MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 398

Episode Date: September 5, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Joanne Calderwood (00:07:59), Francis Ngannou (00:35:42), Paddy Pimblett (00:53:29), Paige VanZant (01:10:42), Owen Roddy (01:33:14), Stephen Espinoza (02:02:23) in studio, Ben Askren (02:57:53), Rafael dos Anjos (03:20:00), Derrick Lewis (03:38:05), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (04:01:22) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:39:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with... A mixed martial arts hour back in your life. On this Tuesday, September 5th, 2017. Hello, good, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Missed you yesterday if you were off on Labor Day. And I'm not sure, and I feel like I say this every year,

but I'm not sure if Labor Day is just a North American thing or if it's on the same Monday first week of September all over the world. I should have looked at that beforehand. But if you were off yesterday, for whatever reason, hope you had a lovely long weekend. We were off, of course, because it is Labor Day, or it was Labor Day here in the United States and Canada.

I was back home in lovely Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I was there for my sister's wedding, a hearty mazeltov to her and now her new husband Michael. How about that? My sister, all grown up, 26 years young. Lovely wedding. A great simcha, as they say. Great party.

It was good to be home. Good to be home for a joyous occasion. Wish them nothing but the best. I know that they will spend many Monday evening watching this program. At least I hope they will as a lovely couple. A happy couple. So that's what I was doing last week. M.A. That's why I wasn't on the MMA beat.

But a lot has happened in the last eight days. Feels like we have a lot to talk about. Of course, it is Fight Week. Once again, we had Rotterdam on Saturday, which kind of snuck up on us. There wasn't a lot of buzz going into that card. And understandably so, because, well, Mayweather McGregor took up all the attention and the headlines and the content. but it ended up actually being a good card. It ended up being a very entertaining card. Headline, of course, by Alexander Volkov, defeating Stefan Strouve.

So that was entertaining. And there were some other good performances. Darren Till, the debuting Zabit Magomed Sharipov, who, as I've been saying, for several weeks, even months, every member of his team has been telling me that he is a future champion in the making. Every member of his team has been telling me that this guy is going to be a U.S. champion in the very near future. And well, if his debut is any indication, it was a pretty darn good start. And so there were some good performances on Saturday afternoon in Rotterdam.

Of course, this is UFC 215 fight week. We're headed to Edmonton. I'm going there for the first time. It's the UFC's first time there as well. Two titles on the line, Demetius Johnson versus Ray Borg for the flyway title. And then, of course, Valentina Shevchenko, looking to defeat Amanda Nunes and become the new UFC women's bantamweight champion, Nunes, trying to defend the title for the second time. Of course, she defeated Ronda Rousey back in December. They were supposed to fight in July. Nunes pulled out. They have the fight due to her sinus issue.

And now they are getting it on in what, four days? Is it four days? Wow, it is creeping up. Four days from right now in beautiful Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We have so much to discuss UFC and Reebok unveiling their new kits. How about the third cousin of Lorenzo and Frank Fortita? Hillman Fertita buying the Houston Rockets. And we have, by the way, a question of the week.

This is a new thing that we're doing on the MA hour. I will be throwing out a question of the week first on Twitter. And then I will get your responses. And New York, Rick, and I will talk about said responses and weigh in as well. So check that out. The question of the week is, would you rather buy the UFC or buy the Houston Rockets? Would you rather own the UFC, which was sold last year for a little over $4 billion, or own the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association, which apparently is going to be

sold reportedly for $2.2 billion to one Tillman for Tita. So you can weigh in on that via my Twitter. It's up there. The poll is up there. And then York Rick and I will discuss a little later on in the program. John Jones, there's some news regarding him. There's some news regarding some upcoming fights in November. Of course, still putting Mayweather-Mogregor to bed. So there is much to discuss on this Tuesday afternoon. It feels like a Monday. And if you were off yesterday, it probably feels like a Monday for you as well. But it is Tuesday. And we have a jampack show, a great lineup. And I will remind you that we are also not only live on YouTube and Facebook and MAAfighting.com, but we are once again live on Twitter.mafighting.com. If you want to

watch us on the Twitter app, on your phone, on your desktop. And then at the end of the show, we'll have the MMA after hour where we will be answering your question. So hit us up all show long using the hashtag the MMA hour and we shall answer those in around four hours time. This is the lineup for today and then we will get to our first guest looking forward to talking to her at around 445. We'll have Rickspicks and that is always a very fun time. It's all positive on Ricks picks. No negative I've been told. 430, Derek Lewis will stop by. Derek Lewis has been doing some amazing things in Houston over the past week. If you follow him, him on Twitter. If you follow him on Instagram, he is usually very entertaining and he has been

entertaining in between tweets and posts on his Instagram of him helping people in Houston. And once again, as we said at the top of the show last week, our thoughts are with everyone in Houston. Now that Hurricane Harvey has passed through the area and, of course, the neighboring towns and cities, it has left a lot of destruction in its wake and just want to tell everyone out there to keep on fighting and to pull through and there have been some horrific and heartbreaking scenes coming out of there. And a lot of celebrities and a lot of civilians and a lot of first responders have been doing work that can best be described as angelic. I mean, they are doing incredible things. And Derek Lewis was one of those. So I wanted to check back in with him and see how things

were going over the past week with not only the work that he's been doing, but with his family as well. He is very proud to be from the Houston area. He has donated money as well. So that's at 430 at 4-10, we'll talk to Hafeldo Sanjos, who's fighting at UFC 215, against one Neil Magny. At 3. We'll talk to Ben Ascran, who is the one Walterway champion he won this past week, but he also is going to retire later on this year. He has one fight left, apparently. This kind of coming out of nowhere. He's fighting Shinyaoki, so I wanted to talk to him about that.

245 will be joined by Stephen Espinoza, who is the executive vice president general manager of Showtime Sports and event programming. Talk to him about Mayer then McGregor. Talk to him about the production. Talk to him about the buildup, the aftermath. where they go from here, all that and more. He'll be joined, or actually I should say, we'll be joined in studio by him. He'll be right over here talking to us.

I'm looking forward to that, a brilliant mind and one of the major players involved in that fight. So that should be a lot of fun at 245. 225. Own Roddy, the striking coach for one. Connor McGregor will stop by, talk to him about the fight. And what's next for Connor McGregor, 205. Paige Van Zant is going to stop by.

It's been a while since we've talked to her, and she has a fight at 216 against Jessica I, 145. Patty, the batty. Pimlet, a favorite of a lot of you out there, including our own page. He will be stopping by the former Cage Warriors featherweight champion. 130, we'll talk to Francis Angano. But first, let us go to the Skype machine or the phone. I don't know, I'm confused.

Skype machine, let's go to the Skype machine and welcome in one of our favorites, friend of the program, the one and only Joanne Calderwood joining us from Montreal. There she is, Joanne. How are you? Hi, I'm good. We're going by Skype and phone because my headphones didn't work. Okay, that's it because Eric, my guy told me phone and Skype

and so it got me very confused. But the Skype connection is fantastic and you sound great so I appreciate you going the extra mile and I know you just finished training as well so thank you very much for squeezing us in. It's great to see you again. Thank you. Yeah, I washed my head with Tuesday.

So Monday when I was telling you I'll be in between training because I was thinking of Monday and it's Tuesday. So I managed to have a few, an herb. What is going on? What is happening? That's Rob. Sorry, I'm at the gym. So yeah, I had time to go and wash my hair and it wasn't as rushed as I thought because it's Labor Day yesterday and Tuesday. That's right. And hello to my old classmate, Robbie Stein over there back there and his belly that just made a cameo on the program.

So there's much to discuss with you, Joanne. returning to action in November in Sydney against Beck Rawlings and you are fighting at Flyway. But first, we have not talked to you since the fight against Cynthia Calvillo since that fight in Glasgow in July. And just curious, right off the top, did you think

you did enough to win that fight or were you in agreement with the judges? No, I was looking back on it now, but even if I won the fight, I would be like, treated a site to myself. Like, I didn't do enough to win the fight and I should have committed more

and, you know, just tried to. Like, I was looking for a fight, and that was not smart on my part as a fighter, so, you know, I could have maybe took card down, so I was just more, like, trying to make it a good fight, and got caught up and being a fighter, and, yeah, it was, it was a smart on my part, and, yeah, I was annoyed at the time,

but now I've had time to look at it and reflect, and yeah, she had done better. So why is that? Why did you feel like you fought that way? Was it because you were at home and you wanted to put on a fun performance and you didn't really stick to the game plan? To be honest, like the whole camp was a bit,

yeah, kind of winged it and I was just kind of going in there with the thing with just going to, yeah, I was just kind of going on there and wanting to make an entertaining fight, and that just didn't happen because she didn't bring it to me. I didn't adapt to the fight,

and that's where it caught me off guard. Obviously, you can't strike with someone if they don't want to strike with you, so yes, it would have been good to have a fan league to go to, but it's in the past now, and I'm ready for the next one. So you put the onus on her, you feel like she didn't engage enough, and that made for a not really fan-friendly kind of fight?

Like, looking back on it now, anyone can see that she was just not wanting to engage and then can I get that take down at the end of the round. But, like, it's smart. Like, she wanted to get the win. Like, it's dangerous. She would have been thinking, it's dangerous striking. So she's a smart fighter at the end of the day. And I want to be smart, but at the same time, I don't want to lose that.

I'm going in there to fight. I think I need to find the balance. Okay. And how would you compare this experience fighting at home compared to the first one? I mean, obviously the result was not one that you liked compared to the first one, but did it feel as special? Did the novelty kind of wear off? At this point, do you not like fighting at home? Is there too much pressure? How would you compare? I love that. It was a little bit more stressful this time

because the start of the camp was not good. I didn't want to fight it at 115. again, but with the way things went, I was like, let's do it, like, at that time it was the only option. So, well, to my eye knowledge, it was the only option. So I just done it and a few things happened in the camp, like, the week before, my nutritionist was like, no, I'm not coming out for the week of the fight. So me and that were kind of like wearing it on fight week when I should have been more a professional and made sure there was someone with me that knew what they're doing and kind of kept me on track instead of just been like it'll be fine and we'll make weight and I was trying to be positive but at the same time I wasn't being productive do you feel like

that's why you missed weight like if your nutritionist came with you that you would have been on track and there wouldn't have been any other issues or do you feel like other things came into play and that's why you miss weight yeah well definitely Our first bath in the morning didn't go, it wasn't hot enough, so it kind of just put us back in time. But I'm positive that I could make 115 again. Obviously, the extra £10 is a killer and stuff, and if I had option at fighting 125 and 115, I would obviously want to fight 125 because I want to be active. I want to be getting more experience.

Like that last bit, I couldn't adapt. because I'm not getting experience in the octagon and yeah it's cool it's not the same as fighting and fighting's where you learn your lessons and I've only fought like once this year twice last year it's not good enough and fighting at 1115 it was obviously a hard cut for me

so I could only fight it's not very often so hopefully 125 will allow me to get more experience and, yeah, adapt and, yeah, the air site or went on in there. How bad was the cut? I mean, again, you didn't make the way, but, like, the actual effort to make 115. Did you feel like you were depleted by the time you got to the scale and that you weren't at full strength come fight night? Was it one of the tougher ones for you?

Yeah, for sure. I was on the sauna the night before for, like, four hours. Oh. Like, not before I even, like, done anything else. and I had dieted most of the camp. But to be honest, like, I wasn't really sticking to one... When I was traveling and stuff, which was a big mistake in my part, I had...

I said, like, four different countries in that camp, and you know what it's like when you're traveling, it's really hard to find what the nutrition you need. So just a few things, but I don't want to make it. It's my own fault and, yeah, I don't want to sound like a morning. No, I understand. Which kind of, I know you were in Iceland, right? Where else?

Turkey. Turkey? Turkey, Dallas, Vegas, all that retreat. Right. There was so much good food there and, yeah, I went to Turkey for a wedding. These things I'd up and maybe in my part, I was like trying to embrace it. have a good experience of living, stuff that at the end of the day,

they have to be a confession on. Maybe that part was not good, especially when I want everything to go smoothly for mentality. Like, you're confident when you know everything's going right. I remember that we spoke right after the Dallas presser thing, and it was sort of at the beginning of the camp, and you had just found out that you were fighting Cynthia,

and you also just found out that they were finally going to do the 125 pounds. division and it was kind of a weird thing because you would, I mean, prefer to fight a 125. It's an easier cut for you. And yet, you know, here they are introducing it and you're still fighting in 115. And it felt like there was kind of like this mental, I don't know, this, this juggling act. Like, oh, you know that 125 is coming, but yeah, you have to get through this 115 test. Was that tough for you knowing that, okay, it's finally opening up? There is a light at the end of this tunnel that is, you know, the dieting for you. But yet you still have to go through this.

and was it hard for your mind to sort of embrace the idea of one more time at 115? That was more, I was more annoyed and kind of upset with the way UFC dealt with it. Like Sean, I had expressed myself with Sean, the matchmaker, that I was having trouble outside the camp, like to try and keep my weight down. And I was seeing a nutritionist and I was trying to get my shit together. And then I had an ankle injury. and I was like, can you help me out here? And then he came back with like, no, 115.

Because I've always been asking for about a year now, 1 25, 1 25. When we're doing 1 25, and he's always like, nah, not, not, not. And even then he was like, nah, whereas he could have said, like, 115 and then we'll think about 125. But then again, that's me taking that personally. He's heart and thinking, oh, man, like, because I think, on Twitter. I was like,

what? I signed my contract, you know, and personally doing that job and I have to do mine. I signed a contract for 115 and, yeah. I should not take it personal at the time.

I was like really hard and can I played on my mind a little bit. Did you consider going on the Ultimate Fighter? Yeah. Like, I would have, but obviously like Glasgow is a great opportunity.

I was a, I was just a dumb to Polly Glasgow. It's just a shame that the timing didn't work out. But for me, I would love to go back on the ultimate fight and not see as much as a kind of negative part as what I did the last time. I was like, always, I was like, yeah, you have to be strong with positive and all that. But really deep down, I was like, man, this is my worst nightmare. Going on fairly with these girls, it was my kind of nightmare,

I would have actually seen that as a positive and get experience. So I would love to do it again and I would have done it. But yeah, these things happen for a reason and it just wasn't supposed to be. See, I kind of feel like it's a blessing in disguise to not be on the show. Because, I mean, just look at, look at who are the top fighters at 115. None of them went on the show, you know, Yawanna, Claudia, none of them went on the show. And they're doing well. And it seems like they're happy with their pay.

why go through that six week, you know, that mental strain living in the house and being disconnected from the world when it doesn't even guarantee that you'll end up being one of the top people in the division? Why would you want to go through that again? Yeah, for sure. And like, people don't realize, like, the mental toughness should be in there with other people and being away from people. And to be honest, the training is not even that great. Like, when I went, like, I'm used to training. and just train, train, train, train. And there it's just more like you're lucky if you get a good one hour, two hours a day. And yes, that can be an initiative as well. Especially if you're preparing to fight, you want to be the best

and to go on and be in that environment. Sometimes it's not good to fight in that environment. Yeah. You have your best performances and your best wins. Sure. And then living with everyone, I mean, it just seems like a nightmare,

at least to me. And then the first episode aired last week. Did you watch the first episode of the new season in The Ultimate Fighter? No, I didn't. That makes two of us. Watch Mars. You have to watch what?

I'm trying to be better. I don't have Wi-Fi in my apartment, so that's why I'm here at the gym. And I've started trying to, watch more of the fights and stuff. It's hard, like, trying to fit everything in. There's so much things that you have to keep in contact with. Catch up with.

Yes, I know. Trust me. There's like seven hours of UFC every week. But this particular season, the premiere, just kind of came out of nowhere. Again, I mean, I feel like there wasn't a lot of marketing for it. So just another example, I think that maybe you made the right choice, or maybe you didn't have to make the choice. Maybe it's a blessing that, you know, the timing didn't work out for you to be on the show.

was it a given that you would be at 125 and do you like this matchup for you? I know you had a 125 fight in the UFC around a year and a half ago against Latourno, but a way to reintroduce yourself against someone like Beck Rawlings in Sydney. Do you like this scenario? Are you comfortable with everything now?

Yeah, for sure. Like, I'm not stressing out about having to make the weight. Like, I'm always like, I can't let anyone down. I have to make weight. And that's just to you out. Like, any, any fighter will tell you, like, being on a diet and stuff,

it just kind of, I'll still have to be in a diet for 125, but it would just not be that, cutting that extra 10 pounds and having that kind of big massive burden on your shoulder. So, yeah, like this fight, I know Beck's tough and she's game, so that played in favor of me. I'm real involved in. How do you feel about Beck? Are you a fan of hers as a fighter?

No. Like, I was in the house with her, and they got almost a different person to me. And to be honest, I've not really heard much of her since because I don't follow social media and stuff. But I do hear, like, people don't really like her and that kind of thing. But across all that, it doesn't matter. Like, I'm just looking to fight her, and hopefully she just brings me a good friend. and we flowed down. Yeah.

So you mentioned, you know, obviously you were in Scotland. Afterwards, did you go on some, like, big hiking trip or something with your mom? I saw, you posted about this. What was that? Yeah, it's called the West Highland Way, and it's from Scotland. Basically, you go from Muget and just outside of Glasgow all the way to Fort William, which is, I was saying it was like 100 miles. We've probably done more than 100 miles, but it's actually with the course is 96 miles,

a trek. Wow. So my mum's always wanted to do it. So I told her to book it. I didn't think you'd book it like two days after my fight, but to be honest, the fight wasn't the hardest. And I was fine. I didn't really train for it, but I'm like, how hard can it be it's walking for?

Yeah. Like, I think one day we walked for 22 miles. That was probably the tough of it. But it was good catch up because obviously I don't see my mum a lot. and I go first, so it was really good. And I got to see most of the island at the highland. You always drive past and stuff, but there's nothing like walking past

and being in the moment and taking it all in. But an amazing experience. So just you and your mom walking for almost 100 miles? Wow. How many days? I do. Wow. Did you bond? Did you have a lot of hard-to-hard chats? Yeah, and it was especially good after the fight and just reflecting. And, you know, like, so what I feel is a fight.

You've got your family there. And you just have to live in the moment and realize that fighting's not everything. And as long you do your best and you're healthy, that's the main thing. So do you feel like it was a bit of a cleansing after that disappointment? Yeah, but I didn't see it as a disappointment. only like after the fight and stuff, but you're high with adrenaline and nerves and like the crowd's going and stuff. But after I was like more calm and just seeing things a little bit different. And there's always positive and negatives you can take from my fight whether you win or lose.

So I could take a hell of you a lot from that fight. You've been through a lot over the last couple of years in changing and moving and switching teams and all that. you feel like you're finally getting into a groove now in Montreal and with the team and now it's the division that you want in your mind you feel like the stars are starting to align for you or not quite yet? Yeah, I do definitely feel like things are starting to be in place and like even last year I was like, yeah, this is it, I've got everything and then something else happens and it's just life down you like things are right and you still have to work on

getting things better. And now I do feel like everything is, like this is JoJo Part 100 or something for them, but yeah, I do think that everything's starting to go good and not even good,

just the way I'm happy and it's the way I want things and I've got a good team around me. I've finally found genuine people that want to see me do to succeed. And the one person, and it's me like I'm doing stuff that I want to do and yeah take away that's great you always get them in

by the way who do you consider to be like the person to beat at 125 it seems like it's kind of wide open in your mind you feel like there's someone whether they're on the show because on the show they're going to crown a champion or someone who's maybe not on the show like yourself who's coming down from 135 or coming up from 115 who you think will be you know the person to be right off the like the one that you'll have to get through to get to the belt Do you see someone there? It's really hard because the division, like, I think there will be a lot more girls moving from 115 and moving up and then moving down from 150. Right.

The division is really hard to look at just now, but I think there's going to be at some exciting matchups, and especially if everyone's healthy and happier. Like, I know myself I'm going to be one of those girls. and it's going to be an exciting decision. So, yeah, I think we can't really say right now but obviously the person who wins the belt on the show is first in my lot. And just curious, Cynthia says that she's very close

to fighting Yowana in her mind and she thinks that she'll be the one to beat Yowana. Do you think that she'll be the one to beat Ywana now that you've been in there with her? Do you see that in her? Nah, I don't see her beating Yuala. And it's no disrespect to her, but she still really, like, even though she beat me and stuff, she didn't, like, knock me out or show that she showed she was a smarter fighter,

but at the end of the day, she didn't, I wasn't really, I wouldn't see her going on and beating the champion. Maybe in a few fights, but not right now. Okay. And this will be your first time training for a fight at the gym, while the great George St. Pierre is training for a fight as well. and in fact, your fight is very close to his. Has he been around, and what has it been like to actually see? I know he's around the gym all the time.

He hasn't really gone away, but to see him about to get into a fight camp for his return, that has, I mean, that's incredible. That's being like next to Michael Jordan in some respects. What's that been like for you? It's amazing, like, he takes a class every Monday, and he's always, like, down as, like, he's going to other techniques, and he's always down as, like, oh, that's happened to me in this, and he always gives us examples.

He's just a great champion and a great fighter and a great athlete to look up to. And like you say, he's never at the gym. So for me, like, because I'm always in the gym, I'm like, I'm looking at him and he's been the same and he's awesome

and he seems to have all the shit together. So I'm always looking at him saying that's where I want to get to and having access to that is amazing and then seeing it, like, being on the same backs as them as well. Yeah. Today, he came on first Friday, and he's like,

oh, Jojo, you're killing it this week. And it just kind of makes you feel like, yeah, and then just nice. And the fact that he's humble and he's just like any other guy, like, it's good to look up to that as well. Yeah, I can't imagine. What a treat for a young fighter to have that motivation right beside you and him pushing you and you guys training for a fight at the same time. I'm very happy that you're back

and that it's not a year layoff in between fights for you that they got you right back in there maybe that is a sign of things to come with this new division so best of luck to you Joanne it's been great to catch up and most importantly I'm happy

and no one will understand this but I'm happy that you finally went to the orange julep right across the street from TriStar did your life change after trying that juice? It was amazing I had the patina itself

oh my gosh that's not part of the diet what was that like? That's like, that's from the heavens that Poutin, right? Did you feel like you were being, like you were having an out-of-body experience? Yeah. I shared it. So it wasn't too bad. Well done. It's amazing. Yes. Oh, how I'm missing. And next time we are in Montreal. All right. It is a deal. All the best. Best of luck to you. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for squeezing us in. There she is Joanne Calderwood fighting again in November against Beck Rawlings and Sydney. Thank you, Joanne. We'll talk to you soon. Always great to catch up.

Thank you for having one, the sure. Thank you. All the best. There she goes. Jojo. Scotland's own. Coming off that loss to Cynthia Calvillo, but she returns to action in Sydney in November against Beck Rawlings, one of the newest faces at 125 pounds that that division has just opened up. And it's going to be interesting to see who emerges from the show, who becomes champion off the show. and then who are the faces that become contenders after the show is completed. So that card is November 19th in Sydney,

and it is headline by Mark Hunt versus Marcin Taibura, and that is a heavyweight headliner. Now, speaking of the heavyweight division, we were all very much looking forward to hearing and seeing and experiencing another Francis Ngano fight this weekend. He was supposed to fight in Edmonton against one Junior Dos Santos, but unfortunately, Junior Dos Santos was pulled from the card because he was provisionally suspended by the United States anti-doping agency

and unfortunately perhaps given the fact that the heavyweight division is relatively shallow these days, they could not find a suitable replacement for one junior dos Santos against Francis Ngano, who's oh so close in my opinion to fighting for the belt. But before we get to that, it's your old friend New York, Rick, with a message from our friends at Fandul. Fantasy football fans, the weight is nearly over. Football is back, which means Fanduil is back. Fanduel offers fantasy football for everyday fans. New contests starting every week with no busted seasons. Something for everyone.

Lots of contests to choose from starting at just $1. Just pick a contest, choose your team, and watch your score in real time. With Fandual, you don't have to worry about players getting injured in week one, week two, week three, and ruining your whole season. Every week, you're starting a new fantasy football experience. Over two and a half million players have won a cash prize playing fantasy. to see sports on FanDuel. Sign up today, go to fandual.com,

click the join now button, and use the code for the MMA hour, MMA. New users get free entry into the NFL Sunday million when you make your first deposit on FanDuel. That NFL Sunday million has over $1 million in cash prizes. All you have to do is visit fanduel.com and sign up with the promo code MMA. That's fanduel.com promo code MMA, voidware prohibited.

We're also sponsored this week by our friends at NatureBox. We all want to eat better, but when it comes to snacks, sometimes it feels like the whole world is delicious and a billion calories. Versus boring and tasteless. It doesn't have to be that way. Food can and should be delicious and not be a billion calories. You can eat responsibly while still getting something that's tasty. NatureBox has over 100 snacks that taste good and are actually better for you.

All snacks are made from high quality, simple ingredients, which means no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and no artificial sweeteners. So you can feel good about what you're eating. Some of my favorite snacks, the spicy saracha popcorn, the peanut butter nom noms, dried mango, a favorite of my wife, my pregnant wife, who's starving for some dried fruits,

saracha roasted cashews. I like the saracha. I like the spicy food and nuts just in general. You're sure to find your new snack obsession with NatureBox. They add new snacks every month, so you don't have to go with the spicy mix that I'm into right now.

All their selections are inspired by real customer feedback, the latest food trends, and professional chefs. It's so simple, just go to naturebox.com, choose the snacks you want, and NatureBox will deliver them

right to your door. And there's no risk. If you ever try a snack you don't like, don't eat it. NatureBox will replace it for free. And right now, you'll save even more. NatureBox is offering MMA hours fans,

three free snacks with your first store, order when you go to naturebox.com slash mMA hour. That's naturebox.com slash mMA hour for three free snacks with your first order. Naturebox.com slash mMA hour. Go there today. Get yourself something delicious. Now back to the show. So we wanted to check in with the Frenchman and see where he's at and see what's next and just talked to him about not fighting this weekend. He joins us now via the phone. Francis, are you there? Yes. I'm yes, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing great, Francis. It's great to have you on the program, and I know you're very busy today,

so thank you very much for the time. So you were supposed to be fighting in just a few days and four days in Edmonton. Unfortunately, it's not happening. When you found out that Junior was getting pulled from the card, what was your reaction? You know, I feel too bad because I was waiting too much about that fight. And even this today, till yesterday, I just think about how the next event was the 215 and just think about that was my my moment was coming in a will come in song and i feel like i miss this one he's still like this i still like disappoint you know he's not easy sometimes to be

preparing to some fight like three three months and then after it doesn't happen but i know some fighter used to have this situation but when you never have a had it, you didn't know how difficult is it, and then basically when you are waiting more for the fight, because this was, this supposed to be some very big fight for me who can push me up, yes. I was surprised when Junior accepted this fight coming off the knockout loss to Stepe Miochich. I felt like it was a bad matchup for him to go in there against you who's doing so well as of late.

Were you surprised as well? I'm not a matchmaker. Everyone do what you want. But Junior also is a great fighter, you know. He's coming back to the knockout, but obviously for that fight, I was expecting

I was a bet to Junior. But is it what is it? Everything can happen. So that doesn't mean it's not, he is something move on Junior. Junior is the same. No, I think he's a great fighter, he's a good fighter,

and like everyone, he likes exciting fight, he like challenge. And that is how they recognize big fighter. He has come out and said that he did nothing wrong, that he is hoping that his name will be cleared. And, you know, things of that nature, we've heard this before. Do you believe him? Do you believe that he did nothing wrong? Do you believe that he is a clean fighter?

Honestly, I could not say yes, I believe it, but I could not judge you. You know, this is some situation who can happen to everyone. Because people are always like when they talk about supplement or because they're going to give you some some little check or whatever, like $1,000,000 and they give them product, They just took it to not check about it. And sometimes they even go, the booking by themselves to just find the best thing. But they really don't check about that. So this can happen to everyone.

But I could not say, Jr., I could not say security or is, you know, saying. Is this something that you worry about as well? Like, are you someone who takes vitamins and supplements, and we've seen this come up a lot, you know, tainted. You think that you're taking something, and then there's other things in it. Does this scare you as an athlete? Obviously, it's scary me.

That's why sometimes I think about how to take supplement, but I doesn't do it. I mean, I never took supplement because I joke like maybe something wrong and they'll just say, yes, and I do this, Engano, Engano failed draw test and

it's something who I think every fighter would not like to have that in a career. How close were you

to getting a new opponent for 215? Did they present any options your way after JDS was pulled from the card? After JDA

was pulled to the card there was not all the top 10 I mean almost the top 15 was booked And then the only one was available was over him

And he said his injury and he's just become that for the third time So he took a little bit time for your family Yes so but I hear like he's a he's open for for some event like in December or November I don't know Is that what you're thinking? I don't know. I'm thinking for everyone. They can give me even Stipee right now.

I want Stipe. Yeah. You want to go for the belt. Forget all these other guys. Yeah, I want to go for the belt. And then after I could take all this guy who will become the contender, the potential challenger. Yes, but I took Stipe first.

I mean, since January, I don't have, I didn't have five. So now we need to go forward. Yeah. Are you kind of getting a little anxious? I mean, you haven't fought since January, but you haven't been injured. You've kind of just been waiting. This fight falls through.

Do you feel like you're wasting time here? Like you want to get back on that horse? Like I'm wasting time. Because you're not, you could have had three fights in the span of, you know, what, the last eight months or so, right? I mean, you could be a lot more active. It's all like you were injured, but yet you have, you've only fought once this year.

No, but You know Also, I I took the time to move I think I took the time to move. Move was not That easy, you know To leave some country and go to somewhere

Sure You need to plan it You need some time to organize To begin to stop Have you found a team in Las Vegas? Who are you training with now? No yet. Not yet.

my team, I'm still in my team in Paris, but I'm training with Dewee Cooper. We do some stuff and then I work my wrestling and jujitsu other way. So, but you aren't a part of a specific gym out there or a specific team. You're kind of just doing your own thing. Why not? Why not? But you are spending a lot of time at the Performance Institute, right? Yes.

How's that? It's awesome. I mean, it's just perfect for me. You know, I just move here. I don't have no... No team. I don't have nothing. So he gives me...

I used that and took time to look what I need really or what I want to do or where I want to go. But I also have that somewhere. So that makes me be stay patient and maybe stay patient and took a right decision. Do you feel like you are adapting to life in Las Vegas? Do you like living there? I do like it.

I do like it. I love it, man. And, yes, I feel like I'm adapted. I'm here since four months, but I feel like I always live here. Oh, wow. You feel like it's home? Cool. Yes, I'm home, I'm home.

It's not like I fear. I'm home now. And do you feel like you're going to stay there? Like, this is not just a pit stop for your career. You want to actually live in Las Vegas. You enjoy it. I enjoy the time. I never know. I may have a venture maybe some days, some reason can push me to go somewhere.

But right now, I'm at my base home in Vegas, and I try to enjoy it. And I love it so far. What was it like seeing, I know you saw Connor McGregor train for his boxing match several times, what was that like for you to see him go through that process? That was the, I think that was the beginning for something, for some new business in combat sport, like boxer with a boxer with a MMA fighter, with a UFC fighter. Yeah. But let's do what happens.

We are here, man. We are there. We are here for this. We are a fighter. We are professional. So whatever will happen will happen. Are you interested in doing something like that? Because your background, you were first interested in boxing, right?

That's your first love. If someday the opportunity presents, I'll take it. I'll take it, you know. I'm a fighter. I'm a professional. But I'm just trying to be focused on what I'm doing, do the thing one by one. one after one after one, you know, just not just that thinking. Conan McGregor, he did it because he was already a UFC champion,

a two-way class jump, and then I just want to be one-way class. So I do think step by step. Okay, so did you tell me... This is slowly steering wind race. Yes, yes, of course, yeah, well done. well done. Sloan steady was the race. That's exactly right.

Did you tell the UFC that you want Steepa, that you want to bypass these contender fights and let's just go to the title fight? There's no clear number one contender at heavyweight. Did you say this to them? We are working on it. Oh. We are working on it.

I mean, yes, to tell USA. Yes, I tell them. Because when I talked with them the last time, We were still about check about, yes, who to replace DGS or that. But now it's over. So right now I look in for something else. And then that is what I'm going to do. I'm trying to see them and then tell them I want Stipe.

Do you think it's possible? Do you feel confident like that's going to happen for you next? That could happen because Stipe right now no have no challenger. I suppose, like, I hear in rumor, like, you're going to fight John Jones, and now Jun Jones is pulling out, so you know, have no opponent right now. Right. So let's do it.

And, yeah, I want it. Did you watch the fight on Saturday, Alexander Volkov and Stefan Struth? I do watch the fight. What did you think of Volkov's performance? He did a great job, great performance. I mean, Stephen's Roof has a big reach than he, but he knows how to control distance more than Stephen Roof. He has a good game plan and do his staff very well.

Is it not true that they tried to book you versus Alexander Volkov, and he was not interested in fighting you? Yes. They tried to book the fight, and then after it does happen. I don't really know why, but it sounds like he was not interesting to fight in me. So does this make you maybe,

if you don't get the steep fight, would that be the fight that you would like, or are you not interested in Volkov anymore? I'm not interested in Volkov anymore. I'm looking forward. I'm looking. I had me, not behind me. Okay. So it's steep A or nothing?

No, it's not steepe or nothing, but I deserve steep. I want steeped. That's my choice. And then if they say, no, you could not have steepe, yes, I don't have nothing to do. I just try the best, but I want steeping. Okay. And by the way, I'm very rude and you make excuse, Francis, because at the beginning of the interview, I should have said to you. Bon Aniversel. Today is your birthday, my friend, right? Yes, thank you. Wow. 31. It's my official birthday. Yes, I'm 31. What are we doing? How are we celebrating? What's on tap?

I'm talking to you. I'm saying to this, celebrate my birthday. What a birthday. What a treat to talk to me on your birthday. Are you going to go out? Are you going to celebrate? Are you going to party in Las Vegas? You're in a great place to celebrate. No, I know I'll stay home I just try to be happy That's better I talk to Ariel Awani

It's not every day in your life It's up to Ariel Awani I appreciate you saying that I'm happy you said that Because I tried to get you on the show Like five times leading up to this And you kept turning me down So it makes me feel better

That you at least want to talk to me That's wrong That's wrong You just want to catch me up in Vegas Like the same day I mean I know, I know. I know. You're busy. You're a busy guy.

Like you? Yes, that is true. Well, I appreciate you coming on now. I'm even more appreciative that you came on the show today because it is your birthday and I know you have a lot to do. So I will let you go now. Thank you very much. I'm sorry that we won't be seeing you this weekend in Edmonton.

I was really looking forward to seeing you fight again since it's been so long. But I hope for your sake that you do get that title shot that you get what you want. And I hope most importantly that we get to see you back in action sooner rather than later. Francis. I'll be back soon. We'll stay positive. I mean, this is not some great situation, but we can see something different

and looking forward. Maybe they can give up some good opportunity. So it would be great. Yes. It's a grand pleasure. Merci. Francis and Ghanou, good anniversary.

Happy birthday to you and we'll talk to you soon. And by the way, are you going to Edmonton? Like, are they bringing you out there for some kind of like media, PR, fan thing just because you're not on the card or no trip for you? No, I know. I think so because no one does talk about it.

Come on. Tell me something about it. But I would like. Yeah, they should bring you out there because I'm sure a lot of people bought tickets to see you fight. Yes, I would like because Canada is like, besides of America, Canada,

is like my favorite country, some great country. Some people who love the country that I would like to win there and basically to some press station. All right. I'm going to talk to Dana White about that. For now, I'll say goodbye to Francis. Thank you so much for the time. And we'll talk to you soon. I appreciate you coming on today on your birthday especially.

Okay, you're welcome, Ariel. All right. Talk to you soon. There he is. The big Frenchman himself, Francis Enganoe, on his birthday. young. Holy smokes. Unbelievable. I didn't think, I mean, looks a lot. I mean, he's a very

very big fellow, very intimidating fellow for 31. I certainly did not look like that when I turned 31. But a rising star in the heavyweight division and he says he wants Deep Miotich next and look, there aren't any really clear cut contenders at heavyweight right now. So why not Francis Inganu? Part of me thinks like they'll try to do that Volkov fight. If you do the Overeem fight, it's a little tricky because Orem fought

Miotich not that long ago. I don't know if there's a demand for the rematch. We shall see. Unfortunately, we won't be seeing him in Edmonton this weekend, but there are some other solid fights on the card. We'll talk about those a little later on in the program. All right, let us move along. Some news came out last week,

courtesy of our friends over at Cage Warriors. They announced that, I would say, I don't even know if it's arguable anymore. I would say right now, the face of the organization, their most popular fighter, their biggest name, Patty the Batty Pimblet is returning to action on October 28th, my daughter's birthday, Cage Warriors 88, back in Liverpool, back at the Echo Arena. And this is a particularly interesting fight for Mr. Pimbleau because he is coming off a fight in which he lost his featherway championship. There was a lot of pressure, there was a lot of buzz going into that fight, didn't go his way. so a lot of people are curious to see how he rebounds. I wanted to check back in with him and see how he's doing

and how he's reinventing himself now as he prepares for October 28th. He joins us now via the phone. Patty, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. I'm good, the area. I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. It's great to talk to you again. So what has life been like since the loss in April?

That was a big moment for you. Such a great scene. The crowd was all by your side. And, of course, it didn't go your way. How were you able to digest that and move on with your career? You know, just one of them You'll lay more when you lose Don't you them when you win

You just keep on cracking on when you win But when you lose it changes everything Not gonna lie it Stugold with it for the first two weeks And I didn't It wasn't nice It wasn't a nice feeling losing I'm not going to let it happen again

Put it that way Can you tell us what those first two weeks were like Like what did you do How did you pass the time How did you cope with it? just sat with me nearest and dais to be honest and just because people are closest to me

I don't know what I mean just had a lot of people jump off the bandwagon and start slating me where the week earlier they were back in Maine all sorts so it was a bit mad but most of them people were like they weren't from Liverpool and they were from

out to the other side of the UK and obviously I've got now talk of a fan base that's all around the world they have people from Montenegro in South Africa and Australia and America and Canada messaging me so like a lot of people

obviously a lot of them have stayed loyal but to the bandwagon jumpers day to the legate I don't want them back yeah I actually spoke about the fight and about the reaction to the fight that Monday after and it was interesting to see how many people were you know insulting you and that's a common

thing these days with social media but it was amazing how quick everyone was to just write you off like you're not allowed to lose a fight you were a never was you were a fraud. I mean, that's just mind-blowing stuff. How do you cope with that? It's just a sport, in it?

It happened to everyone. It happened to McGregor when he got beat. Everyone just turned on them. It happened to all the big, the fighters who put their neck on the land, no one's not afraid to say what they think and say how they feel. Yeah.

It always comes down, Adron down, obviously, because we're the ones the outspoken ones. And then obviously, when it backfires. It backfires. In that fight, I showed too much respect, I think, no what I mean? So they weren't my usual self.

And then I woke up on the morning with a fight with a bad feeling. And I had an off night, no what I mean? Everyone allows to have an off night now and then. Wow. I'm going to come back with a vengeance. And I'm getting my belt back. Don't mark my words. So you woke up that morning, the morning of the fight with a bad feeling?

Yeah. Has that ever happened to you before? Barely. Woke up it. No. woke up at like seven in the morning or seven in the morning just at the same

with a bad feeling in my stomach huh and and like why do you think that is what like did you feel like you didn't prepare enough I think I had in a bit no I don't know

I had a bit of intuition and there was other stuff as well that I don't really want to there's other stuff but I can't really say because then people will find playing me as a sole loser no what I mean

so okay I just woke up with a bad bad feeling no I mean so that fight was against Nade Narimani and um and Of course, it was for the belt.

You were the champion. Have you watched the fight since? Have you been able to sit down and watch all 25 minutes? Yeah, I've watched it back. Like, a lot of people have called me, like, disrespectful, and I can't take a loss because I walked out the cage. But that was just because one of the judges of scorecard, it was 50, 45. And, like, I just didn't see how any judge could give it that.

And I knew off that it was his fight because I knew he'd won one at the round, at least, like, definitely. But, like, me and my head, I thought it was 3-2 to either of us. I thought it could have went out of way. That's why I walked around after it with my arms up. As soon as the fight finished, I put my arms up because it could have went out of way, no what I mean? But whatever judge gave a 50, 45, really, really royally pissed me off. And that's why I walked out to cage, because I'm not humble, not because it was disrespectful.

I mean, hats off. I'm not. He'd come with a good game plan, had a good night. He had, like, the best night of his life at the office, no one of me, and I had a bad night. one of them. People didn't write me off as much as they want. Was there any talk of you getting an immediate rematch

since you are such a big draw for Cajewa? There was, so. I had the immediate rematch but then it just went silent on the other end, no what I mean? Just got the belt and wants to sit out. So, let's just see what happens, only. Okay. Like I said, I'll get my belt off.

And you're back in Liverpool, you're a big draw there. The walkout was just amazing. What's that song, by the way, that you come out to, and everyone's clapping. It's lethal industry by Sonny James and Ryan Marciano, and then it goes into a remix, a heads of a role,

the song of Project X. It's unbelievable. We're looking at the clip right now of you coming out, courtesy of Cage Warriors and Fight Pass. That scene is amazing. Was that, of all your walkouts, you know, just coming out as the champion with the belt? Yeah, it was special.

I don't know what I mean? That was special with that flag coming out, no what I mean? but I start about living my memory forever coming out like that with like 8 and a half and a thousand people there going nuts like it was unbelievable

I'm never able to describe that feeling I can't wait to do it again even with the belt on my shoulder that doesn't make a difference when you're going in there and your whole city's backing you like I don't know anyone out there who outside the UFC is

selling out of arenas and having that many people there in shows with atmospheres like that there isn't any that's a show better atmosphere than amongst UFC event who went to 100%.

I mean I was just actually going to say that I hope you understand just how how special that is and what a big accomplishment that is that doesn't happen. I mean most UFC fighters can't do that on their own with the help of the UFC let alone fighting for another organization outside of the UFC

and you're doing that fighting in Liverpool in your hometown and you're selling out 8,000 9,000 people. Do you like though? I mean like now going right back to Liverpool there's a lot that comes with it. Do you like fighting there, or is the stress maybe a little too much? I put on a show on for my own people. This is a redemption fight, no one of me.

And this couldn't have been anywhere else. In my eyes, made the show of my own people in front of my own people. I mean, I had a proper bad night, and I owe them more for the price that they spend on them tickets to put a show on. I mean, I just didn't perform that night, and it's still a year to this day and still, baines me inside about it, but I just don't know what happened. It's one of them.

And the off night, though, I was still didn't get finished, and I'm going to be switched on this time, and flood those shiverages and going to know what it's them. It's going to be getting finished fast with a purpose. Are you changing anything in terms of your preparation, given what happened in the last fight? No, not really, but we're doing a few things different. Like, but, to be honest, in the last fight,

I was half my own worst enemy. I just thought I could strike with him when I sure they knew really that is that's the only thing that he had better than me or thought he had better than me striking but I just started to go in there because it was in Liverpool and that to that many people

wanted to make his statements and finish him, no-meam and it didn't go to plan, I wanted to stand with him and didn't go to plan when I started shooting in for tight hands I've never felt anyone so strong on top of me and it just took it out of me no-the-mean, I've never felt like that

after five-downs, happened when I've done the wake-huts, because he arose a fight when it proper killed him. If the wake-off, that went well, but it just got to me at the end. And credit as well, just, end up spewing everywhere after the fourth. And sorry, what, would you say you were spewing?

Yeah. Meaning, like, throwing up? In the cage, though. Yeah, not in the cage, obviously, is what I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, of course. So when you went to the back, you started throwing up? Yeah. throwing up all black.

Oh, all black. Yeah, it was horrible, to be honest. Oh. Yeah, they had a few poison in our own. Black? I've never heard anything like that before. I know, it was rough. Oh, my gosh.

So obviously that affected you. That's why you were feeling sick. That's why you were feeling off. Yeah, I think it had something like cast her into light or so, something, because it was far and me had off as well, like in the changes before. Like, one point of point of thought had followed through it, and I hadn't started looking around thinking,

not me, no, people are going to understand, not me now. But I hadn't had just farted, no one of me, and past window. Everyone was saying, well, they stink, lad, and I was burping, proper belching, and they was stinking as well. It was horrible, you know, the couple of the fellow who was wrapping the hands was saying to me, what's going on there, lad? Wow, that is wild. Did you go to a doctor after it to try to find out what happened?

No, they had to go to the Aussie right after it. They made me go to Ozzie just to make sure everything was cool, but I was all good, no what I mean? Just went right home and got my shed down, got up the next day and cried at first, know what I mean? woke up and thought, wow, I was not laughing, just cried to myself and then just started to pick myself up,

no what I mean? Get on with it. You're a fighter. It's not how many times you win, no, I mean, it's the many times you get knocked down, you get back up. What do you know about Vlados Sickich? I mean, this isn't a cupcake.

They're not giving you an easy opponent. This is an undefeated fighter. He was on the ultimate fighter. This is a guy who's fought, you know, double digits, 10 and no, I believe it is. Cage Warriors isn't protecting you. Did you like the matchup? Yeah, of course.

I don't want people. I don't want protecting. A lot of people on the same and get them protected. And I wanted to not how to fight in this, but this is the only person who is signing a contract, no one I mean? Three other people got off of the contract before this and none of them had signed it.

So it's one of them. Like, a few opponents moaned over money. Another one said, what's the point in fighting him for that money when we can get a, but well better pace on another show, fighting a bum. So, people just, nowadays, people just want money and not thinking about good fights, so I want to test myself.

And thankfully enough, a lot of those sicker wants to test themselves, and once I get in there, it's one of the best in the world. And so here we are in this training camp as you're approaching the fight. It's a little less than two months away, and this is the first time in four years

that you've suffered to feed you at that long winning streak. Does it feel different? Like, you feel like you're a different person, and you have a chip on your shoulder that you're a little less you kind of come across as like a happy go lucky fellow but you feel like your mood is a little different

until you get that W at the top of your record you can't really go back to your old self do you approach things that way do you feel that way no like you said I'm a happy go lucky fellow I'm not going to dwell on that I'm going to live my life

like after that fight because of that fight for that since because of fourth on the April 20th and the last year I've fought on 8thil 1st So in 50 weeks, I had five fights. And it was, like, it took a toll on my body, you know what I mean?

So I end up having a little month, month after I thought, when I'm an Aldi, I was a normal 22-year-old for a bit, no what I mean. It's their food, when I wanted, how much of it I wanted, and then I'll back in the gym. And, no, everyone's here for me. I've got everything here in need. I've got all sorts of sponsors, everyone in the gym.

I don't need anything. People say you need to go to the places that say, no, you don't. You need the family. You need the ceremonies. Like you said, I'm coming back for the W, but it's no different to me. Last time I lost,

first time and I lost the one on a fight to Wednesday. And you can best believe that I'll be going on at least a 10 fight this time. That's a, at least 10. At least 10. I'll be beating that now. What does Patty Pimblit say to the people who said that it was too much too soon?

that your head got too big, that you were overhyped, what do you say to those detractors? I'd love them to just come and sit with me and speak with me one day. You'd understand that I'm not unlike that. I'm just me. I always have been, and I always will be. I've never changed since the day I walked in this gym.

I've just got a little bit more confidence where they used to be a quiet little kid. That's it. Do you feel like the buzz, and I know we're a little far out, but you feel like it's the same going into this fight? you feel like it will still sell out despite the fact that the last fight didn't go away? I don't think I know it will still sell out.

Okay. Even though I lost last time, people still want to come and watch as well. It's not just me. Everyone from the gym, people from the other gyms don't know. Liverpool's the MMA club of the UK. It is.

People think Ireland, isn't it? No. Liverpool is. There's that many gyms in just a small amount of space. So many good fighters come up from this city. And I just can't wait for it. I can't wait to just get back in there and shut a lot of people up

I want to mean, a lot of people like to talk shit about me, so I'm not going to talk back to them anymore. You can just watch me talking in the cage. I love it. And by the way, I mean, last time we spoke to you were just about to sign your new deal with cage warriors.

Are you still hopeful that in 2017 you'll end up in the UFC? You were talking about the UFC. What are your goals for this year as we we kind of approached the end of the year heading into 2018. Have you set a sort of timeline for yourself? No, to be honest, because I'm only 22.

22 and a half, I'm 23 in January, so I've got time on my hands. I mean, people say you don't eat at your time, say you're like 28 or so on. I've got a load of time on my hands. I'll do what's like for me. I'll get enough money in the bank of each round for the rest of my life,

and then I'll start worrying about my goals. I am going to be a world champion again in the next year whether it's set the weight, whether it's lightweight doesn't matter, I will be a world champion. And this next fight set... And it will be getting back on a win street and intensively I will get signed by the UFC. But in your mind you're not putting any...

In the pipeline. Sorry, say that last part again? That's all like in the pipeline. That's just what the future holds, no one I mean? Sure. But in your mind, you're not saying I want to get to the UFC by April or by this time. You're kind of just letting it all playing out. Okay.

Yeah, I'm just letting the ball play out. I'm not at no less to do nothing. I'm not 35 and think, oh, I just need to do this fighting and get the UFC. Sure. I mean, I go to the UFC when the time's right for me and when everything on the table is right for me when the office are all right. All right. Well, first things first. It's October 28th.

Echo Arena and Liverpool. The return of Patty Pimbleat. Patty the Baddy returns against Vlados. Sikich, Cage Warriors 88. Patty, great to catch up with you. Love the intensity. I wish you nothing but the best. I'll be watching.

I'm looking forward to it on October 28th. Good luck. You know, that's all it. It was a pleasure. Thanks very much. Yeah, we'll talk to you soon, Patty. Best of luck in training. Thanks very much. See you soon.

All right, there he is. The one and only. Patty the baddie Pimbleau returning to action. The face of Cage Warriors with or without the belt, without a doubt, their biggest draw, without a doubt, their biggest star. And he's coming off that disappointing

showing in his title defense back in April, no longer the champion. And it was such a great rise for him after his last loss back in October of 2013, I believe it was, goes on that long winning streak, becomes a star. And it's very hard to become a star outside of the UFC. Just ask anyone fighting for PFL or Bellator. I mean, you need that machine behind you in some cases. And this guy, especially in Europe, I know he may not be a household name here in the United States, but really did become a huge star. He was selling out the Echo Arena. that's 8, 9,000 people and really kind of carrying that promotion

as they've reinvented themselves after that hiatus and then he loses and I remember that show right after everyone counting him out, everyone's saying that he was overhyped that he wasn't ever going to make it into the UFC that he was a one-trick pony

that he was not a fully evolved mixed martial artist well we've heard that before we'll see how he responds he has a very solid opponent waiting for him in Vlados Sickich and that goes down on October the 20th Great stuff from him. Love the intensity. Good to catch up with Patty Pimble. All right. Let's move along. I have been trying to talk to our next guest, no joke, for over nine months. She last competed in mid-December. And I have tried every which way. I mean, you name a way, I tried it. And finally, some way, somehow, out of nowhere, like a gift from God, she emerged. I think it was Friday afternoon. I finally got a response back. She has finally reappeared. in our lives. She is finally back on the program. Paige Van Zant is here. Paige, are you really there?

Is it really you? Yes, it is really here. I'm here. How's it going? Hallelujah. Wow. I don't think I've ever tried harder to get someone on the program. Tried every single avenue. And I know you know this. But for some reason, it was it was roadblock after roadblock. It was hurdle after hurdle. But some way, somehow, I kind of threw a hell Mary. And there you were. You appeared on Friday. I was I thought someone was playing a prank on me. I thought it wasn't really you. But it is, in fact, you. I can hear it. No, this took a nice text from you, and I was like, no, I can make sure. Wow. All it took was a nice text. I guess in the past it wasn't very nice.

But I'm so happy that you hear. We have so much to discuss. Wow, do we have a lot to discuss. Now, of course, we may have, if people are listening, they may have heard that you are returning to action in October, October 7, to be exact, UFC 216 against Jessica. You're fighting at 125. But I would be remiss if I start there. I feel like we kind of have to start, like several months back. You now live in Oregon, correct? You're no longer living in Sacramento, right? No, I'm no longer living in Sacramento. I'm training out of Portland, Oregon.

I'm training alongside the American Thanksgiving for a child setting. Wow. So it's definitely an exciting fight camp. A lot has changed. Why did you leave Sacramento? What was that? Why did you leave Sacramento? If you guys know, my whole family is from Oregon.

This is where I was born and raised, and I moved out of state for, like, nine years. And then it was just the perfect time for me to move back, be living with family, hanging out in Portland. You know what? I missed home and now I have the opportunity to train out of home alongside my whole family while I fight.

So it was just the perfect timing. And so the question I keep getting is, are you still a member of Team Alpha Male? What is the answer to that? I mean, I know for sure. I'm always welcome there. And I'm really on my management. team. We're still best friends. So I know I plan on going out there in training and cross training

here and there whenever I can. Um, you know, just for, uh, fight reasons, I like to have my fight at one place and stay in one place. So I'm not traveling all over the place for, like, before a fight. So I'm going to have my full fight camp out of Oregon, but I know for sure I was still cross training and it came off now. How did you end up at, at that gym alongside Chale? Like, why, why did you decide to go there? Oh, so to go, um, training with. team Gracie Baja here in Portland. I chose it because of Chale. Me and Chale both had the same manager with M.M.A. Inc.

and they connected me with him, and I had never been a little while, and I messaged him and asked if I could come try it out. And after the first practice, I kind of knew it was where I fit. The head coach Fabiano Scher really took me over his wing, and he's a legend in the jiu-jitsu world. He just won world again for like the 12th time or something crazy. So it's just a perfect fit for me. So everything's actually been going really well here.

And so when you fight in October, who will be cornering you? So I'm going to have Fabiano Scherner. And then I'm going to have the boxing weapons, Stephen, two-towns for. And then I will have probably somebody from Team Alpha male actually come out here and corner me as well. One of my, someone who's cornered me for all three of my UFC fights, this guy owned call. So, yeah, he's a member of Team Alpha Mail. He's going to fly out here and work with me a little bit just so I have a little bit of consistency

throughout all my fight camps. He's working with me and then also going to corner me. Oh, okay. So anyone thinking that you're completely removed from Team Alpha Mail, that is incorrect. You still have very much connection to the team. Yeah, yeah, they'd be totally crazy. Your eyes coming out here to train

with me. I've got on coming out here from Team Alpha Mail to train with me. I've had a lot of people crashing. As you know, a few people have trained, or they've competed on that submission underground show, the submission show that's out here in Portland. And all my guys from me

I'll come up to Gracie Baja on turn as well. So I'm so very close with everybody. Now recently you posted a photo of a cut on your foot and this was a large topic of conversation. Was it real? Was it not? If it was real, what the heck happened? First things first, was it real?

Was that a real cut on your foot? That was totally real. Okay. Super painful. Yeah, I was actually a training injury, kind of a crazy story. I mean, I mean, there's a few stories floating out there. There was a shark bite. I mean, you told somebody I got stabbed.

There's a few things going around, but no, just a training injury. But, yeah, I swelped my foot open. It's 100% healed up now, so it's good to go. I got my stitches out like a week ago. So how did you actually cut your foot? You know how there's I mean in some jams there's garage doors Um

Kind of just in a little like a turtle Like a tornado me where I got taken down and I picked one of the hooks And it just like hucked my foot and ripped it open Oh my gosh Yeah Was that super painful? So I got ripped open By my gosh door Really painful

The worst part is you could see like My muscles and my tendons move in my foot If I wiggled my toes So it was a little gross, but just the freshman. So just the cut, I didn't hurt me to now. Just a little cut. How many stitches? Seven stitches later.

I'm good to go. Just something. Oh, wow. Okay, that's not too bad. Yeah. I thought it would be worse. No, not bad. Nope, seven little stitches.

And of course, I mean, moving and trying to find a new team and get comfortable, that takes some time. But you have not fought since December. Is there a particular reason why you stayed out for so long? It will be around 10 months since you last fought. Was that always part of the plan? Or did the return fight take a little longer to come together than you expected in hope? You know, it actually did take a little bit longer than I was supposed to and hope.

Just coordinating with the USDA, getting a matchup, getting the right fit. We were bouncing around between if I wanted to do the one-to-shan that I had on 1-25. Just, you know, there's a lot going on in the end in the world, obviously right now, especially with the Calum of Degger. It took a little bit of time to get things lined up. But I'm okay with it just because I'm trying on the news. team and with a whole new camp, it just gave me more time to get situated and more familiar with the new coaches that I'll be training with. So I'm okay with it. And then, but I am so excited to get back in there. I feel like I've been wanting to get back in for a few,

it's been a few months too long. So I'm definitely going to be excited when that keeps all shut. And just to be clear, you never considered walking away because you have so many opportunities outside. There's, you know, you just came off dancing with the stars and there was acting stuff and all that. Did you ever consider just not coming back to fighting? Oh, no, I'm not going anywhere So people aren't code me if they think that I'm quitting this game I'm not going anywhere I plan on fighting for a long time

I'm a fighter first And of course I'm going to pursue other opportunities That come my way because they're amazing And I would never pass up something that I'm so passionate about But I'm a fighter first and foremost So I'm not going anywhere Were there people outside of the fight world That were trying to convince you to not keep fighting

To just do other things No, everybody on my I mean, everybody on my team knows that I'm mental fighting, and no one would ever tell me that it's time to step away unless it's something that I wanted for that. My whole team is excited to get me back in there. This is something that we've been working for a long time to get this matchup. So I'm so excited that I'll finally get to step in that off the gun again.

Why are you coming back at 125? Oh, that's a good question. So my last, I mean, people don't think people realize how heavy you walk around. So I walk it like. I think my last three fights I'm cutting from 137, make 115. So it's a big cut for me. I'm a lot heavier than people realize. And, you know, I was honestly killing myself for this sport.

And my last, I want to say two fights or three fights have passed out in my bathroom. And this last one I've passed out, I had had the doctors almost not clear me. It's like a fight. It also phoned me on the floor and had to call your eye to come save me. So, you know, it was just the perfect timing. You know, they have the ultimate vital coming out. The 125 debate is finally getting built. So it just made first sense for me to try it out.

I'm moving up and I'm a big advocate for like body positivity. And I was putting myself through an eating disorder to make weight. And it became not fun for me anymore. I really, I hated cutting it. I hated the process. I mean, obviously, popping out on your bathroom floor is not fun because you're dying in a bathtub. Wow. So it just made sense.

It's time for me to move up. I'm going to try it out. I want to love what I do and the weight cut was making it so I hated this. And now I'm back to loving every second of it. Wow. So was it ever, you know, scary enough to where you thought like, okay, my life is in danger here, my health is in danger. Did it ever get that bad?

Oh, it did get that bad. This last one, honestly, like, my parents have never seen me cut weight, but they watched this one and they told me if I ever did again, and they're going to disown me. Wow. They don't, they're, you know, they, they know how talented I am and how smart I am. I could be successful at anything I put my mind to. And they thought I'm killing myself for this and it's not worth it.

It's not worth hurting myself physically for a sport. So I think everyone in my team kind of decided it's time for me to move up because my body's just not meant to be that small. It's just not. Me and the team is really, really hard. So I'm excited to move up. think it's going to be where I fit the best. I'm the most athletic I've ever been.

I think for every fight, people say, oh, yeah, this is the best I've ever felt. This is the best of ever felt. But they just say it to say it. But for truly and honestly, this will be the best I've ever felt in the fight. So what would you have done had they not introduced the 125 pound division? I was going to fight for it anyway.

I let them know my next fight will be at 125 and that's just the way it goes. Okay. I just knew that 115, oh, I was going to have to make some really significant changes to my life on a daily basis, which I already, I mean, like, I already eat really clean. It's just my body's not meant to be 160. I haven't weighed that much since I was a freshman in high school. So, I mean, I'll put my foot down on this one. It's time for me to, it was time for me to move up.

Well done. Did you consider going on the Ultimate Fighter as well? Oh, gosh, no. I don't even know if that was an option for me. I think even if I had the opportunity, I don't think I would, totally honestly. I love the position I'm in right now. And I've heard stories about the ultimate fighter. I was able to miss it for the 115 division.

I just heard it's awful. I don't know what I've ever talked to you said it wasn't the greatest experience they've ever had. So I'm really happy with the way things are working. And, you know, I miss this 125 division. I don't get to fight for the championship right away. But I think one or two big wins in this division, I'll be able to really show this is where I belong and then fight for that belt pretty soon.

So you've obviously had time to reflect on the Waterson fight. Do you feel like the weight cut and passing out and all that contributed to your performance, contributed to the loss? I mean, I know it did. I'm not going to make any excuses though. She was a better fighter that might be able. And if I was not much more of a superior fighter, I would have been able to pull it together after the weight cut.

So I'm not going to take anything away from her. but I just, I think that the world will see that I'm so much better at 125. I'm going to be healthier. I'm going to be stronger. I'm going to be faster. And I just, I can't wait to show that off. And that was a big deal for you in the new arena in Sacramento, Yarraea's final fight, and you were headlining.

In hindsight, do you feel like you handled it all well, or was it a little too much? I wouldn't say, I mean, I feel like it wasn't too much for me. There was just a lot of factors going on, but no excuses. and I mean for every single fight I've ever thought there's a lot going on in the background but you just have to tune out and for those I'm sure there's going to be things going on too but it's all about pulling it together and you just have to be a professional athlete and come together and put on a war also recently we saw you which was kind of interesting training with cyborg um how did you end up there and are you still going to keep training with it was that

kind of your your process of finding the right team for you How did that come together? It was actually for a while. I really, I went down and I tried Cairns and I started training with my and also trying with them all like, this is where I belong, this is my fit. And I was going to actually make that move down to Huntington and tried alongside Chris. I just love her. She was honestly the nicest person I've ever met.

And she really accepted me as one of her own and was going to take me under her wing. But, you know, I ended up back in Portland in Oregon, my family's here. and all came down to being around family and being around those that I love. And I definitely plan on cross-training with Chris Moore. She's just the nicest person ever. I want to say she's one of the best female athletes in the world. So I'm going to try to train with her as much as I can.

So after this fight, I definitely plan on going down there and cross-train with her. I know she goes to Thailand a lot. I want to take one of those trips and go around to Thailand and trade alongside her. It's interesting that we're talking to you today because today, Reebok revealed their new line of clothes and you've been one of the faces of Reebok

I'd be remiss if I don't ask you about that video a couple months ago where people were debating going nuts. Was it a spoof? Where you were being serious, your fellow fighters were weighing in. Can you tell us about this video? What was the genesis? What was the line of thinking? Was it you just kind of having

a laugh? Was this some sort of viral marketing? What was that? Who knows? You know, sometimes you just take videos and you just post it, but who knows. And I will say I love the new, oh, the new fight kits that are awesome. So I think the UFC's coming out. We're going to have more fight options to wear.

So I think everyone's going to fall in love with it. These are going to be really cool. Wait, so you don't know if it was a spoof or if it was real, if it was, you don't know what it was? Wait, which video? You know the one. I have to think about it. That was so long ago. Well, I know.

I've been trying to talk to you. I get hit my head a lot. I can't remember that far back. You remember that video that Chris Wyman kind of was, you know the one where he was sticking up for you. It was kind of cool. Yeah, his video was amazing.

It said me that, and I just so muffled it. That's hilarious. Wait, so you remember Chris's video, but you don't remember yours. No, it was great. I think Chris Wyman definitely stole the show, though.

He sold the show and had the better video put out. Were there any less, like, do you regret that video? Do you feel like this was a mistake? stake to put out? Oh, I think that is good media, kind of. I don't know. Who knows these days? I know. I mean, we're not talking about, you didn't do anything wrong. I mean, it wasn't like, it was an embarrassing thing in that respect or that you offended anyone or that you did something to hurt your brand, as they say. But it was, I mean, it turned out to be this huge thing. It, like,

exploded. You, you saw that, right? I know. I had no idea. And you never know what's going to take off. All of a sudden I saw that my foot was on TMZ. cutting my foot open. So you don't know what you're going to post is just going to take off. I think it posted video of me once and that made attention too. Clearly people care.

I guess so. I guess so. Any other non-fight, like you were on Chopped recently and that was, of course, dancing with the stars. What else do we have going on outside the fight world? Oh gosh.

Chopped was awesome. You know, it was a dream of mine to be able to compete on top. So I was able to win my episode and then I went on to the championship and it wasn't quite successful but at least I can say I was a chop champion on my episode. I was out to compete with some other really high level athletes. And so do you have any other, you know, Hollywood things coming up or TV shows, reality shows, anything else that you're working on? I think there's a few things in the works, but they're all very like at the beginning stages. But right now I'm 100% focused on this fight. I'm staying in Portland until I fly out to Vegas for this fight. Oh, we did get a new puppy. That's really exciting. Wow. What's his name or her name? Oh, her name is Harley. Okay.

And he's a Chihuahua weenadog, a Chihuahua. A Chihuahueena. I think that's the first time that that word has been uttered on this show. And is that your first? No, I also have an American Eskimo Chihuahua. Wow. So we have the Chihuahuey and Eskimooci. And that's really cute. Wow. And what's his name? name? His name is Dennis. Oh, Dennis. Okay. So Dennis and Harley. Yep. Dennis and Harley. And by the way, this is hard-hitting stuff here, but you did post it on Instagram, so I feel compelled to ask, and people have asked me to ask, are we spoken for these days? Are we settling down? What's going on? So, yes, about that. I possibly could be spoken for. I'm off the market. So,

sorry, guys. This is big news. Who's the luck? Breaking news. Yes. Who's the lucky young man? Until it comes out on the M of Hours. Yes. Finally.

This is why I wanted to have you on. So that everyone would stop bothering you. Yes, exactly. No, I definitely am seeing somebody who's named Austin Banderford, and he's also a special fighter out of Gracie Baja. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah. Yep.

So we're staying in the fighting world. I mean, I don't really do anything else. That's true. other than dance. You do have the dancing. Yeah. Wow. This is, I don't know if people are going to be happy about this, happy for you or sad.

I'm not quite sure. Breaking news, guys. No, and I felt awful. I did post a picture with him and people just love, like, hating on him. Oh, my God. Does he get a lot of abuse now on social media? My male fans aren't too happy about it. Oh, no.

So he's had to block people on, because you tagged him. so it's easy to find him now. Yes, it is. You were just so excited. Don't say something else to the poor guys. He definitely has a few people not too happy at him right now. And you just wanted to share the news. You just were excited.

You wanted to tell the world you're happy and love. You found a soulmate. You just wanted to share the news, and then it turns into a whole thing. It's disgusting. It is, isn't it? I mean, people just don't want to see me happy. Well, I don't know about that.

But they just don't want to see me taken. Yeah. Exactly. I think that's that. Okay, and then one last thing. I have to ask you about Jessica I. Do you like this matchup? Do you feel like this is a good way to introduce yourself to the 125 pound division? Yeah, I love this matchup.

I'm stoked. I mean, I came to the U.S. I came to the U.S. 1.25. Give me somebody. And she told me, she was like, hey, I'm coming down from 135. I want a fight. I went 25. And, you know, Sean Shelby was like, hey, so the only fight is Jessica I.

And so, oh, we make friends. So I just texted her and I was like, hey, we're the only matchup at 125. Are we fighting? I give us what we're doing and then she agreed. And I agreed. So now we're fighting each other. But, you know, I train with my teammates who I love and we go on and back and we beat the shit out of each other. And then we hug it out at the end.

And I think that's exactly what me and Jessica will do. Wow. So you're actually, I didn't know you were friends. Do you prefer to fight someone that you don't like or does it not really matter? No, it doesn't matter for me. And I said that in the past, it's almost all my opponents. You know, I've had a few of them that weren't too keen on liking me. So I've never cared, you know?

For me, this is a sport. It's just showing off my talents. I don't have to hate the person that's across the octagon from me. And I don't hate my teammates either. You know, we go in and we beat each other up and hug it out at the end of the day. And finally, for you, Paige, I mean, with you remain in the public eye, people are still very much interested in you, but you feel like you've kind of flown under the radar a little bit like this is a chance for you to, you know, the people who are writing you off a little bit after the Michelle fight that maybe said, okay, it's, you know, it's a little too much too soon or you shouldn't be headlining or you're getting too much attention. Is this your chance to shut everyone up? How are you approaching this opportunity?

You know, I'm approaching it as just another fight. It's not a fight, you'll see this is where I belong and I'm just going to go show off what I can do. All right. Simple enough. What a great thing to reconnect. connect with you. I was starting to take it personally, I must say. I was starting to think that you were avoiding me, but I'm so happy that you're finally back on the show and happy to hear everything's going so great that you've found love, that you have a fight coming up, that you're smiling, that you're laughing. It's a great time to be Paige Van Zent. So thank you so much for coming on and for reassuring us. And best of luck in training and best of luck in the fight on October 7th. I'll see you out there. I'll see you out there. Thank you. Paige,

really appreciate it. There she is. Page Van Zent, 12 gauge. They call it. She will be returning to action on October 7th, and she will be fighting on UFC 216. She'll be fighting against Jessica I. She will be fighting on the pay-per-view card. She'll be fighting at flyweight, 125. See the Flyweight Division in full force. Episode 1 of the Ultimate Fighter this past week. Heard from Joanne Caldward, now here from Page Vanzance.

So it is happening, my friends. It is going down. All right, let's move along. Very, very, very excited to talk to our next guest. He's had so much going on over the past week, settling back home. It has been a world win over the past couple months. What a summer it has been for this man. He was just on the world famous Late Late Show on RTE on Friday.

But with all due respect to the late, late show, they don't hold a candle to the MMA hour. This is the real draw. This is bigger than them all. We are now being joined by the one and only Rowdy Owen Roddy, the world famous striking coach, the man behind the world famous SBT. Charles, he has video blogs. There he is, that famous hair, Mr. Owen Roddy. Are you there?

Yes. How are you? How are you? I'm doing so great. Look what I have here. Owen, look what I have. Can you see this? I don't know where the camera is.

Can you see this right here, my friend? Do you see it? Are you kidding me? This is exclusive right here, my friend. I would not leave Las Vegas without getting my hands on this. You see this right here, Owen? look at that. Look at that logo. The coach Roddy.

How much did these go for? A hundred apiece. Oh, God, that is God. Well, thank you. I look good in that. You do. You do. I appreciate the young man who gave me that in Las Vegas. What a treat it was on Saturday.

I thought it was an omen of things to come. But we know how it turned out. and I appreciate you coming on. There's so much to talk to you about you're back home. You're no longer in Vegas, right? You're back in Ireland. Back home, back in sunny Dublin. It's pissing out so hard.

But yeah, I'm happy to be home. Happy to see my kids and my wife. And happy to come down off of that Hoyer over the past eight to ten weeks, you know. Yeah, that is not a normal life that you were living. I mean, you're in Vegas. You're preparing for this massive fight. to get back into the routine of normal life back home as a father, as a gym owner, as a coach. Was that difficult?

Did you feel like there was a couple of days where you were just kind of out of it? Yeah, yeah. Now, I'm still only getting back into it. Like last week I took, I came home on Tuesday. I took the rest of the week off and I'm only starting to get back into it this week. Yeah, it was a, well, last week as well, it kind of continued with going on, as you said, the late late show in Ireland and doing interviews and stuff last. last week. So it's still been a bit hectic, but now I'm going to start to settle back into

what I love doing, which is coaching and obviously being at home with my kids and my wife. I thought it was really interesting to listen to your comments after the fight and to also kind of study your demeanor because it was clear to me that you, and I'm just talking about you here, and I know it speaks for the rest of the team, but just just studying you, you were not just there to show up. You truly wanted to win and you truly thought that you were going to win, and you seemed very disappointed in the result. Happy with Connor, proud of Connor, but disappointed with the result.

Do you still feel that way now, or is there a silver lining that you have found? Are you at peace with the result? How would you describe how you feel about the fight? I have definitely at peace with the result. I'm not happy with the results still. And, you know, I don't think, I won't ever be happy with the result

because we didn't do what we wanted to do. And, but like, obviously, the first couple of days, like any loss, your first few days it's very, very hard to take you go over and over the fight in your head and you figure out where you went wrong and things you could have done better

and then you hopefully don't make the same mistakes twice and that's the process that I'm going through and I'm sure the rest of the team are going through. Obviously, always very, very proud of Connor. As I said, the big thing for me is I see what Connor puts in and I see the amount of everybody puts in And I mean, once you put it all in, you leave it all in the ring or in the octagon,

then you can't ask for more than that. You know, just the result didn't go away, which is disappointing. How would you compare the feeling that you have about this loss to say the Nate Diaz fight of a year and a half ago because it's a different sport, a different challenge, a huge challenge? Does it feel the same or do you have different feelings towards it because they're so different? Yeah, it's definitely similar. Obviously, you know, I was at the forefront, I was kind of put in as the head coach for this one because I'm the striking coach. I was, you know, it's a little bit harder for me to take, you know.

But then again, if we had a won, it either got more of the joy. So that's the tradeoff you get. But it's all losses are the same. It's very hard to take. And that's mainly just because, you know, we gave it our all, you know, the whole team did everything. possibly could to get the win and sometimes it just doesn't go your way. Have you rewatched the fight? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How many times have you watched it? A lot, to be honest. I've watched rounds of it and the fight in full, you know, I've been watching it almost still every day since. Watched a bit of it today. A video came out with the corner audio and stuff there. I think it was yesterday today. I only managed to catch it this morning.

I watched that. Yeah, still just, you know, still just analyzing and saying, saying if there's that, I could have done better and just taking it from there, taking notes and whatnot. So how do you feel about, you know, your performance as a coach, as the lead man, as the first, as they say, do you feel like you could have done better? How would you assess your own performance? I felt the game plan that we came up with and, you know, the strategy we had for the four,

four or five rounds was really good. I think he kind of was doing well. You know, it was a toy fight, but kind of was landing shots that we worked. And he was landing them often enough, like, you know. And then, in my opinion, when Maywe had a switch their up and became, like, he kind of walked kind of down, he kept the hands high elbows in and just kept walking forward

and letting Connor throw the shots on the arms. When we seen that, we hadn't prepared for that. We tried to switch it up from, I think it was around six or seven, we're telling Colin, just keep popping one or two shots. Don't throw more combinations. Keep it like single shots. Enter into the clinch and try and push him backwards. But that should have been done.

I should have been aware of a game plan like that from there with. And that probably should have been done in camp. It's hard to change things when you're in mid-fight. So, yeah, I'm a bit, I'm a bit. disappointed in myself that I didn't predict that he would kind of, you know, walk forward, let Connor throw the shots and take them on the arms

and try and walk him down. I honestly thought he was kind of pop shots, sit back, you know, woke the shoulder roll, walk to Philly Sheld. And he did play that that game for the first couple of rounds. Connor was having success with all of that

and then changed it up. And, you know, unfortunately, I didn't have the stuff in place for that walking them down strategy. We land from that, you know what I mean? I thought Connor won the first three rounds easily. I think you can make a very strong case for round four as well. I scored it in his favor for whatever that's worth. Did those go as planned? Did those go as perfectly

as possible other than a knockout of course? Like could you in hindsight look at anything and say I wish we would have done that capitalized on this or that in those first four rounds? No, no. Yeah, obviously the shot, the big shot didn't land. Some big shots landed and accredited to Floyd's chain. And, you know, he took them well. Like, and I've watched, as I said, I watch hundreds of hours in Floyd. And he really gets hit clean, like, you know, very clean.

And he did get clipped clean a good few times in those fours four rounds. But took the shots very, very well. And that's, you know, when you're fighting for so long, but you're not damaging your chain, which Floyd hasn't damaged the chain. Even when the shots do land clean, you can take them well. Because your brain as well has not been damaged over a period of years, you know.

So we took the shots well. But all the switches, the walk in the body, lead up or cut, you know, all of those shots that we walked in camp landed. And I was very happy with that. just a big shot didn't land the way we wanted it. And then from round 5 to 7, Floyd, I think won those.

I think we might have got 8 as well. And then 9 and 10, we all know what happened in those. Credit to Connor, you said afterwards that he did get tired and that this was something that he tried to battle throughout the camp where in the middle of the fight he would think, oh, how am I going to get to the end?

where's the light at the end of the tunnel and then towards the end he sees it and he gets a second win so to speak. Is this something that you saw as well and is it a concern for you as he progresses in his career that he is going to continue to hit this rough patch as far as his cardio is concerned? No. You know what? People are saying all it's cardio, business carriages that anybody go in and try and fight, you know, four round more with Nate Diaz or, you know, 12 rounds with Floyd May. but when it's that intense and you're constantly being pushed back

and stuff like that, it doesn't matter how fit you are. It doesn't matter. You know, when you're... Floyd from, I think it was, you know, 9 and 10, he managed to get Connor on the back full for those two rounds and kept walking them down.

I know from experience myself that when somebody's constantly pressuring you like that, and you don't have a second to get a breath. Fatigue sets in really quick. It doesn't matter how fit you are. That just happens. And, you know, it was just, you know, it was just, obviously it was hard for kind of to get that breath back and recover.

You know, we were trying to get him to toy up and push Floyd backwards. And I think it was nine. But we just couldn't get the opportunity. Floyd had good frames and kind of couldn't push him backwards. so Floyd always maintained the front foot and always always puts kind of backwards and that's very, very hard to deal with. So, you know, if we probably had a better game plan to deal with that, implemented from day one, I think we could have dealt with that better and kind of would have recovered a lot easier. How did you feel about the stoppage? You know, I thought about the stoppage a couple of times and the one shot they land, but,

then the two or three afterwards didn't land. But, you know, the way I look at it is the ref is in there to look after, you know, the fighters, you know, to protect the fighters. And I honestly think that maybe because it was Connor's forced professional boxing fight, the ref scene that kind of looked a bit on edge. And I'm sure he was thinking if Floyd knocked him out and there was some damage to Connor or, you know, he got seriously injured, it would have been all on the rest. ref.

So, and then, and then you have the critics saying, oh, well, kind of shouldn't have, shouldn't have been in there, you know, it was first boxing match. You should have had, you know, you could have got all of this. And I'm sure in the, in the, in the, in the, the refs, always he thought, look, I'm not going to take the risk. He looks wobbly. He looks a little bit on edge. I'm going to call it.

And, you know, if, if the ref believes that the fire is in danger, then the ref will do what he has to do. So, but I definitely think he could have probably gave him account or something like that, but I don't know. but the ref is only doing what, you know, he's only trying to protect the fight or so, you know, leave him to it. Did you ever consider

stopping it? No. Okay. I honestly believed kind of looked tired in that last, just before the ref stopped it, he looked a bit, you know, a bit exhausted, but it wasn't, I think there was less in a minute left in the round.

And, you know, he has got tired in, you know, rounds nine and ten. not to the extent that he was in the fight but there's a lot more pressure in the fight and it was a different fight than what we expected but he has got tired and then he gets his minute of rest and he's good to go again

so I was you know before the ref stepped in all I wanted from Conner was I wanted him to pop a shot clinch and push Floyd backwards or if Floyd popped a shot slip clinch and push Floyd backwards but you know

obviously it just didn't work out how do you react when you hear people say yeah yeah perfect and thank you again for the time how do you react when people say because I'm sure you've heard this Floyd let him win those early rounds Floyd let him punch him

he gave those away he could have toyed with him he was just making an interesting what is your reaction to this kind of criticism um I mean people can say what they want but at the end of the day like if you watch like the statistics kind of landed more punches

than anybody, you know, than anybody has. So, I mean, yeah, what Floyd wanted to let him land 111-11 punches to prove a point? I don't think so. I definitely think from four or five up, he brought the hands high elbows in and let kind of throw shots at him

and he took them on the arms and stuff like that. But for the first four or five rounds, I honestly believe that it kind of was outboggles. and that's what forced him to switch it up. People will have their opinion and people will say what they want, but that's my belief. Okay. The other belief is, and I subscribe to this notion as well, is that Connor represented MMA well, that everyone was a winner, that even though he didn't win, he exceeded expectations

and that he fought his butt off and that he actually, you know, he brought out the best in Floyd, that Floyd actually owes him a debt of gratitude, that he gets to ride off into the sunset with this finish, and that people are talking nicely about him. and the stain that was the Pachiao and Burdo Fight to a degree is kind of washed away now. Do you feel like that's a little bit more of an accurate description of the performance of the night that MMA won, that boxing won, that everyone won?

Yeah, like, I mean, I definitely believe that everybody that was there that night experienced an unbelievable bout between two, you know, unbelievable fighters. It was very, very exciting, you know, as I said, at the first, you know, four or five rounds, I felt we won. And then he changed the strategy, came back, switched her up, start taking the latter rounds and stuff. The crowd was on Connors side.

The crowd was on Floyd side. It was an unbelievable fight. And we definitely seen a different Floyd now. We didn't see the same defensive guy that we were used to watching, a guy that sits back and just wins around. but one shot or two shots he had a great game plan his team had a great game plan as well

and I think it was an unbelievable bow for boat obviously you know you'll never be happy with a loss but you can definitely appreciate what Connor's doing and one thing I think that you know

you know kind of when lose a draw he always comes out better because he's very very honest in himself and very humble in with his wins and his losses and he gave the credit to Floyd

and he talked very highly afloid he was honest with how he felt the fight went and I mean you can't not like that you know what I mean that's that's why kind of who is who he is he's just he's an amazing character

when he wins the amazing character when he loses he's honest he'll always show up you know these are these are characteristics that very, very few people have, you know, so. Is it true that there was a bit of a crisis right before the fight where he didn't find, he couldn't find his cup and someone had to go try to find it? Did this happen? Yeah, I think, yeah, his cup was left at home by accident, but there was no issue really.

There was an issue for a couple of minutes, but the, the, the, the fight beforehand, the Davis fight, went late. so we came, you know, we had all our equipment when we needed it. But for a few minutes here, we were a little bit of panicking. Nothing serious, not major. And what was it like cornering a fight of that magnitude wearing that outfit? I mean,

what an outfit? The sharpest dress corner in the history of combat sports? Yeah, maybe, yeah. Obviously, David August took us up with our toy. We looked at business. It was very

warm in there, so I was sweat, to bits, but, you know, it wasn't as functional as it was fashionable, but, you know, this is fashion as well, you know. Sure, sure, sure. But it was great. You looked apart, the waistcoat with Conner's logo and the back was amazing. But yeah, it was great.

I really enjoyed it. Have you had a chance to step? I mean, like, I know you're kind of immersed in it, and we talked about smelling the flowers beforehand, but now, like, are you, despite the loss, will you be able to look back on this experience with fondness that you were a part of one of the biggest fights in history and watch it with a smile on your face?

Do you think that that will be possible or because you didn't win, it kind of ruins the whole journey in hindsight? No, look at me. I mean, I've chronicized with many wins and losses as well. I'd appreciate the whole experience. It was unbelievable. And as I said, there's very, very few people. on this planet that get to to partake in in something so historic.

There has to be a losing side. Unfortunately, it was this, it was us this side, but most definitely I'll be proud of what I've done. As I said, all I ever said I could do was give my very best 100% and I feel I did that. I feel the team did that. I feel kind of most definitely did that. And when you can honestly say that to yourself, then, You know what I mean? When it was a draw, you have to be happy with what you've done.

The experience, walking out, you know, just the magnitude of what we were involved in, I'll cherish forever. Along with all the other ones that I've done as well, like I said, I've had since Connoisse signed with the UFC, the last four years of my life have been, you know, unbelievable. and there's so many memories that I'll cherish and this most definitely at the moment is the biggest one and I'm just excited for the next.

Okay, perfect segue because this is the big one. Everyone wants to know now what's next. If Conner-Mogger comes to you and what a great segue that was on your part, well done. He says, Owen, what do I do? What should I do next? What do you suggest? What's the answer?

What do you want to see him do next? I mean, as I said, to be honest, I don't know what I would probably like to see maybe Diaz three but obviously you've got

you've got Ferguson and Lee fighting for the interim belt so you know obviously if he's to fight MNA again

it would probably have to be against the winner of that and the reason I say just you know in my opinion the reason I say Diaz is because those fights are so exciting

the buildup is so exciting and the back and forth there's nothing like it it's just a mad scene like the two fights against Diaz was you know probably the most exciting

camps that have been part of and to do that again it would be unbelievable I'd honestly say that the fans I think would like that over everything else but I can I've said this day before Ariel I don't know what's next

and I know it'll be crazy. So does that mean, though, that you would prefer to see him fight in MMA next? Yeah, well, I mean, for that fight, for that D.S fight,

I would like, if I was to pick MMA, I would definitely like to see the DAS fight. Boxing, who knows? I don't know, you know, I've seen today there was talk about fighting, he was asked to fight in Australia against the Lata B, Pacquiao.

Jeff Horn. Yeah. Jeff Horn. You know, who knows? Like, it's, it's unbelievable. It's an unbelievable spectacle, whatever kind of does, you know. So, you know, I don't know. But, I mean, I like the idea of that, that, the S-Fai.

But I'm sure if it doesn't happen next, I'm sure it's down the line, you know. And I'm sure you want to see him fight Polly Malinaji, right? Seeing that already. See that twice. Right. Fair enough. And it was easy. Do you think that he will fight again this year?

Um, I, I, I, I'd like to think so, but who knows? Yeah. Who knows? There's nothing. I, I can only talk, I can only speak when I'm told, okay, we're about to sign on this. We're about to sign on that. So, and until I see that, I can't really comment, you know, yeah, you know, for me, I'd like the same fight as, as, as, as, I'm going to say, I'm going to.

as often as he likes to fight because it's just an unbelievable adventure, you know what I mean? So I'm happy to go wherever he wants to go. I'm happy to do whatever he wants to do. If he wants to take time off, if he takes time off, if he wants to go again, we go again. You know, I've always been behind

Connor in whatever decision he makes and I'll be behind them for the next one, most definitely. Do you feel like he has a career in boxing, though? Do you feel like this is something that he should pursue? I definitely feel he has yeah I definitely feel like you know looking at those

fours four rounds and looking at and I'm landing on probably one of the if not the best defensive boxer on the planet and possibly of all time to see him you know land more shots than anybody has landed

you know that's a testament to his scale and I think everybody everybody can agree that his boxing skills that night were unbelievable and on par, if not better than most professional boxers. You know, so a boxing career is definitely there. I know, like, I know I remember I'm saying,

like the boxing game is easy in regards to, you know, he doesn't have to deal with so much other stuff, you know, kicks and ease and taketowns and stuff with that. but yeah I definitely think he could do whatever he wants you know I'm sure I'm sure if he said I'd like to fight this bloke in a boxer match everybody would be happy to see it

and everybody would tune in once again two last quick things what was your favorite part of the entire experience is there a moment that sticks out for you in the camp just everything before after is there when someone says to you Mayweather McGregor your experience

is there a moment that will define it your mind that will always stick out? I definitely think the whole, the World Tour was just, I've never seen that and I'd experienced that like that in my entire life. And I don't think anybody did, like each World War II was like a fight in itself. Like my adrenaline was pumping when we were walking out and we were on stage and they were, you know,

Connor and Floyd were going on at the Alien and his crew were going on and we were going on and the crowd was insane and then you're onto a private jet and you fly across to another country and it's more of the same but just praise you it was insane and yeah it was just that whole

that world whole that week was just the craziest week in my life I just experienced so much like flying around on private jets I was we were driving over the Brooklyn Bridge in a drop top

Rolls Royce just on a random day like you get to do stuff like that I remember I remember actually going across that bridge and one of the lads Jerry Bourne said to me she's like

you ever have one of those moments right away it's like you can't believe what you're actually down I says I'm having one right now I says we're on the Brooklyn Bridge and a Rolls Royce cruising like just

I was unbelievable and you know every camp and every camp of Connor, you know, you go on, you have these experiences that you would have never even dreamt of, you know, if you weren't part of his team. Yeah, that is a day in the life of Connor McGregor. And finally, my colleague, Sean Al-Shadi, wrote a story on you right before the fight.

I think it's one of the best pieces that I've ever read as far as sports writing is concerned. And I make me cry. Oh, so I just wanted to know what was it like for you to read about your career like that? In those words, the way he paints picked. There's loads of onions. There's loads of onions in this room, Ariel. Sorry. Honestly.

Ah, yeah. Yeah, so Sean has been working on that for well over a year. Yeah. I've been in contact with him a couple of times. And then, you know, just before, just before, a week or two before the fight, he ran me and had another chat with him. And he told me he'd been speaking to. And I was like, whoa, Jesus, fair play, man.

You really, you really, you know, you really. done a background check on me and you've really looked into my whole career and then I read the piece and basically what I got from it I just felt like that was I felt like me to be honest

telling my own story and that's I think that's amazing for a riot to be able to do that like I read it through and I was like you know some of the obviously talks about some of my hoys and obviously the lows in my career and then the hires again

and it was unbelievable. What an amazing writer. As I said to Sean, I said, that's a piece of writing that I'll cherish forever. And I'll always give to my kids and they'll give to their kids, I think. You know, to remember what my career was like and what I've done in the sport of mixed martial arts. So something like that is priceless and I'll always be forever indebt to Sean for. for taking the time and deal more done, you know. Well, you certainly deserve it, my friend.

It was a great read, and I felt like I was getting to live through all those. I wasn't around for that run, but just to read it, it felt like you were telling us the story, and we were living it with you. So what a great treat that was, and I'm happy to see and hear that you were getting the respect and attention that you certainly deserve. Well done, my man, even though it didn't go your way, and I know you're upset about that. You handled it all with class, and even in defeat afterwards, you did the same. It was a real treat for me professionally to cover this last two and a half

months alongside you guys throughout the tour and everything and see the way you guys prepared for it all. So I really appreciate you coming on after I know you probably want to shut down and stop talking about this for a little bit with the media, but it means a lot that you would come on and talk to you. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And best of luck to you in the next adventure and we'll see you down the line in the very near future, I hope. Much appreciate it. All right. Boy now. All right. There he is. Owen Roddy's stopping by. Great stuff from him. Always appreciate his time. and certainly if you missed that piece,

if you did not read that piece from Sean Al-Shadi, I very much urge you to go check it out. All right, let's move along now and welcome in. I do believe he is here in studio. Yes, we have been keeping him waiting long enough. He is the headman over at Showtime Sports. The great Stephen is in the house. Wow, how about this?

This is a great treat. Stephen, how are you? Good to see you. Had to come down to the skyscraper down here in Wall Street. Yes. What do you think? What do you think of our new digs, relatively new? I think it's great.

I was really shocked when I was. walked up and it says the Halwani building. Yes, that's right. I didn't expect that at all. Now you know. Getting a little respect around these parts. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Now you know. I know you're very busy. Less so now.

Less so. This week's a little bit. Does it feel like the storm has passed for you? Like that you can kind of catch your breath? It took until this past weekend. Sort of like Owen said, I think everybody involved was in a days. Yeah. Probably until about a week afterward. It's like a six or eight week adrenaline rush.

Right. You know, and it takes a while to recover. So now it feels like we're back to real life. So the latest news is the numbers are trickling in, but you don't have an official number just yet, do you? We have numbers which are reported, which are expected to grow. So with the way pay-per-view works, we get numbers, and then they sort of trickle in going forward. So we're now sort of mid-4 millions. If we see the kind of growth that we typically see, then we'll break the record.

Wow. Now, I don't want to assume we get the typical growth because this is not a typical event. There are many different ways in which this event behave differently. But we have a very good shot at breaking the record. So when you say mid-4 million, is that 4.5? Give or take. Okay. Give or take, within 100, 200, either way. Okay.

And typically, how much growth do you see, like, how long does it take for all those numbers to actually kind of come in and finalize themselves? Well, it's interesting. So on Mayweather Pachiao, we announced a new record 10 days after the fight at 4.4. Yeah. Right now, today, it's at 4.6. Okay. So even that 4.4 was a little bit, that was an estimate of where we'd end up. So from the numbers you get the week after the fight, you usually go up 10 or 15%.

Okay, wow. So, you know, there's all these numbers that sort of strangle in and a variety of different ways because of technology. I just don't want to assume we're going to get that 10 to 15 percent because I don't want to in two weeks have to say, well, sorry, we didn't actually break the record. And to be clear, the number that you're talking about right now, the mid four millions, what does that include? That includes North America, U.S. and Canada, digital, all the traditional outlets, you know, all the different ways. It does not include bars and restaurants. Okay, it doesn't. Okay. And you're talking about the show, because you guys had the exclusive rights in? Yes. So the Showtime Digital and the

UFC Digital. It's all rolled into one number. But not. Europe. Not Europe. Are you privy to those numbers as well? Because that was Sky, right? It was Sky. I think there were a handful, maybe a half dozen, pay-per-view territories. UK was most likely a record setter. There as well. Australia, Spain did very, very well. So internationally, it was, I believe, as big as Mayweather, Pachyoff, not bigger. Do you know what the record is for all the territories combined? Is there a number, 10 million, something like that? when you include Europe and in these other continents? Well, heading shoulders above all the other territories are going to be U.S. and U.K.

Okay. So the record, the biggest pay-per-views in the U.K. had been Mayweather Pachio was about 1-2. Okay. Joshua Klitschko was a little bit above that. Okay. And I think Mayweather-McGregor will be even a little above that. Will be 2 million?

Not quite that high. Okay. You know, probably, you know, a little bit above somewhere between 1-2 and 1-5. And I'm guessing they're sort of in a similar sort of projection mode right now. And then the rest of the territories, you know, the vast majority of the territories in the world are not pay-per-view territories. There's probably six to eight total. So you talk about UK and U.S., and that's probably 90 to 95 percent of the total. Okay.

Now, what about the issues with ordering pay-per-view? Do you feel like the number could have been higher? Ultimately, I don't think that's going to really affect that much. It got a lot more coverage than the number of people affected really they deserved. Overall, it was a good experience. Our app held up. UFC's app held up. But then there came a point where, really, because of the strain, there were some issues.

I'm not going to say there weren't any. But we're talking about a tiny fraction. Okay. Having said that tiny fraction or not, we never want anyone to have one. So we've begun the process and we've been issuing some refunds of people. If you bought it, you couldn't see it. Then, of course, you're getting a refund. But it's not something that's so widespread that's really going to affect the numbers in any meaningful way.

Were the issues exclusive to digital? Or were there some people who tried to buy it, you know, via cable or satellite that had issues as well? We heard some sort of anecdotal. Okay. You know, anecdotal reports. Yeah, right. There's, you know, my kid, it's hard to track those down. Sure.

We certainly haven't gotten any verification of any, any widespread or any sort of anything that we can really track down. On Maywe with the Pacquil, we did have some outages on the traditional side. Okay. That we were able to verify. But all we've gotten is really anecdotal stuff, and we haven't seen anything outside of the limited digital stuff. And is it true that you did actually stall the main event to try?

to fix this so that people could get caught up? Was that accurate? It was. I know at a certain point between, I think, in the co-feature or somewhere between the co-feature and the main event, you know, UFC app was experiencing some problems. So we wanted to give that a chance. I mean, the last thing we wanted to do for everyone's benefit was start a main event when we knew that there was some problem out there.

So if we could stall, and it was only maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and just buy some extra time, do a couple of extra interviews, and that will make sure that some sliver of people who are having problems could get it cleared up, then why not? Now, what are you doing during all this? Like, are you freaking out? Are you sweating? Are you nervous? Are you getting, you know, panic attacks? How are you handling all of this? You know, once the event starts, it's actually, it's pretty relaxing for me because at that point, it's sort of like, you know, there's nothing I can do now. Yeah.

Like, you know, it's sort of when you get to that night, as soon as you go on air, then, a large part of the weight on my shoulders is lifted because you've gotten to that point. To the producer's hand, director. Well, a little bit, and it's sort of like the ball's going to bounce the way it goes. There's nothing I can do other than try to be prepared for what happens. And we've been down that road with Mayweather Pacquiao, as well as Mayweather Canelo. So we knew what a big flood of orders could do to the system. So whether it was that or anything else, we've seen it all before.

How do you avoid this in the future? Do you have to redefine the way you guys provide pay-per-views, at least the big ones? How do you avoid this? You know, I think, you know, it's just additional testing. You know, the reality is there are certain things that only get exposed when you have such demand that you didn't even anticipate. You know, when you're taking, you know, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 orders per hour, you're looking at sort of demand that, you know, the testers are saying, that's not going to be realistic. I mean, when we look at the Showtime platform alone,

we did four times the number of buys that we projected. Wow. So it was, you know, it was above and beyond anything we ever expect. I think UFC was thrilled at their numbers now is an all-time record for them as well. Right. So, you know, you just got to set the ceiling a little bit higher in terms of all your technical capacity and cross your fingers.

So looking back, like when I say to you, like how was Mayweather-McGregor for you, the experience, the two and a half months, you know, when you look back, was this a positive? Absolutely. It was a world win. I mean, it was 72 days, 73 days, whatever it was. You never, I can't remember the last pay-per-view that was put together in that short of time frame, let alone a pay-per-view of this magnitude that had the unique issues and elements that this one did. Right. So I think overall, there are things that I wish had done.

gone differently. Like what? You know, I think, look, the obvious thing is the press tour. I think, you know, some of the discourse there are just unnecessary. You know, I don't agree that, you know, that fight promotion has to include that.

It often does because there are real emotions and real competition and personal rivalries. But I think the nature of the discourse was, you know, that's probably a thing that jumps out to me. Okay. And I just, you think it didn't need to be as crass as it was.

Right. Having said that, I mean, the press tour as a whole, I don't think we've seen anything like it in combat sports or really in sports at all. No. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to replicate that. You know, if you can get two personalities like these two guys together, again, you know, which is a big if, maybe. But that's one thing, you know, as Owen was saying earlier. you know, it's something I don't think anybody quite expected. Even after the first one, each successive one, was still a surprise.

In hindsight, what would you have done differently with the press tour? Good question. You know, we thought about doing more cities. There were a couple other cities that were on the list. And probably four was the right number. It was exhausting. Yeah. And by the end of it, you got the sense, I think,

Everybody was sick with each other. It's sort of like being in combined space with everybody. And you forget, going back on Mayweather v. Canelo, we had done, I think it was either nine or ten cities in nine days. And started in New York through Miami, Mexico City, back through Texas. In retrospect, I don't know how we did that because you understand. You're getting, you're not doing much other than the press conference. Going to the press conference, driving to the airport, going to the airport, going to sleep,

getting up doing the press conference. So it's a groundhogs day for you. So the only real interactions you're having is you have to go step back on the stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And get in that environment, the adrenaline environment again. So it was amazing, you know, from that perspective. And I think what it demonstrated to fans is this was a real fight. You know, it wasn't, this is not a hypothetical and exhibition.

You know, there are two guys. guys, grown men looking to win a fight. And whenever you have that, there's an element of risk. And that's what really got codified, got put forward in a tangible way on that press tour. I felt like after Toronto, which was obviously, I think in most people's eyes, the apex, the most entertaining one, maybe it should have evolved and gone more to a traditional press conference. I didn't have a problem, like this whole thing that was being made of like, oh, the boxing press conference. It was fine to be different. But then I felt like they felt the pressure of trying to one up each other, one up every city.

Do you feel like that should have happened? Well, you know, what's funny is, you know, this wasn't the format of press conferences either, boxing press conferences either. Right. No one said that as the format. Oh. Really, the format was not for the guys to get up and do it. So if you go back in L.A., you know, I think there's some miscommunication on the Connor UFC side. I don't think Connor knew what to expect.

You know, what was supposed to be walk-ins and then sit down and we start the press conference, you know, came to be Connor walking in, grabbing a mic, and, you know, pontificating. Sure. So that became the format. You know, so that was never anyone's goal. Right. It was, I think, you know, we were just going to do sort of entrances, high wave to the crowd, and then let's get on with an orally press conference.

Like reporters asking questions and stuff? It was, you know, introduce, you know, the guys, you know, Connor makes a statement, Leonard makes a statement. Then the guys talk in a couple of questions. So a more traditional one. So, you know, at that point, it's sort of like it got some, you know, there was some, obviously some sparks were flying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we stuck with it. I think what hers in Brooklyn was sound problems.

Yeah. You know, that was, you know, I'm not sure exactly what it was. I'm sure, you know, Connor believes that was mine too. I didn't hear about it. Whatever the sound problems in New York City were, you know, that affected a lot the perception of it. I think you just really couldn't get the emotion really couldn't hear. Yeah. You know, for those of us on stage, you know, at least, you know, for me, the Floyd side, we couldn't hear anyway because it's being drowned out by booze. Right, right, right. But that, yeah, that sound system in particularly there, that was, that was, you know, that interfered a lot with the enjoyment. of that piece. How has life changed for you since all of this? Because, you know, we talked about it a little bit on the tour, but even like when I say that you're going to be on the show, I get a lot of the, you know, the Weasel comments. You know, Conner's fans are a very passionate bunch, and they are loyal to a fault. And God bless him. You know, that's part of his success. But for you, do you feel like things have changed? You get comments on the street. You get people coming up to you.

I do. I mean, social media has changed. I mean, I'm sure, you know, your social media When you announce me, you get the weasel chips that, you know, every conceivable one. It's animated, live action, all of those. But, you know, there's other ones. I flew back from Las Vegas late Monday. And, you know, I got to the airport, and I was, like, in jeans, tired. It was like, you know, probably by the time we got luggage, it was 1.30 in the morning. And somebody recognized me in the airport.

Okay. over and said, and it was somebody, it was an Irish fan, clearly from there. Okay. And we had a really nice conversation, but I would say, I looked at that point like the least executive looking for a person. So someone, yeah, I do get recognized a lot more. You know, in terms of sort of the conflict, you know, it didn't, you know, it bothered me a little bit.

You know, I think anyone, you know, was personally insulted. Yeah. You know, it bothers. But look, I've been called a lot worse by people I respect more than Connor. So that in itself wasn't a big issue to me. What bothered me about the whole thing was his comments about Showtime. And not necessarily, you know, obviously the network, but really the people at Showtime because, you know, I know my staff and I know, you know, the people, the kind of people who work for us. And on that time frame on those 72 days,

there are literally dozens of people who are giving up dinners with their kids, you know, time with their spouses, giving up, you know, things they'd rather do nights and weekends for the success of this pay-per-view, which ultimately, the bulk of that money is going to Floyd and Connor, you know, and making them both very rich men. So, you know, to have, you know, Connor insult them, you know, by extension, to say, you know, F Showtime or whatever, when there's an entire team of people who are making personal sacrifices to make sure, his event is successful and generates money for him, it just seemed like a really short-sighted comment and really unprofessional.

Did you ever have a moment where you went to Audi or any member of his team, like, can we cool this? Can we change? No, no. You know, I expressed displeasure with it to his manager. You know, probably only to Audi. I'm not sure I expressed anyone else. But no, I didn't ask him to stop. He's a grown man.

And, you know, he makes his choices. and he's free to say what he wants to say. One of the most interesting dynamics also was you and Dana White because Dana hasn't been a fan of Showtime in the past. He said things and you've had things to say, did you ever have a moment with him in the back privately to talk, to clear any kind of air? Yeah, we had a couple of those.

Okay. Because, you know, the reality, there's just different ways of doing things. It's not one sport versus the other. It's two different businesses, two different organizations and how they do things. And there will be, A, miscommunications, and B, just difference of the opinion. And they were both along the way. And sometimes they were, you know, very pleasant and collegial.

And sometimes they were a little bit more, you know, blunt and a little gruff. But, you know, it was nothing, for the most part, that was really out of the ordinary. Okay. And sort of this event, it's sort of, it's making sausage, you know. And it's an ugly process sometimes. and I'm not saying ugly as in, you know, it has to be confrontational. It's just a, sometimes it's a painful process that you're learning by trial and error, what is working, how to mesh these two organizations with two business models together in a short period of time.

What was smoother? Doing that, meshing that relationship with the UFC or HBO for the Pac-GEL fight? Without question, the UFC relationship was way easier, which is counterintuitive because you would think another organization, you know, You're in the same sport. We haven't done business with HBO before, but we're in similar businesses. We're doing the same sport. But it's not even comparable. The USC experience was so much more positive and collegial, and the promotion overall went a lot smoother.

It really wasn't even close. Interesting. When you look back, do you look back with fonder memories than Mayweather-Packia? Do you feel like this was a greater success on the, whole, we don't know if we'll break the pay-per-view numbers yet. We don't even know if it broke the gate or do we? They won't tell us. I have not seen the gate numbers, but we should get those. It's typically Tuesday, Wednesday of the following week. Okay. I think, I believe they did, but, you know, we'll see. I don't track the gate as closely. Was this a greater success than that?

There are different kinds of successes. You know, May we're a way. the Pachial was particularly satisfying because it's something I'd been involved with personally since 2009 in a very different role. And it was, the amount of demand was just absolutely out of nowhere. You know, when we had going into this, we had a ceiling. No one had ever done more than, you know, 2.4 million buys. So when you get to the point where you're looking at three and a half, four, four and a half, you know, those are figures that no one, that people thought were unattainable. It's sort of like the four-minute mile. It's sort of like there's no way we're doing more than three million buys.

Like no one had ever come close to that. So that was, you know, repeating it. It isn't quite the same level. Even if we break it, it's not the same as your first time. But this was, in some ways, more rewarding because it was a bigger task in a shorter period of time. It is something that had never been done before. You know, one of my close friend of mine texted me after the event, and he said, you know, this could be Super Bowl 1. Okay.

And he said, you know, when they did Super Bowl 1, they never thought that this would be giving rise to an entity like, you know, the NFL. And it was the uniting of two different businesses. Yeah. I'm not saying that, you know, we're going to meld all of combat sports into one organization. but it's interesting to think about, is this something that, is this more than just a one-off? Right. So given the success, are you more interested in being in this kind of business? You know, I think this level of success, you can take some things from it, but not everything. In other words, you certainly, you can't expect everything is going to be this level of success or even half that level of success.

You had the perfect storm of a lot of different factors. But I do think that there's a limited number of athletes who, you know, have the appeal, have the desire, have the skill to do both. And I think it would, it's a business opportunity on both sides. Now, you know, at some level it's up to the MMA promoters, you know, whether that's something that they feel like benefits them in the long run and benefits their athletes in the long run. But from this side of the table, I mean, I think it's really intriguing. And we'd love to do more of them. Since you've had this fight happen and be the success that it was, have you had other managers of famous fighters,

MMA fighters approach you about doing this? There have been a good number of MMA fighters, male and female, who have reached out. Some of them through managers, some of them directly. Like who? We'll see. I'm not going to blow anybody up. Okay.

Do I guess a couple? Sure. You can guess enough, but there are names that there's plenty of names in there that you'd recognize. And, you know, some of them were exploratory. Some were, you know, seemed more than exploratory. But they were all more than, look, if you take the time to sort of track me down and putting a phone call or shoot an email, you know, it's more than, hey, it's easy to go, you know, go on social media and say, I want a box to you or issue a challenge or. you know, give an interview. But if you're going to, you know, compose an email to a network exec, you know, you've given it some thought. Yeah. So, you know, whether it happens or not, we'll see.

I'd really like to continue it, though. Anything that's relatively close, that's closer than just exploratory? No. You know, within a couple weeks. Wow. I think at least we know whether it's sort of a passing fancy or this is something we really should start working on. Are you talking about the male or the female one in this? No. We're talking about him generic. You're good. Okay. You're good. All right, fair enough. Did Connor exceed your expectations as a boxer?

I think it was about what I expected. You know, he was really awkward, you know, and that's what I think everyone expected. You know, he switches back and forth. He's long. He's unpredictable. And I think those are all things that, you know, that make him hard to figure out. You know, if you go back on Floyd's fights, you know, he virtually always gives away the first two, three rounds. I mean, he gave him two rounds to pack you. I would give him around, gave out two and a half, three rounds, you know, to Canelo.

You know, so in all of his fights, you know, he starts, I wouldn't even say it's a slow start. It's a calculated, he's sort of gathering data. And I think he took maybe an extra round, you know, A, because, you know, it's so awkward and you're sort of, you're not, he's unorthodox. He's coming at different angles. That's one of his strengths coming in. And so, you know, there are plenty of fighters who, at the end of three rounds, if it was a three-round fight, you know, Floyd Mayweather wouldn't be 50 and O. Sure. So you look at it as a whole.

Look, I think it was an entertaining fight. I wouldn't say Connor exceeded expectations. I think there were people who expected much less of him. Yes. You know, there are people who thought this was a sham that, you know, this was one-round fight. the 30-second fight, you know, clearly, you know, if I had thought that it was that, if we thought it was that, we wouldn't have been participating. So to say, our expectations were sort of maybe higher than most anyway, because he's, he's a fighter. He's awkward, he's got certain

physical skills that are going to, you know, serve him well in the ring. Did you speak to him after the fight? Did you see? I did not. Okay. I did not. You know, actually, I think Conner's, Connor, my only interaction with Connor through the promotion were on stage. That's it. Never in the back. That's fascinating. We would pass each other in the hallways but really didn't impact. So it's so interesting that you mentioned the word farce because this was called a farce a sham and things like that leading up.

I mean, pundits were decrying it. They were saying that it was a joke, that it should not happen, that the Nevada Athletic Commission shouldn't sanction it, et cetera, et cetera. And I said this last week, in the end, the farce became, you know, became. the real meat of this whole endeavor. The spectacle became an actual sport. The best part in the end, in my opinion, became the fight. The fight is what I thought saved the night because I don't usually cover boxing events. I love boxing, but I'm never there, you know, sitting in the arena. I was shocked by the crowd. I was shocked that by the time Giovante Davis came out, there couldn't have been more than 2,000 people in that arena. And then finally they showed up, but they didn't really

sell it out, and this has been talked about the ticket prices. But then the fight happened, and everyone went home happy. And so it was so fascinating to see how this thing that was, you know, criticized from the get-go actually almost validated everything leading up to it in a weird way. Looking back, do you feel like it could, and this isn't your domain, but just from your perspective, because it's such a qualified one, how do they fix that with the crowd? Because it just, it was void of any energy in there. Like, don't you find, it was shocking to see how empty that arena was that late in the night. Yeah. You know, there's, um, it's a lot to, unpack the answer that question because a lot of it goes to

Traditionally historically how young fighters careers have been built and When you look at MMA, there's not the building of the career. I'm not saying that there's not matchmaking Sure, but you look at young fighters, you know on the boxing side and you know first ten or 12 fights unless you have a guy who's You know been a you know gold medalist or has a huge amateur pedigree You know first eight or ten fights are not really you know, meaningful fights. Meaningful in the sense of, for the television viewer, they're certainly meaningful in terms of the educational process.

But they're sort of a tradition expectation that these fights are not meaningful, or not the, what? That's not always the case. There are guys lately who have come out and had, you know, you can look at whether it's Lomachenko or even Clarissa Shields, having title fights within three or four,

in their first three or four pro fights, that's, you know, that is unusual. Okay. But what you're saying is, how can we generate more interest, you know, in the undercard? I think one is better quality than, but two, I don't think you can pick Mayweather events to do that. Okay.

Because a Mayweather event, by definition, is going to get more casual fans. And there's probably nothing you can do that is going to get a lot of those. people there for undercard fights. And that's one of the, one of the difficulties with, with, you know, putting an undercard under Floyd. It's never going to get the amount of attention it deserves. So it's almost better. If there's a guy that we really want to highlight in a really tough fight, it better to give him his own stage, his own spotlight. Okay, you don't think that

there's a trickle-down effect? There is, but, you know, and we've done that in the past, you know, the Mayweather Canelo card had a Danny Garcia, Lucas Matisse, a fight, which was, by itself could have been one of the bigger Showtime boxing of the year. But, you know, so yes, the positive, it probably gets more attention there. But at the same time, it doesn't quite get the shine that it deserves because, you know, Floyd and Floyd events take up all the air in the room. Okay. So, but I think, you know, it's one of the things that boxing, I think, can take and has taken, you know, some of the queue from MMA, which is, look, you know, there needs to be more, if you're going to do a big event, there has to be more meaningful meat on the entire event. You know, it can't be so top-heavy.

I am of the impression and belief that boxing is having a significantly better year than MMA. And we like to compare these two things, but it drives me nuts when people say boxing is dead, that it's on its last legs and now that Floyd is gone, etc. which says boxing and Showtime in particular. I mean, just forget about HBO and the fights that they've done, like the Ward Fight recently and all that. They've got Triple G Canello, of course. The events are bigger, and I think that they're generating more interest as far as ticket sales and pay-per-view. Do you believe this as well?

Is boxing actually beating MMA these days, at least in 2017? Well, you know, I don't like it when, you know, people say, you know, MMA is killing boxing. So I'm certainly not going to say. when I feel when people feel I didn't say killing but it's crazy

that there's still some people who think that it's dead and it's actually in my opinion doing better than MMA Yeah I mean I think you know what we've seen

across media and sort of across life you know is everything has become a niche like virtually very few things are broad mainstream

so it's very easy for people to say oh that's dead oh that doesn't make sense no it doesn't make sense No, it doesn't make sense to you. It might not be on your radar. That doesn't mean it's not on anybody's radar.

Because there are very few things, if you look at the sports landscape, which are mainstream. NFL, sometimes, you know, pro basketball, baseball, you know, after you get sort of increasingly niche really quickly. So I don't see niche as an insult. Like, you know, it used to be. It's like niche. Okay, when you had three networks, you had a niche sport. You were not on one of the three networks. So when you look across everything, I think they're going to be dedicated fans on MMA and boxing. Boxing has definitely had a great year. I mean, Showtime boxing in particular has had a great year. I don't think like there's any sort of correlation. You know, boxing is up, MMA is down or MMA up, boxing down.

I think both sports have sort of peaks in values of talent. And right now, boxing without Floyd is going to be looking for its next money star. The same with MMA. There are generations of talent. It looked like John Jones was going to be back and maybe would be he and Connor would be leading the next couple of years at least. Not clear what's going to happen there. So I think where MMA now is in, I wouldn't even call it a valley, it's sort of in the transition period. You know, who are the next two or three like tent pole mainstream stars?

You know, it's a process that boxing has to go. It's a process that NBA has to go through. Right, right, right. So I don't see MMA is down as much as it is. You know, Ronda's gone. And, you know, there's a void. And voids do get filled pretty quickly. So I'd expect it would.

Would you feel comfortable saying that Showtime has surpassed HBO as the boxing leader? That's for other people to say. I certainly wouldn't disagree. I think we're doing more meaningful fights. We're doing higher quality fights. We're doing more important fights. We're doing more worldwide fights. We've been over to the UK three or four times.

But I think what we try to do is the same thing. UFC tries to do, which is put on the best, most meaningful events as much as possible. You can't have Mayweather, McGregor, every single month. Nor do you really want that. There's got to be more variety than that. And I think there's plenty of talent to go around. You joined Showtime in 2011? December 2011.

If I would have asked you five, six years later, which is where we are now, Do you feel like you are past where you expect it to be? Do you feel like you've exceeded your own expectations? Because Showtime boxing, I mean, five, six years ago, not that long ago, it wasn't where it is today, right? I mean, you've come a very, very long way. Have you actually exceeded your own expectations as a network? I think if you had told me way back in December 2011,

if you had told me that we would be back in the pay-per-view business and, you know, assuming things go away, as expected, that we would do seven pay-per-views over the next four years. Three of them would set all-time records. I would have said, no way. Not because we didn't have the track record, it just wasn't Showtime's history. Showtime had not done a pay-per-view since the days of Mike Tyson. And obviously, those were monster pay-per-views, but that's a long period of time. So if you had said, okay, you're going to sign Floyd Mayweather, you're going to do a deal with Anthony, Joshua, go to UK, do a fight with 90,000 people there live from Wembley.

If, you know, you're going to set three all-time pay-per-view records, you know, in a series of, you know, six fights. I always said, no, that's optimistic beyond my wildest dreams. Wow. Okay. Obviously, when you came on board, it was towards the end of the Strike Force era. Have you ever been close to getting MMA back? I heard, correct me from it. I heard that you had a very good meeting one day with Invicta and that you were

interested. Is that accurate? I was interested in Victor because, you know, the reality is there's, UFC is very good at what they do. Yeah. And for us to get back in the market, this is a conversation we've had ongoing. Yeah. You know, there's got to be a reason. Yeah. Why are we back in the market? What are we providing that isn't already provided? You know, if we look at boxing or if we look at, you know, NFL or documentaries, we can say, this is what we're giving the market that doesn't exist or that the market needs more of. If it's just getting back in to do MMA, I'm not sure the market needs more MMA.

There might be a certain type, you know, certain matchups, a certain type of fighter. There are different ways to, you know, approach it, but just more MMA is not, you know, that's not, it's sort of like saying, you know, we need more football. Right.

No, we don't. Yeah. You can make a case of how it's presented or how it's marketed or the matchups, but not in terms of just content for the sake of content. What Invicta provided was something that was unique, it was premium. You know, it was different. You know what you were getting.

And it is, and it generates a lot of buzz for a relatively at that point, you know, small promotion. I mean, they generated way more attention than, you know, than any company of its size and its age had ever generated. Okay, so what happened? You know, I think, you know, I think it was about timing. It was, you know, they're talking to us and talking to UFC. Yeah. And they sold their division.

Right. And I had heard you didn't like that. I don't, look, I think the issue with, you know, with UFC, and this was a little bit, what happened at the end of Strike Force, is, you know, is having to serve too many masters. And when you've got a Fox deal and you've got pay-per-view and you've got other television. then there comes a point where it's a strain because it's sort of like, okay, I want all the best events. You know, then for a financial perspective, maybe it makes sense to put all the top tiered events on pay-per-view. While Fox is paying a ton of money, they want the best events. So at a certain point, you know, you're going to be, you've got that many mouths to feed, you know, and different objectives.

It's going to be difficult. So I think what we saw, like, you know, we weren't happy at the end with what we were getting out of strike force and thought we were, you know, we were not getting the best matchups. And they were looking to take some of that talent up to UFC. Okay. And so I think there, that can be maneuver, but the real question is sort of where are the priorities? I'm not sure, you know, it's tough to balance all three. You know, network is paying a large license fee. They deserve good fights.

pay-per-view, if you're going to a consumer and asking for money, then you're going to put your best fights there. If you've got premium TV paying a large license fee, okay, you've got only so many premium events to go around, and you've got three outlets that are demanding your best fights. How do you balance that? I mean, ultimately, it's tough to keep all three satisfied. The UFC TV deal is up in around a year and change.

This may be a crazy question, but does Showtime have any interest? Will you be exploring? I mean, sure. You know, it would be silly not to. You know, we're not going to support the organization on our own shoulders, not with the size of the Fox deal. Is there an element that could be layered on where it would make sense for a premium network for some of the fights? You know, as long as it was clear, you know, I'm a believer in clarity of the networks. So if you're going to layer in and have some fights here, some fights there, you've got to understand why. You know, the consumer has to know, these are the fights that I'm getting, you know, when I go to Fox or the network. These are the fights that I'm getting on pay-per-view. These are the fights I'm getting on Showtime. Otherwise, it's sort of, then everyone's confused, and there's no reason to sort of like, I don't know why this fight is on Showtime and this one is on pay-per-view. As long as you sort that out, from a marketing perspective, a messing perspective, I think it could work.

Have you had any discussions with them about it? No, I have. How do you approach that sort of thing? Like, if you are interested, you seem somewhat interested in fair. How does that happen? I think, you know, it's either a call out or a call in. This is the call out. This is the call out.

You know, strange things have happened. You know, I'm not sure exactly when their exclusive period is up. Okay. You know, whenever, if they're in one or they have other obligations, you know, whenever they're free of their obligations, there'll be a conversation. I mean, the funny thing about this, and I think people assume there was animosity, you know, 90% of the dealings with Dana with the organization are great. You know, and Dana and I have disagreed on some things, but, you know, my relationships over there are strong. I like the guys, you know, virtually, you know, almost all the team that was there in strike force is still over there.

And I like dealing with them. I like them as people. I like them as individuals. And I like them as business people. And it's not to say I don't like Dana. You know, he and I have had disagreements, which is fine. fine. You know, the NFL and I have disagreement sometimes. You know what happens. Are you, okay, so at this point, are you talking to any MMA? Is it fair to say you're not talking to

anyone? No, yeah. There's no interest, right? You're all, I mean, no, there's interest. There hasn't been an opportunity that sort of makes sense. And you're not really actively seeking. No, you don't feel like this is a void. Last time I said that on this show, then, you know, then my phone sheet was a mess for two weeks afterwards. I'm sorry. Okay, because everyone's coming. Yes. Like every, every aspiring MMA promoters. Right.

Yeah, I'm the one. I have to ask after the fact, and again, thank you so much for the time. We'll wrap up very soon, but I have to ask about Polly, Polly Malinaji. I mean, you talk about social media.

I don't know if he shut his off at this point, but the vitriol that he has received, again, coming from the Conner fans, they just, they despise the man. Right. From your perspective, how did he do on the broadcast? Was he able to,

because let's be honest, even Fight Week, it was a bit of a rocky road, right? There were moments. How did he do after the fact from your perspective? I mean, I said going into the fight, I didn't have really any concerns with him on the telecast. I've watched it now three times. Okay.

And I cannot detect any bias, anything where he went either way. Now, we can talk about perception. What he did, I don't believe, is good for perception. because in terms of the perception, the credibility, because essentially credibility is your reputation and how people perceive you. So it's not enough to be credible on air, to be authentic and objective and fair on air.

You also have to be perceived as such because you can be completely objective on the air and if no one thinks you are, then you're not doing yourself any benefit. Absolutely. And that's why, You know, that sort of was one of my points to him is, you know, it's not change. I understand your personal feelings don't change what you do on air.

But, you know, how you express those can change people's perception about you even before you've opened your mouth on air. Okay. So that was really the conversations I had with him. I think substantively, if we're talking about what he did on air, I don't have any issues there. Okay. Did you have an issue with him even being a sparring partner to begin with? Did he have to clear that with you? He didn't have to.

He didn't have to. There was nothing in place contractually. He did call. We had the conversation. He had it with a couple different people. You know, I wasn't crazy about it. And mainly because I didn't, I knew he wasn't in shape. He hadn't really, you know, he's probably 30 pounds heavier than he was when he was fighting.

And he really hadn't been in the gym. And it sort of just struck me as something strange. You know, he's a multi, a multi-divis. World Champion, multi-time, I think a two-time world champion. Like, he's not a guy who's a sparring partner. Right. But I think he was, you know, drawn by curiosity and all that. And I don't think he anticipated or anyone else anticipated.

He'd become that much of the story. Did he spit on people at the way-ins? What happened there? Brendan Schaub said last week that he did. He told me that he didn't. Was there an incident with fans? There was, you know, there probably wasn't enough security at the way-in. Okay.

You know, and there were some fans. There was, there was some sort of confrontation between him and, I think, one fan in particular. Okay. It wasn't physical. I don't know exactly what happened. I've heard both things. Okay. But, you know, not that it excuses it, but we should have had more security there, you know, anticipating.

We had security there. I think we had four security guards, and that wasn't nearly enough to protect, you know, was going on. Will you pursue Polly versus Connor now? It depends really on the demand. If it's something that can happen and the fans want it, sure.

He has said he wants it to happen, right? Has he talked to you about it? You know, Polly does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Polly does. I think you know, I'd be surprised that, you know, it happens in the near future. Look, I haven't had any conversations

with UFC or with Connor. Be real clear about that. I'd be surprised if he was going to take two boxing matches in a row. Right, right. That's, you know, I assume he's going to go back and fight some, you know, fight in the USC. Yeah. At least a couple times.

But if the demand is there, you know, sure. You know, then, then I think, you know, if, you know, if the fans, if the fans tell us that that's a sellable fight, then, sure. Do you believe that Floyd is done? I absolutely do. Okay. I got no question. I really think that anything other than this huge unprecedented opportunity would not have been enough to get him out of retirement.

And I think one of the challenges for Connor, and again, I don't know in personally, I'm just saying hypothetical, is once you've done an event this big, you know, then is it harder to get up for something that's less than a worldwide? Right. You know, it sounds like a little exaggeration, but it's a global, you know, cultural event. You know, this grew beyond just a sporting event. And is it more difficult to get up, to get motivated? I think that's where Floyd was after Pac-Yal fight. You know, he said, look, what do I have left? Now, that's at the end of a 19-year career at that point.

You know, Connor doesn't have 19 years, so maybe he's not going to have that feeling. But at a certain point, it's sort of like when you keep raising, the bar, you know, going back, you know, that's why the burdo fight, I mean, to probably a lot of people, you know, felt like a letdown, because it was. You just did the biggest event in all time. How do you close the show after that? I think, you know, the one of the great qualities of Floyd had, you know, he avoided the temptation of fighting to level their opponent. You know, that is something that I think, you know, most elite athletes deal with in some way or another. But you can go back through and look, you know, big fights, medium, fight, small fight.

There's not a Floyd Mayweather fight. Were you looking? You said, look, he fought down to level his competition, you know. And I think that will be, you know, that's sort of a risk. Once you do these big events, what do you follow it up with? How do you keep the motivation there? He is no ordinary athlete. he is celebrated, he is so rich, he's made so much money,

high's paid, et cetera, but he's also very polarizing and he has some skeletons in his closet. Did you have any issues in doing business with him? You know, look, there are some things that he's not proud of, and there are some things that we certainly don't condone. But I can only really judge him based on my interactions and how he comported himself after we came into the picture. And, you know, there's been, you know, he's done everything we asked him to. He's not done the things we asked him not to do.

He hasn't been perfect. But that's not our expectation. So, you know, the reality, he's been incredibly loyal. He's been one of the best self-marketers and promoters there is. And he carries his events. He never skips publicity. He does all those things which people don't really see as being part of the hard work. They feel like, okay, workout in the gym, then go home.

And that's not what it takes to make huge events. It's work out in the gym, go home, do three hours of calls. And that's what separates the superstars from the almost superstars. Is they're willing to do those kind of things? I wanted to ask you, same question I asked Owen. Is there a moment that sticks out part of this experience for you? Favorite moment? I ask you about just Mayweather McGregor in 10 years.

Is there one that you think will pop up first? You know, to some of Grant, I heard his answer, and I think the press tour was definitely memorable. For me, why I love combat sports, you know, the moment. It's the moment, if you ask me that question, virtually every event, I'd give you the same answer, and certainly on this event. it is, you know, the moment of time between the anthems and the first bell. And that's when, as someone involved in the business aspect, that's when everything has come together. And what you've been doing for the last 10 weeks, you know, is you see the embodiment of that. You can literally look around the arena, you feel the energy, you know, it's about to happen.

and you feel like, okay, this is what we've been working 10 weeks for. Because at a certain point, a lot of it feels intangible and far off. So you do marketing, you know, you come up with marketing plans, you do all these things. But that's when it hits home that it's actually happening. You can see the embodiment of all your team's hard work, you know, in the excitement that people have, in the arena, in the telecast, you know, that's, you, you asked them about, sort of, when do you sort of, you smell the flowers? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, that's one moment for me. It's that time, that's the moment I smell the flowers, you know, because to me, there's no moment like that in any other sport. You know, it's not, whether it's before kickoff or in the NBA overtime, there's, for me, there's nothing that matches that energy, that intensity, that anticipation, you know, right out of walkouts and before the final bell, that's why I love combat sports. I must say no one will really care about this. One of my favorite parts of covering this event was just sort of, you know, covering Elite

XC and covering Strike Force was a lot of fun because it's different. You know, the UFC, I'm fine with them, but it's, you know, same people all the time. Getting to reconnect with people like Chris de Blasio, PR, and some of your production staff and Matt Donovan, people like that, you know, these aren't household names to the average viewer, but it was fun to sort of get back into the showtime and do interviews with you and things of that nature. And I know that the team, and I wanted to end on this note, I know that the team had a heavy heart because you lost a member of the team, a valued member, maybe 30 years, Earl Fash. Earl Fash had been with us 35 years. 35 years.

He started in the mailroom straight out of college in 1982, which is four years before Showtime Sports even started. So he was creative director, which involved him in everything from features to promos to interstitials. virtually everything. He probably produced maybe 10,000 pieces of content. It's no exaggeration to say that he was a piece of, he was part

of every single showtime sports event that we'd ever done. Events shows he was there from the beginning until just a few weeks before the Mayweather-McGregor fight. So I'm very sorry for his passing. He had a chance to see him at a few Strike Force events. I mean, a hard guy to miss. Very tall individual, and I know he was such a big part of the team. And so I know that

the whole group was sort of feeling his loss very much. Yeah, definitely. I appreciate you recognizing that. And I'm sure a lot of, you know, a lot of people worked winning for 20 plus years within the company. You know, and I wish we'd had the opportunity to work more with you. No problem. I know we had plans to do that and certain things intervened.

But we'll, hopefully we'll get another opportunity. No problem. As I said, I don't know if I said it on the air, but I'll say now before I say goodbye, the way you handled that situation with the class and honesty that you did, compared to my former employers at Fox. I'm not trying to pit the two, but I've gone through this now twice in the span of a year.

And I never worked for you for a second. Just the respect that I have for you. You know, Dana could say what he wants. You know, you're the real deal. And you handled that with a lot of class. And it meant a lot to me. And I was, because of the way you handled it, I was able to just kind of walk away and say,

you know what? I'm just going to enjoy this and cover it, you know, like I would have beforehand and just sort of appreciate it. And it was, as I said on the show last week, it was the time my life. It really didn't. I wish I was a part of that, but I loved every second of it. And I'm kind of sad to see it go. I'm having a tough time saying goodbye to it because it was so much fun. But I think it's time to say goodbye to it. I think so. Steve and I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Really, really a lot of fun. Congratulations on the success of the event and

congrats on the pay-per-view numbers. Keep us posted if you do break that number. Absolutely. And hopefully we'll see you back in the MMA world. Don't be a stranger, right? I'm trying to get back. All right. There's Alex. He'll say goodbye to you. Thank you so much. Steven Espinoza for stopping by. Great to have him. He's such a busy man, but he came by the studio, and we appreciate that greatly. It is always fun to catch up with him

because he has such a great mind when it comes to all things, combat sports, and it's a world that I am obviously very interested in, whether it's MMA or boxing. So really cool stuff from Stephen Espinosa. I really appreciate him stopping by, and I congratulate him and the team on the great numbers.

So he said four and a half, looking like they're going to get close to breaking that 4.6, we shall see. That's our chat with Mr. Stephen Espinoza. Great stuff there. And really interesting to hear him say that once the UFC deals up, which is up in what, a year and change, there's interest. Could you imagine that? Could you imagine that? That's going to be the most interesting, that's going to be one of the most interesting stories to follow in the next month, excuse me, a year or so, where do they end up? What kind of deal do they get? How long is the deal? What are the numbers? Is it splintered? Really interesting stuff. All right. Thank you very much, Stephen Espinoza.

Thank you very much to his team. Thank you very much to Chris de Blasio for bringing him by. Still a lot more show to go. Still much more to discuss. At around 430, we're going to be joined by Derek Lewis. At around 410, we're going to be joined by Hafeld Dosajos, who is in Edmonton for UFC 215. And in a matter of moments, I do believe we are going to be joined by one Ben Asgren, who was victorious just a couple of days ago. He is back in the United States. And there's much to talk to the 17-0 Ben Ascran about. He successfully defended

his one championship title. his welterweight title in Shanghai. And now, like I said, he is back. But what an interesting time this is for Ben Asgram. Let's welcome him in and say hello to him via the magic of Skype. There he is. Funky himself, Ben Ascreen. Ben, how are you?

I'm doing good, Ariel. Actually, I was up early. It's morning like 3.30 because of the time changing. I just took a nap. But I set my alarm and I woke up in time for this. Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate you doing that. Are you struggling? How are you feeling? You're back from China. That's a big difference, right?

Yeah, yeah. It's a 13-hour difference. Man, when you take those naps in the middle of day, it feels like you just keep sleeping and sleeping. So I had to wake up and get a shower to make sure I was waking. Ready to give you my best performance. So in a way, we're kind of doing you a favor here by waking you up and getting you back on track and not going to sleep too early. By the way, your house looks great behind you. Wow, what a beautiful home that you have. Oh, yeah, my wife, it was a dump. My wife did a full rehab of this house, taking down walls and new electric, everything. Wow, congratulations. That's great. Well, congratulations also on the victory, 17 and 0.

But, you know, it's kind of a weird thing because it's almost like we've become, in a weird way, like, desensitized to Ben Ascran fights. Like, we just sort of expect dominance at this point and you continue to deliver. Is there like a, I mean, of course, you're going in there, you're fighting in a cage and things like that, but like, do you feel fulfilled by these performances? Like, do you feel like, okay, I'm getting it out of my system like I would any other kind of athletic endeavor? Yeah. Well, 100% Ariel, because the thing about it is, every single time you compete, no matter what, I don't care what it is, right? You want to perform the

best you can, and I feel like I'm doing that. I mean, I haven't got hit my last two fights, Ariel. I've executed my game plan too. Damn near perfection. And so, yeah, I'm very satisfied with my performances. Okay, so when you hear people complain afterwards, does that bother you? Like, say, like, these are too easy. Like, we want some drama. We want some tension. We want to see you in trouble.

Like, do you find it weird that people want to see that as opposed to just enjoy your dominance? No, that's an actual human emotion. You know, we all get sick of it when people win too much. And that's, you know, like, I would relate to me to. me when Penn State ran away with the NCAA team tournament this year in wrestling, that's a sport I love, it would have been more entertaining if it was down to the last match, the team race, right? For me as a fan, that would have been better. I would have enjoyed that more. And so when they put five in the finals and they're up by 40 points or whatever, it's kind of like not much

to get excited about. So obviously I understand as a fan, you want something competitive, you want something back and forth, you want something down to the wire. But as an athlete, you can only hope for dominance and you can train for dominance, and that's what you want. So I'm kind of bearing the lead here because yesterday, you know, you're still flying back home. You're enjoying the glow of this victory. But the CEO of one, Shatri Sitchotong, comes out on his Facebook page and says that you're going to return to action in November against Shiniayoki. And oh, by the way, this is going to be your retirement fight. Is that true? Are you in fact? retiring after this fight in November?

That is true. There is one caveat, and obviously he made a Facebook post, and so didn't have, you know, didn't want to explain it. The one and only one way I would ever come back for another fight is if it was for, you know, the number one spot in the world. Kind of not two, not three, not four, not five, none of those spots against the number one guy in the world. And then obviously the second part of that would be his name's not Tyrone Woodley,

because I have no interest in fighting Tyrant, a very good friend of mine. So if for some reason, his name, the number one person's name was not Tyrone Woodley, and I got offered of fighting this number one, I would come back to prove I was number one. But other than that, I'm retired. I don't need to come back and prove him two or three or four anywhere in there. I'll be done. You're 33, correct? Yes, 33.

Why now? Why are you done now? You're doing so well. You're not getting hit. Yeah. Well, really two reasons. And so when I was growing up, I read athletes' biographies religiously. I mean, every sport, golf, tennis, baseball, football, basketball, boxing, you name it. But, you know, probably combat sports more than anything, but pretty much across the board, I read them. And so there's two reasons. And the first reason is because nobody retires in time. I mean, if you think about who retires during their prime, The number of athletes that do that in any sport is very small. And obviously a sport like golf, when you see Tiger Woods fall off,

well, there's not really too much damage he can take from that, right? Although when you watch him and he sucks and you're like, God, he used to be so good, but you suck now. It's kind of, it's disconcerting as a fan, right?

But then you look at someone like Muhammad Ali, who was literally my favorite athlete of all time, the punishment he took from sticking around too long past his prime, and man, I would have to say we can't prove. I have to say we could guess it led to a lot of the problems he had later in his life. So we're in a combat sport. It is dangerous. And, you know, I am definitely not physically at the peak I was, say, four to five years ago.

And, you know, it's a slippery slope because can't I still compete with the best world? Yeah, of course I can. But you start getting a little worse and a little worse, a little worse. And so when is that cut off? And so, you know, for me, I set something for myself. I said, you know, this is going to be it for me. And I said it a while back. And I'm going to stick by it because I need to be disciplined in that manner.

And I think, you know, a lot of athletes don't do that for themselves. And then the number two reason will be if you're competing right, if you're doing it right, competition should be a very selfish pursuit. And, you know, when I was younger, again, really these athletes, I always said I would be done by the time I was 30 because I was. wanted to be able to give back. I thought I would be coaching, and I am, and I thought I would be a parent, and I am. And, you know, there's a lot of things that I have to do. For example, I didn't coach anyone for about the last six weeks before my fight at AWA because this is my time. I need

to get ready. And, you know, there's things I miss out in my kids' life because this is my time I have to get ready. So I guess for those are the two main reasons that I kind of set an expiration date for myself. So the plan was always around 33 and your mind? Like when did you decide, okay, November 2017, I'm done? Yeah. So, well, the plan when I was younger, you know, it was 30. I always said 30. That was the number I picked. You know, that's, that's a good number. Honestly, Emma made people kind of got confused about how long people should last because so many people are using PEDs and obviously that extends

our male athletes peaks past a male athlete's peak I believe should be somewhere between 26 and 30 if we use those PEDs we can extend it significantly and that was what MMA fans got used to but being a guy who does not use any of that stuff like I said I'm not the same guy I was at 28

physically now technically I've gotten better because I haven't been doing this the MMA thing that long but physically, I have definitely gotten worse and past my peak. And so when I resigned my contract with one championship two years ago, I told them straight up I'm done. At the end of 2017, I'm done. I kind of initially, like I said, I thought it was going to be 30, 33.

That's it. And this is an interesting one because in one, the complaints from the fans have been like we want to see you fight big names and things like that. Chiniyoki is a big name. Typically doesn't fight at 170. How did this come about? The man, they offered it to me. You know, in the post-fight press conference,

I said there's no clear one that makes sense at 170. I was really, you know, two fights ago, I thought it was going to be really, really nice set up for me because Louis Santos would win. That was the one guy who had the no contest against. He's an idiot. Well, I thought he would win in May. I would fight him.

and then Vitale Big Dash, who was the champ of the weight above me, wanted to fight me. I would go fight him. I'd win those two fights that'd be done, right? Right. And both these dummies lost. So then it was kind of like, well, I'll fight the guy that beats Santos. That makes sense, right? But then after that, it's like, well, who do I fight?

Because now the guy who's the champ at won the weight above me on Long Song, him and Big Dash are one and one. I believe they're going to do a rubber match. I'm not sure on that. But that was what would make sense. so I didn't really have a dance partner. So after my fight, I said, I don't really care. I'll fight anyone up, away, down, and away.

It doesn't matter to me. And they called me the next day and he said, how about Aoki? Yeah, and to your point, he is a big name. He has achieved a lot in this sport. He's been fighting forever. He seems like he's old, but he's only one year older than me. He's only 34. I'm 33.

Even though he's been fighting for, I want to say, 13 years or 14 years. I remember watching him when I was still wrestling in college, winning big fights. So yeah, so they offered to me, I said, yeah, of course. And that was it. And why didn't you retire? Like if you're so kind of, you know, ready to move on, why wasn't this past fight your last fight?

Like I said, I said when I sat resigned two years ago, I said end of 2017. Okay. So you got one more end. That was what I stuck to. So, you know, I was hoping to be busy this year because I hadn't been as busy recently. They gave me three fights and that was it.

And in 2017, I'm done and I'm done. And you're going to be done. This is not one of those retirements where you come back at 36, George St. Pierre, I'm ready to come back. I missed it. You think you'll never fight again? Unless you get, let's say you don't get that opportunity. If it's not that big number one fight, you really think you'll never come back. I don't think I'll ever come back.

I've been pretty disciplined at what, you know, when I say something, I generally stick to it no matter what it is in life. You know, I would like to compete in some form, just to, just because I enjoy competing, number one. But number two, to stay in shape. Maybe, you know, a couple grappling competitions a year, maybe a couple wrestling matches here. There's something like that because I know I'll miss competing, but something where I'm not trying to necessarily feel like I have to be the best in the world at it, right? Something where I don't have to be totally selfish where I can just say, oh, hey, I want to go wrestling. You know, one of the things, I want to wrestle Midlands. I don't know if it's going to work out this year now because Midlands is a really big wrestling tournament

that's open to college and above because I haven't this fight November 24th, and I'm in the kid December 10th. But that's a tournament I would like to do. And again, you know, I wouldn't prepare it seriously for it. I would just, you know, work out a couple times. We can go do it for fun. Right, right, right. By the way, which number child is this going to be for you?

Number two? Number three. Wow. Man, you guys are pumping them out. Yeah. Yeah, I think this will probably be it. We may adopt after this, but this being of kids are our own kids. But yeah, it's fun, man, being a dad is a blast.

Yeah, it is. And your two oldest kids, how old are they? Your current kids, I should say. I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old girl. Oh, okay. So we're kind of on the same wavelength. I have a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a ten-month-old. Yep.

So there you go. Oh, yeah, almost exactly. We have a lot more in common than you think, Ben Ascran. Of course we do. And so when you look back on it all, any regrets? Are you content with your career? Yeah, you know, I'm perfectly content. And obviously, some people try to, you know, I've never even told the full story of my

MMA career. At some point, I will tell the full story. Not today? Not today? Not today. Not today. I will tell it at some point. I'm not sure what.

But listen, I told someone this yesterday, Ariel, and this is something I think. be totally proud of. I hope I don't F this up while I'm telling it live. I have, I've never turned down a fight. I've never pulled out of a fight. I've never missed weight. I have never failed a drug test and I've never lost. And I don't know that anyone else can say that ever. I've never turned down a fight. I've never pulled out of a fight. Never missed weight. Never used a PED. Never lost. Wow. That is that that is quite the, uh, it's not a trifecta because it's five things, the quintetecta, I don't know what it's called, but that is a major feather in your cap.

So, you know, obviously I didn't get the, I wasn't granted the opportunity to fight the best guys in the world. Yeah. You know, Lehm and Kreschkoff, they're pretty freaking good, and I still don't think they do, they get their due for how good they really are. I mean, I think it's, people are so resistant if you don't have UFC behind your name to give you the credit you deserve. So I wasn't afforded the opportunity to fight some of the best guys in the world.

and that was not something that was on my end by any sense of the imagination. And so, yeah, I am definitely satisfied. And I don't really think there's anything I could have done differently or would have done differently. I actually feel like Lima and Koreshkov in particular are held in higher regard today than they were. Like, those wins are aging well for you, that they're looking better over time, that people are now starting to say, wow, these guys are really good. And what did Ben do to those guys? Do you get what I'm saying? Do you feel that way as well?

Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. You know, but people always say, well, they were younger when you beat them up. Both those guys had way more fights than me when I fought them. Right. I mean, you know, I think I was 9 and 0 when I fought Lima, and I want to say he was like 21 and 4 or something to that effect. You know, well, they may have been younger than me.

They were more experienced fighting-wise than me. They had more time in the cage. But yeah, those guys, and I knew they were both really good when I fought them, because I train with everybody. You know, I've trained with damn near every top wealth to wait in the last 10 years, you know, minus a few. I've trained with every single one of them in the practice room. And so when I fought those guys, even though I beat them very decisively, I knew exactly how good they were.

And I figured, given the opportunity to showcase that they would. And now both them have, you know, Kreschkoff had the dominant win over Van Hennerson and Lima had a dominant win over Lorenz Larkin. So, yeah, those guys, I knew they were good at the time. I beat them and now they're looking better and better. The only reason they're looking better is because they're getting the opportunity to do so because certain guys have now signed with Bellator. Do you ever daydream about, oh, you know, and I know one treated you very well and you had a fine run there, but if Coker would have came on board earlier and I would have stayed

in Bellator how life would be differently for me, do you ever think about that? No, no, definitely not. I mean, you know, the thing about Bellator was I beat, I beat everyone they had. There was no one left to beat. And there still isn't. I've been gone for, what we had? Three years now? No.

It was roughly four years since that had my last fight in Bellator. And the guys I beat are still the champion. They've only had two champions since I left, and they've both been guys that beat. But like Rory, that would be a big fight, right? Rory, yeah, Rory would be a big fight. I am curious to see how him versus Lima plays out. They said they were going to do that, but then they haven't actually announced it. Yeah, correct.

Yeah, I think that's an interesting fight. You know, I think obviously a lot of people would lean towards Rory, but, you know, the one thing about Lima is he freaking hits and kicks so hard, and if Rory's gun-shy at all from some of those battles he's been in, he might have a tough night against Lama. If Roy comes out and is precise and as active as he has been

in some fights, I think he wins. But if he's not, I think Lima wins for sure. I get why, like fans and media to a degree, we're very selfish. Like, we just want to sit back and see two people go rock them sock them in a cage, you know, brain cells be damned, you know, playing with your grandkids, be damned. We just want to see the best fights on that Saturday night and sit back and enjoy it all. And this may piss some people off, but I feel like you put out the blueprint how to really

be a prize fighter. Go to the place where you're the best, get paid the most, you know, take the least amount of damage, and then get out scot-free. I mean, isn't that the whole point of this whole thing? Don't get hit. Don't get hurt. You know, get paid. Who cares about the competition?

Who cares about the names? If you could get paid the same amount to fight lesser talent, why not take that opportunity? Is that unfair to say? Yeah, I mean, no, I see where you're getting at it. And I agree with you. You know, the thing about it is, is you're a fighter. And so you should just just. be willing to step in the cage and fight anyone.

Like I said, I've never turned down a fight, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, I didn't get the opportunity to fight certain guys. That wasn't on me. I promise you, that was not on me. And so what I've liked you, sure, but, you know, some guys will, and I've talked to a handful of people, and once guys get older, they realize the mistake in this. And, like, you know, I talked to a lot when I was at Bellator and Madison Square Garden, and much of the older fighters come to me.

He said, wow, you really made a great move with what you did with your career. But younger guys, I've seen them take huge pay cuts just to go fight in the UFC. Like pay cut. You know, they're making less. They got offered one thing here and they get offered another thing here.

And the number two offers simply less, but just because they have this ego thing that I want to fight in the UFC, they take that lower offer and that's just as stupid as it gets. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, what does that do for you when you're 50, right? I mean, the point is to make

the most amount of money. Dana White ain't going to take care of you the second after you can't make him a whole bunch of money. The second you're done making Dana White a whole bunch of money, he'll throw your ass under the bus so quick. I mean, good Lord. How many times have we seen it happen, Ariel? It happens over and over and over.

The dude's got no morals. Somewhere deep down in the corner, there's not a tiny, tiny part of you just as a sportsman who says, ah, would have been. kind of cool just to be in the octagon once to fight the champion of the UFC to fight for the UFC belt there's no i mean you're content you're happy you're walking away you're healthy you made money but is there a part of you somewhere you can concede that is saying that that would have been cool um yeah you know it would have been cool the other thing i think that um you know as we talked about talk about two things earlier with my retirement number one competing is selfish

number two everybody hangs on too long regardless of the sport yeah not everybody there's been a few tired on time. Marchon Lynch just did. Barry Sanders just did. There's been a couple. Marshawn came back. Marciaan came back. He's back. Oh, gosh, Marchon. I don't follow football. Yeah, he's back. Oh, Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders did not come back. Go, Barry.

Yeah. Oh, shoot. You made me lose my train of thought. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What were you? What were we talking about? Oh, oh, small part of you. I think philosophically, another thing that happens is you know, young guys kind of have this chip on their shoulder, I want to prove something, right? I got to prove how tough I am. I got to prove how good I am.

Right. And man, now as I'm getting older, I think it's almost sad when guys, my age and older, still have that chip on their shoulder. It's like almost embarrassing. It's like, hey, I've done what I could do. I've accomplished a lot. And now, you know, especially, you know, like with wrestling, if this next generation wants to pass me up, great job. Good for them. Like, we just had the 2017 U.S. freestyle world team win the world team win the world championship for a country and seeing all those guys have success you know kind of passing what I did um man I was I was so proud of them and so like I don't feel like I have that chip on my shoulder anymore um and I haven't had it for a while the chip in my shoulder I got to prove myself I got to show people how tough I am where I might have had that

when I was a younger guy I almost see that as a detriment if I still have that at 33 um to my life. Interesting. Well done, Ben. Congratulations on the win this past week. Good luck. November 24th in Singapore. Ben Ascran versus Shinya Yoki. What a fight. That's awesome. And also Angela Lee against May Yamaguchi number two. That's a huge fight for one as well. Looking forward to it. Congratulations on the career up until this point. Good luck in the retirement fight. Great to catch up with you. And I appreciate you doing so after the long trip back home, Ben. Yes, sir. All right. Thanks, thank you. I have a good day. Same to you. There he is. Funky Ben Ascran, retiring on November 24th. One more fight left, 33 years young, still undefeated, 17-0 and 1-0 contest. Interesting stuff. No one saw it coming. But here we go. He is retiring, as he said, on November 24th, unless he gets that big number one fight, if you will, against the UFC welterweight champion. Most would consider that person to be number one in the world. Now, speaking of someone going for that UFC Walterway Championship, his name is Hofeld.

Sanjos. He was once the UFC lightweight champion. He returns to action on Saturday in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada against Neil Magny, one of the big fights this weekend at UFC 215. He is kind enough to join us on the phone for a few minutes from Edmonton. He's there already. Hafel, are you there?

Hello, yeah, I'm in here, man. Just got here yesterday night. How is it? Yeah, it's cool, ma'am. Just got a chance to walk around the downtown today. It's fun. It's cool. It's warm. Nice weather. Is there a buzz in Edmonton? This is the first time the UFC goes to Edmonton.

It's a little early in the week, but do you feel a buzz for the first UFC fan there? No, no, it's cool. I mean, you know, like I fought. It's my seventh time in Canada. And I fought in Montreal a couple years ago. And now, yeah, yeah, I mean, it's more done. How much better is Fight Week for you? How much more enjoyable is it now that you're fighting a once? You did it once successfully back in June.

You looked very good. Now that you don't have to cut those extra 15 pounds, how much different is it for you? Yeah, man, we're dead. I'm not only a five week, but, you know, my whole camp, everything changed, the energy around, you know, like I'm able to push harder on the training.

And, you know, my life got better 100%. You know, I get to enjoy more. training, I get hurt less. I don't get hurt as often like I was getting a 155 and I'm able to push hard on training. Everything changed. It's a new

start for me. So who is your corner for this fight? So I have Eduardo Complona, which is my multi-guy, my multi-coach. He was the first guy that once I moved to California That was my first multi-coach here, but he left to Brazil, but now he's back again.

And Philippe della Monica is my jiu-jitsu coach. So only two people in your corner? Only two, yeah. Oh, interesting. I saw that you were training with Jason Perillo. Yeah, I trained with Jason. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we redo the whole fight camp at Ruka.

but I think like for me bring Jason for my next fight will be better because he couldn't make it

so we couldn't figure out things but for sure next next fight he will be on my corner and so do you feel like you have sort of found your home now because you left Kings and you were sort of looking

for the best place for you do you feel like you have found a stable team now is it I don't even know if it is a team It's just kind of team RDA, right? Yeah, man, I've been doing, you know, I have people around me, good people around me, you know, helping me to reach my goals. I'm a blessed guy to have Eduardo Pablona, I have Philippe de la Monica, and, you know, to have Jason Barillo, have Nick Carson.

I put a good thing together, you know, have good guys behind me, and, you know, helping me. We got some tall guys. I've been going to Blackouts. couple times too. We brought some guys from Black House over to Honish County to help me sport and I have Tarantula, it's a tall black guy too, he's fighting in Belator and helping a lot at Ruka Sports too. So I put on a great team behind me and, you know, but it's a team RDA, you know, I am the one that's step on the cage and I've been trained with Philippe Pella

I'm from Gracie Baja. And, you know, I've been training a lot of teams. So the team is RDA. So I am the one that step on occasion. I am the one that fight. Do you like that better as opposed to being a part of a team? Do you feel like that that makes more sense that the sport should kind of evolve where it's a guy who builds a team around him

as opposed to being one of many in a gym? Yeah, yeah. I think we got to reinvent ourselves. You know, I lost my title. I passed through a lot last couple, you know, months, a couple of years. But, you know, I feel that I'm putting things together right now. And everything's been working. You know, God's been blessed me.

You know, I'm making my way to the top again. A piece of news came out over the weekend. Sean Shelby said in a promotional video, the matchmaker for the UFC, one of the two matchmakers, that you were going to get the next title shot at 1.7. if Damian Maya didn't accept the fight against Tyron Woodley. Is that accurate? Were you offered that?

Yeah, a week after my fight. A week or 10 days, I remember she called me. And he asked me, hey, Daniel, it's about to, you know, we're not sure if Denver will take the fight. We're going to know in about a couple days. And who do take the fight? Like for our backup plan, I say, of course. You know, like that was, I just had a fight in Singapore, I had no injuries,

and of course you have an opportunity to fight for the title, and I accepted. And, you know, but like a couple of days later, Baya took the fight, but I kept training, I kept my camp because we never know if, you know, like, I got hurt before and, you know, and I don't know what could happen, and I kept training, but the fight happened, but I got offered that fight and I took it. Were you disappointed when you didn't actually get the fight when it didn't come to fruition?

No, no, man. I think like everything, you know, I'm happy that Maya made it, you know, like he did his job, but I think my time will come on the right time. But that was a good thing that I know that I'm, you know, I'm really close. I'm closer that I thought.

Yeah. On that title. So my focus right now is Neil Magny, but I think I'll get a good, you know, a strong win over him this weekend. And I think I can be a threat for title hood. You know, I know I can be a threat and I will want to think and be sure. We're going to fight five rounds. You know, I'm going to come forward and I'll be aggressive.

And so, you know, now that you were offered the fight and it didn't come to fruition, were you told, okay, get by Neil Magny? You'll be next in line for the title shot because looking at 170, there is no real clear-cut number one contender at this time. No, I wasn't told that, but I assume that. You know, like, like I said, there's no clear, you know, name for the next title shot. Woodley supposed to fight GSP, but, you know, then I wasn't happy with the result of the fight.

And so I think, like, if I have a good win this week, I think it could be the next. What did you think of the fight, the Woodley fight against Damien Maya? Do you feel like it was not an exciting fight? Do you blame Tyrone Woodley for this? Do you blame Damian Maya? What did you feel watching that fight? Yeah.

Yeah, man, it was a really technical fight, you know, like Woodley. Man, the guy, I have a respect for him. He's the, man, he's defend the final three times in one year. That's a lot for the champion. you know, to be defending the title. And, but, you know, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he wasn't took many risks. And I felt Damien had a short, short camp. He couldn't, he wasn't feeling that confident to push hard, you know, to push the pace of the fight. I think, that's

what I felt watching the fight. He wasn't with that confidence. And Woodley, uh, doesn't want to taking a risk, you know. He doesn't want to get taken down. And he played his game and he won the fight. But the fans didn't like the fight. And you feel if you fight him, you could bring out an exciting fight that, you know,

these complaints would go away if you were matched up against him? Yeah, man, I have over 25 chips. He never got booed in my life. And one thing can be sure, I would walk forward. We're going to make it a fight. Right. So I'm not going to

let him walking around, playing around, you know, playing a, you know, a strategic game. I will be the aggressor. We're going to fight, you know. I'm going to knock him out or he's going to knock me out. We're going to, we're going to brought. Were you surprised when they offered you Neil Magni after just offering you a title shot? Did you think that you would get maybe someone who's a little higher ranked? Yeah, like, I was, you know, Neil Magny, he's like number five or six right now.

and I think Masvidal was about to fight Steve Thompson and you know like Ceyroni just fought blower there wasn't like anybody else than Leo Magny for me on the on higher rank so then I was ready I you know I think it's a good match up for me I fight well against all guys and so man that was you know good time that was a perfect time and just curious three days before the weigh-ins how much do you weigh right now so I just got here when I got here last night

and I checked my weight I'm 184 so 13 pounds over easy wow 184 how fell do Sanjos and that's easy for you that's easy yeah but you know that's easy man for 13 pounds. You work with a nutritionist? No, I've been around for so long.

I've been working with a lot of different guys. And today I do my own thing. I learned over the years. You know, I get a little bit of each person, you know, which guy that work with me, and I do my own thing. Okay. And by the way, I have to ask,

after the Connor McGregor fight against Floyd Mayweather, you tweeted this, you said, Connor is a first round fighter, no cardio, no heart, you still owe me a fight. And then hashtag chicken heart and then another hashtag foxo. What does that mean, focso?

Fuxo. Frosho. Frosho. Like, Frosho. It's a Portuguese. What does that mean? In English. He means, no harm, man.

The guy, you know, like, he can, he has skills. Don't get me wrong. Conor, my guy has skills. He has done, Like what, you know, maybe nobody else would do in the M.A. You know, fighting Floyd, Beweger.

But he's the thing. Man, he's a fast starter. You know, people like, I'm not, people like talk a lot of crap on me on Twitter because of that. But, man, I'm being, I can, I'm not going to please corner to, you know, to be so everybody else can, can agree with me. I, I just think, like, I wasn't happy because he lost, you know, that, because, you know, because, I don't think that way because I am the one that step on the octagon. If I being happy about somebody else's loss, that thing will happen with me, too.

You know, it's a thing called karma. I don't, you know, I don't play that game. It's not who I am. And, man, he's a fast starter. He starts so hard and flies using his technique, his experience. And he got tired, man. He could do way better, you know, but he got tired. Anything impressed you out of the fight, or were you not impressed at all with the performance in the fight?

No, man, like, I thought it would be faster, you know, but I knew Floyd would use his, you know, like his, the strategy, his experience. I thought that the fight would be faster. But, man, Floyd, like he said, hasn't scored for the last month. You know, he's coming out of retirement. He's looking, even Conan said on the way, he's. He's looking at worst shape I ever saw him. And I agree, too. You know, Floyd wasn't his, like, worst shape.

His timing wasn't, you know, he's a 40-year-old man, you know. But he has so much experience. And I thought a fight would be quicker, you know. But like last 10 around, you know. And so you even said if you're not running away, you know, we have unfinished business, you got lucky that I got hurt, et cetera. That would suggest that you still kind of think about it.

You still want this. Obviously, it's a big deal, but you still think about this opportunity that you almost had a year ago, right? I mean, this is still something that's on your mind. Yeah, man, something, you know, I think about the business, you know, but I also have a kind of old school,

I tell you. I take everything. Like, when we're talking about five, to step on the altar, going to take personal. You know, this guy, he, you know, he didn't respect me, didn't respect my family. I think that they, I believe I could put my hands on this guy one day and make that fight happen, you know.

And I feel that we have unfinished business. I don't believe he's going to fight for the, for the friend he's title anytime soon because it's not, you know, things that he like to do. He's going to try to do different things, you know, for sure he's going to try to ideas or somewhere else. And, you know, he's not going to fight Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee for the fight for the title. That's for sure. But, you know, I'm here, man.

If, you know, I believe we haven't finished business. You know, the fight, I was the champ at that time. And, man, I got hurt. You know, I got hurt. I broke my foot. You know, I think that fight is something for the future that I'm still thinking. You ever sit back and think how different the MMA world would be

If you actually fought him So much would like Nate Diaz's life Would be completely different UFC would be different Who knows if Connor gets to the Mayweather fight So much changed as a result of that injury Do you ever think about that? Yeah man

I believe God better make everything The way he wants We don't understand But on the end of the day We're going to look back And see You know He's thought

He thinks, the way he thinks is way different than our way to think. You know, he's thinking ahead. We, you know, and he did his way, but we're going to see on the future when we look back. But that's for sure. A lot of things would change. And, you know, a lot of things will change. A lot of things would be different. Last thing for you, Hafeil, and again, thank you very much for the time.

You know, in the main event on Saturday, Demetrius Johnson is trying to beat the record set by Anderson Silva for most successful title defenses in the UFC. You were once a UFC lightweight champion. I know that you're hoping to get the belt again in the 170 pound division. And DJ's career is interesting because he may not have fought the biggest names

or the toughest competitors if you compare them to other divisions, but winning 10 title fights is impressive regardless. How do you feel someone who was champion and dealt with that pressure and knows what it's like, the headline events, and defend the title? How do you feel about,

what DJ is very close to doing on Saturday night. Man, you know, like, it's going to break all records, you know, going to be like just like Anderson Silva. It's amazing, man. It's so hard to be champion, but even harder to defend the belt. And when I see guys like Anderson, like DJ, it's amazing, man. These guys, you know, it's crazy. Defend the title 10 times, 8, 9 times.

It's crazy now. So it's so hard to beat the champion. You know, like to defend the title is even harder. You've got to deal with a lot of pressure. But that's good for him, man. He's a great champion. And I believe he's going to remain his, you know, his reign. Thank you, Afel.

All the best to you out there in Edmonton. hope to see you over there. Appreciate you squeezing us in. And of course, good luck in the fight and good luck with the last few pounds that you have to cut before Friday's weigh in. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Take care. Always a pleasure. There he is. The former UFC lightweight champion, Hafeld dosangos, returning to action on Saturday, UFC 215 against Neil Magny, one of the big fights on that card.

We'll talk a little bit more about it in a few minutes. Before we wrap up the interview portion of the show, wanted to talk to Derek Lewis once again. We had him on a couple of weeks ago to talk about the Fabrice Over Doom Fight at UFC 216. We had him on very briefly last week to talk about some of the early work that he was doing in the midst of Hurricane Harvey. But now that Hurricane Harvey has passed, however, the relief efforts still very much ongoing.

There's still a ton of work to be done in the Houston area and the surrounding areas. I wanted to talk to Derek Lewis about the work that he did last week and how much he helped his fellow neighbors because it was truly inspiring to see via social media some of the things that he was doing. So he's kind enough to join us. I know he's still very busy, but wanted to just check in with him quickly, and he is on the phone right now. Derek, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Good to talk to you again.

I appreciate you squeezing us in. I know you've been very busy. You've been doing some media there in Houston, right? Local news and things like that? Yes, I'm leaving a studio right now. Oh, okay. Yeah, so how would you describe the last? Since we last spoke, the last seven days for you, it's been, you know, it's been kind of surreal to watch your Twitter and to see what you've been doing for people.

But from your perspective, how would you describe the last seven days in your life? I guess you can say I've been more like Captain Savo in most ways. But, no, it's been pretty good. You know, I'm just happy that I bring the line to a lot of folks that's out here that need things, you know. in a time like this and most of the apartments I'm going to is low-income apartments

and and their apartments being affected more than any other town in the city or any other place in the city and so I'm really just been helping them

helping them out when did you start when did you start helping people on Monday I don't even know I don't even know what for three years. I can't imagine. Do you recall what prompted you to just, you know, get out of your house?

Because your house was not affected, correct? Yes, it wasn't. Why did you go out and say, I need, like, what inspired you to go outside and actually go in, I mean, this is very thick, thick water? I mean, it's deep, it's not shallow at all. There's trees down, all this stuff. It's pouring rain. What inspired you to do this?

Why did you get up and finally say, you know what, I have to go help people? Because I always been a type of guy, a family type of guy. So, you know, I don't want to just be sitting in the house being lazy, not doing anything. And people out there losing their lives. And I just wanted to go out and help anyone that I can, you know. And so when you went out there, was it worse than you expected? Like, were you kind of shocked by how bad it was? Yeah, it was worse than I expected

I didn't expect for it to be on having any currency and stuff like that I was just expect for the water just to be like still water just rising but I didn't expect for it to be probably moving like 10 miles for hour Wow Anything like that

Have you been out helping people every day? Yes, we're helping and just Going to knock on do with giving water for whatever kind of supplies that they need most of them lost a vehicle and they can't go to work and then like that and go to the grocery store. And where do you start? Like, how do you know where to go and just start helping people? Like, where do you drive to?

How do you pick a spot? You know, a lot of people have been contacting me on Facebook and let me know areas that have been impacted hardest the most. And so me and my friends and come from my celebrity friends we go to the area. Wow. You know, yeah. Could you tell us, like,

was there one scene that just completely, like what was the worst scene that you saw that completely shocked you that you were able to help someone walking into it seeing something? Was there anything just that completely, you know, was in not the best way, breathtaking to see the destruction and what had happened? Oh, it was just this one

um A other couple The guy had ant bites on over him He had ants literally all over him And you could tell him The answer was biting him And he didn't bother

Like Try to knock him off or anything And he just standing there In the water just shaking Wow And we're trying to talk to him And tell him To come to us a little bit

And he didn't want to move Or anything He didn't want to say anything You're just in shock he's probably about like 70 years old and what happened then I wanted to pick him up and knock an ass off him and stuff like that and putting him in my truck

and where'd you take him um it was a shelter not too far from what he was at okay do you know how he's doing now no I know I let everyone know what was the situation and stuff like that okay and that was it and currently

like how would you describe the way Houston looks right now how like what is what is the scene like we've seen the destruction we've seen the flooding what's it like now um

you just to see it's just dust their work sand dirt dirt and all in the streets named by the clean the street shed you know the grass is still high

and most places um the water line a couple of people building the house and stuff. But they say it might take a whole year before we get back on our feet. Are you content? As someone who's been out,

do you feel like the proper help has been provided, whether it's relief, whether it's helping people, whether it's cleanup, do you feel like this has been handled well by the government, by the city,

by the United States of America? Yeah, I believe so. You know, I believe so. I wouldn't say so much as Red Cross, but everyone else, I believe, they're really helping. Why not Red Cross? Because Red Cross ain't given nobody that money.

You know, they've been lying to everybody for years, and people still tend to believe that, you know, they donate to Ray Cross. Red Cross going on and get your ass $100,000 out of a million that you give. Right. I'm going to pocket it. You know that for a fact? Yeah, I know that's a fact.

You know, it was on the news a few weeks ago about the Haiti situation. You know, they say they built 100 and some thousand houses, but whenever they got audited it and they went back in the paperwork, they only built six houses in Haiti. One of the positive things to come out of this has been people like you, people of influence, who have gone out. of their way to help people. J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans, another example of that.

He just tweeted 12 minutes ago that he has now been able to collect over $20 million in donations from his U-Carrying.com fund that he started. A week ago, the goal was $200,000. It's now reached $20 million. Have you been able to, I know he's been out and about, have you seen him? I mean, what he's, I'm a JJ Watt fan for life after all of this. What he's done in his Twitter posts have been great. Have you come across him at all?

Not yet. Not yet. Hopefully I meet him probably today. Oh, really? We're going around a little bit too. Okay, you're planning, you know where he's going to be, or you have a set plan to meet him? No, I'm being in the area where the stadium is at.

Okay. About that training right now. What are you doing later today? I'm going to, there's a most like a food bank and pick up some food. out and knock on a few people doors and give it to them. Wow. I had read a story also that there was a man who had a Confederate flag who wanted to get it

while you were trying to save him. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's accurate. What happened? No, the water was real out. Four or five feet of water that way. Just driving along the road to see if, on my windows, I'm just to see if I had anybody. scream for help or what.

And there's a lady that she waved me down and saying that her and her husband been trapped for a few hours. We've been trying to meet our rest of our other family. And I said, okay, just go ahead and get in. Just hurry up and get in. And so the guy came out. He didn't know I already had roared my window up

at this time. He didn't know I was a black dude or what. then he's saying whenever he finally got in my truck you say oh I apologize I don't want to get in my getting your truck with my flag

you know what I said man I don't care about that flag he said he'll hop in the back the back of the truck I said I don't care I don't care what you do I'm not worried about this flag I'm just trying to help you off

and you just say I appreciate it his wife was hitting him and saying that you should have left it I don't know why he took you Wow It ain't nothing. I don't care about that. I live in a solid.

If I get something like that bothers me, then I don't need to be living down here. Right. That's in the norm out here in Texas. So when you saw the flag, you didn't think twice. You weren't offended. You didn't say, ah, I regret this. I don't care. This is just a flag.

Right. It's just the same thing with people getting offended by some damn statutes. I don't care about no damn statutes. It's like, point to this statue in Timmore. where the statue hurt you at. Some bullshit like that. That's satchel and there

nothing to me. I don't care about it. Maybe what represents? They represent. I don't, they don't mean anything. You can still do whatever you want.

Who cares? There's a statute. You know? As long as nobody knows it's a home new or hurts and stuff and that like that, it is something you'll bother me.

There's people, no matter what you do anyway, people still go to hate you. Right. still going to be hate out there but you you had

you had African Buddhist catch on or one who's uh Francis yeah that's right your guy yeah

your guy he wants a title shot he's saying forget about all the contenders I want a title shot he ain't get no damn title shot

he just for one dude um Barlowski yeah he just for him and he just lost him another guy that ain't even in the top two.

It's his birthday today. You know that? Birthday. Francis. Who birthday? Francis? Forget that guy. Forget him in his birthday.

Were you invited to Ronda's wedding? No, I plan on going, but they cancel a flight. Because of the damn hurricane. Oh. You actually bought a lot of, a plane ticket. You were invited. You were planning on going. I brought a cheap plane ticket from spirit. Yeah, they reimburse me, though.

That's cool. That's cool. Okay. You were planning, okay. That would have been nice. You in the pictures, you know, hanging with the family, some cocktails. Yeah. I had my mask and everything. What mask? I had a costume made with my King Cole

and Coney Ronald Rousey. Saving her from Travis Brown? Yeah I feel you I don't know She'll come back Whatever he put his hands on her few times She'll be

She'll hit me out Okay In a month You are scheduled to fight at UFC 216 I presume you haven't been doing A lot of training this week You've been doing way more important things Helping people

Are you still planning on fighting on October 7th Yeah for sure You know I'm feeling good right now And I'm still getting My cardio going in and my training or whatnot. Okay. You know, even though, you know, what I was doing is way more important.

But, yeah, I'm still taking this fight serious. I'm still training. You know, right now, I'm in better shape than I was my last fight. Because of all the labor work that you've been doing. Yeah. Wow. Sure. You know, and going into this fight that I know I just can't have sex and thinking

now I'm going to be in fight shape. So I'm doing more than just having sex. What are you talking about? That's usually your cardio preparation? Yeah, my cardio preparation, having sex and the stairmaster. You know, I haven't been doing, I haven't did Starmaster my last fight. I just had a lot of sex and hit the past, the midst a little bit. That's about it.

Okay. So now, but now no time for that because you're out and about. No, I'm still doing it I'm just doing everything a lot more. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm tender-headed right now. Okay. You're right, right, right, right, right.

Okay. Oh, man, it's not the same. I must say, like, when I don't, we don't get to see you on Skype, shirtless, and things like that. It's not quite the same, but it's almost just as good. And you'll be going into this, obviously, representing Houston, you know, You know, you're such a proud resident of Houston. Has the UFC reached out to you and seen what you've done and said that they want to help you

and help with the efforts as well? What can you tell us about that? Come on the UFC. Like, where are you going to get their 10,000 from? What are we trying to figure out? You know, we don't pay you that much. No, I'm bullish. Now, the USC, they've been trying to help me, you know, help push the costs.

You know, they've been around. You know, we're doing good job. I appreciate them. Any calls from the brass? Dana White, Ari Emanuel, anyone calling, congratulating you on what you've been doing, saying, well done, way to represent? A couple of people did.

But Dana White, you know, I think he still cried somewhere with that kind of a gruel fight. What do you mean? We know, we're not going to go into that. Sure, sure. No, he didn't call on anything. Well, he made a lot of money that fight,

so I don't know if he's crying. Oh, he did? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The USC did make a lot of money. I know he was going from McGregor. I was too, you know, it was a good fight. I thought McGregor had, he was winning the fight. First three rounds.

I believe he was winning just about more than that, though. Wow. Yeah, I saw you tweeted. He was up on a scorecard. You said Connor did good. You were happy with him. Yeah. Yeah, I was.

Made me proud. He represented. Yeah. He fought like a boxer, you know. He didn't fight like him and a firefighter. Right. He looked just like a boxer. punches straight and all that.

The movement was crisp. It looked good. Wow. A lot of people come up to you and recognize you while you're helping out. They say, wow, are you Derek Lewis? Do you get that a lot? Yeah. Yeah, I did.

You know, a couple of people seen me on the news, and they already know my truck, though. So I'm having to paint it. When do you think life will go back to normal for you? I got a crazy life anyway. I haven't had a normal. last in eight years. But I mean, just...

I'm not worrying about that. You're talking about from the stone? Yeah. I don't care. I'm not even thinking about that. I don't care. Okay. You don't have to go back to normal.

How do you feel about all the attention that you're getting? I don't want people to think that I'm a hero or anything like that. I don't look at myself a hero. You know, I believe that everyone should be doing this, you know. It should be something. that everyone should do. Right. Don't just try to give me

attention to how I'm helping a few people or what. I don't want that. I don't want that attention from that. You know, but it's pretty sad that everyone wants to get together whenever a disaster happened.

But, you know, we should always stick together for us as Americans. You know, the government, the media, or whatever, just always try to separate us over a flag or a color, a spatula.

some bullshit like that. But I just feel like that we should always be together. Well said. There's a lot of people outside of America want to bomb us and this and that. We sit up there bullshit and about some colors. You know, I hate taking out. Well said, Derek.

I love that. Very well said. By the way, how many people do you think you have saved thus far? I really haven't been counted, but I believe 102. 102? No, for a shit Probably over 100 Probably over 100

Oh man That's incredible It's been great I've been great I've enjoyed it Even hearing Like some of the people Like one guy was like

Fucking Derek Lewis Man It was amazing You represented us He didn't know I'm still one of the guys He live in The neighborhood over

And he sell MMA supplies It's called My Fight Shop. That's the name of the shop. Okay. And I didn't even know he was over there. I just seen, they flagged me down saying that the guy stuck. Actually, whenever I was on the phone with you doing the interview.

Oh. Yeah, and that's where I went to go do. When me and you was talking, that's what I was doing. Wow. Yeah, they was training me up. Did you take your kids to go see anything? Did they help you at all, or are they too young? No, they went to their mother-in-in-lawhouse.

Okay. I mean, the grandma house, my mother-in-law. Right, right, right. You know. So, but I wanted to get my kids, but because I wanted my mother-in-law house to get flooded, but the mother said that it should have been okay. Oh, my gosh. Okay, or whatever.

Her house is okay? Yeah, so I have to say, yeah, it's good. It's good. What about the salon? How's the salon doing? Yeah, everything's good. You got lucky Yeah, I got lucky

It's okay Hurricane Harvey wants nothing to do with the Black Bees Yeah I don't got no cardio He ain't worried about me Fair to say Hurricane Harvey is not up in this black piece No, he ain't in his hole Okay

Well done Derek Thank you very much Kudos to you my man You've been doing a great great thing for society for your people. And it's kind of interesting. We always talk about Houston and how proud you are to be from Houston. And now Houston is affected by this and you stepped up, man.

You really did. It was beautiful thing to see. And I know you don't love the attention, but I'm happy to see that you're getting it. So kudos to you. Yes. The check that you're a similar last week, man, bounce, man. For what? I don't know. What y'all got going on over there?

The shit ain't right. For what? To check, for being. on your show. So many times. I owe you. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to look at... You know, Conner is going to come on your shoe for free. That's why he can't get his eyes on the show. Because I know he'd try to tax your around. No, Connor would come on any time. I just don't like to bother him because he's so busy. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm busy saving people as Connor out there's spending money. Some bullshit. That is true. But yeah, I understand the point, though. It's all good.

That's true. Please don't get too big time for us, Derek Lewis. I don't know if I'd be able to handle that. I was good, man. I'm good. Okay. Well, I'm happy to hear that you're good. You're going to be there in Vegas? I'll be there for the fight.

Yeah, I think I'm going to be in the building or you're going to have to buy a chicken. You're going to be in a case. You know how they treat you. Why? See, this is the thing. I see you sometimes show up on my Instagram and I see you say things like, oh, you know, I was banned or I don't recall the exact words. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you. I see.

And so here I am, sharring you with praise. What? You're banned, right? No, not. The people. I was banned briefly for 48 hours, but the people had my back. They rose up. Oh, the people.

I see how I feel when that the people you're fine. It's nice, right? Yeah. Black in America, man. But so you're going to be K-Side? Well, here's the thing. mean, if we're going to get technical about it, typically I don't get cage side seating. I typically get in the back. I sit in the back and I do like the scrum interviews and things like that because I'm not

a writer so I don't necessarily need a table. So I don't know if technically I'll have cage side. I presume I will have a credential. And I don't know how, you know, well attended this one will be because it is just an interim title fight in the main event. But rest assured, I will be there. So you'll be in the back. I'll be in the back, yeah, I'll be in the back. Oh, okay. But I'll see you before and after. You know, I'm just trying to make sure to show you some love, man.

You're just trying to make sure what? They're showing me some love. Well, you know, give me bad checks and all this. Sure. It's all good. Uh, they're treating me well. It's a great relationship. In fact, I'm going to Edmonton for UFC 215, and will you be watching that?

Where? Are you going to watch? UFC 215 this weekend Demetrius Johnson? Yeah, I'll watch it. All right. I'll leave you, B, Derek. Thank you again for the time.

Great job. And if you see J.J. Watt, please tell him that I really respect what he's done and he's a saint of a man as well. All right. I got you. All right. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it. Pleasure as always. Derek Lewis,

The Black Beast. doing the Lord's work over there in Houston. Hurricane Harvey's got nothing on him. If you do not follow him on Twitter, Instagram, trust me on this. Derek Lewis is doing amazing things. He is, I mean, really, to go out there, a lot of people would say they'd do it, but to actually go out there and get in the water and start saving people and helping others out in their cars, it's just amazing. A very beautiful thing to see, and I appreciate him stopping by. All right, that does it for our interviews. still around an hour to go.

Let us welcome in Mr. New York Rick. New York Rick, are you there? Hit my music. Okay. And now it's time to open up the ears and your minds. New York Rick Demanding that we hit his music now. Rick's Picks.

Rick's Picks are lots of fun. It is time. His hair isn't a bun because it's, you already know what it is. Rick's picks. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. $65.

$65. You've all been waiting for. Hey, he's stars. Was that off the record? You wanted to break the news. There it is. Rick's Picks. Yeah.

There she is. What do we got? Jim D. Ann from Nighthart? What I mean, there she is. Who's she? Well, you know, I mean like the thing with the garage. You know, that's what you say. You don't say, there he is because that's more.

There it is? It's a thing? There she is. I'll take it. How's the beard? It's looking Jim The Anvil Nighthart-esque

Do you remember the Anvil? I don't The name rings a bell Come on Natty Nighthart's dad No I know the name rings a bell Look I didn't like He's got the

I missed 80s I missed 80s completely You're one of those pro wrestling fans Who's like Oh NXT is the greatest Pro Wrestling I've ever seen It's kind of embarrassing I can say that

But only because I went to that one live And it was awesome Right right right right It's not an indictment on the rest of it but I saw that one. It was awesome. Tell us about the numbers. The song.

No, later, later. Okay. This is, this is not the time? This is Rick's Pick's time. It's not the time.

The song just played? This is Rick's Pick's time. Okay. But we're going to get into Rick's Pickett. All right. What do you got? We're going to segue into, I'm going to continue the feature of this as long as Derek Lewis continues to do good work down there in Houston.

Some photos of, of Derek doing, doing some disaster relief down in Houston for Hurricane Harvey. Here we see flooded parking lot, obviously, trying to, you know, he's bringing that big old truck in there, trying to clear the way. Next, we have giving out supplies, I believe. That's what it looks like from the back of the truck.

Shout out to Derek Lewis, who we just had on for all his work down there in Houston and continued efforts. And remember last week at around this time, we featured, thanks to Joe in H-Town, showed Joe Daddy in H-Town, we featured the JJ Watt charity link that has now just been completely bonkers. Yes, 20 million. Unbelievable. At the time, I think he was angling after 1 million. Crazy.

Continues to kind of push the bar. So it's incredible to see what the athletes of Houston have been able to do. Citizens of the world coming together. But yes, people like James Hardin and Leslie Alexander, who's soon to be the former owner of the Rockets. That's right. And I think Bob McNair of the Houston Texans and the owner of the Tennessee Titans. It's amazing how people come together. But Derek Lewis is right.

Why do we need a disaster to come together? And by the way, I want to say to everyone in Florida, who I believe are bracing for a hurricane as we speak, hang in there. and we're thinking of you and hopefully it's nothing too serious one of those false alarms hopefully well said onto the MMA now

we're going to jump into the MMA the world of fighting here we have Oslombek Musayev knocking out Olivier Dunda a local show in Chechnya I mean we have to watch this one again

when I saw this on the timeline I was like okay like number one, for sure. And when you get knocked out like that, like what can you even do? Like you just have to tip your hat. It's the type of thing where...

The guy just got up? What do you mean? He got knocked out? And he's just chilling. But, I mean, what can you even say when you get knocked out like that? Let's it. That's it.

Oh. That's one of the best knockouts of the year. Incredible. Where is this? In someone's backyard? It's in Chechnya. I know, but like, where? It looks like there's just houses.

No local show. I definitely don't think this one was broadcast based on that camera angle and camera work but wow just I mean that's incredible way to go hat hat tip to you my friend yeah fun tip

this one from Invicta on Thursday we're there this is the first 15 seconds here we see Sharon Jacobson putting it on Callie Robbins into the throw incredible sequence, but here's the second half of that. Callie Robbins snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, putting the arm bar.

After being, you know, bounced around like that, she pulled up the incredible comeback. So I thought that was definitely worth highlight. Tachi Palace, right? Tachi Palace. First time there for you? Yes. And for Invicta as well. Nice venue and enjoyed my time there.

but great night of fights for Invicta new Bantamweight champion being crowned Yana Kunizkaya That's right And yeah I mean Just could not be a more Opposite 15 seconds of fighting Just getting completely dominated and then

slapping on the arm bar Kudos to Cali Best performance of the night Was that it? That one I'd say for sure Does Invicta do They do yeah Fight Night bonuses

They do What do they do? Fight of the night And two performance. I must say, I really like Invict on a Thursday. I think it's a good night for them. Now, I don't know, football season, it might be a little tough. Sure.

Between what, April and August? I feel like Thursday is good. What do you think? Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, people are getting used to the kind of weekday MMA. Yeah. With Dana White's Tuesday night. That's true.

Now there's a, you know, Invicta has done Thursday net before, did it again here, and did well. So I think, yeah, you know, weekday and the weekends and even Fridays are just becoming a crowded marketplace. So being able to distinguish yourself on a day during the week that is not necessarily as crowded is not a poor line of thought. Continuing from the weekend, we have Zabit. Oh, man. Magamette Sharipa. Yes. The Showtime kick, as it's been known.

against Mike Santiago from Fight Night in Rotterdam. I've been talking about him for months. You know this, right? Yeah, I saw your tweets, Mark Henry. No, but I mean, building up to it. Mark Henry, Frankie Edgar, Marlon Marais.

We've talked to them about him on this program. And he delivered. And you look at this guy and you're like, this is the guy you're talking about? Like, he just, you know, he kind of has the moppy hair. You know, he's just kind of a slender fellow, not overly jazz. Like there's nothing really physically not imposing.

Exactly. There's nothing to write home about it. And then he pulls off this kind of stuff. And the whole performance was great. Yeah, and this is just one gif of the Showtime kick and some other spinning maneuvers. But just start to finish really, really exciting and really, really impressive. I think people come away with a new fan favorite out of this event.

Also from this event, Mirbeck Tysumov, incredible knockout. Yeah. just sat down on it. Dear God. Yeah. Felipe Silva on the wrong end of that. But wow, what a knockout.

One more time? Do we get it again? Yeah, we're going to get it again. Another potential knockout of the year contender, not the same way. Not flashy, but just the impact and the perfectness. That one hurts. You know, like that one actually...

Yeah, there's another angle of it that I wasn't able to grab where you can actually see the punch, but here you see it on the backside. Oof. What a knockout. Five in a row. I mean, he's one of the guys that I've been having my eye on for a long time. You know, back when I even used to do Rick's picks, he was one of the ones that I would be able to get at a cheaper betting price.

Because people weren't aware, but I think people are starting to become aware just how competent and good a striker. Tysu. Five in a row, all K-O-T-KOs. Yeah. he's one to watch and he's calling his shot he wanted Artem Lobov who is booked for a fight but

yeah everyone you know what bothers me you know it's a pet peeve people who it also happened on Saturday someone called out Matt Brown CR it's like don't you know that he's booked why are you calling him out

shoot your shot yeah but he's booked maybe you get the next one call someone out who's available maybe you get him on the back end oh this is great is it great I feel like

it's just a mess this one's a mess I don't even know what to call this is Diego Brandau at FNG 73 Ahmed Aliyev it appears and this is based on

you know kind of a few replays of this it appears that there's some headbutting happening on the ground which angers Brandau and here we're going to see the result of what that led to

which is Brando just leaving the cage and now losing by TKO saying peace out by the way I'm done and's throwing garbage what the hell's wrong

no come on enough disgusting these people I understand being upset but let's not put people at risk and throw things into the case here What is this? 1965 where are the tomatoes?

You know? That's a 1965 reference. I don't know. I mean I just, you don't see this anymore. Like why are you throwing garbage at professional athletes? Don't throw things, period.

Yeah, none of this. Period. And then he pieces and loses, right? He loses by TKO because he left the cage. That is ridiculous. Yeah. It's headbutt. I can't say that this is the first.

I believe this has happened before. We have also seen close calls. Like, for example, with Paul Harris jumping on top of the cage and almost leaving, he would have probably lost that. That's a big misunderstanding. This one was not a misunderstanding. He's clearly trying to get out of there. He's trying to open the door and then climbs out.

Well, he's just like, he's like, listen, I'm getting headbutt here and you're not doing anything about it. And some shots that looked like it was after the ref was trying to break it up. Strange event. Paul Harris got robbed. Yeah, Paul Harris lost the decision that it looked like he should have won. Maldenado go back in the win column with a submission victory. Not one you'd probably expect from Fabio Maldeno. Also, it's on a Monday? Strange event.

Well, Monday night. Monday night, M.MA. We were just talking about, you know, weekday MMA. So there we go. Okay. Francis Inganu, who we had earlier on the show. Just a freakish display of athleticism here. This guy's.

To be expected. He's just a specimen. 31 years young as of today. Jeez, Louise. Looking like he could compete on American Ninja Warrior tomorrow. This is at the Performance Institute, I think. Yeah, which is his home training camp now. It's kind of interesting.

Like, Angano is the guy who's kind of using it at the most. Yeah. He's very smart in a way. He just moves to Vegas and he's like, look, I've got a state-of-the-art, facility. I'm not tied. I don't have kids. I don't have a wife. Let me just go there. Why not? A spry 262 pounds

for Francis Engano. Oh yes. Here we have. Can't wait to talk about this. The first image of Reebok. By the way, Rebok. Would you do Engano Miyochic? Yes, I would. Not Engano Volkov? I would do Engano Miocchich. Capitalize while you got it.

Just make it happen. Just do it? Yeah, just do it. Yeah, they got to figure out the the Miyotich contract situation first. Yep. But once they do, I think that's the fight to make. They both want it. Let's make it happen.

I don't know if they both want it. Okay. Does Miyot just really want it? I don't know. Do you see him really talking about Engano that much? You're saying it on me. I don't know. I mean, like, I haven't really seen him go out of his way to talk.

I'll say this. I think he'd want to fight him over somebody else who's not going to probably be as big a draw, no? Seems like he wants to fight Anthony Joshua the most. Well, I mean... I kind of like the idea of Volkov versus Zengano next. But what about for Stepe? Well, Stepe's got contract issues at the moment.

If they can give one good enough fight. I feel like Stepe should fight December 2nd in Detroit. So they've got a little more time, right? I feel like, you know, he... Cleveland is close to Detroit. I don't know. It just kind of makes sense. Timing-wise.

Could they get one in? They probably can't. It's already September. Yeah, I think you're... I think you're risking Inganu there. Yeah. Who could be... And I don't like the...

I really didn't like the idea of Engano versus JDS. That fight made me uncomfortable. I thought it was a fight that made no sense for JDS. It was too soon after the lost of Miochich. Engano, Overeem, I like very much. But if Overeign wins, now you're stuck with, you know, Overem as the number one contender. And thought that that's a bad thing necessarily,

but I think it's hard to sell that fight so soon. I mean, they fought literally a year ago. Yeah. I mean, we've seen... crazier title shots than that. And also, I think Overeem was dangerous in that, dangerous enough in that contest that I don't, I don't hate it if it happens.

But I think Inganu and Steppe is a fight to make. What we have here is Reebok introducing the new fight kits, as well as, we don't have the image of it here, but if you go to the MMAFighting.com article, we do have the images of the legacy series, which is additional lifestyle, slash walkout type apparel in addition to the fight kit stuff.

But here we see Yawanna and Jacek and I'm also going to bring up this tweet from MMA mania which has Paige Van Zant featured in the fight kit. You said you wanted to sound off on it. Not necessarily sound off,

but look, what I said briefly on Twitter was I have a lot of issues still with the idea of putting fighters in uniform. I think it goes against everything that combat sports should be about individuality, being unique, letting your personality stand out, making a name for yourself. You know what I mean? Like that's what this whole game is about, prize fighting.

And so I think that this goes against all of that. I also think that I, I mean, I don't think, I know that I have issues with the terms of the deal. Poor Chase Sherman, you know, campaigning just to get his kit online, we were told that they all be available, that people could buy them. Okay, maybe not at your local sports authority, but at least online. Yeah. You know, at least the same way I could go buy, you know, a Billy Hernan Gomez backup center

for the next jersey, I could go out and buy a Chase Sherman jersey. I can't. And that bothers him. And so that's a problem. Where's the money going? It said we go through all that. Okay. That aside, this is an upgrade look-wise from the initial look.

the initial look was horrendous. And they could say all they wanted that they didn't have enough time. It was a bad look. It was just a bad look. Like the one black stripe, the one white stripe. This has a little more personality.

I must say, I read the press release twice. I still don't understand what this is. Like this is for main events only and title fights. Or are they all getting redesigned? It was a little confusing.

Did you read this? I did, but I probably glanced over that. Where is it? Here it is. Let's get the exact verbiage up. This is what it was. Reebok and UFC today introduced their new UFC Fight Night Collection, a holistic update to the official UFC athlete fight night apparel

that brings a new aesthetic and style combined with an unprecedented standard of customization to the world famous Octagon. Drawing on feedback and inspiration from UFC athletes and the greater mixed martial arts community, this new collection features updated versions of the UFC walkout jersey, hoodie, shorts, and hats. Here we go. headlining the new UFC Fight Night collection is the legacy series, a program that pairs UFC athletes who are either

headlining a pay-per-view event or competing in a championship bout with the Reebok design team to co-design a one-of-a-kind UFC Fight Night Walkout jersey. This experience will provide each participating UFC athlete with a unique hands-on customization experience that will bring their personality to life while further connecting them with their individual fan base. So does that mean that the kits are looking different?

But if you're headlining a pay-per-view or fighting for the belt, your jersey is then... There's the legacy. In the drop box, there's T's T's and apparel that look more lifestyle wear. They're not fight kits. Those are for championship athletes or pay-per-view headliners. But the actual fight-fights are for everybody. But they're changing. That's changing as well to that.

Fight kits are changing. Okay. All right, all right. That whole fight night thing. No, the legacy thing is something separate. Ah, okay, okay. And it's starting this weekend for UFC 215. Yes.

That's worth the price of the pay-per-view itself. Well, there you go. Yeah, the fight kits as a whole are changing. Then the championship and pay-per-view headlining athletes are also getting the legacy collections. The first images we see here are in that drop box. And so, like, the Mighty T from Mighty Mouse that... that people were showing on Twitter.

Yeah. X Division. TNA. Yeah, I mean, it is an upgrade. Do you agree it's an upgrade? I definitely agree. I mean, they were starting at a very like simple base level. And now they've clearly, you know, gone a little more creative.

I don't think that your issue with it, the issue about, you know, the individuality is ever really going to be solved if there's a uniform in place. Like I think there's, there's going to be limitations regardless of that. But as a whole, I would definitely have to say that it's an upgrade. There is more individuality to it. Sure. Beyond just, you know, like previously the color schemes were very minimal and the representation came in like, you know, stripes and things like that. Now it seems like we're getting a lot more color.

We're getting a lot more, you know, actual uniqueness. I feel like there's a lot more for individual fighters to be able to stand out. But there are limitations to just having jerseys in general. and uniforms in general that will not be overcome by the truth is if we're being honest anything was an upgrade over that I mean it would have been very hard to have a downgrade so kudos to them for the upgrade

and that they continue to evolve and they promised us that they would evolve I'd be curious to hear from the fighters who matter most in all of this if they like it I still wish they got rid of that whole thing with the name on the back that's vertical you know it's coming down like what is that I'm okay with that what is that

I like the vertical names but I think the to the point that you're making about the individuality, I think that's where the legacy stuff comes in, where there are designs that are specific to each individual fighter that don't have to do with the fight kit. But that's walkouts, that's lifestyle apparel, not necessarily the uniform, quote unquote, itself.

Those are ancillary pieces for champions for pay-per-view headliners. But I think it gives fans something to at least, you know, tie onto, whereas in the past, the fight kits themselves and the other apparel that was coming out, I feel like, you know, quite frankly, wasn't connecting. I think they're doing, they're doing a much better job with that now. Still very rare to see someone outside of a UFC event wear one of these kits. Sure. I did see episode one of Triple G, Canelo 24-7, and someone was wearing one. I couldn't see the name, but someone was actually in it, so that was kind of fun. But yes, kudos. I'm curious to see them in action. I'm curious to see if there is positive feedback,

regarding the fit, the feel, the comfort. They did mention that they're, you know, performance enhancements as well. That it's not just... Whoa, whoa, whoa. Performance enhancing. Be careful with that. You know what I meant.

Careful. The new fit and material. Yes, yes, yes. Has been changed. So, yeah. Look, anything that will... Anything that will help the product in the cage is... I guess.

Yeah, yeah. Good in my opinion. So look is important. No. undoubtedly, undoubtedly. And I think we're agreeing that this is a step forward at the very least. Breaking news. Only semi-related to MMA, but worth mention.

Yes. Houston billionaire Tillman Fertita. Third cousin of their Fertita brothers agrees to buy the rockets for a record price. 2.2 or 2.4? 2.2 billion. $2.2 billion. dollars. We'll get to

we'll get to something from you later. Is this the last one? In the questions. This would have been the perfect way to segue. No, because it's a question. We have it in the question segment. Don't worry.

No, no, no. I ask the question. There's a new segment. Yeah. It will be in there. It will be in there. But not during Rick Spex, chill. I should. Reserve my comment.

Reserve your comments. Here we go. A video. Let's bring the audio. Oh, yes. I've seen this. exclusive to www.com. Set the scene.

We have Ronda Rousey, Jesiman Duke, and Marina Shafir backstage talking about Shana Bezor, who was successful in her May Young classic match. Here they come. Come upon by Charlotte Flair, Bailey, and, oh my God, Becky Lynch. See the pull on that?

Oh, it's actually written there. I should have looked there. Ronda Rousey throws down her. purse in the video and says name the time and place. So it seems like we're getting, not today, but we're getting the teaser for the four horse women versus the WWE's four horse women. Who's the fourth with the women, with the other ones, the WW ones? It is Sasha Banks. Man, I know so much about this. Yeah, I'm telling you, it's a little bit sad. I've become, excuse me, that, okay, don't hate on it. Can I just say like, as someone,

who's watched and forgotten way more about pro wrestling than you'll ever know. Fair. I don't disagree with you. It's cool and all, but I just have to say, and this is just my unbiased opinion, one of the worst backstage segments vignettes I've ever seen. I mean, as far as the acting, I mean, that was, that did not make me want to see anything.

That did not have the effect that when I heard there was some sort of cameo, I was like, oh, this is cool. and again they'll get to WrestleMania if they do WrestleMania it will be big it'll be great

all that stuff monster recently married Ronda Rousey by the way Mazel to her this was not good acting could we agree on that

here's what I think I think they were way I think they were thinking that that line would have more impact that the weight of like let's do it anytime anywhere

was just going to be enough to stand on its own but I would like to see maybe some more interaction between them like there was not much back and forth there was a lot of dead air

facial expressions the awkwardness, the stiffness. I mean, I'm no acting coach here, and let's be honest, the wrestling vignette not known to be the gold standard in acting. This one, I mean, when I saw this, I was like, is this a spoof on the actual vignette?

I echo your sentiment. It was tough. I'll say this. The concept still gets me excited. It doesn't matter what happened here. It could have been bad, could have been good. I mean, the concept gets me excited. idea of Ronda Rousey going to W.W.E.

Is like four horsewoman versus four. Yeah. I have to be honest with you, at this juncture, I mean, yeah. Beasler being a legit prospect to me is just as interesting. I feel like that's a story in its own right. Yep. Rhonda Act 2, like does she actually make a career out of this is super interesting?

But the whole feud of four horse, like that to me is. Ah, like, I mean, it's just an entry point for it. I'm okay with that. point. It's a good way. Basler being a legit talent now, yeah.

Makes a story way better than just Ronda, no, I haven't watched it. Makes this way better than Ronda Rousey just potentially transitioning into WWB or trying to do both

or whatever the actual circumstance shakes out to be. Basler's storyline is now way more interesting than it had been before. It used to be Ronda and the others. Now there's actually a storyline here that involves more than just

Ronda Rousey. Transitioning. Like the Reebok apparel, there's only up. Okay. Transitioning to another missive from semi-wrestling related.

Yes. There he is. Duke Rufus on Instagram, retweeting, reposting, sorry, or regramming, an image from John McDessie, who's now training Rufus sport, saying the phrase that people have now clung to. We are pleased to welcome

U.S.C. Lightweight Lebanese Canadian, John McDessie, and always a pleasure having CM Punk. Both of them are awaiting fight confirmations. So it has been put into the world that CM Punk is awaiting his fight confirmation. We'll see. And people have come and run with this. Yeah, we'll see. CM Punk potentially back. To me, most interesting is

how does Duke Rufus know how to regram? I still can't figure it out. It's a separate app. I'll show you. Go on an app and then it connects your Instagram. Still can't get it. And also, John McDessie, part of Rufus Sport. Yeah. That's big time stuff. That is big time stuff. We'll teach you the regram soon.

But here we have a continuation of this story from Mike the Truth Jackson. Once the cash in his money in the bank, briefcase against one CM Punk. Don't hate it. It's not bad. I feel like you kind of have to go away from the WWE if you want to get his attention though. Like that's not... It'll get everybody else's attention. Fair, but he's not going to retweet that or respond to that.

He wants nothing to do with it. I don't think he'll respond to anybody. Fair, fair. Fair. Okay. Yeah, talk. Are you buying a second CM Punk fight? Do you mean literally buying? Or do you mean like what you want to watch it?

Would I want to? Yeah, yeah, I would. The fact that he's still around and everything, like we're approaching a year, this weekend is a year from his debut. It is very apparent that he takes this seriously.

And that's the thing that would matter. I don't care if he's good, bad, or the other. That matters in the matchmaking. Like I don't want to see him in there against somebody as talented as Mickey Gall. I want to see a step down. But it is clear that he wants to be a fighter.

It is very clear. This is not some thing that he was just doing for attention one time and that's it. It is very clear that he wants to be an MMA fighter. And I would encourage and want to see that for sure. Now, he must be matched up against somebody who skill-wise is similar. Otherwise, I don't want to see it. I don't want to see the same thing as we saw with Mickey Gall. I want to see somebody on his skill level.

I think he's coming back soon. He has disappeared. Watch the weekly grind, if you read the weekly grind put out by Danny Seguura on MMA fighting. Yes. He's doing stretches and showing his bum on Twitter and Instagram. MSG. Here we go. We have our next one from Pauli Malinaghi.

My man. Because... My man. Because Max Holloway was telling him to shut up. Was telling him, I had enough of you. I'm sick of you talking about MMA. which Pauli replied, he used to have respect for MMA, but all these weirdos even have fighters as trolls.

So he's saying even Max Holloway is trolling and the MMA community even has their fighters. But what I thought was interesting about this was he ends with finally one I've heard of and watched at least. So he's seen Max Holloway's work. Didn't say one way or the other if he's impressed or not. But I thought it was funny that Pauly's finally acknowledging at least he's heard of one of the people in MMA.

People don't know who Polly is. Polly is one of the greats. I mean... Are we talking greats on the mic? The greats on the mic, two-time, you know, champion. This is someone... Multidivisional champion. This is someone who has, you know, done a lot of good things in boxing

and has, in my opinion, earned the right to be respected in all forms of combat sports and the lack of respect that he receives from the public. To me is appalling. I'm thinking episode. 400. Was that a pun? No.

Episode 400, just have Polly. In studio, I'm going to bow out and let him host the show. Oh, I thought you meant just you and Pauly for four hours. It'll be the Polly show.

If it's Polly hosting, I think that would, I think that would work. Do I get to participate? No, no, no. He's going to do everything. He's going to be there. You take my spot.

You take my spot. I go box. Yes. And Polly hosts. That'd be great. I'm not going to be boxing. but I am taking my first jiu-jitsu class. Yeah, muzzle-tov.

Okay. Nate Diaz, we can bring volume up on this too. Nate Diaz. Been busy on the Instagram at a Tom Petty concert. Wouldn't have pegged him for enjoying the Tom Petty, but it says Free Fallen and the 100 emoji from the Human 100 emoji in Nate Diaz. So kudos to Tom Petty and hope Nate Diaz enjoyed. I love Tom Petty.

Earlier, you may not have even. even seen this one. I did see it. I'm happy you brought it up. Look at you on the ball. Nate Diaz responding to Connor McGregor's performance. We saw a little bit of his thoughts when he interacted with Brendan Schaub backstage right after the fight, but he posted the UFC's Instagram where they've posted a picture of Connor saying, I never lose either I win or I learn. Nate Diaz responding, he punched himself out the same way he lost in the UFC. There was no learning going on. Over-promotion bullshit. Get off the nuts. this is shit.

This is the shit I'm talking about Bruce Lee never would have lost like that. Real Ninja shit hashtag and then middle finger emoji. I mean, the shit I'm talking about Bruce, the shit I'm talking about Bruce Lee would have never lost like that

is next level social media. It is coming. It is coming. Hashtag real ninja shit. Hashtag real ninja shit. Slowly but surely it is coming. Neadez is a wizard. Kudos.

Shout out. Congratulations. to Scott Holtzman Hot Sauce getting married over the weekend, I believe or maybe Friday, it's happened sometime since the last show.

Well done. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Hot Sauce. Yes. Mazel. And lastly, shout out to you, Ariel Hawai. Wow, I finally get some respect for making the wall.

Yes. How do you pronounce the name of this restaurant? Notre Beuf de Grasse. It's a play on word. Whatever he said. It's a play on words because there's Notre Dame de Grasse, which is a, it's a neighborhood in Montreal. Notre Dame, you know, Notre Dame.

Yeah, yeah. Notre Dame of Grace. What is... So, boff is beef. Beef, ah, beef of grace. So our beef of grace. Play on, you know, famous area. Yes, go ahead.

Please set it up. Come itself. Ariel and one George St. Pierre. Yes. It's very small in this picture, but if you look right near the right edge, top right corner, you're going to see a big head, Ariel. wearing headphones in a one-on-one interview, which is weird. You're going to see a big-headed Ariel

and an outline of a George St. Pierre, the back of George St. Pierre. Wait, go to the next one. You didn't get the... No, see, you posted it in one thing, right? You posted two images in one thing. I can't choose the image. It only takes the first image, unfortunately.

Countless to say, go to Ariel's Twitter. Now pull it back up, pull it back up. Go to Ariel's Twitter or... There it is. Okay, top. Right. Top right. Wait, wait.

Okay, there you go. There you go. Now we get a little full screen. Top right. You see a white band. There I am. Now, this is the thing. Now, this restaurant, by the way, made famous on this particular program last year when Kevin Owens, remember he went to eat there?

And then was upset. And was upset. And then it became, this whole big thing back and forth. It was at this restaurant, not this location. That was a different location. They now have opened three. My longtime friend, good friend of my brother, David. but has become a friend of mine as well,

a guy by the name of Jonathan Dresner, opened this restaurant, and it's a fantastic. I mean, I can't tell you how good this is. Now, it's so good that I went there for dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday, before my sister's wedding. It was phenomenal.

And in this particular location, they have this mural hand-painted of these famous Montreal images, icons, people, moments, whatever. And top right, he put me there. And not only that, if you look at the picture I tweeted, you see me interviewing GSP, who's, of course, a way bigger Montreal icon

and celebrity than I will ever be. But to my left, like camera left, there's the Halwani nose. You see the nose? I do. Yeah, the little check mark. There it is. And it's a great honor for me to be in a Montreal institution.

You know, like that. I mean, like, look at this. I mean, to be included with these amazing people, P.K. Suban, Ken Dryden. So I really appreciate him doing that. And the food is great. I urge anyone if you're downtown in Montreal, go to Notre Buff de Grasse and then go to Pige and Espresso bar right next door.

Tremendousie stuff. Congrats to you. Thank you. Mazel Tov to your sister. Thank you. On marriage. Let's talk about eating beef now. What do you mean?

Oh, me eating beef? How do we get those hamburgers? Oh, how do we get them here? How do we get them cooked? Oh, well, the next thing that they're going to do is they're going to have a franchise burger because he knows me as the franchise because early days in Montreal radio, I was on a show called In the Ring, CFMB 1280 a.m. and my nickname was the franchise.

And so ever since then, I used to write for a website that he owns called Qbal, Quebec basketball, QBL.Cia. I would write a weekly column and it was called the franchise's take,

I think it was. So he called me the franchise. So they're going to do a franchise's burger and it's going to be beef, lettuce, tomato, pickles, secret sauce,

pineapple, and a fried egg on top. It is phenomenal. Phenomenal. Now, the key, to the whole thing, the key to the whole Melange is hamburger well done.

And if you can, if you're lucky, extra well done. Oh my God, Eric. That's the way to live, my friends. The burger sounds great until the end. The burger sounds great until the end. Live it up a bit. Well done burger. That's where it's at. The franchise burger. It's fantastic. I'm in. Go. Next time you go to

Notre Beuf de Glass in Montreal, three locations. Celerin, NDG, downtown. After the franchise. I hope as your friend, he doesn't let anybody order that well. Well done. I really hope as your friend. Well done. He doesn't let anybody.

And by the way, our own Danny Segura is throwing shade your way. He is saying that all your Rick's picks selections were from his weekly grind post. I think he'd be able to go to the website and verify that almost none of them. You stole them all. No. Danny, you're back there somewhere. I'm going to choke him out so bad in juditsu on Friday. It's going to be unbelievable.

Wow. You're going with him. He's going to kill you. I'm going to murder him. I'm going to destroy him. Okay, that's it for Rick's picks. Okay, one last thing. Here we go.

Before we go to Twitter, I'm going to have my own version of Unbox Therapy. How about that? Courtesy of my friends over at Bellator MMA. Look what they sent me. You see this? Do you see this? Is anyone there? Fador?

Sorry. A million Anko. Yes, the famous, the infamous bobblehead and the infamous sweater. What infamous bobblehead? This is like a one-of-one. No, it's been, I saw it on Twitter. Get out of here with that. Look at this.

Look at this. That is awesome. Wow. and they got the Russian flag right over there It'll be no time before the staff here breaks it Yeah, I know, seriously Can we keep one thing intact I'm gonna put it right next to me, boom, look at that

Move it back a little bit Okay, the platform is not seen Oh, there we go, Fadar Yeah, so how about that? Unbox Therapy, Limited Edition, collectable valvehead, I'm not sure if you can buy this anywhere right now, beltor.com, check it out. So I love that.

What a great addition to our set, right? Thank you, Belator. All right, now this is what you have to do. to go to Twitter right now. You have to go to MMAfighting.com. You have to go exclusively there. You can't go to YouTube. You can't go to Facebook. Next 25 minutes, we're answering your questions. We're talking 215, 216. We're talking whatever you want to talk about. Mayweather McGregor, the aftermath. And we're answering the MMA hour question of the week. Would you rather own the Houston Rockets, which are about to be purchased for $2.2 billion? Or would you rather own the

UFC, which was sold for $4.05 billion? All those questions and more will be answered right about now. Boom. And we are back. Fador and I are back. How about this? We've got like the United Nations here. We've got Canada, America, and Russia.

Right there. I love my new little Fador toy. This is great. Waring the gloves. Babbling his head. We have other toys, of course, but we have a Steve Rogers Expos Bobble. head over there whose arm is no longer with us. We have a Larry Johnson bobblehead over there whose two arms are no longer with us. So let's see how long fade or lasts.

All right. This is the MMA after hour. This is when we answer your questions. Take a look at your comments exclusively on Twitter.mifighty.com. You've been sending them to us. Hashtag the MMA hour. Before we get to the questions, the question of the week, this is a new little thing that we're doing. Question of the week this week, first ever one, was, would you rather own the Houston Rockets or the UFC. Why did I ask this question? Because as we said earlier, Tillman Furtita, the third cousin of Frank and Lorenzo Fertita, is about to purchase the Houston Rockets for $2.2.2 billion. And the UFC last year was sold by the Fertitas for $4.025 billion. So that was the question. New York, Rick, did you weigh in? Did you vote?

I did not vote. I'm trying to remain impartial and not influence the votes. Can people even tell? I think, I don't know. I'm just kidding. I just didn't vote. Okay, thus far we've had over 5,000 votes. 69% of the people voted in favor of the UFC. 31% voted in favor of the Houston Rockets.

They prefer to own the UFC over the Houston Rockets. These people are crazy. It is a no-brainer. I was expecting most people to vote in favor of the UFC because my audience, UFC fans. Of course you'd rather own the Houston Rockets. First of all, the Houston Rockets are a glist. global brand. The Houston Rockets are a brand that is particularly popular in China because of the fact

that Yao Ming used to play for them. The Houston Rockets were sold for half of the UFC. You've seen what has happened since then. This is a much better deal. They are a part of the NBA machine. You are a part of the revenue sharing. You are part of the TV deal. You are a part of the brand that is the NBA. People walk around wearing Houston Rockets hats and jerseys and sweatshirts and shorts. They walk around wearing all kinds of Houston Rockets apparel. We have learned over the past two years that people don't particularly like to walk around wearing UFC apparel. This to me is a no-brainer. The amount of money that you could sell or, yeah, the amount of money that you can make,

excuse me, from just being in the business. Forget about the product on the court. And oh, by the way, the Rockets are a very good product on the court these days. They just got Chris Paul. Over the past 15 years, I think it is, they're one of the most successful franchises in the NBA, two-time champions, how is this even possible? In the UFC, there's so much that could go wrong for you

in terms of injuries, God forbid, anything worse. And oh, by the way, you have to build stars. And yes, I know that's a part of it in the NBA and things like that, but the promotion and the marketing, the 52 weeks out of the year, it's a much greater grind, pay-per-view and all that.

I don't disagree with you. My vote would be for the Houston Rockets. I think, you know, we also have that love for basketball. No, but I would say the same about the Houston Astros and the Houston Texans. Okay, fair enough. I probably wouldn't. Whereas the Houston Rockets, I would. No, I'm being impartially. There's nothing to do.

You just have to look at being in the business of owning a sports team. Your poll, you're asking MMA fans who maybe may or may not even watch basketball. It's going to be skewed that way. I agree with you. I would choose the Houston Rockets. That said, a few things. One, the UFC is also a global brand. You mentioned the Rockets being a global brand.

The UFC is also a global brand. Ties to China, not as strong, clearly. What's a bigger global brand? at this point, the UFC or the Houston Rockets? I would say the Houston Rockets because of the NBA Association, for sure. That helps a ton. But I would say the UFC is not lagging a tremendous amount behind with how many international shows they do.

There is a huge exposure to the news. You can do all the international shows you want, but are people in China buying UFC apparel and walking around with it and giving it to their kids? No, but China is a specific case with the Houston Rockets. Okay, are people in Japan doing that? Are people in Argentina doing that? I would say Japan probably has more UFC

I don't know than Houston Rockets in particular Not maybe not more than NBA Well that's not you're not buying MBA You're buying Houston Rockets You're getting in the business of the NBA right You're buying Houston Rockets though We're looking at Houston Rockets

All right Also You may want to control What is for all in sense of purposes A league versus an individual team And even though I would call the Rockets a franchise and the UFC a franchise and say that there's a more direct comparison to them there than the NBA, you do have more control over the entirety of that roster versus, you know, you have these 15 to 20 players on your one individual team. There's a lot more influence on the various parts of that construction, which I think. could be appealing to somebody.

Double the price tag is definitely... That's a huge thing in the favor. Not only does it have all these things in its favor, it's also half the price. Sure. This is no knock on the UFC. Of course. I love MMA. If I could own the UFC, I'd love to you.

Yeah, yeah, of course. But I just... It was interesting because he's related to them, and so I thought... Third cousin... And I still can't wrap my head around that $4 billion number. I mean, like...

It's very high. The Dodgers and the... the clippers and now, you know, sports teams aren't for sale very often and they're going to continue to rise. But one of the things you mentioned as a positive could also be seen as a detriment in the sense that you're talking about getting into the profit sharing with the NBA. The TV deal is way more lucrative, even if you're... Sure, but in the UFC, they don't have to split the pie. It's theirs.

Sure, but you're not getting, I mean, you're talking billions of dollars as opposed to a hundred million dollar, right? You're making more money as one of 30 as opposed to just one in that world. That with the assumption that everything stays exactly the same. The goal is to grow it is to make it larger and make that investment worth more than $4 billion and make that TV deal worth more the next time around. Now, granted, I'm not saying that that's something that's going to happen overnight or something that's going to happen exponentially. It's definitely going to be incremental growth. But the idea is you don't have to. Should it grow, you don't have to share it.

Whereas in the NBA, there is, there is. is a part of a system that you're operating under. You don't have complete control, whereas you do have a lot of control, but you don't have complete control as owner of a team. That said, I would definitely want to get on board on owning the Houston Rockets.

I think they're primed and poised for a run this year. I don't know if they're going to hold this year. Even if they were a last place team, still would rather be. No, well, that changes the scenario. No way. That's going to change. It's a cycle. It is cyclical, but it's not like, you're telling me you wouldn't want to own

I don't know give me the worst like would I want to own the Charlotte yeah you wouldn't tell that to Michael Jordan would okay would I want to own them as opposed to let's say okay now this is a big caveat

here but you have to go with me on it if price tags are the same let's say I could own the UFC for $2 billion or I could own the Charlotte what are they now the Hornets for $2 billion I might be more inclined to want to own You'll see.

Nope. I might. That is, that you're printing money. You see how hard it is these days with the ticket sales and take? You're not sitting in one city and printing money and selling out tickets. You have to take this thing from town to town to town to town to town. Those sellouts are not guaranteed. Houston isn't.

You have to take this thing from town to town to town to town and promote and get on the ground and tell people and make cards and have injuries. Here you're sitting, 41 games out of the year. You're sitting there. And if you're a good team, it is a print shop. You have to be a good team, though. Houston is a good team. A bad team, I don't know how easy it is. Here's the best part about it.

If you buy the UFC, you've got to get on there and you have to build stars and you have to do all this stuff. If I own the Rockets, you know what I do? I find the best GM in the game, and I get the heck out of the way and I let him run my business. I mean, that's kind of what they did. I feel like Dowell Murray is up there.

Exactly. Look at the best franchises, right? Yeah. The Thunder and the Spurs, the owner. The owner of Cavaliers, the owner gets out. Look at the back. franchises. The owner gets out of the way. And so that's the best part. You sell, you know, you buy it for that much, and then you just get out of the way, as opposed to the U.S.

I think this, you raised a good point about the cyclical nature. I would, I think that UFC's like star base refreshes more than NBA franchises. I would say that it's much harder to come across a star. Do they last as long? No, well, definitely not that. Well, that's something too, right? If you have like a James Harden and you got him for 10 years, that's a nice chunk of time to be able to print that money. But I would say like when everybody was freaking out, what happens when Anderson Silva and George St. Pierre are no longer here? What are we going to do? Connor McGregor came along and changed the whole game completely. A Yohanna-Jech comes along.

A Ronda Rousey comes along. I think that there will always be a way for that to kind of refresh itself. Sometimes NBA teams go in the tank for a lot longer. I don't disagree with you. We could do a whole show just on this. This would be fun. Yelamed just threw one out me, threw one at me, UFC for 4.025 or Formula One for 8 billion?

I don't know anything about Formula One. Now you're buying like a whole freaking, like you are literally, there's Formula One is its own sport, right? So Formula One is not a league. It is a sport itself. Well, it is a, it's a certain kind of, it's like NASCAR is its own Formula One, different kind of car, different kind of race, different kind of track. That is to say like there's not competitors who do

that same type of racing? No. Yeah, well, that's something else all together. That's crazy. See, in this case, I would go with UFC just because I enjoy that more, but... Plus, it's double the price tag for the... Okay, let's get the question.

Well, done. So we're going to do this every week, yeah? Well, I'm just trying to make the company more money, so I'm trying to think of other ways and what... Sponsored by... Look, maybe the Houston Rock is going to throw a little out there. Maybe some tickets for us to go see.

It would be nice. Okay. This is our actual first question here. I jumped to that because I was Johnny on the spot when you were going to your chair poll question. Oh, wow. If John Jones, I think this is a simple yes, no, but I think worth addressing,

because we had this news come out last week regarding blood testing and further testing for John Jones. If John Jones goes to Bellator, can you fight right away? No. The answer is no, because it's the commissions will.

It's the commission that will. They will respect Usada. And Chad Mendes, return. People are always asking when he's returning, he just has to serve his time

as he's agreed to. I'm told these days looking more like next summer. There you go. He's got that two-year suspension, but looking more like next summer. By the way, are there any other questions

about John Jones? No, this is the one, so let's get into it. I have to say, let me just say something right here. Let me just say, oh my God, you adjusted the mic. Here we go.

I have to say, Friday afternoon, I get word. And reminder, I'm in Montreal. You know, not, I wouldn't call it vacation, but I'm like, not sitting in front of a computer. You're never on vacation doing news, right? And I get the call that John Jones has passed his fight night drug test,

blood test. Friday night after the Wands was a urine test. Of course, that has now come up with the Taranabal. And then he didn't do it blood that night, did one. The next night didn't do a urine. Why they do that, I'm not really quite sure. but that's the way it was. And for me, there were two questions left unanswered about John Jones.

Did he pass his fight night test? What's the result of the B sample, right? Malki said when we were in Vegas, they're going to do the B sample, they're going to test it, just make sure. There were two things left. And then once you get the B sample back, okay, how are we going to proceed? What's the defense? What is Yucada going to do?

And oh, by the way, what happened, fight night? So I get that information, and we put it out there. and I was shocked, literally shocked. I thought I was in a twilight zone. I thought I was in some kind of alternate universe at the response to this information. Coming from all corners, this is irrelevant news.

This is not even news. This is clickbait. What does this have to do with the failed test? You can't detect Taranabol in a blood test. Why are you putting this out there? This tells us nothing about the urine test. This tells us nothing about the failed test. This tells us nothing about nothing.

And I'm thinking to myself, wait a second, wait a second. We didn't know if he passed or failed the fight night test. The last test related to UFC 214. That in itself makes it news. Whether it's big news, small news, gigantic news, little news, breaking news, whatever you want to call it, it is news. We didn't know it. Now we know it. It is news.

That makes it news. You get that? Now, are we in the business? and by the way, interesting to hear from the public, who likes to always say to us, the media, that we're the negative ones, are we in the business of only putting out negative news? So are you telling me if John would have failed the fight night drug test,

then it would be news? Then it would be news. But because he passed it, it's no longer news to you? I don't quite get that. And then for the people who said, this is irrelevant, this has nothing to do with anything. Why are you telling us about this?

Because you can't detect Taranabal, which is what he failed for. According to Usada, on Friday, via the urine test, this doesn't detect it, wait a second. Is it impossible to fail for two things? Is it impossible to fail for masking agents? Is it impossible for your blood test to come up positive if you failed the urine test the day before? Like, was I the only one who was curious about this? Where did I say, where did Sean say, who wrote the article, that this refutes the findings of the Friday test? Where did we say that because he passed?

this test, that means that the Friday test is egregious. Where do we say that because he passed this test, that means that there was a mistake that he's going to get off Scott Free, that he's an innocent man. Where do we say that? All we said was that we got the results of the fight night test and now we know the complete history except for the B sample. We're going to find out the B sample. I couldn't believe even fellow journalists the way that they were digesting this news. No one said that the result of this fight night test had anything to do with the Friday test. No one said that. No one said that.

No one said that this being positive means that this is no longer negative. This being negative, it means that no one said that they are connected. All we said was that Friday, the last test that he took was a blood test, which by the way, we didn't even know that it was only blood test until we found that on Friday. And nothing came up. Okay, good. Now we know the results of every test. We know what happened on the 6th, the 7th, the 27th, or the 28th, to 29th.

Now we know it all. Why did everyone have such an issue? with this news, I could not understand it. I kept reading the responses. I was like, am I missing something here? Am I not understanding something here? Where did we say that this piece of information has anything to do with that piece of information, that this piece should refute that piece?

It doesn't make any sense. Like, I was blown away by the reaction. Now, I'm typically, you know, like, I'm sort of immune to it all. But this one was like, and then seeing, like, colleagues and people weigh in. I was like, am I missing something here? Am I like what, do you understand what I'm saying now at this point? I've been holding onto this since Friday and now I'm finally letting it out and it is the tail end of the show.

Do you get what I'm saying? Like, did you see the reaction? You're not giving me anything. I don't know where you're coming and I'm looking to you for guidance here. Like, did you see the reaction? Did you see everyone weigh in? All of a sudden, I'm being followed by thousands of PD experts who are telling me all sorts of things about Toronto.

Like there, they know for a fact that this is detected at that at 7. hours and 48 hours, but forget about all that. Where did we say that this piece of information means that that piece of information on Friday is no longer valid because this was a past, that this was a negative, that he did not fail that test? Where did we say that? We did not.

Okay, so why did everyone go nuts over this? I think, and I'm speaking for a lot of people at this point that don't probably want me speaking for them, but I think it's because the next piece of news that people were hoping for was regarding that fail test. Get out of here with that. That's nothing to do with me.

If that truly... I'm trying to... You asked me a difficult question. I saw these people saying it's irrelevant. How is this information irrelevant? It's not. It's not. They're misguided. You're looking for confirmation for the Friday.

I didn't say I got the B sample result. I didn't say that... But that's what people were looking for. Well, good for you. that's what people were, were pinning their hopes to was that the next bit of John Joan news that we were going to get

was the B sample came back and he failed or did not fail. That's what people were looking for. And when their, when their expectation was disrupted, their thought was, well, why didn't I get that? That's what they were looking for.

Well, now is that fair? Is that reasonable? Is that something that somebody should expect? No, maybe not. But no, I think as a result of that reporting, we even got Usada to officially confirm.

Usada doesn't do that. This was my favorite byproduct of this whole exchange, by the way, my favorite thing. My friends over at MMA junkie writing this. Earlier today, MMAfighting.com cited multiple sources close to Jones and reporting Jones's post-fight negative the night of the fight. Yurick, Danielle Uruk, who's a spokesperson for Yusada. Yurek, however, cited Jones's agent, presumably long-time rep Malki Kawa as the source.

Quote, given the fact that Mr. Jones' agent has publicly commented on this case, blah, blah, blah, we can confirm Mr. Jones provided your... Okay, and then they go to the statement that they gave to me first. So basically, if you read that earlier paragraph, M.M.A junkie is saying that I said I had multiple sources that confirmed the post-fight negative, but really it's presumably Maliki Kawa. They're confusing two stories. Eurek is talking about Malki on my show, Vegas, talking about Taranabal. I spoke to three people who confirmed that. I'm not going to tell you who they are, but you're telling me that I said I had multiple and I really only had one. You're calling me a liar right now.

Like I'm reading this stuff and I'm like, have I just lost my mind? What is going on here? I'm being called a liar. I legitimately spoke to three people who told me this. Then I confirmed it and put it out there for the public. Then Usada comes out and says what they say. And they're guessing that it was maybe, no, Malki is the other thing is saying about Taranabaa.

Nothing like you do with the fight night test. Do you get what I'm saying? I do. It was shocking. And then at one point I just said, I have to put my phone away because I don't understand what's going on with these people. Like, am I living in some kind of alternate universe? All we put out there, it's kind of like saying, okay, I don't know,

Chris Avila is going to fight Marebeck Tysumov and everyone being like, what does that have to do with Nate Diaz? No. I mean, like, the last piece of information left. was the fight night sample, right? The fight night sample. That was it. That's all I put out there.

It was a positive, okay, now we know everything. Let's focus on Friday and let's tackle that. But what if he passed it? What if he failed it? What if he failed it for something completely different? Let's not forget that Brock Lesnar failed for two substances. Right? You're not wrong.

But the question of what if he failed it is what is driving this? Because he didn't fail it, they are saying, I don't care. I don't care that he passed this blood test. They would only care if he failed it. Right or wrong, I think you've made a great point about everybody's quick to talk about how the media propagates negative stories only, rather than when people do good and in this case do what's required of them to pass the drug test. but I think people were saying, well, I don't care. Yes, whatever, I don't care about this.

Let me know about the other thing, which is not how that game plays. By the way, in my hysteria, Brock failed two tests. Jones failed for two substances. So here's the guy who's actually had a history of failing for two different substances, and yet everyone's like, oh, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? What are you talking about? Anyway, I had to get that out because I could not understand the reaction to this story. Like never did I say.

And yes, should we have maybe spoon fed you the information that Taranibal can't be detected in blood according to, you know, Yusada and according to other sources? Okay, fair enough. I'm putting out 140 character tweet. All I'm telling you is that we found out that on Fight Night, he passed the blood test. Cool. Now let's move on and wait for the B sample. That's it. Yeah.

I don't think the reaction would have been much different if you had said, you know, you're in this, you know, is a test that can detect us and blood is not. But, yeah, I can't, it's hard for me to, you're asking me to justify it. It's hard for me because I don't understand to you. Sorry. I spent too much time on that. Let's go rapid fire here. If DJ wins this week.

Yes. Who's next for him at 125? Or do we insert him into a superfight? He's now broken, if he wins, he has now broken the record held by Anderson Silva for title. I think this opens the door to potential superfights. There's always going to be someone out there at 125. Sergio Pettis would make a lot of sense. We'll see what happens with Joseph Benavides,

although I've already weighed in on that one. I like that one. You know, 135, I think, is a little more clogged up with, you know, obviously Cody and T.J. And then there's the Jimmy Rivera, Dominic Cruz situation. But I think he just wanted to get by the record. He's talked about going to 20.

I don't think this is a guy who's going to be jumping around, but I think this opens the door to that. potential. Dan Hardy, have we seen his last fight in the Octagon? Is he settling into commentary and away from fighting or is that itch still there? What do you think? If I, I mean, he's the one who keeps saying that he wants to fight and, you know, who am I? The longer we are removed from his last fight, I think the chances increase that he will not fight again. Sure. If you're to put a gun to my head and say, what do you think? I say we've seen his last fight. But that's just total guess feeling.

He keeps fighting for it. He keeps doing the test. So more power to him. December. Who's going to be our headliner come end of year? What do we look for? This is not with any information. This is just what I know they want.

And this is just what has been expressed before August 26. Connor Nate 3. Huge. WME needs it. Everyone needs it. Could they get it done? Could they make the deal happen? Does Nate get what he wants?

Connor get what he wants. There's a lot of hurdles, but that's what they want. That's choice number one for that card. CM Punk, we talked about a potential return. If he does return, is he on a UFC main card? Is he on a TV card? How do you see that shaking out should he return? He is on a main card.

He is on pay-per-view. Pay-per-view job. Daniel Cormier, when he does come back, he's taking some time off. When he does come back, what does he get in his comeback? Does he, basically, does he jump back right into the contenders? Does he get one? Well, is he champion or not? That's a big question, right?

That is a great question. Is he a champion or not? Fair point. If he is not a champion, if he's not a champion, I think the Jimmy Manuel fight makes a lot of sense. And by the way, I think he should take the rest of the year off. Come back in 2018. If he's not a champion, if he is a champion, it's a little different. Probably has to fight Alexander Gustafson.

Right. Do you think he will be a champion? That's me guessing on the test and everything. Sure. I think if John is found guilty, then he becomes a champion. Even without due process or anything like that involved, this timeline is still even going to be an issue. Regardless of what the test results end up being, holding up the division with the belt is based on the timeline of John returning, whether it's due to suspension or not. DC could be ready should that need to happen.

But he sounds like he's going to take some time off. name in there, Chris Weidman, who's still a middleweight, who's coming off a win, I still feel like he could be a player at 2 of 5.

I've said this long ago. We could hit this quickly. How impressed, Zabit? Lived up to the hype. Lived up to the hype and Tysuimov as well. I just don't like the Lobov callout.

I love it. Call him out. He's fighting Andre Fili. Don't waste your callout. So who could he have called out? Give me a name. I don't know what your name is, But that's pretty much...

And how much attention would have gotten compared to calling the Artem Lobos. But everyone calls that Arden. I mean, literally every card he is called out. We are now talking about him more than he would have been talked about if he hadn't called out Arteblob. It doesn't do anything. Nothing's going to happen as a result. So it's one step above saying whoever the UFC wants. Okay, cool.

No, no, no. It's a step above. Disagree. It's not quite the same, but it's a step up. I feel like it's many steps above. We are talking about him because he called out somebody he couldn't even fight. Yeah, I guess. It works.

It works. Call out Artele Bob. It's like when Mickey Gall called out. Dan Hardy. We talked about it, but it ended up being a futile callout. Well, now he botched that. He hasn't gotten himself a fight book. And trust me, he will not be fighting him next because Artem's fighting someone else. No, but he doesn't have to fight Lobov. If he, if he fights soon, he's gotten the wrong. I don't think that Dan Hardy callout led to him being inactive for nine months. No, but if he had been active, we would have still been thinking of him

due to that Dan Hardy callout. He botched it. He took too long. Did the USC make a mistake by not having a high profile card on Fox this weekend to try and capture the casualist from May Mac? Essentially, they missed a boat this weekend trying to capitalize on people who may be looking for MMA and instead it was on fight pass. The Mayweather-Mogregor card was the Super Bowl on steroids. It was so big. I still feel like I'm, you know, experiencing a bit of a hangover. I think that the fans needed some time to sort of ease their way back into things. Like when you have the Super Bowl, when you have the World Cup final, when you have the NBA finals, like you don't just go back into the regular season the next week.

The UFC doesn't do that. The train moves along. actually easing people's way into it was the smart I think dude now they didn't plan for any of this like when they laid out the schedule in god knows when December January like they weren't planning for august 26 being that day but i think it actually worked out in their benefit last question most important question have you subscribed to mighty mouse's twitch channel yet i have always said and you can go back here we go to this over the years should he break the record i will subscribe so break the record on saturday

and I will consider it. Wow. I've always said that. You have always. UFC 215 on Saturday. That's the start of time. UFC 250. By the way,

look, it's not going to sell a boatload of pay-per-views. I really like this card. Good card. And I just tell you some of the things I like about this card? Hit me. The return of Cajun Johnson

right off the bat is exciting for me because the man talks a lot, so let's see how he's been training and whatnot. Quieter now, but Gavin Tucker. Remember what Gavin Tucker did in Halifax? Yeah. Fantastic. Henry Sohudo

against Wilson Hayes. Great fight at 125. To former title challenger. Sarah McMahon. Always love watching her fight. On a roll. Jeremy Stevens against Gilbert Melendez

and Gilbert's 145-pound debut. Fireworks. Latifi Pedro. Pedro's look great. Yep. Neil Magni, RDA.

We talked about RDA. And then Nunei Shavchenko, Demetrior. Imagine we had Engano up in there. I mean, I've seen worse cards. I've seen worse cards.

seen worse cards. I've been to worse cards. Timing-wise, though, tough. It's a- coming on the end of Mayweather-M-Gregor. And then 217 coming up. Right. 216 is the one that's gonna... That also, sure. I think this is actually...

You can argue, this is a better card. 216 has some names. Tom Duquesnewa. Page, of course, Dunham, Darius, Verdume Lewis, Tony, blah, blah. But, like, my dream is combined these... You combine those two cards? Fantastic. But they got to fill these slots.

You lost over it. I what? Oh yeah. You glossed over this, but I'm going to remind you. There's something on the line for us on Saturday. Oh, that's right. The result of Amanda Nunes and Valencia Shavchenko. Who did I pick?

You picked Shavchenko. I don't even remember. Wow, that's bad. That's bad, Ariel. I pick Shepchenko. It's been a long day. You need Shepchenko. I need Nunes.

There's stakes for this Saturday. Let's see who comes out on top. All right. We got it. We got a reprieve. Now it's time to... Yeah, I forgot about that. This is big time.

It's time to pay the piper. This is big time stuff. So if Nunes wins, you win. If Shvchenko wins, I win. That's it. And what's at stake? We didn't determine stakes. That's the problem.

All right. Everything is at stake. The fate of the universe is at stake. All right. Well, thank you. We'll see what happens. And by the way, thank you to everyone out there who had my back regarding those thieves

over at an experience with, who have yet to pay me half of what I was owed for that Connor McGregor thing. I didn't expect to turn into that, but those people got out of town as far as Twitter is concerned quicker than I don't know what. They completely shut down their page. I saw you wanted them to donate to Harvey. I said.

And it was already gone. It was gone. The handle was already gone. Unbelievable. Lies after lies after lives. Lies, they sold it to airplane companies. I mean, it was a great experience and all. But like, I'm not asking for much.

Just pay me what you said you were going to pay me. And then I started to learn about the company and lies in the past and the way they changed their company name and go bankrupt. I mean, what a bunch of jokers. That was very disappointing. Never had that happen to me. Where someone said, like, I'm an honorable guy. I feel like I went above and beyond. I feel like I delivered for them.

Just pay me what I'm owed. Horrible. And by the way, I'm not one, yes, I should have. I'm not one to air the dirty laundry, but they announced that they have this Schwarzenegger thing and then they had announced the interviewer for it and someone sent it to me because, you know, I mentioned it in passing on this show. and I was like, oh, this poor lady, I hope she gets paid up front. And then it kind of, then I got worked up.

Sort of like I got worked up earlier about the whole John Jones thing. People don't know, but I could get worked up. Oh, I've seen it. I've seen that fiery temper. Yes. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone in the back.

You can hit my music. We are done for the day. We are done for the week on this Tuesday, September 5th. New York just got up. Look at this guy. Can't even wait until the end of the show. See that? Look at that.

What the heck? I'm still here. Unbelievable this guy. Who knows? Like what more does he have to do then sit there for the next two minutes as I say goodbye to all of you? Apparently a lot. Well, I'm going to Edmonton. One of the things I really like to do is visit new Canadian cities, Canadian cities that I have not been to.

I get to do that this week. I get to visit beautiful Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, home of the Eskimos. Can't wait for that. And perhaps along the way I'll see a little bit of history. Demetrius Johnson looking to break. Anderson Silva's UFC title defense record. He'll be fighting Ray Borg on Saturday. And then, of course, Amanda Nunes versus Valentina Schofchenko,

the women's banditoy title, DJ, of course, defending his flyaway title. What a fun show. What a fun day. Thank you for everyone who stopped by. I hope my son had a good first day in kindergarten. It's a very nervous day for this parent. They grow up so fast. They really do.

See how it goes. I'll keep all of you posted out there. Thank you very much to Joanne Calderwood. Good luck to her in November against Beck Rawling, Sydney, Australia. Thank you very much to Francis and Gannu. Bon Anniversal. Happy birthday to him. Thank you very much to Patty Pimlet.

Patty was great. Very intense. Enjoyed that conversation. Thank you very much to Paige Van Zand. Great to catch up with her. Good luck on October 7th. Thank you very much to Owen Roddy. Thank you very much to Stephen Espinoza for stopping by.

Thank you very much to Ben Ascran. Hafeld dosangios and, of course, the great Derek Lewis, doing great work out there in Houston. All the best to everyone in Florida as well. Back next week, I'm going to say, peace. Somebody.