MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 377

Episode Date: April 17, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to NewYorkRic (00:19:19) to recap the weekend in MMA, then to Demetrious Johnson (00:26:16), Rose Namajunas (00:49:30), Todd Grisham (01:09:40), Aljamain Sterling (01:32:39), Cub Swanson (01:51:34), Diego Sanchez (02:10:33), Tom Duquesnoy (03:14:03), and NewYorkRic (03:37:12) once more to close the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with a mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, April 17, 2017. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a lovely weekend if you're celebrating Passover. Hope you had great Sators. If you celebrate Easter.

Hope you had a lovely Easter yesterday, Easter Sunday with your. Family and friends. Always a great time of the year. April, love this month. And it was a fun week for me. I was back in Montreal with my family and friends. Always loved going home, re-energizing a bit. Even made an appearance on the local 6 p.m. newscast, CTV News. I was at the Montreal Canadiens fan jam before game one, Canadians Habs, excuse me, Canadians Rangers, Wednesday, crossed the street from the Bell Center. and it just so happened that all of us, except for my daughter,

were wearing New York Knicks tukes just by chance, and they are playing the Rangers, and someone came up to us and said, oh, are you guys from New York? And I explained to them that my kids are kind of liking the Rangers these days, but I'm a Knicks fan, but also a Habs fan. Anyway, they interviewed us, and we were on the news. It was very exciting. My daughter was there.

It was a great moment for all of us. Of course, you don't care about any of that. You do care about Saturday night in Kansas City. that was a very fun card. Remember last week I said I thought that this was a great card on paper and I thought it delivered. In particular, the last three fights. By now you know, history was made in the main event,

Demetrius Johnson submitting Wilson Hayes in the third round via Arm Bar. Now he ties Anderson Silva's record for most successful title defenses in UFC history. He's now at 10. One more. He breaks the record. Finally getting that respect

as one of the greatest of all time, submitting a BJJ black belt, which is impressive in its own right. And doing that to Wilson Hays, I thought, was supremely impressive. I mean, each and every time Dimitri's fights, he continues to show that there is a massive gap in between him and the rest of the division.

I have some thoughts on DJ and his current place in the sport and his place in history. And I'll get to those in a second. Also, you know by now that Rosamunis defeated, Michelle Watterson, a very impressive victory for Thug Rose. She is now back on track. Her first win of 2017 had not fought since July of last year when she lost to Carolina

Kovalkievich, but what a win over Michelle Watterson. The head kick dropped Watterson and then shortly thereafter, Nama Yunus, who is so good on the ground, submitted Watterson. And then you have to now wonder, A, is she next for the winner of Yawani, I, Jacek, and just kind of drudge. And perhaps more importantly right now, did WME kind of blow it with Michelle Waterson? You know, they pushed her so much after the win over Paige Vanzan. Should they have put her right in the title shot? You know, you try to build someone up on Fox, great platform, but Rose Domitius isn't the person to build someone else off of. She's too good. It wasn't the right

fight to build. I have no doubt that they would have given Michelle Watterson a title shot if she would have defeated Rose, but this was way too tricky of a fight. Hindsight, 2020, but man, after signing her, WME, after the win over Paige Van Zandt, pushing her, doing the media day, really putting her out there, did they book her in the wrong fight? Results speak for themselves, big win for Rose. She's now, oh so close to fighting for the belt. At least that's what she thinks, and no one is disputing it. Also of note on Saturday, Jacques-Ré Soza, losing to Robert Whitaker, and this was fascinating for a couple reasons. You remember last week on the show, I told you that Jaceray was going to become a free agent, that he was going to play out his contract,

that he had one fight left on the deal, and it didn't appear as though they were close. All of a sudden, Friday, he signs a deal 24 hours before the fight, and then he loses. So when he signed the deal, and I was told that he signed the deal, I thought, man, you were almost there. You were at the end of the line. You were about to test the market. You were about to fight out your contract, why sign an eight-fight deal 24 hours before? But now, after losing, seems like it was the right call. Of course, they didn't expect that. They didn't want that to happen, but now it seems like it was the right call. His stock was higher on Friday when he signed then on Saturday. Robert Whitaker looked fantastic. Continues to get better, especially at 185,

asking for a title shot. No chance that's going to happen just because of the log jam. But I'm excited to see where he goes from here. Luke Rocco telling me that he wants to fight him. We'll get into that in a second. Let me run down today's lineup. And then we'll talk a little more about Kansas City this weekend. There's a lot to discuss as it pertains to that card, not just those three fights, but also the rest of the card this weekend's card in Nashville. Beltor has a very fun card this weekend as well.

No shortage of topics to discuss. Very happy to be back doing the show. Okay. Here is the lineup today. 410. the Fire Kid, Tom Duquesneau of France, will stop by. He was successful in his UFC debut this past Saturday. He defeated Patrick Williams, one of the hot prospects in MMA.

He was in many people's eyes, the best fighter not signed by the UFC, fighting for Bama, their Bantamway champion at last check, and he comes into the UFC, lives up to his nickname, a very explosive debut, a violent debut, a victorious debut. Yes, he was rocked. Yes, there are some holes that he probably needs to close up. But overall, a very entertaining debut. And again, in hindsight, probably should have been on the main card. Although all those fights were on Fox anyways, the last eight fights. So it doesn't really matter.

So I'm excited to talk to Tom at 410 about what happened on Saturday and where he goes from here. 305. We'll talk to another Jackson Wink fighter. his name is Diego Sanchez. You may have heard of him. He is fighting Ally Quinta this Saturday in Nashville. Co-main event. Love this fight for a couple of reasons. Ally Quinta hasn't fought in two years.

Amazing. Remember the whole retirement thing. But if you look at IA Quinta's record after, you know, you put aside the layoff and you look, wow. I mean, his last one was over Mazvedel. Look where Mazvedel is now. Wins over Joe Lozahn. I mean, he has some pretty nice names on his record.

I think he has four wins in a row, and he's getting back on track. I saw a picture of him recently. He looks to be in fantastic shape. Sanchez is always game. Always a fun interview. I'm looking forward to talking to him. I think he's already in Nashville.

Main event on Saturday is Cub Swanson versus Artem Lobov, a much maligned main event, somewhat controversial or polarizing main event. Swanson coming off that win over Du Ho Choi. Lobov asked for this one. Swanson obliged, and we will talk to Mr. Cub Swanson at 245 about the main event on Saturday at 225. We'll talk to Al Jermaine Sterling. He was victorious on Saturday. He defeated Augusto Mendez.

And now he's back on track. First win since signing that new deal. UFC commentator, Todd Grisham, went from WWE to ESPN to Glory to UFC. He'll stop by. He's calling the action this Saturday in Nashville. Looking forward to talking to Todd. And he also worked this past weekend in Kansas City as well. Rose Nomi Unis will stop by at 145.

Talk about the win over Michelle. Waterson and where she goes from here. year and the aforementioned Demetrius Johnson will stop by at 1.25. Always great to talk to DJ. Of course, once again, this episode of the M.MA hour is brought to you by our good friends over at the Marines. Appreciate their support. As always, here's a word from them before we get into things. For a place. A people. See all the battles Marines fight to win at Marines.com. Again, appreciate their support very much. You can learn more about the Marines. over at marines.com.

Okay, Saturday night, Demetrius Johnson, again, ties Anderson Silva's record. And as has been the case, especially as of late with Demetrius, when he wins, when he looks supremely impressive, the conversation becomes where does he fit in the goat discussion, where does he fit in the pound-for-pound discussion? I will concede the fact that I seem to be the only one banging on the Daniel Cormier pound for pound number one drum at the moment. And that's fine. It's a very subjective thing. That's okay.

We can disagree on that. I saw John Anick actually tweet about this yesterday. He said that he prefers the goat discussion over the pound for pound discussion. And I would disagree with that respectfully because I feel like the goat discussion is even more subjective than the pound for pound discussion. The goat discussion really is impossible to really pinpoint because especially in this sport, so much has happened in the last 24 years. If you look at 1993, you look at 2000, you look at 2005, you even look at 2010. The sport is so drastically different that it really isn't fair to compare today's fighters

to the ones from 10 years ago to 20 years ago. I mean, it's one thing to try to compare Bill Russell to Shaquille O'Neal or Michael Jordan to Jerry West or Russell Westbrook to Oscar Robertson, those discussions, in my opinion, don't apply. And they certainly don't apply in MMA. To try and compare Fador to DJ, it doesn't really fit. And where does Hoist Gracie fit in all this? Even Anderson to DJ doesn't fit.

So the goat discussion, while it could be fun, to me, it's impossible. Every single person who believes in Fador, who believes, there's five, really. Fador, Anderson, John Jones, GSP, Demetrius, right? I think everyone would kind of agree with those five. You can get a DJ guy, an Anderson guy, a GSP guy, a Fador guy, a John Jones guy, all sitting around at a table.

They'll all have very, very, very good arguments as to why they're right. It doesn't really, it doesn't really matter. It really doesn't. And then in the pound for pound discussion, of course he's at the top. Of course, he's either one or two. Again, it doesn't really matter. I think it's important to recognize that without a shadow of a doubt, a guy who we didn't expect to become this great is right now one of the all-time greats. He will go down as one of the

all-time grades. I mean, Hall of Fame or yeah, all that stuff is great. But like, he will go down as one of the greatest fighters to ever step foot in the octagon. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The travesty for Demetrius Johnson, in my opinion, is, well, there's two. A, there is such a massive gap between him and the rest of the division. We may actually not know truly how great he is. Demetrius Johnson, think about this, could actually be better than we think he is. We just don't know it because with all due respect, he's not fighting guys who are going to be Hall of Famers. You can't say that about Fador, John Jones, Anderson, GSP.

They all fought and beat guys who are Hall of Famers, who are all-time greats, who are legends of the sport. None of the guys that DJ has been in his last 10 fights, at least right now are future Hall of Famers. Now, what's impressive about DJ is a couple times he had to fight guys twice. And usually it's tougher to fight a guy for a second time because they now know a little more about you. What's impressive about him is he actually made those fights look easier. Performed way better against John Dodson the second time than the first time.

Performed way better against Joseph Benavides the second time as opposed to the first time. Even against Ian McCall, those weren't title fights part of the tournament. draw the first time, beat him rather convincingly the second time. That's really impressive. For the most part, Anderson, Jones, GSP, those guys didn't have a lot of rematches on their resume. And of course, that's a product of the fact that there's not that many contenders at 125. So he doesn't have a lot of competition. And that's a knock on him.

He's fighting the guys that they put up in front of him. But I think because his competition isn't viewed to be as great as maybe some of the other guys in that discussion, that goat discussion, fans are reluctant to give him his due, which is unfair to him because, again, he's there. It's up to the other guys to get better. And the other thing that really hurts him, especially when it comes to a popularity standpoint, and that, you know, we can deny it all we want that comes into play. And it certainly comes into play when you see the ratings and they weren't great this time. You see the pay-per-view numbers and they typically aren't great. He is desperate.

for a chale son and to his Anderson. He is desperate for a Connor McGregor to his Josealdo. A Nick Diaz to his GSP. He is desperate for that foil that people can get behind who think that, you know,

they think that he's going to knock off DJ, he's going to get under his skin, he's going to insult him. If we learned anything from last year, and I'm not breaking any news here, if we learned anything from last year, it's that a grudge match, a rivalry,

conflict, in the people's eyes is more interesting, is more compelling, is more appealing than title defenses, random title fights that you're just going to put on TV, dominant champion versus fighter X, contender X. Diaz McGregor, no titles on the line, broke all kinds of records. That's what people want to see. They want to see conflict. They want to pick a side.

They want to see two guys staring off at each other. You think they're going to fight. You think they're going to brawl beforehand. They're getting personal and stuff. assaulting each other. That's what they want. And unfortunately, he hasn't had that guy. A couple of moments here and there with, you know, Sehudo, I don't know, McCall, but nothing really that captivated the audience. And that's unfortunate. He needs that guy. That's why I always said Aldo needed McGregor more than McGregor needed Aldo. McGregor was going to go to the top.

He was going to shoot for the stars regardless of who was the champ and he would have formed his narrative based on who that guy was. He did it against Mendez, he did against Al. It doesn't matter. But Aldo needed that guy to bring the best out on him and to then get people excited about him. Anderson, before he fought Vitor, before he fought, you know, after Vitor, then he fights Chal Sondon. Now people start to care. Look at Anderson's pay-per-view numbers beforehand and compare them to the times. Not great. People needed to care about him. Pick aside, get emotionally attached. DJ's missing that. Again, this is not his problem. This is no knock on him. He's doing everything that's asked of him. And you want to see the UFC push him more and they're starting to do it a little

more and they're putting out videos about his video game, you know, obsession and the Twitch stuff. He is definitely coming into his own. He is more comfortable telling us that he's the best, that his shit don't stink, that he's the greatest to ever step foot in the octagon, that no one can touch him. I like that, DJ. He's great and he knows it. I want my 10 belts. Where are my 10 belts? Where's my respect? Where's my seven-figure payday? This is fun. He is just so good as a fighter. And I hope that as, look, we can't worry about the UFC's The UFC's problems are, how do you promote this guy? How do you get people to watch this guy? How do you get people to pay to watch this guy? That's not our problem at the end of the day.

You and I who follow the sport, who love the sport, who are hardcore fans of the sport, who live and breathe this sport, we know who DJ is. And we can appreciate him. It's not our problem anymore to try to convince others. Appreciate how good this guy is. I mean, when you watch him fight, what he does on his feet, what he does on the ground, his connection with Matt Hume, the fact that he's never changed coaches, teams, His manager is Matt Hume. No entourage, no ego, no nothing. He's the same guy. He's the same guy from WEC. Nothing's changed.

That is remarkable. Same guy. Text him on Saturday night after he wins. Hey, can you come on the show to talk? He writes back within minutes. The freaking main event on Fox. Ten straight title defenses. Yeah, man, I'll be there.

No problem. No handlers. No nothing. He is a rare, rare breed. And I hope we can appreciate that. The problem is the rest of the world. needs the competition, needs, you know, the conflict. They need that to really try and put him in his proper context. We could do it, I feel like. I feel like we can do it. We understand what he's

doing. He's making everyone else seem like they're the 20th ranked fighter fighting the first. They're not, but the gap between them now is just so damn great. It really is. And please stop talking about him fighting at 135 next or him trying to fight McGregor. No, let's break the record first. I mean, you're there. Break the record. Smash the record. Win 20 in a row at this point. He's not going to get more money to fight a Cody, I think. At least not right now. Maybe Cody gets bigger, drops down to 125. But don't go, why go up to 135? Keep on smashing those records. If people are going to have a hard time giving you your due because of the lack of competition, because of the lack of foil, separate yourself from the pack with history, with numbers.

Get 20 in a row. You can do it. You're just 30 years old. What's stopping you? Do that. It's a joy to watch him fight. It's a joy to deal with him from a interviewer,

interviewee standpoint. I just wish for his sake, and I know he won't admit it, even when I ask him in a bit, I wish for his sake he had that foil, that epic rivalry. That helps everyone. It always does.

You need that in combat sports. That's just a fact. And he hasn't had that yet. It's not over yet. Someone may emerge. Maybe it's Cody. Who knows? Right now he hasn't had that. And that's why when you look at the ratings, when you look at the pay-per-view numbers, they're not there. It's not his fault. It's not his fault that he's that damn good. It's not his fault that there is such a gap between him and the rest. He's just doing his job. And if you can't find at this point any enjoyment, any entertainment out of Demetius Johnson, again, I'll say you are not a true MMA fan. You just aren't. I don't think anyone who watches this show, follows me on Twitter, doesn't. appreciate DJ anymore. I don't buy that. I really don't. I think we've passed that point. But there are other people out there who need that conflict, that crap talking, that, you know, the rivalry, the stare down. They need that. And right now he doesn't have that. And that's why he's not being considered in that, you know, top draw category, despite the fact that there is such

a gap between him and everyone else. It's no, it's no secret. But at least appreciate what we have going on here. And we need to stop worrying about trying to convert others. It's not our problem anymore. What he did on Saturday was nothing short of amazing. Now, let me ask New York Rick, who is in the back, and I think I saw him earlier with crocodile tears. He is so sad over what happened on Saturday. Tell the people New York, Rick, if you can, if you're available to speak to us. Oh, there he is. This fight was, what was it at? It was like, I'm going to guess, you know, I could look it up, but I'm going to guess it was at like at around 845 Eastern time. Right before the fight started,

I believe you received a text message. I did. What did it say? It said, hello, this is somebody you may know. My name is Ariel Hawani. I'm writing to you because I respect you and I respect your opinion on fight prognostication. Get to the point.

I wanted to know what you thought. No. What it said was, I have a feeling that there's going to be an upset. No, it just said upset coming. There you go. It said upset coming. And it was for me.

And there was something about Jacqueray's demeanor. And there was something about Robert Whitaker's demeanor. And I'm not the guy who after the fact is going to say, oh, I called it. But in this case, in this case, I just, I mean, it was very rare to see that. and feel that, and I was like, holy crap, there's an upset coming.

What did you think? Did you share... Did you share my feelings? No, just because I think stylistically, if Jacaray was able to use his grappling more, the fight was in his favor, but he looked off.

He didn't look good, and Whitaker looked super sharp. Like he typically does. I don't think it's fair to say that Whitaker looked so much better than he had looked in past performances or anything like that. I think he's always been very, very good. So it wasn't quite shocking from that perspective, but I don't think Jokkerai looked quite right. Okay, let's go back to Friday. Yeah.

When you found out that he had resigned after getting to the finish line, you're now 24 hours away from fighting out the deal. You know there's the connection with Koker, former Strike Force champion. What are you thinking? I didn't really think it would have much impact on the fight, to be honest. And I still don't. I think it's easy to kind of say, you know, he resigned and kind of lost his hunger. Yeah. You know, it's like the contract year thing in basketball.

The guy plays like a superstar when it's contract time. Then he signs a new contract, gets fat and gets slow and that type of thing. I don't know if there was enough time for that to kind of be enacted. And I don't think, you know, the weight was immediately lifted. although that dance that he was doing, it seemed like the weight was lifted after that one, the one you reposted on Twitter. But, no, I wasn't really considering that that was how the outcome was going to go after that.

But the first round did not leave me thinking that this was going to go Jacaray's way. We'll never know, but I do wonder if signing the deal took the edge off a little bit. It's very possible. It wasn't my first thought, and I still would be hesitant to say that, but it's definitely not out of the question. If you're on the hunt for something, on the hunt for something, on the hunt for something super hungry, and then you finally get it, there is, you know, there is a complacency that can set in. I don't know if that's it.

I think Whitaker was just a better fighter. Now, in hindsight, great that they signed it before, because, again, his stock was much higher 24 hours before the fight. I mean, I'd love to know, again, I love this sliding doors thing. I'd love to know what he'd be offered after the fact. But it is curious to sign the deal on the Friday when you got to that point. But hey, they seem very happy. You saw that he was dancing and all this stuff. I mean, they are content with the deal and more power to them.

I don't think he drops too far down in the rankings. I do think now Whitaker is in line for a pretty damn big fight. Do you like the Rockhold idea? Love that fight. Now, there was talk on Saturday that he, he may have broken his hand, but I was told that he's going to go home to Australia. He's actually en route now to Australia. That's why he couldn't come on the show.

Yes, I know a lot of people were upset that he wasn't on. I wanted to have him on, but he's in the air right now. It's a long trip from Kansas City to Australia. But I'm told that he's going to get a checked out in Australia. So if it is broken, hopefully not, that would delay things. Rockold though, texted me Saturday night. He wants that fight. He reached out to the UFC about that fight.

Would be a great fight. There are other options out there. Musasi is discussed, but Musassi is a free agent. So we kind of have to put them off to the side. Do you like Rockhold, Whitaker? Does that make sense to you? It definitely does. And a lot more than Anderson Silva and Rockhold.

Not Rockhold Jacaree. Because they're both coming off losses, technically. I think you can do that at any point just because of the heat that was still there after their title fight in Strike Force. So I think you can save that one. I don't think you need to do it now. Whitaker's hot. I think you take advantage of that. and do the rock hold fight.

And what about Rose? Would you give her a title shot next? I mean, she is on a one-fight winning streak. Now, overall, I think it's four out of her last five. It's four out of five, and how impressive the victory was, I think seals the deal for that. And also, look, you know, that division isn't lined up with potential contenders. It's not, you know, one after the other there. There's a clear path to the title for her.

Yeah, I think she'll probably get it. Yeah. That's just totally off. She deserves it. That was one hell of a performance. Against Waterson, who was, you know, everybody's darling after. The darling, yeah, that's right. There she is, Rose Nomi Unis.

What a great victory for her. For her, it's always about the mental side of things. And she talks about that a lot openly. And now she seems to be in a very good place, and you saw what happened. And it's always interesting when someone asks for a fight. Remember, Watterson beats Paige Van Zent. She asks for the fight, calls out Watterson. Waterson obliges, she gets the fight on a big stage, on Fox, and you do that to

Waterson, that's big. Yon Jacek, Androuch, is less than a month away, so we'll find out relatively soon who's next in line there. Jan Jacek versus Nami Unis would be fun. Remember on this show, Nami Unis was not a favorite of one Yawanna champion. She brought her up a couple of times. That was a lot of fun. So we'll see what happens there.

But again, the big story on Saturday, Demetrius Johnson, ties Anderson Silva's record, 10 in a row, 10 successful title defenses, submits Wilson Hayes, and he is kind enough to join us on the phone right now. DJ, how are you? I'm doing good, Eric. Thanks for having me, brother. How are you? I'm doing great. Congratulations. Wow, what a win. Where does this one, I don't know if you do this sort of thing, but I feel like you're getting in your older age a little more reflective. Where does this one rank for you? Considering, you know, the history that was made, considering you submitted a BJJ black belt, considering how dominant it was, could you rank this one as far as your favorite victories as champion? You know, they're all great victories, man.

I mean, honest with you, I mean, once it needs to a great fighter because they're a great camp, and I'm just happy to get the victory, but I'm not a type of person who I reflect like all this was the best one of all. They were all good. Did it feel the way you thought it would in terms of tying, you know, we talked about tying the record and how much that meant to you.

You've been talking about this for a while, and I feel like it's only starting to get some attention now. But the moment, okay, you did it, you tied the record, you know, Dana White puts the belt around your race. I was looking at you. You weren't even smiling. You were all business. Why?

It's a business, baby. It's a business. I'm focused, and now we got 10, now it's time 8 to 11, and then we'll see what happens after that. That way now it won't be... It's sending all the Nass Service records. It's called Demitian Johnson and Nass Service record, because I have come.

to that, you know, that level of his, his stature. So now we're going to try to break it, and then it would be called, you know, the Mighty Record. Now, is there something to this? I feel like early on in your run as champion, I feel like you were just going on. You were fighting at your best, highest capabilities possible. But now I kind of feel like there's a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Like, you want to actually go out and finish these guys and prove your point that you are

the greatest of all time. You said it yourself. Is there a difference in the way you are approaching these fights? Like before, I mean, you've even talked about with the Horaguchi fight where, you know, in seconds left, Hume calls out something and then you finish him right at the buzzer and maybe you could have gone for it earlier, but for whatever reason you didn't. Now I feel like you're going for the kill a lot sooner. Is that accurate?

That's definitely accurate. You know, back in the day when I first time, second, third, you know, obviously I would go out to the finish and fight, but now I'm just on a different level and focus, going back to what I used to do when I was an amateur, it made me more successful. I can watch my fight today and asking a lot of questions. always asking questions. You know, Dana White said it. You know, after this fight, I asked a couple questions.

What could I have done better? I'm always looking for perfection. And, you know, the next one, I'm just going to be even more focused on. I'm rather than for the 11 time. Have you watched the fight yet? I have watched the fight. How many times? Twice.

Twice. What bothers you when you watch it? That's how you guys' business. That's my own partaking. Why? You guys are supposed to look it as a flawless mess. I go in there and I dissect it. Every great artist out in the world,

they're always going to go back and look at their own thing, and they don't want to, you know, in my eyes, they don't want to share their secrets, you know, with them successful. So for me, I go back and look at it. I can see things that nobody else can see. And I'm like, okay, hmm, how can I make this better and better?

Okay, but there are things. You can confirm that. There are things that you see that you're like, damn, I don't like this? Yeah, I can say that. Yeah, I can say that. But this one, as far as like your typical fight, do you watch it after and you see holes, you don't see many holes in this one, right? No, no.

I don't see many holes in any of them. I mean, they're not holes. I want to call holes. It's more like, like I said, you know, I'm pretty sure when Picasso, I don't even know Picasso is a painter, to be honest with you. Okay, thank you for me, Picasso. I'm sure Picasso, when he, he banged that one of his best pictures, I'm pretty sure after the pictures, then he took a step back and look at it and, you know, do it.

It's just like rappers. when they make a song, and then they're like, oh, man, that song was tight, you know, bad and boozy. It's an amazing masterpiece. Shit, let's get Reebats, just get Drilly on it. Let's get DJ Callie on it. So they make it a little bit better. So nice to my last four minutes. There's anything now.

I'm like, oh, man, I wish I'd done this better. I'm like, how can I make that better? That's the way I'm on. That's how people should look at it. Like, how can we should make this better? The big story of the week going into the fight was the lack of respect that the UFC has shown you in the fact that they've only given you one belt. They don't let you keep the belt.

And you're right. Every time, I mean, I see Bispings living room. He's got two belts. I see Cormier with the belts. I've seen guys with the belts. Ronda, you know, we've seen them. They've never given you one belt. Like, you keep giving it back?

No, no, no, no. I have one belt. I have the original belt that I got from 2007. Which I was a new thing. I heard that, you know, they stopped giving the champion's belt. Because, you know, at that time, you know, there was a time before my time that you had Dominant champions, like Andrews, Sylvan, that Hughes.

GSP that they just kept, you know, winning, winning, winning. So they had eight or nine belts. And they're still on the streets that they kept selling them or giving away. You know, those are all rumors. And so now we, in their time for now, you know, there was champions, but not very consecutive champions. They kept going to winning them. So they kept just handing belts out to everybody.

But now when I started fighting, my first one took the one home, the second one that gave back there at four, six, seven, eight. And ninth gave it. Oh, I lost you there at the end. For some reason, DJ, what's going on? You have the greatest, like, video game setup of all time, and yet your cell phone reception over there is always very troublesome. It's fucking...

It's where I live. I live in the valley. I live in. And they keep saying there and get more towers out of here, but it's just where I'm at. So I apologize. I'm not too any different spot right now in my house to... It's literally the only knock against you.

It's your cell phone reception. There's nothing else people can say about your... personality, your demeanor, your fighting skills, your video game skills, just your cell phone reception. So what happened? After you came out and said this and you said, you want your damn belts, you want to take the picture like Floyd, like Andre Ward, I'm sure you saw Dana afterwards. Did you say, what's up with my belts? How can I get these belts? Yeah, we talked and you said, we're going to take care of it. So I think Dana's in the end of his word and we're going to get to take care of. Now, do you think they'll just give you the belts for the picture, for the

photo op or actually let you have 10 belt. Okay. We lost you again. Mr. DJ. Can you hear me now? Yes, yes, is your back. But I didn't hear anything that you said there.

Ted. No. No. No. No. Lost you again. Come on. Can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now? I can hear you now, yes. Okay, I'm going outside of my house. Yes. It's a reception. It's a reception. here. You know, the house is made of solid gold, so, you know, it has reception getting out of here. So let me go outside.

The Mighty Mouse Mansion. How's the fence, by the way? Do you have to power wash that every spring, or, like, once you do it once, it's good for, like, a few years? It's good for a few years, once to do it once, but the fence is looking good. But back to the same. When I get the belts, and if I are able to take that picture, then we'll decide if they'll to keep it or not. Oh, okay. So nothing's really set in stone at the moment. None set in stone until you have it in your hands and you're walking away, you know? Right. So I was saying this before you came on. I was saying that we as an MMA community need to

stop worrying about trying to make others into Demetri's Johnson fans. We need to leave that up to the UFC, how to promote you, ratings, all that stuff and more. We need to appreciate what you're doing. But what bothers me, what makes me kind of sad, if that's the right word, is that there is such a gap between you and the rest of the division, we don't truly recognize how great you are. You actually might be better than we all think you are, if that's even possible. Like if you're beating, you know,

future Hall of Famers and legends on a consistent basis on your way to 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 title defenses, you're actually considered better. You will get that respect. Plus, as you know in this game, conflict equals cash. You know, Nate and Connor, that was a much more popular feud than any title feud last year,

and you have yet to find that foil. now that you're a little more real with your emotions and your feelings with all of us, do you think about that sometime? Man, can I just get someone who's on my level who can bring the best out of me, who can get people emotionally invested in these feuds and these fights?

So it's not just me versus Mr. X and they're only talking about me and not so much the other guy. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, I totally understand you said, but I mean, you look at back at Ron and Rogers's Cherbourg, you know, the only big, you know,

feudal conflict she had in her career that I ever saw was just her, and Michi Tate. And then other than that, I just love watching her. fight. You can put Ron, you know, sheep and Octagon, and everyone in their mama would tune into there. So that's, you know, the status I'm trying to go to. I'm a nice guy. I don't look for conflict. You know, I'm not the type of a guy who goes out on the weekend and look for conflict at the bar.

I'm always home with my family, a family man. So it's kind of hard for me to, you know, create comfort with people. You know, we've had conflict, me, John Dodson, and, you know, we fought twice, you know, he talked a whole bunch of garbage, and I was like, okay, we'll see what has been in knocking on. And at those then, it was over. But I think truly when I'm done fighting, I think people will miss, you know, how I went about approaching my fights.

Yes. No bullshit. Just pretty dominant, I guess. Yes, I do feel that as well, but I also feel like your peers, which is probably the most important to you, are starting to really recognize your greatness. Like, it just seems like when you fight so many tweets showing their appreciation for you, do you

notice that as well? Yeah, I noticed it, and I'm truly appreciative. I think every athlete in on the UFC better are a great athlete. I know about any of those guys. And it's always awesome to get the respect from the peers. Now, this is the theory I have. I believe that you are actually happier sitting in front of your computer screen and broadcasting your video game playing skills more so than fighting in front of millions of people.

Like you actually enjoy more the Twitch stuff, the video game stuff, than the fighting stuff. The fighting stuff is sort of a means. soon and end, your true enjoyment and passion comes when you're with your people, with your, your fellow gamers, if you will, doing your Twitch stuff. Is there anything to that? Man, it's hard to say, you know. My coach bladed out perfect for me, and he's like, you know, video games for me is my true passion.

Same mixed martial arts is my true passion. But there's a lot of stuff that comes with martial arts, you know. People's mindset and the way they view you changes on a drop of a dime area. like I couldn't have gone out there and laid a fat egg and lost. I told you guys he was the best power of fighting a world. I told you this and that. Blah, blah, blah, blah. People make up things and they'll be like Jones is the goat.

Conner's the goat. It just changes in a drop of a dime. To when I'm playing video games, I don't have to worry about pleasing anybody. I'm just sitting there, chill and relax and doing my thing. You know, when I fight mixed martial arts, it's very stressful because you guys have to perform. You know, then you're going to be like, you know, I read something last night that was like, interesting people are like, oh, that sucks or whatever. I don't want to go into it.

But it's just like, just like that, people are always throwing things to discredit you on certain things. And that's why I'm like, dude, you're either going to love my fighter selling or not. I'm going to keep doing my opinion. I'm going to go out there and keep on winning and collecting belts and collecting checks. Just like Daniel Corme, boo me, go ahead, boo me. I got all my belts. I'm getting money.

You guys enjoy going to work on money. So that's why I come to a point. You know, when I'm playing video games, I'm enjoying myself. I'm at a great time. I'm starting to explore different avenues. and fighting there is, there is going to be in. Like, I can't fight when I'm 45 years old. Like, I can't do one on 45, play the end video games.

Yes, and I actually signed up for your Twitch. After that same afternoon, I was a man in my word, I signed up. I actually watched one of your broadcasts, and I must say it was like kind of soothing. I didn't really understand the appeal, and I still don't understand the appeal of watching someone else play video games, but your commentary and seeing how engaged you were, and then the running commentary of the chat room, I must say, it was almost like the same kind of enjoyment that one can get from listening to a baseball game.

It's not intense. It's not in your face. It doesn't get your blood boiling, so to speak. But there is sort of it, I get it. I sort of understand it a little more. And I thought that you were great at it. And then I found a video of you getting like super pissed off. There's like a compilation video.

Have you seen this thing of you getting really mad? Yeah. That's more emotion than I've ever seen out of you in any fight. Yeah. You know, the thing personally with Twitch, you know, I look at it, some people look at it as, you know, a podcast therapeutic. So we've had guys coming to channel.

He's like, dude, I've had a shitty day. You know, thank you so much for, you know, taking interest in me or noticing me and telling me that everything's going to be okay. And I think we've had guys coming and goes, man, I'm drinking a 40 Mickey Ice about to get locked up in two weeks. I'm like, why are you in trouble? Stop getting in trouble. Keep your ass out of the street.

Keep your ass home, pay your bills on stuff. We've had guys come in there and talk about the divorces and we try to help them do it. So it's just, some people look at therapeutic, and it's therapeutic for me. You know, I sit there, and we talk about fight sometimes, and sometimes you were like, hey, who do you want to fight next? I'm like, I don't give it here. I'm ban this man, get him out of here.

So it's fun. I truly appreciate everybody from the Twitch community, and you did, you know, hit the follow, and wait before you subscribe to the channel, Ariel. Now, what's the difference? So when you subscribe to the channel, you're supporting the broadcaster. Okay. And then you get the emoji cons and all that stuff, and then. Twitch, I put it right back into the stream.

So last night I showed everybody the stuff I'm working on with the 7 amaze and all that stuff. I just bought like, I think, $800 or $1,100 worth of a brand new equipment for Sound. So I'm always putting the money back in the stream. So that's a difference. I think you get other cool perks or whatever. Okay, so I haven't done that yet is what you're saying. I thought I did. Yeah, you thought you know you have, but everybody's waiting for you.

So, for instance, last night we gave away a UFC Reebok championship kit, one of the hats. I wore it and signed it on the stream. Whoa. I'm not sure to go to the UPS store after this interview and ship it off to the guy. Wow. What a Mench. I mean, you're something else. Do you know what a Mench means?

Like a peach. I don't know. No, it's kind of. It's like an old Yiddish word. It's like you're just like a great person. You know what I mean? Like you just won defended your title and you're going off to the UPS store to send, you know, a Twitch guy hat. That's just an amazing thing.

You're not going off on a cruise. No, entourage. I even, I mentioned this on. Saturday. No posse, no entourage, no change in team, no change in manager, no change in coach, no change in nothing. I mean, it's amazing. And when you see how other guys change along the way and females as well, you've never even, like, I've never even sensed like an iota of change in your personality from the early days. That's, that's the true mark of a man right there. Well, done. Well, I'm, thank you. I appreciate that. I'm a very loyal man, and

like I said, I've been to AMC since the very beginning of my career, and I'd even have losses under the A&C doesn't mean you go off on such or something else. And granted, guys who jump camps and go different things, you know, life happens. People don't see eye-and-eye. People grow each other or things change, which is totally fine. But for me, you know, I've been with the same woman since my second amateur fight. She was in an auto-down last night, you know, Joel, Brad, Matt. That's all I need.

All I need is Matt and Brad there. Everybody else is there for the right. Obviously I need my wife there, but those are the two guys who put a lot of work into me. And I like it. You know, I think when I come to my fights, are like, all right, who's in your corner? Just me, Brad, and Matt and Joel,

they're like, all right, nobody else, just you, just you for him, like, yeah, but then you have Billy Bobo there and go, oh, man, I got T.

T.J., this guy, this guy, this guy. Oh, I got his cousin, too, and his mom's cousin's here, too. So, I don't know. I think for you, he took a breath of fresh air, too.

Okay, so what's up with Cody Garbrand? Do you buy into any of this? Like, do you really think he wants to fight you? Guys, I'm not going to go down this route. Me and Cody have talked to off scene, so you guys don't worry about it. What? You can't do. What do you mean? That's not cool. I can do whatever I want and you know that.

You're going to hold out on us? Yeah. Why? We need to build this up. Oh, no. There's that cell reception again. Again, his only flaw is a human being. Fighter, human being, cell reception.

Can you hear me now? Oh, yeah. Now you're back. Sorry, the wind's blowing. It must have been that. I don't know. But don't, I got to tell me, I'm not a drama person. So me, Cody talked off scene and everything's fine, dude. We're just, you know. When did you talk?

It's just business. Don't worry about it. We talked. Actually, he can't pick me up in his G-40 jet. He picked me up. He landed right in front of my house, dude. He landed right in front of my house. Get out of here.

I got on here. He was wearing one of his sick-ass suit he had. And his girlfriend was sitting there. So he went out, we flew to, you know, the Himalayas. B. See, now you ruin the whole story. What's happening? here. Why can't you tell us? Do you think that'll be your next fight if he wins?

No, it would not be my next fight. Don't worry about it, okay? Are you ever going to go to 135? Why would you ever even entertain that idea? Why not just win 20 in a row? Yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, why not? You know what I mean? I mean, Dana White said it on this Saturday. He was like, dude, I really had to be to be shot to stay down to 125 and just crush the record. Yeah. And I was like, that means a lot. I can respect the man who says that.

Like, you know, people are like, oh, you need to go up and do this to this. Like, why not be the greatest ever. You know, the U.C. Yeah, the U.C. signed a whole bunch of great new flyweight talent that are undefeated, and I would not mind putting my name against their name at the loss. Do you think that you are underpaid? No, I get paid very well. I mean, I don't, I mean, a lot of people out there might say that.

Obviously, what's, you know, heroin, are you underpaid? Hell yeah, I'm underpaid. Okay, well, yeah, I mean, I think anyway, you know, would I love to have way more money? Absolutely. I am willing to work hard for it. So, you know, I think my next title of offense, we will see what happens. And I'm very happy, man, and I'm very appreciative of what I have. But I've always went, I always want more, and I work for more.

I'm not asking for anything that's out of reach, you know. If I went in the opposite, hey, I want, you know, X, Y, Z, and I'm like, I'm not going to fight anymore. I just want you guys to send me check for that amount of money. Then, yeah, that can seem to say no, but they're like, hey, I want this. okay, well, you get the, you know, 13,000 defense, and we'll definitely write you check for that much. Like, okay, I'll make that happen, then I'll get to 13.

You always look at these things. I know, I know you have it in your mind already. When do you want to fight again? You know what? Honestly, this is the first time my career that I haven't really looked at it. Oh, why? Obviously, okay, I'm lying you. Probably September in a fall area.

That's what I'm looking for, but I'm going to let my body heal. I'm going to let it heal, just live my mind. relax, enjoy this victory, and just take my time. Why did you lie to me just then? About something so inconsequential? I don't know. Because, you know, everybody's like, oh, what do you want to fight again? Who do you want to fight again?

It's like, it doesn't matter. Like, I just won. Like, I literally got off, I was streaming last time on Twitter. Like, who do you want to fight? And it's like, ban this motherfucker. Just ask me when I want to fight. I just got them fighting less than 24 hours, asshole. Could you tell me, though, 48 hours later who you think is on the radar?

No, no. I won't tell you guys she's on the radar until the U.S. he sends me a contract and then we signed it. And then that's how it was, but I knew Wilson was fighting, but I didn't know if he was either going to win or not, and I didn't care if he won or not. I started my training camp,

and I knew I was going to fight April 15th. Because, like, if the U.S. gave me an outline of their event that's coming up in the fall, I will look at it like, hmm, I'll like, okay, I'll fight, I want to fight this day. They work out perfect. I like the location.

I'll start training, you know, 10 weeks out from there. and then whoever they call me as a opponent, that's the point. That's how I've done all my training camps. So it doesn't matter who I fights about the date and where the location is for me. Do the ratings bother you? How do you digest those? You know, so when the ratings, I always like to have facts when it comes to ratings, right?

So like I said, I got an argument a while ago on Twitch about my draw. And then I, we try to break down what is considered a draw and mixed martial arts. So for this one, you know, I went on Twitch and I asked her, and I was like, I want to ask everybody in the world, not in the world, but on my Discord. And I said, have any one of you guys seen a commercial for my fight against Wilson Aves? And it was like, no, no, no, no, no. I haven't. Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

One guy goes, yeah, I've seen it on UFC.com on a YouTube channel. It was like 35 seconds. I was like, okay. I was like, I haven't either. You know what I watch all day? Fox Sports 1 and Fox 3 because I'm watching Monster Jam because of the kiddos. And I haven't seen a commercial. and then the first time I saw a commercial for my fight was

UFC 210 was the last one yeah first time I saw commercial and that's one week prior to my fight Channel Fox nobody around here in Pial didn't even know all this fighting just because they didn't see any commercial so then you have to take that in consider encounterability like okay how much advertising did they do

all that stuff so I put that in the back of my mind and I'm not worried about it and I just got there and put a performance and you know Luke Thomas said it last night He's done policing people to be my fan. If you don't like what I did Saturday night, if you don't like how a white belt who's never done one key Jigoo tournament submitted in a black belt, that's your bad,

but I'm very proud of myself. You should be. You really should be. Very well said, and I agree 100% with that assessment, and I also agree that, and I've been saying this for a long time, too many fights, which forces the UFC to basically promote week to week. They only have a week to promote, because last week they were promoting D.C.

The following week they're promoting you. This week they're promoting Cub, they can only go week to week, and that's a problem. It's hard to get people truly excited about the fights. You've got to go out and promote, and when you're doing shows every week, it makes it a little more difficult, but that's not on you. That's on them. So if they want to capitalize on your greatness, maybe they have to get a little more creative with their promotion. For now, though, enjoy the victory, enjoy making history. I look forward to you breaking the record, because I 100% expect you to do so. And again, I'll reiterate what I said before you came on.

Thank you for never changing, DJ. Like I said, I can text you, ask you to come on the Monday morning after your victory, and I know that you'll be there. And as a media guy, that means a lot. So thank you for never changing, and thank you for always being you, and thank you for representing the sport so well. Thank you, everyone.

I appreciate that. I'm pretty sure if I get a 20-tiles, I'll get a 20-tenthed all the business. That is a great thing to hear, and I don't doubt that as well. Enjoy it, my man, and we'll talk to you soon, and I'll be subscribing tonight, all right? Oh, ho!

You better be a man of your word, or we'll ban you. I will do it. I will do it. I promise. Thank you, Demetrius Johnson. Very interesting final comments there about the promotion of the fight. And I can't say I disagree. Okay, so that was the main event. Now let's talk to the winner of the co-main event. Fantastic win for Rosemunas. She submits Michelle Waterson and she's now joining us via the magic Skype. There she is. Her mouth only. It's a little zoomed in. I mean, it's, you have a very nice mouth. But we'd like to see the, there. Now we're trying to see a little more of the eyes, a little scanned, maybe a little tilt, tilt up. There we go. There it is. Perfect. That is great. Thank you, Rose. We appreciate you coming on. Congratulations on the win. Thank you. Thank you. Is it true, Rose, that after the victory, no after party, no nothing, you drove through the middle of the night back home to Colorado from Kansas City? Is that actually true? Yeah, who told you? I don't know. I was trying to make my secret escape. Why? I'm just kidding. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, because nothing's true.

better than home. Like, I mean, it's beautiful outside right now. I don't know why I'm not outside. It does look beautiful. Yeah. No, I don't know. I just, there's no energy for after parties, like, right after the fight. I just, like, woke up out of, like, so many hours of just, like, sleeping.

So, yeah, I'm just super tired. Like, I don't know what I would look like in the club right now, you know. So you win the fight, you do your press conference, you do whatever you have to do, and then you and Pat just get in the car and drive home? Yep. It was only like a seven-hour driver's time. Because right after a fight, you can't really sleep, you know? Okay.

Like, you just have too much adrenaline pumping. But at the same time, you also, like, for me, I don't feel like doing anything. Like, I just feel like just sit back and just talk about it. Like, or just relaxing, eating some pizza or something like that. Wow, that is amazing to me. So you get home. I don't want to do like a whole. I want to

positivity Oh shoot Did I zoom in again? Sorry. No, yep, there we go. I think the more

you go outside maybe the less good the connection is. Oh, really? Okay. Dang it. I know.

I do love the blue skies though. They look very nice behind you. But I want to hear everything you're saying. So considering what happened

in your last fight Rose and the time off and kind of like the emotional roller coaster that was and the way you responded with this victory, is it fair to say

that this was? maybe one of your more gratifying wins? Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, they're all gratifying. They're all very just relieving, you know, the Sunday after fight's always just like, ooh, okay, that's over. Yeah.

You know, and it's always like kind of like a weird, you know, time to just, you just kind of have to like decompress. Just because you're so used to just this one way of like living for, especially like the last month before a fight, I really just like eliminate all distractions and I'm just like focused on just make sure I go to train and that's it. So then to go from that to like instantly

like I don't have anything to do but except for like interviews talk to you and stuff it's yeah it's just a crazy experience all around. You asked for this fight I mean rather quickly after she beat Paige Van Zamm Michelle Waterson you wanted this fight why were you so interested in fighting her?

What was it about her and did it go the way you thought it would go in terms of, okay, this is the perfect fight for me, I know I can do X, Y, Z. Is that what happened in the fight? So, like, initially, like, when I called her out, I knew that it was just a good fight to take because, one, I was just, like,

she's just a really interesting fight on me. Like, I want to have fights that interest me, you know, that are exciting, you know? And she goes out there and she puts it all out there, you know, and she's very well-rounded and stuff like that and very technical. but I didn't necessarily like the game plan was kind of formulated over a few a couple months you know and and the more that we trained and the more that we started you know putting together a game plan as the weeks evolved the more and more that I started to see a vision of the fight you know it's like I don't know it's just like drawn up is what what oh um because uh so like like training for a fight is kind of of like drawing a picture, you know, like you kind of just have this general vision in your head.

But over time, the lines get filled in and, you know, you just kind of start to see it more clearly, the closer and closer you get. But as far as when I first called her out, she just, she was just an intriguing matchup for me, just because I feel like we're kind of similar in terms of, you know, we both come from traditional martial arts backgrounds, you know, there's not many girls in our division that are like that. By the way, we're back to just seeing your mouth. Dang it. If you just push the screen like higher up.

Yeah, there you go. Perfect, perfect. There it is. Okay. Do you think, you know, they were. I'll back up to you. Yeah, that's perfect. They were pushing her a lot, and she was saying that if she beats you, she wants a title shot and all this stuff.

Do you think that they were after the win over page on Fox that they were kind of using this opportunity to build her up one more time before getting the tight shot? That basically you were kind of being there as the opponent that they wanted. She recently signed with WME to be there. her representation. Do you feel like you were put in that position and you kind of screwed up their plans? Well, I don't know if I screwed up their plans. I mean, everybody's got their own particular plan. You know, I don't know if it was their plan. But in order to challenge for the bell, yeah, you got to get through me first because I'm on my way to the bell. Like, I'm right there. So, yeah, if you haven't faced me yet, then you might, it might be hard to make a case for

going for the belt. Yeah. And then so you win. And then you say afterwards that you want a title shot, that this is what you want. You know, you're four, what do you, winner four of the last five, and you even said that you changed all your passwords to end new 2017. Do you regret saying this now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I was still recovering for the fight, so I didn't really think that went through. But, yeah. Did they tell you? Yeah, I know. It's just something that's my goal. Yeah, I know. That's my goal is to become a champion for 2017 is over with. But how that happens, you know, that's still being thought through.

But really, the main thing is just relax, decompress. Yeah, yeah. The last one first. It's definitely something that's in my mind, you know. I'm still going to watch Claudia versus Carolina. I think that people would like to see me rematch Carolina again, but she gets past Claudia or if Claudia wins, you know, those are also great.

matchups, but I definitely, regardless of that, if I am, definitely watching the championship fight too. Can you do me a favor and change your passwords again, please? Oh, yeah, that's already done. Okay, good, good, good. I appreciate that. That's smart. Well done on your part. And I felt for you because it was a nice story, but, you know, I don't want anyone hacking your, you know, your stuff. I was just like too honest. I was just like, yeah, be smarter than that. How after, you know, I said this about you and I wonder if you agree, you're a very emotional and mental fighter.

Like I always notice after your fights that you say that, you know, the mental side of the game, you want to get back on track. And you talk about this. I remember after the Tisha Torres fight, you said you wanted a bit of time off and they got you back in there rather quickly. And you're very open with your emotions and how you're feeling mentally. How did you get things to click from July, from the Atlanta fight to this fight? How did you get things back on track for yourself?

Um, you know, just having my team all together again, um, you know, they, they, they were 100% spot on, like, in, in my corner. And it's like, uh, not that, um, I can't do it alone, but like at this point in my life, I don't want to do it alone, you know, um, and, uh, they're, they're just so fun. Trevor, Tony, Pat were like the perfect, uh, we got the perfect chemistry going. So this felt a lot different than Atlanta for you, this past fight week. For sure, yeah. I was kind of like, I'm on my own kind of mentality. Like, I don't need nobody kind of thing. And it's not that I, it's not that that's necessary, like 100%, like you can, you should be able to rely on you. But man, it sure helps a lot. And it just makes things smoother. It makes me happier, you know, I'm happier in my life. And, you know, when I'm happy, there's really, there's nothing that can, that's nothing that can rattle me. I also noticed that you appeared, I mean, I recall when Buffer was saying your name and you kind of flex, I was like, wow, I don't recall seeing Rose like this before. Like you were a lot more cut. Did something change as far as your training or are you just kind of maturing? I think I'm maturing, yeah, because this is like the most weight I've had to cut. Oh, really?

Yeah, because normally I'll just be, I'll already be like 120, 119 as the fight week approaches. but this week I was like 125 so and it wasn't like I was you know overweight or anything like that I just put on some muscle and I think training with Valentina definitely helped with that and what oh training with Valentina really helped with that and just you know just working out really like just working out really hard and getting older right of course what is going on between you and Joanna. She came on this show a couple weeks ago and like just the the subject of you really fired her up. She does not appear to be, like she even brought you up first, if my memory serves me correct. What's the issue there between you two

from your perspective? Yeah, just, I'm obviously coming for that belt, so, you know, I think she knows it's only inevitable that I'm coming for her. Or, you know, if whether or not she wins or not, I'm coming.

Regardless. for the belt. Okay, okay. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm a threat. I think her, and there's no doubt about that, I think her issue stems from she felt like you were nice to her in person

and said some things in interviews, you know, and she felt like you were being too-faced towards her. Do you recall any of this? You know, that's just the way I am. I respect my competition. I think I don't have to hate somebody in order to fight them. So, yeah, why wouldn't I want to fight her? She's the champ.

I want to fight the best. Are you kind of rooting for her to win So that you can fight her So that you can be the one to beat her? It don't matter to me You know I think that Yeah, her style is very exciting

To match up for me I think that that would be a great challenge You know But if she doesn't win Then she's not the best After that point So that's you know That's something that

If she works back Her way back up Like it's not I'm not attached to that It's nothing personal You know I just want to fight the best Did the UFC tell you after that you are the one who will fight the winner of this title fight?

They didn't specifically say it. Nothing specific about that. I'm sure that it's just kind of, it's pretty obvious. It's not nothing, you don't want to set nothing in stone necessarily. It's a little too soon and just be like making new fights already. They still got to fight first, but I'll be there watching. Okay, you're going to go to Dallas. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Back to the fight on Saturday. What did you and Michelle say to each other? kind of a nice moment you guys sort of embraced right after you beat her. What did you guys say to each other? I don't particularly remember. I remember I said you came me pretty good there in the first round. But I don't know.

I can't really remember right after. It's usually kind of just like autopilot. So I must have said something, man. Like probably I'll love you girls. What did you and Pat say to each other? They also caught you guys embracing everyone. What did you guys say to each other? I don't know.

I just saw his face and he was crying, though, but he'd be crying. And he's so proud of me and he loves me and stuff like that. Everyone loves when Pat corners you because he's so colorful and excited. But my favorite thing about him is how he ties his jacket around his waist. He's the only corner man who does that. Like he's going for a walk in the park. Is that something he typically does, like in his day-to-day life or only when he corners you? He'll tie sweaters around his waist

You don't see that move that often these days Yeah, I don't know You got the confidence I do over the shoulder Yeah, yeah, over the shoulder is nice I mean, it's very classy But the around the waist move is very It's a very underrated move

And when you don't see, I respect that It's old school How much is he weighing these days? Is he like 185? Is he sparring with you these days? We sparring with you these days? We spar with each other. We fight.

No, but he was a little lighter this fight week. I don't know, just he didn't really have much of an appetite. And he was just like, I don't know, getting primed and ready too. Like he goes to the same emotions and the same like, because he was a fighter, you know, and he's in that fight mode, you know, it's more than more than my other coaches. But they're in the different, they're more in the mental state, but I'm sure they get the physical ups and downs, like the adrenaline spikes. and all this and that.

But, you know, he's ready to fight during fight week, too. One thing that didn't come up a lot, and I'm curious about, I hope you don't mind me asking, there was a big splash when Kevin Harvick got into the MMA management world. You're no longer working with them, right? That management team? Yeah. And you recently, why did you decide to switch things up?

I don't know. It just, yeah, it's just we kind of like have ideas that we want to try on our own, you know, like just building my brand, you know. And we're just two different worlds, you know. NASCAR is not really, I don't know. It's just, it was hard for me to, like, kind of be myself. And it was the communication wasn't always there. Okay.

You know, Pat told me all the time, and he knows how to sell me better than anybody else, you know, because he knows me, you know. And it's just hard to have that communication long distance and stuff like that. So we kind of have some ideas. And they're open to, it's nothing like battery to it. that they want to keep, you know, in touch with us. We're just going to try it out on our own for a little bit and just see how it is.

We've had a lot of experience. We've had a lot of, we've learned a lot. But we're just going to go for it. And we're going to try, we're going to just see what we can do on our own, like, just to see. I respect that. I respect. Well, the results speak for themselves for this camp, right? I mean.

And, and, and I got down to 2, 218. You know why? Because we trained hard. for this fight. We changed everything. She's like, oh, my team were so in sync. Nah, man. We changed everything. We changed everything. We changed eating, sleeping, training, mentality. We came from a whole different angle, a whole new.

We came, we did everything different all the time that we've had, all the experiences we've had. We've not got it perfect, but we've got a formula figured out that worked out fantastically for this fight. And if you go back and watch the fight, that was 100. percent MMA. That was 100 percent mixed martial arts. That wasn't a striker doing grappling.

It wasn't a grappler who punched a little bit. That was 100 percent MMA. All of it, it was a beautiful display of mixed martial arts, which, yeah, I got slim because we ran a lot. I concur. Oh, yeah, he was running. That's right. I forgot about this.

I saw him with a long hair and his physique. I was like, who is that man? Who is that sveled hunk of a man? We weren't worried about being super fresh. Yeah. We showed up ready. Yeah, we were ready, though. Scroby or not, we was ready.

I will say this, though, there is something to what you guys were just talking about. I was actually watching the fight with my wife and my sister, and they were so intrigued by you and your fighting style and, of course, your look and the way you won and everything. There is something there. So I hope, whether it's Pat or anyone else, that they push you the right way and get you out in front of the right people. because, I mean, there's a lot more that that can be done with you as a fighter, as a brand, as a human being. There's a lot of untapped potential there if we want to use that word. You've got something. So kudos to you.

Are you going to do more of that stuff? I know last time you went to Indonesia. Are you going to do more of that during this off time now? Are you going to just chill out back home? No, we're definitely chilling, but we're going to be also just comfortably, you know, working on different opportunities and things like that. There's things in the works already. Okay. Look at you.

Things in the works. It's good to be rose. All of a sudden. Yeah. The focus was on the fight like 100% at this point. But now we can, we were doing stuff on the side too, but it's more like, you know, Pat was kind of working on a cap boxing program too. So, but now we have even more time to kind of just like work on marketing myself as well.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I have to say this. I have to have to be like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Yawanna, we're cordial. They know that they're going to fight each other. Right.

She's the champ. Rose is a challenger. When you see each other, you say hi because she's a decent human being. You say hello, good morning. How's your day going? Because she's a cordial, decent human being. Ariel, you're the man. I'm a good friend of yours.

But if you were the champ, I'd want to fight you too. So it's not, it's not, get it out. feelings, get your emotions out of it. It's just saying, hello, how are you doing? It's respectable. You're the best that I want to fight you. That's a compliment. But I'm sorry for the fact that she went for a hug first, and I wasn't ready for, I was going to do

the handshake thing. So she was one that was being overly nice to me, so I don't know why she's talking about. She's overreacting a bit here. And Rose is a threat. I think it was just like maybe an awkward encounter that she, it just couldn't stop thinking about ever since, and then she just like did all these interviews and stuff.

I just, when that came out, I was like, what does she talk about like so i don't know but i uh from when i heard i think she might have changed her tone a little bit oh okay um yeah but i don't know i don't know what to deal with that for this but it doesn't matter so you got to fight to get ready for so one last quick thing i'll be i know you will be uh one last quick thing what was going on with the hair did we have a design in there or something i couldn't quite make it or was it just like a line it was a little different right yeah i don't know but um because I have this little scar right here. Okay.

And so, but I would usually do a line from here. So we try to do something different from that to do that. I liked it. Yeah. It worked. Oh, thank you. It worked. Great stuff, Rose.

Congratulations on the win. Very happy for you and Pat and the rest of the team. And looking forward to seeing you out there in Dallas. And hopefully you'll get that title shot that you want. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate you coming on on this Monday after the fight. Thank you so much. Enjoy it.

Thank you. All right, there she is. Rose Nama Yunus stopping by. What a victory for her. And yeah, I'm being honest. I was watching the fight with my wife, with my sister, and they don't often watch. I was in Montreal, and they were so intrigued by her. Fans of the karate-hadi as well, Michelle Watterson, they obviously are fans of her as well.

But they really, wow, they're like, wow, this rose. Doug Rose, they liked her style. They like the finish. They like the look. Everything about her. How could you not be a fan of Rosed Numbunis? Rosemunum Unis versus Yuana. If Yonah beats Jess Gondredge, no small, no small task, I think would be a very a very big fight for the UFC. I really do. Okay, let us move along now. Great stuff there from

main event, co-main event on Saturday night. Now we are going to talk to a man who I have been wanting to have on this program for quite some time, but he is so busy. He has so many jobs. He wears so many hats that it's impossible to book him on the show, but we have finally secured the services of one Todd Grisham. There he is. One of the news voices. Look at this Skype connection, by the way. This is Crystal Theater, by the way.

Where are we? Are we in your man cave? Where are we? We're in the man cave. What do we got there? I mean, I got Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier over here. Oh, God. Check this up. You'll appreciate this. Let me show you my slammy award from the WWE.

Wow. That's the real one. Come on. It's the real deal. It's right there. What did you win it for? Well, it's funny because I won it for best W.W. Announcer, and the year before,

according to the wrestling observer, I was the worst Worse WU.W. Announceer. So, you know, who votes on? Whatever. Take it with a grain of salt. Who votes on the Slammy Awards? I mean, come on. It's a work, I'm sure. They probably just did it to piss off J.R. or Michael Cole. That's what it was all about.

Were you actually touched? Like, were you emotional about it, the honor of winning a Slamy? I was somewhat embarrassed. I don't believe. or not, I don't like that kind of attention. Okay. They were like, oh, they had to do a photo shoot with me and Matt Stryker and they had the Bella Twins kiss me, and they did a whole little dumb video, whatever, you know?

As long as I got a paycheck, I was fine. By the way, you gave me the perfect opening here, and I wasn't going to start with this, but we have to now start with it, essentially. You talk about the awards, the Wrestling Observer. This is a hot topic in the world of combat sports. What's happened with Moro Rinalo and Bradshaw on him winning the award, the bullying and all that. Did you experience that when you were there? Did you experience bullying from a John Layfield or anyone else? Tell me, what is bullying? I don't know. Is it Vince McMahon

yelling in your ear while you're broadcasting? Then yes, I was bullied. I mean, I don't, what is bullying? I mean, if you went to ask JBL right now and you said, did you say something mean tomorrow, Rinald, all he's going to say is, of course I did. I say something mean to everybody. I'm a heel. It's fake bully. Don't you understand that? I say these things to everybody. That's what he would say. Okay. And how do you not back him up? You know, there's been times in the ring, I think one involved Jerry the King Lawler many years ago where a wrestler tried to sue him because Jerry Lawler apparently got real stiff with him and really beat the hell out of him. And in court, they were like, well, how do we know what's real and what's not? It's, it's pretend. So,

you know, I don't know anything about that story. I know Morrow very well. I love Morrow. I know JBL certainly can be difficult to work with, but it's the W.W.E. To separate real from fiction, it's tough. But in the back when no one's watching, like they mess your bags and things like that, did that ever happen to you? Yeah. I mean, yeah, especially when I first started,

but, I mean, it happens to everybody. Right. You know, I mean, if you join a football team and they're like, hey, where are the rookies at? Go sweep the floor. Is that hazing? Is that bullying? That, it depends on the definition.

No one likes doing it. To me, bullying is doing something that you don't want to do and that you're not supposed to have to do. But it happens all the time. Thus far, I mean, I'm sure you... Go ahead. You make Eric every once in a while comb out his man bun.

I know. Just to see what it looks like. He probably doesn't want to do that. He doesn't listen. That's the crazy thing. He actually doesn't listen. I mean, have you seen that thing? It's unbelievable.

But in your professional career, having Vince yell at you while trying to actually call a match, is that the toughest thing you've ever had to overcome? Just to survive that world is tough. I mean, look at all the announcer. I mean, Mick Foley lasted like six months. Joey Stiles. Taz, I mean, go through the announcers.

I mean, even JR has been fired three or four times. I was there eight years. Just to survive eight years is tough. So, I mean, I don't know how long, Morrow was there, six months maybe. And it was interesting because the last time I talked to him, he loved it. He was, that was the greatest job ever. And then this happened, and I don't know what happened, but, I mean, things change quickly. Just like, you know, one day you're the main event at WrestleMania.

And six months later, you're wrestling in, you know, Daytona, Florida for 500. bucks. Right. Life comes at you fast. No doubt about that. Okay, so let's talk about what's currently going on your life because you went from WW. Then you went to Sports Center, ESPN. How long were you at ESPN for? Five years. Five years. Then you went to this new chapter, Glory slash UFC, and you started with UFC beginning of this year. You called the fight in Halifax, and that was the Derek Lewis card against Travis Brown. And now you're doing Nashville, right? You're doing Nashville this Saturday, Cup Swanson against Artem Lobob. The card, I mean, off the top of my head,

I don't know the exact number, but it was probably around six or seven hours, you know, of working that night in Halifax. You're going to do the same. I maintain that UFC broadcasters, in particular the play-by-play man, toughest job in sports. You're doing two football games back-to-back

with essentially no breaks. You've done boxing. You've done WWU's done a whole bunch of stuff. That one night, was that tougher than anything you've done? Hmm. The prep work was because, you know, you're learning 22 guys and you've got to be able to talk about them for however many minutes the fight goes in, you know, leading up to the fight. The prep work, and I overprepared maybe just because I was, you know, I didn't want to sound like an idiot. Sure. Which I usually do. But, yeah, the prep work certainly was. But, you know, I've been doing enough, I mean, calling WWW matches. To me, that's more difficult because it's the same guys week after week after week. I was there eight years. I tallied it up. I called close to maybe. 2,000 wrestling matches.

Wow. You've got to think a different way to describe this guy and this character and this match so it doesn't sound exactly the same. So to me, that's the toughest. But as far as preparation, yes. And length of broadcast, yes. Yeah, it is unbelievable. It's an unbelievable marathon.

And you have to peak at the end. You know, you probably want to get very excited at the beginning. That's the first fight of the night. But you really have to be on your A game at the end. That's amazing to me. So how do you feel now as far as the job is concerned? Because you've done the desk. as was the case this past week.

You've done play by play. You're doing it again. Do you feel, because I know the way MMA fans are. You're the WVE guy, right? Are they embracing you? How are they towards you? You know, again, I hate to keep bringing

WWE back, but those fans are relentless. UFC fans, obviously, are passionate too, but WWFs fans, I mean, they're at a whole other level. I mean, I remember specifically, I've told this story a hundred times, that I remember doing a pay-per-view, like, lead-in show. when we were in the corridor,

or what do you call that, where the popcorn stands around the concessions, what are they called, the concourse. Concourse. So we're in the concourse of whatever city it was, maybe Columbus, Ohio, and it's me and Maria Canella standing there about to host this show,

and there's all these WWV fans around us, and they're like, oh, we're going live around the world, and three, two, and writers are about to go live, the whole crowd starts chanting, fuck you, Grishon, clap, clap, clap, and then they pulled me on camera,

I'm like, welcome to beautiful Columbus, Ohio, fuck you, Grisham. And they're right here beside me. So nothing's tougher than that. But for the most part, I think the feedback I got from UFC fans was pleasantly surprised. Yeah. I don't know how low the bar was for me.

But, you know, I think they assumed I was just going to be terrible. Yeah. So I guess I wasn't terrible. So that's good. And most of the feedback I got from the UFC was quite positive. And Fox as well. So I had a great time. I know that.

And Brian Stan made it easy. So you've now called boxing. You've called kickboxing, of course, because you're the lead play-by-play guy for glory. And now you've done MMA. Prior to that Halifax card, you've never called MMA before, right? Correct.

But while I was at, you know this. While I was at ESPN, I covered MMA events for SportsCenter. I probably did 25 to 30. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm not trying to put down your credential. I was just saying the actual calling. Which one is, I don't know, more, I mean, from boxing to kickback? Because it's very rare that, I mean,

the only guy that I could think of that's done that in this day and age, is moral that's done boxing, kickboxing, and MMA now. I don't think Goldie can say that. I don't think Anna can say that. I mean, I'm talking off the top of my head here, but you've done that in the span of like a year. Which one do you enjoy? Which one's trickier?

What's the difference between them? Boxing is unique in the fact that usually the card that's televised that we're calling is sometimes just two fights deep, sometimes three. And the fights usually go longer, you know, a 12-round fight with, you know, a minute between rounds goes like 40, 45 minutes. So those type of fights you have a lot more time to tell the fighter's story and to build them up and to build a storyline up. Whereas UFC, you know, it could be over in 10 seconds. And boxing could too, obviously, but it happens a lot more in UFC.

So, you know, each one is certainly unique. To me, glory kickboxing is almost perfect because it's the happy medium there. You know, it's quick pace. There's a lot of knockouts. And usually you have some time to tell the story. Did you ever think that you would be like the combat sports guy? Now your life is all combat sports. Did you ever think that this would...

No. How did this happen? Growing up, my favorite team, as I've told you before, was the Montreal Expos. I love baseball. I love the Expos. And then as I got older, I really fell in love with soccer. And you think I'm lying to make you smile? Yes.

You know I love the X. You never told me that once. We talked about Hubie Brooks. We talked about Gary Carter. We talked about Oliver. We talked about Tim Raines. This is true. Andres Gala Raga?

Is this really true? You know this. We talked about it while we were watching the Baltimore Orioles together at Camden Yards when Jones was fighting Glover to Sherry. It was such an important conversation. I saved the fight poster behind me. That's right. Against the Kansas City Royals.

I have no recollection. And I remember these things. Anyhow, continue. Okay. Anyway, I don't even know what the question was. The question. Oh, did I think it ever do? Yes.

Then I fell in love with soccer. I played in Alabama where soccer people in high school literally thought I was a communist. They're like, you communist soccer lover, you know what's wrong with you, call me all kinds of names. But I loved it. And Lou Holtz, famous college football coach, said, you know, you should write out your goals in life. Write them out on a piece of paper. It does something to you. So I went from 10 to 1.

The first one was to get a job in broadcasting. The second was to be on TV. And then the number one was to call the World Cup final. Wow. That was my goal. But then as I got my first TV job in Iowa and then moved to Arizona and then the WW thing came out of kind of nowhere, I just put that on the back burner and I just kind of fell in love with combat stuff.

And I've always loved boxing. Evander Holyfield was my guy. So I just fell in love with boxing. And then I was at UFC 14 in Birmingham, Alabama. Wow. saw Mark Coleman fight Maurice Smith. So I've always loved UFC, UFC, and it's now just kind of come 360, and I can't believe it. Did you cover that, or were you just there as a family?

Were you covering that for like a local? It was just there. I lived there, and they were coming to town, and I was like, hey, somebody could die tonight. You know, let's go see it. Back then, that was the big selling point, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They might die. Bring a poncho.

But would you still like to do the World Cup thing? Is that still, you know, on the bucket list? or are you over it? I would rather call, I would rather call John Jones versus Daniel Cormier. Right. Something like that.

At this point, yeah. Or Floyd Mayweather versus Connor Gregor. That's something that I would just. Sure. But trust me, do what I'm doing right now? I mean, I love it.

I couldn't think, so many other days said, is this your dream job? And I tried to think of another job that I could have right now that would make me feel more fulfilled and I can't think of it. Why did you want to be a broadcaster?

I was just, I found out quickly I was better at talking about sports than playing them. I'm sure you too. But my dad used to travel a lot and we love watching baseball together at football and he would go to Europe for a week or two and when he would come back, I would just be waiting on the edge of my seat to tell him all the sports he missed and I would describe how this guy came around third and collided into the catcher. And he was like, son, you know, you could be the next Al Michaels, you know, you should blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then I got fascinated with radio and I tried to, I would wake up in the morning and do these voice exercises to try and deepen my voice. I had a little book called On the Air Now, it was How to Become a DJ. Now DJ is like the Oot, oint, right? Back then it was Jack and, you know, I'm Casey Kaysom, you know, here's your long distance request and dedication. So that's what I wanted to do. But it's just, yeah, I don't know how I got here. And people ask me what they need to do. And I tell them I have no idea because it just, if it's your passion and you believe in it, you work hard at it, you'll find your way. What tattoo do we have on our bicep over there, the right one? Is that a Chuck Ladell? It looks like a Chuck Lidale. No, no, this is just generic 19-20s guy.

Oh, wow. And it says glory here, glory kickboxing, just guys fighting for glory. I've been talking about men punching each other in the face or wrestling for, you know, 20-some-odd years. So I thought, is that new? A big part of my... Yeah, I got it in Vegas in January. Wow. Yeah, when you saw me naked, laughed. I didn't have. Yeah, I didn't have. Vegas in January, so four months ago, were you, uh, I mean, was this regular day or was this after, you know, a night of, you know, Vegas? Is it that unattractive that maybe it was a bad decision? Is that where you're headed? I don't know. It's just Vegas and January. I think, you know, maybe you didn't get- It was actually New Year's Eve in January. I was there for something. I was there for the, I was there

for the, uh, was that Ronda Rousey? Was that Ronda Rousey? The UFC had me come out and just kind of like shadow everybody so I know what I was. was doing when I went on the air first for my first show. So that's why I was out there. And then you said, by golly, I'm going to get myself an old... Well, I had this one going. So I was like... Okay. Let me kind of just do this. So now I've got to fill this in here. Oh, we're going full sleeve? I don't know what I'm going to put. Half sleep. We'll do half. I'm too old for the full sleep. I just want to peek out.

So I seem mysterious. Yes. Like you do right now. I thought it was the Chuck Adel, you know, Iceman pose. It kind of looks like that. But I think this is nice. It's kind of the old Rockham-Ssockham. Queensberry rules. Yeah, yeah, I know. I appreciate that. Let me ask you this.

From the perspective of a guy who worked at ESPN, so you used to be part of the mainstream media, so to speak, quotations. Right. We were talking about this earlier with Demetrius Johnson. He's unbelievable. He's one of the greatest fighters in the history of this game. We can argue all day where he fits. One, two, three, four.

We'll never know the right answer, but he's in that discussion. There's no doubt about it. Yet we saw it with the ratings. We see with his pay-per-view numbers. he's never had that blockbuster number. From an ESPN perspective, you guys, you know, back in the day, you're all over, Connor, you're all over Rhonda.

You know, they love those guys. Why doesn't DJ and his brilliance as a fighter and his flips and all that stuff resonate with the mainstream sports fan? To me, it's all about being a star. I don't care what it is. If it's John McEnroe screaming at the referee, he makes air. If it's Connor McGregor threatening to kill somebody and throwing, you know, power aid cans at people, that's what they want to see. I think if Connor McGregor had zero personality

and was just winning these fights, he'd just be another guy winning. Yeah. You know, look at it. I mean, Michael Phelps, you know, people know who he is because he's, well, he's probably not the best example because he's done in their greatest personality.

But there's a lot of guys who aren't the best at their position or the best at their sport that are stars that we just want to know about. I mean, when Bellator puts on these, put these, you know, old men fighting together who used to be good, they get good numbers because people know them.

They know chale some. and is going to entertain them at least or so they think. So that's why they watch. And DJ, to his credit, is probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met in any sport. Yeah. But I was telling Dominic, after the show was over, Dominic Cruz, I said, you know, what would have been unbelievable? What if DJ had just stood up and said, you know, the next guy I want is this mother

effer right here. I got right in Dominic's face. He said, you beat me five years ago. No more than Mr. Nice guy. I'm coming after you. I don't care when you want it, where you want, and slapped his headset off and walked off the set. What would have happened? Yeah.

Right? Yeah. four hours on DJ. You'd be like, oh my God, he turned heel. What's this going to happen? And it would sell huge numbers. But he's just not that guy. He doesn't want to be that guy.

So it's not good enough to just be good. What's that? It's not good enough to just be good. To a point, yes, it is. I mean, you can be great. Roger Federer is great. People love Roger Federer. Who's that new guy who's cussing people out and quitting midmatch?

Is he from Greece? He starts with a K. Anyway, he's on SportsCenter all the time because he does crazy stuff. and he's not that great. Yeah. But to me, you almost have to talk yourself into superstardom. I mean, who are the great players in any sport outside of quarterbacks?

Usually Richard Sherman, how many cornerbacks does the average fan know? Yeah, yeah. Nobody. But Richard Sherman, they knew Dion Sanders, you know, because those guys were larger than life. Do you subscribe to the notion that he needs a foil, that if he had a son into his Silva, McGregor, to Azaldo, that would elevate him, that at the end of the day, the fan, Joe Sports fan, doesn't. care about titles, doesn't care about history, he doesn't know what to make of 10 straight

title defenses. This is in a record that we grew up idolizing. He cares about conflict, and that's why he cared about McGregor Diaz. And don't forget about the size thing. I mean, even in boxing, Chocolatito is the best boxer in the world probably, but he's super small. So a lot of people just don't want to see, they want to see big heavyweights. Yeah. You know, the big heavyweight fight people watch. Some people just don't want to watch fly weights. I've always found that to be dumb. Like for some fat slob to say I could beat up E.J. because he's 125 pounds. I mean, are you the stupidest person in the world? Really, do people actually believe this? What does it matter how big he is? He's unbelievable. I just, that's just, I'm not that person. I certainly enjoy, I can watch anybody fight. I love it. But I mean, if you go around and ask people, do you want to watch the greatest flyweight that's ever lived, fight for the 11th title defense? Or do you want to watch Junior Dos Santos fight, Alice, over it. Yeah, it's unfortunate.

It really is. I hope he finds that foil because I really think that would change a lot for him. What's the rest of your week like as you prepare for national... And one more thing I'll just add. I know you guys have asked, is Demetri's Johnson the greatest of all time? If you look back at boxing, the greatest of all time,

whoever it may be, you think it is, for the most part, has won at multiple divisions. Floyd Mayweather's won six different weight divisions. Sugar Ray Robinson won multiple. Roy Jones came out and won a heavyweight title and went back down. Obviously, there's more divisions in boxing. But I think a lot of people who are on the fence, if DJ, and I know he's super small, were able to come up, fight Cody Garbrandt and beat him win that title, I think it's

a done deal. Well, this pertains to the pound for pound discussion, but that's why I feel like D.C. deserves more credit because he was undefeated at heavyweight, could have won the belt there, went down because his friend was the champ and became champion. Forget about the circumstances. and still became the champ and defended the belt at 2.05, and that's why it kind of blows my mind that he's not at least talked about more in that discussion. Yeah. Or if John Jones comes back and is the John Jones,

we remember, beats DJ again, beats D.C. again, and then goes up and beats whoever the champion is, Miocch, and wins the heavyweight title. Oh, yeah. Then we're talking, wow. Then it's a wrap. Yeah, so that's my non-educated take. What's the rest of your week like? How do you prepare for calling seven hours of MMA on Saturday?

I just wing it, brother. Yeah, I know. I figured that would be your answer. I told someone, I said, what do you, honestly, what do you think I would sound better? If I, like, crunched down 24 hours a day and learned everything I could about everyone, or just kind of half-assed it and smoked a joint before I went out there and just called it from the heart. I always wonder. I've never had the balls to do it, but I've always wondered.

Okay. Which way are we going to go? Maybe this week? Well, I'm going to cram. That's what I do. All right. So I'm going to stop tonight when I get it. my kids to bed at 8 o'clock.

I'll come down here in my basement, turn on my projector screen, watch probably eight or nine fights, make my note cards, do the same thing tomorrow night, Wednesday, then go call the fights this weekend with Brian Stan. We'll interview some fighters.

Then I come back home and then I had to glory, which is in Copenhagen, Denmark, the following week. Wow. Yeah. A lot of fighting. It's good to be Todd Grisham.

It's just like you, though. I mean, how much do you have to, you have to be in the know all the time. Yeah. People don't know when I'm talking you backstage at fights, you're on your front. phone even as you're talking because people expect you to be tweeting at a certain rate per hour. It's a lot of pressure. It overwhelms your life. It is a lot of pressure. Sometimes I don't know how I

deal with it all, the tweeting, all that stuff. I was actually talking to my wife yesterday about this. I can't believe this is my job, that my big stress in life is to come and do this show and book people to come talk to me. What a life. What a life we have, Todd Grisham. I mean, yours is a lot more glamorous. You're on Fox. I wish I could be on Fox. What a dream that would be. again. No, but I will say this. Shout out to all the girlfriends and wives out there who date people like us.

Yeah, yeah. Because how many times at the dinner table are you like, I've got to, sorry, I got to do this. You're like, really? Really? You got to tweet out that, you know, Al Ayaquinta sprained his ankle. Yes. I got to.

Yes. I do have to. Well, I look forward to the call. Can you give me one fight that you're really looking forward to calling this Saturday? Is there why I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but is there one that really can't be? Perry versus Ellenberger. Perry.

Platinum Perry. Looking forward to seeing how your response. Yeah, that is a great fight on the main card, 170 pounds. Todd, great to have you on. And I'm really happy that you finally were able to squeeze us in. After all your trips all over the world and everything, keep up the great work. I thought you did great in the debut.

I'm expecting a lot better, though, for round two, all right? Just letting you know. I don't like that bar creeping out. Let's keep it low. It's going to happen. It's the reverse of the limbo, right? Would they go down? I want it to come.

All right, brother. Thanks for having me on. All right, there he is. Todd Grisham calling the action on Saturday with the one and only Brian Stan. I thought they did a great job in Halifax in February. And like I said, I'm expecting even better this time around. That's this Saturday on FS1. And the main event, of course, is Cubs Swanson versus Artem Lobov.

Co-mate event is Diego Sanchez versus Ally Quinta. And a good friend and teammate of one, Ally Quinta. is our next guest. He was victorious on Saturday night. The one and only Al Jermaine Sterling. He defeated Augusto Mendes. There he is, Aljo. Sorry to interrupt.

Were you tweeting or texting? What were you doing? What was that? Were you tweeting, texting? I was tweeting. I'm a tweeter. All right. All right.

Hey, I like that beard. That's a good look. I know, man. I actually kind of like it. It was the first time I actually grew it out and left it for the fight. Yeah. Maybe that's the difference. I think so, man.

I think ladies love Beards, and I think Beards wins fights. Well, clearly that was the case on Saturday. Congrats on the victory. I actually want to start with the end of the fight. You seemed very emotional after when they announced that you had won. Where did that come from? Correct me from, I haven't quite seen you with that kind of emotion after a victory. Yeah, man, I'm an emotional guy, man.

I call it how it is. I do things very, very, as we say, passionately. you know, if I'm doing something, I give it my all. And I, the way the best way for me to describe is, you know, I'm born in New York, obviously, my parents and their parents born and raised in Jamaica. You know, I've been there a few times. And I always wanted to represent my country, my roots, my heritage in a proud way, in a great light. And just to help boost MMA in that scene overall, in the past two fights, I dropped the ball to split decision losses. And it kind of just never sat well because I actually just changed.

change my uh the rebock kit you know i could change the country you're representing and i lost so it was like two times i struck out i was like i changed my country and i lost twice now maybe third times a charm and then i was happy i stuck with it i just wanted to be able to raise my flag proud and uh for for my fellow countrymen and uh i got it done man so it felt good to just get that done and i plan on going down in jama doing a couple seminars down there and really trying to help uh the m may just seem just explode a little bit more recently like like in and in in the next few weeks. Is that on the books?

Probably around September. My sister's getting married down there. So I'm going to try to get down there for the wedding. And then I'm going to try to get some stuff done while I'm down there. Just bang everything out. See, from my perspective, I was thinking like, wow, you know, this is cool to see. I mean, it hasn't been the easiest year for you ever since signing that deal. So I viewed it as the monkeys off your back.

You can get back on track, winning track, things like that. like not so much the pressure, but you're kind of letting it out. You get the victory, now you can chill a bit. Was there anything to that? Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's just so frustrating to hear people say, oh, he can't strike, he can't box, he's afraid to get hit. And more so not in frustration.

It's more so annoying than anything because it's just like you think I've been in the training room just wrestling and humping a guy's leg on the wall for freaking eight to 12 weeks for a training camp. What do you think we do as fighters? This is MMA. Obviously, I work my striking. I just don't do it in the fights. I do it in the practice room, and I know.

And this is the way we look at it is if I know I need to do it in a fight if it ever comes down to it, I know I could do it. And I just never had to, I never had to be forced to do it. And I felt like those two losses put me in a position where it was just like, yo, screw this. I got to go out there and start the fight the way I did that third round with a sunsound and just pick it up like it was round four, four, five, and six. and hopefully get the finish,

but just come out more aggressive and just come out like the way I do in training, man. Just if I do that, good things are going to happen. Where was your confidence at going into this one? Considering the two fights, considering the frustration, you thought you won those fights. You thought that, you had done better, you deserved better. Where were you at mentally going into this one?

I mean, the caraway fight I gassed out doing three workouts the day of the fight. That was my fault. So he was a better man that night, so kudos to him. Suncel I thought I won but it's not like I felt like I dominated by any means so don't get me wrong but I definitely thought I when you double up on strikes you

you should win the fight but you know that's what under a bridge at this point I realize what scores in fights and what people are more knowledgeable and that's with boxing and punches so it was just like I had to switch up things a little bit and just kind of play to the system and do what I know I'm capable of doing yeah I took more shots than I normally

do but it's not like I can't take the shots I just like to come out protecting the moneymaker. That's all that is. The confidence was good, man. If you ever watched Dragon Ball Z, power level confidence was on 9,000. It was good. Okay. All right. Why three workouts the day of the caraway fight? It was me just

trying to overly prepare myself. And I think one of my coaches, Eric High, I always bust my balls about paralysis by overanalysis. And sometimes I get in my own head trying to nitpick every single thing that the guys don't like, of him, it's a right hand and I'm over here like, well, he's throwing it with a little bit of a twist. So maybe if I just step a little bit to the left, I can probably negate that with my shoulder when I get too into, at the end of the day, it's just a freaking right hand, you know?

Yeah. So sometimes I kind of beat myself up and just trying to be a perfectionist and anyway, I can just trying to grow, man. I started boxing and all that as soon as I started the sport, you know, so it's not like I have much experience with the striking department. So I'm just picking this up as a go-fight-by-fight, and I'm getting better every single time I step in there, and I told Sean I want to be as active as possible because that's the only way I'm going to keep it proving. So as far as the actual fight, the win over Mendez,

were you happy with your performance? Oh, yeah, I was definitely happy. I think I started a little slow. There was one point where it looked like he dropped me, but he actually hit me with a headbutt, and then he went for that gueteen and fell right into that triangle. I mean, I was okay, but he freaking charged in like a raging bull, and it looked like I got...

And I was like, man, how the hell did I lose any round on that scorecard? And then I looked back and they showed me. I was like, I thought they would have realized that was a headbut. And he just kind of just cracking me with his head. I didn't think they was going to score that as an actual knockdown. But it is what it is. I thought I did everything I said I was going to do. You know, it wasn't all talk.

I said I was going to go out there, go forward, be more aggressive. Use my faints. Use my punches. Use my kicks. Use my wrestling. I want to make it a nasty fight everywhere it goes. We were in a clinch. I was trying to strangle him a couple of times.

Who's this guy trying to steal your limelight? Who's this guy? that's uh jami franco trying to steal your shine one of my wrestling partners so you were happy man it was it was a good fight i thought i thought i went out there i showed off i had i had a good beard and i showed off that i got some some hands and some good combinations you know but kins i remember when we spoke to in brooklyn when you were there as a guest fighter you were talking about you know the judges and

scoring and things like that when the fight was over you thought you wanted or were you kind of nervous. I thought I won it. I thought if I lost, then I, you know what? Maybe I just give up. I just give up altogether.

Honestly. That thought crossed your mind? I would have been like, no, it didn't cross my mind. One bit. I was like, if they can't figure out

who won this fight, then shit, man, I just, I just suck. I just suck at this. I'm just going to stick a real estate.

You're doing the real estate thing too, like Al? Yeah, I'm actually flipping houses. I'm actually looking for investors. So anybody listening right now, I'm looking for some JVA partners, anybody who wants to invest 50-50 splits, all that good stuff. I got a house on the market in Arizona right now, Phoenix, 88, 10, North 6th place. So Ariel, if you're trying to move to Arizona where it's nice and sunny, I got you, that's a great starter home, 3-2.

It's a 3-2. Is that a 3-2-bbedroom, 2-bath? Is that like the insider term? Three-bedroom too bad. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at the little real estate yourself.

Why Phoenix, though? Why not Long Island, New York, I don't know, tri-state area? Phoenix. Price points are a little bit more reasonable to work with, especially when you're dealing with hard money lenders, higher interest rates and things like that. So for me to use all of my money, all my money would be tied up in Long Island if I were to do a house out here. So it was a lot easier for me to do it down there.

Still have some liquid cash and not tie up all my money at once. It's not like I'm getting paid Connor McGregor money. So it's a little bit harder. I got to make sure I'm being strategic. and over the time that it takes to buy the house, rehab it, put it on the market for it to close, got to make sure I'm covered through that whole entire process. How long have you been doing this for?

August, but this is my first flip. I got it back in November, and I'm hoping to sell it and its project is to sell within this month or next month. But the markets change and things like that, so hopefully it gets picked up. Are you doing this with Iaquinta or is this by yourself? A little bit of both.

Oh, he's actually a real estate agent. I'm not a real estate agent. Oh, okay. So you're just a guy who invests money in this project? I'm the developer. I'm investing money and I'm bringing in investors. We're trying to bring in the cash, the cash money area. We're trying to make it big over here.

Why are you doing this? I'm trying to live on the beach so I can sit my mitis. Yeah, no, I feel you. I feel you. But why did you feel compelled to do this? Well, there's always that next phase in life, you know? And, you know, I've always been one, even before my losses, I've always been one to kind of just think about what's the next step in terms of life for me.

And I always been trying to make sure I map everything out, step by step of what I want to do and picture where I want to be in three years and four years and five years, short-term goals and long-term goals. Huh, okay. So now, like, is this going to be the thing? Is this what you're getting into? those shows where they flip the houses and they come with the contractor

and they're all in now on this. Well, that would be nice. I don't have a TV show yet. Well, not the TV show, but the actual the actual gig. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing. How much is it going for? Bristol.

Bristol is doing that, actually. Who's Bristol? Oh, Bristol Marundi. Yeah, he's got a show with his wife. Yeah, him and his wife. That's pretty cool, man. I saw that. I was like, I know that guy.

How much this house go for? This house is $230,000. it's not a better price. You got a Shiner there? Yeah, not bad. Is that from the headbut? A girlfriend thinks it's hot, so. Oh.

No, this is from my actual punch. Yeah, dude, he punched me. He punched me with a left hook. And then I was seeing like triple when I was just like trying to hold my composure just like, I can't see which one I use that needs a hit. Wow. I'm going to. But then he started charging that to me.

I think he realized he caught me pretty good and I couldn't really see. I had blurred vision. And I saw Haymaker wind up and I was just like, just weave and whatever happens. So either you're going to get hit or he's going to look silly when he misses at completely hitting nothing, you know, so. Has that happened to you going to fight? Like getting rock like that before? I didn't get rocked. It just caught me right in the eye.

Oh, okay. I see. I see. I see. Yeah. How long does it take to get the vision back? I just touched it a little bit and then blink a couple times and then we went back in probably about eight seconds. Oh, okay.

So shorter than it took for you to even tell that story. Are we still with the same girl or we got a new girl? What's going on? Yeah, we have our ups and downs. But yeah, we're back. Oh, you're back? It's the easiest way to put her back. Damn.

Was she at the fight in KC? Nah, her job didn't give her off. They had like a big event. She does makeup. She's a big-time makeup artist. So they didn't give her off. And she was able to catch it on Fight Pass. She was able to step out and watch it on her phone.

And I'd get back in and start doing more makeovers. Oh, so she was able to get back in and start doing more makeovers. Oh, so she was. was actually working because I said I was thinking to myself maybe come Saturday morning you know it's a weekend but she was working. Yeah she was working she was in New York the entire time so maybe she was the missing ingredient but we're like were you with her the last two fights yeah yeah I was with her for like the last eight 10 fights but no but you said you're off and on so were you off during those two oh no we were together for the last one oh all right yeah

nothing there yeah okay You want a top five guy next? I do, but it's really hard to pick anybody. I'm trying to think, I mean, everyone's booked. I know Dotson's fighting Eddie Wineland this weekend. I'm going to be there alive, so I'll be able to watch that, which would be pretty cool. So I'm interested in seeing what happens with that.

I want to fight ideally in two months. I want to get on that OKC card, but Sean said it was full. Okay. So maybe International Fight Week. I'm thinking maybe fight on the first card of International Fight Week, get done, get the work out early, and then probably like a motherfucking champion shirts off, guns out,

blazing. Yes. So are you going to Nashville for Iquinta? Yeah, we're heading out tomorrow morning. All right. How's he doing? He's doing great, man. He looks great. He's in good shape. And I'm excited for him, man. I haven't seen that guy throw down in a while. He's one of my favorite fighters. How can you not love watching the guy? He's all hard. He brings it every single time, combinations, rustling,

and he just mixes everything up. really nice. And his name suits it well. He brings the rage, man. And that's what I love him. How's he doing upstairs? It's always fun of watching. Upstairs here. How's it going up here? How's it going up here? Oh, he just got a nice haircut. They gave him a good fit. Nah, he's doing good, man. Okay. He's ready, man. He's ready to go. He's funny. We've had some fair shares of good jokes. Oh, okay. Yeah, what a stretch it is for you guys, from Wyatman to you to Iaquinta. They're making Ray Longo travel all across the country. I'm sure he loves that.

We talked to him a bit about this, but he must be exhausted at this point. Probably. I mean, he's going to get a nice little break after this. So we got a couple of other young amateur fighters coming up, too, that's got some fights making their debuts and things like that. So it's a busy month for us,

and it's exciting over here right now. We've got a lot of guys, we've got some nice win streaks going. And I'm just excited we got back on track and within the team for the U.S. So, you know, I was going to keep momentum going and we're just going to keep on pushing onwards and upwards and by the way um you didn't mention i mean you talked about international fight week but like two weeks later they're at nassau coliseum you don't want that yeah i do i would love to fight in my hometown and i just don't know

what they're going to do with new york man they're so weird yeah about certain stuff even though i'm cleared everywhere else to fight they're they're still like being weird about everything so I don't know. I would love to, but honestly, it's right before my birthday, so if I could bang it out earlier. I plan on, oh, so this is what it is. I plan on doing a one-month road trip from Long Island. I'm just going to drive around all the way to Cali, and we're going to try to hit almost every single state that we can.

We're going to try to hit the major cities. We're going to try to hit some, like, low-income areas, high-income areas, and just try to just explore everything, document everything, and all the way back for a month and just see what happens. It's going to be on a road for it. It's going to be fucking nuts. I can't wait to do it. If there's any time to do it, it's going to be now in my life. You know, it's something I've always dreamed about doing it.

Even in college, man, I thought it would have been cool as hell to do something like that and not have anything restricting you, like a job or something. So, you know, I want to fight one more time, bang that out and then take some time off to just explore the world travel. And I think that's going to be super cool, man, do some seminars and things like that, meet some good people. Who are you going with? That's going to be exciting.

I think two of my boys. I got my boy Johnny Vegas and my boy Dino Spamoni. Oh, wow. Seems like a cool crew. That's not as real name. Those names are cool. That's not real name. Yeah, so that's going to be the thing that I plan on doing.

So maybe the sooner to better, my birthday is July 31st. So if I got to fight a little sooner than I can, you know, get the win, go out on a high note and get ready for traveling the world. Funkmaster, Feeding the streets, USA. I like it. I like it. Well, it's good to see you back on track with a small. I mean, this must feel good, right? You get the weight of the world off your shoulders.

You're back on the winning track. You got the W at the top of the record. It's been a while since you felt this. So it has to feel good on this Monday after the fight. Yeah, man. I haven't won since December 10th, 2015. Crazy. Long time coming when you and I think about it like that.

And it's not like I've never lost anything before, but damn, it sure does feel good to be back, you know, and still showing that I belong. With the top of the heat, man. These guys were sleeping on me. I know Augusta was talking a little shit. I mean, it's not really shit talking. It's from what he saw in my fights, obviously.

He thought I was afraid or couldn't throw combinations. And boy, was he sadly mistaken. I tell you, man, it's only going to get better from there. I think I held back a little bit. I think I was being a little too respectful of his jihitsu and kind of slept on my own jihitsu game, man. I was like, man, we had a pretty fun scramble. There was at one point one for the TV.

to the triangle and then he uh he swept me with the omapata to the leg lock and he came up with almost like an ex-guard kind of sweep but uh and then i rolled through and i fell on my back and then he tried to jump over with the crucifix position and i caught his inside ankle and i pulled it down and he came back up went for a guillotine and i shot him for the double leg and uh it was crazy man it's uh it's fun it's fun to get in those kind of exchanges and i'm glad i got to showcase my skill set and people could see some of the things i'm capable of doing in and out of the training room And by the way, you got to make guys make sure you get your shirt. Human anaconda.

Human anaconda protect your neck. Where can we get that? Okay. Aljermanstrel.com. Or you can come to the gym. Pick going up yourself in person because we're here. Look at you. You're killing it.

Welcome back. Congrats on the win, Aljo, and good luck this weekend in Nashville. Thanks for coming on. Thank you. Yeah, I'm going to get you a high top, man. I got to get you a high top. I know. I need a haircut.

It's been a while. I don't know if that haircut is working for you anymore. Damn, son. Geez, all right. Thanks, Aljo. Thanks for making me feel crappy about my life. I'm joking. You look great.

All right. Thanks, Al Joe. Talk to you soon. There he is. Al Jermaine Sterling stopping by. Big win over him, for him, excuse me, over Augusto Mendes. It's funny that he makes fun of my hair.

It's actually, I usually get a haircut every week. But I was in Montreal, so I skipped this week. And I was like, eh, it's a little long. But you know what? first time in like three years. I don't get a haircut. I think I could wing it. No one's going to notice. And then he hates on me. How about that? Now I feel really self-conscious. Thanks a lot, Al Joe. Appreciate it. All right. Main event this weekend, Artem Lobov against Cub Swanson. A lot of people said, what? Cub Swanson's fighting Arndham Lobov in the main event. Nashville? This is crazy. Let's talk to

Cub about it. He joins us on Skype right now. There he is. Cub Swanson, who has a very nice haircut, I might add. How are you, Cub? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing great as well. So how do we get here? Fight of the year contender, doho Choi. Hi, everyone's loving you. Artem Lobov.

Everyone said, what? I remember where we were. We were in Brooklyn. They announced it. People are like, this can't be true. Cubs fighting. How did this happen? Tell us, how did it happen?

How was this your next fight? Well, I was, I think they're just looking for a fight for me. I gave him a kind of a time frame that I needed because I didn't tell him that I was having a baby. And I wanted to fight before that and then after give myself a little break in between. So I wanted to fight in a certain time frame and they were looking for somebody. He just happened to be talking crap about me at the time. And I was in Mexico City cornering my brother. And then Dana called me and he was like, hey, you want to fight Artem Lobo?

and I was like, okay. I was like, I'd love to fight him. Is there a bigger fight? And he was like, that's all we have right now. I was like, if that's the only fight that you guys have for me, I'll take it. I don't mind beating him up. So that was it. Wow.

And so do you feel like, how do you approach this kind of fight? Because he does talk a lot. He has gone people riled up. He says that, you know, he's the hardest hit in the division. I mean, he went after you. He wanted this fight. Is this? Because I remember what you said, you said that you were going to make him sort of, you know, repent for his sins, that you were going to make him, you know, pay for everything that he said, make him respect you type of thing. Do you view this as like you're going to big brother this guy? Like, this is almost kind of a detour from what you were trying to do after the Duhot Choi fight, get to the title shot. This is a little side job that you have to kind of take care of and then get back on track?

I mean, however, you guys want to analyze it, but to me, it's just about going out and having a great performance. It's a chance for me to top my last performance. I know he's tough. He's completely different style than my last fight, but he's still a stand-up guy. So I think it's a chance for me to bring out the best of myself. I got to train for 5-5, so that made me push it beyond my last camp. And so basically I'm just going to go out there and try to show the best version of myself, just try to show that I'm on another level. I don't believe this. I don't subscribe to this notion, but there are some who I do see, you know, they write this to me, they do believe it. They believe he doesn't deserve to be in the UFC, that he's only in the UFC because he's Connor's friend.

Do you believe that? I don't believe that talent-wise that he shouldn't be in the UFC. I feel like with his record and things like that, there's so many more deserving people to be in the UFC. So I just, you know, if somebody in that situation, if it wouldn't have been for Connor, he would have had to string together a lot more wins and do a lot more things.

I think people are pissed off about that. I particularly don't like them for that. Like I said, I just know there's a lot more deserving people. You know, when you treat your career early on really crappy, you can't expect to be in a good position. That's just the way that pro-fighting is. So, I mean, I don't think it's a lack of skill set. I just think it was a lack of taking care of, you know, his record

and doing the right things at the right time and doing all the things that you need to, to, you know, be a great fighter, you know, from the middle level to the next level. What, if anything, does he do that impresses you? I mean, he's showing, if you go back and look at his record, he's pretty, he's durable. That's, that's one thing. He's fought a lot of tough guys, different weight classes. So that was probably the reason he has a lot of the losses. But then later in his career, he gets with a good camp, good training partners.

So I'm expecting to see, if you look at every fight that he's had in the UFC, he's looked better. Yeah. So I'm expecting to see a better version than we've ever seen of him. So that's what motivated me to train so hard. I was actually going to ask you about that. To me, it felt like his best performance, I mean, by far was against Ishihara, that he seemed a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident in there. You seem to agree with that.

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And that was the best opponent also that he faced as well. So is it possible in your mind that he actually fights up to his competition? Because he's told me that as well. Like he gets up. So the better the competition, the better he fights. If you agree with that, you feel like you're going to see even better version of him on Saturday. Yeah.

I mean, that's what I'm expecting. But at the same time, I definitely think that Ishihara overlooked him. And I think that the hype of the fight got to him. He looked uncomfortable in there. he never looked settled in. So I don't think that he fought to his full potential. So, you know, it goes both ways. I remember in Toronto at the Post-Fight press conference,

you were kind of talking about, you know, wanting a big fight and, you know, kind of, you were saying, you know, I'm going to take a break and see what they come to me with and things like that. And then you come, you know, you come back with this. Safe to say this is not what you had in mind, right? This is not what you were referring to when you were sitting there talking to us in Toronto after that.

win. No, no, it wasn't. But the thing is, is I thought that I would end up getting on whatever card with Aldo and Holloway and, you know, train my butt off and see if I couldn't be a replacement, you know, if something were to happen. But the fact that they're fighting Brazil and that they're fighting a little later than I expected kind of change that. So I just wanted to stay active and, you know, just have great performances because the more great performances I'm having building up is just, I just feel like I'm getting better and better. So another great fight is just going to make me, you know, that much more ready for a title fight. So you and your girlfriend are expecting your first child and the story is that you found out the day of that fight in

Toronto, right? Is that accurate? Yeah, she found out a couple days before and then she told me that night after the fight after everything the press conference got back to my room and trying to go to bed about three in the morning and then she she like had made me a card and was like I want to tell you something and then she just hit me with it and I was just kind of like wow wow okay how did you react I mean this this is life-changing stuff obviously yeah I was I was excited it was just that I didn't show it. And she was a little bummed out about it.

I had to be like, you realize that I've been on an emotional roller coaster for like you know, all week. And it's peaking right now. And I'm kind of coming down from that. So, you know, she was like, you know, wanted to see this big reaction.

But, you know, that's what made me like so happy that she told me that night because with that performance and then earning five of the night or five of the year and everything that I could say that that was the greatest night of my life so far. Wow, that's amazing. And so did it like did you have to sort of, you know, say sorry after and go through all that because she didn't like your reaction? Did you have to deal with that? No, no, she gets it. So she, she's cool. Listen, how far along are we in the process? Five months, five and a half. Okay. So, baby due around August.

I remember when my first child, I was walking down the street with my wife and she just had to know her started crying and I couldn't quite figure it out. So I feel, you know, these things, you know, you have to deal with the emotions. There's a lot of emotions, hormones involved. You could deal with that, right? I mean, you're okay with that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's definitely, you know, a new challenge, but it's something that like, I've been,

I've been professional for 13 years and you get better at. you know, taking things on. And, you know, that's why I've never wanted to start a family up until this point. And I, you know, I didn't do a lot of things. I just feel like at this point in my life, I'm very confident with my ability as a fighter and I'm ready to take on other responsibilities. This is your first fight now. You're not, you know, you're about to become a father. You know that. Your, your, your girlfriend is pregnant. So as you prepare for the fight and you know that you're now fighting for something larger than just yourself. I'm always curious about first-time dads, how they react to this. Does it feel different up here? Like, as you're about to go to battle,

and you've got a kid coming in just a few months, do you feel like you're approaching this differently? Like, there's a different mindset up here that your thoughts are a little different than all your other fights in the past? Really, it just feels like I'm more focused about what my goals are. And I have real goals set, you know, as far as, uh, you know, as far as, uh, things that I want to do to, you know, make my family financially stable. And everything that I want to happen and I know is going to happen is just one win at a time. And this is the first of many. So it has me very focused, very motivated to go out there and put on the best performance of my career and come home happy and be able to relax

with my girlfriend and my family. Do you get a lot of people saying, you know, I hope. you shut this guy up, you know, he's the Connor friend and all that, and he talks a lot of smack. Like, are you sensing a lot of people backing you because of who you're fighting in this particular fight? Yeah, I got a lot of that right away, but I've done a good job of kind of, you know, taking all that out of the equation. I kind of shut people down when they try to talk to me about the fight when they're just going to say something ignorant. Or it's just like their opinion, because at the end of the day, that stuff,

kind of creeps in. It changes the way you think. For me, it's just an opponent. I don't particularly like them very much, and that motivates me to train hard. But I've tuned all that out. I don't really go on Twitter and all that. I just post my stuff. I don't like to read the comments. Yeah. And it helps a lot. Positive or negative. I try not to, you know, both of those can equally affect you. Why don't you like them? Because it just kind of leads you astray. And it keeps you from, you know, focusing on what's important. What's important is me.

Sorry, not to tell you. Why don't like him? Yes. Oh, because he just, he's trying to be somebody, you know, like a lot of these young guys are trying to be somebody that they're not. And he's trying to talk crap. And, you know, he called me a bitch and said I had no balls. I feel like those two things aren't true statements, and I feel like if you're going to call me out on something, say something that's true, call me out on something that's true, but those aren't true. So, like, to me, it's just ridiculous, and, you know, I'd like to, you know, make an example out of them.

What happened with all this, like, there was a minute where we thought that you were going to be the main event, then not the main event, then you were back on the main event? What happened there? I have no idea. It was, I don't know if they were thinking about it. or whatever. I think it was just maybe if they were thinking about changing the main event, it was because people were just pissed off

that Lobov would get a main event slot. But when I called Sean Shelby and Dana, they both assured me I was. And the reason I wanted to know is last minute, they booked me to go do a PR tour in Nashville. And I was upset because I was like, don't make me go to Nashville and do all his PR.

tell me three days later that I'm not the main event. Sure. Because I just won't go. Stay home and focus. But, of course, when you're doing main event duties, you got to do the extra stuff. So I'm willing to. But they assured me that we were the main event and not to listen to people. And so that's why I got kind of pissed off that, you know, you know how it is.

Some of these media guys just don't fact check. That's something I've told you many times. I appreciate you always fact checking me. anything that has to do with me because these guys, big, you know, big media outlets were putting out stuff that they didn't even fact check and that pisses me out. Yeah, I don't blame you. So now, where do you put yourself in the division? Because you have to be close, I mean, in that discussion, we don't expect Connor to come back

to 1.45 anytime soon, meaning I don't expect him to fight, at least not right now, the winner of Aldo Holloway. You win this fight. Do you think you're next? I mean, I know I'm next. I'm the only one that makes sense. The only two people that come into play, I really feel like just out of excitement and, you know, just something new is if a year happens to get past Frankie, I think that people would, you know, he has a strong following in Mexico. So I know he's right there.

That's a tough fight, but you never know. He's getting better and better. and then the other one would be the Korean zombie came back and he came back strong so if he has another performance like he did on his last one I think that it'd be a real tight race to see who's next would you be okay fighting yeah year I mean he's I would fight him if we needed to but I mean we both expressed we're friends we haven't trained together in a while but we for a long time we did train together

he helped me out for a lot of camps I mean he's stayed at my house for a brief time. So, I mean, I like him a lot, and I'd rather just watch him do his thing. But if we were both, if it was a number one contender or for the belt or something like that, then, you know, it is what it is. But preferably, I like just cheering him on. You know both Frankie and him. Who do you think wins that fight?

Well, it's tough to call it. I mean, yeah, you're just, he looks great. But Frankie's just, his smarts in the game are just incredible. his ability to kind of make adjustments is always impressed me so you know my the safe money bet would be frankie but i'm definitely not counting a year out he's uh he's getting good last thing before i let you go i see you sometimes you chime in on the whole boxing thing m m motters doing boxing you have a history of training with boxers you have a boxing background timothy bradley all this stuff do you give connor any kind of chance against floyd just

only the fact that he's so awkward you know and that um he would have to really train for it and be ready and try he'd have to land big shots early um i give him some chance but i don't think he's going to win um i chimed in on a lot because i thought that if anybody should be doing a boxing match of an mhmma fighter it'd be me yeah i don't think anybody has more round but i'll tell you though the one thing that keeps me able to hang with all these guys at a high level was the fact that I keep them guessing. When I try to just box like them, within two rounds, they'll figure me out and then just outbox me. But if I box them and then I switch to South Paul and I'm throwing big shots and then I clinch with them and then I stick and move and then I'm fighting on the inside real like a

dirty boxer and I just keep switching it, keep switching it. I throw a lot of things that they're not used to seem and that's that's the way that i dominate rounds um so that being said that's going to be uh the biggest what if for for connor fighting him but you think floyd would beat him i that would be the safe money bet that floyd beats him but i i mean it's possible it's very possible that connor throws some real awkward stuff and if he lands something big i don't kind of throw mayweather off his game We see Connor talking about Floyd. We see Manuel talking about, hey, would you want to get in on this, an MMA versus boxing card?

I would love for there to be a boxing versus MMA card. I think it would be awesome. I think MMA guys doing boxing is going to be hard, you know. Yeah. It's exciting. People want to see it. It's almost like, you know, like when MMA started, when it was style over style. So, I mean, I'd love to be in on it, and I'd love to see it.

Who would be your dream opponent? Let's see. I mean, I had called out Malamaji. He said he would fight me online, but I'd fight anybody. I spar a lot of really good guys. I'm not afraid. All right, well, first things first.

It's Artem Lobov this Saturday in Nashville. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I know some fans were all riled up, but I mean, there's nothing like a grudge match, if you will, and he's talked a lot. Now he's getting a chance to back it up. I think it's going to be fun.

Best of luck to you. I know you're heading off there soon, so I appreciate you squeezing us in. And again, congratulations to you and your girlfriend on the upcoming baby. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is.

Cubs Swanson headlining this Saturday on FS1 against Artem Lobov. This is going to be fun. This is going to be a lot of fun. All right. So that is the main event. I dropped my sponsor card, but we don't need that at the moment. I'll pick that up in a second. And that's the main event on Saturday in Nashville.

Co-made event, as I told you, it's Ally Quinta versus Diego Sanchez. And Diego is joining us, I do believe, on the phone right now. Is that accurate on the phone? Diego, are you there? I'm here. I'm on my phone. How are you, Diego? I'm doing great, man.

I'm just, I'm chilling. I'm out here in Nashville already. And I'm just enjoying this low altitude, 600 feet altitude. altitude, I'm just chilling in my room. I'm recovering. You know, just had a long training cap, so I'm just getting some recovery and I'm feeling great. So you're actually in Nashville.

We just spoke to your teammate Cub Swanson. He's still in Albuquerque. How early did you go out there and why did you go earlier than the typical Tuesday check-in? Well, see, this is something that I, like, for my last fight in Mexico City, I went out eight days before, you know, there was guys going out, um, 22, day. I think Marching Held was out there for 22 days before the fight. And, um, everybody was like really scared because of what happened to Cane Velasquez.

You know, they don't want to like, you know, go out there and gas out. So, um, but I was like, nah, you know, I think eight days will be good. I, you know, altitude in Albuquerque is pretty high. It's not 7,500 feet. You know, we, we train that 4800 feet. So it's not 7,500. but still I think, you know, I sleep at 6,000. About 50, I sleep at about 58 is my house.

So the gym is 48. So, you know, I figured, you know what? I'm going to go out there eight days before. That'll be good enough. And it just worked out so perfect, man. You know, the settling into a new environment and just the focus of being on the mission. You know, and for me, you know, I have a family and everything. So just to, you know, get, get away from the family and get on that warrior mission mentality, you know, and just totally submerge yourself into it, get ready.

And I think, you know, because all my years of fighting, being a little bit older, you know, your body doesn't recover as fast, you know. And so being a little bit older, you know, it's like, I'm like, man, I need, I need a little more. more time. You know, I need a little more time to settle into, I need to settle into what I'm doing, the new environment. And so, you know, for me, it works. Now, I will, I will not go out. I will always go out at least one week before the fight. I know I was ranting a little bit. No. Yeah. I always love hearing about that. I mean, I know there's a science to it, especially when you're fighting overseas. And that makes me think, like, which, which Diego are we talking to now because you have evolved.

I mean, you're the last of a dying breed. You're the last guy from the Ultimate Fighter season one to still be fighting in the UFC. You are, you are in some, I mean, you're like a national treasure in MMA. It's amazing. You keep on going like the energizer, Bunny, but sometimes you've been the nightmare of the dream. Where are we at right now? Which incarnation of Diego Sanchez are we talking to? You are talking to the lion's heart, Ariel.

The lion heart. You know, it's something that it's my third. 37th pro fight and I'm going in at the Lionheart. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, tell you the story of the lion's, oh no. Oh, no. But it, but it, but it's, like, pretty, like, pretty, pretty crazy deep. Like, yeah, and all, like, I had some stuff happened to me and, uh, I had like a heart injury and then, um, I received

the miracle and my heart was good and, um, so that's when I changed the name and, and, um, so, so, I changed the name again. Yeah, I know everybody's like, oh, he's changing it again. But listen, guys, the nightmare was the nightmare. Yeah, the nightmare was the nightmare in the cage, but I also became the nightmare outside the cage. Then, you know, I

did the whole like, you know, change of life being, come on, get it right, get married, and, you know, change your life and go down a different path. And that was the dream for a little while, but the dream was just too soft with the cage. I couldn't beat the dream, man. The dream was just too

soft. of the case. And the fans are pissed. And, you know, I fight for the fans. So the fans are pissed. And they wanted the nightmare back, really bad. So, you know, I gave the fans what they wanted. And then I got back to the nightmare.

And, and it went good. I started, you know, I started to kick it out again. You know, so it was a good thing. But, yeah, no, man, I thought about it, man. I was really, I was like, it's a long story, but I was sick and bad and I was, tell us, tell us. What happened? It's, man, it really, it's too long of a story area.

Oh, that's a tease, Diego. I love your stories. Yeah, no, it really is too long of a story. But anyways, man, I was training and I was training and I was training really super hard, my first week of training cap. and I'll get a little bit into it. I was training super hard. When was this?

This was about three months ago. Okay. It was about three years ago. And I was just, you know, I had knew that this fight was coming up. And I was just, I started the first week of training camp. I was training super hard all week long. It was Friday. And I had already done wrestling practice in the morning, went around the mountain,

in the midday. And I was like, man, you know what? Man, I just, I feel good. I'm like, I feel good. Like, I knew I had been a long, a hard week, but I was like, I feel good. I'm like, not too bad. And I'm not bad out of shape.

I was like, I'm going to grappling tonight. I'm going to finish this week hard. I'm going to just crush it. I'm going to kill it. And I'm going to go as hard as I can. And a little bit of that giant gable mentality. See, I've had that little bit of that. that Dan Gable mentality, but at the same time, you know, Dan Gable was maybe what, 19, 20 years old

when he was doing all his wrestling, 20, 21, 23. I don't know, but he was in the 20s for whatever reason. And, you know, I'm 35 and I'm here with the Dan Gable, Dan Gable, Tony Robbins, crazy Diego Sanchez mentality. I'm going to train the hardest. I'm going to push hard. I can mentally push through this, push through this, push it, push through this. and so that was something that I was that I was doing and I was like all right you know I'm going to finish the week hard and then I'm going to I'm going to rest two days and see I told this is a long story no no it's fine I like it

but um so then I was like all right you know and then I go in there and then you know man guess who's in the gym it's John Jones man he's 240 pounds and um and so like Like, I'm 175, and so we're like, all right, man, we start grappling. And, like, we're grappling at it, man. First five rounds, first five minutes. We're going hard, man. We're going, like, so hard. I mean, like, it evolves from just grappling practice to then we're doing get-up. Now we're doing full-on wrestling and grappling.

And then it evolves into the next thing. We start throwing kicks, you know, like we're not trying to knock each other out. but we're going hard. And then we started going body slaps and like, you know, like we're just, it's just like and we're just like little kids having fun with it, you know, but we're going freaking hard. And, you know, just like that's the funness of it. You know, always, always, you know, matter how hard you're going, you know, have fun with it. So we were going really, really hard.

Then the first round, the first five-minute round, and we're like having so much fun and we're just like, Let's just keep going, man. Like, we're not even going to stop during the break. Everybody else is stopping. We're just still going. And I'm like, we're going, like, super hard, man. And then I'm like, I get some good positions on it, man. I go for some arm bars.

I mean, like, I got real close to some finishes. And he got the mount position. I was able to hold him down in the mount position. So then I'm like, even super more stoked, it pumped, excited. I'm like, hell, yeah, that's true. You know, that's a big guy, and I had him, you know, down on the ground. And, you know, that was awesome. So I'm like, yeah, I'm like freaking fired up.

I'm like, yeah. Like, that's what's up. And then so, like, then, then the, so we're 10 minutes then. And I'm so freaking pumped up that like, I'm like, I'm like, all right, next round, next round. And like, I'm freaking going to, I'm running sprints in between the rounds while everybody else is rest. I'm like, I'm going hard. I'm like, I'm taking it to the next level. You know, I'm running sprints, and I'm running sprints real super hard.

And the next round I have this guy, Gaza, he's from, he's from Dagestan. He's a really good wrestler. He's my size, though. So, you know, like, you know, it's a good match. It's a good role. And so I have this Dagestanian wrestler that I'm battling with. And, you know, I put him in a try. triangle, finish him.

And it was, it was awesome, awesome match. So then I'm 15 minutes and I'm like, man, I'm just like, and then I realized like, okay, that round ended. And I'm like, man, I'm breathing so hard. I just, you know, I wasn't in terrible shape, but I wasn't in my fight shape, you know, to be going as hard as I was. But my mind was, you know, my mind was strong enough to where I,

I was at that level of, you know, I was able to mentally push, you know, like harder than, harder than my body was able to push at the age of 35, you know. And, and, and so this, you know, my next match is the gym manager, Misha, a real good friend of mine, and he's a brown belt, and he's really good. and um but like when you go with the gym manager you're like i gotta tap this guy out like that's the gym manager like i gotta put you know and then he you know the gym manager's like this is like you know like i'm you know he had the line he had to lie hard and him and i was like uh-uh i'm putting him in an arm bar you know i'm putting him i'm tapping this guy out and i'm going hard on it and um i started going super hard on him

And I, um, I, um, I, like, went for this, like, I went for like this jumping on bar on him. And like, like, when I hit the ground, like, boom, I just, I just, I hit the ground. And I was like, I felt something in my heart. And I was like, I was like, whoa. And I knew I was already like hyperventilating to an extent, but I was pushing through it. I was doing the old, old school technique. The old school technique was, um, wrestle your weight into shape. is what wrestlers think.

You know, you might not be in the best shape yet, but you, you, you, if you, wrestle your way in the shape, the wrestling is the what will get you in the shape. You know, you, you, the workout, the hard workout is the wrestling. But it's different when you get older and you, you, it's, it's just different. And so I hit the ground and man, I was like, what the hell? I was like, I felt something inside my heart. It wasn't like, it wasn't a muscular injury. It was something internal.

And I was like, oh shit. I was like, I didn't want to make a scene and be like, what the hell happened to me right now? I was just like, I just laid down and I said, hey, Misha, I'm done for the week. I was like, I'm done for the week. And like, I just like, I'm like, so I've done all this yoga, all this meditation on my years. I was like, all right, I'm just going to analyze. I'm going to calm down. And so I started doing this, I do this meditation that I created.

it's called heart rate down. And it's something that I've experimented with bringing my heart, being able to control my heart rate, bring it down in between rounds. And so I, I like freaking, I was like, all right, but I didn't want them to, like, call the ambulance and then freaking be out of my fly. And I don't know. I didn't want it to be blown up to something that was bigger than what it was. and I didn't know it was.

So I was just like, all right, let's just, we've been through, I've been fighting for so long, I've been through every type of injury, every type of thing that's happened, I've been through it, this is no different, let's just, let's go outside. So I snuck out the back door at the gym, which is kind of like, I was like, okay, just stay real calm, and I sneak out the back door of the gym. I snuck out the back door of the gym, and I went and I laid down outside on the grass. I went to laid out down. I sat on the grass.

I was laying down for like 15 minutes, like 15, 20 minutes. And I was just meditating like, okay, all right, breathe, calm down, you know, like, just let's analyze this, what's going on. And I just could feel something in there. And I knew I wasn't like having such a bad heart attack where I had to be rushed to the hospital that I was going to die. but I had something going on with me. Something had happened inside internal my heart.

I don't know. I assume that one of my valves, like something happened on one of the valves in my heart to where it just my heart couldn't get enough oxygen is what I, like from the research that I've looked into it. I think I couldn't get enough oxygen. And, and it couldn't. have been also a, you know, I don't know, maybe a heart palpitation. I don't know.

Due to dehydration due to something, I don't know. But whatever happened, it was serious and I could feel something going on. And I was very, very terrified that if I got my heart rate back up, that I could, like, die or something. You know, like, that's what, that's to the extent how it was. And I was like, I don't know, man. I was like, all right. And so I just, I calmed. myself down and then I walked I walked in and I was all right and I just you know

keep my heart rate down keep my heart rate down you know don't get over excited don't you know you know we don't know what's going on with your heart so I went in a shower went home and that and then when I went home it got even he got kind of got like even crazier because when I went home I went to bed and like all night long I had like these really bad sweat. I was like sweating. And so and I didn't know what was going on. And I was like, I was like, I was like, I don't know what's going on.

I'm just like going to take some ibuprofen and sleep it off. And maybe I'll feel better in the morning. You know, that's what, you know, an athlete's going to do, you know, like for the most part. You know, I didn't feel like I needed to go to the hospital that I was dying. You know, like I was like, I was like, I took some hypofen, sleep it off, and maybe I'll feel better in the morning. But this is a thing. In the morning, I woke up, and I didn't feel better.

I didn't feel better. I still felt that same, like an uncomfortable feeling inside of my heart. And so I had this uncomfortable feeling inside of my heart, and it was just, it was scary. And I was just like, shit. I was like, man, I was like, I don't know what's going to happen. I was like, you know, let's just give it a couple more days, you know, like, you know, and instead of going to hospital, man, I figured out old school, like Old Testament Bible, like old school, old school, like the real Old Testament old school. I was like, man, you know what, man, I believe, I believe in miracles. I believe in miracles.

I'm going to, I'm going to just, I'm going to fast and I'm going to pray. and so I started to and I told everybody I was like no man I got the flu I told everybody at the gym that I got the flu and I think I even like told my wife that I got the flu I was like afraid to tell anybody like

I didn't like I was like terrified I was like what if my career is about to be over you know like I'm like I'm like this is some scary stuff oh my thoughts the thoughts that were going through my brain I'm like am I done you know, is this, is it?

I'm like, God, please, no. Like, like, I'm like, please, let this not be it. And so I was like, all right, so I'm going to, I'm going to get old school. I'm going to fast and I'm going to pray. And I did do my alkaline water that I do. I was telling alkaline water, and I would do deep juice, because I heard it was good for the heart, deep juice and turmeric juice. And so those two, I was juicing beet juice and turmeric juice and just water.

So I was basically just fasting. I wasn't eating anything. But I had a little bit of nutrition, the beet juice, I guess. And so I was fasting and praying, but I was down, man. I was down for the count. And I went through three days where I was going through this fasting process. And my body kept having like terrible night's sweat. and I had the chest pain and even had like even down my arm I was feeling a little something going down my arm so like I was I was scared I was scared and I was like on the third day I was like all right man it's still not getting better I think I'm going to have to go to the hospital and just to go figure this out but I wasn't like I wasn't dying so I was like all right well let's just and then and and then on the third day I was like all right man I was like all right man

like I already like was feeling very very spiritual to this to this moment like on the third day I was like I had felt like I was like you know just praying a lot and that's when I felt like you know these these visions and stuff like anybody that doesn't eat they're going to you're going to feel these stuff you don't eat for three days you're going to start to get like these like crazy feelings and stuff and so I um That's when, like, the whole thing, I'm like, I'm praying and plead you on God. I'm like, God, please, like, you know, let me, let me, let me do this. Let me continue to be a fighter. You know, I got my daughter. I got my kids, you know, I, I have, you know, this family to provide for. Like, you know, don't let this be it. And then the fourth day, then the fifth day, the sweats, the sweat stopped on the fourth day.

but the uncomfortable feeling I had in my chest was still there. The sixth day and then the seventh day, on the seventh day, I was just like, I woke up and it was Friday, and I was like, all right, it's the seventh day, it's been a week. If it's not getting better, then I'm going to the hospital. Like, I'm just going to go do it. Like, I'm going to man up to this, God. I'm going to man up to whatever it is.

and if whatever it is, I'm going to get through it. And so I was like, all right. And then the day kind of went on, and it was like four or five o'clock in the evening. And I was like, man, it's Friday. I don't want to freaking go to the emergency room and sit in there all night. I was like, all right. I was like, all right, God, one more night. I'm like, give it one more night.

And if it's not gone in the morning, I'm just going in the morning. And so I, yeah, that night, I prayed all night. and just was like really, really, really just into what I was doing. And people will call me crazy for saying what I'm about to say. But like, it's real. This really did happen to me. And this is how the Lionheart came about because I was in this state of a fasted state, a fasted mind state where I'm in like a near-death life,

near, well, whatever, near, near career ending situation. I mean, I'm real. I'm, like, I'm being real. And I'm being real with myself and being real with God. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, that's when I, like, I get this feeling. Like, I was like, can you, can you inspire people to be nightmares? Can you inspire millions to be nightmares? I'm like, wow.

And then, and then it, and then they said it even worse. It was like, can you inspire the little kid to be nightmares? I'm like, oh, shoot, come like, I'm. And then it's like, can you inspire the kid with cancer, you know, to be the nightmare? And then I felt like, I felt like God told me like, your nickname should define you as a fighter. And even whatever the person, non-believer or believer, they have their own choice to decide what they want to believe in this story.

But me as a believer, I believe it was the Holy Spirit talking to me. The non-believer can say, you know what, he was fast, he was delusional, and he was talking to himself in his own head. Okay, well, whatever. All right. So I basically was like, I was like, all right, man. I was like, what defines me as a fighter? I was like, what defines me as a fighter? What really, truly defines you as a fighter?

And so I remember laying there in bed and I'm like, it was like a very. video was, I was, I was just so deep in my, my life, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, I was like a video game, uh, like a video was playing of all my fights. I was watching all my fights, I had, I had awesome fights. You know, I have fights where, you know, but the ones that really true. defined me were the ones when I was, you know, it was my heart. It was my heart. It was what I, it was my heart is what defined me as a fighter. My khorasan, you know, in the, in the, in the Jake Ellenberger fight, when I'm down and I'm losing the fight and coming back, you know, in the Martin Kaptman fight, my face is sliced to pieces. And I mean, there's no quit in that heart. That heart is going strong. And then the give of Melinda's fight. And I'm pounding my chest.

I'm pounding my heart in the fight. And that's when I was like, oh, it's the heart. Heart. I was like, okay, well, Diego Hart Sanchez? No. How about Diego Corazon Sanchez? That sounds pretty cool. Then I remembered, I said, I said, all right.

Well, you know, when I go to Mexico, all the Mexicans would always tell me they loved me because I had the Korah. Oh, yes. Every time I go to Mexico, the Mexican fans would tell me, oh, Diego Sanchez, he said, Corazon de Leon,

they would tell me, and I'm, and so I was like, man, I was like, that, that's it. And then, so then it gets even deeper. I told you it was a long story.

I love it. It's a great story in the history of the show, by the way. I just want to say that. That's all I want to say. Keep going. And it gets even deeper.

because then I'm like, all right, Lionheart, all right? Okay, you know, that makes sense. That makes it that I like it. I feel it. I feel it, lion heart. And then so it's like, all right, well, what makes me have this lion heart? What makes me have this lion's heart? All right, what is it in my heart that puts this lion heart inside of me?

All right, me as a believer in Jesus Christ. It is the lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. So then there you go. It's coming together. It's coming together. The lion heart has begun. But listen, man, I'm still freaking, don't even know if I'm ever going to fight again. I don't even know if I'm done.

I don't know if I'm done. And so I've been going through this hard week, and it's at the morning time. And I wake up in the morning, and I'm like, oh, I mean, I plead to a God. I said, oh, Lord, I need the miracle. I need the miracle. Oh, come on. You know, and I didn't get it. I woke up in the morning, and the heart thing still,

I still felt the heart thing in my chest. So then I'm like, all right, you know, I got up all my wife. I said, so I'm going in. I'm going to get it checked out. You know, it's been long enough. I've got to go see what's going on. I go to the hospital, and, um, I'm there and

and like I'm at the hospital and I'm like, all right, I'm waiting and I'm just playing the little waiting game and then finally they get me in and they get me in to put me on the machines and check the EKG and put all these things hook my heart up, check my heart out,

make sure everything, blood pressure, everything's all good and that's when they're hooking up the machine I say one last little prayer, and I'm like, my Lord, I'm like, oh, my God, please, you know, like this is, you know, my fighting's my life. I mean, I'm, just let me add another chance. And I know I'm a man of second chances over and over and over again, but please give me another chance.

And they hook me up and they do the test. And the craziest part about this story is this. This is the craziest part of the. story because they do the test they come into the room and they're like Diego you have a perfectly fine

healthy heart we cannot find anything wrong with you and at that moment when they told me that the feeling that I had in my heart went away and it was gone and after that I resume

I resume my life as a fighter I resume my life as as Diego Sanchez, but now, now, now I'm my heart because I received a miracle that day, and they told me that it was a muscular injury. It must have been a muscular injury, they told me. They said, what you were feeling must have been a muscular injury, they told me. I said, muscle injury. I said, I've had every muscular injury that there is.

I know, like, I've had every muscular injury in the book. You could write an encyclopedia on the muscle injuries that I've had. I was like, I know this, I knew this was not a muscle injury. But, you know, it is what it is. It's one of those supernatural stories that, you know, either you choose to believe it or you choose to not believe it. But this is the thing. Come Saturday night, the lion heart is getting in the cage for the 37th pro fight.

And I'm going to bring this lionheart in that cage. And nothing ally of Quinta has, nothing that man has is going to stop this lion from pounding his chest, man, and doing what I do, what I do in that cage. And that's it, man. So if you, you know, you've got any other questions or anything, that's the lion heart story. That's how the lionheart began. and and there's more to it too, but I don't want to, you know, I don't want to

keep it going. I'm sure you have some questions about other stuff, but that's the line. What's more? Diego, this is the greatest, I can't top this. Keep going. Well, the other part too it is, you know, that I'm going to be

100% honest with you, Ariel. Please. I had a medical marijuana license. and, you know, I heard all this stuff about, you know, the CBDs and how it's good for the brain and, you know, like, you know, how it's good for the inflammation. And, you know, actually, my, one of my training partners, Cowboys-Soroni got me the cream and said, hey, man, this is, you know, this is the only thing that helps my knees, you know, this cream.

It really does work, the THC and the CBD. And, but, you know, so like, yeah, I know a lot of fighters are getting a medical marijuana licenses. And I heard there's something in the NFL now and everything. But so, yeah, I was like, all right. Well, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to see if this might help me. You know, I've been fighting in a long time. And, you know, I do have pains and aches.

And what if it will help me? Let's give it a try. So I did. I had my medical marijuana license. And it goes against. my, my, my, my, my, um, my spiritual path and, and it goes against what, you know, like a Christian should not really, you know, like, I know that they, that someone will say, oh, well, you're Christian, you smoke weed. Oh, that's terrible. That's, you're a hypocrite. You know, so, so, so, yeah,

so no, I, I was going down this path and, um, but it became to where, you know, I was, I was, I was, I was smoking. It became like, oh, you got the sativa. This is going to help you for your creativity and for your focus. And then, and then you got the indica. This is going to help you for your bedtime. This is going to help you get that perfect rest. So you can just knock all that inflammation out. You can knock all that inflammation out. You can wake up feeling fresh and restored in the morning. You know, so like, it had become to this, you know, and it was, I don't I only had it for three months. You know, I got it after the Marching Healthite.

And I had it for like two or three months where I was experimenting with the medical marijuana, you know. And I think it was more just me wanting to find a reason to why I could say, okay, now it's okay to do this. You know, like because I had always loved the marijuana. I had always been one of my demons that I always battled. Like I just because I loved it so much. Like I just always thought, oh, you know, fun, giggling, laugh. But, you know, yeah, it comes with side effects too. You know, memory loss and all the other stuff that come with marijuana.

And what I like to refer to this term, you ever seen a marijuana pipe? they start all clean and clear and then just after like one week of using it it turns black and you use it for like a month it usually man those things are just like gunky full of tar and resin and so that's

what I think I would assume maybe your body maybe the human body has a way of filtering it out but I don't think so because when I was smoking my lungs were was being affected. And I was like that. You get that.

And I mean, I still had the mentality to train like a warrior. So when this happened to me that day at the gym, I was still experimenting with medical marijuana. And I actually was even high on medical marijuana in a zone, in a sativa mind state to help your creativity while you're doing your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Yeah, right. no I freaking whatever happened to my heart

I don't know but the moment that I laid down out in the back of the Jackson Link gym I instantly knew it was because what I because of that medical marijuana you know and I understand I understand that you know and I'm not going to

be like a judgmental Christian in any way like this like look dear I walked the path I did it for a long long time and it It, you know, I did it and I loved it. And I got my medicinal, I got my medicinal medicine. I got some good sleep and I got my creativity.

And, you know, so I do understand, you know, and even for pains and stuff too. So I'm not going to be like, oh, you know, I'm judging, you know, like I'm saying that medical marijuana is not for everybody. It's not for me. I know it. I know for a fact it's not for me. And so, but anyways, man, yeah, so it's like that, that, that took me down that path. I got it out of, I got, I got, I got, I got the medical marijuana out of my life. I don't, I'll never, ever touch marijuana ever again in my life ever, ever, ever again.

Oh, you want to know, this story is so crazy. People are going to be like, damn Diego done lost his rocker. He done gone crazier. First he's, first he's yelling, yes, yes, yes. Now he done, he done, he done gone, get going crazy on us. And so. Wait, what were you going to say? What a better, what a better person to share the story with you, Ariel.

Thank you. Yeah, no, but anyways, man, I, well, I was going through all this transformation in the fasting process. I also felt the Holy Spirit told me that Lionheart, it was like, this. Real clear. It was like this. Lionheart did, and I would think it was going to be smoke, because that was always my real main, real main, like, sin that I would like, well, I'll say sin, yeah. My main stronghold was always the marijuana. And so I was like, I thought it would have been that, but it wasn't that. It was all, I heard this, this is what I heard, Lionheart does not drink. I was like, huh, Lionheart does not smoke. Lionheart is smart.

And so that's what I, that's what I, that's what I, that's what, um, I felt the Holy Spirit told me. And, um, I was like, wow. And I was just like, all right. I'm, all right. I'm not going to, I'm not going to drink. I'm not going to smoke. Not even a celebratory. And I'm not, and I'm not, and once again, let me, let me reassure you guys.

I'm not judging anyway. I don't think that it's not for everybody, you know, everybody's different. Everybody's life is different. You know, have, have a beer after, after. after a hard day. You know, my dad does every day, you know, have a glass of wine with your meal. You know, that's different than being a drunk, you know. But for me, you know, I'm never, ever going to touch alcohol again.

I'm never ever going to touch marijuana. It would never happen again in my life. I feel like I truly did get a real second chance at whatever it is, you know, the greatness that is the greatness that is me at 35 years old, giving my best run at what, you know, is my destiny, I believe, with a truly focused sober mindset. And just giving it everything, giving it everything that I have to be in the greatest, greatest fighter in the world. And that's what I've done in this training camp.

I've really, really put the hard work in. I put the hard work and I have given everything to this training camp and that's why I'm here in my room right now recovering because I felt like I needed to get some recovery because yeah my legs were still sore you know my body still felt the training but down here at the lower altitude I'm recovering fast and I'm excited for the opportunity that ally of Quinta gave me Alaya Quinta thank you for stepping up and taking this fight I'm very excited to get in there and do what I do. And I'm, you know, I'm not concerned about what him. I'm concerned about what I do. I'm a fighter. I'm a born fighter. And it's going to be, it's going to be something great out of me regardless of what anybody thinks, I'm bringing my best A-game to fight Alia Quince on Saturday night. He's writing a four-fight win streak. and he has a big win whether they say he won or lost

the Masfidel fight he has a big win over Massvedal in his last fight he's the perfect opponent for me right now in this stage of my career to just put me back up put me back up and jump the ladder

jump the ladder that's what I'm looking to do I jump the ladder I put a great performance on in the marching hell fight I was very close to the finish he could not even stand up after the fight

you know I and I'm ready for this fight. I'm ready to show the world of Lionheart. That was unbelievable, Diego. Wow. Thank you for that. That was incredible. That was the greatest answer to a question.

I don't even know if I asked a question to lead into it in the history of the show. That was almost a 40-minute story. I told you it was going to be a long story. That was incredible. Well, most importantly, I'm happy you're okay. I try warning you and, man, you know what, man, it takes a lot of courage for me to, to step outside the box and say these type of stuff because, you know, yeah, some people will say I'm crazy, you know, but, you know, yeah, I am, I am crazy. I am crazy. I am crazy. So, so say whatever, the people who want to hate on me can hate on me, but Saturday night, I'm bringing the lionheart into the cage and, you know, and that's, and that's, and that's, and that's, and that's. That's all there is to it.

I'm most importantly happy that you're okay because at first I was getting a little worried there with the heart. I mean, I know you're fighting, but anytime you talk about the heart, it gets a little scary. So I'm happy that you're okay. No reservations, right? You're all good.

100% healthy. My heart is stronger than it's ever been. And so is the mind, so it's the spirit, and so is the body. I'm ready to rock and roll Saturday night. I don't even know how to, I mean, you did the whole, you see, you're like, I was at a hotel in Buffalo a couple weeks ago, and they had a robot there, and the people

working at, the robot brings, if you call down to the lobby and ask for like a toothbrush or toothpaste or food, the robot goes in the elevator and brings your room. And the people who work there were saying, like, we don't really love this robot because we're afraid he's going to take our job or it's going to take our job in the future, right? I feel like you're taking away the interviewer's job. You just did the whole interview. There's literally nothing that I can ask you that could top what you said. And you covered all the basics. This Ayakwinta, the layoff, the Mazvedolf fight. What more can I ask?

There's nothing more to say. Well, Aliaquinta, man. He's a guy I know him. And we had dinner one time. Really? When? We had dinner. It was about a year and a half ago when I was in New York for the releasing of the

Torque hats that they were doing out there at the lids. We did something out there. and Uriah, we had dinner. And it was a nice dinner, and we had a good talk. And it was before I was going to fight Joe Lozahn. And, you know, he's cool. He's a cool guy, man. I like the guy.

I respect the guy. But, you know, the guy's been doing real estate for two years. And I don't know what kind of life of real estate is, but I'm sure, you know, It includes a night life, an entertainment life, on side of doing a regular job. But that's not what's going to make you better. What's going to make you better in this sport is grinding through the wins, the losses, and bouncing back and finding a way to get better from no matter what, win or loss. I'm getting better.

And that's what I've been doing. I proved it in my marching hell fight, and I fought at 34 years old, I dominated the 24-year-old up-and-comer who also, in my opinion, dominated Joe Lozahn. You know, I got caught in the UFC 200. It was one minute into the fight. I got caught, and the referee Smith did a good job stopping the fight. I didn't have to take any more damage than unnecessary damage. So, yeah, no, it was what it was. But this is the thing, man.

I'm not anywhere close to being done. I'm in a prime of my career. I'm 35 years old. I'm an anti-aging master. I have the wisdom of anti-aging. I learn from Andy Couture. I learned from Hicks and Gracie. I've watched these masters do it for years.

I've had 15 years of yoga behind me. I'm healthier than these guys, man. I really truly am. I went through my part. days and I made some bad decisions. But man, I'm telling you what, man, I was always detoxing. I was always doing my high yoga. I was always doing, going above and beyond because I always knew that if I could understand the anti-aging, the natural anti-aging formulas, I could fight longer. I knew that since I was 22 years old. I started eating organic at a young,

age. And right now at 35 years old, man, I'm freaking, I'm freaking ready, man. I'm ready for my rise to the top. And that's why I posted on my Instagram, Rise of the Lionheart. Anybody wants to follow me on Instagram? I'm always putting videos out on supplements, on nutrition, on reviews, on the secrets that I do to keep this fight, keep this fight going inside of me because I love it. And, you know, people are calling me a legend now already.

Well, you know what? The legacy is just starting right now with the Lionheart. And, you know, the nightmare has done it in the past. And why the nightmare? Why the nightmare? Because I cried to God. I said, God, God, why? Why?

Why did I have to be the nightmare? Why did I have to go through so many training camps where I get so spiritual? And then after the training camp, it's back to the party. back to the weed, you know, back to whatever, you know, I mean, why the up and down prodigal sun pattern for so long? And God told me, he said, why? Because there was a lot of nightmares out there, and I love them too. And for you to be the lionheart, you have to understand the nightmare. And to get through it, you to get to it. You have to go through it to get to it. And that's what I did. I went through it to get to it.

And so I'm not one of those guys that, that judges people. You know what I mean? It's like, how could I judge somebody for doing what I did, you know, or what I went to? No, it's not that. But I can also give people good advice,

like, you know, like, look, listen, listen here, man. This is, I went through this, man. You know, it, it was rough. You know, it came with its consequences. And, but, but, you know, You know, every man's his own man and every man's his own man and man is his own man or woman in his own time. But listen to this, Ariel, the lion heart ain't about me.

The lion heart is about everybody else. It's about everybody else. It's for the kid who has cancer that has to go to his chemotherapy and it's rough and he's having a hard day and he don't want to go to that chemotherapy. But guess what? He says, he says, I'm a lying heart. I'm going to pound my chest like Diego Sanchez in that Gilbert Melendez fight, and I'm going to tough it out. I'm going to come through, and I'm going to win this fight.

And it could be the woman at work who's having a hard day at work. Her boss is giving her so much stress, and she's like, no, I just want to quit. It could be the guy that I was talking to on Instagram last night who is going to a divorce and wants to kill himself. You know what I mean? It could be anybody. So that's what the Lionheart is about. And so, you know, Ariel, I think that's a good note to end on, man.

I'm ready to rock on Saturday. My weight is good. My health is good. I'm strong. I'm feeling great, man. And Lionheart Saturday night. Bless you, Diego. You are a special character in the sport.

You are one of a kind. You are a treasure when it comes to MMA. And wow, I really enjoy. enjoyed that. I have to say just to hear you open up and tell the story, I know at first you were reluctant, but to tell the story like that in that kind of detail, thank you, my friend. And I agree. Let's leave it at that. That was a beautiful thing. Thank you so much, Diego. Good luck to you on Saturday. I can't wait to see the fight. I am more excited now. I was saying yesterday to someone, this is the people's main event on Saturday. I am more excited now for the fight after hearing your story

for the last, you know, 50 minutes or so. Really appreciate it. Glad to, glad to you. Glad to to hear that you're in a good spot mentally, in great spirits, and I can't wait to see you go back to work on Saturday. All the best to you, Diego, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Ariel. Always a pleasure, bro. And God bless, bro. You're the man. Thank you so much. Diego Sanchez, the Lionheart. What can I say? I think I asked two questions in that interview. It started at around 310 Eastern. It's now 358, 48 minutes later. I think I asked them about going early, right? And then I asked him about where are we at, what incarnation of Diego Sanchez we're talking to. And then that was essentially it. Maybe one more at the end. No more than three or four.

And I love the fact that he knew, let's go. That's it. It's over. There's nothing more to say. Yeah, we could talk about this, that. We could talk about the gym. We could talk about John Jones. We could talk about Greg Jackson. Talk about Iqa. There's nothing more to say. There it is. Diego Sanchez, the one and only. That in a nutshell. is why I love covering the sport so much. I was talking to my cousin-in-law. Her name is Amanda Stein. She covers the Montreal Canadiens for TSN 690 in Montreal.

And we were talking about interviewing hockey players and how boring it can be at times, how formulaic their answers can be. It's like they're reading off a script. And I told her that I am so lucky and appreciative to be covering this sport because of the fighters because of how open they are, how interesting they are, how unfiltered.

they are more often than not. And I mean, this is an extreme example, of course, but it doesn't get any better than Diego Sanchez. Holy smokes. That was the longest answer in the history of this show. That was the best answer in the history of the show. It's all downhill from here. All right, in a few minutes, actually.

I planned for a longer break, to be honest, but I should have known better. In a few minutes, we're actually going to be joined by one of Diego's teammates, Tom Duquesneois, who was victorious in his UFC debut. But for a couple of minutes here, let's talk to New Yorker quick as I catch my breath, although I've had essentially 40 minutes to catch my breath

because I didn't say much in that interview, to be honest. I know Hannah Gracie gave us a couple long answers back in the day, but nothing tops that, right? I feel like the other ones in the running are probably also from Diego Sanchez. I remember another one in the old studio where he was talking about, I believe, having his first child. there was another enlightened conversation that went on there. But this one's pretty hard to top.

People were trying to make me laugh. We're texting me things and DMing me things. Even DC, Daniel Cormeer was tweeting about it. But I feel like I, I mean, he was talking about a serious thing. Yeah. Come on. The Lionheart. The Lionheart.

He's giving the playbook on how to do this. Wow. Okay. Let me talk about it. a few things. Yes. As we transition here. There's some talk online that Tyrone Woodley is fighting Connor McGregor in July. I've been told that that's absolutely not true, that there's no fight on the table. I know Woodley posted something on his Instagram about starting a camp, and I know there was some talk about him fighting in July. Also, there has been some talk of Amanda Nunes fighting in July.

There's all kinds of things going on. There's all kinds of balls being juggled right now as far as that July month is concerned because there's one, two, three, four, five cards that month. Two, first week of July. Then there's Scotland. Then there's Long Island. Then there's Anaheim pay-per-view at the end of the month. And right now there is no main event for July 8th, UFC 213. But it's not Connor McGregor versus Tyron Woodley.

Now you've seen the back and forth between D.C. and Manoa. I must say it's pretty entertaining. Have you seen this? The shot about the shorts. the back and forth. That's definitely being discussed, but from what I understand, there's nothing done as far as Manoa Jones just yet.

Do you get what I'm saying? I do. But it doesn't hurt to keep the options open and keep perpetuating the interest in that fight. Jimmy Manuel has done a fantastic job, a really fantastic job, of keeping himself in that story. He really has.

I think the credit goes more to D.C., to be honest. Yes, fair enough. but Manoa, you know, the picture with Dana White, going to Buffalo. Here is taking it upon himself. I agree with you on that. But here's why. It would be very easy for Daniel Cormier to ignore Jimmy Manowell completely. And to be honest, not a soul in the world would care if he did.

There's not one person who would say, Daniel, you're ducking Jimmy Manoa. It really is incumbent upon him to keep it going. And he's done a masterful job of that. I do see some people saying you're engaging with Manoa because you're ducking John Jones. And this is absolutely ludicrous. I mean, that's, you know, that's another. Well, this is crazy because he stands to make so much more money fighting and then maybe beating John Jones than he does fighting and then beating Manoa. Like, why at this stage of his life would he duck the fight that he's been talking about and was two days away from fighting last July?

I think we've seen Daniel Coromier call out John Jones enough to know that he wants that fight. That's just ludicrous. But, I mean, credit to Manoa, but I think DC's doing the heavy lifting on this one. Fair enough. I think he's keeping all of these angles alive. So, so kudos to him. Numbers and options. All of a sudden, we thought after Rumble, he only had one option.

That's Daniel Kormier that I'm talking about. Now he's got two. He's got two, but after that, tough sledding. That division's not looking prime for contenders to rise up. Two fights can keep him busy for at least, you know, eight to ten months, right? So who knows what happens? depending on how long it takes for, you know, John Jones to come back. Because it's probably not going to be right away.

So who knows how long that takes? While we're on the topic of D.C., what did you make of the fact that almost right after we did our show last week, Rumble's team came out and said that they were going to appeal, try to get a percentage of his purse, try to get him stripped, all because of the towel thing? Because I feel pretty strongly about this. You can't do that. You can't do that. of like, what do you stand to gain from this?

If you had lobbied some kind of complaint when it was happening and there was some action taken then makes sense to me, obviously justified. Now it just seems not even, I wouldn't even say sour grapes because I don't get the vibe that it's something rumbles that passionate about. I feel like it's more like, you know, housekeeping type thing, more a paperwork, a formality type thing. And doesn't really make much sense to me. The guy's retired.

DC1 kind of just let, you know, sleeping dogs lie. I don't know. I don't want to say it rubbed me the wrong way, but there was an opportunity for at least, what are we talking here? Like, I don't know, 36 hours leading up to the fight, where you could have at least said, we are going to do this after the fight.

Nothing would have happened as far as distractions, as far as the buildup, as far as stopping the fight from happening, if you would have done it before, at least brought up the idea of doing it before. Yeah. And I was there with everyone. I mean, it was all happening in front of our eyes. That wasn't brought up.

Rumble Johnson wants to retire. Was there some screwy stuff that went on? Perhaps. But guess what? As I said last week, the New York Commission was staring at it. And you can be sure that they are not going to come out after the fact and say, yeah, we screwed up D.C. you're in trouble. We're going to, A, strip you, B, fine, you. It's just not going to happen.

Yeah, I mean, I guess what would the repercussions be? Can you strip DC for that? That doesn't seem like an appropriate response anyway. It would be crazy. So I don't really understand. He found a loophole. He found, you know, a crack in the system. And it's on them. Guess what? It doesn't say anywhere that you can't do it, right? And by the way, I predicted it as far as Wydenman is concerned. Now they're saying it doesn't say anywhere in our in our guidelines that we can't go to replay. Didn't I predict that on the show? I predicted that they would say that and they said that. And so I don't think that that's going to get overturned as well. The Wyman thing is different. He said right off the bat after the fight, I'm going to do this. And he's doing it. The appeal that is.

But also, I mean, the circumstances are so different. Absolutely different. He's an active fighter who's still trying to compete. In this case, there's really no, there's no benefit to Rumble Johnson in this case. Especially because he's retired. And then he put out a statement. and then he deleted it. I don't know. The whole thing. Strange, strange scenario.

Very strange. They just need to let it go. I just, I don't think it's a good look at this point. You had the opportunity to say something while it was happening. And hopefully, as we've seen many cases in the sport, the sport is evolving. Things are kind of happening in front of our eyes. We learn almost like a new rule every week. Maybe for a main event or a title fight, you need to be there when your guy weighs in.

Yeah. You know, you need to try to send someone there, at least. can't be there the fighter. We see this in boxing when, you know, you always see Freddie Roach and the opponent's locker room when they're taping their hands and things like that. Maybe you need to be there to make sure that nothing screwy happens. So you can't complain after the fact. But if you're not going to be there, it's tough to complain after the fact. It really is. And especially in this case, because of the retirement. There's really no, there's nothing to do. Right. A couple other things. Marlon Marl Marais has a

officially signed with the UFC and he's fighting Hotfiel's Sonshow. Do you like this fight as far as a debut fight is concerned? Absolutely. That's a great test for him and I think kind of where we'll see there's some people that think he's already, you know, top five. There's some people that say he's the best.

We're going to find out very quickly. So I think that's appropriate. Can I just say this? And this is so inside baseball. I mean, it really is but I feel compelled to say it because this is my life. You know, I'm in the interview business and I'm in the news gathering business. And in other sports, this is just a unique case for me.

I'm not trying to distinguish myself, but like you either have newsbreakers or interviewers. It's hard to mix both of them because you're either like trying to gather scoops or you're trying to interview people and sometimes those two clash. And so when I'm not doing my show or trying to book my show or trying to get guests, et cetera, the thing that I often run into when it comes to the UFC is, oh, I'm not allowed to say anything. I'm not allowed to say anything. They told me that they're going to cancel the fight. They're going to take the fight off the table.

There's all kinds of threats being thrown around, right? When it comes to talking to journalists off the record anonymously, things like that. And what I often come back with is, well, what do they have in mind? What's the plan for breaking this fight? Like, what's the big reveal? What's the big secret here? What's the big, you know, promotion that they're going to do for this fight? I'm not really quite sure, but they really want to break it themselves.

They want to put it out there. Usually, because I always try to monitor this, it's a tweet. It's that generic two-picture, you know, guy, guy, logo, UFC 211, whatever. That's it. It's just a tweet. To me, if someone reports that a day before and they tweet it the next day, it takes nothing away from the excitement of the fight. It doesn't ruin the fight. I mean, we've gone through this already.

When someone tweeted that, I think it was Wojj, that the Knicks had acquired Derek Rose, I was excited then, and I was excited when the Knicks had acquired Derek Rose, I was excited when the Knicks. officially confirmed it, of course, I feel differently a year later, but you get my point. Marlon Marais, how did they do this one? Big fish, best bantam weight, not in the UFC,

free agent, they didn't even tweet it. They put it out on UFC.com on a Saturday morning. That was it. No mention on Fox, no nothing. What was the big secret there? What was the big plan? What was the big promotion? What was the big surprise?

What was the big hullabaloo? There was nothing. And so I kind of feel like, like, So I reported it on a Thursday got a lot more attention than when they put it out there on a Saturday morning on UFC.com on a fight day.

I don't get it. But I'm not in the promotion business. I don't know anything about posters, about commercials, about promos, about tweets. That's not my domain. I just thought that was weird. This is a big deal.

This should be celebrated. You just signed Marlon Marais, the WSOF, Bantamway champion. who's undefeated in his last, what, 11 fights or something coming over, big fight against Halffowl Sunsel, make a big deal about it. And I know a promo about, you know, DJ is not going to lead to more viewers. But all these little things count.

You have to make your fighters seem special. You have to make, there's too much going on. There's not enough people to make these announcements, to make these fights, to make these fighters feel big. To make us as a public feel excited. You can't just put on fights. There has to be more to it, especially in this day and age

when everyone looks the same. You see the way people react to a horizon, the pageantry of it all, the lights, the walkouts, the entrances, I'm not comparing the two, but if you're not going to go that route, you've got to do a little more, at least in my opinion,

to get people excited about these fights. What's being done this week to get us excited about Lobov v. Lobov versus Watson or Iaquinta versus Sanchez. Is it just, you know, a couple of promos here, a couple of tweets there, or is there something special planned? I don't know.

Or are these cards bought and paid for and we don't quite get it? I don't know. I want this sport to be as successful and popular and as big as possible to feel special. I love it. Everyone's missing out is the way I look at it. There's nothing like it in the world. There's nothing like what Rose Damienis did to Michelle Waterson or Robert Whitaker did to Jacques Re Soz on Saturday. There's nothing like that. But you can't just put on the fight.

It's not enough. Thank you very much to the Marines for being a proud sponsor of our show. Remember, every Marine has the willingness to engage and the determination to defeat any adversary. Failure is not an option. They will keep battling until they win. Every value tradition and lesson learned from battle are imbued into every Marine. It's what they're all made of and how the Marine Corps develops quality citizens. Marines don't fight for glory. They fight for honor. They live by a code that isn't written or spoken but lived. Check them out. Marines.com.

We appreciate their support very much. Okay, one of the big stories on Saturday. People were excited about this one, especially hardcore fans of the sport, especially European fight fans. They were excited to finally see the Fire Kid compete inside the Octagon. Tom Duquesnewa.

Everyone's been talking about him. He's been killing it. Batman champion. Finally comes over to the UFC. fights Patrick Williams and he's as advertised. If you've been watching him in Bama, if you've been watching him

for the last few years, you know that there's a reason why they call him the fire kid. The man brings it. No different on Saturday. Great win over Patrick Williams. He's joining us right now on the phone. Tom, are you there?

I'm good. Yeah, I'm here. Sa va. Yeah, all right? Thanks for asking. Yes, I appreciate... Your French is getting good. Well, I've got a little. there is 16 years I live in

Moria but I can talk about the French I'm very excited to have another fighter

French in the UFC actually you speak very good so awesome thank you Tom I appreciate it

well so as you probably know a lot of people were very excited to finally see you in the UFC and you've been

thinking about this for a long time I know back when you were 19 there was some talk of you joining the UFC

but you said thanks but no thanks Did this go as you expected it? You had a lot of time to dream about the debut When you dreamt about it Did it unfold the way it did on Saturday? Yeah, yeah That was a mix between a dream who comes true

Because as you know I've made a big part of my life since the age of 12 And already at the age of 15 My goal was to go to the UFC Because at this age I was already like Okay, I could do something against that, yeah, you know and so step by step I was grinding and working to be at the highest level possible and as you say in the introduction I don't refuse the UFC at the age of 19

but I just say to the staff let's do it a little bit later so I can bring you guys the best entertainment because my level would be even better than now and I think it's a long-term vision and that's the most important in that sport which is still a new sport usually when you see the other discipline the other sport, it's more structured and they have a plan into the different business. And that's kind of the thing that I have for an NBA actually. That's a very mature decision for a 19-year-old. Was that 100% your call to say thanks but no thanks to the UFC or did someone else tell you to do that? I felt that was the best because I was competing against.

international fighters and I was seeing my level against them and I always noticed that I wasn't that far away, you know. And I always think the thing that way that one year ago I was two times less better. Two years ago I was three times less better. So one year ago, I would be two times better. And in two years, in two years, you as good in mathematics as me, I would be four times better. So I always Calculating things like that And it works

But also I am I benefits of a lot of good people And nature and very good people around me Who gives me a lot of good advice So this was obviously your debut And you've had some big fights in Bama You've fought for a belt You've defended a belt

But to be fighting, you know In the United States I believe for the first time, right? First time Yeah first time on Fox debut, all the buzz. What did it feel like? Did it feel kind of like you were a teenager again? Like you were making your

first fight, your first walk down to a cage or ring? Did you feel like a rookie? Did you feel more nervous? In hindsight, what did it feel like? Yes, actually, I've been competing for three years only for many events when I was in Europe.

And at that time, I am on the prelim so it's a little change. But it's good because I have to make my way to the top now, so I have to start by the first step, and that was the first step. And actually, there was on the common event of the prelim, which is pretty good for a first fight in UFC. And I thank UFC for this. And I felt very, very, very good just before the fight, because the fight week in the USC is very professional. Everything is set, everything is fluent,

and it's the best for us fire because we just want to be in a good state of mind when the fight is coming up. And that's what happened in the U.S.C. And actually, I felt more relaxed than usual. Wow. Well, that is good to hear. I had some people tell me, you know, the media was tweeting all about your fight leading up to it and then tweeting about it after the fact. And there were some people, even people in the fight game who were saying to me like,

oh, Patrick Williams got too tired. Oh, he tagged Tom. early on, trying to sort of not give you the credit that we were trying to give you. Were you happy with the fight or is there some credence to what they were saying? Was that not the perfect Tom Duchenwa fight? We should give Patrick Williams more credit because there is a true thing about him is that physically, I'm not sure his preparation is adapted for for MMA because after three or four, five minutes he ran a little bit out of gas.

but when you have to survive to those three, four, five minutes because the guy is an athlete, he should have been like a sprinter or like doing the Olympics, in the athletes, because when he goes to, when he, when he, when he, when he, when he, when he, when he go and put his fire on the ring, it's like, on the catch and the octagon. It's like crazy thing. It's very powerful, very explosive.

I love a wrestler. When I was clutching him, I never felt someone that, that powerful in the clinch. And I used to fight in 70 kilos in 155 and 145s. And people who were like under drugs, and there are a lot of steroids and stuff back in Europe because there is no USADA over there. And I know a guy who is very strong and not naturally. And Patrick Williams under the USADA, there is no problem.

I know he's clean. And competing against someone who is that strong as Patrick Williams without any drug and without any shortcut, it's kind of crazy. So actually that was a really good test. And yeah,

you know, sometimes you have people on the... I don't think to them that much, you know, you always have people, they get frustrated and they say stuff

and comments. But when I see the majority of the comments, either on Fox or either on my social media, it's a lot of support. And even when the people criticize it, it's on a good way. You know, it's in a good way because I think that was a good fight. And to respond to your question, I think I did personally a good fight.

Always a lot of stuff to work on and the guidelines will be put into the new camp for the next time I will fight. But I'm really happy of my first fight in the U.S. How come you don't follow anyone on Twitter? It happened like one year ago because I needed it. to feed. Actually, that was one year and a half ago. I broke my hand during a fight, and the fight was

really close, actually, but I still won by decision. And at that time, I say, okay, now I'm done with the stuff. I won't use it to social media, because I was passing too much time on it, so I just don't follow everybody. I just, I don't have

a personal Facebook account anymore. So I want to keep being professional because you pass so much time on the social media sometimes. I think you understand me because it's your work too. Yeah. And that's the only reason, actually. Okay, and you feel better about it now?

You feel like there's less distractions? Yeah, I actually feel better. And, you know, because you follow such a lot of media communities and entities on the Internet. And the thing is that you... I'm the kind of person when the camp starts. I'm like 500% in my camp, but even too much, you know. And when I go to chill a bit on the internet,

I just want to see something else that's fighting. So I follow all the media stuff, et cetera. So I can do some of the stuff in life. You know, my coach, the Man of Shadow, Bo, Amat Raura from France, is telling me this a lot of you know, don't forget, you, it's a MMA, that's your life. You're going to do a lot of stuff, et cetera.

But it's not only this. and you should use an M.A. It's not MMA who has to use you because, you know, it's a big thing. So just make your profit, do an interesting partnership with the UFC, et cetera, and grew up together, and that's really the goal. That's why I'm going to play 100% the game with the UFC. But other than that, there is something else in life, you know. So do something else, and that's what I'm doing, and that's what I'm trying to do when I don't unfollow everything.

Speaking of doing something else, you're also a model, right? Yeah, I'm trying to at least. So I'm a part of this generation who grew up with the social media, especially Instagram. My Facebook is very good, too. And the goal from the very beginning was to develop other careers besides MMA. And MMA is my main thing. It will be the thing, especially thanks to you see that I'm going to be on a big media platform. so I'm going to have a lot of opportunity.

And in modeling, he's a part I want to develop too in my career, and maybe a little bit later, and even in parallel, I would like to be an actor too. Oh, wow. And do you have any reservations, or do the people you talk to about modeling, have reservations about the fact that you are a fighter and not just a fighter, but, like,

you tend to get into brawls at times. You know, you get hit at times, you dish it out. Your face is what will get you rich in modeling. So it's kind of, you know, I've talked to Alan Joban about it. It's a bit of a problem, right? They conflict the two jobs. It is actually, but there is a new generation of models because in the classic, in the classic model, I don't have any chance because my size is not the good one, the high, etc.

So it's not that kind of modeling, but more modeling for brand, different brands. A few months ago, I was doing a big campaign for Nikon, Europe. And I was exploding, like, fruits all over all over the room for four hours. so funny. So kind of stuff like that, you know. So that's for the new technologies, the brands, MMA brands too. I like to work.

I'm working a lot with a vegan brand in France, which is called Brenos. And that kind of stuff, you know, trying to opening more possible activities in my job because I don't consider myself just as an MMA fighter, even if it's the main thing in my career. you know. So you train in Albuquerque.

You train, of course, with the Jackson Wing team, and then you also live in France. Do you live in Paris, or do you live outside of Paris? So I've always been living in Paris, and it's been now three years, like back and forth in Jackson for my camps. And actually right now, I'm signed with USC a few months ago, and I want to be at the best level

and continue to grow in that spot. And for this I need to stay where I feel the best for my career and it's Arbuker. So the three last months before a fight, I stay in Arbuquerque, I do the fight, and they I come back for Paris, maybe for one week or two, and I like to travel a little bit over the world, and then I come back to Arbockew,

when it's time to get into the camp. Is it weird to go from, like, you know, I mean, we're talking about one of the great metropolitan cities in the entire world, Paris, There is so much culture there. And there is culture, of course, in Albuquerque, but it's a completely different life there. I mean, it couldn't be two more different places. Is that strange for you at all?

I see it as an advantage. You know Paris, and obviously you have the culture, the good food, and living at night. It's pretty crazy, and it's a wonderful city. Going to Albuquerque, it's very exciting for me, too, because you have the highest level on earth. Also, you're not far from L.A. for all the media and the professional activities too. And not far of Vegas, which is the place where the biggest scar happens. So it's one of my goals too. So actually, Albuquerque is not that bad because you can take the plane and you're not far from the principal place on the West Coast,

which is really interesting for the MMA development. Sure. Why, by the way, did you choose Jackson Winkin? up there from France? I originally did a trip on the West Coast for two months and a half, and the goal of that trip was to find the best team for me and for the continuity of my MMA career. And I started to go to Vegas for one month. Then I went to Los Angeles, and so I did all of those amazing teams, and I finished my trip

by two weeks in Abu Korki for Jackson Wing, because it's always, I have been a, a, a team that I've been doing when I was little. Okay. Because I was seeing all those high-level MMA fighter, condits, jump, John, Soliholm, etc. And what I liked about that team is that the style of the guy was continually evolving, like you have the, they have their own style, but under the advice of Greg Jackson,

they have a little more something like a kind of point of differentiation, which is good, because if you can have your own style, which is your main force plus something else, something like a new touch, like a master touch of Greg Jackson. It's very good. So that's why I passed here like for two weeks, and then that was definitely the team.

I wanted to develop my career because the guys are amazing here. The sparring are good. And it's a very good atmosphere. There have been great French fighters in the past. but in my opinion, there's never been two kind of, I don't know if you want to call you guys prospects, but just like young, great fighters, you know, with so much promise. There's never been a time like now when we consider you and Francis and Ghanu, and it's amazing to me that still in France, the sport is illegal.

Do you feel like your success and Francis's success in particular will finally open some eyes there, or is this a bigger issue that, you know, no one or two fighter can change by, by themselves? At least I hope it will contribute and I will be always there to help promote and develop and legalize the

NMA in France. Pure professionally wise, it's very interesting for me because if we do like a big U.S. 7 in Paris in Bersie, I'm sure I will make the place full, you know. So it will be a good thing.

and also, even if I'm training in USA right now, I don't forget where I come from, I don't forget where I met the good people and it's from. So I get educated and I develop my life and my career from zero to the edge of 18, 19. Now I continue to develop myself in the U.S. because that's the business is. That's the best place to be. But that's one of the reason I was wearing the double flag,

either the French flag and the American flag. And it's a good thing you're talking to me about this subject today, is that I have the French flag because I'm French. I come from France and I want to represent my country, which is a normal thing. Yeah. And now, MMA is banned in France. So the reason I wear the U.S. flag is because I respect the country,

which gives me the opportunity to develop my career by the U.S.C. So that's why I'm wearing the birth flag. So I'm proud of my first country, but also as the country of my country who received me and who allowed me to do my pleasure. I know it's a complex issue, but is it essentially the judo federation that doesn't want to see the sport advance

and maybe overtake them that they're the ones stopping it? Is that what it comes down to? Yeah, it's still enough. 90% of the reason why the MMA is still banned in France because of the lobby of the Judo Federation. Wow. The Judo Federation is the fourth sports in France, the first in combat sports.

The people who heads at the... the Judo Federation are really good friends of the people at the French Sports Ministry. So they do their own stuff. very, very far from us and they're kind of oh, this week well, quid about

the MMA, oh, there is nothing for us still, so let's still make it banned and illegal for the moment, you know? It's more like this, you know, so we are all here like in the MMA and I feel now MMA has a good image in France.

It's no more the U.S. here like 20, 25 years ago, it's done and French people are aware about it. And the biggest problem still remains the Judo Federation who wants to who wants to defend their own business. But they are scared about one thing

is that if MMA in France, because MMA is really big right now and all the people wants to do it because that's the most efficient sport, they scare that they're going to lost a lot of licenses. People will stop judo and go to MMA. And it will happen, you know, even a little bit.

I don't know how much, but it will happen. But the real question is that even in the U.S., the judo federation is like half-dead, and you have the U.S.U. who gives them money so they can rebuild their federation, and it helps, you know. So they don't understand one thing in front is that it's winning, winning.

If MMA is here, we will still need to go to do boxing for an M&A. We're going to still need to go to do wrestling for MMA. We're still to need to go Savari and Judo too. Because Judo, if you adapt it, it can be a really good plus for MMA, you know, even if I prefer personally wrestling. But Judo can help MMA actually, so they can help each other out, you know. So that's why they don't understand. Crazy.

There's an election next week in France, presidential election. Are you going to vote? Unfortunately, I won't be in front at that time, but I'm going to see it on TV for sure. And speaking of it, the election is maybe one of the solution for the legalization of the MMA in front, because if the sports ministry people change, maybe it will be another vision for us. So it could help, actually. Okay. We will keep our eyes on that.

Let me ask you this before I let you go, Tom. What do you say to the people who say, yeah, you're an exciting fighter, you knock people out? I mean, they don't call you the fire kid for nothing. You're just instant offense, but you do get hit a lot. What do you say to those people? Do you need to change your style a little more to not get hit as much? Yeah, that's the true thing. You can't, you can say, like, yeah, I like you, I like you, but, you know, you can say, yeah, I like you, but I would like you to change this.

No, you can say that. you know, it's true. So I give a lot of show. I give a lot of chaos, and it's thanks to my explosive and unpredictable and aggressive style, right? Right. And so you can say, yeah, yeah, but you take too much, you take too much,

you take too much, uh, yeah, between us, that's, that's a true thing. And that's stuff. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to improve for sure. but that when I take a punch is because I agree, I aggress, and when I aggress people, I mean, in the octagon, that's why I put knockout.

So you can be like, yeah, yeah, it's good, but, no. But I thank you, I thank the audience for the advice. And the two thing is that I'm going to, I'm going to improve my style for the next fight. So I will eat people more and trying to get, to still remain, my face good for the modeling, as you were seeing earlier.

And how far along in the division do you think you are right now? Like, do you want to get pushed? Do you want to fight a top guy? Do you want to get moved along slowly? What do you have in mind for your next fight? I always want to develop my career, considering what I'm feeling right now, you know? So now I'm feeling good. I'm not injured.

I'm going to get some vacation. And then we will see who is the best opponent who is available. I'm going to do the thing, as I always did in my career, step by step, respecting the processes of getting more experience and more experience, more technical, more ready psychologically. I'm still 23, so I feel like I can improve my style, my physics, and the different areas of the fight. So I'm going to do it as soon as I come back to the training,

and you guys will know very soon who will be and where will be my next fight. Tom, I appreciate the time very much, especially after the win. Congrats on your first UFC win. It's great to finally see you inside the octagon. It was a lot of fun to watch. I thought you should have been a little higher up on the card, but nevertheless, you got that attention, that spotlight on Fox, and you certainly delivered, my friend.

So congrats on the win, enjoy it. And I appreciate you coming on, and I hope to talk to you again soon. It was great to talk to you for the first time. I appreciate it very much. The opportunity to talk to talk to you today. Thank you, my All right. We'll talk to you soon, Tom. Thank you.

Bye, guys. Thank you for the interview. Bye. All right, there is. Tom Duquesneois. Boy, my French sucks. I mean, it is really bad. Holy smokes. I mean, I could sort of hang, but it is in an embarrassing state at the moment. Okay, a few minutes left.

Let's bring back Mr. New Yorkerick. We have some news items to discuss. I wanted to ask him one quick thing before. we put Kansas City to bed. Did you have an issue with the stoppage in the Jacques Ray fight? I mean, it was a little awkward, but you know, I know you're somewhat biased, but how dare you? Impartial viewer.

What did you think? How dare you? Other than my heartbreaking? No, I had no problem with it. It was a little awkward though, right? I mean, the timing of it was not ideal, but also there was only one way that fight was going. The damage was being prevented from he was stopping further damage. I didn't have much of a problem.

There were certainly some questionable stoppages on that card, but not... What was questionable? There was a fight earlier. Hold on, let me look at the card. I don't remember seeing... Oh, there was one. Maybe it was earlier in the night. Hold on.

Yeah, I know you don't watch all the fights, so let me... Sort of kind of erase them from my memory. I mean, there's only so much I can keep up there. I have to remember all the dates, all the events, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, I mean, who has time? Oh, Cummings and Coy. Coy was out for about a good minute before that was. Oh, well, that was late.

I was thinking of an early stoppage. I said questionable stoppage. Well, when you say questionable, I mean, I think early. When I said that wasn't questionable? No, it's more controversial. It's more like, what were you thinking? Why did you let this go on so long? But, yeah, that was the one.

I don't remember. What did you think of Tom? incredible performance, obviously, you know, probably would have liked it to be a little bit cleaner. Yeah. From his perspective, did, you know, take a rough one. But at the same time, Patrick Williams is not one to sleep on. I know, you know, he's not in the upper echelons of the division and not probably the first name off the tip of your tongue if you're trying to think of contenders. But he's got some, he's got some juice and it's getting, you know, surviving that onslaught and coming back the way he's,

did even to finish the first round, I was impressed for sure. But I expect, you know, maybe I wasn't like overly impressed just because there's so much talk about Tom. I had expectations that were high and he at least met them. Those elbows are awesome.

He may not have exceeded them, but he at least met them. Yeah, the elbows were devastating. The fight could have been called off very easily there. And then he closed the show in round two anyway. I remember last year on the M.A. B I got into a debate with Luke Thomas.

I said 135 deeper, more interesting division. He said 155. I maintain, I mean, it's no contest at this point. Well, now, I mean, we're much further in the future. I saw the light. There's younger talent. Stop it.

There's younger talent. Look at 155. Yeah, 155 is a murderer's row. It is a murderers row, but look at 135 as far as the young talent there. That's a different conversation, though. It's not even a discussion at this point. A year and a half ago, those guys weren't there. I'm

What do you mean? I knew Tom Duquesne while was coming. The fire kid. Kidding me? They've been talking to him since he was 19. Okay.

Garbrand wasn't even in the discussion. Correct. He was unranked. That's the point. We knew he was coming. Now you have. Yeah.

And to be honest, I'll probably still pick 55. Garbrand. Cruz. Yep. Dillishaw. Yep. Sun Sal.

Yep. Linaker. Yep. Rivera. Yep. Dodson. Carraway, Sterling, Almada.

Really good. Read 155. Marlon Marais. Now added to that. Tom is not even in that top 15. And I stopped at 10. Give me lightweight. Okay.

And so that's lightweight. Excuse me. That's Bantamweight. Yep. Now lightweight. Connor, Chabib, Tony, great.

Eddie, great. Dosanjo's, no, I don't know. Why is Doshandos here? Michael Johnson, Kiyasa, Nate Diaz, kind of low,

weird, but yeah, we understand why. Porier, Daryush, Kevin Lee, Evan Dunham. not taking anything away from these guys. Taking 55 in that. First of all, other thing to note,

these 1-35ers, for the most part, very young. The 55ers are older. 35 has been out of nothing has become something. That I'll agree with. The fact that they can even be in this debate is notable in its own right. I think 55 goes 30 deep, though. That division is insane.

But clearly, 35s is in a way different space. I said that like alpha male, 35s. Yes. 35s is in a different space than where it was a while ago. And it also, you know, it was a situation where Henan Burrell kind of had that division on lockdown. Now we're seeing a lot more movement. Super, super exciting. And not only that, but maybe in terms of rankings, I would probably put 55 ahead in terms of the talent.

But I think what's unique about 35 is also that all of these fighters that we're mentioning are exciting. Stylistically, their styles are very fan-friendly beyond just being good fighters. Whereas 55, I think there are some guys who may or may not be the most exciting, but clearly deserve their ranking. 35 is full of guys who are going to put on a show as well as being top-ranked talent. So 35 is really strong right now. my friend mr french fries joe from h town on twitter saying give us some nugs i've been giving you a bunch of nugs all day i told you that the woodley mcgregor fight no truth to it i told you what else did i tell you i told you about um dc manua jones yeah how about uh diego sanchise doing a 40 minute interview 15 minute

interview go back and watch that how about you know what watch it again uh cyborg how about cyborg how about Cyborg tweeting, if you're not going to give me a fight, release me. There's nothing on the table. There's no fight. I know that. That's another one for you. No one can get a hold or get any kind of status update on Jermaine Durandami. Cindy Dandua, who beat Megan Anderson, who's not even in the UFC, is debuting this weekend at 135. She beat her at 145. I don't know what's going on there. How do you not feel for Cyborg at this point? Her last fight was September. Yes, she had the issue with Usada, but at this point, what's going on? They got to give her a fight.

Preferably a title fight. Nothing going on there. That's unfortunate. Nothing going on with Chabee. People were asking about that, Tony Ferguson. Anderson Silva, there was some talk of Rashad didn't happen. There was some talk of Johnny Hendricks didn't happen. There was some talk of Luke Rockhold didn't happen. What else? Vitor Belfort not happening. there's no real good option out there, unless you know one. I like the Vitor option. I didn't hate that one.

I don't think Anderson wanted it. I think that was a fun fight. He didn't want it, but I think that's the fight. Looking at it realistically. Good fight for Anderson in Brazil. Yep. Big fight historically for Brazil.

It's happening in Brazil. Last chance for Belfort, I mean, there's tons of stories there for it. I think he cited not wanting to try and replicate or. It is tough. What happened in that first one and one of the best knockouts of all time. So I get it from that perspective, but that is the fight to make. Yeah.

What about Holly Holm versus Bechko Hea? You like that one? That's June 17th in Singapore. Sure. Don't love it. That's fine. Wow. What, you love it?

I like it. It's fine. At this point, if Holly Home can't be Bechkoheya, what are we doing? Right? Well, I don't think that's the take. away. To me, it's kind of like this is do or die for Holly Holie home. I mean, she just

you can make a reasonable case that she deserves the 145 pound championship. But it's three losses in a row. Yeah, it's... And, okay, Shevchenko, I think she was dominated. She would agree with that. Bad luck against

Misha, bad luck against Germain. Still three losses. You need a win. The Holly Holm who fought Ronorasi, we were talking about, like, could she be the greatest ever? That was a flawless, unbelievable display of mixed martial arts. Where is that Holly home? Yeah, that's fair, but my takeaway isn't...

And this is a great style's matchup. This is a great style's matchup. I kind of feel like that's the feeling right now. I think she's better than that. Or I think she has enough cashé. I think she's earned, deserves better than that. By the way, what do you make of Roy Nelson at this point? Roy is Roy.

I mean, were you... I think he... He's three and seven in his last 10? I'll say this. He's not as explosive as he once was. Roy Nelson, every fight he wins, he wins by knockout. Every fight he loses, he loses by decision. So putting him in there with a guy who's a longer, more active striker than him

was not the ideal matchup. Now, I think he tried to take him down. It wasn't very successful in that approach. But that was a fight that Roy Nelson was. likely to lose just based on styles. A guy who's able to sit behind longer strikes and make Roy work

is probably somebody who's going to be successful against him. But it also looks like he's not able to close the distance as fast anymore and land that knockout punch like he once was. I think he's still just because of the

nature of heavyweight and because of that power that's a game changer. I still think he's in the same kind of range that he's always been, but yeah, clearly, you know, he's getting older. But one highlight real knockout, and he's back right where he was. Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough matchup for him, though. It is tough matchup.

I was impressed with Volkov. Volkov look good. Use his height. But that was his reach. That was the style that's going to beat Roy Nelson. And that's the method. Yeah, but often we see guys who are that tall and that long. Not use their range properly?

Yeah, I agree. He used it. He used it well. It was crazy to see Volkov ranked and not. not Nelson. Yeah. Bullcoff's a nice player. I mean, I'd love to see him

fight Stefan Struev. Yeah, look good. It's always funny when you see the really tall guy against the really short guy. And then as far as DJ's concerned, I've been thinking about this and looking at the rankings, the only one who makes sense

after he poo-poohed the Cody Garbra. I don't know why he was so secretive about all of that, but anyhow, that's DJ. Ray Borg. He's won four or five. He's ranked fourth. There's no one else.

I mean, unless you're going to bang the drum for the Benavita's fight, but he has a fight coming up, so he has to get through that. Fine. He'll get through it and then... You want to see that number three. I come from... How many chances can a guy get? I want to see the best fight.

The best fighter fight, Demetrius Johnson. I don't want to see a new matchup if it's not going to be competitive. I don't care. I don't care about seeing DJ walk through people who shouldn't be in there. I want to see the best competition for him. And I think if it's not Henry Suhudo and it's not Joseph Benavides, then what else are we looking at? And history would say that other people have been spared well. Credit to Tim Elliott, who gave him an interesting first round.

But if it's not, if it's not Benavita's or Suhudo, I'm not really that interested. And that's the problem. And that's what we're talking about. We need them to have a rival. Could Benevitas be that rival? No, you can't be that rival after losing two straight. What if he wins the third one? Well, of course he would get...

If he wins the third one, we have a different story. And it's not unprecedented. There have been... There have been a few. There have been trilogy fights where... Yes, exactly, where the first two... The first two were losses in. It's like Bellator doing it.

I mean, they... I'd rather see that. I'd rather see the opportunity for that than somebody else who he's just... Who's going to walk in off the street from, you know... I'll say this. ...construction and... The only time I'd be not so opposed...

to it is if it's for number 11 because he won the belt against him and there's a story there, you know what I mean? Kind of full circle, right? Breaks the record against the guy he won the belt off of essentially was the inaugural fly with this. That's the only time that you know, if they promote this right way, I feel like, okay, I could get behind it.

But typically I don't like third fights when one guy has already won two against the other. I don't like it. I don't think it's fair to the guy who's won the two. I'm with you, but in this case, the other options are worse. What you're saying is you don't want to see Raybord. Maybe one or two more.

Four or five is one, two in a row, four or five. And then he just missed weight before two. I don't love it. I just don't love it. Benevita is a more viable option. Formiga's had so many chances, I feel like. It's not a good scenario. Yeah.

There's no right answer here because it's all wrong answers. And credit to DJ for making it so. He just is too good. Did you watch Risen this weekend? I did not. Yeah, it was tough right after. Yeah, that's pretty tough. It's a lot to watch.

That's a tough ask. For the U.S. viewers. Kawajiri, Horaguchi, those were the notables. Horaguchi, unbelievable. This guy, what is he? Like 20 and 2, 19 and 2? That's one you could have said that you would have liked to see run back. Right.

It took him all the way until the last five seconds to beat him. Um, Belvoir also had an event. Leandro Higo missed weight. So it was a non-title fight against Sidward Odontas. And it was so weird. I don't know if you watch this, but the fight happens. And then there are, you know, times up 15 minutes, non-title fight. And then they're trying to, you know, gather themselves for the scorecard reading.

And then the place is empty. Everyone leaves. Mad Dash. It was, I mean, there was like 10 people there. It was crazy. And so I kind of made a joke about that. And then Sean Grandy texted me telling me that the subway system closed at midnight and it was approaching midnight so everyone had to leave. So could you imagine if it was an actual title fight, people would have maybe left in the middle of the fight.

Ten more minutes. That's crazy. Anyway, too bad for Higo for missing weight because he is a big-time prospect at 135. And Belator is back this weekend with an actual, I mean, I really like this car. card. It's flown under the radar. They're doing a lot of fights too. I mean, is this their third straight week? They were in Italy, then Budapest, and

then they're going to exotic Uncasville, Connecticut this Friday. Daniel Strauss versus Patricia Pitbull 4. McFarland against Middleton. Not bad, two undefeated fighters. McFarland's look good. But I'm really excited about H.A. McKeve

versus Dominic Mazada. Wow, what a great fight that is. Two young studs, up-and-coming prospects. also there's Tyrol Fortune on the card Ed Ruth is on the card just a nice little card belt tours put together

and then Saturday it's the UFC in Nashville as I've told you Cub Swanson versus Ardum Lobov what's the line in that fight is there a line yet in that fight there's got to be a line sure I would be very interested in here

how big minus 700 big plus 500 is a comeback for Lobov do you feel like that's accurate I think even there might even be some more.

Whoa. Hub still. No, the other way. I think there might still be some value on Cub. Really?

Yeah, that's not a fight that's winnable for Ardenlob. No chance. You're giving him right now on the record no chance. On the record,

next week when Arnhem comes on after the victory, we're going to play him this clip of you saying he has no chance. Go ahead. I'm keeping so hard for Ardum Lobop. I'm just saying,

I think he has more than no chance. Yeah, I don't see a path to victory for him. I think Cub is better everywhere. That is a hot. The odds, yeah, that's a real hot take. That one's going to get me some headlines.

Cubsons it better than Artem Lobov. A couple interesting fights on this card. Brian Barbarina back against Joe Proctor. As I mentioned, Cindy Dandua against Alexis Davis. That's a tough debut. That is a tough debut. Jessica Panet is back. Scott Holtzman, always fun to watch him,

against Michael McBride. And Sam Alvey against Talas Laitis. But the main card has some good ones. Jake Ellenberger against Mike Perry. Joe Lozahn against Stevie Ray. I like that one at 155. John Dodson against Eddie Weinland. Marcos,

Hosogiero Delima against Ovin Saint-Prue. Al-Iquinta versus Diego Sanchez and Cups Swanton versus Ardham. You agree that Aiaquinta Sanchez is the people's main event, right? I do. I ask them. Odds don't reflect a close fight. They've got Iiaquinta at minus 400, Sanchez, at plus 325.

Can't believe it's been two years since we've seen Iquit. to fight. Yeah. What a roller coaster ride of emotions. It has been. Wait, so who's the favorite? Iaquinta? Yeah, by a large margin.

You agree with that? I think that makes sense. Even though he's been out for two years? Unless he's not trained to MMA? I mean, he did take a break. I think it'll be good. Wow. I'll tweet us.

Let us know if you've been training. I wonder, let's take a look at the, the, uh, let's take a look at the line and see if it changes in the next few days. after people catch wind of what Diego Sanchez. Of the Lionheart. Yes. I mean, how do you not ignore that? How do you ignore that?

Right? I mean, how do you not get motivated by that? How do you not say to yourself, you know what? There's something going on here. Let me just see if it changed any today. In the last hour? Yes, he became more of an underdog.

Wow. Like drastically? No, like plus five. Okay. at all. All right. Of course. That's the people's main event, of course.

Thank you. Just a couple other things. Tough debuts on Wednesday. New York will be watching. In fact, this year, you're actually going to be doing recaps for us, right? On MMA fighting, that's what I heard.

You're so into it. You said you're all in. Oh, yeah. I am jazzed for the ultimate fighter. The comeback season. This is what you've been asking for. Not me. So I've long said that

everybody else has been asking for the comeback season and I've said even that will not get me back and once again I will be skipping the ultimate fighter this year. I'm just sticking around for the jerseys. I love the jerseys. What do you mean the jerseys? I love the fact that they have to wear basketball jerseys. What do what do what? That's why I watch.

But you don't watch? No I don't. But they did give us like a best of the ultimate fighter screening in Buffalo. They played this like As in his history, like all ultimate fire history? Oh, that's great. And it was amazing to, I remember noting this, but I forgot about it that Connor never wore the jersey. That might be his smartest move ever.

He always wore a suit or sand. The jersey is so representative of the show. I'll never forget, you know, Brock Eisner's fitting into that jersey. I'll never forget just all the moments, BJ Penn doing his like, you know, two camera interviews about Andy Wang. That's when the Brock Mystique died for me When I saw him wearing that ill-fitting jersey By the way, there's someone, one second This is a great error right here

There's someone on Twitter named the drunken jogger Who tells me that he doesn't believe That we still have the Lucky Patrick jacket He says that it's in a box somewhere There it is, my man It's just not in this particular camera angle Or the other one but boom, there it is. is lucky Patrick in all its glory and I do believe it is signed somewhere is it signed it is somewhere look

I'll be the first to say oh there's an actual pocket for headphones I don't think it's signed yeah I think I'm I mean I'm looking right at it pretty damn sure it's signed look I'll be the first to say I'm surprised it's actually still around everyone steals my stuff here in fact I was walking by one of the new offices in the back over there and my m m m m m m hour spider man picture is just like chilling in an office somewhere. Like someone just took it. What is that all about? I mean, you should be honored.

What is that? They love our show so much. Yeah. But here it is. Lucky Patrick. Trying to get a piece of it. Boom. That is a piece of MMA hour history right here.

Oh, yeah. If you are a new fan of the show, look it up. Or don't. Enjoy it. Or don't. No, I'm just kidding. Obviously. And then just a couple other things.

Dylan Dennis apparently has left Marcelo Garcia's or has been told to leave. I reached out to him to get some more information about this. but right now he did not want to talk, and Jessica Aguilar is fighting Courtney Casey at 211. I like that fight a lot. What a great card. That's coming up next. That's the next fight card that I'm going to

as far as traveling to the Big D, Dallas, Texas. Anything else you want to say before we say goodbye? Yeah, I want to say shout out to Cody Patton. Cody Patton. That's it. Nothing else. Okay. I want to give a shout out while we're giving shoutouts. When I was driving from...

New York to Montreal and then back from Montreal to New York. Just randomly, I stopped with my family at the same restop. I don't know if you've ever driven New York up 87. Not that way. There's these little restups or these chalets right off the highway with usually like Roy Rogers and Starbucks and Sabaros. Randomly, I didn't realize until we actually walked in that it was the exact same one. And there's a guy named Skyler who works at Roy Rogers, who's a fan of the

the show. My God. Skyler. Yes. And then I saw him yesterday on the way back. So I saw him on Tuesday and then I saw him on Sunday. Now, here's the question. Did he hook you? I mean, wait. He worked at Roy Rogers. Yes. I'm assuming you ate at the Roy Rogers or were you... So my wife got a salad.

It is Passover, so I can't have bread. My wife got a salad. My kids got French fries. Now, did. He did not hook us up. But I will say this. What a mistake. I will say this. So first time, Tuesday didn't hook us up. came back Sunday he was back

he was there I asked him about DJ didn't watch it yet so I may have spoiled it for him he was more interested in Chris White didn't watch the fights yeah didn't watch the fights yeah didn't hook you up but he did say he did say he was excited to listen to the show this week Skyler man but here's the thing go outside eat the french fries

my son Walter holding his french fries drops them all after eating one very sad crying all over the floor I go back and this is after I took a picture with him and he was talking to one of his co-workers and I came back and said, oh, you know, I have to buy another one, dropped it, and they said, oh, no, don't worry about it, you can have another. So in the end, I don't know if it's because of, you know, the show or who I am, I did kind of get hooked up. Now, maybe

this is just a general rule over there. You drop your fries, you get, you know, a free box of fries. Skyler. Skyler also dropped it. He dropped the ball? Damn, he's going to be sad. Skyler. I was, here I am trying to give Skyler a shout out. Oh, you gave him the shout out. I don't think you deserved it. Skyler. You hook Ariel up next time. Next time. Yeah, Roy Rogers. I mean, I'm not a, you know, a frequent visitor of establishments like that. You see them twice? You can't even hook them up with the salad? I thought it was nice.

I thought it was nice. It is quite the journey to drive, you know, six, seven hours with two kids, five, three, and then a six-month-old. You have to stop every hour. It's fun. It's all part of life. It's all part of the journey that is this life. You just follow your heart, like the lion heart?

Yes. And you will get where you need to go. get to your destiny. Very, very, very, very, very last thing. How much were you sweating on Saturday when the Pacers were about to beat the Cavaliers? Honestly. I was sweating.

You were sweating. You're going to be honest. I was sweating. Paul George is a bad boy. I wasn't sweating when Lance Stevenson was handling the ball, but when Paul George had it. Actually, let me not do that. I can't dog Lance Stevenson. He's born ready from New York City.

That's right. But I agree with Paul George when he said I have to get that last shot Can't argue with that Yeah I was pissed Although he was double team I was sweating Cavs defense isn't looking good

What's the prediction? Cavs in four Cavs and four wow You know how many first round games LeBron is one in a row? I think he's never lost one right? No first round games in a row Not first round series Yeah game one

Oh just first round games 18 games in a row That is wild So he's never lost, or he hasn't lost in what? Probably six or seven? A few series, yeah. 18 games. So that would be four, right?

Four and plus series. Or, but, you know, it could have gone into the tape. How could it be 18? Oh, I guess, okay. Yeah, if you go into the end of another series. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. The man doesn't lose enough.

Can I break some news here? I'm officially jumping on a bandwagon. Oh, boy, what a shocker. It is April. I used to jump on a bandwagon. I need to jump on a bandwagon. I mean, look, in hockey I'm covered. Canaan's killing it against the Rangers,

but basketball, I got nothing. and I'm depressed right now. Nothing. I got worse than nothing. I wish I had nothing. I think I may have to break some news to you. What? It appears, according to TMZ.

Oh yeah, I read that. Carmell and Lala. Love, I don't believe in love anymore. Actually, sorry, my wife, I love you. I take that. I was sad to see that. Maybe that explains. I mean, he has been such, don't get me started

in the whole Phil Jackson. No one wants to hear me rant about this. I kind of want to hear you wrong. No. It's just a sad time for me as a fan, and this is why I actually love MMA because I just can't get into team sports. They break my heart,

and, you know, when an arrogant, senile... Oh, man. I mean, it's just like a delusional, underqualified dinosaur is running my favorite team and doing it in the most smug way possible. it breaks my heart. It really does.

And not only is he running them into the ground and running them into the complete and absolute laughing stock that they have become, he is ruining the future, he's ruining Porzingus. I mean, it's just so depressing. I can't tell you,

it makes my skin crawl to watch that on Friday develop. And this is not anyone but his and James Dolan's fault. Those are the only two at fault here. What did you want to say? I was going to say, can you tell us how you really feel? Don't hold back, please.

It makes me so sick. You have no idea what they are doing to my team. They are making me... I wear a Nix Tuk. I want to... I'm almost embarrassed. And if they drive Porzingis out of this city, I swear that will be it for me.

I can't take it anymore. I can't take it anymore. I really can't. Anyway, enough of that. Wow. Let me tell you something. As far as the 2017 NBA playoffs are concerned, I am officially right here, right now,

jumping on the Utah Jazz Bandwagon, okay? Because this is a team that has shown heart, determination, they have overcome the odds. Their guy goes down, Rudy Gober in the last 13th, the first 13 seconds of the game, and they still win, ISO Joe? Are you kidding me? So I'm on the Jazz Bandwagon.

I'm a big fan of their PR team. I'll leave it at that. Big fans of this show, great people over there. Utah Jazz all the way. Okay, so I would take. If I had the hat, I'd wear it right now. I would typically give you a hard time. But the fans of the show, I mean, you get carte blanche when you're, when, you know, the fans of the show aspect of it.

So Utah Jazz are okay. And now I got Sean Alshaddy trolling me telling me that the triangle is the future of the NBA. I mean, it's just my own colleagues are crapping on me. My colleagues are the ones who are supposed to be making me feel good about life, making me feel, you know, just sort of comforted with the idea that the better times are coming, that it's the darkest before the dawn and yet they're laughing at me. I hope this becomes a toasting and posting headline. I hope there's fans

of the show over there. There is no headline. Don't look to, yeah, I'm not saying anything new here. It is an embarrassment to be sitting up there with absolutely no qualifications talking in that smug tone and crapping all over the best

player on the team right now, and if you want to get rid of them, don't tell the whole world that you want to get rid of him. Why are you putting your cards on the table? That's GM 101. Carmelo's no saint. Yeah, he holds the ball. Yeah, he hasn't won.

But why would you tell the entire world that you want to get rid of this guy, put the cards on the table, completely devalue him, drop his stock, went, oh, by the way, you gave him a no trade clause. You made this. You re-signed him. You didn't inherit this. You created this. And you gave him a no trade clause.

And now you're going to go out and embanked him. the guy to the point where Michelle Roberts, the head of the NBA PA, is going to come out and tell the world how unprofessional you are acting? Are you kidding me? Embarrassing that this has happened to what was supposed to be one of the crown jewels of the NBA, laughing stock. How do I get my kids to follow these people? These jokes, scam artists, $60 million for this? Are you kidding me? Smug, arrogant, has done nothing. Stop talking to me about the damn rings. Stop talking about the damn rings. You didn't win them as an executive. In the history of sports, very rarely do great coaches become great executives. There are some. Pat Riley, yes, I know.

My Colm Grimm sucked. Bill Parcells sucked. More often than not, they suck. I wish Phil Jackson just sucked. It's way worse than sucking at this point. Now it's borderlining on embarrassing. Nonsensical. Stop ruining my team.

Get out of town. I'm sick of it. And if you ruin poor Zingis, so help me, God. I'm out of here too. Wow. Sean really sent you on a spiral there. Yeah. That was incredible.

All right. Don't believe in that. Believe in what? Trust the Lionheart. Just believe in that. Trust the process? I'll think about Diego Sanchez. Just the process.

All right. We're done. Wow. We are done. Thank you very much to the Marines for supporting us once again. We appreciate their support. As always, remember the Marines are the fighting spirit of our entire nation. and that fighting spirit is what separates them from all other service members.

Marines.com, that's where you can learn more about the Marines. You can hit my music. We are done. Another fun week of MMA in the books. And another fun week to come. That I know for sure. Like I said, Bellator back. UFC is back.

I just saw something where they zoomed in on New York, Rick's face like that. That was unbelievable. Well done, Rob. That was very funny. A bit of a delay on the U.S. YouTube stream and all of a sudden I see Newark Rick's face getting zoomed in on more and more. That was good stuff. I want to thank everyone who stopped by today. Thank everyone who gave us time in their busy days, especially I'm always very, I'm always very touched by the fighters who

win on a Saturday and come on the show on a Monday. That will never get old. I sincerely appreciate it. So thank you very much to Demetrius Johnson, Rose Numa Yunus. Al Jermaine Sterling means a lot. And of course, Tom Duquesneau. I knew I forgot someone. Congratulations to Mighty Mouse. Curious to see who they give them next.

Congratulations to Rose Nomunis. Curious to see, I want, Rose versus Yowanna is going to be fun. If it happens. If it doesn't, Rose versus Jessica would be fun as well. Thank you very much to Todd Grisham. Good luck to him this Saturday on the call. Thank you very much to Al Jermaine Sterling. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. to Cubs Swanson. Good luck on Saturday. Diego Sanchez, what can we say? Thank you so much for just being you. We appreciate you greatly. And thank you so much to Tom Ducenwa for stopping by. Congratulations to the Frenchman as well. Back next week, same time and place. Till the same page, so many.