MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 401

Episode Date: September 26, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Gökhan Saki (00:05:23), Luke Rockhold (00:27:43), Ray Borg (01:04:06), Kamaru Usman (01:28:05), Matt Brown (01:51:06), Mickey Gall (02:13:58) in studio, Aaron Pico (03:06:02), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (03:28:27) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:23:31). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's called Frontburner. We break down one story each day and talk to the reporters, the politicians, and people at the heart of it. Our goal is to help you stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. You can find and follow Frontburner on Spotify. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the mixed martial arts hour with The mixed martial arts hour It is back in your life

On this Monday, September 25th, 2017 Hello again everyone I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio So great to be back here with you On another lovely scorching hot afternoon here in New York City Hope you had a wonderful weekend like I did A Happy New Year, tell my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters out there, I was in Montreal for Rosh Hashanah. It was a great time.

It was a fun time. It was a hot time. It was a lovely time as far as the temperature was concerned. It was also a lovely weekend in the world of MMA. It was sort of a quiet one as far as the buildup to it. But in the end, one of the more enjoyable weekends in the last few months, at least in my opinion, you had the UFC in Japan on Friday night. You had LFA with some great performances. You had Bellator with one. one of their best shows of the year, in my opinion, on Saturday. Some fantastic performances. Aaron Pico finally gets his first professional win, an amazing K.O., one of the best of the year. Golcansaki gets his first win in the UFC, his first pro-MMA win as well.

OSP with his third Vaughn Flu choke, or is it the Von Pruchoke now? We also had Jessica Andrudge and Claudia with a fantastic performance by both. Great win by Jessica and Raj. What else? Andrea Lee victorious again. Paul Daly with a fantastic knockout against Lorenz Larkin.

Roy Nelson's successful in his Belator debut. Patrick Pipples, successful. I mean, all kinds of things went on this past weekend. There's so much to discuss, so much going on, as always, in the world of MMA. We have no time to waste right off the top. Let me run down today's lineup because we have a lot to get to

and we have a guest standing by as well. He is very kind to be joining us at a very late hour. So, 405, we're going to be. Rick's picks. We're going Aaron Pico at 345. Talk about his first pro win. Can't wait for that. Mickey Gall is going to be joining us in studio at 245. Where's Mickey Gall been this year? Completely under the radar. Matt Brown announces retirement after his next fight late last week. He'll be joining us to talk about that at 225. 205. Camaro Oussman will stop by for the first time ever on this program. Rising Walter Wight Star. 145 Ray Borg will be on. Can't wait for that. Talk about 216, pulling out a 215.

All that stuff and more. Luke Rockhold will stop by at 125. Looking forward to that. And of course, at around 4.30, we'll be taking your questions, answering your questions and comments. Also put up a poll earlier today over at mammate.com, the MMMA After Hour. Hit us up all show along using the hashtag the MMMA Hour. There is so much going on. No time twice, as I said.

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Up your snack game. Pack line up today, but first, let us go to the phone lines. Standing by right now, one of the big stars of the weekend. Everyone talking about the successful debut of won Gokansaki. I mean, this was amazing stuff. Highlight real stuff. everyone buzzing, including UFC President Dana White, and Gokan Saki is so kind that he is joining us right now, still in Tokyo, 2 a.m. right now over there, and he is kind enough to stay up and join us on the program. Can't thank him enough for that. He is on the phone standing by. Let's go to Gokane sake right now. Gokane, are you there? Everything is great. I really appreciate you staying up. Is this weird for you? Like, are you really tired? Are you struggling, considering it's 2 a.m. in Tokyo right now? Yeah, it's 3am

And I was I was raping but there are no problem I always I was open for the next interview with you I appreciate that very much So there's much to discuss First off right off the bat Congratulations on a great debut

Looking back now a couple days later I know you got the win But are you Are you happy with the performance Are you is that kind of the way That you wanted your first fight in the UFC to go? I think I see the fight many times back and I am 100% happy with the fight after 2% off here not fighting coming back in an oxygen on this way for myself.

I'm really happy with what I show and for me the most important thing is we all know stand up is good. But I was waiting for the moment. He was trying to take me down and I proved myself. And, yeah, because of these two, three situations, I'm very happy with the fight, you know?

Were you surprised, Gokon, that he didn't try to take you down sooner? No. I was not surprised. He was also waiting for his moment. And I was not getting him his moment because I was moving good. So I was showing the left, I was moving to the right

and then opposite, you know, forward was for him to try to catch me in the game. Later, yeah, he gave me a right look, I think, with the first time. He missed him. He only come for the cringing. And we came in the situation and pushed me to the cage

and that was the first moment for me and I think I did a good job there, you know? You are no stranger to big fights. You have close to 100 kickboxing fights under your belt. You've been around

combat sports for a very long time. That's pro kickboxing, of course. Did this one feel different? Did you feel like you were kind of, you know, a young guy starting out? Did you feel a little more nervous in the back as you were preparing to make the walk to the Octagon for the first time in your career? You know, I was nervous, but there was the feeling you need to have before the fight.

And I really miss this feeling in my life, this last two and a half year. This feeling was back, and because of this, I was 100% sure for myself. Like, I'm ready and I'm shot. So the feeling was back like when I was beginning with kickboxing. This is a new book for me, and it really felt like this is something new. And I was shot and I was nervous, but good nervous, you know? You talked a little bit about the cardio and that was a topic of discussion afterwards. You chalked that up to being away for two and a half years or just the fact

that MMA is a different sport than kickboxing, you have to use your body in different ways, it just, you know, the rounds are longer, or maybe is it both? Maybe both factors came into play. Why do you think that you got a little tired towards the end of the round? Look, I stopped like,

my last fight for glory was in 2015 or 2014, the time has formed. And then after that, one year later, I fight. So in the last three and a year of years, I only fight one time. And after my last fight in Dubai, I really stopped training also.

So I start training again like in February. And before I found with a UFC, I was busy already training with a junior tour, to the rest. So I really started this year again training. And even if it was a little bit of a year. kickboxing fight, I'm always ready for three minutes. And now it was five minutes. And like I said, I start training this year.

And this M&A condition, you cannot build up in a couple of months. This is really something. After every fight, you need to keep training and build up your muscle condition and your strength condition, you know. And even if it was a kickboxing fight, maybe I will get tired because I didn't train all this. I didn't train for a long time. So if I see the fight back, the first three minutes, I was good. And then after three and all the four minutes, I started to get a little bit tired.

But also the wind was playing again because normally, if I if I if I like the first time I gave him a knock down he go down and then he stand up I only give power punches you know normally with kickbooks when I was training all the time I keep thinking in the fight faking combinations but this time because of the ring was also I was only giving power shots yeah I understand what I mean Yeah, I do. And now I start training again, so there was the first time. It was the opening fight.

There was not 50% of what is inside me, you know. This is the beginning. And like I said, I'm really happy to be back on this big stage, and I am ready to show many, many more things, man. Did he hurt you seriously at any point in the fight? Did he hurt you at any point in the fight? Did you feel like you were rocked at all? Did you feel like you were seriously hurt at any point in the fight by Enrique de Silva?

No, only a moment I was hurt was the moment. I heard is a big word, but I mean, he catch me with the elbow. and after the elbow he gave me left knee. It was the only moment I feel, I feel, I see, I feel it, you know, I feel the elbow. And then it was on the fighter when I, when I get in the situations, for me it's all or nothing, you know. And he hit me that moment, but I also put my hands down because that moment I want him to punch me so I can count to him, you know? Ah, yeah.

Yeah, he catch me with that. He catch me a little bit of a hundred percent because I was trying to block his knees and I was looking down to his knees and that moment he gave the alibor and I didn't see the alibi. You mentioned the power punches. Do you get the impression that your punches, power punches or not, are just that much more impactful wearing the four-ounce gloves, watching you on TV? I mean, I felt the pain. of the punches. Like you throw

with such bad intentions. It seems like you are so powerful when you're throwing your punches and of course when you're lining them. Do you, did you kind of sit there and say like wow, this is a whole other game for me now not having to punch with kickboxing gloves on? I'm punching with four ounce gloves. Every time I throw it's just that

much more impactful. Did you get that impression as well? Yeah, 100%. But still If your opponent, if you punch me and I see the punches coming, then you can take them, you know? In a combination, if I give you like a jump, right, left hook,

if I did the left left hook, so I drop your eyes and I give the left hook, that will reach you more. When I, the first time he goes down, after that I was thrown on a lot of left hooks and single right hooks, you know. He knows what was coming. And this is what I mean with the ring was.

If you keep culminate in a fight, that's the most difficult thing, what is for the opponent. There is chaos coming from. So the power was there 100%, but like I say, in a combination, there is more opportunity to knock your opponent out. I feel the difference 100%. almost as impressive as the win as the knockout as the debut was the celebration where you kicked your mouthpiece

into the crowd I loved it what timing there what precision is that something you've done in the past or was that just in the moment is that going to be a staple of your UFC victories now on that was just a feeling man I watched this

this situation of my I screwed a mic got out without looking, I touch him, and I told it and I kick. Everything was there, you know. So it was a huge moment. And there was something that just came out, you know. I was happy it was finished.

That's it, man. It was beautiful. What about being back in Japan? I believe this was your first fight in Japan in five years. Did that kind of make the debut seem a little more familiar to you to be in that arena, to be around those people. It almost kind of feels like, you know, if you're not fighting in maybe Turkey or the Netherlands,

that was the perfect place for your UFC debut. Do you agree? Yeah, 100%. Japan is where everything starts for me with K-I-1. And I love Japan. Japan of a big place in my heart. And I used to fight in Ireland, but there was too short, you know,

this extra two, three weeks. I really need it. And I'm very happy it was in Japan. It's very nice here. The people love fighting. The people show a lot of respect for me. Yeah, like I said, I open a new book. And I can write in my book.

Everything starts again in Japan, you know. So this was a really special moment for me 100%. By the way, I don't know if this is a crazy question, but would you consider going down to 185, do you think that that would help you, or do you feel like 205 is the perfect place for you? Honestly, I really don't think about that. Some people say that's no more,

but, you know, I fight heavy weight. And I just need a couple of months to get back the power. Yeah. We do a good power training. And then I think I'm, I'm good for the 05 men. This is my weight.

I always fight heavy weight. I fight heavy guys. And okay, with K1, there was no clinching. So it was only stand-up fighting. And with MMA, there is a lot of clean-shin and wrestling. So there you can feel the power difference. But I know what power I had before.

And I am coming back and I just need two, three, months for this and you will see different sake and more powerful and much better condition just give me a couple of more time. Fair enough, fair enough, yes. Does that mean that you want to return at the end of the year?

Do you want to take the rest of the year off? Do you want to come back sooner rather than later so that you can keep the conditioning up? What's your plan now a couple days after the fight? I'm waiting. We are planning already to fight. we are talking for a new date and I really can't wait to fight in the U.S. So I fight already one time before in Chicago

and I really like the U.S. So I'm planning also to move into the U.S. Start training there for a while. So I hope to fight this year one more time. Where will you train in the U.S.? I think I'm going to go to Miami because I am training together with Salman Dorisha. He's a trainer of Ilya Latifio also. And he lives in Sweden and in Miami, so we have good context over there.

I'm thinking to go Miami in the beginning and see what we're going to do that. going to train and everything is open there still, you know. But your plan is to move to the United States full time? Yes. I really want to move and train there. There is the place to be and to train. There is everything much better than my eyes, you know. I will be more busy there with the,

with my career and yeah like I said I think that is good man has the UFC already approached you or your management about the next fight is there anything more you could tell us about when you might return not yet but I hope ASAP you will know what's gone what we're going to do next step do you have a perfect scenario a date or a place or an opponent, is there anything that comes to mind? Not yet, not yet, not yet. Okay. I'm open. I'm ready. I don't have injuries

and I'm ready to shock the road over there and then. I was told that you actually stayed in Tokyo a couple of extra days. You've already started training again. You're not really taking any time off. Is that accurate? Yes, start training today again. Tomorrow I'm traveling. I stopped a day a little of age and. 30 minutes cardio, so no injuries like I said.

And still hungry, so I can't wait for my next fight. You also seem to get UFC President Dana White very excited about the victory. Did he reach out to you? I know he wasn't in Japan, but I'm wondering if you spoke to him after the fight. No, I didn't speak with the United. I didn't speak with nobody yet. Okay. Honestly.

No, I didn't speak to it. I'm getting a lot of questions from your fans in Turkey and they want to know when you're going back to Turkey and if you have any plans of trying to get the UFC to put on a show in Turkey. Is that important for you? Yeah, that will be great. I mean, Turkey is a big country with a lot of for fighting, with a lot of love for

me also. They always support me and I fight there four, five times in Turkey and there was always an amazing event and always sold out so I know the Turks they're 100% ruling for the UFC and it will be

amazing man, why not? Last thing for you, Gokane and again, I really appreciate you staying up and coming on the show today or I should say late night over there in Tokyo when I had you on the show in May after you signed with UFC

you said within a year you'll be in the mix for the title shot. Do you believe after your first UFC fight that that is still the case? Have you changed your plans at all? Or do you think that you're right on the proper course to being in that discussion in a year? Well, next year this time, I'm fighting for the title.

And I'm the champion. Wow. Next year this time, you're already the champion. You're already the champion. Yes. Next year. this time. I'm fighting for the title and I'm

going to take the phone. I'm really happy, man. I just want to give me more time. Next one. You're going to see how that it's going to be good, man. I promise you. Are you disappointed that it seems like John Jones

is going to be away for a little bit, that he won't be in the mix, at least for now? Honestly, this situation, it's a weird situation for them. I was surprised, honestly. I was like, I didn't believe it, you know, and I hold skill for him that I would love to fight him. He's a very good fighter, and he's sure.

He's sure everybody again. you know he's a very technical fighting and people love the street and fight and I would love to fight the best for me, you know? Yeah.

All right, we'll see if it if it comes true, if the prediction comes true for now, of course Daniel Cormey is the champion. Some might say that that's not the best matchup for you because he's a wrestler, you don't seem to care. No matter who's the champion,

you think you'll be the champion in a year's time, right? 100%. That's what is in my mind, and I know myself. I know I prove myself so many times. If I want something and I love to do that, I will make it happen. This is something I see 10 times in my own career. And now at this moment, this is my point.

I want the title and I'm going to. take it no matter what. Go, Kentucky, I really appreciate the time again. Thank you so much for staying up. Thank you for coming on. And, of course, congratulations on a thrilling debut. It was a real pleasure to watch you in there for the first time and to see you come out on top and the celebration. Everything about it was a lot of fun.

So I tip my cap to you. Congratulations, enjoy it. And looking forward to the second fight coming up later this year. You're welcome, brother. Thank you very much. And we talk soon again, man. All right. I look forward to that.

There he is. the Turkish Tyson himself, I should say. Go Kansaki with a phenomenal debut on Saturday. He addresses the cardio issues. He addresses getting a little tired, but in the end he picks up the victory. And it was the perfect kind of matchup for him, an opponent who stood and traded with him, an opponent who wanted to, for whatever reason, go toe to toe to with him. And the UFC, especially considering the thin, light heavyweight division, would be wise

to continue to book him in those fights for as long as possible until he gets to the title fight, right? Until he gets to the big fight. We'll see if his prediction comes true. We'll see who's the champion in a year's time. But so far, so good for Gokansaki. A lot of people in the UFC are very excited about his debut. All right, let's move along. Not this past weekend.

The previous Saturday, Luke Rockhold returned. He looked phenomenal against Dave Branch. Bit of a maybe slow star, you could say, but ended very strong. He's back in the mix, reasserting himself. as one of the best middle weights, you can still make the case that he is the best middleweight in the world,

and he is kind enough to join us on the Skype machine. Mr. Luke Rockhold, hello there. How are you? Good to see you again. Good to see you, too. Where are you today, Mr. Rockhold?

I'm back home. My mom just got married this weekend at Santa Cruz, so I've come back for a minute, and we'll see what's next. Mazel Tov's your mother. Thank you. Were you the best man?

Were you the ring bear? What was your role in the wedding? Me and my brother walked it down the aisle. Oh, that's very nice. A role. It was a small wedding. It was just nice. Okay. So you're back. You won. Back in the mix. Would you agree with the assessment that Branch won the first round that maybe you needed some time to feel him out?

Maybe he came out a little more aggressive than you thought. And then, of course, you figured things out in the second. but would you agree with someone who said including myself that you lost the first round that he actually did better than most expected? I'd say that I gave him the first round. Okay. Oh, who? You gave it to him.

Why is that? Branch, he had a lot of nervous energy. I think he did what he, you know, he fought his only, the only chance he had was to come forward and swing for the fences. You can tell he just, there was a lot of nervous energy and I was just like, I was overwhelmed by how hard he was committing. He left himself open. I didn't

exactly think that was his game plan, but he listened to his coaches that he could hear him. Every time his coaches would speak up, he would, you know, engage and just click into gear. Branch is a tough guy, but he's a bit of a puppet. You know, I think he listens. He needs,

like I said before, he really needs a motivational speech, and his coaches are they work with them well, I guess, he could say. So you could tell that he's kind of listening to every word that they say and is reacting based on their instructions. You can feel that from him? I can feel it, yeah. I can hear it.

I can feel it. Wow. He was just, you know, I could feel his energy kind of, you know, slow down at the end of the first round. You can't keep that pace up for five rounds. I don't care who you are. Right. That's just not. But you leave openings, you leave holes, and, you know, the calculated the best people in the world, they don't fight like that.

And I just, I obviously over committed my last fight, and I was very set in the mindset of being patient in this fight and waiting for the opening and being precise. So I was, that was my game plan. He, you know, tried to obviously run a dead. Did he rock you towards the end of the first round? Like, were you seriously hurt? No. He didn't rock me at all. He didn't. He hit me. And if you could actually see, he hit, he hit me. I overshot my right hook, and then he rolled with it and hit me at the right. I actually posth up, after about a couple of shots, and you can see me posture up,

drop my hands, and then hit me a couple more times. And I'll go, all right, come here, pull them in, and then obviously I waved off my coaches. Everyone was a little hyped up, but I felt fine. I was very aware of the whole thing. Yes, that was a great scene, a great tweet by you afterwards saying, yeah, everything's under control. I got this. In your mind on the stool going into the second round,

did you know that you could finish him there? Were you like, okay, this has been fun, but it's time to get out of here? I could feel him break a bit. I could feel his energy kind of, it's tucked out. You know, at the end of the first round, it was definitely,

I settled in, I get better if the fight goes on. And he was rushing so much. You know, if he wanted to play the distance game, I was happy with that. I was content there. I think I would have picked him apart easily. but he was just rushing in and he'd always rush to the clinch

and once we started clinching, I realized how weak he was and so he just, he kept that pace and that pressure and he just kept rushing into the clinch and it couldn't help but just take advantage of it, really. At that point, I told him, if it hits the ground, I'm going to make you look like a white belt and I believe I did.

Did you notice that he tapped due to strikes or did you think it was just a TKL? I noticed, I was aware. He was covering up, I was trying to find room to legal shots, you know, where I could put him away. You know, he took a lot of punishment. Not many people are going to survive underneath me. I've seen his hand come up and I think he took all he could take.

There was a debate that it comes up every time something like this happens. For some reason, there's like a stigma attached to tapping due to strikes as opposed to just tapping due to a submission. How do you feel by that? Like people have used as an insult. Like I remember BJ Penn insulting or at least in his mind insulting. building George St. Pierre that he tapped due to strikes against Matt Sarah. Do you think that that is a sort of a cop out, a cowardly move?

Do you think less of an opponent if you see that he taps due to strikes as opposed to tapping due to a submission? I don't know. I'm not one to judge too much. It depends on how much you talk. You know, I mean, if you run your mouth and you say this, you say that, and then you go out and tap. You know, that's kind of why I looked at him. I was like, do you just tap? You know, after, you know, he tried to beat me down pretty hard on the buildup. to tap out in that fashion was, I just wanted to let him know. In a way, go ahead. Please.

Go on, go on. No, no, no. You're going. In a way, was this the perfect opponent for you? Like, did you feel this was the perfect way to ease back into things because you had been away for, you know, a month or I should say a year in what, like three months? I think it was the perfect timing. I mean, timing was everything.

I got to put myself in position in case something happens. and I couldn't wait any longer. I was waiting since June, July, August. No one would sign the contract. No one would step up. And I knew that, obviously, there are title fights coming, and there's opportunities ahead. And if something were to happen,

I want to put my name in the mix and make sure I'm ready. And so I got a fight, I got a top 10 opponent. I put him away, and like nobody else had. He hadn't lost him five years. And before that, it was a decision when Anthony Johnson. So I put this guy away in the second round. I'm thinking, you know, my thing is I go out there and I try to beat people like nobody else at.

Did you feel rusty at all? I just wanted to be patient. I mean, that's my thing. Patience is everything. Patience, you know, leads to being precise. You know, you find people's timing, and that's how I fight my best. This guy just ran forward like an idiot. You can't do that.

You leave openings, these holes, and it's just, it's not a smart way to fight. but like I said maybe this was only chance and so obviously you did it so I felt fine really I just liked to naturally get that timing before I really engage and start putting it on you had to spend you had to spend a couple extra days in Pittsburgh right because you had to beat the the hurricane was that wasn't the original plan correct no hurricane Irma was a was a real threat at that point so yeah we were not going to hang around to see I'm not California I'm not gonna I'm not trying to experience my first hurricane, let alone the most powerful one in history, which they had built it up to be. So we jumped out as soon as when it was necessary.

Not just any kind of Friday. Yeah, but if correct me from wrong, we went private plane to Pittsburgh, right? PJ? PJ. Come on. Wow. I didn't know you rolled like that. We find opportunities. It wasn't too bad. You got to be more well connected these days.

It's not bad bad. I'm doing pretty well for myself. So afterwards, so I thought, you know, obviously you got the win. You reassert yourself. Again, I think that you can make a case for you still being the best middleweight in the world. But I have a bone to pick with the post-fight interview. And it's not what you think. I had no problem with the intensity.

I love the fact that you took things, you know, under control. And it was like your message you didn't really want to answer quite. you wanted to, you know, say what you wanted to say. But I had a problem with targeting GSP as opposed to Bisping. I felt like Bisping should have been the one that you should have been targeting, that he's running for you, whatever the case may be. But GSP is just the guy, you know, the opportunity is taking advantage of a situation. You were trying to get him to pull out of the fight saying, like, there's still time, you know, you're getting involved in something that you should not be getting involved with. Why not target Bispin? You never even said Bisping's name in that whole little spiel.

It doesn't deserve it. GSP So GSP is He's overstepping his boundaries He's jumping into a world That he's not ready for I mean even if he were to win this fight He's not gonna

He's not prepared to fight any of us That's not gonna happen This doesn't make any sense And it's annoying It's what we all work for Is to get to that title And to have that thing held hostage It's frustrating

What you know The direction of the company is going You know just eating the people of this bullshit. It's, you know, I fight to get the title, I fight to be the best. And so there's, there's two of them out there.

And I'm trying to hunt one down. So obviously big thing is my first priority. And, you know, it's not, Whitaker, Whitaker is there. So GSP said on this show, just a few weeks back that it's in his contract and he signed off on this, that if he wins the fight,

he has to defend the belt against Robert Whitaker. You don't believe that he's actually going to do that if he wins? No, and I don't believe Bisbing will either. I mean, he's ran this far. He's finally going to come up and get a payday. I mean, either way, I don't think any of them either one fights, any of us. Bisping said last week on the show that there's a good chance he retires after the fight. So you think he does that before fighting one of you guys?

Of course. Did you hear those comments? What do you make of that? You know, it is what it is. as I've spoke my mind on it. Many of times, he's not going to fight any of us. He's been running from the start. It's, he's scared.

He really is. You know what's funny is, on the buildup to this fight, Henry Hooft had noticed busy stalking his Instagram stories and checking up on us and then made me kind of aware of it, and I checked, and of course, yeah, the guy's, you know, he's not thinking about us. He's been all over our social. He's nervous, he's scared.

He knows, you know, his time is limited. He's going to have to run. Like I said, I'm going to be there. I'm going to put myself on that stage, on that doorstep. You're going to have to make a choice. Bisping was on the show last week, as I said, I asked him about your performance. Just want to play a quick clip and have you respond to it. Here's Michael Bisping talking about your win last week.

Stoppage in the second round. I thought he looked very sloppy. If I'm honest, you know, he has a problem with people that can box, people that get inside, you know, I mean, he landed some good shots, the other guy, David Branch. And if he had a bit more pop, you know, he could have taken Luke out of there. So, yes, you know, congratulations, job well done. He got the finish in the second round. But, you know, he needs to be careful because, you know, a lot, there's a lot that could have been improved upon, let's say that.

But as I say, well done, good performance. So somewhat critical, said that you were sloppy, a lot to be improved on, some advice from the champion. your reaction. You can think what he wants to think. When a guy rushes forward and runs forward like that, there's not as calculated as it should be.

I did what I had to do. I found my timing. I landed my shots. If he wants to think that I'm vulnerable in that realm or any of those realms, please, you know, sign the contract. I'll be ready to go.

You know, as a matter of fact, if this thing were to sign a fight with me, I would promise you in the world, I would bet on it that I will not shoot for one take down. This would be purely a stand-up fight. I'd give him every opportunity to get back in and implement his box and get in the inside. Try it all you will. I fucking guarantee you, I will finish you on the feet. With all the holes in my game, I will pick you apart.

Would it feel like a hole almost in your soul if you never get another crack at him that you don't get to write that wrong? No, I told it. I mean, I've been outspoken. I'm ready to just get back to the top. Like I said, you know, he's been running from the start and he can run to the finish. I'm going to do my thing.

I'm going to reestablish myself. The best men don't always win. That's the sport. There's too many variables in the sport. This is not boxing. We don't have a 10-second count. It's just things happen, you know. And I fucked up, but I'll go reclaim my position and put myself on top.

So what is the plan now in your mind? Are you just going to prepare for November 4th as if you're fighting and hoping that something happens there? Have they opened the lines of communication about maybe a fight on that card where you're fighting, you know, a Romero or someone like that? What is going on right now, or at least what is your plan and hope? My plan is to get healthy. Obviously, first of all, I've got friends checked me one time. I might have a little fracture in my foot and another kick I threw. So I'm waiting on that, trying to stay off my feet and let that decompress.

So we'll see what the time frame is on that. Otherwise, yeah, I'm going to try to stay sharp, stay healthy, and be ready just in case something happens. And I'll be ready to step in on any notice for that fight, if that's the case. See what the case is with Whitaker, too. The timeline is you just don't know what these guys are doing. right now. And then the fact that probably, you know, either one of those guys won't fight any of us after November

so everything's up in there. I'm just going to try to stay healthy and I have some obligations in the meantime. Some things that keep me busy. Like what? Like what? What do you got? We'll see. I just got some

I got some paychecks to collect. Oh. Modeling? We doing the modeling thing? There might be a couple things. I don't know. I'm just taking taking paycheck, buddy. Yeah. I feel you. I got to sell my house.

I got a property I'm selling. I got a lot of different things. I'm kind of in between on right now. So I'm just catching up with life. I put everything on hold and I've got a lot of catch-up work to do. You say you're selling your house. Are you moving to Florida full-time? No.

I'm selling a property next to my house. I have a couple properties here in Santa Cruz. So selling one. I'm probably after get another place. I'll be having Florida here and there back and forth. So considering how it went two Saturdays ago, is it fair to say that you'll be doing all your camps in Florida now? No. No.

I mean, it's about playing it by year and seeing what the circumstances here are in town. I'm going to go over the hill here in a minute and go into A.K. And get some training and see what I can. So I'm going to go see who's there and what the timeline is for, I mean, D.C., who knows what he's doing. fighting soon. Kane's still injured. And I just got to see what the environment looks like in the gym. Really, it's about, it's an iron sharp and the iron world, like we always say.

You've got to have the right tools in the gym. Any blowback from those guys? I mean, this was your first time not doing a camp there in a very long time. Maybe the first time in your career. Was there any blowback? Was it awkward at all? Javier was in my corner. Bob Pick was in my corner.

And Daniel Corminet said he loved me on national TV. I think our relationships are very well intact. All right, all right. Wasn't he supposed to be there? Wasn't he supposed to come out for the fight? Yeah, you know, he's got a lot of obligations these days, obviously, with all his commitments within your world. So, like I said, you're not always in the gym.

He's got a lot of podcasts and TV shows and things. And some things came up, and it wasn't right. He couldn't make it. So would you be interested in Romero? I would be interested in Whitaker's. I want to, I want the title. Okay. I mean, everything is gauged to get to the title, to get the money.

Yeah. I want money fights. And, of course, that's what I'm here for. I'm 33 next month. I'm not getting any younger. I want to set myself up, and I'm not fighting for, there's a little change, you know. I'm going for the real money.

And that's what I want. Everything is structured to be there. And I'm not going to, like I said before, I want a path. I want a direction. And with both titles being held off, it's, there's no point fighting anybody until they straighten things out. You have CES. Right. It's so wacky these days that I can even see a scenario in which Bisping fights GSP

November and you fight Whitaker in December. Like, there really is no rhyme or reason to anything sometimes. Exactly. And that's why, you know, let things air out, iron themselves out, and we'll see. Do you feel like you're in a good place with the UFC these days after everything that went on over the past year? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just fine. That's not very convincing. I don't think we have any problems.

Okay. You're in a good spot. Good enough spot. We're good enough. We're good enough. We're going to see what's to come. Like I said, I'm not ruling out light heavyweight either. We'll see what direction I go on depending on what direction DC goes into. Yeah. Do you think if DC wasn't around at light heavyweight that you would actually go up there at this point just because it's so wide open? You're such a big middleweight. I mean, is he the only thing stopping you at this juncture?

Obviously, I'd like to finish my business here at middleweight, but I've been thinking about it for a long time. And I'm a lot more explosive. The weight cut is definitely affecting me. in there it takes time to kind of shake off that nerve and get the feel back. So I feel good. I like heavy, I feel great. I do just fine. Yeah, how bad was that way cut?

Never easy. Like I said, it's never easy. Was this one of the worst? Yeah. No, I wouldn't say it was one of the worst, but like I said, it doesn't get any easier. As you get older, your bones get thicker. and it's harder to cut the weight off. So you think at some point you will be moving up?

Yeah, at some point it definitely will be. Okay. All right, for now you're still at middleweight, right? The next fight would be a mid-of-weight, I would imagine. You're not fighting D.C. for the belt. That'd be wild. Imagine. Could you imagine that?

You versus D.C. for the light heavyweight title, our minds would explode. Not happening. How about your warriors drawing the ire of President Trump? I wasn't aware. I didn't catch up on it, actually. I've never. You're not aware of this?

Where have you been? No, I've been on a bit of a world when the last week I've been pretty consumed. Well, Stefan Curry said on Friday that he's not really interested in going to the White House. And then on Saturday, President Donald Trump said, guess what, you're not invited to the White House. We're taking back the invitation. And this caused a massive firestorm where LeBron James called the President Obama on Twitter. Now all the NBA players are sticking up for the warriors.

And, of course, the NFL players are kneeling down. because he called them sons of bitches and said that the owners should fire, should kick them out if they kneel down. As a player on your favorite team, the 49ers, last year Colin Kaepernick started the trend protesting police brutality and racial inequality. And so it's turned into this whole thing. But the Warriors, he specifically referenced Stefan Curry in a team.

I mean I seen that. I didn't understand that the stemming from the Warriors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Warriors sticking up. Steve Kerr, Draymond Green, sticking it to the man. Yeah. How about that? Wow.

Good for them. Good for them. Things are pretty chaotic these days. I'm a lot of big fan of where we're going. Yeah. Well said. Luke, I appreciate it. Welcome back.

Congratulations. And I hope it all works out. I hope you get what you want later on this year. Something. Something will happen. I'm sure. All right. We'll talk to you soon.

Luke Rockhold stopping by. Thank you very much. All the best. Still, in my opinion. one of the very best middleweights in the world. You can make a strong case that if he fought for a title, sometime in the near future that he would regain the title. I think back to Luke Rockhold fighting Leotumachita.

I think back to Rockhold fighting Chris Widman. That Luke Rockhold, the Rockhold who fought Michael Bisping in Australia. Remember saying to myself, like, that guy, if healthy, and injuries have played, you know, have played a role in the past, especially more earlier on in the strike force days. If healthy, that guy, there's no stopping him.

He is without a doubt the best middle weight in the world. And then, of course, he slips up against Michael Bisping. That has been talked about ad nauseum. Comes back, year and change off. A bit of a slow first round against David Branch. But as he said, he kind of let that happen. he let him shoot his shot

felt a lot of nervous energy and finished him in the second round. So Luke Rockhold is back. I'm very curious to see what happens. Biss Bing versus GSP is set for November 4th. Robert Whitaker said after his win over Yuel Romero

that he would be ready and willing to return to action in around December or so I could definitely see a scenario in which they go back to Robert Whitaker and not wait for a title unification about and just do a Robert Whitaker versus Luke Rockhold fight.

Would anyone A hate that? And honestly, would anyone be surprised if that happened? I certainly wouldn't. I wouldn't be surprised with the way things are going these days. There really isn't, when it comes to like the biggest fights, when it comes to the title fights, when it comes to the fights that they think are going to generate the most amount of money, there isn't much rhyme or reason.

That's the way the UFC is kind of operating these days. They're trying to make the biggest fights possible. rankings be damned, everything else be damned. You know, that old UFC model, you know, where Yushin al-Kami is getting a title shot against Anderson Silva isn't really in play these days, unless there's no other option. But if there is an option that could sell more than the guy who is standing by, or if they need to do something quickly, if they need to headline a show, you know, with a title fight, a la UFC 216 before the flyway title was moved to that, they'll make an interim title fight.

Now we've seen that time and again. And by the way, since we're talking about December and since we're talking about, you know, a potential end of the year fight, let me just quickly address the, the, the, the Conner-Regger versus Nate Diaz stuff. I woke up on Sunday morning to a flurry of tweets, a flurry of questions, a flurry of people, a flurry of people asking me whether or not a report out of Europe stating that Conner, McGregor would be fighting Nate Diaz on December 30th was a done deal asking me if this was true. And I wrote a bit about this on Twitter on Sunday night. Long before Mayweather McGregor happened, I told you, Adi Atar told you, John Kavanaugh told you, along the way that the plan was for Connor to come back, there was some questions as to whether or not he would actually even come back.

The plan was always, no one ever said, ah, we might not come back, ah, we have to consider it. No, they always kind of said unequivocally that he would come back. And that the plan, once he did come back, was to fight Nate Diaz. Again, as I just said,

that's the biggest money fight. That's the fight that can make the UFC the most amount of money. That's a fight, given Connor's popularity and Nate's popularity, that's a fight that makes around, I don't know, it generates around like two million pay-per-view buys.

I think at this point, I think that's a, I would set the line at 1.5 easy, if not higher, maybe even 1.7, 1.8. That is, without a doubt, regardless of weight class, regardless of belt, any scenario out there, that is the biggest fight that the UFC can make right now. Because of who Connor is, and of course, because of who Nate Diaz is, any fight that Connor is in right now, it does over a million. But because of that rivalry, because that fight seems to have transcended the MMA bubble and gone into the regular. sports world, like every time anyone talks about Connor, they just reference the Nate Diaz fights, like right off the top. They reference the submission by Diaz. They reference 202, the win in five rounds, the decision win for Connor McGregor. So that's the biggest fight. There's no question about that. Now, fans may say, oh, you know, Nate Diaz doesn't serve a title shot. Again, in this day and age,

we're not playing by the same rules. That's the biggest fight that the UFC can make. And that's the fight that they had sort of earmarked penciled in for December 30th if they could get all. their ducks in a row if they can get the stars to align. All right, it's September 25th. The clock has not run out, but the clock is certainly ticking. To address it right off the top, any report stating that that is a done deal is way too premature. I mean, it is not even close to that. Again, that's what the UFC wanted. That's what Connor wants. And there's no question about it. That's what Nate Diaz wants. I mean, he's just kind of chilling. He's made a lot of money. He's just waiting for his time to come back. His number gets called to fight Connor McGregor

because that's the most amount of money he can make in a fight, a Connor McGregor fight. So that's the fight that everyone wants. But the stars need to align here, and they have not aligned. There is no deal. You can rest assured that Nate's going to try to, you know, get the most amount of money possible. You can rest assured that even though Connor has four fights left on his UFC contract, he's trying, I mean, he's in a much different tax bracket now than he was when he signed that deal prior to UFC 194 against Josealdo. I mean, you you might as well just rip up that contract. He is on a whole other stratosphere.

And so they need to figure that out. Can they get it done? We'll see. If I'm them, I wait until the Tony Ferguson Kevin Lee fight happens. I don't think that the winner of that fight gets Connor, but, you know, crazier things have happened a long way.

So let that situation play out in less than two weeks and then kind of assess the situation. I still feel like the Nate DS fight is infinitely bigger than any other fight that they put for Connor. And I wouldn't be surprised if they, they get it done and it happens December 30th or if it happens in early, you know, uh, 2018 first quarter of 2018, maybe, uh, Super Bowl weekend. It says some card like that. Who knows? You know, I mean, that's, you know, Connor could fight on any weekend. It doesn't

have to be a special one. Just witness the, the, the, the Mayweather fight was not on some kind of special weekend. It was just a random weekend. And, and you get them back in the mix, but that's the fight that they want. Again, to reiterate any report stating that it's a done deal is false. I mean, we all knew that that's the fight. We all knew that that's the fight. We all knew that that's the fight that they all wanted. I mean, everyone's been pretty clear. Everyone's been pretty open about what they want and what they think is the biggest fight possible.

Dana White went on Twitter, I believe. I can't read it myself, of course, because sadly I'm still blocked. But I did see, you know, the screen grabs and the reports and all that saying that it's not true. Sometimes he doesn't tell the truth. This time he is, in fact, telling the truth. That fight is not. is not done. So I'm assuming that some report was just made, you know, knowing that that's the fight that they wanted, just kind of shooting their shot and hoping for the best. And maybe when the fight,

this happens a lot with these reports, maybe, you know, in three months, when the fight gets made, they could say, oh, I told you, you know, I was the first one. As of right this second, there is no deal in place for Conn O'Regro to fight Nate Diaz on December 30th or any other date for that matter. Would they like that to happen? Would Connor be open to it? Would Nate be open to it? Yeah, of course. We've said this already, but there is no deal in place.

So everyone was freaking out. I was in Montreal and driving home with my family and I check on Twitter and I have like a billion messages. When are you going to address this? When are you going to talk about the McGregor-Diaz report? I'm like, what report? There's nothing. We know that that's the working plan. Now they have to get the deal done.

And something tells me that if they thought getting 202 done was a little tricky, this one might be even trickier, just given where Connor is given how successful that second fight was, given where Nate is. I mean, he's in no real rush. He made a lot of money for that fight. And we all know how much money Connor made. And Connor made 100, let's just say he made $100 million for the Mayweather fight, give or take. And I've asked Showtime, you know, what's going on? I've asked them, you know, is there an update on the numbers, the pay-per-per-view numbers? And, and, and, and, nothing back. But let's just say you made 100. Why rush back into things? Like why come back within four months? Or now it will be three months. It's amazing. It's been almost a month since May with McGregor. You don't really need to rush back into things at this point. So that's the update on that. Hey everybody. It's New York Rick once again. This time I want to tell you a little bit about Dollar Shave Club. By now, everyone knows that Dollar Shave Club ships amazing razors for just a few bucks. What you might not know, and I didn't, is that Dollar Shave Club also has products for pretty much everything else in the bathroom, from body wash to shampoo to hair gel to lip balm, everything under the sun. As soon as I heard Dollar Shave Club had that other stuff, I was sold. When you go to the brick and mortar stores, there's too many options. You don't know the difference between one thing and the other. If you have any questions, the people at the store don't usually know the difference between the two things anyway. Dollar Shave Club makes it easy and convenient for you to upgrade your shave in your bathroom because they are experts in everything that they produce. Now you don't

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In fact, our own Gilairemei Cruz had an update from her team. Let me see if I could pull that up. Yes, here it is. It is an inter... vertebral disc injury, disc moved and doctor

aligned it again but it's sore and can't train for a few weeks. She can't train for a few weeks. She got her training in Jiu-Jitsu

won't need surgery but they decided to pull out. They informed the UFC late last week. So that fight is off. I was told that there was some talk

of getting Jessica I to fight someone else but that's not happening. So now UFC 216 proceeds with 12 fights. That was without a doubt the best fight. Well,

no, sorry, I misspoke there. That was one of the more. intriguing fights. I don't know if it was one of the best fights. I don't think that that's an accurate statement. But one of the more intriguing fights on the card, it was the flyweight debut for Paige Van Zenn. It was Jessica I's UFC flyweight debut. It was certainly an intriguing one, considering the fact that Paige hasn't fought since December, considering the fact that Jessica I

has lost her last four in a row. I think she hasn't won in around two years. Or so, what is, I don't know. So, that was an intriguing fight, but now it's off. And so UFC 2216 will proceed with 12 fights. Unfortunately, I was really looking forward to seeing how Paige would look after we heard from her just a couple weeks ago. She moved to Oregon. She's changing up her life a little bit. She's training with a new team, but unfortunately that will not be happening. So UFC 216 proceeds with the main event. Interim lightweight title fight. Kevin Ferguson, excuse me, Kevin Lee versus Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title fight. And interestingly enough, the flyweight title fight,

the official title fight, is in the co-main event, Demetrius Johnson versus Ray Borg. And I asked you guys on Twitter, I put out the question of the week, do you agree with the decision to put an official title fight in the co-mate event under an interim title fight? And we'll go to those results a little later on in the program. But for now, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in our next guest, the man who will be fighting Demetrius Johnson on October 7th for the flyway title. Ray Borg is joining us right now. Ray, how are you? I'm doing good, man.

How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate it. I'm really excited to talk to you. So first things first, how are you feeling? How are things after, you know, you obviously fell ill in Edmonton, a couple weeks later, how are you feeling? I'm feeling great.

You know, I came home, took some time off, you know, my body, you know, took like about a week off, you know, let the sickness pass and, you know, not try to jump into training and make it worse. So, you know, I feel really good. Could you tell us, I believe this is your first interview since everything went down, could you tell us what happened in Edmonton? What led to you having to pull out of the fight? You know, what led me having to pull out of the fight? I felt sick, you know, going into the fight. And, you know, as the days passed, you know, my sickness just kind of got worse and worse. And, you know, it came down to the point where it wasn't one of those sicknesses that you kind of kind of just tough through, especially in a championship fight, you know,

as high-calibirds, this fight was. So the UFC doctor came in, you know, saw how sick I was and deemed me unfit to fight. What exactly was the issue that you were dealing with? I heard that your girlfriend had some sort of viral infection and then you got sick and you were throwing up. Is that accurate? Is that what you were dealing with? You know, it's not that intense. You know, it's not like, you know, my wife gave me something crazy, but my, uh, everyone at Jackson, even, you know, Greg Jackson himself came up to me and told me he didn't, you know, he don't even know how I made it to fight week because Greg Jackson was sick as well. And, you know, my wife caught it before I did. And, uh, you know, it just everyone at the gym was just cat, you know, it was

just a, the flu was going around. You know, a lot of people were, uh, were staying home sick. You know, I think what really intensified is a lot of people were also trying to push through it and a lot of people were, uh, were training sick. So, you know, it was just a, the flu was going around here in Albuquerque, you know, with the weather changing everything. It just happened to be a bad timing. And by the way, I apologize. I said your girlfriend, of course, you're married. So we're looking at a picture of you right now wearing the wedding ring.

So I apologize for that. At what point, like when you did this stare down on the Wednesday, when you went to the media day afterwards, when you went to the open workouts on Thursday, like were you just struggling inside? I mean, from our appearance, it looked like you were just kind of getting ready for a fight. but how crappy were you feeling internally? You know, it started off like, you know, the plane right over there, I was just kind of feeling like shit, you know, my body was aching really, really bad,

and, you know, it was just really, really hard, and it was just kind of things like, all right, it is what it is. You know, I'm probably just getting over, you know, a tiny colder, you know, just the atmosphere change. And then, you know, open media day wasn't too, too bad. you know, I was feeling a little uncomfortable. And then it wasn't until open workouts that, you know, open workouts, I felt like I was having to push through a hard, hard workout.

Like I felt like I was having to, it was one of my hardest training days of fight camp and I was having to push through it. So, you know, it was kind of on open workouts where I was really like, hey, you know, this isn't quite right. I'm feeling absolutely horrible. So after the open workouts, that's when we spoke. What happened then? because it was just a few hours later that the word got out that you had to pull out.

What exactly were you dealing with? You know what I did, man, after open workouts, after I talked to anybody, I went to my hotel room and I slept. That was a key thing on why I knew I was sick because I know my body very well. And I, on fight week, I'm active, you know, I like to walk around. I like to hang out. And just whole fight week, I just slept. And, you know, it was unusual for me because I've never been like that. I've never just been so dead tired on fight week, you know?

And so it was like, after that I went to my hotel room. I slept, woke up, you know, started throwing up a little bit, feeling like shit. And it was just, you know, it was then when I was just, it was one of those things that had to be called. Were you at all thinking, like, I can't believe this is happening to me. This is my big opportunity. This is my title fight. You know, please, can you help me someone up above the MMA gods? Are you thinking that way while this is going on?

Yeah, man. I mean, you know, for people to say, oh, Ray pulled out of the flight, fight, blah, blah, blah, blah. People of the outside world need this. Riddle me this. Why would I spend five weeks day in and day out? Everyone knows here at Jackson's and in Mexico how hard I work my ass off. Why would I spend day in and day out, you know, nearly, you know, just spending so much money on fight camp, you know, working my body to the bone, training nonstop, not being able to see my family. Why would I go through all that? just to show up to fight week and not want to perform. Why would I want to show up on fight week and not get paid for myself, my family, and my future children, like, why would I, why would I do that?

So it was one of those things like, you know, shit, please, you know, please let this sickness pass. Please, you know,

let them, let me fight and get me medicine, you know, something like that. It was one of those situations because I would not go out there all the way to Canada. I had all my family fly out to Canada just to pull out the day before. There was some talk, of course, I'm sure you heard this, that it was a weight cutting issue.

Was weight cutting involved with this at all? Not even a little bit. Not even close, man. Weight cut was not even an issue. I have done way, way worse weight cut. Any, like, you know, this was going to be my easiest way cut. This weight cut, I went into fight week lighter than what I did when I went to Brazil. When I fought in Brazil and I made weight piece of kick, I went into fight week lighter by two pounds this time.

around than I did when I went to Brazil. And, you know, I've done, I used to do huge weight cuts back in the day when I first started. You know, when I first got into the UFC, you know, people remember I had no problem cutting weight when I first got into the UFC. And, you know, they have it on record. I'm sure that they have it on record on what I showed up. I used to show up at like 138, 137 on fight week. My first like four, I don't know, my first four to five fights, you know, in the UFC and I made weight kick. Like nothing. I never looked depleted. I never wobbled on stage. So, you know, It was far from a weight cutting issue. So if that is the case, and I certainly believe you because everyone around you said the exact same thing, why did you put out a statement saying that you were parting ways with perfecting athletes?

If weight cutting wasn't a part of it, why even put that out there? You know, with perfecting athletes, one thing people don't realize is it was far more than a weight cut. You know, me, you know, my statement letting go perfecting athletes had absolutely nothing to do with the weight cut. you know the women are perfecting athletes they know their shit they are so good at what they do and you know they made weight cutting easy it was far more in death than what people really know about that i would not like to make a statement at this time about okay so you don't want to clear the air on that because when your team and you said it's not a weight cutting issue but you got rid of your you know nutritionist your your your team that helps you with the weight cutting it seems like

there's a connection there yeah you know that's that unfortunately that's how it seemed because it was right after that we had parted ways. But, you know, people are just going to have to watch for UFC 216 to, you know, watch me make wait to show that it wasn't a weight-cutting issue. You know, like I said, the issue was far more in depth than in-depth than what it seemed like. You know, people to the outside world. Only myself, my camp, and my manager know what really went on and why that decision

was made. So, you know, it's something I would really like, I would really not to like to touch based on, you know, at this time, maybe later on in the future. but, you know, just UFC 216, just watching, you know, you guys will see that it's not a weight-cutting issue. Will you be working with perfecting athletes for 216? No. Will you be working with another nutritionist for your weight cut ahead of the 216 title fight? You know, I found myself in a weird predicament.

I found myself wanting to just do what got back, what I did to get to the show. And, you know, when I got to the UFC, UFC fights prior. You know, I knew my body more than any nutritionists did. You know, no matter how many nutritionists I've worked with, I know how my body reacts to certain things, and I know the way I can cut weight the easiest, the best, and the fastest. And I try to complicate things by adding in too many people

just to make things easier throughout my career. So, you know, as of right now, I'm just doing what got me to the show, doing what I used to do with a little bit of guidance under Clint. I can't pronounce the last name, but he is actually the nutritionist for the UFC Performance Institute. So, you know, just consulting with him, he's going to just kind of monitor everything, make sure I'm doing everything right. And, you know, I make sure I make sure I make sure the biggest thing is recovery after training,

things like that. But other than that, you know, right now where my weights are, I don't need a nutritionist. I'm just going to do what I've done before. My understanding was that the UFC doctor was the one who said, you know, this fight isn't going to happen. you're not fit to fight, you're too ill. Was that the case? And what was your experience like working with the UFC when this whole, I mean, this was a very big deal.

This was the main event. You know, refunds happened afterwards. What was the experience like working with them on this issue? You know, it was great. It was my first time being in a situation like this. And the UFC doctor, he was just looking out for my best interest. You know, if he, if honestly, if it was a weight cutting issue, like people think the UFC doctor would have told Dana. and I honestly doubt Dana would even consider me ever getting a title shot if that was the case.

But the UFC doctor was certainly just in it for the best interest of my health. He came in, examined me, you know, deemed me unfit to fight, told me I was too sick to fight, that he couldn't in good conscience let me be clear me to fight. And, you know, that's what happened. You know, the UFC has been great. You know, they've rebooked it to UFC 216 and, you know, big props to UFC doctors because, you know, all they were doing was looking out for my health. I saw a couple of days later

you popped up a little bit on Twitter during the fight card on that Saturday night 215. What was it like like going I mean I know fans can be ruthless and not really understanding I mean you just said it yourself why would you pull out of a fight that you've worked so hard you're not getting paid

were you just getting bombarded did it make you change your approach to social media? What was it like getting on Twitter and seeing what people were saying about you and having to pull out of the fight? Um, you know, at first it made me really upset. I'm one of those guys. I don't know if you've seen Jane Silent Bob.

Yeah. Have you seen Jane Silent Bob? Yes, of course. You know, at the end where they spend all their money and just go kick the shit at everyone talking shit on the internet? That was my thought process for about a day. And then I realized that, you know, it's a fight game. I realized, I honestly, I went on John Jones social media and seen the bashing that he'd get.

Henry Suhuda, I don't know if you remember, but Henry Suhuto broke his hand or whatever against Sergio Pettis. And people were saying, oh, it was a botched weight cut. You know, Pete fans, I had the time. tell myself that fans are going to say what fans are going to say they're very uneducated they don't really know what's going on so in all honesty i have something to prove you know october seventh you know much more than just beating demetre johnson i have a lot to prove so i've stayed quiet i've stayed off social media i rarely announced anything you know i announced that i'm having a

baby and that's about it you know i i don't need to plan the social media right now that's not that's not what i'm here to do you know it uh social media will come after i went the belt. So I'm just focused on one thing and one thing only. Congratulations on the baby. When are you expecting? I think we're expecting probably sometime around May and June. My wife has her first appointment next week. So, you know, we'll find up then. Wow. That is crazy. Yeah, yeah, amazing time. And what a crazy month that has been for you with that news, which obviously supersedes everything. And of course, the drama of

215 and all that. Was there any fear in your mind that they wouldn't give you the title shot? Like, were you worried because, I mean, even if you say the doctor said that you were not fit to fight, there is a chance that they could be like, oh, we'll go with Sergio or Henry. Was there any fear at all, or did they tell you up front right away that you're getting the title shot no matter what? Oh, you know, of course there was fear, man. I mean, why do you think I was so bummed out about this? Like, you know, this is like something I've literally been working my whole life too. Like literally, like since the age, I've people don't know.

I'm only 24, but I've been in this game of very, very long time. So I was 13. When I got in this game when I was 13, I was in this game, I wasn't taking. making beginner karate classes or jitutes classes. I was in this fight game at 13. So, you know, to work this hard and get to the point where I want to be, when this happened, you know, of course, why do you think I wanted to toughen through it? Because, of course, I didn't know.

I didn't know whether or not I was going to get this shot. You know, the turn of events took a very, very hard turn. And it was just a shit day, a shit week. And I had no clue what was going to go on. And that's what, you know, I was just moping around my hotel room for, like, three days because I don't know what's going on. You know, they could have very, very well. You know, Henry Sehuda looked good that night.

They could have been like, oh, well, you know, let's give Sanchez, or another crack at it. Or Sergio just be Moreno. Let's just give him a crack at it. But, you know, I'm very blessed and very fortunate to still have the opportunity to go in there and face to Mugetius Johnson, October 7th. Did you go to the card? Not at all.

I stayed in my hotel room. What was it like? Because it's all like you're at home and you can kind of hide away from people. You're in the UFC Fighter Hotel. There's tons of people there. Did you not leave your room or did you walk around and people are coming up to? What was it like being in there for those couple days? You know, it was honestly like if I'd be at home sick.

I mean, like I legitimately was sick. So I spent all weekend just laying in my bed, you know, trying to feel better, you know, pumping medicine down my throat and, you know, taking, you know, therapy flu and things like that, hydrating a little bit, you know, just trying to feel better just so I can go home and. plan for what's to come. So I just stayed in my hotel room, relaxed with my wife, my brother, and I just try to get better. I try not to pay too much attention on what happened that night because it would have just depressed me even more. But you know what it is what it is and I got through it. So you say that you have something to prove, not just about winning the belt, but you have something to prove on October 7th. What do you mean by that? Do you have something to prove to the people? Like let's be honest, the stretch over the last couple of years, you've had some, you know,

some pullouts, some last minute pullouts, things like that. Is that what you mean by just getting to the fight and showing up by making the weight. What do you mean when you say you have something to prove more so than just winning the belt? I have something to prove to myself more than anybody else. I can give a damn when anybody else thinks about me. I have to prove to myself that I can compete with Demetri's Johnson and beat Demetrius Johnson. And, you know, given what I need to prove to myself is that I can take all this unfortunate luck that's happened to me.

You know, people, that's one thing that people don't understand is everything that's happened to me goes way deeper than what people understand. And people see it from the outside surface. You know, everyone in the media, you guys all see it from the outside surface. You guys don't see it from the internal surface. What really goes down. And, you know, it's been a really, really rough ride. You know, I had a great streak.

Everything was going good. And then life happened, really. Life took an, you know, unfortunate turn for me. You know, I had some issues in life, some family drama, things like that. And it just, you know, along with the whole fight, you know, my fight luck, it was just shit. So I have to go in there and prove to myself that I can take everything that everyone's saying about me, everything that's happened in last year, put it the fuck behind me and keep trucking forward. That's all I care about. People can, you know, people can say what they want.

I really don't care. This is to me that I can have the ability, because that's the most important thing at the end of the day is having the ability to take everything that happened in the past, put it behind you and keep moving forward and not dwell on it and not let the fans make you feel like shit because this happened and this happened great. Look at how many times that happened. And, you know, look what happened to Kevin Gassum. Go Wikipedia, Kevin Gassum, go Wikipedia, you know, John Lineker. And, you know, what did they do? They put it behind them and they kept moving forward. You know, they had some weight-cutting issues.

They've had to pull out of fights. Ian McCall had, you know, had health issues and had to pull out of fights last minute. But, you know, it's all about just keep trucking forward. And that's what I have to prove to myself. Do you feel like that, you know, that bad luck is gone? Those dark clouds are gone? Or do you have to actually fight to sort of get out of that? I think it's gone.

I think mentally it's gone. It's just still having to fight my way out of that hole. I'm in a hole right now with whoever it may be. I don't even know who. The UFC, the fans, whatever. I'm in a hole right now. And it's about just climbing out of that fucking hole. You know, I feel like it's past.

I have a different approach going into UFC 216. I have a different approach going into life. And, you know, I'm very comfortable with where I'm at mentally. So it's just staying strong and climbing out of that hole. And, you know, showing everybody that I am here to stay. and there's a reason why I'm here, and there's a reason why I was chosen to fight DJ, and there's a reason why you shouldn't sleep on me.

So you say that you have a different approach. Like, what's the difference in the approach right now less than two weeks away than less than two weeks away from 215? How have things changed over the past few weeks? Honestly, you know, sorry for the language, but being a fucking fighter, I got too, I personally felt like I got caught too much on it being a professional sport. Yes, we are a professional sport.

We do get compensated for fighting. But at the end of the day, it is a fucking fight. At the end of the day, we go in there and we fight each other. We punch each other in the face. We are trying to kill each other in a cage. And it's remembering that that's what got me to the show is remembering that this is a fight. You know, you can do this, you can do that. You could be Sage North because you can have the coolest fucking hair in the world,

the most chiseled body. You could be, you know, Paige Van Zand, the most marketable person in the world. But at the very end of the day, it's still about. winning fight. And that's, you know, that's my approach going forward. That's the mindset I used to have was just going in there like a dog and willing to fight and like everything coming to me rather than me running to everything. So you feel like in the last, you know, a few months you were treating it like too professionally? Like you were just this polished athlete and now you have to go back to being this raw fighter? You know what? Personally for me, yes. You know, some fighters can get

away with that. Some people can play that superstar mentality that, you know, this is a sport. and I'm the highest level. But like I said, I'll sound like a fucking broken record. This is a fight game. This is the fight business. To be honest, I miss when fighting was more fighting. And that in my mentality, that's what it is for me. It's fighting, you know?

I'm going in there to fight win or lose, man. You want to know the reality of it is that every fighter has every confidence that they're going to be who's in front of them. But at the end of day, you have to be a realist to know that things can't go your way. I know damn well things can't go my way for DJ. DJ knows damn well that things may not go his way. but at the end of the day, I am going to give Demetrius a dog fight. He is going to have to, if he wants that 11th title victory,

he is going to have to work for it because I'm going to be in his face nonstop trying to win. And if not, you know what, that's all right, because I gave him a dog fight and that's it. And I'm looking to go in there and win. So at the end of the day, this is fighting for me. By the way, DJ told us that he saw you on the plane ride home and you guys didn't talk at all. Did you not feel compelled to say anything to him to reach out? him. You know what? No. So the thing is, like I said, I'm a realist. One, I wasn't feeling good at all. I really wasn't. And two, DJ has a family to feed just as much as I do. And not only did I take away my

opportunity to beat the pound for pound greatest person in the world, I also took away his opportunity to potentially break a record, you know? And I actually have respect for DJ as a fighter and as a person. So it was hard for me to go up to him. And what am I supposed to say? You know, I, I can't, I don't ever go up to just any of my opponents and be like, oh, hey, you know, how's it going? How's life? You know, like I said, it is a fight game. It's not that easy, you know, you always feel a certain way towards someone when they're trying to take food out of, you know, your family's mouth. But it was more of just me really not feeling good, me not mentally feeling up to talk to him.

You know, I, you know, I felt bad myself taking his opportunity away just as much as I took my opportunity away. So, you know, I knew that we'd meet again. and, you know, we'll handle it then. Last thing, are you okay with the placement on the card? This isn't the main event anymore. It's the co-made event to the interim title fight. Are you okay with that? Yeah, I mean, I guess.

I mean, I could fight at the beginning of the night. They could put our title fight the very first fight at the night, and it don't matter to me. And the thing is, the reason why I didn't look too heavily on it, because UFC 215 was built for us. We were the main event. We were the fight pushed. they just so happen to squeeze us into UFC 216 because this fight was already supposed to happen.

So I'm just grateful to be on the card and to be able to still get this opportunity. You know, the fact that it's a co-main event, I don't care. You know, like I said, I'll earn my way back up to that main event if I have to. That's okay with me. I'm not going to bitch and cry like, oh, I didn't fight UFC 215 and I was the main event. Why the fuck didn't they put me on the main event of USC 216? No, I'm not going to cry about it, you know. I'll earn my way back up to that main event, and I'm very grateful the UFC, you know, put us on to 16 to begin with.

Do you wish you had a little more time, or is October 7th okay? Is it a, you know, a proper amount of time to feel healthy and get back ready for the title fight? No, you know, I don't need more time at all. You know, I was at the very, very, you know, best condition of my life, you know. I had never been in that type of shape in my life. I'd never been that lean. I've never been that light in my life. So, you know, the biggest thing was just getting over the sickness.

You know, I took the proper time. My coaching staff, more importantly, my coaching staff were the key to everything. Because honestly, me personally, I was so mind-boggled and so stressed out about this. I would have got off the plane and started in training just because of how pissed I was. I was like, you know what? I'm getting another chance, whatever. I'm going to make it worth my while. But my coaching staff were the ones that pulled back the reins.

Like, look, Ray, you are sick. You need to go home. You need a rest. don't leave your house, just relax. So I did what they told me. I got healthy. I got better. And, you know, for me, this is very new.

Like going through a whole fight camp, fight week, and then jumping into a fight three weeks later like this. And not, well, like not fighting and then jumping in back into a fight three weeks later. This is very new to me. So I am very grateful to have the coaching staff that I do. You know, Greg Jackson even told me this isn't his first rodeo, you know. He had to do this situation before. So he knows how to train me.

So I'm still peaking, you know, things like that. my strength and conditioning coach, same thing. I'm just very fortunate to have the coaching staff that I have behind me to make sure that I am properly still equipped to go into UFC 216. I wish you the best, Ray. I really appreciate you coming on and talking about this. Good luck in the next couple of weeks, preparing for the fight. And, of course, good luck at UFC 216.

Looking forward to seeing you out there. And again, thank you very much for coming on the show today. Yeah, thanks, I appreciate it. All right, there he is. Ray Borg stopping by. He meets Demetrius Johnson on October 7th at UFC. 216, the co-main event right under the Kevin Lee versus Tony Ferguson interim lightweight title fight.

All right, I'm very much looking forward to talking to our next guest. He's never been on the show before, but he has been making a lot of noise. He has won six in a row on the UFC, 10 in a row overall winner of the ultimate fighter. Just a couple of seasons ago, he's making a lot of noise in the Walterweight Division. Impressive victories in the cage, impressive on the mic, coming off a win. Just a couple of weeks ago in Pittsburgh, we're talking to the Nigerian nightmare himself, Kamaro Usman right now who joins us via the magic of Skype. Kamaro, how are you?

Great, Ariel. Thanks for having me on the show. What took you so long, man? Yeah, you don't seem very happy to be on the show. Where's the smile? I see it coming. There. What took you so long, Ariel? Like, what's going on?

I was waiting for a finish. I needed something spectacular. And you gave me something spectacular in Pittsburgh. That was it. We were waiting for a finish. I came into the UFC with a finish. Like, come on, man. So you weren't feeling the love, right?

Now you feel like there's a lot of Johnny come lately who's like myself. No, man, Ariel, you know, I mean, we actually even share a workout room together, man, and you just, you know, you've been passing me up. You just, every time I go out there and dominate an opponent, you're just like, you know, just like those casual fans,

which I don't expect you to be a casual fan, but just like those casual fans, you've been putting me off to the side, Ariel. I don't know how I feel about that. All right. Well, now here I am. It's an olive branch of sorts. I'm trying to make things right.

All right. We'll start with this. We'll see. We'll see how it all goes. Do you feel, though, that now you are starting to finally get that attention, like after the win in Pittsburgh, does it feel like you've gotten everyone's attention? I'm starting to get the attention of my people. I think the Nigerian community, the African community, is starting to get behind me.

And that's really, at the end of the day, that's really what I need to kick down any doors because, you know, the UFC, you know, they've seen the talent. you know the people here that watch the fights they've seen my talent they know what i'm capable up but you know they want to drag the feet and there's a bunch of politics that that's going on into this in this game so i you know what i don't really care as long as my people are starting to see it then hey that that that's it's good enough for me what kind of politics are you talking about man it's politics man i mean look at those rankings like are you serious like do you, Ariel, do you think I am the 12th best guy in that weight class in the

welterweight division? No, no. I mean, but you know about those rankings, right? You know, like, have you looked at the people who actually vote on the rankings? No, I haven't, which I don't know who does. And that's why I said they should be ashamed of themselves, you know, putting those rankings together. Like, that makes absolutely no sense.

And we, you know, personally, not that I give a shit about the rankings, which I really don't, But for the casual fan at home that seem to be flipping channels and come across the UFC and they're like, oh, whoa, let me watch this fist fight and see what it's like. Oh, that guy's ranked 12th in the country. Who cares? Oh, that guy's ranked second or third in the world. Okay, maybe he might be good. For them, it matters. Yeah.

But for me, you know, it doesn't really mean shit. So if you were ranking that division, where would you put yourself? Top three. Top three, really? Top three. If not top three, if not top three, you know, I would say because, you know, I would say top three are all coming off of losses to the champion, most of all. So I would say no less than five. Absolutely, no less than five. Okay. Who would you put, like, let's just say you're three. Who's two and one? I mean, obviously, Woodley is the champion.

Who would you put as two and who would you put as one? Okay, obviously Woodley's one. And this is me being, because I'm a realist, this is me being. realistic, you know, numbers-wise, if I had to really put him down, Damien Maya, he just fought for the title, you know, he ran off, you know, had the longest win street before myself. And so I would put him as number two, you know, just coming off of that. And then I would put Wonderboy Thompson. Wow. Coming off because, you know, because he's also coming off of a loss to the champion, fought him twice in close fights. So I will put him at number three. And then I would put him at number three. And then I would

put Robbie Lawler at number four. I mean, Robbie, you know, was the king of the division before Tyne really took that title away from him. I would put him at number four. I would put myself at number five. And then, you know, I don't really care who else is below that. Is there something to be said, though? I mean,

just throwing it out there, it doesn't feel like you could be upset at myself, and that's fine, the media, the fans. But, like, it doesn't feel like when you fight, the UFC is really pushing you. I mean, you're typically fighting on either an undercard of a pay-per-view or a fight-night card that's not getting a lot of attention. Like you've yet to be put in that prime spot where you're getting, you know, the spotlight and the buzz and the media push and all that.

Is that fair as well? Like, is it time for them to give you a little love too promotionally? I mean, you answer that question. Do you think it's time for them to give me that? Yeah. You know, where is it? I've been ready for that. You know, I've been ready for that.

You know, I think, you know, I don't know whether they think, oh, well, he's from Nigeria. You know, we can't really, we haven't really broken to that market. Yeah. We can't really, you know, sell a lot of fighters. there or we don't have a TV contract there. So what's the point of pushing the guy that's from that area in Africa? And so, you know, I like to think that's what it is because it can't be anything else. You can't say that I don't have the skills. You can't say that. I have the skills. You can't say I don't have the confidence. I have that. You can't say I don't have the belief.

I have that. I'm not the ugliest guy in the world. No. You know, it's not that I'm not marketable. I mean, come on, you know. It makes no sense. A wide. they're not doing it except the fact that they're like oh well we haven't broke into africa so you know why there's no point in pushing somebody from there yeah i don't know if that's i mean you you moved to the states when you were like five right i mean you you're if someone didn't know anybody my eight yeah eight yeah okay so have you asked them what's taking so long no i haven't you know i i don't i haven't had conversations with them as far as that and that's something that i'm gonna let my manager i have a great manager so that's something i'm going to let him take care of you know he

does a good job of communicating with them and getting things done. And so I'll let him take care of that part and not worry about what I need to worry about, which is my performances inside that cage. By the way, I was perusing online yesterday. Speaking of Nigeria, there's an outlet in Nigeria. I think the name was called, what was the punch or something? I have to, I've never heard of this outlet before, but they reported that you are in fact fighting Mike Perry on December 2nd. Is that accurate? The punch. Yes, in Nigeria. Is that accurate? no i think they're just speculating kind of like everybody else has been speculating the last couple of days you know because that's a fight i think people want to see eventually yeah is that is that

your ideal opponent for your next fight mike parry absolutely you know not you know this is a scenario right now um like if you go down the rankings you know whatever rankings you go down those rankings who makes sense you know Damia Maya is booked Wonder Boy is booked Massadol is booked you know

who makes sense I train with Robbie Lawler yeah and so who makes sense like you bring in and you know and this is something that kind of rubs me

the wrong way you bring you bring in RDA after taking two L's and lightweight yeah he moves up he fights Safidin who was ranked I think 14th

while I was ranked, I think, 10th at the time, you bring in a guy that's ranked below me, and he goes to a decision with that guy. It was not even an exciting fight. It was, you know, a close fight. He goes to a decision. Then the rank gets come out and RDAs ahead of me. What sense does that make?

And then he fights Neo-Magni, who I've been calling out for a long time that just seemed to somehow find a way to duck me, and then fights Neo-Magnin. It finishes Neo-Magnin four minutes, I believe. And I just killed a guy who also finished Neo Magnet faster than he did in the first round. Like, what sense does it make for him to be number five in the world where I've literally ran through every guy that I've faced in that division? And to make matters worse, Colby Coventon's ring number eight in the world,

Kobe Covington almost lost his life in the first round to a guy that I've traveled all the way to Brazil and put a beaten on. what sense does that make for him to be ahead of you know like like that makes absolutely no sense to me if rda is number five in the world let him prove it i tweeted at him and i said december second in detroit rda let's do it i got nothing back it was like crickets i got absolutely nothing back the fans have been going crazy with it and you know that's a fight that needs to absolutely happen he's not booked so i don't see why the ufc will not make that fight but if for some reason reason, you know, he decides that he's on vacation somewhere. He doesn't want to fight until I'm booked for a fight.

Then it makes no sense for me to fight anybody else except someone that the fans actually care about like Mike Perry because I actually know Mike Perry won't duck me. I hope. Right. By the way, before RDA, you were talking about Maya and now Colby Covington is getting Maya. What was your reaction to that? My, I mean, my reaction was like normal. I'm always content.

That's the thing is I approach this game, you know, with my mind, not just, you know, like I mentioned thousands of times. I don't fight because I have, this is all I have. I'm educated. I went to school. I can get a job. You know, I can do anything else. You know, I'm doing this because I'm a competitor. I want to compete.

And, you know, since I've been doing this game, I've learned enough to where I think I am the best in the world. And even at 40% right now, I think I beat anybody in the division. You know, and if these guys ahead of me are smart, they would try to fight me now, why they still have a chance, as opposed to letting me acquire as much more knowledge as I can, you know, but yeah, COVID Coventon getting that fight, I don't really give a shit. I don't care. I mean, I know I'm better than Kobe Covington anyways. I know I'm better than Damien Maia anyways, because I called him out. Damien Maia was sitting literally 50 feet away from me after I just beat up the Brazilian in Brazil, called him out, and I didn't get the fight. He said no, he didn't want that fight. And so now you're going to fight another guy who lost to the guy that I beat up right when I called him out. So, you know, it makes no sense. By the way, you mentioned, and I appreciate the fact, you know, that you're so passionate about your career and you want to advance.

I mean, that's a great thing. Worth noting Francis Ngano is, you know, of African descent and they seem to be pushing him as well. So I don't think that it has anything to do with the fact that you're from Nigeria, at least from where I'm sitting. He may, and I respect the fact that, you know, you may feel that way, but you have to admit that they are really pushing Inganu these days, right? Yeah, but Inganu is a heavyweight, you know, it's different. There's a different intricacy that goes into it. Ngano is a heavyweight, and, I mean, really look at the heavyweight division. Who else is there?

No one, you know, but Francis, Francis is a beast in himself, you know, just just an absolute monster, just his presence alone. that's a guy that you need to have as a champion. You know, you have to. You know, you got to give him that shot to be champion because there's no one else. Like, he's, he's cleaned out the division or Stipe has cleaned out the division. So those two have to fight and they have to fight in the immediate future. But for myself, you know, I think there's a lot more guys in the division that they would want to be champion. I think they really wanted Wonderboy to be the champion of that division.

But, you know, Tyron Willie was not about to let that happen. And, you know, Damon Maya, I mean, he was the only. on a what, eight, nine fight, win street, you know, before they even gave him a title shot? I mean, tell me that guy didn't deserve a title shot three fights before you fought for that title.

Especially, they only gave him a month to prepare for it. The whole game is filled with politics, right? I mean, you have to, part of your career is sort of navigating those politics, right? Exactly. And that's, you know, that's why I said, you know, I have a great management, you know, team, you know, and Ali does a good job

at trying to navigate through all that bullshit. that they're putting out. But, you know, hopefully it's going to happen. But, you know, I am currently on, I will be unhappy if RDA ducks me. That's the one. I will be very unhappy. That's the one.

I mean, he's the one. I mean, you know, I just, yeah, he's sitting at number five, which I think currently I should be, which I think I can beat the champion. But I think currently right now, number five needs to be next to my name for those casual fans

who actually look at those and care about those rankings. you know, until I get that title fight. RDA needs to see me, you know, and if he ducks me like I know he will try to, then, you know, we'll see what else makes sense. Have you or your management, have you guys specifically asked the UFC for that RDA fight? I know you said that you tweeted RDA,

but have you asked them for the fight? And if so, what they say? Absolutely. I mean, this is what it is. We said, okay, I mean, you look at this streak, and then just look at the, who would you, area, Who would you like to see me fight right now?

Who do you think makes sense? I love that fight. I said it after the win. And fans, fans want to see that fight. You know, the only way that fight doesn't happen is if two people say no. You know, if the UFC say no or if RDA says no, which I'm sure he will say no. You are. Because for him, that's like which way does he win that fight?

In what way? No way. There's no way for him to win. this fight. And so he knows that. You know, I know that. The fans know that. Everyone knows that. And so he's going to try to duck me. But we've asked for him. And, you know, if somehow that doesn't happen, then, you know, Mike Perry, I think is a guy that the fans actually care about. And I think Mike Perry is a guy that actually tries to fight, you know, so he's going to want, he's going to want a fight. Hopefully he won't duck me himself. See, I feel like it's all coming together for you now.

That's why I'm jumping on the bandwagon officially today. And in Buffalo when I saw you, you were rocking that straight outfit. Yes, today. Today, officially, September 25th, I am jumping on the Nigerian Nightmares Bandway. By the way, back in the day, I used to rock the Nigerian soccer jersey.

I was a big Sunday Ole Se fan. I don't know if you know this about me. I mean, I got that in my blood. That green jersey was the shit. You know what I'm talking about? The green jersey? You know what I'm talking about, right? Okay.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about, but, you know, if you used to rock and you were such a Nigerian fan, how come you didn't get on the bandwagon when I came into the youths there. Well, you needed to get my attention And in Buffalo, you got to... And I know Mike Perry's your boy, too.

So I know Mike Perry is your boy, too. No one's my boy. Come on. Come on, Ariel. You were rocking that sweet outfit. You know, I mean, that was... You were on point in Buffalo. And then the win, and then the call of the RDA,

this is what I'm talking about. This is how you, you know, you start to make some noise. This is great. It's all coming together for you in 2017. I feel good about it. I think that you said that you're content and you're happy, but I feel like you got a massive chip on your shoulder now. Now, you're trying to get people's attention now.

Yeah, you know, I think for me, you know, like I said, this is, I chose to do this. And so by me choosing to do this, I chose to forego everything else. I chose to forego that, you know, maybe six-figure salary that I could have been getting somewhere else sitting in an office, you know, to do this. And so when I've been putting in all this hard work, I've been in the gym slaving, not just myself, my coaches as well, been putting in time and countless hours in me, you know, it's a slap in the face and I get the recognition that you deserve when you know that you've been putting in. and all that work. And so if you feel that there's a chip on my shoulder, that's probably what it is, is something I just don't like.

I've been putting in the work and the body of work is proof in itself. I haven't lost a minute of any fight that I've been in, you know, in the UFC. And, you know, for it to not reflect in the way that they're pushing me or they're selling me my brand, and that's kind of a slapping face to not just myself, but to my family. into my coaches that put in time and effort in me. By the way, how is the training situation? Is it starting to all kind of fall into place in Florida now?

You were once a part of the Black Zillion. Training situation. Yeah, training situation for me is never changed. Like, nothing. The only change was, you know, the gym. Like, we just, you know, everything, I've always trained with the same coaches. I still train with the same coaches. You see my

corner, nothing changed, you know, in my corner. It's, you know, Henry Hooft has always been my stand-up coach. George Santiago has always been my jiu-tucey coach. You know, I'm wrestling with Greg Jones, you know, nothing has changed. The only thing that change is, you know, management and that big gem that we had down there at Jocco. That was the only changes. Now Henry has his own location, so we, you know, we have a place to train.

George Santiago has his own location. But nothing changes. You know, if I needed to train in the backyard or out in the forest, I'm going to train because this is something that I chose to do. So I'm going to get that working Whatever I can't This one might be a little bit too Out of left field But you're looking for a big fight

A big name It seems like Carlos Condit is ready To return to action Is that someone that's on your radar Did you see that last week? Yeah, I saw that You know And actually when he tweeted

I you know I added my manager In that like hey This guy wants to come back Into my division Like hey Hey what do you think about that You know

and he saw it if that's something that he's interested in then hey I'm not going to say no like he just wants the interim champion of the division so that's definitely a fight that I think for me it's I want the fight

that's going to get me that title shot you know I think I'm deserving of it you know I think no one's been more dominant than I have been in the division you know besides Damien after he just took that L before that he was pretty dominant but no one right now in the near future

has been as dominant as I have been in the division so I think if Carlos Condet you know that's a fight that he wants then hey we'll do it but RDA's you know he's coming off of a loss and that long layover so you know I don't think it's probably a good idea for him I think he needs to get his feet

wet before he gets to be out running again but RDA I think you know he's he's been the division now he thinks he's felt some well to weights you know so you know I think it's time to put him off against the de-walt away and let's see how he pans out. I love it. I'm officially on board, my friend.

It took me a while, I admit, but hopefully now that we have this understanding and water under the bridge, I love your backstory. You come from a place where a lot of fighters don't, I mean, they don't have a lot of fighters with your background, with your story, with your skills, the winning streak, the longest in the division right now. As you mentioned, you've got a great look, great fighting style. Why not? Why not? Kamar Usman? They need to start pushing you. I think that they need to start getting behind you more, start pushing the Nigerian nightmare. You have a fantastic nickname. It's all coming together for you, my friend. I feel like it's going to end on a high note in 2017, and then 2018 will really be in that title mix. That's just my two cents.

I mean, I agree with it two cents. I think, yeah, why not now? You know, message for the UFC, message for the fans out there. Why not now? Yeah. Better get on the bad way. I become champion and then you're like yeah I always knew he could do it yeah no you better get on now get on now thank you camaro great to have you on the show for the first time won't be the last time good luck getting that RDA fight all right thank you ariel and uh let's put some pressure on that dude man let's come out of vacation RDA let's let's go for a walk down in Detroit let's go for a walk it's a lovely place to walk especially in December so I have a feeling he'll be accepting the, all of that. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Good luck to you.

All right. Thank you for having me. All right. There he is. The Nigerian nightmare himself. Kamaro Usman, spinning some fire here. Great to have him on the show for the first time. As I mentioned, won't be the last. And it's New York, Rick, jumping in one more time to tell you about Tommy John. Guys, Tommy John has some big news. They've just introduced a brand new underwear fabric called Go Anywhere. This underwear is built to withstand the busiest of days. It's versatile, extremely comfortable, and fit for anything. Put a little innovation in your pants with Go Anywhere and stay fresh from AM to PM and even through to the AM again. They just sent me a pair and I'm expecting to test them and feel fresh from AM to PM, back to AM again, back to PM.

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That's Tommyjohn.com slash MMA for 20% off. Tommyjohn.com slash MMA. Now back to the show. One man that we've loved having on the show over the years is Matt Brown on Thursday. He made some headlines when he announced that his fight on November 11th in Norfolk, Virginia against Diego Sanchez would in fact be his last, that he'd be retiring after that fight. So, of course, wanted to talk to him about that announcement, that decision and more. He's kind enough to join us on the phone right now. Matt, how are you?

Very good. How you doing, Nigel? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. And sorry for the delay. Thank you for being patient. So why did you announce now, and specifically last Thursday, that your fight on November 11th would be your last? Well, that's a long, deep subject.

Please. Yeah, I guess it's not as simple as just a one-sentence answer. I mean, there's a lot of things that went into it. I guess initially when I kind of thought about it, it was more of a feeling that I've had for a, long time. I mean, I just took a long time off and then came back and kind of explored a regular life, so to speak, for a while. So it wasn't so much a introspective decision as just, you know, it's just the way I feel right now. So, you know, the reason behind, I mean, there's lots of reasons. I mean, I guess starting with probably the initial, the number one feeling is like,

I realized over the past year it's something that I really fear, something I'm really afraid of. Like I don't want to retire. I'm really scared of it. And I'm the type of person that I don't like being scared of things. So that's what, you know, I'm going to chase that. That's sort of exactly, you know, that's sort of a large reason why I started fighting was, you know, because it's a very, it's a scariest thing I could find to do. They wouldn't let me in the military, funny enough. So, um, for my criminal record.

And actually, that's actually what I wanted to do first. Yeah, it was right around like 9-11 and stuff, you know what I mean? So like I wanted to, I told him put me on the front lines. I was scared of it. You know what I mean? So, um, that's just the way I am. So that would be probably the first, uh, piece of the, uh, of that. Um, beyond that, um, you know, I want to explore being a coach and, you know,

some other lifestyle lifestyles outside of the lifestyle of being a mixed martial artist. When did you first start? Go ahead, go ahead. No, I was there, I could go on for a while, kind of good and deep into this, you know? When did you first start feeling this way?

You know, to be honest, there's been lots of camps where I have felt, you know, like, man, this is, I'm not doing this again, man, this is just such hard work and there's so much pressure on his shoulders. You know, I got three kids, man. It's a lot of pressure. And I would say where I really started feeling it, though,

was my last fight when I fought Cowboy. I remember sitting, maybe not necessarily when I first felt it, but that was when I kind of came to the realization that it's something I should start really thinking about because when I was sitting in the locker room, it literally crossed my mind to not even walk out. I thought about just walking outside, getting an Uber, going back to the hotel, and just being done with it. And it wasn't out of fear, it wasn't out of nerves or anything like that.

It was just, you know, no excitement. I was kind of tired, a little bored, and just like, man, I don't know if I feel like doing this right now. And that's not, you know, I didn't get into this to be a journeyman or to be, you know, second place. I came into this to be a champion, and I got very, very close to that. I mean, I think I was one round away from beating Robbie Lawler and getting to a title shot. So being that I got that close, right now, I don't feel like I have that hunger inside my heart that's going to get me back to that point. And that's not to say it won't ever come back one day. I don't plan on pulling out of the Usada testing pool, and I don't plan on canceling my UFSI.

contract because I'd like to keep that just in case there. But I don't have any, but I'm not going to come back unless I plan on making a run for the title. I don't want to be going around fighting, you know, the number 15, 20 guy and all that. And everything I ever did my entire career was to, was planned on one day being a champion. And right now I don't feel like my career path is headed that direction. And that's not something I'm trying to pursue. So why even take the Diego Sanchez fight if you're feeling this way? Well, first when I took the fight, I did feel that way still. But also, I mean, you know, Diego's one of the best fights to go out on for sure, too.

I mean, I'm not going to, for one, I don't want to go out on a loss. I don't want, I don't like the thought of that, but especially three in a row. And, you know, so that's a, that's a huge part of it. and it's not like I don't have anything left to offer. And, and again, I didn't really feel these feelings until after I took the fight also. Again, it's not really, like, I didn't, like, look real deep inside myself or something and kind of, and, and question anything that I'm doing anything. It was just a feeling. It's like, man, you know, I'm cool with doing this, and I'm really, you know, I love doing it and I enjoy it.

But I don't know how many more times I got in me to do this. And definitely not enough times, at least the way I feel right now, definitely not enough times. to pursue a championship. Are health concerns playing a role in any of this? You mentioned being a family man, three kids, a wife. You've been through some wars. Do you have any health concerns? Absolutely.

I mean, I got knocked out for the first time in my life, in my last fight, got knocked down for the first time my life before that. I mean, yeah, man, you know, I have to wonder if, you know, I had a concussion last year for the first time, you know, all these things start having these first time things start happening, you know, 40 fights into my career and, uh, yeah, as a, as a father and, and, and, and with, uh, you know, a family to go home to. And, you know, when I'm slurring words to

my kids, you know, that you start thinking, you know, is just something, you know, how, how, how much, you know, is it worth all this, right? So, um, that, that definitely plays a concern. And, but, um, um, Definitely plays a part, but it's not necessarily my primary concern, though. I mean, I don't know how I phrase that. It's not my primary motivation to retire, but it is a piece of the puzzle for sure. Any particular reason why you made the announcement a little less than two months before the fight as opposed to right after the fight in the cage or fight week? Why did you want the world to know this as you were preparing essentially for fight camp now?

I guess so part of it was I just kind of had to commit to it like what I'm afraid would happen is I would have end up having a great camp which right now I'm having like you know probably one of the greatest camps I've ever had and then I'd get in there and feel amazing and I'm like you know what I'm not going to retire and then you know a couple weeks later be like ah man I don't know I want to retire right so I don't want to go through that whole up and down that roller coaster I don't put my family through all that and uh The second part of that is that, you know, I want everybody to come out, my family and everybody to know that it's going to be my last one and they can get their tickets and everything. And they can come out and see the last one.

The Norfolk is coincidentally right in between my wife's family and my family. My family is in Ohio. Her family is in Massachusetts. It's right there in the middle. I have a lot of family in North Carolina and Virginia Beach also. So it kind of works for everybody to kind of meet right there. And again, I think Diego makes a perfect retirement fight. I think we're going to go out there and we're going to have a great war.

And it's going to be an amazing fight. I want to go back quickly to what you were saying that you were feeling in Toronto about, you know, just getting into an Uber and going home in the locker room as you were preparing for the Donald Tarani fight. Ultimately, why didn't you end up doing that? How did you get over that feeling to, you know, say, I'm not going to think about this and then go out, walk that walk and step foot in the cage? How did, like mentally, how did you get over that? Man, that's a good question. Damn, Ariel getting on good questions.

So I don't really know, to be honest, man. You know, I just redirected my focus and kind of put my foot down and said, you know, I'm going to go out there and do this and do the best I can. And I thought I went out there and performed pretty well. So, yeah, I don't really know. I mean, I just, I guess my only, my real question is how good would I have done had I had that focus the entire night and, you know, really been on the, you know, had my mind where it should have been, the place that it should have been, and the place that it's been

a million times before. I'm pretty good at, you know, I call it changing channels, you know, like, you know, sort of like analogy, like to a TV, you know, where you're, you go from, you know, the channel where you're relaxed and calm to the channel where you're ready to knock someone's head off. So that was really, you know, it's a practice that I do is changing channels. And especially, you know, with having a family, I have to separate myself or separate the gym life from the home life. I have to change channels when I walk in that door and I can't be, you know, cursing and talking to my kids like I do with my teammates and coaches. So it's something that I practice all the time. And I think that that ultimately probably played a part in that thing.

in that night. Do you regret staying around as long as you did? In the sport? Yeah. Oh, God, no. I love it.

I mean, I absolutely love the sport and, you know, I want to stay around in the sport longer. For sure, I just, you know, I'm not going to be stepping in the octagon anymore. Right.

As my plan right now. I meant as a pro fighter, not just like involved in the sport as a coach or teammate or something like that. Oh, yeah, No, I don't regret that either. I mean, I got, I did the best I could with everything that I could. I think when I look back, I mean, I'm very happy with what I've done.

I kind of have to step back and look at the big picture. I mean, I think I have a lot more that I could have accomplished. I have the right circumstances happen. I totally believe that I have every bit of ability to have been a champion. But ultimately, I mean, I look back and I see a kid that was, you know, 21, 22 years old, addicted to drugs and homeless on the streets at times and, you know, family life was a wreck and going in and out of jail. And like I said, even the military wouldn't take me at the time. And, you know, going from that to a guy who was, again, one round from getting to fight for the

UFC world title. So it was just a dream I had in my mind. And I stuck to that dream. and I think if anything, man, I hope that I inspired a lot of people to show that you really can chase dreams and they really are possible. You just got to keep those blinders on and stay on that path. What has the reaction been like

since you made the announcement on Thursday? Have you received a flood of feedback, text, phone calls? What's it been like? Yeah, flood is an understatement, man. And that's been a very emotional time, way more emotional than I expected it to be. You know, my wife cried a little bit about it. You know, everybody called me and said they're sad, you know, they can't believe I'm doing this.

And just, I haven't even got through all the messages on social media. I try to, I try to get on my social media and reply personally to as many messages as I can. Of course, I can't do everyone. but I try to get as many as I can. And my inboxes were just loaded down, you know, the replies on the tweets and the comments on the post and stuff were just overloaded. So, yeah, that's a really, really good feeling. And it kind of makes me want to push more because I kind of, I guess I don't really think

about the amount of people that I'm touching when I'm in there just doing what I love to do. I don't feel like I'm doing things for other people, but I guess I am. So I get a lot of messages saying I inspired people to do different things, especially with the addiction to drugs and things like that. So there's nothing more gratifying than that, and that's part of what I want to pursue in a post-fight career is helping others pursue their dreams and give back more and not make my entire life about my life. myself no more.

So you're talking about outside of fighting, right? You want to be involved in fighting, but also help people outside of fighting? Well, yeah. So I think the two can correlate pretty well. Sure. Okay. I think, yeah, they work together, but also, yeah, other things too. I mean, you know, I'm probably pursued some sort of public service, you know,

in firefighting, police, or, you know, something like that, EMT or something. You know, again, helping others, but also, yeah, helping others pursue their dreams in the martial arts. And you create better fighters and help the younger kids come up and be a positive role model for these kids on top of that. You know, let's keep spreading the martial arts, man. That's one of the best things I think that for the entire world. I think, you know, we got all these people out there, you know, divided politically, and we got all these people out there. You know, a lot of people are hating different things.

A lot of people are worried about different, you know, whether it's religious or political, all this different stuff, man. And, you know, we get on those mats and everybody's equal and we all create a certain bond within one another and I think it's one of the most beautiful things there is in the world so I want to spread that and and part of that's going to be uh I'll probably go into L.A. with Muscle Farm and we're going to be having a big badass facility there. Um, similar to the one we've had here in Denver and I'll be heading up that program and I think that we'll be, we'll make an amazing thing there. So lots of things, man, mainly, but yeah, I can tell them it all up. I just say, look, I'm giving

back and I want to I think that's what life is all about is the cycle of life is all about giving I remember talking to you prior to your fight at UFC 201 and you said that you believe that you were kind of a last of a dying breed in in MMA do you like the way the sport is headed are you leaving the sport in a good place in your opinion there's good and bad I mean the sport itself, I mean, is always going to be an awesome sport because, you know, I don't care how much, how much crap is on the side or how much watered down it gets, had to loot it, whatever. I mean, the sport itself is still two men getting and not the guy and trying to beat the crap out of each other. And as long as we keep that and we don't dilute the rules anymore than they already are, and I think we'll be fine with that. I'd like to see, I've always said I'd like to see the rules open up a little bit more,

but that's a different discussion. But, you know, in terms of, you know, a lot of the so-called hardcore guys, they like to complain about, you know, Condor and Ronda and all this, but I'm not one of those guys. I mean, I think it's great for the sport. The more eyes, the better. It doesn't bother me at all. And it doesn't bother me that people are, you know, wanted to talk about to each other, act like Connor.

You know, that stuff doesn't bother me at all. I want to see two guys go in there and fight, man. That's what I'm all about, and that's what I love to see. You know, the outside of that, I mean, as long as they keep that far pure, then I think everything else will take care of itself. You mentioned the Robbie Lawler fight a couple times. One of the best fights of 2014 and how close you were to getting that title shot. Do you, like, are you afraid that in 20, 30 years you'll think back about, like that, that will be the one that will continue to nag at you, just how close you were one round the way from fighting for the belt?

And then, of course, you get in that title fight and who knows what happens. Are you worried that you'll think about that, the fact that you never got that title shot? Oh, no, it doesn't even nag me. Honestly, I mean, I gave everything I had in that fight. And I thought I won the fight personally. I thought that, you know, I had a good camp and I gave everything I had and that's all you can ask of yourself. I don't go and go around regretting what I did. I mean, there's surely some things I could have changed.

You know, there's some very specific things that if I could go back and do it again, I would change. But I'm not that type of person, man. I'm happy with what I did. I gave it all that I had. I left nothing, I brought nothing home with me. I left it all there in the cage. So there's nothing to be worried about or nagged about. You know, the fact is, again, I look at where I came from then.

I started, you know, it was like, like I said, 21, 22 years old. And, I mean, there's literally nights that I slept out in the snow. And then, you know, fast forward 15, you know, plus minus years. And I'm fighting on the biggest stage in the world on Fox with millions of people watching. you know you know again one round away from fighting for the title so and i don't think if anybody looks at the if i look at the big picture like that there's no way to regret what i accomplished couldn't agree more one of the most inspiring stories in the history of the sport and that run that you had from 2012 up until that luller fight those wins and the way in which you were winning

was nothing short of amazing is there one moment that sticks out favorite moment in the UFC favorite moment of your career, even outside of the UFC, when someone, you know, will come up to you in 10 years and talk to you about your career? Will there be one moment that sticks out? I guess most people will probably come talking about the Eric Silva fight because they get that one a lot. Yeah, it was a pretty exciting fight. That was a big moment for me because afterwards, my entire family was there. Like, there was literally more family at that fight than at my family reunion. So that was an awesome night. And my family got to, my kids and wife came into the octagon afters and share that moment with me so that that was also been my mother also

so that was an amazing thing for me personally though um the before i was in the ufc i guess i would say uh technically um when i fought josh all to get on an ultimate fighter that was probably the the biggest moment um for me in my life because that was that's a huge fork in the road right there and i mean you see how many guys you know that's you know lose to get out of the fighter you never hear from begin and that probably would have been me if i never you know i wouldn't be where i'm at right now and you probably never heard my name i'd probably been doing whatever i would have been doing whereas that fork in the road took me down the path that i'm on and and i felt it right there in that moment i said you know i knew in my heart

um i just hit the right fork in the road and knew that this was going to be a uh a long long career for me and i knew that there was there wasn't a turn it back there And so that for me was the most probably most touching emotional moment in my career. Matt, it has been a pleasure and an honor sincerely. One of the best fighters to watch, but also one of my favorite interviews. You're such a great guest and subject anytime that we've had a chance to talk to you. So thank you for everything over the years. Thank you for the great fights.

Thank you for all the time, all the great interviews. And I'm glad to hear that you want to stick around in the sport because I do think that there's a lot that you can do for, you know, the general public, there's a lot that you can give back. So kudos to you on everything that you've done. Kudos on an amazing career. And I'm happy that you're getting to go out on your terms and getting to make the announcement the way you want to make it and getting that fight that you want that you think will produce a nice exit from the sport. Thank you for coming on the show.

Thank you again for all the great years, all the great interviews. And hopefully we'll still get to talk even though you're no longer an active fighter. I still love your insight on the sport. So hopefully we can have you on in the near future as well. yeah absolutely and hey thanks for supporting the sport and thanks for everything you do and let's uh i guess i'll see you out in norfolk most likely so uh i'll be focused on this fight and um yeah i guess that's about it then huh yes we'll talk to you soon thank you so much matt for coming on congrats on a great career and good luck in training for this fight uh thank you sir all right there he is

matt brown one of the very best in the cage one of the very best outside of the Cage, always a phenomenal interview and great to hear his insight and much respect for him to, you know, to say that it's time and to know when to say when and to go out on his own terms. You don't get to see that a lot in mixed martial arts. So certainly respect the fact and appreciate the fact that he's calling it a day when he is and giving people ample notice to appreciate him for the next, what, month and a half before he says goodbye on November 11th against Diego Sanchez. Great stuff from him. So we'll go from one guy who is saying goodbye to another who's just in the embryonic stages of his UFC career. We're now going to be joined in studio by the great

Mickey Gall who I cannot wait to speak to because I have a lot of questions for Mickey Gall. I've been dying to speak to Mickey Gall for quite some time. And there he is. Mickey Gall is here. All growns up, facial hair and all. How are you Mickey? Yeah, what's up? Got you a little Jersey mug. Wow. How about this? A new Jersey mug. A new Jersey mug. Nice new place. How about that, right? I'm going to put this here and get rid of my Fabrice Redu mug. Thank you for coming. I don't have to get rid of Fabrizio. That's okay. I like this. This is nice. I appreciate the gift. No one's ever brought me a gift on this show. Really? I figured I should have been doing some promoting or something. Put a... Yeah. A picture.

Yeah. What do you think of the new spot? Now it looks cool, man. I like it. We've updated. I'm good. How are you? I'm so happy to see you. Yeah. For many reasons. Why? Let's first get the elephant out of the room. Elephant. I thought that you were pissed at me for a long time. Oh, that's funny because I was going to bring that up first. Okay, you are pissed or we're pissed at me. Let me explain. Yeah, we should let's clear the air before we get into it. I can't wait. Okay. All right. So my friend Ariel, you, yes. Day after my fight, day after my big fight, I get, you know, which one? Which one? A stage fight. Sage, okay. Stage fight. Yeah. So I get, you know, I get my

stitches cut open. I get, I'm out drinking that night partying. You ask me, hey, I'd like you get on the show two times in a row. I know it's weird, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. My friend Ariel, yeah, I'll do it. Of course. Thank you. So then, unbeknownst to me, you bring Dan Hardy on it without telling me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What the fuck? Yeah, you were pissed. What the fuck, dude?

Why don't you tell me? The kid who's been talking shit, the smart kid who has a mouth, you don't tell me I could have lit his ass up. But instead, I'm half hung over. I set my alarm. I was up all night. I got the continental breakfast in the free continental breakfast in the morning because I was up all night.

Yeah. But I'm like, I'll get up for Ariel's show. I appreciate it. And then, so that's, yeah, that's why I text you back all summer. So you were pissed me off because I wanted, I, you know, I wanted that fight. oh Ariel's friends with Dan Hardy then you know if you're my friend I'll break my back hill for you but you're not my friends so fuck you so we're not friends anymore um you've been downgraded to like like like MMA media guy and you know I here's a thing okay like I get it you're great like if

as an MMA fan you're the best okay but you like you like you you're you're a wrestling fan I think you are kind of a a character in this whole MMA game really yeah I think you take on, you're like that kind of, you sometimes you like to be like a schmucky reporter, you like to antagonize, you like to, you know, you know, I think I just, I'm just me, sometimes I'm a schmuck. Oh, you're just knowing that? Well, no, like, what do you mean? You think I'm playing a role? I think, yeah, yeah, and, like, for fans,

it's great, but you're going to piss off fighters along the way a lot, and you have been doing that. And as a journalist, you're always going to piss off people, right? I guess so. I mean, it's actually not our job to be your friend. Yeah, no, I know. But, you know, when I was out in Montreal, you're like, hey, check out this place, I thought we're friends. He put me on the show, put me out again,

you know, he'd give me exposure. I thought it was, you know. I'm always, I thought I was doing you a favor. Can I tell you why? Why don't you fucking tell me first? Because you were on the air and so I asked you.

Remember I asked you? I said in the interview, we have Dan Hardy, do you want to talk to him? And you said, yes. Hey, because what am I going to say, no? Well, you should have told me before.

Come on. You were trying to like, you were trying to like pull one on me, right? Absolutely not. God is my witness, I was not. But why do you just tell me before I even start the call, just so I could, like, it was, fog my brain and, you know what I mean?

So, so here's the thing. He was on after you, so I had to ask you on the air. There's no way for me to communicate with you. You didn't know who's going to be on the night before? I didn't know. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. But I didn't know that we were going to put you on together. And I thought Mickey Gall is exceptionally smart. He's quick on his feet. I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

It's an alarm for you. How am I supposed to know that? It's an alarm for you. I barely sleep. I'm partying. I just won. I just won a big fight. You're 100% right. But how am I supposed to know that? No, no, no. What I was trying to do was to expedite your parade.

I was trying to get you the fight. If you just told me, I would have blown that shit up. I know, I know. I would have called him a pussy and scared when he said he didn't want to fight. I was just like, uh, you know what I? You called him out. So I'm like, here he is. Here he is.

I know, but you call him sleeping, literally. But I didn't know that. How much was just say it word? Just give me one, give me for, like, you wanted a text beforehand. Anything. You wanted a heads up. Oh, we got on the call. Hey, just anything. Anything. Yeah, yeah. A heads-up would have been cool. And I could have, you know, I just, would you have said yes. Given your state, given the fact that you said you were retired. Yeah. And I would have had, I would have had, you know, I would have had, you know, I would have had, yeah. But I would have had, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was still probably, I'd been drinking the night before. I don't, I don't drink much, you know what I did. Yeah. But no one has done what you've done. I mean, you came in, the way you've come in, that's part of your story, right? You called up punk, and then you had the next one ready. And then you had the next one ready. And then you had the next one ready.

And then you had the Dan Hardy one ready. And let's be honest, that one didn't, like, hit the home run that maybe you thought it would. I didn't think I was getting a Dan Hardy fight. So what was... I thought I got the first two. I was tossing up a real hell and Mary.

Yeah. But why did you go that far? Well, especially, now listen, you want to see quick on my feet. Sure. I knew I cut myself open. Yeah. And I did, you know,

I had a couple people on my plate that depend on... And I was like, fuck. I'm going to have to be out six months now. Oh, okay. The cut, originally I got before CM Punk, doctor was like, yo, he's like, you can't fight for six months. And I fought in three weeks against Sampunk. And then I fought like three months later against Sage, all within that six months where I should have arrested. So I cut it.

And I figured Dan Hardy I'd at least get a little, by myself a little time. The way that fight would be ready. Maybe it'd be a few months. But if I call, like, certain guys out of then I'm right back in there. So I want a little time. And I've ended up having a lot of time. And I've done a lot of good shit with my time. Okay.

I'm really proud of what I did. I put in a lot of work. and I'm going to fuck up Randy Brown. Yeah, well, this is why I wanted to have you on. So I see, I have a good sense when it comes to these things. I sense that you were pissed because I reached out to you a couple times. Yeah, I didn't text you back. Well, yeah, why?

Why don't you just say, Aaron, you're an Ahole? Because I still was, I still was holding my hope that I get that Dan Hardy fight. And you were on dance, I was like, oh, this dance breath. This dance friend. I'm not. Really? Yeah. I was, God is my witness.

I was trying to get you the fight. I was trying to expedite things. Listen. Brother, you should have said one. I should have said one word. All right. I need to say one more report. The way I was thinking was,

here you are on national television asking for Dan Hardy. Why don't I get you, Dan Hardy? Get you Dan Hardy on the phone. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I don't need, I kind of... I was also like, I was kind of like, I was kind of like happy at the moment.

Like, you know what I mean? And I rained on the parade? No, like, no, listen. I'm saying I was like, on the phone I was almost like a little content for a moment. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I just got a fight. I'm chilling.

I was chilling my friends. And then, yeah, it was just sudden. I just wasn't right. I was like, uh, all right, man. I just wasn't prepared. I was not prepared. I thought I was just calling in to just be like, hey, talking to the fight, just whatever, light shit.

Yeah, I will, yeah. So that misstep downgrades me. Like all the work you've been on the show before, multiple times, in studio. Because, yeah, well, now that I'm not fighting your buddy, Dan Hardy. Okay, fairer. Yeah, we could be friends again.

Maybe. I mean, you got, what you're back in the circle? I actually told, God's my witness, I told New York, Rick, Before the show started, the producer in the back, the guy with the bad hair, I said, I was shocked when you wrote back to me. I didn't think you would write back to me because I sense that you were mad at me. I want to squash it too.

You did, okay. Yeah, I mean, I wanted to say it, but I'm not going to, I didn't feel like calling you, so I didn't see you. Right. This is the first time I saw you. Sure, sure. That's what we're talking about now. Wow.

And not only that, not only was I downgraded, I'm also a schmucky reporter who plays a role. I know what you do. You like to get a rise out of people. You like to antagonize? What does that mean, though? Or am I just doing my job? You are doing your job. Yeah.

But I'm just asking questions that are sometimes not comfortable. You're going to, yeah, you're going to, like, I, you know, there's plenty of, you can look up Ariel Hawaiian, fighters getting pissed off aerial Hawaiian compilations. That's such BS. That's such BS.

I have devoted so much time to the sport. Why would I want to be on bad terms with fighters? This is my life. This is my life. You don't like me. You don't want to, you don't want to be on bad terms, but you don't mind getting a rise out and antagonize and poking. And it.

You're off on this one. I think you're very smart. You're off. You know why? there's a different scene wanting to get a rise and asking questions that sometimes aren't the most comfortable questions. Sometimes there are situations that aren't the best

that need to be addressed. Ray Borg was just on he blew it. Got sick, got another shot. But I want to talk to him about it. He may not have liked all the questions, but we still have to talk about it right? That's not me wanting to get a rise out of him. That's just me asking questions about the situation. It's not always positive. It's not always, everyone kisses your butt

over the past year. Rookie of the year. Call it T. Munk. You're so great. So, you know, sometimes you got to ask. I liked how you had my back with a little bit with Kevin Lee. I was talking sharing show. I was fucking idiot. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I know he, I don't really like.

So you still watch the show even though you're mad at me. No, because I heard that because people tell me about it because he called me out. No, I've done, I've watched less MMA shows. Okay, okay. So I'm just, I'm in it. I'm deep in it. I train all the time. Okay.

So, but no, I pay attention, man. I still pay attention. I still got love. Here, on the air, I apologize for putting. you on the spot. That wasn't my intention. Honestly, my intention was to try to expedite the process. All I'm saying, just give me a lot of. Is someone, anyone

coming in today? Yeah, CM Punk is going to walk in. By the way, who's this guy filming right over here? That's Bill. That's Wild Bill. How are you? And what's he filming for? Just filming. We just been doing some filming together. Like a lot of like training and just, you know, oh shit. Okay, so you disappear. Like after that fight, you literally fell off the face of the earth.

No fights, no rumors. You're not calling people out. You're the king of call out. Where the hell were you? You grew facial hair? Yeah, I've just been training my ass off. I've been doing the right things, man. I've been, you know, I took some time to, I've been taking the right time to get a little rest in the beginning. Then I've just been going to work.

I've just been working. So was this the plan to go away? Yes and no. When I got the stitches, it had to be the plan for at least a few months. Okay. Because if I rush back in there, I'm bleeding out my head every fight. I look like an ass. Okay.

And how is it now? It's right over there? Perfect. Yeah, it was here. Okay. There's a gnarly picture. I, um... Yes, I saw that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I only got, I got 21, three weeks before Punk. Twenty-one, I got a headbutt, but from my best, my best training partner, L.J. Roboli. It's a stud. You'll be here by him soon. Okay. He, it was an accidental headbutt.

I was tired. I was kind of leading with my head, and, uh, I cut it. 21 stage, I was nervous as heck because, like, if CM Punk cuts me open, I look like a jerk on TV, you know what I mean? So I, uh, yeah, so, uh, then with Sage, he clipped it, and I only got eight. from him. Okay. But, so I just need to give a ton of rest. And the thing is, man, I'm young.

I, me getting six months is, like, for a lot of these guys getting, like, a year, getting two years. I'm getting better faster, fast guys. I'm growing so much. Yeah, I can't wait to show. By the way, when you got that cut three weeks before the punk fight, were you freaking out? Because that was the opportunity of all.

Like, a little bit. Like, I had stitches in when the people came. Like, some people were seeing the stitches. And I got them out right before. Like, I went out. out to the week they just came out. Wow. So I was like, like anything could have, a good

gust of wind could have popped that movie. Wow. Did you tell the UFC? Hell no. Hell no. No, I wasn't letting that word out. I had, the, the people who came and filmed saw, but that's so when you're, you're getting checked out by the doctors, right, in Ohio?

Are they asking? Are they looking? Are you freaking out? It was, it was, it was cool. It worked out. The way it was, it was in my eyebrow, it worked out. It was like, Like, I was even like, wait, do you guys see stitches? You see stitches? Okay, okay. And no one saw stitches.

You were asking. They were gone. Right. No, no, I was like literally, because people brought up the rumors. They were like, we saw it because there was things like you see like circled my stitches and pictures and stills and they're like, Mickey got all out stitches before seeing pump. So I was just saying no, but I was lying. Do a lot of people still come up to you about that?

Or do you feel like that kind of. No, no, no, about punk. Yeah. Yeah. Are you still the punk guy? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Like people come up to you on the street. Yeah. You're the guy who'd be seen a punk? We got on our way here today. I was going to do ariel show. Yeah, it was hot out, so I was not wearing my shirt in a gas station. You were walking outside shirtless.

Like a total douchebag. Yeah, asshole. But you don't pump your own gas in Jersey, right? No, no, no, no. I was going in the gas and get a gallon water. Okay. And someone came up to you and said, you're the guy who'd be seen a punk. Wow.

Have you ever talked to him since? No, never. No interaction, nothing. Is he trying to fight those still? There's some rumor. I mean, there's some speculation, but still not 100%. healthy. I don't know if it's going to happen anytime soon. Would you

like to see him fight again? Whatever he likes to do. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't put much thought into it. In a weird way, though, isn't it better for you if he doesn't fight again? If he's like, he's tired of him and whatever. Well, if it was just one and done. But let him do whatever he wants.

You know, I, it's whatever. Would you recommend? Like, do you think he has it in him to actually? I think he'll probably get, if you give him a legit guy, he'll probably get done the same way I did him. Was it a mistake? to fight you? If they wanted to build them up, fuck yeah, are you crazy?

They definitely picked the wrong one if that was the plan. But I think the plan, they switched the plan. You know what I mean? Yeah. They knew it was what was going to happen. So they knew that there wasn't much of a future so they said, let's get a guy who we can now build off of. Make him into the Sienpunk killer.

Yeah, if that wasn't the plan, it should have been. Right. And I guess it is now. I kind of made it the plan. Right. And then you get Sage. Yeah. And now he's going back down to 155.

Was that a mistake, do you think? booking stage against you for the UFC? Considering how, I mean, they obviously like stage. No, I think that one was fun. Okay. And I was going to go down to 55, I would have to fight him in the garden last year. That was my plan. I thought I was going to have to do that.

I didn't think he was going to come up. So when I called him out, I was getting ready to, to strict up my diet and go, go stay light and go right into it. But now, you know, and I even said on the, like, thinking about going to 55 on my last one. But I was kind of misinformation. What do you mean? You're staying at 70. Yeah.

Two my 70s, I got to get it. Right. What do you mean? I just, I just want to keep fighting in 70. You have like this, this energy about you right now. I feel like you're just like, you're ready to explode. Bro, I'm excited. I'm back.

You're back. I'm back. Yeah, I'm excited. Why so long, though? Like, why couldn't it have been six months? Like, there's a big difference between 11 months and six months. The garden. The garden.

At MSG. Okay, you wanted to wait. That was nice. Like, yeah, I may be, I mean, but I, I don't know. That's just the way it happened. It just, time, time is on my side. Okay. With time, I'm just, I'm all, every version of myself, every time in the fight, I'm better.

And I'm an even better version again. Did they sit down with you and say, okay, like the UFC brass, Dana White? No. There was no like, okay, do you want to come back now? No, I want to come back in the garden. What's the plan? Because you're a blue chip prospect, right? Yeah.

They should be investing a lot. They should be kind of working with you hand in hand. None of that happened? Not really. How did it go down? Yeah. He was like, he was like, he was like, hey, what do you think about? July. And then I was like, give me a little more time because July will be right at six months.

So let me get some time, a little more time. Let me train out the summer. And then, yeah, so then they were like, I saw the MSG card. So in like late July, August, I was hitting them up about that. Okay. And was Randy Brown your idea or their idea? So with Randy Brown, it was a little bit of both. I trained with Randy Brown. I'd trained with the Mhenzo's a little bit. Nice guy. Really. he's a good guy. Okay. But then, and I'd actually had a conversation with Bill.

Okay. They're like, I was like, I would never, I would never fight Randy because he's, he's like a friend. Like, you know, we took an Instagram picture together. Okay. We train together. We're East Coast guys. How long ago? Last year, I, I'd be trained with him when I came to your show before.

Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We trained, but only a handful of times. And then when he loses a fighter, I see him at put my name to Dana White, say, how about Mickey Gall? Mm. And I was like, what? Wow, you felt betrayed. I mean, it was, I don't know.

I was honestly, I was kind of happy. Okay. Because I like the fight a lot. Sure. You know, we've trained together. And although we just did, it was at Henzos, we did grappling, jiu-jitsu, I had my way with them. Okay. And obviously, you'd say my, that's going to be my strength, his train, this would be striking.

Yeah. We'll see. But, you know. So he kind of started this by adding you. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I was surprised. You know, we hadn't trained that much, but I thought we were going to go back and train together, some more keep trying to make sure work.

but I just feel like he just did me a favor. Wow. And why do you think he did that? Because he thinks he probably thinks he could beat me. He probably thinks like, you know, because I haven't shown what I'm, here's the thing. I haven't shown what I could do striking, but I haven't had to. I haven't had to. I mean, I dropped two of my opponents.

It's almost just like just tell me what I'm wrong. I told you I was going to beat Michael Jackson the first. I told you I was going to drop stage and strangle him in the second round. I called all that shit before him. I'm going to beat Randy Brown too. Okay, what is it? I'm not positive on that yet. I don't always have that right away.

Okay. Because there's so much I can fucking do to him. There's so much. I probably drop him and strangle them. That probably happens again. Now, people are sleeping on my striking, which I like. Which I'm glad about. Me and my coach, Sean Diggs, we've been doing a lot of striking.

My boy, Amr too, Amr-Ebraim, who's like Jim Miller's, Moitai coach, Tyler Bear, is a training part of mine who works for. with him, LJarbole, a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of tough studs

coming up. Yeah, I just, I have some of the most dangerous strike in the UFC. Really? Already.

You'll see. You'll see. People are going to get fucked up when I, when we're standing. It happens. It keeps happening.

And people like to say. Inspiring it's happening? You're knocking people out? Yeah, it's always happened. But people are saying, uh, I try not to,

they say you don't want to break your toys. You don't want to, you don't want to go crazy. Of course, of course, of course. But, But yeah, I'm telling you.

I'm telling you, man. I love this. Welcome back. We've missed you. It's been like this mystery. And you didn't want to update people, really. Like you just kind of pop up here. I was chilling, man.

I was chilling. You feel like you've lost a little momentum? Like people kind of forgot about you a bit? No. No. I don't think so. You don't think so. I don't think so.

But I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to be undeniable. You know, I'm going to go in the garden. I'm going to steal a show. I'm going to beat this kid up. It's going to be great. Wow. Is Randy Brown a step up in competition compared to Sage Northcut? I'd say he's definitely, maybe, yeah, probably slightly.

Okay. Yeah, slightly. A little more well-rounded, but heck of a lot of holes. Heck of a hole. And not, he doesn't always, I don't really see him perform. He don't perform like that. He doesn't perform like me. Like I step up.

Randy Brown won't beat him make a goal. It's not going to happen. What kind of holes are we talking about? There's numerous. On the ground? That I will exploit. No, everywhere. Really?

Yeah. But you've only rolled with them. Yeah, yeah. But I've watched his fights. Yeah, yeah. Wow. But honestly, I really don't have, I like the kid. I think he's a good kid.

I think he's a hardworking kid. Nice kid. I hope good things for him for the future. But it's going down. He's going down. This is for the looking for a fight title. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I have the belt. They know what I'm looking for my belt. Why do you have the belt? Because you were the first guy? Well, actually, Sage was the first. I did the show pretty perfectly. Right, you did.

I did that show perfectly. I called the St. Paul, got the St. Pongue. The show, is it even a show? Is it even a show? Like still? I think so. Okay. Yeah, I think they're, yeah, Matt Sarah.

Yeah, I know, but I feel like it hasn't appeared in a while. I don't know. Okay, okay, fair enough. Well, they got the contender series too. Sure, sure, sure. So you beat Sage. That made you get the belt, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Sage had the belt. He's the one who had the most shine off that. For sure. He got the most off it. But then I took that from him. Right. And I'm giving Randy a shot at it. And he also, Randy also was talking about like, he beat me. He beat Sage in an interview when I thought we were like friends and shit. What do you mean? He did like, he did like, he did like, he did like, he did like, he did like, he did make me make me make him see. He did like, I beat Mickey Gaugh and Sage on the best one off looking for the fight. So, you know, we'll find out. Okay. So we'll find out. Okay. Why, like you said, I'm not doing the MMA media thing right now. I'm off the grid, right? You said that earlier, essentially. I guess so, yeah. I don't really have much to talk about, though.

No, no, no, but like you didn't consume it. I guess I just consumed less. Like, when I was, when I was like younger, I'd watch everything. Yeah, yeah. But it's just a little too much when you're in it and it's, you're in it all the time. Is that fights as well? Like pay-per-views? No, I don't miss much fights.

Okay. I don't miss much fights. Is it because it becomes like suffocating to just be thinking, MMA 24-7? Like, I watched the fights the weekend. I watched some of the Bello Tour. I watched,

definitely watch UFC. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, sometimes it's just too much. Sometimes you just want to relax your brain. But I'm in it all the time. Like, I'm watching film. I'm doing everything.

I'm doing everything right. I got a new, I got a new, dude, I got a new nutritionist. I've been working with this guy, Tombella in Jersey. Okay. And I'm eating everything perfect. I'm like doing my vitamins.

I used to take a bunch of vitamins. And now I'm just taking like the proper ones and right at the right times, you know, I feel great. How much you weigh right now? Like 92. Okay. So that's okay for you.

Yes. I mean, you look, I was going to say less. I was 205 in the, like, beginning of summer. Like I lifted a lot with Billy D. Williams. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Livedy Williams. Okay.

I've been working with Joe DeFranco too now. Okay. Yeah. And, yeah, it's awesome. So this whole time, like, from December, end of December up until now, you're just training. Training my ass off. Training like hard, like going, like, deep, going dark. No.

Vacation? No, yeah, I'd vacation. Like I, you know, where'd you go? I went to, I went to L.A. Bill has a place out in L.A. Okay. That was fine? Yeah, yeah, I liked it out there.

Okay. So, yeah, we did some of that. But yeah, I do, no real vacation. Like, I go out there and I find terrain in too. I'd be trained. And you don't show up to fights? You're never like a guest fighter. I have done that.

You did that once with Misha, right? I've done that. I've done a few of those. I've done a few of those. In the front there. That was nice. I like that was nice. You thought we were cozy in the front?

Well, there was a picture. You posted a picture of like... Me and Misha made Britain great again. What is it? That's what I said. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Great.

Made Britain great again. Great Britain. Yeah. I thought you guys looked. I mean, it was a nice looking couple of you two. Oh, thank you.

Yeah. Thanks. I'm not a couple. I know you're not a couple. People ask me that. It's so crazy. Yeah, because you guys were taking page. But that was one time.

That was what, like in November? No, no. It was after the fight. It was early. That was in London. I got to go be a guest fighter in London, which was an awesome opportunity.

But then you didn't do anything else. Like you haven't been around for quite some time. International fight week. I've had boys fighting. I've had like my buddies fighting. You know, LJ fought. Chris Cretolo,

who's got another fight coming up. Then I went to TriStar. Oh, you did? I trained up a try star. I went back. I've just been trained all the low. Wow. What do you say?

When you say dark training, what does that mean? You go dark. I work hard. I work hard. I put my work ethic against anyone. Okay. Anyone, man.

I work super hard. Even like the champs. Yeah, I don't know because I don't see what they do, but I know what I do. And I know, I don't think a person could do more than I do. Okay. You know what I mean? But I bet everyone feels that way. When were you last at TriStar?

Um, August. Was GSP there? No, I didn't see him when I was there. I think they were elsewhere, trained elsewhere, but I'm sure they're... Are you going to go back? Yeah, I plan on going back a little bit in October. Okay. Are you going to have Farras in your corner?

I think for this fight I'm going to have my coach who I always have David Adiv Sean Diggs and LJ Roboli I think I have something to be my corner for this fight I like to roti I've never had the same corner twice really yeah wow why I don't know isn't there something to that though like well it's always my like my main people like I've had David and Diggs in the past three LJ came out with me for the CN Punk one but and LJ such a he's a he's a phenom you should you guys check him out LJ Revoli's really yeah what's his record he's four no amateur one of going pro. He's like 6-3.

When's it going pro? Sometime after my fight. He's just helping me right now. That's what we do. We help each other. I was helping him with his camps. We're helping Gritalo. And now he's helping me. And after I get this win, then we'll worry about LJ. Did you feel bad at all for Sage, like in hindsight? Like you brought out the dark, you brought at the dark side in them.

It's a dog-y-dog thing. And that's why I really don't fault Randy too much. Okay. It's a dog-y-dog sport. He, you know, you got, yeah, it's a doggy, doggy dog world, but this sport especially, it's doggy dog. You got to, you know, you want to take out, you want to take out. No friends, no compassion. Nah, I mean, there's, there is time.

You need to have that, but in the game, I guess it's, you know, people, people choose everything sometimes. I don't know. I don't know. I was never friends with Sage. Me and Rain, I guess, were a little bit of friends. Yeah. And he's a good guy.

Did you ever speak to, wasn't there some talk of maybe you guys would trained together afterwards? We never said that. He's out now for male. Looks like he's doing good. Yeah, yeah. You keep tabs on him? I just saw that.

I don't follow him. On your prey or at least your victims, I should say. What about the business side of Mickey Gall? Do you have a manager? Yeah. Who's your manager now? MBK sports, Eugene Lee. My boy, Kavi, helps me out a lot.

Oh, are they new to the game? I don't know. They're mostly like football. Oh, wow. They're a New York place. But I figured, you know, I'd, I figured I'd be a bigger fish rather than going to like one of those where they got Connor and his things and all those guys.

Okay. You don't want to be part of like the MMA management circles you want to go outside. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, that's what I did. Okay. And how's that working out so far? It's good. It's good.

Because for a while you were kind of like a free agent. A lot of managers were asking me about you. Oh, who's representing this guy? I mean, you were like the prospect of the year. You were the breakout star of 2017, 2016, I should say. So when did you decide to go with these guys? shortly after the fight but I think

it was before half of the stage fight I don't remember I think it was after I think I was just doing it myself before that but yeah they're working on some stuff

like what I don't know sponsors yeah stuff like that all that there market out there you feeling it yeah a little bit

you know I'm doing okay to try but my thing is because you haven't gotten a paycheck since December right yeah

yeah yeah no I haven't gotten a UFC paycheck right of course you haven't fought yeah 11 months it will be. Are you worried about?

11 months, yeah. Ring rust? Fuck no. Bro, I perform. I step up and I do, I always, and I'm ready to go. Do you have a chip on your shoulder? Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I got chival Yeah, because I just why not? I like to work hard, man.

You feel like you're being doubted? Do you feel like they're, yeah. Like, I, like I was listening, like I said, about with Kevin Lee. Yeah. I'd like to challenge him to straight, like a fight in the gym. I saw him slide into Ferguson's DMs trying to do that. I like him slide into mine

and I'd like to get like a little no limit fight. We called a spar. Maybe you get Daddy Mayweather get sponsored and we get some money or something. Wow. I don't know. He's got something on the what the seventh. I got something the next month on the fourth. We can figure that. No gloves? Yeah, whatever you want. No rules.

What's your beef with Kevin Lee? He's talking shit, man. He's too comfortably using my name. Wow. Yeah. You didn't like that. He was talking about the, you know, certain people that the UFC was pushing things like that. The irony is that they're really pushing him now. Yeah. Are you believing in him?

Do you think he's good? I think he's got talent, but I'd fuck him up. I don't like to do... I don't think I want to go to 55. I'm saying we could... We're both in different place in our career, but we could fight in... Wow. So this is the one that's kind of been on the tip of your tongue?

No, no, no, no, no. No, I've just been... I listened to the interview with you when I was doing a little homework about when I was about to come in here. Okay. So I was like... You wanted to see if I've been talking shit over the last few months about you. No.

See, this is my thing. No, I didn't think you were. I didn't think you were talking shit on me at all. Okay, okay, okay. You, no, no, no. Because when I have beef, I like to call someone up, I like to be like, hey, I got beef. I felt like letting you sit. You didn't, I was shocked when you responded.

Yeah, man, no, I just, yeah. And it just. And you also took a long time between replies. Was that on purpose as well to make me sweat? No, no. Like you appeared. No, I said, yeah. But then it was like a long time.

So I was like, is he playing mind games? I'm very sensitive. Yeah, yeah. I'm sensitive too. You are. Yeah. I think all fighters are sensitive. That's why we get pissed off.

That's why, because we work so damn hard. You're right, you're right. You only see 15 minutes of what we do. Sure. But we're in the gym, but I've been in the gym earlier today. I'm going to be back in the gym tonight. You know what I mean? We work hard as heck, and it's people, yeah, people can be disrespectful.

But, you know, that's okay. It's okay. It's better. I love, you should, you know, it's good with it when people like, some people love you, some people hate you. It's part of the game. You got to be, you know, you know, you know what it is. Sure, sure.

When it was time to get back on the horse, did you inquire about Dan Hardy? I just, he don't want it. Yeah. I'm not, I don't need to. It's not happening. It's not happening. Weren't you guys together in London? Yeah.

Did you talk to him? A little about, I was trying to get, I couldn't, I sucked, I couldn't really hear around stage. Right, right, right, right. I was trying to really, I was going to have some fun with that. I had a couple of good lines at that thing, but I was going to have a little more fun but I couldn't hear. Someone asked about us fighting.

I would have lit them up then, but I couldn't even hear that one. Okay, so the first time you say that I didn't prepare you, now you say that- Shut up, Ariel. Come on, man. It's always excuses with you. So, but did you actually talk to him?

Did you actually, like, go up to him and say, like, what's up, man? Can we do this? Like, yeah, like, I said it like, and he was like, oh, man, no, no, no. Okay, you're not feeling it. But did you ask the UFC, like, what's the real story here? Yeah, I asked them, and they were like,

it's not happening. So then you moved on. Yeah, so we moved on. Are you disappointed that you're not getting that fight? No, I really, I like this. I honestly, like I said, I didn't think it was that happened. And then when it started, I was like, oh, maybe this could happen. Anyone else discussed?

Nah, no, no. It was just him. Yeah. What about this? Where's this coming from? From not shaving. Well, yeah. But is this part of the, I feel like this is part of the psyche.

This is like representative of what you're thinking, how you're feeling right now. I like it, by the way. Maybe a little. It was just, I guess I, I, I, I just kind of, it was kind of laziness at first, and I just didn't give up. Do you shave this part, though? No, man, just kind of a child.

Yeah. You're kidding me. Actually, wait, no, I, no, can you see? Like, there's a little bit of it's kind of sprays. I, I shaved it one time for my cousin's wedding, just this to clean up because my grandma asked me to. Okay. So I did.

But she was okay with this? I mean, okay with it? She, you know, grandmas don't love it. Okay. It's okay. And that, that's amazing to me. Yeah, I'm just still a child, I guess. When's the last time you shaved this part, like the mustache part?

Um, my. Okay. Are you going to let it grow until? I don't know. I say we keep it. Will you keep it for the fight? I have no idea. I take it day by day. I was going to chop it off. I was going to chop it off the other day. I'm just whatever the mood strikes. Yeah, I think it's a great look for you. I like when people go away and reappear with facial hair because it's like, okay, this is a new chapter. You're not the same old guy. It's a new chapter.

When I saw you on Instagram with the, you know, with the facial, I was like, okay, this is a man who has many layers to him. He went away. He kept us guessing. People would ask me about me, about me, ask me about you all the time saying, where's Mickey Gall? Where's Mickey Gall? When I said that you were on the show, people were like, oh, Mickey Gall, it's great

to hear from you. I feel like you kind of, I don't know, you're a thinker. And that's evident with your callouts. That's evident how you've kind of planned your career, the steps. It's great. And that's why I thought that you would appreciate what I did for you in December. You didn't tell me beforehand. That's it.

That's the only thing. I would have been all about it. And it would have been great. Do you feel like we're cool now, though? Yeah. But I still have to get back. I have to regain that trust. I mean, you know, so yeah.

But no, I love. like you, bro. You know, I was like you. I know. That's why I was heard. It's amazing. When I sent you that text after the show, I was like, thanks. I think I said like, I hope you don't mind, right? I don't remember. Can I check? Sure. I'm going to just check right now. You can see a lot of, you can see a lot of aerial texts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of non-rephiles. Here it is. Here it is. Okay, there it is. All right. And so I wrote to you, okay, there is a bunch. I said, appreciate you being a good sport about that. congrats on a phenomenal year

and enjoy LA no response yeah and then there was another I wrote on April 4th hey Mickey hope you're well any news on your end nothing

then I just wrote on May 25th hi Mickey so when you saw that you're like fuck that guy right I was just gotta like let Ariel sit

he's got it he's got plenty of other fighters he could go text wow that's amazing but I'm actually proud of myself that I felt right away that you were mad I could feel it

right off the bat yeah yeah I want If I had seen you before today, I would have come up to me. What would you have done? I would exactly what we did right here. Okay, okay. But you wouldn't have gotten physical.

Fuck, no. Come on. I don't know. Fighters are crazy sometimes, you know? Like, you guys get emotional and things like that. So, MSG, what does it represent? That's my backyard. Yeah.

That's my backyard. You know, I'm a Jersey kid. Yeah. I'm a Jersey kid. Did you go to events there as a kid? Did you go to? I don't even know. I just, you know, you know, Matt's going to it?

You've been, I don't know if I've even been in. side to be quite honest. Wow. I don't think I saw a Nixky in there. I don't know.

Maybe I have. I don't think so though. But I've, you know, I've been outside it a million times outside that train station. Yeah.

And so this is a kind of like a bucket list thing for you? Yeah, it's cool because I've had a lot of like really like loyal friends and family who've traveled to Cleveland to Sacramento

all over place. So it's cool that now they can just drive into the city. Right. Vegas, of course. Yeah, Vegas. Yeah. And so,

so you get to fight in MSG. Do you already have like, I feel like now with the time off and being the thinker that you are, you have a bit of a plan set out here. Let's get through MSG, let's get through Randy Brown, then we'll go here, then we'll go there. I mean, you're talking about the Kevin Lee's of the world.

I know that he's not in your division, but we're... I just don't like the way he talks. I don't know the way we talk. The way you talk right now, you're kind of, you consider yourself with the big dog. You said you're the best striker in the sport. Right? I said I'm one of the most dangerous strikers in the U.S.

Yes, I did. Yes, okay. The most dangerous strikers. Dangerous. Is there a difference in dangerous and best? I think so, because it's not like I've grown up like moit tying

I'm not like who's that dude who just fought Gokan Saki like he might say he's one of like the best writers just because his pedigree but me I'm gonna hurt people

I'm gonna hurt people I'm gonna hurt them I'm drop them and then when they're a babe in the woods I'm gonna strangle the shit And you know like I can't see the comments right now but you know what people are saying

what? You drop Mike Jackson you drop CM Punk like this guy's completely out of his mind Okay Am I boring you right now You're yawning Oh you weren't okay

I'll just click on my jaw a little bit So is, I mean, like, you know that that's coming, right? I thought I was yawning. Yeah, I thought I was boring you. Yeah. But that's all good, baby. That's all good. Yeah?

Do you still feel like people haven't quite bought in? Like, they still think that you're the reality show guy. Totally. And I get it. I get it. Because I fought CM Punk and Sage Northcutt. Yeah. And that's cool. You don't have to, yeah, you don't have to, yeah, people don't even know, like, about that point.

But, yeah, I, it's all good. I know, I know who I am and what I can do. And it's just a matter of time before I get to show it. Do you think that if there wasn't that looking for a fight show? I'd still be, I'd still be probably fighting. I'd be like 5 and 0, 6 and 0 fighting regionally. I probably have a regional belt. Be like one of those guys like UFC come sign me.

Right, right. I'm one of the, yeah, I'd probably be there. Yeah. But I'd be, you know, I'd be right about making my debut in a year or two. Do you get like when you're training with the guys who are in that position in gyms, do you feel like they're envious of you? Because you're probably, you know, like you go lucky, right? Sometimes people come at me hot.

like when I'm training at different gyms. You feel that. Being like, oh, you're the guy would beat Sam Punk or something like that. But that's, that's all, it's all good with me. I like to go hard anyway, so. Do they actually say it or you just feel it? No, you can, well, there's a little bit of both.

Sometimes, like, they'll be like, oh, you're, and you see like that kind of, their wheels are turning kind of. And then, yeah, you could sometimes feel the way they're going with you. But I like that. That's all good. Yeah. I could, yeah.

What about on the street? No. No, no, no, no, no, does it be on the street? No. Do you feel like beating Sienpung did for your career what you thought it would? Or has it been a little less? Has it been a little more? I'd say it was pretty much exactly as I thought.

Really? Wow. Pretty much exactly as I thought. Put me in the position for my next fight and now I'm sitting here three and on the UFC. About to be four and on the UFC. It would be five and a... When's your contract, though? How long is your deal? I think I have five more fights after this one formal. Oh, because the Mike Jackson one didn't count?

Not that. It did, but I think I had... I think I had an eighth fight. So three, 10, five more. Wow, that's a long contract. Yeah,

that's all good. I feel like you're good. There's a lot of guys. I feel like you're going to outgrow it. No, I mean, if you beat Randy Brown and impressive. When I beat Randy Brown?

When you beat Randy Brown. When you beat. Impressive fast. I feel like you're starting, you're in a much different place than you were when you beat Mike Jackson. Right? Like, I'm much,

I'm higher in this. Yes. Yeah, for sure. So. Yeah. Randy's, yeah.

Randy's a, is a higher caliber fighter. Sure. Yeah, for sure. But you're going to just play out the contract. Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to fight. I'm here to fight, baby.

Do you want to come back quickly if all goes well? Like now are you trying to make it for lost time? Yeah, I'd like to do like three a year. Like I did my first, like last year I did three. I did three a year going forward. Who's after Randy Brown? Do you have that name already? Or is it too soon?

Not exactly? No. No, you haven't thought that far in events? No, I don't have it. And if I did, I probably wouldn't say though, too. Too soon? Yeah, I'd say on the mic. I say it after I went on the money.

But now there's an expectation, right? Yeah. And I think that's why the Dan Hardy one was kind of met with mixed reaction because everyone was like, okay, who's he got on Fox? Wait, wait, you don't want to see me fight Dan Hardy? I didn't want to see that. Why? First of all, he's retired.

He's got a heart problem. You're much younger than that. He's always been saying he's going to fight this and that and he was, he's fought for the belt. He's a legit fighter. That's a nice name. He was like two off the beaten path. Okay.

I thought he was just far off enough to beating path that it could happen. That like, I'm trying to be. realistic. Sure. That's, that was the problem. It wasn't realistic. I didn't think, I thought maybe this guy will try and come and shut up this young kid. Maybe we could have done it. He hasn't come back. No signs of him. But I believed when I thought. You should have asked me.

Should I ask you. Yeah. What's the deal with that? Then we get a leak. No, come on. You don't trust me? You think I'm going to... Fuck no. What do you mean? What do you mean? You think if you would have texted me, I would have went out and said that Mickey Gall is considering... Yes, right before, right before I announced it, you would have been like, oh, my. My God.

Wow. See, now we've taken a whole other turn here. You don't, so you really don't trust me. That hurts. You can't trust. You don't trust the media. You can't, who can't, who can't, you tell me something off the record? I trust my dad.

I trust Bill, I trust, I trust. Bill, by the way. That's my boy, yo, that's, yeah, that's family. I mean, but really, who is he? He's just a guy trying to, he's trying to make money off your name. He's taking videos of you and stuff. You know what I mean? He's always antagonize.

He's pushing the button trying to get a rise out of people. I can't believe it. Wow. If someone said to me. that I don't trust you, that's like the biggest insult that someone could say. As like an interview-e-subject, you know, as a report. Yeah, because if I don't have your trust, then I got nothing. But what do you, you want me to just push my trust in you and you, like, what we first

talked about is like if, yeah, that wasn't really a trustworthy thing. I broke that trust. Yeah, but I'm saying you should have asked me about Dan Hardy. That was before that incident. But you know what I mean? But even, yeah, no, I wouldn't, I don't, I don't, I'm not that kind of guy. I've seen ships, man. I'm not out there trying to talk and get everyone's a page.

There are some fighters like when I hear a rumor about something, I'll reach out to them and be like, hey, is this true? Yeah, just don't say that I told you. You know, that's kind of everyone's so afraid of the UFC, the big bad UFC is going to get you in trouble. You're not that guy. You're just not going to say anything. I'm doing my own thing. Yeah. I'm doing my own thing.

No, I've, loose lips, loose lips, sink ships. But there is something to be said for having good relationships with the media, you know? Yes. And I do. I did every, I did every interview. I always with all respect. I try and make it like we're friends talking. Sure. No, you're great at it.

But I did feel like you did not do a friend move. I felt like you were on Dan Hardy's, you were being Dan Hardy's friend. Maybe the problem was, is it possible the problem was that you thought I was your friend? But in reality, we're just sort of like interview, interview. Like not say that I don't want to be your friend, but like you're not inviting me to your wedding, right? I'm like a married time.

So you never know where our friendship could grow. Sure, that's true. Are we spoken for these days? What do you mean? You had a girlfriend last time I spoke to you, right? Yeah. No, taking a break? No, she's still around.

Why did you pause? Why did you pause? Because it's, you know how those things go. It's more complicated than that. Is it? Yeah, yeah. She's still in the picture. Okay.

Yeah. Are you happy? Yeah. Okay. But it's a good girl. She's, yeah. Okay. Is she going to come to the fight?

Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. I feel like you're not saying something. Maybe you want to say. Yeah. Yeah, it's just my business. I appreciate that, no problem.

So I feel like we did a lot of good work here. Yeah. I have fun. It's nice to see you. It's nice to, you know, nice to talk and I appreciate this. Wow. Yeah, man, a little jersey mug. Where'd you get this?

At the store. Okay, you thought I'm going to give. I was like, let me bring arrows on maybe a jersey thing. Maybe piss me off. I throw it at the. Yes, here it is. Look at that. I'm going to keep this forever.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't tell people the first. first time exactly what it was in case you're just listening. Here we have the great state of New Jersey. This is a gift from New Jersey's own Mickey Gall. Good things happening in New Jersey these days. Yeah. You know, the governor kind of screaming the people going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On the beach. Would you ever leave? Someone stopped me. I was going for a run down the shore. And some guys like, he was like, wait, right, right. You can't go on the Oh, because. Listen, go, but you don't go. Because that whole thing? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. They wouldn't

let me run towards a lighthouse. I've been going to. I was a baby. Meanwhile, the guy's like getting sun on his own private beach. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. It's a crazy time in the world of sports. I'm going to talk about that a little later on. Yeah.

Piss off some people, just with all the players kneeling down. I'm just going to, yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm just going to keep it real with you. Please. I'm always going to tell you if I, you know. Yeah. What do you mean?

Are you referring to the damn or anything? No, just to anything. Yeah. Well, how do you feel about what's good? Is that? Oh, with the NFL? Yeah. I was just, I was just saying in regards to our conversation.

I know, I appreciate that. I feel so good right now. I can't tell you. It always felt like every time your name would come up, I'm like, I'd love to talk to him, but I feel like he doesn't like me. And that's why that was a Hail Mary on my own part. I was at the zoo with my kids on Wednesday, texted you, you wrote back. I was like, wow, I can't believe he actually wrote back.

I thought there was no chance in hell. No, man, I wanted to be friends, but I was like, what am I going to text him back? Still being like, oh. No, no, this is great. I gave you a lot of credit. You made the check. How far is this from where you live? It was like 45 minutes.

Oh, that's not too bad. Yeah. It's not bad. We drove in. Okay. You're not still delivering bread and things like that. No, no. I'm retired from the bread delivery business.

You're doing full-time MMA? Nothing else. My life, man, yeah. Do you have any sponsors right now? Yeah. People are supporting you? A big one for me has been Frederick Chevrolet. Oh, wow.

I was the shirt I was wearing the first time. Okay. So I'm thankful that I'm not sweating through my shirt this time on the interview. Well, it's a little cooler, right? Yes, it's cooler in here. It's hot as heck outside. It is. Yeah, it's like 90-something degrees.

It's unbelievable. So what? You get a, you get a car from them? Um, no, I, I, you know, they're just, they've just, they've been supporting me, um, for, for years. They believed in me from my amateur days. Wow. Yeah, Frederick Chevrolet. And they, they're still.

They're still got your back. Still got my back. What's the biggest thing we've been working on since we've been away in the dark training? Just everything. Everything. Everything. I have this vision of you in a dark room just like, for her. Like, it's a little, it's a little American psycho-esque right now, the vibe that you're, you're giving off.

You know that movie? Nah. Like you're in a, you know, like those. Am I'm not insulted? No, no, no. It's a little Rory McDonald's. You mentioned that the first time. I love being compared to Rory.

Okay. So I appreciate it. Have you trained with him in Montreal? We've been in the gym together. We didn't get to train. It was just different times. We've had a couple conversations. He's a great guy.

Okay. Yeah. I like it. I hope to be able to train. I know he's fighting Douglas Lima coming up. That's right. Yeah. I like it.

Yeah. It's great to see you again. Thank you, Mickey. All the best, too. And thank you for clearing the air. Tell me how you feel. I'm not offended. I'm happy that we got through this.

Yeah. No, of course we got through. You know, you called me a schmuck. You know, that's okay. I'll get over that. Schmuckie reporter. You know what you do, man. That was great.

I still don't know. I still really don't know what you mean by that. No, look, I'm just saying all the fans, they should love the heck out of you. Because you do, you do a great job. But you're going to piss off MMA fighters along the way. And like I said, a semi-fighters can be sensitive. Yeah, they can.

Yes, I've learned that. I've learned that. Yeah, man, because that's why we work so fucking hard. And I respect it. You know what I mean? I have more respect for MMA fighters than any athlete on this planet. And I think I've made that very clear. Sometimes, you know, we'll mess up along the way.

There'll be misunderstandings as I think we could chalk that one up to. But please don't think that I don't respect you or try to insult you or try to overstep my boundaries. That wasn't my thing. Honestly, I was trying to expedite it. I was trying to get you the fight. I was trying to help you out. One text beforehand.

I'm not Team Dan Hardy. Fantastic. I'm not a Dan Hardy guy. I'm more of a Mickey Goggin. I probably would have stayed up all night and we've been cooking up up some shit to say. Well, it wasn't meant to be.

You're funny in MSG. It's all good. I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy. Yeah. November 4th, MSG, great card. By the way, who do you got? Bisping or GSP?

Oh, man. I don't, all the fights. I'm never good of picking fights. You're not good? No, just because I know it's, I don't know, if I'm not like there, if I don't know the person, I don't know.

I don't know what's going to happen in a fight. But I think this is the best card of the year. 100%. Best Big GSP, Yuaniajic against Rosnamu Unis, and then Cody Garbrand versus T.J. Dilsshaw? Unbelievable. Wouldn't I be sick if they put me or any to kick off the main card? That's what you want?

Yeah, then you put, fuck yeah. Yeah, we kick off the main card. And then you have Wonderboy. Osvidal? They're not going to listen to me because I'm saying this on your show. Why? What are you trying to apply? Man, they hate you.

Come on. Who is they? UFC? Oh, that's not true. One guy, yeah. Have you asked them? No. I asked him to come on my show last week.

Ask him what, to put me at that fight? No, if he really hates me. I'm not quite sure. That's all we talking. Anything I get together and we just talk about you. When's last time you spoke to him? When I, when a text. Oh.

When I said I'm going to be, to be fighting Randy Brown for the Dana White looking for a fight belt. You told him? Like, oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Oh, okay. Like that was a joke. Like, yeah. to be putting your Dana White looking for a fight.

You should make one. Are you going to make one? That'd be hilarious. You walk around, you walk to the ring with that or the cage with that, it'd be great. So you want to be the first fight of the paper of your main card. I think, yeah, if you put us the first fight to the main card, right at 10 o'clock, pick it off, me and Randy, and then you got Wonderboy Mazvedal. Ooh, that's a heck of a fight.

And then the three titles. Yeah. I think that'd be cool. But I don't care. You know what I mean? Doesn't really matter. No, I get the fight in the daughter. Yeah.

Yeah, I just think that'd be cool. They just announced a great fight for that card as well this morning. Joe Duffy, Vic? Yeah. That's a great fight. Joe Duffy, I love the way he strikes. He soaks up space so well. Have you trained with him at Tricer?

I have. I have. He's a really good dude. Great boxer. He was a pro boxer for a time. Again, I'm happy to see you. I'm happy you're back. I love the fact that you're on the MSG card.

I think Randy's a nice appropriate step up. I love the facial hair. Thank you. I'm very high on Mickey Gall right now. Thanks. I just want you to know that. I'm, I'm feeling, yeah. I feel good about that.

All right. Thank you very much for Matt. Thank you for coming in. Mickey Gall, everyone. He returns November 4th, MSG. He gave me a very nice mug, and I love having him in studio. You're welcome anytime. All right, there he is. Wild Bill, please don't use any footage without my written consent, all right? No, you can use whatever you want. I'm kidding. Wild Bill, thank you very much for stopping by as well. What a great interview with Mickey Gall. Appreciate him stopping by. Joe will walk you out, Mickey. Thank you again for... Oh, okay. Mickey Gall. Boy, I love that guy. What a looker he is. He's unbelievable. And he really put me on the hot seat over there, but we're all good now. We have cleared the air. I felt that he didn't like me. I felt that he was mad. Called me a schmucky reporter. But guess what? That's what grown men do. We address our differences and then we move on. That's what we do. But I felt it that day when we had Dan Hardy on. And I know some people like to say that, oh, you know, you like to set up. No, I wasn't trying to. to do that in that case. I was actually really trying to expedite it. He's on Fox. He's calling out Dan Hardy. Total out of left field. You know, Hail Mary call out. So I'm like, well, why don't I get Dan Hardy on the phone and find out what exactly he thinks about this call out? He didn't like that. I'm surprised because he seems like the kind of guy who kind of thinks on his feet, but I didn't know that he was partying all night. I didn't know he was tired, drinking, whatever the case may be. I didn't know that. So I'll chalk it up. I'll say I'm sorry.

missed up on my part, but we cleared it up and everyone's good now. Everyone's happy. So again, November 4th, Madison Square Garden, Mickey Gall returns against Randy Brown. It's turning into a great card. I'm very much looking forward to that fight. Thank you very much to Mickey Gall for stopping by the studio. Love having him in. He's welcome anytime. And in a matter of moments, we are going to be joined by our final guest of the day. And I'm so excited to talk to this man. In fact, I want to tell you a bit about this man. On Saturday in San Jose, on Saturday, on San Jose, on Saturday in San Jose, Aaron Pico returned to action. He was victorious in his second professional fight.

Of course, we all remember what happened back in June at Madison Square Garden. His pro debut, a lot of buzz, a lot of hype, a lot of intrigue, didn't go his way, ended up losing in just 24 seconds to Zach Freeman. He returns on Saturday, Bellator 183 against Justin Lynn. And all eyes were on Aaron Pico. Everyone wanted to know, okay, is this guy going to be for real? Is he going to be a bust? What's going to happen in the sophomore outing?

Well, he ends up knocking out Justin Lin in just three minutes and 45 seconds. Not only did he knock him out, one of the best knockouts of the year, in my opinion. And not only that, here are some stats that the good people at Bellator have provided me about said knockout. You want to hear this? The video already has 1.2 million plus organic views across the Belator social channels. at over 4.3,000 retweets, 6.8,000 likes. It's our second most engaged tweet ever behind MVP's flying knee, that Pokemon moment, if you will. Remember that one against Cyborg?

Tweed has also received the most Twitter impressions in 2017, which includes their New York City show back on June 24th. Over 7,500 Facebook shares makes it one of their most shared videos to date, and that includes some of their Kimbo-Slics videos on Facebook. Most liked and commented Bell Tour Instagram video in two years. The clip was SportsCenter's number three top play of the night on a very busy night in sports with college football and all kinds of things happening in the world of boxing.

So Aaron Pico delivered in his sophomore outing. He is kind enough to join us on the phone, our final interview of the day. Aaron, how are you? I'm good, Ariel. It's good to be back on the show. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure, and congratulations on not just the victory,

on all the success afterwards. Did you realize that it was kind of blowing up socially the finish on Saturday night? To honestly, yeah, my brother, he keeps reminding me that, man, this thing is going viral. It was a great show. It was, I watched it a bunch of times. It was just well-executive I took. But, yeah, it's kind of crazy to see it.

blowing up. It's really cool, though. So, you know, there was so much buzz that, you know, I don't have to tell you about any of this going into the MSG fight. Of course, it didn't go your way. I was so impressed with how you handled the loss. So impressed with the buildup to this fight. So impressed with your aftermath. You're 21 now. And again, happy birthday to you. I know you celebrated your birthday on Saturday. But like, you come across as a 30-year-old. Like, you have the maturity and the poise of a guy who's a veteran and you've been through so much. But honestly, looking back now, how nervous were you? for Saturday night. How nervous were you making that walk for the second time, considering how the first fight went? Yeah, of course, I'm always nervous. That's just part of the game. It's just stupid not to be nervous. But to be honest with you, I really felt a lot more comfortable this time around,

especially after I was in Madison Square Garden. But I just felt really comfortable. The whole training camp went really well. Everything flowed, how it was supposed to be. And I just knew if I relaxed and take my time, I have 15 minutes to get at the guy, take him down. I can do whatever I want. I just needed to relax.

I was nervous, but once I threw my first punch, once he hit me, I was like, okay, I'm good. I'm fine. I can take it to the ground. I can stay on my feet. So a lot more poised this time. It just felt good to just get my feet wet. I wanted to get hit.

To me honestly, I was like, you know, I kind of want to get hit. Not like in a battle. I just wanted to just, you know, my first professional fight, I wanted to see what it felt like, you know, just relax a little bit, take a few punches, you know, get my, you know, feet wet. And it went perfectly. It went, it went good. Were there any thoughts of waiting a little long?

I mean, this was a pretty quick turnaround after the debut didn't go so well. Did you think about maybe waiting to come back or did you want to return sooner rather than later to, you know, get the yell out of the way? I wanted to get back as soon as I possibly can. I knew San Jose was in September, and I wanted to get there as soon as possible. I needed an experience. I kept telling my team is like,

the biggest thing after Madison Square Garden is just like 24 seconds. I have like, you know, I have really good skill set. So to not be able to display them, it was just kind of like, man, it kind of sucked. That was the most embarrassing part. Just like, I've got a lot of skillset. I just, I want to show them. I obviously didn't go my way. So I wanted to get back into the gym,

and I need all the cage time that I possibly can. So I said, please just, I need to get back in there as soon as possible. So it was good. In the buildup to this fight, how many times did you watch that fight against Freeman? To be honest, I only watched it a few times. I actually watched it in the back, probably when it happened. They showed me the video of it, and I just was like, damn I rushed in

I rushed in and just it was this overall thing you know like my nerves everything the buildup everything so I just wanted to get in there and go so I watched it

I said okay I know what I did wrong I obviously lunged in he's a season veteran he knows he knows and stuff so I said now I need to take my time which fight were you more nervous for the debut or this one on Saturday uh debut

Really? Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. Debue. Dave you by far. This one I just felt good. The whole week I just felt really well. I woke up. I felt great. I was telling my dad, and I was like, it's going to be a good day. I feel really good.

Antonio McKee, you know, made me feel a lot better, too. He said, we've done all the work. We've done everything we possibly can. Being up to this, and I felt really good, too. I've done everything I possibly can. He said, now it's just go out there, relax, and do what you do, and then it will be a good day. So he was right, and it was a good day.

And just curious, I mean, like I said, you've competed on the high stage as possible. You were knocking on that Olympic door. Were you more nervous for the MSG fight than you were in your entire athletic career? No, I was actually the most nervous I've ever been. It was probably the Olympic trials. Okay.

That was probably the most nervous I've ever been. I'm sure I was nervous too. I always get nervous. It's just like one thing that my mom has always told me. Like, if you're not nervous, then there's something wrong. So I always get nervous. It's just being able to control them. MSG was a big deal.

But I've been wrestling since I was a kid. And that's one thing about wrestlers is like we deal with so much. We lost and we've come back. So to take pride in being a wrestler, I knew that my back was against a wall this fight. I knew people were going to see. How does he respond? on, but that's wrestlers are a different breed. We are.

And that's just plain and simple. What was it like dealing with the feedback afterwards? Everyone had a take. You were pushed too quickly. You fought a too experienced opponent. You're not as good as we were told, all that stuff and more. Did you read all that stuff? How did you handle all the backlash that comes with a moment like that?

Yeah, everybody always has something to say. I mean, even when you went, everybody will say, well that, this and that. So you can't please everybody. And that's what I've really figured out in this game and everything. You're not going to please everyone. I've got a great team. I've got a great management.

I've got my family behind me. And like I said, the fight against Zach Freeman, I keep telling everybody, that was my decision. They said they brought us the table and I felt I was ready for it. And like I always said, sometimes I do bite off more than I can chew, but that's just who I am sometimes. Sometimes I need people to scale me back. But at the end of the day, on that flight, it was my decision.

And, you know, sometimes we make the wrong decisions, but that's part of life. You live and learn. And I knew I was going to come back. I have a team behind me that are a rider dies. So they're going to be with me to the end. And that makes me feel really comfortable. And I love what I do.

So when you have that, you know, the sky's the limit. So I just said, I knew I was going to get back. I just need to get the win on them about, and we're going to continue to build. In a weird way, this can be a blessing for the obvious reasons. You know, you know how to come back from adversity, all that stuff and more. But just to get that loss out of the way, sometimes that, oh, can be such a burden as you continue. And now you don't have to worry about that ever. Now you can just do you.

You could just go on a streak now, but you have that one. Fine. It's okay. Many great fighters have lost early on in their career. Do you view it that way now? Like, now that you actually got the first win and you're one in one as opposed to two and O, in a way, it kind of alleviates some stress because we've already seen you lose. There's no novelty there.

For sure. I mean, I feel like everything happens for a reason. And I felt like after the Madison Square Garden, if I were to won in Madison Square Garden, I don't think I would be with Antonio McKee. I mean, after the fight, I started working with Antonio McKee with the guys at the body shop, like AJ McKeague and Joey Davis and all them. So I think it was a blessing. I really felt, you know, fit in well over there, especially being with Antonio and just, you know,

having somebody that can blend it all together, someone that knows a wrestling style. And Antonio McKee really knows, you know, he was a wrestler. He knows how to blend it. He's been with, he's been in MMA since the intensity stages and he's grown as a coach. So it was really cool. I think it was a blessing in the skies that had happened. and everything happens for a reason. So everything turned out well.

Sometimes it really sucks, though. That was like the most embarrassing day of my life, June 24th. But if there were no bad moment, you wouldn't appreciate the good moment. So I know I'm appreciating everything that I've done so far. Saturday was a good night, but we've got to continue to build. The job isn't done, and that's to be world champion. And that's the whole goal in mine, and I've said I'll be the champ of the world.

And, hey, that was just a stepping stone, and where I want to get to in the future. So are you no longer going to train with A.K.A.? I was never with A.K.A. Bob Cook, like I said, Bob Cook comes down. Yeah. He comes down in my training and then helps me out with Antonio and gives his advice and he's constantly,

I'm constantly in contact with him, and he's helping me. He's definitely a big part of my career. But I was never at A.K. I mean, I would go up there to, like, every now and then to go train, but all my majority of my training is down here in Southern California. But Bob Cook comes back and forth.

He comes back and forth. Obviously, the fight ended perfectly. You get the win. Anything that you weren't happy with the performance, anything that you didn't like about Saturday night? Yeah, I think, you know, just sometimes, I mean, I got into like a little slug fest, you know, sometimes just take my time a little bit more

rather than just like just... you know, throwing wild, you know, pick my shots a little bit better. But overall, I mean, I'm still new to the game. Just got to get back into the work, work on my jihitsu, my standing, my striking, my kicks. Just overall, they got to get better and better at the end of the day. To be a world champion, your game has to be all around, all around, especially the way that MMA is evolving. It's getting so crazy.

So I'm going to sit down with my coaches, Bob and Antonio and everybody and just and figure out what I did wrong because they're going to have some feedback, which is a good thing. I need all the, of course, you want to take all the positives, but, you know, the negative sometimes are the best thing that you need. So we'll sit down as a team and figure out what I did wrong and Rul and Pugos for sure. When you connected with that left, what did that feel like? What was that moment like? Do you recall that moment when you connected and you just felt it? his body go limp like that? Yeah, it just happened.

So it's so fast. And I've, it was just like, I don't know, I can't really describe it. It just feels like you hit a pillow. You know, when you hit somebody, like when you knock somebody out, it's like you don't, it's not like a punch where you're like, you're swinging and you're just like, you know you're going to hit him. It just happened so fast. It just feels like you punch a, punch a pillow.

That's the only way I can possibly describe it. And then I saw him stiffen up. And then I said, yeah, he's out. And it was just like a, feel like a big, all the weight on my shoulders just came off. And then that's when I just, yeah, it just felt great. It was a good, it was a good moment. I was like, yeah, that really happened. It really happened.

And just I just really tried to just tease the whole moment. You know, a lot of people always say, you know, enjoy the moment. You always take that for granted. But I really sat down and just said, man, I really enjoy this because I'm going to enjoy it. Because I know as soon as you step out of that cage, it's like, what's next, what's next. And so I wanted to really enjoy the moment. And then once I step out, it's like,

you got to get ready for the next one. That's how MMA is because there's people always knocking at the door or training and ready to fight you. So I enjoyed the moment. It seemed they didn't show it on television, but it did seem like it took just in some time to get up. And that was a pretty vicious knockout. Was it hard to fully enjoy the moment in the cage?

because I'm sure you saw him like he was on the ground for quite some time, right? Was it hard knowing and seeing him in that state? Absolutely. Honestly, it doesn't even really sit well with me. And I know people say that's what you do for a living. You know, it's either you or him. But for me, I mean, in the case, yeah, I mean, I want to, you know, knock people out. But when it's all said and done, I've always said he's got a family and I've got a family.

We want to just go home and enjoy it. There's people that care about him. and then that sucks to see to see on TV, you know, I mean somebody's son getting you know, knocked out cold. I mean, that just kind of sucks. So I just, you know, I'll play and everything will go

so well for him. Because at the end of the day, you just, we do this for a living, but it's not the most important thing, you know, the most important thing is family. I just wanted to go home with his family and enjoy it. So it is what it is. It's part of the,

part of the sport, and that's something that I got to realize. and I wish I'm not doing best and I hope he's doing good. Were you able to talk to him afterwards? No, I didn't see him afterwards. I went back to my locker room and, yeah, I didn't see him at all.

But I, yeah, I don't know. I didn't see him at all. How did you celebrate your 21st birthday? I just, well, my family and I, we walked down to, it was pretty cool. like a little like underground little bar and uh i had my first i had my beer with uh with my grandpa i had my first period with my grandpa so it was pretty cool it was a cool moment first i had my

my friends for from school that came down since i was like and i've known them since first grade my girlfriend was there and my brother and all the neighborhood guys were there so it was a cool moment for me especially with my first first win and we had a good time and you know just uh just just chill out having a good time So I'm not trying to get you in trouble here, but I am looking on Sherdog and Wikipedia, and it actually says it your birthday's tomorrow. Are they wrong?

Yeah, they're wrong. I don't know why. People always ask me that. They say September, I think it's like 26 or something like that. I'm like, no, my birthday's September 23rd. I don't know why it has that, but it was September 23rd. So it was on Saturday, and you got to drink your first beer? You've never had a beer before Saturday night?

No, I've had a beer before. before, but I mean, I don't make it a habit. I mean, I've had one before, but I had one actually first time out in public with my grandpa. So it was kind of cool. He was so excited. My grandfather, it's probably my biggest fan. He takes me wherever I need to go for training. He's always there. He's my biggest fan. So if it just finally gets the win and have a beer with him was a special moment. So it was cool. It was a really good time. I'm not a beer drinker, but I know a lot of people are into this sort of stuff. just curious what kind of beer was it?

Was it something special? Was it your regular old beer? That was a Modelo. Is that a big one? Is that like a famous one? It's like a Mexican beer. Oh, okay. All right.

Yeah, it was a Mexican beer. Yeah. So you talked about, you know, everyone wanting to know what's next. How soon do you want to come back? Do you want to come back one more time this year? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know there are going to be in L.A. Well, that will be considered

2018, right, the one and they're going to have at the forum. I hope to be on that card, especially in LA. It will be a good card for me. So we'll see. And that thing has been finalized, but I hope I'm on that card.

It'll give me, you know, some good time to prepare. Right now in my career, earlier in my career, like, you know, every month counts for me, you know, especially being so young and improving in this game. So I want to take as much time as I can to improve and just keep building. This was a great win for me.

It was great for me to get my feet wet. But now I just, I just got to keep building because at the end of the day, the main goal is to be all champions. So, you know, short steps, but long visions. And are we sticking with 145? Yeah, I don't stick that 145. It's a perfect weight for me. I felt good the whole training camp. My eating is really, really good.

I mean, I don't really, I don't really watch what I eat. I mean, I just eat good all your own. That's just good, especially for all the training that I do. I have to eat the right things. So the weight came off really easy. I mean, I weighed in two pounds under, and I came in, you know, like 156 on fighting out. It felt great. So I like this.

I like the way that the California are doing the way ends. You weigh in before you fight, I think it's great. You know, it works in my favor. So 145 is a perfect. perfect way for me. Congratulations on the win, Aaron. You know, it's, to me, like stories of redemption, comeback stories, they're almost just as if not more interesting than, you know,

like the phenom stories. And you were already the phenom for so long, but now we were thrown this curveball as far as your career narrative is concerned, and the way you responded and the actual performance and then the finish and the way you handle it on the mic and just every step of the way, it's just so fascinating to me and it's so admirable the way you conduct yourself as a 21-year-old now. So kudos to you. Congratulations on getting that first win. And congratulations on being able to, you know, come back from adversity and showing people that getting embarrassed, as you put it, at MSG of all places in your pro debut isn't a death

sentence for your career. You're able to come back. You're able to be better than ever and still kind of continue on your way and achieve those goals that you set out to achieve. It's very inspiring stuff and it's very admirable. So again, much respect to you. Cudos to you. Tit my cap to you. you for coming on. Enjoy that victory for a little bit and I look forward to seeing you again in early 2018 as you said you want to be on that card on January 20th. I think it's a perfect place for you. So looking forward to that as well. Thank you, Ariel. Thank you for having me on. I look forward to for the future. Thank you. All right. There he is. Aaron Pico. Appreciate his time. What a great performance on Saturday. You have a ton of prospects out there.

They are a dime a dozen and he was at the top of the list. There's no doubt about it. He's still at the top of the list, but to see him respond the way he did, and look, he's not beating the best that the 145 pound division in Beltaire has to offer, but still, to come back from that, I mean, that could break a lot of people. That was embarrassing. 20-something seconds at MSG on pay-per-view, I mean, everyone's second-guessed it, including myself. It was too soon, it was too big of a stage. It was an opponent that was just too experienced. Man comes back, fights an opponent with more fights under his belt and gets a knock out like that in the first round.

Quick hands. There was one sequence there when Justin Lin was up against the cage and he was just teeing off on him. I mean, this is a wrestler. And I know he has a background, you know, a Golden Gloves background, but, you know, initially his foundation was wrestling. And for him to have hands like that,

he trains at the wildcard gym. you know, Antonio McKee is turning into, he was always one of the best fighters and maybe a polarizing fighter because he wasn't the most exciting fighter and he would just kind of grind out decisions kind of in the mold of a John Fitch or Ben Asgram, but this is a guy who didn't take a lot of damage.

He is turning into one of the better trainers in the sport now with Aaron Pico. And it seems like there's a thing going on with him in Beltoor with A.J. McKee, his son, Kevin Ferguson Jr. Baby Slice. I know trains over there and there are some other young fighters who have been there. Rampage Jackson I know has done some training with Antonio McKee as well. Turning into a very solid coach as well and you're seeing his work with Aaron Picos. That was a great moment. That was one of Bellator's best nights in my opinion. That fight was phenomenal. The Gochi Yamauichi fight was great. What a nice finish that was. Quick. Rear Naked Choke submission victory. Roy Nelson's victory and performance was fun. It was a lot closer than I expected it to be, but it was still a very fun fight. And of course, the Paul Daly knockout against Lorenz Larkin. You can make the case that the least entertaining fight on the card was the main event. And that was the Benson Henderson Pitbull fight. Benson loses another close decision now falls to one and three in Bellator. But overall, I thought it was a very good night for Belator. They had that face off. with Rory McDonald's and Douglas Lima. Everyone talking about Rory's

turtleneck afterwards. That's a great fight for January 20th. Feels like they're getting back on a bit of a roll here. Also signed a deal with our good friends over at Twitter. Their prelims aired on Twitter, which I think is very cool. I'd like to think maybe we open the door for them just a little bit. I'm not going to take a lot of credit.

I know they worked very hard to get that done. But maybe we let the Twitter people know that MMA is okay to be a part of. And there's a lot of cool things that you can do. and I think that's a perfect partnership for them. So many fans are on Twitter, so many MMA fans are on Twitter these days. I think it's a layup. It's a brilliant deal for them.

And so overall, I thought it was a great weekend in combat sports with the Japan card, with the Bellator card, LFA, like I said, Sabina Mazo with another fantastic headkick knockout for LFA. Andrea Lee with another solid performance as well. some fun things to be excited about. All right, plenty more show. We've got the

MMA after hour coming up in around 20 minutes time. That's exclusively on MMAfighting.com, as you can see right there. We've got your questions, your comments standing by. You've been hitting us up using the hashtag the MMA hour.

There is much to discuss, but now it's time for everyone's favorite segment. And now it's time to open up your ears and your minds, MMMA fans. It's time for Ricks picks. People say they don't like when I talk, so I'm not going to talk. Just going to drink by my drink. You already know what it is.

Ricks Picks. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the new craze taking the world by storm. Live from the Vox Studios in beautiful New York City, it's time for Ricks Picks. Yeah. New Jersey Picks. Here we go. First of all, how dare you?

New Jersey, Rick. Never. Never. A nice cup. Never. Nice little mug I got right here. Courtesy of my new friend. My newfound friend. Friends again, Mickey Gall.

He was fantastic. Coming with that heat. Came with the heat. I think we have to cut Ariel's mic every time the theme song starts. Congratulations, by the way. What's that? Cleaned up the facial hair a little bit.

I told you what's happening. I told you, look, what do you think? It's much better. I'm not going to give it a 10. I'll give it like a 7 and a half. First of all There's a couple of little issues I have with the

lip part right over here But overall And you didn't go too short on the sides No No You know Yeah it was good Yeah Mickey brought it

I feel like some of our best interviews This year Started with With beefs I think you hated me And then Who else? Kevin Lee was great

Camaro Oussman Yeah you know what I forgot about Camaro Ousman It happened earlier today So many sensitive fighters out there But look

You were on The back end of that whole Dan Hardy. Did we mess up? Was it a mistake? What do you think? Honestly? What do you mean by mistake?

He was mad. He thought that I didn't get. But my recollection is, I asked him, kind of like that Bjorn Rebney's situation got us in trouble a little bit with that one. Do you want to talk?

Like, here I am. Look, he could have looked at the lineup. Dan Hardy was right after him. We were talking about Dan Hardy. In hindsight, yeah, should I? Fine. Had I known he was going to react that way?

Of course I would have asked him. But was it warranted to get that upset? What do you think? No, but I mean, stop ruining the K-Fabe of all this. Like, let's just let it sit. There's no K-Fabe. He's actually legitimately upset. Look at many texts he didn't respond to.

How upset was he really, though? Because now it's all good in the hood. And you got that jersey cup on your desk representing- I think he was legitimately upset. I'm sure he was. Could we have handled it differently? Not really. As you said, like, essentially, I'm getting in contact with the guests.

you're live on air. The moment is when you asked him... If anything, it's your fault. You're the one who put them together. Time out. You're the one who connected the two. I was going to throw you under the bus during the interview, but I felt bad. Yeah, I mean, that would be a real low move if you tried to do that.

No, as you said, I mean, you asked him on air. Now, his point is valid as well. Like, is he really going to say no? But I will cite precedent. Chail Sondon actually said no. Didn't he? Chal Sahnan. Didn't he earlier...

Don Rebney said no. No, no. Somebody else said no. And it wasn't at Chale? Chale. There's no way Chale said no. About who? I'm pretty sure it was Chale.

I'm pretty sure we had Vanderle. And Chale said... No. I'm not ready to talk to him. No. What I said to Chale was like, is that all you wanted to say? He didn't really want to talk.

He didn't really have much to say. Oh, yeah. He didn't have anything to say about Vanderly. He agreed to have him speak. He just didn't want to engage because he wasn't sure if we were playing a rib on him. Remember that? I guess. It's hazy, but I thought that that happened. Anyway. Yeah. So he didn't really want to engage. He didn't think that it was him. He didn't think that it was him. Yeah. But he, he, he, he didn't say no. Okay. That makes sense. I remember something happening with that though, that somebody said, look, I'm not ready. There was another one. Remind me people on Twitter if I'm if I'm forgetting.

one, but there was somebody who declined the opportunity. Point being, though. Point being. It has been done before, but I do think that the implication is like, if he, if he doesn't speak to him, he almost takes an L on that. Fair enough, fair enough. It sounds like you're kind of like the, and but like, look, I had the utmost respect and confidence in Mickey Gall.

Yes. And I thought that he'd be able to think on his feet. Like, look, and by the way, he had already made the call up. It was on Dan Hardy. to respond. So, like, it wasn't really on him. I was just trying to expedite things and say, look, you want to talk to Dan Hardy? You want to call him out? Here's Dan Hardy. You've, I was trying to help him.

You've literally presented him another opportunity to get that Dan Hardy. Yes. But now, based on what he's saying, it turns out he really didn't even want the fight. Yeah. I'm supposed to know. No, I don't think we did anything wrong. All right. But I'm glad things are better between you two.

I'd like to see Mickey on the show more because he's great. He's a confident fellow. Yeah, he's a confident fellow. He was pacing back and forth outside there. Was he? Was he? He was raring to go. He was ready.

And he came in and dropped the hammer on you. When he was talking and came at me and called me schmucky, he was kind of like shaking. I was like, whoa, man. He's intense, but I love it. I love that. His energy is like what we need. That was a lot of fun. Okay.

Let's get into the actual Rick's picks here. Yes. What do we got? Anything good? Nah, you know, it's pretty shitty weekend. Nothing really going on in MMA. Okay. Just kidding.

Oh. So, our first one up. We've got Sabina Mazzo with the incredible head kick KO over Lindsay Williams from LFA 23. Sweet Mother Mary. The Colombian queen herself. The Colombian queen. Let's watch that one more time. Please.

It's, this is coming from Axis fights. Oh, my dear. Any more angles to that one? No. Well, I'm sure there are. Find it out there. Sabino Mazzo. Head kick, Keoghio.

from LFA 23. There's the other angle. Our own Danny Segura had a great feature on her last week. She's a trainer at King's MMA.

By the way, was that Michael Chavello? Yeah. I thought he left. I think... No. Is that the old one? Is this the old one?

Oh, really? Did you screw this up? I might have. Yeah, you screwed it up. Is this the old one? That's the old one. Oh, God. Brutal.

Well, go find the other one Yeah, you screwed it up. That was the old one. Danny Seguer, never helping me out. Danny Seguer gave you that one? Never helping me out. Oh, my God. You just gave it, can we get the new one? Is it too late? I'll put it on the back end.

Oh, my dear. Also, from this event, LFA 23, Andrea Lee. Friend of the show. We're going to see a little bit of stand up. Note that there's a different broadcaster speaking. there's Militish. And now she's going to get the Camorra

round two against Jamie Thornton. Ooh. So the talk is that people want to see her fight Sabina and apparently Sabina said thanks but no thanks to this fight, which I kind of agree with. Yeah, Andrea is a little bit further.

And also this is supposed to be, you know, they tout themselves as the minor leagues. This is the AAA, right? So why take these fights in AAA? It's not really necessary. now. Just keep getting those highlight real knockouts. Yeah.

What I say? But a great performance by Andrea, showing off some of her grappling skills. KGB. Known as a striker. Speaking of strikers, Valentina Shavchenko's sister, Antonina Shavchenko,

returned to MMA, picked up a win at Phoenix 3 and improved to 2-0. Congratulations to Antonina. video a little harder to come by, but she won by decision. And congratulations to her. In a ring. Keep moving on.

There were so many highlights from this weekend. I think this, I don't typically like to go with. The obvious. The obvious from, you know, the event that everybody's watching. But that knockout was worthy. What we're watching here is Gokansaki with the Monster K.O. Over Enrique de Silva at Fight Night in Japan. it looked like he was in trouble

then he clips him with the hook when he was landing some of those punches early on they looked like they hurt so bad yeah the level of technique between sake and a lot of the guys he's gonna face is gonna be what do you think of his prediction do you think he could really be contending for the belt

I do because that division's pretty weak yeah it's funny how John Jones disappearing makes a whole division a little bit different imagine sake against like an Anthony Johnson

like the level of power I don't know if they do it I don't yeah I believe Saki might have had some time down there at Black Zillions

while Rumble was there so they might that might be one of those I'm just saying like the power no any if anybody is going to stand with him

I'm going to watch yeah but I can't imagine a guy like a Daniel Kormier is going to just stand and trade with Gokan Saki let's keep him

as far away as possible from wrestlers just for a little bit. I think that's the way you have to go. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with grooming a prospect. Well, especially because it's not like this guy is super experienced at MMA. He still needs to be built up.

So there's not, I have no issue with him getting these types of fights. Also from the same event. Oh, yes. We have the Von Pruchoke, which it should be named now, because he's pulled it off three times in competition.

and I don't think anybody's even pulled it off more than once. Third in his UFC career, there's just been five overall. In fact, Jason Von Flew himself never did it in the UFC. Yeah. He's done it three times. It's unbelievable. And now I feel like Yushin Okami got, I mean, a little too much flak. Let's not forget, Yushin Okami never fought as a light heavy weight.

He was recently fighting for the last couple of years as a welterweight, jumped up, took this fight on a week's notice. You got to give him a bit of a pass. here. Like, because people were like, oh, it's a horrible performance. Why did you go for the head? All that stuff and more.

Yeah, no doubt about it. And you should know that that's kind of a thing that he's able to pull off. But let's not forget just what we were dealing with here when it comes to Yushan Okami.

Sure. Great performance by OSP. Also, I don't understand why OSP is still calling out Shogun. There's no way that you could top that performance. He knocked them out in a matter of seconds. But is Shogun of stepping stone back to the title?

How else? I mean, there's there's only a few routes to get there yeah I mean Volkan has a has a win over him and then we've got Alex still there and we've got I think it's fine

I think it's smart to be honest because maybe he's the biggest name he's the biggest name that will and he has a win over him why not try to replicate that and get back in that conversation people send him screen grabs of my socks I didn't know that you can see

that I took off my shoes just getting a little couple here sorry I mean just sloppy not sloppy it's my Expos Stant Sox. Oh, nice. These are great socks right here.

Give it up for that. Sure. Where is it? Can you see them? Stan Sox. If I can't see the logo. It's on the other side. But these are great socks.

These are Expo's socks. Stant socks. Reping for the squad. Yeah. Well, not that Expos team, but the real Xbox. Well, then screw you then. Out of them. Also clean and fresh like Ariel socks.

Aaron Pico. My man. Look at this. I mean, this is just... Here we hear, Merrill now on the call. Go, oh, geez. Scary, man. Put all his weight behind that one and just launched it.

I mean, I think everybody kind of, you know, not soured, but pumped the brakes on him a little bit after his first fight. This is the type of performance you have to see to make that conversation go away. And he executed it to perfection. What about that subway logo? Blue Chip sponsor, baby. Subway on the mat. That was pretty cool.

I was surprised no one mentioned that. You got Subway, you got Monster, you got Dave and Busters, Miller Light. Yeah. Those are pretty big names. What's that other one there? What do you think about, is that CO of the year so far? I don't know. I mentioned, like, it's in the discussion.

The Mike Perry won against Jake Ellenberger was a great one. It was. There have been some great ones. This one might be my first. runner. It's in the sky. It's so clean. It was so freaking clean. And the fall into the fence. Oh. It was weird though because you could tell that something was going on, that Justin Lynn was out of it. And then they finally addressed it. So it felt a little uneasy there for a second. And some of the journalists who were at the event on Twitter were updating. So you kind of couldn't really fully enjoy them. At least not myself. Sure. And it sounds like Pico took it very seriously as well. I mean, it is a big deal. It really is. So. that was uneasy, but... But what a K.O.

And now we're... What a K.L. Unbelievable. What a comeback. The guy's just so... So damn impressive. Speaking of Belatoria chaos. Yeah.

Here we've got... There were a few shots after this. Or actually, even before this, there was the left hook that landed to get him wobbly. But Paul Daly knocking out Lorenz Larkin. Left hand that has felled many before. Oh, my gosh. And another...

It's amazing because, like, you don't see it here, but he first, you know, they were in the clinch, and then he broke free, and then he went for a spinning back fist and missed the smith. Nailed him with that left. And hit him with the left hook. These are the kind of follow-up shots that ended the fight coming courtesy of Lilley. And here's the thing, like no more dilly-dallying. We need that MVP fight. We need that MVP fight next. You got a great thing. Do it in London. Do it in early 2018. That's the fight. Stop wasting time. That's the fight that everyone. We need that. Thinking about it, it's almost the reverse, right? Like, this is, in my opinion, a more high-level matchup,

Lorenz Larkin and Paul Daly. Going to MVP is almost a step down for Daly, who's been racking up impressive performances. Like, it's, essentially what I'm saying is, is Lorenz Larkin the step before MVP? Not in my opinion. Yeah, but it's just, It's just, that's a fight that you could go to the O2 arena in London and, and sell a lot of tickets.

You know, like, that's a grudge match. It's a grudge match. It's like, I just took out somebody way more dangerous. He went on the mic and said, give me him. Oh, I know. Hey, I'm not going to fight if you give me that match. I mean, you remember that, that visual of Coker sitting down and those two guys sitting, you know, to his right and left and just the animosity there, the heat there. This one sells. I think it was in May. After the Rory fight, they had a little thing. in the stands. I mean, it's just

you don't get these feuds all the time. You can't, you know, they had the cost check thing that didn't work out. You can't mess around with these things. Not in this sport. Too many weird things can happen. Now, what about this? I think, as I said at the top, that was a great

night for Belator. I think Belator's on a bit of a role. You know, they're writing the ship because around a year ago, the ship was going in all kinds of crazy places. But the free agent signings, which we talk about a lot, haven't totally been paying off. Lorenz Larkin, now O and 2.

Benson, 1 and 3. Roy, I thought, was okay. It wasn't the most... It was a fun fight, but, you know, the level of competition, I mean, I think that they were thinking that maybe he'd get a knockout

or something like that. There's been... You know, I think the Rory signing thus far has paid off, has been great. We'll see what happens with Gagga Musasi. Who else? I mean, they signed Josh Thompson many moons ago. Phil Davis became champion coming off loss.

I mean, they can't win them all. But recently, the Lorenz and the Benson Henderson won that hasn't paid off. Now, they can't all pay off, I know. But I don't know. Was that a good result? Like, did they prefer if Lorenz want? I don't know.

That is a fantastic question. Okay. Does it come up later? Tune into the MMA after hour exclusively on Twitter to find out the answer. Just kind of thinking here, but I appreciate that the people are thinking of.

along the same lines as myself. MMA fighting. Yeah. Dot Twitter.com after we wrap up Rick's picks and you will get that answer. Speaking of a recent signing, Roy McDonald's screen capped by our very own Esther Lynn.

It's just the best. The Roy McDonald's Turtleneck, the Steve Jobs turtleneck that everybody is talking about. Tucked in turtleneck, everything about Roy. Like even the way, he said something about like damaging his health. Like even the way he speaks with the turtle neck and the hand.

He's a very unique. individual. But we have some intel from Bellator PR CJ, C.J. Tuttle.

Breaking news at this is post-event. He spoke to Rory MacDonald. The Turtleneck is purchased at Zara. So we know

if you want to replicate the Rory McDonald look. This is a great job by C.J. In my opinion, pound, one of the best

PR guys in the biz. But to give us that great. Oh, I mean, there's, there's very few PR people

who are on his level, but to give us that kind of insight, to give us that, you know, to take the story to the next level, to advance the story, recognize the fact that everyone's talking about the turtleneck. Now let's find out where said turtleneck can be bought. That's a great job.

That's a pro. That is a pro. One of the best. If not. One of the best for sure. Carlos Condit. Finally speaking up on Twitter. Yeah.

Sean Shelby. It's got people excited. He wants to fight late this year or early. next year. To which Sean Shelby responded. What's up? You're goddamn right. It's time to fight. So I've been hearing that the itch is coming back for Carlos Condon and I've been hearing that he wanted to fight. I keep reaching out to him, want to talk to him, including after this tweet, but so far no luck. I would love to see what's up why he changed his mind, where he's at,

what he wants. Okay. Yes. You have some insight? No, not to that. All right. Tony Ferguson, declined to speak to Habib Nirmagamatov on this show. That was the one, that was the person. Oh, was it? I don't even remember that. He just, he didn't have anything to say to him at the moment. When was that? That was it.

Thank you to, uh, I don't remember that. Olivia, Eduardo, anybody who sent that answer. Okay. I knew that it had happened. I don't remember that. Behind the scenes, a little tidbit. Okay. Almost every single week, there's somebody asking for an update on Carlos Condit and when he's

going to fight. It's pretty much consistent. Yep. Yep. So I think we're finally on the route to finding out when he's going to fight. Who do we want to see him fight? Walter Waite has a lot of potential guys. I'll tell you a fight that makes a lot of sense.

Tell me. Mike Perry. Yeah, it does. That's the one, right? But could you say, does Mike Perry versus... Anyone? Anybody pretty much makes sense? I don't really want to see Mike Perry versus Usman.

You'd rather bring them separately. Yeah, I think that's accurate. would I be upset? No. No, no. I mean, we've got some young guns, but I want to see someone who's going to, you know,

do an exciting fight with Condit. I think, you know, Perry just got into the top 15 so you can elevate someone if he wins. A win over Perry means a lot. He's looked good. Yeah, I think stylistically, that would be a tough matchup for Perry. I think Condit is not the,

like, the next level that you jump to. That's pretty tough. But I know. I know that both guys will be trying to take the other side off. So I would like that. I like that fight a lot. I almost feel like Condit versus anybody, to be honest. Like, he's been off and I just want to see him back.

Condit versus the winner of or the loser of Soroni Till. Yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Because you don't want, I mean, if he comes back, you don't want to put him in a number one contender fight. I mean, that doesn't make a lot. He left in that position. Yeah, he did.

And by the way, I thought he won that fight. Yeah, a lot. Look, if he came right back into the title picture, I wouldn't be too upset about it. But I think, like, yeah, Walter Wade is a lot of fun right now. That's what I'm essentially realizing is that there's a lot of fights I want to see at Walterweight.

There's a lot of guys who can vault themselves into position. Don't forget about Santiago, Panzanibio. Ponziabio, huge win. We're moving to middleweight after talking about Walter weights. Here we have a stare down from Fight Night Shanghai, Anderson Silva versus Kelvin Gastilom. I thought you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day. Kelvin's wearing white pants.

Could be. I like the stare down, though. We have video as well. Here we go. A throwback. This is a fun stardown right here. They're on the steps somewhere in... We have Anderson and Kelvin standing on the steps.

Kind of not really sure. For photos. This part is the best right here coming out. Now Kelvin's going to get into that same stance he was in in the previous photo. Here we go. Yes, Kelvin loves this. But the best is Anderson.

Now Anderson. Coaching. Correcting him. Yeah. No, this is the way you're supposed to do. Now, here's an interesting thing about this fight. A, Kelvin is remaining at 185. I mean, it's a pretty big 185, right?

I mean, this is a guy Anderson Silva who's fought at 205. Yep. What is this? They're panning up. I know, but what is it? Keeps going. Whoa. into the

into the clouds stratosphere. So Kelvin's staying at 185 is interesting but also let's not forget the last time we really heard from Anderson was on this show and he said he was retiring, right? Now why is he coming back? I still don't really know. I did hear though that fighting in China was a big deal to him.

He has a movie coming out and there's some connection to that region and this is good for his movie career. So maybe the locale was of great interest and enticed him to come back. but I'd love to hear how he got over the issues that he had just a few months ago and why he's actually resuming his career. Haven't really heard that just yet. Maybe he'll come out as they're doing media in China. Here we're going to go to the lighter side of things. I thought this was interesting. Aljo, Funkmaster.

I had a PBR event. At a PBR event. Which of course is owned by WMEIMG. He calls them badass. Put respect on their name. All right. How about that? Who wasn't? I know. Yeah, who's rallying against the Bull Riders? But a little clashing of Worlds here. Speaking of Clashing of Worlds, this one exclusive to Rick's picks. Oh, wow. Shark Attack.

Oh, this is great. Steve. Matt Riddle and Tom Lawler engaging in. Is he wearing a Reebok? He's wearing a fight kick. Get out of here. That is incredible. I think the angle here is that they were doing a, you know, a quote-unquote shoot.

Oh my god. Maybe a work shoot? This is amazing. Tom Lauer coming out of the Reebok fight kit. Wait until you see the moves that they employ. This is phenomenal. So why is Loller wearing shoes? Bro, bro.

So wrestling shoes, man. Loller's really taking this to the extreme, right? He's really going for it. This is great stuff. Wait, see, look. Okay. We're getting into some real, like grappling here.

Yeah, this is awesome. Oh. Okay, that's it. Thank you to Steve for sending that. That was awesome. Thank you, Steve. Wow, exclusive footage. Yeah.

Lawler doing the, doing the job. And by the way, Doris is letting me know Condit and Cowboys Rooney are teammates. Yes. But they, you know,

one's BMF. No, I don't think that's going to happen. Okay, fine. But Till would be good. All right. And then, of course, I mean, this had absolutely had to be Rick's pick. Oh, yes.

This is the pick of the month, pick of the week, pick of the year, pick of everything. Jeremy Stevens, little heathen MMA on Twitter, hashtag your mom knows who to Fook. And we have Kahnem O'Regger's mom posing for a photo with Jeremy Stevens. Now, there's a lot of belly aching about this. Yes. A few questions for you. I have a couple of issues with it. Okay, let me ask the two questions.

Okay. One, time frame. Does the fact that this is one year, essentially almost to the day, it was like 350-something days. From when Connor McGregor made his press conference comment asking who the fuck Jeremy Stevens was, does that delay in time create an issue?

Does that make this a less effective response? I saw that as the number one gripe, and I disagree with that. I don't think that there is a time limit. So that's on my issue. Do you have an issue with that? Nope. I think that you can't time perfection.

When it happens, it happens. Yeah. He was waiting for that photo up. Yes. Jeremy Stevens, when this happened and fought, he fought at MSG against Frankie Edgar, I felt like he didn't fully take advantage of the moment. He had been thrust into a feud with Connor McGregor

and just didn't want anything to do with it. Maybe he was uncomfortable. maybe he felt like it was embarrassing. Here he is taking advantage of it. Kudos to him. But here are my questions right off the bat. A, maybe it's lighting, but why does he have two black eyes?

Does he have two black eyes? It does look that way, yeah. Where is he where he saw Connor McGregor's mom? Is that a recent photo? I have to imagine that he didn't hold on to this. I have to imagine that he took it and then posted it. Did Connor's mom know who he was? Or did he say, hey,

I am a fan. I cannot imagine that there's any way that Connor McGregor's mom knew who he was. Okay. Which adds, which actually ironically adds to the not knowing who the fuck that guy is kind of mystique. Here's the biggest misstep of them all.

Okay, tell me. Go back to the tweet. You must. You must tag Connor. No. Disagree. You must tag Connor. Could not disagree more.

What are you afraid of? You must tag Connor. Could not disagree more. And why does it have to be a hashtag? That doesn't need to be. That's a little, you know... Aggressively long hashtag. Agree with you there.

What about... No, don't need to tag. Your mom knows who the fuck, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, at The Notorious. That is the perfect... Why does it have to be a hashtag? You agree. Does not need to be a hashtag.

In fact, should not be a hashtag. As far as responses, though, it's pretty darn great. Do I feel a little uncomfortable with the mom now getting involved? Stop. but you know this was a nice response what are the numbers

as far as retweets, favorites? Oh, that's a good question. Did it explode? I think it did really well. I'll look that up. But as I'm looking that up, disagree on the tagging. Why?

Because it means you're trying too hard to put it in his face, right? You took a picture with his mom. Yeah, you took a picture with his mom. Guess what? 10 million people are going to send this to him. You don't need to tag him. You're going to find it.

You don't need to tag him. 2.4,000 retweets. That's it. 5.2,000 likes. Listen. I thought it would have gotten bigger. It'll travel. And I bet you,

I guarantee you, Connor McGregor has seen it and he didn't have to tag him. You think he chuckled? Do you think he appreciated the... That's a good question. I think Connor has a fair play to him. I think Connor has enough

gamesmanship in him to recognize that this was well, done, but also at the end of the day he did come at his mom, or at least utilize his mom as a ploy or a prop in his agenda.

So I can't imagine he'll be too happy about it. But I think he'll tip his hat and then punch a hole through it to punch him in the face. Can we agree that, all right, fine, he didn't have to tag him, but the hashtag is a bit of a mistake? Completely agree. The hashtag is, the hashtag is egregious.

And did he have to do F-O-O-K? Or should he just... No, he had to do that. that. Because that's the meme. Look, he's showing self-awareness. He's showing that he's in on the joke here. If he just goes, look, your mom knows who I am written in perfectly grammatically correct English, it doesn't do it.

Of course. He has to hit the notes. I'm just saying a U and a C as opposed to the OO. No, no, no. He did it right. All right. Except for the hashtag. Except for the hashtag.

Look, you know what, let's not criticize this. This is beautiful. All right. All done, Jeremy Stevens. Well done. Well done. Well done, Jeremy Stevens. Well done.

I mean, let's not, you know, look a gift horse in the mouth. All right, all right. Transitioning for a minute outside the world of MMA. Oh. But to the staying in the sports world. Wow. We're going there. This has to be here.

Okay. Because this is, I think this might be like the most retweeted thing ever already. What's it at? Well, I'll find out that one as well. Okay. um lebron james calling our president a bum and saying that step curry already told him that he's not going to the white house uh so there is no invite going to the white house was an honor before you showed up so lebron really making a line in the stand here in the sand here so it's got no maybe not the most retweeted but maybe the most liked uh 654 000 retweets 1.5 million likes uh for lebron james taking a shot at the president. I have many things to say.

But should I wait? Are there a collection of tweets? No, let's talk about it. Okay, first of all, I hate to pause this moment right here. However, we must go back to the Jeremy Stevens thing. Yes. A tweet. Many people are telling me right now that that photo was taken the night that he fought Dennis Bermuda is UFC 189.

What? All of a sudden, I feel completely different about this whole scenario. I do too. This tweet is now a year old. This picture is a year old. So he had this and sat on it? This picture is a year. and a half. Jeremy, no.

Jeremy, no. This picture is a year and a half old. Oh my God. That's why he has the black eyes. That's why Connor's mom is there. That's why they're in Vegas because Connor fought Mendez. Jeremy. It was all going so well.

It was all going so well. You should have tweeted the night he said that. Right? I guess perfection still takes time. No. I completely changed my stance on that suite. How did you not know that? How do all these people know that?

Yeah. Christian sent it to me. Who else? Maybe they were here with an ID like the MGM, recognize, hey, they both fought on 189 and went back and good job to the MMA, you know, detectives out there. Wow. I have completely flipped my stance on that.

Okay. What a deflating moment. Yeah. Wow. So disappointed. Wow. Okay. What a rollercoaster of emotions. Speaking of which, all right. So a couple of weeks ago, when the story with Jamel Hill and Donald Trump came out, I actually had it on my list of things to

discuss, but I was like, yeah, you know, not the time nor the place. I don't consider myself a political person at all. I really don't have a ton of interest in the world of politics. There's many things about the world of politics that I'm not a fan of. I don't like the way it's reported on. I don't like the fact that, you know, there's bias media, there's liberal media and conservative media. Why can't they all just be down the line and report the truth, the facts, things of that nature? I certainly don't consider myself a liberal in the sense that that's what I'm going to paint myself, you know, with that brush and just always stick by those principles. People will say to me sometimes like, oh, you're an Obama lover. If I could have voted, I wouldn't have voted. I wouldn't

have voted for Obama in 2012. In fact, the last time I voted for anyone was a Canadian election. I voted for the Conservative Party for Stephen Harper. So, of course, these days, if I could have voted, I would have voted Hillary over Donald Trump. But I don't even understand why it's so taboo to talk about these things. Like, I think in America, it's so taboo to talk about these things. But that's, you know, I'm not going to redefine those rules. I'm not getting into all of that.

The point that I'm getting at is when I started this career, when I got on Twitter, I always made it a point. I think I've talked to you about this. I don't want to abuse the platform. I don't want to take advantage of the audience. I'm fully aware that X amount of people are following me because they want an MMA news. They want MMA information. They want MMA interviews. They want all things MMA. That's why they're interested in me. They're not interested in my takes on X, Y, and Z. They want MMA all the time. And I get that. And I think for the most part, I've been on Twitter for around like 10 years, almost, maybe a little less. I think I've stayed true to that. I don't want to abuse that relationship. I don't want to take advantage of the audience. And I'd say there's maybe like 1% or 2% of the time where I'll stray, right?

I'll talk about the Nix. I'll talk a little bit about the Carmelo trade, things of that nature. But for the most part, if you look at my feed, it's pretty consistent as far as the MMA information is concerned. The MMA related content is concerned. Now, this thing has come up and we've talked about it. We talked about it in November, like how do journalists in this day and age stay in their lane stick to sports, right? That's been a thing.

Stick to sports. Stick to sports. We don't want the two worlds colliding. And I've talked about how sports is an escape valve. That's what I love so much about sports. It's the one thing that can unify the public, regardless of what you may think about, you know, government or news, things going on in the real world. Sports is, is this perfect little, like, fantasy world where we all kind of come together and we root for these, you know,

these things that don't really mean much in the, you know, the larger scope. As I tweeted yesterday, Howard Kosell once called sports, you know, the toy department of life. The stuff doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Who wins, you know, between the bears and the Packers, things like, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really change. But things have changed over the past year and it's impossible, I think, to ignore the things that have happened over the past year. And as I continue to get older and interested in other things and become a father and a husband, you start to realize that like if you just want to live in this idealistic world where, you know, you sit down and you watch a football game for three hours and you can block everything out,

like if you could do that, good for you. But there's so much going on, whether it's, politics, whether it's Donald Trump, whether it's Puerto Rico, whether it's Mexico, whether it's Florida, whether it's Houston. Like, it's very hard to just focus on, you know, the lollipops and rainbows that we want sports to be three hours of entertainment. It's very hard to do that. And so any time one of us strays and comments on this or that, we will get a flood of stick to sports. Don't mix politics. Well, guess what? Politics and sports have been mixing long before any of this were happening, was happening. Muhammad Ali is a perfect example

of that. I mean, you could go through the history of boxing with Max Schmelling and Jack Johnson. Politics and sports, politics and combat sports, if we want to zero in on the world that we live in, have been going hand in hand for years and years. Now,

as it pertains to the current times that we're living in, let's not forget that the current president of the United States was once a USFL owner. Let's not forget that Donald Trump tried to buy an NFL team. Let's not forget that he hosted WrestleMania's. Let's not forget that he was a character at a WrestleMania. Let's not forget that he was involved with affliction.

Let's not forget that he was in the ring, shaking Fader Emilianenko's hand. Let's not forget that he asked Dana White to speak at the Republican National Convention. In the history of the White House, there's probably never been a president who has been that connected to sports. his past. Barack Obama was a big sports fan and played basketball and things like that, but like,

Trump has a long history in sports. And so he is, in some respects, like very much, you can't call him a sports figure, but he has that connection to the world of sports. That being said, I understand when fans get upset. I get it. I do get it when they say, like, look, I don't want to come to you for this. I don't want to hear it. I don't think differently of someone. If they say, I'm a liberal, I'm a Republican, I don't. But I understand it. Now, the best thing that happened this weekend, the absolute best thing that happened this weekend was that Donald Trump abolished stick to sports. When he said on Friday that the NFL owners should fire the SOBs who kneel during the anthem, he abolished the stick to sports line. You cannot say that anymore because now here he is as the president of the United States talking about a sports issue, an issue that is happening in sports arena.

he completely abolished that. And then when he reacted to what Stefan Curry said of the Golden State Warriors, hey, I'm not sure I want to go to the White House. And he said, you know what? You're not invited anyway. He completely abolished stick to sports. And then, of course, we saw what happened with LeBron James in the tweet and all the other NBA players reacting.

We saw what happened on Sunday. And it was surreal. I mean, that's one of the most historic days in the history of American sports. It's like all these athletes not standing for the national anthem. It's a very polarizing issue. It's a very divisive issue. It really has nothing to do with Donald Trump and it has become sort of about Donald Trump. As we all know, it started with Colin Kaepernick and police brutality and racial inequality.

He was protesting that. But it has become a bigger thing. And I suspect that it will become an even greater thing. I suspect that it will become a hot topic throughout the NBA season. season and throughout the NFL season, I think it's only going to get bigger and bigger. And clearly he's not backing down. But we can no longer say to our favorite journalists, to our favorite athletes, stick to sports. We can't.

You can't say that. When the president is fueling that fire, when he's the one talking about it, it doesn't apply anymore. Athletes are not just robots that wake up, go play sport, and go home. They're allowed to have emotions. They're allowed to have feelings. They're allowed to react as well. And so that's why I said on Sunday that it was beautiful to see all the unity. It was beautiful to see these rich, multi-millionaire athletes actually coming together, being on the same page and expressing their First Amendment rights.

That's what America is all about. And so why am I talking about all this? I talk about all this because on the rare occasion that, you know, I comment. And again, I don't consider myself a Democrat. I don't consider myself a Republican. I think it's time that we stop, you know, pretending that the world of sports is just this little, you know, angelic idealistic bubble that you can just enter and not think about anything. Everything goes away and then you can, no, it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way anymore.

And I'm sorry if, you know, the sports world has been, you know, ruined for you because this has happened. But it's, it's just the times that we're living in. personally I think it's a fascinating time that we're living in. I can't wait to see what happens next. I wish it didn't happen. I wish these words weren't being said. I wish the country wasn't as divisive in a weird way. It kind of feels like people are coming together in spite of all of this.

But the idea that we should just stick to sports, to me, no longer applies. And so I will not abuse the platform. I'm not going to abuse the rights that I've been given by you, the privilege that I've been given by you to tweet things. You've come to me for MMA information. I'm not going to devote hours and hours

on the MMA hour to my other interests. But I sort of question the people who have no interest whatsoever. Like they don't even want to hear it and they come with such vitriol whenever. You know, like I have favorite sports writers. I have favorite media members. I want to hear what they have to say about all this.

This has become a sports story. Go look at Donald Trump's Twitter feed. He's talking more about this than about things that are happening in Puerto Rico and Mexico. North Korea. The Middle East. He's talking more about the national anthem and players visiting the white ice.

This is a sports story. It has become a sport story. You can't just stick to sports anymore. This is a guy who, has a history in the world of sports who's now talking specifically about athletes. Stick to sports doesn't apply anymore. It doesn't. And it's a fascinating time. Now, I think that, you know, you always have to be careful. You always have to be respectful. You always have to try to be better. Aim high. Don't stoop. I think I made pretty clear, you know, what or how I feel

about the current president and the way he talks about people and the way he's handled himself in the public eyes since trying to run for office and eventually winning office and becoming president. I think I made my thoughts pretty clear on that. And there are many times where I feel like I'm biting my tongue. But if you want someone who is going to be like yesterday, I didn't want to hear anything about, you know, the bills beating the Broncos. I just wanted to see what was going on.

How were players responding? What were my favorite journalists saying? What were they ready? I was consuming it all. How could you just stick to sports in a time of? like this. How could you just want your favorite athletes or favorite media members just to fully focus on 14 to 3? I feel like that's a very naive way of thinking. And trust me, there is no one who understands more about the escape valve that is sports, about podcasts,

about being a sports fan, about what it means to have, you know, something to think about that distraction. I had someone who wrote me yesterday saying, trust me, Ariel, you will be making the biggest mistake of your career if you go down the political route. I'm not going down the political route. I don't consider myself a political person at all. I'm going down the human route. I'm going down the person with a heart route. I'm going down the person who has feelings route. I don't consider myself a political person, but I certainly consider myself a human being who cares for other people, who wants to see the best for other people, who wants to see equality, who wants to see everyone happy, who wants to see the best for America.

How could you just ignore that? We may have our differences on what's best for this country and kneeling and standing and things like that. I don't necessarily need to get into all that. But to criticize someone or to try to silence someone for speaking up, for exercising their right, for saying what's on their mind when they feel like they're being mistreated, it's very misguided and it's unfortunate. And I know that everyone has a voice and I know they're going to be trolls and things like that. But please consider that when you're telling your favorite journalist or athlete to just stick to sports. No, there are people who have few. And this is the way of 2017 and beyond.

We're reacting to things. Things are happening in real time on Twitter and videos are popping up and clips are popping up and tweets and things like that. And people are going to react. But stick to sports doesn't apply. dead. It never applied, in my opinion, but it certainly doesn't apply now. It doesn't fly anymore. That was the best thing to happen this weekend. In a very, like, surreal is the best word that comes to mind between what, you know, the president said on Friday and then the Stefan Curry stuff and then, you know, the LeBron stuff and then Sunday, it was all very surreal.

I mean, to see kind of the sports world come together and almost grow up a little bit and to stop pretending like there's not a real world and there's not, you know, things happening around us. It was fascinating to watch from afar. And so I will never abuse that privilege. I'll never abuse that right. I'm not going to get too political. But when things like Charlottesville happen and it feels like Nazism is being condoned, at least to me, as someone who went to Auschwitz who saw the pile of ashes, who saw the hair, who saw the broken glasses,

who saw the toys, who saw the scratches on the gas chamber walls. Like when I see people in America in 2017 walking as a father, walking whose kids go to a Jewish school, walking with swastikas, like that's going to make me feel very uneasy. And you look to the leader of the free world to condemn that,

to put that down. and when you don't see that happen, when you see football players who are kneeling at the anthem being condemned more so than that, that's troubling. And I can't help but feel like I need to at least say something.

I'm not trying to offend people. I feel, I love, and one of the things I love most about the M.A. community is that the M.M.A. community is so, I feel it's, for the most part, very accepting. You can have a card with two females headlining over, you know, 24 males and no one bats an eye. For the most part, females are paid equally to the male counterparts. Like, I feel like our sport, as alpha male as it is,

is actually a lot more progressive than other sports. That's what I love about it. No one bats and I when two women are headlining an event. You can't say that in other sports when they're the main event, so to speak. So I think that that dialogue is important. I think it's important to respect each other. I think it's important to have an open mind. And I think that this idea of sticking to sports needs to go away because unfortunately right now, maybe there's a time when it comes back and it applies. And those rights that you give us when you click the follow, when you come to us, I get it. I say it all the time. I feel like I work for the people. I work for the public. You guys gave me my credentials back. But in this day and age, with what's going on

on right now with sports and politics mixing, like they've maybe never mixed so much before. Let's not forget about Tommy Smith and, again, Muhammad Ali and Schmelling and Jack Johnson. And there's so many cases. I love the fact that our athletes in 2017 are speaking up now more so than ever, that they're not saying things like Republicans buy sneakers too, that they don't feel afraid to say something when something's bothered them. I think that that's good. I think that's healthy for everyone.

I don't think that this stuff should be taboo. I don't think that we should just keep it under our hat and pretend like all this stuff doesn't exist. No, that's how we get in trouble. That's how we get into sticky situations. So I think it's a great time to be living in and I just think that the discourse is good. Do we want it all the time?

No, of course not. Do we want to turn the UFC on? Do you want to come on the MMA hour on a regular Monday and talk about this for hours? No, but this is a very unique time. And I think it's important to have an open mind and to hear people out. And if you feel like someone's taking it too far,

then maybe you take a time out, I get that. I won't be offended. I can assure you, I won't be abusing that. But I just kind of wanted to verbalize a little bit why sometimes, you know, I just feel the need, someone living in this time period. And I don't know if I even verbalized it,

you know, correctly after a long show. But it was just, it was fascinating. It was somewhat inspiring. It was surreal. It was interesting. it was all those things and then some to see what was happening and how, you know, the toy department seemed to grow up a little bit this past weekend. Luckily for us, it hasn't really extended to the world of mixed martial arts.

The anthem doesn't come into play. And, you know, for the most part, we've remained, you know, there's been moments here and there, but there's been no firestorm. It could happen. And we will address that even closer because it's happening in our world. But to all those people who say, you just have to stick to sports, stick sports. No, we're human beings. And certainly when I try to weigh in on something, it's not because I'm coming from a democratic point of view or democratic

stance. I just consider myself a human being who's privileged enough to be living in this great country. And this great country has given me the opportunity of a lifetime and has allowed me to live out my dream. I love the United States. That's why I'm so happy to have this flag here. All right. That's why I wanted to say about that. I don't know if everyone is still here. if they left me. No, we're here. Okay. Some additional context real quickly.

Before we move on, I mentioned earlier, probably the most tweeted, retweeted thing of all time. Guillermo Cruz, our very own at MMA fighting, sent me the Connor tweet. Only 150K retweets and 190K-like so. Blew it out of the water. This is a huge deal, obviously.

And also, LeBron addressed it earlier today at the NBA's Media Day and didn't really back down from the comments kind of stood strong on it. I cannot wait to get home and consume all the media day. This is one of my favorite days

of the year when everyone comes out with their nice new jerseys. Well, how about this? I would subject you to 20 minutes on the Melo deal, but I feel like I've gone, you know... That may come up later. Maybe.

But from Chris Manning, who tweeted during the show, Chris Manning is the editor over at Fear of the Sword. Get the hell out of air. Indirect MMA hour reference at Kaz Media Day. I asked him to clarify

somebody asked them about Isaiah's comments on the MMA hour. Did they reference the MMA hour? I don't know if they'd name checked it. I haven't been able to find video. I was searching for it. Would be nice. It would be nice to get a little credit.

Look, they're reporters. I'm hoping that they did their job. There's no chance someone got on the mic at the press conference. It said, the other Isaiah Thomas on the M.m. Why not? If they were on ESPN, would they say he was on ESPN? I would hope that they would.

So fingers crossed. All right. But shout out to Chris for paying attention for that. Respect. Although he messed up the hashtag, but, you know. Listen, he was at Cavs Media Day. He took his time out.

We're not going to dog him on that. Chris is the man. All right. Okay. Last thing. Yes. We found the actual footage. Sabina Mazo.

There it is. Headkick K. Boom. Apologies to her for the old one. Boom. It just felt natural to throw that high kick. She's walking through it with Phoenix Carnival. back. I think almost maybe she underestimated

how long your legs are. One hell of a kick. She does have very long legs. Congrats to her. Impressive knockout. That's it for Rick's picks. Boom. Well done. Except for the mess up. You know, we correct it. All right. That's how we move on.

Okay. Now, time to answer some questions. Thank you very much to New York. Rick. We're going to go to Twitter right now. So if you're watching the show on YouTube, on Facebook, at MMAfighting.com. You need to close those browsers or you can keep them up. I won't hate you,

but you also need to open up Twitter. You need to go on the Twitter.com. You need to go to MMAfighting.com. And that's where we'll be for the next 30 minutes or so. We'll be answering your questions. You've been hitting us up using the hashtag the MMA hour.

Hopefully I'll show long. Hopefully you have a lot to discuss. Hopefully you've hit us up with some good questions about Japan, about Bellator, 216 coming up, whatever else you want to talk about. We have a lot to discuss.

poll. I'm looking forward to hearing what the results were. So there's much to discuss. It's been a fun day, but we've got a little more show to go again. MMAfighting.tv.com, the MMA after hour. Some people say it's their favorite segment of the day.

So be it. If you've never experienced it, you're about to because the MMA after hour starts right about now. Yeah. There it is. The MMA after hour time. Here's my little,

if you order a thingy this was a big hit on Saturday, right? Boom. Yeah, there it is. Someone named MMA Taliban on Twitter tells me sport is the safe place we get to go to get away from it all not to be lectured.

Strange Twitter handle, but okay, I don't think anyone's really lecturing. I think it's more talking about what's going on and it's hard to just ignore everything, but fair enough. Let's answer some questions. Hashtag the MMA hour. What do we got? What do we got?

Our first question is your question. Oh. Question of the week. I think it's the appropriate way to kind of start these off. Do you agree, also to get the crap out of the way so we can get to the real stuff, do you agree with the decision to headline USC 216 with the interim lightweight title fight over the official flyway title fight? I know where this stands. Do you know where this stands?

The current voting. With 8,210 votes in and 19 hours left to vote, but we'll go snapshot of the moment with 8,000. out of the moment, with 8,210 votes in, 52% of people agree with the decision to headline with the interim lightweight title fight. Yeah, I feel like that that's... I asked this question on Friday. I feel like that's pretty accurate

from the responses I was getting. Mixed, mixed response. Well, a lot of people were like, nah, it's an insult to DJ. A lot of people were like, no, the original main event was Lee Ferguson. So, you know, I don't feel strongly, but I will admit, initially, I was like, yeah, this seems a little weird.

You know, some people, some people were saying, well, look at UFC 189, the interim title fight main evented over Robbie Lawler versus Roy McDonald. Well, that one was a little difference because Connor was booked to fight Jose Aldo, and Aldo pulled out less than two weeks out, so they're not going to bump him. This one was different, although, you know, we must concede the fact that Lee and Ferguson, they were announced as the main event, so not fair to them to bump them down. I just thought it was interesting.

I wonder if it was someone else, a different division, official title fight, interim title fight, do they switch things up? That's all. I have to think the answer is no to that. And that the weight class is more important than the interim versus non-interim. Also, it would almost be a conceit on their part

that interim titles are less meaningful, wouldn't it? If they said, because this is an interim title fight we're putting the flyway title fight as the main event wouldn't it kind of essentially be a concession that interim title fights are less meaningful or even meaningless

which I don't think that I don't think that they would do or quite frankly is the case I think this interim title fight rightfully belongs in that spot okay fair enough

I'm not I'm not offended by it. I just thought it was interesting. Sure. If it was... I don't know. I can't imagine that there's any fight that would bump under a flyway title fight. Even if it's interim.

Okay, name another division with an interim fight or another title fight that would get lower billing. Like under the official flyway title fight? Let's say interim featherweight, women's featherweight title fight.

No, I still think it would... You think that gets above? Yeah. Not only any... We're not talking about any flightway to have, but we're talking about the fight that may break the record for most title defenses.

Is that something that was like super highly promoted leading into the first time they were going to fight and ultimately didn't? I don't think they value it that much. But to put... You have to admit,

it's a little bit of an eye, an eyebrow razor, right? No. All right. Like, I think... I'm... I'm struggling to see the other side of it. I guess if you're saying it's disrespectful to Demetrius,

or I'm not saying you, if one is saying it's disrespectful to Demetrius, is that not disrespectful to now Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson? Like what is the justification for disrespecting them versus... No. Yeah, I have no problem with it. In fact, I'd say it seems like good business to me. It seems like the right way to go.

Okay. Now, if you start putting non-title fights above it, now we have a problem. Okay. Now you're disrespecting it. But this is really, I mean, it's not a real title fight. Well, if that's the case, then don't, like, if we know what this is, right? I mean, they needed a type. Hey, nobody, nobody was more on the Daniel Cormier is not the champion thing than me.

Here's the thing. If DJ versus Borg was always going to headline 216, if they were never going to fight a 216 and they were always going to headline 216 and they were always going to headline. 216 and they also wanted to put Lee and Ferguson on the card. There's no way Lee and Ferguson would be an interim title fight. I mean... Fair enough because they're already in that position. I agree with that. Maybe. I don't know. The reason that they did it was because they did it was because they're doing... I mean, it's all kinds of crazy.

I think that fight is just more exciting, more what the fans want to see. At the end of the day, that's what's going to speak and that's what's going to be the main event. Now, you think more people want to see Lee Ferguson than board DJ? Is that controversial? No, I don't know. I mean, I kind of feel like... I think so. It's a little crazy in the sense that DJ is considered the pound-for-pound king. He's about to break a record.

Has that bared any fruit in terms of ratings or viewership or pay-per-views? No, but I'm talking about the hard-cores here. We're talking to the hardcores right now. That's not who they sell pay-reviews to. No, but I'm putting out the poll to the hardcores. Oh. Well, fair enough, but no, I think that's the money fight on this card. All right.

Money, quote-unquote. No. Yeah, maybe pun intended. After a small glimpses of Saki's take-down defense, this is from David, and clinchwork against DeSovah, has his MMA developed enough to take light-heavyweight top 10? Essentially, let's not really like break down his take-down defense or anything like that.

I think the jury's still out. Do you think he could crack into the top 10? I think the jury is still out, right? I think, you know, we were talking about this a little earlier. I think that division is so weak, except for, you know, a handful of guys at the top, that he could really get in there pretty quickly. if you give him another

fighter who's going to stand with him I can see him cracking the top 10 Oh 100% I mean who's in the top 10 Yeah like who's number 10 But like I guess I guess When I think top 10 you like you think of a certain caliber

But the top 10 of the UFC light heavyweight division Is kind of playing by different rules these days Right? Because it's so shallow So yeah sure Who do we got? Number 10 is Patrick Cummins Number nine is Alir Latifi

Number eight is Misha Sarkinov So number seven is Corey Anderson. Number six is OSP. Number five is Shogun. Number four is Jimmy Manow. Number three is Glover. Number two is Volcanoes Demir. And number one is Alexander Gustafin champion Daniel Kormier. I don't see anybody

on there that I'm going, oh, no, there's no chance he gets to the top ten. I think maybe he fights a guy like a Tyson Pedro next. He could vault himself in the top ten next fight. I don't know if he fights as Tyson Pedro, but there's guys on the back end there like a Jan Blachowitz, like John Volante, you know. The answer is a

At least my answer to this question's straightforward is yes very easily I could see him He will crack the top 15 after his next fight just given the fact that there's just not so many guys And then he'll win that fight if he wins that fight then he'll go into the top 10 One thing I forgot Yes if you were watching before we had Rick's picks one thing I totally forgot but meant to mention Claudia Godelia and Andrage incredible fight although I saw it wasn't like one little highlight that stood out, but it was just an amazing fight overall.

Should have highlighted that. That's on me. I saw a lot of people who say that that was the best fight in women's MMA history or UFC women's MMA history. No. No, it's great, though. I agree, though. Not the best.

Misha Tate, Holly Holie Hohom, Yoniochek, Clyde, Dadella, 2, those are better fights. Yeah, the swings in momentum in all the Yohanna and Gidella fights were more impressive than much. This was actually, after the first few minutes of the first round, it was rather one-sided. Yeah, great fight. Great fight.

but it wasn't the greatest of all time. Yeah. I think we're on the same page there. With Jones's situation, looking at the light heavyweight top 10 versus the heavyweight top 10, which division is more exciting right now? Heavyweight versus light heavyweight?

Yeah, let me bring up. I'll give you a... Dang. I'll give you a rundown of... We just ran down light heavyweight. I'll give you a rundown of heavyweight. Overreem number one, sorry, steepie as the champ.

Overim number one, Fabricio Overdume number two. Kane Velasquez number three. Inganu number four. Hunt number five. Derek Lewis number six. in Volkov, eight, Taibura, nine, Alenic, 10, Stefan Strove, 11,

Junior Albini, 12, Andre Arlowski, 13 Curtis Blades, 14, Travis Brown, 15, Tim Johnson. I'd say they're in a similar kind of... I'll go with light heavyweight for this reason. Yeah, talk to me. I mean, Saki coming in is exciting. Sure. Like, the main exciting

thing that the heavyweights have right now, to me, is Inganu. Like, I want to see where he goes, right? You can make a small case for Volkov. You can make a case, we'll see how Derek Lewis looks, but there's not a lot going on right now, right? Not a fresh group of talent that's infused. Saki is like super exciting to me because of who he was in the

kickboxing world and now he's coming in. There's not a ton going on. But then once we get into like the top three, like Volcan has that interest. Yeah. fall on the other end, but not by a ton. I just think that the top, let's say, six, up to about Derek Lewis, you know, you're talking about Overeem, Verdume, Velazquez, and Ganu, Hunt, Lewis. I think that's stronger than the light heavyweight side, and I'm more interested in kind of that title picture. But they're both not in the best of shape right now. They need some

talent, and that's why guys like Go Kansaki, when they come in, get people excited. Okay, speaking of that division. Any updates on John Bones, Joan? Do we know anything further after not the latest round of testing being revealed? Okay. Reaction to Claudia losing to Jessica. What's next for both fighters going forward? So I thought Claudia started off really strong, but then back end of the first round, Andrudge started to adapt. Second round was hers. Third round was hers. I think Andrudge is super impressive. I thought that that was an amazing win for her. Um, I, I thought it was really interesting afterwards how she kept saying how she doesn't have to leave Brazil to get that good training in. Yeah, she's taking a shot at Claudia, throwing that shade.

It was a really fun fight. It was, as far as, like, rankings go and the level of talent, it was the best fight on the card. There's no doubt about it. Yep. And so, yeah, I mean, it's one of those fights where it's like, who are the people who lost to Yawanna, who aren't getting a shot anytime soon? You match those up. We've seen that in those divisions like featherweight, where there's been, like, dominant champions. quantum weight, things like that.

So it was super impressive. I don't think it's going to get her a title shot anytime soon. I think it was timely because if, let's say, Rose wins, now you've got a clear number one contender. Although if Rose wins, you know, Yawanna could very well get a title. That's true. But what I think this established was for the longest time,

Claudia was essentially number one. And then there was everybody else. There was, Claudia is the second best. She's given Yowana her best shot each of the times. Now we've seen Jessica Androge is, is not to be trifled with and kind of clearly established herself

as that next position. So I think if we get a shakeup at the top, she's put herself in as good a position as you can to get that title shot. She definitely showed out. But again, I meant to highlight it, but an incredible fight by both fighters. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

What are your thoughts on the next potential opponent for Luke Rockhold? A fight with Romero could be interesting. I think a fight with Romero could be very interesting. Honestly, as I said at the top, I really wouldn't be surprised if he finds his way in the title shot, I mean, crazier things have happened.

It's all about can the UFC fill these cards with title shots? And if there's no champion available, they're going to start making these title fights, right? Like, they are not, the problem, one of the problems I have with the UFC these days is that there's so many shows, there's so many holes to fill. They can't think six months in advance. They can't book, you know, for the year.

They really just have to make it to next month with some of these cards. 216 is an example of that. So it's impossible to predict what's going to happen in December. Everything's on the table. He seems most interested in either fighting, obviously, for the belt November 4th or Whitaker. Would I be surprised if he fights Romero? No. Do I like that fight?

Yes, he wanted that fight, not that long ago. But there's just so much up in the air right now. It's a very weird time in the UFC. There's just like it... Does it not feel like it's a bit of a rudderly... ship. Yeah. With the marketing.

I still don't think they've got it down with the posters. Like the posters. I was just talking about the posters. Like the Anderson and Gaslam one.

It's the same thing every time. It's the big guy over the little guy. It's like, let's make a big image and then put a small image. Yeah, the big head,

you know. It did great with GSPDS and now they keep doing it over again. It's just like there's no, like to me, combat sports, like where is Dana White? Why is it?

Like to me, combat sports is all about you know, there's a promoter. Like there's a system here. There's a formula. They don't have that system anymore in place. They don't have that formula in place. Like, it's important to have a promoter.

It's important to have a carnival balker go out there and talk and scream and tell people why these fights are so great. It's important to have that system in place. I've told you that in the past. That's one of the things I thought glory was missing. You know, Coker over time has become better at that. He wasn't always very good at that. It's important that. They don't have that right now.

You know, we don't know what's going on with Connor. You know, Ronda's clearly gone. John Jones, like, it just kind of feels like, and this is a super important time for the UFC. This is one of the most important times in their recent history. They're about to get into serious negotiations for their TV deal. The TV deal is up, not this December and next December. But now's the time that people are looking at your product.

What do you have? How are your ratings? Where are your stars? now's the time that you're actually being looked at with a very fine-tooth comb. This is a fascinating time for them. Yeah, I think all those things that you mentioned are definitely factors and contributing to this. But I think the biggest one overall is that fighters are not rushing into fights as much as they had in the past. There's a much more prevalent sentiment about sitting down, holding out for money, not fighting injured.

the ship just kind of running itself and continuing to sail on smoothly has been disrupted. It doesn't happen like that anymore. There's a lot more hesitation and you just can't trek on to the next thing. And look, one more thing, you can't compare the two.

I know it's not apples to apples, and what we're going to be talking about here, what I'm going to bring up is obviously not the same. But now in this important time, are the fighters going to realize that if they get zero percent of the TV deal that the UFC is going to sign at some point in the next year and change

that they are they going to wake up and realize that that would be a horrible mistake that there is a lot of money that they could be privy to if they play their cards right if they come together if they unify some respect

or are they just going to say you know what we're not entitled to this thanks but no thanks how is that going to happen I don't know how it's going to happen honestly that's not my job. My job is to talk about these things.

My job is to bring light to these things. It's not my job to get them to come together. But it's got to be somebody's job. How are you not sitting there and saying, look, my brother and sister, they're about to make a lot of money because of us. Any network that signs the UFC

is going to sign the UFC because of their roster, not because of the UFC. It's because of who they have, what they've got going on, the big bites they have coming up, That's why they sold for $4 billion. That's why WMEI and G wanted to get into this business

because they were killing it. Are they going to smarten up? I don't have confidence just based on history, but that's another interesting story to watch now. Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat. I don't have much confidence. None of those associations that were around

before making much noise these days. From Chuck MMA. How do you guys feel about the deal? as McGregor trilogy. How do you see that fight going? Chuck Minnall? No. Well, I addressed this a little bit. That's the fight that they want. Will actually happen. There's a lot of hurdles. Both guys are going to demand a lot of money, but it's the biggest money fight.

Don't you agree? It's the biggest money. Two million, I think it could do. Right? Do you agree? It's no doubt in my mind. This is the fight, as Anderson Silverwood's saying. And by the way, I don't have a problem. I don't have a problem with with that being a title fight? I really don't.

That I might have an objection to. Eh, I don't really. Although, look, I mean, there have been worse title shots? Yeah, there have been. We don't have a problem with it. But why? It's big enough.

You don't need to make it a title fight. Well, I mean, why wouldn't it be? Why wouldn't it be a title fight? Yeah, because Connor is the 155 champion. Make the third fight for the belt and end it. That's the one. Well, why wouldn't, I guess you're right. I mean, if it's not the next fight,

that's the only way it would not be. No, I think it will be. Again, unless something really bad happens in the negotiations. Yeah, well, yeah. Why would Connor fight a non-title fight? He has to... Well, it depends. No, well, if it's going to happen at lightweight. Yes. It's going to happen at lightweight.

It's not going to happen on 170. That makes no sense. Made no sense the second time they did it. I get it. All right. He beat me the first time in 170. I want to beat him again. Okay, now you're 1-1. Now change the stakes. Up the Annie. Make it for the belt. Yeah. And it takes all. You know what?

You convinced me. I don't have a problem with it. Okay. Make it for the belt. Yeah, of course. I mean, there's no alternative. Yeah. Unless they didn't fight at 155, but I don't want to see it at 170 again.

No. I didn't want to see it at 170 the second time, but I get the narrative. Yeah. Scott Wiley, if you are a matchmaking in the Walter Reed Division, who are the next opponents for rising stars, Mike Perry, and Kamaru Usman? Like we said, I like Usman versus RDA. I like Perry versus Condit. Perry called out someone last week.

what do you call out after that win? It was someone who was high up. Robbie Luller. Yeah, that's right. Gosh, that would be nuts. I love that too. Why not? Let's make some new stars here.

I'm down. Mike Perry versus anybody. Usman versus anybody, too. I feel like he really needs to step up, though. I really like the Usman versus RDA fight. I don't know if RDA is going to take it, but... That's a... I like those fights where it's like Jared Canaanier versus Glover, you know, like...

Right, where somebody's getting an opportunity. Yeah. And if it loses, okay, back to the queue. If you're the veteran, though, you feel like somebody's trying to build their name off your back. You really have to be able to play the game with that one and see the bigger picture. From Mushroom Mike, any info on the next fight of Yaiyar Rodriguez? Please send power to all the MMA community in Mexico. So I imagine Mike is, or Ike, is from Mexico and looking for some info on Pantera.

Much love to all the people in Mexico. We spoke to Pantera in Edmonton. He's feeling things out as far as his training is going. Spent a little time at Team Alpha Mail. We'll see if he actually, you know, goes there full time. He hasn't fully decided whether or not he will stay there full time. Said he didn't have a fight. Said he, you know, felt a lot of pressure in the Edgar fight and is learning how to deal with that.

So I think he's just taking some time to get things in order. But as of right now, he doesn't have a fight. fight. It's interesting though that he's changing scenes once again. He was in Albuquerque. He went to Chicago, now looking elsewhere. So you'd like to see him find a stable home and just stay there for quite some time through the ups and the downs. Ray Borg, if he misses weight again, is he a 125er? No. That's it, right? No. I think we have to be done with that. Yeah. Sounded today like he was confident he's going to be able to make weight. Yes, but the one thing I I still don't understand why did you fire, but he didn't want to get into that,

but why'd you fire your nutritionist if it had nothing to do with the weight cut, right? Sure. But he didn't want to get into that. This was a question that was asked by multiple people, actually. Potential headliners for the Detroit pay-per-view. A lot of people interested in this one. Yeah, the DeRosen guy. I would imagine he's from Toronto and he wants to go.

Take a trip to Detroit, yeah. Look, the one that I think makes the most sense is Steepay because Cleveland is next to Detroit, but it sounds like he's targeting end of the year if they get the contract situation. resolved and of course there's also the beginning of of 2018 if they can't get it done in time there aren't a ton of options

you know these are the ones that are options so steepe right now I don't consider him an option just because he made it pretty clear last year last week that he wants to come back at the end of the year I don't think DC will fight

on that card I don't think Michael Bisping will fight on that card I don't think Tyron Woodley is going to fight on that card. I don't think that Connor McGregor is going to fight on that card. I do think there's a chance that they do Holloway Edgar on that card. If Holloway can get his contract situation figured out,

I don't think the winner of Cody and T.J. Dilsha are going to fight on that card. I'd be very surprised if DJ turns around and fights on that card. I don't think Yuanah's going to fight on that card. There's maybe a chance that the 145 pound belt is defended on that card,

you know, because that's a potential one with Cyborg and Holly home. By the way, with the Chris Seiborke situation, there's a chance that she's extended one more fight because of the Usada thing. Remember, I reported that her contract is up in October, but there's a chance that they will just extend her contract for a few months because they'll consider that time, like sort of a frozen time in the contract. So there's a chance that her last fight will be that Holly home fight if they're able to get that fight done. So to recap, you know, maybe the featherweight title fight for the men or the women, I guess there's an outside chance heavyweight, but right now there's

there's not a ton going on. They still have those issues to deal with, you know, C-based contract, Max Holloway's contract, cyborgs contract. Again, fascinating time. It ain't so easy running an MMA promotion. Could be a tough one, the DeRosen guy,

hang in there. They got to Norfolk, right? They just kind of finalized Norfolk with Pettus and Porier. So we're getting close to December 2nd, but not quite there yet. Lorenz Larkin, Benson, after all the talk about their signing, was it a good move ultimately?

by the UFC to let them go too soon to tell. You touched on this a little bit earlier. The free agents that Bellatora signed that have come from the UFC haven't really all been home runs that they may have hoped for. Was it a good move by the UFC? That's kind of looking at with the glass half empty

because it does, like, Daly gets a knockout over a name, right? Pitbull gets a win or Chandler gets a win over a name. Sure. They don't have to necessarily win. It's just kind of like the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats. You do want your big, you know, your big signings to pay off. Well, especially because if they're getting the higher paychecks,

sure, that you don't want them to be on the losing end. Absolutely. But there is something to be said also for, you know, like, look, the Belator talent ain't bad, right? Nope. Pitbull ain't bad. Chandler ain't bad. Douglas Lima beat Larkin ain't bad, right? So there is something to be said for that as well.

I don't think it's been horrible. You want kind of a mix. You want like it, you know, you want it to be 50-50. You don't want them to just come in and smoke the Bellator guys. You don't want them to just lose. So, you know, they've had some wins. But from the UFC perspective. Oh, from the UFC perspective?

Yeah, I think it's, I mean, look, their business isn't going down because Lorenzarkin is there. Lorenzarka was fighting on the fight past prelims against Neil Magny in his last fight. Benson was a headliner, but I don't think that he was, you know, a huge name for them. So, yeah. So the UFC is able to afford to let these guys go, like, they're not going to cry over the fact that Roy Nelson is gone. They're not going to cry. is it unfortunate that Gaggart isn't there? You want the top five guys,

especially one that you built up again at middleweight to be there? Yeah, of course. But they're not going to crumble because those guys now. You want to talk about a Connor leaving, obviously, or a GSP leaving or a cyborg or a Holly home. These could be difference makers. For Belator, it's about collecting them and building them. Like one or two names aren't going to make the difference to them,

but them together starts to build up the promotion, if you get what I'm saying. Should Belator implement the five-round main events? You know, I was never a huge fan of the five-round main event, but I've kind of gotten used to them, and it does feel weird now watching a Belator show and it's just three rounds. You'd like the sport to be uniform.

You know, I've never really asked them why they haven't adopted it. But yeah, it does kind of feel like it's time. I didn't like it when the UFC did it. And now? now I don't mind it I'm firmly in the five round camp yeah I think it's time I'm more

I'm more worked up about boxing having 12 round title fights when it should be 11 or 13 that just pissed me out fair enough bellator 183 was great they've had some big signings this year how close is belator to closing the gap

with the UFC is still a big gap the UFC is still Kleenex the UFC is Xerox they're the brand name if you look at the ratings you know the there's way more UFC events. You can only really compare the two if they have the same amount of events and the same calendar year and then you start to compare everything, right?

The bigger shows, the ratings, the gates and all that stuff. It's harder now because Beltaire has less shows. So, you know, the UFC product is a little more thinned out. They've got more toys to play with. Do I think that the gap is closer today than it was a year ago today? Yes. Do I still think that the gap is gigantic? Yes.

It's still the UFC. There's still the brand name. Do I think that Beltor has made some nice, moves? Yes. Do I think that the UFC has had some self-inflicted wounds? Yes. Do I still think that the UFC is the brand for the foreseeable future barring some kind of disaster? Absolutely. There's still the home to the best fighters. There's still the home to the biggest names. They're still able to put on the biggest, most important shows. There's still the home to Connor McGregor and the like. They're not going anywhere as far as this two-horse race is concerned.

But it's nice, you know, a friend of mine once said he got married. and it was like two years in and he's like, you know, sometimes it's nice to have, you know, a little meat when you're having chicken every night. Of course, he was joking. But when it comes to being an MMA consumer, it's nice to have a different product to watch from time to time. I wish there were three, four, five other promotions

that we could watch in North America who are thriving and putting on great shows. Right now, there's only really two as far as like the big leagues are concerned. There's other ones like, you know, LFA are doing their thing and we'll see what happens with PFL. but right now there's two big dogs so that's good

I wish there were more but fine I'll take two over none or take two over one the gap is closer but let's not kid ourselves it's still a massive massive gap can you repeat what the thing the person who was getting married said

I didn't get it it's good to have some meat you're talking like it's good to have a hamburger when you're getting chicken every night gotcha like red meat Sorry, I meant red meat. Because he said it to me in Hebrew, and Basar is meat. Meat.

Yeah, and chicken is chicken. I was a little lost, but I'm with you. Yeah, you feel me. And I definitely feel what he was saying. I want that, I want that hamburger every once in a while. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Okay.

Ariel. Yes. Oh, here we go. What is your fondest memory of the Carmelo Anthony era? I'm going to get me all emotional. I was really emotional on Saturday when this actually happened. I've seen some pictures of him. pop up. Let me ask you another question.

I want you to answer this, but I also want you to answer, how does it feel that Huddy Mello has emerged as possibly the best player in the NBA and now you've lost him? By the way, I don't love the fact that he showed up wearing the hood today. In the interviews? I love it. Oh, all right. Fully Mellow is a thing now. I like the fact that he didn't really acknowledge it and now he's like acknowledging.

It's almost like Belator and the Fader sweater. And then they did it with a Rory turtleneck. No, see, you can't. Other people are pointing it out. He didn't go, I'm hoodie mellow today. No, but just showed up. That's the move. Yeah, but he wore it.

smiled, you put it on. Don't wear it today, but give it to us tomorrow when you're practicing. Houdy mellow transformation is complete. I think they're going to let them wear it on the court. Yeah, right. But if the Thunder are smart, start making some hoodie jerseys. Oh, I would have snatched one of those up in a second.

So my feelings are Carmelo and Anthony getting traded very short. So I was at Syracuse when he was there, right, for that one year when they won in 2003. So I've always kind of like rooted for the guy. I was at the draft in 2003 when he got drafted by the Nuggets and of course LeBron James went first. So I felt a kinship to Mr. Anthony over the years. Us being New York guys, you get the story. When the story came out that he wanted to come to the Knicks in 2011, I believe it was. I loved it. I was all in.

I couldn't believe it. Superstar coming to the Knicks, our first superstar since Patrick Ewing. I was in Sweden, no, in Sydney, UFC 127. and I remember the trade going through and I was so excited. I'm coming home. I'm coming home. It was great. It was so great to have a superstar.

Over the years, I've been a big mellow backer. I always supported him. I feel like he's a great role model. I feel like he's a tremendous player. People love to shit on him. No, I've always back Carmelo and he's given us some great years. I hated the way it ended.

I wish it didn't end this way. I hated the fact that they gave him a no trade clause. If they were going to sign him, don't sign him with a no trade because you never know what's going to happen. I hated the fact that Phil Jackson devalued his stock. I hated the fact that he openly tried to get him to leave. I hated the fact that the rest of the league knew that the Knicks wanted to get rid of him. I hated the fact that once Phil Jackson left, they couldn't make amends and get him back on track

because I really think that he's going to have a great year. And I like him on this team and being sort of a role model for the likes of Chris Tapsperzingis. and Billy Hernan Gomez. I like that and I'm sad to see him go and I don't really feel all that impressed with the return although I feel like they got what they, you know, they got the best that they could actually get because everyone knew that they were desperate and especially knew that they were going to, you know, want to get rid of him before Media Day today. This is not really answering your questions. Yeah, so like every lemon, what you're saying is like every lemon that's ever been purchased. It's very cathartic for me. The first day was the best day and then it was all downhill

from there. You were very excited to get him and then you found out that the engine wasn't something like that. But 2012-2013 season was phenomenal. 54 wins. That was a great year. I went to most of the playoff games. Remember when you called me just to rub in my face that Kyrie Irving was going to come to the Knicks? And then he went to a division rival

and then you lost Mello. Listen, I still believe that Chris Daps is going to lead us to the championship. I still believe in this team. I think it's a good thing. Dish him by subtraction. Yeah, it hurts. Mellow's a great player. It hurts.

But now it's Chris Dapstein. I saw that video of the, the OKC fans, you know, at the airport embracing him. And I see him today in the Thunder jersey. And it hurts a little bit. Two months from now when he's playing isomelo ball, though, though, don't long for. Here's the silver lining. I can't wait to see the Porzingis era. I can't wait to see him lead the team.

I believe in the team. I will always be a Knicks fan. I'm not a believer in Jeff Hornacek. I'm not so sure on the front office. I'm certainly not so sure on James Dolan as an owner who's able to stay out of the way and lead them to a championship and put the right people in place. I wish we had a Presti and Missai Ujiri. I wish we had an R.C. Buford. I wish, but we don't have that.

So here we are, you know, with our situation. It's sad that the 2012-2013 season is our only, you know, respectable season in 17 years. Is your fondest memory of the Carmelo-Anthony era Jeremy Lynn when Carmelo wasn't even playing? that 54 win season was tremendous. He was great. Playing the four, he was tremendous. He was very good. So, I don't know.

I don't know what to feel about all this. There's no one moment that stands out, though. Is there one game you're saying? Yeah, one fondest memory. I don't have one. Yeah. Really, when he was traded, that was the most exciting time. Oh, boy.

Right? And then he played against the bucks, and they had that commercial, I'm coming home, I'm coming home. Yeah, you know. It's just, it's mostly sad that, like, I feel like he's worth a lot more than, Enos Cantor and Doug McDermott in a second round pick. And I feel like...

Cut his legs out. And that's what pisses me off. And I'm so nervous about this rookie, Frank Nillikina, because I feel like they should have had Dennis Smith Jr. And that would have been very excited. And I'm just worried right now. I'm really worried. I will comfort you.

I just don't want them to be like one in 12 in November and completely out of it. Because I can't go through another depressing season like that. And guess what? It's trending in that direction. on the flip side though I can't comfort you By the way By the way

On the flip side As a basketball fan This is great I mean Mello If you had to go somewhere Like Westbrook and Paul George And then you know Like I like the fact that it's not a foregone conclusion

That the Warriors are going to win Like they're probably going to win But I like this Wade's going to go to the Cavs probably Thank God Oh I'm excited about that one No stop it with that music

Get out of here with that I'm going to stop Not nice Okay, here's an interesting one. I thought that was it. No, we're not done. Have y'all more you? Have ever been interviewed by Canadian Sensation Nardwa?

I love Nardwar. Do you know Nardwar? I love Nardwar. That's the only reason I asked this, but he only interviews musical. Yeah, he's not going to talk. Although he has tweeted me. If you go through my likes, you'll see that he has tweeted me once. Did you ever tweet do-d-d-do?

No, but he tweeted me that. Of course he did. Yeah, that's his thing. Those interviews are so great. Yeah, that's the end of every interview. Yeah, but I didn't know he actually tweets it. He does these interviews with musicians and he gives them all kinds of random objects

and that kind of tells the story. Is he the most well-researched interviewer of all time? Does he know the most about each subject before going? I'd like to know, is it just him or does he have a team? I mean, he's the one who's going out and buying that stuff? But yeah, you could sometimes get into Nardwar rabbit holes. Oh, I've done it. Oh, I've done it.

It's just amazing. Find him. And you know what I love most about it? The reaction to the gifts. because it's all very genuine. Like, you know that they're not reacting. What I hate is sometimes people aren't appreciative of the level of research it did. It's kind of like, oh, cool, man.

That's flip side. That's a flip side. It's like, yeah. That's uncomfortable. Dude, I just did like hours of research. Not only the research. These incredible things. Actually go out and get the stuff, right?

Yeah. But the people who do appreciate it, if you ever see like JZ or the ones where like, their minds are like completely blown. I love that. Love that. Nardwar. Shout out to Nardwar. That's Canadian royalty. That's interview royal.

right there. Okay, here's another one. What hair products do you use? Me? No, you. I don't use any. I don't use any. This is all natural. What kind of question is this?

Maybe you put a little Clearly you don't use any. And I don't have any hair. Wait, what? What do you be clearly? No, I don't use anything. Implying. Although our good friends over at the Dollar Shave Club

do hook us up with some nice stuff that I like, that butter. The beer butter. No, but actual hair products? Nothing. What are you talking about? got nothing. Still,

still going for my Tuesday haircuts, still haven't found the right barber. That's unfortunate. Yeah. But no hair product. Well, what do you need the right barber for?

You're talking about no hair product. What kind of haircut? I need the consistency. Your haircut seems very simple. I have to admit. You know, I'm trying to switch things up. We've got a little fade going sometimes.

A little skin fade. You know, I try to feel fresh. Try to feel fresh. Ariel, last question. This one wasn't on the list. but somebody tweeted it and it's probably worth highlighting. Did you see the...

This is not the question. No, no, I'm reading this one. This one's not on here. Did you catch any of the ADCC? The Jiu-Jitsu tournament. I did not. It was good stuff. Did you?

I didn't watch any of it. I was following along on Twitter. I was at a wedding in Calgary so I wasn't able to like tune in. How was Calgary? Beautiful. Lake Louise? Have you been? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I've never been. I bet to Calgary, but not Lake Louise. Primo. Lake Louise is beautiful. Shout out to my boy Keith. Kara who got married. ADCC was good.

Gordon Ryan established himself as probably the next star, 22 years old. One is division and then Chelsea was victorious. Absolutely. Yeah. Always interesting to kind of keep

aware of the ADCC stuff because a lot of champions end up kind of transitioning over to the UFC or making their way to MMA. But no, I didn't have time. I was in Montreal. all, you know, there's a lot of MMA this weekend. There was. And that was enough for me.

Plus, I had to sort of cope with the whole Carmel Anthony thing. You know, Stephanie Curry, bomb, Trump. There was a lot going on this weekend. I feel so bad for you. That's it. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. New York, Rick.

Thank you very much to everyone in the back. Thank you very much to everyone who sent in questions. Thank you very much for our good friends at Twitter. It has been another fun day here on the MMA hour. The MMA after hour is in the books. That means you can hit my music, Mr. Rob. very much for that. Got a gift today.

I don't know if you saw that earlier, but I got a mug from one Mickey Gall. We also buried the hatchet. We're best buds again. I'm going to text him later and I'm going to say, Hey, Mickey Gall, are we cool? I hope that he at least responds. But I must say, I'm kind of,

I'm kind of impressed that I could tell from his lack of responses that he was really pissed off at me. Anyway, the new and improved Mickey Gull is a sight to behold. I could just feel the energy and the confidence just oozing out of him. He is ready to go. I loved it. That was a lot of fun. Thank you very much to him for stopping by and his pal Wild Bill as well.

Thank you very much to Go Kansaki. Congratulations on the successful UFC debut. Thank you very much to one Luke Rockhold. Great stuff. And Mazel Tov to his mother on her wedding. past weekend. Thank you very much to Ray Borg. All the best on October 7th, UFC 216 against Demetrius Johnson. That is just two weeks away. How about that? Thank you very much to Kamaro Usman. That was great stuff. Great to have him on the show for the first time. Thank you very much

to Matt Brown. Love Matt Brown interviews. Very introspective, very intelligent, very thoughtful. Wish him the best. Good luck on November 11th. And again, congratulations on a phenomenal career. Thank you very much, of course, to Mickey Gall. Best of luck. on November 4th. And finally, thank you very much to one, Aaron Pico. Congratulations once again. And happy birthday, 21. How about that? Back next week, same time and place.

Until they say, pay. Samaday.