MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 424 (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 6, 2018

Ariel Helwani recaps the week in MMA (00:01:42), then speaks to Sean O'Malley (00:29:24) and Brian Ortega and Rener Gracie (00:47:26). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That means you could order in-store products at in-store prices while you're in sweatpants, in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in-store. So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with the Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, March 5th, 2018. How again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. So happy to be back in New York.

Had a great trip to Las Vegas. It was nice to be back in Sin City. I did in case you are wondering and didn't see on social media. I did attend the Vegas Gold the night's game on Friday night. And let me tell you, if you are ever in Las Vegas for any reason whatsoever and the golden nights are in town, do yourself a favor and check them out, live at T-Mobile. I have said some not so flattering things about T-Mobile arena in the past. I maintain that it is not a good MMA arena. I maintain that it is not a good boxing arena because I saw it with the McGregor there. I also maintain that it's a little soulless and they could have done a much better job of you know dressing it up and giving it that Vegas feel however the game ops for a vaguen Vegas Vegas and I hate that name Vegas it should be the Las Vegas Golden Knights

Las Vegas Golden Knights not Vegas Golden Knights that's the real name let people you know let people give it a nickname but have an official name the name of the city is Las Vegas anyway it's it's a phenomenal time had a great time with my man Sean Al Shadi we enjoyed it very much they they really put on a great show. So I suggest checking it out. Of course, I was there for UFC 222. I told you last week, it was a fun card on paper. I told you last week that pretty much every single fight on the card had some kind of

hook to it, some kind of nugget to it, some kind of story to it that made it intriguing. And I maintain that it was a very fun card. Now, we can argue all day it was a worth 65 bucks. Who knows in this day and age? That being said, if you sat down and watched all 12 fights, If you sat down and watched the main card, the FS1 prelims, for the most part, I think you were entertained. There's a lot to unpack as far as UFC 222 is concerned. A lot that happened on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

It was another busy weekend in MMA, not only the UFC in action, but pretty much like 90% of the major promotions put on events. KSW had a great show. Cage Warriors had a great show. Of course, Bellator had a great show as well on Friday. Everyone was putting on great events this past weekend. Also, it was another newsworthy week in the world of MMA. The big news, of course, John Jones getting his punishment from the California State Athletic Commission.

He gets a 40% fine of his purse for the second Daniel Kormier fight last July in Anaheim. And so he is fined $205,000 because not only did he get the 40% fine, he also got a little extra for conduct detrimental and pay-per-view. If anyone thinks that John Jones made $500,000 for that fight, I have multiple bridges that I'd love to sell you because that's just not the case. And I don't know why they stick to this, but I guess they have to.

I have some thoughts on what transpired during that hearing. We'll talk about that. Talk about a whole lot going on. Belator 200 continues to grow in front of our eyes. Mirko Krokop has re-signed or actually signed with Belator. There was a rumor many moons ago that he was close to signing with. them but opted not to.

Well, he is officially in Bellator and he's going to rematch Roy Nelson. So Roy Nelson gets, he gets rewarded for the performance, the loss to Matt Mitrione. He gets another fight before Mitrione and he's on a pretty big card, a card that will air via tape delay here in the U.S. Go figure. I don't understand that one. But we can weigh in on that. So much going on.

Let me run down today's lineup. And then I'll give you some thoughts on UFC 222. We have a stack show, my friends. holy smokes, 12 guests, some of the biggest names in the world of combat sports, in the world of mixed martial arts in particular. I love this lineup. This might be one of our greatest lineups of all time. This might be the goat lineup.

530 is the MMA after hour. We'll hear from Rick's Picks, take your questions and comments. 510, we will talk to Mike Goldberg, the voice of Bellator now. And, of course, we just had him in studio a couple weeks ago. But the reason why we're having Mike Goldberg on this week is for some not so good news. Actually, if you heard him in studio a couple weeks back, he talked about his friend, the longtime producer for the UFC, Bruce Connell, being hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Unfortunately, late last week, Bruce passed away at the young age of 61. And if you watch Bellator, and hopefully you did.

And if you watched the UFC and hopefully you did, you saw some more. wonderful tributes, and in particular the UFC one. The way they paid tribute to him was very emotional, but it was very well done. Even the touch of hearing his voice, people don't really, I think if you're not in the TV business, you may not understand the role of the producer and the relationship that he has with the talent. He's really the guy who is talking to your favorite broadcasters. So on Saturday, it's Annick, Rogan, and D.C., he is talking to them throughout and typically the producer is the only one who is talking to the talent throughout. And not only that, of course, he's putting together the show.

The director is executing it and is responsible for everything that you see and the camera changes and everything, but the producer is the one who is putting that whole baby together. Bruce Connell has been the UFC producer, like the UFC producer for 20 years. And if you like the UFC broadcast, if you like the product, it's his vision that you are liking. And it's a massive loss, not only to the UFC, but to the world of sports broadcasting. If you saw online, I retweeted a lot of them, you know, giants from the world of sports broadcasting. People like Barry Melrose and Dick Vital and many, many others were paying tribute to Bruce Connell. This is just devastating news. I saw him not that long ago. I mean, he was a

fixture for 20 years. We'd love to see the UFC put him in the Hall of Fame. It's unfortunate that these things tend to happen, these, you know, these, these celebrations and paying tribute and honoring people who, you know, are doing a great job. It's unfortunate that these things tend to happen when, when they pass. But it would be a very, very nice gesture, I think, to do that because he played such an important role in the growth of MMA and the UFC in particular. Very cool of Belator to pay tribute to him because of his relationship with Mike Goldberg, also his son's work in production for Paramount Network. So obviously it hit home.

And when the UFC was on Spike TV, a lot of the same people were working back then who worked now on the Belltor product. So just a massive loss. And I feel for the crew, it's a very tight-knit crew that works on those shows. They travel from city to city almost every single week, country to country. And this was a tough one. So I wanted to have Mike Goldberg on to talk about his relationship with Bruce. you know, just how great of a producer he was and why this is such a devastating piece of

news for the entire world of mixed martial arts. At 4.50, we're going to talk to Chris Cyborg. By now you probably know that Chris Cyborg defeated Yanukunitskaya on Saturday. She cracked her with a big shot right off the bat. And Yanukunitskaya said before the fight to M.A. Junkie that she doesn't believe Chris Cyborg has knockout power. That was obviously wrong. And a bit of a crazy statement. But hey, you know, shoot your shot. It looked like it rocked Yana. Yana actually did, in my opinion, a great job of adapting and not standing toe to toe. And of course, not quitting after that big shot landed. And actually, you know, in the end, prolonged the inevitable. However, the game plan was the right one. Stay close, clinch, take her down.

It was working for a minute or two. But once Cyborg separated and was able to punch her a little more, that was all she wrote. So Chris Cyborg wins once again. She's undefeated for almost 13 years now, 20 in a row, the most dominant female athlete in the history of the sport, one of the most dominant fighters in the history of this sport, period. And again, she's fighting someone who is, you know, overmatched, who is not prepared. Like I said, all week long, it's one thing to debut in the UFC. It's one thing to debut in a main event. It's one thing to debut in a main event that happens to be for the title. It's one thing to debut in a main event that happens to be for a title against the most dominant female in the history of the sport, and that is Chris Cyborg. And this was a tall task

for Yana Kunitskaya. She appeared to be game. She got paid more on Saturday than she had in her entire career combined. So props to her, hopefully she's not too injured. She did show up to the press conference afterwards. So that's a good sign. And again, it's one of those situations where it feels like it's a lose-lose for Chris Cyborg because she doesn't necessarily get the credit for being so dominant because she's not fighting true 145ers. And I like this scenario way better than her fighting 140, her fighting some arbitrary weight class for, you know, a belt that doesn't exist. This is much better for her and it's safer and it's healthier. But it's high time that the UFC, if they want to be in the cyborg business, which they do, and I think it's a lucrative business,

it's high time that they invest in this division. This is nothing new. But I'd love to see, look, you have UFC Fight Pass. Take a page out of WWE. Do a mini tournament. Do something like how WWE does, you know, the May Young Classic or the Cruiserweight thing. Like, do a tournament for FightPass only.

You know, go to Invicta, go to LFA, sign up, you know, 6, 7, 8-145ers, the best around the world. And if you don't want to have them under the UFC umbrella, I get it. But give us a hook somewhere. invest in these 145ers because you're essentially,

you're putting Chris Seiburg on an island, and she's fighting these lose-lose battles. Even the Mandanunas won, there's an out there. Mandanunas isn't a 145er. She used to be, but she's clearly not one anymore. That's the best fight to make now, because there's nothing else going on. Megan Anderson can tweet all she want.

She's not eligible to fight. One day, she will hopefully explain why. That day is not today. So I don't understand why she keeps tweeting that she wants Chris Seaborg. She can't fight. trust me if she could they would have booked her against cyborg long ago that's the reason they signed her last year remember but there's no one else out there and i would just love to see because there are some prospects they just aren't ready to fight cyborg

so instead of just throwing in the next you know unknown featherweight who probably is abandoned weight in there why don't you cultivate them why don't you give them experience give them at bats give them opportunities to fight get more reps and then maybe in a year so they could be ready for a chris cyborg because this problem isn't going away and Chris Cyborg isn't going away and she is a star in my opinion she has drawing power she has that it factor let's invest in this easier said than done perhaps but I would love to see that happen it's still you know a pleasure to watch her fight of course you'd love some intrigue but once again she does what she has to do she wins and in very dominant fashion and Dana White saying afterwards that he'd love to see her fight Amanda Nunes in Rio

kind of a blow to Raquel Pennington. They didn't officially announce the Raquel Pennington fight yet, but All Signs point to that happening. It has been agreed upon. And we know that Raquel Pennington is a favorite of Dana's. Maybe they pay her to step aside. I just have a hard time believing. And the chatter behind the scenes is Cyborg fighting in two months on a card headline by her versus Nunes isn't something that she's she's loving right now. She wants to fight in July. She's been vocal about that. We could talk to her about all this at 4.50. 430. We're going to talk to Mackenzie Dern. And you may have heard that she made her long-awaited, much-anticipated UFC debut on Saturday. She defeats Ashley Yoder via decision. She goes the distance,

of course. You can't go to the decision if you're not going to distance. But she had her moments. Clearly still a work in progress. Anyone who's talking title shot from McKenzie Dern is completely, you know, wrong. I mean, that's just not the direction that they need to go. and she said it herself afterwards in the Post-Fight press conference, she wants the slow track. No fast track here. She wants the slow track. My first time interviewing her in person didn't realize how short she was.

125 is not the weight class for McKenzie Dern. She's in the right way class. And yes, it got, at least it appeared to be a little hairy for the way. And she was the last one to weigh in. We had to wait around 45 minutes for her. We appreciate the intrigue. But you'd like to see the weight cuts go a little smoother for her. and maybe it's, you know, working with one of the top nutritionists.

I know she's worked with Lockhart in the past. Maybe it's working with, you know, someone who isn't a big name, but just having someone there by her side, I think, would be very important. She's clearly someone who the fans are interested in, but I'm happy to hear that not only does she want the fast track, it seems like the UFC is going to put it on the fast track. Yoder was game. It was a tough opponent.

She's a very, I mean, Yoder is super tough, and she's been in there before and she doesn't mind getting bloodied. but Indiana McKenzie Dern wins, it was close, but I definitely thought it was the right call. So we'll talk to her at 430. We'll talk to Nick Newell at 410, who's coming out of retirement. He's fighting for the first time in around two years.

Remember, he walked away around two years ago on a two-fight winning streak. He lost to Justin Gachey on NBC, but he followed that up with two straight wins. He said he was too banged up, but he's coming back on Friday at LFA 35. So one of the good guys is coming back. Nick Newell, we'll talk to him,

at 4.10. At 350, we'll talk to Darion Caldwell, who won against Leandro Ego on Friday at Bellator. Darren Caldwell is the Belator Bantamweight champion. He is very talented. He won via guillotine against a very tough opponent in Leandro Ego and afterwards talking about some other opponents, but it seemed as though he had his sights set on the Pitbull Brothers. The Pitbull Brothers always seemed to be involved in some kind of controversy. And oftentimes with guys who aren't in their weight class, it's a very bizarre thing. This time it's Patricia Pitbull. They seem to be talking back and forth.

He even flipped them off. Is that a fight that's going to happen? Is it going to be May Day McDonald, who's coming off that broken hand? Or is it going to be John Dotson who won on Saturday at UFC 22 against Pedro Munoz? However, that was the last fight on his contract. It does seem like Dotson is set on resigning with the UFC. He wants to stay in the UFC, but could that be a name that Beltar goes after?

We'll see. So we'll talk to Caldwell at 350. 3.30. We'll talk to Luke Rockhold. First time we talked to him since his loss to Yo-Ramaro at UFC 221. He also has some news regarding sponsorship outside. And he's hinted at it on this show. Remember, I brought it up the Ralph Lauren sponsorship, the campaign with Ralph Lauren.

it finally came out late last week. It looks great. It's well deserved. There you see him. Look at that guy. I mean, look at that face. Who want to want to have that face, sponsor, or at least rep their brand? I mean, look at that. What a mug.

Anyway, it's a very cool deal for him. Congratulations to Luke Rockhold. Will he go up to 205? Will he fight Alexander Gustafson? Will he fight Michael Bisping? We'll talk to Rockhold about all these things and more coming up at 330. At 305, at 305, my mind. friends. We're talking to arguably the greatest of all time. The one and only George St. Pierre will be back.

His first interview on this program since he gave up the middleweight title. Remember just days after UFC in New York, Madison Square Garden, he defeats Michael Bisping. He comes in studio, talks about the health issues that came with moving up to 185 shortly thereafter. He drops the belt. And now we wonder, will he ever come back? How is he feeling? All those things and more will be addressed at 305 by the one and only the pride of St. Isidol, Quebec, the pride of Canada, George, Rush, St. Pierre. It's always special when he's on the program.

Can't wait to talk to him at 305. 245. We'll talk to Gagard Musasi about Bellator 200, fighting Hafa'Al Carvalio on the card for the middleweight title. As I mentioned at the top, we're now getting Mirko Krocop against Roy Nelson 2, rematch of a fight that happened at UFC 137.

How many people remember that fight? I just have a fundamental problem with this card because it's Belator 200 and it's taking place overseas and Belator is owned by Viacom and it airs on Paramount and it's going to air on tape delay here in the United States and this makes no sense to me whatsoever. It's a major mistake. I don't care how they slice it. A signature show like Belator 200 should not be airing via tape delay in the United States, your home base. A Belator 199, Belator 201 would have sold just as well in London. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Anyway, that's neither here nor there for Gaguer Musassi's fighting for the belt and we look forward to talking to him. Remember, last time he was on the program,

he was all kinds of fired up. He was super fired up about the aftermath of his debut against Alexander Schlamenco. So we'll see if he's calmed down a few months later. 2.25, we're going to talk to one of the newest members. I can't say the newest member because Mirko just signed, but one of the newest members of the Belator roster, the one and only John Fitch will stop by. And They announced late last week. We reported first that he signed with Bellator. That is the case. And not only that, he's going to debut on May 12th against Paul Daly.

So they patched things up with Paul Daly. And he's getting John Fitch, which on paper doesn't seem like the most favorable matchup for Mr. Daly. But I think this is a nice signing. It's a nice little piece to that welterweight division, which I think is their best at this point. And so how about it? John Fitch back on the big stage. He leaves World Series of Fighting as the World Tewalterweight Champion. did not want to wait for the PFL tournament, it seems.

Now he's back. He's back in San Jose, right? That card is taking place in San Jose. His team, AKA, has long had a great relationship with Scott Coker, and this one seems to make a lot of sense for all parties involved. That's at 225. 205. We'll talk to Holly Home.

It's taking me in like 30 minutes just to get through the damn lineup today. 205 will talk to, I'm not complaining, by the way. This is phenomenal. Holly Home at 205 will talk to her about her teammate, Yanukunitskaya. losing to Chris Cyborg about her lost to Chris Cyborg at UFC 219, about what's next for her. Is it 145? Is it 135? The one and only Holly Holmes stops by at 205.

And I do believe this may be her first interview since that fight at UFC 219. So it's always great to talk to Holly, the preacher's daughter. That will be at 205. 145. T-City. What can we say about T-City? Brian Ortega. Coming off that big win over Frankie Edgar,

the first man in Frankie Edgar's almost 12-year career. to stop Edgar. Not only does he stop Edgar, he does it in the first round, not only does he do it in the first round, he does it via strikes. And it was just incredible to watch. There are moments,

and I've talked about this on the show, where I feel like I am just in awe, especially when it comes to like a young fighter who gets the opportunity of a lifetime and is able to rise to the occasion and then some. You know, I felt it when T.J. Dillishaw beat Henna Burrow. I certainly felt it on Saturday. And I felt it when Rosenom Yunus beat Yvana.

You get the point. someone that you've been watching for some time, take that next step, and almost become a superstar in front of your eyes. And Brian Ortega is on the cusp of superstardom. I mean, obviously, Saturday night was gigantic for him, and now he's going to fight Max Holloway for the belt, and that's incredible.

And everyone is so excited about this fight. A part of you feels for Frankie Edgar. I don't know a single person who says anything bad about Frankie Edgar. He is a credit to MMA. He is a fighter's fighter. He is a fan favorite by everyone, even if you're, say, a BJ Penn fan or, I don't know, a Gray Maynard fan or a Cubs. How do you not respect Frankie Edgar?

He takes this fight when there was a lot at stake, when there was a lot to lose, when it was super dangerous to do so. It's heartbreaking. I know he was very proud of the fact that he had never been finished. Nothing that happened on Saturday takes away from his legacy. He's still one of the best fighters in the world. I would echo the sentiments of his coach, Mark Henry, who has long. said that he would love to see him fight at 135. I would love to see him fight at 135.

Brian Ortega weighed, according to Ortega, around 20 pounds more than Frankie Edgar on Saturday. Brian Ortega was clearly much bigger than Frankie. Max Holloway would have been much bigger than Frankie. We'll see what happens. I know he wants to get right back on the horse, maybe even come back as soon as Atlantic City. A knock I like that, you know, first the elbow,

then the uppercut, which lifted him off his feet would lead us to think that he would want to break, that everyone around him would want to break. But I get that he wants to get back on the horse, make up for lost time, fight in New Jersey, all these things and more. We'll see what happens with Frankie Edgar. But the story on Saturday, more so than Chris Cyborg, more so than, you know, Dern and O'Malley, the story on Saturday, in my opinion, the biggest story was the arrival of Brian Ortega.

And yes, he arrived. I know he's been here, but that was gigantic. to do that to Frankie Edgar. This is a kid who has been through so much who still sleeps on the floor, who represents everything good about humanity. Everything this kid says is just inspiring. My freaking mother is in love with him.

She won't stop talking about him. After the interview that we did on Thursday with his brother, he just has this esprit. He just has this joie de vivre. He's just, I don't know, he's a breath of fresh air. And it's a really cool story. to see a guy who came from, you know, not much, who's had his own trials and tribulations,

a guy who, you know, the Gracie family took under their wing. He couldn't afford to train at the Gracie Academy. Henry Gracie, you know, essentially putting him through, you know, the university, so to speak, and paying for him as long as he stayed out of trouble, grew up in households that had, you know, 15, 16 people living in it, still sleeps on the floor because he was used to sleeping on the floor as a kid, wants to change the world, has started his own Foundation is starting his own Gracie Scholarship Fund. And now here he is coming off a win over Frankie Edgar, the first ever person to finish Frankie Edgar is Brian Ortega and now he's going to fight Max Holloway for the belt.

I put up a poll about, you know, who people are leaning towards right now. We'll see what happens, you know, when that fight takes place, how they match up all that stuff and more. But to me, this is like, you know, a lot of people were saying that Saturday night was the dawn of a new era for the UFC. I'm not sure if I'm ready to subscribe to that notion just yet because, you know, let's be honest, that's an event in a vacuum. There's an event coming up, you know, with an almost 40-year-old Fabrice over Doom fighting.

And, you know, it's just, I don't think that Saturday night, UFC 222 is the Donovan New Air. But it does, it does lead us to start thinking about the fact that, yeah, the UFC does have some people that are worth getting excited about. At the top of that list is Brian Ortega. There are young guns. I wish we had some time to breathe and let these people sort of bask in their glory and bask in their victories. thankfully this weekend we have a break in the action. We'll have a UFC-less weekend for the first time, this coming weekend for the first time since the first week of January.

That's two straight months. Who remembers Jeremy Stevens and Josh Emmett? Like that feels like it was three months ago at this point. It was just last week. That's how quickly the news cycle turns in mixed martial arts. We'll get a minute to celebrate Brian Ortega and company, and that's great. They had a bunch of guys aged 23 to 27 who did phenomenal on Saturday.

I mean, how about the fact Alexander Hernandez takes a fight on short notice on literally a week's notice and knocks out Benile Daryush in just 42 seconds? How impressive was that? And I know a lot of people are talking about that he, you know, he faked it. He claims that he didn't, you know, the opening touch of gloves. He says that he was just sort of, you know, gauging the distance. But that was a, I mean, that's a guy to remember. that's a big name right there. Caitlin Vieira, another one.

Of course, as I said, Brian Ortega, Cody Stamen. I mean, there are some good young fighters in the UFC and now it's up to them to book them in the right fights to move them along slowly, to push them quickly when needed. But there's a lot to like. And UFC 222, you know, I think signified all that. Also of note, how about the old dog, Andja Rolofsky, who's pushing 40.

not only does he tie Frank Mears record for most wins in the UFC heavyweight division. I love this stat. The best part is that he scored four takedowns, this according to Fight Metrics, scored four takedowns in that fight against Stefan Struth. Prior to that, in all his UFC fights combined, he had three. He's been fighting in the UFC. He took a break, but he debuted 18 years ago, and he had three combined, scored four.

on Saturday night. Mike Brown and the coaches at American Top Team have, it seems, added years to Andrei Alofsky's career. Amazing. This is a guy who was just on a five-fight losing streak, now in a two-fight winning streak, and he's hoping to fight in Chicago for the first time in June, and I hope that the UFC, I hope that they oblige.

Also, there was some controversy as far as Hector Lombard and CB Dahlwe go. I suggest reading an article by our own Mark Romandie. He interviewed Big John McCarthy about this, and he you know if you missed it Dalloway lands a kick right as the horn sounds and then Lombard lands a one two and the second one the left

is what drops Dalloway Dahlway can't continue the ref you know he he waves off the fight and Dahl away wins via DQ and he's carted out on a stretcher you see him there he's

he's very you know disoriented he's all out of sorts as John McCarthy and and who better than John McCarthy to talk about this, he said that the referee did 90% of the things right. He called time, he said it at the right time, he was just a little slow to actually break up the action,

and fighters are programmed to wait for that. And so I feel for Lombard, I still feel like it was a little late. One punch, maybe second punch, and how impactful it was, I think everyone's hands were tied, and I think DQ was the right call. So a very unfortunate turn of a,

events for both men, especially for Hector Lombard, who was on that winning, losing streak, excuse me, who had not won since 2014. And, you know, you'd like to think that the UFC gives them another chance. You know, again, in MMA, you never know what you get as far as, as the rules are concerned. But in the end, while I thought the referee was a little late to jump in, I do think that the right call was made. I really do think that that should have been a DQ. A tough one, certainly a tough one.

And it was, you know, a pretty good fight up until that. point that was at the end of the first round. But unfortunately, you know, that, that's just, that was just way too, way too much after the bell. And, and, and, and, and I know people talked about the germane durandomy, Holly home fight, but these were way more impactful. I mean, you know, Dalloway says he couldn't continue and he was, he was dropped. So a tough blow for C.B. Dalloway and, of course, Hector Lombard as well. Jordan Johnson wins against Adam Milstead. As I said, Cody Stamen defeats Brian Carraway. Zach Otto retires Mike Pyle in. Mike Pyle's retirement fight and gets his black belt in the process.

I mentioned Alexander Hernandez, Mackenzie Duren, Caitlin Biera, defeating Katzenegano, and is calling for a title shot, Andrei Alofsky, I mentioned. I mentioned Brian Ortega. I mentioned Chris Cyborg. The one person I didn't mention yet is our first guest of the day. The one and only Sugar Sean O'Malley making his UFC pay-per-view debut. What a performance against Andre Sukumtat. He talked a lot going into the fight.

He backed it up. He got injured in the process. And not only was it a fun fight, was it an entertaining fight, the first round in particular was just amazing to watch. The post-fight interview was equally entertaining. Unfortunately for Sean, he couldn't stand up. He injured his foot, but he was just as entertaining as if he was standing after the victory. The UFC has something with Sean O'Malley, one of those great young, you know,

up-and-coming stars that we talked about at the top of the show. And he didn't get a chance to meet with the press afterwards because he was in the hospital. The good news is, according to Dana White, He did not break his foot, but let us hear from the man himself, the man who heads up the sugar show, the one and only Sean O'Malley is here in the car driving, I do believe, to the doctor's office. Is that right? How are you, Sean? Sean, let me ask you a question. You may be holding onto your phone and covering the speaker, so I can't hear you, maybe the bottom of the phone. So just make sure when you hold onto the phone like this or something like that.

You feel me? Is that better? Yeah, that's much better. Thank you for doing this. And I told you on Thursday I would write the wrong despite, you know, the worst efforts of your manager, Danny Rubenstein and have you on the program on Monday. So I'm glad that you're able to do this. Could you tell us off the bat?

How are you feeling? How was the foot? Oh, thank you. The foot, it's been hurting pretty much nonstop. They said it wasn't broken. They said I had a previous fracture in there before the fight. So I'm going to go figure out what's wrong with it. It's hurt pretty much nonstop.

so I don't know, we'll see. Did you know that you had a previous fracture? I didn't. I always, every fight I get in, I throw a lot of kicks. I land with my feet a lot. I've had a lot of foot issues because of that. And I wasn't surprised. I had a lot of foot injuries, so I wasn't surprised.

Did the foot bother you? You know, they pinpointed the one kick where it seemed like it really bothered you and afterwards you could hardly stand. but was it bothering you throughout the fight even early on? No, I think I landed a few, I think I landed a few kicks with my foot on his knee in that first round. So I think I heard it kind of a little bit in the first, a little bit of the second, then finally just kind of couldn't use it in the third. Have you ever felt that kind of pain in a fight before?

I mean, you could not stand up. No, that was, that, that was, it was super weird feeling. It's like my whole foot was like, no, I couldn't feel it. Like when I put on it or put it on the ground and put pressure on it, it like wasn't there. It was super weird. It was, yeah, just down the left phone. It sucks. But it's not broken.

Is that 100%? Or I guess you had the previous fact, it's not broken worse? How would you describe it right now? What I understand is like if it would be better if it was broken. Because you're healing all that rather than ligament tears. So I think I would almost rather it be broken. But we're going to see it. I'm going to go get it checked out.

We'll figure out what it is there. So it's pointless for me to stay right now. Okay. Could you walk on it right now or are you on crutches? I'm on crutches. I tried putting a little bit. I couldn't even put a little bit of pressure on it on the ground. It just hurt way too bad.

Okay. Were you surprised, you know, Andre's taking a lot of heat for his game plan, especially in the third round. Were you surprised that he was down on the mat with you and didn't try to get you to stand up? I was down to strike with one foot. I was even trying to get back up to my feet because I didn't want to end up somehow losing that fight

by being stuck on the ground. So I was trying to get back up and fight out of bottom with one foot. You know, I was trying to stand back up and fight him. But yeah, I guess this game plan or whatever that was going to the third, that was not smart. Were you thinking that?

Like, oh, this is great for me? Stay on the mat. I was, it was weird because I knew, I was like, I couldn't put any pressure on my foot. So I was like, this is probably best, but I didn't want to somehow lose the fight because I was stuck off my back. But, yeah, it ended up being perfect. I couldn't even really hard to get up with someone on top of you with both feet, let alone try to do it with one foot. I was getting my butterfly guard back. A lot of pain there, too.

So it worked out perfect. Did you think that you had won the fight once it was over? I mean, it seemed like it was a little bit up in the air before they announced the judge a scorecard. How confident were you? At the time, I wasn't even, I wasn't in just so much pain. I wasn't really even thinking about, I don't know, it was weird. Going back and watching the fight, there's no doubt I've whooped his ass. I mean, you know what I mean?

I won that fight 100%. I seen that he almost tried raising his hand like he won. I would definitely won that fight. Like, there's no question about that. Other than the injury, of course, you know, and now you've watched it. Are you happy with your performance? Is that the kind of performance that you wanted? I wanted to get the finish, obviously.

10 more seconds in that last, in the first round, I think I finished that kid. So, kind of disappointed I didn't get to finish. Same as last fight. I thought it was a good performance, just not completely satisfied. So unless you're getting finishes, you're not completely satisfied?

100%. He said afterwards, you know, much respect, you guys had some words, but he said that your corner was talking shit to him throughout the fight. Is that accurate? Yes, I mean, we're going to, we were both laughing at him. I like chit-chat with my opponent. My corner does too.

We just, you know, it's another mental warfare game. It's another tactic, and it obviously got in his head enough for him to bring it up. So, I don't know. It's just something we've always done since, you know, since he's been in my corner, it's always been something. It's a little game we do. We talk and we have fun in there, so. What are some of the things that you and your corner are saying to your opponent or said to Andre in particular?

Could you tell us? Can you share some? Just telling him, we're laughing at him when he misses me, telling me slow, just being real, kind of like saying real stuff. I tell everyone I fight before the fight. You're not going to be fast. I'm going to be too fast for you. You're going to feel that in there. And no one ever believes me until we get in there and you can tell. They're like, damn, okay, serious. and take it right up here. So I tell everyone they're too slow, and I tell him that before the fight,

I tell him that whenever I get a chance. And it's always true. How much did it bother you that he hit your hand when you guys squared off at Media Day? Not at all. I was glad he did that. I tell he was emotionally invested. And he, that was good.

I liked that. It felt good. It didn't fire me up better anything. It was perfect. He got into it too much. and what I saw from him, I was nervous. The big stage from me,

knows he shouldn't be here. He knows I'm the, like, I'm the man right now and he just got a little nervous. So that's, that's what I saw from that. You know,

fighting on pay-per-view and having a performance like that, you know, they reserve those spots for people they believe in and big names and you're certainly getting the push and it's well-deserved.

Do you feel like things have changed now? Like, does it feel, okay, I just won on a UFC pay-per-view in my second fight officially in the UFC. Okay, And like this is a big step that I just, you know, I just took. I just crossed this hurdle. Do you feel a difference than winning on an FS1 card like you did back in December?

Yeah, for sure. You know, it's obviously just a bigger stage. So many more people saw. My Instagram blew up again. I went from 80,000 to 160,000 or something, followers. Wow. Less than four days or five days or whatever it was. So, you know, I got a ton of eyes.

And Andre, I think he was a pretty tough. opponent, 12 and 5, never been finished. I thought it was a very good performance. Were you able to go to your after-party? Yeah, I was. I was at the hospital. They did an X-ray. They said they were super backed up on their,

at the hospital or something. So we ended up just getting in a splint and being able to go. I know if the people throwing it for me put a lot of effort into it. So I really wanted to make an effort to get there. So, but now we're back at the, wherever. at to go get checked out. So hopefully you got what's wrong with this. You have a few more minutes or do you have to go?

No, we're good. We're good. I got 10 minutes. Okay, yeah, I'll be less. I'll be seven minutes. Did you get to try your marijuana? Did you get a chance to check it out? And if so, how is it?

Yeah, the Sugar Show OG. It's unreal. It was easily, like obviously my strain or whatever, but easily the best marijuana I've ever smoked. It was unreal. Yeah, I'm hoping we can get it out and do a couple different states and get going on it because it's good stuff.

And where can people get it? I think it's only at Atrium in California right now. I need to kind of talk to them today or sometime this week and figure out where it's all going to be and get that info out. You know, I have to say... They're going to smoke them?

I can smoke some, Ariel? You know, I'm not much of a smoker myself. It's been almost 20 years since I even tried something of that nature. And, you know, I just feel like I'm kind of past that point. But maybe one day if we ever meet up, how about that legally, you know, under... In Nevada. Sounds good to me. Okay.

You know, speaking of which, I thought you guys stuck together, but here's Nate Diaz criticizing you after the fight. Did you see that tweet? Yeah, I don't... I just pictured Nate. sitting behind his phone pissed off tweeting that at me. Like, I don't know. It's funny. I don't, I don't see where the hate comes, where it's come from, but it's all good.

I can care less one way or the other. I feel like you guys would be friends. I mean, I was a little surprised. That was too, but it's all funny. Bye. Were you happy with the open workout, how that turned out? I thought it was phenomenal. I personally, if I could be critical, I thought you should have stayed up there and just done it up there and not gone on the official stage.

But overall, were you happy? that would have been pretty funny yeah i wanted to walk out walk down with my robom but one of the higher ups in the ufc that i couldn't because not rebuck which i felt was kind of an excuse because like none of my out none of my closed media day were rebuck either so i don't know but it's it's whatever i thought the overwork out itself turned out good though it was fun anyone from the ufc higher-ups come come up to you after the fight and and congratulate you tell you their plans for you any feedback afterwards? No, I didn't, I just went straight to the hospital.

I didn't talk to anyone afterwards, but I'm looking forward to. I know, you know, hopefully I'll be able to renegotiate my contract again. I was told not to ask for it. I asked last fight and so, but, you know, I think I'm worth it. I think for sure I've put on the performance and I'm bringing in the audience. So I think we'll be able to work something out. When you asked after the last fight, did you get what you wanted? Yeah, ish.

You know, not quite. But you know what? I just got to keep on there and perform. I know I can perform like that. And I know what's, I know, like, people are going to love it and want to see it. But I just got to go out there and prove it. So I'll get, you know, hopefully we'll be able to renegotiate and get closer to what I wanted.

But we'll work it out. I noticed you went with the cornrows for this fight. How come? Oh, yeah. I did it a lot in. during sparring. My girl just can whip them up at home, so I tried it for sparring, and I really liked it. They're not bouncing in my eyes. I'll probably, I don't know, I liked it a lot. It was nice. It made my head feel a lot faster.

Okay. So you're going to stick with that? Yeah. Probably, I don't know. We'll see. Okay. I know you have to find out about the foot, and again, I'll let you go in two minutes, but in a perfect world, what do you want next? Do you have a perfect scenario next? Let this foot heal up That's 100% where my concentration is going to go Is doing physical therapy on my foot You know, eating healthy

Making sure my body's Making sure my body's Healing right And just get healthy and get back to the training So I don't I'm not really going to think any more than Any more than that And no opponents either

No one you want to get your hands on Or who makes sense No we're at the look at that The roster Kind of see who's winning and who's losing and check out some stuff and figure it out from there. But honestly, I have no idea how long my foot to feel or anything, so it's hard to even say.

But I'd like to fight in Vegas again, for sure, obviously. That's my favorite place to fight. You enjoyed the experience once again? Yeah, I did. It was awesome. It was cool. It's funny that, like, Andre and I got five to the night. I feel like I gave an extra 50,000.

He didn't even really do much. I whooped his ass the whole time, and I would have finished him in third if I didn't hurt my phone. But it's funny that he got an extra. I'm glad he did, though, you know. He seemed like a good person. He can go back and give it to his family and his kids and stuff. So that was cool.

He got to experience a pay-per-view event. So I'm sure he had a lot of fun, too. What will you do with the extra 50K? Do you know yet? I'm probably going to get a, I want to get a condo in Vegas. I really do. So I'll probably do that. I had some realtors hit me up via email.

I heard my embedded. So I probably do something like that. Wow. That's incredible. You say something unembedded and people are actually hitting you up. Yeah, so that worked out cool. And I had to go look for one. And so the tattoo is real.

It's still there. Unfortunately, it's not real. It was a fake one, but I am getting it. I was just kind of seen how I would look. I'm like, you know what, I like it. Fuck it. So I'll probably get it. What is it?

So what did you do? What is that? Like a Hanna tattoo? I don't even know. We were on the strip just walking around. I think it was day before a meeting a day. Yeah. And I wanted to go to get the real one because there's a 24-hour tattoo shop.

But we decided, well, let's just see if we like it. If we don't like it, then we don't have to keep it. But I like it. So I'll get it. How long does it stay for? Because I'm assuming you've taken a shower since then, right? Uh-uh. No, it's jokes.

Yeah, it's supposed to stay for a couple weeks. But it looks like it's rubbing out. Okay. Do you hear from Snoop Dog after that fight? He did. He actually messaged me. Messed me on Instagram. He said, good job, nephew. What a life you have, man. I mean, like a year ago, you're not in the UFC. Now you're getting DMs from Snoop Dog. Congratulations you on winning in the UFC. You're getting bonuses. This is incredible. What a story.

Yeah, it was awesome. It's crazy. Not even a year ago. I was going out and doing the contender series, the show, doing the medicals for that. and trying to get in the UFC. So now I'm, you know, going to be the main draw here soon. Amazing. Well, congratulations, Sean. I appreciate you checking in on the way to the hospital.

And if you can, keep us posted on your foot. I hope it's not too severe and that, you know, you have an easy recovery and that you'll be back in there. It's a pleasure to watch you fight. Congratulations on a great fight. Awesome. Thanks so much, Ariel. Thanks for having me on.

All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. Sugar, Sean O'Malley. the Sugar Show on full display on Saturday night. They're behind him. And usually when they find this kind of talent via one of the Dana White outlets, whether it's looking for a fight or now the contender series,

and there's something there they'll get behind them, this is someone who's worth getting behind, in my opinion. If you saw that first round, it was a phenomenal five minutes. He says now that his foot was fractured. going into the fight. You saw the kind of pain that he was in after the fight, still delivered a very entertaining post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. This is the kind of fighter that in the day that we live in today,

the era that we live in today, the Reebok era, if you will, where everyone, unfortunately, is starting to look the same and at times sounds the same, these kind of guys stick out. And someone who's going to put in the time, put in the effort, to go the extra mile, to show up unannounced when he's not scheduled at the open workout. Those kinds of guys stick out. So a great performance there from Sean O'Malley. Hopefully as he heads off to the doctor now, he will get some good news about that foot

and that it's not too seriously injury because you don't want him to be out for an extended period of time. All right. Let's move along. As I said at the top of the show, one of the great stories on Saturday, in my opinion, the top story on Saturday, coming out a Saturday night was Brian Ortega. T-City finishing Frankie Edgar, the first person to ever finish Frankie Edgar in a mixed martial arts fight.

And now he is without a doubt the number one contender at 145 pounds. What a story. He finishes all of his opponents in the UFC. He remains undefeated. Of course, he's undefeated in the UFC. This time, though, he doesn't be his strikes. And again, in this day and age,

where everyone's a bad boy and everyone's trash talking, this guy, the good guy, who's talking about foundations and scholarships and still sleeping on the floor and having his brother at the Open Workouts and his family there supporting him loud and proud. What a breath of fresh air. As I said at the top, my mom in love with him. And how about this?

There he is, T. City with an old friend, an unannounced guest. So, brother. Hennar Gracie, how about this is great? Here, you guys. You get the two for one special. What's up, brother? I didn't pay for this. This is amazing.

How are you guys? Brian, Henner Gracie. Thank you so much. Congratulations to you both. Thank you, man. Thank you. Okay. Let me start with you, Brian.

36 hours ago, it seems like your life changed. You finished the guy who had never been finished before. You're the number one contender. What is life like on this Monday morning? Does it feel different? Yeah, it feels different. We just got back from doing a show with Brendan Shaw right now. And we literally just got to the office.

So, I mean, I could feel the change for sure. Wait, did you do Brandon first or me first? Brandon first because it was earlier. Wack. That is whack. He got the exclusive. That is whack. Brendan's won't air till whatever tomorrow, so it's not live.

Oh. We did aerials first. Don't tell him. We still. Yes. It didn't yours first. Awesome. Thank you.

Brian, did you know, at what point did you know that Frankie had never been finished? Like, you remember someone telling you that? And you remember saying to yourself, this is something that I want to accomplish, that being a goal? Because you talked about it leading up to the fight, but it wasn't something that was very publicized. When did you find out and when did you make this a goal of yours? it was about a week and a half before the fight where I mean the whole camp started fast.

Everything was at a fast pace taking the fight on short notice. So all these things were going on. And I think like a week and a half before the fight when all these, you know, like these hype things started coming out. Like Frank Yeager has been a man that had the most time ever in the UFC Octagon came up. That was like facts about Frankie. It was like a photo of him and all these facts. And it said never been finished. And I was like, wait, he's never been finished.

And then kind of when I seen that, I realized I said, you know what? I always want to make a different kind of stamp. And I always want to finish. And because I'm a finisher and he's never been finished, it was almost like it was a test to see if you can get through that or not. And, I mean, I challenged accepted. I took it from my own self. But honestly, were you thinking submission finish?

Were you really thinking via strikes? No, I wasn't thinking via strikes. I wanted to hurt them via strikes. and I wanted to submit him. Me and Henner and myself, we've been working on a lot of stuff lately, and pretty much sniper jiu-jitsu shots, we're calling him. And he got out of the first one, and then after that, I said, you know what, that's banging out a little bit more,

and I realized that my strikes were actually hurting him. And once I felt him flip up and we will wobble, that's when I said, you know what, this is how we're going to finish it. Yeah, what's crazy is actually going into the fight, going into the fight, the training for this one, as many people know, it was only three weeks of training, right? So one week of media, you know, the fight week, the lot cut, weight cut week and being there for the fight, but three weeks of train, three weeks of real training for this. And for his training partners, for the crew here at Gracie University, and, you know,

Coach James, Jitesh was a huge help, all the crew that we had, both together, great sparring partners. Everyone who was watching him in training was like, was like, was like, totally, totally blown away by his precision on the stand-up as well, though. You know, his submissions are always on point. They've been that way since he's 14 years old. But from the stand-up perspective, we're like, wow, look how relaxed Brian is right now. It's almost like the fact that it was such short notice, the fight was almost a good thing where it was like, yo, fighting tomorrow, go, do what you do?

And there wasn't even time to really let it get in your head. So in training, he was the most fluid, he was the most relaxed and the most precise in the stand-up. So I'm like, well, this is not really, you know, the way the world expects this to go. but if he fights in the cage with Frankie, the way he's fighting right now sparring in the training, there's a really good chance that he knocks him out. Like that was not off the table at all because of how precise he was.

And in fact, you know, they have been working the uppercut, right? So Coach James had been nailing it. And then Mike Safai, the nutritionist, personal trainer, one of Brian's coaches as well, Mike Sapphire was like, yo, he's the one who called it. He says, man, you know, Brian is so relaxed and he's very effective, even while he's backing up, he's landing on his training partners.

Like the movement is like the matrix. And Mike just really pinpointed at this camp and said, it's a different level right now. I don't know what happened, but it's different. So then as we get to the fight week, I'm like, man, whatever we got to do as a team to keep Brian so that he gets into this fight on Saturday as if he's in training. That was the whole mindset.

We have to get him in the cage at the same relaxed T-City bundle, as I call it, just totally relaxed. Nothing matters. Just go in there and spar with this guy. If he fights like that, Frankie's in trouble standing and on the ground, and it was the fact. Brian, would you agree with that? The fact that it was a shorter training camp actually, you know, played into your hands and made you more comfortable going into the fight? Absolutely, man.

I felt like right off the bat, I felt like I did a lot of work, but then I realized it's three rounds. Things just really got easier. Like the sparring was, I mean, we did, I've done so much sparring just in one camp than I did in my other camp. it was like we're sparring Monday, Fridays, Saturdays. And I actually had a first, like, I had a schedule for the first time. I had meal preps, you know, for the first time. I had recovery sessions for the first time. And I feel like, I mean, because of a short notice and I had, like I said,

my friend Jathe helped me with the planning. I feel like it was one of the best training camps I've ever had, even in the short notice. Well, it's because it was short notice, everything was like, all right, let's all get dialed in. We kind of got everything real serious real quick. To be honest, when you have three months to prepare for a fight, you're like, all right, we're good. You know, let's go surf a little bit, let's train a little bit. It's a little bit more like, let's just pull it together, more relaxed.

But it's true. Like, Jetsch came in with the training schedule. Mike and La Tapateria. What's the guy's name over there? The guy's came in with a whole meal plan. A lot of things were first for this fight where it really became serious because, you know, we know that, you know, Frank was in line for the title. So I told Brad, I said, this is the undercover title.

This is the undercover title fight right here. This is the one, you know. So let's go win this one. Pull it all together. And, you know, it couldn't have happened in a more spectacularly their fashion. You know, and I believed in a knockout or, you know, submission, both the possibility, but not in round one. You know, we were ready for a three-round war. And I was fighting for it to be five-round fight.

I was like five rounds of Frankie because Frankie's cardio is so off the charts that three rounds won't be long enough. But that didn't happen because we ended up at Comain and they made it three rounds. By the way, it's such a trip to see you guys together talking. because every time I hear Brian speak, the first thing that comes to mind is Hennar Gracie, because I feel like you guys sound exactly alike. So now, like, closing my eyes, I don't know. Well, now you can finally see the difference.

Yeah. You do hear the similarities, though, right? Yeah, well, he has similar cadence. And naturally, you know, he grew up in the, he grew up on the green mat, so he learned how to teach, J-J-Zoo. I've been with him for 14 years, probably over half my life. Listen, and almost every single day.

And I couldn't be more, and I couldn't be more proud of him in terms of how he's come, you know, and people always see the, you know, the jih Togistu. And when I see Brian do chokes on people, I'm like, that's Hennar Gracie with that tight choke right there. So I see my, I see my chokes in him. But when I see his character, when I see how he's interacting with other people and the humility, even at the spot where he's at, that's what I'm most proud of. And I have no responsibility in that because I didn't come from where he came from, and I'm not where he's at and where he's going. And he's in untreaded waters in terms of

in terms of my experience, you know, I'm not, you know, fighting for the title of the UFC. So to see the humility with which he's kind of taking this role. And the good things that he's trying to do with his spotlight right now, it's, you know, I'm in admiration as much as everybody else. And we'll get to that in a second, but as I told you via text, Brian, my mom is in love with you. She won't stop talking about you. So now you've got the moms following you as well. That's a whole other, you know, that's a whole other sector of the world. Have you ever landed a punch like that?

It looked to me like Frankie actually went off the mat, like he, like shot up like a cartoon. Have you ever landed a clean punch like that before? Never, never. Only in training. Like I said, my boxing coach, James Larson and I really trained hard, and we even called it. We said, we're going to catch him with this uppercut. I said the way he is, and he comes in, he goes, that uppercut's in the land. And I can remember during the training camp, we would go and train just me and him, and we do 10, 5-minute rounds and just drill the hell out of these things.

I mean, to the point where I'm like, come on, dude, like, that's enough uppercut left foot. Like, you can't do 10 rounds of uppercut left hook. Like, there's just something more. like and as a coach now I see okay you were right I always I always hate saying you're right but he was right and I've never every single fight I've always I've always tried to land something but even especially my uppercuts they just fall short and this time I feel with I don't know how many rounds that we did of training that with my coach but when I seen it it was I could just imagine just the mitt and versus his chin and I just threw that uppercut and time they're right Right? Well, let's not forget the perfect elbow of the century. The perfect elbow, yes.

I mean, that elbow, you know, from the distance and this precision of that, I mean, this is, this is amazing. Did you tell when you landed? Came through with the crazy plan. When you landed the elbow, could you tell that it was the beginning of the end? So when I landed the elbow, we realized that he might have insecurities about his orbital. Okay. Because I know I felt the same way every time, every time I've had injuries when I came. come back to training, I'm always very insecure about it.

I always baby it a little bit. So for him to have to have that problem and then try to jump right into training camp and do all that, I knew for sure it was going to be a factor there. And I realized and said, you know what, let's attack that and let's kind of bother him a little bit with it. And then when I realized he was being in my face and he was, because of the size difference, he was able to be in my face. And when I wanted to hit my arm was so long, I couldn't.

So I looked for the elbow, and then that's what I said. Okay, his elbow is going to land to run on the orbital, and then I'm going to, I got had bad intentions with it. And I mean, everything fell through. And then after wobbled him, you were like, for a second, you didn't know if it was. Yeah, I thought it was maybe like another freak. He had your Grey Maynard type of situation because I wobbled him, and I seen him wobble and I was like, yeah, right.

Like, this guy's going to come back like a bad out of hell like to deal with Grey Maynors. But I said, I'm still going to pursue him and I'm still going to attack. And then once I've seen him, he didn't really come back from it as well as I thought he was. And when he leaned on me, that's what I knew. Okay, this guy's in survival mode. I mean, I have, I don't know how much time I had, but I knew I was running short of time. So I said, at least if I'm not going to finish him, let me just finish and get this round back.

And that's what I was aiming for. And when I seen that opportunity, I took it and I'm happy. And when you do that uppercut, like he threw, like, he threw the entire kitchen sink in that upper. Like that was the most, when you watch him back, the windup where Brian's hip rotation and full connection, I mean, that's, Frankie literally flew off the ground. And it's, yeah, spectacular job we've done. Hennar, how old was Brian when you met him? Brian came in for his first class at 13, just around 13 years old, end of 12, early 13. And, yeah, stuck around for one year.

It was super dedicated. It was like the most, every class didn't say one word. even if you spoke to him, his little face, he would look just in his little blue eyes and act like you didn't know what you were talking about. And then you put him to train with people and he's choking everybody out, just absolute savage, took to Jiu-Jitsu like 100%

like anybody I've ever seen. And he became the enforcer. When you came in, there are many people in the building today who are black belts who teach with us and work full-time with us, who were like, yo, Brian was the guy that when I rolled with him,

I believed in the possibilities of Jiu-Jitsu. Because rolling with me and Hito on 6-4-19-pound, it's like, great, you guys are giants. But Brian, 13, 14, you know, pretty blue eyes, you know, 125, 130 pounds. Thinking triangles from everywhere, you're like, I want to be able to do that to someone else. So he was very much an enabler. And then after one year, that's when his dad came in and was like, yo, you know, we love the training. And, you know, I had become closer to Brian by that point, but he's like, hey, you know, we love the training.

But, you know, we can't afford it anymore. We can't afford classes anymore. It's too tight. And I'm like, hold on. This is not happening. what you're saying is happening, and they say, we have to pull them out. And I said, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't worry about it. I'll take care of them from here. And that was it. That was the last time he paid for class. And since then, I'd be in 100% like, and at the time then, it was like, yo, Brian, fold these towels, clean this mat, do this laundry.

And he was sometimes sleeping the mat over there and like, come over, sleep on my couch and get up and work and assisting teaching kids classes. He became an amazing, it is an amazing instructor. But it was just pay off your tuition by just being around and doing anything, anything was necessary. Move those boxes over there.

And then little by little, he's coming up. and he learns all the ropes. And, you know, he learned how to teach. He became a spectacular teacher by 16, 17 years old. Then we're traveling all over the world. I'm like, come on, let's go. We're going to go teach these tops in, you know, North Carolina.

We're going to go teach these tops in Oklahoma, teach the seminar over here. And he was just my sidekick for so long. And, you know, he just learned all the ways. And then, you know, 18, 19, 20, 21, got his first couple of professional fights early there. And that's when we saw him in the fights. And you said, wow, even in the most difficult fight-search situations, this guy is totally calm.

Nothing would kind of face him. You know, whether he got hit or, you know, adversity. That was from the beginning. That was from his jiu-ditsy days. And that's what people see today. They go, man, the guy walks in there, stone cold, 100% clear, relaxed and present. And it doesn't matter if you get punched or rocked.

He's still in the fight 100%. And, you know, and we were talking about it this morning, or we're going to be talking about it later this morning with Brennan Chob. But that's why he's so excited, relax, relax. You're talking about crazy. People are like, well, where does this come from? This ability to be absolutely calm and turns nothing into something. And I thought, wow, this is his whole life.

Yeah. You know, the adversity, the challenges, the upbringing, all the difficulties that he dealt with in his youth, which is pretty public, you know, now the world kind of knows his story. And if not, you can look it up. And then to turn that, you know, that trouble, though all those troubled circumstances into what he has created for himself, that's what's most exciting to watch.

People are fans of Key City the fighter today because he wins in spectacular fashion, undepeated, you know, all finishes against tough opponents. That's like 10% of what there is to be to be excited. They need to know because you're not going to do this about yourself. All he asks was like, he's not going to say, he's not going to do it.

Yeah, I know, dude. Ariel, you know how we do it because he's not going to do it about himself, so the world needs to know that. Sure, sure. No, I feel you. Turned it into something amazing, and we're just excited to be part of the ride. Brian, once upon a time,

Henner Gracie, and it still stands, has the record. for the longest answer in the history of the show. I think he went like 13 minutes talking about like avocado. One question answer. Yeah. It was unbelievable. No, no.

We know, we know, Henner. It's all good. Blackfell Interviewers.com, you guys. You mentioned this kind of in passing on Saturday, but I just want to give you the opportunity to talk about it a little more. So you have officially started the Briner-take-a-Foundation after the win over a Cubs-Wanson, and you're going to pay it back by, you know, paying for kids, like in a scholarship way. to go train at the Gracie Academy? Is that accurate?

What is the Brianneurtega Foundation? Well, the Brianneurtega Foundation is catering and helping people all around the world and all different kinds of situations. And the first steps that we are going to take is we're going to start doing what's called the T-City Scholarship, whereas we're going to be sponsoring kids, I think from ages right now of 6 to 16, and we're going to give them one full year of training. And we realize that, and especially realize, that if we only cater to our own city,

it's, we're limiting ourselves. So we're using the Grace University and all the schools that we have affiliated with to where anyone who was around a university can go and we'll sponsor a kid to go train there for free for one year. And, I mean, yeah, so.

And it's been working on this. Yes, so last night. And so, you know, like, because we took this fight on short notice, we were working on the foundation. And if I had it, my other way, it would have been, Frankie and Holloway fight and after the win I get the winter in the summer and by then I I

already accomplished and done the foundation set it up properly the way I wanted to but because everything happened so fast we're you know what I'm saying we're kind of just trading water and we're going out of that going with it as it goes and we're trying to pretty much keep up with the pace that the career and success is going and the limelight really that's amazing so he came and yeah so he said you know let's do the scholarship one year full paid tuition you know, at any certified training center, we have about 150 schools around the world. And, yeah, they just go online to graceuniversity.com

slash Brian Ortega Foundation. And you can actually submit an application. Tell us all about your story. Tell us the challenges that you're dealing with for you or your child. Or the child, a child can submit it for themselves. We just want to hear the stories. And then, you know, we have a great team here who will help us kind of sift through and choose, you know, the ones that needed the most, obviously, initially.

And has more resources and Brian partners with more of the influential, you know, influencers that he has access and friendships with and we do through the Gracie University here, we'll be able to hopefully sponsor more and more kids as we go forward. I mean, you know, and what's crazy is that it doesn't need to be for a pursuit of a professional fighting career for a kid.

The benefits of having Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and the lifestyle that an entity like this provides go without saying, you know, how much it's way beyond, you know, your aspirations to be a fighter. It's amazing. So now your sites are set on Max Holloway. You know you're getting,

did you, you said at the press conference that no one kind of came up to you and told you that this is happening, but it's obvious that this is happening, right? Did you have any discussions with Dana White or anyone after? I've talked to my manager at Soros, and we pretty much, he sent me some text messages,

and we talked, and it's in discussion, but I wanted to hear from Dana's voice, and I didn't get to see him that Saturday, you know? So I just wanted to hear from the horses of mouth. Okay. It makes me feel a little bit more better, you know. But I heard it from all of my main sources and everything. did say it after.

Right. But at that night, at that time, you know, there was so much going on that I didn't really, I didn't see him or hear him. And I respect that. And you deserve to hear that. You deserve, I mean, that's part of the fun of getting the title shot. I know you haven't had a lot of chance, you know,

a lot of time to think about the guy because you just did an amazing thing on Saturday. But early on, what are your initial thoughts on fighting Max who's looked really good as of late? No, I love the style. I feel like this is one of the people who said it. And I'm saying it again, it's that I feel like this is one of the biggest fights in the UFC featherweight divisions since Connor and Aldo. And, I mean, this is going to be a great pay-per-view. You got two young guys who are hungry. I feel like we have similar backgrounds.

You know, he's always stayed with his team from the beginning. So did I. He's got his group of friends. I got my group of friends. He loves surfing. I love surfing. You know, like Hawaiian versus Mexican, we both like to scrap. I love this fight.

I love this is the fight. These are the fights that I look forward to, and I'm happy that I'm going to be able to be there for a full 25 minutes this time and fighting for the world's idol. I love that story that Ed said to you before the Cubs Swanson fight, you know, on the Sunday before

that your life is going to change now. And he was 100% right. Boy has your life changed. How are you dealing with the newfound fame? You know, because people are going to come out of the woodwork now. Everyone's your best friend. Everyone wants to talk to you. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.

I mean, life is going to get crazy. You're in, you're an, LA, I mean, you're living the dream as a 27-year-old. How are you dealing with all this? Do you like it so far? Do you like the attention? Is it a little weird? How would you describe it?

It scares me because it, like you said, I kind of shot up pretty fast and everything's like, who is just, you know, like all eyes on me. But I'm still the same. And I have my team. And I always said, these guys, the guys that I've already had around me since the beginning, they're like, I call my lawnmower. They mow all the lawn. they cut the grass short so I see all the snakes in the grass.

And at the end of the day, I don't care what happens to me. As long as I have them on my side, I've already won because people in life look for friends that have their back on right or die friends. I've already have that since the beginning. They've been with me. And I don't really care what happens. As long as I have them in my life, my life's going to be all right because life is

bigger than fighting. After this, we have lives in. And I've seen a lot of situations where people fall hype to it, and then they get let down by this world. And then they have psychological problems out there because of all the things they endured and the ups and the downs and the letdown. So I'm sticking to my team. I'm saying to myself. And that's it, man.

As long as I have these guys around, I'm going to be all right. They're always going to tell me what to do. Yeah, they're always going to tell me what to do. They're always going to tell me the right thing. They're not going to, you know, kiss bud and say, oh, yeah, yeah, Brian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They keep me grounded and I'm already grounded as it is. So I feel like I got a really great team.

Yeah, and you have great people around you. By the way, last thing, was your brother in attendance? Did he go to the fight? My brother, mom and dad, let him go to the fight. Brought him to the fight. He still cried at the fight. But, dude, my little brother loves you, man. He was like, I was on the team.

I was on the interview. I had the camera. And then, I mean, after that, he blew up, man. Honestly, he feels like, I think, yeah, he won the title. Yeah, he won the title shot. It was all about him this last week. get who I am. It's all about my little brother.

Christopher Tega. He's, I mean, man, I love this little kid. And I'm glad that, like, I'm glad that this light on me allowed me to show the world who he is so he can shine, you know, because he's got his own dream, his own goals. And he's 13 and didn't have to go through what I'm going through. So now I'm going to, you know, try to coach him in a better way where he doesn't have to make the same mistakes I did.

I can't wait. Yesterday, obviously, it was the Oscars. I can't wait when he wins his Oscar in like 15 years. People go back and say, oh, that was his first. first interview, he did some MMA interview that we could say that we talked them, you know, before he was a superstar. It was great to meet him. Exactly.

And it was with you, bro. Yeah. Yeah. We actually got a call about him possibly being on some kind of movies. They already talked. They gave him a call already. So I got to call them back. And they love the kid.

They love him. So we're going to talk about it. And then see my manager can probably jump down the Ortega ladder and manage the Ladega ladder and manage the, you know, the little Ortega kid. But, you know, I know my boxing coach is the guy who really say. bring your little brother to the open workouts that the world see who is. And this whole week, he was like,

don't forget who's representing you. Don't forget your agent. Coach James said that. Coach James said that. It was crazy, man. The energy was fun with him this week. Actually, before the fight, right before the fight,

he was with me all week, sleeping in my room and everything, just hanging out with me. And he fell asleep. Like, you know, he fell asleep on me. Oh, wow. I told my dad this yesterday in the car. And we're both sleeping.

and I'm getting my rest before the fight. And I looked down, I woke up, and I looked at him, and I go, you better not effing fail this kid. And I remember telling myself, like, you better not effing fail this kid. And, I mean, he was a big motivation for me this weekend. What a beautiful story. Congratulations, Brian.

Congratulations, Henner. Well done to both of you. So happy for you and so happy that you're using this platform to do good in this world with the foundation and giving back to kids, you know, who can't afford to. something like that. It's a beautiful thing. Really. I'm really so happy for you guys. Enjoy the victory. Enjoy the time off. And of course, you know, good luck. Whenever you get that title shot, whenever you get that call from Dana, hopefully he does call you and actually says it to you so you can hear it.

And hopefully we'll talk to you beforehand. But thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Thank you, both. Thank you one. Tell you one much. I say hi. She's texted me like eight times during this interview. I see it blowing up on my phone. So she says hi as well. Thank you so. Thanks, guys. We'll talk to you soon. And Hennar, great to talk to you as well, man. There they are. What a great duo. Hennar Gracie and Brian Ortega, what a great story.

That is what the fight game is all about. And, you know, again, your heart breaks for Frankie because he was there and he's one of the true good guys in the sport. But you're also so very happy for a guy like Brian Ortega, a young kid, 27 years old, doing what he's doing and getting that opportunity to a beautiful story that unfold on Saturday. And we'll see how it continues to unfold come the coming months against Max Holloway.