MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 390

Episode Date: July 10, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Joanna Jędrzejczyk (00:07:10), Gegard Mousasi (00:29:23), Jesse Taylor (00:53:35), Justin Gaethje (01:12:44), Chael Sonnen (01:31:26), Valentina Shevchenko (02:10:40), Gunnar Nelson (02:29:36), Dillon Danis (02:49:30) in studio, and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (03:51:09) and The MMA [After] Hour (04:15:32). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665330 or visitcomex Ontario.ca. With Instacart, you get groceries that over-deliver. Like when you get groceries that are the same prices in-store. With no markups that select retailers, you get in-store products for in-store prices, and the only thing that isn't in-store is you.

That means you could order in-store products at in-store prices while you're in sweatpants, in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in store. So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with our mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, July 10th, 2017. Logan, everyone, I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio.

Back from Las Vegas, it is so great to be here. In fact, I'm in New York for 24 hours. I'll get to that as far as what that all means in a second. But I'm so happy to be back doing the show in studio, talking to all of you because my friends we have a lot to talk about on this Monday afternoon by now you know the UFC inducted a new hall fame class you know about Justin gaichi and the fight of the year contender you know about the round of the year contender you know about Jesse Taylor and the tough redemption and what a great story that was you know about 213 you know about robert whittaker becoming the interim middleweight

champion i'm assuming you know by now that the valentina shifchenko mandanunas fight was canceled what, six hours before 213 was set to go down in Las Vegas. And we're going to talk about all of that. But right off the top, I have to say, number one, thank you for all the nice birthday wishes. That was very kind of you. I really appreciate it. It's so great to be here doing the show as a 35-year-old for the first time.

But more importantly, I have to say, when I left Las Vegas, early Sunday morning, I didn't go to sleep after 2.13, went straight to the airport. I had a weird feeling. I had a bad taste in my mind. because I was very disappointed with the way Amanda Nunes was treated on Saturday. I understand why the UFC was upset with her, upset about the situation. I get it.

There's a lot that goes into these fights. There's a lot that goes into the promotion. There's a lot as far as marketing and, you know, commercials and programs and backdrops and posters, all that stuff and more. I get it. But there was an opportunity on Saturday to say, hey, shit happens. We got Delta bad hand. She got sick.

She has a sinus issue, which by the way, she spoke about in December. We tweeted the clip. It's legit. This sucks. And we're going to make it right. But she is one of the baddest females on the planet. She's one of the baddest fighters on the planet. She just retired Ronda Rousey.

She essentially began the retirement of Misha Tate. She is an absolute killer. And if you think for one second that Amanda Nunes didn't want to go in there, and fight the person who she beat a year and a half ago in a three-round fight, if you think that she had to pay her coaches for a training camp, go through Fight Week, travel from Florida to Las Vegas, go through the weight cut, cut the weight, make the weight, and then at the 11th hour, say, you know what, on second thought,

yeah, I know I'm medically cleared, I'm not going to fight this fight, I'm not going to take it. If you think that that's the case, you've lost your mind. At the end of the day, the UFC is not the NFL. Dana White is not Roger Goodell. Dana White is not Adam Silver or Gary Bettman. He is her promoter. The UFC is her promoter. No different at the end of the day than Delahoya and Canelo.

Sure, it's structured differently, but they have to go out of their way to tell the world how great their fighters are. That's how they make money. So now essentially you've put out the narrative. Here's a fighter who didn't want to fight. Unprecedented. Champion not wanting to fight day of? Maybe you should think twice,

if you want to buy tickets to her fight or travel to go see her fight. If you're a fan in Edmonton, how do you react to that? If you're a fan in Edmonton and they're trying to put DJ, who they just slandered, and Amanda Nunes, who they did sort of the same on Saturday, how do you react to that? You just told me that these two champions can't draw, are afraid to fight.

When against doctor's orders, that goes against, promotion. I get why the UFC was upset. I get why Dana White is upset. Keep that internal. Come out and say she's going to come back. It's going to be great. We're sorry. The same thing they did with Yawanna promoting her on site. She was the big winner. Telling the world she would have fought on two hours notice. That's how you have to spin this where the mandonone is. This idea. Kirk Gibson fought, excuse me, played in the 1988 World Series on one leg and hit a home run against the Oakland A's. This isn't baseball. The fall from champion status to contender status to just run-of-the-mill fighter is so great

that you can't afford to fight when you're sick or hurt. She goes from 300k or so to 25K or so. You can't roll the dice and she can't complain after the fact because then everyone will say boo-hoo. I tried to get her on the show. I wanted to talk to Amanda Nunes. She does want to talk right now and I sympathize with that. But trust me when I say Amanda Nunes is not pulling out of a fight after making weight, after cutting weight, after paying coach, all that stuff and more, she lost money.

So enough with this. And it's disappointing to see that her promoter wouldn't back her. That's not the way this should go. Remember what happened to Matt Matrione? Go back and look at the narrative that was put out then. And then go back and look at what happened on Saturday. You can make a case that Mitrione Fador falling through was way more impactful than this fight falling through. Just go back and look at that.

It's unfortunate. But hey, the show rolls on. We have a great show lined up for all of you. of course we'll be talking about this situation at length. 2.13, tough finale. What a fight. Amazing. 214 promo, Mayweather McGregor, tour, all that stuff and more.

If you're watching us on Twitter, we appreciate you. TheMMA hour.com. Send us questions for the MMA after hour, the exclusive segment. We've got a lot to discuss. Let me run down the lineup. And then we'll get to our first guest of the day. I was just talking about her. 345 will be joined in studio by Dylan Danis,

the very polarizing figure in the BJJ world, who of course signed with Bellator recently. He'll be joining us in studio sitting right over here, right there, right over there. By the way, like my American flag? I did that for all of you who were offended. I was too Canadian in here. 305 will be joined by Valentina Shavchenko. Can't wait to talk to her about what happened on Saturday and where she goes from here.

245. Gunner Nelson will join us. Talk about main eventing the UFN Scotland show on Sunday against Santiago, Ponzanibio, 225, Chil Sun, will join us. Talk about the win over Van der Leis Silva. What's next? The Roy McDonald thing.

205, Justin Gachey will join us. Can't wait to talk to him about that win over Michael Johnson. How amazing was that? 145, Jesse Taylor will talk about winning the 25th season of the Ultimate Fighter, one of the best stories that I've seen covering MMA. At 125, we will be joined by Gagard Musassi. Gagar Musassi will be joining us at 125 to make an announcement. Stand by for that.

But first, let us go to the first. phone lines and welcome in one of the best fighters on planet Earth, regardless of gender, the reigning, defending UFC Strawway champion. Yawanna, I'm Jacek, is joining us on the phone right now. Yohanna, are you there? Hi, guys, I'm here. Great to talk to you. And one more time, happy birthday now online and say hello, keep a big kiss to Dylan Dennis, okay?

Wow, that's funny. You say that. And first of all, Yonah, thank you for the birthday wishes. I appreciate it. Dylan Dennis just texted me. Say hello to Yohanna. What is going on here? Oh, we cannot tell you.

What? Dylan Dennis is everywhere this guy. You're a fan of Dylan Dennis? He's amazing. I like him so much. I met him at Drexel and, and, yeah. Wow. He's a very good guy.

I cannot wait for his own and I debut. That's right. Okay. That's very interesting. I appreciate you giving him a shout out there. You're in Los Angeles right now, right? First boxing sparring here with me. Is that true?

I don't believe that. He will say no. He will say no, but it's true. Did you knock him out? I think more people would like you if you knocked them out. No, no. He's good for that. Oh, okay. Wow, this is interesting. Who knew? Yoanna, where are you right now? You're in Los Angeles, right? I'm in Los Angeles, yeah. Heading to the office to talk to the EU agents. My first meeting is with WME.

Wow. I'm excited. What are you doing? are the meetings. I'm a little bit nervous, but actually Brad Slater spoke to me last night and take it easy, as always, and everything is going to be fine. So what? So what?

Now it's time to talk about some, some, some, some moons, you know. Yes. Okay, well, let's talk about Saturday. When did you find out around that the, because I know your teammates with Amanda the Nunes, so I'm sure you found out before the rest of us, when did you find out? And then once you found out that she was out, what did you do? You know, I heard from someone, but it was not official, and I couldn't believe, because I knew that Amanda was trying really hard,

and it was very important for her to defend this cycle. But when I heard about that from the EHC, I was like, I'm here and I can step into the dog taggle and rest to the show. and I sent a text, I sent Dana a text, but I think he was sleeping and his phone was off. But after a few minutes, I've got the phone calls from the UFC people, from the PR and others.

If I was seriously to start, and I said, yes. And yeah, this is what happened. Why did you want to do this? I mean, what's the point of fighting on four hours' notice? I know, I felt like, of course, I was like, no, maybe I should do this, maybe not. and I said like, I sent a text and I was like, Dana, line

the girls up, you know? So I was like, why not? For the adventure, you know? I know that Valentina was in shed. She was preparing so long for this fight and it was a big deal for her. But I was like, why not?

You know, if I win, if I lose, it doesn't matter. I am a real fighter. I am professional athlete. Why not to do that? This is my job. And I was serious with that. Yeah. me a few times and I was like,

oh, I'm here, why not, you know? What kind of shape were you in? I'm always in shape, man. You know this. I was born with that. Did you ask to fight for a belt? Maybe not the fastest. Maybe not the fastest,

but, you know, I'm in shape always. No, of course, not for a bad, but, you know, only the super fight, like a cat fight or something. If it wasn't Valentina, because of course you have a history with her, would you have not offered to fight her? because you wanted to fight her?

I could do that. And I'm very good with Valentina. I met Valentina at 2.30, and we, we good to each other. We had very good relationship. It was not about, it was not about, like, paying back, you know what I mean? It's just because you wanted to fight. You were ready. Yes, of course.

Why not? Why not? Why not? How close did it get? He put on great fight, and that's it. How close did it get, in your opinion? I think very close. you know. They asked me like Dana called me

he was Face-Timing me a few times and actually I had some work out with Mike that time when he was FaceTiming me and I said man make it happen I'm serious you know That is crazy But we know that the commission is very strict Yeah

Did you ever talk to the commission? Did it ever get to that point? You know what? We got very careful Actually we know people who know people And it was very very close But you know we cannot talk about that Okay. Did they actually get to the point of you going out? It was all about the pregnancy test. The result could not get back on time because they need like 72 hours to get the result. Is that because they do it a more, because I don't know if you know this, Joanna, but I have three children. I've been there when my wife has done pregnancy tests like, you know, from the, it takes two seconds to find out if you're pregnant. Is it a more official way that they do it?

No, but it was, it's more official, you know. Oh, okay. work. Ah. So, it was Saturday morning. Yeah. Wow.

So maybe if this was like three days earlier, you could have done it. Of course. Why not? That's amazing. So do you, there's a part of you, I don't know how much you, you heard about the situation,

but I feel for Amanda Nunes, because I feel like a lot of people are trying to say she was afraid or she backed out things like that. As a fighter. She was not afraid. Yeah. She's a very fighter and she proved that so many times, you know,

we can see different, Joanna, different Amanda from the fight with Holy Holm or, no, with Michate. We can see different Amanda Nunes, you know. I think she's more strong, not only physically, but mentally as well. Right. It's unfortunate to say that about fighters. I think Amanda, Amanda, Amanda was in shape. She got just sick and that's why, you know.

She went to the hospital after the way. She went to the hospital in the day of the fight. And what I know, she got out from the hospital at 8. o'clock p.m. So at 8 p.m. So it's serious. Did you have a chance to talk to her? No, I didn't have a chance to talk to her.

Okay. What was it like for you? I didn't do this like for purpose, you know? I just wanted to like take part in BFC 213, make my money, fight, have fun, you know? I didn't want to like make Amanda or Valentina mad, you know?

Actually, I met Valentina and she was good with that. She was posting some stuff. Dana. Let's make it happen. You know, it's all about the sport. You know, sometimes there is a best road. There is a trust between all of us, you know, but we are good to each other.

And it's all about the sport. Right. About M&A. For those that don't know, Yohanna, how many times did you fight against Valentina? I fought three times. Three times, and did she beat you all three times? She didn't beat me three times, man.

I lost the first fight, but last two fights were very close. Okay. And how long ago was that? It was 10 years ago. But I respect Valentina so much. She's very strong. She's very tough fighter. What is the difference between you right now as a fighter and the one who fought her three times 10 years ago? Of course we both are more experienced, yeah? You are different fighters right now. Is that kind of a dream fight for you to try to avenge the loss?

No, it's not a dream fight to revenge the loss. It's not. To revenge Valentina, no. Why not? It's not something you'd like to do? I stay far away from the drama, you know, and like, and, like, these kinds of, this kind of, like, fights or, or things, you know? No, I became a UFC champion three years ago, and I enjoyed my life,

and I defended my title six times, and I'm good with that, you know? This year I want to be focused on my strength. Throwaway titles, throwaway birds. Next year as well, I feel great with Fermi artists, and I make my way easy. But next year, maybe I'll be stepping to the Borgas, I fight for 125 bucks. But you know drama sells, right? People like drama. People like drama, but I stay far away from the drama, you were supposed to meet with Ronda Rousey this weekend in Vegas, but you didn't, right?

Yeah. What happened? I see it was very close. I think it was very close because we text to each other, we talk to each other once in a while. She was in Vegas for Travis Fatt, and actually I wanted to go to meet him, we meet with her, see, talk, had some Buffalo White Wings, but I had so many obligations because of the international fight with it. So I was like super, super busy and I didn't have time to make it. So you're too busy for Ronda Rousey at this point? Wow, that is impressive. No, it's not like this. She understands.

you know, and I was like super exhausted because actually we had I supposed to meet her on Saturday morning but I was super exhausted after see her dating in Vegas after the signing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I signed like more than 1,300 or 1400 autograph

on Friday and I had too many obligations so I was just super exhausted. What was the meeting supposed to be about? Just catching up or was there a specific thing you wanted to talk to him? It was catching up. For me, she's still one of the greatest, you know. Yeah.

I like her personality, and, you know, I respect her more of a human being than the champion, you know. Of course, she has done so much for the sport, but she was a true champion. Would you like to see her come back and fight or nothing left to prove? I don't know. I don't know. I think not. She doesn't have to. She doesn't want us. She doesn't have to, you know. Like I said, she has done so much. I know that she's very happy with Travis Brown. They are about to get married. I wish her a big family and staying happy, you know.

Right. What was the best thing to happen this weekend as far? You met so many fans. Any great stories? Any people come up to you? Anyone say anything to you? What is the best memory? I don't know.

I don't know. Last year I saw that international fight big, so I couldn't meet with my friends. I was there two years ago. So it was amazing to meet all of them, talk to them. And yeah, it was amazing. Have they started to talk to you about your next fight yet? I want to fight in New York, so we will see. I spoke today a little bit.

I think I will get some more information next week, this week actually. The general consensus seems to be that Rose Namibunis is the number one contender. Do you think that's accurate? Why not? Bring her. Bring her. Let her line up. Do you feel like she is ready for a title shot?

I don't know. Nobody is ready for Joanna. And I know that Jessica, she's supposed to beat me, but she couldn't win. So, yeah, I always hear that before every fight. So I don't know. It's a fight. You can win, you can lose, but you must be very good.

Make sure you're ready. Is there anyone on your radar? Like, you look at the rankings, do you say, okay, maybe in a year this person will be on my level? No one. wishy-washy. I'm not wishy-washy. What do you mean by that? I'm always I always ready to fight, you know? That's why I'm the best in the world because I was never wishy-washy about that, you know, who who I wanted to fight, you know? I always

took the toughest fight. But do you... At the beginning of my career? Do you see any threats at all, anyone who you are kind of anxious, you say, okay, I want to fight this, I want to test myself against this person. I like what they bring to the table. No, no. No. No. No. Did you see Claudia's fight last month against Carolina? Actually, I didn't. I saw just highlight. I won't be fighting very, very, very, very, very short.

Yeah, were you surprised? I knew that it was going to happen. I knew that. Why? I knew that. I know, because I know I know Claudia Zadaya, how strong she is, you know. Maybe my, my fight was like, I think I, I did a great fight with Carolina, but of course, I changed my camp. I was only six-three-time in Florida, and this fight could look different next time,

but of course it's not going to happen because. Because. But the thing is, man, I know Claudia, she's one of the greatest forwards, but I don't think she's ready. Ready for you. Right. Do you think that that will ever happen? Does that make sense, or since you beat her twice, it doesn't make sense?

No, no, I don't think they want to see us fighting again, the take third time. Maybe next year. Right. Maybe. Maybe. A big, maybe. Okay. And are you going to the Mayweather-Megger press conference tomorrow? I don't know. If I will have time, I will go to the press conference, but I don't know if I did have time. Do you have interest in this? I don't. I don't. Actually, I do. Of course I do. I'm team of McGregor.

And, yeah. You're part of the same management, right? Yes, I am. He was tweeting all about you when you fought. Did you see that? Yeah, I saw. It's a lot of respect from a guy like him. It's got to feel good. That's awesome.

It's great with that. And last thing, Yonah, are you trying to get into movies? Is that what these meetings are about in Los Angeles? You have any big roles lined up? Yes. I work with Brad's Lola. Yeah. He's one of the best in the business.

And, yeah, I'm excited to meet all of these people. day and tomorrow. Okay. Well, I wish you the best. And good job. I thought you were one of the big winners of the weekend, even though you didn't fight. Everyone was talking about you, so it was a good thing. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Okay, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Yohanna. Bye-bye. There she is. Yawani, I'm J-check stopping by the Strawaway Champion. As I said on the post-fight show, that's Chil Sun and 101. And I don't mean that in a negative way. It's just brilliant. throw your name in the hat. Chances are you probably won't get it.

Maybe you will. And clearly, she was ready to take the fight. But your street cred just goes through the roof. Let me just alert the masses here. So your street cred goes through the roof. Everyone loves you. Everyone calls you a G. Everyone calls you a gangster.

Everyone says you'll fight anyone, anytime, any place. Unfortunate. And I know she was, this is what she was getting at. I mean, you don't want to step on Amanda Nunes's toes. because of course that's her teammate. And I have to admit, or at least believe, that Valentina Shavchenko being that opponent and the history, even though she didn't say that and you see the way she responds when you ask her about the fights three years ago or 10 years ago, the three fights 10 years ago, I mean, there is some history there.

I would love to see that fight. I would love to see that fight at 125 when they bring that division in after the ultimate fighter, which should be around December or so. that would be to me one of the best fights they could put on at 125, especially if you want to steal the champion at 115, it will just make it even bigger. So we'll see what happens as far as Valentina is concerned next. Her management team told me that she was offered a fight in Edmonton on September 9th. That's UFC 215 against Amanda Nunes.

They are a waiting word back from Amanda Nunes, but Amanda Nune is tweeted that she wants to fight Valentina, so I would assume that would be the fight in Edmonton, whether or not it's the main event we don't know. Dana White said on Saturday, he doesn't feel comfortable headlining a fight with Amanda at this point. Not like she has some kind of history doing this sort of thing, but that's what he said.

Remember, he also said the same thing about John Jones and Daniel Cormier. And at least as of right now, they're set to headline 214 in what? 19 days. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't find a bigger main event that that main events. And that's a very good main event. You can't really argue with that. A very unfortunate situation, especially given the fact that it happened just a few hours

before the event. But if you bought tickets to both events this past weekend in Las Vegas, you kind of got your money's worth considering how cheap the tickets were for the ultimate fighter and considering the fact that you saw the fight of the year, Justin Gai Chi, Michael Johnson. in my opinion, rounds one and two are front runners for rounds of the year. You may have seen the front runner as far as fight of the year is concerned, at least right now with Robert Whitaker, now 2 and 0 in 2017. I was looking through all the divisions.

Heavyweight, light heavyweight, middle way, welterweight, go down the line. Right now, I would say July 10th, 2017, Robert Whitaker is the frontrunner. Now, if DC fights and beats John Jones, he'd be 2 and 0. But as of right now, I would say Robert Whitaker is the front runner. He's now the UFC interim middleweight champion, a fantastic performance against Yo-O Romero. He lost the first two rounds. His legs seemed to be busted up badly.

Like, he couldn't even stand on it, put any pressure on it. And some way, somehow was able to calm down, fight his fight, take down defense was on point, and ends up winning third, fourth, and fifth. fifth, in my opinion. Fifth came down to the wire, but I thought he wanted no controversy. As far as controversy is concerned, well, in the middle of the fight, it seemed like someone gave Michael Bisping a Cuban flag. I don't know how he got that, but it was clear that it was a Cuban flag, and Bisping ripped it. And, well, I asked you O. Romero, about this at the press conference.

If you have not seen this clip, I highly recommend you check it out. He was none too pleased, and understandably so. The look on his face was terrifying. And then late last night, he posted a clip on his Instagram of him burning a picture of Michael Bisping holding the Union Jack. This is straight out of 1980s pro wrestling

and I have to admit, as good as Robert Whitaker looked, and as good as that fight will be, and there's some history there, I really want to see Romero v. Bisping now. Now more than ever. I mean, it has crossed into a whole other level of animosity. We're now burning pictures and ripping up flags.

This is scary stuff. This is serious stuff. It's personal. Not like it wasn't personal before, but boy, oh boy. I did not expect that. You could just see, go back and look. Go back and look at the look on Romero's face. He was pissed off.

And that grunt? Holy smokes. And of course, after the fight, Michael Bisping went in there and squared off with Robert Whitaker. Bissing is so great because he gets caught up in the moment and sometimes he crosses the line like with Jorge Rivera and ripping the flag

if someone touched this bad boy right here you'd have to deal with these bungalows but in the moment the face off he clearly was getting caught up in the moment and even took his belt and threw it on the ground and said here take this that was a little weird because that's his belt

or at least it's the one that they gave him to pretend like it was his belt so we'll see what happens there I'm still not ready to commit to that fight. I still feel like GSP can come in there somehow backdoor and they put that fight at MSG. I still feel like WME, IMG wants the biggest fights possible and that would sell more.

Although you can make a case that Romero Bisping is not going to sell a lot if they can promote this the right way. But I still feel like there's a possibility that Whitaker's knee is hurt, something hand, and GSP kind of backdoors into that fight some way, somehow they try to go for the money fight. We shall see. Speaking of the middleweight division, in a matter of moments, we will be joined by Gagar Musassi, one of the biggest names on the free agent market, and he is very unique in his situation because some of the free agents that we've seen in the past who have drawn interest from the likes of the UFC and Bellator and other

organizations had have big names, but they were on losing streaks, or at least coming off a loss or two. Gagar Musassi has won five fights in a row. He is coming off a win over Chris Wyman in front of a lot of people in Buffalo on pay-per-view. Yes, somewhat controversial, but at the end of the day, it was a victory. He is really coming into his own as far as interviews are concerned, Mike Work, putting his personality out there. He is one of the best. He is one of the best middleweights in the world. You can make a case that he has one win away from fighting for the UFC title. If you just look at that division right now. Now we also know that he has a history with Scott Koker, the Belator president. We know that Beltor was interested in him. Coker told that to us

himself just a couple of weeks ago. And we know that he has some news to break. And he has decided to come on our program to share it with all of you. So without further ado, let us welcome in the dream catcher himself. Gagard Musassi. Gagard, are you there? I'm good, Ariel. Thanks for having me. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. It's great to talk to you. Yeah, you too, always. Okay. So the floor is yours, my friend. There are some reports out there that you have made a decision, but we want to hear from you.

Have you signed with a promoter? Are you no longer a free agent? And if so, tell us the details. where will you be fighting next? Well, I've signed a six-fight deal with Bellacore and I'm looking forward to be champion there and if I achieve that, I'm looking forward to go division up

and get the 205 goal. But, you know, first thing first, the middleweight belt, that's my goal. So you have signed a new six-fight contract with Bellator coming off the five-fight win streak with the UFC. how close did you get to signing with the UFC? I had heard that there were some discussions, there was an offer, you met at the retreat,

you were at the retreat, you did PR for them overseas. How close were you to signing with the UFC? Well, you know, I went to the retreat just because I wanted to have the meeting with Dana White and the UFC lawyers. It wasn't my thing to go to the retreat. Other than that, yeah, we were close. We negotiated until up to the end.

And yeah, I think the best choice for me was to go to Belator at the end. Did you not like the offer that they gave you? Well, eventually at the end, they went up with the offers. I think they would have gone even more up. But I think they decided not to compete at the end because they knew I think let's say At the end

they knew I was going almost So I think That's why I thought that was the reason At the end they had a feeling That I would go to Ballator When you fought Chris Wyman in Buffalo And that fight was over

And you were talking to the press Obviously you didn't know Where you would fight next But in your heart Did you know that that was it for you in the UFC Were you done fighting for the UFC at that point? No, I think, you know, I'm so close to the belt. I think I'm closest as I could be to the belt, to fight with the belt.

You know, I worked before with Scott Coker, so I have no problem going to Belator. You know, I know I'm going to be treated in Belator and the opportunity is that I will get there. But at that moment, after the fight, I don't know. I knew all the options were open. And I wanted to have the best deal for me. And that was it. At the end, Bellator was the better choice for me. Was the Belator offer the same as the UFC offer

and you just had to pick where you wanted to fight or was it much better than the UFC's offer? Well, UFC was getting close to the Belator offer at the end. But it's not just basically the money. Like I said, I've worked with Scott. You know, when Scott promised you something, he delivers, he's an honest guy. He's a mixed martial artist himself before.

So, you know, he treats fighters with respect. And that's one of the things that was also very important for me to go to Bellator. And, you know, what can I say? Yeah, the money wasn't just the factor. I know, you have never heard someone, some fighter talk bad about Scott Coger. Mentioned me one fighter that said Scott is a bad guy or he hasn't treated me well. I think all the fighters from that now went from UFC to Bellator, they had a relationship with Scott or they, you know,

they're looking forward to work with Scott and Bellator. throughout the past year you have been very vocal about the middleweight division in the UFC and Michael Bisping and not getting a title shot by the end were you feeling like you weren't respected

that you weren't feeling the love that you hit a glass ceiling and for whatever reason you weren't going to get pushed to that title shot were you frustrated and did that lead you to exploring

the Bellator deal and ultimately signing with them well no UFC has always treated me well to be honest Dana White has always talked good about me I'm thankful to them I'm at this point because

they gave me the opportunities to where I am now the thing is with the middleweight division listen Whitaker won against Jaqurey and he skipped three places in the rankings and he went up and he

fought for the interim title I thought I was ahead of him that's my opinion I respect Whitaker a lot He's a nice guy. Congratulations for winning the belt. But, you know, I think if they would have come with the said, okay, you're fighting for the interim belt,

things would have been more interesting to me. And, you know, those things matter. Yeah, I don't know. It's, yeah. Well, sometimes I felt like, okay, I should have been there already, you know, those things. I don't know. Any part of you, as you said goodbye to the UFC

and signed with Bellatorre? Was there any part of you deep down and said, you know, I'm happy, but I'm a little bit sad that I never even got a chance to fight for the belt in the UFC. Do you feel like you will regret that one day, that you never even got that opportunity to be in a UFC title fight? At the end of the day, belts are not that interesting. I think you can, you know, I think if you're a season fighter, you fought so many times, a belt is just a piece of plastic, let's say. At the end of the day, it depends who you fight. Let's say if I go to Bellator, if I even decide to go to heavyweight, I get a legend fight or legend, I don't know, I fight big names, you know.

I think that's more important than having the belt. And, you know, yeah, some part of me I said, shit, I was so close to the fight for the belt because that was what I was working towards all those years in UFC. So, yeah, once. But the other hand, you know, it's not just the fighter that's gonna let's listen uh you romero fought so many times and eventually he fought for the belt but maybe if he would have got his shot against mike bisming he would have been champion i'm just saying it's also about what the matchmakers give you for a fight at this moment hey do i deserve

it to fight for the belt uh i believe if i would fight withaker or Michael Bisping, they're both the middleweight champions now, I would be favorites. So there's no denying saying that, well, he wasn't worse what he was asking or whatever. Because I feel, I'm not saying that because I believe in myself I could beat them both. I would say that because I think the art makers would make me also favorite in those two fights. So how can I be not... that, how do I say, what I'm asking, that I'm not worth that.

So it's also about treatment and getting the opportunity. But at the other hands, like I said, UFC has treated me well. I got nothing bad to say about it. There was a report, I believe, on camura.s.c earlier today that said that one of the lawyers in the UFC thought that you weren't worthy of a big contract. Is that accurate? Was that ever told to you? Yeah, I read something like that.

I don't know if that's true, if the UFC has said that. I'm not here to badmouthed UFC, but like I said, I feel I would be favored in both the champions, middleweight champions now, if I would fight them. So I don't know if how that's what they're saying is correct. I'm not just saying this because you're here. I said it before you came on and I would say it even if you weren't here. You can make a very strong case that this is Belator's best free agent signing because of the winning streak. because of your resume, because of how close you are to a UFC title. This is a huge coup for them.

Do you think that this is the best signing in Bellator's history of all the free agent signing? Is this number one? Well, I don't know. Rory McDonald is there. Ryan Bader was on a good winning streak. They're all, you know, those are top fighters that went from UFC to Belator. Eventually, maybe a fight against Rory McDonald's that in the possibility. You know, that's the same thing that you have seen. It might be Sphin versus GSP,

but I think me against Lori McDonald would be much better because we're both in our primes. So, you know, it creates opportunities. I get something to say. I can say I want to go up a division up, you know. There's a champion that's super fights to be made. I could fight Wanderleya, just, I don't know, not because he's at his prime now,

but because he has a big name, you know, I could even find heavyweight. I'm open to it. That's the good thing about Belta. I can do things. I can ask for things. It's more open-minded. UFC is very strict about those things.

And giving opportunities, you know, to me at least. I don't know. You know, they give all the opportunities to, let's say, McGregor. But, you know, he deserves it. I'm not. Right, right. But I'm saying, for me, it's more. also the opportunities are there now

for me to do things to get big fights that I want you know those things make me happy to go to Belato is it fair to say that you are making more money with this contract than you have in your entire career not combined of course but is this a more lucrative contract than any of the others that you've signed yeah definitely I'm happy with the contract

of course I'm not going to say what I'm going to make you know I'm an open guy If people ask me, I'm usually very open. I would say it if it's my friend. And I say things, how much I make is always get me in trouble at the end. But I'm happy what I'm getting. You see, now is my time to perform and put good performances. I just, you know, I do my best.

Did you talk to any other promotions, or was it just Bellator in the UFC? Well, we talked to another two organizations, I think, Russian, you know, there's opportunities to do boxing in Russia. Even that's the possibility. And another organization, there was a big tournament, he could win up to eventually two, three million, but I don't believe that. Yeah, there were us.

We were looking around, for sure. Do you know when you will debut for Belator yet? Not yet, not yet. It's going to take a couple months probably. Yeah, middleweight championship or maybe another fight before to fight, you know, whatever. I'm here to get that belt. That's my goal. Have you been promised a title shot in your debut?

Well, no. That's open still. I can't imagine anyone deserving it more than you. I don't know. You know, I think I go to Belator. I'm listening. I'm here to fight, I'm a fighter. I believe I will be championed there.

I believe I could have been champion in the UFC also. Yeah. So I'll take whoever they put them from me just to prove it once more. But like I said, every time you have to prove it again, it's just another risk you're telling me. You're gambling because it's a fight. You go into a cage with another guy. Anything can happen.

You lose your back in the row again. So, yeah, I have to take another chance. But I'm very close. The current Belator middleweight champion is a man named Hafeel Carvalio. In fact, he just texted a member of our team, Guillermo Cruz, saying that he would love to fight you sooner rather than later. How much do you know about the Brazilian Carvalhoo? Well, I know he fought Melbourne Manhoof.

I don't know a lot of much about him, but I look forward to fight him. I think he wants to prove something to the world. I'm a guy that's good for him to do that. And I know he fought Melvin twice. That's where I know him from. And listen, all I can say, if I come there, I'm coming to win it, and I'm coming to do it impressively. Yeah, why not?

If they give me the opportunity, I will do it. Is it fair to say you will debut for Belator in 2017? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will fight this year, for sure. Okay. Are you hoping to fight twice this year, or is that a little too much? Well, I think it's too much That's going to be a short time

Just once and then I go from there Looking back, did you enjoy the process of being a free agent Well, I enjoyed my free time I got to eat, rest No pressure, nothing Yeah, I enjoyed my free time I'm usually a busy guy Even when I didn't fight a lot

I was injured on my knee I was rehab every day twice. So, yeah, it's good to have a long break. Negotiations, I knew what I was worth. You know, if UFC didn't feel like I was worth that, I don't know, it's up to them. Yeah, no, I didn't have any pressure.

I was comfortable. No, no. Are you, in the end, surprised it went down this way? Are you surprised that you're with Belator and that the UFC didn't choose to match? I'm not surprised No to be honest

my feeling was saying Bellator all the way from the beginning Like I said I have worked with Scott before I know how I was treated Like I said I've been treated well also in UFC

I'm not saying I was treated bad But just the opportunity is Just working with Scott And you know With Belator I can grow With the company I get I will get opportunities.

You know, it's not just the money. Money is also better. You know, all those things combined. Why would the fighter choose to not go to Bellator? Right. You're going to get better. And, you know, I'm happy to go to Belator. And my thing is, I want to grow with Belator.

So I will have to do my part to make Bellator bigger. One of the best things to happen in the last year and a half was the evolution. of your personality, your interviews became must watch for fans and we all wanted to talk to you you were just, it was just we saw a different side of you, you were a lot more relaxed, you were funny, things like that. Now that you got paid and got

what you want, does that mean that the gay guard of the last year and a half is going away? Are you back to the more reserved gay guard? I don't want to lose that funny gay guard. That guy was great dropping the F-bombs. No, I will be more open. But if I look at Whitaker and I, I

I used to watch my late interviews when I was younger. I was talking like Whitaker and I was like, okay. The Whitaker, how is now? I was when I was 20, 24, 25. And I was like, okay. Now I understand there's a big difference when I watched my previous interviews. And, you know, I'm just more open vocal. I give my opinion.

Women fights. I don't know, you know, what can I do. What? What? What are you trying to say? I don't know. I wanted to bad mouth the women fight.

No one wants to see that. You know, stuff like that. Usually I would say I would respect everybody and blah, blah, blah, blah. But now I'm like, to be honest, who wants to see women fights? Nobody. I love women's fighting.

What are you talking about? Isn't your girlfriend a fighter? No, no. Now, semi, I don't know. I don't like it. But who you like to watch? Which fight do you enjoy? lately.

Yohani on Jacek? Yohanah, she's incredible. Yeah, she's good, but you know who she's fighting? Of course. The women that she's fighting? Jessica and Drudge. I don't know

this woman, only the champions I know. There's Valentina Shavchenko who's coming up later, Amanda Nunes, Chris Cyborg fighting later on this month against Tanya Evinter. Only fighter, only fighter that's worth watching is Chris Cyborg.

Only one. We'll agree to disagree on that. How about that? Yeah. Good, good. This is great. And by the way, I'm vocal enough. Yes, maybe. That's not exactly what I was thinking, but fair enough.

You can choose any path you want. Do you watch Bellator a lot? Like, how familiar are you with the product? Did you watch the show at MSG a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, of course. I always turn into the big fights. And, you know, I think now with Maturon, against Feroa Emilienko

Vandale versus Chelsan. You know, those are big fights Ryan Baderiebius, now that Phil Davis is there, Rory McDonald's at watch. You know, you have big names, people are going to tune in. And I'm here to do super fights,

Rory McDonald's, Vandaléndale, Silva, Chelsan, and me in light, heavyweight. Why not? You know, it's going to be, I think, a lot of interesting fights to make. And I'm open to go. from middleweight to heavyweight. Two last things for you, Gagard.

And again, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. The first one is, if they said to you, okay, you could pick anyone on the roster. Who do you want to fight first? What's the most appealing fight for you? Belt or no belt? Who do you pick?

I think Rory McDonald's is a big name and Ryan Bader is a big name. One of those two guys and the champion, middleweight champion. But I would say middleweight belt and then fight Rory McDonald's or fight Ryan. Beda. How much does the fact that the UFC have the Reebok deal and you can't get your own sponsors,

how much did that weigh into your decision? Listen, Reebok is just, hey, let's be honest. Rebock was there to sell the company. It was never to, never, it was meant to help the fighters out. Reebok became UFC because they wanted to sell it for $4 billion. It's just simple as that to make it more global the sports and just to sell it.

It was terrible for the fighters. And listen, no one complains about Reebok because if you complain, you're going to get you know, it's going to get messy. They may fire you, you know. People cannot talk about it. They cannot say Reebok sucks.

But we all know the truth. I don't know. They can't even make good pants or short. Well, what can I say? It's the same thing. I don't know. Yeah, I was not happy with the Reebok deal.

I think 99% of the fighters were not happy with the Reebok deal. Reebok himself are not happy. UFC is not happy with the Reebok, but it is what it is. And now you can get your own sponsors, right? So that has to be a plus for you. 100%. I think it's open markets. Like what Rari McDonough did in his last fight, he had one big sponsor.

I would, I don't want to, like I said, I don't want to have 10 sponsors on my shorts. I rather work with one good company that believes in me. Like Ryan Bader, he had his old sponsors that started working with him. I want a relationship that's going to last just in one fight. So yeah, that's my manager's job. I have to fight. And how close do you think Belator is to the UFC right now, getting all these fighters lately?

Do you think that it's close? Listen, Reebok is bad for UFC. And I don't know if the new owners realize what they're doing. This is not entertainment, different entertainment, It's not this fighting. I think with Fertiza, it was, you know, they made this sport. So it's a different attitude maybe.

And like I said, Bellator is coming 100%. It's going to get bigger. Like I said, you need competition. If you have Coca-Cola, you have Pepsi. If you have Burger King, you have McDonald's, I think it's good for the athletes that Bellator is here. And, you know, like I said, if big names come, and that's exactly what Bellator is doing.

Signing big names and making big fights. 100% they will be close in a couple years. Gagard, congratulations. Again, this is pretty big news in the world of MMA. I'd say it's one of the biggest free agent signings in the history of the sport. Very happy for you. I'm happy that you're happy, that you got the deal that you wanted,

that you feel respected, that you're content with the way everything went down as far as free agency is concerned. And most importantly, thank you for coming on your favorite show and breaking the news to the world. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Ariel. Thanks for having me. Okay, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Gaggard.

There he is. Gagard Musassi, the newest member of the Bellator MMA roster. A shocking turn of events. He was so close, met with the UFC brass at the fighter retreat. It did not go well. Obviously, he said he was close. Now signs with Bellator, aligns himself with Scott Coker, and I thought maybe the most interesting quote of them all,

and there were a lot, was this one. I don't know if the new owners know what they're doing. Interesting stuff from Gagar Musasi. We will react to that later on in the program. For now, let's go to our next guest. I said earlier in the day and also on Saturday night after 213, that this story, in my opinion, one of the best of the last few years, and personally, it's been a long time since I felt this way

about a story. Seeing Jesse Taylor win the ultimate fighter, seeing the emotion, nine years after Tough Seven, truly redeeming himself, validating that season of the ultimate fighter. If you remember what happened at Tough Seven, him getting pulled from the finale, making it all the way back, fighting literally all over the world to get to this point. One of the most beautiful stories in the history of the UFC. It warmed my heart greatly, so I wanted to talk to him, and he is kind enough to join us on this Monday afternoon. We're talking to Jesse Taylor, the winner of the Ultimate Fighter season 25 right now. Jesse, how are you? Hey, Ariel. Good, man. Thanks for having me.

It is a pleasure. Congratulations on the moment and the victory and just coming back and persevering and really being a role model for people who may lose hope. It was really an emotional thing to watch you win that and just see the emotion on your face. Are you off Cloud 9 yet or do you still feel like you're flying in the sky? I'm still flying a little bit, but you know, kind of kind of kind of back to reality now, headed back home to San Diego. Yeah, I mean, I took a moment last night

kind of just to reflect on the whole situation. It's been a crazy journey. When did you find out about the UFC doing this season where they're bringing back ex-tuff guys? And when you found out, did you reach out to them or did they reach out to you? It's funny.

I just was over in Russia fighting, and I was just kind of done anyways, burnt out front of it. I kind of, you know, going over there fighting these killers that not too much people knew about, which was, you know, kind of frustrating on itself. Anyways, I got back in a Tom Gallicchio from the show actually was telling me about it. And right away, I'm like, no way, you know, like, that was just, just, I had it, it just resonated with me. It was just a fire kind of lit, and I reached out to them, and they kind of forgot who I was after all these years, too,

but they did their research, and I think, yeah, I think I was kind of a, see in once they kind of found out like what I've been doing that you know stuck with this grind 24-7 fighting anyone anywhere anytime and they just kind of love the story too and then I said I told myself if I get on that show I want to you know

rededicate myself kind of lit that fire again and I want to give it my all and shoot man here I am now was it humbling to be back I mean most people say they do that show once they don't want to do it again and you kind of had a bad taste of your mouth I'm assuming

after it all played out the way it did. What was it like having to go through the whole thing nine years later? Now you're a father. A lot has changed, but here you are back in the same spot. What was that like for you internally? You know, at first I was a little nervous,

you know, because you do that thing once, as you said, you don't want to do it again. It's just kind of a unique experience, I would say. But one thing I do remember is I actually do well in those situations. So I kind of just tried to stay positive and look at all the positive stuff about it. You know, once I got positive,

I was eager to go back on there and go back on the show. You have literally fought all over the world since you were in the UFC. Everywhere from Argentina to Russia to England, I mean, all kinds of places. Australia, Ireland, Canada, Wales, etc., etc. Was there any point where you thought,

okay, this is my career, I'll sort of be this guy who fights all over the world? I won't get back in the UFC, but this is fine. I'm content with this. Were you ever sort of resigned to that fact? Yes and no. I mean, I did kind of at one point embrace it. I'm like, you know, I'm kind of a positive guy anyways.

I'm like, hey, at least I got to travel the world. I got to meet all these people and, you know, test myself and the sport I love. And in the back of my head, I'm like, the end goal is to be back in the UFC. and I always said I'll keep going until I found a way back somehow. And, uh, but saying that, too, I, I was enjoying traveling the world and, you know, fighting. But just before the show happened, it was kind of getting to that point with me, you know, like, you know, how long can I keep doing this, you know, especially when I was going on, I love going to Russia and stuff, but a lot of killers over there, a lot of good, uh, good fights, you know, over there, too. and it was just kind of burning me out too, you know. So getting the call is the right time, right place.

And I mean, now I'm pumped. I think I got a good seven, eight years left, hopefully longer. But I'm just really excited. How close do you think you were to walking away before getting this call? You know, I did this fight, especially that long ago, back before the show in October. And I went over to Russia. cut 30 pounds in 24 hours in Moscow and, you know, fought in a very hot, in front of a very hostile

crowd. And, you know, I got really no exposure. This guy I thought, uh, was absolute beast. I mean, I'm like, this guy could very well be a contender who had to see. I thought. Uh, you know, I was over it. I was like, you know, I don't, I didn't have that fire. I was telling my girlfriend, and even my kids, and you know, I don't know how much longer I could do this. I just thought my body felt good, I just wasn't into it. And I came back home to San Diego, and that's why I found out. I went to Tim Quest and train, and that's what Tom kind of told me. And I was, you know, that's, it kind of lit the fire again. So it was real bitter sweet because I was going to hang up. I was thinking about hanging it up back in November. Wow, that is a movie. I had heard,

and correct me from wrong, that a couple years ago, you were actually living on the beach? You were sleeping there? Yeah. Is that true? Yeah, I was living. I had roommates and, you know, I have kids too, so having roommates too and itself was kind of not the best of feeling. And it was kind of a tough situation there. And yeah, for a couple days, it wasn't a long-term thing. I was, you know, at the beach, you know, couch serving and stayed at the beach. And that's when, you know, my life was taking kind of a 24 turn and then, you know, really reflect there from there. But yeah, it was a tough, tough time. When you were couch surfing and living at the beach, where were your kids?

They were with their mom, my ex. So, yeah, they were with their mom, and I still would see them, of course. But it was a little rough time there. And, you know, but like always, I kind of got myself to get myself back to my feet and, you know, got work around in that situation. When you were traveling all over the world, how often did you think about, you know, your actions after tough seven and getting pulled. And I know you felt horrible.

There was that moment where Dana tells you you're off and you're very emotional. And you did get a shot in the UFC. It didn't go as planned, obviously. But just, you know, who knows what happens if you fight on the finale and you win, you go a different path. Did you think about that a lot? Did you go through your actions? And was that something that always kind of nagged at you? You know, it really did nag at me.

But again, I was kind of saying it earlier. I was pretty positive about the situation at the same time I mean it nagged on me but what that allowed to happen is it kind of you know labeled me the bad boy it'd be totally infinite so everywhere around the world is going on to fight me so I I kind of enjoyed actually that I got to you know travel get paid fight the best guys and uh I mean of course I regret the experience but uh it kind of uh you know, made the whole story. It made the whole, you know, seeing the world traveling and kind of coming back, making the comeback. So, who knows? If I did, if I never did

that, maybe I never would have learned. Maybe I wouldn't have, you know, kind of, I got wise from not the stiff, I guess. And again, it nagged on me, but I don't regret it. So you got to check for $290,000 on Friday night. Could you tell us what's the breakdown there?

Like, does that include all the fights on the house or in the house or is that in addition to those fights how does that where does that number come from it's um so the UFC contract is separate and then that's pretty much from the show it's like the show win bonus money and then it's also an additional like it's two pictures on the show than an additional um 10 because every time you fight in the house you get 10 okay so that extra 10 yeah so that's what that extra 10 comes from but uh yeah you have to go all the Mac That's pretty much where it comes from. I was hoping I should even more with that submission bonus.

But it's okay. I can't complain. I really can't. I'm stoked. Yeah, I'm happy for it for the UFC. I'm just a very happy guy, I know. Is that the most amount of money you ever made in one night fighting? Yes, yes, most money I ever made.

And what did you do with the big check that they gave you? Did you go home with it? I'm still here I tried to pass it No I'm just But I I uh I'm

I'm gonna keep that Frame that Um Uh Maybe cash for in a smaller checks And I'll make some Some investments I want to say most today

I want to start a college commission College funds for Both my kids That was my first school Yeah I did have this I didn't have this RV goal But

But we'll see That all of them obviously, but, you know, I'm just, uh, I want to just follow my man here and patrol with my kids. And, uh, you know, and now I'm in a startup tank division. And I want to keep going. I want to keep this ride going. Um, I was just curious if you actually, like, went on the plane with it. Did you, did you travel home with the, the big check?

No, you know, I actually, I came straight from Denver. I went out with Matt Brown and did my training camp out of Denver. And I got, I got too much back to even travel with now. And my girlfriend, they wanted to just drive back to San Diego. Oh, okay. Were your kids at the fight? They weren't, but I got a really emotional text. You know, life's crazy from my ex. There's always some animosity there.

But they reached out to me, and I guess fighting sometimes does solve everything. And they reached out to me, and the kids watched my oldest, you know, he's kind of hard, out here, but down deep, really soft, sweet kid. And his eyes got on watery watching. Hearing that, how happy my kids were, they even all got together, even my ex, and they're a stepdad. They all got together to watch me fight.

And now I'm going to go home to see them. That was probably the best thing I've heard. I really, it was excited to hear that. How old are your kids? 12 and 8. 12 and 8. Are they interested in fighting? I say my youngest one

kind of has it enough but my oldest he likes it but he's a stud baseball player and it's his big old hands where he gets it from and I say hey stickle baseball you know go make that money but they love it they enjoy it but I want them to kind of follow their own path

and they go towards fighting of course I support them but they're studded little baseball, football, you know, ball sport players. One moment that was sort of subtle, but I thought it was really nice, was when Dana White gave you the trophy, and he said, Jesse Taylor, congrats on finally becoming the ultimate fighter. And you have a history, obviously. He had to tell you you were off the finale. I'm wondering if did you guys talk backstage before the fight, after the fight,

and if so, what was that like? We didn't talk, but on the show, they didn't really show it as much. I actually, after the semi-final fight, I was all super pumped up, super excited. I'm like, let me go talk. I wanted to go talk to Dana. So they showed it real quick, but I actually did talk to him.

I went back and, you know, and just said, hey, man, thanks for giving me another shot. And, you know, I could have, it was two ways to look at it. I could have been kind of hostile that after all these years, he never gave me a shot.

I could be thankful for it. And I was definitely more of the latter. I was really thankful. I just kind of told him. And he's cool. I think after all these years, we squashed our beef. Wow, that is nice. I like that very much.

It's great to hear that. When do you want to come back? I do. I want to come back. The touch show was great. I loved it, but it's a long experience. You know, you fight three times in the house, you train before the show, and then you make it to the finals.

You're not really resting, maybe a week or two, but I was already back training. I do want to take a little time off. But again, a little time off to me. It's not a little time off to a normal man. So I think a month or so. I'd like to get a fight. Definitely a fight before the end of the year.

We'll see it out too, but I definitely want to fight before the end of the year. Like I said earlier, fought all over the world. Bahrain, I could keep adding more to the list. Panama and Poland, etc. what was the worst experience of them all? Was there one where it was just completely hostile, bad accommodations, the arena, maybe like no one in attendance?

Is there one or two experiences that you could tell us about, you know, off the beaten path, MMA? You know, that's a great question. I guess I pretty much enjoy them all, even the crappy ones I was positive about, but I would have to say my most recent one. I actually, I liked Moscow.

I was over in Moscow. I liked Russia a lot. But the fact that I was, in 24 hours, I was 31 pounds overweight. And everyone's like, dude, you know, just take the fine. Because they're fine, you don't make the weight. Don't make it. And I'm like, I cannot, you know, not make the weight. I've never done that my whole career.

So cutting those 31 pounds. And I definitely like Moscow, but it was a very hostile crowd. just tell they did not like me, you know? I can just feel it in the air. Like, they wanted, like, and the type of not liking you, like, they don't want to, like, they want me dead. That's how I felt. But, yeah, but I just took the weight cut and kind of that vibe, I guess.

I didn't, I mean, I enjoyed the city and everything, but I didn't, I didn't really like that. And that was, I was like, me, and cut him 31 pounds and 24 hours was not fun. Did you make the weight? I made the way and my coached at the time and at one point it was not going off and I looked horrible

I looked like I was dying I looked I was like a skinny skinny skinny dying man and I made it I ended up making it

even the promoters like tell me just you know you don't have to do this you don't have to make the weight you know just take the fine I'm like I'm making the weight

and I ended up doing it. Wow, that is unbelievable. What was your favorite promotion that you fought for outside the UFC? Because you fought for tons. My favorite one, wow. I actually really enjoyed it.

I like to, I think KSW. Okay. KSW really, they run a really cool neat show. They got a crazy fan base over there, which helped me come back to the UFC because I think, you know,

but like I fought in front of so much people on some of the TV shows. Those were good shows. I'd actually have to say, I like the off the beat and pass shows sometimes. I like going down to Australia.

I was fighting over the show in Perth. And it was just unique. It was just different. I thought Kendall Groves there. That's that. I thought Kendall Grove was there.

I had no corner man. So I had a random Aussie guy, a random Australian guy cornered me. Wow. Grove had a random, yeah, he had a random Australia guy, where we fought in some nightclub in Australia. We were already like established people too. So we thought in some nightclub of Australia balloons. We were flying in the cage and it was a five round war and no one really talks about it. But it was one of my favorite experiences. Have you thought about like a movie or a book or, I mean, I feel like your stories are just unbelievable. And then to top it off with, you know, like I feel like it should end in the cage on Friday, in Vegas, the church. all that stuff. I mean,

this is the stuff that people dream of as far as producers and whatnot. Are you going to shop this out there? You know, I am.

I might as well. Yeah. I do, I think it is a good story. It's funny. I have an old buddy. He's kind of like a nerdy guy growing up,

but I was always super nice to him. I was always too, and he actually reached out to me. He said, I don't know what's going to come from it, but he kind of just had a good job, you know, get my mind thinking, I'm like, this is like a big producer guy now.

And who knows? Yeah, who knows? You know, if I wrote a book, I'd have to go to the mouse for a month and, you know, keep myself away and, like, do that whole writer thing. But I think it is a good story. You know, who knows, one day. Amazing. Well, again, congratulations, Jesse. Really happy for you. I'm not joking. When I sat there, and maybe because you remind me of the old days of MMA and it's not even that long ago, but maybe a simpler time, a more innocent time, a more sincere time. I don't know what it was, but just seeing you there, winning the show with the trophy in check,

it was beautiful. It really warm my heart. So I'm really happy for you and your family. Enjoy it. Again, congratulations. And welcome back to the UFC. Hey, thanks so much, I think you. I thought you having me on, bro.

All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. Jesse Taylor, the winner of the 25th season of the Ultimate Fighter. It doesn't get more redeeming than that. I think of the Bob Marley song, redemption song.

That should be his next. walkout song. I mean, it's just unbelievable what he did on Friday. What a great story. If you missed it, go back and check it out. And also, while you're at it, if you have not seen the main event on Friday night, if you have not seen the Justin Gachey versus

Michael Johnson fight, you need to pause this show the only time I'll ever give you permission to do so. Go watch that and then rejoin us because that's one of the best fights I've seen in recent years. It's without a doubt the fight of the year right now.

as I said, round one and two contenders for rounds of the year. One of the craziest fights I've ever seen. One of the best debuts by a champion coming into the UFC. One of the best debuts by any free agent coming into the UFC. One of the few times that a fight with a ton of buzz, high expectations, actually is able to exceed our expectations. Back and forth, it went. Tremendous heart.

In the end, Justin Gachi wins via second round TKO. takes him a couple times to flip off the cage, but he got that done as well. And now he's the talk of the town. Everyone's buzzing about him. Everyone loves him. Dana White loves him. They all love him.

Can't wait to talk to him now. Let's bring in Justin Gaichi, who I would imagine is still loving life and still on Cloud Night. How are you, Justin? Thanks for joining us. I'm doing great. Ariel, how are you? I'm doing great.

It's great to talk to you. Congratulations. What's it like now? I feel like you were still in Vegas. they showed you on the screen at 2.13, you got this huge ovation. You know, four days ago, you're the WSOF guy. Now I feel like you're one of the more talked about fighters in the UFC. Does it feel like life has changed?

Yeah, definitely. Hey, I said it before. I was saying it all day, all leading up to that fight, what I was going to do. I did everything I said. That's what I'm here for, man. Proved you. I'm the most violent guy in this weight class. Who's going to argue with that?

Have you had a chance to watch the fight yet? I have. And what's it like watching it? Because there were some times, at least to me, it looked like maybe he had you on roller skates. It got a little dice if you come back, just watching your work and knowing how it plays out. What does that like for you? He hit me two times really well. But other than that, it was complete and utter destruction, my friend.

I was firing on all cylinders. That's the best I've ever felt, best I've ever looked. I was like I said, I was made to shine under those lights. So that was your 18th professional fight When you were dreaming about debuting in the UFC And what it would be like in Vegas, bright lights, all that stuff Was that kind of how you thought it would play out Or did anything sort of surprise you about the experience for the first time?

No, luckily, you know, on this path, I've got to corner, like, I cornered Rose one fight Yeah Just Matthew Lopez just a couple of three weeks ago in Rio I've cornered Ed Herman So all those, I really took those opportunities to teach myself what I was going to have to go through and what kind of a process it was actually going to be.

So I was very prepared for that. Nothing went, everything went perfect. I controlled my emotions the whole time. I didn't let anything bother me. So I knew I was going to, at the end of the week, I was going to get to fight. Yeah, it was such a great time. I have the best coaches, Trevor Whitman,

it just keeps me very grounded. So all that, all of it, great. What sticks out the most now? Now that you're back home, what will you remember the most of that whole experience your UFC debut and for it to go that way? Just the whole week. From getting there on Monday to go after that fight,

you know, all the experiences I got to, you know, everything I envisioned in my mind leading up to this fight, I never once had a thought process of what would happen if I win. Like as far as interviews, post-fight press conference, you know, social media. I did not once register that in my head that I was going to have to deal with it. So luckily, I took it in stride and, you know, I've been working a long time. I have a human services degree that really helped me, helps me with interviews.

I think so that kept just staying calm and really control my emotions was the biggest part of the whole week. And really just, yeah, I was really proud of myself pretty much of how I handled it. No secret that, you know, there was some heat between you two, some bad blood. I was bothered after the comments about your family and your mom that he said about you. And I really commended you. Like, if it was me, no chance I'm just able to stand there. I don't know how you kept it together. But once you heard him say what he said to you in Los Angeles, did anything change within you?

Did that cross the line? Did you feel a different way about this fight once that happened? No. No, not one bit. I was so confident. And I knew for a fact, if I made it to the case, the Octagon Healthy. If he made it to the Octagon Healthy, I was going to put him in to some, I was going to put

him in deeper water than that man can swim in. Like I said, before it. I knew what was going to happen. I knew, I thought, you know, I knew what was going to happen the whole time. From the press conference in Dallas, when he said I wasn't on his level, that's why I said, you're just going to look like a bigger ass the more you talk. The more you talk, the bigger ass you're going to look like because I was going to break I knew for a fact I was going to break him.

I used the word break because that's what I did. I didn't put him to sleep on it. I was really trying to just put his lights out. But, you know, if he went down right there, he didn't stop it. I was about to let him back up again and try to do it again. Do you think looking back that he didn't respect you enough? Like, he didn't think that he, did he, like,

it's one thing to say it. But when he said that you were from the C League and all that stuff, did he think, okay, this guy, World Series, if I am going to come in, smoke him and then move on. Did you get that sense that? he felt like you weren't on his level and that this would be a much easier fight? I think that's what he was trying to portray

but I know deep down he knew what was what was going to happen. Not that he was going to get beat, you know, I just knew that he knows that he's fighting me, you're in a war, you're to battle of attrition, you know, and you have to prepare for something like that, mentally, physically. So I think he was

trying to mentally prepare for it but he was definitely trying to, you know, just put on a front that that it wasn't bothering him, but It bothered him that he knew how hard he was going to have to work to beat me or to even stay alive in there. You said that he only really rocked you twice. Was that in the first round, second round, both? That was the upper cut and then the left hand.

Both times I did the funky chicken dance. And how rocked were you? All I remember is I'm thinking, I'm beating his ass, I'm beating his ass, keep beating his ass, and then he hit me and I said, oh, shit, what happened? Beat his ass, and then back to it. though. I don't know how rock it was. It was definitely, you know, a flash, you know, he flashed me. All of a sudden, you know, your vision goes black for like a quick second. Yeah.

And you wake up and you're like, oh shit, big lights. Keep going. Are you surprised that he didn't go down sooner? Like, I know you're probably not the best friends, but did you gain some respect for his toughness after that? Yeah, I did. But he did, hey, he dug himself a hole. You know, he didn't want to go out there looking like the biggest bitch. in the world so he just kind of wanted to go out there looking like a little bitch so he knew that he got to that point where he was it wasn't a huge bitch anymore so he can go down but no no i took it from him dude i took it like i said heart rate thought process goal i took every single one of them right away i was before the bell even rang i was controlling his thought process and as soon as the bell rang his heart rate was mine you know he he had to jump up and he had to his heart rate had to beat with mine and um you know that can't happen

When you say that you were controlling his thought process, what do you mean by that? Well, he wanted to come out and stick a move, and then, right, when you feel the pressure, you can't do that. And then, you know, so if that's your, that's your, the way he talks, he thinks he was so far above me that I could never stop his A game. So you know damn well he didn't have a plan B. And once I took his plan A from him, he had to start thinking, what is my plan B? Because he didn't have it planned out. So that he was trying to make a plan. He was trying to make a plan in the middle of the fucking war.

And man, it just didn't work for him. One of my favorite parts of the fight, if not my favorite part, is when he goes to the ground and you're telling him to get up. Not for one second. Did you want to go down there? You wanted to finish this guy standing? I'm trying to get paid. I wouldn't have got those two extra bonuses without that. And for two, no, he's going to try to hold on to me.

I can land way bigger shots on the feet. His legs broke and he could barely walk. why would I go follow him to the ground? I don't know why Fabrice O'Berdun followed Alastrow him to the ground there and I. He could have got a win. I don't know why Drak didn't kick, what's his name, a couple more time, he could have got a $50,000 bonus instead of, you know, maybe he could have taken mine maybe for taking his legs out.

What are you here for? Why do you jump off the cage like that? It makes everyone very nervous and you were clearly a little tired, I would say. Why do you do this? Why do you do this to yourself? No, hey. that pad on top of the oxon is different than every other pad on top of every other cage that I've ever touched. It's very fluffy. Okay.

So, yeah, I went to step on it, and I stepped on the fluffy part, and my foot just kicked through it. So I had to really find where the actual post was in there so I can plant on it. Same with when I was climbing up, my hand slipped off at the same way. But every time I get a sweet knockout, that's my intention. So heads up to all the referees. and submissions. Yeah, what did they say to you? I saw one guy trying to stop you.

Did they scold you afterwards? He didn't try to stop it, hit the ground, and I said, aha, I started laughing. I was like, I could do it. It looks like I pushed it, but you can see the guy smiling. I was like, no, I could do it.

Like laughing, and then I got it back up and did it, and he was smiling too. But yeah, I was a little pumped up, so the push seemed like a push, but it was just a ha-ha-ha. Okay. Don't laugh at me. I heard that backstage afterwards,

Dana White was going Gaga over you. He loves you now. What was that like when you met him? What did he say? It was fantastic. He loved me. He loved my performance. Told me I got the bonuses.

So how could you not? How could you not love me if you're Dana White? Come on. That was the best. That was the headline of the year. Not only fight of the year, round of the year, headline of the year, I'm a promoter's wet dream. That was money right there.

It's true. Okay, so you want Tony Ferguson. He tweeted you back. What's the latest here? You got the scoop, man. Yeah, he said, it's so funny. If he was smart, I literally sat there and said, you're going to tell me that I'm not on your level.

And you're going to be lying. And then he puts it in this exact quote in his tweet. It's just really not smart. So do you think you'll get him? I don't know. Hey, so I didn't even respond to him. I said, hey, I didn't even respond to him. I said, hey, I'm dating white. You know, I use Nate's line, capitalized all the, all of my, because I don't know why he does that, but he's crazy. So, so what, what now? Are you going to get him? You tell me, I don't know, no. I mean, I'm sure you heard, you heard Dana. He said he got Khabib next. Yeah.

But if one of them has a sniffle, then I'll be there. Okay, so let's just say you don't get Ferguson. Is there a second choice that interests you? Who's in front of me? I really want to go forward right now. Yeah. Eddie Alvarez is in front of me. That interests you?

He's number three. I want to fight the best in the world. I'm a huge fan about Eddie Alvarez. Nothing would make me more happy than to challenge that guy and get beat up by him or beat him up. The word was that originally the plan was to have you fight Edson Barbosa, and he is coming back. He had a surgery recently.

Does that fight still interest you? Yep. If he's in front of me, I want to fight him. Okay. Well, sure. I just didn't say him because I heard he's out on injury. I'm not trying to wait until next year. Yeah.

How soon do you want to come back? Sometime this year. Well, are we talking like September or is that too soon? You want October, November? What are you thinking? It was too soon. October, November. Okay.

Any injuries coming out of the fight on Friday? Some sore shins. What about your hands? No, I think, no, hands are perfect. I had the best handwrapped. Trevor just, Trevor does it. Every time someone's so funny, every time he starts wrapping my hand,

I tell the commission, I'm like, when this is over, I want you to admit that these are the best handwraps he's ever seen. And they always do. Wow. In your mind, how far away do you think you are from fighting for the belt? I don't know. Hey, Dana White loves me.

Dana White loves the way of fight. If you're going to get rewarded in a sport, it should be off of your effort. Sure. My numbers come out and they're whatever the numbers are and they're more than yours and you're mad. Then how do you fix that? You fight with more effort next time because that's why I'm going to get paid. Is there any part of you that says, you know, you're getting all this love now. I know your Twitter followers went way up.

The fighters are talking about you all this stuff. Is there any part of it is like, where have you guys been? I've been doing this for years now. Like you're a bunch of Johnny Cummaley's. Is there any part of you that has this chip on your shoulder? Like, you know, okay, yeah, you saw me in the UFC, but I've been doing this, you know, even on NBC. You know, big NBC, not NBCSN for years. Yeah.

Hey, it's, we live in a world of politics, man. Politics are politics. and UFC is the top echelon of this sport. You have to fight in the UFC and prove yourself in the UFC to get that credit. But there's no, I've been doing this, yeah, I mean, if I had, if I was 17 and 0 with seven knockouts, maybe four knockouts, eight knockouts, I literally had 14 out of those 17 fights or knockouts. The other two, Melvin, got lucky. He missed weight. It wasn't a five-round fight.

He left the cage, he left the cage in a wheelchair after the third, supposed to be five rounds. And another guy that, you know, my fourth fight ever was a decision, I dropped him in the first, and the refs that stopped it because he says I hit him the back of the head. I would have got a TKO in the first and that one. I should have TKO with Michael two or three times in the first, in the first round.

If he didn't smoke, if he didn't even, you know, if he didn't smoke with those two right hands, which obviously will take two of my good punches. way, take his two good punches away. I dominated that shit in every position. No matter what, I dominated space, I dominated time, I dominated attitude, everything. I was, there was, it was here, you know, put it C league, A league or whatever. I was the much better athlete. I'm the best athlete in the division. I'm the best wrestler in the division and I'm the best most violent guy in the division. Wow. But I can get knocked out like any guy in the division.

Of course. That's actually my favorite thing that you continue to say is, like, you are very realistic about, you know, the chances of you getting knocked out. So if you at some point do lose, it shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone because you've been telling us that at some point you're going to lose. Like, you don't put that kind of pressure on yourself, which I think is brilliant. Yeah. Well, you know how this works. Once I lose, everybody's going to have diarrhea. Yeah, so.

Well, you know what they say. They say, oh, you can't fight like that. It's all about your last fight, man. It's all about your last fight. But the way I fight, I'm earning people with respect. I don't even have to be over here talking shit. People are putting my name in their mouth. This is how I think you should, this is how I have to do this.

So it's going to work out perfect. Will you ever modify? If you fight the fights, I want to fight. I got people out there talking shit, but got just as many people who talk, you know, trying to back me up. It's about, you know, the sport is. is in need of a good guy to come. So I'm not saying that I'm that guy. I'm not even saying I'm a good guy,

but I can represent that side of the facet. Are you thinking that at some point you're going to have to modify your style because you don't want to continue to get hit as much? If he did not hit me those two times, it was complete domination. Okay, all right.

That's what I do. All right. Nobody, you can't stop it. You can't take it. You cannot take that pressure. name one lightweight who wants who's gonna take that for more than three rounds yeah no no you come at them they don't knock me out who can take that pressure which which fighter at 155 do you have do you think there's one that can take that pressure for three rounds a couple of guys were mentioning if they

don't clip me uh james vick Kevin lee any of those guys interests you they were tweeting hey targets on my back yeah they call me to sign it whoever does get the opportunity and is unfortunate enough to fight me next. I'm going to be just as on point as I was in Vegas, so be ready. I'm going to be just as exciting. Right now, this is the fight of the year. The next time I fight, it'll be a fight of the year. This one won't be, because it's all about your last fight.

Right. Well, it's pretty easy. If the next one is going to top this one, I can't wait to see it. You exceeded expectation some way somehow. Congratulations, Justin. Pleasure to watch you do what you did in your debut. That's one that we'll never forget. And like I said, fight of the year, rounds of the year.

By the time this is all said and then, you may even be fighter of the year come end of 2017. Enjoy the victory. Congrats again. Thank you for coming on. We really appreciate it. Yes, sir. On to the next one. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you, Justin. All right. There he is, Justin Gaci. The highlight. Great stuff from him. Oh, so entertaining. And yeah, that one definitely exceeded my expectations. Okay.

Let's move along. A couple weeks ago here in New York City, Chal Sondon picked up his first Bellator win at Madison Square Garden of all places. He defeated Vandalei Silva, and he dropped a little nugget, a little tease in our post-fight interview. Ever since then, I've been bothering him to come on the show.

He has finally squeezed us in. He is joining us right now via the magic of Skype. There he is. Chel P. How are you? Never better. How are you? That's what matters.

Well, I'm good. Thank you. You know, I kind of planned this. What was your love fest there? How was your love fest with Justin's debut. Oh, Justin, you're the high, you were the power. Justin Gagea. I love you.

Why? Why do you got to hate? Hey, he had a good performance, Ariel. I was very impressed as well, but that was sickening watching you just grape out all over him. Went better. Oh, Justin. Dare I say it went better than your debut in Bellator Fair. You never seen anyone punch another man before? I mean, really, was it all that, really?

Come on. You don't think that was. I guess. I was impressed. Now I'm actually annoyed with it. I came on your show to put him over, but I mean, what did he do that allured you so much? He kicked somebody?

Have you not seen that before? He withstood the punishment. He kept going forward. He suffocated his opponent. He backed it up under the lights for the first time. There's something to be said for that. And let's be honest, the bar has been set pretty low for 2017. We haven't had a lot of good fights.

I mean, who could forget you versus Tito, right? I suppose you actually have hoisted me with my own baton on that one. It has been a weird year, man. It was a weird week. What about this last week with what happened with Amanda? I mean, all the conflicts that that week had as a whole, you know, the George Bisping. It doesn't come through. John Jones in D.C.

missed by what four days was the rumor. And then ultimately Amanda pulls out the day of, I think you make a fair point about 2017. It has been a little weird. You are the ultimate promoter. Can I ask you this? I wasn't going to start with this, but since you brought it up, I thought it was strange the way Dana White came out and was like, look, she didn't want to fight.

She was clear. She didn't want to fight. As a promoter, isn't that a, an opportunity to say, look, shit happens, but she'll be back, she's tough. Now you've kind of, you've kind of thrown her under the bus a bit, and I think her lure as this killer goes away. I don't know, man. I mean, that's got to be a frustrating spot. The show must go on. I can't remember a time. Maybe it happened or dinner, but I can't remember where somebody weighed in and then, you know, didn't pull, pulled up for the match. And I don't know. It's just a tough

spot. She says she can't fight. You know, you never want to kick anyone while they're down if she, if she's sick or hurt or whatever the case was. You just want to wish somebody well. But man, that's got to be frustrating. You know, somebody gets checked out by a doctor. They said they do it. It's the main event. And they decide not to. I don't know where I weigh in on that. Chale, less we forget, February. I would not, Pat, I would not smooth the whole thing over, though. No, I would be a little bit pissed off. Eric, I've always thought, I realize my idea would not work. However, I still share the ideology that we should have a forfeit clause. And there's got to be some time period, but particularly from the way in to the ring, in any other

sport, you lose and you lose by forfeit. This would never happen in a Super Bowl or an NBA. It does happen in sport. It happens in boxing dual meets and in wrestling dual meets. If anything happens in one athlete doesn't step on the mat after the way in, they lose by forfeit. And there should be some kind of a clause in there, man. I'm not thrilled about it. I'll tell you the truth. I actually think that's a great idea, and I feel like Schifchenko should win her show and win money, because she was ready to go, right? I mean, she didn't back out, she was ready to fight, but let me ask you about this, less we forget about February. Matt Matrione weighed in, pulled out two hours before the fight, right? I mean, it happens, but he wasn't thrown under the bus.

Yeah, well, don't forget, that was a little different example, a fair example by you, but to remind you, it was a little bit different because Maitriq. really wanted to fight. It was actually the doctors that were saying, look, you can't remember the kidney stone issue. And that was so misreported. People think Mitrileum pulled out and then some people think doctors stepped in and pulled him. The final analysis came from Koker himself that said, no more. We're moving on and I'm pulling this one. So that was a little different scenario than somebody that weighed in and then just out of nowhere says, hey, I'm not feeling so hot. I don't want to say that condescendingly in case she's sick or hurt. I just want to maintain this point. That should have been a forfeit.

You know, this entire sport aerial is about finding out who is tougher at a specific time and place. And if you're an athlete that goes, admittedly, I'm not even tough enough to try, then you cannot be called the champion. I see guys pull out all the time. They should lose their rankings. Tough guy. Kane Velasquez. I think the world of Kane Velasquez, but he's pulled out of so many fights. If I'm you, if I'm a media member that gets to put rankings,

I pull his ass out. If Kane comes forward and goes, I'm not even tough enough to leave the locker room, then how can people like you arrow go, oh, this guy's number three in the world? He just told you he's not even tough enough to leave the locker room. And the whole sport is about who's tougher

at a specific time and place. We should have a new champion. Fair. I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's easier for you to say you're a fellow fighter. For me, someone's sick, shit happens. She doesn't have a history of doing this. I think she's earned a little more respect.

But let me ask you about this, because one of the reasons why I wanted to have you today, I knew this in the back of my mind. Hold on. I don't like the premise of your tone because you're making it as though I'm the one putting her down and here you are the white. I'm not kicking her while she's down. I'm speaking specifically to a brand new clause. If she said she's tougher than a girl under a specific skill set at a specific time and a specific place, she then doesn't show up.

She loses by forfeit. That's the way it works under the NCAA, under the International Olympic Committee. That's the way it works on the playground. If you agree to show up at 3 o'clock behind the bell and you don't make it, the other kid wins. So you can talk about she deserves respect. I'm not disrespecting her. I'm saying she loses the belt. You're going to just go sit on a belt and go out and feel good.

That's what this is about, Ariel. Who feels good? Okay, so then let me counter with this. The fall from championship money to just. contender run-of-the-mill money is so great. People aren't paid like you are. She's certainly not that you can't afford to go in there if you're not feeling well. And if there is no forfeit clause, it's actually in your best interest from a business standpoint to say thanks but no thanks.

Right? If she loses that fight feeling like crap, she's going back to making 25 and 25. Maybe if there was a little more of an even pay scale, then she could go out and roll the dice. Okay, listen, I don't want to keep this on her because, again, it sounds as I'm attacking her. I think you and I are on the same page of wishing her well and wanting what's best. But if you do want to capitalize this whole thing and make it about monetary, what about all those fans that flew out there? They spent collectively far more than 25 and 25. What about the promoters and the media members?

What about everybody that's behind this? Everybody's going to lose. That's the reality of it. This isn't some big knock on her. I can't make that any clearer. But there should be a forfeit clause. You're still hanging your argument on defending her. Well, what about Schlovchenko that did everything right?

What about Schlovchenko was there to reach her goals and her dreams? This sport is about who's tougher than who. And if one of them can't leave the locker room, then we've answered the question. Fair. Last thing I'll say about this is they still have to promote her as champion because they did not strip her. So the idea that you're going to say to the world that she was not mentally fit to fight, to me will only butt you in the ass business-wise because you have to promote her in two months. Anyway, let's leave it at that because I want to talk to you.

Who cares, man? I'm sick as seeing all these fighters are pat on the back and let's go promote them. Sometimes it goes the other way. Sometimes you just got to tell the truth and go, look, we all got burned on this. I don't know what in the hell happened and I'm not going to make that mistake again. Moments ago on the second biggest MMA podcast, the MMA are, of course, behind. You're welcome. Gagar Musassi announced that he has signed with Bellator.

What is your immediate reaction to this breaking news? That surprised me. That really surprised. You know, don't forget, so he came off. He's got a great relationship with Coker, but it was you. It was you that interviewed him before his Chris Wyman fighting. You kind of asked him, hey, when this is up, are you going to go test the market? And I remember how he answered you.

I thought it was pretty cool. He said, no, this is where I want to be. I'm not happy with my contract, but I'm not trying to do a media play here. but I want to get something new worked out. And I really thought that that was pretty sincere. And I think it was at the time he answered you. Something changed. I had no word of this.

I don't know if you do. I had absolutely no word of it. I was surprised. Pretty cool. Pretty cool all the way around for Bellator. But I will tell you, I thought he would resign and maybe we'd see the Wythman rematch again. I guess that's where my head was at with Massousey. This is a massive coup, though, for Bellator, right?

A guy on a five-foot winning streak, maybe one win at worst away from a title shot. I think you can make a case that this is one of the more impressive signings that they've had over the past year and a half. Do you remember that time, Justin Gaichi kicked a guy in a fight? And then he punched him too with his hand, Ariel. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. We'll go back to that. What about the signing of Masasi? It's a big deal.

Hey, Arrow, let's put on our detective hats real fast with the clues that we have. So, Belator is not thrilled with their middleweight division. They're not thrilled that, you know, it could use a little bit of spicing up. And Musassi's last fights have been at middleweight. So I think that politically there could be some reason to keep him at middleweight and see if you can put a new face on that poster. But as good as he is, and as big of a draw as he is, the bigger fights collectively are at 205. So I don't know what they're going to do with him. Then again, to use the clues we have,

Musassi just sent out a tweet. I just read it and retweeted it. But he said middleweight, specifically, middle weights. There's a new sheriff in town. So I think he might be looking to go right into middleweight and see what he can do there with the belt, kind of similar to what Bader did with Phil. Is there any interest on your part in fighting Gagar Musassi?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. you know, I'm looking for a match actually. I'm looking for a match right now. So I think if I was to guess, I think that Musoussi is probably on more of a title run for middleweight than I am. That ultimately is the weight class I would like to end up in. But there's a few moving parts at 205. I don't know if that's going to happen right away. We'll see what happens there.

I kind of think he's going to go middleweight. But I'm also basing that on the tweet he just put out. Yeah. Also, less we forget that the middleweight champion... Do you think when he gets in there he might do anything just wild and crazy, like punch somebody? Or throw a kick to leg?

I mean, like some earth-shattering MMA hour news? Carvalio is actually scheduled to fight Alessio Sicara for the belt, so he would have to wait for that to be done. So maybe he does squeeze one in beforehand. You knew this already. You keep up with all the belt for news.

I know that. yeah yeah I appreciate you reminding me of that I like that fight you know speaking of I like well let's just see what happens with Musazza I think he's got I think he's got a little more power than you might think I think they like him over there I think they're excited to have him so I think he might have he might kind of have his choice of divisions but

I don't know you put him at 185 you build that division a little bit I don't know there could be some good business reasons it could make sense I guess to do that with him Let's see what happened. Can I ask you a serious question, Chale? I know you want to be friends with everyone. I know you have relationships in the UFC. But honestly, candidly, has the UFC lost its way?

You know, I was at International Fight Week, and it lacked the buzz. You fought 148. It was huge. Expo, no expo now. It just feels like something, and Musasi said it himself, I'm not sure if the new owners know what they're doing. From your position, has the UFC lost its way? Has it lost its soul? I strike you as a guy that wants to get along with everybody.

I heard you slip that in. I'm going to catch most people by surprise. I thought I was known as a little more contentious than that. Yeah, but when it comes to Dana White and UFC, you want to keep that relationship. Here's my relationship. I'm purely a fan now. I don't go to the events except maybe once a year ESPN will do what's called an on-site. We're actually in the arena.

So just as an outsider that's watching, I've had. Man, I've had some fun as a fan. I really think they put on some good matches. So I don't know if I'm totally seeing it. I thought the promo for DC and John Jones was differently and more artistic than anything. I didn't grape out over that thing like everyone else did, but I did acknowledge that it was different from an artistic standpoint in a positive way. So I don't know.

I don't know that I could feel that. I feel as though fighting as a whole is really strong right now. But I watch it all. You know, I watched Lesnar Rassel last night. I watched Gache. I'm giving you a hard time about Gatian, man. That was awesome what he did. And Michael Johnson's so good. You got Bellator coming up with Joe Warren, but then we got the big moxie match with Mayweather and McGregor, man. I'm a fan of it all. So I don't know if I see that. What do you think? Do you think that they're slipping? And if you say yes, what are you

basing it on? I mean, it seems like the numbers are still up, right? Well, I'm basing it on actual tangible experiences. I was there. There was no expo. There was very little buzz. The ultimate fighter finale on Friday, not many tickets sold. It was not even close to full. They had to block off the entire upper section. It just, now, 214 is phenomenal. And I agree. I mean, I think the promo was the best one in UFC history only because it was honest. It actually told the story of John Jones as opposed to trying to sugarcoat it. Maybe they'll turn things around. But to let these guys go, to me, it's like, do we not, do we not understand that you need Musassis in your, in your organization? Like,

these are important players. They may not be, you know, a million dollar pay-per-view by guys, but this is unprecedented. The UFC doesn't let these guys go historically. Why is that? We don't know. The new owners don't talk to us. But I do think that it's an interesting thing. Now, let me ask you about this, Chale.

I've been dying to ask you for the last three weeks. This, you told me at some point you and Rory McDonald are going to fight. You told me you would come on my show and tell me the story. Here you are on my show. I need to know the story. I actually reached out to Rory and he said, well, Chale brought it up first. I'll let him tell the story. The floor is yours.

Please tell us the story. Yeah, listen. Yeah. I can't create something out of nothing here. This is, this is, there's, there's nothing where your fans are going to get enticed by this. This is just simple man code, okay? So I like Rory a lot. I always have.

I admire them all that nice stuff, but it really is true. And I had, I signed with Bellator in like November and Rory had signed somewhere around February. So I was there first, but only by a couple of months. I'm at it, I'm at an event. It was going to be the Fador Matrione. And, uh, Rory had just signed on. like Tuesday and today's Friday. And so I end up in an elevator with him and he's eating an apple, which becomes relevant

in the story later. So we're in the elevator and we're headed down. And I just said, hey, you know, congrats and who are you looking to fight. And he says, oh, you know, maybe Paul Daly. And then he says, maybe Josh Koshchek. And then he takes a bite of his apple and he looks up and he goes, maybe you. And right as he said it, the doors open and we exit. And I just, I just wished him well.

And that was the end of it. It went my way. But he knows we have to fight. That was a challenge. There's no way around it. I can't act like that. Did it happen? Why?

That happened. I can actually see him doing it exactly that way. I got a pretty simple story. I told you it was a pretty simple story. I can't, you know, I can't go build an event around this. But Ariel, any guy listening to this particularly knows. I have to fight it. I don't have a choice.

Have you expressed this to Belto, or are they on board with this idea? No, no, I guess we just did it right now. No, I mean, again, Roy's got a different path. Like, nothing is really built for speed right now in MMA, but Rory's going to go, as I understand it, for a championship fight with Douglas.

I think that's done. I think all they need is a date at this point. You know, and then Rory was talking about going up to 185. Well, now you insert Musasi. So maybe Masasi takes some of my thunder away from the Rory fight. Maybe you get a fight there. Maybe you don't at all. Maybe you keep guys in their division.

I'm just saying there's a lot of opportunity, and particularly with Bellator, historically, they are more in line with kind of shuffling some guys around and not necessarily keeping your division and just kind of letting you go out and do the fight that you want. So there could be some chance. So you might see Rory and Musassi before you saw Rory and I or me and Masasi. I don't really know what's next for who. Is there any one on your radar? right now, anyone that you have an inkling? Okay, maybe this is the direction that they're going to go in

with me? Yeah. Well, again, so I don't come to you with any behind the scenes news, but I do think that there's some legs to this whole Chuck Liddell coming back routine. And, you know, he's even been spotted in a few gyms. I saw some video come out. He was in Glazer's Gym. And then he's either in Holland or Thailand, you know, recently. I happen to believe that that's going to be true. And I believe If Chuck comes back, it'll be Chuck and I. So I'm kind of holding out to see what happens there. But sooner or later, the way this works there, like I can come on these shows and tell you all these great ideas I want.

Eventually, I get a phone call or a text message, and they say it's this guy on this date, and I write back, okay. But you would like the Chuck idea if they presented it to you. Yeah, I would like the Chuck idea. I mean, I would hate for Chuck to come back and not have myself aligned to take on that match. I think that there's something there. And I resent all those older guys.

I really do. I can't let it go. But, you know, I was just, it just took me so long to break into this business. You know, I was in my 30s by then. I could have kicked all these guys as asses. And I can say that over and over. But unless you put me in there and let me show it, you know, it's kind of just words. So even if I can go back and rectify, you know, like I'm sure many people would like to go back

into high school and some kid that got over on them. Well, these guys all got over on me because I never had my chance. And I resent it, man. I resented. I lost about 10 years of my career. just because I couldn't get an opportunity. And so, yeah, I would want the chuck fight. Wow, that is interesting.

What is your level of interest in the Mayweather? If he was to do something crazy, like, say, kick me. Would you have him on your show? No. Would you like grape out on him? No. I mean, who's Chuck Ladell? Because now you've seen it, now the gate to kick somebody,

now you've seen that, it just kind of loses it. I already saw the movie, yeah, and he'd see something different. And what if he pressured forward? I mean, would that amaze you? What is your level of interest in Mayweather-McRegger? 100%. 100%. I don't get why other people aren't excited about this.

I don't understand it at all. I talked to Michael Kiesz about it. And he called it the sporting event of our lifetime. And in some ways, it could be, you know, it's a spectacle. It's all these things. but I am totally interested in what's going to happen. And some people that say it's going to be over quick, my God, I hope they're right. The only bad thing about boxing is it's so goddamn long.

Why would I want to ever watch anybody do anything for 12 rounds? Boxing has killed its own sport and still doesn't understand that if you just made it shorter, a lot more people would care. We don't want to watch you box, dance, or do anything else. for 12 goddamn rounds. So the quicker, the better. Can I throw out a theory your way, and you're the perfect person to talk about this with?

I feel like the fight starts tomorrow. I feel like Floyd has never done a press conference with someone like Connor. And with this news about Floyd's taxes coming out and all this stuff, I truly feel Connor is going to look at what he did to Aldo and the fight is going to start tomorrow. This is his chance this week, four stops, to really mess with his head.

Are you expecting that from Conner? go the same route as him, would you try to start winning the fight from now? Yeah, well, and you are right. You know what? You went somewhere else with that. You were talking about getting in his head. I didn't know that was going to be your point. I thought what you were going to say is the fight starts tomorrow because Arrow, these guys are absolutely graded and judged on who can get more headlines. When they go head to head and Floyd's used to being boisterous and doing crazy stuff, if he gets beaten at any of these press conferences, that's a point for Connor. Because, you know, they're going to raise somebody's hand on August

26, but on August 27th, those guys are still going to need to make a living. And there's ways to parlay things that start tomorrow and culminate on the 26th to prepare you for August 27th and beyond. And Connor understands that side of the business. I don't know if Floyd does or not. We're going to find out. But in that regard, the fight does start tomorrow. And do you think that he actually can get under his skin? Like, is this, I actually feel like this is part of the game plan. I actually feel like he needs to try to mess with him because no, I mean, Pacia, Al-Cota, these guys don't know how to do that. Connor is the best at that.

That has to actually, he has to go as personal as possible. Do you agree? I don't only because I don't think there's a way to get under a guy's skin. I know, I know from the outsiders that's been talked about forever, the same as a youth advantage and a size advantage. They're not advantages. It's not a reach advantage. They're not advantages, but people don't understand that.

And those terms have been around for. so long, we're never going to convince people by the wise. So I believe it will appear Conner's to get under his skin. All Conner's trying to do is get under our skin. He's trying to get our attention. And people never understand that. They being one fighter is going after this fighter. I could give a damn less with that fighter thinks, but I want you the listener to hear something you're going to remember. And Connor is smart enough to understand that. But that's the reality. I could play along and go, oh, it's going to avoid an emotional Floyd Mayweather because this was said about him. Man, it just doesn't work that.

way. That's just stuff we say to get headlines. It's not true. What kind of a chance do you give Connor in this fight? Do you think he actually has a chance? Oh my God. Ariel, are you kidding me? None. Zero. You're not understand what's on the line here because nobody seems to want to tell this. And I listened to the press conference, you know, where they had the Showtime guy and they had Floyd's represented and had Dana on there. And they all wanted to be real careful to say this isn't MMA against boxing. And I have no idea why they would be so dishonest. This is boxing against boxing. Ariel. You have the greatest boxer of all time, according to boxers, that's who them as a community has put forward as their greatest ever.

He's never lost at professional boxing. Take it on a guy who's never done professional boxing. If this thing ends any way, but quickly and decisively for Floyd, the entire integrity of boxing is on the line. I'm an amateur wrestler. I was an amateur boxer, too. I love boxing, but I'm cognizant enough to tell you from my wrestling days. If you can bring in an athlete, I don't give a damn how good he was or successfully was in his field, and you put him against our best wrestler, there is no possible chance that that goes 30 seconds.

And I'm only saying 30 seconds in case the wrestler wants to stop and tie his shoes. That match is over. Now you've got but people from the boxing world saying Connor can win. You've got other people speculating it's going to go 12 rounds. My God, the entire integrity of a fringe sport. There's not a high school in this country that recognize boxing as a real sport. The NCAA will not contest it. People think that's because it's dangerous.

They're wrong. The NCAA doesn't believe it's a sport. The only body with any kind of integrity that still recognizes and contested is the International Olympic Committee. And then you've got all these different commissions. This is the entire integrity of a sport versus Connor McGregor. That's the truth. As much as people like Dale O'Hoya want to try to smooth this over, man, it's not smooth. You're taking a lot of risk.

So with that of mind, all the pressure is on Floyd, right? Like the whole world is telling him you're going to smoke him, you're going to smoke him. If he doesn't smoke him, he comes out, even if he gets the win, but it's a close fight, he comes out kind of looking like the loser, right? Oh, of course. Of course. And Arrow, the biggest talking, yeah, absolutely. There's no other way to say it than the way I just said it to you right now.

It was great. However, a lot of people don't know what boxing is. I mean, most people don't actually respect boxing. It just kind of looks like two guys punching at one another. and that's okay, but they just don't. And I think the bigger commentary has been how many people, particularly here in North America, discount boxing. They just don't appreciate that. I think footworks real.

Maybe it's not. I think combinations are real. Maybe it's not. I think experience and I think speed. And I believe these things are true. I hold them. You know, I cling to those things like I used to do Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but at some point something else gets revealed to you. I don't want to have that experience.

as a fan on August 26. I want boxing to be real because I believed it my entire life. It will devastate me. But now I'm hearing people from the boxing community saying that not only can Connor beat him, not only could Connor go the distance, but that he could beat him. And I'm going, wow, I didn't know people disrespect to the sports so much. I had no idea. Do we have a couple more minutes?

Are you talking to me? We got time for me unless you need to get Dachy back on to talk about his forward pressure that you love so much. When you got back home to West Lynn, you played it up well at the press conference, but were you relieved that the Vandalei thing was over and that you beat him on this big stage? Did a part of you feel like, okay, thank God I can move on,

I got the better of the guy, and I can go focus on something else. Was there any part of you that felt that way? Any part, man, that's the entire part. For every fight, not just Vandale, for every fight, I come out and I'm almost never happy to win as much as to use your word. It's just a relief. Sometimes you're relieved.

It's over. Sometimes you're glad you didn't blow it. And the Vandalay fight, he had knocked me down. I'd never been knocked down before. And it's like, well, you know, I could have just stayed down. There's things you could have done,

but I like the word you used. You're relieved that you didn't do them at all. It's all over and it went your way. Yeah, that's fair. Any word on the pay-per-view buys? No, no. I didn't get any word on that, and I don't know when that comes in.

I've never asked. I guess it's been a couple of weeks. We should know pretty soon here. They had the spike numbers came in, which I trust you did see, which was 900 and changed. So it was a good night, but no, man, I haven't heard yet. What do you think it does?

What's your prediction? Well, so I'll base my prediction off of what Scott Coker had said. Scott Coker had told, might have been you, might have been Luke Thomas. He had told someone that they were hoping for, I think, 220 to 250 was. their number and then anything above that they would consider great. I'm going to trust his numbers. I think that he might be happily surprised, but I got to trust his analysis. I think in that two to 300 range is fair. Are you working the Belltor show this weekend? No, I'm going to be

watching it home, but I won't be there. How about you? Why? Why aren't you going to be there? You're a huge part of the broadcast team. Oh, thanks, buddy. You know, I love to be there. I think this one actually got scared that I had nothing to do with it it got scheduled I wasn't even invited I trust that that was because I did just have the match and I guess some guys need more time off than other

so I didn't take it personal but I won't be there do you think they'll be punching and kicking and forward pressure what about your friend and the guy I mean you put him on the map Kelvin Gaslam does he beat Widman next weekend stud total I am really interested

in that fight I mean of course I'm going to go with Kelvin but I'm not ready to write Chris Wydenman off yet. You know, what's he's lost three in a row, but you could look a little closer at those fights. You know, nobody's really getting over on Romero. The Musassi fight was bizarre. We could agree. I mean, I just, I think there's a little more to it.

I'm not ready to write off Chris, but boy, Kelvin, there's something about putting him in that cage and saying, go, man. When the referee asked him if he's ready and he says yes, he means it. Just needs to stay off the wacky, Tabaki, right? Yeah, poor guy, but he served his time. Young man, I'm ready to give him a second chance.

I hope you are, too. Did Michael Bispin crossed the line when he ripped the Cuban flag? And can we just talk about, did you see Romero's response? Have you seen this? When he burned Bispick's picture? This is straight out of 1980s pro wrestling. He's smoking the cigar. He's got the Cuban liquor.

This is tremendous. Okay, so I agree with you. I thought it was pretty cool that he had that liquor and brought the cigar out as well. It was even cooler that he didn't light the cigar because now it's family-friendly. But I did see that area. However, I assumed I was seeing it out of order. I was assumed that Romero struck first and then Bissing did that. And I just saw it out of order.

I didn't know that Romero had done that, you know, since his fight today. So I don't know if he crossed the line or not. Here was the one thing. I think Bispings a lot of fun. I like this stuff he does. When a guy's in the ring fighting, leave him alone. I really think you should. I just had Tito heckling me at my last fight,

and I just, I kind of looked over his half, and I thought, well, Tito, I kind of got my hands full, you know, that I don't know that now's the time. So I don't know that there's any rule against it either. But for me, I kind of thought, give him his space just for a minute here. He's kind of got some stuff in front of him he needs to deal with. Okay, fair enough.

Do you like Robert Whitaker? You know, with all the punching, the kicking and the forward pressure that happens. Are you impressed with Whitaker? Yeah, very impressed with Whitaker. I've been impressed with Whitaker for a while. You know, I'm a big fan of the Ultimate Fighter. Whoever comes through that, it's such a hard tournament. And, you know, I was very impressed with him for a while, but he's got some other good wins in there. You know, he's fought some other tough names. It wasn't just Jokkeri. Jokore. Jokore is just the one that made us all go, oh, my goodness. You know, I thought you were really good.

I didn't know you were great. Now I understand you're great. But yeah, he's the champ right now. I don't even know. Who do you think would be the favorite in him versus Bispang? I mean, what do you mean am I impressed with the guy? Hell, yeah, he's a champion. I think he's a slight favorite. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.

Do you think D.C. can beat John? I think it's pretty unlikely. Wow. Because they already fought once. It wasn't that competitive. Now, according to D.C., it was. According to D.C., you know, he was winning that fight. Sometimes you scratch your head and go,

Daniel, I don't know who told you that, but, you know, I thought it was five rounds to none John Jones. And I thought they were very good and fun and two guys trying rounds. But I did think it was 5-0 John Jones. The final analysis of the professional judges, it was four to one John Jones. We then learned that John was high on Coke and still kicked his ass. I mean, that does matter. That's not just something funny to say. But it's D.C.

You know, he's a winner. he's going to go out, he's going to compete hard. I just don't know. I don't know that he's gotten better since that fight. I don't know that John's gotten better. But I know the human body does get better when you're John's age just naturally. And the human body doesn't get better when your DC's age just naturally. So it's very hard for me to see where that gap would get closed, let alone surpassed in this match.

It's just hard for me to see. But I'll tell you, I'm pumped for it. I'm so excited for that. You know, that's right there in 2017 with the McGregor and the Mayweather fight, you know, for right now. I really think that's a fun match. I love those guys' heat. It's real. It's not going to go away.

It's not going to shake hands on let's forget it after this match. And for me, as a fan, I'm compelled to that. Last quick thing, I know you're very busy, but did you have a chance on Friday night to see the Justin Gachie Michael Johnson fight? I mean, this was unlike anything I've ever seen. I mean, what a performance, right? heart, determination, endurance. Forward pressure. Ariel, I really wanted you to ask me about that fight because I was so impressed with Gaj.

I was so impressed with his debut, dealing with the pressure. And if you looked at his attitude before this fight, you know, we've seen guys come in with that same attitude and it doesn't end well. Well, with him it did. You know, that guy is just so tough. He pushes so hard. It doesn't matter how tired he is. And I got to follow him in the World Series.

So I knew him a little bit better than maybe most would. and he was just so doggone tough. And, you know, he's a college all-American for UNC. I got to follow his career there. So I felt like I knew him a little bit better. I wanted to come on your show and say all of these great things. But then when I pop in and I'm in the queue and you're over there, massage and his shoulders. Oh, you're the next great thing.

You had the line of the year, the promoters wedg. By the way, Helwani, I've caught you with a couple of four-letter words already today. When did you go to the dark side? I didn't know you started cursing on here. I mean, we're on Twitter now. We can do whatever we want. I don't know. You know, we're live on Twitter.

This is unprecedented for MMA. Of course I'm on the show, dumb, I mean, my good friend. Of course I knew that. Yeah, this is big. What I'm saying is you can do whatever you want. I didn't know secretly you wanted to start cursing all. You're like, oh, the pressures of the man holding me down are gone. I can say, that's right.

That's right. Because I'm on Twitter. Like, I didn't know that was something that you aspired. No. But I saw the success that Joel had on your show, and I thought maybe I need to emulate this. I mean, this is the, clearly this is the path that I need to go down, you know, the scumbag path. The scumbag path. Yeah, Joel, I haven't heard from Joel in a while.

Joel sent me a text message or an email after my fight. Everybody wants to be your friend after you have a fight. So I get an email from him. And I don't even read it, but the opening line was, congratulations on your fight, you cheat and scumbag. And I'm just like, up next. You know, I've got other things to do that listen to this. That's how we open. Congratulations, you cheating scumbag.

Wow. Never came after that, I was gone. Okay. I like that. How do you like that? Day after your fight when you're on top of the world and that's what you wake up to from a supposed friend. By the way, are you buds with Jesse Taylor from TeamQuest? Were you there when he was there?

Yeah, I used to train with them. Yeah, I used to train with them. What a story, right? I mean, we can't, we can't pump that up to it. That's a beautiful story. frankly kind of surprised me. Really? I mean, it was going to be cool for whoever that happened for.

And I didn't really have a horror. I did think James Krause was the best fighter there. I mean, if I was to make a prediction, I thought that Gilbert Jamal was going to, you know, Smith was going to go pretty, I just thought it was pretty interesting. But Taylor kind of did surprise me because sometimes he has a hard time holding it together up here. You know, he usually wins the first round or at least the first three, four minutes.

But then sometimes he can get in his own way. and Lima's had that same problem sometimes he gets in his own way and both of these guys held it together they focused they made it to the fight I just thought it was a pretty cool story era I don't really understand why the ratings of that were I thought it was one of the better seasons

quite frankly I think the people that missed it missed a really good season I've been there done that it's the same old same old every time on that show you know in 2012 that's what people keep saying yeah but it's the same old they're all wearing the same thing it's the same formats that it needs some rebranding

but era will you at least agree it is pretty cool right out of the gate to see guys you're familiar with not have to wait three weeks to learn, you know, who Juning Browning or who these guys are. But you come right out of the gate, you recognize everybody. I thought it was pretty cool, man. Joe Daddy came back. I mean, I don't know.

For me, there was something there. I tuned in each week, but I was surprised that not many other people did. Chale, in 2012, I became a father for the first time. I had Oliver, as you know, and you were hosting a show called UFC Tonight. Whatever happened to that show, by the way. Anyway, that's a different story for a different day. A nice moment on that show was when you guys said congratulations to me for being a dad for the first time. And the man behind that decision to put that picture on air, which I'll never forget, is our good friend Zeus.

And did you know that Zeus became a dad two weeks ago? Did you know this? I did not. Oh, my God. You're supposed to be friends with the guy. I text with him all the time. I'm going to send him a message right now. No, I even text him Turkish word.

He's Turkish and I spent some time in Istanbul, so I'll drive off a Merhabah here or there just to get a laugh at him. But I didn't know about the fatherhood, man. That's awesome. Lucas. Lucas is here. He's a dad now. So I wanted to return the favor with you. I thought it would be nice to give him a shout out and say Mazel Tov to him and his wife.

Very cool, man. I'm with you on that. And it's Lucas. Lucas, that's right. Lucas is his name. Cool. I'm going to get a hold of him right now. Chale, pleasure as always.

What do we do here? What do we do? I mean, I kind of feel like this show is taking. like a bit of a slow turn since all the gaichi talk and i mean you know i'm glad we got the shout out for zou but how do we spice things up what do we do now uh we're actually going to talk to valentina chavchenko in a minute oh well i can't be blamed for that that's up to you all all right to you and everybody else i've had it with you all come boom there he is chel sutt and nice we had the picture there waiting for him as well um all right thank you that was very that was very nicely done

good job rob he knows chel's schick that he's going to say goodbye and there we had it that That's high production value from the MMA hour team. Okay, let's move along. Big story, of course, this weekend. We've been talking about it. The Nunes-S Chevchenko fight never came to fruition. Very happy that we're being joined right now by the bullet herself, Valentina Schovchenko. Valentina, how are you?

Hello, I'm good. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. You've been competing for a long time in combat sports. Would you say this was your most frustrating, your worst weekend? How would you describe what transpired? What happened on Saturday to you? Of course, it's like I was preparing for this fight during three months.

I put all hard work on this, and it was, like, unbelievable for me that it's happened. And I first, when I received this notice, I couldn't believe that it's true. But when you see, like, confirmed that it's like, it will not happen this fight. It was like, wow, I cannot believe this. Around what time on Saturday, if you recall, did you find out the news? that she was in the hospital not feeling well. And then how long after that did you find out that she was out? It was about noon that I received the first notice.

And maybe I think in maybe one, two hours, it's already. It was like, okay, it's done. But then after I received this possibility that Jana will step to the octagon, and I still was like ready for the fight. I still was in the same condition, in the same like adrenaline type, but after a few hours more, it was completely clear that it will not happen anything. Have you ever experienced something like this in your career in or out of MMA where you weigh in, it's fight day and your opponent pulls out?

Usually it was sometimes, but it was maybe like one, two days before, maybe one week before, but so close in the day of the fight, no, never. Wow. Do you think it ever got close to you versus Yawanna? Do you think, or was that just kind of a pipe dream? I think in the future it's everything possible because it's like we had our era, we had our history in more Thai fights, and why not we can start our era and history in MMA too. But as far as Saturday, do you think it ever got close to you fighting her on short notice?

I was ready. I was ready to fight if she was like she was ready to fight too. So we both was ready. It was not depend on us. It was the commission and the organization. But I think the boss at least we was ready. Okay. Did they ever talk to you about, you know, I know Jessica I was available because she was supposed to fight that before.

Were there any other options thrown your way? other than the Yanna option? No, it was only this option that I had for the fight and I don't think it would be like in this situation the right way to choose another different opponent.

Okay, so you were only interested in fighting either Amanda or Yana. But I never was like nobody proposed me to fight someone else either. Right, okay. And I was told from your manager that the UFC has taken care of you

monetarily, Dana White said that you were paid around 70K, is that accurate? Yes, Dana White says he will take care, they will take care about me. We just had Chale Sunnan on the show and he suggested that there should be sort of a forfeit clause.

If your opponent doesn't show up on fight day that you should be stripped as champion and that you, Valentina, should have won the belt and won your show money and your win money. Do you think that this is something that should be done, do you feel like this is the right thing to do that? Because Amanda didn't show up to fight on Fight Day, that she should be stripped and that you should be the champion?

You know, actually, I'm not in 100% believe that it's like true that she's like trying to say that it was like medical, something like with medical because of her illness or something like this because like during all this week before the fight, during like one day, before the fight of the way in the workout, everybody was taking her very, like, in very good health, very aggressive.

And even in the way in, she was saying, I'm ready to give this fight, very good fight, and take the victory. And like the same, doing all things aggressive like she did. And then after, after,

after, after, after, in the day of the fight, she's like, torn out. And she said, like, okay, I was feeling all week, all week bad. But in the same time, she was saying every time, that she's feeling very strong and prepared for the fight.

So you read her statement, right, about her sinus infection and that she wasn't feeling well. You read this, I'm assuming, online? Yes, I hear something like this. My manager told me something like this. But in the same time, for example, I will not surprise that in the next time when you give us another date for the fight, she will turn down and turn down the fight in the same moment

and do this kind of stuff again because, you know, every time I'm interested in the history, I'm reading about like harm how army they are using their tactics for their vines, their battles, and sometimes they are doing the same. Like they're preparing for the fight, their opponents prepared for the fight, in the right moment they are turning down.

And opponent, like, okay, the next time preparing doing the same and the same turning down. So they're expecting to relax their opponent and when it will be like an expecting time for them to attack and win the fight. And of course I will not surprise that she will do the same again the next time and trying to relax me and waiting like the right moment to say, okay, let's do the fight and like feeling that I'm not prepared and try to like play with this game plan. But I want to say it will not happen with me any time and she will try to do it in vain because I'm training every day. It doesn't matter like if I have a fight or don't have a fight. I train in every time and I will be prepared for every time that it will be like the date for our fight. So in other words, you think that she doesn't want to fight you?

I don't know what is her, what she has in her mind. But I think, like, I see what I see. She turned down the fight and in the very, very last minute. And before the fight, she was saying that I'm ready, I'm feeling good, I'm feeling strong. And everybody could see that she's feeling strong. She's feeling aggressive. She's acting in the way in and out of her down. Like, before the fight, in the way in, in the workout, she was feeling totally healthy.

Don't you think it's weird for her to actually cut the weight, make the weight, weigh in, and then on fight day to back out? I mean, to go through all that trouble, don't you think that's strange? I think that's why I was giving, like, example. Maybe this is her, like, another game plan for trying to relax me, trying to destroy me. means this like a mental, mental game because I was preparing for the fight during three weeks or three months. And she is feeling that I am prepared like no one time. She's feeling that I'm strong. She was feeling during all our face off.

And she knows that for the next time I will prepare like another maybe two months more. Right. I will be, and she's trying to, another time maybe to do the same, and then like try to relax me and why, even how she maybe thinks that unexpected to try to like to give this, like to fight me when I will not be prepared, but how I say it will not happen. And so just to ask the question again, do you think you should be the champion because she didn't fight on Saturday? I feel that I have to be the champion in any way. It doesn't matter.

Like, I don't ask me to give this gift and give me the belt. I don't ask it. Every time I was fighting for my goals, I was working hard for my dreams. And I don't wait in nothing that someone will give me like a gift. something. I every time worked hard. But it's difficult for me to say because I'm ready to fight for my belt and it doesn't

matter, okay, it doesn't happen. It didn't happen this time this Saturday, but it will happen anyway, I know it. You were offered a fight against her in Edmonton, right? September 9th. I think so because my manager he's there speaking with the U.C.

right now. Still now I'm waiting the date from UCN my manager and I hope it will be soon as soon as they can they can give a date And do you think that she will accept She has to accept What do you mean

I mean this is what I mean She has to accept the fight if not It's not Conduction like a champion because you You have to defend your belt If you cannot you have to leave it And for you as a fighter to go through the entire training camp, fight week, weight cut, weigh in, and then to get to Saturday and not have that release of fighting and not getting to do what you set out to do,

how did you cope with that mentally? Like did you feel, because I would imagine, I mean, that would mess you up, right? Did you feel uneasy? Did you feel like you had to go for a run to, you know, get some of the adrenaline out? How did you react to that? first of all in the same day of the fight when we received the notice of course I was frustrated and I feel like no it's but still I had all adrenaline from preparation from everything and already on the next day I was feeling like this feeling when it's something not complete and usually

after the fight when it's the fight is over you feel like free but this time I feel like feel not free. And still my goal and my mission is not complete. That's why for now my mental situation, mental condition, I am still in the say, like, fight mode. And okay, it will be a little bit longer than I was expected. But I'm professional. And I take it right now very cold.

And I know exactly if I will put too much emotions in my mind, in my, in my head. It will not work good for me. That's why I'm just waiting my time. I will do the same, like preparing the same with the same like desire to put my best performance for this fight. And I will do my work. I will do everything to win the fight for the next time. And I hope that she will complete her part too. And she will not turn down next time too. after the fight Dana White said that he thought her reason to withdraw from the event was 90% mental 10% physical do you agree do you think that she is mentally weak that she wanted nothing to do with you and looked for a way out I you know I think she was feeling it because um usually when you have some illness you are feeling that you are not good but you anyway you had like three months to prepare for this fight and three months to put your your mind to the fight to put to give these directions but if the the fight are doing this kind of things like okay I

cannot fight I will not fight I don't want fight I don't know how how it's possible how it's like it's not working the professional world no like to see them put another top bantam weight on the card if you fight on September 9th so that if something happens that there's a backup plan? I think they're thinking to prevent everything. Of course, I want to fight and I don't want to train it to spend all my time to train in concentration just in range and after like, okay, I have to wait another, I don't know how many months more.

I don't want that it happened again. Of course, I would like to, next time, to fight for real, of course. Do you have interest in fighting Joanna again at some point? I know you fought her three times, but not in MMA. Is this something that you would like to see happen? How I said, it will be very interesting for us, because we have our era in Muay Thai, and we can start our time in MMA,

but really I didn't think about this. this till they're like Saturday, because I was concentrated on my fight, on my title in 135 weight class, and for now I still

have the same plan to win my belt in my weight division, but what will come else after the fight, we will start to think about this like after. For now, I still want my belt in my weight class. And again, if you fight on the

9th for the belt and win the belt, what are the chances your next fight would be at 125 to try to become a dual champion? I think for this type of question, we have to come back after the fight because still we have enough time, like almost two months before the fight. But how I say 125 for me, it's same my weight class because for 135, I don't cut a weight. and actually all my training camp I already was 135 and it was it was not nothing for me to I don't can't wait for 135 for 125

for 125 yes it's also my weight and it will be comfortable for me to fight there too your next fight or do you want to wait a bit if you win the belt are you going to stick around on 135 and defend it I think it's a little bit early to say about this because I still don't have this belt, still it didn't happen with fight. And all this defense or next plans, we have to speak about this already about after the fight. Because it's,

for me, I'm this kind of person who are focused on the really like near future without thinking too much if it will be like this or maybe like this, because if you don't have still the results, what you want, you cannot think about nothing in the future yet. Fair enough. One last thing for you. I noted during the weigh-ins, the official way-ins, that I thought you appeared to be in the best shape of your career. Is that accurate? And if so, what did you do differently for this fight? Not much things like very, very differently. only our training camp we started in Thailand

in Tiger Muay Thai gym then we went to Texas we trained in Graciebara a Houston Moitai in the final our preparation we made in 3 O'Shea Academy in Denver, Colorado but more I think it was

like not most part physically but also mentally because if you have only physically part you cannot win for 100% without mental part. I think it was both working together because for me, like my goal, the main goal is every time, how I said every time,

it's to be the champion in my vet division. And I'm very close, very close was for this in the Saturday. Still now I have to wait a little bit more, but it doesn't change nothing because I desire it to the, same the same like I did it before. Last thing for you, Valentina, and again, thank you so much for the time. If you could send Amanda Nune as a message, what would it be right now? No, I will not send any message to her and just I will say everything that I won during

the fight when it will be happened. And no one word before the fight, only with punch because I still remember the time in the face off and summer kickoff. and it's still in my mind. All right, we'll leave it at that. Thank you very much again for the time. I'm sorry this has happened, but kudos to you and your team for handling it with class.

I know it wasn't easy, and I thought you handled it very well. So thank you very much, Valentina, and I hope you get the fight sooner rather than later. Thank you very much, Ariel. I will be prepared for this fight, and I will be ready again in my best shape. I'm very sure for this. All right, we'll talk to you soon.

All the best to you. Thank you very much. is Valentina Shevchenko. Hopefully we'll get to see that fight in a little less than two months in Edmonton. That's the plan, at least as of right now. Again, tried to reach out to Amanda, wanted to have her on, wanted to get her side of the story, but as of right now, she declined. Okay, the UFC is back in Scotland on Sunday. It airs on FS1 here in the United States. And if you recall, two awards shows ago, I said that I thought the crowd in Scotland was the best of the year. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how they are the second timeout, how they, you know, how loud they are, how excited they are, if they have the same kind of energy for, you know, the second round, if you will, as opposed to the first.

And in the main event, we're getting Gunner Nelson against Santiago Pondinibio. And it is always great to see Gunner fight, especially coming off his last win over Alan Jobin, wanted to get him on the show today to talk about that fight, preview it and see how he's doing. So let's go to the Magic of Skype and welcome in the one and only Gunner Nelson. there he is, Gunner, and I should apologize right off the top. I was in Las Vegas when I spoke to your dad and I screwed up with the times, and so I told him later, and so I'm really sorry about that, and I hope it wasn't too big of an inconvenience for you. No worries.

Okay. I'm just chilling. All right. Yeah, it is great to talk to you as always. By the way, where are you right now? I'm at my parents' house. Okay. The Skype connection, I must say, is just phenomenal.

Yeah, we got the best internet possible here. Are you in some kind of like attic or something? Yeah, it's my, my parents loved. Like the TV is just like next to the screen here. And, you know, it's just kind of a bedroom where you lie and watch TV and chill. And I was just playing here with my boy like five minutes ago. He was jumping off there into the pillows. That's why it's so messy.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's okay. I'm not judging. How old is he now? He's three. Three. And how are you liking fatherhood? I love it. Yeah, I really do love it, yeah.

Any plans for more? Not for now. Okay. Well, we'll see. I definitely will have more kids. I know that for sure, but I don't have anything scheduled. Okay, fair enough. Is he starting to understand what his dad does for a living?

Like, does he watch you? Does he get what you do? Well, he wants to wrestle everyone, you know, when he's around. I get a lot of guys over, you know, for this camp. And there's always somebody over at my house, you know, staying with me, training with me. And he just jumps on everybody and wants to wrestle right away. He's also, he does hit the bag sometimes, you know. Yeah.

He bangs it up. I've had to stop him once when he was kind of attacking like a little public. or the puppy was attacking him, you know, they had his sharp teeth and the puppy was jumping over him and stuff. And then my son, Stuart is his name, Steerutee. He started fucking weaning and then bombs at him just like left, right, left right. I had to kind of separate him. Wow. Explain to him that only grapple, you know, no shots.

Wow. But I don't let, he doesn't watch fights. He doesn't watch fights. No, you don't want him to watch fights. Well, even yours? You don't want him to see you fight? No, I just, you know, he's very, very young, and I don't think it's, I don't know,

I think he might pick up some of the stuff and, you know, he doesn't understand it and maybe he does some of this stuff in his kindergarten or something if he's watching fights, you know, watching him in fights, so, yeah, not yet. What if, in a few years, if he says to he wants to be a fighter like you,

would you be okay with that? Yeah, of course. I'll support him in anything you need to do, you know, whatever it is. All right. But he definitely has some fight in. I'll tell you that. So it might be a fighter. It wouldn't surprise me.

I have to be honest, Gunner, when I found out that you were fighting Santiago Pantinovio, no disrespect to him, I was a little surprised. I thought after the Joban fight that you would get maybe a bigger name in this main event spot. What was your reaction when you were offered Santiago? Yeah. Yeah. We thought the same thing. you know we were thinking we would get you know a top-rank guy or at least you know i don't know top

10 at least and that's that's what they were trying to get us in in london and then they said after this well you're fighting juban and then after this we'll definitely give you a top 10 guy or whatever you know top-rank guy and then i guess they couldn't find it find him or whatever i don't know what happened but it was getting close and i i i won't want to fight and I want to be on that card as well. So, Ponzo Nebio stepped up and I said yes. Were you disappointed when they didn't get you a top 10 guy?

Like was it hard to initially get motivated for Ponziinibio? No, not really. You know, I'm, you know how I am. I'm not really that flushed. You know, I definitely would have likened to get top 10, but when you realize it's out of the picture or they said it basically wasn't going to happen and there was nobody raised

ready or nobody. Some people were injured or whatever. They just didn't have anybody for me. So, you know, I'll take him. And, you know, like I've said before, they're all tough guys. And I believe it's just part of my journey. You've had a lot of great performances in the UFC. But I thought that the last win over Jobain may have been your best yet. Do you agree with that? Is it possible that that was your best performance that you put it all together? I thought on the feet, on the it just was flawless. Is there another one that you thought was better or do you think that that was the best yet?

Well, I definitely think I'm the best I've ever been, so it makes sense. You know, I have been, my last few camps have been really, really good. And like I've said before, I've kind of changed a little bit as a fighter. I've learned how to put things better together and as well as just pace myself.

myself better, being able to corner my opponents and read the situations and maybe take a little bit more time. Whereas before it would be more just instinct and maybe just, you know, just killer mode because I would get away with so many fights, just going in there and doing whatever I do right away, do my best right away and that was usually, that we usually finish the fights first round. So get into like a bad habit. then when you fight the very toughest guys in the world, you need to be more calculated. Right. So I feel like I've changed, definitely.

Did that come maybe after the Maya fight, or do you think that that's just a result of growing up and evolving as a fighter, maturing as a fighter? When did that start to change for you? Yeah, just slowly changing. And, you know, the couple of losses that I've had, you know, they definitely, they teach you a lot, you know, losses like that teach you a lot. So yeah, I think it's just through the years, through the fights that I have. And definitely after the Maya fight, you know, a few things clicked, you know,

for my preparation for getting ready for the night as well. And like, yeah, we changed our camp a bit up. Like I said before, there's a different kind of conditioning routine. And then, you know, just kind of kind of. calculate the fight more. Not that I haven't changed towards watching my opponents a lot or anything like that. I'm still not a big believer in that. I know,

like if somebody wants to watch him and then tell me what he does and stuff, that's okay. That's fine. But my read, my first read is going to be when I get in there. I can watch a little bit of what he does and stuff. but my read is going to be in there. I think that's very important, very important to me to get that feel,

because I don't want to have, I don't want to have an idea of, I've done that before, and it just doesn't work for me, not the way that I fight, not the way that I think, or, you know, my, yeah, I don't like that.

So I like to go in there and reap the energy. I can't do that through videotape, because I guess what I'm fighting off of is something that you can't, really see on tapes or something. I'm not sure about. So in the past, you've actually, you've studied your opponent at length via videotape and you feel like you performed, performed worse when you kind of went in sight and seen and reacted exactly to what he was doing and flowed off of that?

Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Like coming in there and having an idea of how he's going to do these things and this and that is just I felt like that was worse than coming in open-minded, completely open-minded and just watch and have no idea like obviously you have some idea you see most of these guys fight but that's not what I'm talking about

is like making a game plan for certain opponents some do just a light little game plan some do like very strict so I don't like that I like going in there and like you say react and get the read, get the first read in there, you know. Where did you train for this fight? In Iceland or did you go to Dublin at all? No, I was in Iceland for this whole camp. We had lots of guys over here.

A couple of guys from Ireland. Okay. Well, Luca is Croatian, but he lives in Ireland, trains in Dublin, SBG. And then Peter Quili from Ireland. Yep. SBG Dublin. Abner from the Ultimate Fighter series from Barcelona. He came over here.

He was in the series with Hartam. Yep. He probably would have that, yeah. And Matthew Miller, he's been here a lot with me. Canadian, really good wrestler. Will John Kavanaugh be in your corner? Obviously, he's helping Connor prepare for the boxing match, but will he be in your corner on Sunday?

Yeah. Great. I believe so. Yeah. Is this funny for you to, I mean, what does it like to see your good friend of so many years, training partner, close friend, prepared to fight the greatest boxer of all time, arguably? Is it what, like, how would you, this is, this is crazy stuff? Yeah, it is.

It's, it's pretty damn crazy. But I'm, I'm excited for it, you know. It's exciting. It really is. And I look forward to seeing it. you know. Yeah, it's just, it's mental to think about that. That's nice for him.

It really is crazy, you know. I couldn't have, I couldn't have seen that common. You're actually surprised, knowing him like you do. Yeah, even knowing him really well and all that, and everything that he's done and that he does even, yeah, I was surprised. I did think for a while that, I did think for a while. while that Floyd was just like, you know, he was never going to fight him. It was just like get on that train and get all that attention and just, you know, create, create all this force

about it, but just for attention and for his whatever websites and all that kind of stuff, you know, but I guess it's going to happen, you know. So usually when he prepares for a fight, you're a part of those camps. I mean, you're very valuable to him, but this time, are you going to be a part of this at all? this experience? No, I don't believe so. I mean, if he wants me to help him out after this fight, then

I'll definitely help him out. There's no doubt, but I think he's using different partners for this, so it makes sense. Will you attend the fight? I would love to. I don't know, yeah. I heard it's really tough to get tickets and expensive,

but I'll see. Maybe I'll get, I know I have a few friends here that really want go. Yeah. But they've said the same thing that it's pretty hard to get tickets to that thing. So we'll see, but it's going to be a good night anyway. Do you have a prediction?

Yeah, I'm with Connor, you know. That's, uh, I know there's obviously he's going against the greatest boxer, arguably of all time. in his in his game you know it's his game it's boxing but

but what I see there as well is that Floyd is not fighting a boxer this time he's just fought boxers but this time he's not fighting a boxer I know he's they're going to box but

Connor isn't really a boxer his style is going to be different than he's than any of his opponents ever very very different and he's going to capitalize him that he's going to use that he's going to use everything that's that's not boxing although you won't see him boxing and he's also a self-ball and he's bigger than

him and i think all these factors are going to be in connor's favor um yeah i think i know if he'll catch him with his left hand it's it's going to put him down it's going to put maybe they're downball. Obviously, maybe there's very fast. And he's, like, we all know, one of the best boxers the whole time. So it's exciting. By the way, these days in Iceland,

is this when it doesn't get dark at all? Like, at night? Is it sunny all day, all night, 24 hours? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's been messing some of the guys over, coming over here, and, like, we're going, We're training usually late, fight time.

And then when we get out, we just chill in the gym for a while, and then we get now midnight, and it's bright. The sun is still out, and they're like, just going to go. They're having problems with going to sleep and stuff. Wow. How long does that last? But, well, it's at its peak the 21st of June. Okay.

And then it kind of starts darker and darker, you know. I mean, it's still very bright now. Yeah. It will be until, like, mid, like August. Yeah, beginning of August, it will get dark at night, you know, I think. Does that mess you up or are you just used to because you grew up this way? Yeah, I love it, to be honest. I love both polars of this.

I also enjoy the winter when it's like always dark almost, you know. Used to, you know, always like, you know, going into school in the morning, you go and pitch black. and freezing cold, 8 o'clock in the morning you're going to school and then you're leaving at like 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and it's pits black again. You like that? What do you like about that? That's depressing. Yeah.

It's cozy. If you've got a good cozy game, you're settled. By the way, when you head out to Scotland, tomorrow, Wednesday? Yeah, Wednesday. morning. You're at your parents. Are they going to make you a nice sheep's head or something before you head out? Or is that not good for the diet? Uh, it is. I'm actually very good on the diet right now. I'm very late. I've been eating whatever I'm like, I'm under 80 kilos right now and I feel great.

It's been the best, like this has been the best camp I've ever had, to be honest. Wow. And but we had sheep's head not too long ago. So tonight is cod. like fish? Yes. Oh, that's not that exotic. We have that here too. Sheep's head, different sorts. Last thing for you, I know you're not this type, but I'll try anyway.

Since you didn't get the top 10 guy that you were looking for, if all goes well against Santiago, is there someone in mind for the back end of the year that you'd like to fight? Again, anyone at the top, then, you know, preferably top five. But as I said before, my mind doesn't really work that way. I don't really put faces on my opponents anywhere and I don't, you know, but I just want to fight the top guys. Let's see it. I don't care who it is or what kind of style he has. You know, I like to face all of them eventually and I like to face all different styles. And somebody I haven't faced definitely would be great.

but I would also like to get the chance to fight Maya again at some point you know that's like a You know a little dream of mine, you know I would like to be able to challenge him maybe the title If he gets it which I hope he does you think he beats Woodley that's not really I think he definitely can yeah I think I think so I'm rooting for him anyway I pretty much always always rule from when he's fighting except when you fought me but that that didn't help did it I I would I would love to see you versus Wonderboy I know John Kavanaugh was pushing for that after the Jobein fight I mean what what a styles matchup that would be that if all goes well on Sunday I would I would love to see that do you share those feelings yeah definitely

tremendous if I am all right well first thing first, Santiago Ponsinibio, this Sunday in Scotland, main event on FS1 here in the United States. Great to catch up with you, Gunner. Thank you very much for the time. And again, sorry for changing the schedule, but I really appreciate you coming on early. And please say hello and thank you to your father as well. All right. Thanks very much.

Thanks for having me. No problems with the schedule. All right. Appreciate it. There he is. One of the very best in the world, Gunner Nelson. This Sunday, he returns to action again on FS1. And it's a fun card.

It's a really fun card in case you, uh, In case you felt like it sort of flew under the radar. There are some interesting names, of course, Cynthia Calvillo against Joanne Calderwood. That's a very important fight in the strawweight division. It's taking place at the SSC Hydro in Glasgow. Stevie Ray against Paul Felder. Last fight on Stevie Ray's contract. And Paul Craig is coming back.

A bunch of familiar names, Leslie Smith, Smith, Brett Johns, Charlie Ward. The list goes on and on. Neil Siri fighting in his retirement fight. For now, let us welcome in a man who knows. knows Gunner Nelson, sort of honorary member of SBG. Dylan Danis is about to walk into the studio.

Joining us for the first time in studio, we've been trying to get him for so many months, and he's such a busy guy, and finally he has agreed to stop by. He is being pulled in so many different directions, but I do believe he is here, the one and only Dylan Danis, the bad boy of BJJ,

the bad boy of MMA. There he is. You got to get the chair. Yes, yes, here's the chair. Thank you. As he walks in. My man. How are you? Good to see you. Wow. This is a beautiful set. What do you think? Man, it's really cool.

You like it? I was going to say this before I came, but like growing up in MMA, this is the only show in MMA. Oh, I appreciate that. So it was all I watched is like pretty cool to be here. New studio too. Yeah, it's nice, man. That's fucking six shoe. That photo right there. That's my favorite photo in MMA. I'm a big fan of Mayhem actually. I like Manhattan. He's the man. He messages me sometimes and like gives me a voice and stuff. He's pretty cool. What do you mean? On Facebook and stuff. He's a good guy. He sends you advice?

Yeah, like, we just talk. I think before the Jake fight, he was kind of like backing me up to on Twitter and stuff. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He has a history with Jake, of course. Yeah, he's a legend. I think he's like a legendary fighter. I really like him, man. He fought everybody, fought in every organization.

Yeah, that's when he fought Sakuraba. He's bowing over him. That's crazy, huh? Sakharpa was a little bit, not the same, but it was kind of sad to watch that, but, I mean, there's a big win for Mayhem. There's a lot of cool things there for the Conner picture. That's a legendary. That's the best one he got there.

Who's that Mike Tyson and the Pelotor? Soon you will be on this wall. I'm telling you, this is the only show in MMA that really matters. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I even got a follow from you today on Twitter. I don't get them out easy, though. I don't get them out easy.

Nine, and now it's 10. Yeah, I know. I'm the 10th. Wow. There's only one guy. I feel like you used to follow more and then you pulled back a little bit. No, you were always very selective. I don't really use Twitter too much.

I'm more of Instagram, but I feel like Twitter is kind of dead. Now what? Dead, really? We're live on Twitter here on this show. You know that, right? The only MMA show on Twitter. Hundreds of thousands. now then.

Why the sunglasses indoors? Is your future so bright that you have to wear the sunglasses? I just like to wear sunglasses. It just looks good. It feels good. You're okay. There's no reason for it. It was hot outside.

Yeah. Where are you coming from? I live in Chelsea, so I was coming from Chelsea. Okay. You weren't training or anything? This morning a little bit, but not too much. I kind of been a little bamed up, so I just kind of take it easy. What's wrong?

My body feels. Just kind of stuff I don't want to talk about. Okay. A lot of injuries. All right. You're right? Yeah, we'll make it through. We were just talking to Gunner Nelson.

Yeah. I don't know if you saw that. Crazy enough. I actually never met him. You never met him? I never talked to him. I don't know if you're not like, I never talked to him. Your past just never crossed.

I hear very good stories about him. Like everybody in Ireland literally says he's like the man. He's so good and he's like awesome. So I always wanted to meet him. Connor said that me and him we get along. Yeah, I would love to see you guys train. As everybody says, everybody's like, oh, yeah, put down paper review YouTube training. That would be awesome.

I respect him a lot. He's an amazing fighter. I don't mean, I don't mean you guys. Oh, training. No, yeah. Training. I don't be a fight he had. That would be awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's one of the best jih Tzu guys in MMA, and he was one of the best competitors when he was competing in his day. So I think that would be awesome training, you know?

If I was a fighter and said I wanted to, you know, have you helped me train for a fight, are you exclusive to SBG? I wasn't even like that. It was just like that just like that just kind of happened in the moment. And honestly, I really wanted to go and train at a different gym or something like that, but Connor was my idol. I looked up to Connor. We had a lot of the same mindsets, and I knew it would be good for me to go over there and train with him. And then it just honestly, like, a lot of people go to train with Connor, you know,

but it has to be organic, you know, it has to be. That relationship literally just happened organically. That was it, you know, like a lot of people had come and going from his camp. But that just happened organically. We became good friends. Like, we had the same mindset and stuff. And we just became really good friends. I don't really go with different camps and stuff like that.

That just kind of happened. Okay, that was something you were interested in doing. I have been asked to go to different camps, like Damia and Maya wanted me to help him and some other guys. But it's just like, it was never the right time, man. I need to focus on myself, you know. But in this situation, I thought it was cool to go train with Conner-Morri. He was the man and ended up working out for me because it became really good friends. And it's a relationship that I, like, you know, really.

Did he reach out to you personally? It wasn't really that he reached out. It was just like, we kind of were friends, you know? We kind of talking. And then it would be like, hey, you want train? and then he would message me, I would message him, and then the timing wasn't right a couple times and then just ended up happening perfectly.

So it was kind of like that. And what role are you playing in the Mayweather fight preparation? Where does the ground guy fit in? I don't know. I guess it's motivational. Motivational role. He's motivational. I think it's awesome to watch and observe, you know?

Yeah. I think I'm just a student of martial arts, so just watching him train, straight boxing, and, man, I'm telling you, he's going to really knock him out. Like, I really think it would be a bad mismatch. I swear to God, like, I feel it. if you look at Mayweather he's kind of like not

like he's in strip club every night he's like basketball games he's doing all this stuff he's not really focused man a lot of people don't understand about Connor like he takes notes after every training session he goes home and watches the tape with his coaches takes notes and literally

like it's different for him see like for Mayweather this is a sport for us this is a lifestyle Mayweather's not a martial artist so Connor is a different level than him and he doesn't understand what he's getting himself into this is a man that's willing to die in there. I don't know what Mayweather is. So he hasn't seen this shit. He's been on that side

of stuff. Martial arts and MMA and any judith to any sport. That's a different lifestyle. You guys are willing to die for what they believe in. And I don't know if he's ready for that. I'm telling you that he's going to be here in for a rude awakening. I swear, I really believe in Conner's and knock him out. Speaking of rude awakenings, I feel like, I was talking about this with Chal Sunnan earlier. I feel like the fight kind of starts tomorrow. I feel like Floyd has never met anyone like Connor, so at this press conference and this tour. I mean, I feel like he's kind of going to be surprised by, A, the reaction of the people

because I think the people will be on Connor's side. I'm actually kind of surprised that he agreed to do this tour. Apparently he didn't want to go to Ireland. That's what I'm hearing. He didn't want to go to that side. So, man, he doesn't understand that Connor lives for these kind of moments. Yes. And now the story about the taxes, do you see this story about the tech? He's going to rip him apart. And the thing about Floyd is that no one's

really kind of got out of shit talking and stuff like that. You see guys are kind of scared of him. Or they, you know, but Conner's like a different level in that he's going to rip him apart. It's going to be hilarious. They're coming to Brooklyn. Will you catch up with them? Yeah, yeah. I thought the corner ready. I think I'm going to meet them out there. I don't know how long he's coming for it. But we're always in contact.

It'll be cool to see him. I haven't seen him in a while. So it'll be awesome. Okay, we have a lot to talk to you about here. There's so much going on. Okay. First things first. Every time that, you know, you were on the show a couple of months ago, you signed with Bellator. And that was exciting. But since then, I'm getting the impression that there are some people who believe you are not going to fight, that you're doing this for attention. No, no, no. What's the story?

That's the thing about a lot of people. They don't understand that this is, there's nothing fake about this. I've trained my whole life. I literally know everything about MMA. I've been stunning since I was like a little kid. Like, I know, like, I'm going to get every single person that's saying my name. I swear, like, I see it all the time. Even when I go with the fights, they're all like calling me out and like looking at me.

I'm like, dude, I'm going to fuck all you up. He's like, just wait, you know? And I saw Cups Swanson took a shot at me yesterday. Really? What do you say? He called me a pose or anything. Like, he went on my Instagram and said that. Like, it's crazy.

Went on your Instagram. What? What? Man, these guys need me to make a name for themselves. It's crazy. And, like, I don't know, they're all just jealous, I feel like. I feel like they're all just mad because I'm getting some spotlight or something like that. I don't know.

It's crazy. But if he wants it, he can get it too. I'm not going to get him easy, though. That would be, like, not having a contest. But I really feel like they're all just kind of nipping at me. But they're all going to see. Yeah, you were in Chicago when you kind of came out for your unveiling in Chicago. But that was the thing when I signed with him.

I said after ADCC, I'm going to make the debut. So it wasn't like this is like some crazy thing to them. more than anybody else. But the way I kind of seeing things now is like you can't listen to the outside. You know, you got only focus on you and focus on the people that you have around you. So whatever my team says is what I listen to, like all the other shit. Like, who cares about them?

Like, I would never go on someone else's like whatever and go like talk about them. Sure. What Connor and Kavanaugh say is like, Winners focus on winning and like losers just focus on winners is 100% true. I'm always focusing on what I have. And everybody else is focusing on like what I'm doing. You know, it's like it's crazy. So, I mean, it's not a bad thing, though.

I mean, I would look up to me too, so it is what it is. So as things stand today, July 10th, when do you think you will debut? So I got invited to ADCC, which is one of the biggest in our sport. When is that? September? September 26. And then after that, I'm going to go full in the MMA. That was the whole thing when I signed with them.

I said that. They know this. Yeah, they know this. So they're not knocking on your door. Okay, they're giving you space. They know this, too. I don't know where everybody's kind of complaining about, like, ADCC is a great tournament, too.

You get to watch me in there. I'm the only person that anybody cares. about on jihitsu anyway. So it's like, if I leave Jiu Jitsu, I feel bad for the Jiu Jitsu people. And so it's like, I'm kind of, I'm in between. Sure. You know, I'm like, I don't know if I want to leave. You don't want to turn your back on them? Yeah, because Jitsu is what I love. That's what I've been doing

because I was a kid. And like, that's me. I'm Jiu Jitsu, and I'm going to represent Jiu Jitsu and M.M.A. So I don't know. It's hard feeling because I love both, you know. And Jitsu is my passion. So let us address the elephant in the room. There were some reports that came out that that you were kicked off Marcelo Garcia's team.

That's who was your coach from any years, you received all your belts from him. I mean, you are a product of Marcelo Garcia here in New York, not that far from here. Is that true? And if so, what happened? Yeah, I mean, the wording is a little bit, it was more of a suspension, but at this time, I don't feel like I'm going back, so it might be, like, I got hit that out. Why were you suspended? It wasn't, like, one thing. Like, this just happened. Since I was been with Marcel, we had, like, a couple riffs. And, like, he's very, I've known Marcel to death, and I would never say. anything bad about him like I still love him I he still it was like my dad you know he was like my coach and uh it's it's hard to talk about for me like I had a lot nights where I cried you know that was that was my guy you know like he was my coach and everything so it's hard for me to talk about but we had like a lot of differences because he he really wants you to be like him he wants you to be exactly like him and he wants you to you to you know always be smiling and do this

stuff and like it's understandable you know but like at the end of the day if everybody acts the same there's no one ever is going to be different and he makes the guys on his team kind of where they're all like yes men and like the thing about jihitsu is like this is a big thing in jihitsu a lot of these guys that come up to you like oh it's and they'll bow and all this and then behind your back they're like talking about doing this doing that it's like come on dude like you just be real yeah you know what I mean and I'm real I don't hide it I'm not gonna go to someone and be like oh it's bro like you know like I mean it's it's like a fake kind of environment it's very big in jihitsu very big there are guys that are like doing crazy things behind

the scenes and then they'll come up to you and like talking about like this and that like I respect this moment I respect it's like come on dude like you're lying, you know. And Marcel I'm not saying that's about Marcel, but Marcel wants us to be like that and you know, you can't change someone, you know? Like, you can't make me be the way you are. And it's not saying that he's bad. He is who he is.

Marcel made a name of himself for being that nice guy who he is. But just because I act the way I am, it doesn't mean I'm not a nice person in the gym and, like, ask anybody that's ever train me, anybody that's ever met me. I'm one of the nicest and most respectful in the gym and outside the gym. So, like, that wasn't the issue. It was just that

on social media, he didn't like that stuff. that's not him and stuff like that. And it was just like it kind of added up, you know, one time we, so we were supposed to go to black belts and like no one knows about this. This has happened like way before even any of this, any happened. And something happened in my life and I took a picture with a finger. And he suspended me for six months when I gave my black belt just for a picture with the finger. Wow.

So like there's a lot of things that people don't know about that. You know, like, it's not cool. Like the things that he did too. There's like two sides of every story. I know Marcel's like this legend and stuff. But they try to put me down like, oh, Dylan's his asshole Dillins is it. But they don't know anything. about what happened, you know. They don't know the way he was treating us. They don't know

about the way he was making us trying to be like him, you know? Was he mistreating you? No, you never mistreated me, but like you can't, like, you know, just because someone's different, you can't tell him, hey, you're, you're a rebel, you're an asshole because you're not acting smiling and you're not bowing and like, you know, like and stuff like that. And it's just the way I am, like, you know, and when I could pee it, I was always the guy, was in the face. I would push people and stuff. And he was like, not about it, but like, I'm in competition. That's just how I am. And, like, me and him had a lot of risk, but I love the guy, honestly. I would never, I would never, I never, I never was disloyal to him.

I never did anything bad to him. I never, like, did anything wrong to him. There was nothing, you can't even ask him. There was nothing that was ever bad to him. It was just the way that he didn't like me on social media. He didn't like the way I was acting, the way I wear sunglasses and stuff like that. But like, at the end of the day, like if I was his son, you know, he used to call me, I was like his son.

And I kind of feel like, you know, be ending me a little bit. You know, you can't just like do that, you know. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of coaches that had, like, maybe like Mike Tyson's coach discuss or something. Like, you know, there's a lot of riffs. in the road. Sure, sure, sure. And you know what I mean? Like, at the end of the day, what I wanted was someone that would have my back no matter what. Like, he'll always be there for me. And I kind of hurt to see that he wasn't. You know, like, all this other bullshit in the world of people

talking shit about me. And, you know, you always have your coach. He's like, has your back. And I feel like he didn't have that for me. And the craziest thing about all this is that during this whole thing that went on, it was like, Connor was like there for me. You know, and like, there was a lot of people that said they were my friends and they weren't. You know, obviously I have one of my best friends Munch who was always with me but Conner was always texting me making sure I'm training making sure what's going on and like no one else you know Marcel never even texted me nothing are you okay he left me two weeks before my biggest fight of my career with Jake and then the world's you know it's like so what happened what was the final straw he calls you up you do so what has a meeting

where we talked and we he brought you in we discussed I mean we had a lot of meetings like there's a lot of things that he doesn't like and he you know we always were kind of like nipping at each toes like I don't know he was just always kind of like on me about stuff like he's like I don't know he was just always kind of like on me But for him, why was he bringing you in this time to say you're suspended? Did you do something or say something that he didn't like? No, it was a buildup. I mean, there was like, everything, you know? You explained to him like, here I am promoting myself.

Look at the headlines. And he was like, it's not about the money. I was like, yeah, but it's not about the money. But I was like, the money you need to live. I need to live. Yeah, yeah, you live in your city. And it's not about that, too. It's like, at the end of the day, like, we've been fighting about,

it's not like I just changed. Sure. Me and him, we've been fighting about this forever, you know, like, about me being the way I am and he wants me to be a certain way. And there's nothing wrong with being, like, a certain way. If you, you know, if you have the very morals. Like, I'm a martial artist at the end of the day. In the gym, I'm super respectful to everybody.

You know, like, that's what should matter at the end of the day. You know, what happens in the gym should matter. All this other stuff is not what, you know, that's not, you know, that's other stuff. You know, like, what happens in the gym, if you're respectful, and you treat your training partners, like family, and, you know, those guys are my brothers at the end of the day. And it's sad to see that, like, none of them stuck up for me. None of them have reached out, said I got your back.

I'm sorry this happened. I mean, like, yeah, but no, but, you know, a lot of thing is, too, a lot of them depend on him for a living. Sure. So they can't go against him. Sure. Which is kind of upsetting for me because, man, I swear God, if they kicked out one of my best friends, I would be right there for him, like, man, that's not cool. Yeah, yeah, or that's not.

You know, and nothing against Marcel. Like, hey, that's his gym. He could do whatever he wants, you know? But don't make me, you know, it's funny. Like, I was going to go away with Marcel, like, whatever, shake hands. But then he put that video out, and then he sent it to all the media sources. Which is kind of like, like, come on, man. Like, you know, I was your, like, I was like family to you, you know, like, you're going to do that to me and kind of make me look at the bad guy.

We don't talk about all the good things that we had, all the good times or the good things I'd done for the gym. Yeah, yeah. You know, so like, it's kind of hurtful. Like, I can go into hours of talking about this. It's really sad, honestly. Like, I still love him. Like, I just love him of the world. I was like, man.

Oh, what happened? No, I just, like, went up to him and I was like, you. Like, my dad, you know? And he's just like, thanks. And I was like. That was it? Yeah. I was like, man, you know, like, you know, it's sad because, like, me and him live next to each other at certain points.

We're really close. We hang out all the time. Like, it hurts. It really does hurt. Like, you know, it really does hurt. Why? Do you have any idea why he made it public this time? Because you said he suspended you.

I think what he wanted to do was kind of disconnect me from his name or I don't know. I don't know, honestly. What was your reaction when you saw that that video was on? I was so mad. I was like, man, like, because, like, the way he makes it sound is like we, like, killed someone or something. Sure, sure, sure. It's like, okay, he doesn't like my, the way I act. But it's like, he doesn't like the way I act outside of the gym.

Yeah. It's like you can't control over him or myself. I just walked around and smiled like you and don't talk and don't do anything. Then everybody's just going to be the same. We're never going to have anybody different. Sure. Never going to have someone that, you know. And like, I understand it, I guess, but I mean, it hurt me, really.

It really did hurt me. And you see where your true friends are at the end of the day because I had a guy that was literally like my brother, like literally my best friend, brother. And he kind of, you know, turned his back on me and my friend. And it's a fucked up game because, He's funny the way they act in front of someone, and then, you know what I mean? It's like that kind of game in which I'm super against. If I'm talking to you here, I'm talking about you the same way in front of anybody.

I hate people that are like talking to you, and then when someone else comes around, they change, and they start talking shit about someone else. And you see that a lot. And the jihitsu game is like that. You know, everybody likes to put on this fake act, and then they're different behind the doors. Just act who you are. You know what I mean? Then people will like you for who you are.

So that's what I feel about it. it's a whole other interview about the whole jit-sue and the whole scene. But yeah, I have nothing against Marcel. I never say anything bad about him. That's not who I am. In hindsight, do you look back and say, oh, maybe I should have done this or that differently? And the reason I asked that is, like, I'm reminded of, let's say,

the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. Dennis Rodman was not Michael Jordan or Scotty Pippen, but he was appreciated, right? Because he was different. He brought something to the table. Having different personalities isn't a bad thing. But the thing with that, too, is like... So do you think you offended him?

Do you think, like, do you think... At the end of the day, it doesn't bother me the way people think it bothers me because I was just acting me. If I was acting like a certain way and I was just like... And then I would kind of be like, oh, fuck, did I fuck up? I should not have said that. I shouldn't... I honestly just add to the way I am.

And like, I always been like this as I was a kid. I was always a trouble maker. I had the most attention. Like, that's just how I am. I'm just who I am. I'm not going to change for someone and try to like mold myself into someone else. Which I follow Marcel's ways in Jiu-Jitsu, but I don't have to follow his way as a person. You know what I mean?

And that's the only reason. it doesn't bother me. Everybody's like, oh, you got to get out, you got a change to go back. It's like, no, like, I'm just going to have.

And then if he doesn't like me for saying a couple things on Instagram, like, then I guess he doesn't like me, you know, but... Did he not like that you were with Connor and the team?

I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I don't want to say anything with the personal conversations, but, you know, he, he respect to Connor,

you know? I mean, he's very against, like, shit talking and he's so, I mean, like, it might have been a little weird for him,

but he's very against anybody that talks crap and stuff like that. He hates it. There's a lot of crazy stories about me and him, but I don't know. I don't really want to go into them. So when he says goodbye and you're suspended, like what does he say? In six months you can come back? Or is it in? He was like, go compete and go train different gyms and they come back.

But like... You don't want to come back. I feel like he... Now when someone leaves you like that, I kind of let that sour taste in my mouth, you know? How does this work? He's going to call you up one day and say you're back? No, he's the same guy. He hasn't texted those, nothing.

Like, how are you doing? Yeah, and when you say us, you mean... My friend, too. But, I mean, like, he has a text to me. He has a text to him. So it's kind of hurtful. And, I mean, at the end of the day, those feelings don't go away. Sure.

All the years that we had together, everything. You know, you can't say, hey, how's your training going? Are you doing okay? Or maybe even, okay, I'm going to suspend you, but let me do it after the world. Or let me do it after the biggest fight you have with Jake. It's leaving him with no training. And now I'm even in the same situation because it's weird for me to go at different gyms because I don't like that. I like to be with my team.

That's my team. That's your home, right? So now it's like, I have like no training really, you know? I'm bouncing around different. Yeah, where do you train? That was my next question. Right now I'm at this gym called U&E's in 37th Street. I'm real Santana.

I actually competed against them and now we're, so how does that work? You call him up and you're like, can I come out? Actually, we went to him, we said, hey, you know, this is what happened. He goes, I want to talk to Marcel first, make sure it's not serious. And I mean, so he went and talked to Marcel and he said, you know, we can train with him. Huh. And what's it like?

Do you feel weird there? Uncomfortable? No, I don't, I don't, there are a lot of good guys in the Miao brothers are there. You know, it's just like, it's a weird situation because I want to come into somewhere, you know, and I have to figure, I have to find the right spot for me, you know? And it hasn't, I've been to Drysdale's, I went to Drysdale for worlds because I knew him since I was a kid. It's just weird, you know, it's weird from being with someone and then you go somewhere else and you're like, this is my team. Did you consider leaving New York? Yeah, kind of.

We were in Vegas for a little bit, and then, you know, I'm all over the place right. I have, I saw my apartment. I signed the lease from my apartment right before this happened. So I'm like, kind of, like, you know, where's just. situation. But yeah, I mean, it's weird, man. I haven't really talked about it since. There's so many things like you haven't talked about it. I know it's close to my heart. Sure. You know, I didn't want to, I don't know. Because it's like you could talk about it, but I don't want to say anything about Marceli either. It's like, that's my coach and I would never do that. I would

never make a video and put that out there. So it's weird. You know, I don't want to bash a guy. He's a legend. He was my idol before I went to him and then he ended up becoming my coach and a dad figure for me. And, you know, he, he, he just needs to you know kind of get his stuff straight too you know like it's not just one-sided you know and anybody that knows me personally knows that you know so

did you consider going to the henzel gracy gym nah I like hensel but fuck those guys are in that gym they're a bunch of pussies why but hensel is a legend yes yes hensil and donner are good guys but all the guys are all bunch of pussies why I mean you don't like them we have a big yeah yes I know

yeah but I mean that's not happening me and gary I don't think it's gonna happen Why? Wait, that's Polaris, right? August 15th or something? I don't think that's going to happen, because he's all talk, but he fights all these different weight classes. So what happened after the Jake fight, I took the fight at like 170. I was so mad, I was like, I'm going to fight here. And then I didn't realize that ADCC right after, which is 88 kilos, which is 194. So my coach is saying, we've got to put weight on it.

You know, that's the biggest tournament of the year. And that Gary won't even budge and go to 180 for me to go down. Like, he's just like being like, like, like, pussy. Like, he talks his whole thing, I'll fight anybody, anywhere. weight and then he's not fighting me at 180 when he's fought viti magillus and he's being vitting magillis he fought paula's like it's like come on dude i'll fight anybody i'll fight him in the fucking street i don't give a shit you know weight classes don't matter to me and i fought i already proved that i fought anybody when i fought jake there was no weight classes like there's

that doesn't matter me 180 for god's takes he won't take so i'm not gonna what was the original weight 172 but i can make 172 but it's stupid for me to cut weight two months and they go i rather put muscle on and i mean ADCC's way bigger than gary i mean i'm helping him out of anything I mean, he has been me, but at the end of the day, no one really cares about him anymore. And you're talking about Gary Tonin, for those that don't know, and this is Polaris in the UK, and it was going to be on Fight Pass. So right now it's dead?

I mean, at this moment, that's what I'm feeling like. Wow. But I mean, now he's probably, well, I'll do it because, you know, but behind the scenes, it's like, come on, bro. Like, we talked about this for, like, two months. Really? You know, it's like... Who represents you?

Like, who does your deals? Me. Right now, yeah. But I'm trying, I might sign with Audi. Okay. So, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. But right now it's just me

And that's how it's always been And Marcello's never actually Help me with that either You know, he's just me So Well, what does someone make for like an ADCC Or not an ACA, a Polaris Or a submission of your ground?

The best paying one is Chales actually The Chilin actually takes really good for it Like, you know Care of the fighters And the thing with Jitsu too Another thing is like A lot of these guys, they accept nothing And then it kind of fucks everybody else

Sure of course They'll take it Okay, you want this fight Oh I'm gonna be on I'm gonna be on flow grappling like, okay, I'll take it. It's like, come on, you're going to ruin it for everybody else. Yes, yes. And like, and that's one thing I've been trying to help the game with is trying to make the money higher. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? So that's one thing that these jihisu guys need to understand.

You can't be accepting free geese for this shit. You know, you need to get, if you want to, if you want to, if you want to, if you want to, if you want to, you got to respect yourself and you got to know what you're worth. You got to know what you're worth. These guys are going to take advantage of you. So. Do you get paid for ADCC? If you win, I think it's like 40 G's or something. But nothing before? Nothing before. Wow, you can make it to the finals and make nothing? Well, I think first, second, and third you go something. What about sponsors? Yeah, you get sponsors.

Okay, and that's up to you, right? Yeah, but I mean, in jihito, they're not kicking out cash like that. Right. You know, that's another thing I want to go to have a main more because I love spending money. I love buying nice clothes. I love buying everything. So, I mean, I want to get that real money, like, not this shit money. So the Jake match happens just a few weeks after the Marcello thing, and you lost that fight.

It went into multiple overtimes and stuff. And then I saw. Watch that fight. And, I mean, tell me who's a better fighter. I went on your Instagram after and you were like, you know, I see what everyone's saying, F all of you, I'll be back and things like that.

But looking back, do you feel like it was a little too soon? Like, were you two kind of frazzled from the Rosel? No, I don't want to make excuses. I was in that fight, you know? Jake is really good, to be honest. Sure, sure. He's a legend. He did too.

It was a tough fight, you know? And he just, you know, he nodged me in that little system, in that little rule set that. Sure, sure. Those guys, now his whole team is all over. It's like, come on, dude, that's like, that's one little thing of Jiu-Jitsu, you know. If you watched the match, I had him in danger, like, multiple times. If there was a ref's decision, I would have killed him easily.

So that little, that rule set I hate. I never did he be out of my life, but then you're kicking out a little bit of cash. I'll like, okay, I'll do this rule set. But if that was a Polaris rule set, like, even they messaged me, I would have won easy. So, Jake is really good, though. I mean, he beat me, you know? But like in that rule set he'd be made. I underestimated that rule set.

You know, I maybe didn't put too much time into it, but hats off them because he's fucking tough because he ate some of those submissions that no one can he, you know, he's super experienced, too, because there was double times that had him in some deep spots and he just, he managed to squeeze out, you know, that's just, that's just experience. And I do have a lot of respect for Jake. He's a good guy. What happened after, like now, okay, so you left your team and you lose, like, were you feeling really down?

Was that a bad period? I mean, it's still kind of rough for me, but... Okay. You're kind of coming out of the hole? Yeah, I mean, it sucks. It honestly does suck. I mean, I tape this shit to heart. Like, it hurts me.

It really does hurt me. How do we get you out of the hole? I got to get back and start winning again. That's it. That's the only remedy. Yeah, I mean, like, a lot of these guys in Jiu-Jitsu, too, they don't understand that they give all these praise of these guys that do no-ge grappling. Okay, Garretan or Gordon or something like that.

But they're only doing what they're good at against guys that are not that good at it. I fight in the key against the guys that have been trained. in the geese since they're 10 years old in Brazil every single day, four times a day. I fight no ghee against guys like Gary Turner or something. I fight any rule set, EBI rules or anything. I'm all over doing every... So it is a little bit tougher than just if I just train the certain rule set. That's it.

I train EBI rules, okay? I know how to do... All I do is train on the back in the armbar position. I train that every day. And then I fight someone that's like... Then I take a great fighter and I pull them into my system. I'm not like that. I'd rather go on the ghee and fight someone with their best at.

they're pulling a bunch of gey guys into a no-gee match and then they're like oh i beat this guy it's like come on you know what he's good at you know and that's one thing i always pride myself is that i do any rules i don't give a shit i'll play in the ghee tomorrow i'll play no-gee so that's that's one thing that a lot of jutsa guys are messed up in the head i think any brawl kind of brainwashes them or something i love any bro but like come on dude those eBI tournaments are not that

serious there's no one really that going in it what does your lovely mother say about all this this funk that you're in i know you're very close to her right She'll come grab me on my apartment slamming. Is that what happens? Yeah, I mean, yeah, she's my number one supporter. So, like, she's, like, has my back all the way, and she's always motivating me, sending me stuff.

And, you know, it is what it is. Like, it's kind of hard when you don't have, you know, a coach or something like that. Sure. But, I mean, it is, like, I'm, I can handle it. You feel like a rudderless ship here? Like, you're trying to find your way? No, I mean, I can handle it.

Okay. I was built for this, you know? And since I was 15, I've been in the gym and always overcoming obstacles. So that's just, this is just another obstacle. and it is way it is. Everybody likes to put someone down, but I'll never do that. You know, like, when I saw Aaron Pico fight, I fell for him. You know, I was like, it must be rough.

You know, I would never put someone down for that. And in this game, you have ruthless people. But I'm too strong for that. I don't listen to any of that shit. I'm going to overcome everything, and I'm going to still get to where I said I was going to get. And that's just the way it is, you know. Where did you say that you were going to get to?

Be the champion. Yeah. Any organization, Belator, you'll see anything. Everything I said, I mean. You know, and people don't. understand that I really, this is my life and this is all they do. They might see me, oh, he dresses like that, but this is martial arts is the way I go. When you debut for Bellator, are you going to come back to BJAJ or once you're being?

Probably not. I mean, I do want to, but I feel like you should commit yourself to full to something. You see a lot of guys in this, in MMA or Jiu-Zitsu that they don't commit all the way. And that's kind of where on the spot I am right now is where I need to find that I need to commit all the way. Because even when I'm doing Jitza, I'm thinking I have Belator. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it's folks in my head, but you need to commit all the way to something. and you need to go all the way in. So, I mean, obviously, I love jih Tzu up in my passion, but if I'm going to go to MMA,

I'm going to be the fucking best. Like, I'm not going to just be some other guy that's just hanging out, and, you know, I want to kill them all, I swear. Speaking of hanging out, I see you hanging out with Mia Kang all the time, training with her and stuff. Are you her coach? What's going on?

Just a friend. You guys were hanging out at MSG? That was actually, that was actually a coincidence. Come on. Sitting right next to each other? It's a coincidence. They gave me the thing, and it was like, right there.

I was like, oh, fuck. Why fuck? No, because I was just like, this is going to happen. But, no, but she's a badass. She's going to be bigger than Ronald Rousy, man. You think so? I think so. She works hard.

She's fighting in a couple weeks, right? Yeah, yeah. In Thailand? Yeah, something crazy happened with her team where that girl she beat, like, asked for a rematch, and then in Thailand, if we don't accept a rematch, it's like disrespect to the gym. Oh, wow. So she might have to, like, fight the girl right before she has the fight. You're kidding.

Yeah, some crazy crap like that. Wow. But, like, I know, like, UFC and Beltra are, like, fighting for her. Like, it's crazy. It's awesome for her. From what I understand, there was a meeting recently. Yeah, yeah. Another one.

But for her, she's a badass, man. She's going to kill it. But once she commits to MMA, will you be her a B DJ coach? Why? I'm not, I'm not one with his coach. I got to worry about myself. You got to worry about yourself. I mean, I would probably train with her.

It would be a training partner or something, maybe. So when you were on last time, you kind of insinuated that you were a thing, and then she came on and refuted that. So where are we at now, after MSG and Instagram? I'm young and having fun. I live a good life, I swear. besides all the fighting stuff, I live a good life on the other side. So I don't know if I want to be too tied down right now.

Oh, okay. I mean, I'm having fun. I live in New York City. I'm traveling all over the place. You know, I wouldn't want to do that to someone. Why, you want to break her heart, is what you're saying. She's knocking at your door, but you're like, you know what? She's the same way, though.

She's traveling. She's in Thailand. It's the same thing. You know, I have a lot of love for her, though. I have her back, and I think she's awesome. You think she'll do well in MMA? I think so. I mean, if she puts the same dedication she has into modeling or into

Muay Thai, then why not, you know? How's her ground game? Because I see you guys training together. Yeah, she came to the gym to watch and stuff. I haven't really like... Oh, you didn't actually... She has like a bunch of jihad-jitsu guys, like, heading around and I'm like, crazy.

Shocker, right? Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you know how guys are, but I mean, she has a lot of high-level people and she has a good team around her. I think she'll be fine. Watch her go to Marcellos. Yeah, well, that would be crazy. Staping.

High. She'd be in Marcello's new. protege? Yeah. And then he'll get mad at her because of her Instagram posts, then it'll be... Hers aren't too bad, I don't know. I mean, be yourself.

Like, that's how I feel. And then Marcel doesn't like me for that. So as of right now, you think you're done. You'll never go back. I don't think so. I mean, I would... Have you seen that? What's that movie?

It was Roberto Duran. You see that new one? Oh, the new one. Yes, yes. I have not seen it. No, but I want to. Well, there's like a part at the end where the coach kind of leaves him. At the end, he calls back at the big fight.

He, like, walks out of the shadows. I was thinking like, man, maybe when I fight for the title one day, he was like walking out of the shadows and be in my corner. But who knows? Then you'll say thanks, but no thanks. Nah, I mean, I would always be loyal. Yeah, I respect that. That's my guy. Yeah, he gave him my black belt and he, you got to look out for the guys that look out for you, you know?

And that's why I have a lot of loyalty for the people that looked out for me. You know, and he did, you know, what, coming up. So I always always loved. Is the story, so you used to get into fights as a kid, right, growing up in Jersey? Yeah, it happened. Yeah, I got into a couple fights. And that's actually how I started training. So you weren't like, like, around 15, 16 you were getting into fights.

Prior to that, you had no martial arts background. No. Did you do any sport? Yeah, like soccer basketball. Like every kid. Yeah, yeah. But nothing too serious. Yeah, that was actually, yeah, nothing too serious.

And so who tells you, maybe it's time that you try this out? Who introduces you? That was because of the fight. So what happened was I got into the fight and the kid was actually like seemingly popular for some reason. What was the fight about? Oh, no. It was like, I mean, I was a smaller kid. I wasn't like, you know, and he was like, oh, I'll fuck you up.

I'll make you believe. either. I don't remember. Some crazy stuff like that. And I was like, I'm not going to back down, you know? He was like, after school. I was like, I have a movie. And I was like, all right, cool. So I'm walking, and I had a best friend at the time. I mean, he's still one of my best friends, but he was a wrestler. Okay. And I called him. And I was like, too, I never been in a fight before. I was like, what the fuck do I? I was like, I need him

and choke him. I was like, I don't know how to do that. I was like, I don't know how to do that? I was like, what do you mean? He said, just take him down. I was like, all right? So I'm like, So I'm like walking and then like we go down this hill and it's like a circle of kids. I swear you out, it was like a high school. And then it was me and him in the middle. I was like, this is crazy, you know? And like people are coming out of the woods.

It was like a huge circle. Everybody's recording with their phones. The fight was actually on YouTube for a little bit. I got taken down. Wow. Crazy was that. Some kid just recorded it? Yeah, some kid was one of my friends that I got taken down for like inappropriate

because it was like the two kids fighting. Wow. So what happened was I took him down and I put on like a rear naked choke and then like he tapped. And everybody was like, what the fuck is that? Like this is not fighting. He actually tapped. Yeah, he tapped, and then I let him go. And the first time I'd throw any punches, like, I, like, threw him.

And, like, uh... And you had no background in that? No, nothing. Did you watch him in that? It was, like, a natural, no. It was, like, it probably covered his face. Sure, sure, sure, sure. And, like, so what happened was, they, uh, oh, where was I with the fight?

So, I totally, I tapped him. So then they're, like, that's not real fighting. They're like, we wanted to throw hands. So, like... Rematch. And I was like, oh, fuck, I just tapped this kid. I got fighting again. So this time, I took him down, and I started punching him.

the back of the head, like, hard. And I didn't realize that, you're like, you shouldn't do that because he got blow up your fucking hand. Yeah. I was, like, handing him, and I choked him, and he tapped again. I was like, this time I'm done. So I tried to leave, and, like, the older kids, like, took my butt back, and they threw it in the mud.

And they were, like, no, like, you're a bitch. And I was like, fuck. And I just left, you know? And then my hands were all swollen. So I was, like, home, you know, and I was, like, I won this fight. And then, like, back then my space was, like, the thing. Okay. And that was getting message was, like, we're going to kill you.

We're going to find you and wait until you get out of thought. So back in the day, you have to use the walk, and then the bus was like right here. They were going to catch you before and jump you and kill you. And they were saying like some crazy shit. And I was like, fuck, this scary. You know, like, I don't want to get jumped. Sure. There was like, fucking tens of messages.

Sure, sure, sure. I need to learn how to fight. So every day I would get out of school, they were way for me. I tried to grab me before I got to the bus. Holy crap. I swear I, yeah, this is like, not, I'm not. I'm exaggerating. Like, I remember you vividly.

And there's a teacher, actually, I pretty sure I can't talk about it. but they would try to grab me before I got onto the bus and I was like, I can't deal with this every day. I'm not going to be scared for my life because there's like tens of kids. It wasn't just one kid either. It wasn't like one-on-one.

So I was like, I mean, I heard how to fight and I ended up watching a UFC like I think I bootlegated on the computer and it was the same period with Sarah and he was taking him down. The second one? Yeah, the second one. And then I ended up seeing a magazine after Jiu-Zits. I was like, that's the same thing.

And I went and I never stopped. In the beginning I was doing Moitai too. And then I was like, the Moitai guy was a little bit weird It was just like jab punch And I was like, this is not really like Jiu-Tzy's more for me Sure, sure I should have probably stuck with it

now thinking about it But then I just did Jiu-Jitsu for the rest of my life and that was it I never like really went out I didn't really have any friends I just train all day three times a day

I was a kid Like those stories like If you ask people from Jersey Like Jim Miller And those guys I used to train with They'll tell you some crazy stories about me And like A lot of times

I usually try to hurt me and stuff Because I got pretty good at a young age And then people would try to like punch me And like it In the gym? Yeah like choke me and hold it Why? Try to pull me out.

You guys, like 16, 17 years old. You get into asking him, and then. Like a man, a grown man is upset. Yeah, and I mean, it was like, I used to skip school and go with the gym and all them to the city and train. Like, I didn't even care about school. I hate the school. I just wanted to train all day. I just have folders with the moves on it, and I would just stay in class.

I'm looking at the moves. Wow. Yeah. So was it the first time you walk into, which gym was it? Where was it? A big club. Oh, you walked into that one? You live next to them?

No, like 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Okay. My sister and my mom would drive me every day. So, I mean, kudos to them. Did you go because it was the Miller brothers? No, honestly, it was a magazine ad. I was like, this is Jiu-Jitsu. I just went there and then ended up, I was doing Jiu-Jitsu.

I didn't really see J-Mir-Dum until later on where I got really good for the J-J-J-Jitsu. So it was a little bit of a hobbyist. So I got pretty good for the J-Git-Ti-T team. And then there was guys in the class that I had friends with, and they were saying, like, oh, Dylan goes too hard. And there was stuff like that. I was like, I just want to be the best. Like, I can't go too hard.

So then Mike Constantino was like coming to this class. It was wrestling. but strikes on the ground. So this is at a young age. I'm like learning, I'm just going to an MMA class and I'm wrestling I'm punching on the ground

and like that's how I kind of met those guys and then I kind of went into that side of it. Okay. But the only reason I did that was because I wanted to get better Jiu Jitsu guys because like Jimmy and those guys wouldn't do like the regular Ghee Jiu Jizzer.

So then I would train with them I was trying to Charlie Brennan been like all the stuff. Is Mickey Gall there? Yeah, he was actually. We used to train and get him out. Yeah, I mean he was a little bit younger and I was younger too.

Okay. He was kind of on and off though. wasn't like one of the staples at the gym. Okay. But I remember Jimmy Haddis a lot. A lot of good guys. A lot of good guys that, it was a good room to be in because they have a great mindset,

those guys, and they're older, and they taught me the ways of fighting, you know, and all those guys are fucking tough motherfuckers. Yeah, you know, like Charlie Brennan, like,

they're all tough motherfuckers and they're not anything. So they're tough. So, like, they taught me how to be tough, you know, and I always appreciated that. And I think that's why I am now who I am, because I came up in that Jersey room. Like, man, Jersey dudes are the toughest dude

in the world. feel like. And so when do you decide to leave to New York City? How old are you? What happened was I was like, I was like 17, maybe like 18, 17. And the jitzy wasn't really for me. I mean, it was for me, but at the gym wasn't really like, people were kind of avoiding me.

And if they rolled with me, they weren't really trained and be like kind of like staying away. I was like, it was kind of boring for me, honestly. I was like, this is not fun. I was like, no one wants to roll me. I'm just like the whole time trying to grab the guy. Yeah, yeah. So then my coach was like, you know, like, you know, I don't know what to do. Kind of like, and that was just like, okay, I'm going to go to Marcel's like once a week

or twice a week. So my mom got me like a train pass. And what I would do is I would go to school. I would get out like two. I would go to the train at three, train two sessions at night of Marcellos, whatever classes he had, and then I would come back at 12 a night and go to school.

And by myself, I was like 17 going into the city. Yeah. But I mean, at the end of the day, like it didn't feel anything because that's what I wanted. I wanted to be the best. And I would do every class hey in me,

and sometimes it wasn't for, you know, I needed more. So I would go on and off to Marcel since I was a little kid, like a bluebell, I think. Wow. Two times a week, three times a week. And then eventually, I kind of stopped for a little bit

because I was getting rough. And then I came back and I... Rough in terms of just too much. Traveling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Every day you're going on and you're staying. And then the worst part was, is that you would train,

if you would train, if you had to train, you had to wait for the next class of night or something. I just had to sit like Panera by myself and, like, or my little brother were coming sometimes. So it would just kind of get a lot, but then I went to Marcel's full time

when I was 19. You moved. Yeah. So did you graduate from high school? Mm-hmm. But you didn't go to college? college for me And was your family okay with that?

Yeah, I mean, but my mom supported me because she knew, she saw what I wanted. I always told her, like, at the end of the day, if I don't make it, I'll sleep in the gym, and I'll do anything to make it to where I want to be, you know? And that's one thing I know about myself

is that I can do what I want to do because I'm willing to do it. I'm willing to fucking live on the mat, and I've done it before to get to where I want to be, and I just know what has to be done, you know? Why did it click and how did it click? Like, you don't meet a lot of kids who say I want to be the best in jiu-tut-to because it's not on TV.

You can't buy the pay-per-view. You know, it's not basketball. How did it click for you? I never actually thought about it, but probably in the beginning was like the feeling of, you know, doing something. And then, like, in jihitsu, you can see everything. It's like, okay, you know, one day you're getting tapped by that guy. And then the next, maybe like a month or two, then you tap that guy. And it's just a feeling that it's just like, oh, no, it just gets you, you know?

And then you feel like you're getting better. You feel like you're learning new moves. And it's just something about it, you know? And I was always a little bit mature from my age. and being with those guys are adults, and we felt better than hanging out with the kids of my grade, honestly. It was kind of cool. I would just go there, you know, they were like talking to me about girls

and we just trained, and, like, it was just a good environment. I don't know. I fell in love with it. I used to, like, come to the class at six, take it six to seven to seven to seven to three, and then a seven to three to eight 30, and I would just stay all day there. Wow. Yeah, and when I first started, I come and do one pushup, not one pushup. That's all, like, how many of you do now?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. In one shot? Yeah, probably. I don't know. But when I first started, man, I was not very good.

I never did anything like that before, nothing, like, wrestling, nothing. Did you think about going back now that you're sort of a free agent? Hey, me? Yeah. I think their team a little bit is nice. Because I actually do go back. I was there for a little bit in Jersey training. After I first got Adam Orsel, I went there.

And this guy, Jonathan Hellway, he's an MMA fighter. He was kind of, like, coaching me and stuff. I always have those friends there. And, you know, I like to keep a good relationship with all these guys, you know? Yeah, I like them. I don't know if I would train their full time for like MMA, but I always have a good relationship with Mike Costantino. And what did those kids do once you started training?

Like, how did you get rid of those guys? I just have to keep running to the buzz every day until eventually, like, yeah. It was a good feeling, though. Well, I joined the wrestling team. I was still doing, I started with Jiu-Zitsu first, and then my teacher was the wrestling coach. And then my friend was a wrestler, so everybody was like telling me how to wrestle, so I started doing it.

And like my son were here, one of the kids that tried to jump me was on the wrestling team. We were partners. I beat the fucking shit. I was like, motherfucker, you know. And it felt so good to me, you know? Yeah, yeah. I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I can't handle him so easy, you know? But at this time I'm doing Jitsu for a year.

And I'm like, fuck, I was actually scared of this kid. Like, he was trying to jump me, you know? Like, I was like, fuck. And then I realized, like, you know, I'm a different animal. That's like, you know, you kind of start believing yourself small steps, you know? And that's it. I can just click from me. I don't know.

And did they ever try, like, did you ever get into another fight or was it? In school sometimes, because, but then it started getting to the point where I was like, okay I know this kid does Jiu-Jitsu and let me see if I could speed him Oh You know, let me see if I can fight him Like is he that good Like you got a couple of idiots there

Like you know And I would just like throw them And arm bar them A couple of fights Like nothing too crazy That would always It would be easy for me Because like when you know

Jiu-tzu And someone doesn't know Jiu-tzu It's too easy It's like it's like It's like playing with the baby I swear you got It's too easy

And like I would just throw them And like Kind of get them an arm But like you're good You know Like chill out You know Or something like that

But Has anyone ever come up to you positive stuff. Okay. And I do get a lot. I do get very nice, but I mean, I only positive. I never had someone that was a hater. Okay.

You know, it's crazy. Only online. Yeah, only online. But that's all fake shit. Like, all those people are posse in real life, you know. Where does this come from? This? The new hair.

This is a story behind it. Okay. So in Brazil, when you go to the favela, it's a big thing in Jiu-Zitsu. A lot of favela kids, I'll dye their hair, blonde, you know? And, like, for the world, I did it because, like, I'm really big into that kind of stuff. and I've been to the fails before, and I'm very big into helping, like, stuff like that. And their passion kind of goes on to me,

and I kind of felt like I'm funny for all of us. I feel like at the end of the day, no one really wants me to succeed, and no one really believes in me, and outside of my circle, you know, and probably they feel the same way. You know, like, they probably feel like they're institutionalized, you know, and like no one believes in them.

But, you know, that's why I like to do it. And it looks good, too, and girls like it. Okay. I feel like sometimes when I do this, I'm, like, kind of like, you know, I'm like, you know, we can do it. You can do what you want to do. So you've done this before, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, I've done it for ADCC. Yeah. But I just kept it now because, like... So what do you usually do? Do you just let it grow out? Yeah, or shave it out. The last one I did, it was only on the top. Yeah.

There's a lot of crazy articles out there. It's talking about why I did it, so I'm happy we cleared this up. What are they saying? I mean, you probably read them before. I'm saying I did it because the Connor has blonde hair. And I'm like, this is the most ridiculous stuff. And there's, like, big websites. Like, MMA, what's that one website with, they had the stupid other articles,

the elbow. I don't know if you guys don't. Well, no, no. They were actually kind of... It was like, he makes an article saying that I did my hair. Like, that's the stupidest shit of her. I was slapped the guy. Really? I've never seen that. Yeah, like, I don't know. Whatever. Fuck it. But I still, yeah, that's why

I do it. There's actually meeting. Like, people actually took the time to talk to me and I, just judging me right off the bat, then they would learn a lot about me. So you must have incredibly fixed skin. Yeah. I mean... Is that... Have you always been that way, or did you have to learn that? Yeah, I guess. He's just kind of... And coming up, like, in Jersey, like, like,

You hear a lot of shit people talk about you. In Jersey is a tough place, so you kind of get thick skin growing up, you know. What's your background? Your nationality. Half Armenian and half Honduras and Armenia. Which side's your... My mom is from Honduras and my dad's Armenian. Is your dad still around?

Not really, no. Okay. I don't really thought of it. They're not married? No, no. My mom's remarried, but my stepdad, they divorced when I was like nine, I think. What happened to your paternal father? He's not doing...

He's just doing his old thing. You don't speak to him. He had some tough times. He used to work on Wall Street. He was actually in 9-11. Wow. But he made it out and like kind of, after that, kind of messed up his life a little. Really?

Yeah. Do you know where he is? Yeah, I know where he is. He sends me some like stuff like about fighting and like being my coach and stuff. I mean, I still love me with my dad, but my mom was basically my mom and dad for growing up until she married my son. So they were married in September 11th? Yeah, yeah. Wow.

I remember him coming home and he had his whole body covered in ashes and everything. It was crazy. How old were you? I was a fourth grade or fifth grade. It was very young. It was very weird for me because I remember watching on the TV and then I remember him coming in and it was like serious and I was like fuck.

And at that time, he worked with his brother on Wall Street and he couldn't find his brother and like but he ended up finding him. It was like scary, you know? And later on in my life when I got older he told me like, you know, he saw like people jumping and like arms flying and it was some serious shit, you know? And it did fuck him up,

but at the end of the day you got to be able to persevere and kind of come over that stuff but you can't let it affect you like the way it affected him. and kind of ruin his family, you know? It's heavy shit to talk about. Wow, and then your mom remarried. Yeah, so when I was like 13, and then he was, you know, basically my father figure and stuff,

I always had like, even my, the guy that brought me up the brown belt, I actually didn't get all my bills from Marcello, Jamie Cruz, he's a black belt, kind of was like, you know, they always had a lot of good dad figures in my life. The guys that kind of steering me in the right path. You know, I was lucky with that. So I always had guys that were always looking out from my back.

How many siblings do you have? I have, another crazy story. I have a sister. Okay. Oh, that's my real sister. And then I have a brother and another sister, but they're my cousins because their parents passed away, and they ended up moving in with us. Wow. So it's like a crazy whole story, but I mean,

that's my family. Both parents passed away? So my two dads married two sisters. Wow. What do you mean your two dads? I'm sorry, my two dads. My dad and his brother married two sisters. Okay. Yeah, they're two kind of, you know, and the dad was, both our dads were in our lives, and when his mom passed, they moved into us.

Okay. Yeah, so... Are you guys close? Yeah, my brother is, like, my best friend, you know? Okay. Same thing with my sister, you know. I'm very close with family, and I feel like in this kind of game where you hear all this crazy shit, you need to be close to the people that love you because that's who really matters.

You know, if they're telling me something, then I'll listen to them. I'm not going to listen to some guy on Instagram. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? And, yeah, I love my family. I love the way it is, you know? I wouldn't change it. Did your siblings compete?

No. He was playing. basketball for a little bit. Now he wants to be a DJ. My sister played D1 soccer actually. Wow, where? Iona College. Yeah, of course. Yeah, New York State. And then my other sister graduated from Penn State, but she doesn't do so much sports. Oh, you have another sister. Okay. So, you have a actual thing from Penn State for art. And then she does art. She graduated from Penn State for art. Okay. Yeah. So crazy. I have a lot of crazy things in my life. That's why a lot of people

like to judge me, but they don't understand what I've been through, you know? So, you know, Fuck them all. I was just going to ask, do you want people to understand you more? Do you want people to like you more? You really don't give a shit. Because at the end of the day, I know who I am, and I know the people that I love, no.

You know what I mean? And that's how it is, you know? So, I mean, at the day, they're going to pay to watch me lose or win. You know, it's the same thing. You know, Connor always tells me is like, let them, hey, and watch the money pile up.

So that's what he always tells me, and that's how I feel. So fucking fuck them all. Like, they're all going to hate either way. Even if I beat Jake in 10 seconds, they're all going to talk shit. What about this Neiman Gracie? Yeah.

You're going to fight him? Do you know who he is now? Well, yeah, he actually came and talked to me. He said, yeah, he came to talk to me. Where? MSG? Yeah. Okay. He was like, no hard feelings.

He said the media kind of starts this stuff. You know, I mean, that's one thing that I don't put nothing on nobody, you know? So if he came and talked to me, I'm not fighting him. You know, I don't have a problem with him. If he was fighting me, it'd be a different story. And that's one thing I talk about it and I always been about is, like, faking shit is it's not cool, you know? And Connor believes in that, too. I think faking shit, if it's real, it's real.

If I hate you, I'm gonna fight it. It's it. But if I respect you, I'm gonna shake your hand and go on, you know? That's it. And I didn't even know the guy. And then he came and said that to me. I was like, okay, I don't really have a problem with you. Like, you know, there was nothing for me.

Maybe you had a problem with me, which most of the people in this game is that they're having a problem with me, and I don't know who they are. So it's like, you know, like he's a good kid. I guess he came. He was very respectful. And that's all good. Yeah, I mean, way might scrap is there on. When do you think you will debut?

Do you think in 2017? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, I thought to comment off about it a lot, and whenever they say I'm ready, you know, I feel like I'm ready to kill everyone. Will that be your team? I mean, I think so. You'll go train there?

Never know. I haven't committed 100%, but I talk to those guys, like, on a daily basis. I love everybody over there, and I think, yeah, I think it might, I think so. I think I'm ready right now. I really, look at Damien Maia,

what he's doing those guys. He's not going to throwing punches. It's amazing, right? Yeah, and I feel like you do exactly the same thing, or even better. So I'm going to have every single one of these guys. They don't know. Your Jiu-Jitsu dream match.

Is there one? One guy today. I fought the guy before, but I would like to fight. A lot of these guys I would like to fight in no time. I'm very big on watching old videos. I love those gracey in action videos. You just go with you two and then that's it until someone dies. I would love to do that with a lot of these guys in J-J-J-J-Zoo because a lot of these guys just try to hold me out.

They stall me because I'm dangerous, you know? and they just try to hold me and they try to stall. But in the fight to death, you can't do that. And there's a lot of guys that act like they're so tough. And it's like, okay, dude, you just held me for 10 minutes. Like, if I can just go with no time with you, I'm fucking damn. Yeah, yeah. But a dream matchup, that's pretty tough.

I fought the guy twice, but I would probably fight Leandro Logan. I would know if you're familiar with him. He's one of the best pound for pound. So even like, even you could pay Cois Gracie. You could pick, you could pick. And then, maybe we're talking to Jiu-Jitsu. Like today, yesterday, you know. Probably Bicheshire or something.

Hadolfo. There's so many names, you know. Who do you think is the greatest of all time? Marcelo. Yeah. All time, but right now. All time. All time, Marcelo, 100%.

Who's right now? The Angelo. Okay. Angelo. And Marcelo is the best because he fought absolute. He didn't give a shit. He did it, and he did it his own way. There's a lot of guys now, like Hoffmanez everybody talks about, but he never took

a risk. You know what I mean? Like, you got a risk. He's amazing. He's one of the best. I charm with him. He's fucking amazing. But to be the best, you have to go out of your comfort zone.

You know, and that's the same thing Connor did. He went up and fought a belt where he could just stay and bid the best of his weight. And I feel like people appreciate that, you know? So if he went up and he fought absolute one time where he went up another weight class, I think, like, that would. MMA dream fight? Is there a guy? Ever? Ever?

No, not for MMA. Present. Present. Well, now I'm signed the belt there, so I have to be careful. You know, you don't have to. People change. Like, you hear about Gagar and Musassi? Just happen.

I feel like Douglas Lima would be easy fight for me But You see what Ben Ashburn did to him Yeah, I did. I did. I mean, it was a different level. Wow. But that's not in a dream fight, that's serious.

Yeah, that's going to happen. Dream fight all time, I would, I would, I'm going to go with like pride and shit because I'm going to be cool to fight something like Mark Coleman in his prime just because, like, to see what it would be like to fight someone like that, you know. What about who's available now?

Who's available now? Roy Mac That's like That's not a dream I don't want to give shit No It's not really like a dream matchup He's not that like special

Really? Yeah no Dream matchup I don't know There's so many guys I don't know It'd be hard It'd be hard

So you really think You really think you're in there With Douglas Lima It's an easy fight It's a one-sided fight Like that You look at He doesn't have any grappling

He doesn't have You know If I get him down He's fucked Yeah That's a whole I feel like if I get him down he's done

And I seen it in What if you can't get him down I'm gonna get him down I'm gonna get hold of him down Damn so you're You don't want the slow track I mean you get in there Okay I'll tell you any

We can build me up where you can I'm only 23 So why not build me up Sure What that's why I feel about those matchups I really And like when I call these people out Like John Jones

I would kill John Jones In a jitzy match But that's 100% Anybody he asks It's an easy fight I don't know why these people Are going crazy But if I fought John Jones

Joe's a jitza It would be easy Yeah Like he doesn't know what he's doing I mean, he doesn't know what he's doing, but it's a different level. He's a white belt, though, in the jihers. I fight against the best guys in the world in Jitut. That's an easy match for me. I don't know.

And I called out the best. I called out Ameri Khan. I called out John Jones. They both said no. You want to fight Amir Khan. You said on the undercut. Did he actually say no? He posted that thing and, like, you know, talking to something.

He said no and like code. Okay. But all these guys say no to me. So I'm going to say no. I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say no. And I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. I respect that.

I had John Jones and him say no to me. So, you know, I think the real fight for Ameri Klob would be a fight Artem on the undercard. Imagine that. Wow. That would be cool. He said no to me. So I think he's going to fight Artem. Artem would knock him out.

Wow. Yeah, so I don't know who to call it anymore. Everybody can say, I know. So I'm just going to kind of stay over a little bit. I have to say, I really enjoyed having you in here and getting to learn more about you. I like, I like this just talking. Yeah. You're the best in this.

So that's what I waited to talk about all this stuff with you. I had to ask you like a thousand times. No, no, come on. One time, yes, you're in, you're out, you're going here. After a world, I went a little bit of a... Yeah, you kind of went off the grid. Yeah, I had a lot of fun in L.A., man. It was fun.

I have a lot of cool parties and stuff. It was a lot of fun. Cool parties. I like to go to some of those. I'm actually going to L.A. tonight. Really? I'm going to the tour. Yeah, I'm going to L.A., Toronto and New York, no London.

L.A., man, that's crazy. And the women are crazy, too. They are. They are. I wouldn't know. But so I hear. I have three kids I've ever come to LA You know, you've watched

From the outside Then I'll do everything That's right I'll get my hair Yeah, we'll get you blonde And remember that time I think we talked about it last And by the way

You know it's your birthday next month Your birthday next month right You know how I remember Because you were on after 202 and your phone died Remember? The first time you were going to be on I was like

Vegas will kill you man This guy I killed my phone when they didn't get me I know I was like this guy's gonna stand me up On his first time But no I saw you Kanye West

backstage that was amazing I don't know if I should talk about this up but there's a lot of cool people meeting around here what do you got the other night we went out and Neil Nicaprio was there I thought that was pretty cool wow do you talk to him yeah a little bit but like you know I'm not like that guy

he's a badass I was like that's pretty cool he's Romeo you know do you have like nine girls around them yeah he's got so many girls on the boats he can do it he's a legend yeah he's a legend it's cool man but you know you can't get caught up in that stuff you gotta make sure you stay focused to the real goal which is martial arts I mean that stuff is fun

after you could pee and you go out, you know, but yeah, you can't let that stuff consume you. You got to stay focused on the track, and the track is to be the best. And that's all that matters. So next up, it's August 15th, maybe not. Who knows? Yeah, I mean, fuck the, I'm like, I don't really care.

If he wants to accept it or not, but. What if they give you another fight? They don't want to because, like, they're probably, yeah, they're just like. So if that doesn't happen, you're just going to wait for... I'll just do ADCC and the fight in the way. I mean... But for money, is that okay for you?

Yeah, I'm going to be. I'm living good. You're straight? I'm living good I've lived a good life Did you get a signing bonus from Belator? Or did you have to fight? Am I allowed to talk about that?

I don't know You said last time you were the highest paid guy You pissed off everyone Michael Chandler was pissed off Yeah but Michael Chandler He was the third I mean See I saw him in the street

For the New York City anything He just put his head down And I'm like Really That fight though I will give him his respect That motherfucker's tough Yeah yeah

Yeah He has He acts like oh cut it off But did he fight Who's the guy Will Brooks Yeah He fought Will Brooks

And he was getting hit And he told the guy to stop You remember that? I don't know Stop, stop. And they stopped the fight because he told him to stop the fight from getting hit.

So it's like, how tough are you though? You know, it's like, I don't know. But I do give the respect to him, man. I thought of fucking one leg. He was mad about your comments. What was he going to do about it though? So you actually saw him and there were no words. Yeah, I mean, no.

But for me, I'm not saying anything about him. He's talking about me. And then you see me and then you're just like, you know, so it's like, I don't understand it. So it's like, don't talk shit about me in person. You're not going to say into my face. Right.

That's one thing I learned as a little kid. if you say something about someone, say it to their face too. Sure. And it's just you two. Yeah. But, you know, kudos to him, man. He followed a fucking broken foot or whatever it was. The motherfucker was just,

well, in hands. I was like, that's pretty cool. But did you get a signing bonus? No. They took care, no. Because there's so much money that they're just... But I mean, like,

these fighters, even what I got paid for belt, there's a lot of sponsors. There's a lot of stuff behind it. Yeah, yeah. It's all coming together. Yeah, so they're not going to know. So it doesn't matter. All right.

Well, thank you very much for stopping by. This has been great. This is awesome, man. Dylan Danis on Instagram, one word, right? Oh, were you cut off or retort? No, no, no. How come, because, like, you're the best show and having me. How come they don't have you on, like, TV, like, full on?

Like, you should be the guy. I agree with you. I'm being serious. I don't really know. Is there a reason? Well, you know, I was on Fox for a little bit. But, like, you're the only guy that knows what they're talking about. I swear to God, I was in L.A.

Yeah. And a guy got me on the street. Like, I don't know if TMZ or something. He goes, are you going to fight Rich Franklin and Bellator? What? I'm like, I swear to you, I'm not, I'm not joking with you. This actually happened. I said, is he like, he's been alive?

I'm going to know. And you're one of the guys that knows everything about M.A. You, like, you dissect it. And they should be prey, they should be putting you in those spots where they got these guys like Tony Ferguson talking about. M.M.A. is like, no what the fuck he's talking about. And then he started talking smack about me on Twitter. Tony Ferguson. Yeah, he called me a joke.

But think about it, I'm preaching that you should be the guy that's all the oldies stuff. Because you're the only one that is. You're the number one guy, and you've been the number one guy for how many years? That's hard to do. Well, I was on Fox and it was good. I didn't feel like they were giving me opportunities.

And then, of course, the bosses got mad. And when I say the bosses, the UFC, and then I got blocked on Twitter. Dana actually blocked you because I seen that. I watched all your videos. He blocked me on Twitter and Instagram. But it's not like you can't go with him.

I asked him at the press conference, and he said no. Is that like the most, if you guys ever have like a private talk? Since the whole banning thing, we have not had a private conversation. But I'm good. I'm straight.

Oh, they banned you, though? because you speak the truth? Hey, it is what it is, man. You're outlaw now. You got your own show, you're outlaw. Look at me. Yeah, this is mad cool. I can't complain.

It's probably better than the Fox studios. I don't know. I never been there. You said it, not me. I don't know. I'm just saying. This shit's really cool. I could do whatever I want here.

The people had Vox treat me very well. You know, it's cool, too. You're authentic. You got a bunch of guys that are putting, they're just telling them what to say, and they're just like, all right. And then he asked them about Pride and Pride FC, like Bushito, 7.

at least you know what the hell is going on you know everything. I am a fan and that's why I like talking to people like you but no my dream always was really to have an interview show that's all I want to do just like this

and I wish I lived in a city like I love living in New York but there's not that many people who live here who fight so it's not often that I can have people like a thing where you guys watch like old pride videos and like toss them out

that'd be cool like mystery science theater that's like our face just talking about old MMA stuff I love all I used to have when I was growing up I had every single UFC and like on DVD

all the way to the top and pride and I would just watch it I swear to God I still have the picture I could tell when you were looking at the stuff that you knew it was on my Instagram I have every single UFC pride I love

I like the greatest fight of all time and for me yeah for you for you your favorite I had like Sakaraba and like Hensel or like Sakaraba It's tremendous Sakuraba I just met him for the first time yeah the Hall of Fame in Vegas

I literally was in awe of him when I was standing next to him That's pretty cool We did like a scrum interview like I felt the great greatness oozing out of him. That's awesome. Who else was it?

There's, I think, Nogera and Mark Coleman was at the time Mark Coleman was like, who the fucks him off his back fucking triangle him. There's so many good fights. Hanzo, I mean, Ahanzo, Sakuraba and Hoys Gracie fight.

He's a legendary. That was insane, yeah. He went to them in their own rules and fought for like 90 minutes. The Gracie killer. I'm a big fan of Sakaraba. I think he's awesome. But there's a lot of great fights.

You hit me on the spot. I don't know. But yeah, that would be cool one day. We'd get some pride fights and just watch them. All right. Commentated. like snoop out those on those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he's doing it for the UFC tomorrow. Is it real? Yeah, yeah. He's doing like commentary for their Tuesday night fights thing, the Dana White, him and your eye of favor, like alternate commentary.

So we'll see how that goes. I'll see you Thursday, yeah, I'll be there. Awesome, man. In the BK. In Brooklyn. Dylan Danis, what a guy. This has been a lot of fun.

Thank you for doing it. Good luck if it happens in August. Keep us posted and good luck, of course, ADCC. And then when it's time to do the MMA thing, you'll be back. We'll talk about that. 100%.

And don't listen. You know, you don't need me to tell you, but don't listen to the haters. You know what? And I agree with you about loyalty. If they're not going to stick with you now, then maybe it's time. Yeah. You know, just listen to your circle. Yeah.

It's all matters. All those other people that you can talk all they want, but they're not going to pay my bills. Thank you, Dillon. All the best to you. You can walk out of our guys standing by for you right there. We like to do this on the fly. Oh, you're still live right now. Yeah, we're still live.

We keep going. We keep going. We still got some more time. Thank you very much to Dylan Dennis. As he walks out. We appreciate his time. Often misunderstood. truly at his core a great guy. I think you saw that in many respects here and I really

enjoy talking to him. It's so great to have the longer conversations where we could talk to people and get to know them. It's an amazing thing. I really enjoyed that. Awesome. Great stuff from Dylan Dennis and I wish him the best in August and September and looking forward to seeing when he will make his Bellatory MMA debut. What a great coup that is for them. All right. That's it for the interviews. We're going to do Rick's Picks now and then it's time for the MMA after hour. If you have not hit us up with questions. Please do so. Hashtag the MMA hour

will be live and exclusive on Twitter. TheMMA hour. Dot Twitter.com is where you can watch that after hour segment. People are enjoying it. I appreciate it very much.

But for now, it is time for... There we go. There we go. Up your ears and your minds. M.MA fans, it's time for Rick's picks. Rick's picks.

Yeah. And his hair is in a bun. Because it's, you already know what it is. Yeah. 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 RixPix. There it is.

Bonjour. Hello. How much so va? Bien? Hello. That was fun. Dylan Dennis, the man. Yeah.

not a fan wow no he did good bring Dylan in here so we could choke you out choke you out Stephanie out all the haters back there oh speaking of choked out bring up alister over

we'll bring alister over him oh yeah what about that was that not impressive what the choke or you not tapping I'm standing there it's media day the most stressful hour of the entire week and I can't get any interviews

everyone's being you know they're crowded, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I'm talking to Casey, our cameraman. I'm like, I'm not getting any interviews here. This is crazy. And then all of a sudden, over him, who I wasn't going to interview, comes up to me and chokes me.

And I'm not tapping. Let the record show, I'm not tapping. And it actually went longer than we got on camera because Casey didn't notice at first, I think. And then he starts really squeezing by Adam's apple. No joke. Then I started to get really worried, but I did not tap, let the record show.

So I've stuffed his takedowns, and I didn't tap. And then we got an interview, so it all worked out. Good defense so far against Dallas are over here. I'd say you're 2 and O at this point.

Thank you. I would say so as well. Okay. I did better against him than Verduem. Just kidding. Yikes. Just kidding. Fabricio. Okay.

Let's do these ricks picks. We'll do rick's picks and then in the after hour we'll discuss what happened the weekend as far as the draft is concerned, but I want to get the rick's picks for the YouTube Facebookers. So here we've got our first video and you're going to notice

a different, these look a little bit different here. We actually have them embedded in our, in our program with audio, the video playing out. Here we've got Gabby Garcia, who threw a soccer kick, which led to a no contest in her MMA fight. I'm happy you pick this one. Or not MMA, what is this, Muay Thai probably, kickboxing of some sort. There it is, there was the soccer kick. no contest for Gabby Garcia.

So can I just say something about this? Yeah. Gabby Garcia was actually going to be on the show today. Oh. But it just got a little too crazy with the whole Valentina Shivchenko thing. And I sympathize with Gabi Garcia and I'll tell you why.

She's obviously a very unique specimen, right? I mean, there are very few women in combat sports who are as big as her. And so it is hard for her to find someone of equal size. Now, that's not. to say that she should be fighting someone who is that much smaller than her, but it is very hard for the promotion to find someone, and I think that they are capitalizing on that. All she can do at this

point to make money is to fight the fights that she is being put in, right? And so I know she kind of looks like the villain here. And that fight, I mean, it shouldn't happen, right? I mean, look at the size difference. This shouldn't happen. There's a reason why there are weight classes in this world. But I do sympathize her, sympathize with her because she wants to compete. She wants to try to, you know, advance her career and make money. It's just a tough thing. Now, it doesn't, obviously, it doesn't condone these kinds of actions,

but I just feel like she's being put in a tough spot. That's all. Absolutely. I mean, think of it at even a lesser level with Chris Seiberg. She has a tough time finding opponents, and she's not even as big as Gabby Garcia. I think clearly you're right that there's something difficult about matching them up.

There aren't, there isn't a talent pool. There isn't a wealth of talent that size that's willing to fight her. That said, you can't throw an illegal kick. I just wanted to preface my statement of not condoning that action. With sympathy for Gabby, which I understand completely. Okay. Next, we're going to go to Twitter. Okay.

We've got Daniel Cormier. Oh. Yo, Johnny Bones, John Jones. Congrats on your suspension for steroid abuse. lifted today. Only a few more weeks now. So please no fuck-ups, thanks, DC. DC wishing John Jones staying out of trouble

over the next couple of weeks. And a happy suspension-lifted day for John Jones. Which leads to the next bit, which was this fantastic promo from the UFC. You didn't get the John Jones reply. It wasn't good enough. Wow.

It was not good enough. It doesn't make... Yeah, tell them. Nobody's a bigger fan of John Jones' John Jones than yours truly. That replied and make the cut. The Twitter god John Jones usually rings more heat than that. Wow. But right here, speaking of bringing heat, this promo, absolutely incredible.

So I'm not a fan of like greatest of all time, greatest of all time. And sometimes we get stuck in that. But I will say this. I said it on Saturday. I still believe it. The greatest promo in UFC history because of the honesty, because it told the story. By the way, that's my interview with Dana. And they zoomed in to cut me out.

Did you see that? I mean, I think it was smart on their part. Wow. Can't even get my nose in there. But it really is. I mean, there is no stone unturned in this one. I love the shot of his dad. One complaint is they don't put the graphic up for his dad. Like, it's too quick.

Look how quick it is. You can hardly tell that it says father there, right? Anyway. But it's going through the entire story. And I mean, let's be real. It's the story of John Jones. It's not really the story of DC and John Jones. I mean, that's part of it.

But realistically, this is the story of John Jones, and it's a mind-blowing promo. Okay, but here's the thing. Here's the thing about that. And at first you're kind of like, okay, but A, the return of the king is the story, right? Of course. And then you add, you know, the first fight and the rivalry. But this is where it all ties in together. Not this.

I'm saying this quote. It comes up. The only way he becomes that person is if he loses to me July 29th. Daniel Cormier is talking about he needs to sort of become the better person, all that stuff. The only way he becomes that good person is if he loses to me July 29th. That's how you tie it all together. Cormier have the line of the whole thing. He ties himself into it.

John Jones can only sort of become humble and realize that he is flawed if he suffers defeat on July 29th. Freaking brilliant. So freaking. I'm getting goosebumps just watching this. The greatest promo in you. greatest promo in UFC history. They killed it. I can't argue with that. Cannot argue with that. Look, they screw up on the marketing often.

The Nunes thing was a debacle. The posters, for the most part, I've been a debacle, but they've gone better. They hit a grand slam with this one. I mean, the fan promos are sometimes better. This one was just so freaking money. When I watched that, oh my God. And then I was so excited to go back to my room after 213 just to watch it again. Absolutely.

I think everybody collectively acknowledged it right as it was happening Whoever did that take a bow Our next pick We're going to

MMAfighting.com With video from December 2016 Another great choice Amanda Nunes Talking about her struggles With pronounce this

Sinicitis I suppose that's how old Can we go to the beginning of the clip, is that possible? We can't roll back. It's going to restart. Okay, but in short, tell the people what she's saying here. This is from before the Ronda Rousey fight, and she's talking about

why it's hard for her to travel, right? Yeah, she's talking about, you know, the difficulty of dealing with this condition, which then, you know, obviously the tie-in now is we fast forward to the fight, or rather before the fight, and she talks about having difficulty with this

and it becomes the reason that she can't fight. which for some, you know, has been a controversial thing and for others has been a no-brainer in terms of justification for not making it to the cage. I mean, that kind of... Yeah, let's bring the audio up. It's okay. It's okay.

You summed it up. No, no, she... Sin his satisfaction. And, but see I got in the hotel, like, take my medicine and everything, it's fine. You're in Vegas now. You guys are already. Yeah.

Yeah, we're already back. Why do you want to get there early? Because of that. Yeah. I can't drop them. Yeah. We're at sea level in Florida. So whenever she, like, goes to a higher altitude,

the pressure in her head because she has, like, olive and scientists. So that day or the first day or two, she needs a couple days to recover. So to get back on another airplane, would have just, she wasn't feeling well. It can make sense. It's pretty bad.

I can't, I really can fly again. So have you been doing that? You've been getting to, like, the cities earlier? Okay. So, suffice it to say, it's an issue that was known about. This is, you know, there's a tendency to, for, I don't understand it, there's a tendency for people to think that fighters are scared

or, you know, that they're making up excuses. Clearly not. This is all the way back in December, Amanda talking about, you know, how debilitating this can be and how she has to plan her travel around it. So next, we're going to, Yo-Romero asking you, also from MMA fighting, asking you, I think this is the more interesting part of this. Okay, I know you're going to point to

No, no, no, no, no, I want to clear something up here. I want to clear something up. Yeah, okay, okay. So this is my asking Yuel about the Cuban flag incident. Right? We can go sound up on this. Okay, how do you feel about that now? How do you have a flag?

Yes. Do you have a flag? Yes. Do you love it? Yes. Would you give your life for your flag? For your country? It's your country.

Same. So do you feel like he crossed the line? That look. I have never seen a look like that. The grunt. Now, people are like, Ariel didn't respond. Dummies, do you think he would have kept asking me the question if I didn't respond? I was nodding.

At that point, it was like, I'm going to let him, he's clearly getting to something. So I didn't want to keep going, yes, yes, yes. Ask anyone who is standing next to me. this whole damn place is filled with Canadian flags and I brought in the one for you American Cry Babies, all right? Of course, I was nodding. I was nodding. I didn't want to keep saying yes.

That's what you were going to ask me, right? Why didn't that? Of course. I was nodding. I was saying yes. When we see the video evidence, we'll believe it. They're not putting the camera on me. But I think powerful.

Powerful stuff there from Yo-L. Look. But now this is my editorializing. I think he's, He cheapened it with the next move, which we also have here. Are you crazy? No, I didn't like this. I did not like this.

We're going to go to it next. What he's talking about? We've got Yoel. He printed out Bisping. Yes. I think that's one of our picks. With the flag. He's holding the Union Jack.

And Yole, for the listeners who can't see this, he's lighting the picture of Bisping with the flag on fire. No, it's not Esther's. I see M.MA junkie. Oh, okay. My bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. We have a very similar one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, they printed it off the internet. By the way, he doesn't even get nervous. Like, at this point, I'd be like, oh, shit. Like, what, how do you think? Yeah, but you're not, you're not the soldier of guy. And then he lights his thing. He lights a cigar. Come on with the Cuban cigar.

No, don't like it. Why? Don't like it. This is straight out of 1980s pro wrestling. You cannot, you cannot. Yes, it is, but that's the problem with it. You cannot make the powerful statement that you made at the press conference. You cannot talk about how, you know, you cannot, you cannot talk about, you

can't talk about dying for the flag and making that, you know, that declaration and and that stoic demeanor that he had and then go on the, you know, social media and burn the flag the same way. It cheapens what you just said. It cheapens how important you, you made that moment out to be. Now it's just another, now it's just another social media employee for a fight. Now it's just building to a fight. I couldn't agree less. I think that this is deeply personal. This is a guy who obviously did not care for the politics. in his country defected and and still I mean did you see the look on his face yeah and then he goes on this by the way this was this was promo by the way this was promo you have to you have to um you have to

um you have to pay attention to the fact that that is not a flag picture that is not solely a flag that is a picture of michael bisping so i think he was cognizant it's cognizant of the fact that he did not want to just put the you know the the the the british flag in flames that was Michael Bisping holding the flag. And so in his mind, I think, this is me editorializing. It's a little bit different. You get what I'm saying? If he would have just taken a flag, he could have easily done that, but there was...

I think you're making the leave. I get what you're saying. There was clearly a message being sent here. Michael Bisping, you know, and he said some stuff in Spanish. Our own Danny Sugura translated it. You could see it on the website. But I think that there was a specific reason why they chose the Bisping photo, not just a photo of the flag or a flag itself.

It's great fight promotion. I don't know how you... I don't know how you can feel like it just feels inauthentic after seeing his face at the press conference. It's not inauthentic. What it is is now we know that that doesn't actually mean that much. If you stand for that, then you don't do it yourself. So what you're saying is two wrongs don't make a right.

Yeah. Like if that is the ultimate wrong, if that, if you take it, that seriously, I would die for my flag. Then you don't go ahead and do it yourself. Even if the guy is in the photo and it's more about the guy. It makes no difference. The message is the same. And again, I know about his

politics, but the only thing that thing was missing to make it the ultimate 1980s pro wrestling promo is him wearing the Fidel hat. Exactly. It was like pro wrestling is goofy, not serious. It's not, it, that moment can't be taken back now. Which fight interests you more? Yole Bisping,

Wittaker Bisping. Yoel Bispeng. Because I also think Bisping matches up better with Yowel. I don't think Bisping will fare as well against Wittaker. I think Wittaker is better equipped for that fight. He's what that heat. I'd like to see Yowel and Bispeng, but I'd also like to see the title unified. Okay, next, a little bit underreported because it was in the midst of a huge fight week.

Frank Meir granted his release from the UFC. I think it was worth pointing out. And he did his podcast, the phone booth fighting podcast. He went into the details of it. But they had some negotiations and Frank Mears is now a free agent. Yeah. And remember, this is something that he wanted back last year, right? I mean, he asked about it on.

We had him on the show. Yep. And so, look, he's got a little less than a year left. And kudos to them for giving him the release. Now he could do his TV work. And I still believe he wants to fight. At this point, he can maybe. fight overseas and then wait until the suspension is up or start to negotiate.

I do think that we will see him pop up somewhere soon. And, you know, if he didn't want to be there and they were going to keep him on the sidelines, let the man make a living. Kudos to all involved. Yeah, I think this is just a clean break and everybody involved is a winner here. The UFC doesn't have to, you know, keep him on the shelf. He gets to, you know, serve his suspension and then fight on if he intends to continue his career. I think this is the best way this could have gone.

good job to everybody. Next. Nate Diaz, winning the social media war. Immediately after we got some new social media post from Connor McGregor and Dana White, we got

Nate Diaz weighing in. This is from his Instagram. Little bitches, got your ass beat, you lost bitch, I'm the champ. So Nate taking the social media post, which I believe was from Dana, rather than Connor, and putting his own caption on it.

And followed this up with a second one. Oh really? I didn't see the second one. There's one boss here. Don't forget to repost my shit. And it's Nate slapping Dana and Nate slapping Connor McGregor. This is how you do it. This is how you do it, folks. By the way, I saw Nate Friday night in Las Vegas. It's always great.

It's always great to see. He has that superstar aura. When you see him, you feel like, okay, I'm standing next to a superstar and he seemed to be in great spirits. We didn't talk too much about, you know, business, his next fight, whatever. He said he hadn't really talked to anyone, but it was more just hello, hello, and then a bunch of people asked him for a photo. In fact, someone who actually is a coach on the Buffalo Bills, the wide receivers coach for the bills came up to me and I was like, you're not the wide receivers coach. And then he gave me his card and he's the actual

wide receivers coach for the Bills. You don't know the wide receivers coach on your team? First of all, it's a new team, new management, new coaching. He's brand new. He just started. And yes, just stop it. I mean, even with football. Football. Every sport you've got a bandwagon. Every single sport. Yeah, if I'm banwagging the bills, then I'm the biggest loser in the world.

You've messed up somewhere along the road, yeah. But yes, that was hilarious. I woke up and Connor had the pictures of him on the flight. Of course, I didn't see Dana's picture because I'm blocked. We've already addressed this. Chris Cyborg unblocked. Chris Cyborg unblocked. I'm happy that there was a positive ending to that story.

I'm happy that I can. Yeah, you're not going to be blocked. By the way, you do realize that he confirmed that she was blocked, right? Yes. Because if you can't find her name, that means she's blocked. Well, also, it wouldn't have been news for the Cyborg team to show that they can now see the tweets. No, because I'll just say this. There were some people.

There were some people trying to claim that Cyborg blocked him and was trying to pull the switcheroo. You see what I'm saying? but he couldn't find her, meaning she is blocked. Okay, we're going to end this on a happy note. Actually, we're going to take a trip into the way back machine here. This is from Old New York, Rick.

International Fight Week, 2015. I tweeted, where can I watch UFC 189 right now in Vegas? Please do not tweet the arena, even though I am now inviting that. So I was in Vegas with my buddies. I was there for half work, half pleasure, working for Invicta that week. And I also invited out my groomsmen,

and we were going to make a Vegas week of it. I wanted to watch the fights. It was impossible to find a place to watch the fights. Even places that show it on TV were charging cover charges to watch because it was Connor McGregor versus what was supposed to be Josealdo turned into Chad Mendes. So I'm looking for a place to watch the fights.

But I realized that a lot of wisecrackers are going to tell me, watch it at the arena, ha, ha, watch it at the MGM, even though that's clearly not the intention. That's clearly not what I'm looking for. So I tweet that out. Suffice it to say that half the replies were,

oh, watch it at the MGM, ha ha ha. And then a bunch of people trying to help me find it. But amongst them was one Twitter egg who tweeted the following. I have two tickets that I can't use. Send me an email and I'll see if I can transfer them via Ticketmaster. Whoa. I skipped over this because it was a Twitter egg.

I thought it was a joke. I thought it was fake. Ari Hertzberg tweeted this to me. Good Jew. I keep going and I get another message. If you send me your email, you could be sitting in Section 9, Roe C. So I thought to myself, what could it hurt? I hope it's not a fishing scam, but at least let me give it a shot.

So I send Ari or Ari my email. And lo and behold, I was sitting Section 9. row C for UFC 189. I got there right about when Rory McDonald and Robbie Loller was kicking off and I got to enjoy the co-main and main event. And you didn't have to pay. And I didn't have to pay a thing.

We had Ari into the old studio, but I'm celebrating the anniversary of this and giving a shout out to Ari Hertzberg on Rick's picks this year. Did you keep a touch? Haven't talked to him since he came to the studio, but... A little rude.

I would love to hear from him if he... Yeah, well, why don't you reach out? Is he still active on Twitter? Have you clicked on it? Not really. He's never really been active on Twitter. That's why he was an egg. That's why he was an egg.

But Invicta 13 was that week. BJ Penn got into Hall of Fame that week. Yes. USC 189 that week. Remember, Cyborg fought. And the Summer League. I checked out the Summer League before I left Vegas. It was a lot of fun.

Shout out to Ari Hertzberg. Made my week two years ago. What cyborg fight? Charmaine tweet? Yes. Yeah, I remember. That's it for Rick's picks this. All right.

Great stuff. But we've got more show to go. We do. This is what you have to do. If you're watching us on YouTube, on Facebook, on MMAfighting.com, you have to say goodbye to that browser, and you have to go to the MMA hour. Twitter.com. That's where you will find our exclusive live stream of the MMA after hour. We're answering your questions.

We're reacting to UFC 213, everything that happened, tough finale and Justin Gachie's forward pressure, punches and kicks we're reacting to all of that. So for now you can hit my music. Let me run down, say goodbye to everyone, do the usual schick. So much has happened in the last week in MMA, of course, the Hall of Fame.

We can react to that. I don't know what the questions were, but I really enjoyed the Hall of Fame. I know it was a little long, but I thought overall it was the right sentiment and I hope that it is a step in the right direction as far as the UFC honoring its past. I think it's one of the things

that they don't do very well. They don't honor its past enough. And I thought it was great to see Joe Silva up there. I thought his speech was the best one. And Sakharaba was great. Mori Smith, Uri Fabor. So we can talk about that. Talk about what's next for some of the big winners on Saturday and Friday.

Some of the losers, Travis Brown, should he retire, should he not retire? How about my first pick overall in the International Fight Week draft? Mark Diakasey losing. How about that? Gray Maynard coming back. We could talk about the Mayweather McGregor tour and some news that just came out earlier today. I'll be going to Los Angeles after this show, flew in from Vegas yesterday just to do the program, and I'm flying to Los Angeles.

I don't know if you know the map of the United States, but that's west to east, back to west, in the span of 24 hours, just for you, just because I love the show so damn much. Can't wait for it. It's my life. It's my oxygen. I wouldn't miss this. I asked them to move the presser one day to Tuesday and they oblige. How cool is that? So sit tight, go to Twitter. We're answering your questions. We're recapping the week that was looking ahead to the week to come. Don't go anywhere. The MMA after hour is live right now on Twitter.com. And we're back. How about that? I love that intro. Late night. Everyone's going to bed, but we're still. here. We're still going strong. Everyone's going to bed at 5.15 in the afternoon. You know, if you're in Europe, maybe you're going to bed. If you're in Russia, we'll keep the light on for you.

All right. So people... Speaking of time, speaking of that, can we talk about Gunner Nelson? Yes. And how much of a mention... Oh, him and his father, his manager are... For making that happen. So I screwed up. When I reached out to them, I said, can you come at 945 Iceland time? but it was because I was in Vegas and I added the three hours.

And it was just, it was a mistake on my part, which is, by the way, something I rarely do. I'm always very accurate because I want to look at the people's, you know, local time and make sure, and then I'll remind them a thousand times.

And that one just completely, yeah. You're typically very good, but they made it happen. That's right. So thank you to them. Thank you very much to them. It was great. I really enjoyed having them on via Skype

with that impeccable stream. Yeah, very good. I mean, they're pros. They're pros. Geez. Let's get into the, these questions here unless you wanted to kick off with something else. No, I just wanted to mention. I didn't know that this actually came out during the show.

I was, you know, focused on Dylan Dennis, but it appears as though Showtime has put out a press release regarding the Mayweather McGregor tour. So very excited to share with all of you that I will be a part of the Showtime coverage along with Moore Ranallo, Brendan Schaubb, Polly Malinagi. Tomorrow in Los Angeles, I will be serving as a sort of. of reporter, if you will, but then in Toronto and New York stops two and three, I will be hosting the festivities in terms of the pre and post fight stuff. So I'm really excited to be a part of the Showtime team. I mean, I'm honored, more than excited. This is incredible. This is a dream. And very, very, very, very much looking forward to working with all the great people over there.

And I appreciate them, you know, giving me the opportunity. So that's part of the reason why I'm going to Los Angeles tonight. We were planning on going. going regardless. And Casey will be there. The first three stops, Mark will be there in L.A. And I believe Chuck will be there in New York. I won't be going at least for now to London. But the first three stops out there. So we'll have MMA fighting coverage. We'll have showtime coverage. Pretty damn cool. It's something that I wanted to obviously cover and be a part of. And I'm very excited. I'm ignoring the fact that I don't know what time zone I'm in, how tired I am. I did feel bad when I told my son this morning

I'm leaving and he was very confused because usually when I come home I'm at least there for a week and he was like you're going again and that kind of broke my heart but otherwise I'm very excited I'm very happy I'm honored congratulations thank you looking forward to it I think it's going to be exciting too bad this too bad you didn't see this when Dylan was on

and you could say guess what I am everywhere and they do want it's not TV he was I think specific about TV but yes, I thought of that and I certainly did not want to usurp their announcement and piss them off on day one and so I'm happy that it worked out this way. Okay, let's jump into it. It's going to be fun, obviously.

Let's get to our questions here. Why have fans been so quick, this is in quotations, fans in quotations, been so quick to turn on Amanda Nunes. Even before the fight was off, she seemed to get more hate than love. So what do we make of this? Like, just the idea that people are, quick to blame a fighter and call them scared and rather than take the side of let's be cautious,

let's make sure that they're healthy. You know, it's, it's a disappointing thing and it's somewhat of a trend in mixed martial arts. I just feel like because we're talking about fighting and because we try to compare ourselves to the athletes. And so, okay, if someone came up to me on the street and said, hey, you want to fight? And I'm like, no, I'm good. They'll be like, what are you scared? I feel like people use that same logic here. And they, don't take into account, you know, the money and the health and what's at stake and the legacy and your career, this is their job. And if she truly was in a lot of pain and I'm going to take her word for it, I don't blame her because, again, there is such a great discrepancy between the

top and the middle and of course the bottom. And so if you roll the dice and you're not fit to fight and you lose against an incredible fighter, that's a fall far from grace. And it's going to be hard to climb that ladder once again. And so fans just react because they're upset, because they have money on it, because they bought tickets and play. I get it. I understand why everyone is upset. But again, to suggest that she was scared and to go through the whole process, look,

if someone backs out, you know, if you want to call Germain Durandemies scared of cyborg, you're not going to get much argument here. Okay? I still don't feel comfortable with that, but that's a little different. This is someone who went through the camp, went through Fight Week, went through the weight cut, did all the interviews, did all the squiremen, did all the squirt, square offs, did all everything, the press conferences, makes the wait, gets to Saturday and then can't do it, it's going to happen. It's just going to happen. And quite frankly, I'm surprised it

doesn't happen more often. Uh, I don't feel comfortable with people saying that she's scared. I, I am surprised when I hear the promotion come out and essentially say this was a mental thing and not a physical thing. And, you know, ho-hum, you know, we wanted her to fight. She was clear and she couldn't do it. Because again, they have to turn around a promoter. And how are they going to do so after you tell people that. So, I don't know, is that her calling? No? That's, you know, I don't know why they, I get why they do it, but I certainly don't agree

with it. What is happening? Listen, we're busy back here. Okay. Sorry. Took me out of it. Okay. Getting a phone call on the air.

But I was following along as much as I could. Clearly, the idea of a fight. a champion, a fighting champion, training that long, training that hard, going through all those rigors to make it to fight weak and then trying to find a way out of it, it just, it boggles my mind that that people would think that that's really what Amanda Nunes is about. Or any, to be honest, any of the fighters at that level, it's just not something that's going to happen. Let's, you know, err on the side of caution and support fighters wanting to fight in a safe way. our next question

125 Valentina or Yowna this was a fight that was proposed by Yowana obviously couldn't happen based on the medical requirements who wins at 125 go come on shoot you know better than to ask me these questions

shoot no I'm not answering this this is stupid first of all I've not seen Yonah fight at 125 and I've not seen Valentina fight at 125. Would I love to see that fight? Do they have like a ready made storyline for that new division? It's phenomenal. It's great. And again, kudos to Yuana for doing what she did and for being, you know, the gamer that she is and it was perfect PR and everything about it. I mean, even Dana got on board. Ooh, I almost spilled the water on my computer. But yeah, no, honestly, I didn't want to see it on four hours notice. I want to see a fit, Yawanna. I want to see one with a full training camp under her belt.

So I was on favor of that, but again, I'm not the one who bought tickets. I'm not, I'm looking at it from a different perspective. Hopefully, we'll see it maybe champion versus champion. Could you imagine that? How cool would that be? 115 champ versus the 135 champ at 125 champ at 125 for the flyway championship. That would be nuts. Yeah, I would like to see it.

Who's your pick? Oh, come on. You know I don't get into that type of stuff. Yes, you do all the time. Yeah, that's a tough one. I don't know. I don't know. I think Valentina,

I think the size would be a bit to overcome. I might lean on Valentina on that one. Wow. By the way, can we address the International Fight Week draft or does it come up? Let's just do it at the end. Let's just do some Twitter questions

and then wrap with that. Actually, let's skip this one. What do you make of Travis Brown's fall from grace? Wow. And Dana's comment. Dana's comments about him retiring. Yeah, Travis has definitely hit a rough patch. Gosh, four in a row.

What do you make of that? Four in a row just doesn't look like himself anymore. Ever since leaving Jackson's, there's really been a clear line in his career. I mean, it's just amazing. If you look at the level of opponent, though, outside of the, I mean, even this fight, let's look at the level of opponent,

I think it's hard to say that he wasn't fighting some of the best fighters in that division. He was. He just doesn't seem like himself, because he was beating some of the best. Yeah, but that's kind of always how he's been. It's been a bit of, you know, live by the sword, die by the sword. Travis is going to go out there and try and finish opponents,

which he almost did. So basically what you're saying is you don't subscribe to the idea that he should retire. I don't think I don't think I've seen enough here that makes me think Travis Brown is for sure a shot fighter. What I think is he's hit a bit of a rough patch. And the caliber of opponent has been very, very high. Do I think that he's as good as he was a few years ago? No, I don't.

But I'm not ready to say that it's completely him now lacking the motivation, the skills, the talent, the desire, and not that he's facing very tough guys. And at heavyweight, you know, you live and die by it. So I'm not ready to say it's over, but maybe one or two more. And I think it's hard to- Are you surprised Dana said that considering his relationship with Ronda Rousey? No. I mean, Dana's one of the people who,

does kind of, you know, say that he likes to, he wants to see people step away. So I'm not surprised. Yeah, but he usually says it about the Chuck Liddles of the world, the BJ pens of the world, not people who are somewhat in the prime of their lives, who, you know, aren't, like, he doesn't talk like that about them. And maybe he's saying that because he cares for Travis and their friends, Rhonda and stuff like that. But I was a little surprised to hear him say that. That doesn't necessarily mean they won't cut him. I think that heavy weights have a longer leash. I also think that his relationship with Ronda probably helps him. But yeah, can we talk about Alexio Lennox here?

This guy's the man. The bow constrictor, I love that guy. He's incredible, and we finally got word on how to properly pronounce his name. Excuse me, spell his name. Spell his name, yeah. That was a lot of fun. He has his wife cornering him. First time I got to interview him, so I was very excited about that.

His wife's in his corner. He said that she has been in the past eight months pregnant, and she still cornered him. It's amazing. The guy is a beast. I want to see them give him a real push. Yeah, he looked good on the ground like we would expect. But kudos to you for picking him and we'll get to that later. I was so nervous about that one.

Yeah, it looked like he was about to get knocked out. Or even maybe submitted, Travis looked, you know, like he was pretty comfortable in Alexi's guard. But that's kind of the thing. That's why I'm not ready. That's where Alexi is best. and he submitted Travis Brown, I don't think that that's any crime, getting knocked out by Derek Lewis.

Again, like that's... It's not a crime, but he is getting knocked out a lot. It is, but by the guys that that's what they do. I'm not so sure that this is all, you know, oh, he switched camps and now he's shot. It's possible, but I'm not ready to make that a guarantee yet. Justin Gachie, is he championship material? Can he hang in the top five?

I guess the question, you know, obviously you're not going to say Justin's going to beat everybody in the top five. But what I'll ask is Michael Johnson was, I believe, number six. Does Justin Gachey go to our top five opponent next? And does he deserve that? I mean, I love all the ideas he's throwing out there. The Barbosa fight would be

incredibly fun and that was the original idea. So I'm down with that. I'm down with Kevin Lee. I'm down with James Vic. I just want to see the guy fight. Isn't that more indicative of just the fact that you want to just see Justin Gachy? It doesn't really matter who he's in there with? Sure, but I do think that he deserves at 18

and 0 a win over Michael Johnson. I'd say put him in there and have him fly two to three more times I mean there is a long line I mean the queue at 155 is kind of long and you could sell him on a title shot tomorrow there's certainly a lot of buzz around him

but you mean an interim title shot an interim title shot fair enough yeah I don't know I saw I kind of want to get some resolution to the Habib thing with Ferguson but I understand if they wouldn't do that as of right now maybe Friday changed things as of right now I know that that's what they want to do that's why I say Barbosa, who's getting back on track and recovering from the shoulder surgery.

I also like the Kevin Lee idea. There's no real, you know, there really isn't a no-brainer for Kevin Lee right now, so I like that. I feel like he should be in that discussion. So there are a lot of options for him. I'm so excited. How about this? You wanted a resolution to Habib. How about Habib facing Justin Gaecchi?

Is that a resolution or does it have to be Tony Ferguson? No, that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I think that he asked for Ferguson and, no. Undefeated versus undefeated. Yeah, I don't know. Justin Geichi said in one of the best promos post-fight ever, where is my equal? He's looking for an equal.

Oh, certainly. That is a fantastic fight. I doubt it will happen next for a couple of reasons. A, I think they're going to try to put Gaichi in style-friendly fights. Not people that he will easily beat, but I think a Barbosa style, that's what they were thinking. Sure. Also, they're both managed by the same person.

Ali Abdelaziz, and I can't see him wanting to match them up right away. Let's talk about Mark Dio Casey. Yeah. Handed his first loss. Does this set him back? I think there's a tendency when prospects do suffer their first loss that people think that it's catastrophic. I tend to believe that Mark will be able to bounce back relatively quickly, learn from this, and credit to Close, who gave him a fight.

I think that that was one of the fights that people were looking for. forward to this weekend and it delivered. I was so impressed with close. I think both of them came out looking great. I don't think you can take, you could come away with that and think Mark looked bad.

I think that he just met somebody who was well prepared and also ready for that next step, ready for a push. So I don't think it's, it's anything but a road bump for Mark Gia Casey. I think he'll be back

better and relatively quickly. and for Close, he can get that rocket ship up to the next level. I was really impressed with Close. He had this massive chip on his shoulder. D.K.C. did a phenomenal job in building the fight. And then the stories that came out as the week went on of Mark D.K.C. was at the fighter meeting Thursday night and walked up too close, sat down next to him, and said, I'm going to knock you out tomorrow. That takes balls.

Now, of course, it didn't go as planned. It didn't come to fruition. But I like the heat. I like the crap talking. And it's a wake-up call. First fight in Vegas. Maybe there was a lot of pressure. But hey, don't sleep on clothes. Kudos to my man, Sean Al-Shadi for picking close.

And I was talking to John Crouch before the fight, and he was very confident. Of course, Clos's coach at the lab in Arizona. He was very confident. That guy's good, man. That guy is really good. And, you know, I didn't love winning the fight and going after him, but I could understand why he felt it was personal. and, you know, was upset.

If somebody sat next to you and whispered that they're going to knock you out in your ear, I could see why you'd take that person. I don't think J.K.C. is a bust. I'm not writing him off. But certainly, you need to take a step back now. Certainly you can't push him as much because he lost. And I want to see them get behind close. I think I really believe that this is one of those cases

where two really, really good prospects met each other, and you don't necessarily need to push J.K.C. back. I think he can stay on the trajectory he was on and just chalk this one up to meeting somebody equally talented. I don't necessarily think that this is one where, okay, he flew too close to the sun and now he needs to drop back. I think you can push both these guys forward after that.

By the way, someone on Twitter, I just lost it. Synchronic MMA just wrote DKC versus Northcutt. Who do you think wins that? No, come on. Too soon? Too soon for a Northcut.

Too soon for Northcut? Like, you don't think he's on... He's been in the UFC long. No, I know, but... I just think that's not. the right level of competition. D.K.C. is above him?

By the way, someone else writes, Andy Phelps, 982 says he just re-downloaded Twitter for the first time in five years. To get this. Respect. Shout out. Respect. Andy, you're the man.

Respect. We need more Andy's. Here's an interesting one. Did Dracar Close give Michael Bisping the idea about ripping up a flag? And when Dracar Close, you know, was in the ring, after, or in the cage, rather, after he won. He went after all of England.

He went after all the British fighters. Did that spur something? Did that spark something in the creativity of Michael Bisping to then go after Yoel and the Cuban flag? I don't know about that. You know? I want to know, I need to talk to Bisping about this. I don't know if he addressed it on the post-fight show,

but I want to know where he got that flag from. Like, did he actually come to the event with a flag? If so, that is a whole other level. And does he regret it? I mean, he's a brilliant. that they actually caught him on camera doing it, and then they tweeted about it. Now, here's something that people have said to me. If that was an American flag, they would not have tweeted it.

And so how do you feel about this? Do you feel like there's a double standard? Well, are you asking me if I believe that they would have tweeted about it? Yes. Because I think they would have tweeted about it. To be honest, yeah, I think they would. Okay, so what do you think would have happened? Let's say, like Chris Wyman's fighting and he's there ripping up the American flag.

What do you think would have happened? This would have been all over the news? Yeah, it would have been huge promo for it. So is it a double standard or is it incumbent on the Latino news outlets, the Cuban news outlets to pay attention to it? Like, you can't ask the American outlets to care about a man ripping another country's flag or should we care about all flags. You get what I'm saying? Like, obviously if it's an American outlet, ESPN is going to care about the American flag being ripped. But should we expect them to also care about the...

We've seen varying levels of xenophobia and, you know, attacking people's country and, you know, attacking people's country and, and, and, things like that across this sport and very rarely has it been censored so do I truly believe that that's something that the sport should be censoring? Not really. And the promotion should be censoring?

Not really. If there's an issue with it, maybe communicate that to somebody behind the scenes after the fact and then it doesn't happen again or put a stamp down and say Like if that was the case, then the UFC would probably have to come out universally now and say, we're not going to have any more of that, no more flag ripping, no more this and that.

Maybe they have done that. But I ultimately don't think the burden of that falls on them. And I ultimately don't think it's a line too far for them as a promoter. I think they can reasonably stay removed from it and even tweet it on social media without it being their responsibility. That's fair. that's fair i mean i look i i can understand why someone's offended i can understand why you all is offended but be offended with michael bisming not the ufc fair fair that's not that's not their responsibility uh how far behind is bellator after these signings it feels that more than ever the uc is slipping

so is is belator catching up in the in the arms race basically look i mean all these signings help but i'm not going to say that uh you know it's a one a one b that would be crazy i mean the ufc still has the biggest draws. But, I mean, let's just talk about the past year. Rory, Gagard now, Ryan Bader. I mean, these are big names. These are important pillars in their respective divisions. I love the Musassi signing because, A, he's on the winning streak. He's very good. He has the resume. He's going into a division that doesn't have a lot of excitement about it right now so he can actually cement his place as the guy there. Musassi is championing your division. You can rival the UFC's champ there, no doubt about it.

He's really coming into his own as far as his personality is concerned, his interviews. This is a phenomenal signing. And again, as I said, the Chale, they didn't let these guys go two years ago. No way. And so, yeah, there is something to be said

for self-inflicted wounds, Reebok, Usada, free agency, all that stuff. You know, you'd love to know the reasoning. They may say, oh, we didn't want to pay. we think that this is a better place for him, Bellator, like they said about Ryan Bader, but gosh, we know that they offered, this is the thing about the free agency game over the past year, year and a half.

A lot of the guys that they let walk, they didn't even extend offers to, the Benson's of the world, the Phil Davises of the world, the Josh Thompson's of the world. They actually offered Gregor Moussacia contract, and he went with Beltoor. That to me is fascinating. Gary Musassi versus Roy McDonald's is a phenomenal fight. I agree with you, but I think it's important to know what those offers were. I think that's important because, you know, you can make an offer to somebody just to... No, they wanted...

They wanted him Musasi, but then I think after the retreat, they realized that maybe he wanted too much or something. But they want him... Remember, they had him do a press tour. Yeah, he was doing press while he was a free agent. Which was bizarre to me, but... Kudos to Gayguard for... I mean, I think he's handled it well all along. He's on UFC tonight.

He's made his case, but didn't say, I don't want to be... back, he just, you know, he kept his options open and I think he handled it about as well as you could. And now he's with Bellator. Our next question. Fascinating. What a time. You asked, who did you ask this? You asked somebody earlier today.

Was it Dylan? You asked somebody about. Chale, Chale. Of course it wasn't Dylan. Dylan wasn't on paper. You asked Chale, had he heard anything about the number of Bellator NYC paper reviews? Have you heard anything? I heard a number from two people, but I don't feel confident.

saying it right now. Okay. Yeah, I don't feel confident saying it right now. But I will say the number I heard was not surprising. It's not like it did a million. I mean, that would be shocking, right? 500,000 would be shocking to me. So you kind of know the ballpark that we're talking about. I just look at the historic non-UFC pay-per view and we're in that ballpark, but I don't feel confident throwing out the number because... Sure. I mean, I'm assuming Dave Meltzer will have that relatively soon. Now let's prognosticate on pay-per-views.

UFC 214. Yes. Does it break a million? Oh my. I mean, look at that promo, man. That promo... I don't know if you saw this. But I asked on Twitter,

before the promo came out, if the appetite was still there for John Jones versus Daniel Corley... God. Do people still care after all these false starts, after all the delays? And I asked this before the promo.

I care. Free promo, 78% of people still cared. And in fact, I asked it in a way that asked, has your appetite for this, has it waned, has it lessened in any way? And 78% said no. So people still want to see Jones Cormier too,

just as much as they wanted to see it when it was first booked. And now, I think post-promo, I think that number is even higher. I think everybody wants to see this fight. God. And I think the rest of that card definitely does it some favors. I think UFC 214 is on track to do some massive. numbers. Man, I got to tell you, again, I can't sing the praises. I cannot wait for 2-14. I mean, the top three fights are phenomenal. And then you have Saroni-Loller, which was moved to that card,

I think it was last week. Then you have Ose Demir against Jimmy Manua. You have Sterling versus Burau. What else am I missing here? It's an incredible card. And I do think that the strength of 214 will affect the pay-rate for 2-13. Forget the fact that Nunes didn't end up fighting. By the way, one good thing to come out of the Nunes thing. I think people care about Nunez more than I thought. Like Bill Simmons retweeted my story. Now, to put some color onto that, Bill Simmons tweeted about it. The betting.

Because he had some money on it. People cared. People cared. I was surprised Bill Simmons doesn't follow me. I don't even know how it got to him. People care. Lamas versus Jason Knight. Great fight. Sage Northcut against John McDessie.

That's a great fight. I love that card. Jared Brooks against Eric Shelton is a great. fight. Josh Berkman's still fighting. Andre Feely against the dreaded TBD. I mean, the top nine fights are just phenomenal. So yeah.

Look, someone asked me about this just like a week ago and I said it all depends on the final week. If they click the final week, if the press conference is money, if the media tour is money, if they click and actually sell this the right way and the promo gets out there and there's not a lot going on in the sports world, I think it will do a million. If it fizzles to the 29th, and right now it's peaking. Sometimes things start here and go there, like I think of Jones Evans, 145, kind of started way up here and kind of

went down as the fight went on. Right now it's peaking. So I think it's, as they say, trending in the right direction. Quick follow up. If Jones or Cormier should fall off, does it do better or worse? What are you talking about? Does the, if Jones or Cormier fall off the card. Oh. Does the attention to it. Way worse. Way worse. Even though all the eyes would be on it because of that, because it happened again and now everybody's thinking about it.

But nobody would buy it. Or less people would buy it. No. Way less. Because I think there's enough of a card. The reason it's a question, I think, is because there's enough of a card there that it's still worth a purchase. It's definitely still worth a purchase.

Even if you took Jones Cormiere completely off that card, I think that's still a fantastic card. There would be added attention. because this saga continues. Yeah, no, I think it would obviously get hurt. I mean, the by rate would hurt. It would suffer for sure. I'm hoping.

Why do you even have to throw that out there? Don't give me the bad jing stuff, the bad juju stuff. Okay. Rhetorical question, but I think it's worth highlighting. Can we give a little praise to Mark Goddard? Yes. For being such a concise and reliable M.M.A. He's incredible.

Consisting really best. This is what's so amazing about him. Please. He'll speak. He'll talk about his calls. He'll go out of his way to make sure everybody knows, including the fighters, including everybody who's questioning it. He will always, and if he's right or wrong, he will talk about it. And I think that's the most important thing we can ask for his accountability. He holds himself accountable and he holds himself accountable to everybody involved, especially the fighters. We can't ask for more from a referee. He's not always going to make the right call and he's not always going to be 100% accurate. He's not always going to be infallible. But he's always willing to answer that call, which is the most important thing. Can I just say, I feel like, is it too soon to say he's starting to creep into the Big John Herb Dean conversation? No, not at all. I think he's in that conversation. I love the fact that they're bringing him over now from England because for the longest time he was never involved in these North American

shows, but he's starting to become more and more involved. Hey, look, we're starting to see a nice little wave here of new faces. And they're not new, let's be honest, but they're getting more opportunities. Goddard, Jason Herzog, I think is very good. Keith Peterson, I think, is very good. I think we need to give these guys more opportunities and less to the others who we've been complaining about recently. So, yeah, I actually think MMA refereeing is better if they use the right people,

and it doesn't matter if it's just five or six, just use those for the big fights. I think it's doing better than MMA judging. Oh, that's for sure. Yeah. But yes, kudos. Well done. Mark Goddard. He continues to get better and I love it. I love the way he kind of commands the Okgun. He's confident. He doesn't second guess himself. There's nothing worse than a referee who second guesses himself, who's unsure of himself. You could tell, you could feel it when they don't really know what they're doing or they're not really sure of what they're doing. You can absolutely feel it. And that's never the case with Goddard, at least not recently. And now let's recap. Let's talk about our little competition.

Oh, okay. Well, so this is what happened. Yep. Aspen Ladd. Friday afternoon, we get the word that Aspen Ladd is out. She was sick. She went to the hospital. Very unfortunate. She was very cool about giving me updates. And I appreciate that. And hopefully we could see that fight soon because I was looking forward to it. Jessica, I now saying her next fight will be at 125. So we may not see it anytime soon. But anyway. So I reach out to you. I initiate. I reach out to you and say, hey, what are you going to do here? You picked Aspen Ladd.

What's going on? You didn't even think of it. I don't know what you were doing. Yeah, I was working like an adult. By the way, so was I. Yeah, but I was working not at the MMA event where she falls off. All right, I'll take James Krauss. Yeah.

But Tom Gallicchio had a really nice win. Yep, dominant. I'm like, all right, I'm doing stuff. But then I'm talking to Sean Al-Shadi about this and he says, wait a second. This is problematic. How so? James Krause wasn't a part of the competition. Monday because they added that fight after the Ultimate Fighter.

But how is that problematic? Explain it to me. Walk me through this. Okay, that was a very sort of, come on, that was a very favorable matchup for one, James Krause. And you're picking out of a pool that wasn't available to me on Monday. Yeah, guess what? Aspen Ladd was available to me on Monday, and then she wasn't. Well, basically, what you should have done was pick someone.

That would have been the nice thing to do. That would have been the honorable thing to do. I'm not nice. I'm playing to win. I'm not honorable either. I play to win. I play for keeps. Okay.

So let's dismiss that. You pick James Krause, he wins. You pick Teruto Ishihara, so you start off 0 and 1. I started right off the bat with a dump. I think Grey Manor got 30, 26 and at least a few cards on that one. Okay, then what was next? So first you had Teruto losing. Then I had Krause.

Then you had Krause. So one in one. No, sorry. Then I had Torres. Tisha Torres. Then I had Kraus. So far, you know, one dominant loss and then two dominant wins. then I had Rob Font

another dominant win and then I ended with Anthony Pettus another dominant win So you ended with 4 and 1 4 and 1 I went 4 and 1 because you had Yes go ahead

Who was first of these Was it I guess it was Mark Chakese right Was first Then LaPrice LaPrice yeah Then Angela Hill

Big one Yeah Then Alexi Illinic and then Curtis Blades. Yeah. Not exactly in that order. I think Angela Hill was actually first. There you go.

So I went four and one. My first pick loses, which was a nightmare scenario. And then we lose Nunez-Chevchenko, so we never did the tiebreaker. So we have a tie. But you didn't reach out to me. No. I was wondering. Listen to me.

The fight is going to be rebooked, is it not? Oh, damn. So we've got ourselves a tiebreaker still, my friend. I can't believe. It's just going to be delayed gratification. I can't believe I went four in one. You went, you know what's funny? We both met went four and one last time two, and you won the tiebreaker with Yohanna over

Claudia. And it's very possible that we'll go four and one again and you'll win the tiebreaker with you had Valentina over Amanda. Wow. But we're going to have to wait on this one before it's all settled. All right. But we will settle this. You didn't even say that, though.

Are you surprised I went four and one? because I didn't think I was going to go four and one. Well, I thought it looked dicey for you with... Alinic? Alinic. But beyond that, I mean, as we can see, most of our picks did relatively well in their fights. I think Alinic aside was the only one that looked a little bit dicey.

Actually, Angela Hill was in a tough fight as well. But ultimately, it came down to an unexpected, I think, loss. Close, upset. Cicasey. And in my case, I was so sure Gray Manard was shot and Ishiahar just could not stop a takedown. So I think it really, I was very confident in going 5 and 0, very confident. Gray Manor's best performance since UFC 118. I think Ishiara was even my first pick, if I remember correctly.

Was it? Was it? Maybe I took Pettis and Ishiara somewhere in the middle there. But I cannot believe that he got his doors blown off like that. But it led to some great drama. we tied and we're going to get a tiebreaker later this year. I like how you just sort of made this up on the spot. I didn't make this up on the spot.

That's the rules of the game. Is it? The fight is happening, is it not? Okay, well, I didn't even know that. Like, you didn't weigh in like, hey, I know we lost the tiebreaker. This is the situation. This is what we're going to do. I didn't get any of that.

Would have been nice. What are you reading? What? Okay, well done. Let's play a little game of true or false before we go. Alster Overevereux. Did he earn a title shot? False.

Yeah, I agree. And Gano, if he wins against JDS, I think should get it. True. Is Anthony Pettis back? True. Anthony Pettus is back. Great performance, I think so as well. Should Amanda Nunes have been stripped?

No. False. Danny Rubinstein is all on this. False. Really. Do you want to see Chad Laprease? Should Chad LaPreeze fight Mickey Gall next? Yeah, called him out. Let's get it.

Man, I reach out to him. Yeah, I mean, well, Chad. Do we feel like Mickey Gall like lost all that momentum? You fight Sage North Carolina, you win, and then what happens? Was it the Dan Hardy thing? Maybe, but yeah, let's see that. Justin Gae, Michael Johnson, fight of the year 2017. No doubt about it.

Will it be fight of the year come December 31st? Yes. Justin Gachy, Tony Ferguson next? Love it. Yeah. True. Jesse Taylor. did he

reinvigorate your interest in Tuff? No, not at all. Great story though, right? You have to admit. Of course. Great storyline, but I followed it without watching any of Tuff.

Right. That's right. Is Jared Kannonier the best Jew on the planet? No, I'm kidding about that. Did you see that thing with Angela Hill and the Black Panther? I called it, I called it Catwoman.

I'm sorry. I'm not a comic book nerd. Like all of you, everyone was like, Ah, Casey was all upset. That was unfortunate. And also the Elias The Adoro one. Did you see that one?

The Breaking Brad? Yeah. It's phenomenal. So those two are great on social media, Angela and Elias, for sure. Did you see the Hall of Fame? I didn't. I followed it on 12. Oh, man, you missed out.

Kudos to the UFC and our pal, Aunt Evans. It was a great one. As I said, two years ago, I was at the BJ Pen one. I think the Hall of Fame is a great. No, but the BJ Penn one was like an afterthought at the fan expo. This was like a real ceremony. Now I will say it did go long At times it was painful

But overall it was very cool And how about Joe Silva All the inductees including Sakuraba I was blown away I said this I think to Dennis I was standing in front of him Doing the scrum And I was just

I was literally in all of the man It was something else Anyway everyone except Joe Silva Met with the press afterwards That guy Rolling deep with his money But yeah it was good I thought it was good on the Thursday

And then you had the Friday Saturday fight something was missing in the air, maybe no expo, I don't know what it was, maybe the lack of a big main event, but it did not feel like years passed, but the Hall of Fame was the best one by far. I want to give a mention about Aaron Rajman, the Mutsa Brawler, the ATT fighter who was killed last week. I didn't know him personally, but have obviously read a lot about his story, the Orthodox Jew fighter who was friends with a lot of the ATT fighters. You saw Tisha Torres, give him a shout out, a very sad story, and just wanted to send my condolences to his family.

And I hate to see that. It was just horrible, horrible to read that stuff. And then, of course, it's a big busy weekend coming up in mixed martial arts because we have the UFC on Sunday. We've got Invicta on Saturday. Are you going to Invicta? I am. You are. You're going to Invicta and Glory?

I am. Glory Friday night, Invicta Saturday night. Wow, and also Friday, Bellator. But before all of that, it's the debut of Dana White's Tuesday night contender series. Are you going to watch this tomorrow? I think I'm going to tune in, yeah.

Matt Bissette against Kurt Hollabock, the Boston Salmon, Joby Sanchez is on, Jamie Pickett. I'm curious to see what it looks like. Yeah. Will you listen to the traditional play-by-play? No, Snoop Dog time. Yeah.

So that's Tuesday, week one. I heard that there's a sponsor for that show, but it's not for the fighters. That's interesting. The UFC is kind of going around the UFC on this one. They're not the promoter. Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender series is the promoter. And it's not technically a UFC fight,

although it is official fight, and they have to weigh in and all that stuff. But I'm curious if it's going to pick up some steam because I think it's kind of flown into the radar. There's so much going on. I think it's actually going to coincide with the presser, which will be a little bit weird. I wonder if Dana White's even going to be at the show.

Belator 181, Derek Campos against Brandon Gertz 3, Kendall Grove against John Salter, Emily DuCote is on the card, and I know that Valerie Littrenau is supposed to be on the card, but she just pulled out. Joe Warren

also on the card, so that's Friday on Spike TV. There's LFA, 16, also on Friday, and then Invicta 24. Anything you want to say about that? Malana Dutieva against Mara Romero, Borrella. And of course, everyone's favorite

Gen U Frey against Ashley Cummins That to me is the best fight on the card Am I crazy? No, I think that's definitely a contender fight That's one to watch for sure And it's important Yeah And then Invictus coming back to Cali

Following that As reported on this show And then of course on Sunday Beginning at Noon Eastern It's the preliminary card on fight pass in Scotland And then it's the F.S1 prelims at 1 Eastern

and then the main card at 3 p.m. Eastern. Again, Joanne Calderwood against Cynthia Calvillo, Gunnar Nelson against Santiago, Pontinibio. Paul Feldor, who's a part of the Tuesday night contender series, he's doing the broadcast after this fight against Stevie Ray. Last fight on Stevie Ray's contract, so look out for that. And his performance, Paul Craig, coming back against Kalil Roundtree. There's some good names on the Sunday afternoon card.

And then, of course, we shall be back right here on Monday to recap it all, as always. But I think we're good. Anything else? Can we say goodbye? That's it. I'm going to Los Angeles now. Oh boy.

Maybe I'll get bumped up. Maybe I'll get to sleep. Probably not. But I'm happy I got to do the show, come back. It just didn't feel right. A lesser person would have gone from Vegas to L.A. And just hung out for the day, see some friends, do some work. I ain't a lesser person.

I'm here. Not saying I want to pat on the back. But I just, I can't miss a show. I feel empty inside. I feel naked. I cannot miss it. You can hit my music. We are done.

There's my flags. I love my flags. Make no mistake about it. I will die for my flag. Just because I didn't say yes. Just because there wasn't a camera on me. It doesn't mean I don't feel the same way about my flag. I just was nodding.

That's all. What a moment that was. What a stare. I'll never forget it. And then the grunt. That was intense. Overall, it was a fun weekend in Las Vegas. Great to celebrate my birthday there, 35 years young.

And now we move on to the next one. I want to thank everyone who tuned in, whether it was on YouTube, Facebook, earlier, and of course now for the MMA After Hour. Right here on Twitter, thank you again to our friends over at Twitter.com for the platform, the support, the friendship. Love it. It's so great. The feedback has been great. Stream is flawless. Everyone loves it. Really appreciate it.

And tomorrow, if you missed anything, you can catch the replay over on MMAFighton.com. For now, we shall say goodbye. Thank you very much to all our guests who stopped by. Thank you very much to you on Jaycheck. Good luck to her. Her meetings in Los Angeles coming up. And hopefully we do get to see her fight in Madison Square Garden. I think that makes a lot of since considering how good she did last time and of course the Polish community here in the New York, New Jersey area. Thank you very much to Gagamusasi for coming on the show and breaking the news. Congratulations to him. Thank you very much to Jesse Taylor. Congrats on the win. Congrats to Justin Gajee. Thank you very much to Chelsunit. Good luck to Gunner Nelson.

Thank you to Valentina Shevchenko and thanks to Dylan Dennis for stopping by in studio as well. Back next week, same time, place tells us there. Peace. Somebody out.