MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 388

Episode Date: June 27, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Kevin Lee (00:03:05), Scott Coker (00:21:11) in studio, John Kavanagh (01:10:46), Holly Holm (01:36:55), Derrick Lewis (02:01:59), Michael Chandler (02:27:32) in studio, Logan Storley (03:07:04), James Gallagher (03:22:30), Cortney Casey (03:49:09), and then NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (04:14:02) and to answer your Twitter questions (04:31:07). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with the Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, June 26, 2017. Hello, good everyone. Welcome inside our New York City studio. Of course, I am Ariel Halwani. So very great to be here with all of you on another Monday afternoon. I was so excited to come back. Again, still has that new house feel and smell this morning when I woke up. I was like, yes.

I miss this place. I'm happy to be back here. And I really appreciate everyone's great feedback and all the love and support over the past week. It seems like pretty much unanimously everyone loved the new studio, the new digs, MMA hour, MMA beat, new logos, all that stuff and more. So thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Can't thank you enough for all your support. So a few things to get to right off the top before we get into the show. We have no time to waste because it is a super stacked one. I just want to let everyone know that if you're on Twitter right now, you can watch us for the the very first time on Twitter.com. Go to the mMA hour.com and we'll have a live feed of the show. So excited about this. I want to thank the people over at Twitter, the good people over there and the good people here at Vox Media for getting this done because, as you know, of all the social medias, the Twitter has been my favorite since day one. That's the one I'm on literally 22 hours a day.

I'm not kidding. I kind of wish I was kidding, but I'm not. So this is very exciting. TheMMA hour. Twitter.com. End of the show. We'll have 30 minutes extra exclusive segment

for Twitter only where we will be taking your questions and comments. So hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Can't wait for that. I'll remind you about it as the show goes on.

So like I said, a lot to get to this week. Stacked weekend of MMA action this past week. Of course you know, Belator was in New York City, UFC was in Oklahoma City. So much has happened.

So much to discuss. Let me quickly run down today's lineup. And then we shall get to our first guest of the day who is standing by. At 425, we'll be joined by Courtney Casey. Some good news for her late last week regarding her issue with the Texas Athletic Commission. We'll hear from her.

She's been through a lot over the past couple weeks. James Galaher, one of the breakout stars of Saturday night. We'll stop by at 405. Talk about his big win over Shenzhou Machita. Michael Chandler will actually be in studio. Yes, severely injured his leg on Saturday, lost his belt to Brent Primus coming in studio. How great is that? That will be at 305.

Derek Lewis will be here at 245, not in studio, but via Skype to talk about what's next for him, The Lost 2 Mark Hunt and all that stuff. Holly Home will be on at 225 to talk about her win over Betch Koha last weekend. John Kavanaugh will be on the Skype machine at 205. Can't wait to talk to him about James Galaher's win and, of course, the much anticipated Mayweather McGregor fight. And at 115, we'll be joined by Belator President Scott Coker in studio to recap Belator NYC. Can't wait for that. But first, let us go to the Skype machine

and welcome in our very first guest of the day. He is the talk of the MMA world this morning. He is coming off a massive win over Michael Kiesa last night. Just what? I don't know, 12 hours ago in Oklahoma City. It has been much discussed. It has been somewhat controversial in its aftermath, but there is no denying the fact that Kevin Lee stole the show

and it was without a doubt his best performance to date on the biggest stage yet for the Motown phenom, and there he is, sipping some what? Coffee, tea, what do you got there, Kevin? Some coffee, you know, look, I'll give up a lot for this show. I ain't got to sleep at 7.

I got up at 10 when you text me. For real? You went to sleep at 7? What were you doing on a Sunday night in Oklahoma City? I drank too much coffee yesterday, so, you know, I just stayed there, bruised up and hurting for the rest of the night. But other than that, though, I'm feeling pretty smooth.

How are you, but... I'm doing great. Congratulations on the win. Thank you for squeezing us in before you head back home. I know you have a flight to catch, so we won't take up too much of your time. But let me ask you this. You were asked after the fight,

if you feel like the controversy, the decision by referee, Mary Yamasaki to stop the fight, kind of robbed you of a moment. And you came back with a tremendous answer, and you said you thought Michael robbed you of a moment because he didn't show up. But in hindsight,

now that this is, you know, a lot of the chatter surrounding the Yamasaki decision, do you feel, because it really did feel like you were on route, but it needed to kind of, of stick with the choke just like a couple more beats. Do you feel like something was taken away? Yeah, I mean, I don't really see what the controversy is. If you watch the video, it's pretty clear, you know, the ref tells you intelligently defend yourself. He stopped defending,

you know, he was defending the choking arm. As soon as I went and switched palm to palm, he stopped defending and Mario stops the fight. He's saying that he was waiting for me to burn my arm out. you know, I'm not really sure, you know, I still had 45 more seconds. I was just going to keep choking him. The choke was fully locked in. The body triangle was fully locked in. He never addressed the body triangle.

It was just bad defense on his part. So, I mean, he was there for two minutes, taking a lot of punches anyway. You know, I was expecting a little more defense out of the boy. I'm sorry, I was expecting a little more fight, but, you know, I think the fight, I think the ending was pretty clear. I really don't see no controversy to him.

When you see him, I mean, he goes limp, and he stops defending himself so I mean what you want me you know what they want me to do I woke up with more hate mail this morning than I did but if I would have stayed on the choke as Mario's telling me to stop then it would have been even more so folks are going to hate regardless

but you know I'm still making the same amount of money right yeah well I don't understand the hate towards you you did nothing wrong you're doing exactly what you're told to do which is stop when the referee tells you to stop did you guys say anything to each other afterwards in the case I saw there was a little bit of chatter what was said yeah yeah yeah he I mean I mean, you know, I tried to be a good sport about it.

You know what I mean? I came up to him. You know, I'm like, congrats, good, bye, blah, blah, you know, he was still upset. I don't think he, I honestly don't think that he knew that he went out. But when you watch the video is pretty clear, you know, he goes out. And then you got guys like, like, you know, Tony Ferguson and stuff they're saying, you know, the body triangles on the wrong side and I'm choking with the wrong. If you look at my last three finishes by rear naked choke, they're all the same choke, you know,

top side, right arm, palm the palm on the back. And, you know, it's not even a squeeze. You know, I can break down the jiu-jitsu for folks because apparently MMA fans are stupid. You know, they're looking at Justine Kish that got out. But, I mean, she had a totally different choke. You know, Felice was choking with the with the forearm against the front of the neck. That's just a pain choke, you know. You can muscle your way through that.

If you look at the pictures and the video, you can see my elbow is down. I'm choking between, you know, it's a blood choke. It's not a pain choke. There's no way that you can just tough that out, you know? Like I even said it before, you know, Mike is very mentally. tough. He's, you know, he's one of the toughest guys that I think in the division. So I knew I had to break them physically, before

mentally. And, you know, there's no way to tough out a blood choke. You know, you're going to sit in it for 45 seconds while my arm burns out. It's no it's no even, it's no squeeze. Right, right, right. Technique, Mike. Like, learn the technique. Like, let's get some jihitsu down. You're supposed to be the black belt of MMA, apparently.

So, safe to say that the fight was easier than you expected it to be? A little bit, you know. You know, I, you know, I, the man was slow. You know, he, he, he, he, he, He threw up, you know, he gave me with one punch. I was like, oh, okay. You can even see me smile.

Like, I was like, oh, okay, this is going to be fun. I was expecting a little more fight. I wanted it to go five rounds. I wanted to show some more wrinkles in my game, you know, I feel like the fans were more robbed, and they only got Mike to blame for that. So when I call out these tougher opponents, I'm really asking for him. I really wanted to come out and show me a good fight. I want the man that's going to give me a bad fight, you know, so, and Mike wasn't that man.

So 12 hours later, have you moved on? Like, is there any chatter about doing this again? you think that doesn't make any sense? Yeah, it don't really make sense. You know what I mean? I think I beat him bell to whistle. I think the fans saw, you know what I mean, who was the superior fighter? They saw it before the fight who was the superior fighter.

And, you know, I even said it. The best thing that happened to him is I made a mistake, you know, I damn there blew out my knee. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I got to look at this knee. I'm on crutches today. Whoa, what happened? Somehow I slipped. I don't know, you know, and just the way I was moving. I don't know.

I guess I got to go look at the. But that was the best thing to happen for Mike. And, you know, the man still couldn't take advantage. I slipped. I fell on the ground and still got back up in two seconds. They put him on my shoulder. Are you in a lot of pain? And I guess, get this at Tony Ferguson.

He DDTed me. Yeah, yeah. And we'll get to that in a second here. We'll get to that in the second because that's getting maybe more chatter about that than the actual fight itself. But about the knee, are you in a lot of pain right now? I'm cool. I'm cool.

You know, it's just, you know, it's sore. But, you know, as soon as I get back to Vegas, I'll see Dr. D. You know, I'll see the doc. He'll tell me what to do on it, but I'm cool. I'll fight on this bad boy if I got to right now. My celebration didn't help. I helped the floor really hard. That didn't help at all.

That actually hurt it way more than anything during the fight. So, you know, I guess I'm like one of these football players that hurt himself celebrating. So I'm watching the post-fight show. And of course, people know that I used to be a part of these post-fight shows. And full disclosure, I never liked when they did the, you know, studio team, talk to the guy at the arena. because let's be honest, like these guys aren't used to asking questions for the most part, especially when you're bringing in a guy who doesn't do this full time, like a Tony Ferguson, especially when he's in your division.

You guys are going to fight eventually. There's some beef there, whatever. And so he starts asking you this question, and I just see the look on your face. And I was like, oh, man, because I felt that on this show where you're like, let me be real with you for a second. And you just come at him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to be honest, I thought that was a 10-8 for you. I thought you put all of them in their place.

And you say, can we get a real journalist on here? Bravo, my man. Bravo. That was some great stuff right there. You know me, area. I'm going to keep it real. Yes, I do. I even saw his little write-up that he did before,

and I just don't understand it. It's like, do the man even watch fights? You know, like, do we even watch? Like, I'm not even judging him on a fighter right now. When they bring you want to do that, you know, I would expect that you, you know, would put some effort and some time into it. If Fox won't a real, you know,

a real fighter to go and do it and actually like take the time and take the effort, you know, he was saying that he was going to hit me with the right hand. You know, I don't think he even realized Mike Kiesa's a softball. He was getting ready to fight Mike Kiesa. How do you not, you know, study?

Do you not watch the fights? Do you not study him? You know, and then he was saying that he kept taking me down. And, you know, it just didn't make any sense. And I don't even know what the fuck of DDT is. I'm still trying to figure that out. Somebody had to actually, somebody tagged me

and it actually showed me what it is. Yeah, I don't, I don't, what can I say? Do you feel like you were kind of being ganged up on because it's like, you know, three or four against one? Or do you feel like it was a fair, fight. Yeah, I mean, I think they kind of took away from it a little bit. I was a little disappointed way they, they kind of handled it, you know what I mean? They kind of took away from the fight,

from the win, you know, Ken Flo was trying his best, even though I like Kenny Florian. I do, but it seemed like he was trying his best to take away from the wind, but, you know, what I'm going to do? They don't hate regardless, so, I mean, apparently some people even in the industry, uh, hate, so I thought it was just a fans, but, you know, it is what it is, you know? Like I said, even, even when I was talking to Dominic Cruz, I can kind of feel that, you know, he thought I was like an asshole type deal. So I had to, like, actually, like, sit down like, bro, like, listen,

listen, I'm a smart guy here. Like, let's talk. Let's rap, you know? Like, you know, I get your fans, I get the listeners of this show, because these are real MMA fans that listen to this show, you know? So, you know, I rap with them a little bit better than I do somebody else. Well, last thing on this, my issue is, like,

if you're going to come in there and play studio analysts, you got to give you the respect that you deserve, or you just fought, like you can't use this as a platform to pick a fight with you or to demean you or say you're not on my level. That to me is disrespectful to you. Yeah, I don't even understand it because, I mean, like I said, the last guy he fought

was Lando, who was coming off of the UFC debut and he's talking about I've got to go through the ranks. You know, when I was asking for that fight, when when he fell through, I'm like, hey, I'll step up, I'll fight Tony tomorrow, you know. And Tony didn't want to fight. He wanted to fight Landau instead. And now he's going to come at me for not fighting,

you know, what are you talking about? You know, it didn't even make any sense. All he did was just trying to overtalk me. So I just kind of let him talk and, you know, let him get out with his little words. But he really wasn't saying much of nothing. He wasn't even hearing my responses or, you know, kind of acknowledge in the responses. He kind of already had his, you know, he kind of already had his mind made up what he was going to say. So I guess Fox needed to do a better job and get some smarter guys out there because apparently the man ain't that smart.

I'll just tell you that right now. Mike definitely wasn't that smart. I kind of proved that already. And apparently Tony ain't. Is it possible that you just picked a fight with Tony Ferguson, the number one contender? I kind of feel like that's the fight people want to see now. I guess so. I wouldn't that wouldn't the fight I've been trying to make.

You know, I've been trying to make this Kibibb fight happen just because everybody thinks Khabib is such a monster. And, you know, he's all this, he's all that. If they want to make the Tony fight happen, fine, I'm cool with that. You know, I thought the, you know, judging about the, like, the backstage or anything, I thought they were going to go with Tony and Barbosa. That's the only reason why I'm pushing for Kibbib. But if they want to do me and Tony, Yeah, yeah, I'll do it. Hell yeah, I'll step up. But I don't think, I don't think in that same

scenario, I don't think that Khabit fights Barbosa, you know what I mean? So, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to do what's best for all parties here. So I think the best move is, is me and Kabee, and then you do Tony and Barbosa again. I don't see, I don't, you know, I really don't see what the hold-up is if we keep it on the 155 division. And so is it fair to also say that you're not going to fight before December at this point? I mean, let's just assume your, your knee is okay and we hope it is. You want to fight on that Detroit cart, so why squeeze something in beforehand? Or are you open to squeezing in something? Yeah, I mean, I'm one of the most active guys in this division, too. You know, I've got a lot of fights and, you know, that'll be three this year, too.

So, you know, yeah, I think December sounds about right. I got to go back. I got to look at this knee. I'm going to take the summer off. I'm going, you know, I'm going straight back to Vegas right now. You know, like you said, it's Sunday night and OKC, so I didn't even get to, you know, I didn't get a throw down a little bit. A little bit. Did you meet up with Russ? No, no, no, apparently he's off in Europe right now. He hit me up, like, you know, I hit him up a couple of days ago asking him, you know, where the hotspots was. But he's off in Europe right now. So, you know, eventually we'll meet up, but, you know, it's Sunday night in OKC, so it ain't really much you can do.

Does it feel, though, like your stock has gone up? Do you feel like people are kind of viewing you and talking to you and talking about you differently? Your first UFC main event, a very dominant performance against one of the best. Does it feel like on this Monday morning something has changed in your career? Yeah, I mean, I think I feel a little bit more when I get back to Vegas, but yeah, a little bit, you know. So, and it's time to push some moves and make something happen, you know. What do you say? You know, Adidas has been sending me shoes.

So, you know, we need to, yeah, yeah, I need to, look, I need to, you know, put some stuff on paper, you know what I mean? So it's time to make some moves happen. And, I mean, that's what I'm going to do for the rest of the summer anyway, is kind of get the stuff that I've been putting off because I've been fighting so frequently. I went back to back to back to back. So I'm going to try and get some stuff done outside of the fight game. The Chetta makes it better. Always, baby. What about your brother? Any update on him?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, he just fought last week in TKO. The other brother that you were hoping that would get out in time for the fight. Oh, no, no, no update. They said last time I heard was two weeks more. So hopefully it's out like July, you know, I think that's July 12th was his release date now. So, you know, that's what I'm hoping. As soon as he gets out, we're going to, you know, we'll have some fun being

him together. So as soon as they get back, I'll talk to my parents. I kind of see, you know, my parents didn't even come out to OKC because they thought that he was going to be out, but, you know, what are you going to do? Do you think he watched it? Do you think he was able to? No, he, you know, you can't watch, you know. Sure.

Somebody told him, I'm, you know, you know, I mean, a lot of the guards and stuff know me and know he's my brother, you know what I mean? So I'm pretty sure somebody told them, but I didn't get to watch. By the way, how many fights you got left on that contract? I think only one more. So, you know, I don't know. I'm going to go back. You know, we got to make some deals happen.

I mean, I think we're pulling in some good numbers. You know, they had a lot of, you know, we were going up against Bellator's pay-per-view. And I think we might have took some shine from them. I mean, I don't have much stake in the company. I don't really care that much. But, I mean, that's got to be worth something, right? you know, you had the Bellator, a huge Bellator pay-per-view. If we pulled over even a little bit of them numbers,

I think that goes a long way in the UFC to kind of, I mean, they know, I mean, they're going up against Bellator here, so they can't let them get too much foot in the game. So, you know, Belator was promoting Chale, and, you know, they promote the old stuff, you know, like South and five shit. You know, they're on to the new generation. They, you know, we're the UFC, baby, the best of the best.

So, you know, if I'm here and I'm representing that and I'm putting on, and they got to put on for me too. So, uh, do you want to fight it out? Do you want to fight it out or do you want to, um, try to get something before you guys with that? No, no, I'll renegotiate, you know,

every time I do these renegotiations, the UFC gives me what I ask for. Okay. So, you know, I'm going to renegotiate. I'm, I'm going to ask for what I'm going to ask for. They're going to tell me what they're going to give me. And then we're going to meet somewhere in the middle. Uh, if it's a, if it's a nice number,

then I'll do it. If not, then, uh, you know, we'll see. Well, I'm very happy for you, man. This budding friendship that we've developed over the last few months has been one of my stories of 2017. It has been great to get to know you better and have you. Two weeks in a row, how about this? You got to love this. This is big time.

Look at that. Look at that. How can I complain? Am I showing you the love now? Do you feel the love? Okay, I don't want that. Yeah, I feel the love. I hope you feel it back.

I do, my man. I do, my man. I'll let you go. Congratulations. What a performance before the fight, during the fight, and after the fight, my man. You stole the show in Oklahoma City. very happy for you. Hope the knee is okay. Please keep us posted on that and looking forward very much to seeing you in Detroit. What a scene that's going to be? That's going to be a lot of fun in December.

Thank you, Kevin. Oh, listen, listen, if you thought the buildup for this fight was good, wait until we go down to Detroit. Boy, I got so much this story. You don't even know. I can't wait. Safe travels. We'll talk to you soon, Kevin. Thank you. Appreciate it. There he is. The Motown phenom himself, Kevin Lee. Great stuff from him. really enjoying talking to him over the last few weeks and months, and he, in my opinion, is one of the rising stars in the sport. But before we move along with the show, let me quickly tell you all about my good friends over at Dollar Shave Club. In short, they're the smarter choice. That's why you want to go with Dollar Shave Club. You get a great shave at a great price, conveniently delivered right

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You can only get this offer exclusively at dollar shaveclub.com slash mMA. that is dollar shaveclub.com slash MMA. Now back to the show. How about this? The president of Bellator MMA is here. Look at this. I'm just alerting the masses, Scott.

I'm alerting the masses that you are here. We're doing this on the fly. How cool is this? Scott Coker in the house, Bellator president. Amazing. He stuck around. He was supposed to fly in,

excuse me, fly out after Belator NYC. But you said, you know what? I need to come on Monday to my new studio, my new set, and just kind of have sort of, a state of the union, digested a bit, 48 hours, right? Yeah, it was a great show. Something we're really proud of.

It's, you know, I think when you look at all the great fights that we had, and, you know, they had some upsets, they had some wins, you know, some of the guys that we thought were going to win, didn't win, but, and then there's like the freak accident or the injury with Michael, which you was talking about later. Yes. But all in all, I think it was a fantastic night of fights. Okay, I actually got some breaking news. You probably know this already, but I got a press release.

Okay. from the good folks at Spike TV. The biggest night in Belator MMA history got off to a very strong start on Saturday night. Main event of Belator 180 from MSG drew 1.1 million viewers. Overall, Belator 180 delivered 900 and 1,000 viewers from 8 to 10 p.m. That's fantastic. That's a great number. I know that we were number one worldwide on Twitter for the entire pay-per-view as well as number one U.S.

Wow. Number one on Google during the entire pay-per-view. So strong social numbers. My guys are really excited. So 48 hours later, it was kind of cool to listen to you speak. And again, thank you so much for doing this. This is a lot of fun to have you. Usually you're in the Bay Area, so this is great.

You like the new set by the way? I should have brought you my warrior stuff. You could put my warrior stuff. We got some Bell's Her gloves there. See that? Oh, I like that. Yeah, that's nice. This is great.

We've got Gina over there. Yeah, Gina's awesome. The legend. I like the Bob Sab. We've got the Bob Sab CD. We got it all. I remember when that came out. Yeah.

Wow. But it was cool to hear you talk at the press conference because you've been promoting for what? Three decades? Yeah, 32 years. And so you said, like, I could tell you weren't just saying it. This was special to you. Like for a promoter to run MSG, that's kind of, I mean, like, not to say that you made it, but I could tell that afterwards you were kind of in awe of everything, right?

How would you describe it? You know what? I mean, for me personally, it was a milestone goal to come to the garden. Because really, I wanted to come here just to go to a sporting event, whether it was a next game or a Rangers game. I wanted to just, one of my bucket list items was, I want to go to the garden and I want to watch a fight or a basketball gamer. But to come here and have the first event be a sporting event that I promoted,

and I was involved with, it was really special. And when you walk in there, even from the way-ins, I mean, you're stepping on the same scales. Yeah. Ali Frazier were on. I mean, it just has that aura, that magic dust about it, if you know what I mean. Yes. Overarching, as a fan, as a follower,

I would say that this was an incredibly successful week for Bellator. There were no incidents leading up. You had the media day. I thought it was great. In Viacom, you had the press conference. conference well attended. You have Kevin K. there. The way-ins, no, no big misses as far as weight is concerned. Some of the undercard guys, no brawls or anything like that. So every step of the way, nothing went wrong. Of course, Mitrione fights and like any of those roadblocks. And then you get to

the fight. And to me, what it said was like for your, for your team, for your perspective, yeah, Aaron Pico losing isn't the greatest thing. But as a fan, what do I want from my product as far as sports is concerned? Unpredictability. That's right. Right. So when I pay $50, I don't want, and let's be honest, the knock in the past, and correct me if you disagree, sometimes people said, oh, you know, these strike force fights are great, but they're kind of one-sided, right? They're just showcase fights. Like, we know that this guy's going to win. Well, the world thought Aaron Pico was going to win, and he lost. That's what you want as a fan. So from your perspective, like we can say, ah, this maybe wasn't a great night for Beltore, but from a fan's perspective, I feel like it was

a home run. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, and I look at a completely different. I mean, this is a, you know, this is a contest. You know, these people are fighting in a cage. I mean, And sometimes some guys, you know, going to get upset. Sometimes the guy, you never know. A fight's a fight. And somebody's going to be in front of you trying to take you down or punch you in the face. I mean, you know, things happen. And so to me, it's just like, hey, when I sit back, I'm just like, whoever wins wins, and that's just how it is.

But tell me what's going on in your head when you see him get dropped and submitted by Zach Freeman, who's a gigantic underdog. What are you thinking at that point? You know what? I'm thinking, you know, here's a kid that's 20 years old, had a lot of pressure on him. He was built as a phenom. and the next to, you know, and I had a lot of pressure on him. Yeah. But, you know, I know he'll be back, and I'm not worried about that kid. I mean, I know that he'll be back and he'll come back in a strong way.

But as far as, you know, the amount of pressure that we put on him, you know, some people gave us a little criticism, hey, should he fought somebody with less fights? This is something we talked to us management about, you know, and they wanted, they wanted even a bigger challenge than what we. Really? Yeah, they wanted to go, like, they were throwing names out there that was just, you know, a little bit of aggressive. So you had to tell them, slow your role. Yeah, we'll tone it down a bit. Okay. So, and Aaron felt he could do it, you know, and their whole camp felt they could do it.

So this came from a directive from, you know, their side. And we said, okay. We think, hey, we trust you guys, you know, that you guys have a great, the grasp of knowledge because of all the guys that you guys have brought up. Sure. We're talking about Zinken. Yeah, we're talking about Zinken and Bob and those guys. And, you know, on any given night, anything could happen.

And then just didn't work out Aaron's way. In hindsight, though, do you regret making it? the decision? Do you regret not putting him in there against an no and no guy? I mean, I mean, I think that no, no, not at all. Because, you know, he's in a no one situation. He fights a guy with no wins, you know, that has a day job, let's say. And also

he's a, you guys are, you know, setting him up. And, you know, he's no and no. There's nothing wrong with that. It's still, it's like, you know, we're in a no one situation at that point. So, listen, it is what it is. But I know, I'll be back. You know, Zach will be back. Now we have, you know, the altar boy. And, you know, it's like

in, you know, he's, you know, he's I think that you pointed out that he has a day job with furniture. And now we got a new... I hope he gets that deal with the VICOM. He's trying to sell them some... He was there this morning when I stopped by. Get out of here. Get out of here.

Well, he did say, though, he felt disrespectful. Like, he felt that he upset you all. Like, you guys weren't... Oh, no. Not at all. He said that to me afterwards. Is that inaccurate? No, no.

Come on. This is... It's not like that at all. It's like saying, you know, the Mitchell's situation. Oh, you're mad at Mitchell from beating Fador. Hey, it is what it is. I mean, this is sport. It happens.

Okay. Now, with Aaron, do you want to tell him, like, go take some time off, you know, regroup come back into the year? Or is this the kind of situation where you want him to get right back in there? I mean, that's something we'll have to talk to his management about because I think he's under suspension of some kind anyway. So he's going to have to take 90 days off and regroup and maybe he's got to get to the gym for, you know, a certain amount of time and start, you know, getting ready again. But, you know, at the end of the day, he'll be back before the end of the year, I'm sure. Did you talk to him in the back? Did you have a chat? I said, hello. I said, hey, keep your chin up. Okay. Will he devastated? I think he was upset. Yeah. He was upset. I have to say, I was so impressed that he went to the press conference.

Yeah, me too. He's not, he's not required to go. He's not in the main or co-main. He showed up there with his suit, took all the questions like a man. I mean, really, we've seen bigger names not come to the press conference, right? We won't mention those. Yes. But that was impressive.

Yeah, I mean, he's, you know, been through the Olympic training and all that and the world wrestling team training. And, you know, it's, he puts, I think he puts most of pressure on himself. and he wants to win, right? He knows the pressure of the outside, all those great stories he got coming into this fight. And no one was talking about Zach, right? And so that's why Zach was probably a little bit upset because he wasn't getting the exposure to Aaron.

But, you know, Aaron was, you know, supposed to be the kid that could do it. I think he still can, but it just didn't work out with this fight. So you don't feel like this is disastrous. I mean, the front page of ESPN on Saturday. He was getting a ton of buzz. So you don't feel like, you know, oh, my God, what have we done? No, no, no, no.

Okay. I was watching you. I have to say, I was watching you because I was sitting right next to you. And I appreciate getting a front row seat. It's been a while since I got, you know, a lot of time. You finally came to our fights. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Last time they were at MSG, I was sitting in the last row in back of a screen, but we won't get into that. Your team was very nice. Great. I watched you and I was like, you were kind of laughing. Like, wow, I can't believe. Like, you did not seem devastated. However, I looked at you after Michael Chandler, and there was kind of a look on your face as you were walking in there to give premise the belt like holy crap which is like this back to back yeah yeah

yeah that a bit of a gut punch that was um like you know what happened is it is like i was concerned about his foot like you really breaking or he's you know like you know like is he really hurt i mean i didn't know what happened and when i went in there and michael was saying to the guy it better be broken he's telling to the official he better be broken because he stopped the fight michael was upset he better be broken and so i go to michael i go what happened he goes is it broke he goes yes definitely broke but i don't think i don't think it was broke oh you don't think. No, I heard, this is what I heard, and he can explain to you, but somebody told me he got kicked right behind the cap and it shut off his nerve and his foot went numb. And that's like you get, like you

get a dead arm. That's happened. He got kicked so hard in the nerve that it deadened his leg and then he just couldn't stand on it anymore. That's why you kept, you know, it was like, you know. So maybe if he had a few more minutes sat on the stool between rounds one and two, he could have been okay? Yeah, but that's, that's, that's illegal because, you know, the guy, the guy, the guy kicked the leg. The damage, so they give him an eight count or whatever. No, no, no. Maybe if he gutted it out, because they stopped the fight.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you think, are you okay with the stoppage? Well, at that time, you know what? It's like, I thought his leg was broken. So, of course, I'm okay with the stoppage. So, you know, I mean, to me, the health and safety of the fighter first, right? And I thought Michael's foot was broke, too, the way, the way it was moving. Yes.

I thought his ankle broke. Like, it was just flopping all over the place. It was hard to watch. It was really hard. That was a look at my face. Like, oh, my God, this kid's really hurt, you know. Yeah. Tough guy.

People throw around the word, like Warrior and all this stuff. He almost dropped him. Yeah, he went after him. And that's why, you know, Michael Chandler, he's, come on, he's a beast, man. This guy is the Mike Tyson. Yeah, you said that beforehand. And he brings it, man. And I think people saw it hard.

I think the fans of New York love him now. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they were giving him way more cheer. I kind of felt bad for premise because he didn't do anything wrong. He actually inflict the damage. He did what you're supposed to do. Yeah, yeah, he did. Not fair to, but I know the fans were unhappy that the fight ended that way.

Did you see this clip of the corner guy? Actually, I think it was a New York State athletic official moving the stool. No, I haven't seen that. You haven't seen this? No. So when he's talking to the doctors, he gets up, I think, to try to show them that he's okay. Okay. And during that period, someone removed the stool under him.

He gets back down and falls on his butt. And that's when they called it off. I think that they thought he couldn't stand anymore and he fell on his butt. Oh, wow. I have to go check that out. Not good. No, this is the first time something brought to me. That's terrible.

But, I mean, listen, I thought he was hurt. Everybody thought he was hurt. The guy, that ankle had no, couldn't balance himself. He couldn't even stand up. I mean, you know, he was, and I go, you know, in 32 years, I've never seen anything like that happened. Usually when the break happens, the guy is falling and he's rolling all over the ground, he's in pain.

You know, he's in pain because his ankle broke. But he didn't seem to be in pain, but his foot wasn't working. That was, to me, was I was trying to figure out, like, what's going on here, right? Because, you know, I've seen people where the guy kicking and the guy blocking, the guy breaks his shin from the block. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

But what does that guy do? Automatically goes to the ground, start screaming. Yeah, yeah. And Michael wasn't doing that. So I'm like, I don't, like, it was confused. Have you talked to him? Not much yet. And we will talk to him.

Yes. Maybe we'll talk to him first or you'll cross pass. Do you want to do an immediate rematch? Is that what makes most sense because it was a little inconclusive? Yeah. Michael, Michael deserves to have a shot, you know, back at his belt, you know. So. You know how long it will be?

I don't. I haven't talked to them. Maybe this is good news. Yeah, this is, I just heard this morning. Okay. So, you know, when you get in here, you can ask him. But if he can't come back relatively soon, the immediate rematch is on the table for him. Absolutely.

That's what makes the most sense. Perhaps in St. Louis, that would be great. And I'll tell you, and Primus is, he's tough. He is tough. I'll tell you, at the press conference here in New York, when he announced a fight, Chale came up to me and says, Scott, I'm telling you, this kid's tough. Michael's going to have his hands full on every level with this guy because he's a tough guy. And, you know, you should keep your eye out in the sky.

Don't underestimate him. Wow. Yeah, so, you know, when Chale said that, so he must be, you know, he has his goods, you know. What are you thinking when Chale goes into promoter mode and starts, like, running down? I mean, it's good for the brand and everything, but it's like it almost feels like he feels like he has to do this. Like, he starts talking about Lima and he starts talking about that guy. Do you enjoy that? We don't tell him to do anything.

I mean, I just sit there and the guy is entertaining, you know. And so to me, you know, he is, we signed him up because of who he is. And we knew he'd be a guy that's going to go out there and be a great mouthpiece. and say something. I mean, I think the funniest line in the press conference was, why do you call it Madison Square Garden if it's round?

Right? I mean, to me, he just has some great, great lines. And so I appreciate him. I appreciate his, you know, he's like a promoter. Did you enjoy that fight? Chale versus Vanderley.

I mean, listen, I thought it was, you know, Chale's more of a wrestler, you know, taking him down. Van der Leyen almost knocked him out twice. So it had great transitions back and forth. So to me, it was an entertaining fight. Would you ever consider doing what the UFC does and make all main events five rounds?

You know what? We have talked about that, but when we make that, you know, a call, it's going to be forever, right? Yeah. We're not going to go back and forth. Sure. So, you know, we're going to take our time

and making that decision, you know, but... But it's something you're considering? It's something we've talked about. Like, is that a fight where you were like, oh, I wish I had two more rounds, or do you feel like three was enough? No, I think three was enough.

You know, Vanley doesn't feel that way. You know, Vanley, he's still mad. He's mad. He's mad. He doesn't want to fight. Yeah. He doesn't want to fight. You know, he wants to just hug me to death.

But considering all the hype and the story and the years of back and forth, do you feel like that fight delivered? Yeah, I think it did. I mean, to me, it was an entertaining fight for me to watch. Chelle was more explosive this time than I thought he would be, right? And he took him down pretty much at will. Van der Leigh had to survive, scramble. But the times that he had a shot and he started punching, Van der Leigh did some serious damage.

I mean, Chale was almost knocked out twice. So to me, that fight had some, you know, some entertaining. value going into it, and then I think it delivered on the night of. Are you going to bring Vanderley back for another fight? If he wants to, we will for sure. Do you think he wants to keep fighting? I think he does. Yeah.

I think he does. We just, you know, because it's like the aftermath of the fight. He's heading back to Brazil, and, you know, we'll probably talk to him in a week or two. I noted before the fight and after that it felt like there was more pressure on shale just because it feels like Beltor has a little more invested in him because he does the TV work and all that stuff. and the debut was so unspectacular. Can you agree with that? Like he kind of had to sort of prove his worth

considering the big signing, the platform you've given him on TV. He had to show up. Yeah. Well, him as a commentator, he has already delivered. Okay. All right.

So the fighting has nothing to do with that. Fighting has nothing to do with that. And then when the fight happens, Errol, I just feel like, you know, it's this is sport. Anything can happen. You know, it's the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, right?

I mean, that whole is true in our sport too. Did you like the anthem right before the main event? I loved it. Would you prefer the anthem right before the event or main card? Or do you like it? I mean, I grew up with, you know, when Sugar-A-Lenner fought Duran and they had the national anthems. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was right before the main event.

Okay, okay. And that's why we do it that way. You're going to keep doing it. And having Dave Navarro there, I mean, I thought that was a really good thing. I mean, that's, listen, you were at the press conference. I mean, you walk into 15-15 Broadway, you see, this is Viacom. This is a property owned by Viacom. And you see little tidbits here and there, and that's what they can deliver.

They can deliver some big star entertainment for the national anthems and the distribution on Spike, the distribution on world. I mean, it's a powerful media company that really loves MMA. I'm talking about from the top down. Yeah, Kevin K is in the media room talking to us, John Slesser as well. It's great to see not only how enthusiastic they are about MMA, but also just how down-to-earth they are. I once worked for another TV company. The executives would not be mingling with the media. in the press room, I could tell you that.

Chale said afterwards that he wants to fight Fader. And this was a bit out of left field. Fader just got knocked out. Chale won. Are you interested in this? I don't know if that's a fight that interests me, really. Okay. I mean, you know, I can think of some other fights for him.

Please, sure. We don't talk about right now. Do you have something in mind for Chia? I knew, but I'd let to present to Chale first. Okay. And Fader, I met with Fader last night, and he was really apologetic. He said he was so sorry. I said, Fader, you're a legend.

You know, these things happen. I mean, I even said at the, you know, at the media day, I said, look, I think this fight's not going to go to the distance and it's going to be whoever gets there first. I didn't know they were both going to get there at the same time. And then it was, you know, Matt getting up first and being down in a position and, you know, Matt's a finisher. I think the football skills helped him in that regard getting up. Maybe that's what it is, right? Yeah, those drills.

Do you want to see Fador keep fighting? He said afterwards he will, but he, there's no denying. He has taken some big shots over the years. I talked about that last night I said, you have nothing to prove. Just go back to Moscow and take some time off, go on vacation, going holiday,

and then let's talk, you know, when you're ready. But, you know, he has, to me, he has nothing to prove. He's already done it all, man. I mean, this guy, you know, you've seen him in the Pride Days and when he fought for us. I mean, he's had a great career.

And, you know, if he wants to do something in the future, we'll have that conversation at that time. But he didn't say definitively, because he did say on Saturday, I'm a fighter, I'll keep fighting. No, he told me, I want to fight Matt Mitchell. in a rematch. Oh, really?

You tell me. But is there a need for a rematch? It was so clean, right? I mean, everyone wants to rematch. I don't know if it was that clean. I mean, you're talking about he was a second off from connecting first. Yeah. So are you leaning towards a rematch?

No, no, no. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that, you know, when you have big guys like that, that can punch, I mean, really punch, then, you know, the first guy gets to the chin is usually the winner. And they both got there together. And then, like you said, Matt got up first and, you know, had down in position. But, you know, I think that fight, you know, I think that fight, you know, you know, They fought 10 times. It could be five and five.

What is it like working with his team now? Because it's a bit of a different team. Oh, I love it. They're good. Jerry Mill and the crew, it's not. It's no drama. Okay. You know, like before.

Before it was just, you know. It was tough. Yeah, and I don't even want to get into it because it's, you know, I don't want to say anything, you know, that's going to make anybody look bad. But at the end of the day, it's easy now. Okay. And it's so much better. And I think Fader's happier. You know, we have a direct relationship.

And before I think he was kind of out in the dark. I'm talking to a guy and I don't even know what the guy's telling him you know now it's just him and I direct so surely you scolded Matt Mitreone

afterwards for taking a shot at the Warriors on the microphone I heard about that what is up with that that's disappointing but you know listen he you know

it's Matt's a great guy he is great he's great for the sport he's been great for us and he had a big big victory I mean that was probably the victory you know his career

yes you alluded to something in the press conference about kind of dragging your feet a little bit with the heavyweight division and you're going to get, what's going on? As these free agents unfolded, as legend fights unfolded, we said we're going to, you know,

focus on our wealth weight division or our, you know, 205 division, let's go get. And so that's kind of where we focused. And then, you know, we've had some heavy weights approach us that, you know, maybe we weren't interested in or we didn't want to kind of deal with them. Yeah. But I think now is the time to go after some heavy weights

and keep building our heavy weights and sign more heavy weights. And then, you know, with Roy, we got, you know, Czech Congo. We still have Bobby Lash. in the mix and we have Karatanov and Matt and now we have a good stable guys that we could have some really fun fights

Are you going to bring in the title? Because you have Minikov but have you like actually stripped him? Yeah, he's just stripped. He has been stripped. So is he no longer under contract? No, he's under contract. Okay.

Just strip for inactivity because he's still fighting, just not with you. Well, I mean, I don't even know how much he's fighting, you know? He fought not that long ago for EFN, I think? I have no idea. But all those fights are in Russia and that's a tough.

you know, jurisdiction. Why doesn't he just fight for you? You know what? They try to come at us with a renegotiation deal, and we're just not interested. Okay. So you want to honor your contract? You sign a contract. What's wrong with honoring what you have?

Okay. So at some point, do you think you'll crown a new champion? Because I feel you have enough. Do you think this year? I think this year. Are you going to do a Grand Prix? You know what? I think we need a few more pieces for that.

Okay. You know how I am. You might see it at some point. Maybe it won't be in the headweight division. Oh, really? Yeah, maybe not. Well, what are you thinking? Which division?

I can't say right now. You said you had some news for us. Really? Oh, yeah. Big things. Deep, deep under cover. Are you bringing back dynamite? Yeah, but it's going to be in a different way.

Well, let's talk about that. September 23rd, right? So we have the Benson Henderson fight with Benson and Harrison and with Pitbull and Roy. But we're also going to have Kevin Nelson fighting and Joe Schilling and Raymond Daniels and they're going to kickbox.

Oh, you're going to do a dual show. We're going to do a dual show. But we're not going to do a dual show. But we're not going to do a. it like dynamite. We're going to do it like we did in Europe where the cage comes down. Oh, I was wondering how you did that. Yeah, it's... So how does it work?

You lift the cage up? Yeah, the cage has already lifted up. Okay. And then there's a boxing ring. Okay. And so we filmed the kickboxing. And then when they tear the boxing ring down, and the way it was designed was the cage just comes right down on top of it, and it bolts in. And it takes

13 minutes to get it done, the transition. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. So you're going to do both on Spike? Yeah, it'll be, the MA will be live. The keep boxing part, I'm not sure if it would be live or take play at this point. Are you going to do a tournament again? As far as... Last time you did Dynamite, you had the Light Heavyweight tournament,

are you going to bring that back? A one-night tournament? You know what? Not for September. Okay. But do you want to keep doing those? Yeah, I love the tournaments. Yeah.

To me, tournaments is, you know, martial arts was, you know, from a tournament format, right? Right. When you're just a little karate, when karate, you're like a 10-year-old, you're fighting a tournament. There's like 30 people there. You just pair them up. But I think that, you know, like compared to Veltore when I first came on board, we had a tournament format. But tournaments should happen when you have eight big stars that are legitimate. Okay.

To me, that's what makes this exciting. Okay. One other thing about Chale, he mentioned that he has some kind of issue with Rory McDonald. They have to fight. He wants to fight Rory. What is the deal here? I have no idea. But he told me about two weeks ago, he said, you know, I want to fight Rory McDonald.

Can you make it happen? And I said, well, we have some other plans for. Roy, but maybe down the line, if he wants to move to 185 and you want to go down to 185, maybe we could put that fight together. I don't like it right now. I want to see Roy get the belt. Chell do his legends. Roy and Lima, you know, to me that's exciting. Okay, so let me ask you about Lima Larkin.

Sure. Did you feel, I mean, you talk about hype. There was a lot of hype put on that one. I mean, the expectations were out of this world. Do you feel like it delivered? You know what? I thought it was a real strategic fight. Uh-huh.

And it was an entertaining fight. It was an entertaining fight. But I think once Larkin got started taking leg damage and he switched sides, I think it threw off Lima a little bit. Lima's a good counterpuncher. Lorenzo's kind of cautious coming in after he got caught. I think it was a second round. So, you know, I mean, to me, the first two, three rounds were better than the last two rounds.

Yeah. So Lima is very underrated, though. The guy is the guy is. He hits everything so hard. Like, in Thai boxing, that's how they teach him. You know, it's like everything is hard. They're punching and knock you up. out there kicking to knock you out.

I mean, he hit Lorenz with two leg kicks that weren't checked. And after that, Lorenz had to switch sides because he took so much damage on that leg. And, you know, he'll tell you that himself. He told me that last night. He goes, I had to switch sides because the guy, you know, kicked me so hard. I had the switch. What are the chances you do, as we say hello to the Canadian flag,

you know, it's Canada Day coming up July 1st. What are the chances you do that fight in Canada? It's possible. Okay. It's possible. But, you know, we're still putting the rest of schedule together for the end of the day. year. But, you know, we talked to a couple of venues up there.

That would be awesome. Yeah, we have our Canadian consultants that we're talking to. Oh, who are those people? I can't tell you. Okay. Because you also have a Canadian women's featherweight champion, but who also just so happens to come from the same province as Rory, British Columbia. So I feel like it would make a lot of sense.

So it's just going to be a matter of where, whether it's Toronto or whether it's in, you know, Vancouver. Okay. We won't go to Canada. I would say whether it's the end of this year or first quarter next year. I hate to say it, but I feel like Toronto would be best just because of the media that you would receive there. It's the media capital of Canada. It hurts me to say that as a Montrealer, but you'll get more buzz in Toronto. That's free advice. No, and we're talking to all

the venues. So, you know, we'll see a lot, we'll depend on what date's available and does match our date and, you know, that sort of thing because we got a pretty busy schedule at end of the year. Do you think you will fight again this year, Rory? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay. By the way, as I'm thinking, I'm kind of running down the card here, but there was a little incident with Paul Daly. We're just kind of firing you with questions here, but Daly and MVP, MVP came out with this video. saying daily turn down the fight, you want it to go in September, right, to England? From your perspective, what's happening here? Well, it wasn't that clear cut.

I mean, what happened was, you know, Paul called out MVP. Yeah. And so we reached out to Paul and said, hey, do you want to fight before September? And he said, no, I don't want to fight before September. He said, I'll fight MVP, but I'll fight in the beginning of the year. Oh. So that fight will happen. It's going to happen in London, and it'll probably be first quarter next year.

So are you going to keep MVP on the sidelines until then? No, we told him he could go box. Oh, box or kickbox? Box. But you don't promote boxing? No, but we have a deal with, you know, his local promoter there. Why not have him for belt or kickboxing? Well, we asked him, do you want a kickbox?

Oh, he prefers boxing. He prefers boxing. He wants to get a couple of fights in. Probably get ready for Paul. Interesting. That's what he'll do. Yeah, so we say, go ahead, go ahead and, you know, go ahead and go ahead and go do that. And just like we did the deal with, you know, with Huda Bella, right?

Man. So it's exactly opposite. So it's like, you know, we're kind of lending out MVP to go box. Interesting. And then I said, I said MVP, if you want to come kickbox when you can fight in a minute for the year, after you're boxing, you're more than welcome to it. Or if you want to take a couple boxing fights, go ahead and just get ready for this fight

and begin next year. Okay, so that's the plan, though. They will fight in London. What a great fight that will be for London. Okay, so talking about free agent signings, Ryan Bader is now your light heavyweight champion. He beats Phil Davis. And the worry was that it would be a lot like the first fight.

Do you think it was too much like the first fight? Did that one not deliver? You know what? I think it was different in a sense that, you know, like this fight, I felt like when, because I was right there. Yeah. They were throwing some heavy blows. Yeah. Look at Phil's face, right? I mean, Phil threw some heavy blows.

These guys were trying to throw some heavy blows. I think that, you know, when they started booing, it was, it was almost like, man, this crowd's tough. These guys are trying to really take it to each other. Well, up until that point, they were kind of spoiled, right? Well, yeah. It was like finish after finish after finish after finish. So I think that they were just getting antsy. Yeah.

Maybe we should open with that fight. Yeah, well, maybe. And then we should have closed with Heather's fight. That's right. But do you feel like he won? Because it was a little bit controversial. Some I saw thought that Phil won. Yeah.

I mean, to me, I think honestly, in my eyes, it could have went either way. And that's why it was a split decision. Yeah. You know, it's kind of, you know, you're just kind of making a decision one way or the other as a judge. And it's tough. I would not want to be a judge. I was a judge one time for a kickboxing fight. Way, way back.

Just once in your entire life. Just once. And I said, I will never be a judge again. It's a lot of pressure. I will never be a referee. I will never be a judge. I'm just not billed that way. It's just, you have to have, I think, a unique, you know, something in you that.

Thick skin? Yeah, thick skin. Maybe, you know, being a promoter, you're going to have some thick skin. That's true. But I think that, you know, it's, it's, you, you get, you get, you get the pressure from the crowd. I'm sure, you know, these judges sitting there and, you know, it's food this, boo this, and then one way, at the end of there, at the end of there, somebody's going to be upset, you know, And I just don't like that feeling.

Do you like the idea of putting the judges in the back so they're not influenced by the crowd? No, I think they should be right there. Because the thing about it is when you're watching a fight like that up close, you can hear it. And you can feel the power or the lack of power of those punches or techniques. And so I think that they should be right there. Okay.

Do you have any idea? And it was a really nice moment with Bader, finally getting a belt. he's never won gold in MMA. I was bummed for him that he didn't get a chance to address the crowd because I know you were kind of running out of time as far as getting into the... It was like one minute, right? Yeah, we were out of time. Whoever made the call to move the Gracie fight, good on you

because then you would have had a disaster. Well, no, no, no. That was always a swing bat. A swing bathe. Who's the number one contender? Is it King Mo? Is it someone else? Bader should fight King Mo next.

Yeah? King Moe's ready to go down at 205 and ready to fight before the end of the year. Wow. So maybe we'll have Bader and King Mo before the year. Does this change your plans? you were talking about going to Penn State? No, no, not at all. We're going.

We're going to go with Phil and Ruth. A bunch of wrestlers. Maybe that's where Pico could, you know, make his comeback there, you know, making it like a wrestling comeback. But, you know, I think that it doesn't have anything to do with it. Okay. What could we say about James Galaher? What a revelation.

Yeah. I mean, 20-year-old kid doing that, walking up to Shinto. I mean, the Cajon is on this kid, right? I don't know what they're doing in Ireland, but to make these guys so dab cocky is something else. And the girls there, too, they're tough. It's unbelievable. But you have to be blown away by this, right? I mean, did you expect this this soon from this guy?

I could see you like him, like when he comes up with the face off. There's a bit of a twinkle in here. I love it. This is a promoter's dream, this guy. I mean, this is fights and he delivers. You know, we signed him because we think he's talented. And he's a young, up-and-coming guy. But, you know, he's now at the cuss of taking it to the next level.

Yeah. And that's how you kind of test, you know, the talent you have. He's like, is he going to be the guy that we, you know, can he, can he, like, is he going to be the guy that, you know, that we could invest in and build for the next two or three years. And time and time again, he proves it. Yeah. You know, and I think the fight, like the young guns fight at this point might be him and McKee.

Well, they hate each other, but then he says that McKee made it up and it's fake and all this stuff. So I don't know who to believe. Yeah. What about Galaher versus Freeman? Yeah, why not? Because now you got Freeman as the prospect killer. That's right. There you go.

I like that fight. We'll have to change his name from the altar boy, the prospect killer. He'll be the guy who ruins all Beltor's plans, knocks off all your young guns. I like it. No, we, we, you know, listen, it's, uh, that, that probably an interesting fight. I think we can promote that fight. Maybe we'll do that fight in Ireland.

Wow. Are you, are you planning on going back? Oh, yeah. We're definitely going to go back. They're very upset with you, the Irish fans all day long. No, no, no, they should be happy today? Are they upset today? What happened today?

No, well, were they upset today? Well, because they're always like, I can't watch, I can't watch. Okay, no, no, but we, you saw the release. We just, they could watch it live on pay-per-view. Right. But, and it's kind of complicated because the way you have to put this international distribution. Yeah.

It's really like a puzzle, right? Because you have Spike, and then you have Channel 5, and then you have the pay-per-view that was offered through YouTube. But also, you have the 180 show, right? So in the Republic of Ireland, right? Yeah. We were able to offer the 180 show for free. Okay. And then you could buy the paper if you wanted to.

Okay. Right. And then, but in the U.K., in the rest of the U.K., you know, including Northern Ireland, we couldn't offer the 180 as part of the, the offering. Okay. They had to only get the pay-per-view fight. Oh,

we had to buy it. But if you live in a Republican of Ireland, you got the 180 for free, and then if you want to buy the paper view, you can buy the paper view. So no more complaints.

Okay. I would like to see you do that. When you guys do one of these overseas shows like Daily McDonald's? I have it offered here. Offer it on YouTube for pay-per-view. I'll buy that.

I don't want to wait six hours to watch McDonald make his debut. This is 2000. Can you imagine if the Warriors playing the Spurs was on six-hour tape delay, you'd lose your crap. Yeah.

I mean, No, I understand. I understand. It's a problem. You know, it is. And it's just a... It's hard to watch sports when you know what happened. Yeah, but it's a...

You know what? It's a big company. Yeah, yeah. With a lot of tentacles and, you know, as far as trying to put all the pieces together after, you know, these deals were done years ago. Okay. So that's really the question. And it's something that I think we're constantly working on.

And honestly, that's how we got this deal done with YouTube and the distribution. But when we announced the distribution to the UK, we said, pay-per-views, you can go watch it live. And then you can watch it on Spike on Monday for free if you want to wait. But you can't get 180. Then the boobers come, right? You can't please everyone. And then in Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, we could do both, right? And so now they're happy.

But the UK fans aren't happy because they want to see 182. So it's like, hey, we're trying. You are trying. Can't make everybody happy. He came up to you. I saw him come up to. He's wearing this amazing leopard jackets, a savage on the. the back.

I gave it to him. You gave him that jacket. Oh, okay. It was part of your closet. What did he say to you when he walked up to you? It seemed like he came up to you. Do you remember you were sitting there at a cage site? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We just said, you know, I said congratulations. Okay. He said, hey, did you like my performance? You know, I thought I was very impressed because I was because, you know, he did exactly what he was supposed to do. Go in there, take care of business. Yeah. And then, you know, and to me, I was surprised.

I thought it would be a longer fight. Do you want to continue being in the Heather Hardy business? Yeah, I think, I think if she, if she, You don't have that division, really. I mean, like, you have it, but you don't. Yeah. I mean, to me, you have super fights. Yeah.

Come on. It's like, there's plenty of people. There's plenty of females out there worldwide. It seemed like it was a revelation to her. Like, she had never fought before. And afterwards, she says, I've fallen in love. I love this. Really?

Okay. I mean, she was like, I got this bug. So I know she's, I mean, she's a champion in boxing. Yeah. Is it going to be tough to get her back? Because putting it on the New York card makes all the sense in the world. But you're not running New York every week. Right.

So, I mean, if she wanted to come fight for Bellator and Lou was okay, that we could work something, we would do it. Okay. You know, I think that her story is inspirational. Yeah. You know, it's a lot of adversity and overcome. And, you know, to see her fight, and I thought for a second there, she was in a little bit of trouble, you know, and then she came back.

And it's just like, it played out like her life story a little bit, you know. And it was funny. But the funny moment that media day with her and, um, Her opponent was, first we had these guys and they're like, you know, you know, off of me. I'm going to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They get, and these two girls square up and they go, how's my lipstick? How are they makeup?

I'm like, oh my God, I'm this, I'm the first time for me. But it was funny. I was just laughing. Alice is very tough as well. Alice is a soccer moment. It's tough. Man, amazing. Tough.

Did you like running you? I know it's very expensive, right? I mean, the arena is expensive, insurance, all that stuff. Is this something you want to keep doing coming back to MSG? Because it seems like you have a great relationship with them. Yeah, I mean, you know, they also own and manage the forum. Yeah. And so, you know, they have the two venues there.

And I think that we have to come back. Okay. I mean, to me, you know, this is it already booked? We're talking about dates right now. Okay. For next year. Okay. But, you know, like we go to L.A. once a year.

Yeah. We go to New York once a year. Great. Me in the Bay Area, you know, twice a year. Yeah. You know, it's like we have our little tour now. Go, the O.2, or Wembley once a year. And that's kind of where we do our big fights.

Do you know what the gate is yet? You were supposed to find out? Yeah, it was a little bit over $1.5 million. Is that the most ever? That's a record. Yeah, that's a record for you personally as a promoter. It definitely broke the number. Wow.

Yeah. So it was a great victory. Okay. Because social numbers off the charts, the ratings. The numbers come out at 1.1. And what about the pay-per-view buys? Yeah, I mean, we'll know that, I think in a couple days. What are you thinking?

I have no idea. I don't want to guess. You said 200, right? Well, I said that's respectable. Yeah. I think over three would be. Do you think it got to two? I sure hope so.

What are you feeling? Well, I can tell you this. You know, everybody worked hard. We had a lot of great people working on us. The ICOM was working on it. And the amount of media leading up to it and the social numbers that you're seeing, I think those are all good indicators that we'll have a successful show. But either way, you know, like John Slesser said, this is a new business for them.

Yeah. Right. And this is not something that we're just going to go in and out and go away. You know, we're going to be in this business. and next year we might do two shows. Paper view. Yeah, pay-per-view. And, you know, those already be planned out now.

You already have your dates? Kind of target dates and then depend on the fights. So you're shooting for two to three in 2018. Yeah, and I think maybe two might be, and then three, but we're not going to, you know, like I said, we're not going to saturate the marketplace just to do pay-per-view fights. Sure. I honestly think that I'm a fan too, you know, and it's like,

I'm the guy that would buy a lot of fights, but, you know, when there's so many fights, it has to be relevant too. It has to be something that people really want to see to shell out the extra money. And this whole year, this is the first fight that I bought at home. You got pre-recorded, right?

You're pre-recorded. It's the first fight I bought because I just, you know, too many fights means that, you know, I'll probably buy the John Jones D.C. fight. Right. D.C.'s your guy. He's my guy, so I got to buy it, you know. All kinds of shade was being thrown the UFC's way on Thursday

with Kevin Kay talking about, we're not a Las Vegas company, the pay review. What was up with it? That's unlike you guys. You usually kind of sort of stay in your lane. And I don't mind it. It's fun for us, but I was surprised.

I don't know. I mean, you know, it's... It felt like you guys had your fighting shoes on. That's what it felt like. Well, you know what? Listen, they're a great organization. You know, they help build... Tell us how you really feel, Scott.

No, no, that's how I feel. It's a great organization. And it's like, you know, they've done a lot of great things for M.A. I mean... Yeah. But it was Kevin Kay, the Greenland Ultimate Fighter. Sure. By-Conn was the first one to say, hey, we're going to let you guys come into the business because I don't care how much money they had.

If Kevin would have said no, no ultimate fighter, and then the UFC would have never been on Spike. And then where would MMA be at that point? So all I'm saying is, like, look, you know, the Fratitas did amazing things for mixed martial arts. They would have been dead without them because I was there. I saw the whole thing unfold. I was working at K-1 at the time. But on this side, it was Viacom. And their commitment hasn't stopped, Ariel.

Their commitment has continued since 2005 or 2006. And they love it. And they're going to keep going. And I think that you saw the commitment this week. I did. Yeah, it really does seem like they're into it. One of your top fighters told me that he got 75K in sponsorship money, which is incredible. And he was on the pay-per-view.

And it would be tremendous if you sell a million pay-per-views, but I don't think that that's realistic. So less people were watching him fight. what I wanted to know was, is there a sponsorship tax in Bellator? No. So one thing that I often hear is people say, like, the reason why we did the Reebok deal is because the sponsorship game was dried out. But I think it got dried out in the UFC is because they put this tax and then all the people ran away. That's right. That is the truth.

We're speaking the truth right there. Well, thank you. I tried to. That's possible right there. Thank you. Yeah, it's running out because, you know, the company was trying to impose their... Mom and pop shops can't pay that. Yeah.

And then if they could, they would have to pay the UFC, right? The tax, right? So you guys don't want to do that? No, we're not going to do that. Okay. Listen, they're independent contractors. How they're forced to wear a uniform to this day still baffles me. It should be against the labor laws or something because you have to wear the sponsor thing.

You have to wear a certain uniform when you fight. To me, they're independent contractors. They should go out and get whatever sponsors they want. And if he, if Ryan Bader or whoever went out and made a million dollars in sponsorship, good for you. Okay. We don't touch any of that. What did you think of the announcing? So this was a new era.

You got Goldie on Spike. And I have to say when I walked into the media room and I'm hearing Goldie speak. And Jimmy Smith kind of sounds like Rogan. I forgot where I was for a second. It looks like Rogan too. Yes, he does. And then you had Morrow. And unfortunately, I didn't get to hear Morrow because I was in the arena by then.

But you were listening. I saw you had the can't on. What was it like? It was fantastic. I mean, we have the best play-by-play guys in the business. I think we have the best announcing crew in the business. I mean, Shob did a great job. Josh Thompson did a great job.

Yeah, he did. I heard him. Jen Brown did a great. I mean, we had an all-star cast. of, you know, crew of the whole production, you know, play by play and color and also the table of the booth. Those guys did an amazing job. Marl and Goldie, think about the history between those two guys of every fight they've

ever called. Yeah. It is really the history of MMA. So the knowledge that you're hearing and the voice you're hearing and it's just like, you know, it's just impressive to me, you know, because it's just like, this is what MMA is, right? Yeah. This is who created the voice.

These are the voice of MMA. Are you going to do the desk thing for all your big events? Do you like that? I think for the big fights. Yeah. And so like the next event, the one coming up, Campos is fighting, I think. Is it in Thackerville your next one? Yes.

Who does that one? Morrow or Golda? I'm not sure. It's just basically like a scheduling thing. Yeah, I think it's a scheduling thing. That's really a fish question. He's talking to the guys now. Yeah.

And they handled production. My former boss when I worked at Spike. Really? Scott Fishman, yes, back in 2007. Wow. You know I was there for like. a month. I remember that. I mean, I vaguely remember that. Yeah, so it was nice to see actually some familiar faces who I've not seen in quite some time. Speaking of what, 2007, go ahead.

No, I was the say was, you know, like, when we have a guy that comes from, you know, USC to, you know, to Bellator, it's so funny to their reaction because they're like, oh, it's the same spy crew. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right? He's Kevin. Sure. It's John. It's Fishman. I'm like the new guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the, in the circle, sort of speak. And they have Goldie? Yeah, and then, you know, it's like, have some employees running around, lots of familiar faces. But it's, you know,

now we have Goldie. It's like, it's just funny because, you know, it's just their commitment. Their commitment has never stopped since 2006 since they got involved in the ultimate fighter. I mentioned this to you as we almost wrap up here. And again,

I appreciate it. I know you're going to the airport, right? Yes. I mentioned this to you at the way, and so it's not going to catch you off guard, but there was something somewhat poetic about doing this show on Saturday, almost 10 years to the day

of the Barone's Shamrock paper view. Was that your first pay-per-view? With Strikeforce? Yes. On Showtime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, I mean, you've come a hell of a long way since then, but I love that feud.

That's one of my favorite feuds of all time. What do you remember? When I say Shamrock Barone, what do you remember? I remember Frank's pitch tape or the comedy tape. It was great. Frank is another guy that's just a great promoter himself. That was the first feud to really use, like, social media and YouTube. and kind of do it on their own.

Because it wasn't a UFC event, obviously. But the experience of co-promoting with Pro Lead, not your favorite, right? Well, it was interesting, and I'll just make it short, but what I remember was we had this production meeting, right? And on my side, we went ahead, had four people, you know, myself and Kerry, my assistant, and Jim Gordon and, you know, like one other person. Then on this side, there's like 35 people. And it was Kerry Shaw and his crew.

and Rich and J.D., and they were all, and I look over, and what I said, David Incombs was about to start the meeting, I go, I have a question, what do all you guys do? Like, I don't know, like, there's only four people, we're doing all the work, we're promoting the fight,

why do you guys have to bring 35 people to town? I go, you're spending, because it's a co-promotion. I feel like half of that money should be my money, right? So I'm like, hey, you guys got to cut back. You guys send some people back home because, I don't know what you guys do. And anyway, it was a, it was a,

was a, not a good experience working with them because it's almost like you were, you know, we got involved because of a lawsuit and this and that. And then literally, I don't want to say who the name is because we're, we're in good terms now, but it was, they're running out in the middle of the cage measuring their logo compared to my logo. That is petty. Right. And I just remember, yeah. It just like, so that's just one of the things, you know, and just, it was just really hard to deal with at that time. But we got through it. We end up acquiring him, you know, got a lot of great fighters from it, and the rest is history. Will you sign Chuck Ladell?

We're talking to him about a deal for a, you know, like a brand ambassarorship right there at this point. But not fighting. No, we have not talked about fighting. Okay. Are you interested? I mean, I don't really know if he's interested. Yeah. You know?

So like the thing you do with voice? Yeah. Okay. Because, I mean, come on. You know, at these fan fest, I mean, there's thousands of people would come to these things sometimes. And he would be a great, I mean, he's one of the guys. I mean, Randy, Chuck, and Tito were, you know, that's what built the UFC. Or KIP, M-A sustained.

And, you know, for them to go out and interact with fans and meet the fans, and the fans really appreciate it, I can tell you that. So, you know, of course we would do that. Seems like Tito's got an itch there. He's causing all kinds of commotion, cage side. What's he doing? You know, it's funny because the fans are like, you know, F you, D. I'm like, I feel like I'm going to, you know, like it's some kind of like a Dodgers game.

Yeah. You know, like the Giants are going to fight again. What do you think? We haven't talked about it, but. You know, you tell me he's retired, so until I hear, you know, otherwise, you know. He looked good at his last fight, though. Yeah. He looked in shape.

Of course. Are you going to sign Gagarin Musassi? Gaggart, I don't think we can talk to him for a little bit. Okay. Yeah, so. Are you interested? When we can talk to him, we will talk to him. Do you got anything up your sleeve before you go?

Any parting gifts? You know what? It's been a great year for Belton. It has been a great year. Does it feel like you've turned the court? Like, does it feel on this Monday morning, it's a whole new day for you guys? You know what? It feels like, you know, the, you know, the stamp has been, you know, solidified.

Okay. You do feel that way. Yeah. Oh, of course. I mean, a lot of people, you know, on social media or whatever, they're always kind of negative or everybody. But this event, we got so many positive feedback. And, you know, how I feel is the building of the roster from the bottom up is going to continue. You know, the building from the roster from the top down, free.

is going to continue. And, you know, we already have a solid roster in the middle. So I'm extremely happy with the roster is right now. And if you look at, you know, this thing as a whole, it's light years away from what it was three years ago. You know, and now we can put on big fights. And, you know, some people, you know, like, when Fader walked down, he's still the king, man. I don't care what you say. You know, there's some other fighters that are fighting or whatever and, you know, wherever they're fighting.

We could give him a ramp and walk down. Some people wouldn't even know who they are. So to me, Fador is still the king. He's still a big brand. Like Vandali. When Vanley walked down, you heard the response in there. It was electric in there.

So, you know, I think that these legends have delivered for us. And, you know, we're still going to be in the business of building the next guys and signing the top five, six guys in the world in each way class, like the Roy McDonald's of the world, like Tuck and Tuck and 2Guard. you know, like talking, you know, we're going to talk to everybody that we can. And I must say this before we say goodbye. You know, you have a very good reputation in this business, and it's very much deserved. But it warmed my heart so greatly.

And some people, this is very inside, but longtime viewers of this show will know about my friend Adam Geller, who passed away. And you invited his wife to the event. And I saw her not only at the Wayans, but the event as well. So it says a lot about you that you would reach out to her and give her great seats. Kudos to you. That really, that was really, I never met her in person. And I felt like I knew her because he talked so much about her.

So it really, it was something. And that's exactly what it was. You know, Adam was like, you know, he was one of our teammates at Showtime. And he and I became friendly. And when he showed me his wedding video. Yes, on his YouTube. And it was the girl from Pride. Lenny Hart.

And she's doing the intro, like Fighter Intros. And here comes the girls, man. And he gave her bridesmaids. I said, this girl is special. You know, think about that. How many people? How many girls or family would allow it? So she allowed it.

And so I never got to meet her either. This is the first time I met her. So when Adam passed, as you know, and I saw him probably seven months before he came with the morning and son came to a fight. We were talking and he just seemed in great spirits. Always happy and had a baby. And then, you know, he passed really fast. And, you know, it was truly shocking and devastating.

And I said to myself, you know what? I'm going to reach out to Deborah and we're going to continue this link. You know, this thing is not going to die. And, you know, I look forward to invite her to more fights, to spending time, and just getting to know her like I knew Adam. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Scott. Congratulations to you and the team. Great night.

It was great to be there. And I told Rich and Mike Kogan, I said, 2017, I'll come to my first Bell Tour. I'm a man of my word. Well, this is the only one. Now you've got to come to San Jose. Okay, fair enough. Well, let's not get crazy. Thank you so much, Scott.

I appreciate it. Safe travels. There he is. The president of Beltor, we're going to say goodbye to him. Sort of on the fly here. That's our new thing here. You can go, Scott. You just like get out.

Yeah, that's it. You ain't guts to go home, but you got to get the hell out of here, Scott. No, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. There he goes. A great night for Bellator. And as I said at the top of the interview, great ratings. Spike TV coming out with their numbers, 1.1 million viewers.

And Belltor 180 delivered 900,000 viewers. A great weekend for MMA between that event on Saturday. And I thought the OKC card was very entertaining as well. So if you were an MMA fan, you pretty much got it. everything that you wanted this past weekend. Of course, as we talked to Scott, one of the big stories of this past weekend. In my opinion, the breakout performance of the weekend was James Galaher, going in there and doing what he did to Shinto Machita. Nothing short or remarkable with the same kind of flare and confidence that he's had throughout his very short career. And history was

made on Saturday night, my friends, because a coach from a small portion of the world, a place called Ireland, have you heard of it? Team called SBG. Their head coach, John Kavanaugh, is now the first coach in MMA history to go to and O at the Garden. Did it in November with Connor, did it on Saturday with James Gallowher, and he is kind enough to join us via the magic of Skype. I know so many of you love hearing from him and what a treat this is after the big win on Saturday.

Hello, John. How are you? Hello, Harry. I'll have things. It's going really well. You like my new home. Can you see it? I do. I'm very sorry. I couldn't have stayed on, but I had pressing business to get back to. Yes. some fans will be disappointed to hear

the original plan was for you to visit us as well but I do believe your schedule is a little busy so I am okay with that maybe come August or September we can schedule something but let me ask you about Saturday night your second time there of course very different circumstances

still you know all fights are equally as big but you're not the main event there's not all that attention on you you just come in there you do your job you go out what was it like coming back seven months later after making history in November yeah I only got in I got in pretty late. I got in Friday afternoon.

And we were straight to the, you know, the ceremonial wayans, which was where the press conference was held, you know, for Connor. So that was pretty cool to walk back in there. And then it was, you know, it felt for me very rushed to fare because I was arriving so late. And then on Saturday going to the venue, we went into that lift, that kind of old-fashioned lift that they used, you know, you see the back of corner with a suit on us. the door shut and the Maddo's Square Garden.

So to be standing in that lift again, which brings you up to the changing rooms, brought a few chills down the spine. Yeah, it was nice to be back. Did you feel like, are you the kind of guy that feels like, okay, there's good omens here, good vibes? Like, did you feel like it was November again, 205? And that was kind of being put on James now?

Because, you know, they're always kind of linked to each other these days and with good reason. Yeah, a little bit. Certainly what gave me a lot better omens and violence was the two months leading up to it because James really stepped up his game. You know, he's at to being given this incredible opportunity. And your past guest there, nice to hear from, nice to hear Mike speaking there. You know, we are hugely grateful to him to give James an opportunity to fight.

I know everybody was harassing him to be on this card. So for us to get it, James wasn't going to take that lightly. So we put in a really, really tough training camp. So that's what made me feel relaxed. That's what made me feel the good vibes. What about the performance? I mean, was that flawless? Because I spoke to him afterwards,

and we're going to talk to him in a bit as well. He said that he was actually kind of disappointed in a few things, that he wasn't happy. And I guess that's a sign of a true professional and a guy who's on his way to doing greater things. But from your perspective, as his coach, what do you think? It was solid. You know, the first shot was not great.

In saying that, as I knew, boat, the Machita family, that karate in and out style is a tricky one to tie him. If you get it wrong, as so many guys have done against it, it's more so. Like, Odo, you run into a hard knee or you run into that reverse punch that the guys are so good at.

I thought James did very well in pressing him early, which was the plan, side to side head movement. Don't give him an easy target. The first shot was a little bit off. Second one was better, even though he was disappointed in it. I wasn't because I felt he just needed to make contact with him. And then he chained a take down together.

On the ground, I actually wanted him to stay in the guard a little bit more to stop the scramble to the feet. But within a few seconds, he's in the mount, so I won't complain about that. And then he has a mount and back control that really reminds me of Gunner Nelson. any of the guys that train with James will tell you once he has the mount or the back it's very very difficult to shift him and it's an MMA style mountain that he can go between hard shots

and control very well which a lot of fighters don't seem to get he seems to have a good grip on it and he's 20 years of age considering how big the stage was the arena he's fighting a guy who's 20 years older like when they're facing off it really feels like an older man

facing off with a young kid He's my age. Oh, my gosh. My age. And I'm not there so far off as well. Did he pass any tests in your mind? Or was this what you expected and it's on to the next one? Yeah, a huge step up.

This was his introduction to the American audience. I wasn't with him, nor was really any SBG guys with him all Fight Week. Just the way it worked out. Again, I just had to remind myself every now and again, he's 20. you know and and to have that level of maturity and I said and a real a real veterans understanding of the complete game that it's not only although it's for for sure the most important part the 15 minutes that you're contracted for but to really understand the build up to really understand fight week to understand the commitment media commitments and the faceoffs and the interviews it's it really blows me away how he's able to do that and handle us so well and how he handled it. to warm up and to walk out. Just real flashes of of brilliance, I think.

How old was he when you first, first met him? So I was judging a fight show in a small part of Ireland where he's from. And a 13-year-old walked out and he was fighting a 22-year-old. And I told the promoter, I'm not going to be involved with this. A child should not be fighting an adult.

So I left the show. Wow. But I kind of popped my head in and I watched out. morbid curiosity and this 13 year old took a few hard shots took a guy down, took us back and choked him

a 22 year old man and there's a big big difference between a 13 year old and a 22 year old so I mean there was there was serious potential there so I had a chat with his parents and him and I said look I'll train him but he's not allowed fight MMA again until I say I didn't like the idea

of him being hit in the head at that young age and then he moved in with me he lives about he was doing a eight hour around trip to do a one hour of class. His father were driving four hours down. He would train for one hour and then four hours back. And we kept that for two years. And then at 15,

he just moved down to Dublin and he dropped out of school and he moved in with me. And then we became I like to think older brother. Sometimes I get confused for his dad, but I'll say older brother. And yeah, he's been living with me for five years. He just moved out. He's starting to make a little bit of money now.

So we're all in the same apartment block. I have an apartment there. James has crossed away from me. It's kind of like the ESBG apartment block. I have a lot of fighters in the different apartments close to me. And yeah, we're tight. Have you ever had a fighter who you met at such a young age and has delivered quite like this?

Like any of your, I mean, we know your roster, we don't have to go through them, but to meet them at such a young age and to stick with them now for seven years and take them under your wing and for it to pay off like this, does this remind you of any other story? Or is this unique? Well, I guess I haven't been with somebody for this long and then to be still only 20.

But I definitely see, I know the comparisons are already made, but the way Connor was able to quickly understand the entire business. You know, like I said, if you're kind of just a fan of watching the fights every now and then, you've a very kind of thin veneer level understanding of the depth that goes into the two months leading up to a fight. you are well aware the amount of interviews that have to be done and trying to understand the promoters needs,

the fans' needs, the media's needs. I remember having conversations with Connor when he was maybe similar age or maybe one or two years older and I was always blown away by Connor's ability to know

names in different athletic commissions that he was reading about and just a real student of the entire game rather than just the fighting only part. Does it bother you? you and people want to compare him to Connor so much? I think James said it well. If you want to compare me to the goat and the man that will soon be known to upset the

boxing world, it's not a bad comparison. It's an obvious one. You know, I'm not surprised that that happens, but James is starting to carve out his own way and, you know, rattle off the stats, 7 and 0, 20 years of age, fought at Madison Square a garden making quite a lot of money. If that's not doing well, I'm not sure what is. I threw out the idea to Scott Koker just a few minutes ago of him fighting Zach Freeman now because Freeman just knocked off their other big prospect.

Aaron Pico, of course, James is a lot further along. Do you like that idea? If not, what do you like next for James as far as opponent and time frame when he comes back? Yeah, I always like, I like fighters facing somebody that's being on the same card because timing wise you know they both have the same and but yeah it was funny i i saw that fight and and it was something that popped in my head but i i think the guy is quite a big 155 or i don't know if he would make 145 okay and james is james is probably we're talking about dropping to 135 oh wow he's um yeah he was he was 145 with a day or two to go uh to um

I think he skipped breakfast. He's kind of like a Gunner Nelson in terms of not cutting anything at all. And he's working with Lockhart now. And so 135 is not out of question. We might test that in November, which I believe he's up next. I'm trying to get him on the Israel card just so I can visit the Holy Land. I really want to go there. Shalom.

But yeah, I'd like to see him there maybe at 135. Maybe get the 135 belt and then go up to 145 and get the 145 belts. Oh, wow. that sounds very familiar all that. It sounds a little bit familiar. I'm sure the same people will tell me that's a stupid idea that told me the last time as well, but we'll see what happens. And is there any, I mean, look, he's, he's very brash and he's got a great style and he talks a great game and he's backing it up.

But for a 20-year-old, is there any point where you have to tell him like, hey, let's not get too, you know, big-headed here? Are there any concerns at all? I think James listens to me when I have something to say, and we, have our one-on-one conversations. But right now, I'm a very much a evidence-based guy, and right now, it's getting the results that we wanted. It's getting the attention that we were looking for. It's getting the fights that we need. So I don't see it not working yet. So we'll carry on doing what's working. Okay. Did you see this clip that they posted on Saturday, maclife.com, of Connor and

him talking after training four years ago and he said soon enough jimmy boy soon enough i remember that day really i remember that day bizarrely enough it's a it's a clear memory for me what what is memorable about it james his little chubby cheeks there yeah why was that a memorable day i i just remember that was that was kind of the start of um connor having like a film crew around them all the time that was uh you know was new enough for us to have that going on so i kind of remember uh at the end of a session and And, you know, a film crew being there. And that wasn't kind of how it was before. And I was questioning my head, why is there a film crew all the time?

But, yeah, it just stood out my head to when the clip was played, I was kind of remembering it. And James is a funny little accent saying, you know, well for you, well for you, because he was going off to get another suit. That's great. I love that they posted that on Saturday. It really tied. It was brilliant. Yeah, it really tied everything in very nicely. It was really cool.

So of course, I would be remiss if I don't ask you about your other plants now. You've got a busy summer ahead, August 26. Honestly, John, and I read your great article on the 42.I.e. Is it kind of shocking that we're here that this is actually happening? When did you start to believe that this was a real thing? I just got a, it was kind of like the text, if you remember, was talking when I went to bed. And I checked my phone one last time and it was, it's on, get to the airport. a few hours time.

It was a similar, almost a similar, um, the way it played out that I was, it was on, it was off, it was on, it was off. And then I just got the text from,

it's on, you know, 154, August 26th. Um, let's go. And it was, it was kind of that simple.

Wow. So, uh, yeah, I didn't know whether I, I thought maybe Mayweather was, maybe playing a game. And then when you got the contract back for Connor,

maybe then he was a bit shocked but taken aback saying oh this is for real I thought this was a you know let's boost our social media profiles or something like that but it was never that for Connor it was only for one reason that was to get the fight and he hesitated for a few days or I guess maybe over a week

which gave me a little boost but he wasn't immediately signing and sending a back but yeah then then I heard that from Connor and it's go time. And so from what I understand and correct me if I'm wrong, you now have like a separate location next to your gym

where he is training. There's a ring in there. That's where we saw that great mural that you commissioned of him landing that left on Floyd. So everything, you're in the thick of it. Like this has begun. Training camp has started. He's sparring.

Everything's going on right now. Yeah, I just came from sparring. Oh. He came from sparring. Who do you spar? We have some big names. in. I'm sure you keep an eye in Conner's that probably pictures will be going up today, actually. Oh.

People will be surprised by some of the names we have in. Wow. But today was just another step forward, another bunch of rounds under the belt. And I'm really, really looking forward to this. It's so interesting. I've kind of myself and already have lost ourselves a little bit in this world. and I kind of spend my days now with Connor in the new gym and we do our daytime sessions together and then in the evenings he's at the

the what's he called it the McGregor Fast Institute of Sports Performance so he's there in the evenings and it's very excited that the team spirit is unbelievable you're just I'm looking forward when it's all set and done it's all being documented it's all being filmed I'm sure it'll be added to his

to his movie or whatever it's going to come out. And there's some interesting things happening. Interesting things going on. Could I ask you, because you guys are so good at visualization, do you know, do you see something? Do you already see it playing out? Is there like a path to victory here that keeps coming up? Because I know you've been studying him for a while.

Floyd, that is. Could you give us some sort of insight as to how he's going to shock the world? I think we keep her cards a little bit close to her chest for this one. All right. I'll do my, I'll do my usual Monday before. I look forward. Drop in with you. At that stage, it's too late for anybody to do anything anyway.

So I'll give you more sound predictions, Dan. For now, we're playing around. We're experimenting. There's some things. Mayweather does, I mean, obviously we're talking about one of one of boxing's all-time greatest. But there's also some things that there's openings. So as Dana White has posted up a few clips, nobody's perfect. Everybody can get hit.

And we're just looking to make those openings happening more often than they usually do. Is it the best case scenario for you and Connor and the team that the world? Like you have these boxing insiders and journalists and analysts who are coming out definitively. Like they've already seen the fight that he's going to get knocked out, that he's going to get smoked, that he's going to get embarrassed. I feel like that's the best case scenario for you guys. Like that's when you really thrive. Do you feel the same? Yes, I do.

You know, we're still, of course, things have gotten a bit louder over the years. You've been chatting to me and to Garner since before it all started. And you see that, okay, things are getting, obviously things have gone pretty well. But we're still quite a close-in-a-team. We're still the mentality of being from a small island versus the rest of the world. And we've always done best when everybody is just, mocking the idea of an unknown Dublin guy saying he's going to take on the whole UFC roster

and win the belt. So those challenges seem to bind us even closer than we already are. And I'm really seeing that spirit being lit up in the team that it's always there, but for whatever reason, because we're being laughed at, because we're being mocked,

it's making us even stronger. And even messages from the MMA community that I wouldn't have much dealings with telling us they're behind us and they're excited about it. It's somewhat boxing versus MMA as well in a smaller sense. So we're very proud to be carrying that torch. Like I said, the mood in the camp is one of ready to, see a lot of jaws drop on the night. What do you say to the people who say there's no chance after making a hundred or so

million that he's coming back to MMA, that he's coming back to the UFC? Could this possibly be the end of his MMA career? I would say that it's the same thing I'd say about him taking this fight, or the same thing I'm taking the Diaz 2 fight. It's not money that's motivating him anymore. He could very easily make similar money from doing some movies or some endorsements. it's the challenge. That's why he's in the gym laughing every day.

And like if he was, if he left the gym now and stopped fighting, what would he do with his free time? Eventually, you can only sit in one car at a time. You can only have one meal at a time. Eventually you want to do something that's enjoyable to you. And that would be counter drifting back into the gym.

It's what's enjoyable to him. So, yeah, the motivation for this fight was not money. although, of course, it's nice to be well paid for what you do. It was the challenge and to be told again. It's impossible to do what he's saying clearly what he is about to do. So I don't see any reason why he would not. Certainly money will not be the reason why he would not do MMA again. He has said very clearly to me, it's get ready.

We're back in the cage in December. So I just hope that there's, I hope someone out there has sparked the interest in him to make him excited about that. No, excuse me, December isn't too far away. Right now, is there, like, not much can happen between now and then to get someone to spark. So, like, would you say Nate is at the top of that list? Tony, Habib, Max Holloway, I don't know. Is there someone who right now you're saying, yeah, as you keep one eye sort of on the

MMA world for him, that you think makes the most sense come December? I have to be honest and say I'm not really thinking that way just yet. And I think there's a few of those names that you said they're kind of boiling to the top, but hasn't quite broke, you know, really left the pack behind. But, you know, there's just plenty of time for those guys to fight it out between each other. You know, it's still whatever, six odd months away. Let them guys really put a statement on about who is that guy, who is the one that's going to get us and get us up early in the morning

and make us do, you know, eight or ten weeks hard training. You guys doing the training camp in a couple of weeks in Vegas for the rest of the... Yeah, so we've two more weeks in Ireland and then the guys head over to Vegas. I'll stay back here for one more week to do UFC Glasgow and then I'll join them. And then we'll have six weeks then in Vegas before the fight. But if you honest, even just leaving today sparring, I'm a bit all over the place. I'm a bit jet lagged. I landed at 6 o'clock this morning.

but I watched that session today and I said we would be ready in three weeks from now and we have seven or eight weeks so I'm very very I ran back here with a spring on my step from today oh not just because you were talking to me but because of the sparring bit of boat okay two last quick things

are we going to see like a John Kavanaugh-F Floyd Mayweather senior press conference you know they like to do this in boxing where the coaches get press conferences on fight week I want to see you guys front and center is that going to happen Is that for real? That is for real. They do that. I've never heard that before.

Yes. I want to see it. I've seen one of his coaches said he's going to fly over to do a face off with me. I didn't know what that meant. Yeah. Does that mean like Stan like a face off? I don't think so. It'll be a long way to travel.

Yeah. And I don't think they're going from what I understand to Ireland. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't understand it anyway. But to do a press conference with another coach. That seems silly, if I'm being honest. Coaches should be sort of quiet and in the background.

It's not there. It's the athletes that are of interest. I've had a few coaches in the past go at me. It hasn't worked out too well for them. I think you should just focus on, focus on preparing for the contest. Yeah, I'm very interested to be involved with this new world. It's some of it I find very bizarre. it's very, very different to, you know, like dealing with the UFC or dealing with Bellator.

It's just one group. And obviously the fighters are under the, with the boxing world, it's, well, battling different promotions and belts. And it's interesting. It's interesting. And I'm on a crash course to try and learn as much about it as I can. And last thing, have you noticed, we talked about this before when you were in studio after 205. Have you noticed a difference in Conner since becoming a father? Yeah, someone asked me that question.

I was going to say it's made him and Gunny more relaxed, but if Gunny was any more relaxed, he'd be in a coma. So Gunny's not a good example. But yeah, I do see it in Connor. You know, especially for somebody who's such a high-profile athlete, you're always concerned about yourself. You're always concerned about what's next for you. And when you have a child, that changes.

how to concern his son but I think it's at to maybe even bring it out a more protective side of him in terms of he knows what he's doing now it's not just for him it's for his little family

and his little boy that's coming up and he knows he's to set certain standards and live up the things to give his boy something to be proud of and something to aim for and he's grabbing that torch and running with it so it's a lot of fun Yeah, but I've told him he's not allowed bring him to the gym anymore,

Orla Sommon. My God, I had to avoid her for a couple of hours. She's very, very, very broody. It seems a lot of guys in the gym, oh, and Roddy had a kid and had one. You're next. Striking coach, Carl Sannon, so they're all popping them out. So I'm still slipping and ducking and weaving. In due time.

Learning these techniques. I can't thank you enough. Like you said, you just landed this morning from New York. York, and I know you're very tired, so I really appreciate you coming on. And congratulations to you and the team for what happened on Saturday, James Galaher's win. And thanks for that little, you know, that little seed that you dropped for the Monday before. I'm excited about that. I can't wait for this ride? But really, thank you for coming on. Can I at least ask for a round? I know you won't tell us, but can I get around now? Is it too early?

It's, uh, I'll do my usual. All right. All right. Fair enough. I'll try to be scarily accurate on my life. Okay, fair enough. Thank you so much, John. Congratulations to you and the team. for James Gallowher and good luck to Gunner Nelson in July and of course good luck in training camp as you prepare for August 26th. I really appreciate the time today. Thank you, sir. All right. There he is. John Kavanaugh, preparing for the fight of the century. Cannot wait. August 26. We'll hear from him closer to that date. Okay, let's move along now. Last weekend, massive win for one, Holly home, a knockout of Bechkoheya, one of the best of the year, that question mark kick and then the bowling punch, if you will. She finished her in Singapore. Holly is standing by. Let's go to her on the phone right now. Holly, are you there? I'm here. How's it going?

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. And congratulations. What a performance that was in Singapore. Thank you. I appreciate it. Always want to do things more and better,

but I'm excited to have to win, and it's something we've kind of been working on, but it's always nice when it plays out in the fight. So when you say you always want to do things more and better, does that mean that, like, obviously you're happy with the win, but the overall picture didn't leave you completely satisfied?

Well, I mean, a lot of it was with the game plan. We knew that, you know, she kind of liked the brawl and she would get frustrated if she kind of was probably expecting to do things, you know, maybe kind of try and get engaged with me any time I would come in.

So we were kind of just waiting for her to get frustrated and then pick good shots. So that part went with the game plan. However, I still wish I would have done a little bit more things that I was wanting to do in the first two rounds. But like I said, it kind of was going with the game plan, so I can't complain too much. But I definitely always want to learn from every fight, whether it's, you know, win or a lot. When you started to hear a bit of the booze, did that force you to pick things up?

Or are you the kind of fighter that doesn't even hear any of that? I heard the booze, but actually we talked about it in the locker room, and my coaches are saying, you know, even if the crowd booze, Holly, he's like, she's going to be probably waiting to try and just engage when you come in. So it's okay. Just leave it beat. That's not part of the game plan. The whole point is to kind of go with what we wanted to do, and it wound up working out exactly how we thought. So it didn't bother me. As soon as I heard it, I thought, well, we figured that was going to happen.

But I'm going to pick my shots as they come. The Cottle stopped doing eventually because, you know, we have a plan. So it didn't bother me. Does it kind of make you sick, though? I mean, it drives me nuts. And I know fans are spoiled at times and they want to see the great moments right off the bat. But it was clear you were working towards something. You know, like you can't just go in there and, you know, throw an atomic bomb and the person, you know, flies away.

Does that kind of drive you nuts in 2017 that they're still that anxious when it comes to seeing great things in the cage? It doesn't necessarily bother me personally because there's a reason why they're sitting in the stands and I'm in their fighting. It was that easy. Those people that would be booing would actually be in the fight. So it doesn't actually bother me personally. but it does, as a whole, it's kind of, yeah, like, I wish that they would kind of understand that it's not just like a, you know, kind of a bloody street fight. It's like a chess match, you know, there's a game plan going on. They've fighters train for two months for something, you know, 50 weeks, honestly, like, for, like, a good training camp and they're going in with, you know, everything to lose and everything to gain all at the same time.

But every matchup makes a different, every style makes a different matchup. and yeah, it's not always going to be part of the night, but that doesn't mean there's not going to be performance of the night or knockout of the night or submission of the night. You know, it's kind of the unknown. But that's right. I mean, the fact that they want to see something is also what puts people in the feet.

So, you know, I'm just there to fight. You said all the right things going into the fight, but now looking back, have you ever felt that kind of pressure to get off the losing streak to get back on track? Was it unlike anything you felt in your combat sports career? It definitely was a new spot I had never been in and yes. I guess going into the fight I just told myself,

there's not even an option to lose this fight holding. That's it. Not even an option. You're just going to go in there and you're going to do it and I didn't even put anything else in my head. And so what was the chance? I asked you about this. I asked,

Winkle John about this as well before the fight. He said it was do or die essentially. Would you have called it quits if you lost that fight? I still am really passionate about fighting, so no. Okay. I want to fight as long as I'm passionate about it. And as long as I would have the opportunity, then I would have kept fighting.

What was it like after this long journey since 193 to finally have your hand raised again? Like that feeling? Because I'm sure there are nights where you're like, well, I feel that again. What's going on? How do I get out of this? to have it come to fruition with a finish like it. How do you describe that? Oh, there's been an ache in my gut for a year and a half

and to finally be able to just take a deep breath and just feel that, you know, that reward is huge. Like I said, I always want to do better, but it was nice to just be able to not only for me but for my team to be able to kind of give that, happiness to them, you know, to, there's so much that they put in and so much time they've invested in me that I want to be able to get back to them too, you know, I want to be able to have them feel that victory. They've been putting a lot of work in a new over last year

and a half and I feel like I haven't been able to get them that reward either. And so for me and just being able to celebrate with the team of all the hard work paying off, you know, And one thing, like, doing that kick is something that actually we've been working on, I can't tell you how many reps we did it. And it's just something that we knew would be able to work in a fight. And that it's something that we've been working on, not just for this training camp, but over the last year. And so I love being able to have a win in that fashion and be able to, you know,

give that back to my team who has been helping me, not just with that, but with a lot of things. and, you know, kind of getting on a winning role again and we'll keep going forward. Yeah, I was actually just about to ask you about that. So that's something that you specifically worked on for Betchko Head, the question mark kick? We've been working on it a lot just in general, and it was one of those things that we knew we'd be able to land in a fight at a certain point. I didn't want to be throwing it, you know, right out the bat, just kind of wanted to feel her timing a little bit and kind of get into the, fight a little more.

And right when I was thinking, all right, about time to do it, is right about the time my corner was calling for it. And then that was it. I thought, let's just do it. You know, I feel like I didn't really listen to my team as much as I should have the last couple of fights. And I told myself that's what to happen tonight. And as soon as they said to do it, I thought, all right, let's do it

because I wanted to just follow their, you know, guidance. They're the ones to me outside walking. So when you see her kind of egg you on like that are you thinking in your mind okay it's time to end this enough of you Yeah it's one of those things but like like I said we were saying that she's going to get frustrated thinking she's got either press it or she's going to get frustrated Wanting you know the fight to go because it it wouldn't you know She was probably expecting maybe like I said probably more of raw I don't know we just knew she'd get frustrated and I knew that she was kind of getting a little bit emotional and frustrated So, yeah, that was the time that I felt like I should go forward. Okay, so then you win the fight, and everything's very exciting.

And then I actually had a brief conversation with Lenny Freskes, your longtime age, and he said, you know, we want the belt next. And you wouldn't really talk about what you wanted next. You wanted to enjoy the moment, and I 100% agree with that. But now here we are nine days later. Do you have a better sense of what you want next? Whatever they hand my way. I mean, it would be cool to fight for the belt.

you know, if it happens, it happens. I'm just kind of curious to see how the next fight goes, you know, in a couple weeks, and just kind of, I don't know, just kind of go from there. I would love to be able to fight for the belt again. I think that would be awesome, but I definitely know that it's something that would have to be, you know, an opportunity presented to me, and, you know, we'll see if that happens. What about the Featherway title? You never know.

I'm, I mean, I'm one of those that I can find at either way to pass, but I definitely don't want to go like every other. Yeah. 35, 45, 45, 45. Like, you know, going to 35, I always try to, like, walk around as wide as I can. And, you know, when I'm walking around at 149, 148, you know, before I cut that last week, it's like, that's almost at what I would be weighing in at 145. So I definitely wouldn't want to be, you know, bouncing back. can forth like every other fight, but I'm open to both, you know. But I definitely don't want to just be on the fence all the time.

Are you shocked to see what happened with Jermaine Durandumie for her to give up the belt because she didn't want to fight Chris Cyborg? What do you make of that? I mean, I've never really heard of them kind of stripping someone of the belt so quickly, but I also, I don't know. I think they, I don't know if they actually, like, offered her any other fight, or if it was just cyborg, or if she didn't want to fight any more at all. I don't know the details.

It's hard for me to have an opinion on it. But I do feel like, I don't know, like I said, I don't know if they just said, oh, you're going to fight cyborg or you're done, or if they said, you know, another fight, I don't know, because I think cybor is fighting someone else. Who knows what's really going on with it. I actually didn't really pay too too much attention to it. with the fact that, you know, I had my fight in front of me, and then as soon as my fight was over, I was in relax mode.

So, I don't know. I just kind of, I don't know the details of what happened. I know that if it was me and I had felt I wouldn't want to vacate it, I'd want to fly for it. Yeah. That's one. I also don't know what options they gave her either, so I don't know. Do you sort of agree with her?

I mean, her stance was that she has a history of PDs and I don't want to fight someone like that. Is there any part of you that kind of agrees where she's coming from? I think that there's, I don't think she's the only one that she feels that way, you know, and I think, like I said, I don't know if they offered her another fighter, or if they said it has to be cyborg or nobody, I don't know. Yeah. And, you know, I can understand how people would feel that way because, you know,

cyborg has been, you know, flogged with things and not just the ones. But then there's, I think a lot of people are skeptical with some of the other, you know, kind of red flags that she's had. I don't know. I really just try not to get too involved when I don't know the facts. You know, I don't know exactly what's gone on. I don't know exactly what Tyborg's done. I don't know exactly what Jermaine's doing.

So I know that I always have kind of think what I want to do and what I would do or could do in my career. And, you know, I don't know. Like I said, I don't know all the details with that. Okay. I can't. Yeah. I don't know.

Katzangano, sort of out of the blue, sent me a message about you last week, saying that she would love to fight you and was happy that you kind of gave Betiko had that beating, but would love the opportunity to fight you. Does that interest you at all, fighting Kat? I honestly, I think whatever the UFC says is what I'll do. I've always taken whatever fight for the, you know. Yeah.

For the most part, I mean, sometimes there's timing things or whatever, but I don't never sit aside and stand only going to fight one person or I have to have this opportunity or push for something, you know. I am open to a lot. I also follow the guidance of, you know, my team. That's the biggest thing I've always done, and I let them do that. I really just like to just tell me who I'm fighting and I'll just train for it. I try not get too involved with too much of the...

The pre-stuff. I don't know. Yeah. I understand. Tell me who I'm fighting in the seat. You're old school in that regard. Let me ask you about Singapore, though. What did you do about the gum chewing?

How did you get around that? I had some gum. I think you just couldn't buy it or sell it. They didn't have any there. Okay. But I definitely just like, you know, kept it to myself in my... hotel room, but I wasn't out snacking it everywhere. A lot of people are like, I still know what the exact rules are, but a lot of people

saying, well, you can't just spit it out, well, I don't do that anyway. I actually get really annoyed when people do that. I just set out gull on a sidewalk and somebody else walks in it. So I guess I wasn't really after I saw, so I also heard, like, no flip-bops. There's flip-bops everywhere. And actually, I didn't feel like it was a very strict, I didn't have that feeling of, like, being strictest. I felt like I could be like someone to be, but definitely that's respectful,

but I don't have a hard time being respectful, so it was easy to me. Okay. All right. I had a feeling you weren't going to ruffle feathers, but I just wanted to end. Obviously, you didn't get arrested, but wanted to see if they're... Yeah, that's a good thing, and I'm home. Yes. Any dicey situations. You know, the last time you were on, I was kicking myself afterwards because there's probably no better person than you to ask about Mayweather McGregor.

You know about the transition. You went the opposite way, but you know what he's in for. what do you think? Does Connor have a chance? Yeah, I think but I'm the type of fight that I think anybody has a chance. You know, I came over to the MMA from boxing and I felt like I had a chance and I did. I went and I accomplished things.

But that being said, Mayweather's undefeated for a reason, but still I feel anything can happen in a fight and Connor got speed, which I think, you know, Mayweather, a lot of people can't handle Mayweather's speed. I think that Connor has good speed and he can deal with speed pretty well. I think Connor's fighting style and stance can actually be competitive for Mayweather, but I think if it goes longer, it'll be easier for Mayweather, the longer the fight goes.

But that's not saying that Connor doesn't have a chance to do something big. I'm excited to watch it I'm not going to sit here and say that it's going to go one way or the other because I think that anything can happen in a fight and Connor is definitely yeah he in MMA

if you think about it he throws kicks and things like that and he has a kind of a well-rounded game plan for the most part but he is what he usually kind of beats people up with a lot is his boxing and so you can have to put that into account

I think one of the biggest things for me going from boxing to MMA that was hard was being close in the clench because in boxing I could get comfortable and just box there you know you can cover up throw uppercut and hooks and what we call like phone booth fighting you know and then when I first went to MMA sometimes I'd want to stay in there and throw uppercut and all of a sudden somebody's got me in the clench or I'm trying to just box and somebody drops on my legs

go for a take-down so one of the biggest habits I had to break going from boxing to MMA was like letting go that inside boxing style. And, which I didn't do all the time, but I was comfortable there if I got there in a fight. And I feel like going from MMA to boxing is, I don't want to say like an easier transition, but I just feel like there's not really like a lot of habits

you're going to have to break. So there's still a lot of boxing in MMA. So, I mean, obviously in close, it maybe be the opposite. He's going to have to keep boxing, cover up, and there. He can't clench on to someone or, you know, drop for a takedown or anything like that. But from the think of it, I don't really know if there's times

in Conner's by that he's in close. He's not usually the one, you know, clenching. He's usually the one punching. So I don't know. There's a lot of different ways to look at the fight. I'm just excited to watch it. Wait a second. Is Holly home going on the record saying that Connor McGregor is going to win on August 26th?

He's going to beat Floyd Mayweather. Is that what you're saying, Holly? No. I think it happened in a fight and those unpredictable things. And I admire Floyd Mayweather for a lot of things. You know, he's the only fighter out there that's still undeceited. But I also admire a lot of things that McGregor has done in his career. And usually when he puts his mind to something, he accomplishes it.

So you can't ever count that person out. That's what I'm saying. And saying that anything can happen. But the notion that this is a disgrace, that he's going to get skunk 12 rounds to none, that it will be an embarrassment for MMA, that'll be an embarrassment for a Connor you're not buying. You're actually going to take the time, sit down, pay for this, watch this, you're intrigued. I'm going to pay for it, I'm going to watch it.

I do think that the longer the fight goes. I mean, that's Mayweather's style. The longer than fight goes, you really get people's timing and really kind of starts to pick them apart anyways. So I feel like if I was going to think, if McGregor wins, it would be early around. And then if it goes longer, I feel like it goes Mayweather. But still, like I said, anything happened in that fight. And I don't think it's a disgrace. I think that if anybody's out there making fun of this fight,

I can guarantee you that those are the people that don't fight. You know what I think is a brilliant idea? Has it been approached to you? I kind of feel like you're the biggest name to go from boxing into MMA. You're one of the biggest stars in MMA, period. One of the biggest stars in boxing. Has anyone even talked to you about maybe? sort of kind of being on this card in some capacity? Is that possible or is that not?

I mean, I think that there's like a possibility for something like that, but I'm all in May right now. I don't really have to bug at all to box, and it would be really hard. I wouldn't, I told myself I would never fight for money, only for passions, and if I was to take a fight boxing and be on that part, I feel like it would be for all the wrong reasons. So I wouldn't be able to do it. You know, I really don't have any desire to box anymore. And after, you know, the years I've been out of it, I don't have, I don't know. I just, I don't feel like that passion for it.

And I feel like, you know, that's something that I always want to have if I'm going to step in there. So I really don't have the ache for it, you know. But a lot of people have asked me that, like, oh, my gosh, that would be cool if you were on the undercard. You could headlong, you could cope, maybe then or whatever, you know. But I don't know. I'd rather just watch it. And I really have no desire to box anymore. That would be a big card to be on, and that would be exciting.

So I can't say, you know, that it wouldn't be something that would intrigue me. But I just don't really feel passionate about boxing anymore. And by the way, before I let you go, did you happen to see Heather Hardy's debut on Saturday? And if so, what did you think? I did not see her debut. Okay. So I think so I don't say. but I do want to watch it.

She did say, though, that she made more in that fight than in her 20 professional boxing matches, that she feels very sort of, I don't know, not feeling the love from the boxing community that she doesn't get that attention, that, you know, it's crazy she has to go to MMA to make more money. She's a two-division champion. She's undefeat all that stuff.

Are you surprised to hear this? I know you're somewhat removed, but you're surprised to see that in boxing, they're still not giving the female fighters the same kind of attention as the males? There isn't as much money in boxing. I know that.

I've made definitely 10-folds in MMA what I made in boxing, but as far as the amount of girls in boxing and the amount that are at the top and, you know, there's not as much competition. They're still out there, trust me. I want them to have all the exposure. Trust me.

I came from it. I'm not, I am still 100% a supporter of women's boxing. 100%. Just when I'm not boxing anymore doesn't mean that I don't support it. But it's definitely, in order to want the money, you need to have the exposure and the money coming in from it. And if there's nobody really putting time into promoting it to be on TV to be able to get the sponsorship and things like that, you can only generate as much money that comes in. And so I always understood why I wasn't thinking as much as MMA. You know, it's not on, you know, there's basically two options with USC.

You're on, like, on, like, box or pay-per-view for the most part. Yeah. So it's easier to have exposure. There's more people watching. There's more money generating. There's more money to pay spiders. When there's not as much, if there's no TV, no, you know, nothing like that, if you're just boxing and you're female and they're not putting it on TV, well,

then you kind of, have to rely on just ticket sales from the door and whatever can generate from the actual event. So there's a lot of ways to look in that. And I do want there to be more attention on women's boxing so that those opportunities can be, you know, available. Yeah. But like I said, there has to be the big fights that are going on in order for there to be

attention for it. You have to have both, you know, to make it work. So hopefully women's boxing will still keep. growing as the MMA is growing, but I think a lot of girls are starting in MMA now instead of boxing, so I'm not sure. Boxing will never die, but there's definitely, when you look at how many girls are in boxing compared to MMA, it's not as much, so there's probably not as much attention on it. Last quick thing, Holly, do you want to fight again this year?

I would love to fight again this year. Okay. It's only June. We saw the rest of the year ahead of us. So I would love to fight again. It's not like I'm looking forward to wanting to fight in the next, you know, two months. I actually put a lot of things aside that I want to get done, even just taking my mom on a vacation that I told her for Christmas last year. I just want to take her on a vacation with her and I and go somewhere.

And I need, you know, I'm going to make time for that. I've got some other sponsorship stuff I need to take care of and a couple other. traveling things I need to do. My brothers are opening up a pub and Scottsdale and I want to go down there, kind of help them with that. So I'm still going to be training, but I definitely wouldn't want to be in a full-on training camp right now. I need to take care of some things with my family and for myself and other parts of my career.

So like I said, probably in six weeks I'm going to be ready to want to train full force again. I'll still be training this full time, but I definitely need to take care of some two things, just to not have to stress about a fight right now. I need to take care of some other stuff. As always, thank you so much for the time. I always appreciate when you come on. And most importantly, congratulations on the wind.

It was a great moment. I can't lie, it was really nice to see you smiling there, victorious, and what a finish. So I hope you're enjoying it. Again, congrats. Thanks. Enjoy the time off, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you.

Talk to you soon. All right, there she is. Holly home, great stuff from her. Always appreciate her coming. on always appreciate her insight all right let's move along now one of the big stories of the past couple weeks was derrick lewis suddenly retiring after his loss to mark hunt let's bring him on now and talk to him about that fight where he's at i do believe he just celebrated his wedding and there he is the black beast himself always so patient we apologize for making you wait derrick but i really appreciate

you coming on great to have you on thanks for having me man how was uh how was the wedding Yeah, it was cool. You know, it was something like you see on the TV. So it was something like that. It was pretty cool, though. Where was it again in Hawaii, right? Yeah, it was in Hawaii. How many people?

It wasn't that many because, you know, my family, they want me to buy everybody's tickets. I'm not about to buy everybody's tickets out there. So it wasn't that many. A couple people brought their own tickets. So I'm not, no, I'm not chance. How? How does it feel now to be off the market, to be a married man, to not, you know, like you're, you've settled down.

You've got your ball in chain. What's that like? Yeah, for sure. You know, I've been making it known, you know, telling these holes, stay out of my inbox and this and that. You know, chicken heads. You know, I'm taking, you know, man, man happily. Look at that. No more sliding into your DMs, right?

No, no more. No more. You quit that. Did you lose weight, Derek? you seem a lot thinner than the last time I saw you. Yeah, you know, the ultra light. I've been trying that a lot later instead of Bud Light and the wine and stuff. So I'm trying to ultra light.

It's been helping. Are you in your home now? Yeah, I'm at home. It seems like there's some activity there. You even have an arcade behind you? What game is that? There's Blitz and NBA showtime. That's incredible.

Incredible. Yeah. Usually you're always coming from like your office or something, but now you've switched it up. Why? Because my kids are up there and they're making too much noise. Oh, okay. How many do you have living with you? I don't have headphones like you.

How many do you have living with you? Three. Okay, now it's summertime, right? So they're out of school. They're all up in your grill. Yeah, they're all out of school and try to put my kid in summer school, you know, to help with his reading. But he still want to be home all the time. that's not happy.

I'm trying to force me to go to school still. Let's go back to New Zealand. First off, what was the trip like? Did you enjoy your time there? I mean, before the fight, like getting there, the long trip, being there, everything leading up to the fight. What was that like? It was cool, you know, beautiful city, town, country, or whatever.

It was real beautiful out there. You know, the people was real friendly. The food wasn't all that good, but it was real nice out there. Okay. And then you get to the fight. I mean, did anything feel off? Did you feel good? Were you feeling like you were on point?

No, like two days before, I was just, my back was just real sore, you know, it was real sore. And I knew I was just hoping that I could work through it. And I got a massage the day before the fight, and it just made everything worse. And the fight went on and it was just getting sore and sore. So this is an issue that you've been dealing with for quite some time? Yeah, since 2011. It happened. That was the second time ever happened in the fight.

The first time, I still won in the third round, knocked the guy in the third round. Whenever it happened the first time. And it happened again in the Mark Hunt fight, and it was like, damn, I couldn't move at all. The best thing I could do is just staying there and just take it. So I couldn't move anymore. Have you ever been in that kind of pain going into a fight?

I have, but not that long. Yeah. The fight didn't last that long. Okay. Yeah. And so mentally, what are you thinking as you're walking to the cage? I mean, obviously this isn't going well, right? I mean, like, you're in pain going into the fight.

I'm like, it's already too late now, so I'm having to try to go out there and give it all I got. It's already too late. Did you feel like your confidence was kind of shaky going into it? No, my confidence was good. Everything was good. It was just my movement. That's why I was moving side to side. So I couldn't really like sit down on none of my punch.

I was throwing one punch at a time because my backers are like real sore already. What about just fighting Mark Hunt, one of the hardest hitters in the sport? Have you ever fought someone who hits that hard before? I believe I have. You know, the guy named Ryan Martinez out there in Colorado, you know, just about all his fights and they didn't knock out. Were you okay with the stoppage? Yeah, I was fun. because I couldn't move anymore.

I ain't know where I could move. Okay. So you, was a part of you kind of hope, like, I know fighters don't want to tap due to strikes, but were you kind of hoping that the ref would step in at that point

because you were in so much pain? Yeah, I was hoping, yeah. Okay. Even before I threw the jump knee, I was already in too much pain. The best thing I could do is just jump knee because I couldn't throw a punch because I couldn't rotate my hips.

Did your corner know that you were in that much pain? Yeah, they did. Okay. So they didn't know, like, during practice, whatever happened. It happens is just about beginning of every camp. But this, this count right here just lasted a little bit longer. What exactly is the issue? Do you know? I got an EKG and X-ray.

I did that already. They couldn't see anything. I was supposed to go Wednesday and get an MRI done, and we'll go from there. After the fight. So we're just hoping that we don't have to get surgery. Okay. So you don't know. If it's like, you know, a disc issue or some kind of nerve issue, you have no idea.

Yeah. We just hope when that we don't have to get surgery because, you know, I thought about it a little bit, and it's not going to be my last fight, you know. Try to get back in there as soon as I can. We find out Wednesday see what's going on if it's not too serious. And hopefully I can get back in there before the end of the year. Oh, wow. Okay.

So this is massive news. So let me ask you this. When you were going into the fight, when you were in that kind of pain, in your mind, were you saying, this is my last fight? Or was that only in the aftermath, in the cage, you lose the fight, you're upset, and then you said it. No, it was before the fight, you know. So I told my wife before the fight, you know, I was telling her, yeah, this might be my last one because my body, you know, I still got nerve damage from December or something like that, like around here. I still can't, I have no feeling like my lip and all of them, whenever the guy poked me in my eye that time,

I still don't have no feeling from that. And my ribs and my foot are still broken right now. Both? My foot is still broken. Your foot is still broken? Yeah, my foot and my ribs still broken from the tragic brown. Wow. And so you told your wife before the fight, this is it.

I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore? Yeah, I told it. And she said that I'm probably going to change my mind after the fight, you know. And so why did you say that in the cage? I guess it was just heat at the moment. Okay. Do you regret saying it?

Not really. You know, it's whatever. I can keep going. If not, that's fine. You know, I'm living comfortable right now. So everything is really taking care of from bills and everything. Business going good. When did you start to think, you know what?

I'm probably going to fight again. I don't want to stop. When did that change? How soon after? Oh, whenever the booty scratcher started talking shit. Oh. And Travis Brown waking up from the dead talking shit. You know.

And at booty scratch, you keep on talking shit. I'm going to get my boy home. You know, I don't think his visa is going to be, it ain't going to be too good or too much longer, you know. We're going to get him up out of here. I heard he's living up. in Vegas right now. His name,

Francis. Yeah, you're referring to Francis. Yeah, you know how you roll. Yeah, yeah,

I do know how you roll. You've been a long-time supporter of his, POTUS. So you saw the comments, right? Were you annoyed? How would you describe?

What were you thinking? First, you see, Angano, say he wasn't impressed, right? And then a brown goes on this whole thing about you.

That guy is not impressed with nobody. So, normal for him to say anything stupid, you know. And what about Brown? Trevor Brown, I don't know what he's thinking, you know. Travis, he's out of there, man. That got me knockout so many times, been rocked so many times.

He don't know what to say. He's just trying to stay relevant, really. Yeah. He has actually a big fight coming up in less than two weeks against Alexei Olenek. Yeah, so he better be warned about that, and more about me. It's already done and over there. him. And so after

Francis's comments, is that when you started to say like, ah, I'm not done I have some more ass to kick? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. He brought you back. Yeah, he brought me back. Wow. So is that who you want next? If I can, I get him next. If not, that's fine. You know, I'll get anyone hit on my

right now. That'd be a good one. So, you know, one thing I was thinking was in December when you won in Albany, you were like I want to press a reset. And then you came back in February. And then you said you wanted to take some time off. And then you came back again against Mark Hunt.

Do you feel like you just kind of, what was it? Like 12, 13 fights in the span of two and a half years or something? I think it's actually more, right? Do you feel like you kind of just put too much on your plate? That's the reason. One of the reason why I said I wanted to retire because it was like I still was in my mind. So whenever I go into a fight, I'm already thinking about like some, evil type stuff, you know, and it was really affecting my household.

So I was like, I just need some time off a little bit, try to work on my relationship with my family and stuff like that. And just by fighting all the time like that, just put me in a bad move all the time, you know. And I just felt that just stepping away for a little bit just be the best thing to do. What are you talking about evil type stuff? What are you talking about? You know, I go in the fight just about every fight, just, plan on trying to kill my opponent.

Yeah. That's how I get ready. And there's a trickle-down effect into your household. Yeah, because I'm just being daydreaming about killing whoever my next opponent is. And how did it blew my kids try to talk to me or my wife tried to talk to me. And I kind of snap a little bit at them. Yeah, it's intense, right? It's hard to balance those emotions.

For sure. Especially when you're fighting just by area of the month. Yeah. As soon as I sign the contract I'm thinking about my opponent just about every minute You know So in hindsight

You kind of wish that you went a little slower I mean I know you're happy with your contract and everything And that kind of comes into play here Because the more you fight The more you get paid But you feel like you just kind of put too much on your plate No I guess you could say that

But not really You know I love the fight But at the same time too I love my family And I hate to see them hurt You know by me same end up doing stupid stuff.

So. So you're back now. You're not going to retire, right? Yeah, I'm back. I'm back. My coach don't want me to retire either. He's sitting up there crying like a little woman. What do you mean?

I don't want me to retire. So I already know what the real deal is. He quit his job a few months ago. He didn't think it depends on me. I could support him. I know that's what he really crying for. But now I'm not going to retire yet. So you're feeling pressure from people to keep fighting?

You got to do this for yourself. Yeah, I'm not worried about him. He's got a wife. His wife is paid good. All right. I'm really doing it for myself, you know. So right after, was he trying to... Was everyone trying to convince you right afterwards in the locker room?

Rethink this? Yeah, everybody's saying that it's not true. You know, I ain't even tired or what, but I thought I was, you know? This is like the short... I guess it's like that Tom Brady. No, no, Brent Falls. Yeah. And Brent Farber Effect.

You know, in combat sports, people come in and out of retirement all the time. This might be the shortest one yet. I heard, um, Sugar Ashard, what's the name? Michelle Evans? Yeah. I heard he'd be doing that. Yeah. Anthony Johnson kind of hinted at getting the itch after retiring too.

Yeah, but he ain't that weed now, though. So I only got the connections he got. If I could get the connection he got, then, yeah, I retired too. Mr. Wee, where is that? Them boy making beans and dollars a year over there. What about this picture that surfaced? Were you eating ribs in the locker room before the fight? It was chicken, barbecue chicken, man.

I always eat, I always eat before, like an hour before. That guy just talking shit. Robert Follis. Yeah, what's up with that? Yeah, I don't know who he is. He's a coach, Extreme Couture. Oh, yeah. Of course, he'll talk shit.

He out there in Vegas. So he took a picture. picture of you? Did you know this? No, I didn't know. I'm sure. I'm enjoying some chicken. We know how us black folks love about chicken. I was enjoying that chicken, man. And that's your typical? I always eat an hour before the fight. You know, we'd be there for like five hours before we fight. Yeah. So, shit, I'm already hungry and I were there waiting. And are you always eating chicken? Yeah, I always eat before I go out.

Always chicken? No, I'm always eating whatever's in the green room. Oh, okay. Whatever was in the green room, I'm eating. And so Robert Follos tweeted a picture or posted on his Instagram. I guess eating ribs was a bad idea. Yeah. I was tired, but I didn't really gas stuff. You know, I was tired as hell, though, but it was just my back. Was he in your locker room?

No, Mark Hunter. Yeah, I guess he was. I guess he was. I don't know. I don't pay attention to the fighters when I'm there. I'm just in my zone. Right. Where were you going to?

And, you know, I believe. Mark Hunt, he knew something was wrong with me too, because usually after Mark Hunt wins, he doesn't, he don't celebrate, he just walk off, all casual and nothing like that. Then whenever he knew I couldn't move anymore, the motherfucker was about to jump over that cage. It happened him up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you think he... You think he knows that he stole one? Yeah, he got up. Yeah, he stole one. You know, but it's still a good... fight, though. You know, it's something that I expected, you know, a tough fight.

You know, I didn't want to easy fight, so I wanted the tough fight. So I got what I wanted. Do you feel like, I mean, are there weird emotions towards the fight because you were not at 100%? I know sometimes, you know, it's impossible to go into fights at 100%, but considering this was a fight that you wanted, it was high profile main event,

like you were almost robbed of the opportunity to fight him close to 100%. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's just a learning lesson. You know, like a lot of people say, it's not a bad loss to lose to a guy like Mark Hunt. Yeah. So, you know, it's really like a learning lesson.

You know, I know what I need to do to get prepared for my next battle, you know. And I'm sure it's not going to be five rounds also. So I know how to pace myself a little more too also. So in a perfect world, when would you like to come back? I mean, if the back isn't too banged up and the foot heels and the ribs heel, do you feel like taking a break? Is that, who's that? Is that Francis? Is that Donald? Shit, I wish.

No, that's my wife. Do you want to take the rest of the year off? No, I'm... No, I can't take the rest of the year off. I would like to get in there before November. I would like to fight a game in November. I don't want to fly out of the country anymore. Yeah, enough of this, making you fly everywhere.

Yeah. Yeah, they're trying to see. the way the black folks wanted it at right now. So, you know, I prefer to stay in America. You're done. You're done with the... I know for sure that they don't really like us. You're...

So maybe the Fight Pass show idea of sending Derek Lewis to the most far out place, maybe that one needs to be put on hold. Yeah, put on home because, you know, I'm scared for my life out there, man. In New Zealand? I'm a target. Yeah. I'm on a... black guy and some white rice out there.

They don't got no black folks out there. That's frightening, man. What about fighting at like 10 a.m. on a Sunday? Was that weird? Yeah, it was real weird. And walking the streets around there and seeing a Samoan guy with, what is that, the rebel flag tattoo, not tattoo, was stitched into his jacket.

What do you got a rebel flag for you, Samoa? What the hell? Who's this? So I don't know. Some guy? It was weird. I was in New Zealand. Wow.

Did you say anything to him? No, I didn't say anything to him. I just shook my head at him. All right. Like, he don't even probably don't know what that mean. And so you went from New Zealand to Hawaii to get married? No, I came back home for three days and left again to Hawaii. Did all this kind of ruin your wedding?

I mean, were you kind of bummed out or were you able to compartmentalize everything? No, it didn't ruin my wedding at all. You know, we still had fun. Still had our honeymoon. Yeah. You know. Where'd you go on your honeymoon? Still waking up to neighbors.

You know, broke her back. Broke her back. Yeah, she's doing therapy right now. Oh, I wish I could meet her. She was still walking on a limp. Oh, she still walk on a limp. I thought she's a therapist. No.

She's doing therapy right now. She walked over the limp around the house. The kids want to know what's going on, thinking I'm beating her or something. But no, there ain't nothing like you. Did your kids go with you to the honeymoon? Oh, no. They stayed with her.

They weren't at the wedding? No, they stayed with her. No, they stayed with grandma. What? They're at the home with mother-in-law. Even though I don't like that lady, but they stayed with her. Wait, so. Let them deal with her.

So the mother-in-law didn't come to the wedding? Oh, no, she wasn't invited. She tried to get me to pay for a ticket out of hell, no. I'm broke. So how many people are at the wedding? It's probably like four people. Oh, wow. Four people.

Okay. Yeah. For a second. I don't care who was there. Yeah. It didn't bother me because it just by everybody that wanted to go, they wanted me to pay. No, I told them I'm broke. Yeah, okay.

And you didn't want your kids there? No, I don't want my kids there. They don't need to show their experience. They bad. What do you mean they're bad? They upstairs right now, making all that noise. What are they doing? I don't know.

It's something like the White and Power Rangers. All right. If I get each other right now, kicking each other. All right, so now you're a married man. You're back. You're not retired. Things are looking up. Yeah, we can say that.

you know, we'll see what happened. Let's see what type of opponent that get me. It don't matter. You know, I don't have no grudges against no one. People talk shit, left and right, and it's okay. I guess that's part of the sport. Right. Are you in pain right now, like,

sitting here talking us? I'm in pain, yeah. Oh, man. I really can't lean back. It's my back. Do you think there's a chance they tell you that... It's like, I have two knots back there, huh? Do you think there's a chance that they tell you that, like, it's just, it's too messed up?

and you won't be able to fight, or do you think that you'll be able to get through this? The thing I'm doing right now, I'm telling them I'm not a fighter. You know, I'm telling them doctors, I'm not a fighter. I'm an pilot. Okay.

So they want to send a note to the USC and be like, oh, he can't, we're not going to release him to fight. So I'm just telling them I'm a pilot. I'm not an USC fighter. Why? Airplanes. Because I don't want the USC to know that, like, I'm in.

or what? You know, they didn't clear me. So, so we'll see. But you're a famous person. I'm not famous, man. I'm just a regular black dude across the street. I'm a little black guy across the street, man. I'm not famous. I mean, maybe you have a doctor who knows who you are. MMA fan might be trouble. Nah, they don't know. I told him on pilot. Don't I look like a pilot? Sure. Yeah, why not? You got to work. wear a shirt. Every time you come on the show, you're not wearing a shirt, so I'm not,

oh? Well, I'm just telling, you know, because they don't, if they say, I'm, they believe I'm the officer. Yeah, yeah. I'm a pilot. Right. You don't see the hat. Sure, sure, sure. What would you call, what'd you call, what'd you call, Francis? Um, booty scratch. What does that mean? Watch the beginning, watch the beginning of, um, boys in the hood. Okay. I've seen it, but it's been a while. You're talking about your African booty scratch. Okay. Yeah. I should be in our boys in the home.

I really want to see this fight. I have to say, I really, I really do want to see it. But I'm happy you're back. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't know if he got to fight booked or what. I can't do, no. Well, there was some talk of him fighting JDS, but it's not done yet, and I don't know what's going on with that event on August 19th.

No. Are you going to watch Mayweather-McGregor? Yeah, I watch it. You know, I like McGregor and Mayweather. I like both of them. Good's your pick. I like the attitude. Who's your pick?

I don't know. All right. I don't know. I will go with McGregor, but it's going to be a 12-round fight, so I don't know how his gas thing will be in a 12-round fight. You know, he can barely go five rounds with a five-minute fight, so we'll see.

Okay. Well, let's leave it at that. Derek, it's good to talk to you again. I'm happy about this news. I was a little bummed, I must say, when I heard you say that you were done in the cage and I don't know, I feel like you've got a lot more work to do. But I will say, I thought, you know, maybe he just needs some time. Because you keep saying you want some time off and then they keep bringing you back.

You're such a big draw. People love you so much. They keep pulling you back in. But now I think you need to be a little more selfish. Give me some time. Let me heal up. Let me get my head right. Also is the thing.

I just want to smoke a little weed, you know. So I can't smoke weed right now on the contract. That's right. That's right. Man, they get on my nerves, man. I love them in death, though. Just let me smoke a little. Yeah.

A little bit. One time for my mind. That's right. All the best to you, Derek. I hope you get well soon. Thanks so much for coming on the show and updating us. Mazel Tov to you and your lovely wife. Hopefully next time we can meet her on the wedding and take some time off.

Enjoy the summer. Go out camping with the kids. Do some fun stuff. You know, black people don't do no damn camping. You know you live in Canada You're talking about some damn camp But all right I try to do that then

Thanks for having me Thank you Derek We'll talk to you soon All the best too Oh gosh There he is Derek Lewis Always a pleasure to have him on That was a lot of fun

Great news He's back How awesome is this One of the shortest lived Retirements In MMA history So that was great I appreciate him stopping by

Okay Let us move along now In studio we're doing this on the fly once again. Here he comes. And it pains me to say it. I must say the now former Bellator Lightway champion. He is sliding in.

There he is. Be careful with that foot. There he is. Michael Chandler is here. How are you, my friend? Oh, just living the dream, man. Wow. We have a lot to talk about, Michael.

Oh, we got lots to talk about. You're still here in New York. I'm still here in New York. I'm still here in New York. Is there a part of you that just wants to get the hell out of here now? No, man. I've been looking forward to this, man. I've had a very long,

good, successful improvement type of training camp. I've been looking forward to these next couple days to enjoy New York City with my wife and get a little bit of downtime.

How do we describe the last 48 hours? Is this surreal? Is this, I mean, you're putting on a happy face. I can't imagine knowing the kind of competitor that you are,

you're probably really pissed off, feel robbed, big moment for you. How do you put into words how you're feeling right now? I don't know. It's weird is you think about your own emotions

or you think about your own interpretation of the situation, but there's doctors involved, there's referees involved, there's the big stage, there's the fans on Twitter, there's the media, there's everybody's different perspective, so you don't really know exactly how to take it. Because every now and then you hop on Twitter and be like, I never thought about that perspective, or you hop on, you know, or listen to something that you say.

Like, I didn't think about that perspective either, you know. So it's interesting, man. It's just one of those things. It was a freak. Freak deal, I mean, a freak accident type of, I mean, I was out there and I was like a lame duck, if you will, you know, and Brent Prima still couldn't really finish me. Honestly, he didn't even lay a leather on me. Okay. The ref stopped the fight, you know, because of the severity of how bad the injury looked. When does it start? He kicks you? No, when I'd stepped back and rolled my ankle. Okay.

And it rolled underneath me and bent seven ways to Sunday. Wow. I think I did, I stretched it and stretched it so bad that it jacked up the nerve and I have zero nerve function. And I had zero nerve function in my left leg. Okay. So, the knee down basically. Did you feel it right away?

I felt it as I got up and started hopping around and you see me hop and hop and hop. But it was more on my heels than on my toes because I literally, my brain was telling me to take a step, but my foot, my foot can't do this, if that makes sense. Right now? Dorsiflection. No. Okay. My foot cannot go like this. So I can walk.

I have, you know, it's sprained ankle, obviously, by everybody who saw the replace. Yeah. But you didn't break anything? No broken. Wow. Broken bones. Thank God. I mean, oh, you heard me.

I said, I looked at three doctors in the eye and said, this thing better be broken. If you were going to stop this fight in front of all these people with all the hard work that I've put in, with all that's on the line, that belt on the line, this thing better be broken. Now I sit here after 24 hours to kind of cool off, 48 hours to cool off, I'm very happy that I'm able to walk in here on my own two legs and have a jacked-up leg. But nothing's broken, man. I went straight to the ER, the people at Doctors at Bellevue ER, I got in, they x-rayed it. Nothing broken. So that's a good thing.

You know, I could be insert, just getting out of surgery right now with a rod in my leg, and luckily it's not. I mean, it looks extremely, it looks extremely gruesome. You know, and I've had tons of support. I mean, so many text messages, so many people on Twitter and Instagram, Facebook, like, reach out. And there's so many people that have been behind me and supportive and worried about my broken ankle. And thank God it's not broken. You know, so for everybody, it's not broken, everything is good.

I will be back in the bell to our cage and I will have that belt wrapped around my waist before I even lose the tan lines that were left there from the time I had it two days ago. So do you think the doctors made the wrong call? Man, what do you do? I mean, if you lined up 100 people right now and said, hey, watch this clip, is that man right there fit to fight? Right. 90% of them would say no. I mean, he was stumbling all over the place. Now you look at it from the competitor's standpoint, or you look at it from your shoes where you've seen a million fights.

or maybe if it was big John McCarthy in there, or maybe if it was Dan Mergla or a different ref, maybe they would have saw and interpreted it a different. I mean, literally, the unfortunate part of the situation was that ref called for the doctors to come into the cage 15 seconds after I just dropped him on one leg. Yes. So that's where the hard part comes in because I was standing there.

I said, come on, take it, break it. I looked at right in the eyes. I said, take it, break it. you know, kick it, let's do it. If you're going to do it, do it. You know, five seconds later, he was on his butt on the canvas. I was the only man to land a punch in that fight, and I put him on his butt. So 15 seconds later, the fight is stopped. So that's the unfortunate part. I think, honestly, I had a beat on them.

I got my distance. I realized I was, I realized the left leg was not working, but the right hand was cocked, and it was ready to go. And I would have finished him. If this was the 18th century, and I was in the middle of the field, and it was me and Brent Premis and I had one leg to stand on and we're fighting to the death, I win that fight 100 times out of 100. The fascinating thing here is? That's the funny thing. I feel like the intensity right now coming off of you. Like I feel like you're still fired up. I'm still the champion. Let's be honest. An injury took me out of that fight. Brent Premis can wear his Hugh Hefner jacket and throw that fake belt around his shoulder. I told Scott Carter, I talked to him on the way here. I said book the fight. Let's do it later this summer or later this fall. It's a it's a four. foregone conclusion. My leg is, I don't want to say unfortunately. Fortunately, my leg is fine, but it's just crazy to be standing in here. It's crazy to have been able to go shopping with my wife

today, hobbling around a little bit, but walking around New York City. But 48 hours ago, my leg wouldn't function. Right. You know. No crutches needed? Or are you just that damn tough? I mean, it's a little bit of both, maybe. You know, they said I needed crutches, but I also had my my doctor there. He's an orthopedic surgeon. Okay. Sanford Medical. in Sioux Falls. So he was there. You brought your own dog there? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, he wrote in the ambulance with him. Wow. So he, and that's

the crazy thing. Ten minutes after the fight into, we went back there and he said, Michael, I don't want to tell you this, but I don't think, I want to tell you this, but I don't want to tell you this. You don't have a broken leg. Your leg is not broken. Your ankle's not broken. This test, this test, and this test are all negative. I think what you have is nerve damage.

And it's that, that perennial nerve, that runs up the side of your leg, that is in charge of your brain, firing the neurons, straight down to your leg to say, lift your foot. It's just not working. And that's a hard pill to swallow. I was back there. It was me and my wife back there. And I had some choice words for the doctors because I was like, do you realize what you just did? The New York doctors. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I love, New York is a cool city, but I don't want to fight here ever again. I just, it's a little bit, it's a little bit amateur hour, man.

Like it's, it's different. MMA, they don't know what they're doing when it comes to MMA as much is they should. What do you mean? Just everything, you know? It's, I mean, how many fights have we had in New York now? Five. Yeah, something like that. Two of five, World Series.

Something like that. We've had, what, five, five cards and every single one of them have some pretty crazy controversy on them or something weird going on. Now, granted, like I said, if you lined up ten people, nine of them would say he wasn't fit to fight, somebody get him out of there. So you can't, but it's just, they're overcautious because of stuff that's going on, I guess, and they will always cover in their butts. but man, when there's money on the line,

when there's people's livelihood, when there's legacy on the line, when there's records on the line, when there's contracts on the line, when there's all this stuff on the line, I know that the doctors and the ref and everybody involved did the best that they could

with the information they were given, so I'm not mad, I'm not upset. It's just one of them things, and man, I'm still the champion. I brushed my teeth this morning and looked in the mirror and said Michael Chandler, you're still the best in the dang world. And that's the truth,

and that's what it is, and that's how it's going to be, and that's how it's going to continue forward. I'm going to get the leg looked at by a nerve specialist this week and get an MRI and make sure the ankle ligaments and all that kind of stuff for good. But chances are it's all going to say it's checked out. And in two weeks, I'm going to be ready to go. So, like, are you in pain right now? Pain's a relative term.

Okay. But, I mean, it's funny. For me of trying, fetal position. It's, I mean, a little bit, but I mean, it's more uncomfortable. It's more literally just looking down at your leg. You know, I've been, make, I've been so blessed, man. Like my body, my body is so durable. My bones don't break.

And that was the problem. Like if the doctors and the refs knew my history and the things that I put my body through, I could tell them with full certainty, guys, my leg is not broken. Let me keep fighting. My leg is not broken. You know, my bones don't break.

I just had a Dexas scan. If you don't know what that is, it's a $25,000 machine where you lay down completely still and it zzz over top of you and get your body fat, your bone density, all your water, all that kind of stuff. I'm in like the 99.8% percent tile on bone density. Wow.

You know, so I knew the bones weren't broken, but back to what I was saying, like I've been just so extremely blessed with such a well-enabled body to be able to, yes, it's a lot of hard work, and I put a lot of hard work in, and I take care of my body, and I live a discipline life,

so my body, I expect my body to perform accordingly. So to have this body that's been firing on all cylinders for the last 31 years to look down on my leg and look at it and my brain is telling my foot to go up and it won't, it's a scary thing. But I got some of the brightest minds in medicine in my corner and we've already talked about it. And they said two weeks from now, after a little bit of rehab, your foot's your leg's going to be 100% ready to go. You can fight in a month. So what I saw was you're obviously hurt. you're, I mean, unbelievably tough, like unfathomably tough. You continue to go.

You drop him. You're telling, I saw, I even asked Brent this question at the press conference. Like, I saw you say to him, hit me, take it off, break it off. And that was just absurd to watch. I have so much more respect for you. And that wasn't even possible. But I mean, it's just your heart was unbelievable, though, what you showed. And then I see you go, they call time, you go into the corner, they're talking to you.

You get up. You go back to sit. down and someone moves the stool and then they call it off and i thought that they thought you couldn't stand i hope that's not what it was because that would be one of the weirdest most unfortunate things who moved that stool that was a commission guy right yeah i know his name but i'm not going to say it how'd you find out he's an awesome guy i love the guy he doesn't work in your corner no no no he was he was my guy like so so is he a beltor guy no he's he was a new york once again okay new york athletic commission he was the guy he was he walks in high i'm so

and so, I will be your commission. You have, you have a commissioner with you, um, the whole way through. You can't take a pee. You can't walk to the bathroom. You can't walk out. You can't eat anything. You can't drink anything. You can't do anything without, with them watching. They watch you get your hands wrapped. They watch you put on your gloves. They watch you put on your out. That's common in every state though, right? Common in every state though, right? Common in every sport. So that's your guy. So he, he walks out with you. Okay. He's basically in charge to making sure I don't get myself in trouble. He's in charge of the drug test. He's in charge of all that. He is basically in my pocket the whole way to make sure I don't do anything. So whenever the fight got stopped, timeout,

postpone, which I was going to ask you, I don't even know if that's even legal, if that's even how that's supposed to happen. But we're sitting there. He had to come into the cage because he's my guy. He's in charge of everything, Michael Chandler, that whole event. So he put this, I guess he brought the stool up because my cornerman aren't allowed. to come in. He put the stool down. I stand up. I guess for some reason, he thought we were going to continue. He pulls a stool out and it's gone viral. It's made the chive. It's made. It's got millions and millions and millions of views at my expense. You know. Does it drive you nuts? No, I mean, I was laughing at it. You're laughing. Literally the night of the fight, I'm sitting there.

I mean, people are ruthless. You guys are freaking ruthless. The human race is ruthless, okay? You just had a man go out there and millions of millions of people walking around like a baby deer that just got birthed into a field and walking around on the skanky leg, stanky leg, or whatever you want to call it. And there's people posting these videos of that runway model with her ankles and like posting the video of me getting, you know, dropped on my butt on the, on the stool. It's not funny. It's not, but what are you going to do? I mean, people, people love to make fun of people. I saw some media guys tweet. I'm like, this is not funny. Yeah, this is not. It looks bad on the sport, honestly. I could care less. You could last me all you want.

I love myself and I have enough, you know, enough self-esteem to say, hey, stuff happens. That's pretty darn funny, actually. But it's bad for the sport. It looks really bad. I mean, it made ESPN or something, I think, on ESPN.com. But here's the question. Did they stop the fight because you fell in your butt? Because that's what I gathered when I saw that.

It happened at the exact same time. When they called it off, right? Yeah. So I think I fell, looked up like, hey, dude, what did you just do in front of all these people? You know, right now? Did someone help you up? No, I got right back. I mean, I did a one-legged squat, basically, or pistol squat, you know.

What were they saying to you in the corner? Like, how did they determine that you could not fight anymore? They were, you know, they're doctors, and there was two or three of them there. And he was, so I basically have, I basically have this, I have this thing right here. See this little. Yeah. So there's a hole in my leg right here that I always had. Oh, okay.

And it's like, it's a hole in my sheath. You know, as you can see, I have like a couple of them. But it's just what happens when you have, like, people with leaner legs, they pop out, whatever. Sorry. I don't know if that's. No problem. That was cool. Yeah, that's fine.

So I felt him sticking his finger in that hole on it. And he's like, he looks up the doctor and he's like, I think he has a tibia fracture. And I'm like, I was like, sir, that's not a tibia fracture. It's fine. My leg is just cramping. It's fine. You know, I made something up. Yeah, yeah.

I got kicked in it or it's just sore, you know, whatever. I was just like, just don't stop the fight. I'm fine. Let's go. Let's do this thing. Hop on out. you know, we'll talk about it later. Let me do my job. But yeah, I mean, they were just, they were doing it and they were testing it, you know, obviously I didn't have a ton of strength in it,

you know, and here I am, dude, 16, and now I got another loss on my record and I'm not the champion anymore, allegedly, but I still got the belt at home. You were jumping up and down. I was. That was crazy. I couldn't believe it. You were like, let's go. You wanted to go right then and there. Yeah, well, and the other thing, too, is, you know, Primus screaming and acting like he just did something and saying, hey, buddy, you didn't do anything. You know, one punch got landed in that fight.

You had a man. We're seeing some highlights right here. Yeah, I don't know. You had a man completely debilitated and all you could do was try to play kick the leg. And there you go, get sat to your butt. What is going on in your mind when you do that, when you drop him on one foot? Well, unfortunately, I wish I would have just said, okay, just stand here and let him keep coming back to you, because I had the beat on them.

Like, when I get your range and I get your timing and I get your movement and I see your tendencies and your habits there, and it all unfolds in front of my eyes, I've been in the sport long enough to know right where I'm, right, know right where I'm going to punch and when I'm going to punch. And I had it. It was there. And that's the unfortunate part, too, is I promise you, I was about to have one of the greatest comebacks in the MMA history, and I would have knocked Brent Premis out on one leg. I should have went karate kid, honestly, because that would have made like you would have gone down in in mMA lore i mean i would have retired right there

no i don't know about that we wouldn't have let you retire but like isaiah thomas in the 1988 NBA finals played the fourth quarter on one leg like this was even more impressive what you did you were you were landing punches you were dropping a guy and it was clear you were a wounded animal and i just couldn't believe it when you dropped him it was it was a sight to see and then i remember because i was sitting cage side usually i'm not sitting cage side and just seeing the look of disgust and disappointment on your face you yelled something out of What did he say to you and what did you say back to him? We just saw a moment where you guys sort of embraced after he got the belt.

Do you remember? I mean, I think he was probably respectful, like, you know, thank you for the opportunity or something like that, which that's fine, you know. And I just, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. You can, you have respect for anybody who steps in this cage and does what we do, man. I mean, we're only 0.000, 0.001% of the human race does what we do. And it's one of the most gruesome, toughest emotional roller coaster rides of all times. So I have a ton of respect for every single person that steps in that cage. So no matter what, it wasn't Brent Primus's fault that I rolled my ankle,

lost complete function of the lower half of my left leg. And, you know, so I said, you know, congratulations. But let's be honest, man, like, you know, hold on to the belt and enjoy it. Take a ton of pictures. Take as many pictures as you can. So you can talk about that, you know, 90 days that you were Bellator champion. Afterwards, he's saying, like, don't, essentially he's saying, don't talk to me about flukes and things like that.

I did this. You know, that's the point of the game. I caused damage, I won as a result of the damage I inflicted. To that, you say hogwash. I mean, you did it to yourself is what you're saying? Yeah, I mean, he basically did no damage. It wasn't a kick, because he said he practiced that to go attack your leg. This is what they set out to do.

He practiced the leg kicks. That's what he said. Congratulations, you're a mixed martial artist. I've had my left leg kick to 78 million times. the last eight years, you know, and nothing like this has ever happened, you know. So it was, it's, it's crazy, man, it's, it's a crazy sport, and it's, you're tied onto a tornado inside of a cage, and that's really what happened. And, you know, I mean, let him, let him say what he wants, let him think, let him think what he wants. I mean, this is, this is the fight game.

This, these kinds of things happen. And I don't want, I don't want, I, like, I appreciate, I appreciate all the kind words, but I signed up for this, you know. I, I, I, I wake up every single morning excited about the opportunity to be able to brave the unknown and the virtual certainty of being let down at some point and having things like this happen. Good. Things like this are going to happen and I'm going to come back and it's going to be part of the story, you know, and it's going to be part of the journey, it's going to be part of the legacy. You know, and you look at my record and you think about the losses that I have that arguably should have been wins in a lot of people's eyes. You know, you look at the injury and it's just like,

it's a crazy, crazy sport. And at the end of the end of the end of it. It's just like it's a crazy, crazy sport. And at the the day, you just do what you can with what you've been given, and people can see how I can conduct myself after the fight, and people can see how I can conduct myself. It's another opportunity to conduct myself how I want to conduct myself and how I believe that I should conduct myself in this situation and dust myself off. And months from now, I'm going to have the belt back around my waist. And, you know, hopefully this doesn't tarnish my, you know, my standing in the world rankings. I don't see how it could. I mean, you know, you're what are you going to drop me out of the top 10 because I rolled my ankle and couldn't fight.

Do you get the sense, though, that your stock has gone up? Like, you have more fans now? I've gotten some phone calls from some very important people saying, you know, saying, you know, saying. Tell us any names? I mean, just, I mean, Spike has reached out. Wow. Like, not just, like, the highest of the highs at Spike had called me and said, I mean,

I was in the cage for two minutes and 22 seconds at Madison Square Garden. Two minutes and ten seconds of that two minutes of 22, I was wobbling around on one leg. and I still got the greatest cheers. Fanderlase Silva, Chal Sondon, Matt Matreone, Faderlamele-Lamilichael, Michael Chandler stole the show and lost the fight. Showed people what a true fighter is and what determination looks like

and what biting down in your mouthpiece and going on in your sealed looks like. I stole the show at Madison Square Garden. And that's awesome to hear from people. And that's awesome. It is a stock thing because at the end of the day, I'm not in this sport for the glitz and the glam and the money and the lights and this.

I'm in this sport to be, a shining light and to be put on a platform for people to say, man, if Michael Chandler can hobble around for two minutes and say, come on, kick it, break it, maybe they could wake up the next day and say, well, you know what, life, you just dealt me this card, go ahead, do it, this is fine, I'm going to come back from this, I'm going to overcome this, you know, like, it's a metaphor for life. That fight was a metaphor for life, and I get to live it, and I get the opportunity, I get the opportunity to live it day in and day out, and these things are going to keep happening. That's why I say, I don't want, I don't want the same.

sympathy and I don't want the, you know, it's awesome to feel the love and it's awesome to get the phone calls and it's awesome to see my Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and all that stuff grow and all the awesome comments from so many beautiful people, but it's what I signed up for. I am a vessel that was put on this earth to be a shining light for times like this, you know, and it's just, it's part of it. And at the end of the day, if they give me the instant rematch, which I hope they do, I'm going to be championing. And if they don't, I'm going to go through the next five guys to get back to it. And I'm going to continue my, continue knocking them down as they put them in front of me,

and that's what I'm going to do. I'm a fighter. Scott was in studio just an hour ago, and he said the rematch is yours if you want it. Well, there we go. Let's do it. Yeah, that would be crazy not to do the rematch right away. I think, I mean.

But they haven't said it to you? No, I actually, because I was hoping Scott was going to be here so I could talk to him in the person. Sorry. I would have scheduled you guys closer. It's all good. But no, I texted him. He said, yeah, I just left.

He's going to catch a plane or whatever. And I said, book it. I mean, you know, granted, or barring any kind of weird thing going on, my MRI should be clean. Excuse me, my MRI should be clean. When I see the nerve specialist, that should be clean and good.

And then we go from there and we say, let's book this thing a couple months from now. So what is realistic? Like as far as getting back to training and fight, in your mind, I know before you get all those reports back, what do you think is realistic for a return? Realistic? I mean, the funny thing is,

the crazy thing is I think in two weeks, I'm going to be 100% healthy. Wow. So I could fight in three weeks. But you go back and watch those replays and you look at that, you would not think that that man who was just hobbling around on that ankle would be able to fight again in that short of time. But here I am, man.

Like I said, I've been extremely blessed with a durable body that I've been through some weird, crazy injuries and all that kind of stuff. And I fought injured. And I always told myself and I made a promise to myself, my family and my fans that if I can walk to the cage, I'm going to show up on fight night. and that's what I did. And I've paid the price for it. I've taken losses for it,

but I've never pulled out of a fight. I've had six opponents drop out in my career, but I have never pulled out of a fight. And I always said, if I can walk to the cage, I'm going to step into that cage, I'm going to fight because I'm a fighter. And they wanted me to get stretched out of the cage. I said, absolutely not.

I walked out. They wanted me to get stretched to the ambulance. I said, heck no. Those things are bad. Those things are a bad omen. I can walk. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I can walk. I don't hear anything clicking or cracking.

There's, you know, so I'm going to walk. And I walked and walked on in here. And, you know, I got the opportunity to roll. Yes, it was very nice. That was a great intro. But I walked to the chair and I wish I can get like one of those directors cuts and hear what you were saying to yourself initially when you get hurt. And then as you're trying to survive, what are you saying to yourself, if anything? Are you saying, I can't believe this is happening?

Are you saying survive? I got him. What kind of dialogue are you having internally? The crazy thing is, man, and I don't want to discredit Brent Premis, but I didn't feel in danger. I mean, I have fought some dangerous human beings in my career. You know, Patricie Pitbull hits like a brick house. Eddie Alvarez came and tried to kill me in our first fight whenever I hurt my foot and he chased me around for two minutes, beating the tar out of me. I fought some, I fought some dangerous human beings in that cage.

I didn't feel in danger. I just, I was not performing. Like my body, my left leg would not function. So it was just more of a, it was more of a feeling out process. It was a, okay, this is something that's impossible to, this is something that is impossible to train for. You can't train. Okay, ready, the next two minutes, your left leg doesn't work. Right, right, right.

Go, spar. But man, it's, it's another, it's another kind of feather on my cap. It's another, it's another opportunity to see my veteranship be revealed to me right in front of my eyes that, that I had that happen. and I still had the calmness of mind to say, it's okay, something's going on, the feeling in your leg is going to come back. And that's what I just kept thinking. Weathered the storm, the feeling in your leg is going to come back.

I didn't feel in danger. He wasn't throwing punches. He threw a couple kicks. That's fine. I looked at him in the eyes and said, throw more. Do it, you know? Because I knew he was going to keep throwing those kicks,

and I was going to get the beat on him, and I was going to get the bullseye and put it right on his chin, and I did and dropped him right to his butt. That's when the fear came. And if I hadn't chased him, if I hadn't chased him across the cage, rolled my ankle four more times and then fell, maybe the ref doesn't stop the fight right there.

So I've replayed it in my head a thousand times and wish I would have maybe done things different. But when you're in a cage, it's so easy to sit back and say, man, I wish I could have done this. Or fans or media could say he should have done that and this, that, and the other thing. But really the only thing in my mind was keep calm.

It's fine. Your leg's going to adjust. I have the confidence on myself that anything in life, in a fight, in training, in anything, you can make the proper adjustments to put yourself in the best situation to succeed. And I believe that's what I was doing. And I was kind of just learning how to fight again as a injured opponent.

I was learning how to do that in that cage right there. And right about that time, the ref stops a fight, which he stopped the fight. But here's my question is, if the doctors would have looked at it and looked at each other and said, no, it's not broken, he can continue to fight? Can I continue to fight at that point? Well, they would ask you. So if I said, but is that? how the rules go? Is that even, you know what I'm saying? Well, they, they then determined, because did they ever actually ask you, will you continue? They didn't have to. I would say,

get out of my cage. I got a job to do. And that's the part I don't really understand, because I guess then they determine, I really think it's because you fell. I really think that you fell and they thought that you can't stand. And they're like, no, we, go look at their faces. They're like, no, we can't do this. I hope not, man, because that's the, that's the biggest. Would you appeal this? I don't know. I mean, here's, the question i think i should call i should call whoever was in charge of calling the call the doctors and say what was it because of you you saw me fall because that was because i got three stooges you got mollary curled in front of millions of people real quick it's okay it's just my ego

don't worry about the whole world laughing at me but um i mean maybe i mean i should have you guys talked about that not really i mean it's just it's kind of one of those things where you're just digesting it and you really what are you going to do you know who are you there's so many people to be mad at you know there's i could be mad at myself there's so many there's so many things to to nitpick at but i've just never been able to do i actually i have done that in the past and it's really it's really gotten to me and it in it it what just like yeah like look at situations and say he shouldn't be doing this she shouldn't be doing that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah I don't like the way that they are doing this.

Oh, woe is me. Because we're all victims and we act like victims sometimes, you know? We're all guilty of that in our lives. Licking your wounds. Licking your wounds. Did you do any of that? No. Not even Saturday night?

No, what am I going to do, you know? I mean, I was just, I mean, I guess you just, it was such a whirlwind. I mean, I was in the ambulance. We have video of it. We'll release a video, I'm sure, but I'm just sitting there like, this is ridiculous. What is even happening? I'm in an ambulance right now for, you know, And I knew my leg wasn't broken, basically, because I'm walking around on it.

And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm driving with the, with the sirens on through New York City. Wow. You know, and I'm like, this is not happening. Like, why, what is going on right now? Lost your belt? The weirdest way possible? Yeah, you know, it's just, man, people are going to look back and say, man, Michael Chandler has had some weird things happen in his career. And I'd say, well, I wouldn't have it any other way. I was told, correct me if I'm wrong, that you were not begging, but asking maybe aggressively to the PR,

team to like pipe you into the press conference. Oh yeah. Danny, put me on FaceTime so I can tell everybody what's going on and happen. He's like, I'll try. It never happened. You wanted to speak. I would love to. Yeah, I mean, I would love to get the questions and speak. And that's why, you know, this, you know, we planned this.

We had a lot different agenda than we thought this is going to be, you know, had I won the fight and figure out what's next. But let me just say to the people, I reach out to you kind of essentially saying like, I understand if you don't want to come. And Michael wrote back, no if, ends or buts. I will be there, like within a second. Yeah. And again, my respect for you has just grown. I didn't even know it could grow.

I mean, I'm really impressed that you would come here and want to talk to people because I thought that you would be devastated. I mean, that's your belt. That leads to a lot in your life. And that's giving you a lot. And there's a lot that comes with that. And you saw another man. I mean, Brent, you know, there's something about the new champion.

He came in wearing it, you know, at the presser and everything like that. And I'd imagine that doesn't make you very happy, right? I guess, but I don't know, man. I mean, I don't want to de-legitimize what he is accomplished. Right. Good for him. And he, you know, and he won the fight. Did he, you know, did he, did he gain any fans? No, that night. Did he get booed out of the arena? Yes, he did, you know. So it's one of those things where I'd rather be in my position than his position. Yeah. I felt bad. I have to say that he got booed, because it's not like he called the fight off. He didn't do anything, but, you know, I think the fans were more upset with, like, the officials involved that they called it off because it was just so riveting to watch.

Yeah. And they're going. Even if it was at my expense, they were like, hey, let him keep going. This is actually really cool. We don't know if his leg's going to fall off and we're going to see like a, you know. Now that you've been in the cage of them, so you've had a little bit of time to assess him. And I know it wasn't under the best circumstances. You're not close to 100%, but do you feel like he's not on your level?

Oh, my goodness. I was on the way to winning the easiest fight in my life, in my opinion. You felt that? Yeah. I mean, Brent is slow. He is very slow. He's not confident. He backed up the entire fight.

He was scared to death of me. Even after I was hurt, he was scared to death of me. That's the funny thing. Because I looked at me in the eye and I said, kill me, break it, kick it, let's do this. And then I dropped him. One punch got laid. He had a man completely debilitated in some. of a cage and he couldn't even land a punch.

That's a sad, that's a sad moment. That's a scary moment. That's a scary man standing in front of you telling you to kick his leg that could be broken. And so I'd imagine, I mean, it's one thing for like to lose it to like Eddie Alvarez. Yeah. You feel that way about your opponent and he has your belt? That can't sit well. That's my belt, man.

All right. That's my belt. I mean, what's, I'm going to get this leg fixed, whatever needs to be fixed. He can enjoy his third. days of fame, you know, and the seven, you know, the seven family members and friends that he has tweeting about the legitimacy of his win. Okay. Are they tweeting you? I mean, I've seen some stuff. Yeah. And it's just like, what have we seen? Just, I see him talking about it. And, similar to what you said, oh, he, he won the fight, fair and square and this, that, and the other thing.

And that's what I'm saying. I'm not here to, you can't delegitimize the win for him because this is the sport that we chose. Yeah. If I go out there and I'm, and I'm chasing. somebody down and they roll an ankle or break a leg and this that and the other thing like that that's the nature of the sport this is the sport that we signed up for we signed on the dotted line knowing that we are in a volatile crazy situation that injuries can happen you know so he got the win technically like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you know but he got the win with an asterisk right now his his win has an asterisk on it you get you got to beat the champion you can't let the champion just go out with an injury to get the belt any fighters reach out to you

I feel like you were getting a lot of respect on Twitter from fighters and things. Yeah, I mean, anything that kind of stood out, a text or something from someone that really touched you? Yeah, I got a, yeah, I got one from Chale Sunn this morning. Oh, wow. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah. And Chale trains with Brent. Mm-hmm. What do you say? He just said, thinking of you, man, I hope, you know, hope everything's well, you know, Chale's, you know, Chale's the, you know, he's the gangster, but he's a nice, you know, he's a nice guy sometimes. But, um, we, we have a good relationship.

But I mean, him and, yeah, I mean, I hung out with Ryan Bader yesterday, and we talked a little bit, you know. So, I mean, and I saw some stuff on Twitter and all that kind of stuff. But it's after a fight, there's a whirlwind. Everybody's talking about the fight. And they're tagging you in it so you can't decipher. You're not going to, I'm not going to waste my time. I haven't seen my wife in nine weeks. I'm not going to sit there glued to my phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, but so.

When I ask you about New York now, of course, you will always remember this, and this will be the first thing that comes to mind, but leading up to it, the experience of fighting on this stage, MSG, and, you know, being at Viacom for the press conference, all that stuff. Did you enjoy this? Loved it, man. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is one of the cornerstones of Bellator's existence, man. And it feels like something's changed now, right? Like people view it. Yeah. We've opened the new chapter now. Yeah. This is the beginning of something different after Saturday. Yeah. And it's, and I imagine it's different. Like a guy like Ryan Bader. Yeah. You know, he's the newest, one of the new.

his signings, right? He came over from the UFC. He's a big name in the UFC, came close to fighting for the title, or maybe he did fight for the title. Never fought for the title. He came very close, right? So he has seen the UFC side of things, and he comes over to Bellator. So his view of Bellator is over the last couple months, whereas mine started in 2010 or 11, and now we've seen this long progression. So it's hard to, it's hard to see where all the corners and nooks and crannies and different avenues and roads that have led to this one for me because I've just been in it and quite frankly I've been more focused on myself than Bellator and anybody else but you can

definitely tell things are changing and you can tell because people people will say you know because back in the day people like oh man I really think Bellator is growing and I'm like yeah you know I mean we still don't get the respect we deserve I mean I'm I'm the world champion and I'm ranked top three, top five in the world, but nobody really talks about me because I'm the Bellator champion and this, that, the other thing. But now five, six, seven years later, it's different. You know, it really is.

And I'm not going to sit here and say, you know, the organizations are equal or the level at which people view them is the same. But, I mean, the press conference, the big screen, the way the press conference is set up, Kevin Kaye coming out and giving an awesome speech and Scott Cobra coming out. I went out doing an awesome speech.

The lineup of guys that we had there, the ups and the downs, the upsets, even though I'm part of this horrible upset. Yeah. But like, you know, it was a huge historic night. It's Madison Square Garden. It's the world's most famous arena. It was really cool.

And, you know, we'll see what the future holds. All I know is I'm in a very good position. I, even today with another, you know, a loss and an unfortunate set of circumstances, is it's still the best job I've ever had, and it's the best job I'm ever going to have, you know, aside from being a husband and a father someday, you know. But it's the highlight of my life, and it's going to be a very cool platform

and a very cool, cool journey that I get to go on. So it's cool that I've been on this trajectory of Belator, and I've helped them grow, and they've helped me grow. Amazing. I feel like you guys are close to having a kid. You keep mentioning being a father every time I talk to you now. It's like every time, are you trying to put pressure on your wife? Yeah.

No, I mean, no, 2018's our year. You're going to be a great dad, man. Maybe. I don't know. It's scary, man, because it's, man, getting married, scary because you're in charge of providing for another human being. And that's the other thing, too. I mean, if this is me and you talking six, seven years ago when it's just me and I'm single,

it's just selfish. It's like, this happened to me and this happened to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, me, this, I, that. Now it's us. and it's a mouth to feed and it's a heart to protect and it's and it's a woman to serve. And then it's when you think about kids, it's a whole different level and it's, you're someone to, you're someone to look up to and you're that, you're that thing that they want to be and that they want to be loved on by.

So it's, it's going to be cool, man. It's exciting and it's, it's going to be a cool ride. So we'll see. Maybe a year from now, we'll sit here and we'll talk about our kids on the MMA hour. That would be cool. Maybe you could bring in your, oh, I will. By the way, what do you think of the new place? This place is amazing.

You were at the old one, not that long ago. I was, and that one was very cool. Yeah. This one is definitely awesome, man. We moved up, right? Yeah, I need to send you a little bit of a local channel. Yeah, can we get some stuff? We got some Bellator gloves there.

Yeah, I like that. Okay, you got crazy Reginald. Yeah. How about Raygen, I did? Did you really did? I absolutely did. I was sitting there. You were hanging him on.

Yeah, I was like, do it. Because that was been funny. That actually would have been hilarious if he would. have actually called him or if he would have put out Dana White's phone number. hilarious for us, maybe not for him. Yeah, no. And it would have been funny if my name was tied to it. The Bellator guy.

At the suggestion of Michael Chairman. I don't know. The guys in the back, could we get Michael some cans? I want to do something quickly. I forgot to ask for headphones. If we can give him some headphones here for a second because actually, I don't know if you know about this, but I want to call someone. Did they tell you about this?

Uh-uh. They didn't tell you. No. So I want to call someone on the phone, a guy that. that you know. His name is Logan Storley. Okay. You know about him, right? Yeah. You know him quite well.

Yeah, I've lived with him the last nine weeks. Yeah. Was he in your corner? Yeah. Okay. And so we're going to call him now because he has some news to break for us. For those that don't know, Logan is a four-time All-American from the University of Minnesota. Miles, you can come in. Don't be shy. Don't be shy. Bring it on in, brother. Yes. Miles is the best. Our audio extraordinaire.

So four-time All-American from the University of Minnesota, he is originally from Webster, South Dakota. the hometown of course of one Brock Lesnar. Whoa. We good? You can hear me, right? Yep. And some people have been pegging him as the next big thing. Of course, he's not a heavyweight.

I think he's a welterweight. He's a welterweight. And he's been fighting for LFA. And with those accolades from, you know, from Brock giving him his trophy when he was in college. And being a four-time All-American, a lot of people think that he's the next big thing. And he has some news to break. So I wanted to just have you on here for a quick second as we call him. call, Logan. Here we go. We do have them on the phone. Logan, are you there?

Yep. Logan, it's good to talk to you. It's Ariel Hawani. I'm being joined by a man you know Michael Chandler, and I do believe that you have some news to break with all of us. So the floor is yours, my friend. Let's hear the news and then we'll talk about it. All right. Yeah, I signed with Bellator this past week and I'll be fighting July 14th and I'm excited for the opportunity. Wow, July 14th already? That's like in 18 days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm excited. You know, We've kind of had a plan, and I knew after the last fight that we were ready to move on and go to the bigger stage, and Belator is the decision that we made. And so we have the fight scheduled, and now it's time to go out there and perform. Who are you fighting?

Fighting Camel Haley from Oklahoma. Okay. Congratulations. Michael is here. Let me ask Michael a quick question. I've been hearing about Logan for quite some time when he decided to go into. MMA. It was a big story because of where he's from. Webster, University of Minnesota, four-time All-American, very close to being a national champion. How good is this guy? He's very good. Logan was my

main training partner for this last training camp. We trained every single day, drilled a lot, sparred a lot. So it's cool, man. You know, you get to see, honestly, living with and going through a training camp with a young, hungry, successful wrestler, I see a lot of himself or a lot of myself in him, you know, a younger, a younger me when I was 24 and I was excited to sign my first deal and excited to be put on the platform. And he's, he's, he's been working extremely hard. He's got a, he's got a heart of a champion and he's going to get to prove that. And it's, it's, it's cool that he's signing with Bellator and he's going to get to do that on the Belator stage. Logan, why did you choose Belator, not the UFC? Because looking at some old articles with you,

some interviews, you were talking about wanting to go to the UFC like Brock. Yeah, you know, Bellator's growth has been a a big difference. And obviously, you know, this is what I'm going to do. You know, this is what I do do for a living. And so you have to look at things financially. You have to look at the roster. You have to look at who's taking care of who. And Bellator's done a great job with their prospects. And, you know, they've done a really good job of building guys. You know, look at Michael, you know. They've built them from the ground up. They've done a lot of good things with Ed Ruth and Pico and all these guys that they are pushing out there and you hear about. And so that was one of the

main things that I looked at and, you know, I'm excited to, for this opportunity. Is Brock Lesnar as scary as he appears to be from our perspective? I mean, he's a great guy. I like him because, you know, I spend a lot of time with him and we have the same high school wrestling coach. But, you know, when you watch him train and you see him face to face, you know, he is a very large human being. Yes. You know, he is very intense. He's an intense person. But at the end of the day, he's a very simple. And, just a Midwest guy who likes hunting and fishing and hanging out. And, you know, that's pretty much the Brock that I know.

It's very simple. Last thing for you, you know, Aaron Pico came in and it did not go his plan, but he was O&O, and they brought in some other guys like Ed Ruth and Tireau Fortune who had no MMA experience. You have MMA experience. So how far away do you think you are from being in the discussion of, you know, the top contenders at 170? You know, there's a big difference.

I had questions asked about Pico. You know, I feel bad for Pico. You know, it's tough. But there's a difference. I'm five and all I've been in this sport for two years. And, you know, I train with Chandler, Robbie Lawler, Michael Johnson, the best guys in the world. And if I didn't think I could be a top guy, I wouldn't be doing it. Yeah, I would go do something else.

You know, I have a college degree. You know, I could go into coaching. I could do a lot of other things. And, you know, I truly believe in myself. and I know I'm where I'm at, and so, you know, I'm going to take care of July 14th first, and we'll go from there, but, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that, you know, it's not going to be that long, and I will be right there in the talks of the top guys in the weight class. So, you know, everyone will see.

They'll see very soon. But, you know, I'm excited, and I'm going to take care of July 14th first, and then we'll go from there. Yeah, I think what a lot of people don't understand or even know, is you actually took amateur fights, what, when you were 16, 17, 18 years old? Yeah, I had three amateur fights. He had three amateur fights. So, I mean, this is a guy who has now been thinking about fighting for nine years.

You know, essentially, he has almost as much experience as far as some of the mitts and some of the training. And then obviously going through that wrestling back on, me and Logan talk about this all the time. I mean, we're on the same wavelength as so in that wrestlers, getting a high school wrestling career, bringing that into the college division one wrestling program, wrestling for five years of the division one program, and then coming in to mixed martial arts, not taking the damage of the guys who started fighting when they were 18 years old, your career is going to last a lot longer.

Because realistically, and I told Logan this, he's not even fully developed yet. Your body really isn't fully developed until you hit that 28. 29, 30 years old. That's when things really start clicking. So he's so young. I was so young. Back when I burst on the scene, and I was just gutting it out and winning fights and just on sheer athleticism and toughness. So it's cool to see that progression. And this is a guy who's literally been thinking about this day being on the MMA hour with Ariel Hawani, you know, announcing that he was signing with one of the world's biggest promotions for almost a decade now. So it's cool. It's cool to hear that,

It's cool that he's going to get this opportunity, and it's been cool to be his roommate for the last eight weeks and kind of see his progression. And him and I bouncing ideas off of each other, and he's a very smart guy taking notes, seeing how training camps are ran and how things progress in the ups and the downs because it ain't always pretty during a training camp. But it's cool. So he's getting a lot of great experience down there in Florida, and I'm excited for July 14th. Logan, congratulations. Thanks for coming on the show and announcing the big news. We've been watching you from afar. Another great signing for Belator.

They've done a great job of kind of zeroing in on these blue chip prospects, none greater than you. People have been talking and very exciting about your MMA debut after college for quite some time. So again, congrats and good luck on July 14th. I had no idea that it was coming so soon. So I'm looking forward to that very much. Yeah, I appreciate it. All right, there he is. Have a good one.

Stopping by. How about that? You knew he signed with Belator, right? Oh, yeah. Okay. Did you do a little recruiting there? I mean, we had a ton of talks. I mean, it's not really recruiting. I mean, realistically, no offense to Bellator, no offense to the UFC, I could care less about the promotions. It's about the individual fighter. What's the best situation for each individual fighter? Signing with Belator might be good for him, but signing with the UFC might be good for the next guy. You know, it just depends on the tradition of the careers of the past that the guys want to go, you know? So it's, yeah, I mean, we had some talks because there was a, there was a UFC. contract on the table. There was a Bellator contract on the table. There was, you know, contracts on the table. So you got to, you know, I was there for a mentor type of role.

Wow. Answer questions and he's got a lot of questions because he cares. He wants to live that champion lifestyle. He wants to, he wants to be a champion and I think he's going to be one. This is a big signing for Bellator. It is. I remember when he's, I'm not a big wrestling guy, like amateur wrestling, but I know who he is because I know what he's done. I know the connection to Brock, you know, it's a big deal here. you look at his interviews when he started out, he was all about the UFC.

Everything's UFC. I think everybody was. Yeah, I guess. Pico was too. You know, I mean, that was just kind of, that was the cool thing to do. What would be your advice to Pico after what he suffered? Shoot, man.

Just dust yourself off and keep going, man. Did they make a mistake by putting him in there against an 82 guy at MSG? Was it too soon? Yeah, it's a management. It's a management error. Yeah. It's a promotional error. It's a Pico error.

It's a, it was also a great night for Freeman. I mean, It was a great night for a tough opponent. I mean, he's not, he's no pushover, you know. I get it too. You can't, you can't necessarily put Pico out there against a guy with a losing record. You know, it kind of looks bad to have a guy with a losing record on a, on a pay-per-view. Oh, and O's not bad?

They're both, oh, no? Yeah, why not just do that? I guess that's true, too, you know? One and O. This guy, Aiding 2 just fought for the RFA title. And he's a big boy. He's a big boy. I mean, he was four and a half inches taller than Pico.

And Pico's not a big, first of all, Pico should be at 1.45. Yeah. You know, I think Pico, like I was just talking about the growth of a man's body. I think Pico still could end up being a decent size lightweight, but he's a 145 right now. Is he overhyped? Did we do a little too much there? I, first of all, it's hard to say anything negative about a man who just got, you know, you hate, you hate to. But what I would say is it's no offense to Pico.

I would just, I would speak in general. The college wrestling environment breaks people. What do you mean? I think, I think the path. that he chose, although he's had extreme success, everything has been based around him. He doesn't know what it's like to walk into a college dressing room,

get thumped on and beat on, and beat within an inch of your life. Because he bypassed that. He bypassed everything. Interesting. He's had everything. It's always been about him. Is that everything? Interesting. Not that he hasn't earned it. He has earned every single thing that he's the guys beat Zane Rutherford,

a couple of times national champion. He's beaten all these guys on the international circuit. He's a phenomenal wrestler. Does the rest of the community kind of look down on him because he did that? I don't think so. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't, I don't know. I would say, I would say no. I would say no.

But I just think, like I said, I think Aaron Pico would have been better to have gone throughout high school, won his high school's titles, gone to a Division I wrestling program, wrestled five years, become a different type of competitor, a more

bulletproof competitor, and then step an MMA at 22 years old. That's what I think. Instead of bypassing everything, go to the freestyle tournaments, but that's what he did. If I had the opportunity to do that and I could get sponsored

and a lot of stuff paid for and just wrestle for a living and not go to college and do that, who's to say, I wouldn't take that opportunity? But I just think the college wrestling environment will turn you into a different type of animal

than the route that he chose. Fascinating. And Bellator did a very good job of putting a bunch of chips in his corner and making sure that people knew who he was and now they know who he is. But that doesn't mean he's not bad fighting.

He's 0-1, but he's... A lot of fighters start out, O and 1, like some of the grades. Luke Rockhold lost his first and second fighter, which is crazy. I probably would have retired. Like me, if I would have lost a fight, if I'm probably like, eh, go ahead. Well, you're handling this one very well,

remarkably well. It's unbelievable. What a lesson that we can learn from this. I mean, I talk about it all the time. You really get inspired by fighting. at least I do in the way they handle the feet. It's great to show up there when you're the champion, everyone's loving you and you're basking in the glory of it all. But, you know, I actually have a picture right on my desk.

Right over here. Let me show it to you. This is a photo taken by the great Esther Lynn of, look at this. This is not an interesting photo by any stretch, right? No. This is not. But you know what it represents. That's the great.

That right there was the greatest. Never sat down. Dominic Cruz, standing up. UFC 207 loses to Cody Garbrandt. Some might say he was outclassed, stood up there and took that. I mean, I hate to say took that like a man because women take it damn well too.

Took it like a champion. Took it like a professional. And so I have so much respect for him. I have so much respect for you, how you handled it. That's when I sit there in the press room and say, I'm so lucky to be doing this and being around these people because it's incredibly inspiring to be next to you. Because I can't do that.

I would go cry. And it's tough. But I think, I mean, in Dominic's case, I mean, first of all, let me tell you where some of my inspiration, too, I don't know how much time we have, but I'm rambling on. But I saw, I went through those four ACL surgeries with Dominic. Yeah, yeah, you know. Him and I were together training in San Diego.

Well, I was training, and, you know, he was watching me train. I saw everything taken from this man. There's not a man on this earth that loves fighting more than this guy right here. He loves it five times more than I do. and it was taken away from him for three years or however long it was. Yeah, yeah, three and a half. His legs would not work.

They kept failing him. So to see a man like that, go through that and see everything taken away from him, how am I going to sit here and say, oh, whoa, is me, my little sprained ankle or whatever you want to call it, and a loss, and oh, woe was me. Man, get over yourself, man.

I'm so extremely blessed, all things considered. I mean, I could have been laid up with three ACL surgery. He was like this guy. And I probably would have just retired and just quit. But he stuck through it and he's, and he's, and he, and that night when he gave that speech and he stood up there and he took it, like you said, like a man, like a champion, his stock grew by a million percent. And that's a great human being right there.

So it's just, it's what we're called to do, man. We get this platform. We get opportunities like this to use our voice and use our actions to inspire and lift people up in life. And I will never, ever, ever take that for granted. So what happened on Saturday night was unfortunate for myself, but you're not going to see me cry about it. You know, you're not going to see me worry about it. It did end on Saturday night and the sun came up this morning and it's a new day to get better. Well done, Mike. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming in. I can't thank you enough. When did you go home?

We leave Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning. All right. So you've got some time left here in New York. Yeah. See the sites walk a lot. Walk it off. Walk it off. I really appreciate it. Keep us posted on the doctor appointments. and looking forward to the return. Absolutely. And I hope you get that immediate rematch. That's what I'm hoping for. We're doing this on the fly once again.

You can roll right out of here. We're doing it. That's how we do it. Yeah, there he goes. Michael Chandler, he will fight for the belt in the not so distant future. We appreciate him coming in. Appreciate his team for stopping by as well.

Yeah, you can keep that there. No problem. I like to look at Dominic all show long. He gives me inspiration. Thank you so much, Mike. We'll see you soon. There he is. The one and only Michael Chandler,

the now former Belator Lightweight Champion. I don't say that so that he punches me in the face. I have no doubt that he will be back sooner rather than later. You missed the moment with your picture there, Esther. We're having people take photos in the middle of our show. That's how long. There he goes. Michael Chandler, great performance from him in very trying circumstances.

Brent Primis is now the Beltor lightweight champion. But you heard Scott Coker earlier say that they want to do the rematch, you heard from him. He is doing okay. he is quite frankly sounds like he he dodged a bullet and hopefully we get to see him soon and later and pretty cool news there from logan storely remember that name july 14th that's when he will debut in belator four-time all-american university of minnesota wrestling webster south dakota look him up he is an impressive fellow speaking of impressive let's talk to james galloher right now the breakout performance

in my opinion of saturday night he came into msg called his shot walked red right up to Shenzhou Machita, and then shortly thereafter submitted him. And then, to add to all that, walked around wearing a leopard jacket that had the word savage on the back. Talk about stealing the show. James Galaher is joining us right now via the phone. James, are you there? I'm here. How do you think?

Things are going very well. Probably a little better for you. Are you back home in Straban? Yeah, I just arrived this morning. so it had a flea and like half six this morning arrived so being just trying to battle the jet lag all day. But I think I'm that high on my movement from the weekend that it's getting me through it. And it's just nice being home. And so I'm reminded of a famous line by the great notorious B.I.G.

When you said it was all a dream. Does this kind of feel like it was all a dream for you? Like to go back home? I'm always curious about someone who comes in to a big stage. You do what you did. you're incredibly successful and then you come back to your familiar surroundings.

What's it like now? You were just in MSG doing that. How do you process all of this? Yeah, it's a bit madge. It's like, after an eye, I'm like, it's such a big thing. It's someone I've dreamed of all my life. And I'm kind of like a sad that it's over.

I'm like, ah, that was good. I want to walk back out tonight and fight in MSG again. So I do, I'm like, kind of sad that it's over but it's great coming back and just being around my people again back home in Stravan and seeing everyone and stuff it's a good feeling and everyone congratulate me and there's never anyone from here that has done something as big as big as that and to be just young and be like a role model for these kind of young people coming up around here and stuff it's it's a nice

feeling when you were envisioning all of this did you think it would go this well? Yeah, I did. I remember during the fight week, during fight week, I was saying, like I was sending

the people around me who was with me. I know he's like a tough guy and had a tough opponent ahead of me and he's a knockout artist, he's knocked out a lot of people, especially guys who try and take him down, he can step off and bang shots

from awkward angles and he pits people to sleep. And I was like, I'm really confident that I'm going to go in there and like I'm going to beat him no problem, but I had a gut feeling that it was going to be really easy.

Like, there was something in me saying that I'm going to, like, absolutely annihilate this. I'm going to go out here and, like, I'm going to steal the show. Do you know what I mean? I kept telling my, my gut feeling would tell me this, and then my mind was like, now, come on switch or that, like, prepare for a puff fight. Do you know what I mean? But

there was something in the back of my mind just kept telling me that I'm the best. I'm going to be better than this guy, and I'm not going to be sheds walking out here, and I'm going to steal the show. and that's exactly what I've done. And so, I mean, you always look like you're enjoying the moment that you're cool as a cucumber, you know, the most confident guy in the room.

But was there ever a moment backstage at MSG as you're about to walk out there where the nerve started to get you at all? No, I really, like, when I was on the way, like, to the event, I was, like, gear myself up for that. I was, like, mentally preparing myself to, like, I'm going to feel this, I was just, you know, before the fire. like I'm going to feel this nervous, this pressure. I said I was,

I was mentally preparing myself to feel that. And then I didn't feel it. Once I started moving around and get more, and I, I just felt, I felt, I just felt invincible kind of, like,

I really, it was weird because I, I thought I was going to feel, all this pressure and feel like, no, I thought it was going to hit me, no, just before I walk out. And I,

know, the guys are calling me, let's go. I thought it was going to feel this, no, like, I thought it was going to feel this, I thought I was going to get really nervous. And it's a big moment and it's a big, it's a big opportunity me for, to take it.

And I thought I was, I was gearing myself up for it, but it didn't come. And just when I was standing at the ramp ready to walk out, I was like, this is, this is, this is just where I belong. This is me, you know what? I just, I just, I just love being here. There's, I don't, I don't want to do,

I don't want to be anywhere else. I don't want to do anything else. I just, I just love being there and just walking out. And I just, I took it all in. So I looked around, I stopped on the ramp, looked around, and I've seen all the people there, just singing along and cheer me on. And I took it all in, and I was like, this is what I've been working towards since I've been 13 years old. Every day I've just bent in the gym and I'm missing out in a lot of things that other teenagers do growing up.

I miss out of them because I was just in the gym all day training and stuff like this. And this is what I've been gearing myself up towards. This is my moment, you know what I mean? and this is why I just stopped in the ramp and I took it all in and then I was like, let's do this I've got a man in front of me he's going to try and take away my dreams

and I was all I'm not letting many men do that. This is a bit of a crazy question or maybe a silly one but I mean you have massive balls I mean to walk in there and to walk right up to him and stare at him in the face this is not stuff that some of the you know the most successful veterans in this sport do have you always been that way?

Yeah, I've always been this way since I When I was 13 years old I thought it's 21 year old man So I did You feel like I'm different than everyone else There's probably there's smaller Smaller things that would Would feed me a lot more than

Than doing this like if you asked me Go and I don't know Go into a shop and ask someone For something I probably wouldn't do that But if you asked me to walk out and come out the arena and fights in front of thousands of people. And like, do you know what I mean? I'll do this all day.

I just don't get phased by someone else. I feel like I've got so much confidence in myself that I can't, another person can't faze me. It doesn't matter who they are. They won't faze me. I don't get intimidated by people. I don't get like, I wouldn't be like starstruck by anyone.

I wouldn't, other people just. don't fears me. I just feel always just feel so good about myself and what I do that I don't think I can be shared by anything to be honest. It's amazing to watch. It's amazing to watch a 20-year-old act like that towards a 40-year-old

and then to actually go in there and do what you did to him. I love that photo of you bowing down to Shenzhou because I mean that's one of my favorite photos. I have it in the studio here of Mayhem Miller they're bowing down to Kazushisakrabah.

So, you know, above all of the, you know, the showmanship, if you will, you do, I mean, you mentioned this in the scrum, you do have a ton of respect, maybe more so than any other opponent and maybe any other, you know, fighter outside of your team out there, the Machita family. This is a family that you've actually looked up to as you were coming up, right? Yeah, 100%. When I first, I remember I first, when I first started training at MMA, I started on a, uh, the end of October. That was actually my 12th birthday.

Wow. Then in December for Christmas, all I wanted was that, all I wanted was to get DVDs, the USDA DVDs and stuff like this. So, I'll fight, this is all I was into. So I got a DVD

and the other than-a-Michita was on it. I can't remember who he was fighting, but I was, then I was my first time watching him, and my uncle was telling me that he comes from the karate background and stuff like this, because I said, where I started, and he was my idol for years.

So he was, he was the guy who, you know what I mean, he was the guy who, he says stand up, his cradic south, who uses dynamic footwork to beat,

like, the wrestlers and stuff like this. He was the one who was able to move different and, and confuse all these guys with his business and stuff. And he was, he was my idol.

He was the one, like I looked up to, you know what I mean? He was the one that, he was the man to me, and then I went and fought his big brother, you know what I mean? but that's the way it goes.

Once I started then, I was like, I'm going to be better than all these guys. I'm not, you know what I mean? I don't want to be, like, just fights. I just want to be one of these guys who was known as a good fighter. I want to be known as the greatest ever. What was the best part of the whole experience? I'm sure the win is at the top, but was there something, some moment, some person that you ran into just getting to fight at 20 at MSG?

Is there something that stood out above the rest? Yeah, meeting Leodo Machita. Wow. That was probably the highlight of the whole thing, was meeting Leoto Machita. Man, he's my idol, you know what I mean? He's the guy I looked up to when I was coming up as a kid. So that was probably the highlight of the moment.

But another great moment that I had, and it still feels like I can just remember it, like if it was a minute ago, is when I ran and jumped in top of the cage, I just sat up there and I looked around, and I wasn't celebrating. I was soaking it all in for motivation to, because I know I can be the greatest ever,

and this moment just give me that bit more confidence and a bit more motivation, and it inspired me. So it is, I inspired myself. I feel like that's how I've done it. I inspired myself after, or sitting in all that work. And there's no other 20-year-old can face all this height that I get.

The amount of hype that I get, the amount of pressure that's put on me, the amount of criticism that I get, the messages that I get from people, like, criticizing me is, like, people say some harsh, harsh stuff to me. Kitt me down and stuff like this here. And I read them all on board. I read them all. I take every one of them on board.

And it just motivates me. doing something that I love in the biggest stage in the world out in the bed of people just all by doing something that I love every day I don't have to get up and work because I just do something that I love and I'm kind of glad that when I was

like 15 I dropped out of school and I followed what I love rather than just going and following the crowd and not doing something that I love just getting by and knew that I could have turned into someone like that who hates on someone being successful so there's no other 20-year-old in this planet

that can chase all that their criticism, face all that hype, act like if it's nothing, and then walk out in the biggest arena in the world, and go and fight someone the way I fought them and just look at him dead and I and tell him that I'm going to beat him. That's what I've done. I just walked up to him and told him that I was going to beat him. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful or anything.

I have the most respect for him in any other fighter and the whole the whole division because of his brother and stuff and I was just being honest I was walking up and I told them

what I believe and told them what I was going to do and told them what I told them what are people writing to you like well I mean I know there are trolls

and things like that but like what's actually getting not under your skin but what's bothering you here you here? Nothing up one thing bothers me well maybe not bother

but you said that some stuff that like really it sounds like some really disturbing stuff. Yeah, I get a lot of things like people just message me saying that I'm never going to make it anywhere. I'm like, boom, the outdoors build me up.

I'm like, I'm a wannabe Connor and this there's no one's actually proud of me. And they just pipped me down. So they did they just send all these like things that just they're not nice. I mean, no one hears that. but I think I'm kind of sick in the head because I smile, it makes me happy.

It makes me happy. I don't know what it is, but I smile at it and I'll be like, this is unbelievable, you know what I mean, that these people are going out of their way because I have such an influence on them. You know what I mean? I have such an influence on someone

that's like coming out of their way to write stuff like that's good to me. It makes me kind of happy because I'm just doing something that I love. Do you know what I'm not doing I'm not doing anything else I just I just love fighting

Do you mean I used to fight all the time I was at school And what's the difference in fight now I'm probably fighting in a safer environment And I get paid for it What was it like Was anyone waiting for you at home When you got home

What was that like? It was unbelievable As soon as got back My father met me at the airport And you know I mean He wasn't with me over there He couldn't come and it's a great moment, you know what I mean?

Everyone's, it's like, I feel like not only is it the part of me or the work that I fit in, but I feel like it's a teamwork here. You know what I mean? My parents and my coach, Sean Kavana and everyone else that I have around me, they deserve the credit as well, you know what I mean?

Because they go out of their way to help me and do whatever they can to make me be, successful in what I'm doing, you know what I mean? I'll never really retire my family or John or anyone for the kind of stuff that they do for me and I very much appreciate it, you know what I mean? They're very selfless and

pit me first. And you can't ever thank anyone enough for putting someone else first, you know what I mean? It's a great moment and I'm looking forward to catching up with my friends and there's a local bar that's going to show my fight and I'm going to go down

and see my family and and everyone. And we're going to celebrate it. It's a big, big moments for me and for my time. You know what I mean? I put my town on the muck. You know what I mean? Just a small place in Straban.

And there's probably more people that could fit in MSG than there is my whole time. Is that how many people? Do you know? Do you know how many people are from there? I think there's 20. Yeah, I think there's 25 or 28,000. Wow. That is.

Unbelievable. Yeah. So there's, you know what's the MSG? What's the whole 22 or something? Yeah, I mean, not on Saturday, but at its capacity it's around 20. Yeah. Yeah. That is unbelievable.

I mean, so more people can fit into that arena that I just fought in than there is in my own part. So I feel great pride and I'm kind of humbled by myself. You know, man, I feel like I humbled myself in there and just I showed myself that I can do anything now in this game. I can face the highest highest pressure event that I'm probably ever going to face. Do you know what I mean? I'm going to,

I'm going to go on and do a lot bigger things in my career. I'm going to win board trials. I'm going to do much bigger things than I've done on Saturday night. But this moment is going to be one that I'll remember for the rest of my life. It does sort of feel like a turning point, right? Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm trying to say. It's a turning point, so it is, it's a, I'm not going to, it's not the biggest thing that I'm going to do because I'm going to do a lot bigger things than I've done on Saturday night. But it's going to be a point of career where I'm going to look back and this is going to be one stands. This is going to be, this is going to be one of them bullet point moments where it's going to be written in the book. You know what I mean? My USDB, the Madison Square Garden, since one of them is she is. Jamim being 20 years young

and going out there and beat them under three minutes in the fashion that it's done of them. Where'd you get that jacket? The leopard jacket was Savage on the back. Where'd you get that? It's not. I think it fits perfect.

It does. It almost has a young savage. Where did you get it? I just got a little job. It's actually everyone is like, oh, this big designer brand. I actually just was walking past the shop one day and I seen it and it was like

20 euro. I didn't have any little cheap joke and so it was and I just thought it looked cool. I went and bought it it. I think I rock it well. You do? You like it? I like it very much. It caught my eye and then I see hoist Gracie coming up to you and I mean like it's crazy. It's 20 years old. I don't even know

what I was doing at 20s. Certainly not that at MSG. I was dreaming of getting a ticket to go watch a basketball game at MSG. Those were my big hopes. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm blowing away by it all so on, but at the same time, it's what I expect for myself. I don't expect anything less, do you know what I mean? I expected to go out and run through that guy, and I expect two one-word titles and because of the training that I'm putting in and the way that I put in here

and the team that have got behind me. I don't expect anything less for myself. Do you know what I mean? I don't want to do anything else apart from this. and so what do you think is next? What are you feeling? Do you have an inkling as to, you know, what they might throw your way? Do you already know?

Sometimes they have these things already booked. What can you tell us about what's next? I think November is next for me, and I'm thinking I'm going down and I'm whipping a few 135ers. I'm going to drop down in a week class, I think, and I won't speak to the team for us to work and anything, but it's looking like 135 is on. the cars and hopefully I can

go down and get that belt. Hopefully I have one or two fights and then I'll get the title show. So your next fight you think

will be at 135? I'm quite confident that it's going to be I'm not 100% sure but I'm quite confident

that it's going to be at 135 and so I do. Why go down when you've been doing so well at 145? It's just a

different kind of challenge. Okay. Different, you know what I mean? It's different, different people and stuff. I feel like

if we're speaking, like, realistically, they get, I know I want the belt, not call for the belt, but I feel like it's going to take me in or three or four fights before they'll give me the shot at it, but I feel like if I drop going to 135, I only need one or two. That's part of the reason. And I'm only 20 years,

20 years old as well, so maybe in two or three years' time I won't do they make 135. Okay. But I count now, so I'm feeling I'm going to go and do what Connor did it. I'm going to go down and get the $135,000, and then I'm going to go back up, and I'm going to get the $145,000.

So what's your timeline here? When do you think you get $1.35,000? I reckon this time next year, I'm going to have the $1.35,000. And then once you get that, and once I get that, my next flight shoot after that, that's going to be for the $145.0. Like I said to your coach, John Kavanaugh, who joined us earlier,

it all sounds very familiar, and I'm not going to be the one who doubts you, that's for sure. Yeah, there's a lot of people that do, but I don't care. I'm not here to show them that I can do this. I'm here to show people who support me, that I can do this. I'm here to prove people right, not wrong. I don't feel like that I need, I don't feel that people do. like I should, people don't deserve for me to prove them wrong. So they don't, I don't feel like they should have that.

You know what I mean? I don't, I don't want to give people that, I don't want, I just want to want to free people wrong. I don't want to show the people that support me that who are back in me all the way, her saying I'm the real deal, you know I'm the real deal, you know I'm going to be a world champion. I'm looking here to put a smile on their faces and go back to them and go, look, we're right. You know what I mean?

We were able to be believed in it. You believed in me. You then believe in me. It helps me believe in myself a lot more. Do you know what I mean? That there's a support. This is why I do. You know what I mean?

I'm not here to prove people wrong. And people who criticize me and hate them on me and I'm not here to prove them wrong. I hope they keep hitting. I hope they keep doing that. But I'm here to show the people that are close to me who believe in me and support me. I'm here to prove them right. Do you think, James, that Bellator is on board with this?

Do you think that they'll have any issue with this, or have you already told them? No, I can't see why not, you know? Why not this? I feel like that it's going to be good as it. It's only going to bring attention to the 135 position because you just think really, like, you don't ever, ever hear of anything in the 135 position. It's, like, it's silent. you know what I mean

there's never any big no you never hear big fights coming from it you never hear of any names coming up you never hear of any prospects in it you never hear anything about it and I feel like I'm going to be the guy that's going to bring attention to

yeah so I feel like they'll be on board with how shirley and make that 135 division I think because now at the minute it's nothing people don't even know people know who the seller weight light weight weight well their weight champions are all the way up,

you know what I mean? But they don't know who the 135s are. People don't even know who they are. But everyone knows me and everyone knows that I'm going to, if I go down, everyone knows I'm going to win that world title. By the way, did you get a chance to see the Aaron Pico fight? I know there was some talk of at some point maybe you guys fighting and if so, what do you think? Yeah, I've seen it.

I'm a feeling it. I feel like before you talk, before you say that you're going to do this and before you say that you're going to do something, you've got to at least know that you like you, that you can go in there and do. I can't, like that's like me now saying, I'm going to go in and be Christian and I'm going to go in and play football for Man United. and go out and be the best ever when I've never played a football match before.

You know what I mean? I've never, never went and played a football match. Oh, I can you do that kind of thing? And yeah, he just, fuck on him, you know what I'm going to be shit about him. I don't care. He's not my thoughts at all. So isn't he just wanted to say mine him and say, I was, what was I running for him? I've got the best submissions in the folk.

the whole of the altar. I would submit it I'm a blink, you know what I mean, but he's here in one. I'm 7 and 0. I'm on a different pass. I'm in world title contention. That's what I am. I'm on a whole new level compared to that.

So it is the first play the guy to beat him. Zach is a nice guy. He's a cool guy and it goes to him. I hope he goes far and hope he does the job. James, it's been a lot of fun. I can't I can't wait to see what you do next.

Like I said, I thought you stole the show on Saturday. There was a great buzz about you going in. There's a greater buzz now. An amazing moment. I actually was in the back doing the interviews, the scrums and all that stuff for the undercard. But I said, I just need to be there to see what happens here and to watch you in person go up and walk right up to Shinto

and then do what you did to him. Really blew me away. So kudos to you, my friend. Congratulations on the Big Victory. Enjoy your party tonight. Enjoy rewatching the fight with your, friends and family and very much now looking forward to your drop down to 135 to see what you do there and then of course back up to 145. Thanks so much. We'll talk to you soon and again, congratulations

on an amazing week and an amazing performance. Thank you very much, Harold. It's always a pleasure being on and I really appreciate your good comments towards me and it means a lot and I'm going to get my jacket on now and head out. Enjoy, enjoy. Wear it well. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. James Galaher stopping by

one of the bright young stars in Belator. They have something with him. There's no doubt about that. The place went nuts for him. He had a nice, you know, strong crowd backing him at the way-ins,

at the fight on Saturday. Really impressive stuff. And look, you can talk all that smack if you back it up. And he's not only just backing it up with wins, his performances, one after the next,

are topping each other. So go on James Galaher. Keep doing your thing and kudos to Belator for signing him when they did and now look what they've got on their hands. One quick note before we move along to our next guest. I mentioned when we brought in Logan Storley that that was somewhat breaking exclusive news. I did notice afterwards that our friends over at Flow Combat broke that news a few minutes earlier. So wanted to give them the credit that they deserve on that one was not looking at my computer when we were talking to Michael Chandler. So I wanted to give them props exciting news for the wrestling community,

for the MMA community, Logan Storley, as you may have heard, earlier signing with Bellator Flow Combat, had that one first. All right, let's move along now and bring in our last guest of the day. Very excited to talk to Courtney Casey. She has never been on the program before. And quite honestly, I wish it was under different circumstances, but there is a silver lining to all of this, and hopefully more is to come as well.

You may have heard that a few weeks back, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the TDLR had made public that, in their opinion, she had failed her post-fight drug test due to an elevated levels of testosterone. But on Friday, the UFC cleared her of any wrongdoing, completely exonerated her. And as of Friday afternoon, Texas had not done the same. But let's see if there's an update to the story. First, let's bring in Courtney Casey.

Courtney, are you there? I am here, Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks so much for joining us. And again, like I said, I wish we had some more positive things to talk about, but I do think that we're trending in that direction. First, let me ask you this. Is there an update to the story?

Texas, as of Friday afternoon, had not said that they were clearing you just yet. Have they done so? They have not done so. We did receive an email. Jeff Novinsky received an email from the TDRR yesterday, Sunday, the 25th, stating that My case is still under investigation. Okay. Are you expecting them to make this right? I'm hoping they are.

As the way things have been going so far, I don't see it happening anytime soon. But, you know, we can only hope for the best and just kind of wait to see what they're going to do. Why do you think that is? Do you think that they don't want to admit any wrongdoing? I think I think that has a little bit to do with it. I mean, they were pretty up front with Jeff letting him know that they kind of thought they were in the right with releasing everything as far as their understanding of the testing. But with, you know, Jeff kind of informed them on the additional testing that needed to be done to prove that it was a positive test in which we did. And it proved that it had, you know, it was, it was clean.

Everything was fine. So I never really tested positive for anything. And it was just an elevation. So like I said, right now I haven't heard anything from Texas. I hadn't heard anything from them since, like, I think June 9th was the last time I actually had a talk with someone from the commission. So I don't know. I really don't know what's going on. And I think that's kind of the uneasy part about it.

So this news first came out on May 26th. That's when they made the findings public and they also overturn your win over Jessica. which I thought was the best win of your career thus far to a no contest. When did you find out that they were doing this? And what were, what was your immediate reaction to it all? I found out through Tiago via Facebook. He messaged me and just kind of asked me what our plans were in handling the situation.

I didn't know what he was talking about because I hadn't been contacted by anyone. So I called him. He informed me. I right away called Jeff and he said he just heard as well from media outsource, not from Texas. And then he went back and looked over all the paperwork. And that's where he saw that my T.E ratios were elevated. And that's right when he called Texas. But I heard first through secondary hand from media, I guess you can say.

Wow. And how did you react? Like, did you think it was a joy? That is bizarre in its own right. Yeah, it was. very bizarre. I was kind of confused on what was going on because I mean, I knew I didn't take anything. Like I barely take any supplements as it is. So like I had, I instantly went and reread everything because, you know, we're given guidelines from USADA. We're given, you know,

all the information we need and I follow them, you know, very strategically. And as soon as I talk to Jeff, he said, you know, don't, don't worry about it right now as far as gathering everything that you took, gathering, you know, like your food and everything. Let's just look into, you know, your passport and see what it is. And I guess there's a lot of variables that can cause elevated TE ratios. I didn't know. But birth control, age, just your natural biological makeup, all that plays into a fact of your TE ratio. And when they looked into it, that's pretty much what it is. They can't really pinpoint exactly if it's my birth control or if it's just how I naturally run. But from what I've heard and from all the test is I've always been a clean athlete, I never

test positive for anything, performance enhancing or any positive for that matter under USADA. Did you ask them or did your management ask them, why come out with this until you had all the facts, until you tested the B sample, until you were 100% certain that I did fail a drug test? we um we did we sent emails showing them um jepovinsky contacted them um right away that first day um and and kind of explained to them and and from my understanding is they just really didn't seem to care so what do you mean by that they they just said we're going with this and that's it like we have no no regard for your reputation for you know the win all that stuff nothing Absolutely nothing.

What we've, Jeff Novitsky sent over emails with articles, you know, that you saw the guidelines, everything like that showing like the proper protocol that they need to do for, for a T.E. ratio, for an elevated T.E. ratio when all other tests, you know, come back clean because my whole panel was clean. It just had an elevated T.E. ratio. So I never tested for anything. So that's when the secondary test needs to be ran that IRMS test in that carbon isotope scanning and all those come back clean. Have you ever been told in the past that this was something about you that you sometimes have elevated levels of testosterone, that this is something to look out for? Has this ever come up on your radar?

No, never. Never have been informed about it. I think I just from my understanding is that it's really not high. It's really compared to, you know, somewhat like a woman who would go in for, you know, treatment of some sort for like hormone treatment. Like mine's not even close to a level where I need to be regulated or anything like that. It's just a slight increase or decrease. I don't know if it's estrogen or testosterone because that's how the ratio gets played.

So from what my understanding, from what I've been told is it's most likely due to my contraceptive, which I've been on for, you know, I don't even know how long, like at least 10 years. So that could play a part in lowering my estrogen. And so you know how things go, especially in sports. You're guilty until proven innocent. And I think the reason for that is, if I'm being honest, is so many athletes have come out and said, oh, I didn't do anything, and then you find out that they did do something. I mean, most famously, Lance Armstrong, there's many other cases.

And so. Of course. You see a performance like the one you had and you beat one of the top contenders at 115. And I would imagine I didn't scour through all the comments. Of course, this didn't happen to me, but I would imagine you got a lot of people saying to you, oh, you're a cheater, can't believe you did this. What was it like? What kind of comments did you get?

What was a reaction? All of them. All of them. I got everything from, you know, not just this win, but my past wins. It's like, oh, she must have been on steroids when she beat, you know, Randa, when she's you know, all this stuff. So not only, you know, is my reputation for the fight with, um, with Jessica affected, but my previous fights, my whole athletic career is now affected by it. You know, I was an athlete before, um, I played soccer and stuff like that. So all that's in question,

you know, my character is in question. Um, you know, my job, like I coach kids for a living, you know, that's what I do. Um, you know, and we, our gym prides ourselves on technique over strength and then for me to be associated with steroids, it kind of tarnishes that image as well. So, I mean, I've only, I've been personally affected by it. My family's been personally affected by it. My students have been personally affected by it. So, I mean, it's, it's been a pretty crappy five weeks. How did you handle it? Like, were you depressed? Were you able to put on a happy face? Now that it's hopefully almost coming to an end, looking back, how did you handle it? Um, you know, it's sucked. It's suck not to be able to kind of defend yourself, but in that kind of situation, you kind of want to stay silent. That's what I was, you know, informed to do is just kind of not feed into anything, you know, not get into battles with people online, you know, not just me, but my family, like having to tell my family, like, just, we just got to wait for, you know, what I've been telling people is I just had to wait for a test that I already knew the answer to. Like, I already knew the answer was going to come back. It's clean. I just had to wait for it. And there's no sense of, you know,

you know, trying to do damage control when no one's listening anyways to the science that's being presented to them, let alone, you know, when the test gets sent to them, it's always going to be something like I found a loophole or whatnot. And luckily I have a lot of people behind me, you know, showing that I didn't, you know, squeak it by you Sada or get by with, you know, covering anything up. Like I didn't do anything wrong from the beginning. I was told that people came up to you and were saying things to you and we're saying things to you and we're saying things to your kids. Is that accurate?

Correct. I don't know. I personally got harassed, verbally harassed in Target, told that I let the whole island down and that I was a cheater and everything like that. People were commenting on my photos of my kids on my Instagram, telling my kids not to do steroids and stuff like that. Like, it's just pretty ridiculous, you know,

finding my mom on social media, my brother and my sister on social media, you know, and harassing them as well. So it's kind of affected my whole family a lot. And it just kind of sucks. Like I said, you can't really do anything until everything came out. And since everything took so slow and no one made a statement and you don't really want to make Texas angry,

so you kind of just wait for them to do the right thing. And at this point, we're still waiting. When did you find out that the B sample came back, that there was nothing as far as foul play involved? that you're being exonerated, at least from the UFC's perspective. When did you get the good news? I was informed on the 21st. The 21st?

Okay. What was your reaction? I just was just finally. Like I said, I knew what the test was going to show. Like, I knew what the test was going to show. I knew it was going to come back clean. I've always been a clean fighter. So it was just waiting for a test.

I already knew the answer to. and then really just waiting to see what Texas did. And in that first 24 hours, we got nothing. The next day, we got nothing. And here we are still with just, oh, we have to continue to investigate this. So I really, I mean, I've been exonerated by the UFC, which is great. I've been not exonerated by USADA, which is awesome. But at the end of the day, the people that need to be making an apology haven't, you know,

the ones that made the statement. And that's kind of what sucks for someone, you know, for a commission like that to just be, so laxadaisical on such a very, you know, that affects me, you know, heavily from the moment it gets released. So just to catch, to get people caught up, Texas said last month that your A sample came back with an elevated testosterone to epistosterone level over their particular threshold of four to one. And then you guys had your B sample tested.

This was according to Jeff Novitsky, who told our own Mark Romundi all of this. And those results, which we obtained, came back negative for any banned substance. And they used the isotope ratio test, which I believe is the best kind of test to find out if there's any synthetic testosterone in one system. And to find out if there's any kind of foul play involved. That's basically, I mean, I know it's very much more complex, but that's the story boiled down to, right? Correct. Yes. And so when you're going through all of this, it's expensive. but from what I understand

the UFC has paid for all of these tests the second B sample test, anything that you need to do in relation to this, they're paying for. Absolutely, yeah. From the moment, you know, everyone harps on USADA and all that stuff,

but, you know, having to check in and change your calendar and everything like that, but it's for these reasons, you know what I mean? Like, they make sure they dot all their eyes, they cross all their keys, they make sure everything's in place

before they make statements before anything. and they've been 100% supportive throughout this whole thing. The UFC, Dana White, you know, of course, Jeff Nivinsky, Sean Shelby, everyone. So, I mean, I can't complain about the system, you know. I guess if it was on the other end, you know, it kind of suck. But, you know, I'm happy with the process that they're taking and all the steps, you know, to make sure that my name is cleared and to show that I didn't do anything wrong. And now they said, I saw Jeff Noviceky told us as well.

he told Mark Remundi this that they're considering not going back to Texas. I mean, that's, that's a major, I mean, to see them stand by you like that is pretty incredible. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I know in the past, you know, there's been issues with Texas Commission and stuff like that, but I think this one kind of was the icing on the cake to, to accuse someone who was absolutely innocent, you know, with, and then also been given the information they were

given to just blatantly ignore it. You know, and obviously, I know that's not what the Texas fans want, and I know they want more UFCs. I mean, it was a Dallas was awesome. You know, I hope we get to go back, but, you know, like Jeff said, and the UFC says that, you know,

we shouldn't put the athletes in danger of stuff like this that can be avoided. Do you think that you'll get your win back as well? I would assume so, right? I would hope so. Yeah, I really, I would hope so. I don't know. And, you know, everyone asked me, like, you know, how it's been since all this has come out.

And I can't really, you know, be really 100% happy about it because I still don't know what Texas is going to do. I have no idea. So you're kind of just in limbo right now, pins and needles. Still just waiting, yeah. Just waiting, training, trying to, you know, block everything out, kind of focus on myself. It's hard. It's tough, you know, but. What are you going to do, you know?

Got to keep living. So just try to take it one day at a time. Not surprised to see a commission kind of dig their heels in and not want to back down. But I can't imagine after the second, you know, sample coming back and you saw it in, UFC clearing you that they would hold on to this one. But Texas is a bit of a funky one. It was funny at the UFC 211 official wands. They kind of made a joke about the New York commission and the towel thing with Daniel Cormier.

And I was like, of all the commissions to crack jokes about another commission, They're not the ones. They have a long history of doing things that would be categorized as, you know, a little bit fishy. So this, I mean, this is a bizarre one, but I do agree with your hesitation as far as, or I don't blame you for being hesitant because nothing would surprise me as far as Texas is concerned, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we could just, like I said, just wait it out and hope for the best. You know, I'm happy that I have the UFC behind me and Jeff Nivinsky handling this.

and plus the cooperation that you thought it has had with, you know, giving Texas all the evidence that they needed. So, you know, I can't really complain on our end as far as doing our job to protect me. But, you know, there's two sides to it. So we can't force them to do the right thing. But we can just only hope that Texas kind of gets their stuff together. And they didn't tell you anything about like, oh, we have a hearing coming up and we're going to look at this. It's just kind of, you know, hanging in the air. just yeah just kind of hanging in the air yeah all we got was a like I said a simple reply back to an email

just saying that it's they can't make any comments on an ongoing investigation something like that yeah that is crazy um yeah do you have another fight booked yet uh I don't I at this at this moment I don't have a fight book hopefully you know I can get one in you know I'm I try to stay as active as possible So, you know, everyone's saying, well, it's just a three-month suspension. Like, it's not a big deal. Like, if it does still end up going through. But to me, you know, three months is a long time. I take a lot of short notice fights.

I stay ready. Yeah. And it does affect me. But hopefully I can get one in before the end of the year. I would love to, you know, I'd love to get two in before the end of the year. But we'll see how it goes. I wanted to quickly ask you about something that Felice Herrig said yesterday. I don't know if you saw her fight.

another great performance a win over Justine Kish but afterwards she was very emotional backstage Did you see this this scrum Where she spoke to the media about I didn't I only saw her

Her in cage interview I didn't see anything that happened afterwards Afterwards she spoke backstage about You know She's overcome a lot But she also said that she thought That she wasn't you know Pretty enough and young enough

To you know be pushed by the UFC And I was reminded of your scrum after 2-11 and some of the frustrations that that you shared about, you know, being a women's MMA fighter and not getting pushed and seeing other people get pushed. And so I was just wondering if you, if you, you know, saw that and echoed her, said, quite frankly, I think a fight with you and Felice would be a very good one and one that makes a lot of sense right now. But I was just curious if you saw that because I feel like I'm starting to see more women speak about this and feel comfortable to speak about this. And I thought that you, you know,

you explained your feelings towards the predicament that some female fighters are in as they're trying to advance their careers and do it the right way in their opinion. You know, it's kind of a tough situation because considering who it's coming from. You know, I think her heart's in the right place. She means well and everything like that,

but she also says one thing and does another. You know, I'm not taking it. my clothes off on social media. I'm not acting innocent and showing my butt off and doing things like that and saying I'm not getting the attention I want. You know, it's different. You know, I think everyone wants the attention. Everyone wants those big fights and everyone's going to try to do what they want, you know, what they think they need to do. But as far as as police goes, you know, I know she's been through a lot. I mean, everyone's heard her story and stuff like that. You know, it's, you know, but yeah I'm with there with the whole fact of you know not being feeling pretty enough or feeling

that you're too old you're not you know the 18 20 year old coming into the UFC you know we are a little bit older fighters but at the same time you know you got to you got to practice what you preach at the same time fair enough are you confident I mean after seeing what happened here with with the UFC and Jeff Novitsky and clearly you know they they are behind you, are you confident that things will change? I'm, I'm, yes. With Jeff Novinsky and the UFC behind me, I'm definitely, um, confident that, that there is going to be a chance in some way,

whether we, we end up going back to Dallas or we don't. But I know that they, they feel strongly about the situation. They definitely don't want it to happen to another athlete. I don't want it to happen to another athlete. So I think we're, you know, me and the UFC are in agreement kind of, we both kind of stand in in, you know, the same light as far as making sure that this doesn't happen to anyone again. Yeah, there is no denying that with Usada involved, there's a lot of good that comes out of it. And we have seen some situations where, you know, people have been accused.

And after some, you know, further testing, their name has been somewhat cleared. I think the best thing to come out of this situation is there is no fighter association. So it's not like you have someone going to bad for you, but the UFC and Usada seem to have gone to bat for you with a commission that clearly got this one wrong. And if there wasn't a USADA, if they didn't hire Jeff Novitsky and his background, you'd kind of be left on an island all by yourself to fight this commission. So yes, there is no association, but I feel like this is a very nice byproduct of the relationship with USAT. I don't know if you agree, but it sounds like you do. No, I agree 100%. I agree 100% with that. Like I said, I am extremely happy in the way that,

you know, Jeff, USADA and the UFC have handled this situation, you know, very professionalism from their end. And, you know, I just hope that it continues. And hopefully it rubs off on these other commissions to kind of, you know, jump on board on just letting, you know, the UFC handle everything as far as commission-wise goes, hire who they need to hire. I mean, the playing field should be even no matter what state, what country we go to. You know, you play a basketball game, in the U.S. and you go to Japan, the rules are the same, the guidelines are the same. I feel like the sport's big enough where it should all be the same. You know, with the hands touching up and down and all that,

I feel like everyone should just come to agreement on what the rules are going to be for the UFC, no matter what state they go to, and that should be in place. Because right now it's just confusing to the fighters, it's confusing to the fans. You know, it just makes things a lot more difficult than they need to be, you know, and these commissions just kind of need to jump on board and figure out, you know, the best way for everyone and right now it's just not working. Couldn't agree more. I'm very happy for you, Casey, Courtney, excuse me, that this all worked out and I hope that sooner rather than later the Texas Commission will come out and just admit that they did something wrong and we can move on that you get

your win back. I know that you can't take back the last month or so, but I hope that they at least publicly apologize to you and not only do it privately, but publicly as well and get your win back as well because that is, you know, quite frankly, the least that they can do at this point. Thanks for coming on and talking about this. Congrats on at least getting the UFC and Usada to publicly say that, you know, that you are in the clear and that you did nothing wrong.

And I hope in a matter of days that you will get that news from Texas as well. And keep us posted if you do get that news. Thank you. I will for sure. All right. There she is Courtney Casey, one of the top fighters in the UFC strawweight division. A really crummy situation turns good, not quite there just yet, but hopefully in the next few hours, days, she will get that good news.

And I do really mean this. One of the great byproducts of having Jeff Novitsky on board, having USADA on board, is that they will help if a situation like this comes up. And in the past, that wasn't the case. The fighters just had to do it on their own with their management, and some management teams aren't equipped to figure out these situations. So it actually helped her this time. that's great to hear. Hopefully she gets her win back.

Hopefully they get that public apology because I definitely think that it is warranted. Okay, here's the thing. We're going to do some Rick's picks now, and then we're going to say goodbye on YouTube and Facebook, and then we've got 30 extra minutes on Twitter to answer your questions, but you've got to be watching on Twitter for that. Hit us up in the next few minutes using the hashtag the MMA hour. I know a lot of you have been doing so, but if you haven't just yet, The MMA hour on Twitter, you can hit us up, send a question or comment.

and if you've been watching us on the mMA hour.com, you can watch those 30 extra minutes exclusive for our good friends at Twitter. It has been so much fun to do this show for the first time live on Twitter. I keep watching these other sports leagues and shows do a similar thing

and I've been dreaming of something like this. Honestly, my favorite social media platform and now our time has come. So this has been great. Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? Can we hit his music? Where is he at? And now it's time to open up your ears

Here we go. In your minds, MMA fans, it's time for... Last week we were robbed. Rick's Picks. Rick's Picks are lots of fun, and his hair is in a bun, does it. Yeah. You already know what it is. Did he trim his beard?

That's a big question. Boys and girls? I think he did. It's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the new craze taking the world by storm. Yeah. From the Vox Studios in beautiful New York City, it's time for... Rick's Picks.

I saved the dancing for the very end. There he is. Yeah, I trim the beard. I mean, you can see the sides are cleaned up a little bit. Somebody, somebody tweeted at me. Yeah, somebody tweeted at me that I needed to, you know what it is? I get the hair's curl. I have very curly hair.

The hair's curl over my lip. And I've had that said to me in person a lot. But when somebody tweets it at you who's watching the show every week, you know it's time. You need to get the grooming on point. It's kind of weird that you didn't notice this yourself. Like, you know, I kind of felt bad. I didn't want to tell you, but I'm happy someone else did. Yeah, no, my personal appearance is not something I really care.

I mean, you are on camera, so. Nah, you know, they either love me or they don't. Just accept me as I am. Yeah, sure. So, yeah, like, unless somebody goes out of their way and says you're looking real sloppy, I'm probably just going to let it, I'm just going to let it ride. Okay, well, that's good. Thank you for that update on your facial hair.

No, I mean, that's, that's, it's a plea for help from you. What? To let me know when it's time. Oh, okay, you want. I want me to tell you. Yeah, I want the feedback. All right, cool. All right, what do you got?

I've been talking for a very long time here, so the floor is yours. What do you have? Let's start with our first Rick's pick. Cyborg and a two-time Olympic gold medalist boxer, Clarissa Shields, released some sparring footage this week. Both of them, this video. this video that I have here happened to come from

Cyborg's Instagram but both of them had put out something so here we go out. Oh, there is. Look at that. You know what's... More than anything, obviously it's two high-level athletes, but what I find most interesting about this is you don't really see boxing sparring

a lot from the top fighter. So I thought this was particularly revealing and obviously with MMA versus boxing being a topical thing right now, this was timely on their part. First of all, Clarissa Shields, two-time Olympic gold medalists, one of the very best in the world,

now a professional, how about the fact that, A, cyborg is flying her in, but B, posting this. I mean, look, people are like, oh, you're getting tagged, she's the one posting it.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That takes a lot of confidence. I think both of them are kind of secure in how good they are, and that's why this perfect storm is something we got. It's fun to see both of them kind of embracing this.

It's amazing. So yeah, this one's over at Cyborgs' Instagram. You can check out Clarissa's. Oh, yeah, look at that. Jason Perillo. Social media as well. But I thought that was pretty cool to see. Number two, we're going to the advertising world.

It's about time you show hot sauce and love. Our buddy, Scott Hatsman. Yes. did a promo for Cholula Hot Sauce. It's amazing. And I think it's an interesting one day. And I think it's an interesting one because of the the nature of MMA sponsorship at the moment.

There's creative ways that you can kind of do this. And here's a good example of it. His nickname is Hot Sauce. His nickname is Hot Sauce and he's doing an ad for hot sauce. It's incredible. Make it work out there, managers. Well, you know what this is. What is this?

This is a testament to the best manager in the game, Danny Rubenstein. Best. I just like to butter him up. But no, this is a job well done right here. Yeah, very cool. And if you want to check out more of the hot sauce stuff, order of chalula. Look at that. The chalula helps break up that non-ins.

It's incredible. It's good to have a little bit of a variety. There's a bunch of other athletes in it as well, not just hot sauce. Who said UFC fighters can't get good sponsors? That's the thing. You know, you've got to get a little creative. So good for Danny and good for Scott. Okay, we're moving on.

We're going next to something that I was sent countless times this week. Oh. It's our 10-dollar picture. Well, I had a lot of people tweeting that it was me and even our own Stephanie over here. to my left, tagged me in it on Instagram, but we had Mattel

released the new Ken doll with the man bun this week. Yes. This is a big day for all man bunners. Yeah, I mean, you know, it just shows that, you know, the time is now.

Can I just say something about the man bun? Yeah. I like the man bun like this. I like when it's all kind of one length. I'm not a huge fan of the shaved size. Oh, the one that I have, you know, well, I'm just saying.

I'm not pointing fingers. But why not just let the whole... I always feel like your hair is nicer when it's longer, but all around. I will admit this. Okay. I regret starting with the side shaved. Well, you don't... Because...

Very easy to catch up. No. What? Yeah. I'll say very easy to catch up. There's going to be a point where I have to grow this to the length of the top, meaning I'm going to have hair off the side like this long. You think so?

It's going to look absolutely ridiculous. Really? I feel like... I'm too far gone. I feel like it will get to a point where it will all kind of blend together, you don't think? I feel like you've miscalculated this. Really?

Amendsly. What's going to happen is I'm going to look like even more of a douche than I already look like. Okay, so if you could do this again and... I would just grow the hair all long. It's interesting that you just made that revelation, but I'm going to let that one slide. You would have just gone full long hair. Full long hair. Sean Michaels.

Like... And then bun it up. Our next pick, like Elias Theodoro, who also got the picture sent to him, obviously. And I think that's his new Twitter profile. There is no more avid tweeter. liker, retweeter on Twitter and then when this picture, so he's like, he's like He's prolific, for sure.

He is nonstop. And then this picture came up. I actually thought it was you for a second. I appreciate that. He's a handsome man. I'll take it. I mean, not the best picture, but yes, he's a handsome man. You know what? Well, shout out to Elias. As you said, prolific tweeter.

But yeah, I mean, I think he and I are repping the man bun well. Him and his pert plus main event. Is that legit? That's another. Look, it's a theme. We're talking about good sponsorship stuff. But is that legit? Yeah, he's sponsored by PRR. Wow. In Canada. Good for him. Congrats to Elias.

Next, we're going to something that I was debating whether we want to feature this, but you know what? I picked it. Because Cody Garbrandt's been playing with it. Oh, this. And I didn't know anything about this. No, you don't know my picks. I was skeptical. I was on the fence, but you know what? Cody's bought in, so I'm going to have to call this out.

The guy's name is Matthew Klein Cater. He's a professional bodybuilder who's started a bit of a social media rivalry with Cody. He showed up to Sacramento. That's what we've got here in picture number one. He's outside Ultimate Fitness. This was like something he was building as a pay-per-view, right? He's just trying to pick a fight. What is the root of said fight?

He just wants to fight. He just wants to fight Cody Arbrandt. and you know what it is? It harkens back to like the, you know, gym storming, the dojo days where people will come into the gym and thought they were tough and then would get shown that they're not. And so in picture number two, we have, that was, oh, I'm sorry, picture one was Cody saying he was here.

Picture two is Matthew saying he's arrived. Picture three is going to be, and these are all, pictures outside the gym. Him saying he's the Matthew says Cody is the biggest troll in the world. The little goofy dorks inside your gym tried to fight battles, got it on video.

So they missed the connection. They didn't make it happen. Shucks. And we don't get a fight between one of the highest level MMA fighters in the world and a professional bodybuilding troll. Did they ever see each other?

They did not see each other. But we do have a video. Clip number four is a video from Matthew. I think he went live on Instagram. Oh gosh. Where he... I just walked in to your gym.

Oh my. I mean, the look is incredible. You weren't there. You told your fans you were there. You said you were at the gym on Twitter five seconds ago. You said I'm a troll. I walked in.

All your little fucking goofball. Oh, my. Aren't even good to make it on the ultimate fighter want to call me out. For what? Fuck you. Whoa. You're a pussy. You're a big.

Whoa. So there it is. The definitive word. We're on Twitter now. From. Can have that kind of language. From our, uh, from our friend Matthew. And so nothing happened.

Yeah, then nothing happened from it. Cool. But Cody, you know, enough with this. Okay. Wait, but Cody's not the one doing it. Why are you telling him enough? No, he's playing into it too. He's entertaining this.

You're saying, stop. Just ignore him. I think we had our one attempt at it. It didn't fly. Yeah, let's just get rid of that. Move along. Honestly, this has not been on my radar at all. No, stop.

Everybody's... I know, I'm being honest. Damn for this. There's like four million fights going on this week. weekend. You have time for this one? This was the number one. Yeah, right.

This was the number one booked. Yes. Okay. Moving along to something more important, obviously. Okay. Nice message here from George St. Pierre. Either this week, last week, I forget. It was last week.

Because I owed a double episode, I went back to last week. George St. Pierre had some kind words wishing Matt Hughes a speedy recovery. I'll read it real quick. We had tough fights, but Matt Hughes is still an idol and one of the best there's ever been inside and outside of the Octagon. I have no doubt he's going through the. this battle like the great champion he is, and we all hope for a full recovery from this terrible accident. So I think we're all, you know, hoping for a speedy recovery from Matt and nice words there from George. We actually got an update from his sister. Do you have that?

I don't have it because it happened during the show, but I know Mark posted an article with a bit of an update. This is the quote, he is improving and continues to show us his heart and determination each day. He has a long road ahead of him and your continued thoughts and prayers will help him with the journey. She also wrote, Matt has always been a fighter, but he is now in the biggest fight of his life. We know he will continue to improve with God's grace and mercy.

So everyone definitely still thinking and Matt Hughes, pulling for him, praying for him, hoping that he continues to improve, continues to get better, and that we will see him very soon. I appreciate his sister for updating us continuously. Also, they are holding a prayer vigil,

Sunday and Mount Olive, Illinois and they are planning another one in Hillsborough which of course is where he's from so keep the prayers keep the good thoughts coming towards Matt Hughes and his family absolutely moving on this one was from Twitter but it was shown during the broadcast a tribute I believe they dedicated the event in fact to Tim Haig the UFC created this graphic that they showed before the fights John Pollock here with the with the with the tap, obviously a tragedy and just wanted to say rest in peace. Fortunately, it seems like we're doing this a lot these days.

That kind of hit me because that's like, you know, that has been somewhat of a constant in the world of pro wrestling, seeing this kind of graphic at the beginning of Monday Night Raw. And when I saw that, we've seen that over the past year or so, it just kind of hit me. I was like, you know, it was a bad feeling of deja vu, if you get what I'm saying. But I give the UFC a lot of credit for doing this in the past. They didn't really do this sort of thing. And I think it was a very nice touch, especially in this world of, you know, constant news cycles and things get forgotten very quickly. I thought, you know, what eight days later, seven days later for them to do this was very well done.

Yeah, and our last Rick's pick this week, Rob, it's going to be, our last Rick's pick this week is our very own Dave Doyle and Esther Lynn. Oh, yes. Doing a media roundtable on LGBT media members and, you know, the various interactions they've had and how it's affected their coverage and things like that. I know you previously did a roundtable vote Richard as well, but this one was to celebrate Pride Week here in NYC and I believe other places as well.

So shout out to Dave and Esther. Yes. Participating in that and for Richard and SI.com for putting the whole thing together. Yeah. Highly recommend the read. Yep. Very proud of them. Sent them some notes last night.

And I just thank them for sharing their story and I'm proud of the fact that, you know, we have such great people. I mean, look at that. How many people are a part of this? I don't think that's the entire list. No, that's not the entire list. But I think it was like eight people. Yeah.

And, you know, two of those people are part of our team. So one fourth of my, a quarter, right? If my math is correct. Your math is correct. That's incredible. So very proud of them, you know, inspirations, role models, takes a lot of courage. Well done.

To all involved. And that's it. That's what I got for Rick's Pick. this week. All right. So there's a lot I want to talk to you about, but I feel like we need to save that for the exclusive segment. Do we get any questions about this stuff? What exclusive segment? Oh, exclusive segment coming up on Twitter.com. I've tweeted it. We have tweeted it. We're now part of the family here and we're giving you some extra time. And I do believe we have some things to talk about. What did New York Rick think about BJ Penn's loss to Dennis Siever? What do we think about Mario Yamasai?

and his decision to call off that fight. What do we think about Bellator's second pay-per-view and their debut at Madison Square Garden? All that and more will be addressed on the exclusive Twitter segment. So for now, we shall say goodbye to our friends over at YouTube and Facebook. We shall hit my music, as we usually do, but I will remind you, get to your Twitter,

fire it up, do what you got to do if you're, not signed on to Twitter. Create an account right now. And type in theMMA hour. Twitter.com. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Fire off some questions, some comments, some thoughts. We're talking Oklahoma City.

We're talking NYC. We're talking Mayweather McGregor. All sorts of things. But for now, for our audience over at YouTube and Facebook and MMAfighting.com, we shall say goodbye. I want to thank everyone. who tuned in. I want to thank everyone who stopped by on this loaded episode once again of the MMA hour. Thank you very much to the Motown phenom himself. Kevin Lee, congratulations

on a massive victory for him over Michael Keisa. Thank you very much to Scott Coker for stopping by. Congratulations on a great night. It's successful night by all accounts thus far at MSG. Thank you very much to John Kavanaugh for stopping by. Always a pleasure to talk to him. Congrats on the victory and good luck preparing for the Gunner Nelson. And of course, Floyd Mayweather, Connor McGregor fight. Thank you very much to Holly Holie home. Congratulations on the victory.

So great to catch up with her once again. As she returned from Singapore, thank you very much to Derek Lewis. Welcome back, Derek. We hardly missed you. Congrats on the nuptials as well. Thank you very much to Michael Chandler. Some great news there.

Great to hear that he's going to be okay and fighting sooner rather than later. Thank you very much to James Galaher. Appreciate his time. Congrats. And thank you very much to Courtney Casey. Hopefully Texas is listening. Back next week, same time and place.

I ain't going nowhere. Get to Twitter right now for more MMA hour until they say, Pace. I'm out of here. Hey, everyone. I'm still here. How exciting is this? We haven't gone anywhere.

Exclusive Twitter segment. We've been talking about it all day. I've been most excited about this. Next 30 minutes or so, we're answering your questions. We're taking your questions, your comments. Hashtag the MMA hour. How awesome is this? They always tell me, we want more MMA hour, more MMA hour.

where now you're getting it. This is incredible. So let's bring back New York, Rick. I do believe that people have been hitting us up. We have our own page on Twitter, right? TheMMA hour.com. People have been watching the show there for the first time, and we ain't going nowhere, so get used to it.

But I do believe that the revolution is no longer being televised. It's being tweeted. That's right. Yes. I know you were effusive about Twitter earlier in the show. I also am a big fan of Twitter. It's my main platform of choice. And I'm happy to kind of see this partnership.

And also the first go has definitely been a success. A lot of people coming to us and saying that they've been enjoying watching the show on Twitter, which is obviously great. I've gotten a ton of questions on Twitter. So I think ultimately this was the right move. And I'm happy to be a part of it. All right. What do we got? What do we got?

Let's get a rolling. There's a lot to discuss. Let's answer some questions here. First question. there was a lot of weird stuff to happen. Our friend Jordan asks, what is the weirdest thing to happen over the last few days in MMA?

Oh my. Well, okay, so there's a lot that happen. If we wanted to name a few. Well, Beltaire, NYC, I thought, was a very successful event. We pretty much ran down the entire card with Scott Coker. The Michael Chandler entry was unique.

Aaron Pico losing as quickly as he did was unique. The double knockdown was unique. The national anthems before the main event, unique, all kinds of unique stuff. Goldie and then Morrow Rinalo, all kinds of stuff. Oh, speaking of Morrow, real quick. Shout out to Morrow. Back with the W.WE. NXT.

I'm going to probably call the Mayweather Pay-Pervue. I mean, shout out to that guy. What a week, right? What a week for Morrow. It's amazing. He's got like 15 lives. You know, like he loses a couple gigs. He comes back with even bigger gigs.

It's unbelievable. Oklahoma City, Yamasaki, all that stuff and more. But, of course, and I didn't really want to go there, but if we're asking for weird, Justine Kish, right?

Yeah, I think that's got to be my choice as well. Also, but, you know, we mentioned Chandler's injury. How about the stool being pulled out from Chandler? That was definitely a weird one. Very weird. Seeing him planted on his butt like that. But yeah, I think the octagon being soiled.

Okay, so tell us what happened. So Justine Kitch is fighting Felice Herrick. Yep, she's on the ground. Go ahead. It seems like she's soiled her shorts, but it's not really clearly evident until she goes to her back and then she leaves a trail.

But fortunately, she had a good attitude about it and a good response, which you could find on her Twitter. So go there if you're... So she tweeted something like hashtag shit happens, right? Basically, yes. So is that accurate? Like, did that really happen?

Or is she playing... I mean, is that... Well, if it did it, happened? Did you notice it? I did notice it, yes. If it didn't happen, kudos to her for capitalizing and taking credit for it, because I think she'll be able to turn this into more of a positive and notoriety than anything negative. I don't think anybody's, you know, looking at it as, you know, any downside or any hazard or anything like that. I think she's riding the opportunity and good for her. She suffered defeat, but she has a good attitude about it. Can I just say that I've been supremely impressed with

Felice Herrick. I know this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the question. But for her to come back after the PVZ loss, for her to rebound like that, I mean, I think we all kind of thought that like, okay, Paige beat her on Fox and this was sort of the passing of the torch and, you know, Felice was going to regress. She's come

back since three in a row. She hasn't won three in a row in several years. And I think she's never looked better. She just defeated Alexa Grasso. Kish was undefeated. She's never looked better. Absolutely. She's put in the work and she is I believe somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but she has the second longest winning streak in that division.

I actually like the idea of her versus Courtney Casey or maybe even a more high profile fight, but Casey's coming off a win over Jessica Aguilar, and hopefully that suspension gets lifted as well. But yeah, you know, she has been through a lot, and you don't want to hear someone get emotional and say the kind of things that she said if she feels that. But I can't, I would be lying if I didn't,

initially think about what Casey brought up, which was, Felice has been someone who has, I guess you could say, not been shy about, you know, flaunting her sexuality. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that whatsoever. I have no problem with it. And so, you know, afterwards now she's saying that she feels like she's not getting pushed. I feel like there's a lot more there to, to investigate. Like, why do you feel that way? And do you regret going down a certain path in your career, but it's like if Courtney Casey says that, I mean, she doesn't have that sort of history, Felice does have that sort of history. We've talked about it on the show. You get what I'm saying? I do. And it's also, you know, the idea of being pushed could mean a lot of different things.

You know, there's plenty of fighters who are, you know, in an elevated position who feel like they're not being pushed as well. You know, Demetrius Johnson feels like he's not being properly pushed. There's a lot of layers to that story. And I think, you know, more needs to kind of be said about it before we can, you know, judge it properly. But certainly, I don't disagree with anything you're saying there. Courtney Casey, by the way, just told me that she just got her May 22nd test back from Usada, and she just got it right now. And she said that that sample is clean as well.

So whatever it is worth. I mean, it's worth a lot. I think most people are on her side and see that there's been an injustice here. So good for her. Quite the power. Next question from our buddy, Bill Steinmetz, three former champions. just suffered another loss, the champions being BJ Penn, Fedor and Johnny Hendricks,

which of those is the most damaging? This is a question about legacy. Well, first of all, the question is, are any of their legacies damaged? Do you feel like they're doing harm to their legacies at this point? Okay, well, first, let's get something out of the way. Did you watch the BJ Penn fight? Yeah, I did.

You did. You couldn't help yourself. Listen. Did you think that you were really going to stay away? 30 minutes before. Yeah. I haven't told you this. Okay.

30 minutes before, your mom texted me. Get out of here. Your mom texted me 30 minutes before. I didn't know that. Are you going to watch the fight? And I was like, hardcore fan. I don't, I'm on the fence.

You know, I don't know. Like, I'm not expecting him to win. And even if he wins, it's going down a slippery road. But you know what? That text kind of got me thinking more about it than I was. She's to blame? No, no, no, not at all. In fact, I mean, your mom is one of the sweetest women in the entire universe.

People, not just women. men, people. Fair, fair enough. One of the, the sweetest people in the entire universe, she always has something really, really nice to say to me. I think she was just looking out for my best interests. You didn't really think you'd stay away. Look, I try. I was thinking up until about, you know,

30 minutes before that I was going to be able to not watch it, and then I just, I caved like a chump. Yeah. I had to watch. And so what were you thinking? So you don't get the whole experience of him walking out, which I think is a big mistake. If you're going to keep putting on BJPed fights,

at least give us the walkout, because that's the one thing that usually goes right. You know what I mean? That's the one good thing in all of this. And so we don't get the walkout, but we get him in the cage. And he doesn't win the first round, but he's not looking bad, right? He's kind of hanging in there. And then he drops him in the second round.

What are you thinking? Please end this now so that we don't have round three. I envisioned all BJ Penn fans watching it like this, like through the cracks of, you know, like, one eye close. Close to accurate. You know what I mean? I was not hopeful. to round one. Yeah.

It's the type of matchup that he was put in there to destroy Seaver. Let's call it as it is. It wasn't the type of matchup that they were thinking BJ's going to squeak this one out and get back on track.

They thought he was going to beat him handily and he lost. He rocked him. It's just... Worst loss of his career. You know, every... To this point, you could point to the fact that everybody

BJ's fighting is top level, his championship, is on their way to championships. This is not that. And it's not as heartbreaking. I mean, now that we've, I'm hearted to it. I'm, you know, feeling the rain on my face and not even flinching. What's heartbreaking is he feels like he has to keep fighting.

He feels like in order to live a healthy life and a productive life, this is better than the alternative. The alternative was when he was retired and he was going down the wrong path and he was drinking and things like that. And he just was lost as a retired fighter at his age. And so he has no other outlet. And Beechi comes from a good family and he's got some other opportunities with the gym and all that stuff. Someone needs to sit him down and tell him you're just not the same person and you're going to pay for this dearly later in life. You can't be taking these shots anymore.

You're just not the same. It happens to all of us. There's no shame in it. But now it's incredibly uncomfortable. Dennis Seaver is rock bottom. You can't keep fighting anymore. And I don't want to see the UFC release him and then someone else sign him because you're, you're not. you know that might happen?

I think it's going to happen no matter what. I think, and a few years ago when he first walked away, you know, I said pretty much exactly this, that like he's the type of guy that needs this and this is what he's got and he's going to come back and obviously he did. I don't think I was, you know, some kind of Nostradamus on that. I think there were quite a few people who felt that way. But I just can't see it. I don't see the end.

I don't see the end in sight. I think, what do you do if you're the UFC? You cut them. You just cut them and wash your hands? Or do you try to help a legend? Do you try to help someone that help build the company? I know you haven't had a great relationship with him.

I know the story about K-1. I know the story about Dan. But what do you do? How do you help them? With a clear conscious, just wash your hands of a guy like that. But how do you help them? You can sit them down. You can tell them.

You give him one of those ambassador jobs. I mean, co-cons. They just fired all those guys. Yeah. They just fired all those guys. Maybe not like a job job, but like you fly him out to do autograph sessions, give him some money, be around the fight game. It's not about that for BJ. He doesn't need the job.

He doesn't need the money. He just wants to fight. It's never going to be that for BJ. They put him in that ambassador job and he wants to fight. It's never going to be about that. And you know what? I think the same can be said about Matt Hughes. It's not about that.

It's not about that. The guys are born fighters and they come from a different era. They come from a different style, and they're going to keep fighting. And there are so many guys like this, Kimbo. Brett Akamoto at ESPN did a piece where he spoke to some of the family members of Kimbo. And, you know, I see Mike as well.

And they were talking about how even while he's in the hospital, he's thinking about how he's going to get out and fight and that this was his next fight. And they don't build them like that anymore. and BJ is won from that time. I don't think he's ever going to stop fighting. And look, you don't want to take anything away from Dennis Siever. You know, he gets a victory.

He's back on track. This is a guy, a veteran who, you know, needs a victory just as much. You can't help but feel, especially on Twitter, that everyone was kind of hoping that this worked out for BJ is such a revered and beloved fellow in the world of MMA. I mean, him and Fador, it's kind of funny that they're both fighting on the same weekend and they're both, you know, suffering these kinds of losses. The Fador one was more devastating,

but their fan bases kind of rally around them in the same way. They are just loyal to a fault. And so to get back to the question, I don't know. It's a freaking depressing question. No, let's not pick or choose, but are they damaging their legacies? Do you feel like the people will remember BJ Penn or Fador differently because of these fights?

It's different because Fador is doing this outside of pride. and pride is where he really made his name. So I think that people can compartmentalize the pride, Fador, the American Fader. And what I mean by that is when he started to fight, you know, here in North America post-pride. So I don't think that Fador is ruining anything. And actually, Chale and I spoke about legacy before the fight, about is his legacy on the line? And he said, and this is sort of a Chalism, but like he doesn't subscribe to that. He doesn't believe in those kinds of things that legacies are on the line.

But there is something to be said for damaging a legacy. you can see and, you know, your, you're sort of lasting image and the last impression that you make, you know, people talk about Willie Mays, playing for the Mets, et cetera. I'd be, I'd be very content of Fador stop fighting because he's getting knocked out. He's getting rocked. Clearly, he can't take a punch the same way that he used to. I mean, he's getting knocked out cold, stiff. It's just not the same.

His reflexes aren't the same. The damage that he's able to sustain isn't the same. I would be very content. Johnny Hendricks is an enigma. He's somewhat of a mess. I mean, he's not getting knocked out, but clearly he does not have the same kind of determination, the same kind of discipline that he once had.

Why that is, I don't know, but we've seen in the past, guys move up in weight and then think, oh, I'm all good, I don't have to push myself as much, and then we're faced with the situation where they miss weight, and, you know, they're now weighing 17 pounds more than where they were stars. And so the Johnny Hendrick situation is just is almost baffling that it's gone into this point because it's not like he's getting, you know, knocked out senseless like Fador is. But,

I mean, the damage that he's doing to his body with all these weight cuts has to be taking a toll. And then the BJ one is just like, it's like a slow, it's like a slow deterioration of his skills. So they're all equally depressing. They're all worth, I mean, they're all doing some kind of damage to their legacies. They're all, you know, great fighters, all former champions, all people who had had great runs. It's just another reminder that there is no crueler game than the fight game. In baseball, you stick around too long, you start to strike out, you're slow, you can't make it to first as quick, you can't throw as well.

In basketball, you're slow, you're on the bench. But here, you're just exposed. It's like you're naked. And the world is just seeing you all by yourself look worse, getting roughed up, getting knocked out. It's the fall from grace, from the top to the. bottom in combat sports. There's nothing like it. And it's sad to watch. And unfortunately, it's the only kind of sport that doesn't have anything planned for the, you know, combatants

after they're done competing in the NBA, in the NFL and all these sports. And it's a different kind of sport because it's every man for themselves or every woman for themselves. But it's just it's cruel unlike anything other. And that's why I have so much respect for these fighters because I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this. You get paid very little to the top. Once you make it to the top, you may not get paid what you are. are, you know, worth and what you deserve. And then the fall from the top is unlike anything we've ever seen in any other sport. And so it's just amazing that people actually want to do this.

But what's different there is that the fall still pays if you've made it to that top. And that's the difference. That's why it makes sense to keep doing it. The fall still pays. Whereas if you're a washed out, if you're a washed out NFL, washed out NBA guy, you're not going to get a contract because you can't make the team. But if viewers are still willing to watch. some of our fallen heroes get beat up,

then the pay is still going to be, it's still going to be worth it. So it's unfortunate. Money isn't the only currency. And so you may get money and you may get more in your bank account. And that's great. It may pay, but you're paying for this in the long run,

in my opinion, especially when we're talking about getting knocked out. Let's transition here, Bellator as well. Bill Davis, lost twice. Yeah. To the now reigning champ. what do you do next with phil belator's divisions are kind of built you know there was some talk of this um last week you know that that they're held to a different standard they should be held to

a different standard the ufc was founded in 1993 if you want to erase the first seven eight years they're still 16 17 years old beltor is is only eight years old and so yeah they they're playing with a different deck of cards so why i'm saying that is the divisions are aren't as fleshed out. They don't have the same kind of budget. You can't talk about VICOM's, you know, uh, net worth. They're not throwing the world at, at Bellator. Belator is just a very small part of what they're doing. And so it's kind of hard to predict in Belator who's going where and what's next. I mean, you have some very clear cut situations like, um, Douglas Slim is fighting Roy McDonald. We know that's happening. Or I don't know, uh, Chandler premise. We know that's

obvious. But in the light heavyweight division, I mean, we just heard from, from Scott. He said, you know, King Moe is fighting Bader. Okay, great. But he could have gone in a different direction and no one really would have batted eye. They're just in the position right now of making the best fights possible. And there's not so much this ranking system

or this meritocracy or hierarchy. It just doesn't work that way right now. Hopefully at some point they'll get there. But let me just say this about the Bellator event. First of all, I had a ton of fun covering that event. It was a great vibe. I thought they put together a very nice card. Fancy to stop worrying to a certain degree

about what it means for Bellator. Like I heard some people say like this was an awful night for Beltor. It wasn't an awful night. For you and I, I mean, let's let's let them worry about, you know, the ramifications of Pico and Chandler losing. But if you paid $50 to watch that, you got unpredictability. You got Pico losing in seconds. You got the Chandler thing. You got the double knockdown. You know, you got the return of channel. So it's like, we need to stop worrying so much. And I'm, I'm at fault here too sometimes about like what this means for the promotion and stuff like that. And sometimes just look at the

product. And I thought, top to bottom, that was a very good night for Belator. Heather Hardy, James Galaher, I mean, these were very entertaining fights and performances. And there was a lot at stake here. And I said to someone before the fight, I said, if the talk afterwards is that the main event was fixed or that something was fixed, you know, Belator's got a real problem. That didn't happen. And so that's a victory for them. There's no fixed talk. There's no talk that, you know, they're beneath the UFC or, you know, it's kind of funny. Could you imagine if the finish on Sunday with the Yamasaki thing happen on Saturday with Chale and Vandalay,

what people would have said about them? Could you imagine what kind of accusations would be thrown out? So overall, I thought this was a very good night for Belator. The results may not have gone their way, but what was the big knock on Scott Coker and Company when they were running strike force? Too many mismatches. We know who's going to win.

We know who you want to win. Well, we knew who they wanted to win on Saturday. And in many cases, that didn't happen. So I actually think that that's a good thing for them. Yeah. Did you go? No. Did you watch?

I went to that big three thing at Barclays and then came home and, oh no, that was Sunday. What did I do on Saturday? Something else, I forget. But no, I did not go. Did I watch? Yeah, I watched. I thought, and I feel the same way you do. I think that we can kind of be in the echo chamber a little bit sometimes and be thinking about, you know, what does this mean for the promotion?

Whereas I imagine, you know, a large majority of the fans that plop down some money. for it, weren't thinking the implications of of, you know, Aaron Pico losing. I don't think they were necessarily with that. They were just seeing a finish. So, yeah, I thought it was a fun

card. Did they, or did we overhide Pico, did we make a big mistake here? Or did they make a bigger mistake by putting him in there against an 82-back? You know, because you got to like Chandler said, they put the chips in his corner. They pushed it. Yeah. And

he had to take the bet and push it all in. They gave him everything they could. And, you know, sometimes you get Connor McGregor and sometimes you get Aaron Pico. But go back to when this fight was announced when we had Pico and I was like, Zach Freeman is no slouch. Yeah.

When I found out who he was fighting, 8 and 2 RFA, I mean, this, we've seen worse. I think a lot of people felt that way. Yeah, we've seen worse. In fact, let me just double check. Next question from Twitter, from Dana, looking back at the fight. DFW?

Melator, did Melentor make a mistake by putting Pico against Freeman in his pro debut? I mean, look, it's... Is it a mistake? Hindsight, 2020, if he would have won, as they expected him to, it would have been brilliant. But, yeah, in hindsight, it was clearly a mistake. Would it? Yeah, I mean... Why?

Well, does beating Freeman add any more to the legacy of Pico or the legend of Pico than beating some 2-0 fighter or, you know, one-in-one fighter? I don't necessarily think so. Yes. I kind of figured that this question was about also the debut at MSG on pay-per-view, because those are added elements of pressure as well that they put on him. It's all like he debuted in Sackerville on the Bellator.com prelims. I see where you're going there, but I don't think that that was what got PICO. I don't think that the stage got to Pico.

I think the whole package was pretty darn fresh. I mean, yes, he's fought for the Olympic team and all were competed, I should say, and he's been groomed, but like this was different. This was MSG. This was a lot of eyes on him. This was him alone. he's never fought in a cage before. He's never had a pro or amateur

MMA fight. So this is a lot to put on a young man who's just 20 years old against another guy who's fought 10 fights and is a little older and has a family and he's kind of fighting to survive and to gain some respect. So look, I fully believe that Pico will be back.

I fully believe that he is still someone to watch. I fully believe that he's a blue chip prospect. I fully believe that he is deserving of our attention. if we want to go silver lining on this hey now they got a guy in Zach Freeman that you know hardly any of us knew and they could do something with them prospect killer whatever you want to say

but yeah in hindsight it was a mistake how could I thought you weren't going to go there I thought you were going to cop out and say it's not a mistake it was a mistake in hindsight yeah sure because look at what happened how can you call it anything but a mistake you can't book them against the guy that game you just can't if that's what you're trying to do

and if you're you know relatively known for for building up prospects properly and putting them in some squash mashes first didn't seem like the right move. James Gallagher, does he want to create his own legacy or is he okay playing second fiddle to Connor

and taking pages out of his book? I don't think he's playing... This question just highlighted because I've seen a lot of talk about him copying Connor. First of all, do you agree with that? Is he in the Connor McGregor mold? Does he remind me of Connor?

Yes, he's a teammate. His accent is kind of like his, although it's a little different. the similar tattoos, the similar attire, the brashness, the showmanship. Yeah, there are a lot of elements. But here's the part that you have to kind of understand when you're making this comparison. James Gallowher was a young teenager in the gym with Connor 24-7, sleeping at his coach's apartment in a spare room. It would almost be crazy for him not to be like Connor McGregor. You get what I'm saying?

like, okay, Connor came into the UFC four years ago. James Gallowher was 16 years old. And so he looked up to Connor McGregor. And sure, he probably wanted to emulate him. And why wouldn't he want to emulate him? He's very successful, Connor is. And so, yeah, we're all our own people and we're going to go down different paths. But it's not, it's not like a knock on him or it's not out of the ordinary for a young kid to try to emulate someone who's almost 10 years older than him,

who's supremely successful in his chosen field. as well. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I don't feel like... And I thought he handles it, you know, like he handled it perfectly. He's like, yeah, you want to compare me to, you know, who I consider the goat, the guy who's going to be, Floyd, great. You know, better to be compared to him than some, you know, some scrub. If anybody wants to compare me to Connor McGregor, I'd be happy. Let me know. Look. You call me Connor McGregor, I'm okay with it.

Would it be better for him if he was completely different? Yeah, maybe. You can make that case. But I don't think it's a knock on him. he's getting a ton he's one of the faces of Belator right now he's one of those guys that you have to watch you have to cover

if you're a fan of MMA if you're covering MMA he had in my opinion the breakout performance of that event and there were a lot of them so really impressive he's doing nothing wrong

he's backing it up yeah real quick you know we gotta get through this Swiftie McSwift face people say nap or tap but shouldn't the fight be over

if you're not intelligently defending yourself obviously referring to Michael Kiesa the stoppage with Mario Yamasaki, it seemed like he stopped fighting the hands. And so there are some people who are saying

that that should be enough to protect the fighter. There's a lot of people saying, obviously, he wasn't in danger of having any limbs broken or anything like that. And therefore, letting him either go to sleep or tap out was the way to have that fight end. Ultimately, first of all, where do you fall on whether it was an early stoppage or not?

And would you consider that not intelligently defending yourself? The problem was it was too short to make that claim. I mean, it was like one or two seconds where he wasn't doing that. He didn't check. He didn't check. B, I've seen a lot of people say, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I've seen people say, oh, he was about to tap. Yeah, you may be right.

He was maybe one or two seconds away, and that's the real crime here. We would not be talking about anything. All we would be talking about is Kevin Lee's great performance, breakup performance, top contender. But the issue is he didn't tap. and he wasn't out. And so you can't assume. What's that famous saying?

What happens when you assume? You make an ass out of you and me. When you're a referee, you can't assume. Here's the problem. Maria Masaki has been messing up for quite some time, and he's doing it more so now than ever. And his confidence is shot, and there's nothing worse than a referee,

especially in MMA, who has low confidence, who's starting to question himself. He lets fights go on too long. We were just talking about this, what, like two weeks ago, that he's stopping fights way too late. So this time he was trigger-happy and try to write the wrong and got in there too early because he's thinking too much. He's not reacting to what's happening.

He's overthinking things. And so he needs to get demoted. He needs to take a step back, work your way back up. And I know that there is a shortage of great referees. But, hey, Keith Peterson, I think, is doing a great job as of late. We know about Big John. We know about Herb Dean. There are enough out there.

You can't keep messing up this much and still get the same spot. You can't. There needs to be some kind of process where, like, in every other sport, The referees that officiate the big events, they're the ones who have had the best year. There are people who are overseeing this. You know what I mean? And you can't keep messing up and then get main events. Dana White could go on Instagram all he wants and say all he wants that he's bad and all this and take shots at him,

which I don't think was necessary, if I'm being honest. Like him doing hearts has nothing to do with what he does as a referee. But the UFC has a lot of influence on these commissions. They're bringing an event that's generating. a lot of money for the state of Oklahoma. They can easily tell the state of Oklahoma that we do not want you to assign Mary Yamasaki to any of our fights.

When they go overseas, they could easily not assign Mario Yamasaki to the fights. So you're not washing your hands of this situation. You're just at fault here. Tell the commissions, speak to Yamasaki, get him some good training, do this the right way because at the end of the day, it's only ruining your product.

Yeah. And I think, obviously, we know that it has nothing to do with the hearts, but people are frustrated with this and something needs to be. be done. He needs to just be more consistent and to start trusting himself again. Right now he's not. He's in a funk. You gotta get him out of there.

It's not fair. It's not right. We know Tony Ferguson and Habib are fighting. What about Kevin Lee? What do you want to see? Do we know that? I mean, fair enough. Go ahead. And we also saw Kevin Lee get after it on Fox with

Tony Ferguson. I kind of feel like I want to see that fight now. By the way, some breaking news today. The UFC announced that August 19th had been canceled. So that pay-per-view that was supposed to be 215. 215 is now the September 9th card in Edmonton. And this was the right call because that's a week before August 26. That's a week before Mayweather McGregor made no sense to keep that pay-per-view. Also buys them some time with the DJ's situation, which I think is very good news for all parties involved. And so we'll see what happens as far as the Edmonton card goes. There was some fights that we had reported, of Mike Perry, Tiago Alva's, maybe those get moved.

The reason I bring this up is because I had been told that they were targeting September for Ferguson and Habib. Does that change now because of what happened last night? I don't know. But, you know, Kevin Lee, I mean, he's still, I'm sure he's going to go in the top 10 now. But, you know, I-Quinta rematch would be fantastic. Who else is out there? I get it. I mean, if you're going to do the Ferguson-Habib fight, yeah, maybe I-Quinta.

I love that. Let's do that. Do that one again? I don't want to see Keisa and leave right away. I don't want to see it again. I can't. I don't want another six months of like mom talk. I feel like we've kind of...

We played that promo out and... Maybe two, three fights down the line. We run it back, but I don't think that... Even if, you know, we can all say definitively that Michael Keesa didn't tap, I didn't see anything in that fight that made me think I want to see him against Kevin Lee. It's in Barbosa? Sure. I mean, look, what was he?

Number 11? Winner of Gaichi Johnson? Any one of those I think is a worthy opponent for him and he'd be a worthy opponent for them. So yeah, I want to see him vaulted into the upper echelon. I'm such a fan. He is doing a great job.

Listen, you two are buddy-buddy now. I thought he started a bromance. It's such a good job on Fox there. I mean, this idea of having Tony Ferguson sit there and play analysts and ask him these questions, it is completely it is completely off

like they should stop doing that and I think good on Kevin for actually sticking up for himself and for not taking it number one Kevin Lee fan Ariel Juan who would have thought okay Daniel Cormié beats John Jones

is he the best at light heavyweight does that does that cement it or do you still think that you know even with a win he's not going to be able to get out of the shadow the legacy kind of of John Jones I guess it depends on how he beats him, but you know how I feel about DC. I think it's one versus two pound for pound.

I think if he wins, now there's some discussion as to who is the greatest of all time at lead heavyweight. And I do think that, I really do think that this could be one of the best, you know, rivalries. And I think that you can make a very strong case

that he is the greatest. If he beats him, now, of course, if he beats him. Yeah, if he beats him and if he knocks him out or something, I mean, at that point, they both have one loss, because I'm not going to count the Matt Hamill loss, right? Look at the strength of schedule.

Look at what Formier did at heavyweight. There's a case. I think there's a case, but I think ultimately, even if he comes out and starches John Jones, real quick, you know, there'll be justifications. They'll be explaining away. I think if you can get it done twice, I think DC may be able to rightfully claim that spot,

but I think until then it's John Jones. the man at that in that well until then yeah i mean he had i'm saying twice i think he needs two i think he needs two because i think if he gets this one i still don't think that'll be enough to get people um thinking you know john jones was off for so long he's had all these issues he'll come back in the next one and get him so uh i think i think cornea would need two but there's a greater case to be made oh absolutely yeah and you could make a case right now to be honest it's not completely laughable i would i would side with john jones being the best in that division ever and and in fact the best ever.

But it's not a laughable, it's not a laughable position to have. Do you think Connor is capable of getting Floyd emotionally unstable? I'm seeing a lot of this that, you know, Connor's best path to victory is beating Floyd mentally. Is that something that you could foresee?

Do you think that matters? I was just talking about this with someone yesterday. This is going to be the most fascinating part of the World Tour, which will happen in July. They're working on the dates. They're working on the cities. I do think it's going to be neutral cities. So I don't think that we're going to see anything in Ireland, at least as of right now.

What? Yeah, because I think that that's something that was discussed or asked. And one of the things that we haven't seen as far as Floyd opponents are concerned is someone really tried to get under his skin. Again, remember that tweet about C.J. Watson? How obscure was that? You know, C.J. Watson, the basketball player who had a history with one of Floyd's girlfriends. Connor goes there. Connor knows these things. He does his research. Connor sees all. He's cerebral when it comes to this stuff. Oh, yeah.

So he's going to dig. He is going to dig, and Floyd's going to dig back, and he's not going to get anywhere near where Connor could go. Say all you want about the fight. The trash talk will not be close, and that will be a shock if it is. It will be truly shocking if Floyd gets the better of Connor as far as the trash talk against the showmanship, all this stuff, and more. But here's the one thing that people aren't talking about right now.

The press conferences are going to be brutal, because they're both going to try to outdo each other as far as who gets there the latest. Floyd loves to do that. So who's going to show up first? Who's going to take it on the chin and show up first? That's funny. And I think it will ultimately be Floyd.

Show first? To show up first. Wow. I don't know about that. See how big of a deal with the A side, B side, all that stuff? Yeah, but I think he'll see it as his charge to kind of be the A side and do that. But I think...

That's not the role of the A side, though. The A side comes second. Sure, you come in late, you make your fashionably late entrance, but I think I'm seeing that. You know, I see these things. Yeah. But I think Floyd could win the trash talk in one very simple way is just Connor stands to make a lot of money.

Floyd Mayweather has made a lot of money. And if there's ways he can figure out how to flex that in Connor's face in a way that Connor can't counter, I could see him figuring out a way to swing that. Now, do I think in a verbal battle that he's ever going to beat Connor McGregor? I don't. I've never been a fan of Floyd Mather's trash talk. I don't think it's particularly impressive.

But I think there's a way he could position it that he would be able to flex on Connor. I really do. It's going to be interesting to see if he goes after the whole you have bosses and you work for Dana White and all that stuff. Yeah, exactly. And that's it. Connor is on the path to where Floyd Mayweather is. Mayweather is already there. Let's hit a few of this

quickly. Musasi contract negotiations. Do we know anything more? They were so close, not that long ago. And then they met at the retreat and I feel at this point they're going to wait to see

if they can talk to Belator. You heard from Scott about this. And I think that they're going to make a play for him. How big of a play? Is he outpricing himself? But they were close and now there's no deal. Carlos Condit.

Is he done? Are we hearing anything to the contrary? He gets the itch and that he might come back at the end of the year, but as of right now, no plans for him to come back. And I would still put him in that sort of, you know, he never actually said the word retire, I don't think, but in that inactive category. What about Carlos Condit opponent, former opponent, Dan Hardy?

Is he going to fight before this year's up? I mean, that's, I mean, I think he said that, you know, he's on the road to getting clear and things like that. But with Dan, I mean, he's got a lot going on. Just had a book come out, TV work, a very busy guy. I'm only really going to believe that one until I actually see him start training, get a fight announced. Until then, I put him in that retired category as well. Goldie replacement.

They were talking about somebody coming in. Do you have any... From what I understand, it's still John Anick, and they're happy with the three-man booth for the pay-per-views. and also they've done a great job of grooming active fighters into color commentators, analysts. They've got a nice bank of guys. Again, I'll reiterate what I said back in December when this story came out. If they are looking for someone else, if they spent a second looking for someone not named

John Anick, they have completely lost their minds. He is the man for that job. He is arguably the hardest working man in broadcasting as far as doing his research and crossing all the T's, dotting the eyes, listening, you know, for pronunciations, getting everything right. He has paid his dues. He was supposed to get this job a long time ago.

He is very good at his job. Why are you looking for anything else? Why are you looking for anyone else? The grass is always greener. No. You know, you know how it goes. Okay, first of all, there are three really good

MMA play by play guys right now, right? I know, I take that back. There are more. No, there's more than. As far as North America is concerned, the most recognized. The recognizable names are Morrow, Goldie, and Anick, right? Right now? Most recognizable for sure, yeah.

But there are way more of that. I mean, John Gooden is fantastic. They have him. Todd Harris has been a great job. T.J. DeCentis. Does a phenomenal job. He's under the fight pass. What they're going to do, by the way, is they're going to use the Tuesday night fights thing also as an outlet to groom potential future play-by-play people and color analysts. So you're going to see a lot of new names, familiar names, coming through the. those doors, so to speak. So that's another element that's going to be interesting about that particular series. But the reason I say this is, you've got one of the guys. Don't bring in a guy who comes from another sport. He won't be John Attic. It would be nice to see them give him that vote of confidence and say, we got our guy, all as well. We've got two other guys in Harris and Gooden who do fine jobs when they're called upon. What are they looking for? Anyway, I'm going on a rant here,

but no, I have not heard about any other new names coming in. what is your favorite MMA memory? What? What is your favorite MMA memory? Go now, spit. You say one first. You've been thinking about this. Tell me one first.

It's very easy for me. My first live event, BJ Penn versus Kenny Florian, leading into then Anderson Silver versus Forrest Griffin. Just that whole sequence of those two fights, I was elated. I couldn't believe, like my feet were floating off the ground, seeing that in person. in Philly for UFC 101. Gosh, I don't know.

We'll stick with me forever. Yeah, that's a great moment. I mean, so many come to mind. Dublin comes to mine. An interview maybe, like somebody you talk to, something you... Listen, I've been talking for five plus hours now. You're going to ask me my favorite memory?

This is a tough question. Well, you know what? Your memory's failed you. It's a great question. But the whole journey has been fantastic. What can I say? My favorite MMA memory, you know what I'll say is? My favorite MMA memory is when the people

stood up for me when the journalist stood up, when the media stood up, and got me back in when I thought I was done. So that's it. That is great. Fair enough. That was surreal. We had somebody called her shot. I thought it was worth highlighting. Anthony, in light of Brian Kelleher, I thought it was worth highlighting this person. Who I saw at MSG, by the way, sitting in the front row. Yeah, there you go. Starmaker. Calling his shot, he says he's going to be on the show within three years. So Anthony, good luck to you. Let's see if you can make that happen. happen. All right.

How about Chase Sherman, now in the U.S.C., getting the people to rally and tag us? He is so much fun. He's very entertaining. I still don't believe it's him. I want to see a video. You don't believe. No, I think it's his manager doing it. There I said it.

The gauntlet has been thrown, Chase. Show me a video of you posting these tweets and then maybe I'll consider. But for now, I think it's his management that's doing it. Chase, you got to show up now. If not, he doesn't train because he's tweeting gifts. all day or Jiffs, whatever you call them. Last thing here. 0-0-7-1-8-0.

That's my guy. Way back in the day. Like, pre-Jarry Park. He's the man. He asked me, I think this one is very clearly for me. Was CT too fat? So he sent Wes into the finale, or did he throw him a wasted bone?

This is in reference to that challenge that CM Punk was on. The world's greatest athlete, CT, gave up his spot to Wes. No, C.T. It was not too fat. gave his spot because he's a good friend to West. Otherwise, CT would have dominated everybody because he's the greatest athlete we have in the United States

and possibly the world. I think that's our cue that we've gone too long. That's it. We're done. You don't keep up with the latest things. Wow, how much fun has this been? So that's it? That's our Twitter segment.

That's our first one. I feel like it was good. It was great. It was phenomenal. We'll be doing this again for many, many, many weeks. Thank you to everyone who sent us questions and comments and used the hashtag. It's been phenomenal.

I really appreciate it. So, you know, I didn't really ask the guys in the back. We're doing the goodbye, right, with the music? Okay, okay. It's all very new to us, but this has been a lot of fun. So you can hit my music. Thank you, New York, Rick, for doing that, for getting all those questions and comments.

We appreciate it very much, and we shall see you next week. Fun weekend in M.M.A. What a very busy time it is. But the good news is it's a little quieter this weekend. and a happy Canada Day to all the good people out there. Someone asked me if we're going to be off next Monday. Hell no. It's July 3rd. Why does everyone take off on July 3rd and July 5th?

The holiday is July 4th. It falls on a Tuesday. So we're good to go. July 3rd, we're back, same time and place. So there's no UFC. There's no Bell Tour this weekend. But the PFL is back. That's their first event.

World Series of Fighting became PFL. They'll be in Daytona, Daytona Beach, Florida. And it's not a bad card. You've got John Fitch Fighting Brian Foster And it's at the Daytona International Speedway In Daytona Beach, Florida. Also, one has a card.

LFA has a card. So there's always a lot of MMA for you to watch even though the UFC and Bellator are off. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. Sincerely, thank you very much to the good people at Twitter for making this happen for us. I'm so excited about this partnership. If I haven't said that enough,

I love the name, MMA After Hour. A lot of you may remember we used to do this when there was breaking news. We'll be doing it more. Thank you, everyone at Vox and all the resources that they've given us to make this into what it is. It's all very exciting, the new studio, guests, all this stuff and more. I'm really excited to do the show every week and feel like I'm somewhat reinvigorated. So it's fun times. Next week we'll be back to talk about 213, get ready for all that and more.

So please do not go anywhere. But I really appreciate everyone watching all the guests that came in. Back next week, same time and place. Until they say peace, so many.