MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 395

Episode Date: August 15, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Daniel Cormier (00:05:48), Heather Hardy (00:39:17) in studio, Georges St-Pierre (01:31:19), Shayna Baszler (01:56:23), Brad Pickett (02:19:07), Dan Hardy (02:36:17), Paulie Malignaggi (02:54:07), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (03:42:05) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:19:09). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with... A mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, August 14th, 2017. Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. I hope you had a lovely week. Hope you had a lovely weekend. It is so great to be back here with all of you.

Boy, do we have a lot to discuss. Back from Las Vegas, short trip this time. but man oh man was it memorable Thursday we were at the mayweather boxing club taking in the Floyd mayweather junior open workout what an experience that was first time I've done anything like that first time I've been to the mayweather boxing club and just to see him work out at age 40 in a gym that probably while we're in I mean there was like 150 media members it felt like it was 120 degrees Fahrenheit it was sweltering in there and the man keeps going and going and going talking to the Characters like Floyd Senior, Jeff Mayweather, Jim Gray, the legendary sportscaster, had so much fun.

Leonard Ellarby was there. And then, of course, on Friday, went to the UFC headquarters. Yes, I was let in. I saw all your jokes. I did not appreciate them. Sticking it to me, sticking it to me. Got to take in the Connor McGregor media workout. Talk to every member of his team, essentially.

Kavanaugh, Lobov, Roddy, Lockhart, Ido Portale. It was great. Seeing him work out, seeing what kind of spirits he was in, and then getting the one-on-one interview with Connor, which was huge. I can't thank him enough for that. I was told that he was only going to do interviews with, quote-unquote, partners, and he said yes right away, stuck around, sat on the ring.

The lighting was great. I mean, just the whole thing felt really, really cool. His whole team was watching. One of those moments that I will never forget, and I can't thank him. I can't thank his team enough. And I can't thank you all enough for all the great feedback and for clicking on it and watching it. Had a blast doing that.

That was one of the most fun days of my career. Top 10. Just being a part of that, covering it, taking it all in. This has been a memorable ride. And we are less than two weeks away now. Hope you have been enjoying the coverage. And speaking of thank yous, thank you so much as I knock over my flags here, thank you so much for the feedback about last week's show. Last week's show, one of my favorites.

It was a emotional roller coaster, but I really appreciate everyone writing in about the Pat Barry interview, Ian McCall, of course, Pai Manaji. That was a lot of fun to do. Let's do it all again this week, and let's try to do it better. Why not? We can do it. I have faith.

Okay, so here's the rundown. Very excited about today's lineup. Love today's lineup. We've got a lot to discuss with a lot of interesting people. This is what's in store for all of you. At around 445, as always, The MMA After Hour, exclusively on Twitter, hit us up using the hashtag TheMMA Hour. Go to the MMA hour.

com. That's where you can watch the show live on Twitter. Use that hashtag to send us questions and comments. 425 will be joined by Dan Hardy, who will be calling the action for Sky Sports in Europe. Mayweather McGregor, looking forward to talking to him. 405, Rickspix. 345, we're back with Polyma and Aji. Why?

well the footage came out want to get his reaction want to talk to him about it everything that was said last week it won't be as long i promise but i do think it's important to get his side of the story 325 cody garbrant will stop by the beardless cordy garbrand will stop by just shaved his beard big news talk about his back his return all that and more 305 the newly retired brad picket will stop by he's competing in jiu jiu jih Tzu on saturday polaris 5 on fight pass looking forward to talking to him 245, Shana Bazler, former UFC fighter, now potential WWE wrestler. She's a part of the May Young Classic, which begins August 28th on the WWE network. Can't wait to talk to her.

She's a phenomenal pro wrestler. 225, some guy by the name of George St. Pierre will be stopping by. By now you know it is official. By now you know it is official. George St. Pierre versus Michael Bisping, November 4th, MSG, Madison Square Garden, middleweight title. It is actually going down. So we'll talk to him about that in his first interview since the news was made official.

And at 125, we're going to be joined by Heather Hardy. A lot of you have been asking to have Heather Hardy on the program for quite some time. Of course, she is the 20 and O pro boxer. She is a two-division world champion. She made her Bellator MMA debut on June 24th at Madison Square Garden. She just tweeted, I did not even know this, that she has some news regarding her next fight. So that's very exciting. want to talk to her about, of course, the debut, the aftermath, Mayweather McGregor, all that stuff, and more.

So looking forward to that. But first, this is a massive honor, not just for me, but for the entire show. A little over two weeks ago was UFC 214. It was one of the most highly anticipated fights in UFC and MMA history. It was John Jones versus Daniel Cormier. And ever since then, a lot of you have been asking me, how's Daniel doing? How's he feeling? Have you heard from him?

and at first I was texting him but then I gave him some space spoke to him on Friday said he's ready to break his silence and it means more than he knows, you know anyone knows that he would come on this program and talk to you all first

here. What an honor it is to be talking to Daniel Cormier, he joins us now via the phone. DC are you there? Yeah man, I'm here. How are you? I'm in the Bahamas. I'm good, man. I'm in the Bahamas. I was on my honeymoon and I'm just kind of hanging out. Well, again, even more so, adding to what I was just saying, the fact that you're calling us on your honeymoon is a huge honor.

So I really, really appreciate the time. Let's talk about what everyone wants to know first. How are you doing in the aftermath? We knew how important the fight was for you. We knew how much it meant to beat John Jones to get in there and show that you're the better man. Unfortunately, did not go your way. how are you handling it a little over two weeks later? Oh man, you know, still pretty bummed out.

You know, it's a tough pill to swallow. You know, you got to remember, you know, I'm a guy that, I'm a guy that wants to be the best. You know, I train hard, I work hard, and I feel like I was ready to go. You know, I feel like I was prepared, you know, and I was very disappointed, you know, and the result of the fight.

But as I've looked back on, it, you know, I was, I was upset, but I think a lot of the sadness came from, I feel like my coaches, you know, I felt like they had done such a tremendous job of preparing me for this particular event and for me to not be able to get the job done. That's where I think a lot of my sadness came from, you know. Obviously, I was disappointed with the fight, but I felt bad for the people closest to me because I felt like they had invested so much and had done so much to prepare me and I was ready to go. I'm sure at some point in the build-up to the fight, you thought about what if, what if it doesn't go your way? And I'm sure you didn't want to harp on that.

In the aftermath, I know it hurt you very much. We saw it on your face. I know how much it meant you to beat him. does it hurt more than you thought it would? I can't really say it hurt more than I thought it would. I mean, I knew that if it didn't work out, it would be very disappointing. I don't, could you lower music, please? I don't, you know, in the buildup, I didn't really think about if it didn't go that way.

You know, I was out of preparing to win. You know what I mean? I think if you start allowing the doubt to creep into your mind, it becomes a reality. So for 12 weeks, my reality was that I was going to get my hand raised. Me being disappointed and sad is it just shows that, you know, it means a lot. You know, it might mean too much. You know, I guess, I guess we as athletes need to be able to better separate, you know, those things.

But for me, it's not like that. You know, I'm a guy that really does commit myself 100% to, a goal and when I didn't get it done you see the emotion you know honestly have you watched the fight since then since it actually happened have you watched it you can't or you don't want to

no I haven't watched the fight I I think it's it it was so right now so far I'm still kind of playing a guessing game you know as to how the fight was going and how

how everything played out, you know, because I ask people around me, you know, like my coaches and my friends, you know, they'll talk to me about the fight and then, from what everybody tells me, I think watching the fight would probably do more harm than good because they were saying that we were fighting pretty even up until the kick. And then I think it would maybe disappoint me, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that emotionally yet to watch that, especially if they are telling me the truth in regards to how the fight was going. And it was such a simple mistake. And I think that's that's why it sucks. Because you don't miss head kicks like that, you know, and it's not like it was a head kick

off of a punch combination or anything like that. You know, you watch Donald Soroni when he lands that beautiful combination on Rick's story, you know, you can see how the head kick would land. But with this one, it just seemed like he was trying to keep me off of him. It was kind of like a kick to that. And I missed it just got me right on the right spot. I remember a kick, like reaction was like I was like wobble. I was like, what did this happen? Because I really felt as though like rumble.

Like kicked me hard. Just went on my head, made my body just go kind of like wobbly. I couldn't like, I couldn't get in my head. footing and then you know John's a great finisher and once I fell it was over if I could have stayed on my feet got into the cage and clinched or something maybe I could have woke had enough time to recover but once I fell I was just kind of lost I had no idea why I was like lost like my body wouldn't do what I wanted it to do and I couldn't I couldn't really like I couldn't really figure out what was going on honestly in the

I don't know if you've seen this, but a clip emerged of you two talking about your first fight. Prior to UFC 178, of course, you ended up fighting him for the first time of 182. And you talked about this sequence. You talked about, you know, this opening that you thought that he may think that he has with you, the head kick, the left head kick and things like that. Have you seen this? And was this something that you always felt was a hole in your game? There weren't many. But it was just kind of eerie to see this conversation happen three years ago. Thank you. I've seen the clip. I mean, I was a part of the kid, so I know that it happened. But honestly, it was just like it was,

it was, it happened. But again, I'm not exactly sure that really kind of relates because I'm talking about before. I used to really dip into kicks. Like I would literally always take my head off

to the side to evade punches with rumble. When I broke my nose, I literally put my face right into the kick. And then he tried to kick me again, and I dipped my head back to that side again, and he missed. With this one, I didn't dip. I had trained. I thought I had shored up that area. So I was standing straight up when I got kicked.

Now, I think the key to the sequence was that he had kicked me and tried to me and stuff in the body a lot. and the time that I got kicked, I was anticipating the body kick, so I went to block the body, and the kick went high. But again, it was just me going forward, trying to pressure. And it got, he hit the kick out fast. He really kicked up there fast, and I didn't guess right. Because, I mean, he threw head kicks prior to that, you know, and I blocked them,

but it only takes one. What have you made? And again, I know that you have kind of kept a low profile, But as I mentioned right after, you have received more love and admiration coming off a loss than perhaps after any of your wins, which is kind of mind-blowing because I've often felt that you are the most underappreciated champion in UFC history. Have you seen this? And what has it meant to you to see so many people reach out to you? It's meant a ton. Every day I get hundreds of messages of people saying, hey, we miss you.

D.C. come back. You know, what's going on? Are you okay? And I think what matters the most is not the people saying come back and fight. You know, we want to see you fight again. The people that are just genuinely seem to be concerned for your well-being. You know, how are you? Are you okay?

How are you doing? I hope you're fine. And we're worried about you. It's stuff like that that matters, you know. There are a lot of people in this game that truly do care. And then you don't necessarily anticipate that. after these last couple years when it's been the way that

that it's been. But I think people when people show their true souls whenever they know someone's down and they want to try to help you rebuild yourself. It's a great feeling. Any particular message

or person that reach out to you that really meant a lot? You know, man, honestly it was weird, you know, because there are hundreds of people you know, in almost daily, hundreds of messages saying, get your head up, champ, you know, you're good, you're all, you did it the right way. And I don't want one person to stand out above the other, but, you know, Charles Barkley is a guy that I used to watch when I was growing up playing basketball, and I had no

idea that Charles Barkley would have known who I was, would have watched me, would have, you know, anything. And he sent me a message telling me how proud of, you know, me, him, and a lot of the other guys that have retired, guys that are playing in the NBA, all of me and the women. I've carried myself and represented. So I think that one was big, because he didn't text me from an unknown number or anything like that.

He took his cell phone and got my number. It went out the way to find my number and reached out and said, hey, D.C., you know, we're proud of you, man. You have done a tremendous job of representing yourself, the UFC and your family. So your team coaches all that. You go, so keep your head up. Be proud of yourself for all that you have done.

And I think that kind of meant a lot because that was somebody from my childhood that I never truly anticipated hearing from. Wow, that gives me chills. That's amazing. And obviously, well-deserved. Yeah, it was crazy. Joe Rogan received a lot of flack for speaking to you afterwards. Do you hold any ill will towards him?

Do you wish that that didn't happen? How do you feel about that sequence after the fight? I don't hold any ill will towards. him. I think he was doing his job. I don't hold any ill will towards John McCarthy. John McCarthy gave me plenty of opportunities to stay in this fight. I couldn't. The Joe Rogan interview, I don't even know what happened. I still haven't seen it. And honestly, Ariel, man, like, I'd be honest with you, I'm still missing time. Like, I don't remember any of that. I don't remember leaving the octagon. I don't remember some of these

photos where I was crying and I was like hugging Bob. I don't remember. remember any of that. I remember being in the back I feel like I came out of a fault. I remember when I was in the back, I kind of just like, they said you have to go to the hospital. I'm like, to what? And I just,

I'm still missing time. I'm missing probably, I don't know, 10 minutes. You know, I talked to Dana and I said, I'm sorry if I pushed you. Because I remember, they said, I pushed somebody and I was like, really? And, you know, obviously, I do the TV stuff.

So I've got friends in TV, and they said, they said that as they were watching me in the outfit, you could hear the microphone on Bob Cook. And I was asking questions, ask me what happened. Asking, I had to yelled at me. Then they said, like, I was in there, and I was kind of like, you know, tearing up. And then they said, I looked up at the replay,

and that's when I really broke down, because I guess I saw what happened. But I still don't, I don't recall that. But again, tears mean that tears and sadness mean that it means that it means something to you. And I would do the same thing again. John Jones has actually been very complimentary towards you. He said that you are a role model for him as a father as a human being. He said afterwards a week later when he was doing media here in New York that he hopes that you guys can bury the hatchet.

There aren't a lot of black fighters in this sport and he doesn't want to be in this feud with you anymore. Have you heard any of his comments? Do they mean anything to you? Do you want to try to bury the hatchet with John? I haven't really paid much attention to it. You know, I've been really focusing on myself and just my family. I don't really like, I don't really like have, it's just like, you know, I don't know what's going to become with John Jones or what happened in the future.

But for me personally, you know, I just kind of want to just live my life. you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to really address anything that happened with him and I right now. You know, it's a, it's a mute point. But to think that all the bad things that have been said and all the negative comments towards each other could just be completely gone would be unrealistic. But in terms of coexisting in this sport, we have to. How can I not see or be around John Jones and my jobs are so closely tied to the UFC? And that sense, I will be a professional. But outside of that, I don't really, I don't really know, you know.

I thought that we fought, I thought we fought a good fight. I thought we were both fighting at the highest level of mixed martial arts and a good strike landed that ended the fight. I've always respected him in that sense, though. I've never once questioned the type of competitor he is. He's a fantastic competitor. And I just hope that at this point, now that he has the belt back, and he's the U.S.C. champion, again, the line light will be brighter than ever that he can handle it.

You know, I really do wish him the best in that sense. This might be an unfair question to ask you right now, but I'm just curious, considering how it all went down, Do you think you will fight again? Do you care to fight again? Do you want to keep going? Yeah. I mean, why would I stop fighting?

You know, I feel like I still love the competition more than anything. You know, that's really what drives me. You know, like, when I don't have competition and I'm not in something like that, I'm miserable, man. You know, I love to compete. I love to be in the environment. I mean, not only am I going to fight again, but I didn't believe that John Jones and I will fight again. So, yes, I have a desire to fight. I believe that him and I will compete again before it's all said and done.

Wow. So that's interesting because you said afterwards, and I know you probably weren't 100% there, but you even said it before the fight, which I disagreed with. You said there was no rivalry now because you lost twice, and I don't think that that is true. But what in your mind lets you think that? Is there a path already that you already see going back to him? Have you let your mind go in that direction and start to think about the road back to him? I don't know.

Thank you. I don't know exactly what path leads to. Could you load a music for second, please? I don't know exactly what path leads back to a fight with Jones, but I anticipate he'll be the champion, and I don't believe that anyone else in this division can compete with me. So after I went enough fights, I believe we'll fight again.

Also, we make money together. And when you make money together, the USC is usually pretty open to making those matches. Have you thought about going to heavyweight and trying to accomplish, you know, being one of the few guys who have ever won two belts and two divisions?

You know, man, I've really gotten, like I've really shrunk myself. from heavyweight. You know, I used to have big old traps, and I was a bigger guy than I was when I fought at heavyweight, but, you know, I'd entertain anything, you know. The USC values me and, you know, honestly, and they've already reached out with some ideas about me fighting,

and I was like, well, I need time. But there are options at heavyweight and options at 205. Obviously, the Jimmy Manuel fight is a fight that could happen, you know, Volcanoes in there, has done fantastic for himself. A guy that's a cool guy, but,

you know, if the easiest path back to fighting the fights that I want is to go through somebody like that, then I'll do it. You know, so it's, it's a matter of just what I decide to do it. At this point, Ariel,

I've kind of gotten, I've kind of gotten, I've gotten to a point where the UFC, they really are, they really are very open to a lot of my suggestions. You know, in this last two and a half years since I fought Jones the first time through now, you know, I've sold headline cards or a card that I was supposed to headline

or had marquee fights on the solo or, you know, millions and millions of pay-per-views. And with that comes some respect within the organization. Yeah. Is it fair to say you'll probably make, I mean, we've seen some early reports about the pay-per-view numbers. They're phenomenal. Will this be the biggest payday of your career? This payday will be a very nice payday in line with UFC 200 and, uh, oh, right, right. In line with USC 182, you know, again, like I.

Oh, may have lost him there for a second. We shall reconnect. Hunter did almost a million, a million pay-per-views. And then all the other pay-per-view that I have headlined with Rumble Johnson and Alexander Gustavs. And so, uh, this will be a big payday, but, It is in line with UFC 200 and UFC 182. You've had a busy year, even having to pull out at the last minute of the Toronto card.

Is it fair to say you're probably going to take the rest of the year off that we won't see you fight again in 2017? Yeah, I think that's pretty safe bet. I think I'm going to get back to training and just kind of grappling. But I'm spending time with my family. I mean, I missed the entire summer because of training camp. I missed a lot of the springtime because of the April fight. You know, so I'm going to spend time with my family. I'm with Selena now in the Bahamas.

I've been in a couple weeks are going out to Hawaii. And I have to get back to work. You know, I got some color commentary jobs coming up. I've got USC tonight, you know. So I'm a busy guy, man. So I'm always going to be working. But in terms of the fight game, you know, I'm going to go back to the gym and start helping to prepare all of the other guys

that we have, for fights. At this point, Daniel, considering the reaction to the fight and people, you know, being upset about seeing you emotional and things of that nature and just seeing the support that you've received, what do you think the sort of lesson will be in all of this? Because I think sometimes in life, we tend to get emotionally attached to people, as you mentioned, who we see pour their heart out and sometimes don't succeed,

but in some ways that almost makes you more relatable, more likable. Do you think at some point you'll be able to kind of look back on all this and find a silver lining. Do you think that in some ways that this makes your legacy even greater, as crazy as that may sound, I feel like people can relate to those who don't quite achieve what they want to achieve, but at least gave it their all. That's the lesson that I'm getting out of this. People can really relate to you now because they know how much you wanted it, and for whatever reason it didn't work out, but they know that you gave it 100%. I think that that's a lesson that we can teach a lot of people. What do you think when people will look back on all this?

What will they say? You know, I've always said that I want people to think that when I fought, you know, I gave them 110%, you know, so I think they'll see that. I think they will respect my effort, you know, they will respect my hard work. I've always been open and honest and genuine, you know, it's just in this situation, they saw me at my lowest professionally, you know, and I'll let it happen. You know, I mean, this is not, this is not new. I've done this, I've cried every time I lost wrestling matches. I've cried every time I lost and pretty much anything.

You know, it's just when I'm committed to something, it means so much that when it doesn't work out, the emotions do come out. I would expect people to say, you know what, man, this guy wears his heart on his sleeve, you know?

Yeah, but the silver lining is, the silver lining, it's great that people are supportive, but the silver line and does not erase the bottom line. The bottom line is that I didn't get the job done. And that's what sticks with me, you know. And so those are the things that I have to go back and work on, not only from a fighting standpoint,

but just from me kind of living my life standpoint, you know, not at the end of the day, I have to accept that I did not get the job done. and I'm going to have to do something very special to get the opportunity to do it again. And I'm going to. I mean, I am honestly going to work to find a way to get myself locked back in the octagon with that man. I have to.

Do you feel like you won't be able to rest, like your career won't feel complete until you do get back in there and beat him? Like, it will nag at you forever? No, I mean, I mean, my career can be completely. I mean, I've done so amazing things in this sport. You know, I mean, not many people do what I have done. I've made money.

I've won world titles, and every organization I've been in. I've been in some of the biggest fights the USC has ever been are ever held. You know, so I've done some amazing things in this sport. Competitively, I want to fight him again. You know, and I think ultimately for all the dislike and everything else, it was always competitively the biggest thing. I remember every match with Kill Sanderson. I remember every match against Katsalov,

all the Iranian that used to beat me. Those types of competitions, because I've done it at such a high level, it's you never truly let them go. They live with you, but they should because they mean so much. I was 15 years old when I lost in the semifinals of the Cadet World Championships to a Russian guy. And in 2012 or 2008, I walk into the Olympic Village, and I see the Russian heavyweight in Greco-Roman. And I look at him and I immediately I remember that it was the guy that beat me when I was 15 years old.

He's just a man now. So those things that mean so much to you, they should burn. you you you you you deserve to let it burn you deserve to let it uh really stick with you so yeah 15 years later i looked at that guy and and i saw that kid that beat me in the uh semi final of the world championship so that stuff always stays with you you don't have to always dislike the person but those wins and losses at such a high level they shouldn't mean so much that they hurt whenever they don't come to you. Two last quick things.

Do you have any serious injuries coming off the fight, Daniel? You know, man, my nose. My nose was still jacked up after the Rumble fight. You know, I'm an old school guy, man. I didn't go and get my nose reset. So when I went to the, when I went to get my physical, the doctor said that my nose was still broken before the Jones fight. So I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor,

and she looked at it, and she goes, well, it shouldn't stop you from fighting. And I was like, okay, make sure you put that on the thing so I can get cleared by the commission. And I had some breaks in my nose, but it's like chronic. You know, it's like having stuff that bother you forever. So it's my nose. And then honestly, you know, like we kicked each other a lot

and my shins are still pretty sore, even two weeks later from checking and kicking each other. So, yeah, those are the only things. Nothing too bad, though. Did you suffer a concussion? I mean, if I can't remember 10 minutes, I'm pretty sure I had a concussion. Okay. I had a concussion when I was wrestling, and I just don't recall those 10 minutes,

and I'm not exactly sure that I'm ever going to get those at time back. Bob Cook tells me that in time they'll start, like, little details will start to come back to me, but at this point I haven't started to get those moments back. You know, I've gotten a ton of support, man. You know, Rashad Evans texting me the next day and said, hey, I cried for you because I know how bad you wanted it. And Eagles, you know, keep your head up. I've received so much love from these guys, man.

My peers, Cody Garbrandt, Dominic Cruz, all the guys have just been, I got messages from Andre Ward. Wow. Some of the best fighters in the world are all saying, hey, D.C., keep your head up, man. Things are going to be okay. and most importantly, I have my beautiful wife who tells me every day, you know, you've done good. Wow.

That's actually my last question. It's rare to go on your honeymoon after such a big event, especially if it doesn't go your way. Have you been able to enjoy it? I have had me and Salina have a five-year-old kid and a six-year-old kid. You don't get away much whenever you, people have guilt when they leave their kids. like, it's called buyer's remorse. I think you're very familiar

with that. It's like, it's called buyer's remorse. You remember that? But, no, we've enjoyed each other. Yeah,

you're the only got to ever have buyer remorse for like years. But, yeah, we, we've gotten along good. We've enjoyed ourselves in the Bahamas,

and we're ready to get home to our children. So, and I'm a football coach now, so that's a good thing. I'm on the Daniel's, I'm the, I'm a defensive coordinator for my son's little league football team. So that's really helping to keep my mind off everything.

Wow. They will be embracing the grind, I think, those kids, those young kids. Yes, they will. Yes, they will. D.C., whatever anyone told you about the fight, it is true. They are being honest. You look phenomenal. And I'm not trying to say that to make you feel bad about it.

You are at your best. And it happens this game. You know it's a matter of inches. but no one thinks less of you. In fact, I think everyone's admiration and appreciation for you has only grown after the fight. So nothing to be ashamed of, as I said to you privately. It is an honor to have you on the show. It's an honor to call you a colleague and a friend,

and I really appreciate you coming on and talking to us all. I know a lot of people have been worrying about you and caring for you, and I think you should be very proud of that as well. So get home safe, get home to your kids, and take some time off, and we look forward to seeing you back. and I believe you're back on the grind this week. You'll be on UFC tonight on Wednesday, right? Yeah, back to UFC tonight, man.

Make sure you guys too. All right, we shall do so. 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 in the east, we shall be doing so. Thank you, D.C., safe travels. All the best to you, and great to hear from you. Hey, thanks, man. I appreciate it. To all the fans, hey, thank you guys.

I love it. I love you guys. Thanks for the support. We appreciate you guys. All right. See you later. Thank you, Daniel. There he is.

Daniel Cormier stopping by his first interview post-UFC 214, the now former UFC light heavyweight champion. Great to hear from him. I know a lot of you wanted to hear from him and truly meant a lot that he would come on the show. I can't say that enough that he would come on and talk to you all and myself for the first time since 214. I look forward to seeing him back and some interesting comments there. Not quite ready to put it behind him. And we can certainly understand that. Happy to hear he's taking the rest of the year off.

looking forward to his comeback whenever it may be. Really appreciate that. That's Daniel Cormier for all of you. All right. So usually we've been having in studio guests a little later on in the program. We're switching it up this week. But before we move along with the show, let me tell you once again about our good friends over at Casper mattresses.

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We're actually going to introduce our next guest who will be joining us in studio. How cool is this? And you guys have been asking to have her on the program for quite some time. We are being joined now by the one and only Heather Hardy. Heather, how are you? I'm doing well. Wow, look at this. High socks and all.

High socks and everything. I appreciate it. So nice. to see you. Thank you so much. Here's my mug. I missed it. I'm sorry if I'm a little sweaty. It's hot in here. That's all right. Is it late. Do you want to take off your bag or do you want to keep it on? I can be comfortable. Okay. Wow, this is great. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. You even have news to break, but we're not going to get to that right off the bat. Because I don't know if you know this, but a lot of people have been asking to have you on the program for quite some time.

I think after June 24th, a lot of MMA fans didn't know a whole lot about you and then you kind of like stole everyone's heart with that performance. What has it been like in the aftermath? Oh my gosh. It's been so exciting. after fight, I remember at the interviews, I was like, oh, I fell in love and I really did. I took a week off, but couldn't wait to get back in the gym to learn some stuff. It felt like in boxing when I was in the golden gloves and I just wanted to learn more. When you say back in the gym, are we talking about back in the MMA gym or back in the boxing gym? Back in the MMA gym.

I was back at even putting my Gion and everything. Really? So have you done any boxing training since then? I never stopped my boxing training. Like everyone thought like I replaced my. boxing training, but you need boxing so much in MMA, so I just kept my boxing training and added all the other stuff. Okay. So it never changed at all. I just do a lot more work now. And, you know, we've seen like the Holly Holmes of the world go from boxing, but she was at the end

of her career. You're still in the midst, you're still in your prime. Yeah. You're still undefeated. You still have two championship belts. But when you got that taste, did any part of you say, you know what, maybe I'm going to leave this boxing stuff, or do you still want to do both? No, there are still girls I want to fight and belts I want to take in boxing. And I feel like, you know, like everyone's like, oh, you're 35. You know, like it's a horrible thing. But I'm like physically so young and able and capable of doing both of these things right now. So I'm psyched.

By the end of the year, I'll have one more MMA fight and one more boxing fight. Oh, interesting. Okay. How many times have you watched the MSG fight? I didn't watch it. What? We just heard from Daniel Korme, who hasn't watched his fight, but he lost. You won.

I know. Why haven't you watched it? Why don't you want to relive it? I can relive it every time. I shut my eyes. Okay. You know, like, I just haven't watched it. I've watched, like, the highlights and stuff like that and little videos on, like,

Facebook, but I was there, man. I can shut my eyes and remember little spots and parts. Is there a reason why you don't want to sit down and watch it? No, I just... You don't have the time. Are you not one who likes to relive the past? You just want to keep moving forward? Yeah, and also, like, I don't really watch fight tape for that because I'll watch it

and be like, look how good I was, look how good I was. let the coaches tell me all the bad things I did. So they all have watched my fight. And like even one of my coaches at Henzel was like, you know, at the night of the fight, they were so excited. He says, but then I watched it again at home. I was like, oh, this is terrible. This is terrible. This is terrible.

Wow. So. More terrible than good? No, but more things to fix than for me to sit around like, I'm so good. Yeah, yeah, of course. You don't want to do that. What was your favorite? Like, what sticks out the most of the entire experience?

And it may not be the actual fight. It could be something in the aftermath or in the buildup or in the end. or in the actual fight. Is there some moment that happened to MMA debut MSG of all places and New Yorker that continues to stick out? Yeah, like in the beginning of the fight, they had me stand at the top of like a ramp and the like the curtains were open a little

so I could see the cage and I could see like there were like 25,000 people there. And like I could hear them saying my name. And the inspectors were the same inspectors as for boxing. So they all knew me. Like they all know me, you know, by name. They know me. And I said, George, George is like the big guy who's like the head inspector. And he's like, you're ready to champ?

I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. Why am I doing this? And he was like, Heather, it's a fight. We'll be fine. I'm like, but I really don't know what I'm doing. Did you truly feel that way? I did. Really?

Like, what is wrong with you? Why are you doing this? It's always like you're walking to the gas chamber, that first one. Did you feel that way before boxing matches? In the amateur. It's like, that's what I said after. It was like, I have. felt like this since the golden gloves.

You know, you get nervous in the golden gloves. You're like, why am I doing this? What am I doing? I should have went to cooking school. And then you get in the cage or the ring and everything's like, I'll forget it. It was a fight. Was it kind of nice to feel that again, those butterflies? Because in boxing, it probably has become somewhat old hat for you, right?

You're a pro. It's for sure. You know, not that it's old hat, but it's like, you know, when I'm getting my hands wrapped before a boxing match, I'll say, my coach's like, okay, now I'm nervous. Yeah. But I know it's coming, you know? I was like, right, and we say the same thing. If you weren't nervous, you'd be dead.

Sure. But for MMA, it was really like the, what am I doing to my coaches? Considering the setting and winning and those nerves, how would you describe the sort of post-fight elation to winning belts in boxing or your debut in boxing? Was it comparable? Was it greater? There were like four or five boxing experiences, mostly in the amateurs, but then I had that I felt were like life defining for me.

Like, you know, it's like, like I was a real champion. And not even necessarily winning my titles or my belts, but I felt like a real champion. And after this fight, this was like one of those top five snapshots of life. Any serious injuries after it? It got a little bit. Yeah, I got the head butt, so I wound up with stitches and then some nerve damage, but I'm back in the gym and I'm okay.

No problems. No problems. Where's the nerve damage? It was like, like, this is still a little bit numb. Okay. So I was like kind of numb after the first. fight a little bit, but, you know, I'm sparring. No problem.

Yeah, there's no problem. You didn't get a medical, there's the picture right over there. We're looking at it. You didn't get a medical suspension? No. No. Well, you get an automatic suspension for a couple weeks just for the stitches until they come out, but I got my clearance already when I went and saw the doctor.

You ever bleed in a boxing match? Oh my gosh. I've had 27 stitches in my face. Geez, ladies, you can't tell, though. I know. It's not really something you brag about, right? But I'm like, I had 27 stitches. That's amazing.

And so, okay, so then let's get it out of the way. What's the news? You have your next fight? I have my next fight. I'll be fighting October 20th at Mohegan Sun with Bellator. Oh. Yeah. Back in M.M.A. Back in M.M.A. guys. I'm so excited. No boxing match in between? No, I'll probably be boxing after. Maybe in November or December. Okay. So October 20th, Mohegan Sun, that's the card headline, I believe, by Gagar Musassi against Alexander Schlamenco.

Yes. Who are you fighting? That is to be seen. Like, we're just ironing out these details. So I'm getting ready. I also sign a multi-deal fight. deal with Bellator. So I'm super psyched about that. So that was a one-fight deal, right, essentially? Yeah, it's really hard because I'm promoted in boxing.

And no athlete has ever been co-promoted. Yeah. Like to have two promoters. You have Lou Debella. Yeah, I have Lou DeBella and then I have Bellator. So we're at the close of this multi-fight agreement with both. So I will be actually promoted in boxing, promoted in MMA, and competing alternately. Wow.

So. Who gets first dibs? I think it's really, I'm so fortunate. Like my manager, Dan Hill, has been coordinating with the both of them to try to get us all on the same page. Like, let's just do what makes sense, what the fans want to see, not just fights to fight, but fights that people want to see me fight. You know, in boxing, I want the big names. I want the big girls. I want the big titles.

I don't need any more proving myself fights as far as boxing goes, you know? So we're really looking forward to making some noise there. Was it hard to get this deal done with Bellator? Considering you are promoted. It was so hard because, you know, in a combat contract, you can't do anything else. Like, I'm not supposed to be in my boxing contract. I wasn't even allowed to do this MMA fight. Like, I had to ask Lou like he was my dad, like, please, Dad, please let me have one try.

And then he was so happy with it. He's like, man, I hate to say it, but I can't take food off your table. He knows I'm doing this for my kid, you know, so. Did he not want to do it initially? No. No. But not as a body. boxing promoter, like if someone who just was protected,

he's like, you're going to get hurt, that's terrible. Like, boxing guys hate MMA, you know? So the old school boxing guys, everyone at Gleesons was against it. Wow. And then when they saw me fight and win, it's like, it's like, okay, all right, you could do it. Who did convince you to initially do this? Me.

You just wanted to do it. Yeah. Did you see a fight? Did you see something? Did you meet someone? No, I just, like I was always a kickboxer. My boxing coach, Devon, Cormack is a three-time world champion kickboxer. And I started in kickboxing, so I always kickbox.

But there's nothing really going on in New York with kickboxing. So I never competed just because there were no opportunities there. And everyone asked me if I'd always try MMA, if I ever wanted to try it. And it was like, eh. And boxing just was on the decline for me. Like I was making these big strides, but the executives weren't giving me TV time. And that means no money, you know. And so I thought, well, why not?

You know, Belator offered me the fight. and I thought, I could do it. Like, if this girl stole my wallet on the street, I'd kick her ass. I could do it in the cage. Is this Belator deal more lucrative than boxing? Well, the pay is like kind of what we're negotiating now. But, I mean, as it stands, women's boxing doesn't really generate much income. Like, you have a few girls right now who are actually starting to make some money.

If Showtime picks me up, like, I'm really hoping that Stephen Espinoza will. Is there some talks of that? Yeah, there sure are. He's been in talks with Lou Debella for a while. So, yeah, so I'm hopeful that they'll give me a chance. I was actually just talking about this subject on the show last week. Clarissa Shields, Michaela Mayer from the Olympics, just made her debut. There's Katie Taylor out of Ireland.

It feels like there's a bit of like a revolution going on now. And fights are being televised, finally. Like Shields was televised on Showtime on Friday night last week. Do you sense this as well that something's going on here? Yeah, it says it turned in the right direction. Like right now, like a lot of people, complained about this for so many years and I became that girl that wouldn't shut up about it, you know? There's a turn in the right direction but unfortunately it's still under the blanket that

we should be grateful to have one spot, you know, like women have one spot and sometimes there are more than one great woman. Like it doesn't mean that the one woman spot should be there. How about we just let the people fight who are the better fighters? Yeah. Like how many times you watch boxing fights and you see like four fights you're like, oh my God, like it looks like his golden gloves matches. Right. And, you know, you have female world champions who are virtually unheard of because we're all fighting over one little piece of an eight-fight card. And it's time we just showcase talent, not men and women. Bob Aram, who has been an MMA dissenter, not a big fan at all, actually gave props to the UFC a couple of weeks ago as he was promoting one of his fights and said that with the Ronda Rousey thing and some of their other female fighters, like they showed the world that you can promote females, that there's an appetite for.

female fighting. Do you believe that as well, that there's a trickle down effect now at the boxing? I sure do. I mean, I think that, like, people fight change. Nobody likes change. And in the days when Lela Lee and Chrissy Martin were boxing, like, women were literally just allowed to fight in the golden gloves a few years prior. So there wasn't a lot of competition because this sport was in its infancy. So the executives who are in charge then are still in charge now, and they are fighting that. No, we tried this 25 years ago and it didn't work. So it's, it's, it's really taken a lot of pounding to get them to convince that sometimes the girls are better than the boys. It's amazing. But I think Espinoza is that guy. I mean, he put Chris Cyborg and Gina Carano on the main event of a show in 2009.

And so I feel like Showtime would be a perfect home for you. How close are we? Man, we'll have to ask Mr. Espinoza, but I've been batten my eyelashes since. Does he work well with DeBella? He sure does. They do tons of shows like, you know, I'm always, you know, they call me the first lady. of Brooklyn boxing. I'm always at the Barclay Center. Yeah.

And Showtime was always doing shows over there. And there were so many opportunities where I begged and begged and begged, please.

Like I was selling tons of tickets and, you know, on like a wind streak and fighting good girls and I still couldn't get the spot. I was getting pushed out by guys who were like

three and oh. It's crazy. So I'm really hopeful that moving forward that he'll give me a chance. Why do you think the MMA community is so much more receptive to females?

Do you think, I mean, One idea, and I do think, unfortunately, that there is something to this, I think that, I hate to say, like, what the women wear and the big gloves, it doesn't, fans for some reason can't get behind it. And I don't know why that is. Do you think that that's it? Is it just that?

Is it just because it's punching in the face and people don't like that? And there's grappling involved in the MMA, so it's a little easier on the eyes. Why do you think it is? It doesn't really make sense. Perhaps, but you can't be what you can't see. And if nobody knows we're out here doing this, then, you know, it's also that. argument, like, maybe people don't like to see it because they don't see it. Or because they have, like, you know, these generalizations that, you know, girls in

MMA are prettier than girls in boxing. No, you just see those girls. Sure. There are tons of beautiful women who are boxing. Why do they have to be beautiful? Yeah, it's true. Why do they have to be? But it furthers your point, like, if what they're wearing would make a difference, you

know, or if it's easier on the eyes, so to speak. You know, I did a show with Phoenix Carnivali. Yeah. And one of the points she made that's so true is that, you know, if you were really, like five or six years ago, all the talk about women in MMA was about their shorts and how they looked

and their haircuts and what they wore to weigh in. And now, if you listen among, in like a sports bar when the UFC is on, these guys are talking about their kicks and their punches and their technique.

And, you know, because, like, we're also evolving as a society accepting women in more roles than maybe we would have 15 or 20 years ago. Sure. It's amazing because MMA is sometimes called like barbaric and the fans, are insulted by non-MMA people, and yet I feel like they don't bat an eye when two women are

main-eventing a massive show. Like, no one feels that they're getting, you know, a lesser product or that they're not worthy. You don't hear any of that. I know. You should see us give birth. It's even harder. I mean, I know. I have three children myself. I have the utmost respect for women. I will never say anything bad about you guys. We are tough. We're tough. You are. It's incredible. Have you received more kind of reaction and feedback after your one, MMA fight than the 20 boxing matches just because it was probably seen by more people. Yeah, I mean, Spike TV gave me the chance and put me on. And then that showed people that what I could do, you know, like a big argument with my boxing was that I'm not as good as the other girls.

I'm not as technical as the other girls. But I'm entertaining as hell, man. You put me in there with a tiger and I'm going to take it to the final bell. Yeah. And let's be honest. I mean, there were some moments where it got a little dicey. Do you think if you lose that fight, you don't come back? No, but if I lose that fight, people look at me a little bit different.

You know, and for me, I don't lose fights. I don't lose fights. I got to die in there before I lose a fight. So it wasn't even an option when they got the headbut. I wasn't like, my mom said, my mom was sitting like high up in the stands and she said when she saw them stop it and checked the blood, she told the people behind her, she said, that's my kid. I bet you $100.

She fucks her up right now. She was right. She was right. When's the last time you lost anything? In the amateurs. Okay. I think, I actually. I think, the last time I lost, I think was to Michaela Mayer.

Really? In the Olympic trials in 2012. Okay. I was boxing at 125 and they don't have my weight class in the Olympics when I was in the amateurs. And I was only boxing for like a year. I just won U.S. nationals at 125. And I thought, ah, I'm going to go down to, like, I was feeling like big. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I'm going to go down to Florida and fight at 132 and try to get into the Olympics. And I made it to the semifinals and then Michaela handed me my ass. Oh, man. But that was about seven years ago. you know. Does it bother you that you never competed in the Olympics? Oh it doesn't at all like it was never really a dream for me I was already turning 30 and

I said I would try it but I only stayed in the amateurs for 18 months so my goal my dream was to go pro and beat up all the girls all over the world. Is it not true that in your debut, your pro debut that you were knocked down? I was. Early on right? Like 40 seconds in. Forty seconds in

what happened? Oh my gosh I got caught with a right hand you know it's like any adjustment You see great boxers, you know, and they make their pro debut. Like, even Lomenchenko, you know, he was, it takes a couple of fights to get used to smaller gloves, a smaller target with no head gear, you know? And I got caught with a right hand early on before I could find my range, and I hit the floor. And as I get up, and I hear Benji Counten, I'm saying, you sold $15,000 in tickets.

There is no way you're losing in front of your mom. Wow. And I kicked her ass for the next four rounds, man. Wow. So there was no moment you were like, I. I made a mistake. What am I doing here? Oh my gosh, no way.

I can't believe this is happening. No. Okay. And that was what got Lou's attention. He was like, God damn, kid, you got some heart. Oh, was he there? He was promoting it. He was promoting it.

So he's been with you since the first pro fight? He gave me my first chance. Wow. How did you meet him? One of the guys that works in my corner, Blimp, his son was signed to a contract with Lou. And he was like, yo, this kid just made her, you know, just won the Golden Gloves, just won nationals. She's tearing ass, give her a chance.

And Lou was like, well, if she sells me $10,000. $1,000 in tickets, I'll do it. What? You had to do that first? Yeah, and I was like, fine. You know, like, fine. And I knew that if I had to sell them on the street or on the subway, like, I was doing guest bartending, I was all over the city.

I sold close to $15,000 in tickets, a Roseline ballroom. And you've, from what I've read, like, you've gone to Times Square the morning of your fights to sell tickets? That was like a figure of speech. Like, everyone asked me that. But saying, like, I was saying, like, if I had to do that, I would have. But I, the morning of my fight, I'm usually. settling tickets. I do everything myself.

Damn. What's the most you've sold on your own? 38,000. Yeah, for Barclay Center, for the last fight I did with Brooklyn boxing. Have you been knocked down since? No. Wow, so 40 seconds in, and you haven't been knocked down since. That's amazing. How many rounds have you lost? Probably enough.

Enough? Yeah, I've lost enough because I'm such a gritty fighter. I'm in your face fighter. You know, rounds can be close. I almost always lose the first round. But I say, man, if I get through that first one, you're in trouble. Yeah. And now this is amazing because we have you here. You're the first lady of Brooklyn boxing. We have Polly on, who's kind of like the first man of Brooklyn boxing. Have you been following this drama between him and Connor McGregor? Unfortunately. What do you mean, unfortunately? What's your take on it? I'm dying to ask you. Well, you know what? It's like... First, let's establish this. Are you and Polly friends?

Yeah, I love that guy. He's like such a decent guy. And you got to be honest. I don't know if you know him like as a commentator. But whenever you watch boxing, he's always spot on. Like, that guy is not. He don't, you know, he don't say nothing wrong. He don't say nothing bad. And he's always like saying the right things. But, you know, did I see the tape? Yes. Did it look like whatever? Yes.

But, you know, you got to give the guy. Wait, wait, what's whatever? What's whatever? Was it a knockdown or was it a push in your opinion? No, it looked like a knockdown. Oh, did? It did look like a knockdown. But I say that to say this.

There was 45 more minutes aspiring that we didn't get to see. Yeah. So, you know, people can take a snapshot or 15 seconds of some of my fights. Like I said, they're very physical. Like, you could even go by my MSG fight and look at 10 pictures and go, there is no way I had the one because it did get hit a lot, you know? And I often get hit a lot, but it's not telling of the whole story. So if Pauli is saying, wait until you watch the whole tape,

okay, let's see when we see the whole tape. But anybody can make something out of nothing. Yeah. But does it look like you got knocked down? Yes. Does it feel like a line was quite? Like, should that stuff, and here's some of the footage that was released by the UFC and Dana White, should that stuff not be released?

I mean, it's like, you know, there are certain... Is there a code? There's an unspoken code. Yeah. Like, I know girls, when they come and spy me, if I see the videos, cameras coming out, they will always say, like, this is for my personal use. I never put it on Instagram, you know, do you mind just so I can learn from it? It's like, of course.

I mean, it's like something you say. I remember once one girl was, like, putting it up, and then she didn't tell me nothing, and I felt a certain type way, and I wouldn't start sparring until she shut it off. You know, because you don't know what people are going to do. They might do stuff like this. Sure, sure. So it's totally like an unspoken kind of rule. He, do you follow him on Twitter?

Are you a big Twitter person, Collie? No, I do follow him, yes. He's like a constant responding to people. I know. I mean, does a party you feel for him? Yeah. I mean, this has turned into something. And I will be honest, I kind of feel like there is a part of him that's angling for

a fight, you know, and I don't blame him. He should be angling for a fight. I feel like those two guys could sell probably a million and a half pay-per-views now because of all this drama. Oh, my gosh, of course, especially since. kind of just released the thing saying that he wants to continue with boxing after this. Yeah. So it certainly makes sense.

He comes up the god of boxing. Oh, the god of boxing. Do you think that there is an appetite to see them fight now? Like, is everyone talking about this? You know, people used to say with Mayweather, like, he make all his money because some people want to see him win and more people want to see him loose. Sure, sure. And like right now, the whole MMA community hates Pauley.

Right. I know this. Like, I was tagged in a tweet with him yesterday and I was like, oh, my. God. Why? Me, it was because of me. Because of the show. I know.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 400 people were like, Pauline, the cry baby, whatever, whatever. I mean, it's... I wanted to get his side of the story. The footage was released, right? I know, but he didn't tweet back.

Yeah. Right? Well, we've been texting. Which is good. Yeah. Because that would have been like 900 responses. I know, I know. So have you seen the footage?

I was at Conner's media workout on Friday. Have you seen the footage of him? I sure did. Because I've seen like Terrence Crawford, all these boxers making fun of him. What was your take on it? What are you laughing about? What's so funny?

It was a little silly. What was it silly? You didn't think I was silly? What? This thing? This was incredible. Do you know Ido Portal? This guy is the best.

The movement coach. He has a movement coach. He's world renowned. He's from Israel. And he teaches him how to be loose, how to be one with his body. We're actually seeing some of the footage right here. This is, how about that?

Donatella Versacee gave him a robe. You see that robe? Yeah. It's a nice robe. Right. So what? So this, this stuff. I see people mocking him. They were doing that at Gleason's this morning. They were. This, this right here. This is the move. What? You don't like that? Is this mock worthy? It's a little silly.

Shouldn't you be loose when you're boxing? Oh, you most certainly should. But you know what? It's like, it's kind of like what I was saying about the poly tape. Yeah. Like a little 15 seconds. Sure. You know when you're expecting to shadow boxing, moving around the ring, like simulating what you're just shadow boxing is such an important part of boxing. Like, you know, and then when you see someone do that, you're like, oh. But don't you think that's part of the brilliance? Like, he has to be so unconventional. He's not going to outbox Floyd. So if he brings something completely different to the table, maybe that's his chance.

Yeah. I mean, I ain't knocking the guy. He's making $100 million. He did something right now. So I can't say one thing or the other about him. I can't say that. Look a little silly. When this fight was announced, I remember I talked to you just a few days later.

And you were one of the few people who actually. actually, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, like you sort of defended it? Yeah, I think it's great. Like, boxers, so many guys are like, I refuse to watch this. It's terrible for boxing. It's like an event, you know, it's like when the Yankees and the Mets play each other, it doesn't matter. Like, none of the stats count towards their end of the year stats.

The win or loss doesn't count, but all New Yorkers can't wait to go and see the Subway Series, you know? It's like an exciting thing for fans, but it doesn't mean anything. Like, to me, this will never mean anything. Why not? What if you wins? Come on. Stop it. When you asked me about the fight, like that was the first time I was, I realized that people actually thought he was going to win. Listen, August 28th, we're going to be back on this show. We're going to play this clip if he wins, if you laughing at him. He has no chance. No, I'm so sorry. No, you're not a friend. I know. I'm so sorry. I was like, I was like, I don't want to go on the show and say that because MMA people are going to hate me.

I don't know. I mean, look, I'm not the only one who thinks that. I am no way an expert in MMA, right? I have one fight. But this is boxing. Right. But I've been in the gym with top MMA fighters, like top top MMA fighters at Ray Longo's Jam at the Hensel Gracey Academy of Manhattan.

And I watch these men and women and what they do. And I always watch their punching or they're striking or they're boxing. I've seen them box other boxes at Gleason's. They don't know what they're doing? They don't know what they're doing in regards to boxing. boxing for MMA, I'm seeing different things than boxing for boxing. What are they doing wrong? It's not right or wrong, right?

Because whatever they're doing in boxing is working for their career in MMA. But if they were to apply that to boxing, I mean, it's the biggest thing. I've yet to really see an MMA fighter who moves their head. That is a problem. I guess their head out of the way. So when you look at like MMA fighters who have all these knockouts with the four-ounce gloves, which again are much, much smaller and harder than. a big padded boxing glove, they're hitting a guy who's not moving his head out of the way to hit a target.

Like if I said touch my hand, you touch my hand. If I said touch my hand, you touch my hand. But if I'm doing this, it gets really, really hard to get a clean punch on it. So everything, like even stepping in to commit to a really solid punch isn't really something you're doing in MMA because you're afraid your legs are going to get kicked or your legs are going to get taken out. So you have to make so many adjustments. And anyone who's around boxing in a boxing gym and sees how evasive people can be, I mean, I'm sorry.

No, you don't apologize. I appreciate you keeping you real. I just don't see it. I just don't see it. Like, is he phenomenal? Yes. Would Floyd, I mean, if, if Conner McGregor tried to steal his wallet,

I don't know that Floyd could get it back on the street, but... Are you a Floyd fan? No. No. I'm not. But I respect. his skills and his talent and I don't hate the guy he's doing everything right making all this money you know I don't hate the guy I don't like him like as a man because of what he's done

certain things that he's done as a man and as a person yeah you know but as a boxer you got to call it what it is um did you see the footage of of Connor hitting the bag like a lot of people are like I'm mocking him yeah what's wrong with it it's very unconventional yeah you know it's not but is it wrong no you can't be wrong when you punch someone in the the face. But are you watching this and you're like, whoa, not this. Oh, it's not there. The footage. Yeah, yeah. Are you just, are you watching and you're like, what is he doing? No, I think he's putting on a show. Is it possible? I've asked his coaches this. Is it possible that he's trying to trick us? Perhaps. Is he trying to look bad so that we think he has no chance? Yeah, I think

that. I do. I don't think it's going to help him any in the fight, but I think a lot of this is for the reaction, right? How do you make $100 million? Get more people interested. But don't you want people to think that you have a chance? People already think he does. Yeah. You're do. Well, I'm just, I'm not one, listen, I don't know how much you followed his career, but this guy has defied all logic. The fact that we're even talking about a fight that's happening in two weeks between him and Floyd makes no sense. Right. So why can't the most impossible fight ever happen in the most impossible way? That's my take on it all. Nothing he does make sense. You know what I mean?

So I can't, like I hear Max Kulman, who have the utmost respect for say he's not going to line to punch. You think that's true? I think it's possible. I think it's possible. Are you going to watch? Yeah. I wasn't going to. And then. And then after all this, I'm like, now I got to do this. So it worked. It worked. Yeah, winning. You were going to boycott it?

No, just I had no interest in it. I was like, I'm not paying $100 for that. But now you are? Well, no, actually, I'm going to go to my friend's house. Okay. But you're interested. I am interested. I want to see what happens.

But, like, I've seen, like, high, top, top-level boxers. Like, top-level. Like, Terrence Crawford has been to my gym sparring with the best guys in Gleason's. Like the best guy's Gleason says to offer. And then just lined him up and played with them. Wow. You know? And not to say that he shouldn't, but I've seen boxers do it where incredible fighters.

Yeah. Don't measure up to exceptional fighters. Yeah. And we're talking about Floyd here. Yeah. The greatest of all time, arguably, greatest defensive boxer of all time, arguably. He says if he loses, it won't affect his legacy. That can be true, right?

49 and 1? It won't affect his bank. It won't affect his bank, but you say Floyd Mayweather, they will always talk about him losing to the guy who was, oh, no, right? Right, right. You don't think so? No, I totally think so. I totally think so.

Do you think it'll be bad for boxing? No, I don't think. You're already on the way out. You don't care. No, I love boxing. Boxing's in my soul. Yeah. I don't think that at all.

But it's like, everyone says, like, oh, which gloves hit harder? Well, it depends on who punches you in the face. That's what gloves. Like, everything is, it's relative. to who's in there fighting. Is Floyd making a mistake by trying to campaign for eight ounce gloves now? Do you think that that matters? No, it doesn't matter.

Eight to ten ounce ain't a big deal. If kind of one of those UFC gloves, then he's in trouble. So what's your prediction? I think, I got to say, money made all day, maybe around four. I think he's going to play it. You think he stops him? I think he could. But not because he's so strong and he's going to knock out this tough guy.

Everyone knows McGregor is so tough. But I think that his footwork, his distance, he's, going to frustrate the shit out of him. Okay. And if they stop it, it'll just be on lots of unanswered punches. Oh, really? Body shots? Eat them up, no?

Both. Both. Okay. I think he's going to have his way. Way to poo-poo the whole thing. Sorry, guys. It's still going to make a lot of money. Yeah, yeah.

Regardless of what you may say about it. You mentioned the Yankees before. You wanted to play for the Yankees as a kid. Oh, my gosh, I did. How close did we get to this dream? Like, how far did you take it? Until I was like eight, and I realized that little girls weren't allowed to play little league. And we played on softball.

Is that true? Yeah. When I was a kid anyway. How about now? Now it's different. I remember even when I was a teenager that there were a couple of girls playing Little League. And by then I had already been like, you know, into boys and other things. And it didn't become such a dream.

But my mom talks about I would sound like a 60-year-old old man screaming at my TV. I knew every stat. You were a big Yankee fan. Tremend. Who was your favorite? Of all time? Bernie Williams. Bernie once.

Maryana Rivera. Okay, so I was going to say not a pitcher, but Mariana was your guy. Yeah, like I dreamed of running out of the bullpen. Yeah, coming out to enter Sandman. Girls just want to happen. Oh, that would have been incredible. Wow.

I love that song. That was my dream, yeah. Oh, my gosh. My first tattoo, I have a Yankee tattoo on my back. It was my first one when I was 14. Are you still a fan? I am. Unfortunately, because of my schedule, I don't really get to watch any game anymore.

They had a heartbreaker last night. I don't know if you know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. You know what's interesting? I'm from Canada. And I hate the Yankees because the Yankees represent everything that's wrong in sports in my opinion,

at least like the big bad Yankees from the 90s. And my kids are New Yorkers. Okay. And so now they want to root for the Yankees because they're friends. And it breaks my heart that they want to wear like Yankees hats. I can't believe my spawn is wearing a Yankee hat. But I have to accept it, right? Because they like it.

Yeah. When I was a kid, I couldn't even speak to someone who was a Red Sox fan. Wow. I couldn't even like, I'd be like, I'm sorry. Did you grow up with fighting as well? Like in your house, did you watch fighting, combat sports? None of that. No.

Who introduced you to it? My sister actually got me a gift certificate to a karate school. And I was working all these jobs. And she was like, you need a life. You need to get out of the house. And it was the two of us living together. We were like two single moms with our kids. One kid each?

You had a daughter. I have a daughter. And she has a son. And up until like three years ago, she was with me, like my wife, her whole life. I went from being her mom to her wife. Wow. Older or younger sisters? She's younger.

Okay. Younger. Younger, pretty one. And she got me this gifts to be it. Within three weeks, I had my first fight. Oh, my gosh. Chris Algerie was kickboxing. He was kickboxing as a main event for a world title, and I was on his undercard.

Holy smokes. And I won, and it was like, ah, this is what I'm supposed to do. And you had no background, nothing. Nothing. Did you watch it? Were you a fan? No. Why did she get you this?

Because it was something to do. I like to run and exercise a little bit. And she was like, oh, maybe you try this. They had the boot camp classes, and you hit the bag with the radio on, you know? And it was kind of fun. And how soon did something switch in your mind where you were like, I actually want to do this for a living? After my first fight, I just wanted to keep getting better.

Stuff that was hard, I would go back to the gym and try to make it better. And, you know, by my last kickboxing fight, I wound up at Gleesons. And it was the same thing. I went to Gleesons, hooked up with Lisey Ashley, who was a five-time world champion kickboxer and boxer. And her brother, Devin Korman. and they introduced me to boxing and within three weeks I had my first fight

and Devon said if you want it you know 10 years from now when they talk about women's boxing they'll talk about Christy Martin Layla Ali and Heather Hardy and I was like yeah right and I won like 18 eight titles and 18 months in boxing

Wow your daughter is a teenager now what does she think of her mom She don't think I'm cool Come on I saw you did a video You're like oh here's my daughter What's her name again? Annie. Annie, she wouldn't even crack a smile.

She looked like she hated you. Are we in that stage now where she's miserable? She doesn't hate me, but she's just like outside the house. She's like, Mom, please keep her voice down. Oh, my. You know, because I'm like a dork. Like, I trip a lot. Like, I'm always like laughing and snorting.

And she's always like, oh. How old is she? 13. 13. And she's already embarrassed by you. Yeah. Wow. I'll be like, Annie, mom's going to fight at Madison Square Garden.

And she's like, oh, my God. That is horrible. Does she go? No. She doesn't even go. She used to go. I used to fight at BB Kings and she would go because she liked the mac and cheese there. Okay. That's it.

And when she's like, you're not fighting there anymore, forget it. Oh, my Lord. She's, I'm like, fine. One day, your friends will think I'm cool and then what. That's right. And does she train at all? Does she do any of that? No.

She's like artistic. And she likes drama and music. So you had her when you were 22. Okay. With your now ex-husband. Yes. And how was that? that the relationship and now where it stands. Are you guys okay? Right now it's great. He's remarried and he has

other kids and me and him have a great relationship with the baby. The baby is 13. She'll always be my baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she splits her time with us and, you know, if he's working a lot, you know, I'll take her or if I want her on the weekends instead of him, you know, he'll give it to me. So it's cool. Of course, anytime someone reads about your story now, they read about what happened you when you were 12. You were raped. Yeah. You're okay with that. You're okay because I read something is very interesting that you said that like people feel uncomfortable talking to me about it but I actually enjoy having my voice heard and telling people so that people don't blame themselves victims can learn from this and don't blame themselves because that's something that

you feel right you blame yourself well I did for a long time and I think that's that's part of the problem with anything that from rape to domestic violence to you know even even like mental disorders people like with depression and anxiety like people are so afraid to talk about it because you feel so isolated. You feel like this only happened to me because I'm bad. It's not something that happens to everyone, but this is me because I'm bad. And any chance I can get to tell people,

like, it happened to me and you think I'm cool. You think I'm successful. You think I have my shit together, but I really don't. And I might never fully have my shit together, but every day I'm working towards it, and you can do the same thing. Could you tell us what happened? Do you mind?

No, I was raped when I was, I said 12. Unfortunately, like when you kind of bury memories, you bury them. So I might have been 13, actually. But it was someone in my neighborhood. And I thought I didn't want to tell anyone because I had was smoking pot. And I was really high. And I believe he laced my drugs. And I was like almost like I couldn't move.

And I was like screaming and shouting. But I couldn't move my body. So all this happened. And, you know, when there's just. drugs were off, I could run home and everything, but it's like a life sentence when you're raped, because any time after it happens, you feel like that same fear and panic and anxiety and shame. Like, if I didn't buy drugs from this guy or going to his house and sit in the living room and agree to smoke with him, then this never would have happened.

So for so long, I carried that every single day, like it had a handle on it and I brought it with me. How did you get over that? never got over it. I still didn't get over it, but I did accept that it wasn't my fault. And it's not my burden to carry. It's his instead. And I just figure out how to live my life around that happening, how to accept that, you know, everything that happens isn't my fault. Some things are beyond care control. Did you tell your parents or friends or anyone that's close to you after it happened? My ex-husband was actually the first person I ever told. Wow. How many years later? Well, he was my first boyfriend.

My second boyfriend. So I was with Mike from when I was 14 until I was 30. So probably a big part of the reason because I told him that and he helped me carry that. But he was also a kid. I was 14. He was 18. So he kind of just like said, here, let me just take that problem and put it on the shelf and make you feel better. Okay.

Did you tell your parents at some point? Years later. And how did they react? It was hard because my neighborhood is more like a community. So the person who raped me Still like riding around on this bike And out of jail for years Like my mom knows this mom

And it kind of gets buried You know And that was a big part of the reason Why I wanted to move my daughter out of there Because sexual assault is so prevalent Neighborhoods like that Where people are afraid and ashamed To tell on someone that is so close with people you know

Yeah Have you ever seen him since? I have You have? I have Have you talked to him? No Like how close is he when you

see him? Like riding his bike? Maybe if I'm driving and I'll see him ride his bike. What is that like? It's terrifying, but not physically terrifying because I could kick his ass. You could. It's like the fear comes back all in waves, like as if it just happened. How hard was it to get to the point to where you speak about it now and are okay to speak about it and almost giving people hope that they can speak about and encourage? I mean, that's not an easy thing. It's not, but it's something like that came with time. I realize not everyone has a microphone and a platform to speak. And I think it's

an athlete's duty to reach out to all the people who think that you inspire them or who say, because of you, I went to the gym today. Because of you, I felt like I could box. I want to reach out to people on a different level so that because of me, they felt like they could put a piece of their

life behind them. Like, you know what? Bad things have happened to me in my life, but I'm still able to do well and able to do good. Your story has been covered everywhere at ESPN and vice. I've read tons of articles. We had a great article on you right before your debut in MMA. Mark Romandie wrote it.

And I'm wondering, like, the more it gets out there, you must get letters from people, right? From women who have probably experienced and who say thank you. What does that like to read that? Kind of like a voice for them. Sometimes it makes me cry, you know, but it makes me know it's worth it. And it inspires me to keep talking and keep saying it

and keep assuring people and women and even men, like, you know, these things happen to men all the time as well. Like, it's not your fault. And you don't have to be ashamed or embarrassed. You're not by yourself. When I remember, I remember when I first talked about it, I was surprised that all the people around me who reached out and said, like, it happened to me too.

And I would look at these people and think, like, but you have a good job and a family. And every time I see you're happy. And that made me realize that I could be happy too. Uh-huh. How long after did you speak about? about it publicly for the first time? Gosh, it had to be close to 20 years.

Wow. And why did you decide to speak about it? What changed to make you finally come out and talk? Because I was finally starting to get over it myself. Not get over it, but learning how to put it behind me. Or learning how to say, this doesn't define me who I am. This isn't me. You know, like, it's just growing up and learning yourself and learning all the things

that are wrong with me and why they're wrong with me. And I just felt like, for all the people who are looking up to me and following me and writing to me, I owe it to them. You don't think, though, that this incident led you to become a fighter? I don't think so. I think that this incident makes me fight how I fight, you know, like, because I fought for my life before. And that makes me feel like when I go in the ring or even the cage now, like no girl at 125 pounds is going to make me fight for my life. No girl at 125 pounds is going to intimidate me in ways that I haven't already lived through and came out the other side.

So you never see me give up because I don't know how to. What is it like now because you say 1213, your daughter is 1213. Do you think about like overprotecting her and do you get worried when she goes? Now she's becoming more independent, right? Do you start to put yourself in her shoes at the age? How are you coping with that? I really try to make my daughter know that she has a voice and she can speak out. And there are things that she can talk to me about and not feel embarrassed or ashamed or like that mommy won't believe her.

And her father is very active and who she's with and where she goes and what she does. Because he still lives in that neighborhood. I took her out. Okay, okay. I ran away with her. So she spends most of our time with me where the environment. isn't, she goes out and then comes home for dinner. It's like you have after school activities.

Mommy picks you up. Mommy brings you home if your girlfriends want to come over. They can come home to our apartment. Not so much. She's just roaming the streets hanging out. Okay. Do you ever, like, is there a point where you just don't want to talk about it? Are you tired of talking about it?

Having to relive it? No. No. You think that there's a purpose. I do. And I remember when somebody made like a comment on Twitter or Facebook that stuck with me and they were like, oh, you know, I had their heart. Marty's always telling her sad story.

And I was like, wow, you know, like maybe some other people are tired of hearing it. But those are the people who don't have to listen to it. It's like the people who really need to hear it, will hear it. Are you a part of any groups? Do you talk to any? I don't. My advisor, Dan Hill, has had me do a few, like, speeches and interviews and programs and stuff. But nothing, like, exclusively.

You're so eloquent. You know, you speak about it. and just your whole story is just so inspiring. So I feel like a lot of people can learn a lot and be inspired by you. Yeah, I do some public speaking like when I'm asked, but unfortunately I'm always in the gym training or, you know, being a mom is hard to commit so much to that. So whenever I have the chance to talk about it or people want to.

Sure, sure. And I was perusing your Instagram recently, which at times is very entertaining with some of your saying. But it seemed like is everything. okay? Like something happened recently where you're like, I'm over it and I'm going to move on. You were talking about something for a couple days straight. No. Yeah, everything's good. I think it's just like the highs and lows of life, right?

Some days you wake up is hard to get out of bed. Yeah. And, you know, you got to give yourself like that little pep talk. Like, you got a family to feed your trash up. Do you know what I'm talking about? It was like August, second, third, fourth, you were talking about something. Yeah, you're very observant. Yes.

What were you talking about? I had girl stuff. Okay. I understand. But everything's okay? Yeah. Okay, all right. Because I was just, you know, I like to do my research and I saw it.

I was like, you know, I was wondering. Because you didn't actually say what it was. It was very secretive. So, you know, I apologize for prying. That's okay. No, you don't. Well, that's just, you know, the job. It's okay.

Yeah. That's the job. Well, I appreciate you opening up about it because I know, I mean, every story, but that's kind of who you are. And I mean, it doesn't go away, right? It'll never go away. You're okay with that. Yeah.

You're at peace with that. Yeah. It'll never go away, but I make it livable. And you're okay with, you know, sometimes it's hard to have relationships, right? Have you been able to put it aside to where you can have healthy relationships? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, like, most of my relationship problem come from me being a fighter. That's true.

Men are actually sometimes, like in Tim. by that, right? Because you're tougher than them, right? Yeah, like I see that a lot in the gym, you know, like they come and partner up with me, and they go so hard just so that hardly don't beat them up. And you probably do beat them up. A lot of times. Yeah. That's amazing.

So your home for boxing is Gleesons. Yes. Your home for M.A. Is Hanzo Gracie Fight Academy in Williamsburg? Oh, in Williamsburg. Wow. You know, it's crazy. I used to live, like, two blocks from that. Oh, really?

Yeah. And a good friend of mine still goes there. That's a beautiful gym. I know. The white mats and everything. Yeah. Daniel is so good too. Daniel Gracie coaches over there. Okay, he's the coach there now.

Yeah, I've learned so much from him. Wow. And so you've also trained at Longo Wideman, but no more. Well, the commute got really hard. Yeah. My sparring partners are out there, so like Jenny Nadell is a world champion kickboxer, and they have a couple of girls who do MMA over there, and their wrestling coach is really good.

So I try to stay there, but it's just a little challenging. Okay. And so October 20th, Mohegan Sun, which is somewhat local, not quite as local as MSG, but close enough. We don't know the opponent yet. Right, right. A couple days we should have some names to look at. Will it be 125? Yes.

Okay. And then you're hoping for a boxing match end of the year. Before the end of the year. So this is going to be a busy four months for you. Yes. Hopefully on Showtime. Yes, hopefully on Showtime. What do we do?

How do we get this done? We got to tweet Stephen Espenosa. Tell him you want to see the heat. Have you actually met him? A few times. He's been to my fight. He has. Yeah.

Because you fought a Barclays and things like that. And because he's so close with Lou. So even when I was fighting like my little fights at BB Kings, you know, he was coming in. So what's taking so long? I don't know, man. Tell me you want to see the heat. Yes. Okay.

And what weight do you fight at in boxing? 122 and 126. 126. What's the dream matchup in that weight for you? Is there anyone who's on your level in your opinion? Oh my gosh. There are so many girls. Like that's really why I'm out here talking because there isn't like on my level.

There are so many girls who will probably kick my butt right now. But, kick your butt. Well, not kick my butt, but, you know, I'm being nice. Right. There's a girl in Canada, Jelena, who has the WBC 126-pound title. Okay. Guys, that's on my Christmas list. That's the fight? That's the dream matchup right now.

That's on my Christmas list. Where in Canada is she from? Do you know? I wish I did. I'm sorry to say I don't. No, it's okay. I'm Canadian. Her last name is very long, so I wouldn't even dare.

Okay. Try and disrespect her. So this would be a third title? Yes, yes. Wow. So in your two belts, do you have a, like, mandatory? Do you have to defend one? I usually defend them every six months.

Okay. Whichever one. Like, I can't hold them both now. I had the 122 pounder, and I vacated the 122, and I took the 126. Okay. So I've already defended it like I have to for this year. I might do it again if they asked me to. Right.

But I want to go for that new one. Do you like the structure of MMA as opposed to boxing where it's just like one organization and you fight within it and you don't have to deal with the different commissions? I mean, the sanctioning bodies. I like it because it's so corporate, you know. I was so impressed with how corporate Bellator was. And that's pretty exciting. And you know, you can take a look at the landscape of the girls and who you want to fight.

Exactly. But boxing is kind of like that too. It's just a matter of like, will this promoter, let me fight this promoter's girl? And then have the matchup happen. Okay, okay. That's what makes it challenging. Not so much the organizations of the belts, but really who's promoting what? Like this girl is from Canada.

Will she come to the Barclays Center or will they make me go up there? Okay. So that's where the promotional crossover. were kind of stings in boxing. Did you meet Scott Coker? I didn't meet him at the way in, I think. But you never had a conversation with him? No, no.

He's a great guy. Yeah, he's been talking with my team. Okay. He's kind of like the antithesis of Lou, who I love. I'm a huge Lou bit of development. That video you guys did was so good. I want to have Lou in studio. Maybe next week we'll have him talk about the fight,

but he's just such a colorful character. I mean, he is New York boxing. He's like when your dad takes you out somewhere and yet you're like, dad, shut out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe that's how your daughter feels about. you. It totally is.

He even screwed up his, did you see what he did with his collar? He was very upset about this. No. Because, you know, he had like the button tier, but he buttoned it instead of budding it here, he did it like here and he was so upset. He sent me, why didn't you tell me? I didn't notice it, but he was very upset. He's such a character.

I'm happy. I love the fact that you're sort of like breaking these barriers and you're being promoted by a boxing guy and an MMA guy now at this point and that you sign this deal. So no Invicta, we're exclusive with Bell Tours. We're exclusive with Beltoe right now moving forward. Well, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming in. Thanks so much. Soon, you know, we have Holly Home right over there.

Yeah, I saw that when I walked in. Soon we'll have the heat maybe. Totally. How about that? That's Connor McGregor, the man you think has no chance of beating Floyd Maywey the man who you actually... Yeah, throw that in, right? You openly laughed at, by the way, for the record.

Openly laughed at. Twice. If not more. Got the Beltor gloves that you'll be wearing again soon. We have it all here. Heather, it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Really.

Thank you. I appreciate you. coming in, making the trek and sharing your story with us. A lot of fans, again, have been asking to have you on and really happy that you did it. I hope they still like me after that. They will. No, they will. They will. They will. Our man Joe is going to walk you out here. We'd like to do it on the fly. I wish you the best and we'll see you on October 20th. I knock over my flags for the second time today. Thanks. There she goes. Heather Hardy, the heat, returning to action on October 20th. Take care, Heather. All the best to you as she

departs the studio. How much fun was that? So great to talk to her and so great that she has re-signed with Bellator that she has actually signed a multi-fight deal with Belator. And now she is she's headed to the Mohegan Sun. How cool is that? Against the dreaded TBD. But her next fight will in fact be in professional mixed martial arts. Heather Hardy, everyone, that was awesome. Really appreciate her stopping by. And thank you very much to her and her team for breaking that news here on the program. Always great to have someone in studio. And to get her insight, of course, now is an interesting time as far as boxing and MMA are concerned to get her insight on the clash of champions

that is Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor. All right, great stuff. Let's move along. Can't wait to speak to our next guest. I've been wanting to talk to him for the last few weeks. Kind enough to join us right now. You heard the news late last week. He has officially signed to fight Michael Bisping on November 4th, Madison Square Garden.

I believe it's UFC 217, the former UFC Walterway champion. George Rush St. Pierre is on the phone right now. How cool is this? George, are you there? Yes, I'm there. How are you guys? I'm doing great. George, it's great to talk to you and congratulations on officially signing the deal. Here's the big question for you because just a few weeks ago, Dana White was telling us the ship had sailed, the fight's not happening,

you're fighting at 170 if you do fight again. Are you surprised that in the end you're actually fighting Michael Bisping? No, I'm not surprised. does the fight I want it? Does the fight Michael want it? And I think it's that fight that people want to see. And I've been prepared for this. You know, it's been a few months.

I put a lot of muscle mass on myself to be able to compete at 185. So I was more ready to compete at 185 than I am at 170. Is it fair to say, George, that if you didn't get the Michael Bisping fight, that you would not have come back? I don't know. I always take... I try to take one move at that time because in MMA you know how it is. Things change so rapidly. And in the past, I've done many times I've done the mistake of trying to anticipate things.

And sometimes it works, but sometimes you end up like overthinking stuff and it's just a waste of energy. So I take one move at the time, you know. But I always believe the fight was going to happen. So what was going through your mind when you were hearing Dana say he's fighting at 170? The ship has sailed. Stop talking about GSP Bisping. What are you thinking back home in Montreal when you hear this? Well, sometimes I lost hope a little bit, of course, but if we remember, if we go back a few months ago, we were supposed to fight Bisping and I. Then injuries made the fight cancel, so to speak.

then the guy that got the opportunity to fight for the title got injured so one misfortune could create the opportunity of someone but then after them is misfortune we put us back in the initial situation so it it is unfortunate for for certain people but it you know sometimes the misfortune of people make the good luck of others I hate to say that, but that's sometimes the case in our sport, and that's exactly what happened in MMA right now. Did you have a deadline in your mind? Like, if you didn't get this fight by November, December, were you not going to wait around forever?

I would say this year, I was putting 2017 as my year, and then after I was going to think about something else, you know, maybe stopping, retire, or. you know because I always said I want to do that when I'm on top you know I didn't I don't want to you know it's been four years I haven't not compete you know I taking a big big risk but I wanted my my risk to be worth it you know to I wanted to try something that I never attempted before and for me fighting my Michael B Sping is the most rewarded we're rewarded thing I can do right now you know

if you put yourself in my shoes I have a lot more to gain as fighting Michael Bisping as I would have to fight another guy, you know, as other guys. And also, for me, I wanted to make something that it's, the risk and the reward is pretty much 50-50. Right. Do you, at this point, do you feel like, okay, it's, you know, like, because when you initially came out, there was the press conference, it was all the stuff, you didn't

want to talk about anything after Michael Bisping. Are you coming back for one fight only? coming back for multiple fights? Do you still have that vision planned out of what you want to do? No, I have a contract with UFC. They signed me for a few fights. And I have to defend my title. It's written in my contract.

I have to defend my title if I win. And also, I think it's Whitaker going to be the guy that's going to have the other fight after if I went. I'll be the best thing is going to be the guy that I'm going to fight next. Unless something happens, and the case very often, things happen. You never know in advance, but if we follow the logic, that's what UFC told me. That's what they sign me for. Wow.

So when you did that press conference in March, you didn't really want to talk about what would come after this fight. But you're saying here that if you win on November 4th, you have to fight Robert Whitaker to unify the middleweight titles, correct? Yes, yes. That wasn't my initial plan, but I understand the UFC point of view. They want to protect their title. They don't want people to jump and delayed the defense of their title because there's a lot of people waiting. And I understand that. I'm a fighter myself. I understand. I don't want to make people wait. And, you know, this year has been very unfortunate. the 185 title have not been so far so I'll be the first one to fight best pain for the title this year it's been a long time and I understand why people are angry so so when you say that because yes this has it actually somewhat bothers me that like the return of george st pierre should be a massive deal this is one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport top five if not top three right if not number one and when when the fight was finally announced because of how long it has taken with the

conference and Dana's saying it's off, it's on, it's off, it's on, everything. People are like, okay, all right, they don't even know what to think. Have you received those comments and does that bother you that people aren't 100% excited for your return? I think most people are excited. You just hear the negative people because they're the one that make the more noise. The people that are happy, they're happy and excited. But most of people that make the noise, unfortunately, are the angry people. They're the people that make the most noise. So that's, if you look at any athlete in social media,

look at any athlete, more negat-lil. Maybe not more, but there's a lot of negatil comments all the time, especially in MMA. It's a sport of trash talk. It's a sport that people like to talk tough. Even though they're not really tough,

a lot of them, they're hiding behind a computer, but they like to talk tough, you know? And that's the case. If you look on my, My social media sometimes, I went to see the other day

I was laughing. Some guys they're tripping to beat me up like some normal civilian that never did any martial art in their life

they just made me laugh a little bit. It's my God. Unfortunately, that's where the sport is right now. Beat you up for what? Well, it's because they say

I'm outdated. The sport has changed since then and blah blah, blah, I should not go back and whatever. It's my choice. I would not have gone back if I would think I'm not a better version than what I was when I left off.

So I guess the only way to find out is going to be in New York City November 4. Do you wish that it was all kind of done differently, that they didn't do the press conference before the fight was official and you were healthy and things like that? Do you feel like because it took so long for this to happen, that's why some people may feel this way?

Yeah, a little bit. It was the only press conference on a fight that was announced without a date. You know what I mean? When we did the press conference, we didn't have a date on the fight. That was kind of weird. And they knew UFC knew I had an eye issue. Then after Bisping got his knee injury, everything got messed up. And it creates a lot of anger from a lot of people.

It's normal. I get it, you know. Most importantly, how is your eye? How are you doing? It's 100%. I would not have... I always prioritized my health on top of my performance. My health is number one, as always. And I would not have gone back if I would feel I would be a risk.

There's always a risk, of course, but it's a calculated risk, you know? I'm 100%. Okay, so you have been medically cleared. You're good to go. No more restrictions? No, exactly. I can train, like, sparring and everything. I'm ready.

Wow, that is incredible. Congratulations, by the way, on that. Did you watch the Tyron Woodley fight just a couple of weeks ago against Damien Maya? Yes, I did. I actually believe Tyrone Woodley did a great job. best weapon. I think he did a great job. I feel a little bit for the guy. Even though he's not, I've been very nice to me,

because everybody wants money and they all want the money fight. They all want they all he want you want me to turn my eyes towards him. And you know, but for my point of view, I'm not scared of Tyrone Woodley. I'm just, it's more, there is more to gain. fighting Michael Bisping than Tyrone Woodley for me right now. If I fight Bisping and UFC want me, maybe I fight Woodley, but as it is now, they want me to fight Whittaker. So I'm not scared.

This is scary. It makes me laugh when people say I'm scared. I'm scared, actually, to fight everyone. I'm always scared when I'm about to fight. But even though I'm scared, I'm still going to bite in my mouthpiece and do the walk. You know, I don't care about my feelings. I just do it regardless. but I feel a little bit for the guy.

He did a great job, I believe. Even though the fight was a little bit boring sometime, because I think he should have gone a little bit more in offense, trying to hurt Damien more. But Damia should have tried more from his point of view to do more. So it's hard to put the blame on tyrant. You have to put the blame on both guys, not only on tyrant, but I think he did a great job

So do you think So after the fight Dana White comes out and says Bad performance You're not getting the GSP fight We're giving it to Bisping because Bisping fights Is that fair? Do you feel like the way it was kind of presented

Do you feel like that was fair Or Which is what I said after I think Tyron was never in the running To fight you And that this was kind of an excuse To take it away from him That the fight was already made

Between you and Bisping Even before UFC 214. I like that The second explanation that he just said, I like to think of it better that way than saying that because of his fight with Maya, he didn't not deserve to fight me. I actually, I think he shut down Damien Meyer pretty well. He's one of the only ones to have done it so well. I mean, he showed great takedown defense as well, you know. I just, I felt bad for the guy, you know. It's just, it's unfortunate for him. he had a tough fight he had a Stephen Wonderboy Thompson I believe in one of those

two fights I believe at least one of those two fights I would have given to Stephen in a decision and that's why because it was so close then the third fight with Maya

then it was it was people were expecting more than I think I just felt bad for him But he did a great job, man. He shut him down very well. I don't know what to say. I just feel bad.

Sometimes match up, that's what it does. But just style of fight are made because of the style. The mix of the style sometimes doesn't produce a good fight. It just happened that way. How much, if I could ask, do you weigh right now, George? Right now, when I used to fight that one, seven, I was always walking around 185, 186. Now when I wake up in the morning, I'm 198, almost 200 pounds.

Wow. I'm much bigger, much bigger than I was. And how do you feel, how do you feel having that extra weight? I feel very good. Okay. I feel very, very good. I feel I've done this through dieted this. I follow a diet

And it happened very rapidly In like a month and a half I gained about 10 pounds It was very fast I was very surprised Because I didn't believe It was going to work that good And yeah

It's just the way I eat It's first of my life Normally I eat a lot of bad food But now I watch what I eat And it made a big difference How much do you expect to weigh On November 4th When you're in the cage

About to fight Michael Bisping I should be around 200 pounds Wow, okay So you're not worried about size difference No, Michael Bespin is going to be bigger than me for sure Uh-huh But no problem My skill will make the difference in that fight

I believe skills always beat size Do you believe that this will be the toughest fight of your career? Oh yes, it will be tough Michael is a very courageous man He always come forward. He never back down. He's mentally very tough. Because I fought a lot of guys in the past.

The fight, I could see a mental shift in their mind. They were accepting the defeat. They knew they were going to lose before the end of the fight. And they were fighting to not get beat up too much instead of fighting to win. When that hacker, on my side, I was fighting to win, but it's hard because you know that if you're exposing yourself, you're going too much with offense, it exposed you to a useless opening to get beat up, you know? So, and one thing I can blame myself overthinking a little bit too much.

So now, the way I made my training, I made my training to be more opportunist, more on the finish. Oh, okay. So you want to go for it? You're going to try to go for the finish more? You're going to be more aggressive? Yes, I've trained a lot of things. I'm going to be more there to hurt guys and to go for the finish, to submit, to break, to go for the break.

You know what I mean? Go for the knockout or go for the break, you know, if I have a submission. Until he tap, and then I'm going to be more apportionness. Wow. So are you saying in the past, you didn't feel like you did that? I felt like sometimes, even though when you're winning a fight, It's up to the guy who's losing to open up and create opportunity. You know, it's like a chess game.

It's up to him. But if it doesn't open up, you keep doing what you do well to win the fight, you know? You're winning. So you don't really necessarily change. You change a little bit, but you cannot over, you know, make a stupid art of fighting. You know what I mean? That's how it is. But now I feel like, like, the way I, for my training that I've been approaching,

my training the last few years, I develop more skills. to finish instead of skills for taking some good position and taking advantage of certain situation and position. Not more going for the finish. Wow. And are you still sticking to the idea, like you told us last time,

that if you lose, you are going to retire, like your first loss, you're done? Yeah, I believe if I lose, I'm finished. You never say for sure, you know, it's always how it's done and how it will be. But I probably, if I lose, I think I'm finished. But I do not expect to lose. I do expect to win and to be there for a few more.

How many more years do you want to do this for? I think I'm 36. Maybe until I'm 39. My 40th birthday will be celebrated in peace. Oh, wow, that is great. You know, GSP, we have, and before I let you go, we have this photo here on the set. You can't see it, but it's a very.

very famous photo, I think, and it says a lot just in the picture. It was taken by our photographer, the great Esther Lynn, and it's you after the Johnny Hendricks fight, sitting at the press conference, and your face is all cut up, and there's kind of like a confused look on your face, and that's when you told us that you wanted to take a break. That guy there, did you think that you would ever fight again? Like, is there a part of you still that is surprised that you're back four years later, or did you always think that you would come back? I knew I was going to come back if things would have changed. and things has changed during that time.

Like drug testing. Exactly. Okay. And what about with the sponsorship? What's going to happen with that? Are you going to wear Reebok? A Reebok? Yeah, it's going to be like a little bit like, for example, Tom Brady in NFL.

He's sponsored by Under Armour, but he's going to wear Nike for the game. But after he's still with Under Armour, I think it's going to be the same. Okay, so no problems there, though. No. Are you surprised to see what has happened to Johnny Hendricks, George? I feel bad for him. I never want to attack an individual when... It's not my son.

I never want to attack someone when he's down in his life. It's unfortunate. Things doesn't go his way. Excuse nobody of doing anything. It's just I wanted to change the system. That's why I did that to UFC. I didn't want to make the UFC look bad when I came out with those comments. I wanted to elevate the UFC to make it a higher sport.

And I'm glad they did it. And I'm very happy they took a good initiative with USADA to clean up a lot of the sport. You've seen in the last few weeks, a few months, few years, since USA, USA is there. a lot of things have changed. A lot of things have changed. I've said it a lot in the past. A lot of people thought I was crazy. I was paranoid.

But now I'm glad they have done it. But it's still a lot more to do. And now that you're active again, now that you're back, will you continue that conversation about the association? Do you want to keep that going? Or are you going to put that on the side while you return to fighting? Well, now I'm focusing on the fight right now. That's my main goal.

My goal is speaking of a big. number four. Okay. Are you going to do anything differently in training? Because you're fighting at middleweight, are you going to travel anywhere? Are you going to stay at TriStar? I'm traveling too.

I'm going to train with a lot of different guys. But when I get closer to the fight, I'm probably going to be more in Montreal. Okay. And last thing for you, George, I feel like I have to ask because it's on everyone's mind. Do you have any interest in watching Connor McGregor fight Floyd Mayweather?

and if so, do you think Connor is going to win? I heard Connor McGregor look extremely good in training and sparing. I heard he looked amazingly good. But if you ask me who will win, you know, it's hard to go against Medweather. He's the greatest boxer of our era. He's amazing. I mean, and he's finding a guy who's boxing. He has an amazing boxing corner, but he's the greatest boxer of our era.

is not his main area of expertise, you know? So it's hard to go against mewether. But my heart is with Connor. I hope he will do well. Are you going to watch it? I'll watch it? Yes, of course. I will be there.

You're going to the fight? Yes, I will go to the fight. I have to do some promotion for my fight against Bispin November 4. And are you still hoping to fight Connor at some point? I don't know I'm focused on Bisping now I do I do not know It's all depend on what's going to happen

And you know It's MMA it's a weird world Sometimes you know You never know what's going to happen And right now I'm focusing only on Michael Bispin All right fair enough Welcome back George are you happy Are you excited

I'm very happy All right We are happy you're back Welcome back Thank you again for coming on the show and for always coming back on the show. It really means a lot. And good luck in preparation. I promise I'll leave you alone now for at least a couple of weeks. But good luck as you prepare for Madison Square Garden on November 4th. Thank you, Ariel. Thank you to all my fans that have

stuck to me all those years. I'm really happy. And I want to make you a good show to make sure you have a wait for nothing. Can't wait. Thank you so much, George. Really appreciate it. All the best. Thank you. Bye. All right. There he is. one and only. George Rush St. Pierre. How about this? Daniel Cormier breaking his silence. George St. Pierre's first interview since signing to fight Michael Bispin. What a day. I'm excited. And some very interesting comments there. He has to fight Whitaker if he wins. He's fighting until 39. And I think that that is the most important thing. He has to fight Whitaker if he wins.

It's all getting back on track. He's sticking around at 185. He did not commit to this at the press conference back in March. but he is sticking to 185 if he wins. He has to defend the title against Whitaker, the interim champion. He has to unify the belts. That is very important. That is a huge takeaway. Great stuff. All of you who are disappointed about this all, who are tired of it, I get it.

I think that the return was horribly botched. But I predict this come November 4th, you will be extremely excited for the return of GSP. There's no doubt about that. We'll see also how the card shapes up. Joanna, Cody, let's see what happens. All right, for now, let's move along. Very excited to talk to our next guest, been wanting to have her on for the last couple of weeks.

This is a phenomenal story. Back in September of last year, I was in Cleveland to cover, of course, CN Punk's UFC debut. The night before UFC 203, I attended an indie wrestling show because someone told me that Matthew Riddle, the former UFC fighter,

was going to compete on the card. I did not know that she, Shana Bazler, one of the pioneers of women's MMA, would also be competing on the card. And dare I say that I was more impressed with Shana than I was with Matt. And she has maybe a little more experience than Matt does in professional wrestling, at least at that time, was blown away by how she worked the match, her skills. And now a lot has changed since then. In fact, she's a part of the May Young Classic, a World Wrestling Entertainment tournament

that kicks off on the WWE Network on August 28th, 32 women, some of the best from around the world. She is a part of it. There's a lot to talk to her about. I'll tell you more about that tournament in a second, but first let us introduce the one and only Queen of Spades, Shana Basler. Shana, are you there?

I am here, yes. So good to have you on the show, Shana. How are you? I'm doing really well. It's good to finally be on the show. I know, like you said, you've been trying for a few weeks. Thank you. I appreciate it.

So here we are a couple weeks before this tournament, but there's a lot to get to at this point. before we get to the actual tournament, have you officially retired from MMA and are transitioning to pro wrestling? Are you fully in on pro wrestling and no more mixed martial arts? You know, the thing is,

wherever there's a body waiting for me to compete against, I'm willing to compete. The letters behind it doesn't matter to me at this point. I just want to take the biggest opportunities that come my way, so. When did you start to, when was your first pro wrestling match? It was September of 2015.

So, okay, so we were approaching two years. And, like, what were the condition surrounding? Like, how did, I know you, you know, obviously, you train catch wrestling and Josh Barnett, but how did you actually end up on the card? It was something where, in my last UFC fight, I had injured my knee, and so

we knew with the landscape of where the UFC was at at the time, that I would be sitting the bench for a bit. You know, girls weren't getting fights as often just yet. And I just, I wanted to make money and stay active. And so we just decided to start some pro wrestling stuff to see how I like it, how I took to it, a new challenge, and it just kind of like snowballed from there, just bigger and bigger opportunities.

Were you surprised at how much you liked it early on, or did you have a feeling that you would enjoy it? I kind of had a feeling I'd enjoy it. I mean, like, if you followed my mixed martial arts career, I've always kind of been the show woman, like the pro wrestler of women's MMA, I guess, with the guitar, you know, coming out with the guitar and saying crazier things in the interviews and the promos and stuff.

So being a disciple of Josh, Josh Barnett, it's you know pro wrestling coming from that old school catch wrestling stuff it's always been a huge part of the training so and so when you're doing this are you just doing it kind of for fun or did you start to think like

wow I can actually try to make a run at WWE like women's wrestling is getting more popular they're pushing it more when did you start to think that this was actually something that you can pursue and make money from you know to be honest at first it wasn't at first it was like

I wanted to undertake this. This is going to sound, maybe people won't understand if they don't understand the history of catch wrestling and the kind of shared history that professional wrestling and sports entertainment has with mixed martial arts and fighting.

But I kind of, you know, I've been under Josh for 12 years, something along those lines. And I just, I felt like it was a way, it was like a way I could follow in his footsteps and Billy Robinson's footsteps and kind of carry on the catch wrestling banner that I've carried throughout my

fight career to kind of carry that on into the next I just felt like the next thing I needed to do to honor like my martial heritage and like I said a lot of people that maybe are familiar with the history and stuff maybe won't understand that but it was important to me to to be Josh's first really successful sports entertainer. So that was my goal to kind of, I don't know, like a thank you, a way to honor everything he did for me.

Did you ask for his blessing as you decided to pursue this? How did that work? Yeah. He wouldn't let me work until he found me suitable. to do that. He wouldn't let me work pro wrestling at all. Wow. So he had the final say when I could start taking professional wrestling matches, and he was, you know, I'm going to, I was going to listen to him.

There were times where I would throw a tantrum and we would argue about things, but in the end he had my best interest and, you know, the interest of where I come from, catch wrestling and and ultimately Billy Robinson so and what were you budding heads over? Oh just like I'm ready now and I want to you know

just that kind of a thing and just the timeline of stuff I wanted to get going right away and he still wanted to see some things out of me namely it was very important to Josh to keep me competing I was competing in grappling tournaments. I was competing in catch wrestling tournaments. I was in Japan and I still fought while I was

over there on a professional wrestling tour. So, I mean, it was important to, for him to not just see me going through the motions, but to come to fully understand why he was doing things was doing. Did you understand that he was kind of putting you through the ringer? It's almost like when you try to get a belt in MMA or the stuff that you hear about in Japanese wrestling with Anoki and some of the great teachers there, like you have to pass certain tests. Did you get that while it was happening?

Maybe not while it was happening. I mean, I thought I got it, but I didn't truly until I had to kind of discover these things on my own. And then you know, in conversation with Josh later, I'd be like, and I got it. You said this and I thought I knew what you meant, but I

got it, you know. It was, and it's funny to bring that up because it is a very Japanese style. You know, Billy Robinson started the UWF Snake Pit, which is a catcherce in gym in Japan, and the UWF, UWFI, and it's still running, and I went there and trained. And so it is a very old-school kind of Japanese way of bringing someone in to do that. And now are you still training with Josh, or do you not have time, you're not in the same city? How does that work? No, I'm still one of the team captains on UWFUSA team that he is the head of.

And so when I'm in, of course, I'm traveling around all the time, but when I'm in town, I'm there helping to run practice, helping with some of the younger guys on the team, and still going to fight practice every morning. So of course, the dream is always WWE. They are the major leagues. They are the NFL of pro wrestling. It has been that case for quite some time. you're a part of this tournament,

but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are a part of WWE, right? You're like, what exactly is at stake in this tournament 32 other women involved? Well, ultimately, this is the first tournament of this kind ever. A 32 women tournament to win the first ever my young classic. And, you know, it's going to air on the WWE network

and that's in like 170 million homes or something. I don't know the exact number. but it's just a bigger platform for me to show my legacy and what I bring to the table. It's the biggest platform I've been on. You know, I fought in the UFC. I've done all this stuff, but this is, I wish people could wrap their head around how big this is. It's a big thing. It's the first one.

It's historic. And ultimately, being on this stage, I want to, you know, WWE is the best, place to be. It's where all the best wrestlers in the world are. So, um, you know, that's who I want to test myself again. So hopefully uh, this doesn't just show fans who I am and what I bring, but also obviously the WWE will be able to see my performance in the tournament. And are you, like is a contract at stake if you win the tournament are you in? How does that work? Uh, I think it's not been stated, but I think obviously winning the tournament would

would speak well for any contract that were to be involved, I suppose. Okay. Is it surreal to you that you're there already, that you're already competing on a WWP platform? Did you think this would happen so soon after kind of concentrating? I know you've been around combat sports for a long time, but first match in 2015, here you are two years later. Is that sooner than you thought?

It's, um, it's, sooner than I thought, but also at the same time, I think it's exactly the right time. I think it had to happen this way. It had to. And there's no better way than the tournament to, like I said before, there's no better way than this tournament where hopefully, you know, I'm marching to this tournament showing what I do and what I bring to the table. the tournament itself and the historic importance of this and the huge platform, all that's

kind of surreal to me. When I can step back on my mixed martial arts career and think about, like, I was in Bodog and I was in Strike Force and I was in Elite XC. You know what I mean? Like, I was at all these top place, like, at the time, here it was, the top place for women to be. And I was competitive in all these things. And now the May Young Classic is this other.

historic, you know, competitive women's thing, and I'm a part of that, too. It kind of blows my mind that I'm lucky enough to have experienced all these different milestones in women's combat sports. So all that's kind of surreal. And then it's finally like, I feel like this is a big culmination of everything because it's just the biggest platform. It'll be viewed by most people. So I don't know. I'm excited. What do you enjoy more, pro wrestling or MMA? it's all the same to me if we're talking about what I like to do. But I think one thing that I am, that makes me lean towards sports entertainment right now

is because I think the subculture of the two are so different. namely appreciation. When you go and you wrestle in a match and win or lose, you know, well, here, let me say it like this. You'll go to shows and hear crowds chant, thank you, Shana, or you deserve it. And MMA crowd will never chant that to anyone.

and I think that general appreciation that wrestling fans have for just the the wrestlers in general is just a greater appreciation than MMA fans have, I think. In general, of course, now you're going to have probably people like, oh, that's not true, but it's just kind of a general feeling. And I think I am in a place to say it because I've experienced both. Yeah. Yeah. I've experienced it as a spectator, seeing how they react to you.

I saw it at that show in Cleveland. How do you feel about MMA now? Now that you're kind of phasing out of it and you had this run and, you know, obviously the end and the UFC run didn't go the way you wanted it to. Like, do you have sour feelings toward the sport? How would you describe how you feel towards MMA? I think, honestly, it's going to sound like I'm whining, but for a second I think I was kind of jaded.

it felt me, and it's funny because I've talked to Rhonda about this too, because I think she's experienced sort of the same thing, but obviously on a much bigger scale, that it's, it's, you get to a point where you do so much and you work so hard, but then the first time you slip, it's all thrown away. And so it's hard to get back in the next time, and it's time to work hard again. it's hard to justify it to yourself when you know, like, well, one day it's not going to matter. So it's, I came to that place, I think, in MMA where I didn't, you know, I didn't like it. And I think, but what I think is awesome is with the understanding of what Josh has done with me

and professional wrestling has made me fall back in love with MMA I think I just love it the way that I used to love it not the way that I I think part of the problem with my UFC run was I was forcing myself to love it the way everybody else was telling me I should love it if that makes any sense

I never started fighting with the goal you know the UFC wasn't around when I started fighting for girls so it was never a goal like I'm going to fight and I'm going to be on the first women's reality show for this and I'm going to do it like that was never a goal and so I think when I got there and tried to make these things like goal instead of what the original goal for me was which was showcasing a different style like catch wrestling um it it didn't you know it wasn't me it wasn't my heart so it didn't it translated into not performing well um but but But realizing from Josh and the things he's taught me that the fact that I've done what I've done in M.A. I fought for so long and I was, you know, you know, I've been ranked in the top 10 for a majority of the time I was competing. The fact that a fan on Twitter doesn't remember that doesn't take away the fact that I did it. And I say, now that I've come to this place, I love MMA again.

So you're able to watch it. You don't have kind of a weird relationship with it at this point. I mean, I think I guess maybe have kind of an old school mentality like, oh, these kids don't know how lucky they are. They have this, you know. But I enjoy watching the cards and I watch the big cards and when I'm able to catch them live. And like I said, I still, I still train every day when I'm back in L.A., so I have to stay relevant. You know what I mean?

So still training, still learning, still doing all that. But there was like a short stint, and I think pro wrestling really brought me full circle. I would be remiss if I don't ask you about Ronda. Some of the tournament I know has been taped, and we won't talk about it, but she was in attendance, and there is a feeling that at some point the four horsewoman thing will come to a head in World Wrestling Entertainment.

I'm not the biggest wrestling fan these days anymore. I used to be a fanatic, but I do know that there is a four horsewoman group, Rick Flair's daughter and others, and then there's, of course, the group that you guys had. Are we moving towards this? Is this going to happen? Is Rhonda going to wrestle alongside you and Marina?

Are you guys actually going to do this? Jessamine Duke? Well, if they want to do it, I'd be all the happier to have my friends along for the ride. But the truth of the matter is they came to the tournament to watch me. It was, I specifically asked them because this is like, like I've stated, this was like one of the, if not the biggest milestone in my career. And it was important for me to have my closest friends that have been along for this ride there. and they were genuinely there to support and watch me. So, you know, if they want to start getting into it or anything like that,

I'd be, who would want their friends along at work, right? What's your prediction? WrestleMania next year, four horsewomen versus four horsewomen? If they think they want to challenge us, then I mean, I don't see any of the four of us saying, though. Oh, oh, snap. It's on. But, you know, we're, we're, I got to win this tournament first. So I got to worry about that.

Is Rhonda training pro wrestling these days? Rhonda and Jeff both, I know there was like news around and the truth of the matter is not doing anything different than they were before. It's just suddenly everyone's interested in it. Uh-huh. Have you worked with her? Like, does she have it down? Do you think that she has it in her? Well, I think everybody has it in them if they really want it to.

Ron is a natural athlete and I think just learning a different rule set and bringing what she has from M.A. would be you know, it's the same like what does her judo translate to MMA? Now will her

MMA translate to pro wrestling? I think she's been pretty successful one way. I think she'd be pretty successful the other as well. Okay. So, and do you train with her specifically in pro wrestling these days? I mean, I have have a couple times. I'm I'm, honestly, I'm working and traveling a lot.

Okay. It's like you saw me at that indie show. Like, I'm traveling all over the world doing this sports entertainment stuff. So when I'm able to, I do. I love to do it. And I think she, you know, she's asked me questions just because of my experience being similar to hers as far as if it were to ever happen. so, you know, Rhonda's a natural. She does,

Rhonda's like, not only is she a natural, but she's one of these, like, OCD-type people that when she does something, she goes in hard. So I don't think, you know, I think if she ever wanted to pursue this, she would obviously pursue it to the death to where she would be one of the best, so I don't know, we'll see.

Okay. And who, like, who is the dream matchup for you? I see, is it, is it, is it Bailey who keeps calling out Chris Cyborg? I know there's Sasha Banks. No, it's someone else. Oh, no, no, no, it's Becky Lynch. Becky Lynch, that's right.

What is the dream matchup for you? As far as for myself or that I want to see? No, no, no, for yourself. I would think Oscar right now would be like a really dream matchup for me. I think she's got a style that would be a really exciting matchup against me. Also, she's undefeated, and that challenge intrigues me. And with that belt, that NXT belt, that's always a tempting piece of hardware.

And I think also just out of respect, because I've trained with Natalia, I would love to have a match with her, just because we know each other. other so well and she comes from kind of that catch wrestler, you know, from the heart dungeon, the old school, the old school type of wrestling training like myself. So I think those two, namely,

but yeah, those will be the two off top of my head that I want. Well, first things first, it's the May Young Classic. Again, 32 of the top female competitors from around the world participating in a single elimination tournament. Kicks off August 28th, first four

episodes available on demand on WW Network. Episodes 5 through 8 will be available on demand on Monday, September 4th. The final match will stream live from Las Vegas on Tuesday, September 12th at 10 p.m. Eastern. Hopefully you are a part of that. They're going to have a lot of stuff right after SummerSlam building up to it. This is a really cool thing. Very cool that you are a part of it. And I wish you the best. This has been awesome. Thank you very much for doing it, Chena. Good luck in preparing for it. Good luck in the tournament. And hopefully if you win, you can come back, and we can get ready for that four horsewoman battle at WrestleMania next year. We'll see what happens.

Don't forget, too, that new subscribers to the WWE network, I think, get the first month free. Oh. So people can tune in and watch and do it that way too. Look at you. A good employee there plugging for the network. I like it. You're well on your way. Yeah, I'm trying.

I'm trying. I certainly wish you the best. Really, it's so cool to see you. I know how much wrestling means to you and your appreciation and respect for it. So this is really cool. I think the entire MMA community is pulling for you. Whether they show their appreciation or not,

deep down, I think everyone is. So good luck to you all the best and hope to talk to you soon. Thank you very much, Ariel. All right, we will talk to you soon. There she is. The Queen of Spades herself, Shana Bazelor, part of that May Young Classic

debuting August 28th on the WWE Network, a very cool thing. 32 of the best female competitors in the world, single elimination, big time stuff. All right, let us move along. Also, so we got the WWE network. We've got UFC Fight Pass. This Saturday on UFC Fight Pass,

it's Polaris 5, and there are some familiar names on that card. That is a jujitsu event, by the way. Our bud Dylan Dennis against Gary Tonin, their rivalry comes to a head. That's exciting. Also, Phil Harris, former UFC fighter, going up against another former UFC fighter,

The one and only one punch, Brad Pickett. And Brad Pickett joins us on the phone, excuse me, on Skype. There he is. Brad Pickett. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. It's good to have you on the show. This is interesting.

Brad Pickett in a grappling event, your first major grappling event. Why are you doing this? I think I might need to change my name for one punch because I don't be translated very well. But the reason I'm doing it just to stay active, really. I got into fighting generally because I'm a very competitive person. So for me, it's just another way to compete, you know, we're not getting punched in the head. Right.

So do you feel, like, I know Phil Harris, you know, we're not talking about you going up against a Dylan Dennis or something like this, but knows this stuff on the ground. Do you feel comfortable doing this? Do you feel like you're going to be a fish out of water? What are your nerves saying? What are your thoughts going into an event of this magnitude? Well, well, some of my Phil Harris is actually, people weren't.

know much about him in from the U.S. he had a few fights in the U.S. He's a very good fighter. But in a fight, hands down, I'll be him 100% is not even close. But in a grappling match, he actually becomes a lot more even, you know.

So he's actually a very good grappler, very good, he has a duo black belt, you know, and I've voted him a few times back in the day because he's from England as well. And yeah, he's a tough opponent. But, you know, for me, I'm excited to do this. You know, I have to change with training a little bit. For me, it's, it's good to just going to concentrate on one thing. But being

at Mayfite, you have to do a bit of grappling, a bit of wrestling, a bit. Yeah, it's good just to be able to solely concentrate on grappling, you know, so that's been fun. Is this a part of Brad Pickett coping with the retirement life? Do you miss the competition, the bright lights that much, that here you are, what, five months after your last fight, getting right back in there? Yeah, a little bit. I say I love competing. The training camps for me and fighting became really hard, really grueling on my body, a lot of traveling and that sort of stuff.

And I thought it was time to close that part of my life. Obviously now I've got a young kid as well, so you've got to think about things like that. And not many people get to leave the sport, you know, with the body intact. Okay, it's a little bit sore here and there. But, you know, a lot of people retire from really seriously bad injuries or they get cut by the UFC. So I managed to move out on my own terms, which is good. But I'll be honest with you, I've been hitching quite a few times.

I've had to have a word for yourself. Like, Brad, we're doing, especially when I've been going out to Rising with Keoggi, calling in Keoguchi, he's been doing fantastic out there in Rising. I've been out there and I just love the Japanese shot about that. A few times you're like, Brad, what you do? Shut up. So this keeps me, you know, feeds the beast a little bit, though. How long, if at all, did it take for you to get over what happened in London?

You were looking so good. It was heartbreaking to see the way it ended against Marlon Vera. Are you over it? well yeah obviously for me that that fight the outcome of the fight didn't matter really it was the it was the journey and the celebration of my career and what I've done so I don't think the outcome really mattered but it also shows that neither thing is a fairy tale ending

this is real life and and mame is real as real as real as it gets if this is the wwee old-o-one you know fairytale ending and it's not this is real You know, so life is tough at times, you know, you have to deal with it. But for me, it wasn't about the outcome of the fight. It was more the journey, you know? Have you watched the fight again? I have a couple of times, but back there, yeah, I was winning the whole fight and then I got to heck it.

And that also, for me, it was like, also solid, it made me in my decision while I was doing correct, you know, because for me, Marlon Verro is a good kid. but for me that's when I should be all day long like you're always being and the old me be able to walk forward and take those sort of shots

and keep coming keep coming keep coming keep coming and eat that shot eat that head kit like it was a biscuit nothing to me but that's dropping me

now I look at the last few fights I've got dropped by Julia Aventa I've got dropped by Rivera I've got dropped by um

Uriah Fable I don't think actually hits but he bought me you know, so I'm getting dropped. I have to love a look at myself. Hey, I'm not, I'm not that person anymore. I used to just absorb punishment and fish out more.

So I have to realize I'm not that guy anymore. A very touching moment at the end when you left your signature hat in the cage. Just curious, do you ever get the hat back or does it stay there? Does someone just take it away? How does that work? I actually was going to leave the next to do it, but actually my, my wife made sure she's going. I had it.

It's in the mouth of a room. It's there. But my wife wanted to keep it from buddy. So it's got them at, you know, it's back at me. Get a frame or something at some point, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's so synonymous with you.

Also, the newspaper that they made for you, with all the well wishes. What was it like when you read that? Yeah, I was really, I mean, they really did a great job of honoring you that UFC Europe team for you, you know, to receive something like that before? What was that like?

I actually, when I got it, I'm going to during the week, a few days before my fight. I started to read it straight around. I started well, and I'm like, boom. I closed it, and I didn't read it again until after my fight, you know, because I knew how emotional I am anyway.

It would make me so emotional. So especially anyone, like, all the people from the UFC, my close friends and family, my brother, my wife, all wearing really nice things. And I'm an emotional guy anyway and I'm like well I'm gonna put it up to one side and get you know

have the fight and then else's read it so I've read it since and it's yeah it was weird you know it was like the whole the whole the whole thing is like how I was explaining it was weird where it was like when someone dies and everyone says nice things about them but the person died never gets to hear them say it

where for me in a way I've got to hear what nice people I never fought nice things about me I get to heal with

that so it was a really good thing in a way so I was happy with the way I retired

I think if anyone should do it that way that they should carbacopal all I did I think

it was a good way to do it and of course you're competing in this event on

on Saturday but what what is the plan post fighting what are you staying in MMA

of course you you've helped with Kogi Horaguchi I do believe you

are helping to train Mark Jakesi these days as well. Is that what you're going to focus on coaching? Yeah, I'm coaching on more now. And the gym I train at is in North London.

I live South London. It's a gym called Team Tyne. So I've been there for many years. And I'm coaching a lot of guys now. We have a lot of good guys. We have Nathan Wood who's defending his belt on Cage Warriors in September. I have Cooney and he was fine. There we have a lot of guys in our stable.

with now I get to spend a little bit more time and try to help out where it's not always about about me but me the travelling to north London has been a little bit hard for me so I actually am in a process of looking to find a premises in south London we're looking right now but every girl's lined up willing to find a unit

and I'm going to open a GPT a great big shop team that's what we can do with my business partner Darryx oh wow that's amazing and and you're also promoting events, right? Still, you're doing ROC? Yeah, yeah, Rise of Champions. That's on the 3rd of September. I believe we're still in negotiations, but I believe we're going to get that on five past as well. So that's great for us.

But it's a really good grassroots level of fighting. We have a like a pro main card and then we have an all amateur undercard. You know, so we have a pro main card about four or five fights. but for me I'll do with the matchmaker yourself and I try and match things up very well so we always have very competitive and good fights throughout my whole card and obviously I've been in the game for a long time

so it's my coach for Mickey Matt Pappas so we put our little feel on it we do like a fight of ceremony like the DECD back in the day in Pride and stuff like we've got a lot of I like that I like that that's great so it's looking like that show on September 30th is going to be on Fight Pass

yeah hopefully i'm trying to work out to see if we could do it live or definitely will be on five past maybe later but we're going i'm trying to see if i can do it as in a live event oh wow that is great um and as far as your grappling is concerned do you train with the ghee and if so what belt are you at well now we're tired i was going to start getting to the gear a little bit more but it's nice to have you know some belts under your name but now i'm doing this power i think I haven't put the ghee on. And for me, it's like, can I grapple with a gear? Yes, but my explanation for this is like, can I swim for meters?

Yes, I can. But you put all your clothes and this jump on me. Can I swim 100 meters? Yeah, I can still swim 100 meters. Do I find it a lot harder? Yeah. So for me, grabbing with clothes on is a lot harder for me. I don't use the lapel.

I'm not into that. It's a very, for me, it's a very slow style of grappling. and I think athleticism isn't as rewarded as much in geek grappling where Sonny's a bit athletic can just burst out of things

and stuff like that you know so I'm not really technically on the level when I want to be competing in game no way you know so I may give that a little bit

you know a rest and out do you have to cut weight for this is there a weight limit for the match yeah well I want to say I have to cut much weight but it's that

66 kilos. I've always competed at 61 kilos and also at 57 kilos. So I ain't got a coached my weight. I've got probably like 10 pounds between lose to lose between now and Friday. And what about the actual rule?

This is not EBI rules, right? I mean, it's just just like a set amount of time and if there's no winner it's a draw? Well, no. They're doing it now. They change it a little bit. It's going to be one 15 minute round. And there will be an overall winner by judges

who are they thinking won the event, you know? Okay, wow, I like that. So there are no draws, because the draw has driven me nuts. I mean, I want to see some kind of finality here. Yeah. So, yeah, it's kind of,

I don't know if there was scoring it as in fried ways where you just have to think, okay, right, that guy won, you know, you know, not by rounds because there's one 50 minute a fight, but it's more like overall, yeah, this guy was the bad guy. Right, okay.

By the way, before I let you go, of course, as I've been kind of doing over the last few weeks, would love to ask about Mayweather McGregor, and I know that you love the striker game, your family. I'm assuming you're interested in it.

Do you fancy McGregor's chances? Do you think he has a chance? What do you think? Yeah, I don't know how much time you got here, but I've got quite a good theory on this. It's like, for me, I've been going back and forth a lot.

Obviously, this is a massive thing. Obviously, first of when he first got announced, it was like, of course, of course you're going to pick Mayweather, 49 and no, unbeaten. But the more he kind of, there's few things that kind of changed my mind. One, Conner's approach with his mindset yet again, even he's pound-per-pound best when he comes to, you know, like the pre-fight talk. And he's even got Mayer now down himself a little bit, where you hear Mayerver say,

well, I'm not the fire, I was 20 years ago, not the fire was Tim. You see these little things he's planting doubt inside May River's mind. So these are little chinks in his arm already, you know? Not saying that's going to be what makes him lose. But then also, where things like boxing and traditional martial arts

have been around for years. So, like, you get taught how to fight. So, like, if you're in a traditional martial art, you get taught, this is how you throw punches, this, how you do this, by one, one sense, down to the next sense, down to the next sense, over a hundred years.

So things don't really change much. With the UFC, what the UFC's done with the sport of the MMA, it's given a lot of growth into people that have to express how to fight and do different styles. So people don't punch in the same way. So Mayweb is always used to people punching

as a boxing would punch. He's fought them day in, day out. So someone like, McGregor has different angles and very non-orthodox, it's going to be a massive, massive puzzle for Mayweather to unlock, I think. So for me, it makes really interesting for me. Obviously, I think, and I change it all the time, but I think Mayweather would probably win within the six rounds,

taking a few rounds to figure them out. But then you look at certain things. Physically, Maywever is a much bigger guy. you know I'm not mayor I'm sorry McGreg is a much bigger guy

physically he has a lot of reach and you know he hits you know even arguing he's going

against best defensive boxer you know ever and also one other mindset thing

is this in a real fight Mayover wins no McGregge always wins you know 100% in a real fight

so so maywever every time going into fight we're boxing he's always been the best guy

is they like I'll always beat you up no matter what. When now he's fighting a guy, if there's a real fight with no rule set and they're fighting over a pig, McGregor would be eating a ham sandwich,

you know? So mentally, that's got to mess you up a little bit as well, you know? So it's me, I've got to be so interesting and 100%, you know, I think it's the most interesting fight

in my lifetime and probably lifetimes to come, you know? Yeah. So wait, what's your, what's your prediction here? Is he going to do it? I don't know. But my heart.

But I'm saying my heart completely with McGregor. 100% I wanted to win, you know, then, you know, without a shadow doubt I wanted to win. But obviously, it's hard to pick against Mayweather. But I'm not a better man, but I will bet because the odds are so crazy lock-sided. Why not? Obviously, I first of my name of McGregor. All right.

Okay. First thing's first for you, of course, is Polaris. That is on Saturday at 1.30. P.m. Eastern live on UFC Fight Pass. It's live from the Indigo. Inside the O2. I've been there for UFC Wayans, a fantastic venue. I'm told they've sold already 3,000 tickets. There are about 200 left as of just a couple of days ago. Gary Tonin versus Dylan Danis. Jake Shield is on the card. Cowluno versus Vitor Shaolin-Ribero. I mean, this is a serious card. And it's, again, on Fight Pass. And we also have Brad Pickett versus Phil Harris. I wish you the best, my friend. I'll be

watching it on Saturday. Great to catch up with you. And Dan Hardy wants to tell you that he loves your Star Wars connection, excuse me, collection in the back in your room over there. That's some heavy-duty stuff. He noted that. Oh, there it is. There's the book. Yes, of course. I like the British connection. Thank you very much for the time, Brad. We'll talk to you soon. All the best on Saturday. Thank you, Howard. All right. There he is. Brad Pickett competing. Polaris 5. this Saturday UFC fight past 130 p.m. Eastern time. Dylan Danis in the main event

against one Gary Tonin, a rematch of their 2015 match where Gary Tonin heel-hooked Mr. Danis and apparently broke Dylan Danis's leg. Okay, let's move along. Speaking of Dan Hardy, he is joining us via the Magical Skype, some big news for him last week. He is going to be a part of the Sky Sports

telecast for Mayweather McGregor. Very excited to talk to him. There he is. The one and only the outlaw, Dan Hardy. Dan, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I like this. One British legend to the next. And I'm very excited to talk to you. We have a lot to discuss. But first off, congratulations on this big news.

Like, how long were you in the running for this? This is massive. What an honor this is for you. How long were you actually in the running for it? I had no idea about it. I guess the negotiation was going back and forth between Sky and a few of the broadcasters as to who was going to run the pay-per-view in Europe. And I guess Sky got it. and they moved very quickly on it.

They called me on that same day and asked me to speak to Sky News about it and about my thoughts on the event. And then, you know, I guess they were surprised at the reaction from the MMA community because, you know, the fans have been great to support me in this.

And I think that Sky just kind of went, well, it makes sense to bring this guy in and try and balance the broadcast a little bit. Wow. Okay, so what is the team? It's you, Carl Frotch, right? Yeah. And I'm not sure.

I'm not sure whether it's going to be Adam Smith. or Johnny Nelson or I'm not sure. There's a few great guys within the Sky Sports boxing team. So I don't know. I'm happy to be working by Cole Throtch, though. We used to work out on bags by the side of each other in the gym. Oh, wow. You know, the old Nottingham connection.

That is right. Yes, I forgot about the Nottingham connection. And we had Pat Militich on the show a couple weeks ago. He's going to be a part of the Showtime broadcast, but not in the booth, so to speak. I think he's going to be, you know, pre-fight, post-fight. Are you actually in the booth? Will you be calling the action as an analyst? As far as I know, yes.

As far as I know. I've got a full week. I get into Vegas on Sunday and I'm recording stuff every day from Monday throughout Fight Week. Obviously, it's a huge event and we've got to cover it righteously. So I'm going to be working my ass off the whole week. Would you say that this is, you know, the biggest opportunity of your career? At least, I mean, maybe not as a fighter you fought for the belt,

but like TV work, things of that nature. Does this feel different inside? not to take anything away from the UFC gigs, but as Brad Pickett just said, I mean, this could be the biggest event of our lifetime. Yeah, I mean, this is a one-off kind of situation. I can't imagine two other athletes in any other sport that would come together to compete in an event like this

that would be of this magnitude. So it's a bit surreal. It's kind of a step out of the real world, and to be honest, I have quite a surreal life as it is anyway with the UFC. see. So I'm just kind of overwhelmed and excited to be there. You know, just to be in Vegas and to be a part of it and to experience everything that's going on and to be, you know, to be able to have a voice within it as well is, it's pretty

special. Are you going to be wearing a tuxedo? Are we going like full traditional boxing with this? You know what? I hadn't thought about it. But now you've mentioned it. I feel like I might have to break the tuxedo out again. Well, you could talk to your friend John Gooden. He's got plenty of them. I don't know if you're the the same size, of course. No, no, he's a, the vegan diet keeps him nice and slim. So he rocks a bowtie and nobody else.

So this is the fascinating thing about it, and I noted this when the, when the fight was first announced, I was asked to do all these radio shows. You know, everyone wants to talk about this, even the mainstream sports media here in the United States. And it was so, it was kind of frustrating because I felt like I was either being asked to defend the fight or shame the fight. I couldn't just talk about the fight. Like, people were almost like coming at me.

Like, why is this happening? and how could this happening? He has no business and like with vitriol about this matchup. And now you're in this interesting spot where you're the MMA voice on this broadcast. You're the representative for the entire sport. But I assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you just want to call the action. But of course you're coming in because you know, you know Connor even from pre-UFC days and things like that. How do you balance?

You're in there, of course, because you're the MMA guy. You're the voice of the community. You're beloved by the community. But you also probably just want to call the action and call it for what it is. How do you balance those two roles of just being that sort of unbiased guy, but also being the MMA guy? It's a good question. To be honest, I'm there for combat sports.

You know, I'm a big boxing fan. I've followed Floyd Mayweather's career. You know, obviously I've followed a lot of different boxes in the past as well, been inspired by many. Obviously, you know, Chris Eubank, Nigel Ben with big inspirations for me, as was Ricky Hatton. So obviously, I followed that, the build-up to that Mayweather's fight very closely and was rather disappointed.

with the result. But, you know, it's, I love boxing as much as I love MMA, to be honest. I just, I prefer MMA because I want to explore the full skill set. This is interesting because we're taking somebody out of the full skill set and putting them into a refined skill set against the best in that refined skill set. So I'm just there to try and be objective about it from a combat sports perspective, to take from all of my knowledge of working with and alongside boxes in the past, all the way through my tie boxing, my K-waxing, my K-W,

one career and then into mixed martial arts. Because I have a wider spread knowledge. I just feel like I can speak from a slightly different perspective of, say, Carl Frotch, who speaks from the strict boxing perspective of a world champion, which obviously is experience that I don't have. If you had Connor's year, if you could spend a week with him, if they brought you in as a special coach, in your opinion, what is the path to beating Floyd, who has never lost before,

who has never even been knocked down? How does he pull this off? Well, I like to reverse engineer things. What I always used to do with my career, I was used to watch my opponent's fights and take all of the knowledge that I needed from them. And then I used to go and watch my own fights and see how I would approach myself as an opponent.

And that was usually what I would build my game plan on. So if I'm Connor McGregor, I'm looking at Floyd Mayweather and thinking, he's used to fighting people that are stepping into a Mayweather promotion, walk into the biggest fight of their life against the best boxer of their time. and they've never been in that environment before. They've never had to thrive under that kind of lights and that kind of attention.

And I think that when this contract was first signed, I don't think that Floyd Mayweather really anticipated what Connor McGregor was as a promotional beast because he is absolutely unbelievable. I mean, the press tour alone was the shift in balance because I think all of a sudden Mayweather realized that Connor wasn't going to be startled by being a part of this huge event, which means that that's the first game plan out of the window because you can't rely on that adrenaline dump then.

Now, Conner handles pressure very well, as we've seen in the past. And what I would expect Floyd to expect from Connor is a fast-paced, aggressive four rounds. He's going to try and come and knock him out as quickly as possible. And I think that Floyd feels that Connor has a reputation and a responsibility to come out aggressive and to fight aggressively and to try and land those big power shots. So I would go the opposite way.

And I would say, look, at least the first two or three rounds, take the center of the ring. But you know that Floyd's not going to be the aggressive because that's not how he fights anymore. Not since he was pretty boy. Now his money, he fights defensively, he fights smart, he studies and he reads his opponent. So allow him to, but don't give him too much. If he's expecting Conner to come running out of the gate, then don't do that. That puts Floyd on edge a little bit because now you can. cutting down the window of opportunity for him to find his way into the fight in the later rounds, you know?

He'll marginally outpoint you in the first few rounds, but then he starts to rack up the points in the later rounds. So he looks so much more dominant because he relies on people dropping off, exactly like he did against fighters like Medana. So I think he's expecting Connor to be very aggressive, so I would not. And then when you throw shots, just kind of work out on him like a heavy bag, arms, shoulders, gloves, anything that you can hit. because that will slowly wear him down. And, you know, I think Conner's right in the way that he's picking up Floyd. He is an older man, you know. I think there is some acceptance of the fact that he is not the physical athlete that he used to be.

And Connor is. So that kind of balances it out a little bit for me. Do you believe Floyd when he says, oh, I owe the fans for the Pacquiao fight, I'm going to come at him, I'm going to go forward, it's going to be a firefight, all this stuff. Do you believe him when he says that or no? No, no. It's like all this nonsense. about the A town's gloves.

Yes, I wanted to ask you about that. He knows that the process in which he would have to go to to get the A. Towns gloves approved is far too strenuous at this point in the build-up to the fight. All that is doing is it's just teasing Connor with the idea that Floyd's coming for a fight because he wants Connor to be fired up when he walks out. It's all the psychological tactics that Floyd uses. The difference in this fight is that normally that first game plan that he sets out with in the build-up, it usually works.

It usually works very well because he's got this promotional monster behind him which is made with the promotions. So I think he's having to now start to adapt his own tactics of psychological warfare and I think that that's it. You know, the thing, you know, when I was growing up,

the tough guy sport was boxing because there wasn't anything tougher than that. You know, all the tough guys went to boxing. Yeah, I'm a boxer. You're a tough guy. When MMA came about, that kind of crossed over to the MMA guy. guys, because the reality is that in a fight, the MMA guy wins because we have a grasp of the

full skill set. So that's taken a lot of the strength away from Floyd's swagger in this fight, where he walks in as the toughest guy and is the, you know what I mean, the best, the best guy. Because at the end of the day, like Brad was saying, what a beautiful analogy as well, if they're fighting over a pig, kind of gets the ham sandwich. It's true. So you don't think that the commission will approve the eight ounces? It's not that I don't think the commission will approve the eight ounces. I think that the process, if I understand it correctly, is that both teams have to go in front of the commission

and express why they think the eight-ounce gloves are more appropriate. I'm sure that Connor would take a morning off training to go and get that done, because why not? I just don't think Floyd would show up, you know? So last week I was in Vegas for the media work. Go ahead. Sorry to quit you off. He was hitting the bag in 14 hours.

gloves at the open workout. So you know what I mean? Why is he going to want off names when we know he's got hand problems since you know 30 fights ago? Anyway, sorry, carry on. So my next question was about those open workouts. You watched the footage or at least some of it of both of them. People have so like when I was tweeting a couple pictures of Connor working in the bag, working out, getting loose and all these people like people that don't even follow me I see saying like look at this laughing at him mocking him. We had Heather Hardy here who's 20 and O as a boxer, multiple-time champion, openly laughing at Connor.

What did you see? I mean, to me, it's not so crazy to, A, try to get people to think he doesn't know what he's doing, and B, be completely unconventional. That's what this whole thing is. This defies the logic of boxing matchmaking. Why are people mocking him? Is this mocking worthy?

Are they missing the point? Is he trolling them? What was your takeaway when you were watching this? I think people have to step into Connor's shoes. Like if you were a couple of weeks out from the biggest fight of your career and you were fighting a masterful boxer, you've got to think that you're working out in the bag with him standing in the gym next to you. What are you going to do? You're not going to look like a beast in the gym. You're not going to have a crazy workout.

You're not going to show all your tactics and all your best moves. You're not going to probably going to have your hands up. I mean, the stuff he was doing was it was flamboyant. It was bravado. It was show. That's exactly what you would expect. from an open workout. You've got to think that Floyd Mayweather's in the same room because you damn sure he's going to watch it. So why would you show anything? I certainly wouldn't, you know,

do capoeira, whatever. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you don't show what you're going to do. Some members of his team were kind of joking with me that there was some consideration that he would just do jiu-jitsu the entire time. And could you imagine the boxing community? They would have lost their mind. Can you imagine if he got there and just grappled the entire time? I think that would have been brilliant. Why show them anything? I can't believe people are actually putting stock into that. I thought he was going to go and play touchpoint in the park with Edo. So, you know, I mean, that would have been a...

Now, Floyd, though, actually kind of put on a somewhat serious workout. Were you impressed? I mean, 40 years old to be doing what he's doing. Were you impressed by him or no? Yeah, it's cruising for him, though. It's, you know, it's third gear, well, probably even less, as it was for Connor. You know, he's doing things that are comfortable. He's not stepping outside of...

There was... This will show you how obsessive I get about these things. there was one thing that stood out to me in the open workouts right towards the end. He was shadow boxing with weights. Yeah, yeah. Right towards the end. And there was a guy that kept switching weights with him. And then they passed him a medicine ball.

And he was doing this thing where he's like dancing around the ring with the medicine ball, waving up and down. There was one time he threw it to his mate, and his mate threw it back at him. And it was a horrible return. And he actually said, like, throw it to my chest, tried it again, and he failed again. That looked like the only thing that he had not been already pre-planned. that workout. Okay. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The only thing that was rehearsed and that wasn't prepared for the cameras because he abandoned it immediately and didn't pay any attention to it. Okay, okay. All right. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everything was like, he's working within his limits very comfortably. It's amazing. In less than two weeks, Connor's going to fight Floyd, and still people can't stop talking about Polly Malinaji. And you have even gotten into it with him on Twitter. This is incredibly entertaining. You saw the footage. as short as it may be, what was your takeaway from it?

Was it a knockdown? Was it a push? I think in a boxing match it would have been class as a knockdown, personally, yeah. There were punches landed, he ended up on the floor. You know, even if it was a slip, then, no, no, it was a knockdown. I don't think it was a push. There was definitely a loss of balance, but I think Connor capitalized as he was losing his balance, it caught with a nice shot. I think it would have been cancers and knock down personally.

But at the same time, you know, I have to say, I have to talk in Pauli's defense, which is probably going to surprise a lot of people. Okay. I was sent photos. I was sent a few photos after their first training session, which was the end of July, right? The first thing I thought to myself is, damn, Paulie didn't show up in shape. Now, I like Pauli. I think he's a great analyst.

He's crossed over from boxing to analysis very, very well. And I really appreciate what he's got to say. And I do to an extent feel like he was brought in. How do I word this correctly? He went in with good intentions. He was thinking that he was going to be brought in, maybe do a couple of rounds of sparring, watch a couple of rounds of sparring,

be asked a few questions, be asked his opinion, pick his brains a little bit. He didn't look like he'd been training to go more than a couple of rounds. He just didn't. He looked kind of soft. He looked, you know, he looked like he just didn't look like he'd been active. and interestingly his comments on your show last week I believe it was he said after the first sparring session he started training he started running and

stuff to try and prepare for the next one so there wasn't a forethought that he was going to be put to the test which means that I think that he thought he was going to be brought in to actually help to actually assist within the training camp and I don't think that that was ever mentioned do you think that there's some sort of you know ethically that they shouldn't have posted any of this that this was a line that was crossed or once everything was talked about that, you know, I know it was just a few seconds, but usually you don't see sparring footage

put out before a fight. Yeah, but if I was in a situation sparring and I didn't want that, I didn't want it to be footage of it, then I wouldn't allow cameras in the gym. I mean, he opted to go into that circumstance, you know, like, we all know Pauli was a showman. Like my everlasting memory of Pauli

was sitting in his corner between rounds having his hair cut. You know what I mean? Because it was all coming out. He had some, some braids tight. Anyway, the showman, he likes to be a part of what's current. And this is the perfect opportunity for him. So why would he not jump in there and be a part of Connors camp? He would have probably gone to Floyd's camp if he was asked as well. I think one thing is a shame

is, you know, poorly grew up in the Floyd Mayweather era. You can see a lot of ways he modeled himself on Floyd. So he would have been an excellent source of knowledge to bring in. I for one, and I tweeted this, I'm going to look him forward to sitting down with him in Vegas and really having a conversation because he's got a sharp mind. I see a lot of parallels with his career in mind because he didn't have anything easy. He wasn't the greatest athlete. He didn't hit very hard. I mean, I figured out how to hit hard after a while. But, you know, I was in the gym with like Paul Daly who would just touch you and people were falling over. Andre Winner, who moved like lightning, Jimmy Warled, who was like wrestling two farmers at the same

time. You know, I was the least athletic of my team and the majority of the time in my fights. So I had to figure it out and make adaptations. And Polly's done the same. So that's why, as he's crossed over to an analyst, that's why he's so good. Yeah. Actually, to a certain degree, reminds me of you, the way you think and the way you break things down. Have you ever met him? No, I haven't.

I haven't. I'm looking forward to meeting in New Vegas. I understand that we're going to be working together a little bit. So I'm looking forward to picking his brain. Well, let's break the ice. Do you want to say hello to him? Sure, yeah. You know I'd love to do this.

Polly, are you there? I'm here, area. I just got on the call. What's up, guys? Pauli, you're talking to Dan Hardy. I know you guys have been talking to each other on Twitter. I just wanted to break the ice a little bit here. Hey, Dan, what's up, man?

I was just hearing your comments. I appreciate what you're saying. Just the one little thing. I did not know anything was going to be recorded. That was actually told to me that they were not going to record. So when I found out that he was in pictures, I asked for the footage that I thought would only be on the surveillance cameras in the gym. I had no idea that the guys of the cameras in the gym were also recording.

Because nowadays, this technology, the same camera that takes pictures can also record. So I had no idea they were recording because I was told they were not going to be recording. Right. But did you show up to the training camp expecting to go that many rounds? No, no, no. I expected like a typical training camp where like I would do four rounds

and maybe somebody else would do four rounds and somebody else do four rounds. You know, I expected obviously Connor to be in the better shape than everybody else. But I knew I was in about four to six round shape, you know, when I got there the first time, you know, because I started just slightly training when they first called me. And I said, yeah, you know, this will do.

You know, I don't have to be at my best because I won't be the only spot partner there. And yeah, you're right. I did think that maybe it would also use me as a reference point to ask me questions or whatnot. Not that I expected anything. I mean, I actually made sure I said in all my interviews before I got there, I said, you know,

it's only up to them if they want to use me to ask me questions or whatnot. I'll be glad to answer their questions and give my viewpoints, but that's totally up to them. I even gave Conner's team praise. I said, I'm sure he's got a great team. They've gotten him this far. You know, like, if you look at all my interviews before I ever got there, you know,

that was kind of my mentality was, uh, yeah, if they're using me, you know, they're going to be using me four to six rounds, which is what I always used any of my spawn partners. I never put my, any of my spawn funders in for more than four to six rounds at a time. If I needed more rounds, I would always alternate them, you know, that, that way I'd get a fresh guy after four to six rounds because once, once a guy can only go four to six rounds and, and then you're, uh, he's kind of guessed out. he's of no use to you anyway, you know?

So after that first time, I kind of said, all right, you know what, I need to be in better shape because they had me do eight right away, you know? So I said, okay, when I go home, I've got to, you know, I'll be conditioning a little bit. Yeah, it was the same. That was, I was strict to my training camps as well, fresh guys each round or every two rounds.

And like, I'll help Frank Meir with one of his training camps for the Nogira fight. And he was fighting three rounds. So he did six rounds. and I was last round, you know. That's how it worked. We had two of the heavyweights that alternated in between, and that's how it was always for me in training camp as well.

So I thought that was a bit strange bringing you in, but, you know, the fight came. It's like I said, after everything was said and done, I think there was a hidden agenda there. I think there was an agenda there to try to make me look bad, maybe to try to use my name as something that would make them look more validated in any way. you know, but they ended up shooting

himself in the foot because now nobody wants to replace me. They called Andre Berto and he turned them down. They called C. Forbes who was also an ex-boxing champion and he turned them down. So, you know, you basically pretty yourself in a position where you shot yourself in the foot now because now nobody wants to help you.

You know, you got, I mean, the spawner punters he had there, I mean, the only the decent one, the only decent one that was there was DeShan Johnson who was basically a journeyman junior middleweight who was not a bad fighter. He's got a couple of bad breaks and whatnot,

and he's tough and he does a lot of work, and they weren't even using him at the end, you know? So, I mean, the guys he's using is like some no-name amateur and a couple of MRA guys, you know, where, you know, one of them all this guy, Artem was on him. He was like, he was like a punching bag. I thought you just might as well hit the punching bag instead of him, you know? So I thought like, you know, I didn't think there was enough quality there for him,

and especially now that I left, I really don't think it was any other quality there. You know, I don't see how this benefits him in any way where you're getting ready for the best fighter that ever put on boxing gloves in our sport in boxing. For my opinion, Floyd is the most complete fight I've ever seen. And then you're going to get this kind of work in. You're supposed to be willing to suffer in camp. And when I say willing to suffer, I don't mean willing to ride your bike the extra couple miles when you're tired.

I mean, willing to suffer, like have guys in there that come to kick your ass, you know? I mean, I heard Floyd has dab juda. I already had Earl Spence in camp. You're the guys that probably beat Connor right now. You know, I don't know, ever without a doubt puts kind of an hospital, you know. But, you know, so in a boxing match. So you have to be willing to suffer when you're preparing for this kind of fight. Dan, I appreciate this has been a lot of fun.

I can sit and listen to you guys talk all day long, but I'm going to let you go. I just have to ask before I let you go. Do you have a prediction? Can you tell us who you think is going to win, or are you reserving the right because you're on the broadcast? No, no, I'm not going to give a prediction. Obviously, the safe money is made with a by decision, that's what we'd expect. But the people counting Connor out are out of their minds. You know, this is combat sports.

You know, you can toss coin on some days and anything can happen. So, you know, everyone's going to be tuned in August 26 and August 27th where they'll be having a lot more to talk about, I'm sure. Delighted for you that you're getting this opportunity, congratulations. And I want to be there when you and Polly have whatever debate or something that you're going to have in person. That will be a lot of fun. So we'll see you out in Las Vegas, Dan. Thank you for the time. We'll talk to you soon.

See you soon, Dan. Thank you, man. Thanks a lady, guys. Okay. There is. Dan Hardy working on these Sky Sports broadcast. Now, we're talking to the man who'll be working on the Showtime broadcast. Polly Malanaji, this has become a weekly occurrence for us, Polly.

I appreciate you coming on the program and talking, especially after last week, and you did say a lot, and I appreciate you doing that very much. Let's start at the beginning. We're there Friday. This thing is starting to kind of blow over a little bit after the, you know, interview on this show, your podcast from Brooklyn to the world, and then Friday evening, some of the footage, a couple seconds of the footage comes out, and one of it shows the knockdown slash push, whichever side of the fence you may be on. Where are you when this

comes out? And what is your reaction when you find out that Dana White has tweeted this? I was, I think it was Friday night. I was getting ready to go out. Um, uh, nothing. I was still home. And, uh, I was like, oh, man, I was like, this is, it's funny because when the footage came out with knockdowns push down I was like you know what I was like this this does not look as obvious as I pictured it when I when it happened to me you know and then you know it's just edited so good that I'll watch it like three times for me to realize okay okay now I can remember a little bit better you know I'm saying that but you know it was the hand behind the neck and you know pushing down and you know not a punch not landing I remember specifically nothing landing so I was

like what the hell's going on here but it was done very well I mean, you know, they got the money there, so they edited it very well. There's a reason it probably took them about 10 days to put that out there. They had to edit it really, really well. And, you know, obviously, once I started slowed down a little bit and whatnot, it made more sense to me. And I said, yeah, this is about what I remember. I thought it was more of a push instead of a push down on my neck.

It was more, obviously, in the video, it was a push down on my neck. You know, in real speed when you're in the middle of it, you know, you don't know exactly what puts you off balance. Obviously, when I saw the video, I had to kind of analyze it. first and then I realized yeah it's it's clearly the the push down on my neck it's actually the result of the push down on my neck because it almost acts like a talk of war where you know like when you're playing talk of war and you're a kid and then you let go of the rope and the other person goes flying you know he's got his hand on my he's got his hand on my neck so strongly

and he's throwing that little right hook which he actually doesn't even know how to make the move when I when I get to Vegas and do some video interviews I'm going to show people how to actually use that dirty move it's a dirty move but you got to know how to do it he's actually so stupid he didn't even do it right when I saw the video but anyway so he throws a little right hook, and he kind of grazing my face with it, but his back foot is off the ground. Like, there's nothing on it even if it was to land, you know what I mean? Because this guy, you know, he doesn't plant enough on his shots in order to get enough leverage on it anyway. But anyway, what I'm saying is he's got his left hand on my neck and he's throwing his little right hook

inside, and I'm trying to pull up as hard as I can now, you know, in case he's going to repeat the shot, in case he's going to do something else, and he lets it go. So when I thought what happens, I go flying and I fall. You know, it's that same type of effect. like when you're playing talk of water. That's the best example I can get when you're playing talk of water as a kid and you're pushing as all as you can and you let go, the other person goes flying

or the other person was going and you were flying, you know? It was that kind of effect at the instant of the, of that I went to the canvas. Are you surprised they came out with this? Ultimately, were you expecting it or did it catch you of guard that they came out with, you know, a couple seconds of footage?

As I said to Dan, when I just got on, I didn't know they were actually recording. So I wanted the footage of the surveillance camera because somebody told me in that place, there's 24 hours, seven days a week surveillance cameras in there. So I knew there was footage in the surveillance cameras for sure. I didn't know that they were actually recording. I was never told anybody was going to be recording. As a matter of fact, I was told that Connor wants no cameras at all recording. He just has his personal photographers taking pictures. So I was actually lied to all lied to like

blatantly with that. But so I didn't expect a video in that regard to come out. If anything, a video was going to come out, I thought the surveillance cameras may come out with something, you know, and they may put something out. So, so no, I didn't expect. didn't know, I didn't expect any of that at all, you know, but Connor, you know what he's like, I like, I know what he's, I know what he's, I know what he's, I know what he's adorable, man, you know, like, he's trying so hard to, like, tell people, like, he's going to win this fight and legitimize himself and, like, he's trying so hard to, like, prove that he's a puncher because every, all these, all these MMA fans tell him he's a big puncher and, you know,

so you can tell he believes it because, you know, he talks about stories about how I was concussed after the sparring and I was stumbling, like, he really believed it. I think it's like so adorable, you know, because he's trying so hard to legitimize himself to a point where he's lying, putting out edited videos. He's like, he might be like the little engine that could.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, nobody really cares about him in the sport. You know, nobody gives him any chance. And he's like trying, instead of like focusing on like, you know what, I'm going to get to the day of the race and I'm going to win the race or in this case the fight, you know. Instead of focusing on that,

he's focusing more on trying to convince everybody beforehand. And it's like, it almost comes out adorable because you can see, all this efforts, but then like me on the inside especially, like I see how fake is, you know, like Owen Roddy the other day was taking a big home videos of the house that he was staying in and he was trying to make fun of it like, oh yeah, this is not a crack house at all. But the problem is Owen Roddy was in a different house than I was staying at, you know what I'm saying? Like so, so like the fact that you went out there to try to prove that to me and you know

you're lying, you know I wasn't staying in that house. You know I wasn't. So now you know you're trying to cover something up because if you weren't trying to cover something up, you were of a record of the house. I stayed at. You know what I'm saying? They all know they're lying. They all know it's edited.

They all know the footage is edited. They all know there wasn't a knockdown. I mean, I posted a slow motion breakdown on my Twitter where, you know, you can actually see Joe Cortez enter the fray with the no knockdown, the no knockdown symbol or whatever cause call on his hands. And I just remember, like I said, in real time, nobody in there thought it was a knockdown. Like it was like so nonchalant. Like it was so, like the video was edited.

so well that it even makes it look controversial like it could be it couldn't be like in real time nobody there reacted to it nobody there like thought anything of it you know what i'm saying and and people saying oh i was lying because i was talking about i was talking trash before that and he pushed me when i was talking trash before that whole sequence comes up when he throws the first left hand that winds up behind my neck i was talking trash and when i got up Joe Cortez is wiping off my gloves on his shirt and i am yelling at him i am talking trash as i'm as portez is wiping off my gloves and we're going to you. So, you know, you don't see any of that. You know what I'm saying? They did a nice little edit job. Luckily, like I said, I always cover myself with the truth. I told you last week, 11, 12 were

not good rounds for me. I was tired. I was fatigued. I think the jet light even caught up to me. The fact that I'm not in 12 round shape caught up to me. So yeah, 12 round was always going to be bad, right? And so you saw some of the footage. Now granted, the whole 12 round wasn't at that kind of a pace. I mean, it was, you know, Keith Conner's tired too. So they took the, the fastest pace and his best moment of the 12 round, around which he won. And he wanted. and I told you, I told you that can start. And they made it look like it was the entire round. You know what I'm saying?

Actually, they made it look like it was a sequence that led into the knockdown. I mean, I know some people say they know it's not the same round, but the way some of it is edited, the way some of it is brought down some of these videos. It's like, you know, people need to look at a shot that causes, quote-unquote knockdown. So being the nothing lands in the initial, in the initial spray, you have to add a shot that land, so you have to take it from another round, you know? So, I don't know. Like I said, I thought it was really adorable.

I thought it was really cute because, you know, this guy, He's trying so hard that it almost makes you want to root for him. Like, oh, man, you know what? He wants this so bad, you know? But truly, a fighter that's confident goes and take camp and he goes with Floyd Maywell is doing. He shuts the fuck up and he gets to work. You know what I'm saying?

And on fight night, he shows up and he wins every time he's out there. You know what I'm saying? This guy's, like, like I said, he's a little engine that could. He's trying to convince everyone because nobody believes in him. He's trying to convince everyone. He's got his group. He's up believing him. Sure makes martial arts fans.

They don't watch boxing. was labeled, you know, you know, they're all about him. But, you know, in reality, in reality, he's trying as hard as not to look like a joke. And on the media day, right, when did the video come out, Ariel? It came on Friday night, right? Friday night, yeah. You don't notice it's a nice coincidence that it's the day of his media workout earlier that day, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, the timing was great for us. We were talking to Connor when he came out. Yeah, so right after his media workout, the talk and boxing was what a joke this guy looked like. I was getting my timeline filled up with people tweeting me like, this guy can't fight. There's no way he got the better amount ofology. This guy looks horrible. This guy, and this guy can't even put a combination together as shadow boxing.

You know, like, it looks so bad. And they out, they out themselves just from him working out publicly. So now they needed something to cover this up, to kind of get the attention away from this debacle of a media workout that he put together. So what did they do? They release the, they timed the video, edit perfect. you know what I mean where let's release this and nobody will talk about how ridiculous you look in the media workout I mean it's still a running joke and boxing did you see the media

you just see the workout tarant's cost was doing where he was imitating uh honor parent and his team parents are fighting this Friday this Saturday by the way depending on the world title but but did you they became like a running joke and boxing so it was like they had to they had to kind of cover it up in in some way shape or form so nice job you know I've got a nice edit it was a nice Hollywood edit I thought it was adorable I thought it was cute but at the end of the it starts, every day you start to see holes in this little story, you know, but it got a lot of people at first. I'm not alive. A lot of people reacted to it at first. A lot of people, uh, reacted to it and fuck for it at first. But every day that's taxes, you can see more holes in this thing and it's

starting to kind of come out. Even me, I had to watch it two or three times to realize, like, there's not, there's no way this happened like this, you know, before I sound of touching up to it, you know what I'm saying? But not other people when they first watch it, they're not going to, they're not going to catch on to it right away, you know what I'm saying? They're not going to watch that thing two, two, three times. They're going to watch it. and they're like, oh, man, Connor's kicking Paulie's ass, you know? So it was well done. It was definitely well done and well edited.

What has this been like for you? Because, I mean, I see you're going after everyone. You're not just kind of walking away. You're battling everyone that's coming after you. What has this been like for you since Friday? Well, you know what it is? That's how fuck of Dana White and Pilbrewd-Dow boy. You put a white hat on him and give him a white shirt.

He looks like a Pillsbury Gold Boy. I just want to touch him in his belly button so you can go, you know, like that little laugh on the Pillsbury Doleboy, you know? Like, like, after the sparring, he was coming up to me trying to, like, say nice things. Like, oh, man, nice work. Like, we appreciate it whatnot. I never liked the guy. I don't think he treats his fighters fairly.

I don't think he treats the UFC fighters fairly. There's no MMA act in, in, in, in M.M. There's no, I'll be acting in MMA because of him mainly and first and foremost. He's the one of the guys trying to prevent it from happening. So, no, I don't like him. I don't like the way he treats the fighters, and I don't like anything about him, you know? So, so I didn't really talk to him, even when he, when he tried to say a couple of nice things to me, me after words. I wasn't a strike of a conversation. I'm not fake like that, you know. So,

so the only guy I really talked to after sparring was, uh, Adi, uh, Connor's, uh, Connor's manager. You know, we had a cordial three, four minute discussion, you know, but so, you know, after that, I mean, once this whole thing started with the pictures and the videos and whatnot, of course the media storm's going to come. I mean, this guy's funny because you're fighting for Lloyd Mayweather, yet you keep sending the media all over my way. You put out pictures and the media flies to me, they flock to me. And you put out more pictures than the media flocks to me. Then you put out this video and the media flocks to me. You know, they all want a story. They all want an interview.

They all want everything. They all want to comment. So, like, why are you trying to keep me so relevant? Like, I didn't ask for any of this. I mean, now that it's here, obviously, I'm jumping on it. But I didn't ask for any of it. I was strictly a part of the broadcast team. I did the press tour with Brendan Schaub and, and, and, uh, Moro and Alo and Brian Custer in different places, you know?

So, I mean, I was just strictly part of the media team at that point. You involved me to the point where you made me to talk of this training camp, you know? And maybe, like I said, maybe it was by design to take away the attention away from how ridiculous he looks. And maybe they don't want it to be like that. Listen, he didn't need any promotion. The guy has enough fans and the guy has enough people that believe in him. You know what I mean? Well, now you're going to look really stupid on 26 or you're going to look like a genius, you know, because it's one of the others.

There's no in between here, you know? Either you think this guy is a joke or you think this guy has broken the out so many times that he can do it. again. And that's what everybody's here to find out, right? Okay, so here we are watching this, and there's two clips that come out. There's one of the, you know, the pushdown slash knockdown, and then there's another one where he hits you with the left and your head goes back. Is this part of the same sequence? Is this part of the same round? Not part of the same sequence. That's what I would try to tell you before, I really. Okay. The sequence where he lands the shots, what these sequence where he's actually landing

because in the push-down-knock-down sequence, it's not landing with a single punch. In the sequence where he's landing the shot, it's round 12. You know, Round 12. Oh, okay. You remember that? You remember the round? Yes, because I was that. Because round 12, I remember specifically.

The pushdown, not down, it could have been eight, could have been nine. It could have been around there, okay? Like, don't get me wrong. Even during my own fights, like round 12, like 12, like 12 round five round fights. Sometimes I used to have to look at the ring card girl between rounds while I was sitting down to see what round we were up to. Because I was just so focused on what I was doing, you know? So don't get me wrong. Sometimes I do confuse the rounds.

But I specifically around around 12 in the shop because I just remember thinking at about halfway to the 11th, I'm tired. I need to just finish this off because I can't quit right now because, you know, I'm here for 12 and I'm not going to give me the satisfaction of saying I can go 12. And I'm satisfied with the work I put in tonight. You know, I'm satisfied. I was very satisfied with the first 10 rounds, you know? Yeah. And so I said, you know, get through these last couple rounds, and you'll be good.

So I remember that 12th round. I remember that sequence of two reasons. That shot landing and the subsequent when he shot afterward, when he pushed me off to ropes. I remember that because the edit cuts out right there. out when I fall into ropes. Because I specifically remember that moment that he pushed me off to ropes like that. And then I bounced off the ropes awkwardly and I bounced off throwing punches. I thought it going like four or five like kind of haymaker type punches.

It was very sloppy. I was tired. And Conno kind of was taken back because he was chasing me towards the ropes. And all of a sudden he started seeing punches fly towards him. So he kind of like started stumbling backwards in like an awkward way. Nothing really landed. But I'm saying that kind of ended the sequence. And then we kind of slowed down again because we're both tired.

but I remember that specifically because it cuts all right at the ropes. I mean, I actually bounced off those ropes. It came out punching. You know, it wasn't very clear. It wasn't very clean or anything, but obviously it was sloppy. We were on 12 and were tired, but it was that scene. So I remember that sequence specifically, where I was punching off those ropes. What does Cortez do after you fall to the canvas?

Because that's, that got cut off there. And I was curious, like, does he start counting or does he say get up? What does he do? Well, that's what I'd say you could see in the small model. you can see he's waving out as a no knockdown signal. Yeah, it's so quick that I, you know, I just wanted to get your take. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he waves it off, no knockdown.

I get up and he wipes off my gloves. You know, he wipes off my gloves on his shirt. Okay, and that's it. And then you just go back. Yeah, and then you just continue. Like I said, it was very nonchalant in the moment. It was a very nonchalant moment. Like, it was like, it wasn't like anybody even thought it was a knockdown.

Nobody reacted to it. Like, it was so clear in real time. Like, that's what. why I thought the video edit was like, wow, I was like, they did a nice job on this, you know? It did a, like, that was a real professional highlight reel, you know what they did. But like, Eddie, Ariel, one thing about me,

I always cover myself with the truth. Now, you want to spin it, people want to spin it their way because I get a lot of everything down on our timeline and there's all you lied and he did this and you weren't, yeah, wasn't frustrated. You know, Conner was actually frustrated. Yeah, that's why I got pushed down. I mean, Conno was frustrated.

That's why I got pushed down. And now the push down wasn't the sequence exactly how I imagined it. But once I saw it, I, I remembered it, a bit more, obviously, more up front because I'm watching it. And then obviously, I remember the 12th round where it was a bad round.

You know what I'm saying? I remember that specifically as well, and I remember that combination. But, you know, people were funny. Like, last time I think I also said the first five rounds, you know, Connor hung tough. You know, I felt like I dominated

the second five rounds, better than the first five rounds. It didn't mean Connor won the first five rounds. I mean, I got people tweeting me like, well, you know, Connor won the first five rounds, and then, and then the last two. I shouldn't have to say I kicked the shit out of him or he kicked the shit out of me,

for there to be a deciding round. You know what I'm saying? I should be able to tell you when somebody got their ass kicked out. I should be able to tell you when somebody just won a round and it was competitive, you know what I'm saying? So I felt the first five rounds

I was winning the rounds. He made one, one, one, or one, maybe two of those, you know what I'm saying? But I thought I was getting the better of it. Then I felt the second five rounds, I dominated them. And then the last two rounds, he dominated them. You know what I mean?

So, so, and this is the guy who's basically off the couch, dude. I mean, I don't understand how anybody even takes, and takes this with any other consideration, or Paulie just retired four months ago. still fresh nobody when you haven't been in the gym it doesn't matter if you just retired you haven't been in the gym you know i just got back in the gym so you can take that with a grain of salt as well but bottom line is at one side left i mean this guy got left with no with nobody to work with

he's got nobody to work with nobody wants to work with him anymore he's got some bum amateur and and some m a guy's what do you how are you going to prepare to spar for how are you going to prepare a spa to fight floyd mayweather without your sparring okay you you you of course you He doesn't want to look like the running joke of boxing, but he's making himself the running joke of boxing. We're not even trying. You know what I mean? If he stopped trying so hard and stop being a little engine that could

and just trained and did his thing, you know, none of this soap opera fiasco would even be out. Do you hear anything from Floyd Mayweather's camp aerial? Do you hear anything at all? No, no. In fact, on all access, they have been showing nothing. They have not showed a second of him actually sparring yet.

They have, like, because he doesn't allow cameras when he's sparring, just like Connor, I thought, didn't allow cameras when he's sparring. sparring, so that's what he'll never come. But, you know, Alex's had Floyd Mayweather on so many times, he made in training, him hitting the bag, him doing peg, that it's almost not interesting to them anymore. But also, Floyd himself, he's not trying to convince you he's going to win the fight by posting Instagram, by Instagram modeling the whole thing, you know what I'm saying?

And he just goes about his regimen, whatever that regimen might be. You know what I'm saying? And like I said, I've mentioned a couple of scorn punters that I've heard were in camp with him, or, you know, I don't think I was there the whole camp, but I know I wrote Sparkle with him. and I know Judah's part of him You know He's got legit fighters there And he's the guy that's supposed to win the fight

The guy who's not supposed to win the fight It spawned No name amateurs or Or MMA guys I mean I'm not going to speak on arms MMA skills I don't know them very well But really

I mean in the boxing When he was a punch of bag You know what did that guy do for you What is that guy going to do for you I'm actually being told right now That Dana is on Sky Sports In the UK at the moment this is coming from someone who's listening named Tony Griffin,

and he said that the sparring session was a one-way beating for 12 rounds. Of course you're going to say that. Yeah, of course. And like I said, and that's probably the main reason why the entire sparring will never come out. That right there, because then you're going to have to, then you're going to wind up looking really stupid. Like I said, I've given you the breakdown of where I went good,

where I went bad. I keep it real, I keep it real, and there's moments where I'm good and there's moments where I'm bad, and I'm trying to broken them down. To look ridiculous and to say it was 12 rounds, First of all, if I'm out of shape, here's the common sense part, Ariel, and you might understand it's better than most. If I'm not even in great shape,

and I'm getting my ass kicked every single round, how do I even make it past 12th? How do I get to the 12th? You know what I'm saying? I'm not in great shape. I mean, just to take a 12-round beating, you've got to be in shape. Right.

Just to take that beating. You're not in shape. You're not going to lay for 12 rounds. There's no way. That's common sense in of itself, right? So the fact that I'm not in great shape and we went 12, we'll tell you common sense-wise, that what, how things went on in there, you know?

And then, like I said, I'm going to tell you where I were heading my good moments and where I had my bad moments. I don't have a problem with that. I don't care about that. I'm not to lie. I'm confident enough of myself. I'm not the little engine that could. You know what I mean?

I had my career. I know what I'm doing. This guy, he's got to fight in two weeks. Less two weeks. He's going to go close the ring, and he's going to go across the ring, and he's going to be there. You know what I'm saying? And he's going to deal with it.

Not me. So, you know, instead of trying to convince everybody how good he is and what he is and trying to suffer everybody and to make a believers out of them. Just make people believe it on Friday night. You know, it's very simple. You know, unless there's a confidence problem there. I don't know. Unless there's a belief problem there.

I don't know. That's on that. That's not on me. He said on Friday that people in the sparring house were worried that you were concussed and afterwards that you weren't in good shape. Is that true? Yeah, that's what I heard they were saying afterwards too. I'll tell you what.

I have an Instagram picture because we obviously we sparked very, late. By the time I got out of the gym, it was 11, 12 o'clock, I went to eat and whatnot. So, the next day, I actually hung out with a couple of friends from Vegas. I went to see Frank Mir who I'm friendly with, you know, he was working out at a judicious gym, and actually posted on Instagram picture the next day. You can see how I look. I mean, I don't, I mean, common sense. I don't, I don't know very sick. Or you can even have Frank Mir on the show and ask him how I looked, you know, because I'm sure you guys know Frank very well, you know. So, you know, I mean, that was the next day, that was not even, maybe about 12, 15 hours

after sparring, you know, so, so, I mean, I don't know, the pictures on Instagram, you can see yourself how I looked, my demeanor. I mean, if I look sick or if I was sick, I'm sure somebody would have noticed there, somebody would be able to tell you because I hung out with a lot of people that next day. You know, that was the next day was a non-sparring day. Did you see Conner's full media workout session? And if so, was there any, like, I know that people are mocking the moving and things like that, but don't you think that there's a chance? And you know better than anyone you've been in there. You're one of the few people on the planet. That's why I think that you're so valuable to the Showtime broadcast. But don't you

there's a chance that he's kind of like messing with he knows that the boxing community is going to react to this and he just wants to mess with people that he's not really showing us his full hand? It's possible. It's possible. I mean, anything's possible. You know, I don't mind going to put it out out of the realm of possibility that, you know, this is,

this was all one big joke to him on media day, of course, you know, but but then your edited videos, your videos of your trainer talking about how great the house, everybody lives at is everybody lives that is great. and when you know, everybody does not live at that house, you know,

you're trying too hard to cover other things up. So, so for me, there is, the reality is subtle for them, and that they don't, they know there, there's a lot of bullshit in their story, you know what I'm saying? They know there's a lot of cracks in their story, and because if you're not cracks in your story, you won't try to cover things up. You won't have to put an edited video out.

You won't have to have Owen Raleigh tell you how great the house that they're living in it. you know what I'm saying? You're doing that knowing you're covering things up. Like, they could not give you 20 seconds straight of anything concurrent in the sparring. They had edited one part to another part. And a lot of the one part that they edited was different angles of the same view of what they tried to pose at the knockdown, you know? So, I don't know.

You couldn't find 20 seconds out of 36 minutes. You couldn't find 20, 25, 30 seconds straight of boxing where he concurrently looked that good. Even in the round, he won? Really? I don't think, because I admitted to you myself, he won some rounds, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, you really, you really couldn't find, I mean, you're doing it to your, they're doing it to themselves. Because then when you, when you get, people get their heads out of his ass and you think logically, you say, man, you know, no, you know, but, you know, people choose to be deceived. I mean, you want to choose to watch CNN. And then when you let your results come in, you're totally mind-bumped. You're totally baffled. I mean, you want to choose to do that. And then August 26 is basically the election and you're going to sit there baffled. I mean, that's up to you.

But you're choosing to be deceased. You know what I'm saying at that point? Yeah. As a showman, don't get me wrong. I mean, uh, me a day could be all show, it could be all this. You know, I'm sure his fans would want to believe that. He does not look that ridiculous. I'm not going to get into the full topics, though, Ariel.

I'm going to get into some of them that you see on the video, because on the video you see that, you know what I'm saying? And, but I'm fighting that, you know, I was my plan to show more tactics, you know? But, you know, he gives away some of his stuff. You know what I mean, you know, he thinks he can punch when he can't. Like I said, he's like the little engine that could. He's trying to convince everybody.

The way he's talking about that I left with concussions and I was stumbling, that shows you somebody who's in denial. Like, he really thinks he ain't that hard. In boxing, we are fighting constantly guys who have learned to punch correctly. But that's all they've been doing. Boxing is strictly punching. So that's all guys that have been doing, all opponents, everybody in boxing has learned to punch correctly, put their weight behind their shots, or plant their feet at the correct moment. You know, I've been with crazy hard punchers.

All of boxing understands the difference between. a monster puncher and a non-monster puncher. You know what I'm saying? He's been given this false into security. Like he's some kind of crazy puncher to where people really believe everything he hits breaks down. You know what I mean? Like that fake knockdown sequence, he gets a shot behind my neck with misses.

I mean, the shot can't go behind my neck unless he misses. He has to overshoot that shot. Otherwise, he's not going to go behind my neck. Because if he lands that shot, my head is going to whiplash, right? So he's not going to be able to grab behind my neck. So he overshoots that shot. And there's people on my timeline saying that shot landed, and even if it didn't land clean, that's a shot that hurt me.

And then there's people where when he's holding my head neck down and he throws that right hook, he's supposed to throw either a right upper cut. All what he's supposed to do is let me go. And when my head shoots up timing with the hook, he didn't do either. That shows you the lack of intelligence he has when it comes to that kind of striking. But he misses the hope. But even if he landed it, you see his back foot.

Let's look at actual motion. His back foot is off the ground. That's where you're getting your leverage from. You know what I'm saying? So even if he lands that little right hook inside, his back foot is off the ground. You've got nothing on it. It's an arm punch. Even if he landed, which he didn't.

But what I'm saying is, this guy's like, again, I'm going to refer to a little engine that could. Like, he's sitting here trying to convince us all, like, I'm this puncher, I'm this, I'm this. But you've got to learn the punch before you can be a puncher. You know what I mean? This is not a mixed martial arts anymore. You're fighting guys that are used to getting hit. They used to understand this kind of pop, it's kind of power.

And they'll not respect you if you don't do it right, you know? So, you know, I don't know. He's trying too hard. my advice to him, if there's anything, the next 12 days, shut the fuck up and get ready before it may be, bro. Stop talking about me or putting out videos or pictures. Stop putting out things that will draw the media to me. Draw immediate to yourself, bro.

You got 12 days left. Are you worried at all about any NDA action or anything like that? No, I was not paid. And everything that came my way was from their pictures and their videos. Everything that came my way was from their pictures and their videos. So I'm not worried. And I was never paid. Okay.

So, frankly, I don't care. I don't need their money. But no, I'm not worried about it at all. I would not have had a need to speak to any of the media if the rush hadn't come my way because of what they put out. You're going to work the broadcast on the 26th of August, right? This has become somewhat personal. Is it going to be hard for you to remain unbiased on television?

No, because here's the thing. I was part of myself on going with tactical breakdowns. And there's things like I said, I've saved for the broadcast. You know, there's things people have in mind about him on the inside and advantages that they think you might have or whatnot on the inside and then maybe his disadvantage on the outside and whatnot. I'm going to get into those more on the broadcast. I want to save those because that's where I provide myself on my analysis is that kind of

analysis. I put myself on analysis that a lot of people can't give you, you know? That's why I'm able to actually break down the push-down knockdown sequence so well because I'm breaking it down for you as if it's not even me on there. You know what I'm saying? I'm telling you how it went down and walking you through how it happened, you know? So the same way, I have this tactical things in mind that I'm going to break down and I want to give some possibilities of what might work, what might not work,

and things of that nature. So really, I never really allow opinion to get into my broadcasting. I've always tried to never do that because at the day, then, most of the time I like the fighters anyway, and I don't want to show favorite to them. So regardless, I try not to leave any room for much opinion. I was kicking myself last week because I didn't ask you this question. So I'm so thankful that I have you back on here. Before I let you go, I must ask you this.

When you first came on, before you flew out to Vegas for the sparring session, I was kind of asking you about what you think his chances are. Now, again, there are maybe five people on the planet that can talk about sparring Connor McGregor. After being in with him in the ring twice, and let's forget about the bad blood and all that, do you think he has a better chance at pulling

off this upset, or do you think after the experience that he has less of a chance of beating Floyd Mayweather? Did that change? your opinion initially after the experience of being in there with them? You know what is? I want to answer the question for you. I really do. But I have a job at Showtime that relies on their pay-per-view buys. I can't go one way or the other. Okay. I'll tell you in private. I can't tell you on the air. All right. Fair enough. I must ask you this as well. You have been

referencing St. Patrick's Day, 2018, things like that. Do you hope to fight him next year? Yeah, yeah, at this point, yeah. I mean, at this point, because you're the thing, when you don't wet somebody, you don't spar them, you fight them. You know, you do one of two things, actually. You either fight them or you do what Ricky Hatton. You used to do the junior winner. You just never mention them at all.

You never let them get press. You never bring them into the forefront. You never do it. So you do one extreme or the other. You either go all out and you fight them with small gloves when you can do damage or you don't mention them at all and they get no press. This weirdo didn't do either of those things. He constantly put me in the press with these edited videos, edited pictures, and whatnot.

And now it's picked up a ton of momentum. So, yeah. So now the bad blood is there. Now we've got to fight. Okay. Do you think it will happen? I don't know. It's not up to me.

Right now I'm focused on how it looks against Mayweather. Because if he looks like dog shit against Mayweather, I don't think anybody's going to want to see him box again. So first and foremost, we have to see what happened, 26, how it happens in 26 as well. And then, you know, we can kind of go on from there. You know, right now, I'm going to... focusing on broadcasting that week and working for both Thai sports

earlier in the week and then showtime later in the week. So it'll, that's more so my focus at the moment. But will, are you kind of like secretly hoping he wins because do you think that it increases your chances of fighting him or do you think that a close loss increases your chance of him sticking around? Like what are you kind of thinking with your heart here? You know, from a business perspective, I'll put it like this.

As long as he doesn't get the living shit beaten out of him where he looks totally lost in there, which is a possibility. But as long as this doesn't happen, I think, yeah, there's enough of a demand that you can make a fight. Now, if he wins, obviously, he's a big demand.

If he loses and he does a couple of decent things in the fight, yeah, you can still create a demand, you know. If he gets absolutely the shit beat out of him for six, seven rounds and get stopped or quits even, which is not beyond the wrong possibility, because Floyd, you know, doesn't have one-punch power, so he'll beat with a submission. if that doesn't happen, then, you know, you have the possibility.

If that does happen, I don't think anybody's ever going to want to, I don't think anybody's ever going to be interested in watching this guy box there again. So, you know, you can't really look at any of this until you, until you get the result of the 26th, and you see how that result comes about on the 26th. Right. And fair to say, your hope, I mean, you've already looked at the calendar. St. Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday. That would be the dream scenario.

Yeah, I'm a business man. Once this all started coming out, once I started getting tweets about Malinaji and McGregor, I'm not sure. Of course, I said, you know, what makes sense? You know, I understand this business very well. I've done well in this business, not just in the sport.

I've done well in the business, so I understand that it works very well. So my eyes went to the calendar when I started seeing how much this was buzzing, so we'll see. I appreciate your honesty. I think that does over a million and a half at least. depending on what you have we don't even know what happens but i appreciate you you you being

honest about that could i could i finally because this is probably the last time we speak before the fight could i could i could i ask for a prediction or are you not allowed to give one that's kind of hard to give a prediction i don't know if i say mayweather's doing and say that i'm hating you know and then if and if i say mcgregor you know people are going to say oh you know well you're out of your mind so you know i i i i in my mind i kind of have an idea what's going to happen And, you know, I boxed him. I know Mayweather and as far as what his skills set he brings to the table. And, you know, I have an idea, but I can't give a full out prediction.

But like I said, I work for showtime here. And we're lying on by. Okay, fair enough. I don't know if you saw. Are you going to be in Vegas by week? Heck, yeah. I'm going to be there all week. Yeah.

I hope we see each other in person. Okay, fair enough. I just wanted to say, Pauley, I don't know if you saw, but. Connor's MMA head coach, John Kavanaugh, who I'm sure you met, actually had some very nice things to say about you on camera, would not say anything bad and said he was really thankful that you came and all that. So I know it's kind of ended in a bad way, but... John took the high road, and I appreciate that.

I can care what stuff. I do not have any... I do not have any liking for anybody on that team. I know what they did. I know how they treat people. I was there. I know how people get treated. I know what they've said and what they've done.

I have no care about how nice anybody is over there. It doesn't really matter to me. Like I said, I mean, I think Connor's adorable in his effort that he's trying to kind of basically with the what I'm looking for, trying to give this perception, this image of things that are not there. I think it's adorable. I think it's true that he's trying so hard to do that instead of focusing on the workouts. But no, I don't really have anything to say about anybody trying to be nice or not.

Fair enough. Pauli, you have been more than gracious over the last month. I really appreciate it. I'll leave you alone, at least for now. I look forward to seeing you in Vegas. You're working for Sky and Showtime? Did you say that? Yeah, well, yeah, the actual broadcast, I will be working for Showtime.

Okay. I work for Sky Sports and spots during the year when I get free from Showtime. Oh. Sometimes the fights that Showtime doesn't cover, I'll work them with Sky. A lot of Sky sports is fight all on Showtime, so unfortunately I can't give Sky that. time because I would show time. I will showtime at the time. And obviously this fight is one of those situations where Sky would have wanted me, but I have to give Showtime my priority. They're

my main job. But during the week, they've hired me to do some fight week coverage, like, you know, some standard stuff. Okay. You know, we'll get into that as well. So, yeah, so I'll see Dan there as well. I'm sure your fans, your new fans in Europe will love that. They continue to... Yeah, yeah. Actually, I have a lot of fans in England. I always say, like, the Boxing community in England is huge. great and I probably have more fans in England than I have in the U.S. Which is funny, you know.

But, yeah, so that's another reason why I always enjoy getting some more of being with Sky Sports as well. I appreciate the time, Polly. Thank you very much. All the best, and we'll see you out there in Vegas. See you doing, Ariel. Thanks, man. All right, there he is.

Polly Malanaji works for Sky Sports. Showtime has that podcast from Brooklyn to the world. I appreciate him coming on. And to all the people who are saying to me, oh, you know, I don't usually get into this. but if you want to look at the numbers of when Polly came on, there is interest here. And I appreciate him being honest with the fact that, yeah,

he has looked at the calendar and yes, he wants this fight. And I don't know if the fight is going to happen because we know that Connor has said, as recently as Friday, that he is coming back to MMA, and we know that there is interest in a third Nate Diaz fight, and we know that the UFC would like him to fight one more time this year as far as MMA is concerned. but boy oh boy is there a feud there

and you cannot tell me that there will not be an immense amount of interest any arena on this planet between these two if Connor fights again in boxing he's got his opponent with now weeks of buildup so he's in a very good spot

and of course if he wins holy smokes the world is his oyster again I want to thank Polly for stopping by I want to thank all our guests we did have a slight update in the show or a change. We were supposed to be joined by Cody Garbrandt. He actually sent me a very nice text message.

He had committed to something that he completely had forgotten about, working with a younger person. I won't get into the details too much, but this was a very nice thing that he was doing, and it completely slipped his mind, and he apologized profusely. He's always been a professional. So, of course, I totally understand.

Nothing more to it showed me the text message conversation. I didn't even ask him while I was doing the show, but he committed to working with a young girl at the gym and did not want to cut away. And I would not want him to cut away. So we'll get Cody on in the near future. We've talked enough today. So no hard feelings there. And he is a he is a true mensch. So I hold no ill will towards him. He did the right thing. And we'll talk to him again soon. Unfortunate, wanted to talk to him, get an update. He did talk to me, what was it, eight or so days ago, maybe nine or so days ago, 10, saying that he wants to find on the MSG card. And this is a very, interesting time for the UFC because they've got this show on October 7th that they are trying to figure out, you know, who's going to men event this show? There was talks of Cody versus TJ. Cody's back, not 100%. There were talks of Max Holloway versus Frankie Edgar. That doesn't look like it's happening as of right this second. There have been talks of Chris Cyborg versus Holly Holme home.

That is not looking good as of right this second. Talks of Stepamiotich not looking good as of right this second. Rosenom Yunus wants to fight. excuse me, Yawanna-Jech wants to fight Rosamunis at Madison Square Garden. Who else? I can tell you there have. So they wanted to do Chabib versus Tony Ferguson. Also doesn't look like it's happening.

There was some talk or is some talk of Tony Ferguson versus Kevin Lee. And you'll recall Kevin Lee being on the Fox Sports broadcast after his win over Michael Keesa and them having a back and forth. So potentially that could happen. Is that a main event? I'm not sure, but that October 7th card, they're having a hard time finding a main event. November 4th, they don't have a hard time.

That has been done, as far as main event is concerned, GSP versus Bispang is certainly main event worthy and there'll probably be at least one other title fight, but that's a tricky one for them. So we'll see what happens there. Ferguson versus Kevin Lee is fun. I think some people will be upset that they don't get the Ferguson versus

Habib fight. Will that be for the interim title? Remains to be seen. Nothing has been decided just yet. Hopefully we'll see Cody back sooner rather than later. So we'll talk to him soon. And one other update that I wanted to talk about before we get to Rick's picks.

This isn't MMA related, but certainly a story that we all care about and I'm certainly thinking about and have been following a story regarding Rick Flair and the wrestling observer reporting this afternoon. I'm just going to read it off the

website because I'm kind of digesting it at the same time. This was reported by our own Dave Meltzer for his website, The Wrestling Observer, Wrestling Observer newsletter, and Joseph Currier. This is the report after being hospitalized on Saturday. Rick Flares in a medically induced coma and set to undergo a procedure. A representative for WWE confirmed that news to TMZ, though they did not specify what the procedure is after initially downplaying the hospital visit, Flair's management team wrote a message late last night asking for fans and friends to pray for Flair as he is dealing with, quote, tough medical issues, end quote. Not much more is clear other than the situation is serious. Flair was to undergo surgery this week, but we're not clear whether this was

the original surgery scheduled or a new surgery. There is belief to be a heart issue involved and another issue. W.W.E posted an article about Flair's hospitalization on their website, and many within the company have sent their prayers for him on Twitter. Michael Hayes wrote that he had visited Flair yesterday and assured everyone that Flair needs their prayers and positive vibes. There's an update to this story since it was posted. The update is Rick Flair is now out of surgery, but the situation is still extremely serious. This is according to the wrestling observer.com. So certainly thinking of Rick Flair and wishing him the best, a legend in the world of professional wrestling.

there's a 30 for 30 coming out about him in November produced by Roy Karp, who produced at CM Punk four-part series. And I've heard nothing but great things about it. He is a living legend, and we really, really want to wish him the best, thinking about him, sending in only but positive vibes, prayers and thoughts. Rick Flair, hang in there, my man, keep on fighting, and hoping that we get some good news about him very soon. just to back end that and maybe to inspire the angels out there.

A very nice story regarding Matt Hughes late last night, a friend of his posting an update about him and even posting a picture, excuse me, of him. So great. Wow, it warmed my heart to see Matt Hughes in the wheelchair. Clearly has lost a lot of weight, but smiling and out of the hospital, at least for a night, his friend joked that they snuck out to get some sushi. but it was really nice to see

Matt in somewhat good spirits and hopefully he continues to fight and can get out soon and his friend joke that he was even talking about having one more round in him but that just what a beautiful picture it was it was so great to see Matt Hughes

and definitely wishing him well it was just two and a half months ago that he gone into that accident so hoping that he can continue to improve get out there and we are certainly wishing for the same as far as Rick Flair is concerned all right so that does it for our

interviews today. What a fun show from D.C. to GSP. Shana Bazler. Heather Hardy was phenomenal. Polly, Dan Hardy, all great stuff and more. But now it's time for everyone's favorite segment. It is time for Rick's Picks. And now it's time to open up your ears and your minds. MMA fans, it's time for Rick's Picks. Ricks picks. Ricks picks are lots of fun and his hair isn't a bun because it's You already know what it is. Wix Picks. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the new craigs taken the world by storm.

Now we got more time to talk. Live from the Vox Studios in beauty. Oh, there it is. It's back. It's time for Ricks Picks. Dang! Now it worked. Last week we were robbed of that transition, but it is there. And you know what I love so much about the transition?

The garage sound and the beeping. fully New York. That's fully New York right there. You know what I'm saying? This is no accident. I requested this specifically. You got an initial version. You said, no, we need the noise. We need the sound effects. It needs to be grimeier. It needs to have graffiti. It needs to have a garage opening. And Miles came through. Wow. Livered. Okay. Well, we have much to discuss, my friend. We do. The floor is yours. What do you have? Rick's picks. There's only one way we could start this. and now I try to stay away from things that have been seen too much or... Don't tell me you're going to actually show the knockdown.

Oh, we're going to start with the only way that you can start this. And it's going to be... Well, we're going to start with actually the other clip. I'm happy. This is actually the first time I get to see the tweet because, of course, as you know, I am blocked. Or is this an Instagram post? This is from Instagram. It's both, right? Wasn't it both? Are you blocked? Why would I be blocked?

I never did anything to anybody. You know, guilty by association, that sort of thing. Nope. I am in the clear. Okay. But here we're looking at the first clip posted of the two clips of Connor McGregor sparring with Paul and Hollaghanage. Okay, so by now we've seen it. Can I ask you this?

Sure. How do you feel about them releasing five seconds? What is it? Six seconds, seven seconds. How do you feel about this being released? Smart. Okay. And for the simple reason, and I tweeted about this actually over the weekend,

these two clips tell the people who believe that Connor McGregor is going to win a competitive boxing match with Floyd Mayweather that there's a chance and that he looks great and it also tells the people

that believe that beating Pauli Malinaji who himself admits that you know it wasn't in the best of shape beating him up into short clips without showing the rest of it confirms essentially that there wasn't much to this to begin with.

People are actually saying, oh, now he has a chance because I saw five seconds? Come on. There are people who are saying that, clearly. And I think this is perfect because it gives each side of this what they want. It gives them the confirmation that

either Connor is now the god of boxing or, you know, it was 10 seconds edited. of out of 36 minutes of sparring. And so we've played this one. Let me just move to the next one. Can I ask you one quick favor?

Which is the important one? Go ahead. Like this for me, right? Like this. No, no, no. The other way. Yes. You've got like a clunk right over there. What are you talking about a clunk? Right there. Just like brush it to like fix that mustache. What's wrong with you? Where are we looking?

Right there. That one right there. On the left side. Other side. That right there. No, no, no. That right there. Move over a little bit center, center, center. You don't see it.

There's a clunk. No, that just made it way worse. Oh, my gosh. What are you doing here? I'm staring right at it. You know what? What? Show is over.

Cancel the show. Oh, my God. Wait, where'd you go? I still got more to go. Oh, man. I got more in me. This is like one of our shortest shows in months, and I'm already done.

That's it? You can't take the heat? I'm becoming unhinged. Okay. I'm sorry. You know what I need for that? I need some of that Dr. Carver shave butter so I can fix this up and straighten the lines out.

Anyway, back to it. This is obviously the one that's been more talked about and more in question, the Polly Malinaji knockdown slash pushdown clip. How do I feel about it?

I feel it was smart on Was it a knockdown? This is where I ultimately land. Landed a good punch. Clearly, it set Pauley off balance and clearly his hand was on the back of Polly's neck pushing him down. I don't think there's any

real room for debate about either of those two things. Hit him hard, sent him toward the canvas, and then pushed his head down, or pushed his neck down. I think those two things are clear, and so again, it's giving both sides of it what they want. You know, the people who think, oh, you know, it's a knockdown, see that, and the people who say clearly is pushing them down, see that.

So both of those are actually true, in my opinion. I love that this has become like a subrooter film where people are like, oh, look at that. Okay, but whoa, whoa, wait. Well, let's be honest. I think only really Pauli Malinaghi made it into his Uprooter film.

There's like 60 tweets on his timeline breaking down every single angle of it. He doesn't sleep. It's amazing. And good for him. Hey, I'm happy that he admitted what his intentions are now. Because you remember last week I said

I feel like we're angry. I mean, that was the question I asked Connor. Whether you agree with Pauli's take on this and obviously he's too close to this to be an objective observer. But whether you agree with Pauli's on this, whatever. I think he hasn't been very secretive about anything. He's been pretty up front, you know, about everything that he's discussed. You know, whether he's biased in that, I think,

is also, you know, pretty clear because he's involved in this. He has his reputation to uphold. And also at this point, he wants to sell a fight. But I think he's been pretty upfront about everything that happened. He came out ahead of it and said, you know, Connor got the best of him in those rounds. And that's what we're essentially kind of seeing in these clips now. So I have no reason not to take Polly at his word at this point. I would like to see the rest of the footage, but I don't think it would be smart to release it at this point. No. Nothing to be done. Also, why would you show that to Floyd? What has needed to be done? Have you watched all access? I haven't yet. No. There have been three episodes. I plan to though. The episodes of all

access. I swear. And please, someone out there, correct me if I'm wrong. I swear, there has not been a single second of footage of Floyd Mayweather with gloves actually hitting something, whether it's a heavy bag, Mitz, the air. It's, to me, it's becoming a little too transparent. And it's been entertaining for me, but like, I'm like, okay, you're showing Floyd at the roller skating rink. You're showing Floyd playing cowboy. If you want to train your movement, the roller skating rink seems like a good place to go. No, but it's like almost too much. Like if you're showing him hitting the bag, it's not giving away any secrets.

You're not going to convince anyone otherwise that he doesn't have a chance or does have a chance. But they're almost going so far to say like, oh, Floyd's not taking this seriously at all. He's in Miami one weekend. He flies back. I've never seen a 24-7 or an all-access where there isn't a single second of training footage. What if that is truly the narrative, though? What if that is truly a representation of what is happening? I saw him.

I saw him in person. He's in great shape. I saw him. Okay, he's in great shape. But that doesn't mean he's not taking this lightly. He very well could be. He's abjuda, Errol Spence. They want people to think that Connor's work.

And by the way, Connor, and they've sort of mentioned this and kind of took a slight jab, Connor is film. So Showtime is filming him, but the crew is Connor's crew because he didn't know. not want them to take footage. And I get this, because Floyd is an executive producer. Of course. The first credit that comes up is Floyd made with his end. So he doesn't want them to take his footage.

I get it. Smart. Makes perfect sense. But there isn't a lot of Connor footage either as far as training is concerned. They in fact say that he cut it off when Pauly. So like that footage came from Conner's people who then I guess gave it to Dana something of that nature, but it did not come from Showtime. It's just so interesting to see like the way they're packaging this to the world and

and not showing anything from Floyd. Now I'm curious if they'll show anything from his media workout because we all have footage of it. We saw it, so it was no point of hiding it. But if they go to the lengths of not showing that as well, now they really want the world to think

he's not doing anything. This is the most footage we're going to see of both of them fighting. We're going to see Connor McGregor in two clips against Pauli Malinaghi in the open workout. I saw a whole media workout. Yeah, and we're going to see Floyd

at the media workout. That's it. That's all we're going to get. And that's all we need to get. Yeah. Are you going to see some footage of Floyd and buy the fight? No, nobody cares. No, but I think they want people to think that Connor has a better chance.

They do. And they're smart. Nothing's going to change my mind at this point. You put some footage. You splice it together. It's not going to change my mind if I feel like he has no chance. If Connor has no chance. It seems a little too egregious to not show anything.

But whatever. What we do have is Connor McGregor receiving a Versace Roe. I saw this in person. I mean, this thing. From Donatella Versace herself. The legend. It's a beautiful robe. Just take it in.

So when we were there on Friday and we're waiting, of course, a little late, he walks in wearing this robe, does not acknowledge anyone's presence and then just sits down and starts to get his hands wrapped. It was great. There isn't.

He's a showman. Oh man, there's an element to it. Like when I was sitting there talking to him on the ring, which I was surprised of more people didn't use the ring like the ring is there the ring is the story

I was just thinking man if he pulls this off in 50 years we're going to be talking about all this the buildup if you know what I mean

even if he doesn't pull this off this is 50 years down the line we will be discussing this but there's a way that people talk about Ali Anoki and by the way another fascinating thing

was he was he was talking about Ali Yanoki like he just watched it that night like he was talking about specific rounds crazy

but there's a way in which we talk about and it's interesting and Josh Gross wrote a great book but in the end it kind of ended up being a dud. If this actually ends up being

this legendary fight and he almost wins or wins I mean all this stuff, it's going to take a life of its own, these robes and just being a part of it has been so much fun. Like Mark, Esther, Casey and I just getting to go to everything except for the one London show the tour stop. Esther got to go.

We didn't get to go. But we've been to everything along the way. It's been so much fun. I actually, I haven't talked to anyone about this, but we have some exciting things about Fight Week, but I'll save that for next week as far as our coverage is concerned. Yeah, don't ruin the transition, please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Speaking of Esther. Oh, there you go.

The next Rick's pick is going to be MMA fighting zone, Esther Lynn. With the slick moves, can I just getting on top of the beams that hold the bags? See, now Mark took this photo. I took a photo of it as well. Yeah. And I'm not trying to to chew my own horn

here, but I feel like my photo was better than Mark's photo because it showed It was definitely further out. It was definitely greenier. It was definitely less focused. No, no. For sure, all those things, for sure. Look at this.

It's impressive. There's no doubt. That is the goat. But you don't really see anyone's body. You can't really tell how high she is. That's just my take. Yeah, it was for sure something. But this photo...

A little framing would go a long way, Mark. All right? This photo... A little perspective. This photo was definitely a little sharper. You can actually see Esther. and here she is taking the aerial view of the

Now if you were a good rick's picker you would have the shots Do you have the shots? Do you have the follow-up? I've got better. I've got better. Okay. Next rick's pick is we're going to have Esther's footage that she did from her POV camp.

There it is. That's when he walked out. Look at that robe. That's Jerry Byrne in back of him, his bro getting his hands wrapped I have this one from Conner's workout There's also the one from Floyd's workout where Floyd... But where's the shot from above? No, look, what do you mean? No.

We've already... We've already covered this. We tweeted the shot. Don't you want to see what she got? Esther was up in the... Up in the rafters. Don't you want to see if it was worth it? Listen, we're moving on now. This is just footage. I want to see the shot from above. It's great shot.

What do you make of this movement here? This is fantastic. I think it's silly that everyone, what do you think he's going to show you? He should have come out. Now, let me ask you something. Because you're the one I've heard. You're the one I've heard saying this.

Yes. Do you truly, in your heart of hearts, believe that there's any possibility that he's intentionally performing at less than the level? Yes. Of course. Why would he? The whole thing is a mystery.

Floyd Mayweather cannot sit down and watch a single second of him boxing. This is the first thing he could see. Why would he show him anything? Why would he show him anything? Why go through the exercise? Because it's a media workout. What does that mean?

He has to. This is part of the promotion. Look how much stuff came out of it. But all that it's led to is people thinking he can't box. Great. That's great for him. You think that they lost paper views because of this? Your whole thing earlier was about evening the playing field. What thing earlier?

Your whole rant about. or we're not seeing enough footage was we want Connor to look more like a boxer and Floyd to be taking game. This is showtime. This is what, this is not me. This is showtime is sitting down saying we have to show less of Floyd because we think Connor has no chance. Clearly, because they're not.

This doesn't make Connor look like he has more of a chance. What is this? This is nothing. This is a guy hitting a bag. This is a guy moving around. What does it do? It's nothing. I'm reluctant to believe that there's any fourth. You think, no. You think Connor is going at 100% there?

No, I don't think anybody's going at 100% in an open workout. I don't think Floyd Mayweather is showing 100% at an open workout. I don't think

this is some kind of brilliant calculation. It is. But what? But why? What is the end goal? The end goal

is to let everyone think who's part of Floyd's camp that he has no chance that he doesn't know what he's doing. Look at Heather Hardy. Heather Hardy told me

he has no chance a month ago, a month and a half ago, told me again he has no chance but now after seeing what she believes

was a ridiculous workout, she wants to watch it. She wants to see just how ridiculous it's going to be. It worked. As I dropped my... Yeah. I don't buy it. I think it was an open workout like any other open workout.

No. I actually think it was brilliant. I don't know about this. The precision on the calculation of how much to go. I don't know. What is it that he says? Precision beats power and something like that. This was cool.

It was freaking boiling in there, but it was fun. the music was great. A little Stevie Wonder, a little outcast, little Michael Jackson. What a scene. Now we're moving on. By the way,

can I just say the way I treat the media is just phenomenal. Mayweather's team. Okay, how about this? How about this? This is great. You perked up.

Here I am. Fantastic interview. Thank you. Between Ariel and Connor McGregor. And you're not quick with the praise. Not when it, wait a minute. Stop that.

No, I mean, not only did I get a tweet, I got a text. I got a text about this interview. You did get a text. It was a fantastic interview. I'd dare say your best with Connor. Ever.

Better than the pay-per-view. I would say, oh, yeah, for sure, better than the paper view. Stop it. You want to go ask them if they have my, what was it, $3.99 in their pocket? Because they've got it. Be nice if they paid me. Anyway, that's a different story. Yeah, yeah, I said it.

Okay. I didn't know about this. I didn't mean to rile that up. You said it. Do yourself in favor. If you're a fan looking to buy anything with those, those guys, think twice, all right? Oh, damn.

I said it. Anyway, great experience. Oh, no. But everyone who tweets me pictures of you watching on a plane, just know that I was robbed on that one. I didn't know this. Yeah. This took a turn that I wasn't expecting. But what about this interview?

Because this interview was so fantastic. I didn't mean to go down a dark pass. Right. What an honor it was. You know how I feel about, you know how I feel about. you know how I feel about Connor and the different facets of him that we get. I felt like this was a really

authentic version. Super loose, super relaxed. You can even see it in his posture sitting on the ring. Well done. To you, to Esther, to Casey, to the whole team. You know what was great about this? Can I just say? First of all, let's have to talk. Let's get some behind the scenes on this. Okay, so I mean, he didn't have to talk to us. He talked to ESPN Showtime, Fox.

I've been bothering Audie a his agent for a very long time to talk to him of course every time I tweet out like who's going to be on the show I get like bro where's Connor you know it's hard to talk to the guy he doesn't do a lot of interviews and after some time some time some time this was a great opportunity

flew in from New York you know I just I mean even with the 1% chance of talking to him worth it and then on Thursday he said yeah he's going to do it and then at the end of the media day some people actually saw he did the scrum I was in the back

Do you see any of these photos of me peeking through? I did, yeah. Great. You know, I didn't want to ask any questions because I wanted to take my chance. And I was in the back. A chance it was. It led to this fantastic. They said like, okay, you know, media day is over.

You got to go. And there was like this break. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm going to talk to him. And apparently they went to speak to him and said, you know, Ariel's here. And he's like, yeah, I'm going to talk to him. This wasn't part of the schedule, so to speak. and it was after an entire media day, it was after those other interviews.

We did not have like some kind of big elaborate setup. You would never know that looking at this. It's beautifully shot. So I'm really thankful for Casey and Esther. I mean, you know, we kind of fly by the seat of our pants, but I'm really proud of the stuff that we put out. And, you know, this doesn't look good if I don't have them. And you can find it on MMA fighting YouTube.

You can find it anywhere. Had over a million views in 24 hours. Crazy. Well, it was just so cool to pick a. his brain and there was so much towards the end i was kind of getting the rap sign and uh i pushed it as long as i could go but he gave me what 24 minutes you no way i wanted to go another 30 i had so much but uh no it was great and everyone was sitting in back of the cameras like his whole team was watching and then at one point i hear his his son connor junior and his his girlfriend is there d

holding him and they're sitting there and it was just amazing my favorite is is just listening to him and and looking at him talk about being a dad because he has that glow he has that look he has that his eye that I know very well. It's very cool to see. Look at how relaxed he is. And now gets a little... Oh, this is when... He clenches his hands.

But, but, you know, it's interesting because he did talk, like, a couple of years ago before the Aldo fight that, you know, being a dad and having kids takes away your focus, he's selfish. He's selfish. He was a great insight. There it is, yeah. He reverses his perspective. Oh, look at that.

Amazing. Yeah. I love it. Well done. Thank you. I was so happy to get that. Oh, this is my guy. Another well done.

I love this guy. Shout out, goes out to Mick. Mick Constantine. Or Constantine. Let's bring the volume up on this one. I love this. Listen to a little bit of this song. They were here to take over and from the start, John Cabna boy, a son.

Whoever told they be known worldwide after 60 G's baby on a contract. It's tremendous. Leaving his old life from the social welfare behind. that after two years came the featherweight and Connor said he'd make him Federer It's a phenomenal song Fantastic

If you're only one Connor McGregor With the left and poor Aldo There's only one Connor McGregor And there's nobody better I feel like you've listened to this before Yeah I love it That's great I was listening to this and thinking

Yeah If you're Connor McGregor and Kevin on these guys Listening to a kid Write this song And putting it all together with all the phrases and the moments, how are you not inspired? Like, I wanted to go out there

and take on the world. You know what I mean? Sure. And what's... Recapping the whole journey. And then the happy ending to this... What's the payoff? In your interview,

it's been revealed that they're going to fly him out to Vegas plus one and give him a whole fight experience, which is fantastic. And... How about that? That is phenomenal.

I think he put in enough of his heart and soul into this that's well deserved. Congrats to him. Some people have been asking to get Mick on the program to have him do a live performance of said song.

It's under consideration. There we go. You know, the ukulele is a great instrument. You can't go wrong with the ukulele. Maybe him and Brian Boone Kellahar could do a ukulele. Brian Boom Keller is kind of the godfather of the ukulele. No one should top him.

But he hasn't written a song about Connor McGregor, so, you know. Well, here one comes, because he's definitely watching and I'm expecting one. One thing I will say, one last thing about Connor and like the fans, no one inspires creativity like him. You know, like those videos from that guy, Mike Fight promo and stuff. Like his fans just make phenomenal, you know, fanmate stuff, creative stuff, videos, songs, posters, all kinds of stuff.

Memes. It's amazing. I can't wait till Fight Week. And hopefully a lot of them are coming. I don't know if that's the case because. The Irish. I hope they're coming. maybe a little too expensive, but we'll see.

Okay, we're moving to something serious, but special and important. You touched on this, but I think it's important to show the picture. Here we have Matt Hughes, Tony Zuka. Yes, I'm happy you have his name. I forgot his name. Tony Zuka, this is from his Instagram. It was on Facebook as well,

but he was talking about taking Matt out to get some sneaky sushi, making a jail break. And clearly here, I mean, you know, he looks smaller, skinnier. But it's good to see that he looks like himself. And, you know, obviously there's still more to go in this story. But it's a good sign that Matt seems to be doing. Oh, my God.

So happy to see him. I mean, you heard Pat Militzch on the show. He was hit by a train in his car. This is a miracle. And I think he even says as much. He says his progress is nothing short of a miracle. Yeah. Roll coaster of emotions, progress, nothing short of a miracle,

working so hard, fights through the frustration. He is, as he's always been in inspiration. Matt Hughes is one tough SOB, and he's proving it here, and it was just great to see him. Really great to see him. Thank you to Tony for that update. We've been hearing about him, hearing about him. Now we finally see Matt Hughes.

Pulling for him. Okay. Going to something a little lighter. Oh, yes. My good pal. David Branch at the barbershop. Whoa. self-doubt

motherfucker what the fuck is you talking about man I ain't lost to fight in five motherfucking years you can't box and you don't got no fucking chin you getting in the motherfucking cage with me you stupid man you cold front man I'm gonna beat you like you stole something

watch what I do to this motherfucker amazing I love that he calls him I have a couple questions yeah first off he says at Luke Rockhold on punk ass area No, no, no, no.

He says, hashtag Lucas. At Luke Rock, hold on Punkas, Ariel Hawani show, talking that nonsense. Yeah, I, I'll see you in my office. I get the chicken. Okay, first question, am I the punk ass? Yeah. You're punk-ass area-haw-hany show. Why am I the punk ass?

What did I do? I don't know, ask David Branch. You're the punk ass, though. Okay, first, I was a little taken aback by that. Sure. Second of all. But he's watching the show, which matters and counts. Sure, or Ali told him.

Or someone told him. Or someone told him. second of all Listen he's multitasking from the barber chair So I believe it Is he in a barbers You see the guy

With the clippers Okay I wasn't quite sure Wait wait You'll see the clippers come out Yeah I love the dude is in the back Like what are you talking about right now At first he's like about to do something

With the clippers And then he's like all right wait Actually he's still going with this The hat's still on Here Watch this You'll see The clipper comes up at one point

Oh there it is It's pretty clear appearance Oh there it is Okay well here's the second question He's got the smock on right Unless that's his shirt No, I think, yeah, that's the barber. Yeah, whatever it's called.

It's smock. Why is he sitting there with a tuk? And the sunglasses, I mean. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's the first thing that struck me. Like, you're, I mean, at that point, once you get the thing, you know, around your neck. Time to take off the shades. Time to take off the hat.

Or if you didn't like your hair, just wait until the end of the video. I mean, the end of the barber visit. Get your haircut. You look nice and tight. Nice fade. Whatever you do. right? I just think it added to the overall package.

Yeah, I mean, good promo. It was a good promo. Listen, on Lucas. I don't know why he's calling me a punk ass. My only thought was A, I said like, oh, you know, sometimes David Branch kind of gets lulls fighters into these somewhat dull fights. I mean, I don't think he even apologized after his return to the UFC in May and said that he was kind of going for the win and somewhat playing it safe. I don't think I'm breaking any news here. Let's not forget David Branch was on our show in January, I think it was, or February,

and went on this rant about WSOF and promised that he would unleash all these secrets and then came on and said nothing. But I'm not holding it against him. In fact, after seeing this, I want to get him on the show, want to talk to him. I think that he should be thanking me. I think that people care about a David Brand fight now more so than ever. This is maybe the first time in a long time. Am I wrong? The UFC even tweeted the video.

Did they not? and you know it must be something really special if the UFC is tweeting a video with my name in the tweet, punk ass or not, or maybe they were just trying to highlight the fact that he was coming me a punk ass. Well, now we've got a fight. Now we've got a fight.

Now I really want to say. Branch it and Rock. You want to see it too, right? I'm into it. I'm digging it. Here, next Rick's pick. Oh, yes. We have Canadian freestyle wrestling Olympian

Arjan Singh Buller who's debuting at UFC 215, apparently going to be walked out by Jinder Mahal, the WWE champion in Canada, which I think is pretty cool. This is great.

Well, especially because there was all that talk initially of CM Punk and Chail Sonin that never came to be. We're actually getting this WWE crossover here with Jinder Mahal. Well, you'll recall, Vince McMahon pooed that. Apparently he's not poo-pooing this one for some reason.

Yeah, I don't know, but it's going to be an interesting one. I like the coming out with somebody. I like Justin Bieber and the Burger King coming out to boxing matches. I like that type of thing. No, this is cool. The Burger King was good.

Especially Jimmy Kimmel, the Burger King. Oh, yeah. Was Jimmy Kimmel with Floyd? He was McManny. He's a manny like, he's one of Mani's boys. That was a sign of things to come. Oh, come on. No, no, but this is cool.

because it's happening in Canada. It's happening in Edmonton. Bieber is on the Mayweather side. Yes. Kimmel is on the... Dremont Green as well? You think they could get Dramon to walk out? Yeah, like that's going to be a tough get.

He'll probably be there. You don't think he'll be there? No, that's a tough get. He's a freaking NBA star. He's 100% going to be there. He's a part of the feud. What if... C.J?

What if Connor walks out with C.J. I don't think he'll go that. First of all, nobody know who he was. It would be a who the F is that guy, like for real. but that would be something. It would be. Okay.

Speaking of who the F is that guy. Oh man. Now you're just now you're just rubbing it in. I wanted to talk to him about that. Maybe that's why he didn't want to come on. He didn't want to show his... Or maybe he's growing it back

and just wants to wait so he can get on Skype with us and show it. Well, he looks like he's 15 years younger. We're looking at a picture of Cody Garbrandt with just a mustache. Shaved his beard. Like the beginnings of a mustache. He's a very good.

good looking guy. Clearly. I mean, do you think that he is better looking with the beard or without the beard? I don't know, man.

I think it's both. I mean, I think he looks younger. That's for damn sure. I'm a good-looking fellow. But yeah, I mean, this needed to be shown. Yeah, that was great.

Cody, without the, without the beard for the first time in six years. Sticking with Alpha male, congrats to Chad Mendez. Oh. who I believe got married over the weekend

I think this is an old picture Oh really? I think it's like a couple weeks Unless my He just posted I know he just posted it up this week Oh okay so then maybe Um

It's possible Hands down the best weekend of my life Doesn't mean necessarily that it happened over this weekend So No no no I saw the picture but I thought it was two weekends ago You have a tendency to be a week late with some of these I am never Excuse me

Fake news Yeah fake news I know Mazeltov to him Chadman. We miss Chad. We're going to stick with that theme. And we're going to, right after Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender series. Let's bring the audio up here.

Donovan Freelo. Oh, boy. Did he have the ring in his trunks the entire time? Yeah. Did you not see this before? No, I did. But it just seemed like. Congrats to Donovan.

Now I'm going to ask me, fair or foul? or foul, keeping that ring in his cup. Was this after a fight too? Yeah. Gosh, that's a lot to think about. And he lost, right? Well, no, he won, but didn't get the contract. He didn't get the contract.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he got the lifelong contract. Fair or foul. Keeping the ring in the cup. I don't know. I mean, it's very romantic. How do you feel about his now fiancé getting engaged at the infamous tough gym?

I mean, I've been to the tough gym. And it's not a very romantic place. how do you feel about this? I think this is perfect. I shouldn't be asking you, right? Of course you should. I'm a romantic. Did you not, can I bring this up or is this too?

Yeah, I think I've talked about it, but go ahead. You proposed your wife on the phone. I did propose to my wife on the phone. I mean, that is something. Not even in person. Look, the content I've told, I don't know, maybe I've not told it on the show. The tough gym is the Ritz Carlton compared to what you did.

Yes, go ahead. Tell us the story. It was having a terrible day. Yes. The worst day I've ever had. Ever. Period. It was brutal.

Okay. And I considered the options and thought, this could end up being my worst day ever, and I'm recognizing that possibility. Or I could change my fortunes, make it a really great day, and never have to think about how terrible it was again. And my wife agreed. Robbed her. Now, you know, years later, we've got a little one on the way, and I'm so happy about it. How's that going?

Zoom, look at this. Oh, no. This is horrible. Look, our YouTube video numbers just went down a thousand. Okay. Let's bring that back out. Congrats to Donovan and his fiancee on the engagement. And this is how we're going to end Rick's picks,

and then we're going to move on to the after hour, your questions. Look long enough. With a plug for Polaris. Lots of. MMA related people competing this weekend. I thought you were a Metamoros guy. I like Metamoros too. I like all these submission competitions.

EBI is great. Metamores is great. Polaris is great. As long as they have names that I'm interested in seeing. And Dylan versus Gary's definitely that. I always love watching Jake Shields and we had Brad Pickett on earlier today. I'll be watching.

Now, you said you'll be watching. I'm a little bit skeptical. I'm a little bit skeptical of you watching Submission BJJ. Call me a liar? Listen, you want to prove me wrong? Wow. Wow.

All right. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a photo of myself watching on Saturday afternoon. I mean, Dylan Danes versus Gary Tonin, the PME to end all PMEs? I'm all about that feud. I'm into it too. Jake Shields, one punch. Can't punch in this particular event, but still a legend.

Phil Harris? Yeah, it's going to be good. Let me just double check. Let me just make 100% sure that's it for Rick's picks. That is it. That is it for Rick's picks this week. All right.

So we shall take a break now. This is what's happening. Sit right there, Mr. New York, Rick. We'll get back to you in a second. It has been a fun show. We have talked to many people. People like Daniel Cormier, people like Heather Hardy, in studio, I might add.

If you miss that, I do suggest going back and checking it out. People like George St. Pierre, Shane Baisler, Dan Hardy, Brad Pickett, and of course, the one and only

Polyma Anaji. Great show, great banter. Loved it, as always. Appreciate everyone tuning in. But now you must go to Twitter, whether on your phone or on your computer or your iPad or your mobile device, tablet,

smartphone, all those things. and fire it up, go to theMMA hour.com, sit back, relax. It's time for the MMA after hour. That's what we call it. It's exclusive on Twitter. So the mmma hour. Twitter.com. You saw the address there.

I've tweeted it a thousand times. So if you, there it is on your screen, boom, the mmahour. Twitter.com. Check the link out. It's on my website. It's on our website, I should say. And it's on my Twitter feed, the MAA Fighting Twitter feed. there and we'll be answering your questions and comments. So you want to talk about

Mayweather McGregor, you want to talk about the media workouts last week. You want to talk about the knockdown, pushdown. What else you want to talk about? GSP Bisping getting signed. The John Jones Daniel Cormier pay-per-viewbys, Mark Hunt against Marcine Tebura in Sydney, Anderson Silva against Kelvin Gaslam in Shanghai of all places. James Gallagher. Want to talk about any of this? Go ahead. to Twitter right now, the mMA hour.com, fire it up. We call it the MMA

after hour. We'll be waiting for you, answering your questions, responding to your comments. Don't go anywhere. Fire it up. And it is starting right about now. Boom. We are back. Hello, everyone. This is what we like to call the MMA After Hour. This is when the freaks come out.

This is when we let our hair down. This is when we get down and dirty. This is when we answer your questions and respond to your comments. You've been sending them to us. Hashtag the MMA hour. It has been a great day here. In our New York City studio,

it has been a fun time. And I think we have some questions. There's certainly a lot going on in the world of MMA. Before we get to the questions, and Mr. New York, Rick, who I think is still there. Ooh.

Is he there? Oh, there he is. I wanted to give a shout out. I wanted to get this. just a second. I should have had this fired up, but here it is. I wanted to give a shout out to a friend of the program

to an MMA veteran, UFC veteran, WEC veteran, Javier Vasquez. It came out late last week that he is battling stage three, well he's battling colon cancer. Stage three tumor was removed recently and had a chance to briefly text with him. Of course, some of you may know that colon cancer is near and dear to my family's heart.

My wife's father beat colon cancer. In fact, he runs a colon cancer charity, the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada. And he is an inspiration. So I just wanted to send some good, some good vibes toward Javier. The MMMA community has a knack for rallying around its own. In fact, they've already raised almost $40,000 for Javier. So we wish him the best. One of the best ever do it. Brilliant jiu-jitsu teacher as well. And I've been watching him for a lot of years,

so I just wanted to wish him well and hope that he gets through this tough period in his life. We're all pulling for him. Now let us answer some questions. Really happy you did that. Met Javier at Meta Morris 2. Really good guy. Yeah, tremendous guy.

Difficult. He's been, I actually kept in touch with him over the years even after he left MMA. And so it was really bummed to hear about this, but have no doubt that he is going to fight through it, come out better on the other side, and hopefully he'll be fully healthy once again in no time. We start with a question that, I mean,

I don't even know how we're going to answer it. First question. When Mayweather-McGregor fight? This is what your first question is? What's wrong with you? When Mayweather-McGregor fight? There's so many ways that we can go with this one. I guess August 26th.

Boom. I think you nailed it. All right. If you're asking for the time, my guess is around 1130. Eastern? No, it's got to be later than that, no? No, that's... I'm thinking it's probably going to... That's boxing likes... Really?

Well, they announced the full card, and boxing likes to do it that way. They don't like to make you way too long. I mean, Mayweather Packiaw didn't go on until after midnight, if I recall correctly. I feel like that's, I mean, I haven't been told this, I'm guessing, but this is mine.

We'll see. I mean, right around that time is probably the area, but I would guess it's going to be closer to midnight. You know, these things become spectacles and then it runs longer and then, you know, everybody's sitting there waiting on seven minutes of prep, then the 20-minute walkouts and all that. That's going to be great.

it's going to take a while. Anyway, moving on to more serious questions. Have you been swayed one way or the other on Mayweather McGregor based on the open workouts? Did that impact you in any way regarding what you thought of the fight? Now, you're saying Connor was taking his foot off the gas purposefully. No, I mean, my big takeaway was they're both in great shape. Floyd still got it at 40. It was very hot in there.

Oh, the Floyd not, no, the Floyd not having it at 40 thing is. like 40 is 40 you know no stop it when you keep your body in that kind of shape having taken the damage over the year but he has not fought in two years he has not fought in two years in two years you think that that looks like a man who hasn't been in the gym in two years no but we didn't know that i was not privy to his gym sessions if there were any the big story on thursday was leonard ellar be really stealing the show leonard has a knack for not saying much he came out and and was fired up. And I thought it was most interesting that he said

the gate, at least as of Thursday, was already at 60 million. 60 million. The highest gate in UFC history was MSG 205. That was 18 million. This is 60 million. The record is 72 million. That's Mayweather Pac-Yau.

And he said that they're going to blow right by it. He said that they're already double Triple G Canelo. He claimed that Triple G Conello wasn't even sold out yet while they're claiming a sellout. T-Mobile and the promoters. He was talking about the haters

and the boxing media and all this stuff. He was going on. It was great. It was great theater. Leonard was great. And then Floyd showed up as well. But 60 million. That was phenomenal.

So really, though, you're essentially saying, like not much to glean from these workouts from a fight perspective, but still part of the theater and the spectacle. There were like a million people there. There's Esther's. Yeah.

So you know what happened here? You know what happened here? Yeah, he pulled her out of the crowd. One of the security guards was giving her some grief. and Floyd is paying attention to this. I don't know if it's in this moment. Yeah. And he's like, hey, Esther, is it here?

No, it's not here. No, she's already there now. No, but she was in the front. And one of the security guards is a moment where he's telling her like, yeah, I don't know, he's just giving her some trouble. And Floyd sees this and pulls her out of the crowd so that she can get the best spot.

And then he's actually looking at her. Yeah, that was right there. Oh, it was right there. Yeah. Oh, okay. That was great. But for me, like, I wasn't going to get front and center because I just had my phone.

Like, I'm not Casey with the camera. Yeah, we saw you hiding in the... Well, yeah, listen, I know my role. I'm not going to get in someone's shot. So I was kind of afar talking to Jim Gray, who was really cool. You know Jim Gray, right? Yeah, of course. Famously did the decision interview with LeBron James, the Pete Rose interview.

I mean, this guy has seen and done it all. In fact, after our interview was giving me career advice, I mean, he could not have been a nicer guy. And then my good pal, Jeff Mayweather, who was not a big fan of something like questions. No, I just think he was Frank. I don't think he was necessarily peeved or anything. It was great. Floyd Sr. was there. We had stitched Duran. I mean, it was just so much fun being in that environment. I enjoyed it immensely. Big Jeff Mayweather fan coming out of that. Oh, yeah. I just like, you know, he shoots it straight. You want to know something funny about Jeff Mayweather? I tried to butter him up because he didn't really want to do the interview or maybe it was busy or something.

And I was like, oh, by the way, I know Roy Nelson and King Moe were kind of more rubs. He has helped train them. And he's like, don't try to butter me up. Like, all right. He's seeing through it. Not impressed. Not impressed. And then by the way, so then on Friday, you know, Connor comes out and he does this thing. And, you know, to me, honestly, I wasn't really looking at it with the, you know, the most, the most analytical mind eye and all that stuff.

I was really trying to get interviews and trying to make the trip worthwhile. I was not expecting Connor to show us his full hand. In fact, I will even say that he showed more than I expected. but that's what I was saying earlier. Why show anything? Why not you, you know, just skip it. Anyway, speaking of your interview with Connor, I think you know where I stand on this one,

but how do you feel about where he compared to earlier interviews? This person is indicating that he came across calmer, more mature. How do you feel about the Connor or Gregor that you spoke to on Friday? I mean, he's always been, I think, pretty consistent with me. It's hard for me to compare because I'm not, sitting there when he's talking to someone else. No, compared to you and him earlier. I mean, I thought it was pretty consistent.

I mean, he seemed really happy to be a dad, and that was really cool. Without giving away too much, I did get some nice messages from his team about the interview and his demeanor, and that really meant a lot to me. And so, look, to sit down with him 15 days before the biggest fight of his life probably

was a pretty damn cool thing. And I did not expect him to be intense. When we did that thing in, In Manchester, you know, he was very, I mean, there's a crowd there, so he tends to feed off the crowd. And it's, it's, it's understandable. Different environment. Know your audience. Well, it's understandable that he's going to get amped up and try to give them what they want.

But when it's just us sitting there, it's, you know, he's going to dial it down. People tend to like, like, I even mention this with his dad, you know, like, I like the Connor in the suit. You know, he's a little less loud than the Connor with the polar bear. you know, fur coat and shirtless and the pants and all that. But I thought that he was a, you know, he was very calm. He was confident. I thought his response to the racism accusations was good, was acceptable. The C.J. Watson stuff was interesting. The 188 stuff with the boat. I mean, I loved it. Like I said, I had had an hour left in me. And most importantly, I just have to reiterate. Like he did not have to do that and he was not required to do that. And it really meant a lot that he would sit down and talk to us. And yeah, it just, I told Adi afterwards. I mean, I thought that that was like top 10 best days of my career.

Just getting to talk to all the members of the team, Kavanaugh, Roddy, Lobov, Adi, Ido. And then him, you know, in the span of a few hours. And by the way, the UFC Performance Institute is an impressive place. They really did a great job with that. Yeah, you gave us the behind the scenes tour. of all the stairwell with the Hall of Fame plaques. Well, there was a lot of downtime because he worked out

and then he went to eat and shower and we were standing around there for like an hour. The infamous shower took quite a while. Yes, so we had some downtime. I was mosing around. I saw Forrest Griffin's office. Told him to get me those TPS reports. But it was fun.

It was really great. Yeah, what if Forest A day to that? He said he'll be there on Saturday. In fact, it was weird going to Vegas and then leaving on a Saturday morning and not actually like covering a fight. Like, it felt like I was there for Fight Week. and then I was coming home and I felt unfulfilled.

You know what I mean? In a weird way, like, I want to see the payoff. Yeah. But we're going back. You'll be back. You'll be back. Okay. McGregor Malinagi, is this drama,

something that could potentially take place under the Zufa banner, Zufa boxing down the line? I feel like it's a showtime thing, if anything. But maybe they co-promote. Who knows what happens? I mean, we're less than two weeks away from Conner fighting Floyd Mayweather. So everything's up for grabs. But...

Interested in that fight? Yes. Why not? Yeah, I think so too. I think there's almost nobody that's going to say no. Maybe they've had enough of the drama of the sparring footage, but I think clearly that's a fight that's promotable. I thought this was an interesting question.

MMA fans typically tune in for prelims, typically tune in for the pre-fight stuff. I don't feel like that's as common in boxing. Do you think there might actually be more MMA fans tuning in for the undercard than boxing fans? Do you think that there's going to be some maybe potentially MMA fans who are now being exposed to some of the boxers on the undercard to keep an eye on and growing the sport a little bit? I think MMA fans are accustomed to not just tuning in for the main event. So they will watch the majority of it. And they just announced the undercard. Yeah, they announced the undercard.

There's names like I'm actually looking. Oh, here I got it. I tweeted the picture on Thursday. there are some, I mean, if you're even a somewhat casual fan, there are names like Jervante Davis, Badu Jack, who spoke to us, who's from Stockholm, Steve Cunningham, know all these people, Sean Porter fighting on the Fox portion of the card. So there's a Fox prelims. Now, we're not talking FS1, we're talking Big Fox,

and then there's also the pay-per-view for fight main card. and so that's going you know Sean Porter is a big name so yeah I think I mean they were mainly working with Mayweather promotions so there was I guess some talk of a Katie Taylor a Mick Conlin would have been great but he's top rank so they're not going to mix so they only had X amount of people to work with and Leonard Lerby said that they were trying to get a couple other names that didn't come to fruition but I think overall it was yeah I think I think it looks solid in fact our own Miles the audio man audio extraordinaire told us that he bought tickets to watch the event at a movie theater here in New York City. How cool is that? So on Monday after, we'll get a firsthand account from Miles on the experience watching Mayweather McGregor at a movie theater. I'm excited. Where will you be watching?

Haven't decided yet. Don't know. Just don't illegally stream it, all right? We're trying to keep our jobs here. Where is this coming from? You're accusing me of, of, of, Pirating the Connor McGregor interview that you did. You're accusing me of pirating this upcoming fight.

What is this? I know how you-malade was. You have something to get off your chest? What's going on here? I am not a pirate. Okay, all right. Okay, maybe I'm pirate. Whoa.

Here's a question from Hurricane Gerald Harris, who's asking us, why is Gerald Harris not in the U.S.C? But Charlie Ward is. I don't know if we're going to answer this question, but what I will say, is it sounds like we could have a possible fight between Gerald Harris and Charlie. Is he 170 now, Gerald Harris?

Yeah, remember he fought that guy who came in weighing like 2.15 to a 175-pound fight and 170-pound fight and slammed him into unconsciousness. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know if Charlie is still in the UFC. He's 0-2 now. And, of course, that was kind of a scary sequence. But it is a good question. I'd like to see Gerald get a chance.

He was supposed to be on the last season of the Ultimate Fighter, but I think he had to pull out at the last minute. He's very active on Twitter. He's campaigning, that's for sure. It would be nice. I'd like to see Gerald there. See Bellator give him a shot. Come on.

Gerald's a name. He's had some good moments. He's had some incredible slams. That's kind of his thing. Let's see. But yes, if you want me to answer the question, of course, Charlie's connection to Connor is going to help him. That's no secret.

Gerald, connect yourself to Connor. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Bisping, GSP, now we're officially ready for launch here. Does it do over 500K pay-per-views? Is this something that has now stood the test of time? Will people ultimately, you know, they can gripe, they can moan about it now. Come fight day, are they plumpking down their money to watch it? Yes.

Do you have, what do you think? Does it do over? Yes, I think it does do over. How much over? What do you think? I mean, it's a little too soon. Let's see the rest of the card. Fair?

Is yes enough? I think it's enough. You know what? You don't often go out on a limb. I will accept that as enough. And how about those numbers for 214? Yeah. What is it?

850 or so? 850. Are you surprised? I'm surprised because initially, now, with a grain of salt, the UFC was saying it was looking more like a million. But I think 850 still beats expectations. I think, you know, everybody was kind of hovering in the 700 number.

I think if you build a number, the card properly, people are going to pay attention. And it doesn't hurt to have John Jones and Cormier. And I think BISBing and GSP is definitely a box office. You know, it's not, look, am I dying to see that fight

on paper? I'm not. But it's not the fight I'm going to turn away from. I want to see GSP and Bisping when they, you know, if that's the fight that I'm given, I'm paying to see both those guys. People are going to be excited. Don't listen to the

Well, Bispink has a knack for making things at the last minute feel a lot more personal. And it's one of his greatest gifts. He will make that into compelling drama. GSP, not so much. He's not much of a salesman. Tickets on sale Wednesday. I think this might have been pushed, actually. I was seeing something on Twitter that this might have moved to Friday.

But either way, 216 doesn't have what seems like a headliner at this point. Do you know anything further? Have you heard anything about a 216 headline? Clearly you weren't listening to me earlier because I was talking about... Yeah, you were giving options. Well, yeah, I'm not the one. Where are we at? There was talk of Ferguson Kevin Lee.

I don't know if that's main event worthy, but that was one of the fights. Here's what's been announced so far, according to Wikipedia. And I told you guys, again, I told, like the steep A cane thing was never going to happen. Benile Darius versus Evan Dunham, Nick Lentz versus Will Brooks, Marco Beltran versus Matt Schnell, Walt Harris versus Mark Godbear. Magomed Bibulatov against John Moraga, Able Trujillo against Landauvinata, although I do believe that that fight has now been changed.

I think that it's now Bobby Green versus Landauvinata. Yeah, Trujillo is out. I feel like Trujillo and Green always kind of end up in the same story. Tos Ladies against Brad Tavares and Pearl Gonzalez is on the card. Page against Jessica I has been rumored, and I heard that there was some talk of that, but there's no, I mean, They're trying.

They are trying, but there is no... If it got a headliner, it's a solid card. You add one more, like, you know, pretty decent fight to that. Now, the unfortunate part is 215 looks pretty solid. 217 looks pretty solid. I think you're probably plunking right in the middle of... Two title fights at 215. You're going to have multiple title fights at 217.

Yeah. I mean, to me right now, it's an FS1 card. Yeah. Maybe ultimately, if they can't, you know, plug in something, to headline it, maybe that's where they go. Okay. We shall see. Kyle is asking us,

UFC Pittsburgh will be the first event he attends live. How does it compare live to watching TV? I'm curious on your thoughts on. I will say that every MMA fan should watch the UFC live at least once, once, twice. I agree with this event. That being said, I prefer the experience on television more. Does that now, let me ask you this.

Does that apply for all sports? MNA specifically. No, no, no, I'm talking about UFC specific. I'm talking about the angles, the cage blocking you off when you're in attendance, the broadcasters, especially now I think the broadcast teams are doing a great job. Sure. And in fact, when I'm at the events, more often than not, I don't even step foot in the arena because I prefer to watch it on television.

But that's also a work versus, you know, live experience from a fan perspective. Look, I've watched it a couple times in person. I bought tickets to UFC 78 when they were in, Newark, New Jersey. That was Rashad Evans versus Michael Bisping. But I find that sometimes the cage is tough to, you know, to see through. And I find that I'm watching the big screen more often than not. Now, like there are some sporting events.

Hockey, I think, is better in person than it is on television. Football, I think, is better in TV than it is in person. Basketball, I feel like it's somewhat of a wash, but I'll give the edge to in person just because it's so incredible to watch these guys, you know, perform and fly around and jump around like they do. And baseball, I kind of think is a wash as well. I know a lot of people don't like baseball. I love watching baseball. I'd say soccer is probably better in person. And so with that discussion in mind, I'd probably go. No, I would go for sure. UFC is better on television. Though I would add, you must, if you're a fan, go to a big event, feel the energy. The atmosphere is unlike anything. It's so fun to watch the walkouts and the buzz, especially when it's a big event. Definitely suggest doing it a person, but, you know, at this point, I'm somewhat spoiled over and over again, I think on TV, if I'm being objective and comparing it to, I think the TV experience you get more out. Sure. That's fair. Done a bunch of them. You're going to have a great time, Kyle. Hopefully you've got some seats that are a little bit elevated. As Ariel said, like, you know, the cage becomes a bit cumbersome at a certain point. Hopefully you can peer down into it, but you're going to have a good time at that Pittsburgh card. obviously not happening this year again from our friend

Jason Jones obviously not happening this year but do you think Hawaii will finally get an event this year no I don't think it's oh next year next year next year sorry next year is next year

I'm not sure about that we'll see what happens with Max I think the better Max does Max keeps on trucking yeah our good pal Rob DeMello I think I told the story a couple of weeks ago

talked about some of the political issues and taxes and write up first refusal there's an arena there that's owned by the state that they get the right to accept or turn down events and it's a small arena and it's not one very much conducive to big events. But it seems like they got over that hump. And so there's another arena that's a little bigger, but maybe not big enough. It doesn't have the right infrastructure. And then outdoors is a little tricky and it's expensive to take whole crew there.

Although at this point, I mean, they're going to Shanghai. They're going all over the place. I don't really buy that. Make this happen. Yeah, make it happen. Basically, bottom line, make it happen. because Belator is going to go there soon, I think. And they've got a couple of fighters. I mean, Alimalea McFarlane and some other, and Rich Chow is their matchmaker, and he has great ties to the region. So, yeah, you got a champion.

He's from Hawaii. You bring Max Holloway there. That's money. I'll be there. You make that happen for me. Just for me, guys. Come on. This question was selected earlier.

Any update on potential Tony versus Khabi, fight you were mentioning that that was talked about but not ultimately going to happen um so i i wouldn't say it's dead right now but there has definitely been talk of tony versus kevin lee um so maybe you know they're going to move on and here's the question are we ever going to get i don't know i'll tell you this much and does anybody care at this point the twitter back and forth is not like i don't think it's it's gaining the traction that they wanted to right it's not having the effect that they wanted to the twitter back and forth now i will admit uh Mr. Ferguson has blocked me recently on Twitter.

I don't know why. In fact, I asked him at the first leg of the L.A. tour why he blocked me on Twitter. And he essentially told me to scram and run along. I don't know. I feel like we've had a great relationship. I don't really get that one. But he did recently block me on Twitter.

I think he didn't like my take on the Ferguson Lee back and forth on FS1. But I said basically that I thought Fox should just leave him out of it. And it's putting him in an awkward spot. But I don't know. So I haven't gotten. see all of it, but I've seen some of it, and it's not great. But I want to see them fight. Like if they announce that fight, I'd be

happy. It's just maybe a tough sell because they promised it so many times. Would you really be happy, though? Because they can announce it as many times as they want, until it happens. I'm kind of... It's weird because... Okay, at this point. They announced Jones Cormier ten times, and I was just as excited for every one of them. For this

one, I'm not feeling it. What would you prefer? Tony versus anybody. Ferguson Lee or Ferguson-Habee, if you have both of them. Sure. But you can announce that and I can't count on it. I believe that Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson will make it to fight, make it to the fight. And so I'd rather see the fight that's actually going to happen than the one that's not.

Is that headline worthy for a pay-per-view though? Listen, the Motown phenom is paper-view ready. And also, Motown phenom should be fighting in Detroit. I mean, that would be a big miss. I agree with that. I mean, if you put him on this card and he doesn't fight in Detroit, man, that would be, that'd be like going to, I mean, obviously not the same scale, but like you're going to Montreal without GSP or you're going to Dublin without,

like this guy, it's in his nickname. Yeah, I agree with that for sure. There's a second question here. RDA Woodley, any? Woodley is, I mean, he just fought and he's got the shoulder arm. By the way, RDA is fighting Neil Magny. If he gets over that hump, do you think that's enough? Do you think he's done enough in that division?

I mean, that would be 2-0, and he is a former champion at 155. Lightweight, yeah. I think you have to see how he looks at 155 because I think the last fight wasn't, you know, didn't blow anyone's socks off. But there aren't a lot of surefire contenders. I mean, there's Robbie coming back. It's crazy how that happened, right?

It seemed like it was all stacking up and now all of a sudden it's buried. If Mazvedal beats Wonderboy, if they do that fight, which it seems like they want to do that fight, then I could see them giving it to Mazvedel because they seem to really like him. They're obviously not going to do Wonderboy anytime soon. Make UFC great again.

Mosvidal. Lawler, those names, you know. RDA. From our own, from our own Ali, who's literally sitting three feet behind me. Yes, a nice chap. Asked Joe Lozahn, U.S.C. Hall of Fame

at the end of his career. 22 USC wins, 15 bonuses. What do you think? Does Joe Lozahn make the cut? Does he get his plaque on that wall in the Performance Institute? Okay, can I answer Ollie face-to-face? Where is he? Ali, won't you?

Ollie Bazley, who all of a sudden is in studio, came here from England. Oh, there he is. Hey, Ollie. How are you? Why you so shy? You do camera work yourself. No, he's not shy. Ollie has been watching MMA since UFC 199 and for some reason is a huge Joe Lozahn fan. What do you mean for some reason? Well, no, I mean, it's just like he's from England.

I don't know, Joe Lozahn, but he did say he likes Michael Bisping. Anyway, can he speak or does he not have to be? have a mic. He'd have to call. Okay, okay. It's all right. There he is. Rob is really zooming in on him.

Wave to everyone, Ollie. From Sheffield, right? Close enough. Joe Lozahn, is he a Hall of Famer? That is a very good question. It pains my heart, but I have to say no. Whoa. No?

I'm surprised. Never fought for a belt. Yeah. But kind of synonymous with, like, like tough UFC fights, bonuses. He is the bonus guy. Him, Anderson Silva, have just continued to rack up. Is that enough?

In my opinion, I think so. I think he should make the cut. I really do. Now, you could definitely say, like, there's other people who we've had this kind of conversation about, like, a Diego Sanchez, a Kenny Florian, never won a belt, competed for titles, but never won a belt.

but had more significance, I guess, to, like, you know, the beginnings of the sport, or at least the beginnings of the UFC. I think ultimately Lozahn has done enough in the UFC, enough wins, enough ups and downs, enough bonuses won to make the cut. How about this? Joe Lozahn would be in my Hall of Fame. All right, fine. Listen, what is the UFC Hall fame?

Why not? That's the thing. Like, if there was like... I'm talking about the MMA all of fame here. If we're, oh, okay. I actually just visited the UFC Hall of Fame. Yeah, I was saying, does he get his plaque on the staircase? It's right next to the cafeteria down the stairs.

I was actually thinking like MMA Hall of Fame. You're saying like, let's say we created this Hall of Fame. That's a different question and ultimately maybe there I'd sway away. But I think UFC Hall of Fame? Sure, yeah, yeah. He's been important enough to the UFC. Sure enough. In my opinion.

Bonus King. Ollie, you got your Hall of Fame. There it is. Joe Lozon. Headed to the Hall of Fame near you. Do we think the Snoopcast will open the door for other alternate commentary options? Like Rogan's... I wouldn't be surprised if one day they used the Rogan Fight Companion.

I always thought that the Rogan Fight Companion was interesting if you're the broadcasters working the event because you're getting people away from, you know, Anak and Stan and things like that. So I don't know if they would want to go head to head with that. But it's another reason to get people watching. So I think people like it. I think it has been successful. Maybe it's a fight pass option to get people buying, to get people watching.

I wouldn't rule it out, especially not in this brave new world. I tried to speak to Ari Emanuel, by the way, at the media day, but he kind of just brushed me off, unfortunately. I could have asked him that. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have asked him that. But I could have. He doesn't like to do interviews. I thought we shared the same name. He'd be a little more inclined, but thus far it has proven to be difficult.

Here's a kind of BTS question about this show. How much homework do you guys do every week to prepare for these shows? Hours and hours of interview watching and writing and prep work? My favorite part of this question from Jay Petri is the word guys, as if you do the interviews as well or do any of the prep work. Listen, you know, I'm supporting you from the back here. That's my favorite part of this question. I love when people tweet you like, oh, New York Rick, great job with that interview.

How about this, though? How about this? I would argue that I do more prep for the show than you do. That is in fact true. Actually, no, it's not true because when I think of prep, I think of getting the guess. Right? That's fair. That is definitely a big part of the equation.

And that is the bane of my existence. Yeah, you've long discussed this. That is a tough thing. You think it's easy to get, you know, GSP and all the people. But I think people will be interested to know, like, a little bit of the insight into, like, are you sitting there, like, pouring over certain fights? Okay, so let's talk about this. I'll tell you this. So, so I pride myself on having like this brain.

I try to make it encyclopedic where like if Nate Diaz walked in here, I could do two hours of them. If Connor not walked in here, like I didn't prep for that Connor interview because I live and breathe it. I'm obsessed with it. Probably to a fault. So let's say, okay, I get the lineup. If I don't feel like I've, you know, totally devoted myself to one singular person or if I

haven't really talked to them before, then I'll do a little. little bit of research, but let's just say this week, right? DC did zero. I mean, I could do that interview in my sleep. There's no research to be done there. Heather Hardy, I read a couple of backstory articles about her past because, again, new to the show. GSP, no research whatsoever. Shana Beasler, no research whatsoever. Brad Pickett, no research whatsoever. Hardy, Malinagi, no research. So the only one that I read a little bit about was there's nothing on my screen. You can see it right here. It's just, we believe you. You don't have to... It's just my Twitter and my email so I can talk to New York

Rick. There's no notes. There's no, there's no questions. There's nothing. I don't like to write questions. People ask me this a lot. I don't like to write questions because I feel like then you stick to a script. And I feel like you don't listen and ask the proper follow-ups. I don't like to write questions at all. Yeah, I just, I have a lot of useless MMA info. my brain right now. Now, you won't write something down, which I know to be true as well. We talked about this before. But if you know somebody's coming on, clearly there has to be some kind of framework that you're thinking. Yeah, there's a path that I want to go. I want to start here. I want to end here. I want to go there. I want to make sure I ask this, that and the other.

But you feel like if you're committing it, then you're kind of like taking yourself down a track that you don't need to, really. You want to be freer and more open to that. I used to have a show in college called the main event and it was a combat sports show and I used to write every single question like write it out the entire do you think blah blah blah and then I realized very early on that I was sticking to a script

and I wasn't listening and it was a crutch and so I didn't want to use that crutch and I just wanted it to be like I was at a party or a bar or a restaurant or someone's home and just having a conversation now there are times where it comes to bite me in the butt and I'm like I can't believe I forgot to ask this question I wanted to ask him if he changed his opinion on Connor after sparring him

and it pissed me off. Listen, I mean, you didn't really have many opportunities to ask Polly anything last week. But hey, I got him back this week. So all worked out. Look, I took some heat for like, you know, saying like that I think Polly's open and honest.

Look, that's my opinion. I really believe. People think he's lying? Well, people think like, oh, he got knocked down and he's been saying he didn't get knocked down. Like, whatever you think happened in that footage is, you know, fine. and your allegiances are fine,

but look, I think Polly Malinazi's ultimately a straight shooter. That's where I net out on this. Who's trying to also protect his reputation and build a fight? There's a lot of elements to this, but anyway, enough about me. Ariel, are you still a

Leicester? Leicester? Let'ser? Yes. City fan? Or have you already jumped on another bandwagon? How are they doing in the standings? How about that? Listen, it was going to be impossible to recreate the magic of last season.

They pulled off maybe one of the greatest upsets in the history of professional sports, let alone soccer or football, as you locals like to say over in England. Tough one on Friday,

lost four to three to Arsenal. Oh! So certainly that was a tough one. But look, the... Keep going. The problem is, is that like they pull...

like that was the ultimate rocky story, the ultimate David versus Goliath story. The problem is that, you know, the expectations afterwards, I mean, to me, that was enough.

That's like the Cubs winning, right? It's hard to recreate that kind of magic. Of course, James... Have you typed fast enough to... I haven't typed the thing. Jamie Vardy,

my man. That's the chat shit, get bang guy, right? Legend. Jamie Vardy likes to party. Even I know that one, and I don't know anything after that. Yeah, so look,

I'm content. You win... You got your... You got your crowd. If the Knicks won this upcoming season, I wouldn't. You'll ride on that for a few years. I'm done. I'm done. I feel that.

I feel that. So, you know, I know some of the fans are upset. I know it's been a bit of a down year. But let's not forget the magic of last season. You know, I have, do I have my mug? Yeah, where's our mug from Christopher? Where is it? It's somewhere.

Might not be on the set today. We like to switch things up. But look, what Leicester City did for us. Lester City, okay, good. You know, King Power Stadium. You're just going to name like things. Just a list of like bullet point things. No, listen, you were more prepared for that than I thought you were.

Look, am I excited for the game on August 19th against Brighton? Of course I am. Am I looking ahead to Sheffield United? Yes. Okay. So, you know. The schedule is up. Do I think we're going to take down Manu?

Of course we are. You know, the season just starts. by the way. It's not like... Yeah, there's no... Don't despair. There's still time. Okay. Ariel, do you own a t-shirt or are you only plaid and suits? I think people will... Long-sleep, pad and suit. Well, I mean, look at the Connor interview.

I was not wearing plaid in that one, right? Button-ups? It's like the great Roddy Piper once said, just when you think you have all the answers, I changed the questions. So just when you think I'm going to break out a plaid, I break out a yellow. No, I have many a t-shirt. In fact, some might argue too many, like my wife. Yeah.

I actually just found this website, by the way, that has all the old basketball, like, character t-shirts. So yesterday I was wearing the Dream Team one from 1992. What do you mean by character? You know, like the ones where it's like the cartoons of the teams, like the All-Star game, or the Dream Team one. I found one that has every single one under the sun. Patrick Ewing.

I got a Charles Oakley. I got an ABA one. I got a Dream Team. I got a 1987. NBA All-Star game one. So I'm all about that right now. You still have no mas. They have the best t-shirts.

But I don't think they make any. I like Root to Fight, of course. Love my friends over at Root to Fight. I don't have any baseball route to fight ones or roots of baseball. But yes, I have many a T-shirt. I only wear the button downs when it's... It's work time. It's time to go pro.

Button. Okay. Why does New York, Rick, avoid answering Game of Thrones questions? Because I don't know anything about Game of Thrones. Yeah. Moving on. Stupid question. Why are you the way that you are?

I am what I am. I don't know. That's it. Okay. Ragen Al Realty. Iacquinta Realty. Who's ready to be a homeowner? Look, are you looking for?

No, I'm not. I'm not. Are you? You're happy. Yes. Look, I might be in the market for something soon. I would go to the real ally of Quinta. But is this the real ally Quinta?

No, no, this is not the real. I'm pretty sure it is. No, it's not. It's not. This is a parody. I'll tell you. A pretty good one. Yes.

But not. Are you being serious? This is not him. Okay. I would go to him, though. The real one. Yeah, I would go to him, though. Predictions for NXT and SummerSlam or Brooklyn.

What do you know about this? I know that, glorious... I'm hoping you know something because I don't know much. Bobby Root. I think he's a part of it. Actually, Mark Romundi,

who's turned into the biggest wrestling mark, I think he's actually trying to transition out. And by the way, Remundi told me that people said to him that I said that he was five foot two won the show? I don't remember saying that. Do you? I mean, if that was a thing that was set, like, I don't know. I don't remember saying that. And if I did.

I didn't mark that in my calendar. I would never, I would never, come on, at least five foot one. I don't know, I just joke. You messed that up, but. Did I mess it up? I thought I were like at least five foot one. You're saying, overshot it? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Damn it. I mean, it is almost. What's the question again? This is actually really bad. I never said that.

I never said that. I actually never said that. Oh, NXT. Remundi told me. It's in Brooklyn. Are you going? Don't you usually go? You know, somebody from WWE sometimes hooks it up.

I would like to. Should have asked the guy who called in with Bazler. Oh, snap. I should have. That would have been poor form. Hey, thanks for pulling in today, by the way. I see you trying to suck up to those cheap heat guys. What is that all about?

I love that podcast. What do you mean suck? up. I love the podcast. The new one? What do you mean the new one? Isn't there like a new version of it? Well, it's had different hosts over the years. I love... We're the host right now. Peter Rosenberg. He hosts like every single show under the sun.

And Greg Hyde, aka Stack Guy, Greg. I just love that podcast. And I don't... You know, it's hard to believe because sometimes I check it for the wrestling stuff. No, he's not on it anymore. What about CBS? Mass man. Campbell, I think. Shoemaker.

I like that podcast as well. He has his own, but he's not on. the cheap heat one anymore. Listen, I like what I like, Eric. All right, right. But what were you trying to get into? Like some sort of live? They're doing like a fan thing on Friday. I will be, I'm, well, I'm hoping to be there.

Must be nice. What do you mean? Be real nice. Look, you know, I like to, I'm a man of diverse. So are you going to the event? Either event. Not at the moment. But if anybody wants to.

To invite you. Basically, what you're asking people to do is do the reverse ricksticks, where you took a fan. If you want the company of a real wrestling fan who's going to be able to break it all down with you You know Samoa Joe is Brock Lesner

No it's a four way Samoa Joe Brock Lester Roman Reins and someone else I don't know the rest Brock okay I'm in this is it This is the match before the John Jotes Fight Let's do it

I would like to go Maybe I'll buy some tickets I've long said You know we were talking about live Versus not live you know Watching on TV Live wrestling is really really fun Oh

I would like to go go. Live wrestling is tremendous. It's a little off not having the commentary, but it is tremendous. Yeah, that is, you know, but you the crowd, the crowd is different at a wrestling match, I'd say than anything else. It really, like, gets you into it. Anyway, I think we talked enough about wrestling, because I really

don't know anything else that's happening, but Brock Lesnar, that's cool. That's it. We're done. Oh, my, my bud, Bennett Brower is asking, what happens first? The Expos come back to Montreal or GSP fights in Canada? Well, I'm going to go with

GSP fighting in Canada, unfortunately. But they will both happen at some point. Bennett, by the way, fantastic baseball writer, SB Nation should hire him. I don't know what's taking them so long. You're confident that XOs are coming back at something. Yes, yes. In my lifetime. Okay, and this is the last one.

Oh, he just deleted it. I saw it, and then it just disappeared. Bennett. Was it Mark asking what the host? Your problem? What's wrong with this guy? No, he said, I remember it, I don't know why he deleted it. And let's end on this. He said, Will, Connor fight Polly within the next 16 months.

What do you say? In a boxing match. I feel like Polly would do MMA, by the way. Yeah, look, Pauley is a sharp dude. If the stipulation comes to, hey, I'm not going to box you, but come to my arena? Shit, I think Polly would do it. I don't think Floyd would do it, but I think Polly would do it.

16 months? Yeah, that's plenty of time. Connor can knock out this fight with Mayweather. knock out one or two MMA fights and still do that. So yeah, I think so. See, people think that he's never coming back to M.A. I think he will. But to have those options open where he can make that much money...

Yeah. He doesn't have to come back to MMA. But I think he's coming back. I don't know if they let him go if they don't get that sort of deal in place beforehand. You know what I mean? Sure. All right, it has been fun.

One more Monday before Mayweather-McGregor. We'll be back next Monday to talk about our at all. Thank you very much to New York, Rick. Thank you very much to everyone in the back. It has been a fun show. You can hit my music. Thank you. Yes, back home for another week. Back from Las Vegas, so it's always fun to be there, but it is even funer, more fun, to be back home. Twelve days away, my friends. And there's not much going on in the MMA world so we can focus on it. I know some people don't like it, but I would suggest.

that most people do. It has been a fun ride and we're almost there. Even more interesting is what's going to happen, but then what's going to happen after the fight? Where does Connor go from here? What happens to Mayweather? All that stuff and more. It is a very fun time. Next week I'm going to tell you about our fight week coverage, but I'll leave you hanging just a little longer. I want to thank everyone who stopped by. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. Thank you so much of Daniel Cormier. So great to talk to him. Great to hear that he's feeling better. Went on his honeymoon in good spirits. Appreciate his his time very much. Thank you very much to Heather Hardy for coming in studio. What a pleasure

that was. She is a gem. And thank you for breaking that news regarding her return to Belator October 20th. Thank you very much to GSP. Congratulations on signing the deal. Welcome back. Looking forward to it. Good luck. November 4th, MSG against one Michael Bisping. Thank you very much to Shana Basler. Good luck to her. May Young Classic. WW Network. It starts August 28th. It ends in September. in Las Vegas. Thank you very much you, Brad Pickett. Good luck, Polaris 5 this Saturday. Thank you very much to Dan Hardy.

Good luck, Sky Sports next week. And thank you very much once again, 2-1. Polly Malanaji for stopping by two weeks in a row. Back next week. Same time, it's a place in time. Peace. I'm out of here.