MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 422

Episode Date: February 20, 2018

Ariel Helwani recaps the week in MMA (00:07:57), then speaks to Mike Perry (00:24:09) in studio, Elias Theodorou (01:32:10), Yoel Romero (01:49:19), Israel Adesanya (02:11:04), Leslie Smith (02:34:37), Will Brooks (03:02:15), TJ Dillashaw (03:24:20), Matt Mitrione (03:42:50), and NewYorkRic for The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (04:14:28) and the answers to your questions (05:01:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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, February 19th, 2018. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a lovely week. Hope you had a lovely weekend.

If you are joining us from the United States of America, you are probably off work today. I think most people are because it's President's Day. I'm still not quite sure what President's Day is. I meant to look it up before this program. Of course, I didn't grow up in the American school system, so I didn't learn all these things. But I do believe that we are honoring the presidents,

maybe two presidents in particular, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I might be wrong, but I'm learning as my kids start to go through the school system. I'm starting to learn about your holidays here. Nevertheless, if you are joining us, and you have the day off. I hope you're enjoying your day off and I hope that you are spending it with us

because we've got a great show. And of course, if you're outside of the United States, hope you're having a great Monday. We've got a lot to discuss another busy weekend in the world of mixed martial arts, a fun weekend, Beltor on Friday, UFC on Sunday night, so we're still kind of digesting that. I'm going to talk about both those events

at the top of the show. Then we'll get to our guests and we've got a loaded show once again. I'm really excited about today's show. We will not be talking about one of my favorite weekends of the year. NBA, All-Star weekend. A fantastic time in Los Angeles. Kind of wish I was there.

But I enjoyed it from afar. Dunn competitions, three-point skills, the game. Everyone loved the game. Kind of bummed that the UFC went head-to-head with the game yesterday. I hate to make that choice. But I had the game on my computer. I had UFC on my television. I gave them, you know, first dibs on the big TV.

So, you know, it's a little difficult dividing my time, and, you know, my attention span isn't great. But I enjoyed both events nonetheless. A lot of fun to watch the NBA. I just love that. I love that weekend. My favorite weekend of the year, better than any. Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series, NBA finals, whatever. College football, the Masters, nothing beats NBA All-Star weekend.

Nothing. Okay, what are we talking about on today's program? We've got a loaded show, as I said. Let me run down today's guests, and then I'll weigh in on a few things that happened this past weekend that I wanted to discuss. 445, it's the M.A. After Hour. You know the drill by now, your questions. And, of course, Mr. New York, Rick, with his Rick's picks. He shall be stopping by.

425. We'll talk to Matt Matreone, who was victorious on Friday at Mohegan's son in Connecticut. He defeats Roy Nelson. I'll tell you my thoughts on that particular fight, but he has a lot to get off his chest. I spoke to him yesterday briefly. Matt Matrione is fired up, so I suggest tuning into that one.

405, T.J. Dilleshaw, the reigning defending UFC Bantamway champion. T.J. Dillishaw will stop by. Is he fighting Demetrius Johnson next? Is he fighting Cody Garbrant next? What happened with that offer to fight at UFC 222? He's a proud new father, so we'll talk to him about all that and more.

345 will be talking to the former Bellator lightweight champion, the now former UFC lightweight fighter, Will Brooks. Will Brooks is no longer in the UFC. This came out, I do believe, on Friday. Maybe it was Thursday night. It was around Thursday afternoon that he is no longer in the UFC. He's now a member of the Pro Fighters League. Who saw that coming?

I mean, it hasn't been a good run for him in the UFC, but a bit of a shocker there. So we'll talk to him at 345. 325, we'll talk to Leslie Smith. She's in the news because she is heading up Project Spearhead. She is trying, once again, to rally the troops, so to speak. She's trying to get the UFC fighters to unionize. Right now it's her, Cajun Johnson, and Lucas Middlebrook,

who is most famous in MMA circles for his work as Nick Diaz's lawyer when he was battling the Nevada Athletic Commission on that five. year suspension for the failed marijuana test. And it's amazing he hasn't fought since and we're probably going to go five plus years before he fights again at this point. But anyway, those three individuals as of right now are heading up this project spearhead. And she's going to come on to talk about that where it stands. She's been a part of other efforts in the past, very knowledgeable when it comes to this topic. It's a topic that I am very interested in. I'm fascinated by it, where it goes from here, why it hasn't happened just yet.

And how about this revelation last week from the UFC's lawyers in their antitrust lawsuit that one of the reasons why you can't compare the UFC fighters to other athletes and other sports is because the UFC fighters aren't unionized and almost saying that it's in their best interest

to unionize and thus you can compare them only once they unionize because now they're disorganized and they're not all on the same page. It's an amazing revelation. So we'll talk to her about that about where this stem from how hard it was to get it off the ground. The website is an impressive one. I'm very excited

to talk to Leslie Smith at 325. 325 will talk to the last style bender himself. Israel, Adasania, a lot of you wanted to hear from him last week. Time difference in Perth didn't work out. He's going to join us this week. To say that I'm looking forward to talking to him for the first time would be a massive understatement. He is quite the character. He's the talk of the MMA world. everyone's excited about Israel, Adisania, as am I, and I want to talk to him about his debut, what's next, his personality, his fighting style, that will go down at 305. 245, we'll talk to YoL Romero, who of course was victorious in Perth at UFC 21 over Luke Rockhold. He is not the interim champion, but it looks like he will fight for the middleweight title

later on this year. So in his first interview since returning back home to Florida, Y'O. Romero will stop by at 2.45, I'm very excited to talk to him. 225, Elias Theodore will stop by. He's a UFC middleweight. You know him. Canadian, the long, flowing hair, quite the personality. In fact, Elias and Angela Hill were live tweeting the event last night in Austin.

He has some news to share about his future. So stay tuned. 225. The main event. Elias Deodora will stop by. And at 125 or so, probably a little earlier. We're going to talk to Platinum Mike Perry, but not just talk to him. He's going to be joining us in studio.

Platinum Perry is going to be joining us in studio. How freaking exciting is this? This is incredible. Platinum Perry is fighting this Saturday in Orlando, Florida, where he happens to live. Yet here he is on Monday of Fight Week in New York City, joining us in studio. This is an amazing treat. I can't wait to talk to him. In fact, I don't even know if I've ever interviewed him in person.

The only other time that I've seen Platinum Perry in person was back at UFC 202 prior to his UFC debut. And since then, he's fought on cards that for one reason or another I wasn't at. Now he's going to be joining in studio. We're going to break down his life, his upbringing, the fight coming up on Saturday. One of the best personalities in the sport today, Platinum Mike Perry, is going to be joining us in a few minutes time in studio sitting right over there. How awesome is that? I am so excited to talk to him. great and I really appreciate the UFC bringing him by. But first, a few thoughts on last night.

We'll start with last night in Austin, Texas. By the way, Austin, Texas, one of three American cities at this point that I've not visited, that I'm dying to visit. My last three that I really want to go to, Austin, Portland, Oregon, never been there. And I hear it's phenomenal. And New Orleans, I've never been to New Orleans. I'd love to go there. I hear Austin is great as well. they've got South by Southwest. Anyway, the UFC was there. I was not there, but I was enjoying from home. A fun card, as I told you last week on the program,

I liked this card a lot on paper. I thought it was a more intriguing card than the pay-per-view the weekend before. I thought the card delivered. Main event. It was fun. It was wacky. It was a little weird at times,

but it was very entertaining. I mean, there was a stretch early on from the first fight to the end of the prelims, five of the six fights all finished in the first round. So we had five of six fights was six. Yeah, it was six. Finishing in the first round.

Carlos Diego Ferreira defeated Jared Gordon and that was the fight past prelim. Not the fight past prelim, the FS1 prelim headliner. That one was a little strange. It was a great finish. It was a super technical finish. It was an impressive finish on the ground via

TKO and the way he trapped the arm. But there were two low blows beforehand. And this is not quite cheating, as we were talking about last week, you know, how it kind of pays to cheat in MMA. But it does kind of feel weird that there were two low blows and nothing happened. And, I mean, you could say all day that it didn't affect Jard Gordon, that he didn't take the five extra minutes. But how do we really know?

There's a lot of pressure you're standing there. You get five minutes, yes, but you see everyone kind of waiting on you. And then the ref is all in your face and the crowd is, you know, getting restless. so that was a bit of a bummer. Some other nice performances, but overall the prelims were fun. And then we got to the main card, Sage Northcutt defeats Tebow Guti

in a fight that was somewhat controversial. I thought that Guti won the fight, 29, 28. I don't think it was a robbery necessarily. I am surprised that not even one judge gave it to Guti. All three judges scored it 29, 28

for Texas' own Sage Northcut. That one, surprised me a little bit. I thought early on Guti did really well rocking Northcutt several times two times in the first round, even dropped them in the first round. Northcutt notably showed a lot of heart, you know, was able

to overcome the adversity. You can't really knock his heart anymore, especially after a performance like that, but I did think that Guti had won two out of the three rounds. Again, not a robbery. It wasn't egregious, but when they did say that Northcut won, I was like, eh, that's a bit of a

surprise. But then I thought that we're in Texas and maybe not all that much of a surprise. Brandon Davis defeated Stephen Patterson via decision. That kind of was what it was. How about Curtis Millinder defeating Tiago Alves via knockout in the second round? A vicious knee also looked great in the first round. This is a guy that a lot of people, a lot of people were tweeting me that they thought that he was very reminiscent of John Jones. It seems like everyone who has a great performance, Like last week it was Israel Adisania, who's the next great John Jones, and then this week it's Curtis Millinder, who's the next great John Jones. So anyway, it was impressive.

What a debut for him to finish a guy like Tiago Alves. Really nice stuff. So I'm curious to see how far Curtis goes. Then we got to the real meat of the card, and the last few fights I was very interested in. James Vic defeated Francisco Trinaldo. James Vic is now 9 and 1 in the UFC. And, you know, he's talked on this show.

I tweeted before the fight, James Vic is pissed, and I want to see how I pissed off James Vic fights. Unfortunately for him, he said afterwards that early in the fight he dislocated his pinky

and it affected him. Now, he won via decision, and that's no small feat against a tough veteran like Francisco Trinaldo. It wasn't maybe the sort of, you know, breakout performance that he was looking for.

And even on the mic afterwards, I don't think he made the kind of noise that he was looking for, but you continue to win a Ws, a W. It was a I thought pretty dominant win over Francisco Trinado. It goes the distance

yes, but now you're 9 and 1 and at this point, you know, I know what Michael Kesa is saying. I get it. You fought him a long time ago on tough. I see what the likes of Anthony Pet. I get, no one wants to fight this guy because he is good, because he is long, because he is rangey, because

he is super talented. He's supremely confident. He's no longer bit by the injury bug. He continues to progress. He He needs a big fight. Enough of these top 15, top 20 guys. I want to see James Vick in a big fight. You're 9 and 1 in the UFC.

You deserve a big fight. You have earned that right. And it's time for the UFC to make that happen. And I'm not saying that they're not trying to make it happen. I actually do believe that they are trying to make it happen. But for whatever reason, he can't get the guy that he needs to get to say yes. He can't get that opponent to step up. This is actually one of the reasons why I think that after the ranking system,

Actually, after the Fox deal is done, I think the ranking system needs to go away. Because I think the ranking system is doing more harm than good for the UFC. I think that they never wanted to bring it in. I think Joe Silva was, well, I know Joe Silva was against it for many years, because it would be used against them. Managers would say, why is this guy getting paid more? Who's ranked below me? Why is this guy getting a title shot? But it also now, you know, it allows fighters to not accept fights that for various reasons,

makes sense. Like James Vicks should be fighting in my opinion the top eight, top seven guy at this point. When you're nine and one in the UFC, you can't rely on these rankings and say like, oh, no, he's top 15. I'm not taking this fight.

No way. This is a problem that persists because a lot of guys are looking at these flawed rankings that are being constructed by, quite frankly, and as I've said ad nauseum on this program, people who just don't follow the sport and don't have, you know,

the sort of knowledge of the sport and the accolades to be, given this kind of power, it's, I think, proving to be a headache for not only the James Vicks of the world, but also the UFC matchmakers

because guys are not accepting fights that they probably should be accepting at this juncture. And guys like James Vick need to be rewarded for going 9 and 1 in the UFC. The rankings were something that, you know, the Fox executives wanted

because they wanted to say, number 10 is fighting, you know, number 9 or number 3 is fighting number 2, Liva and Freon Fox. I get that from a promotional standpoint, but I do think at this juncture it's making it's making problems

and it's giving them a lot of headaches so James Vic is a victim of that in my opinion we'll see what's next for him afterwards he called out you know the likes of he skipped over you know the tweeter guys and just

went for the Ferguson's and the Habibs of the world I don't think that's going to happen and yes at this point you just got you know shoot your shot because nothing else is sticking but I'd love to see him fight you know the five six seven eight guys he has

in that. So James Vic wins. Derek Lewis wins. Fun fight once again. He defeats Marstein Taibura. Look good in the first, seemed to get tired and lost the second. And then somehow he just kind of, it was like a video game. He gets a little extra power. And then says, enough of this. I'm going to knock this guy out. And he does so at 248 in the third round. The celebration was entertaining. The post-fight interview, as expected, always entertaining. Even says the B-word to Jimmy Smith, the Bellator word, says, hey, you know, I know you've been watching Belator, you're the new guy here, but this is how I am, says something about his wife. And then it, you know, it leads to maybe the wackiest, you know, 25 seconds or so in UFC

broadcast history where Derek Lewis is talking about what he wants to do to his wife after the fight. They cut away and show the crowd quickly. And then they go to Nate Diaz, who is sitting in the stands, and he pulls out. what appears to be some kind of, you know, so I initially said an e-cigarette because I know that at 202 he showed up to the press conference with an e-cigarette. So I thought that, you know, this is kind of a sponsor thing. Brilliant. You're on TV. Bust this thing out. And then I get roasted for that. I get completely annihilated for that. And then it's like this big debate. Is it a blunt? Is it a joint? Who the hell knows? I still don't know. What the hell is the difference? I don't understand what the

difference is. Okay, I get it. It's not an e-cigret. I'm sorry. I don't partake. whatever the case was, as someone told me before the show today, no one does less, no one does more with less, I botched that, no one does more with less than Nate Diaz. The guy is shown on TV for literally 10 seconds, if not less. And he's the talk of the town. He's the star of the weekend. Everyone's talking about him.

The legend grows on television, bust this thing out, pretends to light it. It's passed everywhere. It's an instant gift. it will live on, you know, until we're all gone, it will be reposted, posted, posted like that is Nate Diaz in a nutshell. That five-second clip is Nate Diaz in a nutshell. Was it a joint? What is it about?

I don't know. It was real. It was hilarious. It was great. So going from the Derek Lewis moment to that was just amazing. It was kind of a wacky night in Austin. But it was a fun night. It was entertaining.

No one does more with less than Nate Diaz. Literally show him for eight seconds. Our expert, Casey's telling me it was a joint. But what is the difference? Someone was telling me like if it's, I don't know. I don't even know. I don't even know how to explain it. If it was like brown and rolled, then it's a blunt.

How do you even tell these things? How could you tell from a quick like three second thing? A joint, a blunt? I don't understand. Okay, here it is. It was a pre-rolled cone joint most likely. Like there's a whole culture here that just knows what this is just based on looking at it. whatever it was, it was great.

It was vintage Diaz. It was hilarious. The little kid in the back loved it. And then we get to the main event, and it's Donald Soroni against Yancey Medeiros, and Soroni wins. He snaps the three-fight losing streak, and it was just a bit of a weird fight.

It was fun. It was a finish. It was a first-round finish, and it's always good for the UFC when Soroni is victorious. But it, at least for me, felt like, it felt reminiscent of

UFC 115 Pat Barry versus Miracle Crow Cop where it just seemed like Jansomideh had too much respect for Donald Taroni like he was just

in awe of him and I didn't even know they had this relationship I thought that Soroni was one who even suggested taking this fight there was a lot of hugging

you know wherever he was you know Dana White did not like that UFC President Dana White hates that thing where they always like you know hug after like an awkward

moment a slip a fall the bro hugs, the fist bumps. It's like, you guys are fighting. And it was cool, like great. I love the respect afterwards. But in the middle of the fight, it felt more like a sparring match at times.

I didn't know that they were buds like that. I thought Maderos was part of the D.S team. They have kind of a beef with Soroni. And to me, I thought Kenny Florian afterwards hit it on the head. Donald Seroni has talked in the past about how he gets super nervous. He's anxious.

The mental side has always been his biggest hurdle. Sometimes he's there. He's with it. Sometimes he doesn't get up for the big fights. He can't get up for the big fights. The brain precludes him from getting up for the big fights. And I feel like if you're too buddy-buddy with him, if you're too, you know, broie with him, you calm him down.

Now he's comfortable. Now he's not overthinking. Now he's not anxious. Now he's not nervous. You're playing into his hand. And I feel like at some point, Anthony Medeiros, who was on a three-fight winning streak, fighting in his first UFC main event, will realize that maybe it wasn't best interest to be that chummy with Donald Soroni. Take nothing away from Soroni. He got the victory.

It was impressive. It was a much needed win. But I just felt like Maderos was too nice, was too respectful. I mean, even afterwards, he's the one who jumps over the cage and embraces Soroni's grandmother. That seemed, I don't know. It was great. And if you know Seroni, you know who that woman is to him. Like how important she is to him. She means the world to him. There is no one in this world that means more to Donald Soroni than his grandmother. He has talked about this. And I remember interviewing him in Orlando, you know, two years ago

when he thought that she was going to pass away, she was sick. He was broken up before his title fight. But it just felt like, you just lost. I don't know. It was, to me, the first thing I thought was Pat Barry Miracle Krookup

and Pat Barry's saying afterwards that he respected Krookop too much. Good for Tironi. He's back on track. He now ties GSP and Michael Bisping for the most wins inside the octagon. Now he has 20. This is a guy who has been around a lot,

who's overcome a lot, and pretty amazing. Pretty amazing that he now is tied with Michael Bisping and GSP. GSP, we don't know if he'll fight again. We don't know if Michael Bisping will fight again. In a few months' time, we could be calling Donald Seroni

the winningest fighter in UFC history. How amazing is that? He talked afterwards about a 165-pound division. I'd love to see that. I don't know about him versus Chhabi, but that obviously, like if James Vic can't get that fight, I don't know how Soroni deserves it,

especially as, you know, he's been fighting at 170, but for the UFC, Donald Soroni winning is a good thing. I think it's a very good thing. Two of the notes, I think it's time to see the Derek Lewis, Francis Inganu fight.

Let's see that fight now. I would love to see that. We could talk about this later, but don't give me the whole, like, I saw people saying like, Angano just lost, and Lewis just, you know, won, why should they match them up?

Enough with this. This is not how the UFC has run these days. Guys coming off, look at the main event. Soroni had lost three in a row. Maderos had won three in a row. They don't look at that anymore. Lewis versus Angano is a phenomenal fight. It needs to happen.

There's a rivalry there. Let's see it happen. Also great, by the way, seeing Leonard Garcia with the Rubik's Cube. Like, that's the kind of night it was in Austin. Diaz with the joint or the blunt, whatever it was, not the E-Sig, and then Leonard Garcia just chilling in the background behind

Valentina Shevchenko with the Rubik's Cube. Well on his way, by the way, to figuring that thing out. Here's Alex Murphy. It was a standard pre-roll. A blunt is generally bigger and made with either tobacco or hemp. Pre-roll equals texture and size of cigarette. A blunt is the texture and size of a cigar. Okay, I don't really understand what the hell that means,

but I'll take your word for it. So there you have it. Sunday night UFC we'll talk about Belator later on in the program. Matt Matrion wins. It was kind of absurd to hear the booze afterwards. I thought he won Ferran Square 29, 28. He now advances. He'll fight the winner of King Moe versus Ryan Bader in the heavyweight tournament.

There was some good on the card. There was some very bad on the card. We'll break that down a little later on. For now, though, let us go to our first guest of the day. And he is joining us from all the way in beautiful Orlando Florida where he will be fighting this Saturday. UFC on Fox 28. The UFC is back on Fox. It is headlined

by Jeremy by Josh Emmett. I always mess up his name. But the story is this man right here. The one and only Platinum Perry is here. How about this? Look at this guy. What's up Platinum Perry? How about this? Drake. In the studio with Drake right now.

The Sixth God. What's up, baby? How you doing, brother? Much love. Wow. This is amazing. Platinum Perry. I was so excited. How about this, right? You've been on before. National Internet television. Yeah.

Let's go, man. It's actually a really big deal here. It's not like this is like a television. Yeah, you didn't expect that, right? I didn't know if this was your basement. You thought it was my basement? Maybe. Do you have, you know, have more respect for the program?

Absolutely, man. I actually, I have a bobblehead, man. I just got, somebody gave me a bobblehead of me. A Platinum Perry one? Yeah, I'm going to have to send it to you. Wow. I'd love to have that. It'll do more work here than at home, I think.

think. Is it good? Like is it is it is a legitimate? It's legit. I'm going to get the face tats put on there. It's missing the face tats right now. And then I'm going to send it to you. I would love that. I would love that. I was so excited that you came in. I forgot who the headliner was on, on Saturday. Josh I met Jeremy Stevens in Orlando. This is where you live. Why are you in New York on New York on? For you, man. You came in just for you guys. This is amazing. You were you annoyed when they told you to come here when they asked you? Like were you kind of on the fence about it? Of course. I mean, I asked my manager, and I was like, just out of curiosity, the one time I don't have to travel for a fight, why would I choose to do so? Yeah. Because it's beneficial to my career to let you guys know that I can handle anything you throw at me, and I can still perform no matter what.

So it didn't take a lot of convincing? No. Okay. When did you come in? Yesterday. And when do you leave? In a couple hours. Okay. You did some media here? No big deal. Yeah.

You know this, and I've been doing some phone interviews. It's interesting, though, that they bring you out. Like, you're not in the main event. You're not in the co-main event. I'm the people's main event. I'm always the people's main event. My man. You know it.

Everybody gets excited to see me fighting. I'm happy that I've created that for myself. Right. Although I must say, though, I didn't recognize you when I saw you in the back. What is going on? The beard was looking phenomenal. I'll tell you what. I tried to keep it.

Okay. It was too big. I looked kind of homeless. Okay. So I needed to get a haircut or whatever, and I didn't have time. I'm very busy between training two, three times a day and resting the other times. Yeah. I tried to do my own work on my beard, and sometimes I'm successful, and I messed up a few times,

so then I was like, I just take it off. Do it yourself? I feel younger. I feel stronger. You like it? I don't mind it, yeah, it's not bad. Did you, like, a couple days ago, did you have nothing? Like, no stubble whatsoever?

No, because I didn't hit it with the razor. Okay, okay. I just did, like. Are we going to, like, break it down to build a backup? up? Are you going to let it grow? I'm going to get a fresh edge. It'll look good by Saturday. For sure, I'll get a fresh razor edge. How does it take to let it grow like to this length?

Probably another week. Okay, all right. But it's amazing how much younger you look. I thought maybe it was a weight cut thing. I got a little nervous. Yeah, I look like I'm 35 with the beard. And now you look like you're 12. 17 with the hat. But you look good. How much you weigh right now? I appreciate it, bro. You know, that's the only, The only thing that's getting me about coming to New York is I haven't been able to get on a scale when I check my weight so many times a day. Okay. But I've done, I did good yesterday with my meals. I got a good workout in. I haven't been able to work out today too much media, but I'm really good. And I just had a protein bar, so I should, I should catch the energy from that. Okay. In the middle of this. Do you like fighting in Orlando? Are you happy about this? Absolutely. Okay. This is a dream come true. This is a dream. You know, and I was talking to my manager, A,

earlier and I was like we were talking about the energy that I'm going to get from the crowd seeing 15,000 people I know and you think you know all of them? Yeah, all of them. Okay. The whole arena, baby. Every single one of them, I'm going to point at all of them and say their names while I'm fighting Max. Yes.

Probably not, maybe not. But, you know, he had good advice was don't let it give you an adrenaline dump. It's good to hear. Yeah. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. But now that I've heard it, it probably won't now. And I'll focus that energy that they give me into the worst ass-wobin y'all I've ever seen. Really?

Probably, yeah. Okay. You know, you were on this program a couple weeks ago. You were teasing that you were fighting on the card against an opponent. I got them all wrong. I skipped over Max Griffin. He was like the last one left. Remember, I had Brian Barbarina.

I mentioned him. This guy, that guy. Honestly, now, when you were offered Max Griffin, had you, ever heard of him? Yeah, I met him at the UFC athlete retreat. Oh, really? Okay. And we debuted at the same, I believe he debuted at 202. Okay.

And he went to decision with Kobe. Yes, yes. And I actually called out Kobe that night. Okay. You know, he was talking trash. And I was like, oh, that guy's talking trash? I picked that guy. And me and Max were playing cornhole together.

Yeah. He actually beat me, which is, I mean, I shoot overhand. Oh, really? Kill it. I'm a beast at Cornhole. You do overhead. Kill it. Okay. And he actually won the game.

And I was like, oh, I got to. And while we were talking, playing, he said that, oh, yeah, you and me are going to fight one day. Really? And I was like, when he said that, I was like, maybe. And I was like, you know, I'm looking past you. I feel like, you know, I'm looking to fight bigger names. Sure. But everything happens for a reason.

And, you know, to be honest. I feel the fight is a gift and he doesn't deserve to stand in front of me. He will. He will be there. He will make weight. I'm sure. He's excited about fighting me, which is a dangerous thing. I was excited about fighting Tiago and I got in the best shape of my life for that fight.

I brought that coach back that I used for the Tiago camp. Okay. I'm feeling close to the best shape of my life again. So Max is in for a rude awakening. It's not going to be what he wants it to be. Like I said, this is a gift, but if they're handing them out, it's my fault. I had the top 10 fight. I had the opponent.

And I'll tell you what, now that I have cardio that I brought this coach back, I had none in the Ponsonibio fight and still gave him hell. Why'd you get rid of him, that coach? What's his name? His name is Nelson Rodriguez. Okay. You know, I added them in. I trusted in them through a boxing friend that I have, Miguel Cruz,

the undefeated prospect, world-class boxer. And I just, it was selfish reasons maybe, you know, not wanting to pay somebody something. That's the honest truth. You know, I hate to say something like that, but you got to live and learn. You got to make mistakes. Some of the best people in my life actually have gotten rid of and then brought back into my life because sometimes you can't see how good something is until you can't see it anymore.

Right. So I'm hardheaded and I learn lessons that way and I grow exponentially every time I get a lesson like that. So you noticed in the Ponziabio fight that your cardio was lacking. Oh, absolutely. You needed this guy.

Absolutely. And now you feel better. I didn't have cardio in the Ponzi. Zero. Zero. You didn't do any cardio leading up to? No, I, listen. How do you like get cardio?

If you don't have that coach that you link with and it could change. It used to be another coach that I listened to like that, but then you see new things, and I still listen to that coach. I've had all the same team for so long now, but Nelson is the only person I've let in the circle in a long time from the outside.

And you could be in the gym, you could be working out, hitting the bag, and think that your cardio is good. You get tired hitting the bag, and you think that was a good. work out. If you're by yourself, you're not being pushed properly. You can't push yourself the way that someone who's went to school for it, studied it, written essays, read books. You can't some, I used to think if you are not the fighter, if you have never been at that level,

then you can't really tell me. But that's just not true. Some people are just better from the outside watching. You guys know what you're talking about, but you don't fight? No. But you know what you're talking about. Sometimes. So you got to open your mind. I used to be real narrow-minded, and now it's

I know that I will never know it all. So that's all I need to know. You called fighting in Orlando a dream come true, but you're not born in Orlando. I'm not. I'm born in Flint, Michigan. So why is this a dream come true? Do you feel like Orlando's your home? Orlando is my home.

I moved a lot back and forth between places. I moved around a lot when I was a kid. I was never in one place, one school very long. You were born though in Flint? Yes. Okay. It was always back and forth between Michigan and Florida. Because your parents were divorced, right?

Dad and- Never even got married. Yeah, they just separated. Okay. And, you know, I bounced around with both of them. And even with my dad, I bounced around. and but you know I always like Florida more I it's just not as gloomy as Flint man

it's just not it's the Sunshine State baby I love the sun I love the beach I love the beaches and it just it became my home and I mean not to say I wouldn't love to go to Detroit and fight on the Detroit card I wanted that too but I didn't get that opportunity maybe that opportunity what happened in the future. But everybody knows me in Florida, man.

I know more people in Florida than I do in Michigan. Okay, okay. So. Did you have siblings or do you have siblings? I do. I have some stepbrothers and sisters in Tennessee that used to live with me in Michigan. I have half brothers and sisters that live with me in Florida. When I was young and my parents separated, my three siblings, one brother and two sisters,

On my mom's side, they went with her, and I stayed with my dad. Okay. And then I always wanted to go see my brothers and sisters in Florida anyways. Yeah. And then I just ended up moving there, too. How old were you when your parents or, you know, your mom's dead? Like four. Oh, four.

Okay. You didn't really know what was going on. I didn't really care, I guess, you know. But did you get to decide who you stayed with? Was it up to you? Or was it up to them? Uh, it was, they passed me around, you know? And, you know, sometimes I was a little crazy, too much to handle for my mom, so she'd send me back to my dad, you know.

How many different schools did you go to growing up? 12, more. Really? That's just high schools, I think. Really? Something like that. Was it your decision to leave the schools, or were you getting kicked out? Here's the thing, man, you can't put a decision like that on a child, on a kid, because he's going to be like, let's go, let's go.

You know, I'm actually been talking a lot with my girlfriend, and, you know, I'm actually been talking a lot with my girlfriend, and, And we want to, I want to do this traveling right now. I keep wanting to get this like Winnebago and like go see the country and go train at different gyms while I do it. But that's what I'm used to. Everything at home is perfect. I got Jacqueray Susan now, a world champion to show me how to become one. Everything is where it should be in my life.

I have a home. I have dogs. I have my girl. Everything is perfect. But I want to leave and travel the country. but my time is now to stay home and train with the team that I've been with since the beginning anyways. So we'll see what happens after this fight. And Cowboy won last night, and I want to fight the Cowboy, baby.

So let me get this big knockout this weekend, and we'll see, you know, Cowboy knows that maybe I actually got talked about with Yancey Mederos, Right before Cowboy picked him up. Oh. Cowboy got the veteran choice. You know what I mean? He got to pick. It was me or Yancey.

Oh, interesting. I think something like that. It was going down and I don't blame him for picking Yancey. Interesting. So you could have been fighting last night. He chose Yancy instead of you. From what you've been told. No, I was going to, it was going to be on Orlando.

Oh, interesting. Okay. You know what I'm saying? So, well, I know Cowboy was going to be in, I wasn't necessarily getting the cowboy offer just yet and they offered me Yancey. I was like, oh, that's going to be awesome. Yeah.

And then, you know, Cowboys stole them away from me, so. I saw on your social media, you talked about like putting your phone away, going with your girlfriend, Danielle, who's always by your side, in your corner, you guys have a great thing. And then traveling the country. Yeah. Why do you want to do that? I figure I could do it for just a little bit at least.

Okay. You feel like you're too relying on your phone, that you, like, you want to disconnect. You need a break from... I do need to disconnect a little bit. Just a little bit, though, because, like I said, my time is now to make my run. You know, I thought maybe it wasn't. Yeah. Twice I've had...

I haven't made that third win in a row. I go two devastating wins, I lose a decision. Two devastating wins, I lose a decision. Well, let me take a little more time here. Be a little more patient. get a devastating win this Saturday see what comes at me because I feel

I took, you know, I worked hard and now I'm sitting here in this seat a lot more people know who I am follow me, platinum Mike Perry, Instagram. Yep, we got it right there under your name, you see it? Hey, look at that. See that?

And, you know, so now I've created something that people got to come try to take from me. Yeah. And, you know, we, I think we're going to sell out that arena. On Saturday. Okay. There's buzz. Oh, there's buzz, baby.

Okay. I feel like there's more buzz for your fight. And we got Killer B, so there's plenty of buds, you know. Ben Saunders, there's probably more buzz for your fight than the main event, just because you're a local guy. But shout out Josh Emmett. Josh Emmett. Fuck Jeremy Stevens.

Yeah. Get that dub this weekend. What's up with you and Jeremy Stevens? You know the story It's a weird thing He's not a year He tried me I shoved his ass on the ground

He ain't do nothing about it At the other tree right Yeah man he tried me Did he what do you try something with your girl I'm just gonna say he tried me I'm just gonna say he tried me bro And I put him in his place Real?

If he got something to say about it this weekend Wow you I'm sure he won't What happens if you see him Like in the lobby Nothing I ain't got nothing to say to him I shoved him to the ground I'm saying it right now

To all y'all I shoved him to the ground You pushed him Absolutely Boom and he fell on the ground I looked at him. What do you do? He got up slowly.

He looked at me and was like, and you know, who's that Australian fighter who won and said he's going to be drinking beer and ride his motorbike fast? Tyson Pedro. Tyson Pedro, it's not worth it, man. It's not worth it.

He grabbed me. I'm like, well, I'm good, bro. You good, bro. I'm just standing here. He don't want laying on the ground. Y'all should help him up. But why did you push him? Because he tried me, man.

What does that mean? See, I ain't going to snitch on it really. I mean, I guess, I mean, he walked up on my girl and looked like he was about to dance on her. For real, at the retreat. And come on, man, we're at the private Snoop Dog concert. Yeah. It's only UFC fighters. Yeah.

I've been with my girl the whole week. He knows. So he tried me. He must have been drunk. Do you think he knew that it was your girl? Absolutely. There was five girls at the concert. It's not like there's random girls there, right?

Every girl is with a guy because you can't get into that place unless you're with a fighter. Or maybe you thought you was a fighter. They didn't have a girl all week. Damn. It could have been worse. I could have just hit him with the killbow on the jump, but I didn't want to get in trouble. Does it bother you that he's the headliner over you? Not at all.

Okay. It should bother him that after my fight, the stadium's going to empty out. I'm sorry, Josh. but nobody's going to really be there to watch the main event. We're going to the after party, the platinum party. We're getting fooled up. And I did notice, like you said, like, you've hung out with Griffin, but you also post on Instagram you don't seem to be a big fan of his.

I'm not. I don't feel he deserves a stand in front of me. Has he been saying things about you? I don't like his fight style. I believe. Did he say anything about you going into this? No, and it's fighting. Yeah.

Before we were going to fight. I like him. I wish him the best. And unfortunately, the wish came the worst. And he got me and I'm gonna... You don't feel like he's earned the opportunity to fight you on Big Foxxie. This is a big deal.

Obviously, he's earned it. We're here. We're standing in front of each other. I've always believed the man standing across from me deserved to stand there. Somebody said to me the other day, I was at the gym, and he walks up and he goes, Oh, you're going to kill this guy.

next week. And I was like, I bet he'll kill you. Don't you take credit away from me? This is another world-class UFC athlete. Okay, he's worked hard. And the thing is, I was excited about Tiago. I trained my ass off. I know he's excited about me. I know he's been training his ass off. Right. He's post pitches all the time. He's talking a little trash too. Okay. He likes the rhythm that our matchup has gotten him into. But it's just always different, though. When I put that that pressure on you and I only come forward and I just, I throw these whirlwind

punches that just, I mean the wind of my punch can hurt your face. Yeah. So. Are you the kind of guy who like kind of creeps on your opponent when you're fighting? Like you want to know what he's doing? You look at his? No. I try not to see it, but I actually follow him on Instagram and when we

matched the fight I chose to not unfollow him. So I see him post a couple things sometimes. You have a comment? I might have said, I might have said, something. I know he said he posted this thing about me being a keyboard warrior because I said

he looked like a goofy motherfucker and he's like, oh, a keyboard warrior and I was like, the difference there's a difference between keyboard warriors is that we have a time and a date and I'm going to show up and I'm going to punch you in your face. Keyboard warriors got hidden names on their Instagram. You don't

know who they really are. You know it's me and I know it's you and I'm coming after you. That's the difference. I'm not talking no fake shit. I'm going to see your goofy ass in a week in three days, and I'm going to beat the hell out of you, period. Do you like when there's conflict going into your fights? Like, yeah, I don't know if you heard me before, but, and you saw the Soroni fight, right?

Did you see it? What was with all that hugging and it was like, it was a little too much, right? Come on, man. Did you think that that was weird? Yeah, man. Like, he knocks him down and he gets a hug, but that's cool because it wouldn't have been cool if he didn't get the knockout in the first round or the second or the third, But he got the knockout in the first round

So it's like, you know, Yancey's a nice guy and They were both fans of each other Because they've been in the sport so long And We're blessed to do this. Sure, sure. You know, it's a great job.

It's a privilege. It was a bit much. Too much, man. Come on, man. Trying to hurt you. Yeah. For real. I feel like...

Hug you when I pick you up after. Right. After is cool. I like that. But in the middle of the fight. Listen, if you're fighting, in me and I knock you down and you get up and smile

you try to give me hug I'm gonna knock you out right there like Floyd Mayweather did to Victor Ortiz That's right Boom boom Right It's a rap I feel like that plays into Saroni's hands Because Saroni is the kind of guy who gets a little nervous

Before his fights but now he's like oh it's all cool Boom I'll catch you Fights over Like Yancey should have come in there I'm gonna take this guy's spot He's been around for 10 years My first main event Let me go kill him and then we'll hug

I didn't get it I didn't get it It's all good, man. It was frustrating to watch. I'm waiting for somebody to try to touch gloves with me. I'm just going to take the shot and knock them out. Okay.

Let me try. So I just wanted to go back to your upbringing because I've never had the chance to talk to you about your upbringing. You're cool with that? What are those? Adidas? Are you sponsored by Adidas? No, I'm just matching.

You know what I'm saying? You are, Matt. You're looking good. Adidas owns Reebok. So it's okay to wear Adidas, right? I mean, M.M.A. I mean, I could have wore some Gucci up here, but... That'd be nice.

11 or 12 high schools you said you were in predominantly non-white schools right like you were like one of the few white kids in your schools right you know it's funny used to get like bullied right yeah um this southwestern mchenly these are two schools i went to in flint and those were predominantly black yeah and uh then my dad moved me to lapier michigan for like three months i actually live lived with Dan Severn, who I, not Dan Severin himself. Yeah. His name is Dennis Severn, who's still a family friend. Okay. And I thought he was Dan Severn's brother. He told me for a long time. And then I met or I talked to Dan Severn over the phone before I got in the UFC.

I got his number and tried to call him and say, hey, you know Dana White. I'm 6 and O. Check out my highlights and tell him if you should, maybe you want to get me in the UFC. He couldn't do nothing for me. Then he tried to hit me up after I got in the UFC, right? And the first thing he said, me, I said, I, you know, I used to live. live with your brother Dennis. That's not my brother. It's my little cousin. Oh, okay. But his family, right? So Dennis used to be my dad's boss. He had a construction

company. Okay. And I actually stayed with Dennis for a little bit. And I went to Lapeer High School for about three months. And I was an all-white school. There was one black girl that went to the school. And she was the girlfriend of my white boy friend who lived in Flint. Oh. She didn't even go out with none of the white boys in Lapeer. And Lapeer is like country. They're shooting guns and going hunting and listening to country music. And I hated that school. But there was really nice people there.

And a friend that I did some wrestling at that school, they were really big. Lapeer is really big for wrestling. Michigan's a really big state for wrestling. I didn't really. I never competed. My grades never allowed me to compete because I didn't apply myself in the work. And it was funny is Lapeer, the teachers were really good because, or I just, I don't know, I didn't have, I didn't get along with the people in Lapeer the way I got along with people in the hood and Flint.

So I did better. I started doing better in my school work. Teachers really focused in on me, though, and helped me out. We were trying to get me on the football team. We were trying to get me on the wrestling team. And then I was only there for three months. And then I go to another school. And I'm learning something totally different.

They're in a different section. Every time you go to a new school, they're not learning the same things at the same time. Why did you move? Why did you change schools after three months? That's not my choice. Whose choice? It's family. My dad.

My dad, my stepmom, my mom. I moved around with them. Wow. You know, so I never really got settled in. wherever. I'm too used to moving around, which is why I got this urge to go travel,

but that's not necessarily going to do anything for me. So, you know, I'm in a weird place in my life. I'm where I've always wanted to be, but it's not enough. It's never enough.

And I'm cool with that. I'm working on that. It's all up here. Trust me, I love Ryan. I am. I want to stay, but I got to do it for 10, 15 more years in order to leave a legacy. Did you get in trouble a lot as a kid, like fights and things like that? Yeah, I didn't get kicked out of school a lot because, like, I got whipped and, like, wasn't trying to get kicked out of school.

What do you mean you got whipped? My dad used to whip my ass. Oh, really? Yeah. Why? But he says, he seems to say that it's not compared to what he got. You know, his dad used to, like, cattle prong him or tie him up and slap his hands with this thick piece of leather. They told me these stories about how he used to, and he used to wake up at 4 in the morning and go feed the cows and chickens, pigs and horses or whatever.

He lived on a farm in North Branch, Michigan. That's where he grew up. And I just... Why do you whip your ass, though? Because you used to get out of line? I used to get this purple paper in middle school, right? Okay. I was so afraid of that purple paper because, say, we had block schedule or, you know, I might have four classes, two hours of class or something like that.

And based on my behavior, based on the work that I got done, this purple paper had something for each class. Each day I would have to take it home, get a sign, show my parents, and bring it back. and you know that purple paper might say there was great good insubordinate and bad or something like that and you know these teachers didn't know what they were doing when they were circling not great or you know something like that I go home terrified you know what I'm saying of what I had to go through because and my parents just don't just take the teachers where words for it on paper. Go meet this teacher. Go be a part of your kid's school life. Okay,

don't just take adults' words because even adults are childish and don't know what they're doing when they go and get a kid in trouble. Don't know what kind of family he's got at home. You know what I'm saying? So obviously it made me tough or whatever. I feel like I was going to be tough anyways, though. My dad's a crazy, strong guy. Doesn't work out, but he's just naturally ripped up and so I am and my mom's pretty physically fit too so naturally the the physicalities of my athleticism were gonna be there but mentally you know I don't know I I wish I was raised differently are you still close with your dad I haven't spoken to him in 2018 okay on purpose is that like he's always talking shit he's always running his fucking mouth

and fucking talking shit, man. Like, and, you know, I'm younger, so I'm not good about respecting my elders all the time, especially when my elders just acting childish. So I tell him, I'm better than you. And the problem with that is, when I told him that, he felt so angry with me. And I said that's the difference between me and you

is that if I had a kidney told me it's better than me, I would reach for joy, man. You know, and, you know, a lot of times I want to say, praise God, but even that's changed for me. What do you mean? As recently.

What do you mean? My beliefs have all changed. From what to what? I don't know what God is. I don't know what Jesus. I feel like God is the voice in my head that talks back to me and that whatever I need done, I need to manifest myself. So you used to believe in God and then you're starting to question?

I am the all-powerful ruler in my world. I need to do and think how I need to think and do in order to create a better life for myself. Praying for it ain't going to get nothing done. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm right. Why did you start to change your opinion on this? Did something happen?

I went to Amsterdam. We got really high. Okay. Recently? After the Poland, after Daryantil fought in Poland against Cowboys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I went to Paris. Then I went to Amsterdam. I remember, yep. And I was just in Amsterdam. And I was like, I've seen the world now.

It's everywhere I go, it's like, it's the same food. It's buildings, bridges, cars, the same. everything's the same I got a fight I got in a weird place and then you know I felt like nothing mattered

no matter what you did no matter what you do you can save a million lives but at the end of the day when you die would it really matter I'll see when I get there and here's the thing

the Bible says if you believe in Jesus that's all you need to to do? Well, tell you what? The word of Jesus, all that Bible stuff, it says to be a good person. So how about I do that? How about I just be a good person? And then when I die, I'll have nothing to feel bad about. So because I didn't believe in Jesus is going to be the reason that I, no, I don't believe that. And, you know, this year the Black Panther movie came out. And I'm, I have a lot of black friends, and I see a lot of things like, who did slaves pray to before slavery?

You know what I mean? Who did black people pray to? You know what I'm saying? So I believe, and food too, man. I feel like recently I got hit with everything I was raised up on, grew up on is all a lie. Food is a lie. Potato chips could be made out of plastic for a corporation to get their money from. somehow

you know and everything I tweeted it the other day believe what your eyes see as fact believe what you can feel as reality

everything else could be a lie don't just take words go do your research stay on top of things my mind is waking up it's taken a long time

because I moved around I didn't have the schooling I didn't have the guidance I didn't have the the role model to look up to. Actually, all my role models were black men before really Connor McGregor came around and Steepay Miotich. You know what I mean?

Before them two white boys, I didn't really look up to white boys. It was Muhammad Ali. It was Mike Tyson. It was Floyd Mayweather. It was John Jones. These guys were all different types of athletes. White people are built differently than. black people and your mind is the only thing that, you know, you can bring it all together.

So, you know, my beliefs had to change anyways. You have to open your mind to all types of things. Like, okay, I say, I don't know if I believe in Jesus now, but it's I don't know because my mind is still open to the thought of Jesus because I've always believed in it. And then my mind is open to the thought of if it's not real, too. because it needs you you gotta hit all angles all corners it's like an octagon you gotta hit all eight you know what I mean you got you got different angles you got to look at did you graduate high school I didn't

I'm a drop out what when did you drop out I did like four years but like I had like 11 credits out of 24 I didn't do anything I went to school and was looking for something else to do what did you do when you stopped going to school construction and and restaurant jobs and I stole from people and I saw weave and and I went to jail and then I found out what consequences were because I never had the guidance and people in my life to really show me I just thought you know you get your ass whooped when you get in trouble and then I got to this point where you want to who whipped my ass come try.

And then it was, you can't whip the police. There's too many of them. You can't win that battle. You just can't. And then if you're in jail, you can't even get out. There's nothing you could do. You just have to wait. And then I was talking about this the other day, man.

Nobody gave me no food on my books. I was in jail for six months. You don't know how hungry people get. If you don't get no food on your books. But I can't complain because I bet there's a bunch of people in there right now that ain't got no food on their books. But I was a 19-year-old kid. You went to jail when you were 19?

I needed some food. What did you, you went for burglary, right? I did. What did you steal? Nothing. When I got caught, I broke it to a house. We ran out. There was somebody inside.

Okay. We could have been killed, you know what I mean? In Florida? Yes. I could have been going through somebody's house and they shoot me. Sure. You know, God, look at that. God forgive me.

Yeah. Right? Whatever that is. I made mistakes. How did they catch you? We ran out the house, we ran down the street behind these houses, and our car was parked down the street in a house for rent driveway. And we got in the car. And then as soon as we got in the car, like 10 cop cars passed right next to us with their lights off.

And we kind of dug down. and then I sat there and I argued with two people. I was in the backseat and I was like, yo, we got to go. Drive the car. He's like, no, I think we should run. We should get out, leave the car here and go on our feet. And I was like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

It's not illegal to drive a car. Drive the car. Yeah. And then before, you know, two minutes go by, it's too late. A car pulled right in front of us. He stopped at the, you know, this crossroads, and they're blocking off all the roads.

He turns his lights on and his cop car sitting in front of us for 45 minutes. I said, okay, we're caught now, so we need to talk about why we're here. Right. Because they're going to come get us. I came up with the story was we are out waiting for these girls to text us back, and we wanted to stop driving around, wasting gas, so we parked the car waiting for them to hit us up. And we were smoking a blunt, and then the cop car pulled up, and we didn't want to get in trouble for smoking the weed.

And me and my boy stuck with that story. And then the other one was like, oh, times are hard. We were looking to pay rent. So we went out looking for a house to hit. So all three of us are in the cell waiting to get put in our own individual. So you're in the open cell with all the people who got arrested that night. And we're reading our paperwork. And my boy on the bunker wrote me in.

And I said, Kayla. Oh look at that My bad dog I was like you read this And it says it right there Mike did not talk Other friend did not Have anything to say

Revoke their rights or whatever And don't say nothing It's not revoked but I can't think of the word And then the other one but the other one said Times are hard rent and I'm like yo look at this And we were like You listen we need to know did you say this?

He was like trying to say yeah without saying yeah and we was like, dang, he said it. And then I thought, well, I need to lighten the load. We need a lighten the load on ourselves. Let's tell on ourselves. I'll say I was the first one in the house. I pulled the screen off the window. I went through.

We knocked over a ladder. It made some noise, but we didn't think anybody was there going inside. The other friend rang the doorbell to see if anybody would come to the door. But it's three in the morning. Ain't nobody come in the doorbell three in the morning. I'm stupid, man. Why'd you pick that house?

Any particular reason? So, we're driving around, and I actually, I knew the house because I knew someone who used to live in the house. I grew up playing with a kid who lived in the house. And it was a nice two-story house in a decent neighborhood. And it's like, well, that kid and his family had money. back then they had lots of stuff so whoever owns that house now must have some stuff so

that's what we did and then and then it's crazy because the lady comes in and calls my name and when I go downstairs it's because we had to talk to the prosecutor and

when I went down the prosecutor goes oh no not this one the Mr. Blah Blah blah and he said the other guy's name And I was like, wait, I want to talk to you now. He's like, oh, you didn't want to talk before. Normally I wouldn't. I was like, come on, man, you're going to talk to me, man.

And then, you know, I was a crazy kid, man. I remember asking that prosecutor, do you believe in the end of the world? I was like 18, man. I was like. And so that's why you were sent to jail? Uh-huh. Okay. So then I did six days.

I bonded out. Okay. I was the last one to get out. Yeah. And the police had went to a house that we were staying at and, you know, raided the house or whatever. And we were all facing these serious charges. And then I ended up getting one of the friends,

he paid a lawyer like five stacks. And the lawyer got him an offer and the offer was 18 months in prison. and my boy just took it. We don't know if he could have got a better deal or what, but he just took that offer, and he got his time started, and he started on it, and he's out now, and he's married, he has a kid,

I still talk to him, he's a good friend, and me and the other one got the same deal was, you know, my pops actually helped out with that. He helped me with the lawyer. That's the one thing he did. Maybe he feels I owe him something. I gave him something. I gave him some money when I got in the UFC.

And, you know, I feel like I paid him back now, even though after all the years, I feel he owed me that protection from the police and paying that money for that lawyer anyways because he didn't teach me how to not be a bad kid, the right ways. And I'm not going to blame him either. Being a parent's probably really hard.

So, but I got, Two years community control, three years probation. I did a year and a half of community control, which is house arrest. And then I violated for a technicality, which was failing a drug test. And then I did six months in jail. Okay. And I was like, oh, my God. What was that like being in jail?

We say no food. Best and worst experience in my life, I'd have to say, because it changed my life. It did. You know, it was like a school for hardheads. Or it could go the other way. There's two ways to go. You either learn or you don't. You say no food on your books.

What does that mean? Okay, so they feed you three times a day in jail. Yeah. And it's not enough. Okay. It's not enough food. Okay. And books is, I'm talking like you're outside.

And you get charged every day for being in jail too. You get like $3 a day they charge you. So if somebody sends you $100 and you've been there and you have a $40, you'll get to spend $60 of that $100, but they take their $40. What are you spending money on in jail? Commissary. Commissary is you can order deodorant and like clean products or baby powder or ramen or ramen noodles. Raman noodles are a big trading thing in there or cakes and food. I have big sweet tooth at that age.

and, you know, sometimes I was cool with people, so every now and then I'd get like a cake or something. Somebody would hook me up, man, and, you know, and it's hard. That was one of the toughest parts was that when you're just so hungry, man, and you can't leave and you can't go to the store, you can't go to the fridge and get some food, and then you can't use the bathroom by yourself. There's 20 toilets.

and 20 shower heads. You can't shower by yourself. There's no doors. I mean, there's a door to the 20 showers. Yeah, but everyone, like if you're in... A door to the 20 toilets, but then there's no separation. No, no separation at all. Did you, did you sleep in a cell with other people, or did you have your own?

There was different, in the time that I was there, I went to, I traveled, they took me back and forth between a couple different jails. Even there you were moving. Yeah, even there. I had another charge in another jail, which was in a different county that didn't, I didn't get convicted of. So, like, when they moved me around the jails, there was this one time, and they traveled me from one to the other. They took four of us from the one jail, right? And they shackled you up to your ankles and your hands and your waist. And when you're shackled at them ankles, I remember the pain my ankles went through from being shackled for five or ten minutes.

It's trying to walk and those. It hurt my ankle so bad. And when they moved us from one to the other, this one time, they moved me different every time. But this one time they moved me with these three other people and they put us in this little metal. It looked like a dog truck. Okay. And there's a metal wall right in front of your face and I'm sitting next to the other three dudes. and I'm shackled up

and then they shut the door and it's completely dark no light you can't see your hand in front of your face and then they turn the heat on and like we were like yelling at them while they're driving the truck like yo turn the heat off really couldn't breathe

oh my God and then they turned it up oh no and then they turned it off so you're messing with you and then you're in there and these you know it might be like a 50 year old crackhead in there too that they're transporting and he won't shut up

and his breath hot and stank and we're just like, yo shut up man you're making it worse in here and then I mean jail I have and so sometimes I was in a cell with

with another just one other person and they locked the door and you can't move about and then you get put in a dorm where there's 80 or 120 other prisoners that are all just open bunk area those are the prisoners that aren't there for necessarily the worst crimes, and they get a little bit more freedom.

You know, they're not in their room all day. You know, sometimes they say you got to lay down or just sit on your bunk at certain times, which isn't as bad as you're in a cell just really small, and you and another guy and, like, you can't walk around or anything like that. but the open dorms and then I got I had to get a TV shot if I wanted to be a trustee

and when I found out I was going to be there for a while I decided to go be trustee. Who's trustee? Because what trustee was was you get a job. All right, so everybody in the jail got blues on.

Trustees got orange because they're working. And the thing about a job why you want to work in jail, especially if you're not getting commissary is because it's a, way to get food. You could get a job in the kitchen and then you can eat a lot more and food is one last thing on your mind or I ended up being road crew because then you get to leave the jail. So I asked

for road crew. I got it. Thank God. And every Monday through Thursday I would leave the jail in a truck and we would go weed ditches cut this long grass with just weed eaters. And it'd be a team of us out there. And I was actually telling the story to my manager. They thought it would be a good story. And so the last day I'm on road crew, I got court the next day, and I'm about to get out. And I found we're cutting this grass and we're cutting these trees down. And I worked.

I worked my ass off because I was bored. And I found a 40 ounce. It was filled with beer. And I'm talking six months of having had anything toxic like that. So I throw it in the cooler. And, well, I had smoked some cigarettes while I was on road crew. People would throw stuff at us when we'd smoke tobacco. Oh, really?

And I throw the beer in the cooler and I continue working. And then when it got cold and the guy wasn't paying attention, the CEO, I grabbed this 40 ounce and I chugged a 40 ounce. and threw it one of the other guys one of the other guys took a little drink they didn't want much

and I was like I don't care I was young I like to get fucked up so and then there might have been a little beer left I threw that

in the dumpster and then I went in the sometimes we smoked outside but if the CEO was really like you know you can't just be doing it in front of the CEO

because even if he knows you do it you can't get him in trouble sure the guy used to bring us like public's fried chicken sometimes and you get to eat more, you get the outside food.

The outside food is totally different than food inside jail. So, like, you know, we would try to be nice to our CEO because he was nice to us. So I go on to Porta Potty after I chug this beer and I smoke a cigarette quick. And then as soon as I open the porta potty and go to get out, CEO standing right there. And I used to have an orange work hat on like this backwards.

And I had like some leopard glasses that we found when I was weed eating. So I was wearing these glasses. And thank God I had the glasses on because I was like this. And I seen him. I was like, oh, sir, you need to go to the bathroom? Here you go. And then like, he kind of stood there and looked at me. And like, I was like, I'm going to go on the other side.

And I walked between the van and the trailer that was hitched. And I was like, oh, shit, I got to step over this trailer hitch. And I could barely stand up on both feet because that beer and that cigarette just hit me. And I was like, oh my God. I thought I was about to pass out

as soon as I seen them. And this is your last day before? In my last day. But then I'm good. I got away. It went away in like one minute. So I walked to the other side. I took some deep breaths.

And then I composed myself and got it together. And it helped you out. And then I got out the next day. It did. It positive. I took it positively. You can take anything positively.

And the day you get out, you go to the gym, right? The next day. The day I got out, I went to this, we call it the Marina or Waucava Island. What a feeling that must be. And just seen some people that I hadn't seen in a while, had a drink. Yeah. And then the next day, I went to UFC gym in Winter Springs. What year is this?

It was June 5th when I went to the UFC gym, June 5th, 2014. Wow. It's not that long ago. And I worked there for four years. What'd you do that? I got hired on. I started teaching the MMA team. But prior to going to jail, did you do any martial arts?

Were you a fighter? Yes, I trained. When I lived in Florida, that's where I did my MMA training. I've been with the same team since. You hadn't fought pro yet? No. Okay. I was fighting amateurs.

I was known. I even fought amateur when I was on house arrest. I didn't have the ankle bracelet. Okay. See? So there were different CEOs that I had where the thing is that the corrections officer could just come to your house at any time. That's the thing with community control. And if you're not there, you're going to jail when they find you.

But I used to leave. I used to go party. There was a bar like right by my apartment. My mom looked out. She took care of me when I was going through this trouble. Okay. You know, I don't know if she had much of a choice. It was either I had nowhere else to go and I was going to go to jail

or she took me in, so she took me back in. Like, I mean, I moved out when I was 17. And for almost two years, I was doing, I was working out of a job, and I was selling weed, and I was doing the wrong things. And then I got caught and I got in trouble. and I had to go move back in with mom. So when you're in jail, you have an epiphany, I'm going to try to become a pro fighter now?

Like, this is my chance. I guess I always thought I would be one. I just would train sometimes. And I always beat people up. So I was like, I'm going to be a pro fighter one day. But then, you know, when you really get into it. You apply yourself. And when you really apply yourself, then it's different.

And when I started working at the UFC gym, I was amateur. still and I think I had one or two more fights and then I went pro and I stopped teaching MMA at the gym and they gave it to another guy but it's cool because to be a coach and a fighter it doesn't work I don't have time for other fighters I need time for myself so I was teaching like old lady kickboxing classes and and people love my classes is at the UFC gym down there, man. I'm getting, they missed me. I stopped working there so I could focus 100% on, you know, doing all this.

When did you stop? Recently, right? Because you said 2014. Yeah, 2017, I stopped working there. Okay. So. Did you feel like, okay, going to jail, like that was the crossroads of your life? And have you ever felt like you were on the verge?

How many crossroads have I reached? Yeah, that's true. That's true. Do you ever feel like you're on the verge of? I mean, you've overcome a lot. Are you ever afraid, like, what if I mess up and have to go back? Or do you feel like you're past that point? I feel like I'm past that point.

I feel like there's no reason for me to go to jail because, like I said, I'm going to be a good person. You know what I mean? I'm not going to do anybody wrong. I'm not trying to hurt nobody out here unless they're going to sign the contract and I'm going to entertain thousands of fans and do it on national television.

I was a dumb kid who didn't know what I was doing. You see, I didn't know that I was hurting people. Take something. It doesn't feel like you're hurting anybody. But then once you see the consequences and you see or you hear about the people in the courtroom and then you see your mom or your girl coming into the courtroom and you're in your shackles and they're like, oh, or they come to visit you. And at the two different jails, it was two different visitations. One was through the glass wall.

You can't touch them, but you can see them. They're like right there and you pick up the phone. The other was through a small TV monitor and they're across the street. And you're like, you know, I remember times and my girlfriend at that time. Different girls? Yeah, she started. We would talk on the phone a lot. She put the money on the phone or whatever.

And she would come visit sometimes. But when you got a visitation, you see their name. name. And then I would see her name. She always set up a visitation and then she wouldn't come. And that, that should, you know, devastate you. Yeah. I was looking forward to that. Yeah. But then the devastating part about it is that you see the name. So they're like, hey, Perry, you got your, you got your whatever. And you go out there and you pick up the, or you don't pick up the phone until you see him. and the camera's on and you see the room and you see the other people walking about

talking to their people. You're like, oh man, she's not here today. You sit there and you wait five minutes. Don't come. You go back. You ever hear from anyone who you were in jail with or who was an officer at the jail

and now recognizes you from your UFC? No, you don't hear from anyone. Okay, that whole life is behind you. It's amazing. It really is. I mean, does this make you appreciate what you're going? You're fighting on Fox on.

Saturday. You've been fighting on Fox. You fought on one of the biggest pay-per-views, if not the biggest of all time, right? 202. Four years ago, you're in a cell. You can't get a door to close to go to the bathroom.

But I never thought about quitting at all. Like, I never thought I wouldn't be better. I always thought I'm going to pull through this. It's kind of like how I fight like, no matter what you do to me, no matter what

you hit me with. And no matter how much time is left, I feel like I'm about to knock you out. No matter what. I feel it. And a loss, like who care, in the grand scheme of things. Dust yourself off, come right back. Me and F.R.M., we care. I know you care. But you've been through worse. You've overcome

worse. So you're not the kind of fighter who's going to and correct me if I'm wrong. It's not the end of the world. You dust yourself off. You get back on the horse. And you fight. Let's go back. If you guys want to give me the opportunity, hell yeah, I'll take it. Let's go fight. See, it's not fighting anymore I used to show up to fight

because I like to fight It's inside of me But now it's not going to work Because guys ain't coming to fight I can't get them to get into the fight And stand toe to toe And let's hit each other in the face as hard as we can That kind of benefits me

Now they're being really smart And they're running away and they're playing these points So now I'm practicing the points a lot more Okay, okay, okay. I'm looking at decisions and getting booed. No, no, no, we don't want that. I know we don't want that, but damn it. If, you know, it might be the right things.

You got to be patient. You can't head hug, right? You can't go for the home run. It took a minute and a half for me in Ponziabio for me to touch him. Yeah, yeah. Because he was just moving, moving, moving. That's smart. Sure, it is. I'm smart.

Smart on his part. Be patient. You have 15 minutes. I don't blame him for running. They were chanting my name in the first 15 seconds. Are you tight with your mom? mom still? No, I, oh, am I tight with my mom still? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Because the fights in Orlando, I gave out 24 tickets. I'm sure, I think 16 of those are family, nieces, nephews, sisters,

brother, mom. Your mom's in Florida? Your dad's in Michigan? Tennessee. You think you'll ever talk to him again? Yeah, he might be down here for the fight. I was told by Dennis Severn. that he was going to pick up my dad on the way down to the fight. Do you want him there? I don't care. I was 9 and 0 before he ever came to a profile. He came to your first loss? No, actually.

No, he wasn't in Sacramento. Was he? See, now I can't even remember. I might have been, I was either 7. Yeah, he wasn't at the debut. He wasn't at the U.S.E debut. I might have had lost then he came to the 11th fight. Okay.

The Ellenberger. He was in Tennessee, was the first fight. Okay. And, you know, he came into the hotel room, and I bought him a hotel that night because he was like, do you mind if I, like, sleep on the floor in here tonight? Me and my girl are like, no, you can't bother me. I got the fight tomorrow. You can't be in here talking to me because you're nervous.

Right. I think that's why he never came. Okay. And that's why we always ended up arguing over the phone. You know, at my second pro fight, MMA fight in Orlando, I fought my second pro fight, and I fought this guy who had some YouTube chatter.

And my dad was supposed to be at that fight. He said he drove his, he was a truck driver, so he was all over the country. Anyways, he would come by and see me sometimes in his truck. You know, I'd go two years without seeing him. But we'd talk a little on the phone, and then I'd see him. and he said that he was in the parking lot for that fight and then he wanted to get in an argument with me over the phone

and I'm like I'm gonna fuck this guy up whether you're here or not like I don't care if you come in or not so you can leave if you want to and he left and he never came until the 11th fight when I knocked out Ellenberger and I bought him a hotel that night so that he wouldn't sleep on the floor in my hotel room and then he was calling me he was on the phone

when I was going to fight Ponzi and I was going to fight Ponzi I'm in Canada talking him on the phone and he was having issues with people and the truck driving job and He go back for between the same or a couple of people that screwed him over a few times I'm like keep going back to this guy He screwed you over again now you're stuck in a situation You're calling me asking me for my help this isn't fair It's not fair that you're doing this Calling me asking me for my help and I got a fight tomorrow or the next day

What are you doing? Grow up man Grow up man So why don't you just tell him don't come to the fight? No, I don't give a fuck. Okay. I don't get a fuck about nothing. Okay.

I'm going to fight. I'm going to show up and fight. But I got to be smart about it. See, I know, and I'm getting better at using that anger, that aggression, that energy that it burns inside. And focusing in tunnel vision and seeing and doing exactly what I need to do. It's not just See, I fight with anger and aggression and energy Every fight

But I'm not one of these guys That gets overwhelmed with it He gasses out because of it And then gets beat I lost because my cardio Was not where it could have been And I didn't see that Because I had to let that coach go

In order to see it first Thought I was still training See, I didn't go in that fight. I'm going to beat Ponsonibu. I'm not training. I tried to train. I trained. I trained.

I thought I trained. I didn't train as hard as I could because I didn't have people pushing me and telling me stop when I needed to stop. So you can't be in the gym going for three hours at a mild pace and you think you did something when you leave. It's better to do a good five minutes. And then you want to go back. And then you build on that five minutes. That five minutes becomes 10. That 10 becomes 20.

That 20 becomes 40. That's how you have to build on your abilities. You know, you can't just get lackadaisical and just find this little draggy rhythm of... And it's easy for me to do that when I just land that one shot and it changes the night. I'd lay in that shot, put people to sleep. Having that in my back pocket is almost a bad thing. Yeah, a crutch. But not with a good coach pushing me.

Don't get me wrong. My other coaches are amazing. I still have them. I'm still with them. It's just I needed more. And I added it. And I have it. And I won't go without him now.

He's going to make me a world champion. I've got to say, I can't wait. I'm excited. Anytime you fight, it's must-see TV. I wish we had two more hours to talk here. It's all good. But we have come to the end.

This was a lot of fun. Can you come back in studio? It's just, it's different in studio. You know, like the Skype thing is fun, but it's, there's a different flow. I told you a lot of stories. I still have more, though. You do? I got more stories.

Damn. Did you hold out on us? No, no, I just can't think of them right now because it must not be the time. There's a lot of good stories here today. Some good stories, right? This is, I mean, I feel like we've. And I hope you guys don't think I'm such a bad person. No, no, no.

I made mistakes, you know, please forgive me. You know, it's hard to be humble when you're, when you have to like show your opponent that you don't give a fuck what he can do. Anything about it. I don't believe in my opponent at all. I'm going to totally destroy him. It's just not the truth. but I have to make it sound that way. The mental side of the game is fascinating.

What you guys have to go through on route to Saturday, there was a very, there's a very famous fighter. I won't say who he is because he was telling me this in confidence, but he says he always delays signing the bout agreement because something changes in his mind when it becomes real, when he has to sign it. He always delays that part because there's something that switches. And I can't imagine what it goes through from, you know, like accepting the fight to signing the fight to preparing to Saturday to the weight cut, all that stuff.

I mean, what you guys go through is just unbelievable. I don't think anyone. My girl did a, she do a lot of paperwork for me, our emails that I get from the UFC go to both of us so that, you know, I can have her fill out paperwork. Yeah. And things like that. And one time the contract came in and she signed it. and I got her before she sent it. Okay.

And I was like, don't you ever sign for me for that. That's my life. That's my choice, my decision. You don't get in there and put your life on the line. Don't you ever sign for me for that fight contract again? That's the one thing I put my writing on. Okay. It's something you have to do.

She knows now. You have to do it. Yeah. You got to make mistakes to learn. Maybe that sums up your life. That's a good way to end it, right? I'm done making mistakes. It's winning from here on out, no matter how I got to do it.

I mean, I can't stand there and listen to you guys boo me, though. If you boo me, I'm going to just go forward, tuck my chin, and mollywop this motherfucker. Saturday night, live and free on Big Fox, Orlando, Florida, kicking off the main card, platinum Mike Perry versus Max Griffin. Mike, I can't thank you enough. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for making Thank you, brother.

Good luck to you on Saturday. Safe travels back home to Orlando. Joe will walk you out. Mike doesn't even need me to tell him who's going to walk him out. He just walks out. Thank you, Mike. All the best to you. Good luck.

Wow. What can you say about Mike Perry, right? One of a kind. The inimitable platinum Mike Perry. Wow. That was something else. That was something else. There is only one, Mike Perry.

And like I said, he fights on Saturday. against Max Griffin headlining act Josh Emmett against Jeremy Stevens what layers to that man right he has

he has lived four lives in the span of what less than 30 years it's unbelievable so I appreciate him coming by thank you very much to the UFC for making that happen as well his manager Abraham Kawa

that was tremendous stuff that really was a lot of fun and like I said to him, it's just different in person. It just is. You can have him on Skype a million times. It's just different in person. And I'm so happy that we got. I honestly feel like that lasted five minutes. I feel like I could have gone another 20. At least another 20. I feel like I could have gone another hour, two hours. That was fun. Thank you, Mike Perry. Thank you for that. All right. So that's Saturday night. I mean, that was just the first interview of the day. We got a lot more show to go, my friends.

All right. Whoops. Okay. Let us regather ourselves here because we have a lot more show to go, plenty more guests to go. Do we have our next guest? Let me check in here. Okay. So, let us move along.

Let's go to our next guest. His name is Elias Theodoro. He's a fellow Canadian. He is the main event. He is the Spartan. He was very busy last night. tweeting the night away for the UFC's official account alongside Angela Hill. They weren't, I don't think they were physically alongside each other,

but they were the guest tweeters on the official UFC account. But he has some news to share us. So let us not waste any more time. Let us say hello to Elias Diodoru, the man with the nicest hair in MMA. Look at that hair. Look at that main. It's unbelievable. How are you, Laiusiege.

The main event, trademark included. I'm fantastic, Ariel. Thank you so much for happening. Well, it's good to talk to you again. it has been a while. By the way, you tweeted out that picture of you on the set of the show, and I had to actually rack my brain whether or not you had actually been in studio before. That is tremendous photoshopping right there. Did you make that yourself? Thank you. Man of many talents. No hats. Contractual, I'm not allowed wearing hats because of Perk

Plus, but that's neither here nor there. Is that true? That's not true. Yeah. No, no, it's, well, it's true. Now it's true. Okay. Now it is true. Okay. All right, let's not waste any time. I want to talk to you about what's going on your life. You have some news to share with the world, my friend, and it's very exciting news. So the floor is yours. What do you want to tell us? Well, I actually am also dropping my YouTube channel, the main event, same title.

And the first segment we have is ready to go. You're going to, I believe, launch it out soon the next little bit. The first one is called Ringboy. and I was happy enough and very excited to have my ringboy debut, but obviously now that I've gotten that out of the way, I wanted to go to the big leagues, and the big leagues is Invicta. So I'm excited to announce that I will be joining as the first ever ringboy

from Victa 28, March 24th in Salt Lake City. Wow, you're going to be a ringboy. That I am. Mixed martial arts has been in the forefront of equality. in many different ways. You can see in regards to women be on top of paper views and selling millions. And also now, myself included, as the first ringboy. So for those that don't understand, we saw a little bit of the footage.

This is going to be on your YouTube channel, this first episode, the main event. And Maine is spelled M-A-N-E, of course. You were a ring boy, which is the same thing as a ring girl, but you're a boy. at a local event in Montreal, correct? Yes, it is. The Montreal Pro League. So, you know, wanted to have a lot of fun with it, and it was exactly that, and if not more.

And, you know, beyond that, I kind of, the most important thing that I want to kind of accomplish in this is kind of getting out of your comfort zone. That's what I did entering in mixed martial arts. That's what I did, obviously, in Ringboy. The next step is I'm going to make my open mic debut this Thursday.

And I have a five-minute set that I'm going to hopefully kill or, if not learn from it. The most important thing is I don't necessarily take myself too serious because, you know, in my job, it's a very humbling job because the day you think you know everything is the day you get your ass kicked on national TV. Okay, now, now where is this, the open mic that you're doing? Yep, I'll be doing it at Yuck Yucs. Out in if I want to say, it's going to be in, not North York, but rather, Bon. The Yuck Yuck Yucs and Vaugh at 10 p.m. on Thursday. So a man of many talents. The Ring Boy thing is interesting.

Why, like, exactly. Why do you want to do this? Why is this just a joke type of thing or is this something that you're actually interested in doing? What's the, what's the reason behind this? Yeah. Actually, I'm the only UFC fighter now that has their billboard back. I've talked to Shannon, and I will be allowed to put all my sponsors on my shorts and beyond, you know, the local sponsors that I have, like Phil Foods and HPN, which I'm going to be doing a campaign essentially show and performance, because I'm hoping to fight in April in Atlantic City, if all goes well. I am going to be, you know, being ready, ringboy ready, and then fight ready. in just a couple of months. And more importantly, I have a really large brands that are going to be jumping in. I'm the world ambassador for Mattel, and I've worked with them promoting Rockham Sockham Robots this Christmas, and they love the whole, yep, they also love the whole idea of the equality

of, you know, and the openness to actually put yourself in this position. And I'm at a actually going to be partnering if all goes well with Barbie for Ringboy, and I will be Man Bun Ken. What? This is incredible. Look at you. How are you opening all these doors? Is this all you, or do you have some help?

I mean, this is, we're talking blue chip sponsors right here. These are big names. Per plus, what's it called? I'm also the brand ambassador for Samsung. So we've got to work and see if that's an opportunity to introduce with Invicta as well. Obviously, they have alienware. You know, it just depends if there's any conflicts of interest in that capacity. But that's right.

I have a, now I'm the only, first and only UFC fighter to get his, uh, um, sponsor back. Wow. You're hustling out there. Every day I'm hustling. Beyond this, like I got, I have a lot of, uh, exciting projects. Um, in addition to this, I have a TV show, two TV shows and a movie in the works. Um, I can talk about the movie. I'm also, um, the lead.

and I'm also the executive producer. Basically, I play an MMA fighter, huge stretch, who gets injured, and I reinvent myself through competitive video gaming. And it's all about the idea of, you know, what does someone do post-athletics? And I can't, it's not official yet, but we're in the works with, if all goes well, Capcom, and the movie will be called Street Fighter. But right now the working title is Last Hit. Well, is this a theatrical release or like straight to, you know.

It's a comedy. It's a comedy. Wow. No, it's, we're in talks with, if all goes well, early talks again, these are the preliminary talks. You could be seen it on a very popular, you know, streaming site that everyone, well, many people have. Sure, sure, sure. Holy small. Why do you fight?

Do you need to fight to keep these things up? Well, I love fighting. Well, fighting obviously got me to the dance. Neither here nor there, but I'm a nominal dancer. Point being, again, yuck, yucks, Thursday, you'll get a lot of these. You're going to kill it. You're going to kill it. Point being, I have my moments that I'm useless for weeks.

But point being, I love mixed martial arts. Perry talked about it before. I'm a huge believer in the fighter's journey. I love traveling and training. My last fight was in Australia. I've been to Thailand, Brazil, and everywhere in between. learning and growing. And I, you know, you only live once, to quote the immortal words of Drake. But, you know, I want to build my brand beyond fighting because this is a platform and this is an

opportunity. And yours truly doesn't want to get hit in the head forever. So when I was told initially about you working as a ring boy for Invicta, I thought like, oh, is he going to walk around with a bikini? Is he going to make a mock? Because we can make fun of the Ring Cut Girls, but they're just doing their job and they're trying to do the best of their abilities. They're getting paid for it. It's an honest way to make money. How are you going to approach this? Are you going to take the, you know, like, are you going to be serious about this? You know, of course, with a smile, have fun, but or are you going to dress up as a girl doing, you know, and kind of make a mockery of it? No, Shannon and I, we've actually put a lot of thought in this.

We have a really, really set of, a really good set of wardrobe. I'm going to wear shorts and kind of like an athletic hoodie. And again, more ad space for all my sponsors. Yeah, that is great. And is this a one-time thing with them? Well, we're going to have the first one, obviously, March 24th for Evicta 28. And the game plan is, I'm down to do this for good. There's a huge opportunity for both of us, I think, to kind of, you know, transcend ring boy and girl for everyone. And are you going to be the only, for lack of a better term, like ring bearer on March 24th or will you be there with with you know the other familiar faces Natasha I believe is a familiar face with them is it going to be like a mix and match or is it

just going to be the Elias show no mix and match you know it's not just about me Invicta is a great platform for women to compete and be at the center stage and I don't want to take away from that I want to add I saw this clip that that you're going to release today of you working this local show in Montreal and correct me from wrong. You were actually really nervous. In fact, you said that you were more nervous doing that than actually fighting into UFC. How is that possible? Yeah, obviously, it is nerve-wracking to digging in a fight. There's someone, when you lock yourself in with another man in the octagon, he's as equally as confident as you are,

that he can beat you and will damn well try. Obviously, I think the kind of stressors are more concerned about what other people think. You know, the getting out of your comfort zone. We live in a society where people, unfortunately, care too much what other people think, especially when you compound the, you know, the way of the world structured where you have to

constantly put yourself out there. But I'm someone who is, again, a professional fighter with a 15-2 in record. I don't have to, you know, you know, prove anything to anybody, but this is a great opportunity. That's awesome. Well done. Way to put yourself out there, Elias. Thank you.

You said you're fighting in Atlantic City? No, I want to. I would love to fight. Yes, what's called, it's kind of in the works. What do you got? That's what I've been told. I would love Talis latest. That is the fight that I think makes sense

in regards to whom is available. You know, obviously I do want to get into the top 15 at some point, but pretty much everyone's kind of taken. With that being said, Talas Lait is coming off a loss of someone that beat me, Brad Tavares, but as like I think I won the fight, I can prove, I think I can prove that anything Brad does, I can do better. And why that card in particular? It's close to home. It's also, you know, my good friend Al Jemann Sterling will be fighting like hard.

And I love all the Longo and Sarah guys. And it would be a good excuse to, you know, get close, what's it called? Get an opportunity to train with them. them and get ready with them. Okay. Any more of those, we spoke many moons ago about those romance novels used to be on the cover of those. Any more of those in the works?

Nothing set, but I think it's definitely, well, there was actually a couple of books that were kind of written inspired by me in some regards. It's a MMA fighter and security guard by, or security guard by, or security guard Friday night, MMA fighter by day kind of thing. And there is one. It's just depending on when it actually goes to print, then yours truly will grace the cover of it. Okay. Yes, the answer is yes.

And so what do you mean it was inspired by you? Were you a security guard by the writers? But was that, is that your, like were you a security guard while you were an MMA fighter at one point? No. So again, it's not completely inspired by me, but it's in some ways. It wasn't a security guard. But I did do, you know, I did do some events here and there, et cetera, et cetera.

And so your role with PIRT is what? You're looking at the North American brand ambassador. I am the main event and I own a trademark that says something. What does that mean? No matter where I am. Well, again, I obviously have created in the MMA sphere a, you know, brand awareness of Purt. I'm the first, you know, I'm the first male or female to get a hair sponsor. I also have the, you know, do events that we're going to do charity work.

If all goes well, when my master plan is actually to donate my hair and with all my sponsors, actually donate my hair for a million dollars. Wow. And then give the money to them. Charity. We're working out the details, et cetera, et cetera. But I have a sponsor who actually is Tribeca Finance Corporation. they are the largest secondary lender in all of Toronto,

and the game plan is to have them insure my hair for a million dollars as well. Whoa, in the near future? Again, details are in the works, but probably by the end of the year. Wow, look at you. Will you have your own Barbie doll, like your own Mattel Elias doll? Is that coming out as well? Well, I will essentially be the brand ambassador for Mattel's Man Bun Ken. They recently rebooted the whole Barbie brand.

And yeah, I'm going to have a ringboy robe with Mattel, the 200th largest company in the world. Unbelievable. You make all Canadians proud, Elias. Well done. March 24th, Invicta FC will be seeing the first ever ringboy in professional mixed martial arts. And that will be airing live on UFC Fight Pass, correct? Yes, sir. What kind of training are you going to do in preparation for this?

You're going to study, like, who's the goat ring girl, in your opinion? Like, who are you going to study as far as your prep is concerned? Well, you've got to give it to the original Ariani. Celeste, she is, I guess, in many ways, my contemporary. Right. in that actually someone posted out actually i think it was adam hunter he posted it out uh when i did do the ring boy and kind of leaked out some of the pictures of uh the whole event he joked at ariani really let herself go well i mean there's there's a long line of of great

ring card girls in ufc history rachel and ali sonoma are sure 100% i mean legends and and now we have Elias. And do you think, could it be, you do this well, the UFC gives you a shot? Do you think, is that the ultimate goal or is Invicta, you know, the end-all be-all? For me specifically, I'm very loyal to people that I work with. I would love to make

Invicta my home. Never to say never, never, obviously. But I would love to make Invicta a, you know, a continued appearance of the Ring Boy, trademark included, because I own that as well. All right. Well, well done to you, my friend. Good

luck. Congrats on everything that's going on. And we will be watching March 24th, little over a month's time on UFC Fight Pass. Elias Diaduro making his ringboy debut for Invict FC. Thank you for coming on and announcing this.

I appreciate it. Thank you, Eric. No, my pleasure. It's a true honor to talk to you. And next time, in person, no Photoshop. I would love that. I would love that very much. There he is.

Elii Diaduro, check him out in a little over a month. Making that walk. And he has a YouTube channel, and guess what? His form is pretty darn good. his form is pretty darn good i saw him he's not he's not making a mockery out of it his form is really good he's strutton he's confident he's holding up that sign with uh with grace and and

and flare a little bit of class uh but full of confidence so check that out kudos to invicta for uh maybe thinking outside of the box and uh not not not not sticking to the sort of you know the standards, the confined sort of rules that we have, you know, that we have stuck to in MMA for many, many years. Why can't we have a ringboy? Why the heck not? So, you go, Elias, you do your thing. You do you. You live your best life. Thank you for coming on the show and announcing that. All right, let us move along. We are a little over a week removed from UFC 221. main event on Saturday, February 10th, if you recall, featured YOL Romero against Luke Rockhold.

Romero wins via third round knockout, a vicious knockout. One of the most vicious of the year. I have a feeling that we will be talking about this one come, you know, end of the year, 2018. Unfortunately, he did not win the interim middleweight title because he did not make weight. But all as well, that ends well, it appears as though he's going to be fighting for the belt later on this year against Robert Whitaker. I do believe this is his first interview

since returning from Australia. He is kind enough to be joining us right now via the magic of Skype. There he is, my friend, Yuel. How are you, my friend? Shalom. Hey, shalom, my friend. How are you? How are you? I'm doing great.

Thank you so much for doing this, Y'all. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Congratulations on the win. We have a lot to discuss. I want to start before the fight if I can. at what point in the days leading up to the fight did you start to think that maybe you would have trouble making the weight

to me again to me again i don't listen i know here at what point leading up to the fight did you start to worry about making the weight was this something that was on your mind that you've never missed weight before so i'm just wondering at what point leading up to the wayans did you start to worry about this you know um uh i think I don't can make it the

my weight is after the the the waiting, the normal waiting. When I go back for the sauna when I my body is like like a

like a way a hole a whole everything. You know I don't can go down. Yeah. But the first thing I think I can

I can take it, you know, I can do it. But I don't know what happened. I think never my life, that's my way for every time for wrestling, you know. Yeah. That's what never happened. I think it's something happened, you know. I think it's maybe the, the, too much clothes when the UFC called me or maybe the chain for the time.

the Australia, Miami. I don't know what happened, you know. Something happened, but I don't know why. Okay. You know. There were some people who were wondering if you were injured going up to, going into the fight because of the way you were walking down the stairs after the wands. Were you hurt at all?

Did that affect your weight cut? I am very great. Thank God. I don't have an injury after the way. I'm okay. Okay. Well, one of your managers, Maliki Kawa, was on MMA junkie radio last week, and he said that even, you know, leading up to the after the way-in thing,

you weren't feeling well, and the fight was kind of up in the air. Could you tell us how were you feeling, and were you worried that you wouldn't actually be able to fight Luke Rockhold? You know, after the waiting, when I go to the sauna, I push myself, I push my body, you know. after my body is not good you know, it's not okay. Yeah.

I have, you know, like a cram, something like this. But, you know, the, this is normal. When you put your body, you know,

when you put your body, that's something happening. Something like this, you know. But I don't feel good, you know. I don't feel good, but I believe, I believe that I can, I believe that another day is better, you know. Okay, so you weren't concerned that you wouldn't be able to fight, that it would affect you, that you were going to be too sick to fight or anything like that. Yeah, you know, every time I am optimist, you know? Yeah, yeah, I am optimist.

I mean, I say, okay, maybe now I end up feeling good, but tomorrow, maybe when I, maybe when I am optimistic, I am optimistic, I am optimistic, I am optimistic, I say, okay, okay, maybe I am not feeling good, but tomorrow, maybe when I sleep a little bit, when I can wake up, maybe I feel good. That's what I'm thinking. You know, everything I think is everything is good. Okay. And that's what happened. Okay. So in the actual fight, you know, come Sunday morning in Perth, you were feeling okay?

No, 100%. Okay. But I feel better. Did anything about what Luke Rocco did in the fight surprise you? Was that the game plan that you thought that he would sort of bring to you in the fight? Nothing. It's exactly what I think.

Okay. It's nothing and surprise. Everything is exactly what I expect for him. Uh-huh. You knocked him out in the third. And, of course, in your last fight, you know, there was some question about your cardio and things like that. How did you feel cardio-wise?

Did you, were you happy that you went a little longer to show people that, look, you can finish someone in the third round? What were you thinking about your actual performance? You know, I don't have a, um, um, I know how do you, um, uh, um, uh, I know what the people thinking about my cardio, you know, because I know what, what I, where I, where I, where I, where my cardio is, you know, is, um, the people think, the people can't think in everything whether the people want it, you know, but when, when they, they, um, the people think, the people think in the, the people want it, you know. But when the people

see what happened and the fight, and now the people change what are people thinking, you know? Many times you don't have a cardio, you know. You know, no, no, no, no, it's good grappling. You're, you're, it's good wrestling, but not good

MMA. He needs a layer, but you can see what I happen, you know? It is what it is. Was that one of the more gratifying, happy moments for you in the cage? of some of the things that Luke said about you to knock him out like that?

Did you enjoy that? Sure. You know what? You remember one day when you talked to me, I say I have one list, any blood list. He's saying that the blood list too. Okay.

You know? Yeah. He knows why. He knows why. Why? Because he took a lot of after the father, you know. When I have the,

when I have something with this problem with Osara, he took, before Osama, before, every time when he sees me, when they, in Vegas, or when the UFC, making something like, how can I say, the retreat, you know? Yeah.

He said me, hey, what's the man? You want to, he got, you want to go out with me, I need a party. I said, okay, come on, let's go, no problem. When I stay in the play with him, He's like a friend. He told me like this, Joira, and all that's the big question. Every time he asked me, hey, right, you want to, you want to fight with me?

I said, what? Yeah, see, you want to fight? No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait. That's another question. The question is, you want to fight me? He said, no, no, no, I don't want to fight you. I say, okay, so you don't want to fight me.

I don't know what to fight you. That's it. And, and listen, when I have the problem with Usada, him and, and, and, Michael Bisping, is the two guys, the first two guys when he's talking a lot of, you know, about me. Okay, Bisping is Bisping. I don't have a relationship, not having a relationship with this guy, but with him, say, what is it?

Hey, you talk like this about me? He said, okay. But God is God. Because maybe he's thinking, okay, this guy, 39 years or, minimus, two years out, is 41. Right. Bye, bye, boy, joy. My God is good every time. You know?

And I'm still here. And now, that's what I want. When the UFC call me, I say, yes, I want to fight. You know, I pull, I want to push you down my weight. That's what I say. And the waiting, in the waiting, when they say, I am professional. I say, I'm professional too. I stay here for you.

I'm coming for you. Not for the bell. I want to, I stay here for you because that's the big opportunity. I can fight you. everything is because you talk so bad about me you need to pay

you need to pay that's it you know that's what I kiss him after the fight I make it this because he's Judah Judas

he is Judas Oh that's why you kissed him Yeah what did you say to him in that moment I say Hey man

And this moment I say, hey, look, I love you. I love you. You remember the time when you stay with me, hang out, and you say, you want to fight me? I said, hey, you don't remember? And you see what happened after the Ushara? You remember? I still here.

I love you. My. Did he say anything back to you? No, nothing. No. No. No. No.

I don't know nothing. Right. Right. In the post-fight interview, you couldn't stand. You said afterwards you were afraid that you broke your leg, but you didn't break your leg. Tell us, how are you feeling now? How is your leg? Thank you, God.

All good. Okay. You can walk, no problem. Okay. Oh, look at that. All right. Have you been told, Joelle, that you are getting Robert Whitaker next? if ends or butts, you're going to be the guy fighting for the belt next.

Have you been told, yes? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Do you know when? No, no idea. Maybe you like, I don't know when. Do you have a preference when?

You know, I hear, I hear he's sick. Yeah. He's no, no, no. He's feeling no good. he feels very bad. I'm crushed for him. I won't. I waited for him.

Okay. Your team told me, and I wanted to ask you about this, you would love for this fight to be in Miami. Is that true? And if so, why? Yeah. This is amazing. You know, I think it doesn't happen.

Miami's so big. Yeah. Every people from Miami is so happy. Yeah. I won it. I want it. I want it. I want it.

happen. You're going to call them? Or have you called them yet? No, no, no, no, no. You should. It's a great market. I mean, with all the Cuban people who live there, I feel like it would be a great scene. I appreciate it. Maybe, but it doesn't happen. Maybe. Is this the perfect scenario for you? Like, you fought Robert Whitaker in July. It didn't go your way. Now you get another shot at Robert Whitaker for the real belt. It's amazing how things work out. There was a long stretch there. You didn't know what was going to happen.

You were going to fight David Branch. Who knows where that leads you. Here you are. You're getting a chance to fight for the belt. 41 years old. It's unbelievable. Yeah, man. Yeah.

And that's what I think. I think a lot about this. I mean, how do you, how do you stay? Like, people who are 41 don't look like this. They don't fight like you. They don't perform.

How is this possible? What's your secret? I don't know. No. No. you know I try stay

very clean life you know and very quiet you know but I think that's God believe me I think it's God it's God

because but you go Cuba you can see many people like me too uh huh normal people no more people no athletes no more people on the street

yeah yeah But you can look like this, but you don't have it, you know, can fight. That's different. And I think that's God. Are you at all sad that you didn't win the interim belt, that you didn't get that feeling of putting the belt around your waist? No. You don't care?

No. No, I don't care. I feel good. I feel good. You need to say for everything in your life, what are happening in your life. Thank you God. Every time. Are you sad about the penalty, the 30%, does that bother you?

No, because I know that's a, this is normal, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. How much should you weigh when you accepted the fight? Because it was a little sooner than you were expecting to fight, right? 206. Okay. But remember, I don't have a fate, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have a first, that's, you know. It's amazing. Have you gone farther in your MMA career, Yowel, than you ever dreamed of? When you started all of this, and I remember you came into strike force, you fought Hafejiao. Remember that? You lost. And then since the end, then you went on this crazy run.

Have you exceeded your expectations as far as your MMA career is concerned? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Because when I fight with Rafael, I, I'm training a lot, you know. I know how they coaches. Okay. I train it in the street, in the park. I train it in the park, not in the gym.

Wow. You know? Wow. In the park. Yes. Yeah. And when I see what I happen in the fire, I say, that's what I think. I say, when I stay in the really gym and training with the really coaches, I think I bet it, you know.

And that's what I think. No, I think like, oh, I lose. He made a call me. No, no, no, I don't think it like that. I remember when I lose, when I walk after the afternoon, I smart. Somebody said me, hey, what's going on with you? Why are you smart? I say, I know.

Because I fight with somebody. He said, he has many, he has many fights. very good experience and you can see the fight what happened you know I never my life see the this is a punch never my life that's a surprise for me you know I never see I don't know how he there does a what is he says it's a 60 you know and now you know I have a I learn a little bit you know it that's it where I after the way I lose it

I say okay no problem I remember Grants of Rays Rainson race Renzor Rainson Rays

he comes to me and say hey bro say hello I don't know how he's there who it is yeah

he say when you you go down you normally you don't know normally you don't know you wait class

you need to go down and believe me you win the ball and the and the 1 84 pound I never forget. I never forget.

Wow. The great Henzel Grace is telling you that. That's amazing. Yeah. Renzel game. Last thing for you, well, you win this belt. You beat Robert Whitaker. I'm assuming you're going to take it back home to Cuba, right?

What do you think that's going to be like? What do you think that feeling is going to be like to be champion and bring home that belt to your family in Cuba? Look at that smile. Cuba make it crazy. Miami make it crazy. many people on the world is so happy

and make it like crazy believe me you're so close because many people yeah I know I know I know not interim belt

we're not talking interim belt we're talking real belt now this is the real thing I know I know I am very excited I'm very happy you know

I say thank God because I know I'm almost 41 years old that's the I think that's the first man and the UFC they said when I can take it. They can't do it. Right?

Yeah. Amazing. You can help me. Somebody taking the ballot 41 years old in UFC? Well, Randy Kattour was, Randy Kattour was in his 40s. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Randy, right?

Yeah, Randy. But not that many people have done it. Yeah, I know Especially first time He had won the belt before So you know You'd be a first time champion It's a pretty incredible story

It's amazing Congratulations on the win My friend And for overcoming all of that I'm glad to hear That your leg is feeling better And I really appreciate you coming on the show today To talk about it

I'm very happy for you And I hope you get that fight in Miami What a scene that would be That would be incredible Yeah We'll do a little salsa We'll dance a little bit It'll be great

I saw your move I saw your moves, my man. I need to learn some of them. You were looking good up there with the ladies moving around. It was great. It was great. You were killing it. Look at that.

Look at that. Yes, there it is. Oh, man. Havana, baby. Woo! I love it. Thank you, Yuel. All the best to you, my friend.

Good luck in preparation for this fight. I'm sure I'll talk to you before, but I really appreciate it. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. There he is. The soldier of God himself. Yoel Romero.

Romero Havana O la la Half of my heart is in Havana Could you imagine that scene? What a scene it would be In Little Havana, right? Oh, amazing.

I know that typically the challengers should not fight on his home trip, but technically this is in his home turf. I know it is where he lives now and they're not going to go back to Australia. Miami is worthy of a big fight in my opinion they are worthy of a big fight they had one fight many many many moons ago

it wasn't the right card uh no real local draws let's do it big miami is a city like new york like la you need to bring big stars you need to have a big fight you can't just have you know some fight night with with no local draws you need big names put you well against Robert Whitaker, maybe another big name on that bad boy. Sell the American Airlines Arena out. Boom. All right. So that's YOL Romero's story.

But of course, one of the big stories, if not the biggest, everyone was talking about Israel, Adesania after UFC 221. Everyone was talking about this man. The last stylebender, they call him, right? Incredible kickboxing career. Undefeated as an MMA fighter. just went in there and wreck shop not only in the cage, but on the mic afterwards, everyone's glowing.

We were talking last week. Hopefully the UFC doesn't screw this one up. This is a gift from the MMA gods having a fighter like this. Not only can he fight, but he's incredibly entertaining, charismatic. He's fun to listen to, he's fun to watch. You all wanted to hear from him. He's been expecting us. We've been expecting him.

Let's go back to the Skype machine and say hello to the one and only Israel at Asanya. There he is. How are you, my friend? I'm good, man. I'm great. How are you? I'm doing great. It's great to finally talk to you.

Congratulations on everything. What is life like since your debut? How has life changed for you? Well, like I said, I keep the same energy, but everything else changed. Ain't nothing changed but the change. Do you notice a change, though? Do you sense a change? Yeah, definitely. I mean, it went like, I keep saying it happened overnight to you guys, but I've been doing this for a long time. I've been working out here for a long time. And I've expected all this. So I think I've made a lot of mistakes in the past.

2016 was one of my best years in fighting. 2017 was really slow. Like, damn, I mean, almost broke type slow. But yeah. And I, you know, it was ups and down smiles and frowns. and now, about to go up again. So when you say mistakes, what kind of mistakes? Just, you know, let's put it this way. I mean, I'm glad I didn't win the lot of at a young age or all this didn't happen for me when I was younger because, you know,

you come into a lot of money when you were really young and you get advice from your advisors and you don't really listen and you kind of just, you enjoy yourself. And I could have set myself up nicely. So now it's like round two, like my second chance. at this, so I'm not going to fuck it up. You said the UFC shouldn't fuck this up, but I'm not going to fuck this up. Okay, so do you feel like you did kind of mess it up the first time and you're lucky enough

to get a second chance? Was there a point where you thought you might not get a second chance? I always do. This is a thing. You get losses all the time in life. The thing about me is I know I always bounce back. I always bounce back. So I wasn't, you know, doubting myself or anything.

But I'm just, I'm happy I got this chance again to kind of make this happen and show the world what I can do. Yeah, so just How much should you lose? I'm still going to make mistakes. I'm young, you know, but yeah, I just have to be smart with the way I handle myself with the media and, you know, I've got the world looking at me now. So I'll keep the same energy and, yeah, no one else changes with me.

You know what's so interesting, I was looking at your Instagram and a lot of the comments, like you posted a couple videos of you dancing, you're celebrating, and like the majority the comments are people saying, please don't screw it up, please don't be John Jones, please don't mess up, like people are almost afraid because it seems too good to be true. You're such a great fighter, you're such a great personality. Do you get this a lot from people?

And that's a lot of pressure in its own right, right? I'm just doing me. And these people, like I said, they're new to the party. Being doing me since way back. And I love dancing. I love having a good time, but I'm smart about it. I know when it's time to put my foot on the gas.

I know when it's time to take my foot off the That's when they hit the breaks. And, you know, I had my phone for a week. Now I'm back at the gym. I've been back at the gym since Saturday, since Friday. And I'm just, you know, all that stuff is fun. You know, you got to celebrate with your family, with your friends. But this is where the bread is made.

So, I mean, I'm getting this bread. And one thing I've also noticed is that you are brutally honest. You're not afraid to tell like it is. In fact, you used to, you were telling a story about Sean Shelby, like sort of ignoring you at UFC 219. And I'm like, damn, Sean Shelby is a guy who can sort of dick. dictate your career. Maybe you shouldn't tell this story about, you know, not feeling good when he snubbed you. But yet, there you are telling it. And someone in the media like myself loves it, but do you feel like sometimes you're almost too honest with your thoughts and feelings?

No, I'm not doing. Those burn lies. I'm not disting, Sean. I don't have any ill feels towards him. It's just facts. It's a situation that happened. And I felt, you know, it's just business etiquette, you know, like I said, McManard, he addressed me and said, welcome to the company, had a little chat, and, you know, I felt like that was cool. But when you tried to hit me up on Twitter in 2015, then you just slide right past me amongst other people as well. I won't, I won't drop no names yet. Oh, okay. Yeah, I just felt like that's, you know, that's, that's, disrespectful. And he doesn't owe me anything, you know, he's not even in my weight class. He manages the other guys, the smaller guys, but I don't know. I just, yeah, I just, it's, it's

left a bad taste in my mouth because my mom would raise me right and manners and respect if you want respect you have to give respect and I'm not like I said there's no bad feelings no nothing business you know I don't expect anything from him and he shouldn't expect the same for me one thing I noticed

after your fight that really stood out was you know when you made that look when you went like this what disappointed you about your debut you weren't celebrating you weren't dancing you just were like yeah okay that was great I mean, it was a phenomenal performance. You carved him up, and yet that was your initial reaction.

Why? I'm glad that happened. I'm glad I got to the second round in that fight. I'm glad I felt him against the fans, because as soon as I got my back on the fence, it's like I flashed to having Stephen Warby, one of my teammates hold me against the fans of Dalton. It just felt like, man, I've been here before,

and I've had stronger guys hold me or try and hold me against him. I always get out. I'm glad all that happened But I was I think maybe I put a little bit High expectation of myself I was gonna finish him in the first But I'm glad that happened Everything's planning the way it's supposed to play

And yeah in the second round There was a point I think after his first shot And I stuffed it and I realized Oh, okay, he's you know I'm feeling loose now Then I started to chuck and jive a little bit Shake and bake And I started to light him up on the feet

But even the finish was kind of just Eh But you see how I finished him I was methodical I was surgical with it I didn't really, a lot of guys in my position, they have guys like that they start throwing shots just wild and all that shit, like bum rushing them. But I pick and, you know, I pick and choose my shots, you know, I don't throw on hope by aim and fire. Right.

That's what I did. But still, C minus. C minus. C minus. Is that what you said, C minus? We got, hey, yeah, C minus, C minus. I mean, there's a lot of things cooking. We're not done yet.

This is only the tip. So I'm going to stick the whole thing in. Right. Have you know, I haven't noticed, and correct me if I'm wrong, usually when someone makes a splash, you get a bunch of people calling you out, wanting to fight you. I haven't really seen that. Have you seen anyone call you out that's kind of caught your attention? They're treating me like you who shall not be named, the dark lord. They feel like if they speak my name, they might give us some power or something. But hey, I'm already, I'm here now. You know, like I said, they know who the fuck I am now. They can't. And whoever wants to go talk to McMaynard, yeah, we've already got a few names. I only got, I can't remember the guy. We've got a few names, but yeah, no one's going to say anything publicly. But if they want to, I welcome them.

So is your next fight already in the works? Yeah, definitely. So I'm fresh. I can fight this weekend. I can fight next weekend. I'm trying to get on the same card as my teammate Dan Hooker, so we can fight on the same card and kill two birds with one stone. Kill two men with one stone.

But, yeah, we'll see. I want to fight as soon as possible. I don't like being inactive. You might know this, but in 2016, I fought over 20 times. And name me another Western fighter, apart from the ties, because they're crazy. Another Western fighter who can fight over 20 times in a year. MMA kickboxing. And I might have done like two boxing fights as well.

And not just like fighting cans or nothing. I'm fighting national champions. I'm fighting. I'm beating world beaters. I beat a guy that beat me my second kickboxing fight, Philip Verlinden. I fought him my first China contract because they're trying to mess me up. And I beat him even worse than he beat me. So, yeah, I just want to stay active.

I don't want to sit on what I've already achieved. I don't feel comfortable with that. And I feel like these guys are coming from me. I have a target on my back now, so I have to be ready. Stay ready. Which card is the one that you want to be on? I'm not sure. I know it might be in April from the word I got from that.

Dan, but I don't mind anything. Short notice, if someone falls out, I'm your guy. And could you tell some names being discussed? I don't know the guy's name. I just know this one. Eugene said he's an ultimate fighter winner. Ultimate fighter.

He looks like Fabio. Old, wrinkly. I can't remember his name. That was one of the names he mentioned. He was a few other one. Is it Cesar Farheda? No idea. Okay.

You don't even care. you even look them up no nope when you my coaches are the ones to do all the work they make sure like

I knew what the guy's gonna do they tell me what the guy was gonna do they tell me what the guy was gonna I might have a look at a round or two and then see okay this is how we move this is his tendencies maybe have a look at one fight

but my coaches get obsessed they watch the guy to like till they're sick of his face and then they break him down and tell me what to do and in there I can call it audibles as well I can freestyle and we work together. Me and Eugene is beautiful.

It's Yen and Yang. He's the opposite of me. I'm flamboyant. I'm out there. He's reserved. He's not like all these other coaches trying to be in the spotlight. And I feel like I'm just a canvas.

Like what you guys saw was just a display and artistic expression of Eugene Beerman. The whole thing was just like a Eugene Beermanen seminar. And that's a name that you guys are going to be hearing a lot in the future. But yeah, he doesn't like to get the spotlight like a lot of these other fake coaches and stuff. But I got to put him on. Do you want the fast?

Fast track? Do you want the strong push? Because I was saying last week, like, give you 10 guys and let you just, like, wreck them and get this great highlight real. What do you prefer? I don't think they're going to do that. I think they see what they're messing with. Like, you see McGregor in the second fight for Max Holloway, who's the featherweight champion now? And Max is no joke. So you guys saw what I did.

That was only the tip, like I said. So, yeah, I don't mind whoever. Give me, like, the guy they said he's the ultimate fire, that's one of them. I wish I could remember his name now, but I'll get, I'll get coach to me. But we'll see. I don't really, I've never had the opportunity to, like, you know, get cater to it by any company ever. So, yeah, just give me whoever. Like, they all, it's all easy fights anyway.

When I get to, like, the top 10, probably by end of this year, I think I'll be top 10. Once they see the next fight, once they see the next fight, once they're, see what I can do, then they're going to be like, okay, we can't just keep feeding them these guys that aren't on this level. Give me someone on my level. But I don't mind. The first, maybe three fights, I'll whip some guys, beat a few bums, and then move them to top 15, top 10, and we'll go from there. You don't seem to like it when people compare you to John Jones. Why is that?

I don't like being compared to anyone, and people are like, what's a compliment? This is old John Jones. I don't, don't disrespect. him don't disrespect me you know we're two different people sure we're big black men who agree on what we do but I'd yeah and also we don't even look the same that's like some

all black people look the same shit you know but even I'm more cleaner I think so but uh yeah I just I feel like he's he's great at what he does you know um and I'm great at what I do I'm on my own path I'm carving my own legacy

so I don't want it to be compared to anyone, not McGregor, not Anderson Silver, not Jones. Even though I look up to those guys, or I have looked up to those guys, you know, but yeah, it's, you know, I'm a different breed and I can give you the spill, new error, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but you'll see. You'll see, you're some point out. But, but there is a lesson there, right? I mean, John was.

Like, I'm having a moment right now. I just think like, fuck. I'm just having a moment right now. I just kind of checked in. Like, this is something that I've, like I said, I've, I've. practice this in my head a lot. Just by accident. And now it's happening.

It's kind of like, but it's regular now. You know, it's regular shit. Well, it's all deserved. But there is a lesson with the John Jones story, right? I mean, he was en route to becoming the greatest of all time. And maybe he still is. Maybe he's not.

And there have been a lot of self-inflicted wounds. Do you think about that a lot, making the right decisions, not, you know, because things are about to get crazy. I mean, there was, there was a time when, you know, Connor was coming on the show and he didn't have a pot to piss in and things like that. Look at him now. You could go this way. You could go that way. Do you think about these things a lot and do you feel like you're prepared if things are going to blow up for you within the next year? Yeah, things are going to blow up. Things are blowing up. And like I said earlier, I've made a lot of

mistakes in the past, you know, being young, you know, coming into a lot of things. And I've had, you know, the whole spill where you, you know, you're on top and then you're at the bottom and everyone disappears. I can't say I've seen it all because there's what I don't know. I don't No, you know, this is a new level. So new levels, new devils, but I'm player one and I'm about to play this game. What do you prefer more, MMA or kickboxing? If they both paid the same, both the same kind of fame comes with it, what do you prefer? See, if I was going to take the easy path, I would just like chose boxing or kickboxing because I'm great, you know, at those.

But for me, I said as well in interviews leading up to this fight, I chose MMA because of the challenge. and even Floyd knows this he's never going to be he knows if he ever runs up on a proper a proper fighter he's the greatest boxer of our generation but greatest fighter of our generation he's not you know

I have guys in this gym that are beat top level boxes without even throwing a single punch and I never want to feel vulnerable in any situation I never want to feel like man this guy you know like I've seen fights heaps of times like street fights end on the ground and you see people just throwing punches and I'm like

you know, escape your hips, you know, do something, and they don't know what they're doing. So I never want to feel like I can get handled by anyone. I never want to feel vulnerable. So I just, I chose MMA because of the challenges, this is martial arts. This is a, you know, a life. It's life changing. It's discipline. Yeah, I need it in my life.

I need it in my life. I know the UFC career is now in its embryonic stages, but in the last eight days or so, what's the best thing to happen? And what's the coolest thing that has happened since you sort of burst onto the scene here? Is there something that sticks out, someone writing to you, reaching out to you, a moment backstage at the event before the event is, I mean, you made it. You're in the big leagues now. Anything that sticks out yet? I haven't made it.

I just got my foot in the door. I just kicked the door down. That's all. I haven't made it yet. But honestly, I wasn't even like phased by anything. Everything just kind of happened the way I expected it to. but see my parents my parents like be proud you know

my mom was just smiling the whole time oh shit chills yeah like see my mom smile she was just happy and giving her my um walk out hoodie and then I know she wanted to work the next when she got back home I even gave her my bag and her just be

I was the runt you know like my sister was the smart one and I was the one that they had I was the guinea pig so I'm the first born I was the test baby but for them now to see me doing what I'm doing, getting the check that I'm getting. I haven't told my dad, I'm like, Dad, I want to go back to school. And he just laughed at me because he knows like back in the day, it was all about getting a degree and this and that.

And now I got a degree in kicking ass. So, yeah, we're happy. He's an accountant, right, your dad? Yeah. You know too much. You know so much. Everyone will be doing this research That's right my man

He's my accountant So he Yeah He makes sure everything's straight So I didn't listen to my advisors Last time now You know I was able to get them like half a house last time

But next I want to get them a whole house Maybe even a holiday home And all these other things I look after the people that look after me You know Like without them I wouldn't be possible So yeah I got to make sure they're set

Yeah everything's good. I like options. Things are looking good. Great. Well, I'm happy for you, my man. This is just the beginning. It's great to talk to you. You've got a lot of people behind you. A lot of people. By the way, I wanted to ask you, last week you put out that meme with the Ariel for the mermaid. Was that a shot at me? Was it a shot at me? I don't know. Am I too self-thought? Was that like a subtle jab? What was that? What size you do you wear, Ariel? 12. Well, I mean, a lot of people kind of just jump on the,

bandwagon and I was just a little meme. That's a standard stock meme, the Hips the Aerole. Yeah. Hey, if the name hits, if the shoot hits. Damn. You're saying I'm a Johnny come lately, right? You're saying I'm a little late to the party here. I'm expecting you, man. I've been around for a long time. I'd be expecting you, you know, but no, no shade, no shade. No, no shade. That's all love. I respect it. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the party. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And I love your name too. What a great name. Israel. I mean, it's just, like, I can see the money

just oozing out of it. But last thing. Okay, let me hear. Let me hear. Israel. My pola, my beloved, family, or will I be at Desonia. Wow. That's incredible. It's a mouthful. Yeah. Just like me.

Belf-Fonseil? Huh? Jepal-Fonseil. A little bit in French. Okay. All right. And the last style bender. Where does that come from? And what does that mean? And is it last style bender?

or just stylebender? So the full name is the last stylebender, but you can just say stylebender or styles because it's a mouthful, I understand. But I coined the name from Mind Smash did a fucking great video on there with the intro. You got to watch it. It's on YouTube.

Mind smash. Yeah, so the intro of the series, the TV series, Avatar, he kind of remixed it with me and the UFC. And, yeah, Ang, the Avatar had to realize his destiny by mastering all the elements, which is earth, fire, water, and air. And I felt, you know, when I watch the series,

there just a lot of gems constantly being dropped, a lot of jams. And I had to realize my destiny as the avatar of this game by mastering all the elements of martial arts. And yeah, I'm on my way now. Wow. Yeah, check out that video on Mind Smash. I will check that out.

Yeah, it was fun. Okay, last question. When do we say Israel, Adisania, new UFC, Middleweight? champion. How long before that? In your mind, you say you visualize things. How long do we have to wait in your opinion? When's it happening? Probably next year. I'm going to say, I feel and next year. And I don't know why. I keep getting this strong feeling. It's going to be me. And if Robert can hold on to the belt, it would be me and him, spark arena. I just feel it. Even chills right now when I say it. Like, yeah, I just seen it. And I can see it happening at the end of the next year. I even heard

rumors that the UFC's coming back. So, you know, I might have to, you know, either headline that one or we'll see. I don't even want to be headline. I don't like fighting late, but it's part of the gig. So, yeah, I enjoy the process. But, yeah, end of next year, most likely. I feel that it happened. And even the belts on my man go.

The belt's just part of the, it's part of the thing, you know, I'm going to get the belt so I can get more money, more, be more of a household name, get on Jimmy Kimmel, all that shit. But I just want to be the guy that the people watch. I want to be the fan favorite. I'm not the fan favorite, boy. If you fuck with me, I'll fuck with you. I just want to be the best. And that's always been the goal.

So the belts are fancy tiara. You just kind of have to claim along the way. Which is nice. I look good in gold anyway. It looks good on skin. Oh, wow. Yeah, Jimmy Kimmel is nice. It's no MMA hour, if I may say so myself.

But that's a nice thing to think about. I know. This is a big time. I'm a big time now on Ariel, Hawaii, I wish you the best, Israel. Thank you so much for doing this early in the morning. over there in New Zealand. I really appreciate it. Congrats on your success.

And I look forward to watching your run in the UFC and talking to you again. Really appreciate this. Thank you. Thanks for having me, bro. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is. The last stylebender, stylebender, styles, Israel Adasania. Remember the name.

What a debut and certainly going to be a player at 185. There's no doubt about that. You just see him on his feet. As Daniel Cormier likes to say, there are levels. this. And when you watch that guy fight, you recognize that there are levels to this. And it's going to be interesting to see who they match him up against. He says maybe April, ultimate fighter winner, maybe we can investigate that a little more afterwards. But if they do this the right way,

end of next year is not the craziest prediction of all time. All right, let's move along. I'm so excited to talk to our next guest. I am so fascinated by this topic. If you listen to this show, if you listen to the MMA beat, if you ever listen to me talk in any kind of interview, you know that I am incredibly interested in the topic of fighter rights, revenue sharing, collective bargaining, the business side of MMA. You know that I've talked about, you know,

different groups trying to either be associations or unions, bringing the fighters together, having a seat at the table, the TV deal coming up, what piece of the pie, if any, the fighters will receive. I mean, I've talked about this on this show and the beat and other programs, ad nauseum at this point, every chance I can get. I'm just fascinated by it, and it's not because I'm trying to create a rift between the fighters and the UFC. It's because you look around in every other sport,

and the fighters just seem to have more of a voice. And so last week when I found out about Project Spearhead, headed up by Leslie Smith, Cajun Johnson, and Lucas Middlebrook, talked about them at the beginning of the show. I said, all right, I got to have Leslie back on the program to talk about this because I am extremely fascinated and intrigued by the prospects of this one. We've seen some come and go. We've seen some not even really get out of the gates. Could this be the one to change the fortunes and the futures of many UFC fighters? So let us bring in Ms. Leslie Smith, who is behind this.

I'm really looking forward to talking to her. There she is, the top of her head. Leslie, are you there? Here I am. Do you mind maybe? Yes, there you go. Putting the camera a little more down. Just a little more.

Oh, okay. Actually, the other way was better, if you don't mind, because now I can't see your face. I just wanted you to tilt it, just a smidge. That's perfect. That is perfect. Perfect. Leave it there.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for doing this, Leslie. I really appreciate it. And sorry for keeping you waiting. Okay. So I know that this has been a topic that has been near and dear to your heart for quite some time. You have been involved with other groups, the PFA, MMFA, you're interested in the MM, AAA. But Project Spearhead, and we'll get into all the nuts and bolts here.

When did you first come up with the idea where you said, basically, these aren't working for me. I need to put this into my own hands and do something on my own. When did you first come up with that concept? I'm going to say that I've been thinking about it ever since I met Lucas Middlebrook. even during the days of the PFA and found out about the concepts of a democratic, fighter-led, grassroots organization and the power that that has. So when the PFA fell apart and then the MM AAA came up, I wanted to play a part in that. And I tried to talk to them. I had conversations with Bjorn and Tim Kennedy and was kind of hoping that I could get to play a part in that and be, you know, a player in that.

But it didn't work out. And so finally, I realized that if I want to see this thing that I'm envisioning inside my mind, that I need to make it happen. How long have you been interested in this issue of collective bargaining, of unionization, of revenue? How long have you thought about this? I'm assuming not from your first days as a fighter, at some point, your eyes probably opened up a little more. When was that? Well, it's been a couple of years. I have to admit that I didn't know anything about MMA before I started fighting.

The first show that I went to, the first time that I actually watched fights, was at the show that I went to a month after I started training in Colorado. And when I came to the Bay Area and joined up with the Gracie fighter team, I still didn't know who everybody was. I didn't know who Caesar Gracie and Nick Diaz and Nate Diaz were. and I had to look up all this information and looking it up from that perspective, from the Gracie Fighter perspective, and following along Gilbert Melendez's journey and Jake Shields's journey, I started noticing that things aren't the same for everybody. Things aren't equal. And, you know, equality isn't something that is guaranteed in any form in an adult interaction. but it seemed to be really heavy not on the fighter side, not on my teammate's side. So just progressing and paying attention and learning about things, I always felt like things weren't really structured very favorably for the fighters.

It didn't stop me from wanting to fight at all or wanting to get deeper into it. But then it was actually an MMAAFA meeting that I went to in Las Vegas for the first time, maybe two years ago, that I first was really introduced. to the topic, maybe even three years ago. I don't know. It kind of feels like a blur at this point. What is Project Spearhead? Project Spearhead is, I'm hesitant to call it a union or an association or anything like that. It's more of an investigation to find out whether or not we are independent contractors

or employees. So it's got the structure. This is a card that I just signed Project Spearhead card, authorization card, saying that I authorize Project Spearhead to, I designate Project Spearhead as my bargaining representative. So what this means is that we, I'm signing up for this, but this doesn't automatically make the union happen. The first thing we have to do, and this is the main goal of Project Spearhead, is to determine whether or not we're employees or independent contractors, because that information determines which direction that we're, going to go after that. So we need 150 cards to get signed by active fighters on the UFC's roster, and then the National Labor Relations Board will determine whether or not we are employees or

independent contractors, and then we can go from there. Okay, so right off the bat, it's rather simple. You just need 150 active UFC fighters who are under contract to sign this, and then you can have the national relations labor board investigate and then determine once and for all are UFC fighters, independent contractors or employees? And then your path is set for you. Is that correct? That is correct. That's totally correct. And that's what I'm trying to communicate with the website, with all this information, is that all the anti-union stuff is like, they're going to take your money and they're going to speak with your voice and they're going to take over the control for you. None of that stuff is the result of signing this card. The result of signing

this card is figuring out what the next step is going to be. Since you have come out with this, have any other active UFC fighters sign the card? I know the card is available on the website, and the website is project spearhead.com, right? Yes. Have any other fighters signed up? Yes. They have. Okay. How many? Everybody has been into this the whole time. I I'm not going to say numbers or names. Okay, okay. That was a big deal in the last group. Well, I know, I know it on names.

I'm not asking names, but numbers. You can't say numbers. You can't say 20 or 50 or 60 or 10. Technically, I can. I'm very capable of it. Okay. I'm going to abstain from talking about numbers because I, even though I want to take advantage of social media

and all these different ways that we have of communicating, what with this being 2018, I still think that it's important that we keep a lot of the information close to home. And I feel like that's been a problem with a lot of the other organizations or union efforts that have not worked is that they put on this big huge show and this big to-do with press conferences and fielding questions and scheduling things with reporters. And I, this is a grassroots thing. This needs to come from inside the fighters. I understand. Are you surprised by the reception from your fellow UFC fighters?

Are you, is this what you expected in terms of, you know, the response? How would you categorize what the last week has been like since you came out with this? Well, probably the biggest response has been from the media and the journalists, and they've been really positive. And for a second, I got really, really excited about that before I realized that it's kind of, it's a little bit, like, it makes me feel good. it's wonderful that people are being positive encouraging about it. And I don't doubt that the positivity and the encouragement from it is going to roll over into more fighters being open-minded about it and going ahead and signing cards.

But it's a little bit like a thumbs up on Facebook or Instagram. Like it doesn't, it's not the substance that we need. We just need the fighters. As far as the fighters go, I've gotten a good reception from the people that I've talked to. Okay. Why do you think fighters have been so reluctant to back? And even the ones in the past, which may have been flawed, and maybe yours you'll come to find out,

why do you think the fight? To me, if you are a professional fighter, a professional athlete, and you just look at every other professional athlete, all of them have some seat at the table. And yet in our sport, it seems like, as you just noted, often the media cares about this topic, more than the fighters themselves, and we stand to gain nothing from it, but we spend hours talking about this. Why do you think that is? My guess at this point is that in order to be a very

successful MMA fighter, a person has to get very good at delegating. They can't take on every single thing themselves. A great fighter usually is going to have someone who takes care of their stand-up, their ground, their strength and conditioning. They've got their recovery. They've got all these different things that they have delegated out. And part of that is they needed to figure out, okay, this is a good group. This isn't an organization. This is a person that I can trust in. And so what I'm getting from a lot of people is that they're very willing to be part of it. They want to see it work, but they want to make sure that there's strong leadership and that it's legit. Nobody wants to join a team that's not on the up and up. So I feel like that's been a big deal

has been that a lot of these haven't been on the up and up. A lot of them have had the outside agendas or questionable motives. And that's why it's so important that this one is fighter-driven and going to be fully democratic. And is it UFC-specific fighter-driven? This is only for the UFC you're talking about right now, right? now it is just the UFC, yeah. Have you heard from the UFC since you announce this? I have not heard from the UFC since I announced this. I have actually been working on getting a meeting with the UFC since December

because they released the promotional guidelines. The new promotional guidelines that they released were very controlling and rather vague and I had a lot of questions about it. And so I've been working on getting a meeting with them about those questions for quite some time. I sent you the questions, but no, we haven't made it happen. First, I was supposed to talk to one of the guys. He passed it off to another person and asked that I send them my questions ahead of time, which I did. And then I got, that meeting got pushed back as well.

We rescheduled another meeting with Hunter Campbell, the, like the attorney for the UFC. General counsel, yes, you're right. That's the term I was looking for. And we had a meeting and then it got rescheduled as well with no, I was in Las Vegas for over a month. and we weren't able to meet up within that time. He was not in town when we had the meeting scheduled. So no, I haven't gotten to sit down and talk with them. I have a couple of different things that I'd like to talk to them about,

but that meeting has not come to fruition yet. Do you think it will come to fruition even before you get these 150 signatures that you're hoping for, or do you think that they're just going to wait and see and kind of try to put this off as long as possible? We'll see. I don't know. And I am not going to pretend to know what's going on inside of their minds. I can go two ways with it. I can look at myself in this project is not a very big deal to them and think, well, they must not care that much.

Or I can think of it as a really big deal and imagine that they're quaking in their boots somewhere. But either one of those is all constructs inside my mind. And I don't need to be spending time thinking about that. I need to be focusing on what I can put effort into that's going to be productive, and that is collecting the signatures right now. I don't know if you saw this. I feel like you did. I feel like your group and any group out there scored a big victory over the past week.

The UFC is currently in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit, right? And one of its lawyers, it has been revealed by, I think, several journalists. and I want to give credit to the one who got it first. Maybe it was, was it John Nash or was it Paul Gist? It was one of those journalists who had been covering this very well. Maybe it was for Forbes or Bloody Elbow. In any event, one of the lawyers for the UFC essentially admitted that it is not fair to compare what the UFC fighters make and their rights to other sports because those

sports have unions. They all have seats at the table. They're more organized. And so over here in our sport, we're sort of playing by a different set of rules. And to me, he was, he was essentially admitting that it is, it is, it is more valuable for the fighters to be organized, but for whatever reason they're not. So, you know, all right, you know, we can't, it's apples and oranges. Did you see this and did you take it the same way? Yeah, I totally take it the same way. In fact, I almost felt like they were laughing at us by using, the economic expert Dr. Zimbalist by having him say that

that the reason we're not getting paid is the lack of a union. Yeah. I feel like it's a little bit of like they're like thumbing their finger at us because they're like, well, we're telling them what they need to do to get paid more, but we don't think that they're going to do it. And so it did light a fire up underneath me over the weekend. I feel like this is a critical time for these efforts because as you know, the UFC's North American TV deal, or I should say their United States TV deal because they have a separate one in Canada is up at the end of the year.

And as you may know, for example, in the NBA, the basketball players get 50% of the revenue generated from their TV deal in the United States. Billions of dollars, it helped bump up the salary cap to the point where someone like a Kevin Durant was able to sign with, you know, a powerhouse like the Golden State Warriors. Currently, as you know, fighters get zero percent. And that's amazing to me because without the fighters, there are no TV deals. There are no fights.

There's no broadcasts. Do you hope to try to get something done before they sign this deal, or is it a little too late in the process? I definitely hope that we can make something happen. It can take a long time to get a CBA going, a collective bargaining agreement. It can take probably,

it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that it'll take one to two years to do that within the UFC. But that doesn't, yes, I want us to mobilize and make this happen in time so that we can have a say in that. I don't know if, I don't know how that's going to work. I don't know how the timing of it's going to work. I don't even know if we are going to be able to form a union yet because we need to get past step one. Maybe I doubt it, but maybe we will be determined as independent contractors. And then we'll have to take up a whole different plan of attack.

I'm speaking in warlike metaphors, but I'm not actually trying to be warlike about it. I'm not trying to come up as I'm facing off against the UFC or Dana White. I really like fighting for the UFC. I really like what they've done with bringing MMA to the mainstream, and I think they've done a great job of bringing MMA to the general public. And I appreciate that vehicle. It's just that now we need to change it more. I'd love to keep fighting for the UFC.

I think that a lot of people, or at least the feedback that I get online, is like one out of every 10 or 11 encouraging comments. is there goes your contract, so you're asking to not keep fighting, so you don't want to keep being here. And I love all the positive comments, and I try to respond to them and not dwell on the negative ones. But I really do want to keep fighting for the UFC. I love being part of this organization.

I just want to make it better. At this juncture, you are a part of the UFC, and that is what makes this so commendable, in my opinion. Are you worried that your job is sort of on the line when you fight again in April? Do you feel like this makes you even more expendable? Or do you kind of feel like, you know, now that they can't get rid of me now because I'm sticking by it. People will think that they're getting rid of me because I'm a part of this.

So this is actually kind of brilliant. Maybe it is kind of brilliant. I probably do have some level of protection more than anybody else who has not professed in interest in organizing the fighters because there are federal laws to protect people inside of this country who seek to organize their employees or who seek to organize within their companies, which is what I'm doing. It's exactly what I'm doing. And that's why those laws were come up with is because companies in power tend to discourage

that kind of thing and don't want people around inside of their companies that are pushing that agenda. I wish I have tried to communicate this. I have it as my PIN tweet, but if all the fighters, when they have their frustrations, when they go online and they're talking about, they're frustrated about,

I think I even messaged you when you were interviewing, when you were interviewing somebody, Demetrius Johnson maybe, about how they were going to get rid of the whole one, 125 division if he didn't take a fight. Well, if people would say whatever they're saying and then follow it up with because I support a union, then they have that backing. They have the federal protection of the right to organize.

And so that's definitely something that I want to communicate because it's a big deal. We see a lot more fighters going online and talking about their problems or frustrations or venting on on Twitter about the UFC and the UFC's practices than we've ever seen before. But it needs to move into something. It needs to move into taking some kind of an action. It can't just be a complaint. And it's all the same complaints that everybody has, that they're not getting the respect, they're not getting the money,

they're not, you know, they're getting disrespected by Dana White on these huge outlets. And that's not okay. that's not how professional adults should be treated or interacted with. So please, if you're a fighter, if you have a complaint and you're going to go online and you're going to talk about it in any kind of public sphere, follow it up with because I support a union, because I want to see the fighters organize and then we can actually make something out of it. Based on your research, based on what you know, are the UFC fighters independent contractors or are they employees?

I strongly believe that we are employees. Strongly believe. In fact, the promotional guidelines that just came out show an astounding amount of control that that's definitely something that when we get to that

point, we will be entering as evidence of one of the reasons that we are employees. So, Exotic dancers and FedEx drivers are just two examples of people who have realized that they were being misclassified by employers who didn't want to have to pay into the taxes. They didn't want to have to pay into the benefits or any of the responsibilities that an employer has to their employee.

a lot of employers try to skirt around that by classifying people as independent contractors. But there is a list of criteria. And part of it is we're so similar to strippers. It's amazing how similar to strippers we are because we like strippers, excuse me, exotic dancers. That's. We use the UFC's equipment. We are under supervision the entire.

time that we are doing our thing. We are mandated how much time we're allowed to be out. We're wearing a uniform. We, the long list, I can email you the list of the criteria. I can post it online. I can, maybe I should work on sharing that as well. But I do strongly believe that we are employees and that is why I am pursuing this so strongly. I leave it open because I want people to realize that Project Spearhead isn't about me starting my own union. That's not the point at all. It can't be a union if it's just mine. Project Spearhead is the idea of it is just to start the process because we need to start it. The time was like years ago to start it. 10 years ago, I don't know if there was a need for it because of the freedom that the fighters in the UFC had with

sponsorships and maybe the lack of restrictions. But now, with USADA, with the Reebok deal, I'm obviously in favor of drug testing, but you guys had no say in the matter. You had no say in 24-7-365. It's not like that in other sports. You obviously had no say in the uniform. And that's what I'm in favor of. If at the end of the day, the fighters decide we don't want a piece of the TV deal, more power to you. But I do believe at this juncture, you guys deserve a seat. at the table, you deserve to have some sort of dialogue. And so when the UFC comes out with these guidelines and Lauren Seppstein says, I believe our heart is in the right place, to me, that's hogwash. That's insulting to you guys. Don't believe your heart is in the right place. Ask the fighters how they

feel about where your heart is at. And I think it's high time that you guys come together, band together. And one thing I'd love to see end yesterday, and I know it's hard to police all these fighters, but every time a fighter calls another fighter the B word or says you fight like a girl, I want them to think about you and the kind of balls that you have, what you're doing to spearhead something like this part in the pun, to stick your neck out, Cajun Johnson, will all do respect, and I'll say to both of you, the UFC can cut you guys tomorrow, and they're not going to lose a penny, right?

They're not going to lose a penny. They're not going to sell a ticket. But you guys are actually fighting for other fighters who are making more money than you, sticking your necks out, actually fighting for rights, and you're the ones who are expendable and not them, and you're putting your neck and reputation and livelihoods out there. It is so commendable.

It is inspiring to see what you guys are doing. Even at the end of the day, they decide that, okay, you don't get a chance. The fact that you're actually going out there and fighting it and trying to get this done and stop complaining

and actually trying to do something about it, I tip my cap to you. Well done. Well done to you. Well done to Cajun. Well done to Lucas. And I wish you nothing but the best. And I could talk to you about this for two hours

because it's the top. It's the most frustrating thing that I've ever been a part of covering this sport is watching the apath from the fighters just seeing the way that they are being treated by the UFC.

Have a seat at the table. If you're okay with it, great. If you're okay with the rights that you guys are being giving it, great. But have a say. Why don't you want to have a say? That's the part I can't wrap my head around. I can't write. And don't tell me that a UFC champion doesn't need to have a say because he deserves that piece of the pie as much

as a debutante. Just because you made it to the top, it doesn't mean that you can't worry about the guys coming up behind you because you were once one of those guys, it just, it boggles my mind. So I'm sorry for going on a rant there. I'm not trying to make this about myself, but I really, I really do have a lot of respect for what you guys are doing. And it's not because I'm rooting for one side or the other. I just have a lot of respect for you guys actually sticking your necks out and trying to fight for what you believe. And

that's very commendable in my opinion. Your passion is thoroughly appreciated. Thank you so much for caring. And I, I'm incredibly grateful to Lucas Middlebrook and to Cajun Johnson and to everybody who signed cards are ready for putting themselves out there. I feel like it's the people who care about this the most that are not fighters, that it's just that that's the way that it should be, that if there's a decision that's being made about an adult, that that adult should have a say in it. And especially if it's in a company where those adults are putting their lives, their livelihoods, their brains, their bodies, everything on the line. Yeah, I agree that they should have a say.

Well done, Leslie. I wish you nothing but the best, both you, Cajun and Lucas. And please do keep us informed and up to date on how you progress. I respect and appreciate the fact that you want to keep the cards close to your vest and you're doing it the right way without much fanfare. I respect that. No press conferences, no snazzy T-shirts. Well done. But if there's anything, you know, you need to get out or just if you can keep us informed, I'm curious to see how this unfolds. Awesome. Thank you so much. I will definitely keep it in the loop. Good luck to you guys. Thank you so much. There she is, Leslie Smith, stopping by the UFC women's bantamweight fighter. She is returning to action in April. She is fighting Aspen Ladin, a great fight for the UFC at the event in Atlantic City. But she is a big part of this. And I think it's a fascinating thing. It really is. It's a fascinating story. And I think it's high time that they come together. We'll see. what happens. But like I said, I give them a lot of credit. I give Cajun and Leslie in particular

a lot of credit and Lucas Middlebrook is a very smart man for actually doing something about it. If they believe in it, anyone who believes strongly in something and actually sticks their neck out and even if it's something that might cost you a job or whatever the case may be, an opportunity, you have to respect that. So we'll see what happened. Project spearhead.com is the website. Okay, let's move along. One of the big stories that came out late last week is that the former Belator lightweight champion, now the former UFC lightweight is no longer a part of the company. He has left the UFC and he is now a part of the Pro Fighters League. We're talking about Will Brooks, one of our favorites on the program. It has been a while since we've talked to him. So let us go to the Skype machine and say hello to ill Will Brooks. There he is. Will, how are you? I'm good, man. I'm blessed. How are you? I'm doing good and I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. We went a little long there. But I'm I appreciate your patience.

So, we have a lot to discuss here. You are no longer a part of the UFC. Did you get released or did you leave on your own? Could you tell us what happened? It was kind of, it was, I wish I knew how to explain it exactly, but just the simplest way I can put it is that we were kind of given the idea that we were probably, we were going to be on the cut list. from what my manager has explained to me that, you know,

they were working on trying to find us a fight, but they also let us know that if they weren't able to find me a fight, that they were going to release me. So we were given the option during the process of Sean Shelby or the UFC trying to find me a fight that if we wanted to go out and seek out other employment and seek out other opportunities, we would be able to do that. And then we would be able to come back.

And if we felt like sitting and, waiting to see if something happens or just asking for our release, we could do that. So my manager went out, sought out other opportunities, the PFL just kind of happened to, the timing was amazing with that, just all of it was kind of coming together. We sat back and really thought about the opportunity with the PFL, this million-dollar tournament, and sticking with the UFC. So, you know, me and my manager talked, my wife talks, my family members talked. We went back and just requested my release.

I decided to go with the PFL. What was that like when you came to the final decision? All right, the UFC run is over because as, you know, fans of yours in the sport may recall, you took a chance you left Beltr as champion because you wanted to sign with the UFC and maybe make a little less initially, but you had full confidence that you would make it run and become a champion in the UFC. When you came to the realization that the UFC run was over, what was that like? It was, and honestly, it was a little funny.

Just because I feel as though like I could have did way better than what I did. I just didn't go out there and get the job done that was expected of me. So that's frustrating. But at the same time, when I step back and I look at the life that I live, the fact that I'll wake up every day, I see my wife and was carrying my son now. I go and wake my daughter up. I'm going to cook breakfast for my wife. I cook dinner. I do all these different things.

I have incredible people in my life. Once I started looking at my life outside the octagon, that made it a lot easy. for me to be like, you know what? God has always put me in the best opportunities to be the best husband or fighter and father I can possibly be. So I'm just going to trust that my God is walking with me in this next phase of my life. And I'm going to move forward. And that kind of gave me peace of mind and just accepting what comes next, you know.

What went wrong in the UFC? Why didn't it go, why didn't it go as you expected? Nothing. I just didn't get it done. You know, I think I allowed a lot of outside things to get into the U.S. way and I just didn't make the right adjustments and adapting to different things that was taking place and that's on me. I take full responsibility for that. At the end of the day, you can have all these coaches, you can have teammates, you can have whoever it is working in the background trying

to get you on track and they're working hard. But if you're not focused and locked into what you're doing, especially in this sport, then there's no way you're going to have the success that you're looking for. And I wasn't locked in. I wasn't dedicated and it came back to bite me in the butt. And I accept that. When you say not locked in, not dedicated, could you expand on that? Because I mean, just like you're always in phenomenal shape. You train with a great team.

What do you mean? But how could you not be locked in when you're fighting, you know, for the major organization in the sport? For me, it was, I was in this phase of life where I was, I was just looking for something and just kind of in this phase

where I was looking at my wife. I see my daughter and I put it, I was putting all my energy into trying to be the best husband and father that I could possibly be because this is a brand new thing for me. You know, I'm only two years in come July will be two years into being a husband. Come March, it will be two years into being a father. And these are things that I never really believed could ever happen for me in my life. Just the way it was written out in my past and how things have come about.

And for me, I put a lot of energy in making sure that I laid the foundation to be the best dad that I could be the best husband that I could. be. And when you do that, you have to be able to find a middle ground before between being a competitor, being a fighter, and that being your first job and being a father and a husband. I think I put more energy into being a father and a husband than I did into going in a gym, being on time, being there every single day, putting my focus and being locked into doing what I'm doing in this in the gym and taking that dedication to focus into the octagon. I wasn't doing that. And if I had the option to do it again, I'd go about doing it again. I put all my energy into my being the best

husband and father I could possibly be, and I don't regret doing it and doing it that way. I just wish I would have been able to find the balance between the two, and unfortunately I wasn't able to do that. So again, I put it all on my shoulders and you move forward. So you're now with the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the fl, you still have to find that balance. Are you confident you'll be able to find that balance? It's still something that needs to be done regardless of where you're fighting. Yeah, I think his last training camp, getting ready for Nick Lynch, I was starting to find that balance, you know. I was getting back to feeling like, you know, a competitor, that fire inside, that spark was lit again.

But it's a process, you know, you go through a process. You can't just expect to just jump back in there and be like, yeah, I'm back. This is it. I'm ready to go. But, you know, I lost that fight. But a lot of things that I take away from that fight was during a training camp, my mentality, my pride. my process of going through training camps and being completely dedicated to the training camp,

being locked in, finding balance between me, being a husband and a father, and being a fighter. I had that. I felt that. I felt really good with that. But, you know,

you miss a couple steps here and there, you just keep building on it. So I feel as though with going into the PFL, you know, I'm going to continue to take these steps and I have a lot of time in between now and the actual first fight at a tournament to continue to build on those things.

And I'll do that. And, you know, I've sat down with my wife and my coaches. And we've all had very, very open and honest conversations about where I've been mentally and where I've been emotionally and where I need to be and what I need to do. And we've all come to a very good understanding of where I need to go. When you fought Nick Lentz and you walked out of the cage, was there any thought in your mind that said maybe this is the last time in the UFC? like did that even cross your mind once?

Yeah, yeah, I did because I'm, the one thing that I try my best to do is recognize that this is a business. The UFC is a well-oiled machine. It doesn't, like you said before, it doesn't take very much for the UFC to cut me and keep moving, you know, so I had to keep that in mind. I'm one in three. My fight against Ross Pearson wasn't the most spectacular performance I ever put on in my life. So you win that one and it was like, yeah, whatever. you go loose through in a row, you know that you recognize what type of business the UFC is. And, you know, you recognize that, hey, I might be on a cut list.

And you have to be okay with that. You have to respect that and understand that, you know, we're just, we're cogs in the machine, you know. And they're really good at taking one piece out and putting another piece in. And, you know, the guys that are really heartbroken and emotionally invested in it, when they get released and they get pulled out of it, they don't know how to bounce back because they didn't recognize that we're replaceable pieces. So if you can get comfortable with that I did, it's a lot easier, you know?

I know you said you don't have regrets about the run in the UFC, but towards the end, as you said, one and three, did you ever think, man, maybe I shouldn't have left Belator? Maybe it was just working for me there. Maybe this wasn't the right move. Did you ever think about that? Do you regret leaving Belator? No, man, I can't.

night, the biggest thing for me is everything that I do in my life, I'm doing because I'm trying to learn lessons. So when my daughter is of age, when she's at an age where she needs to make decisions in her life, or my son is at an age where he needs to make decisions in his life, I can't teach them to go after whatever goal they've set for themselves and never have done it myself. You know, I can't tell them to go without fear and to trust that everything is going to work out and trust that God is going to be there for you. believe these things if I've never tried it myself, if I never put myself out there and risked it myself. So I don't look back on it. I don't regret anything. I saw an opportunity

to go after a goal that I set for myself and I went for it. Did it work out the way I would like it to have worked out the first time around? No, but the UFC ain't going, the UFC ain't going nowhere. You know what I mean? Like they ain't going nowhere. So why why be like, oh my God, is overweight. Oh, no. Look at guys like Robbie Lawler and look what he's done. He stepped away from the UFC and taken a few losses and went on and went through his journey and came back evolved and became a champion in the UFC, you know? So there's a great amount of examples that can show people that just because you see the ending does not mean that that's the ending. That's the end of that chapter. It's not the ending of the book, you know?

So you are hopeful that you'll return. You do want to return to the UFC at some point? I mean, I'm not hopeful. I mean, if that's something that my Lord and my Savior decides that he wants to put in my life, when that time comes, I'll address that. But right now, Will Brooks, I'm 100% focused on being the most professional athlete, fighter, like, contractor that I could possibly be for the PFL, you know? That's what my focus is. Whatever happens in the future, I can't read. I, I can't. I can't tell that, but for the next two years, working with the PFL, I'm going to give them 180% of everything I've got to make sure that, you know, I go through this rebranding stage that I'm going through this rebirth of myself and helped them go through their rebranding and their rebirth and just do my best to be there as a professional. Upon leaving the UFC, did you talk to any other organizations or was it just the PFL? My manager searched around for other things.

There was other opportunities that were presented, you know, but they weren't a million-dollar opportunities, you know what I mean? Like, how can you turn down that opportunity, you know? Like, granted, it's not a guarantee you still have to go out there and compete, you know, and get out there and win and go through the tournament process. But look, man, like, let's say I want to stay with the UFC. And there was a possibility I could have did that, you know, somebody would get hurt and I get plugged in. and, you know, you keep it moving. But at the same time, it's like, well, when's the next time I have an opportunity

to fight for a million dollars, like within a year? You know what I'm saying? So we just started fate, like looking at things and saying, and man, my main goal is to take care of my wife and my daughter and my son that's on the way and to do that by any means necessary. And we were just like, yo, if we go out here to rip off a few wins and win a million dollars, I ain't worried about nothing, you know what I'm saying? Right.

Two years in a row? Do it two years in a row. You know what I'm saying? You still got to pay taxes, gym fees, matter fees. I pay those things and I'd be okay. But, you know, so I'm not tripping about nothing, you know? How many fights do you have to win to win the million dollars? It's, you got three fights.

So it's two, from what I'm understanding, and I'm a pretty simple, dude, I just show when people tell me to fight, it's time to fight, and I'm going to get ready to go fight. But from the way it breaks down, and it's down. is though you get one fight regularly season, one fight in the playoffs, and then you have one fight in the final, the finale, or whatever, and so three fights to win a million dollars.

Do you have any doubts that this organization doesn't actually become a thing? I mean, they were supposed to start in January. It's been delayed now until June. They just announced, you know, part of it. But is there any doubts? You know, it's always, it's always different when you're starting. And you call it a rebirth,

and I get what you're saying with the W. but essentially this is a new organization, right? Some other familiar faces, but with new backing, new ownership, any doubts that this doesn't actually come to fruition? I mean, sure, you can go that route, but if I spend, if we spend most of our time weren't about doubts and we'll get nowhere, you know what I mean? They did a great job with going back, going back to the drawing boards, bringing in people that will help them, you know, kind of get things on a better track than what they did

in the past. I think they got a great group of guys that they put together to keep this thing going. Do I know if it's going to go four or five years, seven years, whatever it is? I don't know, but, you know, I'm mainly focused on this year and next year, you know, so, but look, straight up, honestly, if I mess around and it all over if it works out and I rip off a million dollars this year, then, yo, like, I got money in my bank account. I'm going to be okay. Like, whatever happens next is that's, I can't control. what they do. You know, I can't control if whoever's put money into it, if they decide to step away. I can't control any of that. All I can control is whatever my guy puts in front of me

and he's put this opportunity in front of me and I want to go after it. Not many people get to sit down and be like, hey, we're most likely going to release you, but we're going to give you opportunity to go look for another job while we look, you know what I mean? Like, not many people get to leave a job and go right into a job, you know what I mean? So, you know, We'll see what happens. But my main focus is take care of my wife and my daughter and my son by any means necessary. Either that's with the UFC, PFL, Bellator, Risen, wherever it's at, I'm going to get it done. Do you know when your debut is going to be?

What the date is for the debut? I think it's in June. June 7th is the featherweight. The featherweight and heavyweights, I believe, stars. And then June 21st is lightweight. and welterweight and then uh july's the heavier weights or whatever it is but i believe june 1st is is when the light weights are supposed to start and and do you know who your first opponent will be i don't i believe uh from what i've heard i believe the pfl is going to make their announcements of

brackets and roster announcements all things all those things uh next month okay um two last quick things for you I have noticed, and I don't know if this is a change, but I just wanted to ask you about it. I always find this interesting. It seems just even from your answers and from your social media that you've become more religious. I notice you mentioned, has something changed to where you feel strongly about faith? Or maybe you've always been this way, and I'm just noticing it now? No, I've always been pretty religious. I've just never been very open about it, you know, just because my...

my own stubbornness, my own pride, my own, I think I'm a very self-confident guy, you know, and everything that has ever happened in my life, I've always kind of taken credit for it. But there's times where you go through life and you are, for me, over this last year, year and a half, I have been a little down, a little upset, a little embarrassed and unsure and filled with a little bit of fear and questioning things and all I've done is step back and I start saying, man, you know what? If I don't have the answers, then maybe I need to step back and seek out these answers somewhere else. And for me, that was going to church, going back to church and finding my faith and building a relationship with God and just kind of saying, you know what, man, I clearly haven't come up with the answers

for myself. I'm going to give over control to you and just trust that you got me, you know? and I've every step that I've done that this past year, year and a half, I've only received blessings. It may not be these big, huge things, but there's been small blessings here, small blessings there, and they all been adding up, and I see it just things happening in my life, the more that I trust that my God is there, and the more I continue to try to build my faith and build my religion, and where I'm at in my religious, journey, you know, and as I've done that, it's helped a lot of things in my family with me and my wife, things that, you know, the way I approach things going to the gym, the way I approach other people. It's just helped me with some things that I've gone through. And where I'm at right

now in my life, I've just recognized that every time I've given up and I've asked them for help, blessings have come to me, just like this PFL situation. So I want to continue to be open and honest about my faith and I want to continue to grow in my faith and my relationship with God and my journey. I feel like the tournament

is tailor made for someone like you. Wrestlers tend to not take as much damage than a sort of brawler. Do you feel like this is a perfect I know they were talking to someone named Chris Wade

a former UFC fighter and I also feel he's a free agent I was like oh that's the perfect place for him because he can run through the tournament be dominant win fights. I'm not saying be boring, but just not, the point of this is not take damage, keep going and, you know, end up with the money. Do you feel the same way? Do you feel like this is perfect for someone with your fighting style? Yeah, because I, and that was part of the reason why we,

like, when I signed with the PFL, it wasn't like, oh, they threw us an offer. All right, sign the papers right now, let's just go. You know, it was a lot of things that was taken into consideration. And for me, I went back and I thought about it. It was like, man, I did pretty well and it was Belichord tournaments, and I just looked at some of the strategies that we put together. And one of the things I recognize is I'm really good at being, like, consistently go, go, go, go, just because my wrestling background and my wrestling attitude.

So when I was able to have a fight this month and then fight again, my body just felt like a rhythm, you know, like, like J.R. Smith, like a rhythm shooter, you know what I mean? Like you catch and shoot, catch and shoot, catch and shoot, you know. know, but if you expect me to catch and dribble, dribble, dribble, there's a good chance I might miss that shot, you know what I mean? So, like, this is just one of those opportunities to get back to, like, just rhythm, just catching shoot, just catching going. I was like, man, this might actually be a really good opportunity for the type of fight I am and my style of competing. And, you know,

again, the prize ain't bad either, you know what I mean? As always, Will, I appreciate your candor. Thank you for coming on it and talking about, you know, the UFC run. I wish you the best with the PFL and also early congratulations you and your wife on the the impending arrival of your son. That's great news. I know how much you love being a dad and I see that on social media. So congrats on that. Congrats on everything and best of luck to you. Looking forward to seeing how you do. Hey, can I plug one thing really quick? Plug away. Me and a really good mind, Anthony Caprile, is we're actually working on a nonprofit. We're actually in the process of putting things together.

It's called one for all or all for one. He's a barber that works here in Coconut Creek at sideline barbershop. One of our goals is that we're just going to be traveling around to countries that are unfortunate areas, like the different areas that are stricken with poverty and things of necessity that they cannot get to. What we're going to do is we're going to be going to these different areas. cutting hair and bringing toothbrushes, clothing, food, different things like that. And we're actually in a process of putting these things in place where we'll be able to bring in other barbers and we'll put together a group of barbers that will be able to go to

different areas and teach people how to cut hair so then those people can, you know, help themselves and you open up little shops themselves and feed their families with a skill that we've brought to with them. And we'll continue to do that and we'll try to build on that. And this is just a quick little summary of it. We haven't really really, really nailed down exactly how we're going to go through this process. But I would love for people to keep their eyes out on that. Again, it's one for all and all for one. It's a nonprofit with me and my friend Anthony,

and we're going to be pushing that forward here soon. That is awesome. Well done. Good luck with that. I look forward to seeing how that goes. And yeah, I appreciate you putting that out there. All the best to you, Will. We'll talk to you soon.

Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Take care. All right, there he is. Will Brooks, newest member of the Pro Fighters League. Okay, let us move along now. and say hello to our next guest. He is the reigning defending UFC Bantamway champion.

He is also a proud new father himself. Let us say hello to T.J. Dilsha, who is standing by. T.J. are you there? Yes, I am. How's it going, man? Doing great. Thank you very much for the time, and I appreciate your patience. By the way, congratulations to you and your wife. What is fatherhood like? It's awesome, man. There's nothing better.

It's busy, though. I mean, you don't get much sleep at first. a ton of work, but it's the greatest feeling ever. Do you feel different? Do you feel like a different person now that you're an actual dad, that you can actually hold your child? Does it feel like something has changed? No, I wouldn't say a different person. Just really happy inside. You know, it's something that me, my wife has been wanting now for the last couple years. And for it just to happen, to see it all kind of unfold. It's just been amazing, you know?

Okay. Well, I wish you guys the best. It is the greatest thing in the world. I'm very happy to hear that everything is going well. You were in the news not that long ago. The UFC was in need of a main event for UFC 222, and they call upon you, and they don't ask you to fight Demetrius Johnson. They asked you to fight Cody Garbrand, who you just beat back in November. Could you tell us how that all went down? Did you get the call? What was the pitch?

How did it all unfold? Yeah, yeah, I got a call. I think it was like a day more than four weeks out. just called and they didn't tell me exactly why they wanted me on the card but they were saying and I kind of put two and two together and then eventually came out on max haul they got hurt but yeah man it was just kind of wanted me to save the card and unfortunately I wasn't able to you know I'm dealing with some injuries that I was trying to keep quiet but you know they kept hammering out my hammering on me to take this fight but just wasn't healthy you know

not only to take a fight on four weeks notice but also being injured and having been training and then having the kid put a wrench in the whole thing too, you know? So I hadn't been in the gym and dealing with some injuries that I've been, like I said, trying to keep quiet. Did you even consider it, or was it a no-brainer considering all the things you just mentioned, the injury and becoming a dad? Was it just like an immediate no? Yeah, it was a no-brainer, man. I mean, they kept trying to ask me to do it, but yeah, I was a no-brainer. I just knew it wasn't the time, you know?

How did they take it when you said no? I don't know I don't know I just want to keep asking me not really sure not really sure how they took it because they continued to keep asking me like I was like not fighting

for whatever reason I'm not sure they thought it was like maybe I'm holding back for for more money or whatever it was but it was just coming down to not being healthy Did they even try to see? Obviously I was I was voiced just about like Cody not deserving the shot whatsoever

You know that's another thing You know he's not going to let this guy talk his way into a short-notice fight, let alone me being, I mean, most important, they came down to me being injured, but as well as the guy doesn't deserve it. Did they try to sweet in the pot at all by, you know, offering you more to take the fight?

Not really. No. You know, I mean, obviously I was injured to why I wasn't going to take it, but everyone's got a, everyone's got a breaking point of what it takes to get you to do it, non-healthy and non-trained, but, no, I didn't reach anything like that.

Okay. And were you at all surprised? Maybe not so much about the short notice, but it seemed like everyone in the UFC was on board with the idea of having you fight T.J. Dillshaw. And now here's this idea to fight Cody Garbrand again. Were you surprised by the offer? Not T.J. Dillshaw. Excuse me. Yeah, yeah. Johnson. My bad. Mietjeet Johnson. My fault.

Yeah, I was definitely surprised by it, big time. You know, this is a guy I put in the past, you know. The guy that I went and knocked out in a title fight, didn't. I think he's working his way back. But yeah, I mean, there's still talk of me and Demetius Johnson. There's something to save the show. Okay. So now that it's not happening in March,

is the Cody idea off the table and we're back to Demetrius? Yeah, I mean, that's my goal. I haven't really heard much in the sense of that. They're just telling me to get healthy. So obviously, I've been doing some physical therapy and working on getting healthy and staying ready. and staying ready. And yeah, and continuing to watch my body calm, you know,

staying low if this thing really happens. I mean, they know I want it. Demetius wants it, you know, talking about how he wants it on a big card. It's perfectly a big card for it now coming up in July. You know, they got Stipe and Cormei, so all the stars seem to be aligning. It's just all about getting it done now. How far, because I know DJ said recently, like the negotiations had just started, from your perspective, how far along?

are the talks of this fight happening? You know, it's on my end of it, it's just kind of waiting until they finish up their deal, I guess. You know, I really, I'm just kind of staying focused and being a dad. I mean, obviously, they know what's the fight I want. I've heard that they're interested in it.

I think they're dealing with Demetrius and his management. So we'll see what happens from all that. So from your perspective, there's no negotiations to be had. It's just like, okay, the fight is happening and you're in. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's pretty good. That's music to the UFC's years. If you don't mind me asking, like, do you feel, if the fight is in July, we're still, you know, what, four months, no, five months away, a little less than five months. How do you feel about the cut? Like, how much do you weigh and how, how daunting of a task do you think this will be? Because at 135, you're completely shredded. How do you feel about that cut? I feel good about it The reason why I'm so Shared at 35 is because I'm a professional

athlete I do everything in correct ways I put weight on to lose it You know so I'll do the exact same thing here I will just train my body differently You know I'm already doing that So not going too crazy Because nothing's official and I don't want to get myself too low And have to worry about coming back up

But you know I'm normally waking up at 154 pounds In the morning when I'm fighting 135 But as of now I'm waking up at 147 you know I'm lean and in shape just dealing with like I said like some injuries but other than that I feel great about it you know I mean it's uh it's something that I was able when I was told the first time I was finding a muterus like I said I was waking up at 140 pounds you know that's only it's only a little cut for me so I'm I'm feeling real great about it I'm telling I'm a small 35 rise is and so I don't I don't cut much weight to make 35 that put like I said I've put the weight on to cut it

So it's something I'm excited to do. You're excited to see transformation. What it really comes down to is that I believe I'm the best time for a fighter in the world. And to do that, you need to beat the best, and I can make his weight class, which will prove that I'm the best fighter in the world. I know I'm skipping over a few things here,

but have you thought, like, if you get this fight and win this fight, what will you do? Is your plan to just fight at 125 and 135? Yeah, man, if I can do it, absolutely. You know what I mean? If they'll let me do it. I'd like to be active. As long as I'm healthy and ready to go, I mean, I want to pop back right away.

I see that I win this belt to get my 35-pound bell and get right back to work. I mean, I come off and I become the number one-pound-pound-firing world double champion. I mean, I got a lot to pay off with with that, you know? Right, right. Could you tell us what that day was like when this news came out, and then all of a sudden there's all this like hysteria about you and Cody and things like that? And it's almost like there's pressure being put on you to save the day because there's nothing else going on.

in the end they found another fight cyborg versus Kunitskaya but like what is it like being in the midst of that storm when now the media has gotten hold of it and the fans are online and you and Cody are going back and forth for like those two days starting on that Saturday is it just kind of like

insane like what is it like just being the guy in the midst of all that saying no I don't want any part of this with pretty damn good reasons the ones you just mentioned and yet there's all this pressure coming at you from different directions Yeah, it's a little ridiculous, you know, something I already put in my past and something to have to continue to deal with, a guy that'll say or do whatever he can to get himself

back into a paddle shot he doesn't deserve. You know, it's a little frustrating to have that be the case, you know, but ultimately it just came down to the hold my guns because what I said was all truth, you know? So, I mean, it's a little frustrating, but easy to put behind you. you know, let him continue to talk, be myself. And the more he talks, the dumber he looks, and more people will continue to realize it. Was there any fear that if you said no to the fight,

you'd also be losing the Demetri's Johnson fight? No, I don't feel that at all. You know, I mean, Demetius Johnson, this would be a great fight for him as well, myself, as well as the UFC. I think it's a win-win for everyone. So, no, I don't see that at all. Okay. And do you feel like the, like, at this point,

you're not fighting Cody until he wins a couple more fights? Like you feel like there needs to be some distance between you two. You don't want to go through that all over again? No, it's not even about going about it. It's about just being a legitimate sport and doing it the right way. Tell me one other champion that never defended his belt, they got an immediate rematch. He never once ever defended his belt.

It wasn't like he was a long-reaning champion or that he got robbed or whatever. There's never ever been another champion that's done it. So why are we making this president for Cody to get a rematch when he's never defended his belt and then got knocked out. Like, how does that make sense whatsoever? So really, all I got to do is state the facts. I mean, this is a sport. Get back in line, you know?

I mean, it took me two years to get a title shot on a split decision loss to Dominic Cruz that the U.C. told me they thought I won. Took me two years to get back to that case. You know, like, I worked no way back. I'd be two number one contenders to get there. You know, it's a sport. You got to push hard, and you got to get after it. You know, you can't complain, can't be a sore loser

and all that should or could or would of stuff. So at this juncture, your UFC champion for what, it's been like three months. How does it compare to when you won at UFC 173? Like, does it feel different to say, do you feel like you appreciate it more because you did lose the belt afterwards

and you had to, you know, wait two years to get back? How could you compare the early stages of being a champ for the second time to when you won it the first time a few years back? Yeah, man, I guess the, I guess, the, I guess a lot more dramatic and happy the first time I won it, you know,

just because it was, you know, dream coming true, all this stuff. You know, now it's to the point to where I still believe I was a champion. You know, I was just proven to get it back. Still a great feeling. It'll never top the time I won the belt the first time, but I think I just have more knowledge, you know, more knowledge on the politics of the sport.

You know, when I won it the first time and I rematch Brawl in eight weeks after I beat him and then took a fight on 24 hours notice. I did a lot, you know, and now you kind of realize the hard work that got me here. I'm going to continue to play the games and know what it all means. I just become more of a season vet, you know? Right, right. Where is home for you right now, and where do you train out of?

Home is multiple places right now. So I live in Denver, Colorado, just built a beautiful house out there. But I also live in Orange. I'm in Orange County as of now out here setting up our own. gym. We have a gym called the training lab. It's a private gym down in Southern California for fighters and yeah,

I'm in the process of getting that all finished up and set that up before I jump into my next camp. So just got back down here and me and the wife drove the RV from Colorado with the dogs and the little one and drove back out of Southern California. You kind of get things situated.

So you will train out of this gym in Southern California? Yes, yes I will. So I have a new strength conditioning coach Sam Calavita that's been doing wonders with me. I've felt the best I've ever felt my last fight just with so much. I mean anywhere from the diet from the strength conditioning from the supplementation just everything I've never felt as good as I did for post-weight cut pre-weight cut the night of the fight and that was my first fight under him you know it was a very long camp with him but he's also the guys can be able to get me down the 125 pounds and doing it very

confidently and feeling the best I've ever felt doing it. So I'm down here with him. Mark Munoz is helping out being a wrestling coach who had Darrell Christian. Felipe de Monica is a judithu coach and then Duane as of last camp traveled back and forth so we're going to continue to do that during my

fight camp. So are you a part owner of this gym? Yeah. It's not a gym we're looking to make money off of. It's more of a gym to create a family atmosphere. Kind of create a team. thing. It's like I said, it's a private gym. We're not looking to open it up to the public and make a bunch of money off that we're looking to just set up an awesome training facility for, you know, guys that we want to train with and we can get better with. And make world

champions. Is it fair to say it's kind of like the boxing model where the training camp, if you will, is catered around you. It's not so much like you're a part of a team, but you just get the people around you that you need to get to get prepared for a fight? I guess in the early stages it is, but no, we want it to be to where it is a team, to where we're getting everyone ready, you know, that by me getting ready for my title fight, Juan, Chalette is also getting better and getting ready for his fight, Cub Swanson's there, we got a lot of guys down in the area that will continue to grow off and some up-and-comers that will get better from our camps. So now we want to be more of a team environment. You know, I guess my last camp was more

bringing the guys in that I needed because it was still the new stages of this gym. You know, but once we get situated and everything up and going, like, we want to practices that are happening every day, holding guys accountable for being there. Because when you're not in the gym, you're not getting better. I like to train you around and continue to get better. So finally, to recap,

you are still hopeful that the DJ fight is going to happen. You'd like for it to happen on the same card as the DC versus TEPA fight. Is that accurate in July, July 7th, to be exact? But as of right now, nothing's done. No, nothing's official.

You know, Demetri's had to get shoulder surgeries. so I'm sure they're probably waiting for him to get healthy. I had some injuries that I'm getting healthy from. The card makes sense. You know, they're already having a champers champ. I feel like it would be a sick card to put together as well as, like I said, Demetius came out and said that's the fight he wants next. Everyone knows that's the fight I want.

So, yeah, that's what I'm shooting for. I've got a lot of great things. No matter what happens, you know, it's a lot of great things coming. Awesome. Well, I wish you the best, TJ. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate the time. Good luck with everything going on in your life.

and of course good luck getting that fight. I mean, obviously a great one. If you make that way, what an amazing fight that would be. So I'm looking forward to that. Thank you. All the best, and we'll talk to you soon. Sounds good, man. Have a good day. All right, there he is.

T.J. Dillishaw stopping by. Great stuff from him. As you heard it right there, he is in talks. He doesn't really need to be in talks, which has to be music to the UFC's ears. The deal has to get done on uh demetrius johnson side and there are some negotiations he said recently that he would like or that it it kind of started but it's not you know i guess it's in the early stages uh but for tj

he's just waiting for the call so to speak yesterday in in uh austin hafell sunsau was a guest fighter for the ufc and it said that he's not really on board and of course he's he's not on board. He's a top contender. He's a guy who deserves to be in a big fight in the Bantamweight division. Unfortunately for him, he's in one of those spots where it's like there's just not a lot of momentum to see that fight again. His record as of late is phenomenal. He's looked very good, including getting a finish in his last fight and knock out in his last fight, but the problem is there's no momentum. And, you know, it's like one of those things. It's like something is worth, you know, like a house is worth only how much, you know, like the public

is willing to pay for it at the end of the day. And if there's no demand for it, I understand the UFC not going down that road. I understand him being frustrated with not getting the call or not being, you know, the one considered for that title fight. But at this juncture, I kind of feel like the fight to make is the Sunsout Garbrandt. And maybe that can serve as a number one contender fight while TJ goes after this DJ fight. DJ's in a position where there's just not much going on for my 125. So if there was

ever a time to do this, now would be the time. You can't say that there's no clear cut number one contender at 135 because I do believe there are at least one or two since I'll being the one. But I don't think that there's a lot of demand there. And the UFC is obviously in the business right now of trying to make these super

sexy super fights, if you will. So I wouldn't be surprised if they go back to that. But as I asked him, you know, Maybe they're upset that they didn't take the Garbrandt fight. They're going to punish them for. Who the hell knows? In the end, I feel like cooler heads will prevail here, and they'll make that fight. And I know there's been talks of a Sunsau fighting Garbrand.

That feels like a fight that makes sense. But you never know in the UFC. You can get that call and they ask you to fight on a month's notice and everything changes. So we'll see. Appreciate him stopping by, though. All right. One guest left today. And I'm very excited to talk to this man.

I do believe he has a lot to get off his chest. He was victorious on Friday. Mohegan Sun, second fight, the first round of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix. He avenged a loss that occurred back in December of 2012. He is one of the favorites to win the Heavyweight Grand Prix and eventually, of course, win the heavyweight title in Belator. He is the one and only Matt Matrione who is joining us via the Magical Skype. it has been a while since Matt Mitrione has joined us

via the magical Skype this is a big day if Mitrione is taking time out of his day to join us via Skype you know this is special am I right I feel like I need to have a minute

prepared like I've done us a long time it has yeah usually it's either phone or you're in studio can I ask you this were you honestly were you a little annoyed last week

that you waited that he took like you were like that was you were a little peved right no I didn't care man I got a nap. I didn't care. All right. All right. Fine. I felt really bad. I understand that when it comes to you, everybody else takes precedence over me.

So it's like, you know what? Wow. It's more the same, you know? I take this relationship granted. Is that what you're saying? That's exactly what it is. Okay. That's what it is.

Congratulations on the win. First things first. Are you happy with your performance? You got the W. We'll talk about it all. But just the entire body of work, are you pleased with it? I'm not pleased with the distance I kept when I got tired a lot sooner than I expected, which I'm surprised by. I was happy with my distance.

I was happy with my footwork when I wasn't when I wasn't gassed. I think I did a horrendous job at stopping the shots, which I really didn't. I only stopped like two out of nine probably. So I didn't do an incredibly good job there. take down the fence. I thought Roy was extremely strong and very good at staying as a bulldog trying to get in to get that take down.

I did a really good job there. You know, he changed levels as far as like, not like a drastic change of levels, but he's short, has short legs. So when he shoots in and if you're up against the wall, he does a really good job of coming in and your mid-quad level, which kind of like straightened my

legs out, got his arms real tight, squeeze his elbows in, And as soon as he squeezed him in, it was, it was, you know, good night Irene for me. I was going down. I was actually going to wrestle with Purdue today to start working on some things I did wrong. Oh, wow. But I decided that would take a couple of days off. It's going to hang out.

So you fought him back in 2012. A lot of time has passed, you know, a little over five years. Did this feel like a different fighter in there from the one you fought back then? I can't give you a really good answer on that. But what I can tell you is it felt like, My hands had magnets on them. They went straight to his face every time I threw him. Like, it felt like whatever I wanted to do.

And on top of this, like, like, I got, I've obviously got a pretty substantial ego, you know. So I got beaten by Roy via an uppercut in 2012. So I threw uppercuts straight to whoop his ass as a really passive aggressive F you to Roy. To be like, look, I'm going to beat you with what you beat me with. And I'm going to do it with more flash, more substance, and attack him. with it all day long. And that's what I was doing. The theme of the fight, at least for the first two rounds, you're controlling on the feet. He gets the late takedown, but doesn't do much with it. So I thought the first two rounds

were pretty easy to score. The third round, I thought he won, but the big question was, did he get a 10-8? Let me ask you, when you were down on the ground, when he had you in the crucifix, when he was raining punches, were you ever worried that the referee, Dan Merguilada was going to stop the fight. How close was it? No. No, it was not close at all. There was, you know, it's, there was, there was no, I understand I've got a black guy, right? Yeah. I get it. Um, but there was quite literally, there was no damage being done at all. And on top of that, like, like, for anybody who says, like, so I've got a beef with, with, with, with Roy during this fight. Um, and I think it's important to, hold on, Jonah's calling me. I had to pick him up. Hold on one second. No problem.

No problem. Jonah. I got you. I'll come by and pick it. up in just a minute, okay? My dude? All right, love you, buddy. Where is he? Where is he? Sorry about that. He's at Kuman. We do like a little, Kuman's like a Korean form of learning mathematics in a different fashion.

So we do Kuman with the kids to make sure that they're up to date with their math and ahead of their class. Wait a second. Is he alone, like unattended right now? I feel horrible about this. He's at the Kuman center right now. So he's okay. He's just chilling. Okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, all right.

All right. So, so, like, like, I don't remember where I was at what I was about to say. Oh, well, you say, okay, so I asked you how close it was up and you said, look, something about Roy, you know, you were about to say something about Roy and maybe how he handled the fight or how he, how he was during the fight. Okay. All right. So I was just going to start talking about the third, um, yeah, the third period or third, um, round. Yeah, round when I was on the ground, right? Yeah. So I have an escape out of the crucifix. So we knew. that if I got put in the crucifix, I was going to do this one move, which I did. So if you go into the video and watch the video that's on the internet or watch on YouTube, if you go into a minute and 54 seconds left in the third round, you're going to see me do a move that I do where I bring my left heel,

I bring it across his right calf, I squeeze my knees together, and if I bridged or twist my hips hard enough, it actually becomes a sweep, and I end up on top, and Roy loses his position. Well, when I reached my leg across, I didn't squeeze my knees hard enough, but it was enough for Roy to kind of feel that he was going to lose his balance if I did it again. So once he got out of it, which he did, and he maintained position, Roy then took his right big toe and lifted his foot off the ground and stuck it inside of the fence. And then for 45 seconds or 40 seconds or so, inside of that round, when he was on top of me, punching me or elbow on me, he was cheating. He had all this leverage because he was pushing off the fence, driving into me. And then for you to throw, for you as in, for Roy, to grandstand and be like, oh, I'm full of integrity.

I don't, I don't cheat. I don't do steroids or anything else. Blah, blah, blah. And then when the fight comes down to it, hey, it's my little girl, Gia. Oh, hello, Dia. And when the fight comes down to it to say, like, look, I'm like, I'm full of integrity, but you need to win because you lost the first two rounds. Then you start to cheat just so you can win.

That's garbage, man. You're a grandstanding dude with false integrity and I've got nothing for it. And if you guys think, like, I'm being a sore winner, just go back and watch the film. Like, look at it from a minute and 54 all the way down to 50 seconds, 44 seconds in the third round. You'll see that he's literally off the ground pushing on the fence with his big toe. And that's what I was talking to Dan Riggliata about. I said, Dan, he's got his toes in the fence because I couldn't hook his heel again. And then when I did, it didn't move anywhere.

So I was like, I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. So I told Dan, I was like, Dan, that he's hooked into the fence. fence right now. And Dan looked up and saw it and said, Roy, take your toes out of the fence. But then Dan got sidetracked, which I don't blame on you, I was getting elbowed in the face. But then Dan got sidetracked, didn't tell Roy about it again. And then the moment that Roy took his toe out of the fence because he tried to go for that little straight arm bar, but ooh, then he would try to go for that straight arm bar. That's when I walked up the wall because I could finally get leverage to walk off. And that's when I got up out of the crucifix.

So what I'm saying is for the time that he was supposedly winning that fight, for the second half of the third round, he was cheating. So I don't consider it at all. I think I smoked him unanimously, and I think he's a cheater. So I lost all respect for him, and I'm not going to be cool with Roy ever going forward to again. That's sideways and bogus. Did he accuse you of steroids afterwards?

What are you talking about? No, he's a dude who claims that he's full of integrity and everything else, right? Like, he's the hardworking belly rub, blue-collar guy. Blue-collar dudes don't cheat to get over on people. They're on his dudes, and they have full of integrity. So if you're going to be that guy, then be that guy all the time. If you're going to get your ass whooped, my fault, baby. If you're going to get whooped, get whipped with integrity and take your lumps like a man

and then shake his hand afterwards. When I went in, I'm not going to talk about what happened backstage. But I'm going to tell you, oh, boy's got issues. He's got character and quality issues. I don't like Roy Nelson. He's not my dude anymore. I have no plans to be cool with them. If you're going to cheat to try to beat me, you're a dirt bagging, and I got no respect for you.

So I lost all Jews for Roy. all of it. And especially the way he carried himself behind backstage, yeah, you're 86, dude, you're cut off. Okay, so let me ask, let me ask, can I ask Gia a question? Because she's joining you and she was a part of the story as well. Can I ask her a question? There she is. What a smile. What a beautiful smile. Did you see your dad's fight on Friday night?

Yeah. Did you see what he said, the first thing that he said on the microphone after the fight? Did you see that? Yeah. What was that like? What do you say? What do you say? Now your dad just won a very important fight.

He just beat a guy who beat him five years ago in front of millions of people in front of a sold-out crowd. And the first thing that comes to mind is asking you if you'll be his date to the daddy-daughter dance. When you heard that, how did that make you feel? Happy. Did you guys go to the dance together? Yeah. How was it? Great.

Tell them about the carriage ride we went on. The carriage ride was really cold. It was really cold. Did it pick you up from somewhere and take you to the dance? No. It picked us up at the dance and we took us around the block and then we went back in. And we waited for an hour and 20 minutes to go riding this horse carriage. Wow.

And it's just dads and daughters at this dance. That's it, brother. You weren't going to miss it for the world, Matt. No dice, buddy. There's no chance I would have missed that. What's it like going to that with a black eye? What are the other dad saying to you? Do they know who you are?

Are they all coming up to you and asking you questions? No, nobody really approached me. Nobody really said anything. But you know, it's really cool, man. Mama, can't tell them the story about the pictures? Yeah. So they had a picture booth there. They got a picture room where you walk in and get pictures.

And I said, hey, mama, I understand I have a black eye. and it doesn't look that good right now. So if you don't want to take, if you don't want to take pictures of me today, I understand. I have no problem with that. And she looked up at me, didn't say a word,

and she grabbed my hand, and she's like, Daddy, I'm proud of you. And she walked me into the room to go take pictures. That's amazing. You're going to make me cry here.

This is incredible stuff. This is my favorite stuff. It was cool, man. How do you, I'm just curious. Like, I'm blown away by this. You were just in a fight.

You're getting your head punched, you know, 15 minutes. How do you remember to say that right off the bat? adrenaline you know you're happy you're you're you're you're your your you're your your your your fire how do you remember to say that well you know it's um it's because that my my babies that's the they're the reason why i do what i do like they're the most important things in my life i mean you know what sucks is like i remember gea's i remember our date but i forgot to talk about jacob i missed i missed i miss a orchestra concert and a wrestling meet so like so i meant to be like hey jacob

i'm sorry i missed the orchestra concert but like let's go like you know, something and something, you know, it's, let's do something to kind of make up for it or whatever. And I forgot to say that. But I remembered about Gia's dance. Wow, that's amazing. You're a lucky girl, Gia. You know that, right?

You have a great dad. Yeah. I mean, sometimes he can get a little kooky, but overall he's pretty. You're in there, Daddy? It's great. Okay, great. Well, I love having your daughter. That was amazing.

It was making me tear up. But now we have to get back to the nitty-gritty here, Matt. What happened backstage? You can't just drop something like that on my show and not think that I'm going to come back, I was just buying my time. What happened? You know, I get it, man. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to air that dirt out because that's not my business.

Okay. But I will say that dude has some real character issues, man. Real character issues. Wow. Was he coming at you? Yeah. Really? No, no. No, he, no. I was doing things at the time.

So this is, all this stuff happened when I wasn't back there yet. And then me as, as an honorable man, right? Like, hey, I've made all kinds of dirtbag decisions in my life, and I've done all kinds of dumb things. And I own up to all of them. And when I went back there, knocked on his door was closed, I went back there and knocked on the door to tell him, hey, look, man, like, hey, good fight, it's a tough fight.

I always do that. Whether I win or lose, I always go by there and try to be cool because most everybody's pretty cool. Yeah. That fights. And his response was sideways. The other people in the room's response were sideways, and you know who's always around him and backstage.

Um, so it was all, it was sideways, man. It was just bad business and sullen and pouty and I was like, dude. And then I find out the madness that happened back there or whatever else that, I was like, dude, it's sideways, man. Get on, get on, get on before you get spit on, dude. Not anybody's time. So why on Instagram I saw you gave him props? And this was obviously after the fact.

Why did you do that? Because it was a great fight. Like I said he was a, he was a great competitor. He was. And I can't take that away from whether I don't like him as a character. or quality of a person, that has nothing to do with how hard the dude fights. A dude is incredibly tough.

He's resilient. I'm telling you this, dude, the angles I punched him and how hard they hit him and the locations on his face and head, dude, the fact he didn't get knocked out and just kept coming forward to shocking. And he's insanely tough. And he's durable and he's a really good fighter.

And so I can't take that away from him. What are they saying to you before they read the judge's scorecards because they have you on the stools just in case it's a 10-8 and you have to go to sudden death what are they saying to you and are you thinking like how is this possible? How are we in this position? This is not a 10-8 what's going on?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was like there's no way man that's not a 10-8. I didn't get opened up. I won the first half of the third round. So that's what I was thinking but like mentally I had to prepare to go back out and start scrapping again. And Stitch was great.

dude. So I bring Rudy Hernandez in to wrap my hands. He's the best hand rapper in the game in my opinion. And I think he's absolutely spectacular. He's an incredibly solid cut man as well. But Bellator via the commission, Rudy couldn't wrap my hand or couldn't

be my cut guy. So we had Stitch. And dude Stitch did a great job, man. He was fantastic. He was talking. He was like, look, you need to gain your breath right now. Recovery. He's like because there's a chance that's going to go four rounds. I'm going to treat it as if it is. Was putting the inswell on my eye, was doing everything he had to do. But in my head, I was like, you know, I'm prepared to go back out there and touch them up again if I need to.

But I didn't think it was going to go that way. Okay. Can I ask you, Matt? It's not a question. Why? And then I'll let you go in two minutes, I promise. Your hands are down a lot in the fight. It makes me nervous as a viewer.

Yeah. Should your hands be higher up? Well, I mean, sure. If you're going to, like, go, yes, they started out higher, right? My hands was here, starting out. and then when I got tired and went down. But also, this is the beginning of a death spiral. I get that.

But I did not feel any threat of any danger from Roy standing up at all. Okay. Everything he did was in slow motion. It was like a weak vacation for him to get there. I mean, it was just, it took so long for everything to happen. I felt really safe. Plus my distance, I felt like Roy couldn't do anything to me anyway, standing up. So I just, I had a, but I understand that's, that's, that's,

that's when bad things happen, especially in our sport. So it's a bad habit that I have to break, especially against a guy. Like, I think Bader's going to beat Mo. So against a guy like Bader, I have to be really careful because he's explosive as well, and he's a really powerful wrestler. So I need to work on that for sure. I also need to stop doing wall defense and take down defense up against a wall instead of a fence. I think that showed me that I made a huge error in judgment there.

I was not prepared for the give of the fence. and Roy did a fantastic job of keeping pressure, driving his legs, staying strong and earning his takedowns. So I think there's some things I have to make adjustments to. How do you improve the cardio? You know, that's a good question. I leave it up to my strength conditioning coach Reno

because I'm normally in really good shape. I normally don't have an issue. And I've gone three rounds before and I've never really been that gas. I don't know if it's, you know, I don't know what the hell went on. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't have a good answer for that.

But it will be adjusted and I'll do better. What do you say to people who say, oh, he couldn't stop Roy's take downs. Good luck against Ryan Bader. How are you going to fix that? I said, that's a damn good point. Okay. Roy did a good job. He was persistent and stayed on him and fought his ass out for him.

Sorry, Mama. So I can't swear in the house. So you're in trouble for that. So that's a really solid perspective. And I think that it's valid. It holds water. So it's something I need to adjust. My wrestling coach,

Coach Erickson and Coach Tyrol Todd from Purdue and Jake Avon and Sean Streck and the 205er, or the 200 pounder, 197 pounder that's at Purdue now. And what I can't believe I can't remember his name right now. But Braden Atwood, they're all going to come back and they're going to help me and we're going to work on it. Like I will be prepared for Ryan Bader Because like I said, I think Bader's gonna be Mo. But even if it's Mo, I'll be prepared for Mo.

Sure. Like, but I will be prepared for it. Last thing, a very entertaining fight I thought. It was fun to watch. It was compelling, especially with the ending. You go 15 minutes against, you know, a heavy hitter, a guy who is very hard to finish. And you dominate him for, you know, two rounds plus.

And then you're announced as the winner. You avenge a loss. You're moving on. and you're showered with booze. What is that like? I don't care, man. I really don't. Like, I care that my family and my kids are proud of me.

And as cliche as that sounds, but I think you know me well enough, I'd tell you this. Yeah. I don't care. Like, I'm disliked for whatever reason, whether it's my personality, they don't like my answers, my intellect, just my arrogance.

They don't like me from the ultimate fighter. A lot of people still don't like me from there. whatever it is. That's your issue, not mine. I'm cool. I'm comfortable, and I'm a great, I'm a developing person and a really damn good dad. So I'm not worried about how you feel about me.

I can only be me. And if you don't like me, then get them before you get spit on. I'll chill with the people that like me. And even if it's, if there's 10 people out of 1,000, I'll chill with those 10 people and have a damn good time doing it. It drives me nuts. It drives me nuts to hear that. I mean, I guess maybe they're upset that it didn't go another round.

They wanted more, but like, none of you deserve that. that's a big pet peeve. I will say when I reach out, you're always very quick to respond to me, and I always appreciate that. But yesterday when I reached out to have you on, it was a little bit like short. And then I come to find out that you were told

that I didn't like the fight and that I scored it against you. Who's spreading rumors about me at Bellator? I have to ask you about this. No, actually, you know what? I was just trolling you. Oh, my gosh. Oh, by the way,

the best accountant in the game, Brad Smuckler, formerly of the UFC, says hello. I love Brad. This is a shameless plug for Brad because he's a great dude. I'm telling you this. If any fighters in the game have issues with their taxes,

this dude is phenomenal. And a lot of fighters screw up with taxes and have a lot of stuff going on. Give Brad Smuggler a shout. The dude is phenomenal. He saved myself and a bunch of other dudes, a bunch of back-tax stuff that wasn't even owed. It was just paper shuffles that got lost.

And he does this crazy forensic accounting, and he's very fair on prices. I think he can save a lot of trouble and a lot of money for a lot of fighters that don't necessarily know what they're doing. That's a great. Is he with Beltor now? No, he's on his own, man.

Like, Mr. Smuck was a great dude. And like, I'm telling you, brother. How do people reach out to him? Oh, I don't know, man. I don't know. Like, I think it's, I don't want to give out all this personal information. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Email me. Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter. Okay, okay. It's at Matt Mitreone. And if you want, hit you up that way. And then you guys can sync up to him or ask your management for him. But I'm telling you, the dude is phenomenal. For an athlete's accounting, he is spectacular. And I pay him.

I'm not getting doing this for free. Sure, sure, sure. I pay him when I'm talking about him that well. No, that is great to hear that he's still around and thriving because he was a big part of the UFC. He was unfortunately let go as a result of the cuts when the new ownership. But I've seen him many times backstage with the checks, always professional, always highly spoken about like you just did. So that is very cool. And I'm happy to hear he's doing well.

You know who he, you know, so when I fought, when Chris Lytle and I fought in Indianapolis, I got the fight of the night award with Joey Beltran, right? Yeah, yeah. It was a $70,000 bonus. Well, Brad Smuggler screwed up and gave the $70,000 check to Chris Lytle and awarded him fight of the night because that's who he thought got it. Oh, no. So we gave Chris the $70,000 check.

And then the next day on Sunday had to be like, he had to call Chris and like, hey, Chris, that check isn't yours. I made a mistake. I need to check back. thankfully you guys are boys like it would have been really awkward if it was some random guy for certain man

for certain like McCorkel for submitting Mark Hunt something like that you hear from him by the way do you hear from him you know I do I talk to him once in a while

not as much as I used to but I still care for him a great deal he's a really solid dude and I think he's doing better I just I kind of get busy and I think he has a lot of things going on also

a lot of women he has to impress on the internet. Sure. All right. There's like a bat signal out there. Anytime you say his name, there's no doubt he heard about this and is going to text me

and tweet me and all that stuff. I'll let you go be a dad, Matt. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Great performance. I enjoyed it. Contrary to the trolling or whatever someone may have told you

if you're protecting them. I like the fight. I scored in favor of you. Do your thing, my man. And we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for the time. Thanks, buddy. Thanks a lot, man.

Always appreciate it. All right, there he is. Matt Matron. Joining us via Skype. How exciting is that? great to talk to him, great to talk to his daughter as well. And yes, I was so very impressed. These things impress me. You know, the guy finishes a fight. He's victorious. He avenges a loss, one that derailed his career, if you will. First thing he says on the mic, to his daughter,

will you be my date at the daddy daughter dance? And if you go on his Instagram, you can see that they did in fact go and they were dressed of. I mean, this stuff. I cannot wait for that. don't know if where I live and where my kids eventually will go to school, um, have daddy daughter dances. I don't know if this is a thing. I don't know, but I'd love,

I'd love to go to one. I really would. I would love nothing more. So that was really cool. And it was a great fight. I enjoyed it. And I agreed, uh,

with the judges. I had a 29 to 28 for Matt Mitrione. I thought he won the first two rounds. I thought, uh, obviously Roy took him down into the first, end of the second, uh,

didn't do much there. So I thought the first two rounds were very easy. to score. And then the third round was clearly Roy's, but I just didn't think it was a 10-8. So I thought it was rather elementary.

I thought it was 29, 28 for Matt Mitrione. And I think Bader or Moe versus Mitrione is a fun fight. I thought the booze were absolutely absurd. I'd like to think that they were upset that they just couldn't get one more round, a free round,

if you will. But the booze were just completely, I mean, it's just unnecessary. Just save that. Like, let the guy have his time on the mic and maybe you could boo after it. But the guy just want to fight. He just want to fight.

And it was a good fight. It was an entertaining fight. It wasn't a boring fight at all. Mohiguan Sun, the crowds are usually better. I was disappointed in that. Overall, it was kind of a mixed bag night for Bellator. I didn't think it was the right. I'm not a fan of the desk.

I've talked a lot about the pacing of these UFC shows that just seem to go on and on forever, and they're hard to watch. It's hard to keep. someone's attention if you want to watch seven hours. The desk is something that I don't, like, I'm a glazer fan. He was great to me.

We were colleagues. I just, there needs to be a better way. To me, it does not add anything. And you sign John McCarthy. John McCarthy should have been in the booth with Chale and Goldie. And Chale and Goldie have great chemistry. But to me, you get McCarthy in there for his exes and O's. McCarthy is not a promoter.

He's not a guy who's going to get you necessarily excited about a fight, but he's going to give you tremendous, insight. The guy has better insight than anyone. He's been involved in some of the biggest and most important fights in the history of the sport. And he's a forefather of the sport. I mean, he helped write the rules of this sport. Why do you have him at the desk breaking down fights and essentially in the role of like hype man to get us ready for the next fight? He should be in the booth talking about moments that, that, you know, no other person is more qualified to talk about than him. I thought that that was a misuse of his talents. And after his first two shows, I thought,

well, why put him at the desk? I just don't think that that's the right call. I really feel like they need to put him in the booth and he could be the yin to Chales, the fun guy, the goofy guy, but also the very smart guy. John is the straight man. And I really feel like they need to get him off the desk and always put him in there, especially when it's a three-man booth. Two men, okay, maybe it's a little different. Three-man, that's tailor-made for John McCarthy. It really is. what could be said about the Heather Hardy Anna Yulatan fight

It wasn't a good fight It's not a fight that should have been on TV I really think that Beltaire needs to They need to Figure out what they are When it comes to women's MMA I can't quite understand what they are Are they just random fights

Are they building to anything Is it just the Pretty Girl League? What is it? But Belator is better than that fight They have better fighters and more deserving fighters than those two. And this is, you know, Heather Hardy is a phenomenal human being and I'm a fan of her as a person

and I loved having her in studio and she has overcome so much. She is not a high-level mixed martial artist and the same can be said about Anna Yulitan even more so. Like this is not an experiment, we need to be better. This is a prelim fight. They have like six, seven, eight dark matches. This is not a fight that is,

worthy of being right beneath Derek Campos and Patricky Pitbull Matt Matrione, Ryan Bader, Matt Matrione, Roy Nelson, King, you know, like it's just not, they're not high-level fighters. These are fighters that you put on the undercard to sell tickets, to get people excited, to groom for the time that they will become.

But like, it, to me, it just looks poorly on the product when you're just trying to force-feed these fights that for whatever reason someone thought was a good idea to put on it. It just one of the worst fights I've ever seen. It really was. It was not a good fight. And, you know, I don't know if they would

admit that, but I think Beltor has passed that at this point. They have a solid enough roster. And they're doing a good job building young talent. The Ed Ruth's of the world, the Aaron Picos of the world, the A.J. McKees of the world, the James Galaher's of the world. These are all people who have been, you know, added in the new era. Tyrell

fortunes of the world, right? These are new era guys, the Coker era guys. And they're taking their time with a lot of them. Like some of those guys have fought on on dark match prelims, spike.com or whatever it is now. Why? These are prelim fighters, man. And there's a clear distinction at this point between main card fight.

It's not the UFC where like a top level guy, you know, a Ross Pearson is fighting on fight past prelims, so to speak. You know, like that's just an example that comes to mine. I know he was on a losing street, but you get my point. There's a clear distinction between prelim fighters and main card fighters in Bellator. That was a mistake. And, you know, I think that they would admit that at this point. So a mixed bag night, speedy Claxton, Air Claxton wins.

Great win for Patricie Pipple. We'll see what happens with his title aspirations. And then, of course, Matt Matrione was the big win over Roy Nelson. One last thing I want to say before we get to the after hour. I got this book today. It just arrived. Let's feature it right over there. It's called Train Like a Fighter.

And it is written by the one and only cats and guys. Katzengano. Look at that. You see it? Get MMA fit without taking a hit. And this is actually a really impressive... I don't know how much you can see, but look at this thing. It's a really impressive book.

It's probably what I thought the Iaquinta book right over there was going to be. But that's really just like a journal. This is, I mean... Let me see if I can give you some information here. I got this. I got this right before we started. So it goes on sale February 27th. I'm so excited to be on the brink of launching my debut book,

and I'm happy to offer you this advanced reader's copy so you can get a sneak peek at my workouts before the book goes on sale February 27th, which is next week. If you like what you see, I'd be thrilled if you would spread the word, and I'm doing so right now. So that's Train Like a Fighter. This book offers step-by-step instructions

for exercises that professional fighters use to prepare for competition. There's a lot more information. Is there a website? there's no website but you can get it wherever books are sold

and of course Katzenano returns to the Octagon on March 3rd UFC 222 against Caitlin Vieira so there you have it

I'm excited to have this and I appreciate her sending it out okay so it has been a fun day we've got some more show left Rick's picks answering your questions what we're going to do now

is say goodbye to YouTube Facebook, MMA fighting wherever else you've been watching this and we're going to go exclusively on Twitter. Live.com slash MMA Fighting.

You know the link. I've been tweeting it out. There it is in case you don't know. But if you've been watching this show for the last, I don't know, eight or so months, you know where to go at this point. We're going to do Rick's Picks first, and then we shall answer some of your questions, question of the day, all that good stuff and more. So right now go to live.

Twitter.com slash M.A Fight. We're going exclusively on Twitter, the MMA after hour. It starts right now. All right, MMA after hour time. time to let our hair down time to get freaky deaky no time to waste time now for everyone's favorite segment

and now it's time to open up your ears and your minds for rick's picks Rick's picks Rick's picks are lots of fun and his hair isn't a bun because it's you already know what it is Rick's pics

ladies and gentlemen boys and girls it's the moment you've all been waiting for it's the new craze taking the World by Storm. Live from the Vox Studios in beautiful New York City. It's time for Ricks Picks. What is that?

I didn't say a word. Did you notice that? I did. But what is the move on the end? I was building up to it, but you missed most of it. Is there a new addition to the Ricks Picks intro? I saw something from the corner of my eye. What do you mean? There was something that flew through the story.

screen. Can I see that again? What? That was incredible. Yes. Wow. Where did that come from? Never again.

That was phenomenal. Never again. We used that as a transition between every segment. My neck is killing today. You, I'm disgusted. After that dreadful, bare naked ladies. You know what you're opening yourself up to here. Oh.

Was that the worst rendition of the Star Spangled Banner? Combined the two anthems, this might have been the worst, like, sporting. Well, I didn't think Barney-A-Ladies was all that bad. It wasn't, but I think they botched like the... The wording? As I understand it, they've made the song gender neutral. Oh, yeah, but that's like a thing. That was a law that was passed.

But I think half of them got the memo on that and half of them did it. Oh, really? I miss that. But I was still, to be honest, I was so fired up from the intro with Kevin Hart. I thought it was one of the most. Save that. Save that. Save that.

Epic abominations in the history of sport, let alone the NBA. This is one of the worst things I've ever seen. And he offended me. It actually offended me. No, don't do this. My blood was boiling. Here are these individuals who have finally made it to the pinnacle. The NBA All-Star game.

Poor Janus Antitacompo can't even get his name pronounced correctly. you've got this guy, this comedian who if I'm honest, is not even that funny. Stop it. He's not even that funny. Come on. Oh, my God.

What information? The money speaks. What information does Kevin Hart have on someone at the NBA offices where they keep trotting him out every single R Star weekend? It's just enough is enough. And this guy's like, oh, Jimmy Butler,

he likes Tupperware. I mean, these were the worst jokes ever. If this is his... I liked when he said Draymond has a lot of teeth in his mouth. That was pretty funny. What was this? It was sophomoric. I thought of this.

but I was late on it but I wish I had fired it off because it would have been it would have been Moe Fuigo it was it was you know how he got denied from the dais at the Super Bowl

the security guards were letting him off I was going to say something to the effect of you know how come that security guard couldn't have stopped this train wreck preventing him from getting on the stage there but I thought of it too late and I didn't fire it off and I'm sure somebody

else thought of it anyway sort of like how I blew it Mr. Israel Adesania Fabio I blew that one Tough winner Yeah Elias Diador

Elias who we had on Like an hour earlier I mean Like 30 minutes Can't win them all You can't win them all That's who he's talking about right Yeah

How do you feel about that? I think they'd both Be into that one You think so? What? Who do you think would not be into that one? I don't know Well obviously Elias

would be the one I would question Not because of him But just because Stylebenders Israel's fresh on the scene Yeah yeah yeah I think I think I'll say this.

People have to. People have to. What am I saying like that? People. I think a fighter should consider what does more for them a win over somebody who's known or a win over somebody who has a higher ranking. And I think sometimes those things are, sometimes those things line up together. But in this case, I think a win over Israel means something. With the level of fanfare and the level of attention that he's bringing,

it's the same reason people call out Connor McGregor versus even a champion at certain points if I was a fighter in the middleweight division I would be after Israel Adasanya I would want to get in early on that I haven't seen a lot of people call them out well if you've seen a striking I don't think you probably should be calling them out

and of course at 1230 our own Guillermo Cruz reports that Siza Ferreira has a fight against Carl Roberts and I was thinking of like a good looking guy and a tough winner So yeah, I botched that one. It's okay. He didn't even know the name, you know? Maybe he did, though. Maybe that's part of the...

Part of the charm. Yeah, part of the appeal. Anyway, we'll talk about the NBA a little bit more later. Okay, okay, okay. It is time for everybody's favorite segment. Yes. Let's roll right into it.

Let us roll. So there's no other way we could start than this. Okay. We've got one, Nate Diaz, featured on the Fox Sports One broadcasts. Yes. Puffing on what you now know is a joint. Is it a joint?

It is a joint. What about that kid in the background with a smile on his face? And the, ooh, like you got in trouble in a class move. No one does more with less than Nate Diaz. I mean, how long was that? One, two, three, four, five. Less than ten seconds. Let's just call it.

And this is literally seconds after Derek Lewis talks about. Yeah, going long and deep. I mean, it's just amazing how he's. He has, look at this guy. What a... I mean, I believe the kids call him G's. What a G. What a gangster.

I believe the kids call him. What a moment. I mean, it was just hilarious. The whole thing was just hilarious. It was just hilarious. I can watch this on loop all day long. Yeah. It just steals the show.

Amazing. Now, a lot of people don't know it, and we talked about it last week. He was there to support his friend Yancey Maderos. Of course. He's not the kind of guy who just shows up to random U.S. No. He wants to watch some good fights, and he's there

supporting. So was it a joint or was it a blunt? It is a joint. Are you sure it wasn't an e-sig? Oh, boy. See, what you did at the top of the show, I'm sure your Twitter timeline is now filled with 700 more stoner. No, because you went into this whole thing at the top of the show.

What's a blunt? What's a joint? I'm not really sure. I know you don't know. But now you're inviting 700 more stoners to get on there and be like, oh, it's a joint because this wrapping and this, you know, he didn't get the cigar or this way. like you're welcoming this now by further exploring

just move on forget that you know they want to be right about whether it's a join a blunt an e-sig whatever and just enjoy the brilliance of Nate Diaz

if it was any of those things it's still beautiful and brilliant do you think the UFC was mad about this unless there's some kind of unless there's some kind of backlash no because everybody's talking about it oh my God

unless there was some kind of FCC thing or unless there was some kind of kind of fox thing. I can't imagine why you'd be mad. The world is talking about Nate Diaz again. The world is talking about a fighter who hasn't fought in quite a while.

Amazing. Like he, you remember, keeping himself relevant? Remember the Woodley thing that happened back in, like, November? Like, he didn't even have to address it, and he's all over the news.

Yeah. Here, he has to sit down for six seconds. Yep. And he's all over the news. He knows exactly what he's doing. Shout out to Nate Diaz. Okay.

We continue with more crowd highlights from, yesterday's event. While Valentina Shavchenko is being highlighted, you mentioned this moment, Leonard Garcia. Incredible. Working on a Rubik's cube there in the back.

Did you notice that? I did, yeah. Oh, my God. I don't know if a lot of people did, though, because it was hard to find screenshots or video of this. So shout out to Eric VT. Who had this one. But yeah, Leonard Garcia just getting down and dirty

with the Rubik's cube in the back there. Am I crazy or does it look like he's well on his way to figuring it out? It looks like he's pretty close. Now, we didn't see. see enough to know if he was sitting there spinning it, like those people who solve it in five seconds.

But maybe Leonard's got the juice. I believe that... And what is that Generation X? What are you talking about? Oh, on his shirt? Is that an Xbox thing? Maybe. It looks like an old Xbox logo, but maybe it's a gym thing. Who knows? Anyways, I believe that Leonard can figure that out easily. Of course, he was there to support

his good friend, Donald Tarone. Right? Yeah. Clearly paying a lot of attention to the night. What a great scene that was. And good to see Valentina getting, she lives nearby in Houston. So, made sense. Okay, here we go to a post.

This happened during the show, so I'm not sure if you saw this one. Yancey going a little bit into why he embraced Cowboy Soroni's grandmother. He says, it's a business of entertainment, but my professional will never dictate my personality, maybe my strength slash weakness.

I am who I am. Give a lot of love and respect. I won't change that. Saroni pointed at his grandmother. She was calling me over. I'm a family man. I admire family, even in war, still had to give my aloha, get better, never bitter, onto the next one. So it was a family thing.

No, listen, I don't want it to come across as me. Do you, Yancey, you're a wonderful human being. Like, I'm not criticizing him for this. I was just wondering, did he give him too much, you know, did he give him too much respect? And does that play into Sironi's hand? Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does. I feel like in this case it did. and I know that Dana White doesn't like that sort of thing

because he has said it before and I was just wondering what the backstory was and now we have the backstory. Now let me ask you this. Yes. Who does it benefit or detract from in terms of the psychological thing if he pretends that he doesn't like Saroni?

Does it make Saroni less sharp or Yancey on the contrary sharper? Well, I mean maybe it's a focus thing maybe it's you know Seroni is a guy who's talked about the mental side of the game

as I've said at the top maybe it keeps him on his toes it makes him more anxious he doesn't know where he stands a little bit I'm just saying am I wrong for saying that in the span of

what was that like a four minute fight or something like that am I wrong that there was a lot of pleasantries very reminiscent of Barry and Crocote

more so than usual right I'll say this I don't think that I think that it's easier to see when somebody's faking it and I think Yancey putting more mental energy into pretending that he doesn't or getting that kind of like

aggressive attitude and pretending like we're going to war and we're not friends until after this is almost more taxing than just being what it is and he seems to have an affinity for a cowboy. For my perspective I was like that was a winnable fight for Yancey Maderos and I just wondered

if he gave him a little too much respect It's fair. I mean, only Yancey knows that, but it is fair to race, for sure, because it seemed like... Because I remember Pat Barry talking about that. Yeah, the story of Fight Week was, at the end of it, was Yancy and Cowboy their bromance, and it continued on fighting. And I just wasn't aware that there was that kind of bromance. Sure. Okay. We switch to Bellator, where John Jones, not that John Jones, the other John Jones.

Oh, yes. The other John Jones. made an appearance at Bellator 194. He was featured in a lot of places. Here is him getting his hands wrapped from the Bellator account. Here is him with Scott Coker. The legendary John Jones sitting cage side

getting his hands wrapped. And here we see his hands wrapped. And then the man in the hat, Chuck Minchin Hall, running into John Jones at the Bellator fights, champion John Jones. I'm interested in the resulting conversation that happened there.

I'd like to see it, maybe a long form. This is so classic Belator right here. This is so classic Belator. Take a fun thing. Take a clever thing. Take a sort of viral thing, if you will, and then just beat it to death within the span of three hours. Now, I corrected my colleague, Mike Chippa, who wrote a great article on Saturday about just the state of Belator and the state of things.

He said that Belator flew him out. They did not fly him out. He lives in Brooklyn. This John Jones, right? And if anyone doesn't know, it's at John Jones, he gets a lot of tweets. He's a guy who was never an MMA fan, but then the fighter, John Jones kept messing up. He would get these tweets, and every time he would mess up, people would send the guy to tweet. So he became somewhat of like a cult hero, if you will, to MMA nerds like us, right?

Is that fair? And he's fun about it. He does fun interviews, skits, and things like that. And he seems like a guy with a great personality. And so for whatever reason, Bellator has this idea. to bring him out. And to me, this is one tweet. Wow, look at it.

John Jones is here. Or maybe a series of tweets where you don't reveal and then it's like a wink wink this John Jones. I tweeted about it. I was like, I can't believe he's here. And it got over 2000,

it got over like 2,000 retweets. I think last I checked on Friday night, like in the span of minutes because, you know, some people thought that it was the real John Jones, although I did put the winking emoji.

But then, you know, like the wrapping of the hand. And the code, like, now you're just ruining it. Now you're just ruining it. Just do it once, a tease, a reveal, and then just let it be. It's great. It's a nice little subtle marketing, you know, tune in. Like, okay, get, like, no bait and switch.

You know, no one likes that. But, like, it was too many tweets. It was too many tweets. It was like the fader sweater. That's fair. That's fair. I wouldn't put up too much fight on that. But if you have them there, I guess it almost feels like you're not using them

if you don't do more, you know what I mean? Like, you have them there. you thought this was the direction you needed to go, so you have to kind of figure out ways to utilize it. I get that, though. Utilize it. He's just like a fan. You know,

like his claim to fame is that he's got the same name as John Jones, and he had the Twitter handle first. Like, what do you utilize? This is not like a long build type of thing. You know, what? Like, this was one tweet. Beltor has like celebrities come to their shows that they don't even acknowledge them,

you know, on Twitter this many times. John Jones, he's power. in the MMA game. He's the best fighter of all time. And I know this will sound like I'm hating on the guy, but I'm not.

No, and it's not even about John Jones. I get it. You know, you're talking about the... There's a sort of nuance to it all,

you know what I mean? Like, you have to kind of get the way to do it. It's a little heavy-handed, but I thought it was fun and I thought it was a good idea. Maybe you're right, though. We could have reduced it to a few.

I mean, Chuck, not helping the cause, putting it all out there. Geez, Chuck. Okay. Seriously. Also from Bellator. You're going to break K-Faid, right?

This dude, getting into the froggy leap over here. What was up with this? You're telling me that this deserve to be on the prelims over Hardy Yulatan? Oh, boy. What? What? Anyway. I'm saying, I'm saying this was so bad, right?

No, no, no, I wasn't reacting to that. I was watching this over again. Oh, okay, okay. I mean, okay. Moving on. Shorty Torres Guest of the show last week competing at Titan

FC48 over the weekend and holding on to his title here with an incredible knockout seems like I mean he's been knocking on the door for a minute when is that door going to open you know we don't know but friend of the program

he just continues to get it done yeah I mean now he has he's a Chicago guy what more does he need to do he's a 125er who's finishing guys and they need obviously they always need new blood

at 125. He's got the champ champ thing going for him. He's on the UFC FightPass platform. Put him back on Fight Pass and Exactly. Chicago Boom. It's a no-brainer right? No-brainer. Congrats to Shorty. Okay. From LFA 33 on Friday

Kevin Worth with what many have deemed a sweet chin music tremendous I mean it's it is that if nothing else it is a sweet chin music

he didn't strike up the band exactly but see I dug into that wrestling knowledge congrats to Kevin what a kick and I mean I feel like his opponent

is done there but just finishing it off well done Kevin beautiful kick okay this one went bonkers last week Logan Nash

it happened last weekend but the video just came out this week Logan Nash doing the bat hang celebration I assume you saw this yes what do you grade this what do you think of that as a celebration it was okay that's it

I love this I mean it's innovative we have so few new celebrations oh look at that I'm just re-watched I mean, yeah, it's cool, it's cool. It's cool. What do you want me to do? I don't know.

What do you want me to do? I thought you'd be more excited. I was excited. What was so exciting about it? Because it was new. All right. Okay. Moving on to a moiety fight.

This one, I have the details on. This is from earlier in the month, but again, like the bat hang, the video surface this week, Robbie Drought competing at Siam Warrior Superfights. Irish Muay event pulling off essentially an Enzeguri

I think we can call it getting his leg grabbed and then finishing it off as he gets swept boom

and apparently this wasn't a knockout meaning this this fighter got up but then was TKOed later

but this was not a knockout blow so credit to his opponent who took one flush and then

kept fighting but incredible kick and he gets the sports center rub. It gets the sports center rub. Robbie Drought, getting it done. Incredible.

I'm surprised this wasn't tweeted out by Chase Sherman first. He's all over these videos. This one took some time. Because as I said, it happened earlier in the month. And then the video didn't surface. But a channel, Fight Story Media, did put this out this week. No one jumps on these kind of videos more than Chase Sherman. Look, I mean.

That tweet or extraordinary. Get those clicks, get those views. Okay. Marcine held. Yes. Also competing on the Fight Pass platform at Polaris Jiu-Jitsu event. Getting the tap here.

I like this. I like when the competitors are able to, sorry, the UFC competitors are able to compete a little bit outside of the MMA. I feel like Jiu-Jitsu obviously lends itself to that a little bit more than anything else. You know, there's a lot more risk there and potentially, a striking event, a kickboxing fight or a Muay Thai fight. It also helps that it's on fight pass, so there's... But yeah, there is

a synergy. Congrats to Marcine. Fantastic submission. Expect nothing less. Yeah. Okay. Now we go outside the cage to the Daytona 500 and one Tyron Woodley

Walterway champion running into another champion, Peyton Manning. I mean, look at how big he is. Also, look at his, like, the size of his melon. what a monstrous dome Wait, who are you talking about here? Payton? Peyton?

Okay, okay, okay. Why? Tyrant? No, I don't know. I don't know. Tyrant's perfectly proportional. How dare you? But not the only champion at the Daytona 500.

Yawanna champion also at the Daytona 500. Seems super excited about it. I feel like all these like, you know, first ever opportunities that she's getting, she documents them well. Here we go.

Now we go. the car with her. Now, does that not look as fast as you expected to look? Yeah, well, I'm assuming that that's super fast, but... Do you think she's driving it or is... No, no, no, no, no. Remember they did the segment on one of the Fox shows where they had Bisping and Tyrant in the cars? I don't think they'd let them get behind the wheel.

Fast car, hashtag awesome. No, it's... I mean, yeah, maybe it's... not as fast, but why should she go fast? Oh, she's talking to someone. Yeah, just talking to driving. Do you have any desire to do this?

I would love to do this. I would love to drive it, actually. Seems like a very foggy day in Daytona. Yeah. Could you imagine? I would love to get behind the wheel. Can you imagine like there's all those people there, so much pressure, geez.

Okay. Yes. Court McGee. Worth highlighting, I'm going to read the caption Here we see him receiving an award in a sling, healing up. Had an incredible experience today at the Utah State Capitol Building. The Utah State Legislature, sorry, awarded me a certificate of recognition, honoring me as a professional athlete and for my contribution to the youth of Utah in substance abuse awareness.

Big thanks to Senator Howard Stevenson and Representative Mark K. Roberts for presenting me with this award. So good guy, Court McGee, getting commended, recognized for. his contributions to the substance abuse awareness programs in Utah. Amazing guy. And a great honor. I was happy to see this. Yeah. Continuing to kind of push the sobriety message and help.

Is his arm in a sling? Yeah. Okay. Healing up. Kudos to him. Oh, why do you have to? No, we have to talk about this area. I thought it was just positive things on Rick's Pigs.

This is positive because we're going to wish him. We're going to wish him well. It hurts. It actually hurts. Just go ahead. Devin Powell. suffered an injury in training. We're going to read his message here.

Thanks to the fine ambulatory services in Wells. What is that? Maine? What is Emmy? Maine? Yeah? Okay, we'll go Maine. I'm checked into the hospital and ready for surgery. Shout out to Joe Lozahn. Or is it Massachusetts? Who knows? No, that's M.A.

Shout out to Joe Lozon. We've been practicing knees on the ground. He successfully ruptured my testicle with his sheer power. His opponent has no chance in April. now to get the blood clot blood clot drained and the goods repaired I waited a day and a half to be seen word for the wise if you hurt yourself

go get checked out and then he makes an appeal to Dana White and Sean Shelby about fighting on an upcoming UFC event in New York quite the comeback story share this and help me get the ball rolling on my next fight and follow my journey pun intended

Devin wishing you only well in recovery from how can a man be that happy right he's using it as an opportunity and I look at it I've been so much pain

would you not want to follow the behind the scenes like the countdown style story of him recovering from a ruptured testicle to fight in New York City pal you're a great guy you're amazing

I mean look at that smile but I can't take this story it makes me so uncomfortable when I was in when I was in Syracuse there was, I was in a class, I think it was ethics, journalism ethics. It was like my first semester there.

And they showed us a video. And I don't really remember what the point of the video. I think it was something about reporting. This is going somewhere great. I showed us a video about someone getting paralyzed. And I get very squeamish when it comes to these things. Of course, yes. And I started to get lightheaded.

I was like blacking out. I had to leave the class. and then I just started like openly weeping. I just couldn't control myself. And this reminded me of that. Like when I saw it. And this was just a written story? No, no.

We watched a video about it. It was just like it was too much. It was too much. And this is even worse. This is also incongruent. This is even worse. With knees, he's practicing knees. Can you imagine what the ruptured testicle?

Joe Lozahn. Joe Lozons got the knees. Avoid Joe Lozahn's knees. That's the lesson here that we've learned. Listen. More power. I wish we could all handle adversity like this man, all right? He is an inspiration to all men all across the world. Honestly, I'd like to have a picture of him on this wall just to remind us what, you know. What can happen? What overcoming? I know. I don't want this picture. I just want a picture of his face.

Because he's just, he's a hero. That being said, this story makes me uncomfortable. Get well soon, Dennis. Get well soon, my man. Very soon. Please. Please. Okay. John Jones returning to social media. what was this all about? Putting all haters on blast. Let me talk to my haters, blame my greatness on things you simply will never understand.

Hard work, passion, suck one. It's succinct. It's definitely, it's a sync. So what is he saying? People are saying that... I think people are saying he's taking shortcuts. But he is all about hard work, passion, dedication, all those things.

Not about shortcuts. And I think this is apropos with his impending what is it case is his trial coming up he also posts on Instagram no I am not on steroids

you're just a pussy interesting a similar message but not as not as succinct or more succinct but not as eloquent now what does being you know that that word that he's using what does that have to do with whether or not

he is or is not on steroids yeah I think you know this is more of what's been colloquialized, yeah. I will say this. I feel for public people like John Jones who may be innocent, right? And have to do, like, it just, it is so direct.

You know, there was a time 50 years ago when you do something, you don't do something, you're innocent, you're guilty, and it just kind of happens, it comes and goes, and you have to face the music, you know, internally with your family and friends, when you're out on this, but now, like, you are just, it has to,

to be it has to be exhausting right if you're that connected to social media like he is to see the constant comments so i i understand the sentiment you know do i think it was necessary no but you know it just it just seemed like a way maybe because the news came out you know officially last week mark remandie reported february 27th so maybe that kind of sparked it but it just sort of seemed like why now right i don't know there's never a bad time to take shots at all your haters okay especially you're John Jones. You don't have much else going on. You've got to train and you've got to keep those haters in mind

to keep the motivation up. Okay. Connor McGregor with a very touching post wishing Floyd Mayweather a farewell in retirement. He says, I'm happy for Floyd in his recent announcement that he's out of these current fight negotiations. It is the reason I never seek the rematch in the first place. I was happy for him in retirement.

My game is a very unforgiving one. It is not like other games. I understand completely him staying retired. I will now carry on in my negotiations and see where it goes. Have a great retirement junior. Now come here and give your old man a hug for old time's sake. I'm proud of you, son. Yours truly, senior.

Connor using an image of what looks like them tying up to represent that he's Floyd Jr.'s father. But I thought it was nice. It was nice of him to wish his competitor well and officially denounce a fight between the two. Is he officially denouncing it?

Or is this just moving on? He's carrying on. Do you believe that... His game is unforgiving? No, of course not. But I don't think it's any more likely to happen at this moment. I'm very conflicted here. I need to use my words. I need to choose my words wisely because this...

You know, I'm a big Conner-O'Greger fan. I love covering him. It has been so much fun. It needs to stop. It really does. We need to move on. from this. It was great. You made a lot of money. I loved covering it. But please, no more. No more Floyd stuff. It's, it's, I just, it is cringe-worthy at this point. I think this post will put it to bed.

You think so? Well, that's my, that's my question. I truly do. I think if it comes back up, it will not be because Connor is bringing it back up. Connor McGregor is one of the greatest fighters of our lifetime. He is one of the most influential athletes, in the world. He is the most influential UFC fighter ever. He is the most influential MMA fighter ever. He's one of the greatest fighters to ever live. He is so much fun to watch in MMA.

I don't want this anymore. I don't want the side show. He is better than this. He, I believe, can make the same money an MMA that he made in this fight. If he continues to be great, if he continues doing his thing, why can't he demand 100 million on his own?

Why does he need Floyd? He doesn't. Continue to be great at what you're great at. Michael Jordan, when he went to try out for the White Sox, it was cool. But then it wasn't cool anymore. I want to see you back doing your great things. We miss you. I miss you dearly.

Trust me. I think he's getting the it. God, I'm so tired of it. And then, like I see this story last week, Floyd Mayweather and CM Punk? What is this? What is this? Honestly, what is this? Where did this come from?

Why are people debating this? I think what it was is... I saw M.M.A. Junkie tweet out about Floyd Mayweather and C. M.Punk. I swear to God, 30 times last week. Why are we talking about Floyd Mayweather versus C. Mug? This is lowest common denominator stuff. I'm sorry, but this is lowest of the lowest. Why are you talking about this?

This is just gratuitous. Stop it. We're better than this. Enough. Floyd Mayweather versus C. Munk, really? Come on. What is this? It's not even being talked about.

It's not even being discussed. If it's being discussed, Fine. If it's a thing, fine. But it's not a thing. So stop willing it into existence. Because guess what, guess what happened the last time we rolled something into existence? You remember? Stop it. Enough. I want to see Connor McGregor talking about Chabib and Ferguson. I want to see him talking about Nate Dias. Fine. Give me Nate. Max Holloway. That's all great. Keep that going. Speaking of some of those people. Wait, did this go out of order?

Okay, anyway, we'll return to that. Alexander Gustafson, here posting a picture, throwing a knee at Daniel Cormier, tagging Luke Rockhold saying, your teammate is holding my division hostage, and you think there are only easy fights at light. Heavyweight, if you think Romero hits hard, the way to come to the big boys,

I want Daniel Cormier, and knocking you out will keep me warm in the meantime. Beware of coming up and wait because I will be standing at the front door waiting. solid, you know, calling his shot. He wants Rockhold when he comes up. I thought it was a swing and a miss, if I'm being honest. Well, Daniel Cormié swung the hammer back and knocked them out with

nice timing Alexander. Kick him while he's down, huh? I got a better idea, though, that he doesn't fight you next. He fights Robert Whitaker. I mean, sometimes that happens, right? You lose your way into a title shot. Hashtag the Gustafson way. That is a mic drop.

That was good. That was good on DC's part. to see him stick up for his guy. But to me, the time to reach out to Luke Rockhold was days before the fight before he got knocked out. I kind of feel like there needs to be a moratorium on calling people out after they get knocked out. There needs to be like a bit of a grace period. The timing felt off. When Rockhold said in the scrum before 221 that, you know, it's imminent that he's going up, that's when you call him out.

That's when you get in the line. This is why I disagree. I think Rockhold and anybody who's knocked out in this fashion is that they're most vulnerable now You're able to needle them a little bit more The things that you say to them Will make them a little more anxious to shut your mouth Whereas before the animosity

Isn't as easy to conjure up They have their focus They have things ahead of them I think that in this moment It's a lot easier to get somebody annoyed It's a lot easier to say to Rockhold Like two days ago Who's not a focus?

going to be more upset than that person? Who's going to be easier to needle? You fight in a weight class that's 20 pounds above this man? I mean, is there any secret that Rockhold would consider a move to light heavy weight? I don't know. I just, I just, I thought the time to have called him out was days before the fight, not after the fight.

It's not like he's going to accept the fight now. No, he's not going to accept it now, but what are you calling him out now? He'll remember this. I assure that he won't know. Of course, I have no doubt that he would want the fight. I just thought that they should have done it before. Here we go. Going back to Connor McGregor,

here posting a clip saying this is before he tore his ACL. This is good Instagramming right here. This was good stuff. It was when I faced off against the current featherweight champion Max Holloway who I dismantled before and after this ligament tear to win a lopsided victory. It was father against son in there.

He's everybody's father apparently. And in just my second UFC bout, Young Max is a hell of a fighter. I wonder what the future holds. holds for my young ouse. Ligaments are needed in a fight definitely. Some can fight on, however, whereas some cannot. I always think there are

moments in your career that can make you or break you. I've had many in my storied career, and this was most certainly one of them. God bless Boston Strong. So paying tribute to Boston. Telling Max Holloway that he's interested in his career. A little bit of shade, you know, calling him his son.

But by the way, could we go softful on this? Because the interaction between Connor and Kavanaugh is the best part of the clip. Here we go. Okay, wait for it to end because it's not I feel great. My favorite part is like,

do you want some water? And he's like, ah, like he's just considering it at a party. It's a great. It's a great clip. It's incredible. This was good stuff. Now, what is it, Ouse? It's like, I don't know, the,

the actual, you know the Uso's from wrestling? From wrestling. I think U's is like an island's thing for like either like friend, brother, something like that, let's look up exactly. Because the Uso's are spelled with an S. A slang term for a Samoan person literally means brother. So Ust is like, yeah, brother.

Close friend, brother. Okay. Like a bro. And so Brada. That was not unseen by one Max Holloway. Responding with his own. This was moments after I dabbed in the octagon with my son after a fight in Detroit, Michigan.

It was when I faced up against a former featherweight champion and legend Jose Aldo, who I stopped for the second time. It was a great legend against me and there that night in just my first title defense. Aldo was a hell of a fighter. I wonder what the future holds for my Brazilian brother. Getting paid is needed in a fight definitely. Some can find the motivation to defend,

no matter what, however, whereas some cannot. I always think that there is a moment in your career that makes you a true champion. It's when you find the motivation to keep earning what you already have to defend. I have had one in my blessed career, and this was most certainly the first of many. Hashtag blessed era. Soutile, but replying strongly. He is quick. To Connor McGregor.

Some can find the motivation to defend no matter what. however where as some cannot wow that was deep what the hell was that what did you just say some can find the motivation to defend no matter what however

where as some cannot oh this is a quote he's twisted Connor McGregors okay I thought you were saying this about the motivation to tweet back no what come on that's a direct quote I'm picking out the

I'm cherry picking the line this is this is the line oh my gosh. Listen, it's late in the show. Yeah, it is.

It is. It is. Max, I mean, continuing to prove that he's on the social media throne,

um, replying to Connor McGregor. Now, it seems that everything he's doing is always in response to Conner.

Yeah, yeah, I like to see him go on the offensive a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Maybe get Conner's attention. I agree with that.

I agree with that. But everything seems to be dictated by Connor. He's the leading the dance. That's the other thing that bothers me about the Floyd thing. It's like Floyd says something. It's like,

Connor said something, then Nate says something. Floyd, Nate. Yes. You know, it's like, it's the same thing every time. This time, I don't think Nate needed any prompting for what he did on Sunday. Well, that was just a whole other ball game. That one was all Nate. This one I thought was fun from Connor McGregor.

Playing a little bit of arcade with his son. Street Fighter. No, this one's not Street Fighter. What is that? Mortal Kombat? No, this one's like another fighting game. I don't know. No, because I saw... There was a clip of him playing Street Fighter.

He got this custom, you see this? He got a custom thing with like old games on it. Yeah, a thousand different games. This one I don't think is Street Fighter, but maybe correct me if I'm wrong, if it's like a different version. Look at a little Connor. He's so cute with that hair.

Look at that hair. Clearly, he's got skills on the sticks. Oh, my. Here we go. Great. We had Sports Center earlier. Now we've got another clip from ESPN here. It bothered me, but apparently didn't bother Keanu.

Watch the curtain. Here it goes. shooting the free throw. Out comes Ryan Bader wearing nothing but his Bellator Championship belt and shaking a shakeweight. Man. Now unfortunately it didn't work.

The player sank both his free throws. But more on this is that this is called the Curtain of Distraction. Brilliant. Staple at his alma mater, Arizona State. So trying to distract Arizona, the Arizona player shooting free throws,

we get Ryan Bader. With two Pikachu's. And two Pikachu's. The video game. game tie. You see how I transition there from Connor Jr. playing on the sticks? Now you get Ryan Bader with two Pikachu. We're big fans of

Pikachu's in my household. As well you should be. Pokemon is legit. I was never into Pokemon as a kid. It's a little weird that my kids are into it now because I can't quite... It came back around. You wouldn't think that years after you Yeah. But no, no, he's not a Pokemon

Go guy. I just think a friend of his introduced him and I don't know, I just don't get it. I don't get the show. I don't understand what's going on in that show. I don't know. I can't speak to it. I used to watch it when I was a kid, but I can't speak to it now. I don't know if it's even the same show.

But if it's the same show, I get it. This is great stuff. Ash was the man. Do you think anything was under the belt? I don't. I think he did it. I think he did it wrong. No, no, no.

He did it. Of course he was wearing something. You're nuts. What do you mean? He's just hanging loose there? Yep. I do. I have faith that.

There's college students all around him. That's okay. Look, it's Arizona State. He's red in black. You see it right there. You see he's wearing like a little Speedo thing. Listen, you examine this a little too closely.

We're going to move on. All right. What is that thing called the shaking thing? Shake weight. Okay. Okay. This was sent to me earlier today. Oh, yeah.

Patty, the baddie. Returning to action this weekend. Reading mean tweets. We've seen variations of this from many different athletes, but let's listen on two ways. Also, that's Meatball Molly. Molly McCann.

Meatball should be in the kitchen, making our lunch. You cry. I hope they say is I'll Padi get a career ending craft, then a good age your hair cut. I just hope you do something with your life, lad, no what I mean? You're sat on Twitter, moaning about other people doing something with the life while you do not on, sit indoors and be a keyboard warrior. Christian says, fight someone with a good record and no more comes. I bet anyone I thought of knock you out of that it.

Oh, here he is again, Christian. Oh, yeah. There he is. That has to be the worst hair cut in history. That's a proper bad shout that, lad. I know what I mean? I love that accent. I love for the gay of plat,

but people are, my weekends and that are bad, eh. Erich says a clean counter will K-O-A and I've been in big trouble. Paddy says the best, lads, Scots don't get knocked out.

She haven't seen a take a shot in the gym, lad. I know. Organities. She has two people counting and bingoing. She just keeps coming forward, lad. I understand like,

Every sixth word. All about the hair. I was all luck to be fair, lad. What you think? See, this was the best response he had to it because you got to cut, you got to play with it. You can't go back and be like, oh, you know, you have to kind of let them get their frustration out.

Good stuff. Cage Warriors. Cage Warriors delivering some good video content. Yeah. Cage Warriors 90 this weekend. Okay, friend of the show. Oh. Devin Sawa.

Oh. his son Hudson taking day one of Jiu Jitsu here landed some takedowns he sent this

and he was begging and he was like oh please please my nature and I'm Rick's back and I had to do constant arguing there's no argument

it's just constant hatred if I'm being honest it feels like it's coming more from him I know look he's you know he's angry

he's he's he's upset I don't know what but I only have love for him no Casper 2 Damn Listen

Damn I appreciate you Have him back on this You come You come at the king You come in the king You best not miss Yeah

But But congrats to his boy Hudson I also Started the journey He looks better than me already What do you mean you started the journey You did like one class Eight months ago

Listen I did five classes Yeah And I haven't been back since Because I had a baby Look is that not a good enough excuse I've not been able to find a time You had a baby like what like six months ago now.

What do you mean? She's as big as a six month old. She's only three months old. That's it, three months. Wow. Well, well done, Hudson. She's looking good there. I like the form.

Yeah, well done, Hudson. Shout out. Not to your father, though. By the way, I like the blackie. Yeah, solid. Well, because it makes the white belt stick out more. I think it's cool. It's very Cobra-Kye-esque.

It does look good. Right? Yeah, look, maybe there's a movie in the making. Aren't they bringing that back? Yes, they are. They are. I think they're bringing that back on Netflix. Okay.

Last one. I promised I'd do a shout out for Phil the MMA dude Because he He was tweeting me I think he was at Glory 50 in Chicago on Friday Were you at Glory 50? I was at Glory 50 Fun show and

Walterway title switching hands Congrats to Haru Kregorian He was there and he picked every single fight Except for one out of all nine fights that went off So I was impressed with that Not only that But he bet on Both Cowboy

and Derek Lewis as straight bets and a parley here showing his winnings on my bookie so congrats for the MMA dude let's see I don't have my glasses on he bet 40 to win 40

on the straight bets and then he bet what is that 20 22 to win 26 Austin help me out it's the gray text on the bottom anyway it looks like he's won in the neighborhood of 60-ish dollars. And he will be

PayPaling that to me for the shout-out. So Phil, the MMA dude, you can send that to my email. Hashtag kickboxing hipsters. Hashtag mystic Phil as well. Shout out to you, Phil. That's it for Rick's picks this week. Okay, let's get

to the questions. Let us get to some questions. Don't go out all day here, you know? How about that Platinum Perry? Could have talked to him for hours. I was feeling it. I mean, it seemed like he could have stayed for hours. He propped his feet up real early.

Did you think about saying, what are you doing in my house with your feet up? Did you even consider it for half a second? Talking about time and the slumber. I'm letting him do whatever he wants. He could have taken all my bubbleheads. I think that's the right move. After we also heard about him shoving Jeremy Stevens

to the floor and saying, what are you going to do about it? You know what? See, there's a look. He's a performer. Everything he does is a performer. He's a showman inside the cage, outside the cage,

retelling that story. The faking drunk when he was talking about coming out of the porta potty with the cigarette in the 40, the way he was able to get the one eye flittering. Yeah, good. No doubt about it. He's got a career after MMA.

Okay, we start how we start every week. Question of the Day from Ariel Hawani. Who is the star of the weekend in MMA? the choices were Matt Mitrione, Donald Soroni, Derek Lewis, Nate Diaz, and Friend. Who wins? With 12,000 votes in,

Nate Diaz and Friend, 46% of the votes. 31% Donald Soroni, 20% Derek Lewis, and only 3% for Matt Mitriot, pulling up to rear. But I think we're in agreement. Are you in agreement?

Well, I mean, it was kind of, you know, tongue-in-cheek. There weren't a lot of pressing things to come out of this weekend. So I thought, you know what? There were some good performances, but it's just amazing. It just goes to show what we were saying earlier

how the guy can do so much was so little. He stole the show, no doubt about it. Question number two this week from Ariel Hawani. Do you like Sunday night UFC cards with 16,000 votes? 54% say yes. Oh, interesting. 46% say no. How do you feel about the Sunday night cards?

Well, I certainly don't like them when they're going up against the All-Star game. When there's, you know, an off, you know, when there's nothing going on, sure, I don't, I don't hate them. You know, it's a little tough because people have to get up. You have to go to work the next day. Yeah, that's the part. You got to start them earlier. If we're going to do Sunday, it has to be like a late afternoon.

If MMA is not the profession, it's tough. It's tough. You got to get into work the next day. Now, if it's a card that, if it's like a Fox card that ends at 10 p.m., then I think it's great. I think Sunday night sports are very well received. But if it ends at 1230 East Coast time, let alone all the people, nationally, then I think it's a problem. But again, I saw some people saying, like, why would the UFC do this?

This is an FS1 thing. They had the Daytona 500. They're trying to keep people, you know, in the Fox Sports world and use the Daytona 500 to, like they did the same thing last year. Remember it was the Nova Scotia card? It was Travis Brown versus Derek Lewis. That was a Sunday night, same time as the All-Star game. So it's kind of a set thing, but this is an FS1 thing.

I would have met. And even for the live gate, you're probably going to get less people than on a Saturday night, right? Absolutely. I'm a no on the Sunday night. I could do it out. Give me the Saturday. Give me a Friday even. I prefer Friday over Sunday.

I'm out on the Sunday. Okay. Do you think, and we address this, but let's just put a bow on this. Do you think this is from Beryl's mild, do you think Madero's hurt his chances at winning by being super nice with Cowboy during the actual fight? You would say yes. You'd say that he lost a little bit of an edge, yes? Yes.

I would say no, but he didn't help himself. It's impossible to know. It just seems like more often than not, the guy who's sort of initiating that, and it felt like he was initiating it, is the one who doesn't have his guard all the way up. Yeah, I think Yancey Maderos already had enough cool points with everybody. Like, I think everybody kind of likes Yancey.

For sure. So I don't think it added anything to that. But I think it's who he is, and I think I was cool with it. I liked the bromance. I liked him embracing Donald Seroni's grandmother. I was cool with it, but no, I mean, I don't think... I personally don't think it affected him one way or the other,

but only he knows. If it did, I think he'll just change that for next time. He'll go back and feel he wasn't as sharp and then change it. Or if not, he'll keep being cool and keep... It's not necessarily a thing that he's known for, right? I mean, he may just have a lot of respect for Donald Serrani. It may be specific to Seroni. It's not like a weakness in his game.

No, I think he's just... an easy-going guy. I think that's kind of it. That wasn't the time. That wasn't the time. Yeah, fair enough. After Derek Lewis's post-fight interview, which current fighter has the most entertaining post-fight interviews? I think Derek Lewis has got to be up in the discussion for sure. There's few guys that you know

okay, they're about to get on the mic, this is going to be good. Some that come to mind. Obviously, Connor McGregor. Obviously, Derek Lewis. Nate Diaz, as of late. Ally Quinta, as of late. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch. Matt Maitrione.

always delivers, I think. Mitreone is fun. You don't know what you're going to get at times, but certainly fun. I always think DC is great, whether he's being super honest or talking smack. I think he's very good. Bisping historically has always been good. You know, the top draws are usually good. And some are good for other reasons. Like Rose has become very good, but obviously for other reasons. But yeah, like Derek, I knew he was going to say something. Derek is a guarantee. He's a lock. Newcomer, I think Israel is going to be good for a post-recent. fight every single time. But you know what?

For my money, pound for pound right now, it's got to be Derek Lewis. You know you're getting something. Yes. Yes, of course. Don't know what it is. Maybe it's talking about his wife,

or his wife now, right? Yeah, yeah. What she has to look forward to when he gets home. But it's something. Always something with Derek. Okay. Does James Vic deserve a top 10 guy next? Is that where he falls?

1,000. Does he top 5? Top 5 or top 10? Where is his range? It's a bit of a log. jam up there, but top 10 1,000 percent. I would argue top 7 or 8 at this point.

He's definitely earned this. Oh my God. 9 and 1. Top 10 right now is Iquinta, Kesa Nate Diaz, Kevin Lee. Honestly, like the Keisa Petis fight, I feel like you know, that's a perfect one for him. Those are the two guys that he's been talking about.

There's only so long. You put together a streak like he has. There's only so long. By the way, Kevin Lee doesn't have a fight. Yeah. You know? Nate Diaz, by the way, is ranked 8th. He hasn't fought... Nate Diaz hasn't fought at lightweight

since December of 2015. Yeah. You know? So... He deserves a spot there. I mean, finding an opponent's going to be tough for him.

What are the rules to these rankings? That's why I advocated at the top of the show that they need to get rid of them because they're just a mess. No, I don't think they're reflective of anything. That said, I think the names in that ranking are the right names and I'd like to see him against one of those fighters, for sure.

With all due respect to Josh Emmett, how was he ranked above Cub Swanson? Because he just knocked out Ricardo Lama's. And Cub made that case on Twitter. And Cub, oh, did he? Yeah. Wow, I just saw that. And Cub is above Lamas, yet it just doesn't make sense. Cub made that case, wondering himself why that was.

Okay, this will speak to more programming stuff. How does the UFC go over time so regularly? The main event started with four minutes left in the broadcast schedule, yet there was over half an hour of fluff in the broadcast. I'll tell you why. There's nothing else at 1am on FS1. Make no mistake about it. FS1 loves this.

FS1 loves it because even if there's 800,000 people watching these shows, that's way more than whatever else will be on at midnight on a Saturday or Sunday for them, right? If you just look at their other shows and what those ratings do. And so, you know, the ad prices are higher. It's all gravy for them. This is live programming. This is what every network craves when it comes to sports programming. They want live, live, live, live, live.

So let's stretch this out. I just think it's, you know, here's a perfect example. And two things drive me nuts. Like it's midnight, right? Or it's approaching midnight. Please don't, this is not the time to do a whole package on Emmett versus Jeremy Stevens. I don't want to think about that card next week. It's not the time for that.

And they do this all the time. The broadcast are so formulaic. And then, you know, so they do that. Like, at that point, like, you're just, you're, you want to lock in on the co-main or, or the main at that point. If we're going to get into the packages game, how about this one? Jared Gordon is about the fight. Unfortunately, he lost. We know, if you watch this show, he has an incredible backstory.

He has been through so much, he has overcome so much, he's an inspiration. What about a little quick package on this guy? What about trying to sell this guy? What about trying to push this guy? Instead, I think they went to the studio and they were promoting and doing like some, you know, generic breakdown on the main event. Your prelims are littered with these little personalities. What about little packages on, like, pinpoint two or three and do something a little out of the ordinary. And by the way, it doesn't have to be something where you go to his house and follow him.

Those are great. Sit down with him for, you know, a few minutes on Fight Week. They're in the hotel. They're wasting a lot of time and put together something. like these generic packages you know like the Curtis Millinder one he's like standing there like this it's like with this generic copy

the UFC broadcasts are so stale and I'm really looking forward to this new deal and seeing if someone else can come in there and turn the whole thing upside down because it is so stale at this point I mean with everything about it is just so incredibly stale

I think we need more stories that's it we need more storytelling from the guys It's not just about throwing out fights and two-minute promos. And, you know, it's amazing because, like, fans will get on me and they'll say, like, oh, you're why you so negative, you're always whining, this and that. I love this sport more than anything. I've devoted my life to this sport. I try to provide for my family of the sport.

I say it because I love it. And because I spent so many damn hours thinking and breaking down and watching this sport. If you don't feel that way, more power to you. But at this point, after all these years of watching it and not seeing evolve and seeing every other sports broadcast evolve? I mean, every other sports broadcast, there's innovations, they're trying things, they're taking risks, they're changing things up,

and we're not going to even try, it's frustrating. It's frustrating. Sometimes I have to stop myself because it's like, I know it could come across as like too much complaining, but it's just frustrating to watch. I'm with you. We need something new in the broadcast.

They've got great personalities. Promote them. Speaking of evolving. and the product evolving. How do you guys feel the posters are evolving? Poststers are getting better. To pay people like BossLogic to do it rather than having the same posters as always. I don't know.

Maybe there's pressure. Who knows? I know BossLogic does a great job. He's incredibly talented. He does stuff for Invicta. But let's give credit where it's due. The posters are slowly but surely getting better. I can nitpick all I want about the big guy over the little guy and all that stuff.

And that is true. But the London one I thought was great because it catered to the local market. It was sort of a play on the underground. You know, 223 is solid enough. I feel like slowly but... 209 was rock bottom. Low point, yeah. 209 was rock bottom.

210 was rock bottom, but it was never worse than 209. And I feel like slowly but surely. Now, the bar is incredibly low. I think they could be infinitely better. But if 209 was the rock bottom, we've come some way since then. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think ultimately,

like we can we can obsess over this but as long as the posters are not not at least at rock bottom level i think we can all you know relax a little bit um but yeah it'd be nice to see some some fresh ideas i think boss logic does a great job there's plenty of other people out there and i agree that the posters it has become a thing now though right like they like they they announce the release of these posters that wasn't the case uh so they understand that there's there is attention being paid to these these posters and I do feel like they're doing a little bit of a better job. Are they formulaic at times? Are they generic? Yes.

But since 209 it has gone a bit better. From old friend UFC FaceSwap, what's worse? Kevin Hart and friends, his friends, intro to the NBA All-Star Game or Fergis sing of a Star Spangled Bad. Honestly, the Kevin Hart thing. You hated the Kevin Hart. Yeah, I despised it. I noticed about that. You'll know, like,

they were looking for the biggest celebrities in the world when they did that. They were looking for star power. And one person I couldn't help notice up there on the stage was an actor, a singer, a performer, a Grammy winner,

an Oscar winner, one Jamie Fox. I don't know if you noticed that. I honestly didn't. Was he there? Yeah, he was singing in like the skit thing. I guess I tuned out of that one. Also there, but not on the stage, Odell Beckham Jr. Yeah.

I saw more of Odell, to be honest. The only thing I saw of Jamie Fox was when he was being interviewed by Michael Smith on Sports Center and the guy like referenced Katie Holmes and then like a prima donna he takes off his headphones and walks off. That's the only thing I saw. Did you see that? He gave a great performance. What was that all about?

What was that all about? O'Dell Beckham's Instagram was incredible during the event. It was really, but really what was that all about? Listen, you don't want to talk about your personal life? That's not what I'm here. I mean, personal, it was like, oh, have you been practicing with Katie Holmes? He saw something on Instagram. It was an

abomination. It was it really bothered me and maybe I'm crotchety at this point it bothered me on behalf of the players Janice Antenicoompo deserves to have his name said correctly he deserves to have his name said period but if you ask Janice he's of the age where somebody like Kevin Hart

cracking on him is probably like... I finally make it to the All-Star game and I want some American actor making a joke about my name no I'm proud of my name I don't know for sure let me tell you something if and when I get to the All-Star game because... Wait what? If some like you know two-bit actor

is going to be like, oh, here he is. Ariel Helweeney. Are we starting a feud with Kevin Hart right now? Are you? Me and the rest of the internet. Did you go online while that was... I know, but two-bit actor now we're like... I can't tell you one movie.

These guys in Jumanji, the number one movie in the country. Is that true? I thought the Rock was in that. Yeah, he's also in it before Black Panther, which was awesome. Listen, you know what? If you want to crack the jokes, fine. Bequia at least make the...

them funny. Like the fact that someone wrote down that that Jimmy Butler has a Tupperware collection and that was supposed to be a joke and there were some other bad ones. By the way, why no mention of Chris Saps Porzingis? The other injured guys got mentioned just because he wasn't there. It was weird. It was weird. I don't know. Yeah, that was weird. But anyway, it just, I was offended. I really was. And so the Fergie thing, like at the time, I think I was still worked up that I didn't quite process it. And today I went back and listened. then yeah, it was off. I get what you're saying.

You worked your career and you got here. Deserve that respect. Listen, I love the... I've talked about this enough. Like, the All-Star game, I love it. I didn't think it needed to be fixed. I didn't think it. Really?

Oh, yeah. Last year was terrible. I think this whole storyline, they're like, oh, look how much fun they're having because LeBron cared. I think it's hogwatched. Like, Ease versus West was fine. It was fine.

Oh, no. This was way better. Why? Do you really think that the players on Team LeBron wanted to win it for his name? Yeah. Did you see LeBron and Kevin Durant shutting Curry down in the corner? Yeah, that was awesome.

Because the game went to the final... But in the past, it's gone to the final horn. Last year, the score was 200 to 200, Ario. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, you really think Kevin Durant was like, I need to win this for LeBron? Yes, no, he was trying to win for himself. He was trying to win the game. But it's Team LeBron. LeBron gets all the glory. No, he doesn't care about Team LeBron.

He cares about winning. They cared about winning. It was a return... It was a return to fourth quarter defense. Why all of a sudden? Because the players who drafted, set the tone, yeah. That was kind of botched, too. The draft should have been televised. Of course, but they didn't want to... They don't want to hurt Al Horford's feelings.

Al Horford is a class act. He doesn't care about that. My point is, I love the All-Star game. These guys deserve the respect. They deserve to have their name set correctly and not have... I think... Get the Lakers guy, PA announcer,

say their name, get on with the game, let's go. I think they're of the age that they'll be okay with Kevin Hart, joking on it. Well, you know what? I'm not okay with it. I won't stand for it.

Ariel, have you ever watched Avatar the last airbender? No, clearly not. Is that I mean, when was this sent? Was this sent after? Of course,

of course, you have not seen Avatar the last airbender. But as I, look, I feel like all the questions you asked Israel, I outlined for you already.

Of course, I told you it was the last style bender, but you can also call him style bender. Is this on the air or off the air? This is off the air. Well, then,

don't break KFay, bro. I need to hear from him. You're right. Actually, it was good to hear kind of a interject. Nice save. Nice save.

Okay. What are my thoughts? This is Nate asking on Liverpool's flawless performance in the Champions League last week. And when will Ariel see the light and become a red?

Ariel, when are you going to enjoy it? This storyline is worse than that whole, like, Danny Seguerah, Sean Sheehan, EA thing. It is one of the worst stories. You know what?

You pretend to be this fan of football. You pretend to be this fan, but you're not. You're not. Okay, go ahead. Just don't care. Answer the question. We can get on with it. I mean, it was, it was, you've already answered the question in your question.

You called it flawless and it was flawless. Five nil, it doesn't get better than that. Okay. That's all I have to say. Stop it. You didn't watch it. This is the worst. You know what?

Actually, I did watch it. I did watch it live. I tuned, I tuned in at halftime and then watched the rest of it. Listen, you know what the tagline for SB Nation is? Our parent company. No, actually, tell me. Come fan with us, okay? I want them to come.

Fan is short for what? Fanatic. You can't fake fanaticism. You can't. You can't just wake up one day and say, I'm going to be a fan of this team. Oh, so is this an admission about Lester City? Is that what you're getting at right now? What?

Just because I don't talk about it, doesn't mean it's like yesterday. Someone DM'd me. And he's like, oh, nice to see you paying attention to the UFC. because I only like tweeted about the UFC card like six fights in. And I'm like, excuse me, where does it say that I need to tweet and live score the fight past prelims? Just because I don't mention it doesn't mean it's not happening. Okay? So my point is you can't fake this sort of thing.

Of course not. All right? So you can't just wake up. You've already admitted that you've woken up one day and picked a team. It's inauthentic. It doesn't work. No, no. What it was was my roots were revealed.

No. It had come to light And I'm read, that's it Put in the time five years Take a trip out there You know Buy a jersey Buy a kid for the family

I'm gonna go with Darren Till We're gonna have a nice time Yeah We're gonna go to a Lester City game And then I will buy this schick I'll do it for MMA fighting Until then We'll make a video

It's a half-ass attempt To To gain some I know your club is not doing so well right now And It's making you a little angry but just be happy just be happy and join

just join see the light as Nate says and become a red you're not the only hater out there though but that's it you're gonna end on that note the worst note ever no the most important question of the week

the worst way in fact I expected to be the question of the week next week gosh all right well thank you you're welcome uh Vitor belfort Liottae Machita is happening in Rio in case you missed that very exciting how about Ardom Lobo

and Alex Casares at UFC 223. What else? What else? Greg Hardy wins his LFA amateur debut. Jennifer Maya has signed with the UFC, so another Invicta star is off to the UFC. How about Claudia Goodell against Carlos Sparza in Chicago? A fight years in the making. Literally years in the making.

Stevie Ray is back in the UFC. He has signed a four-fight contract. He's fighting Cajun Johnson in London, so that is a nice story. How about Kyoji Horaguchi against Ian McCall, May 6th and Risen? That is very exciting.

And Zabit Magomed Sharipov is fighting Kyle Bokniak, also at UFC 223. A lot going on, as always. Highlight some of that stuff. What are you highlighting your Liverpool nonsense? Cage Warriors 90 on Saturday.

Also, UFC on Fox 28. Main card is on Fox. You know by now, Jeremy Stevens against Josh. I mean, the reason why I always want to say Jim Everett is because of the quarterback. formerly of the Los Angeles Rams. And I want to say one last thing before we go. I want to say to Alexei Olinick and his family was very happy to hear that his daughter was okay. She is a student

at the school in Parkland, Florida, which of course experienced that horrific, horrific tragedy on Wednesday afternoon. And I was very happy to hear that. she was okay. Just a horrible scene and it's amazing that we were talking about Sandy Hook last week when talking about the Roy Nelson Matt Matrione fight because it happened on the same day and they were about to fight again. Something like this happened on Wednesday, it doesn't mean anything for me, but definitely still thinking about those kids and those families and so impressed with how those kids, the survivors have handled everything. but just a horrific week last week in the United States.

And here's hoping that something finally changes and the politicians who lead our country will stop sending thoughts and prayers and start doing something about these senseless murders happening in our schools across the country. All right, on that note, you can hit my music, Austin. Thank you very much to everyone who tuned in this week. What a fun show it has been.

Appreciate everyone who stopped by. So much going on, as I said, in the world of M.A., but I feel like we, took the temperature today. We summed it up as well as possible. UFSI in the books, Bell Tour in the books, but we start things up all over again this weekend. The train continues to roll along. How about that, Mike Perry? Wow. In studio, feed up, talking about picking up, you know, garbage and cutting weeds off the highway. Incredible. Incredible stuff. Really want to thank the UFC for bringing him by. I appreciate that

very much and I am looking forward to to seeing how he rebounds on Saturday. By the way, that's a really good card. That is a really good card. We got our guy, Brian Kelleher. You know, it's not your typical Fox card, but again, the bar has been set low now, so it's

you know, the times have changed a little bit but there are some interesting fights on that card. Brian Kelleher against Hennon-Borrell, Mike Perry, Max Griffin, Ovin, St. Prude against the Lilleau. Tisha Torres, Josh Hammett against Jeremy Stevens, also Sarah McMahon against Ryan Renaud, Angela Hills on the card, Ben Saunders. There is a lot to like there. There are some interesting names.

So that is this Saturday afternoon. Okay, thank you very much to Mike Perry. Appreciate his time. Congrats to Elias Diodoro on the Ringboy gig, March 24th in Victor F.C. Thank you very much of you all Romero. Good luck to him. Israel, Adisania. Great stuff out of him.

And congrats again. All the best to Leslie Smith. All the best to Will Brooks. All the best to T.J. Dilshan again. Congrats to one, Matt Matreone on the big win. Friday night at Mohigan Sun. back next week, same time and place till I say, Pace, I'm outia.