MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 383

Episode Date: May 22, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Rory MacDonald (00:03:11), Michael Page (00:23:51), Yair Rodriguez (00:41:21), Derrick Lewis (00:57:31), Jorge Masvidal (01:19:59), Al Iaquinta (01:40:26), Stipe Miocic (02:04:51), Mia Kang (02:31:45) in studio, Tony Ferguson (03:33:20), Kajan Johnson (03:55:30), and NewYorkRic (04:20:43) for Ric’s Picks and to recap the week in MMA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-1-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. It's the mixed martial arts hour with The mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, May 22nd, 2017. Welcome to everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Thank you so much for joining us. A special happy Victoria Day to my friends up north.

It's a holiday in Canada. So if you're taking the day off, if you're at your cottage, if you're in the country, as they say. If you're by the lake, I hope you are enjoying the day, celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday and also enjoying today's show. I am so excited about today's show. There really isn't a lot of time to waste at the top. So much has gone on since we've laughed, talked. There was Bellator in London, of course. There was the UFC retreat and the good and bad that came out of that. There's been all kinds of news in the world of MAA. We have a super stack show today. So let us not waste any time. I'm going to run down today's lineup. And then we're going to get to our first guests of the day.

very happy to start the show with him for a couple reasons. I'll get into those in a second. All right, here's the lineup. You ready? 305. We're going to be joined in studio by supermodel, Mia Kang. By far the best looking guests that we've ever had on this show. Mia Kang will be joining us in studio. Usually we get models like Luke Rockhold, you know, those kind of models. Now we have an actual model on the program. Her name is Mia Kang. She was in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but why is she on this program? Well, she just had her. Muay debut. She's interested in mixed martial arts. She's very big into MMA. Big fan of MMA. I actually talk to Dylan Dennis about her. So we will be joined by her in studio at 305. That should be a lot of fun.

245. We're going to be joined by Sipei Miochich, the reigning defending, UFC heavyweight champion. He'll stop by, talk about his win on Saturday in Dallas and what's next for him. Al-Iquinto will stop by. Get an update from Raging Al at 225. There's a lot to talk to him about. I'm sure you know that. At 205, we'll speak to Jorge Mazvedal about his loss to Damien Maya at 211 and where he goes from here. I wanted to get Derek Lewis on the show before he went out to New Zealand to fight Mark Hunt. He will join us at 145. Yaira Rodriguez, we'll stop by at 130, talk about the loss to one Frankie Edgar at 211.

And then at 115, we're going to be joined by Michael Page. Talk about that incident with Paul Daly in London this past Friday, his knee injury and more. Now, of course, the big story of the weekend, as it pertains to actual fighting, was the debut of Rory McDonald in Bellator. It could not have gone better for Rory McDonald. He submits Paul Daly in the second round, absolutely dominant and proving, once again, that he is, without a doubt, one of the very best Walter Wates in the world, still just 27 years young. And, oh, by the way, has wins over the current UFC Walterweight champion Tyron Woodley and the number one contender, Damien Maya. but now he's doing his thing in Bellator.

He's back from London. He's joining us on the phone right now. Wanted to start with him right off the top because, in my opinion, he was the big story of the weekend. Rory, are you there? I'm here. Thanks for having me. A pleasure, as always. Congratulations. And a happy Victoria Day to you.

We appreciate you stopping by on this holiday in not only Montreal, but in Canada as well. My pleasure. Rory, you've had some big wins in your career, but this was obviously a unique situation. considering all the big wins, considering what this meant to the layoff, signing with Bellator, the debut, all that stuff,

and more, would it be fair to call this the most gratifying win of your career? Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, like you said, considering all things, and it just felt amazing. I'm still on a high even today, and I just couldn't be happier with the way things are right now

and the way things went. it's been a good start to chapter three. Okay, so what was chapter one and what was chapter two just for the record? I would say chapter one was my pre-UFC career. Chapter two being my UFC and this being chapter three. I watched your post-fight interview with Jimmy Smith a couple times, but I just loved the smile and almost like the exhale that you had at the very beginning. It was almost like, okay, you got this monkey off your back, you're back in the wind column,

you win your debut. Could you describe that feeling? And have you ever felt like that after a win before? No, I was just, I was in my moment. I was in my element there. I fought like myself. I've never felt just more clear and right going into a fight. So I was, everything was just perfect for that fight.

And I couldn't ask for anything better. and I'm so stoked on just finally getting momentum and now I get to go ahead and stay busy with my career and, you know, just keep getting bigger fights all the time and just staying busy, you know, that's what I want and I'm just so excited about it. You said that you had to look at your life and change all the things you were doing wrong

and that led to this performance and this moment. What were the things that you were doing wrong that you needed to fix? Well, I think number one was staying focused on my strength and not just stopping exploring every single new route of

martial arts like there's just so much knowledge and things to learn in martial arts you could go down so many different avenues so I got kind of caught up with that and not that it was a bad thing I mean I had a lot of fun learning new things like I love martial arts for that but for my fight career

I really needed to stick to the things that I'm strong at and excel in that and just add things that work within that style rather than changing my style for every single opponent. I think that was a huge one. My nutrition, my overall attitude with training and fight week and the fight itself. So there's things like that and just my lifestyle in general. And I feel like I'm still working on a lot of things in my life like anybody, but I made some major adjustments in the last year and the year before that. So in the layoffs. So I just, I think everything really paid off the positive changes I made.

And it showed in my performance. You also said backstage when you were speaking to reporters that There have been some fights that you've won, but you almost sort of had regrets afterwards because you didn't like the way you fought. Which fights were those? The Stephen Tolentzian fight was probably the worst one for me. Okay.

The Jake Allenberger fight I wasn't thrilled with. There's been a couple, you know, things like that. So I feel like I was, I out class. like some of the fights even that I won like I owe class the guy I'll point them but I never really I never really went in with that mindset like I want to crush

this guy I want to destroy him in every single way possible and just yeah going with that attitude and then deliver sometimes I just was more happy with just out pointing and just you know

showing my martial arts skill rather than you know expressing what's within me. And I feel like I'm in tune with that now, and that's where I'm going to deliver to the people now. So is it fair to say that Rory is dead? You won't fight like that again? Pardon me?

Is it fair to say that that Rory is no more? You won't fight like that again? Absolutely. I'm totally on track with who I am and, you know, what kind of experience. I want to have when I flight. Did the fight go easier than you thought it would?

Yeah, yeah, it does. But I think that's, I think that's because of, you know, how hard I worked and how focused I was in every, you know, field of mixed martial arts, I was mentally prepared, physically prepared, spiritually prepared. I was never in a better place going into a fight.

So I think if I could carry that into my future fights, they could start going like that more often than not. Do you think in hindsight you could have finished him in the first round? Um, I mean, I, maybe, but, you know, I, I knew what I was doing. I was very conscious of what I was doing to him in the first round. And I knew time was running out, but I was very confident with, what was going to happen in the second round. The performance was very impressive.

The wind was impressive. Like you said, you fired on all cylinders. You never looked better. But the post-fight interview, and in particular, when you looked at the camera and spoke to Douglas Lima and Lorenz Larkin and said, not only are you going to take the belt away, you're going to take away their health. And saying that while

staring at the camera was just, I mean, that might have been your finest moment as far as post-fight interviews are concerned. Where did that come from? Was that something that you thought about before? Was that just off the cuff? It's just what I'm feeling, you know. Like I said, I'm going to express myself fully when I'm in the cage from now on. And that's how I feel when I'm facing my opponent.

I'm going to destroy you in every way. I have all the respect in the world for my opponents. I thank them for being my competitors because I need them. But I'll be completely ruthless. And that's just the way I'm going to be when you fight me from now on. I'm there to destroy you and strip you of your health. And that's what it is at the end of the day. Do you feel like a completely different person when you're in there

as opposed to like the one I'm talking to now? Is there something that changes in you? Slightly. I mean, I'm a pretty relaxed person outside of fighting. But I also love the other side of me that's physical and can be violent and express that side of me that I have, that's maybe tucked a deeper part of me. I like to express that side of me.

So I guess, yeah, I am a little different and then what I may come across, like, in my everyday life. So now that you have the first Beltor fight under your belt, and, you know, as we talked about last week, you've been in UFC for so long, I asked you how it was going, but it was a little early in the week. What was it like? Do they run things drastically different in your opinion than the UFC?

Did you like everything that they do? Were there some things that you didn't like? How would you assess fight week experience as a Bellator fighter now? I thought it was fantastic how it went. I was very happy with it. Everything was very smooth. Probably the best way in procedure I've ever been through. Wow.

Yeah, it was very comfortable and smooth the way they ran it. Didn't give me any headaches. as far as running around and suffering for a long time, I was very happy with the way in procedure. As far as media, it was awesome. They really respected what I need out of fight week, but at the same time, you know, promoting the fight. So, you know, we worked together and, you know,

we got the job done, and it was, you know, it was done right. I was very happy with Way Bell. Lelotor treated me and everything leading up. I had a manager say to me after the fight that your victory and just how good you looked and especially considering your age and your place in the sport will now drastically change the way the UFC views free agency for the last year. So they've let some people go, including yourself in the sense that they haven't really

fought to keep you like maybe they would in the past. and now that you look so good that essentially they gambled on you being shot and you're clearly not and now they're going to be a little more hesitant to let people go. Do you think that there is some truth to that? You essentially confirmed the fact and I think that of all the signings Beltaire has made over the last year so,

yours was by far the best as far as debuts are concerned. But now they're, you know, this kind of, like they gave up on you a little too quickly. In other words, do you feel that that's what you confirmed on Friday, among other things? Absolutely. opened a lot of eyes, I think. And I'm sure that the management over at UFC feels the same way as what you just said.

But we're in the shoes that we are now. And I'm going to continue my journey the way I fought on Friday. And we'll see where we are the next contract negotiation. But I'm very happy with Bellator. And I hope they are with me too. Yeah. So I foresee a good long-term relationship with each other. But, yeah, as far as them not wanting to let go of some of their talent

and being, maybe they should be a little bit more cautious on how easy they let things slip through their fingers. Because, like I've tried to say in the past, fighters can't always be on 24-7 every single time they step into the ring so you have to allow for these performances that aren't up to par in their normal

you know what you normally see so I think I think they definitely let they definitely messed up when they let me go but you know that's their fault and Bellator's game you know Yeah, I mean, there have been many times where they have parted ways with a fighter or two,

and it always seems like their debut doesn't go as planned, and it's happened in Bellator with the likes of Benson, Henderson, and others. But yours, I mean, you just, this was vintage, if not the best Roy we've ever seen. And so it was interesting to hear that from someone who's in the business. What are the chances, because I feel like it would be a home run, if your next fight, and it's going to be for the belt, as they've confirmed and you confirmed as well, if it happens in Canada, and maybe I was thinking, like a British Columbia fight, you and Julia Budd, who's a champion there, what are the chances that you fight in Canada and help them, you know, come back to Canada and you've sold out, I mean, Ottawa, you've sold out Halifax.

From what I understand, London was close to, if not a sellout. You're clearly a draw. I feel like in Canada would make most sense next. Is that on the table right now? From what I've heard, it's 2018. Okay. Because I think of the time it takes the planet and everything they have in place for the rest of the year of 2017.

Okay. But yeah, I mean, they know that I'm down whenever they're ready. So the ball is in their court as far as getting the show to Canada. After fighting for the welterweight title, how soon do you want to try to go for the middleweight? I'd like to fight for the middleweight title maybe at the end of the year. If there's a big card that we could promote and get me in the middleweight champion on there, obviously not looking past the welterweight championship fight

I'm just saying if everything goes is planned and everything, Cunky Dory at end of the year show for the middleweight title would be fantastic. End of this year?

Yeah. But you want to fight for the welterweight title first, right? Yeah, I'm hoping September. Okay. And then middleweight, wow. So you want to get two title fights in this year? That'd be perfect.

How's the health after the fight? 100%. No problems. I didn't get touched once, I don't think. He didn't land one punch? No. Wow.

Did you say anything to him after? I just said thank you for the fight and it was an honor to fight you. I've been watching your fight since I was a young guy and just, you know, I'm just letting them know how I felt about competing with him.

I noticed that as far as coaches are concerned, you only had Farahs in your corner. Why was that? My coach David Lee, his wife is going through chemotherapy. Oh, wow. It was one of the final stages. So it was, you know, she had to be there for, you know, she was going through a harder fight than I was about to. So he was there to support her. And that's 100% understandable. And I hope that she feels better very soon. as far as Faraz's concern,

I know that after the Condid fight, you moved to Montreal to train at TriStar. I think you were, what, you know, 19, 18 years old? I mean, you were very young. Do you feel, are you, and I asked you about it last week, so I'm not trying to pin this on anyone else, but was like the state of your relationship made out to be a bigger thing than it was?

In other words, I mean, he was there, I know he was there early with you. Was that frustrating for you at all? That there was some insinuation that you were leaving Tri-Sty? that he wasn't still part of your team and your corner, things like that? Yeah, I kind of, I had a feeling piece reported to try to swing it like that. But at the end of the day, Fraz, I'm sure, wasn't misleaded by that.

I think he knew full well that I'm here, that TriStar's home. He's my coach. And it's not like I haven't trained with David, you know, throughout all these years. I've always been back at the Shito training with him and stuff. It's just this time was an extended period, and it was during a fight. So it was a small change-up, but, you know, obviously the reporters are going to swing it to make a story. By the way, I love those shorts. Those were sick.

Did you like them, the sort of boxing stuff? Yeah, absolutely. I chose them. They were great. Is that your new thing now? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I like those shorts with compression underneath. Yeah.

It felt good. So maybe I'll change up the color scheme next time, but I think I'll stick with those for a bit. I'd have to imagine you talked about last week about the sort of gamble of not getting a lot of sponsors for this fight, taking a bit of a hit, but hopefully it paying off. After that performance, are you confident that you will be back in the black, so to speak, as far as sponsorship is concerned? I'm sure it'll come. Obviously, I think, I don't know if you've spoken to anyone else,

but the sponsorship market right now is a little bit hurting. Yeah. You know, so, you know, I'm confident, you know, eventually that we'll partner up with the right people, with the right company, and everything's going to be fine. I'm not stressed at all about that. Okay. And I also love that you went back to, I don't know if you got your hands wrapped

while wearing the suit, but at least you were checking out the gloves on camera while wearing the suit. It's just such a, it's a unique thing to you that I just really appreciate. So I hope you can do that every time. You did it against BJ. Yeah, actually, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't wrap my hands for this fight. I'm not going to, I'm not going to wrap my hands anymore. What? I don't really like, I don't really like doing it.

You just put the gloves right on? Yeah, I was just trying them on when they took that picture. But you didn't actually wrap your hands after? No, I don't wrap my, I'm. I'm not going to rent my hands anymore. Wow, why? It feels better. Have you ever done this before in a fight?

No, and especially with the Bellator gloves, they're a lot better than the U.S.C. gloves for making a natural fist. So it's a lot more comfortable. Wow. And did you feel a difference when you were punching? Yeah. Yeah, it felt a lot better. Whoa. And you weren't worried about breaking your hand or anything like that?

No, I don't train with wraps. and I never really had a problem with my hands or anything, so I'm not worried. Was that something you decided on the fly, or was that the idea going into the fight? Yeah, it's something I kind of decided while I was on my layoff. I never trained with wraps, and I always found that they kind of cut off, you know, blood flow when you're grappling as well, like, because you're flexing your forearms and grips and things. So it's just something I decided wasn't for me anymore. I love that.

That is great. That's why you're one of the most unique characters in the game. You just drop these little things out of nowhere. And I had no idea. Last thing for you, Rory, and again, I'm really so happy for you because I know that you didn't want to go out like that and you had so much more left in you. And again, you're still so young.

It feels like you're a lot older than you are just because you've been fighting for so long since you were a teenager. But 27, I mean, just unbelievable. You haven't hit your prime. so I'm really happy that this has worked out for you. What is the message to the people who thought that you were a little shot, that the nose was messed up, that you took too many hits, even the chin, you've been around for too long.

After Saturday, what is the message? What is the lesson here? The Red King is back and ready to go on a terror, baby. I love it. You know, I really feel at my best the layoff suck, but it's over, and I'm ready to rip it up and stay busy and bring the best fights in the sport to you guys. Amazing.

Again, congrats, Rory. Very happy for you and your family. It was really cool to see your, I believe she's your girlfriend, right? Not your wife officially? Yeah. Yeah, very cool to see you, you know, celebrating and even Rodolf making an appearance there in your corner. How about that? You know, it's a big deal when?

So, you know, with the, you know, with the Everlast Year and all that stuff. Enjoy the victory. Thanks for taking some time out on this holiday. and looking forward to seeing you in New York when you come here for the MSG card. Awesome. Thanks very much, Ariel. Good to talk to you. We'll talk to you very soon.

There he is. Roy McDonald, successful in his Bellator debut on Friday. What a performance against Paul Daly saying that he actually thought the fight would be tougher than it was. So after the fight, Paul Daly gets on the microphone and addresses Michael Page. There has been a feud brewing between the two Englishmen and then they catch him on camera going up to Page

No punches thrown, no sort of physical altercation, if you will, but words were definitely exchanged. So let's bring in Mr. Michael Venham Page to talk about this and a whole lot more. He joins us now on the phone. Michael, are you there? Yes, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Michael. I appreciate you coming on. Of course, there was a lot of buzz, and it was unfortunate we couldn't watch it live here in the United States.

But when it happened, everyone was talking about it. So if you can, tell us from your perspective, what happened? What happens after the fight when Paul Daly leaves the cage? You know what? Before I even go into Port Daly, I just wanted to, I was kind of annoyed, a bit disappointed with Bellato on this one. My boy, Alfie Davies, was a, unfortunately, was a swing bout. And, you know, as it goes, that's annoying in itself. He would then put on after the main event, which, you know, it happens.

And, you know, he was warming up for about three hours on and off because they wasn't sure if he was going to put him on before or after. But then when he finally actually got into the cage, I don't know who called it, but they actually took down the cameras. So, you know, I know the hard work that we put in in the cage. And to everyone, that's the one thing you want is people to see, you know, all the work that you put in. And they actually had taken down the cameras.

So if you do, if anybody you just want to go on check my page, he hit someone. And I call it the shotgun backkick because he folded someone in half. It was probably one of the best knockouts on the night, and it wasn't filmed. So I'm a bit disappointed with that, but happy for him. I had two other teammates on the night destroy it, Michael Shipman and the Prince Amir, also winning his fight. So I just want everyone to go into my fan page and just check out that back.

You can show him some support, please. Well done. Well said. Yeah, obviously hearing Paul Daly, you know, call me out. I kind of expected it because I felt he went in there knowing that if he wins the fight, he would automatically call out Douglas Lima, you know, going for the belt. And if he lost what he did, he was going to call me out. So I think I was just very tactical.

But I have to say I'm extremely disappointed and I've lost all respect for Paul Daly and it's not because of, you know, him calling me out. I have to say after the main reason was his mom was left in the crowd, distressed and angry after the incident. And obviously knowing that your family's there, you have to be careful about, you know, you have to be professional about how you handle yourself. And I had to kind of explain and calm her down. We had a lovely conversation, although it was tense to calm her down. It left her feeling a lot better afterwards, obviously. But you can't, I don't, I would never put my mother in that situation where I happened to, you know, offend my battles over something that I caused.

So I have to say, I've lost a hell of a lot of respect for him. Wow. So what happens? He comes out of the cage and just sees you and goes up to you. And what is said? No, not at all. I find it funny because there's a time and a place for everything. Since the altercation, actually, you know, since all the hype started,

we've been at a couple of events where we've been sitting across the, you know, across the room from each other. And he has that this was the first time he's loved. looked me in my eyes. Yeah, and he did it at, he decided to do it then. I found it, I was a bit annoyed, but then at the same time I found it a bit funny because, one, if he exited the cage the opposite way,

within five steps, he could have looked me straight in my face. And there was hardly anybody around on that side, but he went out the opposite way and then decided to create a scene and charge towards me. I hadn't, I hadn't actually said anything to him at the time, so I actually find out, I would love to actually hear what triggered him to turn around and charge at me anyway. So I didn't say anything.

I didn't shout at anything. I don't wave at him. I don't sigh. There was nothing. So, again, I think he's just trying to sell another fight and distract people from the woken that he actually got in the cage. But I just find it funny that he decided to run across. He might as well have shot it. Hold me back, hold me back.

He said hold me back, hold me back? No, I'm saying he might as well. Oh, it might as well. Yes. But what did he actually say to you? Yeah, he might as well as certain. To be fair, I just wasn't paying attention. Okay.

When you have someone rushing towards you, rushing towards you in that manner, the first thing I was thinking of doing is hitting him straight away, and that's just purely on self-defense. I'm not that way inclined. But the pure aggressive way he was approaching me with him and his training partner or whoever that other idiot is, that you can't walk towards someone like that

and not expect them to defend themselves. So they charged towards me Luckily he didn't get to that point Because my coach stepped in the way And pushed them back anyway But he could have caused a very big Incident at that particular time And like I said, he could have purely called me into the cage

And I'd gladly he walked in You know what I mean? Like I said, there's a way of doing it And I think he did it the safe way What did you make of his performance against Rory? It was horrible It was um It felt like, you know, when you watch, I'm watching the backroom when you're warming up for a fight, you have a training partner helping you out.

It just felt like Paul Daly was in there as a Rory McDonald's training partner. And Rory absolutely destroyed him. And I found it, again, I find it funny that he had immediate excuses after the fight. And again, I just shows your character because he got completely schooled in every area. and his excuse was oh yeah he took the safe way out he decided to take me down he knew that he's better than me there

now why would why why does he know that you're you're supposed to be an established MMA fighter it shouldn't be a case of yeah you know you know that you can take me here and win you know what I mean you should be working on all areas of your game so

I just feel like you know you came immediately after losing you should have their decency to congratulate someone for that kind of performance This morning, I woke up to an email from Paul Daly. He sent it to me at 6.23 a.m. Eastern Time. And this is what he said.

I just want to read it to you. It's very quick. He said, heard you got the unproven social media created Facebook funding, injury-prone, trouser kickboxer, and grade A. Pum-Pum, aka Pussy Page on your show. I may have lost to one of the best fighters in the world, but I still got something left in the tank to whoop that punk's ass. Just out of nowhere. Email from Paul Daly. Again, it just shows me that I've obviously got to him in what I was saying before.

And again, I only said it because I was offended. You know, someone I classed at the time as a friend, and not necessarily a friend that you call up, you know, you go out on the weekend, but just someone when you see them when you're in their presence, it's nothing but respect. We've had multiple loss and jobs. multiple conversations and all the promotions and when we're together and then he turned around and started you know being disrespectful about me this is this is the sole

reason this is the sole source of where this all stem from so that's that's where initially happened obviously I started giving my digs back online that's how I prefer to do it I'd make it a bit more comedic and yeah obviously he's touched and he's now furious, but I offered the fight, he didn't take it, but now it's on my term. After a performance like that,

it's on my term. He said it's going to be next year or something that we wanted to fight. I'm telling you now, it's when I want it to happen. And I am, same way Maywe ever said, I am the A side in this action.

After that performance, I'm telling you, he's lucky that I should be, he's lucky I even take the fight, because it was embarrassing, in my opinion. Okay, so when do you want this fight to happen? I would love for Bellator to set up another show immediately in London. And I think, you know, I owe it to the London crowd,

as I, you know, my injury this time. I would love to come back here as soon as possible. I think me and him alone will feel this place. I think the hype around this fight is going to be insane. And it's very few times you're ever going to see two English people, two English fighters, you know, cause so much hype for one bout. And I think we need to get it done as soon as possible. I don't want to wait until next year.

I want it done now. I want his next fight, my next fight to be him. How is your knee? How serious is the injury? Again, you know what? For me, it's probably the first time I've ever had a disagreement with my coach. because I just wanted to do it. I think that's just the fight is, you know, the fighter and all of us,

but I just wanted to do it. I know in my head I was like, it's just going to be 50 minutes, but it was causing me problems. And everything my coach was saying was correct, but I still just wanted to fight, you know, is in my hometown. I had a lot of people come out to support me.

It was hard to even want to go to the fight. And I have to say, actually, I lost a lot of motivations immediately afterwards, because, again, I've been putting in a lot of words, and then to not have to not fight it was it was very it it did not me a little bit but weirdly enough I think what poor daily did really definitely ignited some energy in me man and I'm good to go he's just helped me he's just helped me almost inspired me just from his actions and his

antics so I am ready to go so let's just say he's funny because he's he's lost to you he's lost twice now in London and he's probably going to get another main event after losing so badly both times he's definitely going to get another main event in London if we're able

to do it again in London and I think yeah this is going to be his third strike and he's out he needs to go and change jobs so as far as the knee like two three months away you're good this is not a serious thing no I'm just going to kill

to rehab. I'm seeing a specialist soon. He's going to be helping me through all the exercises and whatnot. It wasn't old injuries, so I've just done it again, and it just seemed to happen. It happened during my camp, and it was not so bad. And then my coach could see it affected me. I was trying to hide it, in all fairness.

And then it happened again just before the fight, like I'd tweet, just the way I felt. I landed on it. And he was like, I can't put you in there. And I just wanted to just strap up, you know, just put something over my knee and just get it done. So it's not that bad. I'll be able to, you know, get back in very soon, hopefully. Anything happened between you two after the cameras were off, backstate?

Was there any other incidents on Friday? No, again, that's not me. Yeah. For me, it feels like a waste of time. That's why I found it amusing, because there's been multiple times if you really wanted to do something to me. He would have done it. It just felt very fake and very desperate to distract people from his performance. Yeah, that's how I see it.

I just left afterwards. They wanted to do a few interviews. I knew what everyone was going to talk about. And once again, this time, I was the main event without even stepping in case this time. That is true. And you wanted to save your comments for this show, right? 100%. 100%.

No for you, man. I appreciate that. So you think that you can retire, Paul, like after what you will do to him, you foresee him switching gears in his life? I know what I find quite interesting. And again, you kind of have to respect him because he is a powerhouse in terms of his fighting style.

He's got that kind of punches luck because he's got, you know, devastating power in both hands. He's got that punch of luck. And, you know, the fight is that he's had, he's being able to take out some good fights and have some good fights but what I find funny is his most memorable achievement

is a loss in his career in his career against Diaz when I think about it like that he's not a good fighter his record shows that and I think after I finish him he needs to just leave I think he can probably take some work up

in Amsterdam in one of those blue windows What? What are you talking about? What's a blue window? trust me, I'll go around, you'll get it. All right. By the way, a lot was said after your last fight. I said it as well. I want to see you take a step up in competition.

Paul Daly certainly is a step up in competition, but I'm just curious, as you're sitting there on Friday and you see what Rory did to Paul Daly, and in my opinion, Rory is one of the best welter rates in the world. Again, witnessed the fact that he has a win over the current UFC champion in number one contender. How far away do you think you are? from the Roy McDonald's of the world.

Roy McDonald's was, it was an amazing performance, extremely technical. I just love, I love technical fighters. You know, because regardless of us being in the same division, you can learn from watching people that are technical like that. This is what I don't care for just people that just go out and brawl. It inspires me to go back and work hard. And you know what? I still believe in the next couple of fights after Paul Daly,

depending on what I'm looking to, where we're looking to go from Paul Daly, in terms of fights, because I think it's only going to be the top, you know, the top three, top, top three, top five that I need to be fighting now anyway. Yeah. So he's not that far off. And I still feel there's a lot of areas that I need to improve on. But I'm hungry for that fight. That would be fun.

Of course, next he's fighting for the belt and all that. but I wanted to see you versus Paul Daly right off the bat that shot of you two sitting next to each other with Scott Coker in the middle was, I mean, just very riveting just to look at the body language. And then now, you know, there's a new layer to the feud, if you will, with what happened on Friday. I think this could be one of the biggest money-making fights

that Bellator could put on, at least for the next year or so. So hopefully it happens next and we stop playing around and having you guys fight other people. 100%. I understand. You know it's going to be that stand-up fight because I actually guarantee you in that fight. He's going to try and take me down.

I guarantee it. And like he was talking about, you know, Rory taking the safe option. I guarantee he tries to take me down when we fight because he's not going to handle my striking. He's not going to handle my movement. He's not going to handle my precision. He's going to feel lost.

He's a very emotional fighter as well. And that's going to drive him to make the very bad mistakes in that fight. Can't wait. I cannot wait for that. Wow. Very rare to see, as you said, two Englishmen having a feud like this,

and Friday was interesting stuff. I appreciate you coming on, Michael, and talking to us. Hope you get well soon, get healthy, and then we can finally see this fight. It would be a lot of fun to watch. So thank you so much for coming on and telling us what happened.

It's one of a thing. Yeah. Me and Scott are working on something big in MMA, so just have a look at it. I can't say anything more than that. What kind of, what is this? I'm going to leave you with the cliffhanger. He's just like an episode of like, damn.

Damn. I'm like a phone or something. I'm leaving it at that, but thank you for having me on the show, man. Wow. It's always a pleasure. Damn, you're going to leave me like that, huh, Michael? All right. All right.

I'll keep bugging you. That is a good cliffhanger. Thank you for that. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. No problem. Take care. All right, there he is.

MVP. And I cannot wait. I truly believe. leave that fight, that feud now is one of their biggest. It's one, I mean, it feels legit, it feels authentic. And they'll be showing that clip, I would imagine, for many weeks and months to come. Okay, let's move along. As we talked about, UFC 211, still kind of digesting it. One of the big moments, of course, Frank Yedger's win over Yaira Rodriguez wanted to check in with Yairair. He hasn't done much, if any, media since the fight to see how he's doing what he thinks about the fight,

where he goes from here and more. He's joining us right now on the phone. Yeah, are you there? Hey, good, man. I'm doing great. I appreciate you coming on. I know you're in the Vegas airport right now, right? Yes, I'm walking through my date right now. Okay, great. Well, I appreciate you squeezing us in before your flight out.

You were just at the UFC athlete retreat. How was it? It was great, you know. It was really good learning experiences. We have conference. We have this concert yesterday with a new dog. It was great. you have go with Brian too.

Yeah. You know, I'm just, listening to all those guys suck and learn about their experience. It's just amazing, you know. I take notes of everything, basically. Wow. And I know I need to know,

I'm sorry, I know that I need to get better. And a lot of times, as you know, is what I've been learning through all this process, which is great. Will you go to this Performance Institute? foresee yourself using it? I mean, you don't live in Vegas, so it might be tough, but they say it's open to all fighters. Do you actually foresee yourself using it? Oh yeah, it is great, man.

It's everything that you can ask for, basically, there. You know, you have your training condition, you have your nutritionist, you have people that's going to take care of your body, and the best training institute, you know, that I ever seen. And it's going to be great. You know, I actually, I've been talking to the U.S.A. And I'm trying to move to Vegas, actually. Oh, really? Yes. Why?

Because of the Institute? Oh, you know, I'm just, I like the city, you know. I mean, it looks like kind of like hometown. Uh-huh. A little, you know. I like outdoors a lot. We can't do, you know. And I also make coach as the, like, he can move, whatever he wants, you know.

and his wife, she can move to whatever he wants to. And all the team around us make sure move. So we're thinking of moving all of us here. Wow. So that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to leave your current team. You're all going to go to Vegas potentially. Well, yes. Wow.

What is going to happen? My coaches are you waiting for their kids to finish high school. You're going to take probably one year. and I'm going to start looking into places here, you know, to live. Okay, interesting. Okay, well, let's talk about last Saturday. Have you had a chance to rewatch the fight? Oh, yeah, several times.

What's it like when you watch it? What are you thinking? Well, if you want to hear my thoughts, I think in the stand-up, I was handling really well. You know, I keep my distance and take him a couple of times. times, you know, I was holding back when I tried to put pressure on me. But I think the idea I was, you know, even a little bit of my back, you know, when I went to the cage.

And I think the first thing on my defender really well, until I tried to go for the Gilgillotine. And then when she took a bandage of it, she took me down there. And I think that that was a good mistake, you know, trying to go for this mission, not for the tail defense. And whenever he was at there, I mean, he, oh, it's not, it's not a secret. And he has, like, really good top position. I knew that that was going to be like my, you know, my, my, my, the toughest position during the fight. So I was still myself, all right. All right. All right, yeah, because you're in big water. Yeah. Let's keep moving. Let's keep trying. So I was just trying to throw some missions from there, you know. Um, he felt

really hard whenever I was sleeping and all that. And, uh, you know, with having a, um, an experienced guy on top of you, you know, just, you are just taking all the submissions away. You know, he's a black belt dude. He knew what he was doing. And he ended up controlling the round. I take some damage in my eye, sitting in the third round. And whenever I went out, the second round,

I couldn't see, like, I couldn't see, like, like, half or less than half with my left side. Right. And whenever a second round, I think I keep my distance again really well. When I tried to take me down, I think I defended the first day in real well, he leaves me up, the second line of defense. I defend me well too.

He left me out and I land again on my feet. And the third time, you know, it was like a chain wrestling thing. He said to me, you know, he was one to another, to another to another team, you know. And I couldn't stop in there, you know. And whenever I land to the floor, I tried to go for that role, you know, for that leg. I adjust. I knew that she knew that I was to go for that ankle lock or whatever. And I switched to a nearer.

Yeah. I thought that I had it for a second, you know. Oh, wow. I really feel it like stretching, you know. And when I looked at my corner, they were telling me to adjust. And then I was trying to adjust. and I loved the position that he was really loved. I mean, this guy can be wrong.

He's a blackbird. He's not what he's doing. He was doing this small movement to get out of the position. And I couldn't finish him there, you know, so I tried to move again. And he took me back a little there. You know, he controlled me a little bit there. So I had that Kimura grip. I roll and then I wait for him to see me his back.

So whenever I try to go for his back, He sleeps again, you know, he's good. Like, he knows what he's doing. He's a water of everything, you know. And after I tried to go through that Amber and I could eat it. You know, so I was like, all right. My youth is not working with them anymore. So let's see what you can do.

I was trying to, you know, be more active on my guard. And I didn't want even, I knew that my eye was like, you know, taking some damage. So I didn't want to open my guard up to even more, even more options to hit me. so I was just trying, you know, to be, to play my youth again. And it wasn't up, you know. He was better than me the night.

Was he tougher than you thought he would be? Was he tougher than you thought he would be? No, I was expecting that guy. I was expecting that guy. You know, I was expecting that. I mean, that is great for me, you know, because now I see the level, you know. Like, I know, I know where, what do you guys are talking about, Whenever you see the level, you know, he sees, like, high wrestling level and all that, you know, as well, how you see it, I feel it now.

And now it's time to work on all the stuff that I have to work on. You know, if you can ask anyone you want, I'm better than that. I'm better than that, you know, like as simple as that, I work harder than that. Like, whenever I do you guys, I work every single day to get better, and I don't do other things. But this is true, you know. I don't know how working it is the only thing that I took you know I used to you know what happens and I guess I mean just a learning experience you know you you can know put excuses I won't even though one other put excuses you know he was learning me the night and

that's it and just keep keep moving on just stuff like how we say you know and keep moving on my father so I used to ride a horse I don't have you know the history where I was a kid I used to write a horse okay because we have a little rash and in the So every time I ride that horse, he was a motherfucker, you know, because he always take everyone down. Like the horse he used to jump like a lot with people, you know, and the only, the only people that he can write the horse, it was my dad and I. And even sometimes it was hard for us to control the horse.

So every time I jump into the horse, you know, that I ride him, and he takes me down. My father used to tell me, stand up. and get in that horse right away again until you control it and that's the way that I've been my father teach me you know

to all my life even if I was crying she told me is you're gonna jump again into that horse you're gonna keep on riding until you control it and you know

it's the kind of it's who I see life you know I've been through sports since I was a kid you know since I was five I'm used to competition you know

I don't like to lose, but I know who to lose to, you know. I've been very true competition on my left, like winning and losing, winning and losing, and you learn who to lose, you learn who to take advantage of losing, you know. How's the million, you like to lose, you know, but you learn, you know, every time you learn, and you become more experienced, you get better, you know, every time. A lot was made of the fact, and you sort of alluded to this year, that you can, see out of your eye going into the second round and some criticized your corner for not using the end swell they used it going into the third but by that point the fight was about to be called off

do you feel like they should have used it would that have helped your eye I mean that wasn't my decision you know I was saying yes I can see I couldn't see like yeah I couldn't see shit like I was they covered my eye and you can see like yes yes I can see yeah but I couldn't see I didn't see nothing. You know, the guy, the guy, the guy was doing a great joke. I feel my eye like hopping once, you know, like, and I could see for like a second and then I can't, I just glosses again. Wow. Like, fuck. I mean, I could go on fire again, you know, but my head was already taking a lot of damage, you know, but I mean, I, to be honest, I don't care. Like, this is what I get paid for.

what I love to do. Yeah. You know, so, but, you know, I guess. Any serious injury? Is it okay or is it, it's fine? No, no, no. I'm already about my plan. Like, literally, when I say this, it's not because I want to be disrespectful to people or to prank you or whatever. My plan was knock him out. Like, seriously, you know, I wasn't fucking kidding. Like, nobody had knock him out. I say that because I wanted to be the first one. You know, I came to this war of the anti-a-stor to do

new stuff. Like, I always been telling you that I was, I was one to a ship new, new stuff, new goals, and nobody has seen or done before. You know, with all respect, like, I wanted to knock him out. They wanted to be the first one, you know. He said he was. He was. Like, I don't have been to his face all the time.

He's got to hit. You know, I couldn't knock him out. And I couldn't shoot my goal at night, you know, and it's called him. It's for worse. You know, somebody loses, somebody wins. Yeah. You know, somebody's strategy war. Somebody's strategy.

You know, it's a lot of him. You know. doesn't mean anything. Just keep moving on. And left from the experience and train her. My plan was gone and win against France together, come back to the gym and train again as I think we'll wait and then go for that title.

As I was planning, you know, that were my toes. Now it couldn't happen. Now I have to adjust. You know, it's going to probably take more time, but my vision is still there. It's not going nowhere. You know, my vision of being champions still there.

It's just going to probably take more time than expect. UFC is returning to Mexico City in early August. Is your plan to fight on that card? And if so, is there someone you'd love to fight on that card? No, really, you know, I want to try to take it easy for now. I want to learn about this experience. What all my holes, like fix all the holes in my game? We always fix.

I always fix. I always fix my, not because I lose this, I're going to fix the holes on my game. You know, I always fix my holes in the game. whenever I win a fight, I move on of a winning fight as I move on as a losing fight. You know, so I always try to learn, you know, keep myself constant, and getting better, and it's what I've been doing. And it's what I want to keep on doing, you know, just getting better in the next couple months.

And, you know, I have my family is waiting for me in Mexico with some projects, you know. I need to go to Mexico, take out those projects, you know, kind of, they all set up there with my family and just be more, more conscious of my work here. And, you know, because my mind is like, you know, here and there and everywhere, you know, I'm just trying to fix everything from here. And it's, and it's hard, you know, like, they work never stops, you know, so you got to know how to move with it, how to roll with it. But now that I have, like, basically this time, you know, I want to try to use it to go with my family to use the stuff that I have to face.

Just work on there. Okay, last thing for you a year, you know, when someone suffers their first loss in the UFC, it had been, you know, what, like four or five years, 2012, 2012 since your last professional loss. You know, you always kind of wonder, especially a young guy with as much potential as you, how are they going to handle it?

It sounds to me a week later, you're handling this very well. You know what you did wrong. You're not letting it beat you down. You want to come back. You're going to take some time off. but it doesn't sound like you're beating yourself up over this, and you've lost any confidence. Is that an accurate assessment of how you're taking this?

Yeah, I like your wife. My mom texted me, she was worried, you know? Yeah. She was like, oh, miho, what is your right doing? Like, you should go with the doctor and see what's going on. Because, to be honest, bro, I was crying after the fight. I was fucking cry. I was mad of myself.

You know, I was just disappointed. It was like, what the fuck happened to you all day? You fucking work for this. Like my phone, my father was telling me, like, don't beat yourself up or something like, oh, I tell him to that. Come on, man. Like, you, you are the ones that. You told me you, you're a winner. I'm lost.

I'm a winner. Don't tell me that right now, man. Like, I'm a winner, I'm a winner. I train for this. Like, this is my life. I put my life on the line every time that I step in the king. You know, this is my life. I care of this.

You know, I was, I was just crying and I was angry, you know, because I don't like to lose. Well, if I like to lose, nobody, you know, but the thing is, who you take, they're losing. I'm who you laugh from it. You know, I've been, like I'm telling you, I've been losing winning all my life. My father teaches me how to win and how to lose, you know, we're in our respect. It doesn't matter what happens. You know, a losing doesn't mean anything. You know, it just means that you want to learn from it, and this doesn't want to ever happen to you again.

And it's happened to you again, you're doing something. up wrong. Change it. You know, again, keep moving on. That is great to hear. Great insight there into how you're thinking,

and I give you a lot of credit for handling your first UFC loss like this. Very mature for someone as young as you are. I appreciate you squeezing a senior year. Safe travels home and happy to hear that the eye is okay

and looking forward to your comeback. I have a feeling that it's going to be more impressive than any of your other previous fight, so I appreciate it very much. Thank you, man. I don't want to say nothing. Man, he's going to go on show it. So thank you, man.

I really appreciate your time, man. Always. Yeah, we look forward to it. Thank you, Ayer. All right, thank you, man. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is. El Pantetta.

All right, man. Yajir Rodriguez, on his way home from the UFC athlete retreat. And certainly with a positive spin on a disappointing night in Dallas. Okay, let's move along. Coming up in June in New Zealand, it's Mark Hunt versus Derek Lewis. Let us switch gears now and bring in our good friend, the Black Beast himself, who's joining us via the match of Skype. Well, it's nice to see that you've changed hats, Derek,

because the other one that you were sporting just a couple weeks ago in Dallas, what would happen there? I mean, that wasn't... I mean, I talked to you. Remember that night? And then they laid maybe the greatest stink... What was that?

The greatest stink bomb in the history of like an elimination game. Of course, I'm talking about your beloved rockets. Man, we're not going to talk about that. Let's talk about them down clover leaves y'all got out there with the maple leaf. Yeah. Your hockey team's sucking it up out there, too.

Well, Canada. It's not about me here, Derek. It's about you, but I'm happy now that you've switched over to baseball because you might have to put that hat on the shelf just for a couple more months. I'm not worried about that, though. I'm still a supporter, no matter if we want to lose. That's a good fan. That's a good fan.

I respect that very much. Okay, I have a lot to talk to you about Derek, and I wanted to get you in before you left to New Zealand. And when you were last on the show after the Halifax fight, you actually told me that you wanted to take a break. You know, your foe was hurting things like that. And then a week later, they announced this fight. What happened to the break? I threw a crazy number at them and told them this way I would like,

if the only way I'll fight it, I'll fight for this certain amount of money. I didn't think they'll say, okay, yeah, we'll confirm, I'll agree with that amount. And I didn't think they would. And I was like, damn, I should ask for more money then. And so they gave me the right type of contract that I wanted. And so that's the reason why I'm fighting now. So you got a new deal?

Yeah. Wow. We talking seven figs or what? Yeah, right. I wish. It's six figures, but shit, I wish it was seven. Is it a big? Well, that wouldn't be talking to you for free, though.

Is it a big bump and pay from your last fight? Yeah, it's a big point. I think it's almost half of what I got last fight. Okay, well, good for you. I'm happy they did that. I'm probably one of the highest pay heavy waste right now, though. Okay.

And then the other thing was, okay, so they announced this quickly, and now we know that that's one of the reasons why you came back. But it just seems like they are sending you everywhere but the United States to fight. I mean, the most far off places, where were you in Croatia? You were in the Philippines that never came to fruition.

Of course, you were in Halifaxia. facts, you're going now to New Zealand. Why is this? Do they get a kick out of sending you to these foreign places? Do you want to go to these foreign places? Why does it seem like you are fighting everywhere but where you want to fight here in the United States? I guess it has a lot to do with since Obama not in the office no more, you know, trying to see if black people don't want it in certain areas in the world. Okay. He's trying to test water out, the market out for black folks. So you're the guinea pig?

Yeah, I'm the guinea pig. You know, I'm getting paid pretty good for a guinea paid, so I don't mind. Honestly, now, did you ever hear of New Zealand when you were offered this? Say what? Did you ever hear of New Zealand? Did you know anything about New Zealand when you were offered this opportunity? No, I didn't know anything about New Zealand. The only thing I did know, where I thought I knew, I thought they threw boomerangs out there,

but I heard that I'll throw boomerangs out there. Yeah, that's Australia. And I also heard, I think that's where Outback Steakhouse come from. It's New Zealand, I believe. I'm not sure. Don't go to Outback. If they have one there, don't go to it. No, I'm not going.

I'm going to check the Hobbit out, though. I heard the Hobbit houses is out there. Okay. I don't know what that is. The Houses for the movie, The Hobbit. Oh, the Hobbit? Really? The movie, The Hobbit, the Little People?

Yeah. I never saw that movie. I never saw it. You're in last place then, man. That's a good movie. All right, fair enough. How is the foot, by the way? Oh, it's good.

It's pretty good. You know, I was doing some kicks with it a few days ago, and it's almost 100%. It's really my ribs now. My ribs are almost 100% as well. Oh, you hurt them in the Brown fight when he went to the body, right? Yeah, I'd say that I had to take a shit,

but he really broke two of my ribs. ribs in the first round. Oh, snap. Wow. So he broke two of your ribs, and you're saying they're not 100% just yet. So have you not been able to train at 100% for this fight? Because it's coming up. It's in less than a month. Yeah, I've been training 100%. I'm not letting that stop me. I hold me back at all, you know? It should be good. Okay. You know, I'm really, the only way I'm testing out is by having sex with my wife. You know, that's the only way I can feel that it's 100% when she wrap her legs around me. So right now it's not really hurting as bad right now like it used to. Are you getting married in a couple weeks?

Yeah, I'm getting married. I know the last time I was on the show, it was like we was going back before we was having little problems or what, but I said we had got back together, out of all the stuff we had been through, and I'm going to go ahead and marry if somehow going to go willing that we had got back together, so we had got back together. So I'm going to go ahead and marry. And that's coming up, right? I saw you tweet about it. Yeah, it's the following weekend in Hawaii right after the fight.

So you're going to go from New Zealand straight to Hawaii to get married? Yeah. Are you going to make your family go there as well? Yeah. And I heard Travis Brown proposed to Ron the Rousey in New Zealand, and that was crazy. You know, and hopefully they're still out there, you know, like. kicking in and stuff so I could go ahead and see him and blow up a kiss and say, see, this is what you can have had. But, you know, I'm not worried about it no more.

All right. I got my little booatine, my butter, bicorn, ice cream now. Where is she right now? She had work. Oh. You know, she don't watch the show. She doesn't. Well, why would she?

I mean, who in their right mind would spend their day watching this? Is she running the salon? Yeah. How's that going? Yeah, it's doing good. Yeah? It's doing real good right now. Okay.

Yeah. So you guys are getting married, and is your family going to go there as well, or is it just you two in Hawaii? I got a couple of my teammates and friends gone, but my mother-in-law wanted to go, but she wanted me to pay for her. I'm like, no, because I really don't like her anyway. I'm not going to pay for her to go watch me get married when. I really don't like her ass anyway. Right, right, right, right. Well, it's good she doesn't watch the show either, I'm assuming, unless she knows.

Have you told her this? Yeah, she don't watch the show. She's probably someone to drink or something. Oh, okay. All right. Do you live with your future wife now? Yeah, I live. Okay, so it's not going to be a big transition for you.

No, not at all. You know, we've been going back and forth almost nine years now. Okay. Wow. No. So it's all the right thing to do. she put over my crap for all these years. Yeah.

And I might as well go ahead and marry like you. Yep, yep. Now you're killing it. So, you know, now's a good time to get married, right? I mean, you're racking in this big contract. You got big fights, your main event thing. This is a good time to be Derek Lewis. Yeah, you can say that.

But right now it's, like, kind of hard to find loyalty in friends and women anyways right now. Yeah. Because they only want me for my money. So I might as well go ahead and be with someone one day. I know that loves me and was there for me before I even. started fighting really. And by the way, I think for the four straight time

that you've been on the program, you actually have a new phone number now. You've changed it again. I obviously won't share that, but is there any particular reason why you keep changing your phone number? No, I'm not going to get into that right now. Okay, all right.

Everything's good right now, man, you know? I'm getting married. You changing it? I've never seen anything like that. Okay, fair enough. This is the fight you will... Yeah, I'm not going to. changing no more.

Okay. Ain't no reason. Ain't no reason for me to change it. This is the one. I was just getting rid of chicken hands. That's all it was. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.

This is the fight you wanted though, right? This is almost like the dream fight for you. Mark Hunt? Yeah. Why? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You know, it's another one in the fights like Travis Brown.

You know, I wanted to test myself. And I believe Mark Hunt is going to come out in the fight. Like, just like Travis did. and I still believe I could put them away in the second row. I kind of feel like if you win this fight, like you're the fresh face. I kind of feel like you should get a title shot. What do you think?

Yeah, I could go ahead and get it, but if no, I'm not worrying about them because I'm happy of the money that I'm making right now. You really don't care about this belt. I keep asking you about it, and you're very dismissive of it. Yeah, I don't care about it. As long as I'm making money, that's all I'm caring about.

If they're going to give me a re-engotiate my contract again, to fight for the belt, yeah, I'll fight for the belt. belt. Other than that, I'm not really worrying about it. I'm just keep fighting, try to stay active as possible. You know, once you have the belt, you want to be as active, I guess. I'll fight once a year. I don't like fight once

a year. I like to fight every other month. But don't you make more if you fight for the belt and win the belt? Isn't that how your contract is structured? I don't know. I don't know. I don't really keep track over everyone else's money, but if it is, that'd be great. I'll fight for the belt. Yeah. I feel like that's

kind of standard, but maybe that's a question for your management. By the way, you didn't go to the athlete retreat in Vegas, right? No, I didn't. But I heard my own, my ex-wife had wanted to punch somebody in the face, though. Who's that? Sideboard. Yeah, you guys were a thing? I didn't know that. Sideboard. Yeah, we was a Twitter thing, you know, going back and forward. Okay. Send like emojis on each other pictures and stuff like that. Oh, wow. Were you, I'm assuming it's because you were preparing for the fight, were you upset that you couldn't go? Oh, not at all.

You know, I really was sick of Vegas for a while. Yeah. Like, just the atmosphere of Vegas, I was just already burnt out on it. Okay. But Snoop Dog performed last night. Did you see that for the fighters? Yeah, I seen it. I seen it. You know, you can go to Snoop Dog concert without smoking, so we wasn't be able to smoke anyway. What's the point? USDA out there undercover and some dreadlocks in.

And some baggy panes just scoping everybody out, trying to see if they're smoking out there. That's all they're doing. It's just trying to set people up. But Derek, you should know this. I'll see my ass at home. You can have marijuana in your system if it's out of competition, just for the record. Although for you, it's a little close to your fight, so it might be tricky. Yeah, that's what they've been telling me, but, you know, I don't know, man.

I'm just, it's just wishy-washy. I don't know. Okay. Right now in the system, it's not really working. Oh. What do you mean? The USDA is like the computer or whatever. Yeah.

Guys that log in, but it's saying that they're not logged in, and it's not really acting good right now, so I'm not trying to trust it. Okay, fair enough. I smoke a little something after this fight, though. Yeah. Well, you deserve it, especially fighting a guy like Mark Hunt. And I feel like Mark would be happy to fight you.

I haven't talked to him yet since the fight was booked, but he's been very vocal about PD users and having to fight them, and you've always been clean, never been any suspicion. So I feel like you're a welcome change for him as well. Yeah, for sure, you know. The only thing I all in my system is some chicken and some Big Macs. That's about it. You won't change that diet of yours, right?

You're not going to change that diet, start eating, you know, broccoli. Yeah, I'm going to change it. Get ready for the summer. You know, I'm trying to change it right now. Okay. You're ready for something to get my six-pack going. Yeah, yeah. You know.

Tighten my eyes. ass. Last week on the show we had Francis and Ganu on and he said he wasn't impressed with Steepay's win. You were there, right? What'd you think? Yeah, I was there. Yeah, it was good. You know, he came out, he came out strong. You know, he came out like he wanted something to prove, like he's showing everyone that he's

the champion for a reason. And I'm glad that he did that. He came out like that. So you were impressed? Yeah, Francis. That guy there is, he's real aggring or whatever. Not even worrying about that guy. You know, I would love to fight him after this fight because he's been talking a lot of shit anyway, like he's the shit. Like, fuck that guy.

I'll fight his ass after I'll fight Mark Hunt. Oh, so now it's officially on because both of you have been kind of not so committed to it, wishy-washy. But now you're saying you want Francis Ngano after the Mark Hunt Fund. Enough is enough you want this fight. Yeah, I'm fine. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted them before this fight. Oh.

You know, the guy talking about, oh, I'm too slow in this and that. Yeah, whatever. I'm going to have a wait. Do you feel like he's overhyped? I'm coming and bang his ass up. Yeah, he's overhyped. He's got a great look, though, with the hair. What do you think?

I mean, it's hard to say. Thus far, he's looked very good, but I agree with... I'm not worried about this dude. I'm still prettier than him anyway. Well... The African booty scratch. I ain't worried by him. What does that mean?

What is that? No, we're not going to go into that, man. You already want to black-on-black violence. I want to give me out too much. That's not true. You really believe that, though, right? You believe that some fighters were actually hitting me up after you said that, and they believe it as well.

I don't know if I believe it, though. I have to be honest. It is. It's true, man. It's America. Well, this is Trump's America, and you're part of that problem, right? You voted for the guy. No, I didn't vote for him.

I would. I just like it. the same way because he's funny to me. You still feel that way? I didn't vote. I haven't been keeping me track. I'm sure he's doing a great job. That's great.

I also thought it was interesting, Derek, that you got that big workout last week in Dallas. That was really cool that they spotlighted you, but it felt to me like you didn't really want to be there. Oh, I didn't. I didn't eat the whole day. It was just busy, like, ripping and running all the way

across town to go see some weak-ass day. I don't even like Dallas Cowboys. I'm going to go to their facility, go see them, and meet and greeting all that. And I'm sitting up there hungry the whole time. And we're walking around. All they got some damn fruit. I don't want no damn fruit. I want some meat. You had a big pizza afterwards, I saw. Yeah, I don't want to do that anymore. You had a big pizza afterwards. Yeah, I had to, see, because I had me ate all day. Yeah. See, I look at your Instagram. I look at it's very entertaining as always.

But why did you go to the Cowboys training facility if you're such a big Texans fan? They're the rivals and things like that. It just seemed like a strange place for you to be. Yeah, because they paid me to go, so I went ahead and went. Well, that makes sense. Yeah.

Did you initially say no, and then they said, we'll pay you to go and then you went? No, I had told them, man. Fucked the cops. So I don't really don't want to see them. But they're saying that they really want me to be there. And it's because I'm a Houston guy, blah, blah, blah. Right.

I'm like, whatever, man. Then we went to go see them the whole last, what is that Super Bowl trophies that they had. Yeah. They got dust on them. It's the last time they won in probably like the 90s. Yep, that's right. And they still talking shit about when they had won the Super Bowl. Everybody weren't worried about the more cowboys.

Yeah. I like that you did the Terrell Owens thing, right? in the middle of the field there on the star? Yeah. Yeah. I would have took a shit on that store if I had to. There wasn't no cameras around. Did they get mad at you for doing that, for standing on it?

No, they didn't. Okay. No, I don't care. All right. When did you go to New Zealand? Thursday. I'm going to leave the first. Okay.

Are you excited about the trip? You sit business class, right? Yeah. I said I'm going to wind up getting down the third. I'll leave the first, but I get down the third. What kind of shit is that? It's crazy. That's too damn long on the airplane, man.

I would love nothing more than just a real-time, you know, a 12-hour camera, just a feed of you on the airplane and see what you do. Hell no. I hate that, man. I get real frustrating and aggravated on a damn plane. And I'm afraid I'm afraid I'm. Heights and all that turbanus the whole damn time. No, I don't like that at all, man.

Do they, do they, do you get? That's worse than anything I've been through my life. Do you get business class? No, dude, now they finally paid for my first class. Great. That's great. At first I used to pay for my own first class upgrade or what, but now they finally paying so I raise a hell about it.

Things looking up. I like this. Getting treated with respect. I like getting back Yeah, you can say that

somewhat I'm not really worrying about that Okay All right Okay Fair enough But there's a lot

of fights out here They're crying about They're crying about They ain't getting paid this They ain't getting paid that Yeah But I believe If they put in the work

And the effort Or whatever Inside the Octagon What they call it And And I believe They could get

Whatever They ask for You know I'm Just about I got just about every time I wanted to re-engotiate my contract, I asked them a certain amount a number that I wanted, and they gave it to me. Okay.

No question asked, no argument or nothing. Even after every two fights, I renegotiate my contract just about. So you are a happy camper. They've been good to me so far. Yeah, I'm good. All right. Yeah, we're eating over here. Well, Derek, great to catch up.

We'll let you go. good luck in the fight and mazeltov on the upcoming wedding the nuptials say what I said Mazeltov and that means good luck and congratulations in Hebrew that's what we say when someone gets married in Hebrew to Canadian that's Jewish that's Canadian talk that's Hebrew talk yeah oh man you want you watered down, man. You're not even really Jewish. What do you mean? You just got that fake plastic surgeon over. You're not really Jewish, man. I am. I am. 100%. Get off my phone, man. Through and through, through, through and through. And I look forward to talking to you after the fight. You don't represent it.

You don't represent it anyways. You don't represent where you're from. What do you mean? I got my Canadian flag right here. You don't represent your Jewish people. How do you want me to represent them? I don't see all little candles back there. Don't you have. have like a bunch of candles. Well, you know, the time and a place. That's on the Sabbath. But still, though, you still supposed to have in the background. Okay, for the next show, I'll have some candles.

Yamaka. I know, I know. It's all good. I'm an undercover. It's all good. You're not a boss anything like that. You don't represent you people. That's fine.

All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, safe travels over there. Enjoy the long-ass flight to New Zealand. Don't eat the outback. Don't look for any boomerangs or. Kangaroos. Good luck against Mark Hunt. Can't wait for this fight. It goes down June 11th here in the United States. What's that?

I appreciate you, man. Okay. And we'll talk to you after. Thank you so much, Derek. All right. All right. There he is. The Black Beast. Repping his Astros, always a pleasure to talk to one, Derek Lewis. Okay, let's move along. Also at UFC 211. Of course, Damien Maia, Jorge Mazvedal. Didn't go Mazvedal's way, but we do believe he has a few things he'd like to get off his chest. So let's bring in Mr. Gamebred himself right now. now. Jorge, how are you? What's up, man? I'm doing okay. You're back from Las Vegas? No, no, I'm in Las Vegas. Oh. We had a change of plans. Something unexpected, unprecedented

that happened. So I'm still in Las Vegas, bro. What happened? But we're live on air, so I can't get into detail of it because there's numerous people that would be incriminating. So I like a experience. I'm still in Las Vegas. Are you okay?

I'm perfectly flying, bro. Is it a negative thing or a positive thing? It depends on you look at it. You know, it was good and bad. Damn. Nobody's dead, dog. I promise you that. Well, that is good.

Was it like a fight or something? No, I mean, no, not like that, bro. No, man. Okay. But you're good? Hell yeah, I'm good, bro. It's just... events I can't discuss

on library to happen Okay, fair enough Did you enjoy the weekend in Vegas The retreat, all that stuff? Yeah, I mean, it was a blur to me, bro. It's always weekends are like blurring nothing, bro.

I don't know too much of what happened, but it was a good time, bro. Why was it a blur? Combination, like no sleep, and I don't even know, man. It's just a lot of info got, came in and I got overwhelmed. Too much brain had to be used on the weekend

and my body just shuts down. I'll be like, no, we can't waste the brain power. I saved my brain power for the match. Sure, sure. So what, you pieced out? You skipped some of the things? No, I was at every class. Oh.

Yeah, I was there front row, notebook, pan recorder doing my thing. Did you enjoy kind of rubbing elbows with your fellow fighters? with my friends that I know but I don't know too like I don't know

I don't know I don't know I mean I get along with everybody so it's cool you know The fact that this was A week after your fight Were you a little reluctant to go

Would you rather just Kind of chill out at home? No definitely I wanted to stay home My kids and my family Just hang out I've already been gone X amount of days

You know To come here And be gone I don't know the X amount of days wasn't in my plans, but, you know, that'll work, so. Okay. A week later, how do you feel about that fight against Damien? You were very confident. You said a lot.

You wanted this fight. What are your thoughts? Oh, yeah. For starters, I want to remind people, I ask for this fight because this was the toughest fight, just like Cowboy. It was one of the toughest fights that could make at 170. This was the toughest fight and the fight that I could prove the most, you know? It didn't go my way 100% of it, but, uh, You know, I can't wait to do it again.

I mean, me and I are going to have to do it again. No matter how you see the fight, the fight was a close one. We both had each other in trouble at some times, and we got to do it again. It's just small mistakes I made in my part, you know, that I tweak this, I tweak that in the fight. Instead of being a split, it could be a unanimous, you know. So I'm eager to improve on those mistakes and get back in there, you know.

Do you think you won the fight? If we're talking about damage, obviously, yeah, man. I feel I won the fight, but, you know, controls a big part. part of the game. So the people that tell me like, man, you got ripped off, you got robbed and this and that. I

understand Damien's side, you know, because you can't ask that dude to all of a sudden become a striker. He hasn't been. He's always been who he is, you know? So he can't just change overnight. So a big part of the game is controlling. I didn't do as well as in the control department as I usually do, you know.

In the first round, how close was he to submitting you? No, he wasn't close at all Okay I was wasting energy Obviously because I was in a bad position Probably more energy than him You know

But I was not close to being submitted Did he Did he surprise you as far as just how relentless he is I mean you said he's the toughest guy and everything But like once you actually go in there with him Damien Mai he's such a unique fighter So very good at one skill set Did anything that he did in the fight

Actually surprise you The strength level surprised me He's strong, definitely strong as guy I've been in the cage with, and his half guard is real class. Like, I've never seen. I've broken with multiple Mundial champions and ABCC champions, and his half card is unique. Like, when you're in his half card, you feel threatened the whole time.

Like, you don't ever feel threatened with many people in grappling. Not in the main. I'm talking about straight grappling. Those guys on the ground come from that same background that I wore with on the regular. I've, this is unique, you know. Very, very tailored to like MMA being active, aggressively sweeping. So it was, it was a treat, you know. I actually learned a couple of things from it that I could use myself.

Wow. And then there was that great picture of you two afterwards. How did that come about in? And what did you say to each other? Oh, I was just walking somewhere. He was walking somewhere and we just collided. And I think, I wanted to tell him anyway something. I'm like, hey, bro, you fucking, you know, you did your thing.

And he wanted to tell me something like that, too. One of the guys from the U.C. had told us, and then by coincidence, we bumped into each other, and we just started talking. And he was telling me that you were surprised in my jih Tjitsu, which is funny because I don't do jih Tzu really. I don't ever, like, put on the geese, but I mean, you know, I don't think I've put on the ghee like in the last six, seven, eight, you know.

Wow. So it was weird for him to tell me that, you know? I said afterwards that I don't feel like your stock went down. It's one of those times where you have a winner and loser, obviously, but the fact that you hung in there and you fought and you know, you had your moments and you were able to fight off, you know, him having your back. Most people submit to that.

I kind of feel like you're still where you're at, if not even a little bit higher, like you gained a lot of street credit. Do you subscribe to that or is a loss of loss in your opinion? A loss is a loss, but that loss is a weird one, you know, because it hurts me, it bothers me. None of these other split losses, obviously they bother me because of the paycheck and stuff,

but this one bothers me like, man, I'm the type of guy that if I get held down 10 seconds, in practice, I go crazy, you know? Later on I'm thinking about it, so I still have to deal with that that this guy was able to do it for a lot longer than 10 seconds in a fight, you know? I've got to fix those adjustments and stuff.

So it bothers me on a personal level. I know on the business side, A lot of people have told me the same thing he told me, but to me on a personal level, this is the loss that's bothered me the most in possibly quite my whole career. Wow, even more so than the I equintified. I mean, I know you were frustrated about some of those decisions.

Well, unfortunately, we didn't those fights, but for different reasons. I was just like, fuck, you know, these judges, I don't understand, you know. This one, it was like more on a personal note, like, man, fuck. I've never got a hell down in my entire career, and now it happens, you know?

Yeah. So it bothers you in a whole other new level. But when you say held down, you don't feel like he was just holding you and not doing anything, right? Like sometimes you hear that after a fight and it's kind of a disparaging comment. Like you feel like he was trying to finish you? Yeah, he was trying to finish me. At some points he was just holding, but no matter what, like to the guys that just hold people down, it still is part of fighting and in my will versus somebody else's world.

So if somebody takes me down and I can't get back up, it's still on me. You know, even if all he's doing is holding me down, it's still, this man versus that man will versus will. So I never see, like, oh, that guy was just holding him down, that's bullshit. If somebody could just hold you down more, then that's your loss, you know, that's your weakness. Go get it better, you know, because there is ways to get better at sending up, you know. So I never see it like that, you know. The general consensus seems to have been that if you won that fight, you would have been next for Tyron Woodley. He even said on the show last week that he was.

kind of preparing for you and has to change things. The fact that you were so close to a title fight, how does that sit with you now? It burns. It burns like fucking STE, man. I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know either, but I've heard. Yes, yes. I've heard as well.

Does it still burn? You still harping on it or are you over it? Every time I wake up the piss of burns, bro. Oh, all right. I'm not talking about the I'm talking about the real life burns because I hate losing And then you got back on the horse right away

As far as trying to pick a fight with someone else It seems like the ideal scenario for you Was is Wonderboy Thompson Is that accurate? Yeah You know I think he's the next highest Ranked opponent out there That I can get my hands on

Like I've said since the beginning of this easy money tour I only want the toughest fights available to me. Don't let the slogan throw you off the easy money, so I only want the highest rank dudes, the most dangerous guys. That's all I've ever won since I came in the UFC. So all the ultimate fighter

winners and up-and-coming phenon and the 91 guy or 9-0 guy, it's not what I'm looking for right now, you know? I'm a proven animal. I'm only going to fight dudes that are the highest of their game, the highest in the food chain. So, yeah, that's it.

man, I'm trying to get the biggest fights I can always. You know, if it's not the biggest fight, it's going to be the toughest fight, you know? And so what are the chances you do get that Wonderboy Thompson fight next? Oh, now that I'm on area of Hohani, it's went up dramatically. The percentages, I got to talk to my logistics team. This is going to go through the roof now. The chances are much higher. But from what I heard, he's coming out of surgery and he's got other things on his plate.

So I don't know, you know. The fans will have to get out there and push for it. I don't know really what Wonderball stand. Not that he doesn't want to fight I think he has like a couple things to get through, you know? Okay. Are you willing to wait for him? I mean, I saw him say maybe, you know,

he's interested in fighting you, but return to the fall. Is that something that you're willing to do, or do you not want to wait that long? I want to get into now, you know, I want to fight. I feel like as far as damage-wise, you're being hurt, nothing happened to me. I was in a big wrestling match. Half the time I was in a wrestling match, you know,

so I didn't get no injuries. Nothing's wrong with me, so I'm ready to go, you know. I'm in good shape, obviously, no injury. So I would like to get in there a step. Maybe that July 28th card will be a nice car to me to be in the Nama Heights. Yeah, July 29th, to be exact. I don't want you to show up a day early. Yes, sir, July 29th.

And so what if he is not available? Who would be the next best option? Oh, maybe the best option. Well, I don't know, man. If there ain't no fights out there to make, I don't know what I'll do. you know, there's no top five, top ten dudes that I could throw down with I don't know what I'll do then I might have to

fucking sit out, you know, and wait for the right fight, you know. Obviously I don't want to do that. I like to compete. I want to fight. I was looking at your social media over the past week or so and you seem, I know you and Yol Romero are boys

and you both train at ATT and you know you hang out at Florida, all that stuff. You seem to be frustrated with some of the fighters in the UFC. Is that fair? Oh, yeah, man. But it's not me, though. I'm just being, in that sense,

I'm being the voice for the people. Okay. Frustrated with a lot of these cowards in this sport, you know? What do you mean by cowards? Oh, bro, I don't got to spell it for you. People just blatantly dodging other people. That's coward shit. You know what I'm saying?

Hashtag, whole status. You know, it's fucking mind-blowing. Back in the day, we, I have to fight three, four fights, and one night was no dodging nobody, and that's what the sport got built on, and a lot of the guys that came in after those, they saw that, had that similar mindset, you know,

just compete, fight the best, and keep winning, you know? Nowadays, it's like fight the guy that you can beat or this and that, you know, so it's weird, man. I mean, when you're up and coming in your career, yes, maybe you have to dodge shooting guys say, hey, my wrestling isn't good yet, let me get it on point,

and then I'll come back, buddy or I'm not gonna fight that guy right now because whatever you know when you're up and coming but once you're ready at the top of your game you're you're in there man that's it there's no dodging fighters what's wrong with you that's the biggest act of cowardness you know taking injuries are you referring to bisping bitch ping yeah that's what i'm referring to well but it's not just there's a there's a bunch of dudes it's just he's probably leaving the front you know, he's a front runner, you know. And I don't even want to talk about him on your show,

because I'm not going to make that dude famous. We're not going to make that dude famous. Let him go out there, win some fights. You know what I'm saying? Let him generate his own name, which I wasn't even going to say that bitch's name, you know? And what's the issue with Neil Magny? Because I see you tweeting about him as well.

Well, I want him to scrap. You know, he's like, I forgot his ranky, but I know he's like in the top 10. So I want to scrap, you know. And I don't know. There's something. or something's wrong with it. That's what the matchmaker says.

But you don't, I mean, if it comes down to like Wonderboy or him, it seems like you want Wonderboy more. I want Wonderboy definitely more on a business side of it, you know? Yeah. Well, on a personal level, I want Magnet for, like, just dumb things that he said in the past. I would want Magnet on a personal level.

Wow. What do you say? This is, man, I remember one of his opponents fell out, and I was like, oh, bro, you know, let's throw down and then he just, I didn't say anything crazy or slick. I was like, hey man, you know, you want to fight? You need an opponent? I don't have a fight yet, I think, or something of that nature.

I was telling me if you wanted to throw down. He just came out with like slick-ass shit. And I was like, whatever, bro, you know, fucking, you animal with you, and then he doesn't want to fight after that. You know what I'm saying? Then he doesn't need healthy, injury free. So am I call him out. He don't want to.

He don't want to him like out. bro. He was just talking, I talked, man. He made a sketch for him, bro. Did you see him at the retreat? Yeah, I saw him. The retreat. Do you talk to him? No, I ain't talked to him, bro.

I don't even talk to too many people, man. What about Kobe Bryant? You talked to him. No, bro. I miss his speech, man. What? He was crying. Crying. People was crying. Yeah, man. That's where my partner stole. A couple people lost their mind and crying.

Crying for what? because they were like in front of their god or something like I was like I'm crying and like yeah tears man Snapchat was off the chain that day they told me Wait so why did you miss it I don't remember man but we miss out Oh that seems like the one to be at

Did you go to Snoop Dogg? No I didn't make it to Snoop Dog What? What happened? You missed all the highlights You think? Well, I don't know, Kobe's stoop dog? No? No, no offense

that you didn't one of those dudes, bro. I'm like, I don't know about shit happening and then I didn't get there, man. Okay. I got like rules and regulations and I don't want to be at my like slash workplace and trying to party

or trying to have fun, you know? So I was like, man, I don't want to go there. Yeah, no. I can see that. It could be uncomfortable at times. Just trying to get. you don't want to tell us what you were referring to at the top of the interview?

I don't even know what you're talking about, but. Okay. Okay. And you're leaving soon, right? That's the plan? I'm leaving Wednesday. I'm staying actually in the UFC facility. I'm going to go, uh, I need some tests done on me for free, nutritionists.

They got all types of things for free. And that's the key word for me when they said free. I was like, what? Yeah. Boom. I'm there. Yeah. So I'm going to take full advantage of the, of the situations that happen anyway.

So I'm going to go take a full advantage of that. I mean, I feel like that's a very smart move on your part. But what if you're there, because this is open to everyone. And, you know, like, you know, Magni or Wonderboy is there. Like, it could get a little interesting, right? I mean, yeah, those dudes were the mouth off or, like, get sick, you know? I mean, yeah, fuck yeah, bro. I'm not going to go starting for problems, you know, with somebody.

Yeah. But I didn't run from them either. Okay. I don't run away from a good time. All right. So to recap, you know, obviously you're disappointed. You're the most disappointed you've ever been after a loss, but you're looking to get back in there relatively quickly.

July 29th sounds like a good date. You'd love it to be Wonderboy Thompson. Maybe he's not ready, but at this point, you just want to get back in there, right? Maybe, well, I heard Maya didn't want to fight in July, or I don't know when he's fighting. I don't know what the exact reason is. Maybe they don't want to let me fight for the strap, and whoever wins fights Maya regardless.

you know when Maya's ever ready because I don't know on his return day I just been hearing through the grapevine I might be off that he that he's not fighting in July and I heard that the chant went in a fight in July

so I'm like well shit I'm here and I'm the highest ranked dude and a lot of people including Dana White and others feel that I won that fight so if they want to put

in a championship fight with a guy that you know is going to make weight and come to fucking throw down well they could do that too you know wow so Dana told you he thought you

he thought you won the fight he told a good buddy of mine he thought that's a vote of confidence from the boss yeah it's pretty cool did you get any face time with the owners at the retreat no man I miss those dudes bro well it's amazing to see

you know I keep thinking about what you said at the media day in Dallas you know even your video your interview like tripled everyone else people are starting to finally pay attention to you. It's a cool thing. I think it was the necklace I was wearing, man. That was sweet. It was a nice outfit.

Did you notice, by the way, Maya was wearing all black at the Post-Five press conference? I didn't. I didn't notice, bro. I didn't even see that, man. That's funny if it was, though, bro. I asked him about it. He said it had nothing to do with what you wore, but I just couldn't help it notice the irony, you know?

Ah, that's fucking hilarious. He got me good, bro. I give it to him. He got me good, dude. Jorge, good luck to you out there. I hope everything works out with whatever you're dealing with, and good luck at the Institute and everything and safe travels home, and appreciate you coming on and talking about the fight.

Oh, my brother, I don't, man, you're sounding worried for me. No. It was all great. Okay. I don't want you to like... I'm worried. Yeah, yeah, I don't want you to kill no goat and, like, you know... Okay.

No, everything is good. Did you get married? No, man. No, I didn't do that. That's for sure. Okay. All right. Well, I'm happy it's a positive thing.

So whatever it is, good job. Congrats. Yes, sir. All right, we'll talk. High five for sure, Bob. I'll tell you when I see you in person, bro. Okay, it's a deal. It's a deal.

Thank you, Jorge. Appreciate it very much. All right, man. Have a good day. Same to you. There he is. Jorge Mosvedal. Always great to catch up with him.

And certainly people are noticing and looking forward to his next fight. Okay. A lot of you have been asking me, what's up with Ally Quinta? What has happened to him since the last time he was on the show? you may have seen on social media.

He was in Dallas for UFC 211. There was a picture with him and Reed Harris, which was very exciting. It seemed like things were going well. He was at the retreat. So let's catch up with Mr. Iaquinta. He joins us now via the magic of Skype. There he is.

Wait a second. Hi, Al. How are you? Yo, what's going on? Where are you? Vegas. See? Oh.

It's like the strip right there. Cool view, right? Yeah, that's amazing. I thought you left. Not bad. What's that? I thought you left Vegas. I did.

No, I didn't leave Vegas. I got stuck. I got trapped. I was at the airport, but there were no flights. So I went to the pool, and then I woke up, and we're still here.

Okay. And that's on a screen. Is it? It's hard to tell. Oh, it's a window. Holy smokes. You are a man of mystery. I didn't want to expect it.

I saw it on Snapchat Instagram. They never know. You never know. You never know with Reginald. How about this? Okay, we have a lot to discuss. I actually want to start post, okay, you come on the show like a month ago, and you obviously aired some grievances.

And then you ended up in Dallas with your father. And I'm sorry, once again, to Mr. Iquinto that I couldn't see him in person. He's so mad at you. You didn't say hi. So mad. You took the picture with Reed. You met with Sean Shelby. You wouldn't say hi to him.

I know. I'm sorry. I was working. I'm sorry. Was everything good out there in Dallas before this trip? Everything was great, man. I had a great time. A couple good meetings.

But I don't know. Nothing really came. Nothing really, I mean, nothing really came out of it. I don't know. I had a good time. I kind of, I don't know. I felt like I was brought there to Apollo. I don't really do anything wrong, but it was a good time. I appreciate Sean Shelby, the guy's the best. I hope, I hope, you know, I hope whatever, anything I do doesn't look bad on him, you know, because he's, he's had my back. Yeah. No, I know he likes you a lot. He's told me that as well. And so, okay, so you had these meetings. Nothing was really, I guess, finalized or resolved. And then you went out to the retreat. I saw you with Aljo and Chris Wyman, the Long Island guys on Friday. And I was like, wow, he went there. Because I, I

I had heard that you weren't going and there was an issue the last time you didn't end up going. Why did you end up going? Why did you decide to go to the retreat? Oh, I don't know. I shouldn't have gone. I don't know why I went. You regretted it? Oh, now I do.

I'm stuck in Vegas. I missed my flight. I got spent way too much money. But I had a lot of fun. Okay. But yeah, the retreat, I don't know. The thing was, it was cool, like, to see that whole, the new facility and hang out, you know, I don't know, I kind of just hung out with the Long Island guys. I picked on a lot of people that I talked a lot of shit about on Twitter, and I saw him face to face, and everyone sucks.

They're all pussies. Fuck everyone. I don't know. What did you do to those people that you're talking about? I asked them if they wanted to fight. Everybody, I said, do you want to fight? Do you want to fight right now? Or do you want to fight in July?

And everyone had an excuse. The only guy is probably down to fight is Mike Perry. I think he's down to fight. Okay. He's actually a cool guy, which sucks because I was kind of, I thought, when I saw him, I thought we were going to fight immediately. I was ready to fight. But he was kind of like cool.

We kind of joked around a little bit. But I told him I wanted to fight him in July. I don't think, I don't know if he's into it. I don't know. So were, were you actually going out there looking to fight these guys because they were all in the same room or was it just the sight of them? No, no, absolutely not. But I just figured a bunch of fighters, a lot of free alcohol they got.

Yeah. I figured probably something was going to have. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not trying to fight everybody all the time, but like if someone writes a fucking retarded rap song about me and you put my name in it, I'm going to slap the food out of your fucking hand when I see you,

and you're not going to do anything about it because if you did, I kick your fucking ass. That's why. You're referring to Cajun Johnson. That fucking guy. Yep, that guy. Did you hit the food out of his hand? Smacked it right out of his hand.

What happened? Whenever put me in a... What are you doing? Put me in a rat. Get out of here. And let's not even talk about. That guy stinks. Why are you even talking about that?

There's the worst guy Out of here What a sissy What a sissy bag If anyone ever did that to me I'd punch them right in the face I don't ever touch my food Out of my hand

Anything smack Don't Everyone thinks this is the game No one gets it yet Ariel No one freaking gets it I'm the guy I'm the guy I'm the man

No one I put in the work I'm the guy I'm the fucking man Dana White doesn't get it Sean Shelby's starting to get it he's starting to get it but they don't get it yet did you have a chance while you were there

to meet with the UFC owners Dana White Ari Emanuel anyone else nah I texted Dana and I was like I said dude I want to I want to sit and have a meeting and he was like bro we're cool you know like don't worry about it

I'm like I don't give a fuck if we're cool or not I want to I want to fix it I want to fucking I want to make this right yeah I want to get in there I want to fight. I want to feel good about working with this company that fucking, I don't know.

Now, so, yeah, hospital special surgery is now the freaking, this is like a big joke. I feel like I'm taking fucking crazy pills. I really do. It's like fucking insane.

It's insane. I made that. They don't understand. They don't see it. I'm the fucking guy. I'm the man. Hospital of special surgery? That is my deal.

I made that hell deal happen. I'm the reason that hospital special surgery and they fucking, nothing. They don't get it. do the research. I'm fucking, I'm the smart. They don't get it. No one gets it. I'm the guy. They don't see it. And I don't give a fuck. I'll be the best real estate agent in the world. I'll be number, I got myself. See, people think I'm fucking stupid. I'm not stupid. Everybody, you think I'm stupid. You're fucking stupid. I'm number 10 in the world. I am 11, whatever the

fuck it is. I got there because I'm smart, because I work hard because I know how to fucking get where I want to go. If I want to be the best in real estate, I'll fucking do that. I don't give a fuck. I really don't care. I don't care. You know? So there was the announcement today that they partnered up with that hospital based here in New York. And you've talked in the past about doing your research and going to them because of your knee injury. And so it sounds like, were you surprised? Did you know that this was happening, this deal with the UFC?

No, that's why I left the fucking stupid retreat. Oh. I sit there. It's just fucking retarded. I sit down, right? It's early in the morning. I'm a little fucking hungover. everyone was partying the whole night

I'm sitting there I'm like fuck this is like school where's school right now I'm sitting there I gotta listen to people take notes and shit I could have learned a lot but you know what

the first thing they say is they announced that hospital special surgery is the new whatever I look around I'm like are you fucking kidding me

I made that whole thing happen I was the one that put them in touch with the UFC they didn't want to pay for my shit and now they're fucking best friends now now that now they're

And it was my, then the next thing, the Ari gets up, he says something, the vice president gets up. And he's like, the Reebok deal sucks. I don't know who put that deal together. And everyone started clapping. I'm looking around. I was like, fucking, it's like, are you fucking kidding me? Everyone was like joking about it. I was like, I'm fucking sitting there.

I don't know. I don't think it's going to work, man. I don't think I'm going to fight. I don't think it's working. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. I'm gonna fucking, I'm, it. That's it.

Fuck them. I don't care. We had great meetings and then, I don't know. No one gets it. No one fucking sees it. I'm the only one that sees it. Oh, I was complaining again. Oh, he's raging out.

I was crazy. No, I'm fucking right. You guys are stupid. Everyone's dumb. You're all, everyone, they're like, fuck, kumbaya, everybody. Oh, let's go UFC this. Why the fuck are they making a training center? Why do, why?

I never got that. I never fucking understood why college. have like, like you have concerts, like Snoop Dog went there. Fucking pay me. I don't give a fuck about Snoop Dog. Fucking pay me. I'm hurt. I'm tired.

I'm fucking. I'm done. I'm done. Fuck it. Fuck you. Fuck you. How about that? How about that?

Special surgery. Oh, you motherfuckers. And I didn't want this interview to be like this. I wanted to be a fun interview about me having fun in Vegas. But just talking about this shit gets me aggravated because I know how much work I put into this whole thing. fucking thing. I worked harder than anybody. Anybody. There's no one, there's not a single

person that's worked harder than me and put, I fought three times in two weeks. Who's done that? Three times in two weeks. I fucking ruined my knee forever. Done. My knee's fucking ruined forever. And you're not going to pay for my shit? Fuck you.

Fuck you. Not you. Not you. Yeah, yeah. No, I understand. No, I understand. For a second, I thought you were talking about me, but thank you for clarifying. No, definitely not, man. You left Al, and then what happened? So you came back, you couldn't get a flight. Did you then partake again in the retreat, or did you go do something else?

Because I had no idea. Last I talked to you, I thought you... It was just a... What? It was just a world win after that. What happened? So I got in the Uber car. Yeah.

And what was it? I woke up at like 4 o'clock in the morning. And I was like, fuck, what do I do? I was like, I'm going to go to this strip. So I went, I got in the Uber. and this Uber guy was really cool, man. He was like, you know, he showed me videos of him skydiving. So I was like, fuck, I'm going skydiving.

Let's do this. We tried calling and they were closed until like 8 a.m. So I was like, fuck, we'll go to Sapphire. I went to Sapphire by myself. I was sick. Just hanging out. But I just hang out at the bar. I don't like strip clubs.

I'm not like a big guy. Like throwing money. I don't want to dance. I just kind of hung out. You know, the girls come over, hang out a little bit. Most of them won all your money.

And I was like, you know, I'll give you, I'm just wasting time to go skydiving. And then one of them was going to go skydiving with me. But they were, they closed. There's no skydiving. So I just kind of went on a rampage in,

in Las Vegas, went to the, what is it, the, the big pen, the big, with the roller coasters. on top.

I went on the roller coaster. Wow. All by yourself? And now I'm here. And I missed my, what's that? All by yourself, all this? No, no, no. I told you, I met the, the girl at the...

Oh, okay. You went on the roller coaster with her? Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow, this is great. What a weekend, right? Yeah. These are the things that dreams are made of.

Yes, this is incredible. But I did, I do feel bad because I tried to leave. I didn't want to be like that guy. I didn't write. anything on the way out. I didn't, you know, I left all this stuff there. I didn't even take, like, the free stuff they gave it. I left it there because I'm not trying to start problems.

I'm just, I felt uncomfortable being there. And I just, you know, I had it. I was, for, I was so anxiety, man. I was like, in my head, I was losing my mind. I was like, I got to go. I just got in the, I didn't even tell anybody. I just got my shit and tried to go to, uh, and just tried to go to the airport.

But there were no, there was no flights until like 8 o'clock at night. Okay. party, fell asleep, woke up 4 a.m. and then, you know, the rest now. Right. And when's your flight back home now? I have nothing. I'm going to, I was actually, I'm actually looking out flights right now. There's one. I'm going to go soon. Because you, because you, because you, I have a lot of things to do. I still came here. This is retarded. I should never came. But I had a great time. So, what are you going to do? So did you, did you try to reach out? Like, at this point, when you left, you didn't tell anyone. And now that you're still here, like, maybe this is an opportunity.

Maybe we can turn the ship around. You're in Vegas. You're probably minutes away. from their office. I wasn't too. I wasn't too. I don't know. I'm not really too interested in it. No? No.

It's like, it's like fucking, it's like the strip club. It's the same fucking thing. I'm gonna stay, I'm not going, I don't want to fucking dance. I don't fucking do down care about.

I'm not throwing a little, I don't care. It's like, if you, like, do you want to fuck? You let me know. Until them,

I'm sitting by the bar. That's it. Okay. So you're saying the ball's in their court? There's no ball. I don't... I don't really care. Okay. I think that's it, man. You think you're done? And it's a shame because I have so much more left in me.

I have so much more that no one's... No one has any idea. They... Fucking... Mazel was talking about all the pussies in the UFC. I fucking stepped up. I fought Jola's own. I fought that guy and I knocked him out.

I was at the airport and I fucking said I'll fight Mazurl right now. And I took the fight and I beat him. And look where the fuck he is at right now. So I'm the fucking guy. People don't get it. No one gets it. Everyone is a fucking pussy. I'm the fucking man.

I am. Nobody else. That's what they don't get. And if they don't want us to get it, I can only try so hard and then I'm going to go do something else. and that's exactly what I'm doing. So I don't care. Did you clear up your issue with Reed Harris?

He was cool with me. I don't know. I don't know. I still don't know about it. I still don't know about him. He was cool, but. Well, that's good. Yeah.

From what I heard, go ahead, go ahead. I heard that things were, I'm sorry, I'm getting work. No, no, no, I was, I heard that things went really well in Dallas. Like there were some talks about, you know, rectifying things, new deal, stuff like that. Like you said, nothing done.

But it seemed like this thing was moving in the right direction. Is that inaccurate, in your opinion? But what's like moving in the right direction? Like hanging out? No, no, no. Like actually talking about, you know, making you happy, you know, changing things. Oh, cool. Yeah, so cool, I don't know, call on call.

They could have, they could have, how long ago was Dallas? Was that, I don't even know. Is that two weeks ago? Was it a week ago? Two weekends ago. So like nine days ago. nine days ago. Yeah.

Make something, nothing got done. And I kind of realized that when I sat down at the summit, I sat there and I was like, why am I here right now? I didn't, the only, the only reason I came was,

was under, I assumed that I was getting a new deal, that I might have gotten a fight, maybe, you know, but nothing, nothing happened. So I kind of,

I kind of, I kind of agreed to, to come, but I never should, I never should have. Not that I agree to come thinking that by the time everything, but by the time I came, things would be redone. You know, like have a new dealer.

I'd have something. I'd have something, you know what I mean? But. Was there any talks of you and Tony Ferguson? I want to fight that motherfucker. He doesn't want to fight me. I'll guarantee you that. No one wants to.

No one who wants to fight? I'm not. Look, you could say whatever you want about whoever. they all get knocked out. Everybody. The only guy that didn't is Maslow and look where he's at right now. No one gets it.

This is what they don't get. I'm the fucking best. I'm the best. They don't understand it. And I wanted to show, I've been showing, what more can I do? I knock out everybody they put me in front.

Everyone they went, I fucking, I treat them the way they should be treated. I put them out. That's it. And you're going to pay me fucking bullshit, fuck you. So what's your plan now?

Go home. Home? I got a couple, I got, I got, I just closed my first, my first closing was, well done. Last week, my sister bought a condo down in Long Beach, Long Island. Oh yeah, I love it. Yeah, like five closings this, I got like five closings this month. Nice. Which I put a lot of work into and I'm very, yeah.

So I'm, I'm, I'm really, I'm really. really, I'm really, you know, satisfied with what I've done there in a very short amount of time. I've put in a lot of hard work and I've done tremendously well. And now I'm getting phone calls. My phone's ringing off the hook. I'm here in Vegas, like, my mind's going crazy. It's like, what do I want to do, you know? Yeah, yeah.

What I want to do? And I think that's what I'm leaning towards because I'm making, I'm fucking killing it, man. And it's not, it's not, it's, you know, it's all right. It's, I like it. You just turned 30, right? You just turned 30 on April 30th. Fuck. What happened?

Yeah. I just turned 30. No, I know, but I mean, you're still young. You're in the prime of your life. And I feel like just hearing you talk that you still want to fight. And so I wonder, even if you say now, like, and I also believe that you are okay with walking away in that weird sense. But I feel like in 10 years, you're going to say, I was the man. You know, I should have kept fighting.

Like, do you feel like you can really move? on without going out there and... A hundred percent. Yeah, I really think I can. I put all my energy into, uh, into what I'm doing and I, it'll be like, uh, tunnel vision, you know what I'm saying? I'll just go straight ahead into whatever I'm doing, you know, I think, uh, yeah. I, I really sincerely hope that this gets resolved, um, maybe selfishly because I'm a fan of

yours as a fighter, as a person. but I mean it just feels like you're infinitely more popular now. The tweets have been very entertaining. The Donald Trump stuff. I mean, it's just all great. Your personality is really coming out. I don't want to see it end. But I respect you for...

Too little, too little too much. Hold on. No, no, no, no. I'm not... What? Never. Okay. But I do respect you.

I was going to tell everyone to text. I was going to tell everyone to text Dana White. No. But I won't do that to him. Should I do that to them? No, no, no, don't do it. You want this number? It's okay, it's okay.

What? I don't, I don't. You don't want it. I don't even think I have it anymore. I think I got the old one. No, no, no, no, no, please. Please, please. I'm in enough trouble.

No, no, no, no, no. Don't do it, don't do it, Al. I don't want for you, for you. I mean, look, I'd like the number myself, but I don't want. I still feel like this can be resolved, and I feel like there's a lot of money for you to make, and for them to make. and for them to make with you,

given the fact that you are speaking for the common man right now. Everyone can relate, I should say, to the struggle between, you know, for lack of a better word, the employee and his boss, and you are representing that right now, and I really feel that this needs to be capitalized on,

and everyone will leave. I'm representing, like, every fighter that's not saying shit. Sure, sure. And the fucking retards that are too dumb to know what the fuck's not going on. You know? Yeah.

I'm speaking for, everybody. I'm the, I told you, I'm the man. I don't care. I'll sell, I'll be the best at whatever the fuck I want to do, because, because that's what I do. That's what I, that's what I, that's what I do. My mom just texted me, don't do it. Okay. See, Mom. Sorry, mom, I don't do it. Um, I won't. Love you, Mom. We love, we love, we love our mom. Hey, my mom, Harry. Mrs. I, Quint, there she is. How are you? Thank you for watching. My mom's watching as well. Everyone loves you.

And it's good to see that your mom is supporting you. By the way, where do you think Stan with your knee? Have you been reimbursed? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we're all good there. I was, oh, that was good, yeah, that was good a while ago. Okay, good, good, good, yeah. Otherwise, didn't be freaking hell to pay.

Well, I thought maybe there was something outstanding, and that's why you reacted the way you did to the announcement about the hospital of special surgery, and you felt, I know you brought that relationship together. You were the guy to go out there, but I just wanted to clear that up for the record. no yeah yeah I mean

I just made the whole Mike Chandler Mike Chandler do it what's up Mike this is incredible no no no don't listen to the Bellator fighter

he wants you just to go fight for them which you know maybe you'll feel better there I don't know maybe that would you like is that the dream at this point would you just like to be released release me don't release me I could give a shit.

Okay. I don't care. I'm so content right now. I'm actually, I might, you might, it might be like, it might look like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not happy right now because I'm, I'm like yelling and I'm all crazy. But I, like, the last month of my life has been the best month of my life ever. Okay. Nashville, San Diego, Dallas.

Nashville, San Diego, Dallas. And now I'm in Vegas. Yeah. All in a month, you know. and hard work, baby. That's it. You know? Living the dream.

Sell real estate. Hanging out freaking stuff. Roller coasters. Let's go. Let's go. Sky die. We're going to sky. Who knows?

Let's go, man. Life's good, Ariel. Life is good. You know? Anything that we didn't touch on that you want to say? You want to get off your chest? You want to address? Tony Ferguson, you're a little bitch.

I'll fucking knock you out so fast, you fucking pussy. All right, and there's that. Ally Quinta with a parting shot for one, Tony Ferguson, who I do believe, I did actually hear from Tony Ferguson's people in the middle of this program, and it seemed like there was some interest in coming on the show.

So we will see about that, but we appreciate his time, and I do sincerely hope that everything gets worked out. I feel like there is some fight left in Al, but happy to hear that he has had. happy. And that is certainly most important. Okay, let us move along. Very excited to talk to our next guest. I do believe that we have him or do we need to call him? I know we were a little late there. All right. In a matter of seconds, we will be joined by the UFC heavyweight champion, the reigning defending heavyweight champion. You saw him in Dallas. He defeated Junior Dos Santos, four straight, first round finishes,

ties the record for most successful title defenses as heavyweight champion, two straight, and now we're wondering what's next for him. And I'm very happy that he actually showed up today because I was worried that he wouldn't. And I'll tell him why. First, let's welcome in Stepe Miochich. Steppe are you there? Hey, what's going on? It's good to talk to you, Steve.

I was worried you wouldn't show up after the debacle that was last night. I mean, what happened? Really? We lost, man. It's awesome. It's okay. You know, it's going to happen. and when they happen, you know, if it puts us through a little diversity,

get a little chip on our shoulder, it'll be fine. Is it possible that you guys got a little too big for your britches? Oh, Isaiah is out. We beat them by 40-something points. We're going to roll through these guys, the largest, I think it was the biggest spread for any playoff game. And then all of a sudden, they come and they punch you in the mouth. Yeah, it happens, you know.

It's life. It's a metaphor for life. Yeah, man, it's going to happen. I mean, listen, they'll be fine. I'm going to the game tomorrow. I'm not worried about it. They're going to smash them tomorrow. well, when game five and the finals of the Warriors.

Are you worried at all? Like, are you starting to get a little worried? I feel like there's some cause for concern here. No, I mean, how the Raptors do right now? Again, with the Raptors thing. You know I'm not from Toronto, right? You know all Canadians aren't from the same place. It's a big country with different provinces and cities.

I understand that. Why do you keep harping on the Raptors? I don't know. I thought it was needed. Okay. Fair enough. Were you at that game yesterday? No, no, actually, I didn't. I just relaxed at home.

Why? No more court side seats for you as the champ? No, no, man. I just was, for the weekend, I was home, man. I just wanted to relax. Okay, you're going to game four? Yeah, I've got a game four. Okay. It's hanging out of GMG came, so that would be cool. Oh, that's right.

I saw a video of him watching your fight. We're talking about Machine Gun Kelly. This was a great video on his Instagram. Did you see this? Yeah, it's awesome, yeah. You guys are boys. Oh, he's a good dude. Seriously, a good guy.

Where did you meet? He actually had a concert in Cleveland, and the manager called me. He's like, hey, you want to go? And Neil West, like, hell yeah. So, random Tuesday night, we show up, man, and got to meet him. And he was just a good guy, man.

Just great to talk to. Amazing entertainer. He's, it was an amazing concert. Wow. And he actually, he sings that song that you come out to. Yeah, too I die. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny because,

our guy in the back, New York, Rick, is supposedly a big Cavs fan as well, and I came in bumping to that song. Someway ironically, I know, but I was playing that on the way into the studio today just to let everyone know, you know, what's going down as far as the Cleveland situation is concerned. It's a good song, I can't deny it. No, it's a great song. Get you going. What are the chances he actually plays the song as you walk out to the cage? That'd be cool, right? Yeah. I mean, like I'll say, no.

Has that been discussed? I feel like that's the next step here. You two in Cleveland, him playing that song as you walk out. Ah, you always see what happens. I mean, I'm not going to say no to that. Well, it's time for you to push your weight around here, you know? Well, it's all, man. I'm good, though.

Overall, were you happy with 2-Eleven, happy with the performance? I can't imagine there was anything you really were disappointed in, right? No, not at all, man. Listen, I got another bonus. you know, mostly the division, you know, still growing. So, yeah, I can't complain. It was good night. I beat the guy that, you know, beat me.

So it's been kept the belt, so it doesn't get any better than that. It was a great night. Was that, you know, I'll ask you a question that I asked Roy McDonald at the top of the show, but for different reasons. Was that one of the more gratifying wins of your career because he was the last guy to beat you? Oh, of course. Definitely.

You know, I'd have to go five rounds. It's like 2 minutes and 22 seconds. It was always better than 25 minutes. It was amazing to see the picture of your face after the first fight and your face after the second fight. not a mark on your face. And so I'm wondering if you were actually surprised that it ended that soon.

No, I mean, listen, he's a tough guy. He's a super nice guy, but he's super tough. I didn't know what to expect. You know, I had to tell him the good right hand, and he fell, and that was in. Of course, the faster than the fight's done, the better it is, he'd come out and skate, but, you know, I'm just happy that ended that fast.

I was ready to go 25 against I had to. Yeah. Is there a part of you that is almost, like, disappointed that the fight's end this quickly? No, God, never. No, no, no. It was 10 seconds, I wouldn't care. Really?

Hell, yeah. All that time that you put into training and stuff, don't you want a couple more minutes? Nope, not at all, never, no, no, no. Oh, God, no. Did you feel like the fight went a little longer, like Herb Dean could have stopped it a little sooner? Well, no, I mean, I think, you know,

Herb Dean knows he's a super tough guy. I mean, he's gone through some wars. I think he knows he can take a beating just like I can, and I think he gave a little, you know, anything than that, which is understandable. I must say I was very impressed with the performance. I was impressed with the win. I was disappointed you didn't come back with the bowtie in the post-fight interview.

You had it pre-fight, but not post-fight. I feel like that could be your thing. Yeah, you know, I should have. I was selfish for me. I apologize for that. Next time I'll have a bowtie for it just for you. It's a good look, bowtie with the new Hollywood haircut. Yeah, well, not a Hollywood haircut.

I've had a haircut for a long time. I just never did it in a while. I used to do a comb over, but I haven't did it a while. And the one day I was not for my life. What do you think of the hair? And she was like, oh, keep it. So I just keep it. It just comes away.

Now you got the spikes. It's a whole different ball game. I love it. I love it. Make sure I'm a frost of tips and call out of day. Wow, really? We're going to go with that, 1996? No, God, no.

Jesus. God, no. You're terrible. And so you really piqued my interest during that post-fight press conference. As you know, you kept in play. It's fascinating to hear a guy who just won in the first round, who then says he needs to take a break, who had not fought in September, right? So what were you alluding to?

Well, the last thing, you know, there was a hard camp, you know, me, and trying for five-minute rounds about it, it ain't need you. You know, that, and also, you know, I sit down with the OSC, we had a conversation before the fight. You know, of course, you know, I kind of blew up a little bit about my contract at the last fight, about finding out what we made more, which, you know, but we talked about it and, you know, it all worked out. And so, you know, they told me if I got our GDS

and the devastating fashion in the first round, we'll go up with the conversation again. And, you know, I did my parks recently on them. Okay. So that was actually explicitly said to you, if you defeat this guy in the first round, we'll have a conversation to make you a little more happy? Yeah.

Wow. Well, that's promising. Well, hopefully. It also happens. So you had, you know, a lot of incentive to go out there and finish him very quickly. Well, it's mostly just because I wanted to keep the boat. I like being a champ. Yeah, but you had this promise dangling in the background.

Well, I mean, there's always promises. I mean, I just wanted to fight, man. I like fighting. I wanted to win. You got to beat me last time. Last time I lost. How did you actually get to the fight in the sense that, you know, you call it blowing up? What?

I took a plane. No, no, no. Oh, okay. You said, you call that blowing up. To be honest, doing this show long enough, like, that's like the smallest of all the blowups who you ever had on the show. I mean, witness what we just saw. That really wasn't blowing up. That was really you just kind of voicing some displeasure.

And I appreciate you doing that, because I know that's not, you know, your, your comfort zone, if you will. But how did you end up getting over the issue that you had, mistaking your kindness for a weakness, and then agreeing to the fight and fighting in Dallas? Well, we talked about it, you know, it's business, you know. We had a conversation. It's about it, you know. I mean, I had a little bit more to it. We talked about it, you know, figured out a solution. We talked about it. That was it. Did anything change as far as your contract was concerned between that conversation? No. It stayed the same.

No. Wow. So why did you agree to keep fighting? Oh, because I like what I do. I mean, I don't know. We had a conversation, like I said, between, you know, business and talk about it, if I deal with supposed to, you know, so that I'm not a conversation, which I did, and then by day my part. So when's the next conversation happen, or has it happened yet? No, it hasn't happened yet.

Just, you know, a lot of things going on. So I couldn't go to the retreat this weekend because, you know, I was doing stuff and relaxing, but, you know, a lot of me to stay back. So it was nice, but so we'll see what happens, you know, not worried. Were you disappointed that you couldn't go to the retreat? No, no, no, I was okay there. You know, I'll see the place where I go back out there. Yeah.

But, you know, I just, you know, I just really got back. I was, I would leave about in four days. I mean, I was one of the, you know, just lick my wound and calling today, you know, my situation is a little beat up, too. So. Your, what's a little beat up? Mission. Oh, what happened?

Oh, it's a bit kicks, you know. Okay. You heard it? You can cut with that? No, I was hurt just sore, you know. So it was sore. How is it feeling now? No, feel a lot better now.

Okay. So nothing injured or broken or anything like that? No, no, no, nothing like that. Just, I just beat up a little bit. Did you have, I don't know, the kids call it these days, FOMO, Fear of Missing Out? I mean, Snoop Dog, Kobe Bryant, all these things. Did you have that?

No, I'm good. I'm good. Listen, I was all right. I promise, I was all right. No, I don't ever have that FOMO thing. No, I'm good. I'm 34. I'm good.

Did you go back to the firehouse yet? No, no, no, I'll be there Friday, actually. I'm supposed to work Thursday, but yeah, I was supposed to work last week, but I couldn't do it. It's because my shit, I want to tell you chances. Oh, okay. I thought this was another sign that you were going Hollywood. No, yeah, no, no, I work Friday, so. This coming Friday?

Yeah. Will they throw, like, when you won the belt, they had a parade for you, right? Are we planning something else, some other party? I don't know. I mean, I'm going to game Tuesday. Oh, geez, Tuesday, I think they're going to, and they're announcing me there and stuff. I bring the belt, all good stuff, you know, give me some props.

Nice. We had Darren Williams on the show last week. Yeah, he's a good dude. He knows his MMA. He does. He trains Jitsu. Yeah, dude. He's going to do a jihitsu competition, he told us,

when his NBA career is done. Hopefully not anytime soon, but that's what he said. Now, after the fight, Steepay, as you may have heard, there's been some discussion that you should be in the conversation for the greatest heavyweight of all time. You've heard this, right? Yes. How do you feel about that?

I'm going to keep playing. I'm going to keep winning. I'll take it from there. You will admit, I know you don't want to say it, but you will admit there's a case to be made. I mean, just the fact that you tied the record, that alone. But if you actually look at your resume and who you have defeated,

I feel like there's a strong case to be made. Yeah, I appreciate that. That's really nice. You know, but yeah, honestly, man, you know, listen, I'm going to go out there and do my thing, you know, I saw some great guys, you know, and, uh, and super tough guys. But like, honestly, man, I just, you know, I don't worry about the hoopla. I'm worried about task at hand, my next fight and who I'm going to

fight and, you know, every side I have, every fight should be a big fight. But there is a part of you that wants to get paid as maybe one of the greatest, right? Well, who doesn't? Yeah. How far away are we? I, listen, man, if I knew that, I wouldn't be fighting. I'd be that guy. That's right. You'd be Jim Walter. Yeah, right. That's right. your manager for those that don't know. Is it fair to say that if the contract remains the same, you are not going to fight?

No, I never said that. Okay. What's the head is? I'm not going to. You're trying to get ahead of there. You're listening, slow down. No, I'm just, I'm going to talk to. We'll see what happens.

Okay. Is there a meeting on the books? No, nothing. I mean, it's probably been a week, so. Why does your wife stay with you if you keep hanging up on her? because I think I make a laugh. That is important. It's all I care.

It's all I care. We have a good day every day. She's a great woman. She takes care of me and, you know, I'm very lucky to marry to her. Why does she keep falling for that? And do you do it only when the cameras are on or do you do it all the time?

No, I do it to her. Actually, all our friends, we do each other too. I mean, I get called it too. It's annoyed me because I don't know what to set it up. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, but no, man. I do it all the time. I do it probably once or twice a week or

there was something oddly fascinating about seeing you go to that store and buy the metal detector and the slingshot and all that stuff. Like this stuff really excites you. I mean, I couldn't be less interested in doing that. Yeah, it's about a mini bike. It goes 80s, it was like 25, 30 miles per hour, man, I was flying around right before you call me. But what, like how many acres do you live on? It seems like there's no one around you. Yeah, I got six acres right now.

Look at you. I get a couple more. So we'll see what I. Listen, I just, I like land, man. I don't care how many the houses. I want some land. I just enjoy myself and, you know, maybe eventually we get a horse and a goat.

So I want a goat. That's all. I want a goat so bad. Goats are awesome. Why a goat? I don't know. That's just awesome. Do you ever see videos that they put the jamas on?

I'm like, amazing. I've not seen these videos. Are you like a goat-o-fichinato? Yeah, no. I just think a horse and a goat would be awesome. Awesome. I think it would match well with our family. Horse and goat? Match you well.

Or goat and horse? I probably horse first. I feel like what you're really trying to say with this goat idea is that you are the goat as far as heavyweight fighting is concerned. But you just don't want to say it. Is that what you're saying? Not at all. I don't know. My little goat with like a little horn.

They could just smash my dog and my dog can smash them. They got to find together. Are you allowed to just have a goat on your property? Or do you have to get a license for that? No, I think you just haven't. Okay. We actually, the Cleveland, the Cleveland, it's a Mountie division.

They have horses and actually willing to get adopted itself, so we're looking at the dots for the venture here. Wow. How do you feel about, I heard that you're keeping your eye on this whole Connor Floyd situation. Is that fair? Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

Why is that? Well, why not, man? It's a big thing. You know, cross promotions great. I think, also, I think, you know, if you try to happen, I was going to try to rehab for me with Josh would be a great fight.

I think I surprised a lot of people. I think it would be amazing fight. He's a great guy, a great guy. I think he's a great guy. I think he's a great guy. I think he's an amazing fight. Did you watch his fight against Klitschko? A little bit, business and bars.

Were you impressed? Oh, he's, dude, stop. I mean, he's a champ for a reason, you know. I think I'd give him the whole for his money. Guys like Daniel Kormeus say it's ludicrous for MMA fighters to want to box box boxers. It's just a whole different game. They're quicker, things like that.

Why do you feel like you can hang with Joshua? Well, and I knew a lot of boxing. I had box before. You know, if I was talking about boxing. I'm fine, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's a tough guy. He's all the best world.

So I'm pretty tough, too, I think. Yeah, you're not bad. I try. And do you feel like Connor has a chance against Floyd? Like, are you actually one who thinks that he could pull off the upset? Well, anything I haven't. Man, honestly, it's a fight.

Yeah. You've seen in any sport, boxing, you know, in a leg, just at least one point just anything can happen. I mean, it was doing a minute's a lot of time, but anything could happen. Sure. But do you want to fight Joshua because of the idea of testing your skills against the heavyweight champion boxing, or because you know that it would be a massive payday? Well, both. Yeah.

I think both, I definitely test my skill. I'd be amazing. I would just, you know, I love it. Heavyweight is super wide open. Is there anyone that you think that they will offer you now? like that there's there's no real clear-cut answer. I'm not worried about that right now. I'm just relaxing home by my mini-box.

What do you think of Francis Nganu's saying he's not impressed with you? What about that? I mean, he doesn't tell us his opinion, man. You can see what he wants. Were you bothered by that? No, not at all. Are you impressed with him? No, definitely a tough guy, man.

He's something good guy. You know, he doesn't finish. He's been great. Who really pisses you off? Does anything piss you off? Does anything bother you? No. You got to ask her life.

She's got that stuff. She got the mud as a push. I just gave you a softball down the middle. You could have just said interviews, media. Oh, you actually. I'm just checking. There you go. I'm getting better than the reason I don't mind it now.

I'm getting, you know, sort of open up more, as you would say. Yep, yep. I like it. My personality. So I'm working. I'm getting better. For the longest time, I thought you actually hated me, but then I just figured out that you didn't like doing interviews or weren't really good at them.

Yeah, I just, I just, you know, I don't know why. He's been a douchebag, I guess, so then I started getting better. The more you get, the better it is. Well, at least you admit it. That's 100% I definitely, yeah, I just moved me to a man. I just need to be able to a day. Some time out of my day, I can have taken a nap. We don't know, but no, I don't care.

It's okay. Okay, fair enough. In a perfect world, do you have an idea when you would like to fight again? I don't probably like it on. Late fall, in Cleveland, perhaps? Yeah, whatever. I fought all the world, so I haven't had at this point. I think Cleveland, I just, I feel like when you fight there,

something happens in the arena, in the town, and it comes across on television, like you are the superstar of all superstars. There's a trickle-down effect. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, I love it. It's not my super-saf act. They got my back, I got their back, right?

Yeah. It's a beautiful. it's a beautiful thing. All right, well, for now. Do you need me to come to the meeting with the UFC to kind of, you know... Nah, I listen. If you do come, I'll probably get fired. Could you imagine if I show up?

What a mistake that would be? Oh, God. Yeah, I'm going to watch that right here. Well, congratulations on the Wednesday, I appreciate you coming on and opening up just a little bit. I was just curious, that one thing I've been thinking about it for nine days. You know, I felt like you were alluding to something. and, well, to be honest, I feel like my suspicions were correct,

and I feel like you deserve everything that you're asking for. So I hope you get it. Again, congrats on the win, enjoy it. Get well soon, and I hope that we will see you soon. And try not to beat yourself over the game three loss too much. Yes, it is a sign of things to come as far as the finals are concerned, but for now enjoy what's to come in the conference finals. Yeah, for sure.

Hey, let me tell you me. What a big one 80 from the last conversation with this one? I don't know. Wow. Seriously, you righted this ship, the positive town. Did you enjoy that? Did you like it? I was sitting there.

I was sitting and I was like, what is happening right now? I got caught outside, but I was like, what is, I remember tuning into like just screaming, like, what is going on? Like, oh, it's so funny. Give you a couple more years and maybe we'll hear that out of the view. For now, though, it sounds like you're happy. Baby stuff, my name. All the best, Steve, thanks for coming on.

Appreciate it. Yeah, yes, I have a great day. All right, there he is. the reigning defending heavyweight champion won Steepamiotich. All right, great stuff there. Still plenty of show left. I am told that Tony Ferguson is going to join us in around an hour or so, so definitely stay tuned for that.

We do have someone standing by in studio. Is she here? Mia Kang, Supermodel extraordinaire. There she is. Wow. We have never had a better looking guest on this show in this studio sitting next to me. This is very exciting. And a lot of you are wondering,

why is a supermodel here? You shall find out she has a very close connection. to all things martial arts. So let us reconfigure this studio. We will add the extra mic, as you know we like to do. For now, though, while we take that quick break, let's go back to two years ago yesterday. So May 21st, 2015, I sat down with Connor McGregor at the tough training facility in Las Vegas prior to UFC 187. He was there, did an open workout. And a lot of the things that he said in this interview are actually coming true today. McGregor promotions, things of that nature. So here's that conversation from two years ago yesterday. Y'all must have forgot. And then we'll be back

in studio with supermodel Mia Kang. Stand by. So Connor, we are here in Las Vegas, a little less than two months away from the biggest fight of your life. We're at the ultimate fighter gym. You have made this place your home. This is where you come train every day. You're living in Las Vegas, the infamous McMansion, which we will get to. Why did you decide to move things here? I just felt like the right thing to do, you know. The desert heat out here is different. The time is different. If you can gain any advantages in this game, you do it. And I'm in a position where I can fly my whole team out. I can get a big mansion. We can live good out here, have everything on the one roof, the correct way to do it. This is the way world champions do it. So this is what I have done. It's the evolution

of fight preparation, and that's why we came out here. It is the evolution, but it's also the way they used to do it back of the day. You know, Mike Tyson going to the cat skills and Muhammad and Ali would always have his camps in different remote places. This is kind of a throwback way of things. It could be considered something similar to that, but it's more so the fight is here, you know what I mean, and there's benefits. When it's time to fight, it's 8 o'clock.

Let's go to the MGM. It's going to be that natural. Whereas if I was to be traveling from Dublin, one week out, two weeks out, it's a lot of travel. It's right in the middle of the wakewood. It's completely foreign. And when he's coming from the jungle,

he's coming from that jungle, and that's different heat as well. He'll be coming in on maybe the week before or whatever. It plays a part in how you're feeling and your comfort level. So, I mean, so that is why we've done it. We've done it to get that advantage and to enjoy life out here. Is it also refreshing to get out of the fish bowl of Dublin? Are there too many eyes on you?

Of course it is. The gym is booming at the minute. I need it to be specifically about me. That's the stage I am at now. People that come here, people that have been here with me since day one, but we are all here for my benefit to help me prepare for this fight, and everyone that is here is on board with me on this journey. So this is one of the reasons why we've done it.

So what do you say to the people who say, you used to say back in the day, I'm never leaving Ireland, I'm always going to train in Ireland. Well, I still have not left Ireland. Ireland is still my home. At the end of the day, maybe we're training now here just for this, but there is no foreign.

I don't look around and see unfamiliar faces. The people that are here, are the people that have been here since day one. Everyone that is here has been flown in from Ireland. We have my wrestling coaches coming from Ireland, and my pro boxing sparring panthers coming from Ireland. We have everyone coming from Ireland. We just up sticks.

We are in that position where we can go where we play is. We can do what we play is now. But it's Ireland on tour and make no mistake about it. When the fight is wrapped up, I will bring my goal belt home to Dublin, Ireland, and it will be a proud, proud day for me, my team and my nation. Are you getting famous people saying, I want to join the team now? I want to jump on this bandwagon. and are you the kind who's like,

I don't want that. You know how you see, like, people go to Jackson's now and try, so are you getting that now? Yeah, man, I don't know. I don't really pay attention to it. There's a lot of fabricated teams in the business. A lot of people are in search of the next,

the answer, a lot of people are in search of the answer, thinking that their surroundings are not good, but I was never like that. I always believed in where I came from. I always believed in my team that we were the best, and I was right. You know, people leave,

their coaches and go to new games and it's a it's a sign of a weak fighter to me it's a weak mind and it will be and it will be shown somewhere down the line that that you you have a weakness in that but for me I have a bulletproof team a team from day one and that's that's a that's a benefit for me I take confidence in that now you know I've been dying to ask you this since the last stop of the world tour I noticed something very interesting after the big press conference you snatching the belt and of course now you know you're here in Vegas the match and everything.

And we deal with this bubble. We deal with the hardest of the hardcore at times, you know, online. And I've noticed, especially from the Irish fans, they're like, you know what? Sometimes it's too much. You know, I was embarrassed by that, they say. You know what I mean? But when I was in Dublin last year, they were like, he was one of our own and they loved you because you came.

And I'm not saying they're turning on you, but they're starting to be a little more critical of you. This is the business. I'm in a... Do you hear those critiques? I mean, again, I never heard. I never heard the positive or a negative. I hear my circle.

I don't listen to nobody else. But I heard that people were upset at the questions that were being asked to the roads or they were embarrassed or whatever. I don't give a shit about that. It was a spectacle. Everyone there was enjoying it. At the end of the day, when I went to Rio,

they were threatening my life. They were saying crazy. The guy that was translating things to me couldn't actually speak them out loud on the mic because they were that bad. But I didn't give a shit about that. It's all part of the business. The fans are passionate in Brazil, as are the fans in Dublin passionate.

We are just showing our passion for the fight game. People can sit on the outside and complain, and this is what people do. But for me, I don't give a shit about that. I'm here doing what I say I will do, and that's it. And what about also just the wealth, kind of flaunting it in people's faces? Back, you know, it was endearing when you showed up to your first press conference with the Dickie Bow, and you said you paid, you know, your last few dollars to buy. But now, I mean, you showed up here today with a Louis Vuitton gym bag.

That's somewhat unprecedented. I don't see that often. It's a nice bag. It's a very nice bag. I'm enjoying the fruits of my hard work. Nobody works hard than me inside the octagon. Outside the octagon. I am a workhorse.

So I'm going to enjoy the benefits of this life. I am going to get myself a big mansion in Las Vegas. I'm going to get the soft hop cars. I'm going to bring my whole team out. I'm going to spoil them and give them this life. Big stakes. That's so. we're eating every single night each.

We're eating good, we're living good. It's human nature. Some people will sit and take positivity from that. They will look at that and take inspiration and inspire. It will inspire them to go and push for that. Others will shell up and critique it and be negative towards it. But one thing is sure those people will stay where they are. The people who take inspiration from it will rise up

and also one day experience that life. So this is human nature. Some go one way. go do it away, but I am enjoying my money, my heart and money that I have dedicated my life to. When I last saw you in New York, you told me you were going to make multiple times more

than Aldo, and I'm wondering, now that you saw the ticket sales and, you know, you're starting to expect certain buy rates and whatnot, do you almost feel like you're underpaid at this point? You almost feel like you got... All right, back on the MMA hour, that was part of my conversation with one, Connor, two years ago yesterday,

on the back end of this interview, we'll play a little more of that. You can also see it on our YouTube page. But for now, how exciting is this? This is unbelievable. A supermodel in studio. Hi. Hello. I talked to a lot of, you know,

testosterone-filled man. A lot of dudes. There's a lot of dudes. Yes, a lot of dudes. This must be a breath of fresh air. This is a bit of a breath of fresh air, yes. And a lot of people were like, well, why new octagon girl, right? They were wondering, why are you here?

See, I don't like that. I don't like the immediate stereotype that people think, oh, okay, she's going to be a UFC ring girl. Why is that? Why do you think that is? I think my whole life and my whole career has been somewhat of a don't judge a book by its cover thing. And I live by that rule. So I get judged very quickly. There's a lot to talk to you about. I'm actually fascinated by your story and learning about you. And you've been on the radar because you've actually been mentioned on this show before. I have yes. And we will get to that in a second. But you are someone who is closely tied to martial arts. You actually just fought in a Muay Thai fight in Thailand. Which is incredible. Was that pro or amateur, by the way?

That was pro. Wow. That was my pro debut, yeah. Had you ever had an amateur fight before? No. Wow. I'm very much that I'm very zero or a hundred. Okay.

So I didn't, I just, I thought that I could do it. Wow. So I went straight in and. What was your first introduction to martial arts? Well, I mean, obviously I grew up in Hong Kong. Okay. So it's huge. Even the cinema, the whole culture is huge.

and I always kind of wanted to do martial arts movies and things like that. And I never learned. And actually only about four years ago, I go to Thailand a lot. My family have a house in Thailand. And I was driving past a local gym on the side of the road where the little Thai boys would get groomed to become fighters. And I just pulled over my car and I was like, can I try? Wow. And that was the beginning.

And so you walk in there with no experience. You've never fought before. You've never trained martial arts. You've been interested in it. Yeah. When you walk in there, how do they react? Because I'm assuming a lot of people don't look like you. Right.

Well, I mean, everybody just assumed that I wanted to do it for fitness. Okay. Which is actually, honestly, the truth in the beginning. Okay. And then particularly with Mai Tai, I was so drawn to how beautiful it is and how technical it is. And I thought it was amazing to watch. So I started to get really into the technique. I wanted to perfect the technique.

and then, you know, when I got to a certain level, I was like, all right, sparring. And then, you know, like I said, I'm not one of those people who does things a little bit. I always kind of knew that I was going to have a fight at some point and take it all the way. Sometimes when someone walks into a gym and they're maybe vulnerable or they don't, you know, a lot of what they're doing, you are kind of tested by the coaches or the other people there. And especially if you're someone who's maybe famous or good looking or something, they'll try to like, what's this person really all about? Did you get that? Like, did you have to go through almost an initiation process there? A hundred percent. And actually, I think in my gym in Thailand, this fight was my initiation.

Oh, interesting. Four years later. Yeah. Even until, I don't think I was ever taken seriously as a fighter, probably until about fight week. Really? My trainers, I mean, it's also Thailand. I mean, my trainer's like, really? Are you sure you're going to fight? Really? No, don't fight, you know? and until everyone kind of realized this is really happening, she hasn't backed down yet. Wow. All right, let's take it.

Is it weird that your coaches, like the people who are literally supposed to be in your corner, still don't believe that you're actually going to do this at that point? No, because it's Thailand and that's how they are. It's that that tough love kind of thing, you know? Yeah. Like, you'll never get a pat in the back.

You'll never get told that you're done well. It's just the culture. It's that it's. There's no positive reinforcement, nothing? Not really, no. Really? Yeah. That's tough for a student, right?

Like, don't you want to know that you're getting better? Yeah, you do. So who do you rely on to tell you that? Well, sparring partners, you know, other fighters there. You know, you're with each other for five hours a day. You know, you can get your positive reinforcement elsewhere. So it's one thing to go into a gym for fitness. How does that shift to actually wanting to fight?

When does that shift? For me, actually, it was when I was watching fights. And I remember that moment when I was watching a Thai fight in a local Thai stadium and I was watching two girls fight. And I looked at my trainer and I was like, I can do this. I want to do this. And he was like, all right, then that's step one. You know, the fact that you want to, you're halfway there. So he was like, all right, let's do this.

How soon after your initial introduction to the gym did that occur? About training on like, you know, kind of like a pro level. it was about six months in. Okay. When I felt like I had the confidence and I had the ability, I was like, I can do this. So it took you three and a half years, though,

to actually fight afterwards? Yeah. Why so long? No, no, no, no. I mean, I trained like here and there kind of like half-assly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'd say for the last year,

I've been training, like, on a higher level. Was that something that you felt like you needed to do or did they say, we're only going to let you fight when we think that you're ready to fight and it took a year for you to get ready? No, it was up to me.

It was when I said I was ready. Okay. Yeah. And so at one point you felt like you were ready? Yes. And then I remember I went to my agency. Oh no. And then a promoter came.

He comes by the gyms to see who's fighting, you know, to matchmake. And he was like, do you want to fight? And I was like, really, you think I can? And he was like, yeah, I think you can. And then I remember going to my agency and being like, guys, I want to have a fight. And they were like, absolutely not. No, you have Sports Illustrated red carpet in two weeks. You can't have a fight.

So then it was a matter of timing. Okay. Right. Then it was balancing what I do with what I love to do and finding enough time to, you know, get into fight camp and train for the fight adequately and then fight and then recovery time. Right. So you actually wanted to fight sooner? Yes, a lot sooner. Okay.

Were you pissed at your agency when they said no? No. I mean, I understand. Okay. No. They probably didn't want you to fight, period, I would imagine. Actually, I'm lucky. They were very supportive because they also saw that.

this was what, because I mean, I don't know if you follow my story, but I actually, I wasn't in a very good place at one point. I've been through a lot with my modeling career. I've been a model for 15 years. And I actually went to Thailand as like an escape. I was like, I need some time out. I went to Thailand for an escape. And I actually ended up, a 10-day vacation ended up with me moving into a Thai training camp and staying there from nine months. So in a way, my Thai really helped me sort my life out, get over a whole bunch of issues that I was going through at the time. It brought me sanity and peace of mind. And weirdly enough, it's like a great balance with what I do. Like what I do is I live in an extremely egotistical, narcissistic world where I spend so

much of my time thinking about how I look and getting criticized about how I look and judged. And what I found was the complete opposite of that. And that goes with all combat sports, I think. I think when you step into a ring, you have to entirely leave your ego aside. You can get your ass thrown around and get your ass handed to you all and you stand up and you shake your opponent's hand and you say, you know, thank you. You're better than me. Thank you. I learned a lot. And that was the perfect balance for me, you know, to not have any ego at all.

So I think my agency definitely saw that and clients definitely saw that. And I'm so lucky that everybody supported what I do. Why were you in a bad place? What was going on? I mean, I've, listen, I've been judged on my appearance day in and day out since the age of 13. I've been through every eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder on the planet that you could ever imagine. I mean, anorexia, bulimia, addiction to dueretics, laxatives, anything, you name it, fully body dysmorphic. I would look in the mirror and see a fat person.

I grew up obese and overweight and bullied. I halved my weight. So I've lived on both extremes. I've been a size 14. I've been a size zero. And just day in and day out and feeling guilty every time you eat something and being criticized on every tiny part of your body. And I just had enough.

And I moved to New York. And I thought I was doing well. And I have amazing clients like Sports Illustrated. and I just kept, it was just too much. I just, I had too much. And I was being asked ridiculous things, you know, to go on like 10-day liquid-only diets before shoots and things like that. That was just so unhealthy.

And I just wanted to go to Thailand and be in the sun and, you know, and yeah, Wai Thai and living in a training camp and going through all that, I mean, it taught me to respect my body. it brought me out of everything that I was going through. Even basic things like eating three meals a day, you know, that I learned how to do that. And, you know, I found strength in my body that I never knew I had. I saw things in my body that, you know, like I had a six-pack at one point. I never in my life did I ever think that I was going to have a six-pack. Like it really gave me my self-confidence and really like,

helps me rid of a lot of insecurities that were weighing me down my whole life. Wow. Yeah. Do you almost wish you found this earlier? Like things would have been easier? 100%. Like as a teenager? A hundred percent.

Really? Yeah. Definitely. It's interesting to hear you say that because I actually was talking to my wife about this. We have three children and one's five. And I feel like at times he could use this. And I said, I didn't grow up doing martial arts, but I said I'd like to put him in jiu-jitsu or something like that because I feel like he would have more confidence.

He would be more sure of himself. For sure. And so. And it's also that. that, you know, when you step in front of an opponent, you have to have 100% self-confidence. Not 99. If you have 99, you're probably going to lose that fight. You need to believe in yourself. And I think that in itself is such a great lesson for people, kids, especially adolescents, teenagers, young girls to know. I mean, it helped me so much as a grown-ass adult, you know? And there's, yeah, there's something really beautiful to,

martial arts. You skipped over a little part there as far as your story is concerned and I see it or I hear it coming out when you speak. You spent some time in London. Yes. Right. So the English accent comes out a little bit. A little bit.

Yeah. With certain words. Well, I'm half English and I lived in London for about six, seven years. I actually went initially for modeling and then I stayed to do all my education. Yeah. And it's like intense education, like smart stuff. Yes. I am a nerd.

It's an amazing thing. Many layers to you. Yes. What did you study? So I have a degree in philosophy and in economics and a master's degree in finance and financial law. That's insane. Yeah. And I actually, for a while, I retired as a model and I went into the financial world and I worked as a commodities trader.

And then I quit that and went to work as a derivatives consultant. I don't even know what that means. Derivatives consultant. It's all right. Yeah. It's fine. Wow. Do you have a mortgage?

I feel like that's the only thing that I think about when I think of that stuff. That has nothing to do with mortgages, right? No, no, no. See, I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you miss that world at all? I mean, there's certain parts of it that I do miss. What could you possibly miss? Well, weirdly enough, sometimes I really miss the schedule, the routine.

The structure? Yeah. Okay. Wake up, you do this because my life has no routine and no structure whatsoever. Even in terms of my training, I train at different times on different days. and I kind of miss that a little bit at times. Okay. I also miss using my brain in that sense.

Okay. Yeah. In that way. But then again, I learned that that's up to me in my free time as well. You know, I can enter the business world if I want to. Sure.

You always have that in your back pocket. Yes, exactly. Do you get paid more to model than do that if you don't mind me asking? Yes. You made the right call? I did, yeah. Did you get paid for your fight? I did, yeah.

Do you mind if I ask? What's the purse for that kind of thing? No, I mean, it's Thailand. Oh, it's like six bucks? I mean, it's not much. Okay. I mean, over here, but yeah. You didn't do it for the money?

Absolutely not. Right. No. And I initially actually, I did it when I set that moment when I was like, I want to fight. I actually, in my head, I was like, this is a bucket list thing. I just want to kind of have it and, you know, take that lit. I just want to do it. And the other thing about Muay Thai is not like jujitsu or karate where you get belts and you know what level you

are, you know? The only way to test your ability is to fight. So I also wanted to challenge myself and see how good I was. You know, maybe I live in a world where I think I'm really good and actually I'm terrible. So, yeah. Taking, no, no, because I was asking about the pay and everything like that. But taking a step back, so when you decide that you're actually going to fight, do you then go live in Thailand for the entire training camp or do you come back and do you have a team here and a team there? Are they in unison? How does that work? I do train here and I train there but when I decided I wanted to take a fight I roughly set a date and then I calculated four weeks before to be in Thailand to train because it's also like adjusting

to the heat and yeah you know the amount of hours that you train training out there is a whole other level to you can't mimic that sure anywhere else in world you cannot mimic that so I was training out here for you know a good six weeks who do you train with here Um, here in New York, I train with Phil Nurse. Oh, of course. Um, and then, crew, Phil nurse. Crew, to be exact. You're correct.

Yes. Crew Phil. Yeah. Um, yeah, I train with him. And then I was training at the time with Hollywood, you know, at church street boxing. Yep. I knew that that was my weakness. Okay.

Um, and I knew that sparring and I could never land solid punches and that was my real. So I wanted to strengthen my boxing. So kicking would be your strength? Yes. And I'm tall. Yes. Yes. Yes.

That's my. Yes. Yeah. We actually have a video. Oh, God. We could play it of you kicking. I don't know if we could pull that up while we're talking about it. Do you?

It's very impressive. They'll pull it up here in a second as we talk. So Phil Nouris, was he, there it is. There's Sanchai. Yes, who's Sanchai? Which one? Are you really asking me? I don't know who Sanchai is?

I'm supposed to play dumb when I do an interview, right? Oh, right. Sanchi is the one on the right. I'm the one on the left. Okay. Make that clear. Yeah. my favorite fighter

on the planet. I've whooped his ass there. I don't know. I'm not sure if you saw that. And I think definitely the greatest Thai fighter alive right now. Okay. And I would go so far as saying the greatest fighter on the planet.

So does he train out of the same gym? Yes. He trained. That's at Yonkau in Bangkok. And he trains there and fights out of Yukau. and I was lucky enough to train there and train with him before my fight. Wow. What a treat. I know. I know.

I'm very lucky. And I don't fan girl and freak out very often. But I most definitely did with him in the beginning. I was like I was on the bag and he was standing watching me and I was like, I do my time. Like just come on, do something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when he wanted to spar and I panicked and that, yeah. Did you actually spar?

Well, yeah, we did a little bit. Okay. I was a ball of nerves. He's amazing. He's phenomenal. He's, I truly believe he's not human. He's something else. How do you communicate?

Does he speak English? He does. Okay. And do all the coaches speak English? Yeah. Okay. To a certain degree. Okay.

Just enough. Yeah. I mean, some are better than others. Sure, sure. I mean, in Bangkok, you get enough tourists and stuff rolling through. So once you start training and then we're approaching the fight, is there any point where you're like, this is ridiculous, this is crazy, I shouldn't be doing this?

Five minutes before the fight when I was backstage, you know, all ready to go, gloves on and everything. And I turned around to my trainers and my corner men. And I was like, what am I doing? Why do I do this for fun? It's different if it's, you know, how you make your bread and butter and that's your career. It's different. This is my hobby.

What am I doing? And I had a full moment where I was like, why am I not knitting or doing like crochet? Like, why am I about to go into a ring? And what, we're, and then I sat with them with a couple of the other fighters who fight down in my gym and I was like, we're crazy. There's something wrong with us. Yeah. This is our, you know, and everyone was saying, have fun. That was the advice they were going to the ring, have fun.

I was like, but it was fun. Have you ever been that nervous about anything in your life? Modeling, work, school. Listen, that being in front of people and the crowd, and it was a sold-out stadium because they did advertise that it was going to be mean. Were you the main event? Yes. Wow.

Yeah. I know, and you know what I'm saying? Pro debut main event. Yeah, it's a lot of pressure. It's pressure enough to fight. It's a lot of pressure then to be the main event on your first fight. First fight is a pro debut. You're in Thailand.

You know what I mean? the audience have watched four excellent high-quality Muay Thai fights before me. Plus, the entire thing was being filmed by a documentary by Sports Illustrated. Oh, wow. So I had a camera crew following me around for Fight Week 24 hours a day. Additional minor additional pressure. So it was a lot to deal with. I wouldn't change a thing.

I think it was a great experience. I learned so much about myself and dealing with that emotions. And I truly believe, and I'm sure as any fighter would know, it's a fight with yourself mainly. Forget the other, forget your opponent. It's dealing with that emotion and that, you know, and all the things that you feel and your confidence and your insecurities and all that. But I, I'm used to the cameras and the pressure. I'm used to that feeling, but this was something else. This was like, I mean, I learned so much about, I mean, also the fact that it's just you in the thing. There's no way. There's no way.

else, you know, and I remember that moment where my trainer, you know, he took my Monkong off and he put my mouth guard in and he turned me around and sent me into the ring and I felt like abandonment. Oh, no. I look back and I was like, I hate you. Why would you do this to me? And I realized you can't rely on anyone. You can't rely on your trainers, your corner men, no one. It's you. You're the only one that's in that ring. And yeah, I mean, when I came out, when I went in, I was going, I don't want to do this. I was going to cancel the fight. They were like, you're in the ring. Can't cancel a fight. And then when I came out, the first thing I said, they took out my

gum shield. And the first thing I said was, I want to do it again. Wow. And then they were going, you know, okay, relax. And I was going rematch. And they were like, you can't rematch me. You won. Yeah, yeah. I was so like adrenaline, so much going on. It was the craziest, but most amazing thing I've done in my life and definitely more to come. Any family or friends there? Um, my brother flew in. Oh, nice. My brother lives in Hong Kong, so it wasn't too far from him to come, but he came with his, uh, with his wife and with his baby.

Wow. And they came to, what about your parents? How'd they feel about it? Uh, not supportive at all. Okay. Um, to the point where it's created a rift between you or are they just, it has. Okay. Uh, yeah, it has.

Especially because my dad is so, he's an academic and he, he's a theoretical physicist and and a doctor and he's, yeah, he's like, full on. And he's always installed in us, you know, education is very important. I love that. I'm so grateful for that. And he's kind of like, why would you get punt, get hit in the head? The scientific proof of what that does to a human. You're too smart to, you know, we've put too much into your brain for you to do anything to it. And I completely understand that. I completely respect that as a parent. You mean, you're a parent. Would you really want to watch? No, I can't imagine. I mean, I understand that. So, but, you know, before it did have,

happened. He did say, I'm not going to watch, but I'm proud of you. And he said also, I'm proud of you because you're the first. Okay. I'm the first model fighter. I'm the first to do what I, what I did. So he was proud. So that's enough for it. What did your mom say? Um, actually, I don't speak with my mother. Oh, I'm sorry. That's all right. I'm sorry. You didn't know. No, no, I didn't. I just curious how parents, especially from a traditional background, if you will, would react to that because I would lose my crap. I mean, I would just flip out if, my son or daughter did that. Yeah, I think it's also another thing for a daughter. I mean, I don't know. Yes. I have two sons and a daughter as well. Okay. Yeah. So, mm-hmm.

I'm hoping I won't have to feel what your dad felt. Have you talked to him afterwards? Yes. He was very happy. I'm sure he was. Yeah. Now, have you told him you want to do it again? No, no. So he also said, well, I hope that's the last of that. Okay. I haven't told him. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think you've said it in other interviews, too, that I've read, right? he probably doesn't read, that you'd like to do it again. Yeah, he does. Okay. He's not Google.

He's 702. He's not. Okay. Fair enough. And so how do you celebrate? Like, what do you do to, I mean, the address, okay, before I get to the celebration, right? Right.

You win. I win. Via TKO. Yeah. Second round or third? Third round. Third round. Third round.

It was a four round fight. Four round fight. Were you happy? There's, there's the money shot right there's the money shot. Yeah. Look at that. Oh, wow. Hand raised.

Look at that. Can't wait to do that again. That's my initial, when I see that photo. Is that the greatest feeling in the world right there, hand raised? I'm not going to lie. At that time, at that exact time, I felt nothing. I didn't feel happiness, joy. I didn't feel that.

It was more like confusion and sorting out. Yeah, I mean, the closest thing that I can describe a fight like is a dream. You're not quite sure of what's happening. You're not fully, it's kind of here and. there. When I think back to the fight, I can't tell you exactly what happened. It's, you know, it was my first fight. It's a lot of emotion. And it's very easy, and I used to do this before, it's very easy to sit on the side and judge a fight. It's very easy to say, he should have done, he should have thrown more of those, he should be doing this. At the time, you're not thinking, you're reacting,

you're, you know, it's so easy to judge, and I've learned that now, and I will never do that. But I was so emotional and dealing with so many emotions throughout the fight that I know that I did not perform to my ability. Oh, you were disappointed? Yes. Wow. I was disappointed with myself. And I, because before I was getting into the ring, because I've seen a lot of people come through, have their first fight and leave. And most of the time, they don't do Muay Thai.

They just flail their arms around. They normally don't even do kicks. You just attack another person. Sure, sure. It's so emotional, totally understandable. And all I was telling myself before the fight was, doesn't matter if you want to lose death. Just do Wai.

That's it. And I'm happy. I did do some Wai Thai. I threw kicks. I threw a lot of elbows. I threw knees. I was blocking. You know, like I was doing some Waiai.

But I did not do anywhere near to what I can do. And I felt disappointment. And weirdly enough, when my hand was raised, I felt like I'd just achieved nothing. Wow. And I looked over at my trainer and he was going, smile. Be happy. Everyone's taking pictures.

Be happy. And at the end, I mean, it's on video. It'll come out eventually. But I was like, ah, but I really felt. And that's why I went and they took up my gumshadow and I was like, I want to do it again. I want to redo it, you know. And I can't wait until I get to the point. And I've discussed this with friends of mine who are fighters, you know, kind of a couple

fights in when you do get to fight with a couple of. completely clear head when I can then fully think about, you know, technique and angles and what I'm going to do and rather than just emotionally, impulsively flailing my limbs around. So what happens when you go to the locker room and like you're, you're feeling this range of emotions? Is it, I mean, I can't imagine. It's the, I mean, I've done some crazy stuff in my life and I've been on, you know, in front of cameras and I've done things and there's nothing like that feeling. Nothing. Does it take a while to come down? Yeah. And it's just an amazing physical journey as well. Like throughout the fight, I didn't feel anything. She was kicking me and punch me. I didn't feel it. Wow. Was she good? She was her, I believe it was her sixth fight. Okay. Yeah. She'd had more experience than me. And she's Thai. So she's been training a lot longer than me. But I also knew that coming into the fight. But yeah, it's the craziest.

crazy's feeling even after the fight you know you come out and and you don't feel the pain you don't feel anything and she actually caught me with an elbow in the eye and I had a black eye and I had a yeah I think we have that too we could show that as well you got it all here you really do um and only you know after the fight I felt I then started to this is the adrenaline wears off the pain starts to come in okay and then you start you know but yeah that night the night of the I didn't sleep much that night. Any serious injuries? No.

Okay. Thank God. Yeah. Well done. In a way, this is brilliant because, I mean, if you Google your name, it's all about the model fighter and why you do this and your story. You're getting a lot more attention because of this. So I'm happy to hear that your agency is behind it because I feel like this is a brilliant

move on your part. And I know you're not doing it for the marketing. Absolutely not. No. This is my hobby. Yeah. But it really does distinguish you from your competition. if you will, the other models.

Right. Right? I mean, it gives you... It's a niche. Yeah, but... And like I said, it's a first. There's a, there hasn't been a model who's become a fighter before, but...

It gives you an edge that the others don't have. Yeah, and for me, it's also, like I explained before, it's what it means to me, you know? And for me, that's a big thing. Because also, I found my confidence and everything, and I got through a lot of issues with Muay Thai. And I, you know, I was in Thailand for nine months. and then I came back to New York

and that really honestly coupled with having Sports Illustrated behind me who fully supported it. You know, and I did, I went first to them and I said, I want to do a fight. And they said, we want to film it. Like, you know, they've always supported me.

And, you know, the two things coupled together really gave me the confidence to come back to New York and come back to the fashion industry and the modeling world, the entertainment industry, and say, I'm not going to conform to your standard.

anymore. I'm not going to starve myself and be insecure about myself because I'm trying to fit into a size zero pair of jeans. I'm not going to do that anymore. I've found health, confidence, happiness through this sport, through everything, and this is who I am. This is the kind of woman that we need in our magazines. This is the kind of role model we need for our kids. I've been that 14-year-old girl who's looking through magazines going, why don't like I look like that? Why am I not that skinny? Why? No. No, something needs to change. So really, Waiai has done more for me than people know.

People look at me and they think, this is another model posing and some gloves, you know what I mean? But this is really, I'm about that life. Yeah, wow. I'm about that life. I hear people say that. I don't know if I'm about any kind of life, but you can actually say that.

Do you have apprehension? I've seen some photos of you posing with the gloves and things like that. Do you have apprehension doing that? because is there any fear? Because this is authentic for me. And I know what's authentic for me. And I do really, I control all my own social media and I try and remain authentic. And I don't, I don't.

There we have one really. There's me. There you are. In all your glory. Yeah, that's me. It's funny because the guy who shot that actually fights my tie. So he got it. He got it.

He got it. It was a good shoot. Are you surprised to see the reaction to this story? What's the reaction to this story? It feels very positive. It feels like you're getting a lot of attention. I mean, I didn't know who you were, but then I saw, wow, model fighting. I subscribed to Sports Illustrated. I have subscribed since I was nine years old.

Swimsuit issue was a very exciting thing always as a youngster, right? But when I heard, oh, sports literature, swimsuit model fighter, then looking up your pictures and your videos, this woman is legit. So you are now exposing yourself to a whole other audience, right? Yes. I'd love to have models on my show, but there's never a reason. You're on the show, so now there's, you know, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's doors opening here. Are you surprised that people are drawn to this story as much as they are? No, I mean, I guess it makes sense.

And also, it is a first. So people, so, you know, it is getting attention. But, I mean, what the good comes with the bad as well, there are a lot of people. Really? Yeah. What's the bad? people who, people reject what they don't know, right? And people have boxes for things.

Are you a fighter or are you a model? You can't possibly be both. I'm trying to say, I absolutely can be both. Yes, of course. I absolutely can. I can be whatever I want to be. And I think that's a good message about encouraging women to be multi-dimensional, not alone women, all people.

I think that you can be. You want to be an intellect, work in finance, be a model, and an athlete, go right ahead. There's nothing stopping you. So that's what I stand for. and I'm going to keep going. But a lot of people seem to be very confused. A lot of people are like pick one or the other, you know. That seems like an old guard mentality.

Probably, yeah. Any concerns about if you get like an elbow to the face and there's a big cut? I mean, it happened. Yeah, but like a cut or a broken nose or something. I mean, that's the moneymaker, right? Listen, that's the number one asked question. Yes, I bet. And I can honestly say that's actually one of my least concerns because I believe in my ability.

Yeah. And I wish that everyone would believe in my ability too, but I understand that I need to really pay attention to my guard. I understand, you know what I mean? I have to protect my face. I believe in my ability to. So, you know, I'm much more concerned about fracturing his shin or something like that. But yeah, I mean, at the end of round one in my fight, I got caught in the face with an elbow. and I see I kind of thought

made this a little bit naive of me but I kind of thought it's like an unspoken rule between women that you know listen we don't want to walk around with a nine inch scar across my face let's not throw elbows like that you know and yeah and then

at the end around one I remember that moment I was against the ropes and I was like what the hell was that and then I went back to my corner like I said I didn't feel anything didn't feel as much as the kick as I went back to my corner I was sitting there. I could feel my trainer, pressing it and putting, pressing it and putting vastly, and I was like, did she cut me? And they obviously lied to me. And they were like, no, you're good. No, there was a tiny, tiny cut there. That made me mad. Pissed off. That made me very, very mad. Everyone, I think the world was wondering how I was going to react to getting hit in the face, right? And I was curious as well, being hit in the face with that much aggression and with six ounce gloves.

I was curious to how I was going to react, but that really made me mad and I went back into round two and I won round two easily because maybe I felt threatened, you know? The girl needs to pay her rent. You can't elbow me in the face. How dare you?

Yeah, exactly. A couple days ago, you tweeted something to the effect of who wants to see me fight an MMA? Correct. Are you considering this? Yes, absolutely. Okay.

So I am going to start expanding my training. Which I'm very excited about. That's something that I want to do. For right now, I have a couple of tie fights that I want to do. In the next couple months, there are a few things that I want to do. Nothing's confirmed yet, but there are some... July 29th or something you tweeted about? 28th.

Yeah, we're working out. When there is something, you know, solid, I'll let you. you'll let me know thank you i appreciate that uh you better come watch uh in thailand no will you do it here american american debut yeah oh wow i'll be there um that'll be fun thanks yeah um so that you know i've got a couple tie fights that i want to do um in the meantime really laying down some foundations some wrestling some jiu jitsu wow so you're serious about this yeah i mean mainly let's not forget this is fun for me this is what i want to do and uh you know like I've really fallen in love with martial arts and I wish I'd done it earlier.

And I want to see what, you know, what else is out there. What else is out there exactly? And, you know, I'm lucky to be connected with first round management and Maliki. The infamous Maliki. I know. And he's so supportive and great and, you know, who's put me under the guidance of Izzy Martinez. You're going to work with Izzy? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah, so... In Chicago or is he going to come here? We're working it out right now, but it's... Holy smokes. This is a real thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm very lucky.

He's amazing. I mean, they're all amazing. They're all great at what they do. So I'm a lucky girl. I can't wait. Are you going to go to Albuquerque with Greg Jackson? I know. Okay.

Let's not get crazy. Let's not go crazy. All right. First, first, the wrestling? Wrestling and jujitsu. Who are you going to work jujitsu with? I'll keep you posted. Okay.

But this is all kind of. of just laying down some groundwork while I worked through my next couple months of tie fights. And then do you think you want to actually do an MMA fight as well? I mean, knowing me, I don't just train and then not, yeah.

I mean, knowing me, I will get there down the line, but I'm not trying to rush anything. I'm going on my own pace, what I feel comfortable doing. Beltor is probably just called your phone. they uh what what weight class would you like probably 135 perfect yeah yeah we've got openings yeah not me specifically but the sport um well that's very exciting but you haven't actually done it yet uh the wrestling the jihita no no no we're not we're i mean i just came back from thailand i just kind of recovered i'm i'm now got my model hat on okay uh working like i said working towards my

next tie fights and in the in the meantime here and there throw in some wrestling some jiu-suitzu and wow yeah um are you an m-ma fan i am but you know what what fun fact okay i wasn't always an m-ma fan and and what changed um so i probably happen and i was i'm only a recent m-ma fan i would say the last we were going to kick you out of the studio if you said you yeah i had to bring it back really quickly um probably the last year and a half that's it Two years, year and a half, two years. Okay. Initially, I had an issue with the whole hitting a man when he's down thing.

But that was more ignorance because I didn't know about Jiu-Jitsu. I didn't know about, you know, the art of ground fighting, exactly. So really it just was a matter of me expanding my horizons. Okay. Yeah, but like I said, now I'm interested. And for me, I mean, even in the clinch in Muay Thai, it's a whole other chess game. You know, and it fascinates me, and I can't wait to start chit-suitzun. I can't wait to kind of get into that.

It's a whole other thing. It requires a whole grump bunch of other muscles. But, yeah, very exciting. You went to UFC 208 in Brooklyn. I did, yeah. Did you? Well, yeah, I was covering it. Oh, as a journalist.

Well, I didn't know you were there. I saw on your Instagram, though. Oh, yeah. I was there. You were there. And why did you go? Because I wanted to go. Okay.

Just for fun. Yeah. Okay. You live in the New York area? I was in a UFC in New York. Yeah. Was that your first live event? For UFC?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was. And it was great. Yeah, you enjoyed it? It was kind of a lacklister card, though. Yes. Okay. Yes.

I thought that it was. Don't judge us on that card. Yes. Okay. So, but it was, but I had a great time and I love the audience. Okay. They're very like, kick him in the face.

You like that? Some people don't like that. No, I thought it was great. I didn't expect it. Was there any fighter in particular that you saw and you were like, wow, this blow. I mean, you saw Anderson Silva, hello. But it wasn't a great fight.

I mean, I actually thought he lost the fight. Really? I thought he lost, yeah. I mean, it's just great to see the guy. I mean, for me. Sure, yeah, I mean, arguably the greatest. Yeah. And then you had the female fights, right?

The main event, Holly and Jermaine Derrani. Yeah. Some controversy punches after the bell. You remember that? Yes, I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it was like mild craziness. Yeah, fair.

So you took a, you took a picture. You had good seats. I had great seats. How did you get such good seats? Oh, they hooked you up? Thank you Sports Illustrated. Okay, that's how it happened. Who'd you go with? I went with my great friend Taylor, hi Taylor, who actually works at Sports Illustrated. Okay. Is she actually watching now?

Probably not. Probably at work, yeah. Well, we get a lot of people who watch at work. I bet you do. Yeah. And so why I zeroed in on the picture. I know why. You were rocking it. Are you going to pull it up? Actually, I don't know if I told them to pull this one up. I screwed up. I should have told them. you were rocking a Dylan Danes shirt. I was rocking a Dylan Dennis shirt. Holy smoke.

Dylan Danis, this freaking guy, not only does he hang with Connor, not only is he one of the best jujitsu practitioners in the world, he's got a freaking supermodel wearing his shirt, just his shirt. Just a shirt with his face on it.

Not even like, it wasn't even like a, you know, it's like a thing. I just had a shirt. Did you get that? Was that like a thing that people can buy or did you make it? No,

I didn't. That would be kind of crazy. I know, but I like, if I'd gotten a shirt. I didn't know that Dylan Danes has shirts. No, I bought it. You could buy Dilladana's shirts like that. Apparently. Yeah, at the time, there was only a certain number and I wanted to support and I'm a fan. I'm a

Dylan Dennis fan. Because I asked them about you. You did. I love when you ask questions that you know the answers to. I don't know. First of all, we just met. So you can't generalize that I do this. But people have said that about me before. So very stute on your part. I don't know anything. I asked him a question. I said, there was a model, Mia Kang wearing your shirt at UFC 2A, what's going on there? What's the story? And he sort of implied that you guys were an item. Did he? He did. Well, I don't know. He gave some really like, coy. He was. Yeah. He was being Dylan Dennis, life's good. And his life is good. Like you said, he's hanging out with Connor. He's one of the best jiu jutsu practitioners in the world. Do you have a specific question? Well, no, the question is,

is that true? No, it's not true. Um, um. It's not true. Listen, me and Dylan Dennis are great friends. Okay. And I really, I admire the guy. No matter what people say about the things that he says or about his personality or his attitude, nobody can deny that the man is an animal. He's so great at what he does.

And honestly, throughout my fight, coming up to my fight and through my fight, he was an amazing support system, motivation for me. He's a great guy, really great guy. have you ever trained with him No I'd like to Yeah well you have an opening in the jihitsu front right You say you don't have a coach Yeah I'd like to I mean I'd love to

To bring him on as my train I'd love to That would be fantastic He's really busy taking over the jiu jitsu world And you know he's got to train his MMA for his He signed with Bellator yeah Yeah so he's kind of busy Right

But I feel like he can squeeze you in a little bit I mean I've even I've asked him even just for one He said no Just for like an initial I have a hard time believing this He, yeah, he said no. He said no? I know, yeah.

Why? He wanted to charge you or overcharge you? He's really busy kind of dominating the fight world. Okay. He's a bit of a lightning rod these days, you know? What does that mean? Well, when he signed with Bellator, he said that he was the highest paid fighter in the organization. And a lot of people in the organization took umbrage with that comment.

A lot of the fighters were upset that he said that. Right. I think a lot of fans think that he acts like Connor, you know, with some of his social media. So he's a lightning rod. I enjoy him. I think he's great. I enjoy him.

I think he's great too. I think his whole demeanor is fantastic. You probably need that more in grappling. I know he lost his last fight, but, you know, these things happen. People lose fights. Absolutely. It happens. It completely happens.

And I don't think that holds any kind of testament to what, how much of an amazing fighter he is. But you're right. I think that, and I also think that he's doing great things for the sport. and he's shining a lot of light on the sport. And that's also what I hope to do for Thai boxing. You know, at the end of the day, the dude loves his sport. Yeah. It's great at it.

I think that I personally don't think he's just because someone's a little mouthy doesn't mean they're like Connor McGregor. Sure, sure. Do you enjoy Connor? But I was such a big fan. Yeah. Is he your favorite MMA fighter? Would that be?

Him and Anderson Silva. I'd say. Okay, interesting. I can understand the Anderson appreciation because of his background. Well, I mean, I admire Conner so much in, as for everything he's done in terms of the business that he's done, how he's foreseen things and how he's made them happen. And I think what he's done is so smart. I think he just as a whole, all encompassing, I really, it's very admirable. If he fights Floyd Mayweather, are you interested in that?

Correct, yes. You are. Yes. Will you try to go to the fight? I'd love to, yeah. Maybe September, October. Is that what they're close? Yeah.

Well, that's what, you know, the insiders say. Yeah, I'd love to go. It would probably be in Vegas, though, not here. I'm there. You're there. I feel like Sports Illustrated could hook you up. I feel like they could, yeah. Now, Beltor is going to MSG in June.

Are you going to go to that? Their debut. Do you know the date? June 24th. Maybe. Okay. Maybe. I'm around.

What do we have as far as modeling next for you? Like I'm always curious. My wife works in the jewelry business. Maybe she's got great stuff, sacks, Bergdorf. I mean, real deal stuff. We're not talking like little beads that she does in her basement. Like fine jewelry? Fine jewelry.

Yeah. Anzi is the name of the company I can send it to you. But as far as like big gigs, we have anything big on the horizon, Italy, Milan, something big, Vogue. I know you're featured in Vogue recently. I was, yeah. I'm just running down the resume here. A couple things lined up. I don't want to jinx them.

You know, it's a very last. minute world where things are confirmed a couple days before and it's not yeah it's a very last minute industry so were there um fellow models or casting agents or whatever who are kind of mean to you and then they found out that you were fighter and now they're super nice to you no okay unfortunately no I feel like now no one's going to piss you off or try to mess with you you don't get that no no wow that's surprising I do find it's it's very it's intimidating with a lot of guys like guys are

Yeah they're intimidated by it but but yeah that's the only thing that I do feel like when you meet someone and you tell them

that that's what you do Yeah a lot of guys like so you could kick my ass right now Yeah Like you know they're really And what they run away? I just think they're kind of intimidated

which is I think the weak ones are like sure I feel like that Exposes something about them right off the bat Yeah I think it would be awesome if my wife fought Yeah you've never tried to get her to. No, I don't feel like I need to push her to do that. But if you wanted to, I would certainly, I'd like having her around and healthy and stuff. So I wouldn't push her to do that. Okay. So as far as like the sport, to me, Sports Illustrated would be, you know, for someone in your position like kind of the Holy Grail right now. I mean, you get. I mean, that's like an iconic establishment in just to be a part of that as an incredible, really incredible. It's an institution. I mean, everyone knows about that.

you were part of like a contest, right? Yeah. So in 2015, it was a 2016 issue. They had, I mean, every year they have a model search contest where they, you know, they cast around the United States and then they pick six girls. Rookies, if you will. Five, no, five or six girls who compete and the winner then becomes a rookie. Oh, wow.

I didn't realize it was that. Yeah, so I was in it, and then I won it. And how do you win it? Is it a vote? Yeah, it's a worldwide vote. Okay. This past issue was your rookie. My rookie debut, yeah.

Okay. And the feeling of winning that compared to the feeling of winning a fight, which is greater. Can you even compare? Yes, you can compare. The winning that competition was a lot more of a shock to me, also because I'm a minority. First of all, I was new in the States. You on social media. You know what I mean?

I didn't have a fan base and I'm a minority. I technically should lose that vote. Given all the stats, I should have lost. Okay. But I won and I won by a mile. So that was really, I didn't expect it at all. I really truly believed I was going to lose that. Okay.

Whereas I walked into this fight believing that I was going to win it. Interesting. Yeah. So then when you won, it's a different feeling because you were expecting as opposed to the unexpected, you're almost shocked. Okay. Right. What do you enjoy more right now?

If I said to you, you can make the same amount of money fighting that you do in modeling, would you rather devote your life to fighting? I mean, when, when, if it's the rest of my life. Right now. Yeah, I would just fighting. Really? Wow. You enjoyed that much.

How often do you get to train? And also, I have modeled for 15 years. Sure, sure. This is kind of new, exciting, different. Yeah. Do you get the train every day? Yeah. Okay.

Six days a week. Did you train today? this morning, yeah. You did? How'd it go? Great. Okay. Okay.

So what's the next step? So now we're talking to promoters, getting the fight. What's the next step as far as number two? That's a foregone conclusion, right? You will fight again. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Okay.

We're doing the negotiations at the moment for my U.S. debut. Does Malki do that? Yes, Malki's doing that. Wow. Yeah. Okay. I feel like promoters are coming out of the woodwork here. Yeah.

there's been a lot of phone calls and reaching out in some form or another. Okay. But it's fun because Malki and first round management have never, they do not represent women. I know. I am the first. I was surprised when he told me. Yeah. So I'm happy.

We're just breaking boundaries all over the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I like. And yeah, it's nice to kind of break the stereotype as well. And, you know, I don't think that the sport has seen anything like me before. And again, like I said, a lot of people hate. A lot of people are like, but look at her. You know what I mean?

Sure, sure. And it's funny because I read on the tweets that whatever tweets that we were doing and someone wrote like, oh, she's going to get broke like a twig. They don't have a 90 pound division or something. And I was like, that's so funny because I'm 5'10 and like 150 pounds. You know what I mean? Anyway, I like, I think, I like what I'm doing. Yeah, it's cool.

I think breaking boundaries and stereotypes and let's see what happens. When's the SI documentary coming out? Should be fall. Okay. I don't have a specific date for you. Is it a long one or is it kind of like a mini? It's a long. Really?

Yeah, it's like a whole journey. They followed me through training in New York. Wow. They came out to Thailand. They followed me through training in Thailand, followed me through Fight Week, and film the fight and yeah it's I have no idea

what it looks like but should be great good on them for doing that I mean it's their two worlds colliding yeah like they've never collided before right sports and model come together that's right

and as far as female fighters do you look up to any of them is there anyone that you admire you know I mean obviously there's a there's like a lot of great fighters but there's actually nobody at the

the moment that I would say like okay yeah Ronda Rousey was in I saw as well she was yeah she was on the cover my that's right she was she was on the cover and actually she was at the time she was in the room with me and stuff and like yeah she was she talked to her no okay busy she's busy yeah she's busy come on yeah yeah um but yeah that's pretty great I thought that was great but now she's kind of gone away yeah you followed that right make way okay okay wow Them's fighting words. I like it. That's great.

Mia Kank just called out Ronda Rousey. No, I know. I know. I know. I know. I'm just kidding. That's what other people will do. That's what other people will do.

Well, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. No, no. This was great. When Malky called me and said, are you interested in talking? I was like, wait a second. The model?

The one that I've seen, Dylan Danis, I just talked about you. The one that you talked about me? Yes. Were you upset when I brought you up? No. No. Well, I was like, wow. you know who I am.

Yeah, of course. I do my research. But I'm not going to lie. I didn't, I wasn't, and he could tell you that he, he, I was like, I called him afterwards and I was like, why do you say that? Like, I thought it made me come across as like, a little, you know. A side piece, if you will. A side piece, if you will.

What the kids call it, yes. But. So you were mad at him. Did I create a rift? I wasn't mad. Okay. But I, because I understand the, and I think of the Dylan Dennis and, you know, but I wasn't mad, but I just thought that I just came across a little.

So I'm glad I got to come here and actually clear the air, you know, and show you that I'm not somewhat of a side piece kind of thing. How dare he? It's funny because I didn't know you are obviously going to come when I asked him about it, but it was almost like foreshadowing. Like we actually had a thing that happened within the shirt. It was like a pre-limm kind of thing. And then, yeah, there you go. That's real phrase. But no, this was great.

I appreciate you coming in, knowing that you're in New York and very busy. It means a lot that you would come in. I wish you the best. First off, congratulations on doing it. Thank you very much. I know a lot of people dream about these things, but don't have the courage to do it. And your story is great. And I urge anyone to look you up and read more about your story and, you know, just what you've been through and overcome.

No, it's really an inspiring thing, especially for young women. And I view, I mean, I just had a girl six months ago, so I view women completely different. Not to say that I didn't, it's just different. I can't even put into work. It's like when I, like this is a girl and this is, you know what I mean? I just, I have a whole other appreciation for strong women and what, you know, the things that we go through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And honestly, I'll tell you that today, it's hard to be a woman and the pressures that we're under in, you know, from whatever angles, from men, from the media, from society. It's tough to be a woman these days. And raising a woman, I'm sure as you will find out is, you know, it's hard. So we do need strong role model. out there and you know it's people need to share their stories and we need to to I hope people can can find something that they relate to and what I'm in absolutely you know well said um so congratulations good luck in the upcoming fight keep us posted thank you I've I will number two happens back to see you there I will try my best and hopefully maybe we'll see you at Bellator yeah at the garden

yeah 24th fade or Malianenko arguably the other greatest of all time is fighting okay it's their best card ever. Oh, wow. Okay. Like, without a doubt. Chale Sunnan, put it in. I'm sure they'll hook you up. Okay. So there she is. Mia Kang. Congratulations to her. You can check her out on Twitter, all that stuff. We put out all her social media. All the best. We will take a quick break. We will say goodbye to Mia. We'll continue our conversation with one Connor McGregor. And I do believe Tony Ferguson, late edition, is going to join us in a matter of seconds. Here's Maliki Kawa texting me. He's very, tell her my first.

phone is blowing up. Wait, what did Dylan Dinah's text? You didn't tell me? Oh, you want to know? You were like, I'll tell you. Yeah, he basically said, well, Malcolm wanted you to know that his phone is blowing up as the interview is happening. But, so that's a good sign. Okay, that's great. I'll take 2% of whatever comes with this. He said, ask her the same tough questions you asked me. That's Dylan. Oh, so basically he wanted you to ask me, are we dating? Yes. And he wanted to see what I was saying. What a smart guy. You got to give him props. And I said I will. And I think I did. Yeah. No?

Yeah. Okay. You seemed hesitant. Yeah. No, it's fine. Do you want to say something else? See you guys next time. There she is.

Mia Kang. We'll continue that conversation with Connor. And then in a matter of moments, we will be joined by one Tony Ferguson. Also, Rick's picks a lot more to come. So stick around. We'll be back right here on the M.A.R. Trying to expect certain buy rates and whatnot. Do you almost feel like you're underpaid at this point?

Do you almost feel like they're getting a bargain here with you? Yeah, 100%. they have struck gold with me. But I let it be known. This is a game of analytics. You recognize your numbers. If you want to go forward and make a claim for the big pay days, the big numbers,

you've got to back it up. So for me, every little number that I have gathered, be it the gate, the pay-per-view, the audience figures, every little number, all the analytics, put that all together, lay it on the table and say, this is what I bring. This is what I have brought you. and then we discuss negotiations

that's how business is done it's not sitting and complaining oh why am I not getting this and then nothing to back it up why am I not getting this and I can't even get five people to buy their pay per-view or come to see me so I choose to do it this way

I gather the analytics I go forward and we discuss business so as of now I am on a phenomenal deal but the next deal will surpass that again and we will continue to grow and grow and grow until eventually it will be in association with. It will be me

in association with Zuffer. That's where I feel I am going. Like McGregor promotions? In association with Zufu, it will be, I feel like my show, you will see on this show

as well. It's not going to be like any other show you've ever seen before. There will be things that have happened on this show that have never happened before in the history of the sport,

in the buildup, in everything. But it's because of me, because I said of what I feel should happen, what should be different. And we work together. Essentially, I see Dana and I see Lorenzo as business.

business partners. You know what I mean? I don't see them as employees. I see them as business partners and business is phenomenal. So I feel as it grows up and grows eventually we will become legit partners in association with. I feel that's the way that's progression. That's the way I see things going. Can you give us an example or two of what will be different about this one? Definitely not. Just sit back and enjoy it because the McGregor show is different than any other show there has been. But it will be spectacular. Make no mistake about it. And this doesn't happen though. You don't see Ronda Rousey in association with the UFC, you don't see Chuck La, George.

So why do you think it will be different with you? I don't know. Maybe they didn't see it the way I see it. Maybe I see it a little bit different. But I remember very clearly after the UFC Dublin event, they brought me backstage and we discussed and I was like, I want to do this. This is the way we should go forward with this. This is the way the stadiums.

This is where the entrances should be. We should do this stadium. We should do that. This is what business relationship is about. You discuss ideas and you. You discuss ideas and you turn them into reality and thankfully with the backing of Dana Lorenzo, phenomenal businessman entrepreneurs, highly

successful men with a vision that can guide my vision and it's been a perfect relationship so far and it will continue to be and of course it's always like Lorenzo said it's about going from here to here to here to here

and that's where I'm going I'm going it's round and circles up so it will continue to get big and bigger and bigger until until I am finished so after this fight will you sit down and say look the number speak for themselves it's time to to look at this deal again maybe they will want to do that we will see how it goes but we I have a beautiful contract right now and I'm very happy with but I'll definitely be counting every single number that is generated on this card make no mistake

about it and and and let it be known but we will see where it goes from here One thing that I really admire about you that I think a lot of people might overlook is that, you know, you have all these new riches and these new deals, Reebok, Monster and all that. But I really admire your relationship with your girlfriend because what I find very interesting, she's here. She seems to be a big part of your camp. You flaunt your wealth and all that, and you should, you should be proud of it. But someone who is of your stature, a young guy, you can have whatever you want, right? The world is at your fingertips. And someone in your position might have a girlfriend of a girlfriend.

many years, but they might keep that quiet because you want to portray a certain image. You flaunt your relationship with your girlfriend to the world as well, tweets and stuff, it seems like you're a very happy man. I think that's, in this day and age, you don't see that. Do you get what I'm trying to say? I think it's the juxtaposition there of a guy who is very loyal

to someone who's been with him since before all this came, and all the newfound wishes together makes her a very interesting person. That's a good look. My girlfriend has been different. It's actually has helped me throughout this career. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be where I am today, so definitely I look to spoil her. She does not work anymore. I essentially hired her, I hired her

to the business, but she works for me now. In what capacity? I mean, she collects the checks. That's what she does, but that to me was a special thing to be able to deal. My girlfriend worked very, very hard throughout the years coming up and stuck by me when essentially I had absolutely nothing. I only had a dream that I was telling her. So for me, to be able to take her out of work and and give her everything she's ever wanted and take her to travel to travel the world with her that fills me with pride

so it keeps me going. How long have you been with her? We have been together eight years now maybe. Almost a decade. Something like that. Now she will probably tell the exact dates and stuff but we've been together a long time

and she's been true at all with me. A lot of people coming your way, right? Of all shapes inside. Back on the MMA hour, thank you once again to miss Mia Kang for stopping by. How much fun was that? So great when people come in studio when we get to tell different stories and it's not the same old, same old. I really enjoyed that. I appreciate her coming in. Wish her the best. I think it's a fantastic story, not just about, you know, a model turned fighter,

but self-improvement, self-confidence, being happy, all kinds of lessons to be learned there. So I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And I appreciate Malki for hooking us up with me as well. Wish her the best in her next fight, the second pro fight. And let's see what happens with her MMA career. That should be interesting as well. What a story. Okay, let us move along. As I just said on Twitter, as I alluded to earlier in the show, late addition to today's wild episode of the MMA hour, we are joined now by the number one contender in the UFC's lightweight division. I've been trying to talk to

this man for quite some time. He has finally said yes. Tony Ferguson is on the phone. Tony, are you there? What is good, everybody. I know it's missed me, man. I'm not. Hello, Tony. How are you? It's been a while.

Doing everything's great, man. Just enjoying life and honestly putting on some pounds, man. Just to date with everything. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. How big are we right now? Well, I'm trying to put on probably about like 15 more pounds of muscle. Oh, okay.

Yeah, I put him on my physique a little bit different, getting stronger in the departments where I feel. like I was a little bit more weak and fixing some mistakes that I saw in my game that I needed to correct, man. So when you say putting on the pounds, you're not sitting at home, like eating potato chips, this is a conscious effort on your part. No, no, no. That's why, you know, this weekend was kind of a crazy one for me.

I was supposed to go to the athlete retreat, you know, but I had a prior engagement. I had to take care of some things at home. And it was actually pretty nice, it's eye-opening, out catching the MMA community, what I can do for it. And instead of just going out and partying and doing this and that, I picked up weights, man. And I've been doing that for the last couple of weeks. And I've been really trying to change my mental attitude and try to be a little bit more positive outlook on life and just in general, just on my fitness. And so far, so good, man. I feel really good, happy, and healthy.

And so what were you doing back home? I've just been lifting. I've been taking more interesting a little bit across-fits type of workouts and just increasing my knowledge overall and straightening the conditioning. and just in physical fitness and overall. Okay. Like I said, just finding those loopholes in my game

that I know that my opponents know it. If I can see it, my opponents can see it. So I'm not getting any better if I just sit around on my ass all day eating potato chips. I'm out here getting after it, and I'm lifting some weights and I'm putting some money on a table doing these seminars, man. It's nice.

Okay, so everyone wants to know what's going on. Of course, you were supposed to fight a 209. It didn't happen, and you were frustrated, you were upset. there was some talk of you fighting Habib again, but he's out now, at least until the fall. There was some talk, as he said on our show,

Nate Diaz, that he was offered you in July, but then he said, you know, thanks but no thanks. What is going on? Do you have a fight? There's a lot of talks that are up in the air right now, but just talking about this past week, you had Alicinta, you know, just getting on another

rage. I had nothing but respect for Al for a long time, and, you know, I'm not going to really disregard it, but when he says, you know, fuck Ferguson, something like that, at least have the balls to tag me in it. You're gonna fucking face like that tag me in the bitch. You know, plain clear, you know, if you can't say it to my face, at least tag me in the motherfucker and I don't want to hear it from other people. Speaking of which, you know, and this is the other part.

You know, Dana said that he offered me Michael Johnson. Yeah, I was offered Michael Johnson back in the day, but that was right immediately. What? Following my last fight. You know, I got nothing but love for the boss, but the only time he offered me was a Friday eve of UFC 209, you know, and that's when Khabib pulled out and wanted to give me a pay cut. You know, I fight anyone, but you just got to make sure it's for the right money, dude.

I mean, I really am. I used to say it's not for the money, but here, shit, dude, I'm a superstar. Let's do this. Let's clean it up. Let's make some money here. So, you know, if it's making an interim to pay right, you know, that's a bonus. But we don't have any taggers. We didn't go down the rankings to make a normal fight.

I'm down too. But the pay is the same that we're talking on could be, but it's just different. So I get frustrated with it, but I'm not going to wait and just sit on my ass and do nothing. I'm getting better. I'm going to post out more videos. My boxing's looking crisp. My Muay Thai is looking sharp. And my jiu-jit's looking clean.

So you guys have a problem, man. And these hungry guys that are in the lower rankings, man, they're making these dudes like Nate Diaz look bad. Because Nate's talking about doing, like, you know, bike week and shit. But he don't even own a Harley. He's talking about a Schwinn bike. You know, he's got better things to do. I'm like, dude, come on, man.

You got no heart. You sell yourself gangster. You're backing down from a fight. Let's go, dude. We got a main event that's open. I need to be filled. So if you want to make some money, you want to impress the fans, you want to get back out there and sell you, we, do your shit.

That's fine, man. Put your name back in the crowd. Let's do this shit, man. Sign a dollar line. Let's go, kid. So you were down to fight on July 8th. You wanted that fight. You were into it.

Yeah, why not, dude? I mean, I'm here for the fans, and the fans love me. The fans have been loving me and they're getting into it. And I'm trying to clean it up a little bit more. And I'm not changing myself. I'm just changing what I present to the world. So if that's the case, then you know, so be it, man. I'm going to be a little more colorful.

So, you know, if push comes to show, I'm going to fight anybody who wants to fight. But I would love to have it out here in Anaheim, but somewhere close to him. Or in Vegas, man, let's make that shit happen. What was your reaction when you found out that he wasn't going to take the fight? Little bitch. I don't know. I don't know what the problem is, dude. Like, I understand that you want to say, like, McGreg, I'm not going to do your dirty work.

Dude, you're, I mean, I don't want to go into name call. I don't have to do that. But I'm talking about if you're a fighter and you're in this organization, you say that you'd rather go and like ride a bicycle. You got better things to do. That's cute. That's real cute. You're going to, you know, I might as well stock and slap this shit out of you, man. Like, really?

I'm from the 805, man. I don't have to talk about where I'm from, but I'm tough. I'm a hell of a lot tougher than that dude. Because, you know, money never made me soft. And even if I, even if it made me soft, I wouldn't forget where I come from. Because, you know what? You got a place to represent. Like you said, represent.

you got a man that's right here calling you out and you're not signing the dotted line you're a clown dude you fake did you happen to see his interview on my show around a few weeks ago like three four weeks ago kind of I had a hard time hearing him

he needs to hire an enunciation coach you know he needs to use some of that money you know get a grammar speech coach or something you know maybe the weed's getting to him or he's getting too punchy you know obviously you can't sit too many punches if he can't really talk too much so you know obviously I already know I beat him already but if he wants to go that wrong we want to put

inside that oxygen, let's make that paper talk. Let's go, let's make that money. Do you want to go? I'm a hell of a lot better than you. Dude, you try to staff, whatever you fucking call it. I'll hit you with my jab so hard, you fucking knock your teeth out. One of the things that he brought up was he just doesn't like, he doesn't feel like you really want to fight him. He wants to feel like, you know, you're going to call him out,

get emotionally invested. He equated it to a scene in a cafeteria. Like there's no issue there. He feels like you're just sort of concocting this plan. He was just kind of ho-humming to the idea of fighting you. What do you make of that? Well, he smokes a lot of good weed, I guess, you know, because you got a lot of time on his hands just to do that.

I have to do delusional, man. Obviously, I'm not in Cahoo-McGregor, if you think that I am, and you're fucking high as fuck. Straight up, you're smoking that wacky tobacco because I'm not. I don't like the dude. I don't like how, obviously, things are playing with my management, but, you know what, I'm professional, so this is what we're at. And so nobody's telling me to fight this dude.

What I'm looking at is, look, this guy was a last guy, last person that fought the guy that I want to get to. I'm like, man, he actually beat him. I'm like, look, anybody else that's on the roster right now, I fucking murked. They were like buttered through my elbows. I worked right through them. I cut them up, I sliced them up, and I served them on a plighter back to Dana with a bonus coming my way.

I never asked for that check. I don't. I never ask for nothing. I have a little bit of advice for all you fighters out there that's up and coming from a vet, from a tub vet. Don't ask for that shit, earn it. Hmm. Do you feel like money made him soft? Well, I mean, money makes a lot of people Stop, but it depends on where you're from

And how hard head is you are I'm stubborn, dude, so I've been here in my house here in OC And I've been getting shit done I mean, anytime I need a little bit of a humbling moment I pick up a shovel and that's good for me Yeah It's easier for me to float in the clouds It's easy for me to float in the crowds

But it's dope for me to be able to learn a new trade And to be able to keep doing this And paying it forward to other athletes And future sponsors And people that want to see a colorful athlete make it I really am trying to be able to trying to make it, but I never had a thought that I had to talk my way into a title shot. Yeah.

Rankings do mean a lot. Rankings do mean a lot to me because that's what I grew up in in the wrestling system. I saw the rankings and then I got excited. That's what it's about, man. You get excited for what you work for. How am I supposed to get excited when I don't get my shot or somebody doesn't want to fight me? And another guy that's ranked number what, 30, 20, 15? I don't know what it can do this.

So you want to offer me a fight, like on a fight day when we were talking to Khabib, but dude could barely make 170, I guarantee it. And I'm cutting down to one 50. 55. I'm not talking about being fair. Let's talk about make that money. Let's talk about me fighting this summer, about impressing the crowd, throwing snap jitsu on that map and putting somebody else in Snapdown City. I'm tired of being dars, dars and people, but if I have to darts somebody else else, the Darth night will return. What is the impetus of the issue here with I Quinti? I don't know if you saw he was on a show

like an hour ago, and I said, you know, any final things you want to say, and he just said, you know, F. Tony Ferguson and slammed his his computer down and then the interview ended and said he would love to fight you and all this stuff where is this coming from? Well I don't know maybe he talked to the guys over at USC retreat

trying to promote himself trying to make him big you've never heard this dude not one time call my name out I've never called his name out so obviously someone got some so regardless if he wants to fight I'm not going back down from a fight but I already offer somebody a fight and I'm not trying to go back because I'm moving forward

I'm a chance I'm a superstar and I move like a superstar in that octagon and I expect somebody to move like that inside there when they found that dotted line with me don't give me an easy fight. I want somebody that's worth there. It's put in the time and put in the amount of effort. It's not just about knockout, son.

This is mixed martial arts. It's about finishing people. It's about putting in that time, putting in all five rounds, putting in that. And for me and I came in wrestling, that's a technical fault. That's a 15-point spread. That's sport and freestyle.

You know what I mean? In college. So, I mean, what I'm talking about is I try to work all aspects And people like, well, he's only got a certain amount of knockout, certain finishes I'm like, bullshit, dude, I'm all around badass I spread it out So push comes to shove, I got nine consecutive victories I'm in for that 10th one one sounds better than what, 12 and 1

13-01 Are you at all interested, like if they actually come to you and say You know, the Nate thing didn't work out But what do you think of Ia Quinta? Would you entertain that? Let's go for a title fight, man I'm not fucking selling nothing for no title Give me my title shot man Give me my intern

You only give me an intern belt Give me an interbelt You fucking give, I don't know Who else intern belt? Come on Dana Let's go, kid Let's make some money Let's put this shit on paper

Let's go Let's give the fans what they want A bloody blood bad Let's give them Sharp Tony Ferguson elbows Coming out of him like a batterang Man, Doc not coming at your ass What does it like for someone

Who's on the role that you're on In the prime of his life and career To just be kind of sitting here not knowing what's next, not having that, you know, the champion, we don't know when he's coming back. The division is kind of in flux right now. The Chabibh's situation in flux. How do you not get just incredibly frustrated from a career standpoint about what's going on? Well, let me tell you, Ariel, I work so hard on just being just that raw, talented athlete of just worrying about what, the fight game.

Now, if I have time of my hands, like I said, I'm not going to sit on my ass. I'm going to sharpen everything up. And that's from head to toe, buddy. That means from being jied up, from the feet up, to representing myself on a whole completely manner. I know I come from. I know I represent. So it's time for me to clean it up and be the professional I know I can be. So that's just from me, Alka Cooey and Team Ferguson here.

And that's just me and trying to be the best poppy, I can be for my little kid. So I'm going to keep smacking these fools around no matter who they are. But when they line them up, I'm going to knock them down. You alluded to this a couple of minutes ago, but Dana White did a scrum on Friday at the opening of the Performance Institute. And someone asked him, you know, what's up with Tony Ferguson? And he said that we offered Tony Ferguson a fight. And someone said, Nate Diaz, and he said, no, Michael Johnson. And then I was thinking, Michael Johnson.

I mean, I know they offered you him, like, after the way-ins on 24-hour notice and less money. And so I actually did reach out to your manager, Adi, and say, well, when did they offer Michael-Doh? Like, I figured this was like for a fight, you know, in July or something. And he's like, no, they're referring to the 24-hour fight. I'm saying dude that's not an offer no man there ain't no damn offer

I haven't offered shit man they're trying to keep me on nice man they're trying to keep McNuggets out there in the open and try to make their duckets obviously my boxing's better he's a little bit more marked but I'm not gonna hurt on that man

that's cool he did his part on that shit I got my shit my way he's got his way what I'm trying to do is let's make some money man don't forget about your other fighters Dana don't keep me on nice wide dude come on baby I'm tough 13 champ I'm from home camp bro

Let's go home team Dana. Let's go. Chop, chop, Louis. Give me a fight, kid. Let's go. Have you talked to him? Have you had a conversation with him recently? Absolutely not, man.

I don't know. I haven't heard from him since the last time I saw him at the thing where, you know, I was, I think Uncle Dana for the tickets to the fight. You know, the last time I talked to him. Which tickets? To 209? Yeah, the 209. That's it?

It was just me and my way and say, yeah, that was it. So there's no, there's no, hey, Tony, how's it going? How's the kid? How's the family? There's no, you know, how's everything going? You know, I know you didn't do too good on that last row with Khabib. You know what? Hey, you know, let me show you something.

There's nothing like that. There's no communication around here. So for me, I'm not going to stay busy like that because I didn't just get here doing and waiting around for people to do stuff for me. You get that? I'm a busy town. So I'm going to stay busy no matter what it is. And as far as the fight game goes, I got great management.

Obviously, you know that. Yeah. So we're going to handle business the way we have to. And, man, Dana, let's go, guy. Give me a fight, man. There's some asses that needs to be worked. There's some fans that want to buy some pay per views. There's some fans that want to buy some merchandise for me.

And there's some fans that want to see me go out there and be El Kuwi, man. Tipped my hat afterwards and thank the crowd, you know, and actually say more than two words this time because I'm interested this time. This is what it's about, man. It's all about the fight game, dude. You know, you win some, you lose some. You get your money. You don't.

You do what you do. It's a beautiful thing, and I'm blessed to be a part of it. It's a martial arts journey that only a few get to reach in this peak in their life in the penitles. But it's such a powerful moment when you actually kind of sit here and think about how blessed we are to be able to do something in the world where we're at. Well, so much is going on. And we're still able to keep it out here doing it normal. So thank to those people that are out there, you know, risking it off for us to be able to do that. So, you know, shout out. Thank you.

Would it be fair to say that number one, like your top choice would be Nate Diaz? That's the one you want? I would say, Nate, just because you're black felt level. Jiu-jitsu. He's got good boxing. I think his chin is a little tested. I think Connor tested his chin a little bit. I think his movement's a little sluggish, a little bit out there. I pick him apart with leg kicks. I mean, there's not too much I have to say to pick him apart. The dude's a good, easy target. But I think that actually he, if he says how much interested he is in training for a good fight, let's go. If he wants to put all that effort towards like a triathlon or something

like that, put that effort and everything else and towards something that you're actually in, that you're ranked in, in the world, actually. put in that effort act interested if not like I say get the fuck out I said recently maybe I'm being naive but you know no secret that the UFC could use a couple

of big time pay-per-views this year I think you and him headlining a show at minimum does around 800,000 pay-per-view buys and you get you guys at a press conference facing off things like that I feel like we could even do more than that it feels like a no-brainer right

it's a no-brainer area let's make this work I've been kind of just sitting here, harnessing all of my stuff, just waiting for the moment to be able to present it to the world. Now's that opportunity, now's that time. So, Nate, if you want another competition, man,

I don't have to talk shit to you, gee. I've done that already. But if you really want to bow and really see who the real best is, I mean, this is a test, man. How many people actually come at you and say that? How many people really do you be like, you know what? This is, you know, man, man, I'm better than you're going to slap you around. No, dude, look, check us out.

If you really think that you're better than me and you're like, man, yeah, the dude is good. And think about it before you say yes or no. How about that? Really talk about it with you in your camp and Macracy and everybody else that you're talking to and be like, man, Matt Ferguson, is that really a good fight? Because I already got in Conner's head. I already got in Connors head because Kavanaugh responded to me on Twitter.

Huh. What do you say? And Kevin, yeah, and they were practicing. And somebody tagged me and said, look, Conner looks like he's preparing for a guy like you. So obviously I'm in these dudes heads. Obviously they're thinking about me. So regardless of if they like it or not, they're going to find me one way or another

if they see it in the future. Do you believe that fight will happen at some point if you keep on winning? Oh, obviously. Obviously, let's move, bitch. Get out the way. If you don't, obviously, you fake is fucking your merch and everything's going to go down.

Your brand, all that is going to go fucking down. Everybody's going to be hating on you, dude. They're going to be throwing that shit right back at you, dude. Nay, they're going to be smoking your shit and say it's whack. It's bunk. And what are the chances, in your opinion, of you actually fighting this summer. Man, I would like to say pretty good.

So like I said, I'm not being around sitting on my ass, and I'm not peeking. I'm doing it smart. I'm doing it very smart. I'm in shape. So the chances of me getting ready for a fight is 100%. The chances of Dana actually making a fight and saying that he's going to give me a fight,

I don't know. We have to ask him. Because I want a fight. And since the last time he said he gave me a fight, last time I heard that he gave me a fight was when I was offered that at Michael Johnson at UFC 209 and that wasn't to my likings because they wanted to give me a pay cut, a huge pay cut and for a different weight class, which I already made way for. Do you plan on sitting with him, talk, do you want to do that or are you going to leave that to your management?

Of course, man, but you got to give me the opportunity. You have to have some sort of communication. You have to have communication. This is a business. Without communication, that's when people go crazy. I'm not going crazy. Like I said, I'm staying busy. And I have good management.

So, Dan, if you want to reach out to me, my phone is here, you know my number. Let's go, man. Let's talk, dude. Let's get something going, man. Let's do it. Enough's enough. All right. And last thing for you.

The fans want to see it. The fans want to see it. They want to see it. Believe it or not. Think about it. They want to see me beat somebody's ass. That's straight up. Regardless if I talk, people are like, man, that dude's sexy.

Even if he keeps his mouth shut, man, that dude is still sexy. So all I have to say is, look, go out. out there and just fucking be sexy. That means go out there and do my work. Make it finessell, make it clean, make it crisp. And like I said, tip my hat, thank the crowd, say my few words of sponsors. Thank you pursue fitness for being my badass sponsors. And thank you pure body lobbies for always having my back.

Last thing, Tony, have you moved on from Chabib? Are you done with thinking about Chabib? I don't know. I'm about to buy him a gift card for Dolcee Diet, dude. I'm about to tweet his ass and say, hey, Fatty, did you pick up a dietician yet? Because your ass needs to start worrying them thinking about me and start thinking about your future. Because if you say that you're not going to retire, the boogeyman ain't going nowhere, buddy. Fucking Baba Jagger's coming after your ass.

I'm the new John works still. And I don't forget about that because we got unfinished business. But that's on a later date. If he's not open, he's a little bitch, he didn't want to fight before Ramadan. So, you know, I'm not giving him any, you know, thing just for, you know, for his religion. I'm not saying anything. But, you know, afterwards, I can't wait. Let's go. I want summertime.

Is there a fear that they're keeping you on the sidelines to just wait for that fight? Possibly. They're probably trying. I mean, they really are, probably, obviously, but I mean, think about it, I really don't get too funks. They're missing out on two paydays. They're missing out on the one in the summertime, and they're missing out one in the September.

Right. So they're missing out of money. If they want to see a main event that's right here, I'll finish them quick, and then I'll go out there and I'll do it back in September. I like to fight three to four times a year. And in the ultimate fighter of house, I fought with my first time

or six times in one year. Yeah. So, I mean, there's no iffy ends or butts to me to be able to stay competitive. I don't get hurt during my fights. One time, that was it. And I broke my shit,

and I learned my lesson. So that's the best part about mixed martial arts. You learn your shit, and you move forward. And that's what we're trying to do, man. We're trying to clean it up and move forward.

So let's go. Well, I appreciate... I want to see something in July. I want to see something in September. Yes. I think everyone wants to see that as well. It's been too long. It's been since November since you last fought.

And what a heartbreak it was when you didn't get the fight in March. And hopefully it can be done. The word is there's still nothing going on for July 8th as far as a main event. I know they were talking to Cody Garbrandt today, but it appears as though he's out. International Fight Week would be a fun time to see the return of Elkukui. I appreciate you coming on, Tony, and giving us an update last minute here. It's always great to hear from you.

And good luck. And please do keep us posted. All right, cool. Thanks, Doc. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. El Kikui.

Tony Ferguson stopping by. Great to hear from him. I appreciate his update. All right. How about this? This show keeps getting better. Surprises after surprises after surprises. Late edition, Tony Ferguson.

Now we have another late edition. You may have heard about Cajun Johnson yesterday. He is the UFC veteran who is at the athlete retreat in Las Vegas. And some video has surfaced of him getting up in the middle of a conversation, if you will, about Reebok and sponsorships and Budweiser. and all this stuff and more and him voicing his displeasure with the Reebok deal

and he took to Twitter some fighters praised him seemed like it was received relatively well by some fighters in attendance and so we wanted to actually find out from his perspective what happened during the talk, what happened afterwards where he goes from here, he's been active

with the MMAFA and more so let's welcome in another fellow Canadian Cajun Johnson to the show. Cajun, how are you? Hey man, I'm good, I'm good. I just got my bag. Oh, great. Great timing.

Well, I know you just landed. I appreciate you squeezing us in there. And happy Victoria Day to you. Yeah, thank you, man. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, so all kinds of news yesterday. Tell us what happened.

Where are you? What happens? Okay, so I'm at this athlete retreat, right? We're in this room. They've got a couple... Sorry about that. I got a couple guests that are speaking. One's from Reebok, one from Anheuser-Busch,

that makes like Budweiser and that. And, you know, they're kind of talking at us, like, not really to us. It's not like a two-way conversation. They're just trying to like saying like, okay, yeah, this is what we want from guys that we sponsor. The Reebok guy was just like telling us about how good the deal was for him, how good the deal was for UFC. And I'm sitting there like, yeah, well, it wasn't very good for me. I'm sure a lot of the fighters are thinking the same thing.

And then this Anhouser Bush, dude, man. Like, I don't know what's wrong with this guy, but he was drunk at like 2.30, at 10.30 in the morning. He comes on stage with a beer, and he's talking about, oh, it is. It is. I'm on an interview, like, an international one. I'm getting in trouble from customs. I'm getting in trouble from customs right now.

Oh, can hear me? Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. Okay. All right, I'm good, I'm good. So, yeah, so this guy's saying that he only, He only wants winners and don't be surprised that if we sponsor you and then and then you lose that we drop you because we don't want the guy that's on the ground. We want the guy with his hand raised. Like, dude, everybody loses, man.

Like, if you're a company like that's like that, I don't even want to fuck with you. You know, I'm not about that. That doesn't, that doesn't rub me the right way and it didn't rub anybody the right way. So anyway, I'm sitting there like getting more and more pissed off and then eventually I had enough and I stood up and I was just like, I just had. I just have a question for the Reebok guy I want to know because I understand the deal was good for you

did great things for your company I understand the deal was great to the UFC because it showed they could get corporate sponsorship and which led to the was one of the things that led to them selling for such a high price tag but the fighters like I got you guys took 80% of my sponsorship dollars

and that's the lower end not the higher end a lot of guys are higher up on the card, got a lot more money taken from them. So you took food off our plates. So I want to know how you can justify that. I want to know how you sleep at night. And they like the UFC rep that was up there interviewing them was like trying to dance around and try to like get me to leave.

Somebody came up to me and tried to get me to sit down and stop filming because I was filming the guy as well. I never released the video but a bunch of other people who released the video which is awesome. And the Anheuser-Busch guy. He tried to feel the question because the Reebok guy didn't want to touch it. And he started just saying some bullshit rhetoric like, oh, yeah, you guys are always upset about these big monster companies that are sponsoring the UFC.

Like, what all we really want to do is we want to grow you. And I'm just, give me that shit, man. You don't want to grow us. You're just looking out for you. You're looking out for your bottom line. So I talked to the UFC after they pulled me out of there. They pretty much shut down that conference. they pulled me out of there.

And they were just upset at where I did it. Like maybe it wasn't the right form. Maybe I wasn't talking to the right people. Like Reebok is there to look after Reebok, right? So I realized that I probably shouldn't have been yelling at Reebok because they just made a deal that was good for their company. They're not there to look after fighters. The UFC, on the other hand, they have all our exclusive contracts, right?

So it's their job to look out for us. And they're not doing that. So they're the people that I should have been speaking to that I should have been yelling at. And afterwards, actually, it ended up pretty positive, really, because after they like sat me down, they took a huge list of every single grievance that I have with the game of MMA to date,

which is a lot. Like I just got back from D.C. I was lobbying for the Ali Act in Congress right before I went to the athlete retreat. And so I have a lot of grievances. I have a lot that I see that's wrong with the way that they're conducting business in this game. And so that happened. And then after that, actually, that led to them calling a whole other meeting with all of the fighters,

sitting us all down in a room. and having like an open, honest back and forth two-way discussion with us. Wow. Which I don't think has ever even happened before. Wow. And it was amazing. Like the outcome of that was incredible, dude. The room, like at first it was a little bit hostile.

The T-O-O was a little bit hostile with me, saying some shit about Rory that I wasn't very happy about. But it ended up calming down and being more solution-based and less... What do you say about Rory? He was like, oh, he was calling him a liar because he's like, oh, well, so did Rory McDonald lie when he said that he got more sponsorship dollars from the UFC than he did from Bellator? And that may be true because Rory McDonald is an unnot kind of hustle like I am, you know? And also he's making $400,000 from from Bellator. Why is he going to have to go and chase sponsorship?

You know what I mean? There's also a key detail that he's missing. Rory said on this show that he chose to make less money. It was his decision. He could have made more, but he wanted to be selective, take a hit on this fight, and hopefully, you know, take a big, you know, get a big amount for his next fight. So there's a big difference between, you know, not getting money and choosing to not take money. You get what I'm saying?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But he was just, he fell back into a corner. So he was going to say whatever he could say at that point to try to shift some of the blame, you know. so he didn't look so bad. But anyways, it ended up being really positive in the end. Like, all the, a lot of the different fighters, like I didn't really even have to say anything in this meeting.

I kind of kicked it off because they were trying to split us all apart and talked to us in different groups. And I was like, no, you're talking to us. All is one group. Like, we all need the answers. Everybody needs to hear this, right? So they did that. And all these other fighters started speaking up.

Sarah McMahon had a whole bunch of different solutions that she was proposing. Joe Lozon was calling them out and asking for transparency and the numbers of the Reebok deal so we can really believe in what they're saying when they're saying that all the money is going to the fighters. All these different things were proposed

and they seemed actually truly empathetic to our situation, upset that we weren't happy with the current deal and wanting to work around that deal in whatever capacity they could to make it better for these next four years that we're still involved with Reebok. Wow. So they're happy so that Reebok will actually want to sign that deal again.

Because right now I don't think they're very happy with the press that they're getting from this deal, right? So they would probably dip right now. If things don't change, I'm guessing that Reebok will probably dip after this deal is over. But yeah, so it ended up being really positive, which then created some more momentum. even like last night at the suit concert, like Neil Magni was going around and he was proposing to all the fighters that we should all create this network of ourselves

so we can all help each other to be more successful so we can all make more money, right? So if we all follow each other on Twitter, every single UFC fighter follows each other on Twitter and I challenge all of you out there that are listening, I challenge all of you to go and follow the entire roster on Twitter and then any time that somebody's doing something, if somebody's doing an appearance somewhere, retweet that.

And if all of us can do that for each other, then we're all just going to get more eyes and more money for these events that we're participating in and we'll all make more money together. We'll all help each other. Instead of complaining about things that we can't do anything about, let's be proactive and show initiative and be responsible and do what we can to make,

to make more money for each other. So it sounds to me, correct me if I'm wrong, when this first happened, I had some people say to me, oh man, Cajun, you know, respect to the guy, but he's screwed, he's going to get cut. It sounds to me like the UFC was receptive and this quote-unquote negative,

if you want to call it that, was turned into a great positive. They started to listen. There was open dialogue. It sounds like it worked. Yeah, I think it really did, man. I think it really did. Like, everybody was really, really happy at the end.

Like, that last day, was pretty tense there for a minute, but after that smoothed out, man, like I never felt anything like that before. Wow. I don't think that's ever happened where it had an open dialogue with the majority of the roster,

not the whole roster, but the majority of the roster. Like, that's pretty incredible, just that in itself. And so now it's really on them to see what they do with that information. If they go and actually do try to make these changes that they were talking about

and implement these things that they were talking about, but I have to have faith in the process and I have to let go and trust them to do what they said they were going to do and if they don't then I'll hold them accountable for that but I have to give them some time and see what happens but I'm excited for the future so are you confident do you feel like they were being sincere when they said that they are going to look into changing it yes I believe that they were being sincere the people that were in that room were

definitely being very sincere. But who knows if somebody over their head will squash that, that has a separate agenda. I'm not sure. Dana wasn't in that room, so I don't know. I can't really speak to that. Okay. Was there any fear on your part that you would get cut as a result of saying this?

Oh, yeah, dude. Of course. I've been scared that I'm going to get cut for a long time. Yeah. Because I'm pretty vocal on Twitter with the things I say. I'm in Congress lobbying for the Alley Act. Like, yeah, I've been scared for a long time that I'm going to get cut, but it's worth it to me, man.

If I can implement some sort of change, even if I have to sacrifice myself to do it, I'll do it, dude, because the game needs to change. Everybody knows that we don't make enough money. Nobody's happy. All these fighters are unhappy. Everybody's bitching in interviews and on Twitter and being upset, but nobody's actually going and doing something about it.

So even if I had to be the sacrificial lamb, that would, in turn, spur change and encourage others, to step up and to stand up and to get involved and with things like the MMAFA, get involved with things like the Ali Expansion Act. It's in Congress right now. All of us should be in there lobbying for that bill because it's there. Its sole purpose is to protect fighters and stop exploitation from corporations like the UFC. Introducing a free market to mix martial arts will then.

bring competition, which will then bring all of our pay scales up. And so earlier in the retreat on Saturday, Kobe Bryant spoke to you guys, right? And I believe Leslie Smith asked him a question about unions. What did he say? Yes. He said that the players association was amazing, amazing, and that he really believed in unions and that he supported us in us going that route and in us organizing and unifying, because unless we speak with one voice, unless we're unified, we have no power, and he realized that.

Oh, wow. So were you surprised by that, considering, you know, he was there on behalf of the UFC, or was that... Not really, because I don't think, like, I think he's a man of principles. I think he would just go out and lie. and it's very obvious that these players associations and these unions and these other sports have done amazing things in order to actually raise the amount of money that all these guys are getting paid. So, yeah, if he lied about that, I would have been surprised. If he lied, I would have been surprised. But I wasn't surprised that he told the truth, no.

I found that it was fascinating to watch the whole retreat unfold from afar via social media. I reported on it on Wednesday. I thought it could be an interesting morale boost, a positive morale boost, because as you mentioned, there has been, you know, some displeasure with a bunch of things that, you know, the new ownership group hasn't really reached out to you guys, et cetera, et cetera. And I have to say, I had mixed feelings as it all started to unfold because I saw a lot of fighters kind of publicly thanking the UFC for the new office and the new institute and things like that. And I wonder just how often will these people who don't live in Vegas get a chance to use this? You know, it's, it's, it's,

one thing to say, oh, you know, we copied Manchester City and the New York Giants or whatever. Well, those players live in the cities in which the team is based. Not all of you live in Las Vegas. So I just, I saw a lot of young fighters, if I'm being honest, guys who are 1 and 0, 0 and 1, things like that, very appreciative, excited. This is a far cry from the regional scene. I didn't see a lot of the upper echelon guys say like, oh, this was, you know, a life-changing event. And so I'm wondering, just from your perspective, as someone who's kind of in the middle,

like did you think that this was worth your while? Did you enjoy it? Did you appreciate it? Did you feel like this was, you know, a good thing, a good next step in the evolution of your relationship with the UFC? I think it was a necessary step, yes. Things like the Performance Institute, that stuff's like cherry on the on the cake really. Like I think like it's possible that I will use those things at some time.

It's an amazing facility. It's great that we all have access to it. But it's like it's difficult for a lot of us that don't live there. I have my own business to run I'm not going to be able to come down for like two months and train there before a flight like that's not going to happen it may be useful for me to go for a week

and do some analysis and stuff like that but nothing crazy right but the real the best thing about that athlete retreat was that meeting that we had with the C-OO and the department of and the department that covers Reebok

and with all the athletes that was the most important thing that happened at that was treated my opinion. Wow. So the one sort of impromptu thing ended up being the best. Yeah, yeah. That's my opinion anyway. That's great. I don't speak to everybody, but a lot of people, a lot of people were very happy with that, with me calling out the, with me calling out Reebok, even though I probably shouldn't have been calling out Reebok, I probably should have been calling out the U.S.D. And with that, and with the, with the meeting,

everybody was really, really happy, man, everybody was stoked, everybody was excited for the future. Like, maybe things are going to change.

Maybe things are moving forward, you know? Yeah. So I think it was a, I think it was a very successful retreat. By the way, what's up with your situation? You haven't fought in a year and a half?

When are you going to fight again? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, soon, man. Okay. Soon, soon, soon. I'm not announcing anything yet, but I just, I talked to Sean Shelby

while I was there, and he gave me a date. Oh. And, yeah, So I'm getting back in, man. I'm jumping back in. It took me a long time because I had a shoulder injury. And then in order to sustain life, I had me and my friend had to build a business together.

So now me and my best friend, which is awesome. We own the gym together, TriStar Vancouver, it's in Burnaby. Oh, wow. 7759, Edmund Street, anybody wants to come down. You're more than welcome. So, yeah, and then just building that to the point now where my students are starting to be able to teach now. So now I can start to get back to competition. it's not all on my shoulders.

The whole martial arts program, I can delegate a little bit as well. So, yeah, it's a beautiful thing that happened. It was a necessary thing. It was a difficult thing. But, yeah, now I'm ready to get that. And you think in the next few months you will fight again? Yes, within like a few months, definitely.

You'll hear something soon. Okay. And just finally, Kajun, and again, you know, kudos to you for speaking up about something that was bothering you. And I know it's tough because there's fear of losing your job. This is how you make money. The UFC is the, you know, the NFL, if you will, of MMA. It takes a lot of courage to do that.

So I really do give you a lot of props and have a lot of respect for you. As you know, associations, unions have been a hot topic in our sport over the last year or so. And I know that you are linked to the MMAFA and you've actually put your money where your mouth is and gone to Washington and things like that. but we've seen some groups come and go. And quite frankly, from my perspective, it has been disappointing to see them make a whole big hullabaloo and then just kind of fade into the night. Do you honestly believe that UFC fighters will come together

in the next few years to form some kind of association? Do you really believe that will happen? I believe, well, MMA fighters already have an association, the MMAFA that's been existence for multiple, multiple years, But now what we're talking about, and I have to talk to a lawyer about this, because I don't know all of the legal aspects, because there's aspects of collusion and things like that, if you have a collective bargaining agreement or something like that,

and you're not actually employees, and you want to make a union, okay, that's an issue. You're going to get sued for collusion. So what me and Leslie are talking about now is creating a committee, a committee that will work with the UFC, Not that we can't dictate turns to the UFC like here you sign. These are our terms. You're going to do this or we're not playing ball and we're going to strike.

We can't do that because that's illegal. But we can create a committee that will be able to see, okay, here, what do all fighters want? What do we need? What do we need? And then that committee can then go to the UFC and be like, okay, here's all our issues. Here's all our issues. How can you work with us so we can start trying to find some middle ground here? here so we can move this thing forward.

So that's what me and Leslie are talking about doing right now. Okay. And I believe it'll happen because I'm going to take action and make it happen. Wow. And are you confident? Like, did you get to talk to some fighters at the retreat? I mean, this was a rare opportunity to have all of them in the same location. Do you think that people will get behind this?

Yeah, yeah. So many, dude. Wow. So many are behind us. So many, man. Well, that is amazing. And I wasn't going up to people and being like, Hey, hey, let's join the union.

Hey, let's have a company. No, man. People are coming up to me like, dude, like, oh, we needed a leader, you know. So I'm not trying to appoint myself as the leader of anything. But I'm definitely down to do some work to create action and to make sure that these things actually do happen. So, yeah, we'll see what that looks like moving forward. But I'm definitely committed.

Wow, that is amazing. I think a major test, and I don't know if you agree with me or not, but a major test is this new United States television deal that, as you know or may know, is up in around a year and a half. As you may know, in the NBA, the players make 50% of the TV deal as far as the revenue that comes in. And it's a much greater, you know, it's a much greater deal. But in the UFC, in particular, you guys make 0%. And there's been talk of 400 million a year, 100 million a year,

which is what they currently make approximately. If this deal gets done and you guys still walk away with a 0% cut of this pie, I think, you know, I don't know. I don't know how you can be an athlete and look at what's happening in the NBA and say to yourself, wait a second, we are the draws, we are the athletes, we are the fighters. Why aren't I making a percentage, 1%, 2%? Why aren't I making any... Do you agree with me on that?

Yeah, yeah. A million percent, dude. And I talked to Ari about it as well. He actually came down and sat down without that breakfast one day. And everybody was like, kind of like, I just like happy that he was there and then talking to them. That's not really me, you know, like whatever. Yeah, you owe me. You're just a human, you know.

So what are you doing for me? Why are we making no money and you're making all this money? Why? You know, and he was pretty much saying, okay, once we make more money, then you guys are going to make more money. And I don't really agree with that. Like, I think their margins are high enough right now. where we could take a bigger piece of the pie right now. But if the new deal goes through and they're making four times what they're making on that deal,

well, then we definitely need to see a piece of that. We definitely need to see a piece of that. And I'm hoping that they'll want that as well. Because at the end of the day, from what I'm hearing from these guys, what they're telling me is they want us to be happy because it's a lot of bad press that's not being happy. Like this is happening right now. It's not good for them, right? So they want us to be happy.

So if they can give us a larger percentage of that pie, and also if it becomes a bigger pie and we get a larger percentage, now we're going to be a lot happier, right? And it's good for us. It's good for them. By the way, did Al-I Quinta hit food out of your plate or something? What happened there? Yes, yes, he did.

I think he's insane, man. I think he actually has some sort of psychological disorder. Like, I don't know, he seems very, very delusional and erratic. in his behaviors. But yeah, he, like, came up to me and was like, let's fight right now. He was drunk. Like, I guess I can't hold that against him too much. But really, like, your true self comes out when you're drunk.

So whatever, I don't do that shit when I'm drunk. So, yeah, he's like, yeah, let's fight right now. I'm like, no, dude, let's get paid. If you want to fight, like, cool, we can fight. But we can fight. But let's get paid. Like, let's do it in a cage. I don't fight on the street.

I'm not 17. He's like, I don't give a fuck. He's like, I don't give a fuck. And he slapped the food. I had, like, a burger or something. and he slapped it out of my hand. Like, whatever, dude. You're an idiot.

I just walked away, man. Okay. It's not worth it to me. Yeah. He was on the show earlier and told us that he did that and wanted to know if that in fact happened. So thank you for... Yeah, it did.

Last thing, what do you... At least though, at least he's going to talk shit on Twitter and stuff, at least he does it in person. God bless. So there's so many people that talk shit on Twitter and then in person, they're the complete opposite. At least he is who he is, even though that. person is an absolute maniac. Very well said. The man is authentic. He is the real deal.

And yeah, I heard some stories about him going up with water guns and things like that. He is who he portrays himself as. Last thing for you, what do you do now? Like what's the next step? How do you build off this? Back to Worth, man. Keep building the gym. Back to training. And continue to try to network and increase my network. I'm following everybody on Twitter. I'm reaching out to those people who are really influential in that meeting and trying to talk to them about this committee and see if we can start moving this thing forward

and get some bigger names on it and people that actually want to try to help to create change and see what happens then. There's no real blueprint for this, but yeah, keep lobbying for the Alley Extension Act any chance I get, you know, do what I can, anything that's in my power. Keep it up, Kajun.

Well done. very impressive what you did over the weekend and like I said it takes a lot of courage so really really give you a lot of respect kudos to you and thanks for jumping on I know you just landed you're probably you know tired and everything I appreciate you coming on and telling us what happened good luck to you and we'll talk to you soon

thanks a lot area I appreciate it all right there he is Cajun Johnson British Columbia's own two Canadians on the program today how fun is that what a show unbelievable stuff and we appreciate you guys sticking around a little longer. We appreciate everyone in the back, the crew sticking around. I appreciate you, you working with me on this. There's just too much to talk about. Maybe we need multiple shows a week. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe this once a week thing is just not working out for us.

Anyway, no time to waste. New York, Rick, are you there? Are you still alive? Did you go home? There he is. Now it's time to open up your ears and your minds. MMA fans. It's time for Rick's Picks. are lots of fun and his hair isn't a bun because it's you already know what it is next pics ladies and gentlemen boys and girls it's the moment you've all been waiting for it's the new craze taking the world by storm live from the vox studios in beautiful new york city it's time for fix that jingle right there is my favorite part of the show mine too it's just so great mostly because of that dance you just did that is that can get that i if that can get that of you.

I mean, that is just so great. Once again, Mike Heck, right? Mike Heck. We need to credit him. Unbelievable. What a great response to that song last week. Okay, Rick's Picks time. So much going on in the world of M-A.

I can't wait to see what you picked. And if really this is... So much going on. This was the slowest Rick's Picks week ever. For real? Yeah. You had like two. This was slow.

This was... Well, see, this confirms what I was just about to say. I want to know if your finger is on the pulse. Slowest Rick's Picks Week ever. first of all you had like a flood of tweets from the retreat to work off of. Yeah, but how much have we talked about that already? Well, look, the world is your oyster. This is your segment. The floor is yours. Have it. I don't want to hit the same things we're going to spend five hours on on the show.

All right, all right. Settle down. Number one. Okay. It's a video. Okay. I'm going to roll it out right now. I like videos. I'll talk over it. We've got Armin, Ospanov, or Ospanov, spinning a hook kick from ACB. 61, St. Petersburg.

Top contender for knockout of the year. Saw it on Caposa's timeline. Incredible knockout. I mean... ACB doing thing? Let me roll that one more time. Okay, okay. I want to watch it.

Yeah, it is unbelievable. It's always interesting to see how the opponent falls, right? Look at that. And he's up against the cage, so it's not quite the timber once again that we saw with... He would have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He would have toppled if he didn't hit the...

It's almost you wonder if they were in the center of the cage and it was more of that timber and he didn't have the cage door kind of breaking his fall if it would have been an even greater knockout because the fall is part of it too, right? Of course. Yeah, the fall is almost half. I don't know about half. No, I'm going to say the fall matters a lot. One underrated thing about ACB, if I may, their mat is just very nice.

Clean, tight. It's clean, it's tight. I hate when it's like a little bit bumpy. you know. That's the... creased. This one seems like firm, tight, clean.

Of course, there's no blood or anything, but it's a nice mat. Must be said. It's important. It is important. It's an important factor. As is the fall, as we were talking about,

the knockout. So, Armand, incredible knockout. Congratulations on that. Number two, a photo from social media. Yes. There it is.

This was talked about a lot. This was talked about a lot. This was talked about a lot. I mean, look at the retweets and likes, but What is the average now as far as likes? It's insane. What are your, what are your, what is your reaction? As soon as you saw this photo.

Yes. What was your first reaction? Honestly, when I saw this photo, I thought, wow, his son is sitting upright at like two weeks old. That's unbelievable. Good for him. But that's just me. That's the way I look at things.

That makes sense. Then the other thing I was, no, but honestly, I mean, that's tough for a kid to do. at that age. They're just not strong enough. They don't have a strong neck. And he's holding him up a little bit. And then I know, of course, everyone was like,

all right, the featherweight interim title and the blah, blah, blah, blah, final kind of counting. We all know that fighters get belts when they fight, right? Right, but there is one more. Well, yeah, he may not have brought it and took it home. Look. Or is it Tyron Woodley's or... Oh, that's what you think?

Well, we have a Cage Warriors belt over there, which, remember, I think John Kavanaugh said that he... He tracked them down and got both of them. No, he replicated it. Didn't he replicate it? Or did he track him? Didn't he find someone? Yeah, maybe you're right.

Yeah, he said he found someone. I know he went to great lengths to get the two belts for him. So what do you think? And by the way, back of the digital, let me just add one more thing. When I was in camp as a counselor in like 2000, my big thing was wearing socks with sandals. And so I have a great appreciation for, you know, the,

I'm not a big, like, ankle sock guy. So I saw some people, I think including you, bagging on the socks, I actually feel like my respect for him grew after seeing those socks. That is exactly what I went to first, was what are those? What are those? Those are nice?

I think they're nice. On what planet? How? The guy's lounging around at home. The robe is worth $1,000. The socks are from Kmart. How? How is this possible?

What makes you say that? I mean, this could be Gucci socks. If those are Gucci socks. Listen, superstars, they're just like you and I, right? That's what it is. He's wearing the, Someone actually noted that the robe has been worn. Mayweather has also worn that robe.

Is that true? Is that confirmed? It is confirmed. Really? I've seen the photo evidence. Wow. How about that? That's nice.

I think it's cool the way he's, you know, like he's featuring his son. His son in every single post and it's awesome. I think it's cool. By the way, while we're on the topic, might as well just give the update. Dana White was on Inside the NBA late last week and gave the update that, Connor and him had agreed to terms on the fight and now it was up to him to speak to Mayweather's side to get the fight done. Of course, he has talked to Mayweather's side before. I mean, to think that, you know, they just didn't talk all this time and just focus solely

on Connor is kind of crazy. But that is done. That's one hurdle. I still believe that getting Floyd on board is a greater hurdle. This was significant. And I think it's important to give Connor props here. This is something that historically the UFC has not been open to doing, co-promoting, if you will, sharing the pie, and he got them to do it for various reasons. And I said my greatest, I said this on Thursday, my greatest, what I think is so admirable about Connor right now is his sense of timing. Now, you could say it's a fluke, but the fact that he was able to capitalize on Lorenzo Fertita wanting to sell and the rope that Fertita gave him in order to up the value of the company and then capitalize,

on new owners coming in, wanting to make a splash at MSG, giving him the opportunity to fight for two belts, giving him that rope, even more, and now to capitalize on a bit of a down year as far as pay-per-view is concerned, the UFC, you know, if this is last year, five pay-per-views, over a million buys, they're maybe not as open,

they're more reluctant to do this. This is kind of like two years ago when they signed punk, and so they need this fight. They actually, they will make a lot of money. They may more money on this fight then all their pay-per-views combined thus far this year. So they need this fight. And again, the idea that they're doing this at a charity

or just because they want to make them happy and get them paid is also a little disingenuous. They're going to make a lot of money off of this. And so Conner's willing this all into existence. It's an amazing thing. So let's see what happens. But everyone involved that I talk to still very, very confident that this fight is going to happen

and maybe as soon as September October. And this is our final pick of the week. That's it. Three, huh? Yeah, listen. All right. We're not, what do you want to,

10,000 tweets about the fighter summit? I'm just saying. Oh, this is a good one. We want to be here till tomorrow? I'm down. This one,

Boss Logic, well known on social media for putting out some fantastic posters, made his poster for UFC 214 with, this incredible poster. Just absolutely magnificent poster. I had someone tell me,

oh, you know, it's too busy. No, this tells a story. And then I didn't notice this at first glance. The shadow? Yeah, the shadow is the key. The shadow is amazing.

And I spoke to Kormeer about this. And he was asking me, what do I think the shadow represents? And I said, you know, it's you looking over. You're obsessed. You keep staring at the fight. You keep thinking about it. You're just hovering. He interpreted it as stepping out of John's shadow.

No, I see it as warmer. Let the man involved interpret it, whichever way he likes. The body language is what's important to it. Look at it. What is the body language? language. Look at all the other photos. Korme is dominating, he's celebrating. In the middle

photo, it's him, you know, hands down, John Jones having his hand raised, and in the shadow, his head is down. He's hanging his head. It's not celebratory. It's not, you know, he's not just viewing it. It's clearly that

it's amazing. This one's hanging over his head. This one's still looming. It's the gold frame in the middle of all the rest. But, needless to say, Boss Logic. He is unbelievable. He did a good job on that day. I mean, how do you see this guy who's doing this on his spare time, right? The internet is just such an amazing thing.

And he's just pulling this off time after time, event after event. Look at that. You got the wrestling, you got all the highs and lows and then the one loss right in the middle. Gosh, I get freaking goosebumps. To not recognize that fight posters are a part of the whole damn story, right? As a fan, I want to buy when Mike Tyson came back, I bought everything involved. I bought the T-shirt. I bought the program.

I bought the posters. I love that. I love everything that goes into the fight game. And I'm just so surprised that they don't recognize that anymore. Fight posters are great. And so kudos to Boss Logic. I mean, he's getting more attention as a result of all this, right? Absolutely.

And he's doing a great job. Thank you for that poster. By the way, shout out to our friend, Unbox Therapy. Oh, yeah, Lou. This guy is the freaking man. Someone sends me a video. and this guy's getting like a million and a half, a million seven views. That's a slow day for Lou.

He's unbelievable. And he's testing out some kind of Bluetooth speakers for the shower, right, in his last video or one of his more recent videos. Yeah. And it's just us talking. He's also had us up on iPads before. This guy's the figure man. Fellow Canadian. Yeah, fellow Canadian.

Shout out. Really good dude. So cool. really warm my heart when I saw that. Great channel. Unbox therapy. Check it out if you're into technology. His videos are a lot of fun. I'm not a big gadget guy, but you click on one.

You're like, oh, I'll watch this for 30 seconds. Then you end up watching it for the entirety. See, that's not how they get you. You don't watch, you know, you watch the video. How they get you is you're going to watch 10 more of those videos now. Yeah, yeah. It does a great job and you're just going to sit there. And then your wallet's going to take the hit when you end up buying 10 different technology gadgets.

But you'll have a good time. Lou is fantastic. So check out on Box Therapy. Look at you. I even know that was his first name. Yeah. I mean, look, you know, you got to know the people. Sure.

Clearly you're a little separated for the... Yeah, I will bridge that gap for you. I am. I am. Any true to the rumor that during the Mia Kang interview, Stephanie was calling her out? Let me let Stephanie address that. I heard her say, oh, she's got no ground game.

I could whip her butt. Is that true, Stephanie? I actually said she has amazing. eyebrows. Oh. So that was my... That was your big takeaway from the whole interview? She was cool. She's awesome. But the eyebrows really spoke to you. The eyebrows spoke to me. Listen, as someone with Caterpillar eyebrows myself, I respect a good eyebrow game too. Yeah. I did notice them. But that's a cool story, right? That was amazing. How about that? A little turned Mointy Fighter. Yeah. Maybe M.M.A fighter as well. Maybe M.A Fighter.

Would you... Did you... Did you tell her? I mean, she lives here. She should go to Gracie. We were in and out. Oh, okay. She should. John Danahar? Perfect for her. I'm over here. Don't go to Dylan Dennis.

Yeah. There's a beef there between the Gracy's and Dylan Dennis, right? Maybe. Okay. Well, yeah, that was great. I thought I heard in the back that you were calling her out, so I just wanted to make sure.

Not yet. Okay. You know, maybe an MA fight one day. Wow. How fun would that be? Someone from the show finally lives up to their word and fights. Before you were on board, New York Rick said he would fight, but then he backed out.

See, Mia Kang had the testicular fortitude to fight. New York Rick doesn't. I never said I wasn't going to. I'll fight you tomorrow. Who me? Yeah, you. Tomorrow. I can't do that.

Look at this money maker. I cannot ruin it. This knows. All right. Well, there's Rick Spicks. That's it. Do we have an outro song? No, no, no, no.

Come on. Listen, if Mike wants to get busy, we can do that. But I think we've taken enough of his resources. What were your thoughts on the retreat? Look, I mean, it's... I agree. I could not agree more. You have to think, you have to imagine

that if you're going to gather all of these fighters that over the last couple of months into year have been voicing their displeasure more audibly. You have to imagine if you're gathering them all together, there's going to be some people who are going to voice that opinion.

And now, I'm not fully convinced that the UFC didn't know that and maybe even welcome that, maybe even wanted to hear some of these opinions. But you also have to consider that there's going to be the possibility for fist flying. It's a bunch of fighters. It's not, you know, they're not there under the guise of this being, you know, a church. there's going to be some aggression. There's going to be people with hurt feelings and there's going to be some people who

they're in the same weight class and even if they're not in the same weight class have some beef with other people. I think you're actually focusing on the wrong thing. I think you're focusing on one little incident. I mean, if we're talking about actual incidents, there was the cyborg incident where she punched Angela Magania and now I'm seeing reports.

Actually, we reported it as well. So let's give the update quickly here that that Chris Cyborg was cited for battery after punching Angela Magania. Here's the report, courtesy of one Mark Romandi. The top UFC female star punched fellow fighter Angela Magania in the face Sunday during an altercation at the UFC athlete retreat in Las Vegas. Cyborg is being cited for misdemeanor battery by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and could have to appear in court. Police public information officer Larry Hadfield confirmed.

with MMA fighting, she will not be arrested. TMZ was first to report the citation. Magania went to the hospital off to the punch and was treated for a cut. On the inside of her lip, TMZ reported she told cops that doctors had treated her for an acute head injury and cervical strain. The site stated per sources. And so what I heard was Chris Cyborg was very upset about some tweets that Angela Magania sent out about her. Chris Cyborg is dealing with a family issue where someone in her family is very sick. She was doing some work at a local hospital in Brazil.

She sent out some tweets. Those tweets were then Photoshop by Angela Magania and she took umbrage with this. Saw her, was upset, words exchanged. Chris Weidman tried to get in the middle of it, was told to back off and she clocked her. And she didn't fall. She didn't get knocked out, but clearly something happened. So that was something, I mean, as you said, yes, this could happen when you have 500 fighters, even Katzenegano alluded to this on Twitter.

500 fighters there. Some don't like each other. You know, you hear about the I equint the thing and all that. This is going to happen. I heard what I was told was that there could have been maybe a little more security. You have to remember, these retreats are things that WMEIMG do all the time. They're very successful. They're very well done.

But these aren't nine to fivers. These are fighters. These are fighters who have issues with other fighters who feel. feel like this one disrespecting me and this one's trying to take food off my table and money out of my pocket, et cetera, et cetera. It's a little different than your typical employee retreat. My take on the whole thing was it's a nice step. It was a much needed step. They needed to extend the olive branch, if you will. They needed to put a face to the name. They needed to put a voice to the face. They needed to go out and tell the fighters, we care about you. We're the new

ownership group. The Fritita era is gone. We need to do this. Now, I will admit, when I saw some of the tweets, I was wondering, okay, well, how much are these people going to actually benefit from this? But hey, if they're happy with it, more power to them. Great. Kudos to Cajun Johnson for stepping up. Let's see, you know, what this does for morale. Let's see what this does, you know, in terms of bridging that gap between the UFC and the fighters. It comes at a great time, I think.

Right? There's been all this unrest. There's been all this. I think the real difference has been Lorenzo leaving. Lorenzo left kind of opened the floodgates. And fighters saw the $4 billion number. They saw what this guy made, what that guy made? And they were like, wait a second, you know, where's my co?

What happened with the Reebok deal? What went wrong in all of this? Where's my sponsorship money? And so this was kind of bound to happen. And if they didn't think it was going to happen, then maybe they were being naive. This was a great step. It seems like a lot of fighters felt like their voices were heard. Seems like a lot of fighters felt like, you know, they care.

And that's important. Now let's see what happens. Yeah. And also, like, this couldn't have been at a small cost. This couldn't have been a meager expense for them to do. I think, you know, there's a, you know, there's a portion of this that needs to be accepted and acknowledged as they were trying to make right in some capacity and get everybody together. So, you know, whether it worked out exactly as planned, I have to imagine not. but I don't think that we can just cast it aside as not a step in the right direction.

Now, I will say this led me to believe or think that maybe this idea that these guys are going to unionize or, you know, I mean, look, they bring out Kobe Ryan and Michael Strahan. I mean, part of their financial success was because they were a part of an association. And I wonder if any fighter out there got the irony in all this. You know, retreats, what do they do with retreats? employee retreats, right? What do they do with the facilities and the morale and all this stuff? It's all stuff that employees receive. Yet these fighters aren't employees.

And they're not really treated as employees. They are treated as employees. You have to tell them where you are. You have to adhere to a uniform policy and, you know, a conduct policy and all this stuff. But they don't get the benefits of being an employee. So often the UFC is contradicting itself because they're saying that we want to be like the big leagues. we are treating you like professional athletes and whatnot.

But at the end of the day, as we've talked about ad nauseum on this show and others, they don't get the benefits of being an employee or being, quote, unquote, professional athletes with collective bargaining and things like that. So, you know, I was blown away by Cajun Johnson. I don't know about you. Well spoken, you know, is not talking out of, you know, emotion. He's educated. He's well versed in the topic.

Maybe Cajun Johnson is the guy who has been missing and all this. I know he's done a lot of work with MMAFA, but I think it's hard not to respect what he did on Sunday afternoon. Yeah, absolutely, but it's also important to acknowledge we've heard many things like this in the past, and they've gone nowhere. It's going to require a lot more than Cajun Johnson. It requires everybody.

Absolutely, but we've also heard it from non-UFC fighters. I mean, let's be honest, you know. We've had Leslie Smith, who, you know, has incredible courage as well and is very well-spoken and smart. Cajun, all right, that's something. and it's also kind of brilliant too because it's hard to cut a guy or a woman if they're this outspoken

then you think that it's because of that right? I think that would be very easy. There's a brilliance to it. A lot of people have an eye on Cajun Johnson now. Let's talk quickly about UFC 213. They have not officially pulled the plug on Cody versus TJ. At this juncture,

I would be shocked if it happens. I know they were supposed to meet today to see where he's at. I know Cody went to Germany, had the needles all week long, and a lot of people said to me, well, Dana said that he'd be the first athlete who wouldn't be cured.

Well, no one's not saying that he's not cured or cured or whatever. It's one thing to come back and do a job. It's one thing to come back and have a training camp. They want this guy to fight in less than a month and a half. That fight is July 8th.

This is a guy who, I think, a lot of us believe is the future, right? I mean, he's got the look, he's got the story, he's got the fighting ability. Why rush him? This July 8th card has been a pain in their butt

because the GSP Bisping thing, D.S. Ferguson, this fight now, there's been some talk of Romero and Whitaker for an interim belt. I think they're kind of holding out hope that maybe they can figure out the GSP thing. I don't think it's going to happen. Bisping is legit injured now.

So, Whitaker versus Romero, to me, if you need that second big fight, fight, it's actually one of the few times that I like the interim belt. I like the interim belt because the fighters make money when they fight for the belt, as Ferguson alluded to. But this time, with Bisp being injured, he gets to keep the GSP fight, the division gets to roll along. You get to do the Rockhold Musassi fight. Everyone's happy. So I actually like this interim fight. Except for Anderson Silva. Well, Anderson Silva is not happy. You're right. So you can't make everyone happy. Can't make everybody happy. You got to get your numbers up, get as many as you can. Yeah. This is the only

where an interim bill makes sense. Yeah, it really is. And they should. And they should do it. They should create that. But this is the only scenario. And so... For once we've arrived there.

Right. So let's see what happens there. As for T.J. Dillishaw, he has expressed interest in fighting at 125. He has expressed interest in fighting the champion, Demetrius Johnson. And so we'll see what happens. One part of the equation was sort of revealed yesterday when they officially announced that Brandon Moreno would be fighting Sergio B. Pettis in Mexico City on August 5th main event. And so I wrote that that is promising news for

Ray Borg because if it's not T.J. Dillashaw, it's most likely going to be Ray Borg on August 19th in Seattle for DJ's record-breaking fight. But there is a chance they may go with the sexier fight, T.J. Dillishaw. Did I ask you last week, which you preferred? No. Which do you prefer? Hmm. It's tough because I typically want to see somebody stay in their weight class and that be the defense. Yeah, I want to see Borg instead.

I'd rather see Borg. Bigger fight is T.J., right? Clear, like, if you're saying standalone, you know, what fight would you want to see more? T.J. versus Demetrius. But if you're saying this is one in the line of, you know,

title defenses and now, you know, you add in all the context, it's Borg for me. It's it there's you know the super fights quote unquote are great But I think there's a time and a place and I think I'd rather see board I think the big issue is okay great Tj you want to fight DJ Tj versus DJ great big fight good story But what happens if you win right

Are you moving back up because if you're moving back up If you have no intention of continuing to cut to 125 then that I think kind of hemorrhages the division. Now, all hell breaks loose like we've had in other divisions. So if you're sticking on 125 for the foreseeable future, let's do it. But if you're not, I think you've got to go with Borg. Yeah, and that's why the context is important. And by the way, I think you've got to wait for Cody as well because I think Cody versus T.J.

is a bigger fight than DJ versus T.J. Yeah. Right? So it's not worth it, I think, to mess up that situation as well. By the way, DJ has been very vocal over the past week or so talking about all kinds of things, Ronda Rousey, the media. I like this. new DJ. I don't know if it's a new DJ. I like the unfiltered DJ. You get what I'm saying? I do. There's a bit of an edge there. And I don't give an F. I like it. This is fun. Let's see what happens. Eddie Alvarez versus Dustin. Oh, by the way, speaking of T.J. Dilsha, I'm told I reported late last week that Elevation Fight Team and Muscle Farm had kind of

parted ways so that team was now going to train out of the Eastern Training Center and no longer that big muscle farm facility. But I'm told that doesn't affect. affect TJ's deal with Muscle Farm that, you know, he's still going to get paid the sponsorship money. As you may recall, he left Team Alpha Mail in large part due to the fact that he was going to get sponsored by Muscle Farm to train over there. And of course, he wanted to train with Bang Ludwig, but that is good news for T.J. Dilshaw. Eddie Alvarez versus Dustin Porre is the fight that they want to make the rematch number two. But what I was told was that Pori suffered a concussion and he's hoping to return in November. So if you were hoping to see that fight, that's

the fight they want to make, but it might be a little bit before they make it unless he makes some kind of miraculous recovery, although they also told me his manager, Rob Bruveta, that they're treating the concussion very seriously. You were at Invicto this past weekend, were you? It was, yeah. Highlight, it's got to be right here, right? Absolutely. Roxy. Roxanne Mata Ferry getting it done. She continues to, like, it always feels like everyone kind of counts her out, and she just doesn't die. Well, you also have to, I mean, not only that, but I think it's almost more drastic than that. she was on a bad skid and completely turned it around.

And she'll be the first to credit her team at Syndicate MMA and coach John Wood. And she has made herself into what looks like a completely different fighter, a top contender at flyweight, one of the best flyweight on the planet. So, yeah, she's put in the hard work and deserves everything she's got. Any other big highlights? It looks better and better every time. Yeah, you know, it was a solid, solid card from top to bottom. There was no title fight, so it was kind of a showcase for the flywights, flywates, rather, sorry.

Who are in the news. And Agnishka Nidvich. Yes. Had a great performance as well. Andrea Lee got it done as well. KGB, and then she resigned with Invicta. She re-signed with them. How about that?

Shove it, haters. Right? Sure. Yes. But, yeah, it was a great card. you know you know what you get with Invicta quick night but always a fun night I like quick nights

Okay before we go Have to tell you that next Monday We are not going to be here But the good news is We're here on Tuesday Yes Oh I thought we were going to still be here from Oh stop it you love it

Everyone loves it We're back on Tuesday Next Monday is Memorial Day Here in the United States And Well I tried to have a show on Monday But I think everyone would really hate me if I did that. So no Monday show, Tuesday show, same time and place, 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific,

6 p.m. GMT, I do believe. So it's Tuesday of next week. So if you're off on Monday, cool. If you're not in the United States and Memorial Day is not a national holiday for you, and we're leaving you hanging on Monday. Trust me, no one feels worse than I do. I like the consistency of coming on a Monday, but it is a big holiday here. It's an important holiday here. And so we will observe it and return on Tuesday, as has been the case over the last couple years, I do believe, here on the M. May hour. It is a fun weekend coming up.

One is back with a very good card. The return of one Angela Lee, who was on the show recently, the Adam White Champion over at one against Estella Nunez. And also the return of one Ben Ascran. How about that? It has been a while, right? Ben Ascran. I miss Ben Ascran.

Still undefeated. No love for the people's main event? Wait, I'm not there yet. what's the people's main event? Oh man, botched it. What is? Gary Tonin versus Shinya Yoki in a grappling match. When's that?

On the card. Get out of here. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, you're right. Come on. So there's going to be a grappling match in the cage? Yeah.

I mean, you know, because the level of grappler that both those guys are, I think, you know, it makes sense. You know, you can't just do some random, you know, two BJJ guys. Sure. But Aoki's background in MMA and the level that Gary Taunan is at right now in submission grappling, that's the people's main event for example. That is fun.

In Singapore on Friday? The 26th? Yeah, that's Friday. So two title fights. Ascran hasn't fought in a long time. Google his name, type in MMA fighting, and our own Sean Al-Shadi wrote a fantastic piece

on him where he's been, what's been going on. And so that is a lot of fun for this Friday. and then the UFC is back on Sunday night. They're back in Stockholm. FS1. Morning card, right? Not really morning afternoon, 1 p.m. Eastern.

Come on, that's the morning when you wake up late like I do. Oh, yeah. Must be nice. Must be nice. That is like, by then I'm like, whoo, I'm struggling. So that's 1 p.m. Eastern for the main card. Prelims at 11 and then fight past a 10. So yeah, you're right. It is the morning. Of course, the main event is Alexander Gustafin versus Glover. Who's the favorite in that fight, by the way?

Let's look this up, but I have to imagine. Come on, you should know this off the top of your head. No, I mean, honestly, I would have no read on this car. I wouldn't bet on that fight at all. If I'm, I haven't looked at it yet. Let's see. I got it. I'm going to guess.

Did you look at it? No, I haven't yet. Okay, don't look. I'm going to guess it's close. It's actually not that close. Really? Yeah. I guess Glover.

then. Wrong. Gustafson? Minus 255. There's some who have him at a minus 3.30. I don't like that. I don't like that.

Glover plus 279. Yeah. No, I don't like that at all. I think Glover's too dangerous and I think he's been much more active lately that I'd be worried about that. Now, if this is two, three years ago,

a year and a half, two years ago, I would think that that makes sense. Gustafson was on a role and don't know about that right now. It's a fun main event, a very important main event at 205, right? Absolutely. They need something there. A chance for Alexander Gustafsson to exercise some demons

because the last time he fought in Sweden, of course, he was knocked out viciously by one Anthony Johnson. The co-main event on that card, which I'm very interested in, is Misha Sarkinov versus Volcan Ozedimir. And this one is just sort of baffling to me only because Volcan Ozdemir is ranked number five. in the light heavyweight division. He is 1 and 0.

How is he ranked above Misha Sarkinov? How is that even possible? He has one win in the UFC. Do you know against 2? I don't. Oh, Vince St. Prue. Oh, yes. Do you remember anything about that fight?

How do you go 1 and 0? I don't. Sirkinov is 4 in O, all finishes, and he's ranked below him? This one does not make any sense to me. Very bizarre. Anyway, they're fighting, and that's an important fight I think as well.

I like that they're showcasing the 205ers because they could use some new blood there. And I know Gusfuss and Glover aren't new blood, so to speak, but Misha is, I think, someone to keep an eye on and recently resigned with the UFC.

Ben Saunders against Peter Sabata. By the way, Misha Sarkinov is a favorite. Minas 359. Volcan is plus 348. Ben Saunders versus Peter Sabata. Abdul Razak al-Hassan, who I was very impressed with in his last fight against Omari Akmedov.

I think that's a fun fight. Norden Talib. Jack Hermanson is on the card Damien Stasiak, who else? Chris Komosi against Trevor Smith. That's fun. Reza Madati was a late edition and Darren Till is on the card.

So a little bit of this, a little bit of that and how about Marlene held going from what, the co-main to the curtain jerker? I think he was comane in his last fight. So he's on the card as well. So that's this Sunday on FS1 also on fight pass here in the United States and then Monday you'll have a break to digest it all

and then we shall be back on Tuesday. Any parting shots? Any final words? I got another hour in me if you guys want. I'm just kidding. Thank you to everyone in the back for sticking around. We appreciate, or I appreciate it, I should say, you're doing that very much. You can hit my music. We are done. We are out of here. What a fun show. So much fun. A wide range of personalities, stories. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate everyone tuning in for another week. Love doing the show.

Should we do it multiple times? Right? Wouldn't that be something? Multiple times a week. Five days a week. How about that? I usually need like 24 to 48 hours just to recover from doing five straight hours of radio, if you will. But maybe it's something to chew on.

For now, we shall say goodbye. Thank you very much to Rory McDonald, and congratulations on the amazing debut. my opinion, the best debut as far as Belator's signes are concerned. Boy, did they get their monies worth with Roy McDonald. I'm very excited to see what's next for him. And I thought it was a home run for Belator other than the tape delay nonsense, which just killed me. I'm going to watch it live. Are you kidding me? Six hours later, I have to see this. Unbelievable. Thank you very much to Michael Page. Get well soon and hope to see that fight against Paul Daly sooner rather than later. Thank you very much to Yaira Rodriguez. Great stuff from him. Thank you very much to Derek

Lewis, safe travels over to New Zealand. Thank you very much to Jorge Mazvedal. And congrats on whatever the hell happened. Thank you very much to Ally Quinta. We certainly wish the best for him. Thank you very much to Sipamy-yochich. Congrats on the win. Thank you very much to Mia Kang for coming in studio. How fun was that? Thank you very much to Tony Ferguson for stopping by. And thank you very much to Cajun Johnson as well. Of course, thank you very much to all of you for sticking around for five hours. Back next Tuesday, same time and place. Until I say, Peace, Maria.