MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 389

Episode Date: July 4, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Alistair Overeem (00:07:34), Felice Herrig (00:37:03), Shannon Knapp (01:01:47), Daniel Cormier (01:22:00), Miesha Tate (01:43:20), NewYorkRic (02:05:17) for Ric's Picks, Michael Bisping (02:22:47), Chris Weidman (02:46:26) in studio, Cris "Cyborg" Justino (03:47:54), and then NewYorkRic (04:14:25) once again to answer your Twitter questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, July 3rd, 2017. Hogan, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a lovely weekend. Happy Canada Day weekend to all of you out there. 150 years young. Also, happy 375 to my home city of Montreal. Very festive time up north, the Great White North.

And of course, if you're here in the United States, tomorrow is July 4th. Everyone loves to take off like eight days leading up to holidays here in the United States. So a lot of people are out today because it's July 3rd. They want their extra day. They want their super long weekend. And so I appreciate all the hardworking members of our team who are here today, working in the back, who came in, devoted some time to keep this train moving along. We have a lot to discuss.

It was a relatively quiet weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. As far as events go, no UFC, no Bellator, no major events, although we did have the debut of the PFL, the professional fighters league. And that was an interesting one. Why was it an interesting one? Well, they were putting on an event in Daytona. at a NASCAR race. And apparently what happened was the NASCAR race got rained out and they canceled it.

And so they moved the PFL event, which was just a four-fight main card up two hours. And, well, the race got rained out, but they didn't cancel the fights. And so the fights were under this sort of canopy. However, it was a rainstorm And the canvas was wet, guys were slipping, guys were complaining. They had to rush to get into the cage. They had to rush to get things going two hours earlier. From what I understand, at least one fighter was injured.

And we're trying to investigate that. We're also trying to investigate why the Florida Commission allowed the event to happen. If a race couldn't happen, if a race was canceled, why were fights a lot? happened where guys are fighting barefoot on a wet canvas. A very strange start to their new venture, the PFL, which was once, of course, the World Series of Fighting. We did have John Fitch, victorious. He got a finish over Brian Foster. Jason High had a nice victory. But to me, the big story was why were these fights going on? Was it dangerous? Were the fighters okay with it? Moving up the time, fighting on a rain-soaked canvas.

It was all very strange on NBCSN. And it was weird. They were like doing this thing where like the fights were kind of a freak show aspect to it all. And the race car drivers were going in to watch because they had this break and they were kind of treating it like it was bar room brawling. Like, oh, I'm here to see some guys get knocked out. It was just very strange. It was like if you ever want to know what casual sports fans think about our sport, just watch that broadcast because they pretty much. think that it's like bar room mud wrestling. That's the way. I mean, I wasn't offended. It was just

kind of funny to showcase all of these, you know, uninformed people. And it's like, okay, you know, the race is canceled. So let's hear, go watch this freak show under this canopy while there's a storm going on. A really unique one. So that's what happened this past weekend. Of course, there was all kinds of news. So much to discuss. International Fight Week is this weekend. We've got the show on July 7th. We've got the show on July 8th. We've got UFC 214, which is the new UFC 213. There's all kinds of things going on. Later on in the program, we'll have our second annual International Fight League. International Fight Week draft between New York Rick and I. If you recall last week, last year, we actually picked fighters from, well, last year it was three cards.

This year, it's two cards and had a little game. So there's a lot to discuss. Superstack show. Can't wait for this show. This is one of our. best lineups in recent memory and I know that's saying a lot. Let me run down the lineup and get to our first guest one of the big names competing this weekend in Las Vegas. At 440, we're going to be joined by Chris Cyborg. If you missed the news last week, she's now fighting Tanya Evanger in a sort of Invicta Superfight, if you will, at UFC 214. Meegin is out. Evinger is in fighting a 145 against Cyborg for the now vacant UFC featherway title. So we'll talk to Chris Cyborg about all that news and a whole lot more. At 3.30, we're going to be joined.

in studio by the one and only Chris Weidman. He is headlining the UFC on Long Island event on July 22nd. So, really excited to have another in studio guest here in our brand new studio. As you can see, it is so lovely. We love having guests. 310 will be joined by Michael Bisping. Of course, the interim middleweight title on the line

this weekend. So I wanted to get his thoughts on that. Last few months, I told him, I'd be kind of leaving him alone throughout all the drama with GSP. But I feel like this is a good time to check in with Michael Bisping. So that will be 310 Eastern time. 245 will do Rick's pick, so stay tuned for that. 225 will be joined by Misha Tate.

It's been a year since she was last champion, of course, lost the belt at UFC 200. Talk to her about the bantamweight title fight on Saturday. Talk to her about retirement, her future, all that and more. 205 will be joined by Daniel Cormier, and he is less than a month away from fighting at 214 against his longtime rival. John Jones had the unofficial weigh-ins led by the California State Athletic Commission last week. we reported on that, so I wanted to talk to him about that, and a whole lot more, the promotion leading into the fight. 214 is just unbelievable. They just got Seroni and Lawler. It's just an amazing card. Three title fights, of course, we found out last week that Tyron Woodley and Damien Mayo will be

fighting for the welterweight title. So there's so much going on. 145. I'm very excited to talk to Invict FC President Shannon Knapp, who has had an interesting couple of weeks because she lost cyborg, Megan Anderson, and now Tanya Avenger. And she reminds me, and I say this with the utmost sincerity, and it's the greatest compliment I can give someone. Invicta reminds me of the Montreal Expos. They are the Montreal Expos of MMA. What I mean by that is they develop new talent. They bring big stars to the forefront,

get them a lot of press, attention, build them up, and then they lose them. And then they keep going, and they keep gaining new stars. It's amazing. So I'm excited to talk to Shannon about how she keeps doing that and just what the last couple of weeks have been like for her. And at 125, we'll talk to Police Herrick about all the exciting things going on. Her life, the winning streak, the interesting fight against

Justin Kish, her comments afterwards, all that stuff and more. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in our very first guest of the day. Oh, I know, by the way, I should tell you that MMA After Hour is after the show exclusively on Twitter. We're on Twitter once again, so hit us up using the hashtag VMMA Hour, send us questions, comments, and we'll get to those on the back end. Now let's go to our first guest of the day. He fights in a very important about this Saturday at UFC 213, T-Mobile Arena, International Fight Week. We're talking to Alistair Overeem,

who of course meets Fabrice Overeux on Saturday night. Alster, are you there? Yeah, baby, I'm here. Yes, there he is. Alistair Overeem, thank you so much for joining us. I hope I didn't wait. Did I wake you up this time, or were you free?

Were you ready for us? It's 11 a.m. I'm good, man. Okay. You're good. I'm happy. Thank you for joining us, especially as you prepare to go to Las Vegas. is when do you leave, by the way?

Why do you want to know when I leave? I don't know. I didn't ask you when we're leaving to do this morning or tomorrow. Would you like to know? Okay, I'm leaving tonight. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm living the day after. It's like details.

Ask me what you want to ask me. Oh, I was just making small talk. I just feel like this is like what you do at the beginning of an interview. You always do that. You always do that. But in the end, it all comes down to it. I'm not going to get the iPad. promise. Wow. And yeah. I'm a little worried that we're getting off on the wrong foot here. Have I

done something to offend you? No, just basically, I'm just joking. I'm in a great. We're going to leave tomorrow. The crew is very happy. The work has been done. And yeah, I'm actually packing my stuff right now in the hotel. Packed myself. I put them in storage. And yeah, everybody's very excited. What do you mean in the hotel? Where are you right now? Albuquerque still. I do my train account, sir, remember? Yes, I do. Well, yeah, I wanted you to sort of pinpoint that for everyone. So you live in a hotel there. How many months have you been there? Five, six weeks.

Five, six weeks. Okay, is it hard? Is it hard leaving the family? Because I know you have a young child now. Is that difficult for you? Do you get homesick? And there's one on the way. Yes. Yes. Within three to four weeks. So it's a very exciting. time for a family over him. And yeah, I have to admit it is becoming a little bit more hard to leave them behind. You know, as a fight, as an athlete, you are, you have to be a little bit selfish. So that's a little bit of conflict that I have, right, because you have to be selfish,

but the same time you don't want to be selfish, you want to be with your family. Sure. So that's a little bit of faith. But so far, so good. The work has been done. Everybody's happy. Everybody's happy, everybody's satisfied. And yeah, I can't wait to get it over with and get back to my family. Are we having a boy or a girl, by the way? Another girl. Why? You're upset?

That's three for you. You know, I've noted this. The toughest men in the world always have girls, right? I know. No, but I think it's time for a boy. So you're going to keep going. We keep going. I love it.

Keep going strong. I must congratulate you, Alster, not only on. becoming a father once again very soon, but the new website looks phenomenal. It really, you have outdone yourself, and there's also a new episode of the Ream. The website is Alastairoverim.com. I was watching the new episode this morning, and I noted in the episode that you made a point to really focus on your jiu jitzu training, and I'm wondering if that's because you are fighting for Bistria Redoom.

Was this a specific thing that you wanted to do because of the Verduem fight, or is this natural and it's just kind of a coincidence that you're spotlighting it in the new episode? Kind of a coincidence. But, you know, Jiu-Jit's just part of MMA. You know, MMA is a total sport. You have to work everything as strong as your weakest link. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Funny coincidence, though, right? Yes, a very... It's kind of weird seeing you with a white belt. After all these years and you've had so many great submissions, I was kind of, like, taken aback. Like, Alster's only a white belt.

You just don't really train in the ghee, right? I actually just promoted the blue belt. Oh. because that means you Yeah, but you know Jiu Jitz is also about structure It's about humble, being humble And that's also the thing that I like about it

At Trenta Grace Bar and at Valenti Brothers Yeah Both magnificent gyms I have a great development with these people over there And yeah And it's about being humble It's about starting on the bottom of the ladder and progressing.

And that's a little bit the thing. Of course, it's going to be jih Tjitia guys that want to give me a black belt. Sure. But then I did it in it. I got it because of who I am. And, yeah, I don't like that. I like to deserve things.

I like to work hard for things. And these gentlemen are supporting me forward in that direction. So, but I got promoted to Blue Belt. Congrats. When was that two months ago? Oh, okay. Yeah.

Well, congratulations on that. And so when you were offered this fight against Verdun because your history goes back a decade to the Pride Days, were you excited about this going one more time with this guy and you've maybe not been the best of friends over the years? Did you relish this opportunity to settle the score? Or would you have preferred a fresh opponent, a new challenge? I don't know.

I love the opportunity to fight for Bush for the third time. I mean, he has indeed been my rival throughout the years. and his career is interesting. He always comes back stronger. He's done that a couple of times. I can only respect him for that. I kind of always knew there would be a third fight after the second fight. So always kept an eye on him and really saw him, yeah,

indeed come back stronger every time and having great performances here and there. Become UFC headway champion, I was actually excited for that. Because when I remember Fabricea coming into pride, I didn't remember talking about 2004, 2005. He was not the most talented guy. He actually was very awkward. His striking was awkward. He didn't have takedowns.

He had his jih Tjitsu gun. He was, of course, jih Tijuana champion. But, you know, through hard work, perseverance, falling down, getting back on your feet, keeping going. He eventually got there. And to me, that was a big motivator to myself. Oh, right? Yeah.

So, yeah, I actually, you know, He is a rival, but I actually have a lot of respect for the guy. Wow. So you've drawn inspiration from his trials and tribulations and the way he's come back over the years. Wow. I didn't expect that. Yeah, and I study him a lot. He's actually a fighter who's not the most explosive, but he gets the job done.

He's clever. He's creative. He's very dedicated. So, yeah, this is something that I can respect. You tweeted a video of him talking about you And sort of Joking about him calling you cocky And things like that

But this is all in good fun You don't take any of his comments about you personally And you know those comments were from the second And I think that the rivalry was a little bit more heated there Yeah Yeah You know We're at the heydays of our career right now

At least I'm still going strong But I believe that he's a little bit at his hey days to me there doesn't have to be smack talk if there is it's also fine but there's not it doesn't have to be I just have respect for the guy that's it good I like to hear that let's be honest he has had tremendous achievements yes right

he submitted Fador he was the first to do that he became UFC champion submitting Kane he had a good run in UFC he at first got cut by the UFC came back so these are all things you know falling down, getting back on your feet, that's something that he's been through and always came back stronger. So very interesting material for this word fight.

I'm very excited. I feel like after the second fight between you two, it was a turning point in his career because you remember in that fight, it was very bizarre. He kept flopping to the ground and trying to get you to the ground. And then afterwards, you guys went into the UFC and he improved his striking considerably. It's almost like when he fought you that second time in Dallas, he did not have any faith in his striking.

He wasn't confident to go toe to toe with you. And after that, when he came into the UFC, I believe UFC 143, he was a completely different fighter. And so what I'm asking you is, do you expect to see the Verdun that we've seen as of late who was confident in his striking, his Muay, standing on his feet, or do you think once again that he's going to try to take you to the ground?

I expected Redoom was very ready. He's going to be ready where I'm going to find my B. I do believe that once Radun is going to start to be getting hit, and hit hard, he will revert to his roots, his origins, and that is his jiu-jitsu game. So at some point you think that he will, will he try to pull off the same kind of thing that he did in Dallas? Because that did not make for a very fan-friendly fight, if you recall.

No, that's correct. That's correct. Are you expecting that sort of game plan? No. You know, I have an open mind. I'm not expecting anything. Okay. But I'm ready for it.

I don't know what that means. Yes, of course. It's good to be ready. Stay ready. You're going back to Vegas. Are we going to avoid... What did you... Do you find out what you ate that led you to be sick

before the Mark Hunt fight? You had some food poisoning, right? That was a piece of sushi. We're not going to be doing sushi this time. Good. Good. Let's cut that out. Did you hear...

Did you hear what Mark said on my show a couple weeks ago about that incident? No. What did he say? Well, he basically said that, you know, know, I don't believe that you were sick, that you went to get an IV. He had some choice words, but he was basically calling BS on the whole thing. Didn't believe you were sick, thought you went to get an IV, and, you know, we're kind of skirting the system, if you get what I'm saying.

Yeah. You know, I don't know. I don't know. Mock is also one of those veteran fighters. I respect him a lot. But in the end, he's just a talker. In the end, I fought him twice. I beat him as a light heavyweight. I broke his arm and I've knocked him out as a heavyweight. And actually both fights, I was not fit because the first fight is light, I'm a light heavyweight fighting a guy. I was 106 kilos. Fighting him was 135 kilos. That's, uh, what is that? 2.35. I'm 235. He's 280. I broke his arm and that was on a short notice. That was on a five-day notice. I got the call Monday on, uh, I think Tuesday or Wednesday, I was in the plane and Saturday we fought. Now I had a good, good camp, but I had food poisoning the day before.

And I knocked him out. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what he wants for me. I think I've shown to the world that I'm the better fighter. And all the other stuff, words don't hurt. Everyone wants to keep talking, keep talking. To me, he's a guy who talks a lot anyways. He's just talking because he has no facts.

He has no evidence. He doesn't have anything to back it up. I thought of him a little bit higher previously. actually, you know, I'm a fan of his fight style. Still am. But, yeah, mental-wise, I think he's a little bit out there. So you feel like maybe a lot of things have happened to him. He's getting up there in his career, and he's just throwing out accusations.

You're almost like, you're like a duck. The water just rolls off your back. You don't take any of this personally. I don't. I commend you. It's a fight sport. You know, the only... The only thing that matters, yeah, but words don't hurt.

Come on. How old are we? Yeah. The only thing that matters is who walks out of that octagon or ring, in this case, an octagon with their hand dress. That's the only thing that matters. And I beat him, I beat him twice, I knocked him out. Yeah, maybe it's still bothering him.

I can imagine it's still bothering him, right? He didn't get knocked out often. So, yeah, of course it's going to bother us. I thought that after that... It's never nice to get knocked out. No. But I mean... It's never been knocked out.

Who me? Yeah. Not quite... Of course you've never been knocked out. You got taken down by me, but... Well, I mean, let's... Wait a second. Before we talk about the takedown, I mean, I stopped the takedown for like six seconds.

Also, I was holding a microphone on my hand. If we're going to score that exchange, I think that would be a 10-7 for me. And I think I'm actually being kind by saying 10-7. could even be a 106 if we're being honest. But, but, yeah, it's never nice to be knocked out. It has something humiliating to it. Right? You got knocked out.

No, no, no, no, no, you got knocked out. In the Middle Ages, in ancient times, what are you been talking? Middayeis. In ancient times, and maybe not even ancient times. A hundred years ago and more, you get knocked out, you did. Right. What do you mean? And I thought the line broke up.

Oh, yeah. If you're in a fight and you get knocked out, you're dead. Yeah. Yeah. So it has a little humiliating, I think, too, that. Okay, fair enough. I thought it was a major turning point for you and your career after that fight because I remember there was a time you were fighting in K-1,

and I'm interviewing Dana White, and he's like, who's Alistair over him, he's not done anything, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then he sat up there with you after that fight and was telling the world what you did and the current, that you had in praising you. I thought that that was a major breakthrough in your friendship, in your relationship, your business relationship, your working relationship. Did you feel the love?

Did you feel the same way? Or am I a little too dramatic here? Well, you're being very positive, but that's a good thing. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah, things are positive. I think things are positive. You know, I'm just doing my thing.

I'm doing my best. And then time will tell, right? time will define what happens. Do you really believe, Alistair, that if you win this fight, you're getting the next shot at the belt? You know, if there's no injuries and no other X-factors, I don't believe so, yes. Have you been told that? Well, you know, I don't like to say things of certainty because there are many X-factors, right? Sure.

You know that. Yeah. So let's just focus on getting through this fight. It focuses 100% of very, you know, everything is perfect. And not look ahead. Just be humble. And then we're going to get the job done and then we'll see what happens. Did you watch the Miochich JDS fight in May?

And if so, were you impressed with Miotich? You fought both men. Yeah, I was very impressed with Stiepeth. It just keeps improving. Very explosive, very offensive guy. I was impressed. I was impressed. And he seems to me like a cool dude as well to hang out with.

I mean, obviously, we're not going to hang out. We're enemies. We're rivals. And I'm actually coming for him. But, no, he seemed to be a genuine guy. No bad vibes. She's positive about everybody. You know, I can only, yeah, when can you say to that?

You can only applaud it. Sure. How many more years do this for, Alastard? Like, now that you're getting up there with the family and everything, Are you starting to appreciate the fight week and the experience and say, okay, maybe I only have two, three, four of these? How do you think as you approach these fight weeks? Well, still enjoying it.

That's one thing. Of course, if you're not enjoying it, just quit. Yeah. So I'm still enjoying it. My body is perfect. And I put a lot of resources into that. I eat very healthy throughout the year. I always stay in shape.

Some things that I definitely become 24-7, 316. 55. Yeah, I think, I think, you know, as long as the body holds, the body's still perfect. I can still go four, five, six years. Okay. But if it changes, things can change, right? Yeah. Then they're changing. Well, when you see a guy like Fador get knocked out and continuously get hit more and more,

does that make you start to think about your own career and longevity and things like that? Because no fighter wants to kind of be in a position where. people are trying to nudge you out, right, because of your performances. Yeah, be cannon flutter jotted. These are interesting discussions. I'm having with my crew because indeed you're saying, Fader's 41 years old now, right? Is he that old?

41. Is he 41? Yeah, he's 40 or 41. Okay. Yeah, you're right. He's 40. 40. He's 40.

Yeah, so, so you're, you know, It's a, it's a good question because, yes, on the one hand, fighting makes money, but on the other hand, it's not nice. Because, you know, I'm also a bit of fan of Fador. And yes, there's been some things between us. The fight never happened, blah, blah, blah. He never tested himself in the UFC, but still, you know, he was the man in pride, and I was kind of like a little boy back then, and he was smashing everybody. And, yeah, you know, he had an amazing fight, so. But it's not nice to see one of your heroes, one of your eyes.

idols coming back at that later age and then losing the way that he did so that's a that's an interesting discussion people coming back accepting fights it's basically for the money what else is it for if he wanted to fight he would do combat sombo because you don't get money for that there's no exposure there yeah right but you're still competing if it was his love for competition he would do that or he would do something else he could do he could do jihitsu tournaments why is he not doing that. No, he came back to Bellator to fight in Belator. But then, yeah, it's such a money-driven decision, and that's a little bit hard to see. Would you suggest that he stopped fighting? Would you suggest that he stopped fighting for his own health?

Well, he made a lot of weird, not weird, a lot of decisions that I don't agree with. Yeah. And I don't know if it's him or his management. because nobody's ever having these conversations with him too. We're having a real conversation. When people are interviewing Fader, it's always translators. Yeah. We're going to ask this person.

It's not a real conversation. But he should have came to the UFC. He should have test himself in the UFC. Usade is there. There's this random drug test for everybody. It's a fair playing field. Belta does not have that. Other promotions in the world does not have that.

He should come to the UFC and he should do that. Instead, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's weird, weird decisions. Did you train at Jackson Wink for this fight? Yes. Okay. Because last time you didn't have like Winkle John or Greg Jackson in your corner.

Will you have either of them in your corner this time? Um, not one of them to do, but I work with other coaches at the gym. Yeah, yeah. Okay. They're sort of like the faces of the coaching. staff. That's why I was curious. Yeah. No, but I train with them. I work with them. We're in touch.

Okay. They were very dedicated for the Holly fight. They were totally into that. So it's also a very relaxed vibe at the gym, so I'm not stressing them. They're not stressing me. You know, if we see each other, we work together, if not, it's fun. Okay. All right. I just wanted

to make sure. Well, I'm looking forward to it, Alster. Do you want to give us a prediction or we don't do that sort of thing? I can't remember if you'd like to do that. I predict that I will win. That's good. It would have been newsworthy if you would have said otherwise. Yeah, right.

Well, I'm looking forward to it. Are we going to get an episode of the Ream before the fight, Friday, Thursday, something like that? No, but it's coming after the fight. It's coming soon after the fight. Okay. Well, there is a new episode out right now on Alastrovereem.com, the brand new Alastrowave.com. And I appreciate you squeezing us in. I know you're heading out there any minute now.

So I appreciate you coming on the show and talking a bit about the fight, Alastair. And I hope to see you over there in Las Vegas as well. And while you guys are at, watch some of the older episodes. Yeah. I'm actually so happy that I started to do the documentary series of the ring. Because there's older episodes, like full of K-1. And it's just very funny to see. There's strikers in there.

There's going to be my second fight with Verdun is in there somewhere. Yeah. I think she can too. They're Red Grand Prix. So if you have a chance, go check out the old episodes. They're cool as well. Can I ask you one last thing before I let you go, Alster? Just because you, in my opinion, are the face of Dutch MMA.

Do you have any thoughts on what happened with Jermaine Durandumee? Yeah, this is a little bit of a sensitive topic. Okay. So you'd rather not. I have no idea what happened. Okay. No, no, I get, listen, we're having conversations. I can't force my opinion.

Yeah. I don't, I'm not in touch you for her. I've never really been in touch with him. Yeah I don't know what happened It's very strange She's not communicating She needed surgery

She didn't need surgery She wanted to get a hall of the rematch She did well there's one thing sure She did not want to fight cyborg There's comments Non-improven Cheater Of course you follow it in social media There are pretty harsh statements

I don't believe for her to make Um Yeah she lost the belt And she's surprised. Another very strange, very strange. What was her strategy? I don't know. I don't know.

I heard some rumors that Germana didn't want to fight another Dutch girl. I don't know if you heard of her. Yorina Baas. She beat Cyborg, actually. Yep, yep. In line fights. Yeah, lion fights. She's very sweet.

She's a hard worker. And I heard a little bit that Germana kind of avoided to fight her as well. I don't know if it has any proof to it. But, yeah, if it means that you're picking your opponents, that's not a fighter mentality. That's not a fight a mentality at all. So, yeah, it doesn't look good at all. It does not look good at all for Jamaica.

And now she's not champion anymore. Yeah. Had her penalty. It's a crazy turn of events. She once fought a man on television. I don't know if you ever saw that. She fought a man, so. What kind of man?

It was that, right? That's also a question. She poured a man, yeah, but what man? It was not an Al-Sogerman. I know. I know. I know some men who can't fight. I mean, you can't even fight.

I'm sure that your man would be... She would. She would 100% beat me up. Are you kidding? So, but there's another thing. What was the other thing? I don't remember. I want to say something, but I can remember.

I just don't look at it. This is what I want to say. Holly, I think that Holly, I think that Holly, also beat her. I don't believe that Germana, and this is me being Dutch, and I know that some Dutch fans will not like it as I said, but I have to be honest, and we Dutch

are very proud to be honest and voice our opinion. I thought that Holly got that fight. She had gauge control. She knocked her down twice with a head kick. There were illegal strikes after the bell. Holly actually won that bell in the first place. So it is it? Yeah.

I agree. And I appreciate your honesty, Alistair. And it's good to catch up with you, and I wish you the best, and I hope to see you in Las Vegas as well. I'm going to see you in Vegas? I will be there. You're going to defend the takedown this time? One hand, any day against you? I'm glad you're working on your ground game after that piss poor performance.

Thank you, Alistair. We'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it. Okay, do it. Have a good one. All right. We'll see you there. All right, there he is Alster Overeem.

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nothing toyot tires the next time you need tires ask for to yo to experience more go to toyotires dot com backslash ufc that's toiotires dot com backslash ufc okay let's move along thank you very much to to toyot tires thank you very much to alster overeem let's go to our next guest been wanting to talk to her for um a little bit now because as i said last week on the program she has enjoyed an amazing career resurgence, in my opinion. There was a time two years ago where I think a lot of people thought that, you know, time was on the other side of things for one, Felice Herig, but she has turned things around in a beautiful way. She has now won three in a row, and she is screwing up all kinds of plans for the UFC coming off that win over Justine Kish last week in Oklahoma City.

But before I move along with the show, let me quickly tell you about this fun little anecdote that happened to me just a couple of days ago. As you all know, July 4th is coming up, right? We're just hours away from the big celebration here in the United States, New York, Rick. What are you doing for July 4th? I am going to be working. The ride never stops for New York, Rick. I'm going in to do some cleaning up on the PR side. Wow. How fun is that? Gosh. But I did go to a barbecue on Sunday, got that out of the way. Okay. And now it's, it's time to work. Well, I am attending the New York Yankees versus Toronto Blue Jays afternoon game on July 4th at Yankee Stadium. This is true is my birthday coming up and I said you know what I want to give myself a present of course I have

the best life I have kids I'm so happy healthy but I want to take my kids to see the blue jays who are in town to play the Yankees so you know what I did what did you do that's that was your cue to say what did you do I went on seek geek one of my favorite apps one of my favorite sponsors for the show and I checked out the tickets and I was able to find perfect tickets for my family and I because what they do is they consolidate all the different ticket agencies and you're able to filter through everything. And I was able to find aisle seats because we needed aisle seats so that my daughter can come and go as she pleases. Yep. With one of us holding her, of course, she's just eight months old.

And also we had seats where there's, I guess, like a overhang. An overhang. So we won't be in the sun. It was perfect. It was so simple. It was such a great experience. And I'm so excited in less than 12 hours, we're going to see my Blue Jays play. Let me tell you more about Seekkeek, New York,

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Now back to the show. Let's talk to Felice Herrick. She joins us now via the magical Skype. Let us go over there. There she is. Felice outside. Hello, Felice. How are you?

I'm enjoying this nice weather. Yeah. Oh, we can't see your cat. Now you can. There, he or she? She. Does she have a leash? Her name is Quinn.

Yeah, I only let her outside on the leash because I don't want her to, like, you know, run off and leave me. Sure. You know, first chance to get her, probably doesn't want to be with me. Why is that? No, she loves me. She's my special. She's very special. But I like to bring her outside because she really enjoys it.

and I came outside to do the interview, and she just jumped on my lap, so... Is this your neighborhood? Is this your neighborhood behind us? Yes, yes. I'm on my porch. Okay. I hope it's...

I hope I don't get stalkers. I hope they don't notice the neighborhood. No, no, I don't think. I think it's very nondescript, so I think you're okay. Again, congratulations on the win. Congratulations on the resurgence. Is there... Like, I know these things are hard to answer,

and I know you probably get... this question a lot, but is there a reason or two for the resurgence, how you've turned things around, why you've looked so good, in my opinion, the best of your career? Yeah, actually, I think I did things really wrong for a long time, and I was very stubborn. I actually had a lot of eating disorders from years and years of fighting and dieting and cutting weight and moving up and weight and down in weight. Because, you know, before there was, you know, the UFC, before there was Invicta, there wasn't really that many opportunities for women. So I took what I could get.

You know, I was on a reality show 10 years ago, fight girls. It was on the oxygen channel. It was all the way high. I was walking around, like 117 around them. Then I got offered to be on the World Combat League with Chuck Norris. And the only weight class they had for women was 128. And so I fluctuated in weight, trying to get up and down. and because of that, I just didn't know how to cut weight anymore.

And I was, I just went down that road of, I wouldn't want to say I was inorectic, but I wasn't eating to perform. Like, I was just eating to cut weight, you know, to lose weight. There would be times where I would legit, like, eat a can of tuna a day and break it up into six meals. That's how extreme I was. And I always knew, like, but I'm, I'm. super obsessive. So I trained

so hard. And I always knew that when it came time to fight that there was something off. There was something missing. That I was way better in the gym that I was in the cage. And I thought that it was just always going to be that way. Plus I had so much anxiety

that I would go in there and I would be so tense and I would just like I couldn't be calm and I found a way to be calm. And I think even in my last three fights where my performances I've probably been the best to date. You'll see that I'm very calm in there.

And I found a way that just relax and I don't have eating disorders anymore. Now I eat so much. I eat a lot. I eat for energy. I started working, you know, I eat for performance. I started working with, you know, a doctor who did a bunch of labs on me. He said that after I have lost to his band, dance, I had worked with the doctor because I was like, there's something happened to me in that fight.

I couldn't move and I don't know what happened. And he basically, we did all these labs with blood, urine, saliva, everything. And he was like, you've been performing at less than 50% of your capabilities for at least five years now. Wow. And it was because of all the anxiety and all the stress and everything I put my body through. And I took that year off and we took time to rebuild. And I started enjoying the process. And now I enjoy training again because I've always loved it.

fighting and I've always been super obsessed and super dedicated but now it's like I I don't I don't feel that I need to be deprived and um I used to think that if I wasn't suffering I wasn't I didn't want it bad enough I wasn't training hard enough I would you know train six seven days straight like I would train every single day twice a day and like I just didn't feel well. And I think that that's also why my performances were lacking because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. It wasn't having fun with it anymore. And now it's like I give myself, I take Sundays and Wednesdays off. I don't, you know, I don't always train twice a day. I'll train longer sessions because I feel like my body has longer to recover. I just listen to my body. I eat a lot more

and I eat healthy, but I just, it's so hard to explain. Like, you'd have to, and I'm going on a tangent here, but it's because it's just, it's so much. It's so much information. And I think that people thought that I was on my way out. And even in my mind, I was like, why is this happening? Why are my performances the way they are when I know I'm one of the hardest, I'm such a hard worker. I'm obsessive and my obsession kind of was my demise you know it was what held me back and I'm still obsessed but I have balance so lately you have been very open with these comments about your eating disorders and what you've done to your body and

overtraining and not doing things the right way and feeling like maybe you're on the way out and now regrouping and of course after the fight on Sunday you were very open about sort of I guess your relationship or standing the UFC. And so I'm wondering, is there a reason why you have been so open as of late? Or is this just part of your maturation and feeling more comfortable with yourself and feeling like, yeah, I can't speak out. And, you know, maybe good things will come as a result. No, you know, I've always been real. And, you know, I think that the problem is it's like you get caught in the politics. And it's kind of asked backwards. I've been, I've completely rededicated myself to the sport and what should really matter before.

I got so much, you know, people would all talk so harshly on me because of the way I maybe marketed myself or because, you know, I was, you know, really into like promoting, you know, social media and this and that. And people were, oh, she's not a legit fighter. And then I kind of, I came back and I proved I am a legit fighter. You look at my last three performances. And I think I've just been in the sport long enough where I'm like, you know, I do everything right and I don't get rewarded for it. And so it's like, well, what, what's the harm in speaking out? I don't, I'm not getting what I feel I deserve it, you know, without speaking out. So maybe speaking out will take a turn of events. And I actually, I just, I have a really hard time, I say, holding back. I'm just, I'm very emotional.

And sometimes I don't really realize I'm being so honest because that's the only way I know how to be. Like, if you ask me flat out a question, like, I'm not going to lie to you. no matter what the answer is like I really don't tiptoe around things I just I just speak my mind and I speak from my heart and I think that that's that's the way you should be you know and I'm just sick of the politics honestly did you hear from anyone in the UFC after your comments last week saying that you felt like you're not pretty enough and young enough to get really pushed by the UFC and Troy did you hear from anyone I actually just got a new number in training camp and I didn't really give my number to very many people.

But I guess the PR team reached out to my manager, and they were like, I don't, and my manager broke it down, Brian Butler. Like, the reasons why I feel this way, because it's not like I'm just being a baby. It's not like I don't have, it's not like I can't back up my statements. That's the thing.

I'm not just going on this soapbox tangent and being like, for me, boohoo, I'm mistreated. Like, I have a timeline of reasons, why I feel this way. And, you know, they reached out to my manager and they said that things are going to turn around. And I would like to believe that that's true. But, you know, at the same token, I think that very self-made woman. I've been in the sport for a long time.

Nobody can tell me that I don't deserve to be where I'm at. Nobody can say that I haven't worked hard. I'm very confident in what I've accomplished and, you know, especially from where I've come from. and I hope things turn around with the same token. I feel that in the end, I will get what I deserve. And it doesn't always, you know, nothing happens overnight. And I think that that's, you know, I think that when things do happen overnight, you don't appreciate them. And I'm a fighter.

Like, not just in the cage, like, I'm a fighter in life. So I'm going to get what's mine. I'm a fight for it. Certainly respect you for that. Something I brought up last week and also Courtney Casey brought this up when I asked her about your comments because she was on last week. We didn't talk to you. You know, early in your career, I do remember even talking to you about this early days

of the show and some of your, I guess, opponents, critics, if you want to call them, that would mention this as well. Like you were never afraid to kind of put yourself out there, right? To sort of, I don't know, like market yourself in a certain way and market yourself as a pretty woman and things like that. Did you feel like you had to do that? in order to get, like, did you not want to do that and feel like you had to do that? Because when I heard the comments last week, I was like, well, it's interesting coming from you,

only because there was a time where a lot more than now, you were very open with, you know, on social media and things like that with pictures and you know what I'm saying. Well, I still am. I'm still, at that time, there wasn't opportunities for women. And I felt that I, you know, I don't disagree that there is a whole, marketing aspect behind, you know, the fighting and putting yourself out there. I'm not, I'm not contradicting myself or what I did in the past, like, but times of teens, like, since, like, I've been fighting for 15 years.

So in a long period, like, I remember at one point, being a white feather, there would never be women in the U.S.D. Well, lo and behold, he creates one division, two divisions, three divisions. Now we're on our fourth division. And Vita opened up. Like, before it was, you had to market yourself. You had to put yourself out there. I put myself out there.

And I knew, like, it's no, like, everybody knows sex sells. It was unfortunate that sometimes, you know, and I'm very, I'm comfortable with myself, too. So I never really did anything that I was uncomfortable with. But maybe I was more obsessed with it because I was like, crap, like, this is how people are going to, this is how people recognize me. They don't, they're not going to watch my fight, but they're not like, oh, this broke hot. I want to, now I want to see your sister mask.

You know, I was, you know, doing what I felt at the time I needed to do to get attention to bring attention to my fighting. And then, like, all I've ever cared about was fighting. Like, I know people think that, like, it was all about social media and the marketing and the promoting and this and that, but I was just trying to have a career in a time where, It was kind of unheard of for women to have a career inciting. And so my comments weren't against the, you know, marketing, looks and whatnot, but it shouldn't be overlooking talent, or it shouldn't be like, oh, this person actually can't fight, but they're pretty hot. So let's just market them and promote them and get behind them,

even though we have these other girls who... Do you feel like that's the case? Do you feel like that's the case right now? I absolutely feel that's the case because, you know, even when you look at the top 10, like, the past few years, it's like there's women in there where you're kind of like, why are they even in the top 10? And I felt like it was just, you know, to market and promote fights.

And even... I actually, I know it's true because I was offered December when... Michelle Waterson thought, to me in advance. I was off for the fight with Michelle Waterson and that's a fight I've won in years because we were on that show Fight Girls together and I actually fell turned down a fight with

me on numerous occasions and when Sean Shelby called me for that fight I was like this is the fight I'd want you know I was very excited about it and I sat like and he was like okay we just got to you know get clearance from you know because she had broken her hand fire

for that and said we're just waiting on clearance from her doctor. And then a couple weeks later and I hadn't heard back a couple weeks later I find out through the fight announcement that Michelle Waterson is fighting Cade Van Van Van Dam on the card

that I was supposed to fight Michelle Waterson on. And then when my manager went to Sean like why okay well why did you take that fight away from police it's like oh well we just thought that this one would be a little more marketable. So it doesn't you know. That was the word used marketable?

Yes. Okay. And so is this disheartening? Do you feel like you will only go so far now in your career? Because you said you don't. No, I think I just have to work. I don't know. I mean, I'm going to keep pushing forward.

That's what I do. I do feel that, you know, it would be nice that me if you have my back because they do have their machine behind them. and I you know I think opportunities will always continue to present themselves unfortunately I have to create them for myself rather than you know myself my management team rather than maybe being getting behind me and it and it is hard because you know even I don't think you know even though for my last few fights I've been the underdog and I wasn't supposed to win I was like a three to one underdog with Alexa Grasso. And even winning didn't, you know, I thought like if I was just going to, I'm doing my job.

I'm showing up to fight and I'm fighting me well and I'm fighting my heart out. And you can tell that like, just keep getting better and better. And I'm beating people in all different ways. And I'm just like, what more can I do? I don't. And then to have people try to take my victories away from me and make excuses for my opponents. other than giving me credit for my victories. I would be remissed.

I also don't ask you about the actual fight and what happened in the fight that everyone's talking about. I did not notice it, but obviously Justine, you know, had an accident. You noticed it in the middle of the fight? You realized this? No, not in the middle of the fight.

Maybe more towards the end. But you noticed it while the fight was going on? Yes. Does that affect, I mean... No. No? When I had the fact, I just, I didn't really know exactly. I just smelled something.

You did. Does that not like completely throw you off your game? For those that don't know, Justina's admitted that she had an accident. She defecated in the middle of the fight. This has happened before. But I mean, you can look it up. I totally did not notice it. But kudos to her for, you know, owning it and kind of laughing it off.

But you're the one fighting her. That doesn't like mess you up while you're fighting? no um well done and that's honestly i think it's it's almost like you know like the adrenaline like people like you've seen like people can break their hand in a fight or they can get like hit so hard and like what you're you have that adrenaline and you don't the fight like if i would let little things like that like fill me off my game then like i said i found a way to be calm under pressure and i like it's i i feel bad for just me and i really do and I'm not um I would never um it's hard to even talk about it because I I don't want to keep

you know I don't want her to keep reliving it like every time police does an interview they're going to bring it up you know um but I didn't it didn't phase me I don't I just I think when you're a fighter and you're like focused like you just you just have tunnel vision and you just go out there and you have a job too that's so what about afterwards like when you got to the back and you're no longer in front of people. How did you... Yeah, that's never happened to, I would imagine, right? No.

It wasn't, you know, afterwards, like, I noticed it, like, you know, a little bit towards the end of the fight, and then as I stood up, and then I just had my, you know, corner clean me off, and then I was fine with... I'm, like, I'm gross.

I don't... Gross stuff doesn't really bother me. Like, I had to... I was eager to take a shower, but I had to go back and do my interviews. I think it's different if I lost, but I was just so excited that I won.

Almost nothing could really phase me. I mean, if that happened to me and I lost, then I probably everything about this, but I didn't know, but I was happy. I was happy, go lucky. All right, fair enough. So you say that you want the Waterson fight. I mean, last I heard, I don't think she's booked.

Is that the one that you won next? Would that make the most sense as you continue to sort of, knock off, you know, some of the, the top stars in the UFC? It makes sense. I mean, Paige is not even in the rankings anymore. You know, she's not like, I feel like my performance is since that fight, you can obviously tell that there was a clear-cut difference, that something was not okay with me in the fight.

And then by her performances since then, like it doesn't really make sense for me to fight her. It would make more sense for me to fight Michelle Waterson. and yeah, that would be the fight that I would want and actually be the fight that I believe that I deserve, especially after having it taken away from me. You know, we're both in the top 10 and, you know,

climb my, you know, work my way through the ranks and I don't know. Yeah, that would be the fight that I would want. Would you like to also sit down with the UFC? and have a conversation about the marketing and the way you're being pushed and things like that, is that something that you're interested in? You know, I think that that's my manager's job to do. Okay.

Not that I, you know, when I'm not, I'm not a bit, I'm, I'm an emotional person. And I think that that's the reason why fighters and athletes and entertainers should have managers is because we're so, um, we're, we're so emotional. We're so close to it that we need somebody who can actually, the state back and be like, and negotiate, you know, on our behalf. I say, oh, like, I would probably cry again. I would get nothing accomplished. It'd be like, we can't understand you, Phelis, blow your nose, like, wipe your tears.

Like, I'm able to do it. And I'm actually not really a confidential person. Wow. It would be so hard for me to do, yeah. It would be really hard. I get that the manager's job. I get that that's the manager's job, but if it's something that's bothering you, maybe you can express yourself or cite examples.

But, you know, again, you do hire a manager to be that buffer. So there's no right answer here. I was just curious if that was something that you were hoping to do, have a face-to-face meeting so that things could change in your opinion. It's almost like who would I have a face-to-face meeting with? When I had a meeting with Dana White about problems I had in the past, he pretty much shrugged it off. Like, you know, so it didn't get anything accomplished.

And now I'm, I'm all scared. And I actually, I thought I had a good relationship with Dana. Like, I really, I really liked him as a person. Like, I, I don't, um, but it's frustrating when you feel that you're close to somebody and you bring something up that you don't think you're being unfair about. And they kind of tell you that there's nothing they can do about it. And I'll give you an, like, an example of what I'm speaking of. Um, when I thought Kylin Curran, well, before I thought Kyle and Curran, I found out she had a

really big pay bump. And she got a pay bump after losing two fights in a row. Mind you, also being finished. And then she won one fight and she got a pay bump. And it was double the amount of money I was making. And even if you go by marketing or whatever, like I have a bigger social media following than her. I was more well-known.

I had gotten off the ultimate fighter. And I was like, Dan, and, you know, Sean Shelby said, that was Dana White. did that so you got talked to Dana and I was like Dana I was like I don't understand why you gave Kylan the deal that you gave her I'm like I feel like I at least if you're going to give somebody like Kylan that deal I at least deserve that and he's like that's Sean Shelby world not mine you you did you know what I mean so it's like I felt like well who do I turn to who do I go to to get something done and after that I'm just like I'm just going to I'm just going to keep fighting and keep, you know, the people can't, you know, I can't be denied, like,

this is a, it's a sport. My job really is to go out there and perform and keep getting better and keep winning, and that's what I'm doing. I feel like I've been doing a good job, and I've had a really good comeback story, and not a lot of people know about it because it's not, you know, talked about, and it's, I don't know. Well, you're doing a great job now. and we have definitely noticed and I appreciate your honesty

and I appreciate you coming out because I know as you said you're not confrontational so it takes a lot of courage to do that especially when you're talking about essentially the company that you are working for so I want to congratulate you on the run congratulate you on the honesty not being phased by having someone's

number two on you that is maybe most impressive of all at least for me who is OCD and a hypochondriac so well done Philead good to talk to you again and enjoy the summer months in Illinois. It looks beautiful over there. Yeah, it's really nice.

Thank you. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There she is. Felice Herrig, stopping by. Great to hear from her. It has been a while since she has been on the program and definitely want to congratulate her on the run as of late.

So as I said at the top of the show, let's stick with this women's in May theme here for a second. It has been commendable what Invicta has done in their five-year existence because they remind me a lot. of my favorite baseball team, the Montreal Expos, you can see them right over there as I honor them, who were famous for building talent and making them into all-stars. And then the big market teams would take them away. But what was so impressive about them was they continued to build new stars. And that kind of reminds me of Invicta right now. In the last couple of weeks,

they have seen Chris Cyborg, Megan Anderson, and Tonya Ebinger, three champions go to the UFC. So I thought this would be an interesting time to talk to their president, Shannon Knapp, who has done a phenomenal job of building talent, seeing them walk away, but then continue to build new talent, which is no small task. She joins us now via the magic of Skype. There she is. Shannon, how are you? Good. Good to talk to you. It has been a while, and it's nice to have you back on the program.

And so I'm wondering, what has the last couple of weeks like been for you to see some. Byborg and Megan and then Tanya out of the blue, who, by the way, Megan and Tanya were scheduled to headline your next show in July and mid-July. What has this been like? You keep rolling along, but deep down, has it stung a little bit? You know, I'd be like to say there hasn't been struggle, but you really forget about the struggle when you see the excitement of the athlete and the opportunity that they're going to, you know, but come on, you know, Invicta was born, you know, we built Invicta out of the need.

So there was already a struggle, you know. We always knew it was going to be a lot of work as we build out these divisions. But it's so much more gratifying when you look at the athlete and you see them get to fulfill a dream. Or it makes a huge impact across the board. So it's all worth it in the end. And so how does this work? Do these athletes just call you up and say, okay, I got an offer? Am I free to go?

Does someone from the UFC call you? What's the workflow here, if you don't mind me asking? Well, you know, I mean, the UFC, Sean Shelby and anybody that there have always been good about even if an athlete approaches them, you know, Sean will pick up the phone and call me and we'll talk about it and see what our long term is and, you know, plans with them and, you know, how I feel about it, whether it's anybody or that kind of stuff. But they've always been incredibly respected. Oh, that's what everybody wants to hear, but that is absolutely the truth. And then from there, you know, Sean, you know, I'll either say yes, no, whatever I say at that time. and then he'll take care of it on his end. And then, of course, I always get the phone call from the athlete in management as well.

Have you ever said no? Have you ever said, you know, like in this case, I wouldn't have been surprised if you said no about Tanya because she was headlining your show in what? Two weeks? Essentially two weeks, right? A little over two weeks. So it's super close.

Have you ever said, you know what? This time I have to put my foot down? No. I'm trying to think. You know, I answer that very honestly. You know, there have been an athlete that wanted to go over that I've said, you know, I think it's too soon. I think you need to take more time. I think you're going to be, you know, you're on your way, but you need a few more fights, something like that.

But I've never held anybody back. Wow. No, not across the board. Maybe, you know, I think there's a one or two out there that think I have. But the truth is, is that, you know, the UFC didn't want them at that time. So that would be the honester. And holding them back now. I mean, and I think that it's important that people remember, too, that, you know, I let ask.

athletes go over to Bellator as well. Yeah, okay, so that was actually my next question. You have a working relationship with the UFC because you are broadcast on UFC Fight Pass. But if Bellator would have called you and said, you know, we need Tanya for a title fight against Julia Budd, would you have also said yes to that? You know, I think there is a difference, to be honest with you because, you know, we do have a broadcast distribution deal with the UFC. And they are partners in that. So I think that you always go the extra mile. It doesn't matter who it is and what business, what relationship for the person that you are.

I might differently. In that case, I'm not going to lie if Bellator reached out and asked for my main event, and I'm a few weeks out. But, you know, the UFC has been incredibly supportive in Victor. You know, and I think people forget to look at the benefits, too. I think it sends a message across, you know, the whole court to let everybody know that Invicta does care about the athlete and that, you know, we want to, you know, we do our best to help the athletes get to where they will know.

I think the other thing is, is I could never, ever pay, you know, for that market. that we're going to get across, you know, and the attention that we'll get from those athletes coming from Invicta. Do you, in a weird way, kind of feel like this title fight, the Cyborg Gevinger fight, is a celebration of Invicta? This is an Invicta super fight. This is your 135 pound champion against, you know, kind of recently your 140. Like, like, do you feel like this is actually a feather in your cap? And is there a possibility that, you know, in the promotion, in the buildup, that it will be acknowledged that these are two Invicta champions coming together to fight on a UFC? stage. Well, I definitely think you can't talk about them without talking about that fact, for sure. I mean, it's been here for quite some time. She's, you know, she's, you know, been a dominant athlete here in that division. To be honest with you, she is probably one of the best athletes I've ever

worked with my whole entire career. And, you know, that's saying something. I mean, she's always game. You know, sometimes I call her up on those last minute fights and things like that. And she, I can't even get it out of my mouth. Wow. She's already said yet. She doesn't even know who the opponent is. She's just always game. You know, and a lot of, I think, you know, you see that a lot with younger athletes,

but when you get a more season bet, like, you know, Tanya or five or six fights in in the pro side, it seems that everybody's a lot more cautious, and she's just always really ready to go. So, you know, it's really exciting to look over there. It's a proud moment to see that, you know, and our commitment has always been, or to say mine has always been, to develop these divisions. So when you get to see that, it's very gratifying. When you guys launched in 2012, and it was 2012, was it not?

Yeah. When you launched in 2012, the UFC had not yet, if I'm remembering correctly, had not yet unveiled its 135 division. I introduced that. And of course, since then, it's 135, it's 145, it's 115, it's 115, it's 125 coming up. Belator 145, 135, 135 125 as well recently. Are you happy

when you see these other organizations open up divisions because that kind of, in a way, it sort of keeps you running and keeps the machine going? Or do you say like, oh gosh,

can you just leave 125 alone? Can that just be our thing? Because right now, the only division that is exclusive to you is 105, a fantastic division that has produced

a lot of big names, but that's the only one left. Yeah, you know, the thing is that the reason, you know, I built Invicto, was the need.

That was it, is that nobody was willing to jump in head first and, you know, the work on organizing and building out the talent needs to do business. So really, that was the commitment. And to be able to look over now and see that, you know, because I got it, I saw it, but nobody else, you know, was really into it. And they weren't fostering it, you know, along at that time. So to be able to do what we've done here and be part of that, just like, you know, the years that I worked on the male side of the sport,

that is incredible. You know, not everybody gets that opportunity. And, you know, Invicta is very instrumental, I believe, in developing those divisions, continuing to create the depth and to do good things. You know, I mean, we genuinely, you know, I keep saying away because I have a big team, me as an owner, you know, I genuinely want to see them be successful. That is very important to me. And if someone doesn't want to be here, quite frankly, and honestly, I don't want them here.

You know, we're like a family. you know, it's important for us to kind of to push these athletes along. You know, get the experience and prepare them for a big stage, you know, bigger. You know, I know a lot of people look at us and refer to us as regional, but outside of the UFC and Bellator

here in the United States, who brings in as much international talent as we do? I mean, we're really committed to this space and, you know, and, you know, really change in the name for the women. And I think when you look across the board, you see it has changed. It's incredible to be part of that.

I don't think it's fair to call you regional. A regional does not come to mind. If someone called you those sort of like a feeder league or the minor leagues of women's MMA, is that an insult to you? No, but I don't ever put a sentence box. You know, I feel like, I mean, you have to understand that I didn't grow up, you know, or in my career, you know, want to be a promoter. Never ever, you know, I'm a great wingwoman.

You know, I am the one that was going out, looking for the fights and, you know, being part of a team and that kind of thing. but I was kind of forced in this position because there were no other alternatives for women to really and I knew the sport needed it so you know it's very cool you know you get frustrated sometimes

but it's a good frustration you know I mean I think that's maybe my adrenaline I guess you know that's how I fix I suppose but you know I had to learn all this I mean when I sat in the meetings you know if it wasn't about who's going to fight who where my next athlete what's going on

I wasn't paying attention. So booking venues and all that kind of stuff, that was all new. You know, I just had ground running and do the best that we could to, you know, achieve something. Okay, so five years in, what is the state of Invicta? Are you happy with where you're at? What would you like to improve? What do you need to get better at? What are you proud of?

What would you say right now is the current state of Invicta FC? I think that we're healthy. I think that's a really good thing to be able to say is that we're healthy. we're continuing to build talent. We're building champions. Athletes that leave here, you know, I mean, you brought a Bellator earlier. Julie, she's from Invicta.

You know, I think that we're doing a really good job with the young talent coming through of helping prepare them to be the best athletes that they can be. I want to look to expand the Envicta platform, you know, looking at, you know, we're working on boxing. Eventually we want to look at kickboxing, you know, just an array of different combat type sports across the platform for women to help to kind of keep providing opportunities.

When will? And then more shows, more shows. When will the boxing debut? Because I know you announced that several months ago. Yeah, we are still working on that. I'm hoping to do our first show before the year. Okay. So that's the goal.

One thing that I really like that you guys did in the past was that you would hold events sort of on the same weekend as a UFC event. You did that prior to 184. You did that a couple years ago, International Fight Week. But not recently. Is that something that you would consider doing in the past so that you can get more attention, more media to your events? Yeah, absolutely. I think we still talk about it. So I don't think it's out of the question by any means.

And, you know, who knows? You know, we're going to start working on 2018. So, you know, we'll see what happens in this next year. That's some exciting things coming up. You know, we're heading in August. We'll be at Tachi Palace. So that's kind of exciting. Kansas City has kind of been like your home base.

Have you ever considered moving out west to a Vegas or California where there's more of a, you know, a deeper history of MMA and fans over there? Yeah, definitely. I think that, you know, it's because it's just home, you know, and that's why this last year doing a lot of the shows here was, you know, to work, be able to have time to work on the box. and some of the other platforms that we're working on. Okay. And it's been good for that. So, you know, but in the meantime, too, we've been developing relationships with casinos and things like that. So I think you'll see us on the road more next year, for sure.

Okay. Interesting. By the way, a story last week that came up a lot was Heather Hardy, who initially was going to debut for you guys. That didn't happen. And then she debuted for Bellator, Lou DeBella, was at the Media Day. We spoke to her. We spoke a lot about what happened with Invicta. But from your perspective, why? Because she seems like a potential star in the making, very entertaining in and out of the cage.

And of course, a great boxer. Why did she never fight for you guys? And is there an opportunity for her to come back and fight for you in the future? Sure. You know, I mean, we always have an opportunity, you know, if Heather wants to. You know, the funny thing, I listened to Lou's interview with you. As a matter of fact, I emailed Lou and then had a phone conversation with him. Oh, wow.

Approached by Lou. Yeah, we were approached by somebody different. it. And I really didn't know that Lou was, you know, I knew about the boxing side. I just assumed they had like a dual contract. Okay. You know, where you have somebody that does your boxing, somebody has MMA. But she was just scheduled to do

the one-fite. We didn't sign her for a long-term deal because she does have other contract. And it's my understanding right now, you know, she doesn't have a long-term deal with Bellator as well. So, you know, the door's open if, you know, I mean, we like her. She was, you know, amazing to work with. And, you know,

no matter what, though, you know, we're happy for her. She had a great performance. Is it a goal for you to get on television or are you content with UFC Fight Pass? You know, I think that we're always looking to push ourselves, you know, to different levels. And I think that is, you know, definitely a step that we want to take. You know, I'm happy to say and proud to be able to say that, you know, we're the number one content on UFC Pass outside of the UFC content. Yeah. So that's kind of cool.

I think we do extremely well. You know, yeah, yeah, I think that, you know, yeah, I think that, you know, yeah. I don't think they've never closed us off from that opportunity. You know, I've never spoke like they would or anything like that. But I definitely think that it's something that would be beneficial to not only invictable, but the athletes. Yeah. For sure.

One thing that comes up a lot, or at least from time to time with the female athletes, we just had Felice Herig on, who discussed this a little bit, Courtney Casey last week. It has come up where they express some disappointment in the fact that they feel like there's a bit of a double standard where if you're a women's MMA fighter, you have to look pretty, you have to have a certain, you know, marketable style, things like that. And they feel like the prettier fighters get pushed more than, you know, the standard that is put on the male fighters. Do you feel like this is an issue? Like the sport has still, you know, it has gone a long way. It has come a long way. We are, you know, seeing women's MMA fights headline massive shows,

paper views, but still there's a bit of a ceiling that they kind of have to break through as far as the other promotions are concerned, the UFC Bell Tour, whatever other promotion you want to talk about, that the female athletes are kind of held to a different standard than their male counterparts. Do you feel like that is something that is still prevalent in the sport? You know, I think it does exist, yeah. I mean, I absolutely know it exists on, you know, some levels. You know, I've had managers come to me and say that, you know, certain promotions have made it very public knowledge that that's their intent is that they're looking for attractive women to fight. So, yeah, I think it exists.

I also think, though, that, you know, keep your head down. Keep your head down, fight your fights. Fight your fights best, and no one can deny you of anything. I think there are some women that have had it hard all along, you know, that have definitely struggled. And they still struggle because they don't fit, you know, in that little box, whatever that box is. But yeah, I think that I think it does exist. How do you combat it? I think you know, you just keep doing what you do.

Okay. All right. That's good advice from someone who's been around the fight game for quite some time. So Invicta FC24 is coming up on July 15th from the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Missouri. Melana Dudiyeva against Mara Romero Borrella. Am I saying that correctly, Borrella? Yeah. There's a whole bunch.

There's a whole bunch. Which, can you tell me one or two that you're really looking forward to on that card? Fights, that is? Oh, gosh. Yeah. This is like, you know, people always do this to me. It's like picking your favorite kid or something, you know? I don't want you to do that.

It's a tough thing. You know, definitely the main and the co-main. I think I'm really excited about that. You know, certainly excited to see Helena. Yes. I want to see what, you know, what's in there, you know, since you know, she's had a lot of changes during this fight camp. And I think she's got to be pissed off. and, you know, accommodating to help us get through that.

So I'm real interested to see that. I think that, yeah, As soon as back on, see, start going down the card and you start talking about them and, you know, you want to talk about all of them. But I definitely think, you know, that, I think, you know, as soon as a really, and Kelly, she's new. But I think soon as you know, a really interesting prospect that, you know, we keep pushing her to see just exactly what's in there. So, yeah, I think the whole card, just tune in.

That is great promoter speak. That comedian, his name is escaping me that sponsored a fighter. Hannibal. Yes. Is he doing it again? Hannibal Burris. Is he doing that again for this car? You know, I don't know.

Okay. You know, surprise, I didn't know he was doing it the first time. So, I don't figure. But, you know, he's been very supportive. It's really strange. We have a lot of support. A lot of people really like Invicta. Yeah.

You know, we appreciate it. You know that. I mean, we're excited when he's. anybody supports us. I mean, what's her name, Rosie? O'Donnell, I saw the other day that she started following us and supporting. So that's kind of cool. So, yeah, I don't know if he is, but, you know, that was really an awesome thing for him to do.

He's not a guy who showed up either and asked me for tickets or drew attention to himself or anything. I heard about kind of after the fact, you know, or someone in the audience, oh, hey, do you know who's here? That kind of thing. So it's really cool. I mean, to have that support. And yeah. It was unfortunate the fight never actually came to fruition. I think in a twist, he should sponsor Jin Yu Frey

because she was the one who was supposed to fight the Brazilian fighter who pulled out. So that would be a nice little twist, I think, at least, who is fighting on the card. Oh, yeah. Against Ashley Cummins. Oh, yeah, good one. Yeah, that's really cool. All right. I'll take a percentage.

That would be unique. Shannon, keep doing you. Right. Keep up the great work. it is very commendable how you keep chugging along and keep producing stars and the product is just as good as ever. So congrats on all your success five years in. And here's to 500 more years for Invict FC. Well, thank you very, very much.

But can I drop a little news before I head out? Drop away. All right. Well, first of all, I want to tell you, Andy Foster told me to say hello to you today. So I want to make sure I get that in there. Yeah. And then, you know, I told you that we're going to be at Tachi Palace. So that's going to be on August 31st.

And that's going to be, we've got two title flights on that show. We've got Yana Kunizkaya, which is going to face Raquel Paloui. And that's going to be for a title flight. That's going to be the main event. And then right underneath that, we're going to have Libya, Atta Sousa versus Jodi Escobal for the 115 pounds. Wow. How about that?

Shannon coming with gifts, with scoops, with nuggets. I love it. Yeah. And you didn't even ask. I didn't even ask. That's amazing. I appreciate that very much. That's huge. So August 31st, you said, right? Yes, August 31st. Well, I appreciate that very much. Best of luck to you on July 15th. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for coming on, Shannon. All right, there she is. Shannon Knapp in Vickta F.C. President. All right, let's move along. We are less than a month away from UFC 214. That means it is time to check in with friend of the program, Daniel Korme. This time he's not boarding a plane. This time he's not going. getting ready for the fight necessarily. It's a bit of a less stressful time,

so I thought it would be nice to check in with them as we approach the highly anticipated UFC 214 card. And I have a feeling that DC is in a very good mood because of the state of 214. Let's go to the Skype Machine and welcome in the reigning defending UFC light heavyweight champion. Look at that smile. I only see like the top.

There it is. Look at that. We got the beard. We're in war mode right now. This is full-on training camp, right? Hey, wait, what's up with your guys' deal? I can't see my face. All I see is Noad Lahat's hat.

Well, that's done on purpose. Why am I facing? I don't know. Noad, LaHad. Maybe if I turn it like this. No, don't do that. That's a big mistake. Go back the other way.

Yeah. But we only see like the top half of your hair and your eyes. So maybe you want to pan down. Me too. What is going on? No, just pan down a little bit. There we go. That's perfect.

I can't sit here for the next 10 minutes. And it's showing my hairline. Holy small. You guys see my hair. This is my hair. We're supposed to be friends. What do we do? Have we reached LeBron James status here with the hair? We have pushed through the LeBron status. It's just going on to just Carlos Buzer. It's about time to start putting that stuff in there, that black paint.

You did that once in Newark. You remember that? I can see everything. We're good. Don't worry about me. You don't have to see me. You're perfect. All right. Remember that time in Newark when they painted your hair? I want to take a look at that new studio you got there. Yeah. That was in Newark.

Yeah. I was looking for, I thought, I felt younger. I'd look better, but I figured if I went on TV like that, people would make more fun of me than they do now. So I was like, you know what? Let's not give them any more ammunition. By the way, you've never done the hair plug thing like LeBron, right? Because that's a big mistake.

I didn't do it, man. Good. You know, I've, you know, I figure I'll just go ahead and age gracefully. I'll hold on to this thing. Listen, there's no, there's no quit in me. So when my hair starts to go back to like right here, I'll still have this same haircut. Okay, fair enough. There's no quit in Daniel Corby.

I appreciate that very much. What about the state of 214? As champion, as headliner, as the guy who gets paid for viewpoints, I mean, 214 is the real 213. If we're being honest, this was the card that was supposed to be international. fight week. It just keeps getting better every day. I feel like we may be given Anaheim. They had like two fight cards canceled last year.

So they're like, you know what? Let's give them a little something. But it's good for me because the first time John and I fought, it was essentially a boxing fight card, you know, where the co-main event was Miles Jury in Donald Serroney.

You know, so it was this time they're actually, I mean, there are a lot of fights. I can't even make out the main card at this point. You know, John and I, Cyborg, Tyrant, I figure those are the top three fights. And then your guess is good as mine, Soroni Lawler would have to be on the main card? And then is it Manoa on the main card? Is it Barow on the main card? Who's on the main card?

That's the other fight. I have no idea. You think this does a million? Great, though. That's a good problem to have. You think it does a million? We did really well last time. I mean, I know the numbers.

We did really, really good last time. So without help. So I think we'll do pretty good. You know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be sitting there counting numbers before they come in, you know. So we've been on the good side of paper views and we've been on the bad side of some paper views. And trust me, this one seems to be trending in the right direction. One theory that has been brought up is that they are loading the deck in case this fight falls through less than a month away.

Are you still worried about that? Does it feel like, okay, I only really believe that I'm actually going to get my hands on this guy again, you know, once we're in the cage, staring at each other? I try to be positive, you know, because at this point, what's the point in stressing, man? You think that everything's good, but I mean, last time it was like two days before the fight. So I'm not going to really be completely secure until we're in the octagon. Things can happen at any time, man. And I'm going to be there. So let's hope that John's there too.

When you guys had that, you know, exchange at the press conference, looking back now, I mean, the gloves are definitely off between you two. Is there anything you regret about what was said at that press conference? No. I don't regret anything I say. Okay. You know, these, I'm not lying. I don't make shit up, you know? All the stuff I say is the truth, you know, so if I'm going to be, if I'm willing to point out his flaws, and I'll point out his flaws.

See, this is the difference. You know, I could care less if John Jones likes me or he thinks I'm stepping over the line. I don't give a shit. So if you dislike what I'm saying, fine, we got to fight. You know, you get an opportunity to fight me. So I regret nothing. And if I had another opportunity to say it, I'd tell him again. I'm not backing out from anything I say.

He's really owning his past, you know, transgressions. Does that surprise you or do you think that's the smart thing to do? At what point can you At what At what point do you start to do that though I mean is there any hiding from her anymore It's almost like Ariel like if after the first time

Something happened He said he stood up and said you know what I own what I've done I'm not going to do it anymore Cool but once you've done things so many times That there's just no other way Then I don't have to give him credit for it

And what does it even matter? Like, I don't give a... I mean, what does it matter if I care that he's owning this shit? No. I don't care. You know, because what is... What if he's still lied?

Sure, then lied. I don't care. Say he didn't do it. He could literally be standing there with blood on his hands at a crime scene and say, I didn't do it. And I'd be like, okay,

you say he didn't do it? Sure, he didn't do it. I don't care. So it's interesting because there was some talk that he would take a tune-up. You know, that was kind of presented. You would fight Manua. He didn't end.

up taking the tune up. Obviously, he's fighting you. Do you feel, I mean, like, was there any part of you that thought there's a chance he might take the tune up, or did you know that he would always take the fight against you right off the bat? Well, the truth that a matter is, there wasn't much of a choice, you know, because there were a talk of different dates. He wanted different dates.

He talked of maybe finding someone different. and I went to the organization I said, you know, they offered me the Manaw fight for July 29th in Anaheim. And I told the boss, a week after I fought Rumble, Dana called me, I was on my way to Kansas City. Jerry Manawal was in his office and he goes, you versus Manawai in Anahe. I said, well,

eh, he's what's wrong. I go, it needs to be Jones. You know, I go, it needs to be Jones. I go, make it happen. And then I badgered him. And I go, tell me he's, he's ready to go. And he's like, well, I'm talking to him. Tell me he's going to do it. Well, I'm talking to him right now. We're going to get it figured out. We'll get it figured out.

And after about a week of me just badgering him, and he goes, D.C., calm down. I'm working on it. Finally, it was Jones. It had to be Jones. Ariel, I want fights, you know, like that gets me going. You know, like it's like Rumble Johnson was like,

is he really going to be able to do it this time? Can he get one on me and knock me out? that's the stuff that gets my juice is flowing. Can John Jones do what he did last time and beat me again? Yeah, you know, I'm like, yeah, that's the stuff that gets my juices going. Otherwise, I'll just do TV. You know, they tell me you got to fight Jimmy Mano. I'm like, for what?

This dude has no chance. Like, come on. What about Volcano Osamir? You know, like Vulcan Osamere, I'll retire. You'll retire before fighting him. No, I'm just kidding. I just need stuff. If Vulcan owes Demir goes out there and he smashes Jimmy Man O'Wine,

looks like this real contender. And after I'm done with Jones, I wake up in a couple weeks and I go, you know, like, yeah, it makes my juices. I feel it. You know, I feel like I want to fight Vulcan. I'll do it. But otherwise, I'll be like, okay, I'll fight Jones again. Because I know every time I fight Jones, it'll get me going.

Like, I'm 38, you know, it's like, I swear, like, when I was about to fight Ryan Bader in New Orleans, I was setting myself up for a trap fight because I wasn't necessarily training all that hard. I was still doing TV way too close to the fight. I was like it didn't really, really get me as excited as it should have. And I felt because of the place that I'm at in my life in terms of my family, my financial position, my future, it's like certain things have to be like,

it has to really get you going, man. Otherwise, you're going to go out there and not be at 100, percent. So Rumble did that. Rumble got me excited. Obviously, a fight with Jones gets me excited because he beat me. And I can honestly say right now, those other fights, they don't really do that. And notice I'm not saying Gustaf said, you know, because I just really don't want to have to fight him again. He was kind of tough last time. He was clear Alexander Gustafson. You know, congratulations on your kid, Alex. Good job, buddy. Yes. And also, he got engaged. He got engaged. I don't know if you saw that in the middle of the cage.

Yeah, great. Good, good for Alex. That dude ran me through the freaking ringer last time. So recently on the program, we had Mike Winklejohn on the show, who of course is John Jones' long-time striking coach, and I asked him about whether or not they consider taking a tune-up fight, and I just want to play you this quick clip. And I want you to focus.

I don't know if you've heard this clip, but focus on the way he says your name when he answers the question. This is very interesting. Here's the quick clip. Oh, I love him parts of the belt. I don't think he had any need for tune. that fight to go fight Daniel Cormier. I think as much as I respect Daniel,

I think this is a good fight for John because we beat him the first time. I think Daniel couldn't take him down. John was able to take him down. John was able to, I think, beat him everywhere. And I think that plays in our favor of this fight, that we can expand on that and change some things as Daniel will try so that he fails once again.

So that's Wink talking about you. He said your name made me think that he's like, we're not going to, you know, Daniel Cormier. I mean, come on. Maybe this, maybe they think this is their tune-up fight. Maybe this is the tune-up fight to get to Alexander. You know, all these things are, you know, I don't really necessarily pay attention to it.

You know, Mike's obviously a fantastic trainer. But reality is, like, I don't know, I don't know. Outside of being John Jones's trainer, I really don't know who Mike was. equal John is, you know, so he's John Jones's trainer. So he has to have confidence in the person or the guys that have made him who he is, you know, because if not for that guy, those guys, I wouldn't know who he is. So his, uh, his, uh, his, uh, bit of arrogance, maybe it's warranted because they won the first fight, but whatever, you know, it's almost like these guys,

it's almost like, it's almost like, uh, the, the thought of the fight is that he just really went in there and it's almost like he beat me up like he beat up glover to share or or uh or uh you know how he won every round against rashad or or against all these other dudes it's like they're approaching this fight as if it was a wash the first time and uh that's that really it's really good for me it makes me happy that they see no threat uh in a fight against me okay um one interesting aspect of this fight that has been brought up. I did mention this to you privately, but what I love about it is it's full circle for your

relationship. Are you still there? Yep, I got a phone call. Okay. Fizzy guy. Full circle for your relationship because you first ran into John Jones at the pond in Anaheim, back at UFC 121, right? Yes, the very first time

I met him, the very first time I met him was at UFC 121. Kane was fighting Brock Lesner for the belt. It was the first time that we came into contact. Obviously, that wasn't the most pleasant experience. Also, it was one of my better nights. You know, seeing Kane have his moment in the pond in front of the people from California.

I just remember thinking, wow, this is just an amazing arena to compete in and be a part of something so big. And now I get to go there and make my own history, you know. And it's just crazy, man, because so many times, you know, whereas I was going insane when Kane won his belt and hugging him and jumping as the belt was getting strapped on him. And Kane gets to experience that with me this time as my partner, you know. So it's crazy how my career has gone. It's unbelievable, man. I'm excited about that, you know, excited to go into the place that we felt. that I felt we had our first

negative interaction to go in and making my lasting memory of the Honda Center a great one by beating this guy. Could you put a word into the marketing team? Because I keep saying that this is the greatest fight in UFC history. It's the first time that we have number one versus number two

not only in the division but in the sport going toe to toe. And I feel like they're missing the boat. We could get a million buys. We could get a million plus if they do it that way. Can you tell them to start pushing that narrative because that is a legit narrative? I think it's the truth. You know what I mean?

I do say a lot about Jones, but the one thing I do respect, as I've said from the very beginning, is his ability to compete and his ability as a fighter. But my ability to compete, my ability as a fighter has taken me to where I am today. 42 and 1 is the record combined between the two of us with the only loss being to the other guy in this fight. We've both shown dominance over this division, man, and the ability to beat the other guys. So I truly do believe you are watching MMA at the highest level whenever we are inside the octagon. It's, yes, push it as the great.

This is the greatest light heavyweight fight of all time. That's no question. We romanticize our childhood. We make it feel like it. could never be better than what we remember as youngsters. But take notice of what's happening right now. And I respect the guys that came before us. I do respect the guys that made the UFC's 205-pound division, the glamour division of mixed martial

arts. But the reality of the situation is, you're watching the two best to ever do it in this weight class. If you think for a second to any of these guys that John beat in his title reign, I wouldn't beat, you're out of your mind. And if you think that any of the guys from back in the day would have beaten John Jones or beat me, it's just not the truth. And I'm not saying it arrogant.

I'm just saying it these are the two best light heavyweight fighters that the UFC's ever seen. California made history last week. They made you guys weigh in a month before. Did you like that? And could you tell us how much you weighed? Because Andy Foster said he was particularly impressed with you. It was good, you know, because you have to take it serious. You know, I know that what California is doing,

is in the best interests of the fighter. You know, so at this point, I would still be pretty heavy. I'd still be high two-thirties, you know, and just kind of managing my weight in the last month is when I start to diet. But on Friday or Thursday, which was a month in the day from the wayans, I was 226. So 20 pounds overweight was really good. You know, I feel like the nutrition is on point. The training has been fantastic.

Tyler Mitten is my new nutritionist. He works for Lockhart and Leith, the fitness VT guys. And I'm enjoying him, man. I'm enjoying him and the stuff that he feed me and the training has been going great. Like I said, when you're motivated, when you're motivated, everything else becomes easy. And I'm very motivated right now to fight John Jones.

Just a couple more things. I want to ask you about Aaron Pico. Was it a mistake to put him on pay-per-view against a guy who was 8-2? what'd you make of all of that? I don't believe it was a mistake. I believe he was ready for it because I believe that he's a rare special talent

and I believe that his story is far from written. You got to remember, man, the greatest fighters of all time have lost. Anderson Silva has losses. People call him the greatest of all time. One of the best Chuck Liddell has losses. George St. Pierre has losses. So it's not like Aaron Pico's story is written.

Aaron Pico's story is just beginning, you know, so he took a chance. Look, man, not everybody's Connor McGregor. Not everybody shoots big and hits every single time. Aaron Pico shot for the stars, man, and it didn't work out in the first fight. But it's only the first fight. Aaron Pico's still going to be a world champ, and he's still going to be one of the greatest fighters to ever put on a pair of gloves. So no mistake. I believe that the team made the right choice, and he'll be fighting.

fine. I can't wait for this fight. By the way, can you just do me one favor? You got Chris Paul. Can you leave Mello alone? What's up with this? Mello's going to the Rockets, too? Come on. We want him bad. We want everybody. Listen, the great Daryl Morey is just... He's showing how it should be done in the NBA, you know?

It's like my two favorite teams, you know, the Warriors and the Rockets, man. We're just really, really doing well. Yeah. PJ Tucker, you guys are killing it. You're winning championships on one coast. your other team's loading up. It's good to be you. I'm just winning all over the place, man. I'm winning all over the place.

Things are good for me. And then look at UFC 214. The biggest fight card of the year. The biggest fight card of the year, I get to take the last walk. My name's on the marquee. I walk to the Octagon last. I leave the Octagon last as the Steel Champion.

Things don't get better than that, man. Okay. And by the way, is Rumble dropped this thing, right? This ridiculous after the fact. appeal. Did you ever hear anything about that with the New York Wands? I mean, it's amazing to do this after the fact. You talk about sour grapes. It was a little nut. It was a little crazy, you know, so I had to kind of, I faded to, I faded like, you know, like Jay-Z, I fade to black

a little bit on that situation. You know, hey, I was like, it was like when he was doing all that, you know, I was like in the closet, like, I was like in the, like, under the bed, playing hide and seat where you can see me. but I was still kind of hiding, you know, like, pretending you couldn't see me. I was kind of happy that that kind of didn't work. I just kind of lay off in the country, no fade to black. Yeah, I respect that. That's smart.

You know, Will Chamberlain redefined the NBA? They put in three in the key. You redefine the wands. That's your legacy, you know? The greats redefine the game. Hey, let me tell you something, man. When it's all said and done, I shall be remembered as more than Daniel Corby and Gaddon's UFC champion. I am the guy.

All right, we shall leave it at that. Daniel, great to catch up. I can't wait for it. UFC 214, Anaheim, California, the pond, Honda Center, less than a month away. It is the card that I think the UFC wanted for July 8th, but you got to wait a few more weeks. This is the card of the year, the card of the summer, no doubt about that. Thank you so much. I appreciate you giving us a few minutes of your time, and I'll see you in a couple weeks in Anaheim.

My man, take it easy. Much love. There he is. reigning and defending UFC light heavyweight champion. Like I said, they need to promote this fight as the best ever. Not aftermath best ever going into it. This is the best fight that they've ever put on. It's number one versus number two, not just in their weight class, in the sport.

It's too easy. Can't wait. What a car at 214. It's unbelievable. Okay, let's move along to our next guest. Believe it or not, I've been trying to talk to our next guest for, I would say, Seven months? No, I would say eight months. Ever since UFC 205, we finally got her.

How exciting is this? We're talking to Misha Tate right now. She's standing by on the phone. Misha, are you there? I'm here. Wow, we finally got you. I have seen you everywhere, world tours, PR things for the UFC. You're in Asia.

You're in Brazil. You're all over the place. Can't get you on this program. What do we do to offend you, Misha? That's really. I've just been so busy. and I think you finally have the right number now. So I switch number.

Maybe you were contacting some stranger that's like leave me alone, you know? Actually, I was getting nothing back. So, I mean, that's almost worse because then I didn't even know if you were mad at me, ignoring me, whatever the case may be, you are here. We're very happy about that. Is it possible, Misha, that you're busier in retirement than you were as a fighter? Yeah. I think it's not just possible.

I think it's reality. You know, I figured things would slow down a little bit, But it's just not my personality. I just, I like to be busy. I always, busy is better than bored. And I'm just a go, go, go kind of person. I'm actually at a meeting right now with my financial advisor. So I took a moment to call and I already went hiking like five miles this morning.

So I've had a wonderful day so far. And it's always busy like that for me, though. So if I meet you on the street where we're chatting and I say, oh, you know, what do you do? Like what is your occupation? What is Misha Tate now? What do you do? when you wake up other than, you know, stay in shape and have fun, work out, things like that. What's your occupation?

That is such a hard question. I'm always kind of baffled. I don't know what to say when people ask me that. I'm like, everything? I don't know. Everything? I really don't know. I don't know how it would qualify that.

I kind of say that I'm sort of an ambassador for the UFC and an analyst for Fox Sports. I guess that's the best way to sum it up. But that really encompasses a lot of different things. That's not even just my personal business ventures, you know. So that's the best way I can sum it up everything. Is that an official sort of title that you have with the UFC ambassador? No, if it's official. That's kind of how I've deemed myself, and I've heard some other people, you know,

refer to it that way. But it's not like there's a contract that says that's what I am, you know. So technically I'm just like a independent contractor. Okay. They call when they need and I, you know, ask. So I'll be doing a few things like, for international fight week, I'll be doing a panel this Wednesday, I believe it is, with a few of the other females, Paige Van Zandt and Chris and Joanna.

So just things like that, just staying busy with UFC and trying to continue to help the sport develop. And so what's interesting is we are a year removed exactly from when you were going into UFC 200 as champion. And, you know, that was your first title defense. And of course, we know how it all turned out. But I'm wondering a year later, if I ask you, like, is me, Tate happier today, not fighting, doing this ambassador stuff, working on television, or happier when you were going into your first title defense, what would the answer be? At this point, you know, it's all relative, but I would say right now in this moment of time,

I'm happier right where I'm at. You know, I don't feel like I need to be in there fighting anymore. You know, 10 years was enough to really feel that for me. And I felt like I did everything and accomplish a lot. You know, there's more. I would have liked to do, but there's always going to be more. So really, it's just transition to other things in my life that I want to do and I want to accomplish. And it's so nice not having the looming pressure of a fight overhead. You know, it's a lot of stress.

It's a lot of work. It's a lot of sacrifice. And people don't realize that fighters sacrifice so much. You know, we hear a lot about the weight cutting and the dieting. Well, that's just like the tip of the iceberg. I mean, that's the really sucky part of the job. But not to mention the birthdays that are met. the Christmases that are missed, funerals, weddings, all of those things are things when you're in training camp, you just can't afford to get away.

You have to be there every day, day and day out. And it's just such a grind, you know. So I'm just excited to be able to help some of the up-and-comers coming into the sport. I'm excited to be able to get out and go hiking to train, you know, leisurely as I please. And like I said, to help push the sport in other ways. I'm enjoying that. Since walking away, has the UFC reached out to you about trying to come back? Not at all.

No, I think they would wait for me to say anything if I wanted to. I made it pretty clear that that was the decision was final. Do you foresee any circumstance that would bring you back? Or do you think it's pretty much shut? It's done. I think it's pretty much shut and done. I mean, you can never really 100% predict the future. You know, when I went into my last fight, I didn't know it was going to be my last.

So it's just things are always changing, but I have, I really don't feel like a desire or need or want to come back. And I'm really happy doing what I'm doing, you know, financially, like in a good, good spot. So the only thing that would bring me back is if for some reason that fire was reignited, you know, because I never started fighting for money. You know, my first year or so was free. I fought my first six fights as an amateur. And then, you know, women's MMA nine years ago was not like such a hot thing to do. So it wasn't like we were making much then either. It was pennies on the dollar.

And so, you know, money was never like the motivating thing for me to fight. So it's not going to be a motivating thing for me to come back. You know, it's all about the passion. And my passion has just changed over a decade. It's come to new things. And I'm really excited to take on the new challenges that life is bringing. And, man, broadcasting, being an analyst, that's very challenging. It's a lot of studying.

I haven't spent that much since I've been in college. And you do a great job at it. So it's good that you're into it and that you're getting more opportunities. And I'm just curious, since we haven't talked since that fight, was there a moment that you recall when you knew in your mind you were done? Because you say you didn't think you would be done going into the fight. Do you recall the moment where you knew right then and there it's over? Yeah, because it was like somewhere in the third round.

We were up against the cage and I just didn't have like the fire to like go. Like I just couldn't pull it out to just really put on that fight of the night performance that I like to typically do. And that's an awful feeling to like kind of realize that like you're at that crossroad and it's like you don't have it to go. you know and and uh that's not a that's not a way to fight you know it's not fair to my opponent it's not fair to me and it's certainly not fair to the fan so i just don't want to i don't want to fight like that you know i i didn't think that i i haven't even watched my last fight but i know it wasn't a good one and i i don't uh i don't ever care to put on performances like that you know it's if people are going to put on so-so performances and just get in there for you know

shits and giggles like i just don't think that's the way to do it so for me it's all or none And the fact that there is even a question in my mind or the point that I couldn't pull the trigger was just like, nope, I'm not, I don't fight that way. It's all or none. And I didn't like the way that I felt in there. So I just figured it was time. Do you think you'll ever watch it? Yeah. I think I will someday.

Okay. Yeah, I will. But, you know, it hasn't crossed my mind as like a must, you know, it's not on my bucket list. Sure. You experienced it. And it wasn't that long ago. You know, the thing that I actually remember the most of the most of it. most from that fight going back and watching it on television. There's a moment, I don't know if you

remember this, where you tell your corner that you're done. And I believe it's Brian Carraway who's trying to convince you not to say that you're done. Do you remember that conversation? Yeah, I do. That was after the fight. Yeah, that was right after the fight. I mean, it's kind of strange to watch because you're the fighter, you're making the announcement, and we know about the relationship with Brian. He was your boyfriend for a very long time. Was that an awkward spot for you when you're trying to tell someone I'm done and they're trying to stop you from actually making that announcement. Yeah, you know, I understand where it was coming from because I've, I've been in there personally when fighters are emotional and they're making hasty decisions, you know, and when it's like you just lost

and you're, you're, you know, I think he didn't want me to jump the gun and say something hasty if I wasn't ready and still really believes in, you know, still believes in me as a fighter. So that was, I think, where he was coming from. But I just knew, I really, really knew. because I wasn't emotional at that point, and that's the problem. Like, I wasn't emotional. And I just was flat, and it just didn't feel good to be in there that way. So I was like, you know, the fact that I'm not upset about this is like not a good thing either. Right.

This is all wrong. This is not like, I'm just tired and I just want to, I don't want to fight. I don't want to ever feel like this again. It's just not a good feeling. So I knew, but I do understand where it was coming from. You know, obviously, following you on social media, it seems like you are in. a very happy place. You're traveling, like I said, and you're all over the place. You're doing, I believe you have a podcast too, right? Yeah, I do. What's it called?

Yep. The Misha Tate Show. That's a very easy name to remember. But I would be amazing, because people ask me about this all the time. And, you know, contrary to popular belief, I don't like to pry when it's unnecessary. But because of the sort of public nature of your relationship with Brian, is it fair to ask what is the status of said relationship? you guys are no longer together, right? You know what? What I've decided is that in all this growth of everything that I've done and the way of the world and social media,

I just don't think it's people need to care, like what the status of my personal life is. So it's just something that's just untalked about because the social media can just tear you apart. It can tear people apart. And I just, I don't care to have it in my personal life anymore. So I don't think that I'll ever, ever, you know, invite people into my personal life in that way ever again. People that I don't know.

You know, people that matter will know. And the people who don't matter in that sense, they don't need to know. So, you know, that's kind of my stance. And I think more people in the limelight should adopt it because it's pretty hellacious when the media and everybody gets into your personal life. So have you stopped using social media? I mean, I know you post some things here or there, but like you've altered the way in which you use it? Yeah, I've altered the way in which I use it. People, you know, people are, are led into the point where, where I want them to, you know, they still have a part of my

personal life, you know, my hiking and my ventures and those things are things that I love to share with my fans. But, you know, no, my, my really, like my personal life, like things that are going on with my family, things that are going on with my relationship, things that affect, you know, that dynamic. That's not something that I think the whole world needs to be a part of. Yeah, no, I certainly, I certainly commend you for that and agree with that stance. I hope you don't mind me asking, just because you guys were both fighters, you were very famous, your relationship and all that stuff. So here's my first chance to ask you about, you know, said relationship.

But I digress and I respect your stance. Let me ask you about Saturday about you once war is being defended. Do you have a pick? You know, I, for some reason, my gut is telling me this is going to be. be a tough fight for Amanda. Stylistically, Shoshanko is nothing like, you know, myself or Rhonda.

She's the complete opposite, really. And I think that a very good striker poses a lot of problems for Amanda because Amanda is a great striker. But if someone is better than her there, the problem then is not that she doesn't have wrestling, grappling, or judo, but she gets tired when she uses wrestling and grappling.

wrestling and wrestling and judo, you know, trying to go for the takedown. She seems not as efficient as that were. In striking, she really is. But if someone can beat her in striking, well, then there's the issue. So I think this is going to be a very difficult fight for Amanda. You know, I hate to make a pick because, you know, I really admire Amanda and I really like her as a person. And Shavshanko, you know, she seems like a nice girl.

I don't really know her. So I don't want to make a pick, but I think that this. is, uh, will, will be a challenging fight for Amanda. They're both evolving though, you know? So who knows? Who really knows at the end of the day? They first fought on the card in which you became champion. Um, did you ever watch that?

I know you were preparing, but afterward, did you ever watch that fight? Because there are a lot of people who thought, given two more rounds, Shevchenko would have had Amanda's number that she was getting better as the fight went on. Yes. I did watch that fight and I agree with that. That's what makes me question what will happen in this fight. Now granted, I think Amanda has continued to improve immensely. I mean, I really think she's improved a lot.

And I think her conditioning since going to American Top Team is definitely better because I think when she was training before she came there, it was just harder, not smarter, you know, peaking too early in the camp. You know, she would come in overtrained for her bouts. Now she's really finding her finesse as a professional athlete and as a champion. She's really finding her stride. so that may be something that's obviously in question is her conditioning but that may be something that she's also improved on a lot you know conditioning is something that can be fixed quickly technique not so much and Amanda has a lot of technique she really brings a well-rounded game to the table so if her conditioning is on point and in her technique she has behind it you know Amanda is the better

grappler she's a better judoka and she's a better wrestler in my opinion than shavchenko is but we have to like wonder because of that first fight that's what I base it on if there would have been two more rounds I think it would have been Shipschenko's fight One of the hot button stories in MMA these days is the featherweight division Were you surprised that Jermaine essentially said

I don't want to fight Cyborg and let the UFC strip her after winning the belt in February? I mean I was personally because my stance is what do you have I mean what do you really have to lose? When you fight someone like Cyborg of her stature, you know, if you beat Cyborg, you're just on another level of respect. You know, and if you lose, it's like, well, so has everybody. So, you know, my opinion of it is as a fighter, but just like from a fighter standpoint, I think it would be an awesome thing to be able to fight Cyborg.

But I do respect and understand what Germain is saying. And I don't think it's like she's scared of cyborg. You know, she's a fighter. She's been kickboxing for forever. She's one of the baddest women on the planet. But I'm talking about Germain. Yeah. But her point of what she's trying to make is that she doesn't believe it's fair.

And that I cannot disagree. You know, I don't disagree with what she's saying. You know, in the fact that that cyborg has been caught. And I think even there's still some questions. in my mind of like the last thing that that Chris tested positive for, but she was able to get it reversed because she said it was something that was medically needed for her. Her doctor said it was medically. But I think if you look at it, it's like still something that's performance enhancing,

even though she needs it. I don't know exactly what it was, but I heard that it was something that can be taken for people who are making the change. I, you know, don't quote me in that. but I've heard some couple things like that so I'd like to find out some more research but I do believe there's just some question in some of that stuff

so I understand what Jermaine is saying you know you can't look at Cyborg and say like well there's no other girl that compares to her like even in 145 so yeah when you go to these trips and people come up to you what do they say they admire

most about your career like what do they remember most is there a moment that keeps coming up when you get to meet all these fans? Yeah, you know, people, they always come, usually come up to me and just say, you know, you're so tough. And the moment that they really remember was me beating Holly. Okay.

You know, they come up to me and say, hey, that was just one of the best fights I've ever seen. You know, you came from behind and you finished the fight. You got it done when you did it. And they were like, that was one of the most crazy moments. People tell me they were jumping out of their seats and screaming and yelling at that it was just such an epic moment for them. So that's probably the moment that I get complimented on the most. Any regrets? I kind of regret not being able to fight Rhonda for a third time. I would have

liked to make that happen, but I think we're both at different points, and it didn't. So, you know, I can't live with it as a regret. I don't regret losing to Ronda. You know, I think it was all really good learning experiences, and I learned them earlier in my career, and it made it, you know, made me tougher. I was able to come back better for those losses. Not many people can always say the same thing. So I took the losses with stride and with my head held

high and I continue to carry that mentality on now. If you saw her walking down the street, would you say hello to her? What do you think the confrontation or the discussion the conversation would be like? No, I don't think I wouldn't say hi to her and I doubt she would say hi to me either. I think we

would just be like, oh, and then like walk away from each other. Oh, okay. Awkward. I thought you would say hello to her. I thought that, I don't know why. I thought you would say hello. Well, if she were like me, I would say hello.

Right. She's not. So the problem is, it's like she doesn't care for me to say, you know, I don't hate Rhonda. I really don't. I don't like her, but hate is such a strong word. Like, I don't like her because we don't see a lot eye to eye. And I feel like, you know, we've had some bad conversations. And I feel like she's been very disrespectful.

but at the end of the day, like I'm not the person, a person to harness hate towards someone. So out of respect to her, like I would, would not say hello to her because I know she doesn't want me to. So why would I, you know? If it's like cool with me, then I may be like, hey, you know, there's been a couple of occasions before things even got way more heated where we were like, sort of like, okay, like high by, okay. And I was fine with that, you know. But, um, Yeah, but it's just, I think, more her terms than mine, which is fine. Okay. Other than the panel this weekend or this week, are you doing other things at International Fight Week?

Are you working for Fox or anything like that? I will be hosting a viewing party for the Ultimate Fighter finale at a place called The Nerd Bar. It's pretty cool. It has like bowling lanes and some video games and big screen TVs and bar. It's a nice place. So it'll be on Fremont Street. So I'll be doing that. probably a couple other things, but if you know anything about the EOC, I still have yet to get my

my affirmed schedule. Okay. All right. That's all that I know. Well, it's been great to catch up. Great to have you back on the show. I texted a number. I don't know if it was your right number, but after the MSG show, the first time that

I covered one of your fights in person was back June 27, 2008, when you fought Elena Maxwell. I don't know if you remember that in Strike Force way back when, and it had been a pleasure in an honor to cover one of the pioneers of the game's sport, a career, and to be there when you said goodbye. And I think I've said this to you before, the way you handled the loss at 200 and showed up to the press conference, even with what appeared to be, you know, an injured nose at least. I think it was a broken nose, was very commendable. So

kudos to you. You've done great things in the sport and you continue to do great things as you now transition out of the sport. So it's great to catch up and hear that you're in a great place and happy. And doing a lot of productive things. I appreciate that, Ariel. Thank you very much for coming on, Misha. We'll talk to you soon. Love to. Okay. Bye. All right. There she is. Misha Tate stopping by. Great to hear from her.

It is true the last time or the first time that I actually saw her compete in person was June 27, 2008 in San Jose. She fought Elena Maxwell. That was one of the very first cards that I was credentialed to cover. That was, I believe, for MMA rated.com. that was Strike Force Melendez versus Thompson. I actually spoke to Josh Thompson about that. Just last week in New York, I saw him there. That's when he defeated Gilbert Melendez

for unanimous decision to become the Strike Force lightweight champion. Also on that card, Bobby Southworth versus Anthony Ruiz, Billy Evangelista versus Namfran. Misha Tate versus Elena Maxwell. That's what opened up the card. Okay, Raymond Daniels on the card as well. I remember I was very excited about that, but he lost. All right.

A little break in the action. We're going to talk to Michael Bisping at around 320. After that, we'll be joined in studio by one Chris Wyden. And then we've got Chris Cyborg at the end of the show. Then it's the MMA After Hour exclusively on Twitter. Hit us up, hashtag the MMA hour. And we'll answer some of your questions. Also, we have our second annual international fight week draft.

But now it is time for... And now it's time to open up your ears and your... minds, MMA fans. It's time for Rick's Picks. Rick's Picks are lots of fun, and his hair isn't a bun, because it's, you already know what it is. Rick's Picks. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the new craze taking the world by storm. Live from the Vox Studios in beautiful New York City, it's time for Rick's Picks. There it is. There it is. There it is. the best intro music in all of

everything actually. I just have the best In all of everything. Do you like my flags on my desk here? I feel like it's very presidential of me. Not a huge fan? Canada 150. I got these on Amazon. I like it, but maybe, you know, a U.S. flag in there as well. You know, look, we got the Canadian flag right there. We got the Canadian flags on the desk. That's true. Maybe showing a little love to the adopted homeland. I mean...

Is it too much? I always get a little homesick around Canada. a day and stuff. But it is a point well taken. My children are American. So maybe it's time that I balance things out. Okay, fair enough. Happy Birthday USA, tomorrow, July 4th. I'm happy you showed up. You look very nicely

lit. Did you get a haircut? No. Not since that last time, but Rob took care of me on the lighting department. So what do we got? I like this Rick's picks sort of in the middle-ish of the show because it gives me a chance to catch my breath. So hit us up. What do you got? Okay. Number one.

We have a video. courtesy of Hex Fight Series. This was on their Facebook page. Australian promotion. Not last Friday, but the one before that we have some video from Hex Fight Series 9. Let's go ahead and play that one.

What do we got? And I'll walk you through as we're going. So, we've got Suman Maktarian who pulled off what is being called and the Jiu-Jitsu people out there tell me if I'm wrong. I mean, this, so far that looked like

a triangle, but what he's called, what is, this has been called now by him, uh, sorry, by the promotion on their Facebook is a TP submission. See how his legs are all straightened out like this? Holy smokes. This guy's going to tap out. How did you find this? Uh, I saw it on, on Twitter or, or somebody, you know, somebody might have sent it to me, but I, I did come across this one. Um, and as I said, this was on, uh, the promotions Facebook page, hex fight series, um, in Australia. Wow. Sumon Maktarian. C-P submission.

First one I've ever seen. Maybe it's been done before, but first one I've ever seen. What does it say in his, you know, Shardog bio? What does it say? Like, what is the submission called? That's a good question. Let's look it up on his fight finder. And he, you know, what is so often the case when we find these is

the fighters end up being undefeated, you know, really these prospects that we should probably be keeping an eye on. later. Hmm. I don't think FightFinder is updated yet. Slacking. Unfortunately. Yeah, it only has him listed at 5 and O, unfortunately.

All right. But yeah, he's now 6 and 0. So probably one to keep an eye out on. Maybe he's going to be doing some TP submissions in the UFC at some point. But incredible. Just never seen anything like that before. We now go to last Friday to come by. America's 15.

This one made the rounds. Melissa Martinez landed this incredible head kick. Damn. That was nice. Here's some swag right here. The nice bow. She improved to 2-0. Can we roll that back one more time?

Yes, yes, yes. I think we need to see that again. This one's courtesy of Combate America's on Twitter. Went to the legs? Boom. Lights out. No extra punch needed. And also wearing your peers.

Yahira Roma was the opponent. but congratulations to Melissa Martinez. What a kick. Is she wearing a UFC Reebok shirt there? Yeah, you might be. You might be allowed to. Well, I mean, why not? Or maybe it's just a Reebok.

It looks like... No, I think... Bang. Well done. Yeah, congrats to Melissa. Okay. Number three, and I want to get your feedback on this one. I got some images on Twitter

from Friday night's Professional Fighters League event down in Daytona, Florida. Oh, yes. I talked about this at the beginning of the show a little bit. Yeah, what I found most interesting about it was, you know, obviously during the rain delay, the drivers kind of being involved in the event. Why are you trying to get me in trouble?

They're already texting me. Oh, why are you complaining? Why are you saying this? What do you want me to say? It was raining. It was raining and there were fights going on. What do you want me to say? It's great?

Like, this is awesome. The rain part is like, I think they can, figure that out and what figure what out stop the rain yeah no not stop the rain but figure out a better way to uh funnel it so that it doesn't get onto the onto the canvas sure let's disregard the slip and slide for a moment it's kind of a big deal but fine sure it's a big deal but my focus on this part of rick's picks is how did you feel about the interactivity between the Daytona drivers and the professional do you watch the broadcast i did yeah okay so originally it was supposed to happen, I think, around 1030, 1045 at the conclusion of the race. And then we get noticed

that it's actually going down at 8.45 because of the rain and then they bumped it to 905. So I start to check in at like 840. And first off, let me just say, Randy Couture, fantastic. I mean, if they don't hire that guy to do all their shows as far as color analysts are concerned, he was phenomenal. And I like Boss Ruden in the role of the sideline reporter. I'm a Todd Harris fan. I thought the broadcast was really well done. But leading up to the actual fights at 905, they had like 20 minutes of filler with the race car drivers saying like,

I'm here to watch some fights and this is gonna be great. I don't know who's gonna win, but I'm here to watch some fights. And it was like they kept going to that thing over and over. Like let's, you know, they're actually were great. Like that card was better than a lot of Bellator cards. John Fitch, Brian Foster,

Jason High, Carlos Forde. These are actually like names in our sport. These are veterans. These are, you know, champions. These are former champions. champions now of Fitches. He's no longer the... So it was like, why are we treat... Why don't we try to educate these people a little bit

as opposed to be like, golly, this is so great. Let's watch some fights here. It's like, no, this is an actual thing. This isn't a sideshow. People care about this. People are covering it. It felt... I wasn't disrespected. It felt disrespectful towards the fighters.

Fair. I couldn't argue with what you're saying, but I also think that associating themselves with a popular brand is a good way to go. And I thought could we have done with a little more education?

Sure, but that's... They just kept one interview, cool, but like, it kept going on and on and on and on. I mean, it was 20 minutes of this. And I get it. The story was the rain delay, and now the movie...

What I will say was the positive was NBC seemed to really prop them up. And in the past, NBC has kind of ignored World Series of Fighting Now, PFL. So that was nice. It's just like, I'm sitting there, and I'm waiting to watch Rama against Marcus,

and I'm like, okay, I get it. It's a rain delay. It's cool. But it felt very, very much like a side show, right? Like a freak show thing. Like, oh, we're rain delay, but let's not worry because there are men who are about to fight without any shoes on a rain-soaked canvas and, you know, safety be damn. Let's have a good time, you know, and take some pictures.

I don't know. It's like they were at the zoo or something. You get what I'm saying? Like, oh, this is. great. Let's not really care about what it all means. They're professional athletes. But I think that's where we're at. And also, how about the fact that you're preparing for a fight and now you're told that you're going to fight two hours earlier? That part is, yeah, the logistics of that are a different question. And kudos to Randy Ketour,

who was actually very honest about it and it was like, oh, you know, like, I actually thought Randy was phenomenal. Todd Harris was great. Like, once we got to the actual MMA broadcast, it was honest. It was actually really nicely done. The commentary, was on point. But, you know, it was the buildup when I was sitting there for 20 minutes. I was like, oh, yeah, there's Bosch, Ruin. There he is.

Boss with some drivers and team. Yeah. I think we had to be realistic about an association like this. People are not going to be super educated on the sport. And so this is what we can kind of expect, but I think it's, I thought it was cool.

I thought it was cool. I thought it was cool to see the brands working together. obviously. You know what it reminded me of? There's things to be ironed out. Yeah, well, I don't know if this is going to be a, you know, a constant. No, but maybe they can do something like this or do it. Yeah, exactly.

It reminded me of when WCW had their first Nitro show and it was at the Mall of America in Minnesota and there's like people walking around, you know, shopping and here's Lex Lugar popping in. Exactly. If they did an interview with them, I don't think it would go swimming. Well, how damn. There's some rassling going on here. It's some rassling.

I think we're going to get some Florida and racing fans writing into the show. That's the only thing that was missing from the whole thing, people being like, are they wrestling in there or what? You want to wrestle me? Let's go. Let's wrestle. Okay. Let me try and compose myself.

All right. Moving on. Speaking of interesting pairings. Snoop Dog, this one from this report from MMAfighting.com I believe first by ESPN. Yes. Snoop Dog,

going to be providing alternative commentary for Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender series. Partnered with your eye of favor. I think that pairing is interesting and, you know, I think it would have been difficult

if this was the only look you're getting, but since it's an alternate commentary and you're going to actually be able to choose different broadcasters, I think this is a great move. and I think I'd listen to the Snoop Dog version. Well, I'm happy that you mentioned the word alternative or alternate commentary because I think initially a lot of people are like, what?

Snoop Dog is going to be doing commentary for UFC fights. I know they're technically not UFC fights and Dana White, Tuesday Night Contender Series is actually the promoter. They're trying to distinguish it. But let's be honest, it's sort of under the umbrella. You win a couple or won. You look good. You'll probably move on.

It's a fine idea and it's great for Fight Pass. It gives you another thing that you can sell to your. subscribers. I think people miss the fact that it's an alternate thing. Yeah. And so there's going to be real commentators from what I understand they'll be trying out a bunch in ring announcing, all that stuff and more. So I have a hard time, as I mentioned on Twitter on Friday, getting worked up over alternate commentary. It's a fun wrinkle. It's getting them some press. If you're offended by it, I'm sure there's going to be very straight and conventional commentary. If you want to have some fun on a Tuesday night in the summertime and watch some fights and see what Snoop does and he says and he's

you know kind of a fan and your eye is going to be there why the hell not but I didn't understand why many people seemed offended and up in arms over this to me it's WME kind of flexing its muscles Snoop is a celebrity fan why the hell not let's have some fun sip some gin and juice and enjoy some fights let's stop taking everything so damn seriously our last one here highlighting the feud of the week Oh. One, Ariel Hawani. Oh, yes. Versus Chase Sherman, the vanilla gorilla.

If you asked me, I won. I put out... Just because you won doesn't mean it's not a feud, first of all. Well, I put out a simple challenge. I said, show me proof that you are the one running your Twitter page with all those funny gifts and these little pictures, memes, and all that stuff. And we're going to show a few of them on the screen here. The last one was, he was the Incredible Hulk.

You were Loki. and he punched you in the face. Yeah. This one is... Oh, I didn't see this. Let's go back to the last one. This is the rock doing the people's elbow with a DX crotch chop.

Can we play it or it doesn't play? No, I just screenshot it the Twitter. Because I think it was important to highlight his Twitter on this. And then the last one was some young lady who you've been photoshopped over shaking some shake weights. Yeah.

And he says, call me when you're ready to come on the show and shake things up. I will go so far as to say there is no chance in hell. anymore because he is not doing it. I asked him and he's like, oh, how can I take a video of me tweeting? I'm like, well, first of all, there's two ways you could do it. A, you could do it from your computer, right? You don't have to tweet from your phone. And B, you can ask someone to take a video of

you. I'm sure you know other people who have phones in their possession and send it to you and then you upload it. But I want proof. The only thing I got was a video of him saying, yeah, I run my Twitter. Well, you could have sent that to the person, probably your manager, who's running your Twitter. So Chase Sherman, what I say to you is, nice try, but I don't buy it. You're not running it. The jig is up. Damn. I'm on to you.

And the whole world is on to you. So there's no beef. I want. First round, K-O. 10-7? Can't even be a 10-7. It was a 10-7 up to that point because I was winning, I was winning. And then I put out the challenge, and he could not really.

respond. I win. You lose. You will not be on the show because you couldn't even provide a simple video proof, simple video proof that you were on the Twitter. That's all I asked. It was very witty. It was fun. But you know when I finally got on to him? It was the fighters retreat. And I knew that they were doing stuff. And he was tweeting gifts like it was nobody's business. Brilliant strategy. Got him followers. Got him notice he's right under the thread. But I was like something is broadened in the state of Denmark here. And lo and behold, he cannot produce what I asked him to produce. So I think that Chase Sherman, no beef.

Chase Sherman, bum of the week. Not beef of the week, bum of the week. Chase, I mean, I think you've got your work cut out for you. Let's get the proof. I have thrown down the gauntlet. Maybe you just show up in New York. Maybe you just lay down the law. He's fighting on Long Island.

I think Nothing You can't come in our studio You know what Let me not give you the ammunition You figure out how to make this happen Chase He's not invited here

Are you crazy He couldn't even I mean He's a liar The whole operation A bunch of lies Chase I mean

You better have some damn good Photoshop ready for this one Okay Last thing I want to say No assets for this one Esther Lynn Our very own photographer

at MMAfighting.com pointing out aptly that I'm I botched it. I didn't get EKC, our videographer Casey, almost getting hit by a table at that New Japan Pro Wrestling Show. I will talk about that. Call Michael Bisping because he's getting very upset. He doesn't like tardiness and I respect that because he's the champion. But yes, EKC, Esther, I believe Mark Romondi, they were at the New Japan Wrestling Show.

All these people tweeting about it, G1. And he was in the back and I think Cody Rose. flipped the table and it hit his camera. Hopefully it doesn't affect our UFC 213 and tough finale coverage. But that happened this weekend. The coolest thing that happened this weekend was that the young bucks who have a finishing move known as the Meltzer driver, I believe I'm saying that correctly, in honor of the goat, Dave Meltzer did a super spectacular one because unfortunately Dave's father passed away over the weekend.

And so they dedicated it to him going into their match on Sunday. And then there was a moment where they hit the move. And I can't really describe it. There's a lot of flipping involved. And then you can see one of them on camera saying something to Dave about his father. So that was incredible. I mean, think about how revered. If you don't know about Dave Meltzer and his influence in the world of professional wrestling.

Think about how revered you have to be to have a move dedicated to you by one of the great tag teams in the sport right now. And then they find out about this very unfortunate news and they, you know, they go a step further and dedicated to your father. Really nice touch there. And so I thought that that was, at least for me, who doesn't really follow this stuff, the highlight of the weekend. And of course, I want to send my best out to Dave Meltzer, who lost his father over the weekend. But yes, EKC had his camera knocked over as the table kind of hit him. But I think that he is okay. He is a trooper.

He has been through a lot. Let us move along now and welcome in our next guest. And I'm afraid I may have pissed him off because he sent me a very disparaging text. Let's go to the Skype machine and welcome in the reigning defending UFC middleweight champion. The one and only the count. Michael Bispig, there he is. Uh-oh, he's chewing very aggressively. I think he's upset.

You're interrupting my breakfast, Ariel. Breakfast? It's 12.15. I've been to the gym. Okay. I've worked out. I've come back. I'm having my post-training, you know, snack, turkey bacon and eggs.

Is that okay? That is a great. It's not very British of you, but it's very lovely. Look at you. It's. Recovery is key, especially when you might have to check on, you know, a prolific roid user down the line. Oh. What do you?

Let's not beat around the bush. What are you referring to here, Michael? Because there's a lot of people that. I have no idea. I have no idea, I'll, but you're late. I'm sorry. I have to record an episode of the Believe You Me podcast, which is the most ripped off,

ClickBake City website quoted thing ever. But if anyone wants a good laugh, believe you, me, check it out. Yeah, you're doing podcasts and serious now. This is your show. Come on, buddy. Drive it. Okay, geez. This is a lot of pressure. Mike, as I said to you on Friday,

or I think it was Saturday, I said, I have refrained, and it has taken a lot of testicular fortitude to not reach out to you and invite you on the show amidst all the madness of the last few months. How would you describe? So here you are, and I'm very excited that you're here. How would you describe the last few months, or at least 2017 for you because it seems like every day there's a he said, she said, there's some kind of controversy, there's some kind of back and forth. Are you tired of all of all of this? How would you describe it all? I mean, what are you exactly referring to? Are you referring to the DSP stuff? everything it's like okay we thought you were okay you have a press conference and then uh the the the fight a month later is taken away and then gs p says he's still fighting you and dana says you know you're you're you're not you're fighting romero and then they do the interim title fight and now he's saying gs p's fighting welch away but gs p is still saying he wants to fight you and and you have a knee entry i mean it's just been a lot right sure sure okay okay so yeah yeah you know it's it's annoying you know because the general consensus, not the general consensus, but from the little bitches on the internet, they're all talking shit

like I'm trying to avoid fighting. You know, may I remind everybody, I've had more fights in the UFC than any other human being on planet Earth, and more wins incidentally as well. So, the fact that I'm trying to all of a sudden avoid fighting is ridiculous. Another

theory is that I'm trying to hang onto my belt for as long as possible. If that was the case, then last time after I beat Rockall, On the Monday, I was still hung over from the Saturday night celebration. I accepted a fight against Dan Henderson. On the Monday, less than 48 hours since I'd won the fucking thing, I agreed to fight somebody else, okay?

So I've had more fights than anyone. I agreed my neck fight less than 48 hours after I'd won the belt. So that logic doesn't stack up. I was supposed to fight GSP. Why wouldn't want to fight him? Of course, that would be, you know, the big business. And not only that, the guy was the wealthy weight legend forever. I would love that on my legacy.

We've been over this a million times. Now Dan is saying he doesn't want to fight. George is saying he does want to fight. I know that I want to fight. And if you can still make the George thing happen, then great. I'm all in. George, if you're watching this, I have done everything I can. I have called down a while.

I've expressed my desire to fight George St. Pierre. Every time we speak on the phone, I say, Okay, listen, that's all well and good. What about me and GSP? He says GSP doesn't want to fight. GSP does not want to fight. He wants to fight a welterweight. So, George, I've done everything I can.

Okay, if you want this fight to happen, get on your phone, call somebody up, send some messages, do fucking something. Because I couldn't care. I'm sick of everybody saying I don't want to fight. Honestly, who I fight next, I couldn't give a shit. I really couldn't. Whether it's GSP, whether it's your wealth, whether it's worth to get. I'm sick of all the bullshit. I've got a fight.

I've started training again. My knee is still very much giving me issues, but who cares? You know, I've got to fight. So, you know, I'm blowing off the cobwebs. I'm getting ready. Towards the end of the year, one of those three will get it.

Mentally, are you just moving on from GSP and if it resurface is great, but you can't really hang on to it anymore? Is that the way you're viewing all of this? Yeah, kind of. You know, I mean, of course, I would like that. You know, for all the reasons, all the obvious reasons, is GSP. He's a legend, all this stuff, a big payday.

That's great. So, you know, I'm in the gym, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to be doing footwork against South Park. I'm supposed to be working against the Westland. I'm supposed to be working for a strike like Robert Whittaker. I have no idea what's going to happen. Of course, we'll get some classification after the weekend. But I don't know.

George says he wants to fight. George, make the call man, call the UFC. I know he's saying that he wants to but I've told Dan until I'm blue in the fest I really can't say it anymore I respect George a lot but now it's his time to step up as far as I'm concerned we did a press conference

but if that fight's not going to happen then so be it I'll move on you know and with Mr. O Romero I really couldn't care unless made the best man man win were you surprised when you found out that he had an eye injury in January and that he told the UFC

but they still went ahead with the press conference in hindsight do you feel like if they just kind of held off none of this mess would have happened I don't know, that's a good question. I don't know. I mean, I think the UFC knew about it, yeah. So I think maybe they were hoping that we were going to fight now. We were going to fight in July.

And as it turns out, I think he wasn't cleared the contact or something like that. So, yeah, you know, it's unfortunate, but it is what it is. As far as I'm concerned, whether or not we fought in July or fought a few months later, it doesn't really matter, especially when you got McGregor, who's, you know, holding up his division for an entirely. different sports. So, you know, the UFC a habit to do that. I don't see why one of the longest tenured soldiers

doesn't get the same allowance. What was your reaction when you found out that they were going to do an interim title fight? There was zero reaction. Dane had called me and asked me if you could do an interim. I swear to God. He called me, he said, Mike, listen. Do you want to fight July or not?

I said, Dan, I've told you. I can't be ready by July. If you can't be, do you mind if you do an interim title fight? Or we're going to have to do it. into South Park, something like that. And I said, honestly, I said, I couldn't care less. Go ahead, do it. You want to sell paper views? I understand.

It's a business. It makes a fight sound a little sexier. And all it does, it just limits the number one contender. So it doesn't care, it doesn't bother me one little bit, not one little Iota. And here's the thing. They are not fighting for the belt. That's why I put on Instagram last night. This belt is not for grabs.

And it's not up for grabs. And even the UFC know that. And Robert and Yowel must know that. And you know how we know this? Because they're the co-main events of Valentina fucking Chevchenko. Okay? If the real 185 pound belt was on the line, they would be the main event. Right.

And that is a fact. Fact. But they're not. Why aren't they? Because the interim belt isn't worth the lever that it's printed on. So does it kind of bust your, I don't know what the proper word is? Does it grind your gears when you hear people say, this is the real title fight, this is for the real belt,

these are the top two guys, blah, blah, blah. How do you react when you hear that sort of thing? Because I know you hear it. I know you get it. I was going to say grind my gears. It's funny. You know, not really. I mean, listen, I've got very thick skin.

The amount of abuse I get on Instagram these days is off the charts, you know. So that's why I couldn't care less whether it's really, you know, GSP, Joel Romero, Robert Wittaker, Daffy Duck, I couldn't try less, you know what I mean,

time to get in there and fight. And I could do with the payday. Money's always nice, you know, so, um, and by the way, I,

I've accepted fights in short notice. I've, I've more fights than anyone. I accepted fight for the UFC, getting on the scale for my actual fight

and I agreed to future fights six weeks later. So I couldn't give a shit. If I was in my DNA, I fight all the time. If people think that I'm scared or it bothers me and I'm trying to hang on to my title so I can stay a champion a little bit longer

then it's absolutely hilarious. Does it bother me? No, it doesn't bother me, of course. You know what I'm in the UFC. They've got to do what they've got to do. They're going to try and sell paper views. You're going to hype this up. It's going to be a big event.

So they're sticking into a title fight on there. It's just business. You know, does it detract from mind belt? Not one little bit. It doesn't detract from my accomplishment. I knocked out of Lodick or became a champion inside one round regardless of whatever happened from then on nothing can take away from that

I defended it two months later against Dan Henderson and now here we are so yeah no no no no so good here but do you feel like some fighters and critics and fans are trying to rewrite your legacy because for the longest time you were the guy who was the best fighter to never fight for the belt

who fought everyone anytime any place who you know fought belfort all that stuff the eye injury. And now they're trying to say like, oh, you're the worst champion. You don't want to defend your belt. You're holding on to it. And I feel for you.

I feel like this is not fair. This is not something that you created. Okay, fine, fair. Don't feel for me. All right. Don't feel for it. I appreciate that. I don't at this very time.

But listen, I'm in a very good place. Look at me. I'm saying, still in California, got a beautiful wife. I've got three amazing kids. I'm a happy man. You think I give a fuck what some sad little bastard on the internet

says about me. And then when you click on the profile, the private, because all they do, They sit in the mum's basement and hurting everybody That does not bother me I've just been down in the gym this morning I've spotted a few rounds I hit the few bags

Hit the bag a few rounds I feel great You know These guys trying to distract From whatever accomplish They're just jealous You know It's as simple as that

You know I mean You've got Yo Romero out there talking shit You've even got the most boy Bastard in the world Robert Whittaker He's piped up and started off In his little trap lately as well So you know

Anyone anywhere anytime Yeah I'm true to that So GSP Romero Wichita, whenever you want to do it, listen, I'm in, let's go, 100%. All three, I'll do all three. Put it to try less. It's time to fight, you know, and all your little bitches on the internet, I'll make you read your words. Romero Whitaker, do you have a preference?

You know, I mean, they're both beatable. The ball's very beatable. When I look at Yoa Romero, you know, everyone gets, everyone gets excited about him. And listen, you know, he's had some impressive finishes. but I see a very beautiful man Chris Wyman went out there your long time friend Chris Wyman and I'm not trying to knock Chris Wyman at all

I'm not God bless him and I hope he wins against Gaston I wish him the best but why was Chris Wyman trying to constantly outwrestle an Olympic gold medal wrestler because you're shit scared because he didn't want to engage you don't try and out wrestle with someone who's a better wrestler than you so uh you know

and he paid the price. Derek Brumpton for crying out loud was almost beating him. Tim Kennedy almost had him beat. He's a beatable guy, and these guys play his game. Derek Brunton was wrestling him. I guess the guy like Whittaker,

Wittaker's going to use his footwork. He's younger. He's got less miles on the clock. He's got better footwork. He's got better striking. Romero, if you make him attack you, as he comes in, listen, he's a sloppy striker.

He's very sloppy tough. Powerful? Yes. Knockout power. Yes. tons of it, of course, capable of knocking people's heads off, but he's also very sloppy. So he swings in these wild punches like this, right? And he just leaves his chin out there. I guess a counterfighter like Robert Whittaker, he's going to capitalize on that.

Romero's going to get tired. Everybody says that, you know, I'm going to get his knockouts in the third round. But I'm telling you, around 4.05, Whistker's going to put that guy away. Wow. So you're predicting Robert Whitaker becomes the interim champion? Maybe. Or who knows? I mean, Wonderboy knocked out Whistaker as well. So, you know, maybe he's a little chinny. Who knows? Will you be attending? Well, I'll say this.

If Wonderboy knocked out Whitaker, I'm sure it's how Romero can, okay? But Welthaway can knock out Whistaker, then I'm sure Romero can. Who knows? You can go one by the way. Romero might blast his head off. Whittaker, you know, might tap down to Randolphardton for a while and then get him with the left off. Who knows?

Either way, you know, I'm looking forward to a good fight. I'm looking forward to finding out who the number one. Is there a part of you that thinks, okay, I've had this feud with Romero, so if I'm not going to get the GSP fight, that's the one that's probably going to sell more? Because you did just say that that Rwittaker was boring. Well, which is boring, isn't it? He's a nice guy. He's a nice guy. But there's a TV show in England called Harry M. Philbin-Chum.

There was a character on there called Tim Nice, but Dim, Tim. Tim, nice, but dim. Yeah, he reminds me of him. Tim nice, but he's dim. He's nice, but he's dim. And he's not insane. and he's open his mouth a little bit more. He's good in the cage,

so that's the main thing I guess. You know, leading up to a fight, I do like to have a little bit of fun. Why not? And Romero would be good for that, but he's also, he's also cheap, he's a politic steroider,

but I will say this out of the pair of him, Yowell is the one I'd rather punch in the face. But I did see Wichita saying a couple of disparaging remarks recently. Like what? What do you say? I'm a bit like, I can't remember.

I was struggling to stay awake while she was talking, but he was saying some shit. And it wasn't nice. It was a little bit nasty out of his mouth. You know what I mean? So I was like, all right, all right. Well, you know, I'm, I kind of want to punch him as well.

And GSP, I kind of want to punch him all. But, you know, it's, well, we'll see what the UFC want to do. George, man up, make a call. I know how to use with it, and I respect that. But call the main man, call Dane and why. I've done it. I text GSP to listen. I'm backed into a corner.

I've said everything I can say. If he doesn't step up, I've got to take on the winner of these two. I want to do it. A lot of people won that fight. Failing that, I've got to take one of these two. But, George, if you're watching, which I know you are. Yes. I know you are.

You've got to be watching because you want to know what I'm saying. Yes. You've got until Saturday. Because on Saturday, I'm going to be on the FS1 post-fight show tuning because one of those bell ends with Mr. O'Ramara will be joining me at the desk. Yes. So no, that will have fireworks. And if I can't say I'm firefighter,

in GSP by then. Then I have to say, I'm going to fight with Diro Romero. I can't be a little bitch about it. So basically, the countdown is on, George. You've got five days. Get on the phone.

Get on the email, internet, call, your manager, whatever. You want to make this fight happen. You've got five days failing that. But he wanted those two knobbeds

who have to get it. He told me on Thursday that he still wants to fight you, that he did not have a meeting with Dana White about fighting for the... Yeah, I know. And I want to fight him. I want to fight him.

I do. I do. But I'm saying it, trust me, I've said it until I'm blue in the feds. GST, GSP, GSP, GSP. And Dana says, if I can make the GSP fight, I'll make it happen. And then I spoke to George's coach. So I called Daniel up. I said, he wants to fight.

And he's like, no, you don't. No, he doesn't. No he doesn't. I'm like, well, I can't speak for George. Yeah. I can't speak to George. I can say what I've heard. That's up to George.

Let me ask you this. if you do get George St. Pierre, and if you guys do fight November 4th at MSG, Madison Square Garden, which seems like a venue that makes a lot of sense for the return of GSP, you win that fight.

What are the chances you say, peace out, I'm done? No. No, if I fight GSP, I've got to fight, you know, one of those two lumbeds that I work in this weekend, you know, so,

otherwise I'll never at the end of it. You know what I mean? So, fingers crossed, you know because I can't fight GSP as I say we've got five G8C

because I can't physically as a man sit there when either you know what they call Yoel or Witt is there yeah

I can't physically as a man not agree to fight them you know what I mean that's just not in my DNA if I ever got another opponent I have to do that if GSP fight is on then I can say

well listen I'll be JSP failing that I've got to say right okay I'll deal with one of you you do later in Yeah. Sorry, what was your question?

Oh, sorry, yeah, yeah, you're asking about the SEPP. But if the JSP fight happens, then yeah, I've got to fight one of them. I'll probably do. Absolutely. And then we'll maybe think about retirement. Are you kind of itching now? I mean, it's been, it's been, what, nine months since you last fought? Like, how do you, this is a long layoff for you.

You're used to being very active. How are you dealing with this? Well, this is it. It has been a long life. And again, for all you little idiots on the internet that don't know your ass from your elbow. I couldn't fight you out of a wet paper bag. But field, they need to criticise someone like me. I've been one of the busiest guys on the roster forever.

That's why I've got the most wins, the most bloody significant strikes, the most main events, and the middleweight champ. The list goes on, Ariel. I can go on all day, but I won't bore you. I've been a very, very busy fighter, and I had knee surgery, it turned into two knee surgeries. And do you know what, to be honest, a little bit of a break has been now. as well. Just to ease off the gas a little bit. I've been fighting two, three times a year. I think I had four fights within like 14 months turnaround. That's a lot of work. That's a lot of training camps. That's a lot of sparring. That's a lot of punches to the head. That's a lot of

dieting, a lot of time away from my family. A lot of everything. Basically, a lot of sacrifice. So it's only been nine months. Is it nine months? No, October, November, December. All right, whatever, eight, nine months. Yeah, it's been good It's been refreshing You know But I am it's been getting to get back in there I want to send my belt

This is who I am is what I do I haven't forgot about that Everyone gives me shit saying I think I'm an active these days I do a little bit of that On the sidelines But I'm still very much a fighter So, you know

And I'm the champions I'm gonna fight I miss it Of course I do I love it By the way Speaking of acting Before I let you go

There's a guy who emails me All the time Can you find out from Michael Bisping about Twin Peaks. I've never seen this show. And then when I announced that you were coming on, he said, please, we have such a loyal Twin Peaks following and Bispings on, and this is such a big deal.

I don't know what he wants to know about Twin Peaks, but for the sake of this gentleman who writes me, I think his name is Danny, what can you say about your role on Twin Peaks? Why is this so important? Should I be watching this? I've never even heard of the show before you got involved. You never heard of Twin Peaks.

Well, shame on you, Ariel. For the nerd that you are, I would have thought that, you know, Twin Peaks is right up your street. Fantastic TV shows. First one's on Netflix, check it out. Okay. This is a continuation 20 years later. My role was very, very small, and Danny, unfortunately, I couldn't tell you anything

because they were very, very secretive when we made it. Typically, when you're going to audition or whatever, you get what's called the size and email the sides through to you. You know, so you can learn your lines, et cetera, et cetera. On this occasion, they were so secretive about it. They had to read the sides over the phone and explain the situation so that I couldn't forward that email to somebody else and kind of released what the plot was.

So they're very, very secretive. So all I know is about the scene I was in. So unfortunately, Danny, yeah, I can't help you out. But I will say this. Big week of fight. I'll fly back to Vegas tomorrow. Oh. Excited to be there.

Excited to see how this all pans out. I think Whittaker wins by a stoppage in rounds 405. Wow. I think Joe Romero is a piece of shit. I think Robert Whittaker will then make for the most boring lead up to a fight you could ever imagine. You've been coming out with vanilla answers, you know, typical Reebok athlete. What does that mean? What does that mean?

That's about it. What does that mean typical Reebok athlete? Nothing. Nothing. I don't know why I said even said that. I'm just a good. All over the place. I'll take them both one if you want. You know, we'll do one after the other.

Luke Rockhold's still a piece of shit. He still timing up. I hope he gets eaten by a bloody giraffe or a lion is out in there. How did you know that? How did you know that? How did you know that? He likes to talk shit about me. How did you know that?

The beginning disarray. Yeah. He hasn't been fought in over a year. Yeah. He hasn't done anything without bloody, you know, chasing tigers or whatever. You know, molesting tiger balls again. So Rockhold's an idiot. Yo, well, listen, we all.

Listen, we all know Yolo's still on steroids. There's nothing good stuff down there that him and Vitor, and everybody in South Florida, we're all taking. We know he's on steroids. Come on. But he's still taking steroids. He'll probably gas out and get beat. Whisker's boring.

Rockhold's still a dickhead. And that's about it. All right. By the way, how many whales did you see this weekend? Believe you Me podcast. Available on iTunes and everywhere. Check it out. Ariel.

Wait, wait. Wait, wait. How many whales did you see this? this weekend. Oh, okay, okay, okay. How many whales? Oh, I went whale watching with the kids, well, no, with one kid. The other two are a bit older now. They're not really interested in coming with mum and dad. And I'll tell you this, it's easy with one kid. Sure. Way easy with one than three. But the other people win the whole time complained. Yeah. And I've been on this whaling company before. I don't know so one whale, man. And it's like a split second,

the tail came out of the water. So it was a little disappointing, but we're going to, but we're going to go back. Okay. They're doing it again. And I think that describes the kind of person and fighter that you are, resilient. If at first you don't succeed, go back and try to find more whales. You know what I mean? It has been nice to catch up, Michael. I thought you're all over the place. I'm surprised you had some time for us. You know, we used to have you on before you had any platform, any kind of shows, podcastings of that. So I'm happy that you were able to squeeze this in here on this Monday afternoon.

Well, Ariel, you know, you know you have my number and you never call. So you can try and jeered up like I'm the bloody, you know, like I'm Mr. Big Time these days. But I think it's quite the opposite. Everything's your left box. Yeah, you're that little basement show that you have there. Yeah. It's doing well. So, good for you. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate it. We'll see you out there in Vegas, hopefully. There he is. The one and only Michael Bisping. Always great to catch up with the reigning, defending middleweight champion. The Count Michael Bisping. During that interview, he did mention Chris Weidman, who I do believe is here.

Chris Wyman. So we stick with the middleweight theme. I wanted to have Chris Wyden in because he is fighting on July 22nd on Long Island against the one and only Kelvin Gaslam. And he is being brought into our studio right now.

There he is. Yes. Walking in. What's going on? On the fly. Right here. We're going to give you a seat. I'm just alerting the masses.

Did you get a black belt? Yes, I did. You see that? You, man. Yeah, how about that? Thank you for coming. One second. Here we go.

We're doing it all on the fly right now. What's up, buddy? How are you? Nice to see you. What do you think? This is nice. I think you're turning. Where am I?

There I am. There you are. And there's another one, right? There's my shoe. There's your shoe. We got All right, Quint, over there. Yeah. That's a good one.

We've got a lot of... Yeah, Matt's up here. Come on. Hater. I would never. You got Meha Miller. I do. Greatest photo taken in MMA history.

Escal Lund. Which one was that from? Yeah, that was after Johnny Hendricks when he said goodbye. All right, all right. That's it? That's it as far as your concern. All right, not bad.

What do you think? You like it? This is nice. I've come a long way. I've got upgraded. Remember when you were first introduced to us? There's one there, there's one over there. This is hard to be used to.

Remember when we first saw you? I remember very well. It was in that little crappy AOL studio. And now look at us... You were lucky enough to... I was lucky enough to be on the show. You were. You just knew John Vlont.

The real star. And he was nice enough to say, hey, I have a friend that, you know, is really good. Weidman. He just kind of let him on. And you were like, oh, this is Chris Weidman. He was a good wrestler. And then there I was. Two weeks later, you're in the UFC.

Fador was, I think, walking around the building with about 35. That's right. Prizes. Russian people. Two weeks later, you were in the UFC. The crazy thing was is that you told us you were injured. And then you were hoping that no one saw the interview. Yeah, yeah.

That wouldn't fly now. Apparently, Alessio Sakara saw it because he was coming on body shots hard. And I was feeling every one of them. I had a fractured rib for that. What's going on here? You're like a walking billboard. Monster, you got Reebok. Monster, Reebok.

You're a real company man. I just got done training out of Henzos. Yes. You get your ass kicked over there a little bit. You need some energy and Monster helps out. It's very hard to get you in studio, especially so far from Hensos. So I really appreciate you doing this. This is far, man.

Yeah. The taxi ride. How much shall I owe you? I have my wallet in there. I didn't check, but it was probably like 200 bucks. Did you come alone? Yeah, I came along. Wow.

No frills. A lot of guys from Long Island, they don't want to make it out. to the city anymore. They're becoming a little divas. Why? Like Valante. You know, it's, you know, you take the train in, you know, you get your training in, you're exhausted, and you wait for the train to hit back. And guys, you know, it's a tiring day. But for me, it's worth it because you go to Henzos, you got so many good guys. I mean, I got some of the best jitzy guys in the world to go with, so. How long does it take to get there? For me, from my gym area is about 30 minutes. 34 minute train ride, yeah. And you go every Monday? I've been going every Monday.

Mondays? Pretty much only Mondays. I was doing sparring out at Henzos on Saturdays for a while, but we kind of just switch it up to just Mondays now. Are you still going to New Jersey? Not going to New Jersey. Why? What happened? Well, for my last camp, Mark was coming out to me a lot. Yeah, Mark Henry. Mark Henry. And it was just, he has so much to offer. He's literally, he's one of the best coaches in the world, but we just weren't able to, with the difference, like, with the amount of time you needed to travel. It was just, it was too much for him, too much for us. Like for a guy like him, He had so much to offer where I need to get like at least three times a weekend with him. Okay.

It just wasn't possible. You know, it takes a long time. He didn't rush hour and stuff like that. So this time, you know, I didn't, it was almost unfair for him to make him come out all the time. And so this time we didn't do that. Did you? Still my boy at the dead. I love that guy.

Sure. Will he be cornering? I missed his Fourth of July party yesterday. So he's probably mad at me. But we had people over my house. Yeah, you look nice at 10. Thank you, man. Are you, are you slimmer than usual this far out?

No, not. Not actually, no, not really. Really? How much you weigh? It might be the shirt. The shirt. Like 208, something like that. That's normal or is that more than normal?

About normal. It depends on the camp. Sometimes I've been less. Sometimes I've been more. It's about normal. Are you working with, so we did that weight cutting video with Tyler Minton. Yes. And DC just told us that he's living with him.

Yeah, yeah. So are you not going to be working with him? No, we're working together. He didn't come live with me or anything like that. My weight's been pretty good. we use eat clean bro and he kind of helps facilitate what like how much how much protein how much carbs and fat eat clean bro sends to my house so I get meals two times a week and between him and my strength coach and nutritionist also tony ritchie they kind of work together and come over the

game plan for me were you listening to that interview with michael bisming I caught some of it but I just I had to be honest I just had to keep going back and forward to the bathroom my my stomach's been killing me. I got a weak stomach. I don't know. Are we talking? I had my cheat. Tuzis. Twozies. I had my cheat meals yesterday. So after a hard work, drinking some caffeine, my body's just going through it. New studio? Talking to me? I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. Did you hear what he said about you?

No. What do you say? He basically just... Sure, it wasn't nice. Well, all he said, we were talking about Romero, and he said that you fought scared. That why were you shooting on an Olympic wrestler? You were scared to get hit? No. I wasn't scared to get hit at all. I mean, for me, it's been the same thing every time I fight anybody. You know, I try to mix it up

between the strikes and the wrestling, and Yo Romero is the type of guy who gets tired. And going into the third round, he took a while to get up the stool, he was pulling that whole thing, and I thought I had him broke. So there's no better way

than to mentally and physically beat somebody than to wrestle him. And if I had gotten that take down where I didn't get hit with it, if I hadn't got hit with that knee, I think it could have been game over for him. So it's just a game of inches and one bad mistake.

But no, I always, use my wrestling. Okay. We have so much to discuss as far as your next fight is concerned, because we are less than, what, three weeks? Three weeks. Nineteen days. You were offered to fight on Long Island. Last time we spoke, you were like, you know what, I have to reconsider the next time I get a fight here in New York. Of course, Long Island means a lot to you. That's where you're from. Did you have to think about it when they said, we want you to main event, Long Island, Nassau Coliseum right next to you, considering what's happened the last two times, considering what happened with the Musassi fight, how much do you have to think about it?

it? For me, I loved it. I love the idea of main eventing the first ever Nassal calcium card, just me being from Long Island. But the people closest to me were like, no, you're not doing it. No, you're not doing it. And I was just like, yes, I am. Whatever. You know, the fact, I mean, at the end of the day, you can't leave it to the reps. You can't leave it to the judges. And I got put in that position last time where it happened to go that way. And I just, it's kind of a rare occasion. I'm just hoping the odds are that doesn't happen again. So I just hope to have more control over this fight and make sure that it doesn't, nothing weird like that happens. So it was a no-brainer?

For me, it was a no-brainer. I mean, it's an honor and a privilege to be able to fight and ask the Coliseum and also to be the main event. So yeah, I had to, I had to take it. What is the state of your appeal? I just got it back in the mail yesterday. Oh, wow. Good timing. Yeah, so I did not win the appeal. Nothing that we didn't expect. I didn't even read it. My wife was reading it. It was more like, I guess when there's something that happens inside the octagon and it has to do with the injury, the commission is allowed to look at replay, I guess, something like that is what it was about,

even though I guess the rules that were explained to us is that there was no replay. But I guess apparently if something happened to where there is an injury, they're allowed to look at replay and reverse. That was their explanation. That was pretty much what I heard for my wife. Are you at peace? Either way, I didn't put my eggs in that basket. Like, oh, I need to have a no contest. You would have been surprised if they reversed it.

I would have been kind of surprised for them to admit they were wrong. And, you know, yeah, I would have been kind of surprised. And now was it weird or at least now, like, because you took them to task? Like, you appealed the decision made in New York. And now you're fighting in New York. Do you feel like there's a bullseye on you? Do you feel like it's going to be awkward when dealing with the commission? For me, I mean, I guess if they decide to make it awkward, go ahead.

But for me, I'm very focused on my fight, and I'm not going to let them have any power over me, making me feel awkward. I'm going to be fighting my homestay with all my fans and friends here and my family. So I'm going to be very comfortable. And if they get weird about things, that's on them. I'm not going to let that affect me. Was anyone other than Kelvin offered to you, or was it always him?

Because he was supposed to fight Anderson, June 3rd, I believe it was, 212, Rio. and then that didn't come to fruition because he popped. Before that was anyone offered? Not for Long Island. UFC was asking if I would fight Anderson Silva. This was, I think, like three and a half weeks before that fight was going on or maybe four weeks. In Rio? In Rio.

I'm just like, no. I was still getting things checked out on my body and, you know, just going different doctors. And I had gone to Vegas getting all checked out. And I'm like, if I already bit the guy twice. to take a fight on short notice and head to his hometown to fight him. I'm like, it's not happening. I was like, I have no problem fighting Anderson again, if you want me to fight him, but have him, let's bump it a couple more weeks if you want to do it in Nassau Coliseum or do it some other time, but I wasn't going to just do it on short notice and,

you know, take that risk. And then they gave you Kelvin. And then, yeah, Calvin wasn't on, I had no idea I'd be fighting Kelvin. And then they just offered in. I was like, all right, let's do it. Did you like it? Yeah, I mean, it was definitely odd. You know, I just never imagined myself fighting Kelvin. You have all these different guys in the middleweight division that you kind of keep your eyes on. He wasn't one of the guys, but he's a tough kid who's now, he's got two wins in a row at middleweight against some good guys. And he earned his stripes and he has a lot to prove and he's got momentum. So it's a tough kid and apparently a lot people think he can beat me. So it's a good, it's one of those things that excites me. People

are saying that to you? No, I'm just saying people, you know, think it would be a good fight. So I'm excited to go out there and do my thing. So this was discussed going into the Musa fight, hey, take an easy fight, get back on track, get your confidence. Now you're fighting a guy who's on a winning streak again. Was there any part of you that was like, or anyone tried to convince you to take a fight against a guy who's top 50. Just get a win. Who am I going to fight? Name a guy. UFC is the tough. UFC is, I'm fighting the best guys in the world. I mean, who am I going to fight? That's like, oh, he's going to lay down for me and just let me beat his ass. That doesn't happen. So I'd rather fight the best guys, these guys with momentum coming forward

and that believe in themselves and beat that. surprise. I don't know if you know this, but Kelvin is actually the betting favorite. Is he? Yeah. That's interesting. How do you feel about that? I mean, Vegas has got that one wrong. What can I say? Would you bet on yourself or have other people? I've never done that before. I've never bet on myself, but I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people betting on me. Does that kind of blow your mind? Have we forgotten? Have we forgotten about this? It does kind of blow my mind. You know, I have, you know, I'm on a losing streak and people buying into that. And, you know, I understand. I understand. but I'm far from finished. You know, if I was the guy right now who is sparring

and getting beat up by guys in the practice room that I used to beat, then I start questioning myself and, you know, maybe I am not the guy I thought I was. But that's not the case. I'm improving. The guys I spar with, the guys I train with, I'm continuing to do really good.

And so I haven't lost a step. It just happened to be lost technically in my last three fights. You know, it's just part of the game. this moment right here it is immortalized on our wall what is it three three years three or four years has it been now holy small yeah

do you do what do you what do you see when you see that that was an awesome moment man that was uh that's you of course if anyone's not watching you knocking out Anderson I was uh he was playing with me a little bit too much and I just got freaking pissed and I said I'm not gonna stop punching until I knock you out UFC 162 this weekend this weekend like the July 4th weekend show right yep yep we had the American flags out, the Brazilian flags. It was my first time hearing the Uva Mahera.

Yeah. It was my first time ever on pay-per-view. It was my first time with any fandom and people actually knowing who I am. Right. It was a crazy time. It was a lot of focus to get through that. You know, this is a guy who had been so many guys before they even got in the octagon, and I was very determined not to let that guy be me. So it was a great, it was a great time. Is that like a drug, that feeling? Is that like a drug that you feel like you'll be chasing for your entire career? You know, I want to win. I want to get that belt back.

But the biggest thing is I want to be able to support my family, make that as much money as I possibly can. So when I'm done with this sport, I can choose what I want to do. Of course, getting a win like that, I don't know if I'll ever have a win like that again. A win where I'm fighting the greatest of all time. Everyone is counting me out. And me, the people closest to me believe that I can do it.

And I did to say I was going to finish him and to go out there and finish him. When people were laughing at me, I had death threats from Brazil for being so confident. You had to realize he was, the guys that he was fighting before me, like, guys were just, they didn't believe themselves, you know?

You know, he fought Stefan Bonner, I think to fight before me. I mean, he was just playing with these guys, and then he would find a way to just embarrass them with some type of spectacular knockout. And that just energized me, a little firing me to just be the guy to break that down. you obviously don't regret being a fighter it's been great for you right made money you've you've

accomplished great things but when you said something just now about you know making the most amount of money possible for your family before you can move on i'm sort of reminded of how different like you are how old 33 33 this month uh june 17 uh happy birthday i turned 35 on Saturday old man yeah but i'm reminded because like my job i i will talk i could talk about m m m m m until I'm 70, right? Yeah. But at some point, your time is going to come. Is there an intense stress on your life?

Like, you have to make the most amount of money possible and the shortest amount of time possible, right? Before your number is called, right? Yeah. Do you think about that a lot as a father of three? This is what you are born to do. You are born to be a fighter. You are making a ton of money as a fighter.

But that can't last forever. You just hope to be in a position to move on and continue to make that sort of money once you're done fighting. I mean, I understood this as soon as I got into the sport. I was always in a rush. 9-0 I was fighting Anderson Sobel. I pushed the envelope always because I knew this wasn't going to last forever.

This isn't a job where I get to sit behind the mic and talk about something I love. This is a sport where your body will slowly go on you. And so you've got to make the most of every moment that you have. And so I knew that from day one. And that's why I took so many risks. That's why I took the 10-day-notice fight with Damien Maia and took a fight on two weeks notice

with a lessio-saccar with broken ribs. And I did a lot of crazy things that I look back at now. and it's just a crazy road. Something I can look back when I'm done and be like, wow, that was pretty amazing. But it's not done yet. You know, I have a lot more I need to accomplish. I'm not declining,

even though my record looks like you would think, oh, man, he's on his way out. Believe me, all the people that support me, I will prove you right. You guys will realize that I'm here, but even better than I ever been. Just certain circumstances happened in my last couple of fights where I wasn't able to show it,

but the real Chris Weiband will come back out. You made a lot of headlines. It was very cool to hear the story about how you were considering kind of moving back into your parents' basement and starting over prior to 210, right? For this camp, any changes, any revelations, any moments, epiphanies, anything like that? No, I mean, nothing crazy. I mean, I've been sleeping in the guest room so I could sleep and get my actual sleep in. just very focused. You know, we got three weeks left.

I'm already in top shape. I've been sparring five rounds, even six rounds with a couple different guys now for a while. I'm in shape. I'm ready to go, ready. Now, it's almost to the point where I start weaning it out, like kind of wind it down, wind it down a little bit, just getting in there, feeling fresh.

Yeah, no, so I feel good. I feel really good. There's nothing. No drastic changes. No drastic changes. Nothing. Have you watched the Musasi fight? Yeah.

Yeah. How do you react when you watch it? I mean, overall, up until the point, the controversial moment, were you happy with what you were doing? You know, I felt like I was winning the fight, but I didn't like some of the things I was doing in the fight. I felt like I was rushing it. I think I was almost a little bit over confident in that fight. I thought I was just going to run through him, take him down, and finish him. and it kind of if you watch the fight,

it looked like that was exactly what I was going to do. I mean, I took him down at one point, I mounted him. And even when I mounted him the one time he turned his back, I was just very anxious to just flatten him out and finish the fight. Instead of just being calm and, you know, realizing that I've dominant position, let it take over on its own way from my openings for submissions and strikes. I was a little bit overzealous, I feel like, in that fight,

a little bit too anxious to finish the fight. So I'm excited to go out there and relax and wait for the finish to come on its own. I'll never forget that post-fight interview where you're kind of telling everyone like you're apologizing. And it was just like it was very, I mean, your post-fight interviews have become somewhat memorable now for various reasons, the ups and the downs. But that was a very unique one where you were like, you remember that? You were apologizing to the people. Yeah, I was definitely a little out of it. You know, I just had got knitted head twice.

I was very angry and frustrated and at the same time you try to cool down and collect yourself and And I wear my heart on my sleeve and yeah, I just I was just I think I was just telling everybody I love them and I'm sorry Yes, yes, yes, you know, and it's just the truth, you know, I have a lot of Gratitude and respect for this game and I and as much as these fans are unforgiving. I get brutalized on the internet and everything I really do have a strong love for the people that follow this game and the people that followed me and and believe in me because I do have a strong support system. And I just felt like it was one of those weird times where I just wanted to tell everybody that I do love him.

Will you be disappointed if he doesn't resign Gagard with the UFC? I mean, that was the fight I thought I was going to have. At this point, I'm not even focused. I got Gasselman to re-reached Musasi. That would be kind of disappointing because he's a top fighter. And, you know, UFC got UFC fighter. UFC is the organization where we do have the best fighters. So for him to leave would be a letdown to the middleweight division.

But I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I spoke to Luke Rockhold on Friday, and he is very still upset about the current state of the division. And I think we're going to get some clarity coming up on Saturday because the interim title is on the line. Do you feel like it's going to start to get back to normal soon? It feels like, you know, it kind of stalled for a bit with his GSP fight and all that.

that stuff. Do you feel like it's going to start to, you're looking at me like? No, I'm just waiting. I'm just listening. Can I say what your look said to me? I don't give a shit. Yeah, I really don't care. Because at the end of the day, I have no leverage or momentum to say anything about the division right now. I'm, you know, I got to win. And I have a tough guy in front of me, and that's what I'm focused on. But the division will come to more of a normal place. I think when he actually fights a number of contender for the first time. And he hasn't done that. The one fight I give him is that Luke fight. I got injured, two weeks notice, he jumps in,

he's doing a movie shoot, no one gave him a shot, including me, he goes out there and knocks out Luke Rockholds in the first round and all power to him. But what happened after the fight is where everybody has a problem. He did amazing, you know, the guy had never had a real opportunity to fight for the title. He stepped up on short notice and made it happen. And he got the W, but after that, I mean, right away,

way he's fighting a 46-year-old guy who's ranked number 14 and then and then all of a sudden he's talking about GSP who has in four and three years who's a wealth of weight so everybody's frustrated with that stuff in each one of those situations like if I was a lawyer I could probably defend him on that stuff too why he's doing it and why it makes sense for him but when it comes down to the sport you want to see the best guys fight the best guys and the guys who really worked their way way up to number one contendership they deserve to fight for the for the belt if you don't have that, there's no certainty on what the point of even winning fights are.

So it really causes a lot of confusion in this sport, and that's what's going on. It's just, it's confusing. You know, he win one fight like Y'all Romero. He goes out there, gets a nice victory over me, and he feels like he's definitely going to be fighting for the title. Now, all of a sudden he's fighting a guy like Robert Whitaker, where he was, Wittaker was at really no man's land,

and then he goes out there and does his thing against Chakaray, and now he's fighting for interim belt. It's just weird how it all goes down. And so for me, there's no point for me to put any focus on any of that stuff because at the end of the day, there's no one promised me anything. And if they promise me anything, I'm not believing it. So I just got to go out there and take care of business, go out there and win. And you wait for the right times and hope that everything works out for yourself. By the way, is there a reason why you won't say Bisping's name?

Bisbing. Okay, because you just kept saying him and he and... Bisbing, Bisbing, Bisbing, Bizbing, Okay, all right, all right, right. There you go, my bed. All right, okay. I have no, and, you know, I got no, Bisbing, we've, he's never got, gave me credit since I got into the sport.

He was a guy who was like almost, I don't know if he was a 50-50 guy, but he was a guy who'd win someone and lose, win some lose, and he never was, I don't know if he was top five or a type of guy who was really in title contention since I got into the weight of class division, 2009. And all of a sudden, I come up. up, I'm undefeated him, and I accomplished what I accomplish. And he was sitting there just watching it all go down. So I think he hated on me a lot during this whole thing. But I really do have a lot of appreciation for what he did. I mean, this guy stuck around. No one was paying attention to him. He was the mouth that got no credit. And then he stayed strong and he was around when an opportunity arose and he made the best of it. And, you know, he's a champion of the world.

and most people, to be honest, with his talent level, you would never expect him to be at this thing, at this, to be the champion of the world in the position he is. So I think it's like a Cinderella story. It's a pretty cool thing what he accomplished. Who do you think wins this weekend? Romero, Whitaker. Will you watch?

Mm-hmm. Okay. I haven't given much thought to it, but, you know, even in my fight with Yo-O. Romero, going to the third round, And if I look back, I could have figured out a way to win that fight just standing. You know, the first round, it was mostly standing with him. And I had him with a couple takedowns in the first round.

But just standing with him, there wasn't much danger. And I felt like I was kind of picking him apart. And then if I would have stayed with that same strategy going to the third round, I think I would have walked away with the decision, at least. Whitaker is not going to be pushing the wrestling. You know, he's going to be trying to stay away and looking to show. strike and Romero obviously has the power and he's dangerous with his strike and but he's also going to be trying to take it to the ground and a five-round fight I don't think Romero's ever

been in a five-round fight. He certainly hasn't gone the distance. Yeah he's definitely known to gas if Whitaker stays relaxed and stays away and stays out of danger with with powerful strikes I mean he has a chance to win in I thought business, honestly match matchups make fights I thought Bisbing maybe even I have a chance against Yol. Just try to keep it standing. Yol's not the type of guy where he takes you down, takes you back, and chokes you out. He's a type of guy who could take you down, use a lot of energy, and then not much control on top. Has some nice ground and pound, but eventually, usually guys get back up to their feet.

So with that being said in a five-round fight, can he stay relaxed for five rounds on his feet? Because even if he gets a takedown, I'm pretty sure Whitaker could get back up to his feet unless he gets ground and pounded out. I don't know, it's interesting. So you're not going on the record? I mean, it's one of those fights. It's kind of a real toss-up, right? It's a real toss-up. I mean, Whitaker stays away from,

he gets Yol to run into something, and same thing the other way. Later in the rounds, you've got to give it to Whitaker, just because Y'L does seem to have trouble in later rounds, he does gas. But he is known for gassing, but if you realize a lot of his finishes are later in the rounds, He finishes guys in the third round

because he looks exhausted but he's still one of those guys that are very dangerous even when he's exhausted so you still have to give him a lot of respect what's the odds on that fight? I don't know I'll have the guys in the back

tell me that. Yeah, I'll tell you what I would do if I was better if he was better in that fight which I probably will but Okay, while they get that let me ask you about this I saw a video

you were in Nassau Coliseu right? Did they like shoot you walking in? Yeah, yeah. What was that for? Like the countdown show or something? I've been to Nassau Calisian you know, now like, I don't know, four or five times in the last couple months, just for all different like production stuff.

And the cage is in there, but it's the new NASDAQ al-Calcame, right? Yep. And have you ever been to an event there? The sense is reopened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, since it's reopened, I haven't been in there. What is it like, though? It's not the New York Islanders, Nassau Caliseme.

You know, with like kind of rickety, but it had his own charm. But for you to walk in as a Long Island kid, who I'm sure has been to Islander games there. Yeah. And that was kind of, that was your... That was my place, man. I grew up, I was a huge fan of the Islanders back in. That probably meant more than MSG as a kid, that place, right? Yeah, that's the only place I really, I had a lot of pride was National Coliseum.

I was a huge islander fans, I owned a fan in the 90s, that's when I was playing hockey. And then my parents couldn't afford ice hockey. So then when junior high hit, everything, I just did all the free sports, which is like, you know, wrestling, basketball, lacrosse, and, you know, different sports like that. So I kind of stopped playing hockey, hockey but hockey was my love. I wanted to be in the

NHL. That was my dream. That was my dream. Wow. Who's your favorite player? You know my story about trying out for the Islanders when I stopped. Did you, you know that? Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah, so hang on, we'll go to the Coliseum and I'll go to the Islanders. But basically, you know, yeah, I remember going to the Islander games with my dad and my brother and waiting outside for ordergrass for the Islanders. I was a huge like Pierre Terjean, Ben Wall-O, Steve Thomas, Glenn Healy, Malcov. Wow, so you were a hardcore fan.

I was obsessed. It was the only sport that we, watched as a family. I never was into football, baseball, really. We didn't watch anything other than hockey because my dad was the hockey coach and me and my brother were on the team and we had, we won the championship like every single year. Wow. Wow. And so after I, so I had stopped playing hockey in like sixth grade, but I had broken records and I was really, really good. I was a center hockey player. Had that speed. I was always the fastest. I had a good slap shot. My wrist shot was accurate and that was I was gonna be on I was gonna be on the Islanders that was the goal like I actually remember in like sixth grade we had a right to ourselves and you get it in 12th grade

oh what you want to do when you get older and I was I had wrote being an actual hockey player and play for the New York Islanders wow and so life goes on I become a wrestler I go to naskin me college which happens to be right next to naskin me college and then I mean that's a coliseum and then I went to hosha university wrestled became a grad assistant there continue to wrestle for the Olympic trials, got injured, and then I was kind of at a crossroads. Do I start dabbling with the MMA, getting into that, which I kind of felt might have been a good place for me.

I felt like I was kind of meant for it. Or hockey was something where I kind of always regretted that I had to stop. And I had learned so much from wrestling as far as the mental attitude you need to be successful, the work ethic you need. And athletically, I felt like I was, was pretty damn athletic and I could pick up something and do it. And I was already so good at hockey

when I was younger that I felt like he could do it. So I was living in my parents' basement at the time and we had my daughter. We were dead broke. So it was a stupid move, but I went to the bank and I took out a credit card for like a $1,000 limit. Somehow they let me do it. And I had gone down to the hockey store. And if you watch Mighty Ducks, I felt like I was in Mighty Ducks. I think Gordon Bombay let the whole team get to pick out like the cool. equipment and in my eyes I was trying out for the islanders and I really believed I was going to be able to do it so I got like how to get nice stuff so I spent about a thousand dollars on this hockey equipment what and I was yeah and I was like here we go and so I went down to the hockey rink and they had a bunch of high school kids playing so I kind of like jumped in and I and I'm on my skates and I'm like and when I tell you I was like really good that's the only reason I'm not like crazy I really was that good when I was young and so I figured I was be able to pick it up just like right in a bike. So I get on the skates and I'm like, I'm skating and I'm just like, whatever. So we get into the, we get into the hockey game with these high school kids. I'm in there with them. And they just,

they were running circles around me. I'm now the slowest on the ice. My accuracy sucks. I'm like having trouble really even everything, my slap shot, everything was off. My slap shot sucked. I was no longer the person that I thought I was in hockey. So my dream for the New York Islanders was over. How long did it take for you to realize this? Was it like five minutes in? I was definitely prepared mentally that I wasn't going to be as good as I was, of course, as I remember being when I was young. But I was going to keep working on it.

And I was going to figure out a way to make the Islanders and been to the NHL. And, you know, at the time, I had met some Islanders and stuff like that. And I'm around them. And I'm like, these guys, and what makes them better than me? Yeah, I could do this. Yeah, they're like smaller than me. So I'm like, this is what I'm going to do. but I realized that right away.

First go, I was like, I can't do this. And then you quit? I quit. Wow. What did you do with the equipment? I actually tried to return it. They wouldn't let me return it. So it's still floating around my garage.

My wife was not happy. How did you explain to your wife? You guys are broke and that you went to buy a thousand? She wasn't happy, man. She wasn't happy. It was in a weird spot. You know, my wife at that time was getting her CPA license. She was number one in her class.

He's very disciplined and dedicated to being successful. And me, I was like the kid who was looking for these different dreams. You know, I was, she was pushing me to get my master's degree. I was never that kid who was, like, studious and focused on school. But I had a wife that really pushed me to have that as a backup plan. So she was pushing me to do all that stuff. But I was kind of scatterbrained and trying to do these other things. And it was, it was tough because she was,

making all the money at the time. I was kind of just the guy sucking off the teat. Wow. And that was a tough time. I remember going to her like accounting parties and I had started fighting at this point and all these wives that were there

with their husbands and the other the husbands with their wives who are stayed at home moms they have good jobs. My wife was working at the Pricewaterhouse Cooper which is known as one of like the number one accounting firms in the world and I remember being there and these account Something's coming up to my wife and me and asked me,

oh, what do you do for a living? And I'm like, I'm a fighter. They're like, oh, yeah, like, that's cool. And that's it, you're a fighter. Well, I'm getting my master's in physical education. Oh, good for you, man, good for you. And I'm like, embarrassed. Like, these guys are making over six figures.

And I was like two and now, I had a broken hand at that point. And they would ask me how many fights you got? I have two fights. And it was just like, they're looking at her, like, what are you doing with this guy? Yeah, yeah. Come home to daddy. We could take care of you, a little.

wine mama you're the dead weight i was the dead weight for a while so that was all all this type of stuff is motivating and and i think it's all good for other people to hear because screw everybody don't don't let anybody hold you down do you ever think about what happens if you don't catch on if you get some kind of injury and you don't become a fighter what would you have done well i had the phys that thing you know i had a gym teacher i guess i would a physical educator sorry i could have done that um tucked in shirt i was reluctant to do that i had my i got my master's in it. But I didn't love the process when I became a, because you have to do a student, you have to do student teaching. So you actually have to, you know, do the job and go to high school

and elementary schools and do that. And I went through that process. And it was, it was real tough for me. I hated doing the lesson plans and all that stuff and having a boss and having these kids talk to you in certain ways where you just have to deal with it. And, you know, even as a coach, you could kind of like talk to a kid in a certain way where you were going to get respect from them. But when you're a teacher, these kids kind of like, F you. And I had to deal with some of that stuff. And I came from like a tough town. And I always like, if I'm going to respect you, you respect me.

And this is the way it was. And I was working like in a rich kid town. And these kids would just disrespect me. It was very tough pill swallow. I actually had like a little, we had like a little, I had a little issue with one of these kids. Well, what happened? Smack them? No, I didn't smack them.

But so the guy who I was working with is a phys ed teacher. He knew I was like a good wrestler in college and stuff like that. and I just had started doing MMA. And there was one kid in high school who was like Mr. Like bully. Mr. like, he thought he was such a thug and it killed me because he goes to his rich kid in school and he thinks he's such a thug

and I just couldn't stand them. And one time we're all in the gym and not a lot of teachers were there. I was kind of on my own and there was like 50 or maybe 60 kids in the gym, which is a lot for one teacher, especially a guy like me who they're not going to respect because I'm not a real teacher.

So I'm in there and the kids, it was time to quiet them down and get them all lined up. And one of the kids, that thug kid, he had a basketball and he's dribbling it. I'm like, all right, bowl's in. Come on, give me the ball. He's like, no, I'm good. And he kept dribbling it. Oh. And I'm like, hey, I said, come on, bowl in.

Let's go. Give me the ball. He's like, no, I'm good, buddy. And he just kept dribbling it. And I'm like, so I walk over to him like, hey, give me the ball. He goes like, no, I'm good. Dribling it. Oh, man.

I'm like, bro, give me the ball. So now he picks it up, he's holding her in front of me. So I go to, like, grab it out nicely. So I'm just going to take it from him. I'm hoping that he's just going to let me take it from. He rips it out of my hand. But it kind of looked like I struggled a little bit to pull. So he rips it out.

So now this guy thinks he, like, kind of, you know, he's tougher than me, you know. Now he stole the ball for me. And I'm like, are you freaking kidding me. So now, like, the other gym teacher comes in and like, what's going on here? And right away, he gives the other gym teacher the ball. And I'm like, and all the kids are laughing at me, like, as this kid punk me. And I'm like, you motherfucker. I'm like, you, I don't know if we're allowed to curse me.

Yeah, go ahead. I don't like to curse that much anyway, but sometimes it just happens. But this kid brings it out in you. He brings it in, he brought it out of me. And then so he starts talking. He gets in my face. He's like, bro, you can't do shit. I'm like, I fuck your ass up.

I'm like, bro, who do you think you are? I know you won't. He was like, I fuck your ass up right now. I ain't scared. We'll do this anywhere. Outside. He's like, no, but I said, no. I'm like, I bet we go to the gym office right now.

Let's see what you got. So I walk my gym The guy who was like the actual teacher in the school Let's this happen because he knows this kid's such a punk So we go into the we go into like the PE office and right away This kid's in my face He pushes me and I'm like boom

And I don't move I just take it I'm not gonna punch him So I just he was actually a little tall than me I take his head and I call time right to a choke And I just start squeezing him What? Now as I'm squeezing I'm making fun of him I'm like how's that feel buddy And he's trying to talk and every time he tries to talk

I'll just like squeeze a little bit more so he sounds stupid when he was trying to talk. So there was a black couch right behind me. He starts driving into me. So now I'm going to fall down and I can't let him do that to me. He had one friend in there and we had a couple of the physette teachers.

So as I'm falling, I like pick his head up and I grab like an underhook on the other side and I lateral drop him. He like flies into the wall, goes down. Now he grabbed his head. I'm just pushing his head into the couch. I was like, are you done yet? Are you done yet?

And finally he was like, no, you got me, you got me, man, you got me, man. and he kind of like gave up and he was like no I got respect for you now I got respect for you and Mike oh shit though I got like who the hell do you think you How old is he? He was like a senior in high school

But he probably got left back a couple of times He was and you how old were you? I was like 21 21 I loved the school you get to beat up the kids It was great you know It was kind of Did you get in trouble? Did you get in trouble?

Wow I didn't get in trouble because And then it's funny because the next day I see him and I'm like I was worried the whole night I'm like am I going to get in trouble Because of this I was like but you know

At the time I was like I just can't deal with this type of crap And so he comes, he, he's walking with like a girlfriend in school and I'm kind of by myself. I'm like here. He's going to challenge me to a fight or something in the middle of school. He comes walking by me. He's like, yo, much respect, my man. Much respect. And I'm like, bro, beat it, man. Beat it. Beat it. Oh, that is amazing. I don't know why I'm even telling these stories. This is a great story. This is a great story. By the way, I have to ask you about your son, CJ. I get such a kick out of watching your videos with him. I saw one just a couple of days ago where he's wearing, like he's wearing a hooded sweatshirt shirt.

You guys are going somewhere, and he's like one of the boys. Like, you could tell, like my son, who, your son is, what, five? He just turned five in June, yep. That's right. Oh, you had the pro wrestling party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was amazing. Yeah, I wish you could have made it, bro.

Wow, you had a, you had a, did you have a ring or did you just have the event? No, you dressed up. No, you got to do a ring. Yeah, it really would have been cool, but we just did on the grass. You were Hogan? I was, no, I was ultimate warrior. Volante was Hulk Hogan. Yes.

I mean, the whole thing was everybody was supposed to come as dressed up as Ultimate Warrior, you know, or whatever, any Any wrestler, yeah. Any WF guy. But for some reason, it was just me and Volante dressed up. The only ones? Yeah. And Countdown happened to be there. And this wasn't part of the plan.

We were just going to hang out during the party dressed up as WWE people. But Countdown was there. And I'm like, yo, Blonde, I bet we just, let's do like a match. Let's surprise him, like, doing a match because CJ hadn't seen me yet. And I wanted to surprise him looking like Ultimate Warrior anyway. So, like, literally in like three minutes, we came up. We orchestrated the whole thing. And it worked out great.

Did you like it? He loved it. He loved it. He was actually. he was like timid he was like usually CJ is pretty outgoing and like excited and smiley and loud but like when it was going on I think he was like it's in such shock yeah yeah he knows you he knew I think he knew it was me but it was like uh he was just kind of like embarrassed because everybody he doesn't love attention so everybody's looking at him for his reaction and he got kind of like you know he's

turning five sure sure sure he's like a little gets a little nervous but you so you posted where were you guys going you guys were walking and and and he's kind of I see him like working out with you and I've seen some videos of him wrestle. Like he's like a prodigy kid. He's, was he, were you like that? For those that don't know, like Chris's son, he's a five-year-old who acts like an 18-year-old with athletics. He's really, he's just a cool, he's a really cool kid. It's almost, it's, you know how it is.

You have kids, like, I'm sick to my stomach on how much I love this kid. He's, he's awesome. I couldn't ask for anything better. Is he you as a five-year-old? I was always I felt I would say I was like tough and there's a lot of things we have we have in common like I remember I would always be on the floor I'd always make things dirty like every sport like sliding all over the place he's that guy he's sliding like whether he's playing baseball or soccer he's just running and sliding everywhere just just just creating chaos and just trying to have fun he's a bruiser he's a bruiser wrestling wise like I didn't start wrestling until I was a little older than him he already kind of really really He kind of started now. He's actually done two wrestling tournaments. And he won one.

He won his first one, and he just had lost this past weekend for the first time. He lost a couple times. How'd you react? I reacted fine. For me, as long as he's working as hard as he can and having fun, that's all I could ask for. But he's just not as experienced.

Some of these kids are doing practice all year round, and they're a little older than him. And CJ really did two wrestling camps that are a week long, and he's five, he's kind of like not focused. He's looking all around the room. But he loves wrestling. He doesn't care. He wants to just do the tournament.

He thinks he won the tournament. He doesn't realize, yeah, he lost. He lost. He has a medal. He has a medal. He's happy. He thinks he won. But he had some great,

he did amazing things in those matches that I'm really proud of him. But now, since he lost, like the first tournament, he won, he really dominated all the kids. This time, he had lost, and all of a sudden, that competitiveness in me,

now I want to teach him things. I want to actually, now I want to help him to make sure he wins next time. And there's just little things that I could help him with that we'll bring him to the next level. But it's a scary thing because as a father, you don't want to be too excited and pushing your kid too much because you don't want him to revert back and get not like his dad. Sure, sure. So there's like a fine line.

We had the camp this week, and I always felt like he was able to listen to me and I'd have no problem coaching him. A lot of fathers would rather someone else coach their kids because they don't want to create the friction, father's son, coaching experience. and I thought I'd never have a problem but this week I went to the wrestling camp and I was trying to coach him among with like other five, six, seven year olds and I started getting like pissed off. I'm like, because CJ's not paying attention.

He's in La La Land and I'm like really trying to show him something because my wife had signed him up for this tournament I know he's not really, he doesn't really know a lot of the moves he makes a lot of mistakes so I'm like I want to show him what to do so he doesn't make those mistakes in the match and he was all over the place and I'm like wow I'm becoming that crazy father who's obsessed with like getting my son to next level and I'm like I got to

myself down. So you're going to walk in? The tournament I was okay with. He lost one match. He lost, I don't know, like 12 to 8 or something, but they were like back and forth. And I was just so proud of him. He was on his back. He fought off his back so hard, like for the whole match.

He was unbelievable. He's great. It's incredible to watch him because I feel like he's like a grown man, like just the way he wants to compete. And my kids aren't like that. And that's not, you know, I'm not trying to put down my kids. They're just different. Oh, everyone's, and everybody comes on on different.

It cracks me up. Every kid's so different. My daughter, I wanted her to be a freak, you know, all of a sudden, but I thought she'd be walking in nine months like I did. Next, I know, she didn't walk into like 16 months. You know, my little guy, CJ, he walked, you know, nine, ten months, he walked right away. And my little guy, he was a little longer. And then also with like the sports stuff. I mean, every kid is just so different. I mean, you can't push what you want on the kids. It kind of just has to happen. You got to work with it. But what if he says he wants to be a fighter like you at some point, or has he said that yet? No, he loves He's obsessed with the WWE stuff right now Not UFC He was obsessed with the UFC for a while

He kind of goes back and forth And as far as if I'd let him do the UFC It's not something I would like push him towards I would love for him to understand How to beat people up and how to defend himself And like be on a whole no level than most human beings Because I could teach him all and stuff But I don't know if I'd want him to be a fighter

You know, I'd rather him You know, play a different type of sport but at the end of the day, like, you know, you want to, there's things you have to say no to your kids on, but you want them, if they fall in love with something and they have a passion for it, you want to support them and that. And I would hope it's not fighting, but if it is, I will support them and I'll help. I don't say no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to stop it. It really is a great sport.

And as long as you say healthy and safe, I have no problem with it. How's the dog? The dog is, dog's doing good. He had like the best time of his life the other day. He was swimming in our pool. And so he doesn't smell his bed now. New pool. I've been following all this.

This is what social media does. Yeah. It was crazy. These dogs that don't shed, like he's hypohylogenic because my wife is allergic. So we had to go with a hyperalogenic dog. They stink more because they don't shed. Their hair stays on and like, so this dog stinks all the time. And my wife, when we got this dog, it was all on me.

Like she didn't want anything to do with a dog. She didn't want a dog. but I'm like, ah, I think it would be great for the kids to have a dog. But it's been a headache. It's tough having a dog. Like, for me, it's more work than having a kid. Really? Yeah, because if the dog gets sick, I come home at night.

Like, I'm exhausted. You know, I get done with like a hard work. Got to come out. It's 10 o'clock at night. My dog was in the cage. And all of a sudden, there's poop and throw up in his cage. And I'm just like, this is a three-hour ordeal. Now we've got to carry him in the cage all the way outside.

Got to get him out of the cage. I've got to hose the thing down. I got to wash it. The house stinks. I got to clean all that up. Then I got to take the dog back in, bathe the dog. Then I got to blow dry the dog. It takes like three hours.

So it's like, it can be a lot. Okay. I'm not. I'm fighting against it. I will use this as. Yeah, I would say, I don't know. I would say probably stay away. As much as you have an urge, like a little bit,

it's cool to see what the kids with it. Yeah, yeah. Man, it is a lot of work. By the way, how was the retreat? Did you enjoy it? The UFC retreat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you think it was,

Worth your while? It was cool. You know, I got to, you know, I like most of the UFC fighters, so I got to hang out a lot of UFC fighters. Most of the Long Island guys kind of stuck together. We got some good timing with them, just hanging out. Obviously, Snoop Dogg concert was cool. It was cool.

The talks, Kobe Bryant and all that stuff. You enjoyed that? Yeah, Kobe Bryant was cool. To be honest, I didn't go to everything. I didn't go to, I don't think a lot of fighters did. I cut class a couple of times. I miss like the Budweiser guy who was like The infamous.

Yes. If you lose, then we're not going to like you. You won't be sponsored by us. You have to win every fight. If you get knocked out, then obviously it's your fault. Everyone's looking at him like, who the hell do you think you are? But yeah, so I missed that. I missed the guy from Shark Tank, which I kind of wish I was there for that.

But overall, it was interesting. Like in the beginning, there was a lot of tension between fighters who were in the same weight class. Yeah. I was with Alia Quinta. the stories that were going on that first night when we rolled together

were it was absolutely insane it was absolutely insane he was on a whole different stratosphere of craziness has he always been this crazy no he's always yeah he's crazy he's one of the

he's Al's probably listening right now but Al's definitely Mr. Jekyll was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyder is that what I'm yeah he's like some people like, oh, he's the nicest kid in the world, which he is.

He really is such a good dude. But there's a switch that flips, and he's like, you can't control him. He's scary. Rage and out. Rage and out. That's where he gets the name. You know who's next on her show coming up after you? Who?

Chris Cyborg. Oh, nice. Yes. Yeah, she scares me a little bit. What happened? Can you tell us the story? Yeah. So, I mean, I learned more even after this all went down.

So, oh, I forgot who I was with. I was with a couple Long Island fighters, and we jumped in the bus to head to the facilities, the new facility and get food, and they were going to do a tour, but I'm like, I need to get it. I don't want to do the tour. I just want to get back to the hotel, just get some food and head back.

And so we went there, we did like a little quick, we ate some of the food in the cafeteria, and then I was just trying to jump on a bus back. I guess we jumped on a different bus than we were supposed to be on. We were like on the Brazilian bus. For some reason, all the Brazilians were all together. They were put together for some reason.

Okay. So we're on their bus. We're heading back. And for some reason, the girl, Magana and her friend, Beck Rowling, they were on the bus with us and they were sitting in front of us. So we were kind of chatting it up there and back. So on the way back, you know, I had never met them before, but on the way back, we start leaving the bus.

And when I get off the bus, the girl Magana, I guess, was right in front of me. And as I jump off, as I come off the bus, all of a sudden you see cyborg just run up into Magana's face. and they're having words and for me I'm like I have no idea what's going on I didn't know there's any beef I don't follow the girl

Magana on Twitter I don't realize what she was saying but basically Cyborg was going nuts on her like all the words you could think of you know just going off like who the fuck do you think you are like talking like this

blah blah blah and then Magana like is kind of quiet and shocked she's kind of like a nervous smile like oh my God and she's way small than Cyborg and cyborg's going off and but all of a sudden

like I guess She must have realized, this is just me, my opinion on kind of how it went down. She must have realized, like, there's a lot of people around now, and the cameras start coming out. She grew some balls. All of a sudden, she starts cursing back at Cyborg, and I'm like, oh, that's not smart. So as soon as she starts cursing at her, I realize now there's no one in between them, and something's going to go down.

So I start trying to, like, break it up. So I start coming in like this. Hey, guys, come on. Let's calm down. And as soon as I go, like, all right, let's calm down. Cyborg just stops, screaming at it. Magana looks at me goes don't touch me and I'm like all right

I'm good bro the best part is Dana White has the video by the way he had showed me when we did this thing I don't know if he's ever going to release it it is hysterical the way you back track the way I backch they were busting my balls but I'm like I have no shame I'm like I'm like what am I going to do I'm going to step

in there tell cyborg no I will touch you and she kicks my ass or what am I going to do kick her ass and then either way I'm screwed to lose lose Yeah, what if she knocks me out? I might as well just retire then. So as I go, come on, girls, calm down.

She yells at me, she goes, don't touch me. I'm like, all right, back up. And then within a second, she just, like, takes your hand and just cracks Magana. And Magana did, like, a little shaky leg thing. And she got, like, teary-eyed. And then right away, at least from what I heard right away, she was just like, I'm calling the cops. And that was, like, the first thing.

And cyborg just jetted out. And that was it. And for me, I had no idea what was going on. I'm like, I can't believe she just beat the shit out of this little girl. But that was going to my mind. I'm like, man. But then I guess I saw some of the stuff she was saying the cyborg. So I'm like, I can understand.

I don't know why she would be saying that the cyborg, especially if you know you possibly could be seeing her. For me, if someone's talking shit the way she was talking shit about me, and if I see them, there's probably a good chance I'm going to have fucking something to say to them, and we're probably going to be fighting. So I do see where a cyborg went with that. Unfortunately, the world we live in today, there's lawsuits and there's cops and there's you can't just can't just punch people you have to

like find other ways to resolve the issues but um now that i see like kind of look back and know that everything went on i'm like i don't blame cyborg i kind of see where she's coming from and now the reason i say this of course is because now i want cyborg to like me so she doesn't get at me i'll tell her you say that make sure you tell i hope she's watching in a few minutes uh by the way you mentioned dana white uh you were at uh city field with him right uh i think you gaslam longgo Sarah, maybe a couple other fighters, right? You guys did like a batting? Gasolum, Longo, which is awesome.

Volante. That's right. I saw some footage of him in the batting cage. Who? Dana. Yeah. Maybe not the athlete or maybe not. I'm not going to put him in a box. It's not an athlete.

There's some people that just aren't good at baseball. Can't hit the high heat? Some people aren't good at baseball. Skil up one to ten. Where would we put his baseball skills at? Well, you know what? I mean, I killed them during the thing. Probably, I wonder if they'll cut it out for that show, but I was making fun of Dana because he was the first one up in the batting cage.

And the whole time I'm like, yes, now I'm not scared anymore because I can't be worse than this. But he ended up hitting a few. He did good. I mean, his form wasn't great. And then that was when we were inside. The best part of the whole thing, so each one of us are going in Gasolum. I mean, Gassolm's cool. So we have no like beef. We're like talking and hanging out. He was among like all the Serolongo guys, Dana. So he's kind of like the odd guy out. And he's, you know, he's a lot. a cool kid, so we're trying to make him feel Konsboro, we're all hanging out with him just as much. Yeah, he's a cool dude. So, Gasselm is talking like he's going to be good. Like, he's

pretty good. So, I think he goes up after, like, maybe mad or whatever, he goes in there, and he swings, he swings as hard as he can, and as soon as he swings the bat, he completely misses, the bat slips out of his hand, goes only up into the batting, like

nets, gets tangled up on the top, and he lost the bat. And everyone was like, oh, it was a funniest thing ever. This is on the field. This is now inside. This is like the practice thing before we went up. Any of the players see this? Yes. Everyone was, they said that's the first time in the history of batting practice that has happened. It was pretty fun. So Gassel was worse than Dana?

You know, he was worse than Dana would throw in the bat. That was, Dana didn't let go of the bat. Wow. And did you hit any dingers? I did all right. I did, um. Do you have any proof of this? I hit, I hit 100 mile per hour of baseball. Wow. Me and Matt were the only ones who got the try to hit 100 mile per hour fastball. I hit a couple times. And then I hit it the furthest out of everybody, all the guys, I hit the wall.

I hit the wall when we were out on the field. I did all right. And Dana was offering me $25,000 at home run. You didn't get it? And I didn't get it. You know what it was like? I needed the gloves. My hands were getting slippery.

The nerves were going. Was someone pitching or was it a machine? Valante made money. Volante, he was so bad. Volante was so bad that he offered him, I think, 5K just to hit into the, out of the infield. Just if it rolled out into the infield.

And they're throwing the ball like this. Yeah. So it's a live pitcher. It's a lot. Yeah, someone's actually pitching now. And Valante actually hit it like a little bit past the infield and got some money. Yeah, so good for him. But Dana, he realized, I was cracking him.

So he realized he had to go with the Homer on me with me. But he did up to ante with the 25K and I couldn't pull through. I must say, though, speaking of you in Gaslam, I was at that press conference in Dallas. and I love the beef. I love it. But it was funny how like everyone seemed to have an issue like Cormier and Jones and like Claudia Gedelia and Amanda Nunes.

And then you and Gaslum walk up to each other and you're like hugging. And it was kind of nice. It was kind of refreshing just how different you two were. You didn't feel the need to put on because I feel like these days sometimes now the guys are forcing it. I mean, all credit to Kammer Greger, look at what he pulled off with

the beef he started with every single person he fought no matter whether he liked him or not. he was cold-blooded towards him and he made a lot of hell of money and I was fighting Floyd Mayweather. I mean, the guy is he surpassed everybody by far. So everybody's trying to jump on that bandwagon

and kind of learn from him which is, I understand, but sometimes if it's forced, it's almost worse, you know? And I think a lot of guys are doing that. You know, I've had beef with some of the guys I'm fighting before and naturally if it comes out, but...

You even kissed a man. I even kissed a man. I've even kissed a man. I got to do what I got to do with Dennis and Silva. but, but, um, yeah,

Gasolum is a guy I knew, I knew for a while. I never had thought we were going to be fighting, so we were always very close, um, different events and we were

sponsored by the same companies for a while. So, uh, yeah, you can't all of a sudden and be like, I now I hate you because we're going to fight,

you know, yeah. No, I got respect for him. Yeah. Um, what are you doing for the fourth? I don't know yet.

Well, I got a wedding tonight. Oh, on a Monday? I know. What is up with that? I don't know. Probably cheaper.

late night. I don't know if I'm going yet though. My wife will be going. What do you mean? I don't know. I'm just... You're tired? I'm tired, man.

I'm training a lot. So, like, you know, it's getting close to the fight. I'm probably going to go. We'll see. My wife had... I think I might have a dry cleaning problem. My clothes might not be done yet. That's a good excuse.

Yeah, I think dry cleaners usually clothes on Monday, so... Okay. Right now, I'm in a good spot. No offense. I kind of want to go to the wedding. I really, you know, really want to go to this wedding. So hopefully everything gets resolved. And then for the four...

Worth. We have a couple different options, but it's, you know, I'm going to be training. You know, my main thing is, you know, I'm focused in training. But as far as a party, we have a couple different options. So you're just going to, you're waiting until after. If it was up to me, to be honest with you, I'm not a big, like, going out guy or, like, partier. My life, if, like, every single day, I'd rather be in my backyard, my family and my kids hanging out, barbecue. That would be, that's better than going on any vacation or anything like that. That's more my style. I'd rather sit on the couch, watch two. I'd rather sit on the couch, watch TV with the kids, watch a movie, play with them, wrestle with them in the house,

then go anywhere. My wife is the opposite, so that's why I go places. Same here. I don't want to, I don't want to make plans with anyone. Yeah, I don't like going anywhere. Oh, play dates, things like that. I'm boring. I'm boring. My wife hates that. I'm like, yeah, I'm not. I'm good. Let's just hang out here. That is a nice visual. Yeah. We shall leave it at that. This has been fun. Did you enjoy it? Yeah, it's really cool. And you stepped your game up. This place is awesome, man. Well, thank you. You deserve it. I mean, you've been doing this fight. 30 years. I know.

On the internet for all these years, it's nice to have an actual professional operation. And I really appreciate you inviting me. Of course. Even on a three-fight losing streak, you still care about it. I still care. I will always care. You're still my guy. That's why I won't forget you when I have that belt around my waist again.

Wow. I won't. You said that on camera. You won't big-time us. Last time when you won against Anderson, you kind of big-time me for like a couple months, but then you got back to normal. I don't know if you think of clearly. There was the time you were like showing up with sunglasses and stuff.

And I was like, who's this guy. Bisbing just had sunglasses on, didn't it? What's wrong sunglasses? Well, indoors. Okay. But no, I know it's a schlep to come down here. So now you have to go all the way back up to take the train. Yeah, for those that don't live in New York.

I noticed that the pier, is it a pier six or peer three right here? You got the helicopters? Maybe send me a copter back. You hook it up. I mean, this is MMA hour, right? I will hook it up. I don't want to make the exchange, but I did say that I would reimburse your travel. So I got you.

Maybe PayPal. You're one of those guys, Venmo. Oh, you don't have Venmo. Oh, too bad. That actually happened yesterday. We had a bunch of people over with my wife's friends from my high school and they got, everyone has babies now. Everyone's old. And they came over and we had ordered a bunch of food and everyone was like, oh, you have Venmo?

And I'm like, no, I don't have Venmo. Oh, yeah, because we don't have cash. I'm like, all right. Forget it. I don't care. Okay, you want the cat? I got the, I got my thing right here. No, no, no.

It's too late. Now it's, it's too late. Now it's, it's just, oh, you do have cash and you didn't want to give it to me. Well, I don't want to do it on air. Why bring up PayPal? I said, here, here you go. I said that. Eight bucks? No, no. That's, it's, it couldn't have been more than 13 bucks. The taxi. You know what? I wish this was a different show. I really have a receipt. Do you have a receipt? Are you saying, are you saying that I'm Jewing you? Is that what it's

coming to my? Listen, guys, I'm not racist, but I do come from Long Island. We do have a lot of, I do have a lot of Jewish friends. That's it. I went to the beach yesterday in Connecticut with my family and well I bought a lot of ice cream for my kids and everything like that so there it is all right man get the metro can i go can i go through this and show everybody oh i already see the first one's dangerous don't do that all right all right and you can take your money back no no i should pay you to come on this show oh well thank you oh gosh um thank you so much really july 22nd nassau coliseum returns against kelvin gaslam it's live and free on fox this is big fox back on big Fox. Back on Big Fox. This is a big

deal. First time since Damiena fight. Everyone's doubting you. I know. I know. Keep doubting me, guys. This is a big deal. Yeah, it's a big deal. Thank you, Chris. Thank you so much. All the best. Say hello to your family. You could just actually walk out. We have someone waiting for you right over there. We're doing this on the fly. There he is. Chris Wyden.

Got things holding me down here? Yep, you're good. No, it's portable. You don't even have to take it off here. You can just walk out with it. Just like that. All right. I want more air time. There he is. Chris Weidman. Rebock Combat, please take your monster energy. Back on... Oh, there it is. How much was it? I know what I actually said.

I think I hit the no receipt button, so you got lucky. All right. Well, here it is. For your troubles. Thank you so much, Chris. We appreciate it. Good luck, July 22nd. We will see you there on Long Island,

Nassau Coliseum. There he is, the one and only Chris Widman fighting Kelvin Gasselm in less than three weeks. A very important fight in the middleweight division. The middleweight division is obviously in focus. And the interim title is on the line this weekend. And that is a very important fight with Kelvin Gasselma on a role and Chris Wyman trying to get back on track. So we just talked to Chris about the Cyborg incident.

Now let us talk to Chris Cyborg, who I do believe is joining us via the Magic of Skype. Yes, let's go to the magic of Skype and welcome in the greatest women's featherweight fighter ever on the planet living, past, previous, present. the one and only Chris Cyborg Justino. Chris, how are you? Great. Thank you, El. Very nice, very happy, you know, going to fight soon. Yes.

Congratulations. Were you worried when Megan Anderson had to pull out that once again something would happen and you wouldn't get a fight? How nervous were you? You know, I just disappointed about the fight Megan Anderson, you know, because I'm from Brazil too. You know, I come to America seven years ago. And I come illegal and did the average. you know, follow all the roots.

And, you know, and now I'm sensing, and it makes me very disappointed because he, him, her, and he has, her manager, no show respect to a grief fight, you know, make everything announced for the fight, and she's no heavy visa, you know, for the fight.

This, you know, show does not respect, you know, show really immature. And, you know, but I always am training, you know, I train a lot. Doesn't matter who we're going to fight, I was prepared, you know, for five rounds, prepare for the worst.

I think if you're the champion, if you are fighting, you need to fight for anybody put in front you. But it's not cool, you know, for a while after one month, close to the fight. So you were upset. You were pissed off when you heard this news.

Yeah, because, man, you're no kid. You know, you're professional. You know, you're a fighter. You're professional. I'm from Brazil, too, you know. And then how is I followed the rules and how you can step to the fight? And then you even don't work with, you know, don't know your visa, it's the right or not.

You know, I don't think it's cool that. Are you hopeful that the issue will get sorted, you know, in relative short order and that you will fight her next if all goes well on July 29th? Is that something that you still want? You know, we make a joke. If Trump don't make the wall in Australia, maybe if he make you, I go to Australia five October. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. All right, fair enough.

What was your reaction when you found out that Tanya Evinger, of all people, the 135-pound champion in Invicta was going to be your opponent for the 145 belt? You know, I respect to Tonya. I think she's a great fire, and she's a long time in fighting. You know, I know her when I fought to Gina Carrano. And, you know, she's the world champion, 135. I think she's top 10, you know, all the women in the 8. I think she's already happy to have the opportunity to be fighting big platform like we'll see.

And, you know, she showed respect, you know, for a step to the fight 30 days in Nausee. You know, I just thankful for she to accept it because if you should not do that, you know, maybe we can not have made this fight for all the fans. And, you know, she's really, we have courage. And I think with her, it would be a nice fight than Meg Anderson, you know. I think she's having nice style. and I think it'll be cool for all the fans excited to fight. When I say, Chris, when I say to you, Jermaine Durand, me, what do you think? Yeah, I think she's scary.

I think she's known the real fighter. I think when you fight and you have hold the belt, you have to fight your contender number one. And before she fights to the belt, she's already known she's going to fight me if she gets the belt, you know. But, you know, I really don't understand it because, you know, I'm a fresh about James. in the hours we train and say, man, no matter who you're going to fight,

we have to prepare for the world and be wetting, you cannot shoot the opponent. But, you know, the new athletes come and then, you know, who wants to choose who you want to fight. And if you do a war camp, if you hold the belt, if you contain number one, you can no, no choose who you want to fight. You know, I think she's run. You know, I don't think she's supposed to be the UFC champion. You know, I think she's, she just say, I'm going to fight cybor,

but to do reality. you know she's gonna run away and Chris can I ask you I'm just seeing sort of like your mouth can you lift up the camera a little bit so I see your full face a little bit there you go

yes perfect that's so much better thank you when you saw Germain in Brooklyn after she won the belt did you know already from there that this is not gonna happen you know I was talk to my team before this fight happened

we talked together and they said maybe you know If Holly win the fight, she's not going to fight me next. For sure, she's going to say, I'm going to back to 135. And maybe try and hold the belt 135. The first woman, we have to hold two belts. And Randy, Matthew, we say the same thing.

You know, she's going to get the belt, try and hold how long she can hold, you know, for the seminars, you know, make money, get the public to the U.S.E. We already knew she don't want to accept the fight, you know, by the way, after the fight. We all know that. Then we always think about that. This is going to happen. But I saw her in New York and we take picture face off. But then we already know she's going to do a lot of things. I find a lot of excuses for the fight not happen.

When you heard, you know, her manager put out a statement saying that we don't want to fight Chris because she's a cheater and all this stuff. What was your reaction to this? How did you, I mean, you've, you know, you failed one test back in 2011. you had this incident with Usada and they cleared you. And so to be called that after all these years and all these fights, how do you react when you read this? You know, the problem, the people use this. My mistake, I did a long time ago.

This is 2012, 11, I think the last 2011. They used this mistake for a fine excuse for no fight, you know. I mean, firstly signed with Uzada one year before fight Wednesday. You know, this is the excuse me for the one accepted the fight. Sammy Ronald Rossi losing this long time, ah, she's a cheetah and want to fire her. So she doesn't want to find, you know, under find insurance.

This is like insurance for the fighters, but not fighting. But man, this is ridiculous because we make the same test, you know, Uzada, we do the same thing. And I deported to one year, signed with Uzada before BUSC, for proven me clean and cleat, you know, for proving, man, I did a mistake, but I pay away, you know. And I'm not the first,

first a clue to happen, you know. I have a lot of cliques happen to 10 and then, you know, you have to, I just laugh, man, because then I'll have excuse, you know, just scary for a set to the fight. What were you thinking? It took so long for this resolution to come about of them stripping her and booking you against Megan Anderson. I mean, weeks and weeks and weeks, it was just like this story. Was it driving you nuts? How are you reacting to all this? How are you still staying focused and training and things like that when for weeks we had, no answer to the situation with the belt. You know, after my last fight, September,

I'm training almost six months straight. You know, I'm trying to train you, you know, for improve my game, getting better, my grappling, you know, getting better in my boxing, everything, you know, getting better in my game. For me, I'm actually 145. And for working power, too, strong, because now I stayed three years doing dieting,

try to drop weight for 1 35. and I know it's 1.45 different divisions, my division, you know. And I try to use everything, like, it's not nice, you know. It's very hard when you don't know when you're going to fight. And in July, it will be 10 months I don't fight. And it's really hard because you need to find motivate every day. You know, every day need to find motivation for keep training, keep focus, you know. You know, don't give up and keep going.

and man I did like this and know when my teams give support me help me you know motivating me all the time and then my family too you know my family I think the first thing

motivating me and you always know I know I know it's a keep training the opportunity you're gonna come and you'll be a nice opportunity you know July 29 you're gonna fight for the belt

and I'm really happy and for being my division 145 and in the midst of all this you go to the athlete retreat in May and you start tweeting things like

you're not your picture is not in the book, and it felt to me like you felt disrespected. And I'm not talking about the Angela Magania situation. Just like, it felt like you weren't feeling the love. Is that accurate? You know, I did already two fights with two FC. And then when I saw the book, I see they have my picture. You know, why?

You know, I have a lot of athletes. Don't have just me there, you know, but they have a lot of athletes now there too. But if in the book, the retreats for athletes, why don't have my picture, you know, beginning to be really to stop. And then we talk a lot of things there, say, we're still going to help your company growing. We're going to grow together, you know. And then I look at that, don't have my picture.

How do you want to grow your company together if you don't have your picture there? How are people going to see you, you know, foresee you face your name, you know. You know, something like this, but, you know, I hopefully this is going to change. You know, the last interview, you know, Dan White said, he said, and did a lot of mistakes, cyborgs. And maybe you can go to start work together, you know, I hope.

And, you know, I love my job. You know, if my boss and the company network, a lot of work with me. You know, you're going to be a lot of success together, you know. But, you know, I give the opportunity for them, for, you know, change the same, you know, make it better, you know. And for me, for me, you can train me and fight happy,

you know, I don't want to fight outside the cage all the time. I want to just fight in the cage. thoughts from my fight. I thought it was significant when he said that to MMA Junkie about the mistakes that they've made as far as your relationship is concerned. It wasn't like an outright apology. So much has happened, but did you feel good when you saw that? Did it make you feel better about the future?

Do you know, it's really hard. Some people do some mistake and you say, man, I did a mistake. You know, I did show me, I can respect a little bit, you know, show respect because some people do mistake and don't know say, ah, I didn't mistake. And when you say, man, I did some mistake in cybor. Show me then, you know, think a little bit what they did for me. Maybe show me a little bit of respect. And, you know, I accept that, you know, and then, you know, let's see what's going to happen after that.

You know, let's see, no, just be a word, you know, not just being the word. But in practice, this is going to work, you know, this is going to change. You know, man, I really easily work with, you know, just to have to work together. I don't want to feel something than fight against me but you want to work together for sure you can make a lot of money together but you need to work together

I want to be happy I want to look to my boss and I'm happy to be there just man I feel like my enemy you know I hope this is going to change and after this interview I see maybe open the door for getting better the frustration that you were feeling

at the retreat is that part of the reason why you confronted and ultimately hit Magania like were you feeling so upset that weekend that you kind of of, you know, weren't thinking when you were acting in that situation? You know, I just, I don't say like this, but I think it's a long time, you know, I think almost six years in my career, people bully me and speak a lot of things about me. And then, man, I mean, room being, you know, sometimes you can do, sometimes it can happen something.

But some, you know, mega, she plays something, you know, really bad about my family. My daddy had a high time with cancer. I think one month, Brazil is him. and with all the kids there and the kids there is the really real world champion because then fight for their lives every day and then some people have to

careful while they play because you play something in no nice you know something you feel in your heart and you know about Megan Megana you know my lord take care that and I think she's going to be an example

you know I think it's not cool you bulls people I don't think it's not cool I think you bully internet you bully school, I think it's no cool. Have a lot of teenager people have a problem. Try to kill themselves because of that. And I think this has to change. And then I hope that people don't do that.

Because people sometimes, for show respect, have to do something, you know. And I hope she'll be an example. You know, people don't do something like that. Play, you know, no nice. Where do things stand in that story with you and Angela Magania? Is there like a lawsuit involved? What could you tell us about it? You know, my lawyer

Take care of that And he's going court And you know It'll be Soon I want to have anything about For sure You're going to make one You know

One interview something I say that But you know I leave in my lawyer hands Okay And hopefully soon we're going to have Neville about Was it nice to see all the fighters Defend you

It seemed like a lot of the fighters Had your back when When discussing this story Did you see that? You know After the everything I'm really nervous Because you know

I never never just happened with me, you know, and then, and then when this father shows really support for me, because she's not just disrespect me, she's disrespect to everybody, she has the respect for nobody, you know, and it's hard you teach respect to someone older already, you know, in the kid you can, you know, teach, maybe she doesn't have this in her house, it's really hard when you, when you confront discussing with somebody, don't show even respect, if people have cancer in the hospital. And for me, you don't believe in you play, like, things like that.

And, you know, I feel very thankful for my team. You know, I feel like all the fighters have to be in the same page and defenses themselves. You can make a group. And this is really nice. What about this sponsor that said that they were dropping you because of this? What happened there? That's crazy. You know, my lawyer take care of that, but I think they didn't have excuses, you know,

that because I was, I was. did my job. I went to Las Vegas. I talked to everybody there. All the fans come to see me and then I think then find excuses for no one to pay me but my lawyer take care

that for sure too. I'm going to have soon coming up about that. And I think just use excuse for don't want to pay me. I think they don't have to pay me before and then don't pay me, you know, and then half brought, half after. And then they don't make

why you did the agreement. Your contract is up in October, right? Yes. What do you think you're going to do? I mean, that's in three months. What do you think is going to happen? Do you know, I'm going to fight for the belt now, and then for sure, if I get the belt,

and this is going to hold me one year, and probably have to have a couple of fights too. You know, I really have to think about that. I want to work more, see what's going to work with me, me with see how they're going to work together. And, you know, you could be happy then, and then show respect for me, like to be the war champion.

I mean, 10 years in the president, and then a long time the world champion. Maybe if I hold with Susie Bell, then they're going to show appreciate me, you know. And I don't know, but let's wait, you know. I just want to make everybody happy all my spend happy. I think everybody's going to watch my fight because then wait so long for that day.

and let's see after I think after when we work everybody together and make money together maybe this is going to change you know maybe you can be happy in that place but despite all the issues you are open to

perhaps resigning with the UFC come October you're not closing the door on that you know I hopefully you're going to fix that my manager talks to Dan but for sure I know have a lot of doors open for me you know if this is not going to happen

but now my fox is my fight and the end of the month and you know when I get it hold the belt you know and then see what's going to happen but hopefully everything will be okay do you ever think back to that contract that you signed you know with Zufa several years back

if you would have just gone into the UFC as a 145er and maybe fought on the same you remember that weekend you fought 184 Ronda fought Katzengano and you fought the night before for Invicta if you just came into the UFC and and and we're pushed as a UFC star, do you ever think, like, how different things would be now,

if they would have just put you in the UFC right away as opposed to putting you in Invicta and having you try to cut down to 140 and all that stuff? You know, for sure. You know, I think the UFC never have the idea to make $1.45 pounds. You know, when I fight in Invicta, we sign in the Victor. I think they then say make the fight to run the walls against me. But, you know, this is then say that, but I don't think this is a big deal. I think just like I was in Vita, for me not going on other events, like Belator, other events.

I think they're signing me for hold me in Vita, for me can go to the big organization. And for sure, you'd be different, you know. Imagine now, I mean, moving the fifth prize in the UFC, if they use the same machine, they use it for building, the road of the rods. Imagine if these people are doing with me. Because all the fans follow me now, all my fans with me in beginning of my Korea. You know, the same people watch Jinnokan against Cyborg, the same people watch my last fight, you know. We make the same numbers.

And imagine if you then build me, like then build the Ronder Rolls, imagine if I fight semi-cry, Holly Fight Caden Gun, and Ronda tried, Katzen Gun, I fought to Holly Home, the same card, same night. Imagine the biggest, you know. And then if you don't know, Rondon won, I'll fight me, protect her, that's fine, you know. To be built two stars.

It would be amazing. I don't know, but I don't know who take care about that for them, but I think this time they didn't mistake about that. They can make big stars, you know, and it's good for them. Then more stars, more money for them. I know last week you had to weigh in for California. This is your first fight in the UFC at 145. How is the way cut going?

How are you feeling? I feel good, you know. I start to eat very, very healthy after my fight. you know, very, and then in my decision, I think almost two years, I know, I'm 5145. And I think it's cut for 140, it makes me lighter, little B, you know, because I lose a lot of masks, too, for 140. And I feel very confident, very nice, and I did my weight, you know, now they checked the weight 30 days before the fight, and I really, I really close to the weight, like the weight

have to be in 30 days. And I'm really happy, you know, my team happy. They say, I mean, look great, you know, I'm trained nice. I feel very, I feel very good move for training, you know, depression. It's my heart for being a fighter than the training. Because I'm coming back, it's not just diety and, you know, a lot of cardio and stress about weight. And I feel, I know I feel great.

I feel really happy. And I think it would be a great fight July 9, 145. for me, it's my division. It'll be the opportunity for me can show for all my fans and the new fans don't know me, all my haters, you know. Why I'm 10 years in the theater? Are you working with a nutritionist? I've been back to work with Rob B. Emerson.

Be a partner training, and he's always dropped 145, 135. I work with him when I was 5-1-45, and I stopped working for work with Josh Rockefart. And now I'm coming back to work. with Robby, you know, he's really healthy. He's really like a lot of things, natural organic things, you know, this really helped me. My other camp to 1.45 and we'll be a good success. Okay. And just curious, I know you have the big fight coming up, but I feel like right now the biggest women's MMA fight that can happen now that Ronda's gone and there have been some changes

is you versus Holly home. Do you think that that will happen after her win? What do you think? You know, I asked I already accept to fight Holly when Rhonda fight Cats in Ghana I acceptify her in first 5-140 in Curitiba

I accept to fire in Brazil when I did in any event I asked for her in Singapore when she fights back Correa and then when Megan Anders to pull out the opportunity to fire I say okay we can fight

you know I think the next fight to be with her I think it's the great fighter for all the fans she's already far to pull 45 Mr. Ramey and the people say maybe she's win, maybe she lost

and I think they don't want to see that's fine and let's make the opportunity to fight with me for the belt. I don't know. She's just a bad for her but I think she's the biggest name for the next fight. I think she's great fighter. I think it'll be really nice. Well, I'm happy they found you an opponent.

This is sort of like an Invicta super fight, right? 135 champion against the 145 champion in the UFC. You get the fight for your belt. You are the best feather weight in the world. There's no doubt about that. And I know it's been a crazy few months for you. But I'm hoping that now the sun is coming out. The clouds are going away. Dana White has said that there have been mistakes. They want to work with you. You'll have a new contract, hopefully soon. Hopefully good times are coming for you, Chris, because I think after everything

you've been through over the last few months, you certainly deserve it. So good luck to you on July 29th. Thank you so much for the time. Looking forward to it very much. I think you've got to call it just now. Am I right? Did you just get a call? Yeah, there you go. It froze. But I really appreciate you joining us, and I can't wait for the fight. I'm so excited that you're finally fighting on 145 in the UFC. Thanks so much, Gerald, for I always giving the opportunity for me, for talk to my fans.

And I say all my fans, I have my Cyber Nation shirt, Cyber Against the World. You can check my Instagram profile. You can see the link. And all the sponsors are like to sponsor me for my next fight. You can send me a free cybermama, gmail.gmail. and my next Pennsylvania is to be training for motivate all the girls and women

it will be August 12 you can check you in my Instagram and I appreciate all my fans and hope everybody be there with me July 29 and thanks so much all my fans Obriegaido, thank you very much there she is

Chris Cyborg July 29th UFC 214 Without a doubt the best card of the year Cormier versus Jones Cyborg versus Evan Woodley versus Maya, Manoa versus Ozedimir, Seroni versus Lawler.

That was the new edition yesterday. And the list goes on and on. Al Jermaine Sterling versus Hennonboro at 140, it appears. It is fantastic. It is the card that they probably wanted 213 to be. But that's not putting down 213. That's a fun card as well. But it is, I mean, that is special stuff.

214 is special stuff. Okay. No more interviews. We are done. But that doesn't mean we are done. Quite yet. This is the drill. As was the case last week, we are going to say goodbye to our friends over at YouTube, Facebook, mhmap fighting.com. But we've got an exclusive segment coming up and you can hit my music. And we like to call this the MMA after hour. We even have a really cool new intro for that. And what's going on during the MMA after hour, which you can see, as you can see on the bottom over at the MMA hour. dot com. What's going on over there?

We're answering your questions. You've been hitting us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. You can continue to do so. Questions, comments. New York Rick has been fielding those. Also, second annual International Fight Week draft. New York, Rick and I picking five fighters

from the two cards this weekend in Las Vegas. I never make predictions. This is the one time a year that I make predictions. I pick one, he picks one, I pick one, he picks one, I pick one, he picks one. Everyone got so excited about it. We went black for a second. So that's going on in a matter of moments as well.

So if you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, we love you. But we also want you now to go over to Twitter if you want more show. If you want to hear us talk about the weekend that was 213 coming up, 214 coming up, and also our international Fight Week draft. For now, I shall say goodbye to everyone out there on YouTube and Facebook. And I shall also thank very much all the guests who stopped by. What a show. It has been a lot of fun to do this particular episode, this Canada Day slash Independence Day for America, July 4th episode of the MAA hour.

Thank you very much to Alistair. Good luck to him this weekend. Thank you very much to Felice Herrick. Congratulations on the win last weekend. Thank you very much to Shannon Knapp. Great stuff from her, as always. And thanks for the scoop. Thank you very much, Daniel Cormier.

Good luck on July 29. Thank you very much, Michael Bisping. Thank you very much for coming in, Chris Wybittman. That was awesome. And of course, thank you very much to Chris Cyborg. Back next week, same time and place. I'll see you on Twitter. And I'm back.

How about that? You see that new intro? That was spectacular. You see that it kind of has this sort of like late night vibe to it, the blinking lights. I love that. Thank you very much to Miles and everyone in the back who worked on that. Now we have two miles on the team. We have one audio extraordinaire Miles.

We also have a video extraordinaire Miles. So there's a lot of miles going on here. But the team is A-plus. And a lot of you actually saw the behind the scenes that we did. did the Periscope. I think Esther shot a video last week. And I'm happy that everyone's getting noticed because they do a phenomenal job back there. So I appreciate them very much. So Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? There he is. What are you looking at? Oh, hello. Hello there. What did I do wrong? No, nothing. I was doing the like, you've caught me off guard.

Oh, okay. So this is there was, if this was, you know, a lavish home, I'd be, you know, rearranging flowers and then saying, oh, I didn't see you there. Hello, welcome to my humble abode. This is the MMA After Hour. Yeah. This is exclusive to Twitter. TheMMA hour.com. Of course, if you're watching this, you probably know.

And a lot of people are upset afterwards. Look, you got to watch it live. You got to watch exclusive stuff. We're not going to give it away for free, right? We did post it 24 hours later, but... Yeah, that's going to be the drill. 24 hours you're going to have to wait, unless you're watching right now. Okay.

So spread the word. Tell the people who are not watching to be watching. Okay. Wow, I actually got a tweet. Speaking of tweets, um, so, uh,

Chase Sherman weighing in. Did you see this? He didn't tag me, so no. He tweeted, someone tweet me the audio of Ariel calling me out. And then he said, great show today,

Ariel Hawani. I'll post the video you want soon. Been busy preparing for UFC Long Island. I'll get my roommate to videotape it or to vid. Um, and there it is. And then in another tweet, he says,

I really don't care to be on the show. This has all been good PR. If he wants me on, I'll go, if not, no biggie. Come on. Chase. You're on the doorstep. Don't ruin it. And then you ruin it.

Don't break K-Fave, man. I mean, really. I have to have a talk with this kid. Chase. Curtain Jerker 2-Eleven. We've now devoted all this time to you. Don't break K-Fabe. Yeah.

I love how all these people, I love how all these people went and ran to him to tell him what I, what I said when I called him the bum of the week. Oh, Ariel said. Oh, no, he didn't. Oh, no, he didn't. All right, so we have questions? We do have some questions.

Okay, let's answer some. Number one question. Surprisingly, tell me if you're surprised about this, I was definitely surprised about this. Surprisingly few questions about this upcoming weekend. I'm not surprised. This fight week has two cards with some great fights on it. I'm a little bit surprised.

Do you think it's that 214 is taking the shine away? What do you think it is? I mean, look, it's two title fights. One's an official title fight. One's an interim. But I think 214 has taken some shine. That's the funny thing. All these announcements over the past week and a half about 214, I think,

are slowly taking away from 213, right? Because like, think about this. If you're a guy who lives in St. Louis and is a big MMA fan, but you only really have, you know, $60, dollars a month on top of probably what you're paying for FightPass to devote to UFC pay-per-views, you're getting two this month. And one of them is super stacked. Like in one billing cycle to devote $120 to UFC pay-per-view, now you don't have to buy it on your own, you can go to a party, you can go to a bar, but that is a lot. So there is a chance,

I think, that someone will be, I don't know, picking and choosing. And I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying this. 214 is a much better card, right? Absolutely. Also, you're getting a free card on Friday. So if you want your UFC fix, and I actually think the free card on Friday is a really good FS1 card. Gaece's debut. There's a color, Theodoro's on the card. It's just a nice card for an FS1 fight night. You look at, I mean, they just lost Soroni Lawler. That was kind of the people's main event. So, yeah, no, I'm not surprised. Let me ask you something.

Yes. Why is that person with the paper views from St. Louis? I don't know. I was going to say Long Island. but I felt like we sort of devoted a lot of time to Long Island. St. Louis, Iowa, Des Moines, Chicago. Speaking of Long Island. Okay. Let me ask you something.

Yeah. How much do you think a cab ride from Midtown to Phi Dye? Yes. First of all, it's not Midtown. It was like 30th and 6th. Oh, come on. Yeah. Okay, so let's call it.

Do you think I cheaped out? But just for the record, as I'm alerting the, masses because I have to tell people that were on on Twitter. Look, I showed you my wallet. It's completely empty. There's no money in this thing. That's all I had.

I'm sorry. Should I not have done it? Look, if I'm Wydeman, that felt, you know what that felt like? That felt like a slap in the face. Did he say anything as he left? Yeah, you know what? He was like, man, he said he had

flashbacks to the little kid in high school. Come on. Or in, yeah, in high school who wasn't giving him the proper respect. Stop that. Did he really say that? No, of course he didn't really say that. He's the nicest guy in the world.

He didn't say anything like that. Was that dinosaur hands? You know, you ever go to dinner with someone? And they're like, oh, I'd love to pay. I'd love to pay. Well, listen, I mean... Here's my credit card. Well, look, the truth is.

We have to make it right with Chris. All right, fair enough. Okay. I've got a picture up there. I've got his shoe up there, the pump. Yeah, he seemed, was it me? He seemed a little reluctant to talk about that picture. Yeah.

that was interesting right because it was it is one of like his you know most famous moments an incredible moment um i think he's very zoned in and and everything he he said or his his demeanor kind of alluded to that i think he's i think he's going to look really really good um you're not going to that right long island card you got to my that's your guy chase sherman look chase doesn't even he doesn't even tweet at me so i know that's the thing i mean you show me some Love, maybe you get me on your side. Maybe you get on the show. That's right.

Look, you keep doing what you're doing, Chase. All right, let's get to some questions. Yeah, yeah. Michael Johnson. Yes. With a win this weekend. He's, you know, he's kind of been up and down. Where does this put him if he's able to defeat Justin Gachi?

It's an interesting one because Gachy's debuting, but he comes with a lot of fanfare and hype behind him. Where does that put him? Is he top 10? Like, where do you see Michael Johnson should he beat Gachie? And maybe let's also answer, what does this do for Gachie? immediately beating somebody like Michael Johnson. What about, by the way, what about that trash talk where he was talking about Gay Chi being, I mean, was that too much?

Well, I mean, after your NASCAR impression, what? NASCAR fan impression earlier today. What's wrong with that? That's someone from the South. You ever see Andy Kaufman? You want to rassel me? You want to wrestle me, Mr. Lawler?

That's my Andy Kaufman impression. Anyway. Of the Southern wrestling fan. Wasn't my cup of tea? Like, I just don't think that love. level of fight insult is what I'm necessarily looking for. It didn't really get me excited about a fight. It's fine for just a back and forth off the cuff kind of thing, but it wasn't, it didn't sell me on any differently on the fight or anything like that. It wasn't the type of trash talk that

gets me excited about what's actually going to happen. That's just more like, yeah, you know, whatever, they're going at it. I didn't have a problem with it. It just didn't resonate with me in anyway. Yeah. It did feel a little personal. But Gachi seemed to handle it just fine. Just saying like, it's not true. You know, whatever, you know, he should have lost my crap. He brushed it up.

But anyway. It is an intriguing matchup. It does have implications or does it actually? That's the question to you. Does this have implications? Let's say Gachi comes in and flounders like some top guys do when they do come over from another organization. Does it hurt a stock

too much? And on the other side of coin does a win over Gachi really vault Michael Johnson into a new territory. I think it does. He was a champion. I know he was in a different organization. Johnson's coming off a really bad performance against Habib, but then prior to that, a really great performance against Porriere. So I kind of want to see how he rebounds. Can he go back to the Porriere performance? There's probably more heat in this fight than any fight this weekend. I think a lot of people are excited. They had a very intense back and forth in Dallas. They had another one this past weekend. I think this week they will have another.

I think it's a great fight for a headlining, you know, act on FS1. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's an incredibly important fight. It's sort of one of those where it's like, okay, Marlon didn't win in his debut, although I thought it was close and you can make a case. Can Justin, I think they're going to be linked for a little bit. Can Justin outshine Marlon?

And then can Johnson prove that Justin was, you know, a club champion, if you will, and prove his worth as, you know, a top five, six guy. Remember, they offered Michael Johnson, to Tony Ferguson and Tony Ferguson was interested just not on 24 hours notice. So I think that the win over Ferguson keeps Johnson very relevant

as good as Ferguson has looked as of late. So I think it's an equally important fight and I love the styles matchup. I mean, I could see this being, I don't see, I know Gachi has a background in wrestling I don't see a lot of takedowns in this one. I don't. I feel like with the heat between them,

Gachi's style of just going balls to the wall, I could see this one starting out with a frenetic pace. I'm actually looking forward to this fight as much as any fight, Saturday or Friday. And I love the fact that it's a Friday show and not a Saturday, and I love the fact that there's not, excuse me, a Sunday show. And I like that it's Friday, Saturday, and I like that it's not Thursday, Friday, Saturday,

because that seemed like a little too much. I definitely agree with you. I think they're going to stand toe to toe. And I think there are two guys in this division that are confident enough and their abilities to stand toe to toe and let the chips fall where they may. They're going to throw the strikes at each other end. Whichever guy drops is the guy that loses.

And I think it's going to come down to a firefight like that. I think they're going to be in the pocket and they're going to be throwing leather. You know what I also... I'm just excited for it. Oh my gosh. Chris Wyman just tweeted. I was just about to read that after we finish this one.

Chris Wideman tweeting, you owe me $22 each way. Oh no, I forgot about the other way. Yeah, you owe Chris. I forgot about the other way. There it is.

Oh, no, no, no, no. We don't have... Chris Wydenman wrote, You owe me $22 each way, by the way. Also, did you let Cyborg know how I feel? I was sort of wrestling with that one, but I couldn't find a really good entry point. I probably should have asked,

but it seemed like she wanted to get off the Magana thing. So I will text Cyborg, okay? I'm sorry. I should have checked. I could write them a check and I could do PayPal. People like PayPal these days. Venmo.

I don't do Venmo. Sounds about right. What else we got? Our next question. Cyborg and Evanger. How big of a hit does a loss to Avenger have on Cyborg? Wait, wasn't there one before this? No, that was just the Michael Thompson.

Okay. this is phrased differently so I'm going to change it a little bit Derek asked thoughts on a 135 or being her toughest test in years my question is do you think Tanya is her toughest test in years and would it be a hit to Cyborg if she lost to Tanya well I mean any loss for Chris at this point is a hit especially with free agency coming up but with the caveat that there's expectation right she had her opponent changed on her she's been you know going

and forth trying to get a fight for the longest time. I think there's a bit of built-in understanding if Chris is a little bit off her game. And similarly for Tanya Evinger. If Tanya's coming in on short notice, there has to be a little bit of leeway given, in her case, on going up to face what is the greatest featherweight

and possibly the greatest female mixed martial artist ever on super short notice. There is a lot of pressure on Cyborg in the sense that so much has happened and now she's getting her chance at 145 in the U.S. to prove that she's the best at 145, to prove that she can, you know, run with this division.

So yeah, there's a lot of pressure on her to win, to look good, and then there's a lot of pressure on her to keep this thing going because the division is only around because of her. And so there's that contract waiting after everything that's happened

over the last few years. I think that Tanya is kind of playing with the house's money here. She finally gets into the UFC backdoor because of the Megan Anderson situation. She's really a 135er, but she's in. And if all goes well,

she'll probably go down to 135 after this. I don't see her sticking around at 1405. If she loses, she has the built-in excuse, not that she's the excuse type, but she's a 135er and she was a champion at 135 in Invicta. And she's gone on a very good run and she's fought a lot of top fighters.

But even if she loses, she goes back to 135 and now she's a player in the UFC's 135-pound division, which is what she wanted contrary to what she may have said. She was trying to play it off cool. And I respect that. She was very loyal to Shannon and I really appreciated that relationship. And let's be honest, Shannon kept her relevant and gave her a platform to get to this point.

I don't know if, you know, Tanya is getting to this point if she's fighting on, you know, some regional scene against fighters who we've never heard of. So I kind of feel like it's a win-win for all involved. Cyborg gets to stay on the card. She gets her title fight. Ebinger finally gets to the UFC.

If she wins, fantastic, massive upset. If she loses, she goes down to 135. I mean, no one really loses here. and maybe one of two questions. Can I just say, I like this fight better than if they would have asked some 135er originally in the UFC to just bump up and fight Cyborg because there's something fresh about it. There's that Invicta superfight feel to it. Evangers knew. She kind of marches to the beat of her own jump.

There's something sort of exciting and different as opposed to asking, I don't know, Bantamweight X to just take a fight. Like what Leslie Smith did or Lena Landsberg. You get what I'm saying? Sure. There's something unique about this. There just aren't 45ers out there that you can just pluck up and say get into this fight. So it would have had to be somebody from the 35 pound pool. And I think that you're right that this makes a little more sense as a storyline.

Do you feel that this is one of the tougher fights that Cyborg has had in front of her in some years? I personally do. I think that Tanya presents some difficulties in her style. She's just not like other fighters. She has a very unique way about her and I think she will be able to provide some some difficulty for Cyborg. I do think that Tanya will not be afraid of the moment.

No. Not let the lights get to her. You know, Cyborg hasn't fought incredibly tough competition. That's just the problem with being a featherweight. So she's fought a lot of bloated 135ers or a lot of 145ers who aren't on her level. As far as resumes go,

Tanya probably has the best in recent memory, right? Sure. It's been a while since Cyborg fought a champion or someone who's, you know, Leslie Smith was super game. But again, she's a 135er and she was taking an opportunity to shock the world. And, you know, it obviously didn't go her way. And they did fight at 140. But if I'm looking at her record, I mean, I would say best fight since July of 2013 when she fought Marluse Kuhn. Yeah.

I agree with that. I'd agree with that. Our next question. Rumor going around is that the U.S.C. wants to sell the flyway division again. Any news? What again? Or have you any third? I don't know what that means.

What I heard was there were some talks at one point during the whole DJ situation of maybe making some money off of it and washing their hands of it. What I heard lately is that is not the case that they are actually pretty content bullish on it. Let's not forget there's a main event coming up featuring two flywates, Sergio Pettis and Brandon Moreno, and that that is not the case,

that it has not been sold, and they are not actively shopping it anymore. And I do feel like sooner rather than later, we are going to get a resolution to the DJ situation. I mean, if you just look at the roster, Miochich recently fought,

and he has a bit of a contract issue with the UFC as well. Cormier is fighting July 29th. Bisping, we just heard from. You know his situation. And the middleweight, you know, interim title fight is coming up.

So he's not going to fight anytime soon. Then you've got Woodley. He's fighting July 29th. Connor, we know his situation. Max Holloway, Fall. Cody coming back. And then DJ,

they've got a show in Edmonton. And I wouldn't be surprised. This is just me talking off the top of my head. would not be surprised if they tap his number for for that show in Edmonton. They need a main event for that show in Edmonton, which has some solid fights on it now, the JDS and Ganu fight and all that. But I feel like, I mean, Dana said it last week.

Okay, you're getting Ray Borg. The crazy thing to me is, as the promoter, to completely crap all over the fight. Did you hear this? Yeah. Dana White did this interview with M.M.A. junk, and he's like, okay, fine, you want Ray Borg? We'll give you Ray Borg.

You know, kind of saying sarcastically, like, oh, let's see how many, you know, pay-per-views that sells. And to me, it's like, no, now you have to wash your hands of the situation, make nice, and try to actually sell the fight. This is a record-breaking fight. History will be made. It feels like you're trying to shoot yourself in the footy, a self-fulfilling prophecy. We think that you're not a draw. Go see just how little you will sell. I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat here for a second. Okay. If I'm hosting fights at 125 and people are seeming not to care of that much,

much about my champion, about the rest of the vision. And there's an opportunity to kind of create some tension that is now drawn new attention to the division and to the champion. Is it possible that this was all calculated, that this was a calculated move? Not on DJ's part. Not on DJ's part. He doesn't need to be, to be honest, he doesn't even be filled in. Yeah. It's, I mean, if I'm thinking, you know, it's kind of straight out of the,

a pro wrestling playbook. Listen, if that's the case, this has been brilliant. If we want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I care more about 125. I'll be honest. I care more about 125 now. 100%.

100%. 100%. I want to see how DJ responds. I want to see him break the record. Exactly. I want to see what they do, how they promote all this stuff. 100%.

If that's, if that's what they were thinking, I personally think they... Look, all of a sudden, you know, our champion's been fighting almost two months. to the point where we can't keep up with, you know, how active he's being. We can't find challenges for him.

Maybe he goes onto the shelf for a little bit, you know, the stone cold in the hospital type thing. And all of a sudden, now, you know, we need him again, and now he's going to come back at some point. Oh, you know, we're thinking about selling the division. Now we're not. Look, I'm perfectly okay if the end result of this is everybody thinking of some kind of nut job. And I admit that I'm putting on the tempo a half for a repress. the doubt. Let's be nice. Let's be nice. Let's be positive. The end result is I care more. I care more about Demetrius. I care more about the rest of the

flyweight division. So if it wasn't calculated, they stepped in it. If it was, that's some work right there. Yeah. I just, I don't know, like sitting there doing that interview and being like, okay, let's see. I don't know. But yes, I'm going to subscribe to this theory that this was all calculated. I sold one person. That's all I need. Listen, if they want to, you know, concoct storylines of this nature,

sure. Why not? Or maybe hire me for all your storyline writing needs. Okay. When will we see the boys from the 209 back? I think this was particularly relevant this week just because we saw Nick Diaz failing his

whereabouts. So you get three strikes. within a year and if you don't tell them where you are, then they will provisionally suspend you and you could receive a very long suspension. And I got into it a little bit with some people about this. And this one kind of chat my chops, grinding my gears, if you get what I'm saying.

Because here's a guy, Nate Diaz, excuse me, Nick Diaz, who hasn't fought in two and a half years. He fought in January of 2015. When he last fought, the Usada deal wasn't in play, right? It came in later that summer. And this is a guy who has done everything in his power not to fight.

They have come to him with fights. They have said, you want to fight this guy, Rabelah, that guy. No, I don't. And yet you're still devoting resources to try to find him and levy these strikes against him. And I know that no one deserves preferential treatment. I know that he is just the same as every other fighter on the roster. But come on, guys.

You know that this guy has no interest in fighting. Leave him alone. he is essentially, for all intents and purposes, retired. And if he pulls out of the testing, then what if he, he probably wants his cake and he wants to eat it too. He wants to be active and say in a month, I want to come back or, you know, just have that liberty, right? That luxury, if you will. And he doesn't want to pull himself out because then he has to go back into the testing pool and be on the sidelines for several months before he can get back in. And so I just don't understand why they're trying to make an

example out of a guy who they know is going to fail to tell them where he is. They know he has no interest in fighting because he has turned down fights. I'm not asking them to make exceptions for active fighters. He is clearly not an active fighter. He has been out of the game for two and a half years. He has actively turned down fights. And so like, what does this do? Okay, fine. You want to make an example out of him? You want to say he didn't, you know, live up to his agreement. He signed it. It's not our problem. Fine.

What it does is, in my opinion, it puts a spotlight on the fact that you are asking a guy who is not making any money off of you, who is not actively fighting for you, who is not accepting fights. You are asking a guy who is an independent contractor to tell you where he is 24-7-365. I called a guy today to ask him to come fix a leak in my garage.

I can't ask that guy to tell me what his schedule is for the next week and ask him to keep me abreast of all his appointments where he's going to be if he's going to the shore for the holiday. I can't ask him to wear a certain type of t-shirt. Do we want to get into that? Do we want to go down that rabbit hole? Because that's all this is doing. And so everyone could come out and say like, oh, you know, no exceptions, no favorites. Sure. But come on. Nick Diaz is telling you he's done. At least for now, I say, leave him alone. And I'm not some kind of Diaz apologist. I've already said, look, we fought for you to, you know, to get that suspension reduced and nothing was really done. And that was fine.

We were not looking for anything to be done. But it is somewhat disappointing that everyone kind of spoke up and he never came back to fine. Fight. Fine. The rules are the rules. I get it. But in this case, you have a guy two and a half years actively turning down fights. Why are you still bothering him. It doesn't make sense. Could he not withdraw himself, though? He could withdraw himself, but if he withdraws himself, and I, you know, he recently, you know, dropped his management. He does, you know, or maybe they dropped it. I don't know. They separated ways. Sure. If you withdraw, you got to go back in and you can't go back in for several months.

I believe if you retire, you have to be, you have to be in the testing pool for six months. So maybe he doesn't want that. I don't know. That's the trade-off, though. That's the trade-off. So you could say, okay, he should have done that. But look, this is a guy who is maybe flying by the seat of his pants. Just look at his social media. Every night he's partying.

He's in a club or something like that. I mean, it's actually not that hard to find out where Nick Diaz is. Yeah, they can find it pretty easily. If we want to be, you know, going by the letter of the law, if we want to be, you know, sticklers about this, yeah, sure. He didn't tell you. I guess not. But all it does, in my opinion, is put a spotlight on the fact that this,

this arrangement is not fair to the fighters. It just isn't. This application is not good. And this is a guy who fought last before the Usada deal was a thing. Yeah.

That said, he can't play it both ways, right? If he wants that flexibility to be able to come back whenever he wants on the drop of a hat, then he needs to do the whereabouts. I'm speaking for him. He has not even come out. We don't even know if he cares.

Like, what are you going to do? Suspend him for eight years. The guy, doesn't want to fight. What are you going to do? And in that case, yeah, then who cares? Like, at this point, if he doesn't care, I don't care. That's how, that's my attitude. That's how I feel as well. So who cares about suspending him and making, maybe you're trying to make an example

out of a guy who's never coming back and telling people like, hey, and I get that. Maybe it's, it's to show, you know, we are still checking into our other, I don't think this has anything to do with Nick Diaz. I really don't. I think it has to do with, it has to do with, hey, you wanted this testing, everybody wanted this testing, we're still here doing it, just, you know, just letting you know that we're still out here doing this testing and the people who do want to fight are still being tested and some people who don't want to fight are being tested as well. I don't think this has anything to do at Nick Diaz, to be completely honest.

I think it's a show of the fact that this is still in effect, this is still underway and we're doing everything we can. And here's one example of somebody not checking in. And this could happen if a fighter's trying to be active and not checking in. Do you not agree? that the whole checking in thing, 24-7-365, not X amount of months, not X amount of weeks before your fight, 24-7-365. And people will say,

oh, you were asking for random testing. You were asking, yeah, I was, but I wanted the fighters to actually have a say in this whole thing as well. I mean, to spring upon these people who fight two to three times a year on average, to have them tell you where they are 24-7-365 to me is asking for a lot.

And especially, I mean, you're talking about a guy who's making 8 and 8, 10 and 10, you know, some of these fighters. And I have to tell you where I am every, I mean, I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. You know what I mean? Tomorrow's an off day, right? Tomorrow's a holiday here. I don't know where I'm going. But I have to tell you if I'm a fighter, because what if they come to your house? What if you and your family wants to go on a road trip tomorrow, you know?

Oh, I forgot to tell them, boom, strike against you. It's just a lot. I mean, look, if they were getting paid millions of dollars like NBA and NFL players, I'd say, you know what, suck it up. you're getting paid $200 million a year or you know four years Steph Curry

you know what I'm saying they're not getting that yeah look nothing you're saying is is incorrect is arguable I think in this case

obviously the letter of the law is different than the intent and Diaz doesn't care and neither should we and neither should that Nate I wouldn't be surprised if we see him

at the end of the year like I said December 3rd 30th is when they want Connor to come back. I, you know, respectfully don't buy this Russia, Habib stuff. Someone told me to align this with my computer, my nameplate thing, my black belt. And so I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back and fights Nate for the third time.

I think that if Connor has a competitive showing against Floyd, I think that the Nate trilogy can do two million buys. I'm not even talking about winning against Floyd I'm just talking about a competitive showing I think he could do $2 million I think that fight could sell no matter what I don't think he even has to be competitive yeah because he's going to be so much more popular

the world is going to know he's going to come off $3 million, $4 million by pay-per-view Yeah it's gonna be madness What else we got? What's the scoop on Anderson Silva You know he did lay down an ultimatum Yes and now Yep I actually reached out

I actually I'm happy that I reached out I reached out to his management last week and they told me nothing. Stale mate. So I guess right now he is retired. That's the scoop. Man of his word. Man of his word so far. So far.

That's the scoop. USC 214 is stacked. Do you think that this was calculated to start, you know, looking ahead to 214 before people are trying to throw money down for the Connor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight? What do you mean?

So that if there's a pay-per-view, they purchase 214. do you think 214 is stacks that the UFC have a good paper view before Connor fight as people are unlikely to spit? I don't think that's it. I think that the star is aligned. Am I surprised that they went with three title fights? Historically, they don't do that. And I saw some other people say, like, you were bitching about Maya not getting a title shot. And now you're saying he didn't have enough time.

Well, I don't think that they go hand in hand. Like, he deserved a title shot. He didn't have to fight Mazvedal. And he did. And if you look at social media, Tyran Woodley has been preparing for a fight for quite some time. Actually, since before 2-11, since before Maya fought

Mazvedal. And now, essentially, he has given a month to prepare for a fight, for a title fight. His last chance. There's no doubt about that as far as fighting for the belt. So part of me was like, well, why does this card need three title fights? Like, why don't you just put them in Edmonton?

And look, I'm happy for Woodley, he's getting pay-per-viewpoints, and he's going to be on 205. He's going to be on this card. And maybe he fights GSP in November at MN. MSG but for my i was like gosh this guy's done everything it would have been nice if you got an extra month you know hey like that's what most people get when they fight for the belt right at least two months if not more so that's all i was saying i'm happy for him he doesn't seem to be complaining at least not publicly so great we're getting the fight i think that this title fight was put together

for july so that it would align with msg and have the welterway champion fight gs p although gs p i don't know what's going on with that whole situation it's a crazy thing but I think that that's what they want. And Maya, you know, they're pretty much saying your number is being called. You're up. You got a month.

What are you taking pictures of? Screenshot. Okay. What three guests would you like to have on the MMA hour? Now, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. I know how you get about these types of things. Why would you even ask me?

Well, maybe you want to give people a peek inside the mind of Ariel Hoh-Wan. Why would I tip my hand? Okay, I'll give you three guests. guess. So the question is, what three guests I want before Floyd versus Connor?

Oh, not including Floyd and Connor. Now, I plead. Were you going to say one Floyd and two, Connor? Nope. Not going to do it, huh? No. I actually think that we've covered,

if I may say so myself, the fight, you know, better than most. We've had Ellerby on. We've had Espinoza on. We've had Roddy on. We've had Kavanaugh on. I mean,

we're looking at it from all, angles for sure. Yes, yes. Okay. This past weekend we saw a very controversial fight in Jack Yellhorn. Maybe we unpack that a little bit, but the second part of that is what was the most controversial fight in MMA? Well, to me, the big story coming out of this was two things. I've seen so many people say that, oh, you'll never see this happen in the UFC. You'll never see Dana White do something like this. And Dana does, you know, he has nothing to do with a controversial decision other than the fact that the UFC will sometimes put, you know, certain judges and

referees in place when they're the commission, acting as the commission, or recommend a judge or a referee. But this happens all the time in the UFC. I mean, just last week, Kevin Lee Wan, you know, when referee Mario Yamasaki called off a fight, which shouldn't have been called off, Keesa never tapped and he's appealing. And so, like, it was just crazy to me to hear that. Like, oh, this is why the UFC is so much better. This is why MMA is better. No, this happens all the time in, in MMA.

This is the fight game. It's going to happen. There are corrupt judges, referees. They're inadequate ones, incompetent ones, underprepared ones. I mean, the list goes on and on. And we see it more often than not, I think, in MMA because you have a lot of people who are like old school boxing,

kickboxing people who don't know anything about the ground game. The other interesting thing was Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, completely crapping all over Horn. And then afterwards, crapping on the decision and still kind of crapping on Horn. I mean, the whole thing, did you watch this? I tuned in because Mosley Jr. was on and Michael Conlin was on. I was like, this is great.

Boxing on ESPN. And I enjoyed it. But then they cut to Stephen A. Smith. And he is, like, could you imagine going to the studio for a Fox show and they cut to, you know, Bisping, who is completely saying that the main event coming up on FS1 is total dog crap. You should not be, you know, investing any time in this. This guy doesn't stand the chance. It was crazy. Like the honesty, I mean, if that's how he felt cool, but it did sort of

feel like if I'm top rank or ESPN, do I really want the biggest star in our company to tell the world that this fight is a sham? And then the guy ends up winning via controversial decision. So that was, you know, I don't even know how I feel about the Stephen A. Smith thing because I get what they're doing. They're trying to get his rub on the boxing telecast. And he certainly gets. gets people talking and he's a name and there's a trickle-down effect. But it does sort of feel like if you're going to be talking about boxing, you should know who you're talking about. He's not as big of a scrub as you think.

And if you're going to tell the world that you don't know who this person is, nor his opponents, you kind of lose your credibility. Like, why should I listen to you as a fan if the analyst on TV doesn't even know what this person is? So I don't know. I was a little bit torn when it came to that and made me think like, if the UFC signs with ESPN, is Stephen A. Smith going to be telling us, you know,

who X featherweight is fighting on some ESPN shows. It was crazy. But I guess good for boxing. People were talking about it, but maybe not the byproduct that they were looking for with the Stephen A. Smith thing.

The interesting thing is going to be what happens the next show. Let me just say one thing about the Stephen A. Smith. Okay. I saw a ton of people from the MMA core, which is what I primarily follow, getting all up in arms about Stephen A. Smith

saying that this time type of controversy when it comes to decisions doesn't happen in in MMA wouldn't happen in the UFC why why are you upset about this that's my question to you what why are you upset about this we know going in that Stephen A Smith knows next to nothing about the sport so when he showcases that when he puts that on display did the MMA people bother you or the boxing people bother you more because if I'm a boxing person I'm like you know really You don't know who these people are? You don't know who...

But I'm not... To be honest, I'm not a boxing person, so I don't follow those people. So I wasn't seeing that or caring about that. Like, look, that's what I found was interesting. That's the way the network is going, where they're putting those faces and names out there to scream about it.

But my thing... And if I'm a boxing person. Here, if I'm a boxing person... And I know Stephen A. Smith, doesn't know anything about boxing. Well, you don't know that. I mean, they put them on the broadcast. When has Stephen A. Smith really talked about, you know, any kind of boxing event other than

like a big Floyd Mayweather fight? Let's just put it this way. Let's just put it this way. If it was, you know, Valentina Schenko versus Amanda Nunes, and this was airing on ESPN, and Stephen A. Smith was doing the studio and was telling us that Valentina Schofchenko isn't worth crap. You know what I mean? Like, as an MMA person, you'd be like, no, no, no, no. She'd be so-and-so.

This would be my reaction to that. You would care about it. You would take it personally because you love the sport, and you are excited about it being on ESPN, and you want to see it shined in the greatest light possible. This is what I would say. I don't agree with that. I think that's a poorly formed opinion based on nothing.

Sure, but you could understand what people would be. But I expected it. If you put somebody who doesn't follow the sport, if you put my mom in there to yell, about MMA, I'm not going to be expecting her to know what she's talking about. I would think... My bar for Stephen A. Smith's commentary on fight sports is here. I'm not expecting it to be up here.

I don't want it to be. Steve Levy was like, you know, he set him up with, you have the book on all the fighters, you know everything. Tell us about Jeff Horn. And he's like, well, actually, I don't know anything about this guy. Let me read off the people he's beat. And like some of those people, like Randall Bailey, some of these people were like actual, you know, fighters were, of recognition. And so if I'm a hardcore

I'm a boxing fan, I'm like, man, come on. You know? I don't know. Yeah, that's my reaction. It's like, man, come on. But like, to get, to get, to get, I thought it was hilarious.

I thought it was hilarious. Who cares? Are you saying I was getting touchy? No, just, there was a lot of people getting touchy about it. I thought it was kind of hilarious. How could Stephen A. Smith, how could Stephen A. Smith say that there's no decisions

like that in MMA. You know how he could say that? Because he doesn't know anything about it. Fair. Why are you surprised? Michael Wilbon saying he was like... Another one. What does he know? No, but it was funny because they were just in Australia selling 55,000 seats.

You know what I mean? But he doesn't know. I know. He has no idea. I wasn't expecting him to know it. And guess what? He didn't know it. Yeah. Look, I don't get up in arms. I don't like... I'm not a big fan of media on media crime.

I know sometimes I've stepped out, but whatever. I thought it was cool to see boxing on ESPN. I thought it was hilarious. Like I was texting people. Are you watching this? There is a fight coming up and Stephen A is completely crapping all over the main event.

I mean, dare I say it was refreshing. Okay, here's the question now. Because every time you cut to the studio, it's like, this is the greatest night ever, this is the greatest fight ever. Like, no, can you tell us sometimes a little bit how you feel? So there's probably a middle ground.

Yeah, there is a middle ground. Maybe not totally crap and don't wave the pom-poms every second. What is the most controversial fight? Maybe not in history, but that you can remember or particularly stands out to you. Controversial MMA fight. Honestly, at this point, I mean... You're done, huh?

I'm thinking of home, Durand to me with somewhat controversial. I'm thinking of Brooklyn, like Brunson, Anderson. No, not even in the stratosphere. What's the most controversial? I mean, there's a ton. Give me one. I know there's a million. I just can't think of anything right now.

My number one? Diego Sanchez and Ross Pearson. Oh, Diego versus Martin Campman? that was also, but Diego Sanchez versus Ross Pearson had a 30-27 for Diego. Yeah. When he lost that fight

by anybody's account. There's I wrote a few down. D.S. Condit, that one was controversial. Not nearly as controversial as this. Machita Shogun was polarizing. Leonard Garcia

versus the Korean zombie where Leonard Garcia seemed to win it on volume and not much else. Penn versus Edgar won. Controversial, especially because of Douglas Crosby's 5045 card

for Edgar. But for me, and I'm sure some people will send us more. For me, I think Sanchez and Pearson was one of the most shocking and controversial. I've score cards I've ever seen. I could not believe that Diego

walked away with a win on that one. Anyhow, I enjoyed it. It was fun. I'm really enjoying boxing lately. Yes, what else we got? Because we got to get to our draft. Before we go, don't forget. Okay, okay.

Let's run through these. These are the joky wise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Phil Jackson is gone? Yes, oh my God. I woke up that day. How happy are you? I woke up that day that morning, Wednesday.

I'll never forget it. James Dolan was like, no, we're going to stick with him two more years. They just extended him, and I saw it. Phil is gone. I got a text from someone and I started to shake. One of the happiest moments of my life. I did a podcast with limited upside here at SB Nation.

As a Knicks fan, happiest moments, of course, I should say. And I'm so happy that he's gone. I don't mind that they haven't done anything. I haven't been following the news in the last four hours. But Stan Pat, that's cool. Write the ship. I'll take your boy David Griffin. Maasai doesn't look like he's leaving.

Presti, you want to come over cool, R.C. Buford. No problem. I'll have you on the squad. No problem. But I'm just so happy that the senile old man is out of here. He has soiled our organization long enough. He did not want the job. He was not suited to execute as an executive.

Peace later. Good riddance. I never want to hear the word triangle ever again. I was, to say I was thrilled would be a massive understatement. David Griffin. Oh, my God. Don't get me started. And by the way, jazz doing great things.

Of course, my jazz. Ricky Rubio would have pick up that one. Gag me. What inspired New York, Rick, to grow up the man bun? We heard Ariel's Afro story. a few weeks ago, it was me realizing that one day I'm not going to have hair. That was it? So that was it.

I was like, you know what? What are the pressing? One day, I'm not going to have hair. You know, you were talking to Daniel Corrieh about the LeBron. Look, one day that's going to be me. I didn't realize it was that bad. One day that's going to be me. And at that point, I'm just going to shave my head completely.

I'm not the guy who's going to hold onto it. But until that day comes, I realize that I needed to grow out my hair and enjoy it while I have it. Damn. I remember when you told me you were going to grow it out on the subway platform. It was a big moment for us. There you go.

One last question. I don't have it queued up as a screenshot. But any news about Connor versus Habib in Russia? How realistic is this? I don't feel like that's a thing. I feel like there's more involved there with that comment, but I won't get into it too much. I think that they're going to do Habib versus Ferguson.

And then they're probably going to do Connor, depending on how it goes. in December if all goes well and maybe it's against the winner of that fight or maybe it's against a Nate Diaz but yeah I don't see Connor going to Russia anytime soon to fight there I don't see the UFC putting on a fight

of that magnitude in Russia they'll lose a lot as far as pay-per-view is concerned just don't see it happening not now at least okay now it's time for our picks okay so we're gonna do international fight week draft

I pick five you pick five rotate Two cards this weekend, seven and eight. Tough finale, UFC 213. We did this last year and I won, remember? Yeah, you won on the tiebreaker. I actually have the picks from last year. Wow.

Tell us. I picked John Jones, who was then replaced by Du Ho Choi. That's right. Because Jones pulled out. You picked Kane Velasquez next. I picked Gagard Musassi. So far, all of these are winners. You picked Joe Duffy.

I picked Will Brooks. You picked Sage Northcut. This was my loss. I picked Hafeo dos angios against Eddie Alvarez. Oh, that's right. You picked T.J. Dillishaw. I picked Gilbert Burns. You picked Mark Hunt, which was your loss.

And then the tiebreaker was the fight between Yohanna and Claudia. And I picked Claudia. You picked Yowana. And you took it home on the tiebreaker. So how are we going to do this? We're going to go rock paper scissors right now, screen to screen. I think you need to pick first. No, no, no, no.

Let's go right now. Because I picked first last time. I think that's only fair. Okay. Why did you, why did I pick first? Or why did you pick first last time? You just seated the floor to me, and I think I have to return to favor out of the, the, of, the, of competitiveness and fairness. Wow.

I'm surprised that I actually did that. All right. I'm surprised, too, because there was a lot on the line. This was our bet about the- Oh, what is on the line? The championship that we don't know. What is on the line? I like the music.

It's a nice touch. What is on the line? Let me think. We'll decide afterwards. Oh, actually, I think we ask people, we ask people to send in suggestions. So this is the thing. Between now, let's put this all together on Twitter. Between now and Friday morning, send us suggestions using the hashtag the MMA hour to either New York or I, or you can just throw it out there and we can find it. But it's always nice when you send it personally. What should be on the line?

We'll leave it to you. And then we'll pick one before the tough finale. How about that? I like it. All right. Better be something good, people. Come up with something good. With the first pick in the 2017

International Fight Week draft, the winning team, the Halwani team, selects Mark Diyakasey, who is fighting in Strocker Close on Friday. That's Mark Dio KC, Dekasee Mark of the American Top Team. Yours truly.

New York, Rick, is going to go with one Anthony Showtime Pettis, number one pick. Wow. Who's he fighting? I have faith in showtime. Who's he fighting? Tell us. He's fighting Jim Miller. That's right.

On USC 213. Okay. I was hoping you'd take a little longer so I could tweet this, but here we go. Maybe we should point to which card they're on, right? Yes, of course. T. Casey is on... I said a finale. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

Okay. Um, okay, so with my second pick, you know, the, the reason I wanted to do this was because Amanda Nunes, Shevchenko, Romero, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, draft board. You do? I have a whole draft board. Oh my God. I don't know if I could do this.

Wait a second. I'm feeling a lot of pressure. You know what? We didn't really explain the rules of the game. I'll give you a little bit of time as I do this. Okay, okay, okay. Ariel and I are going to alternate picks from the two fight cards

and assemble two teams of five fighters. Whoever wins the most bouts out of the five is the winner. And then we'll do a tiebreaker as well. And now we could tie. That's what the tie breaker is for. And also, you know, favorite underdog doesn't really matter. We're just picking winners.

No line action. That's right. And also, if anyone on Twitter wants to help me out. Oh, come on. What, what? What? Okay, okay, sorry. Gosh, I'm not used to this.

Okay. With the second pick. Yes. In the 2017 international fight week draft, yes. The Hawani team, the winning team, selects Angela Hill. Interesting.

Who is fighting Ashley Yoder on Friday on Fox Sports 1 tough finale. Okay, okay. So you've got Hill and you've got, who's your first pick? I forgot already.

Mark G. Casey. D. Casey. And I've got Pettis. And now my number two pick on the winning team is Aspen Lad. Oh, damn it. That was my one.

I wanted to pick her. All right, fine, fine. She's very nice. She sends me updates on Twitter on her training. It's all very nice. Yeah, I've got Aspen Ladd, who's fighting Jessica I on that tough 25 card. Okay.

Your turn number three, Ariel. Okay, so I already have two people on the Ultimate Fighter finale. So do I want to load the deck there? I'm kind of staying away from the main events. Steve Bosse keeps jumping out of me, but I feel like I'd be picking with my heart as opposed to my mind. Of course, there's Tavares and Theodore, two friends of the program. So far, we're getting a lot of cut the man's fun and shave the eyebrow. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

We cannot do that. A lot of that. Okay. Yes. Oh, God. All right, here we go. You ready? Are you looking at the odds, by the way?

No, I'm not. But, I mean, I don't think it helps much, to be honest. I don't think it helps? I think it almost hurts sometimes You think, you know, oh, they're the biggest favorite But there's a lot of factors that go into that It can hurt to be honest It's something I tried to stay away from

When I'm doing just pickums I don't really like to do that Okay Wow, these are a lot Have you looked at these odds? Super, super cool, okay I have but not recently With the third pick in the 2017

International Fight Week draft The Halwani team, the winning team selects Curtis Blades That's Curtis Blades who is competing against Daniel O'Melianchuk on Saturday UFC 213. That's Curtis Blades. So far, you haven't touched any of my top four. Oh, no.

Number three, sexy Hara himself, Taruto Ishihara. Against Gray Maynard. Wow. I'm very confident in Taruto to get back on track. Okay. A tough outing against Artem Lobov, but I like Ishihara. Okay. Wow.

And that's on Friday. Yes. Oh man. You were really prepared for this. Look, you don't go into the draft without knowing who you want, Ariel. You know who you remind me of right now? The Knicks? Phil Jackson.

Yeah, that's right. You're falling asleep on this game right here. Oh, my. Heavy weights are so difficult, you know? Like, Olinic is jumping out at me. Did you have Olinic on your board? Nope. Okay.

This is my fourth pick, right? This is your fourth pick. All right. With the fourth pick in the 2017 International Fight Week draft, the Hawanee team, the winning team, selects Chad LaPreeze.

Okay. Chad LaPreeze, preliminary card, Fox Sports 1, UFC 21, UFC 213. I think that's a fine pick. Okay. Chad, I think Chad gets it done there.

He's on a bit of a skid, no? he's let's see don't tell me Chad no he just won one he lost two before that but he won one

so he's back on track I like Chad there as well Kamozzi's tough though okay you haven't touched any of them my number four pick Jesus

I'm going for Rob Font wow who's facing Douglas Silva de Andrage on the preliminary fight pass card for USC 213

Rob Font. Wow. I like Rob Font a lot. I'm going to get smoked here. Just not feeling it. Too tough. These cards are very, like, closely matched. You'll notice that neither of us has really touched the upper, you know, part of these cards.

I don't want anything to do with the top. Oh, my. So this is my fifth pick, right? This is your last pick. Okay. Then we have to pick a fight that's a tiebreaker as well. Two keep jumping out of me, so I'm just going to go for it. Let me just see if anyone rotate.

to me anything. I'll tell you this. Chase Sherman's going to be heartbroken if... What? No, he's not fighting him. He's not, yeah. I know. You know what's the problem is? I ask people for help on Twitter, but I think like my Twitter, like, weeds out my, my mention, so I'm not getting anything. Need tips, please help. I got a blades. Okay.

Screw it. With the fifth pick, this is my final pick? Is it your final pick? go with Jordanian. Do you like Jordanian against Balmohamed? You're going to ask me the guy you're playing against? Okay. Screw it. Fifth pick, international fight week draft, winning team,

Hawaiian team selects the innovator of the Ezekiel Choke, the innovator of the Olinic choke, Olexey Olinic. Upset over Travis Brown. How about that? I like it. I like going out on a limb there. Did you have?

Did you have them on your board? So far you've touched one person who was on my board. Who was it? That was Mark Diakasey. Oh. Now I have a, see the last few. It could be, see it's between cannoneer, Torres.

Let's go with, let's go with Tisha Torres. Oh, there it is. I'm going to go with Tisha Torres. All right. I picked a lot from the, uh, the tough card. Uh, opening up the tough card against Juliana Lima. I'm going with the tiny tornadoes. You've got the two fight pass.

Now, what do you do? What's the tiebreaker? What was it again last year? We have to find a fight that we disagree on. Okay. That's what we did. Oh, yes. This can be one of the upper.

Okay, let's do one of the uppers. I think, do you have any strong feelings on Johnson Geichi? No. I have no strong feelings on anything. Oh, stop. Let's go with the main event. Nunez Shevchenko, the last fight. So it all rides on the last fight.

Sure. I like, I like Nunes there. I'll go with Shepchenko Yeah, okay Let's do it Done. That was easy.

Tiebreaker Nunes and Shepchenko There it is folks There it is Bang How do you feel about your picks? Not good at all

I felt much better last year I remember There were some sure things I don't feel like There's any sure things here But I guess that's fun So to recap I had O'Malleyan Chuck

I had Olinic I had Chad Leper I had Mark T. Casey and I had Angela Hill. That's not bad. I could live with it. And you had... I mean, look, these are all great fighters that we're expecting to win. I have Pettis, Aspen Ladd, Ishihara, Rob Font, and Tisha Torres. There it is. Bang.

All right, that was fun. We shall recap it all next week, New York Creek. Good luck to you. Happy Fourth of July to you and everyone back there. Happy Fourth of July to everyone in the back. much to Twitter for giving us this extra hour to do the... Happy early birthday, Ariel.

Well, thank you. It's very nice to you. Happy birthday Canada. Happy birthday Canada. 150 years. You see those U.S. bucks sitting there right? Yeah, that's right. That's what we need to pay respect to. That's right.

Or our president sending out gifts of pro wrestling. We shall not get into... Better than Chase Sherman. Well, yeah, maybe. Maybe he got his tips from Chase Sherman. I think that there's a better chance that Donald Trump is sending out his tweets than Chase Sherman. That's what I think. That's where we're at right now. All right, you can hit my music. We're out of time. Thank you so much to Twitter once again for giving us the MMA after hour platform. Or do we not do the music thing for after hour. I forget. Oh, we do do the music thing. Okay. We get to hear it twice. How fun is that? We just go on and on and on. It's a good time to be alive. No. Someone said, New York Rick's Manbun versus Ariahuanese beard.

No chance in hell. No chance, as the great Vince McMahon once said, no chance in hell am I putting my beard? Why? Because I have no faith in any of my picks. This is why I don't make picks, because I don't have any faith in my picks. And I doubt that New Yorkerick would want to flush all that hard work down the toilet. But we shall see.

It's always a fun time in Las Vegas International Fight Week. We've got the Hall of Fame ceremony on Thursday night, and I'm very excited about that. We'll also be doing an MMA beat from the road, so stay tuned for that. We've also got all the media workouts and media day and all that stuff and more, Wednesday, Thursday. Then we've got two weigh-ins this weekend, so we'll get two early weigh-ins, and I'll be doing the commentary.

Tough finale. We're going to find out who's fighting Diego Lima comeback series on Friday. That's on FS1. And then we've got UFC 213 on Saturday, both. by the way from T-Mobile Arena. All right. For now we shall say goodbye. Thank you again to everyone who tuned in.

I heard that there were some great numbers on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, all that good stuff and more. Thank you to everyone who stopped by. Thank to everyone who spent time with us this afternoon or was planning on doing so. Appreciate it very much. Back next week, same time and place until I say peace. So, Maria.