MMA Fighting - TUF Hang: McGregor vs. Chandler TUF 31 Reaction | Ep. 5

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

Alexander K. Lee and Conner Burks react to Episode 5 of The Ultimate Fighter 31 on TUF Hang, which goes live on YouTube every Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT/4 a.m. IST immediately following the conclusion of TUF 31. Watch the show on YouTube: https://youtu.be/t0vJfXhB39k Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Conner Burks: @connerburks Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original. The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome everybody to episode five of Tupang. You've just finished watching episode five with Delta Fighter 31,

and Team Chandler, yes, is 5 and O in the competition. Technically, it's over. I mean, if you're just going by who wins the more fights, it's five and no now. There's only three fights remaining mathematically. Team Connor McGregor cannot catch up, but hopefully they can avoid a sweep, and we might get a glimpse to that next week.

We'll see. But talking about this week's episode, Brad Cotonin defeating Carls-Ber via unanimous decision, joining me as my esteemed co-host, wide-eyed and huge tough fan now, Connor Birx. Yes, die-hard tough fan. Still tough.

You know, got to say. You got to hang in there. Gregor. Oh, and five. Oh, and five. But next week, the savior. The savior of the team, Lee Hammond is up. I can't wait for next week.

We will see, G.C., we will see. And also joining us, as always, producer extraordinaire, E. Casey Layton. So the season's over. We're done, right? I mean, technically, there's no reason to watch anymore. We know we won the season. I mean, roll the outro music and we're good. Yeah.

That's funny, guys. That's good time. We know Conno McGregor and Michael Chandler are definitely going to fight. So we're just waiting on that, you know, that announcement. Yeah, so that's great. But yes, guys, let's start off talking about this week's fight. It kind of went as we expected. I think we saw it on paper and we're like, wow, like this is interesting.

We won't harp on the prospect versus veteran thing again. Brad Cotona, 31 years old, Carlos Bera, 35 years old, almost the same. Like, I think they both started to turn pro in 2014. They have almost the same amount of fights. Cotona, like definitely legitimate veteran, though. I mean, won the ultimate fighter, 27. and now he's one step closer advancing past the quarterfiles to becoming maybe the first two-time ultimate fighter winner.

What a feather in his cap that would be. We've had two-time finalists. He could become the first-time winner, but we will see. G.C., your thoughts on this week's fight? Okay, so as we were approaching the fight during the buildup, first of all, we have to address it right off the top. No dogs in the fighter backgrounds. And I was really hoping when Vera was showing his apartment

It kind of looked like he was living alone at the time. And he was just like, yeah, we got an XYZ. I thought he was going to be like, we as in me and Daisy here. And it was going to show like a golden retriever. And we were going to be set from there. And then it set up perfectly for Catona to have a dog as well when they were walking out in the beautiful Ireland nature. I was just like, all right, where's the dog?

I like, they got to be walking a dog here. No dog. So it was a fair fight from the go. I was just like, wow, this is going to be our most evenly matched fight. then maybe I'm looking way, way, way too deep in this. And this is me just being a conspiracy theorist rather than just enjoying the show. They really highlighted Chandler was just like, we're going to win this, no doubt. I have zero doubt that Braceton is going to win.

I mean, this is just a lock. There's no chance that he loses. And we're going to go for the sweep. And it's just that easy. And I was like, man, are they going to make him meet those words later with the loss? And then we get to fight day and we still had about 20 minutes left on the episode. I was just like, are we finally going to get the coveted third round? Alas, we didn't.

Good fight. One-sided decision. It was pretty clear. Cotonal won. I mean, he was getting the best of the grappling exchanges for the majority of both rounds. And, yeah, Chandler, five and a-huh. Yeah, G.C., I thought you would have learned from last week when they had Dana White talking about, which one of the fighters. Oh, T. Moore, something is like, oh, Timor is like wasting a lot of energy doing this thing.

And we were like, oh, they're hinting. No, Timor just went away. I have to say, when Dana was breaking down, it might have been Carlos Vera. I mean, his eyes were, like, darting different ways. It felt like he, like, didn't even know who he was really talking about. Yeah, I mean, and there's a very good chance that that's the case. You mentioned the dog. I thought that Carlos was going to show a dog when he was like,

I want to not only represent my family, and there was, like, a pause. And I thought he was like, but I got to do this for my best friend, my precious dog, My perro, and then, and then, oh, this is over. This over. He's going to choose the talk. He was mixing in Spanish the whole episode. That's how we get it. That's great.

Yeah, surprise us. We did discuss at the end of last week's episode of Tapan. We did say, you did a little digging back into social media, and he appears to, like, a year ago or a couple of years ago, lost a dog. And it looks like he's lost a couple of dogs. So I think we won't factor that into this. I think ghost pets, they weren't, if you had mentioned them on the show, obviously we would mention it, but no, it was not highlighted at all.

So we can consider this inconclusive and not relevant to our fighters. I don't know if we have the resources to do the research, but has Brad Kettona ever owned a dog? If Brad Kettona has never owned a dog, then I think the dog cursed those things. You know, I've never, I've interviewed Brad once or twice, and it never came up. So I regret, I regret not touch upon that with him. If only if I had to foresight to know he would be on the ultimate fighter again, and then it would be such a huge. back then. Yeah, it was like an okay fight. Pretty, I guess it went as you expected. Casey, what did you think? Were you impressed by Cotonus performance? Were you impressed by Carlos

Vera's performance? I actually thought he fought pretty well. I thought the most interesting part of the episode was actually the most boring part in a sense because Cotona, the tough veteran, understands what the show is. Yes. He understands what the show is. And he was all like, And even when the coaching, he was like, I'm not going to learn a new technique in a week that I can use. And this is stupid. Let's just work on what I know. Let's watch some tape so I have some idea of what to expect. And then I will implement a game plan that will keep me, that will get the W and will keep me healthy so I can move along in the freaking tournament.

Because that is all that matters. No matter how you can put a five-star match on. Give me the most exciting match ever. It doesn't matter. As long as you get the W, this isn't PFL where they can just. change they can just rip up the rules and just too soon too soon yeah Dana's all like you didn't put all your effort in there you know you're out of the tournament you know how stupid is that like actually this fake reality show actually has

as a better rule set a more not real better role as the NFL's organization yeah but yeah but Cotonna understood the rules and he's like I just have to win two rounds and take no damage and do no damage of myself like break my hands or anything um I learned Actually, I think the first fighter to really kind of go be very public about this was Roy Nelson. When Roy Nelson was in the heavyweight season, actually, his fights were all pretty boring up until the big finale. Because big finale, he could throw bombs, but he's like, I'm just going to grapple because I don't want to break my hands because if you break your hands, you're out of the show. So that was my takeaway. The most boring part was actually the most interesting part, if that makes sense.

I actually didn't think it was that boring. I thought seeing... No, it wasn't boring. I mean, it wasn't a big knockout. He was, he bought smart and stuff, but there's... Even Dana said that was, Dana, actually, when they, you know, he talks about the fight. Dana was all like, well, it was the most exciting fight, but, you know, he won.

Of course, yeah. Yeah. He takes the dig like, it's like, a Dana White Contender series, but I liked seeing the behind the scenes of, like, Chandler and his team, like, clearly knew that Brad was, like, a little bit, like, I guess, stubborn on how he wanted to approach the fight. And, like, they're talking. about it behind the scenes and then actually getting to see them sort of butt heads,

like about watching tape and everything. And like, Ketona was like, well, I want to be there with you. Like, why would I just like listen to what you guys have to say? I want to watch it live in real time. That was interesting. Yeah, that was all cool to see them butt heads. He's definitely salty. He didn't get drafted by Team McGregor.

Like when the SPG guys pulled up, he's just like, what's up? How are we doing? Holding the bus up and everything. I feel like he definitely wanted to be on Team McGregor. Yeah, we got ourselves. a relevant episode title again. This was tease last week, so we knew it would be something like this.

Episode five, conflict of interest. There you go. You guys can see it there. Again, it didn't lead to, it was, you're right, guys, it was interesting. I don't want to poop on it too much because, but it did, it was, I feel like it was diffused pretty quickly.

Again, maybe there's more they didn't show, but I thought the more that, I thought it was actually like, the selective editing was like, they showed us all they had. Like, I wonder how much real drama there was. Like, you know, the one time the guy's complaining on the bus. Was that a regular thing?

or was it just the one day, were they joking around, you know, it was edited to make it look pretty like they were pretty aggravated, but I do wonder. But Casey, wait, wait, wait, was it really good? Wasn't, so they set that up and Roosevelt Roberts was like, what the heck, man, let's go? And then they show Katona. And like, I wanted to see him get in the car, get in the van. I'm telling you, nothing happened.

I get the things like, right, right? I was like, oh, where were you, Brad? And Brad's like, well, Roosevelt, I was talking to Connor. You know, it was like, it's a reality. It's a reality. And they were just like, what's up? Brad. Yeah.

Like, Israel is your work. I mean, we get the fight, but it's supposed to be drama, house drama,

roommate drama. You know, there's nothing. I'm telling you. It's set it up again for nothing. Yeah. There was nothing to work with. I'm sorry.

I just had to complain about that. No, but you make a great point. No, for sure, because I wrote down, title was relevant, but also kind of wasn't.

Like, because there was, I mean, yes, literally there was a conflict interest, but it didn't, I felt like it didn't lead to any real genuine

conflict. other than the stuff you kind of touched upon. The other notes I took for Brad, one of his quotes was, in all honesty, my allegiance lies with Brad Catona. And I wrote, pardon my language.

I wrote, fucking A, Brad. Yes, that is how, yeah, this is, listen,

this is what it should be. The other things, yes, talking about the, he doesn't want to do like too much live sparring. I wrote, good. He's fratizing a team McGregor,

good. Those are his actual coaches. How can he just like, how is he supposed to just chum up with this new team when he's been with the other coaches for, the last six, seven years, I think he said. It just doesn't make any sense. And he has to fight his own team in a couple of weeks.

Yes. It's not like, you know what I mean? It's like they don't have a long relationship, you know, it's just. It's so silly. Another thing that he said that I love because he's, he lives in Ireland and trains an island with Connor and everything is that he was like, yeah, I'd say that Vera's, uh, biggest strength is he knows himself. And like, that's what the Irish guys are always saying, you know yourself.

I got a pretty good kick out of that. Vera, listen, his story was, I didn't know that he trained with Ryan Hall. I didn't know he was a coach. But they didn't show Ryan Hall, so I don't care. No, they didn't. That was upset. I was so excited. I was like, oh, my God, the right now is gym.

And nope, Ryan Hall's like, you pay me to be on camera. I ain't showing up. Yeah, Vera sounds almost exactly like Benile Daryush, both in like his tone and his dialogue, his choice of words. He's very diplomatic. That reminded me that. And my other note for Vera was, The Capoeira.

Connor, a little too enthusiastic about it. I think he was too dazzled. That's like, oh, you're... Bring that, I will have to ask you about that later. But he's like, oh, you're a brown belt and Caparera? Like, use that. I'm like, I don't know if that's like something he wants to just start breaking out in what is probably the most important fight of his career so far.

Like, that's like... It did make me Google Capoeira and like learn a little bit more about it. I was not incredibly familiar with it. So I thought that was... kind of cool but i did yeah i mean it was funny the way mcgregor was doing like you gotta use the movements got to use the movements the more movements the better was there any capoeira in the fight no problem and why is they not because yeah i don't think it would have helped him um some some fighters in the ufc have utilized it uh al azuzeze leszeleski his nickname is capoeira

michel perrera of course he does breakdancing bring breakdance fighting in there so um it was cool to feature on the show i'm glad they did but i do think vera much like a lot of guys on Team McGregor, we're kind of just giving McGregor the polite nod, like the, uh-huh, mm-hmm, yep. Yeah, they don't seem dazzled. Grab the pain and throw it out. Grab the pain.

They don't seem dazzled by his coaching. I'll be honest, they don't seem, which is good. They've probably been with them, like, by the time this episode aired, they'd probably been with him for at least a few weeks. Which does bring us. Let's go to the, what did McGregor do this week stuff? So we know for a fact,

I think he's at least made multiple visits to the house. Like we've kind of questioned the filming schedule. He does seem to be making regular business to the house. So I don't know. What do you guys? How are you guys feeling about that right now? I'm going to pulled up to do a rowing machine. And I just have to say before you go, Casey, when they showed Rico DiSkylio, Desquillo.

I think it's DeShul. I think it's DeShullo. DeShullo. That was the first time I had ever seen that name on the Ultimate Fighter. It took five episodes in. I was just like, who is this? Who is this guy? Like, I have not seen this guy one time.

And then he gets the spotlight for the rowing machine. Wait, who is that? He's the guy who won, I think he won the rowing machine. No, no, no, Aaron McKenzie won. Oh, Aaron McKin. I didn't even know. He interviewed Rico for a split second. He's just like, yeah, we got to do the rowing machine with McGregor.

And I was like, who was that? Who was that guy? And I had to rewind it and rewatch it and be like, wow, five episodes in, first time I've seen that name. The fighters are like Airbnb in a room, extra room, just a guy. Casey, what were you going to say about that segment? The absolutely pointness in, the pointness of it, pointlessness of it. It was just like the show opens hot.

Like, boom, Connor walks in. It's like, oh, I thought he's going to like, guys, we got to get this win. He's like, no, guys, Connor fast. You got to check it out. Let's have a little respect. Have a little respect. Regger Fast. Oh, McGregor Fast.

It was like they opened up the show of a freaking commercial for his workout program. And I don't even know what it was. They just rowed and then Connor rode. They race on a 500 meter rowing. But like we didn't, but like, I guess, do we see times? They just go, cool, you want. I don't even know. Were you listening?

138 for Aaron McKenzie. Okay, sorry. McGregor threw out like 140, I think. 141. Is that the time or that's time? Reps time. What is that? Time.

How long it takes you do? I got a rowing machine available to me. I've done the old 500 meters before. I can get in that like 145 range. Okay. Well, McGregor fast. Yeah. Listen, if you're out there,

please send GC a free. I'm looking at my notes, and I just have in all caps, rowing, exciting. That's why. Yeah. It really did feel pointless. It was so funny.

Listen, we're a long way from Tito Ortiz happened to fight to get team punishment on his jersey. He had to fight to get team punishment in his jersey many, many, many, many, many moons ago. UFC would never allow. the sort of advertising before. Now we've got McGregor. We've got proper in the house. He's wearing the black lot.

What's it? Black Forest in? What's his pub? Black Forge in? Black Forge in on his hat. It's right above me. Oh, sorry. It's right there.

Authentic. And he's got McGregor Faths talking about it. So it just shows you how much times have changed and also how big a star McGregor still is. The other McGregor actually we got, we did, you know, we kind of every week. We've been looking for a McGregor-Channler interaction. We kind of got it. after this fight,

McGregor once again complaining, not understanding the concept of the show. Why are fights two rounds? If the fights in dispute, it should be three rounds again. I'm sure if it was the other way and his fighter had his hand raised, he wouldn't be saying anything.

But yes, and he gets into it with Michael Chandler and says, you know, Michael, have you ever fought a five-round fight before? Have you ever fought a five-round fight? Sure enough, Michael Chandler has gone the distance in a five-round fight four times. Yeah. Conrader only done it once.

Then Nate Diaz rematch. They both, and of course they've both been sketched from multiple five-rounders that didn't go five rounds. But yeah, there we go, guys. Does that make you, again, we've sort of,

we know how much the fight is in limbo now. But, I mean, do you think they're doing a good job still of marketing this fight? Should it happen by some chance again, end of the year, early next year? We do think of that segment. We're already going early next year now. We've already given up on this year.

We're already pushing it to 2024. Yep. The, I mean, I don't know. I don't think it needs any marketing. They just have to give us a fight date and everyone's going to tune in for it. I kind of like seeing McGregor that fired up about the three rounds. Like sometimes when a fight is like that, I wouldn't mind if they just win a third round. Like he, it isn't.

Yeah, Connor was right. He's kind of correct. I was going to ask you both. This week and last week should have gone three rounds, even though this week was a little more dominant in the two rounds. But there's so much on the line. And we got time. Like, take out the rowing part. We got it.

Yes, take out the wrong part. It's not like Cotono was like inflicting a ton of damage. That's what I mean. Like he was just pretty much grappling him for the 10 minutes. And here's the thing. So I was good. That's good. One of the questions I was going to ask you guys was, does Conner, does Conner have a point?

Should they play with the format and make it the run? Now again, I don't know if this is a commission thing too because these are exhibition bouts. And also they had to fight multiple times in so and so many weeks. Is that another reason they make them two rounds? Also, I think the watchability, as we said, Tell us that. If it was a 15-minute fight, it would take up 80% of the episode.

A third of the episode, yeah. But I think if they, again, this is pre-taped. If it's a 15-minute fight, just show highlights of the first two rounds or so. I don't know how people would feel about this. And then just show the deciding round, like build up the drama that way. Because, again, I'm not saying this was a boring fight. It certainly wasn't super exciting. But you could show clips from the first 10 minutes of this fight

and get a pretty good idea of how the fight went. They had, go ahead, Connor. I was just going to say, you could show like a 90-second highlight tape for those first two rounds, and you would get an idea and be like, all right, they're going to a deciding third round. Yeah, and they had done this before with the, not with the fights actually in the house, I don't think, but they used to do, like, you had to fight your way into the house. And they had a whole, like, two-hour episode, and they still didn't have enough time to show all the fights. So if a fight went to a decision, they would just show a sort of chopped up version of like,

this is how this guy got to the house. He won a dominant decision, da-da-da. So you could do a mixture of that, like I said, just chop up with the first. first two, like, again, especially this might be a perfect example. The first two rounds, and then you just have this one dramatic five-minute round, knowing that it's winner go home. Yeah, so I got it. Or you at least know that Vera has to get a finish.

He has to get the finish, yeah. That's exciting. That's exciting. Because Cotoner's going to keep the same game plan, but now Vera's like, yeah, I got to, I got to use my cap-aware. Yeah. That would be amazing. I got to move more.

Connor just starts singing. Connor's like, play this, like play the music. the boom box, get the boom box, play the music, play a song. And it's like, oh, the music has, like, possessed him. And then he, like, just takes out. You know, speaking of that, speaking of the movement, speaking of the dancing of the music and everything, what was McGregor doing as they were making the walk to the Octagon? Like, he's, like, dancing and he's singing some sort of song and then, like,

as the fight's about to start, he's, like, still singing, like, as we're into the first round. I'm like, what does he do? I don't know what that song is, but when I've seen people perform Capoeira, they always sing that song. It's just a song they sing a lot. I'm not sure what it is, but yeah. Yeah, they just sing. I don't know what the song title is or what it is.

But if you ever watch a group of Brazilians, Zoucabera, most likely they're kind of singing that song the whole time. Oh, so that did stuff. That would have been a little bit cooler if they explain. But you know, but that's something I know, and I think you have to be really, really in the bubble to know that. The fact that they just kind of put that out there for the general audience is extremely confusing for sure.

Yeah, we'll have to ask our guy. Guy Cruz. Guy-Cruz, yeah, Guillermo, I'm sure might be familiar with it. Maybe he'll say the same thing, though.

It's just sort of a Caparera like hype-up song. I don't know. I'm not even sure it's Caparara. It might be just a Brazilian thing, too, that they just always do. I'm not honest, but I've seen it be,

I've seen it sung before. Yeah. On that, then, I want to ask you guys, I'll go to G.C. first. Casey, you've been in a fight. So you've been undefeated, as we all know, 10-7.

G.C., I'll ask you, if you were a fighter, what would you want? and you had someone at the sideline screaming a song loud enough for you to hear it. What song would you want being sung during your fight? And it's just someone singing it? And like decently well, like decently well. Like not like amazingly well, not like a professional performance, but like good enough, melodically acceptable.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I would want it to be like something epic then, like instead of just like, oh. Like this would be so much different than a walkout song. Like a walkout song I wanted to be like hard, get me hyped up, like a violent song to fit with what's about to happen. This, like, I don't know, Andrea Bocelli. I was going to say, would you want something with a buildup so that you build up as the song builds up? Yeah, maybe you feel like a gladiator. Yeah, like maybe I feel like a gladiators I'm walking out there. Like, make it feel cool.

Like if I'm going to be going into a fight in case you can obviously speak to this better, like I want to feel as, like, I want to feel as, like, I want to feel as, like, like in the zone as badass as possible. Like you really got to be a different type of dude to be like a tie to evasa and you're like walking out to like girls just want to have fun and like you're just bouncing, high fiving, like knowing someone is about to get knocked out and you just don't care whether it's you or the other guy. Like obviously you want to win, but you've accepted your fate one way or the other. Like you are just wired different. I would definitely be the guy that's like trying to get as locked in as possible. So yeah, give me something epic. Give me like a gladiator.

Andrebocelli, something like that. Not something with a beat to it. Not something with a beat to get you moving? What's the beat? If they're just singing, like, am I just going to have Connor McGregor beatboxing for me? I don't want that. I don't want that.

I would rather have an opera singer in like a suit. You know what? Let me go to Casey. I'll come back. Let's say it's playing from a boom box. So there's a beat to it. So I'll give you a second thing about that. Yeah, you can change your answer.

Casey, I'll come to you and I'll go back to go back to GC. What song is playing or someone singing? Or play, whatever. some that that that song that they play when you play uh super mario world that when you get to bowser's castle the oh sinister you know yeah i can't i can't i can think i'm bad but right when you get the castle and the little flaming um fireball start spinning and everything and that's so specific that that that very um intense you know eight bit music yeah but would you want would you want the timer would you want it to be done with you do you want it with the timer do you want the timer do you want the timer do you want the

timer winding down so this music speeding up. Yeah, yeah. Okay. When I went to, uh, when remember, um, this is pre-Connor, remember Meta Morse, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, jihitsu show competition, okay. Yeah. When I went there live, when like guys were getting like near submissions, they had, they had guys on, not drummers. Oh, that's, whoa, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Kuma, yeah, yeah, they'll pick up the intensity inside the venue. Oh, my God. It would be something like that. I like that. Yeah, it was fun. It was crazy. At first I was like, this is kind of weird, but it was pretty cool. Remember when one, they tried to do it by putting that stupid heartbeat, but like,

I didn't see that. Yeah, their last show in Denver, they, that, in the background, there was like a heartbeat playing. That's what that was, dude. I thought that was like the broadcast messing up. Like, I was like, man, something's going on with the broadcast. Function error. They like, they like purposely added that heartbeat thing.

Yeah, they thought it would be cool. Yeah. I was like, what is that? Then, like, people in the arena are like, yeah, there's a freaking heartbeat playing. It's super annoying. That could be weird. It was cool, but like, but it stays the same. It's like if the drum is cooler.

Like if someone is like getting like, they have like a rear naked choke locked up and they start like really beating the drum. Yeah, it was like, it was fun. That's cool. Yeah, it was cool. So that's what I want. But I would not want Connor McGregor singing me Cindy Lopper songs from the sidelines. This is the most important moment of my life. and like McGregor's just like having to go at it.

I would love it. That would be so annoying, honestly. Like, you're like, you're really into fighting. Like, you're just like, hey, Connor, shut up. He's outside the cage yelling at you. I don't think it was helping Carlos Vera. Again, since he was like a key rack, he has mind of some other things. Again, I thought about this question for a while.

So I would go with Get Busy by Sean Paul. I think if you put that song on, I. Was this, my whole setup so you can say that? It was. Well, I just want to say if that song is on, and my athletic prowess increases by like 100 times. Like, I will dunk a basketball if that song comes on. You keep that beat going.

I will happily, I will fight anyone. I will fight Brock Lesnar if that song was on. It just gets me go. But walkout songs are different from actual songs that you are in your fight. No, my walkout song would be its raining men by the weather girls. And then I, then they would start playing get busy much on ball. You're like a tight to evasa type. I'm a titan boss.

I was the original. You're the original. I'm like the hoodie up, like tighten down, like just like dead straight eyes. Like I'm working through the crowd. Like I'm here for business. If I have a boombox or a walkout song. I'm back to you, G.C. Yes.

So like I grew up, you know, hip hop has always been. Rap has always been my favorite genre of music. Like I need like some go to. But I also want the fans to know it, like the fans to recognize it. personally me get rich or die trying the 50 cent album has like five different walkout songs that you could walk out to the legendary like the all-time classic and we're going to get to see it hopefully in a few weeks with alexandre pantosia is uh many men many men i mean that's just like one of the greatest walkout songs another one that i don't know if anyone has ever used it but i would love to use

it is heat that is also on get rich or die trying um and then there's just like quite a few other ones that you could do. If you just go through that album, I think it's like 21 or 20 songs. There's many, many walkout songs that can be had on that. All in all, I'm going with heat. I feel like that's kind of different. It's not just like copy and pasting on many men, but heat is very, I mean, if you listen to this song, it's quite a violent song. What if there was, okay, let's take the boombox away again. It's just Connor doing bars from, from heat. Absolutely not. No. I mean, one of the biggest parts of heat is it's a gun cocking, used as to be he's doing he he he's doing it like michael winslow he does it he goes like

get McGregor out of there bringing on grand bocelli and have him in some sort of ridiculous suit where like there's no flutters coming out of the front uh he has a microphone and uh yeah like i feel like i'm i'm going into like the gladiator fight like it's like i'm either going to die here or i'm going to kill my opponent those are the only two outcomes uh and then i look down and I'm wearing my tough jersey and I'm like, yeah, I'm doing. Listen, you're not getting Andreabuchelli. Now you're just being unreasonable. I can get Connor McGregor, but I can't get Andreabuchel. That's, he's already there in his suit. All right. He's, he's already at the, let's use the boom box to play Andreabuchelli then. Fine. Except which Andrea Bichelli song.

The OG. Oh, what's that? Oh, my gosh. It's like no time. I'm so mad right now. I'm looking at my favorite song. Please. I'm so angry. I can't get this outside of my head. The version was Sarah Brightman. Time to say goodbye. Yes. Is the one Archyama walks out to?

Correct. Yes. Conte Partiero, thank God. Conte Partiero. The words are so fitting. Time to say goodbye to my family, my friends, and potentially my life as I know it as I answer the epitomegast. Imagine you get a knockout, right?

When he hits one of those high notes, you just crack the guy. What a moment that would be. One last question I'll ask, guys, before. Just a little bit. like I almost like a yes or no. I like Brad Cotonos saying if he wins again, should he be the ultimate, ultimate,

ultimate fighter or the ultimate fighter? Ultimate Ultimate Fighter. Oh, really? Casey? I'll go ultimate ultimate. Ultimate sounds like he has a mollet. I feel like that's just, I feel like you're winning it.

I hear mollet. Why are we putting the end on front? Why is it multi? Multi. Like multi. Oh, okay. All right. Right.

The change is nothing. Ultimate ultimate fighter. Oh, I was all in on ultimate. cool. One thing I do have to say about Brad Katona is there anyone on this earth that looks has more contrasting looks than Brad Katona in an interview where you're just seeing him from chest up and he's wearing his glasses and he's talking and like he has sort of like a he doesn't talk like this I know yeah he has like a certain demeanor like he doesn't really talk like a fighter like he talks like he's almost like a like an engineer or something like

He's very specific about his fighting ways. Him talking with the glasses on of everything versus him walking out, jacked up like to the gills with no glasses on, like shirt off, obviously. I was like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Like that is like, those are two different people, like him talking about like the specifics of fighting and then like him actually going out of fighting.

Like he just, it's two different people. Yeah. His nickname is Superman. So he owns the whole Clark Kent Superman thing. He knows he's very aware of how he comes off an interview. outside the cage. And that's what we missed out in this episode to me, because I've seen interviews of him once he,

not in the show, but after he won. He was very kind of open about, like, his, basically his nerdiest, how he doesn't talk like a fighter at all. And that's kind of the part to me

that made him unique and different. And I don't, I don't know. I wish we got a little more of that in the show. Even the fighters going, go like, man, Brad's freaking awesome.

But if you met him on the street, you would never know. Like, he's just like one of those type guys. I don't know. like just tell us something we already know I guess in the sense that we confirm our suspicions I guess I know and things that people who have not seen Brad Cotonin before like a lot theoretically again this is the most watched season I mean not by much I've heard the ratings are declining every year but every episode but I think

this is the most watched season in a while so this is people I imagine it's a lot of people who did not see Brad's first run on the show did not see his really pay that much close attention to his first run in the UFC so people are seeing might be seeing him for the first time, you should highlight that stuff. I think that's important. I'm not gonna lie. Like, yeah, like I, I wasn't really, like, Brad Citona wasn't like a huge name fighter.

And like when I was much more of a casual fan, like I wasn't really completely aware. Honestly, I have to say, like, I really have to admit it right now. The Superman nickname is perfect. Like, it really is like the collect him thing when he puts on the glasses. And it was cool to see, like, how serious he takes it, like how obsessed he is with the nutrition,

the way that he trains, the way that he gets ready for fights. And then that guys in the house, house appreciating that, being like, it seems like your preparation is so much more matured and like you've had so much more experience, despite I'm only having like 14 pro fights. And that is actually, and that what you said right there is the problem with the show because the show wants to sell drama and craziness and fighters are wild and their roommates now. And that's what it was for the first few seasons. But now the fighters are like, no,

it's like, okay, cool. I got a quiet place. My kids aren't here. I can actually sleep fine. A lot of fighters are like, this is, yeah, well, I miss my family, but this is actually pretty chill. I just train and sleep. And I can literally be a full-time fighter when almost all these guys have day jobs at the same time. So this is actually pretty, in a weird way, relaxing, you know, just in terms of I can just concentrate on fighting. And for TV purposes, that is not good TV, you know. Poison. Poison.

One more thing about Cotona. Dana says, there's no doubt Cotona deserves another chance. And I'm just like, you probably should just resign him. I agree. There's no doubt he deserves another chance. Why is he having to go through this show? I was the point. I did not realize that Hunter Azer was the one that got him from the promotion.

And they go to show him this episode. Why was that not brought up? Greg Cidna is talking about how it's like the worst day of his life. He cried and cried and he cried. And it's just like, oh, actually the guy. That guy right there. He was his human. Cotan was like I didn't agree with the decision.

Like I thought the decision was beat. yes, like I don't think that should have got me cut and everything. It's just like, I have a hunter to be like, yeah, I beat his ass. Like, yeah, I won that fight. And this is why, and this is why I wish it would talk about it. Because thank you for bringing that up, actually, because I didn't, I recognized that I didn't kind of put it together. When he said, it's like, well, we're not going to fight each other.

We're not, he didn't say that straight up, but like, they're not on a teams. There's just on teams temporarily because, like, oh, I'm on the same team with the guy right there that I don't think I lost you and he kind of ruined my dreams. And I'm supposed to be teammates with him. Like he said, word for word, he was just like, my life got completely flipped upside down. Like, I lost my identity by, like, and there's the dude that caused it. And we just didn't even highlight that, have any sort of altercation. I saw, but we saw them, we saw them, we saw rowing.

We saw lots of rowing. I don't think we saw Roan and we saw Lee Heyman being like, when did you start at SBG? Yeah. It's just like, how did you guys not know that before? Aren't you friends? Yeah. And we're at each other. That was so.

I, it was. In fairness, I assume Lee is, I mean, I guess he's been with the team for a while, but he is relatively young. Maybe he's just. Lee's the savior. I don't. I don't. Listen, let's talk about it. Next week, next week would be a big week.

We get the shove, baby. I wrote the shove, all caps, and so many exclamation points. I don't even go. I mean, look at how, this is how excited I am. Please, show me. It's just absolutely. Okay. Next week.

Next week. Holy fuck. I couldn't write. it fast enough. I mean, it was the best part of the episode. I mean, next week is everything for me. Next week is everything. Lee Hammond's going to get the dub. We're out of the basement Tees McGregor first win and then we get the shove and that's when everything just blows up. And then they're going to finish the episode. They're going to announce the date of the fight too. That's how I am. Wow. Oh, geez. Okay. You know what? This is good though. I like I say, I want us to be

more positive this week. I feel like episode four, we kind of got a little bit down on the show. We kind of got a little bit down on what we were seeing. But this week, I feel like we're back. I feel like We liked Brad Cotonah. Calls Bear, fought okay. We know we're getting the shove next week. Lee Hammond, 27 years old, 5-0, legitimate prospect against the oldest man in the house. Kurt Hollabaw, 19 and 7. And of all the vets, I would say the least worthy of coming back straight up to the UFC.

At least expected. At least expected, yeah, yeah. I mean, if he wins, he wins the show, yeah, he gets it. But of all them, I was like, oh, yeah, Timor should be back in the UFC. Bradshaw, you back in UFC. Curl all about... How are you doing? I like the way you guys are having himself.

Yeah, this matchup. Wait, wait, real quick. Over under. How many times are they going to show the replay of the push? Oh, man. I hope they do a slow motion breakdown. I hope they pulled the illustrator out for Dana White, and he gets to break it down as well.

Yeah, I need the phantom cam. I think we're going to see at least ten times. Ten times are going to see some sort of variation of the push from every angle, slow-mo. Yeah, ten times. 100% that's going to be huge. Do you mean just this episode or throughout the rest of the season? Just that episode.

Oh, wow. Okay. Next week is absolutely monumental. To bring back down the vibes to touch, a little too much positivity there, I have to say, yesterday was kind of a marathon day for the old MMA hour. Got home, had a hard time, had a hard time watching all of that, you know, pulling up the remote, getting it over to old ESPN. This was the hardest one.

But next week, it all is forgiven. I'm going to be rushing to my TV to watch next week. And listen, this is, like we said, big week. We've got the show. McGregor, I, listen, I don't, there's really no such things a must win on the ultimate fighter for the coaches. Obviously, every win for the fighters. Because otherwise, it's Conner's number one ranked lightweight Jason Knight versus

Landon Kinonez, which is a ridiculous gap in experience, 30 fights to eight. And then his number one bantamweight, Hunter Azure faces Rico DeShullo. the second oldest fighter in the house behind. Rico DeShullo is going to get the snake draft of attention. He's about to become like the biggest star after not hearing from him for five whole episodes. Last thing I have to say, I also can't wait to see what the episode title is going to be. I mean, it's got to be something good. It's got to be something good.

Last hope. Last. The last hope. Some sort of pun with like one last push, something like that for Team McGregor. If it's called Last Hope, that's pretty grim for the two of the two of remaining. He, he works at an animal shelter. So there's like 40 dogs on the screen.

That name is. Yes. Now we're talking. I'm just saying this is 27 pro fights versus five. And I get it. Age is a factor for sure. There's Lee Hammond. All I hear is good things.

Blue chipper is supposed to be the next guy at SBG. Liam has got five fights in total? He had five pro-bats. I should say he probably has amateur fights. No, but that's what the show is supposed to be. A guy with 30 fights against. a guy with like four or five fights. You know.

No, it's supposed to be a guy with five fights versus another guy with like eight fights. That's just ridiculous. I'm going to call it now. We get a banger of a fight. It goes three rounds and we get a finish in the third round. All right. I will say, by the way, Lee Hammond, extensive amateur career. Extensive.

I'm sure everyone watching. Real ones. The streets will not forget Bellator 275 when he cashed as a minus 900 favorite. That's right. You know what? Again, you've been with Lee Hammond before tough. ride it all the way G.C. But yes, highly anticipated.

Listen, we're going to hit the halfway point of the season, next season, 12 episodes total. This episode is going to rejuvenate us, push us over that hill, and we're just going to roll all the way down to the finale. One of these coaches' challenge happened. All I ever heard about it. It'll be probably one of the later episodes,

probably after the first round is finished, so like episode 9 or 10. But yes, we're all looking forward to that. And thank you guys. Listen, thank you everyone for tuning into Tough Hang every week. We got a lot more episodes to go, a lot more season to go. Thank you, G.C.

Thank you, E. Casey Leiden. I am one of your co-hosts, Alexander K. Lee, saying, hang tough in there, guys, and we'll see you again. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one.

Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.