MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 396

Episode Date: August 22, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Kevin Lee (00:08:59), Derrick Lewis (00:32:42), Bob Bennett (00:50:40), Dave Fogarty (01:20:26), Lou DiBella (01:38:03) in studio, Cody Garbrandt (02:53:56), John Kavanagh (03:14:07), Mick Konstantin (04:02:19), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (04:20:30) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:39:39). 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... The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life. On this Monday, August 21st, 2017. Hello, good, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. My friends, we have made it. It is here after two months of analysis.

Debate, pontification, fight week is here. Arguably the most anticipated fight week in the history of combat sports. Certainly in our lifetime, it is here. We are a mere five days away from Floyd Mayweather versus Connor McGregor this Saturday, August 26th, Las Vegas, Nevada, T-Mobile Arena. It has arrived. I am excited. I'm excited to be here talking to all of you about all of this. I'm excited about the fact that there is a solar eclipse going on in an hour and a half,

and I'm going to be here talking to all of you about MMA, about combat sports, about what people are calling the fight of the century because, well, because if you look at the actual solar eclipse, they say you may go blind. And who needs that? They call that once in a lifetime. This, my friends, is once in a lifetime. Past two months, I have loved the buildup. I've enjoyed it immensely.

I've enjoyed covering this. Can't wait for the circus that's to come in Las Vegas. I leave early, early, super early, 6 a.m. tomorrow morning to get there and we'll be taking it all in. And how about this? Right off the top, you love the MMA hour, right? It's on every Monday. How about this?

For the first time in the history of this program, we are giving you three straight days of live MMA hour shows on the road in Las Vegas. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we are going to be broadcasting live from Las Vegas. How about that? This fight is so big that we are making our own kind of history. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, plus a live episode of the MMA beat on Thursday as well.

So we're giving you two shows on Thursday. The M.M.A. hour is going on the road, my friends. Got our own setup, radio row. It's going to be fantastic. So, buckle up. We have a lot to get to today. Ten guests to kick things off. so many interesting personalities from around the world of combat sports, some related to Mayweather

McGregor, some not, it will be on our minds all show long. We're going to end it in a very fun way. I can't wait. Drink it up, enjoy it. This time next week, it's all over. We can go back to regular programming, but I think it's a lot of fun. I want to thank our friends over at MMA history today for this great drawing right here. And I wanted to put it right next to me because I think it sort of encompasses everything that this fight is. So I'm excited. Let's do this, my friends. Let me run down today's lineup.

Let me say a couple things. And then we shall get to our first guest of the day. At around 525, we're going exclusive on Twitter. You know this by now. We have a new home, though. It's mhmap fighting. Dot Twitter.com. So it's no longer the mMA hour.

Dot Twitter.com. It's mhmapighting.com. Why? Because now the M.A. Beat is on Twitter. as you can see if you looked at the picture beforehand. So it's MMAfighting.com. You can go there and hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour,

send us questions, comments, all show long, and then at around 525, we'll answer those. 50 will be Rick's Picks time. At 450, Mick Constantine will be joining us. Who is Mick Constantine? Mick Constantine is the young lad from Ireland who wrote and performed that song that I can't get out of my head. there's only one Connor McGregor, ukulele, you know that whole bit.

It is blown up number one on the iTunes charts. Proceeds going to charity. He'll be joining us, last guest of the day, to perform the song live. And I thought that'd be a fun way to end the show. So that'll be at 450. At 4.30, we'll be joined by Brian Stan, and you may have heard just around an hour ago. We broke the news that Brian Stan is leaving his UFC commentary position. He's taking a new job elsewhere.

We'll talk to him about this. In my opinion, he's. is the gold standard. He has set the bar incredibly high. He redefined what it meant to be a UFC analyst. And it's an incredible loss for the MMA community, for the fighters, for the viewers at home. But I'm very happy that he has found this new position, that he is content, that he is happy. It was his decision. And of course, selfishly, I'm happy that he's coming on the program first to talk about this move and what's next for him in a little more detail. So that's at 430. At 405, We're going to be joined by John Kavanaugh.

It has become a tradition on a Connor McGregor fight week to be joined by the headman over at SBG Ireland. Come on this show. Talk about the fight, of course. In the past, it has been prior to Connor's MMA fights. This one's a little different. Nevertheless, can't wait to hear from John Kavanaugh at 405. At 3.45, Cody Garbrandt will stop by. By now, you probably know that he will be fighting on November 4th in Madison Square Garden, New York City,

against T.J. Dillishaw. Didn't come on last week. coming on this week. The fight is official. Looking forward to talking to him. 245 in studio will be joined by Lou Debella, one of the best promoters in combat sports, colorful character. He has a lot of opinions on all things, combat sports. And when I spoke to him at the beginning of this journey in June, he is the promoter for one, Heather Hardy, among many others. Deonté Wilder is another name that comes to mind. He had some interesting things to say about this fight. So I wanted to end this journey, if you will, with him in studio.

Can't wait. Very excited that he'll be joining us. That's Lou DeBella, 245. 225. Steve Collins, the Irish boxing legend himself, Steve Collins will be on four years after. He surprised Connor McGregor on this program. Do you remember that moment? One of my favorites in this show's history. Connor was on before the Max Holloway fight in Boston. Colin surprised him on the phone. Connor was glowing, said he'd go out and run 10 miles.

Can't wait to hear from Steve Collins. Arguably the greatest Irish boxer of all time. Have him come on, talk about Connor. That's the Celtic Warrior at 225. 205. Connor's personal photographer, Dave Fogarty, will stop by of the MacLife.com. He's been there every step of the way as far as this camp is concerned. In fact, he has a funny connection to this show, which I didn't know about up until a week ago.

I'll tell you more about that at 205. 145, the Nevada Athletic Commission, executive director, Bob Bennett will stop by. Talk about the new gloves, eight ounces, no longer 10 ounces. The referee, judges selection, the building up to this fight, the making of this fight, everything that kind of this fight entails from a commission standpoint. I'm looking forward to talking to Bob for the first time on this program at 145. And at 125, we'll be joined by Derek Lewis. By now you know a UFC 216.

The Black Beast is back. He's fighting for Beast over Doom. That's October 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada, on pay-per-view. And I'm looking forward to talking to him. It's always great to talk to Derek Lewis. Now, as of right now, top fight on that card is Kevin Lee versus Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. That's October 7th.

once again. In a second, we're going to be joined by Kevin Lee right off the bat. But first, before I do that, let me say once again that today's episode of the MA hour is brought you by the Marines, and how fitting is it that the Marines are back on board with Brian Stan on the show. And of course, moving on to this new chapter in his career. Here's a little more about our good friends over at the Marines. Where it comes from, some have it and some don't. Fighting spirit. It consumes fear, then is ready to fight whatever shape of battle. takes because as long as there are battles.

Thank you very much to them. Marines fight to win. As you know, every Marine has the willingness to engage and the determination to defight any adversary failure is not an option. They will keep battling until they win. All Marines are born with a fighting spirit, but it's that core that sharpens the fighting spirit until it becomes a Marine's greatest weapon. What separates the Marines from all the other service members is their fighting spirit. We appreciate them being on board, love their support, and we thank them very much. All right, let's go to our first guest of the day. His name is Kevin Lee, as I said, he'll be fighting on October 7th for the interim

lightweight title against Tony Ferguson. He joins us now via the Magic of Skype. There he is, the Motown Fien on himself. Kevin Lee, how are you? What's happening, Ariel? It's good to talk. It's starting Monday morning. You're finally on that wave.

Listen, it took a couple of years, but I'm fully on the bandwagon and I smartened up, and now here I am, and it's nice that, wow, look at that picture in back of you. What is that? That's a Muhammad Ali, Sunny Liston photo. Cassius Clay, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you shot them down, you know, it's good to look up to the grape and still get that same kind of motivation.

That's right. You know, you're sitting down with me having my little morning coffee, my, you know, apple and some yogurt. Okay. It's a good way to start a Monday morning. Well, I appreciate you squeezing us in. Let's start at the beginning. How did this fight come about?

because for the longest time we thought it was Tony versus Habib, we weren't sure if they were just going to wait for Connor to come back. Now you're fighting Tony for the interim title. How did this all come about? Yeah, I said I was going to squeeze my elbows up in there some way. I thought it was going to be me and Kabib, but Kabib just don't want to fight. You know, the UFC, I think they're smart. They knew what the right fights to make was,

and nobody wanted to see Kabib and Tony again. You know, they just don't want to fight. You know, it's just one of those fights that just wasn't going to happen. So I was going to elbow my room up in there. So, you know, apparently, Kabib just don't want to fight. I don't understand it. I don't understand how people still even have him as the number one contender. When he pulled, every fight that he pulls out of should be a forfeit

and it should be a loss on his record as far as I'm concerned. And so what about it being for the interim title? Did that surprise you? I mean, a little bit, but not really. As far as, you know, I think as far as, like, the hardcore fans and everybody, this is the real lightweight championship. McGreg has got one fight in lightweight. Tony's got 10 or 11

I've got 9 or 10 This is for the real Lightweight Championship because we have the most fights and we've already been through all these top contenders You even look at somebody like Connor He's only beat one guy at 155 Kabee's not hasn't beat anybody in the top 10 So this is for the real lightweight championship

And I think that's what I think that's what the folks want to see And they want to see the you know you want to see it move on You want to see new blood And you want to see that new generation So the UFC they're already on that wave They know I'm the new generation around here, around this motherfucker. And I'm going to put Tony down and show the rest of them, too. Last time you were on the program was after the win over Michael Kaysa,

and then you had that very entertaining back and forth with Tony Ferguson. You were the guest he was in L.A. on Fox. Do you think that if that moment doesn't happen, that back and forth, that you don't get this fight? I think I wouldn't be as excited for this fight. I think the fight would have definitely happened anyway, because, you know, you look at the rest of the division, the top is all stagnant. You know, you got, who else are you going to put him against?

Kibib, don't want to fight. So, you know, you had Esen Barbosa's already out. Nate Diaz ain't fighting nobody. Eddie and Justin are going to beat themselves into retirement. So, you know, I was the next in line anyway. So, but for me, personally, it does make it a little more exciting. Like, I don't give a damn about, I've said it before. Like, I really don't give a damn about the belt.

I feel like a champion anyway. So, you know, it makes it a little more fun for me because the man disrespected me, and I can't take disrespect without retaliation. You know, he knew. who, he knew, me and him both know when he walked up on me an international fight week that we was gonna get it in.

Like I text him right away and he knew me before, you know, we even got into fighting and I used to look up to him. When he was, you know, we went to the same college, we alumni of the same college. He came out four years,

or a couple years before me because he got me about a little bit of time. And when he was going through the ultimate fighter, I was still fighting, or I was still wrestling in college. So I would be supporting him. I would be doing my thing. So for him to come out and say,

you know, I've already shown him support and I always defended him as the number one contender even over Kabid. And for him to come out and try and downplay me and all that, like, that's, that shit disrespectful. I'm not going to take it. I'm not going to take it laying down. I'll tell you that. So when he walked up on me at International Fight Week, he knew we was going to get it in. Because I text him, I'm like, I'll text you my address right now.

We can fight in. It ain't go in. Fuck an interim championship. Fuck a, fuck a contract. Fuck all that. We can get it in if you need to. Wait a second. I didn't know about this.

What happened at International Fight Week? Tell us the story. So we showed up to do a fan signing. Yeah. It was like 7.30 in the morning. You know, I was doing like I'm doing right now. You know, I walked through the door. It was me, Steve A, Miochik was there, Cody Garbrand.

A lot of, you know, and Tito Ortiz was there for some reason. You know, but then we had a couple PR guys with us too, Chris McVinno, these guys. And as we walked into the T-Mobile arena, he's already standing there getting ready to do the fan signing. You know, for one, like I said, all white-owned, you know, like a destination wedding. sunglasses, headphones on, inside. You know, there's a reason why everybody, you know, the dude lives down in L.A. now, he's a weird motherfucker. The reason why everybody wears sunglasses indoors down there,

it ain't because the sun is too bright. I'll tell you that. So he was probably on some shit already, you know, and he just felt froggy that day. So, you know, he tried to walk up to me, and I just told him, I'm like, bro, let me finish my coffee, and then I'll fuck you up. Wow, what did he say to you when he came up to you?

Yeah, you know, he's popping off saying, like, oh you're doing this for the camera because it was after we had got it yeah yeah yeah and uh he's like he's like you know yo you doing this for the camera you and i'm like ain't ain't shit for no camera like like you like i told him like you you were you a terrible analyst and i will fuck you up like you slow and you get hit a lot and i will fuck you and i'll show you right here and right now he's a lucky that stepe was in between us and we had some PR guys uh but then after once i left once we did the fan signing i left i dm'd them my address i'm like i live in Vegas motherfucker come here when nobody will break us up we can i look i'll set it up

in my yard. We can, you know, we can, like, strap off some rope. Like, God, take this motherfucker off. He can get it in. Wow. And so after that, did you go to the UFC and try to campaign to get this fight? Like, that was it. It was on right then and there? Yeah, it was, it was on. It was going to happen. I mean, it was going to happen regardless. I thought he was going to, you see, they told us about the fight August 1st. And on August 7th or something like that, a week after. Like, I've already started my training camp for it. You know, he was still pushing for Khabib. He's still on Instagram, like, talking shit about the beep. didn't mention me once.

You know, all these dudes at the top, they're smart. They don't mention me at all because they know what the deal is. You know, I see all these guys. I live in Vegas, so I see them around all the time. Even Connor and his team are down here. They were down here the other week when I was, you know, I was doing a little bit of sparring. I was doing a little bit of training. They came in as I was coming out, and they don't say shit.

They know what the deal is because they know I'm, you know, I ain't the one to really disrespect or walk up on. They say anything to you or you say anything to them? No, it wasn't nothing to be said. They know what it is. When Eddie was down here, Eddie was training right next to me. I was talking shit to Eddie for 20 minutes while on a guy's back and while doing a little bit of graph with myself. And I'm looking over talking shit to Eddie.

Eddie ain't saying shit. After it, that's when I stole his jersey and made him sign it for me. And the dumb ass did it, too. What happened there for those that missed it? You took his jersey and his tough jersey? Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, that was supposed to be my jersey anyway. So I took his jersey, I made him sign it, and then I wore it when I met up with Dana.

I've seen Eddie around a couple of times here. It's kind of getting comical to me. It's kind of getting funny. The man's so scared. You know, he walks up and he's like, oh, you look like a 205 pounder. And I'm like, yeah, because I will fuck you up. You're like, you already know. Like Eddie's this tall.

I didn't realize how small Eddie was until I stand next to the man. You know, it's kind of getting funny to me. So what's the word? You were in the running to be opposite? it Justin Gachie and then they gave it to Eddie Alvarez for tough? I mean, I think the UFC in the long run had the bigger pitcher in mind. I think that they

already wanted me in a bigger fight anyway. So I guess, you know, hey, I make the dreams. Look, it ain't no risk without no reward. So look, when they approached me with this fight, I didn't even go over no contract, no nothing. I was still in my old contract and I said, yeah, I'll take it. I'll do the fight.

Look, I would have took it for the interim title on the same contract and then we would have made some money afterward. You know, all these dudes want the money right now because they don't think that they can win. I'm going to beat the fuck out of Tony, and then I'm going to make some money. So I'll tell you, look, I would have beat the fuck out of Tony for 50 and 50. But, I mean, I did kind of, you know, we sat down with Dana. We came up with a really good number.

I'm really happy with it. They're really happy with it. And then afterwards, I'm still going to make a whole lot of money. So you did get a new contract before this fight? Yeah, yeah. I got to. Come on. Come on.

You know, there's got to be money to me around here. Wow. I'm doing the UFC a favor here. I think they kind of see in my worth to the company as well and how many eyeballs I can drag in and a different market too. So they kind of see, they know, and they're smart. There's a reason why it's the best promotion in the world, right? Are you getting paid more because it's an interim title fight?

Probably, but, you know, I'm probably going to pay more anyway. So, yeah, they're going to pay me more. They show my manager a copy of Khabib's contract too, and I'm getting paid more to him. Whoa. Oh, my gosh. They're not going to like that. What about Tony? are you getting more than him?

I don't know. I didn't see Tony's crime, Greg. But if anything, during the fight, I'll turn him upside down and I'll shake all the change. I'll just, you know, I'd hold him by his ankles and just shake all the change out.

Can I tell you? That's what I'm going to do to make, that's what I'm going to do in McGregor because, you know, listen, I already know McGregor's going to have stupid money after this. Yeah.

And it's going to be hard to go back and forth on that tip. So, you know, if anything, I might have to read that to the man's pocket and it's still his little pocketbook that these Europeans

like to walk around with. Have they told you that if you win this fight, you will be next for Connor? That's the only fight that makes sense. That's the most logical fight. Personally, I would like to defend the interim title. Just because I've had my eyes on compete for so long that I've kind of got excited about that fight a little bit. Yeah. The McGregor fight, it excites me from the standpoint of like the promotion and everything.

But the actual fight itself, he's the easiest fight as far as I'm the easiest fight. concerned. Like when I look at it, I say, well, you know, okay. I mean, all right, I'm going to get my hands on a man and I'm going to throw him around. You know, he's a little fella too. He's little, he's skinny. He's getting smaller as the days go by. And I'm just going, I'm just now starting into my problem and getting bigger. So, you know, that fight, yeah, and entertain me for the money and the entertainment aspect of it. But I would like to defend the interim title probably, make that fight even bigger with Connor. And then they really can't deny me. But even after this, they can't deny me no longer. You know, I'll be the world champion. And I said that, look, I told you when I first met you, and I had to go off on you a little bit. I told you, I was going to go from unranked, unknown this year, to a number one contender. And that's what the end of title is.

I mean, as far as I'm concerned, it's the real championship. But it's really the number one contender spot. Are you the main event on October 7th? I'm not sure yet. When I sat down with Dana the other day, they said they're still looking at some options. They want to put two title fights at least. So I guess there's another holdup on another one.

I'm not really sure. Either way, I think we'll probably, you know, I don't know. We'll probably end up main and bending over it anyway. I'm not sure who they else, who else they would have on it. I don't know who else is free right now because a lot of people are booked for that Madison Square Garden Garden. I don't know. We're going to see. We don't see.

We'll see how I happen. Can I tell you the one thing I don't like about this scenario? What makes me nervous is that your nickname is the Motown phenom. You have been talking about fighting in Detroit for years now. they're going to Detroit on December 2nd. And oh, by the way, Tony's from Michigan too. This fight should be in Michigan. This fight should be in Detroit, right?

Why is it happening in Vegas? Yeah, I mean, I kind of say the same thing. I would call it like a couple more weeks to prepare to. Yeah. Kind of get, you know, but what can I say? Look, I don't run the motherfucker. I just kind of show up. I'm going to show up.

I'm going to walk home happy. And then I'm going to go to Detroit with some gold around my ways. Regardless, I don't know if I, you know, I might end up fighting in Detroit. I don't know. We'll see. It's kind of a quick turnaround, especially with Tony.

Tony's going to bring a dog fight, so I'm expecting to take a little bit of damage. I don't know. We'll see. Either way, I'm going to show up. I'm going to kiss some babies. I'm going to shake some hands,

and I'm going to have a 12 piles of gold around my waist. And I'm going to throw myself a huge-ass party in Detroit. But were you a little torn? Because this meant a lot to you, right? To fight in Detroit? Were you a little torn when you were told Vegas, October 7th as opposed to this. This is the perfect fight for Detroit.

I got to go where the most. money go. Look, I'm gonna go where the money go. Look, I mean, I was torn, but I was like a little, like I asked them, but you know, hey, what can I do? Like, look, it's a fight, it's a date. Like, like I said, I'll fight him right now. Like, he can show up to my house and we'll fight. So, as far as, like, the whole time and place, like, I really don't give too much of damn. Like, Troy's going to be exciting anyway, but even this is going to be a little more wear off my plate because I want to deal with the family, you know, and everybody has a ticket to me going out there and doing all the promotion

and all that. Like here in Vegas, it's no better place in Vegas in the world, you know, especially to fight. So, I mean, how can I complain? How can I? Okay, all right, fair enough. I'm doing all right. By the way, did you help Floyd train for this fight? Because when we spoke to you a couple months ago, you said that

it was possible you were talking about helping him. Did anything come to fruition? You know, honestly, I feel like I came and I watched them a couple times. They hit me up the other day. It was like, you know, the dude, You know, he trains in the middle of the night. So they hit me up there with 2 a.m. And they asked me to go down there and watch them.

But I'm already in the middle of training camp. Now I'm like, oh, no, I'm good. But they just wanted me to go down and watch them as far. So I think they took one look at me, kind of saw how big I was, too. You know, I think they think, I don't know. I don't, I think they kind of underestimated it a little bit. Like, they saw, you know, Floyd's a little dude. Like, people don't understand.

Like Floyd, he's a, you know, he's smaller than my brother. My brother's a hundred and 25-pounder. So he's a little dude. you know, I don't know. I don't think they really wanted to smoke like that. I think it would have been smart if he would have did it. But, hey, look, it ain't my training camp, but I don't give a fuck. So I just was going to do it for the money.

You know, I still was getting paid anyway. Sure. Whatever. A, are you going, and B, who do you think wins? I'm not going. I was maybe going to go somewhere, like, host a, you know, I got a lot of request to host to host fights parties at clubs and shit like that. But, you know, when I'm in training camp, I do my own thing.

You know, I kind of keep it small. I kind of keep it intimate. You know, I kind of like the, you know, so I'll probably end up just like getting a big-ass projector or something throwing it at my house. Okay. Inviting a whole bunch of people over and doing it that way instead of going out and being around fans and shit.

I don't really like fans like that. So, you know. And but at the end of the day, when I look at the fight itself, you know, me, I study the fight very well. So, and being around Floyd and seeing them train and seeing them spar, I've got to take him. I thought that he was going to be able to stop McGregor in the later rounds, but the closer that the fight get, and I kind of see McGregor's mentality, too,

I think McGregor will stick it out and if Floyd will end up carrying them the last, you know, three, four rounds even. So I think Mayweather still wins a decision. I'm saying maybe eight to four, nine to three, something like that. It's going to be terrible for boxing. I'll tell you that. What? It's going to be terrible from boxing just from the standpoint of there's no other sport in the world where you can go in with the best that's ever done it and actually do good.

And McGregor's going to do good. He's going to win some rounds. He's going to land some punches. There's no other sport. I'm the best wrestler in M. The hands down. Not only in my talk is like I got the numbers to back it up. I can't go out there with Jordan Burroughs and last more than 30 seconds.

Like I just know that. But I can go in there with Floyd Mayweather and I can last for 12 rounds. You know what I mean? So for boxing as boxing standpoint, I think boxing was already dying anyway. And, you know, it's really going to just show that, you know, it's a bunch of smoking mirrors, too. Wow. Wow. I didn't expect you to say that.

All right. So here we go. October 7th, Kevin Lee versus Tony Ferguson, interim title. This is what I want to know. Is your other brother, the brother that was incarcerated? Will he be at this one? Did he get out yet? He's out.

He's out. He's been out for four weeks now. So, how's he doing? Check my Instagram. You'll see. He's doing way better. He's in a much better place. So, you know, he's out.

He's doing better. He's starting back up school. he's going to get into wrestling too and we're going to get him on the right path he's in a way better place that when he went in you know when you young and you know you do stupid shit like that you know

you grow up real quick so he did and I'm glad for it and I think he's going to be in a better place from now this is the crazy thing who knows we might see him because out of the three of us he is the best athlete I will give him that he ain't the smartest up here

but he is the best athlete the kids are fucking maniac you know people think that I'm a great athlete, and I'm one of the best athletes than MMA, and he's a better athlete than me. So we give him a little bit of time. We never know. We never know. We'll be my scene. Wow.

Okay. And, of course, your other brother is already making the climb himself. So that's a pretty big statement. This is an amazing thing, because here we are. I mean, you're fighting this fight October 7th. Connor says he's coming back in less than two months. You could be the guy. I mean, like, look where you were a year ago.

This is, like, the stars are aligning for you here, my friend. This is pretty insane. and you've been talking about Connor, it's nuts. I already told you, you know, I already had the vision. You know, with great vision comes great success. So, look, look, it ain't started. It ain't ending just not. It's just now getting started.

Once I get that goal wrapped around my waist, that's just the start of it, you know? That's just another level. I've been kind of like enjoying the slow rise even and enjoying the slow bill. You know, people who notice me more and more, when I go to the grocery store, when I go like my every day, I kind of don't like that part. I don't really like the fame. I don't really like fans. Like, you know, I rather just had the money, take my money and run.

So I still got some, I still got some plans up in the head that I'm getting on paper. And this is just part of it. Well, I'm going to beat the fuck out of Tony. That's the, that's the, look, we can take away all that, you know, take away all the vision, all that. I'm going to beat the fuck out of Tony. You're the man disrespect me. I don't take that shit. Blocked me on Twitter too.

So I guess he disrespected me as well. Yeah, I don't know. You know, the dude, he's weird. He's a weird dude. He's not that smart. I'm a crush him in pretty much. much every press conference and conference call that we got because he can't, you know, that the man is not that smart.

I don't really know. I don't know what his deal is. He's been hanging around with Eddie Bravo. And I listen to Joe Rogan's podcast, too. I know what them dudes is into. They answer some weird old shit. There's a reason why he keep wearing them sunglasses. Like, I ain't really going to put his business out there like that.

I'm going to let him do his own thing. But I'm just saying, I ain't moving to LA. You know, I'll keep in here in Vegas where the grass is green. This is great. Kevin, great stuff. Great to start the day with you. Great to start the week with you. Happy for you. Happy that you got this fight. It's going to be a lot of fun. The buildup is going to be a lot of fun. And it's great to see. I mean, look, I'll just put it out there. It seems like everything's kind of coming together once we made amends. You know, it seems like the stars started to align once we kind of got on the same track. So whatever. I got you to think for a lot of there. Thank you, Kevin. All the best and we'll talk to you soon. There he is. The Motown phenom himself, big fight for him on Ocoun. October 7th, that's UFC 216 in Las Vegas, interim, lightweight title fight, Mr. Kevin Lee against Mr. Tony Ferguson. And yes, the buildup is going to be a lot of fun for that one. All right, let's move along.

Love talking to Kevin Lee. Also love talking to our next guest. It's always fun when Derek Lewis is on. He'll also be on that card, UFC 216. It's Derek Lewis versus Fabrice Over Doom. But before we move along, We're going to hear once again from our friends at Seekkeek. Buying tickets can be complicated and confusing,

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I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing? So there's a lot to talk to you about Derek because a couple of weeks ago, a little more than a couple of weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago we spoke. And, you know, you talked about coming out of retirement, but getting healthy, taking a bit of a break. And what the heck? They can't keep you away? Why are you coming back so soon?

You know, well, I've been doing a lot of back therapy and my body had been a healing up pretty good. So, you know, I just felt like it was time. You know, I just needed some time off, you know, the press the reset button and I finally got it. You know, like going into the Mark Hunt fight, I wasn't motivated at all. You know, I was half-ass training. I really haven't trained hard since the big country fight. all up about the last two fights before the mark hunt fight I was barely training you know

I wasn't in it anymore wow and I just needed some time off and I finally got the time off that I need it and I'm more motivated to go into this Fabricio fight so you feel rejuvenated you feel like you got that fireback yes wow and it hasn't been that long

like your fight was just a couple months ago is this enough time to get it back yeah that's right Yeah, the thing is, like, each, after every fight that I had, I only get like a week's rest, you know, and they already call me and let you know they want to fight this guy. So, you know, this is the longest break I ever had. Okay. Did they try, by the way, did they ask you to step into fight in Ghanu in September now that JDS is out? No, they didn't.

I would have stepped in if they didn't book me more for recent. Really? even though that's like in two weeks or three weeks yeah I don't care I've been wanting to fight that guy anyways you know wow would you prefer to fight that fight than the Redoom fight on October 7th it doesn't matter you know I believe

Fabrice is the higher ranked guy so you know me going out there and he's a Brazilian so I've been doing pretty good versus the Brazilians so you know I believe like this would be more of a bigger test Fabrizio were you surprised

that you got Verdume next after the Hunt loss? Yes, I was surprised. You know, so I heard that Mark Hunt had asked for Fabrizio, and Fabricio said that he didn't want, basically he didn't want to fight him. And so I guess there was that same week later, the same week or what, and they had called me and said that Fabricio wanted to fight me.

He picked, handpicked, he wanted to fight me, so I guess he believed I'm the easier fighter because the way I perform against Mark. Wow. How do you take that? Oh, you know, it really don't matter. You know, guys, I've been underestimated my whole career, you know. Guys don't believe in my skills and stuff like that.

And I really don't care. You know, I'm going to go out there and show him what's up. Did you watch his last fight against Alistair over him? I didn't. Why not? When was it anyway? Who was it? July 8th.

No, I didn't watch it. It wasn't on paper. Yeah, yeah, it was UFC 213. It was the one that was supposed to be headlined. I don't pay for pay for pay for preview. You don't pay for them? I don't pay for paper. No.

Even if it's like an amazing card, like Jones Cormier, something like that? No. I've watched on counter, though. I pay for counter parties. Oh, so are you going to be dropping $100 to watch this weekend? No, I'm not, but I'm going to Big Manor house. Oh. Matchmaker.

I'm going to his house. Wow. That's exciting. Nice house? Yeah, it's a pretty good house. Is he throwing a party of some sort? Yeah, he's throwing a party. You know, he invited me and I'm going to go. I want to take my wife and we want to have a good time. Oh, that's nice. A little date night with the wife, watch Mayweather McGregor.

Are you excited about it? You excited about the fight? What do you got there? Apple? What is that? That's a... Just an apple. It's a very small... I just got big hands. Yeah, holy son. I just got big hands, man. Oh, smokes. That is the smallest apple I've ever seen,

unless you just have really big hands. Are you excited about the fight? You're looking forward to it? I'm really excited about the fight. You know, I'm telling my coaches, my training partners. I haven't been really motivated in a long time. You know, like my interview was out to my fights,

and I'm lighting everybody. I just wanted some time off. I just needed a break, because I was already getting burnt out of the training and stuff like that all the time. me and just thinking about my opponents like a week after a fight they're already trying to book me with another fight you know and I just wanted some time off and just getting burnt out on it for now I believe I arrested enough and I'm doing back therapy and everything is

going good right now is is the back 100% it's not 100% right now I say it's about an 80% right now okay do you think it'll ever be 100% I believe well you know i'm doing um what they call them things with the needles oh i could puncher wow how do you feel about that i didn't believe it at first but it's been doing pretty good you know i like it wow it releases because sometimes like if they get the right spot it feels like things open up and things get released inside of you you feel that ever yeah for sure you know and they tell me i can't work out afterwards because all my pores are open oh okay And so take it easy.

But I feel a relief. You know, I'm not a believe in a bunch of stuff and I believe in that. Oh, wow. I saw a video yesterday. You actually don't post a lot of, you know, fight-related, training-related videos on your Instagram, which is a highly entertaining Instagram. You know this. But you posted one of you running up and down a hill.

Why did you share that? Yeah, you know, everyone thinks I don't do cardio, you know. The last fight, you know, I always, you know, I always. I was in pain. Trust me, I was in pain the whole damn fight. My back was locked up the whole damn time. Oh, my God. And for me, the last, I went to the fourth round and still was able to move. And I just believe that going into that fight right there, I just, it's, um, it motivated me to see, like, the type of level I could go, like, the pain I could take and still go at it with a guy like more. Okay. And now when you're doing that, when you're running up and down the hill, what's it feel like? Um, it's feeling pretty good right now.

Okay. It really hurts whenever, um, I'm hitting mids. That's about it. Okay. Other than that, it doesn't hurt. That video that I was actually talking to my wife about it this weekend, the one with the guy wearing the Redskins jersey, and he's asking to be, like, hyped up,

and then his friends are talking about that he's fat and unemployed, and then he gets mad. The one that you posted a couple weeks ago, you know that one? Are you the one? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, in the park. Yeah, the park. Yeah. I watched that one over and over again.

I love that guy because they're talking about him. He's like, yo, you're supposed to be hyping me up. Where do you find these videos? Some of my friends sent him to me. And I'm waking baking and searching, search for him. What's wake and bake mean? USDA, you know about that. You don't know nothing about it.

You from Canada. USDA? The people who do the meat stuff? No, the drug people. Oh, USADA. Oh, USADA, that's right, that's right. The other one with your son cutting your hair, that one's hilarious. You were telling me about the fade and everything?

That's one wearing a hat. My hair job's still messed up, but he's getting better. What are you doing while he's cutting your hair there? Are you playing video games or something? Yeah, I'm playing on FIFA 17. Oh, is that your favorite? it? Yeah.

Everyone think it's 2K because I'm black. No. You know, black people like to play FIFA too. That's right. Why, is that what everyone said in the comments?

Yeah, everybody thought, oh, it's 2K, 2K. Even whenever I'm playing a guy with FIFA and I'm kicking his butt, he said, man, you're supposed to be playing 2K, man. You're black.

What's whatever? Do you have a team of choice in FIFA? I'll just play USA. Oh, really? National team? That's all. Yeah. No club teams like

like Real Madrid, Barcelona. Now, if I play a club team, I play Houston Dinamos. Houston Dynamos, MLS? Get out of here with that. I still whoop your butt.

You probably would. Are you guys going to get mellow, by the way? What's going on with that? Hopefully we get mellow. You know, if not, Chris Paul and

James Hardin playing pretty. good together right now. I seen a video yesterday. That's right. I guess it was a charity and it was doing pretty good. I like all of a sudden that they get Chris Paul, you bust out the hat like you're back on the bandwagon. Oh wow. Yeah. You better go back to your video. I got a few hats around it right now. I'll show you, but you know

things in America right now I'm not doing too good so you know I have to take that hat off. Wow. Oh, oh. You get you get you get crap for that hat? You mean the red hat with the writing? Yeah, the Trump hat. Yeah, come on. You can't feel good about this. This is something. No, it's, yeah, it's pretty bad right now.

You know, I'm pretty sure a lot of people trying to come to Canada right now, too, though. Rightfully so. Yeah. Do you regret voting for him? I didn't vote for him. I keep telling people that I didn't vote for him. I don't even think I could have vote for him because my rights. Oh, you can't vote?

I don't think I can, I don't know. Oh, but you wore his hat. I didn't try to vote. I just said I like the guy because he'd be saying funny stuff. But now it's gone, it's gone too far, right? What do you think?

I'll give you your opinion on it. Yes, it's gone way too far. It went too far back in October before he was even in the office, elected. No, he was saying some funny stuff right then. Well, I don't know about that. Well, I'm happy to see you back. This is good.

I was wondering, it's funny that you said you wanted that because I was wondering if they were going to call you. How do you feel about the JDS situation that he's been provisionally suspended? He seems to be coming out. And I don't know if you saw his video. He seems to be very remorseful and says that there's essentially been a mistake here and he's going to get to the bottom of it. How do you feel have you been following this? No, I haven't been following it. But, you know, all those guys say the same thing.

You know, oh, I didn't know. I'm going to get the bottom of it. And they never get the bottom of it. They ask gets suspended for two years. You know, Big Ben said the same thing. And, well, Frank Mears said the same thing. All those, Josh Burnett said the same thing. Addis the over and said the same thing.

You know, and they still got suspended. Nobody had never came back in and, you know, they reversed the charges or what. Right. You know, they got suspended because they'll be lying. You know, they know what they're taking. They've been doing a sport long enough. They know right for wrong, you know, grown-ass men. You know, they keep doing it.

Like I said before, I'm just be patient. And I'm just keep moving on down the charts. You know, sooner or later, I'll be number one contender. You're not buying it. No, I'm not buying it. You know, he's out there in Brazil. Brazil, they got one guys out there taking a bunch of crap. You know, I have to say, I feel like right now in the heavyweight division, you beat Fabrice

River Doom. I mean, you're right back in it. You're maybe like one win away at this point. There's not a lot going on at the top there. You agree? I believe so. I know, I know Fabrice are going to try to come in, use the judicious to try to do a bunch of leg kicks and stuff like that and believe. Hopefully, he doesn't coming in a fight and trying to underestimate me because he's thinking that my condition.

and cardio is not there. And I want him to come out. I want to fight the best Fabricio. I don't want no excuses coming into his fight, and I won't have nothing either. You know, we see best man wins. I feel like this may be your toughest test, though, just given his skill set and his strengths,

what he's going to try to do in the fight. Do you agree? No, I believe not. Like I said before, I believe Travis Brown was probably my toughest fight of all the time, you know, because that guy was well, He was good on the ground. He was good standing up, you know.

And his only weakens was his chin. But, you know, I believe Travis still was the toughest opponents I ever faced. Did you watch his fight against Alexiolanik? Because that wasn't on pay-per-view. That was on FS1. And do you think that he is done? Oh, I believe he's not done. I think he was doing pretty good at that fight.

You know, he just got caught in a submission. I thought he was doing pretty good. He came out aggressive. You know, he took a couple of shots and he was still standing. And I thought he was winning in a fight until he messed up and got his back taken. So you want to see him continue to fight? Of course I want to see him continue to fight, you know. That's nice.

He's with my ex, you know, and I want them to do good things together and stuff like that. And, you know, I want them to have babies. I want him to be around to support. You know, I don't want her to just support him there. Make me jealous. You know, I want to do good. Your tweets that night were hilarious. Yeah, because you already know he tweeted as soon as I lost.

All these guys came out to Woolworth. Soon I lost, they wanted tweet. Yeah. And start calling me out, missing that. Nobody won't call me out. Nobody was saying nothing before I had lost. And soon I lose, the motherfuckers are waking up out of the dead. Like Trey Brown woke up out of the dead.

start tweeting. Before I let you go, can I get a prediction for Saturday? Who do you think wins? Mayweather and McGregor? I'm going. Hopefully, McGregor wins. That would be good for the USC.

Hopefully, you know, the money that he gets for that fight, the UFC gets for that fight, they start throwing it back at the fighters, you know. If not, I just want to see an entertaining fight, you know. The money that the UFC gets from that fight, they're going to start throwing it back to the fighters. this is what you're hoping for? Yeah, hopefully that I start giving it back to the fighters, you know.

Yeah. I don't know if I'd hold my breath on that one. But I also know they're in debt, so they probably say, fuck what y'all talking about. Right. So you hope that McGregor wins? Do you think he wins? Yeah, hopefully he wins. You know, it's going to be a tough fight for him.

Boxing is a whole different sport. You know, I try boxing for a little bit. band and just, I believe you just had the train just that much harder than even the last one round in boxing. All right. So we'll see. You'll be watching at McManor's house. That's a lot of fun.

Former headman over at Legacy where you kind of rose to prominence and now, of course, the matchmaker over at the UFC. Derek, it's good to hear from you. I'm happy to hear that you're feeling better. Good luck on October 7th. I have a feeling we'll be talking before then, but it was nice to catch up as this fight was officially made late last week. Appreciate the time, Derek. All the best. Enjoy the fight. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for having. All right. There he is. The Black Beast himself, Derek Lewis. Great to catch up

with him. So those are two of the top fights on October 7th. We'll see what else the UFC adds in the coming weeks. All right, I've been trying to get our next guest on the program for quite some time. Very excited to be joined by the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. His name is Mr. Bob Bennett. And they were definitely in the news late last week announcing the referee for Mayweather McGregor. is Robert Byrd as well as the judges for Saturday night. Bert Clements, Dave Moretti, and Guido Cavaleri. Bob Bennett is on the phone right now as we are five days away from one of the biggest

events in combat sports history. Of course, it's happening in Nevada, Las Vegas, to be exact, he is a very busy man, but he is kind enough to be joining us on the phone for a few minutes here this afternoon. Bob, are you there? Yes, I am. Thank you very much, Ariel, for having me on your show. Oh, it's a pleasure. I'm so happy that you're here. It wouldn't have been the same without you, so thank you so much for the time. Could I ask, and of course we're not quite there just yet, but leading up to it,

does this feel like a different fight from your perspective, the buildup, the paperwork, things of that nature, or is this at the end of the day just another fight for the commission? Is there any difference as far as you're concerned? You know, it's another fight, it's another important fight, whether it's a four-round fight or a 12-round championship fight or a fight of this caliber with these two elite fighters, they're all very important to us.

But it is a little bit different because the fight is really unprecedented. It's historic. It's never an MMA slash boxer. I've really never gone toe to toe before. So naturally, the MMA world

is very much interested in. as are the fighter, as are boxing fans, and who knows, hopefully we'll pick up some unarmed combat fans along the way. And the way that it's different is that I've just gotten a litany of calls and a number of people that want to interview me about this fight, because it's a bit of a hybrid fight, and it's an anomaly. So from social media, I would say that, you know, we've been in, you know, we've received a writteny of calls and requested my thoughts. How long ago did this cross your desk, so to speak, and did it take a while for you to finally, you know,

sort of come to terms with it? Or were you, like, once the rumors were out there, the speculation, even before it came to your attention, did you know that this would be something that the commission would be comfortable with? No, that's a great question, Ariel. No, you know what? when it first came out,

I'd listened, I heard, I paid a little attention to it, and then the guy received a little bit more media attention. And I know that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Leonard Ellaby, the CEO for Mayweather Promotions, are geniuses when it comes to promoting their own fights. And then I said, you know what, this could come to fruition.

Let me start doing my homework. So in the event that it does, I will be able to provide my chairman and commission is with my opinion as to whether or not this fight is approvable. The process in terms of actually approving the fight, this has obviously been an anticipated fight but also a polarizing one, just given the fact that you have a 49-0 boxer against an O&O combatant who, of course, has a history in MMA, but no history in boxing.

Could you tell us the steps you had to take in order to actually approve Connor for this fight? Because I would imagine if it's 49-0 against O&O but no combat sports history, I mean, it's a no-brainer. It's a no-go right off the bat. This one's a little different. So how did you actually get to the point where you said, okay, we are comfortable sanctioning this fight? You know, great point.

It did deviate from my standard way of approving boxing matches. So when you break down the fight, a fighter by fighter, you can take a look at Connor. Connor's the younger, the stronger, the longer, the more powerful puncher. as you know in UFC, Fort Featherweight, lightweight, wealth weight. His record is 21 and 3 in MMA.

17 of those wins have come by winner KO or TKO, so he's a premier striker, knockout artist. He's a young, aggressive warrior who believes he's going to win. And that attitude unto itself makes him very dangerous. If you go ahead and you take a look at UFC 202 where he fought Nate Diaz, you know, he showed his power and his striking ability, which is synonymous with, to a certain extent, his boxing ability. He knocked Nate down in the first and second round, took some incredible shots to his chin, proved he has a great chin from Nate, and he subsequently won that fight. a little additional work I did was I talked to world-class train of Virgil Hunter

and Virgil told me that he used Nate on three independent occasions against world champion super middleweight, Andre Ward Brandon Gonzalez who's a light heavyweight at 181 and 1 and Andre Andrew Fonfara, excuse me, who was also a light heavyweight at 29 and 5

and, you know, Mr. Hunter thought that if Nate really wanted to be a professional fighter, he would have been a world-class boxer, but instead he chose to go the MMA route. So when you look at the history of Nate and his boxing experience, and you match that to Connor, and then you see what happens in UFC 202, in concert with him also, I neglected to mention that Connor is also the younger, and he's a South War. And South War typically give conventional fighters a little bit more difficult of a time

until they figure their opponent out. Did you want to, and did you actually go out and watch him spar in the buildup to this to feel comfortable that he actually knows what he's doing in a conventional boxing match? Because I believe you had mentioned early on that this was something that you wanted to do.

Yes, on three independent occasions I met with Connor's manager for this fight, Ordi Atar, and it was just he and I, and we watched video of Connor on, like I said, three independent occasions, and during

those times, I made sure that Ordy was, I instructed Ordy to make sure that Connor is intimately familiar with the unified rules of boxing, Nevada Administrative Code 467, so that during this fight,

he is well aware the difference between MMA fighting and boxing. And there were a number of issues that we spoke about to ensure the health and safety of the fighters. Did you, once you actually, you know,

went ahead and improved the fight, I'm just curious if any other commissions reached out to you and voiced any concern or asked you for your thought process. Again, very unique. Never happened before. And so I was curious if any of the other, you know, commissions out there,

whether in the United States or Canada or reached out and wanted to pick your brain or voice any issues about this actual fight? You know, really none of the individual commissioners had from the other states. There were a couple states that said to me that they wouldn't approve this fight, but seeing as believing, because it is an approvable fight. So, no, that really didn't have any bearing on whether we approved it or not. not. I'm known as the executive director to be very conservative in approving fights, whether the MMA or boxing. And I have a format that I go by that I had to deviate a little from

because, you know, this is unprecedented. It is historic. And, you know, both these guys are phenomenal athletes. So, you know, I took a real close look at Connor because everybody knows Floyd. I mean, he's 49 and no, arguably the best defense in the history of boxing, a future Hall of Famer. And Connor's a young warrior coming up. So, you know, you had to do a balancing act to see, hey, is this approvable? And you know what?

I found it to be unequivocally approvable fight. What do you say to the critics, Bob, who say that this is just a money grab, that the only reason this fight is actually happening in Nevada is because there's so much money to be made. The gate is probably going to break the record set by Mayweather and Pacquay out a couple years ago. It's just too big of a fight. It's too big of a moneymaker to say no. What do you say to those people? What I say to those people is when a fight is placed on my desk, whether it's a four-round fight, a 12-round fight, a five-round fight, a five-round fight with MMA or a three-round fight. I take a look at each fighter's record.

I have a standard operational procedure that I use, and it comes to finances, I don't even want to hear about it. The money does not enter into my position as an executive director. If I have a promoter, I don't want to mention any name, say, Bob, you know, I've invested X amount of money in this guy. I go, whoa, whoa, don't even talk to me about the money. The records are what speak for themselves. and we have a history out here of stopping a fight one punch or one kick sooner than later.

So quite honestly, Ariel, you know what? When it comes to the finances, I cut the people off right away respectfully because it does not enter into the equation on whether or not I approve a fight. As I said, at the top of the interview, you were in the news. The commission was in the news last week. All eyes were on you midweek because you were. were going to license Connor, but you were also going to vote on the referee judges. And of course, the big news, dropping the size of the gloves from 10 ounces to 8 ounces. Now, for the audience that is strictly MMA, watching this, typically a fight above 148 pounds, they use 10 ounce gloves. A couple

weeks ago, Floyd Mayweather comes out and says, I want to drop it to 8 ounces. Connor was all for this. His team said that they would knock them out in less than two rounds of this happen. and in the end, the commission ruled in favor of eight ounces, which is adding just another historic level of interest to this fight. At the end of the day, Bob, could you explain to us why you made this decision? Because, again, it seemed like it's such an unconventional fight. It's so unique that maybe you would err on the side of being conservative, but here we are going with eight ounces.

Why did you decide in favor of doing that? Once again, Ariel, you bring up some great questions. Commissioner Avincino during the hearing, said, you know, we like to maintain the integrity of our rules, and we're reluctant to change a rule that's been in place since 2006. But at the same time, Chairman Marnell made the statement that, you know, we are constantly looking at our regulations, and we are always updating them, trying to improve them, and keep current as the on combat world changes. Now, if you take a look at Floyd Mayweather, Jr., excuse me, he hasn't knocked out anybody in 10 years.

And you really can't count Victor Ortiz because he's supposed to protect yourself at all times, and Victor didn't, and he knocked him out. And then if you go back 10 years to Ricky Hatton, Floyd had a phenomenal knockout of Ricky. And all during this time, he was using eight-ounce gloves with three, well, I would say with two exceptions. One was against Canello. Alvarez and the other was Miguel Cotto. He used 10-ounce gloves, and he clearly won both those rounds, those fights. But by and large, he fights at a buck 47, and he likes 8-ounce gloves. And Connor, he's used to fight in 4-ounce gloves.

So now all of a sudden he's going up to 10-ounce gloves. It's a big jump for him. That's more than 100%. So both promoters came to us with a waiver, which is that leader. were right, came before the chairman and the commissioners, articulated their position on why they think we should go to eight-ounce gloves, and the commissioner ruled in favor of deviating on a one-time basis while to allow the eight-ounce gloves, while we go ahead and take a look. Years ago, they initiated this study. They didn't complete the study. It's something that we will do,

you know, to see the significance, if there is a significant difference between eight and 10 ounce gloves. I think this is a win-win situation for both fighters. Both of these guys, like I said, are warriors, man. They'll fight anybody, anytime, anywhere. And, you know, Floyd's used to eight-ounce gloves, Connors coming up to four-ounce, four-ounce more. So kind of levels the playing field. I've spoken to three or four by ringside officials, and we have some, pardon my immodesty, but we have some outstanding ringside physicians, and they didn't see an issue with it. But of course, the ultimate decision lies with Chairman Anthony Marnell III and the four commissioners, and they seem to think that this was a fair request, and we made an exception for one fight.

Did you see the letter by the Association of Rinkside Physicians strongly urging you not to change the size of the gloves? Because in the hearing, it wasn't brought up. And I was curious what you thought about it if you did see it. Yes. Yes. I received that letter that email a day before the fight. Yeah. And respectfully, respectfully, we disagree with Dr. Lovelace and the Association of Rinkside Physicians.

They're respectable association. We certainly hold them in high regard, but our physicians, ringside physicians, really didn't see an issue with it. And I really think the comments made by Dr. Lovelace and the Association of Ringside Physicians are unfounded, were unfair. And if they're so concerned about the size of the gloves, well, maybe they should take a look at MMA and say, why are all those weight classes and all those fighters allowed to use four-ounce gloves?

And if your hands are a little bit bigger, I think, correct me if I'm mistaken, maybe they'll go up to 5.6. So I really don't think that it was a fair question. And I do think that if this fight came to any other commission, they would more than likely, if they did their homework, they would approve it based on facts, not on dollars. Do you have any safety concerns as of right now about the fight?

Is there anything that you're a little worried about, that you'd like to sort of cross off your list, come fighting and say, okay, this is going to be okay? Is there anything at all that's still kind of troubling you about the fight? Again, because it's just so damn unique. I mean, it's just never happened before. Is there anything at all, and considering who Floyd is and what the sport is that this fight is being contested, and anything at all troubling you?

No, I really don't think so. I mean, anytime you have two phenomenal warriors, like I said, get into a ring, or two fighters get into a ring, you know that somebody could get hurt. Let's face it, we're in the hurt business, but we try to minimize it. Like I said, we try to stop a fight, one punch a kick sooner than later. are part of my modesty that they're on the top of their game, whether they're Robert Byrd or John McCarthy

or Herb Dean or Kenny Ballas and all the others. Right away, when the fight begins, they assess each fighter's skill set and they see how the fight goes. And I really don't see other than the normal concern you have with two fighters fighting.

You know, we made a concerted effort to make sure that Connor was provided with the unified rules of boxing, instructed is, on three independent occasions, instructed his manager, Ordiatar, to make sure he's familiar with NAC 467, because it is different than boxing, MMA box, obviously. There's different rules. In other words, Connor couldn't faint with a knee or a leg or an elbow. you can just, you know, and he may do that in MMA.

He can't do that in boxing. You know, so we made sure that his manager was intimately familiar with our rules, regulations, and the legal strike zone. You also announced that Robert Byrd will be the referee, the third man in the ring. There was some talk early on that Conner's team didn't want Kenny Bayliss to be that man because they said that he was favorable towards Floyd Mayweather. They had thrown out the idea of Tony Weeks, who also judges MMA to be that guy.

But in the end, you went with the 74-year-old Robert Byrd. How did you come to this decision? You know, the reason why Kenny Ballas was removed for consideration was based on the fact that he made a prejudice and biased remark that, you know, this MMA and boxing fight shouldn't he's not interested in this fight. So right away, because he's not

interested in this fight, and it kind of like just answered the question, you know, when somebody quickly asked him, he just gave his opinion. And unfortunately, once you say that, make those remarks, because we're a regulator. We're not biased.

You know, we're not prejudiced. Boom, we're right in the middle. We want the right fighter to win the fight. So that 86 can he from being considered. Robert Byrd unequivocally has a phenomenal knowledge of the rules and regulations in boxing. You mentioned his age. His age is in a factor. He moves in 90-degree angles.

He slips. He slides. He glides. He always finds the open side, even though you have a Southpour and conventional fighter. Robert has done over a hundred world title fight or elimination bouts. He's an ABC instructor. He's a no-nonsense guy in the ring. He takes command of that fight right away.

This was evident by the Kovalev Award fight. And, you know, from the president of main events, Kathy Dover, president-owner, you know, Kathy, you subsequently told me that Mr. Kovaloff was very happy with the job that he did on that Ward Kovala fight. And that was a rough and thumble fight. It was a rough fight. And Robert did a great job. So, you know, he's somebody that I have no reservations about,

and I'm sure he'll do an outstanding job. As far as the judges are concerned, I'm just so curious about the making of this fight. Burke Clements, Dave Moretti, Guido Cavaleri. How did you come to decision to choose those three? I'm sure you had a plethora of judges who wanted to be involved. Why those three? Okay, and very much, that's true. You have to remember, and I left this out with Robert also.

If you're going to be an official in Las Vegas, you have to have proven yourself several times to consistently produce under pressure. Doing championship fights in Vegas is like going to Yankee Stadium. You know, it's the Krem to La Crem that calls to fight capital of the world. And, you know, I've been out here working with this group for seven years. So I'm intimately familiar with the judges and the referees. So if you've proven yourself to be consistent under stressful conditions and done an outstanding job, then you're going to be in the

running to get this assignment. Now, Connor, Conner's camp requested an international judge. So I recommended Guido Cavaleri from Italy. Grito's done over 40 championship fights, as you probably well know. He's been to Madison Square Garden, Barclay Center, over in Japan. And more importantly, he's been here in Las Vegas while I've been the executive director on two independent occasions and I think two other fights before that. and he was in the majority, I think, on my last two fights with Mayweather, 100%. So he's proven to perform exceptionally well in distressful conditions.

Dave Moretti, well, Dave's been in the business forever. He has over 175 title fights or elimination bouts. And Dave, as anybody that follows boxing knows that Dave is a consistent. performer, as is Burt Clements. They've been in the business a long time. What's very interesting and something I admire is that

despite how long they've been in the business, they're very aggressive, they get pumped up for the fight, they get in the zone, and the right fighter always seems to win. So let's say, In any business in the world, everybody has a bad day in the office, okay? It happens to you, me, anyone, the judges. So what we like to do here is we put three A-plus judges. So God forbid you have one judge that has a slightly off day,

at least the other two will be able to cover for that judge and ensure the right fighter wins. And more than likely, all three of these judges will get it right on, just like other judges that we've had out here, Glenn Feldman and Don Scheller, Steve Weissfeld. They're on the top of the line right out here, our own Glen Trowbridge. It takes a lot of time and effort to figure out

who's going to be the best officials for a fight of this magnitude. Was there out of competition drug testing for this fight from Nevada? This is being done by Ysada, and we do random testing. Okay. And has that happened? Yes, it has.

Okay, and I guess you couldn't tell us. Sorry, say it again? Excuse me? I said, no, USADA is the performance enhancing drug body that's been testing these fighters. Okay. Will there be more testing leading up to fight night? I would rather not say. Okay, and also...

It is random. Sure, sure. Could you tell us what's the UFC's role? Because this news came out that they were applying to be the promoter, but initially they said they weren't going to be a promoter. Why do they have to be a promoter on record? Well, you know, they're a promoter on record, and our promoter's license doesn't deviate or deterred. It doesn't state whether you have to be a boxer or an MMA promoter. Well, based on the fact that Mayweather promotions owned by Floyd Mayweather, Floyd can't pay his

opponent. So the UFC is a co-promoter because they'll be paying they'll be paying Connor. Okay, so they had to, this was something that you informed them of, they had to do it because they're the ones who are actually paying one of the fighters.

Right. Otherwise, it would have been a conflict of interest, sure. Okay. Opponent, you know, for paying the other opponent. Do you think you'll be nervous on fight night? Because, you know, Mayweather Pacquiao, so many eyes were watching that fight and then, you know,

was kind of viewed afterwards as somewhat of a bust. Do you feel like the reputation of the commission is at stake here on the line because you were the ones that went out and promoted this? Do you think you'll be a little more nervous come fight night? Yes. Respectfully, though, we really didn't promote this fight. You know, they did a great job. You know, Leonard Ellaby, the CEO from Mayweather Promotions in Floyd.

They do a phenomenal job in promoting the fight and then bring Connor and the UFC in, and they promoted the fight. We don't get involved in that. Oise is, you know, we're kind of like the third man in the ring. We regulate it. We look out for the health and safety of the fighters. Will I be nervous during the fight?

Yeah, but you know what? Any event, you know, I'm kind of like the manager of a baseball team. You know, you put your best starting lineup in there, and you just hope the lead off hit, it gets your head, gets on base, steals, get some scoring position. And, you know, the rest of the guys, you know, do a good job. So you just hope, we just want the right fighter to make sure the right fighter wins. If somebody doesn't get knocked out and it has to go to the score cards,

well, the score cards definitely will show that the right fighter wins. That's our goal. You know, make sure that the right fighter wins and to look out for the health and safety of a fight. If we have to stop a fight because somebody's really taking too much damage, then we will. Last thing for you, Bob, and really appreciate the insight. This has been very exciting for us and illuminating just to get the take of the commission into the building of this fight. I'm just curious, in your mind, is this a one-off? Because, you know, this has become sort of a thing now.

Anthony Joshua and Sipe Miochich want a fight, and Chris Seiberg is talking about doing some boxing. This has been talked about for years with Anderson-Silver and Roy Jones. are you going to continue to entertain this or after this, you know, a one-off, if you will, this experiment, do you not want to get into the business of sanctioning fights between MMA fighters who have no boxing experience and professional boxers? Yeah, once again, that's a great question. And that was something that was addressed in our commission meeting, that this would be a one-fight exception until we conducted a study and completed it. Now, we have had some crossover on lower-end fights where somebody had MMA experience and boxing experience, and if it was an approvable fight, then when we went ahead and approved it, but right now at this stage, this is a one-fight approval until we go ahead and conduct

and conclude a study as to the weight of the gloves. and it really comes down to the fighters. The fighters have to be approvable. You know, it's got to be a match that's approvable. Like the UFC. I mean, you look at the matchmaking the UFC does, you know, and I'm not being prejudiced or bias. It's second to none.

They put the best against the best. You know, I mean, you can go to a UFC card, I think, there's one card. You know better than me. I know, they were 11 out of 12 upsets, eight out of 12. I mean, you know, for me, that makes my life a lot.

easy. When it comes down to boxing, you know, like I said, I have a formula with a litany of of different sites that I go to from Fight Facts to Box Rec to Pot Index. You know, I keep records on all my officials

on whether the judges, whether they're in the majority or in the minority, and what percentage of the time over the last three years. So, you know, we're really all about the fighter, whether it's MMA or boxing. And we just try to do the best we can do them.

We hope that the fighters know that because without them, we wouldn't be here. Appreciate the time very much, Bob. It has been a pleasure. Thank you for doing the show on such a busy week. Good luck the rest of the way. Good luck, of course, on Friday with the Wayans, on Saturday with Fight Night, and I look forward to seeing you out there. Thank you very much.

You're a real pleasure and a professional to speak with. And I wish you the very best. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bob. We'll talk to you soon. And there he is. Bob Bennett, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, stopping by talking to us about the making from a commission standpoint of one of the most anticipated fights of all time. That one, right over there. All right, let's move along. One man, our next guest, who has been embedded in the McGregor camp from the get-go. Private planes, the stage for the world tour, every step of the way on this journey, the training camp, the sparring sessions. In fact, It was his fault that the whole polymalaegy thing became the shitstorm that it became. Is our next guest.

Our next guest is a young man by the name of David Fogarty. And in fact, this is his second time on the program. As I said at the top of the show, he was on many moons ago. I didn't even know this until he reminded me of it back at the McGregor open workout session two weeks ago in Las Vegas. He is in Las Vegas now, of course. He is Connor McGregor's personal photographer. He is the photographer over at the maclife.com. also has done work for severe

MMA.com. He is Yogurti Dave Fogarty, and he joins us on the phone right now. Dave, are you there? Hi, how's it go on Ariel House, thanks. Dave, it is a pleasure. We've sat next to each other in the media room and things of that nature. Never thought that you'd be an actual guest on the program, but here we are. This fight is so big that even you're getting the rub. Yeah, that's how big it is, even though I'm getting a little bit of airtime.

Okay, now let's clear something up. You told me a little less than two weeks ago that you were actually on the show you called in a few years back this program and you have a crazy story about why you called in can you tell us

can you remind the audience about your first appearance on the program? Yeah the first time I was on the show was after UFC in London went Henningborough for Michael McDonald after he beat him for the

interim band in my title so Dana White was in Ireland doing a Q&A and I just asked him because I put the bell on Henan Barra if he won and he said yes so he gave me a ringside seat

so I got to go in the Octagon at the end of the fight and present Henanborough with his belt. That's crazy. Technically, I was in the Octagon before Connor with the USC belt. But look, we won't get caught up in the fact. So you're actually the second Irishman to step foot inside the Octagon?

Yeah, I'm the second. Connor's the third. That's right. That's right. Tom Egan, number one, then it's number two, you. That's incredible. And so you just got up there and got on the mic and he said yes, and that was it. If I go back on, you know, on FightPass and watch this,

you, the pasty Irish fellow is the one who's actually putting the belt around him? Yeah, I was in there, dappered up to the nice suit on. So I introduced the nice suits as well. So, you know, I kind of copied a lot of stuff in my swag, but we'll let him away with it. Fair enough. How did you get this gig being essentially his personal photographer? Well, like you said, I'm the photographer for themarklives.com. So I've been doing a lot of work for them.

I'd kind of I'd done a lot of stuff in the Irish scene and a lot of the amateur shows I worked for Bama, the promotion. So he kind of had seen my stuff before he kind of knew that I fought as well. He liked my style of photography. He knew I understood the sport,

so he'd asked me a few times to come down and just photograph a few of his sessions and stuff and then I think he realized what a momentous occasion this was going to be, he's going to be the one give the one on Floyd May

with his record, So I think he wanted the whole camp, like, photographed, and just so he could have him for himself and to show his son when they're grown up and just make sure his Instagram was on point. So he just asked me to come down for the first session of the camp, and I said, of course, and I did every session, and then he just asked me to come around the world tour with him,

and he asked me to come to Vegas with him. So I just said yes to everything. So I've just been along for this whirlwind experience. So it's been, I'm over the moon about it. I'm having the time in my life out here. has it exceeded your expectations? I'm sure you had some kind of idea how crazy it would be but now that it's almost wrapping up

what's it been like? Yeah, it's it's been crazy it's definitely exceeded my expectations just watching the whole camp watching how from the first session to his first sparring session to his last baron session just the progression

just seeing how much sharper he's gotten just everything that's gone along with it it's just been amazing and just to be able to say it was part of of history and I got to be here for this camp is something I never thought would happen and yeah it's just been amazing in particular the world tour

going from city to city on the private plane being on the stage there was even a point I remember in Brooklyn where I think you and Floyd kind of got into it together right didn't he say something to you and you kind of set something back to him what A what happened there and B just experiencing all that at the beginning of this journey

what was that like yeah in Brooklyn was was probably the maddest. So I was just taking pictures. Me and Connor talked about doing the book and stuff from this from this all camp. So I was just trying to get as many photographs as I could.

And then Floyd was walking towards me and he was talking, he was kind of looking down. So I thought, oh, if I get down low and look up, this would be a nice photograph. So I took her and then he got in my face and he goes, yeah, I take a picture of greatness. And I kind of froze. I got, I let the moment we get to be. I should have just turned around and taking a picture

of Connor, but I told him I was all right, and I didn't want to take a picture. So he kind of got in my face and he goes, fuck you, and then I go get the fuck out of my face. So that was, that was my claim to fame at the time. But, yeah, I probably let the moment get to me a bit. Um, after the, yeah, that's right, I would, I would say so, um, after this fight is over, like, come Sunday, do you just go back home? And is it going to be hard to go back to regular life? Because I'm, I'm assuming this has just been, I mean, this has been a world one, right? I mean, you're waking up, you're a part of this historic event. What is that going to be like? Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be nice.

to get back home. They've been away now for like seven weeks so it would be nice to get back to reality go back to back into a routine and back to normal life

but it's going to be a lot different than Ireland is a lot different than living out in Vegas for seven weeks with a little like we're living in the coaches house we have everyone here

all the usual names Owen Roddy Ariton Lobos here John Kavan is here the great Jerry Byrne of Jerry Byrne 88 on Instagram they'll kill me if I don't give them that that's a buzz

That's right. It's going to be crazy to go back, but it's going to be mad. The whole word, nothing's going to be the same after this. He's going to knock Floyd out in under four rounds. And then to have those photographs and to be part of the camp, to have to go back to normal life. It's going to be a bit of a shock. But I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to getting home. So it was your photos that kind of started the Polymalingi-Malajie storm, the knockdown and all that stuff. And just looking at, you know, the reaction to the photos. and the likes and the retweets and stuff like that. You were in the middle of it. And as I noted last week, it wasn't Connor who posted the photos.

You posted the photos. I'm assuming you didn't go rogue and do that without any sort of word from the man himself to go out and do this. But to be the one kind of receiving all of those messages, was that suffocating? How did you handle all of that?

I was going. Most of the hate messages came on Twitter and I don't really go on Twitter. So I just go on every few days and look at them and just laugh to myself. the things people were saying and I just found very funny but the photos

a photo is a photo I didn't Photoshop it but I didn't take it out of context it was what it was Connor knocked him down I got a photograph of it Paulie went out and did all his interviews talked about all the things that he said

I kind of didn't have this oh my God power so I thought well I have proof here that he does have this oh my God power so I thought you know this would be a good opportunity we'll put the critics to bed

with silence Paulie just put it out there. So I just put it out, just put it out on Twitter. What did you make of the things that Polly said about the way he was treated and, you know, the living conditions, the way the other sparring partners? I know you're not a sparring partner per se, but did you feel like he was embellishing? Did you feel like he wasn't telling the truth from your perspective, the way you have been treated? Did this not vibe with what Polly was saying? Yeah, I don't know where Polly was coming from.

The living conditions out here are amazing. Unfortunately, the Skype wouldn't work. You had a problem there. So, but I'm here, we have a six bedroom home sitting here by our pool, with jacuzzi. It was actually two jacuzis. So we get our meals are provided for us, anything that we could possibly need us provided to us. Everyone is just so nice and accommodating to us. The USEPI has been amazing to us.

They've opened up their doors. They've even like myself, the training partners, we're allowed to use the facilities. So I thought Pauli was just, I think he was licking his wounds a bit, trying to find something to bring, to bring the, reputations at the campdown. So he was looking at things that couldn't immediately be disproved by saying, oh, the living conditions are terrible. But Pauli was offered his accommodation.

He chose to say with the sparring partners. He stayed in the sparring partner's house. All the other sparring partners have no problem with it. They're all happy with where they are. So I think it was just Paulie looking to lick his wounds a bit and take the reputation at the camp down a small bit. But he can say whatever he wants. He can embellish whatever he wants.

If he thought it was a pushdown, it just goes to show how, just to show how strong the shot landed, that if he thought that he got pushed down, and he doesn't even remember getting knocked down, then it just goes to show. I don't know where he's coming from, but the living conditions out here are great.

We've been treated amazing by everyone, everything has been looked after for us. So I don't know where he's coming from with those comments. Have you been surprised with anything, as far as this experience is concerned, the way Connor looked in training, inspiring things of that nature, anything, you know,

sort of why you said yourself, wow, I did not expect this? No, kind of going into this, I knew, I knew him kind of, like, I've been around him for a few years now. This is the first time I've covered his whole camp, but I've seen him, I've seen him train, it was there for the Diaz one, um, quiet I was there for the second Diaz fight. So I've seen him, and I've seen it quickly, he picks up, he picks up the, um, he quickly, he just lays a focus, whatever he sets his mind to, he just goes out and does. If someone told me he was going to go do tennis, then I was. I'd be like, yeah, no, he'll be able to win.

He just sees a goal, he just focuses 100% on it, and he just goes for it. And nothing really is surprising. All this, what would surprise me at the start was just intimately how good he was doing against boxers. When he was swarring fans and Artham, it was good and he was doing amazing. But once he got in there with pro-boxes, it was just another level. And I think on August 26, you're going to see just how much, how wrong the odds are and how wrong everyone says, like, I'm not. and I lay a glove on him.

They have no idea. They don't see what we see every day in training. Once the world sees that under the lights, they'll know that this isn't an upset. Like when he knocks out Floyd, everyone's gone on the upset. It won't be an upset. It is what it is, and it's going to happen.

He said he's going to knock him out in four rounds and 100% believe that from watching all the train and seeing how much hard work he's put in. But I know he's going to do it. I know he's going to knock him out. It's amazing to hear the confidence from, you know, you and the team because, like, the boxing community is openly mocking,

Connor. They make fun of his training, which is what we're looking at right now. They make fun of the fact that he thinks that he can actually land a punch on Floyd. We never really kind of get that. One guy is just saying, oh, this is going to be over and around, kind of acting like the favorite, and then everyone else around him is laughing at him. It's kind of wild to listen to you say that while the rest of the world is saying he has no chance in hell. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, I don't understand me saying, but I can see everyone,

I've seen all the videos like David Hay put it out. of mocking Conner's warm-up, but just look how fluid and loose Conner is in those videos. Look at any boxer trying to imitate him. Nobody can do it. Nobody can move like he moves. No one can engage individual parts of his body like he can. When he's moving his shoulders, he's just moving his shoulders.

It's not like swinging his arms just just half-hazedly. He's isolating key areas of his body, and he's loosening them up. And that's the bit that's going to surprise Floyd, I think. It's just how he just won't be able to prepare for Conner. You can't prepare for his movement. You can't prepare for his speed, it's timing. Everything is just going to be too much for Floyd.

And, yeah, kind of is going to get the job done. And then, like they say, they mock him now, but they'll be imitating him in a week. And come fight night. What is your role? Where will you be? I haven't actually got a 100% confirmation, but I'm pretty sure I will be in the locker room with Connor

and then I will be ringside. Wow. I get those that. The iconic Muhammad Ali moment as he stands over. as he stands over Floyd. Oh my God, I love it. That's what I'm after area. That's what I'm here for.

Yes, of course. You want the shot. You never find me now. Yeah, that's right. You're going to have to have some sort of little sign or something, Connor, I'm over here. That's right. I need him to look at me now.

By the way, for those that don't know, you actually are a combat sports athlete yourself. You've trained under Owen Roddy. You've competed in the amateur ranks. You haven't quite gone pro yet, right? No, not yet. I am, I'm 11 amateur fights. from seven and four of a silver medal in the IMAF World Championships.

So I competed myself. I'm going to, the world are out in Bahrain in November, so I'm going to give them one more shot, and then I'll be turning pro early next year. Wow. So you are 100% going to go pro? Yeah, I'm, I don't know if anyone's ever seen me. I'm not exactly the broadest of character.

So I'm quite small. So even for 125, I make 125, not a bother. I make it same day way as I wake up at 125. So I'm going to go over to Asia and I'm going to go 1.15. Whoa. See what that looks like. That's fine. Will you be going with the nickname Yogurti Dave Fogarty?

Of course. YDS is a household name out in Ireland area. Everyone knows of Yadie. Is it not true that the legend Sean Sheehan of Limerick coined that phrase, that nickname? There's been a lot of stories been told about who came up with the names. There's two names in the running for it. There is Sean Sheehan is adamant that he can. came up a yoghidi day for ogadi.

But I train in, I train in SPD Charlestown with under coach on Roddy, but I also train in a jih Tzu club, both East Coast Jitsu Academy under Professor Darrow O'Connell. And one of his brown belt, who actually has his own club in East Coast Judiciary Academy, Bray,

Billet, Chris Letty, he coined the phrase originally, but I wasn't there to hear it. He came up with a rap and he called me Yogadi Day for Ogadi in that, but I didn't hear it. So he has a claim to it, but we'll give Sean the benefits of it out. the first one to put it out there. Oh my.

Sean, we'll give it to Sean. You'd crush his soul if you didn't give him full credit for that. I know, I know. I'll give it to him. Sean, Sean came up with it. And is that because of the color of your skin? It has a yogurdy...

I know, I think yoghety rinds of foggdy. I'm probably the whitest human being as it's going. I don't tan. I go white, red, and then white again. So I think it's a combination of a few things, but yeah, it's probably down to me being so pale. And yoghody rind is the only word

that rhymes are foggutie. And what is the rest of the week looking like for you? I mean, this is it. This is the stretch drive. Do you have any idea what's on tap for the rest of the week? So, Tom is still training in a way, so I still photograph all this training sessions. He was doing two days previously, so tapering down the train and a bit getting the weight down. So I'm just that I'm photographing the whole process.

I photographed the Wayans, the media day, his weight cut, and obviously fight night. So for the whole day, he'll be around him when he goes to the event, him warming up in the locker room, and then you're knocking on my brother. Wow. Well, it has been a lot of fun, and I appreciate you squeezing us in, Dave. You know, I know you're very busy and actually kind of was supposed to be on a couple weeks ago, but then got a little too busy. Actually, big-timed us, and typically we band guests who pull off those stunts. But I appreciate you squeezing us in amidst the madness, and it's been fun to watch you side by side, even on stage alongside Connor, flipping the bird, things of all. I mean, it's just been madness.

And I remember, like I said, you sitting next to us in the media room, and now here you are an international superstar. So congratulations on all the success. It's great to hear that you've enjoyed this two-month run alongside T. McGregor, and I've enjoyed the Instagram stories as well. You've been all over the place on social media. Great job. I'll see you out there in Las Vegas.

Thank you, Ariel. And thanks for having me on, and make sure everyone follows me on Instagram. Ginger Beard follows. All right, we will do that. Thank you, David. Logan, I'm on a quest for a blue tick. Oh, good luck with that one. It took me a couple years.

Thanks, Eric. Best of luck. Same to you. Appreciate the time. There he is. The photographer over at the MacLife and Connor McGregor's personal photographer for this fight, Yogherty Dave Fogarty who will be making his pro debut next year, as you just heard. So that is very exciting stuff.

Okay. In a minute, we're going to be joined in studio. So, like I said, back in June when this fight was first announced, we were at the Bellator Media Day and we were talking to Heather Hardy about her fight at MSG. We also got a chance to speak

to the one and only boxing promoter extraordinaire won Lou Debella of DeBella Entertainment and he had some phenomenally entertaining things to say about this fight and actually somewhat surprised me

thought maybe he'd be the old boxing guard who wouldn't like it but was actually very honest and actually quite positive as far as this fight is concerned. So I thought the week before the fight, the Monday before the fight

would be great to have in studio to talk about this fight, how big it is, what it means for boxing, his career, promotion, all that stuff and more. And I do believe he is here. We'll be joined by him in studio in a matter of seconds. This is very exciting. I have long admired Lou DeBella for his work, dating back to his HBO days, launching boxing after dark, and then of course, launching the careers of many great boxers from Polly Malinaghi, now Heather Hardy, Deonti, Walthy, Walthar, as I said, the king of New York boxing, if you will. And I'm not sure, if he'll be in Las Vegas. We'll find out about that. But he did tell me earlier today before we

came in studio that there was supposed to be the solar eclipse and he was upset that he'll be missing it and he was choosing to come on our show instead, which is a huge honor for me. I don't know if it actually happened yet. But anyway, it's better that we're not outside looking at it because I don't want us to get blind. So I believe he is coming in. Here he is. Mr. Lou Debella. How about this? He's actually here. There he is. Lou Debella. What a pleasure. my pleasure. My pleasure. This is great. Good to see, no problem. You're doing this under duress.

No, that's right. I live through one solar eclipse, so you've seen one, you've seen them all. That's right. Did it happen yet? I wasn't looking. Okay. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. And how dark is it going to be? Do you know? I think it's only 70% eclipse in New York, so I don't think it's going to get all that dark. That bling over there is blinding me.

Oh, this is my World Series, right? Wow. I have three of them. You have three of them? Yeah, because Richmond foreign squirrels right here. That's right. We're the AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. I'm president of the team.

You have another team that you own as well. Yeah, I'm also president of the Montgomery Biscuits. How about that? Wow. This is fascinating. The Montgomery Biscuits. That is incredible. So you get a ring even though you're part of the AA affiliate.

Yeah, yeah. Wow. What year is that one? This one is a lot. They got bigger with each championship for the Giants. I think this is the third one. This is 2014. Okay.

And why did you get into minor league baseball? Because I like baseball better than any of the shit. Really? Yeah, pretty much. More than boxing? Yeah, probably. Really? What's your major league team?

Like, you grew up a Yankee fan or a Med fan? I grew up a Met fan. I have my major league team, basically. But, no, no, I actually root. I mean, I root for the Giants. Now I start to root for the race because, you know, you get to know the players and they move on and they move on to the major league team. How long have you been in the business?

It's like, 12, 13 years now. Really? Wow. And how often do you get to go to the games? Not all that often, but I just got back from a trip to both Richmond and Montgomery. I was there over the last like eight to 10 days. I was in both cities. I try to get there pretty regularly.

It's a good counterbalance to boxing, which is certainly not a family-oriented kind of sport. Where, like, minor league baseball is sort of like memory-making business, you know, feel good, families, kids. A lot less negative energy. That's right. And we will get to that in a second. But why Montgomery and Richmond, why not like the New York teams, you know,

are closer to New York? Why such random locales? Well, actually, the Richmond team was originally in Connecticut when I first purchased it. Okay. Except when we were in Connecticut, we were in the middle of a ballpark in an industrial park and no one really came. And then the Richmond market opened up and we were able to move the team to Richmond. Richmond's an unbelievable city.

Okay. A booming city. A big, big market for minor league baseball because it's like one of the bigger markets that doesn't have a professional team. Okay. So, like, Richmond's a great, great city for minor league baseball.

The fans in Richmond are unbelievable. Wow. And we're going to do the same thing in Montgomery. And we're like, you know, we're going to import the culture that we establish in terms of a relationship with the city in Richmond and the people of Richmond.

We're going to, like, move that kind of culture to Montgomery. And I think we'll do well there too. I love that. I'm a big baseball fan. I was an ex-bos fan. They're no longer with us, but I love it. They had a great hat in the old days.

They did, yes. Red, White, and Blues. Somewhere right over there. I wear it every day. Okay, well, we're not here to talk about baseball. We're here to talk about combat sports. And the reason I wanted to end this sort of journey to the fight with you is because we spoke in June. And I just loved your take on it because the old boxing guard was like,

ah, this is a disgrace. How could this be happening? They still are. I'm blown away by some of the rhetoric and, like, you know, I said, I just said this to a writer, Lance Pugmar in the L.A. Times. The idea that somehow this is like runs against a purity or sanctity of boxing, since when has there been any purity or sanctity to boxing? I mean, like, what is it, people want to see this.

That's why it's happening. And it's sort of a one of a kind event. Yeah. There's only one Mayweather. Yeah. You know, he's been sitting off for a while. He's 40 years old. He's never lost.

He's 49. No. He's one of the great fighters of all time. And McGregor is McGregor. You don't have another McGregor in M.A. You don't. There's nobody in UFC other than McGregor like McGregor. I've never seen a guy who's a bigger self-promoter and has a greater ability to, look, he's got people convinced he can win. I mean, that's credit to him, man.

You think he has no chance? No, I think any man getting in there who's powerful and has a punch has a chance. Hard for me to imagine that in a boxing match that he could prevail. but he's got power and he's going to be really unorthodox I mean I haven't seen I haven't really been following all the training footage and stuff

but the little I've seen says to me that he's going to throw some stuff at Floyd that maybe Floyd hasn't seen before yeah you know there's always a danger and when an event gets to this kind of magnitude you tend to inflate that danger like you tend to wonder like what could happen here

right like I think I know the result But, you know, I think Floyd's going to win. Decision? That seems to be... Although, you see the odds? Yeah, well, that doesn't shock me. I mean, look, McGregor, A, it speaks to the strength of McGregor's, you know, like, McGregor's got a great rap, you know.

Right. McGregor's, you know, he's convinced a lot of people he can win because he's convinced he can win. I believe, and that makes it interesting, by the way. The dude thinks he's going to win. Right. I believe he believes he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather. Absolutely.

Right. That makes him more entertaining. to me going in. It makes me more sort of interested. Like, I'm going to go. So you are going? Yeah, I'm going to go. Okay.

Are you going to actually attend it? I'm going to go, yeah. Really? And why did you decide to do this? Because you were kind of on the fence the last time we spoke about this. Yeah, I mean, you know, why not? I have a lot of friends that are going to be there. It's going to be like a convention of the, you know, combat sports industries.

And I'm curious, you know? Like the promotion, look, I have to admit, I was at that shit show in Brooklyn. Yes, you were there. I saw you. But it was entertaining until it got like weirdly at, like, until I felt like I needed a shower. It was really sort of entertaining. And the one in Toronto that I streamed that one. You watched it.

Oh, yeah, that was like, that blew my mind. I mean, it was just like really. 16,000 people outside. It's raining. It was frigging unbelievable. I mean, it was like I'd been to fights that weren't as exciting as that press conference. It's like, you know, I want to go. And also, like, the tickets are free.

Oh, they are? Well, for me. How do you get free tickets? I mean, I don't know, I sort of know Floyd Mayweather. Oh, that's right. You guys are on good terms? Yeah, yeah, we're very cool, yeah. Okay.

How do you feel? So, okay, so there's so much I want to ask you as far as, like, the build-up, the actual promotion of this fight, this is one of those fights that you don't really need to do all that much promotion. I mean, it's Connor, it's Floyd, they're kind of self-promoters. But, you know, just from your perspective, have you, do you think they got it? Do you think it's been hitting all the marks, or do you think that there were some missteps, Brooklyn, for example.

I mean, they probably were never press conferences more widely viewed for any. That alone makes it a victory. I would say so. I mean, there's certainly no lack of awareness. You can't avoid this. Yeah. You know, you just flick the channels through any sports package and like every one of these talking head shows. And, you know, you have like people that never talk about combat sports talking about it constantly.

You know, it's being discussed over water coolers. People don't really, a lot of people aren't sure that it's a boxing match. They don't know whether it's an MMA match or a boxing match or a boxing match or some kind of hybrid. but everyone knows that McGregor's fighting Mayweather. Right. Even people who don't know who McGregor and Mayweather are. They know. Right.

I mean, that's sort of the awareness you want. That's why I don't understand what people say this is bad for boxing. Boxing is being talked about... Boxing's been bad for boxing. The fuck is this bad for boxing. Boxing's been bad for boxing. Bad decisions. Shitty undercards.

I mean, we've... Look, I've been in this industry for most of my life. I mean, literally, like more of my life in boxing than out of it, which is frightening. And by the way, at some point before I don't want to be King and Aram and be 85 or 87, 86, in doing this. I don't. You have an exit plan, baseball. Yeah, baseball. And I mean, I produce some documentaries.

And I like messing around in the film industry a little bit. And look, I don't think I'll, like, totally get out of boxing. It's sort of in my blood a little bit. But I don't want to be the dominant thing in my life. But you say boxing is bad for boxing. No, boxing's been its own worst enemy. I'm not, I don't subscribe to MMA did boxing in or MMA herd boxing bullshit. Right.

They're two very different, you know, sports and disciplines. And maybe 10 years ago, like, I didn't get MMA to the extent I get it. Now, I, I'm not a big fan, I have to admit, but like I don't hate on it. You watch it? Sometimes. Yeah. Like, I never did before. You know, it was weird.

I was like, I was watching Bill Shaw fought somebody. And it was an unbelievable fight. I think the other guy hadn't fought in a while. Dominic Cruz. Yeah, that fight was great. Like, I mean, I don't know much about MMA, but I knew that that was good. And I was watching that. You appreciated it.

I really did. Like, I got it. I got, like, and I saw, like, a lot of stuff in that particular fight that I said, wow. Like, I, you know, there is more, you know, like, I was missing, you know, I think I missed the boat a little bit a long time ago and not understanding the skill that goes into this. Like, there, and that fight really, I found very compelling. You know, I don't watch regularly, but yeah, I watch. And, you know, now I have Heather Hardy, who's competing in Bellator. And I have other women who fight for me that are about to get into MMA.

Who's that? Amanda Serrano wants to test it out. So I think she's probably going to. Okay. And she's won, like, five world championships and five different weight classes in boxing. She's widely considered. She's actually going to try to, you know, tie Delahoy and Paciou and make history. and win a title in her sixth way class, I think, before the year ends.

Okay. Which promotion is she talking to? At the moment, I mean, she's sort of like, you know, talking to a lot of people. Okay. You have to give her the okay. She's friendly with Misha Tade. She's friendly, but I think she's talked to MHATate about maybe managing her. Why don't you manage her in MMA?

I could. You know, I think that that... Why give her to someone else? I think that there are a lot of... I have a promotional contract with her. Okay. And it goes on in a number of years. And, you know, I think that there are illusions that people have right now.

I think people are watching this, MMA athletes as well as boxers. They're watching this event. And everyone's believing that the grass is greener on the other side. Like, everyone thinks there's like, you know, some giant windfalls out there to be had. Maybe to some extent, because of the success of Ronda Rousey and Holly Holme, Misha Tate, and Chris Cyborg, others, that MMA's been kinder to women that get to the ultimate level

than women's boxing's been to women who win championships and still can't pay the bills. So I understand more of the, you know, why women are taking a good look at MMA right now because they see potentially greater opportunities. But I think when they go out there and they fish around and they really look at what's out there, they'll see that it's, you know, neither path is necessarily a paved than gold.

So, okay, we went in a lot of different directions there. I want to get back to my original point, which was, I actually believe boxing has had a better year than the UFC slash MMA. I believe that boxing is producing the fights that people want to see, producing more entertaining fights. The UFC, for whatever reason, since its sale, has actually hit a bit of a rough patch. I think this has been a phenomenal year for boxing. Do you disagree?

There been some very good fights in boxing. Even this past weekend, Terrence Crawford? I mean, DeAnne, the other guy didn't have a shot. All right. I mean, like, Terrence Crawford's a great fighter. It's worth watching. Good showcase. Yeah.

You can't complain about a guy totally unifying. In a boxing with too many belts. There's like, you know, there's four major organizations, and, you know, there's, and then some of them have sub-champions, and there's champions out the wazoo. I mean, Crawford just totally unified a weight class. Yeah. And really proved his, you know, just how good he is. and he's very, very, very good.

So, yeah, you know, and look, Goloffkin's fighting Canelo Alvarez. That's a terrific fight. You know, Thurman fought Garcia. That was a terrific fight. Errol Spence, Fort Kellbrook. There have been good fights all over the world, Joshua Clitchco. Yeah, but boxing's demographics keep getting older. And, you know, you could say, you know, you've had a good year.

And for the purest and the hardcore fan, We probably have, but we continue to make stupid mistakes, and they continue to be bad decisions on major televised fights or on fights that are widely watched. The demographics continue to get older. We're not attracting enough new fans. I think there's been a lot of takes on boxing on free TV. But one of the things it has done a little bit

is make it more accessible to younger people. When you have the events starting at 12.30 a.m. often or midnight, you're not a lot of kids watching boxing with their dad or their mom as a case may be. Right. I think boxing has had a good year

in terms of making more of the big events. Last year was a hard year. So we really came out of darkness and into some bit of light in terms of bigger fights happening. But in some ways, I don't think we've gone into the 21st century enough in terms of how it's presented.

I think we've got to do a better job attracting new fans because as an industry, as a sport, boxing continues to become more marginalized. And there's too many pay-per-views. Too much pay-per-view. Only so many times I think people want to go in their pocket and, you know, this event Saturday night is sort of a freakish event.

It is what it is and people want to see it because they want to see it because there's never been this inter-sitor kind of disciplinary kind of match-up and, you know, McGregor's done such a great job, honestly, on his end of promoting the event and promoting... I actually think it's worked out pretty well for the UFC

because, you know, in a way now, I'm starting to come to conclusion. It's almost like a no-lose proposition. Why do you believe that? I was actually going to ask you, do you feel surprised that the UFC allowed him to do this? Originally I was, but then when the magnitude became clearer to me and how much money it was, I actually thought a while back it wouldn't happen because, you know, the probability would be Mayweather would win and the boxer would beat the mixed martial artist.

You know, now it's sort of concluded I don't think it matters. Because if the boxer beats the mixed martial artist, a lot of people are going to say, well, it was boxing. Right. Dummy is supposed to beat him. Right. And to a degree, I think that's like that's sort of true. I also think that McGregor is going to go out there believing he can win and he's going to try to do some unorthodox stuff. He's going to try to hurt Mayweather. He's going to try to find them.

He's going to try to hit him. He's going to try to hurt him. That's more than Pacquiao did when they fought. Like I, if you wind up buying this event and watching this event, in a weird way, I don't think there's any way it could be worse than the ring than Mayweather Packia was. Sure. That bar is very low, though. Yes, but it's still a bar. Sure, sure. You know, I mean.

So some believe that there was a trickle-down effect, that that fight kind of hurt boxing for a year or so. Do you fear that there might be a trickle-down effect if this one ends up being a dud? No. No. Because, like, people will. Like, this doesn't hurt Canello, Triple G two weeks later. Well, I mean, maybe it hurts it because a lot of people are going to spend $100.

Yeah. And they have to worry about the money they would spend on Canello and Triple G. The boxing fan, the hardcore boxing fan, which, By the way, the promoters of Canello and Triple G hope that they're going to, you know, go beyond the hardcore fan because it's such a good matchup. Sure, sure. But the hardcore fan's going to watch anyway. Okay. And a real boxing fan's going to watch anyway.

It's just a great matchup. The economics may be an issue for people who have to make that kind of decision. You know, it's $100 or whatever it is to watch this coming weekend. And then they're going to hit you up for another, you know, with a $70 or $80. Sure. A couple of weeks later, you know, not everyone could keep... into their their pocket that way. But no, I don't think like what happens in the ring

and how the fight goes down. I don't see that hurting Golochkin and... Or any other fight. Or no, because it's an MMA guy fighting Floyd Mayweather. It's not... I don't see how this is going to hurt boxing. And if you would have asked me like a year ago... What if Floyd loses?

Yeah, that's not good. You think that's bad? I mean, it doesn't help. Yeah. Some motherfucker that never, like, got into a boxing ring before, ever. I mean, he's a striker, and he's got power. Yeah. And in fairness to the Nevada commission, because I also don't believe that they were wrong.

Like, I don't, I mean, I don't think, like, all these people would be critical, how do they license the fight? I mean, McGregor's been in the ring a bunch of times. I mean, he's, like, not a boxing ring, but he's been in combat, you know, many, many, many, many times. And, you know, I don't see, like, they're being dead. dangerous in any kind of sense. But if he beats him? If he beats him, it doesn't help.

How the fuck get to help boxing? Seriously. Like how, that's not good for boxing. Oh my God. If one of the best fighters who's ever lived loses to some, you know, patted up dude who's got a great rap

and never been in a boxing ring before by knockout, because that's the only way it's going to happen after that dude predicts a knockout, no, that's not great for boxing, but I don't expect that to happen. How do you feel about the Nevada athletic commission allowing eight-ounce gloves for 154 fight you know people the whole glove thing is

uneducate people are uneducated okay educate us but in some ways like a bigger glove you might get cut more easily with a small glove or whatever but but the conclusive nature of punches is the snap in your head and your brain moving and hitting your skull and the size of the glove is sort of somewhat irrelevant than I think. I mean, I frankly a lot of... That at 154 you wear 10 ounces and for this fight, which you can argue should, you know, they should be a little more conservative than not,

that they dropped it down? I don't think, I really don't think it matters. I don't think it's... You don't think that this will set a dangerous... From the neurologist I've spoken to, and people have talked over the years, I don't think it's a health and safety issue. Okay.

And, I mean, arguably, I guess you would believe it would be an advantage for Connor, the smaller glove, you'd think. Yeah. He's used to fighting with no gloves. Yeah. Really? Four ounce.

Well, excuse them. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Sure, sure, sure, sure. Well, you're sitting and worried about 80 ounces and it's half of that. Right, right. I'm not worried, but everyone's up in arms.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I don't think that. I mean, I don't think that matters. I don't give a fuck about what happened when he sparred somebody. Yeah. So let's talk about it. You know, Polly. Yeah.

What's your relationship like with him? We're cool. We're good. We're good. You once promoted him. I once promoted him. And then we were not good. We're fine.

Cordial? Yeah, yeah. How do you feel about that whole thing? Them releasing the footage. I mean, you know, they're releasing the footage, they're promoting a fucking event. They don't give a fuck about Polly.

They don't like, no, Polly's not their friend. Polly doesn't hang out with Connor McGregor. No. I mean, I think he got bit on the ass a little bit, maybe. Oh, so? Well, I get it's like, I'm not necessarily,

I don't want to get in the middle of this shit because I think it's like, first of all, I think who gives a fuck, it was sparring. Right, right. It was sparring. A lot of shit happens in sparring. Right.

Okay. But, you know, I think there's some kind of expectations, usually that what goes on in sparring sort of stays there. Yeah, yeah. Did they cross a line by putting this out there? Yeah, but they're crossing a much bigger line into a whole fucking different sport. So it gives a shit. They're trying to make money. They're trying to promote something.

You know, Connor, like, the footage looked good for Connor that was released. It's like eight seconds, though. Well, yeah, exactly. But it didn't, like, I mean, they're trying to sell a pay-per-view. Right. Now, do I understand why Paulie, you? may have found it like, you know, to be a sort of like a burn on him. Yeah.

He went there sort of to help out and whatever. And then he wound up getting embarrassed. And, you know, like anybody that's ever had success in anything, Pauley's got a big ego. Sure. And, you know, I could get his being upset. Was it a knockdown or a put here it is right here. Was it a knockdown or a push? What do you think?

I mean, it, what do you think? I think that if it was a real fight, they would have called it a knockdown. You think so? Yeah, because there was like something connected. But was he like, Psh, yeah. You know, was he like friggin stretched out and like, you know, face first

or like on his back and couldn't move? No, I mean, if you watch it, it's clearly he's a little bit off balance and whatever. But, I mean, Conn McGregor stood over a guy that had a pretty damn good boxing career and he got to release that footage and it made a lot of people talk

and even the, all the bullshit between, you know, Paulie and the McGregor camp afterward, it just kept, you know, gave another sort of storyline for people to talk about it. It probably didn't hurt the magnitude of the event. Polly says he wants the fight now. With McGregor?

I'm sure he would. St. Patrick's Day, Barclay Center? Yeah, I mean, like... You think it happens? I think he could do a million and a half pay-per-views easy. After all this buzz? Well, then, I mean, if you're right, it happens. But if you're right, it's going to happen.

Money talks. Yeah. If Connor wins, do you think he sticks around in boxing? Fuck yeah. Really? You think the UFC would want that? Because they make more money with him in the UFC, right? Well, they're also going to have an issue.

Look, if Connor wins, he's going to make a lot of money whatever the fuck he does. Sure, sure. If he wins, he'll make a lot of money in boxing. If he wins, he's going to make a lot of money in UFC. He's going to make a lot of money. If he decided to, like, go talk to, you know,

Stephanie McMahon and the whole crew over there, he'd make a lot of money there too. I mean, if he wins, he's going to be printing money. Right. You know, not to mention the fact that if he wins, you'd have a, you know, a rematch that would be of, like, incredible. magical

The funny thing about the sparring session is I've said this like if you talk to a fan or a person who knows nothing about sports

and just try to explain them this whole Polly story, they think that we've lost our minds that we're like spending so much time

talking about push, knock down, the whole thing is pretty stupid to have a sparring set, it's a fucking

sparring session. It's a sparring sparring. Yes. Look it up. It's sparring. Right. But people are

actually putting stock into this. They're like, wow, I've changed my opinion. Then they should go to batting practice and then leave before the game.

That's right. That's right. There's no stock in this. Okay. And does it happen? And you know, some of what's going to determine whether it happens. Yeah. Might be what happens in this and, you know, in McGregor and Mayweather.

Right. If it's really entertaining and McGregor loses, and, you know, there's, and you really believe it could do it, if McGregor doesn't hurt himself in the loss, if he goes in there and he makes it entertaining for as long as the fight goes. Yep. Maybe you see a malinaggy match, and maybe you see him continue to box. Right.

You know, if he has a good showing against Floyd Mayweather, then maybe he's a better box than we all think. Now, what about the actual card itself, from your perspective? Because boxing promoters in the past have been sort of vilified for Dana White himself, said, oh, you make a main event, the rest of the card sucks. Did they put together? Well, you had an example of that the other night, too.

Yeah. I mean, the... Crawford? Yeah. I mean, it was just not compelling anything that led up to it. What about this one? But we've done that, by the way, that's a big problem in the boxing overall. Absolutely.

And this one, like, you know, the fight with Cleverley and BaduJack should be a good fight. You know, Badu Jack is a boxing champion. Cleverley is a guy that's at the highest level. That should be a good fight. Chavante Davis is one of the better young fighters out there. I think he should win the fight he has pretty handily. But it's an opportunity to see a guy that some people think down the line, you know, has the potential to be a big, big, big star. You know, it's not, it's not bad on the card.

It's not. Yeah. Okay. They're also going to be on Fox. I'm just curious from your perspective, so many more eyeballs, new eyeballs, MMA fans. You know, we wouldn't be talking about this card if it wasn't an MMA guy in it. I was wondering if you... Well, you know, Floyd is also Floyd promotes Trivante.

Yeah, of course. So it's a natural for just a good business move for Floyd To make sure his guy looks like King Kong Right And he's going to, I mean it's going to be I expect Davis to knock his opponent out and look pretty good doing it Okay And I don't think it's going to be boring because watching a guy knock another guy out usually isn't

Right You know the cleverly jack fight makes sense on a lot of different levels Cleverly being from the UK Where this fight's going to have a lot of Yeah Glegs anyway And that's going to help I think with the the traditional boxing fan over in the UK to see the cleverly badwood track fight.

It means nothing wrong with the undercard. Would I buy the undercard as a pay-per-view without the main event? No, but it's an undercard. Sure. But it's not one of the... I mean, there have been some undercards previously that have been just heinous. Right. No, this is, you know, there's one significant, very good fight.

There's one young, extremely talented fighter in another match. That's a credible match. There's nothing wrong with it. Paperview record 4.6, right? Does it beat it? Not sure. Do you think it gets close? Oh, I mean, yeah.

I mean, look, my intuition tells me it beats it because of just the magnitude of this. Just how, like, you can't sort of escape this. Sure. You can't change, like, any moment of the day, you know, go through your cable or satellite remote and someone's talking about this or something. is in front of you about this.

And then just the number of people that are talking about this of both sexes, not only MMA fans, not only boxing fans, just general sports fans, because everybody else is talking about it. It's an event. It's not a boxing match. It's an event. Yeah.

It's close to also beating the gate record. Are you surprised about that? Because there were some people who said that they overpriced the tickets. You see this talk? They haven't sold out. Last word I heard, they still had 1,200 tickets left. I mean, it's still. When your ticket price,

to start at $10,000 and go down to what's the lowest price ticket, $2,500 or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to do a huge gate, you know. Yeah, I mean, I'm not like, and I'm not shocked. This thing is big. Right. You mentioned 10 years ago how you felt about MMA, and of course, MMA fans, I remember it was a Friday afternoon before UFC 71.

I mean, come on with that shit. It was 10 fucking years. Yeah, but I want to know, do people... By the way, that you just... Your sports also changed in 10 years. I just, because I'm talking about the sports center. No,

I'm trolled on that fucking interview constantly by these douchebags. Like, grow, well, fuck enough. But why? But why? What did you do that was like,

why, what's troll worthy? I don't really know. I mean, I saw an argument of you from some years ago with you. Yes. I thought it was far more trollworthy. That's right.

Where he was out there calling the white supremacist. Yes. Yes. Like, I mean, I mean, you know. Yes.

Um, you just had a debate. I mean, we had a debate. Joe Rogan. I was sort of, like, you know, that would... How did you even get the call to do that debate? I don't know.

I got, I just got the call and it was like, I don't know. You regret doing it? No, not really. I didn't give a shit. I watched it last night. It was very entertaining. I mean, I don't really regret doing it. I mean, and at that moment in time, I think it sort of reflected how I did feel.

Right. And I want to tell you something. I did, in the early days of, like, UFC and when MMA started really, you know, the fatitas got into it. it started getting out there to more eyes. It was a lot more savage. It did look a lot. You feel like it's gotten cleaned up a bit? I feel it's cleaned up a little bit.

Yeah. And I also feel like, yeah. And maybe I've just also gotten used to it. You know, I don't know. There's one line in that where he says, you know, you're just someone who's taking this also personally. Of course you're taking it personally. It's your line of work.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't actually feel like you misrepresented yourself or the sport. No, I really don't. I don't really give a fuck either. I mean, I'm trolled about it. Okay. I'm more amused at this point that people are still talking about it 10 years later.

I've never had another fucking conversation with Rogan about either sport. I'd like to see you guys come together. I would do a show. I think it'd be fucking amusing. But I'll be honest with you. I don't think they'd be like, to each his own. You know what I mean? I'm never going to love the grappling part of MMA.

It doesn't mean I don't appreciate that there's a tremendous skill to making somebody tap out, to knowing how to bring someone to the ground, to knowing how to defend, being brought to the ground. Like, I get those things. Okay, but there's aspects of it I just don't like, viscerally. And I'm never going to like. I've been conditioned for, I'm not a, you know, I'm a 50-something-year-old guy.

I've been watching boxing since I'm six, seven years old. Right. You know, I'm, you know, like, that's the combat sport that, you know, I've been involved in for all these years, and I've been watching since I was a kid. And I don't enjoy the, the, the, part of it. I don't like the strikes when a guy is on the ground.

And again, it doesn't mean, I'm not demeaning what's being done. No, I know. You know what I'm saying? I'm not like criticizing people that dig it. But I just, like, it's just sort of like a part of me that, you know. I just want you to know that I enjoyed it. I don't want you to have negative feelings towards it.

No, I really like, you know, I don't. Did you get crap from the boxing community or is it more the MMA fans trying to pilot on you? No, no, the boxing community, I don't really get any shit for them. Yeah, okay. So that's all you care about anyway. No, that's not true. Really at all? I mean, first of all, I get trolled by the boxing community.

Really? Yeah, because like there's a, first of all, boxing is very factionalized now. Okay. From like networks to like, you know, if you, you know, I've, I've promoted a lot of fights for the premier boxing champions, you know, thing that Al Heyman created. And I promoted a lot of really, really good events. But like the criticisms I've gotten have been like crazy. But like, you know, people are entitled. In terms of what?

About that model? The model, who gives a fuck? If you're seeing a good fight, you're seeing a good fight. What does it matter? What does it matter? Yeah. I mean, I don't really, like, what do you care about the model? What do you care about the, what you should care about is competitive matchups.

You should care about entertainment. This is the entertainment industry. You know, boxing is, MMA is. Right. Saturday night, next Saturday night is. Do you like the MMA model as opposed to the boxing model? Do you feel like that's a more sustainable model, a healthier model? Basically, MMA is more like pro wrestling, right, where you have different leagues,

everyone's under contract with that league as opposed to boxing where you have different promoters. You know, but then you get into aspects. Again, I'm not here to talk about the stuff, but you're going to into aspects of fairness. Yeah. You get into aspects of fair pay. Yeah. You get into aspects of not legal monopoly or legal, but legally, because clearly there's not a, I might want to get into it with the heart. I'm not to law school, so I'm a lawyer.

Yeah. I don't think that there's any, but like, you know, there's UFC in a very dominant position. Sure. Boxing's at a huge disadvantage. I don't want to get into what's a better. If you're the athlete, the model is probably better for the boxer, the paradigm. Yep, yep, yep. But as an industry, the model is better for MMA.

Why do you think that there's an ALE act for boxing, but not for the MMA? No, that's absurd. There should be an ali act for... Why do you think that is? We've gone this far. The sport is here. Because when they wrote... MMA...

it's really had its great popularity over the last decade. Right. So it's, you know, if you go out, State Athletic Commission rules, by the way, were written before TV was the primary factor, and they haven't changed. I mean, so like, you know, wise, yeah, no, there should absolutely be an ali act that,

if there's going to be an ali act that covers boxing, there should be one that covers MMA. Do you suspect that there will be one soon? I don't know. The word is that the UFC has sort of lobbied against it. The UFC has tremendous, you know, money and tremendous power. Yeah.

they didn't help me certainly with lobbying in the insurance industry and lobbying with respect to getting UFC okay to New York has that killed your business well locally it's it's hurt the ability of any promoter in New York to do smaller shows in New York because of insurance requirements that somehow changed for an MMA bill yeah and again I'm not blaming I wasn't there so I have no one to blame I'm not pointing fingers but why didn't why did these insurance requirements change change change in an MMA bill.

Right. And then also they, you know, I don't know, I don't get it, but it's made it difficult to promote. There's no central authority in boxing. There are ratings organizations that have their own agendas that hand out belts, and they do so a lot of them pretty indiscriminately. I mean, there are four different championships

at each way class, but there are, some of the organizations have multiple titles, interim titles, silver titles, you know, all sorts of belts. I mean, but you don't have a commissioner of boxing. You don't have, you don't even have standardized medicals. But I don't think you have that for MMA either. But think of the fact for neither sport, and this is to me pretty savage.

In the United States, there is no standardized medical requirements for combat sports. It's fucked up. You know, certain states you need, you need MRIs and CAT scans done on a regular basis. other states, all you need is blood work in an eye test. And you could have been concussed in your last 10 fights. You know, you could get knocked out 10 times in a row and go to certain jurisdictions in the United States and get licensed to box. That's a problem. You know, the health and safety stuff, there should be across the board, uniform, medical, you know, requirements and standards, you know, in my mind for any combat sport, and they should be uniform across all 50 states.

What was your reaction when you heard that they sold for $4.025 billion? But they made a great fucking deal. Were you surprised? That's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. Do you think it's worth it? I don't know. I mean, I asked the bondholders.

Right. I don't know. That's a big number. That's more than any sports team in North America. I mean, it's an unbelievable. Look, I never criticize people for making a great deal. Sure, sure, sure. They made a great deal.

I was just curious if you were actually blown away by it. I thought it was a huge number. Right. And then when I look now, and I've heard that, I guess, the bonds are so strong, you know, they paid an awful lot of money. But that's also reflective of the success that the UFC had. And, you know, kudos to them for being able to build it into an asset that they could sell for $4 plus billion. Have you ever met Dana White? Yeah.

Yeah. Your relationship with them? I mean, cool. I mean, we're not good friends, but, like, I could, I mean, you know. I can talk to Dana, yeah. We're cordial and cool. How do you feel about his promoting skills? He's good.

Yeah. Yeah, he's a real promoter. I mean, in the terms of, you know, like, he's, you know, he has a passion for MMA. I think I have a passion for boxing, whatever criticisms, and people want to give me. I think you need that kind of passion to be a good promoter. You know, the UFC needed a face guy, an out-front guy. Yeah. I think that's part of the problem with boxing also is that the industry doesn't have a face guy.

Each promoter sort of is to a degree. There has to be some cult of personality around, like Bob Aram, certainly, he's getting older now, but Bob was a great, great promoter King is sort of as one foot in and one foot out. At this point, he's in his mid-80s. Why doesn't Haman ever speak? Why is he so shy? I don't know about a shy. I think that's who he is.

That's his style. He's never been a guy that's been out there. Does that go against everything that a promoter? Well, it's not, but he's not a promoter. He's legally a manager. And maybe, you know, look, I've worked heavily with the PBC, but maybe if I was going to make, you know, working with someone respecting them, being friendly with them,

doesn't mean that you can't look at something and say, okay, maybe I would have done this a little bit differently. Yeah. Maybe the PBC you needed somebody more out in front. Is it done? No, I don't think it's not. So why don't they make you that guy? It's not a decision I make.

You know, I've gotten the opportunity. Okay. Heyman's my friend for 19 years. Yeah. Okay. What guy? Yeah, I think he's a really good guy. Okay.

Like, I think he's a good guy and I like the guy a lot. And I don't let, you know, people don't tell me where I make my friendships or who to like. Is it true he doesn't use email and things like that? He's just a very, like, private guy and he's very like old school. He doesn't even like, you know, he prefers to use a landline, you know, to a cell phone unless he has to. That's incredible. He's not the kind of guy that, that, that, that, that, that. that does a lot of stuff on paper.

Okay. A lot of his relationships are very, and I guess this speaks to some extent that he's got a lot of people he's done business with for a very long time, a lot of relationships that have lasted a very long time, and, you know, a sphere of people that he trusts. Look, you know, I didn't raise the money.

I didn't, and I didn't, that's not my thing. I've had the opportunity as a result of it to promote some great fights and to work with some great fighters. And I'm not going to apologize for that. I'm not going to be sorry for that. And I think that I've been able to, you know, I get these constant jabs about, like, you know,

being somebody's bitch or whatever. And, you know, being somebody's mouthpiece. Anyone who knows me knows I'm nobody's mouthpiece other than myself. Right. I'm not a mouthpiece for anybody. But that being said, you know, UFC sort of needs a mouthpiece. And Dane has filled that function. and

promoters who are successful need to be mouthpieces and not mouthpieces for somebody else but for representative of the event of the industry of the fighter that they're fighters that are competing there needs to be narratives

and storylines and shit that writers can write about and guys like you can talk about yeah yeah and I think that's why UFC was made a wise decision and having Dana out front, and I think Dana's pretty good at it. In your opinion, greatest promoter of all time.

P.T. Barnum, but if you want to get it talking about... Sure, I know. If you want to talk about boxing. Combat sports. Combat sports. You know, boxing, you'd have to look at King and Aram. Okay. I'm not necessarily in love with, you know,

the way either one of them has... done business or been if you view the guys that are the biggest powers in an industry is having a responsibility for the industry or the sport then i think they both failed okay but if you view people are just having responsibility to themselves and their companies you're there to make money then they were they were the in my mind the two best king um had more of that sort of theatrical pt barnum thing and not as in my mind as as as good a business guy as arum was Okay. But a bigger celebrity than most of his fighters.

Right. As is Dana to a degree. You can make a case that... You can make a case that Dana is also. Right. But Dana's sort of a different situation, too. Dana started out with a huge checkbook. I mean, you know, the guy, I guess he knew the Fatis Forever or whatever,

and the money was there behind them. In terms of most boxing promoters, they started their own businesses and it was there, Brett. It wasn't somebody else's... Okay. I'm not detracting it all from. No, I understand. And by the way, certainly Dana holds a lot of the credit for the growth of that business. And, you know, if you're the out front guy and, you know, you go from something that was losing money to selling your company for four plus billion dollars, the outfront guy has done a pretty decent job.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Las Vegas for the Open Workouts, and Leonard Ellerberg, who's typically like, you know, he's kind of, I don't want to say he's vanilla, but he doesn't, you know, he kind of stays on script. I was talking about the negativity in boxing and how tired he was, getting phone calls. You know what, like, I don't blame. I mean, I'm not involved in this event, but the hypocrisy of shit I'm reading and seeing other people. What bothers you? I bothered, like, this crap, like people going out there with manifestos. Like, the Delo, I don't want to, I already like blast.

I put them on blast when my collar was fucked up on that video. It's a great interview. It's a great interview, except like I want. I watch it now. That tells you, right? Yeah, because I looked like... How did you mess that up? Because you had a button here and then you went here, right?

You went like this? I had a long night the night before I did that interview. My glasses weren't on when I buttoned my shirt. And I buttoned my fucking collar to my like top button. And like... I didn't even notice until you mentioned it. Yeah. I was locked in.

Well, I didn't notice until someone like the second or third comment to your interview was like the dude's shirt looks like the fucks the matter with the dude's shirt with this guy like a, you know. But anyway, you went off on him. Yeah, but like, I mean, I don't really want to go off from another thing again. Did you ever hear from him after that? We don't talk. But what's the beef there? Is it because he said mom and pop?

That you were a mom and pop? Richard Schaefer actually said the mom and pop thing. When he was part of Golden Boy. Yeah, but fuck that. I mean, and by the way, I think that's a compliment. Like, if I could sustain 20 years, you know, almost 20 years as a promoter. Yeah. After all the time I had as a TV guy, but I could sustain that with a mom and pop business being,

I'd say at this point I'm pretty much world known in my industry I mean absolutely okay so that's good pretty good mom and pop business you know I don't know man I don't know man I don't think I threw out the first blasts in that thing

and Oscar and I had a good relationship when I was a TV executive and he's a fighter I don't really want to look the guy's got some demons and everybody's got you know I don't criticize people for their demons because you know who doesn't have issues in their life

Right. I think the guy's a bit of a hypocrite, and I'll just leave it at that. Okay. And I don't think he's very real. Okay. Hypocrat in general? Yeah, in general. Not about this particular fight.

Yeah, I just think he's the kind of, yeah, I think he's a, yeah. Okay. I think that he's the last person that should be holier than that. Yeah. So this idea that where he was saying to people like, ignore the fight, boycott the fight. Okay, but he was also saying put Canello Alvarez in the fight. It'll be bigger than Floyd Mayer. And Aaron was saying put Paci out.

And I was saying put Paco in the fight. And, you know, Aram also said yesterday, I was lying today, I'm telling the truth. I mean, you know, there's no fucking sanctity or purity to boxing. Boxing has always been the wild, wild west. Yeah. I mean, I love boxing. And I love the purity of two people, you know, mono and mono or woman and woman getting in there. And it's not necessarily the better athlete that wins.

Often it's the one with the bigger heart, the person that's sustained. more punishment, the person that has no quit in them. There's a poetry to boxing. There's a theater to boxing that can make it very beautiful. There's also a lack of any kind of appropriate self-regulation. There's terrible judging with regularity where the politics of boxing dictate the outcome of a fight. And I could literally pull three, eight-year-old.

and sit them in the judge's seats. And I don't care about the score cards round by round, which is sort of antiquated way to, the whole system of writing the little thing in a paper hand. I mean, we gotta get, maybe would things be a little easier if you made believe you were in the 21st century? Yeah, yeah.

But you can put three eight year olds around a ring and just ask him who won the fight. And I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna agree with the three eight year olds more often than I'm gonna agree with the judging and fights. There are some excellent, excellent judges. There are also some judges who are completely, you know, either so inept or so easily co-opted as to be completely ridiculous. You know, there's judging that's, that's ridiculous. And also, here's another thing to, like, judges, okay?

There's no standardized, like, accommodations or whatever. So, like, if you put a judge at the four seasons and you let him, you pay for his family's airfares. and you treat him like he's a celebrity, as opposed to having the judge staying at a B-class hotel with the rest of the people. Judges in boxing aren't treated like referees or umpires or standard-eye stuff that exist in major sports. So in boxing, boxing, there's a level that it's sort of like inherent corruption.

It's not corruption in the sense of someone, buying a result, but you know certain things you can do if you play the game, you know, to affect the result. And, you know, that sort of sucks. So in this fight, the referee Robert Byrd is getting 25,000. The judges are getting 20,000. That ties the record for Mayweather-Pack-Yout. Do you feel like that's enough?

I know that that's- Yeah, that's enough. Yeah? With the amount of money that's on the line? It gives a shit. They're judging. They're refereeing. But that's important.

Yeah, so what? But you pay them more? For what? I don't know. The third man in the ring? I kind of feel like he deserves a little more, no? I don't know. I mean, like, I think that sounds like a fair night's work for me. Okay. You know? But also, you know, in this event, too, it's a, you know, the promotion. What if it's on that same kind of thing?

What if Canelo or somebody else who's a superstar is fighting a guy who's not? It's just, a guy earns a shot and he's getting a fight. Sure. The promoter of the event is the one paying the judges and the referees. So why would you ever want, like, for example, Canello, who's a star, or Mayweather, who's a star, or, you know, those are best. A pack, you know, Paci really is no longer there. But the guy, use Canelo Alvarez as an example. Yep.

Okay. You want to pay the referee a record number. You want to pay the judges more. why would those referees and judges ever fucking want canello alvarez to lose absolutely but isn't it the commission no stop right there you said absolutely wait then why would you honestly they really should probably get the same kind of standardized pay for a big event that they would normally get because like

if you're gonna that that's how you build in what I'm talking about that that that thing that I'm calling an inherent yeah yeah sort of like underlying sort of like co-option or or corruption's not quite the right word but yeah what you're saying but there's an economic incentive to every judge and referee man I'd like to be assigned to that guy's fight if they're gonna get the judge or the referee's gonna get a record record pay because that guy such a star but it creates in at least in the back of that person's mind or in the recesses of them the understanding that the success of that particular

athlete that's justifying these huge numbers to the referees and the judges, that success continuing means potentially more big pay days for referees and judges. But isn't the commission paying them? What? Isn't the commission paying them? No, no. Mayweather promotions is paying them?

Yes. Wow. The commission may, no, the commission set the number. The number. But the pay. Yes. That's a conflict of interest. No shit.

I mean, not so much in this. I mean, this fight of those, it's McGregor, it's, and Mayweather, it's UFC and boxing. I don't think that they're writing the check, the amount was set by the commission. But the point I make it too is in a different situation, you know, in a different situation where there's a knowledge that more money can be made or with one particular guy. There is sort of elements of a conflict of interest. A boxing promoter told me today, who shall remain nameless, that they were not a fan of the decision. to put Robert Byrd as the referee because he's old, he's 74, this may be a dirty fight.

Are you familiar with Byrd? He's a good referee. You're okay with it? He's a good referee. I mean, I can understand. 74 is pretty old. I could understand the argument, but then you're also going to age discrimination and all sorts of shit. And they wanted someone probably that, you know, there's not, Bird knows what he's doing.

I could see. This is going to be a physical fight. I could see the point that that promoter was making to you about the physicality, the potential physicality of the fight. Also, it's easy to see how things could get a little bit out of hand in this particular kind of fight. McGregor's an uncharted land. I mean, this is a real fight. It's not a sparring session.

Sure, sure, sure. The bell rings, he's there, and there is a full arena, full of people that paid a fortune. And his instincts as an athlete, as a combat sports athlete, have been to use kicks, elbows, you know, take down methods. submission holes, et cetera, et cetera. In the heat of the moment or after being hit, if he's hit and stunned or whatever, can you see a situation where even without, like, overtly making a decision,

he would, something would, like, cause him to, you know, physically do something that the average boxer wouldn't. You could see that. So maybe the argument is, in that particular, this particular matchup, you'd be better off with a more physical, physically strong. But bird's not a frail, like, guy. And, you know, it's not like he's 94.

Right. You know what I mean? And like now there are a lot of people in their 70s are in pretty damn good shape. Sure, sure. Like, I don't think that, I don't think birds going to be an issue. Okay.

Just curious, so you went to Harvard. Law school. Law school, excuse me. Cuffs University. Yep. 11 years at HBO. Yeah. You essentially one day said to someone, an executive, like, go F yourself.

Yeah, pretty much. And then you started your own promotional company. You were involved with launching, boxing after dark. I mean, you were there. I probably wouldn't have started my own promotional company if I wasn't forced to. Right. Actually, when I left, like, I... We're planning on staying at HBO, right?

Yeah, well, when you tell the chairman of a company, go F himself, you're likely not going to stay. I mean, and I didn't get fired, but, like, that pretty much fractures a relationship. Sure. So what do you mean, you wouldn't have started? your own promotional. When I left, I made a deal to leave, and part of the deal that was made was, you know, will stake you in the boxing business. Okay.

I really honestly might have made a complete... What would you have done? Probably like some of the stuff I'm already doing. Okay. And it didn't turn out to work out particularly badly for me. Okay. Because I was able to continue my involvement in a very high level, but I've been able to do a lot of things. I mean, I, you know. I've produced films. I've

executive produced films. I've been in a few films. I've published some books through my company for other people, friends of mine who are writers and stuff I believed in. I've been, you know, I run two minor league baseball. It's not bad for a mom-and-pop company. No, not bad for a mom. But it still is a mom-a-pop company. I mean, it's my, you know. Do you have seven employees? Yeah, seven, yeah. That's incredible. Yeah.

Well, if you go down to Richmond, we have a big group. And also, like, I have people that work for me in Richmond and Montgomery, like in management who are really top baseball, in moderately baseball, people who really know what they're doing, too. How do you feel about the state of HBO? Did you ever foresee that Showtime would be putting on, and maybe you disagree, but it seems like Showtime has surpassed them in terms of being the powerhouse? I think Showtime at the moment as an entity, not, like I'm not talking about Peter Nelson, and the guy running HBO.

Are you a fan? I like Peter. Okay. Yeah. I like him personally. I mean, we've been friends for years. I like him. Yeah.

Young guy. Young guy, smart guy. Yeah. Harvard. Yeah. But I like him. But I think that to the people, the powers of B, I think boxing is more important and more valued.

At Showtime. At Showtime right now than it is at HBO. That's my perception. Okay. And look, I mean, you know, HBO right now, I don't think that boxing is growing subscribership. Okay. You know, I think subscribe, I think the Game of Thrones, you know, powers, you know, is a locomotive that pulls it. I think that HBO had so much success for so long in boxing with almost no, you know, showtime for many, many years was really in the rearview mirror.

I think that just a bunch of factors at the same time. I mean, you know, Mayweather went over to Showtime. Showtime saw sort of a de-emphasis a little bit over at HBO with respect to their, you know, to boxing and elected to put more resources, you know, to it. But people make what they believe are business decisions in the interests of, you know, of the company as a whole, of the mothership. Yeah. You know, HBO's doing just fine.

But I think Showtime boxing has made major strides over the last decade. Has your relationship with Espinosa, Steve? Really good. Yeah. Yesterday, excuse me, last week, Heather Hardy was on the program, who you promote. And she was hoping to get his ear, hoping that he will put her on Showtime. I don't think, you know, I think Heather, look, Heather's a lot better than people. You know, you don't get to be 20-0 without being better than people.

But here she is begging for a shot just on television. But Amanda Serrano's got. five, look, Heather can fight. Yeah. Okay. And Heather's a compelling personality. I mean, she was here. You know it. It's fantastic. The girl's got an amazing backstory. Right.

She's got incredible heart. She goes in there and everything she has, she lays it out. I mean, I've always made the comparison. I think it may bother her a little bit, but it shouldn't because I think of it as like great respect. Okay. That I view her in that like Mickey Ward, Arturo Gaddy kind of realm. Why would that bother?

Because, I don't know, you know, because there are other people out there like, you know, who just look at her and they say, well, like fucking Dan Rayfield, too. That ESPN.

He's like, well, I don't think Heather said, who gives a shit? I mean, Arturo Gaddy wasn't pound for pound. Yeah. And he's your favorite fighter, Dan. Yeah. You know, I mean,

Heather gives 100, 10%, and her fights are entertaining. Amanda Serrano is a different thing. I mean, Amanda Serrano has won all these titles and all these different weight classes and she's got the pound for pound thing going for. Then you have

Coresa Shields. I'm a big fan of what she does as an amateur athlete, the two gold medals. She was really our biggest amateur boxing star in recent years in this country.

But they all share the same issue, the problem. That TV networks are not anteing up for women's boxing. I don't get it. It's so popular in them. actually think there's a tremendous opportunity. Yeah. And I don't get why another player is not swooping it.

Because women's boxing's demographics are a little bit younger. It appeals to men and women. Women are much more likely to be interested in a women's boxing match. That's right. Than two men fighting. That's right. Younger people

are used to seeing women compete in MMA and And women's boxing, I think, as many eyeballs, I think, would be turned to a good woman's boxing fight as to men. But it feels like there's a bit of momentum now. There's some momentum, but like- Kayla Mayer, right? Just signed with top rank? Yeah, so what?

No, I mean, that's another name, right? Yeah, but she signed with top rank. So what? Oh, nothing's going to happen? No, I'm not saying nothing's going to happen. She, I think her pro debut was televised. She's very attractive, very good athlete, was an Olympian. She picked up boxing sort of, you know, she wasn't in the boxing, you know, game for a long, long time.

Matched to make the Olympic team. I mean, I respect her too. Delahoya signed a woman for the first time. Katie Taylor. Katie Taylor signed with Eddie Hearn in England. Frank Warren signed a woman. Isn't this more than usual? Like there's more names?

Yeah, because like, but it's still like a novelty. Is it? There's no women's boxing series. Okay. There's no regular television for women's boxing. Heather's frustrated. The point I was making to is they're all frustrated. I mean, like, you can go to the common thread between all these women is that there's not a women's boxing league series, you know, television outlet.

Is there any talks of it? You know, I've... Are you interested in it? Yeah, I am, actually, because I think that there's a talent pool, particularly... It's more difficult if you're Cloressa Shields because you're at a bigger weight class, there were fewer women. Same problem in MMA. Huge problem for Koresa because she's so excellent. Yeah. And by the way, like, again, should she be penalized because she's so much better than

everybody else in her weight? No. Flip side of that. I think there are under 20 people in her weight class in the whole world. Chris Seiberg, who's her friend, has the same problem. Best fighter in the world. There's no one who fights at $1.45. Yeah, and Chris is, like, I have a lot of respect for her. Your friends? No, we, we chatted over direct messaging recently. Oh, wow. Just because I've seen something she put up about wanting to be in boxing, and I was curious about what she was thinking and her feelings.

She's a bright lady. I mean, she's got a – and she's a hell of an athlete. Yeah, of course. I actually am a fan of her. There's another girl. I always have a problem with this name, but there's a woman in UFC in a smaller weight class, I think Polish. Yes, Juana, Yom Jacek. That girl's unbelievable.

115. I mean, she's unbelievable. I'm a huge fan of what. I've like seen her fight and her matches. And like I mean that girl's got like talent out to wazoo. Yep. So back to Heather Hardy. Will she get on showtime?

Do you think so? Yeah. But I also think I like someone needs to take the next step. It would be a great move for any of the number. Look, even for HBO, it seems to be constricting its budget a little bit more. If they dedicated some of that budget to women's boxing, they could have a category where they could really take that category to another place. I mean, showtime's had a great stretch for the last couple of years.

I say this to Stephen all the time, though. Stephen, take, like, the amount of money you pay for one good men's show and give that budget for a boxing series for women. I think it would be very well received. Yeah, but not only would be well received, the women would make more money than they're making right now. Yeah, well, that's true. I mean, like, you know, like, there's, like, that's part of the problem.

But, you know, like, a man of Serrano fought on Showtime Extreme multiple times. Heather fought on FS1, and her father. fight with Shelly Vincent was a terrific. It was female fight of the year, Ring Magazine, 2016. It did a good, solid rating on FS1 when it was televised. And FS1 doesn't do any more, like, really, like, now and then that a woman's fight will appear. Yeah. Same way, you know, Stephen, I've been begging Stephen to get an all-woman show.

Yeah. You think he'll do it? Well, he's, like, you know, look, he's supported Clarissa. Yeah. She's had, you know, her early fights on Showtime. Yeah. Amanda Serrano is getting some support at Showtime.

But there needs to be there needs to be somebody to be some television entity or some television executive needs to step up and to be that force for women's boxing.

Are you okay with Heather signing this deal with Bell Tour? Yeah, no, I the Bellator people were really they respected the fact that I had a deal Do you get the right to first refusal or anything? No, no, we coordinated things in a way that where she'll compete in both sports

and they'll respect her participation in boxing and I'll respect her participation in Bellator. I'll also be there's a shared desire here and this will be the case for any of the women I have. And right now, look, I'll be honest with you, if I was able to pay Heather and Amanda, if I was able to pay Shelly Vincent, the other women I have under contract,

what I think is appropriate and make the fights for them that people want to see, I would probably stand by the technicalities of my contract. But take Heather, who's a single mom, trying to make it in her mid-30s, who's given her blood and sweat to boxing for years. She's undefeated.

and struggling to make a living. I have Amanda Serrano, who's won five championships in five different weight classes. I mean, she's about to try, she fought a fight at 118 pounds this year on Showtime. Credit Despernoza, he gave us

that opportunity to put her on Showtime Extreme, and she beat an 118-pound girl. She's going to fight for 140-pound title before the end of the year. That's jumping five, weight classes in one year. She will afford 118 and she's going to go to 140 because she wants to be the first. She wants to move into that sphere that only Delahoya and Pacio were in of six championships. But here's the problem too. She's now looking at MMA. Why is she looking at M.A? Despite, she's 28 years old, she's won all these belts.

She's considered pound for pound, one of the best in the world, and she can't make a living in boxing alone. There's a problem. And I'm not going to stop a woman from being able to support herself and her family. So, you know, if the industry changes to the point where the women who are big attractions, the women who are champions, there's an outlet for their talent and that they can get paid right, then I might not be so willing to do these kind of deals, but in the world as it exists right now, people got to pay, you know, they've got to pay the bills. Do you think that there's going to be a trickle-down effect

As far as MMA boxing fights We're seeing a lot of guys say, oh, but there's loads of trickle-down effects already I mean, this whole promotion is caught I mean, I've gotten so many solicitations and calls from MMA athletes and I'm not mentioning any names Don't fucking ask. Okay, which names could you? Just kidding.

Okay, but a lot of people that have called around, some of whom are like, you know, guys are known to be strikers that are seeing and, you know what's interesting too? The MMA fighter thinks the grass is greener and there's this economic potential in boxing. The boxers think the grass is greener. There's all this economic potential in M. M. M. M. M. M. M.A. then all of a sudden now, Chris Cyborg's talking about fighting a boxer. The rest of Schills was tweeting about fighting a MMA fighter. You're seeing all the time.

I've had a couple of my male fighters. I have a couple of kids that fight for me who were, you know, jiu-jitsu black belts and kickboxers when they were real young, saying, hey, if ever the opportunity came, I would test this out. The lines are blurring. The lines are blurring. And by the way, Stephen, Peter Nelson, listen to me. Like, this is also the time to understand the lines are blurring.

There's opportunity for women. You know, women's boxing right now should be embraced to a great extent because there are women with star potential who are not able to realize their potential in boxing. And but there are women like Heather Hardy for example Amanda Serrano

Clarissa Shields you mentioned top rank signed Michaela yeah there are loads of other women out there loads that are not signed

there are loads of women that have given their like Layla McCarter who's given her her like you know blood and sweat to boxing and she's you know

now like she's been in the sport forever forever and one of the most decorated fighters and never been able to get to, you know, those level of pay days that make it all worthwhile. And there are people coming up. As the lines blur, we have to do a better job of recognizing women that are competing

and boxing and giving them a platform and an opportunity, venues to fight, and ability to make money. Or they're all going to run off to MMA. But the interesting part is, when they go to M.A., they're also going to find it's not such an easy road there either. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, M.A's a little bit more forgiving than boxing.

In terms of? A loss. Yeah, oh, 100%. Look at Connor. He lost a year and a half ago. Badly. And no one cares. In fact, he got more popular after the law.

Okay, but you know what, too? I think he's going to lose next Saturday. Yeah. But if he goes down, like I think he's going to go, look, that motherfucker is going to try to win. Yeah. He's going to try to hurt Floyd. He's going to chase him around the ring.

He's going to be unorthodox if he has to. He may throw some shit that will make a box. purist laugh, but he's gonna be looking to like catch Floyd when he's not looking. You know, the punch that hurts you is when you don't see coming. Yep, yeah, yeah. Even if you're just an ordinary guy. You know what I mean? Like, you know, someone hits you, you know, when you don't see it, like, Colecocks you, you're in trouble.

If you see a punch coming, you least brace yourself, there's some move or whatever. So if McGregor makes a good account with himself in losing, okay, it's another loss. It gives a buck. Yeah. And by the way, it's even another sport. to the MMA fighter, they're used to losing. I mean, how many undefeated MMA fighters are there? No, not that many.

Not a lot. No. Boxing builds the whole way the sport is run, which I disagree with totally. And by the way, credit self-pad on the fucking back, when I was at HBO, I didn't give a shit about, if a guy made a great fight, I didn't care if he lost. Yeah.

You know, I brought back Arturo Gaddy time after time when he lost, and I brought back Mickey Ward when he lost. There were other fighters that just made amazing fights and if you make an amazing fight you deserve to be on television again Right. MMA gets that better than boxing If you're doing your job right and the matches are significant and the matches are evenly matched now There are guys like Terrence Crawford or Mayweather I go through a list. I mean there's a lot of guys that that are superior enough that the underfeited record is representative

but you can get a ham sandwich to 18 and O in boxing. There are professional opponents everywhere. There are commissions that will let you put in a guy that's been knocked out multiple times. There are commissions that will approve mismatches that are dangerous. Forget about non-competitive. You can literally get a ham sandwich to 18 and O. You can't do that so easily in MMA. No.

So that's another problem in boxing. That's got to change. Like a guy shouldn't, if you're sitting there looking to make a good fight, a guy that's superior, has superior talent ability, just the fact that his opponent is undefeated doesn't make that a desirable matchup. You know, there are a lot of people that are undefeated that are limited. Yeah. And I would really, I really believe that that's a mistake as an industry we make. But again, who's looking out for our industry? who there's no governing body,

there's no force, there's no board, there's nothing. Commissioner, there's nothing. And we don't have like UFC, Belator, you know, I don't know the names of all of them, but, you know. I get your point. My point, we don't have those organizations that intelligently make business decisions

for the good of their organization. You know, a promoter is different. You're promoting an event. It's really what you're doing. Right. In the old days of boxing, Promoters promoted didn't have long-term contracts with fighters The managers had the long-term contract

The lines between manager and promoter have become muddled U.S. Why don't I? I really think I probably should be managing The women fighters I have in MMA. I know more about combat sports And the business around combat sports than most of the people could manage them out there. Yep. But there are lines in boxing, a manager has a certain role And a fiduciary duty. A promoter, under the promoter, under the So the law doesn't have a duty to maximize the fight.

The promoter's duty is to not lie to the fighter, not break any law, not do anything that can get you in trouble. Right. The Ali Act, you mentioned the Ali Act for MMA. Yeah. Ali Act is pretty ineffectual in boxing. Only a couple of times in the history of boxing has the Aliyah ever been used effectively to protect anybody.

And the majority of promoters, a lot of them. will not tell the fighter how much money is there. They'll not do the Aliak reporting. The law requires the Aliyah report to be signed and done after the fight. A lot of guys won't give the information to the fighter till after the fight. Now the fighter's already signed his bout agreement.

He's already signed the binding contract. And he doesn't know whether he's getting 40% of the money or 50% of the money or 70% of money or 80% of money for certain. The Aliyahe Act reporting isn't done until after the fight. So, like, even the way it works in boxing isn't really fair. I mean, my attitude is if I'm working with a fighter that's hit the level of significance

that there's a television license fee for their services, like a champion in the money is being paid by the network, then I'll just show the fighter, like, here's what's there, and here's what, you know, I'm offering you, and here's what I want to take, and have it out before the event. There are other guys that will literally hold confidentiality clauses with the networks like the strength of those and basically I'm not telling you. And we'll hand the Ali Act

reporting requirement to the fighter after the fight. What good does that do? You can't negotiate after you signed the contract. You can't negotiate after your check's been handed to you. You can be pissed off. But by the way, if that way of doing business is not antithetical to the contract, contract you signed with the promoter, you're just fucked anyway. You know, you could be mad. You

could leave that promoter after your contract's over. But, you know, the Ali Act's not out there. Like, it's not like boxing's fair because there's an Ali Act. And MMA's unfair because there's not. You know, right now there's not a lot of teeth to the Ali Act. Fair enough. You know, one of the best things to come out of this fight, at least for me, is these two worlds coming together, the MMA and boxing world and getting to talk to people like you. It's been a lot of fun and I'm going to be kind of sad when it all goes away, you know, because it's been fun to learn a little more about your sport. You know, have the world's come together.

Here's an interesting question. I'll, I'll throw it to you. Sure. You think that if next Saturday turns out to be, it's not a travesty. Yeah. Does it all go away? No. So I don't think so either.

I don't think so. If it's remotely. If it's remotely entertaining or competitive or some, I think that there's a very good chance that these lines continue. Absolutely. To muddle. Yep. I couldn't agree more.

Thank you so much for coming in. Congratulations on all your success. I know you came sort of begrudgingly. It's been a long trek for you to get here, but I really appreciate it. I've been a long time fan of yours. I used to work at HBO as an intern. No, I knew that. So it's been great picking your brain.

I'm happy to hear that you're going to the event. Yeah, I'm looking for, you know what? I don't know what to expect. You should be there. You should be there. I want to go. I think there'll be some, like, I'm, look, it's, I don't know why people watch all the reality TV they watch.

I don't know why people are into the Kardashians. I don't know a lot of things. But, it may be like, you know, I know that I'm interested in seeing what goes on next Saturday. I am interested. So, like, I'm going to be there. You know, I'm not going to bullshit anybody. I'm interested. I'm going.

Much respect. Thank you. All the best to you. As we knocked down, perhaps a sign of the current state of things here in this country, right? Well, if it was a current state of things, you'd have an eye. well, knock down the American flag. Thank you, Lou. The state of things in this country, that's a whole other radio.

I know, I know, but I follow you on Twitter. I follow you on Twitter. So you know that I'm a left wing. And by the way, I'm on the same side of you. My man Joe is going to walk you out here. I appreciate it very much. There he goes. Lou DeBella, thank you for coming, Lou.

And I hope to see you out there in Vegas. All right, there he is. Lou DeBella of DeBelle Entertainment. Great stuff from him. I really appreciate his time. And I think he's one of the very best as far as promotion is concerned. That was great. Getting to pick his brain, very illuminating.

I really appreciate him stopping by. Lou DeBelle, everyone. How about that? New York's own, a real New Yorker stopping by to talk all things. Mayweather McGregor, state of boxing, promotion. Love that stuff. I could have talked to him for hours. Thank you very much once again to our friends at the Marines for being a part of the show.

Let us move along now. And welcome in our next guest, joining us, the magic of Skype. He was supposed to be on the program last week. Things didn't turn out. But I do believe he is on the program today. There he is. Cody Garbrandt. And the beard is coming back. Oh my gosh. How are you, Cody? He's going back. Like a Wolverine. Yeah. First of all, what happened to the beard? Why did you shave it? That was very jarring. You know what? My barber that I usually get cut by, he went out of town. so I had to go with a makeshift barber

and the guy fucked me up I mean he brought my beard all the way up on my jawline so I just shaved it into a mustache Oh my gosh That was the story Wow how pissed big It goes back fast

Yes how pissed were you It just You know it was just a hair It goes back But then when you tried to like Charve 75 bucks for it And I was like You're tripping

So you told him to go F himself Yeah no I was good it paid went on away. And here it is, a couple days later, a week later, it's growing back. So I can't complain. Because I know I actually respect this about you very much. I mean, you appreciate a good haircut.

How many times a week are you getting your haircut these days? You're always very, I mean, you're, I never, it's perfect. It's never out of place. It's never off point. I usually go once a week, maybe once every two weeks, tops. Wow, I was thinking like twice a week. No, that's fight week. Fight week, I'm getting a haircut.

I'm getting a lineup. I'm getting a haircut today at the fight. My motto is always a little good, feel good, fight good. So I kept that since I was 14 and all that. Well, let's stick with the feel good part. Last time we spoke, you were still kind of working on the back. You were doing, you know, you went to Germany. You were hopeful you'd be back by the end of the year. Last week we find out you're fighting at MSG, you're fighting November 4th.

What is the state of the back right now? Are you 100% healed? You know, I've had a great rehab, a great training sessions with my coaches this past. Really, I kind of turned a new leap over these past few months with the rehab and the training of my coaches. I've been doing a high performance and then as capital strength and obviously with team AlphaMail. So I'm very thankful and where I'm at right now, my progress from where I was at a few months ago. So I'm feeling great, you know, and that's what we shot for. We were shooting for, you know, extensive rehab, training, getting ready for early November.

And, you know, that's what we kept, you know, in talks with the UFC, the matchmakers, you know, Dana, Ali, about that's where we're going to go. And, you know, body's telling great, we got that fight. And I'm more excited. So excited to go out there and fight, knowing that I'm healthy, you know, and I'm thankful for that. T.J. didn't, you know, go down to. 25. We stayed at Bannamweight. It was only four months, you know, prolonged. I don't know any fighter, let alone champion that comes back and that quick a turnaround with having the procedures that I have done and the injuries that I would sustain to my back. I can't name anyone. So

I took it super serious. Just like I do anything else. You know, my passion is fighting. And I'm just thankful to be back in the gym, training and grabbing and, you know, getting ready to defend this world title that I, you know, set out to obtain and win years ago. to the next, in my next chapter of my life, it's, you know, start this legacy, and that goes through T.J. So I'm thankful for him that, you know, that he stayed

to go down to flyweight. You know, Demetrius, you know, held his guns against the big dogs. And, you know, his thing got his fight. So, you know, that's great. I want to be 100% to fight, T.J. For a lot of reasons.

You know, for the fans to get an, you know, an amazing, entertaining, Firework, you know, explosive fight from the fight, you know, start to finish. And TJ also, you know, he's a competitor. So I have a lot of respect for T.J. as a fighter, as a person, zero. But in that aspect, like, I'm excited to fight at 100% against T.J. You know, because I want to get T.J. 100% asswoman.

You know, I could have went in there 50, 60% and still beat him. But he deserves 100% ass open. And that's what I'm going to give him on November 4th. Did they try to get you to fight on October 7th? And if so, what did you say? Because there were some early reports that they were trying to do this. Yeah, not that I heard. You know, they were pretty good with, you know, hearing me out on, you know,

and being in in talks with their doctors and then Dana and Sean and Ollie, my manager was more so on the, you know, the tail end of it of talking with them. It's not about when we're going to go. We set out for November. It was perfect for, you know, a couple months. rehab, you know, getting the body primed ready and, you know, after the surgery. We went over there and did this procedure, and this is the doctor that Dana, you know, suggested and went over and this is what, you know, he believes in.

And even that doctor over there was telling me, you know, take it easy, don't, don't rush this, you know, this is, you know, a serious injury that you don't want to, you know, keep re-injuring and trying to come back too fast. That's where I did. I got a stem cell shot in Las Vegas. I don't know the exact date, maybe in April. I think, and they told me that I would be 100%. It was a strong shot you can get even to be 100%.

I was on top with the doctors from the UFC saying, you know, once I get clearance, I'm going to go like I'm trying to defend my world title. You know, it's not, just ease into it, this and that. And I lasted two days. My back was worse than what it was. I think I actually ended up tearing it worse. And it was, you know, extriciating pain where I couldn't even walk. Wow.

And I ended up calling Dana. Yeah, I'm not, I know my body, you know, I mean like there's something serious wrong and that's when we went to, it took me over to Jeremy. I'm super thankful that procedure helped that a lot, but also the intensive rehab that I've been doing rehab every day but with a PT Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and we're really getting after it in my body. I feel like a better athlete, I'm moving better, I'm quicker, I'm healthier. I feel great, I'm super thankful for the kind of performance and where I'm at my body. right now. And I'm still two weeks

to go before I get in the camp, so I get a full eight-week camp, and I think that's deserving for myself and a champion coming after, you know, those procedures. So I'm just thankful for them, you know, for a lot of people, TJ for, you know, staying in the vision,

not trying to run, run away, going to fight Demetrius and then OxiVRC for giving it a lot of time to be 100% known going, no and not going there 100% and not re-endrian. it's a huge, huge problem that happened before. They tried to get me to go on there July 8th and I wasn't ready.

I ended up re-injuring myself and it set me back longer. So that wasn't what I'm doing. I'm a fighter. I'm going to try to get ready at a possible date. I still try to fight on July 8, but I just wasn't capable. I was not something that wasn't in the books, you know, but it's crazy because I always pictured myself fighting

at Madison Square Garden. I pictured myself beating T.J. I was beaten T.J. July 8, and then I was fighting Demetrius in November. So it didn't matter. It didn't matter. I was destined to fight in Madison's guard in my mind. I pictured myself there. I picture myself winning against two ever. So that's the date that I had my mind, and here I am. I signed the contract and we'll fight November 4th. And I get my first tie of defense against T.J. I'm super excited. 2016 was an incredibly active year for you, 2017 that's far complete opposite.

Do you feel like you've lost some momentum in terms of your fandom, in terms of your skills, rust? I mean, it's just, it's a tale of two years, right? One that you were in the cage almost every few months, and this one you've been out since December of last year. It'll be 11 months since you last fought. Do you feel that way? I feel great.

I feel better than ever. I think the rest and the recovery, that had a lot of, a lot. my body to do. I was constantly hurt last year. For years and years, I mean, this is, this is, this was an injury that's happened overnight. This is something that's happened since I was a junior in high school. I had a fractured back and playing football and I had to take out the junior year wrestling. That's why I didn't wrestle. A lot of people know that. So it's been on and off and just years of wearing and tear on my body and it finally just tore. And that was it. That was it. And with a disc, I had problems with that.

So that's been something I dealt with, with it flare up in camp, and I had to take two weeks off. And then there's a gawki fight, man, I didn't think that was going to make it to that fight. But I just knew that. And I go in there and knock him out, and I got a title shot.

So I just went in there and fought injured. Henry Biotis fight was injured. So I've been injured more fights than I've not been injured. So it's something I just adapted to. My body adapted to it. I came, you know, adapted to be able to train and move like that. I feel so much better. Like, this is how I should feel,

this is how I should move. This is how I should not wake up and be so in pain every day to where I have to do these rehabs and that. So my body's finally, you know, giving 100% of how it should perform. So I'm super excited. I don't feel like I lost anything. I mean, I just went in there.

And most far with Chad Moni Mendez, you know, Lance Palmer, all these guys are world champions. And I feel like I missed a beat. I feel faster. stronger vision. You know, maybe the momentum of a woman Cruz's ass, but that's just because of the

fans or whatever. I still feel like I'm just beginning. I'm just I'm finally getting my stride in there. I'm still, I'm only 11 fights into my questional career. Yeah. And I'm just getting well, I'm getting started.

The whole last year, I literally leveled up. I learned so much and gained so much. I'm always within the gym. I'm even being hurt. I was in there watching, train, and watching videos. I'm not just sitting on the couch. Like this ain't a, not a guy that can just sit on the couch and, you know, do nothing.

I'm watching film, I'm watching fights and watching boxing. So I'm still a student in the game. I wouldn't say I'm a martial artist and just a fighter. And I think, you know, other athletes in this sport, you know, when they have long periods of time off, yeah, they have the ring rusts and this and that. But I'm a born fighter. Like, this is the shit that I, you know, this is what I've read to do. I don't feel like a loss of step at all.

You'll see that November 4th. You'll see that a better fighter that was in there against Tom. my cruise against T.J. Dillard Shaw. So I'm super motivated. You know, for me, I feel like I'll have a lot of adversity over my life. And when I got good things going, I think there's something that always pops up. Just keep me out my toe, keep me, you know,

great for it, keep me hungry and motivated. This was something, you know, this is a blessing in disguise for me, getting injured and, you know, not being able to fight. The first fight that I ever had to pull out of in my entire life so that it was a trying time and I mean really I wasn't able to do something that I loved you know for quite some time for a few months and it was trying it was it was mentally it was physically emotionally but I had a great you know family my wife my team all these guys you know have kept me in the you know positive realm of you know

everything's going to be fine and hampers for a reason the constant reminding myself that too so here I am you know I was not able to on International Fight Week, which is a big card. Now fighting Massa Square Garden Dream Come True. This is the Mecca and all the great spot there. And, you know, me and Teeta, we're the real main event going into that card. We're going to sell that card. Everyone wants to see that fight.

You know, take the bullshit, the drama, the ex-teamate, the lead name, the sell-out, all that. Take that away, throw that to the side. And you got two of the best band-of-weights in the world. And we're some mean motherfuckers and we're coming to take each other's heads off. So that's exciting right there. That's a challenge for myself. And that's why I got into the sport. It was a challenge myself.

Not at the same of the sport, I got in a fight and a challenge myself because I want to throw my hat in a bucket. I believe that I'm the baddest motherfucker in the world and had my weight class. And, you know, no, it's an aviworthy opponent from a T.J. I know what he brings to the table, and he sure the hell knows what I bring from the table.

So I'm excited to go in there and just touch him up. You mentioned that you don't have respect for him. You've had to hold on to this for a while now. you thought you were going to fight, you know, a couple of months ago. Has it been tiring to hold on to this grudge for so long to see that, you know, not get any kind of resolution to it after tough and everything that you guys have been through? It was a lot, you know what I mean? Because I had to pull out of the fight, injury, you know, that sucks.

So he's gone in the media. He was always quick to run to the media. He was running the media. Man, if I shit and didn't wipe my ass, he'd run on the media. Oh, Cody did this, Cody did that. He was always doing that shit. So it was annoying. Like, he's a media whore, and he likes it.

You know, he's in the lion's light again. He lost the title. You know, people started forgetting about him, you know. So he runs that. He likes that. He honestly does. So it's a positive light for him. It's good.

You know, he wants to tell the fight as well. So for me, it was, it wasn't draining. It was like, for me, I was like, I'm not like focus on this fight. I'm focused on getting healthy. You know, I'm focused on what I can control on that to me in rehab and get. getting healthy. Then I focus on the fight. Now I started getting healthy. Now I'm like, hey, we're ready to go. November's coming up. We push. We got to fight. And, uh, you know, now the media

is going to start back up. I'm fine with it. We've been, man, it's been going back and forth with that guy for months and months on end. And, uh, knowing in November 4th, we want to fight. And, uh, I'm finally able to settle this, uh, score, move off this chapter and then move on to, uh, you know, other adversaries. But T. T. my main focus right now. That fight right there excites me. It's always excited me. He's one of the guys that's you know, I don't have respect for him as a human, as a person

on this stuff that he's done, but I do respect him as a fighter. Not even a fighter. He's not a fighter. He's an athlete. I respect him as an athlete. He's not a fighter. And you'll see that you'll see that in the fight. Who's a real fighter, who's an athlete. And that will be early on in the fight. Last week, there was a bit of a storm with Al Jermaine Sterling. Can you clear that up? Would you like to say anything about all that and the accusations that he made about you?

He's a race fighter. He was a race fighter. I don't like that guy. He got all mad because over a year ago, I told him he was overrated. So now he starts running his mouth. I see a TMZ report that he said he's going to kill me. So I'm like, oh, you're going to kill me? So I screen shot that shit.

Send it to him in the DM. And he acted like a little bitch. and that's what he is. I should have called him a bitch, not a boy. I didn't know that was politically incorrect. I got a shirt that says hanging with the boys. I call everybody your boy. You know, your boy, what's that boy?

Like, I didn't know that was politically incorrect. So I'm the least bit racist. And anyway, I have a sister that's married to, but I have a niece that's a mixed child. So for him to go out there and try to, like, ride off that fame. I told that for the next time I see him, I'm going to fuck him up. He's trying to tell me I'm going to get jumped and all this. He's just a bitch, and that's what he is.

I should have called him bitch. but yeah he's just trying to that's what I'm saying he's the awful win of a brow at a catchway and I mean I don't even want to talk about that guy but there's no next time I see him he better have this fucking hands up like I told him what about Jimmy Rivera is he on your radar at all he's coming off a big win says that he's close he'd like to fight you and and thinks that you've kind of disrespected him as well what do you make of him hey that's that's free money both those dudes are free money for me. So after TJ, if Don wants to come back out of retirement, whatever you want to do, those are all free money. I like free money. I like two checks.

So Dom, Demetrius, what the hell is the name? Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy and the guy that wears a fake gold chain. Oh, Al Jermaine. Yeah, all those cats. That's free money for me. I told it, I told it to them that's free money. So it's cool. I like being at the top. I like being that everyone's trying to climb to because I'm sitting at the top about it, I'm loving it. So I'm working hard, if not as hard,

harder than I ever had before in my life because I know how hard it is to get here and it's even harder to stay on top. And I have all these little guys come and try to fight me. But like I said, I love free money. You know what I mean? Free money to me.

Jimmy Rivera, that would be an easy fight. I mean, I just watch him with Almeida. Ameda hasn't been the same fighter since I took his soul. And, you know, Jim Rivera haven't heard and could even finish him.

So that, I had all easy money to me. Easy money is free money. That's what I like. Last thing before I let you go, and it's great to see you smile. It's great to see you in great spirits, Cody. I'm just curious because. Yeah, I'm happy. That's what I love to do.

Like, honestly, like, I didn't want to do any media and anything. And it sucks. I love my fans. I love talking about fighting. I love being in fighting. Man, it was such a trying time for me. You know what I mean? I'm lucky that I have a great family, a great, you know, team.

That kept me positive. I'm excited to be back. I'm itching, I'm hungry, and you're going to see, you know, the same kid that was, you know, a young hungry lion on the crowd from, you know, contender to, you know, prospect of contender to world champion. You know, you're going to see him, he's leveling up. This is what's going to go on there and outdo my master class performance against one of the pound for all the best, you know, and Dominic. Now it's T.J. So anyone that steps in there with me, I'm excited, and I can't wait just go wild for our performance. I can't wait to see it.

MSG is the perfect platform for it. Just curious, Mayweather and McGregor, I got to ask, who's your pick? You know what? For McGregor to do well in a boxing match. I just don't see it happening. I'm not saying it doesn't.

I think, you know, McGregor will bring him a fight. You know, McGregor's a good fight. You got good stand-up. He's long. He's lengthy. And it's good for him. You know what I mean?

It's good for us. I want to be a, you know, I want to be the Bo Jackson of them. want to be able to do boxing, I'm doing boy tie, kickboxing, MMA, all that. So he goes out there

and tests the water and he's going out there and fight one of the beds. It's a huge money fight. It's entertaining. Everybody wants to see it. I really hope he does well. I hope he doesn't go out there

and get his assesque. I hope he goes out there and makes it competitive. And, you know, I'm going for him to win. I just think Mayweather are just too skillful. You know,

he's been doing this for, since he was, you know, in diapers, Mayweather's boxing and he had a man. And he's Midwest. Midwest for some of the tubs of motherfuckers in the world. It's from the Midwest. You know, not taking out against Connor.

I hope it's an entertaining fight, and we all get our money as work. I'll be watching. All right. Cody, welcome back. Thank you so much for the time. I'm glad we were able to connect. Can't wait for it. November 4th, Madison Square Garden. Cody Garbrandt returns against T.J. Dilleshaw Defense his UFC Bantamway title for the first time. Always a pleasure, my man. Thank you so much.

And don't worry about the beard. It's coming in very nicely. It'll be back in no time, I met. Thank you, Cody. All the best. All the best. there he is the reigning, defending UFC Bantamway champion, Cody No Love Garbrandt. Great stuff from him. All right, let's move along. As I said at the top, it has become a tradition on this program.

The week of a Connor McGregor fight, we talk to his head coach over at SPG Ireland, the one and only John Kavanaugh. Yes, this is not an MMA fight. Yes, this is unlike anything we've ever seen. But no, my friends, we do not mess with tradition. We did that once before. We know what happened then. We're not making that same mistake. He is joining us via The Magic of Skype, the one and only John Kavanaugh.

Wow, look at that Skype connection. Holy smokes. I feel like you're in the studio right here. Where are you? Yeah, so I know you had yogurty foggity on earlier, and I wasn't working out. So I ran down the street and found a very busy coffee shop. When I look up, I see a lot of people looking over at me. It's lunchtime here in Vegas, but the connection was too good.

Holy smokes. I come on here. This might be the greatest connection. ever had. It literally feels like I'm staring at you sitting. Don't jinx it. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But you see, that's what makes you win or learn, right? Yogurtie screwed up. You won't make that mistake. You go fun. You go the extra mile and that's why we love you so much. Thank you for doing that, John. And I literally, I literally did run a miles out here. Here I am. You are starting the biggest flight week of your life in some coffee shop in Las Vegas talking to me. It is an honor. Thank you for that.

What a way to start the week. There we go. Could I ask right off the top as we, we, we embark on this journey. Here we are five days out. It is it is Monday at the beginning of fight week. You've been through them all with Connor. Does this one feel any different? Like can you allow that feeling to seep in or does this feel as big as the DS fight for you? Like the beginning of the week as you push towards the weight cut and all that in your point of view from your perspective, is there any different feeling about this as opposed to those other ones? Not yet. But I know like I just got a schedule for this week and we have. We have a have something, the fighters parade coming up.

Yes. And apparently it's a very, it's a big tradition. We show up and there's like a red carpet into the hotel. And, yeah, so, you know, little things like that are new. But as for, you know, the day-to-day stuff I do, like, you know, check and wait in the morning and seeing how everybody's feeling, how everybody's getting on, the plan, planning out training. All of that is really.

on the mail stuff. Okay. I'm going to get full on Mayweather-Megreg with you, but I'm worried that I'm going to get so entrenched in it that I'm going to forget a couple of things that I want to ask you about non-Mayweather-Megger-wise. So let me get those out of the way right up the top. A couple of fans actually asked me to ask you about this. It was already on my list. Gunner Nelson, of course, that frustrating loss to Santiago Ponsinibio. The information comes out afterwards, the video evidence that he was poked in the eye and the team has appealed the loss. what could you tell us about the state of the appeal? Yeah, so just to explain that a little bit, I've got to be honest, I didn't see it on the night.

It wasn't until I walked into the cage that Gwini said he couldn't see, that I knew something was up. And then when we looked back, I believe it was four eyepokes in 82 seconds. So it's quite a lot. And to be clear, I'm not actually disputing any of them except the final one. for example, the first one was really bad, but Gunny chose to go forward because he felt he had him rocked. So, you know, like in any sport, if you play through the foul, well then that's on you.

But the last one is the one that I was really stressing with the commission because he pokes him in the eye, Gunny's blinded, puts his hands out with his eyes closed, and then he gets knocked out. Now, if that's not a fight ending foul, I don't know what would be a fight ending foul. How was he supposed to indicate to the referee in the second between closing his eyes and put his hands out

after being badly eye-gouged and being knocked out? He couldn't. There was no time for him to go to one knee or turn to referee. And, you know, Leon's a fantastic referee. He didn't see it on the night. But we have video playback. We have the technology for this. I didn't see it on the night.

I wasn't until the video playback. But the decision has not been made yet. But I think the commission had to be very careful on this decision because I think it's sending a very clear message that eye pokes are legal if this is not a decision reversing incident. If this doesn't make it a no contest, I think it's sending a clear message to fighters. Hey, this is a good technique. Poked them in the eye when they're going to get a good contest.

can't see, knock them out. So either you make I pox legal and then I'll stop moaning about it or they are illegal and that is seen as a fight ending foul and therefore in no contest. And let's let's run it back as you say. Let's do it again. In this case, are you appealing with the UFC? Were they the commission? Was this one of those because they were in Scotland, right? There is no Scottish commission. So you're dealing with Mark Ratner, right? Correct. Yeah. So do you feel because of that, that you actually have a better chance than some of these old guard commissions that are stuck in their ways and don't want to admit fault? I don't know. This is the short answer. He's been very fair, I think, so far. He's met with me. He's met with all the Hally Gunny's father

and manager has written to him. He's taking all the information in. Like he explained to me, This is not, they can't just snap their fingers and make something like this happen. It's setting a precedent. There's a lot of legal, you know, implications to it. So I understand it's not a decision that can be made, is made lightly. But at the end of the day, I do think whatever decision you come to, if they say that that's okay to stick your fingers in people's eyes and then knock them out, it's, I believe it's sending a dangerous message to young fighters coming up.

Why not train that technique then? We'll have to well start training this in the gym. If indeed it is a fell, well, if that is not an example of a fight ending fell, I really don't know what would be. Okay. And by the way, Gunny's eye, any structural damage? Is he okay now? No, thankfully, there was no lasting damage. He had blurred vision for, I think about two days after it.

but other than that, he's back in, well, you know, Gunny. If he wins, you're going to get that reaction. If he loses, you're going to get that reaction. I mean, he's not one to dwell on things. So I've had limited conversations about him, and he seems in good spirits. For sure, he'd like an opportunity to set the record straight on this fight. I think for the few seconds he saw him, I thought he looked great. He landed a great shot at the start and, you know, in training sessions and,

and everything. Everything was going great. Santiago was a great opponent, but I do think he was in oversight with Gwini. I would love for him to have a chance to show it up. Well, good luck with the appeal, and please keep us posted on that, of course, as well. One of the thing I wanted to ask you about non-Mayweather-McGregor-related,

and I've actually been meaning to ask you about this the other times you were on the show, but there's always so much to conquer with you and we speak that sometimes a few things get cut on the editing room floor. you posted a video last week about this, this, this show slash program that you're a part of Wimta Warrior. And you were in Las Vegas and you woke up, I think at like 4.30 in the morning and you went to a local gym. I think it was syndicate MMA. And actually this video is one that I would urge people to go watch just for like motivational purposes.

Because you're really, you're really not talking about combat sports. You're really talking about going out there and getting out of your, you know, your comfort zone and being comfortable and uncomfortable positions. Things you've talked about as far as your fighters are concerned. but it's a phenomenal watch. And I was just curious, what is your relationship to Wimtah Warrior? Are you the sort of representative as far as Ireland is concerned? And is this going to be a television show that you are hoping comes here to the United States? What could you tell us about this?

Because it kind of caught my eye when I saw it. Yeah, so I've been involved in Winter Warrior now for over a year. It's found a Richie Cranny, an English guy I live in Australia. He contacted me about it. I get contacted quite a bit about what I would describe as like white collar boxing. Have you heard of that over there? I have not. You basically get a bunch of office workers.

They train twice a week for six weeks and then they put on 20 ounce clothes and have a boxing bout. It's more a bit of fun than anything. And to be honest, I wasn't really interested. But the more I looked into it, it's almost six months training five mornings a week before work. It's usually on from 6 a.m. until 7.30 or something like that. And the changes, the physical, and more importantly, the mental changes that I've seen with these contestants over that period of time was really inspiring. And it kind of, to be honest, it sort of brought me back to why I get into all of this. You know, getting, to having the honor of talking to you and going to these big fight shows and Saturday night is fun.

But it's actually not why I get into this. I get into martial arts because I was trying to make myself a more confident person. And this sort of brought me back to that. These are ordinary. You know, we discourage people. You get some people that did a bit of taekwondo or something as a kid, but in general, we're looking for people that have not done anything before. The more out of shape the yard, the better,

because we get to see great changes over the 22 weeks. And then I've done two seasons in Dublin so far. I'll actually announce exclusively here that the season we're starting in October, it's actually going to be on Irish National TV. They're going to make a series out of it. Oh, wow. So it'll have a huge membership back home. and I'm very proud to show the incredible vehicle that martial arts is for people bettering themselves.

Like I said, physical is one thing. You can go to boot camp and lose a few kilos or a few pounds, as you guys say. But really, the positive mental change is that, you know, my story is kind of known about being beaten up and going into depression. And there was martial arts that took me out of it. And the message after message after message, private message, people saying that, They were going through some stuff in their life, but they came in, they did the Winter Warrior program. They had a big fight at the end. We would make it a really big deal.

We'd make it like a major Saturday night promotion. And they have a contest, you know, one hand was raised, but really it doesn't matter. It was the journey. It was this. And like I said, it's given me a huge rush. And it's something I know I'm going to get more and more involved. And even if the Saturday night professional side of martial arts goes away from me at some stage, which I'm sure it will, My involvement of Wimpton Warrior will be there until the end

because that's actually why I get into martial arts in the first place. So on that, Ritchie made me the director for the European side of things, and I've taken on five new gyms around Europe. I'm actually looking to take on another five. And now just recently I've been taken onto the board for Winter Warrior International, and I'll be talking to some gyms out in the States. It's already in Vegas. It's already in my coach's gym in Oregon.

But really spread this message so of anybody watching, is interested in, first of all, if you have an MMA school, and they'd like to put it on, they can go to WIMP2, the number two, Wimpto Warrior.com, and you can watch some videos there about it, learn more about it, contact us if it's something you're interested in. And then for contestants, they're popping up all over Europe, all over the world. So go to the website, watch some of the videos, read some of the testimonials. If you think it's something you'd be interested in, drop me a message. Well done. Maybe I could be a part of it. I'm a Wimp.

and I like to be a warrior. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. And you are no whimpery. You're one of the bravest people I know. Oh, wow. You're a warrior by any definition. Thank you. So I give you a lot of credit for that. And I also urge people to go to your public Facebook page to watch that video because it's great stuff as far as what you were talking to the people out there in Las Vegas at Syndicate about just, you know, less than two weeks ago.

As far as the Mayweather fight is concerned, are you surprised that they ultimately ruled in favor of the eight-ounce gloves. We talked right before the hearing. They actually did it. What do you make of all of this? I was very surprised. I just before I come on here, I was flicking through Twitter and I saw Dan Hardy had an article. I think it was to the effect of it was almost like it was a game by Mayweather and it backfired that maybe he thought either Connor would say no, although I don't know why Connor fights in four ounce or that the commission would say no but now it's

now it is now here we are with eight ounce gloves he's been sparring in 16 so it's half that weight it is twice the weight of UFC globe but it's half the weight of the sparring glove it's a much smaller glove I actually just saw the gloves the other day that he'd be wearing

and I raised an eyebrow let's put it that way they are small fast gloves they will fit into cracks that even the 10 ounce wouldn't get into. It's made me that bit more excited. So do you believe that Floyd was just doing this for some buzz, but thought that ultimately they wouldn't actually vote on it and then vote yes?

And you actually really believe this? Like the Nevada Commission kind of screwed Floyd? Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, he said it. Maybe they just took him at face value. Maybe they, you know, and it's saying that he does, I mean, at 147 pounds, he does wear that size. glove. I just don't know if he's used to fighting guys that, you know, do big weight cuts. I don't

think that that doesn't seem to be as big a thing in boxing. You know, Mayweather seems to be pretty much a walking weight at 150, 151 or something like that. Conner's, you know, about 170. So it's a big, big difference. But yeah, you know, during the tour, he said he would fight with four-ounce gloves and the octagon. We all know that was a lie. He would never do that. And I think this was some of that bravado seeping over like oh what you want eight ounce okay let's do eight ounce and then he said yeah okay let's do eight ounce and then i sort of have an image in my head of him going you know i was just kidding but but maybe not maybe not maybe he just liked eight hours but it just seemed to be a little bit of a bravado thing that backfired so so connor right now

monday afternoon is 170 pounds uh no i no he's he's he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a he's He's a good bit lower than that. You know, we've already started towards making the weight. So he's a good bit lower. But he'll be up close to that come fight night. Wow. You know, he was, what was he, 168 for Diaz too? So he's going to be a, what did he say in that clip, a 170-pound Irish gorilla.

So he'll be up close to that number. And just curious from your perspective, any issues with the referee selected Robert Byrd or the three judges selected? No, no, very happy with that. Broberbirds, an excellent referee, the judge of director. You know, I have to be, I have to be honest and say the whole way through this, the commission of being nothing but helpful. I've been to some of their meetings, met Bob Bennett and all of these people,

and they've gone above and beyond trying to make it as seamless a transition for us into this newish world. Okay. So, yeah, they've been a great help. What's fascinated me about this camp for Connor is that essentially you guys have not brought in anyone outside of the team, right? We had a story yesterday with Pascal Collins saying that he was interested. We've heard from every coach under the sun who said that they were interested. And you really haven't done that.

Did you guys come together at some point and say, all right, what do we want to do and ultimately decide? We don't want to do anything. We want to keep it with the same crew. Yeah, pretty much. you know there's there's like speak to anybody on a high level understanding of sport science they're going to tell you that to bring someone in with six or eight weeks out

in any sport to try and change everything and try to you know what's a boxing coach going to try and do is make them into move like a boxer that's not what we're trying to do you know I've used this example before but Freddie Roach is you know an absolutely old school trainer. I've actually been reading quite a lot about boxing trainers recently. And he seems to be one of these guys from a time gone past where he could do everything in the corner. He's a cut man. He's a

trainer. He was a great fighter himself. But ultimately, he was, he, his guy, his cell-paw wasn't able to really do much with Floyd. So what was, what was really going to come of bringing someone other than introducing confusion? So we, we've had, we've had, We, Omroddy has come up with it, I believe, a really solid game plan for this fight, an approach that has not been brought to flight before, as opposed to just trying to mimic what other boxers have already done. We're trying to do something a bit different. You know, the sparring partner that was not really anything to do with us.

You know, I suppose Deshaun and Tierna were anything to do with us at the beginning, but they feel like family now, but say, Pauly, for example, that was more of a fight, don't know, there was a spar. And when we got to see some of our ideas work in that situation, I didn't see, none of us saw any benefit to bringing in a voice that was just going to be not one that we're used to. And then from your perspective, you mentioned Owen Roddy putting together this game plan. You know, typically, you know, MMA is your sport. This is new territory for everyone involved.

What has it been like for you kind of, you know, I've seen photos. You're in the corner. Owens in the ring speaking to him. So you're kind of in a bit of a different role this time. How have you handled that? What's it been like? Yeah. Yeah, it's a little bit less pressure, I guess.

But no, it's being great. You know, all around point on this. He's going to be the guy in the ring. He'll be the first in the same way as when I'm doing it. During the rounds, I usually get home with a minute to go to tell me one or two things. that he has seen and then I'll pass it on. I'm doing the same, in this instance, I'm saying one or two things that I see

and then I'll pass it on. I don't like in corners when there's three or four voices screaming at a fighter when he's got, you know, less than 55 seconds, 50 seconds to try and get his breath back and try to hear what was done in the previous round and what's going to happen in the next round.

Three or four voices screaming at you is not a way to get that information across. One cam voice is how you do it. And, you know, it'll only be on talking on the night with, like I said, if I have anything to add, I'll say that to own during the round. Okay. We just showed some footage of Connor working out, and this has become a hot topic in the boxing world.

Everyone mocking Connor, right? Everyone mocking the warm-up. Everyone's saying, oh, my God, look at him, hitting the bag. I mean, he has less of a chance. And we think, although the odds continue to get smaller, so the fans don't seem to agree, but it's amazing to listen to the boxing community just completely dismissing while you guys are saying

under four rounds, under two rounds. Like I can't recall a fight where one side is completely confident and everyone around them is just saying, this guy's a joke, he has no chance. What's that like for you? This is old hat. Connor talks about it, it's old hat, but to see everyone around you in the boxing world,

call you guys jokes, you know, make fun of every single training session, you know, break it down and mock it with these videos. How do you receive that? How do you digest that? It's, to me, it really is fascinating. Like you said, it's all happened. Not really. Like, let's look at the last fight, any others fight.

And, you know, me and his trainer had a bit of back and forward. And, you know, my guy's going to do this, your guy's going to do that. And so on. But we both still expected, you know, it to be a fight at the end of the day. Whereas in this one, these guys don't even think we, you know, I get messages that we're lacing the gloves up wrong. you know, so we literally can't even lace up a pair of gloves. But it's like they're so caught up on, on some of the cultural or ritual, ritualistic aspects of boxing, as opposed.

A great example was, I just came across a video there with, again, I'm bringing up Freddie Roach, who, you know, is obviously brilliant, fantastic guy in all aspects of what he's done. But he was asked about the video of the Pauley Spar, and there's a left hand on that spar. I mean, say whatever you want. Everyone has their opinion on the knockdown, but there's a straight left that lands. It's a really cracket shot. Head whips back, you know, it's a big glove on, and the guy's wearing a headguard,

and you still see the head whip back. It was a really nice shot. And the guy said, was that good technique? And he said, no, that was bad technique. Now, I don't know how you describe good technique, but if the object of boxing is for your fist to hit the guy in the face, that was an effective technique. His fist hit his face very fast.

and very hard. But because of, I believe, decades of their vision, wanting to see things done a certain way, he could, without being sarcastic, say that that was poor technique. You know, there may be other things you can criticize us on, but how anyone had a criticism for that straight left would be, it was just mine, it was just, I just had to scratch my head

and think what are they seeing? Even, yeah, like you said, the, you know, Mayweather had his workout day. And he's kind of just tipping the bag and he talks to the crowd and then he tips the bag. You know, I didn't watch it all, but I watched some of it. And it just, I don't know, are they seen something incredible I'm not seeing? And then Connor gets in and he's hitting the bag. And they're completely dismissing that.

But Mayweather's little shots on the bag were mind blown to them. One of us is living in a huge looting. that that would appear to be a fact. One of us is seeing something or not seen something, maybe some sort of cognitive dissonance or some sort of blinding, as we have a solar eclipse today, maybe some sort of mental eclipse as crossed one of us. Saturday night we find out who that person is.

To me, what's amazing is they're completely missing the point of the fight. The point is for Connor not to just act like, you know, Canelo or Robert Gore-Rey. or Marcus Middana, he's Connor McGregor MMA fighter taking a crack at Floyd and proving that his style is the one that can actually figure this guy out.

Why have him or why are you urging him to play boxer? That's the part I don't understand. Why are they critiquing him from the boxing eye? And I don't get it. I really, I can't believe that they are completely missing the point of this fight altogether. And maybe they should because it's a boxing match

and they want to kind of hold on to the sort of sanctity of the sweet sign. but it seems to me like they're missing the point. Yeah. Yeah. I remember after, what was it the other?

I told you something in confidence. I'll tell you another thing in confidence today that when how I heard about the fight being signed, like really 100% signed was as usual a short enough message from Connor. And he just said, the man has made a grave error. This is going to be Bruce Lee's shit.

This is water becoming the cup. And I initially saw, you know, first of all, I read that and I went, oh, the Mayweather fight is actually on. I didn't quite believe it until then. So I kind of got, that blew me away. And, you know, my brain starts racing on, okay, I've got to, you know, put certain wheels in motion. But I don't think it was until a couple of weeks later, or well, maybe days later. But I kind of went, read it again. And I realized what he was saying about the Bruce Lee water quote, that the rule says,

might change, but yeah, and strategy will change, but the fundamentals remain the same. This is something my own coach has told me a long, long time ago, Matt Thornton, that if you take an MMA fighter and you put him in a kickboxing match or a resting match or

a self-defense situation, the rules of engagement certainly change and that will affect your strategy. But the fundamentals of timing, of distance, of range, of how to hit hard, different striking techniques, they will remain the same.

Often say this to people that if you look at various martial arts, there's a lot of different martial arts, but if you take a Kung master and a, I don't know, a Wing Chung master and you put the two of them in a pair of speedos and make them have an MMA fight in a cage,

it looks like two guys that don't really know how to fight fighting. And the point being that in a lot of those circumstances you just don't have the delivery system, the fundamentals of fighting ingrained in them. Connor has nothing else ingrained in him. That's all he

has been interested in for the greater part of his life is knowing where to stand knowing how to, someone told me before the art of striking is putting yourself in a position where you can hit but can't be hit. And that's all he's interested in. That's the only thing that motivates him day to day. And

I've actually been on the end of a few of them for this training camp. So it's fascinating to see him do it and it's it's what's going to, okay, the rules are you know, the Queen's Mark Will, the boxing, as you say, but it's, it's,

yeah, we're going in to do something a little bit different than what's failed 49 times. It's obvious that martial arts mean a lot to you. You mentioned how it kind of got you out of a dark period in your life. You talked in that clip, the Wimtowrier clip about what it means to you to be a martial artist and why you do this. This is a very unique thing.

It has become MMA versus boxing. I feel like even Conner's biggest detractor in the MMA world are rallying around him and come Saturday will ultimately pull for him. Even some of his biggest foes will sort of secretly want him to prevail because it's MMA versus boxing. Have you thought about what, I mean, if he wins,

I don't care what the odds say. If or when he wins, as you would probably correct me, this goes down as one of the greatest upsets in sport history. But for martial arts, it's a massive victory as well. You guys will be discussed amongst, you know, the Bruce Lees of the world. I don't care what anyone says.

This is a huge thing. this is 49 and no one's ever knocked him down for god's sakes have you thought about what this will mean for martial arts and for your legacy and for his legacy and what people will be talking about in a hundred years when they go back and look at 2017 when this mama fighter went in and beat the 49 and no boxer uh yeah i i won't lie it has crossed my mind but this is an amazing opportunity um i think also i'm a little bit hesitant to join in on the m m ms versus boxing. I don't think it's that black and white.

Again, my experience of boxing is the Paki Collins of this world, who has been a great help to me in striking in general. Some of my guys go out to his club, a fantastic club in Dublin, Caldiquarriors boxing club. A very open-minded guy

likes a lot of the things we do. I've had great conversation with him. Of course, Steve Collins, Is he on today? He has gone MIA on us. I don't know what happened, but I cannot track him down. Okay, well, he might pop up again. Yes.

But, you know, look at what he did to boxing. Yeah. He went in against, you know, a seemingly undefeatable guy. And he went in with a different approach. He changed his cardio around. He changed his mental approach. Somewhat let the blueprint of a bold brash fighter coming out of Ireland. So, you know, that's my experience of boxing and the guys we have over here, again, all very open mind.

Now, there's a hell of a lot of them that are incredibly, I don't know, snobby is the word, or just, you know, really look down on MMA. I've read, you know, unless Connor can take him down, he's got no chance, and then Connor take him down. And let's kind of go for takedowns twice. Are you watching the same thing I am? But anyway, yeah, I don't want to get too caught up in the boxing versus MMA thing. It's Connor versus Floyd. And there are some, a lot of people in the MMA community that can't stand us and hope Floyd wins. A lot of people in the boxing community that can't stand Floyd and send me positive meshes and I want us to win.

So I just think it's, you know, it's fighter versus fighter. But yeah, to think that in 20 years time, 30 years time, could be sitting in my house and, you know, showing my grandkidd or something. I don't know, some photo or the time, you know, Ali took on, Inoki. Oh, no, gosh. Inoki, sorry. And you fast forward a couple of decades, and now Connor's taken on Floyd, it's, I guess it's a big deal.

Are you jonesing to get back to the MMA footage? I see you watching Floyd footage and breaking down that film. Like, are you? I'm assuming you're excited, but as a part of you really looking forward to the 27th and beyond, to when you could go back to your bread and butter? Yeah, I mean, I love MMA. I'm not going to lie about that. It's just a free, it's such a free-flowing sport. You know, of all the combat sports, it's the most unlimited.

Actually, you know, on Thursday nights, before Connor fights, I have Shnade Kavanaugh. She's fighting on Bellator, New York. That's right. And, you know, we follow on her in the lead up to this, obviously. Actually, she's fighting a boxing world champion with this. Which is, I don't know, it's kind of ironic or something. I believe that's Friday. That's Friday, right?

The 25th. I'm sorry, Friday night, of course. Wayne's Thursday, fight Friday night. Peter Cuelly, Conner's teammate, he's fighting in Russia on the same date. So, you know, we're still heavily involved in the MMA world. and I guess young Jimmy is he's been dubs now you know main event in Dublin for Bellator in November

and you know art of just getting announced for for you see in October so we're heavily heavily involved in that world and I'm certainly looking forward to getting back to it. Just a couple more things before I let you go and again thank you so much for the time you referenced this the story when you guys were at the way-ins and Connor said to you know the

I think he said the illusion of insanity is over now back to the game plan, right? That's one of the greatest stories ever told on this show, and it still gives me goosebumps thinking about that scene. Have you had any moments like that with him leading up to it? Maybe it's too soon to ask this question. Maybe it's better to ask it next Monday. But any moments where you're like, wow, you know, like just here we are.

We're about to do this again, and the spotlight is even great. Any moments that were private between you two that you can share between you and Connor? Geez, I thought I gave you a pretty good one there. I know. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Harry broke it to me on text. Okay, all right.

I'm greedy. I'm greedy. I don't know. It gave me a bit of a chill. And I just got that the man has made a grave error. There was just something so definite about it. And then, you know, like his take on the fight that he wasn't going to go in as a boxer. He's going to go in as a martial artist, if you want to say, as a fighter, as a mixed martial artist.

And be able to do sequences and techniques and attacks that are, fully within the rules. Don't worry about that. Yes, yes, yes. If I'm reading the rules right, you're allowed at least one leg kick per round. So that's great. We're out one leg kick.

Great. Joking. But, you know, of course, fully within the rules, but there's nothing within the rules to say we can't do the things that we have in mind. So we're just going to go in and enjoy it as well. We're going to have fun with this.

This is sport. It's a great event. It's going to be one of the most watched events of all time maybe. Everybody has an opinion on it, but everybody's going to watch. And I'm very honored to be playing a part in it. I'm not dumb enough to ask for the game plan,

even though everyone's curious what it is, but are there a few things that you want to see very early on to let you know that, all right, this is going to go as we think it's going to go, are there a couple of, he says he's going to go forward, Floyd says he's going to go forward, Connor doesn't believe him, and Floyd isn't the kind of fighter that goes forward.

But are there certain things that you want to see very early on first second round to let you know that all right this is actually going to go the way I think it's going to go? Yeah, 100% there is. That one there is an interesting an interesting one.

I can't see it and I know we're eventually going to get to my prediction. I have to make two because one is based on him being honest which I don't think he is all that often and then the other is based on what I actually think will happen.

but I guess we'll get to that near the end but yeah no just there's a few things that that myself Owen and Connor have spoken about in depth that different looks and different sequences we want to see happen early on the set

to put the swing the momentum in our favor yeah for sure we always have that okay the official corner who is it um it's I'm actually that's going to be

definite today. That's going to be definite today. I'll WhatsApp you when I know for sure. Oh, what's up in? So there's something up in the air right now?

Something a little bit up in the air. Wow. Nothing major. Okay. Wow. Can you give us a hint? It's not that big wow. It's not a wow thing.

We're just trying to figure out a couple of things. Interesting. It's a fairly minor thing. Okay. It's a fairly minor thing. Perhaps. Is that, is that why Steve Collins? Me and Owen Roddy are there. Okay.

Me and Owen Roddy are there. And that's, we've always been the first and second. Regardless, as Connor said, he could, all he really needs is to show, put his mouthpiece in and walk out there. Sure. The rest is fluff. You get four, right? Yeah, but one of them is your cut man.

That's a little bit different to what we're using. Okay. Okay. And perhaps. Reached the four. Right. Is Steve Collins? on his way to Las Vegas, is that what happening? Is that why he's MIA on my program? He was supposedly, there was some talk of him walking him out back in Boston. Could you imagine?

Then I will accept it. If not, he has no excuse. No, that's not the reason. So Steve, if you're watching, you're in trouble. You don't let the H man down. You do not let the H man down. I appreciate. You know what happened? Your video feed froze with your hand on your mouth. It's a great shot. Are you still there? Oh, no. Yeah. I'm still here. Oh, there you're back. You're back. Oh, there we're back. Yeah, yeah. I was trying to take a photo of how it was to you because it was not a, it was not complimentary. Oh, gosh. All right. Wow. Okay. Two last things. Number one, has this gone personal for you in the team with the racism stuff. You know, you've talked a little bit about his past. Connor has talked about, you know, this is a man who has beat up his wife and things like that.

At any point, has this gone personal for you guys? Do you feel like you are going out there to vanquish a bad person? No, like the idea of fight was probably as close as it was going to get the personal with the way, you know, since then, me and Mark are cool and we've met and shook hands and everything. But just his approach to it got as close to personal as it could be. I'm pretty sure I could walk past. Floyd, and you wouldn't even know who it was. So,

you know, I don't have any real emotional investment in it from that point of view. Yeah, as for Fly. Yeah, you know, before this fight was sort of talked about, I didn't, I knew nothing about Fly. That's being 100% honest.

I have an interest in boxing. I very much enjoyed watching those fights because I'm a defensively minded coach in general. I like looking at defense. in martial arts because I think that's the number one rule of martial arts

is self-defense defend yourself defend yourself from takedowns from strikes defend yourselves from submissions that's the foundation

of martial arts when you get good at that then we add on the attacks and in boxing for that particular sport you don't get a whole lot better than Floyd so I enjoy watching those fights

for those reasons and since the fight has been announced and since it got closer Yeah, you look more and more into his personal life, you know, things that's told to me. And not that I believe all of them, but certainly as much as I can verify to be true, he's not exactly a Times Magazine's man of the year, you know. But hey, that's that. None of that's going to matter.

The referee, you know, says fight on Saturday night. All of that dissolves away. None of that matters. it's the two of them in the ring and they have to fight. That's all the matters. So back in June after James Gallagher's win at MSG, I asked you what your prediction was. You told us that we would have to wait.

Now you know about the gloves. You know about the referee. You know about Floyd saying he's coming forward. He's going to give the people what they want. He has to repay them for the Pachial fight. We know what Connor wants to do. He usually sticks to the script. What is your official prediction?

All right. So, like Connor said, when the two of them walk to the middle, one of them has to take a back step. If Floyd takes a back step, then, which I believe he will, then I predict round six. Okay. That's my prediction on it. I think for the first five rounds, he will back up, he will lie in the ropes the way he does. He will cover up and try to just absorb and try to wear. Connor down. That's how I think he'll approach the fight. If he doesn't take a backstep,

and we can all, we'll all see it, we'll all see their feet, we'll all see who walks backwards. If he walks forwards and exchanges, it'll be a one round fight. It'll be over in a minute. Wow. A minute. Because he'd be fighting in such, he'd be fighting in such a way that's, that's not normal to him. He won't have had to be. time to develop the skill set for an aggressive exchanging fighter. It's not, like I said, I didn't know a lot of a fly before this, but I did watch his fights for his defensive work. So if I didn't go in there and try to trade with Connor and not walk backwards,

would be so alien to him, but so normal for Connor, that's exactly what Connor is the best of. He'll be unconscious in a minute. But I think he skips to the middle. I think he has that the you know his classic hand position Philly shell hand position

and he'll faint and throw a jab or something Connor will walk forward he'll back up and he'll aim to just pot shot cover up cover up pot shot clinch pot shot and just try to get through the first couple of rounds

as I believe that will be the case that will be the scenario I think round six Connor's hand was raised. So knockout. Oh, yes. Oh, my.

This is something. See, this is what I'm talking about. You've never in any fight, no matter the sport, seen one side this confident, talking about a one-minute knockout, and then everyone else saying that you guys are crazy and that you have no business even being in there and that you're not lacing the gloves.

That's what makes this so fascinating. That's why I can't wait for Saturday night. This is amazing. But for the record, you don't think he's actually going to do that. You actually think it's going to be, this is all talk. on his part and he's going to go back. It's going to be the old Floyd, right?

You're not going to see anything different. No, we won't see anything different. We'll see if anything, an even tighter defensive style that he has done in the past. He is lying when he says he wants to make up for the Pacquo fight. He doesn't care about fans. He doesn't care about anybody else except himself. That's abundantly clear. So he's going into this fight thinking, you know,

that's pay off. He's struggling with his tax affairs, he's trying to keep all these strippers on the payroll and strip clubs running and all of this kind of thing. He's going in there to try to make a lot of money and get out unscated. That's his goal. He's not going in there to trade punches with

a 170-pound Irish gorilla. That's for sure. And for that reason, the way I see it going is a couple of rounds for Connor to break them down and get through that defensive style and open them up. And then when the opening cones, which like I said, I believe it's round six, land that shot. And that's all she wrote. And then the entire world explodes.

What a moment that will be. John, I can't thank you enough for this. I cannot thank you enough for this. Not only for coming on as you always do now, but for going the extra mile and actually going to this coffee shop and this Skype connection has been phenomenal. It really means a lot. I know the fans really look forward to it. I know that you are incredibly busy, especially on the Monday before, but thank you so much.

And so I look forward to talking to you next Monday about the six-round knockout, correct? See you at the pool party. I can't wait. Are you coming out? Are you going to be here? Of course I will be here. I will be there. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

I'll actually be there beginning tomorrow at 8 a.m. I have a 6 a.m. flight. In fact, you'll be happy to know that we're doing the MMA hour from Las Vegas for the first time, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So if you're ever bored and have nothing to do, pop on by. We'd love to chat some more. Well, I won't be in Vegas. Oh, you mean this week you're doing the MMA order?

Yeah. Or next week? No, no, no. I'm coming back home. I'm going tomorrow to Vegas, then coming back home, and I'll be back here on Monday. Talking to you. I got you. Awesome.

Awesome. Thanks very much. Thank you, John. All the best. And we look forward to seeing you out there. Can't wait for this. And again, thank you so much for the time. It really means a lot.

Thank you for the invite. I'll see you in Vegas. All right. There he is. Mr. John Kavanaugh, headman, over at SBG Ireland. Amazing stuff. Wow.

Hearing that story about the Bruce Lee, text, if you will, the WhatsApp message. The one-minute prediction, the six-round prediction. Again, Connor isn't going into this fight as a boxer.

He's going into this fight as Connor McGregor, comma, MMA fighter. If you think otherwise, you're making a big mistake, and it's fascinating to me to see these conventional boxing figures, whether it's the fighters, the coaches,

the promoters, the managers, the media people, just completely dismiss them while you have this team, this pretty tight-knit team, which hasn't really brought in anyone from outside of the team, the boxing world, speak with such confidence, so sure of the fact that they are actually going to pull this off. that to me is the most fascinating aspect of this fight. What do they know that the rest of these people don't know?

What have they seen that the rest of these people refuse to believe is an actual possibility? Do you ever recall? Yeah, sure. I mean, we've had some fights in the boxing world, like when Mike Tyson came back and he fought Peter McNeilion, you have people would be like, I'm going to knock you out, but everyone's like,

now you have no chance. And when they say it, you don't actually believe them. When they say it, when these guys say it, I believe it. I really do. I believe that they believe. I don't know what's going to happen. People are asking you on a prediction all the time. I have no idea what's going to happen.

None of you know what's going to happen. You know, everyone's saying that he's not going to land upon it. This is going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen. But to see the belief, to feel the belief, that to me is just incredibly interesting. So here we are. What a time to be alive. Let me update a couple things. Yeah. You know, if you ever use WhatsApp, you can see the last time someone has signed on. And Steve Collins hasn't been on since Saturday. So I had a feeling there was something weird about our whole connection. I had a feeling that this was going to happen. And so I apologize for that. It doesn't look like he's available. And an update on Brian Stan, who we were supposed to talk to you, you heard that he, left the UFC commentary position and is now going to be taking another position. Apparently there was some kind of issue and he cannot do the interview today,

but hopefully we'll be able to talk to him in the coming weeks, days about this new chapter in his life. And see what's up with there. So I apologize for that. We are going a little heavy. So perhaps it's a blessing in disguise, certainly for the team in the back. But we do have one more guest to go. And I'm very happy to be ending on this note. this is a perfect way to end this week's show, the go-home show, if you will.

We are talking to a young man named Mick Constantine. A couple of weeks ago, he put out a song that has gone everywhere. It is viral, so to speak, and I'm told that in Ireland, you can't go anywhere without hearing it. The name of the song is, there's only one Connor McGregor. We played it last week during Rick's Picks. He's playing the ukulele while singing this song that he wrote about the rise of Connor McGregor, and it's a beautiful song. And recently he put it out on iTunes and it has vaulted up the charts.

So I thought it would be fun to have Mick on the program to talk about the making of the song, the explosion after it was released. And as you may have heard in my interview with Connor a couple weeks ago, Connor heard the song and invited Mick out to Las Vegas, which I think is a beautiful gesture in its own right. So now via the magic of Skype, we are being joined by Ireland's own Mick Constantine. There he is.

Mick, how are you? not too bad for you i'm doing great why are you laughing so much what's so funny i just this is just weird talking to you to be honest a week ago i didn't think i'd be on the the mma or but here we are here we are my friend and i think it's a great way to end the week and i think it's a great way to you know embark on this journey that is mayweather mcgregor fight week let me ask you this first off how did you come up with the idea of making this song this is something that you do have seen your YouTube page. He did one about the Irish football team last year that was incredibly successful.

But to come up with this idea of making this song about the fight and the rise of Connor, where did it come from? Yeah, so I just had the, when there was a lot of talk about the fight at the start, I kind of got an idea in my head and then the fight was announced in June. And I said, look, I might as well try and write something about this. The scale of it is huge. And I always kind of wanted to write a song about Connor. and I kind of held off until, well, a fight this big

and obviously with the publicity it goes with the fight I thought I could get probably more reach with the song so yeah, just sat down one day and started writing and look, his story in general is unbelievable and it was a lot of fun to write about and then like he has so many lines and quotes that are just hilarious and so he actually like I didn't have to come up with

a lot of the lyrics, the lyrics were just his, his quotes. I just have to squeeze them in somewhere. And yeah, people seem to enjoy it. And he seemed to enjoy it as well. And you wrote it all yourself? Yeah, I did, yeah. Well, I have to say, there was one or two lines my little brother wrote, so he'll give out to me if I didn't give him a shout out.

And how long did it take to actually write this? Because my favorite part about the song is how you were able to blend all those moments together and all those famous lines. I mean, every single one that he's uttered as part of this journey in the UFC. it just all comes together so nicely. How long did it actually take? It's just maybe a day or two or a couple of hours. My songs either come out really quickly

or they just don't come out at all. So I guess I just got lucky with it and I got a catchy chorus out and the rest. Like I said, it was actually really enjoyable to write about because they're just going through his career, which is a phenomenal career. Right. And just even I spent a few hours going through

just as YouTube videos to make sure it wasn't missing out on any lines. And even that was enjoyable as well. So yeah, no, wasn't. It was easy enough at the end because of all his quotes and his story. How soon did you get the sense that this was actually spreading everywhere? Because I have to admit, ever since, you know, we mentioned the song, I get hit up and I was actually talking to John Kavanaugh about this. I can't believe there's this many Connor

McGregor songs out there. I have received so many emails and tweets, hey, I've written this Connor song, please play this and that. Somehow yours broke through and is everywhere and you got the attention of Connor. How soon did you get the sense that that happened? Well, I saw you actually retweeted it maybe three or four hours after I put it out. Yeah, you could thank me for all of this. Yeah. All the views are thanks to the area, so I appreciate that. I make sure I sort of I want to see you in Vegas.

I saw Owen Roddy. Someone, one of my friends, texting me saying, check out Owen Roddy's Instagram story. So I went and had a look, and his story was himself and a few lads driving. through Vegas and he was playing my song in the car. And that was literally four or five hours after. And I was like, no way. This actually can't be happening. And I thought, if he has it, surely he'll show Connor.

Like, he has to show Connor. And then later on that night, like, I couldn't sleep because I was just on my phone the whole time. And one of Conner's management got in touch and said Connor saw the song and he loved it. And then Connor shared it himself on his own Facebook. And yeah, at that point, I was like, yeah, this is, it was insane. It's crazy. And then when do you find out?

that they actually want you to come out to Las Vegas? And what was your reaction when you got that message? Yeah, so the next day, actually, I was in a studio recording it properly. So this group Pundered Arena that they actually did my song last year as well. So they said, hey, look, we love the song and we will pay for the recording. So I was in a studio recording it. I just took a break checking out my emails, got an email from this person who supposedly said they were Connor's manager and that Connor loved the song.

and he loved to fly me over, put me up in a hotel and get me two tickets for the fight for myself and a friend. So at first I celebrate it like crazy and then for a second I thought, is this a prank? Because if this is a prank, it would be the most cruel prank of all time. But I was able to confirm that it actually was one of his management.

And then, to be honest, it still hasn't really sank in. Like, it's just, it's unbelievable. I can't. I haven't even thought about the fact I'm going to be there because I'm doing so much else. But when I get there, it's just, yeah, I'm speechless. Did you receive your plane ticket yet? Yeah, I received the details of you.

Okay, okay. I'm not on the private jet, unfortunately. That's fine. Can you believe he actually put me in the economy? It's disgrace. I don't know if I go anymore. I surely was going to put me in business class, but look, I think I'll get over that thing,

seeing as he's giving me the two tickets as well. So don't worry about it, Connor. Have you actually talked to Connor? No, no, no. I imagine he's busy enough with a little event coming in the next few days but maybe after all things going

well he wins the fight and I don't know I might call into the after party to sing a song or two and so I might see him there but you did get a follow on Twitter and that's just as good in my opinion yeah a follow and a few retweets and in fairness he

he um so when we released a song on iTunes and I kind of wanted to do something back because Connor obviously done this massive favour for me and he's pretty well set up and I can't really give him much to be honest because he has everything but one of his charities is this children's hospital that's near enough to where he grew up Cronlin's Children's Hospital and all the the proceeds from the iTunes song people buying on iTunes is all going to that hospital so when he saw that tweet he was probably why that's the one tweet he retweeted so it was great that he was able to

retweet that and obviously more people notice now so hopefully just keep buying it and iTunes. And it's number one at the moment, which is just crazy. Wow. But just, yeah, keep buying it. And the more people that buy it, the more money that's going to go to that hospital. So it's fantastic. That's a really nice gesture. Well done on your part. Is this bigger than the football song last year for you? Yeah, it is bigger. Like that was, that was quite big, but it's not to the scale of Connor McGregor. The football song was really big in Ireland than the Irish people loved then maybe around Europe,

but obviously, Connor has a worldwide reach, and I've messages from people from all over the world, saying it's people from, Azerbaijan was probably the most random place that I got a phone call or a message from, saying someone heard it on an oil rig or something. And I know it's in the Australian charts as well.

Oh, no. Oh, you're back. You're back. Oh, yeah, it's good now. Okay, and so, of course, he has this reach. of course, is, I mean, this is life-changing stuff. Is this your, is this your full-time job? Like, are you just a singer-songwriter, or do you actually have a full-time job?

No, I'm actually a teacher. So, like, high school teacher over in America, so that age group. So I've just done my school holidays at the moment. So I do songs just for a bit of fun and for my friends. And when we go, before we go out and after we come home from a night out, we might have a sing-along or something like that. But, yeah, like, even if, talking to Conor's management and there's been music agents and managers getting in touch

and all these people that want to do a bit of work after this weekend. So it really could be life changing like that. Yeah. I know I might have to give up the teaching, but I don't think the kids will miss me too much. Oh my gosh. I wonder what those kids are thinking about you right now as you're probably preparing to go back to school. By the way, how old are you? I'm 24. 24. 24. Holy smokes. And you're teaching high school kids? You're very young. Yeah. I don't know why they listen to me, but I teach gym, so it's not too bad. All right. It's easy enough.

And who are you taking with you to Las Vegas? So I'm taking a very good friend of mine. He, in fairness, Padra Goh Sullivan, I'll give his name a shout out. But he's as big a Connor fan as I am and also is really into MMA and boxing. So I kind of had him in my head beforehand, but I have like two or three guys that kind of work for me now, nearly two three friends. Oh my gosh. They do all my social media because I don't have time anymore. So I need to say big thanks to Noel Ryan and to Michael Hanley

and to Patty Ryan for the help they've given me because like it's, it's the one guy is just doing all my media for me. He's not even like he's just as a teacher as well. But yeah, they've been so helpful because I just couldn't really handle all the messages anymore. And I'm trying to do all these interviews and organize myself. And it's, yeah, without them, I wouldn't be able to do it. Could you imagine what it would be like if he actually does it? If he knocks him out, what will it will do for your song?

I'm not coming back from Vegas if that happens I don't think I've got to stay there for the week I'm going to have to ring my principal and just tell him I won't be home for another few days but yeah look

it's in the song and I wouldn't eroded if I didn't think it was going to happen so look I believe he is as good as chance as any to win it so he's done the extraordinary before so why not I agree all right so for those that haven't heard the song

I think we've beat around the bush long enough I'd love to have you play it I love the song. I showed it to my kids. They loved it too. There's something wonderfully innocent about the song. I think it's the ukulele. It's not like in your face.

It's wonderfully written. You've done a great job with it. And I think it would be nice to kind of end this journey with you playing it. So if you don't mind, and I hope the Skype connection keeps up. I'd love to get, I feel kind of like Johnny Carson here on the Tonight Show, you know, having a musical guest.

It's just a lot of fun. We've never done this before on the program. So let's give it a try. you want me to sing the whole song yeah or just some of it yeah i want to hear the whole damn song i want to hear it you can't give this half the song what are you too busy for us now just for you aerial this is there's only one connor reggae thanks again for the retweet and for having you on the show i really appreciate it here we go hopefully you can hear it okay a kid from dublin with more than a dream he knew one day he'd be the king of the ufc oh it a group of fight and iris not to be pushed over not

here to take part they were here to take over and from the start john cavana by his side whoever thought they'd be known worldwide after 60 g's baby and a contract to sign leave in his old life and the social welfare be fine then after two years came the featherweight champion of the world and conner said he'd make him look like a little girl it only took 10 seconds to show his talk wasn't cheap as he connected with the left and poldo the seat is only one connor mcgregor and there's the fighter better and he's gonna knock out Floyd Mayweather so Floyd watch out cause the Irish are coming you can talk all you want but you do nothing only one Connor McGregor and there's the fighter better and he's gonna knock out Floyd nay weather so Floyd watch out just the Irish

are coming you can talk all you want but you do nothing the lightweight belt was next in store to do what no other fighter had ever done for the the first same time double champ in history and took the chance to apologize to absolutely nobody he came from working on a building site to get a million dollar paychecks from dana boy and there was money his cars and his clothes he flunts cause the double champ does what that he wants him may weather you're old and you're small and the truth is that you'll do fickle cause precision beats power and time and beats speed why have you got a schoolback ployd you can't even read Read this is only one Connor McGregor and there's a fighter better and he's gonna knock out

Floyd Mayweather so Floyd watch out cause the Irish are coming you can talk all you want but you do nothing only one Connor McGregor and there's the fighter better and he's gonna not go Floyd Mayweather so Floyd watch out because the Irish are coming you can talk all you want but you do nothing well he dresses to kill boys Lamborghinis at will can get in your head like he was. Dr. Phil and if you call him out, have a good reason why, Earl turn around and say who that

is that guy on the 26th of August. We're taking over Vegas. The Irish invasion, you can't mistake us. Singing songs day and night till their voices are sore because when one of us goes, we all go to war, there's only one corner McGregor, and there's a fighter better

and he's gonna knock out. Floyd Mayweather, so, Floyd watch out because the Irish are coming You can talk all you want But you do nothing Only one Connor McGregor And there's a fighter better And he's gonna knock out

Floyd in a wedder so Floyd watch out Because the Irish are coming You can talk all you want But you do nothing You do nothing Yeah Well done Mick

Perfect Skype connection It worked Well done my man This can be a weekly thing if you want I don't mind. Yeah, yeah. Maybe next you could write a song about this show. How about that?

We'll commission it. That was great. Yeah, no problem at all. I can't get enough of it. Well done, my man. Congratulations. So again, if people go to iTunes and they just type in, there's only one Connor McGregor.

They can download the song. I think it's 99 cents, correct? I think so, yeah. Yeah, and all the proceeds go to the Kremlin Children's Hospital, right? You even went to SBG. Yeah, you even went to SBG, right? and played for them there? Yeah, yeah, that was really cool.

So the Mac life had been in touch. I did a bit with them, so we did like a little music video type of thing. So, for fairness, I got a little tour. Nate the Great, I don't know if you know, he showed me around the SBG gym. And, yeah, did a little video there in the octagon, and then right in front of that,

down the mural with Connor and someone painted it. I don't know who did it, but it was a surprise for Connor. It was unreal. And then there was actually like there was a five or six year old class going on when I was in the gym. So one of the mothers came over and asked, which of mine playing the song for all these little tiny kids. So they were probably the most difficult audience I ever played for it because none of them knew who the song was. I really knew what I was saying.

But it was good fun. It was interesting. And they were more really impressed by the ukulele than by me. Sure. Sure, look. Last thing I want to ask you, and this is something that I asked a few people when I was in Dublin in 2014. what continues to impress me about Conner's connection to the Irish people. What does he mean to you? Why do you have this passion for him?

Why did you feel the need to write a song about him? What does he mean to you and your friends and for the people that you associate with in Dublin? Because I know that not that long ago, times were tough in Ireland and there was a recession. And he is not your typical Irishman, certainly not as far as Irish athletes are concerned. But for you personally, what does he mean? Yeah, totally. And most of the biggest Irish athletes, are like really, really humble and totally different characters to Connor. And I think there's nothing wrong with the way Connor is that, like, he's brash and he's super confident. But like his story is unbelievable, so he's full right to be confident.

And so there's nothing wrong with saying that you're great if you can back it up and if you work hard enough to get what you want to achieve. So like, it's just his story in general. It's just phenomenal. And the fact that so many people throughout his career have said he couldn't do something. and he just straight in their faces, you're wrong, and I will do it, and he goes and does it. So, like, he is an inspirational character because, like, he achieves something that is just, like I said, extraordinary.

So I know it's cheesy, like, and it's stupid in that way, but he showed that if you do put your hard work to it and believe in your goals and think or believe in yourself, like your dreams can come through. I'm going to get so much abuse for saying that now because it's the cheesy thing involved. It's true. It's fine. It's true. Believe and achieve it. It's great stuff. Mick, thank you very much for the time. Congratulations on this song becoming a huge success and a big hit. And congratulations on actually getting the song in front of him and getting to fly out to one of the biggest sporting events, at least of our lifetime. It's really cool stuff and I'm very happy for you. Hopefully we'll see you out there in Las Vegas. Appreciate it, my man. Definitely. Thanks so much for having me. And thanks again for retweet and Ariel and all the support.

really appreciate it. No problem. No problem. All the best to you. We'll see you soon. There it is. Make Constantine really enjoyed having him play the song. That's never happened on the show before.

And it kind of felt like, you know, it was a tonight show. You have someone on, musical guests, break things up. I thought that that would be a fun way to end at least the interview portion of the show. All right. No time to waste my friends. We're up against the clock. So now it's time for everyone's favorite segment of the show. It is time for Rickspicks.

and your minds. MMA fans, it's time for Ricks Picks. Ricks Picks are lots of fun, and his hair is in a bun, because it's, you already know what it is. Ricks Picks.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the new craze taking the world by storm. Yeah. From the Vox Studios in Buex, here it is. It's time for Rick's Picks. Yeah.

Yeah, there it is. Hello. How are you? What is that slurping? I'm thirsty, all right? It's hot under the lights. How's your day gone? Oh, the camera's...

Can't complain. Yeah, you know, you've got to get me framed up. Yes, we've had a couple of no-shows, unfortunately. But one is an actual no-show. One is a cancellation. These things are going to happen. These things happen. Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Gus. Thank you very much. Do you want to tell people about that shirt you had?

No, no, we'll tell them. After? Later. Okay, let's go. What do you got? Okay, we're going to start Rick's picks with a check-in on our two favorite people at the moment. Okay. Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor. All right. Floyd Mayweather. Last week for Rick's picks, first item up is Floyd Mayweather's very strange. a message. Yes. That last week

he was going to be partying the entire week at Girl Collection. Yes. This is his gentleman's club, right? His gentleman's club.

First of all, congrats Floyd. Like, you're doing life right. I'll tell you that. But what do you make of this? Do you think there's any chance that he was just hanging out at the gentleman's club?

No, I believe that. that what this is is another, I don't know, ploy, if you will, by Floyd and his team to convince people that he's actually not taking the fight seriously, that he's not training, I believe that he is training, I believe that he is taking the fight seriously. Again, another episode of All Access and another episode of absolutely zero seconds of Floyd training footage.

Now, we did get the open workout stuff, but the rest of the world saw that. So there's nothing really revelatory about that. they have not showed anything as far as Floyd training is concerned. They continue to show them partying and going to the strip club and doing all this stuff. And I think they want people to believe. And I think it's working to a degree because look at the lines. So I think that this was a way to get people to talk about his business, the strip club,

and B, to get people to think that he's not taking it seriously. Don't believe it. There's 24 hours in the day. The guy is famous for not going to sleep or going to bed at or training, I should say, at weird hours. it's just another smart marketing ploy. I'm going to give Floyd the benefit of the doubt and say that he was

watching the door over at Girl Collection. Yeah, right. So he may not be training fighting, but what he is training is the jump shot. Oh, I did see this. This is a more recent Instagram. His son is actually a pretty good player. And I remember a few years ago,

it was him and Isaiah Thomas, when Isaiah Thomas was like a benchwarmer on the Kings or even the sons. those two were friendly and they were going at it on the court. Floyd's got some game. I'm impressed. Yeah, he's got some game. Look at that.

Pure. No, his son is really good and I've seen him playing like... All swish. Celebrity games and things like that. It's interesting you say that. We'll get to that later. But that's our check-in on Floyd. Girl Collection and the Jump Shot being worked on.

Now, we have this that came out as we were on air. You might not have even seen this one yet. but Connor McGregor got a new sponsor. What? Wait, I'm hearing something weird in my ears right now. Something about an investigation. Yeah, there's another clip later that has to do with that. So Connor McGregor has a toothpaste ad?

He does, yeah. This just came out. Today? As we were doing the show. Oh. No. It's still playing multiple clips. I'm not sure.

All right. It's fine. How to fix that. Good for him. It's running through. His smile. How about that? GDP.

Get that paper. I love this. I'm so happy you chose this one. I chose this Instagram photo from one Tony McGregor. And the way, you know why I chose this? The idea that he's going to have all his belts with him is fantastic. But the way he communicated this, the way Tony McGregor expressed this, like a military kind of communication is incredible.

Message being received an official communique from McGregor camp deep in the Nevada desert. The Champ Champ has requested his belts to be flown to him in USA. Roger that affirmative. So Tony's packing him up and sending Connor McGregor his belts. I love it. We see three USC belts and two Cage Warrior belts here. He's a very entertaining follow on Instagram, Tony McGregor, because he speaks like this, or at least he writes like this a lot. Okay, now we have an official prediction for the fight.

Oh my. Mini McGregor on Friday night at Micro Championship Wrestling. Oh my. Micro Money defeated Minnie McConnor with one punch. One punch. That was it. That was it. That was the entirety of it. I thought this was just a gift. No, this is pretty much it. There is a longer video. This is like Kevin Nash versus Hulk Hogan. it looks like Minnie McGregor took a fall here no you don't think no you took one flush for sure

don't break K-fabe did you imagine one punch if that's what happened with whoa do you mean with Mayweather doing it yeah yeah yeah look I'll say this this is a point for me to kind of break in with this the eight ounce glove thing

everybody's talking about how much it's going to help Connor you think it helps Floyd I think it helps Floyd more than it helps Connor because I think Floyd's going to be one actually landing punches. And he's going to have his best chance at a finish that he's ever had. I don't know. I don't see that.

Because Conner's chin is just, I mean, have you seen him take punches via four ounce gloves? Sure. Conner's got a great chin, no doubt about it. But this is a different sport. I know, but Floyd is not known to be a very heavy hitter. I mean, he's not to be a very precise puncher. And the body shot, I think the body shots. Yeah, well, that matters.

Yeah. The lighter glove, the less padded glove, is going to, when he digs into the body and it's round 11. Are we getting an official prediction here? Round 11. Is this official prediction? Maybe later. Maybe later in the show. All right, all right. But I do not predict that we'll go like Minnie McGregor.

I'm sorry, mini money and micro money and Minnie McConnell was what they were billed as on this show. Okay, from show trust. Caposa, grab a cut hitman on Twitter. Alexander Shabbly, K-O at ACB-67. Look at the timing on this knee. Just absolutely incredible. He's in a firefight.

He's getting swung on and just has the composure to land that. Definitely wanted to just highlight this one. I mean, all you have to do is see it. There's really nothing to describe outside of. He's in the pocket and one flush knee and it's over. Congrats to him. Tweet from

one Jorge Mazvedal earlier this week. The violence you have all as far as finally going down on November 4th. Hashtag Wonderbred. Hashtag Ho Slap season. Hashtag Mek NYC great again.

So it looks like we're going to get Jorge and Wonderboy in New York City as part of Ho Slap season, which I'm looking forward to. I think it's time that Mr. Mosvedal gets rid of the make

blank great again line I think it's kind of run its course other than that it's all good look you know what he's the only one doing the gimmick so I think it's it's cringe worthy no more please we got a fight

that was Mazvedal and Wonderboy Here we lost a fight Francis Ngano saying he's very very angry almost done with training camp and they just announced my opponent is out for U.S. 215. And you don't want to make Mr. Angano angry.

One person he's targeting, and a lot of people were interested in this matchup is Alistair Overeem saying, Alistair Overeign has been mentioning my name everywhere. I'm now open and free for you guy. Let's do this at 2.15.

And if I'm Alistair O'Reyin, why... I'm free for you guy. Yes, but why... I'm free for you guy. Yeah, but I see people say, like, what's Steve A. Miocchich doing? Yeah, Steve Mioch is going to

fight Francis Inganu on two weeks notice. Yeah. It's crappy luck, but I just don't see it happening. No. And here, speaking of not having a fight, an interesting Instagram from Rory McDonald, sitting on the couch,

sipping on Legionath protein shake after a solid week of trading, waiting impatiently for a fight, gorilla, angry face, hashtag monster energy. I just love this, because he really does look displeased and to be impatient about having a fight in us. Yeah, he looks swole. And then this led to a back and forth between him and Michael Chandler.

Yeah, where Michael Chandler said, he'll do it. Rory said it looks like they have an opponent, but aren't ready to announce yet. Yeah, Lima. Duh. If we go up on audio on this one, disregard whatever is. This one makes me uncomfortable. Why? I don't want to see this.

Who the hell wants to see this? What do you mean? Don't usually drink beer and stay up late, but when I do, it's to watch Menace Bermudas get tasered in Europe. This is from Gray Maynard. This is a video of Dennis Bermuda is getting tasered. I find this incredibly uncomfortable. Why? Uncomfortable physically?

I don't want to watch it. I feel the electricity going through my spine, and I want nothing to do with it. Well, Dennis is a trooper. Yeah. Thank you to great for putting this out for putting this out. After he drank all that lemon juice. That's right.

World record holder, Dennis Bermuda. Please. No more taser. Okay, okay. Moving on to lighter things. Okay. You were talking about charity basketball earlier. My man, Bebes.

What? Forget Bebs. We've got Al Jemaine Sterling. Yes, him too. Forget Bebs. Get out of here. Al Jemaine Sterling. Yeah. Playing at Aces Celebrity

Charity Basketball game at MSG last weekend. Guarding one Justin Bieber. Here you see, it looks like Justin Bieber Beaver is flying by him, but in reality we actually have the video. Oh. We do? We have Aljo locking up Justin Bieber.

Oh, oh, Beep's got skills, eh? Nah, not right. What are you talking about? Look at this. Here, here, look, Aljo. They went for the double team. Oh, oh.

He had to pass it off. No, he had to pass it off. Because Aljo had him on lock. Let's watch it again. He was trying to get by him. He's trying to get by. First of all, he didn't need the double team. Stay away from that.

Let Aljo go to work. And then what happens? Yeah, we don't know what happened. I'm actually really jealous that Aljo got the play on the MSG court. Yeah. And, you know, seem to be doing well. All the photos look great, but maybe next time we have Aljo on, we'll ask him how he really did. But here we see him shutting down Justin Bieber. Shout out to Al Joe. It needed to be done for America. Stop it. Stop it. Beaver's been through a lot. He had to cancel his tour. He's got a lot of stress. Wait, that happened recently? I don't even know. I didn't know this. It's true. He had a really long tour and he had to cancel it. And he's actually... So Aljo got him that he did?

Actually, this actually ties into Mayweather McGregor because apparently he unfollowed Mayweather. I think I read this somewhere that he unfollowed Mayweather because he's trying... He works with a pasture and they're trying to weed out all the bad influences. And Mayweather has called him a traitor. I don't know if this is true or not, but you remember he walked out Mayweather. I think it was prior to the Pac-Yal fight. It was, yeah. And so there's a lot of concern that they're on the outs

and that he won't be walking him out for this fight. So it's... Oh, I had no idea about any of us. I think that you tied it all together. Yeah, look, you know. Yeah. That's what I do. Rick's pick, next one.

Cubs Swanson and Kenda Perez. Oh, having a baby born this morning. Oh, wow, I didn't know that. At 4.03 a.m. This warms my heart. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Beautiful.

Baby boy? Baby girl. says it. Hashtack, baby girl. Where? Oh, there it is. Yes. Oh. Eclipse Day baby. Actually, oh wow, yeah. Did it happen yet, the eclipse? Yeah, I think we completely missed it. Donald Trump stared directly into it. Get out of yada, yada, yada. Is that true? Yeah. There's a photo. There's a photo of everybody averting their eyes and he's staring directly into it. This is what's happening while I'm doing the show. I'm so happy. Look, you missed a lot. I'm so happy that I'm doing the show and missing all that nonsense. Well, congratulations, Mazel Tov.

Yeah, congratulations to them. To the happy parents. Beautiful. And here's where that audio was coming from before. A story out of British Columbia. I love this story. This story made me cry. Now, I couldn't find...

There was an original news source that had a story where they explicitly kind of talk out the MMA part of this. But they didn't have any social posting, so I couldn't grab it for Tag Board. But I did grab this one from CBC, Daybreak North, where a daycare owner Chelsea SAB, SABA, SABBE from British Columbia,

used her MMA training to fight off a would-be kidnapper. Every daycare provider's worst nightmare. That is everybody's worst nightmare. Yes. Including mine. Including mine. I was going to do whatever it was that I had to do to win that battle. When Sabby caught up, she put him in a headlong.

Sabby. there you go. She then rounded up her kids but she says the man then came back running towards them. I get chills. She said screaming and kicking. It didn't seem to make any difference.

She's the same. He was stone-faced. He never said a word the entire time. Which made it that much scarier. A neighbor in the area heard savvy. Okay. Wow.

Well, Chelsea is a hero. Shout out to Chelsea. Protecting the kids. She's a hero. she's a freaking legend. Oh my God. Use that MMA training. I can't imagine.

I hope that they give her whatever award. I don't know. Absolutely. Jeez. My hands are. They actually... Apparently they actually

like, you know, had a hold of a kid and she was able to wrangle them away. I feel like throwing up now. Just thinking of that. What's going on? What are you talking about? You're so sensitive right now.

You can't watch the tasering. You feel like throwing up. I'm sorry. Especially when it comes to the little kids, Little Angels, it's my nightmare. Yeah, but all as well, that ends well, the guy was caught and constantly worried, yes, constantly.

But yes, Chelsea, hero, I bow down to you. I'd like to erect the statue in your honor here. And I saw that. That's it for Rick's picks. Gosh, Chelsea. I don't know whether to be happy or sad thinking of that story. No, happy that she did it, but sad that there's actually sickos out there that would try to do this.

And our little sport contributed to it. Her training in MMA. prevented a kidnapping. It's a victory for MMA. It's a victory for MMA. All right. So, thank you very much, Mr. New York, Rick.

Hold on to your seat. Hold on to your hat. Hold on to your man button. Oh, do you want to talk about that shirt or after? Let's do it after. But why don't you say goodbye, thank the people that we need to thank, and then we'll jump back.

Yes, that's your subtle way of reminding me to thank the good people over at the Marines as he smiles and fades away. Thank you very much to the Marines. It has been a very fun day. While I thank the Marines, I want to remind you to right now go to mMAfighting. Twitter.com for the next 30 minutes. We are answering your questions, comments.

All things Mayweather McGregor, 216, 217, Edmonton, and Ganoo, whatever's on your mind. Hopefully you've been firing it away. New Yorkerick and I will answer. But yes, again, thank you very much to the Marines. The Marine Corps makes Marines win our nation's battles and develop quality citizens. every value tradition and lesson learned from battle are imbued into every Marine it's what they are all made of

Marines don't fight for glory, they fight for honor they live by a code that isn't written or spoken but live Marines view every challenge as a battle whether it's a literal physical battle or a figurative one Marines are the fighting spirit of our entire nation thank you very much to the Marines

check them out over at Marines.com we appreciate their support wholeheartedly we also appreciate the support of Twitter and as I mentioned matter moments, we're going to mMA hour.com. But before I say goodbye to YouTube and, excuse me, mhmapfighting.com, it's going to take me a minute to reconfigure my brain on that one. But before we say goodbye to our other audience, I want to remind you one more time that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we are live from Las Vegas for the first time ever. The MA hour is taking

its show on the road on Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern, on Thursday, We're doing the beat at 1 p.m. Eastern and then the show at 6 p.m. And then on Friday, so that we do not coincide with the Wands, we'll be on at 1 p.m. Eastern. Radio Row, guests galore, talking to all of you from Vegas. So we say goodbye for now, but a lot more to come as we get ready for the highly anticipated Bayweather-McGregor boxing match. So we're saying goodbye from YouTube, Facebook, MMA Fighting,

our other platforms going over to Twitter right now. MMAfighting. Dot Twitter.com to answer your questions to respond to your comments. Keep it locked. We're back right after this. And welcome back to the MMA after hour.

Another week in the books. Time to answer some of your questions. Hopefully you've been firing them away. I know you want to talk about Mayweather McGregor, maybe some 216 stuff as that card is coming together, October 7th.

Sort of cobble together, if you will. I talked about a last Last week, they literally went after every single champion out there. And thus far, they've come up with an interim lightweight title fight, 217, taking shape as well. I'm sure there's a lot going on. We're over at our new home, mmafighting.tweller.com, because the MMA beat is going to be on there too. So we didn't want to just limit it to the MMA hour. Well, welcome back, Mr. New York, Rick, as we let our hair down here at the end of the program.

Mr. New York, Rick, are you there? I'm right here. Oh, there you are. Hello, sir. Hello again. So you have been collecting some questions. What do we got? I have been collected.

Well, before we get into what we got. All right, all right. Let me show you what we really got. Okay. Shout out to Kevin Collins, the plug at Reebok. Okay. What he did was send me some t-shirts. I have them right here.

So believe me, folks. I'm actually wearing this one right now. We're giving three of these away for the best questions. That's not bad. Yeah. It's tattoo inspired. It's actually, I have the info here. It's a guy named Mike Lucier,

who's a tattoo artist out of Rhode Island, working for over 20 years as a tattoo artist, and involved in kind of the MMA, UFC space. He actually inked Eric Spicely and a few other fighters, and that's how Kevin was able to connect with him. But this is part of like a whole series that they're doing. Two weeks ago I wore the BossLogic, Connor McGregor's shirt.

There's also one from Gian Leong who does stuff for Fightland from time to time. You'll kind of see his black and white stuff, but they're really doing some cool artist features. So the top three questions as determined by, I was going to say us, but let's be real, I'm going to determine them, are going to get one of these t-shirts. All right. You're going to pick it. I'm going to pick it. How about that? Let's see what we got.

Do we have any good questions? Oh, we've got plenty of good questions, my friend. All right, all right. When stuff's on the line, the questions tend to get a little bit better. Because you told people about this, right? Look, you know, you got to stack the deck. That's right. It's a big week. Okay, first question from handsome Rob.

Is Maymac more significant because of who these guys are? Or do you think that Anderson Silver versus Roy Jones Jr. would have done just as well? Let's say circumstances are the same. Right now, you plugged in, and we hadn't been talking about. talking about Mayweather McGregor, you plugged in Anderson Silva and Roy Jones Jr. to do the boxing versus MMA super fight. Right now. 2017, we're getting ready for Jones versus Silva?

Yep. I mean, it's not even close. Are you kidding me? It's the former. It's because of who Connor McGregor is. It's because of who Floyd Mayweather is. What do you mean it's the former? It's the former.

It's significant because of who they are. It's not the latter. Oh, okay, okay. It's because of how popular they are. Connor McGregor is arguably top five biggest. athletes in the world. I think social media-wise, he's up there now these days, at least as far as combat sports are concerned, it's because it's Connor, it's because it's Floyd, it's because he's undefeated, it's because of who they are, it's because of the World Tour, it's because of all

this stuff. So yeah, it's definitely because of Connor. If this was Steve A versus Joshua, it'd be big, we'd be covering it, but it wouldn't be as big as this. Every media outlet under the sun is going to be there. This is international mega news. This is the biggest thing in sports this week. It's because of who they are. Do you also think part of it, is the environment from the sense that when Anderson and Roy were being talked about in this fight, there seemed to be many more potential challenges for them, whereas it seems like for a McGregor, he has ambitions beyond the cage. His head is kind of somewhere else.

For Floyd, he's on the end of his career and isn't really, there's not really anybody who's able to test him or that people feel is a suitable kind of opponent for him. whereas I think at the time, Roy still had some fights left in him. Same for Anderson Silver, there's still some challenges and hurdles to kind of clear. I think you're overthinking it.

I think it's because Connor McGregor is an absolute megastar and anything he does is big news. Whether he fights in MMA next, whether he fights Kevin Lee, whether he fights Nate Diaz, whether he fights Khabib Nurmaghamedov. He is a megastar unlike any we've ever seen in this sport. And for him to go over to the sport of boxing,

to not just fight any random 154 pounder to fight Floyd Mayweather of all people. You can't script anything bigger than this. Fair, but do you think he could have been as big a megastar five, ten years ago? And I would say the answer is no. These days are a little different with social media, but I think... So I think it's a combination of those things. He wouldn't have been able to ascend to the status, in my opinion. I think Anderson Silva kind of was that guy for that time,

and it really wouldn't have been possible. Anderson Silva didn't speak English. So he didn't have that connection with the people. He was never the kind of star that Connor was. He never generated the kind of revenue, pay-per-view buys. Connor would be a massive star 10 years ago. There's no doubt about it. Massive star, but I don't think this would have been possible.

I think this is something different. Well, the good news is we don't have to worry about that. It's 2017 and it's big. We'll try to take away from it. Embrace it. Oh, stop. In five days, it's over. Are you trying to imagine us 10 years ago?

Could it happen? Could it not happen? That time's over. Lame. What do you mean lame? That ship has sailed. What will be a bigger accomplishment? Beating Floyd Mayweather or being the first double champion in UFC history,

the first to hold both at the same time? Being Floyd. Getting the UFC to allow him to do it. Getting in there and actually beating the guy who was 49-00-0. Let's not forget, Floyd has never been knocked down, let alone knocked out. Let alone defeat. in a pro boxing match. You know, the double champion stuff is incredibly impressive,

especially what he did to Aldo. But then getting the lightweight fight, I mean, that's just a result of him being the star that he was. A lot of other fighters could have succeeded in other weight classes. They just weren't big enough to where the UFC wanted to let them do it. Open that door for them. He was big enough. He warranted the decision to allow him to not defend the title 145 and go up to 155.

And by the way, like people were asking like, will you, like the 145 future stuff is interesting, and I know I asked him about it, but I feel like that's for next week. Let's just enjoy this week, see what happens, and then we could talk about featherweight champion, lightweight champion, what's next, all that stuff. Now's not the time to really focus on that, in my opinion, but back to the question, that was just a side note. Back to the question, to me going in there and beating Floyd in your first professional boxing match, there's nothing that will ever compare to that. Nothing he will ever do in his athletic career, if he could pull this off the way they think they could pull it off,

will ever compare to that. Until the next thing that he does. I mean, what could he do? What could he do? Even if he wins a third title in M.A. He beats Brock Lesnar and WWE. That wouldn't compare to it either. If he beats Tyron Woodley, it still won't compare it to it.

We're talking about Floyd Mayweather. Now I'd be... No, we're talking about Floyd Mayweather in a different sport, a man who has never been beaten some of the greatest fighters of all time from Delahoya to Hatton to Canelo. And I know what the criticism is of Floyd that he fought guys who are either pre-prime or post-prime,

that he weighed, I get all that stuff. Yeah, but that's nonsense. I get all that stuff, but the facts are he's 49-0, and no one ever knocked him down. I mean, he's lost few rounds. You know what I mean? The criticism of Floyd picking his opponents is fine, and you can make that case, whatever,

but there's no doubt about where he stands in boxing history and how good he is. So, you know, even if you do feel that way, Connor McGregor beating him would be monumental. You said beating Tyron Woodley. Now, if he's holding, now, I know Max Holloway is the featherweight champion. In my opinion, I still consider Connor to have a claim to that, to at least have some kind of stake in that.

If he gets three belts, I might argue that that's more of an impressive accomplishment. Just because this is kind of a one-off, this is kind of something that requires. I get it. I get it. This is a different sport. Three belts is something else. 49 and no. If he knocks him out in a minute, come on.

But that's the likelyer outcome of those things. If he beats him in a decision, now I'm shocked. If he knocks him out in a minute, you know, that's what he was going to do. Which me. If he knocks him out in a minute, I think my head will explode. Knocking out Floyd Mayweather in a minute, do you know what Floyd has done over the past two decades? So you're saying that would blow your mind more than him,

like technically outclassing Floyd Mayweather to a decision? Well, outclassing. I mean, what does outclassing mean? Seven rounds to five is not necessarily outclassing. If it's a 12 round skunking, yeah, of course. By the way, I'm not one. I've never said on this show that I think he has no chance. I've never said that he is going to get embarrassed.

But if he does pull off the impossible come Saturday, my mouth will be, you know, this big, this big, right here. Like, it's still, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, improbable. You know what I mean? Absolutely. It is absolutely improbable. And it's shocking. What bugs me about the odds and they are a direct correlation of his popularity, what bugs me is people will be like, oh, well, he was just a 4 to 1 underdog. No, he is not

he should be a 20 to 1 underdog. Given the fact that it's 49-0 against 0-0. And I know about the combat sports background, but still, this is Floyd. This isn't, this isn't him versus Sugar Shane. You know what I mean? This isn't him against Shane Mosley. And of his career. This is an all-time great. This is an all time great. Not that, let me not disparage.

Shane Losing is also great. This is the greatest fighter of my generation, our generation. You know what I mean? Like, this is absurd stuff. That I agree with. Completely. Okay. So let's say he does pull it off. Our question from Rambo, if Connor pulls this off,

how will the boxing community react? What does this do for Floyd? What does this do for the boxing community? What's the feedback? What's the backlash if Connor gets this done? Floyd said that if he loses, it doesn't tarnish his legacy, it will 1,000% tarnish his legacy. Anytime Floyd Mayweather is talked about from here on out, if he loses, people will say, but he lost a Connor McGregor, that Irish MMA guy with the tattoos, everything gets washed away. It's rare that you can say that,

but in my opinion, this changes everything as far as his legacy is concerned. His legacy is 100% on the line, and that's why he has more pressure. That's why Connor is playing with the house is money. That's why he's so loose. That's why he's so relaxed. And that's why, in my opinion, I don't believe for a second that Floyd Mayweather isn't taking this fight seriously. He is 100% taking it seriously because there's one more left. 50 and 0, you beat Marciano, you ride off into the sunset. You lose, everything changes. And I think that narrative is so easily dismissed. The idea that Floyd is not taking this seriously, you know, you don't become a 49 and O boxer who's outclassed, you know, all his opponents

the way Floyd Mayweather has just to, you know, give one up on the back end, to give one up on the 50 and O. It would just be, you know, unfathomable for that to be the case. There's no way he's taking it lightly. And it, I believe it will show in the fight.

There's absolutely no chance in my mind that he's not keeping his eye on the prize for this one. It would have all been for not. I agree with you completely. Even his dad said, everything. Even his dad told me when I asked him, his legacy is on the line. If Connor loses, everyone's like, yeah, we expected you to lose. Now, go back to your cage fighting.

I would argue that Floyd's legacy has been on the line in every one of his fights to keep that zero. Because he's the guy to do that, I think that his legacy has always been on the line. And that's why he's been so good. That's why he's been so prepared. This is different. If he lost to Andre Berto, it would have been a huge upset odds-wise. And it would have been like, ah, shucks. 40 and 1. And by the way, people still don't consider Floyd

one of the greatest of all time. They talk about Sugar Ray Robinson. They talk about... No, they don't consider him the best, but definitely the Muhammad. Yeah, yeah. But if he ends 49 and 1 losing to a guy who professionally is O&O and who the boxing community has openly laughed at and called a joke and a mockery and some people say, by the way, there's a lot of people. And again, the deck is stacked. Let's not, you know, mince words here.

Like the deck is stacked. But there's a lot of people's legacy on the line here, in my opinion. Max Kellerman has said that he won't land a punch. Repeatedly. No, come on. Repeatedly. He won't land a punch. You're supposed to be a boxing pundit.

Well, you won't land a clean punch. He's saying he won't land a clean punch. He's saying, you know, landing on the elbows. Okay, won't land a punch, gets knocked out. What happens then? What if he does really knock him out? I don't know. Is any-

to expect. All I'm saying is everyone who has mocked, man, that that freezing cold hot take Twitter feed is going to have a field day. They're going to have a field day. I think we, I, I don't think that Connor McGregor will not land a punch, but I do think that we live in a culture that that type of hyperbole is not punished and is instead rewarded. I don't think that will have any effect. Let's see. By the way, you know who's been on the Connor train from day one? At least as far as this fight is concerned. The first man to say that Connor was going to win and win easily,

do you know who it is? No. It pains me to say, but it's Skip Bayless. Now, he has an agenda and he has a motive. He went this way when everyone was going that way, but he actually has been saying it. So get ready for that. But there's such a lack of knowledge.

I'm just saying, get ready for it. And that's exactly why I'm saying that these kind of prognostications and things are not taken seriously and really have no long-term effect. You can go out and say anything these days, because of the culture that has developed from saying that. I know, I know. That there's really no repercussions. And that's why I don't like to make these grandiose claims, but people have.

But I'll say this. If you go back and look how many punches people land on Floyd Mayweather, it's not a heap. It's not a lot. It wouldn't be too much to say that he could land a very low number of pounds. I haven't said that Max is an idiot. I haven't said that he, but I'm just saying, what if? Yeah, that blows that up. You could say whatever you want, but in five days,

there may be some repercussions. We will see in five days, which is coming very rapidly. Which is kind of absurd. Okay. If McGregor fights again with the U.S.C., maybe we don't answer this because you said you wanted to... No, no, no, it's fine. Put this way.

If McGregor fights again in the U.S.C., will it be co-promoted by the U.S.C. along with McGregor Sports and Entertainment? Does he now have this platform? Does he now command this? I mean, he may find a way to nudge it in there. What is it all? mean, right? I mean, I don't know if it means a hell of a lie, my opinion. Sure, maybe it opens

a door here or there. I still believe he is going to fight in the UFC. I mean, he's made it pretty clear that he wants to defend his lightweight and, as he put it last week, his featherweight title. So I don't think the UFC was going to let this happen without some kind of assurance that he'd be coming back. So I think that the fears that he's not coming back are a bit off base, but yeah, who knows? I mean, maybe. But here's the question. Have the terms of engagement between Connor McGregor and the UFC changed. When he comes back, is it different? He still has four fights left.

He still has a contract. You know what I mean? He still has four fights left on that deal. So it's kind of hard to change that. Now, they could sit down and renegotiate the whole damn thing if he becomes this megastar who just knocked out Flameda. That's happened. I mean, that's happened all the time.

But he still has four fights left. I'm not necessarily thinking monetarily, but that's a valid point. But that's a part of the contract, right? For sure. But I'm talking, you know, his name is sitting on a boxing ring that was in the, you know, UFC's Performance Institute

during that, you know, a workout. There's not another fighter who can command that. Can he now use that leverage to get certain things that other fighters would not have? As he competes in the UFC,

I think that will be the interesting question. Definitely, I completely agree, like monetarily it's a tough situation to come back and say, you know, my contract is now null and void. But I think, you know, there's a certain, level of respect and prestige that he can kind of use to his advantage because he's gotten it

to this point in this fight. I think the game has changed a little bit. I agree. I agree. But you know, if he loses, maybe they think he loses some of that leverage. I mean, the possibilities are endless. It's really a question that you could only answer come Sunday morning. And only if you're Connor McGregor, to be honest. What does he want? What is he, you know, And also, there is a massive gap between him and anyone, any other fighter in the UFC. So he does hold a lot of power right now. Would you be, sorry. Go ahead.

No, this was the next question. So finish that thought. No, no, I'm done. Would you consider, or should this be a consideration, different glove sizes like in boxing for heavier weights to have, you know, more padding? You know, I actually thought about this when this became a hot topic. I'm not And the discrepancy is not that large So it wouldn't be you know

Necessarily like these guys are wearing 16s And these guys are wearing AIDS For a doctor A coach, a trainer A commissioner Someone like Bob Bennett I feel like that's a question that needs to be I mean I'm not smart enough to weigh in on that

But I definitely thought about it When this became a hot topic I mean there's a lot of boxing That's so different than MMA With the different rules And I mean it's just like with the increased weight classes and things like that. I mean, you could obviously make a case that it's geared towards safety a lot more,

but then you can also make the case that the repeated blows to the head and the multiple knockdown rule and all that stuff go against that. And that the gloves are actually protecting the hand and not necessarily the head. Exactly. So I'm not smart enough, but I definitely said, I wonder if we'll ever get to a point. As I've said before, we're in 1920s football era, and so much is going to change about MMA in the next 20, 30, 40 years. We're wearing the leather helmet stuff.

Exactly. Is this one of those changes? Perhaps. I'd love to hear someone who's a lot smarter than I am weighing on that. Question for you. Who hosts an event? Let's call this like independently promoted event first. Zufa boxing or McGregor promotions?

I'll go McGregor promotions. I think there's a better chance at Zufa. sticks to the MMA, bread and butter. And, you know, Connor could put out an event in Ireland that's McGregor promotion that he's just not on. And I guarantee you that sells out the, the O2 over there, 10,000 people. Just because there would be people saying, though, where's Connor? Oh, he'd be there.

He'd be day in a way. You know what I mean? Lending a shine to it. It's like the Diaz war thing. Of course, that wasn't a huge success and it was a one-off, but that will... I don't know if that's the best thing. But that will get them. Like Diaz could do that as long as he wasn't fighting.

Connor could do this as long as he's not fighting. Connor can do this. I mean, Zufa could probably do boxing relatively quickly if, you know, I just don't think that they want to do it. But it's a complete new sport. Whereas Connor, he would just have to promote some lower level fighters.

Why would Zsa get out of their game that they're killing it in and try to recruit new talent and all this stuff? I mean, it just doesn't really make any sense. But I could see. Unless you have a Connor. Connor putting, well, yes, of course. but Connor putting on a show that's McGregor promotions and it's just a local European MMA card I think would be incredibly successful.

Yeah, I don't think we're too far from that. Okay, let's say Connor makes it 12 rounds, puts in a solid performance, essentially doesn't get finished. What fight does better coming out of that? The Diaz trilogy fight in MMA or a polyamalajie boxing match? Gosh, this is a really tough question, Kirk, Chase Patrick. Kurt.

Correct. Sorry, yes. I'm going to go with, I think that there may be some... Well, here, let me start with this. Let's break this down. Does him putting in a 12-round fight versus like a 6- or 7-round fight and getting finished affect that at all? Like, do you think that matters in this question?

I think he'll get a lot of props for that. I think it will be viewed as moral victory. And I think that that's where the smart money is. And then does that help the boxing case? To a degree, because... I think is I think that there's a feud there and people have enjoyed it for the most part, but I do think that his core fan base is longing for him to get back to what he's best at, and I think that the fight that sells the most, considering who they are is Diaz.

Now, there are options for Connor upon returning. There are intriguing matchups at both 155 and 145, let alone anything else out there that may be off the bean path. I think that right now the Diaz fight, if Connor does well, even without a win, but does well, I think he could do 2 million. I really do. Wow. That's a big number.

Yeah. But he wasn't that far off when they fought the second time a year ago yesterday. And he's a bigger star now. That's true. Much bigger. Okay, what prop bets still make sense

for May Greger? I haven't seen May Greger before. Am I? I have actually seen that a couple times. What bets have you made? And now I'll... I have not made any. I'll take you aside.

I haven't yet. But I'm definitely considering laying a small chunk of change down on Floyd Mayweather. Those odds are, in my opinion, not reflective of kind of what the line should be. Just going the distance or outright? I would take Floyd outright. I got burned. I got burned when I bet on Floyd by unanimous decision with Canello and Judge C.J. Ross

scored that fight a draw and cost me Yeah, I remember that. That means some money. What a sham that was. By the way, it's funny that you ask about prop bets because Bolvada just send me some prop bets. Let's read them. Yeah, let's hear them.

We'll have more people with them during the walkout. Mayweather. Mayweather's a minus 175, Conner's a plus plus 155. Ooh, I like the odds on that one. Which fighter will have a longer fight walkout? Mayweather's a minus 155. Conner's a plus 155. Excuse me, 110.

Will Floyd Mayweather wear a money team hat during the fight walkout? Yes, minus 400. No. 2.50. Will Little Wayne wear a shirt during the fighter walkout? Is Little Wayne confirmed to be walking out with him? Is that a thing? I don't know. Minus 230 plus 160. Will Nate Diaz walk out with Floyd?

Yes, plus 115. No, minus 160. No way is he walking out Floyd. So that seems like a great bet. You're getting damn near even money to say no. Will Justin Bieber walk out with Mayweather? Plus 300, no minus 500. I told you. They're on the outs. Total Donald Trump

tweets on the day of the fight. over six and a half under six and a half is minus 155 under six and a half is plus 110 will either corner thrown the towel plus 800 yes no minus 2,500

will either fighter lose their mouthpiece during the fight yes plus 425 no minus 850 wait wait the one about throwing in the towel what were the odds on that yes plus 800 no minus 250 2,500 who will be the first fighter to bleed

Floyd plus 275, Connor minus 450. Will there be a boxing rematch in 2018? Yes, plus 400, no, minus 900. Futures. Here we go. Which fight will end first? Mayweather v. McGregor, minus 600.

Alvarez Golovkin plus 350. Will Connor fight in the UFC in 2017? Yes, plus 25, no, minus 175. Will there be an MMA rematch in 2018? So the favorite there was not fighting again in 2017. Interesting. Yes, plus 2,000 for the MMA rematch. No, mine is 10,000.

And then there's some other random ones like total knockdowns by Connor, total home runs by John Carlos Stanton on August 26. Or how about this one? Those are funny. Total runs at the Twins Blue Jays game on August 26, completed rounds in the fight. That is crazy. I love these cross-strikeouts by Madison Baumgartner on August 26,

complete rounds in the fight. Strikeouts by Cole Hamils on August 26, and then strikeouts by Sunny Gray. This is great. I don't know anything about the. those other sports. But it seems like there's some money

to be made on these props. Obviously the stakes are going to be small and you're not going to be able to wager too much. But I like that. Plus, Bavada,

where's my email at? Give me some odds. Send them to my inbox too. Yeah, Jimmy Shapiro. Come on, Jimmy. Make it happen. That was good.

Perfect timing. Thank you, yes. Okay. Perfect fight for McGregor's return to MMA. You kind of shied away from this. I think the DS3 fight sells

the most, but honestly, as I've said before, Connor versus a broomstick sells. And don't sleep on Mr. Kevin Lee, because I think he'll promote the hell out of that fight. You mean, should he get bass Ferguson? Yeah, yeah, of course. He's angling for McGregor, yeah. I mean, he did it on this show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's a sleeper in all of this. Interesting. GSP? Any possibility? I don't feel like there's any heat there. I feel like that's too fabricated. I don't want to see GSP fight bisping

and then if he wins, fight Whitaker, and he said if he loses, he's gone, so it may be a moot point. I just don't see it. She's too big. He's fighting at 185.

It's kind of a shame. Max Holloway is not even like, you know. Max is there. Max is in that mix. I just don't want to see Connor fight at 145 anymore because he looks like a skeleton.

You know? So are you going to have him fight at 155? You know what? I have to apologize to Max Holloway because I completely botched it and I'm remembering now how good his tweet about Connor not defending the featherweight title.

He was really going in on him, and I should have featured those in Rick's picks. So let me apologize to Max Hollow because I completely forgot to do it. Wow. Look at that. Slipped my mind. I remember remarking about it. Max Holloway.

His social media game was really good this week. Shout out to Max. I don't want to see Connor cut to 145 anymore, but I'd still look to see that fight someday. I think that Habib is now behind the eight ball because Connor said, like, look, I'm not going to invest in a fight. Yeah.

You're not going to show up. You can't do that. It's tough. He's already felt like that a little bit with Aldo. There's no way he goes through that with Habib, who's got an even spot of your track record. Okay. With Junior Dos Santos's recent situation and other similar, shouldn't UFC slash Usada collectively have a better way of dealing with, quote unquote, possible PED violations or rather, you know, flagged, being flagged for a violation? Or, you know, sometimes it's, you wonder why do they have to come out with it.

And so it's weird for me because you want transparency, but then the fighter is branded as a cheater. You're kind of guilty until proven innocent. And that's a tough spot. I actually really want to commend the JDS team for being as transparent as possible. I mean, they came out with a statement and said what it is. You know, initially there was no word as to what it was. And I think it was smart that they did that because it could be anything. It's like saying, oh, you got arrested, but you don't know what you got arrested for.

Was it burglary? Was it assault? Was it domestic violence? I mean, who knows? I mean, there's a million things that you can get arrested for. And so to just say someone's been provisionally suspended, there could be a million other things that, you know, you took in your system, violations. Who knows what the infraction was. So I think that JDS's team really did a great job of telling everyone what happened.

They've sent out several statements. JDS even put out a statement himself. his Twitter feed a video statement. I think they've done a great job in that regard. And so we'll see what happens. He seems sincere. They seem honest. I think it's better to view someone as innocent before just calling them a cheetah right off the bat.

We've seen some cases where in retrospect, maybe that was a mistake. But I could see why the fighters would prefer that it doesn't get out there until it's all cleared up. But then I also understand why they want to be fully transparent. It's a tough thing. Yeah. With Brian Stan leaving, do you think this opens up the door for Daniel Cormier to step into a full-time gig as an... I don't know about full-time gig because he's still an active fighter, but it certainly gives him more opportunities. It gives Cruz more opportunities. And I think it gives Dan Hardy more opportunities, who's been really good as of late as well.

I don't think it necessarily increases Joe Rogan's opportunities because I feel like those are going away slowly but surely. But I think it gives those other guys a bit of a bump, no doubt about it. This is a massive blow. I think Stan's going to be okay. I think he's not taking another job unless he's being compromised. compensated and it's a big opportunity. He wasn't fired. He's moving on. But that being said, this is a huge blow to the UFC. Brian Stan elevated everyone's game. He raised the bar. He started talking to the fighters beforehand. Every single one on the card. He did his research. He, in my opinion, was the gold standard. And I feel like we'll be missing him. But that being said, because he came out and did this, he made Cruz better, he made Cormier better, he made Hardy better. He made everyone better.

I think he redefined what it means to be a UFC analyst, and I think that his legacy is now being felt, so we'll miss him, but I think it's in a much better place than it was a couple of years ago when there was essentially just one UFC analyst. Cynthia, the homie, asking if McGregor wins, will I cut my man bun? The answer is no.

Wow, I love that one. Can we put that on the line? No. Okay. What are you putting on the line? I got nothing. I'm just going to cover an event, do the M.A. hour on the road, try to survive, get back here.

then attend my sister's wedding in less than two weeks. Congrats. That's so awesome. Thank you. Are you putting anything on the line? Is this time now for your official prediction? I said earlier, I'm going to bet on, I am betting on Flayette. I am putting money down. Mayweather decision?

That's not what I would be betting, but do I think it will go to decision? I think I'm liking a decision. I do think there's a possibility that, Floyd could, see, here's my issue with this fight. Floyd is the pick outright. No doubt about it in my mind. But there's two possibilities here.

Floyd could either truly be done at 50 and O and chase a finish and likely get it. I think there's a high possibility he could get it if he wanted to. Or he could be thinking rematch or just leaving his options open, making himself seem a little vulnerable, and carry Connor McGregor to the decision. I'm not, I don't know which way he's going on that, and I think it's ultimately his call.

I think Floyd Mayleweather controls how this fight ends or doesn't end. So I don't want to, I don't want to officially wager on that. I'm not willing to go that far. Let's just put a wager aside. What do you think happens? What's the prediction? I think I lean toward a decision. But again, his motivations are unclear to me.

He could walk away a 50-0, or he could be angling for that rematch and carry Connor to the. the finish line. I don't think he wants that one at this point. What? What one? Like, the rematch?

Yeah, I just, there's no rematch if he wins, right? If he carries Connor, let's say he, let's say he makes this, you know,

an eight to four, or a seven to five. There's money to be made. Yeah. And maybe, maybe, you know, there's a Mayweather promotions fight

that Connor could fight down the line. Like, I think there's all kinds of opportunities and reasons why, Floyd Mayweather may not want to put the pedal to the medal on this fight. Or he could want to go out 50 and O

and just make a statement and say how everybody thought that this was going to be competitive or at least the betting line moved to a competitive place and just finish it. But I don't know where his head is at on that. So I would only take Floyd outright. That's my... There it is. You heard it. But no man bun on the line.

No, of course not. Cynthia. How dare you? are you. But shout out to Cynthia. Shepadda. Dallas, New York asking, can I please have one of those awesome Reebok shirts would be a sweet belated birthday gift?

What? That's all you're bringing to the table, Dallas? Guess what? It works. Okay, wonderful. You asked for something like that? One fit. And you get it. Yom hulead it Samir.

Dallas, you know what? No, really, though. Dallas underscore New York asks a lot of questions every single week. And I'm going to reward them in this case. Happy belated birthday gift. You're going to be one of the

the winners. What a minch. And that's it for our questions. Let me just run through the winners and then maybe we can hit any other topics that we didn't hit if you want to. I liked Dallas. How many are there?

Three. Okay, Dallas one. I think this question is interesting about the boxing community's kind of feedback on Floyd Mayweather. So Rambo, you're going to be another one. This one was pretty good too. it was a thinker

or actually maybe let's go with Zach here who asked about who hosts an event for Zoufa boxing or McGregor promotions so Zach Dallas underscore New York and Rambo are our winners

for today and you can thank Kevin Collins at Reebok for hooking it up and all the great stuff that they're doing over there see it the shirt oh you're not wearing it I am wearing it, but the design is on the back. Oh, oh, I see. I see, I see.

This is the same shirt, but the design is on the back. All right, there it is. Boom. See? MMA hour. The gift that keeps on giving. Look, it's a big show. I thought it was appropriate to do something for the people. We're doing three shows. You won't be a part of them because you're too cool for school. I've got other obligations. Yeah. But we got a great team going over there. I'm looking forward to it. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

You realize how confused you got John Kavanaugh, right? Oh, did I get him confused? Yeah. Because you go, we're going to do the MMA hour. Yeah. And he's like, oh, so you're going to be there next Monday. That's clearly the next logical leap. He's not understanding, like, he didn't see that you're tweeting like, oh, we're going to do it Tuesday, Wednesday.

You know what I mean? So he was completely confused. Watch that. But hopefully you can link up with him there. Yeah, I watch that. I'm sorry, John. I thought he was watching. Top of the show.

No, it's, you know, his mind was in the right place. Oh, yeah. It would have been great to do it life. He still has to tell me about the corner. about the corner. There you go. You know where you can get that. You can get that on the live MMA hours.

Or that. Or my WhatsApp. He said he's going to send it to me later tonight. Nah, maybe save that for the show. Breaking news. So that's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And then we're also doing the M.A. beat live from Radio Row.

Not really sure what to expect, if I'm being honest. But I think it's going to be a fun time. We've never done this before. And I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a different kind of fight week. They're doing the arrivals tomorrow. I'll be there. Tuesday afternoon for that.

And then there's a press conference on Wednesday at, I think, 1 p.m. Pacific, if memory serves me correct. And there's a couple other things. And of course, the Wands and Fight Night on Saturday, we will be there. I can't wait. It has been a fun ride. But I am tapping out. That's it. I'm tapping out for now.

I am emotionally spent. And we haven't even started Fight Week. New York, Rick, thank you very much for compiling those. Thank you very much to everyone out there for sending in their questions. Thank you very much to everyone for tuning in, for stopping by. You can hit my music. So we have come to that point, my friends. And usually I say goodbye and I say, we'll see you out there in Las Vegas and we'll do videos and things like that.

But this is just the beginning of what promises to be a very memorable week out in Sin City. Three more shows to come this week. How about that? They'll be different. They won't be as long. Probably in the two-hour range. And a lot of in-studio guests, if you will, or at least face-to-face. face guess. That's the plan at least. But again, this is uncharted territory. It might just be me

talking to all of you for two hours. Who the hell knows? But we'll find out sooner rather than later. And then, of course, there's going to be a lot of the other usual stuff that you've come to expect from our fight week coverage. So stay tuned for that. It has been a fun ride. I'm going to miss this. I'm going to miss talking about this wacky fight. I think I'm ready to actually see it go down, but I think the buildup has been fun. For the most part, there were a couple of bumps along the way. But for the most part, I think it was a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed it. It's been unique.

It's been interesting to watch the two worlds come together, talk to people like Lou DeBella, pick their brain. Everyone has a take. And it's rare that the eyes of the world are on combat sports. And one half of that equation is an MMA fighter. That's rare. And I've enjoyed it. I want to thank everyone who stopped by today.

Thank you very much to Kevin Lee. Good luck. October 7th. Thank you very much to Derek Lewis. All the best to him. October 7th as well. Thank you very much to Bob Bennett. Great stuff from him. Thank you very much, Dave Fogarty. Thank you very much to Lou DeBella for making the track. Thank you very much to Cody Garbrandt. Of course, John Kavanaugh, best of luck to him on Saturday. And the great Mick Constantine, thank you very much to him as well. Back next week, same time and place. Until they say, peace, somebody.