MMA Fighting - The MMA Houri - Episode 437

Episode Date: June 5, 2018

Ariel Helwani speaks to Yoel Romero (00:04:32) in studio, Jose Torres (00:32:05) in studio, Carlos Silva & Ray Sefo (01:05:01) in studio, Michael Bisping (01:46:51), Marlon Moraes (02:33:37) in studio, Kamaru Usman (03:05:51) in studio, Abraham Kawa (03:46:04), Nathaniel Wood (04:10:45), David Teymur & Daniel Teymur (04:28:28) in studio, and NewYorkRic for The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (05:15:10) and the answers to your questions (05:42:53). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-0 or visit comexonterio.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with the Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, June 4th, 2018. Hello again, everyone. I'm Mario Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Hope you had a lovely weekend. So excited about today's show and not a lot of time to waste right off the top.

You can see an empty chair right there. It is symbolic because we have. have more in studio guests than we've ever had on one episode in the history of this show. Eight in total coming through this studio today. Some interviews will be two on one, as in two interview guests and myself, some one on one. I am so excited about today's show, my friends. It is going to be a really fun one. It is really going to be a fun one. And we have so much to to discuss because we just had a really fun weekend in the world of mixed martial arts on Friday. the UFC made its debut in exotic Utica, New York.

And of course, the big news was Marlon Marais with his somewhat shocking win over Jimmy Rivera. Not so much shocking because he won, but just the way in which he won and how quickly he won. A little over 30 seconds, 32 seconds, I do believe, to be exact, knocked him out with a head kick, a switch kick. And it was just something that like the fight started. And I was like, okay, let's settle in here. These two guys, they've been building this up. There's a lot of animosity. This is going to be great.

And then it ended. Credit to Marlon. Jimmy handled it the right way. We'll be talking about that fight. And, of course, the other big news from Friday, Jose Torres and Nathaniel Wood looking, well, they were entertaining in their debuts. Both of them had one thing in common in that they started off quite poorly. They both lost their first rounds. They were in precarious positions in their.

in their first rounds, and then they came back to win in the second round, both in somewhat dramatic and spectacular fashion. So we have a lot to discuss, and then, of course, this weekend, UFC 225, perhaps the deepest UFC card of the year, and that's going down in Chicago, headline by U.O. Romero versus Robert Whitaker for the middleweight title.

There's also the interim Walterway title. There's the return of CM Punk, Alastair Orem, Holly Holm. There's so much of the disgust and digest as far as UFC 225 is concerned. PFL is back on Thursday for their season open. Wow, there's a lot going on. Let me run down today's lineup, and then we'll get to our first guest of the day, and it's an in-studio guest,

and it's one of the biggest stars of the week. So this is an amazing way to start the show. 5.30 after hour. 5 o'clock, David and Daniel Tamor, the Tamor brothers, who are both in action on Friday in Utica. David won, Daniel lost. Very cool that they'll both be here. Nathaniel Wood will be on via Skype at 4.45.

Talk about his big win. 425 will be joined by manager extraordinaire brother duo as well Malki and Abraham Kawa they have one of the more impressive client rosters in the game the likes of YOL Romero, Carlos Condit,

Johnny Bones Jones, Tyrone Woodley, Demetrius Johnson, the list goes on and on. We'll talk to them at 425. 350 will be joined in studio by the aforementioned Marlon Morais, talk about his big win over Jimmy Rivera and first time he's been in studio so I'm looking forward to that, the former WSOF

Bantamway champion. 305 will be joined in studio by Kamaro Usman. Talk about his big win over Damien Maya in Chile. Talk about what's next for him. Talk about Darren Till, the Walterway title fight coming up, interim Walterway title fight. So I'm looking forward to that. 245.

We'll talk to Michael Bisping. Just retired, what, seven days ago? We'll talk to him at 245. 2 o'clock, Ray Cepho and Carlos Silva, PFL's president of fight operations and president of business and event operations, respectively. will be in studio. They have their season opener on Thursday at Madison's Gourgarne Theater,

130, Jose Torres, Shorty Torres, who had that spectacular victory on Friday, the comeback win, the slam that went awry. Just an amazing moment. He'll be joining us in studio. But first, this Saturday, my friends, United Center, Chicago, UFC 225. It's Robert Whitaker defending his UFC middleweight title for the first time against YOL Romero, the man he beat back at UFC 213 in July. And how cool is this?

Yo Romero, the soldier of God, is in the house. Joining us for the first time in studio, what an honor this is. Wow, and he's flying solo. Holy smokes. Salon, my friend. Shalom, shalom, thank you so much for coming. Please have to see. This is my house.

This is my house. This is my house. Thank you, so much. Wow, I heard from your team that you said, I'm going to win the title on Saturday, but first I have to come see my friend Ariel for good luck before I go to Chicago. Is that true? It's true, it's true.

It's true. Welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Are you happy to be in New York? Yeah. Or is it kind of annoying to come to New York before Chicago from Florida? Yeah.

You know, every time when you have experience in your life, it's good. Yeah. It's good. It's coming here and it's not directed for the Chicago. Okay. I need to see something different, you know. Break it up. Yeah.

And I noted when I saw you outside right before the show, you're looking very skinny here. Yeah. How much we weigh right now? Could you tell us? Yeah. $195. 195. Wow. So just 10 pounds. Yeah, 10 pounds. Is this less than usual? Is this the same? Yeah, it's good for me. This is good. It's good for me. 95, 8 and go down, 92, 91, like this. Okay. When I training, 91, 92, you know. Oh, wow. So what was the difference between this time and in Australia when there was the little issue? And the different, I don't make nothing different for what I do every time when I go to the fight.

Is it the problem in the last time is not have a time? That's the only the problem, you know? Short notice. Yeah. Okay. Do you feel like there's a lot of pressure on you because everyone wants to know, is he going to make weight this time? And your whole life you made weight, right? No.

Olympics, everything you made weight. From 21 years. 21 years. Yeah. Does it bother you that you have that one time that you miss weight? No. No. No, because you can a little pressure with you, you have a presence in yourself when you

mistake, when you have a normal training camp and you may stay away, and that's the big problem. Okay, I understand. You know, you say, oh, I mistake, I find out, you know, but when you know, you know, you know, you know, can make the way because something happened. For example, you're sick. You're sick. You say, okay, I don't make it the way

because I am sick. This is different. And you, when you don't make it away because you don't have a discipline, you don't have a responsibility, that's different. Or maybe because you know can more go down for this division. That's different. But I do this this division for 21 years.

I don't have a problem. Okay. I don't know. Was that hard to go through that experience, just in terms of trying to get down and then fighting? Like, did you feel a little weak? I mean, you look great in the fight against Rockhold. Thank you.

But did your body, did you feel tired from trying to cut all the weight? No. No. No. Okay. No. No, no, no. I don't know, but it's very, I don't know, I don't know, I don't say in English, but

You can say in Spanish Okay, it's very rare Okay It's very rare Yeah rare You know because My body After the

After the When I caught away Yeah It's so Clamp Yeah Yeah Many

Too much But I say Oh my God I have a problem You know But The same time

I don't feel it like Tire I don't look like this. I'm not feeling like this. Okay. Have you ever felt cramps like that before? You have? No, never.

Never like that. Never, my dad. It's when you push, you, your body, you know, for the extremist, you know. That's what happened. My coach says very nervous because you say, oh. So you know can make it away, it's okay, but the most important is the human. Sure, sure. Yeah, my, my coach says, the most important is you don't have a problem, you know?

I said, okay, but I say we need a trial, go down, okay? I want to push myself. My coach you say, you want to? Okay, I care for you, but we need to be careful. Sure. You need careful about you too, you know, because it is what it is. You know, we try when the UFC call you, you say, okay, I take the fight, you know. But you need careful for the, for you.

you have a family. Right. See something happened? Bad news. Yeah, it's bad news, you know. It still blows me away. You're 41. Yeah. Look at the kind of shape you're in. You look, you don't look 41.

Did you think all those years ago when you started that in your 40s, you'd still be competing at this level? Oh, man. That's a big question. Ariel, honesty. Yes. Yeah. Yes.

but sometimes say yes yes I can do this when I have a 40

that's when I have a 25, 23 you know yeah of course it's a long time yes I say yes but that's it

when you when you feel it like Samsung when you're like a Goli or something like it but

when do you see you walk in the way in the life. Yeah. Say, oh my God, maybe yes or maybe no, you know. But thank God I still, you know. But let me see. Let me talk to you something.

When I see my history, I am different. How so? Explosion. And before I'm more explosion. Really? Yeah. You feel slower? Yes.

Really? Yes. When did you start to notice? Yeah. A couple years ago? When I want to make it something what I do before, I say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, yeah, I noticed. Wow, I haven't noticed. I mean, you just knocked out Luke Rockhold. Yeah, but honestly, I something say, sometimes I say, I want to try, I want to sit me.

Say maybe I come into USC 12, 22, 22 years old. Oh, wow, man. Yeah, sometimes I think like this. But I say, thank God. Okay, that's the time. It is what it is. That's the time. And you know, I think people take for granted your age.

And I also think people take for granted the fact that you had a serious neck surgery. Yeah. This isn't disgust enough. Like the fact that you're fighting at this age is impressive enough. The fact that you're fighting after overcoming that is insane. Correct me if I'm wrong, there was a, the doctor said to you, if you did something wrong, you could have been paralyzed. right? Yeah. That's serious business. What was 2011? Was it just a gradual buildup of injuries or did something sudden happen to you?

I training, when I train in, I think that's at the beginning, the problem, in training in Germany. And after the fight with Rafael Fayyau. Yes, when he knocked you out. Yeah. Yeah. This is a little, that is like a little but little, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And when I train in Coconut Creek, something do it too, and I feel it like a plaque. Wow. But in this moment, I know, I'm not feeling nothing, you know. And I unseat for the training, the training. The coaches say, okay, waiting here. And we have it two minutes for the rest.

And we go back for the practice again. When I sit like this, my ex-man, she's coming. I feel like a little pain, but I say, okay, it's normal, you know? Yeah. When I come and see Sydney, something like this. No way. Yeah. Wow.

And she comes and said, hey, you? You know, I like this. They say, what happened? I said, what's going on with you? What happened? And he and your neck. You say, no, I don't think, but I don't know how to be there, you know. She can see me.

Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a little pain, but I don't have it there. That's the wolf, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She said, no, no, no, no, no, you need to see. You have something like this. I say, really? When everybody comes in, fast, go to the doctor.

When I go to the shower, that's just down. I feeling like it can move. Wow. And I can move the hair. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. The C4 is broken. Broken.

And I have a big neck. Yes. Yeah. And trape's big, very big. Trap's, yeah. Yeah, trap, very big. And that's what I know. No, die.

Because the traps are hard. Oh, my God. So if, like, if it happened to me, I'm dead. Probably. Yeah. Wow, because you had all that muscle. Yeah. That's what the doctor said.

You look, you have a very looking. Because normally, normally, another people, number of people, something happened like this, parallets, or died. Wow. And you were able to walk? Were you able to walk right away? Or like once you felt the pain in the shower and everything? At that point?

No, no, no. After the one I make a shower. That's it, okay. That's it. I know, people need to, I know, I know, I know can say, a bridge, like this. Wow, were you scared? Yeah, no.

No. What? No, because I don't have it there what happened. But just the feeling is scary. Yeah, but I don't have it there. Wow. When you don't know, you don't know. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I say, okay, that's maybe something happened, but it's not like a really danger. Yeah. I know the big problem is when I stay in the doctor. And then the best daughter in Miami is one guy is staying in the hospital, Jadzum. Okay. He said, okay, the best guy is coming.

He said, you need to know what happened here. He comes to something like this. He said, okay, look at this. Wow. That's the way you have broken today. He explained me everything. He said, here. Maybe you parallel here.

Here, you paralyze it. But here is total in the vet. You can move, you can nothing. And now you need Siri because now you can do something. But you don't train anymore. See, you don't have a series, that's what I happened. You say, okay, let me know what happened. Okay.

So you don't go and you make a series, you must go. Go down little but little, little, little, little, little, little. And one day, somebody called you, hey, yo, and you move. Oh, no. Yeah, it's just, you know. That's why, because the trap is no more hurt your neck. Go down, no training. It's the same, the busy, you're not training, busy, go down.

Yeah. It's the same. Yeah. And I say, really? He said, yes, and now you know. I said, okay, I say, okay, I want to shoot it, but for, for, for, for fight. I, I, I feel, that's what I want. I want to shoot it, but come back for fight.

Right. He said, no. Never. He said, no, you're sitting here for you no die, you, because your career is done. He said that. Yeah, you know can training. You know can no more, nothing, grappling, nothing. You need to shoot, for your life, not for training.

I said, no, doctor, please. I want to you make a series for training and competing. He said, no, I'm not doing. He didn't do it. No. I moved another hospital. No way. Yeah.

You left the best guy because you wanted to keep training. Yeah. And now I go to another guy. Okay. This is the same, before this guy is staying the same team for this guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He stayed in Hollywood. Okay.

Miami. Yeah. And Florida. The daughter talked to me. blah blah blah, blah. The same, he said, mm-mm, it's down. Please, and say, he's down. And now he talked with the guy.

Hey, you see that guy? He said, yeah, I see that guy. He said, no. See, he, I see you, but it's only for the life, not for training. And this is the doctor, he said, okay, that's my responsibility. I do. And when I see you, your recuperation, see you okay, and okay, I say, I say in UFC,

Yes, he can fight. Wow. Okay, see, okay, please. I am now like this. God, move the head for this guy. Say yes, I go to make a Siri and say, now we need to see you in one years because you need to, minimum eight months. Yeah.

Stay like this, no on the bed. I stay for four months, sit. Wow. Like this. I never forget. I take this seat. Yeah. It's like something very special in our house.

You have it still? Yeah. Oh, wow. You still see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every time. Wow. I can move for another house.

I take it because it's like, I don't know. Memories, right? Yeah. It reminds you where you came. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what's amazing to me that here you are after going through all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You shouldn't be here.

You shouldn't be fighting. Yeah. That doctor said you're never going to fight again. Now you're fighting for the belt. You're at the top. Yeah. I want to take the bird and bring this guy. Seven years later.

Yeah. I want to bring this guy the dog to the bird. Yeah. You know, when you win the belt on, you should do that. Yeah, I need it. And then you know what you need to do? Go back home when you win the belt. You put the belt on that chair.

Yeah. You sit with it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it gives me goosebumps. Yeah. You know? It's incredible what you've done.

It really is amazing. This is the first rematch of your career. right? Yeah. Is that good for you? Do you like that? That you know the guy? Yes.

Five rounds, 25 minutes? Yes. That's good, right? Yeah. You know what to expect. You know, in MMA, but in wrestling, you need a rematch many time with the- Sure, sure. Same guys over and over.

I don't know. I hear the people have a problem when people need a remark with somebody, you know? Yeah. For me, it's no more. No problem. No problem. Last time, I remember it was just a year ago, 11 months ago. You started very well, right?

Then you got a little tired? What happened? You know, we make a mistake and the strategic in the fight. Okay. And the training camp too. Okay. I don't want to talk about this, but I forget. All right.

But now it's different. Now it's different. No problem, cardio. you feel good, go 25 minutes, no problem. No problem. No problem. You know what I remember about that night the most was a fight happened, press conference, in the tent outside.

You come to speak to the media, looking exactly like to smile on your face. And I remember I asked you, why are you so happy? Why are you, you know, okay with this? And it's like you knew, even though you just lost, you knew you'd be back, right? Yeah, it was amazing. You were not crying, you were not saying.

you were not sad, even though at the time, what are you, 40? So maybe you could say, one chance, that's it. It's like you knew, right? Is that true? Did you feel like you'd be back? Yeah, because you knew, that's the most important what the people need to know know about him. You know, it's like I ask you, you know, who are you? Who are you?

You say, I am Ariil-Hawani. because you have a conviction you are in Havana. It's the same me. You say you come back, I come back. Because I'm feeling good. I'm not feeling like, oh, I know can destroy this guy, you know. This guy is another level for me, you know. But the most important is in the training, you know.

When you're training and you know can training, you know can't beat the training where you have the schedule is done. Hey, finish. Finish. No go for the fight. Because the most important is in the training camp. See, you're looking like a tire. I can't train every day.

So you're so tired. You say, when you jump, you're training for three months. You say, oh, every day you're hungry. But now you're 21 months. It's how you see like this. One month, two months and more. I'm so tired. It's down.

Done. It's down. Because the body talk. Right. You know, yeah, you know the same. You know the same. How long do you want to fight for? Do you know?

I don't know. Forty-five-fifty? I don't know. You don't think about that. I don't think about that. It's God's will. Yes. Listen to God.

That's it. Right. That's my mentality. So you're not going to win the belt and say goodbye. You're sticking around. No, come on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Are you sad that Michael Biss being retired?

Because I feel like you win the belt on Saturday, that would have been the fight. Do you know, the phrase, when I hear, he retired a little bit. Yeah? Why? Why? I said, why? But after, I think, I think it's like a human. Yeah.

You know, no like a professional fighter. So, yes. Because he, he, Michael having many fights, you know. Yeah. We know he had the problem, you know. He needed to think about the family. Okay. You know.

And I say this is a good decision, you know. Because when you fight, the fans say like this. Oh my, but when you have a family, your family is nervous. It's different. Yeah. And now that's what you need to think about your family. Man, you take it the ball. You have a beautiful performance in your career.

You know, that's why I said the people. I make a cloud for him because he stayed in the top 10 and the best and the best organization for MMA. For many years, he stayed in the top 10. And this division, the middleweight division, is very hard. And he took the bar. Looker, not looking, he took the bar. He beat it, you know. And he beat many great guys, great fighters, you know.

And it's done. It's time. I think, Michael, it's time you retire because you need to think about your family. When okay, this is not only you think about you. When you have a family, you need to be about your kids. You know. No hard feelings. Yeah. You're okay.

Yeah. Maybe I see in the street, I kiss him. I love you. I love you. Where's the shirt? Where are you? That shirt is amazing. Yeah.

It's the new one. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great shirt. You like it? Yeah. I like it. I remember you told me, we just have a few minutes left, but this is great.

Thank you so much for coming in. It's a huge honor before your fight. I remember you told me that had you won the belt last July, you would have gone home to Cuba with the belt, right? You were waiting. You didn't win the belt, but you still went home. Yes. Do you want to go home with the real belt this time?

Yes, every time is the same plan. Yeah. Are you going to do it? You have your trip planned already? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to be special. Yeah.

Another one was fake belt. This is real belt, right? Yeah, that's really count. This is when it counts. That's when I need it. And you're going to show it to your son? Yeah. Yeah, and your family.

My mom, my family, my people. Big party? I don't think about big party. No? No, no, no. Parade. First Cuban UFC champion. No, you know, the people where it's very close for me, the people know me.

I don't know. When I, I love the, the, I can stay with many people, you know. Okay. But we are women who love more private. small yeah sit down I can talk like this yeah yeah yeah

I'm not I am old man you know but I don't know maybe it's experience I can more for me

it's best test feeling when I talk like this with somebody one on one yeah it's more in telling it more intelligent

you know you can learn more you know like this okay two or three people no it's a multitude

is no my essence. You have won a lot of things in your career. I mean, it's been an incredible career. You've won a lot of tournaments. But on the biggest stage in wrestling, you got silver medal in 2000, right? And then you finished fourth in 2004. Yeah.

You didn't get the gold. Yeah. Here you are in UFC, the biggest stage. Didn't win the title. Now you have another chance. Yeah. What do you think it will feel like on Saturday? You win the fight.

Dana White puts the belt around your waist. What do you think that will feel like? I don't know. Ask me this question after the five. Because I know, everything is different. You know, it's a little similar,

but everything is different, you know. Maybe today is Monday? Yeah. Today's Monday. But it's Monday, but it's not the same that the last Monday.

Sure. It's not the same for the next Monday. It's Monday, but it's different. I see. stay before in this situation, you know, for many times. Or championship or car, Pan American again, you know, you go to the goal, you know, but everything's different.

Do you dream about it? Do you dream about that moment? What it will feel like? Do you think about it at night? It's not possible you walk. Yeah. And you know, it's possible you're training, see, you're thinking, you know, dream about this moment.

What will it mean to you? Do you know what it symbolizes? What it will represent for everything that you've been through? surgery, Olympics, that you finally are the best, number one. It's amazing. I don't have a word that they can say, but ask me the question after the five. I'll be there to ask you. My friend, thank you so much.

God bless you. What a huge honor. Shalom to you. Good luck. Safe travels to Chicago. Thank you so much for doing this. My friend Joe's going to walk you out. Yes, there he is.

The soldier of God, the number one contender in the UFC's middleweight division. he fights for the belt on Saturday. I cannot wait for that fight. Main event, Robert Whitaker versus Joel Romero 2, and it's just incredible. It's just amazing when you consider the fact that he is 41 years young, 41 years young. And this is a guy who has overcome a lot, and this is a guy who most importantly seven years ago overcame neck surgery. And I thought it was important to talk to him about this because, here he is on the cusp of greatness, here he is on the cusp of winning a belt.

And, you know, I feel like sometimes it's just kind of swept under the rug that he overcame this. Serious neck surgery. He walked away from the best doctor, neck specialist in his region so that he can actually find a doctor who said,

okay, yeah, I'll do this in hopes, that you will fight. That's wild. We're not talking about walking. We're not talking about surviving. We're not talking about being healthy. He wants to fight. Pretty amazing. Pretty incredible. So that's one of the big fights going down. UFC 225 is just a super stack card. It's one of the best offerings of the year. And of course, there's the two title fights. There's Sien punk. There's Holly Holme. There's Alistair Overeem. There's the Miersad Bechtic fight. There's just so much to take in there. But at the very top, it's Robert Whitaker versus Yowell Romero. two middleweight title and perhaps bringing now some some order to that division which has been a bit

of a mess over the past year all right so that's the yole romero story in a matter of moments we are going to be joined by a young man named jose shorty torres you met him for the first time several months ago on this program when he was still the titan fc flyweight and bantamweight champion he was the double champ. He was hoping to get the call up to the UFC. He got the call up to the UFC on relatively short notice, and he took the fight for UFC Utica against Jared Brooks. It did not go his way early on, but holy smokes did it go his way in a very big way. In the second round, he was able to pull off one of the more stunning finishes in UFC history. And let's be honest, Jared Brooks had something to do with it where he went for a slam and knocked himself out. But in the end,

Shorty Torres is victorious and 1-0 now in the UFC. He is here, and now let's bring him in the studio. How cool is this? Being joined by the man who was successful in his UFC debut on Friday night. There he is. Jose Shorty Torres, my man. How are you? I'm great, man.

Congratulations. Please have a seat. Thank you for coming in. I appreciate him, man. It's always a great time to be on the show. Thank you. This is really cool. And congratulations.

You're 1-0 in the UFC when we spoke just a few months ago. You were hoping to get the call. We have a lot to discuss here. First of all, you're not from this area, right? You're from Chicago, right? What brings you around here? I'm actually staying with nutrition. So immediately when I got the call, I was actually chuckling about it because I was like,

no, I'm not taking the fight. Okay. And then I called nutrition to laugh about it. Luchi-Ordano. They called me and they're like, oh, 26 pounds in nine days. I'm like, I'm not doing it, called him chuckling about it. He goes, you're just fat. You can make the weight.

Like, you're in shape, you can do it. It's going to suck, but let's do it. So immediately I flew to his house, no hesitation. because I wanted everything to be down to a T because I had, again, 26 pounds, nine days. I'm a flyweight that's a quarter of my weight and we're able to get it down. And so, you know, I go, let me enjoy myself while I'm in Jersey.

Every time I'm in Jersey, I'm never eating, I'm never indulging anything. So let me fatten up and have some fun while I'm here. So you weighed 151? Mm-hmm. What? Yeah. That's nuts.

Nine days? Yeah. How difficult was it? It, physically, it wasn't difficult because we did the proper things. down just mentally it was draining because almost four hours in the dam in heat you know it's hot tub working out in eight pounds of clothing with sauna top and bottoms on and working out again heat heat heat heat taking a small break going back to the sauna so it was it was

it was it was it was the most difficult cut to be your career i mean safe to say right it was easily the most difficult cut and it was the biggest problem was mentally you know for people who don't know i did have a really hard time cutting weight in college you know 125 i did it every single weekend and I didn't have a nutritionist. I didn't have somebody telling me what to eat, what to do. And when you had a college buffet and the food's right in front of you, you know, I'm indulging. So every single weekend, I'd gained 20 pounds and had to lose 20 pounds every single week. And even though my body was getting used to it, it was just pain, pain, pain, pain. So I'd never wanted to do that again. So my pro career started at 35 was staying that way, met nutrition, and ended

ended up being a, you know, a flyway fighter. So you initially said no, strictly because you thought it was just too much weight to cut in that short amount of time, right? Why do they keep calling you on short notice? It's the flywood division. It's not exciting. So they're not investing in, you know, whatever talent, whether it be myself or somebody who has, you know, bigger and more accolades than me. So when they called me in, oh, hey, sorry, another last minute call.

This is the ninth one. You're going to take it. For me, technically, I was healthy enough to take it. It just, you know, was bigger than what I wanted. I go, I'm not a fan of these last minute weight cuts. You see the McKenzie Derns, you know, Derntails and all these guys and just not performing the way you want to perform. but, you know, my team really believed to me, and that's my support group. So I go, sure, let's do it.

Were you worried if you said no that they wouldn't come calling for a while? That was the big fear of if they, if I said no, it's like, dude, they called you nine times. How many more time? It's really nine times. Holy smokes. You said no to the UFC eight times. Well, six of those is because I was injured. One of them I said yes. And then one of them, we said yes and then got injured in the process. Oh, my. But they've all been last minute. It's nothing been more than 10 days. Really? So I guess on the one hand, you know that they really like you because they keep calling you, but don't like you enough

to give you like at least somewhat of a normal camp. Yeah, and the bad thing was after my last fight in February 16th, got to knock out,

felt great, looked great, but I'm in limbo. Am I defending a 25 pound belt? Am I defending a 35 pound belt? I'm bumping up to 45, which I was planning to do.

Am I joining Belator? Am I joining U.S. am I joining another promotion? What's next to me? So I was in training camp pretty much since February. I just, you know,

wasn't in a proper diet because I was getting ready for a 45 pound belt. Did you get close to Belto? I know there was interest. There definitely was interest, but it was one of those things where, which I think is really funny because I did nothing wrong in the sense. It was, here, we're going to give this offer. It's like, oh, this is great. Cool. No negotiations. I like this. All right, they're going to give

you a call next week. All right, we're going to cut your negotiations half. It's like, what did I do wrong? I thought, you know, like, I thought once you said yes, that's it. And then they cut the number in half. And I was like, well, let's meet somewhere in the middle. And then weeks, weeks, weeks, weeks, they invited him in Chicago. We talked, talked nothing about the promotion. like moving up to the promotion itself and then eventually they're like, hey, we're hearing rumors. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm more unhappy to, you know, answer whatever. What are the rumors? Oh, just rumors. And we're like, okay. And then that was it. So we, they're like, we want you, just not right now. Okay.

It's like, okay, cool. I guess I'm going to probably fight for the 45 pound bell. I saw Loma Chenko do it for, you know, boxing, I know it's different with the weight classes, but I'm trying to create a legacy. I'm not trying to do the same old, same on. I wanted to do some different. So with them, it would have been 135, right? Yeah, well, Bellator would have been 135. And for me, you know, because of my accolades, because of what I've been able to do is either more than likely a number one contender spot or automatically fighting Derry and Caldwell for the belt.

Oh, really? Wow. In UFC, do you want to be in 125? Or is that just the opening that came up now? Right now, 125 is my weight class that I want to dominate. I feel like that's the way class definitely needs me. What do you mean by needs you? It's a, everyone's been recycled. Yeah.

You know, you have Suhudo and Benavita's top of who've been beating Pettis and all these guys at the bottom that are, you know, like myself, being properly moved up. But then they get to them and they keep on losing. So those two guys are being recycled against Demetri Johnson. They've already lost a total three times. So, again, those two are athletes are phenomenal athletes. And the whole division stacked because Demetri Johnson is such a phenomenal fighter, he's made the whole division look boring. Yeah. So they need someone, I believe, like me, to create the exciting fights.

me, I take the beating. I give bumps and bruises, broken bones, whatever the case may be, but it's something the fans want, and that's what I'm trying to give. So, okay, so you get there. And the week, obviously it's a bad week,

not bad, but it's difficult because you're cutting a lot of weight, but the experience of being, because I had heard from people, and it's a tough question to ask you, I know, because this was your UFC debut, but I was talking to some people that it didn't feel like a big UFC, right?

You're in Utica, there's not a lot of media there, there's not a lot of buzz. What was it like for you? Because this is not Vegas, this is not T-Mobile, It's a bit of a smaller card. It was like the junior college of universities.

Was that weird or did you not know any better? I mean, anything is cool at this point. You're in the UFC. I never got to realize those in the UFC until I got into the cage. You know, I had nine days of cutting weight. All the New Orthoacletics State Commission tests, MRI, MRI, EKG. In nine days, and those tests, you have to get like months in advance appointments. So I'm rushing everything.

UFC's, you know, trying to get me to do all this stuff. I'm doing USADA tests. I'm doing USADA, hour exams, all that stuff. And then I'm also cutting to. 26 pounds in nine days flying from Florida to New Jersey Jersey to to Utica New York and doing all these things media obligations where I'm mr. yes man so me denying media stuff is very very different for me so I'm doing so much but by the time I made weight which I actually didn't think I was gonna make weight because of how much

weight we had to lose I was that you know scared about it and Lou even my nutritionist he was like I actually might pull the plug in you know certain parts of the camp because of just how mentally I was doing but We pushed through and made weight. How close do you think you were to not making weight? Well, we knew we were going to make weight. It was the mental aspect. Okay.

Like physically, we knew we were sweating. We knew we could do it. But mentally, like, I just didn't want to do it anymore. You know, like, we did a full workout. It took me the last day I had maybe four pounds to lose. And it took me about five hours to lose those four pounds. Wow. So in the three-hour gap in there after the last hot tub that I thought was going to be my last hot tub.

I'm like, not doing it. We're going to do something else. I'm not jumping in the heat anymore. You know, so we had to figure something out. How'd you do it? Pretty much just relax. It's surprisingly, I lost almost a pound doing nothing, like giving my body some type of sense of relaxation.

And I was able to use a washroom. Everything worked out well, and, you know, I wasn't dehydrated. I wasn't, you know. Was it like that Darren Till video that came out? Like, were they dragging you places and your painting and stuff? Well, see, that's the crazy thing is I'm not saying that was an over exaggeration because I 100% believe I felt that way. And I had people, you know, hey, man, can you help me get out of the hot tub?

I feel like I'm going to faint or, but I took the proper, you know, things. to do of, you know, I'm gonna just chill in the towel while the water's all out. Let me recoup instead of just getting out of, right, let me get out of the water, do this. So I was doing the right things instead of you hear the stories of people, you know, banging their head on the, on the wall and stuff. But to my UFC debut, I didn't notice that I was signed to the UFC. Like, Reebok would give me the gear. All this stuff's happening. They're like, dude, how do you feel?

I'm like, whatever, man, I don't care. Like, I was in weight-cutting mode. Yeah. And then by the time I made weight, I'm in there to fight. Immediately when I got in the cage, I turned the nutrition. I go, I can feel the lights. Like I could legit feel the heat from the lights. I'm like, God, I'm in the UFC.

And then I fought and given everything worked out, given not exactly his plan, but I got to knock out, so be it. But it was one of those things that's not the UFC debut I wanted. Given I wanted to put on a show like that, come back in adversity, that's my type of fight. But I'm disappointed in the whole performance. Like, yeah, so be it he knocked me down. I got dropped, so be it.

I lost first round. It's almost every one of my fights. But I wanted to put on the performance that everyone expected. and that's something I'm really excited to do for my next fight. Well, you got people talking. I mean, the clip has been shown everywhere, right? Sports enter ESPN everywhere. And we'll get to that in a second.

But in between the first and second, after that first round, are you thinking yourself like, this is a nightmare? How do I get back on track here? How do I reverse this? Because this isn't going. I mean, there were a couple times in that first round where it looked a little dicey, right? Well, the funny thing about that was after the bell rang,

I literally thought out of my head. I was like, oh, man, my coach is just going to give it to me now. Like, they're just going to let me have it. And immediately, they all stood, they're all three, just kind of like, are you going to fight now? Come on, are you going to stop playing around? I'm just like, all right, all right, sat down. No one talked about me getting dropped. Okay.

Like no one, they're just like, hey, keep your hands up, let's go, do your thing. You can actually win this fight. You know you can, but you're just, you're not alive yet. Yeah. And for me, I do have to get punched a couple times. I have to get dropped over the case, maybe to wake up and second run, I started to push the pace. Not to set you up for an excuse, but do you feel like the cut kind of drained you a little bit? Like, did it affect your performance on Friday?

Not at all. It didn't. Not at all. How big were you in there? I weighed 143. Okay. So I gained 18 pounds. Wow.

We're actually kind of disappointed because we expected a lot more. Really? Yeah. What's the biggest you've been for a flyweight fight? For a flyweight fight, I believe 145, 148. Okay. So I usually gain my weight very fast. But this one, once I started drinking, my body was sweating.

So it was just kind of naturally just giving everything back thinking we're still cutting weight. Yeah. So I weighed 143. I think Jared Brooks weighed 131 or 133. So I didn't have a decent size event. But I mean overall, I mean, I felt fine. I knew once I rehydrated nutrition's protocol on rehydration, I had no worry whatsoever. It was just making their weight and mentally staying strong for it.

But when it comes to my performance because of the weight cut, it had nothing to do with it. So I want to talk about the finishing sequence here. And we have the clip courtesy of FS1 and Zufa. And so we're going to play the clip over here. And I want to get your thoughts on what is going on because I've watched it a gazillion times. And it's still kind of hard for me. Like I know what happened. it's still kind of hard for me to understand how he knocked himself out to the point where

because it almost seems like you break the fall a little bit because you're being slammed or at least he's attempting to slamming. So how do you hit yourself so hard to where you're getting knocked out? So here's the secret. You can see that. I know it's a little small. But so he picks you up right there, right? You're on his shoulder and then boom. What is going on? Can you just explain even if you need to go a few steps before we're showing this is all we have. But just explain from your vantage point. I'd love to hear your thoughts. So I don't even have to look at it. So pretty much immediately when he dropped down. I've seen it, by the way.

Well, actually, I've only seen it maybe five times, six times. Really? Everyone's been bombarding me with him, but I'm like, I've lived it. I know it, so I don't mind it. But the big thing was, you know, I got the couple knees. He shot in for the shot, picked me up. Immediately I started to climb down. And the big thing for wrestling is you want to lock the hips.

You don't want them to be able to turn. You don't want them to be able to take your back because that's pretty much the goal in wrestling. You take them down. You want to take the back. So when I was able to lock the hips, he couldn't arch. He couldn't turn. So when he was able to be able to walk. trying to do his, you know, big throw, he fell completely straight back, flat. And his arms were

extended. He landed on his shoulder and he pretty much had a nerve and he passed out because of it. For me, when I landed on my side, regardless if he passed out or not, I was going to take it back. You felt the end was coming. You felt you were in a good spot there. Whether the end was coming or not, I knew I was going to take it back. A dominant, okay. And I was going to get into a dominant position. And that was the college wrestling scramble experience. Wow. Has that ever happened to you? That's actually happening me twice in college. Really? Damn. But with the same end result? Now with the same result where I've had people like daze himself, not knock themselves out given.

I don't punch them after. Sure, sure. I've had people daze himself where I've blocked their hips. They go straight back because of the momentum. And from there, they just get into like a weary state. And from there, just take their back and now, you know, cross-body ride, do stuff like that. Now, at what point you realized that he screwed himself here? Once he fell, I felt him go limp.

You did? Wow. And then what are you thinking? I have no choice about the punch. You know, it would look bad for me to just stand up and be like, all right, cool, because one, the ref, could be like, hey, no, no, no, keep on fighting, or it just looks even worse for him that he knocked himself out.

For me, I'm just going in there, taking his back, and I have to do what I have to do, and that's my job. So it's interesting, because when I hear you break it down, obviously you're somewhat in control and there's a science to it, but the general population, especially when this is, like, blasted out

to non-sports fans, they just think, look at this guy, he just knocked himself out, not giving you any credit. Do you feel like you're not being given enough credit for the finish? You know, it's a 50-50, because I don't want credit for the finish.

You know, it's more of, He technically did knock himself out, but it's what I did is what caused him to knock himself out. Exactly. You deserve credit. So I deserve half of it to a degree. He did technically knock himself out, but it was more because he did too much in that process. He tried to do what he wanted to do. I just didn't allow him to do it. And in the process, he knocked himself out. If you just were kind of standing there and let him pick you up without any sort of, you know, plan of attack there, you would have gone slam. And he would not have been knocked out. If you saw his last fight with the Brazilian, the guy got picked up multiple times. I got was flailing on the top.

And then it looks great for the fans because it's just, it's a big thump on the mat. Not an hour, Jared Brooks is back on top. But for me, it's, all right, you know, you're going to slam me. Let me try to do something to better myself to when we land. Even though it looks good for you, I'm in a better position because of it. What's your reaction when you realize the fight is over and you just won your UFC debut that way? It's, it was, again, a 50-50 because it wasn't how I wanted it, but it wins a win. Yeah.

And I'm very happy because of it. And it's, you know, I feel bad for Jared Brooks because he's getting so much, you know, bad publicity for it. but it's one of those things that MMA, anything can happen. So it's interesting because I saw your tweet and you were saying like, you know, props to you came to say hello to my family and then I saw you guys

take a picture together, right? It seemed maybe at the hotel. But then his tweets seemed to suggest that he was mad at you for things that you said and he was kind of upset about the whole situation. And that's the thing is it's, MMA is becoming slowly like the WWE. You know, where people have to talk smack

do this, do that. My social media game has always been humble. I was like, hey man, I understand the sport we're off to the same goal, just so happens wrong each other's way. Like, I know the struggle, I know the grind, and I'm happy you accepted the fight, and you're the reason in the sense why I'm in the UFC. So after the fight, we're talking, everything's good, then we went back to the hotel. He ended up running into my family was the most polite gentleman in the world. It was like it was taking my daughter out to a prom date.

Like it was ridiculous. I was like, oh, this is awesome. They took each other's number, wants to hang out with me, wants to train with me, perfect. And then the next morning, I'm getting screenshots from people because I don't follow him. And people were telling me that he said this, he said that. I was like, you know, I'd go check it out. And I was like, cool. Like he's back on his Kobe Covington, Connor type of social media thing.

Like, I paid no mind to it. For me, I ended up doing the post right after I saw that. And then I think he ended up deleting his original post and then changed it. The only problem is his rebuttal ended up being worse saying that I knocked myself out. It's all over ESPN. Sure, sure, sure. So it's kind of like you're trying to be the bad, good guy, you know, like put yourself out there, but it's, you know, there's a lot of backlash to it. So you don't have any animosity.

You don't feel like, I can care less. Okay, you've moved on. Yeah, I've moved on. And if the UFC wants a rematch, the Soviet, they want the rematch. But for me, I'm trying to move on to the top 15 and, you know, see where it goes from there. And so you mentioned, like, the clip, you know, getting picked up everywhere. In fact, there's a new show on ESPN that's been hyped up. It just debuted at noon, and I saw a tweet saying that they were.

discussing, they don't know much about MMA, but they were even discussing you're like, who'd have thought, you know, your debut, it's, you know, the first fight of the night and here you are getting more pressed than Marlon Marais. It's crazy. What's been, is that kind of surreal for you to see yourself all over the place now after, and especially in that kind of way where it's like, as you said, a 50-50, it's not just like a straight knockout where you're getting all this pub. I mean, it's really cool. It's funny because people found out about my UFC debut before I even found that I was getting signed. People were like, is it true? I was like, what are you talking about? I'm getting screenshots of Jared Brooks and myself in the face-off thing.

I was like, what the hell? And I don't know. I get a call from my manager saying, hey, you're signed to the UFC. I was like, oh. And then now with this fight coming up and everything that happened, mainly with the knockout, I'm getting shares on social media of 1.1 million views on ESPN, SportsCenter, all that stuff. I'm just like, I mean, it's not exactly the knockout I wanted, but hey, I'll take it. Any publicity, you know, great publicity mainly with this.

And, you know, it makes me that much more excited to get my proper U.S. debut where I have a two-month training camp, a 10-week training camp, and showing 100% of my skill that I know that I can be the best flyway division, you know, in the division. Sure, sure. Anyone reach out to you that you haven't heard from in a while that said like, oh man, I just saw you on ESPN, I just saw your club somewhere? I've had a lot of sponsors hit me up that.

That's good. Kind of like let me, you know, kind of gave me shade and then I don't know where they. Now they're back? Hey, what's up? I was like, oh, now you guys call me. But it's really cool. You know, new fans, old fans, whatever the case may be. It's, again, you know, as we talked last time,

I do say we can, we will together. we are team short because if it weren't for everyone's support, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. Right. We also talked last time about Chicago, and Chicago's coming up, but you're not on the card. You were one week short. One week short. Hey, New York's the next best thing for me. Okay, fair enough.

But is it a bummer that, like, would that have been, you know, like if you had your way? Of course, you're going to take the opportunity. You worked out in the end. You got a lot of buzz. But is it a bummer that you were one week short? Was that the dream to debut in Chicago? Easily would have been the dream. That, again, like I was telling you, that's my master's garden.

That's my, you know, holy grail. For me, I was talking to Curtis because he wants me at the fight. And originally months ago, he's like, hey, you come to the fight. I go, do I love to support you? But I really don't want to be bombarded with so many questions. Why aren't you drawing the car? Why isn't the UFC sign? And it's the same thing almost for every single person.

I just, I'd rather watch it at home with friends and family and do that. But now, you know, I'm officially in the UFC. I was like, hey, I got my fight. You know, people are happy with them. I have great publicity with it. Yeah, I want to come support you. Maybe I can get a ticket or two. You know, McMinard hook me up.

And I definitely want to be able to be able to, I think there's four Chicagoans on the cards. I want to be able to definitely support. It's easily, I think one of the biggest cards in MMA history. Yeah, it's phenomenal. So you are going to go now. Okay. I just got to get tickets.

I'm still waiting on the confirmation of tickets, but I leave tomorrow night to Chicago to be home with family friends, and hopefully I can sneak my way in the door and just support my teammates. I kind of feel like you're going to enjoy it a lot more now because you're in. You got the debut out of the way. You're 1 and 0. So now you can sit back. Like, you feel a part of the team.

I feel part of the UFC family. I'm not an MMA limbo anymore. So that's the best thing for me. And I was actually just going to ask you, like, you meet people all the time. I'm sure people ask you what you do for a living. Oh, you're fighting the UFC? No, I fight for it.

And there's, this is no knock on the titans of the world, but the UFC is the UFC, right? Does that feel good as well to finally tell people, yeah, I'm a UFC fighter. Yeah, I officially do UFC. Yeah, exactly. Instead of saying, like, do you do MMA? No, I do UFC now.

I'm the correct people now. It's, you know, it's awesome. And I finally settling in that. I'm officially a UFC fighter. My social media game has always been a little above average, but now with the UFC, you know, the UFC, you know, pretty much being the pedestal for me, and I can just do what I need to do. Again, I told them I don't need any type of guidance.

I don't need any type of help. To put me in the pedestal, I'll do all the talking. Will you not get as big now because you're going to be sticking out 125 so that you don't have to, I mean, of course, you're not going to want a short-nose fight every time, but before, because you're doing 135, 145, will you try to hover around closer to 125? Yeah, and that's what I want to do, and that's usually the nutrition protocol, 15, 20 pounds. And, you know, giving that right now because I want to enjoy myself, I believe I definitely deserve that. But I'm definitely enjoying all the jersey.

Right now, I'm probably about 150 or 155. Wow. Yeah, I got the chunky cheeks right now. So I'm definitely enjoying life. And it's two weeks of just relaxing because, again, I've been in training camps since February. But, you know, right now it's go back to Chicago, see what happens next. And I'm definitely traveling a lot in the next few months to, you know, help other fighters, help myself and just better myself as a full 100% athlete and see what, you know, happens next. But I think, you know, if everything works well, September is a phenomenal time to fight.

Okay. And home as far as training is Florida? Well, home for me is Chicago, but training is pretty much everywhere. But right now, American Top Team, Coconut Creek, Florida. But right now, you're open to... I'm a guy who, I mean, I love American Top Team. And that's, it's funny because I went there initially because I didn't have a training camp. You know, TJ was doing his own thing.

He just had his baby. So anytime he's not in the gym, you know, no one shows up. So I'm like, I'm going to go to America Top Team. I'll just do a camp. And I end up falling in love with the people and just the gym itself. Like everything there is amazing. So I've been staying there. I've been enjoying myself.

I have a great time. But I do like the gym hump. I do like to travel and just get, you know, different experiences. And everyone that's, you know, helped me in my career, is molding me to the person I am today. You see a fellow teammate, Y'all Romero? Yeah, I walked out there. Yay, we'll tell you. So we had a great time.

And, you know, him and I were meeting up in Chicago when we get back home. And I'm taking him to healthier places before, you know, his official weighing day. And then after, hopefully, you know, we all hang out again. I hang out with most of those guys who are on the UFC Chicago card. So even with the Utica card, you know, when I walked in, everyone, John Anick already knows and all these people know me. I was like, hey, what's up, guys? This is awesome. You know?

They know my accolades, all this stuff. So it's really cool to have people know who I am before I walk in. And it's, you know, it's humbling because I've worked hard to get to this point in my life. Kobe Covington, your thoughts? I think it's going to be a phenomenal fight. No, as a person. It's funny because he... You ever have interactions with him at the gym?

The fight, I have amazing interactions with him. Really? So him and I actually good friends at the gym. Okay. So he wished me great luck for the fight, all that stuff. And in the gym, awesome person. And then I was like, you know what? Let me take a picture with him.

I'll post on social media. I actually lost followers posting the picture. And I was making light of one of his jokes. Something about it like a horse fan. Like, who doesn't like horses? And I was trying to make light of some, you know, of a bad situation. And people took it completely the other way. Yeah.

Like, it was just topsy-turby. And I lost maybe about 200 to 300 followers at the time. And I was just like, it's just a picture. It's okay. They're like, we thought you were better than that short. And I'm like, what do you? It's just Colby. Exactly.

That's why it's like, oh, all right. Whoops. I'm not taking it down. But I guess I won't be taking a picture with him. friend of his. Yeah, pretty much. I get the same thing. Like, when I say, like, if he's on the show, people get so mad. But you know what? They all watch. They all, like, every, what he's doing, listen, I don't agree with everything that he has done and said, but it is working. He's funny for the interim

belt. He's not getting that interim title shot if he's not talking like that. I know it's not your thing. You said that you want to be, you know, humble and do things your own way. But the proof is in the pudding. It's working. There is a method to this matter. Yeah, there is. And kind of McGregor started it. People are now taking their own little directions with it. Kobe has his. And, Again, like you said, he's only beaten Damian Maya. You know, a bunch of people have been Damian Maya, but they don't immediately go for an interim belt.

Yeah. You know, so he's getting it, he's getting the opportunity because of it. And so how, like, the thing about 125 is, more than any other male division, I'll say, because female, some of them, you know, 145 is a little different as well.

Like, you can climb that ladder very quickly, right? Yeah. I mean, we've seen some guys who maybe didn't deserve or worn, even Sehudo. Like, he wasn't, in a perfect world, he's not getting that title shot at 197. What was it like how many, how many miss weights did he have before he finally came in? I think it was just like three fights in the UFC at that point.

Like he hadn't done enough. Do you feel like you are ready, like two, three fights you're going to be in that discussion or do you want the slow-bo? I 100% believe so. Okay. So that's what you want. I would love to be fast track. I believe I should have been the UFC a year ago when I was able to knock out a UFC veteran in 86 seconds, you know? And he fought Tim L.A.

I think Tim L.A. It would be a fantastic fight. And some of the guys that I do want to call out are guys that I don't disrespect any of them. It's more of, I respect them so much, I want to fight you. I respect you so much because I know you're an exciting fighter. It's not going to be, and again, no disrespects to Hudo, great for his accomplishments, but I'm not trying to get out-wrestled in the match. Same thing with Jared Brooks.

I wasn't excited for the fight because I go, he's just going to wrestle me and hold me. He dropped me and literally held me for, I think, two minutes to let me recoup. And it's like, that's not the fight I want. He thanks for doing that for me, but that's not the fight I want. I want something that's blood, there's bruises. I want, you know, throwing matches. If you're going to wrestle me, I want you to make highlight real. Now, I highlight real of you knocking yourself out.

I want something great. Again, this is not trying to shunerick Brooks, but I love to fight, whomever. I was getting ready to, just in case, drop for if Pettis or Benavitas didn't make weight. I was like, all right, cool. I called dibs. I called that last minute replacement. Even now or not? Definitely not.

I know Illinois has like a two week. You have to have 14 days. But, you know, I'm just, I'm ready for the next best thing. And I think with the proper training camp and everything, giving myself a little time to relax in between, I think September is a phenomenal time to fight someone in the top 15. It's just who's ready enough to take the fight against me. So Timeli is someone that has come to find? I think Timeli is a phenomenal fight.

I think it's a storybook fight because he ended up winning the ultimate fighter, vacating the belt, which gave me an opportunity to become the flightway champion. I fought for it, knocked the guy out, won the belt. And immediately I thought, I didn't know what the outcome of the show happens. So I thought he lost maybe, you know, he's going to come back and we were supposed to fight. So I want to see who's the underspeeded champ. You know, I think that'd be an awesome opportunity. Him and I did train each other.

I was helping him for DJ while he was helping me for Pedro and over defend the belt. And I got the knockout against one of his former opponents. He went to distance with DJ. And I think it'd just be a phenomenal story to see who would have been the undisputed champion if, you know, that would have happened. Are you kind of rooting for DJ not to lose? Like, do you want him to be the champion when and if you get there? It's not even that I'm not rooting for him to lose or whatever. No, no, it's not lose.

Like you want to be the guy to be the guy to be. I would love to be thrown him. And I have nothing but respect for the guy because he's, again, done something in the sport that's never been done before. But I just, I don't see him losing any time soon. Yeah. If it does happen, it's honestly because somebody closes your eyes and throws a lucky punch. I just don't see it at all happening anytime soon. Do you enjoy watching him fight?

I love watching him fight because it's something where he's so technical, you just have to break it down. The Ray Borg fight, you know, again, Ray Borg is a phenomenal fighter. And I've trained with him before and he's pushed the pace against me as well. So seeing what he did against Ray Borg and literally toying with him, looking at his coach like, should I? Should I do this? Okay, no, I'll wait. I'll wait a couple more rounds. And he's just literally toying with him.

It's like, that's where you want to be. That's the exact pinnacle of where you want to be in your career, where you can toy with every single fighter in division, do whatever you want with them. So you don't think Suhudo has a chance. I don't think Suudo has a chance. He might, what, outrestle him again for, you know, two, three takedowns,

but is he going to be able to keep the pace for five rounds and is he can be able to keep the stand-up? I mean, the big thing was the knees. You know, the knees took him out in the first fight. I can see the knees take him out again. What about, T.J. versus DJ at 125. You know T.J. Dillardshaw very well, and I think that's a phenomenal fight.

Can T.J. make to wait? I believe 100%. And that's why he was definitely trying to go for it. But look at the case, and this is something I use the example of, DJ's a phenomenal fighter. Easley creams the whole division. But then when he was at 35 against the best, Dominic Cruz, he was beating him up in the stand-up, but any time Domit Cruz got a hold of him, he was throwing him, he was toss him, he was just out grappling him. And he got beat up because of it.

Now, what if he faces as TJ, guy who's a better grappler, probably faster, and as an attacker, I think it's a big, big disadvantage for DJ. Okay. So I think TJ wins that fight nine out of ten times. You don't really want that, right? Because then TJ has the belt. You're not going to fight your friend. I'll fight. Oh, really?

TJ would love to fight. He would love to fight me. What? Why? I thought you're friends. And the thing is, if he doesn't want to fight me, then we're not friends. Okay. I respect that.

I think Mike Tyson has the quote where, like, he fought. I think it's the same speech where he goes, I broke my back. He goes, I fought a friend. I knew he was in problems, and I don't want to fight him, but I know he needs money. Cool, I'll fight you. It's a living. It's a business. It's nothing against each other.

And I think I fight with, you know, TJ, DJ, whomever, if I want to fight you, that means I respect you that much more. Okay. All right. Fair enough. You don't hear that often because people don't like to speak the truth or they just don't think that way. I have a different mindset when it comes to certain things.

I'm really happy for you, man. Congratulations. I appreciate it. debut, man. It was, honestly, I have to say, it was really cool to see both you, and I know you're not connected to him, but Nathaniel Wood is another big prospect. You guys were the first two fights of the night. It kind of felt like the card started off with the bang and sort of like trickle. Yeah, but it was great. And then you both had similar kind of turnarounds in terms of like the first round being a little dicey and then the comeback and your clip has been everywhere. So

I'm very happy for you. The funny thing about that was I did wish him the best of luck because when people were saying the prospect, I knew nothing about him. I thought they were talking about me. I was like, oh, hey, appreciate the luck. Oh, it's actually his post. My bad, sorry. But I wish him the best of luck. I was like, hey, man, let's make our UFC pro debuts phenomenal and then do our thing. And then I'm walking behind them going on to the bus.

And I was like, man, this guy's, he's pretty big for 35. I was like, yeah, I could probably bump up 35. I'll take a last minute fight. And I'm walking behind him. He's, you know, yay tall, super wide. I was like, ah, you know what? I think I'm going to say 25. But it's funny because that week, I was cutting the weight.

I saw his Brazilian opponent. He was cutting a decent amount of weight. I go, if he doesn't make weight, can I bump up and fight Nathaniel Woods? So I don't have to fight Jared Brooks and make 25? I can probably make that happen. So I was already like weight cutting ideas. These are the things that come to mind when you're struggling. Well, I'm happy you made weight.

I'm happy you won. I'm happy it was spectacular. And I'm looking forward to now you having a normal camp, you know, eight weeks, nine weeks, something like that. Yeah. If McMander likes me. Yeah, that would be really nice. And then going on a run here.

So thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Congratulations. My man, Joe's going to walk you out here. here he comes. Good luck to you and enjoy Chicago. Maybe we'll see you there. Thank you for sure. Yeah, cool. There he is. Jose Shorty Torres, successful in his UFC debut on Friday in Utica, New York. Let me just do something here. Yeah, if you haven't seen that, if you haven't seen that finish,

I'm guessing if you watch the show, you have seen the finish, but if you have not seen that finish just yet, I highly suggest checking it out. It was everywhere. And I saw Luke tweet that they were talking about it on the new ESPN show High Noon. So that's good. That's good pub. Good for Jose Shorty Torres and good for the flyweight division that they now have a new face and someone that people can get excited about.

And perhaps someone who can be a major player at 125 and maybe threaten Demetrius Johnson because he is right. DJ has been recycling through some of his opponents. By the way, there is a big fight coming up this Saturday at 225, the return of Joseph Benavinavenus against Sergio Pedus, which is an important fight at

125 on the 225 card, and it's on fight pass. How about that? All right, so that's 225 talk for a second. That's a little Utica talk for a second. We had Yoel Romero. We had Jose Shorty Torres. later on we'll still talk to other people who were affected by the Utica card who are on the

225 card there's still a hell of a lot more to come but some other news it's not just 225 this week it's the season opener for pfl the professional fighters league they are now rebranded of course they used to be world series of fighting now it's the pfl this thursday they have their first show of their inaugural season and it's taking place not too far from here at the madison square garden theater and the prelims are on Facebook. The main card is on NBCSN and this kicks off a very busy stretch, a very busy back end of 2018 for the organization. In the end, they'll be crowning a bunch of tournament champions giving out a hell of a lot of money. There's a lot to digest here. And for MMA fans, this is good. There's another place for fighters to go. So without further ado, let's say

hello to Ray Cepho and Carlos Silva, the PFL's president of fight operations and president of business and event operations. Here they come. Sugar Ray Cepho. flying solo, where's your guy? He's coming, he's coming. Okay, how are you, my friend? Good to see you. Nice to have you in studio. I love the solo.

There he is, Carlos. What's going on? I thought you ditched us. Good to have you. I'm happy to be here. Great to have you guys here. I really appreciate it. This is a big week for you guys, right?

Yep, big week. This is huge. Big week. Yeah, it's great. How long have we been preparing for this week? Our whole lives, though. Your whole lives. No, this is, I mean, this is, like, when was the last PFL show?

was November. Oh, we were in Everett, and then we did, then we did Fight Night in D.C. Yeah, when was that? November 2nd. November 2nd? Yeah. So here we are.

You've been doing nothing for, what, eight months? That's right. Nothing's right. That's right. Now Ray's been busy getting 72 great fighters. That's right. Okay, so we have a lot to discuss here. First, Ray, explain what is your role in the company?

And Carlos, what is your role? Let's start with you, Ray. What is your role in the company now, now that it's gone from WSOF to PFL? We pretty much work together. I mean, we do everything. I mean, in terms of pretty much putting the whole show together. But more of the fight operation side and fighters and whatnot.

Okay. And Carlos? Yeah, so I run the league. Okay. So, you know, Ray takes care of making sure we've got the best show inside the cage. And I help make sure that the league runs and operates smoothly. And then, as you know, you got George Greenberg, who runs all of our production. That's great.

Really happy that Pete Murray came on as our CEO, you know, NFL and Under Armour. And he's now helping us to run the business overall. And so it gives Ray and I the chance to really make sure we put on a great season of sport the way we're structuring it. Ray, and I know, Carlos, you were there in the WSF days as well, but you're like a founding member of this organization going back to, how many people, are you the longest tenure? Is there anyone else that has been there since day one like you? T-Way. T-Way. Yeah, T-Way is kind of like our backstage guy that looks after.

So there's two people left. Right. Kevin was there at the beginning, too? Kevin, Kevin came in, I think, a show, two shows afterwards, I think. But, yeah, X out of T-Ware myself, then there's Kevin. Are you surprised that it's like it's still going on for you here through all the iterations? I'm not surprised, just loving it. You're loving it.

Yeah, loving it. I mean, I can't be more thankful to the team that's come along and actually continue to push this forward and make things happen. And also, change the sport, change the game a little bit. Okay, and what do you mean by that, change the sport? Well, I mean, we're looking at a league now. We're not just looking at fights, and we're looking at regular seasons, playoffs, and championships.

And we all know what that is. And so, you know, in the regular season, the guys are going to fight twice this year. In the beginning, they'll fight, and they win, they earn points to get to the playoffs. And the playoffs is a one-night tournament where the guys will fight a quarterfinal or semifinals, and then the championship is two months later at the end of the year.

I see the promos. I was watching UFC on Friday. I saw the promos. There's a big number that jumps out of you, $10 million. What does that number mean? How is that number being broken down? That number, really, if you look at what Ray was saying, as the fighters fight through the regular season, they're going to go into the playoff area. And from the playoffs, the quarter, semis, and finals, there's $10 million of prize money.

So as the fighters fight in the regular season, just like they always have, they're going to get their show money and their win money. But then there's a $10 million prize purse between that quarter semis runner up and chival. championship prize money that'll happen from October to December. And seven weight classes? Six weight classes. Six weight classes. 45 to heavy weight. Okay.

And so that big pot is going to be divided among all those people. That's right. Well, what will happen is eight of those 12 in each weight class will make it to the playoffs. So as you back up into the regular season, 12 fighters in each weight class, they're all going to fight twice. When they fight twice, they're going to get points for wins and losses, knockouts and submissions depending on when they get finishes. At the end of that second fight, we're going to look at their points, and we're going to

tally them from one to eight. And the top eight will make it into the playoffs. And they'll be bracketed in the quarters, one versus eight, two versus seven. And when they make it into the playoffs, there'll be $10 million of prize money available with a million going to the six-way class winners. And for these regular season fights, everyone makes the same, or does everyone have their own separate contracts? Yeah, they all have their separate contracts.

Yeah, they all have their separate deals. That's right. They get their win and show. Okay, but it's not all the same among all the fighters. I mean, so if I'm, you know, I can't, maybe I can't even ask this question, but what's the most someone can make in this whole tournament? Like, let's say I go undefeated, right, and I win the whole damn thing in December, and I get knockouts here.

Is there a number like the most that one particular guy can make? I'm assuming that's in the seven figures, right? Well, I mean, if I run the table. Let's just take an example. Let's say a guy makes 30 and 30. Okay, fair. Just to use an example. And he wins twice during the regular season.

He's going to make 61st first, first win. He's going to make 60s first second win. Then he wins in the quarters. He wins in the semis. He wins in the finals. And he makes a million. So he's going to make a million for the win, plus his $120,000 that he made during the regular season.

So he's going to make $1.1.2. It's a big number. That is a huge number. Did you receive a lot of, you know, when you're just another organization, you're just another organization. But now that you have this big pot in the rainbow, Were you surprised by the inquiries, by the people who reached out saying, I want to be a part of this?

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't different than WSOF? Yeah, it is different. It is different. But it wasn't surprising to get hundreds and hundreds of emails every day from all over the world because, you know, it's pretty much similar to what I come up with, especially through K-1 days. You know, everybody fought throughout the year. And to get into the top 16, you got to win your fights to get into the third. top 16 to fight the top 16 to get into the top eight which then became the Grand Prix, right? So it's the same thing here in terms of getting all the emails and and the only different,

the only problem what I found was that I was getting emails from guys that were five and two or three and oh where pretty much when you're going to go, when you go into the season, we're looking at 10 plus fights or 15 plus pro fights because you can't have, for example, use jacks, Jake Shields. Can't have Jake Shields finding a guy that's 5-0. He's like had over 50 pro fights. You know what I mean? So you almost have to look at the pool per way class as like a collective unit, right? And think about all the scenarios because they could end up meeting each other. And that's not your original plan. Did you feel like it was harder than to sign guys, like to whittle the list down to 72 so that you had, you know, the right crop of guys and no outliers? Yeah. Well, yeah, in a way it was.

You know what I mean? Because in one weight class, we'll get a bunch of guys. And then in another weight class, we got, okay, where's the heavy weights? Or where's these guys? The funny thing is, the light heavy weights was the one that I was a little bit more concerned about. Yeah. But yet, light heavy weights was the first weight class that was filled. Really?

Interesting. So, yeah, that was interesting. Okay. Now, from a business standpoint, you know, WSF has always been on NBCSN. and then the deal sort of was over, right? And there were a lot of rumors about where you guys would end up. We heard all kinds of stuff, Amazon, this and that. How do we end up back with NBCSN?

I mean, they've been a great partner. I mean, I've got NBC and, you know, in my roots too, haven't been part of the Universal Sports Days. And so knowing all those guys have supported World Series of Fighting since, you know, day one. We were excited to stay with them. We really felt it was important as we moved the brand to Professional Fighters League that being on the Olympic network, you know, true sport, that underlying sport format that's, you know, really in all of our blood, it made sense to do it with NBC. So we ended up extending

with them into the 2018 season. And then we had looked at a lot of different guys. You know, you'd heard about Amazon and some others, but Facebook stepped in. They really brought a lot to the table, global distribution. And so even though that first seven fights on Thursday night, at the Garden will be on Facebook live here in the States, then we'll transition between 9 and 11 to NBCSN. If you live in London or you live in Rio, you'll watch all 12 of those fights live on Facebook watch around the world. So Facebook's providing that global, that global resource.

So you just sit there and watch the whole thing? That's right. And that goes for every card in this season? That goes for all 11 fights, yes. Interesting. And is it just English broadcast? English and Spanish broadcast. For the first one, and then we're going to probably add Russian and Portuguese, as we look at sort of our fighter pool

because we've got a good group from Russia. We've got a good group from Brazil. Right. Now, everyone knows Ray in the sport if you're even like a casual fan, right? I mean, we don't need to go through your background, right? And still very much involved in coaching fighters and doing a great job. Your background is an MMA, right?

No, it's not. Explain to the people how you got to this point, how you got to the crazy world of mixed martial arts. Yeah, it's a great question. I've been in sports and media my whole career. I was, you know, lucky enough to be part of the AOL juggernaut sort of in the early 2000s, ran sports there, worked with a guy by the name of Jim Bancoff that most of the Vox people here. I was part of Jim's team running AOL sports and news.

Then I went off and launched some television networks, one of which was Universal Sports that became part of the NBC family and really is transitioned into what people see now is the Olympic Channel that's still on television. And so I had been involved in combat because so many of the World Championship, were part of universal sports, whether there's a judo world championships, the wrestling world championships, et cetera. So I continued doing some consulting work. I was in sports and media.

I got a phone call one day from a good friend of mine that World Series of Fighting and Ray and the team were looking for some help. I think my background, you know, having been with NBC and being part of that family, fit in well, I've always been sort of on the forefront of knowing sports. It was part of even looking at the UFC back in the day when they were. We're looking at investments in the early 2000s. Really? And so jumped in to help sort of take what Ray and the team had built, transition it,

and then certainly bring in our new ownership group, which is, I think, the best in the business and build out our management team like we have to launch PFL. Who is the new ownership group? It's a great question. It's a great, diverse ownership group in sports and media led by Don Davis, who's part of the Revolution family in Washington and Russ. Ramsey, who's also in the Washington area, and then Mark Leshley. So that really rounds out the top of the board and our new ownership group. But then we've got great owners in sports and media

like Ted Leonis and the Levinson family and the learners, you know, Jimmy Ivan from sports and music, you know, Brandon Beck. And the other list just goes on and on, including our owners that help support us in the World Series of Fighting Days like Bruce Dyfic and the original folks. And it's, you know, I think it's as good as it gets, really, in terms of forefront of thinking about sports and media, which is really, you know, where the business is going. And it really helps us to prop up MMA and PFL. We've had several PFL fighters leading up to this point, had Andre Harrison sitting right over there last week. And I've asked several of them this question, but I feel like you guys are the best ones to answer this question. How are you able to pay this

money? I mean, because let's be honest, that's a lot of money. And the fight game is an expensive fight game. It costs a lot, you know, to put on these events. How are you able to pay these guys this amount of money and keep this train moving along successfully, healthy, you know, thriving, financially? How is that possible as kind of like a new startup here? Yeah, really. It comes back to that ownership group. I mean, they believe in the vision. They believe in in transitioning this into a true sport format. They understand what it takes to invest in sports and media. They're in the sports and media business and they understand that you got to put money in. You got to grow the brand and they provide that support for Ray and the team to, you know, go find the fighters,

for our marketing, for our NBC shows. And then also, most importantly, to create a great production with George and the team so that it looks great and it looks a little different and it brings new technology. And this ownership group understands that. I mean, it's what they do every single day. So does it feel different now for you, Ray, you know, dealing in sort of the humble beginnings of World Series. Do you feel... It's still a humble beginning. It's still, okay, fair enough, fair enough. Yeah. But it's exciting. Yeah. I mean, like I said this every day, I tell my wife all the time, like, I feel so blessed that I get up and do what I love to do. And this is what I was made to do.

I coach. I'm at the office. I'm dealing with fighters. I'm giving them more opportunities. I mean, it's just no complaints whatsoever. I'm just loving every day of it. Yeah, you do have a lot on your play. That was actually my next question.

How are you able to juggle these two lives at you? Because one is enough, right? Being a coach is enough. Doing what you do at extreme coutes enough. Now you've got this, which is enough in its own right. Right, right. How are you able to do it? Is it difficult at times? No, not at all. It just, it just all works together.

It does. I'm quite honest, yeah. And then again, you know, Colin's eye worked really well together and just running things. And so everything just blends in together. Okay, so like, for example, this weekend, right? What if Brad Tavaris was fighting this weekend? What would you do? That's, we'll cross that bridge when I did. That's never happened? No, no.

Never. You never had a conflict. No. Because now you're on Thursdays. So I'm imagining, excuse me, if, if, if. Brad was fighting on Saturday, you would just fly to Chicago on Friday morning. Exactly. But for the longest time, you guys were on Saturdays. Right.

And there have been times where you've gone head-to-head with a bell to or UFC. Right. There's never been a conflict. Never. That's wild. Never been a conflict. If you look at the schedule coming up, because you guys are really busy this summer. Well, perfect example is Brad is actually headlining the finale,

Ultimate Fighter finale. and our show is on the Thursday, and he fights on the Friday. So as soon as our show is done, I fly back in... You'll be there. I'll be there. You don't have to be there that week necessarily. Well, I'll be there kind of like part of the week,

and then Eric will be with Brad in the days that I'm gone, and then I get back the morning of the fight. When you guys saw the UFC sell for $4.025 billion, they just signed the deal with ESPN. Is it good to be it? in the MMA business right now? Is it, because, you know, MMA business has kind of gone up and down, right?

There was a time not that long ago where it seemed very down, it went up. Then it kind of seemed down for a bit, but I guess not these days because of the deal they just signed. Like, what is the state of the MMA business in your point of view? I mean, I think it starts with kind of the growth

and the fans and, I mean, what you see on social media area. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, I've been in sports and media in my whole career, and it's like you can't, you can't touch a moment on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or snap without like the street, of conversations going on 24-7.

So, look, being in sports my whole career, you don't see that in all the other sports. So I think you follow the fans, the fans want more, and I think MMA's as good as it can be. I don't know if it's the fifth major yet, or if it's the fourth major yet, but it sure feels like it's there.

And so, yeah, it is good to be in the MMA business. Well, you say the fans want more, but there's often this discussion, like, is there too much MMA now? Like, there used to be a time, you remember this time, you can never find MMA on TV, right? Now it's almost like this summer with UFC with Belvoir with you guys with contender series and God knows what else

There's almost like MMA on every day. So there has to be a saturation point, right? Maybe. I don't know that we've hit it yet. Yeah, you know, the thing is I've said this, you know, a lot of a long time ago The thing with MMA is that you got so much talent pool You know if you look at boxing, you're just pulling from boxes if you're looking at kickboxing, you're just pulling from kickboxes You're looking at mixed martial arts, you got restless, you've got judo fighters, you've got judicious guys, you got kickboxers, you got boxes. I mean, there's so much, you've got karate, there's so much background, and so much talent to pull from, that I think we're just in the beginnings of the sport. Really? Even after all these events, UFC doing 40-something.

You guys are going to do how many this year? 11 events. 11 events. 11 events. 7 regular season, 3 playoffs, 1 championship. But in the regular season, you're doing how many and how many weeks? Because you're doing one every two weeks, right? Every other Thursday night between now and August 30th.

So every Thursday night. So one week on, one week off, and then another fight. So, you know, New York, D.C., Chicago. So it's be busy. And then, you know, just to go back to when we were talking about Facebook, if you're in New Zealand or if you're in Germany or if you're in Hungary or wherever in the world, You can watch the fights live on what you call it, Facebook Live. Yeah.

The reason why you need to watch that is because every fight matters. Yeah. Every single one of those fighters is fighting to get an opportunity to win to get to the playoffs to get to the championships. Right. So every fight matters. Can you watch them on replay too? Like will it be archived the moment it's done? Absolutely.

It'll be archived both on Facebook, watch on their replay page, our PFLMMA replay page, as well as PFLMMA.com, yeah. Not that long ago, I reported about the, I guess, for lack of a better term, uniform, right? So it's different than the UFC's uniform and that the fighters can get their own sponsor. They can get two. For those that haven't read that who don't understand it, could you break it down for us? What is it going to look like? And has it evolved from when I reported? Is there a brand involved?

Is there a specific look involved? Hasn't changed much since you and I spoke about it. The only thing that's changed is each of the knights are going to have a different color for sort of an away and a home. Okay. So in the case of New York here, there's going to be sort of a tar hill blue fighting against a black and gray. And there'll also be a green and white, sort of a Spartan green and white versus a black and gray.

The 145s will be in green and white and the heavyweights are going to be in tar hill blue. And so each of those things will evolve from fight to fight. But the uniforms are very similar, clean look, sponsor logos on the front and the back of the walk-in shirts and then sponsor logos on the left and right thighs of the front and back of the shorts, fighters' names, fighters' flags, will be all part of it. And I think a really great clean look. It's going to look great on television. So, and so far the fighters like what they see. No pushback at all. No pushback. Everyone's excited. Because they get to pick two. Right. That's right. And they get to change them three times? That's right. So they'll fight with

the sponsors during the regular season. Then if they get a new sponsor or the sponsor's excited and they want to re-up with a different brand, they can do that for the playoffs in the championship. And there's no tax, right? No, tax. The sponsor doesn't have to pay you guys anything. No, they do not. 100% goes to the fighter. 100% goes to the- Is there a brand involved?

There's not. Right now, we're just doing it as PFL. Okay. Is that the goal? No, I think that the goal would be to try and find the right brand. But right now, we wanted to create the right look first. And so we decided to do that in-house. Any of these kits, if we want to call them, being sold?

Sure. Can you buy an Andre-Harrii? shirt? Eventually. Not from day one, but PFL shop will launch on Wednesday of this week. Oh, wow. And so gear and stuff that we're doing here in New York will all be available online and drop ship right to your house. So it's exciting, yeah. And why did- It broke that story just now, Ariel. Thank you. Scoop is my favorite word. Why did you guys feel the need to do this, right? Why do you come from a time where there weren't uniforms? Everyone got to wear their own thing and be their own kind of person. Why did you feel like this was a good thing? Well, you know, we have professional in our name.

Yes. And I think when you, at first, like, I was a little bit, you know, taken back when I first heard about it, when Collison and I talked about it. But then when you looked at everything come together, you just go, wow, that looks great. Okay. So, and the fighters are all excited about it as well. So I think it's just to keep, it shows another side of MMA. It shows the professionalism of what the sport is. It shows that everybody can look unified, if you will.

And I just think it's a good look. Yeah, and we wanted to give the fighters a chance to, you know, brand themselves too. And so now they've got this nice, clean brand in terms of the uniform, but they still have the ability to bring in their sponsors that support them, whether it's, you know, a local car dealership or another national brand, they can bring it in and they can change it out. So I think it works. I think a lot of fans have been against the idea of uniforms for various reasons.

my main gripe is that I just don't like that everyone looks the same. However, I saw that when we reported the story, the general consensus was positivity, because I think a lot of the fans appreciated the fact that, look, okay, we understand you want the guys to look clean, but the fact that you're giving them this opportunity to make money is much different than obviously. And I know you don't want to compare,

but that's a major distinction. Right. So hopefully that remains. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I also saw the same sort of sentiment on social media. It was nice to see that there was a nice balance that we had struck. I mean, I think as we all came together as a team and with Pete joining us, with his background at the

NFL and Under Armour, I think he brought this league feeling to what we wanted to do that was very clean and very professional. But then we also sort of looked at sort of what's how MMA's been over the last 10 years, including what we had done over the years at WSOF and PFL. I think we struck a nice balance in between and so far so good. You wanted to say something, Ray? No, no, I agree. Or maybe your phone. Carlos's phone. Who's hitting you up?

Someone mad that you broke the news about the shop? That's a big sponsorship deal, was just calling in. You know, interestingly enough, some news last week regarding another new promotion. And I don't want to call you guys new necessarily because you have been around, you know, the sort of DNA is still from the WSOF days, but this MMA Pro League, Mark Taffet, formerly of HBO, launching it. You guys aren't team-based, but there is a sort of same, there's a link there with the same. season and the playoffs and all that. Have you seen this news? And if so, what do you, what do you make of it? Yeah, I saw the news. I know Mark from his days at HBO working with Ross Greenberg. And, you know, I don't know really, you know, I don't really know what to make of it. A little bit of a different

structure, some team stuff. But, you know, I think today we're really, you know, we're kind of here to talk about Thursday and PFL. And the timing was interesting, right? And, you know, it's something that we had heard about and we didn't really know when it was going to happen and it seems like they're going to start down in Atlantic City or something like that and uh and so we'll see how well wish him well look I've known all those guys for years I personally think there's only room for one regular season playoff base league I agree there's 100% agree yeah there's all there's only one league and it's the professional fighters league that's right I'm just setting you up for that I did notice and and you mentioned this a lot of East Coast shows for this season and typically MMA you live in the West

Coast. You live in D.C. Right. There's a lot of East Coast shows. How come? And why not, you know, the traditional California, Nevada? I think you'll see us there during the playoffs. But I mean, if you look at Thursday nights and you sort of look at when doors open, it really kind of dictates a little bit as we think about the regular season. I mean, you know, if you're in California and you're on nine o'clock, you're on six o'clock on Facebook and nine o'clock on NBCSN, it'd be tough to open the doors at three o'clock on a Thursday. Okay. And so we really kind of thought through that.

So we're going to be East Coast and then Central in the case of Chicago, because that one card happens to be a little later on the East Coast. It's a 10 o'clock start. Okay. And so that just seemed to work out well for Thursdays. And then I think you'll see us. We haven't announced it yet, but we'll do it soon. You'll see us out west for the playoffs.

Okay. You can announce it here? Yeah, we will. We will. We're ready. We're still locking down on a couple of places. It's always going to be Thursday, though? For the regular season.

Yeah, right now. Playoffs and finals. No, playoffs finals are Friday, Saturday, Saturday, And then we're going to be here in New York City on December 31st to come back for the championship. And you're going to crown all six. Will they be champions or just champions of the season? Like NBA champions. There'll be 2018 champions for their weight class.

So a clean slate. Correct. A long year. Okay. And all six of them are going to be on the same card? All six of them on the same card. Wow. And will that be on NBC?

That will be. Yes. Big NBC. That'll be on NBCSN. Okay. Now you also have Kayla Harrison who's fighting. And I do believe, correct me if I'm wrong way, she's the only non-tournament.

Like, she's just kind of being featured. She's not a part of any tournament, right? As of this year, right now, she is, you know, we're giving her in there and to move around and, you know. But we're looking at a 145 division for 2019. Okay, but there are no other, like every other fight that we're seeing in this season, they're all part of a tournament. Correct.

All part of the season. Except for Kayla. Wow. Man, she's special. She is. Yeah. She's zero and zero, too. So she's got to start somewhere.

And she was here. We saw her the other night. She's a two-time girl members. She's a lot to play by her own role, right? Right. I mean, you have to keep tabs on this. It's hard to build a 145. It is.

Not a weight class. Just ask the USC, right? Are you worried about that? I'm not worried, but also it's something that we got to, you know, really cross when we get to it. But, you know, there are a few girls out there. but it's just again like you said it's hard to get 45 female fighters out there how many people work with you in terms of signing scouting um there's like three different people yeah no no no it's not just you

no not just yeah because i mean that there's a lot right right who's who which signing are you most excited about that wasn't a part of wsuf wasn't a part of pf last year someone that you've brought in a new face we've seen some of them recently will brooks chris wade Who are some of the guys you're excited about? Well, Will Brooks is, you know, Chris Wade, and there's a couple of other Russian fighters, you know, signed two M1 world champions. One that's a 145 and the other one's a 205er,

so I'm looking forward to those guys. But, no, I mean, I'm excited about everybody. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, I mean, we've had, for example, when you look at the card for this coming Thursday, Lance Palmer's going to be on there. Andre Harrison is going to be on there.

Sean Jordan is going to be on there. So I'm excited about, you know, the whole start of the season and kicking off. And I think every fight is going to be exciting. Again, it's like I've told everybody and I'm sure everybody's aware that every fight matters in the season. Yeah. Every fight matters in the PFL.

Because when you win, you continue to move forward. And I tell all, you know, again, one of the reasons why I love my job is that we get to give these things. fighters an opportunity to live the American dream. And that's when you get to the finals and become champion and win a million dollars. Not everybody can make a million dollars in a year. You know, so they get to live this American dream that everybody strives for. One thing that's come up is, all right, let me, there's, you can get points for how you win,

right, knockouts, a mission. Right. At the end of the end, if you keep winning, there's a good chance you're standing there at the end, you win your million dollars, right? That's right. were you shying away from guys who you think might coast, you know, the typical wrestler who might just lay, just try to pick up the win, you don't want those guys too, right?

You don't want guys who are just going to win to survive in advance, correct? Right. Obviously, you know, there's a... Ray doesn't know what that means. Yeah. Okay. Well, I know, but, you know. That is a thing.

You know, it's funny because it's come up. Yeah. But it's one of these things where we've talked to the officials as well as the team. And, of course, we're going to have this talk with the fighters. that this is, you're not just fighting for a thousand dollars, you're fighting for a million dollars. And, you know, if you go out there and you think you're going to cost, it might cost you the fight.

You know what I mean? Because you might think, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and someone else reverses that and knocks you out and you're out. So it's really, you can't afford to cruise. You've got to go out there and put it all on the line. Have you guys thought one thing that came up last week we were talking about a lot was this idea of open scoring?

and because you guys are sort of very sort of traditional sports based with the regular season, you know, it's such a crapshoot with judging in MMA and in combat sports that if you made it public, I feel like someone needs to try this

where you make it public each round who's up and so that the fans at home and in the arena know, all right, this guy's down to nothing, he's got to go for it, he's got to get a finish. I feel like of all the organizations

you guys would be perfect for something like that. Have you thought about it? Yeah, we talked about it. Is that possible? Is that something that you could, could do with the commissions allow. Yeah, it's one of those things where we've got to sit down and, you know, you just got to sit down

and start talking through it because you're right. I mean, if you could really understand where they are. I mean, it's something that we've talked about in combat for a long time. And it's just not the way it works right now with the commissions. But, you know, back to the fighters, it is what it is. And so you got to get a win. You don't want to leave it to the judges. I mean, you just don't.

We talk about it all the time as, you know, being in the fight business. And it's really true for the fighters, especially in this regard, because if you co-executive, because if you coast a little bit or you feel like you might feel like you know what the card is like and you get a loss, it could have affected your ability to get in the playoffs. And certainly once you're in the playoffs, you lose and you're out because it's just a straight bracket. When you get to the playoffs, are you fighting twice in the same night? Yes, you are. Quarterfiners and semifinals and semifinals.

Are those three-round fights? No, shorter. The quarter-fiders, two rounds and the semifinals is three rounds. Okay. Now, as you know as well, in this day and age, those kinds of fights are being done less, right? Back in your day, they were the norm. Right. Are you worried about that?

What happens? What if a guy injures himself? What if he wins his quarterfinal fight but injures himself and he can't fight in the semifinal? It's part of the game. Part of the game. Is he just forfeit or does someone else step in? No, so what would happen is a lucky loser could come in. So, I mean, remember, there's going to be four losers after the quarterfinals.

Right. If someone happened to win and injure themselves, but they might have, you know, suspended their, you know, they knocked their opponent out in the quarters if you and I fought. Yeah. You knock me out, but you broke your hand. You knock me out. You can't go to the semis. I can't go to the semis because I've been knocked out.

So the next lucky loser would be the highest ranked quarterfinal loser that would be there, and they would advance. And so that's just all part of what we've put together with the sort of the rules around how the season works. It's all laid out. And then the other scenario is that if you won a dominant fight by three rounds and he loses, but yet you break your hand and he is good to go. Healthy, yeah. He'll be able to go in your place.

Okay. Now, I've read a lot of the stuff that you guys put out, and it's all very well thought out. Like right here, you're answering every scenario that I'm bringing up. How difficult was it to essentially, like, create a set of rules and to think of every scenario? It was difficult. Yeah. It was difficult, too, because, I mean, the great thing is Ray's background in the formats that he came from K-1. You know, and I'm not a fighter, but I've been in, you know, many, many tournaments,

I played tennis my whole career. So it's like I've been in lots of tennis and lucky losers and all that. We looked at, you know, we looked at the way that all of the major leagues worked. We looked at playoff systems, FedEx Cup, NASCAR, from all of our sporting backgrounds. And it took time. And then we had to sort of run the tests against it if this happens, if that happens, and create all the corner cases so that all those rules, every fighter's been briefed. They all know how it's going to work.

So all the scenarios, and there may be one that we haven't thought of, but we're confident that the way we structured all the rules, it'll fall into an appropriate bucket and a fighter will advance or not advance based on those rules. Initially, when you guys announce that you would be rebranding, the plan, I do believe, was January. What took a little longer than expected? Why June? Why did it end up being June as opposed to January 2018? Well, you know, I think things always take a little longer. Yeah. If you've been in the startup business, I mean, it's okay. We're all optimistic. guy so we were really excited about the season and and really had wanted to go January. But then we also sat down with Facebook and NBCSN and we looked at the schedules and we looked at the way that the season would play out and we kind of jointly put that package together. The NBC guys were really excited about this Thursday night. We were really excited about the Thursday night.

We wanted to get sort of through, you know, through most of the hockey season and get past that. And so it just sort of worked out that way. And I think the June start will work for us. And then we'll sort of see where we get in 2019, possibly push it a little earlier in the year, depending on how it all gets packaged up. But you guys, you're from a TV standpoint, it's just for 2018 with NBC, right? That's right. You do something spectacular here.

Free agents come 2019. That's right. But, you know, look, they've been great partners of ours. And it's great that Facebook jumped in for this year. So I think they're really, yeah, they're really high. helping us to build this Thursday night too, which is exciting. I'm a big sports fan. I watch all kinds of sports.

And I notice, I mean, I watch NBCSN. I even worked for NBCSN when they were versus and then became NBCSN and they had the UFC. And I always kind of felt like they didn't push you guys enough. Are we going to see more promotion in the summertime on other programming for your upcoming fights? Are we going to see more love? Absolutely. I think you're already seeing it.

I mean, even if you've been watching some of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I don't know if you like hockey at all, Ariel. But there's been some great, you know, great stuff. I mean, lower, you know, lower tickers that are running by. They've really been supporting us with the fighters and interviews, some great Olympic style research across all the fighters that their research team, which I think is the best in the business on the Olympic side. And it's really, I think, made a big difference.

And I think George and the team back in L.A. are going to be even better prepared because of the sort of joint effort with them and the NBC folks. I remember one time, I think it was August of 2013, maybe it was 14, when a young man named Ray Cepho fought on his own card, his own WSF card. Are you tempted to, I know there's no heavyweight, jump in at light heavyweight. Can you make 205? Please. I'm 270 right now. 27, wow. Damn.

Solid though. Yeah, no, I could see. Look at those arms. Are we still fighting or are we done? I'm done. Done. Yeah. Actually, you know what?

I haven't officially retired. Okay. So I'm officially retiring on your show. Wow, that's amazing. There you go. We'll go give you another one. Thank you, Ray. I appreciate it.

Well, congratulations. When did you decide that? I actually thought about a couple of months ago, if I didn't fight again by May of this year, especially when the season starts, there's just no time to put in a camp. So I thought, you know what? If come May and nothing happens, then I'm done. Wow. So I'm officially retiring everybody on the area show. Wow.

Congratulations. Some race up. How young are you? I'm 47 years young. 47. That is amazing. You know, it's funny because sparring last week, there was a 27-year-old. One of our guys at the German, he's like, man, I feel old.

I said, how old are you? He's like 27. I said, I feel like I'm 27, but I'm 47. The guy felt, he even felt worse. Yeah, yeah. And your last fight, forgive me for not knowing off top of my head. It wasn't that long ago, a year ago or so? Nah, longer than that.

Three years. Was it? It would have been three, four years ago. Really? Was your last one? Yeah. Was it the WSOF fight? Actually, no, no, no, I fought no long after that.

Okay. Okay. You made it to 100? Did you get to 100? 109. 109. Yeah. I actually spoke to my coach Lolo back in New Zealand.

Yeah. There's no, no, no. So we backtracked. I actually went to K1 with 21 and 0 when I assigned to K1. I thought I was, and I said to him, I thought I was 16 and 0, but I said, no, so we went down the thing and it. So I've done 109 fights. Wow.

Pro fights. That's the official count. Right. Favorite one? Every single one of them. You've got to have one that sticks out. Well, I mean, the one that sticks out is Mark Hunt. Mark Hunt and everybody talks about that fight.

Yeah, yeah. But every fight, you know, again, it's like the PFL. Right. Every fight mattered. You know what I mean? And every fight means something. You know what I mean? So, because, you know, there's the beginning.

There's the middle and there's the ending. Right. Traditional Fighters League is the beginning. There's a middle. Wow, that's a pro right there, tying it all back. Yeah, we did that. He put a ball around it. I was going to ring the little bell.

It's great. You see, you are a well-oiled machine right now. You're a true executive. But when you started, like, how old were you when you had your first fight? Pro amateur. How old do you think you were? I was 17 and a half. Yeah, no, yeah, 17 and a half.

So, like, 30 years ago? Correct. Did you ever think that you would make a career like you've had, like coach, successful fighter, then coach, now executive, matchmaker, putting together this, like, league, this has to exceed your wildest. I thank God every day that I get to do what I love to do and passionate about, and I get to work with this guy every day. So, no, back then I never really saw myself sitting here.

You know what I mean? But I can tell you that, like I said, I thank the good Lord every day that I do what I do. And for you, Carlos, to spend all this time, the rebranding, the relaunch, you know, to finally have a date, to have a partner, TV, partner like these last few days here this has to feel like you know i don't celebrate christmas but i would imagine like the last few days before christmas right i mean as a kid this has to be super you're in new york to start things off at sg right no it's really it's really great i mean we've uh you know ray and i've been through a lot here in the last three years and it's been

a great road uh i think these fighters are going to have this great journey uh it couldn't be i mean i'm so excited about how it's all going to start i love the way it's all coming together I love this sport format. I'm a sports guy. I never really understood this word promoter even when I got into this business and people would ask me about it. And I think it's grown in the sport. It's been a great 20 years. And promotions are going to continue and be great. But I just, I love this regular season and this playoff format. And yeah, it's just super excited to be here. And I love that we're launching here in New York City. Yes. Well, I really appreciate you guys coming in. I know you're super busy. I wish you the best this Thursday, Facebook, and then. then NBCSN, the kickoff to the inaugural season for the Professional Fighters League. This is very exciting. And I'm excited to see Andre Harrison, as you said, Lance Palmer, Sean Jordan, a lot of familiar names on these cards. So I wish you guys the best.

Thank you so much. And congratulations on a great career, my friend. Thank you. And Ariel, congratulations. Yeah, it's really great to be here today. And we wish you well as you. I got out. Yeah, you've moved on ESPN.

No, it's really great. Yeah, it's really appreciate it. Thanks for coming. And Joe's going to walk you out over here. Thanks for doing this, my friends. And best of luck to you guys. I'll be watching from Chicago. Unfortunately, you booked it when I'm going to be away,

but I'll be watching and supporting from Chicago. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again. All right, there they are. Ray Cepho, Carlos Silva. Great to have them in studio. The PFL's president of fight operations and the president of business and event operations.

Put my headset on here. As we say goodbye to them, the PFL relaunches on June 7th. That's this Thursday on NBCSN. Very exciting for them to finally get this going and to finally be a thing and to finally arrive. How cool is that? All right. Another player, I think that's very good.

And I think that we'll be watching and wondering, you know, their place in all of this. Because people have tried out the regular season playoff format, but they seem to have a handle on it all. So I wish them the best. All right. Let's move along here. Very excited to say hello to our next guest. Wow. How about this?

This is an honor. It gives me chills. my friends, June 4th, 2016, Inglewood, California, the forum, the fabulous forum, UFC 199, young man by the name of Michael Bisping took a fight against the middleweight champion of the world on just two and a half weeks notice. No one gave him a chance. They laughed. They scoffed.

They said, you were just submitted not that long ago. You're at the end of the road. You're banged up. What the heck are you doing? How do you think that you're going to dethrone a guy who's probably going to hold a on to the belt for the next five plus years. We all know what happened. He pulled off one of the greatest upsets, one of the greatest wins in the history of the UFC and the history of MMA. He became that night the UFC's middleweight champion. Of course, I'm talking about Michael Bisping. Two years later,

he's now a former UFC fighter. He's a former MMA fighter. He retired seven days ago. And since then, he has been showered with love and praise. It's been amazing. So much so that it was very hard to get in touch with them. I thought he forgot about us. I saw him on every show under the sun, every podcast on the sun, but no, but no MMA hour, no Ariel Hawani show. What's up with that? Well, we have located him. He's here. He's not via Skype. He's via the phone. Happy to say hello to the now retired Michael the Count Bispang. What an honor this is. Let's say hello to him right now. Michael, are you there? Yes, I am here, Ariel. What about that intro? I'm going to say, that is quite the intro that I'm not sure how to immediately follow that. Do I defend myself? Do I thank you?

do I say that's incredible? Do I say, listen, I'm a very busy man. I will start with, thank you very much, Ariel. I really appreciate that. Oh, well, you know, I appreciate it as well. Did you know that today was the two-year anniversary? I had no idea until it pops up on my Instagram feed this morning. So, yeah, how about that?

You know what? If I hadn't known, maybe I would have waited another week. You know, I was thinking that too when you did it last week, but you know what? Then I said, this is perfect. He did the whole, you know, you went on those smaller shows, you know, believe you me, I think it's called. But now you come on this show,

two years later, this is perfect. I couldn't script it, so I'm not that mad, I must say. Ariel, it's not my fault that you're lazy and you only do one show a week. If you did a show at the end of the week, I would have been there. But, you know, believe it or not, I do have other commitments that I have to attend to.

And, yeah, but anyway, here I am. You know what, it wasn't planned, actually, to retire, so to speak, but I flew into New York last Sunday. And whilst on the plane, I watched a movie called Journeyman. Now, I knew my retirement was close. And, you know, it's something I contemplated very, you know, very closely for a while. I've given a lot of thought to it.

I knew I was going to be retired. But for some reason, I wasn't telling the UFC because you want to keep that door open. You know, fighting has been my security blanket, if you will, for a long time. Anytime, you know, you need a bit of money, you just take a fight, you know. And once that door is closed, you know, it's closed. So I was keeping it open. But I watched a movie called The Journeyman

with Paddy Kansidding last Sunday on the plane. And it's about a boxer who suffers a traumatic brain injury and a fight. And, you know, it's a very, very sad, touching story. And it just made me realize, listen, now is the time, obviously, you know, my eye injuries are very visible. And, yeah, that just prompted me.

I said, you know what? Enough is enough. So what happens if you don't see that movie? Pardon me? What happens if you don't see that movie, if there are no signs? Is there a chance that at some point, like that that obviously did something, a light went off, but prior to that, like, do you think there's a chance that, you know, you do you do fight in six months or so? Or do you think it was inevitable?

Some other sign would have popped up and you would have came to your senses? No, no. I was retired, but I just hadn't made it formal yet. Of course, I nearly fought in London. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a retirement fight in London, probably for all the wrong reasons, probably just because you get that adoration

and you get your moment in the limelight, get to put your gloves down and all that type of stuff. But Audia Torres, my manager, he said, why? You know, he said, that's going to be forgotten about pretty quickly. Is it worth taking more damage, you know? And he's right, you know, I mean, a little one night of glory and maybe another lifetime of another injury. So, yeah, maybe if I had us in that movie,

it wouldn't have happened on Monday, maybe it would have waited to this week on your show. How's that? Thank you. I appreciate that. If I was sitting next to you on that flight and you're watching them, are you bawling? Are you crying? Like when you have this epiphany, what is the reaction? I look like a little bitch.

I kept them to wipe tears out of my eyes and stuff like that, you know. Yeah, you know, I mean, listen, everyone knows me. I always have too much to say, whatever. But I am a very emotional person. And yeah, you know, it's been a helpful. of a ride. It's been amazing, but I knew watching that movie, I'm like, yeah, this is it. This is the end. I can't do it to my family anymore. I can't do it to myself. You know, obviously my eye is in a terrible shape and my good eye and having a couple of issues with that as well. So I'm like, nobody wants to go blind, you know, and a friend of mine as well said, you know, if you went blind, you would give any amount of money in the world to get your side back. And of course you would. So it's just as it wasn't worth it. and I want to talk about that in a second, but I'm just curious about the epiphany and the reaction. You know, it was amazing because it happened a day after the Liverpool event.

And here's this star and Darren Till and maybe the next Michael Bisping, there'll only be one and it'll only be one first, but, you know, maybe he's the next. And so I'm wondering if at any point you thought I threw out the idea last week, they hit your music, song two comes out, you walk out, you have gloves in your hands, maybe you put them down, you address the crowd, you say goodbye. in your country in front of your fans. Did you ever consider just not having a retirement fight, but a retirement announcement in Liverpool? Yeah, of course I did. Yeah, I mean, that was the next, the next scenario for me.

But, you know, just the way it happened, the sequence of events, it didn't allow for that. Of course, there isn't that, you know, events in the UK on that regular. So, you know, and I want to move on with the rest of my life. I need to make a decision. I need to stop, you know, wondering and then lingering, and hanging on. I need to make it definite.

So, you know, if I waited another six months, I might have changed my opinion and actually booked a fight. So I said, okay, listen, now is the time. Just do the right thing, make it official. So there you go. You always say the right things. You have the gift of gab. And I thought it was interesting while watching you on the podcast. Believe you, me, it's available every Monday. I do believe with the great Louis J. Gomez. I appreciate the shout out, by the way, in the midst of it all. How great is that? I got mentioned in the clip, in the retirement clip that will live on forever. what an honor that is for me.

So thank you to both of you for mentioning me. But I noticed like you kind of wanted to move on. You didn't want to linger. You didn't want to sort of like dwell on it. It's a very short clip. It almost felt like you were a little bit bashful. Like you didn't want to celebrate yourself. Is that accurate and why so?

Yeah, you know, well, I guess I'm big editing. I'm glad you mentioned that because I don't know. So on the podcast that I do, of course, you know, there's lots to talk about. But I'm conscious not to talk about myself too much. I don't want every week to be a bloody tribute to myself on my own podcast. Because then you just, you know, it's like people, they just listen to hear me talk about myself. Nobody wants to hear that. Maybe a little bit here and there.

So when I said that, I'm like, okay, well, we'll give it a few minutes and then let's just move on. You know, but since then, to say, I mean, I keep saying I've said it in tweets several times. I've been blown away. And really, that's the best way of describing it. The outpour support and love and messages that I've received, it's just blown me away. I'm truly lost for words. I mean, some respected journalists in our space have written the most tremendous articles. There's been tweets of support from British fighters.

British fighters, like just saying how much he looked up to me now, I paved the way and opened the door. Honestly, I didn't think that people looked at me like that. I'm just a guy trying to look after my family and just trying to get on with life. Of course, you know, I am conscious of, you know, being the first champion and being around for a long time and things like that. But still, I didn't actually know people help. me in such high regard. So I'll say thank you to all of them. And there's been so many tweets and Instagram messages

that it's literally impossible to respond to them all. But if you listening to this and you sent a message, then I can't thank you enough for those kind of words. I've been literally blown away and yeah, yeah, speechless. Thank you. You didn't expect that? You didn't know that you had that kind of impact, not only on the

sport, but on your fellow fighters? You really truly didn't think it would be that kind of reaction? I thought I'd get some support. Yeah, of course. but I didn't think it would just be this, you know, this avalanche of support and love that's came my way. And as I say, you know, it's hard not to shed a little tear when you're reading all these messages, you know.

And it also, I mean, of course, winning the boat is great and, you know, making some money, that's fantastic. But then to see all this at the end of the career, you know, it really validates it, you know, and it makes all the hard work and sacrificing injuries and time away from the family and missing birthdays with my children and things like that makes it all worth it almost, You know, so yeah, again, thank you so much.

No, I didn't, I didn't, Ariel, to answer your question in short. Was there one or two? Was there someone who reached out? Maybe you hadn't heard from them in a while, or they said something that really touched you, that you've been through a lot. Was there any kind of message that you received from someone once the news got out that really felt, you know, wow. I'm sure many of them meant a lot. I've seen some beautiful things. And I can imagine why you got emotional, but is there one or two that really stood out?

I don't know. I mean, there was literally so many. It was hard. And just reading one after the other, after the other, after the other, after the other, you know, it just, yeah, you can't help but get a little emotional, you know, so many nice things, so many nice tribute videos on Instagram and, you know, beautiful posts. And yeah, great words. So yeah, yeah, thank you truly to everybody. Yeah, blown away. That's the best way of putting it. When did you tell your family? Did you tell them after the announcement? Did you tell them before you went on the air? No, yeah, I mean, I guess I told them after, I said to my wife's, by the way, I just officially retired on my podcast. It wasn't planned, you know, much like everything I do with my life, it's kind of off the cuff. Yeah, I mean, as I say, I've been talking about it for a while, and I'm trying to work on a lot of other things outside the Oxigar.

And I guess it's not fair to the UFC, and it's not fair to the UK office, and it's not fair to my family. You know, there's a lot of people that you're kind of keeping in the dark, So you've got to be true with people. So I'm like, you know, enough is enough. You know, my movie agent is like, Mike, can you just fucking officially retire so we can focus on this? And then I have other companies.

Last week, I was all over the bloody place doing other things. And I'm excited because, you know, fortunately, I've used, you know, my platform as a fighter to, you know, set myself up with other things that I can attack now aggressively and try and make the most out of these situations. You know, that would be my advice to when if I really going to make it. the most of it while you're still in the spotlight. You know, once you're done, once you're washed up, well, not washed up, once you retire, no one's overly concerned of hearing a washed up ex-Figer.

You know, use your time in the spotlight to open as many doors as you can, make as many connections, as many relationships, you know, as many types of different businesses as you can, you know, and hopefully the sum will be shiny after retirement. Do you feel like you are set up well for the future now? I mean, I'm certainly not self-finitely to the point where I can just share my ass with the rest of my life and do nothing, no. But I have a lot of things going on.

I have a company called Playline that I'm involved with, which is a daily fancy sports app. You can download the apps on the app store. It's similar to a sports lottery. That's doing really well. We were at investor meetings in Toronto last week and every single investment company that we met with all want to invest in the company.

So we've got big things going on there. I'm involved with a healthcare company called Timmy Health. We launched you, and I'll say you allow people to monetize their health data. You control your own health data, and then you can opt in and out of surveys with hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, and you get a check, you know, every so often, every time you opt into a study. You know, people's healthcare data is worth hundreds of billions of dollars per year. And the user that owns that data, we don't get any of it.

So anyway, I'm boring everyone. There's that. Obviously, there's a movie movies. acting, I'm doing okay there, the UFC work, you know, analyst stuff, all that type of stuff. And of course, they believe you meet podcast. So yeah, things are going well, Ariel, lots and lots going on. And, okay, so we know about the eye that has been an issue since the Vitor Belford fight. You revealed on the podcast last week that since the Gaslim fight, you've been having issues with your quote-unquote good eye. Could you further expand on that? What is going on there? And is it

possible that both eyes end up in the same spot or as long as you're done now, you're okay with the quote unquote good eye? Yeah, so yeah, as long as I'm done, I think I'll be okay. I'm still going to get some checkups. So what happened was after the Gastillon fight, you know, we went to an after party. And it's really accentuated when it's dark. So we were obviously in the nightclub and it's very dark. And every time I looked at my left, I could just see a flash of light.

And I'm thinking at first is it, you know, the light in the nightclub or whatever. And I kept looking to the left and looking to the left. And every time I did it, I saw a flash of light. Now, of course, I've got experience knowing what the symptoms of a detached retina are. And, you know, I started panicking. So I left the club straight away and I was very worried. I got home. First thing I did, I went to see a specialist.

And I have what's called the vitreous detachment now in my good eye. So in between your retina and your lens, there's millions of nerves. attached to the retina and they are floating in what's called vitrious fluid. And if I'm getting this wrong, I apologize. But I think that detaches when you're in your 60s just due to old age. But it can detach due to trauma. So that's what happened to me. You've got to be careful because as those fibers are still detach in which they are,

they can cause the retina to check. Obviously that leads to a retinal detachment. So, you know, that was kind of the scenario. And it's okay. My vision's still fine. I still get the flashes now. but obviously I don't repeat what happens to my bad eye

my good eye, you know, so yeah so there you go. I mean, it's okay, it's all good. I mean, you know, my eye's fine. It is fine, but it just highlighted the fact that, you know, maybe now would be a good time to not get kicked in the head anymore. Were these the same early symptoms that you experienced with the other eye?

It wasn't actually, no. No, it wasn't. Very different, but I just kind of just thought, wow, Well, even if it is a detached wetner, then, you know, my word, it's going to be a lot of problems. Even if he fixed it, you know, it's going to be a, yeah, it's going to be a terrible time. So anyway, so, yeah. So, you know, and many things. And as I say, there wasn't just the eye. Of course, that is an issue.

You know, I have a bad knee. You know, I mean, I took all most of the last year out due to my knee, and everyone thought, oh, he's ducking people. Even though I accepted Whittaker and Romero, the winner of that fight, people still like say I was ducking. But my knee still gives me problems. I'm still getting treatment on it three times. a week and that doesn't seem to be getting better. You know, I'm almost 40 years old, Ariel as well. 40 years old.

I've had more fights than anyone in the UFC. I've had more wins than anyone. I've won the belt. I've made some money. I've fought literally all over the world. What more is there to do? You know, you would be a fool to carry on taking the damage. Now, that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss it terribly.

I'm going to miss it every day. Every time I watch a fire, I wish I could do it. So I will miss the sport terribly. I'll still trade still keep in shape. I'll probably still float with the idea of having a fight again. So that's why I told the UFC to take me out of the USADA testing pool. So it's not just as easy as, you know, saying, I'll fight next month. Now I've got to go through the testing pool again.

So, yeah, officially retired on all fronts. And if you were experiencing this, why did you even consider Rashad? Why did you consider something else? Like, should it have been enough what you experienced in that nightclub? Because I believe in myself, Ariel, and I believe that I can still beat these people. I know I can still beat everyone fucking out there. You know?

So I'm thinking, okay, all right, well, I just won't get hit. I just won't take any damage. I'll really apply myself in this training camp. I'll do this. I'll surprise everyone and come out there and use my grappling for once. You know what I mean? There's many ways you can look at it and try and break it down. So I thought, fuck it.

And my wife didn't want me to do it. She was begging me not to. And, you know, I actually accepted the fight in London in my mind. March and I was so excited to do it. And then, you know, the deal kind of fell apart. So probably a blessing in disguise. Do you regret taking the Gaslam fight? You know, it would have been the perfect ending, I guess, you know,

to fight a legend like George T. Pierre in Madison Square Garden, you know, lose the belt and then say, you know, what, retired. That would have been perfect. It would have been, you know. But first and foremost, the reason why we do this fight, so we take fights and we take fights and we take these risks is to make money. that's what we do it for you know and that's why i started doing this you know i started doing this and become a fire my goal when i got into the fight game was hopefully because i left school at 16

and my goal was to make enough money from fighting to be able to go to college and get a trade or get some kind of training in something so i could get a decent paid job that was my goal and it far exceeded those expectations um so the point i'm making is that i do it for money and i was able to get a quick turnaround, no fire camp, nothing like that, and go into that fight. Now, looking back in hindsight, it was a big mistake, I was over-trained, I was malnourished, I was, I was weak as a fucking dog.

You know, I was just, I remember once, I was in Shanghai, and I looked at myself in the mirror, and I'd lost all muscle tone and stuff, I thought, Jesus Christ, look how skinny and pathetic I look, you know, it's just too much, you know, so, but it is what it is. I still thought I could beat him, and I still think, if I was to take a rest,

and have a proper training camp, I could have won that five, but, you know, fair play through me, caught me and well done. So, yeah, no regrets, Ariel,

no regrets. Not a single one. I don't know. I mean, I mean, I often, I'm often filled with regrets. If I look back in past interviews,

I think, holy shit, why did I say that? You know, I often cringe a lot. So regrets maybe in that regard, but, listen,

you know, you play, I'm very thankful the career of had. I know, you know, everyone that supported me in England obviously thank you so much. My wife was just incredible.

She was, you know, she was a huge catalyst in me being a fire and looking after me and helping me through everything. So I can't thank her enough. My parents, my family, they all supported me, my children, my son,

Calumee's my biggest fan, everybody, you know, it's been amazing, it really has, but, you know, you play these games. It's the way it goes. The life of a professional fire,

it's not an easy road. I did it, I got out on my terms, made some money, won the belt, set some records, what more do you want? Is this easier because you were champion? For the longest time, I thought you would be,

I feared for you that you would be the greatest fighter to not just not win a belt, but to never fight for a belt, and that always seemed wrong to me. And then you finally did it under the most amazing circumstances. Do you feel like if you never got that opportunity to fight and ultimately win the belt,

this decision, verbalizing all this would have been a lot more difficult? Yeah, 100%. you know, I always knew, you know, it was my destiny to be world champion. Even when I was a kid at primary school, elementary school for you guys, you know, even back then I knew this was all I was ever good at fighting, you know, this was all occurred about. It was the thing that I was most prideful of it, you know, when I was a little shit on the

streets, getting into street fights all the time, you know, I could beat anyone. And that's how I, that was my identity, rightly or wrongly, and of course wrongly for any kids listening, it's not a smart thing to do. but I had nothing going for me back there. So yeah, not winning the belt, for sure. That would have been, yeah, well, not fine for the belt. Not winning the belt yet. It would have been much harder to walk away.

I will never forget talking to you in Montreal. We sat down in your hotel room prior to UFC 186. You were fighting C.B. Dalloway. And you were coming off the first loss to Luke Rockhold. I wish I had the clip queued up here because it's just an unbelievable clip. You know, after the Rockhold fight in Australia, I think a lot of people thought, all right, that was probably your best chance. And here we are in April, so just four months later.

And you're saying, I'm going to win this fight. And then Rockhold's going to beat Chris Wyden. And then I'm going to come back. I'm going to win another fight. And around this time next year, I'll be fighting for the belt. And then I'll become UFC champion. And you said it's so nonchalantly, so matter-of-factly. And I have to say, I didn't say this to you at the time, of course.

But in my mind, I was thinking, well, this is a little bit sad. you know, maybe I appreciate his self-belief, but I just don't know if it's going to, if the cookie is going to crumble this way. And lo and behold, you did it. Exactly. Like, you almost called it to a tea. Did you really believe? Did you really truly believe now? Can you say, after the fact, did you really believe it would play out the way in which it did? One million percent I did. One million percent. When I said those, I wasn't talking

shit. I wasn't trying to big myself up for the sake of, no offense, Ariel, the few people that watch your show and they're, they're think, well, it was really good. I'm saying it because I believe it, you know, and I believe that could beat Rockhold in that first fight, you know. He, you know, I have a bad eye. The vision is kind of restricted on that one. Blood was pouring into my good eye.

He had a lot of lucky things in that first fight. I couldn't see shit. But I bothered him and kicked his ass. I knew I could beat him. And I knew I belonged and I knew I wasn't finished. And Jason Perillo, I've got to give him a special shout. I haven't mentioned him yet. Jason Perillo did wonders, working on my confidence, working on my mental,

calmness. You know, I used to be an emotional reg. Still am somewhat, but I used to be, you know, an angry person. And Jason worked on me, getting me to calm down and things like that, you know, and so I've got to give him a very special shout. If it wasn't for Jason Prillo, I probably wouldn't have become the World Champion. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Anthony Brady Pink, Scott Bihazka, Darren Morris, all coaches have worked with, you know,

who you are. But yeah, for sure. And, you know, right before that first fight with Luke Rockhold, we were, we did the press conference. and I did a quick phone interview and I forget who it was it was one of the bigger named MMA journalist

and he said to me he said Mike you lose this fight it's over right it's over you're done I'm like no he said well of course because you've been close

so many times you lose this fight you're done I said well I don't see it like that I lose this fight I go back to the drawing board of course but I ain't gonna stop I ain't gonna stop until I get that belt

and keep working towards it you know and I think that's what everyone needs to realize you know and any young fire is out there Whatever it is in life that you're trying to achieve, you're going to get setbacks, you're going to get knocked down, you're going to get hurdles. People tell you to go away, you're not good either, whatever. Keep working, keep trying to be, you've got to be dedicated, you've got to have a plan, you know, regardless of how outlandish it sounds.

If you put a plan in place and take those first steps, you're one step closer to achieving your goals, you know, and don't take no for an answer, you know, and Jesus Christ, I'm living proof of that. Were you always that way, though, or is this something you developed over time? In other words, the 10-year-old, 11-year-old, Mike, would he kind of give up when the going got tough, or has this always been a part of you? Yeah, it's always been a part of me. I've never been a quitter in my life, you know. Sovereign, you may call it, stupid, you may call it,

but, yeah, I guess that's always been me. It's incredible when I think back to 2006 when you won the Ultimate Fighter, when you were on that show and ruffling people's feathers, and you and Matt Hamill and all the, you know, like the moments. I mean, it's just most fights, most wins, all that stuff.

It's obvious to ask you, $199 is the obvious one. But is there any sort of favor moment that sticks out that doesn't include $1.99 that is maybe a bit off the beaten path, something that they always hold in high regard? Yeah, absolutely. Of course, you know,

winning the belt, that's part of it. The immediate highlight, but then the one before it, Anderson's over. Being Anderson in London, you know, in front of my home people, you know, nearly getting finishing the third round. My face will literally hanging off covering in cuts everywhere, an absolute bloodbass, you know,

fighting through that diversity, sorry, adversity. I'm glad that happened, you know, because it made the story so much better. And I got emotional after the fight in the oxygen. I shed a little tear because that was a guy that I looked up to for so long, and I knew I could beat. I always knew I had matched it well with him, I could beat him, but I just never got a chance, you know. But to do it in the way that it happened, yeah, that meant a lot to me. That was a huge moment.

And that night, June 4th, exactly two years ago. Like, do you relive it now? Oh, I remember what I did that morning. I remember what it was like when I got to the... I mean, that's a night that you will remember until your last breath. What is it like? It's not that long ago, but it feels a long time ago, right? I mean, it's two years is nothing.

Yeah, no. It does. It's flown by, but it does seem like a long time ago. You know, I've never... I don't know why. Maybe it was the short noise and something, but I've never felt so confident going into a fight in my life. Never felt so confident.

And then even when, if you watch it back and you see, we try to touch gloves and Rockholds like, no touch, no touch. And I said, no touch. I'll touch you in a second motherfucker, you know. And the fact that, and you can hear it, I'm just up thereings out, I'll touch you the second motherfucker. The fact that I'm so calm in my mind to be like, you know, coming out with witty remarks right before the fight starts, just shows how calm and in the moment I was, you know.

And so, and a lot of that was down to Jason Perillo again and all my coaches. But, yeah, it was a great. moment and I'll forever remember it. What was your favorite part of that moment? Was there something privately with your family? Was there something that we didn't see? Is there one moment that sticks out of that moment?

Um, yeah, for me, it was afterwards, just in the car with my wife, my children. Yeah, anyway. You fucking asshole, Ariel. Hello?

Why am, I know, I'm letting you, I'm letting you digest this. You got me a little child. I got me with my wife and my children. Most people probably doing something flashy, whatever. But I dropped them off, I dropped them off. I didn't know when I met my friends and got a little too drunk, whatever. But, yeah, just getting in the car from the arena with my wife and my kids with a gold belt on my wife's lot. You know, never thought that moment would ever happen.

Wow. Was it just you guys or was there anyone else? Was it just the Bissping family? Yeah, it just does. Wow. Was that done by design? Pardon me? Was that done by design?

No, it wasn't. No, it was just one of those things. You know, obviously my wife had the kids and, you know, they've got to go to bed. So I'm like, I'll take you. You know, we got in the car. As I say, it was just a beautiful moment. Kids didn't get into the car. Bell on my wife's knee, driving home. You know, she was there every step of the way.

Always believed in me. And now she has the world belt on a lot. You know, it was just, you know, amazing. I can't imagine, like, the conversation. Do you remember the conversations in that car what it was like back? home? Yeah, it was just disbelief, to be honest, even though we, you know, we were all confident, and my wife

always believed him, it was just disbelief, just couldn't believe it, that, you know, the journey from, you know, I used to sleep in my car, to now living in California, we're sitting in a nice car, driving home with the World Bell, you know, just the journey with being on. You know, my wife wanted me to retire that night. That was the plan, but I said,

I said, listen, if you think I'm going to retire in the cage after knocking out the champion, you're crazy. You know, so, yeah, there you go. That would have been nice, though. It would have been nice. No, you had to see what, I don't think anyone blames you for, you had to enjoy the spoils of being champion after all these years. I think you would have regretted that even more so, right?

Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. And now you have a son, Callum, who I name drop almost every week on this program, third ranked wrestler in the state of California. We're not talking Idaho, Montana here. We're talking about a state that breeds wrestlers. This is incredible. Is it inevitable that he will fall on your foot? What steps? Do you think he will become an M.M.A. fighter? Come here, Callan. He's waving his hand. He's off school today. He's very sick.

And he's in the background begging, begging right now, shaking his hands. I can't talk, I can't talk, I put a sore throat. But I don't know. Calam's a really smart kid, you know, and he's very level-headed. He's an amazing wrestling. If he wanted to do it, of course he could do it. The wrestling is there. And, you know, he's my son. If he wanted to be UFC champion in the world, I have no doubt in my mind. He could achieve that. Honestly, I think there's better things for him in his future. You know, he's a really smart kid. You can do anything he won in this world. Anyone can. Anyone can, you know, but you've got to be realistic.

You know, you can't say everyone's going to be a world champion because the physicalities of that don't lead to it. But sit down, recognize what your skill set is. Everyone's good at something. Everyone's got a skill. Then think of that skill. Think of what you can do with that skill and what's the purpose you can take and then start putting those steps into action, you know?

Anyway, my son, yeah, he could do that if you wanted. but, you know, I see him using his brain, Lord. I will genuinely miss your other son, Lucas, and his Fight Week predictions. He always bet against you. I will miss that. I will miss that. That's the best part of Embedded. I hardly watch Embedded now.

We're not going to get that anymore. No, they were awesome. It was funny, obviously, because when I lost the GSA, that was the only time he predicted me to win. So everyone said, you know, it's Lucas' fault. But, yeah, no, that's great. That's his personality. He's hilarious. And, Mike, if I told you in 2006 when you won the Ultimate Fighter,

that the career would go this way, but unfortunately you would end up with a bad eye and this eye. Do you take this? Is this worth it for you? Yeah. I mean, as I said before, this is who I am. This is what I do. This has been my identity. And I've always been a fire.

And now I find myself in boardrooms, you know, as a businessman, which I never thought would have happened. So it just life is a crazy thing. You know, it's a wonderful thing the journey can take you on. So, but if it wasn't for the fight, if it wasn't for all that, I wouldn't have all these amazing opportunities at my fee right now, you know. And all this kind of happened over the last couple of years. It's crazy what having a belt does to you. You know, you get a few more opportunities, a few more doors open, figuratively.

And literally, of course. So, yeah, you know, as I say, no regrets. I've got to thank the UFC as well. You know, I do. You know, I mean, if it wasn't for them, you know, then being a professional fire, mixed martial arts and making money out of it, it wouldn't have happened. So I've got to thank all the team of the UFC, Lorenzo and Dana.

You know, thank you very, very much as well, of course. Did you hear from them after you made the announcement? Yeah, Dana, give me a call. Give me a call. We had a nice conversation. Okay. You know, listen, I know you and Dana don't exactly get along. No, not true.

Yeah, you're probably good now. I know you've got him on this. Just like me and Dana, but listen, he's always, he's always been true to me. He's always been great with me. and as I say, a lot of opportunities for God knows how many main events all over the world. Of course, I earned that as well. I recognize that, don't get me wrong. But still, it takes two to tango and it's no UFC.

There's no Michael Bisney. So, you know, forever grateful. Two more things. Can you say with certain? Yeah, because I'm going to go. Believe you meet you to start in a minute. Listen, Michael, you don't retire all the time. I'm sorry.

This is a big deal, all right? Two more questions. I'm sorry. I'm trying to celebrate you. No, I know. I know. I know. All right, please go ahead.

You're going to make me feel all guilty that I kept you too long. I mean, really. I have guilty conscience, you know. Anyway, two more things. I promise. Then I'll leave you alone for a very long time. Until next week, at least. No, no, no, no.

Call me whenever you want, but let's go. Okay. Can you say with certainty that you're done? We know how retirements go. You know, people come back all the time. Chuck Liddell, for God's sakes, who's in this studio just a couple weeks ago saying he's back. Are you 100% done?

I'm done. I'm done. It's over. I've loved it. It's hard for me to say that. But I'm done. Simple as that. You've got to know when to walk away when I'm walking away.

Yeah, I still want to be involved with the sport. You know, I'll be working as an analyst, hopefully a commentator. I'll be, you know, still working on UFC tonight or whatever it happens over ESPN. I've had, you know, I've had a confirmation of that. You know, I'm involved with UFC gyms. We just bought the rights to the UK UFC gym. We're opening 110 gyms over the next 10 years in the UK. That's one a month for the next 10 years.

So any franchise partners that want to be involved with the UFC gym, give me a shout. You know, I own that. I've got a lot of shit going on, Ariel. And right now, it's the time to walk away. And I'll forever miss it. I'll hopefully train some people down the day down the line. I feel like I've got a lot to offer, a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge of the fight game. And I would love to train some fighters when the time is right, you know,

and dedicate myself to that. Who knows? Maybe one of my children might be that person one day. But, yeah, it's over. It's done. Thank you, everybody. And lastly, and I know this is a complex question to ask someone, but because your career has seen so many different iterations, you know,

you were kind of the bad boy of tough and then the Matt Hamill fight, and then you were kind of, you know, a baby face, if you will, and a villain, and then you were back to baby face, and then you were champion, and people loved you, and then people got annoyed with you as a champion, and then they loved you when you said goodbye. I mean, there's been so many, you know, ups and downs with your career. How do you want people to remember Michael Bisping? When they say Michael Bisping in 50 years, how do you want people to remember you?

you know, I've been asked that question. I've never really given it much thought, to be honest. Just that basically, you know, I was a hardworking guy. I was gay. I always took an oldcomers. I never ducked opponents. I never took steroids. I did it the hard way.

Blood, sweat and tears. Lots of sweat. Lots of blood. Lots of tears. And, you know, I shouldn't be sitting here having a conversation as being a world champion because physically, I was never that impressive. I'm not the strongest guy.

I'm not explosive, none of that, but I'll fucking try anybody, you know, and, you know, I made it work for me. I did, and,

you know, through blood, sweat and tears and just know that, you know, anyone can achieve anything, and I like to think that I'm, I'm proof of that.

And when you think of Michael Bishman, just think of, you know, there was a guy that never turned anyone down and took on old commerce. Did it the right way, did it the hard way, did it the clean way.

Yeah, there you go. Congratulations, Michael. I don't know what it is about you, but you get me emotional. I've told you this before. My first live event that I covered, UFC event that I covered,

Tough 3 finale, first event that I ever bought a ticket for, UFC 78 when you fought Rashad Evans, you know, the interviews that you gave us the time, the sit down in Montreal, the walk and talk in London. My whole career I thought was over the night you became champion. I was banned from the building. I mean, there's just something about you that just makes me very emotional. And it's been such an honor to cover your career. It truly has, and we're going to miss you so much. I know you'll be around, but just having you as a fixture in this sport for these 12 years,

it has really been a massive privilege and honor to cover you. And I'm so happy that you get to go out on your terms as a champion, respected and beloved by all. Trailblazer, pioneer. You really did it all. So enjoy it. Enjoy this new chapter. I wish you nothing but the best.

And from this show, thank you for always being accessible and coming on, even that week after you on the belt. You came on and you were always so great. So thank you for everything, Michael. I really wish you the best. And hopefully we can work together soon in the future as well. Ariel, thank you so much

for those beautiful words. They really are, very, very kind. I know everyone's probably listening for fuck sake. Can we move? I'm going to throw up in a minute. But, yeah, thank you, Ariel. You were always a great supporter.

I always enjoy coming on this show. You're great at what you do. And yeah, truly, thank you. Everyone listening. Cheers. Thank you. All right, Michael. We'll talk to you soon.

There he is. Michael Bisping, now retired from the great sport of mixed martial arts. He retires as one of the greatest ever, a shoe-in for the UFC Hall of Fame. Mixed martial arts hall of fame. If there ever is one, a real one, he will be a shun as well. Truly a pioneer, truly a trailblazer, a man who built that market, the UK market,

with a couple others worth noting marshals, Elasnick, Aunt Evans, there were some key players. But you needed a face, you need a guy to, you know, bang through those doors to do those interviews, to draw crowds. You needed someone who they could call their own. and this was a time when the ultimate fighter, you know, when the ultimate fighter started, people didn't know what it would turn into, right? Would these guys really,

there was a time when people won the ultimate fighter and those winners were known to be, you know, kind of black sheep, they didn't belong, sort of like the same way that people talk about CM Punk now, if you can believe that. And of course, not only did Bisping prove that to be wrong, but the likes of Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin and many others.

And for him to win, the belt, the way in which he wanted on two and a half weeks notice against Luke Rockhold of all people was just spectacular. It was quintessential Michael Bisping. Down but not out, continues to overcome, and in the end he got his shot. And there's very few storybook endings in this sport, but the fact that he's able to say goodbye on his terms and now hopefully be set up for the future to me is a beautiful thing. We will miss covering him. He has been a polarizing figure in this sport, the ups, the downs. It's been a hell of a ride from Michael Bisping, and I'm really happy that he has recognized that there's nothing left to accomplish and that he's

able to move on now. So really great to talk to him here today. I was joking about the other stuff. I was having a laugh, as they would say in England. Of course, anytime he's given us some time and he's never really said no, has always been a privilege. So that was really great. Thank you very much to Michael Bispick for that. And I wish him well in this next chapter. Let me take these bad boys off because in a matter of moments, we are going to be joined in studio. I do believe, are they, are we ready for that? I don't see Joe back there with the thumbs up. I think that we were a little bit behind schedule, but there's been a flip-flop in the schedule. Initially, we were supposed to be joined by yes, no, no, we're not ready. Okay. How many minutes, Joe?

No, okay. All right, well, in a matter of moments, we're going to be joined in studio by Marlon Marlice. It was supposed to be Kamar Usman, but we're flipping Usman and Marais. What a performance from Marlon on Saturday. Excuse me, Friday in Utica, main event against Jimmy Rivera. This was a fight that was talked about, that was rumored that, you know, fans went back and forth. The fighters went back and forth. The UFC really wanted to book this fight.

In the end, it happened on Friday in Utica, New York. And in the end, it only took 33 seconds. 33 seconds. an amazing head kick, some punches, but it was really all about that switch kick. Marlon Rice defeats Jimmy Rivera in the first round. It just took 33 seconds. And now, in the UFC, he is three and one. Most importantly for him, he's won his last three in a row. Split decision win over John Dodson after the split decision lost to Hafele Sunsau. And then he followed that up with the thrilling knockout of one Al Jermaine Sterling. That took just 67 seconds. And then, of course,

win on Friday against Jimmy Rivera. And the amazing thing about this is not that long ago, you know, we just spoke to Recepho. We had Carlos Silva in, PFL, formerly known as WSOF. The amazing thing in, the thing is, I remember vividly this guy named Marlon Marais debuting in World Series of Fighting, their first show, WSOF won, November of 2012 in Las Vegas. and he fought Miguel Torres. And at the time, you know, this was kind of the Miguel Torres reclamation project. This was his opportunity to reinvent himself, to relaunch his career.

He had the run in WEC, UFC, and then he was let go. Marlon was kind of the afterthought. And he went in there and defeated Miguel Torres. And I think that put a lot of people on notice. I think a lot of people were like, okay, they've got something here. but it wasn't a very, I mean, he was 7-4-1. Coincidentally, that's around the time that he linked up with Mark Henry

and the crew in New Jersey. Seven-four-in-one, you know, nothing to get too excited about. And so he gets, you know, gets that opportunity, the World Treaty's fighting, becomes 8-4-1, and then goes on this incredible streak

all the way up until the Sunsau fight. He's only lost one fight since then. So what is that? Well, now he's 21, 5, and 1. He beats Torres, is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, I believe that's fourteen and one in his last fifteen. Then he beat Tyson Nam. He ended up getting a world series of fighting bantamweight title fight against Josh Redinghouse. He won that fight, of course,

beat Cody Bollinger, Josh Hill, Shaman Marice, Josh Hill again, bunch of guys, and then finally got into the UFC. And for the longest time with these types of champions, you wonder, okay, how are they going to fare in the UFC? And thus far, he's fared pretty darn well. I want to watch that fight against Huffel-Sentau again, because it's hard right now to talk about, okay, should he be next for the title shot? Someone asked me this just last night.

Like, what do you do for the UFC with Marl-Marais? Well, Hapel-Sentau hasn't lost since that fight, and he hasn't lost prior to that fight. I mean, he had the T.J. Dillishaw fight, but he's won, you know, three fights since, and one is the Marlon Mar-M-Rai. so it's kind of hard to ignore him, but it's also hard to deny the fact that Marlon Maris has way more momentum at this point

than Huffel Sunsou. Sunsau, by the way, is scheduled to fight on July 7th at UFC 226. So we'll see what happens when he fights Rob Fond. If he lose that fight, then to me, the door is wide open for Marlon to fight the winner of T.J. Dillishaw and Cody Garbrand, which takes place on August 4th. Of course, there's also the DJ factor in all of this. Does TJ if he loses, excuse me, if he wins, or Cody if he wins and TJ loses, I mean, is the winner of that 135 fight going to fight DJ? We still don't really know when DJ is going to fight.

There's been some talk of August 4th as well, which would make a lot of sense to have all those guys on the same card. But remains to be clear if that 135 winner is going to even fight for the 125 belt. So he's in a very good spot. To me, it feels like he's at most one fight away from being considered for a title shot. he could be there right now. But I would say right now it seems like he's at most won away. If they decide to either give it to DJ or have the winner of TJ versus Cody fight DJ or if they decide to give a Sunsau a rematch against TJ or have him fight Cody if he beats Rob Font.

The other two that I was thinking was John Lineker or Dominic Cruz. I don't do rankings I used to do them for a while I think it was for Versus I used to do them than NBC Sports and I may have done them for MMA rated but I've always kind of believed

that and I've said this before about the belt if you don't fight within if you don't fight within a year or have a fight booked within that year I don't feel like you should be ranked and that's no slight, but it just feels like a full year is the most fair way to go about it. So, in other words, if your last fight was June 4th of 2017, and here we are June 4th of 2018,

if you don't have a single fight booked for next month, August, or if you didn't have a fight booked and had to pull out due to, you know, an injury, of course, when it's a, a drop, drug test failure, then it's a different kind of ballgame. I kind of feel like you shouldn't be involved in the rankings. Now, it doesn't mean that when you're ready to come back, you don't sort of assume the position. But right now, you know, I was trying to think about like what my top five would be at 135. I don't consider Dominicruz in there just because he's inactive and we haven't seen him fight. Now, I should say, though, he was booked to fight.

When was it? It was December 30th. So maybe that's the caveat to where he should be, he should be ranked. All this to say, I don't, there's, there's been some talk of maybe him returning in the back end of this year. It's amazing to think that if he doesn't fight by December, it's going to be two years since his last fight against T.J. Dill Shaw. I'm focusing a lot on him because if, if Marlon doesn't get the title shot, I feel like the dominant cruise fight makes the most sense. It's a high profile fight. It's the fight Jimmy Rivera was supposed to have.

before Dominic pulled out and then there were the other issues with Linneker. So that to me is the highest profile fight, but it seems like he's right there. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of buzz surrounding him right now. There's a lot of attention. It's a very exciting time for Marlon Marais, who I do believe is going to walk in in a matter of moments here, so I'm excited to have him in studio. After Marlon, we're going to be joined by the Nigerian Nightmare himself, Kamar Usman, who is probably very interested in this Saturday's fight card,

Colby Covington against Tafeldo Sanjos for the interim welterweight title. If Colby loses this fight, I'd love to see him fight tomorrow because they were so entertaining going back and forth at the press conference in Brooklyn. And then after that, we'll be joined by Malki and Abraham Kawa. We'll also be joined by Nathaniel Wood, via the Magic of Skype, who had a great debut on Friday the prospect,

the former Cage Warriors band-in-way champion, had a great debut on Friday against Johnny Eduardo, and then we'll round things out with David Tamor and Daniel Tamor, who were both in action. The Swedish brothers were in action on Friday as well. David, victorious, Daniel, not victorious, but both kind enough to be joining us in studio. They're here after the car,

in Utica, which is around four hours away from New York City. So that's a great, that's a great honor as well. In total, hopefully, by the time all is said and done, eight in studio guests, which I do believe is a record on this program. It's a very exciting thing for us. All right, let's bring in Marlon here. Without further ado, let us say hello to the former World Series of Fighting Bantamway Champion the man who is victorious on Friday in Utica, the Magic Man, Marlon, Marlon. We don't wait for everyone, Marlon, but we wait for you, my friend. How are you? Very good. I'm sorry about It was Ali's fault, right? No, it was my fault.

Come on, really? Yes, I stopped on the drive here. I just drove one hour, 45 minutes. Oh, my gosh. And I stopped to do something in the way, I'm sorry. No problem, no problem. I really appreciate it. Because you have a long trip to get here, right?

Tom's River. One hour of 45 minutes. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. Traffic. From Henzo here, then it's like 40 minutes. Yeah, yeah, no, no. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. You've been a very busy man as of Lake. Congratulations. Thank you so much, man. Happy to be here. Yes. How about this, right? That's nice, man.

Yes. You've come a long way, my friend. Wow, what a great performance. I've watched it. It's so beautiful to watch that finish, to watch the kick, to watch how you set it up. How many times have you watched it? Maybe 20. 20 times.

You have to admire your work, right? At least. But we are training for this fight for a long time, maybe six months. So I probably drilled that kick more than 10,000 times. Really? That particular one. Yeah. Bro, we train hard.

Yeah. We train hard. And every kickboxing, every boxing practice, we've been repeating and being doing to try to reach the perfection, you know. And I don't think it was perfect, but landed perfect. I don't know. It was very good. But I don't know, you know, my body a little bit, the adjustment. But I'm glad, you know, I landed and it was a hard shot and I was able to get a knockout.

Were you looking for that? Like, was that part of the game plan to look for that kick? Definitely. Yes. Definitely. We saw the opening, Mark Henry, you know, that guy, right? A crazy guy. Yes.

He watches his fights like five times a day. Wow. Not just his, but everybody in the gym opponent. Yeah. We can believe how he finds time to run the pizzeria, train, all of us, still watch tapes. And I don't know. He probably sleeps two, three hours a day. Wow.

And he told me it's hard for him. He can see very well the left side, the kicks. And we train a lot to try get him. Think that I was doing some else. So I could land the kick. He's a guy that lands a lot of hard shots. We were training a lot of wrestling for this fight, too. I was going to take him down 100%.

But did you think it would be that early? No, no. I knew I could knock him out with the kick, but I didn't know it was going to be that fast. And so what's your reaction when you see him drop from the kick 30 seconds? When I see him drop, I thought, man, I'm not going to need the take down to get him to the ground. I'm going to go now. And I just went and he was still strong.

I felt he wanted to get up. I hold him and I was able to land a couple shots on the side of the head. The first one I land, he kind of dropped. The second one, he kind of wake up. The third one, he started to finish. Damn, big, then stop it. You've had a lot of big fights, a lot of important fights. But considering the back and forth between you guys, does this one feel the best?

Yeah, it was a lot of bullshit. Yeah. Even after, man. That's crazy. We'll get to that in a second. Yeah, even after it was a little bullshit, but it was good, man. I enjoyed all the process, you know. And when I was in a cage when he was about to introduce me, I felt.

I felt the fight on me, you know. And sometimes you fight, but you like, feel a little, little jiggle, a little bit, something. But that day, I said, man, I want to throw. I want to land and I want to perform and I want to do what I know. And I never felt so good for a fight. And I was ready for five rounds. Why do you think you felt so good for this fight? I don't know, man.

All the media, all the process through the fight, how hungry I was to fight him. The little provocations, you know, we did the media signing, and he was before me, and he signed an autograph to me and left me on the table. Hey, this is the autograph of the future UFC champion, Jim Rivera. And I got that one. I put right on my refrigerator.

Wow. And I look at that every day. You know, that makes me push a little bit more, push extra. And what he said, the fact that he said I didn't deserve to fight him. And denies, bullshit, lies. Just make me a better fighter, you know. Make me push more. And I'm very thankful for him for this.

Did you see each other in the hotel leading up to the fight? Yeah, yeah. What was that like? A little drama, you know. A little drama? What happened? Nothing. We intimidate me, man.

Yeah. These guys have no idea what I grow up, man. I grew up with friends dying in the school. Like when I was six years old, I went to school and my teacher said, oh, this guy, Inju, it's Indian. He died. He said, why? Why? Oh, because he was a problem with drugs. And my school always happening stuff like that.

Six years old? Yeah, I grow up. I grow up in a favela, you know. And my life was hard. I lost people from my family, you know, the problem with everything. Nothing would scare me, man, nothing, nothing. Only scares me if I couldn't do anything from my family,

but a man will never scare me. And all fight weak, a little bit intimidation, you know, but I don't care. What you're gonna do that I never see my life, you know? In America, I was in Brazil, you know. Yeah, you laugh at this. Yeah, no problem. thankful for the UFC, security.

They were very good. They were with me all the time. Oh, really? I have all my team, but these guys were with me all the time, you know, and after the fight a little bit. So what happened after the fight? What's the drama? Tell us.

Man, the drama's funny, you know. What happened? Because my manager, Ali, he's trying to apologize and, like, everything's done. We fought already, man. That's it. It's a sport, you know, peace. And he's trying to check team hands and his wife. And it was a big misunderstanding.

Ali never say anything bad to his wife. He thought so, but even Jim understands. But Ali is talking with them, and his coach comes in. His name's Tiger. I don't even know his name. He comes in and, like, try to be a tough man to Ali and maybe start a fight. But, man, this guy, this guy is like 50s. Ali is 40.

And Ali, man, Ali give hard times to fighters. He could kill that guy, man. I'm glad they didn't fight, you know? I'm very glad. I was like, got close, man. I'm glad Ali didn't hit him. Ali got heavy hands. I know he punched me before, you know.

He's a fighter, you know. Punching for sparring, right? Not like when you're arguing. No, we spar, yeah, no. We spar together. Okay. So everything got settled. Okay.

Jeez. They left. The security comes in. Thanks God. Was Jimmy involved too? No, he's trying to stop his coach. Oh, really? Wow.

His coach was the madman there, you know. And his family was a little upset too, you know. I tried to say hello and they want to kill me a little bit. Try spit on me. What? That's okay, bro. They tried to spit on you? Yeah, that's crazy.

Did it hit you? No, no, no. The UFC security is the best. Wow. And after that, we went to the hotel, ate some pizza and now it's all celebration. For you, it's done? It's done. You moved on.

I'm moving on and I want to look forward and next challenge. I saw a picture your coach, Mark Henry, showed me a picture of you guys in the cage all hugging. You, Mark Henry, Cara Al-Meda. There was one other person. Frankie and Anderson. Frankie, of course, yes. And your wife on FaceTime.

Yes. Because your son had to go sleep? My son is three, you know. I don't want to have him still on a fight. Sure. And she's pregnant. My wife. Oh, wow.

Congratulations. And my mother-in-law was there too. So they were also in a hotel. And my coach said, you got to tell her, you got to tell her, Mark, and I called her. That must have been nice. That was nice. She stayed up or she was sleeping?

She was up. Now, if your mother-in-law was there, why didn't she come to the fight alone? She doesn't want? My mother-in-law or my wife? No, your mother-in-law stayed with your son. No. My wife's pregnant. Okay.

I didn't want any, too much emotion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How far along is she? She's 17 weeks. Okay, okay. So you don't want. No, that's okay, you know. Does she watch alive?

It's good for me, too. It's my fight, you know. I want to let you away. So two kids now. Two kids. That's it. That's it. You're done?

Yeah. That's exciting. Do you know, so you have a boy? Yes, second boy. Second boy. Great. You want them to be fighters too? No.

No way. Hopefully not. If they want, nothing I can do. You'll support them. Yes, definitely. So you talk, wow, your upbringing is crazy. Is this all like kind of surreal for you that you've become what you've become? Like you're on the cusp of fighting for a championship to be the best in the world, right?

And with that comes a lot. You say you grew up in the favelas. Yeah. With people dying around you, with not a lot of money probably. No. Did you ever even dream of this or was this so far-fetched? No. Things just happened, man.

I was in a rough time, you know. I was more kickboxing, but I always, I was done Jiu-Jitsu, and I have opportunities to start M-M-A. I knock a couple guys out. I lost a couple of fights on the beginning. My career was kind of up and down. And I started training in New Jersey with these guys. And I started training. A lot of people don't know, you know.

People talk about Ali, you know, this, a lot of bullshit. But I was sparring with him. And he's like, man, who are you? And they said, man, I'm marveling. How's your record? And I said, oh, my record is this and that, not too good. I'm going to get you a fight. I said, what to who?

And he like, Miguel Torres said, really? I didn't believe. I laughed. And he like, man, I got you the fight. I said, no, you bullshit. And you're not saying truth. Like, yes, I got you the fight. you're going to fight him.

They accept. They think he's going to beat you, but I think you're going to beat him. This is how everything starts. And I just, I'm just very thankful to go to New Jersey, man, to meet with Frankie, Mark, Ricardo, and Edson. We all put this hole in a blend,

and I start to learn. And I'm a martial artist now. And like you said, about to fight for the world title, be the best. And I'm going to be the best. Why did you go to New Jersey? all places. Why there? I was in Florida. Me and Edson, we were training there and we kind of

want something different. And Edson went there first and he said, man, the train there is amazing. And I went. I didn't have money for the trip and I drove from Florida to New Jersey. I said, I got to try some. I drove. Alone? Me and my wife and a lot of bags and my dog. Wow. And we went to New Jersey and this is how my life changed. Now you appreciate those days a little more, When you think back to those risks that you took, when you didn't really know when it's just you and your wife and you don't have much to your name, right? Like, now that you're doing well,

it's nice to look back on those times, I'm sure, right? I was getting prepared. Yeah. I know, man. I know. And walking through this fight, I was very confident. Even a lot of people saying he was the favorite, but I was just laughing inside of me because I knew I was going to win since I signed for the fight

because I was getting prepared. Man, I went. I was under under And now I look where I was and where I am now And man I was getting prepared for this This is no way No way I'm here for somebody history

That's my history I knew it You were seven four and one when you took That Miguel Torres fight in MMA That's when you started with Mark Henry two And the team right? I had two fights I won two fights

And then I fought Miguel And Miguel Torres is my first fight I had 15 fights with Mark Henry, Ricardo, Frankie, these guys. Yeah, 14 and 1, right? Just one lost. Felfel Suntal.

Yeah. But how do you go from 7, 4 and 1, which is kind of like, you know, not a great record, right? To now 14 and 1 in your next. What's the difference in this, Marlon and that, Marlon, early on? It's all about the confidence, man.

Okay, you didn't have confidence early? You got to have the right people around you. Right. People to bring you to the next level. Now with the skews and stuff, but with words and, you know, they're there, you know, and bro, these guys knew, they know a lot. Everything I know MMA, I learned with these guys.

I used to fight without know what I was doing. Now I fight knowing what I'm doing. So you think that if you don't go to them, you're not saying? I don't think so. No. They tapped into something that no one else was tapping into. No, no way. You always said the right thing when you were like with WSOF.

You know, you're happy to be there. They treated you well. But deep down inside, you always wanted to be here, right, to prove that you're the best. You knew that you could be better than these guys, right? So it has to feel good to be validated in this sense. Yeah, it was a matter of time. Even me and my team, you know, we knew we could do well, but we enjoyed the process, you know, and that was good.

I'm thankful for the World Series of Fighting, Man. The World Series of Fighting never going to die. Me, Justin Gates, Branch, Anthony Johnson, and our love is, man, are we good or not? You know, what the fans think now, you know? what everybody else, the haters, always say, oh, you guys are fighting bombs, you guys overpaid. Now they see, you know, we were for real. But when you were there, did it bother you ever

that you weren't being considered among the best that people were saying? Did, but I always pull Ricardo, Frankie, Mark, guys, what you guys think I should do? And they always, they were always honest, and I always tried to follow that opinion, you know. I always ask my wife. My wife said, always follow your heart.

But I did follow my heart, but I always ask these guys. And I'll lead you, you know, I'm thankful for the advice. I last there as long as I should be. Yeah, yeah. Should you be foreign-owned the UFC? Do you think you beat Hapel-Santel?

I don't know. The fans know. Yeah. The media know. And who watched the fight, no. So, I don't know. When's the last time you watched that one? I don't want to watch no more.

I fought through. It's past for me. I just fought again. You know, everybody, nobody remember that fight. Everybody remember the last one. That's right. This is how fight is. That's right.

People only remember the last fight. Yeah. But there's so much more momentum now that you have. I mean, like, it's amazing. You have the loss to him technically, but no one's really talking. Like, it's like people forgot about it. It's like I was saying, I was getting prepared for this. I am, I'm getting prepared for, to be.

be the UFC Bannerweight champion because make no sense a lot of people who the people want to watch me against de la chowell me against cori or raphael you know raffaile already fought the la chou the fight wasn't that excited you know and i think i think the fans want to want to see me there even some fans want to see oh let's see if this guy's really good let's pass him and a lot of fans know oh no no i want to see i think he can win so i think I am next, you know. So have you been told that? I think I am.

No, nobody told me, but it's my time, you know. I know I know I've done enough, and I'm going to fight for the title. You want to fight for the title next? Your next fight for the belt, winner of Dilleshaw Cody. I want to fight for the title, yeah. Wow. That's big. Who do you want to win that fight?

I got no preference. No preference? No. No matchup you think is better? No. I got to be honest with you, I've been telling people that I think T.J. is going to win. Okay. both two big fighters and two good fighters high skills good everywhere i think cordi's hands are

dangerous deloshaal kicks and hands are dangerous they both wrestlers they could both win you know would you rather tj wins because your management also represents cody is that awkward for you at all no i don't care i love my manager yeah i want him to do well if if you want to be me honest I better my manager make more money. I want to fight Cody. Okay, so he gets from both. Yeah, why not? I want him to do well.

I don't care. Keep it in the family. Yeah, I don't care. What if they say to you, okay, Sunsaw wins, or maybe Demetrius Johnson, you know, T.J. is going to fight him. They say maybe Dominic Cruz,

John Linnaker. Are you open to these things? I fought four times in one year. Yeah. I think it's good, you know. There's not a lot of guys been doing this. Yeah. And when I signed, I told Mark,

I said, I want to fight as more as I can, you know. in the UFC, but I feel like now I need a little bit break, you know, slow down, train, learn, and I want to fight for the title. I want to have a good camp and fight next for the title. You don't mind waiting. Yeah, I want to wait maybe a little bit, but I don't want to wait too much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now that you have this break now, like, what do you do?

Because you're always, I mean, you have a 10-pack, a 12-pack, I don't know, like you don't get fat. So how do you take a vacation? What do you do to relax? Yeah. I feel like you're in the gym. I gotta be honest with you. That was 12 months training.

That was hard for me this camp because the dates kept changing. Supposed to be February. I was already training in January. And then supposed to be April, AC, and no. And then June. I am training since January. Six months of sparring, man.

I got to respect my body a little bit, you know. And I'm not saying I'm hurt. I'm not saying, but I can't look inside my body. I don't know how I am, no. I think I need a little bit break. Were you worried at all that maybe you were overtraining? No. I had, through this fight, I had a biceps 10 nights, right bicep 10 nights.

You know, I hurt my rip, my friend shot, and I have a big, was a big bruise right here. And I don't know which one. Oh, my throat was all inflamed. fight before fight week. This is how my voice is now. I can count many, many small injuries I had through this. But I knew I just have to fight through and make to fight week. Fight week, I'm going to rest and I'm going to be 100% Saturday.

That's what happened. I was 100% sad. No excuse. What was it like in Utica? I saw some people joking. There's not a lot of buzz. It's a small town. What was it like for you?

You're the headline, right? I'm from Nova Freebougar, Rio de Janeiro. in Brazil. I'm not the best guy to give an opinion about cities, small, you know. But Utica was small city, you know, like in the way. Sure. But that's history there, you know. The hotel we stay was 1912 hotel.

Wow. And the people were very nice. They were very happy to have the UFC there. And me as a UFC fighter, I was very happy to be threatened like I was, you know. They were like, wow, UFC's here, no, no, no, you know. the press conference, all the mayor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were very, very, very nice, you know.

It was a big deal. They don't get big events. Yeah, that was very nice. You felt the love? Definitely, definitely. Even though the arena wasn't the biggest arena, it felt like a big deal. Yeah, it's more arena, but very nice. Yeah, look new. Yeah. Everything clean, you know, I like it.

What was that city you said that you're from in Brazil? What is it called? Nova Fribugo. Nova Fribuga. Yes. On the mountain. Uh huh. What does that mean?

Nova-Frigua? New Freiburg. Freiburg. Freiburg is a city in Switzerland. Oh, really? Yes. Wow. The people, they went to my city, the Switzerland people.

Yeah. And they have a colony, colony, is that right? Yeah, yeah. And my city just completes 200 years in May 16. And I said a couple interviews that that was my gift to my city, you know, victory Saturday night. Oh, really? Wow. And when did you leave there?

How old are you? I was born in Fribourgo and I left 21 years old. And I don't know if you hear about, but we had a mudslide there. You remember the mudslides in Brazil? Yeah, what was that? Like a year ago, two years ago? No, seven years ago. I supposed to leave January 21st and the mudslide was January 20th one day before.

So I couldn't leave. I have to wait a couple more days to leave. Wow. Was your house affected? No, but I lost a couple friends. You lost friends? Yeah. They died?

Yes. And it was a very good neighborhood, but nobody expected the mountain was going down, you know? Wow. Crazy. Where were you? While this was happening? My wife's house. Okay.

We look from the window and we see a lot of mountains going down. It was crazy. It's like the end of the world. That was the craziest thing I ever seen my life. I helped rescue people. and we were in a gymnasium, and I see maybe hundreds bodies on the ground like this.

Dead bodies? Bad bodies? No way. Yeah, because we don't have the... How you say the name you take the body when somebody die? Yeah. To get prepared, to do the wake and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was no room because 500 people died on the same day. They have to take them all to a gymnasium to do everything. And I helped carry, you know. It was crazy. It was crazy. And that was in your town.

My town. Wow. Any of your family members affected? No. Thanks God, no. And just a couple people got stuck because you couldn't leave your house, have no water. And so you went in there and tried to rescue people? Yeah, help everybody.

I put my hands on. Wow. Yeah. Gosh, that has to change. That has to affect me, right? That was my last memory from my city. So when I left, I felt like, man, I need to do something big for the city, you know. I think this is something.

that always touch me, you know. Man, I'm here. I've got to give back to them. Yeah. Have you been back since? Yeah. Okay, you go back. The city is all good now.

Everything is getting recovery, you know. Everything's good. How are things in Brazil? There's gas issues, right? Gas, man, a lot of problems. Everything's very expensive. A lot of violence in Brazil. People don't have no work.

It's hard. Yeah. It's getting worse, right? Getting worse. Why do you think that is? I don't know, man. I just. I just think people want to have things in an easy way.

Nobody want to work hard. This is what happened with the politics, you know, and everybody. Do you ever consider going back, or are you happy? I don't know. I don't know. You're happy here for now. My mother and my father, they're not here. So I want to be near them.

Yeah. And if they don't come here, one day, I'm going to have to go stay with them. Sure, sure. Everything I'm doing is for them. Sure. You're in my family, you know. Do you want them to come to the States? I want her so bad

They don't want No No they like it there It's all the rest of the family And they're very humble Yeah They never be on the plane Never

Never They never come to visit you here No no My first time on the plane It was because fight Really? Wow And you invite them to come They don't want to come

No No No They give me hard times Really Do they watch your fights Just my father My mother no

No Why? She's scared She scared Even after the fact You show her This is what I did She don't like to watch

not even after. Really? Does your father watch alive? Yeah, he watched, but he got to stop watch. He's getting too nervous later. Yeah. My last fight, my mother said he almost have a heart attack. Really?

Yeah, he got to stop. Which, Al Jemaine Sterling? No, this one. Oh, this one. Yeah. I told him, stop to watch. He don't respect me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because the buildup was such a big fight. And do you have siblings? Yes. I have one brother and two sisters on my father's side. They don't live with me. And I have a sister on my mother's side. We grow up together and we're a little bit more close. And they're in Brazil or are all of them?

All, every time. You're the only one who came to the state? I'm the only one here. That's amazing. That must have been tough early on, right? Tough. Yeah. Not in the big family, but you came with your wife?

No, I came by myself. Okay. But where did you meet your wife? Back home? I met her there, but she was a nurse. She had a very good job in Brazil. And she could not leave because she had the job. And when I got here, I did a couple of fights.

It wasn't too good. I was making like $100 a week. And I told her, you're sure, you want to come? It's going to be hard. And I start to get privates. And she said, I want to go. I want to be with you. She came.

She left everything to live my dream. Wow. That is amazing. I'm very thankful for her. You know, I think without her, I wasn't going to be here where I am now. Where did you get married? I got married here. In America.

We only married in America. Wow, but so then your family wasn't there? No, just me and her. I left was funny. We have a picture and I taught a class and I left me and my wife. We have a gym clothes and we got married with the gym clothes and we have a picture like kissing. Not even wearing a suit? No.

No money for a suit, my friend. Wow. How long ago was that? In 2011. She got here. We have to marry because she needed the visa. Okay. And did you have a visa?

I had a P-1. Ah, wow. So where'd you get married? Like City Hall or something? No, we got married in a court. In court? Just a court crowd. Wow. Nobody, nothing.

And no money for a suit. No money for even a nice club. Where were you living at the time? I was living in a gym back in Florida. You were living in the gym? Yeah, no in the gym. I was training and teaching in this gym armory. Yeah?

Edson got me the job. Okay. And they have a house with other guys, like three guys. Three rooms and three guys. and I have a small room. Wow. So then when you got married, your wife came in there with you?

And she was living with me in that small room, you know? That is unbelievable. Now look at you. Main event. I have my house now. Yes. You have your own house. Yeah.

Wow. Two kids on the cusp of a title fight. Yeah. You've come along. I see your smile. What a journey, man. What a journey. I never have a room back home in Brazil.

Now I have a house. That's incredible. When you grew up, you didn't have your own room. No. I used to sleep in my mother and father room on the ground. Wow. Yeah. On a mattress?

Yeah, they have a mattress for me. How big was the house? My father and my mother, they're very nice. They let me sleep on the bed, maybe until eight. Okay, yeah, yeah. And then they say, you've got to go to the ground. You're too big. How big was the house?

Two rooms, you know, one, two, maybe, four rooms. Okay. And that one bedroom. Are they still there at that house or are they somewhere else? No, no. I brought them a house, a very good house. Thanks God. Okay.

Yeah. So they're in a safe neighborhood. Yes, thanks. That's amazing. Do you think if you fight for the belt, though, like maybe one day they'll come watch you fight or never? No, never. Never? No. Wow. They can't. They can't do it. They're too old for this.

Too old, okay. Wow. Well, I hope it happens to you, my friend. Yes. It's been great. When do you think, when do you feel it's going to happen in the title fight? What's your vision? This year. You think this year? Yeah, this is what I want. End of the year maybe? Because the title fight is August.

So maybe December or something? December? Yeah. Perfect, no? That's nice. End of the year card. Yeah. Las Vegas. So you don't ask the UFC. Okay. What are you going to do? What am I getting now?

You haven't had that conversation yet? I said after the fight, I want to fight for the belt. Yes, I know. That's it. There's no conversation needed. It is what it is. You got to say what you got to say. I appreciate that.

I did. Yeah. Well, I'm very happy for you, Marlon. Thank you so much. I'm very, very happy to be here. Oh, it is my honor. Because, man, I was 10 years old and I was renting DVDs. And I was just thinking like Kimball's Lies, Roycee Grace, Fedor,

chocolate. these guys, man, Dominic Cruz, and watching them on TV and renting the tapes because back there, the UFC wasn't even in the DVDs. Yeah. Man, I'm a UFC fighter now. And I just won the main event. And, bro, I'm working my way, almost fighting for a title, you know.

That's unbelievable. I don't know. It's incredible. No, I'm so happy for you. Please wake me up. Yeah, I know. I'm telling you because everyone always says, like Mark Henry told me, you're the guy, you help everyone in the gym.

you're the best teammate he said you're always helping everyone you're always so humble and you're the same guy and i even told them frankie edgar same guy right same guy from when i met him champion now same and you're the exact same way you remind me of a mini frankie still the same guy from world series of fighting now uh main event ufc you're the same guy so i hope that you remain the same i have a little doubt on my mind because i used to see a lot of champions and i see these guys man i don't fit with these guys. Do I want to be a champion? Because I don't want to be like this guy, you know, like guys, like they think they are too good, you know. And when I first see Frankie and he like hug me and say hello, what's up, let's go, let's train, you know, give him a hot ride. Man, he's the champion. Look

how he is. I want to be a champion, you know. And man, I'm very thankful to meet these guys. They changed in my life. Ricardo Almeida, Frankie Edgar, Jerry, Mr. Nat, Frankie's father. in-law. He let me stay his house. Mark Henry, Brian Blue, the conditioning training, Anderson Franco, my coach, I always, he's not all the time with us in training, but I always bring him for the fights because I'm very thankful, you know, I want to have him on my corner. And, man, Edson, Eddie, look, Hansel Gracie. Look, he's in my team. I can't believe. Legends. I'm with these guys, man. I think I'm in the right place. Good for you. you. Congratulations. Enjoy it. Thank you. I'm really happy for you and the victory on Friday and

I hope you get what you want next. Thank you, man. Thank you so much. And I'm very happy to be here. I appreciate the support. My friend Joe is going to walk you out over there. So thank you very much, Marlon. Thank you. All the best to you. And thanks for making the trek, the long trek from I want to send a kiss for my wife, Isabella. She's watching us. Absolutely. Send her a kiss. Bye. Thank you. Thank you so much, Marlon. There he is. I appreciate it. Thank you. Same to you, Marlon. There he is the number one contender in many people's eyes in the UFC's Bantamweight division. Marlon Marais, the

former Bantamweight champion in World Series of Fighting. Look at that. Look at that. How humble he is, how thankful he is. It's a beautiful thing. That's that right there is why I love MMA so much for characters like him. It's just amazing.

Someone who's main eventing a show who's at the top of his sport, top of his weight class. And you see how humble he is, how thankful he is, came from nothing, has overcome so much. Just a beautiful thing. Really happy for Marlon Marais and his team. And I wish him nothing of the best. All right, great stuff there. So that's Marlon Marais. That's his story. Great stuff from him. Appreciate him making the track now. In a matter of moments, I do believe we are going to be joined

by the Nigerian nightmare himself. Kamaru Usman. This man is on a role. He is on some kind of role as of late. He's coming off a victory over Damian Maya. Prior to that, he defeated Emil Mech, Sergio Marais, Sean Strickland, Worley Alves, Alexander Yakovlov, Leon Edwards, Heider Hassan. The man is 13 and 1 undefeated in the UFC, one of the top contenders, if not the top contender in the UFC's welterweight division. The Nigerian nightmare, is he ready? Let's bring him in now. As the parade of in studio guests continues, there's the man himself, Kamaro Usman, in the house. are you, my friend. What's going on.

It's good. Thank you. Thank you for coming in. This is awesome. Wow. Thank you. Superstar in the house. Look at this guy.

Thank you so much. Look at that. Look at that watch. Wow. How much that thing way? That little thing? It's a little something. Damn.

It's good to be you, my man. This days, yeah. Yeah. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for just the direction and the place that God has put me right now. Well, I'm happy for you. Congratulations on the win. Thank you.

Just a couple weeks ago. We have a lot to talk about. First, let us talk about the talk about that one. Now that you've had some time to digest it, are you happy with it? Do you feel like you prove that that's a tough opponent? And it's hard to look amazing against that guy, right? Because he's so crafty, he's such a veteran. Are you happy with the fight with the performance? I'm my biggest critic and, you know, and so biggest fan and also biggest critic. I always think I can do more. But with that, that's, styles make fights. And that guy, it's very tough for you to

what you want to do against that guy. Arguably the most dangerous submission expert ever in mixed martial arts. And so it's you have a plan in your head and then once you get in the fight and things start rolling, it's not usually the way you want it to turn out. Okay, so does that mean you're disappointed? I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. Yeah, because I mean, I'm happy with it. That was a dominant win. And the reason I want to say I'm happy with it is because for the longest time, all those guys that were sitting in the top ten,

they had one excuse for not wanting to fight me. And they would all say, he hasn't fought anyone in the top 10. He hasn't fought anyone in the top 10. So they didn't have to be the scapego. They didn't have to be the guy to fight me. Well, let him go fight somebody in the top 10. They didn't come and talk to me.

Well, I got the job done. Okay. So it was important to just get that notch. Absolutely. Feather in your cap. You beat the guy, title contender. This opens things up. Do you think?

You hope? Absolutely. I mean, you know, there's a lot of buzz going on right now. So, you know, I'm going to thank that. And shout out to Damien May. I mean, a true veteran, a guy that I respect deeply in the game, a guy that's been fighting before I even knew what MMA was. And so, yeah, hats off to him.

Shout out for him taking that fight and really challenging me in a way that I hadn't been challenged in a while. Yeah, he's the ultimate class act. I saw that picture afterwards of you too. Absolutely. What did you guys say to each other after the fight backstage? I went back. I made it a point to look for him.

Okay. Because even in the fight, I mean, there's a mode in the fight where you're just, you have that switch on, that savage mode. You just want to perform in there. And then even in the fight, there were certain instances where we talk to each other. We say certain little things to each other. Oh, yeah? And yeah. Like trash talk?

No, not necessarily trash talk. Okay. Just talk, little things and little situations. And I'm a good read on people. I could even just read from his voice, from the way that he talks, the way that he said certain things. Of course, you still got to have that kill mode on, but it was like, man, that's a nice guy. That's a nice guy. That's a good guy.

But, you know, I'm thankful that he was able to take the fight, and I'm thankful that, you know, hopefully now things open up. I have one more fight of my deal. Oh. This was a fight that Dana really wanted. This particular matchup? This fight, yeah. Okay. And, you know, we have one more fight on the deal, and I went out and got the job done.

Danny said, go get that job done, and we'll talk. So I think now he owes me a meeting because, I mean, there's a lot of things. Our relationship is probably not the best. Yeah. But, you know, I've never sat down with him. I never talked to him. Never had a face-to-face. No, not really.

I mean, we've kind of saw each other in passing, but never actually had to sit down. So there's a lot of things that I don't think he really knows me, and I don't really know him that well. So, you know, of course, I work for a company and I want to be able to know the boss. I want to be able to say that I know how the boss is and how he operates and have that relationship open. So, you know, I think it's time for us to have that sit down. Is that on the books? Is that happening? Well, we'll see.

Obviously, I have one of the best managers in the game. He makes things happen. So we'll see how that goes. You say that you don't feel like your relationship is one of the best. Why? I don't get that feeling. I don't know whether it's a, it's a, it's a, personal thing or whatever it was or whether it's from the ultimate fighter or I don't know personally

but it's uh there's a lot of underlining things that that I'm not happy with like what and and certain things I mean when when when you're working for a company and the boss comes out and criticizes you publicly it kind of opens the door for everything else yes and so with that it's if you you know if we're going to have a talk you're going to criticize me I want to have I want to have you tell me that. It's constructive criticism. I like to hear constructive criticism. I'm based on that. I want to be able to mown myself and continue to improve and know what your issues are with me and what your issues are not with me and how I can improve on those things. It's like someone doing something wrong, but you never tell them what they're doing for them to fix it. So, you know,

I just think we need to have that sit down and kind of clear the air and get things out. Do you think it started with the 30% comment, or did you feel that even before? You know, and I want to touch on that. I mean, I work so hard in what I do. I've been working so hard for a long time. I got into sports in school, and I just was nonstop. Once I decided this is what I want to do nonstop since, and my body has definitely taken the toll and getting to this point.

So by me working so hard and knowing how much that I put into this, I get a little emotional after the fight. So, you know, I might not articulate, and don't forget, I'm also, I'm still an immigrant as well. So it's, you know, some of the barriers and certain things that I want them to mean, you know, mean certain things, but they just don't come out the right way. So, yes, I, you know, some of it might have stem from that because I even cleared that up, that 30% comment. You know, the way that I work, I know how to assess myself and my abilities. And so that's how I assess that. And so I can see how he misconstrued it,

but that's, if we would have had a talk, you would have understood what I meant. But we didn't have that talk. So that's what kind of how that happened and that, you know, it was kind of a spiral. You don't want to hear through the media. You'd rather someone call. No, I'd rather you, if you've got an issue with me,

if I've got an issue with you, I'd rather you call me and talk to me. That's how men take care of business. That's how we handle business. After the fight against Damien, you said that you thought you broke both your hands. Yeah, I mean, I mean, four years ago, I broke my right hand.

Okay. And I know what that pain felt like. Yeah. And usually after a fight, you still hopped up on the adrenaline. You can't really feel much, but I felt this right away. And I could feel the swelling. In both hands? Yes.

I can feel the swelling. So instantly, my mind is just like, damn, I think I broke my hands. And of course, like I said, I'm emotional in there at the time. And I just been through a roller coaster of dealing with having an opponent. I have an opponent. I have an opponent then. Now it's the most dangerous ground guy ever. in the sport. So being a little emotional, obviously, probably didn't articulate the best that I would have wanted to. But no excuses. I still went out there and got the job done. That was the most important thing, is getting the job done. And I've gotten the job done time and time again. I've done everything that I've been asked by the UFC, hey, you want to fight this guy, you'll fight this guy. You want to fight this guy. You want to fight this guy. I've been in the rankings now almost over two and a half years. And I've been consistently one of the only guys to continue to fight down and fight down.

I think now it's time for me to move onwards and upwards. Right. So the hands, okay? Yeah, just little fractures at the bottom. Nothing crazy. It wasn't a clean break or anything like that. So I'm just getting therapy. This week, well, early last week, I started being able to close my hands fully. Okay. We got the swelling out, so they look like normal hands now.

One thing, when you were punching his feet, what were you thinking then? What was I thinking? I was thinking, see, when I'm in the fight, Yeah. I, my mind is continuously trying to do whatever I can to get this wind. Whatever I can inflict damage or pain to make my opponent, to throw them off mentally. Because they have a game plan. They know what they want to do. But when I continue to inflict pain, even when I'm up against the cage, I still, I'll footstomp.

I'll knee the thighs. I'll shoulder shruggy. I'll try to, I'll do, you know, little things there to constantly keep your mind. mind working. That's why in a lot of my fights, I wear guys down. Everyone thinks it's physical, but it's mentally. I do a lot of different things mentally to wear guys down. And in this fight, he was sitting there, of course he's trying to invite me into the guard. Have you ever had someone punch your toes? A hammer fist your toes? No. Yeah. I mean, and you know how it is to stub your toes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I imagine someone throwing a hammer face down at them. Yeah. So, you know,

there was a little bit of that. I just, I mean, it's a, once I'm in there, my will's going. It's just whatever I can do to get you off your game, I'm going to do it. What was it like in Chile or Chile? I keep missing. Chile. Don't say Chile. They get very upset and rightfully so. Chile, I think it is.

Chile. It was amazing. Yeah. It was amazing. First time there for the UFC? Second time, yeah. But I went first to promote the fight. That's with Santiago.

But even then, it was beautiful. Beautiful city. Santiago was amazing. We were, when we did the promotion, it had the media day, It was kind of up on this mountain. And on top of that mountain, you can just overlook the cities. Probably, I would say, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Really?

Yes, we got there during the daytime, so you could see it during the daytime. And then we were there to when they got dark and all the lights came on. And you could just see the city. It was amazing. And knowledgeable crowd? Like, did you get the sense that they knew their MMA, their UFC? They did. It was a crowd, so I could see they were starving for UFC.

I got love all week. everywhere I went. We were, we were stayed at the hotel that was right next to the mall. It's a new mall. They just built amazing mall. I mean, you go to the third floor. It was nothing but high-end stores. Okay. And it was, it was amazing everywhere. People were stopping me, take pictures and things like that. And I got a lot of fans now in Chile. That's good. That's good. You know, grow the brand, so to speak. I feel like you may not like this suggestion, but I really want to see you versus Colby Covington, I just felt like you guys were the stars of that press conference and you weren't fighting, which was a bit of a tease. And he's fighting this weekend. And I know that if

he wins the interim belt, I mean, you would think that it would be hard to make the fight because you want to unify the belt. But if he loses, and I know that's a guy coming off a loss, I'm just really dying to see that fight. Am I crazy? Should I stop thinking about this? Absolutely not. You're not crazy because that's, this is something that's been in the works. Yes. I mean, I've really, when I really sat down and thought about this, this is something that by fate, this had to happen. This needed to happen.

I mean, we've got history. We've got ties all the way back to my high school days. Really? So, and it's, you know, until even with John Jones, freshman year in college, I mean, it's, it's kind of crazy how that story ties together. How does it tie back to high school? I mean, it's me and, me and John Jones, we met each other in high school. You did? Yeah, we met.

met at the senior nationals, which is one of the biggest, like, senior wrestling tournaments. Yeah. For some of the best, like, wrestlers in each state in high schools. And when you say meet, you mean you competed? We met, like, we met for the first time. What state were you from? I was from Texas. Texas.

And they were from New York. But the tournament was in, I believe, I want to say Ohio. Okay. And so we happened to be staying in the same hotel. And there's not a lot. Only if you know, there's not a lot of black people in wrestling, especially, you know, at youth page. So we were in the same hotel.

I was like, oh, man, all the black guys that are wrestling here, and it was him and his brother, author. So we met, and it was just like, yo, what's up, it's up? It was just a commodity. You just build that. So it was like, oh, you're here to wrestle, too?

You hear the wrestle, too. So we just kind of started talking and just kind of struck up that friendship right there. We just kind of hung out that week. And then I asked where are you going to school next year? He's like, I'm going to school in Iowa, and I was going to school in Iowa as well. So we just kind of stayed, loosely stated,

in touch and then that freshman year right not the same school right not the same school his school was about two and a half hours away from mine gotcha in fort dodge which happened to be the the school that colby coventon went to and so that fall break i went out to spend the whole week with john and we just hung out all week just you know college kid things just hung out and even there the department the room that i stayed and happened to be the same room cobb covington stayed at the next year Kobe Covington having to be roommates with John Jones. And there was other teammates that I have too that I train with. Carrington Banks also was there at the same time with Kobe Coventon.

So we got crazy ties there. And fast forward later, we're both living down in South Florida. He started, he got into MMA before I did. But, you know, just fast forward. We had an opportunity to fight early on in my career. I think I was one and all. He was already like maybe two or three and oh. and I was offered that fight, but they turned down the fight.

Really? I said yes. I didn't really know him. I knew he was a wrestler, but at that point I didn't care. Did you remember that he was the John Jones? The guy seemed so cool. I didn't really know all that. No, okay.

No, I just knew he was a wrestler. Yeah. And I knew he was a wrestler, and I'm a starving guy. I'm starving. I just started mixed martial arts. I have no money in my bank account. I'm living with a guy that literally changed my life, Rashad Evans. And I'm like, oh, God, I need to take a fight.

I need to take a fight. I don't care who it is. I'm going to fight. So they said, okay, we have this guy down at ATT. Would you fight this guy? Of course. And then a couple of weeks goes by, and they're like, yeah, that fight fell through. They didn't want the fight or something like that.

So, you know, it is what it is. I didn't really know that much about it. I didn't really care. I didn't know him. And so, which I ended up taking a short-noticed fight, which happened to be my second professional fight, which I did lose. And so, you know, it is what it is.

I lost and I grew from that. And now I'm at the point where this could have really happened. And obviously, you know and everybody knows that we've been given the opportunity to fight before. We were supposed to headline the card in St. Louis. He turned that down. And there was a time he was on the show and I called in. And he said, no, I never heard of that guy, this and that. No, I was never offered this, never offered that.

Come on, man. We know the real truth. But it is what it is. I don't really care about him. Now, let's be honest, everybody wants to see me fight somebody. And you know who that person is. Who's that? You know who that person is.

I don't know. I mean, there's a few people that I'm planning. They just fought. And from now on, I think, honestly, I think I'm about one fight away from the title. Okay. We can agree on that, arguably. One fight away from the title. And, you know, who would you like to see that fight be?

Obviously, everybody wants to see me beat up Kobe Covington. him, but he's going to fight for the interim belt, and should he win that fight, he fights Tyron Willie for the title. You would think, yeah. Yeah, you would think. Exactly, you would think. Yeah. But, you know, Darren Teal's really the guy.

He's really the guy. I mean, he's a tough guy. I know that, you know, I know that he likes to fight, and he comes to fight. But has he been tested against a guy like myself? No, the fans, everybody wants to see that. The media wants to see it. I know he's a tough guy, good striking. I might not be the best striker.

I might not be the best jiu-jitsu guy. I might not be the best wrestler. But when you put it all together, I'm a bad motherfucker to deal with. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a bad motherfucker to deal with. And so that's a fight that I think interests the fans. That's your top choice.

That's what I want right now. Because if you're not going to give me Woodley, that's a fight that I want right now. Because he's a tough guy. I like everything that he does. I liked everything that he brings. You know, much respect, you know, but he said through the media, he's tweeted me that he wants that fight. And I want that fight.

Why can't that fight happen? Okay, wow. There's a lot to unpack here. First, let me ask you, what did you make of him missing weight? And did you see the video that surfaced of him struggling to make weight? No, I didn't really pay that much attention to it. I know that he did miss weight. Yeah, how do you feel about that?

As a wrestler, right? This is something. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Have you ever miss weight? No, I've never missed weight. Okay. Never, not even in wrestling. Do you feel like if you miss weight, you should be, for lack of a better word, punished,

like your growth should be stunted a little bit? Or, I mean, he's now number two. He got pushed all that. That, you know, that does, you know. Sting a little bit? It is kind of tough to move a guy up in the rankings where he didn't even fight in that category. Yeah. So that is tough to say, but, you know, I don't really, I don't care.

I don't care. All I care about, I fought guys throughout my career. I think I've had about four or five guys not make weight for my fights. I took the fight every time. It doesn't matter. In my gym, I train with heavy weights, heavy weights. Look at the gym that I come from, that I had to survive from. Anthony Johnson, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort at one point, Tyrone Spong, and being able to survive from all that, I don't care who it is.

I don't care. Somebody might hit harder than me. somebody might, you know, grapple better than me or have better jiu-jitsu. But when you mix it all together, mixed martial arts, I am a bad motherfucker to deal with. And that's, I've been quiet for too long. And some people might say, oh, where he's cocky or no, I'm not cocky. I'm confident in my abilities because I know I've put the time in to build that skill. What do you think of his performance against Wonderboy?

Styles make fights. I know everyone, they put a lot on that. They put a lot marketing that fight. There was promos out for that fight before promos for my fight. You know, so they put a lot on that, but you get what you ask for. I mean... Were you impressed? No, I wasn't impressed.

I wasn't impressed because Wonderboy fought the best that he could. I mean, it was, let's be honest, it looked like a middleweight versus a welterweight. You know, Wonderboy did the best that he could with it. I still think that Wonderboy got the nod, but I can... You scored it for Wonderboy? I scored it for Wonderboy because I basically... He was going on what was happening. But I can see how Darren Till got the win.

He controlled the octagon. He seemed more like the aggressor because he was in Wonderboy's face the whole time. And of course, when you have a stadium full of every time you even breathe, they go crazy. You know, I can see how that kind of swayed the judges. Because some of the judges might not be actually seeing what's going on. But all they know is you threw a punch and the crowd went crazy. like it landed. So they're like, oh, well, these guys winning, this guy's winning.

So I can see how they gave him that, but, you know, I wasn't impressed. Okay. I wasn't impressed by it. How confident are you that the UFC will actually give you this fight? 2%. 2%. 2%. I appreciate you're honest.

2%. Not even 30. 2%. Well play. You think why you think they want nothing to do with you as far? Like they want to keep this train moving along and have them fight. Let's be. matchups. Let's be honest.

Absolutely. I mean, that European market is a big market because they've proven that they're big market. They've proven that they will pay for these fights. They will pay to watch these guys. It's happening with Bayes Bing. Now you look at Connor coming out of Ireland. It's happened

with them. Now they need a new guy to build. And this is a guy that right now, he, you know, a good-looking guy, he talks well. It's just something about that accent. I don't know what it is, but it's something about that accent. You just want to listen. Even if you don't understand what they're saying,

you just want to kind of listen to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just something about it that, you know, they're trying to understand it's their business. They want to grow their business, so they're going to do the best things for it. But let's be honest, if you want to go by merit here,

who should he fight next? Yeah. It should be me. Does it bother you that Colby is fighting for a belt, interim or not? Does this kind of annoy you? Especially when Woodley declared, you know, I'm ready to go.

You know, August is good for. me, but it seems like a month or two away from when he could fight. It's a little annoying, but I'm no hater. I don't care about the next man. I don't care about what this guy, that guy is doing. I'm no hater. All through my life, I've had to do a lot of things by myself. I got into the sport of wrestling by myself and got good by myself and learn how to win and

lose and come back by myself. So I'm no hater. I'm not worried about the next man. When you worry about the next man, you're not worried about yourself. So yeah, it's a little annoying because who has, who'd he be? Damien Maya, I just did that. You know, before that, people forget, less than three years ago, I beat the guy that almost killed him inside the cage.

So, you know, it's kind of a no-brainer here that he, but he talked himself into it. I don't care, I'm no hater. If it's fate, we will meet one day. And we saw how that confrontation looks when he actually has to be face to face with me. What do you mean? When did we see it?

We saw that in Brooklyn. You saw the clips. You saw the clips. And that's not me. I wasn't trying to do that. That's not set up or anything like that. It's just there's one, I like everybody mixed martial arts. I love the game.

I love the sport. But there's just one guy. You put us in a room next to each other, my blood pressure goes up. Wow. My heart rate goes up. I don't know what it is. My heart rate just goes up.

You hear, I mean, last week he was talking about Donald Trump and slapping Joe Rogan. Like, you see his stuff? Like, do you cringe? You just ignore all of it. I try to ignore it. Yeah. But in this day and age, it's so hard because every time he does something or,

or these are the two guys, him or Darren, Tim, anytime they do something, fans just tag me, tag me, tag me, tag me. That's impossible. And so it's almost impossible. I like to say, I don't see it. I don't care. I don't pay attention. But that would be a lot.

It's your phone right here. It's almost impossible. I mean, you do everything on your cell phone. I pay bills on myself. I do everything. So, you know, it's so easy. As soon as I get on it, let me pose something.

Boom. It's a, oh, fuck. So, you know, it is what it is. I will say that he's done a good job of getting recognition. Right. I mean, obviously, it's probably the wrong recognition that to where if you lose, you're pretty much almost done. You know.

Because of all that smack. Because of all that smack. It's a very, that's a systematic, it's an art to be. able to do that. And the only guy that I've seen being able to do that is Chil Sonnet. Chil Sonnet is kind of being the only guy that would talk a bunch of shit, go out there and get his ass whoop. But then talk shit again next week, you're like, oh man, this guy could do it. This guy could win this fight. You know, but this guy, come on. It's so corny and so far-fetched. It's just the day and age that we live now to where you actually

still pay attention to. So he's done a good job of actually getting himself noticed. But, you know, When you're lacking those skills to actually back it up, it's going to bite you an ass one day. Do you think he wins? With RDA, I don't know. I don't really care. I just kind of want to see. You're going?

I want to see a fight. Yeah, I will be there. You will be there. I will be there. On your own, or are they bringing you out? It doesn't matter. I would have been there anyways. Your boy, Rashad's fighting.

You know, my big brother, Rashad is fighting. So I'm there for him. It's a crazy story. I was living at the Olympic training center. In Colorado Springs? In Colorado Springs. What you were doing a tour guide? That's the job that I had because you ain't had no job.

You don't have no job. People come to visit and you show them around. People come to visit and I get to show them around. You get paid for that? Yeah, I did get paid for it. Which is exactly why I applied for it and I started doing it. When you live in the dorms, everything is taken care of. You live there.

So I was living there in training for the 2012 Olympics, but then it was there's no money. I don't, you know, I don't have a job, nothing coming in. So, you know, I'm looking. You have $5 in your business. bank account. I'm 23-year-old, 24. I can't even go on a date. You know, you can't even ask no girl, hey, let's go on a date. You can't. No money. So I was like, what can I do? What can I do? And so I started looking around and I saw that they had that. So I went in because I'm fascinated by the training center. Once you're there, you have the Olympic spirit. You want to know

all the sports and all the things. And so I knew all that. So what better way to make a little bit of money than doing something that I like to do. So I just, you know, get out of my room, walk down to the front office, be there for a little while, get people tours. And I loved it. It was amazing. But I was there and while I was training, I knew King Moe. I've known King Moe since I was in high school. We kind of followed similar path. We both went to high school in Texas, both went to division to colleges and things like that. So me and King Moe kind of loosely stayed in touch all through the years and he was coming to Denver I think he was training for one of his title fights him and king moh he and uh rashad evans were really close okay and so he called me up

one day and said hey uh we're going to be in Denver you want to come out and train with us he's like of course I ain't got nothing to do right now so it was me uh another guy and uh jake fisher was a greco uh world team member at the time and we all went to Denver to meet up with them. I had no idea. Rashad Evans coming. All I've known is I started to get a little more into MMA now, I started to watch it,

so I knew who Rashad was. I'd seen him on TV playing at times. So we're in the dressing room, we're changing. And it's the one time I've ever been Starstruck. Really? So we're in the dressing room, we're changing, getting ready to just go out and work out. And it was Joe Warren's gym.

And so they come in, I have my back turn, and they come in through the back door and I turn around and I see him and I turn back in my mind I'm like oh shit that's Rashad Evans oh shit that's Rashad Evans you know this guy I see on TV plenty of times

but of course you know you got to play it cool you can't let my man know that I'm Starstruck you know you can't do that so I played it cool and and then you know but the whole time like oh shit that's Rashad Evans that's a bad mother I just seen this dude on TV knocking dudes out cold

that's you know so we go and we work out and I wrestle with him. And we had a great workout. But after the workout, we sat there and just kind of talked. You know, it's just camaraderie, just something you do. We just fellowship. And we just sat there and talked, and I couldn't believe how cool he was. I mean, superstar in the game at the time.

And this was before the social media era. Okay. Like this guy was a household name. And I sat there and talked to him like we have been best friends. since high school. And I couldn't believe that. We exchanged numbers. And, of course, I went back to a training center to compete.

And then he would loosely text me here and there. Hey, how are you doing? And how did things going. And he was kind of one of the first ones to really push that button to, you know, you want to do MMA. Every night and then he'll text me, you know you want to do MMA. You know you want to come over here. And then when he would have a fight coming up with a wrestler or someone,

hey, can you come out and help me out for a couple of weeks? So he'd fly me down and I'll go out and wrestle with him and help him prepare for those fights But he kind of kept pulling on those strings you want to do MMA you know you want to do MMA you should come over here to do it You'd be good at this you'd be good at this and then I just kind of after a while I started straddling the fence between wrestling and MMA and of course I started dealing with some injuries at the training center and then that motivation kind of chasing the Olympic goal it kind of started dying And then of course it was where you fly halfway across the world to India wrestle these hard-ass dudes from all over the world. Let's say you do win the tournament.

You get $1,500, $2,000, $1,000, $1,000,000, maybe $2,000. And I go and I help this guy get ready for some guy would get ready for a fight. And this guy goes out and makes $100,000 a night. And I was just tooling him at practice. I'm like, something's not right here. Like, I got to do something. Because I'm a 25-year-old man.

I want to be my own person. I want to be able to take a girl out on a date. I want to be able to do certain things. So, you know, after a while, I just had to sit down with my coach at the time who happened to be Brendan Slee, Olympic champion. And he knew it. He kind of felt me slipping away from that.

And he said, you know, I think it's probably something you should go do. And, you know, the rest was history. I just packed up. He was Florida. Yeah, I had a couple offers to go certain places. But ultimately, I chose to struggle it out in Florida. But the process was made 10 times easier. Because of Rashad Evans

Why didn't you try out for the Nigerian team? I started thinking about that and I had an opportunity but just the organization, the affiliation at the time, the way it was put together. It wasn't as put together as it is now. Now you got Daniel and Ghali in there and he's turned that program around.

Canadian, I do believe. Yeah, he wrestled for Canada, but he's a Nigerian. Fair enough. Amazing guy. We like to, you know. Hey, you guys can claim him because he did his thing for Canada. But he's back there now. He's put that organization together well, and I would have loved it to compete for them. What's the name?

D.C., and I hope I'm not putting you on the spot here, but he told me that you went by a different name in the Olympic Training Center. Oh, yeah. See, it started out in high school. Yeah. It was my high school wrestling coach, David Mudgeett. And he was like a Marine looking. And I was, my freshman in high school, I was 5'2, 103 pounds soaking wet. I was a little guy.

Yeah, yeah. And so this guy was a big. Marine bus cut. Yeah, I spoke English, but, you know, of course it was still, you can still get the little accent here and there. So, you know, this big Marine comes up to me and goes, you know, you should try out for wrestling. You know, he asked me what my name was, and I told him to Marty, and he goes, I'm not going to call you that. You look like a Marty to me. So he starts calling me Marty. And so next thing you know, the whole team's calling me Marty. And then when I started get better and better towards time to go to college, college you would call or something like

that. And they were like, hey, this Carmarian kid, and he's like, oh, that's Marty. Next thing, you know, it bled over to college. Next thing you know, and everybody's calling me that. So in the wrestling world, I'm known more as Marty. Marty Usman. Yeah, Marty Usman. That's hilarious, because he was like, I was talking to him about you early on in your rise and he's like, who's this Camaro guy? Camaro that was there and he got this different name. We've talked about it. Me in D.C., we talked about it. And he said, he said. He's officially retired that name.

No more Marty. No more Marty. No more Marty. No. I mean, it's not my name. Of course. You know, my dad named me for a reason. Of course. But it's not Camaro?

Camaro's just short for my whole name. What is your whole name? Camaro Dine. Oh, wow. So why don't you go with the full name? Camaro. My mom calls me Camaro. My dad called me Camarra.

Yeah. One thing I love about you and I hope you don't mind that I highlight this. I love the way you dress. And this is cool as well. But when you dress and the, and what would be the proper name I don't want to be disrespectful. Just like traditional. Just traditional.

African outfit. Yeah. It is so beautiful. Thank you. The stuff that you wear is beautiful. And it makes you stick out. Like I said it about Francis. The one time when he wore it, like it was just like you're taking it back.

It's breathtaking, right? This big man, he comes out to the press conference. Remember when he beat over him? Yeah. And I said no matter. And of course, there's some showmanship involved. But in this day and age with Reebok, where everyone looks the same and it's hard to stick out. You stick out.

Thank you. I appreciate that. To me, you and Francis should wear that every time to represent, to make yourself relatable to the people back home, but also to be different. Absolutely. And that's the biggest influence behind it because we're immigrants from African countries. And in our countries, you never dream of this. That's the biggest, that means one of the most to me, besides providing for my family.

You never dream. I remember a time where I was, I think, five years old, I live with my grandmother. because I was really, really sick as a child. Okay. And I lived with her for a whole year. What was wrong? And I can't really explain. I was a kid.

Okay. Back in Africa? Yeah, back in Nigeria. But I was sick enough to where I was sent off to live with her. Wow. And so living with her for that whole year, you had to go get water to cook, to eat, to drink all day. You had to walk to the well or to the river to get some water. So we'd walk, get the water, get the water, carry it on their head and walk all the way back.

You got to boil that water and make sure there's no, you know, pesticides or things like that inside the water that could cost. Because malaria at the time is big in places like that. So just things like that. You never dream. I never dreamed that I would be on a platform to where now they can watch me on YouTube in Nigeria, you know, all over the world. So I'm an influence to all these people. I might have not chosen it, but God is using me in that way. So, of course, I want to be relatable to my people and let them know that, hey,

it's not the end of the world. You never know what God has designed for you. And so it's every time that I have an opportunity to be able to show my people that I am really a Nigerian, I want to do that for sure. Is part of the dream? I know you have a lot of dreams you want to be champion, but would you love to fight in Nigeria? Absolutely. And this is one thing I want to highlight as well. Great job to Daryntil.

I mean, he's really done a good job with the platform that he'd been given. but you put him in Liverpool he's the guy from Liverpool that you put there that's excelling that's doing well now you're trying to tell me you don't put me in Nigeria or any not just me you put me Francis Israel Razak anywhere in Africa we will do a stadium you think so we do a stadium easy

wow easy anywhere in Africa we do a stadium easy is the sport popular there or are you guys popular there. It's like we're growing popular and the sports not really popular because the sports not really tried to venture out. Yeah. Not tried because a lot of people see Africa as oh, it's the war country. There's no money there. But how can you say there's no money there? Diamonds come from there. Gold come from there. You know, the only issue is that, you know, the money, their money's there, but only a few people hold on to the money. So you got the one percent, half a percent that have the money and then everybody else is living in poverty.

because they never let the money trickle down. But there's money there. But they don't see that opportunity. So, you know what? I even market there. That's a third world country. We don't care or things like that. But we do a stadium easy.

Wow. Easy. That would be incredible. Incredible. I mean, George Foreman and Ali was willing to do that. Yep. And they went and look how that turned out. And how often do you go back?

I actually have not been back. You've not been back. Every time we've always planned. Because my parents go back. So every time we've always planned something, we've always had something to do in the summer. Whether my oldest brother was playing from national team while he was under 19, playing from national team, and he had to travel. Soccer? Yeah, in soccer.

He had to travel or whether I had to go to the Fargo or nationals and things like that. And I had to travel, just little things. You know, my parents always put us first. So they wanted to do the best that they could to make sure that we had every opportunity that we had. So it made it very difficult for us to go back. I am definitely planning on going back with that belt in the next year. Wow. You think in the next year, year and a half, you're a champion?

Personally, my mind, I wanted that belt by the end of this year. Okay. But with the way it's going, UFC might have me fight, be 16 and I'll be before I fight for, in the UFC, before I fight for that belt. So, you know, I'm going to say within the next year, year and a half, I'm going to take that belt back to Nigeria. Do you think that you will fight out your contract or do you think that you will get something done before the last fight? I don't know. I don't know. I have an amazing manager. You know, he does a good job. He has a good relationship with the UFC. So we'll see what happens. But I have one more fight left. I want to fight, you know, up. I'm tired of fighting back because fighting back, I'm damned if I do. I'm damned if I don't. I've always done what I've been asked by the UFC. I've always taken the fight that I've been given. The one fight that I was unable to make was when I got really, really sick during while that zinc virus was going around and I wasn't able to go to Brazil. fight, Sergio Marias, which I made up a year and a half later, we all know what happened in that

fight. So, you know, I've always done what I've been asked, so we'll see. We'll see. When did you go to Chicago? I think Wednesday. Okay. Big one for Rashad. Yes.

This is a big one. Big one. But he's prepared. You know, he's done the best he could with his time, so we'll see. This has been a blast, man. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for coming in.

Thank you for having. You're in New York to train, right? You're at Inzos. You're doing a little bit there. Well, I can't really train right now because I can't really grab as much as I can. You're just chilling a little? Just chilling. All right.

I need a break. Yes. It's a good place to have a break. Enjoy New York. Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate you coming in. Congrats on the win and good luck with the meeting with Dana, the last fight, all that stuff. Thank you.

Perhaps I'll see you in Chicago. Thank you so much, Kamau. Take care. There he is. Kamaro Usman, one of the top contenders in the UFC's welterweight division coming off that huge win over Damien Maya. Looking forward to what's next for him, 13 and one now as a professional, undefeated in the UFC. He has not lost a fight since his second pro fight, which was in May of 2013.

What a run it has been for him. And I'm looking forward to what's next for him. All right, that was great. Great to have him in studio. Great to have Marlon Marais in studio. Great to have everyone that we've had in studio. We still have some more show left, my friends. Later on, we're going to be talking to Nathaniel Wood, who is coming off a big win in his debut on Friday over Johnny Eduardo. We're also going to be joined by the Tamor brothers who are in action on Friday as well from Sweden, David, and Daniel. But now let us move along and say hello to our next guest. This, my friends, I'm excited about this is a long time coming. You know, we've had a lot of managers on this program, Ali, who Kamaro was talking about Marlon as well. We've had the likes of Lex McMahon. We've had Adi Atar. We've had a lot of names. Of course,

we've also had Malki Kawa. We have never had his brother, Abraham Kawa, one of the most important managers in the business, one of the busiest managers in the business. They have, as they said at the top of the show, both him and his brother and their team first round management. They have one of the most impressive client rosters in the game. The likes of Johnny Bones-Jones,

and Tyrone Woodley, Demetrius Johnson, Carlos Condit. The list goes on and on. And they also have Yoho Romero, who's fighting for the title on Saturday, Sergio Pettis, as well, who's competing on Saturday's card. So it's a busy time for them. Let us say hello to Abraham Kawa, who is joining us for the first time on this program via the magic of Skype, just sort of chilling back and say, it's about damn time.

That's the look that you have on your face right now. Is that an accurate assessment? Dude, after that opening, I don't know how I'm supposed to even go. I might just end it right there. There's no way I can live up for that right there. That was pretty good. That was really good. Well, I appreciate you being on.

And I also appreciate the fact that Malki is nowhere in sight because he is a bit of a camera hog. This is good. I like that he's giving you your time. he's actually late. So it's okay. Eventually he will be here, but he's just running late.

And he doesn't show up. Okay. This is good. This is good. How is he late and we're late? We're 20 minutes late and he's also late. So like he almost missed the boat completely. My brother, God bless us,

so he's one of the busiest guys I know if he's not the busiest guy ever. I mean, he's extremely busy. So God knows, he was in the middle of a meeting. And those meetings typically go from one hour to two hours to three hours. And then, you know, they usually work out for us, so it's a good thing.

It's just a change of it. Okay, so we have a lot to talk about, Abe. I have noticed, I don't know, maybe it's the last two years, because Malki has been a mainstay for as long as I've been covering the sport for the last decade or so. And I've noticed in the last two to three years, you have become a lot more visible at the events. You're at more events. But just in terms of like the day-to-day stuff, I see what he's doing with the NFL, and he's

talked about that on this show. But it seems like you have been. been sort of heading up more of the MMA side of things for FRIM. Is that accurate? And if so, why did that happen? It is. You know, you've got to think, you know, my brother's always said many times, even on your show, he goes, you know, the fox that hunts two rabbits doesn't eat.

Rabbits do. The fox that hunts one rabbit typically ends up with that rabbit and gets to eat. So the way this kind of worked out was we were both kind of doing everything at the same time. There was a lot of chaos, controlled chaos, but it was chaos. So now the way this works is he's, he's. going not i don't want to say strictly NFL because it would be unfair for me to say that my brother is not involved at the very top of stuff when it comes to uh contract negotiations and whatnot on the

UFC but on the day-to-day stuff and the stuff that the guy needs uh the fighters they need and that kind of stuff and it's all going to run through me uh and on the other side of it my brother deals with the NFL guys because that's his thing that's his baby that's you know where we started off together many many many many moons ago and uh you know he's he's brilliant on what he does and It works. And we found that this actually works way better than both of us just kind of doing each one of the things and, you know, kind of running around with our heads cut off. Did you join him later on or did you both launch the company together? We launched the company together back in 2007.

And in between 2007 and 2012, I sort of went this way. He sort of went that way. And it was just, you know, personal stuff that happened. Nothing bad. Just, you know, he was doing this. He really, really focused on. the agency and I was focusing on some other things. And then come 2012,

just, you know, I got a phone call out of the glue and the brother said, man, dude, why don't you do this with me? And I was like, well, you know, I love this. I'm, you know, I would call him during every UFC fight. Before he was in, like, involved in the UFC, I would call him and we were always talking, and just, you know, go through it. And the way it kind of ended up happening was he knew I loved it.

I guess I was telling him I wanted to be a part of it without kind of telling him I wanted to be a part of it. He just said, hey, why don't you come on board and do this? We made, you know, we made the most money in our lifetime together. Why don't we just do it again? I said, you know, let's do it. And working with your brother, because I know, you know, my family, we have some packs where the family works together.

It doesn't always work out. What is it like? Like, I can't imagine working with my brother. Love my brothers, but I just can't imagine working with them. What is it like working with your brother? And at times, like, a volatile sport, right? There's motions involved. So he's my best friend.

So with that being said, you treat the friendship as a friendship and the business as a business. If I'm slacking somewhere, I get yelled out just like anybody else who get you get yelled out by your boss, so on and so forth. If I do good, it's hey, you're doing good. It's tough. But I understand my brother. And at the end of the day, if two people have the same vision in a relationship, in a marriage and in business, if two people have the same exact vision, you can kind of get rid of all the other stuff. All that extra noise doesn't really matter.

The vision is, hey, we want to be the best. We want to have the best fighters. You want to have the best football players. You want to have, you know, everything that we can, the best we possibly could do, everything else is just white noise. You kind of figure out all that stuff out easy. It's not that big a deal. You keep that vision in mind, everybody's happy.

How's the MMA business these days? And I got to say, we are doing pretty good. And, you know, hopefully Saturday we got another champion under our banner. I think that would be the first time. You know, I don't want to jinx anything. I'm just going to keep it the way it is. But if we do get another champion under our banner, that would be a pretty impressive one where we have the 125 champion,

170 champion, one in five champion, and in my book still a 205 champion. I was waiting for how you would say that. So he's still a chance to me. There's nobody else. To me, that would be a huge accomplishment to have that been you guys. And I also ask from a business standpoint because there was a time, you know, when your brother was very much involved, you know, there were sponsorship, there's things like that. Those days aren't as, you know, they, they, they're,

aren't as, you know, at least if you're in the UFC, if you got Belator guys, PFL, whatever, but that part of the game isn't around these days. Do you take a hit when they got rid of all sponsors? Yeah, absolutely. You know, my brother, well, we were prepared for it. My brother said this a couple years back, I think,

on your show, I think you were actually doing an interview with him after or before Johnny Bones fight, and I remember this interview clearly where you, you know, you made the comment that, I think you saw a gatorade on John's banner or shorts or whatever, maybe and you know, you asked him about that.

And you guys got into the whole sponsorship thing, my brother said to everybody, hey, listen, this idea of having all these sponsors, it's going to be gone in a couple of years. We're going to become pretty much uniform where they are going to strike a deal with Nike. They are going to strike a deal with Reebok or Under Arbor, whoever was going to be at the time.

And, you know, go and behold, that's exactly what happened. The UFC is turning more into a, you know, the kind of system. So we've got to adjust accordingly. So we were prepared for that. You know, there's things. to still help. It's not the same.

I will not sit here and tell you sponsorships are exactly the same. They're not. They really are not. You don't have that platform to go around and say, hey, look, UFC's going to be on the box, has one million viewers or whatnot. You would pay for this amount, doing this way, you know. You don't have that.

So you've got to do a little bit differently. It's very similar to what boxing does. And if you've got to have an idea of how the boxers get their sponsorship, you can kind of make it work the same way. Okay. All right. So you just have to be a little more creative. Absolutely.

All right. you've mentioned him a couple of times so I'd be remiss if I don't ask you about Johnny Bones what can you tell us about Mr. John Jones? What a guy? I break some news for us, Abe. Give us something. What's up with him? I see him on Twitter all the time. He's alive and well.

And, you know, he's in a good place. Yeah, he's alive and well. He's in a good place. He's not anxious to get back one than anything. I think you know, people say you get that itch. He's got an itch man. It's bad. So I actually feel bad for the next guy that fights him. I really do. Not saying that he's

and take out all on him, but he's just, he's sharpening up his tools to where, if you thought he was good before, wait until you see him now. Okay. Now what could you tell us about, because I get asked almost every day, we saw the California State hearing and now we're waiting for Usada, because that's what they said, right? What could you tell us?

When can we expect some kind of news about him? What's taking so long? What could possibly be taking so long here? It's complicated. And, you know, when I say it's complicated, it's complicated. Because Usada, USADA is a very good job. People are begging on them and hating on them and doing what. There's things I do not agree with with you saw that I've told them, you know,

behind closed doors, the things I don't agree with. But you saw that does a very good job. They've done a very good job with the sport. It's it's imperative that they get this right. It's imperative that they get this case right because of who John is, you know. And I think they're doing the best they can to get it right. And with that being said, I'm confident that, you know, we will have a decision soon. I just don't want to put a date on it and say, it's going to come down at this time and come down at the time. I just don't think that's, that's fair to them. it's not fair to us.

It's not fair to John. So I'll just say that it will. There is a decision coming, you know, and it's hopefully sooner rather than later. You feel good? You're hopeful. Is it fair to say hopeful? You know,

you got a coin in your pocket, take it out flipping. Okay. Decision on either side, you know. I think it's going to be one of those things where it's, you know, like I said, I think you sought us trying their artist

to make this the right decision because it does a whole lot of work. So I think that's why it's taking the time to stay. He is going to fight again, though, right? I mean, like, John Jones. Oh man, I can tell you right now, this guy is, you know, GSP coming back, winning the bell after four years, you got to imagine, John, as soon as he found out about

the news, he was, I'm done for four years, done for whatever the time frame was in his mind, he was already gone. So just that when he saw GSP do what he did, he, it actually lit a fire in there. And he said, man, you know, what if he can do that after four years, why can't I? Why can I go out there and do that or whatever it may be? So John, John never once did he say, I'm going to quit. I don't want to do this anymore. You know, I'm sure he may have thought that before. But in terms of actual, you know, coming down to it,

I don't think he's there where he's like, no, I'm never doing this anymore. Can I ask, what's his dream scenario? Like, is it beating up Cormier? Is it Steepet? Like, what is the dream scenario for the return? You know, it's funny. It's funny bringing up in DC.

An ESPN writer now. Oh, congratulations, by the way. Oh, thanks. Part of them was. Congratulations. An ESPN writer called me in there. They're like, you know, can we get a few quotes from John in regards to DC? He's going to be on the cover of, I guess, ESPN in the magazine or they have featuring

in the magazine or whatnot. And I said, well, why do you want quotes from John? She goes, well, because their stories are so intertwined. Without Corneur, there's no John. And I said, whoa, okay, I can tell with ESPN needs to hire Ariel ASAP, ASAP right now. John's story is not tied to DC. I think DC stories tied to John. No knock on DC.

I just think that's the way it's kind of worked. out John's story is way more, you know, it's just he's got way more to him than just D.C. Sure, sure. So I think that's where, that's what's close. You know, yeah, you know, it's just more to him than that. So I would say his dream scenario, man, I think first, everything was enough to be timing, right? Like, until we know when he's able to come back, then we could say, okay, what do we want

to do? Where's it going to be? I know that, you know, some ideas were out there. I would love, my personal thing would be, give me the winner of D.C. and Steve A. at Heavy League, not even at 205, you know? But John may have the idea of he just wants to fight at 205, but I mean, I would love to see Steve A versus John. I think that would be a fabulous fight. Like I said before you came on, you have an incredible client roster, one of the very best in the game.

I've written down some key names. Could I ask you things about these key names? Sure. Well, first, let me ask you about Jessica Aguilar, because she was supposed to fight on Friday. and then moments before the fight, she was pulled. What could you tell us about this situation? She's saying chap lips, other sources are saying, it's a little more than that.

What is the story on Jessica Aguilar? I'll give you facts. I've got two tests, two tests that came back saying she has nothing. She's getting another one done today just to kind of like, for own peace of mind, for no other reason than just peace of mind, right? So I've got two tests that say Jessica Aguilar has absolutely nothing.

it is the worst way I can think of telling a fighter they can't fight. If you thought a fighter has something and then you send them to a doctor that is just a random doctor out in the city that you're in, and you're basically saying that that doctor's word is no longer good, I don't know what we could have done to make this better. And I give props to the UFC, I give props to the medical staff there. They went and moved on it real quick as soon as the commission did that. And I do think New York is going to get it right eventually. just think there's certain people that are there right now that don't understand what they're

doing. Honestly, not even the sport, just what they're doing in general. It's just, it's shameful, man. It's shameful that Jessica didn't deserve that. She deserved to be able to go out there and fight. Her first fight in Texas got canceled. Getting out of call, she was ready to fight. It's pushed out of Utica. She's ready to fight. And then the day of the fight, you're told, hey, you can't fight because we don't believe you have trapped lives. That's kind of messed up, man. And in a lot of ways, it's common to this stuff. So, you know, in terms of what's with her, the UFC's going to take care of her, they're going to make sure she's, you know, okay, they're going to rebook that fight for her,

hopefully sooner rather than later again, you know, the longer it takes, the worst it is for Justin. So we're talking to him. I think Mick's doing a good job. He's going to figure out of time. He really likes Jess, so it should work out. Is she getting paid at all for this? They're going to, they're going to, you know, let me just say they're going to take care of her in that, in a way to where she's actually,

because this is the second fight, this isn't one of those things where it's just like, oh my God, you know, my person got, you know, taken off the card or whatever,

maybe it wasn't like that. She showed up to fight. She was there at the arena and then told, no, you can't fight. The craziest thing in the world. Okay.

Next week is the start of the second season of Dana White's Contender series. And on that card is a man by the name of Greg Hardy. He is a polarizing figure in the world of sports dating back to his football

days you represent Greg Hardy. Was this a tough decision for you, given the accusations? You could go up and now. I think my brother answer this with you live, you know, a couple interviews back. Yeah, but you're not your brother if I want to ask you. Yeah, but you know, it's kind of the way we feel because, you know, if you go down the list of my guys that I have, I think everybody, not everybody, we'll stop there. But the guys that I have, you know, a lot of guys would just discount them and say, hey,

this guy's, listen, I've been asked to drop John Jones. I have been asked to drop John Jones. And I look at these people and I'm like, man, like, if this is your friend, if this was your friend and your friend is being accused of something or even if he's done something or whatnot, would you not stand with your friend? And, you know, when he looks at me, he was like, well, I guess I see what you're saying. I go, it's not easy for me. So I'm quick to give that person a second chance. I'm always quick to say, well, the circumstances may not be what they seem to be in the news. And then when you sit there and you're talking,

you get the full thing. And then you read the reports and you read everything that comes out. You say, yeah. I mean, thank God he took the time to actually do that. Most people don't do that. And I've seen on Twitter,

I've seen on social media, I've seen on all these things. It's, you know, it's not fair. It's not fair. Everybody swore, Yowell Romero was juicing. Everybody swore that. I can tell you right now,

I looked him dead in the eye. He looked me dead in the eye. He goes to me, man, I don't need that. I said, okay, I believe you. He said, I do not need you. said, I do not need that. I've done, been doing this for 20 something years. I've never needed it.

What makes me need it now? I said, you know what? You're right. I got you. I go to bat for him. Just like the same way, I'd go to bat for Greg. So in terms of a tough decision, it's tough when you're, when you're first presented with it. But then again, once you sit down and you read the facts, you go to yourself, this is a no-brainer.

It's okay. When's the Metsu-Jons Johnson going to fight? What's going on with DJ? And I'm hoping. I'm hoping August. And we're hoping it's going to be August. that card, the August 4th card in LA? We're trying for that time in August.

And if he wins that fight against Sohudo, do you think that he will fight the winner of T.J. And Cody, are we going to get that fight? I don't know if there's another clear contender at 125. I mean, Sergio, another one of my clients is fighting this week against Benavides. If he beats Benitez, I think, you know, maybe he may be the guy that's right there. It's a fight, DJ. He's a new face and, you know, new flavor that could be there.

to fight DJ. If not, you know, we'll sit now with the UFC. We'll figure out if they've got a plan for the, because what if, what if TJ beats Cody again, right? What are you going to do with the 135 pounds? You're going to give him Marlon. What are you going to do? You know, now if Cody beats TJ, I think, you know, you got, you got other guys there that can actually, you know, it's new names for, for Cody, I think. I'm not really sure. But it's a weird, it's a weird thing. to me, my preference would be let one of those guys come down on 125 and, you know, challenge DJ for the belt.

I think that would be a huge, a huge fight. It's a true content, a true fight for, you know, the 125 belt, it'll give a boost to the division. Everybody will be excited about a 125-pound fight. I don't know.

That's just my own take on it. I've spoken to them before in the past. We'll see if it comes out that way. Tyron Woodley, the Walterway champion, says he's ready to return in August, yet there's an interim title fight happening on Saturday. When will he return and against who?

So, Tyron, I feel for Tyron, man. A lot of you guys don't understand, but I really feel for Tyrant. That guy fought four times in one year. Never really actually complained. Everybody thinks every time we were offered a fight, he said yes.

And then you look at his opponents, they complain about Tyron being, you know, his fights this and that. Well, I can go down the list. Stephen Thompson, his last three fights all in the distance, right? or four fights went down, went the distance, right? All four of them, except, yeah, all four of them went the distance. Damien Maya, his last three fights went, what, a distance?

Am I right or am I wrong? You're way better at this than I am. Yeah, yeah. So, so I would assume the winner of RDA versus Colby would more than likely be fighting Tyron. I mean, I said this already a couple times. if Colby beats RDA, it's probably there's probably a chance for a quick turnaround.

And the reason why I say that is because the style of the fight, I think it would be a quick tournament. If RDA beats Colby, I think it may be a different kind of time frame. Okay, but does Tyron fight Colby? Because he's been pretty adamant about not wanting to fight him, not wanting to give him that shine because of some of the things said, would he fight him if he's the interim champion? But I think if he's the interim chain, I think we have no, like, regardless, I think that's who the guy is right.

I mean, I don't think, I don't think you're going to hear. I, from what I understand, I don't think Tyron's going to be like, oh my God, it's Colby. I can't fight. Tyrant's never been like that about anybody. He just always wanted, he wants to, you know, cement himself as the greatest 170 pounder they're ever lived. And if you're not given those opportunities, how are you supposed to do that, you know? I have this feeling that they're going to try to do, or that they should do, Darren Till versus Jorge Mazzved. all. Is there a chance this happens? Are you interested in this fight?

I'll tell you what. Jorge is a beast. That guy does not care who he fights, when he fights. That guy will say yes to everybody and anybody, which, by the way, I'm glad you brought up Darren Till because what ended up happening that date with Darren Till or Stephen Thompson was the one thing Jorge did not want to have happened to himself. He will never say this publicly, but I know him personally. He would never show up to a fight and miss weight. He finds that to be the most unprofessional thing. This is not a knock on Till.

This is him saying why that date wasn't working for him. He was not going to show up and miss weight. That's why he said to the OMAG, hey, let's take a fight at 180 pounds or 180, whatever pounds at the time. He understands that if you sign up for 170-pound fight, I've got to be 175. Sign up for 185, I've got to be 185. He understands that. So he's very, very professional when it comes to that. If Darren Till's available sometime around August,

I think you will have no problem booking that fight whatsoever. If the UFC wants it, if the fans want it, I think that's a fight, Jorge would be more than willing to take. I also know that if RDA loses, that's a fight where he would jump all over tomorrow. If Damien Maia wants to give him a rematch, that's the one where he will take tomorrow. if Kamara Usman, hands are okay, I'm not really sure if they're,

I mean, I think he said they're not broken on your show now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He thought they were broken, so I'm glad that they're not broken. If that's the case,

then I think he would, he would do that as well. I think so. Okay, rapid fire now, all right? Yes or no. Will BJ Penn fight again? Don't know,

there's not an option. I'll say yes. Yes, Carlos Condi. Yes, and he wants a fight in November December. Okay, that is great. Justin Willis,

will he resign? with the UFC? My gut says yes, 100%. Absolutely. I think he's easy. Given what happened to Leslie Smith, are Cajun Johnson's days numbered in the UFC?

And are you worried about it? I want to say no. No, I think Cajun, no, I don't. And I think he'll be okay. Okay. I think it'll be okay. Yeah.

What does the future, and this is not yes or no, but I'll end on this one, because, you know, he's a mainstay on our program. What does the future hold for Mr. Mike Platinum Perry? So he is at Jackson's. Yes. He's training over there.

He's got a fight with the NCAA coming up in July. I think if Mike, you know, takes everything that he's learning and actually, you know, puts it into plan and executes his game plan, I think, you know, you've got a guy who is polarizing. I think he's a guy that can actually be one of the top guys in the world. I really do. I really believe he's athletic and gifted. Is that his new team? For this camp, I believe it is going to be his team for this camp.

It doesn't mean that he's lost his ties in Orlando. Those guys all treated him very, very well. He knows that and he loves those guys. So I don't think this is, it's just more of a, let's just see what happens, kind of thing. Okay, fair enough. I'm so happy for a couple of reasons that we finally got you on the program that you were able to, you know, set aside some time for us because you're such a busy guy. I'm also happy that Malky never showed up. I mean, I remember a time where he used to beg me to come on the show.

Now he's blowing it by 30 minutes. So, I mean, he's such an important figure. He's called me three times since I've been on him. Good, good, good, good, good. So let's wrap this up so he doesn't make a cameo. And I wish you guys the best on Saturday. You have Yuel and Sergio, anyone else? Oh, you have Cristola Rocha, too, right?

And Andre Oloffsky. Freaking Andrea Oloffsky. Please don't tell him. I forgot to say, Ander Aloski. Andrea Aloski against Tai Tui Vasa. What a fight. Yes. Wow.

What a comeback for Andres. So you'll be in Chicago? I will be in Chicago tomorrow. All right. I'll see you there. Great stuff. Abe. I really appreciate this. I wish you guys. You guys have always been great to me.

I wish you nothing but the best. From here on now, continue success to both you, your brother, the whole team. And of course, good luck this weekend. Not only in the main event, but the entire card for you guys. Thank you. I really appreciate you. All right, man. There he is. Abraham Kawa, brother to Maliki Kawa, the owners of first round management.

And there was a bunch of guys that I didn't get to that I wrote down. They've got a pretty impressive client roster. and they've got a big weekend coming up, four fighters competing, and no fight bigger than the main event on Saturday. YOLA Merrill against Robert Whitaker number two. Okay, let's move along. One of our big stories from this past weekend, of course, happened in the second fight in Utica.

We talked to Jose or Jose Shorty Torres about his win, but then in the second fight of the night, we had the much-anticipated debut of one, Nathaniel Wood, the prospect the former Cage Warriors Bantamway champion you met him on this show a couple of months ago

of course if you follow the sport on an international level you know about this man but he was on the program after what ended up being his last Cage Warriors fight takes a fight against Johnny Eduardo in Utica and again

it started off a little dicey in the first round but man did he come back with a vengeance in the second he wins via Darce Choke and now he is back on the program to talk about it all let's go back to the Skype

machine and say hello to Nathaniel Wood. There he is. Nathaniel, how are you? Thank you for doing this, and I apologize for the delay. No worries. I'm very well.

How are you? I'm doing great, and I see you're back in the familiar, I guess you guys call it the flat of one Brad Piggin. Would that be called flat, or is that just for an apartment? What's the proper term? This is his house.

His house. This is their caveman room. So it's Brad's room. You know, in the tour right now, there's a wee Star Wars figures around. And, you know, there's most importantly, little picture of us. Oh, I love that. That is great. It's funny because if no one knew, they would think it's like you're in like a 10-year-old's room with all those toys in back of you.

Yeah, pretty much. But, yeah, no, I haven't got Skype or anything. So, you know, we do it from a useful viewer. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. and congratulations on the debut. What a fight, what a performance, what a comeback. First, I see your face.

You know, the black eyes, the nose look a little bit busted. Any serious injuries? What could you tell us about what you suffered in that fight, if anything of note? The nose, I think, is broken. Okay. I've had it broken before, but they said it's an acute fracture, so, you know, nothing too serious, but, you know, it's a bit swollen up and stuff. but you know it's not a fight if you don't come out with it will fight injuries after us so

you know it was all worth it so no surgery needed no no well i don't think so i've still got a seat specialist but you know i've had it broken before and you know it's all still in place it's just a bit swollen a bit stuffy but you know i'll uh i'll live and i move on that happened obviously in the first round correct oh hello there how are you Nice to see you there Oh my gosh That was

Yeah that was in the first round I believe And then that night You know I was actually sick When I was sick It made my eye puff out as well So it was a bit weird My eye when I come out of the fight

It was swollen And then that night I was sick And because I was sick And you know A lot of blood went to my head, my eye ended up coming right out. But, you know, as I say, I got the win. So that was the main thing.

You know, these little injuries mean nothing to me. What were you thinking in between the first and second round after that first round where it seemed like he, you know, he had you in a tough spot, he had rocked you. Were you aware of what's going on? Do you remember what was being said to you? Were you nervous that this was your debut and it was not going the way you had dreamed of? Yeah. No, I was absolutely fine.

You know, I was a bit dazed, obviously, from the shot he threw, but that's how I like to fight. You know, I like to get in the fight. So for me, you know, I was ready for round two and I was just working out how I was going to knock him out. You know, I didn't expect him to go for a takedown, but obviously he did, you know, he felt like he needed to do that. So I knew that as soon as he goes for that,

I've got other tricks up my sleep. But, you know, when the second round, when we came back in from the second round, in my head, I was just thinking, right, how am I going to put this guy out and get a knockout of the night? You didn't end up getting the knockah. You end up getting an amazing dars choke. Before I ask you about that, though, how close was he?

And I don't know if you can even answer this question, but how close was he to finishing you in the first round? Was it ever close? I don't believe so. Unless the ref stopped it, quit, you know, I was still in the fight. I was still there and I still had a lot more to go. So for me, you know, I could have kept going.

until the end of the belt. So unless the ref decided that he thought he needed to step in, you know, I was still good to go, man. The Dars, was that something that you were looking for? Did you see openings when he shot in? Did you feel like he was susceptible to that? No, that's just one of my go-to submissions. You know, when guys shoot in and I sprawl and I end up in that,

I'm in an around position, you know, that's just one of the moves that I'm very good at. You know, I do a lot of jiu-jitsu with my coach Ashley Grimshaw, and that's one of the setups that we go through, you know? So when I ended up in that position, I was confident that I was going to get it. It was just a matter of how long it would take me to set it up. Now that you've actually experienced what it's like in the UFC,

does it feel different? I mean, you fought in front of your hometown crowd, so that is a special experience in its own right. But to be there in the cage with the lights, it says UFC in there, you go through the whole experience, does it feel different from, you know, fighting in cage warriors as a champion? No, it just feels right.

It just feels like it's supposed to be. Yeah, it didn't feel any different. Once I was in the fight, the fight is a fight. So it doesn't matter whether it's just me and Johnny in there or whether there's 100,000 people there. For me, it's the same thing. So, yeah, you know, it just felt right. But it felt good to be there.

You know, fight week felt different. That felt good. And, you know, just seeing the other UFC fighters around and stuff, it felt like I was in a dream. Like you belonged, perhaps. Yeah, hell yeah. Did it help having Brad there, who's so familiar with the system

and the way the whole machine works, did you feel like that was an advantage? Yeah, 100%. Even the lead-up to the UFC for the last couple years, I feel like I've already been there because of what everything Brad's told me. You know, even all the stories he's told me

and any questions I had, just like when we were signing the posters, I said to Brad, do I get one of them? And he said, yeah, at the way-ins, they'll give you one, you know, and so be it, I went to the way-ins, they had the posters all folded up in a nice little container for me. So, you know, he literally, he couldn't hit it, hit it on the head even better, you know, anything that I asked, he told me it came true and happened. And I like the fact that you guys, you kept the ritual of him slapping you before the fights. I like that you didn't let that go now that you're in the UFC. That's the winning formula, you know, so we're going to stick to that for now.

You know, a clip surfaced, you tweeted it, and I want to just play it very quickly for those who may have missed it because it's amazing clip. I watched it a couple of times. This is the reaction, and then on the back end you can set it up for where it happened. This is the reaction of a bunch of Nathaniel Woods fans exploding when he picked up the win on Friday. Here's the clip. That is amazing. I mean, I see a kid flying in the air there.

Someone's holding up a kid all the way in the sky. It's amazing. And they start chanting your name. It's just a beautiful scene. It gives me goosebumps. I can't imagine. What is it like when you first saw that? What was your reaction to see people that happy for you?

Brad showed me when we got back to our room that night and I'm not afraid to say that I actually had a tear in my eye you know, it was an amazing feeling to just see everyone at home. You know, I knew a lot of people were going to get together anyway but, you know, to actually see everyone and how ecstatic they were when I got the win, you know, it meant a lot to me and yeah, you know, I did actually get a little bit teary over it. Where was that?

That was just at one of the locals around the local social club. I have by mine one of my sponsors, North team sports and social. And, you know, they were just playing the fight for friends and family and everyone that could go. And, you know, obviously everyone turned up. And, you know, but, mate, that's just a small amount of the amount of support that I've got behind me. So, you know, this, when the U.S.E decided to come back to England, you know, I'm going to have a hell of a lot more support there. And that actually leads me very, very nicely into my next question for the life of me. And I've tried to figure this out.

I cannot figure it out. Why was Nathaniel Wood, Cage Warriors champion, man who is beloved in England and in particularly in London, why was he fighting in Utica, New York, five days after the UFC in Liverpool? How does this make any sense? How did they not have a spot for you? It wasn't like you were a short notice replacement injury. Why were you not fighting five days prior in Liverpool? I know.

Your guess is better than mind, but maybe the UFC are thinking of it that, you know, If they put me on that Liverpool card now, I'm not necessarily a big name. You know, so if they put me on a few UFC events before they come back, when they do come back, I'll even be a bigger start. So that's, you know, what I'd like to think. That's the kind of the smart way I'd think of it. But, you know, maybe they just needed a space and they needed someone to fill in and fight Johnny Eduardo. And, you know, maybe that was the call that they wanted for me.

And, you know, but either way, I was just happy to get in there and, you know, made my USC debut. Were you, were you, like I mean, obviously you're happy, but was it a bit bittersweet, were you annoyed that you couldn't debut in your home country? No, not annoyed, you know, just a little bit, a little bit gutted that I couldn't have friends, family and stuff there. But, you know, mate, it was it was a dream come true just to get my UFC debut. So, you know, I can't complain, honestly. His name escapes me, but there's a young man who was, who tweeted that he was flying from London. to come see you fight in person. What's his name?

AJ Wakeford is my sponsor, Red King, Wilson. Okay, so this guy, and he was late, and his flight was delayed, and I was rooting for him, and then he tweeted me that he made it. So I thought he was just a fan. This is someone that you actually know? Yeah, so he's one of my sponsors that I've got.

He's a big MMA fan, goes to all the events, and he was coming out on his own just for that one night, just to see me fight. And funny enough, I wasn't actually allowed to bring my UK flag out because it had the prospect over it. And it was something to do with, I don't know,

whether it was the sponsors or whatever, I couldn't have it. So he actually bought the England flag with him. But he got there that late that I didn't manage to get it when I walked out for my fight. But luckily, you know, he was there just at the end. So he managed to throw it in for me when I was in the cage. And I got to celebrate with my England flag on it.

Were you bum? Were you bum when they took it away, your flag? Yeah, yeah, I was, I was upset, you know. And then I thought I'll get one out here anyway, but there was nowhere selling flags. So, you know, I didn't manage to get anything. It's hard to get an English flag in Utica. Yes, it is. There's not many shops out of there. That's right. That's right. I'm sure that's probably the first time you've ever been to Utica and, you know, with no, you know, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you're, you're not itching to go back there anytime soon. No, you know, when I went out there, the people were really friendly, super friendly, you know, a lot more friendly than where I'm from.

But there wasn't much out there, you know, there wasn't much to see, you know, when I heard I was in New York, I was expecting, I don't know, the capital, you know. But I forget how big New York is. So, you know, literally we spent days just going to one. Walmart and getting Wi-Fi and just mooching around doing nothing looking at food that I couldn't eat. So once I had my fight, there was plenty of food out there, that's for sure. You know, they do good food there. But until that moment, you know, there wasn't much for me to do.

So I spent a lot of the time just on my phone and, you know, just watching TV and stuff in the hotel. You've had some amazing fights, especially as of late, you know, some comeback victories around of the year. this was an incredible fight. Of course, you had the very quick one in your last fight, but are you hopeful now to maybe take a little less damage in these fights now to make these fights a little more like the last one

as opposed to the debut or the one last year that was up for fight and round of the year? Yeah, I'm never looking to take damage. I like to be in exciting fights, but I'm not there to take damage. But if I'm honest with you, Ariel, I've had 22 fights all in all now. And there's only two fights that I'll come out with some damage. And that was the other day and the Josh Reed fight. Other than that, I've never come out with concussion.

I've never been rocked. I've had a fractured nose. Other than that, nothing. You know, I'm fresh as a daisy. I've had no injuries, touch wood. I've had no surgeries, no knee injuries, nothing. So, you know, for 25 years old, I've been in the game for nine years. And, mate, I reckon I've got a good solid 10, 50.

years left in me. Okay. Well, I certainly wish the best to you. So, when do you want, how much of a break do you want to take? When do you want to return? Do you, do, I mean, have you allowed yourself to even think about that yet? Yes, well, I would like to, you know, I've got to take my girlfriend on holiday. You know, I've got to spend some time with her. Otherwise, I think she'll leave me. So, you know, I can take a little bit of time off. I think I'll have the next month, two months where I'm maybe not in flight camp. And then, you know, I'd like to see whether the UFC are coming back to Europe after their Germany card.

You know, I don't know if they've got any days for October, November. But if they had a European card in October, October, November, that for me would be perfect. You know, I'm assuming they never, obviously, you can never tell when they will come back, but they usually come to England, London, sort of February-March time. you know so i'd like to get one more in before then and then uh yeah you know i'd definitely like to get one in before christmas if i could have christmas off then get back in there february march for that london card that would be uh you know that'd be my dream plan out

who who's the ideal opponent for the next one anyone anyone they want me to fight you know anyone that is going to put me in that top top 10 radar you know i want to start chasing for the belt. You know, people might say, oh, no, you know, you've only been in the UFC, you've had one fight, but skill-wise, I believe that I'm there to handle anyone, you know, Johnny Eduardo was ranked 10th or 9th in his last fight, you know, and I just beat him in the second round. So if you want to go by rankings, you know, where does that put me? So, you know, I'm there to just get to the top, mate. So, you know, if Sean Shelby and the UFC, give me an opportunity at TJ Dillishore tomorrow, I'll take you. I'll take it. I'll take it.

it with both hands. I wish you the best, Nathaniel. Very happy for you. Congratulations on the win. A thrilling victory, a great comeback victory, a great submission as well. I hope that you recover quickly, and I hope that we get to see you back in there soon rather than later because your fights are very entertaining. It's been great watching you for the last couple of years here, so I wish you nothing

about the best. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. The prospect, Nathaniel Wood, great performance in his UFC debut on Friday. in Utica. I keep wanting to say

Saturday in Utica because typically that the UFC is putting on events on Saturday, but it was actually Friday at the Adirondack Bank Center. And so that's the story. We had Jose Torres and

Nathaniel, what the two prospects end up winning in their respective debuts. And now we look forward to seeing what is next for them. All right. How's great stuff? What a fun day it has been.

The train continues to roll along as we put a final bow on Friday in Utica, also of note. Two brothers fought on the same card as I take off my headset for the last time. We had David and Daniel Tamor and

I said before the David Tamor fight against Nick Lent said I thought that it was the second most important fight, you know, stakes and rankings-wise, first being, of course, the Marlon Marais, Jimmy Rivera fight in the main event. I thought that even though it was a little lower on the card, I thought it was one of the most important fights on the card. In the end, David Tamor ends up winning the unanimous decision. He remains undefeated in the UFC. He is 5 and 0 now in the UFC, 8 and 1 as a professional. Also on the card, his brother Daniel Tamer, unfortunately,

lost a tough one in the third round to Julio Arce, but rare to see two brothers fight on the same card. They fought in Utica. They are now here in studio, so let us say hello now to the Tamer brothers who I do believe, or are they not? I don't see Joe. Maybe they're not here.

Oh, here comes Joe. Joining us in studio is very exciting. Sweden's own, David and Daniel Tamer, please come in guys. Thank you so much. Daniel, how are you? Thank you, sir. I'm good. I'm good. How are you?

Thank you. Thank you. That's me too. We met before, my friend. I've seen you at the fights. You've got a great job. Thank you so much for coming in, guys. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Have a seat. Thank you. You guys, you look like twins. It's amazing, you too. Yes. By two years? One year.

One year. You're 29? I'm 30, so. 30. Oh, I'm sorry. You look very young. Yeah. And David is 29?

29. 29. Okay. Well, I appreciate you coming in, especially after just fight in Uticon Friday. By the way, why are you in New York? Why did you come? I mean, it's four hours away.

You came to visit. Did you have something else to do? Yeah, I mean, we always go like to Miami or Vegas or something like that. So this time we want to see New York. So we went to New York just for a couple of days. Okay. And we went home, we will go home tomorrow. First time in New York for you guys?

First time. Yeah? First time. What do you think? So far, so good. So far so good. I know you're a fan of Miami. Yeah.

better than Miami? We're doing like a traditional. All time, every the fight, we visit, we go to Miami and this time, New York. So what's better, New York or Miami so far? Yeah, it's a different. This is like much, a lot of city. Yeah. So Miami's like beach, sun, you know.

Yes. Chicas. And have you done all the stuff here in, like, Times Square, this and that? You've seen everything? This is a very, you know, right here is Wall Street, you know, where they do all the stock exchange very close to here. Yeah, exactly. So you're in a very important part. Today we went to the national park.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we enjoyed it. So you're enjoying it. We rent a bike. Oh, really? One bike or two bikes? Two. One each.

Not the same. You guys said. One each. Okay. How many times in your careers, because we'll talk about everything you guys have accomplished, have you fought on the same night? Was this the first time? No.

How many times would you say? We have to do it a couple of times. A couple of times. yeah do you like it or would you rather not yes and no yes and no the thing is when we when we fight each other in the same card is i mean um for example if david fight is more focus on david or if i fight is more focused on me so now it's maybe i don't know it's the past maybe next time i think we don't do it or we'll see because i remember i remember talking to anthony pedis about his brother he fought on the same card as his brother when he fought hafell dos

sanchos and his brother got knocked out and he said it kind of messed him up and then he lost the RDA and so I feel you know I've gone sort of mixed reviews from family members saying they'd prefer what do you what do you think would you rather not or do you like fighting on the same card as your brother I mean we're doing it before yeah in the UFC now is the first time yeah I don't know For me it's okay. It's not problem. Yeah. But I mean like yeah maybe like Daniels say if only he fighting or only me fighting maybe we can like focus more on the guy now it's a little bit I focus on myself he need to focus on

himself so a little bit of that way yeah and it it was very hard for me too you know when I was in the changing room and saw in the screen in 50 minutes I was like that I jump off and get a lot of nervous anxiety I feel like it takes a little little bit energy for me yeah I can imagine

but I feel like maybe for you because you got to fight first it was a little bit yeah yeah maybe it's better yeah the first one is better I think yeah to get it out of the way yeah unless he loses it then you're like really bummed out yeah I mean we'll see we'll see what do you see have a plan for us

if they want also do it again Maybe we can speak, we'll see. So what is it like, you know, last week we had a fighter named Angela Lee who fights for one and she fought on the same card as her brother and she won on the night but her brother lost. So like for you, you're happy, but obviously it didn't go your brother's way. So is it hard to really celebrate the win because like you love your brother, right? You want to be happy for him. What does that like for you?

Yeah, of course. It's a bit like that. Yeah. I win my fight and Daniel, you know, that's happened. So, yeah, you know. What do I want? Of course, both of us are going to get the win, we're going to have a good celebrating together. But next time. Next time. What went wrong? Have you watched the fight?

Not yet. Not yet. You want to take some time? I think maybe when I go back to Sweden and I called down a little bit and take it easy. You know, now in two days I've been very angry for this. but what can I do? It wasn't my day. So I see it for how many next time? It will be better.

You know, because I'm, before I come to UFC, I have maybe like 20 winning streak from the Thai boxing, K-boxing, also MMA. So my first fight was like I took it in short notice. I haven't the best shape. So, okay, I lose it on like very close and points. Then that one is what. like of course I can't lose my shape everything was good so it's happened no that's

happened so I think it was my fight until I get in a choke so so what can I say and and for you David five and no now in the UFC and a big win over a veteran but let's be honest you were criticized after the fight right some people say you're grabbing the the cage they they the fans weren't 100% behind you here do you feel like you're not getting enough credit you feel like it's unfair to criticize you what do you have to say in response no i mean people always gonna have something to say yeah no matter what you know i win i did what i have to do and uh it went the whole plan out you know and uh yeah i did uh excited work you know i i put a good show for all the crowd and all the people i show them high quality of fighting this is not

see every day I'm honest and you know we are like we're showing them professional high quality of fighting you know me and Danny be fighting in many many years so you don't see like guys like us like professional like you know every fight have a plan you know it's like a key every it's it's every cylinder need the key you know what I mean it's same with the fights so I show them really tactical, you know, smart fighting and all this. So every fight, every fight has a plan. It's hard to look good against a guy like Nick Lentz, right?

He's a really guy, right? Yeah, yeah, he's a very good fighter, you know. He's been a long time in the UFC. I mean, like over 20 UFC fights. So, you know, if you're backstage, just watch, it's easy to talk. No, it's, yeah. But Nick is a very good guy. He never been stopped before on all this.

So, yeah, I feel very proud of myself. Good. You have a third brother, right, in your family? Yes, yes, right. Is he a fighter too? Gabriel? Yeah. Gabri is also a fighter, but he, right now, he focused more on his barber.

He's a professional barber. Oh, yeah. one of the best in Sweden. I like that. He cut here and he's one. Does he do your hair? Yeah, always. So, so...

I was just thinking your hair is very nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. But it's very, very fresh. Yeah, no, this time I did it in a hair in Manhattan. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. You just went to a random guy? Yeah, yeah, it was a guy in the...

I also came in the hotel. You know a good barber. You could recommend me, so they recommend me to a barber. Who's better? This guy or your brother? My brother. My brother's better? He's going to look at your hair and they're like, come on.

So he owns a barbershop? Yeah, he, my father. So they own a father. Your father, too. Yeah, my father is the high chef. Wow. The barbership. It's been like over, over 30 years.

Really? Yeah. I'm fascinated with barbershops. I love barbershops. Yes. My brother, he was here in New York with us in two days. Yesterday he went home. And he likes, oh, barbershop, wait, guys, I have to go in.

Oh, really? Yeah. It's his passion, it's his blood. So no more fighting for him? No, he don't want to fight, but, you know, he's like a candle like that. If you call him, you want to have a fight, yeah, I take it. You know, he don't care about training hard. But he's a very tough guy.

And back of the time, I mean, he wins with a championship in Thai boxing and keyboxing. Oh, really? Yeah, so he's competing key boxing, Thai boxing championships and fight good guys who was champion. in Sweden. So, yeah, even he didn't train so good, but took the fight. And he's like a tough guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's older than you guys? Yeah. He's the oldest. Yeah, he's the oldest.

And did he ever do M.MA? A little bit, yeah. A little bit, just a, yeah. And is there a sister or just the three boys? Yeah, we have one sister, too. I have a sister also, yeah. How old, the youngest? A youngest, yeah. This is like my family.

Yeah. Three boys and sister at the end? She's protected, right? No one messes with your sister. Before she was like, shit in the school, nobody, the boys, they don't want to. But now she protects us. She's very tough. How old is she?

22. 22. Is she a fighter too? She was, but she, you know, she won't have lived the girl life now. She wants to be with the friends. Right. Did she compete pro? She don't, she, when me and David was younger, maybe 18, 19 years old, when it was

competing Thai boxing she was always with us in the changing room she was like five years old and in the arena she had this one you know the and she you're running around the arena so wow five years ago the changing room to the arena yeah always you have seen a lot yes yes and and and then why'd she stop she just didn't want to keep going yeah she was thinking oh i don't want to broke my nose and you know i i want to leave the girl with me my friends and la la la and she doesn't completely training with us and things like that so she on the time ago and she said I don't want to fight like that so who introduced your whole family to fighting who got you guys into it and who was the first brother to do it we've been inspired since he was young we was watching the brusely's movie the mike thysson boxing fights and all this but actually when i was young i was playing football and uh daniel we started

We start with tequando a little bit like one year between six to seven years old. Okay. Then around the 11, 12 years old, Daniel started with the Muay. Okay. So he said... You started with Kung Fu, I think, huh? Or king or tequando? Yeah, tequando a little bit.

Yeah. Karate. Yeah. And then... So Daniel started with the Muay Thai and I was playing football. He was young, like 11 years old, and she said, David, you should come one day, you're going to love it. You know, it's so fun.

Kickboxing. So I said, no, I don't need that. I can't protect myself. I don't need to go. So he said, yeah, yeah, believe me. Just come one day. You're going to, just test, you're going to love it. And, yeah, I say, okay, I come.

I go, I did first lessons, I did it, and I love it directly. So I say, I come tomorrow too. So after three weeks, I did my first fight. against a Thai boy. A guy from Thailand, very good guy. How old are you? Me now?

No, how old were you? I was like 12, 13 years old. Your first fight? Yeah. Wow. So I knocked him out directly and everybody said, this guy gonna be the, I mean, superstar, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was so fun. We went to Thailand after that.

It was young. I mean, in that time, people, they didn't know what much, you know what I mean? Many years ago. Yeah. So yeah, we went there, we was living with the Thai people, Thai, and no phones, no TV, nothing, you know, 24 hours, eat, breathe, fighting, you know. Wow. You went together? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We did five weeks training camp there. It was in Bangkok, not in, you know, this islands and sunny and all party. No, no, no. So it was training six hours a day, Sunday to Sunday, three hours in the morning, three hours, the mentality. the train and say, like if you broke your leg, you can rest. Otherwise, you can't rest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of guys fly back home to Sweden.

And yeah, yeah, they buy papers to show they are injured. They can't train because they want to find excuses to not. So after five weeks, the last week was just me and Daniel. And two, three guys more who was. And the train is say to us, you guys, you're going to be champion one day. Really? Yeah. Wow.

So after that, after that, we was ready for everything. You know, it was... It was a guy, Bergluck Pissinthai, two times Lumpini champion in Thai boxing. This guy was a very short guy. But he was like, his mentality was like... When he looked on you, he was scared. You know, you were scared for him.

So even when he trained, he have like a... Like a, you know, wood, something. A stick? Yeah, yeah. So he look at you when you kicks and do hard. And... He smash you, say, what is this guy doing? Then we say, he can't do like that.

He has like a translator and he said, if you don't listen on him, he can't hit you harder. Oh, gosh. Sorry, man, it's crazy this guy. Then we was training, training every day and we look at him. Like that, he was crazy, this guy. You still talk to him? You still keep the touch? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, for example, I think three years ago, four years ago, I went back. I went to Thailand. So when I was there, I said, you know, I was in Puket. So I was in three days, I saw street, I said, I don't want to be here, I want to go and train. Then I text him, I find him on Facebook, something like that. I say, hi, coach, can I come and train? I said, I'll live in Lampang. I said, where is this place?

You go to Shanghai, from Shanghai, you take a, you know, a cab or something, maybe two, three hours. First, take a fly. from fly have to take a cab then i go there when i go there i see like the smell of cow you know like a former place was a real former place yeah so so i i mean i mean i tell him coach i'm not young you can't i'm not young anymore you can't hit me but but come on i want to train but don't hurt me yeah i say okay okay so so i was you know he wasn't like before you know all this crazy you know He knew that I grew up too, you know, so he was nice with me. So come in, I come tomorrow, 8 in the morning, we start 8.

So I went 8, we train very, very well. He had very good Lumpini guys. Thai boxing was very good in clinch and elbow and everything. So it was a nice trip. Wow, and do you still hear from him after your fights now? Does he keep in touch with you? Does he send you messages about your fight? Yes, he can speak with English, but sometimes we do like that in the face.

Thumbs up? Yeah, he's a very good guy. And your parents were behind all of this? They were okay with you guys fighting. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, they never said, oh, we don't want my... Yeah, in the beginning when we started, it was a little bit, you know, like every, every parent, you know, they say their kids, you know, mothers, always mothers for everyone. Yeah.

So she said, yeah, you know, you do fights, you know, you hit each other and this. But no, we have to do it so long time. and they like what we like what we're doing because I mean we do something good we don't do something bad you know they are proud of us you know you know you have you know they are proud they are happy that we don't do other bad things you know what I mean so they are happy we are in a good way you have you know you know nowadays you know people they can start with bad things drugs you know like everything you know so they're happy we are doing something good and they are really

proud of us do they watch your fights live yeah yeah yeah even if it's late at night over there yeah yeah yeah yeah the area in Stockholm live yeah I mean like all the it's like everyone comes together you have all with at least thousand people really yeah yeah wow where do they go where do they watch all the coffee like cafeteria yeah yeah yeah yeah coffee shops yeah yeah yeah full people oh oh it's like probably what at 1 a.m. 2 a.m. 3m. No? 3. Yeah, 3. So loud all the four of the night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They stay open for you guys. And do you see any videos? People

celebrate everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like private day. Yeah, yeah, wow. That's amazing. And your parents go to that to watch. In the parents, they are just at home. Yeah, watch at home. Yeah. Wow. And so is this Stockholm or outside of Stockholm where you guys are from? In Stockholm. Is that where you're born? Yeah. Yeah. from okay well more very born a race is talking and who introduced you to UFC like when do you remember watching UFC for the first time because probably when you were younger it wasn't on TV and stuff right or was it I mean from the beginning is you know is what's like a when we were seeing in May was like what is that sport you know

I don't like see people you know on the ground and we close each other you know I say what was that then then we we We start to train with the team in the Allstosh. So it was one other team before, but it was same, one of the name, same team, but one of the name was training with them and with Alexander Gustafson and the coach Andrea, so everyone. So Alex inspired us a lot. Alexander Gustavson. You saw him before, like you didn't know of him, you just saw him or were you friends

with them? When we when we start with the M. Yeah, it was then. Yeah, it was sitting with Alex and all of them. We were seeing them training and you know, we like the system of MM. Because when you fight, you have to think a lot and you have to do this and this and he comes with that, la la la, so we have to train a lot. So it was, okay, we go for it all, listen, all in.

So me and David was training, MMMA a couple, maybe, I think we go to the MMMA. debut after three years of training, M.M.A. And grappling, you just see everything. After three years, I fight and David, in the same event. Yeah, it was the same event. It was fighting. Oh, really? You both won.

Yeah? I think so. No, no, no. My first debut. I did, I had a fight like two weeks before. It was a K-1 fight. So two weeks after that, I did my debut. And in that time, yeah, I just,

It was early my career. So they asked me, David, we're going to have a big MMA event here in Stockholm. Like 4,000 people, something like that, in the arena. And they want to have me in the main event. Oh. Yeah, the main in the event. So I say like, they say, I mean, like, they say the fight is going to be like standing up. I told them like I just thought a couple of months, two months with the MMA.

I don't know it's so good. But, yeah. So he said, no worry, it's going to be like standing up a lot. I said, yeah, okay, let's do this. So I went there and the guy, he didn't want to stand up to do it. He took my leg, I look at him, what the fuck he's doing? But it's MMA, you know what I mean? I was so new.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he took my leg, I said, what the fuck? I said, oh, it's MMA. So, but yeah, yeah, he gave a fight on points. Okay. But after that, yeah. I haven't lose any fights. Of course.

And do you guys dream of going back to kickboxing or you're done with Muay kickboxing? You love MMA. No. Stick with it. No, for a moment. I mean... For a moment, yeah, I love M. We have doing that for like a couple of six years, six seven, yeah, many years we're doing

MMA. And intensive, like every day we're doing with the top level guys. Our trainer, he's like Alain Finfo. He's, I mean, like seven, eight time war champion in the ground. He has win everything. I mean, he's so good. And we are a good team over there. All-Stars, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alexander Gustafson, Ilir, you know, it's a lot of guys. Razum, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Russian guys. We have all kinds, yeah. UFC fans were introduced to you, David, when you were on the Ultimate Fighter. That's when you, you know, made your first appearance.

You were on the season with Uri Fabor and Connor McGregor. you on Conner's team, the European team, right? Yes, sir. What was it like, I mean, Conner wasn't around too much, right? Like, was there a lot of coaching? What was that experience like to be with him? It was a great experience. It was.

Yeah, yeah, of course. We, we like, we spend a good time over there. And, you know, you train with new people. You learn new things. And that time was also early in my career. So, but yeah, I learned a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're spending good times. Did you know who Connor was?

Yeah, yeah. He was just coming off the Chad Mendes fight. Yeah, yeah, that was exactly the Chad Mendes fight. So, you know, we get, we learn it. We get a good contact with each other. Yeah? Still today with his, yeah, all his coaches and all this. You still keep in touch?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get a good, I mean, shemi, contact with each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, we had good, we spent a good time together. Living in the house, you like that whole experience? What is it, six weeks? Yeah, I mean, good and bad.

You don't have your cell phone. You don't have TV, you know. I mean, you have to be strong in the mind. Sure. Yeah. But for me, I'm honestly, it wasn't any problem, you know. Because I was thinking, like, we have to think good, you know. We have a roof overalls.

We have food on the table. We have beds. You know, right now, we have people. They are starving. They are hungry. They are war in the world. You know, all these things, you know. So just be happy, grateful, appreciate everything.

Thank you. You didn't want to do this, though. Ultimate Fighter, did you ever consider? At that time when they went, I was studying school. Oh, okay. So my manager, like, say, you know, you will even go to UFC whenever. So study of school is also very important. What did you study?

About building in apartment. Architecture? You know, it's like we, we, we, we, we, for it's Swedish, like, we call it like a, uh, uh, uh, foraltaire. Okay. You take care about the good, you know how to take care about the buildings. Okay. And everything. All right.

Yeah, like, yeah. And after you didn't want to do that route, you didn't have to go the route of Ultimate Fighter, trying to get into the UFC that way? No, I even don't try to go to the Ultimate Fighter. Before I go to UFC, I have six finishes. I had six finishes in a row. All of them was in the first round, three by submission, three by chaos, a fight with good guys.

Then my last fight before I go to UFC, Obviously I fight a very good Italian guy. He was undefeated and I knocked him out, I think in the first round, first minute, something like that. Though I was shocked even two, it was good. Then after that, UFC called me for a short notice fight in Glashkov in Scotland. But that fight I took it on my maybe like one, two weeks notice, 10 days. I was married.

So I was in my honeymoon and yeah. Yeah, that's when you accepted it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was my honeymoon. Where were you? I was in Mauritian, in Africa. Wow. Yeah, so I was there maybe in 10 days. Okay.

Then the last maybe four days in my honeymoon, they call, they call like, do you want this fight in Glasgow? Someone got injured or something, so do you want to have it? What can I say? Yeah. is UFC, I want to go to UFC. It's my dream. But in that moment, I was like,

why just now? I haven't trained a lot. And my honeymoon was drinking. You know, what is it? So, yeah, I took it. I do the best what I can do. Did you train on your honeymoon? Yeah, I tell my wife,

we close honeymoon. You went back home? No, no, we can do it because it was only one flight in a week home. So I find a little gym there, just for running, making my cardio, and make my weight. So I start to eat good and just train, train, train. Your wife was okay with this?

I tell you, of course. I tell her we make a new honeymoon after the fight. So I go there, my debut. The first punch I gave in the fight, I broke even my hand. So I broke my hand. I broke the hand. You could see his bone like it was out. Really?

Yeah, so my bone. I have a video in my phone. Oh. So I broke my hand. You could tell right away? Could you feel it that it was broken? Yeah, I feel it. So directly when I broke the hand, I started to do with elbows.

Yeah. Sometimes, yeah, I do with elbows and punched with the left hand all the time. I guessed out myself because I... Yeah. So, but even it was a tough fight, it was fight of the night in this... Because me, I fight also a very good guy, Denny Henry from England. Scotland, sorry. So he also, we like want to kill each other.

It was very tough. He was also very tough. He take good punches. I take, I give, you know, like that. So we tried to finish each other. Then end of the fight. We two was like the Rocky film. But I lose like very close.

So yeah, I was a fight of the night. took some time off and this does it drive you nuts that you still haven't gone in the UFC window that fight when I lose it

because I have like 20 fights in a row a win so I feel that I feel that something happened with me of this fight I feel like

you know I I so now when I lose these two I was like hmm okay

but I have to be strong now and take my time and come back and just find myself and I know I know I'm telling you all when I'm Daniel I know I can knock who everyone whoever I want and I can also lose with whoever I want you know but I just have fun I will just take a little bit of time but just find myself and I want to go back to the cage as fast as possible I will just go to I will just have a vacation me and my wife now

when I come back to Sweden we will go for two weeks then when I come back I will just start again because my shape weight everything is good I will not eat bad food and I will take my I will take care of my body and everything then I will go back and I will go for ride again and I have to I have to come back there I want like before so and for you David now five and oh yes that's a pretty impressive record so far who makes sense for you next who do want? I mean, I hear a lot. The fans and the people, I think they're talking a lot about about the fight that could be possible. And who's that? Justin Gator. Yeah. Yes. So people are

talk and yeah, I think that's going to be a really good match up, a good fight. You like this idea? 100%. Has this been offered to you? To your management? Because I know they're looking for an opponent. Yeah, so far I haven't like personality getting the, but I mean like he's a tough, he's a tough guy. He's, when he go there, he's fighting and same by me, so I think it's gonna be a very good fight.

It's gonna be, I believe that that fight is gonna be the fight of the year. Fight of the year? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. trying to get him on a card in August. Yeah. Is that, would that be too soon for you to come back in August?

I mean, it depends. Let's see, let's see, where the fight's going to be and all this. And I have to talk, your managers. I heard they were trying to get him to fight in Nebraska. Do you know where Nebraska is? Is that a small place in U.S.? Yeah, it's not the most exciting place. Nice people, but it's kind of in the middle, you know, like a lot of farms.

Like a Utica. Some might say it's even worse. No, I'm kidding. It's probably kind of very similar to Utica, yes. But Utica is in northeast, and this is more Midwest. But not very, it's not Miami. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it's not dependent.

We're doing the same thing in the Octagon, no matter where we are. You can be in the desert and, you know, it's the same. But for real, I believe in this fight. Yeah, you like it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. I believe it. You feel like he's taking a lot of damage this guy over the last two fights, right?

Eddie Alvarez and. Yeah, I was also fighting that. That's the Porier, too. Michael Johnson. Yeah, I know you were at 18. It was in Detroit, UFC 218. Yeah. So it was a tough fight. He gets hit a lot.

So this is probably something that excites you, right? Yeah, you know. Yeah, you know. It's going to be a good fight. Yeah, you like the fight for him too? No, I mean, because David and Gecche, I think that's going to be a good fight because Getch is also a good striker. For example, you know, he know, like, he's like, he's a lot. two opponents, they only want to take him down.

And David is also a guy who he can put on a good show and fight very hard. But if people just want to take him down, he has to fight in one other style too. Sure. So that's people... Let's do this. Let's give the fans what they want. I like it. Yes.

I feel like for you, the turning point was the Land of Venata fight. That's when people started to really give you a lot of respect. Yes. Do you feel the same way? It felt like a turning point. Yeah, that fight, it went, you get a lot of attention. Yeah. You know, it was one of the best, yeah, you get, you know, the fight of the night.

And I think there was, they put it also in the best fight of the year and all the, yeah. So the matchups is important, you know. For me, when I'm going inside the cage, I want to put good action, you know, I'm there to fight, you know. So, yeah, I mean, I'm excited. Yeah. And I also feel like slowly, like we still haven't learned a lot about like, I feel like you have a very funny personality. Like you give us glimpses, the singing and stuff, but we haven't seen the full thing yet.

Yeah. I feel like there's more to it. To me, he feels like a very funny guy, your brother. Yeah, it's very funny. Yeah. You sung before at the press conference. What was the song that you sang about, was it about Miami? Viva Las Vegas.

That's right. Yes. You have a good personality. You like to joke around. I like this. You got to bring it out more. Yeah, of course. That's part of the package, right?

Yes, yes, of course. Right? And what about fighting back home in Sweden? Is that something that you guys want? Nothing planned as of right now that I hear. Right now is no plans for the UFC Sweden, but it's going to be very, very good. I mean, if they do the UFC in UFC Sweden,

One of my favorite trips that I took was to Stockholm. I went to the one where Alex fought Anthony Johnson. Unfortunately, it didn't go his way. But it was kind of weird because it was like at 4 a.m. Yeah. You know, that day also, like, I mean, like, imagine yourself. I mean, just I'm talking about the time. You know, Alex was working up to 5, 4 when people were 7 in the morning.

They're leaving out from the arena, you know. Yeah. Sweden it's change time you know it's like you fight in the I don't know a different time here in US so it's totally that helped I thought that that was a big benefit to Anthony because he could just stay on American time but for Alex he had to change his exactly totally totally tame but it was amazing there was still 30,000 people there was a lot you saw incredible Alex full out the whole arena it was unbelievable I mean there were some other guys I remember kira koresani was on the card but it was all about Alex, that card.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I felt so bad for him afterwards. Yes. For, you know, for how it turned out. But I love the trip as a beautiful, beautiful city. Yeah, Stockholm is nice. Incredible. It gets dark a little early there at that time of the year.

In the winter, yeah. In the winter, yes. But now in the summer, I mean, like, it's amazing. Yeah. It's like 10.11, right? Yeah. It gets dark, right? PM.

Yeah. It don't be dark. Sometimes it's no. Never? Don't go dark. All night. Wow. That's amazing.

in the summer yeah beautiful I mean it's amazing yeah in the summer is me and Danny we have also like a boat we like yeah we go out in the water you see a lot of the city yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and uh Sweden are they in the World Cup did they make it yes they did yeah okay yes yes because I said to someone a couple weeks ago good luck in oh Alster Overeim and because Holland didn't make the World Cup oh yeah yeah yeah well Holland Italy USA not on the world Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have friends that are playing in the Swedish football.

Latan, I see you retweet, and one of you retweets with Latan, maybe it's you. It's Latan, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now he's in America. Yeah, he's in the LA Galaxy, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he, he, he, that's very good.

I mean, in Europe, he's, you know, he can't walk in the street. He's so, he's a super, super, super, superstar. Yeah, yeah, all around. Like LeBron James or something here, right? Yeah, yeah, France, you know, all this Sweden. Yeah. But I mean in the States, so it's good now the people can I know him more in the States. Right. You know, because here, Lebron, you know, all the basket players like Lebrons,

Zlatan is him in Europe. So it's good. People are going to know him more here in the state. And you're friends with him? How do you guys know him? With the Zlatan? Yeah. We are in the same team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your sponsor. Yeah. Bed hard. Yeah. It's a betting site?

Yeah. It's the best in the whole game. So, Zlatan is that available in the US or only in Sweden? All around the world? Yeah, they have the account and everything and the site. Yeah, yeah, it's a good sponsor. Yeah. New sponsor? Yeah, about over one year now.

Okay. Yeah. And is Latan on the team for the World Cup? Yeah, he's on it. In the football. Yeah, this year, did he make the team? on the national team? I'm not sure yet.

I haven't announced? No, I'm not sure yet. Okay, I'll look that up. You know, I used to wear a jersey all the time when I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Swedish football team. I used to wear the Sweden jersey. You know who I wore? I had his name on the back.

I'm going to mispronounce his name. I apologize, Martin Dallon. That was my guy. I loved him. I don't know why I loved him, but I just loved him. but I just love them. Yeah, because in 1994,

they had the World Cup here in the U.S. and I watched him a few times and I just loved the way he played. So that was my guy. I used to wear his jersey to school. No one understood, like, who's this guy, Swedish jersey? Yeah.

That was what I loved, I love the team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sweden have a lot of, I mean, good athletes. Yeah. I don't know the tennis player, beyond boring, like in the days, you know. Hockey players, Forcedon.

Hockey players. They have a lot in the States. They're playing. Skying. MFA team. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Toronto Maple Leafs and now we have MMA fighters exactly yeah any good uh oh boxing you had

ingamar johansen right you're my one son legend we fought against i think uh floyd paterson here in in uh in new york at yankee stadium yes yeah yeah yes that's right we have also a swedish guy he's in the the money team badu jack oh badu jack yeah yeah yeah he's I love that guy. He's also from our town. He's also from. Oh, really? You know?

He's from Stockholm. So we have a lot of Swedish athletes out of the world. And you know, my friend, he was actually on this show just a couple weeks ago. Jonas Jerebko, basketball player for Utah Jazz. Basket is not our best thing. Jonas Jerebko, number eight. Great guy. Shame on us.

Huge M. M. A fan. Really? What was his name? Just a couple weeks ago. Jonas Jerebko. He's playing.

He's active today? Yeah, Utah Jazz. In the NBA. Last year, he was on the Boston, Selton. politics. Number eight. I know LeBron's. Yeah.

And I meet Kobe Brian. You met him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Las Vegas. Just walking around? No, we were in the UFC. They invite me to this UFC retreat. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

He was there. He was talking about business and stuff like... I meet him, Snoopy dog. Muhammad Ali's daughter. I met Bruce Lee's daughter. Lela Lee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Were you there too or you weren't signed you? No. Because you were debuting in July, right? Yes, exactly. I was in time. Yeah. I wonder if they're going to do that again, the retreat, because there were some drama.

Chris Cyborg, punched someone. Yeah, there's something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't see it, but, you know. And are you guys Middle Eastern, your family? Where's your family from? We are Armenian people. Aramaanian people

Surio. I mean like we have very long history. We speak Jesus language. Jesus language? Yeah. I mean it's very old. You know from the Babylon, Euphra, Tigris it's how can I say? We have very, very, very long history. The Arabic is from us, the languages. like we say shalom and also I know the jewish they say shalom oh yeah you know

shay shi you know to drink yeah yeah yeah yeah I speak Hebrew yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm Jewish yeah yeah how you say drink yeah let's my father's name shalom how you say hi shalom shalom shalom you hear lachmo bread yeah how you say uh lehem You hear, lefem lachmo. Yeah, yeah. So you can Google it up. You're going to see Aramaic. We have, you're going to read it.

I meet everyone. I mean, like today we are not so much people in the world, but you have people who know our history. And they're like, wow, you know, you're still excited today because we have so, so, so long history. Is there a population of Aramake people in Sweden? Is there a big population? Yeah, we have a lot in New Jersey here also.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Okay, interesting. Do you go visit them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yesterday, we was invited to home, you know, they want to meet. Oh, that's nice. Did you go?

Yeah, yeah, we go. It was nice? Yeah, it was a family from our people. So they just invited you. Yeah, they text us on Instagram. A lot, yeah. And you went? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where in New Jersey? He was like, I don't know. These random people that you never met before. They pick us up from the hotel. Come on. Come on. Never met them. You didn't think that was, we're worried?

Who are these people? No, never, no. My people that take care of us. It's like, you know, we have this in our culture. Yeah. We have our own blood, you know. When we come, they, you know, pick us up from the airport, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Same when I go to other places, for example, I go to the Netherlands. You know, these guys, I think they have like this guy who pick us up, they have like a, they have like a store, like this is Jack, Jack, Juvelers, something like that. Syrian people. So they gave you food and stuff like that? Yeah, they picked us up. Yeah.

So they book a restaurant for us. Wow. So it was, yeah, when I, so we eat like a huge tea bone stick. Wow. Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah. They are so good. That's amazing.

You never met these people. Yeah, but you know, no, it was good people, you know. So I mean, they're happy. They're proud of us. Sure, sure, sure. That's great. And do you speak, do you speak Arabic? Yeah, of course.

Yeah. Do you speak Arabic too? just Aramaic. Shui? Shui? Shui? Yeah. My mother is from Lebanon and my dad's from Egypt, so I also understand Arabic too. We're like brothers. Yeah.

That could be the fourth Tamer brother. He kind of looked the same. It looks like my brother. Same like Abraham. You can see as the manager. We have the same face. That's right. That's why you guys get along, right? Well, I'm very happy for both of you. I wish you nothing but the best. And I really appreciate you coming in studios.

Our pleasure. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. It's really cool. So congratulations on all your success. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you much. And I know your UFC win is coming. Yeah, of course. Take your time. I will be the champ. I will be the champ. I will see there. Don't forget.

Don't forget. The brother champions of UFC history. Yeah, I mean, it's something really, both of us, the team of brothers in the UFC. It's something, yeah, really good. It's a great thing. You should be proud. So again, congratulations.

Thanks for doing this. It's safe travels home. Thank you. Thank you. So thank you so much, guys. There they are. David, Daniel, Kymour, brothers. Yes, come, please, right now.

Yeah, we're still live, but that's okay. That's how we like to do it. Can you just say Danny Yan Di Telephone? Yes, Joe, take a photo for us here. Why not? Don't be shy. Here we go, let's take it. I like this shirt.

You got your name on the name? Yeah, of course. Take more. That's great. All right, here we go. Yeah, come, please. I'm not wearing shoes. You see that?

I'm getting comfortable. Then we can be taller. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. David and Daniel Tamur. How about that? Brothers fighting in the UFC, representing Sweden. Great stuff there. Our seventh and eighth in studio guests of the day, an all-timer today on the program, one to remember.

And I appreciate everyone who not only came in studio, but who also joined us via either the phone or Skype. Okay, that does it for this portion of the show. If you're watching us on Twitter, stay right there. We still got more to go. If you're watching us on MMA Fighting, Facebook, YouTube, go to live.com slash MFA.

I could go, they'd have to kick me out of this place. I could go another six hours. We got anyone else who wants to talk to us? Anyone else want to come by? I could do it easy, easy. It's going to take a lot to get me out of here. You're going to have to carry me out.

But we'll go on Twitter right now. So live. dot Twitter.com slash M.A. Let's talk to New York, quick. Let's talk to all of you. You asked us some questions. We have some answers for all of you. Still got a little more show left.

225 talk you to talk whatever you want to talk about let's do it live dot twitter dot com slash m a fighting the m a after hour starts right now and we are back here we go the m a after hour fun day historic day here on the program i was checking if there was anything in my new jersey mug given to me uh by micky gall who i was thinking about recently of course the one and only man to fight cm punk and the ufc we haven't heard from him quite some time uh so yeah he me this New Jersey mug. There it is. See it? Nothing in it. All right, time now for everyone's favorite segment. It is time. And now it's time to open up your ears and your minds. MMA fans, it's time for Rick's Picks. Rick's Picks are lots of fun. Yes. And his hair isn't a bun

because it's you already know it is. Rick's picks. See if anyone called me here. It's been a long day. 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 Rix Pix. Boom, there he is. Looking like Zorro. Again with the Zorro stuff? I mean, it's longer than ever. You have never had facial hair this long. No, that's not true. It's 100% true. Not true. By the way, who's for you're right? This is my brother-in-law. Oh, that's right. I met him like nine hours ago And I forgot that he was actually here

Enjoying the day He's probably thinking How in God's name do you do this every week And sit here listening to this guy talk for No, just sitting back and enjoying Well, it's been a fun day It has a historic day All things considered

You know I thought that You know one person comes late There's a domino effect We weren't too bad Right I guess we're 45 minutes late It helped that the people who were grouped together. Wrong time?

Well, no. Like Marlon, Camaro, Ali, the link there. You can more easily move those pieces around. Gotcha. They kind of screwed it up for everyone, right? Because they were late. Well, no. Look, we pulled it off.

I know. What a great day. One of my favorites, fun day, exciting day. Lots of fun people. But let's not waste any time. Okay. My mom telling me, by the way, that she loved the Tamor brothers. I knew she would love them. David actually looks like my brother David, who you know.

Does he? You don't see it? I don't see it that much. Similar, maybe a little bit. Similar face. I like to think I know how David looks, but maybe a little. Well, you haven't played basketball in a while. She may have forgotten.

Is it comeback in the works? I think I'm almost ready. Oh. I'm almost ready. Wow. All right. What do you got? Okay.

let's kick off for X-Pix. Here we have first up Jose Torres's win featured by SportsCenter. We had him on earlier. Just a crazy turn of events.

Kind of cool to hear his explanation as to how... Yeah, well you'll see here. Yeah. He grabs the hips. He has it so that when it does complete, he's able to get into position and then he does. Now, I don't know.

know if I'll give as much credit to that being the thing that changes the fight as much as Jared knock himself out, but like I think that's the, that's the key part of that, more so than grabbing the hips, but you can't, he didn't, uh, Jared didn't win the fight. That's for, that's for sure. Jose, uh, took advantage and got it done. But, uh, here featured on SportsCenter. Also from that same event. Another guest that we had earlier today, Nathaniel Wood. Going to slap on a foot choke here. He's going hard

for the dars. Getting it done. Now, can we, you know, while we're rolling the Nathaniel Wood clip, can we talk about Brad Pickett's opinion on the show today? Yes. I do believe I don't have official confirmation because I was doing the show, but I do believe that that was in fact Brad Pitt. Oh, that was Brad Pickett. It looked like him. I mean,

I would imagine. In fact, he tweeted before Nessaniel came on that he was going to make a cheeky appearance. Oh, there you go. I was actually just going to say it was very cheeky of them. Well, he beat you to that punch. One punch beat you to that punch. I like it.

I thought it was great. I think that that's a first. We've never had a bear ass on the show before. It was a first. Now, I get a little scared. Why? It's a live show. Who knows what other things people are now going to start concocting to do?

No. In the background. But, well done to Brad. You know, he wasn't looking for. for a lot of attention. He was just coming out of the shower and had to get some clothes. I mean, in tremendous shape.

Tremendous. I wish I had a buttox like that. Yeah. I wish. I think he did himself, you know, he did, he represented himself well on that one. Nothing to be ashamed of. No, well done, Brad.

Nothing. And well done to Nathaniel, whose choke we're showing. Okay. We're also showing a clip here from Nathaniel that he tweeted after the event when he won people, I believe, you know, in his town.

We don't see the clip. I hear the clip. Oh, there we go. Now, the hashtag says family. I can't imagine that every single one of the people in here is family. So I'm guessing this is family, extended family, hometown fans, things like that. But a lot of love for Nathaniel Wood. Absolutely. In fact, you know, there's been a lot going on, but we actually just spoke about this clip on the show with him.

We played the clip interview and all that. I mean, I think I sent you the clip to play as B-roll. Yeah. It's not a big deal. There's a lot going on. It's just reminding you that we actually addressed all of this. Oh, so what did he say about it? Oh, forget.

Fill me in. No, no, it's okay. You can... I'm curious. You can re-watch it after. It's all good. Oh, okay. It's all good.

We spoke about it like now. And then Marlin, from the same event, getting it done with an incredible head. Oh, look at that switch kick. Did we talk about this one? Yes, we did. I mean, look, when you book a show like this, you're going to talk about a lot of things,

so it's no knock on anyone. Look at this. Here comes. Can I tell you what excited me most about this? Talk to me. So my wife is away, six days. I've never been alone with the kids. Wait, what?

Yes. Never? My wife's never gone on a trip where I've had three kids to myself. She went away once and we only had one son, one child. And that was when he was one. And he woke up a lot in the middle of the night. And it was somewhat of a traumatic experience for all of us, probably most notably myself.

And so she hasn't gone on a trip, but she had a very important work trip, six days. And coming home tomorrow. And so these 1 a.m. finish times, it's tough when you're the man of the house. You're the only parent in the house because my dad. daughter wakes up usually it's her who who who attends to her but now it's me at all you know it takes a lot of energy to take care of three kids who knew and so i wasn't rooting for anything but i was like okay this is not 25 minutes you know so uh it was very quick and then i went to bed you get what i'm trying to say here you're happy that it ended quickly so you could go to bed i'm happy that it

ended quickly i just you know it happened and and and that was that um and then i got like a nice five hours in but she woke up in the middle of the night you know these are things You'll see. You'll see. Yeah, I don't have that issue. I got one and she sleeps through the night like a champ. We'll see. I'm very nervous to have another child.

Wait, is just thinking about it? Yeah, maybe. Wow. I'm nervous because she's so good. I don't want, I can't imagine. I mean, I'm in for a nightmare on that. Don't just be like, all right, we're good after one because this one's so good. I mean.

Yeah, I'm scared. That's the negative way to look at it. The positive way would be like, look what we did. did with this one. Let's see if we could do even better. No, come on, you can't do better. Wow. Okay, moving on. M.MA fighting on the scene in Wyoming for Bareknuckle FC.

Esther and Casey representing the website, had this behind the scenes video after Joey Beltran and Tony Lopez had their back and forth, Slugfest, full video at YouTube.com slash MMA fighting. Did you order it? Did you watch it?

I did. I did. What did you think of it? I enjoyed it. I thought it was entertaining. There were finishes. I don't know how I don't know how sustainable

it will be, but I did enjoy it. The best thing that they did was picking a weekend with no UFC or Belvoir on Saturday because there wasn't, you know, and fight fans.

And this seemed to have catered more towards MMA fans because I think a lot of the characters were, you know, the Joey Beltrans, the Tony Lopez's, the Rico Rodriguez, as of course, Beck Rolls.

These were more notable names in our sport, even though it was closer to boxing, right? Yeah, I would say stylistically it was closer to boxing, yeah. I did not order it. I did not watch it live. I've seen some clips. Of course, I've seen the coverage, which was great, great access.

But I don't know. It's just, it was, you know, I've said my piece on the word violence. This was a little gruesome. and I can't believe I know a lot of people won't believe me but it's just it's I don't know

I can't too much for you it's a little too much yeah it's a little too much okay and I know that sounds crazy it just there's something I don't know

I know the gloves are nothing they're essentially like wraps right the UFC gloves I don't know there was just something about it it just it didn't feel it didn't feel

look it seemed like all the reviews were phenomenal It seemed like people really enjoyed it who bought it. I just can't see how it is, as you said, a sustainable thing. It just didn't feel high level to me from what I saw from afar. It felt very, I don't know, tough man-esque-esque, right? Well, I mean, that's what our sport that we cover began, how it started.

So if there's a way to adapt that model, then maybe. But for me, it was... I guess on a random Saturday with the UFC on a Friday, I wasn't itching to watch Bear Knuckle, you know? Yeah. I'm curious to see... They got a ton of good coverage. You know, a lot of people covered them.

So clearly there's something there that is intriguing to people. But yeah, I kind of had my... You know, I was watching my Golden Knights. They dropped a tough one on the road. Big one tonight, game four. So I was watching that. I was enjoying that. Come on.

That's tough. Come on. One of the people who was following and is a fan, Connor McGregor. Yes. But less about covering or enjoying the sport. Showing some love for Esther. Connors. He's been a big Esther fan.

He's showing her love a few times. Yeah. Esther posting some photos on her Instagram. Connor saying some great shots, photo and fist, giving some props to Beck Rowling. as well. Thumb position perfectly for a bare fish shot. Zero damage to the pause taking great work back. So, a fan

of both Beck Rawlings and Esther Lin, rightfully so. I can almost hear him say that. Like the way he wrote what he wrote? He probably said it out loud to somebody first and then... I don't know about that. I actually don't know about that. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know if that's the case. Why must you assume the worst?

What do you mean the worst? I mean, I feel like Connor McGregor could type out his own Instagram comments. No, I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I'm not saying

that he dictated it to somebody. I'm saying that he's jabbed somebody in the ribs and said, oh, look at the thumb, great,

great work there, and then went to the IG and did that. Hmm. Interesting. You're right? You're right? Okay.

Moving right along. Bruno Silva, Koeing Alexander Schlomenko in M1. A skid now for Storm. Yes. But well done to Bruno, getting it done. This guy's excited. That was a big win.

Big win. Schlemenko's name still means something in my mind. Last time we saw Mr. Schlamenco on the verge of beating Gagher Musassi. Yeah, against Gaggar Musassi in a fight that many people thought he had won. Yeah. Crazy. So a big upset here. Congratulations to Bruno, getting it done.

Okay, Yaiyir Rodriguez. Yes. Back. Oh. Sending a message. It's a very long message. So if you want to see it, go to Yai's Twitter or his Instagram. But essentially sitting down for a meeting with Sean Shelby and getting it done, having a conversation.

And now he's back citing a misunderstanding back on the best terms ever, quote unquote, with the UFC. and back chasing his dream of becoming a UFC champion going to meet Zabit September 8th in Las Vegas what do you what do you make of this so there's a few things that I make

of this first off nice hashtag happy news way to tie it all together you kind of glossed over it but I actually thought I actually thought it's very notable what he wrote

hopefully soon the story comes out behind what happened here from the initial offer to the release to the time out of the UFC those two weeks to the return to the UFC personally I thought him going into such detail there was a method to the madness

I know that there had been interest from several organizations of course Combate kind of put it out there that that they were moving on pulling their offer. To me, that felt honestly like them saving face. It felt to me like they kind of knew that they weren't in the running. So they're like, eh, we're going to pull this offer. I know that there was interest from Beltaire. I know there was interest from one.

Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to tell the whole story because it's been said off the record. But I do hope that the whole story comes out on this one. And I just think it's interesting. You know, I think it's a super, I don't think the whole story has been told. I hate being cryptic. You're kind of putting me on the spot here. But I am happy that you brought up the tweet and the news because he is back and he is going to fight Zabit. Whether it's in Las Vegas, there's no show in Las Vegas as of right now in September. Maybe it's the October card.

It's just a wild story. I mean, you get rid of the guy. You bring him back. Gosh, there's a lot more there. But he's back. And I guess for fans, all that matters is that. he's back. There's a place to watch.

Yeah, who, like, they don't care. But when you read that statement, did you not think like, wow, this is a lot of detail. This is a lot of detail that typically isn't shared, right? Oh, I have a mutual friend who brought me. I didn't think that because

if this is what happens, you need to give some kind of detail. You literally, you can't come back and just say, oh, by the way, I'm back with the UFC. You have to go into it. It's required. if you have that public a breakup and then are back.

There has to be some level of detail address. So that part wasn't the part that kind of piqued my interest. It was the fact that he's back with the UFC at all. The part that got me interested in knowing the story. But no, the level of detail was not like you have to. You can't just say, okay, sorry guys, I'm back. I mean, it's not for him to say sorry, right? Really, the statement should be why did you release the guy and bring it back?

That's who we really... Fair. Fair. That's what I really want to hear from, right? It's not really him. We knew he didn't want to leave, right? That's fair. So... Well, he's back and he's going to fight.

Yes. Also going to fight. Ray Cooper the third. Yes. Some great work here from Rob DeMello out in Hawaii. Brada. Let's bring the volume up on this. It's so awesome that it's happening now.

everything is timing his his mentality is right right now as he grew up and he kept talking about him then in the back of my mind was like what might happen you know and Jake was still fighting and still on top and still good sooner or later I kind of thought you know it would come around so this was something Jake actually talked about on our show um Ray Cooper the 3rd facing Jake Shields who fought his father 14 years ago coming up in July Ray Cooper the 3rd versus Jake's His fight for pro fight league

Yeah The footage of Jake fighting his father An incredible story Tagged Sugar Race FO Who we had on the show Earlier today Okay

Chuck Ladell Doing a little bit of demonstration here At Brown's training camp This is my first week It's a lot of fun for me I like doing it I like work with these guys

I like teaching them some new stuff and hopefully get them to watch them use it in the game. Good? Doing good. I like the track. I like the environment. I like being in a training environment, it reminds me of the training camp. Very focused and working on what you got to do.

The biggest thing we try to work with them technically on is just body-on-body contact and wrestling with guys getting balanced stuff. You're going here. You're still, I'm still solid. I'm here. The bigger thing that we work on is mindset. You try to get these guys to treat it like a fight. You're fighting the guy in front of you.

You're trying to break them mentally and physically. It's a fight. This is not just a game. We're fighting to win. We'll see if it pays dividends for the woeful Cleveland Browns this season. But more importantly, while Chuck was in Cleveland, getting some time with the Eastern Conference Championship trophy of one Cleveland, Kevin.

Is that this year's? Yeah. I mean, there's so many. Yeah. You know, could have been any of them. But yeah, I'm guessing that that's this year. I'm happy they got the one trophy, you know. I mean.

Yes, tell me more. Go ahead. Well, I mean, it's just not to pile on, but you talk about one of the all time. It's not, it's not Chris Weber because that was a one and done game, right? But I mean, it's just my wife. Yes. for the longest time thought that J.R. Smith's real name

was Dammit J.R. Because I always used to say that watching his games. Like she always used to get a kick out of me complaining about his blunders. This one obviously takes the cake. He was a key contributor to a championship team. Yeah. Two years ago?

Two years ago. He made a mistake. I can forgive him. I think we all have to... To move on? we have to let jr be jr do we

on that on that stage it was pretty bad I mean there's just no excuse and now this footage comes out and by the way there's people like ripping on LeBron for how he's acting I mean the freaking guy gave you everything 51 points he did literally he scored half your points

he did everything that you asked all he's asking of you is to know the score and amazing you got a rebound over Kevin Durant just put it back up or call timeout You had one timeout left. Or passes to LeBron, who's at the top of the three-point line, wide open with not a sole in sight.

There were a lot of options. There are a lot of options there. They cannot rebound from that. It's just impossible. I mean, they were already, you know, dealing with incredible odds against them. And now it's just impossible. Caves and seven. Book it. All right.

Chuck Liddell supporting the right side. I appreciate you being more, you being more positive about your team than, then last week when the series hadn't even started, now they're down 02 and you're even more confident, which is bizarre. I saw some things. I saw some things that will happen that will play out. Remember, they were down 02 to Joe's Boston Celtics.

Yeah. Our guy Joe here in the back, and I have $10 in my pocket. I feel like these guys are a little different. Thanks to the Cavs getting it done. No, well, you know what? No, all right. So we're going to get it done.

We, I'm on the squad. Okay. Snoop Dog. posting some footage in the gym. What do you think? Maybe we can get Snoop in the mix with Wiz and 50 Cent, get them actually into the ring. Well, you know what's interesting about this?

The Contender Series show starts next week. And he'll be doing... Is he? Have they announced that? Actually, that's a good question. I don't know. They haven't announced the broadcast teams. Who's that guy in back?

What's he doing? I'm not sure. Is he telling him... Look at that reach. Jeez. Look at that. Long dude. Are they going legit?

Look at the guy in the back. What's he doing? He's telling him to throw an uppercut. Oh, I see. Okay. Wow. This is cool. Yeah.

I think, look, I think we've got the... What was the name of the video game? Def Jam Vendettas? Yeah, that was the name of it. That's what we got set up. We got Wiz Khalifa. Got 50. Got Snoop.

I mean, we're starting the AllMusic Squad. Okay, moving on to some family news. Cub Swanson, Kenda Perez, making it official. Mazel toad. Married. And I believe they're expecting twins now. Incredible. They work fast.

Just growing family. Yeah, they do work fast. But congratulations to them. Congratulations to Misha Tate on over 60 hours of labor. but having her baby 60 hours 60 plus oh my lord

62 before yeah but congratulations to her we just saw her last week getting some sparring in nine months pregnant our second son 18 minutes that's how long it took

minutes she went 62 hours here yeah man oh man she's known for her toughness she is and once again putting that on display

and future baby news Sarah McMahon pregnant incredible and she didn't say she's going to come back to fighting

she's not done it's her second child so she's had a great career as a mom already one more on the way well done look at her she's glowing already and lastly we go to the world of

what do I want to call this apparel no because the next one is also related. So I'm going to say we go to the world of swag. We go to the world of swagging. Well, that's what they say in the commercial. This is what swagger looks like. That's right. Tweeted here the Olivier Auburn Mercier shirt by Reebok. Oben. Or ben. Say it?

Oh. Oh. Ben. Ba. Bein. Bein. Bein. Be. No.

It's kind of like me is trying to say Chile. But the Canadian gangster, how about that? I can say that. Incredible. The Canadian gangster getting his t-shirt with the mustache, the glasses, the fanny pack, the look that we've come to expect from the Canadian gangster. And here's my statement that I've said before. It's hip to hate on Reebok. And again, there's a lot of things that the Reebok era brought that I still don't like.

I said it on the show, the uniformity. But they are starting to finally get it. they're starting to finally understand that there are characters in the sport and they don't all get a shirt with a dragon on it. You've got to feature these personalities.

You've got to accentuate them. They're quirky. They're different. They're not all the same. This is a perfect example. I saw a lot of people when I tweeted this. That looks like something I did in 1998 on my MS DOS or whatever it was called. That's kind of the point. It's supposed to be quirky.

It's supposed to be a little bit hokey. Now, is it a perfect? No, it's not perfect. Maybe a little too many UFC logos there. Maybe, you know, it's changed things around. But for the most part, that's pretty damn good. I'm going to tell you a secret about the internet. No one's ever happy.

No one's ever happy. They will find a reason to complain about everything. Sean O'Malley, Tai Tuva. That's right. The tie shirt. I love you. This shirt. You know what?

Where's the I love you shirt? I want it. I know. It's out. They told me actually, they told me it's sold out. The initial run sold out on the Reebok site. And now it's like just a few left on the MMA warehouse site. We couldn't get one of those to sign by YOL Romero.

I mean, come on. But no, they're doing a great job. And he's going to hate us. But we mentioned him before. Our friend, Kevin, doing a phenomenal job. Should we say his last name or is that too? No, let's not go too far. But shout out to Kevin.

He's doing an amazing job. He gets it. He's an MMA guy who gets it. Speaking of getting it, Scott Holtzman is going to get his M&M. getting it? Is this actually confirmed? Danny Seguera Has it been sent? The man with the swag has

gotten it sent out. No way. Danny confirmed? What? Says yes. That was not believable. He says yes. That was not believable, Danny. Well, now it's out there. Scott, you're going to get your mug but really like wink wink, wink, Danny Rubenstein, you're going to get your mug

when you take it from Scott. Danny really wants that. He says he wants it bad. He wants to represent. By the way, when you send a mug like that, you got a pack it the right way because that thing will break. Easy. Don't worry. Danny, get on that. He sent many a mugs. He knows

how he's doing. Don't question. And please, someone make a compilation of every social media post that has featured Habib Nirog Maddof wearing the M.M.A. Fighting T-shirt. He loves it. It is... I've seen no joke, like six different pictures of him.

Unless it was all in the same day. It doesn't look because his hair is a little longer. He is rocking that bad boy. He took it overseas, packed it. And he's been wearing it. And we love him for it. Love it. Okay, let's get into some questions.

MMA hour question of the day. This time, not posed by Ariel Hawani, but posed by myself on Twitter. Which fight at UFC 225 are you most looking forward to? How many votes on this one? We've got 10,000 votes. Not bad. Take a guess.

10,000 for you? That's got to be some kind of record. No, bro. I do numbers. All day. Okay, what are the options? The first option was Whitaker versus Romero, main event. Second option was Dosanjos versus Covington, co-main event. And the third option was Punk versus Jackson. And then other, which I'll let you know right now, did not win.

It's never going to win. But there were a lot of write-ins. You know, people were giving all kinds of answers, which is to be expected with a card that has this many fights that are relevant. but what do you think of those three fights got the most I'll go with the main event it did yeah it did win 44% saying Whitaker versus Romero 40% for Dosanjos versus Covington so there's some

there's some interest there not far behind with 40% and then punk versus Jackson got 12% and other got 4% are you more interested in the first punk fight or the second punk fight what this time two years ago you know what's crazy

in December, it will have been four years since Punk was signed. Four freaking years. He's been on the roster for four years. Isn't that nuts?

Oh, and one? It's just nuts. It's nuts. It's nuts. How fast time has gone. Anyway, am I more excited for this than I had?

No, I'm not. I mean, there was a lot more unknown at that point. I think I'm more intrigued for two reasons. One, it feels like a more suitable

matchup. Two, he has literally been a ghost. Have you seen any footage of him training? Have you seen any have you seen an interview with the guy? I don't. There's nothing. I don't blame him. There's nothing. I don't blame him. The other one had a, had a show.

Remember they had like the four parts series. What was it called? The Anatomy of Punk or something. Yeah, but or some evolution of punk. This one, he's been a ghost. Of course, he's currently involved in that lawsuit if you're not following it. Right. WWE. It ends tomorrow.

So I understand there could be some questions regarding the toll it's taking distractions, although it's the end of camp. But there's intrigue there, and Mike Jackson, to me, is a more suitable opponent, so I'm curious, the thing is, like, we didn't get to see him.

To me, I thought the game plan wasn't the right one in the last fight. He just rushed and was taken down. He's been on his feet in UFC action for, what, 20 seconds? So I'm, I think I'm actually more intrigued by this one because it feels like this is the real day. debut. And also now they both have one fight under their belt, so maybe that whole experience is different.

I don't know. I think... Have you looked at the odds? I haven't. Here we go. I can't imagine he's... Give it to us. What's your guess?

I'm looking at him. On the number? Yeah. Favorite who's the... Well, I mean, the favorite is obviously Jackson. How big a favorite? I don't know, three to one. Two.

Two to one? Yeah. Oh, boy. Plus 201 minus 205. Camping soon legal in most states. Who would you bet on? Are you crazy? That's...

No, honestly, I don't know. That's easy money on Jackson. Wow. Wow. What a card, huh? 13 fights, 26 fighters. They're bringing every single fighter to Media Day on Thursday. I don't think they've ever done that.

Wow. Every single fighter. I'm surprised. Dan Igay, my guy, Dan Igay. That's right. The man. Going up against Mike Santiago. Big fight for him.

Big card. Does the fave? Oh. Let's go Ege. Yeah. Minus 132 plus 125. Overeem Blades. Who's going to be the favorite?

Maybe Overeem? Yeah. Wrong. Minus 155 plus 158. That doesn't shock me actually. Because that's one of those that I was thinking I was factoring in a little bit of popularity to it. But that doesn't shock me because I think it's, It's a decent matchup for Blades.

Olivera Guida. Guida's coming in on short notice, right? No, Olivera. That's supposed to be Guida against Green. Yeah. I'd say olivaura. Minus 152 plus 140. Rashad Evans, Anthony Smith.

Maybe do or die for sure. Smith's going to be the favorite there. Minus 290 plus 24. Carla Sparza. How wild is that? Gdalia. Denny Smith, a favorite over Rashada? Like,

yeah, one guy's been doing well lately. Yeah, if you think about it now, it's not as crazy. but five years hearing those names it's insane but sure Carlos Sparzo Claudia Godelia

Claudia man a big one minus 450 plus 444 it's a tough matchup for Carla I think I think Claudia has got a good

Megan Anderson Holly home Hohley home minus 217 plus 210 Sergio Pettis Joseph Benavides Joe B minus 220 plus 211

What do you think of that Do you think that's Yeah I mean he's been out for a year That's what I think the most important factor is there. I think both had been healthy and rolling. I think, as I've said, a million times, you could run Joey versus Demetrius back 10 times,

and I'm fine with it because I think he's the second best. But yeah, I think that's going to be a factor here. I think of Sergio Sharp, and Joey's looking a little rusty, he could pull that off. Rashad Coulter against Chris De La Rocha. Coulter? Yeah, minus 170 plus 158. Ricardo Lama's Mirzad Bechtik.

Oh, that's a good one. I'm going to go Bechtick. Yeah, minus 189 plus 180. RDA Covington. RDA. Close. minus 117 plus 105. Andre Arloffsky.

Wow, that's razor close. I'm surprised by that. That's a lot of respect for Kobe Covington. God bless. Tai Tuivasa, Andrea Lovsky. They did this order very strange. Tuivasa. Minus 265 plus two.

50 and Whitaker Romero Oh, that's got to be close to even money, no? No, is that a minus 225 plus 206

For who? Whitaker. What? Yeah. Over 2 to 1? Uh-huh. You in on that? After the last fight?

I mean, that seems high. That seems pretty high. There you have it. I would give Romero a better chance than that. That's an interesting one. I thought that one was much

closer to a coin flip. Damn. Okay. Okay, Yo-Romero backers out there might have something forward to it. I don't think this card is going to do over 300 or so thousand pay-per-views. I will say thus far it is the deepest card of the year. And I don't think there's much, you know, much debate there. Yeah, and then 226.

But right now, this is great. There is truly something for everyone on this card. Yeah, solid top to bottom. Okay. Let's run through these questions real quick. we're going to skip that one Andrea Lee's tweets about the husband's tattoos

can you get people up to speed as to what the story yes Andrea Lee her husband Donnie Aaron having a swastika tattoo an SS tattoo having exposed arms on social media a lot of

a lot of Twitter outrage rightfully so about the tattoos being exposed. Apologies have been issued by both Donnie Aaron, by both Andrea Lee. We've yet to hear from UFC or anybody involved beyond that. But it doesn't seem like these tattoos will be removed saying that it's been explored but not able to be done. So they will stay. How do you feel about the statements? And also, how do you feel about the reaction? to this story. Like, someone notices this

and some people may have known who are like hardcore fans about the past, but you know, this picture is tweeted by them, right? Having a day out or something on the lake. And then it kind of grew and grew and grew. How do I feel about the statements? I mean, I don't know. It seemed

authentic and apologetic, but what can you say? This seems like one that's an unwinnable scenario. You can't really I don't think you can explain this one away no matter what the explanation is. I think the only solution is either removing the tattoos or not removing the tattoos

in that case just living with the consequences of that. What do I think about the reaction to it? I mean, that's probably a pretty bad thing to have on your body. So I completely understand. I'm supposed to stick on the upper arms. So I understand it. definitely understand why people will be upset about that. Someone asked me today, like, why haven't you weighed in?

And this is something, obviously, that is a little closer to home because of, you know, World War II and the Holocaust. Sure. And I kind of just wanted to think about it for a second. And I was disappointed in the initial reaction, you know, sensitive mofos and things like. Yeah, defensive when not really giving an explanation. And then coming back with the, all right, and that's the trouble with social media, right? The trouble is you react right away. You don't have time to think for a second and everyone needs a reaction.

It's coming at you on the phone and it's in your face. It's on your phone, personal phone and you feel like you have to defend yourself. And then the subsequent statements by both of them, the word that comes to mind is inadequate. because to me, we just had Aaron Chalmers on the show last week, and he was talking about changing up his tattoos, and he's got like black. Yeah, he's got them blacked out. Neither of them have explained to us why they can't remove these tattoos

or at the very least cover them up. They said they can't. They said they can't, but they didn't explain why. To me, you can't give us a whole diatribe about how good you are and how bad you feel and how different you are and not explain why. If you feel that bad, if you're that different of a person, cover that up, remove that, never let that be shown.

If you tell me that your skin cannot, you know, handle that kind of procedure, put a patch over it, make a statement that this is not who you are. But clearly that is not the case because you're out on the lake and you're showing that to the world and you're posting pictures on social media. So I'm sorry, but it's inadequate. And I'm not here to say

Anyone should lose her job, quite frankly, I don't know who this person is, I never met this person. I know who Andrea Lee is. She's been on the show. She's been delightful. Yeah. So I'm not going to sit here and judge them. I don't know what their stories are. And quite frankly, I don't really care.

This person is not in my life. This person to me means nothing. But to me, you have a swastika and an SS logo on your arms. That tells me enough about you. Yeah. And I'm okay to judge that book. by its cover. That's not someone I want to be in business with. That's not someone I want to be

associated with. Unless you go about, you know, taking the steps to remove it, to cover it up, save me your your statements, save me your long stories about it. You could be saying everything. Everything that you said sounds great. It seems heartfelt. It does not seem fabricated. It does not seem inauthentic. Cover it up, remove it, or leave me. Or don't. And live with those what those cost of that's it. Everyone changes. I understand. People change.

People learn. People live. People move on. Cover it up. Remove it. That's probably not something that you should have in the 21st century. If you don't believe in what those symbols stand for,

maybe you should go about, you know, trying to fix that. Absolutely. Fix it or leave us alone. Professional Fighters League. Offering up a million dollar tournaments. Thursday, next show.

Yes. Along with the wind show money for, for, per fight for the fighters. Do you think this will attract more people? Will this promise of huge sums get more people to sign up for future tournaments? Attract more fighters? Yes. I mean, I think it depends on how this first one goes.

I think some people are skeptical. As am I, as I brought up to both Carlos and Ray, who were delightful. Let's see the payouts. Let's see if this thing is actual real thing. These are big numbers. I think it's good for fighters to have another option. I think for fans, it's exciting to have another option. But at the end of the day, we all know, stars make promotions, stars drive interest to fight.

So the million dollars, the tournament, the uniforms, the regular season, you could spin it all the way that you want. At the end of the day, it's two men or women fighting in a cage. What are you doing to get people to watch? We watch, you know, we are exposed to baseball, basketball, football, where these men and women are competing for way more. than that money. That doesn't mean like if I find out that the, uh, the tennis tournament this weekend, they're playing for, you know, $10 million at the, uh, the Golden Wells, whatever tournament, the Wells Fargo, I don't care. Like, like, these numbers aren't that astounding to where like the number alone is the selling point. So I, I hope that they recognize that. You know what I mean?

So it's a very difficult road to that money. Very difficult road. It's all about stars. So to me, don't just rely on the tournament. Don't just rely on regular season playoffs. all that and more. You need to build stars. You need to build personalities. The promotion shouldn't be the star. And so I'm excited. I wish them the best.

I'm reserving judgment until I see the whole thing play out from now until December. But I think if you're a fighter, it's good to have another option. Do you think it will matter if somebody who's a known fighter wins the tournament versus somebody who's not, meaning somebody who had been in the UFC or Bellator or something like that? I think it's important for them to have faces. I think if a face wins the tournament. and gets that money, it will help the cause, I think.

Sure. Versus if it's an underdog story and unknown, I think that might be a better narrative, but it might not help with the push towards signing those prospects. But on the flip side, on the flip side, you have a situation where now it could be viewed as like,

oh, this is the C league, right? Oh, this guy who was released just won your tournament. So sometimes it's better to have the homegrown guy when the tournament, because you say, because now there's the thinking like oh this guy hasn't been tested. Yeah, but you're never going to get those

you're never going to get those top talents. That's just a reality. They're not going to get those ones that are competing for the UFC belt. So, or even the Bellator belt. So when those free agents are hitting the market that are in the lower to mid tier,

if I see Will Brooks do that, I go, 100%. Light bulb, that's something I can now replicate. That's something I can do. And they push for that. I think it's... I agree. I agree.

It's a more viable path. You want them to be a player, but let's not forget, WSOF, you know, for all the jokes and for some of the mishaps, they did a nice job for a minute there finding some young talent. Oh, yeah. I was saying it to somebody earlier today. I worked with WSOF for the first two shows. And I remember seeing Marlon Marius and Justin Gaci and thinking these guys are on the path to something. Yep. So I think it's going to be interesting.

interesting to see how it plays out, but yeah, that's money. And I think Thursday is a good day for them too. Okay, how crazy is it? You touched on this very briefly. How crazy is it that CM Punk is in court? Yeah. As a defendant, five days before he fights at UFC

225. Okay, so, I think this will affect, like, it has to. So, this is not something that has just been, I don't want to speak for him. Yeah. But this is not something that has just been sprung on him, right? So he knew this was coming.

That's really all that I feel comfortable saying. A lot of people have asked me, you know, is the traditional CM Punk interview going to happen? Of course you know me. Of course you know, I try. This week's a little different because of this situation. Sure. I think tomorrow closing arguments and the way the whole thing plays out may dictate, notice he hasn't talked to anyone.

No. And I'm assuming by Friday he's going to talk to people, of course. There's media, this and that. But, you know, for such a big name and for such a big face, and for such a large following, he's done a pretty good job of, you know, keeping it all on the DL.

So, of course, is it draining? Would he rather be training and cutting weight? Yes, but let's not forget that this has only just been a few days. You'd prefer,

if you're part of his team, that it's 100% focus on this. The timing isn't great. You know, you kind of wish for him and his team's sake that it was next week, right? Even if it was the Monday after the fight,

the timing isn't great. But I look forward to hopefully talking to him about it and and hearing how he's dealing with it all. That's really the best that I can do. That's it, my man. All right, we officially hit the seven o'clock. I don't think I've ever seen seven o'clock. We did it. We did it. Thank you very much for your hard work. Thank you to everyone in the back. I felt like, you know, I needed to hit it once. And now we hit it. And here's my mom. It's 7 p.m. She just texted me. Yes, it is. have to get home. It has been a long day. We have talked to a lot of people. We have said

hello to a lot of people. We have said goodbye to a lot of people. And we pretty much covered it all. So I'm content. Austin, you can hit my music. Great day with all of you here today. Really appreciate it. U.S.C. 225. Five days away now. I will be there beginning Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. Looking forward to getting back to Chicago. Looking forward to covering that great card. 26 fighters, 13 fights. It's going to be great. It's going to be a good one. UFC 225, of course, headline by Robert Whitaker versus Yoel Romero. And how cool was it to have Yoel Romero in studio? My brother. Wow. My brother from another mother. Shalom to him. I wish him the best. Good luck to Yo Moro and thank you very much to him for stopping by.

That was really cool. Congratulations to Jose Shorty Torres on his successful UFC debut on Friday. Looking forward to what's next to him. next for him as well. Thank you very much to Ray Cepho and Carlos Silva. Good stuff. Good luck to them on Thursday. The kickoff for PFL's inaugural season. All the best to Michael Bisping. Happy trails. We'll of course be seeing him around, but it was great to pick his brain about his retirement on the two-year anniversary of him becoming UFC Midway champion. Thank you very much to Marlon Marais. And congratulations to him on the big win over Jimmy Rivera. Thank you very much to Kamar Ustman. That was great stuff as well. Really enjoyed it. All the best to Abraham Kawa. Malki didn't show and that was awesome. Great to have Abraham on the show for the first time. Congratulations to Nathaniel Wood. And of course, thank you very much to both David and Daniel Tamor for stopping by

in studio as well. Back next week, same time in place. Until they say peace, so many.