one. This is an actual real easy one. Give it. Travis Luter against Anderson Silva.

That's the main event for you. Marvin Eastman versus Rampage Jackson and Eddie Sanchez versus Miracle Krocop. My guy. Boom. Nailed it. How about that? I'll still get them right. I'm just saying.

UFC 76. UFC 76 was, okay, so see sometimes I have to. Oh, this one. Ugh, hate this card. Struggling. No, no, no. Keith Jardine versus Chuck Ladell. I just like to make you think that I'm struggling.

It happened at the pond in Anaheim of September. I think of 2006, if I'm not mistaken. 2007, but that's pretty impressive. Frankie Edgar versus Tyson Griffin? Yep. No, nope, sorry, wrong. No. Tyson Griffin on the card, but not...

That was 67. That was 67. Tyson Griffin was on the card against... Hmm. Was that fight of the night, right? Yes. It was fight of the night. You're doing well.

Take it home. Okay, well, Shogun fought Forrest Griffin. Yep. And Tyson Griffin fought, this is like on the top of my head. It's so easy. I always get these guys kind of confused. Like Frankie, Tyson, and there was a third guy in the mix. Was a great Maynard?

No. No. It was, I have it on the tip of my tongue. In the interest of time, but you did very well. Tiago Tavares. Yeah, Tiago Tavarez. Okay. UFC 136.

B.J. Penn versus Nick D. Yes. Even I think that's 137. Yes, that is 1307. Oh, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. I knew that one, and I guess I might know all the pen ones, which is... 135. No, yeah, well... 135 is... Oh, 136, okay. Gray-Mainter versus Frankie Edgar Trace. Yep. Jeremy Stevens versus Anthony Pettis. Yep. Chil's son and versus Brian Stan. Nailed it. It's in Texas. Nailed it.

Yom Kippur. UFC 112 Where the players dwell You know this one 112 where the players dwell Isn't that a song That's maybe the easiest one of all time Frankie Edgar versus BJ Penn

And Justin Silver versus Damien Maya And pick your poison I don't know Phil Davis versus Alexander Gustafin Abu Dhabi What a night Turning point in my career UFC 125

Gray Maynard versus Frankie Edgar Yep Two Yep Are we sticking with that one I keep thinking Anthony Pettus, but he was in attendance, of course, for that one. That was January 1st, I believe, of 2010.

That night I also reported that Machita was fighting Couture at 129. We went to Lorenzo Fetita's birthday party to interview Dana White when they changed their mind about the whole title fight situation. Was Machita on that card? Why is it so... This one. Give me a hint. Come on, quick.

Okay. Somebody you just mentioned previously was in the co-main event. Oh, God. This one I'm blanking. I got nothing. Four hours deep. Brian Stan and Chris Leibon. Oh, yeah.

Brandon Vera and Tiago Silva. Oh, yeah. Stun Gun and Nate DS. Guida and Takanori Gomi. Stevens and Marcus Davis. Porre and Crispi. Yep, you're right. Javarez and Phil Baroni.

Wow. Oh, of course. Oh, Jacob Vokeman. Yeah. Jacob Vokman, I went in the back to interview Barone, and Vokman was there, and that's when he did the interview about... The president. Yes. And we became household names.

We were on the Tonight Show together. Who did he face? That's a great question. Cavares? No, Antonio McKee. Gosh, what a card. Okay, we've got a bonus question here. Here we go.

Here we go. UFC 113. Not to name it. but two fighters were released after it. Oh, that's so easy. Well, we talked about this a couple of days ago. Who was it? Kimbo and Paul Daly.

Correct. And then, not from Nomdi, but from another user on the boards, we got a few more. Now, just the main event for these. You ready? Okay. Fight Night 102 Albany.

Wait, wait. You want me to give you the main event for these? Yeah. Oh, these are the worst. Fight nights. Okay. This one just happened. Of course.

This is Derek Lewis versus Abdulahirik, Hirarav. Fight Night 95. You got to give me a city for these. By the way, I am so against the numbers for the fight nights because they're so wrong. Because why, you know, we stopped counting them when they went to Fuel TV and versus and when they did the FX shows. and then when people wanted to stop with their websites, stop calling them UFC on FS1-1, UFC on FS1-2, UFC on FS1-2, you know what I'm saying?

It got confusing because of the 1-1 and FS-1, we went back to the fight nights. But it's actually inaccurate because there were all these other fight nights, same cards. You know what I'm saying? So it doesn't even make sense. Do you get what I'm saying? It actually really bothers me.

You'll never see me write Fight Night 100 and blah, blah, blah. So then these should be easy for you because you've written only the names of the main inventors, correct? Yeah, but you've got to give me at least the city. I gave it to you. Oh, oh, Brasilia? Yes.

95? 95. This is stupid. This is Lena Landsberg versus Cyborg. Correct. Then we went to Brisbane for Fight Night 85.

85? In Brisbane? Yep. That wasn't Mark Hunt Steepamiochich, right? Hunt is there. Hunt is there. Mark Hunt is there, 85? Yep.

It has to be last year. What was Mark Hunt's last fight? Oh, of course. It was 200. So it was pre-200. Blanking. One Frank Mir. Of course.

Fight Night 26 in Boston, the debut of Connor McGregor. See, this is not a fight. No, not the debut of Connor McGregor's second fight, right? Yeah, second fight. See, it's not even accurate. He debuted against Brimidge, I believe. No, no, no.

Yeah, of course, he debuted against Brimich. This is Max Holloway fight. This is Chal Sondon versus Shogun. This is the debut on FS1. This is when it started again. So that is correct. And now, August of 2013. Fight night number one.

UFC Ultimate Fight Night. August 2005 in Las Vegas. Who was it? If you pull this one out. It's not Leibin Anderson Silva, is it? No. Leibin was on the card. Is it Keith Jardine?

No. No. It's someone from Tough One, right? Wait, August of 2005? August, yeah. August 6, 2005. Is it a Thomas and Mac? Cox Pavilion.

It's on Anderson Silva. Give me a hint. I mean, I can't. Can't? There's a lot of tough fighters on it, but... Probably going to... I'm going to regret this, but no, I don't got it. Nate Mark Hart versus?

No. Ivan Saliv. Oh, yeah. Salivari. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, fight nights don't count. That's on. Levin and Cote, Bonner and Hoger,

Quarry and Pete Sell, Koshchek and Spratt, Swick, and Gideon Ray. Oh, yeah. Florian and Kara Lexus, Fickett and Josh Neer. What a card. We'll never forget it.

You forgot it already. Yes. That was it. I feel like you did really, really well this week. Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate everyone.

Thank you so much. We have run out of the time. There we go. Wow. I was wondering if the rest of the guys had fallen asleep back there. What a riveting game it was. Fine, you know what? I don't have to do it anymore.

I don't have to do it. Listen, I protest the fight nights. I hate fight night 1.3.1. It's not, that doesn't count. We should stop doing it. They threw that in there as a curveball. But you did well. Of course I did well because I'm the smartest man in this sport.

I think there's a lot of little clips that can be taken out of this show. And let's stop numbering the Bellator events as well. Belator Belfast, Belator Thackerville. It has a much nicer ring. Yeah. Like try playing this game with Belator fights. Tell me Bellator 56. I know.

You can I even name one. No one can. Is the ideal scenario Bellator 56 colon the fighters? I just feel like the numbering helps the numbering definitely helps why don't they do it in boxing they don't fight as often the fighters are not

you're typically not going to get a ton of rematches in Bellator I mean how many times are we going to see Strauss you know Curran or Pitbull or I mean you're going to get up to number 17 by the time they're probably done I think you have to kind of have

some kind of sequential just for pay-per-views I also hate when non-MMA people talk about the UFC and they're like, oh, this is the 209th. Right, and it's not. It's not. It's all a big mistake. I like the

names, but I feel like you have to have some kind of number. Okay. I get where you're coming from. Yeah, we'll come up with a solution for sure. Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed your time in Chicago last week. It seemed like a really good, a really nice time

over there in the windy city. You can hit my music. We are done. What a fun show it has been. Wow, a who's who and some late additions. Because everyone, before they embark on Fight Week, before they embark on maybe the biggest night of their lives, they want to stop here, they want to talk to all of you, they want to get their word out, and that's what we had today on the program.

We started with Chhabibin Ramagh Maghamedov some many hours ago, but we appreciate him squeezing us in. In fact, didn't end up going to Los Angeles, so if you wanted to hear from him, this was the place to do it. Thank you very much to Filthy Tom Lawler. we wish him the best. And I'll tell you this, if Tom Lawler

ends up in WWE, I will be there. Maybe I'll even, you know, break out my old right over there, my old manager gimmick, and walk him down the aisle. You never, ever know. You never, ever know.

Thank you very much to Marluse Coonin. Best of luck to her. Bellator 174 this Friday on Spike. Marluss Coonin versus Julia Budd for the inaugural. Belator Women's Featherweight title. Thank you very much to Johnny Hendrix. Great to catch up with him.

It has been a while. Congratulations on the win. Thank you very much to the shirtless. Derek Lewis, just love and life drinking a dos ekees 1 o'clock on a Monday afternoon. Thank you very much to Greg Hardy and Malkikawa. Wish him the best. Thank you very much to Artem Lobov. Best of luck to him.

Main events are not, looking forward to the fight on April 22nd. Thank you very much to Holly Home. Good luck to her. keel, next fight, et cetera. And thank you very much to Tyrone Woodley. Best of luck to him this weekend. Off to Las Vegas. We'll see you out there for UFC 209 coverage back next week. Same time and place. Until then, I say peace. So, Mario.