MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 416

Episode Date: January 9, 2018

Ariel Helwani speaks to Gunnar Nelson (00:07:36), Marlon Moraes (00:31:09), Jimmy Smith (00:49:46), Mike Perry (01:13:59), Nate Marquardt (01:37:53), Stipe Miocic (01:57:06), George Lockhart (02:13:49), Jared Gordon (02:38:51) in studio, Jimmie Rivera (03:41:36), and NewYorkRic for The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (04:18:03) and the answers to your questions (04:55:16). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665330 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the mixed martial arts hour with... The mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, January 8th, 2017. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani.

Yes, there I am. Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. It is so great to be back here doing another show on a Monday on our regular day, a regular time slot. And we're coming off a relatively quiet weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. I don't even know if I can call it relatively quiet. I think it was very

quiet. Historically, the first weekend after January 1st is a very quiet one. At least as far as North American MMA is concerned, major reason why is usually the NFL playoffs on Saturday night and the Golden

Globes on Sunday night. Next weekend, the NFL playoffs are on Saturday night. but there's a UFC event on Sunday night. A lot of people also have off in the United States on Monday of next week. We are not off, but it's a good time to have a Sunday night show. That's the UFC's first show in St. Louis. That's the event headlined by Michael Johnson versus... No, not Michael Johnson.

Michael Johnson is the guy who's trying to campaign or is saying that he's the real man event. It's Jeremy Stevens against Duhu Choi. It's actually a really good card. It's a card that hasn't received a lot of fanfare, but as far as fight night events are concerned, it's actually one of their better fight night events. So that's coming up this weekend.

Invicta's back this weekend as well. But this past weekend was a quiet one as we were getting over 219 and getting ready for the start of 2018. And then this weekend begins like a two-month stretch of events every single weekend. So things are about to get busy. Things are about to get exciting. Things are about to get interesting. There's much to discuss as always on the program.

We have a loaded show for all of you, a who's who from around the world of mixed martial arts. Let me run down today's lineup. And then we shall get to our first guest of the day. And if you're wondering why I may sound a little down on this Monday, I'm still trying to get over the loss of my beloved Buffalo Bills yesterday. In Jacksonville, it was a tough one to swallow after 18 years. But a lot to build on, a lot to be excited about.

and perhaps later I'll tell you about my experience watching the playoff game, my first playoff game in 18 years. It was an interesting one at my household. And oh, by the way, you may be noticing some new stuff here on the desk. Of course, we have the Kimbo-Sliced bobblehead right over here, which you can get January 20th at the forum in Inglewood, courtesy of Bellator. Look at this. This might be, as far as like bobbleheads are concerned, this might be one of the great bobbleheads of all time. Look at this. It's incredible. And how about that? the return of the goat. Should I do a little unbox therapy

right here, right now, on the program? Here we go, opening it up. Thank you very much. The good people at Bellator recognize that a crime occurred on this set that Mr. Fedor had been stolen.

Is this a real? This is not a real signature, is it? Is this a real signature? The other ones don't have signatures. Is this a real signature? The other ones don't have signatures. There's a signature right over there. This might be even better.

Take that, Tiffany Van Suss. Look at that. Look at that. Sweeter. Fadour. Signature. I didn't have a signature last time. Is this real?

This looks real. Wow. How about that? How about that? The four horsemen of Beltaire MMA. Right there. Boom. Take that.

How about that? Wow. I had no idea. Signature. Very exciting. What a start. to today's show, my friends. Very exciting stuff. All right. Here's the lineup. And thank you to Bellator for these wonderful little trinkets. Makes a desk look. Legendary, I would argue. Okay. Here we go. We'll start with, we'll go backwards. 5 o'clock after hour, 440, Ricks picks 420, Jimmy Rivera. A lot of drama between Jimmy Rivera and Marlon Morais. What is going on? We'll talk to Jimmy Rivera. Not only about that, but also about what happened, 219, about, getting a replacement fight and all the drama that happened as a result of losing his 219 fight

essentially six days before the event. 320, we're going to be joined in studio by Jared Flash Gordon, and he is a UFC lightweight fighter. He is returning to action on February 18th. And if you're not familiar with Jared Gordon's story yesterday, tweeted out two stories, courtesy of our own Sean Al-Shadi. This guy has one of the most amazing life stories that I've ever read. I mean, the stuff that he's been through,

the stuff that he has overcome to get to this point, nothing short of incredible. And I mean, this is straight out of a movie. It's jaw-dropping what this guy has been through. And what he's done to himself and what he's overcome. I mean, a lot of this, most of it is actually self-inflicted. But it's pretty inspiring stuff to see what he's doing now. So very excited to welcome Jared Gordon in studio at 3.20.

3 o'clock George Lockhart, nutritionist to the stars, the team that he's built, alongside Daniel Leith, also the great Tyler Minton. They're doing great work and somewhat revolutionizing this nutrition game, working with the likes of Connor McGregor and Max Holloway and Daniel Kormier and Chabeebib and Maga Madov recently. So I'm looking forward to talking to him.

That's an interesting part of the game, of course. 245, we're going to be joined by the reigning defending heavyweight champion of the world. Steeper Miochich, we are less than two weeks away now. Is it two weeks away? Yeah, it is two weeks away. Less than two weeks away. 12 days, to be exact. from a very interesting night in

MMA because not only do we have UFC 220 but also Belator and Inglewood their debut event on the Paramount Network. So that's at 245. 225, we'll talk to Nate Marquart, who sort of under the radar retired the week of 219. What a career he had,

and we'll talk to him about at 225. 205 will be joined by Mike Perry. Good to get his thoughts after his loss to Santiago Ponziabio last month in Winnipeg, where he goes from here. Everyone loves hearing from Platinum Perry 145 will be joined by Jimmy Smith, the color analyst for, well, he was the color analyst for

Belator. He's one of the best color analysts in the game. He left Belator at the end of the year. Contract ran out, did not resign, did not get a new deal that he deemed worthy enough to resign. So where is he going? What's up with him? Free agent? Is he going to sign with UFC? He's going to sign elsewhere? What's he going to do now that he's left Beltor? One of the mainstays in Bellator for the last few years from the Bjorn Rebney era to the Scott Coker era. Fantastic at his job. I'm looking forward to talking to Jimmy Smith

at 145. And at 125, the aforementioned Marlon Marius will join us to talk about his side of the Jimmy Rivera saga. What a saga it is. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and welcome in our first guest of the day, joining us from Iceland, the one and only Gunner Nelson, who we have not heard from in quite some time. There he is.

Gunny himself. Gunner, how are you? you. I'm very good. Thanks for having me. A pleasure as always. So yeah, we haven't heard much from you and I get a lot of questions about you and where you've been. So I thought it would be a good time to catch up as we turn the page here, New Year 2018. First things first, let me ask you about what happened in July in Scotland. Do you feel

like, I mean, that was a weird one. Not only was it your first knockout loss, but it was somewhat controversial with the eyepokes. Do you feel like you're over it or do you feel like you'll only really get over a fight like that once you get back in there, win, and then kind of move on with your career? Yeah, maybe you could say that you get properly over when you get through your next fight and, you know, get things going. But I feel like I've put it behind me, you know, it is what it is. And then it was a very unfortunate thing.

And, you know, it sucked in many ways, you know. But, you know, like I said, it is what it is? And then what can you do? You just move on and continue. training and improving and get back in there, you know. You're a pretty calm guy, mild-mannered guy, but to get, you know, what appeared to be eye-poked, and then that leads to, you know,

a loss that you've never kind of experienced before, a sort of loss that you've never experienced. How did you react backstage? Just, you know, disappointed, you know. I felt like I should have probably, you know, afterwards you can say all these things, you know. You should have raised the hand to the referee and told him about it, you know, because seeing Dublin fight is not ideal.

But then again, my thoughts were while I was fighting is maybe he doesn't do anything. And then your man, Ponziinibio knows that I'm half blind and or he could just punch me or, you know, as I'm raising my hand or whatever, you know. So I just didn't risk it down because, I mean, the referee tells you that. I shouldn't stop the fight. He is keeping track of these things or whatever, but I just figured that I'd recover, you know. And afterwards, of course, I was disappointed, very disappointed.

I'm just like, because I felt like this was the best me that's ever been, you know. And I was really prepared and I felt good and the camp went great and everything. And then this is the result. It's disappointing, you know. Why did you feel like this was the best you? did you do anything different leading up to the fight? No, the camp was just, yeah, the camp was awesome. I just felt really good going in.

I felt good in there for the first, whatever, seconds, you know, just, yeah, it just never been better, you know, in training and stuff, a lot of things were coming together, and I just felt like, yeah, just felt like it never been better. Did you ever experience anything like that before? Have you ever been eye-poked like that in the fight before? No, I've been kind of graced a bit. You know, it's different than that. This is like, I, like, fingers going all the way inside your eyes,

and your eyes literally just, you know, it just turns everything upside down, really. Yeah. But I've been great stuff where you just kind of, it's a little bit hard to see, but it's different. At least you have your, you know, you can judge your distance and your, where you see, death reception or something, you know, that's at least a lot better. You know, whereas this just takes everything away. and then, you know, it's different.

It's just things at the back of your head as well. Any lasting effects from the poke? Did your eye bother you for weeks after? Were there any serious injuries that came out of it? No, it was like a few days, you know, where I was like always, it was kind of like a head, you know, kind of foggy sight. Yeah, you know, like when he just woke up,

You got like that foggy side and you just have to blink a few times. It was like that for a few days. But then it was, then it got okay. Okay. Luckily. Yeah. I don't feel any different. Your team appealed afterwards.

You didn't win that appeal. Did you think that you were going to? I mean, typically these things don't usually go, you know, in the favor of the person appealing. They don't get reversed. What did you think going into that? Yeah. I mean, at first, I didn't want to do it, to be honest.

I was like, no, let's, you know, this, it is what it is. To me, it was not going to change what happened. It happened. But then, you know, I was kind of people, people started saying, you know, this and I, it shouldn't happen. And not only for yourself, but for just in general, for the future, for other fighters, when it happens, it just, you know, sets a mark, you know, and people shouldn't know about it. And it shouldn't be this way. And I was like, okay, let's do it. let's make the appeal.

But it doesn't change anything in my mind. Like, let's say I would have got through and they would have been whatever, you know, no match or no contest or whatever they get for that. What happens still happened for me. So to me it didn't matter that much. But I can definitely understand that it changes things for the sport, you know. And like for the next guy that this happens to, I would definitely say that this should not be, it shouldn't be allowed, you know, that this is cheating. It's as much cheating as it gets to me.

Do you feel like Santiago did it on purpose? Yeah, looking back at it that, I don't know, I don't know about you, but if these videos, they basically tell you that this was deliberate. You know, wow. You don't, I poke somebody like four times in the space of 90 minutes like that. And, you know, yeah, I think it was delivered. Wow. I think so. Did you, in training, did you get the sense that this is something he might do?

Do you feel like he's a dirty fighter? Like, were you aware of that type of behavior? Was that something you were looking forward to? You know, looking forward, you know, you had pinpointed, say, like, okay, you know, I have to be aware of this. no not at all and even after the fight I didn't realize I didn't like I just didn't believe that he would do it deliberately like I didn't think so afterwards even and but then seeing all the pictures looking at the videos looking at the fight in slow-mo and all that kind of stuff then I was like wow this is this looks very deliberate to me you know but in the fight you know it poked me right in the beginning

when I came in with an uppercut and you know you could couldn't really say if that was deliberate, he's pointing his fingers out, which is, you're not allowed to do that. But then when I'm against the case, and right before he knocks me down, he just comes forward with his thumb or something and just into my eye and just kind of, you know, hooks it, something. Wow. And that just looks, that just looks nasty. Wow. Wow. I guess you are really lucky that you didn't suffer any serious injuries as a result of that because I mean that's that that

you can get you know torn retina and things of that nature do you think any you know there's been talk with with eye pokes of changing the gloves making them more rounded UFC has been talking about this but nothing really happened do you feel like the gloves should be changed at all that they should be more rounded

so that you know it deters guys from fighting that way yeah definitely it would be better to have gloves that will automatically close your fist, if you relax, not open your fist. I think that will make a lot of sense. Okay. So you took a bit of a break afterwards. Did you feel like because of the knockout, did you feel like you just need a time off? I mean, as we speak right now and we'll get to what's next in a second, but you don't have a fight book just yet. Did you, was that part of the

plan to take that break after the fight always? Yeah, you know, after a break. After, you know, you get knocked down or knocked out, you need to take a break. And, you know, I didn't. really feel like I wasn't dizzy or didn't feel any aftermath after effects of this but I still know that you know it's it's smart to take a break and let your head rest and so that's what all the doctors tell you and so I did you know but I've been training for a while now so okay so you're back the break is over did you feel did you feel hesitant at all when you first got back in there because you know you never suffered anything like this before No, not really.

I started just training, you know, getting back into it. It didn't start with sparring or anything like that. So just started doing jiu-jitsu and some cardio and hitting pads and stuff. And then you just slowly get into your rhythm and then you realize things are like they used to be, you know? Do you have a fight booked yet? I do not. What do you want? If the UFC came to you and said, Gunner, what do you want next?

What's your dream scenario? Well, I had a little back and forth with Darren Till there online not too long ago, and I thought that was going to happen. Well, they haven't scheduled anything yet, but like I said to him, it looks like he's calling everyone out, and I said I'm here, and nothing is happening. I don't know. From what I understand, nothing's happening with him either. So, I mean, that's something, right?

I mean, he hasn't been booked yet either. So that would be your number one option, your top. scenario would be a fight against Darren Till. Yeah, yeah, I'd love that fight. Why? And as I've said many times, you know, he's saying that he's not getting any opponents. He's a good fighter. He's up there.

And he's online, you know, saying nobody wants to fight him or whatever. And I said, I'm ready and that's it. You know, he's ranked up there and I'm willing to fight. Have you been impressed with him as a late? I've always been willing to fight. Yeah, he's good. He's very good. Yeah.

His striking in particular, what do you think of it? Yeah, striking is obviously his main area. He's good. He's got a good sense of his range, and he uses his left hand well and pretty good kicks as well. He's a big guy. Yeah. I think that he's able to use his distance well, you know, uses his size. but yeah

I'm ready if he is Has your management expressed this to the UFC and if so what did they say back? Yeah I'm not sure it just looks like nobody is saying anything

but we said we were ready and then you know after all this kind of back and forth online I basically thought it was on basically thought it was going to happen I thought that that's how it worked I never really said anything like that online before well not that I

not that I was like calling him out particularly I just said that I'm ready but yeah I thought it was on but this we'll see what prompted that I don't care if there's somebody

somebody else in the top 10 or whatever I'm always ready I'm always ready to fight these guys so I said many times before I don't really care who it is but yeah if you say you want to fight then that's fine I always got the impression

like you strike me as one of those guys who doesn't do your own social media you're not a big social media guy is that really you tweeting when you tweet well yeah it's no it's me tweets it's me tweets

I don't really know how Twitter works but I use my I use my Instagram okay all right so that's you okay so who's actually typing the tweets yeah then tweets was me okay all right Fair enough. And what's the time frame?

When do you want to return? March, the London card? Is that what you're thinking? Or some other time frame? Yeah, I was a picture in London. We talked about Liverpool before, but that's, I guess, not happening. So, that card. So, yeah, London or wherever, you know.

Did you watch Santiago's fight against Mike Perry? Yeah, I seen most of the fight, yeah. What did you think of that fight? He poked him as well. Yeah, it was, it was okay. You weren't impressed? Yeah, he did. It was okay. It was okay.

Okay. Is that something that you'd like to experience again? Would you like to fight Santiago again? Or because you believe that he did it on purpose, do you want nothing to do with him? No, I'd definitely like to fight him again. That's the fact, you know, when I definitely like to get a second go at him. and I'll be watching my eyes definitely, but I do believe I'll beat him if we go a second time.

Because the ending was controversial and because you believe he did on purpose, why not ask for that fight again? Why not try to do an immediate rematch there? Well, I would, definitely. If that's possible, I'm in 100%. Okay. But there has been no talk of that.

No. No. No, I just picture. I don't really put rematches right away unless they're like title fights, very close title fights. You don't often see rematches. Well, in fact, this case is different because of how he won. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, there's something.

What's it like in Iceland? I've never seen. Yeah, and I know what you mean when it's not like a title fight, but when it's controversial, like there's a fight coming up on 220 with Saba Homasi. I mean, that was somewhat controversial with the way the finish. was and they're rematching it, so you never know. All right. Yeah, definitely.

That would be ideal. By the way, it's freezing here in New York. What's it like in Iceland in early January? How cold is it? Well, right now, it's pretty warm at seven degrees or five, five degrees or so. That's warm for this time of year. Celsius? Around zero.

Celsius, right? Celsius, yeah. Okay. Wow, that's not so bad. It's actually not so bad. By the way, I've seen some, you're in Iceland right now, right? Yep. We started to see some photos and some footage of your training partner,

Connor McGregor on the mats again, which is a welcome site. Are you going to train with him? Any talks of him coming to Iceland to get away? Are you going with him? What's the update there? Yeah, I'm definitely going to Dublin soon. My coach said I just got a new house and stuff. I'd be very excited to see that and visit.

and it's been a while since I've been there so I'm definitely going over there soon Connor has said that he wants to come over to Iceland soon so I guess both these things will happen in the near future this is a welcome site for you

for John Kavanaugh to have a new house because you always used to stay at his house right now you probably have a little more space at the new crib yeah a lot more space any any goats heads on on tap for the week you know i feel like this is a perfect time for that to eat that you know the wintertime warm inside any what uh goat sheephead sheephead sheephead oh um no i haven't had a sheephead in a while actually really i get one tomorrow no the

yeah i haven't had it for a few months but is that the kind of thing that... Is that like the thing that you go to the butcher and you like just eat it on the spot or do you have to actually cook it and dress it up? Yeah, you can buy it and cook it or else you can literally get it at the bus stop. Get out of here.

Go to the bus stop. Go to the bus stop. We go through and go like, I'll have sheep's head and Coke, please. So like here on the street I get a hot dog and a Coke or a pretzel, I can go there and just get a sheep's head. Yeah, at the bus stop. Wow, that's amazing.

Have you done this? Yeah, many times. How big is it? What, the bus stop or the head? The head. It's like sheep's head. You've seen sheep. Well, so you just like walk around, really?

Do you put anything on it? And you get like, you cut it. So you get half the face, right? Oh. Like that. Okay. they half

the salt and get the brain and all that kind of stuff and then they like with the like a flame I don't know what it's called

like a flame thrower thing you just burn the whole thing and then you boil it wow and do you put anything any condiments on top of it like to eat with it

yeah like ketchup or mustard or something I don't know hot sauce I guess you could yeah I never had it with ketchup or hot sauce or

we'll eat like turnip mash that's like a traditional thing to eat with it or just potatoes Okay Have you ever had the whole Sheeps

Set in water Wow But you ever Have you ever had the whole thing Or you can't That's too much Like the whole head or you Oh it's always half

Yeah You just eat two halves then You can't eat the brains You can't eat the brains You don't cook them Well they They used to. I don't think I've ever had a brain,

but they did like a brain stew or something back in a day, but I've never tried that. The ancestors used to do that. No, like my grandmother. Okay. All right. That's one of my bucket list items. You know, the last time I ever had a beer in my life was 2014 in Dublin with your father,

with Holly Nelson, the legend Holly Nelson. that's the last time I drank a beer in my life. Yeah, 2014. Last time you drank alcohol? Alcohol, period. No, alcohol, yeah. Good on it. Yeah.

Not because I'm some sort of like, you know, recovering alcoholic. I just don't really like it. But I was in Dublin. He said, you must try Guinness. And we were in the hotel and I said, all right, I'll have a Guinness with you. And so the next thing I'd like to do is have sheep's head with your father, Holly, in Iceland. Yeah, he'll definitely sort of. out. Okay. That's for sure.

Well, Gunner, good to catch up with you. Thanks for doing this. And again, I'm sorry how things turned out in July, but happy to hear you're on the comeback trail. And I know a lot of the fans in London would love to see you over there, see that card get beefed up a little bit. So, good luck getting that next fight. And of course, good luck in the next

fight. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Yes, thank you. There he is. Gunner Nelson, the one and only. A little sheep's head talk there. You can't beat it. It's a delicacy over there in in Iceland. I don't know if you've ever seen any pictures of it,

but it's, it's interesting stuff. It's, oh my God. Someone just, oh my Lord. Someone just sent me a picture. Oh my God,

this is horrendous. Someone just sent me a picture of it. Thank you very much, Synchronic. Just, oh, my dear, that is, I'm just going to retweet that for all of you.

I hope you're all eating lunch right now. that is just brutal. Wow. It really looks like a sheep's head. They don't even disguise it. They don't even disguise it. It actually looks like a charred up sheep's head. You can be waiting for the bus in Iceland and you say, you know what?

I got five minutes. Let me just run over there and grab a sheep's head. And, you know, I goke because I'm watching my figure. What in the world? I love to see Gutter Nelson just standing at the bus stop. You know, like he just woke up. He's kind of in a daze. You know what I could use right?

He said his mouth was watering. You know what I could use right now? Some sheep's head and a Coke. It's just unbelievable. Much respect to the good people over there. And that's true. The last time I had a beer was I was in Dublin for the event. And I don't like to drink when I'm on the road.

I don't like to drink, period, but I kind of have this thing about drinking on the road. Like, I don't, I don't like to let my guard down. I'm not there on vacation. I'm not there to, you know, fraternize. But I was in the lobby, and there was some kind of break. And if you don't know Gunnarleson's dead, I mean, he is a legend of M.M.A. He is a legend in Iceland. The great Holly Nelson.

In fact, I do believe he was Connor McGregor's first manager way back in the day. Just a great guy. And obviously, a great father, a great supporter. of all his son's endeavors and he said to me let's have a guinness and i said you know what when in dublin have a guinness and i had it and i must say it was very refreshing i enjoyed it very much so that'll be the next thing i'll do actually no i can't be i mean i'm looking at it again it's horrible it's really disgusting um but hey more power two if you if you like that sort of thing okay uh thank you very much to gunner nelson we'll see what happens there adamant that it was an intentional eye poke interesting

stuff. And he wants that fight against Darren Till. So a lot of people not really campaigning for that fight. He's certainly one of them. I suspect Mike Perry might be another. Let's move along now and welcome in our next guest. As I said, it's been some kind of a saga here between Jimmy Rivera and Marlon Maris. I wanted to get down to it. Figure out what's really going on. No better way than to say hello to one Marlon Maris. Bring him back on the program via the magic of Skype and figure this whole damn thing out. There he is. We just spoke to you, not that long ago, but there's a lot to discuss now. Marlin. There's a lot that's happened. How are you, my friend? Hello, I'm good, man. You okay? No, man. Yeah? Yeah. All right. Well, okay, let's start here.

Okay, Marlon. Okay, so you win. Everything's good. We had you... Just one second. Okay, okay. One second. No problem. You're listening to some music? No, I'm babysitting my son, so... Oh. A little bit too loud right there. How old's your son? Sorry, about it. He's three. He's three.

So it's just you and him? Yeah. Yeah, me, him and my wife, but now it's just me and him. Oh. You okay with that? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm 100% good. You change diapers, things like that?

Anything, man. Yeah, that's good. I like that. That's good. You're a good dad, Marlon. I could feel it. So, okay, we have a lot to discuss as far as your career is concerned. You win the fight.

then we fast forward a couple weeks. Jimmy Rivera fighting John Lineker. John Lineker pulls out. I remember it. It was on a Sunday. And then you send out a tweet saying like, okay, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Let's go. He comes back and says 138.

He comes back says 140, 14, 145. You come out and put out a video. No, no, no. We're doing this on my terms. Let me ask you this question right off the bat, Marlin. Why did you send out the initial tweet if 219 didn't work out for you? if that wasn't, you know, a good time frame for you. Man, I send out the tweet because I want to guarantee my fight, you know.

And as soon as I sent a tweet, I told Ali, hey, Ali, I'm 165 now, call the UFC. And let's guarantee this fight. Just give me six, eight weeks, you know. I'm going to be good for the end of February, beginning of March. Because who is he going to fight, you know? We all know, Cody is hurt. DJ probably going to fight Demetrius Johnson. Tomny Kruz hurt and Lennox hurt.

So, man, if you're a fighter, you want to keep fighting. And I'm there, you know, I'm right there. I just came off a good fight and I think I deserve the fight. And I call for the fight because I want the fight, you know. So you didn't, you weren't referring to 219. You just said, I want, okay, you don't have anything going on. Let me reserve my spot right now, right? Yes, we called the UFC, you know.

And then he come up with the, with Bunnaker. a bullshit and people on social media start to say a lot of stuff and I got a call and they're always saying like hey man man you got to you got to make a video and clarify that that's that was not your terms you know and I was going to a friend party and I wasn't checking to eat that was December 24th yeah yeah December 23rd I don't know I was potting eating you know I was big I was like 65 I could not make wait for Saturday I was 30 pounds over and Ali and the guy say man he said about 138 140 145 but man realistically I could not even make the 45 you know okay I could not you know I was 165 and I make the

video and I said man you know my terms you know we already reach out to the UFC if you want to make it happen just accept the fight and we're gonna fight you know and that's the only fight that makes sense you know it's it's me and him do you think that Jimmy knew you couldn't make the weight and that's why he kept moving it up just to kind of say like I 100% 100% he knew because it's a lot of talk we're in new jersey you know people talk people tell with you other stuff and everybody know I've been going to the gym watch my friends lay on the ground lift my legs hurt and just just there you know I wasn't even training I was I was I just want to eat and rest I just come off two fights and diet diet for a long

time, you know, and I want to get a little bit big with some weight, rest, my body, and I deserved it, you know. And he knew it, he knew I could not make it that way. Did you get, were you getting a lot of hate for this? Nah, man, people don't know, you know. I'm not saying people wrong, but it's okay because people think he, he want to fight me, you know, it's okay. People think I don't want to fight, but as soon as I signed with the UFC, that was the fight we look for. And he said, oh, he don't deserve, you know, I want to fight a top five guy, and I want to fight Cruz, Dominique Cruz,

a T.J. Delachal, you know, he keeps saying that, but he keeps saying that to all, every fighter. He's supposed to fight Marlon Verra, and he said, oh, this guy got daughter, his daughter have a problem, I don't want to take money away from this guy. But actually, he did, because if they had fight, he was going to give him more money, you know. That's not a reason to not fight nobody.

We all have our families. We all have our resources. responsibilities, you know. We just got to work. He had a chance to fight John Dodson back in the days. He didn't want to fight him. And man, this is important. Right after I was leaving the cage, I just fought John Dodson, and I see Sean Shelby, and I said, hey, Shelby, if Dominique Cruz hurt, I want to fight, I want to fight Jim Rivera. And he said, man, Sterling got that fight. I said, okay, I respect, I wait till my time. And next week, they announced he was going to fight John Linearke.

And I said, all right. And then they called me, hey, I have a fight for you. Do you want to fight Sterling? And I took the fight. Actually, I think he denied to fight Sterling as well. And Brian Callagher was offering to fight him. And he denied, man, if you are good, like you said, you act so tough. Just keep beating everybody.

line them up, you know, make a lot of money. And, man, if you can fight T.J. and beat T.J., the other guys are going to be all easy, you know, just go out there, knock everybody out. And then you're going to earn what you want, you know. But I don't think he's going the right way, you know. So you tweeted on Saturday a picture of the bout agreement. So you have signed that you have been offered a fight against Jimmy Rivera, right? For when? It's done. It's done. Yes. It's done for me. I'm already training, you know.

What day? training and this fight should be set. It's for UFC on Fox in January, February 24th in Florida. In Orlando. I guess he accepted to because I already signed about agreement.

Okay, so from your understanding he's accepted? Now, yes, that's no more time to talk. Now it's time to work hard, go out there and train, you know. This is what I'm going to do. Okay. I'm curious, you know, later on the program I'm going to talk to him. I don't know if he's signed.

I don't know if he's signed. Maybe something's happened in the last... He's signed. Yeah? He's signed. He's just hiding for you guys. He's going to probably make a big announcement. Oh, I'm going to fight this guy and beat him and shot his mouth.

Let's see, bro. Let's see, you know. Let's see. Why does this guy... He, like, you're such a calm guy, but, like, on Twitter, you really, you don't like this guy. Why don't you like him? I don't understand the... Can you tell me the genesis of this beef between you two?

That's such a big beef, you know? It's about what we... do, you know. I think we have the same passion. We want to be the best in the world and we are on a way of each other. We had couple training together, but I always could see on his eyes that he was always competing with me, you know. He, he, he want to be the best and I want to be the best too, you know. So let's see. February 24th, we're going to put in a show and I know I'm the best and it's just going to be a go out there and prove it, you know. I feel like all this drama has actually made the fight bigger in a way.

Like now it's even more anticipated. Do you feel that as well? And man, this guy say, oh, I beat DJ De La Chau and training and he shares a 40 second section. Man, who does it, bro? Of course he just picked his good

moments and tweets. And four years ago, man, I'm a fighter. I respect De LaSalle a lot. He's a great fighter, you know? But if I spar him five rounds or anybody else we're going to have good moments you know like you just go out there and you make your highlight

I'm hitting a punch I'm hitting a kick bro just easy you know do you think that he like one fighter I'll keep him anonymous because he told me this anonymously feels like he kind of picks and chooses his opponents too much and he tries to make it do you feel that same way 100%

100% I had I had a somebody from Brazil that told me he's supposed to fight Almeida in Brazil but deny deny keep denying

opponents deny no I want to fight TJ de la Chau I want to fight T.J. De La Chau he's not going to fight him. I'm going to fight Corey I saw Cody hitting pads yesterday and he's hitting with only one hand that guy glows bro he's all the hand

it's injury you know right I'm the healthy guy right here I can be ready for February 24th And the contract signed, UFC sending me already. He's going to sign, I know, and we're going to fight. What if he doesn't sign? What do you do? I don't know, man.

The ball is on him now, you know? Right. He make up a story like I was running away from him. And now it's true, you know, and I was on a paper. We never had a contract for those terms that he said. This is all in his mind. I don't know. He must be crazy, man.

Like eight pounds, five pounds. every time he says something about pounds, I was buying my turkey, you know. Man, I'm going to have another one. Yeah. Give me some ice cream, you know. Bro, that was out of his mind. Wow.

And how do you... I saw that the whole day I cannot make that that way. Sure. Yeah, wouldn't be healthy. Your manager and friend Ali Abdel-Ziz, who you referenced, really, he goes back and forth with him on Twitter a lot. I mean, there's some big words thrown. How do you feel about this?

Do you like this or would you rather him not get involved? Man, I don't like him to get involved. I like to him keep professional, but, bro, he gets hurt, you know, because he knows that's not true. He's the one that been fighting for this fight for me. He was trying to get the fight. He was working hard. You know, we start respectful, man. But now we got to a point that we cannot be respect with somebody that's lying, you know.

He's not telling the truth, you know. And Ali is emotional. He trains with us, you know. He knows what we suffer. He sees us catching weight. He help us catch weight. You know how hard it is. And he doesn't want nobody to talk shit about us, you know.

And I'm going to be the same. Every time I see somebody saying something about him, man, you got to know him first, you know. And that's it, man. It's mutual respect, you know. How do you feel about Jimmy's winning streak? I mean, it's one of the great winning streaks right now, 20 or so fights in a row. How do you feel about it? Is it legit in your opinion?

How many decisions? 26. Oh. So you're not impressed. A lot of decisions. Yeah, man. The local shows always, he always, and I moved to New Jersey four years ago, start training here. And I always thought he was tough watching his fights, very good fighter.

But everybody says on the backstage, oh, he always pick his fights. He always fight guys that he knows he's going to beat, you know. Until he signs with the UFC, he's going to keep picking his opponents. And he goes to the UFC. he had good fights, you know, but he beat who? He beat Marks Bramage. Who he beat? Who else?

Uri. Uri Fabor? Almeda. That's good. Faber. I fought three top tens, you know, and I never pick anyone. What about Uriah Faber? That's a top.

Your eye favor? Yeah, but man, you got, I respect you. Raya. He was one of the greatest in the Banner-O-H division, but he fought him, like, he was in the end of his career you know yeah yeah yeah if he had fought

Uriah Yuraya five years ago that was different different ball game have you ever felt this way about an opponent going into a fight this fired up

excited just excited to go out there put in a show and show who's the best you know I know I'm the best I can get ready to be the best

and go out there and show this guy what I'm made of you know I'm not bomb. I don't pick opponents. I'm not scared to lose. Not a little bit, man. I'm in a sport. Sport, you win and you lose, but you got to try to prove yourself against the best. Speaking of the best, how about your coaches, Mark Henry and Ricardo Almeda, MMA Hour

Coaches of the Year? You see that? What an honor. You see that last week? Big time. That was nice, man. That was nice. These guys are good people, man. They're good guys. They care about who trained with them and I think they have such a long career as a coach together. They make a good blend and they had a history and I think they deserve it. Is Frankie back to training by the way? Yes, yes. He's training. We're all training.

He's excited waiting for the date, you know. Frankie want to get the belt and it's just a matter of time. We all training. Even Edson's already training, you know. he's coming off a hard fight with Khabi, but he's going to be back. He's a warrior. And Eddie, Eddie wasn't a gym today.

Always good mood, you know, very positive. And he said some surprises come going to come soon, you know. Oh, wow. What kind of surprise? Big fan of this guy. Big fan, man. I'm a big fan. I love to go to the gym like today and walk in the gym

and see these guys working with everybody like the same, you know? That's no difference. White belt. black belt, young guys, old guys, everybody on a mix together. Ali texting me in the middle of the interview. He gets very fired up, Ali, uh? He's very, he's mad, he's mad at me.

If he's going to text me on the show, I'm going to put it. He's mad at me that Jimmy's coming on after you. Are you mad about this? Man, I'm not even a little bit mad. Can you tell him to calm down? He's not, he has no answer. The only answer he's going to have today. Yeah, yeah.

Show the ballot agreement, sign and that's it. I'll ask him. We're not going to talk. We're going to. fight. I'll ask him. Why not? Yeah.

I mean, it's right there. You put it out there. That's a fight everybody want to watch. I agree. We want to wait six months to see me or him fighting. Man, the fans don't want to wait.

The fans just want to see this happen, you know? Let's go, man. Let's work hard and let's go fight. This little feud, whatever you want to call it right now in the Bantamate Division has been a godsend. Like, it's very rare at one

35 where guys who aren't fighting for the belt, there's like a fight that people really want to see that people have been talking about for months now. So I think you and Jimmy deserve a lot of credit for this. Like you've actually built it into a fight that people really want to see. This is a fight that feels like it's now a year in the making or something like that. So good job on your part. No, man. I'm just doing my thing. I'm just working hard.

I want to fight and fight with the best. My opinion, he's one of the best right there. he's on the top, but I know I can beat him, you know. It's just a matter to go out there, ready, and do the work, you know, get the job done. Last thing, do you think that if you beat Jimmy, hopefully, you know, for your sake and everyone's sake, it happens sooner rather than later in February, do you think that then you'll deserve a title shot? Do you think you'll get it then, or do you feel like it's going to get a bit clogged up now with TJ maybe going down to 125? I'm not going to keep pushing for anything, whatever the UFC wants, you know. I don't pick fights.

The UFC pick fights, you know. I work hard and they know I'm not going to say no, you know. Okay. Well, I hope you get the fight and I'd love to see it. You've done a great job of promoting it. So kudos to you, my man. Thank you very much for the time, Marlon. And now you can get back to your son.

Thank you, really. And can you tell Ali to calm down? I mean, really, geez, the text during the interview. What's going on with this guy? It's that Egyptian blood. The Egyptian blood. He gets all crazy. He gets a more.

He gets emotional, man. He tells me last week, I'm not watching your show anymore, da-da-da. I said, yeah, right. And then he's still watching it two hours later. He's my biggest fan. He loves you. He loves you, man. I love him too.

My friends and family, they always say, you fight with the people you love, you know. That's right. That's right. He fights you. He loves you. Thank you, Marlon. Good luck to you. See you, man.

All right. Bye, man. There he is. Marlon Marais. It is quite the interesting saga. We'll see what happens. We'll hear from Jimmy later on in the program. Marlon was booked first.

Then the thing happened with the contract. So I had to add him to the end of the show. What do you want me to do? I mean, look, there's an A side, there's a B side. There's a blue corner. There's a red corner. You got to go based on the rankings. I don't know.

Can we just calm down? Everyone just needs to calm down. So we'll see what happens. This is what we're all about. Both sides of the story, right? We want to get both sides of the story here. So we'll see what happens. It's a fight that a lot of people,

want to see. It's a fight that, you know, I think is maybe the most interesting fight at 135, not including title fights, right? Because those are always the most interesting, usually. So let's see what happens. Marmarized Jimmy Rivera. We'll hear from Jimmy later on in the program. Speaking of Jimmy, let's talk to another Jimmy here. Some big news late last year, like the last couple days of 2017, we got word that Jimmy Smith, the color analyst for Beltaire MMA, one of the great color analysts in MMA period, a mainstay from the Bjorn Rebney era to the Scott Coker era,

was leaving. Just like that. No new contract? He was done. Didn't even get to say goodbye on the air. I suspect we'll hear him on the air sooner rather than later, but a lot of people were fired up about this, wanted to hear more about it. So very excited to say hello

once again to Jimmy Smith. He's joining us on the phone. Jimmy, are you there? I am here, man. Appreciate you. the very recognizable voice of one Jimmy Smith. It's great to have you on the program, Jimmy. So, okay, let's start. When did you find out that you were no longer going to be a part of Belator's future plans?

Well, it was a process. I mean, a lot of people, you know, don't understand it. It had been a long time coming and that I was informed, God, what was it? October that they wouldn't pick up my contract for next year. They wanted a different contract. They wanted a new one. and we worked out some turns over the next few months,

and it just didn't work. I mean, the changes they wanted to make I didn't like. And so formally it ended, I think, the day after Christmas is when we let them know I wouldn't be back. And so it was a long process. It wasn't, you know, I got a phone call in the morning that I wasn't going to be around next year. Like I said, I was informed in October that they wouldn't pick up my contract and they wanted a new one. And so it was a long time coming. Was your contract said to expire or were they,

trying to restructure the deal or something in the midst of a contract? It was set to expire at the end of the year, but they had an option. They could have picked up in 2018 and they elected not to. Okay. So it was a combination of things. I had a four-year deal with a one-year option. And the four-year deal was up at the end of 2017. They could have just said, okay, we're going to keep you 2018.

And they said, ah, we don't want to do that. We want to change some things. And so I didn't like the changes. And so we spent a couple months working on it and just couldn't come to an agreement. and that was it. What kind of changes are we talking about? Can you, can you elaborate? I can't elaborate that much.

I just, you know, I, you know, the way I told Joe is, you know, when they come to you for changes, they're not good, you know? So they came to me for changes. And so they didn't like the contract already had. And if it wasn't going to, you know, if it wasn't going to come up to the standards I had set for 2018 previously, you know, for the contract option already had, to me, it wasn't worth doing, and they weren't willing to get to those standards to me. So that was it. If we were to spoken this time last year, so you're about to embark on the last year before the

option, did you foresee this? Was this on your rate? Did you think that, okay, you know, they might come back with something I'm not happy. Like, this could be my last year, or did you think, no, I've been here for, you know, X amount of years. It's been great. I've been a big part of the company. I'm their guy. I'm their main guy. We'll figure something out. Like, what were you seeing on the wall. Like, was the writing there, or did this kind of come at you a bit of a surprise? I was one of the few that did. It was really strange. A lot of us were in the same boat in Bellator, our contacts up at the end of the year, you know, you never know who's coming back and all these things. And I would always hear like, oh, man, you know, you're going to be fine. You know,

of course they're going to, you know, I have this problem, but, you know, Jimmy, you're going to be great. And I kept saying, you know, you never know. You never know. When you're dealing with a structure where it's, they have X to work with and that's it. I'm not an exception to that rule. And so, you know, every plan I had made for my future kind of started, you know, obviously January 2019. And as the year was progressing, I started, you know, I just started thinking, maybe not.

Maybe I better be ready for January 2018, you know. So, you know, I had suspected, but you weren't sure. It was certainly something that I thought was a possibility. That's the best way to put it. And so other people have left as well? No, not necessarily, but, but, you know, a lot of us are in the same boat on the production side. Okay. So, you know, people in the truck, tape people, directors, you know, they all start, a lot of them start negotiating, you know, middle of the, of the middle of the fall for the end of the year.

And so a lot of people are talking about, you know, privately about, and how their, their deal is going. And like I said, the feedback was all, of course they're going to, of course you're going to be around. And I said, you know what? Nobody's immune to the realities of a promotion. Nobody's immune to it. Doesn't matter how long you've been around. Doesn't matter what you've done. There are certain realities. Everybody's under the same rules, in a sense.

They offered you something, though, right? I mean, like you had something to consider, right? Okay. Was it like a complete slap in the face where it was like an easy call or did you actually agonize over this? No. It wasn't a slap in the face. Belator really made a good face.

effort to keep me. They really did everything they could. I truly believe that. Um, you know, it's never an easy call because of the people you've worked with and the people you've gotten to know and the relationships you've formed and they're great guys over in Belator. It wasn't easy, but you know, I don't step back. I don't step down. I don't, I don't go, well, you know, this is, you know, if I felt it was time for a change and a move because of that in a sense. Like Like I said, if it doesn't come up with the standards of the option already had, you know what, I'm going to take a risk. I'm going to take a jump. I'm going to test out free agency.

You know, free agency cuts both ways. And I decided to give it a shot rather than step back or take a contract that wasn't up to what I thought. You know, or the contract I originally had, not even what I thought, but the contract I originally had. So I just wasn't going to do that. Did they explain why they offered a step back? I mean, you're very popular. Like I said, a mainstay. What was the rationale?

Here's what we got. Okay. Here's what, you know, in a sense, it's not, you're dealing with, you know, an entity in Bellator and Viacom, there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And, you know, people always, it's so funny, people always in the mainstream media say like, oh, you know, they got Viacom money. Viacom has billions of dollars. Viacom has this, this, this, and that. Viacom has a lot of properties. Yeah.

But, you know, Bellator is one show on one network. And the idea that the people running that go, yeah, but I. really like Jimmy Smith, that's an MMA. And they have a lot more businesses than MMA. So the one thing about, you know, you talk about ZUFA, all ZUFA does is make the UFC better. That's all they care about. That's all they wake up and think about. Viacom doesn't work that way. You know, they have a lot of properties, a lot of things. A lot of times it's, look, we're giving you X to make the show and that's it. So, you know, a lot of times the emotional side of what I've done for MMA or what I've done for Pellator and this, hey, I'm one show on one network. So the intensity that an MMA fan would have, you know, VACR is a big, big corporation. So, you know, you get caught up in that kind of structure. And as much as you would want to keep me or this, this and that, you have X to work with and that's it.

And I understand and know that's part of the business. The last Belator show of 2017 was on December 15th, the show in Newcastle. Did you know then that that was going to be your last show? I thought it might be. And that was tough. Yeah, what was that like? It was hard because you're in the middle of a negotiation

and I had had a pretty good idea at this point how far things were going to go and what was going to work and what wasn't, but you can't say that. You can't, you know, we're in the middle of an act of negotiation. And I can't tell everybody, you know, look, I might not be around past December 31st. So it was hard because, you know,

everyone's saying goodbye to you and going, hey man I'll see you January 20th you're going yeah I'll see you January 20th you know it's it was it was tough because you're in the middle of negotiation so it still could have worked out but I had a strong feeling it wouldn't but I can't really I can't say that so yeah I was tough it was really hard yeah so it sounds like a lot of the people didn't

I'm sure some people did was it awkward was it hard to do the job till the end was it strange at all because sometimes you know negotiations no okay not at all doing the doing the actual job, I love. I mean, I love doing this. I think I have, you know, the best job in the world. I'm thrilled to do it. Everybody, I work with is great. Doing the job itself wasn't difficult. And, and once again, you got to remember, I have management. I have representation. My manager and, you know, and he's doing all that stuff. So I'm not sitting down with these people arguing and yelling and then, you know, doing a show. That's why you have a manager, so I don't have to do that. So I wasn't actively involved in the

So I could sit across from the person doing the negotiation with my manager, and we're fine, because I'm not calling the guy, arguing. That's not what I do. So in terms of the actual work, everything was totally professional, totally great, had a great time, which is one of the things that, you know, made it hard to kind of keep that inside. It was tough. Sometimes in these cases, like there's a famous one with Bill Simmons of ESPN. He found out via the media that they weren't going to pick up his contract that he was done. I know that Beltaur put out this release on. I think it was December 27th, if my memory serves me correct. Did you find out through the media or did you know beforehand that they were going to do this and that, you know, you guys were parting ways? We let them know. Oh, okay. You said, okay, so this wasn't a surprise.

Yeah, so, yeah, people had a little reversed. We had done a negotiation and the day after Christmas is when my manager said, look, you know, that offer's not good enough. You know, Jimmy's not going to be around. They went, okay, well, we're going to make a press release, give us a quote. and so it was a very amicable it was very you know they they called me and went hey you know we're really sorry it didn't work out all this i mean it wasn't i wasn't blindsided they were totally professional they were totally friendly um my boss called me next day and and you know we talked about it

and it was it was in no way was i blindsided it was an amicable split it was it was it was tough but they were great all the way around so i wasn't blindsided and and and all those guys have my most respect 100%. so no hard feelings. None at all. I mean, they were great about it. You know, they would come back to me and it's like, look, we're not going to release this press release

if you don't think it's worded well. They let me like, you know, they send it to me and my manager and go, if you have any problem with the wording, let us know. And, I mean, they were just, they were great about it. So it wasn't a,

it wasn't bitter at all. I mean, they're great guys. The reaction, when this news came out, a lot of people, I think, were upset, surprised. I know Wish You Well It was very cool on your Twitter feed To see a lot of the fighters

Who said they'd miss you Because I mean to have them You know you're calling their fights What I've always appreciated by you And I think I told you this You know you always kind of call it down the middle Even though there's a star That maybe they want to push

Like you tell it like it is I remember with Anastasia Yankova You were very hard on her For continuing to miss weight Things of that nature What was it like to start You know once that came out To see the flood of reaction tweets

Things like that to your departure sure. You bittersweet, I guess the best way to put it, because I mean, some of those fighters are great, you get to know them, you spend a lot of time with them, and then, you know, they miss you and you miss them, and it's tough. It's a, it's a break, you know, it's like a breakup kind of. And so the outpouring of support, man, I really appreciated it. And especially from the fans and the fighters, because the structure I was in in Bellator,

or everyone above me, they're not necessarily fight people. You know, they're TV people or their, you know, the executives, or Viacomacom Spike. They don't know fighting

like the fighters no fighting. They don't know fighters like the fans know fighting. So the fans and the fighters themselves are the ones that keep you honest or the ones that, that when they go,

man, you know, I really appreciated that call, they know what you mean. You know, my producers and everybody, they're great TV people, but they don't know the fight side of the business. But the fighters and the fans do. So hearing back,

from them was a huge deal for me. It was, like I said, bittersweet. I really appreciated it, but it was a tough couple of days. Do you have a new home yet? A new TV home? Not yet. Not yet. But you emphasized yet. Yet, not yet. Well, you know, it wasn't, uh, there were a lot of offers on the table once, you know, because they, they'd let me become a free agent and start negotiating four months ago. I mean, October was, oh, okay. We're not for a new year. contract. So when they let me know, when I can renew your contract, you, you are free to talk to anybody you want. And so, okay, so, you know, I call my manager and he goes, well, everybody's calling me back. It wasn't, it wasn't that hard. So, yeah, I, you know, I went through

quite a bit of my manager earning his money and calling and talking to everybody. And, you know, so I think I will have a new home very soon. Okay. That was actually my next question. How, how soon is soon and can you work right away or is there like a non-compete? Nothing at all like that. I can work immediately. There's no non-compete at all. So, yeah, hopefully, yes, you'll be very, very soon. Won't beat around the bush I reported. I know there's interest from the UFC. I would be surprised if there wasn't interested on your part. In fact, you were on Joe Rogan's podcast last week and he gave you, you know, raving review and a great endorsement. Are you

going to the UFC? We will see. Things are in the works. That's all I safe. Oh, wow. This is exciting. Okay, okay. How soon do you think we'll find out? Like, tomorrow, next week, next month, what do you think? I would say within the week. Wow. Wow. Wow, this is exciting. Now, when you spoke to your agent, when this all came down, I'm sure you had a discussion with him, like, okay, what do you want? Your goals?

Where do you want to be? Is it fair to say that at the top of the list was the UFC? I mean, in our space, basically, you know, it's being a commentator is like being a fighter. It's in the United States, UFC, Bellator, have a day job. Yeah. You can't fight. Yeah. You know, it can't be your only gig. If you're not in Belator with UFC, if you're fighting for another organization, you'll fight.

You know, maybe you'll make some money, but you better have something else on the side. It's no different as a commentator. where it's Bellator, UFC, or a combination of things. Now remember I had done boxing for PBC when it was on Spike 2, so a lot of boxing promotions

saw my work and were very, very impressed. But it's UFC Bellator, then it's mix and match. You know what I mean? Then it's okay, we need boxing and this and this and that and then you'll add up to a nice salary and a good year.

But in terms of a place to land in mixed martial arts, it's Bellator, UFC, or a non-exclusive four or five organization deal. Because, you know, there just isn't enough work in anything other than the UFC or Bellator in terms of MMA. So that's the best way to put it. That was our mentality was just like a fighter. If you're not in Belator, you've got to have two or three things in order to make it work. Okay, so I'm assuming, I mean, you were Belator's main color analysts.

You were at all the shows, no matter where they were, you know, three, in a row overseas, whatever the case may be. I'm assuming you didn't have another job, right? I mean, that took up all your time, correct? All of my time, it took up everything, because, you know, like the what-to-watch pieces and here's what's coming up and this, this and that. That's all me.

I mean, they would call me and go, we need you in a studio in L.A. tomorrow to do X, Y, MZ. Okay, got it. We need you this to do this. Okay, got it. No problem. You're flying out to this show next week. Okay, got it.

I was there a guy. anytime they want to do anything I was there, and that was it. And so I'm used to that kind of structure of, you know, whatever you need me for, you call me and you'll know I can do it. And so that was what I was for Beltor for, God, nine years. It was anything they needed. They didn't have to worry about somebody being able to do it. That was me.

So here's my follow-up. As you know, let's just say you end up in the UFC. They have a pretty solid roster of color analysts. It starts with Joe Rogan and then you have Cormier and Dominic Cruz and Dan Hardy and Paul Feldar coming up, etc. I mean, unless there's something, and correct me if I'm wrong,

that you're going to be at every show, I assume you won't do as many shows in 2018. Do you, even if you go to the UFC, do you need another job? No, because the way I see it, I do a lot of stuff and they do a lot of programming. One of the things you look at you look at UFC is it's, they do stand-up stuff on Fox.

Welcome to, welcome to this show about next week's fight. Welcome to this feature piece about this fighter. They do a lot of programming. When you sit there and you, you know, if you search UFC on your, on your TV, a ton of stuff comes up. They do a ton of stuff. And I have history and experience and background in all of that stuff. So it doesn't particularly worry me.

It doesn't particularly concern me. They're doing a lot of free man boot stuff. Yeah, okay. know, getting the airtime wouldn't really be a consideration I would have should I go there. Just curious, you know, hardcore fans will know that, you know, many moons ago you fought. Did you ever have any contact with the UFC? Like if you end up in the UFC, would this be, you know, your first time? Of course, you never joined forces with them, but pretty cool.

Basically what I'm getting at is typically the UFC stays in-house. You look at all the broadcasters, all in-house guys. I love the fact that potentially someone could be coming out of house. I think it just gives more credibility to the broadcast. And I'm wondering if you had any conversations, is this your first time having a cup of coffee with them? Or did you ever talk to them back in your fighting days? Or maybe even broadcasting days in the past as well?

In my broadcasting days, Joe made allusion to it on his show. This is not the first time I've been kind of in-between contracts with Belvoir. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Every time it happened, the UFC has been interested. So this isn't my first time dealing with UFC as an entity, and negotiations. It's not my first time at all. I mean, God, when was it?

You know, before this contract I was in, four years ago, you know, they were one of the players in those negotiations. And that's, so there is an ongoing relationship in terms of, I've been on their radar for a long time, and it's not like, you know, I had to introduce myself. I mean, they know the deal. I mean, every combat organization we spoke to during this period, my manager didn't have to go,

didn't have explained who I was. Exactly. You know, boxing and MMA and kickboxing. They all went, oh yeah, Jimmy, great, yeah, you know. Right, and that is well deserved. I don't have to do introductions. Yeah, exactly. I didn't have to do introductions anymore.

Does it bother you when people compare you to Joe? You know, it's funny. It doesn't. The only thing that gets me that I never seem to understand is, yeah, of course, we look similar. We're bald white guys. But what's funny to me is, is do they think that when people say that I'm trying to be Joe, how does one even do that?

I get so confused about like, do they think I stand in front of the TV and, you know, try to emulate Joe? I don't think we call fights very similar. I think we have a slightly different style of commentating fights. But that's what's so funny to me is the people that assume I like, what I automatically emulate the guy. No, that doesn't ever occur to me to sound like anybody but me. I wouldn't even know how to do that. That's the only part that I find kind of amusing.

People go, man, he looked like Joe. I was like, yeah, well, we didn't until he shaved his head. Yeah. And he looked like me. It's funny. I told him, I was like, the moment you shaved me head, because when I watch old UFC, when I'm studying something, I watch an old UFC, when he had hair, we don't look that similar.

When he was on news radio, nobody compared me to him or thought I looked like him. And as soon as he shaved his head, I was like, oh, my God, this is going to suck. And I knew immediately what was going to happen. And so we kind of laughed about that when we see each other. Like, thanks, dude, thanks. Appreciate that. Because I saved my head first, but you went and did it and everything because I'm trying to copy you. Two last quick things.

Your first Bell Tour event, do you remember the number or the date? Which one it was? It was April 2009, I believe. And it was Roger Huerta's debut in Bellator. He took on a guy, Chad Hinton, if I remember, correctly and it was the start of the 145 pound tournament Georgie Karanian beat Balquatch, Joe Warren beat Eric

some I'm afraid of his name now but it was it was the 145 pound tournament and was in Hollywood Florida I remember all those details yeah okay just like it was yesterday well you know it's my job to remember that kind of yeah yeah um yeah was was uh was it was heck no not hector Lombard where I'm trying to find it here I can't. I didn't fight that night.

Okay, but you're sure it was April of 2009? April 2009. Okay. Favorite moment? Doesn't have to be a fight? Is there one moment that sticks out being Caged side calling all those fights? Man, there are a million moments that stand out. I mean, God, there are a million.

I mean, there's a whole career worth of them. Yeah. Not one that sticks out. I mean, it's so many stick out that it's hard to even think of one, you know. But I remember our first, we first transitioned to spike. We did a show in Irvine, California. And it was Pitbull. He took on Pat Kern, and then we had Chandler defending his title against Rick Hahn.

And that was a big one. That was kind of a big coming out moment for everybody. And the energy in that building and the energy, Cateside, it was really incredible. But the best fight I ever called for sure has to be Eddie Albra as Michael Chandler won. I remember just being like just stunned at A, how good that fight was and B, how much Michael Chanler surprised everyone with his performance. And it was bloody. It was amazing. It's why you watch MMA.

And I think Cade side as a fight, that one stands up the most. You don't need me to tell you this. You are phenomenal at your job. I'm happy to see that something is coming down the pipeline here, and hopefully it's with the top organization. I'm really happy that we're able to speak on this particular week because I do believe we had a mutual friend, and I think he may have been even instrumental in getting you in Belator.

The late Adam Geller last week was the anniversary of his passing, and he always spoke every time I'm sitting talking to him. he was the biggest MMA fan, always spoke very highly of you and was really proud of your success. And I'm sure, you know, whatever's next, he'll be proud of you as well.

So, you know, I thought it was fitting that we'd be talking this week just a couple of days removed from the anniversary of his passing. Adam is the reason I'm in Bellator. That's amazing.

Thank you, Jimmy. He told Bjorn about me and wouldn't shut up. And you know, Adam, when he talked about M.MA, he didn't shut up. And he was the reason I am where I am. He's a reason I got the gig.

and I'll always be grateful to him. Thank you, Jimmy. All the best, you, my man. Congrats on a great career thus far. Looking forward to what's next. And maybe early congratulations on a deal that is about to be finalized. I appreciate you doing this very much.

Thank you. Thank you, man. Appreciate it, buddy. All right, there he is. Jimmy Smith. Some news will we find out this week? Sounds like the UFC. I know there's interest

would be a nice addition to their already All-Star stable of color analysts. All right, let's move along. one of our favorite guests in the history of the program. You've seen him now immortalized. The animated tales of the M.MA hour is the one and only the incomparable Platinum Perry. Mike Perry, he joins us right now via The Magic of Skype.

There he is, the one and only Mike Perry. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. Hey, that was a hell of an introduction. I was trying to keep my mad face in the side over there, but you gave me a hell of an introduction. I appreciate that. You're the man. I'm doing great.

Happy New Year, happy holidays. Yes, you too, man. Happy New Year. God bless. And blessings from whatever entity may bless you. Yes, amen. How would you describe this holiday season? Because the year ended a little, you know, I don't know, it was a difficult way for you?

Did it kind of sour your holiday season? Was there a cloud? How would you describe it? It was a little gray. Yeah. You know what I mean? A little more gray. But, you know, Dan,

Damn, December is apparently a tough month for me. At the end of the year, that third fight, you know, it happened twice in a row. I thought for sure I was going to redeem myself this December. And, you know, I just let a lot of people down with a little bit of carelessness maybe. And, you know, I try to fight carelessness a little bit. that sometimes works in my favor. And what can I say, you know, performers slip and fall. It happens.

And when it happens in a, you know, I'm not saying I slip and fall, but his back fist kind of helps me slip and fall in that third round. So that's the way I see it. I really see positivity out of my performance. It showed my capabilities, but still not my best. I know I can do better. I know I can be better than that.

It's whether people are going to get behind me or not. I believe that, you know, I mean, this is fighting. Guys in the business of the UFC know fighting. They know a real one when they see one. You know, I see the Kimball's Slice bobblehead you got on your desk there. I was thinking about him the other day. How much respect you got from a lot of fighters in the world. because he was a real fighter, he trained,

and, you know, he just loved to put on a show and try to knock somebody out. And, you know, I'm a lot like that. I watch Kimball a lot. I got a lot from him. And those other fighters up there on that desk, too. So I'm ready to perform better, man, every time. And there's big things coming.

You already know. It was interesting that you said, you know, I let a lot of people down. Why do you feel that way? Why do you feel like you let people down based off your performance? I was in interviews and I was like, me, you got to get behind me. You know what I mean?

USA, I'm here. And I'm ready to show the world that we're, well, I guess what I showed was, you know, we're tough and gritty. And, you know, you don't intimidate us. It doesn't matter. But apparently I was vulnerable to that leg kick. And, you know, I still had some things we had to work on. And I just didn't come away with the W. You know what I mean?

I let people down. I know people put money on me too, and I let people down. And I let myself down. And I'm ready to make up for that. You know what I mean? I take anything, but we already got something coming. And, you know, I can't say a name. I don't know if he signed his bout agreement, but I signed a bout agreement today.

Oh. And I get to put on the show. What's that? Oh, I said, oh. Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I thought you said something. But I signed one today, so we'll see if he signs his, and I'm ready to perform, and it's next, you know, it's next month.

Next, is it in Orlando? I'm supposed to fight in Orlando for my home city, where I'm at, where I'm living, you know. And I'm going to, on Fight Week, I'm going to be at my house. I mean, I've done that before in another organization. Yeah. Stayed at my house before I went out and fought that day. I remember what that felt like. And I'm going to get to see a lot of faces.

There's going to be a lot of energy, a lot of power in the air. And I'm going to get a hold of that. And I'm not going to fail this time. I mean, how hard did I fail last time? I thought that I said, when I fail, I'm going to fail big because I just talked all this trash and da-da-da-da-da. But it's like I've been talking a lot about that with a lot of people. You know, you were asking about the end of the year.

Of course, I've been having conversations about this loss with a lot of people. And, you know, I don't really view it as a loss all the time. I thought I fought my ass off and I slipped. You know what I mean? He hit me, but I was on one leg and I went down. third round, it blew my air out, I guess. Whatever, but in talking about the fight, you know, I'm not even ranked. Trying to get there, the guy had double fights like, guys, these are all excuses.

This is all positive things, ways to look at it. But the only light is to get in the gym and work my ass off, especially for the next month. Cardio is going to be A1. and I mean I'm going to be able to put on that pressure for five rounds instead of three for sure I'll be ready oh wait a second are you the main event no I doubt that okay I can't be an event because Alan Joe Bann's on the card and well the one yeah yeah you know whatever so you said you sound about agreement for next month maybe Orlando maybe not that's where you're from it would make a lot of sense who who's the fight against though like the one the battle greenie that you sign who's the opponent? Well, you know, you know they always send me on here where I'm not allowed to like, you know. What the, geez. But I mean, I know, right?

No one's watching. I mean, what's that? No one's watching this. Yes. So really, it is, you know, it's a guy at the athlete retreat in Las Vegas. He beat me in Cornhole. And I'm pretty good. Cornhole. It was me and my girl versus him and somebody.

Cornhole? He was like, we're going to fight. And, you know, and not in that ugly voice. See, that's what I was talking about. I do, the intimidation stuff that I do, where I get real aggressive with people. What I'm doing is I'm thinking in my head that this person did me wrong or they said something negative to my mom or my sister or,

or they broke into my house or they stole my car and I found them. You know what I mean? Like I'm just thinking of why we might be fighting in real life if I was going to fight somebody and why would I do it?

I don't know. Maybe I need to think more competitive that I just thought, you know, I am pretty competitive. I'm trying not to lose, but I got to come up with the win at the end of the day. And,

um, this guy has fought Kobe Covington Hmm Okay What's Cornhole by the way What's Cornhole? I've never played cornhole

Really cornhole is like You get these bags full of corn These little They're like Hackingack bags But they're bigger They fit your whole hand And not all the bags Have corn in them

But the reason the name Cornhole I guess came up Is because the original bags Had corn in them Okay And then you throw it, I think it's like 27 feet. You throw the bag onto a wooden platform and it can slide up. And there's a hole in the top of that wooden platform.

It's three points in the hole. It's one point on the board. And you're going against your opponent is right next to you. So there's two of these wooden platforms like this laid out. And you got a person here and a person on the other side of the woods on each side. And these two are on teams and these two are on teams. And then when these two are going, they're throwing at the same board, points cancel each other out.

So if you got two on the board and one in the hole, but your opponent got one in the hole, you only got two points instead of five. Oh, okay. So just based on the way you're describing the game, Damien Maya doesn't strike me as a big cornhole guy. Neither does Dung Young Kim. Neither does Vorley Alves.

You know who does? This man. This man right here. This man. Bam, bam. Bam, bam. Bam, lunchbox. Is that it?

Is that Carlson? He didn't fight Kobe Covington. That's Brian Barbarina. Oh, Brian Barbarina. I could not see it. Okay, I see it. Now, he looked. That guy on that lunchbox looks like he has more muscles than Brian Barbarina.

well you know they kind of altered it a little bit you need this Brian Barbaran have any physical attributes you know who he is right yes I know who Brian Barberian is I believe so is I can't think exactly of who he's fought he had a couple of fights

he fought Kobe Covington I can't think he did but it's the name on the paper was another person Bob Kobe Hoveington. Oh, for real? I did all that for nothing. You wouldn't be lying to me, would you?

I'm not lying. I'm not lying. I thought I had a big, like, reveal. Okay. Mike Pyle? I'm sorry. It's not Mike Pyle, is it? No.

Oh, so maybe it is Damien Maia. Pobie Covey doesn't have any fights. He's like... Yeah, I know. I kind of went down the whole list. Have you... Have you... Have you watched the fight with Santiago yet?

Have you re-watched it? Yeah, I watch it. What's it like? First and second round. First and second round looked good to me. I mean, I watched his fight to lead before we fought, and I saw third round put the pressure on him, and he was a little tired there. I thought I was going to come out picking him apart.

And I thought that I was in the third round. I came out, he throws a jab. I flipped it. good leg kick. And then he throws another jab. I flip that and jabbed that busted up eye that he had. I was walking him down.

I hit him with a right hand just a little bit, but he was kind of rolling with the punch like I do and running away from him and turn his back. Next person turned their back and run away from me. I'm punching him in the back of the fucking head. Where to the back of their head? Because the ref says that's

their fault. You want to turn around and run away. I'm going to punch you in the back the fucking head because you could be facing me like a man. It's all right. It's cool. We're going to see. You know what I'm saying? So,

man, I'm just working. You know, when I took his back and stuff, I do that to people all the time. I got to work more in that area up against the pants, leaning on them. And working getting that takedown more. I'm really good there, and I can definitely take the back.

And I should have just put my damn hooks in and rode them around. I wasn't there to the land the big shots that I want to. And then, like I was. saying when I hit him with the right hand he goes running away I'm just walking him down and I could have I stopped cutting off the ring so much in the third I started with it good it slowed down more than the second and then the third I was just kind of following that's my fault you know and that's something I see and watching the fight but I walk up to throw that kick and he just changed direction through that silly back spinning back push really I didn't feel like it was such a powerful hit

he wasn't able to get much off with me. I mean, he knocked out a few people with his left hand, and that's the shot that was landing, going into the second round and things like that. That's the shot he was hitting you with that Daniel Cormier was in, the left loop. He was there from my left as well. My dab was eating that eye up.

And just a simple one-two would have changed the fight as well. I see lots of things. I've been back in the gym. I've been sparring. this is actually he did poke me pretty good I mean it doesn't that's not the deciding factor the poke happened

and I went in the corner and my my coach was like oh um cut man go to work and I was like what I was like he didn't cut me he didn't do shit but the finger

kind of scratched the purple mark all the way up I don't even know which eye was but it's interesting you said that. Interesting you say that because we had Gunner Nelson on at the top of the show and he said that he believes that Santiago poked him in the eye on purpose multiple times.

Do you believe he was doing that on purpose to you? I mean, maybe he's good then. You know, he's good with sneaky, slippery shit. I see that with him. He's Genti Boa. That's his fucking name. The snake. He's slippery in there.

That's his biggest attribute. You know what I mean? So there was some veteran things that were pulled off against me. And my young mind, you know, I've got to hold it in a little more, letting all of that out. Go over to Shera with saying to me out at the airport.

He was like, man, anybody goes at that the tempo that you are going. They're going to get tired. And I agree, but I don't agree. Because there was also a way that I was training. I was in the gym and I was like, go when I spar, when I go these rounds, I'm just going to go 100% like energy. Ah, grabbing the guy, pulling them around, waste my energy and training so that if I waste it in the fight,

I'll be okay and I can make it all the way. Because I've had fights that go third, like the Danny Roberts fight. It went third round. I rested in the second round. And then I exploded the last 30 seconds. and I exploded a lot more, I believe, in the Ponsonivio fight than I have in other professional fights. But he was just on his bike running away. You know what you don't see in boxing that you see in mixed martial arts is he's running blitzes with the punches.

The guys aren't running away when a guy comes in throwing a combination. A guy steps to the side, turns, plants the seat, pop. Pop, pop, throws a solid combination, and then sees what he has to move his head and stay forehead to forehead and fight. This is the way that I've learned fighting by fighting. But now I have these guys that are afraid and they're running away because they see. And that's the way that they've always trained. And I've never trained with a bunch of runners. So I just have to change that up and play the point game more and more and more and more and training

and figure out why these little fast little runners are are winning with this stupid leg kick and, you know, the way I've seen the fight, man, you know, I wasted time on my back. But my jiu-jitsu was there. I threw a little submission that a lot of people don't see as I was attacking his knee with just my hips and I was trying to hurt his leg. And then I sat back up. I got up. I got up. He took me back down.

I got up. He took me back down. down. I was still out from after the back says I got to work on if a guy's on the cage leaning on me I got to stop that take down a little more. My mind is in it because it's all I have man. This is everything I put everything into. Yeah. It's fighting. I'm in the gym. I want to be in the gym when I'm not in the gym. I just want I'm just in the gym. So you guys know and I appreciate that all the media people I don't know who runs the rankings but they know that platinum Mike Perry's here to fight and I'm in cold. know, after the fight, I think a lot of people, including myself, were disappointed, like,

ah, we wanted to see you versus Darren Till, maybe in England, and maybe we thought that this fight, the result would, you know, at least for now, halt those plans. But there was some back and forth. He said he still wanted to fight you, even on this show. He was on the show on Monday. You guys went back and forth. Was there any talks of actually doing this fight, or was it just between you two?

Did you sense that the UFC wasn't interested? You know, I didn't get anything. any type of interest from the UFC for that we generated something online but the results of my previous fight and where the rankings are I think

you know that was the deciding factor and not making this happen had I won that fight the fight made all the sense yeah you still want it you still think it'll happen absolutely I want to fight

do you think it will happen at some point in the future absolutely we have to make this happen it's it's up to me like i said it's my fault there's another thing that i did that i let people down but god's plan is god's plan you know i'm still here i still proved something each time i'll prove more and i'll do more and be better i don't make the same mistakes twice i i do better each time i get that opportunity so i got to do it better from the last one and I will. I'm in the gym I'm thinking it

doesn't matter who the opponent is I'm here to fight so I mean I'm gonna show wow from my hometown here in Orlando it's going down yeah what's happening ever want to show up fight me in my hometown if they haven't signed the bout agreement yet

then you probably know who I'm talking about if you listen into this and then you know if you you said we were going to fight so you might as well be bought to sign that paper or if not you know i understand i'll be ending crew i will end somebody right here in orlando we'll see who it's gonna be let's go max griffin sign the contract baby right hey could be you know man and then you know i went to we'll see man i want to i want to create a money fight yeah but i need to be a reason people are going to pay money

to watch the fight. They still love you though. I've got to knock a couple people out. I fell back. That's my fault. It's all good. People still love you. They still got love for you. But yeah, you know, W's mean something in this game. It leads to more money. But I think your popularity is still. By the way, did you see those animated tales that we did of you? I tweeted you. You never acknowledged them. So I wasn't sure if you were like offended by them. The cartoons, you know, with Darren Tillon and the one with the nickname, this great kid named Case Hearts made them for us. Did you see them? The little cartoons? I don't know if I've seen them, man

Oh, okay Is it like that That All the fighters Like Cowboy Theroni was in one I believe I was in the one with Cowboy Throne No no we made one We made one

The story about Darren Till in Poland Without not wearing a jacket The Tetris shot all that stuff Remember that story? Oh my God No, I gotta go I gotta see this You didn't see this?

It's incredible It was fight week So you may have been out of it. I missed it. I'll text you. I'll text you. You have nice fingernails, by the way. Anyone ever tell you that?

You have very nice fingernails. Oh, man. You all, you know, my girlfriend likes it. Yeah. Right. All right. Okay, well, I look forward to it. February 24th, Orlando, Florida,

Mike Perry against Max Griffin. What a great fight. Or maybe it's Vorley Alvis. Or maybe it's Damia Maya. Maybe it's Colby Covington himself. Who knows? Oh, you know, before I go here, you know, I just want to make sure everybody is looking forward to my next fight because that's really all I'm here for is to just fight again and make up for what I did last time. I got to make up for it, so I'll be better.

I'm promising you guys. That's all I'm saying. Now, I heard there's some vote or something, or today it ends. corner woman of the year or corner person of the year Danielle my platinum princess was up for that the diamond Nickerson so I'm hoping that she gets that you know I appreciate all the views

for one of my great knockouts I hope to give you guys another that you can enjoy and watch and you know I just appreciate the exposure and like I said man I just want to make it up and I'm looking for an opportunity I'm always ready to fight

and you guys have a blessed one. Happy New Year 2018 is going to be lit. Orlando, stand up. We're out here. I appreciate you. Peace out, Mike. 2018, year of the platinum. I feel it. Thank you. There he is. Platinum Perry.

We're now making a habit here on this program of people teasing news and it's up to us to it's up to us to decipher it. So he said it's someone who has fought Colby Covington in the past. Amy, Dung and Kim, Brian Barbarina, hence the lunchbox right over here. I'll put it right over here for now. And then it's Max Griffin.

Remember that? UFC 202, Max Griffin, short notice fight. He's coming off a loss as well back in October. So we'll see what happens there. But the good news is if you're in Orlando, it looks like you're going to get some Mike Perry action on February 24th. Always great to talk to Mike and always appreciate his time. Okay.

Let us move along. As I said, late last year, Fight Week, UFC 219. The news broke by Nate Marquard himself, that he was going to retire from MMA, an illustrious career, of course, a longtime UFC title contender, a former strike force champion, fought in pancreas. I mean, one of the true pioneers of this sport

debuted back in April of 1999. He last fought in November of 2017. That's a heck of a lot of, fights, 35, 19, and two overall. A great career for Nate Marcar. Wanted to say goodbye to him and talk about why he's retiring now. He's kind enough to be joining us on the phone. Nate, are you there?

Yeah, how's going on here? Hey, Nate, great to talk to you. And congratulations, once again, on a great career. Why did you decide to retire now? Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, I just believe it was time. It was something I've been contemplating for a little while and ever Since I became Christian in 2013, I've wanted to do missions, and I started seminary this last fall.

So I've completed one semester of seminary. And it's just kind of, you know, the timing of everything, the way my last couple of fights went. And also, I had, I just had no surgery. So that kind of played into it a little bit. I kind of figured, you know, it's a good time. and I can focus on seminary and I can focus on my sports ministry that I have here in Arvada.

So, yeah. Forgive my ignorance, Nate. What is a seminary? So it's basically a master's level college that I'm going to for, you know, like pastors will go there to learn theology and preaching skills. and missionaries go to learn about, you know, techniques to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so, yeah, like, I'm actually currently, I've been in the application process for an organization called the International Missions Board. And so right now, that was one of the prerequisites, was that I complete 20 hours of theological studies. Wow. And so I don't have an undergrad either, but I'm actually able to get, because every accredited college offers a master's by exception. So as long as you are able to keep your grade above a GPA, your GPA is over 3.2,

you can apply for a master's by exception. So as long as I get that degree, then I'll be able to be higher. by the International Missions Board and become a missionary. Who introduced you to Christianity? You said you became a Christian a few years back. How did you get so involved in it? Why has it connected with you so much and so well? Yeah, so basically in 2013,

I went through a really rough patch with my career, and I also was going through a rough patch at home, with my wife and things like that. And I, you know, I was raised as a Christian, but I never really fully committed, surrendered my life to God. And so through all those trials that I went through, I kind of realized that I actually wasn't serving or worshiping God. I was actually just serving myself. And I had a false idol, which was tied up in my career and things like that. So, yeah, basically I committed my life to him at that point. And that's actually, when I truly became a Christian, I guess, you know, in the Bible, Jesus talks about being born again. And

that's what happened to me. I was plagued with anger, less issues, and idolatry. And in a moment of time after when I surrendered my life to him, basically he changed my heart. took all that anger and lust out of my heart. And I was able to, you know, at that point, really pursue him. And that's, you know, knowing that that's what happened to me, like, experiencing that, I guess. And knowing that Christianity is true, that's why I want to devote my life to it, because I want people to know that there's salvation in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Did you feel like your occupation being an MMA fighter was in conflict with those beliefs with being a Christian?

You know, when I first got saved, I struggled with that a little bit, but actually, I didn't struggle with it too long, just reading through the Bible. It's really, it's not in conflict in the way of, like, you know, I was an athlete and mixed martial arts to the sport. and just like any sport, you know, combat sport, you know, but it's kind of a neutral thing. So there definitely are people who see it as a contradiction, but to me it's a sport and it's fun. And actually, it's been a great tool for me to spread the gospel of Jesus. So basically, you know, I started a sports ministry mid last year. And so now I teach kids, Jiu-Jitsu. I teach adults Jiu-Jitsu for free.

And just so I have a chance to tell them about Jesus and about, you know, his death on the cross and the salvation through him. When you last fought in November, a fight against Siza Verra, did you know that that would, like after the fight, did you know, or maybe even going into it? Did you know that it would be your last fight? No, I guess. you know with my last three fights and especially my last two I really you know I I felt I won the fights

and I just thought it was kind of strange that I had three in a row like that that were close decisions and just didn't go my way and you know I really felt with the the Belfour fight and even Ferre that I won two of the three

rounds and and and so I guess, you know, if I were one, if I probably would just continue fighting and going to seminary, but the fact that it happened that way, I kind of feel like God's calling me in, in that direction so that I get, so I'm able to commit all my time to doing seminary, my sports ministry, and, uh, so yeah, I guess. And, you know, the fact that, um, I was told to get a cascan on my head after the fight

because they saw a little swelling. And so, I mean, my nose has been broken multiple times in the past years. And so I knew it was broken, but it wasn't anything big for me. But so they told me I had to go to see the ENT. And the doctor, like, was really, you know, telling me that was important that I need to get my nose fixed. And so it was kind of just all those things, just the culmination of them made me realize that it was time. So you wrote a letter saying goodbye.

How difficult was it to write that letter, considering you've been a pro-MMA fighter for almost 20 years now, and to actually come to the realization, like, okay, this chapter my life is over, I'm moving on. How hard was that? Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny, but I was talking to my wife about it, and I wrote a letter, and she kind of read it,

and she was like, I don't know, she was telling me that I need to put more emotion and put more heart into the letter. So I kind of rewrote it and that's what you guys read. Okay. And it's, I guess, for me, it's not that big a deal, really. I mean, I don't feel any different. I don't, you know, my, my heart, though I love the sport, but my heart is really to, to serve God and to, like I said, tell people about Jesus because I know that he's the only way

and I want people to know. I want to go to unreached people groups where they haven't heard about Jesus. And so I guess for me, it's not really that big a deal. I wasn't sad, but my wife's just kind of like, oh man, I think I'm more sad than you are. And I'm kind of like, yeah, I mean, it, yeah, it's kind of a good feeling, actually. It's kind of strange, but, you know, I do love the sport, but at the same time, I'm really happy that God has put me in this direction so I can do what I truly want to do. So you mentioned the sports ministry.

Will you be involved in MMA in any capacity? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, so I'm doing the Jiu-Jitsu ministry. now, and that's just a little thing really that we do once a week. But I'm really open to whatever God calls me. So, you know, I know there's a lot of places in the world where missionaries aren't even allowed to come on a missionary visa. And so, you know, if it's something where I'm able to go to a certain country and as an MMA coach or open a gym or whatever it is, whatever capacity, you know, even doing seminars, things like that.

I'm open to that. And, you know, this is the arena of life that God has me, and I believe it's for a purpose. And so, you know, just training at the gym, I'm not going to stop training. I won't be doing it full time, but I'll keep training. And it's something where, you know, the relationships that grow out of mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu,

and wrestling and all these sports. You just become very close with people, and to me it's a great tool to spread the gospel. So what a road it has been for you? I mean, you know, from the pancreas days, of course, UFC, strike force, all that stuff. Is there a moment that sticks out? Is there a favorite fight, a favorite moment

when you look back on your almost 20-year career? Yeah, I mean, it's all been, a lot of fun. I can't think of necessarily one fight, but I, you know, I, if you look at my highlight reel, I guess that's probably some of my more fond memories. Definitely, Pancras was a great time. And the strike force, you know, winning the belt against Tyron Woodley, that was a great fight.

I mean, that was probably one of my best fights to my career. Wilson Gauvea, that was another good one. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know, it's all been great. And just all the memories I have of training, too, with, you know, best guys in the world, all the time I spent training with guys like George St. Pierre and Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Stephen Thompson, all these guys. I mean, it's just been a wonderful career and a wonderful experience for me. you came close very, very often to, you know, winning that UFC title.

You had opportunities to win the belt. You fought in UFC title fights. Do you think that will bother you in the future? Do you think that will eat at you? Or do you think you'll harp on that, the fact that you never won the UFC belt? No, I mean, that's the thing. It would have in the past, and I think that was the issue, is that that's what was the most important thing to me was winning the title

and, you know, that's something that's going to pass away, you know, when I'm older, you know, something like that, you know, something like that, it's not going to matter when I die. It's not going to matter how many belts I won or whatever. It's going to be, the only things that are going to matter are what I did for eternity. So, so definitely, you know, I've always wanted to do my best and perform well and things like that. And I haven't, always necessarily performed as to my ability, I guess, and I've definitely made a lot of mistakes. But I guess I can't really say I regret not winning the title. I mean, it would have been cool, but at the same time, I could be in a totally different spot if I would have won the title. And like I said, God has me in this spot for a reason. and yeah, so that's it. So you mentioned some of the mistakes.

I'd be remiss if I don't ask you, because it was related to this show, you came on this show. I'm sure you remember with your manager, Lex McMahon, after what happened in Pittsburgh. And that's one of the more memorable. I know it was in a positive moment for you, but certainly in the history of this show,

one of the more memorable episodes. Like you talk about regrets and mistake, would that be at the top of the list? Like just all that, that whole situation and what happened afterwards, is that at the top of the list of things that, you know, you kind of wish didn't happen? Well, you know, I definitely, the funny thing is that,

you know, I took a lot of blame in that situation that actually, I kind of did it for political reasons, but, you know, I kind of had bad counsel in my ear. I'm not talking about Lex, but, but, you know, You know, I didn't really do anything morally wrong in those issues, so it's kind of, you know, it's kind of one of those things where, yeah, I wish I would have just sought help elsewhere. But I would say that's not necessarily one of the regrets or one of the mistakes I made that I shouldn't have, I guess, other than the fact of I should have, I should have looked for counsel. a different way to handle the issues that I was having. But, you know, like, the mistakes I've made,

I was talking more in the fights where it's like, well, I could have fought a certain way, you know, over-correcting one fight. I'm too cautious the next fight. I'm too, like, overly aggressive or vice versa. So those kind of things, you know, You live and you learn. And in the end, they're all just temporal things anyway.

They, you know, like I said, in 100 years, no one's going to remember my name. So I don't really care. Those things don't matter. The only things that are going to matter is, you know, what I do for God's kingdom, what I, you know, who I tell about Jesus Christ that, you know, if I could tell two people about Jesus and they are able to. have their sins forgiven and go to heaven, and that's worth it.

But winning a belt or winning a fight isn't really what matters. I appreciate you doing this, Nate. Again, congratulations on a great career. Doing it for almost 20 years in a brutal sport like MMA is certainly something to be proud of, and you've overcome a lot. You've had highs and lows.

There's a lot to be learned from your career. So congrats on it, and certainly good luck in this next chapter. and I appreciate you coming on and talking about this. I know you kind of wanted to go quietly into the night, but it means a lot that you would come on and talk a bit about this new chapter and saying goodbye to MMA. So thank you very much for that as well.

Yeah, well, thank you, Ariel. And I do want to give a big thanks to all my fans that have supported me and stood by me through the ups and downs. And I really do, I read, especially recently, I've read a lot of the comments and stuff and people are just very gracious to me. And I just, I'm very thankful.

And of course, you know, the people of support of me by my side, guys like my coach, Trevor Whitman, man, that guy is literally the best coach in the world. And, you know, I've always said that and always thought that. And he's just a very caring, loving coach. And definitely one of the best skill-wise that there is. coaches like Greg Jackson that I've had, you know, I've had the best coaches, Lauren Landau, my strength coach and my wife, she's just stood by me.

And my guys like Lex, man, he's really stood by me and just done what was right. And I really appreciate all the people who've been in my life and help me on this journey. so I wanted to say thank you to them as well. Thank you to you as well. Thank you very much and we'll talk to you soon and best of luck to you in this new chapter and Nate. Great. Thanks a lot, Aaron. All right, there he is. Nate the Great Markquart.

What a career. He says goodbye after 18 years in MMA. Like I said, Pancras, Strike Force, of course, became the Strike Force Welterweight Champion when he defeated Tyrone Woodley. That was after leaving the UFC, comes back to the UFC, fought for the UFC title against Anderson Silva. He's had quite the run. And now he says goodbye. He's off to do bigger and better things.

And very passionate about religion. Good on him for that. When you find your passion post-MMA, that's always a good thing. Sometimes fighters, I think, struggle with, you know, what do I do next? This has been my identity for two decades. It appears as though Nate Marquart

won't have that problem. All right. let us move along and as I said at the top of the show we are less than two weeks away from UFC 220 a very important night in MMA a great way to start the year

not only with the Beltoe event in Inglewood California but with one of the most anticipated heavyweight title fights in the history of this sport I think it's the best UFC heavyweight title fight since Kane Velasquez versus Junior Dos Santos won in November of 2011 you saw them square off

a little over a week ago in Las Vegas Now here we are on the road to UFC 220 in Boston, Massachusetts, and we are very excited to be joined by the reigning, defending UFC heavyweight champion, Steppe Miochich. Steepa, are you there? How are you, Stepe? Good boy. How are you doing? I'm doing great.

Remember when I saw you in Las Vegas and you choked me, but I didn't tap? You came from behind, sneak attack. I was eating dinner. I was minding my own business. You tried to choke me, but I didn't tap. Did your level of respect for me grow at all after that incident? What are you talking about? You ran up to you way before.

They were like, oh, hey, what's up, man? You were trying to talk to me. Like, get out of it. I don't act like. I wasn't like, you're not in your own business. Well, I mean, it was like 30 minutes later, so I thought that we had kind of moved. I was just trying to, you know, butter you up a little bit

because sometimes you're a tough enough to crack. Then you come and... My cows'clock is low, right. Yeah, after I couldn't have to have. You know, I definitely my cowswets is low. Okay. All right. By the way, I have to ask you,

before we get into the nitty gritty, I was watching, you know, the news and sports news and on Twitter and things like that. And were you at the parade on Saturday? No, you weren't there. I thought I saw you front and center. Yeah, definitely. No, no, I was not.

No way, man. How do you feel, O-N-16 parade by quote-un-quote die-hard fans? How do you feel about this? Yeah. Well, that's not die-huff fans. Listen, man, you don't think those guys wanted to go O-N-16? I mean, they tried it with it again. I mean, it just wasn't our idea, man, but it was just disrespectful.

So you think the fans were disrespecting the players in the organization? Like, if you're a true fan, you should not have been involved in that. No. It was for a good cause. Like, you raised money and stuff like that. Oh, they did? But, yeah, they got, it was, we raised money to get the parade, and that was that sure they gave to the CLEA Food Bank,

like Cleveland Food Bank. Okay. But still there was still a black guy for the city. You make sure it's dumb. Okay. All right. I wasn't sure how fan, because, you know, like, they're walking around with, like, with coffins and things like that. It's a little morbid.

I mean, it's a little bit, I don't know, poor taste, right? Yeah, I know. Yeah, I don't know. Just, it's, yeah, but then also when they turn around, they're like, oh, my God, the best team ever, you know. Just fair weather fans. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so it wasn't you. I thought I saw you front and center there with your Tim Couch jersey, but I guess it wasn't you.

I'm happy because you didn't seem like that kind of guy to do that sort of thing. No, no, no, no, never. first off, I would never do that second. I was way too cold as you doing that. So, yeah, I'm good. Okay, so here we are on the road. You had the press conference, you had the face off. What did you see?

When you squared off with Francis, big bad, Francis and Ganoo, everyone's saying, you know, he's the next chap, he's the scariest guy in the world. What did you see when you squared off against him? Nothing, just to know what I do. There's a regular guy when he's fighting like I usually am. I mean, honestly, it was all pressure on him, honestly. You know, he was being put up to make a finisher and all there.

And, you know, the best guys he's faced that had knocked him out two years ago. So whatever. Okay, so that's a great point there because you look at his record, you look at, you know, Overeem, Arlofsky. You did beat those guys two years ago. Do you feel like he's, I don't know,

maybe a product of the UFC hype machine that people are forgetting what you did? Like, why are they making such a big deal about what he did to those guys when you did almost the exact same thing to those guys two years ago when you could say that they were more in their prime, if you get what I'm saying?

Yeah, I don't know. We never just talked about punching power and all that stuff and probably, like, when he can't hit me or,

you know, I mean, I just need it pretty hard too but, you know, I mean, that level before you made his debut

so I'm not really, you know, worry about it and all that. I'm just, I move out there and do my job, man, we'll go out there

and, you know, smash him. You know, I'm champion who I defended you twice in the break the record here. My favorite part of the whole press conference

was when you asked Dana White about the car, the little, like, factoid about the car, that was the best part. It sounded to be like you were in all that, like you were almost kind of mocking the factoid

and the fact that we're comparing his punching power to getting hit by a car. Is that accurate? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll have to say. I mean, I'm over it, man. I just, yeah, it's exhausting. You know, I understand this.

You know, they probably don't want me to win. I'm not to make the train you toy like they want. You know, because of him, they can, you know, use that, oh, my God, it's so hard and this and that. And, you know, listen. just over. I've been there. I've been there all the time

not going to do with a first round compared to the first round so I'm not really rich. So you believe the UFC wants him to win? I understand, yeah, yeah, for sure. Listen, I feel a bit suspected

but I'm not going to like dwell on it. It's when I get paid two about three things. One, I get the assignment and they pay for it and also fighting, you know, if it paid for me, like, to be like,

hang out more with my dogs, I mean, well, I'm winning right now. So, so what makes you feel, like, do you just feel like they just want, like a new guy, they want to deal with it. They think he's a better, because like you've knocked out

four people in a row. Fireman, All-American guy, you've sold out the Cleveland Arena, all that stuff. Why do you feel like they want him to win over you? You know, he's got more hype behind him, I guess. You know, a guy hit's super hard. I mean, they're making a big thing about it. You know, he's knocked out some good guys.

You know, that's probably why. You know, I'm not much of a trash talker, as you would say, and I just like to fight. That's what I do. around a year ago, almost exactly a year ago this time, you were on this show, and it was a different kind of steepe that we had on the show. You were very fired up about your contract,

and it's just kind of been this story that we've been following. Has that been resolved at all? Are you at peace with where things stand? Yeah, we're doing that. They took care of it? Yeah, they took care of it. So you feel like they're taking care of you in that, at least in that department you feel taken care of?

Next question. next question well I mean like you feel like you should be getting paid more is that is that fair to say yeah honestly I don't have to answer that I feel just you know

I know what I want to be paid and you know and maybe I'm not not going to worry about that have you been told okay go out and beat this guy and then we'll pay you superstar money have you been told that I let's the team of management of them you know that's that's why I fight

let them handle it yeah so you don't get involved in any of that stuff No. Okay. And is it fair, like, are you the kind of guy you take these things, oh, they want them to win, they want him to win, odds makers listing you as the underd, are you the kind of guy that is able to use that into motivation?

Do you need that kind of motivation when you're going into a fight? Or, like, I mean, you're going into a cage fight with another man who wants to knock your head off. That's all you really need. Well, I mean, there's a lot of things, you know, but that's it. I'm comfortable with being the underdog. But you see what happens every time I'm an underdog. I win, so I'm not worried about it. Yeah.

But when you initially saw that, what was your reaction that you were in this fight? Like after everything you've done, what was your reaction to that, that you were the betting underdog? Keep losing a lot of money down against me. Do your friends bet on you? No, no. You don't ask them? I'm sure they would tell you. No, I think I've had one or two people that they've told me that I really don't have to many.

They tell me I have to keep it between them themselves. At this point, you feel like there's still a lot more. questions to be answered about Francis? Like, we've never really seen him go into real deep waters or on the ground, wrestling, things like that. Do you feel like he's still kind of an enigma at this point? Yeah, I mean, we'll see.

I mean, he's definitely got the height behind him. You know, definitely got the punchy powder behind him. So I, uh, well, what happens January 20th? I walk up and still. Have you, have you seen his work on the ground at all? And if so, what do you make of it? I've not seen any work on the ground. I mean, I saw. I think

that one submission he had against what the Anthony Hamilton was, or the Camor or whatever. I saw that, but I didn't really see any groundwork. I haven't really watched this or that fight and I think Andrelowski's fight. You don't know, I've seen him fight.

You haven't seen the Overeign fight? No, I'm not. I was actually a, my brother-in-law's surprise work to play. I just saw a knockout. I mean, who do know it was all over the internet. Yeah, but you haven't seen the actual fight leading up to it, like leading up to the knockout.

You don't have interest in that? No, I watched this week, you know. go over for film this week. We've been going on with stuff now, but definitely go a little more film so we can watch it. Are you a big... Are you a big film watcher? Yeah, definitely. My coach is watch it first, and we just go over stuff, I don't worry about and then they show me about two weeks out,

and I see what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and that it'll be good. What did you make of his demeanor at the press conference, like, interrupting you and saying that he thinks that you're nervous and things like that. What did you make of his whole vibe? Oh, my God. Different, I guess. My love it makes it feel good inside. I really don't care I mean

you're gonna find out you know you're gonna do less than a 20th Are you surprised that the fight Is happening so soon after his last fight Like did this date surprise you? No No

no Do you think Like the fact that he's going home To Paris, traveling things like that Do you feel like he's He's not taking the challenge very seriously? Maybe maybe not

I don't care I'm worried about winning Until I care about Let him think What he walks to bank Right Do nothing Yeah. By the way, I saw this commercial. You did a commercial in Cleveland. It's one of the greatest commercial I've ever seen about this rug. You're sitting with these guys watching TV and they spill...

Right? What is that company called? On Nature Stone. Yeah. Are they a sponsor of yours? Yeah, yeah. I used to work from when I was younger. You actually used to work for them? Yeah, I used to make the rocks. I put the rocks in their epoxy in and I bring it in the bucket to the guy so they can, uh... they can put it out and then trial it out and make it even. And now they're a sponsor of yours. How about that?

Did you ever think back then when you were working for them that you'd be the champion of the world and they'd be sponsoring you? Oh, yeah, no, no, man. I just, you know, fire in a minute's why I would care about. How long have they been a part of your team sponsoring you? I think about two years now, two and a half years. Oh, wow. So you've had multiple commercials with them or was that the first? No, that was my second.

And the first one, it wasn't so good. The second, I liked it. It was actually real cool because actually the guy that knocked over the cup is one of my good friends. Oh, wow. You got your friends paid, too. Or maybe not paid, at least in maritime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just think about, you know, quitting work and going to highway and getting used to be able.

You enjoy that? Like, filming the commercial? How long does that whole process take? Oh, yeah. It wasn't too bad. It was probably four hours. Oh, okay. They pay good?

Yeah. Yeah, I guess I'll be my sponsor. Should I do? Wait, what was that about, would you say, say it again? Yeah, yeah, I remember my sponsors, so yeah, you pay well. Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I love seeing, like, like, fighters in local commercial spots because I feel like that, I, I'm, like, I feel like I talk about you fighting in Cleveland all the time, because

it was, it was such an amazing experience. And I, and I kind of feel like you should be fighting there every time, because you come across as a superstar over there, and then to see a local commercial is great. Do you, do you feel the same way? Like, would it be better for you to just fight at home every time, or is it, is it too much of like a nuisance with all the distractions and people asking for tickets, would you prefer not fighting, maybe fighting clothes like Boston,

but not exactly in Cleveland. How do you feel? Yeah, I don't mind fighting Cleveland, not every time probably fighting in Cleveland, but definitely, you know, I like putting Cleveland, but yeah, you know, I mean, it's just a lot going on. You know, with a ticket, like I said, and

our distractions, but I don't mind. I love Cleveland. I love everything about it. I love, you know, everyone that helps me out here, you know, I have a CLE clothing. They're amazing too. like they always make a shirt for me. They're just good guys. I'm actually coming out of my own logo emblem hoodies with hats that's actually going live today.

So if you want to get some stupidlyosic gear, myosic dot store. Wow. Look at you. By the way, are we mispronouncing your last name? You said myosic. Well, it's English way. Me.

You know. Okay. Why do you anglicize your own name? It's your name. Educated. People have no idea sometimes. They call me. I'd be steep.

I mean, I can go for Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so steepamiotich.com slash store, you said? The new gear is out. Is it out right now? Yeah, it's out right now. Oh, okay. I will check that out.

Good timing, of course, with the fight coming up in less than two weeks. Okay, so is it fair to say, because I feel like the path to victory here is take the guy down, expose him on the ground. We haven't really seen him on the ground. But I also feel like to steal a phrase from your day job, fight fire with fire, prove that you're the baddest man on the planet. you know, go out there trying to knock them out and shut everyone up. What are we more likely to see on January 20th? We'll find out when I get my hand raised. How much does that record mean to you to be the winningest heavyweight champion of all

time? Is that something that really, like, is it like DJ when he used to talk about Anderson's record all the time? Is this something that you actually had on your list, things you wanted to accomplish? I thought it would definitely be a great accomplishment, but I'm not worried about that. I'm just worried about Francis and, you know, keeping my belt, whichever. I will. All you're going to see me is get my hand raised, walking out with the bolt, still wrapped my waist, and still. And are you taking a break from being a fireman leading up to the fight?

Yeah, he's got my last trip on Saturday. This past Saturday? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you take two weeks off, essentially? Yeah, usually I worked that weekend before, but since I've been leaving early for ESPN and stuff, I have to, you know. Okay. Why do you have to plug another outlet when you're on? You plug another outlet when you're on the show? I mean, did you have to do that? that?

Listen, you're talking and ask me questions and I'm talking. I know. At least you are talking. You've come a long way. Do you feel like you've come a long way?

As far as interviews are concerned? Yeah, baby stuff. I should not be running. Yeah. We've really worked hard together on this, I feel like. That means a lot. I mean, it doesn't mean a lot. Don't forget when you become

the winningest champion in UFC history, don't forget, you know, who's been fighting that fight for you, all right? I got you, brother. You know that. Okay, one last thing. What do you think of that promo? Everyone's ranting and

raving about this promo. Do you like it? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you'll see an amazing job. I think it would be great job. You enjoy the stuff with you, lifting the weights, all that stuff. You liked it? Yeah, it's great. I think that's definitely a great promo. I got a lot of good feedback from people like my friends and family. They're like, wow, what a great promo. It's got me pumped up for the fight. So, it's awesome. That's good to see. Okay. Well, it's good to see you back. I'm looking forward to it. Best of luck on the 20th, Steepa. We'll see you out there. And best of luck in the last two weeks of training.

Yes, sir, thank you. All right, there he is. Steve Miochich. He's like a Rubik's Cube. You know, you got to work for it. Sometimes he gives you little nuggets there. Contract stuff, right? They want him to win.

He's got some motivation. If he wins on January 20th, he would, in fact, be the winningest heavyweight champion in UFC history. Three title defenses. Of course, he had the winner of Rallister over him. JDS. Now it would be friends.

Francis and Gano. Great two fights at the top of that card with Daniel Cormier and Volcano-Ozdemier, and of course this main event between Francis and Gano and Scipamioch. The rest of the card, lacking a little bit, but honestly, when you're getting two title fights like that, worth the price of admission, at least in my opinion. All right, so that's coming less than two weeks. A little update, just kind of working.

I multitask on this program, my friends. I multitask. I'm being told that, yes, it is in fact Mr. Max Griffin for Platinum Perry. So that wasn't the one that came to mind that sort of jumped out when I was looking at Colby Cumberton's resume. But that's what I'm being told. There you have it. All right. Let us move along.

Thank you very much to Steppe Miochich for stopping by. And I mentioned main event, co-main event, Daniel Cormier versus Volcano Osdemir. One man who knows a thing or two about Daniel Cormier and who has had. had a fantastic 2017 working with some of the biggest names in the sport as far as nutritionist concern, which is a very important part of the sport. And at times, it's an overlooked part of the sport. But we've seen time and again how crucial it can be to these fighters. Our next guest, George Lockhart, has worked with the likes of Daniel Kormier and Max Holloway and Habibu and of course the great Connor McGregor. His roster of clients is a who's who. And again, he had

a great 2017. Wanted to check in with him as we begin 2018. He is kind enough to be joining us right now on the phone. George, are you there? Yes, sir. How you doing? A very recognizable voice that George has. Have you always had that kind of voice, George?

Man, it was always deep, but I really got it. I was a combat instructor for the Marine Corps. My last four years, all I did was scream. I think I got jacked up that voice box a little bit. Wow, does it hurt when you speak? No, it doesn't, and it's funny because I don't really notice it until I actually listen to one of your interviews. And I love to read all the comments because that's, I'll think of the comment, I spit some awesome information. And then all the comments are like, man, it sounds like each gravel like this.

They're hilarious. But yeah, no, man, I don't even notice it anymore. Okay, so I said at the top, 2017 was a great thing. great year for you and your team, Daniel Lee, Tyler Minton, I mean, the people, not only in the fight world, the likes of Demi Lovada, you guys are working with everyone, even regular folks you're working with.

Would you agree that it kind of felt like you guys turned the corner, like you really dominated the space in 2017? Is that a fair assessment? I believe so. You know, it's always been kind of our goal to, you know, we wanted the celebrities, you wanted the average Joe, and we we actually wanted the UFC. Like, we want, we want the entire roster. It's been a goal, you know, chances are of us to get every single person

might not happen, but, you know, it's looking really good right now. You know, things are really looking good for this upcoming year. So what do you mean the entire roster? Like, you want to be in business with the UFC to take care of all of the fighters? Like, how could you possibly do that otherwise? Well, so initially we, we, we tried, but there's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of legality that you have to worry about if the UFC, they hire me to work with everybody. It hires the team to work with everybody.

And let's say, you know, something goes wrong. And basically, they're up crap creek without a paddle. So at the end of the day, it's more just like I contract with all the fighters. And the funny thing is we haven't done any advertising.

We haven't, you know, everything's been word of mouth. You know, we don't put anything into advertising. And like you said, like our roster right now. We have over 100 UFC fighters, you know, in this, we have obviously have Kormier coming up. We got Max Holloway coming up again. I believe, he just got done fighting for the title. We have just about every champion that you can, that you can think of. But we also have a lot of guys that are coming up. You know, I think a lot of people need to, they worry about just the top dogs. You know, we worry about, you know, the amateur all the way up.

And a couple of guys, you know, we, I remember like Dustin Poyer, we were with them as his very first fight in the UFC. You know, now you see how far he's gone. Cody No Love, and we worked with him, and then, you know, he's champion,

he was champion, everything else. So it's something that we wanted to do, but also we want to work with the average Joe. We actually, it's funny, and I don't want to sound,

you know, arrogant or anything, but we're kind of like the only show in town right now, you know, and we've been really holding off and everybody's been telling us about, like,

okay, you know, let's hear about the system, you know, and I've never been one to shy away from it, but giving out the entire system, you know, it's been, we've been kind of hesitant on it, you know, we didn't want anybody to take it and then kind of manipulate it and see it was their own. So we actually just came out with a DVD series that we're launching, and it literally is going to give away the entire system from weight cutting, general nutrition, weight loss, performance enhancer and everything. So I'm hoping this year that people

are going to love that, you know, it's basically our life's work. Mine, Lee, You know, like you said, the team is awesome. We have Ian Lario's. Tyler, men, have been kicking butt. So, honestly, man, we need a lot more people. We're looking for people to fill a lot of gaps because we just don't have enough. So when does the DVD series come out? We're looking about a month.

Basically, all the, all the editing is done. Everything's finished. We're actually making a cookbook. All the guys that work with us, they've all put in, you know, basically the recipes. like Tyler when he was working with Max, Ian when he was working with Robbie Lawler, obviously me with Connor, and then, you know,

Lee's working with Damien Lovato right now. So we're all putting these recipes together, and then we get like a cookbook, you understand like, okay, this is what these. And I think it'd be cool to kind of see what the fighters are actually eating, you know, and it doesn't have to taste horrible. So when you say system, like what do you mean by system?

It's more than just, you know, some recipes and filing some guys, like, like maybe you don't want to give it all away here. You want people to go out and get the DVD and I respect that. But can you elaborate on what that term means? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, like I said, I've never shy away from it. I want to get it out.

Like, I'm that guy that I started talking about nutrition. I've got to look around the room because you ever had that guy that he loves his job, but nobody else loves his job. And they're all like not in their head. So like I said, I love talking about nutrition. And, you know, I'd love to tell more and more about it. it, but like in terms of like a system, like a lot of people, it's kind of like, you know, eat organic food or eat vegetables, eat fruits, uh, eat lean meat. And it's kind of like,

we'll know the, you know what I mean? Like that's, that's not really a system. Like I can open any muscle magazine and basically there it is. There's like a step-by-step mathematical equation. Like, okay, if I weigh this month and I have this much body fat and I'm doing this activity, what, what should I be eating? How much should I be eating? And when should I be eating it? You know, like one instance, and we talked a lot about this, this guy, Drew Dober, he was 185 pounds showing up on Tuesday for his last UFC fight. And, you know, UFC calls me like, man, dude, how is he going to make this? And he had to make 155 by Friday. And he made 155, and he's like, man, it's the best cut of my life.

And the reason being is because of that system. You have to understand that how much glycate. doesn't does this guy hold how much water is attached to that glycogen how do you reload the body um based on the amount of sodium that his body's dropping based on the amount of potassium he based on the amount of sodium he has is going to tell me exactly how much potassium that we need to put back in the system as well but this will tell you everything you know you know it'll help you out a lot to help people out a lot to let them know like it is a mathematical equation so if they're like man i want to drop down to this weight um they'll be like they'll realize like man that that

I can't actually do that. Or I don't have enough time. Or I need more time. Or it's just not feasible based on my frame. Because, I mean, you can lose body fat, but you can't, you can't lose, you know, you can't lose bone and stuff like that. And that's something that we're facing with Drew. The kid, I mean, you've seen him.

You know, he's shredded. And just real quick, like, like, you know, not to bore everybody, but like, Drew, you know, if he's at 185, he fights at 155, you know, let's just say, to keep numbers easy, he's 10% body fat. That's 15 pounds, minus from 155. You know, you're looking at about, well, 140. And 40% of your body is lean muscle tissue. So you're looking about 60 pounds, 65 pounds of lean muscle tissue.

Well, he's been instructed to lose about 10 pounds of muscle. Now, when you break it down, like when people say like, oh, you know, I got my body fat's at 10%, you know, they think the rest of the body's muscle, but it's not. only 40% of that is actual lean muscle tissue. So if he's at 65 pounds of lean muscle tissue and you're going to lose 10 pounds, you understand that you're a whole new fighter after that. Like what makes Drew Dover, Drew Dover can change from that. You know what I'm saying? From losing that.

And I think that some people, it's just, this is a totally different type of science and different type of nutrition than it's being taught at like the ACE and the ISS. say it's more for the general public, you know what I'm saying, versus you got an extreme athlete, you got a weight-based sport where these guys have to make weight and then they have 24 hours to replenish themselves. It's a new thing. And I think that's why we basically own this arena is because we've sought out. We've done it not only in the general public, but also in the military, both myself and leave. And so you weren't working with, Dober, they called you, the UFC called you and asked you to help him?

No, I was working with Drew Dover. We actually had one of other guys. We had a guy named Rich Farrell. He was out there. I think we also had Tyler Mitten was out there with someone else. They were just wondering what your plan was, like how you were going to get this done. Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's hard because some people, they're going to have troubles getting, you know, licensed. And I believe, you know, and it sucks.

And, like, UFC is kicking butt in terms of what they're doing and trying, you know, in terms of improving safety of fighters in terms of the weight cuts and things like that. But in a lot of circumstances, I see that, like, sometimes they'll pull a number. Like, you can't lose 10% of the weight. And it's just like, where do these numbers come from? If I have somebody that's 30% body fat, I got a guy that's like 5% body fat, the numbers are going to be way different because fat's basically hydrophobic. It doesn't attach to water.

And muscle is 70% water. So you kind of see how, in, you know, it'd be nice. Like what we want to do, the reason we want to be part of the entire UFC is that we can say, hey, man, look, this is what your body fare percentage is. Like, there's no amount of sauna time that's going to get that weight down. There's not that much, there's not that much water in you. And when you're in the sauna, it's not like it's burning fat.

And vice versa, like breaking it down. So this is, this is a numbers game. And that's what the, you know, that's what the DVD show you. It's like, it is a system. It's not just, you know, eat it. healthy, eat clean. By the way, why come out with this now? And then you can have competitors who will try to take this, modify,

steal, whatever the case may be. Why give it out? Well, like I said, we are basically the only gaming town. And the thing is our team that we have, you know, we've been training them up and worked with. Like, Tyler Rinton, he's been kicking by taking names. You know, we work with him. I think the first fight we had him with,

it was like Pro Gonzalez, Miles Jury. He had four, I think we had four people on that car. We kind of threw him under the bus. Chris Wyman, right? Yeah, oh yeah, Chris Wyman. They all kind of mesh together now. But yeah, it's like I said, we have, we have tons of guys. We have these people that it's like you have to train them up.

And the thing about it is, I always say this area, like people are like, wow, man, you always talk about, you know, you just give it out there. You know, you just kind of just tell all the knowledge out there. And I say, you know, it's kind of like a black belt jihitsu. you. If I, you know, if somebody talks to a black belt and you get you all day and that black belt um, by the end of the day, they're not going to be a black belt. And if I don't tell you stuff, it's probably because I don't, I don't actually have that much knowledge in the first place. You know what I mean? If I can get it all out in a day or in one interview or you know what I'm saying with the, with the DVD series, it's going to give you the system. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of things that, you know,

we have as, uh, you know, as a team, we have like signs like, okay, this, uh, he's, uh, he's blood pressure is dropping too fast. You know, they're, you know, they have the bar receptors or, you know, this and that. You know, there's a chance that he might fade. And that's why having us there is the best thing. But not everybody can afford that. You know, we put as much as we can into this, but it's still not the same as having, like, that jujitsu coach there with you.

It's kind of like got the DVD of the jiu-jitsu. Here's the system. You can use it. You can apply it. But it's still not the same as having us out there. So you say that you believe that you're the only game in town. I mean, we know of, of, of, of, of, of, others from from dulce diet to perfecting athletes why do you feel like now you're the the last

group standing i don't i mean i again i don't want to sound arrogant but i don't know who any of them have right now i mean like i said we have over a hundred people on the roster i don't know uh who dolce's worked i'm honest i don't know who he's worked with and i don't mean he might i don't even know if he's in mbma anymore i think he might have moved on to other things i'm not sure um and perfecting athletes, I'm not sure how many people that they have on their roster right now. Yeah, I mean, I mean, maybe there's other people that have a few clients, but I wouldn't necessarily call that our competitors. You know, they're not doing the things that we're doing.

It's an interesting game and it's a competitive one. Do you feel pressure like every time? Because I've always felt like, okay, so this is, you are paid, you are there to try to help these guys make weight and be at their best come fight time. and there's a fight before the fight. Do you feel that pressure, you know, way in mourning? Like, because if some guy or a woman misses weight wildly, it often will fall on your shoulders.

You failed them and all this stuff and more. Or now are you guys such a well-oiled machine where you don't lose sleep over there. Like, oh, yeah, we got Chabeeb coming up. Easy. Tyler's there. He's doing his thing. Oh, yeah, we got, you know, Cormier or Connor, whatever the case may be.

Do you feel that pressure still? Because it is your name attached to you're sort of the face of the company. You're the figurehead, all that. and more. What's it like? Because I feel like there's so much pressure on you. You guys aren't the ones cutting weight, but you have to help the guy cut weight.

And if they fail, a lot of that blame falls on your shoulders. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Like, I'm stressed out. But over the years, you know, this kind of taking out of work, I remember the first time that I worked with Porier, it was with Poirier and,

it wasn't the first time working with Poirier, but it was Poirier and Kenny Florian, they were both on the same card. And Kenny had started, off at about 187 and he was going down to 145 and um man it was a huge cut and I was in mobile at the time I was still on the Marine Corps so I was just kind of tell him you know via you know text message email stuff okay this is what you need to be doing this what you need to be doing and everything was going great you know but like when you're not there and you can't visually

see things it's it's it's nerve-wracking but both are like I get a call from uh caddies camp be like hey man he's not sweating you know and then I get a call from boy, his camp, like, I kid you not, like 20 minutes later, like he's not sweating.

And, um, I'm sitting there like, I'm about to have freaking panic attacks. I'm like, this is, um, yep,

just started this out. Like, I mean, I was still in the Marine Corps. And I, it's a constantly evolving thing. You know, there's so much that we've learned and improved on.

But, you know, I see him at the end of the day, man, like, these people are putting their trust in you, not only with their career, but with their health.

So when, when that, when that comes down the pipe, you, you damn right? you're stressed out. But the thing is, now I feel so confident,

Ariel, like we've talked to doctors. Like, there's a Dr. Kenefeck that we, we, we, we talked to,

um, about our hydration, our rehydration system and our protocols. And, uh, this guy's been doing over rehydration for 30 years. And that's what he does. He does,

he's in the army. And I mean, like when we were talking, I mean, like, a, basically an abstract of soldiers at 30, like 30,000 feet,

like what happens to him, how to rehydrate him. You know, and that's all he does. And we told about the rehydration system, he's like, dude, 100% like this, this and this. And he would ask us questions on certain things, obviously because

he's not in the, he wasn't just part of the fight game, but he answered a lot of stuff and the cool thing is when somebody like that is like, you guys are right on point. That gave you that confidence, like, okay, I did everything, you know, that I could possibly do. And if we just keep the fighter safety, if you like, man, honestly, at the end of the day,

you know, like, fighter safety is number one. And I keep that in my head, like, look, I'm going to do my best, I'm going to make this is, but at the end of the day, he was safe. He might hate me because he missed weight or, or she missed weight or whatever, but they were safe. And at that point, I mean, I can lay my head down at night and be like, okay, you know what, they were safe, you know, and, you know, that's, that, it keeps me on my toes.

It keeps the team on our toes. Like, we're constantly learning. It's a rabbit hole, man. I'm telling you, like, when it comes to nutrition, you talk about, you know, the cells and to, like, you know, the potassium. seems not permeable and these two molecules of sodium. You know what I? You just, the more you read, the more you're like,

wow, the more I know I don't know. But in terms of weight cutting, I feel that we've gone to two places that nobody else has been. And I think we have the best system. I think we might have the only system, quote unquote, system and in the hydration as well. Do you feel like I have felt there have been a couple of times, and we'll talk to UFC only because they're the ones who will receive all the attention where it's looked a little dicey and maybe someone shouldn't, you know, fight or they

don't make weight, they don't show up to the scale. You know all the stories. And sometimes I fear, like, you know, we're one mistake away from something truly tragic happening. Do you feel like all the right things are being done? Like, you can confidently say, as far as the people you're working with, all the right things are being done to make sure that everyone's doing this the right way. Or do you worry about those same things as well, that, you know, someone who may not afford a nutritionist who can't afford it, who doesn't want to do it, who thinks they could do it on their own,

and then that happens, and there's a tragedy that happens, and then, you know, there's a trickle-down effect, and it could change a lot in the sport. How do you feel about the way, you know, weight cutting is being treated from the promotion point of view

and also the fighter point of view in 2018? Man, I mean, from the UFC's point of view, I mean, like having Jeff Nevinsky there, I mean, honestly, when, when he showed up, up, I was, I was a little nervous. I was like, oh, man, you know, I've heard stories, you know, and, man, one thing I think everybody will agree with, every fighter, everybody will talk about is that he has the fighter's best interest at heart, you know, everything that they do is to improve the safety of the fighters, which I love, and I think the way that they went about it is, is they put a

couple mandates on things, and it's really opened up the eyes to fighters. Like, you know, they, they go out and they get more educated on the nutrition, whereas before, they're just kind of like, okay, I just stop eating, I put on sweats and this is how we cut weight. But now that's not necessarily the case. And then people are starting to realize it's a huge part of the game. I'm always, I'm always nervous about that because there's, there's, when I say numbers don't lie, it's like, numbers don't lie, Ariel, but, but people do. You know, we've, it's hard because, like, you'll work with somebody and it's like,

you know, like, they went to bed at 185 and then they wake up at 1.9. 90, right? It's literally scientifically impossible for you to gain weight while you sleep. It's literally impossible. You see what I'm saying? So what we have to do is kind of put that error, like that human error, like sometimes the scale that they're using doesn't give the same reading. Sometimes you get on scale, like we have to tell them like, hey, you need to weigh yourself

three times on that scale. Move that scale left and right to get a correct reading because a lot of times when you step on scale for the very first time to give you an incorrect reading. and simple things like that, you know, that, you know, like one, one incorrect reading on a scale, anybody that's been on scale, like any fighter will tell you that this happens all the freaking time. The amount of water that they're drinking, if I have an individual that's got to lose 10 pounds or cut 10 pounds in a week and they're drinking half a gallon of water for the last two weeks, that cut is going to be very difficult.

It's going to be extremely difficult because the body's at a point where it's trying to hold on the water. It's not going to just release it. Whereas I have somebody that's drinking a gallon and a half, have water, but more than they actually have to cut, it's, it's going to be a lot easier. So I can't just look at, okay, well, how much, how much do they have to cut? You know what I'm saying? Like, there's a lot of variables. And with our team, like, we take all those variables out.

And when we're there, it's like, basically we show up is like, here's the water, drink this, eat this. We bring it to them every three hours when they work out. This is what you take. You know, everything's basically, you know, we make sure that third party certified. And that's another problem that we're starting to realize that, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of things coming about these peanut supplements, you know, Lockhart and Leith. We're actually in the works of, you know, a little bit, working on the supplements out of the house to make sure that this doesn't happen. Make sure that everything is third party certified.

We work with a lot of fighters to come up with an actual kit that people can just be like, okay, I guarantee, like, it's not, you won't pop on anything. this is what you need for a fight. This is what you need for a fight camp in terms of performance, the safety and endurance, and then we actually have a weight cut kid. Like we have kids now that we send out to people. Because like you said, not everybody can afford us.

But we got mobile coaching. We have mobile coaching. We have kids that we send out to people. We'll literally send people a kid. It'll just show up and all they have to do is open that kid. They'll have their sauna suit. They'll have the supplementation. We'll have a mobile coaching that people tell exactly what is what you need to be doing today.

So, I mean, we're trying to get that out. We're trying to get out as much as possible, man. But it's still, like, we still get shocked, man, like, on all levels. Like, I can't believe you're doing this. And, you know, it's cool. On the amateur level, I'm starting, I've talked to a couple of amateurs on the phone with fitness VT, and I'm, like, blown away by how much knowledge they have. So, you know, it's, things are changing, and it's not as, I guess,

primitive as it was when I first started out. Last thing, how do you feel about the early weigh-ins now, almost two years How do you feel about them? You like them? Yeah, man. I think the more time people have to hydrate the better, even though I think it's kind of counteract. Like some people are having a negative effect just because before they were, it was because of the lateness of the way. And it was kind of preventing them from overeating.

And I think some people are, they're kind of backing it on a little bit too much because they have all this time to eat and they're kind of going overboard. You know, we kind of prevent that with our fighters. but, you know, in terms of health, man, the fact that they have more time to hydrate is amazing. It's awesome. Well, big year for you in 20-7. Oh, by the way, do you get the call yet for Connor? You get, we're getting back into camp?

What's going on? What can you tell us, George? Tell me something. No call. No call yet. If I was going to put my money on me, I'm like, people like, you think he's going to be back in a lot. Yeah, 100% that guy is, I mean, he's a fighter, you know.

I think he enjoyed boxing if he was a nice little break, but, I mean, guy's a fighter. I'm sure we'll see him soon. March, April, May. What can you tell us? I haven't got a clue, man. I haven't got a clue. Well, that was one of the big things you did in 2017, Mayweather-Omm-Mogregor. Your client list is incredible right now. Who's who? Sounds like you have some big things coming up in 2018. Good luck with the release of the DVDs. Keep up the great work. And it's good to have you back. I know you took a bit of a break. You were working with just a regular civilian did some great things with her

up in Northern California, but it's good to have you back on the MMA side of things as well. Thanks, brother. I appreciate it. Congrats on all your success. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you, George. Thank you. All right, there he is. George Lockhart, Lockhart and Leith, Tyler Minton doing his thing.

I've been talking about him quite a bit, working with the likes of Daniel Kormier and Habibnur Magamatov, Max Holloway, you've seen him on Embedded. But yeah, that's a great story. I mean, I was there, I was on the Fox set when Brian Stan told, well, I was there when Brian Stan told, someone's telling me that it says, it says two, no, what is this guy talking about? Anyway, I was there when, he's saying it says 2017 on our YouTube. It says 2018. I see you right now.

Anyway, I was there when Brian Stan told Daniel Corme, you need to work with this guy, George Lockhart. I was sitting right next to them. And, uh, and I think Cormi played a big part in getting that ball rolling. Obviously, Bryant stand blew the door open, but I think then Cormier played a very big part in the success that he had, getting down to 205, and then other people seeing it, and you see the snowball effect here. All right, let me take off these headphones here because it's time to welcome. And usually when I take off the headphones, that means we've got an in studio guest coming in. And I'm very excited about this. My friends, we've got an in studio guest. You could bring him in, Austin.

His name is Jared Gordon. He is a UFC lightweight fighter. He is returning to action on February 18th. in Austin, Texas, and he is fighting Carlos Diego Ferreira. And there he is. Jared Gordon, in the house. How are you, Flash Gordon? Good, how you doing?

Pleasure to have you here. As you knock over my flag, Jared. Yeah, that was me. That was me. That was me. My bad. My Canadian flag, I have to represent my home country. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. I tried to get you on last time right before your fight. You were flying out to Brazil, but it was a little too tight. This is better. Yeah, I was like on a crazy schedule and you were like, oh, come in day of your flight. And I was like, that's not happening. How selfish of me.

Yeah, it was pretty selfish. But you have a month now, a little over a month. You just found out, or at least we found out, that you're fighting in Austin, February 18th against Carlos Diego Ferre. How do you feel about this fight? You like it? Oh, yeah. I feel like it's a great matchup for me.

It's coming off a long layoff. That doesn't always mean that a guy is going to do bad, but I think stylistically it's a great matchup. I know he's a jitza guy, and he does go for it, you know, standing up, but I know my boxing's better, and I feel. that I'll be able to push the pace on him and break him and he'll fold. You mentioned the layoff. The layoff is due to PEDs.

He was suspended by Usada. How do you feel about that fighting him in his first fight back? And we'll get your history, you know, but it's different. It's not it's not PDs necessarily. And he had his case. But like how do you feel about that? What's your stance? I mean, you know what?

Like these guys are trying to win. And they can do. do steroids and I necessarily don't think that a lot of the steroids people use are going to help them for fighting. A lot of it's, you know, bodybuilding stuff and it's going to make you look nice, but, you know, I'm not the most shredded guy around and I think that I'm able to push the pace and my cardio is usually better than most of the, so far, everyone that I fault, my cardio has been better than it. Right. You know, I'm not like one of those muscle-bound guys. And so, I mean, you know, it could help him. It could not help him. Uh,

Now that he's coming off of it, he might, you know, have been dependent on it at one point or another. And, you know, but hey, I'd love to be his first fight back. Okay. And it is what it is. This is our sport. You know, I think every sport there's, you know, cheaters, and that's just the way it is. So it doesn't really matter. Yeah, I've heard from fighters who say, like, I don't want to fight the guy who's just coming off the suspension.

He's a cheater. Why should I have to fight him? So I was just curious if you were, you know, steadfast in those beliefs as well. I don't care. I mean, I probably, I know I four guys that have been on steroids. He's coming off of them. What's the difference? I know I'm going to win, so that's all I care about.

So I was mentioning at the top. I mean, you're just starting your UFC run. You're 2 and O now in the UFC. You were supposed to fight at 2.11. So maybe you'd be 3 in 0 at this point. Although they gave you, you know, they rebooked it a month later. You're supposed to fight. And so, like, you're still quite at the level now where I feel like not everyone knows

who Jared Gordon is. the UFC, right? You've been doing great things on the local scene, but your story man is insane. Yesterday I was rereading our colleague, my colleague, Sean Al-Shadi, wrote two great stories about you. Did you ever read those stories? Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, that stuff is like

someone's sitting down and saying like what, you know, like, people say it all the time, like it's out of a movie, right? It's a movie script. This is your life and it's amazing. How old are you right now? I just turned 29. 29. The stuff that you've been through,

29. Are you amazed that you're still here, that you're actually like living a productive life in the UFC? Oh yeah. It should be dead or in prison. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Can we start from the beginning? Sure. You've told this story, right? Oh yeah. It's just a long story. No, but I got a lot of time. There's a lot of things in between. I got a lot of time, Jared, but I think it's important that people know this story. No problem. Did it start with the fire? No. Okay. When did it start? Well, I think what a couple of things brought me into my crazy life, one being that I was in, I didn't mention this to Sean at the time. I was at sleepway camp and, you know, looking back at the now at the time, I didn't realize that this probably turned me into who I am now, but I was raped by another. Male, you know, full on rape and You know that was something that obviously greatly impacted my life. I didn't tell anyone till I was 23

Finally told my parents How old were you? At the time I was nine nine eight or nine yeah and Shortly after that I I came home from cam you know acted like everything was normal. I didn't even know that it was like Something bad or wrong or you know I was a kid or I was a child. I didn't know what's even thinking think. And I had friends that were a little older than me. They were smoking weed at the time. They were like 12, 13, 14 years old. And, you know, I started smoking weed. I have an older brother as well. So he was kind of like influence in my life. And I began, you know, just doing kids stuff. Like nine is young to start smoking weed. Yeah. I mean, but that's when I started. And,

you know, I began drinking also. And, you know, I grew up in a really well-to-do area. I grew up in the North Shore of Long Island in Rosalind Heights. Okay. It's a very affluent neighborhood. I didn't come from the projects. You know, I didn't come from, you know, I had a, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and, you know, I'm grateful for that.

I'm really lucky. But, you know, I just chose to go down this road. So I guess it's a little different, you know, where people that are less fortunate, you know, kind of have no option, I guess you can say. I had plenty of options and plenty of sources, and I could have got all the help that I wanted. But I just chose to be, I wouldn't say a bad person, but I just chose to do wrong things.

And so my addiction progressed fast as a kid. I was using narcotics at a young age. I was doing criminal-like things, which at the time I thought were cool, but any criminal or like, you know, it's for losers, you know, if you're going to be, like, living that lifestyle. And, you know, I partied and I did, you know, all like the regular kid stuff, drinking beers in the woods, you know, like girls, having fun.

And then my father sure burns down when I was 12. Can I pause you there for a second? Do you think that you smoke the weed to forget what happened at summer camp? Do you think if what happened at summer camp doesn't happen, you don't even try the weed? Or was that always going to happen, you think? think it was always going to happen. Okay. Yeah, definitely. Um, for sure. Do you, what happened to that guy? Um, so, well, I guess I could, you want to get, okay. Yeah, yeah,

we'll get to that. Um, so I was 12 years old. It was father's day, um, Sunday afternoon, quiet, father's day. I remember being in my room and I'm laying on my bed and the phone rings and my mom answers and all of a sudden, she's screaming. Rob, my father, is Rob. The store is on fire. So we all jump in the car. We rushed to Queens, Long Island City. I was living in Nassau at the time. And we get there and his building is a blaze. And there was exploded and three firemen were trapped in the rubble and dozens got injured. The three firemen died. Oh, wow. And it was called the Fathers Day Fire. It was one of the deadliest fires in New York City. It was the deadliest fire in New York City since 1969. So this is 2001 right

before 9-11. And then obviously 9-11 happened and that kind of took the kick. But so that was like a huge moment in our life. My father just lost his business. Completely gone. The whole thing was gone. And why did it go on? So there was two kids who him, them and their father lived in an illegal apartment that backed my father's building. And they were back there spray painting. They were doing what they call fire graffiti where you put gasoline on the wall, then you graffiti over it and you light it on fire and the spray paint burns into the brick. So the only way to remove it is to remove the actual brick. Turpentine is not going to, so whatever. They kicked one of the gas cans over and it rolled down a ramp which led into the basement of my father's store. And that was like a load.

dock and right under the door two feet away was the boiler and so whoever installed the boiler in the fifties or 40s the building was there since 1870 well installed it incorrectly it's supposed to be sitting on a platform that's like 24 to 36 inches off the floor these people installed it and it was only two inches off the floor so the water pilot was sitting right on the floor so when the gas rolled down the fumes raised a little bit and the whole place ignited. So there was like thousands of arousel cans and flammable products and liquids in the basement. The FDNY came, they knocked through the back door and they're trying to put the fire out. Now there was pressure being created from the fire in the basement.

And all the tops of the arsol cans, the firemen actually said they heard them all popping off, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. and they could hear the gas as being, you know, it was leaking out of all the cans. And the boiler was there. There was all sorts of propane tanks and all sorts of ridiculous things in the basement. And so now the firemen are on the street level,

trying to break through the front of the building. You know, everything is closed. It's Father's Day. So they have to get through the roll-up gates, then the door. So they finally get in, they rush to the basement door. And when they opened the basement door, they created a backdraft,

which is like a fireman's worst nightmare. And all that oxygen from the door opening just ignited into a bomb and it blew out the whole front of the store. Wow. So a lot of the guys that were on the first floor, they fell in. The guys that were already in the basement

got covered by the first floor rubble and three guys got stuck in there and a 60, I think something, firemen were injured. Mayor Giuliani was there. He watched it burned down with us. You're standing there. Yeah, I'm standing there watching it with my family. Well, they actually had us

blocks away now because the place is exploded. Wow, and you're 12? 12 years old, yeah. So I'm there with my mother or my whole family. I'm sure your mom and dad are very emotional. Oh yeah, crying. My dad. What's it like seeing that? It was terrible. It was my grandfather's business. Oh, wow.

Handed it down to my father and his brother. Was he there your grandfather? No, he passed away. Okay. At that point, the year before. And my uncle lives a couple blocks away. So him and all my cousins and family were there. And all the people that work and the business live in the area, so they're all there, you know.

And the whole neighborhood was there. It rattled. It shook the whole neighborhood. Yeah. That was a huge moment because now my father lost millions of dollars. He's being sued by the widows of the firemen. Oh my God. It was the widows of the firemen versus New York City and Robin and Randy Gordon, Randy's uncle.

So we couldn't afford to live in Long Island anymore. So now my father's like, all right, well, let's move to Astoria. You know, we're right next to the business. It's way cheaper. They need to be close now because they're rebuilding. And they wind up rebuilding down the block on a bigger lot. They made a huge store. it's beautiful

the trial and all the all the paperwork and all the lawsuits and all the whole thing took 12 years no way to finalize they had the trial in 2012 or 2013 it was like one of the longest trials in

New York City history it was like 30 or 40 day trial and it was crazy it had like scientists from NASA trying to explain how the fire happened and all it was there was so many details and things and did you go to it i went to a couple days okay at the time i was deep in my addiction so i was kind of like in and out okay but uh so whatever i moved to queen's huge culture shock for me i'm going to school with all irish italian and jewish kids and now i'm in school with an eclectic group of people huge culture shock like i said

and I was already getting high, having fun as doing my thing. And I graduate high school. And, oh, by the way, I used, like, the fire and the moving to Queens as, like, a reason to rebel as a young kid. I didn't want to move, I didn't want to leave all my friends. So it was just like a snowball effect of things, you know, that I was going through as a young kid. And I was a bad kid, though. When I was in school, I was a terror. Anything I could do to get in trouble and to have fun, I did it.

suspensions, you know, just kid stuff. And that was just me, though. Me and my brother, all my friends, that's just the way we work. Your brothers were the same? I'm sorry? Your brothers were the same as you? Oh, well, actually, my younger brother was an angel. Okay.

But my older brother was also really bad. He was a recovering heroin addict also. Okay. He's got seven years clean. I only got two. Okay. So I kind of dragged out a little longer than him. Any sisters?

No sisters. Okay, so three of you? Three boys, yeah. So I grabbed. I didn't want to go to college. I actually got accepted to L.I.U. for the pharmacy program, which probably wouldn't have been a good idea

because I was addicted to pills at the time. And I wanted to do something physical. I wrestled in middle school. My grandfather was a pro boxer. I wanted to box. I boxed a little as a kid. So UFC at the time was blown up. It was 2007.

I was watching Frankie Eager. I was in love with the sport. And I wanted to do something physical. So I found a rhino fight team, which is on Steinway Street in Astoria, or Long Island City. And I started training. Four months later, I had my first amateur fight, and it took off from there. I fell in love with the sport. You loved it.

Oh, I loved it. I had my first amateur fight. I won. Had my second fight, I won, but I hurt my neck. And I got addicted to painkillers. So that's when, like, everything started to really get bad for me. Had you hurt your neck? just training

okay someone put me in like a guillotine or something and okay and that was that what kind of pills vikingin okay who introduced you to that

oh my friends were selling them he said oh your neck hurts here take some pillows it worked it worked it was great um then

oxycontin came into my area and that was like a huge epidemic you know across the country got to oxycontin and that's when it really started to get bad for me. I went to rehab for the first time when I was 21. I had no intentions on getting clean at all.

Came out. Who sent you there? Oh, my parents. They knew about this. Oh, yeah, yeah. Were you living with them? Yeah, I was living with them. How'd they find out?

Well, I mean, it was pretty obvious. Oh, was okay. Yeah, I was just a mess, and I wasn't like, I was living like a horrible lifestyle, and I didn't care about anything but having fun and money and girls and all the stupid stuff that comes along with living that lifestyle. And, you know, I was also nodding out at the dinner table and on the couch. And my parents aren't stupid, you know.

They're not naive at all. So they knew what was going on. So when I went to rehab, I met a couple of people in there that when I came out, I wound up hanging out with them. went through here in Florida, but I also wound up relocating to Florida to train at the Black Zillions. And... What year is this? 2002. No, I'm 2012.

2012. Yeah. Or 2011? No, it just turned 2012. This is still very early in your career. Oh, yeah. I was actually at this point already 1 and 0 as a pro. Okay.

So I moved down there. But of course, these people live right next to the Black Zililil, literally like a couple blocks from where the train. Center was. Wow. So, you know, I knew no one down there. So who am I going to hang out? Well, I'll hang out with the kids. I still want to get high. I might as well hang out with the kids I went to rehab with. And they introduced me to needles. How long were you in rehab for? I was there for 17 days and I left early. You could just leave whenever you want? Well, I, what they called A-made. It's basically leaving against medical advice. Okay. So I left against medical advice. So I A-made and I went back to New York. Did you get high while you?

You were in rehab? Yeah, I left. I went to Miami, got high. But not like during the 17 days. No, no, no, no. I was clean for 17 days, yeah. And then I came home, decided I want to train the Black Zillions, and I went down there.

Okay. So now I'm shooting pills, oxy cotton, and training at the Black Zillions. I was in and out. I wasn't really training hard. But, man, I remember it was at the time. It was Rashad Evans just became champion. He just beat T. Ortiz, I think.

Or someone. He beat someone for the Forrest Griffin for the light heavyweight title. Yep, yep. And they had a bunch of monsters in there. Anthony Johnson. Michael Johnson. Mm-hmm. It was like the height of the Blacksland.

It was the height of the Blackslands. Yeah. All the big guys were down there. Bigfoot Silva. All these guys were out. Yeah, yeah. So actually when I was there, one day, training.

And I'm wrestling with Michael Johnson. And I remember where, like, wrestling, and he stands up and he's got this face on. I'm like, what is this? And so I look, I turn around, and there's detectives on the mat. And they're, are you Jared Gordon? I'm like, oh, yeah, that's me. And you're

being arrested for a home invasion robbery and felony battery. And, uh... Arrested at the Black Sillian. In the Black Cillians, the detectives came on the mat with their shoes on. And everyone's there. Rashad. Melvin Galard was there Anthony Johnson

Henry Hooft was there I forget Mike Van Arsdale was the coach So they're all looking at me Like what did you do You know And so it was a really embarrassing

moment for me Because no one knew who I was You were just a guy I was a kid 21 or 22 whatever They cuff you They cuff me on the man They take me to jail

Holy smokes Yeah so I allegedly Robbed Broke into someone's house And robbed them The guy was a drug dealer I may or may have not committed the crime. I'll leave it up to your imagination.

What do you mean? Well, you know, I got arrested for it, but I could have or couldn't have done it. I may have done it. I may have done it. Okay. Do you remember if you did it? Like, do you remember the night? No, maybe.

Okay. I might, you know. Well, just because, like, maybe you're under the influence and maybe you have no recollection. I remember the night that they say that I did it. Yeah. Okay, okay. So, I was facing 25 to life. I mean, yeah, I was in a...

Just you? My buddy also, but they didn't catch him. Okay. You were the only one arrested as a result of us? Yes. Okay. So the person claims that I broke into their house while they were sleeping and robbed them.

But he was a drug dealer. He was a two-time convicted felon. Wow. So he was supposed to testify against me in court. I was in jail for three weeks. I got bonded out. I went to court, and the kid never showed up to testify against me.

Wow. So if you did, I probably would be sitting I would only be like five years into my sentence right now or six years or something like that. He never showed up. He never showed up because he was wanted for drug charges so he knew he could come to court and testify against me but he would get arrested also.

Oh my God. So right then and there they threw the case out because they knew we're not going to get anything out of this. These are all, you know, these kids are all junkies. But why do you call the cops on you in the first place if he has... So apparently whatever happened that night at the house, there was a huge ruckus and the neighbors called the police. Wow.

So when the neighbors came, this kid, oh, these guys broke into my house. I'm just a regular person. Meanwhile, the kid's a drug dealer. So, I mean, that was like a huge pivotal moment for me because I was like, all right, this is starting to get bad. You know, I'm actually like getting arrested for really, really horrible crimes. Did your parents know? Yeah, yeah, my parents knew, of course. I called them from, they weren't too happy.

Did they visit you? My mother actually came down and, yeah, they... What was that like? It was horrible because I remember being in, you know, a show. shackles in a blue jumpsuit. I'm in felony court. I was in a, they called it Section C of Gun Club, which was the county jail. It was a maximum security holding. And I was in court, you know, and they arraigned me. And they said no bond because I was a flight risk. So they didn't want to give me bail because I thought I might run because I'm from New York. I wasn't a Florida

resident. Right, right. And I remember looking back at my mother, and she's sitting in the stands and she's crying. I just turned away and walked back into the jail, whatever. Were you alone in jail? Yeah, I was alone, yeah. It put you by yourself. Yeah, I was with the murderers and the armed robbers and the rapists. What was it like three weeks there?

It was horrible, man. It was freezing, cold. I've been in jail before in New York. For what? Just for overnight, just for possessions. Okay. Driving with suspended license. How many times?

I got arrested eight times, directly or indirectly because of drugs and alcohol. Prior to this? Yeah. Wow. I mean, there were a lot of them were criminal acts or whatever, but I did them because. you know, I wanted money or I needed drugs or I was selling things. You know, so all of this is like, it might sound like I'm glorifying it, but I'm not.

No, no. I think it's really, if you're living this way, you're living wrong. Yeah. And if you're doing certain, you're poisoning the community, you're selling drugs, you're, you're destroying people's lives, you know? Yeah. And so like, I'm just telling my story. No, I appreciate it very much. Yeah. So the day I got bonded out of jail, I actually went, was like, well, I got to get high because I was dope sick the whole time.

The day you left? Yeah, yeah. Did anything happen in jail? No, I fended off a couple of Haitian gang members, but yeah, I was all right. Did they come after you? Yeah, they were just like, I don't know if they knew I was a fighter. Okay. They wanted my food.

I wasn't going to give it up. Damn. So, but you have to realize, like a lot of these people are just waiting for, sentences or what's going to happen. So no one really wants to act out because they don't want to put more time on. If I were to went to prison, it would be different because that's when people that have, they already know that they have life in prison, they'll kill you because they got nothing to lose. So where I was, we were still in the county where it was like, yeah, exactly. So I got out, that night went overdosed. Wow. Yeah. Overdosed. That was my first overdose, yeah. Okay. On what?

Heroin. Okay. Yeah. I was shooting heroin with my friend. I remember shooting it halfway through the shot. I'm like, this feels funny. F it, shot the rest of it. And I woke up in an ambulance. Couldn't move my right arm or the right side of my face. What does funny feel? Like when you say funny, what does that feel?

It just felt like not a normal heroin shot. Because you've taken it before. Yeah, yeah. It just didn't feel the same way. It felt like really strong. And like it was hitting. me like super fast like way harder than it normally would have and I just went under. And you say like did you like did you want to die? Were you trying to kill yourself? No I wasn't trying to kill

myself. I just didn't care at that point. Yeah I didn't care right. I just wanted to know make sure it was a good shot. Okay. And it was the easiest thing I ever did. What do you mean? The whole like, you know, you watch a movie where someone overdoses it looks like a terrible scene. Oh yeah yeah yeah. You don't feel any of that. Yeah. It's just boom. A warm blanket and you close your eyes and that's it. So I remember waking up and being like, oh, what happened? You're in the hospital now? Yeah. And I can't move my arm, can't move my face.

Wow. Once I could finally start moving again, I just ripped the IV out. Went on my way. You just left? Yeah. Who sent you to the hospital? Well, my friend called the ambulance. I overdosed in the hard rock casino parking lot in Hollywood, Florida.

Okay. So I guess I got taken out of the parking lot. But he called? Yeah, my friend called and left me there. and waited for the cop, the ambulance to come. Really? And so, yeah, like, I didn't care, though. And I wasn't ready, and I didn't have, like, the knowledge that I needed to get clean.

Okay. So my life basically went on like that for a couple of years. Wow. I would go into rehab, homeless shelters. I would be panhandling. Homeless in New York, homeless in Florida. Panhandling is, like, one of the most... belittling things you can do.

You're on the street. Oh yeah, on the street, panhandling. New York City? New York City and Del Rey Beach, Florida, which is the rehab capital of the world. And it's belittling, man, when people are giving dirty looks

and, like, I'm like a Jewish kid from Long Island. Like, no, you can't look at me like that. You know what I mean? Like, that'll have some of entitlement. Meanwhile, I got track marks. Wow. You know, and I did a lot of things

that were really belittling, like, go to crack houses, and they're like, oh, you're a cop, and I'm like, I'm not a cop, and they're like, and I'm like, look at my arms, and they're like, oh, he's a junkie. Give him some crack or whatever he wanted. And I was doing things that were like really, wow, I can't believe, this is what I'm doing. Right.

You ever have those moments, but you can't get out of it? Like, you're thinking to something, I can't believe it? Basically, you just don't care at that point. But when you're, when the fog clears, then you look back, at all and you're like wow what was that doing so are you ever sitting like in january like now like sitting outside uh you know asking for money or nor to sleep like was it was it ever this bad where you're just like freezing oh yeah really not in like one degree weather yeah but like um in cold weather yeah i mean it's pretty extreme out there i know yeah yeah but anytime i i realize

all it's going to be really cold the next couple days i better find a place you go i would go to like a home the shelter or like a crisis center. Okay. Or I would go to like a hospital and they go, I want to kill myself and they have to take you in. Wow. Bring you in a psych word. So like I knew how to play the system, you know? What about going home? Oh, I wasn't allowed home. You were invited?

You weren't welcome. I was, yeah, they didn't, they weren't going to let me home. Okay. Yeah. My parents, they did that to me and my brother because we didn't want to, we didn't want to take the help they were offering. Yeah. So they're going to take our help, then you got to get out. Wow. And where's your brother? I'm sorry? Where's your brother in all this?

because he's a junkie too. He's already sober at this point. Oh, he is. Yeah, yeah. He got clean. He's coming up on seven years this month. And he was already, he went to rehab once, got clean, and that was it. I dragged it out.

I went to rehab ten times. Wow. Yeah. So I finally went away to long-term treatment. I went away for six months. Came out. I had another about 14 months clean. Had a shoulder surgery after my third pro-fight.

third pro fight six pro fight who's paying for the surgery I had health insurance okay still for my father luckily wow he didn't cut that off no I needed it for rehab and stuff

so I guess he kind of held on to that but uh you know my parents never gave up on me though even though they kicked me out if I wanted help they would still help me okay

my mother is Sicilian so you know how that is when you have like an Italian mom they're like you know I'm a mom's boy so yeah yeah They weren't going to just let me go. If I wanted to kill, if I was going to die, I was going to die.

But they weren't going to, you know, they didn't want me to die in their house and know that they didn't do anything about it. But they weren't, if I needed help, they weren't going to turn their back on me if I wanted to help. So I went to treatment, got clean, had another, had a shoulder surgery, relapsed again. Then I got another year and a half clean. I'm fighting throughout all this. I'm 9 in 0 now. 9 in 0, wow. I'm fighting for the CFFC

featherweight title against Jeff Lentz, who is an ultimate fighter alumni. I'm winning the fight up on all the Georgia scorecards. Jeff needs me in my face, perfectly, breaks my face. I end up in the head trauma unit. I have to put a plate in my face.

And I'm a year and a half clean now I'm getting IV deluded, which is opiates, morphine, deluded. And I'm there for seven days. They're giving it to me every four hours. I relapse again after that.

Do they know that you were... Oh, I told the doctors and my parents were there with me, and they're like, well, that's nice and all, but... They got to help you. You need surgery. And I never actually heard a doctor

explained it this way, but they said, if we don't give you painkillers to control your pain levels, healing won't occur. We need all your muscles to relax so the swelling comes down because your face, my face is out to hear.

Yeah. And I had five breaks under my eye. I had three breaks in my nose. And I was in bad shape. And I had to have surgery like that next, and like that was Saturday night, that Monday morning I had surgery.

They replaced my orbital floor with a metal plate. Wow. So when I had to stay there for another five days there, and the pain, it was the most pain I've ever been in my life.

And I've been in a lot of pain. Yeah. And they're shooting me up. But so the times that I did get clean before that, I wasn't doing anything to keep myself sober. Like the things I do now, like I go to AA, you know, I have an AA sponsor. I try to help other addicts and alcoholics. And so basically I was just what they call white knuckling it, which is when you just do it on your own. And like, the only thing that kept me clean was M.A.

I have to stay clean because I won't have a career. Yeah. I wasn't like doing anything self-help-wise. So now, like, I have different coping mechanisms when I have problems. Anything bad that comes up, if I have anxiety, something crappy happens, you know, I'm not just going to run to the needle. You know, I'm able to say, all right, like take a step back and play the tape through and, and, uh, you know, get advice from people that I know are going to give me the right advice. So it's different now because, you know, I'm able to deal with situations where beforehand I would say,

let me call and get some drugs, you know. And so now, so I went to rehab. So two years ago. So the face injury, then you relapse, right? Relapse, hardcore, worst. Worst run I've ever had. had in my life, meaning like worst time of using drugs I've ever had. How long did that last? It was about six months. Why was it the worst? Like just everything?

Well, I hit a lot of like physical bottoms before. Okay. Like overdoses and going to jail and being in all the crappy institutions and being homeless. But this time was like I was in mental anguish. Okay. Like I can't even explain to you the feelings and the things that were going through my mind and just the feeling I was,

It was complete despair and anguish and like it was just incomprehensible demoralization of life. Wow. And I was like using heavy heroin and coke, IV, everything. And I was kicked out of my house. So I'm homeless again. I'm going motel to motel. Finally, I have my third overdose. I wake up again with NYPD and FDNY around me.

And I'm in an ambulance. I'm going to the hospital. It's December 26, two years ago. 2015? 2015. Okay. It's not that long ago. No, it was only two years.

Wow. So. Where'd they find you? All right. So I was in a motel in right across the street from Queensburg's Projects. I was shooting cocaine and heroin for about five days. I was like in complete psychosis. By yourself?

By myself. I must have shot up and I fell over into like a desk and a lamp and whoever was next door, thank God they were there, called, front desk saying,

oh, I just heard like a huge crash. Really? They called the cops that came upstairs, ripped me out. I was really lucky too because I still had a lot of drugs on me and the cops,

I was like, we're bringing you to the hospital. I'm like, well, where's my drugs? no one is what I say to the cops Wow And they're like yeah we're taking that I'm like am I going to jail And they were like no it's Christmas

We you know We all want to go home We don't want to do paperwork And bring you to jail What you're going to bring you to the hospital And cut you loose there Wow I was like oh great

So I go to the hospital I come out I'm still like Oh I still want to get high How long were you in the hospital for Two days? I woke up two days later Two days You were out for two days

I was unconscious for two days Wow If those people don't call I die Yeah Yeah In a sleazy motel And Queensbridge project

Wow Okay So I um I come I wake up Rip the IV out of my arm again Again

Again I go home I catch cab I ring my doorbell I don't know where my sneakers I have no sneakers No way I'm like well I don't have any other sneakers

I better go Try to get sneakers It's a winter It's wintertime. Yeah. And my parents had no idea where I was for the last two weeks. I made their Christmas miserable. I made their last five, six years miserable.

And they opened the door and their faces were like, they looked at me with like, you know, it was terrible. My younger brother, too, who was here, he was just in disbelief. They thought you were dead? Well, they had no idea where I was. I was, yeah, I don't know if they thought I was dead. It was a possibility. So they're like, well, we're not letting you in.

We'll give you clothes and sneakers. And I'm like, all right, well, I want to go to rehab. Because at this point now, I'm really feeling it. I'm like, well, this is not what I want. You know, I'm nine and one now. I still have a career. And I was just hurting too many people. And I just had enough.

At the time, I was also, like, before that happened, I was trying to get sober. I had a guy who was helping me. He'd bring me to detox, and I would leave, and he'd bring me to detox and I'd leave. I'd go to rehab and I'd leave and I kept relapsing. And so I called him and he got me into rehab one more time into detox. I went to detox.

I went back to rehab for the 10th time. And I came out and I said, I'm done with this. I just hit a point where I wouldn't call it an epiphany. But at that point it was just black and away from me. It was either I was going to keep getting high. and die or go to prison, or I was going to live a normal life and get healthy and better. And I didn't want, it was more like, when I saw my parents' faces that morning, at this point it was for them. I don't even care about myself at this point, but I'm sick of hurting everyone else.

That was a turning point. That was a turning point for me. And the guy that was helping me get into detox. How bad is detox? Like actually detoxing? Yeah. Oh, I've done it cold turkey and I've done it with drug assistance and they both suck really terribly bad.

It's like having the flu times 10 with like major depression. Okay. How long does it last? The initial like acute or like the initial like detox like the terrible, terrible feeling is like about I would say a week or 10 days maybe longer. Okay. But they have something called pause, which is post-acute withdrawal syndrome, which lasts for months. Wow.

So it goes on for, you don't sleep. If you shoot heroin, like the way I shoot heroin, you won't sleep when you get off for at least three weeks a month, month and a half. Maybe like two hours a night, one hour, you just can't sleep. Wow. So you're so used to being numb and passing out that, now you're like, it's like you're, you got dependent on something that was making you sleep. Yeah. Now you don't have it and you're like wide awake, you know? Were you ever close to going back?

After this time? Yeah. No. Nothing ever happened. Like obviously the thought of drugs came into my mind. It still does because you hear it all the time. When someone talks about drugs, then I think about the past. Right.

So, I mean, like, thinking about it comes into my head, but acting on it has not happened. Okay. But that's also because I have, you know, boundaries. I have, like, guardrails that keep me on. the road that I need to be on. Okay. So now I'm going to AA. I'm doing certain things to help myself.

I'm working with other people, other alcoholics and addicts that know how to stay clean and live life. And I'm doing all the things that I can to stay clean. I get back in the gym and train my ass off for months. I get another crack at the CFFC title. I won by head kick the first round against a veteran and Anthony Morrison who fought in W.C

and Bellator and... Cheesecake? Cheese steak. Cheese steak. That's right. Knock him out in the first round. Take a two-week short-notice fight against DeWan Pickney. I choke him out in the second round, rear-nickett choke. Then I fight Algeo,

Bill Algeo, on the Dana White looking for a fight show. And I whip his ass and they signed me. But weren't you supposed to fight Jeff Lentz again? Yeah, I was supposed to. But he was going to fight me, then he didn't. It never happened. Then he fought Bill Aljo.

Bill beats him. And then I fight Bill beat Bill. So there wasn't a situation where you were going to fight him and your coach pulled the fight the night before? Oh, yeah, yeah. So that was actually before I went to rehab for the last time. Halloween weekend. I was supposed to,

I was in the, at the Borgata Hotel in casino, cutting weight, and I'm getting ready to get down to wait and fight Bill, and my coach looks at my arms, Jeff, coach looks at my arms,

they're all tracked up. I'm sitting in the bathtub, trying to make weight, and he's like, you think I'm going to let you fight like this? You're out of your mind. If you think I'm going to let you get in the cage, and you're getting high.

Like, I'm shooting dope, like, that day, you know? And I was like, well, I just want to fight this guy. I don't care. But they wouldn't let me do it. So that's why they pulled me from... Do you freak out? Were you mad at your coach for doing that? No, no, no. Actually, I was supposed to fight Bill that day.

Okay. I pulled out on Bill. But I was supposed to fight Jeff before that, but he had hurt his knee and the fight didn't happen, and then I was supposed to fight Bill. I pulled out on Bill. Okay. So...

What was your coach? coach's name uh jason strout and are you still with him oh yeah okay he's like um he's a he's an amazing human he's uh quite the person he has like a no crap attitude he doesn't care what your problem is or what your situation is if you're not going to work hard and and do what you need to do then he doesn't want to deal with you okay and that's the kind of person i need you know otherwise i would have i would do it my way right and and when i do it my way i tend to screw things up so If it wasn't for Jason and my other coaches now, I wouldn't be where I am. He has brought me to a whole new levels in my career.

And he's the head coach at Churchry, Boxing Gym, which is right here. Yep. And he's been my coach since my second pro fight. The fight that I lost to Jeff, he actually was cornering Fulibé Nova in Manila, so he wasn't even there for it. And I barely actually trained with him for that fight. I decided to go to Soroni's house, New Mexico, and train there for a month. I came back, and he was just like, you look like shit.

He went to Manila. I fought Jeff Adeline McGee and Dave Branch corner me, and I lost the fight, even though I was winning it. But he wasn't there. So the one fight that he didn't corner me and I lost. And he's taken, like I said, taking me to all new levels. So I have to thank him and my other coach, Mike Jarmillo, who is John Donahurst's first. black belt and he's brought my MMA grappling to a whole new level

and Cody Hammer who is my wrestling coach. He's Damien Mai's wrestling coach as well. Yeah, in Jersey. Yeah, at the edge. Edge. So Dana White goes does the show Sarah, Dean Thomas are there. You look good. You go to the back. He says, we'll give you the call. We see it on. But he kind of takes a shot a bit about your personality. Yeah, because he was like... You should be more excited or something? Yeah, he was like, so you want to do this? And I was like, yeah, I got, I got nothing else, you know? Right. He's like, you sure? And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure. And Matt Sarah's like, oh, don't be so excited. And I'm like, well, what do you want me to do? Get on my knees?

Right, right, right. And like, it's really cool to be signed to UFC, but what does that mean? Absolutely nothing. How many people get signed to UFC and in two fights, they're gone? Yeah. How many people get to UFC and their B-class fighters still? Yeah. So, I mean, if Dana handed me a million dollars that day, then yeah, I'd be happy. Life-changing. Yeah, or if, like, or when I win the UFC champion, Chip, then I'll be happy. But, like, getting to UFC doesn't mean anything to me.

Even right now, I'm 2 in the UFC. It means nothing. I'm broke. You know, I'm super hungry. No one knows me. and big deal. I'm 2 and 0 in UFC. How many people go 4 in 0 in UFC,

5 in 0 in UFC, they lose three straight and they're gone. Yeah. So let me get a couple of years under my belt in UFC, and then I'll act excited. I knew I was going to get into UFC. It wasn't a if, it was a when. So Dana, you know, took a shot at me. At least he did say, he was like,

you know, you don't need personality to fight and Jared can fight. When you saw that, what did you think, though? Oh, I laughed. Me and everyone, because, like, I know I have personality and all my friends know. Also, you have like one of the craziest backstories of all time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess I don't think Dana knows.

Of course, of course. Of course, of course you probably didn't know. He doesn't know. I don't think he knows now either. I haven't seen him since then, basically. Or I saw him at the athlete retreat. And I had just missed weight and I didn't even fight yet. So who am I to him?

Right. So, you know, my life is like this, man. Yeah. It's all like. It's your broke right now. I mean, where do you live? I have a couple of bucks in my pocket, you know, for my fights, but I'm not, like, able to, like, live lavishly. Sure.

You live with your parents? I live in my family's house in the story of Queens, yeah. I mean... Are your parents still there? Yeah. Okay. And, like, I mean, it's cool. We have a big town house.

Same house. Well, the house that we moved into, yeah. Like, from after the fire? Yeah. Wow. It's a nice, it's a beautiful house. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Mom's an interior designer, so it's nice. Yeah. And they go to their summer house, like, three or four days a week. So it's usually just me and my younger brother there. Okay. In a big house, I don't have to pay rent, but I can't afford to pay rent in New York,

especially New York City. Yeah. Unless I want to move to the hood. And you get meals? Yeah, my mom's Sicilian. She cooks great food. So, I mean, like, I'm grateful to be where I am right now. For me, I just have to bust my ass.

And, you know, nothing really has been given to me in MMA. I've had to work pretty hard. I do have a lot of help. I have great support in my career, my coaches, my managers, the people that have helped me get to where I am now. So like I've been blessed as far as that, but I've got to, you know, just like anyone else, I got to bust my ass, man.

I'm not getting that much push, which is fine, because who am I? So since that night, that Christmas night, motel, you haven't used sober since then. I just got two years sober on the 27th of December. Congratulations. Thank you. Are you afraid? of going back or do you feel like?

Yeah. I mean, I'm terrified of getting high again because I know that I'll die. So it's like weird because like sometimes I'll think about drugs and kind of like, especially with people that have used the same drugs as me

and use them the same way that I use them will like reminisce almost. The same feeling that like gets me excited to like, oh wow, like imagine if I got high again, how good it would feel is the same feeling that absolutely disgusts me. So it's like, like, I know it's going to, it would feel amazing, but I know that I would just like, you know, crap the bed again if I got high. So you're around people who still.

No, no, no, people that are sober. Okay, gotcha. Okay, okay. I don't hang around people that are getting high. And if they are getting high, it's because I'm trying to help them. Okay. I don't hang around that kind of. And has anyone ever told you, like, maybe this isn't the right profession for you

because what if you get hurt again? Oh, yeah. Okay. Every doctor, every person that doesn't know me. My family fully supports what I do. Yeah. I could walk out of your studio and break my leg and I might have to get painkillers. Sure.

So who cares if I fight and they get hurt. And they get hurt. I just got to cope with it in a healthy manner. Mm-hmm. Wow. What a story. That is unbelievable. How many times have you told that story?

A lot. It gets monotonous. I'm not going to lie, it's a long story. There's so many things in between. You skipped a lot of stuff? Oh, God. We'd be here for days. Really? Yeah. I feel, I have to ask you about the first thing you said at the story that you said you were going to get to. Oh, all right.

So the first time I went to rehab, I was reading an article in the newspaper about, this pornography ring that got busted. And I'm reading, and there's the guy that raped me. Wow. He gets caught in the child pornography ring. Wow. And so I contacted my parents. And I was like, look, I was sober at the time.

I'm like, I got to get this off my chest. I better tell someone. This is the first time that I'm telling him this. And I'm like, look, this is what happened to me as a kid. This is the guy right here. He just got arrested for this. What should we do? So while I'm in rehab,

we're in talks with the FBI and they wanted me to testify against him in court to put him away. I couldn't bring myself to see him again face to face. Wow. So they asked us to write a letter

to the judge about what happened to me and they would use it as evidence against him. So I wrote him a letter. They gave it to the judge and he's done. doing eight years. Eight years? That's it.

That's it? Because, like, he got a child pornography ring. I don't know exactly what his part was, but he got eight years. You remember his name. You read it, you remembered it.

Where was the camp? In Pennsylvania. It's called Camp Canadensis. It's like one of those Sleepway camps. Sleepway Camp. Regular camp. I went to those.

Yeah, yeah. Wow. I didn't know you were a brother. I'm a half a Jew, man. Half. My father's a Jew. My mother's Sicilian. Usually you go with the mom, though.

You identify what you do? But my mom converted to a Jew. I'm a Jew, man. Before giving birth to you. You didn't? No, I went to Hebrew school though. Oh, really? Wow. It was weird.

Like, we lived in Long Island. I went to Hebrew school. Then we moved to Queens and we like turned Catholic. Yeah. We put up a Christmas tree. Now you do. My mom, like she loves, she still wants to do. No Hanukkah, no menorah, no nothing.

No. Used to, dude. Menoras. We don't have a lot of Jews in this game. You can really own that market. I know. You know what? Smart.

You know, like back of the day, 1900s. I didn't have a born-in-ville. That's fine. But I was still born to two Jewish parents. We'll accept you. All right. Like in the early days of fighting, there were a lot of Jews. In boxing, yeah.

Boxing, yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a big deal. I know. You've got the nose? Yeah, well, it's been broken a thousand times. Sure, but.

My brother out there should see his nose. Really? He doesn't fight in his nose. He's laughing at your picture. Which, oh, my big nose. Yeah, of course. I'm proud of it. You got to own it.

But it's fascinating that your older brother and you have had these issues. Then you say he's an angel. It didn't go down to him. No, he saw what we did and said, I don't want any part of this. You blazed the, I guess, the wrong trail, and then he decided I'm going to go the other way. He's like, I'm done with this. Wow.

He does this, yeah. So he builds custom guitars for all the famous people. Custom what? Guitars. Guitars. He's like a very, he's a luthier. A luthier. Which is like a guitar builder.

Okay. And he builds custom guitars. He sold into Keith Urban. He sold them into the CCO of LG. tells him all over Japan, all over America. Wow, good for him. He's quite the talented kid. And what does your older brother do?

Ironically, he owned a drug rehab in Florida. Owned? Yeah. So he went down there, got clean, and fell into a brand new company that was growing. He grew up the company. They opened up a rehab center, and they just sold it, actually. Oh. And now he, I don't know what he does.

We're close, but he just opened up some new company. It's like they make logos on everything for everything. Like if you want a mug or if you're like a dentist or if you're like an orthodontist and you want to have like your logo on like a little pack with a toothbrush and toothpaste. He'll put a logo on anything for you, T-shirts. Okay, okay, okay. And he's got a bunch of other stuff going on. But he's another huge part of my sobriety as well. I saw him get clean.

I was like, how the hell do it one time? Yeah. And his life just took off as soon as he got clean. He's got two kids. Oh, no. There's a brand new house in West Palm Beach. He's married. He just sold his business.

He's just chilling in sunny Florida. How's your relationship with your parents? Oh, it's like, amazing. Oh, good. Yeah. I'm a huge, huge, like, mama's boy. Yeah. And my father is, like, my biggest fan.

Ghost your fights? Every single fight. The UFC ones? Yeah. Brazil? They didn't go to Brazil. Okay. But,

Austin? Every other one. They're coming to Austin. Okay. They went to Oklahoma City. Okay. And they've been to every other fight. Do you have a significant other?

I do not. Is it hard, given what you've been through? And is it hard to find? Sometimes I tell my story and girls are like, oh my God, you're so powerful. And I'm like, yeah, I know. Sometimes they're like, oh, because I'm a MMA fighter and he's an ex-junky. Like, I don't know about this. but like honestly like where I'm at right now like it's super hard to have a girlfriend

sure I don't have a relationship like a long I had one I screwed it all up okay um but you know I do my thing okay okay no no I'm just always curious because like at some point you're gonna have to tell your story right you're dating someone it's yeah you know people especially if you're like in the Jewish scenes there's not a lot you know of those yeah right I can't I haven't dated a Jewish girl in a while I was dating an Israeli girl in high school Okay. Yeah. They're a little tougher.

They've, you know, they have to go to the Army. They're a little more out of the bubble. Yeah, yeah. The ones like here in like the New York area, a little different. A little more sheltered. A little more laid back. Yeah. Do you do, or have you ever been approached about like motivational speaking or?

Yeah, I mean, I speak at rehabs. I speak and I go to A meetings I speak. I've gone and spoke to kids before. That's my goal though. Like my goal, yeah, my short-term goal is to be USC champion. You know, five-year, six-year goal, whatever it is. but, you know, that's all going to end eventually, and I want to use fighting as a platform, you know,

to reach other people. Because when you're, I happen to have this talent. I'm good at fighting. So I might as well use it to make a name for myself so I can, you know, get my word out, get my message out and show other people that, like, there's hope, you know? Because, like, if I could do it, anyone can do it, you know? and it's funny because one of my ex-girlfriends actually

she always just said to me like why are you fighting and it was always like one of those questions where I was like what do you mean why am I fighting because I like kicking people's asses yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm Jared Gordon you know and she's like no like why though what's your reasoning and I'm like I'm like what are you talking about

yeah yeah stop getting all deep here yeah yeah and then I realized what she means like what are you really like trying to get out of this and I realize that it's the help other people Yeah. And what I see is like a lot of these fighters, you know, I'm sure you could like guess which ones I'm talking about, you know, they don't care about anyone else, you know, like, there's no like using what they've done to help other people.

It's all about them and and that's cool, you know, if that's how you want to live, like that's up to you. But if you're like a selfish person, I think you're going to have a miserable life in the end. So like in staying sober, like the only way I'm going to stay sober, like the only way I'm going to stay is to keep helping other people because if I take and take and take then eventually and I and never give back and then I'm gonna lose what I have eventually so in order to keep what I have I have to give it away so yeah I want I want to fight and make a living and and and yeah fame is great and money obviously is I need money and I want to

become champion that's like a goal of mine obviously If you don't want to become champion and you're in this word, then you're probably not going to make it far. Sure. So that's what I want to do in the short term, but I really want to do that so I can, you know, get the message out. If LeBron James was out there on the corner, you guys got to stop doing drugs and doing this and living like,

you know, people would all be standing around listening to him. But like you take some random guy and put him on the corner and people who are going to make, this guy's crazy. So, you know, I got to make a name for myself. Have you ever met Court McGee or Matt Brown? I met court. Okay. I met Matt, like in passing.

Okay. I didn't really get into him about... In court, I talked to him about... Yeah, okay. Similar. I mean, obviously not all stories are the same. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to lump you all together.

Basically the same... But he overcame a lot. Me and court definitely have the same principles. Like, we're in the same programs. Okay. And he's someone that I've looked up to for years. Because I knew his story going back. And they call him Matthew and Mordow, because he overdosed twice, but...

I overdosed three times. Yeah. man you know like what you do for a living is is somewhat terrifying right like like you go in there and you fight in the cage i don't have that in me you know like i don't possess i wouldn't be able to do it right for everyone but the fact that you've been through all that this is this is easy stuff right or do you not like do you get nervous i'm not scared to get hurt but let me tell you i'm scared i like i'm scared to fight like not scared to fight but like when i'm backstage i'm like when i'm What am I doing?

I'm having panic attacks, my anxiety is through the roof. Anyone that tells you they're not like somewhat scared or like buried about getting in there is out of their mind. Like something's wrong with them. Okay. Every time I have a, like every time I'm like in between fights, I'm like, I got to get a fight. Yeah, yeah. And then I'd get the fight and I'm like, yeah, I got the fight. And then I'm like, oh, I got a fight.

And then all of a sudden it hits me. Like, shh. Now I got to train for this guy. And it's scary, man. All the anticipation. So, like, are you, is it, you feel settling in right now because you, you, you have the fight? It's, yeah, man, it's, every night, I'm like, I go to bed and I'm in my, I'm staring at the ceiling. And I'm like, geez, I got to fight this guy who's training, you know, to take my head off.

And, and, yeah, dude, I'm, I'm shaking my, I don't know, man. Honestly, like, I've done things that are way more dangerous and scary and have been in situations that were definitely, like, more life. threatening. But yeah, I love what I love fighting, man. Because if you don't enjoy the journey. No, no, I enjoy it. But I have feelings too. Yeah, no. There's that. Yeah, no. It doesn't mean I don't have anxiety. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know a very big named fighter who told me once that he delays signing the bout agreement as long as possible because once he signs it, something changes. Yeah, it's true, man. I have the same. I just said that. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, oh, I can't want to get a fight. And then you get the fight and you're like,

the guy that you're going to fight even though he might not even be that like amazing is like your biggest nightmare. Right. For me at least I'm like I have to like do like all sorts of like self manifest my wins like everything like there's no I mean like I'm

training for every guy like their Godzilla you know. And so you're based here in New York right? Yes sir. Still with Rhino no no no no that's the long gone I'm with church. I'm with a churchery boxing.

Jason Strouds, my head coach. And then my Hensel Gracey. Okay. Right here. Yep. And Mike Jarmel is my coach from there. And I train at Edge with Cody Hammer. What happened there?

I just have a cut from my boxing glove. Okay. I was training this morning. I didn't want to get an infection. So I was just put this on. I think you didn't want to get blood all over my desk. Yeah. I don't want to do that either.

All right. This has been a pleasure, man. Really. I feel like we talked for like two hours here about your story. And I appreciate you opening up. Of course. You know, I know it's probably not a fun thing to do, but I think it's important for a lot of people to know your story.

And this game, as you know, is all about, I think, emotional connections and telling stories and people having rooting interests. And I think that you're someone that people can root for. People can get behind. And I'm really thankful that you would do this. And I'm happy it wasn't the day you were leaving on your flight to Brazil because it's better now. I was waiting for the fight announcement,

and then once it happened, I wanted to have you in. I wish you the best. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Really a pleasure getting to know you and looking forward to it. February 18th, Austin, Texas, Carlos Diego Ferre, and good luck. Keep in touch. We used to have a woman on this show who said she was friends with you.

She worked in the back. Stephanie. Are you still friends with her? Okay. Tell her, say hi. I will. All right. All the best.

Thank you. Austin's going to walk you out over here. There he goes. Jared Flash Gordon. Appreciate the time very much. What a story. Unbelievable story. Returns to action on February 18th in Austin, Texas.

card of course is on FS1 let me put my headphones on here wow I told you I told you that was a story unlike anything you've ever heard and pretty amazing stuff that is a story that I think a lot of people out there can relate to who have been sort of you know through that that that that sort of thing and a lot of people I think who may not know about Jared Gordon will want to watch him fight now because like I've always said, this sport is about emotional connections and rooting interests and having someone that you can get behind.

And, you know, you still get the feeling that this is a process that isn't quite complete, but this is someone who has turned his life around and is doing great things in the UFC now 2 and O. And I wish him the best. I really appreciate him coming in. So went a little long there with Jared.

I appreciate him sticking around and retelling the story. I could tell at first at the beginning he wasn't really all that into it, but I appreciate him doing that very much. Let us not waste any time here in moving along to our lascus of the day. Looking forward to talking to him as well. Let us go now to the Magic of Skype earlier in the day we spoke to Marlon Morice. Now it's time to speak to Jimmy Rivera and get his side of this saga. Let's welcome Jimmy Rivera back to the program.

There he is. Jimmy Rivera is here. Jimmy, how are you? What's up? How you doing? I'm doing good. How are you doing? I'm doing great.

I'm sorry for... Oh, hello. No, he's scared. Can you shut the door for me, please, sweetheart? Thank you. What's up, man? I'm sorry, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. I appreciate your patience.

It's good to have you. It's all right. Where are you right now? You're at work? Man, when I'm not fighting or training, I'm working. Of course I'm at work. Well, I appreciate you doing this. So, earlier in the program, we had Marlon Marais on.

This has turned into quite the back and forth, quite the saga. I think where I want to start, though, is I want to start Christmas Eve. You're in the airport. Yeah. You're about to head out to Vegas, right, for 219? Yeah, I was glad that you want to start there because I, you know, I want to start it from the beginning, from where everything first happened with the whole Linearker was hurt. I don't realize, and it was funny, because I did my one-third of my Christmas yesterday.

So I got two thirds left, obviously. So I did one third of my Christmas because I didn't see my family. And now it's scattered because, you know, it's back in January. People were busy. So set up my other times to see my other family. And my cousin didn't realize what goes on for a negotiation for a fight. And I'm like, I don't think people realize that before a fight's even agreed upon, the management of both fighters agree on the fight.

And then we get a contract. That's how it works. So everything is always talking. and it's basically relaying messages. Sean Shelby is the middleman and he's related messages back and forth and giving the options of what's going on. So,

Christmas Eve, I'm at the airport and I find out when he's out of the fight. I'm like, well, I'm cutting weight. Let me just go there anyway. We'll figure out a place, let's see what we could do. I land. I'm told my manager. I have five guys that want to fight me.

Five guys. But I'm only allowed to fight two guys and I get three options. my three options are fight John Dotson, fight Marlin, and I believe at that time was a catchway at 140, or fight Marlin January 20th.

So we're like, all right, well, Dodson lost to Linnaker and lost to Marlin. It's not really going to help me get closer to the belt. He's one and two in his last three fights. Let's go with Marlin then. So we're like, all right, he said 140, we told him 138. And this was already, because this is a time difference,

and I'm in Vegas. So we leave at 138 and my manager takes care of it. I wake up in the morning and literally Christmas Day was all back and forth about weights. Yeah. So we go 138. Then we go 140 because I saw the tweet what he put up on Sunday night saying that he wants to fight and basically, you know, there's no backing up. So I'm like, all right, I'm not going to back up now. I mean, any of the replacement, let's do something.

And the next day he comes out with a tweet about his terms. So when Sean's talking to us, my manager, it's all about weight. So we're like, all right, well, you know, he wants to fight, so we'll figure out a weight. So we're like, all right, well, all right, not 138, so we'll go 140. And I'm like, they say no. I'm like, does this guy want the fight or I don't get it? So we go 145 then. If you really want to fight, 145, I'm not even going to have to take a going to this owner or do a salt bath.

I'm going to make weight like that and be fine. So we'll do it at 145. So that was 6 o'clock. I'm sorry That was 3 o'clock Pacific time 6 o'clock Easter time

So we're like Listen you got to let us know Like three hours By 9 o'clock You know Easter standard time We need to know Because my coach

And his fiance Are coming out Tuesday morning My other coach His wife and his three kids Are coming out We need to know If we're fighting or not What's going on

So we found out 930 East Coast here That no he's not He's not going to take the fight At 145 Excuse me Sorry about that

145 and just stop cutting weight. And we're like, okay. All right. So I stopped cutting weight. And the next day we're talking. And I'm like, all right, well, you know, what about the 20th? You know what I mean?

Do something. I train for a canvas, figure something out. You said, mom, the fight on the 20th. Let's do the 20th. So we say yes to that, too. And Sean comes back, whether it was the next day or hours later, like, no, they don't want the fight in the 20th. So everything I put on Twitter,

was from my manager saying, listen, put this up, this is what you're offering. Let's keep it clear. Let's be honest, because I'm not going to lie about anything. And, you know, because people were saying this and that.

I'm like, yeah, you know, yeah, five guys wanted to fight me, but I was only allowed to fight two guys. And I had three choices with the two guys. You know what I mean? So my family's coming out. My friends are coming out. So I stayed there.

I didn't want to be selfish and just leave and come home while they're still going to come out for the fight. Spend time with them. We spend years with them. we get home and we're trying to figure out if I could still fight on the 20th card. Let's see what opponents Sean gives me. And I told Lloyd, but I guess he didn't realize it and my manager,

and there was a miscommunication that I'm still going on my honeymoon in February. I have a honeymoon book that I rescheduled twice and not going to reschedule a third time. So they come back with me with three names. They come back with Pedro Marinos, who I fought already. Cody is a Cody statement and Brett Johns was a guy

was a cast cast slated so yeah yeah well I thought Pedro already and then literally either

hours later or the next day you get a text back those two other guys one's hurt and one can make wait I'm like

okay he's like speak to Hunter who's the VP of UFC about some reimbursement you know

because I had to do a three month camp that paid for I had to do what's it called reschedule my honeymoon

and you don't get money back for that. And, you know, I had flights that I flew out for my mom and some of my family that I paid for. Because, you know, it's my family. They want to be there if they can't afford it. I'm like, all right, I'm coming out of my pocket for it. So we got some reimbursement, whatever it could be. You know what I mean?

So he said, speak to Hunter about it. I said, okay. You know what I mean? Try to keep this short, but this is over a three weeks span. There's a lot going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the next thing we get was actually we see a tweet from Cody. My wife sees it.

And we're like, because I was plowing that day, we had a snowstorm here Thursday. And I'm like, oh, he's healthy. I'm like, let's figure out a fight. So my manager, right after I put out of the tweet, my manager texts Sean, and says, you know, what's going on? I was supposed to set up something going forward in the future. And he was like, oh, Cody and Assangellat was supposed to fight, but Assamteau was hurt and Cody's hand.

I don't know what's going on. We'll get back to you. we're like okay i'm like well hopefully we could plan something in the future and make something happen and the next thing i see saturdays i'm sitting down and getting dinner and i get an email about a fight contract with me and marlin at the end of february and um there's an agreement for me and an agreement from him and i'm like i call lloyd and my manager i'm like you know trying to figure out what's going on but he's talking to hunter at the same time the VP and he didn't get back to me for like an hour later and basically said that there is agreement now to fight at the end of February

this is your choice to fight and I was confused about because anytime you anytime we set up fights like I said in the beginning when we set up fights both managements agree and then the contracts are sent out that didn't happen this purpose they got then the agree and I was in the dark and then I was sent agreement to fight February 24th and I was like what it what is this. I'm like, you know, don't they know that I'm going on my honeymoon? Then they know, like, all right, I'm not fighting. We're like, I'm going to go and enjoy time with my family. So when that came, I was surprised. I had no idea what to say. I was like, all right. So I'm like, well, speak to that. Let me figure out what's going on. And, you know, let's see if I could get

some reimbursement going on. And then we could figure out about the Marlin fight. They're like, no, there's no reimbursement. This is the fight. if you want to take the fight, and that's it. And I said, I talked to my coach, and I said, I'm not ready to reschedule my honeymoon at third time. I'm not ready not to see my family anymore. Because, you know, he got to enjoy his time with his family and Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that.

I didn't get any of that, even my New Year's. So I was like, all right, well, there's no reimbursement for the UFC. They want me to do this fight. And it wasn't really, I feel like it wasn't really handled, like we've done numerous times in the past where both people agree, We talked about it. We talked about it for a couple of days and we figure out what's going on.

And boom, we're like, all right, yes and yes. They send the conjurers out and contracts out. And we signed him. So I'm like, I'm not doing the fight. You know what I mean? I'm not doing the fight at the end of the day. He wanted to fight. He said the 30th.

I gave him three different weight classes. Then the option that Sean gave us was the 20th. We said yes to that. So he said yes of four different occasions. And they said no. So I need to kind of take a step back, not lose other money that had already lost, not cancel a vacation,

a honeymoon that, you know, it's paid for already and we're set to go and we rescheduled twice. You know, I understand I was talking about this yesterday. You know, if I rescheduled one time,

yeah, you know, I made the effort. I reschedule it one time. Then, you know, I rescheduled this one time and, you know, we'll fire it or something like that. But I did it twice already

and not prepared to do it third time. And I'm going back, I'm like I gave him, I gave him an option to fight me now. Now he said, no, four times. All right, well, I'm going to go forward. And I think I've earned it. I've fought top people and I'm 5 in the UFC at the bandweight division. And the only person that's done better to me is at a different weight class,

which is Khabib who's a terror who's, you know, was 22, 23 and all right now and deserves a pat of shot. That's what he's getting. And, you know, I think I earned it. I never asked for anything. You know what I mean? And every time the UFC came up with a fight, they literally like, that was one of the days. I was listening to Jared Gordon.

I'm like, man, I got a crazy pass. So then I listened to everything you had going on today. And then it was funny to hear that. I pick in two spites, which was hilarious to hear that because I don't. I'm like, Marcus Brimich, you know, you're lucky if you get two opponents to pick from. or three. I fought Marcus Brimich,

and that was the last minute replacement, didn't pick that. Pedro Munoz, they said fight in Brazil, didn't pick that. Then they actually gave me three people, and you're like, you could pick from the three people,

and the top person was Yuri Alcantara, and the only way I was going to be able to fight rank people was by fighting Yurid to get in the rankings, because he was in the top of 10 to 15. It was the top 15, you want to say. So I fight Yuri Akintero. Then the next fight was favor. They gave me four people.

They gave me, I think it was, Dodson, Johnny O'Wardo, Sterling, for your eye of favor. I'm like, why wouldn't I fight the best person? Why would I fight the other guys? That's how the favor fight happened. And I made a fight. They wanted me to fight in Brazil on five weeks notice. And I said, all right, so you're not going to give me a full train of time.

Actually, four weeks, because the last week is traveling. You travel, you cut weight. So it's only four weeks notice. So I said, no problem. Give me some extra money. I have to pay for my wife to go out, my mother to go out, it's not cheap to fight to Brazil. You know, I need something a little bit.

So they didn't want to do that. So I said, all right, no problem. I can't take the fight. And I came back weeks later and said, listen, you could fight. Made in Long Island. And I said, okay, I'll take the fight. We'll fight.

And that's what we did. And then I was scheduled to fight Dom and Dom got hurt. And because that was it. You called me back. Don McRruz wants to take the fight. I'm like, all right, we're down. Just take the fight. And from there,

He got hurt. And we were going to say wait for it, but they renegotiated a contract. And it was a good contract. And we said, all right, we want to be team players. I'm not ever against the UFC. They don't want to reimburse me. Well, guess what I'm not mad. It is what it is.

It's a business at the end of the day. I understand. I'm just going to have to work extra and make some money so I could support myself, my family, and stuff like that. So that happened. They renegotiate contract. Okay. then they gave me two guys to fight.

I picked the best guy, and I gave him four opportunities. They said, no. Now they want me to fight again, that guy. And what kind of, you know, the only thing that upset to me was, is that it's on Marlon's terms to fight. It's not if I could have the time I could fight. I'm like, I've rescheduled a lot already for the UFC. I've done a lot.

I've done a lot. And I think at the end of the day, the only thing I asked for is to fight the best. I'm not saying Marlon's not the best, but there's guys in front of me that I want to fight and I want to be champ. And if I'm not going to get reimbursed, if they're not going to put it in writing that I get a title shot next, that I'm not guaranteed I get a title shot next with Marlowe. Was Cody or Dominic, that's a guarantee. They're former champs. They haven't fought.

I beat a former champ that's guaranteed title shot next. That's a number one contender fight when we saw was Dom or Cody. So at the end of the day, it is what it is. And I never thought I would say this, you know, speaking to my wife about this and, you know, my uncle and stuff like that. But there's a lot of fake news fighters put on Twitter where it goes from mom and say he wants to take a fight and he doesn't want to take a fight. Where Asantau goes, well, what about me? And like Asanso, why are you even tweeting right now? You're hurt.

To Dom that's gone right now and he's just getting back it in and he's not ready, supposedly until April or May. to Cody saying I'm healthy and you know saying he wants to fight and he's going to clean the division and I tweet back but he isn't unhealthy

he's hurt so Asa Tso's hurt Dom's just getting back and he's not ready to April or May and Cody's hurt so then only person is a champ but he's going to fight Johnson so I understand

I can't fight him so I'm going to sit back I'm going to enjoy time with my family and I'm going to catch up on the holidays everything I missed, and I'm going to go on my honeymoon with my wife and enjoy some time, some time for myself. When is the honeymoon, by the way?

It was, we reschedule, so end of October, beginning of November, it wasn't, we all agreed, it wasn't a good idea for me to leave for 10 days. Yeah. While I'm going to set up to the fight of Tom McCrues, that's a serious fight right there, you know, or any person's serious fight. So we reschedule it for the second week in February, to go. go away. Okay. And so... Because January, January would be busy was work. Yeah. So we did it the second week in February. So this way, I would be able to take a little step back and be like to miss a couple

days, miss a week and work and everything will be okay. Because January and September are like the biggest, busiest times. So things kind of went a little nutty, as you said, on Saturday, because you get this email with the contract, but he also gets it and he puts it out on Twitter and says, you know, here you go, nowhere to run, and some choice words here and there. Do you feel like

you're kind of being pressured into taking this fight now? Like, how did it get to the point where a contract is being sent out

to a date that you never agreed to and it's being put out there in the public? Well, my explanation from it, when we got it from the UFC, was like,

they wanted to get a guarantee yes about it that he would take the fight because he said no, right, so many times. Okay. So they wanted to get a

guarantee yes. And then give me this and say here, here you go. And sorry, I apologize. You still see me? Uh, you go. Uh, there you go. There you go. All right, I apologize.

So the gate at the NTS, yes. I'm like, but you guys didn't talk to me about it. Yeah. And, you know, I'll take the, I'll take the blame because even I will, I'll take the blame from my manager because I thought he told Sean like, I'm going on my honeymoon in February. We can't reschedule again. I can't lose any more money.

I lost money already as it is. a three-month fight camp and nothing happens, 20 if nothing happens, okay, and I got to, I can't lose any more money from it. You still see me? I'm sorry. Yeah, it just freezes for a second, I guess when someone's calling the, and then you're back. I apologize. Yeah, you know what happens is that when the phone rings, it goes to my cell phone and if they don't pick it up. So she just picked it up. I apologize. No problem. So, yeah, that's it.

So, you know, I don't lie about anything and I don't pick and choose and stuff like that. So it was nice to like when I talked to you this weekend to get out and air this out. Yeah. Because it's the truth. Like people don't realize there's a lot that goes in and making fights and stuff like that. And there's a lot that happens behind the scenes that people don't know. And this is everything that happened behind the scenes. There's not one thing that I said that did not happen.

Everything I said did happen. And this is everything that we would be in. dealing with since Christmas Eve. You know, so I have, you know, this is everything off my chest. I have nothing else to say. That's, that's it. Do you, are you okay with the way this has been handled from the UFC's perspective? I know you said that, you know, you're a company guy and all this stuff, but, um, are you at peace with the way this has been handled?

Um, which, which part? I mean, for, I, look, being reimbursed. Yes, yes. I'm okay. it is what it is, I go with the flow. How they did the Marlin fight, I understand on their perspective about it. I wish there was a better communication because there wasn't. So I didn't, that's the one day I'm like a little like, ah, you know,

I understand what they're saying, but still like, you're not going to give us any heads up because the last conversation we had with the UFC was Thursday about fighting HODD. That was the last conversation we had. And from there, I was like, all right. And now all of a sudden this. So I'm like, I don't, I don't get it. Okay, so it sounds like you are okay.

Like there's no hard feelings here. You just have to figure out. No, no, I'm not going to hold any hard. Yeah. I'm not going to hold any hard feelings at all. It's a business and they got to run a business. And that's it. I just, you know, I'm going to take my time now and I'm going to go, you know,

finish up Christmas, got a couple more weekends and see other parts of family because now it's not like everybody has off at one time. I have to find out when people are off and we have the next Sunday's book and then we're going to go on my honeymoon and enjoy some warm weather. We're supposed to go November to Costa Rica. We're going in February. We're going to get some warm weather and enjoy it.

My wife and I have after two years? Have you or your management expressed this to the UFC? Because like two hours ago Marlon's on, he's like, yeah, yeah, he's taking the fight. We're fighting in Orlando. It's all good. Does the UFC know this? I think now they know. Okay.

And how did they react to that? From this. Oh, okay. So you don't know. Lloyd hasn't called me. Lloyd, my manager hasn't called me. You know, honestly, I don't, I don't know. I'm sorry, man.

That's all good. We can still hear your voice, so it's not. Oh, you can still hear me. Yeah, we can still hear you just the picture freezes and now it's back. When, so in. You know, I have it live right now. I have it live right now. So this week is you're not seeing just the top of.

my fore. I can see that you see my face. So it's good. I know. Oh, the framing is perfect. No, it wasn't that I didn't tell you. It's New York Rick in the bag. He's slacking off. I don't know. He's supposed to tell you these things. Sometimes on air, I don't want to do it. But you're right. I left you hanging on that one. No, you look great here. You got the picture on top of you. What does it say over there? Your top right? It says your body. No, it says take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live. We have like inspirational quotes and that's the pictures and stuff of myself and all the other fighters and so that.

So people get to see what else Tiger Sherman offers. I mean, we're excited. We just signed another guy to the UFC, Julio Arce, and Shane. That was one of the reasons why we wanted to get on the 20th card, because we got Shane Burgos and Julio Arcee on the card, and Julio just got signed, and Shane was on its fourth fight. Went into the second year in the UFC. So, you know, big things for Tiger Shulman.

You know, it's really cool that we train. We don't really go, you know, we cross-trained with a couple of people, and it's really cool to see all this coming together, the hard work coming together. Yeah, yeah. We're doing well. But yeah, so that's it. That's everything that's happened.

So when would you like the fight? When would you like the fight? Oh, go ahead. I don't want to interrupt you. I don't. Oh, no, I know. I saw more than what he was saying. And I saw him that he was,

he was like, well, he's going to make a big announcement. I'm like, yeah, I'm not taking, we're not fighting. I'm like, I gave you a chance. Now it's time to better things, you know. And it's funny. Like I'm not trying to run for him because I will have to fight him one day, but I'm going to fight him when I'm defending the belt. And he's the he's a contender.

That's for sure. You know what I mean? Unless he gets up there at the number one ranked guy, that's, you know, that's something a little different. But right now I need the fight that's going to help me the best business move for Jimmy or Bear. You know what I mean? And I know fans, some people are going to be, I've seen actually, I follow Twitter, you know, when I follow people's replies on Twitter, when he put out that tweet,

it was like a little 50-50 like people wanted to see the fight but a lot of people said you had your shot we want to see him and Cody fight and go back and forth I haven't checked since then how this is going to pan out

with speaking to you and speaking to someone else about this so I kind of see what people are going to say about it you know I know people say oh he's scared no I mean that's one day I'll come out but you can't be in this business and be scared you know what I mean but you have to make

the right business moves that's going to help you get to the belt And I've told people before, I've told you this before, I'm not in the UFC to be a UFC fighter amendment to be the champ. I'm 5 and 0 right now. There's no one in the division that's 5 and 0. So I think I've earned my way to the top.

I didn't pick and choose fights. I got what was handed to me and we picked the best person from there. So at each time it was handed when I explained it from Marcus Brimidge all the way up to time was I made it. So the Marlon train has left the station. This is not happening anymore. It's done.

Yeah, done. when do you want to fight again given you know the the honeymoon coming up and you know the time that you need to prepare for a fight in a perfect world when do you want to fight? Ariel I have to see what the he says to me. Okay. That's it. And that's really, I have nothing. I can't say a pinpoint date or this or that.

I have to see what they say to me and come back with. But right now as I don't, it's no to the fight. I am focused on my family and my honeymoon finally and taking some time for myself since He got to enjoy a time as his family. Everybody else did for the holidays. Got to enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. So I'm going to do the same. I'm going to get back the time I miss right now.

And like I said, I know I'm not asking for it, but I think I earned to fight either Dom or Cody. And if we have to wait until Dom comes back, because that was the original fight, then we'll take that fight. We try, we just, you know, we played ball with UC and we wanted to be a company man. and we understood they wanted me on the card and I understood it.

So we're like, all right, you know, figure something out. We did. We tried to figure something else out and we tried to do it and it worked out. So the original opponent was down on the cruise and if I have to wait for it, then I'll wait for it.

Are you hoping that this, you're not, you're not like a big trash talking kind of guy, you know, like causing a lot of work. But like this... I would never... Yeah. Go ahead.

Go ahead. No, I was just wondering if you're hoping... Okay. Please. No, no. Keep going. Keep going. You go. When this happened on Christmas, as I mentioned to Marlin, like his manager Ali got involved and there's some words and things like that. Like, are you hoping this all goes away?

Why is this getting, why is this getting ugly? Why is this getting so personal? Why does it feel like it's, it's like this combustible situation between you two and, and, you know, his management? I don't think it actually, I don't think it actually is. I think a lot of it has to do as his manager. Listen, when I, put out that tweet, it got a lot of hype with Cody fight, was Cody and I. It got a lot of hype. And Ali manages, so a lot of people don't know is Ali is a manager. He manages his Marlon and Cody. Marlins get up there, but Cody's his golden boy. And I understand he wants to protect him from me,

because I'm the dark horse of the division. So I understand where they're trying to push this stuff and why he's trying to do it. But at the end of the day, I know Marlon and I train with him. He is a very nice guy, very humble guy. And anything he says, a lot of times, because I get it too from my teammates and stuff like that. It's from other people's mouths going into his year. And I think when he put out that tweet about fighting me in December 30th and taught about the 20th as well, he didn't think I was going to say yes. And I said, yeah, and I even give me 10 pounds. And I think it wasn't really him, it was his manager.

And we had problems already with his manager. I mean, I know you know already the incident we had when I went to go pick up my fighter kit and him calling my wife a bitch. And then him putting out that tweet, which Marlon didn't put out, he put out, calling me a bitch, which is, it's fine. I mean, like, you would say whatever you want, but I don't care about your opinion. One day I'm upset for it, and I'm still waiting for it because it was told to me that the UFC is going to do something. Sean said he is going to do something for him calling my wife a bitch. Because I would never call his wife. Even though he said it to my wife, you don't hear me say in the back at all.

I would never disrespect someone's wife. You just don't do that. And I'm still waiting to see what they're going to do about that. But I haven't heard a day in it. It's been a couple weeks down. So at the end of the day, I'm like, you know, it's, it is what it is. I'm walking away from it. I'm not going to be the one that goes, you know,

that I'll start barking and I'm going to start bark back. I'm like, no, I'm going to lay out the facts. This is what happened. And these are my choices. And this is why I made these choices. And that's it. And when the choices come together, it's not just me. It's three people.

It's me, my manager, and my coach. We sit down. And a lot of times my manager, my coach, they tell me what to do and I say, okay. And that's it. I am, you know, a humble guy at the end. Even when Cruz got hurt, there's a couple of tweets that came out that, you know, my teammate, one of my teammates

was like, you need to start the trash talk. And he said something. I'm like, you know what? That's not me. And I couldn't take it back because it was already out. But I'm like, I'm going to do me. Me is being a humble fighter. You can say whatever you want, but I will call someone out like I did Dominic Cruz and like

I did Cody in a humble way. And like, hey, man, let's take the fight. And when I called out Dom, he had a smart ass remark when I was in the cage. I couldn't hear what he said. but I know what I said was I came up to him like hey man no disrespect but you know let's fight let's do it you know and and then a couple weeks later the fight was actually made so that's how I'm going to be at the end of the day and no matter what people are going to love or hate me and that's fine I will always be made for either or because they're still going to watch you fight

whether they love or hate they're either going to watch you get your ass beat or try to get your butt beat and they're going to watch me take someone's ass in my hands right. So I'm fine with it at the end of day. These are the choices that I made and this is where we came to agreement. This is what we're going to do. Last thing on the L'E thing,

I believe that he believes that you have referred to him as a terrorist. Is that true? Is that where this all started? His his his his, his, his, his, his, his, his, with you, his, did that happen? Never, never. What happened was I retweeted an article and I,

And I got in trouble for it. This is way back when where it was an article called Rat in the Caves. I was talking about him, his background, his life, what was going on. And I think that's where it started with him. And with Marlon, you asked him, what's the viral leaf from? Why is he so upset? And I think at one point, I didn't know why he was so upset. Because the way he called me out a couple of fights ago, I was like,

why is he acting like this? I didn't know. And my wife was like, well, don't you remember what you said? And I'm like, no, I don't remember what I said. This is why you have wives because they remind me of things. And it was about World Series of fighting that I was a little upset because I had three belts from three different organizations, one of them, defended them, vacated them to move on to the next thing. And he came in him from World Series of fighting, not getting a top 15 opponent, not getting a top 10 opponent,

but he got a top five opponent. he got the fight at Sonsap, who was ranked three or four at the time. I'm like, damn, man, I worked my ass up all the way up here. And I'm like, World Series, there's no, there's no where they could, you know, they're not even World Series anymore. How do they compare to the UFC? How could someone like this get a top-ranked guy where someone like me had to work up from the bottom and go all the way up there?

So I said stuff like that and I said, you know, it wasn't fair. And I think that brought some emotions to him. and then it could have been the article of what happened with his manager that I retweeted you know what I mean it's fine I can't really do anything about it it is what is I put it or put a tweet about it but he can he'll hold a grudge as much as I won't

I will never hold the grudge I'll let it be and it is what is you know what I mean I wasn't even going to bring up the thing that happened that happened and when I was picking my fighter kit but I know you know the story and I wasn't going to bring it up, but you brought it up, so I was like,

well, I didn't bring it up. What are you talking about? I didn't bring up that story. What are you saying? Nah, you were, you feed it.

No. Listen, I know how it. Listen, there's tweets where he's calling you, he's calling you, I mean, it's just,

it's out there. I see it. Listen, I know he doesn't think that he called you, your, your wife, that he denies that as well. I don't know.

This is, it's turned into a saga and, and, that is not a, that is not a denial. That is not a, that's funny. It's not a denial. You know what I mean?

They came up to the UFC afterwards, Heidi Dean, and I forgot the other guy's names. Are you okay? This and that. I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. I'm like, I'm just picking up my kit. I don't say anything. He starts arguing with me. But then he says, I'm not talking to you, bitch.

I'm like, that's my wife, man. You don't say that. I don't care. Whatever's going on. You know what I mean? You keep between you and on. You don't incorporate my wife about it. Yeah.

And I'm like, this is not right. So it is what it is. nothing has been done yet nothing probably will be done and that's the shit I have to live with so well I'm sorry it all happened this way I'm sorry you didn't get the fight at 219 I think

I mean I was really looking forward to the Dominic Cruz fight and then the John Lineker fight and then of course you know well 2017 wasn't the best year yeah 2017 wasn't the best year I had Carraway pull out Dominic pull out and Line could pull out all in one year

so it was a rough year maybe 2018 will be better. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Well, you're still on that winning streak, though. And you're knocking at that door. You're trying to head on a high note. Well, yes.

I mean, you're still, you know, you haven't lost in the UFC. So that's an important little, you know, distinction. But I appreciate you coming on and explaining all this. I know it probably wasn't a very, you know, on Saturday night and all this stuff blowing up wasn't a very, you know, positive thing. and it hasn't been the easiest three weeks, but I appreciate you coming on. Enjoy. Oh, you have to.

Yeah. Thank you. No, I'm just saying you have to roll with the punches. It is what it is. This is the sport we're into nowadays, and this is what happens and what people don't realize that happens behind the scenes,

and they're saying, he said, she said, but no, this is everything that happens from point A to point Z. And that's it. And now I've got to kind of make the right business choice for Jim Rivera and me and my management

and my coaches have to sit down and make what's the right thing and what's the best option for me to get closer with the belt and for me to just get closer with the belt and get that title shot. Thank you, Jimmy. Enjoy your honeymoon and keep us posted on what's next. I will. I'll send you a picture from Costa Rica. Please.

Please. Thank you very much. There he is. Jimmy Rivera, one of the top contenders in the UFC's Bantamweight Division, stopping by and laying it all out for you. What drama? Wow. If I'm being honest, people say that we love to stir up this drama, but I have nothing to do with any of this. In fact, everyone's, they come to me now. All right? So I'm not the one creating all this, but it is some kind of drama. I'll tell you what. Some kind of drama in that bantam weight division. And I have to say, regardless of when, where if, how, who, what, where. I mean, there is an incredible amount of interest in this matchup now. He says, The ship has sailed. We'll see if that remains to be true. If in the end, they don't end up fight, we'll see what happens.

But a lot of people are interested in talking about Jimmy Rivera versus Marlon Maris. Does it end up happening? Personally, I'd love to see it. I mean, I want to see Marlon versus Dominic Cruz. I want to see Jimmy versus Dominic Cruz. I want to see Marlon versus TJ. And I want to see all these fights. So you hope at some point this gets figured out.

And it does also seem like Jimmy is. the victim of some bad luck this past year and with the Linear fight falling through just six days out on your way to Las Vegas. Gosh, frustrating stuff. But we'll see how it all turns out. All right, that does it for our interviews and what a day, what a show.

I still haven't really digested Jared Gordon. Maybe New Yorker could help me do that. And that leads me to this. The MMA after hours coming up in a matter of moment. And so you have hopefully been sending us some questions. And the MA After Hour, of course, is where we answer said questions. You've sent them hopefully using the hashtag the MMA hour.

That's the Twitter link right over there. We go on Twitter for the next 45 or so minutes to answer your questions, but also for Rick's Picks, which is usually a positive look back at the week that was. I've been campaigning to just make it a look back at the week that was. Doesn't have to be positive or negative? Just a look back. but he likes to do this whole positive thing, so we'll let him do that.

So that's coming up in a matter of moments, but it's exclusive on Twitter. So if you're watching us on MMA fighting, if you're watching us on YouTube or Facebook, minimize that. I've tweeted the link a bunch of times. The link was just up on the screen. It will be exclusively over there

for the next 45 or so minutes. Rick's picks, your questions. Go over there right now. It's called the MMA after hour, and it starts right after this. And we are back. Time now for the MMI. MMA after hour.

Time now for everyone's favorite segment. It is time for Rickspix. Yes. MMA fans, it's time for Kimbo.

Say hello to Rixpix. Randy Coutre. Royce Gracie. And signed Fador. Woo! Woo! Lix Pix. Ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Sign. There it is. case you missed it. We need a bouncing ball. It's time for

Rex Picks. Bang. Say hello, Fador. Sign Fador. What's better than Fador? Sign Fador. You think it's real? Of course it's real.

It looks real because there's like some smudging over there. I mean, are you questioning Bellatoria? No, but it's like you'd think that if you hook me up with a signed bobblehead, you'd think that you would mention in the, in the box. Oh, by the way, this isn't just any kind of bobblehead. This is a sign freaking bobblehead. Fair point? Yeah. I'm guessing it's the real deal.

I don't think we've got artificial fade or signatures floating out there. New York, Rick, I turn to you. It has been quite the day. A lot of emotions, it has been a roller coaster unlike any that we've seen. How about that Jared Gordon, huh? Queens, I guess, I hope to claim them for Queens. That's a tough dude right there. it's one thing to read about the story.

It's another thing to actually hear it being told in front of you and then with new layers to it. I think what's super interesting about that is also how sobering his account of it is. He's very kind of matter of fact about everything that's happened. It's not very... It's not a roller coaster ride the way he's described... The descriptions of everything that's happening is clearly

hectic, chaotic, roller coaster-esque, but the way he describes it is very even keel. He's got it perfected, and what a story it is. It's interesting because he throws it, yeah, you know, my third time in jail and A-Torra.

Things that, you know. Typically, that's probably going to be something that I'd have a little quiver in my voice. Crap my pants. But, I mean, incredible. What do we got? And his brother was back here, you know, as he was telling it.

Oh, really? In the control room? Oh, my gosh. Was he giving you like a director's cut version? No, he's just laughing along, you know? Laughing along. I mean, I think there's some light moments and I think Jared himself was a little bit light about it. Obviously, at the end when he was saying that he out did Matt Brown and the number of times he overdosed.

But yeah, I think that's one for the pantheon. That's one for the highlight reels of the MMA hour. We've had a few in recent history, but that's definitely one that ends up there, I think. All right, what do you got? Okay, Rick's picks. Robbie Lawler, highlighting this article from M.A. Fighting. I thought you were Mr. Positive. Don't worry.

Okay. Is it a positive spin to this? First of all, calm down. You're talking over the intro. Don't talk over the first pick. Ease up. Calm yourself. Okay.

Okay, but. Fair enough, you'll see you in a second. I'm just here enjoying my body armor. Fruit punch. Did you try it? I've tried it in the past. I didn't have one this time. Please go ahead.

Article from M.M.A. fighting, Robbie Lawler suffered torn ACL, meniscus, indecision loss to Rafael Dos Anjos. Chosen, not for the article, great article by Sean Ashadi, obviously, but chosen because responded to by Raphael Dosanios

sorry to hear that I wish him a speedy recovery MMA good guy Raphael Dosanjos So it does come Pack to a positive twist That is very nice Feeling for his main event opponent And wishing him a speedy recovery

Great year for him Even better dude Good to see that in the sport of MMA still Okay these next ones We're going to classify as The opposite of Dosangos These are Twitter or Instagram or social beef. Marlon Mariah is here tweeting.

We've talked about this throughout the show. Here you go, Jimmy Rivera. I signed my bout agreement at UFC on Fox. I also agreed to fight you on March 3rd. Choose what day you want me to beat your ass, B-I-T-C-H. What a bizarre situation this is, right? Yeah, we see here the contract that he signed. Yes.

According to Jimmy, that contract was sent to him before Jimmy had agreed to the terms of it. to which Jimmy replied on Twitter you're only saying this because I offered to fight you on January 20th to give you time to make weight and you just said no again hashtag you're not a champion hashtag fat featherweight

hashtag weight watchers onto the next opponent So based on these tweets These are a little bit older now We've had some advancement in this sense But it seems like he is moving on I get the sense that As long as they can make it worth his while

He'll still be willing In some capacity to fight Marlin I think so? But I just think... You think it's posturing? I think it's a bit of posturing just from hearing him speak about it. He hasn't really been compensated properly for all the pullouts and the shifts in his schedule that have had to be done.

I wouldn't say I don't understand him wanting to hold out for Dominic Cruz, but if they come to him with a chunk of money and say, yeah, we're going to make good on you having to fly all these people out and how about fighting Marlon later in the the year. I could see a way that he does it. At this point, there's so much heat behind this fight, you have to make it happen, right? But you also have to make it worth his while.

Otherwise, I don't think he's going to jump. I think he's willing to wait. You think he should have been compensated? It's a tough situation. If you have to cancel your honeymoon twice, that's rough. Well, that's not up to the UFC. That's not their thing, but... The fact is, he went out there. Yes, he went a little early. He went on Sunday. Typically, you fly out Tuesday, and he had a fight

fall through and for various reasons there wasn't a replacement found. Should you be compensated? It's, I mean, it's tough. I don't know the answer to that. I would say yes, but it's not my money. It's easy for me to say, give the guy the money. What I would say to that is this. Yeah, sure, it's nice. You know, it would be like I get it. You know, you just put through a whole training camp. You have coaches. You have manager, blah, blah, blah. It's nice. But this, this really needs to be the lesson. And it's something that we've learned multiple times, especially in this new era. Like in the old era, Lorenzo Fertita, he cuts you a check backstage, this and that. You've got to get that stuff

in writing. At this point, it's on, like, you need to, it needs to be spelled out in writing that if my opponent falls out fight weak, if I'm in Vegas, if way and day he doesn't show up like, I get X amount. You can't just rely anymore on the UFC to just be

like, yeah, we're going to do it out of the goodness of our heart. The facts are, they're not entitled to. They're not. So you can hope that you're in good standing with them, that you have a good relationship with them, that they're actually going to do it. But why hope, if you can get it in writing? If you can get it in writing,

this is something that managers now have to have to fight for. You really do. You can't expect it. Yeah. Why are you tweeting people in the middle of my answer? I see it popping up on my screen. Because I felt like it. You're not even listening to me.

I heard everything you said. I know I'm late. Oh, well, let's address the, so this guy, go for it. Chevy A, B, but, but the, you're not even listening to me. It's not what I want to address, but I just want to know, like, you're talking about Wisconsin? What are he talking about here? I know I'm late, but do you have New York Rick on his comic relief because his round of the year was a joke?

How much hate, by the way, are you still receiving for that round of the year pick? Not nearly as much as... The Ronda Rousey pick? You would lead them to believe. So the Ronda Rousey pick was worse in the people's eyes. By infinite degrees. I had way more people telling me that Big Shack is not actually a rapper and he's a comedian. Okay, admit that.

You didn't know that. Admit that. Yeah. Oh, Ariel. What? That's such BS. That is such BS. These people had access to this very secret, this very secret of a wealth of knowledge that I'll tell you a secret. Wait time about. I asked you, I never heard of the guy. And I asked you who he was. If it was like Ali G. And I asked you, who's Ali G? You would have said, oh, well, he's this guy who plays a character and he interviews people and it's funny. you never said that. You just said he was some British rapper.

Admit that you didn't know. Because you didn't know who he was, that would make it very funny to pretend that this was weak, weak. This is so weak. Just admit it. Why can't you admit it? If I can prove it. Yes. If I can prove it. Oh, I mean, let's leave that to me because I can. If I can prove it, what do I get? Talk to me. compensation for you for you be smirching me weak danny siguerre is saying that you have actually claimed that he's your favorite rapper he is my favorite rapper he's actually not a character who big shack big shack look the internet is saying two things right now they're and then i got this other guy who's this guy

who's this guy the verified guy saying to fire you i actually oh i don't know who that is he's legit he's like a 180 000 i never heard i don't listen i don't listen so much music i didn't know who waves, or I think it's a band, I don't think it's just one guy, but waves tweeted you asking to fire me and I blew him to kissy face. I couldn't even figure out what he, like, who is this guy? Is he, is he a musician? Is he an artist? Now if I give

you any kind of answer, it's going to come back as, oh, you didn't know those, so I'm not even going to admit. Admit you didn't know he was. That's okay, I didn't know who he was either. Right, but the difference between you not knowing who is and I, me not knowing what is. Because you were the one trying to explain and be hip, and in fact, you are the opposite.

But if I can, if I can prove it, Let's talk stakes. What does that mean if I could prove it? I can show you that I know who he was. What kind of stakes? This is your reputation at stake. That should be enough. Not really.

I don't care that much. People are claiming that you didn't get the joke. You weren't in on it. Consider the people that are claiming it. And also consider the fact that they think, the reason they tweeted it at me is because they think that they are the only ones privy to this knowledge.

That they just, oh my God, he's been fooling everybody all along. common knowledge if you just look the guy up. Yeah, it seems like it's common knowledge. That's why I don't know why you would perpetuate this. What do you mean? I didn't know what your pick was. So you you pick Mark J. Casey coming out to

the song and I'm like, what is so great about this song? It's a fantastic song. And he's the best rapper. I didn't look. I didn't look it up. But you obviously picked it for a reason. Being that it's the best song of probably the millennium. I think that maybe you saw people get all like like, oh wow, he brought the song. But

didn't actually look into who this guy was, and now you're claiming, oh, I was in on it this whole time, when in fact, you weren't. And there's nothing wrong with that. You're, how old are you? I agree that there is nothing wrong with that, but that's not what it is.

How are you going to prove otherwise? You say you have proof. If I can prove it, what happens? I don't even know what that means. Well, you're making the challenge. You're saying, I don't know, and I'm telling you, I can prove it. The public has told me that they don't believe you.

You know what? I don't care. They're plebs. They're losers. You know what? I don't even care. There was a time on this program when New York Rick was a man of the people, when they all went to bad for you. And now you have turned on them officially.

You have just said you don't care about the people. I'm past this. I'm done with them. If you're out there and you truly believe you're the only one who came to the conclusion that Michael Dapper was a comedian and you thought that this knowledge had to be shared with somebody that you were the only one who knew that you had to pass that along, please reevaluate, please reevaluate how the internet works. Wow.

Can we get some kind of proof? We can. But it's in my, it's in my, well, no, it's me, it's me back when, see, this song is very old. This song is not new, but nobody had walked out to it in MMA. I've got plenty of me passing it along,

texting it to people saying, check out what this comedian did. Now, I could screenshot that and share it, but I don't even care enough. I'll show you just so that you can know, and I can say, Ariel, now you know. But the rest of you, I don't even care. I don't even care. Don't, you know what, at me? Tell me all about him.

Give me his whole backstory. Never heard of the guy. You got me. You got me. He's a comedian. I'm dumbfounded. Okay, what did you receive more hate for? That, like you pretending, like you didn't know who he was,

pretending or the fight of the year or the round of the year, I should say. I didn't get hate for that. That was more people feeling, you know, there's this compulsion when people feel like they're the only one in on a secret. Like the first people who thought, who discovered that, you know, the dumb Starbucks thing was a joke or the first people that discovered that you mentioned Ali G, the first people who are like, oh, that's not an actual interview, those people, there's a compulsion. I have to explain it to.

everybody else. I'm so, I'm so smart, I'm so knowledgeable that I have discovered this, that now I have to, I have to correct the people who aren't aware. So it wasn't hate so much as like them feeling this, this desire, this urge to tell me, Eric, New York, Rick, he's an actor, he's a comedian. It's not real. Wow, I had to tell you, like the first one I got, my mind was blown. And then everyone after that, I had to just break it to them. Yeah, that first guy who took, told me he broke the news to me i i found out and i was heartbroken wow this is some kind of version of you i've never seen this idea before so fired up no but uh no hate really just that and the round of the year thing i mean some people watched it they were like uh i don't believe i don't buy it not my

round of the year our friends at fight pass by the way say thank you to you because all of a sudden we know we had thousands of people watching that fight uh so i i I wonder if you were in cahoots, but one of the all-time worst picks. I mean, I appreciate the fact that you always kind of have to throw us a curveball every award show, but I'm still debating which pick was worse. In the end, I'll go with the rousy pick because it was a fight and it was entertaining and it did happen. And, you know, like it was, yeah, sure, it was fun. But, yeah, that's, I mean, wow, I'll never forget.

I mean, it was like the combo of Gaichi not hearing about it and you coming on and telling him he didn't win the award. when he had, like, he literally had, like, six shots at round of the year, right? He had, like, one, no, five shots, two rounds against Johnson, three against Alvarez, and you go. But not really. And, like, you're chewing in his ear, and it's just, like, it's one of the all-time great moments, I thought. I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was one of your best moments. Me too.

I liked it. And, you know, it's funny, like, my colleague, Sean Al-Shadi is telling me right now, it's like, he says, New York Rick is awfully defensive for someone who's supposedly not at fault. And you know, I have to side with Sean on this. What do you mean at fault? Well, supposedly not at fault. At fault, but what fault in what? In the whole big shack thing. You're very...

At fault? At fault? You are being accused of not knowing who this guy is. But that doesn't put me at fault. There's no... There's an accusation. Come on. See, well, you know...

I'm now 100% convinced that you didn't know he was because now you're dealing in semantic. This is why I want to get some kind of stake on it. Let's talk. Let's gamble. Let's wager. Fador signed Bobblehead. Done.

It's mine. You just lost your second one. Bellator, cue it up. Okay, where is it? Get the second one set. Where is it? I need it right now. You know what?

Let's do it right now. Yeah, where is it? Hold on. All right. We'll get the screenshots. Hang on. All right then. How are we supposed to fill up?

Yeah, you know, maybe just keep talking about Sean Al-Shadi. He just gave you a crying, laughing emoji. Weh. Everyone's against me. that's actually true. Are you feeling that way? Listen, I mean, we did picks for awards.

I wasn't involved. There's no... What awards? MMA fighting had like this whole spreadsheet with everybody. You know what? You're right about that. I agree with you. Sean,

what's up with that? Since you're tuning in, he was the guy who put it together, him and Mark. You should have been invited. Listen, I don't... You know what? It's all coming out now.

Let's just have a... Forget about Rick's picks. Let's have a detox session. I don't even care. You have been holding. holding on to this idea that you are not a part of the team. You feel disrespected. You don't feel like we include you in the picture, right? You don't feel like we include you in our picks. You don't feel like we include you as a valuable. I wasn't included in the picture. That's not a feeling.

That's a done deal. And the worst part about it was you were 10 feet away, right? I was in the edit suite right there. Right there. And then maybe even worse than that is the fact that Mark Romney was photoshopped in. And I was there and I wasn't even in the picture. You weren't even photoshopped in afterwards. No, no, no. Listen, they don't care. I've been going on about this for weeks.

Nobody's even like said anything to me. It just continues. It goes to, it falls on deaf ears. Yeah. I know. I think you have a legitimate gripe. If anybody is quote unquote at fault. Yeah.

Let's put it on shot. Wow. Wow. This end from Shremada. New York Rick getting a bit upset today. Big Cry Baby. Wow. Wow.

It is all coming to a head here. This is it. This is the moment where New York Rick tells you how he feels about the lack of respect that he has received over at M.A.fighting.com. No, I did that already. That one was done. All right.

The photo was the one. How long is it going to take to produce this? Well, listen, I've got to go back months. Months. This song is ancient. Oh my God. I have to go back months. Can you build it up for us?

Can you tell us what exactly? No, I'm just going back through my DMs to the first time I sent it out. Okay. It's going to take me a while. Wow, well, this is riveting. I mean, look, you want it on air. You're going to get it on air. Okay.

Look, you're getting some support. Our friend Jason Ryan Jones says, get him New York, Rick. Proof served up real proper like. Oh, we haven't gone there yet. It's coming. Don't worry. I believe you New York, Rick. This is from Shan Pants.

Shout out Champans. Are you familiar with Shanpans? I know Champans. Okay. Well, here's felony beats. I love the MMA hour so much. Ariel and the ever so talented New York Rick are an amazing duo.

See, how about that? Everyone's showing you love. I mean, listen, I speak the truth. I don't deceive the people. Yeah, well, I could see the numbers just dropping dramatically here as you try to. Why don't we put that on ice because it feels like you're writing something now? I mean, where's the proof that you're actually searching, you know? How about this?

We'll tweet it out after the show and then we can make a video of, no, no, no, you'll see it. You'll see it. Tell us what we're going to see me. Yes, writing. Sharing the clip, saying, aha, look at what this comedian did. Okay. And that will confirm it for you. Now, explain to me.

why you didn't say this last week. Why didn't you describe him as... Because you have no idea who he was. Yes. So why would you tell me? And that makes it funny. Well, what? That doesn't make it funny.

It does. In my mind, I was like, all right, well, I guess this is a good pick. Like, it's not really that good, but... It's funny because the same reason that these people are sending me like, oh, it's this guy. You weren't in on the joke. You're not in on the joke. Oh, man. Well, do you feel better?

No. Look, this all comes down to Lack of respect. Yeah, Sean's sending me tweets. You know what, Sean? Save your tweets. Save your tweets, Sean. You know what? Next time, invite your boy to do some awards.

Next time, next time don't talk under the little Slack channel to Ariel behind my back. You know what? No, it wasn't Slack. RIP, isn't that like dead? I think GChat is dead. No, man, what are you talking about? Yeah, yeah, no, G chat.

Anyway, it's a different thing. Another thing I'll explain to you. Okay. This time the real, the real story. Okay, let's get back to Rick's. Okay, here we go. What do you got? Michael Johnson.

Okay, there he is. Michael Johnson's reading. What a joke. Yes, go, please, please, please. I don't even know who the other half of the main event is and as a senior citizen is the co-main. Yeah, okay, yeah, makes perfect sense. Coming off five of the year. Nice main cart in my hometown, the real main event.

So Michael Jackson, Michael Johnson laughing, not happy about his placement on the card in Florida. Not in Florida, in St. Louis. He's a St. Louis guy. One mistake with that tweet. Just one mistake. People's main event.

You had to go people's main event. That really cements it. He went with real main event. I can forgive. It's a good tweet. A lot of good emojis. And to be honest, like, hey, he's

local guy. He's got a point. He's got a point. We're continuing our Twitter beef. It's funny that we did this in this segment that it turned into what it did. Stebe Miochich tweeting his past wins and then adding

Francis Inganu to the end of that list on Twitter. A great photo here by Ryan Loco, by the way. Hey, Steve, can we get a photo credit? I mean, what's the guy I got to do? Oh, boy. I mean, really? You're right. But Ryan Loco took the photo. Great photo.

Although the one with the chair backwards seemed a little weird to me. No, it's, all of them are just. What is this? Now you're a photo director? Ryan takes great photo. He does. At Ryan Loco. The man. Okay. Francis responded to this on Instagram and on Twitter. L.O.L. and a picture of him laughing with the record there.

A bunch of eyes. I don't know why so many eyes, but it was great. 220. Francis laughing off You think he created this Photoshop? Because I don't even know how to do that. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it. It's strange. You're not exactly tech savvy. Photoshop is a tough one. Yeah. But no, I don't think Francis. I don't think Francis has time. But we're seeing a lot of back and forth between fighters and

other people, as we'll see in a second here. Do you believe the UFC wants Francis to win over Steepay? I don't know if they necessarily want him or don't. want him, I do think there's something fresh and new about Francis that they, that they can market. Heavyweight has been a division that's been tough to keep stable for a long time. I feel like Stepe might be the guy to do that, but there is something exciting about Francis that I think they can capitalize on. I don't know if it's, like, I don't know if they're saying, we need Francis to win or anything like. that, but there is an excitement that comes with him. That knockout of the year definitely is

winning him some fans. So, and they can continue to, you know, he hits his heart as a Ford driving X miles an hour. Um, that type of thing is something that can, they can trade on. Okay. Speaking of, of, uh, back and forth on Twitter, Stephen Espinoza. Oh, yes. Tweeting and talking about, Dana White getting upset about the releasing of the numbers. Sounds like he's upset because we committed the cardinal sin of telling the truth when we released the accurate total for North American pay-per-view buys on May Mac. Strange that telling the truth in a press release, vetted by all parties in advance is something to be despised for.

To which Connor McGregor... Wait a minute. Pause there? Yeah. So this was in response to an interview Dana White did with Kevin Ioli last week. But the best part about it is our guy, Jedi Goodman, started it. The instigator of all instigators. He's the one who asked Espinosa about the comments, and then there was the quote tweet.

You see that? I did, yeah. And then I retweeted the Stephen Espinosa tweet, and then moments later, Connor McGregor shows up. Give it to him. Connor McGregor saying, shut your weasel mouth,

who gives a fuck about the North American numbers, when we are the global kings, you schmuck worldwide, number one. There was another response to this from Stephen Espinosa saying it wasn't the number one globally. But Connor McGregor very upset about, about Espinoza's thoughts on it being a successful but only number two pay-per-view.

Connor McGregor saying, who gives a fuck and shut your wheezel mouth. Connor McGregor versus Espinosa, a beef that I very much enjoy. Deserved an honorable mention in our rivalry of the year back last week. We fell short on that. I forgot about all the tension during the press conference. The weasel stuff. Speaking of Connor McGregor, we now move on to the. NSFW portion of the show. Oh my dear.

Conan McGregor with the eggplant emoji and the eggplant. Let's just call it that. Tagging Calvin Klein, well done. God bless, Connor. I think he's got to deal with them? Yeah, he does, doesn't he? Calvin Klein?

I think he doesn't he? Maybe he doesn't. Yeah, I don't know if he does. I've seen him wear it a few times. Maybe it's just him angling for it. Yeah, I wonder what prompted this. I don't know. Look, be proud. Yeah, be proud. Good for you, Connor. Along those same lines

Roxanne Mataferi The Happy Warrior Asked by somebody on social media To send nudes And she obliged Here you go Some nudes And sent bar

It looks like censored Nudes to this person Well done, well played Roxanne Turned it around on them Oh my gosh Emmec What? I just had sex

You haven't seen this one? No. So this one I'll explain to you and I'll get all kinds of nonsense on the back end. A meal mech, I just had sex and it felt so good. The interesting part of this tweet, not displayed here because tagboard doesn't. This location was tweeted from the UFC's. Oh, no. Yes.

What? Did people catch that? Yeah, a lot of people caught that. Get out of here. A lot of people caught it. What? Emilmec. Look, maybe he was in the vicinity.

Maybe he tweeted it after. But, tagged from the UFC's Performance Institute. Good for you, Emel. Did he respond? I don't know if he's responded

to everybody noticing it, but... Some kind of find. Get your freak on. Yeah, I guess. That might be a first for the Performance Center. I'm guessing not, actually.

Really? Okay. Yeah, you know. Okay. Valentina Shevchenko, I thought this was hilarious. If you'll ask me what I what I'm carrying in my purse

She has a little gun here Hashtag James Bond I really liked And hashtag girls with guns What? Pack and Heat Can I see that full screen? I can't really see She's got a little

She got a little handgun Oh my dear That is scary Yeah she often Post about her On Instagram and Twitter With her guns You know shooting range

New guns All kinds of stuff It just looks so serene She looks like She's like going skiing, but also keeping the pistol in the bag. Nate Diaz, pictured here, good work with my boy, back in action. Hashtag beast. Interestingly, boxing gloves.

Well, you know, sparring. People wear boxing gloves, but Nate getting back in action, maybe, we'll see. In the ring. Who knows what's next? Emil actually responded with an angel emoji. I mean, good for him. Getting it in. This is my favorite clip of the week.

Jean-Claude Van derby. Getting a little sparring in or light sparring in with Cody Garberant. And. Got mad he is. Kicked him in the head. What's he doing, John? A little oopsie do. A little oopsie daisy.

Close there, Jean. Oh, Cody not happy about it. Jean-Claude not happy about it, obviously. Well, nailed him. You know what? He actually punched him in the head right before there.

I just noticed that. You see that? Look, look, look, right here, right here. Coming up, coming up. Right. Boom. No. Look a little punch.

No. Reckless. This is Ray Gets. Reckless. You know, what I think happened was, and I haven't really investigated it, but it seems like this was after the T.J. fight.

get hit in the hair. He did get hit in the head. Twice. That was a 10 second clip. He did get hit in the head, clearly. But, I mean, Jean-Claude Van Damme. It's the muscles from Brussels. You got to simmer down a little bit after. And I think he was talking to, I believe, Mike Swick about the experience. And it seems like he was red hot at first, but simmered down after and they had a dinner. I'm blaming. And sorted it out. Look, he's John Claude Van Damme. Okay.

I believe this is the last one, or at least close to the end. This gift here from the challenge, when you pull up to the elimination and you see a cage and you're a professional UFC fighter and Michelle Waterson reacting here, on this last episode of the challenge, the elimination was some girl had to get into a cage with her. Like fighter? It doesn't, not fight her.

It was like a grappling thing. But I mean, it doesn't really get much more custom built for Michelle than that one. Did she win? She did. Of course, she won. She smoked her. And she's going on to the finals. Congrats to Michelle Waterson.

Finals. What do you win? I think it's $250K for charity. Okay, you don't win anything. No, she doesn't get any money. It's all for charity. Here, it wasn't the last one. I think this might be the last one.

Deez-Samero, my favorite show. Yeah, these guys are great. hilarious dudes they broke down Gabby Garcia Oh really Missing weight That's incredible

I saw my worlds collide here What do they say Can we hear it? I don't know if we want to go there Oh why Because they say Look they're kind of known For being a little bit of reverent

And controversial I don't know how much we want to really Highlight some of the things they're saying Because obviously this is a bit Startling for somebody who's not a fan of MMA Oh my God they talk about this whole thing Do they talk about type.

162 pounds. This is some real meta stuff where we're reacting to the reaction. We're reacting to somebody reacting to MMO. Which one was reluctant to fight? I wouldn't fight, Shorty. Okay, all right. All right.

Wow. Moving on. That is incredible, though. I have to go find that. I can't believe that it was there, but Deezza Amaro, staying on the cutting edge of MNMM news. Huge Knicks fans.

They've asked me a few times come on, but I can never, like, they tape at a weird time, so I have to figure that out. Go, I mean, I implore you. You believe me? No, not at all. They've never asked me. But one day, maybe. Although Katie Nolan.

Yes. That she was on? She got on some heat for that. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. I did see that. Our commander in chief. Listen, this is why I didn't want to play the clip. They get in trouble sometimes or other people on their show.

Okay. James Goiter tweeting out this picture of Dana White. He was in Fouquet. He stopped by to visit the girl whose operation he paid for a few years ago. Backstory quickly on the UG. They had mentioned that her surgery needed a little bit more money to be paid for.

Dana White came out of pocket and helped pay for her operation. Now meeting the little girl whose life he saved. Incredible. Good story. Amazing story. Well done. Well done. Good job, Dana. Yeah, that's amazing.

Amazing that he got to meet her. Yeah, look at her face. I mean, doesn't get better. PewDie Pye. Look at his face. Look how happy he is. Last, this is the last one. Oh, yeah.

Yawanna. Holding the Olympic torch. Did she say she's the first MMA fighter who's carrying it? Oh, look at her. She did. Maybe in Poland. I think she's the first UFC fighter, right?

Wait, is she the first woman? Did Fador? Fader did. Doesn't matter. I think she's the first U.S.C. Fidder. This is huge. What?

I repeat. I want. want to, I want to live my life post-traumatic incident. Hopefully I never have one. The way Yohani and Jacek has rebounded, or not even rebounded, just continued to live. Like, why, it's just amazing. Look at her. You think she's still the champ.

Carrying the freaking torch all over the place. It's incredible. Right? It's, uh, she's a real life inspiration. It's good to see representing her, our, nation representing MMA. This is from Guillermo Cruz. This is probably the stuff that you should come up with when you pick these tweets.

Yuanian Jacek, the first female UFC fighter to carry the torch. Several UFC fighters have carried it back in 2016 in Rio, Machita, Nogara brothers, Jacare. A little research goes a long way, Mr. New Yorkerick, all right? You can't just throw it out there. Why don't we find out? Listen, I'm not... She says it on the freaking clip. you can't be bothered

she says it on the clip he says something first UFC that prompts like oh wait a second is she the first UFC fighter no it doesn't prompt anything I'm picking the clip to show her some love not to nitpick remember when you just said moments ago let's not

I mean but then you went on to do that remember that let's get the truth no let's let's let's look at this Claudia Gadella was actually offered to do it as well but turned it down because get this she was training to rematch you on Ian Jacek I mean the Brazilian beast

coming up with the factoids. First is Sean Al Shadi not inviting you and Mark. Now it's Gilairemei Cruz one-upping us. See, I got all the love for... If there was ever a time where it felt like a line had been drawn in the sand, team MMA fighting you

on the other side of said line, it's now. But guess what? I'll join you. I'll cross that line. No, you won't. Don't even... I'll cross the line. Don't even... Don't even... Stop it. Stop it. I came to your defense against Wave. Can I get a thank you for that? I mean, I really came to your defense. Oh, yeah, you really big up to me there on that one.

Why? You want to read it? Go ahead. Tell me how you came to my defense. Let's hear it. Oh, one more thing from Guillermo. He says, I agree with Sean. There's no way New York Rick knew that rapper thing.

See? You see? You see what I put up with? What else we got? Are we done here? That's it. That's it for Rick's. Okay, let's fly through these questions.

I, you know, I don't want to get any more hot water. Every single thing I got is scrutinized. It was a poor showing. It was a poor showing, but there's always next week. I thought that was the best version of Rick's picks yet. I got all kinds of good stuff, and we're sitting over here worrying about Claudia Godelia turning down the carrying of the torch. That's a great factoid.

That's the kind of stuff, like, that's called advancing the story. That's the kind of stuff that we like here. It's not just about regurgitating what's out there. It's actually doing some more. I'm not a news reporter. I don't get paid for that. You play one on TV, all right? Yeah, I don't get paid for that.

they want hard-hitting news they want hard-hitting news? I got hard-hitting news I got hard-hitting news. Alright, what do you got? I actually don't. I actually don't. I got some questions. Speaking of, you know, not knowing not knowing the facts, not going ahead of time. Earlier in the show, we had Ariel Hawani

kick off the show. Satchin Patel here giving us the heads up. Bro, just so you know. Okay, here it goes. Ariel didn't read the right tweet. What? I just, you were, you were trying to see what he was saying during the show. You didn't understand

what he was saying. You kicked off the show January 2017. Oh, did I say that? I mean, it just doesn't, does it get worse than that? All right, all right. Stuck in last year? Come on. Welcome, welcome to 2018. Listen, it's hard to remember all these little, you know, details. But yeah, that's my bad. Autopilot. Thanks for making me feel like crap. Satchin, it's okay. We're here. It always takes like a month their soda, get in the groove there with the dates, you know? When you're writing on, like, documents. Yeah, yeah, it always takes a, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We forgive, we forgive. And look, it's been a great kickoff to 2018. It has.

We had our, we had our award show. Yes. But today was a great show. Yes. Question of the week. Who should Chris Cyborg fight next? Yes. We've got options here. One, Megan Anderson, sorry. With the caveat scheduling permitting. Amanda Nunes. So we just tweeted to be, animate the goddamn sheep's head story. Imagine like an animation of Gunnar Nelson waiting for the bus.

And eating it in the bus depot. That's a great one. I didn't even think of that. That's a great one. Okay, please. Megan Anderson, Amanda Nunes, Pam Sorensen. These are the options. 10,000 votes.

62% Amanda Nunes. Not interested in, I mean, 2% for Pam Sorensen. So clearly nobody's buying that one yet. Megan Anderson, 34%. How do you feel about the results? So this is an interesting thing. So Dana White does this interview and he says, you know, the fight to make is Amanda Nunes versus Chris Cyborg.

And, well, if you look at the landscape, the UFC has done nothing to build up the 145 pound division other than sign Megan Anderson, right? But Megan Anderson has some personal things that she's dealing with that at some point I'm told she'll address. But it's not like she's okay. Health-wise, she's okay. She's not pregnant. Just right now she doesn't want to talk about it. All right, she can't fight. Well, there's no one else. And then you go over to 135 and you say, all right, who's there? Rquel Pennington is the only one who's there. A, she hasn't fought since November of 2016. And B, she just got involved in a you know, in a motor vehicle accident. And so when you consider that, there's really no options

at 145 or 135. But then Chris Seibor comes out and says, look, I have a dude. I want to build up the division. I need to be a fighting champion. Let me fight another 145 or because look, I'm putting in a tough spot if I'm beating people who are smaller than me. And I get that as well. Let me fight Pam Sorensen. I mean, the hardest of hardcores

watch this show. I bet you most of them don't know who Pam Sorensen is. There's no knock on her. She's just, she's not in the UFC. She's not fighting a big fight. She's not being groomed. You know, she's not an invicted champion like Megan Anderson was. Right? So that's not a fight that's going to sell. that's not a fight that's going to do anything.

And by the way, I heard that the UFC 219 pay-per-view numbers for 2017 standards actually did pretty well. Chris Seiborke's a name, but I don't think people want to see her in squash matches anymore. So if there was ever a time to do a champion versus champion fight, this is actually it. Like there's other times where you're clogging up a division by doing that. This is actually it. So, you know, usually I say, you know, stay in the division, do your thing, defend the belt. But in this case, there's nothing. else going on for either of them.

Yeah, I like that fight, but I also could see a justification for wanting to see Cyborg fight somebody who's not a Bantamweight coming up. Yeah, but look, Amanda Nunes used to fight a 145. In fact, I remember, and you can dig up these clips. I remember when she was fighting in Strike Force, they would say,

this is the person who's being groomed to fight Cyborg. She's the one when she was knocking people out in like 30 seconds. So build it up that way. Now they're finally fighting. I like Amanda's chances in that fight. I like her in that fight. But I do, she's the 135 pound champion. I do see, I do see a justification for saying. Dude in Brazil later on this year on pay-per-view.

It's a very big deal. Be huge. Now the other thing is, why are we even talking about cyborgs' next fight? Like, let's see the way the Megan Anderson situation plays out because she just fought two weeks ago. So there's no real rush there. But Amanda's been inactive. Yeah. So I think it's more, like, there's a perfect storm here where,

it seems like something has to happen. People want to see Cyborg fighting names, and I think that was the intrigue with the Holly Home fight. Unfortunately, right now, Pam Thornton is a name. Cyborg just re-signed with the UFC. I hope at some point in those talks, there was a discussion about what their plans are

for 145 and them signing talent and building up the division, because as I've said, each and every week, the job of the matchmaker is not to create champions, it's to create contenders. Right now, she has no contenders. She has zero contenders right now who are actively able to fight.

fight her. That's a big problem for a champion. And so they have to get creative. And they're lucky that 135 is a little bit open right now. So I see both sides of the coin. But if you're asking me, like, as a pay-per-view consumer, which fight I want to see more? Cyborg Nunes or Cyborg Pam Sorensen? I mean, I remember sitting at that in Victor show. I think it was 2014. And no, maybe it was 15. Yeah, it was 15. Yeah. You're talking about Las Vegas. Yeah. I was like, I don't want to see this anymore. I just don't. I don't want to see people who are not at her level. This is the greatest female fighter of all time and she's being put in there with people who just aren't on her level. Now that's not fair because she could do this to any, like that's not a thing like Amanda

Nunes could get beaten the first round too. And then do you say the same thing? No, I don't think that that's fair. But these people have no resume going in. Amanda Nunes is the bantamway champion. She's beaten Misha Tate and Valentina Shepchenko and Holly Home and not Holly Home. Misha Tade, Ronda Rousey. So she's beating these people. These other people haven't. Yes. So, I mean, it just doesn't feel the same.

I'm with you to an extent, but it may not change the outcome. I don't think that that's necessary. I don't want to see a cyborg fight. You know, somebody. Someone who's five and two who, you know, has fought competition that has a combined record of 20 and 20. and it looks, you know, a little bit scared. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. It's tough to find legit featherweights, and that's what we're seeing now.

Okay. If Steepa beats Francis, will he be considered the greatest heavyweight in UFC history? Does the title defense record do that for him? Does Stepe become heavyweight? I mean, he holds the record. Yeah. Right? He holds the record.

So by that alone, he would, I think, deserve the honor, right? I mean, it's, I mean, there's, the belt has been passed around so much in that, in that division. Um, the fact that this record is, is going to be set at three tells you everything. I mean, it's been two for, I believe the first person to defend it twice was Randy Couture in like 2001. And that record has held all the way since.

So on paper, he's got a good, he's got a good case for it. I would say, yeah, I would say, I don't know if he gets that respect. Because what he's done to this point probably earns that respect, but... I would certainly feel comfortable putting him in that discussion, especially considering who he has defeated and how he has defeated them and when he defeated them. You know, there's others who deserve to be mentioned as well, the coutures of the world. I think Verdum has a fantastic resume that deserves to be up there. In Velasquez. Yes, et cetera.

Yeah, I feel comfortable with that. I would say he's probably the guy if he gets this done. He's beaten all comers. Okay. Now, the other side of the coin, what happens if Francis wins the title? Anwar is suggesting Africa, like the rumble in the jungle. Does that have to be in Francis's future? That would be incredible.

What a scene. By the way, they're starting to sign a lot more African fighters. Abdul Hassan and Kamaru Usman. I've got something going on. Yeah, it could be done. I used to call like the European group Amaya, Europe, Middle East, Africa. They went to the Middle East twice, never been to Africa. And of course, they go to Europe all the time.

But yeah. Huge. Gigantic. Huge. What's going on with the UFC London card? Fans have expressed a lot of frustration with the current card. So what are some potential matchups that we can see? on this card. They're still figuring it out. Look, if you've, if you've been paying attention,

they're, they are certainly, um, behind schedule. And when I say schedule, I mean like the old UFC schedule. The old UFC schedule, like you know the cards two, three months in advance. Now we're going like one month in advance. St. Louis. We just found out what the main event was for Austin. We don't have a main event for Orlando. We don't have a main event for March 3rd in Vegas. Like that's less than two months away now. March 3rd, Las Vegas. UFC 22. Right. So you kind of have to just follow the dominoes. We just got Austin. Next up is Orlando. Then Las Vegas. So I mean, it could happen where they sign it, you know, tomorrow, but like there's kind of been an order here to things. And I mean, I think it would be crazy if Darren Tillon isn't on the card. I think he has to be

on the card. I think he has to be the main event. I see a lot of fans are a little disappointed with the card. You know, I don't necessarily blame you. But, it kind of has been following the lead of the last few London cards or European cards. The Jimmy Manoa Jan Blahowitz fight is, it's a rematch. It's a rematch that no one was asking for. That's a bit of a bummer, but that's more of an indictment on the light heavyweight division. I would have loved to have seen Manoa versus Glover Tashara, but unfortunately that fight isn't happening. So it's a, it's the problem that we've talked about, you know, ad nauseum now.

There's too many cards and they're trying their best to fill them up. I don't think they have the roster depth, but the sport is cyclical. So we could be saying something completely different this time next year. It's the story to watch, right? What kind of a deal do they sign this year? Because the schedule isn't going to change. It's going to be the same amount, give or take one or two, cancellations, rescheduling, because they've already committed to these shows.

Let's see what happens. So, yeah. what I would suggest, wait and see. If you're unhappy, don't just blindly buy the tickets. Just wait and see if you want to go, go buy the tickets. If not, that's the only way that you can say, hey, I'm going to pass on this one and let your voice be heard. There are some interesting fights on the card,

but right now it's without a main event, and there's still a couple shows before it that they have to fill those slots. From Michael Stull, I haven't seen any updates concerning PFL season one. Do you know anything? I tried to look around myself for this And I couldn't find Do you have anything?

Well, we were told that they were going to start in January That obviously is in the case They're trying to get a TV deal That's key. You need a TV deal, especially when you're promising Those kind of purses. The last thing I heard was mid-year If you see them, they're still active on social media.

They're still saying, from what I understand, some fighters were compensated for not being active, for not getting fights. They don't have a ton of fighters on their roster, but they still have some names. And so let's see what happens. I mean, mid-year is going to come pretty soon. Where do they land?

It's not going to be NBCSN unless something drastic happens. Maybe, you know, is it possible that they're waiting for the UFC domino to fall? You know, does the UFC go elsewhere and then they pick up the fox? Who knows? Maybe that's what they're waiting for. They have investors. They have some big names. As far as investing is concerned out of D.C.

Last I heard that they still want to be a thing, but, you know, they said it was going to start in January. And they were talking $1 million purses and all this stuff. I still have my reservations about that whole system, the leak system and the points and all that. I'm still not sold that that works in MMA. And I think history would actually back me up on that. Maybe they'll have better luck. First things first though, they've got to get a TV deal. You don't have anything if you don't have a TV deal or some kind of distribution deal.

These days you can have like an Amazon who I know is on everyone's minds. UFC, PFL has definitely expressed interest. So some kind of distribution deal. But I have not heard any kind of definitive word as to when they're going to start, if they're going to start, what's going on, what's happening. we all know though that they are delayed because they're not starting it's january and there's no sign of them any particular city or country this is from c p rafferty any particular city or country you'd like the ufc to visit this year wow we got that love you pick the you pick the edmonton crowd for the crowd of the year shout out to the good people over at the edmonton sun for uh then reciprocating so now it's i think

two years in a row where our crowd of the year gets some love in the local papers um what look what I want to see happen, I want to see the UFC start to book main events which cater to the headliners. So, when if Demetrius Johnson fights T.J. Dillusha, I want that fight to be in Seattle. When if Habibir Mugamagimatov fights Tony Ferguson, I want that fight to be in Brooklyn, large Russian population, right? when if Steve Miochich beats Francis and Ghanu next title defense, I wanted to be in Cleveland.

When if George St. Pierre comes back, I want it to be in Montreal. That's what I want. So there's no one answer that I can give you. I just really want to see them do that more. You know, Derek Brunson is fighting in North Carolina. Perfect. He's from North Carolina.

That's what you should be doing. Mike Perry not on the main event but him fighting in Orlando yes that makes sense Darren Till fighting in England yes that makes sense I want more of that what exactly are you doing over there there's always like a delay I feel like you're not paying attention to anything

that I'm saying did you say something yeah what are you doing what could you pause are you sending out another glory press release in the middle of the show no I didn't see that earlier those are timed wait you think I'm sitting there pressing the button what it's a slap in the face no those are timed

just see it in my inbox I'm glad you saw it though. You never acknowledge. What is your favorite place to eat when you have downtime covering the events in Las Vegas? And then I was asked for my favorite beer. I don't really have one. I don't drink beer. I've had plenty of beers throughout my life. Don't alcohol in general doesn't really do it for me. It's a vessel for getting intoxicated. Wow. Don't really like the taste of any of them. Now is this specific to Las Vegas? Yes. So when I'm staying at the MGM singing chair, I'll give them a shout out because they're great people over there. I like to go to Delights. The people who work there, there's one woman in particular who's just an angel. She's just so nice. I get the classic skillet. That's a go-to. But these days, I'm liking the Vodara very much. And I've talked about Egg Slut on this program before. Egg Slut is just phenomenal. If you've never had egg slut, I'm telling you, you've never experienced anything like it. Your mind will be blown. It's orgas. It's

It's incredible ex-lut. I couldn't say enough good things about it. So those are probably my two favorite spots in Las Vegas at the moment. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot of time. Oh, we go to this one place. We go to like a sushi burrito place with Esther and Casey and then another. I think it's, is it Venezuelan? Mark Romundi loves it.

If he's listening, he'll tell me. Arepes? is that Venezuela on? Anyway, that's good too, but that's off-strip. Esther and Casey loved to go off-strip. I'm lazy and I like to be on-strip and not get in the car, but... There you go.

Shirk-guilee. You got some recommendations for Vegas. Oh, that's my guy, shirt-guy. That guy's the man. I see him all the time. Jordan Walsh, what are some of the most commonly misspelled my names by casual MMA fans that annoy you? I have my answer for this. MMA name Oh yes, Connor Ronda

It's got to be Ronda Connor 2Rs Rhonda with an H 2Rs No no 2N sorry sorry sorry Okay And Rhonda with an H Rhonda with an H

Ronda with an H But the thing with the Connor with 2Ns is it's Okay like Maybe you're spelling it C OR Maybe you're spelling it C OR Maybe you're spelling it C O R Maybe you're spelling it C O NER

You're at least in the ballpark Right adding a silent age to Ronda And most commonly responding to something else about Ronda spelled properly Oh yeah that's adding it just Or if you're a journalist like that guy for the Detroit Free Press who mispelled it like how does that how does that how does that how does that happen how does that get through the whole editing process How does it happen

I agree How in the world did you not know about cornhole? Asked Jonathan Yeah I've heard of it But I love the breakdown of what it was. Do you want Tyrod Taylor? Oh, wow.

What a great question this is. This is from Austin? Well, what a day it was yesterday, my friends. The Buffalo Bills, 18 years, first team, first time in the playoffs in the 21st century. Of course, the longest playoff drought in North American sports. We finally break through. We finally make it. And if you're wondering why the hostility from this side of the table, New York

Crick trying to perpetuate the myth that I'm a bandwagon Bill's fan, which is the oxymoron of all oxymorons. There's no such thing as bandwagon Bill's fans. And here I am crying, sweating, bleeding, red, white, and blue for my beloved Bill's. And we finally break through. We finally make it happen. I was watching reaction videos all week. I'm listening to WGR up in Buffalo. I mean, it was a great time for all Bill's fans, Western New York.

And finally, I say to my wife, look, I don't do fantasy sports. I don't care about fantasy sports. I never make you sit at home and why. Oh, yeah. And this other thing, they're like, oh, I don't watch football. Let me tell you something, you losers out there. If your team did not make the playoffs for 18 years, you're not going to be so, you know, keen on spending your Sundays

when you have three little kids running around and a wife and all kinds of things and all kinds of responsibilities. I'm not going to spend my life watching a four and 12 team. Of course I follow them. Of course I watch it on the phone, but I'm not too happy about it. So finally they make the playoffs and I'm excited. And I say, one o'clock, we are absolutely. home and we are watching this playoff game.

And the problem was my kids and in particular my oldest son, he likes to go against me with all my favorite teams. Like I tell him, I like this team. He says, okay, who are they playing? I'm going with that team. He just refuses to root for my teams. And it kind of bums me out because this is our first time getting to watch a playoff team and it's great and we're going to go through this together.

We're going to have the highs and the lows and it's going to be fun. Father's son, we're going to go through this together. And he refuses. And he says, go Jaguars, go Jaguars. Go Jaguars. but he doesn't really care, so he comes in and out of the room. And it was fine. I was watching it alone, and it was a little bit frustrating.

Of course, he only scored a field goal. But then he has his friend come over, and his friend is a very knowledgeable football. He's only five years old, but he knows his stuff. Like, he really knows the stuff. He's talking to me about false starts and face mask and all. Like, he really knows his stuff, and he's a great athlete. And he starts rooting for the Jaguars, but, like, he knows when to root and when to be annoying and when to rub it in my face.

And he shows up in the fourth quarter. order. So there I am in my own damn house with my kids who want nothing to do with the team that I'm like, like, I'm pouring everything into. My wife couldn't care less. And this freaking kid is laughing at me and is saying, go Jaguars go in my own freaking house, in my own house, in my own roof. And I, and I was trying to give my wife the look and I was trying to say, like, please, you need to get this kid. Like I, the kid's a great kid, but like, please, we need to, we need to separate here because this is my house. This is my team. This is, I've been waiting 18 years for this. We're still in it in the it's still 10 to 3, we can make this happen.

And this freaking kid is like making fun. And he's like pointing at me. He's like saying like, ah, the bill's suck. Like he knows everything about it. He knows about the drought. He knows everything. And it just was pissing me off. So it was a real frustrating day.

Like in my own house, you talk about getting disrespected. Yeah. Like it's one thing to like see them lose. It's another to be like disrespected in your own home. And I tried to verbalize that to my wife afterwards. But she thought I was insane. I'm like, this is my own freaking house. Watch Rudy.

Listen to the father. talking about Notre Dame. You come into my house, you root for my damn teams. You don't get to come in there. You want to come in here and root for the Jacksonville Jaguars? Get the hell out. Go outside in the cold. That's not going to fly here.

No fly zone. Anyway, Taro Taylor, I mean, it wasn't a great game. And I'm sorry to hear that he, you know, may have gone a concussion. It was a horrible ending. But, hey, first guy to get us into the playoffs in 18 years, that means something. And it's been a pretty crappy list of quarterbacks that have been, you know, heading up the offense for the bills for 17-18 season. So I say give him another shot.

Why not? He got us in there. You deserve it. So sign me up for Team Tyrod. And the team you're going to root for the rest of the playoffs? No, no, no. Stop it with that bullshit. That is absolute.

There's three things you can't say. Don't give me the bills, the Knicks, and the freaking expos when they come back. That's it. Throwing the Canadians too. Like you could say, oh, yeah, it's funny. Warriors, this or that, but you don't, you can't. You can't be bandwagon bills fan. You can't.

doesn't exist. But who do you got? I have openly criticized the Bill's Mafia thing because I don't like that whole like, oh, throw them through a table and all that. Yeah, that is a little bit weird. It's too much. It's not my style.

But hey, 20,000 of them went to the game. They donated 400,000 to Andy Dalton's Foundation. They're incredible human beings. That was crazy. They're incredible human beings. And like 20,000 to boy, the receiver. I mean, this is incredible stuff. I'm not down with the whole, like,

flaming table stuff because people get hurt and, like, making fun of other fans, whatever. But I'm proud to be a Bill's fan. It was tough. I just don't like being disrespected in my own home that's it and please

next time it's first and goal on the one please run the ball that's all I'm saying how about Shady McCoy he looked good the man

he looked great on a bum ankle that was that was pretty impressive and the thing they did the Bills fans did for Andy Dalton's foundation

I mean that is that is top notch stuff shout out to the Bills yes and Ariel Hallone well thank you are we good two more

In your purely personal opinion, do you believe that Jared Gordon could dunk on a regulation hoop? What? What a strange question? This is the weirdest question in the history of the show. Why Jared Gordon of all people?

I'm going to say no. Sorry, Jared. That is the weirdest question ever. He's a shorter man. I don't know if he's... But he is a Jew. You know what? He's got up...

What? Does that mean he's jumping higher? No, that means he's a cool guy. Oh, okay. All right. yeah I don't think so but I'd like to see it I mean we've seen like John Jones is six foot

what three four and he duffed it so who knows maybe it goes the other way I think Dodson didn't Dotson like dunk yeah I think he did but maybe not real basketball maybe I don't know maybe Jared's got it but I'd have to see it to believe it

okay and finally finally will you be getting karate-hadi on next week Michelle Watterson for your own personal challenge interview. You did a challenge interview with her. Nobody's asking you this. Yeah, I will not but I may have something else in the works

related to the challenge and Michelle Watterson. Okay. So that's it. TBD, keep an eye out for that. All right, well, there you have it. That's it. That's the way you end a good program on a tease. He's going to go back there and Photoshop whatever proof he has that he was in on that joke.

Look, I mean, it's either going to be true or not true. That's all we can say. I'll find out. For now, we'll say goodbye. Thank you very much, New York, Rick. You can hit my music. There he is. There he goes. Mr. New York Rick. Owner, oh, are, are you, are my announcing? No, okay. I thought I was giving out some kind of award. But, alas, there are no more awards to give out. I want to thank you everyone who, by the way, watched the award show last week. Great feedback. It was a lot of fun. And thank you very much to the crew here at the studio for putting together that highlight reel. That was a lot of fun as well. It's great to see. What a

prestigious award, the MMA Hour Award. And we kick off 2018. Officially it feels like this week, and 2018, by the way. Not 2017, 2018. We kick it off officially this weekend with Invicta and the UFC in St. Louis. And by the way, it's a good little card in St. Louis. Nice little four-fight main card, the return of Page Van Zand.

Got to love that. I like that very much. And of course, Du Ho-Choi returning. It's Jeremy Stevens. I didn't interview a Duo Choy. should come out this weekend under May fighting. Emil Met against Kamala Usman, Darren Elkins against Michael Johnson. James Krause is on the card against Alex White.

How about Tiago Alva is on the card as well? Jessica I am making her 125 pound UFC debut. So there's a lot to be excited about as far as the UFC in St. Louis this weekend. I want to thank everyone who stopped by today. I want to thank everyone who tuned in. What a fun show it was. Back on track. Thank you very much to Gunner Nelson.

And hopefully he got one of those sheep's heads or maybe his. thinking about it because he said his mouth was watering as we were talking about it. Thank you very much, Shumail Marais. Best of luck to him. We'll see what happens there. The saga continues. Best of luck to Jimmy Smith. Thank you for coming on.

Great stuff from Mike Perry. Happy trails to Nate Marquhar. Thank you very much, Sipa Miotich. Best of luck. Thank you very much, George Lockhart. Great stuff from Jared Gordon. Best of luck to him. And of course, thank you very much to Jimmy Rivera.

Back next week. Same time and plays. Tell us, hey, peace. I'm out of you.