MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 406

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

Ariel Helwani speaks to Chris Holdsworth (00:27:25), Mike Perry (00:49:12), Darren Till (01:13:06) in studio, Jorge Masvidal (01:59:00), Derek Brunson (02:13:39), Alexey Oleynik (02:37:16) in studio, Mark Hunt (03:22:21), Colby Covington (03:47:38), Kamaru Usman (04:08:49), and NewYorkRic for Ric's Picks (04:20:09) and to answer your questions during The MMA [After] Hour (04:40:11). 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 1-8665-3-3-2-60 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 back in your life on this Monday, October 30th, 2017. Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a lovely week.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. It is so great to be back inside this studio. I have missed it. Last time we spoke, seven days ago, you may recall, my voice was a little shot. I was a little under the weather. And little did I know that was the early stages of strep throat. I have never had strep throat in my life. But I did have it last week.

I think I still have it. But I only figured out that I had it on Friday afternoon. from Tuesday to around Friday, all I had to eat was three pieces of bread. It was not a fun few days. In fact, for the first time in my career, 10 years, I missed an assignment of any kind, work-related, whether it was the MMA hour, the MMA beat, UFC Tonight, an event, interviews, anything. Work-related. First time in my career, as an MMA journalist, I,

miswork due to an illness. I could not come in to do the MMA beat on Thursday because I was so sick, I couldn't get out of bed. And at first I thought it was the flu, and then it just kept dragging on and on, and it felt like I was swallowing a machete. And then finally come Friday, I started to get worried because my daughter, my angel, my beautiful Claire, was turning one on Saturday, and I wanted to be somewhat fit to celebrate her big day. And so I went to the doctor, and the doctor told me that I had strip throat. And so then I started to take medication. And now I'm starting to feel a little better. I still feel under the weather, but I can swallow, which is great. And I don't have a lot of energy, but you know what? I can't complain. And being here in this studio has me very excited. I feel

somewhat rejuvenated. And of course, I have to be rejuvenated. I have to be excited. I have to be full of energy because it's a very important week here in New York. It's the start of UFC 217 fight week. It's MSG Part 2 for the UFC, right? It's a big deal. It's the return of George St. Pierre. It's the big one. It's three title fights on one card. It's arguably better than the first go-around almost a year ago.

It's the UFC back at the world's most famous arena, home of your New York Knicks, who, by the way, have won two in a row, including last night's big win over the defending Easter Conference champions, the Cavalier's of Cleveland, and it was a great win, and everyone's very excited here. here in New York about all things, Knickerbockers, and of course, all things UFC. So I had to come in

and I'm very excited to be here and I'm very happy to be here. And we have a loaded show. We have much to discuss as always because the UFC had an event this past weekend in Brazil in San Paulo. And a couple of really interesting things happened. Overall, it was an entertaining card, some nice performances, some breakout performances. But a few things happened at the top that really caught my eye. So I want to talk about those at the top of today's show. Let me quickly run down today's lineup and then I'll share some thoughts before we get to our first guest of the day. How about that? And also I'll tell you about our good friends over at Toyota tires. But first let me run down today's show. 440. We're going to talk to the talk of the MMA world right now. Colby Covington.

Wow. I'll get to him in a second. But just of note, 440, he'll be on to talk about what happened on Saturday. His big win over Damien Maya. His comments where he goes from here. all that and more. I am looking forward to that. 420, we're going to be joined by Mark Hunt and his lawyer, Christina Denning. They were both on together last year, and maybe it was around a year and a half ago. And of course they are back because Mark Hunt was pulled from UFC Sydney.

And we know about that situation because we've talked about it at length, but there's a new wrinkle to it because Dana White penned a letter to the telegraph in Sydney explaining why he removed Mark Hunt and so we'll talk about that and where he goes from here and what's going on, the extra testing,

state of his career, all that and more. At four, we'll have Rick's picks. At 3.30, Alexei Olinick will join us in studio. The boa constrictor himself. He'll be in studio to preview his UFC 217 fight against Curtis Blades. How about that? big heavyweight fight on the card

Alexei Olinic including a translator in tow will be here in studio at 3.30 to discuss UFC 217. 310 Derek Brunson who won on Saturday who knocked out Leonardo Machita he'll be on to talk about that big win

his new haircut which didn't get enough attention in my opinion and his call out of Luke Rockhold all that and more so that's 310 Derek Brunson. 250 Jorge Mazvedal will be on. Looking forward to talking to him. Jorge Mazvedal was supposed to be in studio. Of course, he fights Wonderboy Thompson on Saturday, UFC 217 on the main card. Unfortunately, he was on the runway for what was,

I don't know, something close to, I think, five hours I was told. Yesterday here in the tri-state area, torrential downpour. We haven't had rain like this and wind like this in quite some time. And his flight got canceled ultimately. So he's coming today. Can't be in studio, but kind enough to join us via the phone. And so I'm looking forward to talking to the game bread. I was hoping to have him in. Always fun. He was on in studio once before, but nevertheless, we'll still talk to him.

205. Darren Till is back and he'll be in studio. He's in New York, I think on holiday. And he's kind enough to come back for the second week in a row. Hopefully, no drama this time. So we'll talk to one of the newest sensations in the UFC, the rising star of the undefeated, Darren Till. Liverpool's own Darren Till will be sitting right over there.

at 205. 145, Mike Perry will be joining us. Looking forward to talking to Platinum about his trip to Europe, the Ponziubio fight, and more. And then at 125, we'll talk to Chris Holdsworth,

who is a coach over at Team Alpha Mail. Of course, one of the coaches for Cody Garbrand, who fights T.J. Dilashaw this weekend. And he has been a part of this story with T.J. Dilashaw and Cody Garbrand,

because Cody and Uri Fabor and others have accused T.J. Dillishaw of ending Holdsworth career. Remember, Chris Holdsworth was on that season of the Ultimate Fighter with Ronda and Misha and undefeated in the UFC, undefeated in his career, 6 and O,

looked to be a bright young star, and then his career just stopped. He was on this show before, I think it was around two years ago, talking about dealing with concussions. Well, he wants to talk a little more about it all. And these accusations, his name has been thrown around.

He wants to weigh in. And we'll talk to him at around 125 p.m. Eastern time. Today's episode of the MMA hour, my friends, is brought you by our good friends over at Toyo Tires. Speaking of Mr. Cody Garbrand, he is finally back at UFC 217. He is back for the first time in almost a year, 11 months to be exact. Can't wait to see him back in action. Can't wait to see if he is able to build on the amazing performance.

Remember that performance against Dominic Cruz, how great he looked, the head movement, the dancing, cruise was straight up missing, whiffing. It was unbelievable. Supposedly looking great in training camp. Everyone very excited about his return. And he is tough as nails. That's what they say. That's what they tell me. I can vouch for it. You know what else is tough as nails? Toyo tires. They are built for battle just like Cody Garbrandt. It's an all or nothing philosophy that he shares. Durability, aggressive design, on and off-road capabilities, yes to all of them, living life on the highway. Toyo has you covered spending some serious time off road. They have a tire for that too. No matter what you drive, Toyo has what you need. And frankly,

these tires just look so cool. Any vehicle, every terrain, all or nothing, Toyota tires. Next time you need tires, just ask for Toyo. Friends of the show. Friends of the program. Longtime friends of MMA. Longtime UFC sponsor as well. Go to Toyottyers.com backslash UFC to learn more, to support them. They support us. Let's support them. Thank you very much to Toyo Tires. All right. So, as I said, this past weekend, UFC was in Sao Paulo. The main event featured Derek Brunson, knocking out-o-Machita, who had been out of action for almost two years, of course, due to the Usada suspension, knocked about with the big left. Impressive showing once again by Derek Brunton. Afterwards, he calls out Luke Rockhold.

Awesome. But that really wasn't, in my opinion, the big story of the weekend. The big story of the weekend was Colby Covington. And he was the big story of the week going into the fight against Damien Maya, and he was an even bigger story after the fact. So why was he a big story going into the fight? Well, he said a lot about Damien Maya. He has been saying a lot about Tyron Woodley,

who just so happens to be a teammate of his at the American Top Team. he has been very active on Twitter taking shots at everyone SBG, Darren Till I mean if you're in the news he's taking a shot he took shots at me the guy clearly over the last six or so months

has figured out that if he ruffles some feathers he will get noticed in the past I refer to him as having Xbox heat which if you don't know what that means is Xbox was this pro wrestler

who had changed the channel kind of heat. Like there's heat where you want to sit there and see a guy get his ass beat, you know, like what Floyd Mayweather has. And then there's this heat that they call Xbox heat where it's like, I don't really care about this guy. I'm going to change channel. I'm not going to buy tickets to watch him compete. Now, I always thought that that was a little mean towards Xbox,

and I don't think he actually had that sort of heat. But it's a thing that just sort of became a thing. in the world of pro wrestling. And so I said that coming thing, because his trash talk and his demeanor was a little cringe-worthy at times and felt forced, but something has clicked along the way.

And so he picks a fight with Damien Maya, and that's an opponent that no one really wants to fight because he makes everyone look bad. And even in victory, you can look bad. Just ask Tyron Woodley, I mean, not his greatest performance, even in a victory in the dominant, when people were upset about it,

UFC taking away supposedly the George St. Pierre fight as a result of the performance. But he takes the fight and he says yeah, I'll take the fight and I'll also go to Brazil and fight the guy. And Damien May is the kind of guy who's beloved by everyone, who's always respectful, who's always saying the right things, who's a great ambassador for the sport,

who's, you know, one of the faces of MMA in Brazil, and he's just taking shots in him all day and Maya's not saying anything. And last week on the show, he comes on, he starts calling, you know, he's there, he's in Brazil already, and he's calling it a dump, and he says he hates the people, and he doesn't get out of his room,

and he can't wait to retire, Maya, all this stuff for more, and he keeps it up in front of the people at the open workouts. He's making gestures at the way, and he's making gestures. Well, what happens? He goes into the fight,

and he wins, and he bluddies up, Maya. And he makes Maya look a little bit old, although Maya, you know, brought a good fight to him and in the first round came out swinging, but Covington won that fight, fair and square.

He out Maya, Damian Maya. He out hustled him. He outgrinded him. He beat him up. And he won. And the people in Sao Paulo have clearly been listening to what Colby Covington has been saying and also probably upset that a resident of Sao Paulo, Damian Maia, just got beat up. And they're showering him with booze afterwards. And what does he do? He gets on the mic and he says, this place is a dump. You're a bunch of filthy animals. And, you know, Tyrone Woodley. And I don't know if he keeps calling Tyrone. Woodley, Tyrone, just to piss him off. But I think he should keep it up.

He calls him out as well. And there you have Daniel Cormier, who I'll get to in a second, asking some questions, almost like hyping him up even more. And then finally he is ushered out there. He pushes away the translator. There is no translation involved,

which is probably a nice thing for the young translator, Derek, there, not to have to translate that stuff into Portuguese. And he leaves the arena just escorted by security, being pelted with all kinds of garbage. He told me afterwards when I was texting with him

that he had security on his hotel floor outside his room, and they took him to the airport as well. Like they did not leave him unattended. And then afterwards, this, you know, this caused a lot of, you know, discussion, a lot of, a lot of, you know, people weighing in on whether or not he crossed the line, whether he was racist, whether he was offensive.

So he actually goes on Twitter, Colby Covington does, and he tweets out my formal apology for UFC Sao Paulo. He says, this is what the statement, which has 4,200 likes and 1,400 retweets. I went to work last week. I was screamed at, spit at, assaulted with water bottles and other objects by an angry mob, and serenaded by a thousand voices yelling, you are going to die, quote unquote. My employer had to play security at my hotel room to protect me. I would like to formally apologize to any filthy animal I offended by comparing them to my host in Sao Paulo. So of course, you know, the classic switcheroo. And this has bothered people even more and people are getting upset and saying that he's crossed the line, all this stuff,

and more. And so these are my thoughts on Colby Cummington. A couple weeks ago, someone asked me on the show. Is there any way in which you can see a scenario where Kobe Covington beats Damia and then he skips the line and gets a title shot against Tyrone Woodley? I offered a one word response to that question. I said no. Nothing else. I just said no. I completely dismissed it. I did not even think of it. I said to myself, there is no chance in hell, even if he knocks him out that he's going to skip the line. Mia Kulpa, I'm here to say he has officially skipped the line, not cross the line, he has officially

skipped the line. Colby Covington has skipped the line. He is now, in my opinion, the number one contender at 170. The UFC should book Colby Covington versus Tyron Woodley next. It would be, in my opinion, a big mistake if they don't book that fight next. And if you're wondering if I think he crossed the line, he did not cross the line. I'll tell you why. Because what Kobe Covington said about Brazil,

was not exclusive to Brazil. He could have been in Canada. He could have been in Australia. He could have been in Europe. He could have been in the United States. He could have been in South America, which he was, Central America. He could have been anywhere on this planet and called it a dump. He could have called the residence of the city where he was standing in, filthy animals,

and it would have applied. You could say that to anyone. In fact, in fact, it has been said in the world. of pro wrestling, which is the playbook that he is stealing from for decades. It reminded me of Andy Kaufman in the 70s. Andy Kaufman, the comedian, turned pro wrestler who had this feud with Jerry the King Lawler, came out and said, this is a bar of soap. You people stink. You people in Memphis smell. This is what you do with the soap. You put it under your armpits. You clean yourself. That's how you stop smelling. He said way worse about women in Memphis. And what did people in Memphis want to do? They

wanted to see him get his ass whooped. And then what happened? Jerry Lawler came in, the pride of Memphis, and picked him up, and piled drove him and broke his neck, quote unquote, and they made tons of money. And it was one of the greatest feuds in the history of pro wrestling, not just Memphis pro wrestling, in the history of pro wrestling. There's a movie about it called Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey, I suggest you check it out if you're into this sort of thing. And so what Colby Coving needs to do.

And by the way, you can argue actually not that well. he's not even doing it that well but he is actually stealing the oldest playbook in the game and everyone who is saying that I'm offended that he crossed the line is just playing right into his hands. It is brilliant. Chale Sondon did it. Many have done it

not just in MMA, not just in boxing in pro wrestling. This has been happening in combat sports for decades and decades again. Now if he used homophobic slurs or anything specific to Brazilians, I said, yeah, you should be offended. He said nothing that was exclusive to Brazil.

He was just trying to rile all you people up and you fed right into it and you ate right into it. And guess who's eating right into it too? Guess who's just eating it right up? It's Tyrone Woodley. I asked Taran Woodley to come on the show today and he respectfully declined and I am totally okay with that. He has always made time for us and then some.

Sometimes and none of the best of times. But he's like, MMA is better than this. I'm not going to give this guy shine, fight past phenom. And to me, I'm like, Tyron, you should be celebrating this. This is a perfect opportunity for you. Everyone wants to see Kobe Covington get his ass whooped. Shut up, get his face smothered in the ground, in the mat, tapped out, knocked out. That's what we're in this for.

That's the game here. Either they want to be loved or to be hated. If you're in between, you're making no money. Kobe Covington has figured out a way to get people to hate him. And the beauty of that is people are going to pay money to see him get his ass whipped. And here comes Tyrone Woodley to shut him up. Put that fight in St. Louis and you'll see how Tyrone Woodley comes across. He'll come across as the hero.

That's what he's been wanting. That's what he's been asking for. That's what he's been seeking. He's been thirsting for that. Make that fight in St. Louis in early 2018. And you'll see how the champ comes across and you'll see how the challenger comes across. the champ has been dying for someone like this. Who has he had so far? Wonder Boy Thompson, the classiest of individuals, you'd never go there. Damien Maid, the classiest of individuals,

he'd never go there. He hasn't had that foil. This is a gift. This is a gift. Colby has to be careful. Don't cross the line. Don't get racist. Don't get homophobic. And all those things. Don't use slurs. He's not doing that right now. He's using the cheapest insults. And by the way, then he's going to talk to MMA junkie and he's like, look, I spoke to Maya afterwards. I respect the guy. I like the guy. I shook his hand. No, stop saying that. Look at what Chale did. Chale said way worse about Brazil, way worse about Anderson. And by the way, two wrongs don't make a right here. I'm not saying that. But look what Chale and Anderson ended up doing. Anderson became a god, became a multimillionaire,

as did Shale. Look who Chale was before all of them. that. Chale went into UFC 104 against Usional Kami and said, what the hell? I'm not even on TV. This is BS. My opponent can't even speak. I'm tired of this. Beats him. Starts talking about Anderson. Gets the Marquard fight. I remember being there. UFC 109. Everyone was like, is Chale Sondent actually going to get a title fight if he beats St. Markquard? He wasn't even in the realm of the title picture. He wasn't even in the vicinity. He wasn't even in like at a thousand mile radius. beat's name Marquard and all of a sudden he says I'm going to walk into that locker room

and tell Anderson Silva to turn off his music at the play some country music I mean he tapped into all those things he was called a race baiter he was called you know anti-Brazilian the worst kind of American

Kobe hasn't gone there and I don't suggest that he goes there he's doing pro wrestling 101 this was what Hulk Hogan and Iron Sheik was all about Sergeant Slaughter in the 90s I mean you could go down the list we could talk about the history

of using this kind of stuff forever. Go into a town, call everyone Bums, beat their hero, and then get out. So now the Brazil thing is done. He needs to drop that and focus on Tyron. But when you're watching that scene, and by the way, Colby Cummington

should send Daniel Cormier a basket. Cormier is perfect in this scenario for this reason. Cormier is a pro wrestling fan. Cormier understands the art of putting someone over. Cormier understands what it could do for a guy if you put him over. And he has no He doesn't care that he's a champ.

He doesn't care he's Daniel Cormier. He loves it. Look at the look on his face. He's yelling Colby Covington. It's fun. This is combat sports. This is cage fighting. Stop trying to make it so PC every step of the way.

I saw people talking about, you know, did Yawanna on J-check? Last week I'm on, you know, I'm in bed. Did she cross the line? Again, as I said, with the jersey and Floyd Mayweather and Connor, if you are offended, by the spectacle of combat sports, it's probably best to look away. There's a lot in this game that doesn't apply to other sports.

You can't play by the same rules here. Now, you know, on Friday, in the World Series, we had an ugly situation where a player on the Astros mock U. Darvish of the Dodgers. That was offensive. That was playing on stereotypes. That was an insult.

That was offensive to Asian people. He should be punished for that. And I think the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred got that wrong. But again, Colby did not go there at all. He just called, he said, you guys are bums and your filthy animals. He could say that to Montrealers. He could say that to people in Detroit. You could say that about anyone.

It's nothing specific. It's nothing specific to Brazilians. Now he's even got his own Brazilian teammates at ATT wanting his head. Kobe Covington, eight months ago, we were like yawning at just like the mention of his name. And now he's getting like, the most heat of anyone in the UFC. It's unbelievable. By doing what?

By doing the Andy Kaufman gimmick and not even doing it that great. Like his delivery isn't even that great and he's still killing it. Do the Colby Covington versus Tyrone Woodley fight. This is a gift from the MMA gods to Tyrone Woodley. And I am surprised that he is not running with it. And maybe this is his way of playing with it. You saw Dean Thomas. Dean Thomas gets it.

Dean Thomas, Tyrone Woodley's coach is saying, this is great, let's celebrate. We've got a foil, and we can beat this guy. And you're tapping into so many different things. The team stuff, you know, the history between them. Do that fight in St. Louis. It's the fight to make. Woodley needs to embrace this.

I think that Dave Shaw, the UFC, that new executive from Canada that they have doing all the international events is a breath of fresh air. He's honest and sincere and transparent, and at times he's put in tough spots in these press conferences. He said on Saturday that they're disappointed and looking into the comments. What comments? What are he disappointed about?

This is what you want as a fight promotion. You want people to get riled up. You want people emotionally invested. You want people to say, I want to see that guy get his ass whipped. I want to see Kobe Covington get beat worse than anyone. I want to see freaking Tyron Woodley double leg him on his head and then ground and pound him with the most vicious elbows. I mean, I see when I say to people like, and this is different than the Polly stuff.

People like, oh, Polly, shut up. No, people want to see Colby get his ass whoop. People wanted to see Polly just leave, just leave them alone. And I don't get that impression with Colby Covington. He's a very good fighter. He's a grinder. They want someone to come in and shut them up.

If Wonder Boy came in and knocked them out with one of those spinning kicks, people would lose their crap at this point. They would lose their minds. And that's because what Colby Covey Covey. Livington is doing is working. He has to be careful. Don't cross that line. He's skirting. He's right up to it. But I don't think he's crossed it. Nothing he said was exclusive to Brazil. It's fascinating what he's doing because it's been done millions of times before and yet people continue to eat

it up. And you know, you see the grandmas in the 70s with their canes and they're like, Andy Kaufman. How dare you say that about Memphis women? Ultimately, he got his. He was slapped on national television, David Letterman's show, and they all made a lot of money. They were in on it on that one. I don't know if Tyron and Colby are in on it,

but man, oh man, what Colby Covington is doing is a throwback. And look, he's a pro wrestling fan, so it's no surprise. He's part of that TNA angle. We talked about it last week, and we'll talk to him about what the experience like in what was like in Brazil this weekend.

But I say keep on keeping on, and I say, look, Walter Wade, as I said last week, is all of a sudden the most interesting division in the UFC because of the Young Guns, because of Usman and Perry and Ponziabio and Till and Cumberton, and Gunner Nelson and of course Woodley at the top and Mazvedal and Wonderboy. Covington Woodley is the, there's no clear cut number one guy. Make that fight now. End the angle. Don't let it drag. He's called, it's exactly if you look at what happened with Chale and Anderson. He called him out like two fights ago

And it's been building to this And he gets the win over Maya Where do you go from here? You go get the title shot And you do it in Woodley's hometown So he comes across as the ultimate good guy And he'll shut him up Embrace it

Enjoy it This is what we look for in combat sports Good stuff I'm looking forward to talking to Colby Covington At 440 p.m. Eastern Time For now let's go to our first guest of the day Let's welcome in Chris holdsworth, who we haven't talked to in a couple of years now. He's one of the coaches over at Team Alpha Mail, big weekend for them. Not only is Cody Garbrandt returning to action at Madison Square Garden, but Lance Palmer also returning for the professional fighters league. And he joins us right now on the phone. He's been in the news. Of course, as of late, we talked to TJ about him last week, but wanted to talk to Chris. He's kind enough to join us right now. Chris, how are you?

Good, Ariel. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Thank you for. joining us. It's a big weekend for you guys. Where are you going to be? I'm going to be in New York. I leave tomorrow morning. Okay. Too bad. You know, we couldn't get you in in studio. I missed you by day. I know. It's all good. Happy to have you on the phone. So one of the reasons why I wanted to have you, the main reason, to be honest, was your name has come up in this, you know, in this feud and the buildup to the Dilleshaw Garbrand fight. And of course,

it's somewhat natural because this is very much a team alpha male fight. Dillashah, the former teammate, goes off, does his own thing. Garbrandt becomes champion and there's the heat there and all this kind of dirty laundry comes up. And one of the stories that came up was that, you know, Garbrandt has said that Dillishaw is responsible for retiring you, for injuring you, for meing you in the head while you guys were sparring and you haven't fought, you know, due to the concussions, took a break from M. M.A. You're a coach now. T. T.J. has said repeatedly, including on this show, that that never happened. Why would he have, have remained on the team if you had done something like that. So I wanted to talk to you.

Is it true that T.J. Dilloshaw is responsible for you having to retire? Did he in fact injure you? Well, yeah, let me clear a few things up. You know, I've been quiet about this for a while. You know, I'm just not the type of person to jump into people's feuds or dramas. You know, I'm kind of, I like to lay low and just do my thing. but, you know, there's been some talk, and, you know, after I heard TJ lying about the subject, I got to speak up on it. And, you know, for one, like, I haven't retired. So, you know, all the talk about retiring, I haven't officially retired, you know. I've taken a hiatus off of fighting right now.

And, you know, I've been coaching and training. I've been staying in the gym. But, you know, there's no, like, time schedule when I want to come back or when I'm going to come back. you know, I'm happy doing what I'm doing, but I'm not officially retired. You know, I still think I got some fight left to me, but who knows? I'll be happy with if I don't fight again or if I do. So besides the fact, yes, so leading up to the ultimate fighter, let me just go back a little bit. Please.

T.J. has always been a, you know, he's been a great fighter. He's a great athlete. But he's always had, like, some, I don't know, some type of competitive feud with me. ever since I came to the team I don't know if it was because of envy or jealousy or whatever it was but you know I just kind of always brush it off as him being

competitive and being just ultra aggressive and I was like hey let's go you know I was always up for the fight but you know there was multiple occasions where you know TJ got a little bit too aggressive he went overboard and trainees knee and you while we're boxing he's throwing

elbows while we're doing jihitsu and yeah I remember that instance that's out in the public is yeah it's definitely true um i shot in on tj and you know i was on all fours he was sprawled out and he need me on top of the head and that was before the ultimate fighter and um i remember i was kind of jarred up and you know everyone was watching and i took like 30 seconds off but i kept going i you know i kept going through the rounds and i finished practice but after that practice i was concussed and that was my first concussion And it just kind of, you know, kept happening from there.

And there was another instance leading up to the Chico fight, you know, when he was getting ready for brow. And then it comes to clear that I hear he's on some special supplements and stuff. And I just lost respect for the guy. And there's no hard feelings. There's whatever it is. But, you know, he's a cheater. do you think that initial time that he hit you in the head,

do you think that he did it on purpose? Well, you can talk to a lot of these training partners. It doesn't matter if it was on purpose or if it wasn't on purpose. There was multiple occasions where, you know, that's just not, you know, I'm not trying to throw knees when I'm sprawled out on somebody. You know, it's just something we don't do. And, you know, from what I recall, you know, he's the type of guy.

you get the better of him one day or, you know, you get the better of him one round. He's coming, he's coming tensled the next day. He's there early. He's stretching out. He watches film on you. He's trying to figure out everything he's got to do to, you know, get that back on you. And, you know, there's multiple occasions. And it is what it is.

You know what I mean? Like I said, I move past it. I'm happy where I'm at right now. And, you know, I'm helping guys, you know, I'm building the world champions and helping guys, you know. So that's kind of where I'm at. right now. And when you say special supplements, you mean steroids? You're a smart guy, Ariel.

You know, you guys can put two and two together, but, you know. So when you hear that, when you hear, or I guess maybe you know it because you're at the gym with him and then you're getting injured, at some point, like, does this boil over? Do you confront the guy? Do you say, like, what the hell, man, you know, why are you going so hard? Why are you hitting me there? Did you ever have a confrontation?

No, because I didn't want to seem like a bitch, you know what I mean? That's why I've been quiet about it for so long. I just didn't want to seem like, you know, but I had a lot of time to think about it and just kind of, you know, people talk about it, tell their version of the story or people that weren't even involved tell their version of the story.

So that's why I'm kind of just speaking up on it now. When he hits you in the head the first time, were you completely out? No, no, no. I've never been completely knocked out. How many concussions do you think you've had? I don't know, man. I've had quite a few. I've had a few, you know, just like every other fighter, but I've actually, you know, after that last one was probably one of the worst ones where I kind of, you know,

that's why I haven't fought for so long. I've just been taking it easy and just focusing on, you know, just training and stuff like that and just being healthy, man, because you only, yeah, you only got one head, You only got one life, so I want to be smart about things, and I know how to check my pride and my glory. He's smart. So he was on the show last week, and he's talking about, like, that never happened. Why would I have remained on the team if I'm neighing guys, you know,

on the ground and things like that? How do you react when you hear that? Like, in your opinion, he's just straight up blind? Well, for one, I didn't hear your show, but, like, I heard some other interview where he was saying, It was like for me being male nourished And I had not to cut weight and stuff And which is false

So You know I'm not trying to harp And just fucking Throw him under the bus But I'm telling the truth And I have no reason to lie And you guys can take it

How you want to take it And It'll be a great fight Saturday night Were you happy when he left the team? Yeah I didn't really care for the guy We never really hung out anyways and we hung out a few times, but he was a type of guy that was, like, cool off the mat, but, you know, they try to hurt you or injure you and, you know, on the mat.

It wasn't really, wasn't ever really a good training partner. We went hard, you know, we probably got better going with each other, but, you know, not good. So he's not good to have those many wars, you know. That's right. Especially, you know, when you're training with a teammate and. Yeah, supposed to be helping each other, you know. Right. And did you get the sense that other people shared this feeling?

Or was there a thing? Did you feel like this was like a personal thing that he had for you? No, he was known to do that. But maybe just because we were in the same divisions, you know, I was an ultimate fighter and, you know, I won and he didn't. And I don't know, you know, who knows? I think I don't really care. You know, it's just I don't really care.

I'm not trying to make it a huge thing. I mean, like I said, I've moved past it, but I wanted to come on and just kind of clear the air and let every note, like, my side of the story, because, you know, I've been pretty quiet about it for three years, so. And the preparation for this fight, the vibe, you know, getting Cody ready to fight this guy who you have this history with, the whole team has a history with from Yariah to Cody to you. I mean, just everyone has a history with him. What has it been like? Has it felt different? Has it felt a little more personal for you guys? Um, yeah, I'll probably say so just because, uh, you know the guy and you train with the guy.

It's, it's definitely not the same feeling going into the fight, say, against Dominic Cruz, where, you know, you don't really know the guy, never trained with him. So there's definitely a little bit of a more, uh, excited feeling for this one, you know, just because all the past stuff and just actually knowing T. and spent time with him and all that stuff. I'm looking forward to it, man. Yeah, I bet everyone involved with the team is. By the way, speaking of the coaching staff, so what's up with Justin Buckholds? He says that he's no longer the head coach.

Can you tell us what's going on with the team? Yeah, so he is still, you know, we still consider him a head coach. I'm not sure that the full drifted things, and of course there's it's probably best for favor to hop on and uh you know speak about the team and everything but everything's been good in my eyes like uh the guys have been doing great there's been there's been great vibes in the room and um yeah we still consider him like their head there's different everyone's got a role and we're like a big co-op everyone helps each other so

okay because he because he said recently on on my favorite show uh stud show radio love that that show. He said, I'm no longer... Are you a... Yes, yes, what? Are you an avid listener of Stod show? Oh, come on. I don't miss an episode.

He said, I'm no longer the head coach of Team Alpha Mail. I went to Alaska and came back and a lot of things have changed. It's been changing, actually, since we moved to the new gym. A lot of things change. I had a system that I had put in place last year that I was in charge of, and I stuck to it and made things happen. We've gone to a different system. So, I mean, it's not true any of this stuff?

Well, I don't see what's not true and what's true. I mean, the statement, I'm no longer the head coach of Team Alpha Male. Well, we all were like part of the head coaching staff, so it's not like... There wasn't like one main guy. No, no, but, you know, Justin was, you know, I think his best favor explains everything just because... Fair. Yeah, it's like, you know, I kind of stay out of all that.

Like, I can understand. I teach classes and I run practices and I help guys out. I stay out of all the drama. You enjoy being a coach? Do you get the same kind of satisfaction out of it as you did as a fighter? Do you still kind of miss being a fighter? Oh, I definitely enjoy it. You know, if I'm not fighting the cage, I'm fighting somewhere else.

You know, I'm fighting, you know, life is a fight. you know what I mean so I'll always be a fighter in heart and like I said don't don't count me out just yet but um it is a different feeling you do get still some of the same feeling but you know nothing's the same as it took me a little while to adjust um you know I was so used to being the athlete and the guy walking down and you know kind of switching roles and you know being a cornerman and coach is uh you know it was a great experience and it's been an experience you know something to get a adjusted to but I love it man

it's like you know when these guys win you got you guys put all this effort and you know what it takes to get in there and put everything on the line and when you see all that success and those guys get their hand raised you kind of you almost feel like you're in there with them and you get a small little win with

them where do you stand as far as fighting again like you know are you 50-50 are you you know 10% chance you come back where would you put it out right now it's not really percentage, you know what I mean? It's kind of off, you know, how I feel and whatever. Like I said, like, I said, like, what's up? Do you have symptoms from, from the concussions,

or is it just, like, is that what's stopping you from fighting again? Um, maybe a little bit, but who knows, you know, it's just, uh, yeah, some days are different than others, and I feel good, man, it's just like, when I was, when I was fighting, uh, you know, who knew me, I was, I was obsessed and, you know, I love it and I still love it, but, you know, I kind of didn't get to enjoy life and other things in life. I was just always so focused on training and, you know, and all that. And so now I'm just, I'm enjoying life, man, the other things in life that are, they're to be offered. And, you know, I'm grateful and I'm blessed to, you know, be happy and still be involved in something I love doing.

Do you think, you know, when you're 80 years old or whatever, that you'll look back on your career with regret if you don't fight again, or are you at peace with the idea of never fighting again? Yeah, I'm at peace, man. Like, yeah, I'm at peace. I'm at peace with not fighting again. I can fight again. You know, but if I do fight again,

definitely not going to be at ultimate fighter salary. I'm going to have to renegotiate something. I'll have to start talking shit like Hunter McGregor and get paid more because it's not worth to get paid peanuts. Sure. I can admit. You're still on that contract, right? I don't know what I'm all, man.

I'm still getting tested. I'll tell you that. I still pisses me off. I was like, man, how do I get you Sada off my back? Like, I haven't fought. And they told me I had to officially retire with the UFC and USADA and USADA. And that just sounds like way too much work for me right now. so, you know, they can keep testing me.

That's nuts. So, you know, you coming up in this history and, you know, the training and the concussions, has that made you uncomfortable that this has all been rehashed, or are you happy that you are given an opportunity to kind of clear the air? Is this something that you've wanted to do? You know, I never, I think it's good that I think there will be some weight lifted off my chest because, you know, it's probably the number one question people ask me. It's like, did this happen or did he do this or when are you going to be back?

So it does kind of get annoying at times. And so, yeah, I'll probably feel a little bit of weight, lift it off my shoulder, just kind of letting everyone know and talking about it. But, you know, at the same time, like, I don't really care, you know? That day at the gym What was it like afterwards After your need in the head Come on Ariel

Come on, man What? What do you mean? What do you think it was like, man? I don't know I've never been in that situation I was concussed after that practice That's all I remember

Yeah I remember I was getting ready for the ultimate fighter, and I was like, shit, this has never happened to me before. And, you know, you got to learn to adjust on the fly and work around, you know, your little injuries in camp and stuff, and that's exactly what I did.

How many weeks before the ultimate fighter was that? I don't know, like a month. Okay. Do you regret continuing to fight after that? Like, do you feel like you should have taken more time off? I think I should have taken time off after the ultimate fighter after the win over Grant Yeah I think after the ultimate fighter I should have took a little bit more time

If I would have went back I probably should have took some more time off But you know I was I was hungry I was young you know I was riding high off The success and Everything was going good for me man You think you're you think you're untouchable or you think you know nothing can I would have never thought I would have fucking sitting out from a concussion. You know, I played football for, you know,

I was always known to take a hit, you know. So it's just one of the things. You just kind of get your eyes opened up, and you're like, fuck, man, anything can happen, and try to keep riding the wave and be positive and keep fighting. As a coach, do you feel like you are more sensitive to these things now? Like, in MMA, I feel like sometimes,

you know, it's such a part in the pun, alpha male sport, concussions, you know, get right back in there, go back to training, things like that. But do you encourage the fighters that you train to take time off after they take big blows? Yeah, I do. That's one thing that I could offer now to people and is the right way to train. Like, I've been through, you know, I've been through that. So I can, I have something to share.

And if I can just help some people, you know, just train a little bit smarter and make the right decisions in their training, you know? That means a lot to me. And I have to ask, because you mentioned that he, you know, was on the special stuff, how long do you think he'd been using that? I don't know. You've got to ask him. All right.

I doubt he would. I mean, he's been asked this before and he's denied it, but you're the one who brought it up, so I wanted to. Well, yeah, because it's the truth. And, you know, I want people to know the truth. You know, there's no hiding from the truth in this world. And, you know, people can say one thing and they can say to other, but truth will always come out.

What do you think happens this Saturday? How do you see it going down? I'd say it's a knockout in the first three, or T.J. can get submitted in the later rounds. If not, we'll win a decision. Okay. So knockout under three, if not under three, he gets submitted in the later rounds, if not that decision.

Correct. That's pretty much every scenario possible, but just within time frames. I gotta give you all angles, yeah. Who is in the corner for Cody Garbrandt? Same corner as always. It's going to be me, Danny Castillo,

Justin, and his uncle Bob. Okay. All right. Stingray. The stingray, yeah, with the mean. jab in the business, right?

Yeah, you know about it, and the splits, and the meanest splits. Anything else about this situation that you want to clear up, or do you feel like you've... That's it, ma'am. That's it. Yeah. All right. I said enough, and thanks for having you on, Ariel. I appreciate you this week.

Yep, thank you, Chris. I appreciate you coming on and clearing the air, and I wish you guys the best on Saturday night. Cool. Thank you. All right, there he is. Chris Holdsworth, stopping by coach over at Team Alpha Male. And his name, as I said, has been thrown around from both sides. Cody, T.J.

Well, now we hear from the man himself. He says that he was in fact need. He was in fact concussed. Accuses T.J. Dillashaw of using steroids, not the first team alpha male member to do so. Unfortunately, because as I said, he was undefeated. Last time we saw him, 6 and 0, after the. win over Chico Camus at UFC 173. And unclear whether or not he'll fight again.

Concussion is a very serious thing as we've come to learn. Now a thriving coach, a young coach with Team Alpha Male, and he'll be front and center on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Interesting stuff there. I'm sure T.J. will be asked about it later on this week. For now, though, we will move along to our next guest. Always a pleasure to have Mike Perry on, and he was certainly in the news last weekend in Poland

after Darren Till beat Donald Seroni, he mentioned Mike Perry and just like that, Mac Perry jumped on the cage. They were going back and forth. It was a great scene. We talked all about it last week and wanted to have him on the program to speak about what's next and more.

And there he is, my main man himself. Mike Platinum Perry. Did I get it right? Mike Platinum Perry, right? Game. It don't even fucking matter no more. It's what matters. Yes.

One of my names is going to pass. Anyone in the board. Yeah. What is your sweatshirt say? That says game blouses. That's Prince. Yo, respect. That's iconic right there.

Respect. Well, it's good to see. Are you back home from Europe? And I'm chilling at my house. Relaxing. I need to go work out. But I was waiting to get this done. And I'm going to go do some boxing, drilling, and football.

footwork and then I'm going to go run later tonight. I'm feeling good, man. You're at the, the Platinum Palace. Yes, we are at the Platinum Palace, man. I don't want to oh, I got this good, this good Skype

view right now. I don't know if you see. Oh, look at that. Damn. You're living good. I'm doing all right. It's not the biggest. There's my little dog over there. And we're not even done setting up yet. You know what I'm saying? I got. What's that? Is it a new place?

Yes, it's a new house. It's new to me. It's about two months old. We bought it, though. I'm not paying rent. I'm paying a mortgage. Oh, yeah. Now you're an adult.

Yeah, I'm an adult now. What's with the balloons? Someone have a celebration, a birthday? No, we use those to keep the dogs away from us. They're afraid of balloons. Okay. So when we're eating dinner, yeah, we're. Well, my dogs are.

When we're eating dinner, we just put the balloons around, and then they, like, they cower and they go hide in the corner. Okay. Wow. Who knew? I didn't know dogs were afraid of balloons. Strategies, baby. Yes. Always thinking.

So, we have a lot to discuss. How was Poland? How was the experience? I mean, it's nice, man. It's fun traveling the world. I look forward to doing a lot more of it, traveling and fighting. And, you know, I was. would have liked to fight in Poland.

I would have jumped over that cage and fought during till right there, but we don't, I'm not allowed to do that for some reason. We can't make up a quick contract. Plus, we got to get paid to fight, right? And then you want to give the other guy time to prepare for your fighting style, so you have to be fair out here in the world. But Poland was nice. And then after I left Poland, I went to Paris and seen the Eiffel Tower.

And then I went to Amsterdam. jam and seen lots of weed over there. Yes. Did you enjoy it? You didn't have any of it. You just looked at it. Yeah, man, I had a great time. I was very happy to be home, though.

I'm not good at traveling and training at the same time. I didn't really, I didn't get to do much training. So as soon as I got back home, I kicked it into high gear and went and showed up at the gym and did some sparring the other day. I was feeling pretty good, man. I was feeling pretty damn good sparring. So Saturday night, last Saturday, you're sitting there and you see Darren Till run right through Donald Serone.

Before he gets on the mic, any of that, what are you thinking? Are you thinking like, damn, that's pretty impressive? Like, tell us how you were really feeling about what I was missing. No? No? No, I wasn't impressed. Listen, it was crazy to see where I am in this world. and then I have a step up on Darren's Hill.

He's a good fighter, man. I'll give him that, whatever. I understand why he called me out. He sees another good fighter, and he sees something in me that he wants to see in himself, and I'm talking about these power shots, okay? When you finish an opponent, let's look at the 11 men that I finished.

They wasn't standing up right after the ref waved his hands off, okay? I catch people with good shots and they're unconscious for more than 10 minutes sometimes. And, but, you know, I feel privileged that another UFC fighter fighting in the main event calls me out because he sees something in me. And I was sitting there coaching Donald Seroni, all right? I'm sitting there, his grandma and some people from his corner were over there. And I was, I was yelling stuff at people all night to do. Even when Artem was fighting and Connor was sitting there try to coach him, he wasn't doing.

a very good job. And he had a few drinks maybe, or maybe I'm just a better coach. Maybe we'll do a new ultimate fighter season, me versus McGregor. And then they might actually fight at the end of the show. But I was coaching Donald Soroni, man. I was trying to think quick because he was listening to me. I said some things, and he started doing him, but he was in trouble. Darren Till was too big for him.

You know, he hit him. He blasted him with a good. body kick that night. And I was like, yeah, that's it. You know, keep moving. That's good. Touch him. You just got to touch him, but he didn't throw any punches.

Go look at the fight. Donald's Roni didn't hit this man with like an overhook or or anything like that because that's not in his style of fighting. So you can only coach somebody I've never even really met before so much in the octagon, you know, and they're not going to listen to me fully. But so I'm thinking about this. and then Darren Till called my name. Yeah.

And it just, oh, I just wrote. I would have fought the boy all week long. So right then, you know, I, but what can I do? But stand on the other side of the fence. Oh, my gosh. That's all I can do is stand on the other side of the fence. I can't do nothing. I'm telling you you're going to see that caged animal unleashed December 16th in Winnipeg, baby.

Yeah, baby. What were you saying to him? I'm a real Walterway. I'm a real. Is that all you said? Yeah, man, I was, no, I said some other things. I was trying to keep it. I was trying to keep it PG.

You know, that's real stuff. I feel like what I meant was Donald Soroni was small, man. You know what I mean? And I know I just fought a guy who hadn't lost and, you know, he was kind of a lightweight or whatever too, but it doesn't, it doesn't matter, you know. And he fought Donald Soroni who could fight at, welterweight and lightweight, and he was a tough guy, but it looked like Donald showed up to get a paycheck that night. And, uh, I mean, I just, I know that it's, it's not the fight that you're going to see for me.

I love when people throw punches at me. Um, you know, it's kind of like Kobe Covington when he was getting hit by Damien Maya. He's kind of sick in the mind. He's a little twisted. He liked it. He enjoyed it while the blood was pouring down his face. But the problem with that is he don't know how to absorb the shots. That's why he got that big cut on his eye. Yeah. And, you know, I don't think he would like that very much. He wouldn't be smiling in front of me when I hit him.

I don't hit the cut. I hit the finish. I'm going to touch that button and people kind of, you know, get a little retarded in front of me. So I said a lot's been going on in the Welchway division. I know. You see, I got a lot to say I'm interrupting Ariel. bad, bro. No, no, it's all good. A lot of shit going on out here. It's the best division right now. I mean, there's just all these young guys coming up and all super hungry. But I said last week,

okay, Ponziabio, I'll do respect. What's up, buddy? It's just like, that's not the fight to make right now for you. The fight to make right now is you versus Darren Till, and I'm sorry, you know, let's find something else. Look, I'll tell you this. I heard that right now they're trying to do Usman versus Kobe Covington. Usman's booked against Emil Mech, but they're trying to reverse course because they want to do something a little juicier for Covington. Why not do Mike Perry versus Darren Till and find something else for something? There's no heat between you and Santiago. There's nuclear heat between you and Darren Till.

Why can't we make that fight happen next? Do you agree with this or no? If you want to go by the heat, then I guess then it makes sense. But the contract was signed. And listen, I tried not to sign a contract before I went out because we want to. wanted to get the Donald Taroni fight if he won. Okay. Even Donald asked me about it before he fought till.

He was like, why did you sign that contract? We wanted you December 30th. I didn't want to tell him out there in Poland that I signed the contract because my manager wanted Donald Taroni, but I said Donald Taroni's not going to beat this undefeated kid. Ah. The kid's going to beat him. And then I was like, I'm going to fight the undefeated kid. But he was like, well, let's get this ranked opponent first because nobody knows who Darren Till is.

well happens he took all the Saroni's fans and everybody knows who Darren Tilla is now. And he said my name. I didn't have the opportunity to be in the octagon and say his name. He said mine. So you're right about that. If he wants to fight, I want to fight too. We should fight. That should happen.

But it's no big deal for me to go out here in a month and smash Santiago Ponziadivio and get this money and show everybody just one more time. Fair enough. You know, that I'm not playing no games out here. Okay, fair enough. And are you willing to go to Liverpool and fight Darren Till? Would you be down with that? Absolutely, man, because I'm not an idiot like Kobe Covington. I'm not going to start riots in the crowd.

I'm not going to hate on places where people live. I mean, it's whatever, man. It's shit falls from that boy's mouth. It's disgusting. but I'll go in Liverpool and they'll love me and they'll boo me when I come out because their boys fighting. Yeah. But they'll care for me when I finish.

The English fans, the European fans are true fans. They will root for their hometown boy. But if you beat them fair and square, you earned a bunch of fans over there, man. So is it safe to say that's what your plan is? December 16th, go to Winnipeg, beat Santiago and then get Darren Till. next year, is that the perfect game plan for you? Is that what you like?

Perfect game plan. Perfect game plan. I mean, unless they give Till away again, I don't see why they would do that. Maybe they would try to push the fight a little more. We can make a pay-per-view out of the Darren Till fight. If not, if they are trying to give it right away, they know I'm down whatever, whenever. For anyone, anytime, whatever. But it's the big fights to make, and that's the biggest one.

that I can see if not, if Robbie Lawler beats RDA, but then he's going to want the title shot. And there's a lot of people clashing right at the title right now. Kobe beat Miles, so he gets like, oh, he gets some boost, and he called out Woodley. So he's right there. And then RDA and what's his name are fighting. And they're like, oh, title contention fight. The winner's going to get tiring.

And then there's Darren Till just beat Soron. and he jumps into eight, he gets one more. They might give him an easy one so he could jump to the title fight. There's like four or five of us right now. It's amazing. Bouncing at the title, I'm not even in the ranking, but they're talking about me for that title.

That should be the difference maker right there. That's what tells you. Yeah. Wasn't there some talk of you fighting RDA next? That wasn't going to happen too, man. It's talk with me fighting everybody. The one thing was with Usman and Meek.

I don't know why You know why Usman is saying the meek fight might not happen Yeah because they want him to fight Covington he's saying That's the only reason not because meek is like not feeling well or something That's what it sounds like No he's all in he's all in but they're trying to change plans That's not right

If you sign the contract you sign the contract Whatever happens later happens later you try to make things happen Yeah in the right way But is it better for business to just squash contracts and then just put the big numbers out there. Either way we talking, Latin and Mike Perry getting money. So either way, it don't fucking matter. I'm getting my shit out here.

They can't take nothing for me because everybody thinks they want to fucking fight me so I put these hands in their face. And Colby Covington, what do you think of him? I mean, really, you feel like he's crossed the line? I don't think he's crossed the line just yet. I think he's right up at the line. He's getting people riled up. made the case that they should have him fight Woodley

just get it over with. Make the fight in St. Louis have Woodley look like a superstar, a superhero, and have him shut the guy up once and for all. What do you think of that? You know, you know that was some terrible striking. Boy, how many likes I got on that? Twelve hundred on Twitter and I said, look at these two world-class

grapplers throwing punches. Oh my goodness. Listen, he don't want to throw Woodley. Woodley had a torn shoulder and busted up Maya's face worse. From the first round, people People say he threw more, but listen, what it was was the wrestling ability of Kobe Colgerton.

He's got wrestling and he could stop the takedown. But you want to see what would happen to Kobe Colgton against the striker? I'll show you the Jack Hermanson fight versus that Tiago dude who was talking shit to me on Twitter earlier today throwing uppercuts like a fairy. Okay, Jack Hermansansans take down got stopped. He didn't know how to throw a punch out of a wet paper bag. I don't know what to say, man. hashtag wrestling is not enough.

We'll see what happens. Everything's coming together right now. The best in the world are putting things together and you're one of the best in the world and talking about how everything's coming together. It's all coming together. I mean, Walterway right now is fascinating. It's the best division in the UFC.

What's it like being you these days? I feel like it's coming at you from all corners. Every day another guy is trying to pick a fight with you. You have a fight, but it just keeps coming. You like that? Do you like being the man who's consistently being an attack from all corners? It's hard, man, but I get better at it every day.

And sometimes I slip up. Like I'll say something. Like a fan will write a comment on Instagram or something. And then sometimes I'll just be like, you motherfucker. Oh, my gosh, I swear. I like, I seen something Rampage did. He was like, hey, you want a pair of sign MMA gloves? What's your address?

See, that one went over your head. You didn't catch that. I got it. Yeah, to find out. Okay. You want to do that too? They go over there and whip their ass. A lot of work.

It's a lot of work. By the way, what's up with that thing that you do in the cage, like the rooster thing? What's up with that? Oh, man, that was just one time, man. Next time it's going to be like Terranos Rex or the Kung Fu Panda Roll. But was that a rooster? Yeah, it was like a prehistoric rooster. Why, though?

Oh man. Okay. Martial arts is all about different animal styles. Really, if you look at it, there's, have you ever seen Unbox the Thai Warrior? No. He's calling out these techniques in this, this Cada. He's like, he's shadow boxing Muay Thai. And he's got a name for everything.

He comes down with like a knee and like a, or he comes up with a knee and comes down with the six, uh, 12 to six elbow and he calls it like, uh, smashing elephant's tusk or something like that. And, and, uh, or Jackie Chan's drunken, uh, drunken boxer, drunken master, he's like crane picks up box and he gets up on one leg or, or, uh, monkey, something. You know, there's animals and martial arts are kind of linked together or humans took animals strength and turn them into martial arts moves you know hundreds of years

ago thousands of years ago how do you want to say whenever martial arts came about people took it off of animal ability and you know there's rooster there's the Chinese zodiac for example

everything is linked to martial arts because it's like the one real thing in life that just has been advancing since time began, man. People's movements with their bodies and things to do with it. I know that comes out. You're paying homage to these different animals.

Every time I're going to pay homage to a different one. Absolutely. You know, I think... I like it. Well, I want to be... I used to think I was a drunken boxer and how I moved and things like that. And it's like my...

He said he's been getting ready for Wonder Boy watching karate kid and karate movies all week. That's real stuff, man. It's all mental. I watched Dragon Ball Z as a kid. I am the greatest fighter in the universe. That's how I feel. So it's like you've seen the Kung Fu Panda. That's one of my favorite movies, man, one, two, and three.

Those movies are amazing. Wow. Darren Tills himself a gorilla. Connor McGregor calls himself a gorilla. I want to be the Kung Fu Panda, man. I love it. I would have never guessed it, but I love it. Kung Fu Panda Perry, baby, let's go.

Yes. By the way, Darren Till is in our studio. He's in the back. He's not here right now. Is there anything you'd like to say to him? Ask him if he can wait for me to finish Ponziivio. And I don't expect them to. It don't matter.

Anything can happen. I can get a fight short notice. Maybe he'll stay ready. He seems to be a real one. We're gonna fight. He said it. Mike Teddy, you didn't even meant to fight. Yeah, motherfucker.

He said what he's doing is illegal, that he should be really fighting at light heavy weight, the amount of weight that he cuts. Do you... He's not that big. He was fighting a little Donald Theroni. Okay. So you sized...

He's not that big. Okay. I sized him up. You weren't concerned. He's young and ignorant, man. He's got flaws. See, I was out in Poland. I'm in a coat.

I'm bundled up. It's fucking cold out there, right? I'm sitting, waiting for my girls inside the mall. I was pissed at her, so I went outside to cool down. She pissed me off, all this shopping, spending all my money and shit. So I go outside. That's why I wasn't inside. And then Darren Till comes walking by.

He's got a thin little Reebok jacket on, and he's got 15 people with him. I'm sitting there by myself. and this was before they fought. This was the night before weigh in. So he's at his worst health position in life, cutting that much weight. He's dehydrated. And he's got his, like, fight shorts on,

like skin tight valetudo shorts and a little thin jacket. I didn't even know if he had shoes on. He's walking in Poland. First of all, he can get, like, a nail in his foot with Rusty. He's going to need a Tetris shot. And I was like, hey, man, put some clothes on man

there's pulled out here some shit and then he was like I'm strong I said that got nothing to do with the cold he said I'm on weight I said good for you man you're gonna be fucking sick tomorrow

dumb ass man by the way what's up with your nails people have been commenting on your nails the length of your nails why are they so long I have pretty boy nails man I have pretty boy nails

that's all. I file them up sometimes. Sometimes they get too long. I got to bite them off. Okay. You know, like my UFC debut. Yeah. But I like to keep pretty nails to either scratch my ass or scratch my girl that. One of those two. All right. Do you? Well, this has been fun. Yeah, man. Every time, bro. Never fucking fails, baby. I'm ready to fight. Yes. December 16th, Winnipeg. You know how cold it is in Winnipeg in December? It don't matter. I'm going to be bundled up. I'm not a dumbass. All right. So that fights on. That fights happening.

And then after that, you hope to fight Darren Till in 2018. Sooner rather than later. Sounds great. Sounds great. And then there's Colby and then there's Usman. There's no shortage of people at one. RDA, Loller. Would you fight Mazvedal or no? It would be a great fight. I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I said it out there of Poland. I like Mosqueville.

real. I like him. Yeah. I'm not going to hate, but I would win. I would win in a fight. I have more than he does. Simple to say. But I sat out in Poland. I would like, and then the Darren Till thing happened.

So I was looking at the winner of Mossvedoll and Wonderboy. I won a hard fight too. Same as Darren Till wants a tough fight. I want a fucking tough fight. I'm thinking Wonderboy might beat Mosphidaw. But then again, I could be wrong. That's a toss-up. That's 50-50 on that fight.

It's a fight. But I think Wonder Boy is a little better. So I think Wonder Boy is going to beat them. And then I wouldn't mind the winner of that. But we talk in Darren Till, we're taking big popularity fight. Yeah, yeah. No, that's the fight. Come on.

Give us what we want. Okay? Yeah. Fucking, yeah. Whatever you, whoever you guys want me to fight, don't let me sign a contract before that. That's right. That's right.

Let's not jump the gun this time. You're going to enjoy the Ponziivio fight. Styles make fights. That's right. That boy come to throw hands. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm going to rock that boy chin. All right.

Good night. Can't wait. I'm sure we'll talk before, Ann. But I appreciate you coming. Would you want to say? Last word. Last word. What did you want to say?

I said sounds good. And the last thing was, I appreciate you and the MMA hour. All the fans out there listening. Anybody who rocks with me. And if you don't, you're going to have no choice but to get on the fucking boat. That's, that's it, man. So thank you to everybody who supports and Ariel Hawani for everything you do, letting people know about what we're out here trying to do.

We're fighting for your guys entertainment. And we're putting our lives on the line. Much respect to most fighters out there who keep it real. Appreciate y'all. God bless. Peace. Much love, Mike. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. There he is. Wow. Mike Perry, platinum. Holy smokes. How do you follow that up? Well, you follow it up with Darren Tillon's studio. Let's bring in the Scouser himself.

That was unbelievable. Here he comes. Mr. Daryntil. We could not have time this out any better. How are you, sir? What's happening? I'm doing great. I think this might be the first time we've met in person, right? Yeah, we've never met in person, no. Wow. Well, thank you for coming. No problem. We have a lot to talk about. Yeah, we do. Yeah. Welcome to the studio. It's lovely, mate. What do you think? It's lovely, yeah. It's a little different. All the icons. Yes. It's lovely. When are we going to get one of yours? As soon as I get that belt. Yeah. It would be nice. By the I have something for you. Okay, mate.

You've been talking a lot about donuts. Yeah. I go through a box of American donuts, my friend. Thanks, mate. Look, and this is a great time for donuts. The Halloween themed donuts. How about that? I've literally just went to Duncan.

Oh, my. 12. Did you really? I've got 24 now. There you go. Thanks, mate. I know you've been very excited about the donuts I wanted to. Because you're here on holiday, right?

Yeah, yeah. I'm not here for the UFC. Wow. This is just spare of the moment. I booked it like two weeks ago. Okay. Like, yeah, I'm just here for. here with your misses. Yeah, yeah, she's backstage. So, yeah, four days here. But are you going to

stick around for the fight? No, I can't, because I have an MMA show on Friday, my own MMA promotion. You have a, you have a promotion? Yeah, it's like an amateur show. It's LWCCMM. Okay. So that's on Friday, so I can't miss it. So, where is that? It's in Liverpool. Okay. So it's in like the city center, so I couldn't miss it. Otherwise, I would have stayed. So you just decided to come here to celebrate the win. You booked this. Yeah, because I've had such a tough year. I've had loads of fights. I was like, I've never seen New York. I was talking about it, so I thought I'm going to go for like four days after the fight. First time here?

First time. What do you think? It's amazing. It's breathtaking. Really? Everything about it. Like, I've traveled the world, but it is breathtaking, honest to God. What's your favorite thing?

So far? I don't know. I'm just taking all in the site. It's just crazy. The traffic, there's permanently taxis beeping. Yeah. Where did we go? We've been to there.

I went to Times Square. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. The lights? It's unbelievable. I've never seen nothing like it in my life. Yesterday it was crazy rain. Yeah, it was crazy rain.

I was just, rock around him. Really? You didn't care? No, there's not a tour. I mean, you're from England, so you don't really... I don't give a fuck anyway. But that was pretty crazy. That was intense rain.

It didn't stop all day. I know. It didn't stop. So I feel bad for a tourist who's here. You can't really go out and about, but you didn't care. No, I didn't care. Unbelievable. Okay, so did you hear some of that?

Yeah, of course. What do you think of that guy? He's funny. He's funny. He's funny. You know what I mean? You enjoy his shit. Yeah, I like the way he talks. It's funny.

He's building a fight. We need to fight. he shouldn't have signed that contract with Santiago because we could have fought now I wouldn't have had this holiday I would have just got straight back in the gym You would have been down Yeah we could have fought I'm down to

I will fight anyone I don't care I'll fight anyone He will so you know He shouldn't have signed that contract And he just said then like he wants me to wait I want to wait for that cunt now you know I want to fight him so much I will fucking knock him straight out

Yeah so he you know He can fight and I can fight and you know I want to fight him So let's hope that the USC don't book me against anyone else. You know, I've mentioned the one of, I wants to fight Thompson. You know, he's fighting Mazvedo because I think me and him would be a great striking match. But the fight right now is, it looks like, is Mike Petty, you know.

It is. That's what it looks like it is. That's what it looks like it is. That's the one I want to see next. That's what everyone wants to see next. But are you going to wait for him? I don't, you know, it depends. He's got a tough fight in Santiago.

Don't look like San Diego is one of the best strikers in the division. Can he get past Santiago? I don't know. You know, that's a good fight. I don't really want to give too much away in it but how long would I have to wait Exactly After the fight

Does he beat Santiago So if he doesn't beat Santiago He's coming off a loss I'm coming off a win We can't fight then Right So you know How long do I have to wait for Mike Pelly

I feel like we're playing with fire here And that's why there's so much heat between you two That's the one I want to see next You know what I mean He's booked I was booked against Cironi Right So now They just waited a week or two

The fight got booked four days before my fight with Croni He announced it in a number San Diego did. Right. So if he could have just waited a few more days, we could have fought right now. And were you aware of all this? Because when you got on the mic,

you said, you know, Mike Perry, we were supposed to fight? So were you aware that there was some talk and maybe you guys fighting? And then were you upset when you heard that he had signed? No, because we had a little bit of shit talk on Twitter. And then I thought, maybe after the Soroni fight, whoever won out of me and Soroni would get Mike Perry.

Obviously, I knew I was going to win. And then that fight just got booked out of the blue. And I was like, fuck, the fight's been booked. So I was like, we were meant to fight because if he wouldn't have had the fight booked, I would have just said, we need to fight. You're ready? Because I am not injured at all.

So we could have just fought. We could have fought next month. But now he's booked. I feel like someone. So there's not on my part. No, I'm ready to fight. He's booked. He's had to sign the contract.

He needs to get paid. But that fight could have been made in my hometown. This is like, you know, like when my dad was like, yeah, I saw the toy that you wanted at the store and I was going to buy it for you. But maybe next time. It's like it's right there, but it's not there. Yeah, exactly.

It was just so magical. Have you watched that again? You two screaming at each other? I've got it on my phone. It's incredible. It's amazing. You can't even script those. Those are moments that just happen.

Yeah, because everyone's saying, like, you need to bask in the ambience of your win. Yeah. Okay, I've won. I'm looking at Mike Perry. That's the fight I want right now. So straight away, when I called him out and we're having the trash talk, you know, the commentators were like, well, Till needs to enjoy his win. I don't want you now.

I want to fight Mike Perry. And you knew who he was there the whole time. Yeah, I looked at him. I was looking at him. You know, I'm in the cage. I'm looking at him. I'm looking at other guys. Yeah, I knew he was there, of course.

What about this encounter that he's talking about, you outside? Were you really walking barefoot? No, I was in my trainers. I'd just finished cutting weight. Okay. I'd finished. And the sauna was over the other side from the hotel. Okay.

So I'm walking with all my guys. And I've seen him. And I was like, we're going to talk to each. Because obviously, we're talking to. He's like, it's cold. And I was like, I don't give a fuck. I'm on weight on that. And he's like, good, good for you.

Just don't get sick on that. And I'm like, thanks. Like, we didn't even talk yet. He was worried about me health. Wow. He really cares about you. Yeah, he must care about me. But you weren't barefoot.

No, it wasn't barefoot. Okay. You said that you had to get a Tetris shot. I think he meant a tetanus shot. He's great. He's boss. By the way, how much you wear right now? What do you think?

I'm a lot of big. I don't want to insult you. I reckon about 94, 95K. Yeah. Wow. So you're like pushing 200 pounds or so. More? 200 pounds is 90.

So that's like what, 210 and 15? That is unbelievable. Have you been eating a lot this past week? I haven't stopped eating. I'm trying everything. So where did we go? What did I eat?

I had a bunch of food in TikTok diner. Okay, yeah, yeah. We're staying in the New Yorker. Yeah, yeah. I ordered three plates of food. Three plates? Three plates? I ordered a pasture-a-my burger.

Okay. I ordered pancakes and I ordered steak and eggs. Oh, my God. And then we were going past Chipotle and I was like, I want a chip. potty and then I was like I want donuts and I just want this and I want that. Can't stop. Can't stop, mate. Are you always like this? No, no, no. This is the week after my

fight. So this week I will eat anything and then come Monday I'll probably go back to the gym and just eat normal. Okay. So I'm not like this all the time. This is you celebrating. There's me celebrating the biggest win of my career. You know, I wasn't meant to come to New York. It's just spare of the moment. So yeah, right now I'm huge, but I'll get back down to about 91. 90 and then that's my weight I like to be up. So what was last week like for you back home? A lot of people coming up to you getting noticed, what was it like?

It was amazing. It was good before that, but it was amazing. I couldn't go out. People just wanting photos, pictures, whatever, and everyone's saying how proud I've done the city and, you know, how much they want to get it to the Echler Arena, which is, you know, everyone has got a dream of fighting in Vegas, the MSG,

but I just want to fight in my hometown. Is there any more talks of that? Have they approached you? I don't know. I put a post on Instagram, and Dana White liked it. I put a post like, yeah, can we fight at the ECHO and a tag day in it and he liked it? Okay. You know, I don't know what that means.

Yeah, yeah. He liked the photo. Yeah. So if it comes me and me. But no one from the UFC has reached out to who called you, said, okay, we have these plans for you. We want to do this. Well, they said that they had a date of March for England. Okay.

And then one of the guys, Matthew works to the Europe side. He was like, we have a date of March, but we don't know what we're doing. I don't know what he was on about, like London or something. But I said, can't we just get Liverpool, please? I don't know whether they think or what, but me and Mike Perry in Liverpool, you know. Oh my gosh. That would sell out in 10 seconds. 60 seconds. It just would sell out.

Just you two on the card. No one else. Yeah, that's true. It would sell out a million percent. Unbelievable. You don't understand what them Liverpool fans are like, mate. They're crazy, trust me. There's a sort of irony to you like being recognized now everywhere and being started

because you had to leave Liverpool because of the issues, the stabbing you went to Brazil. And now like you can't, there's nowhere to hide, right? Like, now you're a celebrity. Well, because everyone knows the story as well, because, like, I was getting into trouble in Liverpool, and then, you know, I got into trouble in a nightclub, got stabbed, and then

they all know my story of going to Brazil and then going over there to do what I set out to do, and then coming back sort of like a little bit of a star. So everyone just looks at that story and goes, fuck, that guy, you know, he made a lot of sacrifice and he did it. Yeah. It's a fun story. They're going to write,

they're going to do a film about it one day. Yeah, trust me. You believe it. Yeah, I believe it. Trust me. One thing that a lot of your fans have said over the last 24 hours to me is I want to see, okay, the Perry thing was good, but I want to see Darren Till fight Colby Covington because what he said about Brazil. Yeah, well. Because you can represent Brazil as well. I've had about a thousand messages from Brazilians.

Really? Angry as well saying they want me to kill Colby. He's disrespected our country and he's disrespected you. And, you know, he really did. Why did he do that? That was ridiculous. So I went on this little rant at the beginning of the show where I said, what he did was

he's playing the bad guy right but he didn't cross the line he went up to the line but he didn't cross the line and what he said was you know this place is a dump and you guys are filthy animals you could say that about any place in the world like it wasn't specific to Brazilians now Brazilians are upset and they have every right to be

but it wasn't like he was I don't think he was offensive or racist or anything like that so they're riled up and that's cool but I don't think like he did anything where he needs to be punished this is the fight game right the whole point is to rile people No, yeah, he doesn't have to get in drawing.

Like, the fact that people are coming to you and saying, we want you to shut him up means what he's doing is working. He's working, yeah. Right? As you've just said, the World War Division right now is so interesting. It's the most. People want me to kill Cole because he's disrespected Brazil. Me and Mike Perry, you've got the other guys. It's fucking...

Usman's going nuts about calling it. Like, there's all kinds... Usman's tagging me on Instagram. He wants to fight me. It's great. It's amazing. But do you feel a sort of sense like I need... Are you offended by what he's saying about Brazil?

I'm not offended. I just think it was stupid. I think Colby's trying to be like this bad guy, trash talk, but it's coming off a bit, like, ungenuine. It's like he's forcing it. It's fake. Yeah, it's like... He's trying too hard.

Yeah, you're trying too hard. Just be genuine and people will like it. Like, not a lot of people are liking him. Like, because he's coming off as fake. Just be real and everyone will like you. Just be a genuine person. Do you know? I know you're here on vacation, but did you watch the fight?

I've seen bits of it. You know, Colby's got good wrestling. He's a really good wrestler. but the striking department don't even think about it I fucking not in my realm do not if he's just got outstruck by

Damien Meyer there's no disrespect to Damien but I ain't on levels like them I'm not on Mike Perry's level I'm not on anyone's level Where would you put yourself Like are you at Wonderboy I am the best striker in the well to weight division

There's no doubt about it aerial They come into this world thinking that they can strike with me and I just bring them into false sense security I always call it Unidentified pressure Like the weekend, you know, you can say what you want about cowboy being a lightweight.

But before the fight, everyone was saying Cowboys is just going to smack me up on that. So isn't it so ironic how that I've just beat Cowboy and people are saying, well, Cowboys not a welterweight? Well, he is a well-to-weight because he's just beat a load of welterweight. Sure, sure, sure. So don't discredit my way. The striking department is my department and no one can deal with me in there. And Mike Perry hit hard on that, but it doesn't mean anything.

I can take a fucking shot and he wouldn't even catch me. I just jab him everywhere and knock him straight out That is just the truth They just cannot deal with my strike And that is the truth area Were you surprised Colby beat Damien I expected Damien to win

Like there was a surprise But Colby's good Colby is good He's a good fighter Who do you think is like your biggest You know Threat right now at 170 Like when you see

Okay I'm gonna be the king You think you're gonna be the king You think you're gonna be the king In multiple divisions Who right now do you see as like Okay this will be my guy Like my foil once I get to the top Do you see anyone right now

Who's close to you I think like if I had to pick I think like Wonderboy and Woodley I think they're the too hardest fights I think Woodley because he's such a powerful guy He's a powerful wrestler And you know he does hit hard And just cause Thompson

You know he's a really great striker So I think them too But apart from that I just I don't see anyone Some people have accused Woodley of You know now that he's a champ He kind of plays it safe Do you believe that?

Well it doesn't fucking matter If he wins the fight he wins the fight He wins the fight Yeah That doesn't that's that's the mindset Of a loser right there It does not matter how he fights. Obviously, he's not going to get these crazy big pay-per-views from Dana

because no one wants to watch him. But if you can't beat the fucking champion, that's it. So that's a loser's mindset. It doesn't matter how Tyron fights. If Tyron beat you, he beat you. So it doesn't matter if he runs away from Damien for five rounds, as people said. He won the fight, so he won. But do you think there's truth to it?

To which? To playing it safe? Well, yeah, there is. But as I've said, I'm not Tyron Woodley. you. When I go out there to... Would you do that? I just go out to fucking fight. I don't go to fuck.

I don't go out thinking shit, well, I need to be safe and just try and grind a five-round win out to you. I don't think like that. I just go out to strike and fight. My area is not wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu. My area is fucking hurting people. That's my area. I get a thrill of fucking hating people and getting hurt back.

So for me, I don't think about them things. But all these people are saying, well, he's playing it safe. You know, even Dana said it doesn't really matter because he's winning the fights. Obviously, Tyrant's not going to become a big draw Fighting like that But he's still a champ No one's being able to beat him

That's my mindset You started this when you were like 12 years old Yeah, like 12, 11 When was your first fight? 15? First professional Maitai fight was 15, yeah How'd you get a professional fight at 15? I don't know, I think we said I was 18

Oh, who's we? Me and me coach Do you have your parents around? Yeah, they were around What they say about it? They didn't have a say in the matter I was going to do what I was going to do Really?

Yeah, that kind of kid? Yeah, I was that kind of kid? kid, yeah. Like my... Your dad says, I don't want you to do this. Well, no, he was all for it, but like, you know, my mum was like, you know, I think at the start, no one ever really, because I used to say, I don't want to go to school, I don't want a job, I'm going to be a professional fight. Really? I'm going to be the best, yeah. How old were you when you were saying this? I was, as soon as I started in the gym, like 11, but then when it come real from fighting, like, 15 professionally, I was literally like, this is my life and I will be the greatest

in it. And, you know, everyone, it goes on one ear and goes out the other, but then when you start doing certain things and up to this point now people like fucking hell he said that 10 years ago why didn't we listen to him wow so so you're so like who inspired you to start saying this like are you a kid you see something on tv and you're like wow i want to be that guy i'm no one how did it start where did the dream just just in the gym just who introduces you to martial arts my dad your dad yeah he was he a martial artist no he wasn't he just took me down to like the local my Thai gym and left me to it were you like a like a troublemaker yeah was a troubled kid like What were you doing?

Just a troubled kid, you know, just getting into trouble. Getting into fights? Getting into fights. Getting into fights. School. Fucking from the shops. Really? Yes.

Smoking weed. Oh, man. All that shit, what kids do. I was a troubled kid. I was hanging out with the wrong people. Why were you doing that? Just in the area, just the friends you grow up. You don't know, you don't know nothing else.

Was it boring? Like you just were looking for excitement? No, you just do it. You get a plan and you say, let's go and rob the shop. Oh, my God. What are you robbing? Sweet. Okay.

Are you getting caught? Got caught loads of time. Really? What happened when you get caught? No, we got caught a few times by like the shop owners and that and he'd try and get us and he'd run after us, but never got caught as in got caught and took to the police station. But yeah, I was like a bit of a troubled kid. But then like when my dad took me there, because I was such a tall kid,

they threw me straight in with the adults class. So I'll never forget, like, sparring with the adults. And they used to give me a good kicking and hiding. And I used to go on and I used to think, you bastards, like, wait till I get bigger. And then when I started getting like 15, I was just taking the adults out. Really? Yeah, I was like...

They were going full force on you? Yeah, full force. They used to rarely take it out on me. And I was like, I used to go home overnight and I was thinking, I cried sometimes. I'm like, you bastard, I'm going to get your all back. And I did. Same guys?

Same guys. I got all of them back. I remember, I used to just sit in the ring waiting for them. I was like, come on, let's get in my ring now. I used to just fucked them up. And so you're like 11, 12, 13, 14, you're doing this. It's strictly Muay Thai? Yeah, it was always Muay Thai.

A boxing, a little bit of boxing. involved but it was always like my tie. When did you start to go into the other martial arts? 17, I spoke, you know Terry Aten, don't you? I sent him a message on Facebook and I asked if I could come down and do some private lessons

and he said yes. So I started I started doing private lessons every week with Terry and then he asked me he said, why don't you start training here? And I said, okay, I will, can I come? So he said, yeah, come to sparring tonight. So I went down to sparring and there was everyone on the mat Matt Terriette and Paul Kelly, Paul Sass

Paul Taylor. Wow. They were all there and they were just, it was like the shark tank. They were waiting for me. Oh my gosh. I was like, this is a set-up.

And did you know who they all were? Yeah, I knew them, but like... Were they UFC fighters at this point? They were UFC fighters, yeah. But I went down to the Muay-class sparring and I was like, this is a setup

and Terry fucking battered me. Really? Yeah, dropped me twice with body shots. Everyone was just trying to beat me and I was like, I'm the new kids so they're trying to kill me. They put you through the ringer. Yeah, they wanted to see if you were tough enough.

Yeah, yeah, they wanted to see if I had it. And, you know, I got through it. How bad was it? It was bad. Really? Terry, at that point, was just an animal. You know, he bothered me. Were you annoyed that he did that?

Or did you understand why he did it? No, because I just went home. I was like, I will fucking get you back. Really? Wow. How long did it last? It's up till today. Okay.

It doesn't stop. In Carbone and team Carbone, it just doesn't stop. You're permanently getting. Where's the Sassingle these days? I haven't heard from him. He's in stock marketing. Oh, really? He's making a fortune.

Really? Yeah. Private Jets here there. You're kidding? No, swear to go. He's actually smart. He got out. He got out.

Really? Yeah. So no more training? He comes now and then, but I don't think I'll fight it. Can't be bothered. No. Really? Private Jets, all that?

He's killing it. He's killing it. Smart guy. Yeah, smart guy. Wow. That's off to him. Did you see a colleague of mine, Peter Carroll, who I know you've talked to, spoke to Paul Kelly on his one day out.

Did you see the article? Yeah. What was that like to read that stuff that he was saying about? Yeah, because like when I say, I don't have idols on that. I don't, but like I look up to all them guys, Paul Kelly, Terry and that, because I come through the gym and they were all the big stars in UFC. Yeah. Just to see him saying that about myself, you know, it's overwhelming.

And obviously, we all know the position Paul's and he's in jail. Yeah. Just to see him have the time to do that. It's fucking overwhelming. Yeah, I couldn't imagine what it was like for you before your fight to read that. Yeah, I read it before my fight. Right. Two days before it.

Yeah. Did it get you emotional? Yeah, it did. Because I was like, wow, I got shivers in that. I was like, fucking. I'm like, is that what he thinks of me? Yeah. When's the last time you talked to him?

Two days ago. Oh. He's WhatsApp of me in jail. How? Do you tell me here? So you've kept in contact? Yeah, all the time. What the heck?

I know. Really? Yeah, his Qualls are a good friend. He's close. You can have a phone in jail? I don't know. You don't want to get him in trouble. You speak to him?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy smokes. And Terry, what can you tell us about him? He's at the gym? Terry's at the gym every day. He's okay. He's okay. You've seen him in Poland, right?

He was in my court. He was in my corner. He was in your corner? Oh, wow. I didn't recognize him. Yeah, funny story. So we had a room next to each other, me and Terry. I'm like, I keep telling everyone this.

Every five minutes, Terry would knock on my door. All excited, he would run in and he'd be like, I can't wait for your fight, I can't wait for your fight. And then he'd run back out. That's it? And then he'd do it again five minutes later. And he just keep doing it. I was like, he's so excited for this because it was a little bit of history,

historic, because I'm the first scouts at the ever main event. He was, he was so excited. He was part of the camp area. Like, he beat me up every day for the camp. So he's okay? He's okay. What happened? I don't know.

Life, life just gets to you sometimes. Right. I think, you know, I've never spoke to him about it. You know, it's not my place, really. But he's fine in the head. And, you know, we all go through a little bit of tough times and whatever happened. Did you visit him in the hospital? No, I didn't.

I don't, he was only in for two days. That's it? Yeah. You're getting hit by a bus? Yeah, tough guy. He's a tough guy. He didn't have any money. Max or anything. Apparently, like, hit the bus head face.

And his face was fine. But I don't think Cole wanted me to visit him or not. And we just let Terry come the gym. And, like, two weeks later after it happened, he came the gym. Okay. So, Cole... You never addressed it, though. No, no. I've never addressed it. I'd rather not. Okay. What was it like for you to be the first Scouser, Liverpool? What do you prefer, Liverpoolian or Scouser? Scouser, Scouser. What does that word come from? I think that if I'm right with me, history, when the Scoutsers came from Ireland, emigrated to Liverpool.

They used to make, it was called a pan of scouse, and it's like a pan of stew, no stews. But it's different because we put beetroot in the stew and dumplings and whatever, and it was called a pan of scouse.

So I think that's where it comes from, if I'm right with me history. I think I am right. People will correct you, by the way. Hopefully, if I'm wrong, but I think I am right. Okay, so you prefer a scouseer over in Liverpool. Yeah, I'm a skofer.

Why do you prefer, Is there a difference? Liverpoolian is sort of like a guy who supports Liverpool. Because we have two teams, and I support Liverpool, but I'm all for two teams. Everton?

Everton, yeah. They're right next to each other as well. I grew up in the middle of the stadiums, like my street. Really? Yeah, yeah. In Walton. But, like, Liverpoolian is someone

who supports Liverpool. A Scouser. Everyone in Liverpool is a scouser. Okay, okay, okay. I never knew that. So Liverpoolian is only someone who supports the Liverpool football club? You can call any guy a Liverpoolian,

but more or less, yeah. Interesting. And you got to go to the stadium recently. You were walking on the pitch. Well, I actually played football at the stadium. one time when I was a kid. Yeah, I used to play football, yeah. Wow. And they picked a group of lads out of all leagues in Liverpool to play the special 11, and I was one of the guys.

Holy smokes. Who'd you play against? Just another bunch of lads on there. What was that like for a kid to play there? It was amazing. It was called the All-Stars team. Did you get to meet any of the guys? No, we just played. I think there was a few players, but I couldn't remember it. It was so long ago. Who's your favorite?

Stephen Gerard. That's the guy, right? Number nine? Was he number nine? Stephen Gerard was number 17. Okay. He had a few numbers, but 17 sticks out. That's your guy.

Yeah. And he's retired, he's retired. I've just met him recently, first time in my life. Where? In Liverpool. I met him the first time. Just on like on the street? It was about like a sponsor. Him and this guy have got this company set up of water. Angel Water, it's called Revive and they want to bring me on board. So I was able to meet like a legend.

What was that like? It was amazing. Did you know who you were? Yeah, he said he watched the fight and that. So I was like, whoa. Was this pre-Serroney or? Pocerone? Postaroni.

Oh, you just met him? Just met him. Oh my gosh. Like a couple days ago? A couple of days ago, yeah. Wow. He said he watched the fight. Yeah, he said like, I was jumping up and down.

I was like... You're kidding. Don't say that to me. Stephen Gerard. Everyone knows him. Everyone knows him. He's a legend in a city. Yeah.

He still lives there? He still lives there. He still lives there. He's there. I saw you imagine a fight there? I saw you were talking about an octagon in the middle. Yeah, yeah. Because like Anthony Joshua this past weekend.

You see that 75,000 in Wales. People say boxing's dead. boxing is not dead. It's amazing. Especially with Joshua around. But why can't they do that with someone like you? They can't. Listen, it's going to happen. Like, you do get certain guys saying that the best and this and that. And people know when I say it,

it's fucking true. And I believe it. And I say about the echo arena. And after the echo, I'm talking. I'm field. Like, I know all this will come true. This is what I know. It's no bullshit. I know. When I say I'm going to beat these guys, I know it. When I say I'm going to be champion in numerous divisions, I know

it's going to happen. I'm not going to be a wealth away forever. Yeah. And people can say I'm arrogance or whatever, but it's not. It's just humble and confidence mixed together. I'm humble and I'm confident. There's certain guys when they say these things, you're like, yeah, you know, it feels like. But with you, I have to admit it, like, you could see you ramp up.

Like you really believe it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My mind doesn't say, I'm gone, let's question that. My mind also believes it as I'm saying it. Everything about me believes it. You know, when I get fights booked or whatever, when I think about things, it's, it's, I just know it's all going to happen. You know, we could talk about the Connor McGregor manifestation.

Yeah, yeah. I probably do the same. You know, I'm not like Connor in any way, shape, or form. He's his own man and my own. Sure, sure. I believe everything I say. And when I say it, I do it. And it's not like I say it and don't do it.

Like, I train harder than anyone. I put the work in. You know, you can call me a kid or whatever, young dumb, whatever Mike Perry just said. He hasn't got a fucking clue. He's just gone mentally in the head. It looks like he's talking about Tetris shots. What the fuck?

But, you know, I just, believe everything I say Ariel. When did you start to feel this that you were going to be a multiple weight world champion, the best in the world? It doesn't happen the first day. When did you feel like this was actually? In MMA now?

Yeah, yeah. This has been, I thought, like in me, man, for a few years now, like maybe two, three, just because how big I am as well. Like, I know that I can't stay at World's Way forever. And just the way you see a guy like Connor getting the two. For me, now that's already been done.

So now I need the three. You need the three. I need to beat him in that. Because when I say I want to be the greatest, I don't want people to question it and say, well, I'm gone, George St. Pierre, Connor, John Jones. I want people to say, well, Darren's at the top, and they're all below Darren.

That's what I see, and that's what will happen. Did you see him at the event, Connor? I seen him come in, yeah, but I didn't see him. You didn't actually interact. Have you ever had interaction with him? The only time, no, I've never actually seen. The only first time I ever seen Connor was when he's at my fight in Dublin.

And then someone told me to check me Twitter. and I was like, why? And they were like, well, Connor follows you. And I was like, oh, does he? And I didn't follow. I was like, shit, I'll have to follow him. So, you know,

he must not like me Dublin fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's unbelievable what you've been doing, really. And the support that you're getting, it's very rare to have, you know, like Mike Perry, he's popular, but he doesn't have like a nation behind him, right? Not all, Colby, same thing.

You and Connor share that. You have a whole nation behind you. Well, I have two. Yeah. That's true. You too. Yeah. They consider you.

They consider you. They consider me. My friends have been messaging me from all of Brazil saying Till, you're so famous in Brazil right now. Really? Really? That's so amazing. I'm going to Brazil soon as well.

Okay. You're like... To see my daughter. Of course. This is what I mean here. I haven't seen it for like over a year. What's that like? What can I say?

You know, you get guys, certain fighters, they say, oh, I'm away from my family for like a month. And I'm like... Can't imagine. I'm like, you just gotta stop crying, mate. I'm away from my daughter for a year. But it was all... I've done it all for something.

it's worked out, is it not? How old is she? She's nearly four. So she's four and you've not seen her for a year? She changed so much between three and four. I see her on FaceTime. I see her. Everything has changed.

She's not the daughter I knew. So it's like she's going to be a stranger when I see her. She still knows me, but she's a stranger. Yeah, and it's hard to talk to them on FaceTime, right? Like, they have no attention sentence. I hate it. I hate it's the worst. I say to like her mother, I say, I hate speaking on FaceTime.

Yeah. And she's like, you've got to give time. I want to, but I hate speaking on FaceTime. because she's giving me no attention. Sure, yeah, yeah. And you take it personally, but you can't. You can't because she's a child. She doesn't know any better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that decision like to leave? And you were leaving her and you were going back home and it's best for your career to go back home because your coach is there and your team is there, but now you're not going to see her anymore. How difficult was that when you said goodbye? It was, it was hard because I wasn't leaving Brazil

and being sad about leaving everything beyond. The only thing was my daughter, I was thinking, well, how long am I actually not going to see her for? And it's been a year now. So, you know, I don't know. I don't even know I've dealt with it, but I have dealt with it. So it's just one of them. And I just, you know, I can't wait to see her.

Can't wait to see her to know that when I left her, up to now what I've done, what I've achieved in just a short time. And, you know, it's only the start, and I haven't done anything of what I want to do. But this year's been a good year for me. Sure, sure. You know. Did you consider trying to bring her to England?

Yeah, at some point she's definitely going to come to England. I've had lots of trouble with the documents. Okay. Documents getting set from Brazil to England is so hard. You know, like a passport, and there's like a waiting list, and it's like, do you have to go through it? I have to give authority, and I've already did that, but apparently I've sent not the right form of,

so now I've got to do it all again. Oh, my. And you have the infamous tattoo over there. Pageman's hands. Yes. That's who it is now? Well, I don't know. I'm never going to get rid of it.

I find that fascinating, because here you are with you, you have a lovely new girlfriend, right? Yeah. She's okay with this? she'll have to be. I'm not losing. It hasn't come up in conversation? Well, yeah, we always talk. You can change it, right? You can go over it.

I'm not like a petty guy. Okay. I don't care. That's just a part of my life now. Okay. So I don't really care. I'll never change it. I'll probably get things added on in that.

Okay. That's a part of my life. I'm not petty. Like, I'm not a guy who'd split up with my girlfriend and go, right, I'm going to delete all them photos off Facebook or Instagram. Yeah, yeah. That is petty behavior. Okay.

So. So you don't mind. So Paige can stay. I never forget the first interview when I say I didn't know who Paige was Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was amazing Now I know who she is And you really didn't

No, I didn't I didn't, well she was just coming up Wasn't she? I'm not a guy who like studies MMA completely So I really didn't know who she was Has she asked you to get rid of the tattoo? Page No, you're a girlfriend

No, she's never mentioned it Okay, maybe after this Maybe No, credit to her I mean I feel like a lot of women would say A lot I don't want to stare at someone else's face Yeah, of my guy's arm, you know

It's pretty big It's like your whole Huge Yeah, look at that. I mean, and it's actually, it's very well done. It is. It's very well done. Yeah.

When you were doing it, did you think like, oh, maybe, you know. I don't think it. You don't think like, I just, I just, I don't care. I just do. I don't think. I respect that. I overthink. Yeah.

Do you? Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. This New York trick wasn't planned two weeks ago. That's unbelievable. And I just went shit. I want to go to New York. Okay, I'll go.

That's how I think. That's unbelievable. I don't plan things a lot. You're a spontaneous person. A very, very, like. It's good to be that way. Yeah, I think it is. I overthink and overplan and scrutinize.

And then you end up doing nothing. Yeah, that's a bad way to be. It's not a bad way to be, but because you're stressing. Stressing all day. You're killing yourself over something you shouldn't do. I know, just live life. Just live life, yeah. Have fun.

Like last night, we was meant to go out. Yeah. So we were in the room, right? So we're planning this great night out we're going to have. So we get stressed up. She's dressed up. And we're like, yeah, yeah, this is great. We're drinking beer.

Then we get down to it from the New York and we go to a bar right outside Madison's Craig Adams called Lucy's do you know it Yeah, yeah, I've seen it. So we walk in, we're happy, we're like we're gonna get so drunk and he goes yeah, it's closed guys And we just went what the fuck are we gonna do? So we literally went to the 7-Eleven got drinks and just went back up the room That's it, but we were happy Just that's just living life, you know what I mean? We wasn't bothered that we couldn't go on a night out Right, right, right, you know? Shouldn't stress over them things Well said. By the way, what's it like seeing MSG?

Not in here, but like being right across the street. It's amazing. Isn't that cool? I'll fight there one day. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know, I will. That's a famous place. Ali Frazier.

I mean, some of the greats have fought there. MMA, Connor. Yeah, well, now Connor. This being G. I'll fight there, Ariel. Are you bummed that you can't stick around? Yeah, I am. I've had people come hash for photos.

That's over well. In New York? Yeah. Wow. Some guy chased me down in the shop. Wow. A breath. He wanted the photo.

One other guy. And then outside of New York, a few guys. That's fucking crazy. That's unbelievable. You're surprised by it. Very surprised. Very. Like, in my own town, okay, but New York.

Yeah. And so you're a promoter for this organization? LW, what is it, LCCC? LWCC, MMA. Yeah. I'm like the face of the promotion. Oh, wow. I have my partner, so we're doing an MMA show.

And where's the event? It's going to be in the city center and the Blackie. It's called. The Blackie. The Blackie. That accent is something else. Why do you guys sound different than the rest of England? No, English people can't understand us.

Yeah. So you've got Jordy's from Newcastle. Oh, right, right. They're called Jordies. You've got Scouses, and you've got Scottish. They're the three accents that you cannot understand. Yeah. So Scottish people, Jordies, and Scouss.

Do you know why you guys do the... I haven't got a clue, mate. Is there something... And I've actually tried to... To fight it? No, better mine a bit just for people who, you know, outside. Yeah. But it's hard.

And then the best is when you do the Portuguese. Yeah, when the Portuguese is... It's like stokes in Portuguese. Incredible. Do the Brazilians love it as well when you talk like that? Yeah, they love it. It's just the best. They laughed their heads off so much.

When you came into the UFC, I was like rooting for you to win just so I can hear that in the post-fight interview. It's amazing. And then the last one, when I was talking about the presidents and that, the Brazilians were mad for that. Yeah, what were you talking about? I was just talking about how the Brazilians all want a guy in. It's called Bolsonaro. Okay. They won him president in 2018.

Like 90% of the population support him. Yeah. And I also do. So that's why I just give like a little message to them. You're a political guy? No, but when I was in Brazil, I got involved in it because of my coach, Marcelo. We lived together and he used to always talk about this. So I was like, I'm interested in this.

I want to see what's going on. Okay. So I ended up, like, getting a big interest for it. When your coach sent you to Brazil, why did you choose there? Because he already, we already knew Marcelo. He lived in England for five years. Now he speaks Brazilian Scouse. Oh, my God.

So he's a Brazilian who speaks Scouts. He doesn't speak English. So if he speaks, he'd be like, what? happening lad he speaks cows that's amazing he comes over too he lives there for five years and he comes over sometimes yeah the guy who stabbed you do you know who it is no

you don't know he's just off in the wind some guy yeah you ever wonder who it is they never caught him uh I don't know I never ever like talk to the police and anything about it like you never did no like I just didn't go to the you went to the hospital right I was in the hospital for like a week or two and like it was almost next to your spine it was

it the doctor talked to what happened you're at a club is at a club a fight broke out with my mates I seen it me being fucking crazy I went over to try and confront about 20 lads so yeah fighting and then on the cameras you see while I'm fighting with the lads this guy just comes up and just like stabs me twice

and back like you want to see the scars oh I'd love to if you don't mind oh wow there you go holy smokes so he actually stabbed me twice once he stabs me and walks away but I didn't feel nothing so I carried on fighting and he comes back around

the club and stabs me again. Ah. Yeah. Same guy. Yeah, same guy. So he's seeing that I haven't fell off the first one and then tried to think, and I didn't fall still. After the second? Still didn't fall.

Carried on fighting for like 20 minutes after. Jesus. Against the dorm and everyone. And then obviously it got to me the adrenaline and I just fell. Okay. And the, but the guys, the doctor said to me, if it was any more closer, like that much to my artery, he said I would have died instantly. Oh, my God.

That was a lucky night. And did you have any issues walking or you just? I was on crutches when I got out of the hospital. Okay. Yeah, and then obviously I couldn't train for like four months. But I was already in Brazil when I was all healed up. Okay. And that's when your coach says, go over there.

No, as soon as I got out of the hospital, he said, go to Brazil right now. I know these guys go there. It's better for your career. Right now, this is where you need to be because you've got too many distractions still. So just go. And I said, okay, coach, I believe in you. And how many fights into your career were you at that point? Not one.

Oh, not one. No profession. Yeah, because the early fights are all in Brazil. And that's kind of how you got into the UFC on short notice because you're living in Brazil, right? I just fought two weeks prior to the UFC fight, short notice, against one of the ranked guys in Brazil, his name was Midnight. And I just knocked him out. It was a five-round fight, by the way, for the title.

So I knocked them out in the fort. And that's when they said short notice, and I was like, sound. Like, let's do it. Yeah. If you're not living in Brazil, you don't get that fight, right? No. Because of the visas and all that stuff. So it's amazing that you being there got you in on that.

I mean, I'm sure the opportunity would have come out. Yeah. Just little crazy paths like that. And you think, well, if this and that, you know what I mean? It's amazing. Would I have got the Soroni fight for us in Brazil? Yeah. So that's how you've got to think of things.

That's incredible. So at this point, wouldn't you think you'll fight again? Well, I wanted to fight again before the end of the year, but my coach told me, he said, he said, you've had three fights. Maybe it's good to give your body a little break because camp was so hard, maybe have a month off. I mean, this pisses me off because if Mike Perry wasn't sad, I would have fought. him like this I don't know he's worked up as well yeah yeah I would have fought him like we could have fought so he's booked and you know I'm not way you gonna are you gonna are

you gonna train to see it maybe like Ponzenebio falls out will you do that sort of thing or I'll just be ready okay three weeks before the fight I'll just have to you know yeah yeah shit I mean it's like around Christmas time and all that but like actually a little early it's a little earlier yeah I'm going you know you're going to the yeah the UFC are taking me oh oh how interesting so you know it's a fighter What? You're a guest fighter? Guest fighter, yeah.

In Winnipeg? Yeah, Winnipeg. Oh man. Have you been to Winnipeg? Never. Where is it? Canada. Canada, yeah.

Freezing. Freezing, yeah. So I've just been to Poland, New York, in Canada. That's a fucking good lifetime. Yeah. How about that? So I'm there, yeah. Okay.

When did that happen? My coach the other day just said, oh, do you actually want to get you there? Oh, that's interesting. You'll be in the front and then jump on. Are you going to return the favor? I won't jump on the case. I'll just do that. I'll just go, come on.

Oh man, that is my fight. That's the one I want to see. It needs to happen. You versus Mike, Colby versus Tyron, let's figure that out. I guess Usman's going to fight Emil Mac at this point.

Yeah, well, they're fighting. Yeah. Even though Usman's calling me out. Yeah. This census just called me out, hasn't it? Oh, yes.

Did you see that fight? You've seen a fight? He's a good fighter. Yeah. Specifically called you out. Yeah, specifically called you out. Yeah. He knows I'm the strike.

I'm the guy to fight, the striking. Right. If you want to be, if you want to be, if you, The fans are, the fans want to see striking

what I bring. They want to see that. That's why my Instagram went from 16,000 to 94. Really? That's what my Instagram's with. No one's ever done there. Everyone usually goes up

and says, mine just flew up because people want to see me. People know I'm real and people know I come to fight. Yeah. Well, keep it up. Yeah, I will.

And by the way, I owed you last week for the long distance call. That's part of the reason why I wanted to give you the donuts, all right? So I hope you'll enjoy them and your lovely girl

will enjoy them. them as well. I really appreciate. I know you're on vacation, so for you to come in, it means a lot that you take some time out. Thank you, Darren. I wish you all the best. Yeah, this has been a lot of fun. Enjoy New York. I will. If you need any tips, let me know. What's that buddies? And I hope that you'll be back there sooner rather than later. Thank you very much. All right. Safe travels home. There he is, Darren Till, leaving with his box of donuts. Enjoy my man. The great Darren Till in the studio. The Scouser himself learned so much about the history of Liverpool, Scouse. amazing stuff there from Darren Till

as I take a drink myself how about that so much excitement so much excitement in the Walter Weight Division by the way in a matter of moment speaking of the Walterweight Division Jorge Mazvedal is going to be joining us he's actually going through security as we speak

and so this is a good chance to reset before we get Jorge on let me just drink my tea as well plenty more show to go my friends that was a lot of fun Darren Till stopping by remember the name he is a name to remember someone throughout the nickname

he doesn't have a nickname but someone throughout the nickname idea and still if he becomes champion we'll see about that but I have a feeling we'll be talking about that guy and he's so young wow it's unbelievable stuff with him and Perry is just so much fun all right so still to come on the program we actually have another in studio guest

but that's not next. We've got Jorge Mazzvedal coming up in a matter of moments. After that, we've got Derek Brunson joining us. Of course, he's coming off that big win over Liotta Machita, and we'll talk to him about what's next.

And his new hair, I want to talk to him about that new hair. Daniel Cormier, Daniel Cormier texted me. He said, what's up with Derek Brunson's new hair? I told him he looks like one of the temptations. Great stuff.

So that's at 310. 3.30, Olexi, Olinix. will be joining us in studio right over here with his translator george and he's in town of course to fight curtis blades and so i'm looking forward to talking to the bow constrictor himself at 420 we're going to be joined by mark hunt talk to him about his removal from ufc sydney and at 440 colby covington will be stopping by listening to darren till on the m m mary are What a genuine lad. So many quick questions and answers.

Damn, Ariel, that was awesome. This guy is magnetic. Scouser. Hashtag. Yes, of course. Thank you for reminding me, my friends. You can find us on Twitter, of course, on mhmapfiting.com. In the 5 o'clock hour, we'll have the MMA after hour that we'll be answering your questions.

Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. And we'll answer some of those questions about 217, whatever you want, the welterweight division. all kinds of things going on. So please do that. And you can watch us live right now on Twitter, mhmap fighting dot Twitter.com. Another person says, great effin interview on the Ariel Hawaiian show,

Platinum Perry. Keep working good things. Here's John Gooden, my friend John Gooden, who had such a great show on Saturday with DC. I love their dynamic. It's a bit of a, you know,

it's like a straight man and the Lucy guy. Every time Cormier is on the broadcast, he reminds me of Jim DeAnville Nighthart. Like he can't really stand still and he's laughing and he's like hitting, Gooden. He's talking about eating at Brazilian steakhouses. I mean, it's just amazing.

Gooden says, love watching Darren Till on with Ariel Hawani. I said this, the first time I commented his fight, this guy is different. He is special. I certainly agree with that. So, as I said, plenty more to go. There's a lot going on in the world of MMA. We are going to talk to Jorge Mazbidl in a matter of seconds.

And maybe we have him. But before we get to him, do we have him? Okay, I see New York, like he keeps me hanging on the G-Ched. Like, I see his name in black, so he's writing something, but maybe he's just getting ready to tell me that something's going on. The Connor McGregor documentary comes out. It's called Notorious. It actually comes out later on this week.

There's a world premiere in Dublin on Wednesday. And then it comes out in theaters all over the United States, all of the world. there's in London. You can see it on the website. There's all kinds of information. I was actually supposed to go to Dublin on Wednesday to be a part of the premiere there, the one that Connor will be at, and there's going to be a Q&A, a 20-minute Q&A with him afterwards, and that was going to air. Like if you were going to the theater on Friday in New York to watch this, you would see the Q&A afterwards. It was going to stream live, I think. in Ireland and England and then the rest of the world was getting a chance to see it. Something

like that. It was a little confusing. But anyway, Universal Pictures had asked me to do it. And I was honored and I was going to go in and out one day, not miss 217, but just missed that first media day, fly out Tuesday night, come back Thursday early afternoon. And I was in and now unfortunately I'm out. And the reason I'm out is because they asked me to write all my questions in advance and then they asked for the approval. They said that they were going to have to approve all the questions. I don't even write questions for my own show,

let alone for someone else to approve them. And I just said, I don't do that. I can't do that. And I've never done that with Connor. And you can ask them himself. And they said, no, we need to see all your questions. I don't know why. Maybe other people are involved.

I don't know what's going on, but I said I can't do that. So unfortunately, I won't be at the premiere on Wednesday in Dublin. I'll be here in New York for UFC, Another person who will be here in New York for UFC 217, we hope, is Jorge Mazvedal. He fights Wonder Boy Thompson, one of the most important fights on the car, and he is joining us now on the phone from, I do believe the airport. Is that not right, Mr. Mazvedal?

Are you at the airport right now? Yes, sir. Racing, running through here, getting through TSA, getting harassed. Wow. The usual, man. Are you through security? I'm through security. I tried an answer to the car at the time.

I was in line for like 40 minutes, said it for some reason. I don't know why. What time's your flight? At 3.45 degree we depart, it started boarding already. Oh, snap. I'm spreading over there right now, yeah. Okay. We got time, though.

Do you think this is a standard for me, so. Okay. And by the way, I have to apologize because you came, you were trying to leave yesterday. How long were you on the runway for? You were trying to come to New York, so join us in studio. I was so excited to have you, and then your flight got canceled because of the weather. But how long were you on the plane for before they canceled it? Six hours, and that's what pissed me out.

They could have just told us, hey, we're not going to take off guys. They kept stringing us on. Hey, in 20 minutes, we'll have an update. Yeah, it looks like we're taking off, guys. Everybody, buckle up. Never mind. Seems like we can't leave, guys. In 20 minutes, we'll have an update.

They did that for about five hours. And then finally they let us go. Wow. And then I had to do another line. Then I had to do another hour line just to find out when my bags were going. Oh, man. How pissed off were you? Well, it's pretty pissed, man.

So this is the way you started quite a week. Does it bother? like with the weight cut and everything, or are you okay? No, I'm good. It just bothers me because I could have been at home with my kids, you know, chilling. Instead I'm in a plane with a bunch of idiots, you know. What were you doing on the plane for six hours, not moving? Meditating.

Okay. Trying not to get upset. Yes, sir. Okay, so Jorge, I have to ask you, you're one of Colby Covington's best friend, right? Yes, sir. It seems like the whole team is mad at him, American Top Team. Where do you fall on this? Did he cross the line?

Did he go too far? What do you make of this whole situation? Did he cross the line? Did he go too far? There's several ways you could look at it. You know, it's entertainment, right? Yeah. It's cool for people as we're walking out to throw shit.

My coach, mind you, my coach called me before he said any of that. And I don't know what workout they had done or what, but he said people were, some people were even shoving him and he was walking through like an open workout. I don't know what. Like, how disrespectful is that? don't take into consideration at the end of the day, they were human beings, you know?

Is everybody in Britain did, uh, did, uh, did you really mean that they're filthy animals or whatever? No, man. But, but it's entertainment also. And at the same time, if you're getting disrespectful, if you're coming over to Miami and people are throwing shit out of you, trying to spit on you, shoving your corners,

what, what's going to happen, you know? So he's just, I mean, to me, it reminded me of like old school pro wrestling. I think he's in all the right, man. He's what? I think he's all of it. the right minute. Especially if he meant that. If that came from his heart, man, you can't get mad of them. That's how he feels.

What do you think this is going to do for the team? Because now you have, like, Brazilian members of the team, and there's a lot of them at ATT saying that they're upset. They want him out. Are they being... Like, is this going to cause a rift? What do you think of it all? Who gives the fuck what happens, man? That's my partner, man. I got his back.

He's got mine, man. And don't nobody want problems either at the end of the end. I'll tell you that right now. Has he always been crazy? Has he always been this crazy? Has he always been this crazy? Well, I'll tell you, Kobe since I've known him,

he has a real problem with, like, authority. Like, if we get pulled over by the police, I'm like, yes, sir, no, sir, sure I'm going to reach into the glove compartment for my license and registration. Please don't shoot me. And Kobe's like a fucking asshole, but if they give him him just a little bit of attitude,

that dude goes haywire. So with, like, authority and stuff, he has a real big problem, you know? that dude is not easy to control. You've been in there with Maya. What did you think of what he did to Maya? Were you thinking that he was going to do that to Maya? Just like I told everybody that interviewed me, that dare ask me,

and I told him, unless Kobe trips and falls and Maya takes his back, it's going to be a bad night for Maya because Kobe's a better wrestler. A more athletic and way more gas. You know, I've rolled with Kobe five, six years. You know, I only spent 50 minutes from Maya, but I knew that there was a huge vast difference in the wrestling, you know? So I said that I think that they should do Covington versus Woodley now because of everything he's saying about Woodley. What do you think of that idea?

It's a great idea. That'll be a good fight, man. That's going to sell tickets. You know, they got the little beef going on. Yeah. It's going to be one good scrap. Do you think he's ready for Woodley? I mean, you know, Woodley's my partner, but Kobe's like my little brother, you know. I'm always going to have his back when he goes to compete against others, you know?

So I think he's more than ready. Do you still live with Colby? No, no, no, no. We haven't lived together for a while, actually. It was like four years ago. And it's crazy because, like, five years ago, when we were both broke and fighting for table scraps, we were in the apartment.

We had plying this out all out. You know, everything's just falling into place now. We plodded this plan like five years ago. What happens when you start to get, like, up there at the same level, which you're pretty much at now? How are you going to avoid each other? I don't think we get any much closer anymore. You know, obviously we don't want to fight each other, you know.

We both want the belt around their weights because that's when you finally get to make money. But not to overlook Thompson none because I got to fight Saturday. That's all I'm focused on. There's lots of things I could do, you know. I could drop the 55. Whop on Ferguson, if McHonner ever decides to defend the bell, he could catch that ass whooping too. But it just has to be for the right money. I'm not going to kill my body.

My lifestyle just go to 55. It would have to be for the right pennies, you know. 170 is probably the most interesting division in the UFC right now where do you see like a win over wonder boy what does that do for you where does that put you because you got RDA and Lala coming up and Dana is saying that the winner is going to fight for the belt there you've got all these young guns Covington and Usman and Perry and Darren Till

where is Mazvedal where is game bread in all of us? I'm not seeing any of those dudes I'm only seeing the title man you know those dudes they they could be good in the future but I'm not looking at those guys I was in their shoes 10 years ago. I've been fighting for a long time. I got 42 fights, man. You're bringing up dudes that are just starting off in the careers. Do they talk a lot and get on social media, I'm sure?

But I'm not going to just fight guys because they're out there on social media, you know? I'm going to fight the best guys in the world. Now, Robin, those signs, that's a different story. Two ex-ch champions and stuff, you know? So what do you think a win over Wonderboy does for you? Where does it put you? For the title?

Duh. What do you think it puts me? So you think that you would leapfrog RDA, Lawler? Of course I went with a guy that went 10 rounds with the champion You know but that's my idea You know the thing is that

Oh no no But uh Mass me gone For the upgrade That's right Get that upgrade baby No No no guys giving me

This is crazy No no mind Didn't get the upgrade Yesterday I have first class Not that I get bumped down to To bullshit Are you kidding I hate American Airlines bro

Do we have to get off and I got the plant I'm sad. That's messed up. No love for GamePrette. No love for GameBru's. But Gainbris got some big projects coming up. What do you got?

I got the documentary. I got the documentary on my life. Yeah. From my kid till now coming up, dropping. When's that to come out? The exact release thing we don't have a yet, but we've been filming for about four months already. We've got a couple more things to add to it and stuff.

you know, it's a very good company behind me, so I'm excited. And then I got a movie role, man. I've gotten a lot of scripts in the past. I thought most of them were kind of corny. I got a dope one coming up. It's about MMA, and it's actually an interesting twist on MMA. It's called Oudocon. People want to check that one out.

I'm going to be in there. I've got a small role in there. Is it in Spanish? No, it's going to be an English player. Oh, wow. What's your role? Are you a fighter? Yeah, I think I'm a fan.

fighter slash villain, kind of myself, you know? Okay. When do you start filming that? We started filming for it in January, just been going over our hearts and horizon lines and things like that for now, you know? Is it true that... We're going to start filming January and then I don't know exactly when the movie drops. Is it true that you really been watching Bruce Lee and Karate Kid to prepare for Wonderboy,

or was that a joke? My damn Skippy, right? You know, I don't joke. I'm not a joking type of dude. Is this an exciting Is this the kind of guy that's like, okay, this is going to be an interesting thing because his style is unique

with the kicks and the karate background. Is this the kind of fight that excites you? Yes or no. As long as he doesn't come to get on those bicycle and run. Yeah, it should be interesting. You feel like he's the kind of guy to do that? Yeah, I've seen him do it in the past where he gets on that bike and just tries to

sidekick the air and get a decision. But my plan is to stop that, obviously. put a curtain on. What about fighting at MSG? That is a legit treat. Yeah? That is something that, yeah, when I embarked on my career, obviously I had already seen numerous fights,

and I knew that'd be the one that eventually I'd end up in that arena. You know, I had a couple of places I wanted to scrap out. One of them was, say, Thomas Arena, check. No, MSG, almost checked. It gets like this, they could sell. You know? Yeah.

What about these sandwiches that your manager was telling me about, the Wonderbread sandwiches that used to eat. Did you really have bread with Doritos in it? Is that true? Hot Cheetos for me personally. I don't know how to do the Doritos combo, but I prefer my hot chitos. Hot Cheetos in the middle and just bread.

That's it. And bread, yeah. I mean, I'm not bright. It's the best thing. Oh, we lost you. Can you hear me now? Oh, yeah, yeah. I got you. Are you on the plane?

Yeah, yeah, I'm on the plane. but when the funds are low, that's when I would whip out those sandwiches. Wow. And, and, like, this is, like, when you were a child? Not a child, you know. Yeah. That's incredible. I wanted to share one of those with you in studio,

but I guess we'll have to save that for after the fight. Yeah. I'm sure you can get down on one of them. Yeah, for real. Wonderbread, because you were calling him Wonderbread, and he was talking to me about it, I just never heard of something like that, but it sounds amazing.

The hot Cheetos, I'll hook it up, get some wonder bread, and we'll feast. I think we lost them. It's kind of hard to. There you are. Yeah. If I'll let you go. Yeah, what's that? If you slap some butter on it with the hot Cheetos, then you got yourself a real treat.

All right. That's a true delicacy. All right. I like it. Jorge, I'll let you go because you're getting on the plane and everything, and it's cutting out. But I appreciate you squeezing us in here. Safe flight to New York. Thanks for trying yesterday.

And I'll see you in a couple of days at MSG. Yes, sir. I'll be seeing you. All right, my man. There he is. Gamebred fighter himself. Jorge Mazvedel. He fights Wonderboy Thompson on Saturday at MSG. He was on the plane for six hours yesterday. I was actually planning on bringing the Wonderbread and the hot Cheetos and kind of toasting with them. I like to give gifts when people come in studio. It's sort of my thing. Sometimes when I could think of something.

Remember I gave Yawaniang Chichick. I gave her some donuts. I'm drinking lemonade because when you're under the weather, lemonade cures all your problems. At least that's what I was told. Well, I appreciate Mazvedal for squeezing us in. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Derek Brunson as we continue to roll along here.

Don't forget, Alexei Olinic will be in studio at around 3.30 as well. Derek Brunson coming off that big win over Leodomachita knocking him out. What a performance on Saturday. for Derek Brunson, who continues to impress. Every time the man shows up and wins, it seems like it's a vicious left-hook knockout.

And remember, there was a time when Derek Brunson was, you know, strike force UFC. You know, he had some knockouts here or there, but he was also, I feel like kind of branded with the, like, the wrestler non-finisher brush. I feel like those days are officially gone. Dating back to, let's go with the Ed Herman fight, UFC 183 January of 2015.

TKO'd him, first round, 36 seconds. Follows that up with the Sam Alvey fight. TKO, first round, two minutes and 19 seconds. Juan Carnaro, Zhukau, KO, two minutes and 38 seconds. All of this is in the first round. Uriah Hall, one minute, 41 seconds. First round, TKO. Then had the loss to Robert Whitaker.

We talked to him about that one. just, I don't know what happened there. It was a different guy, kind of went off the script, throw that one out. The Anderson fight, which could have been a real game changer back in February in Brooklyn, I still think he won that fight. Officially it's an L. But I kind of viewed as a win when I look at his record here.

Dan Kelly, first round, K.O., minute 16, and then there's Leotomichita, two minutes and 30 seconds on Saturday. first round knockout. Just unbelievable. And for Liotto Machita, that's his third straight loss. His last win, December of 2014.

Remember that win over C.B. Dalloway? It has been a while for Liotto Machita and all of a sudden, looking very much like he is 39 years old. Quickest loss of his career. You wonder where he goes from here, but the bigger question right now is where does Derek Brunson go from here?

He talked about it a little bit on Saturday. Let's talk to him a little more about it right now, the program. Let's go to the Magic of Skype and welcome in. Derek Brunson. There he is. Derek, how are you? What's up, man? I'm good. How are you? Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank. Thank you. Thank you.

You're back? You're back home? Yeah, I'm back home. I got back home about two hours, so yeah, I'm happy be back home. Mission accomplished. And I appreciate you squeezing us in. Where are you right now? You're in your car? Where are you off to? I hope you're not driving at the moment. No, I'm not driving.

I was getting food, so I stopped, came back to my car and was like, let me knock this out real quick. Okay, all right, all right. Well, I appreciate you squeezing us in. Thank you, Derek. What is it like to go to Brazil, to go to Sao Paulo, and knock out a legend like Leona Machita? Like, the place went completely quiet.

Like, on television, it seemed like everyone was just stunned. But as the guy who did it, what was it like being a part of it? It was crazy. It was crazy. I think Leota definitely wanted to fight me, you know? I think, you know, they brought me to Brazil thought it would be an interesting fight

thought it would be a good fight to welcome the cheetah back I think he liked the match up but yeah to go out and get it done felt really good how did they treat you the fans I mean you you didn't do anything like Colby did in the previous fight but did you feel uneasy at all

did you feel like the fans were mad at you that they were going home unhappy that they were going to throw things at you what was it like as you were walking out nah they treated me really good you know they were very very

receptive throughout the whole week, asking to take pictures, sign an autograph, telling me good luck. I had a lot of junior fans, like, you know, I'm with you. I want you to win. You're a nice guy. Blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, it was good. You know, of course, they're passionate. They're passionate for their people. Kobe went a little crazy, you know, he went a little excessive. I don't even know if he's really that guy. I think he's just trying to follow the Connor whole, you know, people talking trash. I mean, I don't know. It is what it is. I guess everybody

want to see it. It's kind of the fad right now. But I think if you go out and just put guys away, it to speak for itself. And you know, you can do it that way or you can, you know, kind of talk a lot and try to create it that way. What was the game plan going in against Machita,

a guy who had not fought in two years? I mean, we've seen him enough now. We know what his style is. Did you think that the finish would come that early? As I just ran down, you have made a habit out of finishing guys in the first round. And I almost feel like that isn't. talked about enough as crazy as it may seem.

But for you and your team, what was the actual game plan going in against Machita? To be patient, to show maturity, to grow, you know, to not come out here and just try to run people over because it's stupid. You can't come out and just try to run everybody over. I made some mistakes. A lot of people underestimate me or don't really put too much stock into me, you know. You look at a lot of fights in my career.

Look at the Romero fight. I was a minute away from winning that fight Look at the Whitaker fight I was a couple punches away from winning that fight I mean I rocked him And he was ultimately able to get the win You know and those are fights where you know I made mistakes

And you know Anderson fight Maybe I was a little bit too Patient which I really don't think I was You know I was just smart You know trying to find a happy medium So I really believe now that I'm training I got a good New different Moy Thai coach

Who I've been working with and I've been, you know, just working a lot of different things and it's all starting to come together. How is it, like, it definitely seems to me like you don't get enough attention. Like, a guy, like, if there was another guy who had that many first-round knockouts, big guy, marketable guy, good-looking guy, I feel like you don't get talked about enough. I don't know, and it's funny to say because you were in the main event,

and I know it was a machina, but just for some reason, it feels like there should be more buzzed. Do you think it's because you don't talk smack? Do you think it's because you don't make enough noise? Why do you think it is? is or maybe you disagree. I don't know. It's like this.

So I hear, I heard you say it before I came on. Machia 39. This MMA is not a sport of how old you are. You can fight until your 45, 50 if you're capable of fighting, you know. It's a, it's a timing sport. It's not a, it's not a NFL where you're running, you know, you're doing like a 40-yard dash. It's not one of those sports, you know. It's one of, it's just, it's a lot of technique.

okay if somebody say machita thirty nine okay give me a younger guy in the division maybe i don't know uh antonio carlos or or or a guy that's making noise in the division that's this younger you guys will probably have me the favor than that fight but that's a younger guy look at a hall fight he's a good young striker you got i won that fight but you know you have a guy like emerson who was 40 41 and i wasn't able to finish him that shows you that maturity takes you a long way in this sport. This is not a, this is a, this is a, it may is more like a chest mat,

you know. If it was like one minute rounds, it would play to the athlete, but it's more, it's more of a chest match, you know. And by the way, I'm not trying to say that, you know, um, him being 39 is the reason why you won. But there does reach a point where guys like, they start to look old, right?

And all I was saying was, okay, maybe the chin doesn't, maybe, maybe it's taken, maybe he doesn't hold up as much. Maybe he's able to take that punch. I don't know. No, that's just me, I'm not the one who's in there. That's just me kind of sitting back and watching. But I hear what you're saying as well.

It's not trying to take away. I mean, that is a huge signature win for you. That is a massive win. Well, it's like I've trained with some of the best in the sport, okay? I've trained with John for years, you know, and nobody really touches me. Machita was able to, like, you know, get in, close the distance. You know, I train with a lot of guys who you guys talk about all the time, who's been in the big fights, who've been former champ,

and they're not really able to touch me when it comes to, like, like striking. You know, Machita, 39, I mean, the guy is a career martial artist. If I hit anybody flush on their chin, I'm going to drop him. I mean, it just is what it is. If I can find that chin, I'm going to drop him. I hit hard, you know, so that's just more of it. When you have a guy, you say, okay, Machita's 39.

He lost three in a, two in a row, three in a row when he lost to me. What about if you have a guy like Pettis who lost three in a row? Does he need to retire also? No, no. When you're at the top, you have nowhere to go but below, you know? You can't go any higher. If you're a champion, you can't go any higher. So I see a lot of guys always looking at, oh, he lost two in a row, three in a row.

What about Damien Amaya? Okay, before people, everybody's like, oh, he might even retire now, but he just won like nine in the row in a championship fight a fight ago, two or three months ago. So, I mean, I think everybody's so quick to, really downplay or or downgrade or you know take away from what's going on

opposed to like really looking at it and really respecting it and having respect for the sport and respect what's going on Machita is the same Machita as he's always been he looked very good in his open warm out

warm out workout whatever and you know he was still elusive he does the same thing that he's always done I watch a lot of films on all my opponents when I fought you were out hall he did the same thing he's always done his whole career

he pulls back and leaves his hands down when he does the exact same thing which Rashide tapped in on in the post fight he was like you know he's not really what do he call it he said defense of responsible you know he pulls he's a karate guy

he pulls his head back you might be able to reach him with kicks to the legs but it's harder to reach into the head because he likes to pull his head back if you take that extra step and you throw a punch you're landing so you know it's just all about articulating and putting it together were you planning on calling out

Rockhold afterwards or did you do it because DC was there? Well, no, it's like I'm at a stage, I got a new contract I had a good contract, you know, I'm trying to put on good fights. I'm trying to get into big fights. I'm trying to maximize, you know.

I want everybody like understanding how much hard work I put into, what type of guy I am. I want to be one of those guys like Rumble. Rumble didn't talk a lot. He just knocked people out, not people unconscious. And you guys respect it,

everybody respect him. for that, you know. So I'm in Rockhole, I believe, is number one. Maybe, you know, you have, what, champion, interim and one maybe or something like that. Currently you have Whitaker as number

one because he's interim and then Rockhold and then Romero and then Jaceroy, Wiedman, Anderson, and you. Yeah. Okay, so there you go. You know, he's a top guy, you know? Obviously, we know Whitaker, I can't ask for Whitaker because, you know, he's next in line for the to bring the titles together.

So 100%. Let's say in my last, what, seven fights, I've lost to Whitaker and Anderson. Yeah, it's crazy. And I have the rest are eight fights. There are eight fights. I have six finishes. I lost the Whitaker and Silver.

And we know how the Civil fight went, you know. Still think you want. I mean, you know, I mean, I don't get a lot of respect, but I'm here, I'm here for the big fights. I'm here to try to make some waves. So with that being said, I'm open to a jockey-ray fight. I'm open to a rock hole fight. I'm open to a wide-man fight. And definitely open to a Romero fight, but I want to let his steroids cool off a little bit more.

You see who the real fighter is. I said it. Wow. You know, I mean, it is what it is. I'm open to all these fights, you know. You think he was using when he fought here? Hell yeah, of course he was. You know, come on.

I mean, guys can play the system. It's cool, it's whatever. You got away with it. But come on, you had a PED, a steroid in your body. You played a system. You got away with, you know, not doing it two years. So it is what it is. I dominated him in every facet of martial arts in that fight.

He was able to, you know, he had a little bit more left. He was able to explode out of positions where, you know, I normally trap guys and pound them out. But, you know, when you got all those in the hasten coming through your body, you're able to, you know, go to extra mile. So it is what it is. But like I said, I'm open to fight anybody. I want the big fights.

Whatever fight, my agent can talk to, you know, Dana or whatever, and say, okay, we want this number one. contender fight after these titles are unified whoever whoever whoever gets me that um title shot next then let's do it yeah so the the belt is on the line of course this saturday who do you have in that fight bisping or gs p that is so crazy i hope what if they double knock each other out and they both retire and then we have like uh whittaker versus someone you know that's what you want you want to get rid of both of them you're that's what i want yeah double knock each other out and they both retired you're done with those guys

No, no Well, Bisman, he don't want to fight. He says he don't want to fight much longer. He had the eye injury that was done by Vitor, you know? Like, it's bull, but it is what it is. And he don't want to fight much longer. GSP, I don't know. I don't think he really wants to stay around at 85.

I don't know if that really makes a lot of sense when he's there at 85. But it's funny. I thought of a situation where, you know, let's say Ramiro, I mean, let's say, let's say GSP win. GSP and Whitaker fight. GSP win that. Yeah. I win a big fight. Boom.

Derek Brunson versus GSP. Could you imagine? So. So why do you want him to get knocked out then? Why do you want him to get knocked out? No, no. No, no. No, I said double knockout.

I wasn't picking on any one particular person. I said double knockout. They both go away. GSP doesn't belong in the weight class He didn't he didn't really You know He didn't really climb the ladder in the weight class Yeah but he's the freaking

He's freaking Walter White King Like he he defended the belt for nine times He goes up What if he wins All of a sudden now you have GSP in your way class And all of a sudden like you have this big money fight That's potentially there That's good for guys like you

Oh yeah 100% Oh I'm not tripping I'm not tripping stay I mean I don't want him to go to go away I'm just saying I'm saying hypothetically What if they both retire? Because GSBs like, you know, up and down. BIS being expressed that he's not going to fight much longer.

So what if they both go away? And then we have like a crazy division, you know. And one thing about my division, everybody always say all these divisions are, you know, the best division. You know, my division consists of people who built this sport, you know, Anderson, Liotta. You know, all these guys have been around for a long time. You know, Chris Wyman upset it. Anderson after all these years you know

I don't know let me ask you a question Ariel who did you have how did you see the fight going which fight? Me and Leo who did I think was going to win? You didn't have me 100% winning

you can't say that I honestly like I can't say I didn't now I can't go on the record because I don't make picks beforehand you know why I don't make picks beforehand Okay. Because guys get mad at me and I want you guys to come on my show

so it doesn't really behoove me to say oh I think Derek Brunson is going to knock out Machita and then Machita finds out and gets mad at me and doesn't want to talk to me ever again. So there's really no like there's really no end game there right? It's very good to play it there. But I'm saying, did you think you thought I was going to win that fight?

I'll say this. When you won the fight and how you won the fight considering what you've done over the past two years did not shock me at all. They're not surprised me. I wasn't stunned. I didn't have my mouth over. I was like, there goes Derek Brunton again.

There were more questions about him than you going into that fight. How quality of a win do you think that was? Being that he was off and all. Big time. That was big time. Here's my thing. That was a big game. Here's what I want the media to talk about.

Please, tell me. Talk about is that material looked good. His cows looked good. He was in and out. He got caught. He got caught. You know, he tried to pull out. I was able to counter right at that point.

And here's why, okay, go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. You guys love Musassi. You guys love Musassi. You guys love Musassi. Masasi is like hot fire right now. Okay, Masasi left and he beat Chris Wyman. Okay, he hasn't went over Chris Wyman.

It was controversial. Okay, let's rewind it back, maybe. Correct. Regardless. Yeah. Regardless, you know. And three fights before that, pretty sure I'm a machia. pretty much dominated Masasi, you know?

Yeah, yeah. And that wasn't too long ago. That wasn't too long ago. And that same fighter that fought Musasi was present that night, you know? Masasi is a guy who tries to, he strikes, he got beaten and striking. Machita outstruck him. Machita's elusive, you know, he's just, you know, that's just the fighter that he is. You know, Masaschi's not a big power puncher.

He's a volume puncher, you know. So Machita beat him pretty good, you know, and Musassi left USC. was four and that wasn't too long ago. Yeah. Do you see his fight? Do you see his fight against Slamenko? I did. I did. Who won? I did. I did.

Who won? Um, I came in at the back end that I fight, to be fair. I came in at the back end, but I think I saw enough to think that, oh, how do you pronounce his name? Slamenco. Not Monsasas. Slamenco.

Slamenco. I might have would have gave him the edge. And, you know, being with the eye, I gave him the third, right? I think everybody gave him the third. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really, first Musassi, that was the second was the real toss-up,

though, the one that kind of provided everyone. The second was when he hit him, right? No, the first was when he got hit in the eye. Oh, okay, okay, okay. See, like I said, I gave him in the back end of that fight. Yeah. I kind of thought, what I've seen, I kind of thought he lost that fight, you know?

Okay. By the way. And like I said, there's some good fighters over there. No, no, go ahead. There's some good fighters over there. Like, one of my training partners here that doesn't get enough credit, John Salter, I think he's the best middleweight over there. Oh, yeah. Wow.

Yeah, yeah. I think he beats, I know he'll beat Salenko, and I think he beats Masasi also. But I think he's the best middleweight over there for sure. Um, but sausage is good. You can't take that away from him, but, you know, that was a fight that I would love to, uh, get, I mean, nothing against that guy. It's no need to talk about him or honing on him because we have no business, you know. We're in two different organizations.

But my, my point is, is that he left on a high note and we cheated dominated him on the feet, dominated on a fight 3027 from my memory. And, you know, that wasn't too long ago. I mean, we definitely got to, you know. And by the way, the, the biggest thing that you have, the biggest argument that you have in your favor is that like it's not your first knockout in your last 10 fights this is something that you're consistently doing so the fact that you just did it to machita to me is just another step up on the ladder so he's the biggest name that you beat so far and you're right like okay so maybe i shouldn't

mention his is his age i was just trying to paint the picture there but there's there's there's nothing to take away from you there that is the natural progression of your career you had to take a little bit of a step back after the anderson fight i guess because they called it a loss even though i still think it was a win and now here you are climbing that ladder. To me, there's like two fights or three that makes sense for you next. Rockill, go for the top guy available. Love that idea. Widman, he's coming off a nice win. And then if not, maybe Jacre, but I know Jacques Grey is coming off of surgery as well, but you're right in that discussion. Hopefully after Saturday, the picture opens up a little bit and we can start rolling with, you know, Whitaker unifies the belts and we can start rolling with

this whole division. By the way, I have to ask you, because I talked about it earlier, DC text me I was talking with him about the interviews and everything and he said to me what's up with Derek Brunton's hair he looks like one of the temptations he said that

I think he said that to you as well what's going on with the hair tell us what's happening can we get a shot of the hair what's happening with the comb over and everything no it's pretty crazy I'm headed to the barber

after I finish with you you know this fight was this fight I planned on it being ugly so I didn't really care I was like it I thought it was awesome how did you comb it over like that though

Yeah, you like that? The comb over? I just brush it to the side, you know? That's it. You got to be a little bit more creative. That's it. I saw like, man, be a little more creative. They interviewed you and I was like, wait a second.

Derek Brunson's rocking a comb over now. When did this happen? That was the first, right? Comover, dog. How did you do that? Hey, he's just jealous because his hairline goes all crazy like the Batman. You didn't take it as a compliment? Temptations were great.

Yeah, no, it was a, it was a, it was a, I was a, I tell the guys, if you have a bad hairline yourself, you cannot make hairline joke. I don't care, you know, so you see a guy with a bad hairline. You're shaving it off? I'm maybe a cut a little low. I don't know, man. I might grow it out again, like when I had the longer hair. I had like a flat top.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like algebra. Yeah, oh, you're going to go that high. Yeah, I mean, it takes me a while. It's called an ugly stage where you have to, like, look a little different because you have to, like, try to shape it. It's like, ah, it's not really worth it. Do you want to go through all that, right?

Right, right, right. Yeah. But I feel like now that you're not fighting, you're out of the spotlight. It's a good time to do it. You come back, big fight. You got a sweet haircut. This is correct. That's my cousin's like, don't cut it, man.

Just ride it out. I'm like, look. So, yeah, I might do that. I might do that. All right. This is the perfect time. Put a hat on. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. So DC just being a hater. I thought it was a compliment. I thought it was sweet. Yeah, yeah. All right. Okay. All right.

When do you want to come back, Derek? What's the plan in your opinion? I'm hearing UFC coming to North Carolina. Oh. For real? Yeah. Yeah. For real.

When? Pretty soon, man. Soon. What? Sorry, I don't know. I don't know if that makes sense. Why not? It doesn't make, but it doesn't, it wouldn't make sense for any guy that I want to fight for

their timetable. Like you said, Jack, Ray, I don't know if he can. I don't know if you can get up that fast or I don't know if Rocco want to get up that fast or if Wyman want to get up that fast, you know? So we'll see.

But I definitely love to fight in my home state that I've been like campaigning Texan Dana. Like you need to get a fight back in North Carolina. Like all, everybody in my favorite is like, yo, we need to get a fight back in North Carolina.

Are we talking like January, February? Because the whole year is up, right? You're pretty good, Ariel. You're pretty good, Ariel. Okay. Which part of North Carolina? There's lots of parts, right? There's Greensboro, there's Charlotte, there's Wilmington.

We'll find out. So that's the one you want to be on, though, right? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. I think so. I think so. North Carolina, let's do it. Let's do it.

All right. Let's do it. First, let's get that hair. Let's get their hair done. Did. Yeah. Come on, Ariel. Come on, Ariel, man.

You need a little haircut, too, man. You and your boy kind of look alike. What's the guy named? that uh from brazil from brazil me from brazil me the reporter yeah yeah yeah you guys look like man what's going on that's a compliment i thought you were going to call me uh drizzie drake i get that a lot people say i look like drake no come on man what he's trying about don't try to teach your own horn man i'm just saying that's what people say they say i look like drake i mean the nose

is a little bigger but the beard the hair you don't see it i see it i see it okay thanks my man thank you look like drake you're married so you don't have to worry about getting I was like great respect. That's right. It's all good. All right. It works out. Derek, thank you for checking in after the flight.

Enjoy your day. Enjoy the victory and we'll talk to you soon. All right. See you, buddy. All right, there he is. Derek Brunton stopping by. Big win over Liotomachita, a very young and spry, Leota Machita, I might add.

Looking forward to seeing what's next for him. All right. Back to UFC 217 talk. One of the interesting fights on the card, Alexio Lennox against Curtis Blades. and how about this? We've got Alexei Olinic joining us in studio right now. Here he comes.

The Boa Constrictor himself. The Pride of Russia. Alexi Olinic joining us. Yes, I see him. And I believe he's being joined by his translator, George. How are you guys? Alexi. Wow, what a pleasure this is.

George, what a pleasure. Please have a seat, guys. How are you? Wow. This is something. What do you got in your bag over there? Nothing? If he wants,

then it's a gift, pretty much. A gift for who? For you? Just for me. This is M.MA school, Alexei Lenin. Wow. That's his t-short. This is your school?

Yes. Can I open it? Of course. This is your present. Yes. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. How nice.

I'm supposed to be giving you presents because you came to visit me. Let me see that, how strong I am. All right, here we go. This is a present from the boa constrictor himself. Wow, look at this. Your hard work. My warm-up.

Which one should I go? There we go. There we go. Your hard work, my warm-up. This is Alexi's school. Yes. And where is this school located? Where is Alexei Aligni located?

This is school. The same, wherever he's at, that's his school. But he had a school in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, actually. Thank you. You're welcome. So you came to New York today? Yes. This morning.

Have you ever been to New York? Did it be in New York? Yes, many times, maybe, ten times. Ten times, okay. But you've never fought in New York before. You've never been in New York before? This is first time? What do you know about Madison Square Garden?

Like, is this a big deal for you to be fighting MSG, Madison Square Ground when you got the call that you'd be on this card? How did you react? I'm a lot of much of it from a lot of course. And now, I'm pretty much, that I'm going to popize, in the history of MMA, and I know, that recently, that's the new York. and so,

in the first tournier. They're all the time in New York in a grand in this very much in this

is really that's really he heard about Madison Square Garden but mostly before it was about boxing. So he knows that

it's just become legal in New York to fight officially for professionals like MMA and it's a big deal for him like he's very excited

to fight because he can be a part of the history because like this kind of events they actually bring huge attention of fans

and this is one of the biggest arenas So he's very excited. And there's a big Russian population here in New York. Very good for me. That is good for you. Will you go to Brighton Beach, visit any of the big Russian populations there? You know, the neighborhoods.

I mean, that's like being back home. That's at least what I'm told. Yeah, if, if you're going to, if you're plans, to get to some places where they're living, more, there's, there, Brighton Beach or other, or other. No, just what I said, I said, I want to, I want to, in one of the of the

of the other other things, he's like, he wants to be concentrated on the fight, actually, he wants to go to like a church,

a Russian church. Oh, okay. That's the most important part plus he wants to concentrate on like... Sure, not here on vacation. Yeah, exactly, not for tourists. Maybe after the fight.

There's only been two M.MA events in Madison Square Garden and the last one was Beltor when Fodor Amelanenko fought and he got knocked out. Did you see that fight? There was just two two

boy, two MMA show, which were were in Madison Skourgarten, one of of them was

a boy Fodera Emilien where he were not cootified. Did you did it this boy? I'd

have you was probably yeah, I was it did say it. Does a part of you kind of feel like,

okay, I need to get Russia back on track here, back in the same building, get a win for my country, do you think of

things like that? You think of that you think of your job to win, to get back to bring to

Russia and, I'm not just, I don't think of Fodor, absolutely, I think only about about me, I'm just about me, I'm going to be in my country, and, in principle, me, I want to show, actually, a great, and a strong, really, a strong, really, really, really, for Fodor, or, or other, for something, I don't, I, just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, basically, for me, it's the most important, is just to fight, because as an outlet, I do represent Russia, so that's the

important part, I don't think about Fodor or anything, it's just, have you ever trained with him, Fyodor? him at all? You've got been when I fought with Fedor

Yes on the combat samba He fought with like combat sambor That's right And did you

win? No No But I'm be first people who lost Judge decision

He was one of the first people who lost Just by decision Right Without submission And we

have difference On the weight 33 Klogam It was The difference between

weight on 33 kilos Wow And you went the distance with him. Yeah. Wow. What do you prefer doing more? I mean, now you're making a living M.MA, but in your prime, as a combat samba artist or as an MMA fighter, which do you prefer more?

What do you prefer more? What do you more? What do you more? What you more? like to do you like to do with you like to be able to sambo? Well, the battle sambo, it's not less than MMA. I have some of the main ones that are in the way in the same same, like the most of the MMA, in the same.

But I don't see absolutely, for me and that is a boy, and by the, with compromises, without any of their own, with any of the upstupers, where, or some, it's just that some way, On the other side, less than less, and the other side, it's more than four minutes, all round of four minutes, final five minutes, and you need to

concentrate to the full the single minute, to put in these four minutes. But, so, there's, like, really no difference, because in Sambor, it's just, the rules are a little bit different. There's, like, four minute rounds, and it's like, you have to concentrate to, like, spread your strength

for the whole fight to go to distance. But it's just the same thing, I mean, like, there's no really, I'm an athlete, I'm a professional Adelaide. Was part of your dream always to make it to the UFC? Like now you're in the UFC, you're doing very well,

you're on a streak, you're beating big names like Travis Brown recently. Was this all part of the dream or is this just kind of, you know, like you just go with the journey, you don't really have dreams and things like that.

I don't know if guys, you know, from Russia is saying, oh, the dream, you know, you fought for M1, you fought for all kinds of big organizations back home. How would you categorize where you're at right now? On the day,

you're doing this day, was it your mechting when you or you you're just just going to

you're just like, you just like, I'm just I'm very often in the MMA. He fights really, in MMA for a really long time.

Yeah. 21 year Yeah. Yeah. Over 60 fights. More 60 fights. Yeah. And,

more than, I, in principle, I, in principle, I, in, I, in my never had been me never, much,

to get to get in this. Most of the life, like, I didn't, like, expect to get, like, I didn't, like, dream to get anywhere. I just was fighting because I was fighting. Just, like, like, five years, I, like, already, like, sort of I, like, already, I, like, just, started, I, like, kind of, I, like, had been, like, Because it's one of the best promotions in the world and a lot of competition. As I'm going, there's no promotion number two.

There's no promotion number two. There's no other. Three and like... There's nothing else. Yeah. Right. Nothing getting closer to UFC. So, they've got me to get us up to UFC.

They said, well, we're not yet, we're not yet, we're not got, we're not, after my victory, I'm, I'm... It was like, after the last five years, actually, every time he won, he was asking, like, you know, to get sent up with the U.S. So every time they were getting like, listen, listen, Not yet, you're not ready yet. So, you're like... After the last fight that I fought,

was like Mirko Krakop and like I got signed up a couple weeks later. So you knew that if you beat Mirko Krocop, that's the one, I feel like that's the one that's the one that got you the attention here in the United States. After you beat and people were like, oh, let's see a linic. After the time, you, like, you've got you on your krakop, then you, you see who's in your attention, it was, that was the one.

Yep. Who got you into MMA? Like, why did you... Actually, I take that back, who got you into Marshall arts, like who's the one that introduced you? Who, who, who, who's the one that introduced to you? Well, I'm not sure to

say, I went to Jiu-Jitsu, and it's, like, post-Soviccassarousan air 95th, 96th, he started, he went to the Jiu-Jitsu, it was in 1995, 1996, and, and, just, only, only, the U.S.

were, like, really beginning of the U.S. they just started. And it was, like, something in really beginning, and, like, the USSR or post-USR. I just I just saw, I've just I've got, there's a lot of there's been, there's

not really, I went to train to work. Yeah, he saw like, it was like basically he saw a poster, he was say like a mixed martial arts and he just went there like just to training. That's it? That's it? That was him, yeah.

Well, just me it was one of the one of the strongest school, it was, I mean, there, there was, I'm, probably, there's in three-inths of the world, maybe, in, the world, he got lucky

because it was, yeah, the best, one of the best schools in Jiu-Jitsu in, like, Post-Sahed Union and that's he thinks he just got lucky because he got into that club. If you don't see that poster, what do you think you'd be doing right now? If you'd be not even if you'd even if you'd even then what you'd just do you know. I didn't know. I had to train-roof-kid. I had had to takewondo, two months.

He tried himself and tequando boxing. Just a few to doodoo, just a month two on karate. I was trying to find himself, but he couldn't find like what he liked. But I didn't find like. But I didn't know. There, there, there, there, there, there, there, in some places they said you cannot kick and some places they said you cannot wrestle like basically everybody has their own rules and so until he got into like jujitsu basically i came it was japanese jiu juzziu we're just resched we're just jukesu where you're actually

able to like kick and like use the elbows knees yeah perfect for m m yeah yeah that's what he like it's very much more than a reason even on the street fight so like way you can what actually you can use on the streets of anything. And of course you're very well known for the Ezekiel choke, as they call it here, or maybe we should rebrand it as the Olenic Choke. Who introduced you to that? When's the first time that you learned that moment? You're very famous because of Ezekielichok,

which here can be renamed to O'Leanichok. And who you, who you know, who you know, who taught you. There's Jujitsu, it was Jujuzuz, it was Jujuzzi, Nizu Klan, Minamoto, in Japanese. That's actually that's cool. So it was actually a clan, that's what I call it. Jiu-jitsu Klan Yanamoto, that's where he got introduced. And do you remember the moment, like, you're like, this is going to be my thing,

this is my favorite kind of choke? And you're you're sorry, you're going to be your crown. No, no, no, my partigestion my career, I'm going to, I first was a coronka with judo. When, from back-of-degon, you're going to blow-way on-arm. So basically, during his career, it's actually changed many times. So it was, like, before that he used to do judo, like, judo chock. It was three, five years.

He used to do it for, like, three, three, All, all of the time I've been used to do it. Then, let's say, it's actually everybody got adapted and nobody was like letting him do it, so he had to change. I had to change. So like after that for five years he was doing

like triangle. Oh, okay. What, me stopped doing it. After that he was not able to do a triangle anymore, so he had to change again. After that, I started doing then is a leninich.

How many times do you think you've won? How many times do you've won? I don't know, I don't know, but, I don't know, he doesn't know exactly how many times, but whoever like his fans who were like looking into it, their shed is like around 10 times. Victor Pesta.

Pesto was the 10th. And the only one in the UFC, you're the only man in the UFC to pull it off. Why do you think more people are, and so is it possible, can you break it down? Like maybe George could be, how do you pull this off and why do you think more people don't do it?

Why is it such a rare choke? you think that you can't it's doing and why most of the people not can't do it, if you're doing how much you're doing it. Your manager, Abraham, is texting me to say, let Alexi do it to me.

I suggest it to you. I want none of that. Yeah, one of I was going to get conscious. Do you train George? Your neck is better. My neck is better? Because I want to know why why are you so good at it

and why do so few people do it? Why he wants to understand why you're so good in this and why only only several people can do it do you know, it's just, you know, there's Verdom, he does only only two-two-there-two specifically for him let's say because there's a

word who does like a lot of triangles or something, like, Jeff Monson, but they're just someone else, yeah, it's like, Jeff Monson does South North choke so just, just every boyce I know very much by the time,

like the same Verdum, yeah, we know there 100 but of them I'm in the training to work in I'm in the battle I'm not

I'm going to risk I'm doing one, two, the same, the different kind of variations of chokes, but like during the training he can basically do like 10 or 15

of them that works perfectly but he cannot take a chance and race during the fight and experiment so what he does, he knows what he does the best, this is why he does

what he like do best actually. Do you feel like there's a lot of pressure on you to do it now every fight because it gets so much attention?

You think that you're much much much more pressure because people are you're going to do you're in in the time I think I'm

going to be over I think I'm sure you're going to we deal with I'm right said he we're doings there's some

strong strong there's not there's not there's not bad and there's maybe two times

after you probably to think you're maybe maybe new new

yeah there's about time probably to adapt soon because it's like this is one of the best promotions

and people are going to get used to it yeah yeah It's basically going to become time where he's not going to be able to do it anymore and try to adopt or something else. Travis Brown, oh, go ahead. You were going to say something?

But he translated, but Damien Maya doing only. Rear naked choke. One, two, three, four. Maybe, maybe. Maybe it's going to work still. I try. Do you feel like you should get more, like, they always say that Verdume is the greatest heavyweight ground guy. Do you feel like you should get more?

Love in that regard, do you feel like you should be discussed alongside Vardoum now? On the same one of the world of whom is the one of the best who, on the ground in parterer, you think that you should have more credit to receive for the part of the part of the? Most of what? Well, that's to get more credit, like,

that's not more than he, not as much as he's, but I've already in, probably, a lot of the information, and he, he's got from fans,

like him, that's he's not to see a Lerning with Verdom, I'm put a

God we know, we'll maybe something in the point of a moment of battle.

He actually got over hundreds and thousands messages about him fighting Verdom from his

fans because yeah they both ground guys. Because we go on one line who's

some some we're on one one like some like some

stand up striking guys somebody like you know do what they do best is like a problem game

so do you want that fight is that a fight that really interesting is that a dream fight for you it's just it's just basically he has a fight

to take care of it right now this is it doesn't want to go forward sure sure sure this guy's fights the nickname Bo Constrictor

who gave you that Udaf I think somebody from United States yeah because it's not it's not like a Russian word right

not Russian do you like it you're okay with it I like it I can't do it with this it fits though it's not like name they're still fan

it comes up from the fans even if it's good or not it's just that's what you live here in the United States now right in Florida you're just in Florida? I'm I'm here, I'm here I'm in the last year

I've already 9 and in the I'm living in Florida and I'm living in Florida and I'm yeah For us from six to eight months. He trains at American top team. Yeah.

So there's the best outlets over there. So you left home, you left Russia. You brought your family with you, right? You have three children. Four. Wow. I have five children. Five children?

Yes, but here with me, four. Where's the other one? The United States. United. A girl or boy? Who else was there? One boy. Leftover.

He's back home. Why did you leave the one boy there? Why did you leave the one boy there? Why do you leave the one boy there? He's a child and he's sometimes, he's his first wife from the first marriage.

But the four that you have with you and the states are with your current wife. Tatiana. And she's always in your corner. She's always in your corner. How come? Did she have martial arts back? or you just like having her in your corner?

You just like it in your corner? You just like that's a good or she has some of the other sportsmenka, a specialist. She's a a grubouryous, well, in judo. She's a brown belt actually in judah.

Oh wow. She's a blue belt in jujitsu. But she's super specialist on, she's a specialist in like dietitian, conditioning and all of all of

allotovks. And so, She does she's going to be with her And for the last 10 years, they're like while they're together, so she knows his techniques, knows his health, so she does like a lot for his camp actually and plus

she's not even she doesn't look like No, no, she looks like a blonde model, but she's very smart and very special understand my technique In the fight, like in between rounds, does she offer advice as well? In the time when you're in the

between rounds, you have when you, you put together? Yeah. Yeah. Well, between rounds, we're,

but, you know, put, we're, yeah. Yes. Everyone today is talking about a teammate of yours at ATT, Kobe Covington. What do you think of this guy?

Do you have any interaction with him? Well, all right about Kobe Covington. I, I, I actually about nothing about it from a lot

after a few years ago, and I'm in the I'm in the sameolute, me they're gonna, they're gonna, what you're gonna, what you're gonna, I don't know what he, he was like really concentrating on the fight, so he was in the camp, then he got here,

and while he got onto the plane, actually, he went to his Instagram and like, basically, fans asking him, like, what's going on, what do you think about it? He doesn't even know what happened, so he's not... No. He said something bad about it, like in Brazil, but he's not even...

I don't even know, because he's not even... He's not even... 40, 50% of the He trains actually in the gym where 40 or 50% of fighters are Brazilian. Trains are Brazilians, owners are Brazilians.

So he's not really sure why would it... He's not really sure what happened. Do you ever have any interactions with him? Do you ever talk to? No. No. No. He's trained in Sassianian ATT. There's a few different gyms of ATT. He came into

their location. would go like conditioning or something else. Who are some of the guys at ATT that you hang around with? With whom you're upsharees in the waiting tissues? In the most of it's heavyweight. It's Bigfoot Silver, Andrei Orlovsky, Junior Dos Santos, Henrique, Luis Henrique.

Uh-huh. Be a big guy. Arlowski just came. He's a new member of the team. Arlowski only came. He just came now. He's just, now he's just, just took him. months yeah two three months you train with him what's that like

how do you train with him legend yeah I'm normally normal normal normal I saw many with these guys I've called they're not a big name of them yeah all the people like call they like have big names sure yeah and I saw on your Instagram you you're doing pro wrestling at the gym. They were pro wrestling did in the

stage. This was just show for the just practice. Just pro wrestling VWE? Yeah.

WWE pretty much. Yeah, it was like TNA because Dan Lambert and some of the guys are doing a pay-per-view

on Sunday. With TNA they've been involved in the story. So it's like a competitor for WWE. They just

just like did a show like before Halloween they made a show like. And for kids. Oh, for the kids.

Okay, do you like that? You've been like this? You watched pro wrestling? I'm first time on my life, he's, he's, so, how did it look? How it looked? This don't like professional technique, but very like atmosphere. Yeah, it's real though. It's real, though.

Well, I, I understand that this one can't do that that one can't do that, that's just that one can't, that's just like after a certain kick or a certain punch, he's not going to stand up or it's different. they can do a difference. They do like 15 times and nothing happens. That's right. Dan Lambert is a big pro wrestling fan.

He has all these belts. Has he ever showed you his belt? He collects old pro wrestling belts. That's a person, he collectsioningroes W.W. Ben Lambert, who's the owner of American top team. You know Dan Lambert. He didn't show you.

He didn't show him. Now, now. Now, now, now, now, King Moe. A good guy. I trained with him. He helped prepare for me

for this fight. He actually was helping with this camp. Very good guy, very strong. Very strong guy. Very experienced. So you're fighting Curtis Blades. Did you know who Curtis Blades was? You got this offer?

When you got this offer? I took with him. I only had only done on the previous tournament with Travis Brown when he was with my previous opponent. On the last fight, like he fought Travis Brown,

he actually, this guy fought his previous opponent. That's right. So you saw him. Yeah. And I saw him. Yeah. We actually were in the locker room, and like we saw the fight, actually.

That's interesting. And so what do you think of him? Like compared to Travis Brown, is this a tougher opponent? He is very big, very strong, young, good wrestler very strong very hard very strong hair yes no working guy yeah

yeah what no uh... if I if I's rather with Travis Brownum is more a more a problem for you?

It's different very I think Travis Brown have more hard punch and more good on the stand-up.

Okay. He's better, like Travis is better than stand-up. After that fight, Dana White said that he thought that Travis Brown should retire. Do you agree with that? After that boy, Donne White said that he said, that's going to putheyes to take him to watch. No. No.

I don't think so. I'm, I, like, I'm, like, on the back foot, Orlovsky, Do Santers, and so, I can't, I can't really, to be to be with this man. This is very very strong,

he would be in this, like, in this, like, in the three or in five, there's, like, the names that I called you before,

like the Santa's all, so I know how strong they are, I know, like, the abilities and everything. If you're gonna put Travis Brown, like, within them,

so he wouldn't be the last one. Okay. So he's still strong. Yeah. Very strong. Yeah. Not ordinary technique. An ordinary technique.

Some other things, I've puttell for to do it, to me any one one person not from from the just there's

there's a position, there's there, or clencher or or other, that no me can't I'm just

like, I used to like try some things like where like that I know like nobody's going to escape from them so like I try like hold them down

or anything like I was not able to and no one did like no one else was escaping from that before except for Travis Brown wow would you like to

fight in the UFC in Russia is that something that you think about? Had it was a big deal? I'd like to try to be to to be to Russia. Did you think it'll happen?

Do you think it will happen? Do you think it'll happen? I hope. You hear anything? You hear anything? You heard about it? No, I'm, I'm, I'm going to, we're We're trying, we want to know.

Wild back, yeah, he spoke to Donna White. He said, maybe. I'm going to see, he's trying, maybe. I'm going to see, like, he's not just as a, like, he's from, to bring him in Russia, to bring him to Russia. He's looking, like, like, like, uh, he's all of the

big, machine. and there's many there's things and pay-per-view and some and some politics, no way not will

be much or anything or anything, there's a lot of different things. There's a different country, different mentality,

so there's no pay-per-view, so it's a lot of different things. But Mr. Putin, he's a big MMA fan, isn't he? Wasn't he had an M-1 fight?

Putin, he's a big fanat MMA, in the whole, he, in the whole, he, on, him,

Putin, in a fanat like, like, like, he's not quite, he's not not box

not much, Zoodo, like, Samba, he's proppashny boy or M.

He's a fan like he doesn't go to boxing, yeah, he doesn't go to boxing, he does go to

judo, not a competitive have you met him before? When you you've met him before? You're a fan,

right? You're a fan, right? You, you know, I'm not a, some, I'm not that at the moment,

the most politician, the the most of the way would be in Russia. Yeah. Russia is a very national country, more than the nationality,

we have, we also, a religious, religious, and someof- and its economic levels,

and the different, and the much, and much, and many, much, and other. Because, there would be a

, of the all of 50 countries that were between between

between them Russia is a huge country so he doesn't agree with every single

policy that he has but in general at this point he's a good leader because Russia is huge there's many

confessions many religions many different nationalities if not for him it would be like separated

when you're done fighting will you go back to Russia or do you think you're going to stay here in

the States after you're you're going to plan you plan to return to return back or to stay in America?

I don't know. You don't know? All right. Things are going well for you now. How much long are you want to do this for? You're 40 now, right?

How much longer do this for? I plan to do this for. I've already in 2001 year. He actually already trying to

retire. Like in 2001. Oh, 2001? What? The second was 2010 or 11th? The second was like in 2010, 2011.

I'm, one time a year not one year, two times a year, two years. Yeah, once he stopped fighting for like a year, not one year, year and a half. He thought he's done, he retired. I'm going to say anything. What did you do during those breaks? What did you do during those breaks?

Trinnerable, put you to, some of some things. He used to train, like trying to do some business. like Hollywood. Most film is like the movie production company. Really? Wow. I'm an administration group not like actor.

Okay, yeah, yeah, that's right. But 2001, that you were just like four years into your career at that point. Why did you want to retire so early? In 2001, you, you were, for two, four years, for sure, you wanted in 2001 to the year. No, not four, it was, I've done for five or six. No, I didn't see the next year, because the money, in the time,

in Russia, there were, there, 300, $300,000, Yeah, the main problem in Russia at that point, like 2001, used to be like, used to getting paid like three, four hundred dollars per fight. So there was like, there was no point to fight for it. I train and prepare three, four months for the fight and get $300 for the three, four, five months. Not worth it. Now you're killing it.

Now you're killing it in the UFC. It's a good thing you stuck with it, right? Yeah, it's good. that you're like you're like you're you're still, right? Now, it's it's already, it's already, it was in 2001 year, before UFC, in 2011, 13th,

I've already, I've already already, I've got to be enough big money. Yeah, in 2011, 2011, 2012, 2013 he started making good money. For example, I then were the last yearnarrarer, my, more than I'm getting in Russia. Actually, last fight, still when he

fought in Russia, was more than he's making his C now. Really? In fact, in the situation of I'm not going to get more than he makes actually less right now than he used to fight. What? Yeah, what's your manager doing Abraham? Jeez, Louise, slacking.

But U.S.A. I went even for his name, because it's top of the line, so it's not even for the money. Doesn't do much for the bank account, top of the line, you know? You got to go where the money's at. How many fights left on that deal? How many fights left on that deal?

Oh, I don't know. I, I I've got to have I didn't look at this boy. My wife knows he signed actually, he signed a new

contract but he doesn't even know his wife knows. All right. All right. Well next up is Curtis Blades this Saturday.

I think it's MSG to big deal. Let's bring out the choke again. The MSG is a big deal, the only thing. The Olinic choke.

And then tell the world, get on the mic and say Olinic choke and then call out Verdume to see who's the best big man submission artist

in MMA history. How about it? With Gus Hill. Yeah. In Madison Square Gardening, it's a big deal. Now, let's bring this

this, the duching. I'm also, I'm talking about, I'm, I used to doxiex about, I used using

about it. Even U.S. I didn't know, what I did it. If I didn't know, I had been

the first time, maybe, I'm maybe it's also probably probably didn't even know what he does, because with Travis

Brown, he didn't do a leninic chock, by the way. Right. It was, he actually, he choked him

with his legs. Diaffrague. by their fragment. So nobody even doesn't. Like many things he does, they are unorthodox. Yeah. And he doesn't, like, nobody else does it. There's no name for it.

It's not, it's no name and just basically so many different variations of the thing he does. It just, it just, there's, uh, the way it was done is just basically, it's like, it cut your breath down and it just, like, he, like, he took him do that. He doesn't do that. He doesn't choke people with his legs. He wants to, he said, he wants to, he said Verdun. Vurdum, not dushes people,

like you do. So, not so. Not even what I'm even know, even though, you see, might be

not de-o-cenevotting or not to consider in the whole. Because I know what I did know what I didchew and thought,

I've done to do shoo-uprook by the USC may be like, you know, don't know exactly what he does and underestimate him.

Yeah. Because the thing he does, like, let's say, because he put one of the hands over his neck and that's what they thought it happened, he choked them out,

but in reality, the hand was there He wasn't doing anything with that. No pressure. Yeah, they call it a rear naked. I feel like you don't see a lot of rear naked chokes in the heavyweight division. Maybe I'm wrong. I feel like it's a lot of like, yeah, right?

I feel like, you know, maybe a guillotine. Maybe you don't see a lot of submissions in the heavyweight division in general. Very difficult on the heavyweight. Yeah. It's a lot. Mark Hunt, no guillotine. Yeah. Wasn't there talk of you fighting Mark Hunt at one point?

There was, there was a conversation about that you're trying to fight with Mark Hunt. I thought, I thought, okay, got him. He thought he, he was asked to fight Mark Hunt. So he said right away, yes, he won't because it's a huge name. He's a legend. He has a lot of respect for that guy, but basically when they offered the fight, he said no. A couple of weeks later, a week later, he said no, and he was supposed to fight some of the Polish guy.

Marcine Tabura. Yeah, yeah. And now he's not even fighting. Yep. So it's probably for the best. You're fighting at an MSG. This is way bigger than that. Yeah, there where he was

there was not a war was not because the war because Hanta's not really. It's not better. Maybe it's

better than happen yeah. Although, in other side I could go back from another point he would probably could

fight Werden that's true that's another thing that is funny that is funny how that could have worked out but I think it will happen at some point

it has to happen you versus Redoom for now though it's Curtis Blades I appreciate you coming in thank you very much

Alexi thank you very much George great job thank you for the gift as well I will see you on Saturday Here it is one more time

Your hard work, my warm-up Gosh, I believe it Thank you Alexi, thanks for coming in guys This Saturday You want to take a picture? Why not? Let's do it, live on the air, why not? Here we go, we're going to do it live on the air

Picture, we've never done this before Here we go Me in the middle This is great You're so beautiful Thank you, thank you again I think Alexi just said You're so beautiful to me.

Is that sure? Yeah, handsome. I'll explain it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you did. Thank you very much. Thank you. Wow. Alexiolinich just said, I'm so beautiful.

Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate you coming in. Okay, thank you. Hey, Joe, how about this? I'll give you that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you guys.

And how about Alexi Olenik calling me beautiful as he, the parts? I mean, he just, the bow constrictor just whispered in my ear that I'm beautiful. Did you guys catch that? Never taken a selfie. never taking a selfie on the program before but there you have it all right thank you very much alexia lennox thank you very much to his team for stopping by thank you very much to george for stopping by um and translating did a great job thank you to darren till for stopping by as well so we have a bit of a break here before we get to mark hunt

the aforementioned mark hunt what should we do should we go to rick's picks do we have enough time for rick's picks why he's demanding more time what a guy what a guy then you're quick I'm going to have some. All right, fine. So, as I said, Mark Hunt and then Colby Covington is going to stop by. Mark Hunt in seven minutes and then Colby Covington in around 25 minutes.

Talk about some news. I mentioned the Conne McGregor situation, the documentary that's not happening. But I also, while I was sick last week, got a chance to watch the Rick Flair 30 for 30. And it's very well done. That premieres. week. I don't know exactly what day. Or is it possible it premieres next Tuesday? Sometime in the next 10 days or so it premieres.

It's a very honest documentary. I had no idea that Rick Flair had gone through so many issues health-wise. I mean, I knew he was a part of year and a womanizer and all this stuff, but I had no idea. So I suggest it's produced, by the way, by our friend Rory Karp, who I, I'm not. I guess it's produced, by the way, by our friend Rory Karp, who I, met because he put me in the Christian Leitner 30 for 30 the I hate Christian Leitner one but then he also produced the CM Punk four part series

and then he also produces Dana White looking for a fight so he's someone that's well known in the MMA space and he's the one who got the opportunity to produce the Rick Flair doc which is premiering the next few days

check it out it's one of these few days on ESPN. So that's coming out and I suggest you check it out. The Conradoc is coming out and I suggest you check it out. I saw the Conradoc as well and it's it's an interesting look. The best parts for me were the parts where it's him and Dee Devlin, his girlfriend, now the mother of his child, living in one room, he's got no tattoos. I mean, they've been shadowing him for over five years now. you see the humble beginnings, you see him picking up, you know, the welfare check. This stuff is gold.

This stuff is amazing. That to me is the most interesting stuff. And then you see the rise a little bit. But the meat of the film, like I would say 60% or 70% of the film is the buildup to UFC 189. And that's supposed to be the Aldo fight. And of course, Aldo gets injured, Mendez pulls out. And you see that whole roller coaster ride of emotions when they inform him and all that. but you also see what he had to go through

and I would venture to guess that your respect for Connor as an athlete and as someone who fights through injuries will rise exponentially if you don't already have that respect for him. It's a very interesting look. It's a little strange though that so much time is spent on that particular fight camp

and then they kind of gloss over the Aldo fight they really glossed. I mean there's like one scene, second on the Alvarez fight. And then the Mayweather thing is kind of snuck in there at the very end. So it's all kind of rushed on the back end. And I wish that they spent a little less time. I mean, a little less time devoted on that one fight camp.

But it's not a mundane fight camp. I mean, like a crap load of things happen on top of the fact that I'm not going to give away too much here. On top of the, you know, opponent change and all that, I just sort of wish that they spent a little less time on it. because there's not a heck of a lot of time on Alvarez or leading up to the first, you know, Nate Diaz fight, a little bit more on the second Nate DS fight. It seems a little bit unbalanced as far as the time devoted.

That being said, you know, I'm sort of nitpicking here. MMA documentaries, the good ones are few and far between, and this is a very good one. So kudos to the team that I've been working on it for so long. and if you're able to watch it in theaters or when it comes out afterwards on VOD I definitely suggest doing so. Last week we found out that Edson Barbosa and Habib Mugh Mugam-Maghamedov is on

for UFC 219, December 30th in Las Vegas. Does that mean that Connor is going to fight Tony next? We don't know. It's seeming increasingly like he's not going to fight on December 30th. I mean, we're exactly too much. once away at this point. You'd have to find out sooner rather than later. I reached out to some people who are close to him and said, you know, I asked, does this fight being booked Chabib

versus Etzen mean that Tony versus Conner's on? Because we were wondering, okay, if Chabib gets Tony, obviously Connor is either going to wait or fight Nate. But if Chababab gets Etzen, as he mentioned himself, the only way he's going to fight Edson is if he can't get Tony. well he is getting Edson that fight is on what does that mean for Tony we still don't really know and I asked

does that mean that Connor's fighting Tony next and I was told not necessarily I think I saw something online where the UFC Instagram posted a picture of Connor Nate 3

you know I don't know what that's all about I didn't see it I don't know who caught it what happened but we'll see what happens I don't know

it might be a little soon for UFC 2 2019. Also added to UFC, and that's a great fight. I mean, Habib versus Etzen, if it can't be Chabee versus Tony is the fight to make, in my opinion. Good for Edson for finally getting that fight. He's been wanting it for quite some time,

and it's a good fight for Habib to come back to. And big win over Edson gets back on track, and then he has to fight, excuse me, a very big fight after that. Also added to UFC 219, by the way, is Mark D.E.K.K.C. versus Dan Hooker. Some other fight news

regarding UFC 219. They had booked Raquel Pennington versus Amanda Nunes for the UFC women's bantamweight title, but Raquel Pennington is now out of the fight after breaking her leg. She told me what happened

last week via text message and it's just an absolute gruesome injury. She was on a hunting trip. This is what she said. It happened four days ago. I was on my yearly hunting trip with my uncles and cousins. We were hunting that morning and coming down from the mountain and our side by sides. It was snowing.

And when we went to turn, the side by side flipped. It threw me out of the side at the same time. It was flipping. And the roll cage caught my leg and pinned me. My cousin fell out of the driver's seat on top of me, crawled out the window and lifted it best he could so I could drag myself out. They rushed me to the hospital. Thank God for my tall hunting boots because it protected my leg from fully. shattering, which if that happened, I would have had to get my lower leg amputated. Also, where my

bone is broken is the main nerve to your foot. Luckily, the feeling came back and I passed the test. Otherwise, I would have had drop foot, never being able to control my foot again. My calf is totally smashed in, had an MRI on my knee and lower leg. They were worried I tore everything. If I tore from behind the knee, they can't fix it, but results came back and the calf has just smashed bad. Should recover in time, the nerve. or repair, so hopefully three to four month recovery. That's just absolute nuts. That's just massive. I mean, holy crap. It's a crazy injury. And this is just a few days, like it was like she said five or six days after she had verbally agreed to the title fight. So imagine finally getting a title fight. This is someone

who's, you know, severely injured her back, snowboarding. She's been through a lot. She's been patiently waiting. She's been through a slew of surgeries. Remember she was on the show after UFC 216? and she talked about, you know, the injuries that she had, you know, overcome over the past year. And now she goes through this after agreeing to a title fight. It's unbelievable. So it sounds like Amanda Nunes is just going to stand by and wait. I mean, there's no real clear-cut. I mean, maybe you could say Tanya Avenger because she was the Invicta champion. But really, there's, I don't think that there's anyone that really makes sense right now.

So they're probably going to wait. and now we wait and see if they can have a title fight for UFC 219 because I heard that things are slowing down on the cyborg home front. They have to book that soon rather than later. And right now, I don't know if it's going incredibly well. So that's the situation for December 30th in Las Vegas. By the way, UFC 2, I'll hold that thought for now and bring it up on the back end of the program.

For now, let's go to our next guest joining us, as always, very early in the morning where he is. Always kind enough to join us. Always gracious enough to join us. He is the one and only Mark Hunt. The KFC King himself is on right now, and I think we're going to be joined by his lawyer, Christina Denning, but we're having some trouble connecting with her. Mark, are you there? Hey, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Mark.

So we're having some trouble connecting with your lawyer. We're still trying to get in touch with her. Are you okay with doing the interview without her? for now? Yeah, of course. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, Mark, so it's great to talk to you,

and so much has happened over the last few weeks with you. And I guess let's start with the newest news. Did you see this letter that Dana White posted about your situation? Yeah, you actually read the letter. Yeah. Yep. What did you make of the letter?

What are your thoughts on it? It's pretty much what happened, but he left out a few things in the letter. out that, you know, they gave me to go and do a testing in Australia. And, you know, I said, you know, I don't know why I should fly away to Las Vegas for. They said it was okay to do the testing in Australia and I did the testing in Australia. So I saw a neurosurgeon. And then I saw a shrink.

So, you know, they paid for the shrink. So that tells you that it was okay to do the testing there. But none of those results came back saying that I, I couldn't compete. So I don't know why they pulled me. So he said it wasn't clear to fight, but I didn't know it was a launch and he'd go into Las Vegas

to be testing with the doctors. I don't know what's wrong with doing and testing with the doctors in Australia. So one of the things that he said was that they wanted to fly you out to Las Vegas to go to the Lou Ruvow Brain Center, which he claims is the best in the world for brain research and certainly world-renowned. and you refused.

Is that true? Yes, that's correct. I said, why should I fly the way out to Las Vegas for? You know, why? And what did they say to that? Like, why did they want you to go to that specific one? Well, look, as they could make up some mobile crap. I have no idea.

And to be honest, I don't know why they wouldn't, you know, they allowed me to go and do it in Sydney also. That's why they paid for that shrink. you know and now they said they didn't even listen to these doctors

that since that all was past so yeah you did this interview with this outlet called player's voice

and it's your name but you didn't actually sit down and write how these things goes that you talk to someone and then they write

it kind of in your voice is that right yeah I went I was correct but the player's voice interview

you know there's nothing wrong what I said and then the soldiers are taken out of context they read then he read the whole story

it's about me fighting cheaters um and it took the negatives out of that story for the positive and the one the players

voice said they they used it in the contact in it all afterwards they're in the context

and they're in the context of it all asking about the story and there's still in conflict with do you like the comments

in there did you actually say those or did they kind of shape them in a way to sensationalize things

and ultimately, you know, sort of backfired because it got the UFC to say like, oh, wait a second, you know, to put up the red flag. Did you actually say those words about, you know, stuttering and forgetting things? Yeah, but they forget to mention it. I forget the word, the first word I said in it was sometimes. Sometimes I, sometimes I forget stuff.

Of course, everyone does sometimes, you know, not all the time. They forget to put their word and it was changed. the whole context of the whole thing. The whole story was about me having to compete with all the juices and trying to make it and even playing through. That's all that story

was about. They forget to put him sometimes into everything into that, what they said. All they wrote the article now was you know, in his own words, he said this, but you forget to put him what I said first. You know, sometimes they don't have a good stick.

Yeah, because maybe I had the kids up last time. maybe as a dishner, they can away out of context, man. Even the guys that played a lawsuit, they'll take it away out of context. Do you think, though, that if you weren't, you know, still involved with this lawsuit, same piece comes out,

same words, you know, exact same thing, but a different person's name, that they would have kept that person on the card? Or do you think that because, you know, you're involved with this issue, that it gave them a reason to take action? Yeah, I think it's discrimination. They were looking for something to pin me on

and, you know, look at the pure example. Look at GSC's fighting this week, I think. That dude's been seeing aliens and he's been missing four or five hours at a time. Why haven't they pulled him? Is that the same guy that, do they tend to the same doctors that they want him to go to?

Geez, if that was the case, I would have flew straight over there. Why is he still competing? And why is the guy that's, that has staff on him still competing? You know why they let that go through. It's discrimination, what I think it is. So where do things stand now between, like, are you going to be able to fight again?

Are they making... You know what the trick is? The truth is there. I don't even know what's happening right now. You know, we've asked them to pinpoint what it is that is wrong with me, and they still haven't seen what it is. They said some lame-mets, emails saying, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. And once, you know, you say something about my testing. And once we find out what's wrong with you, then we'll get back to you.

You're never going to find anything wrong with me because there's nothing wrong with me. You know, the doctor's test saves it already. If you want me to fly to Las Vegas now, you know, I will. But, you know, the thing is you should have said that made it clear when the first time you asked me to go to Vegas, if you don't fly to Vegas and do these tests, we're not going to have you working. That was the case of what I went there straight away. It's rubbish, though. It didn't say that.

All they said was, would Mark be willing to go to flight to Las Vegas. and I'll do the test. I said, no, it's too far. I want to be, you know, it's lying economy. I need to say, put me in first class, say, give me that rubbish, then, you know?

Or just added in rubbish that he says for this sort of crap, you know. End of the day, they asked me, they didn't have put in a context saying, well, if he doesn't do these tests, we're not going to put him on the fight. But I said it was okay to do it in Australia, and so I did do it in Australia.

And they still pulled me. from the car. They didn't use the doctor's results that they got. They still pulled me there. I don't know whether they were there. Stupid-ass lawyer, that pulled me or the doctor's reports. And all the reports, all the tests? But what happens now is, sorry,

whatever it's now, I don't know what's going to have it now. I'm still waiting to see what's wrong. What's wrong with me? I'm still waiting to see what I'm supposed to do. All those tests that you took in Australia, you say that you've passed them all, right? That nothing came up. There was huge...

Yeah, there was two tests. There was one nearest citizen and one shrink. And there's nothing that says in the Internet of his report that I don't think it's Mark on to compete at all. Dana added, you know, Mark is saying that I have it out for him and I hold a grudge against him because he followed the lawsuit. Let me ask you this. Would I have placed him in two additional fights, including one which he headlined the

event, or paid him $1.645 million? which includes a 50K fight of the night bonus and a 25K discretionary bonus. Are those numbers accurate? Well, that's, I think that's contract.

I think that's pretty good, but the thing is, that's money I've worked for. That's money that our top-in fighter should be getting, top-in fighters should be getting Wainball. And Ted Toby is doing me and he favors by saying,

I've paid him this. You haven't paid me nothing. I've earned that money. You don't get to the top of the world, and these big fucking peanuts. Come on, mate. What do you think we're in this for? When you got the call that they were removing you from the card, how did you react?

Well, I got it from, you know, Richard Walton. I think there was a, you know, Australian reporter, which was kind of depressing. You know, you could have had the courtesy to even, why don't you just call me? And say, oh, Mark, we're not going to put you on the card because our lawyer thinks you're not fit enough to fight. You know, if I was sick, I'll go see a doctor. and if I wanted to talk about a lawsuit I'll go to see a lawyer not a freaking lawyer pulling me up

because of some you know it's rubbish it's ridiculous so you know that's what that's what happens wow so a reporter called you to tell you you didn't get an official word

from the UFC no no I was actually building a tawhats for my girls and you know I got a Richard Walt called me and I think he told me

You're not fighting. What are you got to say, but you're not fighting on a Sydney card. I was kind of disappointed. You know, I was very angry at first. And as you can see, with my outrage on Instagram, you know, and the interview I did, you know, it was taken away to context totally, you know, totally at a context. But, you know, it's kind of disappointing here from the report that I wasn't working.

I just finished investing money into the camp. You know, I lose over a million dollars in those fights. I had plans with them. I had text with the pay. I got shit to look out there. And these guys are going to pull this crap on me. Wow. And so afterwards, did you call the UFC or your management called the UFC

and asked them what's going on here? Yeah, of course. So, you know, we're still waiting to know what's going on. You're still waiting. You're still waiting. We're still waiting to know what's the issue. Wow. So.

As soon as they pinpoint what the issue is, then we can fix it. I've even offered to do more tests. I said, look, man, if there was an issue with a test and let me know what I need to do to fix. You tell me what I need to do. But at the moment, they're not saying exactly what it is that's wrong with me. Why they pulled me.

All they're saying is that, that's that frickin, that guy wrote. And to be clear, if they would have said, come to Las Vegas, do these tests. If not, if you don't come, you're off the card, you would have come. You would have gone on the plane. Of course.

Anyone would have won't win on the plane. It doesn't mean shucks. It's ridiculous to say, well, all I was told was, you know, I'm a man I said, can you fly to America? I do the test there. I said, I'm a more way home. Can I do them in Sydney? And it was fine.

He said, yeah, of course you can do it in Sydney. And if it wasn't fine, they wouldn't have paid for the fucking the test. They paid for the shrink test. You know, I paid for the cousins, but they paid for the shrink. shrink test. It wasn't okay. They should have said, if you don't do the test, we're pulling you from the car.

Right. I mean, on the plane straight away. What was the shrink test? It was four or five hours of all these different brain examinations and always it was like, I'm going to tell you a story and, you know, you repeat this story back to me, tell me three stories in a row.

So we did a few other different tests like with puzzles and stuff. And then we went back to you asked me to the same case again. compete the test. So remembering stuff. You know, because I've been finances a long time. I've got a pretty good mind for everything.

So, you know, some sort of those things I didn't do too long, but, you know, it's to be expected when you thought of these juices. I found there was nothing in there that the doctor's report didn't say that couldn't compete. Wow. So as far as your health is concerned,

how like you feel comfortable fighting you don't you don't feel you don't get headaches you don't feel like you have massive memory loss how would you describe because when you read those things as a fighter and as someone you know who's been watching you for a long time you're like okay you know he's been doing this for you know a couple decades now we know about brain injury we know you know maybe it's time you're saying there's nothing to be alarmed you don't feel like your health is in jeopardy you feel like you're just as sharp as you always were there's no reason for you not to be fighting to be pulled from cards. Of course, I don't think there's a reason to pull me from the card.

I mean, like I said, the story, they didn't read the whole thing. They should have read the whole thing. I mean, did you read the whole story about Platt's voice? Did you read in there? Yeah, I did. I did. And what did you think? I mean, that...

You pulled me off the card off the case, can't? Can I tell you my honest opinion of the whole situation? This is my honest opinion of the whole situation. I think that that was, you know, three-parts. percent of the entire piece, and I know what the entire piece was about is about what you had to overcome and about, you know, PDs in the sport and things like that. But I think that because you're involved in this lawsuit with them, they will say, look, you're saying, you're suing us because you're saying that we let Brock Lesnar fight you and potentially injure you, and you're

claiming that we knew that he was on PDs. So now you're telling us that you have injuries to the brain, you can't remember things. You're telling this to us. What if you go out there and fight and get injured, something happens? You'll go back and say, look, I told you, I had these injuries. What do you want me to do? I have to take you off the card. You're forcing me to take you off the card. That's what I feel like they would say if I was able.

And when I've asked them, they haven't gone back to me, but I feel like that's what they're going to say. You have told us that you're going to sue us. You're currently suing us because you're claiming that we knew something. Well, now you're telling us about something. We have to act because if something does happen, you may sue us again. Well, look, man, that's me. standing up for myself and trying to get an even

playing field, you know, and trying to get the company to back me and say, you know, why are they backing all these stero-cheaters? If me trying to get a fair go like that and even playing field is wrong, you know, because two being three or four times I've asked them so many times to sort this out, they wouldn't do it.

Now they're going to say, oh, well, because you're suing us, you know, you gave a guy, you gave that cheater, Brock Lesnar, a four-month waiver. You know, and the whole thing was But what is you expect me to do if you wouldn't go to do anything about it? You know, like I did, me standing up with myself trying to get to even paying to it

and then doing this thing is wrong. Well, then, yeah, I'm guilty of that. That's fine. It's totally wrong. You know, well, that's annoying. Where do things stand with the lawsuit? I don't, I don't know. I'm not too.

I think Christina was talking about that. But, you know, it's discrimination. And I think that's right. So, you know, I don't know what. where the lawsuit stands and I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it

so okay yeah we we continue to try to get her on the phone but her and her

office are just not picking up so I'm sorry about that would have loved to yeah I think everyone knows

it's going somewhere I mean there's one cause of action it's stuck in but you know

yeah at this point Mark do you just kind of dream of them just letting you go

and that you can you know go on with your career and do whatever you want. I mean, clearly you're not happy there. Is that, is that like the perfect scenario for you? Yeah, the scenario, they're under contract with me. Yeah. You've got to give me three fights. And they've got to give me three fights that they end me. They got a contract with me and I got a contract with them. They're supposed to give me his wretched. I'm trying to chase a dream

here, you know. I'm the first, best hit word in the world. I want to be the best people in the world. You know, these guys are trying to stop me. Don't give me no horseshit about, you know, you said these things, you said these things, you can't work. And if I said I wanted to kill them for the fight, does that mean I'm going to go to jail if I kill him? Hmm. You know, the peace with my mental health or, you know, with my well-being and stuff, it's fine. There's nothing wrong with me. You can totally hear, you know, I'm totally fine, you know.

And I'm still waiting to hear what's going to happen next. if there's other kids they want me to do it and complete and then fine I'll do them you know I need to get on three fights and move on right you have three fights left on your deal you have three fights left on your deal

they get these three fights and move on that's right and you you were I mean this fight was coming up in two weeks so you would have been two down you're a fairly active fighter that's really what has been you're not looking to resign after the three fights right yeah I was hoping to

to fight in Japan Sydney and then you know hopefully next year a couple of two they would have contract done it would have been great

you know but like I said this has happened another roadblock that's happened and but why he wants to be a funny guy

geez and there's no communication now you're just in the dark are you even training or you're you're back home you're just kind of sitting and waiting to hear what's next

well I'm still like I said earlier I'm still waiting to know what's what they want me to do. Wow. I can't believe that you don't know. I'm still waiting to hear what it is.

I'm still waiting to hear what it is that I need to do to get to fix this. Like I said earlier, the last email that sent me from it was, hey, Mark, you, as soon as we find out what's wrong with you, then we'll let you know. What the hell? What the hell you mean, boy? What do you mean? You're going to let me know what's wrong. Who sent that? Do you know?

Who sent that? Do you know? Who said that? Who said that? They don't lock their mind, these fools, man. Who sent you that email? Work, U.S.C. sent an email. Okay. Like, it wasn't.

Okay, all right. Wow. Idiot. Colby. Strange situation. With no end in sight. Yeah, what do you think I should do? What do you think I should do?

I mean, Dana White is saying, that they wanted to send you to the Lou Ruvow Center. So I would just call them, call him out on it. Say, okay, you want me to go there? I'll go there. If that's, if you're not going to let me fight, unless I go there. I said that already. I said, listen, man, if I knew that it was dependent on me pulling me off this guy,

then I would have went. But then now I'm still waiting to see what they're, what they're supposed to do. They said that in content of our market. If you don't go and do these tests in Las Vegas, at our doctors, we're going to pull you from the card. And anyone that's going to, you know, make a million dollars, you're going to be out of you.

I'm out of you. I'm going to view the test. Of course, of course. To put it in the context, they said, it's fine, Mark. You can go and do it in Sydney. We'll pay for the shrink. We'll pay for the shrink, and we'll pay for the tits, and they will go from there.

But when a tits was done, everything was fine, the lawyer says you can't fight. Wow. Did he go to medical practice and say that I couldn't fight this lawyer? Dick here. Do you think you'll ever fight for the UFC?

Trust me, yeah. They've got three fights to honor. Three fights. Either pay me out of my contract and give me these three fights. You can't sit me on the back of the bus, boy. Right.

All right, well, I'm sorry that this has happened. It's like every time there's a new layer... Go ahead, sorry? They're not. They're just always trying to fuck with me, these clowns. He's always trying to poop, poop shit of me and say, oh, you know, because of this. You know, at the end of the day, I'm trying, I was trying to get it even playing field here on the competition at the highest level, but against all these cheaters. And you guys allow this shit. It's like every time that there's a new layer, it gets a little more confusing this story, you know?

Dana put out the statement. Go ahead. They're just trying to squeeze everyone with the truth. The truth is me trying to stand up for myself against these PDUs and these guys leading these thick kids get away with it. That's what it is. We're trying to cover up this rubbish with their milk screens and their bullcrep and they're all because of this, let's, let's, whatever, bitch.

Have you heard from a lot of people who bought tickets? What's that? The difference here is, you know, I speak the truth. It's all these matters and all these battles, and these clowns don't like it. You don't like someone standing up and saying, this is how it is how it's said to be. I ain't one of the yes and a mass to do what I'm doing. What's your thing? I'll do what I want.

Cheating ass with the punks. That's where they are. Sorry about my language. This is a pissed off of the automotive with a snuck screening the rubbish. They know like people trying the truth. You know what? The movie is. You know what?

You can't handle the fucking truth. You can't handle the fucking truth. Anyway. All right, Mark. Thank you very much. I can do whatever they want to do. I can do whatever they want to do the tips. I got out to Vegas, whatever they want to do.

Paul knows they haven't said whatever they wanted to do. It's the waiting. You know, what I can say is on your fucking contest. You've got three fights, bitches. Well, now we've heard it. Mark Hunt is willing to go to Las Vegas to do this test. Hopefully this happens ASAP, and you can move on with your career,

get those three fights, and everyone goes their separate way. That would be good. Yep, go on. Keep us posted. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you, as always.

There he is. Mark Hunt. Upset. I'm being serious. Every time there's a new layer to the story, first I hear about it, he's pulled them like, oh, it's because of the lawsuit. Then you hear the UFC side,

and they're like, look, the guy's in, and he's telling us about, you know, slurring his words and forgetting things. What are we supposed to do? Then I hear from Mark's side, and they say, they made us take tests,

and we passed them. Then Dana White comes out and says, we wanted him to go to Las Vegas, and he wouldn't go. So you're like, all right, well, then you kind of have to understand. But then he says, no one told me that if I didn't go,

I'd be pulled from the card. Mess of a situation. Hopefully it gets resolved sooner rather than later. Go to Las Vegas, figure it out. If he's healthy, if he's able to fight,

chalk it up to an interview gone wrong. And stop saying that like, oh, his name is on it. I mean, I know, like, you really think that Mark Hunt sat behind a computer and penned that whole piece? Everyone knows, I don't know about the player's voice. I know about the Players' Tribune. I didn't even know there was an Australian version of the player's voice or the Players Tribune. But the Players Tribune, you know, like you think Kevin Durant and Gordon Hayward are sitting there, Dear Oklahoma City.

No, they talk to someone and then they, you know, they craft a nice little piece. And that's exactly what happened with Mark Hunt's piece. Anyhow, not the last that we've heard of that situation, that's for sure. Hopefully there's a happy ending, but three fights left, let's see what happens. Let's move along now. We've been talking about him all show long. He's the one who stole all the headlines leading into Sao Paulo last Saturday. He stole them all leading out.

He's the one and only Colby Covington, aka the most hated man in MMA. There he is. Sunglasses and all in the park. He's back in America, I think, safe and sound. Colby, are you there? In the park area, I'm in my hometown, brother. I'm in the 541, beautiful Springfield Oregon. There you are. Beautiful. Wow. Is that your backyard? Where are you? Oh, my gosh. Wow. Living large. Yeah. Springfield Oregon. Beautiful. So you're back home. Wait. Someone's calling you now. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So you're back home safe and sound? Do you really think those resilience would be able to keep me down?

They were going to get me. How good did it feel when you got back home when you touched down on American soil? Did you feel a little safer? Oh, man. I felt so much safer. I'm so glad to be back in USA. Land of the free, home of the brave. Amazing feeling. Okay. Let's talk about the week leading up to it. You were on the show, you know, just a week ago, seven days ago, you called it a dump. You had some not nice things to say about Brazil, about Sao Paulo, about Damien, and then you go to the open workouts. You're in a mall.

There's people just leading up to the week, leading up to the fight, I should say. What was it like? Did you feel at any point, did you feel uneasy? Did you feel like, okay, this was getting a little too hairy? Or was it all kind of, you know, it was all in fun? Yeah, you know, I definitely felt a little weary. You know, when I was at the open workouts in that mall, I was asking the security guards to escort me in there. like 10 of them. I was like, do they, are they doing a security check when these people come to them all?

Like, do you keep trapped with weapons? Like, what am I doing with? Like, there's going to be three levels of people watching me work out. Like, I don't trust this, man. Am I going to get shot or something? So, you know, I was a little nervous, but, you know, we made it through. And, you know, it's going to be title fights in champagne on U.S. soil from here on out. That's it. You're done going to overseas. You're done. These international fights, you're over with them. well you know I'm a company man so wherever the UFC wants me to go I'm gonna go but I probably won't be making an appearance back in Brazil okay um so you get to the fight the fight goes I mean are you happy you won but are you happy with the actual fight are you happy with your performance it wasn't my best performance but you know it's another

performance it's another dominant win I mean I beat him a lot worse than Woodley did so you know it is what it is I move from here I'm saving my best fight for Woodley. You know, he can either give me what I want or I'm going to take what I want. But that's the World to Weight title and that will be mine soon. So after you beat Damien, you know, people are upset

about the filthy animals and the dump comment. Why did you pour it on? Why did you continue to go, you know, on Brazil as opposed to just talk about tiring at that point? Why did you feel the need to kind of egg on the crowd? You know, I just didn't like

how they treated me when I was in the tunnel before the walk out to the fight. You know, I'm sitting in the tunnel and they're yelling all these things. Oh, I fucked your mom. Oh, this and that. You know, stuff about me. Oh, you're going to die throwing cups and stuff and hot dogs. So I'm like, come on. You're going to treat me like this when I'm walking out to this fight to put on a good entertaining performance and show for you guys, whether he's your hometown guy or not. You need to respect me. You know, I'm going into a fight. You know, this is professional. So, you know, I just felt disrespected by them. And, you know, I didn't say anything that was too outlandish.

Okay, so you were pissed off, you were fired up, then you go out, you beat Damien Maya, you're all bloodied up. By the way, were you surprised at all by Damien Maya, especially early on, how aggressive he was on the feet? No, not really. You know, I figured that he's probably going to be thinking, hey, I'm not going to be able to take this guy down, so I'm going to have to come out hard and throw some big strikes. And hopefully one of them lands, you know, but, you know, I said what I was going to do, you know, I'm a man of my work. I said I was going to go forward on Damien Ma. I was going to put him in the most exciting fight in this career. And I was going to put on a good show for the fans.

You know, I'm not going to back up like a little girl like Woodley to do this conservative route. I'm going to put on a fight, man. That's what I came to do is fight. I'm a real fighter. Right. By the way, how's the face? Did you get stitches?

Uh, no, I didn't get no stitches. Nah, yeah, I got a couple stitches. I got like three stitches over my right eye. Okay. They caught me with a good shot early on, but, you know, I had to wake up. You know, I'm a slow starter. So, you know, I gave him a punch and then, you know, I had to dish it out after that. When they ran you out, like, I mean, that scene of the security just like literally, like, sprinting you out of the arena to the back.

What was that like? Were you hit with anything, anything thrown? You know, of course things were thrown. We saw it, but, like, anything actually nail you? There was a couple cups to hit me, you know, but the security, they did a good job, you know? They had, like, ten guys, like, huddling over my head, you know, taking the... the hits for me. I know Reed Harris took a hit to the head and he ended

up having to pull some guy out of the crowd or did some stuff and something like that, but it was crazy, man. The experience I mean, it was awesome. I love that. You know, I knew I was going to hostile territory. I knew they were going to be real sad. It was going to be a lot of people pissed after I beat Damien.

So, you know, I expected that. So it was awesome, man. It was fun time. Now, why didn't you go to the post-fight press conference? I don't know why I didn't go to the post-fight press conference, you know? I had my suit ready. I was all dressed up, ready to go. But then Reed put me in the van. It's like, hey, we got to get you out of here. Man, we don't

we don't know if it's safe for you to be here. So I think they pulled me either pulled me for two reasons. They either pulled me because they thought it was dangerous and they didn't know if it would be good or they pulled me because they thought I was going to say more comments about Brazil. What do you think, Ariel?

Maybe a mix of both. Okay. Were you upset that they pulled you from it? No, I'm not upset. You know, life goes on, you know, on to the next one. It is what it is. It's not going to be my last winning post-fight.

Right. You didn't want to, like, bask in the glory and talk about it. You didn't care about any of that? No, you know, I haven't accomplished what I set out to do, you know? I knew I was going to be a world champion. I've seen that in my destiny. So, you know, I haven't really done anything that's a big deal and I'm making a big deal. When you got back to your room, what was it like?

Like, were you on lockdown? were you not allowed to go out? Yeah, that was crazy, man. Getting out of the arena, you know, with all the security guards, you know, they're all loaded just in case something happened. You know, we went back on like a special van. They put me in like the bottom part of the hotel. I had to go on like the negative levels. And we went in through the negative levels.

You know, they guarded me up the elevator. They wouldn't let anybody else on the elevator. And then we kind of, you know, we ducked. So no one's seen us over the balconies. And we walked back to our room. and, you know, I'm in my room on lockdown. I wasn't supposed to leave until they came and got me to go to the airport, but they slept.

I think they stayed up all night on my floor, like four different security guards all night outside my door on my floor. Wow. Were you nervous? Yeah, for sure. You know, I was a little nervous. I can't lie. You know, I'm not going to come lie to you today.

I'm a man of my word. I'm not a liar. I'm a truth-teller. So, you know, I was a little nervous. There was someone knocked on my door. We have no idea who it was. And they're like, oh, we don't speak good English, but I'm a journalist, I'm journalist. And my dad's like freaking out, looking to the people like, oh, my God, dude, I think someone's here to murder you, Kobe.

He's like, he's like freaking me out, you know, getting me out excited or not excited, but like you're adrenaline going and stuff. So, yeah, I was a little nervous. And then what time was your flight on Sunday? Yeah, my Sunday flight wasn't until 1030 at night. So, you know, we're sweating out. I didn't go to bed, stayed up all through the night, you know, sweating through the day. Like, come on, man, hurry up. Security get here at 7 o'clock at night so we can go to the airport and get on a 10.30 flight.

So what did you do the whole day? You stayed in your room the whole day? Stayed in my room the whole day. Didn't do anything. My dad went and got me food. He wasn't wearing in UFC gear because he was scared. Someone was going to notice he was with me. And I just, yeah, I just stayed in my room all day and just chilled out to my flight.

at the airport, like once you finally emerged in public, did anyone recognize you? Anyone say anything to you? No, you know, the thing is, is I was in disguise. I had glasses. I had a hat and I had a hoodie on. So I was walking to the airport with like no branded clothes, keeping my head down, like making sure no UFC backpack, no nothing like that. Then you put out this apology on Twitter. Why did you do that?

you know I just feel like I see in a lot of articles you know some the vice president or something David Shaw from from the UFC was saying they were looking into actions about me so you know I figured I was going to respond with official apology okay that's right um and you you you apologize to the filthy animals for comparing them to Sao Paulo do you feel at all you know you've had some time to reflect you feel like you crossed the line do you feel like you were offensive towards the Brazilian people? No, not at all. You know, the way they treat people over there,

you know, you can't do that over in Canada area. You can't do that in USA. You know, you won't hear a whole crowd doing stuff like that and the things they do. So, you know, I don't think I cross any line, you know, America. America. That's it. Just America. America. That's right. Now, I've been told since all this happened,

the UFC approached you with an opportunity to fight Kamaro Usman. Is that accurate? That's completely false, Earl. That's completely false. That's the biggest lie I've ever heard. Okay. That's okay. Well, I'm happy that you're on to clear it up because that's what his team is telling me.

And he's been texting me, hitting me up, saying that this is the fight. I know he's booked a fight against Emil Mech, and he's been active on Twitter. I'm sure you've seen some of the tweets, but they're telling me that, they have been offered a switch and that, you know, you're the switch. But you're saying that's not true. Dude, that guy's just looking for attention. Of course that's not true. Ariel, that guy's the biggest liar, man.

He's just looking for attention. Listen, he already turned me down three times in the past. So I'm not, you know, he's way behind me now. He's not even on my radar, man. I'm only looking at Tyrone Woodley, man. Tyro Woodley. How does this sound? Tyroo Woodley and St. Louis.

Yes. First quarter of next year. That sounds like a great plan to me. You want to go to his hometown? I want to go to his hometown. That's what I've been doing, Ariel. I went to Dunkin' Kim's hometown, beat him up, had the booze. Went to Brazil.

Brazil's finest, South Polo's own, Damien Ma, beat him up, got the booze. I'll go to St. Louis's hometown. Tyrol needs me to put him over. He needs someone like me. He needs someone to be hated because no one likes him. He's complaining. He's this and that. He needs someone that he's going to, that people are going to hate more than him.

And why not doing his hometown? It sounds like a great idea to me. St. Louis, Tyrone Woodley, Kobe Covington, UFC walked away title fight. By the way, do you call him Tyrone just to piss him off? Yeah, sometimes, you know, I like to kind of mess with it a little bit, throw him a little bit. But I know I'm in his head, you know.

I don't need to, there's not much I need to do and say to get in Tyrone's head, you know? Look at how he's defending himself, acting like a little kid, you know? Oh, Kobe, you, you got out-shock by a BJJ guy. Oh yeah, you got outstruck by a BJJ guy, the worst in the sport of boxing, the guy Jake Shields. Oh, look at Roy McDonald how he fought you. Look at Nate Mark for him. Come on, dude.

Like, I completely demolished Damia, a lot worse than you did in three rounds that took you five rounds. No one wants to watch you fight. So stop playing the victim card. You're not a victim. Stop complaining. And let's just fight, man. He can either give me the fight or I'm going to come take it. I'm going to come to his house.

I'm going to punch in the door and I'm going to take my belt. Or I'll just get an interim belt and slap his bitch ass with that. I don't know. One of the two is going to happen though, Are you? Do you feel like you finally got under his skin because he's starting to tweet about you? Like after the fight, he was, you know, for the longest time he was kind of ignoring you, but now he's, you know, tweeting at least about you. He's calling you the fight past phenom. I don't know if you saw that.

Do you feel like it's starting to work that the trash talk is actually getting to him? I think he's starting, I think he just knows I'm his worst nightmare. He knows he's an ass kisser. he's over in Hollywood kissing ass. I'm over here ass kicking. He's an ass kisser.

I'm an ass kicker. There's a difference between the two. He's over here trying to get famous off B-list movies Ariel that go straight to DVD.

I'm over here kicking ass running the division. This is my division now. He knows it. He knows his time's up. Yeah, he's been the champ.

He's born. No one wants to watch him fight anymore. Kobe Covington, Tyro Woodley, St. Louis, Missouri. I'm retiring the chunk.

Do you think you'll get it? Are you confident? Have you pitched this idea? I should get it. I'm pretty confident. Yeah, I'm definitely confident, you know? No one else is going to beat him. You know, Robbie Lawler doesn't make sense to do that.

He got knocked down in a minute. And then he took two years off and fought cowboy. I mean, he's older, you know, RDA, he's older. Those guys, you know, RDA is probably not going to get past Lawler, but these guys are past their primes. I'm in my prime. I will finish Woodley. You know, that's what I did in the gym, Mario.

I broke his heart in the gym, three rounds it took me. In a five-round fight, he's done. He stands no chance, and he knows it. Deep down inside, he knows it, Arroyo. Do you have any interest in clearing the air on this situation with Kamar Ustman? He's on hold, but I don't want to bring him on unless you don't, unless you want to talk to him. I'm only talking about Tyro Woodley. I'm only talking about Tyrone Woodley, Ariel.

All I care about is Tyrone Woodley. Trust me, it's the easy fight. It's not even like, that's the biggest easiest money in the world, you know? Like, Tyrol Woodley, there's bad blood. That's a real, I think I will get the fight because there's real bad blood there. Right. It's not really bad blood with Lawler, you know, they already fought. It's not really bad blood with anybody else.

Obviously, if the UFC looks in, look at Tyro's tweets, you know, he's trying to defend himself. Like, he's a joke, man. Tyroo Woodley is a joke. So, so, Oussman wants to talk to you, you don't want to talk to him. I have nothing to say to him. know who that is. Okay, fair enough. I'm talking about Tyro O'Reill.

Yeah. Ariel, I just beat Damien Amaya. Yeah. Just fought for the world title. Legend, man. He was on an eight-fight winning streak. Beat everybody. Be Carlos Condon.

Easy. Beat Matt Brown, submit him easy. All these guys easy. He just lost to Tyrone Woodley. Look how bad I just beat him. I put a way worse ass weapon on him than Tyrone Willie did. I'm next. I'm the champ.

This is my division, Ariel. Do you think the UFC will do anything about these comments? Do you believe that they're going to do anything? Or should they actually be happy that there's someone who's getting Tyron riled up, that there could be a money fight here? Oh, you know, I think they're happy. You know, this is a type of fight that's going to sell, me and Tyrone Woodley. You know, he needs someone like me.

He needs a villain because no one likes him. So they're going to rally around him to beat me. But he has no chance to beat me. But on the same token, you know, he's just a bitch, man. He's just a complainer. He's scared, man. He's going to look for a money fight with Jesus. GSP, but GSP is going to lose the Bispin this weekend.

So, you know, it just doesn't make sense. What do you say do your Brazilian teammates, guys like Bigfoot Silva, who have come out and, you know, they're very upset about some of the comments. What do you say to them? I could care less about them, Ariel. I didn't get in this to make friends. You know, I got me and my boy, Jorge and Moswell, it's us against the world. We've known that since the beginning. There's cliques in the gym, man.

They're not my friends. They're not my teammates. I don't hang out with those guys. I fight for American top team and Dan Lambert. That's it. Those are my friends. I'm not here to make friends. So it is what it is.

I mean, I don't even know who's Bigfoot Silver. I know Amanda Nunes, she got all upset about it too. Whatever. It's not a big deal. If you don't like me, you don't like me. It is what it is. Life goes on. I'm not here to make friends, Ariel.

I'm here to have a world championship around my waist. Do you feel like it's going to be hostile the next time you go back to the gym? If they want to make the hostile, we can get hostile, but they don't want those problems. Ariel. Okay. So you're just going to keep your distance, go your separate ways. Yep. Just go my separate ways. Be the professional that I am. This is business. I'll do my work. You do your work. Don't worry about me, man. Obviously, they worry about me. They should worry about themselves, Ariel. Let me do me. You do you. How are you going to go about getting this title fight? What's the next, like, what's the game plan here? What's the plan of attack? Oh man, you just got to stay too, man.

I can't give away that kind of information. Man, that's classified. If I told you, if I told you, I'd have to kill you, I don't want to kill you. You're my boy now. I know, we're friends. I got a lot of respect for you. Thank you.

Yeah, we're friends, man. I respect you, man. So, you know, I'm going to go about it the way I need to go about it, but, you know, it will be entertaining. Okay, and you think it's happening. Wow. By the way, you remember that clip that started this whole thing where someone asked me,

can Colby cut the line? And I said no. I think you may have just cut the line. You know, that's what I knew from the start. I knew, you know, if I put on a better performance in Tyro Woodley, then, you know, that's what I got to do. So I went out there and I did it. I'm a man of my word, Ariel.

I told you what I was going to do, and I did it. I'm telling you with what I'm going to do with Tyrone Woodley, and I'm going to do it. All right. Any final things you want to say, the people of Brazil, Damien Maya, Tyron Woodley, Darren Till was on talking about you, the people of Brazil want to see him beat you up. I mean, you got it coming from all corners.

Tyrone Woodley, you need to stop trying to get famous in Hollywood kissing ass. I'm over here kicking ass. This is my division now. You can give me what I want or I'm going to come take it. Either way, the World Championship is mine. St. Louis, Missouri, Tyrone, Woodley, Colby Coventon, first quarter of next year. Let's do it. Thank you, Colby.

Congratulations on the win. Good luck getting the title fight. Stay safe out there. Much. Thank you so much. Much a lot, Barry. We'll talk soon. All right, there he is. Colby Covington stopping by from Oregon.

Entertaining stuff as always. So, yeah, Kamar Usman was hitting me up during the interview. That's what his team... That's what his team told me. But as I told his team, they asked me, he could talk, I said, look, he's the guest. I'm not going to ambush him. And I would ask. And clearly he didn't want to talk. But I'm happy to talk to Camaro now. Does Camaro want to come on and talk? Clear the air, at least from his point of view. Let's get him on here for a few minutes. Why not?

Okay. By the way, same exact idea that I had at the top of the show. I wonder if he was watching. again in the interview say what you want about his delivery say what you want about the kind of guy he is whatever it's never offensive at least the comments as of late you know there's nothing racist about him he's just trying to pick a fight

and I think right now you know he's look he's not taking the bait he's shooting for the top and he's gone people all riled up including his own teammates even former ATT coach

Ricardo Laboreo who apparently has left the team is riled up as well Kamar Ustman is on the phone Kamaro are you there I'm here Ariel I'm sorry I said I had to give him

the opportunity I didn't want to ambush him I know you wanted to talk but I didn't think it was right to put him on the spot without Ariel is not your fault man you know you're stand-up dude and you were doing the job

you know of course he was going to say no. That's him. You know, he's, he's a duck, but for some reason he has his two fans, two, and I mean two of them, it's just two of them that keep pestering me. He has these two fans convinced that he's not the duck. He's a duck, you know. He talks all this trash about everybody. He talks all this about that he's this, he's that. He's nothing. You know, who has he, look at, look at who he's fought in the UFC and look at the guys that I fought in the UFC. His first fighting these UFC was against a guy that was three and one or something like that. Four professional fight. You know, he fought Mike. Who has he fought? He's fought nobody but Don Young Kim and Damien

Meyer on the decline. And he thinks he's somebody. He's a nobody. You know, this is a guy that, Ariel, I can't even go through my Twitter feed. I can't even go through it just because of how much people really want me to beat this guy up. You know, I've been wanting to beat him up forever, but unfortunately, you know, I've always had a fight or, you know, he's hurt or he had a fight. But now he's not. He's free. And so let's make it happen. Whenever I'll let him pick the date.

Let's make it happen. Okay, so a couple things. He said that he's tried to fight you the past and that you turned him down. Is that true? Absolutely not. Never. Okay. See, that's what I mean.

Like, he knows that if that was true, then why would he clear the air? Right. Okay, so, and then more importantly, are they offering, you're fighting, like, as far as the public is concerned, they've offered it. They've offered it. Okay, so as far as the public is concerned, you are fighting Emil Mech at UFC 219, but in the last 24 or so hours, you've been offered, Colby Covington, if he accepts, they're willing to make a switch here? Yep. And he's saying no. He's saying absolutely no. He said, hell no.

Hell no. Why would I risk getting beat down that bad? Like, he's an amateur. He's still an amateur. And I'm better at every facet of the game. You know, they offered it to him, and that's why he's saying it's false. But why wouldn't you clear the air if it was false? Right.

Why wouldn't you say it? That's the thing. Like, he's going to say what he's saying, then he'll run. Unfortunately, and when he tried to, you know, like, he's really hot on Twitter. He's a Twitter thug. That's what I call him. You know, he tried to, he tried to start a little Twitter beef a little while ago, and I squashed it immediately, immediately.

All I did was tweeting back three simple tweets, and he was quiet. He was silent after that, you know. And unfortunately, he was, he's talking to all his trash. I told him, if you have beef, it's not a problem. You live maybe 20, 30 minutes away from it. It's not a problem. We have mutual friends. Ariel, this is, you know, I don't think, I'm just going to go on the air and say,

I don't think people realize how much this is fake. This was a match already in the making years ago. Really? Years, years ago. My first, you know, my first UFC fight that I ever watched, I ever saw, I watched with John Jones. And this was why we were in college. We were freshmen in college.

Okay. And I went up, because me and John met in high school at senior nationals. And so he said he was going to school the next year. in Iowa, the freshman, and I was going to school the next year in Iowa. So during my fall break, I went up to Fort Dodge, Iowa Central, where Kobe Covington went to school. I went there and spent my fall break with John, and we just hung out and we partied that week, you know, on our fall break. And we went to a house, and that was the first time I seen a professional at mixed martial arts fight.

It was UFC something. I think it was Randy Couture or Chuck O'Dell. One of them was fighting, and that's like 2005 or 2006. And that was the first time. And then that following year, and when I was there, I stayed in the same room that Kobe Covington stayed in the following year where he went to school there. And John's roommate was Joe Soto, you know, also in the UFC. And you can call both of them and ask them that. You know, this is something that's been in the making.

How small is this world? Yeah. Now I get the chance to silence this guy, but he wants to duck. You can't duck me. How can you say, I have proven my resume speaks for itself. I've proven myself inside the cage. I can do it all. The fans know it, everybody knows it.

But he's the one that's ducking me right now. Do you think there's a chance he gets the title shot? Absolutely not. Right. Absolutely. You know what? You know what? I'm not going to say that.

I'm not going to say that because, look, he's saying he just be Damien Maier. Like, Ariel, do you remember, I called out Damien Maier a year ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A year ago. I called out Dong Young Kim a year ago. all these guys said no Damia publicly said no

I don't want that fight why would I take a hard fight like that when I'm almost in line for a title shop you know all these guys know all these guys have known for years

and they continue to duck me and the problem that I'm having is that UFC's letting these guys dust me like that shouldn't be like they should be released from their contract if you're not going to fight

the fight that we offer you need to be released because at the end of the day UFC is the one that's paying us so if they're not If he doesn't want to fight, he needs to be released. Let this guy go fight in the back alley somewhere. You know, like no one, and even all that,

the only reason people care about him is because he went out and abused and cursed out a whole country. That's the only reason people are paying attention to him. People still don't care about that fight. People don't think that was a good fight. Like, he looked trash. He's striking looked like an amateur. You weren't impressed. Beating up Maya like that?

Absolutely. Oh man, if I would, if I would, I called him out a year and a half ago because I would have done worse a year and a half ago. Worse while Damien Maya still had the juice. I would have done way worse a year and a half ago. Now look at that. Damia Maya lit him up in the first round. Damia might have got him out of there. I don't know why he went to the takedowns.

You could have got him out of there. Now, Ariel, you see how easily Damien Maia was hitting him. Now, imagine if I hit, if I hit Kobe Coventon. It would take multiple ambulances to get him out of there. They would have to piece him back his face back together inside the cage. So how do you get this fight now? What are you going to do? It's UFC's call.

If he says no, then UFC's got to release him because they offered him the fight. That's the fight that people want to see. I can't go through my Twitter feed just for how much there is. And even right now it's going crazy. I can't even go through it. how much people want to see me beat this guy up. He says, you know what? And I'm going to tell you something, Ariel.

This is a guy that, you know, the only way, like, people pay attention is because now he has to insult people. He has to insult a country where we're able to pay attention. You know, he's been years ago, like a year and a half. He was in the UFC at Link a year and a half before me, and I got into the rankings before him. He wants to be considered a good wrestler in the division.

I'm considered the best wrestler in the division. And that's why he always tries to pose for saying little, slight little comments here and there about wrestling, about this and that. Everybody knows that I'm better than him on every level. You know, the only difference between us is I was given some home training. I was raised right.

And now I'm going to do what his dad should have did while he was his child. And that spank him severely until he understands. Because he does not understand that. You know, and, you know, I'm going to take this further. This is the problem that our country is having nowadays because of people like him. You can see how he carries himself. You go into another country.

You don't have respect. He doesn't have respect for people. You don't have respect for any. You're talking about America this, America, that. What does that have to do with anything? You know, as an American, that you should conduct yourself with respect. You know, you're coming from one of the greatest, supposedly the greatest nation in the world. Okay, then carry yourself with respect.

I'm a Nigerian and American, and I carry myself with respect. Everyone that I see, I'm going to treat them with respect. This guy doesn't have respect, and so I have to teach him respect. I have to teach him respect, just like Dan Henderson had to do to Michael Bisping. I have to teach him respect. Does Emil Mech do it for you? Like, if you end up actually still having to fight him, that wasn't the name you were pining for. He hasn't fought in a year.

He's a great fighter. but not ranked last I checked does this get your you know your juices flying do you get excited about this fight you know you know I mean you know no disrespect to Emil I actually hung out with him all in Scotland

you know he's a tough guy but at the end of the day you know like let's be honest like this you know this shouldn't be a fight for him you know I think he needs a couple more fight to really get there you know I'm not going to see anything for him of course he's gonna feel confident

that he you know he's able to be on the level but you know let's just be honest, like, that's not the fight, you know? But, I mean, if I actually end up having to fight him, don't get me wrong. I don't underestimate anybody, which is why I continue to improve in that. I don't care whether it's the guy that's ranked 300 or a guy that's ranked number one in the world. I'm still going to train, and I'm still going to come in there and put a weapon on anybody that steps in there with me. And so, you know, if it happens to end up being in a fight, then, hey, I'm going to make it happen.

And I'm going to do what I do inside that case, and that's winning. That's winning in an impressive fashion. But Colby Covington needs to fight me, and that's the fight that everybody wants to see. What's the final message to Colby? You know, he says people are ducking him. Kobe, who's the duck now? You're ducking me.

You're not fighting Tyra Woodley, so what? You're going to sit a year and a half to wait for that fight? Everybody knows that the champion is clearly recovering from his surgery. That's fine. Why are you calling out a guy that's clearly recovering from surgery? You're healthy unless Damia Maya beat you up that bad to where you need a year to recover. You need to fight me. That's the fight that needs to happen.

Everybody knows it needs to happen. So let's get it. Let's make it happen. I'll let him pick the date. Good stuff, Kamaro. Thank you. Sorry we couldn't make it happen, but I appreciate you coming on. It's okay.

Thank you, Ariel. You know that duck was going to duck me anyway. That's what he does best. Talk to you soon, my man. All right. There he is. Kamar Usman, the Nigerian nightmare coming in. Unannounced. That's what happens on the show. People tune in. They get fired up. They want in as well. Good stuff. All right. That does it for our interviews. Time now for everyone's favorite segment. It is time. There it is. Open up your ears and your minds. MMA fans. That was like when the Shockmaster debuted. You know, it's like a little bit of a stumble out of the gate. It's been a lot.

long day. You already hear it is Wicks Hicks. Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls

it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's nice. It's the new craze taking the world by storm.

Yeah it is. Live from the Vox studios in beautiful New York City. Oh, what a day. What a day. What drama.

What drama. There it is. That's perfect. That looks just like Mr. New York, Rick. There he is.

The Man of the Hour, too sweet to be sour So much drama here. Hello. How are you? I mean, you could have rusted your voice maybe. Yeah. No, let's get some more guests. By the way, I just got an email

from Ticketmaster With an offer to save 25% off select tickets for UFC 217. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It can only be a good thing. Save 25%. Right. that's a nice spin on things. All right, what do you got, Mr. New York, Rick?

There's so much going on in the MMA world. Thank you very much to Toyota Tires. Thanks to all who have stuck around. Many highs and lows on today's show, but now we turn to you, Mr. New York, Rick, for everyone's favorite Rick's picks. What do we have? We're going to start with the man of the hour.

Oh, thank you. Myself? No. No, no, definitely not you. Colby Covington. issuing a formal apology. Yes. That I will read out here. Formal apology, it begins.

I went to work last week. I was screamed at, spit at, assaulted with water bottles, and other objects by an angry mob, and serenaded by 10,000 voices yelling, you are going to die. My employer had to place security at my hotel room to protect me. I would like to formally apologize to any filthy animal I offended by comparing them to my host in Sao Paulo. Something else. Colby Covington, living the gimmick. doing it all right listen i've weighed in on this plenty your thoughts did he cross the line is it too

much no and and the reason i don't think he crossed the line is because it's so transparent um what do you mean it's there's there's no secret to what he's doing there's no there's no nuance to it he's he's doing something very straightforward um people should be able to see through it and recognize that he's not really does that ruin it for you though like you're saying this is 100% gimmick. There's no truth to any of this. No. Well, he already broke K-Fave. He already said that

he's, you know, I respect Damien and I respect Brazil. He doesn't break K-Fave when it comes to Tyron Woodley. Who's that? You mean Tyrone Woodley? Yeah. He never breaks K-Fabe there, right? Yeah, but he also didn't, I don't think he said anything that offensive about Tyrone Woodley.

He's kept it to fight stuff when it comes to tyrant. So, no, I mean, it's kind of, I'm enjoying this. Don't get me wrong. I'm liking what he's doing, but I don't think there were any lines crossed necessarily.

Okay. Look, that's not for, I'm not Brazilian, so I'm not going to be the one who speaks for them. Would you agree with me when I say that nothing he said was specific to Brazil, was exclusive to Brazil? You can, I mean, wrestlers call

any town USA dump. This place is a dump. Your women smell. They have no teeth. The indicator is if he was somewhere else, do you think he would have called them filthy animals?

And my answer is probably yes. If it wasn't Brazil, if it was wherever he's going to fight next, you know, if it's there and he would call them filthy animals and call it a dump, then I don't think it's specific. And my answer is yes.

But you do bring up a good point. Stick to the gimmick. Yeah, don't break K-Fave. Yeah. Never break. K-Fave. That's a rule for everyone in life. Okay. Now we're going to the ice, actually.

Oh, yes. Anaheim Ducks' defenseman Kevin Beeksa? Yeah. Biaxa? Bexa. I think it's Beeksa. No, it's Bexa. I heard a clip earlier. All right. I did a little research. Kevin Biaxa landing the Superman

punch on the flyers. Radco Gudos. How good is this? I mean, have you ever been on skates before? I have, yeah, I can skate. It's kind of hard to do this sort of thing. Oh, I can't do this. That's for damn sure. And then he tweeted about it. Did you see that? Oh, did I?

Oh. We've got more tweets. Okay. One from first George St. Pierre, who quote tweeted the clip and said, I've thrown the superpants punch many ways, but would never try it on the ice. B.XA, quoting that and saying, lots of people asking, been throwing the Superman punch for over a decade, some land, some miss. George St. Pierre was a big part of the inspiration for it.

So we have the direct tie to George St. Pierre. There it is. Inspiration for that Superman Punch. Landed cleanly. Shout out to Kevin. What a punch. It was amazing. Next, we're going to go, and we'll bring the audio up on this one, to Rose Namibunis's.

Oh, my God. My favorite clip of the week. Killing it. Tickling the Ivories. This is one of those clips that you actually have to watch. Yeah, go to Rose's Instagram and see the full thing. I love the piano. My wife's a great piano player. And she is so good.

Who knew? Rose Nomayunez. So many layers to her. Look at those fingers. Poised, graceful, elegant. I mean, look at that. Oh.

Makes my heart melt. It's a chicken soup for the soul. There it is. Unbelievable. Well, well done there by Roe. This time next week, is she the UFC strawaway champion? Yes or no? She is not.

What a buzz kill. So you're saying yes, huh? Listen, I don't weigh in on these things. Even Derek Brunson agrees with my approach. I'm going to say no. All right. Are you going, by the way? TBD.

Okay, all right. I'd like to. Okay. Here we have not from Holly Holmes Twitter, but from Coach Wink's Twitter. Holly Holie Holm getting some sparring in on the bag with Chris Cyborg's face on it. Look at that airtime. By the way, most interesting part of that tweet,

you know what it was? Oh, by the way, I didn't realize that he tagged me. Damn. I mean, yeah, you're too big time to... Dana White, UFC, Ariel Hawani and MMA junkie. How honored am I. The most interesting part of that tweet, by the way, is this part,

waiting for a good offer. That's the most interesting part of the tweet. Why is that the most interesting part? There's no offer. Well, there is an offer, but it's not an offer. So that's why I said to the fight. According to Chris Seibor on Twitter here. My homesteadsend's threatening message.

What? I mean, that's just the picture. But we're looking at the emojis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've got thinking face? Yeah. Thinking face. Yeah.

Paper. Paper. And hand signing with a pen. Oh, there is an offer. It seems like there's an offer that needs to be signed. Well, does it need to be signed or is it a not good offer? Which is what they're referring to. Just because there's an offer doesn't mean it needs to be signed.

Yeah, but then waiting for an offer is not necessarily correct. No, he said good offer. Big difference. It's not waiting for any offer. It's waiting for a good one. Cyborg says sign it. She doesn't get to pick, unfortunately. She's not the one making those decisions.

Okay, this is recent. This is less than an hour old. Oh, wow. Raquel Pennington. Holy smokes. I was just talking about her. Broken leg. Wow.

Getting in and in the gym. Doing pull-ups? Well, yeah. I mean, keep that leg, you know. That's incredible. Holy smokes. Here I am crying about having strep throat. And she's broken leg back in the gym.

Oh, my God. I feel like such a wuss. Good. That's what I wanted to do with this guy. All right. Well, you win. No, but seriously. that's that's incredible yeah

also freaking awesome the woo given the shout out to Heather Hardy that's random Wu Tang clan here posting a picture of of Heather Hardy rocking a Wu Tang shirt ain't none to F with

B.C title definitely nothing to F with completely random but that's an old picture of Miss Hardy right I'm guessing they must have just come across it but the Wu show in love to MMA and boxing zone. Okay. Before my high school basketball games, I used to listen to Triumph by Wu Tang

just to get me psyched up. Jewish high school basketball. What happened to that routine? Came with dad, got slow, strep throat, you know, those things. I mean, you don't have to lose the inspiration. You can still put the jams on. Now I listen to podcasts.

That's what sucks me up. Speaking of psyched up, I'm psyched up for this matchup. Yeah. There it is. Habib Narmaga Madov versus Edson Barbosa. The tweets has targeted, that's been since updated, announced for UFC 219. He back. You like the fight?

From what perspective? If I'm... The Edson perspective? If I'm Edson, don't love this fight. What? Yeah, this is not the guy I want to be facing if I'm a striker. Now, obviously, you take this opportunity. I wouldn't turn it down or anything,

but this is probably not the guy if I'm... But this is the fight that you have to take, right? There's other guys that are in the top. It's not the only path to the title, but... Okay, what if you're Habib? Love it. Okay. I think Abiv is the best lightweight

if you can get into the cage. Yeah. So I'd take it against anybody. I love it if I'm Habib versus anybody. You think this means that it's Connor versus Tony next? if it's yeah I mean who who would it be if not Habib would it be Nate Diaz? No if you mean you mean Tony Yeah yeah I'm saying Habib's out now

Who would it be if not him? Well it's always been Tony or Nate Yeah and so But if they would have done Tony versus Habib Then it would have obviously been Nate next But now that he's getting it's in it's still that two horse race Yeah I mean I don't think it changes much in that regard

honors, all right. Just because Nate can sit out forever. Sure. He seems to not be in any rush to get it done. Next, we have Kane Velazquez. Oh, yeah, this is right. Velazquez. Yes, Velazquez.

Let me not be Brock Lesnar. We're in traditional Korean garb. I believe it's called a Hanbach, the outfit that he's wearing. It's interesting that he's doing all this promotion for the UFC, but not fighting. I mean, I guess it's good to get him out Keep him out there.

I mean, you just rock this and look like a million bucks. Look at that. Forget the fight stuff. Fador did this, uh, wore the same outfit. Someone had a side by side. Who wore it better, you know? He looks great though. Yeah, shout out to Kane.

Yeah. TMZ sports video clip here. Oh. Continuing the saga. Continuing the saga with Nick Diaz. Rampage challenging. Rampage challenging Nick Diaz. a fight over over that's maria by the way that's the famous maria it it is yes because he did a

twitch stream of them on a date and so i finally got to see what she looked like you know we are you proud of your handiwork i'm proud i mean clearly they're back we're back together you did to a certain degree unless nick swoops in okay i'll buy this for one second this uh it's just bad it ain't cool I buy it. But yeah, cool. I want to see Nick Diaz, excuse me, fight at heavyweight.

I want to see Nick Diaz fight. I don't want to see people who don't want to fight, fight. If you're not into fighting, I don't want to see you fight. Yeah, but he was never into fighting. It's different. He was still motivated to make money. He was still motivated to get in there,

somewhat test himself. Like, he's clearly not interested. Leave him alone. Or maybe this is part of some grandiose plan. that we don't know about. Maybe he's in on it. All right. I mean, they seem to be in on that Instagram. That's right. That's right.

On the topic of Rampage, great tweet here from Angela Hill. Describing the scene at TwitchCon, a guy bumps into Rampage at TwitchCon. Rampage says to him, are you just going to bump it to me without saying, excuse me? And the guy, I'm sorry, he says, are you going to bump it to me without saying, excuse me, what's your name? And the guy responded with my real name or my gamer tag. That's pretty amazing. That's pretty incredible. And what was it?

the answer. I don't think. Oh, come on. Can't just leave us hanging like that, Angela? I think he was after the real name, but no, no, no. I think she addressed it in replies to people who asked those. Thank you to Angela for bringing us a little closer to the rampage confrontation at TwitchCon. Okay, we're going to go inside baseball here. Oh. Submission Radio aired an interview with Sean Sheehan where he challenged the MMA media. Now, I got tagged in this. You see you're obviously tagged in this.

That he's the best FIFA player amongst the MAA media contingent. Yes. Not tagged in there. Danny Segura. Wack. First of all, the first mistake, wait. Above the mistake, good guys, great guys over at submission radio. I enjoy their work very much.

Now to the mistake, tagging you in the MMA media discussion. you have openly said multiple times that you don't consider yourself media. Yeah, but guess what? I got the deal done. Oh, okay. Well, what's the deal? I tagged in Danny Segura.

Okay. And it's going down? And it's going down. See, look, here we go. First tweet, promo here from Sean Sheen. Where are you at Danny Seguro? Okay. Me and Danny earlier with the game.

Wow. Don't be scared. What's the game? This is FIFA 2017 on... Okay, because Sean's tweet was fighting. It was just him holding the remote. No, what? The screen had fighting on it.

Okay, but I mean, he's holding the... Should be putting, I mean, let's let's get lazy here, Sean. Listen, what's happening, not possibly tonight, but sometime in the next couple of days. Yeah? On Twitch. Oh, streaming. Danny Segura versus Sean Cheyenne. Wait, has he accepted?

Oh, it's already done. I locked, listen. You got the deal? I locked this deal. Wow. Submission radio, you're welcome. Yeah. I'm doing your work for you.

Ariel, oh, it's a mistake to tech. Guess what? It's not a mistake. I made this happen. This is my promotion here. Young Danny Segura. It's going down. And so the world can watch.

The world can watch. Great. We're going to see for MMA media supremacy. What do you think that tops out at as far as viewers? I don't know. I'm hoping that we can get a lot. I think six would be a success. Wait, Daniel, whose Twitch channel is it going to be?

be on. Oh, yeah. So Sean's Twitch channel. Hopefully he's got a lot of subscribers. Yeah, I think so. Let's ask DJ to host it. Imagine? No, he's not going to... DJ will just want in. Yeah. We've got to cut him out. We can't have DJ coming in. All right. But that's it. That's big. Promo. Sean, you're going down. My boy in the back. He's been training. He's ready. You have no chance.

Good luck, Danny. We're going to... Don't embarrass us. He doesn't even need luck. Okay. He's going to destroy him. Luck is for losers. Luck is for losers. F luck. Somebody said that recently. I forget. Somebody said F luck. We're going to wrap with two Halloween costumes

and then next week we're going to do obviously a real deep dive onto some Halloween costumes. Yes, tomorrow's Halloween. Can't wait. Going trick-or-treating. We've got Casey, our videographer

from May fighting. Here dressed as Sam Sylvia from the show Glow. Oh, that's a great one. I've not seen the show. Oh, it's a fantastic show. I've heard that. Mark Marin.

Yeah. Do you like this? Is this a good? representation of it? Yeah, because he has a mustache and glasses. That's it. That's it. Mustache and glasses and you're done? If I saw him at a party, I'd be like, well, who are you?

And then if he would have told him, I'd been like, oh, that's great. Like my exact reaction here, because A, it's a great show, it's a good idea. He's got a thick mustache. He's got the glasses. So, yeah, it's awesome. Well done, Casey. Yeah. And the two girls.

Dressed as wrestling on the show. Yeah. And here we have Danny Seguera dressed as Danny Seguera. Wow. For Halloween. That's James Dean. That's James freaking Dean. Is it not?

Danny, who's the inspiration? You said it a little bit earlier. Maybe a little Danny Zuko from Greece. Yeah. Freaking baller. What does Kaye-Onda mean? Yeah, what is that? Translate.

What's up? What's up? With the Cig. You know what this is? This is prep. Sean, you see this? Are you ready? I hope you had the box of cigarettes

rolled up on your sleeve. He did under the white tea? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that what you used to do in high school? Hell yeah. By the way, I've never put a cigarette to my lips, let alone smoked one. I believe you. What's up with that?

I don't know what's up with that, but I do believe you. I do believe you. That's it for Rick's picks. All right. Thank you very much. Stand by. Now we go a little after hour. What is the MMA after hour?

Well, if you don't know, where the hell have you been for the last three months? Four months, I should say. MMAfighting.com. We go exclusively to Twitter now. We answer some of your questions for the next 20 to 30 minutes. So much going on in the world of mixed martial arts UFC 217.

Coming up in five days at MSG, the return of GSP, Cody Garbrandt, T.J. Dilshah, Yoani, O'Jech, Rose Namibunis, all that and so much more in just five days. Also, by the way, Beltoire has a really good card on Friday.

Phil Davis fighting back at Penn State University. also Ed Ruth, another Nittany Lion back at Penn State Ryan Bader defending his title for the first time against Linton Vassel and they'll be crowning a

brand new inaugural Flyway champion Alim L.A. McFarland against Emily Ducote. So there's a lot going on to the world of MMA this coming weekend and as always a lot has happened in the past week so we'll answer all those questions and then we'll say goodnight

and I'm going to go to bed for the next 24 hours. So go to mMAfighting. Twitter.com. That's mhmap fighting.com. In a matter of moments, we call it the MMA after hour, and it starts right now. Yeah, we are back. MMA after hour time. No time to waste. So many questions to answer,

have you been enjoying the World Series? That's my first question. The problem with the World Series, by the way, the games are starting so freaking late. And they're not really starting late. starting at like 820, but that's too late because the games last so long. And that's, that's fine. I have no problem with the length of baseball games. I just wish they'd start a little earlier so I could watch the entire thing.

I get very tired, you know. Yesterday I was preoccupied, though. And this is when I'll bring in Mr. New York Rick. And this is when he should ask me, why were you preoccupied? Ariel, let me ask you something. Why were you preoccupied? I was watching the New York Knicks beat down on the Cleveland Cavaliers. And I know that the hips are thing to do is be like, oh, it's October.

I don't really care. But you have to admit, it's somewhat embarrassing. to lose to the lowly nix, you know, the mellow less nix. What do you have to say for yourself? Come on. Say something. I don't even know what to talk. Beat them down. Oh, you're going to Colby Covington route. Just completely dismissing it. Tell me what you're talking about. Beat them down. What a win for the Knicks. Going for three in a row tonight against Denver Nuggets. But that's neither here and or there. We have a lot of things to discuss. Yeah, Mike, it's expected you to go a lot harder than that.

That's all I got. That's all I got. You are really sick if that's all you got for the Knicks. couldn't care less. The Cavs are playing for the playoffs. The Knicks are playing for the lottery. All right. We'll see about that come April. I guarantee we'll have a better record. I'll say this.

I would not have bet. I would not have bet on the next coming into that one. Yeah. Well done. Unicorn, Chris Steps, Prasengis played very well. You'll recall, I before the season, was more hopeful about the Knicks than you were.

I thought they could compete. Whatever. I was just trying to do the reverse psychology thing. Reverse. Yeah, you're reverse jinks in it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it. Dynamic style.

Well, you know what? You just soiled that. You just destroyed that. So down go the Knicks. It was not going to last. Let's be real. Anybody you root for is doomed. So that's kind of been the...

We'll see. We'll see about that. This is our year. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa. You heard it? I'm impressed.

Thank you. I'm impressed. It feels like a new era. Okay. We're going to start this the way we always start this. Question of the week. Yes. From Ariel Hawani.

excitement for the MSG shows UFC 205 versus UFC 217 this time last year because it was roughly the same time were you what I meant by that was beginning of fight week like the Monday of fight week some people said I I worded this poorly

I don't know maybe I could What do you mean? I don't know I was like What's the issue with it? I don't know I've worded it I thought it was fine but people are like it doesn't make sense what are you talking about? Compare your excitement level this time you know the Monday of fight week

going into 205 going to 217 Were you more excited for the card last year or are you more excited for this card? I don't know. I don't know what the confusion would be, but point being. Okay. What's the answer? 6,000 votes later. Yeah.

53% are more excited for USC 217. I'm sorry, less excited. Summer, I'm sorry. 53% are less excited, 47% more excited. By the way. Now, you could have said you didn't give option for a push, which would have been nice, because I think that could have been. I mean samezies?

Yeah, samezies. You know, I'm just as excited. You know, something to that. Fair enough. But people's less excited, 53%. So a little over 3,000 people less excited for 217.

I will say, though, I'm kind of surprised. I thought it would be more in favor of 205. I'm not. Really? I said it last week. I think 217 is the better card. And I think, you know,

you are losing the magic of Connor and going for those two titles, but I think top to bottom, this is a better card. And the fans, the fans who follow you are going to be the hard course.

They're going to be the hard course that know this card. I like to call them the smarts. The smarts? Yeah, they're just the smart fans. Is this like a take

of the smarks from wrestling culture? No, no, no. This is terrible. Smarts? No, we can't do that. They're just the smart fans. Come up with something better,

please. The hell wannabe nation. There we, a hundred times better. The hell wannabes have weighed in and a little bit on the favor of less excited. I would say if I think if you gave the push option, I think most people would be there. I'm just as excited about 217 as I am about 205, not significantly more, not significantly less. I think, you know, it's a big card and it's a big card in a big city.

So I'm excited about it. Okay, moving right along. First question from Luke, do you guys think that Colby Covington was influenced by his TNA friends to play this role? Essentially, do you think this is a wrestling-based gimmick? Do you think this comes from the wrestling world? Yes, but I don't think it's because of TNA. I think he was a wrestling guy long before TNA. And I think he's just stealing a playbook that has been used a billion times in territories all over the world and in promotions all over the world.

Not just in pro wrestling, but it's so cartoonish that it reminds us of pro wrestling. And that's what I was kind of alluding to earlier when we were talking about it on Rick's picks. like it's transparent. He's doing, he's playing by a, he's utilizing a playbook that's already been utilized. And that's okay. If it's entertaining and it sells and there's a hook, cool, because that's what Chale was doing too. And we all loved it. Yeah.

No, no issue with that part of it. And I think he's doing it smartly and rightly. The people who are upset that he's offent, being offensive, I, I'm not the one who's going to tell you not to be offended. People are going to be offended by what they're, but you should be able to see through this. You should be able to see what is happening here. And so we're going to ask about this.

Should more fighters be doing this? This is from Bajou. Should more fighters embrace this heel persona like Colby Covington, throwing out the name John Jones potentially doing the same? I think we're a long ways away from that, talking about that. But should more fighters be following this gameplay? Or is there kind of a limit to this? Do you want one fighter kind of doing it at one time before it gets stale?

I don't like what we try to. to like say like people should play the heel but no there's there's an interesting thing happening here with Colby because Tyron is a team member quote unquote and he's going after him and they have a history and they've trained together so that's their little story but you can't

say like oh hey Emil Mech you should be a bad guy too right everyone needs their own little story Chale had a story that he created with Anderson and that got people hooked Connor had a story that he created with Aldo and that got people hooked you know the great feuds

have stories and then we decide and they kind of decide for themselves who's the good guy who's the bad guy sometimes there's a gray area but you can't just be like a bad guy you know what I mean it doesn't work that way Chale did it

no but he did it with Anderson that's what it started after he was just a bad guy but then he just ran with it because why would he not but then he became like the good bad guy right and then he called himself the bad guy and then he was like the lovable bad guy

and he doesn't really even play it now I mean sometimes he plays it and he flips the script like when he's at MSG and he called by the way Kale Sunnan called MSG a dump. Remember? Like, at MSG.

And somebody tweeted me to say, like, I'm xenophobic for excusing Colby Covington's behavior. What about that? I would have the same reaction if Colby walked into MSG and said it was a dump. He literally said the same thing about MSG. I was standing right there. He said, this place is a dump. Yeah.

So what? Like, that's, that's... If he called us all filthy animals, sitting inside the garden, I'd have the same reaction. He starts getting specific about a certain type of people, race, culture. then it gets a little different. This is just, this is, this is playground stuff, you know. And working it to great effect.

These people are riled up. Clearly, look at that. Jimmy's are rustled. And he's fired. Did you see? And now he has like Usman calling him out and all these. Did you see that crowd on Saturday? Well, Usman is smartly riding that wave now to, to do this.

I don't think it has anything to do with Brazil. He doesn't have to defend Brazil or, or anybody who's, you know, upset about this. Look, Colby Covington is the guy of the hour right now. So it's time to, uh. And, and by the way, Cumington's playing it perfectly. Like, he should have said no. And he did.

He did it right. And you know what? He cut a promo on Woodley, right? Right. As he said no. He's focused. He knows what he's doing. The man is smart.

The man is smart. Okay. I think I know your answer to this and my answer to this from Derek. Should Colby be suspended? They did mention, you know, reviewing his comments. And then we saw the apology, the quote unquote apology right after that. No suspension. No nothing.

No. What they should be doing is, talking about that St. Louis idea. That's what they should be doing. Yeah. From Poilu, would MMA culture from five years ago survive in today's world? I think, you know, we were dealing with quite a different entity. There was a little more roughness around the edges. Could it have taken off now? So if I say, I know exactly how this will play out. If I say, like, we need to stop trying to PCMMA, people will be like, wait, aren't you the guy who said... violence thing. Right. But again, I will reiterate,

all I was saying was if I'm a promoter, I'm not the one throwing that word out. It's different from our perspective and from their perspective, right? And it's different from the fans' perspective as well. Sometimes as media, as members of the MMA community, we're like, oh, you know, this is too much.

And I think we have to remember what this is, what we are watching, what we are involved with. Nothing bad, nothing dirty, but we are involved with fighting. Like, this is fighting. You know, this is two men or women fighting in a cage, barefoot. You know, it's not basketball. It's not baseball.

And so there's certain rules that apply to this sport that don't apply to those sport and vice versa. And so I don't know if it would fly in that world or this world or whatever. But I just think, like, we, I say this a thousand times, like, all's fair and love and fight promotion. And Yawanna's saying. to rose in her face, you're mentally unstable, that's fair. You know, that, that is fair. That's fight promotion. You know what I mean?

There are lines, but there's not like a clear line. You know, again, using slurs, that stuff is, you could get your point across in different ways, as we said last week. And yeah, like, let's say your opponent's mom just died two days ago. Like, imagine Cormier went up to Jones and is like, yeah, your mom, you know, something about her being in the grave. Like, that's a lot. that's just in poor taste.

Yeah. But this, at the end of the day, it's psychological warfare. And you are literally getting into a cage with another human being and they are trying to hurt you. They are trying to damage you. They're trying to get money off of you. And so again, as I've said a million times on this program and other programs, all's fair and love and fight promotion.

That's what I believe. I don't disagree with you. I'd almost go so far as to say your example. Like, if that's what you need to get into the opponent's head, I'd go there too. Like, they're about to get locked into a cage to fight. Any mental edge they can get. Yeah. I'm kind of for it.

Now, there's universal things that you can't do. You know, there's universal no-no buttons. And if you hit one of those, then it's time to apologize. But I think there's, there's, the line is going to vary for everybody. So there's nobody who's going to please everybody or, or stay on the right side of everything. And when they're trying to push the envelope and we just have to, you know, police that. in whatever way is appropriate. Okay.

With the history... One of the things I love so much about the fight game and the fighters involved is that it's not so PC. Like, this show would be incredible... I was watching the Nix Post game. I was like, you're not saying anything. There's no personality.

And the questions suck, and they don't know... Like, they ask the worst questions. I will say the players don't get put in the right kind of position to let their personality show. I was talking to a fighter who, I won't get

too detail, but he was talking about the difference in fighters and athletes. And athletes are kind of programmed to not say anything so that they don't get in trouble, right? Just like, stick by the rules, you'll get your multi-million dollar check, you'll get your endorsements. Like, the more clean cut you are, the better. Oh, Kevin Durant

doesn't have any tattoos on his arm? Great. We love that. Remember, like, that was a big thing. People celebrated that. And the fight game, the more colorful and crazy and outlandish you are, the better, right? Yeah, there's a reward for being outlandish in our sport. Yeah, it's crazy. it's completely contrary to the,

to, you know, the Derek Jeter right, A-Rod. A-Rod, can-answer in front of a press conference thing. And if we want to lose that, there is a way to do that. No, I don't want to lose that. I would rather have that, you know, alive and well. With Darren Till's history of living in Brazil, how do you feel about Till versus Covington

as a matchup if Woodley isn't next for Colby? Still want to see Till v. Perry first. Yeah. I mean, I want to see Woodley Covington and Till Perry. All these matchups. I want to see Covington, Usman. Till Usman, Till coming in. Walter Wade is exciting, huh? It's the best.

Walter weights... It's the best. Yeah. A finish over Machita, is it time for a top five opponent for Derek Brunson? Yes. He asked you directly, were you impressed by this performance?

And you said, yeah. Yes. And I am to... I think Brunson is obviously somebody who, when you, you know, nitpick and when you really break it down, there are, you know, deficiencies and holes that you can find in his game. But that's the same of every other fighter. The resume speaks.

What he's done recently is knock out some top fighters. And I think it's time for him to get that shot. I think Brunson deserves it. By the way, was Darren Till in the control room while Perry was on? Darren Till was sitting right next to me laughing at everything Mike Perry said. I wish we cut to him. What was he saying? Was he getting fired up or was he just laughing?

Just laughing, just enjoying every moment of it. What was that like watching Perry talk about him? You know, Tetris shots, I think. That was the highlight of the time. No, he was just laughing and responding. And I think that, look, they both know what they've got there. They both know what magic could happen between those two. Okay.

What records, if any, will USC 217 break? Do you see this being a record setting card? USC 205 was a record setting card. do you see this one eclipsing any records? Do you see this one coming close to breaking any records? How do you think this fares from a historical perspective?

I meant to put out this poll as well. I meant to have a double poll this week too, but I forgot. You're really pushing it with these two polls here. Again, I know people hate this, but like I would have said, what do you think? 500 or less, 500K or less, pay-per-view.

501 to 750, 751 to a million or then a million or above. I have no idea where this is going to fall. Right now, gun to my head, I say five to six range, which isn't great, but this year it's great.

It would be number two this year. MMA paper views. What do you think? I don't have a read on this one at all. I really don't. I don't think it'll break any records, that's for sure. No, records, get out of here.

But GSP is going to ESPN tomorrow to do like the car wash. Will that resonate? I don't know. It's a phenomenal card. I just don't know what it's going to do. I really don't. You know, there's no baseball anymore come Saturday.

There's football. There's plenty of football. I just don't know. What do you think? Does it do over a million? No. Does it do under $500,000? No.

Does it do $750? I think that's probably the sweet spot right around there. I think $600. Maybe. I could see that. I don't think that that's what they were hoping for when they signed GSP again. How about this?

Well, I mean, look, you don't put him in New York. You put them in Canada. Yeah, but that's not a pay-per-view thing. It doesn't matter where he is on pay-per-view, right? No, it does. To me, it does. I think the cities matter to me. If you found out?

It's not from a perspective of, look, I'm watching every card, right? But for the person who is kind of just tuning into this, it matters more to hear the greatest champion in history, supported by the nation of Canada is returning home and he's facing his toughest challenge. That matters in the promotion to me more so than they're doing it on the bright lights of... It is freaking MSG number two.

It is pretty damn cool. Look, MSD doesn't mean that much to people outside of the city. You, I'm sure you believe it does. It's not that important. So you think him fighting in Montreal would have generated more... Now, in terms of pay-per-views slightly more,

but I think the storyline surrounding it becomes bigger. The gravitational pull of that becomes bigger, is my opinion. What is this weekend's people's main event from our friend Steve? Who's attending? Who's going to be here? Well, I did the poll, so you can't deny the people, right? The people voted unanimously in favor of... Is that what you is that what you are most highly anticipating? I mean, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to actually... cliche like picking children or something? What are you going to tell? I mean, those top three fights.

I mean, it's GSP. Come on. It's the pride of Montreal. So that's it. Four, you know what I'm saying? Okay. Fair enough. For me, Cody and TJ is the one. I mean, that is just money.

I mean, that rivalry, everything about it. We had those two fights, I can't get enough of them. We had Chris Holdsworth on to add even more to this story. There's nothing that tops that one for me. As much as I love the other two title fights. And to be honest, the rest of the card. How about when we were talking about, what were we talking about?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I was going to go back to another people's main event. We were talking about, you're criticizing the Vincente-Luke fight. You're talking about, you know, who cares? Right, right. Tente killing it now. Turned out to be fantastic.

Great win on Saturday. Look, you know, oh, it was, I was talking about 205, talking about how that fight was great, and I was anticipating Vicente-Luke at 205, and you're like, eh, but shout out to Vicente. Great, great win there. Okay.

GSP, the betting favorite. Do you find that odd after the long layoff? Or do you think that that's appropriate? You're the guy. You're the betting guy? Yeah, do I think, well, first let's verify this. I mean, let's see exactly what the line is. So I've got it at the moment, five times a betting book has it at even money.

So the question is Not a favorite But I'm surprised It's at even money To be honest Here's what I'm surprised about Everyone dismissing

Like you hear You hear Who was just on saying like Oh yeah Bisping's gonna steamroll Through GSP Cody said to Bisping He's like yeah

That's the easy fight Like no one's Is anyone going out Publicly and saying GSP's gonna win this fight It's GSP GSP! GSP!

GSP! He's like maybe one of the smartest fighters of all time. Like his fight IQ is unmatched. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. I love that fight too. I just like now that it's here on paper,

who the hell knows what's going to happen in that fight? Yeah, I find it hard to. Who's the favorite in the Cody fight? Cody? Yes. And I will tell you exactly how much. I find it hard to know one way or the other with GSP. It's been too long.

Cody minus 175, TJ plus 155. So less than 2 to 1. Unsurprisingly, the champ gets the edge there. Our next question from Dan, if Bisping beats GSP at 217, where does he rank among the greats of the sport? How about this? Let's pivot to this.

How much would it do for his legacy to beat George A.P.R. at this point in his career? People are always going to find things to nitpick about, but I do think it will be a nice feather in his cap when it's all said and done that he beat Anderson and GSP and he's the only man. To be the man to beat Anderson

and GSP is big. And you look at... I think it will help him you know, in the hardcore fan's eyes if he then beats Whitaker or whatever. Freaking Michael Bispen are you kidding me?

He's one of the most underappreciated fighters in UFC history. Like the fact that he has turned into the butt of a joke in some people's eyes, what are you talking about? The guy's literally fighting

with one eye. He's literally fighting with one eye now. You know what I mean? He's literally... Like what he did against Anderson in that fight coming back from essentially a knockout right at the buzzer or a second. I mean, it's unbelievable.

Beating Luke Rockhold, let's not forget who Luke Rockhold is on two weeks notice. Yeah, I mean, he's one of the greats. There's no denying it. And I think that would have been true even without the championship, but that really pushes it. Oh, no, the championship help. I mean, doing what he did to Rockhold was great.

Yeah, of course. I think he's one of the greats without that. His career is one you want. This is a career that you could look back on and be proud of adding the belt to that mix. And potentially, you know, we'll see how he does against George. But beating Anderson, there's no doubt about it that he goes down as one of the all-time greats. What did you mean by the butt of the joke, though? I'm truly like...

Oh, I see people, you know, joking, you know, bisping, ducking this guy, that guy. Oh, stop. The worst champion in UFC history, blah, blah, blah. Oh, stop. Okay. I didn't know. Yeah. But that's...

Oh, you don't see that all day on Twitter. All day. are making, like, he doesn't get his due. I saw the ducking stuff when it came to Romero. He's not the real champion. There was a lot of that. No, come on. That's pathetic.

Come on. If GSP wins and then goes out to defend against Whitaker, what's after that? Who are some of the other contenders? Or does he stick around in this division? Geez, we're going to jump over two fights now? Well, does he stay around at middleweight? I mean, this is a crap question, if I'm being honest.

Damn, Jordan. Yeah. I mean, we're going to skip over two fights. Look how much. happened? No, get out of here with that. I'm not doing that. Okay, sorry, Jordan. No way. Ariel's vetoing this one. Crap question. Peter, does GSP's popularity decline, let's call it decline in popularity, highlight an issue with the U.S.E's ability to retain fans, or is this normal considering his absence? Essentially, are we surprised by how few people are still

familiar with GSP? I am surprised, or I was surprised, at how not excited people were for his return, and I think the reason for that is twofold. A, there's just a lot of new fans in the last four years because of Connor and Ronda who didn't watch him. And B, I just think that they botched his return. They didn't make it into a big deal. Like, his return was essentially Dana White showing up on Sports Center and being like, yeah, GSP's back against BISB, and then we're going to have this press conference. We don't know when the fight is, and the press conference was kind of silly and BISB. Like, that's not the way you, like, remember, remember the, the, the infamous UFC 200 promo that they had with Brock at the end.

Can you see me now? Like that's like, whoa, he's back. You know? That's not like, this didn't feel special. Now, now, I'm not comparing Brock and GSP, but I just felt like a little more could have been done.

Fair, but you would expect at a certain level that GSP has achieved that that might be the icing on the king. I mean, look, if Wayne Gretzky, when Mario Lemieux, took time off because of cancer and then came back a few years later.

I don't think it was quite four, but if it would have been four, it would have been a gigantic deal. And by the way, this is a very big deal in Canada. Like people, no one has forgotten GSP in Canada. And that's, I mean, you know, that talks to what I was saying, that's where you put that. But anyway. It just so happens that there's online in our bubble, there's a lot of new fans. I'm surprised. And that's why maybe we're not listening to the other fans.

Maybe this is going to do 900,000. We'll see what happens. I am surprised. Everyone knows GSP. Jordan just sent in the facts. He just said, yo, I'm back. Let's do it.

Oh, yeah. We're in the 4 or 5. You know, it's an interesting thing about, I was talking to someone about that. And I know you can't necessarily compare the two. But people need to stop focusing on like, oh, he shouldn't be fighting for the belt. Oh, the matchup against Bisping is a fake one, whatever.

Like, again, as I've been saying from day one, GSP coming back to me is a big deal. and when Jordan sent the facts in and said I'm back no one was nitpicking like oh you're coming back on a Sunday afternoon against the Pacers oh man you should be coming back against the magic of the Knicks I mean it's a little bit different

I'm just saying the fact that he was back was the story that's the story GSP coming back that's the story and it just so happens that he's trying to make history has Cody Cody Garbrand in this case from Will done enough to start chasing money fights essentially has Cody done enough in this division

to be chasing outside? He's talked about Demetrius quite a bit. If Cody wins, I'd like to see him fight the winner of Dominic Jimmy. If there's an opportunity there, if someone's injured and the DJ thing emerges, that's cool too. But I feel like he has two options, right?

It's either that fight or that fight. The DJ fight or the... I wouldn't dismiss Dominic Jimmy, especially if Jimmy wins. I think he really deserves it. Jimmy Rivera that is. I have to admit, I do want to see him fight a few more bantam weights.

Yeah, Jimmy. Jimmy Rivera would be great. Yeah, but beyond that. Oh, for sure. I mean, yeah. You could say that about any quote quote, you know, winning the belt,

one defense and then jumping to another division always, you know, feels a little weird for me. That's fair. If Yowana from Kayla, if Yowana ties Ronda's record on Saturday, how do their legacies compare, differ?

And if she loses, is Ronda still held in higher regard? here's a question. Where do you see them legacy-wise? Is Yawanna the best female fighter? Is Rhonda still holding onto that throne? I think Ronda still has it, at least up until

Saturday, and even if she wins, they'd be tied. Rhonda fought tough competition. I think people like to pretend that she didn't. Yeah, they do. Yeah. She fought tough competition, and for the most part, like she was in no wars, right? She didn't go five

rounds with any of these people. Yowana is. Different weight classes, I know. And it's all different. But, no, I still think that Ronda deserves a lot of that credit. Until, like, Yawanna goes maybe six, seven, eight deep. But yeah, Ronda, to me is still... I think Ronda's legacy is still firm. For sure.

Okay. Habib is fighting Barbosa. And that seems to be, you know, pointing in the direction of where the lightweight strap will end up. Do we have any word on Ferguson versus McGregor? I already addressed this. What are you talking about? we talked about this. Yeah, you know I select these ahead of time.

I know, but you can't delete them. Like, you can't be like, not on the fly. Well, you can't be like, oh, he talked about this one. I already picked it. Maybe, you know, this is the after hour exclusive for other people.

Maybe you can give a sentence or two. Five hours and seven minutes in, I don't feel like repeating myself, all right? How about that? Ferguson versus McGregor, no comment from Mario. I mean, been there, done that. Scroll back.

With the success, they can't. This is exclusive. Oh, yeah. With the success of Anthony Joshua. Yes. and KSW doing stadium shows Would you like to see the U.S. MMA promotions do one and where?

But the key is you got to have the right fights, right? You don't bring, you know, they're not doing Anthony Joshua in Poland, which I don't know, it might do well in Poland, but like he's in the UK. So what is it? What is this perfect storm?

GSP in Montreal. GSP at the Big O in Montreal would have been great. GSP at the Roger Center in Toronto would have been easy. Obviously, Connor in Croke Park Anything they could do in a U.S. stadium. Oh, U.S. sorry. No, no, no.

This was asking about U.S. promotions. These are all fine answers. I'm asking you a different question, which is could any of them be done in the U.S.? Is there a potential for that? I think Connor is the only one. In Dallas, where would you do it? How do you do that?

Dallas? I don't know if I would do it in Dallas. Where do you do it? And who's the opponent? Diaz would have to be the biggest, you know, mass appeal. one. I don't know.

I guess it doesn't matter at that point, right? Giant stadium. Yeah, you could do it. New York? Yeah. Wouldn't that be cool? Well, Texas is it even called? Is it even called?

MetLife Stadium. Yeah. Fenway Park. Imagine that. Boston. Get that rush out. Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's the one.

By the way, speaking of Boston, Brett Okamoto reporting that they're going to Boston for pay-per-view on January 20th. I've confirmed this as well. You know what's interesting about that. What is interesting about that?

That's the same night as Roy versus Douglas Lima. So Belator having a great Walterway title fight on Spike, UFC going up against him on pay-per-view. That's going to be fascinating. In Boston. In Boston.

Interesting. How poor does pay-per-view performance have to be before the USC changes the business model? How is this influenced by the new TV deal? Or maybe the question is how is this going to influence? Yeah. It's still a lot of,

up in the air. Dana talked last week about Amazon. Everyone loves Amazon. Everyone wants to be on Amazon. We've talked about this. Basically, it's all in play. The number of pay-per-views, the number of shows, everything's in play. Because Fox bought X amount, and that's what they went with, and that's what they can't change until next year. But it's all in play.

So we'll see. Hopefully they've looked at the data of the last couple years and realized that too much of a certain thing isn't necessarily a good thing. long term for the product. Pretty much just address this.

Where is the best fit for the new home and TV deal for the UFC? TBD. There's a lot of suitors out there. Look, you know, maybe it's a couple of players.

You know, most sports entities are on multiple networks. Yeah. ESPN, T&T, Fox, whatever the case may be. You know, do they want to go with the future?

I wouldn't go exclusively online. I think you do have to have a presence. But yeah, I think it's all. in play. What is the dream way to end the year? Three fights for UFC 219.

Dream? Yeah. I mean, obviously it ends with Connor and against anyone. Doesn't really matter. Let's go Connor, Nate. Man, let's go Connor, Tony. Oh. I mean, just so that he, you know, that seems to be the fight people want.

That's the impression I'm getting. And then, Cyborg Home. Oh, I like that too. Um, I don't really love the three title fight thing. I think it's like, we, I mean, the roster. Barbosa's already on it. That's a damn good one. Fair enough. There it is. That would be nice. That'd be real nice.

You know, you find a way to get Till and Mike Perry on there. I don't know about that if he's fighting December 16th, but that would be awesome too. What do you think of Road FC taking a point off for a fighter missing weight? Dang. Directly affecting the competition if you miss weight. But is that the only thing they're taking away or are they also taking away? I believe there's probably a financial penalty. but how do you feel about that as a potential future measure?

If you miss weight, you will be penalized in the fight. You can still win by knockout? Let's just say it's just, this is the question taking a point. I don't think it's enough because you're still coming in there heavy. I think you need to hit someone in the pocket. Sure. I agree with that. So I don't think it's enough.

Joe Daddy, I forget, did you say you saw the baseball game or you didn't see the baseball game? Did you stay up for it? I couldn't stay up, no. I was going to, so from Joe Daddy, he said, can you compare anything in MMA to last night's drilling game five? But we didn't. I mean, I know what happened. It was incredible.

It's one of the greatest games in World Series history. This series has been one of the greatest. I mean, you don't have to really, I mean, it's a bit of a stretch there. Joe, I know you're excited because the Astros are winning. And I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't bury the Dodgers just yet. But you got to go the opposite way. Every time they keep talking about this, they keep comparing it to a heavyweight title fight.

You know what I mean? Like anytime there's a quote-unquote slug fest in sports and it goes back and forth, they compare it to a heavyweight title fight and that's a great compliment to, you know, the sweet science. And so we can lump ourselves in there as well. You know, like when there's a great sporting competition

seven-game series, they say, oh, this is a heavyweight slug fest. They're going back and forth. So I think that you need to kind of embrace the opposite way. Okay, quick hitters. Yeah, last one. Yes, we've already addressed this. That's a great one.

That's the last one. When will you stop interrupting my intro? Never. Get your own damn show if you want it to be uninterrupted. Is that a LeBron James thing? Yeah. What's in your yellow drink? Brandon wants to know.

Yeah, today I was too lazy to take off the tag. It's honest tea. There you go. There you have it. Once and for all. tea, orange mango flavor. I mean, Dunkin' Donuts, honesty. Oh, man, you know what?

I really want to one of those donuts, too. They looked so good. The Halloween flavors, you know, like the orange and the black. Today I also had Joe's pink lemonade. I mean, we got it all here today. If I had to dress up as a fighter, who would it be? Yeah, you're dressing up as a fighter. Who would it be?

Which costume? Platinum Perry. The rooster. With the tattoo of the... Perry got love, man. He does. Got love for me, I got love for him. Reebok is giving us three of the UFC

217 hoodies. Oh, I don't even know this. Yeah, this is me doing the work behind the scenes here. Cool. How much am I getting paid for this? Honest tea and Dunkin' Donuts, whatever they gave us, we're getting the same. I am going to select three questions. I'm going to pick Brandon on asking what's in the drink. Definitely pick that one. about like what would happen if GSP beats the next eight guys and then move down.

Jason, I apologize. You didn't deserve this unprovoked attack. Brandon asking what's in the drink because people want to know. Billy asking about the stadium shows and Kayla asking about Ronda and Yanna. Boom. Those are the three. Congratulations. I'll reach out on Twitter.

You're welcome. That's it. We're done. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Maybe I'll see you at the event. Maybe I won't. We could only be so lucky.

You can hit my music, Rob. It has been a fun show. Thank you very much to Toyota Tires. Whoa, coming in there hot. Coming in there hot. Thank you very much, Toyota Tires for all their support today. We appreciate that very much. Toyottyers.com slash UFC.

That's where you can learn more about our good friends over at Toyota Tires. So what a fun day it has been. In studio guests, people showing up unannounced. all kinds of action. What a fun way to kick off. UFC 217 fight week. It is here. The return of George St. Pierre. Finally. Remember, it was on this show that he came out of retirement. And it was on this show that he said, you know what? I'm a free agent. And then it was on this show after he signed the contract to fight Michael Bisping.

He came on. He talked to all of you. This is our fight, my friends. Love it, leave it, hate it, whatever the case may be, this time next week. Will George St. Pierre be the middleweight champion of the world? Wow, could you imagine that? Will Cody Garbrand still be the bantamweight champion? Will you on Jaycheck still be the strawweight champion? So much to discuss next week.

I can't wait, but we have a lot to get to this week. Wednesday, we've got the open workouts. Media Day, Thursday, we've got a press conference. Much going on here in the epicenter. And the best part about it all is that I don't have to get on a plane and cover it. This is the best part about New York, finally legalizing MMA. I want to thank everyone who stopped by today. as far as the guests are concerned.

I want to thank all our viewers at home. Appreciate you so much. Thanks for all the love. Thank you very much to Chris Holdsworth. Great stuff from him. Enlightening stuff. Good luck to him, of course, on Saturday. Thank you very much to Darren Till for stopping by.

Thank you very much to Jorge Mazvedal. Thank you very much. And congratulations, Derek Brunson. Thank you very much to Alex Elyleonic for stopping by. Thank you very much to Mark Hunt. And of course, thank you very much. And congratulations to the one and only Kobe Coffey Day. Back next week, stay time, place.

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