MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 404

Episode Date: October 16, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Karolina Kowalkiewicz (00:06:56), Marc Goddard (00:27:58), Henry Cejudo (00:51:38), Derrick Lewis (01:15:20), Kevin Lee (01:37:51), Gegard Mousasi (02:01:01) in studio, Julianna Peña (02:47:11), Khabib Nurmagomedov (03:09:25), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (03:43:53) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:40:27). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665330 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. 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, October 16, 2017. Hello, again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Great to be here with all of you on this frigid Monday afternoon. is here in New York. It's a great time. If you've ever been in New York during the fall months, it's always very, it's very cozy. You know, the leaves start to change colors. Everyone's wearing their sweaters and scarves. It's a nice time. A little sad that summer is leaving us, but spirits are high here in New York City this time of the year. As far as MMA is concerned, it was a relatively quiet weekend in the world of mixed martial arts this past weekend. Some notable things, McKenzie Dern improved to 4 and 0 as a performance.

professional. She submits Mandy Polk in the first round via rear naked choke. Actually dropped her and then submitted her. And I know some are critical of her striking. And there's a lot more improvement to be made. But I do think that she is moving along slowly. But surely now, if she can get in some kind of roll, be active, not take long breaks. Still think that maybe 125 will be easier for her right now as far as weight cutting is concerned. I think we're on to something here. But don't rush her to the UFC just yet. That's my opinion. Cage Warriors had an event.

Bigfoot Silva predictably lost to Rico Verhoeven, a fight that should have never been made. Thankfully, no major damage, at least that we could tell, but he lost in the second round via TKO, and I think that he owes a debt of gratitude to the referee involved in the fight because I think he stepped in there and didn't want to see any more damage. So that was this weekend. All kinds of news to discuss. We'll be doing that later on in the show. MMAfighting.com is where you can check us out on Twitter.com.

also send us some questions, comments using the hashtag the MMA hour. So please do that. We have a loaded show for all of you. There's a lot going on, as always, in the world of mixed martial arts. The UFC is back in Poland this weekend, and they've got a pretty nice card. It's exclusively on FightPass. So looking forward to that. It's an afternoon card here in the United States. And Bellator is back with a very interesting card as well, because Belator is in Connecticut, very close by to where we are right now. and they are featuring the debut, the promotional debut of one Gagar Musassi. Looking forward to that very much. It's Belator 185.

It's him versus Alexander Schlomenko. The card took some hits along the way, but still some interesting names, Gagar Musassi, Niemann Gracie, and of course the one and only Heather Hardy. So let me run down today's lineup, and then we'll get to our first guest of the day. Very much looking forward to our first guest. In fact, it is her debut on this program, and a lot of you have been asking for her, so I'm excited about that. So today's lineup, as I mentioned around 445, it's the MMA after hour.

It's on MMAfighting.com exclusively on Twitter. We'll answer your questions. Hashtag the MMA hour. 425, it's Rixpix. 405, we're going to be hearing from Chabibib Nirmagamadov. You've been asking for him for what seems like months. In fact, his last interview was on this show in April, after 209, if you'll recall. Chabib is back.

Of course, we'll talk about the lightweight division, the title picture of Ferguson's win. what's next for him. Back surgery. So much to talk to Habib about. Al-Au Akbar, he is here. Can't wait to talk to him at 405. 345 will talk to Giuliana Pena. You may have heard over the weekend. She was featured in People Español and she is pregnant and she's due to give birth in January. So naturally she's taking some time off. I want to talk to her about that. What it means for her career, all that and more. 245, as I said, will be joined in studio by Giger Musasi. Can't wait for that. Talk to him about his Bellator debut. First time he's been in studio, that should be a lot of fun as well. 225, we'll talk to Kevin Lee about the loss of Ferguson, where he goes from here, the staff

infection, all that and more. 205. We'll talk to Derek Lewis in his first interview since pulling out of UFC 216 on just hours notice. How's his back feeling? When does he want to return? What's going on there with the Black Beast? We'll be joined by him at 205. 145. We'll talk to Henry Suhudo, who survived, who escaped, some vicious wildfires that are still plaguing. the Northern California region. He was in Santa Rosa, California, escaped in the middle of the night, burnt his right foot, but he's in Brazil right now training for UFC 218 against Sergio Pedest in Detroit. He made it out okay. He did lose his Olympic gold medal in the fire. So we'll talk to him about that and how his family is doing. And at 125, one of the very best referees in the world,

Mark Goddard will join us to talk about weight cutting, the evolution of MMA officiating, all that and more. I put him in the discussion. with Herb Dean, with Big John McCarthy, with names like that. Mark Goddard, one of the very best in MMA. But first, Hey guys, it's New York, Rick. Before we get into the interviews this week,

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Tommyjohn.com slash MMA. Now back to the show. Let us go to the magical Skype and welcome in our first guests of the day. As I said at the top, people have been asking for her to be on the program

for quite some time, and I'm so excited that she's joining us this week. She has a very big fight coming up on Saturday. UFC Dansk in Poland. She is the co-main event against Jody Escobel. She is the one and only

Carolina Kovalkievich. Carolina, how are you? Hello, thank you. you, I'm fine. Dijen Dobra. Did I say that right? Dendabre, Dendabre. Dendabre.

Your Polish is almost perfect. Yeah, your English is better than my Polish, so we'll leave it at that. But it is great to have you on the show, Karina, and I appreciate you being on during Fight Week, because I know you're very busy. First things first, how far do you live from Dansk? I'll be honest, I've heard of Vorsa, I've heard of Lodz, I've heard of many places in Poland. I've never heard of Danz. How far do you live from there?

I live in Wuch which is in the middle of the Poland. Gdaings is on the sea. This is, I don't know, maybe three, four hours by car, not so far. Okay, is there a big MMA population

there? Is it a big city? Like, they're very into MMA over there? Yes, yes. Gdaingsk is very big and very beautiful city and there are a lot of fun of MMA. I heard from a lot of fans. who thought that you should have been

the main event for this card given the fact that you're very popular in Poland were you disappointed when you weren't the main event? No, no, I'm not disappointed. I am very happy because I fight on UFC in Gneissk and for me this is something big

and I'm very happy. It's amazing, as you may say might say, right? It's amazing. You always say it's amazing, which I love. It's a great word. My dog is here. Okay. What's his name or her name? Mamut.

Mamut. Hello, Mamut. How were you? Is that a boy? Mamut? Yes. What a cute dog. My beautiful boy.

Why Mahmuth? You know this big animal. Big animal. I don't know how to say. Elephant with long hair. Okay. That's a mammoth? In Poland, we call this mammoth.

Okay. A marmot. Wow. And you think that your dog looks like that kind of animal? Yes, yes. Smaller. Okay, yes. Well, it's a very cute dog and hello to him.

Thank you for joining us as well. So you're fighting Jody Escobel, who's making her debut. And she's a former invicta fighter, of course. She's been fighting for a while at Jackson Winklejohn in, out of Jackson Winklejohn in Albuquerque. Had you ever heard of her when you were offered this fight? Did you know about her? No, I never heard about her before. But now I know something about her and she's a really tough, tough girl.

She has good boxing and I hope we give good. Good fight. Yeah. What was on your radar? Like, what did you think or what did you want for this card? Because most people who, you know, were following the Strawweight Division didn't expect them to make this kind of matchup for you, since you're highly ranked. What were you thinking that they were going to give you?

You know what? I approached this fight as a world championship fight. Jody is a newcomer. but we are being newcomers before so sure so you're not taking her lightly yes yes I trick her very serious last time we saw you was in June

I think she's very determined sure it's an important fight for her yes yes for me too of course speaking of which last time we saw you was in June against Cloud Jagedalia and that was the first stoppage loss of career. You obviously were very disappointed afterwards. We saw you in the cage and since then you've remained sort of out of the spotlight. Why, how did you react afterwards? When you went

back home, when you went home to Poland, how did you react to the loss? How long did it take for you to get over it? Still, I'm very sad. But I don't want to look past, you know? It was her day, not my. I'm Now I'm focused on on future, on Jodi. I don't want to look back. Okay. Okay. Did you watch the fight a lot of times in order to sort of move on from it, learn from the mistakes, or you didn't even do that? I watched this fight only one time. Okay. When it happened or recently?

Once again. Did you watch the fight like right after it happened or did you watch it recently in preparation for your fight on Saturday? I watch this fight next day. Okay, and that's it. You don't want anything to do with it. Yeah, that's it. Do you think that you'll only get over the fight once you have this fight on Saturday, you win, you look good in front of your country,

and then you can kind of move on, or do you think that you will only get over the fight if you get another crack at Claudia? Once again? Do you think that you'll only get over the fight against Claudia? Once you fight on Saturday, you can look good, you can get a victory, you can celebrate, take having to fight Claudia again for you to, you know, kind of move on from the fight and not feel sad about it anymore?

After a fight with Jodi, I won't move on. Okay, that's it. You're done with it. Yeah. One of my favorite things about watching you fight is your walkout song, The Passenger by Iggy Pop. Yes, Iggy Pop passenger, my favorite song. Why is that your favorite song? Because it's beautiful.

This is very simple. When did you first hear that song? Oh, I don't remember. I was very young when I heard this song first time, and I knew this is my song. Why? Why does it connect with you so well? Why do you feel like it represents you

and that you want that to be your walkout song? I like everything in this song. I like music, I like words. I like this song, just like that. It puts you in a good mood. It's very good song, very good music. Yeah, it's a great song. Usually when you have a fighter from, you know, Eastern European country or something,

they'll usually have a song from their home country, from Poland, from, you know, Russia or whatever. But this is a song that's very popular here in the United States. It's a classic. And so I think that people really enjoy when you come out to the song. And so I was wondering if you feel. like it kind of represents you, if it speaks to you in a kind of way, it paints the picture of who you are, maybe all those things. Yes, something like this.

Do you listen to the song as you train as well? Yes, yes. I heard that Iggy Pop chose that song because, or at least he wrote the song, because for many years, he used to travel with David Bowie and he didn't have his license. and so he was kind of the passenger going along for the ride. Does that represent you as well, like a passenger going through? You hear this song when I don't know how this say, because you talk about David Bowie.

And I like this version with David Bowie. You heard it? No, I never heard that version. They do it together. Oh, wow. How come you don't walk out to that version? Amazing, really. Oh, there you go.

Why don't you choose that one? I don't know. Maybe next time. Fair enough. For this fight on Saturday, are you going to be walking out to that song? Yes. All right. Have you been walking out to it your entire career since the first fight?

No, not my whole career when I... I start to walk with this song on Invicta. Okay. Yeah. I fight on Invicta. Okay. Another thing that fans really like about your entrances is you have a very calm demeanor. You always like sort of lean on the cage. You give the camera a thumbs up. You're smiling. What's that all about? How are you so calm before getting into a fist fight?

I don't know why. For me, Octagon, this is the safest place in the world. I feel very good when I'm there and I'm very focused and I am happy because I do what I love. Yeah. Have you always done that? Have you always kind of had that demeanor before your fights where you kind of like

put your hands behind your back and you're leaning up against the wall? People love that. I always do this. I don't know why. Yeah. So you feel like when you're in the octagon that's safer than anywhere for you in the world?

Yes. Yes, exactly. That's when you're at your happiest. Yep. Wow. That's interesting. I always like fighters. You know, Damien Maya, I don't know if you know this, but Damien Maya has a degree in journalism.

So I'm always sort of partial to fighters who like journalism, because that's what I do as well. And I heard that you went to journalism school as well, but only for a year, right? Yes, yes, yes. I studied one year. What happened? Why did you stop? I don't know. I had a very difficult time in my life. And I train a lot, work and study and it was too much for me. Okay. Why did you want to be a journalist? Like what about journalism interested you?

met new people, new interesting people. So I thought this is something for me. Do you think once you retire from MMA, you'll try to go back and be a journalist? Maybe an MMA journalist? Maybe we will see when, maybe if my English will be better, maybe.

Well, you could be a Polish MMA journalist as well. The sport is getting so popular there, right? Yeah, yeah. That'd be fun. You do the interviews. What future brings. Okay. I also heard, and correct me if I'm wrong,

that one of your biggest heroes is a journalist. Martina Wojjikowski. Yes, yes. I totally butcher that name. For those that don't know, who is she and why is she your hero? She is Polish journalist. She, I don't know how to say. She travel in her world and she do amazing things.

And she's amazing, strong woman. Wow. Have you ever met her before? No, no, never. You'd like to meet her though? Yes, yes. How would you react if she wanted to interview you? Do a show about you?

a show about you? This is something like Christmas in Junday. It would be like a dream come true. Yeah, yeah. Does she have a show in Poland, like a weekly show or something like that? Yes. Okay. I'd love to see some of her stuff, but she only speaks in Polish, right?

No, no, no. Oh. She knows a few language, not, not, not. Not like me. Okay. No, no, you're doing great. Your English is perfect. Her English is perfect.

Okay. I think that's very cool. I think it's cool that your hero is a journalist. And I mean, you don't hear that often, especially from fighters. Sometimes fighters don't like journalists. You know, they get annoyed or don't really understand. So I respect that. I appreciate that out of you.

No comment. Maybe you don't feel the same way. I wanted to ask you about the fight. coming up in less than a month because you've fought both Rose and Joanna. Who do you think is going to win that fight, the title fight in New York? I don't know. Really, I don't know. 50-50.

50-50, really? Yeah, yeah. Joanna, she's the best fighter in the world, but Rose, she's, she's a, she's a, she's a, great fighter too. She's very young. Really, I don't know. Are you rooting for someone over the other? Are you rooting? I'm with Rose and I'm with Joanna. I like Rose very much. She's a great person, very nice and Joanna, she's Polish.

So Joanna and Rose. How would you describe your relationship with Joanna these days? Because when she was on the show, I still feel. feel like there's, I don't know, some animosity there, some, I don't know, some issues there between you two. Why is that? And do you feel the same way? I think she don't like me. How could that be possible? I respect her. But once again? How could that be possible? Who doesn't like you?

No, no. I don't know why. Ask her, not me. Sure, sure. So you have no idea why she still doesn't like you? No, no. maybe because I smash her face a little bit Is that a fight that you are able to watch again Or is it hard for you to watch any of your losses I watch this fight only one time Only one time

And I One month after fight with Joanna I watch this fight Okay Would the dream beat a rematch her in Poland Maybe now I don't think about this now I'm focused on Jody. Jody, that's right.

I want train, fight. I want to do what I love. And this is what you love. As the story goes, you were... Yeah, yeah, I love MMA, I love UFC, I love train, I love fight, so... You were kind of someone who didn't know what they wanted to do in their life, and you then became a Krav Maga instructor, and then you found MMA, and now you found your passion in life, your calling.

You weren't quite sure, but you were born to be an MMA fighter, right? Who would have thought? Yes, yes, this is the way of my life. Amazing. And what's it like in Poland these days? Like, do a lot of people come up to you? Are you a big star there where everyone's bothering you when you're on the street? What's it like?

Sometimes people recognize me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I'm not so big star in Poland. Not yet? No, no. Not a lot of interviews. People know who I... Some people know who I am, but I'm not big star.

Maybe after this weekend, because you'll be fighting back in Poland. Maybe, maybe. Maybe. By the way, last thing for you, and it's been a lot of fun having you on. Great English, by the way. I know you were a little worried about it, but you're doing great. Yes, this is for me very stressful. I know, I can tell.

I don't want to stress you out. I'm sorry. Do you get a kick? To me, and I know I asked you this sort of at the press conference in Dallas, but I always get a kick because at those press conferences, when they have all the people up there, you always seem to be near all the craziness. Remember when you were in New York next to Connor McGregor?

And the whole thing with him and Jeremy Stevens, and then you're there and like Kevin Lee and Michael Kesa. You always seem to be up there when there's all kinds of craziness going on. And it's always fun to watch your reaction because you're obviously not like that. What is going through your mind when Connor's up there and, you know, saying all the things that he's saying, are you enjoying it? You feel uncomfortable? How do you feel about it? Like I said, in New York, for me, this is fun. This is very funny when guys act like that. So for me, this is fun. I love this. You're not embarrassed or you don't get stressed out by it. You're just kind of watching it. No, no, no, no. But that's not your style. You'll never do that with your opponent. You're not the kind to trash talk or anything like that.

No, no. I am lady. Come on. But ladies, I mean, we've seen them get intense. Like, you know, Joanna can get intense. Ronda Rousey, right? Chris Cyborg. Some of them get intense? Yes, some girls, yes. But not me. This is not my style. I'm very nice and smart. So this is not my style. I'm sure if you meet someone, they'd be shocked that you're an MMA fighter,

just given your demeanor. right? Yeah. I'm sure that happens all the time. People always ask me why you are a M.MA fighter. You don't look like M.M.A. fighter. You don't act like M.M.A. fighter. How does your family feel about it? Are they supportive? Yes, I have a great family. They support me very much and my mom will be in Dynesk. Oh, wow. Does she usually come to your fights? Yeah. she was only one time on my fight usually she stay with my

with my dog in Poland okay but this time your mom is going is your dog going to maybe maybe we'll see I think about this okay Mamut I mean he's good luck why not? Tomorrow morning I drive to Gdainz my mom come on Friday so maybe

Mamut come with her. That'd be fun. Why not? Give you some good luck, some support, have them around, calm your nerves. Energy. Yes, good energy. Well, I wish you the best in the fight, Carolina. Thank you very much for coming on. We're all looking forward to it. I know it's an important fight for you. Really appreciate it, and we'll talk to you soon. Good luck to you on Saturday. Thank you. All right. Great job. Thank you so much. There she is. One of the very best straw weights in the world.

Carolina Kovalchievich. She meets Jody Escobel on Saturday, UFC, Densk. It's on Fight Pass here in the United States. Main event, of course, Darren Till, getting a big opportunity against one cowboy Soroni. Talk about that card a little more,

a little later on. I do believe our next guest will be at that card. He'll be working at that card. One of the best officials in the world, as I said at the top, I put him in the discussion with the likes of Herb Dean,

with the likes of Big John McCarthy. To me, it's 1A, 1B, 1C. And over the last year, year, and a half, he's showing up at all the big events, not just the European ones anymore, but the ones in Vegas, all over in North America. And it's about damn time.

He's one of the very best at what he does, and it's a pleasure to have right now, Mr. Mark Goddard on the program. Mark, how are you? I'm doing great. Where are you? Are you in your car right now, Mark? I am in my car.

I'm actually going to be going to be training, so, but I've found a quiet place. Hopefully you can hear me all right, and it's not too noisy in the background. It's all good. I appreciate you going the extra mile, perhaps quite literally. Thank you very much for being on the show today, Mark. And I mean what I said.

You're one of the very best at what you do, and in my opinion, it's 1A, 1C, and I know everyone always talks about Big John and Herb Dean, but you're doing a great job. I love how confident you are in there, authoritative. You never waver. when you're there, your presence, and you continuously are one of the very best. So kudos to you. One of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show this week was you've been very outspoken about the weight-cutting epidemic in our sport.

And in light of what happened two weekends ago in Japan at Pancras 290, where a Brazilian fighter named Daniel Lima was, I mean, I don't even know how to describe his demeanor. I mean, it looked like he was on the verge of death as he stepped on the scale, misweight by two. pounds had to be held up. I mean, it's a horrible scene and then even fought afterwards. You put out a video. You've been very outspoken about this. So let me ask you, I refer to it as a weight-cutting epidemic. Do you feel like this is an epidemic? Like if something doesn't happen soon, we're going to see some major tragedies in this sport. I don't think it's an epidemic as such. And obviously, sadly, you know, there was a tragedy Related to in with a guy who was at one FC

So that sadly is You know the worst has already happened Should we say But I think if you use the example of The pancreas incident And actually You know, it compelled me to, you know To speak out

That was particularly hard for me to You know, to watch and to swallow I just think it was a particularly It was a very bad example It didn't look good by any stretch of the imagination. And I just wanted to put my thoughts out there, which I think I did quite clearly.

Where does the burden lie in a situation like that? Because at some point the fighter almost kind of, I feel like, look, you sign a contract, you agree to a fight, you're a professional, you have to see it through. But at some point when you're cutting weight like that, I mean, I almost feel like you're losing, you know, your decision-making process

and your ability to make the right kind of decision. Does it lie on the promoter? Does it lie on his team? What should be done in a situation like that, in your opinion? Well, you've kind of just, you've kind of just quoted what I said. That's like, you know, it came straight from the heart, it came straight from the horse is mad. When I made that video, I was saying exactly the same thing.

You know, look, make no bones about it. And I'm talking from experience here, too. I'm not being condescending towards spiders because I've done it. I've made weight many times for many things over many years. And like I said, as a fighter, when you elect to sign a contract, where you accept the fight, whether it may be, that responsibility will stay with you. Okay, and that could be a collective view, you, your team, your manager,

wherever it may be. But as I said, make up burns about it, it's your responsibility. When you came to the incident with pancreas, and we saw the physical condition of this young man getting on the scale, that is when it should have been a 180 that is when the responsibility should have shifted this kid didn't even know what day of the week it was

he's in no fit state to put himself into a fight pull himself out of a fight that's when the collective parties should have got together and like I said in my video the main party that I would be looking at that instance

would be his coaches and the guys who were there you know it was but you have a collective You have the promoter, the medical staff, etc., etc. It's nothing that I hadn't said without the fear of repetition. The way that he didn't make it to the scale, he was physically helped by two people.

What's the end of the video? What was more? I mean, was how he got off at stage. The decision should have been taken away for it. There was no choice at that point or there shouldn't have been. But shouldn't the promoters as well say we want nothing to do with this fight? like it's clear that this man is in no shape to fight. Shouldn't they have pulled the fight as well?

Yeah, you know, there is an ethical question there, and it's something that I think in any other part of the world, you know, with a commission control, that fight's not happening, clearly. You know, you see fights at all kinds of physical conditions get to the stage. Excuse me, sorry, you see them getting all kinds of conditions to the stage, and then you'll hear afterwards due to a complication or due to where it has been taken away from them

and they haven't been allowed to fight. It's definitely a collective and in that example that we're talking about now, it was medical, the promoter, but like I said, for me, the customer this lies with that guys' coaches, how did he get that far? It's a jarring thing to watch, but also we have to be honest,

I mean this happens all across the world every week guys are cutting weight and they're sometimes doing it poorly. I don't know if anything seriously is going to happen unless, and I hope it doesn't, but unless it happens in the UFC because they are the premier promotion in the world. From your perspective, do you feel like the UFC is doing enough to educate the fighters and is being careful enough when they see a fighter in a state somewhat similar to that, dehydrated, whatever the case may be, to put on the safest fights possible? Do you like where things are at or do you feel like more can and should be?

done. No, I like where things are at. And I'm not saying that because, you know, I'm a subcontractor here. I work for many promotions, but the example of the UFC have had poor fights, many fights over the years for the exact reasons we're talking about. But it kind of goes back to what I was saying before, you know, when I think we had a little bit of interaction, social media, additional weight classes. And I said, hey, God, look, that's not the answer.

And what I meant by that is I'm not saying that, you know, an overhaul or eventually a couple more weight classes may be needed or may come. You know, this sport is still formative. People forget that. We're still a young sport and we're learning and we're evolving along the way. But it goes back to my original point, the sole responsibility when the fighter decided, if the fighter thinks he can make an elected weight class, that's his choice. And it's his choice to make it.

When it comes fight week or fight day or, sorry, weighing day, That's for me, the externalizer looking, and they're possibly going to be making their own decisions. It's not just going to rest on the fighter. My concern about the weight classes is I feel like 155 to 170, 170 to 185, 185 to 205 is just too big of a jump. So giving the fighters more options will allow fighters to not make those difficult decisions when they're kind of in between.

They're a 165er and, you know, 155 is just too small, but 170 is too big. Well, maybe now we can find it in between. why have those jumps? And I know that once you get to heavy weights, to light heavy weight, okay, the talent pool is a little thinner, but I just feel like it's time where we give the fighters more options. I don't think it's the sole answer, but I don't see how it hurts. It definitely doesn't hurt. And like I was, you know, sometimes Twitter's a bit restrictive. Sure. I know, maybe you're on 280 characters. I am 280, maybe. I am 240.

I am 240. And look, and here's the thing here, what I'm saying is, As we say in the UK, if we have additional weight classes, you're moving the goalposts. Does having additional weight classes result in the end of people missing weight? No, of course it doesn't. Is it part of the solution? Yes, it is, possibly. But fighters will still try and go that extra mile, or that extra pound, or still try and go that extra pound.

Maybe in the smaller weight cuts where weight is a little bit more of an issue, and the talent pool is bigger, bigger. You know, something in the future will come around, but I said it's not the answer. That was just the thing I was saying. People think it's an automatic thing. Let's have additional weight classes and everything's going to be okay. No, the focus and the emphasis still must be on the correct practice and the safety. Accepting within their own liability and their own safety that once they can make a weight class, you know, suitably so, it's down to them. Have you ever been in a position where you've seen a fighter just not look good, whether it's in the locker room at the way in and say, look, I don't think that this fight should proceed. Has that ever happened to you in your career?

I've saw fighters in some depleted states. I've been one. I've crawled across the floor in a thought. 15 years ago, we didn't get a doubt about, you know, big guys trying to make weight. weight cutting wasn't, especially in European circles, it wasn't as known as what it is now. And it wasn't given as, you know, higher profile. Oh, we may have lost Mark here.

For a second. Oh, Mark, are you back? It's part and parcel of this sport. Yeah, sorry, you've still got me? Yeah, we lost you there for a second, but now you're back. Yeah, so I was saying about, you know, weight cutting, apart from the sport being informative, weight cutting is part and parcel of this sport.

It always will be. It's a culture, you know? The adage of fighters, and what people miss, for some fighters, I'm not saying it's for all of them, but some people, the weight cutting, it's a process. It's kind of like a mental purge, and they feel ready when they go through something arduous. I know it was for me. Obviously, you know, the heavyweights, some of the guys don't have to make weight, but some of the lighter weight classes, there was also a mental focus and a mental aspect,

as well as the physical one to get over with when it comes to making weight. I don't know how much you pay attention to what's going on in California, but it seems like they're trying to do something about it with their 10-point plan, with hydration tests, with, you know, weigh-ins a month out, 15 days out, etc. Do you, A, like what they're doing in California, and B, is it possible that all states, you know, adopt these rules, or is that asking for too much? All jurisdictions, all countries. I mean, I just fear that California is a state, Nevada, our states, they make a lot of money off of combat sports.

But, you know, some of these smaller areas, they just don't, so it's hard to keep up with that sort of thing. So I guess it's a two-part question. Have you seen what they're doing in California? Do you like what they're doing? Is it feasible? And is it possible to do this across the world? The first part of the question, yes, I've sort of a ten-point plan. Obviously, you know, Andy Foster is at the forefront of sports, a very proactive, educated guy.

when it comes to combat sports. And the plan they put together a bunch of other things. It is. It's going to take time. I am in full support of it. And kind of two points you were within that 10-point plan, but I think the answer may lie in. Is what we said about fighters in depleted states.

No matter what, no matter how much you move the golfers, they're still going to cut weight. And the only way of testing that in reality with fighters is having, what they do in boxing, they do it in boxing too, especially in title fights. They'll have an out-of-competition or an out-of-fight, a weight check, maybe six weeks, maybe a month, etc. But what California are doing with hydration testing too,

you know, gravity testing, it's part of the overall plan and it's slowly but surely coming together. And like I said, you know, mixed martial arts, whether people like it or not, was still a formative sport. I've seen people throw out the idea of same-day weigh-ins. a la, you know, collegiate wrestling, no? You don't like this idea.

Why? No, the question area. Sure. Same day weight. Do you think Pfizer's still going to cut weight? Yes. The answer is yes, and that's a dangerous precedent, you know. We don't want same-day weight.

In fact, the only one of the safety of a same-day weight is to having a hydration test. If somebody was walking around at a particular weight, and he was so... But as you know, there's a big difference between... in losing weight and cutting weight. And we know that the fastest method of cutting weight is through dehydrating your body. In favor of the only way that I would like to see that move forward as if you're having hydration testing

because it's the only way of ensuring that a fighter is in a proper state to be able to fight. Around 15 or so months ago, UFC adopted these early weigh-ins some are in favor, some don't like it because they say, oh, you know, it's too early in the day, it doesn't give the fighters enough time to cut weight, you know, they have to wake up early, they can't fall asleep,

and then on the flip side, people say, well, now you have more time to hydrate. How do you feel about the early wins? I think their early wanes are the way forward. It's a good idea. And if you say it's not enough time to cut it, it doesn't cut it part of the point. If you know that if I'm going to be somewhere for 8 a.m. at the morning, I'm going to leave it 7 a.m.

If I'm going to wait at this time, I'm going to start my process slightly earlier. The fact of, if I'm saying it's not enough time, et cetera, et cetera, it is. If you know you've got to be somewhere at a certain time, at a certain point, at this day and the future, you should plan accordingly. But to answer the question, early wins, yes, I'm in four favorites. Okay. not on the same lines as Waynes, but part of, you know, as you mentioned, us being in the formative years,

I find it embarrassing that there are new, quote unquote, unified rules, and yet all the jurisdictions don't follow said rules. Some have adopted them, some have not. I can't imagine, I mean, you're a smart guy. You know, okay, I'm in this state. They follow them. I have to, you know, I have to enforce them.

I'm in this state. They don't. I'll enforce the old way. But isn't that crazy? How do you feel about that? That has to make your job just a little more difficult. It's already the toughest job

in officiating, in my opinion, as far as sports goes. So quick, subjective at times, and now you have to think about where you are, which jurisdiction and what rules they've adopted. Isn't that embarrassing? Isn't that a major black guy on the sport? To your first point that you said about the harvest, I agree. But aside from that,

professional, as an official, if I turn up to a particular country or a particular state, and they say, we don't do this, or we do do this, to me it's not an issue, and get on with a job in hand. Maybe some of the other officials that don't have, the guys who are trying to be up and coming and break through, if they don't have the same consistency and the same level of work to practice, yes, I think it could be a potential slip-up.

Of course I want the same thing. You know, I would love to go from country to country, from, you know, commission to commission, from area to area, and everybody be doing the same thing. thing. That's part of my dream if you like, it's what I've been doing. Working hard with the IMAF, the amateurs, we're trying to get everybody on the same page. It's fair to the fighters, the coaches, the fans, the commentators, everybody involved in the sport. If we have a single, common rule set, and again, I come back to what I was saying, give it some time, give it some time for formation, and I do believe we're eventually going to get there. How do you feel about

warnings in the midst of a fight? I feel like sometimes There are too many warnings given. For example, in American football or any sport, let's talk about American football because you're penalized. Like when you go off sides, there's a penalty, five yards. If you grab someone's face mask, there's a 15-yard penalty. There's no, hey, don't do this again, and then I'll punish you. However, in MMA, you grab onto the fence. Once, twice, you continue to get a warning.

A major takedown could drastically alter the fight. Why is there a warning? Why can't the first warning be in the locker room? I'm warning you right now. If you grab the fence on a take down, I'm going to take away a point, as opposed to in the midst of a fight when the guy who's cheating essentially is essentially gaining an advantage. Look, a point deduction in a fight is potentially, it's a major thing, okay? And here's the thing that people will referee, when I'm, when a fight unfolds in front of me, when I'm reading a fight, that's what we're doing, that's what I'm doing. I'm not watching a fight, I'm reading the fight as it unfolds.

And I've had some pretty high-profile examples of where positions, what we look for with fouls is a detrimental effect on the fight. Something physically and something good example was, if you remember, the Yale Romero and Jack Carrault, if you remember, I was the referee, and there was a specific moment in the fight where they clinked against the fence, Jackeroy went for an outside trip, Romero was holding the fence, spanning self round and landed in top position.

That is a perfect example of something that had a physical, actual, detrimental effect from that fight. When I started a fight, stand them back up and give the warning. People are never going to be satisfied, Ariel. The reason I gave the warning was because that was the first time that he committed a foul in that fight. And a lot of the time you'll see with fans and commentators and cornermen when they're watching, it's okay to put your hand out. I'm going to use the example of grabbing the fence because people seem to think that you cannot

touch the fence with your hand. You can many times and there's a big difference between the example over Skype is not going to work. Pushing off the fence and your fingers going through and people will scream I say to people they say to me, what do you do as a job?

I say, well, travel the world against Shadda essentially that's what happens. Yeah. But people's hands that go through the fence, there's a big if he's not holding the fence at that point, I'm going to labour the point on this, because this is the best example, there's a distinct difference between that and somebody physically grabbing and altering the position of a fight. If we started taking points, look, let's Louise get enough heat for possibly over interactive with fights.

If I started verbalising and calling out every single infraction that happened in a fight, we get toasted, we get roasted, and people don't want to see a ref again. have to let a fight, you know, ebb and flow and keep its natural rhythm. My job, a referee's job, is there to see that if something happened, a foul in particular, we're looking for a visible impact or an effect on that fight, and if it does, that's when we step in and deal with it. And the severity of point deduction depends on, was it their first warning, was the guy injured, was it intentional, was it unintentional, but, you know, I hope I'm not labelling the point, but what I'm trying to say essentially is, you know, point deductions of major things.

Fair enough. Sometimes fighters are doing, and they're doing innocuous things without realizing, and we have to be sure. Fair enough. I certainly don't envy your position. I can't imagine, especially in this day with social media and everyone, a supposed expert who, you know, has been watching MMA for several years, they think that they know your job better than you, and you're an actual professional and an actual professional and an expert at it, so I certainly don't envy you. If I can ask you right before I let you go,

is there one thing that you would like to see change in MMA, if I said there was one rule, something in MMA that you wish would be changed, what is it? Is there anything that comes to mind? I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but is there anything that really kind of eats at you that bothers you a lot?

Not so much bothers me. I think in fractions in terms of raw changes or fouls would be to abolished 12 to 6 elbow. That would be there, most obvious in an immediate as a foul for sure. Okay. So you'd want that to just be legal, right? Yeah, it's legal because, you know, obviously there's quite a famous story

to how that came around as a foul in the first place, but there was no more damage, there was no more impact. Right. But I can, you know, you see, even 12 or 6th of the body, not going to do anything. Sure. But as a referee, we would still have to step in and call that as a foul. between the time, which is a good spot that they had. And I just think it's, and again, in time, I think that rule will eventually pass out and it will be got rid of.

Yeah, I know John Jones agrees with you as well, as do probably many other fighters. Mark, great stuff. Love the insight. Love having you on the show. Keep up the great work. It's a pleasure to watch you in action. I know the role of the referee is to sort of be, you know, the best night is when you're not noticed. But we are noticing how good you are at your job and appreciate you very much.

best to you and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Ariel. Appreciate the feedback. Thanks. All right, there he is. Mark Goddard, one of the very best at what he does, one of the very best officials, regardless of country. Appreciate him coming on. Okay, let's move on to our next guest. Very excited to talk to Henry Sehudo. He had an eventful, if we want to put it that way, week last week. He's in Northern California. He's in Santa Rosa, California, to be exact. And of course, if you follow the news, you know that some horrific wildfires have just been ravaging that part of the world, and they're still dealing with it as we speak, and certainly wish our best to everyone there. And he was lucky enough to escape. And now he's in Brazil, preparing

for his fight at UFC 218 against Sergio Pettus, wanted to have Henry on to talk about that experience and how everyone's doing. He joins us now on the phone. Henry, are you there? Hi, Mario, how's everything? How are you doing, man? Everything's great. I really appreciate you joining us, Henry, all the way from Natal Brazil. What's a like over there in Natal? Oh man, it's beautiful. It's a lot different than Northern California last year. Yeah, so let's talk about that. When did it, when did the fire start Sunday?

The fight, I'm sorry, the fire started Sunday, I believe. And I remember coming out there. And it started off as an awesome trip. We, you know, one of my mentors and one of my mentors, he ended up going to private plane to get to Northern California. you know, one out there for, I was doing a charity event pretty much. You know, you have the likes of Barry Bonds, Jerry Rice, I mean, big time celebrities, some of the greatest celebrities, I'm sorry, athletes of all time,

that I'm not even familiar with their names, but you can look at their, you know, the statistics. It's, you do that you recognize for, you know, for, you know, for, you know, for, you know, for the accredited sport that they do. And everything was good. We went to, went to the function that night, you know, Barry Bons is there. A lot of these guys, it was just a small. secluded group. And I remember just going back to the hotel that night.

I got back to the whole time I hit about 11 o'clock because the next day at 7 a.m. I had to wake up. And by 745 I had to be in the lobby to do this charity event. And I remember by the time 1130 hit, I remember right before I was going to see, I saw like the flickering of lights. Like, it was weird. It was weird. I know how many times you kind of see like a flickering of lights in my, like in my hotel room.

And I'm just thinking to myself, God, that's weird. But it was just like a two, three-second thing, you know. They didn't think anything of it. And fell asleep. I was watching some wrestling. And then I fell asleep. And then at 2 o'clock, the alarm sound inside the hotel. And, you know, the alarm sounds.

And I look outside my room, nothing's going on. I look outside my bedroom window and nothing's going on. Like there's cars there. There's, you know, nobody's moving. It's like, okay, there's probably be. a malfunction. I go back to sleep and, you know, the alarm stopped, the alarm stopped sounding, and I go back to sleep. And by a time, by a time 430 hit, by a time 430 hit, I was literally woken up by smoke. Like this time, I woke up not because of the, you know, the sirens or

the hotel alarm, but I woke up because of, because I couldn't breathe. And, you know, I had a couple of glasses of wine that night. And, uh, you know, so I was dead asleep, but I had rarely average drink wine. And, uh, I woke up this time just coughing. I was like, you know, what's going on? So I go over kind of coughing and thinking like, man, I don't know what's going now. I'll go to turn the lights inside my room and, and, and the whole light is shut off. Like, I'm literally flicking the, you know, light switch up and down. It's like, man, what's going on? And when I sleep, I sleep very dark. And I don't like having light. I don't like having anything. So, like, you know, the light of the TV will keep me awake, man.

I'm like, I have to just have pure darkness. So my room was pure darkness. But by the time I go over and I open my curtain and I look outside the window, I mean, I see half the hotel, like on fire. Wow. Like, I was probably about six, I was probably about six rooms down before I literally got attacked by the fire. And half the whole deal. I'm talking about fire area.

I'm talking about like, like, you know, like fire coming out the windows. Like, like flame. Like, it's not just like patches the tunnel, but like the whole thing is on fire. And I just remember I start sweating that because it was hot, man. It was more of the smoke that woke me up. And, you know, at that time, that night I just slept with my tail on. I slept with my towel because I took a shower and I just happened to crash out. And so I threw my towel off and now at this time I'm naked.

And to keep in mind, man, like, my room is dark. I cannot see anything. I cannot grab anything. The only thing I was able to do, I remember the night before, I kind of left my slacks from the night before on the ironing board. So I go, I grab that home and I happen to bump into my phone. And I was actually charging my friend's phone at that time. And when I did that, I bumped into my phone too.

So I was only able to grab the phone that was charged. I knew it was right next to me. And then my phone happened to bump into it. So what I did is I was trying to look for my shoes, but at this time I couldn't breathe. Like I was very just out of breath. And I was like, man, I had to just think fast, man. So as soon as I put my slacks on, I said as soon as I grabbed the phones, I opened that, I opened the window. This was a two-story, this was a two-story hotel.

So it was an older hotel. you know, the two-story hotel, and I remember just looking out the window, and in front of me was like three, four, and there was about five houses, and they were all completely on fire. The only thing that was pretty much left standing with a chimney, like that's it, like just the outline of the stories. I saw a car next to me that somehow, I don't know, they probably just left it behind that was on fire.

I saw, it was just pretty much, it was pretty much lava, man. Like, literally, the only way I could describe is just lava on the floor, I felt like I was inside of a sauna. So at this time, when I saw everything, but I just had to jump, and I knew there was fire everywhere. Like, there's fire everywhere. So when I jumped,

I happened to fall on a branch that was full of fire, which the whole floor was on fire. The whole ground was on fire. But that was the only place that I could jump, so I knew I was going to get burned, like regardless what I was doing. But at this time, I didn't mind getting burned as long as, you know,

as long as I was able to breathe. So I jumped out of this two-story hotel, and I jump on, you know, I found, I fall on that branch, and my freaking my right foot's on fire. My right foot's on fire. Yeah, my right foot's on fire. And I literally had to put out my foot wherever I found like a clear, you know, a clear patch where there's no fire.

And I had to literally put it out with my foot. So a lot of, like, by top of my foot, like all my hairs are gone. And the bottom, as you saw when I sent pictures, you know, it was all full of blisters, man. So keep in mind. At this time, you know, it's pretty chilly in California. I'm walking. I'm looking at mansion. I'm looking at, I'm looking at these mansions, these big California houses on fire, cars on fire.

And that's just slow, we started walking up, it was just me. There was nobody area. It was just me. Like, I was deserted. Like, I didn't see one human being. I didn't see nobody. Not one cat, not one dog. Like, nothing.

It was just me and me just hearing the sound of fire, like the sound of flame just, oh, man, I was scared. Man, I thought I felt adrenaline, you know, fighting, you know, you feel adrenaline. this is like this is something that I've never felt before you know I was just in kind of

in survival mode like this is man I'm a fighter I'm a wrestler the only thing I know how to do is is survive and I remember thinking

in my mind like this is a horrible way to die man this is a whole I don't deserve to die because maybe I deserve to die but not like this you know

are you naked at this point I remember no no no I had my slack phone so okay you got them to get my slack sound with, Commando.

Commando. I had nothing on. I started walking up. And once I saw this big giant building on fire, like, completely. Like, it was halfway done. I slowly started going uphill. And as I go uphill, I'm just thinking to myself, God, Lee, I even forgot I had my phone's on because I'm kind of like,

it's like, when you go through these, these situations, like you're scared at the same time it gives you this push, this courage. Now, you know what, man, I'm a fighter. You know what? I'm a wrestle with him. And I've been through some of these situations before. And when I went up the hill and I saw that big building on fire, because I was just looking like, I had to get a bird's eye view. I saw a cop car in the middle of the freeway, you know, the middle of the freeway.

And keep in mind, there's no cars, man. The freeway was like deserted, man. It's like it just, it's like that movie with Wolf Smith. I forget the name of it. Oh, yes. I am legend. It felt like that. It felt like that.

It felt like that. Everything was on fire. Yeah. Armageddon. Yeah. And I remember looking at looking, you know, I was up on the hill and I remember I saw a car, a cop car. As I called my friend and he was telling me, Henry, are you okay? Are you okay? I was like, hey, man, are you guys okay?

Like, yeah, it's like, where are you at? I was like, I just, I couldn't speak, man. Once I saw the cop car, I stole it. I was like, hey, man, I'll call you back. Dude, I'll call you back. I see a cop. But to get to this cop car, there's, in the middle of the freeway, have to jump a few fences. So here I am.

I'm running now. Barefooted, no shirt, just slacks, commando. And I'm running, man. I'm running towards this cop car in the middle of the freeway. It was probably about maybe about a quarter of a mile to where I had a go to. But keep in mind, man, there's fire everywhere, man. So on my way, as I was running, I was getting burnt, like, throughout, like, you know, throughout my foot. Oh, my gosh.

And I remember jumping the first fence. And I started running because I was going like crazy. And I was like, damn, I did this brush fire is no joke. And I jumped the second side. fence. And then as I jumped at third fence, the third fence was like a very flimsy, flimsy fence. It was like maybe about eight to nine feet tall, but it was

flimsy. You know, it's like, I don't care if it was 50 foot tall, but it was just like, you know, stable. So here I am, no shirt with my slacks. I jump over this, this, this, this, this, this eight to nine foot fence and it's flimsy. And as I'm jumping over this fence, like the, the

edge of the fence snags my slacks. Slags my slacks. So as I jump off, it grabs part of my butt, it cuts into my, it cuts into my butt and rips half my slacks off. What? So here I am in the middle of the freeway. And to top it off, the cop car leads. So I do, I jump all these three fences.

Oh, my gosh. I jump all these fences and the cop leads. And I'm middle of the freedom, just like, damn, dude. I'm like, you know, pretty much with just one side of my pants, just one pat leg. Oh, my God. This is nuts. This is the crazy story ever. Okay, sorry.

Yeah, and then And then, you know, I'm just like praying to God, just like, ah, God, just protect me, man. Like, I don't want to die like this, man. I'd rather die somewhere else, man. Maybe there's something else that I don't deserve this, man. I really don't. And next you know what, like, I see this,

I see this big, giant, massive vehicle coming towards. I'm in the middle of the damn freeway, five, six-lane freeway. And I start, I start, you know, flaring down. I'm kind of way with my hands in the middle of the freeway. and I get picked up by, it happened to be a fire truck. And they're just like, man, you are one lucky guy, man.

You are one lucky guy. They pretty much, they pick me up. They put me in a fire truck. And, you know, I'm over there, over here asking me questions. And as they see me, I'm freaking burnt. I'm not burnt, but I'm like blocked. My hair smells like smoke.

You know, I have, you know, I kind of have ash on my face. And, you know, they pick me up and they take me to a freeway. I'm sorry, they take me to the safety, which is about 15 minutes out from where the hotel was, to where it was like safe clearing. And I pretty much, they dropped me off there. They gave me a fireman shirt.

And, and that was it. That was it, area. I mean, I left behind my, you know, I had my gold medal with me,

which I left behind. I had my, my, you know, my gold, my Olympic ring that I left behind. My, my,

the belt that, my billionaire friend of my name is my Novogratz. He gave me this. this this golden silver belt it was very sentimental to me because it was right after the Olympics and by this is made by one of like the best uh you know

uh sculptors in in america Clint Ormond I left that behind I left everything behind I wasn't even thinking about that area like I was just like man I just dodged a bullet man I just you know

you know some way it's like somebody had it it's like somebody like I literally like talking about nine lies and I was like it was just a real arrow because I'm just happy to be alive, man. Like, this isn't, you know, people like, man, aren't you sad? I'm just like, man, I'm happy, but I kissed the floor by the when I got back.

And, uh, are you a little shaking up? Are you still a little shaken up? Oh, I was shaking up by it for sure, man. Like, and I was telling Captain Eric, I was telling them yesterday. I was walking down the streets of, because I'm in a tall Brazil. And what they do is they carry like these like barbecue grills on them. And the barbecue grills, it's a small. of smoke.

As I was walking the beach without Dr. I started smell, I smelled the smell, the, the smell of smoke. And I just, I got in my fight stands right away.

Wow. And my friend's like, boom, I was like, what's wrong? I'm just like, I was like, oh, man,

I kind of, I kind of calm down, explain to I'm just like, dude, that smell of wood is, is crazy to me right now, man, like it's,

like, I don't like it. I don't like it. You know? Wow. But with my sense of humor, I'm able to kind of,

laugh about an athlete, just like, whoa, you know, I don't like it, but at the same time, it's kind of funny to me at the end. I'm able to, I'm able to, I'm able to smile, area. I'm able to, I'm able to see my family again, my, you know. And it's crazy because I've had, like, an instance where I almost drowned in Brazil like 10 years ago, like even before, like, this was right before the Olympics, 2006. And I remember thinking of my family as I was drowning during, you know, getting kind of, like, you know, undercurrent in the waves.

in this situation it was very kind of selfish I just thought about myself because fire man fire is just different man it's different than water

that's like you just think I don't want to suffer like this man I don't want to burn a death you know wow there's been two occasions where I kind of

dodged the dodge the missile I don't want to say a bullet and and that's my story man that's that's pretty much I haven't really

I haven't talked to much people about it area because, you know, I figured the MMA hour, you know, Ariel Huan is the got to deliver it. But this is pretty much like my first interview that I'm doing, that you guys are going to kind of display it to the world. Wow. Well, I'm really happy to hear that you're okay. Why did they report, by the way, that you had broken your ankle in the San Francisco Chronicle?

Where'd they come up with that? I have no idea. I think the people that are hosting a charity event. Okay. I was limping. When I fell, I mean, it was a two-story building, and I had to fall on the ground, I was kind of, I was limping. But it was more of the lumping that from the burns, you know, it did hurt, Ariel. Yeah, I know, no, I know.

So it was more because of the burns and, you know, they weren't sure. I just said, hey, man, there's something wrong with my right ankle. And that's the one that I had surgery on, too. And, you know, luckily, luckily I'm okay, man. I've been training good. I'm just, you know, I'm motivated by all this, Ariel. Like, I feel bad. 40 people have died so far, and it's probably more.

There's 200 people missing And 40 people have died so far And you know People are crazy man I can see why there's so many deaths Because everybody doesn't believe it could happen to them And I used to be one of those guys I used to be one of those guys

You know we can just ride this wave You know we can just ride it out and that's it Man good luck doing that man Fire's no joke man It'll creep up on you You know you may be the next victim And like I said I did a report With ESPN is like

man, I'm fighting for the people of Santa Rosa, man. Like, they're my motivation. You know, I become more compassionate to a lot of these natural disasters that, you know, it happened to Hurricane Katrina and Houston and things like that because, man, Hurricane Harvey, because, man, you never know until, until it happens to you, man. So I'm fighting for them, man. And like I told the ESPN, was like, I went out. My plan was to win that bonus, man, at UFC 218.

If it's five of the nine performance than that, whatever it may. be, but I'm going to donate, I'm going to donate $50,000 to them, man. Well done. And that's it, man. So many people have died, like being able to be alive and speak to you, you have no idea how good that feels to do that. You have no idea how good if you shake people's hands, man, to hug somebody, to call your mom, to see your brothers, man.

And my family was super, super sad, man. They were just sad. Just like, man, you know, you almost lost our brother. All those people that were there, like the celebrities, the people that were there for that event, were they okay too? Were they able to get out at the hotel? Yeah, they were actually evacuated and they actually came to our hotel from what I've heard. I was at the Fountain Grove in Santa Rosa and they came to our hotel for safety. And then next you know, they have to clear out of that.

So what happened, Ariel, at 2.30 p.m., everybody was gone out of the hotel. I was literally the last person to leave. And when I woke up, I woke up at 4.30 a.m. Oh, my God. 4.31. When everybody left at 2.30, whole, yeah, nobody called me. Nobody knocked on my door. It was, like, when I'm talking about, like, deserted, how I saw deserted, I was, like,

really deserted. And I know the person that I went with my mentor, he was ripping up the lobby. He was doing everything he could. And he was actually kicked up by the firemen and by the cops. He said, you guys have to evacuate, man. It says, whoever's here is either out the window or there's nothing we could do. Oh my God. So I stayed there in additional two hours when everybody was evacuated.

Wow. So it's serious, but I think if God had to pick somebody to go through that in that place, it would be me. Because I'm here to tell a story, man. And I don't think your normal, your average Joe would have got out, would have got out from there. And the reason people would ask me, like, Henry, why did you jump out of the window? I'm just like, dude, if all had gone through the lobby, half the lobby to exit to the lobby from what I remember

was on fire. So if I was to go out of the lobby so if I was to go out my room into the hall and you know when you don't think if I'd lock myself out I would have been toasted man like toast like there's no way of getting out of this man you know.

How's your foot now? Like does it hurt when you're training or like are is it okay? Yeah it's okay man I've been you know I've been I've been I've been, I typically train with shoes too. So I've been, I've been trained with my resting shoes. Everything is good, man.

Like I said, it's just, I'm just motivated by it. Man, I have blisters and whatnot. Like, as I sent you the pictures, Ariel, I have blisters on my foot. But a lot of that stuff has, has healed, man, has healed, man. Like, if anything, man, I'm just more compassionate about the people that have lost everything, man, loved ones, man. Like, it's, I've heard stories where, where there's a family that, that, uh, that there were, my mentor, Dave Zohan, he told me, he said, there's a family of four.

And he said, like, they, uh, three of them had escaped, like the fires and they all kind of scattered, they all ran. And three of them made it. And the one that freaking was left behind pretty much Bernadeth. Oh, man. You know, you have stories like that, man, like, it just breaks my heart, breaks my heart, knowing that God, that could have been me, man. That could have been my mom mourning.

That could have been my brothers picking up my ass, my sisters having to bury me, you know? Gosh, that is horrend. Yeah, and really, thinking of everyone, I mean, it just seems like every week there's another horrific natural disaster happening, and hopefully we don't forget about the people in North California because the pictures that we've seen, I mean,

it literally looks like, it looks, it's all gray. It's all gray. The pictures are just, they're shocking. They really are, and heartbreaking at the same time. And by the way, Henry, I know it's just a possession, but it does mean something to you the gold medal. Will you get it replaced? Will they give you a new one? How does that work?

Yeah, they're going to try to find out through the ashes. But what I'm going to do is, I'm going to call the president. I'm going to call the CEO of the Olympic Committee. He's a good friend of mine, Scott Blackman. And, you know, I'm going to ask for a replacement. And, you know, I'm so happy to be an American. I'm a very patriotic American. and I know they'll take care of me.

I haven't asked you, but I know they'll take care of me. Are you staying in Natal until the fight on December 2nd? No, I'm actually going to be here for, I'm going to be here for another week, another week to two weeks, and I'm going to head back and finish my camp at fight ready in Arizona. Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear you okay, Henry. You know, when I first saw that report about the broken ankle,

I mean, it was, I mean, I really felt free and so happy to hear that that didn't happen and that you survived. I mean, wow, what heart, what resolve? I mean, what determination? You literally survived a wildfire with nothing but half a pan of leg on. It's insane. What a story. This is like straight out of a movie. You're a superhero, my friend.

Yeah. Well done. Yeah, no, I really do feel like I could, I really do feel like I could, you know, segmented. So many stuff that's happened in the area. I feel like that would be a book of itself. owner. Yeah. I really do.

I can, and I'm able to elaborate because I just remember that. I got a taste of hell, man. I got a taste of what the infernal feels like. You know, what, you know, I thought I'd been in a sauna.

And I've never been in a sauna that's, you know, about 300 degrees, you know, and then hearing the flame. I can imagine. It's just, it's scary,

man. It's scary. Well, well done. Thankfully, you're okay. So glad to hear that. And I'm happy to hear that.

foot is going to be okay as well and that you're going to remain on that card and that none of your loved ones were injured or anyone surrounding you was was affected by this and again our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected in northern california appreciate you coming on henry i know you had to rush after practice so thank you very much and best of luck in training and i'm sure i'll talk to you before the fight on december second can't wait for that one against sergio peddus yeah no i i appreciate i hope you guys can hope you guys can tune in man i'm ready man like i said this is like people from son of rose that's my motivation, man.

I'm going to go out there and put on the show, man. And I know Sergio wants to do the same thing, man. So we'll give you guys a good fight, man. Number one contender fight. Yeah, love your love your loved ones. Man, at the end of the day, man, these gold medals, these UFC belts, nothing compares to having family, man, nothing compares to giving love and being loved, man. So that's it, man.

I appreciate, you the man, dude. I don't care what's happened, Eric says about you. Thank you. Thank you to you and Eric, and we'll see you soon. so glad to hear you're okay, Henry. All right, Eric, you have a good one. All right. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, everybody. He survived the inferno. Wow, what a quote. Unbelievable. Appreciate his time very much. Okay, let's move along to our next guest. We were all very excited to see Derek Lewis against Rebusy of Redoom at UFC 216.

Unfortunately, the fight did not come to fruition. Lewis pulled out due to a back injury just a couple hours away from the event. He joins us now via the magical Skype to speak about that, see how he's doing. and there he is the Black Beast himself Hey Derek, how are you? I'm okay, how's your back feeling?

I'm doing okay. How's your back feeling? Oh, can't feel both of my legs, really, both of my thighs, back behind my thighs. Wow. Nervous, like a shocking nerve feeling, both of them right now. It wasn't like that the last few days, but the last day and a half had been like that.

So let's start, you know, from the beginning, this has been something that has been bothering you for quite some time. As far as the Verdume fight is concerned, when did you start to, at least, you know, think a bit that this could be an issue, that, you know, it was in a lot of pain. It might affect you, maybe even to the point where you wouldn't fight. It was right after the waves. You know, I believe it had something to do with my weight. Soon I started, I started replenishing myself, you know, drinking and eating. then right after that my whole body my lower body just started to tighten up more and more

I try stretching and soaking in the tub and even getting the rub down you know it's still it's getting worse and worse was it bothering you a lot through the camp yeah off and on off and on even they got footage of it and um they embedded but he didn't put that part in but they even seen that I was on like trying to deal like push through it right there and there wow and so you go to bed Friday night what are you feeling just I really couldn't move my legs you know I couldn't I had to take a piss I had to go back sleep for like three more hours and finally wake up on to go take a piss because I couldn't move wow and then and so when you wake up Saturday, you just can't get out of bed?

Yeah, I couldn't move at all. I was crying like a big-ass baby, you know, because my coach knew how much this fight mean to me. Shit, you know, and I didn't want to pull out for nothing. You know, my coaches, they all convinced me that it's probably the best thing to do, you know, to pull out because they knew I was going through the same. problems with Mark Hunt and I didn't

put a lot of NF fight in and it costs him so did they try to do anything I'm not sure if you're even a lot of like was I'm sure the UFC was involved and notified did they try to do anything

to help you stand up to help you get through the day was any of that even discussed yeah we we tried they told me to take 800 milligrams of Ultram. You know, told me to take about four.

They told me to soak in the tub, and they said that they'll give me a shot if I can make it down to the arena. I don't know what kind of shot it was. I guess the same type of shot that football players take. Yeah. To get them through injuries or something like that. It's a cortisone shot? Yeah.

But, yeah. And he said that he can't come to my hotel, because the event was about to start. And we couldn't go there because I couldn't move. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So do you think that if he, like if it was earlier in the day and he was able to go to your room

and give you the shot that you would have been able to fight or at least tried to fight? Yeah, for sure. The thing was they told us to wait to try all these different things to see if it will go away and see if I would get better. And so I let them know. like around 8 o'clock in the morning, 7 to 8 o'clock in the morning.

And the first fight, the doctor or something like that, had to leave like around 2.30. And so we let them know way before then, you know, but the doctor said that he was going to be able to make it to my hotel and time. Were you able to find out at any point what exactly is the issue? What's the problem here?

I suppose to get my MRI back today. If not today, tomorrow. Whenever I fought more kind, we got the MRI done that on. They were saying that it was the L4 and L5 pinched nerves, bowging this or something like that. Modern. So I believe it's the same thing. Have you ever felt pain like this before?

No, not at all. It's the worst type of film because you can't move. You can't move at all. And how much strength you got, you just moved. And you've been dealing with this for quite some time, but was this the worst it ever got? I believe the worst that I got was in the fight with Mark Hunt. Okay, in the fight.

Third and four round. Wow. Yeah, the third and four rounds was the worst that ever got. I couldn't move at all the thing I could do is just go up and down. I couldn't throw the right hand. All I could do is throw a jab. And I usually don't even throw a jab. And I was trying to throw it at that fight right there.

And so how did you get home if you couldn't move? What did they have to do to get you on the plane and eventually home to Houston? They had brought up three security goals and they put me in a wheelchair. And they rolled me out to the airport like that. Wow. On Sunday? Yes. And what was it like on the plane?

I really haven't just stretched my legs. That's what it felt like I needed to. do. Okay. You just still pain until then, until I got home, you know? Other than that, it just, it's still like, it's still, I still have pain right now.

It's just like a numbing feeling my ass shoots. No home on. You mentioned to me that the feeling of having to pull out on hours' notice is worse than a loss. Oh yeah, for sure. You know, it's like depressing, like real depressing. You know, it's real mentally. it took a real

I took a big hit in my mental standing part of the thing it is way worse than a loss it's something that I never experienced and hopefully I never will experience it ever again

it's depressed I'm really in a depression stage right now really what was it like on Saturday what did you do Saturday night while the event was going on did you even watch it or what did you do to pass the time

shit I ain't going to lie to you I was really crying wow I haven't cried in years I was really crying the first time my coach is trying to sue me my wife

and everybody was trying to like butter me up but I wasn't trying to hear I was really crying why do you feel like it affected you so much was it the mix of the pain and the disappointment are you worried that this might

you know affect your career why do you think that you were crying for the first time in years it was just because it was a lot of a bunch of things, you know, all of that and just knowing that all the work that I put in through my training camp and stuff like that. And just, just to pull out just hours away from the fighting, just like, then knowing that I'm only doing this for the money also, you know,

and missing out on 300K and not getting anything from it, you know, it was like real hard too, you know. How is the UFC Throughout the process towards you? Oh, they've been good. You know, they've been helping me. You know, we said the doctor's appointments left and right. They've been sending me to the top of the line here in Houston, a couple of good doctors.

So they may help me out through the process. Are you worried that this might cut your career short that you may never be able to fight again? Not at all. You know, like I said before, I've been dealing with this since. 2011. You know, I never been in a fight where it never affected me.

You know, it didn't. The last two fights, it just been worse, you know. But whenever it happened in 2011, it was worse than these last two events. Oh, really? How did it initially happen? Just going through a strength and conditioning program back then with a guy. I didn't stretch. nothing like that was doing frog leaps

and whenever I came up and just felt like everything touring that side of my back. Is it possible that you may need surgery? The doctor that I seen Thursday he's saying that I shouldn't need surgery. Okay.

He should just, he gets prescription to something, some type of, some pills he gave me. Go ahead and take that. Only if it's the pain getting worse, go ahead and take him. because he said he gives it to his son, his son plays college football, the two school, you know, and he said his son dealt with almost the same problem,

issues, and he gets into him, and he's just as new. Okay. You told me initially that you're hopeful that you would fight in New York. Is that a possibility still? Yeah, right now, anything possibility, you know. We're just waiting on the MRIs right now before we just start my treatment, because they want to see what's the issue first before they started treatment.

And the doctor I talked to Thursday, he's saying that if, you know, he's willing to release me anytime, you know, it's up to me, but I really want to take the precautions to see what's really wrong with my back. Because I don't want it to happen again. Even if it do happen again, I don't want to go through the same feeling

I went through, like, pulling out of fighting all that, going through that emotional mess. you know, I'm still going to fight no matter what. Yeah, well, like right now, you can't really train, right? No, I tried to train today. Like, that's the reason why I'm late now. I was just trying to train. Like, we were stretching, stretching, still, my back.

They still give me issues. Wow. Are you disappointed to see that Verdume was booked for another fight, or do you understand? Yeah, I'm disappointed, you know, because I believe that was my fight. I really believe I could not resume up whatever of the name of I really believe that I could have

won that fight. In a way it would have lasted a minute or something like that and got tapped up I believe that my skill level match up match up well but he is you know. And now he got another easy right right he's fighting

Marchine Tibera he replaced Mark Hunt yeah did you end up seeing I know he said you wanted to Go ahead, go ahead. They wanted me to fight we're doing in out there, you know, in Australia. I'm saying, hell, no, I'm not going flying that damn far again. Yeah, yeah.

Plus, we still need the thing that's going on in my back. Yeah, that doesn't seem like a great idea to fly that far with a bad back. Yeah. Did you end up seeing the highlights for his fight? I mean, not much highlights. It was a pretty short fight, but did you end up seeing the fight against Walt Harris? No, I didn't see it. I just heard about it.

Yeah. That week, you know, you had mentioned that you were kind of down and didn't really, you weren't really into fighting because of what happened back home in Houston in Las Vegas. Do you feel like any of the stress of what you've been through played a factor in this, that it just became too much? Not necessarily. Like I said, I've been dealing with this for even before the hurricane, you know. just about all my fights I deal with it, you know, and sometimes it gets the best of me.

But, you know, the hurricane had nothing to do with the pain. I'm emotional guy, but, you know, from all of that, it just, it's just the back, you know. That's all they had to do with it, just the back. It had nothing that happened that was going on here in Houston. So either today, tomorrow, somewhere in that time frame, you're hoping to get the MRI. What's the best case scenario with the MRI? What are you hoping to see out of this or to hear? Something that's real easy to fix, you know, nothing that was putting me on the shelf for

months and stuff like that or no surgery, anything like that. But the doctor, he did an x-ray saying my spine and everything is good. But we did the MRI. We stayed on the results of that. But he said it shouldn't be anything too serious. You know, he said that if I wanted to fight in December, November, what he said that he shouldn't see any problem with that. But we'll see.

By the way, who made the final call to pull out of 216? Did you make it, your coach, UFC? How did that go? Oh, my coach and my manager. Okay. They made the decision. You must have hate, I mean, I can't even imagine when they finally made that call. Yeah, for sure, you know, because I was telling them, shit, they're not going to pay me anything if I pull out.

Right. So I told them I still wanted the fuck. They were saying that this is a huge fight right now. I'm coming off a loss and I can't really afford another loss right now. You know, so I was saying, so you mean to tell me they're not going to give me at least $10,000? You're saying, no, they ain't going to get me anything if I pull out. And I told them I didn't want to pull out. And so we waited for like another hour.

So I still was trying to wait into the motor and kick in and stuff like that and sit in the tub again and try to see if my back were on loosening up a little bit and it still didn't. So I just said, all right. Like with tears my eyes, I just told them all right. Right. Ah. And you didn't get anything, right? No, I didn't get nothing. Is the perfect scenario to come back in around December and get for Doom?

Is that what you're really hoping for here? Yeah, but he's fighting right now, I guess, in Australia. Could come back quickly. Yeah, I think it's a tough fight for him, though, but it's still, to me, and it's still in a way, it would be a easy fight, you know, because the guy, he's more well-rounded than Warhammerers. is. By the way, I mentioned this to you privately, but the great Diamond Dows page wants to work with you.

He thinks that he can carry your back forever, Sands medication. You know what he does, right? No. You know who Diamond Dows page is? Yeah. Bang. Bang. Right here, the diamond cutter, the king of the diamond cutter.

He has something called DDP yoga, and he has transformed people's lives, people who are crippled. And he works with athletes with the NFL. he's a legend. And when I tweeted about your injury, he texted me and said, please put me in contact with Derek Lewis. I want to help him. I can help him. I can get him back to 100%. The great DDP wants to help you. How old is it? I'd say off the top of my head, maybe 50s, late 40s, maybe early 50s, something like that. But this guy, I mean, look him up. DDP yoga. He's a life changer. What he did for Jake the Snake Roberts, Scott Hall. And he's working now with

top top athletes. He reached out to me. I didn't even know he followed me on Twitter, to be honest. It's cool. You know, if we see what the USC woman to do, because they don't want to pay for them, so I'm not paying for them. They don't want to pay for them. So whatever they want to spend their money at then, I go ahead and do it. Okay, fair enough. Well, hopefully that can have, I mean, at the end of the day, obviously, just want you to be 100% healthy. And I have seen his work. He's been on the show before, talked about it. I believe in what he does. And I thought it was really cool that he cared enough to reach out to.

Didn't ask me, by the way, to mention this publicly. But I know you were a little hesitant, so maybe I thought, you know, putting it out there. I could barely touch my toes. I ain't no way in the hell. I could do some damn yoga, put my ass in the hell. Listen, when you have a second, go on YouTube and type in DDP yoga. You'll see some miracles before your eyes. Yeah, okay.

Well, Derek. Google. I got you. All right. Just looking out. Just looking out, my man. Hang in there. Feel better.

Sure. And keep us posted on how everything goes with the MRI and hopefully you feel better soon and are able to resume your career soon. Yeah, I'll send you the results. If they give me the results today, I've seen the x-ray in the MRI. Even if I could post it, I would post it. They'll let people know that shit. I ain't a bitching me.

I didn't pull out to fight because I was scared, nothing like that. It was just, motherfuckering. Yeah. No one believes that. No one believes. Everyone knows that you would have fought. And probably for the sake of the longevity of your career, it was probably the right choice,

even though I know it really sucked not to get that money. But, yeah, no one who is sane believes that. That's fair. No, for anything, I could have should have pulled out the Travis Brown fight, the Markham fight, because those guys more dangerous than motherfucker what we're doing. He's got no knockout power. All he want to do is wrap his legs. All he want to do is wrap his legs

and why he can't let you smell his booty on. That's it? Oh, man. By the way, speaking of which, right after the news broke, Francis Nganu was in the media room and actually came up to me and asked me about you and said, how's your friend doing?

Because he heard the news. So, you know, maybe there's hope for you in Francis. Hope for what? I don't know. Friendship. the line, you know. He had a friendship. He seemed to care.

He seemed to care. All right. I'm just saying he seemed to care. What? What's your problem with him? Just his haircut? That goes to show you right there. He had a Google translator trying to start out beef between me and him on Twitter.

Oh, for real? When was that? Yeah. Oh, after the more than a fight. If he was really sincere If the shit talking, he was talking on the internet And he would say something to you right there But now he wants to see how I'm doing

And he also Fuck him and it's Google Translator And is what? It's Google Translator Talking shit on the internet I can't type that shit He also asked to replace you on hours notice So I don't know how badly he felt

But he did for the record ask about your your health status and how you were doing and refer to you as my friend. Oh, my mom. We'll keep for something else. All right. Get well soon, Derek. Thanks for coming on and keep us posted, please. Yeah, I will.

I'll send you a message. I'll let you know. Appreciate it. Thanks for help. Thanks, my man. There he is, the Black Beast, Derek Lewis. Always great to talk to him and sorry to hear about his back. Hopefully he gets well.

Hopefully he's able to resume his career. A horrible injury. I've heard from many people. And yes, I did hear. from DDP himself. Diamond Dows page, a few people tell me that he's around 60 to 61 years old. He reached out to me moments after and said, please get me in touch with Derek Lewis.

I want to teach him DDP yoga. I can heal this man. How about that? Could you imagine Derek Lewis and DDP coming together? UFC should pay for that and film it and put it on FightPass. Win-win for all. Derek gets healthy. DDP gets a high-profile client and they put a show on FightPass.

Be incredible. All right, let's move along. Of course, main event, UFC 216, Tony Ferguson versus Kevin Lee. Tony Ferguson wins. He wins the interim title. Kevin Lee took the loss like a man showed up afterwards. It was very emotional. A tough night for him, but handled it like a pro.

He now joins us via the Magic of Skype. There he is. Mr. Kevin Lee, I do believe in his new home in Las Vegas, right? Yes, sir, yes, sir. What's going on? It's good to see you. It's good to see you smiling. how are you doing a little over a week later?

I'm chilling. This last week has been great for me. My life's been on like 10 for like the last year. So I really haven't gotten to take a day off. Since that Michael Keyes a fight, I didn't take a day off. So this last week I just kind of, you know, got stuff done around the house. It's been chilling. And it's been great for me.

I think it's actually going to work out for the best. Really? So you have a part because, I mean, you were very emotional after that. And I mean, like I understand. You know, you have every right to be emotional. You seem to take it very hard. Have you ever taken any, I mean, in all your years of competing as an athlete, have you ever taken any kind of sporting, competition, athletic endeavor, that hard?

Yeah, yeah, the lost, when I lost to Leonardo, I never saw myself losing that fight. And that one took me, it took me about a month to get over and, like, kind of get through it. And that's what people don't understand about MMA is. that we don't really have, like, there was no amateur system. So, you know, you got to go through those losses at a high level. And you got to go through those emotions. And I think it's the same, whether it's a, whether I lost a wrestling match or whether I lost a world title fight, I just learned how to deal with it a little bit better.

And this time, I feel like I learned a lot of good lessons, especially as I go back and I watched it twice already. When I go back and I actually watched the film, I learned a lot from in there. And that's all I'm really hopeful is it. It's a win even if it's a loss. When you're watching it, how frustrating is it? I mean, we were just talking to Karlin Okovacavich. She talked about her loss to Claudio Godelia back in June.

She said, you watch it once. She doesn't want to talk about it. Here you are a week later. You watch it twice. What's it like sitting there and actually watching the loss? It's weird. It's strange because when you're in there, you don't really remember a lot of things. But I did a lot of things wrong in the fight.

I did a lot of things wrong in my preparation. I was like, as soon as I walked into the building, I was ready to fight. and I just realize now that I have to control that a little bit more you know I got a little too emotional I let that kind of dictate I let Tony kind of dictate the pace and he actually taught me a lot of things

so I'm now that I when I go back and I sit back and I look at it and I realize I'm just going to get better from here I got so much better after my last loss I feel sorry for the next guy I'm going to fight to be honest with you okay so there's a lot to unpack here but first let me ask you about one of the big talking points after the fight and that was the staff infection on your chest. How is that

doing? How are you feeling as a result of that? Yeah, it's, it's getting, it's much better. You know, as you can see, it's like much smaller. I've been on 10 days of antibiotics or I think this is the eighth day right now of antibiotics. So after 10 days, then I'll go back in. It looks like I might have to get some more antibiotics for it because it got so bad. I think the weight cut really didn't help with it. You know, when you win that, weekend state and I'm not eating as many calories. Like my body just didn't, it didn't have the immune system to fight it off. And it might have, it affected a lot.

It put me in like a fight or flight mode for too long. But it's going to be straight. I mean, look, I didn't deal with a lot worse than a stab infection. The staff infection wasn't going to stop me from fighting, you know? It's some of these dudes that will go to hospital all over it. But I'm like, fuck it. What's the worst that's going to happen? Let's do it?

Do you recall when you first noticed it, how long before? the fight? It popped up over there? It was the Sunday. It was a Sunday before the fight. I kind of noticed it. It was kind of hurting because we moved around a little bit on Monday morning. And it was hurting, but I, you know, it wasn't hurting enough for me to really say nothing or, you know, it was so much riding on the line. It was so much weight. Even during the fight, like I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. So, you know, I look, I'm a professional. I make do. with what I do. I made the weight, the way I was supposed to. And we made the fight. And I feel like I entertained the people and people like the fight. So that's all I can be happy for. So throughout the entire week, you never brought it up to anyone to the UFC, to the Nevada

Athletic Commission. No one knew about this. No, no, they was mostly, you know, and I seen they got a little bit of backflat for letting me fight, but they're mostly just concerned about the weight. You know, I think I did a pretty good job of hiding it. I knew when I came in and I took pictures. You can even see on the pictures because we can take no one for the short for whatever. I felt like I did a good job of using makeup and trying to hide it the best that I could. So I don't know if I should say that in Nevada going to come after me for that. So did you? It wasn't really they fault.

We were sitting right in front of you when you're weighing in on Friday morning and no one brought it up. It was only until Joe Rogan mentioned it on the broadcast. Were you annoyed that he mentioned it? Were you pissed off? Because I don't know if any people would have said anything. yeah a little bit uh it kind of do take away from it and and and it kind of take away from tony too i thought tony did a great job even with the staff infection uh it kind of takes a little bit away from the performance but it's i mean look it's the truth and i mean it is what it is so

uh i always like to do that with people i always like to tell people the way it is and and that's how it is so i guess i can't really hold it against them i was a little annoyed at first that he would bring it up but uh you know it wasn't it wasn't really well it's clear. Like, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so you weren't worried when you were stepping on the scale on Friday that people would notice it and say something and pull you from the fight? Oh, no.

I was just, I was just 100% worried about the way. At that point, it became me against the scale. And I think you can even see that a little bit. You know, that that wake up was brutal, especially the last two hours. So that was my main focus right then and there. I wasn't going to let down everybody just, you know, because I couldn't make the weight. So that was my main focus was making the way. I didn't care about the staff.

I didn't care about my performance even. My main focus right then and there was to make the weight. And you can even see it after I made the weight. Just everything just collapsed in me. I really didn't have much energy left after that. And it was just go out there and fight. And let's clear something up. On Wednesday, you didn't really have Tiramisu, right?

You were just messing with us. No, I was just fucking with y'all. No, I ain't that stupid. Come on. But you did, when you were talking to the media on Thursday, did you really weigh at that time, 174? Did you really have 19 pounds left to cut? Yeah, I was about 175, actually, when I got back to the hotel room. So, about 20 pounds, actually.

So I think I cut like 20 and a half pounds in that time, which it sounds crazy to other people. But because I carry a lot of muscle masks, I'm able to. to cut a lot more water. And I've done these cuts so many times. I usually will come in to like 176 the week of the fight and then have to be 156. So you're still looking at about a 20-pound cut. This time, about 175. So everything was about normal. It just was the pressure of the event, the staff. It was a little too much for my brain to handle and my body didn't want to keep up with it. Would you say this was your toughest cut of your career? I mean, even as a rest of You've never experienced anything like this?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. At 8 o'clock, I think I still weighed like 161 pounds. Wow. Which means I only had three hours to get off, you know, close to six pounds. Which it just was brutal. It just, look, I did what I had to do. I mean, it is what it is. Like the, it's up, but I made it both.

Could you tell, like, how bad did it get? Like, what was the lowest moment? it got, you know, it got pretty, I'm just glad that the embedded crew wasn't around because that, he probably should put that on film. It got bad, I mean, but I don't know, we'll have to see, I'll make some adjustments from here. I'm looking at the 165 pound division, if they opened that up. If not, I might say 55 men, just maybe have to change my approach. I'm not sure, so we'll see. I think I come with the best approach to it. I don't know, we'll see. I'm kind of going to let it stew and see how the division shakes up and see where I come back at.

I know you said like you would have died, you know, you were going to make weight, but was there any point where you thought you weren't going to make weight like this was getting to be too much? Yeah, at the, uh, when it was only like 20 minutes left, and I think I still had two pounds to cut at that time. Gosh. I was like, oh, man, it ain't going to be no way. You know, they were, they were taking boiling hot water and tossing into the bathtub with me to get me to, you know, so that we can lose the weight. But, uh, at that point, I thought, thought that it was too little time, but then when they said I had the extra hour, I knew I was going to make it. It just was a matter of time. It just was getting in there and suffering through it.

But, cool. So that's the fascinating thing. You get on the scale at 11, on the dot, and it looks like you're confident. And Bob Bennett says 150, and you put your hands up, and he says 156, and you're like, damn. And then he announces that you have that extra hour. Did you know that you had that extra hour? because we didn't know. No one informed us. I've been to many Nevada Wands, and they never mentioned that before. Did you know that you had the extra hour the whole time?

No, I didn't know until maybe right before I stepped on the scale. I was just hoping that it was 155, but I knew it was. I knew I was like at least a pound. I had two pounds with only 20 minutes. It was no way I got off two pounds. I was just hoping. We didn't even check. We just ran down there and hop right on the scale.

But, no, when they told me I had the extra hour, they told me maybe like right before I walked out on it. So isn't that a problem? Isn't that something that you should know, like when you check in on Tuesday, that just in case you have that extra hour? Like, wouldn't that have been something that would have helped you out in this process,

like just knowing that you had that buffer? Yeah, it would have been a big stress relief. They really could have told me at like 8 o'clock, even down there and check them. You know, they could have told me like, hey, you got an extra hour if you need it. They kept coming up there, you know, Nevinsky and, you know, all the doctors, they kept coming up and checking on me in my hotel room and making sure I was all right. But nobody ever said it until like 10 minutes before, and I've been stressing out this whole time.

I mean, like, damn, like y'all could have said something, but, you know, we got the job done. What did you do in that hour? Like, at this point, you're completely dehydrated and depleted. How did you lose that extra pound? Pound and a half, actually, to be exact. Just an hot water bath That's the way I did all of them I tried to sit in that little sit sauna

Thing where your head is exposed And it's just but it wasn't getting nothing off So we went back up They threw some more boiling hot water on me And I got it off And I mean you you played it off very well You were confident You were fired up

But in the back of your mind Was there any part of you that's like man I just took too much out of myself Leading up to the most important fight in my life Like did it drop your confidence a little bit going through that before the fight? Yeah, and I think that's what made me be in such a high state. Like, you can even see it in the way ends.

I was pretty, you know, I was like emotional, and it made me like a little too emotional. And I think that's, that did have something to do with it because I gave so much to that weight cut. I honestly just forgot about the fight even during that process. So when I got back into it and saw Tony in front of me, it just was nothing but anger and emotion. And now that I've been through that and kind of understand that, I feel like I'll do a better job of handling that going forward.

Like I said, I feel sorry for my next opponent because I learned a lot about not just about fighting, but about myself even during that stuff. I'm taking it as a win. What's the biggest lesson that you learned from the entire experience? You mentioned that a couple of times now. What are one or two things that

you really took away from? Took away with, you know, from the experience. I like Tony's approach better than mine, to be honest. How so? During the fight. His energy was better. He just, I can just see.

It wasn't really a physical thing, you know, I don't think physical, you know, my skills, I think, way outweigh Tony's. He just had the little mental edges here and there. He stayed more calm, especially in the early going, and didn't blow out as much energy.

So I learned a lot about it. And it's just like those little tiny details. Details of the game. Like even the way he was controlling me from the guard, I've never had somebody do that. Or even he took a more holistic approach to the game. And it's really going to be something that now that I got a little bit of time, I'm going to take some time off.

I've fought a lot in this last year. I'm going to take some time, get back in the gym, and just have fun with train it again and start to experiment with new things. Even the way he moved was a little bit different than what I'm used to seeing. and I feel like that's that time that he's put into the game. So now I'm going to go back. I'm going to change up my style. I always like to after a fight anyway,

but I'm going to change up my style a lot more and come back even stronger. Was Tony better than you expected him to be now that you actually fought him? He was tougher. He was tougher now. I got to give it to him. He's a tough son of a bitch. I thought I was hitting him with some big shot. I can see his eyes getting big and, you know,

him starting to worry about him. but the man never stopped. I got to give it to him. He's going to be a tough... I said it before the fight that he was the toughest fight in the division, and now I'm saying it even more.

He definitely is. I feel like I'm right there where, you know, it's just going to be some things that I've got to change up in the game, and I'm going to come back in a match. What do you think happens

if he fights Connor McGregor? Who do you pick? Oh, Tony, for sure. Connor hits hard, but he doesn't have the size especially to deal with that forepressure. You know, Tony doesn't really, he doesn't over lunge himself. You know, he leaves his chin up,

but he's got a good reach and he's got good understanding the distance. So I don't feel like he'll over lunge and be exposed to those counterpunches. And on the ground, he's to murk McGregor, especially as it gets late in the fight. McGregor's best chance would be to knock him cold in the first, and it just ain't going to happen. The McGregor don't have that much power. think McGregor will actually fight him?

No. No. Not really. If he's smart, he wouldn't. His coaches are going to try and keep him as far from Tony as possible. I said it before the fight. I thought I was doing the heavy lifting. I thought if I would have won, then it was a hands down that me and McGregor would fight. But we'll see. We'll see. That's why I'm going to give us some time. I'll see what McGregor does. If he, if he's the real champ, like how he say, he should come back and fight Tony. I mean, it's hands down. Tony was the number one contender before fight and then he just solidified it.

So it should be no other fight to be made, but knowing them and knowing his coaches, they're probably going to try and play it the smart way and keep them away from phone. Yeah. Did it make the loss tougher to swallow because you could have potentially gone in that lottery ticket? That's a life-changer fight, right? Fighting Connor, as far as the money is concerned,

did it make it tougher? I mean, yeah, but I'm all right. Look, I'm right. Look, I still got a long time loving this game. too. That's true. Like I said, I'm taking it as a win. I get a little bit of time off. I get a little bit of getting back in the gym and not having to think of it as a job. You know, for this last year, I fought four times. And each time, each camp is more stress and more stress and more obligations. So this time I get to take a little bit of time and really get to change up my style. When you in camp, you don't really get to improve too much. You know, you kind of stay. You're just kind of getting in the shape. You know, I don't really get to. to focus on my technique. I just had the game plan from fight to fight. So now I get some time.

I'm taking it as a win all around the board. Look, me and McGregor don't end up fighting anyway. So I'm in this game for a long time. He better stay in his game for a long time. We're going to get it in. It's just, he know too. He know now. I'm going to put that boy on his back.

I'm going to fuck him up. Okay. All right. I'm happy to see that you're taking that approach. You mentioned 165 a few times. I couldn't agree with you more. I'd love to see 165, 175, 175, 180, 15195.

And I think that there are a lot of lightweights who would agree with you. Do you think it actually happens? Like by the time you fight again, do you actually think it's going to happen? Or is this kind of just a dream that you possess? Like a pie in the sky type of thing? I've been talking about all the people down in the UFC. I don't see why I don't. Niviski is pushing forward hard.

I think pretty much everybody is. So I think they just need the bodies and a little more people speaking out about it. You know, I think a lot of 55ers would have. agree. I think a lot of 170 pounders would agree. Just not a lot of people talk about it. So I think that they should. And the more the more we keep, you know, keep it on, that's the only way that the sport

is going to change and it's going to keep evolving. MMA is still so young. It's still much and so many things to be added. I don't see why we do it the way we do just because that's what's been done. They can add another weight class and it'll be fine. You know, you create a new top 10, new champions, new

contenders. I see it as a win, win, win all around the board. So we'll see. We'll see. I don't know. I think it's a no-brainer to do it. There's so many guys that in 155, so many guys that want 70, why not? Will you be going to Detroit for 218? Like as a guest, I know you will be fighting now, but do you want to be there? Will you be going? Oh, yeah, I'm definitely going. I'm definitely going. Like I said, I just got this. I moved in the middle of training camp, so I've been getting my house together. It's smooth. After this, I'm going to go. I don't know. let's see. I'm going to end up in Detroit

one way or another. I might do something before. Might have to shoot over to L.A. for a couple of days or something like that. Oh. What's in L.A? What's in L.A.? Hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. You know, I can't give you at all. You're not fighting, though, in Detroit. Are you going to fight in Detroit? You're not going to fight in Detroit, right? No, I don't think. I don't think they would.

That would be insane. No, Nevada ain't going to let me do that. I would. I would, but they wouldn't. Do you think that's going to hurt your heart a little bit that night? Or you're happy to just be a fan and watch it? I mean, I'm enjoying myself. I'm going to have a few beers. I'm going to have some family and friends around.

I'm going to enjoy myself. I'm sitting in a crowd. I ain't got the gold belt. Like I said, I promised them. But I'm going to still do the same things. I'm going to go back. I'll go to a couple of the high schools, a couple seminars here and there. You know, pop into some gym, shake some hands, kiss some babies, do the whole shebang.

So what's the plan? probably take the rest of the year off, return in early 2018. Is that accurate? What are the chances that you actually fight at 170 in your next fight? Is that even possible? Yeah, no, it's definitely possible. We'll just see. We'll just see how the division shakes up.

It's even a possibility that I go back to 55. If I take some time and I really change kind of the makeup of my body, you know, these constant weight cuts, you know, I've had four weight cuts in a row. They really mess with my enderick system, really mess with your hormones. So I don't know. If I can get it stable, we'll see. I don't know. We'll see how I shake up.

I still have a great frame from 155. I feel like I just, I can change up a couple things, especially like in my diet and my approach and not be so all over the, all over the place. I just need some constant like stability. But like I'm time, I'm still young. I'm still growing and I'm still in this game. And I'm going to be in it for a long time. And I'm coming back and I'm going to fuck somebody up.

tell you that. All right. Anyone come to mind or too early? Still a little too early. I'll see how, I'll see how Eddie and Justin shake up especially. Oh. Look,

I'll make that weight cut just to punch Eddie in the face. So, we'll see. What's your beef with Eddie? We'll see how this is going. What's your beef with Eddie? What's your beef with Eddie? I ain't really got no, I see him around.

You know, they filmed here in Vegas. Yeah. I keep seeing him around. You know, he keeps giving me compliments and asking for autographs. So I don't know. He just, he just, he just bothering me. So, we'll see. We'll see.

We'll see after this one shakes up, how it works out. Yes, I know you, you were trying to push for the ultimate fighter and you had that moment where he signed, I think he signed your shirt or something, or you signed his. Who signed his shirt? Yeah, he tossed me a jersey and I made him sign it. So I'm going to take that jersey. I still got to, I still got to rip it up and use it in my fireplace over there. Wow.

Okay. All right. Well, you'll have a, but I got a team. I got a, I got an authentic sign team. Reds jersey. So if anybody wanted, I'll tell that your boy. I'll throw it on eBay. And you'll have a front row seat to watch them in Detroit. Glad to see that you're handling a well, handling like a pro, honestly. And it was a lot of fun, you know, watching you and just kind of seeing you in that main event spot for the first time. You made it entertaining for us,

especially go ahead. Well, no, I mean, that's what I was, that's what I was hoping for. You know, it seemed like people liked the fight. Yeah. It seemed like people were entertained even. You know, we kind of got stuck in a bag wrap. You know, I know we didn't do great pay-per-view numbers, but it's hard when you coming off Mayweather McGregor and then Conno out in Gigi, which sold like a couple million pay-per-view buys.

So I think we were stuck in a tough spot, but, you know, I tried to make the best of it and keep the folks, the hardcore fans especially, keep them entertained and let them have some fun out there, especially with everything that was going on in Vegas. Absolutely. I had a lot of people come after me for it. So it was pretty good. You did a great job.

Get well soon. Looking forward to the return. And I'm sure we'll see you out there in Detroit. Looking forward to that as well. Little Caesar's Arena. How about that? Can't wait. Thank you, Kevin.

Appreciate it. Enjoy that new house. Can't wait. You got it. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. The Motown phenom himself,

Kevin Lee, joining us. Great stuff from him. Always a smile on his face, despite the fact that he's coming off that loss to 20. Ferguson, looking forward to his comeback. I'm going to take these off here for a second. As we welcome in our next guest, I'm so excited to be joined in studio by the one and only, Gagard Musassi.

How about this? He's debuting for Bellator on Friday, Belator 185, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and he is joining us in studio. Wow, what an honor. Let me stand up. Gagard, what a pleasure. Please, have a seat. Welcome.

Thank you. You want some water? You want some coffee? I'm good. Some Turkish coffee, something like that? No. I'm not Turkish. I know, I know.

It's so good to have you here. Thank you. When did you come? Yesterday. Yesterday. And you're fighting in Connecticut. When do you go to Connecticut? Well, tonight I drive.

Two-hour drive. Okay. You're doing some media here? Media. I'm going to do ESPN. Oh, wow. Some radio shows I did CBS. Okay.

Nothing as big as this, though. This one is a great deal. I thought it's in your basement, but it's really professional. This is an actual. Camera guys. You didn't think that we were this big time. Yeah, we don't have any Gagard memorabilia here. Yeah, because they never made the dolls of me.

Yeah, what's up with you? You have no round five? No, never. No respect. Not that famous, you know. I feel like now with Belator, you're going to start to get things like that. Maybe a little bobblehead. So what has it been like? You know, your first training camp with Beltoe, you're out of the UFC after several years there. Do you feel like people, you know, sometimes I hear from fighters when they say,

I left the UFC and people come up to you and say like, oh, where are you fighting these days? I don't see you anymore. Do you feel like people realize that you've now moved on, that you're fighting for a new promotion that it's still a big deal? Yeah, I feel like a lot of hype. I believe going to Belator is still, if I have to look at social media and all the interviews that I had to do,

I probably did more interviews for this fight than my previous fight. Really? So I feel it's the same or even better. Because maybe you're the main event, because they're putting more of a spotlight on you? Yeah, also Belator is pushing me a little bit, so, you know, it's good.

I have to say, I was surprised that you weren't. fighting for the belt right off the bat. Are you surprised? Well, the Scott Coker told me they promised it to Alessio. So I had to wait. I have no problem finding Shumeneko first.

No problem. No problem. Yeah, I mean, to get the belt anyway, so. Right. But after one fight, I'm guaranteed to get a fight for the belt. So if you win this fight? Yeah, 100%. You will fight the winner of Carvalio against Alessu Sakara.

Yes. I mean, a lot of people would say, I mean, no disrespect to them. They don't really think that they're on your level. level at this point. Well, some other UFC fighters came to Belator and they lost. Sure. So I cannot underestimate the guys.

But first, my goal is the middleweight belt. Then you have Rory MacDonald, you have Ryan Bader, you know, bigger, the more well-known fighters. Sure. You know, you mentioned a very interesting point, and this has come up over the last few weeks, especially with the likes of Benson Henderson, right, and some other fighters that have come over. Some have done well, but there have been some notable ones. Why do you think that is?

Do you feel like these guys come in and try to put too much pressure on themselves and try to make a big deal? And have you paid attention? I mean, you've bounced around a little bit throughout your career. So you know what it's like to be the new kid on the block. But even in the UFC, I mean, it was a bit, you know, at first it took you some time to get on a role. What's going on there? You're trying to make a good first impression? Well, there's always pressure.

You know, I've been brought in to beat these guys. Yeah. At least that's what everyone feels. So it's pressure. Now I feel like I have to perform. And you saw Strikeforce guys going to UFC and become a lot of them became champions. Right. So I think UFC is because it's a lot bigger and the marketing.

So people always assume that the only best fighters are there, that there's no one outside the UFC. But that's not true. You know, we saw that with Strike Force. Right. DC, Luke Rock, all the, you know, a lot of them became champion. Verdum, you name. So it's still a fight is a fight.

If it's in where it is, it doesn't matter. Shimonenko is a tough opponent, experienced guy. So, you know, I have a lot of good fights that I can have here. Is there pressure to almost prove to Belator that they made the right choice? You know, they're paying you money. They invested in you, right? They didn't have to. No, well, I feel pressure because, you know, they brought me in.

I've been treated well. So my part is to do my job. Sure. And that's make weight and have a good performance and finish the guy. You know, I feel like people expect me to win. That's also pressure. That is, yeah. But he's a tough opponent, so I cannot look past him, but...

Sure. I'm better. I'm just better. How much you weigh right now, by the way? You're looking very skinny. Yeah, yeah, I already started with the weight cut, so I don't have a difficult time. Maybe this weight cut I will gain... I will be around 205 this time.

I cut a little bit more weight. Okay. I will be probably around 203, 205 after the wanes. After the wands? Yeah, after, I mean, when I'm dehydrated. Sure, rehydrate. Rehydrate. How much we were right now? I was under 200 pounds now.

Under 200. Yeah. And is that sooner? Well, I drop slowly. I don't cut weight last day. I go slowly, eat less carbs. Sure. And I lose the fluid anyway.

So it's going easy. Did you ever hear of Schlmenko before you were offered this fight? Yeah, yeah, I knew he was the champion. I knew he had fought Melbourne Manhoof. I saw that fight. So I knew he was, yeah, definitely. You've been outspoken about PEDs. He has an infraction.

Do you have any reservations about fighting him because of his past? Well, I don't, you know, he got tested. I got tested. Before this fight? Yeah, yeah, we got tested, surprise tested. How many times? I think I believe, I got tested once. I believe he got tested twice.

Okay. Who tests you? The commission? Yeah, commission. The Mohegan Sun. It's all about the commission. If they decide that they need to do that. Mike Mazuli is his name, right?

So they did that and, you know, it's good, you know. If a fight is clean, very difficult to beat. That's what I believe. You know, you have a lot of guys on steroids. That's why, you know, since you saw that, we saw a lot of fighters. They're not even fraction of what they were. Did that, was that one of the times? tough things to decide, like, oh, I'm going to belt to where they don't have you Sada.

No, I can always ask for it. You can. I can ask for the commission to do drug testing. And if the commission decides to do that, that's up to them. But all I can do is ask. And, you know, if I feel like someone is cheating, yeah, maybe I can say I don't want to fight that guy. Unless it's just if I really feel like that. Sure.

Yeah. But, you know, it's a regulated sport. the commission is there to regulate the fighters to make it clean and my job is to fight. Is it safe to say that for all your upcoming fights you will be asking for additional testing? I can ask what it's all

about up to the commission. Sure. But some fighters, you know they're just clean, you know. You never know. Of course. One of the great stories of the past year and a half or so and I feel like it all kind of changed in London when you fought Talas ladies. You know, for the longest time you were just kind of a calm, reserved guy

but then something changed. Or your personality came out and you didn't hold back anymore talking about rankings and I remember you spoke about Machita and and steroid uses and you dropped the mic and everything like that you just didn't give an F anymore you had enough well you know you try to be polite but it's uh I just give my opinion more I'm not I'm not suddenly going in a way and acting like idiot sure trying to act tough I'm the same guy but just I'm just more outspoken here's what I'm worried about yeah now that you got the nice contract, now that you're treated well, that that that gaggard is going to go away,

that you're going to go back to just being polite. No, I will give my opinion about the things that I feel. You know, I feel like I'm an honest guy. You are? We never really saw that side of you. Yeah, I felt like it wasn't necessary. You know, I come here. I was always like in Japan, you come, you say,

I want to put her in a good performance. Thank you for coming. And that was it. That was it. It's U.S. You need to talk. Right. It's all about it.

Have you noticed a difference in your popularity ever since you started talking? At the end of the UFC, you know, the UFC was also pushing me with the marketing stuff. So it makes difference, yeah. Was that, like, your decision

to speak up more? Did that have... It was more of a frustration thing, you know? Yeah, like, I felt out-cheated sometimes. If I lost a fight, you know, a lot of times I kept my mouth quiet, but a lot of times you felt the guy was on cheating,

you know, you had those things, but I would always stay quiet and once you complain, people are saying you're a bad loser. So you can never please everyone. But I'm just more, you know, I give my opinion about certain things that I feel. People can have their judgment about that.

Did that have anything to do with the fact that you felt like you weren't getting an opportunity to fight in the big fights for the belt that you felt like you were being held back? No, you know, I was treated well. Dana was always good to me. You know, I got the opportunities to fight. I was always called main event almost.

But the problem is getting a fair shot to the title. Yeah. Once you fight for, if you have the title, you're going to make a lot of money. Some got fighters, they make a shortcut to the title, and someone, they give it a very long road, Damien Maya, Yer Romero. They fought, they fought, they fought until they lost. Now they're not fighting for the belt, so they're not going to fight for the big money. Right.

It's all about making money. We're prize fighters. After this, after we retire, I should be able to help my family out. But, you know, what can I do after this? I'm not going to be a doctor. But I have to worry about the future. You've done, I've topped my head, like 40-something fights now, right? 50. 50, right?

MMA only. MMA only, not to mention kickboxing. Yeah, boxing, kickboxing. Right. Let's say you retired. You said, I'm tired of this. Could you, like could you? Yeah, no, easily.

You feel like you've made enough or no? Yeah, you know, I'm not a big spender. Yeah. You have all the fancy cars I've seen you with these days. No, I just, I bought one new one, but. What did you get? AMG E class. Okay.

But I'm bored already. I'm going to sell it anyway. It's, you know, you can have 10 cars. You're going to have 10 watches. You're going to only drive one and wear one. Right. So I'm not that much of a big spender. So for me, I don't need a lot of money.

But I need a lot of money. I need a lot of money because my family, you know, everyone wants a house, everyone needs a car. You have to provide that? Well, me and my brother, you know, we work together and we take care of each other. Okay. Yeah. You have just one sibling? My cousin is my brother, my sister.

Your cousin? He lives also with us. He lives with you. Yeah, so we have to take care of everyone. Yeah. I know. And then the wives will come. Of course.

And then the kids. Yeah. So who do you live with right now? I live with my cousin. with my mother and my brother is coming as my neighbor. Wow. He's building a house for himself. So you actually live with your cousin and mother?

Yes. Wow. And your father is? He lives in the neighborhood. We see him every day almost. He comes by. He doesn't live with your mother. No, no.

Okay. And you're still with your girlfriend, right? Yeah, we see each other, yeah. Yeah. But at some point, do you want to get married and have kids? At this moment, I don't want to. You know, but I love kids, but one day. One day, but not while you're fighting?

No, no fighting. Not yet. After that. You're going to focus on. I can tell you, it's a great thing. I have three myself. Okay, yeah, I like kids, but, you know, I'm a little bit lazy. Sure.

I think as a parent, that's not a good thing, you know? I never actually heard you admit that you're lazy. Because we always kind of joke about, like, when you walk to the fights and you're like, it looks like you just woke up. Yeah, I'm lazy and, you know. How could someone who's lazy be a fighter? Well, in that I'm good. Okay.

After that, you know, it's back to, you know, I'm not an active person. It's not like, oh, let's go see there and watch this or this. You'd rather just lie down? I'd rather stay home. Watch TV. Eat a cookie. Do you, are you really waking up from a nap when you walk out to the cage? It always looks that way.

Like, even your hair is a little bit. Do you actually nap in the locker room? When I had to fight in Japan, I tried to sleep because you had to go there. You had to wait 10 hours. Well, you would start. try to sleep. But now it's like they pick you up.

It's doctors. Wrap, warm up and fight. So you don't have time for an hour. Right, right. They need to put more time in it. The best one was, man, when was it? Was it Strike Force or Japan where they were doing the face off

and then you looked at the camera for a second and smiled? I got the camera guy. He shoved the camera right in my face. He didn't close it up too much. It was funny. Which fight was that again? Was that in

Babelow? Yeah, in Babelow in Strike Force. That was the best one because it almost was like you acknowledge you know how kind of ridiculous all of this but it was just like you look, you know that's a gift now. People use that all the time talking about you.

It's very fun. I like that one very much. When you fought in Buffalo and you were at the press conference, I remember, in the back of your mind, did you know that that was your last UFC fight or did you really have no clue

how this would play out? No, I didn't, but I knew my options were open. and of course I would go with the best option. Let's say UFC, I had to risk it. If you're a good fighter, you should pay that as a good fighter. I shouldn't be able to say, I'm going to rely everything on being the champion, then I will make good money because there's 10 guys that are good trying to do the same thing.

So you're risking on yourself, you know? I'm not a gambler. And if you're a good soccer player, they're not going to say, if you win this fight, you're going to make more. No, if you have a contract for 10 years or whatever it is, it's the same with the fighters, you know. I'm not going to gamble on myself. I'm a good fighter. I should pay it well.

Yeah. And it shouldn't matter if I'm champion or if I'm not champion. I feel like the whole system is broken. Like I said, it's like everyone is running behind carrot. You know, everyone is a horse. They're running after the carrot. That's the UFC belt. Yeah.

And if you have it, you want to. keep it. Yeah. So, because then you make good money. Right. I think a good example is the wealth away champ, I forget. Woodley. Woodley.

Yeah. He'd rather have a boring fight, but keep the belt, then go out, give it at all. And then, that was back then with pride. It didn't matter if you lost or won. As long as you did a good fight, you would come back and fight. But here, you know, sometimes you have pressure. If you lose, you're going to lose money. You go all the way down.

Yeah, you're going to get kicked out. fans, they're very fast at kicking you down. But in Japan, you don't have that. Japan, as you fight, you're a good fighter, you fight, you lost, you gave it all. They appreciate you. But here it's very fast, you know. Would you prefer to fight in Japan? Japan was a lot easier, yeah.

You would go there, you get paid, you'd go home. They treat you like a king, right? A lot of, yeah, Japanese fans are a little bit more respectful. Speckful. Yeah, different culture. Is that possible? Is that in the, like, could you fight? I didn't speak the language, so probably even if they were rude, I wouldn't know.

But I felt like always been, you know, the culture is different. They're very light. Is it possible that you could fight in Risen? No, no. I heard that they didn't pay some certain fighters. So I don't know. I don't feel like doing anything. I have six fights in Bellator.

It's, you know, more than enough. Good enough. Yeah. You see, why I say that the system is broken is because, like, I feel like if you show up to fight, you should be getting everything. Like a guaranteed... You shouldn't have to say, oh, if you win, I'll give you this. No, it should be you walk in there, you know what you're getting paid.

I know what I'm getting paid to do this show. Yeah, with boxing is like that. Yeah, yeah. Boxing is a straight person. But this is a different system, it's probably this way you can pay less to the fighters. Right. So, you know, it's a business. I'm not a business guy.

Belator seems to be going in the other direction. Yeah, I have a guaranteed money. So for me, it doesn't matter. Win or lose, you're getting paid for the same. Yeah, it's the same. Even if I lose six on them, they're not going to, it's in my contract, they're not going to kick me out. Sure. Stuff like that is a big difference.

You know, you feel more relieved, you're more secured. Like I said, I feel like obligated to give a good performance because I feel, I feel like they have treated me well. So I'm in phenomenal shape. I should kill this guy in two rounds. And, you know, he's not on steroids. He should not hang in there with me just more than two rounds. Yeah. Make big difference, guys on steroids or not.

People don't understand that. seen, you know, I cannot name, say some names, but people seem, they're not even the half of the fighters that are in UFC. Sure. It's from Rocky to khaki, I don't know. Could you tell when someone's answered? I mean, I know you can tell when someone's greasing or something, but could you tell, like, this guy is just too strong or something's all often.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I felt that, well, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, King Mo let's, yeah, fought him. But he's naturally a strong guy. He was in my division. But after that, he got caught for steroids. So, you know, those things matter. And, you know, what can I say? Have you, has anyone ever come up to you and said,

I'd like you to take steroids? Like, this is good for you. No, in Holland doesn't work like that. It doesn't? No one comes to say, we give you steroids. Really? It's not part of the coach, a trainer, someone like that? The K-1 fighters were a lot on steroids.

Yeah. And, yeah, a lot of fighters were... In Japan they didn't test, right, when you were fighting that? No, not really. You never felt tempted to do it. You can look at my body. No, I know. When I was at 205, I was chubby.

I wasn't like muscular. Right. It's not like I was a Hulk Hogan there. No, I know. It was just a thing within you. You didn't want to do it. Well, you know, it's always, you know, if you know the guys are cheating, even the guys that don't want to cheat, eventually they get the

tempted because you see the guys that are cheat, they make money. Right, right. You saw pride guys. Yeah. You know, if you would have fought those guys, they were animals. But once they in UFC, they were half of the shells. And, you know, so even if you're a clean fighter, you feel tempted. Right.

If you like it or not. But that's why the sport has to be clean. So even the clean guys don't get attempted to do that. So going back to Buffalo, you're there, you're at the press conference, and you walk away, you say, we'll see what happens, right? You were very honest, and that's something I really appreciated about you and your team. You told us that that was the last fight of your contract. You weren't hiding from this. And I think

that that's important, too. Well, at that moment, I could have said it because, you know, I don't know, normally I felt like when Fritia was, one fight before your contract is finished, they would negotiate with you. Right. They wouldn't let you fight your contract out. But this is a different... Different era.

Different era. Different times. I don't know. How do you feel? So they let me fight, and it was the fight week. They're not going to suddenly say, oh, you're off. Well, they said they wanted to give me a new contract. Yeah. Fight week. But it was nothing. I went up like $25,000, $50,000. I'm like, what? That's not good. At this point, yeah. Yeah. Fight week. I'm not going to think about contract. I'm busy with the weight cut and fighting.

Sure. What a strange time. Yeah. But you know, they did that with Jacaree and he signed it. And then he lost. And he got a lot better deal than me. Oh, he did. Yeah. So good for him. I like the guy. So knowing what other fighters were making and what they offered me, it was not fair. It was truly not fair. And I was back there. After that, I was top four. Yeah.

So even top three, you could say, because this thing, you know, I like the guy, but also he's not really the best guy. He should be around top or beneath top five. So I was one of the top five guys, top three guys. And I hear what other fighters are making. I'm like, okay, what, like I said, you want me down, hell? my hair blonde or something because you know what's the different? Right. What do you want me to do? You want me to do black

flips in the way? I can't, you know, I'm not a clown. And so did you feel like were you insulted? Insulted? No, yeah. I wanted just a fair treatment. As a fighter, you know, the promotion and the fight is different. As a fighter, you want the best treatment because you both need each other. Yeah. I need the UFC. They need fighters. As the individual fighter, they don't need you, but

as a whole bunch of, without fighters, but it's the organization. So you need each other, and I feel like they should treat each other with fairness, you know, just, there's all nothing, nothing is personal. So then it was so interesting because then you were still doing like... Like Mark Hunt, he makes 800 plus 200 plus something like that. Come on. How important is Mark Hunt for Australia? I don't know.

You know, I'm happy for the guy. I'm not just saying, but come on. I was getting 200 or less than that. So I was like, okay, his record is 10-10. My record is a lot better. I've been also fighting for a long time. You know, at least giving him some fair treatment. Afterwards, I remember you were in Asia.

You were doing promotion for them. You were doing videos about the division and things like that. How did that work out if you were a free agent? Well, we were at that time, three months negotiation time. We were, you know. That exclusive window? Three months you're not allowed to talk to anyone else. So at that moment, we were still thinking to, you know, what the best option was.

Okay. Yeah, UFC wanted to push it. Were you surprised that they sent you, considering you were sort of undecided? I don't know. I went in a nice hotel. Maybe they tried to be a good credit. And they put you on UFC tonight? No, but I cannot talk that by the because I got the fair shots, you know,

I was combing the man. They gave me my, you know, I'm just saying fighters' treatment. That's all I'm saying. But, you know, they have treated me well, you know. I can't complain. I like to complain. Yeah.

I shouldn't complain too much. They also treat me well. And actually, I have nothing to complain, but, you know, there's things that can be better. That's what I'm saying. Never got a UFC title shot. You weren't close to getting. The Reebok stole money, stuff like that.

Was it really necessary to do the rebuck? Okay, I'm not going to talk about the Reebok. I mentioned a lot, but that's money out of fighters' pocket. Why would you want to do that? Stuff like that, you know. So what's it like now? You can have your own sponsors, right? There's no sponsor.

Not so much, because the market is dead. Dead. But, you know, I don't care. I'm not, I don't need sponsors at this moment. I make good money. You have any sponsors for this. Yeah, I have sponsors, but that's to pay everyone that's coming with me for the ticket and stuff. Who are they?

What are some of the names who are sponsoring you? Now I have entourage, not entourage, but 10 people, 12 people come always with me. So that's a lot of people. Oh, sponsors? I don't know. I didn't know you were sponsors. But my manager does that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know the sponsors. Yeah. But you feel like it's not what it was like five, six years ago. No, of course not because all the big companies are gone. They're not the real market for it. You know it always cracks me up? I mentioned this to the UFC people and they say there is no market. Well, there was before.

They killed it. Yeah. But after that. First, they did a tax. Yeah. And so all the mom and pop. shops, you know, went away. And then they bring in the Reebok deal and then like, so what's the point of being a sponsor anymore? Well, I thought, I felt like the Reebok deal and the USADA

was there to sell the company. I couldn't agree more. But no one says that, but that's the truth. It's not because if you have a clean sport and you have a Reebok that's a little bit big brand, you can sell that for $4 billion. Absolutely. Otherwise, you know, if you say the half of them, they get caught for steroids and the sponsorship is all over the place. You can only sell that. So it's not about the fighters. It's about making money. Okay, I get it. It's business. Loretta for Qaeda.

Go ahead. Go ahead. It's business. But, you know, you can also do that. And even let's say you sold the company for $4 billion. Yeah. Give the fighters $5,000. It's not much. Just thank you. I don't know. It's not a lot of money. But

people, the fighters will say, okay, oh, at least, you know. They cared. They care a little bit. Stuff like that make a big difference. It's a little treatment. I'm not, you know. But who cares about the 5,000? I'm just saying the way you feel it. There is no 4 billion.

There's no 4 billion if there's no fighters, right? Yeah, you have a feeling with certain people. And with Belito is a lot better. It's good, actually. I've worked with Scott before. Yeah. If you'll appreciate it, you know, you get the honest treatment. So, yeah.

I think Lorenzo Fet is so smart because I think he did all these things to sort of make his thing pretty. And here it is. We've got this Usada deal. we've got this nice little Reebok deal. You're making money off it. We've got a TV deal coming up, all this stuff. But guess what?

You guys, like the TV deal, I don't know how much you pay attention to this stuff, but that's up in a year and change, and they're hoping to get somewhere in the range of 100 to 400 million. And the fighters make 0% of that. In every other sport, the players make 0%. I remember I was in Strike Force, the EA sport game.

We all got certain percentage of the EA deal that we were in the game. But the UFC, you don't get zero. you don't get a penny no you don't get nothing maybe I got a hundred dollars I don't know for playing online people or something like that

I don't know so does it feel now like a weight has been lifted off you don't have to worry about these things you feel like they're yeah you can you know I can yeah

life is easier a lot less true you know I end up my career also I'm not going to continue to 40 or something so I feel like different stage of my career

I like it more. I'm more comfortable now. Is this your last contract, do you think? After six fights, if I'm champion, there's extension. But after that, it's probably six. It depends all. If I win them all, I will continue. If I lose, win, you know, I don't want to be that guy.

Sure. If I keep winning, the three extra fight, nine fights, I will be probably 45. 35. It's enough. That's enough. Yeah, it's enough. It's enough. What do you think you'll do?

when you're done, other than having a lot of kids. Make children probably. You take care of kids. Just, I don't have any skills, you know. That's it, nothing? Mow the grass. That's what I like. Easy life.

You like more than the grass? Yeah, yeah. That's nice. If it's sunny only, otherwise my brother. If it's cloudy, you're not going to bother. My brother does that always. But if it's sunny and I'm nothing to do, I like it to do. Do you have one of those, like, cars or do you push it?

No, just sit. You sit on it. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I have a yard now. I live in a farm now, so. You live in a farm? Yeah, I'm a farmer. Since when?

Since this year. Wow. Yeah. How big is it? I don't know. In U.S., everything is small, but it's pretty big in Holland. Wow. It's not that big.

I don't have cows or anything. Do you have any animal? No, no, no. I wanted to have a dog, but my mother doesn't like it. Too much hair, she says. But I like that. You get dogs who are hypoallergenic, don't shed.

You know, like the Portuguese water dogs. My mother is tough. She's tough. Tough to negotiate. Is your mother from the Middle East? Yeah, yeah. See, me too. Yeah.

My mom's from Lebanon. My dad's from Egypt. They want nothing to do with dogs. No, we love animals. I feel like Middle Eastern don't want dogs in their house. All my relatives, my grandmother, they want dogs. We can have the outside. But she's not in the house.

Not in the house. Outside, actually I have a pretty big garden. So it's possible. Now, why did you guys move to a farm? So we can all live together. Oh. I'm close to with my family, so it's nice. So you want to live with your family.

Yeah, definitely. Even though you're 30-something years old. Yeah, why not? I don't understand people putting their mother into, you know. Sure. I don't know. It's a different culture. But, you know, my mother will be with me always.

How old is she? 58. 58. Yes. Does she come to your fights? No, no, my mother is not like it. Come on. No, my mother, after the result, if it's good, she probably watch it.

She won't watch it live. No, my mother doesn't know Internet. You know, she's not going to wake up for her. Well, she's awake. My friend always called her after the fight. Really? Everything is okay. And I call her after the fight, but she's not going to look for a live stream.

Right. Not that. You know, I was thinking, I was thinking, is my mom going to text me right now? My mom watches the show all four hours every week. Well, we should talk about mothers. She just texted me. She just texted me. text me right now, ha ha ha, ha, because I mentioned the dogs.

And so she would do the same thing. She probably wouldn't watch if I was a fighter. Of course, I can't be a fighter. I'm too big of a wuss. But wait till afterwards. Yes. My mother always ask about how things go. Would she prefer if you're not a fighter? No, at this moment, not anymore.

It doesn't matter. Initially? She says stop. It's better to stop. But what I'm going to do after if I quit? There's not much for me to do. And you're doing well. I'm winning.

I'm in my prime, I believe. So I'm not going to stop But I feel I'm at my best Who got you into this initially Like way back when When I had a fight My friend wanted me to fight this guy Me and my friend

Went to beat him And then I went to boxing because We felt good What? As a kid I don't know It's a crazy story What do you mean? Your friend wanted you to fight a guy

Like on the street No no no He was at school And this guy was harassing him And he said I can't do anything Because they're gonna Throw me out of school Okay

So come and I'm Teach him lesson. We went there just kids pushed him. He felt on the car, 15 I was like, he felt on the ground, my friend kicked his bag or something. I think he didn't kick his ass. Sure, sure, sure. After that, we thought, okay,

we go train and we went to boxing. And you had no prior experience in martial arts prior to that? Well, I had done judo. Okay, yeah, so I always, I was always into fitness, so I always had sport, I'd sported every day almost. Okay, but, like what kind of sports did you like? football? No, I'm not talented in anything.

Nothing. I just can average. Very average. I can throw a ball. I can kick a ball. But don't expect me to do drill. I love the idea of you coming in there and pushing the kid. Did you actually do the pushing or were you just there as like a bodyguard? Which kid? You know, in high school when your friend asked you. Oh, yeah, yeah. Actually, we caught the wrong guy first. And he was saying like that. Yeah, but yeah. And then you went training.

Yeah, boxing. And you liked it. Well, I wanted to be like Mike Tyson and stuff like that. You know, as a kid, you look up to the, you know, you see they have a good life. You know, they made it. Yeah. So you feel like I want to make it also. But now I'm like, you know, I want to be a tennis player or whatever.

Sure. It would have been easier. Way easier. Yeah. Not easier, but it's tough. But I don't have talent, so I couldn't do that. But I'm just saying. I was a different way of thinking.

I thought I'm going to be a fighter, everyone I'm going to be scared of me. Yeah. You know, as a kid, you know, I think rubbish. Did any of your friends do it too? Yeah, they did it, but they quit. They quit. You're the only one who's stuck with it. Yeah, I think discipline is very important.

I wanted it bad. I think sometimes it works. When you want something bad, you will eventually get there. Sure. So you have to have the wheel, at least. How old were you in your first fight? 15. 15.

First amateur fight. Boxing? boxing, yeah. Wow. Where was that? Holland, Holland. No, no, no, but like, what was the location? I don't know. I don't even remember what I ate yesterday. I cannot remember where it. It's just like Holland. I don't know. And how did you go from boxing to M.A.? Why?

I lost my boxing amateur fight. The first one? First one. And I thought, you got knocked out? No, no, I lost just points. And then I felt like, oh, Mike Tyson haven't never lost. You're done. I'm done. You know, I was a kid. I wasn't thinking. The boxing coach wasn't a really good boxing coach. Okay.

He just was doing something. So after that, I quit it for a while and then for a couple months. And then they said come to kickboxing. So I went to kickboxing. And I did my MMA fight. I never trained in a MMA. I had two weeks of grappling or something. And I fought my first MNAMA fight.

Wow. Yeah. Did you win? Yeah, yeah. I knocked him out. I had the three knockdown rules. So I knocked him three times. It took me down a couple of times.

but, you know, after a while, we would stand up, I would just brawl with him and knock him down three times and it was over. Was that amateur or pro? I don't remember. You don't even remember? Unbelievable. Did you enjoy it? The thrill of victory?

I don't have a lot. You know, I didn't feel a lot. For me, it was just, you know, to get to my goal. It wasn't like, oh, I won. Let's celebrate because it didn't mean a lot. Did you get paid? No, of course not. No, never get paid.

No, no. Like the first paycheck you got, it was probably for. Like when I fought in Ratadam O' Hoy, that's actually a big stadium. I got like a thousand euro. Wow. I was so happy. I was like, wow. Like that was nothing.

Did you ever think that you'd be making the kind of money you're making now in fighting? No, because everything goes so slowly. It's not like suddenly like boxing, you get a, you fight men in package and you suddenly make from $100,000 to $1 million, $2 million. Sure. And so it goes gradually. I'm lucky, yeah, I'm lucky. You need luck too, you know. Of course.

Your brother, did he ever fight pro? My brother had some fights, but he's not very, you know, he's just not very professional. He could have been good. He's one of your training partners, right? Hey, on the ground, he's really good, but he's not, he doesn't have the mentality to wake up in the morning, go running,

he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to do that. But he has actually, he could have been very good actually. Really? He has talent. On the ground is very strong. Right. You mean like Jiu-Jitsu?

Yeah, yeah. On the ground is good. And will he corner you in this fight? He's always in my corner. Every fight? He's always almost in my corner. Yeah, he's not the best. He can coach, but he's not say, but he's always in my corner.

What's the biggest regret of your career? Is there one fight that you wish you had or one moment? Soccery fight, Maggie. I didn't want to take that fight, actually. But that was Dana White called me. say, oh, I said, I'm not ready, you know. The one in Connecticut. Yeah, yeah.

That's crazy. Yeah, they pushed me. Same arena, right? Different, I think. I'm Mohican Sunday. Oh, that was, I think, in Uncasville. That was, I think, my worst performance. What happened?

Tell us what happened. I wasn't in it. From the first minute, I was not myself. And I think Jaquhar was at his best. So even I felt the difference in my performance was very notable. Why didn't you not want to take the fight? I was back from ACL, I had two fights, three fights in a row. I said, I'm done.

And the fight was very quickly because they wanted to counter-program Bellator actually at that time. Yes. So they want to have to have a fast fight. So they approached me. I said, I'm not ready. I cannot be ready in one month or one-half-month-month. I just had a fight. It was very short in my life.

So they called, they pushed. And I trained because I was already at a training camp. I was done. I trained for one month, one a half month. And then the fight got postponed something like that for one month later. And then I was really fucked. So it was, you know. I remember it was supposed to be UFC 176.

Yeah, and then they got postponed. But, you know, I'm not making excuse. Jack Gray was the better guy. Sure, sure, sure, sure. But that's the one you wish you could do over. Do over? I feel like that was my worst fight. Worst fight.

Like, you know, I lost to Mushita. I lost to, I lost a, I lost a, some fights, you know, but Mashida, it went to decision, and I felt like he was cheating. And the other fight, I set it straight. King Mo.

No, the Uriahal. That one I put straight. That was great. So I feel like my worst was a jockey fight that I performed at my worst. Wow. Yeah. Have you ever watched it? No, I don't know. That one

I was watched once, but I didn't like. I didn't like. it so I didn't watch stuff. Yeah. Some fighters are there. Favorite fight? The ones I get the belt I believe because you know that pushed me up. Sure but is there one open so opportunities. I think once you're once the UFC champion or whatever champion suddenly you're fighting for the belt every you know you know once you're champion it's easier after one or two fights to get a championship fight again. Yeah. You know what I mean? So any all of those belts. I think the happiest I was at the Cage Warriors belt. It didn't mean anything. I was so happy I was walking in the street with my belts. I had my jacket over it, but I was so happy while like 4 o'clock in the morning. I don't know what I was doing, but I was so excited. Wow. That's amazing. But the other belts didn't make me so much happy. I don't know. But the first belt, you know, like my virgin belt. Yeah. That's an incredible thing. You walking down the streets. Where was it? It was in the UK. Nothingham, maybe. Okay. That's amazing.

Like Tim Sylvia. You ever hear those stories about Tim Sylvia going to parties? No, that's too much. Too much. Come on. You know, if it's your private party, you can do it. I don't know. Everyone is different, you know.

They should do whatever they like. If you win the belt or a belt, I feel like you should walk around the streets of... Belator belt, I'm going to give a big party at my house. Yeah. That's the one. Yeah. Why that one? Because, you know, I'm getting older.

Now, I feel like if I achieve something, I should enjoy it more than because back then it was just okay, fight, fight, fight. Right. You know, although you think differently, you approach life a little bit different. I feel like one of the best fights Beltaur could put on is you versus Roy McDonald, if things go the way that they're going,

do you agree with that? Definitely, I think it's a good fight. I joined with Douglas Lima. I was there in Holland for a week. Okay. He's a great fighter, by the way, but there's a big weight difference. So fighting Roy and McDonald, you know,

I feel confident. Yeah. Very confident. Is that part of the plans? Like, have they said to you, oh, if this goes well and that goes well. Oh, he said it. The Roy McAldin says, I want to go to middleweight.

So they asked me also, you would like to fight him. I said, yeah, of course, because he's one of the best. He showed, you know, he killed Paul Daley, actually. He made it look easy. Yeah. So he's one of the best. So if he comes up, yeah, why not this again? I think fans would like it.

Would you even be able to, like, meet him in the middle? Or you can't go lower than the way. If he wants to fight, you can't go. You're not going to go to like 180 or 178 or something. That's crazy. No, he wants to fight for the belts. Sure. But let me first get the belt.

He needs to fight. You train with Lima? You think Lima beats him? What do you think? That I don't know because, you know, I never trained with Roy. Just based on what you've seen. But Douglas Lima, it was not in shape, to be honest. He wasn't.

He said in himself, but he's tough. Douglas Lima is tough, you know. How big is this fight your debut over in Holland? Like, are you getting a lot of attention? Well, there is going to be a documentary about me on Spike Holland. Oh, yeah. So, you know, it's going to also show on Spike Holland. Leading up to the fight or after the fight?

I think Friday they're going to, Friday or Saturday they're going to air the fight, and they also made a documentary about me. Really? They're going to show that. Following you and things like that? Yeah. Wow. I know Marluss Coonin worked for Spike in Holland.

Was she a part of it? She's going to be also on this fight week. It's going to be there. She's going to be in Connecticut. Yes. It's a good card. It kind of took a few hits along the way. Yeah, King Moe lost.

We lost King Moe. You have Heather Hardy. Have you seen Heather Hardy? Yeah, yeah, I know. She's unbelievable. Yeah. Last saw her fight in Bellator, she finished. She's tough.

At MSG. Yeah, she's tough. Namibracie. Yeah, you know, plenty of, I think Bellator fights are exciting. Yeah. A lot of fights that get finished. You see big knockouts and so I feel like with Schumeliancoe is, it comes to fight. Even if I don't want to, I want to just jab him or whatever, it's not possible.

whatever, it's not possible. He's an aggressive fighter. He's aggressive fight. The storm. I feel like it should be a fun fight. Second round finish, you're saying. First or second. Because the difference is I'm too big, too strong.

I'm physically, I'm too good. Technically also, reach, faster. He does that crazy stuff. But I'm aware of it. I'm not going to do. Spinning back fist. Yeah, I'm not going to go rushing like crazy, you know. I'm going to be sharp.

should be able to handle him. I like the guy. I respect him, but I'm not saying I'm going to finish him just to be disrespectful, but I feel I'm the better guy of just saying what I'm thinking. He's going to get punched. Not to add any pressure, but I feel like this is one of the more important fights in Bellator's history because I feel like they've had some free agents do well,

some not do well, and you can make a case that of all the free agents, you were probably like the biggest because you were on that five-fight winning streak. Like Rory had lost a couple in a row. Benson was a champion and was kind of trying to reinvent himself for wins. You were on the cusp of fighting for a UFC belt

and you said, you know what? Thanks but no thanks. I'm going over there. I feel like this one is really important for them. Yeah, but also pressure, you know. Yeah, yeah. Pressure for me, you know. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not trying to add it. Yeah, I know. But for me, at the end of the day, if I have a little bit pressure, I perform better. perform better historically. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes even like Jacker, if I don't know, I don't know. I don't know, but a little bit pressure is good for me.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, I wish you the best, Gagard. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate it. And again, congratulations on the New Deal. Thanks for coming on the show a couple of months ago to announce it.

And good look over there in Mohegan Sun. This Friday, Bellator 185 on Spike TV, main event is Gaggar Musassi versus Algui. Alexander Schlomenko, number one contender fight, right? Yes? What was that? I don't know. I was looking at which camera. Oh, you know what?

We're here, we're there. We're all over the place. But you liked it here, right? Yeah, yeah. You have a bunch of guys behind. Nice people. You really thought... I thought it's like a two, three-man show.

Unbelievable. But it's like five, six guys controlling the camera. Did you really think it was in my basement? Not a basement, but I didn't think it was this... This professional. I don't know how to take that, to be honest. No, no, it's good. It's good.

I'm happy for you. Yeah. Well, anytime. you're around. You're welcome. I will. Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully we've talked to you after the win. For sure. All right. Thank you, Gagard. My friend Joe over here is going to walk you out. All the best to you this Friday in Mohegan's son. Take care now. Say hello to your mother for me. All right. And your brother and the whole family. There goes Gagar Musassi. Tremendous stuff there, as always from him. The dream catcher. Love hearing from Gagard as I put my headphones back on here.

it's always so fun to have the in studio guests and how about my good friend Dan Hardy weighing in and Mark Goddard. Good to hear Musasi M.M.A. talking about his Cage Warriors Belt with Ariahawani on the MMA hour. Hashtag Cage Warriors

alumni, of course, Dan Hardy, one of those as well. And then Mark Goddard weighing in, yes, I distinctly remember roughing that fight. When you look back at the Cage Warriors belt holders, it really is quite remarkable. So, there you have it. So this Friday, as we said, that card has taken a couple of hits along the way,

but Musasi against Slamenco, the debut of one, Gagar Musassi, I think is worth the price of emission itself. I think it's a big deal. Honestly, I wasn't trying to add the pressure, but I do believe that this is a very big deal for Bellator as a whole. I believe that they've invested a lot, and he was so close to fighting for the belt. I think that, you know, a big performance here kind of validates their investment and helps forget about maybe some of the not-so great performances.

And they've had some, you know, Ryan Bader wins a belt in his debut. Lorenz faltered a couple of times. It's been tough for Benton Henderson. I don't think Roy Nelson, you know, blew anyone's socks off. So I think it's been a mixed bag. And so let's see what happens this Friday with

Gagher Musassi. All right. Let us move along now and welcome in our next guest. Very excited to talk to her. As I said on the top of the program, you may have missed it over the weekend, but People Magazine on Espanol announced that Giuliana Pena,

our longtime friend, Giuliana Pena, the Venezuelan vixen herself, is pregnant. How about that? That's where she's been. And so, of course, you know, I love all things. parenthood and wanted to talk to her about this. So she's joining us, kind enough to join us on the phone.

She's on line one. Juliana, are you there? Hi, how are you? I'm doing great yourself. I'm fantastic. Thank you. Well, muzzle to have to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, this is very exciting news. And I have to say, like, I kind of stumbled upon, I don't read People magazine on Espaniel, but someone sent me this little article about you talking about, you know, working as a broadcaster for Cabote Americas. And And then at the very end, there's a, you know, a question about your future and you say, oh, you're pregnant and you're due to give birth around January 12th. But you kind of kept this, you know, very much a secret.

Why is that? Why did you keep this under wraps? It wasn't something that I was wanting to divulge into the fans. If you think about it, I'm in like four days, I'll be in my seventh month of pregnancy. Wow. And so I think that, you know, they didn't know that I was pregnant. and then in three more months I would pop in out the baby and then I can get back to business as soon as I

you know get the whole motherhood thing and working out scheduled down packed and get back into shape and then get back into fighting shape in a fight camp so I think it's just one of those things where I didn't want them to think that I was going to be out for you know forever now that I'm having a baby um you know without prime but just curious like was this part of the plan

did you want to do this in the midst of your career right now or did life kind of just happen? I think that I've always wanted to be a mother. That's something that I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to have kids. And I think that coming from a large family is just always something that was kind of innate in me as a kid growing up, just always wanting to have that motherly thing that I can call my own. So I think things just started to fall in the place.

You know, once you game yourself worthy and, you know, you find, yourself in a good spot and then you find a man that is worthy of you. Things just kind of fell into place that way and I fell in love and I just think that it was the right timing for me. Very happy for you. Do you mind if I ask who's the lucky man? Yes, his name is Lewis and he's my fiancee and he's an amazing, amazing man. Wow. And when are you guys getting married? I'm not sure. I think we went from, you know, planning a wedding to then being pregnant. And so I was kind of just like, well, let's make sure that I get back to, you know, decent shape before I walk down the aisle all, you know, not myself. So I think I want to focus more on getting back into fight shapes before I take the plunge. So you don't want to walk down, you didn't want to walk down the aisle with the baby bump. You wanted to do it after the fact. E, I don't think I, you know, that's not my idea is to be all, you know, baby bump down the aisle. No, no.

Okay. And do we know what we're having? Yeah, it's a girl. Wow, that's amazing. I just had a girl myself, well, around 11 months ago. It's the greatest thing. How many kids do you have, two or three? I have three.

Thanks for asking. Oh, nice. That's awesome. It's the best. Change my life, for the better. Everyone will tell you about the lack of sleep and how difficult things and you have to be less selfish. But it's all positive things. It's all great. It gives you balance and perspective and truly something to love and to wake up for. I couldn't vouch for it more. Yeah, I think it's one of those things where it just is going to bring me so much love and joy. And as soon as I pop her out, I'm going to look at her and I'll be like, man, I will kill for you, girl.

Yes. Whatever you want, I'll do it, you know. So I think it's good. She's already got us wrapped around her fingers. We're here buying the changing table right now. We bought the crib a couple days ago. Like, you're getting everything all set up and ready to go. So I think we're super excited.

She's going to be due here in January and at the beginning of January. And so it's just, it's a really exciting time right now, especially because you don't have to be like, I can hide it, you know. people, you know, they're like, oh, you don't look pregnant. It's like, because I'm wearing all these billowy clothes. So having a baby in the winter, I think is better than having it in the summer, I think. And what about, like, you know, sickness, first trimester, the third trimester, you're kind of approaching that right now. How are we feeling?

Oh, I was terribly sick in the first trimester. In fact, I had went to Mexico for like 10 days, and I was just, like, so sick. I was, the smells, you know, it was like driving in the car, the roads were terrible and driving in these little tiny taxi cabs where I just feel like gas is just like, I'm choking on it. And then like people smoking cigarettes everywhere and just all the smells. And then every time I sat down, I was like out, like just freaking sleeping like crazy. And I think everyone was like, geez, what's wrong with what's wrong with a chick, you know? And I was just like, I'm sorry.

You know, like they didn't know I was pregnant, and I had just found out, too. So it was kind of like I was really sick in the beginning. I remember one day, and my man had to nurse me back to health and, like, spoon feed me some eggs because I hadn't been able to get up out of bed all day. I was so sick. Wow. Yeah, so then after the first trimester, though, I came back to life and had a lot more energy. And, yeah, I'm still working out. And yeah, I just got done doing a nice workout and I'm just trying to get ready for this new adventure.

Now, and just to be clear, you still want to fight after this, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I think this is just going to give me something more to fight for. And I think it's going to be exciting. I know that a lot of people think that I'm not going to be able to do it. And it's just one of those things where I've been having to continue to prove, myself, you know, I've went through some crazy experiences

in my life where if I can come back from those experiences, I know for a fact that I'm going to be able to come back from this type of experience. And not to mention, there's a lot of beautiful women that fight in the UFC and their mothers as well. So I think that those girls are kind of an inspiration

and they definitely are killers in their own right. And so I just look forward to seeing what kind of fighter I am after giving birth. I couldn't agree more. Some of the best fighters in the UFC our mothers, Katzengano and Sarah McMahon, Michelle Waterson, just a few that come to mind. So I certainly don't think that it should, you know,

impede your progress as a fighter. But obviously there's going to be some time off after giving birth. What is like a realistic time for, like are you planning on taking the rest of the year like 2018 off as well? What are you thinking, obviously, before giving birth? You know, it's kind of a difficult thing because I've never given birth. And then I don't, you know, all my sisters. have given birth, and so their timelines are different.

You know, me coming from a professional athlete aspect, I think it's a little bit different because I'm used to working out. I'm used to being in camp all the time. So I think for me, I set a little goal for myself, and then when someone asks me what my goal is, and when I come back, they just kind of giggle to themselves, and then their wife comes walking by. They're like, ha, ha, she thinks she's going to take a fight in eight months,

and the wife kind of chokes in last tooth. I'm like, is that too soon? Am I being unrealistic? So I don't know, but I think the most important thing for me is this is the very first time that I'm having my first baby. And I think that the bonding that you make with your child within like the first years is so important. And I don't want to be rushing so crazy back to the sense where I'm like selfish in a camp where I'm like, screw you baby. You know, I got, you know, to get in the octagon and go get in a fist fight. You know, I want to make sure that my baby is loved and that I have everything in schedule and to make sure that, you know, I can deal with the pressures of being a mother.

And then if I can add more onto that, then I will. So I'm looking at, you know, less than a year, maybe eight to, maybe eight months to a year. So we'll see how it goes because I really don't know how long it's going to take me to, you know, get acclimated to everything. Sure. I can't wait. I mean, like, I remember when we had our first child, we would go to like these, these breastfeeding classes and things like that, and you go around the room, oh, I do this. And I'd love to see, like, these moms showing up and you're like, hi, I'm a cage fighter. And, you know, I'm having a baby like the looks of horror on their face because they probably don't come across that very much. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's kind of awkward to tell people what I do. In fact, I never, I never explained to anyone, like, whenever someone asks me what I do, I'm just like, oh, you just kind of hang. out, I'm an athlete, you know, like, try to keep it underwrap, like, not trying to, you know, because then they just kind of look at you like you're psycho, you know, so, and I really get enough of that as it is, so.

I haven't talked to you since your fight against Valentina Shvchenko, as crazy as that seems to me, you haven't been on the show since, and I'm just, I mean, so much has happened in the division since then, and that was such a big, I mean, that was the fight to get the title fight. How did you handle it after? I know you're very passionate and an emotional person at times. Are you over it? Did you feel like you needed a lot of time to get over it?

How did you digest that loss? I was pretty heartbroken, actually. I think that I focused a little too much on putting my sights ahead of me that I probably shouldn't have done. You know, everyone kept talking about the title fight, the title fight, the title fight, and, you know, I had made some comments, you know, kind of in an A-hole and I was getting responses like, yeah, we love it, keep back going, you know, and I just kind of felt like overall I wasn't staying true to like who I was.

And I think that I just kept focusing too much on getting to the title as opposed to looking at the fight that was right in front of me. So, and I think that it showed in my fight. I was overzealous. I was crazy thinking, okay, if I can just get this fight to the ground, I got it. I wasn't assuming that, you know, a 17-time Muay Thai world champion had, you know, good submissions and stuff and I just think that I was just more focused on punching a hole through her face than being smart and you know squaring up and doing what I needed to do and what I know

I can do so in the back of my mind I think I really want to get back to the division to prove to myself that I'm better than that and it wasn't a thing that is going to define me as a fighter and I think that it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I had lost because I'm pretty sure I cried for like three and a half hours after I lost and no one could talk to me and I was just a freaking wreck. But otherwise I think, yeah, I definitely think that I'm over it and I'm happy. You know, I lost to Valentina that night, but I feel like I won more. You know, I won a wonderful fiancé who treats me amazingly like a queen.

and I won, you know, a baby, a gift of life, you know, and a blessing from God. And so I think at the end of the day, I think I truly won more. Well said. Very well said. Did you watch the Nunezs-Shevchenko fight? I actually didn't. I was having my gender reveal party on the same day. Wow. Not on purpose, but by accident.

And, you know, it's funny enough, I said, okay, well, I didn't watch the fight. I still haven't, but I said, if Valentina wins the fight all night. name my baby Valentina. And then at the end of the night, I checked. I just love that name. I don't know why. I just, I love the name Valentina. I think it's such a beautiful name.

And she lost the fight. So I was like, no, her name's not going to be Valentina. Do you have the name? Yeah, her name is Isabella. Oh, that is beautiful. Well done. I love it with the accent. Yeah, Isabella Cruz.

Cruz is her middle name because his, we thought it was a boy. So we're going to name him Cruz And I just like that name And so we just decided to keep Cruz as her middle name and kind of be different I find it fascinating that in one breath You say that the loss

You know you were very heartbroken And emotional afterwards And yet you know Valentina sort of represents that And you still wanted to name your daughter Valentina Had she won the belt Wouldn't you be reminded of that? Yeah

So that's one thing But then I also felt like I also felt like even before the fight, I just was kind of fascinated with her. Like, she's just like this crazy chick that, she's not crazy by any means, but just she, she dances like, like, amazing and beautifully. You know what I mean? I'm like, dang, dude. Like, I was kind of like fascinated with like, you know, she speaks all these different

languages, you know, and I was just kind of like, I love, I always, before I even knew Valentina into the division, like before I had even thought about Valentina, I, I remember Annie Rubinstein one time told me that he had known this girl that makes these beautiful Mexican dresses and that she could like make a custom dress. And I asked him, well, what's her name? And he said Valentina. And I was like, oh, that's such a beautiful name. And so whenever anyone would be like, well, if you're going to have a kid, what would you name? I would always say Valentina.

Wow. So then when they're like, you're fighting Valentina, I was like, you know, I'm kind of superstitious. I'm like, I don't think this is, this isn't a good thing. You know what I mean? Like this is the name that has been like coming to me reoccurring in dreams all the time and stuff like that. And so I thought it was really weird. So losing to her was one thing. But then also the other thing thinking, okay, well, I'm pregnant.

It's a girl. Like I don't want to stray away from that name. But then I thought, well, that's just going to be kind of weird, you know, because then everyone's going to be like, oh, you lost to Mountina's then you named her baby after her. And then, of course, that salty face in my mouth from from the loss was probably going to like make me mad or resentful or something. So I was like, she didn't win the bell. her name's not going to be valetina i'm over it um considering like how you kept this so under wraps what was the reaction when you you announced that you were pregnant and and and i mean you're just you're like two months away yeah well a lot of people i'm not two months away i'm in my seventh

month in four days and so i think three months they say that you're pregnant for like 10 months or something like that but yeah in the beginning of january is when i should be giving birth okay um uh yeah i think a lot of people for the most part have been extremely positive and really happy for me and then in the other aspect I think that there's a lot of people that are confused that think that I'm retired from fighting and that I'm never coming

back and so what I just want to make clear is yes I'm pregnant yes I'm having a baby but no I'm not done fighting okay did you tell the UFC before you announced it or did they find out like the rest of us oh no I told them long long time ago long time ago and you know they were so supportive and they were just

like you know what Juliana there's There's women out there that, you know, get pregnant and lose their babies due to miscarriage all the time. There's women that have spent thousands of dollars trying to get infertile semenization and they lose the baby. You know, there's people that have waited too long in their life and then their babies, you know, messed up or they just have waited so long in their life that they cannot physically get pregnant. They're like, fighting's always going to be here. You're still young. They're like, go have your baby. We are so happy for you.

and we'll be here when you get back. So I was really happy with the response that I got from Dana and from Sean Shelby. They were very supportive. That is great to hear. And you've also been doing some commentating work for Combate Americas. Are you going to, I mean, obviously you're going to take a break, but do you still do that? Is that still part of your plans? Yeah, actually, Campbell McLaren is such a great guy.

I love that, man. He's so supportive. And he told me, you know, I want you up until. you literally cannot possibly commentate anymore. And he goes, and then as soon as you pop that baby out, I want you back on the air and I want you on the air with your baby. And so he's like, we are a family organization and we're so happy for you. And so this is not anything that like you're not going to get fired or anything. You still have your job and I want you every single time that you can make it out.

So I leave to go to Cancun for the November 11th show. it's called Copa Copa Compete and it's an eight-man one-night tournament and the winner wins $100,000 so I'll be over in Mexico November 11th for that one. Nice. I believe we're going to Spain in March

and we're going to be doing a show over in Spain in March, so. And you plan on going to that? It depends on how I'm feeling, but yeah, I think I'm going to get like someone to come with me and watch the baby while I'm commentating or maybe the baby

who will be sleeping and sitting on my lap, who knows. I'm going to try to make it if I can, yeah. And I know that you're based at Chicago now, does that mean, you know, now that you have this family, this young family, will you be training with different people? And I know you've done some training in Chicago, but originally you were training out of Spokane.

What do you think you'll do when it's time to start training for a fight? I'm not sure. I think I'll just focus on getting in shape and making sure that, you know, I'm still rolling and doing stuff here. I have everything that I need here, but I think it's definitely good to go back to getting that grind in that we did, you know, with the hole in the wall type of gym that I came from, you know, and just grinding it out every day. And I think that that's important, too.

But right now I'm not really focused on that. That's not my main focus. My main focus right now is to just have my baby and let me enjoy this time. And when it gets toxic fighting, then we'll talk fighting. But right now we're just kind of talking about, you know, living life and enjoying, you know, this first baby. and this blessing that has been bestowed upon me and my fiancé. Well, I'm very happy for you again. Congratulations, Mazel Tov, as they say in my country, to both you and your fiance and your

families. And yes, enjoy every step of the way. There's nothing quite like that first one and going through the unknown together. And so I heard the news and was extremely happy for you and reached out and was really happy that you came on the show today to talk about it. So all the best. wish you nothing but the best health and best of luck with the pregnancy and the delivery. And I look forward to meeting Isabella one day at an MMA event as you're fighting for a UFC title.

Okay. Thank you, Ariel. I appreciate the time. I really do. Thank you so much. All right. We'll talk to you soon. All the best to you guys. There she is. The Venezuelan Vixen herself. She's going to be a mother in January. How cool is that? someone sent me that article just a couple of days ago and I had to I had to read it twice Julianna Pena completely and I respect that by the way I've always been that kind of person with the you know pregnancy under wraps of course I've never been pregnant myself but I've never been one to announce and everyone has their own way of doing things everyone has their own approach I've never been the the type to sort of you know put out my well not mine but my wife sonogram on

on social media. I just, I'm a very superstitious person. Like if it was up to me, you don't tell a person, baby comes out, hey guys, check this out.

Rather not. But, you know, everyone has their own way about it. I'm not here to judge. It's just, so I, I can sympathize with the idea of,

you know, keeping this, keeping this a little bit quiet and letting people find out on their own. Of course, if you're putting it, you know,

in an interview on, on people. magazine. It's going to get out. This was an Espanol people magazine. So it was a little different. But eventually it got out and very happy for her. And very cool to hear that she is, she's planning on coming back. How about that? All right. Thank you very much to Julianna Pena in a minute. Hopefully we're going to be joined by Habib Nirmagamadov. And I cannot tell you all how many times and for how long I have been trying to connect with Mr. Nirmagamadov. His team can attest I have been hounding them weekly, daily, hourly for him to be on the show.

He was on in April, you'll recall, after UFC 209, and talked about that whole situation having to pull out at the last moment. And that was great. And then he said that he was going to Germany. to do some treatment. He didn't really say what it was. We ended up finding out a couple of weeks ago from his manager, Ali Abdel Aziz,

that that treatment was in fact back surgery. And then once things started to heat up again in the lightweight division and we were finding out what's going on with, or trying to find out what's going on with the likes of Tony Ferguson and of course Connor McGregor and you have Etzim Barbosa asking to fight him,

I really wanted to talk to him. still a major player, still in many people's eyes, the number one contender, still undefeated, still a massively popular fighter in the UFC, wanted to find out what was going on with Khabib Nmagh Mughameda. But for the most part,

some social media posts here or there, he has remained relatively out of the spotlight. Certainly, as far as media is concerned, wanted to talk, you know, going into 216, wanted to talk after 216, And it has been quite the grind. But as they say, my friends, the best things in life you got to work for.

And I am so excited to welcome back to the program, the Eagle, the great Habib Nirmagamadav. Salamalam al-a-a-a-maidav. We have been waiting for you a very long time. How are you, brother? I am so happy. Allah-A-A-Bah-Bad. I'm so happy that you're here, my friend. What a gift this is.

Thank you so much. Thank you all right. Chabee, it's good to see you. Everything's great. How's everything with you? Good to see. Not bad. Not bad. I know it's late over there in Russia, so I really appreciate you joining us. Oh, as we just may have lost him there, he came and he went.

Was it too good to be true? No, I don't think it was. There he is. He's back. Habib, you there? Yes, I'm here. Adi. Okay. I was just saying, I know it's a little late there in Russia, so I really appreciate you joining us. Let me start with this. as I said before you joined us you have remained relatively out of the spotlight

relatively quiet not much has been said from you over the last few months I think this may be one of your first if not your first interview since you were last on the show back in April why have you remained out of the spotlight for so long no like last like six months five months I tried to fix my health

and I have surgery and you know like and, you know, I try to come back, come back to training 100%. Now I'm training 100%, stay healthy. Now I'm healthy. And I talk with UFC and I think like 80% I'm fighting end of the world. UFC 219. Okay, wow.

Well, that is very exciting. Let me first ask you about the back, because you had back surgery, right? that's why you went to Germany? Yes, yes, yes. What was the issue with the back? This is my old injury, you know, like, last couple years. Now I fix this. Now I fix everything.

I fix my healthy. I fix my back. My knee is good. My, like, everything is I fixed. And, you know, like, I hope end of the year, UFC give me a fight. And I try to come back. When's the last time you felt this healthy?

Because you say now you fixed all these issues, your back, your knee. When's the last time you felt this good? 100% healthy. I feel last time when I fight with Rafael Dosanis. Wow, wow. And what a performance that was? To be honest, yes. I feel when I fight with Rafael Dosanis, I feel like 100% I'm healthy.

And now you feel 100% healthy right now? Yes, I feel same thing, same thing, almost same thing like when I fight with Dosanias. But, you know, we have like almost 12 weeks, 11 weeks before UFC 219. And now is beginning a very interesting moment in my life. And I hope UFC give me a championship fight and end of the year. I want to take everything back. Like attention, belt. I'm going to take...

I want to take everything. You know, end of the year, I want to fix everything. And we'll see what happened. But first of all, I think UFC have to make fight Conner versus Neidea 3 and after me and Tony. And I think this is a very interesting fight. Connor versus Dia, this is money fight for UFC and we all fight against Conan. Wow. Okay. So this is very interesting. A lot here to take in.

So you don't want to shot at the real belt, the official belt, the Connor McGregor belt. You want to fight for the interim title. Why? Because my opinion, I think Tony Ferguson is real champion. That's why. I don't think if I fight versus Tony Ferguson, this is interim belt. Officially, yes, but like people fight. Who won't want people? People want to see me versus Connie Ferguson. I think this is like a much better fight for me for take everything back.

If I beat Connie Ferguson and take interim championship belt, I think, you know, Connor is official champion, but he's not people champion. And have you or your team thrown this idea out to the UFC And if so, what do they What do they say about it? About what? The idea of you fighting Tony

On December 30th for the interim title I talk with my father about this Father say you have to fight with Tony I talk with my manager manager say you have to fight with Tony My opinion I have to fight with Tony You know

My old friends everybody want this fight. But before, of course, me versus Conner is a big, big fight for me, big fight for people too. I can make money. UFC can make money.

But for me, it's not everything about money. For me, it's like, what wants my father, my team, my management team, my friends, this is more important for me.

And I hope you're going to make Connor versus Diaz, third fight, and me, versus corner. You versus Tony. Right.

And I think this is much better. So what people I know will say to this was, oh, they've tried to book this fight a couple times. He got injured. You had the issue at 209. It's too risky to do it again. It doesn't make sense to do it again. What do you say to those people?

What do you say to the UFC? Oh, we can't do this again. We've tried to do it already twice. I agree with people a little bit. Not like 100%, but a little bit I agree. Because, you know, this is a very tough sports, you know. It's a very tough sport, you know. Nobody knows.

You will never know what happened. And, you know, last time when I have to fight with Tony, I think, like, I'm confident, like, 100% fight with it happen. And I have to beat Tony, take a belt, and the end of the air, I'm going to fight with Krono. but everybody knows what happened. And now I have same feel. I have same feel. And next time I have to stay a little bit careful, more control my weight, more control my health, my everything,

you know. Last time when I come back after injury, after surgery, last time when I come back 2016 I show how I improve my skills how I improve my striking game my grappling game my everything

and you know all the time when I come back I come back stronger than ever and this is what I want to show people around the world how I improve myself and maybe people think I don't train

I didn't like you know I feel like 100% when I watch how Camelette beat Connie Ferguson first round I think like you know I'm

confident like 100% I can finish this guy second on third round Did the back entry affect your weight cutting for 209 do you feel like that's why you had issues about my back Yeah, did it stop you from trying to make weight, doing cardio?

Was it bothering you that much? Because you had the surgery shortly thereafter, so I'm wondering if the two were related at all. No, no, no. You know what I did? When I training for Michael Johnson, I have this injury. All my training camp, I can't rest me. Wow. when I when I

have training camp with Michael Johnson before USC 205 and this is like a little bit all my injury and

but I don't make injury I don't make surgery after my 209 but this is like all my injury okay so it didn't affect you while you were trying to cut weight for 209?

No, no. Why I can't make weight? I think this about my health care. Inside. Do you feel like you fixed that? Yes, I know, yes, of course. I don't feel, I know. I know I think this.

What was it? Alex-on. A lot of problems. You don't want to talk about it? No. No. To be honest, no. Okay.

Did you consider, or are you considering fighting at 170? I don't think I want to I want to finish my career in 155 I don't think I ever fight in 1-7 Kevin Lee has been really pushing for 165 if they open the 165 pound division would you fight in the 165 pound division

do you think that's better for you that's healthier for you 165 yeah that they would start a new division 165 I don't know I never heard about this yeah he's been really push What happened? What happened? One seven? No, they would do one 55, one 65, one 75, one 85, one 85, one 95, one 95, one 95, 15. So, from 125, 35, 45, 45, 55, 55, 55, 55, 55, and 25, 55, 55, 55, and 205. I never hear about this, but my opinion, I think this is good idea.

But, you know, like 165 or 155? I have to think about this. Okay. All right. And did you watch the fight? But first of all, first of all, I have to fight with Tony in 155. That's right. That's the fight you want.

Over any fight out there, that's the one that you really want, to settle the score with Tony Ferguson. Yes, this is my dream fight. Did you watch his win a couple weeks ago against Kevin Lee? Yes. I was this fine. What did you think? A couple times, interesting. What did you think of his performance?

Yes. I think he win because Kameleyni fighting with him like chicken. What do you mean? That's why he win. I mean like he talked too much. He is not like focused to the fight. He focused to the like, I think, promote this fight. And when fight beginning, first round, he beat him.

and second round he stayed with him in his distance he ate Lara Jepts and third round he gave up because he don't have condition

that's why so Kevin Lee let him win it was more on Kevin than what Tony Ferguson did yes yes

Tony Ferguson you know like Dosanius and Kevin Lee fight with him on his distance that's why

this guy would with him. But what happened if Ferguson fight with a fighter like me who all the time try to take him down, smash him on the ground and never stop? All my life, all my life in amateur

career, professional 24 fights, I never tired. Never, ever. In training, amateur fights and professional fights, I never tired. So when I announced that you were coming on the show, Etzen Barbosa's manager reached out to me, Alex Davis, and said,

we've been offered Habib on December 30th, and we want to fight him. This is a fight that we want. Please ask him about this fight. I want to say more. All my life, all my life. I never tired. I never lose. And I never give up.

In training, in amateur fights, in, like, professional fights, I never, like, I never remember. I never, I never give up. Never. Nobody choked me. Nobody submits me. Never. Never. Never. All my life. You know, but I train with a lot of fighters. There are different weight classes. Middleweight, water weight, light weight. You can ask, D.C., you can ask Luke Crock hole, all fighters. I never give up and I never tired.

This is what I want to say about this. About Barbosa, I think Barbosa is very, very, good fighter, very good striker. I think he's one of the best light in the world, 100%. And I think it's number three now, right? Yeah, something like that. He's number three. I'm number

second, number two. You know, but Michael Johnson beat him, Tony Ferguson beat him, you know. And for me, most important fight, fighting with Tony Ferguson, for me.

but if you have see make fight Connor versus Tony of course I'm going to take this fight but if you see make Corner versus Diaz three I have to fight with Tony yeah okay this is what I think okay now I understand

for me most most important fight most important fight fight with Connie Ferguson but Edson Barboza Eddie Alvari just engage this guy is one of the best in the world and of course I want to fight with one of these guys.

But now I'm focused only on Korni Territin. Have they actually offered you the Barbosa fight? Never. Never. I don't know what you're talking about. Never UFC asked me. Okay. Ask this fight.

So where to think Stan right now? Because, because, no, no, you know, because UFC tried to make fight Diaz versus Connard. Yeah. After everything like opening, what happened with other fighters, you know? If Tony, if Connor fight with Dia, me versus Tony and Justin Gage versus Eddie Alvarez, I don't know about Barbosa. But if you actually make Tony Ferguson versus Conner, I'm going to fight with Edson Barboz.

For sure. And you want to fight December 30th? That's the date that you like best? Yes, this is best date for me. And they know that. Yes, they know this. Yes, UFC already know this. So is the plan sort of, let's see what happens with Connor, where they book him,

and then you're going to find out, like, you're kind of just waiting to see what happens there and then wait for the trickle-down effect? Yes. This is not only about me, this, about all fighters. Me, Barbosa, Tony, UFC, like everybody waiting decisions. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about having to wait a lot of the United States? How do you feel about having to wait?

for one man to decide. You know, I feel like, I, I feel like UFC have to make money, right? Yeah. Everybody knows like Pepe Roshal, biggest fight, Conner versus Diaz. And I think second place, me versus Conner. Second place. But now maybe makes sense Tony versus Conner because he is interim champion, Israel champ, right? And, but the biggest fight for Pepeerreuxo now in light of the day.

division, everybody knows. He has corner. But, you know, like, what happened if Diaz beat him? He has become the UFC light champion. I didn't understand it. What do you mean? What do you mean you don't understand it? Like, I mean, like, you know, like, this disrespect other fighters.

But so if Connor fights Diaz for the third time, you don't want him to fight, like, to defend the title? Shouldn't he defend the title if he's going to fight again? You know, to be honest, I think Dia is going to beat him. Wow. I think Diaz's third fight, Diaz can beat him because now Diaz understand, Conor doesn't have the condition. You know, he can push him first couple rounds and end of the fight he can finish him. You know, and I'm a little bit like worry about this fight because if UFC make me versus Tony, Conner versus Diaz, right?

I think I'm going to beat Tony Ferguson and Diaz can beat Conor Magriger. And UFC can lose big fight. Me versus Conner, right? Yeah. You know, like a little bit situation, like a little bit dangerous, but for UFC, I talk about like

I talk about like how can UFC make money. Sure, sure, sure. Connor have to be Deere. They make a lot of money with this fight after like summer in the U.S.C. fight week.

They can make me versus Conner. Have they talked to you? Dana White has mentioned, oh, maybe doing Connor and Habib in Russia. Have they mentioned this to you at all ever? No, they just talk about this. I don't believe this. To be honest with you, I don't think they're going to come to Russia.

ever not ever like next year maybe next year because I'm living in Russia and I know a lot of news I don't think next year they're going to come to Russia

because they don't talk with nobody yeah I don't know how they're going to come to Russia so they haven't mentioned it to you that oh we're about to sign this deal we're going to come there nothing like that no they have to

they have to contact with somebody, right? Yeah, yeah. For making show in Russia, right? Sure, sure. They don't talk with nobody. And they try. I know a couple months ago they tried, but they don't have, like, very good connect here.

Do you think Connor would even entertain the idea of fighting you in Russia? Do you think he would do it? To be honest, I don't know. Maybe. I think Connor are going to take this fight, to be honest, because if you understand, we can make it. money, of course he's going to take this fight.

Sure, sure, sure. He takes fight with Floyd by way that in boxing because he understand he can make money and he understands he lose, but he takes fight because he makes money. He more business guy than athlete, you know. It's why he's going to take this fight. And first of all, I have to come back and win. Yeah.

After we'll see what happened. You know, my perfect come back if UFC give me Tony Ferguson. Yeah. I'm going to beat this guy. I'm going to take an interim title and Conner have to beat the years and UFC

can make this fight in UFC fight week, one of the biggest stroke in the year. Yeah. And, you know, this is what people want. What do you say? I have to win and I have to beat Tony Ferguson. When people like Connor say, oh, I can't trust

Chabib, he won't show up. I can't commit to a fight against them. What do you say to those people? You know, I have to come back, make way. Yeah. Tony Ferguson take title, right? Yeah. After we talk.

Okay. And at any point, Habib, has, you know, this whole thing with the T.R. Misu and everything, like, people are making jokes about you sometimes. Fighters, Kevin Lee. Tony Ferguson all the time is calling you Team TIRMisu and things like that. At any point has all this,

you know, you becoming the butt of a joke for this past year, your undefeated fighter, one of the best fighters in the world, regardless of weight class. Does it ever get to you?

Does it ever, like, really piss you off? You know, do you read this stuff? How do you react to it? Oh, you know, like, this beginning,

like, when the UFC countdown show how we eat, how we eating in the restaurant. Yeah. And I order for somebody tiramisu because my friends doesn't know English.

But I didn't know English. Yeah. I didn't eat this. Sure. You know, like, I don't understand what you're talking about. But I know I didn't eat this. My friends know, my family, no. Like, my people know about this.

That's why I, I read. My wreck is like, relax. No, I don't mean specifically, but just people trying to make jokes about you and insult you and things like that over the past year. Oh, he's not going to fight. He's going to retire. He's never going to fight again, things like that. Like the reaction that you have. have to this? How do you take that all in? It's disrespect to a degree. I mean, you've done a lot

in your career. No, you know, you know, American people say like this, people talk, just talk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm coming to U.S. like from Dagestan, from Dagestan, from Dagestan mountains, you know, 8 in the UFC. All my life, I never lose one round, you know. I feel like I'm one of the best fighter in the world right now. Yeah. You know, I do a lot of things. You know, what people do who talk about this?

They're nothing. That's why they talk. They have to talk, you know. I know all the time these people who talk about this in interim, when they see me they talk about wow you're undefeited can I take a picture with you

yeah sometimes people you know like it's okay it's okay and you still love it you still want to keep going you still feel like you have a passion for MMA

after everything that happened this year yeah of course I train it I training every day two times I'm healthy finally now and you know I have one problem in my career, all the time injured.

Injure, injure, injury, you know, like, injure, surgery, come back, injure surgery, come back. You know, other fighters, like, training camp, fight, come back to the home, training camp, fight, come back to the home. I have a little bit more problem, you know, like, training, camp, fight, I go to hospital, surgery, come back, rehabilitation, you know, like, I have a little bit more problem than other fighters. But I love this. I love this.

You know, when people don't believe me, and, you know, for me it's very interesting. Training hard, come back and show people how I improve myself. How I improve myself. This is very big motivation for me. Are you going to change anything with your training to avoid injury? Nothing. Nothing. I'm going to change only one.

You know, like, I'm going to change. I'm going to take belt. This is going to change. This is going to change everything. This is going to change people. You know, like a lot of people, a lot of friends, like when you're champions, they with you. Like, when you lose, they with other champions.

I don't talk about like all friends. Yeah, yeah. 60%, 70% like this. Yeah. You know, like all people talk about Anderson Silva before. He lost a couple times. Now they talk about different fighters, you know? And this is not only now a couple years.

This is about like all history. You can watch like boxing history. People talk Muhammad Ali about Muhammad. After people talk Mike Tyson, Mayweather, Pacio, like, you know, people all the time change. But very small friends stay with his favorite fighters, very small friends. And you feel like a lot of people have kind of, jumped off your bandwagon, right? Right now?

No, I don't feel this. I don't feel this. You know, like, I don't feel this. I know there's a lot of friends with me. I know a lot of friends with me. All Russian, all the USSR with me. I know a lot of friends from America, USA with me. You know, I don't feel this. This is what I feel. I understand a lot of friends. They critic me like about, hey, you have to fight.

But I agree with this. that's why I try to come back that's why I'm going to hospital make surgery people think I love surgery I don't think somebody loves surgery I don't think I make surgery

make rehabilitation like three four months you know try to come back training every day every day training two times you know this is not easy

I agree with friends I have to fight I have to make weight I have to stay professional sometimes. I agree with this. But when I fight, I all the time smash my opponents, all the time. You know, when I fight.

Now I have one goal and fight end of the year and one dream fight. This is fight versus 20 Ferguson. You know, this is what I want. Do you feel confident you'll get it? Do you think it's going to happen? Yes, I feel confident. I feel confident 100%, you know. You think Tony will take it?

Next week. Next week I'm going to come to U.S., California, and stay with my guys, B.C., Luke. A lot of guys come with me, Islam, Abu Bakr, a lot of my brothers, and stay with me. We're going to stay a couple months in the U.S. training and take the win, come to come. back to the home. This is what I want.

What do you say to Tony Ferguson? Because he said he's moved past you. Remember, you heard him say that, right, at the press conference? What you say? I don't, I didn't heard. He was asked about you and he said, no, I've moved past. I'm done with that. I'm going to fight Connor McGregor next. So what's the message to him?

After he wins the interim title, he said, I've moved on. He hasn't been talking about you now, as you probably heard. I don't think he made decision. what what what happened if you have said he told him hey

Connor gonna fight with Diaz you have to fight with Hadid what happened you have to take this fight yeah and I want to send send a message like enjoy with this belt he deserved this

10 wing streak my opinion he's a real champ and and he have to fight with me we have to we have to we have to

We have to fight and we have to give this fight for all friends Now I'm ready Now I'm healthy You know Last time This is You know like

I make problem This is my fault last time I know this But before He He pulled out too He have to remember this And you know

Now he's real champ, enjoy with this see you at the year. We'll leave it at that. Habib, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Great to talk to you. Great to see you. Great to hear that you're in good health,

good spirits. Travel safe to the U.S. next week. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I want to say all my friends. Yeah. Thank you for support. I know

fans won't see how I fight. friends won't see they won't I stay busy you know this is what I want to and a lot of people talking about I never come back and I want to say all my friends

thank you and see you guys end all the year in Vegas thank you so much Khabib great to talk to you I really appreciate you coming on they would call this loyalty my friends right they call this loyalty thank you so much number one number one you have to remember number one lawyer

Number one, my friend. Great, great, great to talk to you. There he is. Habib Narmagamatov. The one and only, the eagle stopping by. How about that? Got a little emotional there at the end. Great to talk to him.

Great to hear from him. Great to see him. What can you say about the Dagestani cowboy? So great. Months. Months. Months have been trying to talk to this man. Months.

Months. And there he was. So, as you heard, he wants to fight Tony Ferguson. December 30th. He wants to fight in Las Vegas. He's going to California next week, going to A.K.A. What an interesting time in the lightweight division. We all wait with bated breath to see what is going to happen with Connor. I will say this. I see the tweets from Tony. Of course, you saw the one tweet from Connor on Friday. I am not convinced that those two are going to fight each other. Next. I can, I even said it in New York, Rick. We will bring him in in the second. I said it to him as I walked in. I am not convinced. This is with no real There's nothing really solid right now

But I'm not convinced Regardless of what is being said That that is the fight I'm not convinced that Diaz versus Connor is off the table I do believe that all this sort of talk Is somewhat Public pressure on Diaz

To play ball That's the way I'm taking it Now could it happen Could it be Connor versus Tony? I think it could Do they all recognize that the most amount of money

that could be made right now is against Nate Diaz, I do think that they recognize that and even Mr. Namag Madov recognizes that. So I think that all bets are off at this point. All the possibilities are on the table. If I'm Tony Ferguson and I want that Conner Fight, what I'm doing is that I'm buying a plane ticket today. I'm flying to SBG Ireland.

I'm knocking on that door. I'm bringing a cameraman and I'm saying, where are you at? I'm the boogeyman. nowhere to run, nowhere to run, it might be hard to fly out there today with Ophelia doing its thing. And by the way, I want to say hello to all our friends over in Ireland and hope that they're doing okay and safe and sound. But at some point, I'm going over there. I'm flying over there and I'm playing the boogeyman role.

I'm getting a cameraman. I'm saying, where are you at? I'm standing under that sign. I'm not convinced that the Habib versus Tony Fight is off the table. And clearly that is what Habib wants. So we're going to see what happens on December 30th. December 30 is still very much up in the air. The cyborg home fight.

Not close to done at this point. We don't know if Connor's going to fight. We don't know if Tony's going to fight. We don't know who Habib is going to fight. It sounds like he wants to fight on that car. So it's an interesting time coming up. The last two and a half months, or I should say one and a half months. Wow.

Time is flying. Unbelievable. Anyway, great to hear from Habib. Really appreciate and thank you to his team as well for hooking us up. Okay, plenty more show to go in around 20 or so minutes. We're going exclusively on Twitter. MAPfighting. Twitter.com.

Hit us up hashtag the MMA hour, answering your questions about all kinds of things. UFC 217, I. Quinta Felder, the Fresno card, Brian Ortega against Cubs Swanson.

How about that card in Winnipeg? How about Mark Hunt versus Dana White? Ryzen, Greg Hardy, James Gallowher. So much going on as always. But now it's time for everyone's favorite segment.

Now it's time. A little premature there. It's time. It's okay. What I wanted to say was, it's time for Rick's picks. Rick's picks are lots of fun. Yeah. His hair isn't a bun because it's, you already know what it is.

Ricks picks. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Hopefully he has some good ones. It's the new craze taking the world by storm. I mean, it's been a while. I saw someone call him out and say that he's been slacking a little bit. So let's see what he's got.

There he is, everyone. The one and only New York Rick. Father to be, what are we at now? One month away? About six weeks. Wow. Are we getting nervous? Cool as a cucumber.

Cool as the other side of the pillow. What's up? How are you? I'm good. I'm doing all right. Feeling good. Got a crowded joint back there today, right? No. Empty.

Oh. There's nobody even here. I see a couple of figures behind you. Of course, your own figurine. Speaking of figures behind me. No, the other way. Yeah. Other way, yep, there you go.

By the way, since we just spoke to him, what do you think of his offer? What do you think of his plan of attack? Khabib that is. Doesn't seem like he has much leverage. Okay. Well, I don't know if he's actually playing the leverage card. He's demanding things when it really isn't up to him. Is he demanding or is he saying, look, this is what I want, but if they go the Tony

Connor route, I'll take Edson, but this is my dream fight. I didn't really get a demand feel. Telling Tony he must fight him. Okay, do you think it happens? I do. You do? Well, the fight to make is Diaz McGregor. And the other fight to make is Ferguson-Nermagamatov.

Okay, but wait a second. Fight to make in what regard? How you're going to make money. Okay. From a meritocracy standpoint, obviously. When has that mattered? When's the last time that mattered? No.

But you have to throw out that caveat, right? Sure. But that's not the reality of the situation and hasn't been for a long time already. So you think that they'll end up. See, I can fully see a scenario where, and I mentioned this about Robert Whitaker, Habib fights Tony in December, December 30th, and then Connor fights Nate Diaz, you know, in March or so. Maybe they do something in Las Vegas, you know, St. Patrick's Day since it's, you know, on a Saturday.

I could see that happening. I really do think that all bets are off. What do you think of my idea of Tony going to SBG? Come on, don't be a hater. I think it has high cringe potential. Within 24 hours, that video has minimum 1 million views. I think he could do a multitude of things involving Connor McGregor that would do that. And certainly that's probably the most bold.

But I think there's a high potential for it to be cringe-worthy. You're just a hater. I think it's a great idea. It's your idea. So, of course you think it's a great idea. Well, I mean, I just think that no one's, going to make the fight for you. You have to kind of go out there and nudge it a bit. That I agree with. People excited, you know?

Yeah. I mean, at this point, well, is there something he could do promotionally? That's it. And even if he does that, though, Habib, you know, confirmed it himself. He knows what the money fight is. So even if Tony does this, it seems like Diaz is the option that... I feel like we're in a spot here where maybe... Perfect example. Perfect. example. Eddie Alvarez. Okay, so here's the thing about Eddie Alvarez. I'll tell you this. When we were in Dallas for UFC 211, you know, they do these media days for the UFC now and they're one hour, but they bring like 12 people to these things. It's literally impossible to talk to all these people at the same time, you know, within that one hour period. I've tried to push for 90 minutes, even 120 minutes. But within a 60 minute time frame, it's impossible to

to get, there are some times, there's not a lot of media there, we get to all of them, but more often than not, decisions have to be made. UFC 211, I didn't get to Eddie quick enough. He had just been on the show a couple weeks prior, I didn't get to him. He was mad about this. This is before the Dustin Porre fight. He didn't like the fact that I didn't talk to him. And when I asked him to come on the show after the Porier incident, he was like, oh, you don't have time to talk to me, no, no, no thanks. Fine. But I will say this. I do believe that the walk and talk with Eddie, in the point where he was trying to get that Connor fight,

did him some good, got the people a little more emotionally invested in it, perhaps got Connor, perhaps got the UFC. I think that that fight was possibly going to slip away. You know, people didn't, MSG and the two title fights and the main event of two of five wasn't about the Connor versus Eddie feud.

It was about Connor making history. And it just so happened that Eddie was the champion, right? for us, hardcores, love that fight. I mean, it was an amazing fight. It was perfect. It was a dream matchup, right? The underground king getting his opportunity. But if RDA was a champ, if Edse Barbosa was the champ, if Neiddez was the champ, if

Chabeeb was the champ, if anyone was the champ, that's the fight that Connor wanted, and only that fight, the fight for the lightweight belt at MSG. And so I feel like sometimes you do an interview, you do a moment, you have something, you put something together, and it just nudges it over the goal line. I lost the point there. You're saying that was the fight Connor wanted. So it didn't matter who was going to be the champion and who was going to get it.

And you're trying to also simultaneously say that Eddie got it because he had to, he had to push a little bit to get it. But you just said, whoever Connor wanted, whoever had the belt would have gotten it. He was going to take it or leave it. Connor's life didn't change as a result of MSG.

If he would have fought a month later in December, he'd still be a gigantic superstar. Oh, you're saying, wait for it. And whoever Eddie fought, he could have fought them. He could have fought them. Gotcha. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I feel like there had to have been a little nudge. I think Connor McGregor holds all the cards. Did then, does now. It's really up to what he wants. Yeah, so exactly. That's why you have to bait him. That's why you have to bait him. You can't play this game like, oh, I'm too cool for school.

I think the person that needs to do something is Nate Diaz, much more so than Tony Ferguson. Okay, well said. I do think that Nate is kind of laying low a little too much right now. But hey, maybe not. Maybe behind the scenes is not. have the belt. He doesn't have that leverage, whereas Tony does. Nate needs to start pushing much harder and not pretending that, you know, this is just going to come to him, which it could,

but he needs to push. He's the one I think needs to do so. It is very telling, though, like, maybe Nate doesn't have to push because Connor's team is pushing for Nate. So he's like, look, if the coaches want me to... This is what I'm saying. All of this is immaterial. I really believe that whatever Connor McGregor wants, that will be what ultimately happens. And rightfully so, he's earned that. Great idea here from Arthur Gustafson on Twitter. No relation, right? Yeah. Conor 8.3, Comain, Habib versus Tony. Call it unfinished business. Two rivalries end. One begins.

Dun, dun, done, thum. Okay. I'm with it. What do we got? Rick's picks. Rick's picks. Hopefully I can, you know, turn this around. Well, I saw some people saying that they felt like you were slipping. I saw that. I also saw some people talking about you may be easing out of the intro, you know, letting it play out a little. Okay, okay. Interesting.

All right, first pick. Actually, the first couple are going to be from LFA 24 on Friday night, Friday the 13th, actually. Here we see, Keone Diggs is the one who's currently in the arm bar, the arm bar being applied by Nick Chastine.

And that looked pretty deep, but what we get is a transition that is going to end in a leg lock. Holy smoke. Incredible. Wow. ...to the arm bar and gets the tap.

Submission of the year! We've seen one every week that gets submission of the year. But congrats to Keone. He was deep in this triangle. Then he gets deep into the arm bar and somehow pulls it out. That was beautiful.

Transition of the year. Transition of the year. Wow. Reversal of the year. Also from that fight from that fight card on Friday, nine second knockout by Glenn Baker. Ooh.

Ooh. Damn. We can watch this like 10 times in the span. Here we go. One more time. Glenn Baker. I feel like the LFA fights have been getting better. Am I crazy?

Yeah, well, if the highlights are any indication, they definitely are. Yeah. Here we go. Also from LFA. Mackenzie Dern. Boom.

I typically wouldn't have chosen this one, but the reason I did was because she got the knockdown. It's showing that at least some dedication is going into the hands. You know, a weird naked choke by a jiu jiu-jitsu player. is not really exactly. I mean, but she is a big name. Sure, but look, this is Rick's picks.

You've got to have some kind of... Wow, you've got to bring that deep. You've got to be discerning. You've got to be discerning. But the knockdown made it worth it. Congratulations, McKenzie. Great. Can I say something before you move on?

Can you go back? Or can you not go back? Oh, my dear. Don't be so quick on that trigger. So she gets the win. She improves the 4-0. She drops her opponent. She submits her.

And I say, you know, solid performance. I say clearly, her striking. has improved. Everyone's like, you see that chin, you see what she's done. Have we not? She's literally 4-0, amateur and pro, 4-0, that's it. No, don't compare it to Ronda. Don't compare it to anyone else. She is a jujitsu practitioner. She is a jiu-jitsu black belt. She has four fights in which she has been allowed to strike. What are we expecting? If you look at her first couple of fights, there is clearly an improvement. Am I saying that she's Holly home? No. But the fact that she's a.

dropping opponents that, you know, it seems like she's getting a little bit better from her first or second fight. There is clearly an improvement there. Why is that so hard to accept? Am I wrong? Like, do you feel, is she a hot mess? I mean, there's clearly a lot wrong. I mean, like, she is going to get, if she's fighting someone like Holly Holmes, she's going to get tagged, obviously, her chin is out. She's a little wild. She's a little aggressive. Mandy Polk is at the most, you know, experienced and, you know, the toughest test in the world. But why can't we just slow down a little bit. Like I saw people after say, oh, you know, hopefully she goes to the UFC next. No, I don't want to see her. I wanted to go 10 and no before even thinking about the UFC.

Now, it remains to be seen if she's going to go fully into MMA and focus on it. And I think it would probably behoove her to take a break from Jiu-Jitsu and just sort of focus on this where she can strike and, you know, get comfortable with getting hit. But I was surprised at the, I was surprised is it the resistance in giving her props? I think some of it stems from if you're going to shine the spotlight, if you're going to give her more attention than somebody else who's at that same stage, they are expecting more of a finished product. I think that's where some of that comes from. But the reality is, at this point, she was never going to be a finished product. And I'm comfortable in saying that.

Wait too soon. Yeah, she looked fine to me. All we're saying is that she's improving. Indeed. I mean, how could you not look at that and say... Yeah, it'd be unreasonable to expect her to be a completely competent striker. Now there's exceptions. I think Henry Zahudo has looked really, really competent on his feet and continues to really improve at almost an exponential rate. But those types of improvements are few and far between, and this is much more realistic. Henry Sohudo is way further along in his career.

Not in his strike. Like, you know... What are you talking about? Henry Suhudo is 11 and 2. Yeah, at the same... Nine more fights. At the same point in their careers, though, I feel like, anyway,

you're ticking me down further away from it. I know what you're saying. Here's a guy who's, you know, single discipline, very good at it, and he, and has proven... And at that point was more, obviously more polished.

Fair, but... And also, as clear as it is that she's improving, it's also clear that there's a lot more work to be done, and that's why I don't want to see her go to the UFC just yet. I wanted to figure out what weight class is best, but there's something there. I mean, someone who could finish, you know, an opponent with that kind of ease. I definitely feel like as someone to watch and bringing her along slowly, I think, would be the smart thing to do.

That's all. Speaking of finishing opponents with ease. Curtis Melender. Oh, yes. That was nice. It was a great card. A beautiful head kick in the main event. We went through four of the fights in this card.

Look at that. One more time, we're going to show this knockout. Boom. Congrats to Curtis. this big fight. Maybe he's on his way to the UFC. Now, the main event of Cage Warriors from Saturday. Love that.

Age Warriors 87. Dear. Love that cage. Now, don't love these follow-up shots jumping over the ref to land some punches. But Roberto Solditch with the incredible headkick knockout here on Lewis Long. Yes, that was completely unnecessary. Let's just chalk it up to the heat of the moment, but incredible knockout. I mean, the face plant.

upsetting the hometown favorite Owee Woof Look at that right into the Rick Flair Congrats to Roberto It's very rare to see someone Like go over a referee that way

That was a weird one Yeah Okay and one more from the weekend Yes In terms of highlights Raina Doing what she does best The queen

Look at that body shot Brutal body shot on Andy Wen Here we go Oof From Risen FF7 Yes Risen had a nice event

Although that Sakuraba Shamrock quote unquote grappling match was not much of a grappling match. I didn't have the highlights from that one. It was a little bit of a dull fest. It was nice to see them together, squaring off. One more item from that event, not a highlight, but Kat Zingano. Yes.

Getting a note from Don Fry with his phone number. Oh my God. When she went to interview McKenzie Dirt and the trees. That is hilarious. I did not see that. Shout out to Don Fry. The God, getting it done. Still got it. I mean, that's game right there.

First, it's Misha Tate at his Hall of Fame induction. And then it's... By the way, I watched some of that. And I thought Kat did a great job for someone who's kind of new to broadcasting. I thought she did a really nice job. Knock it out of the parking broadcasting. Get the number from Don Frye. It's a good night.

What a great night. Air Bigfoot Silva. Oh, here we go. After the fight with Rico. Wow, this is a long message from Bigfoot. Well, it's because it's English and Portuguese. So it's just double the text. That's right. No excuses. This was my first kickboxing fight.

I knew the risks of the fight against Rico because he's the champion. He has more than... 61 fights. And his career. It was an honor. He also communicated through management that he wanted to potentially do it in MMA down the line against RICO. I feel like that might be more interesting from a competitive standpoint. I'm just happy no one got seriously heard, at least from what we saw.

But I know you weren't a fan of the quote-unquote hand-wringing. You thought... And I think it's... it's fair to say, okay, maybe people are piling on. I do think everyone's intentions and thoughts were in the right place. That's fair enough. I also think that anyone comparing this fight to Mayweather McGregor is absolutely insane. There is no comparison whatsoever.

The comparison, okay, you could say, okay, here's one guy coming over to another sport to fight, you know, the king in one sport. Bigfoot has been brutally knocked out in, like, you want me to pull out, you know, and I think it's like eight of ten. Yeah, and Connor has not. Connor is actually, you know, it is said that he has one of the finer chins and has only really been in one, you know,

completely firm. So I don't think that that is a fair comparison. No, no, it's, it, comparing those two is, is not fair. The thing to say, though, is, you know, Bigfoot is allowed to use his testosterone. Bigfoot is wearing the larger gloves. As, you know, if we're, if we're being honest about how he did for his first kickboxing fight

against the best kickboxer, in the world. I'd argue he did admirably. Do you think the ref... Good stoppage. Tried to protect him. Yes, good stoppage. How many people were at that event, by the way, in China? I don't know capacity yet, but it was a healthy crowd.

The Chinese fans responded, and there was a lot of attention on it over there and over here as well. So Bigfoot Enrico chapter closed, but maybe an MMA one day. has a fight in December. Rico is fighting Jamal Ben Sadiq on UFC.tv TV pay-per-view in December.

And this is for the belt. This one is a title fight. All right. Whereas Bigfoot was a super fight. No title on the line. Okay. The number one image of the week, Connor McGregor with the GTA-inspired

shout-out, saying nothing but Tony in the message, but the picture says it all. And I'm hoping that this picture was chosen because of the belly. the health

because you know the wealth belly because you know how much I love the wealth belly yeah and shout out to Peter Carroll

for always feeding into that as well I have to admit that was the first thing that I noticed the wealth belly the wealth belly then you notice

the two titles in the back he's I'm not a GTA guy yes so is it possible

that he's not referring to Tony Ferguson no this is Tony Ferguson because I was told that he's like Tony Montan

Well, yes, because I believe this one might be from like the Florida Vice City GTA one. Is it possible that he's trying to send us mixed messages? Is it possible that he's trying to tell Mr. Nate Diaz, hey, this is on my mind? I don't know if it's that calculated, but I do know that this is a shot to Tony Ferguson. Honestly, I think it's that calculated. Maybe. But this is an educated guess. He's sitting on that wealth belly.

time to So if you think it's Tony Ferguson You think that he's telling the world I'm picking Tony I'm coming for Tony Wow I think that's what it's got to say Wow

Because Tony responds with Tony's See I think that Tony's wackiness is very endearing now I don't know what change Now he's done some GTA edits himself Snapdown City Tony in front of the

In Liberty City In front of the statue It's got the Vice music, defender vacate, mother effer, Snapdown City. He's the boogeyman. Zero F's. Chicken McNuggets. I mean, this whole thing is who's making this? Who's making this? Who's putting this together? And then

Oh my God. Dana hugging. Connor. Oh, my lord. But well done, Tony. Well played. I think Conner's, I think Connor said more with less, but I'm still impressed by Tony's. Please tell me you have the I Quinta one. That wasn't done by Al Well it was just an amazing tweet Come on

If it was done by the real Al What are you trying to say? Iaquinta realty One of the best Twitter handles online We'll actually talk about Iaquinta Wait The tweet where it just said Connor and him in front of the flag

Was incredible But it's not it's not him so I can't do it But shout out to Al Ayahuinta Always And IQinter realty And Ayiquita Realty He's keeping the mantle But shout out to Al Ayahuanta

Forever always the best Oh my God Okay. Speaking of Connor, Impressionist, Al-Farin, he's incredible. But he has a message for Ophelia. It's not that hurricane out with him to her own, so. It's bigger than you. Connor, it's bigger than you.

Where is it? It'll do absolutely nothing. It'll do fucking nothing. If you're only listening and not watching, that's not Connor McGregor. That is an impressionist who's very good at doing the Connor McGregor. Aphelia, yeah? Saying he's going to fight Ophelia. The stance is just amazing.

He's amazing. He's great. I've met Al before. Great guy. Sent this one a lot from Rampage's Instagram. Nick Diaz and Rampage getting into a bit of a

tiff over a young lady. Now, is this the lady from the show? I don't know because her profile is private. I was trying to figure that out, but her profile is private. What her name was? He mentioned what her name was. Was it like Marie or something? I'm not sure. I don't recall. You should know. I mean, you're the love doctor, but...

Now, okay, so this is kind of a crazy thing to see Diaz and Rampage together. Do we feel like it's... Was it doctored? Was it created? Was it falsified? I think a few drinks were involved, and maybe it's real. Nah, get out of here. It's fun. But it's still fun. It's hilarious. I love the... My favorite part of the video, by the way, is when the one guy goes up to Rampage, because I feel like he's ruining it. There's a fan or something. think something is happening, stepping over, and everybody's kind of like, uh, we're doing a video.

Either way, it's just good to see these two together. Legends of the game. Both the MMA game and the female game. Shout out to Giuliana Pena, who we had on the show. Here we go. We've got the sonogram here from her Instagram. Nice little moment. Baby Pena. Congratulations to her.

Amazing. This one was an interesting one from Make a Wish. the involvement, the MMA tie, Danny Castillo, a big part of this, making Little Bryant's wish come true to save the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento Ninja. I think they're going to release a full video later.

But shout out to Danny Castillo for being a good dude and making this happen. Put him through like ninja training and then Bryant was able to save the city. So good stuff going on over there. Really loved it. Tugged at the heartstrings. That's amazing.

Well done, Danny. Danny's a great guy, great heart. Good dude. Here we go. We featured it last time that Duke posted something about CM Punk. Duke loves this post. Again, we're teasing the CM Punk return.

Working on his next fight. Let's find out who that is. I'm very interested to see who CM Punk is going to face next. Yeah, I mean, I feel like he's just trained. Look, I'll say, I would have put too much stock. an announcement coming anytime soon. You know what I mean? But

God bless him. Duke loves those posts. Oh, somebody on Twitter, old underscore Faust saying Tony, the post said Tony from Connor McGregor because Ferguson said Connor doesn't ever say his name.

He's saying his name. He's telling him Tony. I got to say that's a pretty damn good explanation. I love how we're all trying to decipher No, I mean, I thought it was pretty straightforward. Four words in it. No, but I, I, I, I,

I actually feel like that's a great, that's a great call right there. That could very well be it. My favorite news of the week, the most important news of the week. Brian Tucker back here agrees with me. Michelle Waterson joining the cast of MTV's The Challenge, Champs versus Stars. We saw this last time where CM Punk was on it. Now I feel like this is even more of like a real kind of MMA tie here with Michelle Watterson, a veteran of the sport.

Going on MTV's The Challenge, my favorite show, a national sport that I'm, I think deserves more respect than it gets. Good to see Michelle representing for MMA over on the challenge. Wait a second. Is this the same show? Same show, but different cat, like different year, a different season. And it's all like celebrities and stuff? Half of it will be celebrities and half of it will be challenged like legends,

competitors that are regulars. When does it start? I don't have that in front of me, but soon. Soon? Yeah, relatively soon. How do you think she's going to roll out quickly? Are there odds on this? She's a damn good athlete.

So I'm expecting her to, no, there's no odds, unfortunately. I mean, it doesn't get, as I said, it doesn't get the respect it deserves. But I think Waterson will do really, really well. She's an elite athlete. And last year, I was impressed by, or earlier this year, I was impressed by how the pros did. So I'm expecting big things out of Waterson. I'm expecting her to do. See, you sign with WME, you get on MTV reality shows.

There you go. Boom. Can't wait. Speaking of signing. Yes. grappling standout, Gary Taunen. Yes. Signing with 1FC.

Wow. Critical on MMA fighting by our own Danny Segura. So check it out. He's going to be competing under MMA. It's been bandied about and talked about. He had that grappling match with Shinya at 1FC. Now Gary is finally making that transition to MMA and going to be competing there. I'm excited about that.

We were talking about, he's typically like a 55er. we were talking about Mackenzie Dern this is another example of a fantastic jiu-jitsu player now I'm making the transition MMA will see how his hands

progress as he goes through it to be honest once you're a few fights deep that will matter I imagine his first 10 opponents he's just going to be able to take him smoke on the ground so Gary Tonin versus Ben Ascran coming to one event near you

how about that? See the problem with that is it's a grappling It's going to be a grappling match It's almost But what if they nullify each other And it turns into an all out war What if it turned into a violent mess The blood

Where is this? What is this? Who has said this to you That voice and that and that message What is that? Is that from a Halloween party? Violence, that's what I want For breakfast, lunch and dinner

What is this? Well, because I brought this up on the MMAB last week. I saw that, but I'm more, I'm, well, I've taken a lot of flack for this. Sure, but where is the inspiration for this voice and this? Well, I feel like that's the voice that comes to mind when you think of it. It's like the devil. Yeah, it's like David Putty on Seinfeld. We're the devils, the devils. We paint our face. Oh, man. What a, what a reference. Well, here I am sitting at home and I see this tweet and it's all caps violence. Yes. and it's for the Gaichi Alvarez fight.

And I'm like, well, this is a bizarre way to promote this fight from the UFC. This is from the UFC's official account. I know that we talk about it. I know that MMA is a dangerous, brutal, and at times, violent sport. But to promote it as such, to use that word,

to label a fight as simply violence, to me, is off-putting. You would never tune into a Fox ad or an NBC ad or a TV ad or a CBS ad and say like, come see or this Thursday, Thursday night football on CBS, the Detroit Lions are going to engage in a violent battle

on the gridiron against the Green Bay Pack. It's just, that's not the way we promote things. And I feel like people may not be understanding where I'm coming from. They're like, oh, you're such a snowflake. You're such a sissy. No, I'm fully aware of how dangerous this sport is, how rough it is, how brutal it is,

how violent it is. But to label it like that, to use that as promotion, to me is just, is a mistake. It's a big mistake. And it's not the way we should be moving as a sport.

Like, especially in this day and age with all the concerns about, like, you could say a million things about that fight to promote that fight. To just throw out violence

is lazy, is reckless. I don't like it. Is your issue with it, though, as a word thing, as verbalizing that? When I think of the word

violent and violence, To me, it 100% has a negative connotation. Right. I think of a violent accident. It's not necessarily in the glorification of violence because that's the reality of sports. So like showing the knockout is fine, but the actual presentation of like violence, like advertising that is where the issue comes.

Well, the knockout is a part of the sport. I mean, that's the means to the end. That's what we're trying to do here. That's what the athletes are doing either knockout or submit their opponent. Yeah. But to me, that word is a negative word. word has a negative connotation to it. And so when I think of it, I think of bad things.

And when I think of what MMA fighters do in the cage, yes, there are bad intentions like you're trying to injure or damage. I mean, that's a part of scoring, right? I just, like, to me, like, that word just sucks. That word sucks when using it in an athletic conversation. I don't have an argument against that. It seems like a very easy thing to avoid. So, yeah, I'm with you.

You could use a multitude of different words. And it's like a cool thing to do, like, that's beautiful violence. Like, I just don't, like, to me, that's, and I've said it a million times, that transition that you showed from LFA, and I know that there is danger and it hurts. That's why they're, a leg lock.

That's why they're tapping. I get that. What DJ did, I know that there's danger. I know that it hurts. But it's incredibly skillful. It's beautiful. I love when Maya wins fights without landing a punch. It's okay to appreciate that too.

And it's okay to say, they're like, you know what? I mean, that to me is not violent. That to me is skill. That to me is just athleticism. I can never even dream of doing something like that. I don't watch fights to see people have their heads brutally, you know. I don't, like that, that shot that you just showed of the guy, you know, going over the ref.

That kind of bothers me. I don't feel like that's necessary. That's why I've always said I don't like soccer kicks. Yes. I mean, soccer kicks are ridiculous, in my opinion. There's not even a real name for them. It's a freaking soccer kick. not even a move.

Yeah. It's just something that looks like a soccer kick, so they called it a soccer kick. That to me doesn't belong in the sport. And again, I know, I know we're speaking to the hardcores and they hate this because they want to see the violence. They want the got blood or whatever, the just bleed guy. But if that's the case, then that would be the proper marketing, no? If you're seeing...

The UFC shouldn't be in the business of promoting. I mean, I know that Gachie calls himself that, right? Yeah. But they shouldn't be in the business of... saying our fights, like that's just, it's like understanding promotion and marketing. And it's not the PC world taking over. It's not us trying to sugarcoat what this is. It's just being smart, in my opinion, as a company. Like, to me, that's, that's, that's just not, like, you don't see that in the football is violent. Hockey at times can be very violent. You just

don't see it promoted as such. You don't see that label being put on athletics. I don't want to think of that. I don't want to think of the negative connotations that come with that word. Yeah, the presentation of that is much less explicit in those sports that you're talking about. In football and hockey, they'll show a bone crunching hit, but they're not going to say, here's the violence. They're not going to deliver it that way. Correct me if I'm wrong, and you may have an example, I don't see boxing being promoted as violent. No, because that's kind of counter. I think if I'm boxing or people representing or having stake in boxing, you almost have to go the other way.

Because the UFC is presented as that way. you almost have to go the opposite direction into that beauty, that sweet science, that technique. I like that. Because you're going contrary to what the competition. I know that there's danger. I mean, we know the long-lasting effects

that these sports have on individuals. And at times, I think we all kind of wrestle with that. And you see what happens to, you know, the likes of Gary Goodridge and who knows who else down the line. Yeah. I just, I saw that tweet and I was like, well, this is just, it's not something that I sit at home and

like, you know, stew over. But when I saw that tweet from the UFC, it's one thing to see it from, I don't know, a fan or, you know, someone online, a Twitter, you know, something like that. But from the leader, it just doesn't make sense to me. I understand. I said we would get to Allaya Quinta. Oh, this was great. This was me. This was my highlight of the week.

Second to Waterson joining the challenge for me. but Raging Cajun Johnson had Al Aiaquinta on his podcast the Rogen MMA podcast the reason that this is relevant is because he actually did not

have Al Ayahuinta on his podcast but I still encourage you to listen to it because it's an incredible piece of entertainment from Aliaquinta himself to the podcast and to Cajun that's not me you morons because they had apparently been duped by somebody representing

Alia Quinta and doing an impersonation of Alai Quinta, but not the man himself. Amazing. You need to get the genuine article if you want to... I listen to this interview. And I'm sorry to say, love Cajun Johnson.

That person does not sound anything like him. Like, not even close. That person does not sound anything like Ally Quinta. I have no idea how Cajun and his co-host were duped by this man and he was trying

very hard to talk like Al like you could tell he's trying like he's not actually talking like himself you could tell it doesn't sound anything like him and I can't believe they fell for it beyond that even there is only one ally

there is you cannot replicate that you cannot do that and but shout out to the to the person who did for trying shout out for trying to replicate the genuine article

but falling short often imitated never duplicated and And finally A video from Matt 27689 on you Wait wait

Don't talk over it Are you crazy? And so from YouTube We have this video No okay Wait that was the best part That was the best part Can we go to the beginning?

Let me I'm gonna run it back Pause it for a second Pause it for a second Let's go to Ariel So last week Last week on the show We mentioned

You still have it or no I'm going to it Okay last week on the program I had mentioned and how I felt like there was just no passion involved in the UFC 217 press conference. And here's the thing, if we're being honest, here's the thing that people just don't want to talk about right now.

Something has changed along the way. And this is not a knock. Trust me, this is not a knock. If you would give me $400 million right now, I can guarantee that I would not have the same passion about this job what I was doing prior to said $400 million, today as I had last week. If you give it to me right now, everything changes.

I can guarantee you of that. That is a natural human instinct. That is a natural part of our evolution as human beings. You give me some massive lump sum of money. I'm changing. I moved on. Dana White has won the race. The fight is over.

He won. He is the winner. There was a time he was battling. He was trying. trying to fight for acceptance and coverage and attention. There was time where they couldn't even get on pay-per-view, let alone magazines, newspapers, websites. No one wanted to talk about the UFC.

He won. He's $400 million richer on top of the money that he had before, and his partners are multi-billionaires now. They won. Those guys, you don't see them around anymore. They moved on. And he always said that he would move on as well. for whatever reason they kept them on board.

You get it. You understand it. He was the face of the UFC. He was the guy. He was generating more interest and excitement in the product as anyone on the roster. There was a time he was the star of the UFC. He's the only person to be on every episode of the Ultimate Fighter.

What are we? Episode 25. He has been the constant. And so new ownership, transition. You want him on board. You sign him to a five-year deal. I totally get it. But something has changed along the way.

There is absolutely no denying it. I mean, we could talk about, you know, the DJ thing, the Amanda Nunes thing. But it is more evident now than ever. It is more evident now than ever. He doesn't have that same passion. There was a time when a fighter would push back at Dana and he would come out guns blazing. I mean, the responses and the rants were epic. Look at the past year.

As recently as last week with Mark Hunt. He was just like, look, you know, Mark Hunt doesn't like me. You know, I have to save these guys from themselves. you know, what can you do? Like, he even admitted, I heard him on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, aka UFC filtered. And he said,

you know, five, ten years ago, I want to get into a battle with I like Quinta. But now I just, I don't feel the same way. It's like that quote. I forget which boxer said it,

but, you know, you sleep on the floor, you're going to wake up at 5 a.m. And you're going to pound the pavement. You start waking up in sand sheets. It's just not the same anymore. It's not. And so you look at him trying to promote these events

and you can tell that the fires not there. Now, I'll tell you where the fire was. The fire was in L.A., in Toronto, in Brooklyn, in London, in Las Vegas, promoting Mayweather-Megger. And people keep saying that. And why is that? Well, that fight was very personal. That was him versus the Mayweathers. That was him versus boxing. That's a fight that dates back 20-something years. That fight meant a lot to him. That was his guy going in there against the greatest of all time trying to put him down. That was personal. And he could back one guy. Remember I said, that brought out the best in Dana White. That was old school Dana White,

taking Chuck Dadell to Japan to take down pride. That brought out the best in him. He's still a fighter. He's still passionate. He's just not passionate about talking to us and going out and pounding the pavement and pushing the gospel. I'm sure deep, he loves the UFC.

I don't even know if he wanted to sell the UFC. But now that he's this much richer and now that he's won the race, that $4 billion price tag has validated all his efforts, all the wars, all the late nights, all the battles. it's just not the same.

And so when I was sitting there watching UFC 217, I was like, there's no excitement here. This is the easiest card in the world to sell. This is three amazing fights dripping with storylines. And so, like, as someone who loves the minutia of the sport, the posters, the promotion, like I just love everything about fight sports. This stuff kind of gets me excited and interested.

The evolution of the promoter. I think that every promotion needs a promoter, a sort of frontman. You know, Koker has done a better job over the years. I have criticized him on this show as far as his public speaking skills, being that front guy. I have done that. And he's gone better. But you got to go out there and pound the pavement and get people excited because at the end of the day, that's your job.

Your job is to literally stand there with a megaphone and tell people why this is the most important fight of the world. And the next month, you have to do the same. You have to tell people why you have to stay at home on Saturday night and pay for a pay-per-view that's worth, what, $65? or pay 100 bucks to go watch it live. That's your job. That's like PT Barnum 101. That's Don King. That's Bob Aram. That's Vincent Mann. That is the job. The job is not to just be kind of apathetic

and just say, yeah, it's awesome. So when I heard that, I was like, I can't believe it. This is the easiest fight to sell. This is the return of the king. Four years back. Look at that reaction that George God. And by the way, how didn't you not put that George St. Pierre moment at the Bell Center? That's a crazy, that's a massive

slip up on your part in New York, Rick. How dare you? What a great moment. Everyone chanting his name. that that that presence that man opens up all the doors in Canada for you and you don't you don't get excited so I went on this like I said okay I'm gonna be Ariel Hawani UFC president and then we have the clip and someone turned it into an actual promo now before we get into this we're going to play this in its entirety I'm gonna oh in its entirety we're getting the whole damn thing yeah why not it's a few minutes we're gonna go I'm gonna go to camera though I asked for I asked for somebody to

cut the video for this but lines may have gotten crossed. This one is great. So shout out to Mark, I believe the person's name was. What I want for next week is the promo that Ariel did where he described how the promo would visually look with the explosions, with the popping lights, with the... Oh, I got a better one for you.

I want that. I got a better one for you. Play this clip a little bit. We're going to get into this clip right now. But I got a better one for you. Someone asked Dana White on Friday. What was your reaction when you found, out that George St. Pierre was coming back.

He said, awesome. Awesome. That's it. We get to the press conference. And he says, all right, let's go. You know who these guys are? You know, let's get this thing started. If I was the promoter of the UFC,

UFC President Ariel Hawani, I would get on that stage and I would say, this is amazing. This guy's genius. Our first show at MSG broke all kinds of record. 18 million dollar gate. One of the greatest nights in the sports history. We crowned our first

two-way world champion. It was phenomenal from top to bottom. I got news for you, my friends. Round two, even better. We have somehow figured out a way to give you our fans a better card. Yawanna-Jechek is en route to becoming the most dominant female in MMA history. Forget about females. She's on route to becoming one of the most dominant champions in UFC history. She beats up everyone who comes in a way, including last year at MSG. She is unlike anyone we've seen in this sport, but she has never fought anyone like Rose Namayunus. Rose Namibunis came back in April and smoked the karate hadi.

She has been fighting for this moment her entire life. The mean streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rose Namayunis for Suuania and J-Chic promises to be one of our greatest title fights of all time. Now, if that's not enough for you, for years we have talked about teammates, versus teammate, friend versus friend, every single time they have said no. That changes on November 4th. Cody Garbrand will be defending his title for the first time against his former friend and teammate at Team Alpha Male T.J. Dilashaw left the team, and now he's coming back to get

the title he wants more. One of the greatest grudge matches in UFC history, one of the greatest grudge matches in MMA history. Cody Garbrand is fighting T.J. Dilashaw. They've done a whole season of the ultimate fighter. We've been waiting for this fight for a year now, and they're finally going to get it on. These guys could not hate each other more. They could not despise each other more. They will settle their differences on November 4th.

And if that is not enough for you, my friends, Saturday night, New York City, Broadway, Madison Square Garden, the greatest fighter of all time, the King of Kings, one of the most dominant champions in UFC history, the owner of nine straight title defenses. The man who never lost his welterweight title, The man who walked away on top of the sport, did it unlike any other. The face of Canadian MMA, a pioneer at Trailblazer,

George Rush St. Pierre, after a four-year hiatus, is coming back to MMA. He is finally coming back. We all thought, including myself, that he would not come back. And guess what? He's coming back. And guess what? He is trying to become just the fourth man in UFC history to be a champion in two different weight classes. He was once-to-one 70-pound champion.

He's now going to 185. He is going to take down Michael Bisping. Yes. Going to try. Yes. If Michael Bisping wins on November 4th, he will be the only man in UFC history to beat both Anderson Silva and George St. Pierre. He would cement his place among the gods of MMA. He will cement his place among the very best.

He will cement his place as one of the greatest middleweight champions of all time. George St. Pierre is trying to make history off his back. George St. Pierre is trying to stop Michael Bisping from becoming the winningest fighter in UFC. history. George St. Pair is coming back to regrade a new throne. Yes. He's not going to let him. This is all going down and more.

Wonder Boy Thompson, Jorge Musbel. Can we get some of that? Can we get some excitement? Can we get some love? Can we get some excitement? Oh my God. That was incredible. Well done, Matt.

That was incredible. So I do that, and I'm like, wow, that was so much fun. I had a blast doing that. I want to be a promoter. And then I'm tuning in. into TSN on Friday afternoon, my good friend Aaron Bronstetter of TSN, their TSN reporter, MMA reporter, great guy, Toronto's own. He's interviewing Dana White about the Winnipeg show. And I know this may come across as like, I'm piling it on and yes, I have the history and all that.

I'm not. I love the UFC. I love MMA. I love it more than anything. It's my life. I've devoted my life. This is how I pay my bills. And I see, do we have this clip? just a little portion of this clip. Aaron interviewing Dana White? We do. We're going to roll it right. Aaron's fantastic. Just a little portion. Just a few seconds. Talking about the card in Winnipeg on December 16th. Do we have this?

Just a little smidge. A little taste. Dana White in Toronto bearing goodies for us today. Here we go. GSP and Bisping. We're in town at the Hockey Hall of Fame earlier. And our friends in Winnipeg have some pretty big fights to announce. Yes. The main event announced yesterday, Hopaldos Los Angeles versus Robbie Lawler.

Yes. What a fight. This is a number one contender fight? Yeah, yeah, it's a great fight. You know, Rafael Dosangos just had a great fight, put himself back into contention, and a win over Robbie Lawler, obviously, would do it. Okay. All right.

Fights that haven't been announced, the co-main event. Watch this now. Jose Alco versus Ricardo Lamas. This is a rematch. Fascinating. What made you decide to put these guys in the cage once again? Yeah, you know, Lamas has been on a tear for a while, and he's finally getting another shot at Joseo Aldo.

In another fight that was announced, Canadian, Jordan Meehan. He's stepping in against Eric. This should be a Barnburner. Great fight. Yeah. I told you guys today it's a good card and I wanted to, you know, it's been a while since, you know, we've had a huge solid card. We were doing great cards up here and then they were falling apart for a while. Hopefully this one's going to stay together. And finally, this one made my jaw drop. We've got Santiago Ponziabio who's looked spectacular coming up that huge knockout against Gunner Nelson. And he's going to be taking on another guy that's fantastic. Mike Perry. Right. This is going to be a dynamite fight.

Great fight. Great fight again. Yeah, this is a card you don't want to miss. Live or on TV. Okay. So that's just a snippet. And I'm watching that. And I'm like, wait a second.

When these four fights, let's put aside me in and Eric Silva, I know they had to focus. And again, Aaron's the man. This is no knock on him. It's honestly no knock on Dana. If I'm being real. This is what happens when you become $400 million

richer. things change. But when these three fights were announced, I was like, wow, this is a great card. This is an amazing card, live and free on Fox. And I'm thinking to myself, this is one of the best Fox cards,

at least in the past year. This is like the kind of Fox cards that we were getting excited about, you know, two or so years ago. And then I see this interview, and all I hear is like, yeah, great fight. Yeah. And I'm like, I say to myself,

do I need to do this again? Do I need to remind the people just how great this fight is? Do I need to do the work for my good friends over at the UFC? So let me tell you about this fight card on December 16th. Let me tell you about the UFC's return to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This is what should have been said in that interview, but wasn't said probably because of the $400 million. Let me tell you about December 16th in Winnipeg.

Let me tell you about the last time we were in Winnipeg. Let me tell you about the last few times we've been in Western Canada. Let's put Winnipeg in Western Canada. Let me just be the first one to say that those fights haven't been great. Those cards have fallen apart. The last time we were in Winnipeg, it was UFC 161, it was Dan Henderson, Rashad Evans. It just wasn't the best fight.

The fans in Western Canada have been so good to us, have been so loyal to us, they deserve a big one. So this is what we're doing. We picked the month in which it is the absolute coldest in Winnipeg. It is never colder in Winnipeg than it is in December. And so we said we're going to bring some heat. to the MTS Center. We're going to bring one of our best free fight cards

to Winnipeg in December. And in the main event, we are going to crown the number one contender in perhaps our most loaded division. We are going to put former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in there

against former lightweight champion Havel dos Santos. You say great fight? I say one of the fights of the year. I say one of the absolute best fights of the year. Robbie Lawler is coming back from a one-year hiatus.

He beat Donald Seroni in Anaheim. He looked great. He looked on point. He switched teams. He's now with Henry Hooft. He's left America top team. And he's reinventing himself. And he's fighting a guy in Halfald dos Sanchez,

who is now 2-0 as a Walterweight, who's coming off a dominant submission win over Neil Magny, also in Western Canada, Edmonton, to be exact. And together, they are going to put on one of the best fights of the year. I can guarantee you that. And the winner of this fight is going to fight

Tyron Woodley for the Welterweight title in 2018. That is a phenomenal main event on December 16th in Winnipeg. If that is not enough for you, my friends, we've got a hell of a lot more. Okay, so you want, let me just tell you about the Jordanian fight. I'll just go a little bit to the left. I'll go a little bit to the left. Jordanian, one of the great stars of Canadian M.M.A. Jordanian is one of the rising stars of Canadian M.A.

Yes, I know he's had some ups and downs. But let me tell you something. This guy has been fighting since he was a teenager, and he has promised me, He has personally promised me that he is going to come to fight on December 16th. And he's fighting a guy who's literally the mirror image of him because you could say the same about Eric Silva. He had all the hype in the world. He had all the buzz in the world. And things haven't gone his way.

We're going to put them together. We're going to see who's a better man. And then how about the fact that for the first time in his UFC career, Jose Aaldo is fighting for free on television? Not pay-per-view. You don't have to shell out $50, $60 to watch this band fight. Joseo is fighting for free on pay-per-view in a non-title fight against Ricardo Lamas. That may sound familiar.

Ricardo Lama's Joseo? I've seen that fight before. You've seen that fight before, Aaron, right? You remember that fight. Newark, UFC 169, Super Bowl weekend. They came together. Aldo beat him. Another great performance when he was the champion.

Now he's trying to get back on track. Now he's trying to reinvent himself. He just lost the belt to Max Holloway. And to me, I got to say, Aaron, to me, one of the most fascinating things about the fight game is seeing how a champion responds from losing his belt.

This is the first time that Jose Aldo in his UFC career is fighting in a non-title fight. And I want to see how he responds. And I want to see if Riccard Alamos has become a better fighter since UFC 169. I want to see if Ricardo Lamas can write the wrong of UFC 169.

Ricardo Lama's has been on a role. Jose Aldo has been stumbling a little bit, but I do believe that he still got it. And so I'm going to put them back in there together. And I'm going to see who emerge. And who can emerge? I'll tell you this, Aaron, who can emerge will be one of the top draws at 145 and it'll be oh so close to fighting for the belt once again, because make no mistake about it, both these guys are still very much in the mix. And so that's another fight that you're

getting for free. Jose Aldo versus Ricardo Lama's two is for free. And if that is not enough for you, how about this fight at 170? How about the fact that Santiago Ponsonibio went to Glasgow, Scotland, and knocked out Gunner Nelson? Gunner Nelson had never been knocked out before. People can't touch Gunner Nelson. And this relatively unknown Argentinian fighter went in there, enemy territory for all intents and purposes, and knocked out Gunner Nelson. This man is a one man wrecking ball. He is going in there, and all the fighters in the World Trade Division are saying like, oh, whoa, I don't want anything

to do with this guy. Santiago Ponzoinibio is coming to fight. And if you want to talk about fighters who come to fight, let me tell you something, Aaron, Mike Perry, Platinum Perry, the guy who gets the word platinum tattooed on his face, that man comes to fight. There is no more exciting fighter in the Walter 8 Division, I would put my life on it than platinum Mike Perry, and we're going to match him up. And the winner of this fight is going to be oh so close to getting into that title picture, and that's what they all want. Platinum, Mike Perry against Santiago Ponziabio on free television, we're making Fox great again.

We're making the UFC great again. We're putting together great fight cards. The back end of 2017 is our best stretch of the year. Yeah, we've had a bit of a slow year, but we are picking things up with Detroit, with Fresno, with 218, with 219, with 2, 19 with 217, things are picking up and there is no greater indication of that than our return to Winnipeg on December 16th. Fantastic fight cards. I can't wait for this fight and I can't wait to go back to Western Canada and give those fans what they deserve. Thank you, Aaron. Appreciate it. Can we get some of that? Can we get some of that love? Could we get some of that passion? Could we get some of that heat? Could we get some of that fire? Could we get some of that heat?

I want to care. I want to see. it. Where is it? He may not like me, but I love him. And I want to see that heat again. I want to see it again. And so here's the challenge. Let's see that heat. Let's see that promotion. If not, I'll just keep doing these videos. And these are on the house. This is my love for the sport. This is my love for all things, MMA and UFC. But when I see those in it, I want those, where has that promoter extraordinary gone? Where has it gone? Where is he? Thank you, sir. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you to all of you. Thank you to everyone at home. We will continue to to fight the good fight and get excited about these fights. I can tell you all about UFC Danzsk if

you want, but I'll save that, you know, for the great promotion that we're surely going to see later on in the week. Let's, let's demand more. Let's, let's see some more because here's the truth. Here's the truth. The truth of the matter is, the people follow the promoter and they want to get excited. When softballs are being thrown, how excited are you for GSPs return? You got to knock those out. You got to knock those out. You got to get people excited. People in the UFC tell me that Dana White, while on the exterior may be, you know, a little checked out, on the interior, he's still running the show. And they still follow his lead. And that's great. And I'm happy to hear that. But from an external standpoint, I want to see the guy who was on the stage in July,

in Toronto, having veins pop out of his neck telling us about how great Connor McGregor is. That guy still is there. If we're going to be UFC president, if we're going to be the promoter, I need to see that guy. I want to see that guy. I miss that guy. Where is that guy? And so that's my two cents on promotion and Winnipeg and whatnot. If I had my

Lipton iced tea, I would drink it right now. You know that one? Anyway, let's go to the MMA after hour. MMAFutting.com next 20 minutes or so we're going to be answering your questions. Hashtag the MMA hour. There's so much going on, as I said, dance.

I love saying Dansk. Mohiagan's son. All kinds of great things going on in the world of MMA. MMA is great. It may be violent to you, but to me it's beautiful. And I want to talk about it for the next 20 minutes. So I'll see you there. The after hour starts right now.

Boom. We are back. Okay, so someone's nitpicking and telling me that, in case you missed it, I mean, I'm assuming that those who are, watching the after hour we're watching the show on YouTube and Facebook and all that stuff. But someone tell me that it is called now the Bell MTS Center. It's no longer, oh, sorry, it's the Bell MTS place. It's no longer the MTS center. It's very hard to keep up with all these name changes, you know? But I feel like you got the point,

right? Listen, the Russian judge is not happy, but somebody else is okay. Oh my. All right. We got some questions. Let's answer him. What do you got? Let's start with what we always start with, the question of the week as per Ariel Hawani. Yes. Considering all the factors, the players' voice interview, the lawsuit, etc. Do you agree with the UFC's decision to remove Marc Hunt from UFC Sydney? What do the people say? I will drag up the numbers on that.

What is your feeling on the situation? Do you feel that they acted in the best interest of Marcant of the UFC? Okay, well, they definitely acted in the best interest of the UFC. the best interest of the UFC and there is a strong case to be made that they acted in the best interest of Mark Hunt as well. I don't know if there's like a black and white right answer here. What I will say is this. Okay, so I'll say this. Let's just talk about what we know, like the facts and then sort of the motives afterwards. So Mark Hunt does this interview with the player's voice and it's really like a first person account type of thing. It's like the Players Tribune. I didn't know that

there was an Australian version of that, but this is kind of, you know, it's like they're writing it, but obviously there's help involved. And in the article, he mentions, and it's really just like one paragraph, but he does mention how sometimes he slurs his words, he forgets things, and, but he says, his body feels good and he's going to fight until he dies, et cetera. And, but these are, you know, these are alarming sentences and not something you want to hear from an active fighter. I think that's safe to say. And so this piece comes out in September. And apparently, according to Mark Hunt and his manager, who I spoke to, they said that the UFC, you know, they were troubled by it and asked him to undergo further testing. And he did. And according to both Mark Hunt and his manager,

they passed whatever test they were asked to do. And I don't know the specific test, but that's what they said. So I took that information and went to the UFC and said, okay, this is what they're saying. Is that true? Did they pass the test you asked him to take? And if so, why was he removed from the fight against Marcien Tabura and replaced by Fabuzeo Redoom? I never heard back.

And so I want to know if that's true. A. If he did pass test that they asked him to take, why are they removing him from the fight? Now, let's forget about that. The comments are somewhat alarming and we can't deny the fact or ignore the fact that Mark

is involved in this lawsuit stemming from UFC 200. I do think that part of the decision comes from the fact that they're involved in this lawsuit, but for two reasons. A, they may not be on the best of terms. Maybe if they were on the best of terms, they wouldn't be so quick to remove him. But also B, Mark Hunt is involved in a lawsuit

in which he's essentially saying that they were reckless towards him, right? Like he's saying that they let Brock Lesnar fight him. He's claiming while knowing that he was abusing PEDs. And so he has proven to be somewhat litigious, right? So he is saying that I'm going to take you to court because I believe I'm going to sue you because I believe that you knew this and chose not to do anything about it. Well, isn't that the issue here too?

He's putting it out there. If something were to happen, God forbid a million times, I mean, could he come back and say, look, I told you, I did an interview. Why didn't you stop me? And so they're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. And so I agree with people who say that they made the right choice. I also understand people like myself who say, look, if you say that you passed it and you did

and you made the guy take extra test, why you're removing him from the card, I wish I had some kind of response to that. I don't yet. But I do think it was a tough call to make and I can't hate on it because of the history, because of the lawsuit,

because of what was said. If something were to happen, there is a precedent of him taking them to court and they have to cover their butt, right? Yeah. I think ultimately they're back to corner and this was necessary. Yeah, I mean, it's a tough spot and I feel for Mark and I know he regrets it.

And I'm surprised, honestly, that he did that kind of piece in the midst of a lawsuit because I wonder if his lawyer would have wanted him to do that because that's the crux of the issue right now. But yeah, they were in a tough, tough spot. I just want to know if he did take those extra tests and did in fact pass him, what gave them pause, why did they remove him ultimately? Yeah. So I think it's a developing story and not the last that we've heard of it.

But, I mean, back to the point. I mean, he's saying some pretty nasty things about Dana White. And to his credit, I don't miss the nasty Dana, but to his credit, he's taking the high road. He's not even going there with him. And he could go there if he wants to. He's being insulting. He is being disrespectful.

Yeah, and almost being sympathetic to what he's saying. 100%. Acknowledging what he's saying. 48% say that it was a correct decision. 52% said it was not. I think that's what I would expect that it would be very close and split.

6,271 votes. Okay. Say, ultimately, no, they do not agree with the decision to remove Mark Hunt, but by a slim margin. Question number two, any news regarding the U.S. TV deal with Fox? Have there been any other potential suitors? Where do we stand against?

Well, the exclusive negotiation period is up. it officially expires next December. And I'm so fascinated by the story, I can't get enough of this story. I'm so curious to see where the UFC lands. What kind of deal they get? How much is it worth? I mean, they were banking on something big

when they sold the company for $4 billion and when it was bought for $4 billion. And so I'm really curious to see if they land on Fox again, if it's an exclusive deal, if it's a splinter deal, if there's a player like an Amazon involved, I feel like there's a lot of things.

If ESPN's involved, I feel like there's a lot of unknowns here. And so I think that this is going to be one of the most interesting stories to follow next year. Like, you know, at the end of the year when we do our story to watch for 2018, I already know mine. It's this, at least for me. Again, as I said earlier, the minutia, the business, pay-per-view buys, promotion, posters, all that stuff. I'm fascinated by. And so there really isn't any news. I did hear that Amazon is interested in getting into the programming business, but

I don't know to what degree, you know, I don't know if that's with the UFC and how would someone like an Amazon play when you have FightPass, right? I'm curious to see if they do less shows. I'm curious to see if they scale back. I think all those things are at play. Maybe less pay-per-views, more free fight cards. But to answer the question in a roundabout way, there's no real actual news. I think you just touched on this now. Michael was asking any news on how many USC events we can expect next year. As part of the TV deal, does it mean we get more pay-per-view and less free cards? Doesn't mean we get more free cards and less pay-per-view.

But I suppose we'll have to see how this develops before we can really point to that. Well, and also, just to be clear, next year is the same. So people have been saying, like, oh, you should do fewer cards next year. Well, the cards up until the end of 2018 are already bought and paid for. Fox has asked for those cards. They've bought those cards. You know, like they have a set amount of cards that they have to deliver. So they can't get out of it unless they restructured the deal.

They can't actually be like, all right, you know, we're going to do 25 fight cards this year because we want to. So next year is the same. It's the year after that. It's heading into 2019 and beyond that things may change. After that, Ali Beasley is asking. My man, Ollie. Great dude. Thank you for the Leicester City jersey or the kit.

The kit. Asking if we would see a reduction in pay-per-views. I think that's possible. And would that help Bellator? I guess the logic there being that if paperviews are down, then percentage of people getting pay-per-view money would be down, and therefore, Bellator looks like an increasingly appealing option. I mean, I think if they go, if they zig, you know, Belator may zag. I think the Reebok deal has helped them to a degree. Certain of things will help along the way. I don't know if a decrease in pay-per-view. But I do think that decreasing the pay-per-view at this juncture might be a smart bet.

I really think that everything's on the table at this point, but I would advocate for less shows. I do think that less is more quality over quantity. You know, I'm not the one who's, you know, in the, you know, the meetings and on the business side of things, but from my seat trying to make the cards as deep as possible, I would vouch for that. Is Gaygar-Musasi's legacy hurt by not having won UFC gold? No. Is having, you know, the Bellator title?

or the Strike Force title, which he captured enough? Yeah, I think it's enough. I agree. I think his legacy is pretty set. I mean, look, people remember how it kind of went and how things slowed down for him. And, you know, unfortunately, he didn't get the title fight, but there's a little bit of politics involved there, and I don't view him any differently.

Belator and UFC are both attempting to build a flyway division. Who's more likely to go after McKenzie Dern? or too early to say. Oh, no, the UFC. I've reported this in the past. They have her sort of in their training camp. You know, like one of those deals, not quite as lucrative as the cyborg deal,

but they're not giving her up. Whether or not she ends up fighting there, but, you know, that remains to be seen. But, yeah, I would be shocked if she went to Bellator over the UFC, at least right now, unless something changes. Based on that Instagram post, I think we know the answer to this, but who do you think Connor

is after, does he want the money fight, which I imagine is Diaz, or do you think he wants to prove to be a worthy champ, which is Tony Ferguson? I think both. Defend the title against the money fight. And that's the debate. But does that prove that he's a worthy champ?

I mean, if he defends the title... Because that is not the number one contender or the interim champion. I mean, I mean, that's the, you know, like that, he wants to defend the title. The big question is, is there a difference between...

is there a difference, like, how big of a gap is there pay-per-view buys wise between Connor Diaz and Connor Ferguson? Is it a gap of a million? Or is it a gap of like $2.50 at this point? Because Connor gets you as a million, right? Connor gets anyone. Connor gets his flag as a million, right?

Connor is just, you could bank on him getting a million, right? Sure. And so the question is, how big of a gap is there between, Well, if you're going based on the last pay-per-view, the gap could be relatively large. If you're going based on the reported numbers from this last pay-per-view, it may matter. Speaking of that, do you think the fact that U.S. 217 only did 125,000 pay-per-view buys hurts 20 chances in getting that fight? Do you think that's something that can be pointed to is saying, not ready? I think that a few factors were involved there.

I do think that that is a strike against him and I think that he meant 216, that's what I was like to do that. Right, 216, 217 is coming up. I mean, it's a bit of a strike. There's been a lot going on. I think an interim title fight

doesn't really do it for people. I think the UFC thinks that they could just slap a title fight on a fight and say, hey, you know, here's a title fight. I think people are a little smarter than that. I think that Kevin Lee isn't the biggest name right now. I think that he could very well be a star.

and so I think that a few factors where I play here was at the deepest card of all time but you could say it's a strike I still think that him versus Tony does over a million now how remember I said that I thought that Nate versus Tony does a million as well so the question is that's still the case do you think that Nate has lost some shine

I don't think he's lost some shine I mean he has to get back into it a little bit I would not imagine that Nate and Tony does a million You know, July, when I said that, it was around May, and it was after like our interview and it still felt like there was a lot of buzz. But I really get the impression right now that people want to see the Tony Connor fight. I feel like that's the one that people, that I get the most feedback about. And so, yeah, I don't know if that does a million at the moment. But I still think that Nate is a very, very, very big draw.

A needle mover, as they say. Yeah. I mean, how much media he's going to do and all that, you know, there's a direct correlation there. I think the answer to this is straightforward, but I'll ask you, do you think Bisping is starting to annoy or get under the skin of GSP during the interviews and press conferences? I'll say this about this fight. I really appreciate the fact that they are going the extra mile. Like, it's clear that they want to try to tell the people that this is a big deal.

Now, whether all these interviews, you know, these, I should say, press conferences are getting the point across at how big of a deal it is to have GSP come back? I don't know if that's actually working. You know, like, I don't know if it's, we'll find out, you know, on November 4th and subsequent days. But they're trying. They sent them to Toronto. I like the fact that it was at the Hockey Hall of Fame, but in hindsight, I feel like they could have drawn a bigger crowd and had it come across via the internet that it was a big deal to the people of Canada. Because I think they could only allow like less than 100 people in there. I thought it was awesome that they had them drop the puck at the bell center on Saturday night.

And I don't know if you saw that clip. I'm shocked it wasn't in Rick's picks, quite frankly. I think that it was an anti-Canadian stance on your part. But did you hear the crowd? I cannot confirm or deny the anti-Canadian stance. Did you hear the crowd chanting GSP and the ovation that they gave him? It was phenomenal. People in Montreal still care.

And it kind of made me feel like this fight should be happening in Montreal because it would have been an instant sellout. They are trying. Bisping is trying. I don't know if people feel like it's a fabricated feud. I don't know what it is. But Bisping is trying. He's certainly trying.

Think about GSP when he gets close to a fight. When he was retired, quote unquote retired, he was one of the most fascinating people in the sport. Like I would argue he was the best interview in the sport. He was unfiltered. He would talk about all kinds of cool things like unions and things like that. But now that he's like gearing up for a fight, it gets,

he kind of like comes down to here and he doesn't really want to open up because he's getting into that zone. He's always been like that. So I'm really curious to see what the by rate is. Getting him out of that zone? is he getting to him? I mean, I think clearly Bisbing's getting to him, in my opinion.

A little bit. I think a little bit. I don't know if that will matter in the fight, but I think... Bisping has been phenomenal, though. He has had to break out his... This is the best antagonist in M.M.A. It's just so great. And I love the fact that he owns it, that he enjoys it.

He will create friction where there is none or none existed previously. By the way, quick side note, speaking of GSP, I know most of our audience doesn't speak French, but Patrick Cote hosts a podcast. You could find it on his Twitter feed. I think it's called Upper Cut MMA.

And it's in French. But he had Christoph Mdu on the podcast this past week, who is GSP's mentor. You'll recall heading into the Johnny Hendrix fight at UFC 163. It was Christoph who said that George was going to retire and he ended up being correct. This interview is kind of shocking. Medu says that he recently watched like this past week

watched GSP Spar, said he didn't like what he saw, said he wasn't in favor of the comeback, said he won't be going to New York. Like, he was very, very, very negative towards this whole experience. He said he didn't think that he should be fighting Bisp being like, this isn't just a pundit. This is GSP's mentor. Said that he sent him a long message about his thoughts. Now, some people associate told me after the fact that he's upset that he's not going to be in the corner. Freddie Roach is going to be in his corner this time and maybe he got the boot. But to hear someone who's that close to GSP say that was kind of shocking. So if you do speak French, A, I highly recommend listening to Cote's podcast on a weekly basis. He does a great job with his

co-host, whose name escapes me at this moment. I think it's JP. I highly recommend that. They have a great, you know, take on things. But this particular interview, if you speak French, I highly recommend. Just to hear someone who's that close to GSP speak like that is, is somewhat mind blowing. People's main event for Dansk? I think you gotta go. I mean, Soroni is kind of like that guy, you know? Ugh. No?

You always go main event, people's main event all the time now. Is that too? Give me, dig deep. Is this not an indication, by the way, that the cards are a little top heavy? Okay, you want something? Well, I mean, okay, the next thing, in my mind, I was battling between it, but if you want something, if you're dying for something,

and you're right, that's a cop out. Anytime the Russian hammer fights. Okay. You got to give it to the goat. Now we're talking. You got to give it to the goat. The Russian hammer, Artem Lobov is back. He meets Andre Fili on Saturday.

And what a great message he sent me earlier today. I checked in with him and asked him if Ophelia was going to get in the way of his traveling. And this is what he said to me. He said, a hurricane will not stop the Russian hammer. I will walk to my fight if I have to. Ready to kill. Prepare to die as always. I mean, what a guy.

What a legend. So yes, Artem Lobov versus. Andre Feeley, your people's main event on Saturday in Dance but you know I'm looking forward to to Jody Escobel's UFC debut against Karolina Kovicavich, Darren Till versus Donald Soroni. There's a few things to get excited

about there. Boom, Keller returns. Yes, the man who said that he'd be listening to the podcast on his way to Poland. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Did you see that? I did see that. He tweeted me. He said... Shout out to Brian. Yeah, it's a big fight for him. Marcheen Health, as I mentioned Keller is fighting Damien Stasiak.

Sam Alvey is on the card. Aspen Ladd, our pal Aspen Ladd, making her debut. She's supposed to debut back in July. She's fighting Lena Landsberg. Josh Emmett's on it. Jan Blachowitz. So there's some names. But yes, Artem Lobov, people's main event.

Always lock. If Colby Covington has a fantastic performance against Maya, do you see any way that he could leapfrog RDA and Lawler into the title picture? sure. No. I think that's accurate. Yeah, I don't think so. Be tough. If we had to make a USA versus the world fight card, who would be on that card? And I think inspired, obviously, sometimes this is seen in other sports. Would the USA team do well? Is it a reasonable question. Yeah, that is a reasonable question. You know, one of my favorite UFC cards of all time was

the USA versus Canada won, UFC. That was awesome. And I love when they do sort of the gimmick cards like the all heavyweight card UFC 146 I believe it was I love that stuff or maybe it was 160 it was one of those

I always get confused between those two but because of King Velasca's against Bigfoot Silva I mean can't go through the whole card but yeah

I don't know if because yeah I would have to say that I would favor the world I mean let's just look at the champions right now Miotich American Kormier American Bispang

World so there's one Woodley American Connor World Holloway's American Cody's American DJ's American It's pretty good

so far for champs The Americans Yuana is world Manda Nunes is world We don't have 125 of Chris Cyborg So it's interesting how on the female side of things

it's more worldly than American But yeah I would love that I would be all in The more gimmicks the better I like it Horizon. Someone like that should do that. You remember when Beltor did U.S. versus U.K.?

I enjoyed that. I do. Okay, we had a tweet about elaborating on one of your tweets. This was in regard to something you said about seeing something promotional. That was the Aaron Bronstetter. Yes. Listen, I can't give it all. I can't give

it all away for free. You asked Ariel addressed what he And by the way, so he asked, you know, I mentioned that there was something that kind of blew me away promotionally. By the way, that's called promotion,

what I did. Wow. You understand? Did I just blow your mind? You just blew my mind. Have you ever watched the show kingdom? I have not. As an MMA journalist character

that may have been inspired by you. Okay, so I'll say this about the show. Jonathan Tucker, who is on the program, or I think the show is over, so it was on the program, actually came up to me one time at an event

when I was working for Fox and said, we'd love for you to be in the show. And I was like, holy crap, that would be awesome. I've always felt like I had some acting chops in me. Sure, I would love to be a part of it. And then, of course, nothing came of it. Some people have sent me a tweet saying or two saying like,

oh, you know, there's a guy in kingdom. I must admit, I've never seen it. It's the first time I've seen this fine gentleman. Do you think, have you seen the show? I've not. Do you think that this guy is inspired by me? Maybe the former, you know, Afro. Yeah, you got the afro, you got the facial hair.

I mean, if I'm being on a... The plaid shirt is the biggest homage, the biggest hat tip. But I'm not a short sleeve plaid shirt guy. Yeah, look, you can't replicate the exact. Exactly, otherwise... I feel like they tried to go super nerdy on me here, and quite frankly, if they did...

Say, they know that. Yeah, it's a bit of a snap in the face. I think... I can't say that it was a bad decision to... Long-sleeved plaid, I can live with that. Short-slee plaid, get out of here. GtFO. the people are asking for a ringtone

with you talking over it stepping all over it because that is the authentic version there you go make it happen so maybe we'll do that for charity next and by the way watch all the the proceeds just skyrocket afterwards and that is it for the questions I thought that there was one more

nope that was it all right that is it thank you very much for all the questions a couple other things before we go again ally Quinta versus Paul Felder in Detroit love it or hate it Love, love, love, love. Who would have thought, right? Do you agree with me that they should have done Swanson Aldo instead of Ortega, Swanson, and done... Swanson Aldo Ortega Lamas? I like the way you arranged it, yes, a little bit better.

Although I'm not mad at any of them. They're great fights. RDA has been pushing for an interim belt being on the line against... Absolutely not. Not in any circumstance, in any world, in any universe, zero interest in seeing that for a... I love the fact that he was like, he was like, everyone's talking about the interim title. Remember that?

Did you see that tweet? Nobody's talking about the interim. I mean, Tyrone Woodley, regardless of what you may think of him as a human being and fighter, he has been one of the most active champions in the UFC. Wait, rewind. What do you mean by that? Like, regardless of what I mean, what are you talking about? Some people don't like him.

Some people love him. Some people will hate him. It doesn't matter. You can't deny the fact that he's one of the most active, if not the most active, if not the most active champion of the past year or so. If you don't like Tyron Woodley, check yourself. That dude is... Newsflash.

There are people who don't like every champion in the UFC, and Woodley's one of them. This is the first time you hear of this? Not the first time I hear of it, but do something about this, people. Okay. So, yeah, no to that. Definitely not. Walt Harris versus Mark Godbear has been moved to 2017.

That's the right move. That is the right move. Greg Hardy is making his amateur MMA debut on November 4th. You in or you out? Yeah. It's hard for me to feel good about that one. James Galaher is out of his fight next month in Dublin. Fortunate, yeah.

That's a bit of a bummer. He'll hopefully be back in 2018, suffered a knee injury. So that is serious stuff. Jesse Taylor got a one-year suspension from Usada. So that is an unfortunate ending to one of the best stories of the year. And Hajer Gracie has announced his retirement. favorite Haasier Gracie moment? Don't know.

Couldn't tell you. John Goddy the 3rd. Wait, time out. What's yours? Oh, I was just kind of running through the news here. Yeah, sure. Tell me yours. But wait, John Gotti the 3rd is going to be making his...

I saw that. That's an interesting. MMA debut on October 27th for CES. By the way, I was walking down the streets of New York maybe, I don't know, two or three months ago. And John Gotti the 3 got out of a taxi and came up. to me and was like, hey, Ariel, I'm John Gotti the third, I'm going to be making my MMA debut, you're going to remember me.

You're going to be talking to me one day. And I was like, what? John Gotti? That's great. I'd even know that he was actually like a fighter. I also love how he comes straight out of the car with I'm John Gotti the third. Heck yeah. Remember me. So that's to come. Haja Gracie. I'll go with his win over Kevin

Randleman, the late great Kevin Randleman in St. Louis for Strike Force. Wow. Well done. How about that? Picked one right off Wikipedia. Boom. I was there. You liar. You should apologize. And that is that.

That is Hajie Gracie. All right. We are done. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks to all of you in the back. Thanks to everyone at home. It's time to go home.

It's time to call it a day. What a fun show. It has been. What a fun afternoon. It has been talking a little mixed martial arts with all of you. And so like I said at the top, a relatively quiet week in the world of MMA. but that all changes this weekend. Belator is back and you can make a strong case that their main event

featuring Gagar Musassi and Alexander Schlamenco is the most intriguing fight of the weekend. I think top to bottom, the UFC card is a little better, but can't wait to see Gagar Musassi debut for Belator and see how he looks and see if he can have the kind of performance that Rory McDonald did in his debut, get some momentum, fight for the belt, and we'll see what happens there. I think that there's a lot riding on that fight for Belator,

and I'm curious to see how Mr. Musasi responds. Really enjoyed having him in studio, by the way. Not often that he's around these parts, so that was really cool. I appreciate him and his team, and of course, Beltor for hooking us up. Thank you very much to Carolina Kovalkevich. A lot of fun to talk to her.

I know she's a little short on words at times, but I thought it was cool. Having her on the program, and I wish her the best against Jody Escobel. Thank you very much to Mark Goddard. Keep up the great work, my friend. Thank you very much to Henry Sehudo. What a crazy story that was.

So glad to hear that he is okay, that he is feeling okay, that he survived the fires last week in California. Thank you very much to Derek Lewis. Get well soon. Thank you for coming on. Get well soon to Kevin Lee. Appreciate his time as well. Again, as I said, thank you very much to Gary Musassi, Mazel Tov to Giuliana Pena and her fiance.

And thank you very much to the one and only, Habib Nurma Gama Madhav for stopping by. Great to see him back as well. Back next week. Same time and place. Until I say, peace. So, Mario.