MMA Fighting - We Got Next | Brandon Moreno, Calvin Kattar, Mike Perry & Cody Stamann

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

Brandon Moreno is staying his extremely humble self ahead of the first title defense this Saturday. The UFC flyweight champion kicks off this week's edition of We Got Next (4:11) to preview his third bout with Deiveson Figueiredo in the co-main event of UFC 270, talks how life has changed since becoming champion, admitting he was worried about taking the foot off the gas now that he's gotten to the top of the mountain and how his approach to this camp reassured him that won't happen, Figueiredo changing camps ahead of the fight, feeling like he'll send his multi-time opponent to the bantamweight division, and Michael Jordan's recent influence on him. Calvin Kattar (23:32) recaps his big win over Giga Chikadze in the main event of UFC Vegas 46, gives his reaction to me picking against him ahead of the bout, discusses Chikadze's talking prior to the bout making him look much better, whether or not he'd be ready if needed for UFC 273 if something happens to the targeted featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung, and being a role model. Cody Stamann (44:26) previews his UFC 270 matchup with Said Nurmagomedov this Saturday, talks entering a fight for the first time on a losing streak and if there's any pressure that he's feeling, being a sizable underdog heading into the UFC's first PPV event of the year, the Detroit Urban Survival Training guy, and his predictions for the two title fights on Saturday. Finally, Mike Perry (1:17:29) discusses his BKFC debut against Julian Lane at Knucklemania 2 on Feb. 19, his side of the altercation with Lane at the BKFC Tampa event, his upset win at Triller Triad Combat in November, his current relationship with the media, and states his case as to why he should be next for Jake Paul. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of We Got Next here on MAAfighting.com. A little bit of a different show this week because we have some very big names on the program this week. Probably the most loaded show we have had since we brought this concept over from the old What the Heck show. This is actually more of a what the heck lineup, more than the typical We Got Next line up. but I'm excited for it. First off, I'm Mike Heck. There's a lot going on, as always, in the world of mixed martial arts.

It is UFC 270 fight week. We'll certainly talk about that card on the show. First UFC pay-per-view event of the year. Very big deal. Two big title fights. France and Ganu versus Cyril Gan for the heavyweight title. Brandon Moreno versus Davis and Figurato 3 for the flyway title in the co-main event. rest of the card is interesting to say of the least some good fights some interesting fighters to pay attention to a lot of debuts on this card

I believe we've eight debuting fighters a lot of shuffle ups quite a bit of movement which is something to be expected for the next few cards if we're being honest we're also coming off of ufc Vegas 46 first ufc card of 2022 really fun made event which was won by calvin cater swept the scorecard It's fantastic strategy, fantastic game plan. Just straight up warrior spear from both guys. A fantastic performance from Cater against Giga Chikaze. Shut a lot of people up, myself included. We'll talk about that fight as well. But let's go ahead and run down this lineup because we have a lot of interviews to get to. We have four guests on the show this week.

Like I said, it's like maybe a 50-50 usual format of the program. But that's how the cookie crumbles. I'm sure you guys will appreciate it. We're going to wrap up the program. this week in the world of bare knuckle fighting. Mike Perry will join us. He's getting ready to headline Knucklemania 2

on February 19th at the Seminal Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida against fellow UFC vet Julian Lane. Well, tough vet anyways. A lot of bad blood heading into this fight. We saw what happened at the

BKFC Tampa Card. Tensions flared, if you will. In 2021 2021 was a very interesting year for one platinum Mike Perry. UFC career came to an end, was on that Triller triad combat card, got a big win, big upset win, and you'll hear his thoughts on that. The fight with Julian Lane and making the case that he should be next for Jake Paul in the boxing world. So that'll close out the program this week. Cody Stamen will join us. He is fighting this Saturday at UFC 270 against Saeed Namaga Madoff, a pretty important fight for him. He's lost two straight

to Jimmy Rivera and Marab de Walsh, Willie, respectively, and those are two very tough matchups. This is a tough matchup as well. But that has been pretty much Cody's entire UFC run, right? And he's a pretty sizable underdog heading to this one, which is kind of surprising to me. So we'll get his thoughts on that and much more. The aforementioned Calvin Cater will join us in around 20 minutes or so to recap his big win over Giga Chikaze. And yes, I let him know I picked against him. I addressed it pretty quickly.

pretty sure he already knew, but he took it like a champ. And I was definitely much kinder than most. But always enjoy chatting with Calvin Cater. But first, we got to kick things off with as much positivity as we can muster. We've got to kick things off with the UFC flyweight champion of the world. Getting ready to fight Davis and Figurator for the third time. This Saturday, we kick off this week's show with The Assassin Baby. Brandon Moreno coming up next on We Got Next.

And let us say hello to a man. And truth be told, I think we all need this in our lives right now. And selfishly, I need this in my life. He is the reigning, defending UFC, flyway champion of the world. He will defend that title on January 22nd. Look at this guy against his old friend, Davis and Figurato in Anaheim, California, the one and only the assassin baby, Brandon Moreno. Brandon, my man, thank you for doing this.

Happy New Year. How are you, sir? Thank you, man. Mr. Heck. What the heck with my heck right here. Man, happy new year. Happy New Year, man. I mean, I really appreciate this, man, especially so close to the fight. And I have to be honest, the timing is so good for this, my man. I needed some positivity. I needed to find it the biggest way possible.

And I owed it to myself. I owed it to the people with everything going on in the world to be as positive as possible. And here you are to make that happen. I know you get a big fight ahead of you in a little over a week as you record this right now. But outside of the actual fight world, how has 2020 been treating you so far, my man? with hungry. I'm hungry since 2021.

But man, you know, it was hard because it was my first holidays in diet for my fight in training camp. So in the last years, I was fighting in, I don't know, like December 4,

December 12 or 11, something like that. So I just finished the fight and go to my holidays with my family and enjoy everything, right? But right now, everything was, like, so hard. It was hard, again. But, I mean, everything is for some reason. And I'm ready. So my weight is on point.

The training camp was very, really hard, but I feel on point. And I'm just waiting. I'm just waiting for the fight. Yeah, I was going to say, you're looking pretty spelt right now, Brandon. You're looking in tremendous condition right now. Like, even better, dare I say, even better

than the title fight in June. man thank you I didn't know if there's like an explanation there do you feel like you're in better shape than that other fight you look like you are man esteroids is the answer it's just kidding it's not true it's not true who's not true here they come

boom boom no no I mean man so after the first fight, I mean the second fight, finishing all my media stuff, you know, media tours and everything, I'm starting to see it in the next one. I mean, even though in that moment, I don't know nothing about my next opponent in that moment. But I was thinking like, hey, man, I mean, now you're the champion, Congress.

Like, it's amazing, right? But you need to stay focused because now this is when everything, it puts even harder than ever. And I did everything by myself to do a really, really hard training camp. I'm eating very, very well. And my training camp was a, man, was terrible. I mean, it was really hard. I went to Tijuana for five weeks.

I trained very, very hard there. Then I'll be back here in Vegas to start to recover myself. But, man, by five weeks in Tijuana, out was incredible. I'm glad you mentioned the sort of mentality of being the champion now because you entered the first two fights against Davidson as the challenger. You're the guy on

the chase. You're the hunter, if you will. And now you're the guy with the bullseye in the back. You are the champion. And Davis is chasing you this time. And I'm sure physically, as we talked about, business as usual, fight camp sucks, evolution, etc. But being UFC champion, you're getting ready for your first ever UFC title defense. Does it feel different up here? Like, does it feel any different this time around?

No, no, no, no. I mean, if you, I was thinking about it and everything is the same. I mean, I have a fight. Somebody's trying to kill me and I need to defend my title and that's it. Okay? I mean, that is the only difference. I'm defending something, but it's the same thing. I'll go to the octone with some guy who is trying to beat me, so who is trying to get the food of my family. So I was trying to be very, very focused and just be a champion for the cameras, right? For the media, for all that stuff. But to me, I'm just trying to be just Brandon Moreno and be the same guy and trying very, very hard every single day as always. Because we spoke maybe 48 hours or so after you won the title.

part of this media tour that you were talking about. And it was this all new experience for you. It hadn't fully hit you yet at the time. And it's been what, seven months now since Dana White put that title around your waist. How would you say life has changed for you? Like what's it like being the man? I know a lot of like with the fight stuff is the same. It's another man trying to kill you whatever.

But you're the freaking champion. You've been the champion for seven months now. Like it's got to feel a little different, right? Like you've almost made it. Like I feel like you're getting closer to that. Do you feel like things have changed in some? way for you? First month after the fight, everything was like, wow, Brandon Moreno is the new, the,

the Mexican champion and everything, you know, media tour, the interviews, all that stuff. I don't know how to say in English, like the treat, treat of the people, yes or not? People treated, treating you like a king almost. Yeah, like a king, like very nice in every single place. I remember I had a vacation in Puerto Bayarta. I went to some restaurant and the restaurant was very full of people but the owner of the place recognized me

and so they gave me immediately a table for all my people. That part was amazing. Okay, I need to be honest. So after the first, maybe after the first two months all these fever of Brandon Moreno was like a little bit low

and started to go a little bit low but now again, everything like oh Brandon Moreno is in everywhere in every single place in social media in the interviews in the cameras yeah I mean everything changed but I think

it's about education and it's about how you take all this new life in your mind okay so to me I'm just trying to enjoy every single moment of this life. And obviously, again, it's the same. I saw what the same.

Yeah, I mean, nothing's really changed with you. Sometimes when people come to champion, they get a little too, you know, look at me, look at me, but you haven't changed one bit in that way. Man, and I was scared for that, too, you know? We can, we know about a lot of champions who get the title and start to lose his mind and start, I mean, lose the first title defense and then start to lose or, you know, a lot of examples. And I wasn't scared to be that guy. Like, man, I don't want to be that guy.

So that's why, that's, it's another reason for why I wanted to do on a really hard training cam and stay focused in this. So you get to fight Dave's a Figurato again. And I'm curious about all this because there were rumblings ahead of time, maybe a different name. That obviously didn't happen. figure out once again. In this scenario,

obviously, you know, first fight to draw, second fight was pretty one-sided. You had the performance of a lifetime and you put him away in the third. He was thinking about maybe moving up to 135 after that fight. So were you surprised this as a direction

or did you see this coming? What's about circumstances? So in that moment, yes, I was a little bit surprised because the second fight was domination. But in that moment, any other contender was available. So Ascar had something, some injury.

Pantoja had some injury in his knee. So anybody was available in this moment. And, you know, Figuero, I started to talk about, like, this guy's scared of me, and he don't want to give me the trilogy. But, man, I mean, I was just waiting for the name. Literally. The first name, Yulsi gave me was Figuero, and I said, in that moment, because I just wanted to fight.

And so that said, yes, a fierce was a little surprised, but at the end of the day, you know, first fight was inferable, second fight was total domination. But, I mean, maybe the trilogy can be nice to put the job finished in the in this third fight and put the division of Figuero in the 135 pounds division. I'm sure you've seen that he's changed things up a little bit. He's working with a new group of fighters. He's been in the United States for most of this camp. I'm sure that changes nothing for you in terms of your preparation.

Is that accurate? Obviously, you try to watch the fight and try to see holes on his game and my game, not even if I, if I won like I did last June. But my preparation was about to keep everything sharp, everything sharp. my, my, my, stress and conditioning, my cardio, all my body, I put too much attention on that point because

right now I feel like maybe it's the only advantage for him has on me. Like, maybe he's bigger and maybe he's stronger than me. But then right now, I feel like that hole is like covered. The crowd in Phoenix for your title win. I mean, what a moment that was. One of the all-time field good moments,

history of the UFC, in my opinion. And what was interesting about that fight is we spoke right before that. It was kind of a home away from home fight for you because you had fought so many times in that area before. But what some people may not remember is you have a bit of history fighting in the Anaheim area as well because it was June of 2019,

nearly two years to the day prior to you winning the UFC Flyway title. You won the LFA Flyway title in Cabazon, California, which I looked this up actually, about a 90-minute drive from Anaheim to that arena where you won the title. So good things have happened to you, when you fight in that area as well, Brandon. Are you excited to return to the place

where this UFC comeback story pretty much began for you? Actually, I mean, I have fights like a long time ago. Like, when I'm starting to fight in the United States, I had like a few, a few fights in that area. So when UFC told me about they wanted to move my fight until January, I was like a little bit disappointment. Like, man, this part of me,

like a competitor, he wanted to fight in December. You know, just one fight in one year sucks. But then they told me about the location, about Anaheim. And after the second fight against Figuero, I went to a soccer game. The national team, the soccer national team of Mexico was playing there in Anaheim. And then the Mexican people there, like,

It's too much people. So many people there in Anaheim and so many Mexican people. The good vibe was amazing. So when Jomzi told me about Anaheim, I was so excited. Like, okay, okay, that sounds good. All right. We can wait one more month for that. Winning the fight is obviously top priority for you.

And it's going to be pretty tough to do it better than you did in June. But if you do, that would be pretty darn remarkable. And you would end this rivalry. You would put Davis and Figurato. behind you for good, maybe up to 135. Are you a visual guy at this point? You're the champ now. Are you visualizing this?

Do you see this playing out in a certain way? Man, you know what? You know what is the most sad part? I don't have any rivalry with anybody. I don't know. A competitive rivalry, right? It's a competitive rivalry. Yeah, that one is real.

But, man, he's trying to try to do some. he's, man, it's so funny to me, man. It's so funny. But in this point, I'm just trying to think about the fight. Like, I need to be very sharp as the last, as the last fight. And I need to put, like, pressure like I did before. And that's it. Obviously, I understand he's, maybe he's trying to do something different for this one

because he need to do it. But, again, the training camp was so hard. I feel so rare. I can fight even right now this weekend. I need to wait and make weight, but I'm ready. It would be a fun week for you because before your title win, you're sitting next to Nate Diaz at the press conference, and what a dynamic duo you guys became?

And this time, you're probably going to be sitting next to Francis Ngano, the heavyweight champion if you guys have a press conference. So you got Inganu and you sitting right next to each other, just chopping it up and having a good time. That should be a lot of fun, right? Man, so last time, the last press conference was my fierce one. Man, I was so excited. Like, everything was, like, amazing to me, the experience, the people, all the crowd,

supporting Nate Diaz. And, you know, I was, like, getting a good time with Nate. And all the people with Nate was, like, support me, too. Like, was amazing. And, yeah, I know Francis from here from Las Vegas. I see him like every single day, like the UFCPI, we get, we get PT physical therapy together, you know, talking. And, you know, it's funny.

So, man, I can, I'm trying to imagine that moment in a few days. And I just try to get some fun right there. A few last things. I have to ask you about this Lego UFC title belts that we saw you with. what an amazing gift that must have been for you. How did you react to seeing that? What did that all mean to you? Man, it means a lot.

It's very nice. It's the same size like the original. So a local artist from here from Las Vegas, taught with the UFC. They make it and they gave me the bail last week. So it was a surprise to me. Some guy from UFC in Spanish, talk with me, told with me and say,

hey, you need to come to the UFC Apex at 2 o'clock tomorrow. Like, oh, okay, I'll be there. And so I went to the JNC Apex and, you know, a lot of cameras and the guy told me like, hey, you need to put your mic. Why I need a mic?

Like, okay. So, hey, we need to go to the Octagon. I walked to the Octagon. The artist was there and they start to talk with me like, hey, we know, I mean, you are the champion and we know you love Legos. So you deserve this and boom, they show me the bell and then the bell is incredible. It's very, really nice. 2,000 pieces in total, I think so.

Wow. Is there going to be a special place in the Moreno Mansion for the Lego title belt? Man, right now I'm very focused on the fight, but after the fight I need to put the belt like at the original in a a really nice frame. There you go. A couple more things. Did you enjoy the world at May Awards? You were cleaning up winning all the trophies, man.

Man, I was on fire that night. I mean, Kabar Husman won the fighter of the year, but I have three. You know, if you put that in the balance, the same. The fighter in the year, too. By the way, did you get some new ink after you won the title? This one. Oh, look at that. That is sharp, man.

My name, my name means a speed sore. That's why I put this one here in my left hand, because I love source too. Oh, yeah, doesn't surprise me at all. And then last thing, I wanted to ask you about this, but never had the chance to. I saw a few photos over the years, over the last several months on Instagram. You're rocking the Michael Jordan Red Chicago Bulls basketball jersey. So I'm curious if that jersey means something to you. Were you a big Michael Jordan fan as a youngster?

Or is that just like a jersey that you just have? And you're just like, oh, I'll just wear this today. Man, I need to be honest with you. So I'm not a huge fan of basketball. I don't know too much about the sport. It's very fun, the sport. I love to watch it, but I don't have a team. and I'm not super nothing

but I'm starting to know about the history of Michael Jordan for the famous I forget the show the show in Netflix yeah I know what you're talking about it's so good it's so good yes that's yep you got it

you know and then I start to investigate a little bit more about Michael Jordan and then I my manager Jason told me about the one book the name is winning from Tim Grover. Team Gromber was the personal trainer of Michael Jordan.

I read the book and, you know, the ideas, how he works, how he was in his regular life, the obsession to win everything. That was to me like something different. And I started to watch more information about his life and everything and was very inspirational to me. To hear, man, like I said at the top, I needed this conversation, Brandon. It's been far too long.

I know you're the champ now and you're doing a ton of interviews. You're going on the MMA hour. You're the man right now. And I got that, but a piece of me deep down selfishly was hoping that somehow, some way we would get this chance to chat again before this fight because it's kind of a history thing with us. It's a tradition, if you will. So thank you so much, my man.

I truly appreciate it. All the best to you, the rest of this camp, all the best to you on Fight Week, all the best to you in your first title defense. I can't wait to watch it. Thank you very much, as always, Brandon. Thank you so much, Mr. Hay. Got a good night. All right, let us say hello to Calvin Cater.

What a performance to cap off UFC Vegas 46 this past Saturday. He silenced a lot of people, and he beat up and stopped the surge of one giga chikaze in the first main event of the UFC's calendar year. Calvin, well done, my man. How are you? You're going to? You, Mike. everything's going well the drive home from logan airport to methuen in massachusetts that must

been one of the more satisfying drive homes from the airport you can remember right in a year absolutely so i'm just going to get this right out there calvin i'm not here to blow smoke up your rear end or anybody's rear end but uh as you know there are a lot of people picking against you heading into saturday you are very aware of this but it is out there for all to see in all to see in to hear, I was one of those people who picked Giga to win this fight. However, you did everything I thought you were going to do. The one factor that stuck in my head was, typically, you're not the fastest starter. Sometimes it takes you a round or two to get going.

I knew you'd make it a very dirty, violent fight. I predicted you would end the fight with all the momentum in the world. I just played the too little too late card. So on behalf of New England sports fans everywhere, I apologize. And I hope you don't think I'm a Benedict Arnold for going that way. But I was much more respectful than a lot of other people were, Calvin. I really was. Yeah, I mean, as respectful as you can be picking the other side, Mike.

But all good, man. It's all good. You know, I was just happy to come away with the wind. But I'm glad you addressed the elephant in the room because if you didn't, that was going to be what I brought up next. So you're a bigger man for bringing it up first. Yeah. Tyson texted me yesterday and called me a Benedict Arnold.

Just joking around. But he also texts me a couple of photos of the playbook, the game plan that you guys study. And from what I understand, the Tyson chart of your playbooks are pretty crazy to look at. They're very in-depth, but it's almost like in the language of the fighters, like yourself and Rob Fon. How in-depth was the game plan for this fight? Honestly, I'm not sure if I really read it since it's been finished. I just know that as it's been being created, we were going over it. So in total, you know, I'm not sure it's generally two pages.

Usually it's write-ups. But, you know, it's just just the verbiage that we've been discussing every day at practice at camp. And yeah, definitely drove it home. And the biggest thing was just pressure in this guy and making them all. uncomfortable. I know you are of the Bill Belichickian mentality. We don't like to talk about the past. It's all about the future. But I am curious, when that final horn sounded and you ended the fight as emphatically as you did, what was going through your mind? Because as humble as you typically are, Calvin, it had to have felt good to throw a little bit of a neener, neater, neener at the MMA community.

I mean, it definitely felt good to prove everybody wrong. But as far as verbally, supermanding everybody, which they all deserved. I haven't given it to them yet. I had some other unfinished business on the microphone, but you have to always earn the opportunity every time with your performance to get that microphone. And yeah, so just was glad that how it all worked out. But yeah, bittersweet, especially how much, you know,

like I said, he was talking, kind of going into that one and really not necessarily about me. So it was just disrespectful all around. And it's always good when you can win those ones. The way most people in this space broke this fight down was, and I'm sure you saw it all over the place, was, you know, your best chance to win was to land one of those big right hands and knock them out. And while that option was always there and in other options to get victories as well that maybe some people didn't give me enough credit for, and in hindsight, that could have happened. Do you feel that this is a much better result, you going out there sweeping the scorecards, pillar to post? This is way better than you go out there and stopping them in the first round, right?

Yeah, I think I could have submitted them if we hit the ground, too. I came very, very minimally close enough first. I had an option or two where I could have. I almost caught him in an early phone flu, but he did a good job off balancing me. And, man, it would have been nice to get out of there before those next four rounds. But, you know, the way it worked out, man, it is what it is. At the end, really, you could always kind of wish things worked out a little bit different, but at the end of the day, it might have impacted the fight.

So just the way it all worked and came together, I'm happy to get my hand raised at the end of it. And like you said, focus on the next one. Did you get a chance to watch any of the past game? Because, I mean, the timing of this fight couldn't have been any better. I was actually joking on Twitter that maybe Tyson let you watch the first quarter of the game to give you some extra motivation because unlike you on Saturday, the Patriots got beat and they didn't even show up to Buffalo.

It's like they didn't even try out there. It was a freaking joke. Honestly, that's one that I probably won't like rewatch. But when I did tune in, I did catch it in the hospital. I tuned in. I got a link at like two minutes left in the game. And man, it was rough. But I knew I was in for a beating with Ariel because I talked a lot of shit when we first beat the bills.

And I did have it coming to me for what I was saying. And then I even counted them out early. I said, better luck next season. It wasn't even the postseason game. I was just talking shit. You know what I mean? And then he sent me home on that one, man. But yeah, definitely tough.

I love to be rooting for him now that, like, I'm past the fight, you know. I just finished four seasons of Yellowstone All Camp. So I was binge watching that. And now that I'm done the fight, I got nothing to watch. Pats are out. Shit sucks. Watch Brady. I mean, that's all you can do now is a Pats fan, right?

Shit. But, yeah, no, it'll be good, man. always next year. You know, a lot can happen in one year, right? Lock can happen in one year. So hopefully these guys

they bounce back and, you know, and build we trust as always. So you mentioned the sort of disrespects going back and talking about some of the interviews and some of the predictions.

But I think there's a little bit of a difference between, you know, looking ahead and looking somewhat past somebody and then straight up overlooking somebody. And you might be the only, fighter on the roster who legitimately does neither of those things. There's always the goals, the future, what a win could lead to. And fighters talk about that all the time. That's sort of

the looking past thing. We look to the future. It's part of the process in a lot of ways. Overlooking someone is more like, this fight just needs to happen, and then I'm fighting this guy, and I'm fighting for the belt, or this or that. It's more like a hurdle than anything else. But, you know, by Sunday, this is unequivocally going to happen. I just need to walk to the octagon, and then this is going to happen. With all the Volcanovsky title stuff and some of the things, do you feel like you were straight up disrespected, that you were straight up overlooked,

that Giga believed you were just a hurdle? Yeah, he just wanted to even bypass me, not even have to fight me and just get the title fight. I mean, 7 and O in the UFC, yeah, it's impressive, man. No matter which way you cut it, but he could have fought more contenders. The last one was big off Barbosa, and then, you know, Cubs, another solid win. and he's doing something right, building momentum, but not just people, people want to just skip

the line with their, you know, with their mouse and their shit talk and not go out and earn it and prove it with their fights. And as you can tell, man, you know, that's not my style. I'm just going out competing through the pandemic when really not many other featherweights were doing that. And whatever way it worked out, man, this last year, it's good. It's starting to move again. I'm excited about seeing that.

Some of these guys coming out of the world versus competing. and hopefully get some movement in the division. But as far as talking shit to get that next in line, I'm out for that, man. Go on and earn it, prove it, get a fight, win some shit, and then start talking, especially not the week of your fight with a different opponent. You know, I think you really mismanaged focus

to be focusing on the next fight or a fight that might happen as opposed to one that's definitely going to happen in a couple days. One of the interesting things about the predictions heading into this fight. We talked about this on our preview show is a lot of people were basing their predictions on the fighter from a year ago, the guy who fought Max Holloway, the guy who's had other fights. And Dominic Cruz sort of started this whole ring rust talk over the last few years. And any time somebody comes back from any kind of a long layoff, it's all about ring rust and these layoffs being a hindrance. And I remember speaking with Tyson Charterier last week, and he said your mentality behind everything

because you were ready to fight September, October-ish, if something got put together, your mentality was you can never get worse with more time. And you showed that on Saturday. How much growth would you say you experienced over the last year between fights? What about you grew the most? Yeah, you never get worse with more time to prepare

as long as during that time you're preparing. You're actually putting in the work and done, eyes, crossing the T's and putting in an effort every day, laying a brick every day. And that's all we did was just lay a brick and focus on an eventual return whenever that was to just be ready as possible,

because that's all we could control. And just going back on how, you know, I don't really love talking about the fights, you know, even after a win, that went off a loss and just hearing people come out of the world works, talking a lot of shit. There's a lot of motivation for this next one. So I'm glad the way it worked out.

And that was aside from, you know, Giga even kind of giving me more, you know, more chips with his interview. So it was like it was overwhelming how much motivation I had to go into this one and just wanted to leave it all out there. And I think we, you know, after five rounds, we did that. But I was real close to getting that finished man. I think in that fifth round a little longer I might have had it. And, but, you know, credit to him, he was durable. What was that walk to the Octagon like for you? because it had been so long.

You were looking to exercise those demons. You had some points to prove. And it had been 365 days since you made the walk yourself, that you are eyeing that octagon and walking in there. I mean, I know you were in there cornering Rob Font and everything like that. But this was such a big deal. Like first fight in Vegas and everything, what was that walk like for you?

What was going through your mind? Honestly, aside from, I'm really trying to focus. I usually just try to focus on all positives. The biggest thing about that was just it was the first time my family had been able to come out and a lot of like team cater, you know, the actual tight group that comes out, flies to Russia, flies wherever they can to see me fight and we go and compete, make a week out of it. And they haven't been able to be with me now for over, you know, a couple years and they've been just itching to get to these fights. And so, and then let alone, it was always my mom's dream for me to fight in Vegas. And for me, that was a dream of mine for her to have that and, you know, see that through. So it was great to just make that walk in Vegas for my first time ever with my whole family and friends that haven't been to an event in so long.

And then just the intimate venue, you know, at the apex, it's only a couple hundred people. So for them, it was like crazy. They loved it. And I just wanted to go and get the job done, man. But listening also to the House of the Rising Sun, the animals, my fight walkout song is something else walking out in Vegas, man. And I'm just, it was great listening to that. That's where I feel like I would visualize that song and all the movies I've seen all taking place out there, you know, Vegas.

It was just cool coming together and competing in Vegas for the first time and having the result, have it work out the way we did. Did it feel like it was a throwback for you? Because, I mean, this kind of had a regional fight feel because I'm sure when you're going through the New England regional scene, you were selling a lot of tickets and there weren't tens of thousands of people going to these fights. There are a couple of hundred people, but a lot of times one or two fighters will outsell the other fighters in the card. So it's almost like a like a like a small hometown

fight in a way where it's almost there's a couple hundred people there, but like 95% of the people are there for you. Did it have sort of that same feeling? Because it was very loud. I was describing it like combat zone right here. Combat. Right. I fought for it back in the day, the local event. It's exactly what it was. I was like, my sister's pregnant. She's five months pregnant.

She's going to have the baby in May. I'm like, Kylie, listen, she's a little stressful in there. It's a little bit more into me. I don't think comments. I really want you stress it out too much. Like, I was there for Rob's fight, and it's always, you know, more nerve-wracking for when you can't control, you know, the fight and for Rob's, you know, just crazy nervous because it's not my fight.

I was almost more nervous to Rob's and obviously the minds. They can't impact it at all the, except for being a cornerman. but I didn't want my sister to feel those feelings being pregnant. And I was like nervous of that, like you're saying, it's a smaller venue. But man, is it a fun experience with fans? All my family and friends, I mean, giving their little bias now coming off of W, but they love the event, the feeling of being in the apex. But, you know, it is tough for everybody else trying to come see the fights.

And it's an expensive ticket. But for those that made it, it was great to see them in house. One thing I will agree with that Bill's Mark Halwani on, Calvin, is that you now have a very compelling case to fight for the title next. And with how this division looks, all signs are pointing to Volcanowski v. the Korean zombie for the title, April 9th, UFC 273. But, you know, listen, we've seen what has been going on. We've seemed to have taken a little bit of a step back with this whole pandemic thing. We saw it with Saturday's card. It was ravaged with cancellations and substitutions.

this Saturday's UFC 270 card, a lot of the same thing. The door might be open for you to slide in there. Is that a possibility for you if they need somebody to tag in or if they need a backup fighter for that championship fight? Could you see yourself being available? Yeah, definitely. Especially now that, I mean, unless there's new variants that come out, I got COVID twice this camp.

It was such a long camp. I got it kind of right before even flying to Vegas there too. So it was good that at least, you know, from there, I thought that I wouldn't have my fight pulled due to COVID because there's so many reasons why your fights fall off these days, not just your opponent not showing up or making weight or getting injured. Now there's all these other variants and things. So that was a nice checklist. But, yeah, I knew the more he jocked for the position of the belt, you would only better my case after beating him.

He was arguing my case. You know what I mean? Go out, make a lot of stink. Talked a lot of shit. Right now you're seven-old in the division. Tell everybody why you deserve this next. shot and then when I beat you, I'm going to stay shit. Beautiful thing, right? It's nice when that works out that way.

It's beautiful, man. I was like, yeah, even better, man. Stayed your case. All you want, man, let them all know. This way, I'm going to say much after the fight. But yeah, no, I'm ready, man, for a big opportunity like that. Like I said, I told him more big moment opportunities. And I would like to fight up this next fight, whoever that is. I'm not overly concerned. Ideally, you know, the belt would be nice, like you're saying, I think I've proven that I'm a contender, if not right away. Obviously, Max next in line, right? Speed of recovery, hope that works out.

But if he's not healed up and maybe there's movement on that fight or something happens, we've seen crazier shit happen in this sport, right? I'm always down for a big moment opportunity, man, you know that. You never know. Tyson might get a phone call like a month from now saying, hey, let's have Calvin head over to Jacksonville.

Let's have him weigh in, make a couple extra bucks, right? And then if something happens, we need to slide them in for a title fight against Volcan or, you know, something happens the other way, maybe an interim title fight. I mean, we obviously don't want that to happen, but it's a crazy time in this sport, is it not? Yeah, you know Tyson signing that contract, and then probably calling me after. Absolutely. I saw you guys got to hang out with Chuck O'Dell after the fight in Las Vegas.

What was that like? Yeah, that was cool. Maybe we were all posted up at the encore. Most of my family was staying there for the night or the weekend. And we're just hanging out with the piano bar, and I think he was coming through to, to go to one of the spots over there, and we bumped into him at the bar and we were just kicking it.

But man, yeah, it was great seeing the legend. He made the night, especially not just for me and Rob, but obviously for everybody that we were with, they were all like, holy shit, man, we just saw the fights live. They're all rocking a headband, catermania headband with Dana White. Now of a sudden, later,

they're at the encore, Chuck L's hanging out with us at the bar. They're all like, man, what a crazy experience this whole entire. Vegas is just Vegas, man, right? You never know who's going to be walking down, passing you at the bar, who's going to, who you're going to,

who you're going to bump into. Was there anybody else out there? I mean, not not crazier than Chuck Lidale. So that was the highlight. That was the highlight of the strange bumpins. But I did feel like I met a lot of Vegas people that knew who I was. Not so much because they were fans, but because they made a shits ton of money off,

maybe in plus 200, you know, or whatever the line was. But, man, that gambling crew out there, it's like they're all just aware as as betters, you know what I mean? But maybe not so much as fight fans I was thinking. It was just like, they're all, hey, I made a ton of money off you, man. I'm like, great. You know who I am? They just like, just they love the plus money guys, you know what?

They're doing their thing. They love an underdog in Vegas. Here's my Venmo, you know, a couple of shekels, right? But last thing, I know, I know you're going to go. But I'm not on Facebook that often these days. But I saw a post from a woman that I actually graduate. high school with in Burlington Mass, and she has two kids, both them are big fans of yours. And the post said essentially that you were, that you are a bit of a celebrity in that

household. The daughter has your photo on the wall, big fan of yours, her son, I believe his name is Jeremiah, also a very big fan of yours, was rocking the catermania gear on Saturday. And apparently, this all stemmed because your mom has a store in Haveral Mass called Humble, healings. They love the store. They're there all the time. And you have a couple of fans now. This is very cool stuff, Calvin. You're out here, not just winning fights and

climbing the ranks, but you're giving some kids, some hope. You've become this role model, my man. What does that all mean to you because that is a very cool thing? No, it's awesome. It's great. Especially, like you said, back home, I think there's more people that have been following my career for a lot longer.

Not so much just because I was a plus dog out there last week and in Vegas. But back home, I think they, you know, they respect You know, they know where I came from. They think maybe some of them can see me fight locally. So, you know, people are jumping on the journey not too long ago, just seeing where it's come.

It's pretty crazy, especially through the pandemic. I feel like a lot of people are dividing, kind of a little loss with that, you know, and to have something to kind of hold on to do and just be seeing the growth. And I don't know. I'm hopefully, I'm hoping it inspires people, but I love seeing the kids of the Catermania headbands,

bandanas, and cartel gear. It's awesome. And, yeah, like you, said my mother owns a holistic healing store and in Haverill. So she's always cleaning up all this shit on my face and these bones, like all these pains I got. She's always giving me a CBD sob or all this stuff to rub on rather than going out. You know, these doctors love to put me on some prescriptions. So she keeps me off all that and on the CBD at the store and feeling good. But yeah, it's really crazy time. And with all that, it's getting, it's getting more normal. But, you know, it's, it's, it's,

It's definitely exciting, motivating. Every time I kind of get something like that, I just want to go push it even further and just see how far we can take this. Congratulations, man. What a performance? What else needs to be said? You went out there, let your fighting do the talking. He built the fight up for you, and you're reaping the benefit.

So well done. Excited to see what is next for you. Heal up. Enjoy the win. Maybe you'll get that big time phone call. We'll talk soon. And I'm sorry I picked against you. I'll never make that mistake again.

You're making up from the next one, Mike. I love you, buddy. You're one of the good guys that I've always happened to interview with you. All right, let us welcome back. Cody Stamen to the program. He returns to the Octagon this Saturday at UFC 270. He takes on Saeed Nirmaga Madoff. Cody, good to see you, sir.

How are you? I'm good, man. I'm just, I got to start packing. I leave in the morning. I got nothing packed. So I'm not a busy day. Yeah, so I appreciate you squeezing me in. I don't know why I feel this way.

I feel like you haven't fought in like two years, but I know it hasn't been that long because, I mean, it was just like eight months ago. You just fought like in May, right? I don't know why it seems like it's been so long, but hasn't felt that way to you at all? For me, kind of, but I also feel like I've been preparing for a fight for eight months.

So, I mean, I thought for sure I would fight before the end of last year. uh i was sure of it and then you know i got a call in october say you never magamatov you want to fight him said sure when and i'm thinking probably december maybe november they're like January i'm like damn okay that's that's four months away well all right i'll uh i mean and i guess i mean one of the hands are two in the bush let's get it done so uh yeah i mean it's it's been a long time coming but you know there's so many guys in the UFC right now because of COVID and everything else that, you know, the roster is a little inflated and it's a lot harder for guys like me to get fights.

I was talking to Tyson Chartier last week, who obviously was the head coach of Calvin Cater, and we talked about the long layoff and how Calvin wanted to come back in like September October after the Max Holloway fight. And he said that Calvin Cater's whole process with fights getting pushed back and things not going to plan is, well, extra time is never going to make me worse. You know what I mean? So I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah, I mean, and you need time. You know what I mean? Like when you go in and you have a poor performance and you see mistakes that you made,

those don't just get fixed overnight, right? You don't just go, okay, well, I did this, I did this, I didn't do this, I need to do this, okay, I got it. You know, you have to drill these things for months before you're really kind of honing in on them and in correcting the problems. And that's one benefit to having a lot of time is that you can actually take that time to kind of reflect on what's going on

and maybe come back with a different energy and a better game plan for your career. And I feel like I've done that, you know what I mean? I'm not like one of those guys that just trains when he has a fight coming up. You know, I'm in the gym every day. I've been training with, you know, the bus guys in the world, everybody's here in Vegas.

So I feel like this time has been super beneficial for me, although I've been chomping on the bit for a long time to get a fight. It has given me that time to kind of reflect and make the changes. I feel like I need, you know, if I'm going to continue to fight at this level in the UFC. Are you talking about like the fight with Marab? Because, I mean, it was a good fight. You made him work his ass off out there.

But in the end, wrong side of the decision. What did you take away from that one? because Marab's a monster and you were able to hang with him while others haven't really been able to. Yeah, you know, honestly, I think if I fight Marab 99 times, I beat him 98. He just, he had my number that night for whatever reason. I go back and I watch that fight and it's kind of like, I know I was hurting him. It's hard because I feel like I won. Regardless of what anyone else thinks I watched that fight and, you know, but on

It didn't look good, you know. I was rolling a lot of shots. You know, that's kind of been something I've done in my whole career that hasn't necessarily looked good for the judges. You know, someone throws the right hand at you and you go like this and you roll it off your shoulder. That's the old boxing technique, something I learned in Detroit. And it just looks bad.

It just, it looks bad. So, you know, in my head, I felt like I was winning the fight. I thought I won the first. I thought I lost a second. I thought I won the third. Obviously, people didn't agree with me and it is what it is. And like looking back, you know, there was just, there were so many mistakes made, so many,

so many things that I planned on doing that I didn't do. I went out there and I got emotional and, you know, he took me down right in the beginning, I threw a kick and he caught it, took me down. And I was just pissed, it was pissed. And I never get like that in fights. I don't ever get emotional like that. And I don't know why that time was the time.

time that I decided I was just going to throw the game plan out the window and start marching him down to land one bomb. But I did that, that fight. And looking back, I'm like, man, that's such a terrible way to fight. Like, I pride myself on having a good fight IQ and knowing what's going on and making adjustments. And in that fight, I just didn't. You know what I mean? I was in my head and I made mistakes and it cost me to fight. So, you know, I've just been getting back to what I know, what I know, how I know to win. And that's just by being slick, making guys miss and forward pressure and hitting guys absolutely as hard as I can. And that, you know, if say watch this interview, that's the game plan. It's like, dude, I'm coming forward and

I'm going to try to hit you absolutely as hard as I can and make you miss every chance I get and then make you pay. That's the game plan. That's how I fight and that's how, you know, I need to fight, really fight in the cage moving forward. It's funny you say, I was speaking to your manager, Jason House earlier today, and there's a sort of cliche in MMA that rings true. But I mean, it's said all the time, it's a game of inches, like tiny, tiny differences that can change absolutely everything. And if we're going to sort of prove that theory true,

I feel like your career is like the perfect example of game of inches. Like, do you agree with that? especially with this Barab fight, like little things, like little things that you were talking about. I feel like that's a totally different fight. Yeah, just a couple of simple mistakes. You know what I mean? And it's it's not that I haven't been in there with anyone where I walked out of the cage and I was like, wow, that guy was just, he was just better than it. You know what I mean? Like I had to be, I had to be the absolute best version of myself that night. And I just wasn't. And he was better than me. I've never walked out. I walked out. you know with a Morat fight I walked out with just the head full of mistakes

Jimmy Rivera fight same thing I'm like man I just never put my foot on the gas I don't know what was going through my head and same thing that would make Sterling it was like it was like I was doing what I knew to do to beat him in the first round and then the second round I just threw the game playing out the window and started you know fighting a completely different way than what I'd plan to fight And it's like these these little mistakes are so costly at a high level. I mean, when you start fighting ranked guys, and you start making mistakes and they don't, it's over.

You know what I mean? Because things start rolling the other way, and it's hard to come back. You know, I mean, if you get a couple of nice combinations landed on you in the, you know, opening of a round, it's like you're almost fighting back the entire round just to kind of get that back. and that's something that I just can't do moving forward. You know what I mean? I need to be perfect. And that's been everything lately.

It's just perfecting the little stuff. Kind of going back to what got me to the show. I mean, I have a gym in my garage, and I've been working out just by myself, just correcting the little things that I know I have to do well to compete at this level. And I can have something I kind of got away from when I moved to Las Vegas because there's so many practices and there's so many things going on all the time that you almost you're doing more, but really like the quality starts to go down because you're not, you're not checking yourself. You know, and there's really nobody out there that's that's checking you. You know what I mean? Everybody's kind of just giving you a good job.

I'm like, yeah, you look good. It's like, yeah, I look good, but what did I do wrong? It's like, well, I don't know you look pretty good. And I'm like, well, then I'm going to, so I just started filming everything and kind of assessing everything week by week. You know, I've been doing that for months. And I think that's where you really, really get better and you really make the changes that you know that you need to make to be the best version of yourself. You know what I mean? You got to be, you got to be critical, super critical on yourself.

You know, you can't let your ego run things. And it's really, really fine line in MMA where, you know, you have to have that ego. you have to be confident and you have to believe in your abilities, but you also have to, you know, know how to shut that off and go back and be like, well, yeah, this is good, but this is bad. This needs to be fixed. And I've been doing that. I've been doing that.

And that's something that I always did before, you know, like when I was in Michigan, I didn't necessarily have like a ton of training partners. You know, I had a handful. But really, it was kind of on me. You know what I mean? It was kind of on me. I was the only guy, you know, for a long time in the USC in Michigan. So, you know, I was always trying to just find the best training partner for whatever I needed.

And when I came out here, everything was just so easy. And I kind of got away from the specific things that made me good. And you always, you also have to have like some incredible life balance when you're filming and rewatching film and trying to break it all down, right? Like I see obviously in your Instagram, you're, you're out there doing some hunting and doing some different things. So you're like, you're trying to get away from it when you can, right? Like how important has just overall life balance been trying to just fix these little things? Yeah, I mean, because if it was up to me, I would just, it'd be MMA 24-7. And I would absolutely drive myself insane, even more insane than I already am.

So I have to do things. Like I force myself every week. I take a day one day. I don't do anything. MMA related. I don't think about it. I don't watch it. I don't do anything.

And then I feel like I'm way more hungry until Monday. You know what I mean? Because I've been doing this for a long time. And in the beginning, it didn't matter. I mean, like, I, everything I did was based around MMA. Nothing else mattered to me. And, you know, after you've been in this sport for so long and after you're in the UFC for a little while, like it starts to wear on you. You start to show it.

And the training becomes harder, everything becomes harder. So I kind of just forced myself. I actually had an exercise psychologist told me that was like, if there was something that I could tell you to do, he's like, I would tell you to just get the hell away from the sport. Every opportunity you can. Because I think you're one of those people that will literally drive yourself insane if you don't have that day off. So that's kind of something I've implemented, you know, the last, you know, a year or so. And I feel like I'm a little more of a normal person and less of just a freaking psycho that is literally can't shut it off.

All this extra time, I'm sure you've gotten the chance to train at a lot of different places. I'm not sure if you got a chance to get back to Detroit. Maybe you got to check out the, uh, the urban survival training classes at all, during this hiatus? I mean, it's right there, man. I can't wait to go back. I saw once a guy from Michigan went in there and he was demonstrating some of his killer moves on him.

And I'm like, man, I am 100% of this fight going there. And I'm gonna just, I'm making a video and every time this guy has to do something to me, I'm just gonna like fake punch from the face and be like, well, what about I don't? I'm actually really looking forward to that because I can't stand that shit. I can't stand the whole,

the fake, the fake, the fake martial arts videos that I see coming out there and like all. And what's crazy is like this guy is like getting super famous for making these dumb ass videos. Yeah. And I don't know if he really believes that what he's doing is like legit or if it's all a spoof and he's just trying to get attention. I can't tell. You know what I mean? Like I want to sit in front of him and just and get to know the dude and see if like, He really believes that he's like some combat God and that he could really defend himself in a real scenario.

Or if he's just like, yeah, dude, this is just what sells. This works. I'll make him money. So I don't care. I hope he's that guy, not the other guy. It's just weird how this world is like I went and I covered the Jake Paul Tyrone Woodley rematch in Tampa. And I felt like I was a thousand years old. I didn't recognize anybody. There were all these like kids celebrities and like these 20 something

year old men and women who are apparently super famous for doing something. And people are lining up up and down the arena to try to take pictures of these people. And I'm like looking around other media members like, who is that? And yeah, no, half of them didn't know. Some did and try to explain it to me. I'm like, what? They're famous for what? Like one kid just goes to a grocery store. Yeah, one kid just goes to a grocery store and like throws boxes of cereal at people and runs away. and he's like a millionaire because like he did he did one ticot video just doing that as like a joke and it blew up and now he's like super famous so maybe that's what happened here he did like one video it went crazy and he's just like why should i stop this it's getting attention this is this is more

attention than i've ever gotten in my entire life i'm just going to keep this up yeah i mean it's like uh someone someone actually i did this interview and and the guy was super polarizing i feel like he was really trying to like get under my skin. And he's like, doesn't hurt your feelings that like, uh, you know, some kid literally makes a video, a toaster or like of his food or something and he's more famous than you. And I was like, no, that doesn't hurt my feelings. I mean, because in a in like the clown world that we live in like, do I really want to be, uh, famous for something stupid like that? Like, I mean, honestly, like, is that really what I want to be known for? And the answer is absolutely not. Like, I'd, I'd just rather be known for.

for being a decent person and being good at fighting or, you know, being good at something that is actually relevant to the world. Like, I want to contribute something. I don't want to just be some, some little turd that a bunch of six-year-olds thinks cool because he, you know, does some dumb shit up the grocery store. You know what I mean? Like, I want to actually contribute to society, not just be one of these kids. So, yeah, my answer kind of perplex the guy a little bit, but he was like, okay, moving on. Yeah, that seems like such a random asked question to ask you during an interview. Was this like to promote the fight?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was, it left me, let's just say, like, I was ready to punch a home when I got done interviewing this guy. And I got fast, I'm like, are we done? I just have a couple more questions for you. I'm like, dude, I cannot believe I'm not just shutting my phone off. But like, I want to get back to you somehow.

Like, it didn't work. Dude, you can use them in the fight. A little chip, a little chip on the old shoulder. You can always, it never hurts to find those anywhere you can find them. They're everywhere. Yeah. They're everywhere. Well, now you get a Syed Namaga made off.

And when you look at the last name, it just screams high level wrestler. He's going to take you down 35 times. But this dude can can strike and strike very effectively. His last two finishes were via strikes inside the UFC. Thoughts on the matchup. Thoughts on Saeed as an opponent. Were you happy with the matchup? Yeah, I was extremely happy.

Um, honestly, I'd watched him a lot, uh, because I was supposed to fight, uh, Barcello. So I'd watch that fight a million times. Um, so I kind of knew what Saeed was about when I signed the fight. Uh, yeah, really good kickboxer. I'd imagine he's a solid wrestler. I haven't really seen a ton of wrestling like in anything I've watched. Um, but I'm sure he's good there, but, uh, yeah, I mean, stylistically, like, fighting a guy with four UFC fights, um, for me is just a gift, you know what I mean? Just all the guys I fought have as many or more U.S.C. fights, maybe three times as many it's neat.

And it's like, I feel there's just, I don't want to be that, I don't want to say that cliche thing where like I'm on a different level than him because who knows if that's true, right? But in regards to the experience and level of people I've thought, I am on a different level of him. And so I've been in there with the best. I know what they offer. So, you know, Saeed doesn't. And either he's going to be everything that people think he is and I'm going to have my hands full or he's going to realize that, you know, somebody with as much UFC experience as I have makes for a really, really tough night. And it's going to be hard for me to get off all that crazy

shit because you know I think a lot of the techniques that that work for him um don't necessarily work at a high level so we'll see I mean I'm pretty confident going into this but um I'm not I'm not dull to the fact that Sadie is a bad dude and he has some dangerous weapons and I've got to be a got to be a really smile this weekend yeah to sort to sort of add to what you just said because I just I just took a look at it I don't know what you pay attention this stuff but he's a pretty big favorite in this fight. Minus 200. Like, and yes, you know, talented guy. But again, like the level of fighters that you have faced compared to the level of fighters he has faced, I mean, with all the respect to the man, it's like apples and chocolate chip cookies. Like,

it's two totally different things. Like, you're fighting Song Yadong and Brian Kelleher and Brian Carraway and Tom Dukinwa, which at the time, the last two guys, those are very big wins. Those are very big wins back in 2017, 2018. And then you get Rivera and Marab and, and you, and you, fought the champion of the world. Al Jermaine's strong strength of schedule here is vastly different. It's not minus 200. And maybe the lines will get a little closer. I think smart money will probably squeeze that line a little bit.

It seems way off to me, man. Well, it's just, it's just every single, every single fight. I'm an underdog. I feel like every single time. It doesn't matter if, if, uh, if I'm, if I'm ahead in the rankings, I want to say it's, it's been like half, half my fights. I've been an underdog. And a lot of times I'm like, how.

how and this is another one of those times where I'm like, all right, if I was looking at this card and, you know, I was like picking fights where I thought, you know, I could potentially win some money, my fight would jump off the card at me. Like, okay, this guy's been in there with the best in the division and this guy's relatively untested with four fights. You know what you mean? Like when I look at Saeed and I look at him completely unbiased, he's not my opponent. I watched him fight Justin Skagans. And I thought Skagans beat him clearly. I thought I didn't even think it was close. I thought Skagins easily won that fight. And then Scott Skagans gets robbed and then gets cut. And I'm just, I was so confused. So if I'm really looking at Sade's career, he's got four UFC fights. I mean, I'm looking at him like he's two in two in the UFC, you know,

and he's never actually fought anyone in the rankings. So, you know, the matchmakers, or not the matchmakers, but the odds makers, never seem to give me any respect. So this isn't something that's that's newer form than me. But I think they messed up on this. I really, I mean, there's a good chance to hand somebody some cash and be like, put all this on Cody Stamondon because I think I can win some extra money. Are we good? Yep. Y'all there you are. Okay, you froze up for a second. We're good. I actually heard everything you said. I'm looking at the lines, the odds in the past right now. Do you remember the last time you were a favorite? Well, you were favorite in the Kelleher fight,

but do you remember the last time you were favored in a fight before that? Last time I was a favorite. I think it was a favorite in the Kalaher fight. Yep, before that one. Brian Kareway. Actually, I think it was even money. Yeah, you were a slight favorite in the Kariway fight. Alhantra Perez.

I was an underdog, and then I was a favorite. Alhantra Perez. And Perez actually surprised me that I was a favorite because he was undefeated, ranked higher than me. And it was a short notice fight for me. So I was actually really surprised there. I was like, I figured I would be a pretty significant $100 in that fight. But, you know, that time they got it right. Yes.

First time entering a fight on consecutive losses. And I hate to bring that up, but that's obviously part of the story here. What does that feel like? Is there more pressure or like what does that like? More of the chip? How does that all feel? I mean, if there's a time to perform, it's now, right? Yeah, I mean, you definitely feel like your freaking nuts are right next to a saw.

And it's like, okay, you either got to pull them off or you get your nuts cut up. Like, that's how I would describe that feeling. And it's like, I just never imagined that this would be, you know, where I was in MMA. But, you know, I made the mistake that a lot of guys do. I took a crazy short-noticed fight against somebody really tough that I wasn't prepared for, and it led me here. So, you know, my decisions led me to this point, and, you know, it's got to be me stepping up and making shit happen to make sure that, you know, I still have a job on the 23rd.

And I'm no stranger of the pressure, you know what I mean, inside the cage. like I've dealt with some heavy shit and when I had no great performances before I feel like this is a different kind of load but it's also a huge load and you know in those circumstances I feel like that's when you know the really I tighten shit up and the best version of my stuff comes out and I think that will happen this weekend I mean based on my training I think I'm the best athlete I've been that's another cliche that everybody says but I really believe that. You know, I'm not just saying it because it sounds good.

Like, I actually believe that to be true. Really feel like your job's on the line here? I mean, maybe. I mean, you should always feel like your job's on the line, though, right? Every fight in your career is the biggest bite of your life. You know, I felt like, you know, when I was coming up before the UFC, it was like, you know, I had a pretty polished record. I was like 12, 12 and 1, 13 and 1, then 14 and 1, and every single one of those fights,

I felt like, it's like, man, if I can't, if I can't get it done this time, like, I'm not going to make it, you know what I mean? So that was this, and I was fighting, you know, in front of a home crowd and there was always the main event. So, I mean, it's so there's always been that, that, that looming pressure, you know what I mean? And it's just like figuring out how to deal with that. Like, hey, like, like, you know, this fight decided. whether no one ever knows who you are or the whole world knows who you are on a big stage. You know what I mean? Like is it is it like what if you slip and fall? You know what if what if something you know, what if you get whacked with a big shot and it's it's over for you.

You know what I mean? It's three more years before you get you see and by then you're you're past your prime and you're you're fucked. You know, like you're just straight fucked. You know what I mean? So every single fight has this crazy just looming weight. to it. But I've gotten better at dealing with it in the way that like, you know, like even before the UFC, like I was just extremely present, like present day. You know what I mean? Like today I have to pack my shit. Tomorrow I have to go check in and start doing my UFC stuff. And I'm not really going to like freak out about the fight. You know what I mean? Like when I'm training, I'm super over focus. But as soon as it's over it, I'm kind of like, okay, all right, let's go shopping. Let's go do this, you know what I mean? So I've gotten a lot better at just being present in the moment

and not letting the pressure necessarily get to me until, you know what I mean? I'm in there and I'm like, okay, it's time, it's time to figure this shit out. Like, you're going to be the man or you're going to pass this opportunity up. And I think I'm going to be the man. I have a, I have a feeling that that's the way this is going to go this weekend. You're going to wake up Saturday. it's game seven but before that it's just I'm gonna go do media day or I'm gonna go eat some breakfast I mean that's just that's the best way to approach you right you can't obsess about it yeah and in like honestly right now you know with a diet and everything I'm so focused on weighing in and like Friday night

like if there's one thing that like I can't stop thinking about it's not the fight it's like what I'm gonna eat Friday night like I'm literally just focused on like food Like I'm just like excited that this is coming to an end and that I'm going to be able to eat and enjoy a meal with my family and just relax. Honestly, like that, like that's, I'm just looking forward to that. I'm like, man, I just want to speak to just fly by. I want the misery of the weight cut to just fly by. I mean, everything's on track. I mean, I know what I'm doing.

I know what it feels like. I know it's going to suck. But I know that Friday I get to sit down and have a nice meal and that's kind of what I'm focused on. Are you going to eat? What's what's the meal? Do we have choices or we narrowed it down and we have we pinpointed one thing? I have a restaurant picked out a steakhouse in Fort Worth in California. I've seen the menu. I try not to like look at it and obsess over it But I let's say I spent like 30 minutes on the menu and I have like eight things picked out right now I think I know what I want every single person at table to order just so I can like try some of their food I get bad. I get bad, especially right now this week. You know, like my, my food consumption is

absolute shit. So I'm just no salt, no flavoring, nothing. So like these last few, these last few days, like, like I am thinking about food 24-7. Like, I just want, you know what I mean? Like, I actually enjoy, like, this is one of those weird things. I actually like ordering food for other people are cooking for other people like when I can't eat I don't know why so I've been like cooking my girlfriend like gourmet meals every night and like when everyone's uh you know when we're locked up the hotel like I'm going to be like probably scrolling Uber eats a few hours a day trying to find like where do you guys want to eat lunch dinner what do you want I think you should get this I think you should get that uh yeah I get I get pretty food crazy these last few days

you have a prediction for the fight I mean you're not obviously you're going to win or at least you think like that's your mentality but yeah your visual guy at this point yeah i think honestly god i think that um i think i can land that big shot and i know i know i know i can lead that big shot and hurt him whether he falls you know that's up to him but based on what i've seen him do i really i really think that i can i can hit him with those big shots and if i need to i know i can take him down i know i can take him down and make this hell for him that's not the fight that i want to fight but if I have to I will hug that motherfucker for 15 minutes and ride on like a horse um but one way or another I'm getting my hand raised I have to and that's that's where we're at

like I said nuts are real close to a band saw and it's uncomfortable and I want this feeling to go away that's a very vivid very vivid right there last thing for let you go I know you get a million things going on but you were at one point in 2021 between the links champion you came on the debate show and you came out with a victory. So might as well put you to the test right now, put the analyst's hat on after you fight and do your thing. We got two title fights. You got Brandon Moreno defending his title against Davis of Figurato. We got Francis Nganoe defending his title against the interim champion Cyril Ghan. What are we thinking here? Who's going to leave Anaheim with some gold? Well, I'll start with Francis. You know, Francis, training partner,

teammate of mine. I've seen the work he's put in. Do you really want to bet against the guy that can literally put anyone's lights out and like just by touching him? Like this guy's knocking people out with jab. I see him hurt guys every day. He's a scary, scary dude. I mean, surreal is a is a serious athlete and a serious competitor. But I mean, when you get in there and you start throwing four ounce four ounce guise, I'm like, are you going to bet against Mike Tyson? you know what I mean ever you know knowing that if he just touches somebody like like the lights are going out so you know I got Francis he's an underdog and he's the champ don't understand that at all we're in the same boat so I'm definitely going to take Francis and then Reno, Figueroa. I think that first fight I thought Brandon won

I sat there with his family I thought he won that first fight I mean he obviously won the second fight do I think Davidson Figurado is going to do something drastically different now that, you know, the belt's been taken from him? No, I think that it's going to be worse. I think it's going to be worse. I think Brandon's going to be even worse. I think Brandon's kind of coming into his own. I see that could train. I see the team that he has around him. He just looks like he looks and feels like a champion. He really does. And, you know, he didn't, he didn't before. But I think, I think brand's self-belief and skills have done nothing but but improved. You know what I mean?

I don't think he got the belt and then went out and partied and was the man. Like that guy was back in the gym and he's been doing crazy dog workouts. I mean, I see it all the time. So, you know, I definitely have Marino and Francis in the title fights. Two title retentions here. It should be an interesting fight. Yeah, France and Gano, the line is spreading even more on the Gondon side. In Gano, a plus 135.

You're telling me I can get Francis Ngano and Undertog, buddy. I don't even bet, but I would say like, that's got to open your eyes a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and how many times has Francis Nagano been an underdog in fights? I'd be interested to see that because I'm sure he's an underdog a lot. Then he goes out there and touches you with a jab and fall over. And you're like, oh, shit. It's a too light to pull my bet.

Yeah, last time he was the underdog was the Kane Velasquez fight. Because he was coming off the two. I think that was the fight he was coming off the two losses, perhaps. And then he came out and just touched Velasquez and if he was over in like 11 seconds, which is insane. Very easily happened this time around. Yeah. That dude is nasty. It's got to be how.

It's amazing. Hearing him do interviews is just the nicest guy in the world. I just want to hear him talk forever. Soft-spoken, nice guy. Hi, Cody. How are you? Oh, I was pretty good. Chris.

I still scared of shit out of me, but you're like awkwardly nice. I'm not sure how this conversation is going to progress. Well, whatever he, whatever he says, we just follow along with the conversation and keep a smile on the big man's face. So, Cody, always appreciate the time, my man. I appreciate it very much. All the best to you with the packing and getting to Anaheim and the fight week stuff. And then in the fight itself on Saturday, looking forward to it. And I think a lot of betters are going to be knocking that line down a little bit.

Hope so. I hope so. I know I'm going to. to say hello to platinum mike perry along with the very special guest 2021 ended in a very interesting way for mr perry 22 is slated to start off quite interesting as well he's going to be making his bkfc debut in the main event of knucklemania 2 February 18th in hollywood florida happy to have mike perry joining us along with his one-year-old son mike welcome back how are you sir i'm good man you see the muscles look at those muscles

Look at those muscles, yeah. I'm good, brother. How are you, Mike? I'm doing great. So it is good to have both of you here. First off, I have to bring this up because the last time you and I spoke, it was when the UFC were doing those virtual media day calls.

I'm sure you remember those. And this is right before the Mickey Golf fight. And I got in a question because you were not feeling it, Mike. You were not feeling it that day. In fact, I even asked you if you were happy to be there and you said, absolutely not. There's about five million other things you'd rather be doing than being there that day.

And it seems like, honestly, Mike, things have changed. You seem to be in a better spot when it comes to the media and such. Is that accurate? Do you feel a little bit better about your relationship with the media compared to a couple of years ago, especially at that time? Well, I was on fire that week. You know, that whole week I kind of had this, this building. built up idea of not accepting any kindness.

Because people, there's this trick that people do where they smile in your face and they stab you in the back. And, you know, it wasn't really directed towards anyone, but it was also directed towards everyone because I don't trust anybody. and I expect from people to be that type of way. Yes, I've grown up a little bit more since then. I've been trying to be more humble. And, you know, I'm definitely more grateful.

Times have changed. I've had different opportunities. I had opportunities then, but my head wasn't in the right space to, provide for myself and for the opportunities that were upon me. You know, I don't know. Now I just, I don't know, I've grown up, man, I think a little differently. And still, obviously, people do funny things or they act a messed up type of way or they try to, you know, I don't know, they're just conniving and disheaval and dishe.

and they're sneaky about it. And because I know that, I don't expect it from everyone. I know that there are some good people out there. And that is the difference, to be honest, is that there are lots of good people who do support me. And, you know, I used to cuss out everybody because of the haters. Now, I refuse to give them the time of day. Yeah, it's, I mean, I get it, man, especially in the combat sports community. It's, it can be kind of a fickle place.

It's hard to understand, like, who's got your back, who is, whose ideas are the right ones, positivity, et cetera. So, yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. It's something that I'm learning more and more being involved in this space. And, you know, you've, you've had the opportunity to do a lot of different things recently. Like last year, we saw the news you signed with BKFC. then we find out you're competing on this triad combat card in Arlington, Texas, with freaking Metallica playing on stage. You take on Michael Seals, a former world champion.

You enter as a sizable underdog and you win the fight. And that fight was super fun to watch, man. Like, what was that experience like for you, all things considered the rule set, the event? This is the first card triller put on like that. Like, what did you think of the whole experience? I mean, it was great, man. the whole thing was great.

I got to hang out with Rampage Jackson, Matt Mitreone, Frank Mirr, Kubola, and the freedom that... Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, just let me talk for a bit, okay? Real quick. So the freedom that we kind of got in that, I mean, it was messed up with the Make-A-Wish microphones when me and Michael Seals were trying to talk trash.

and they kind of went out. But it happened how it happened. And, you know, we have freedom to like, I got to be a part of, what do you call that, when all the fighters are up there on stage and they're talking. What do you call that? What is that called? A press conference.

A press conference, okay. I did a press conference once in the UFC. I didn't do a great job. so they didn't offer me another one because I was like up there being a nice guy, I guess. This time, you know, we got to talk a little trash. We got to be a little more free. Like, you know, the boys talk trash.

That's what we do. We were roasting each other a little bit. I was making fun of, of, let's go champ, because he was wearing Timberlands with basketball shorts. I was like, you can't do that. You're not supposed to wear that. And I was just making jokes, you know, and it was boxers versus MMA, so everybody had like a chip on their shoulder. And it was a good time.

You know, they flew me out at first class, which was nice on Fight Week to get to relax on the way to the event. And then what else, man? Hotel rooms were nice. My team was taken care of. There was some good food. They even went above and beyond and helped us at weigh-ins when some fighters were, you know, on weight. And they were trying to get us, you know,

they were trying to make sure that everyone was in a healthy position to, you know, go ahead and make their wade and then do the face-offs and the wadens and stuff. They were trying to get it done, which I appreciated. The fight itself, like I said, was just bonkers. It was, you kind of, you turned into a brawl. He seemed to like it. And then your reaction to getting the win was amazing

because the fight was fire. And a lot of those rounds were very close. and you had that sort of surprised look on your face when you were announced the winner. So how would you describe that look? Was it more like, wow, I can't believe I won or while I can't believe the judges actually scored this one correctly? Yeah, I think it was that second one there because, I mean, you just, if somebody asked me that, one of the commentators asked me that shortly after the event. And I said it was because, you know, you can't leave it up to the judges.

So I was happy to get credit for my ring generalship, which I didn't always get credit for. There were some fights or decisions that didn't go my way that I felt in the past should have gone my way or could have. But I don't, you know, I don't look back. So I was just happy to be honest with you. I was just like, oh, like, you know, it was just real joy there that I had worked so hard. hard my whole life kind of for that moment. And there was new goals to be made, new, just new, new things to accomplish after that fight. A whole new Mike Perry was born. So that just all hit me all at once when they gave me the win. Where does that rank in your combat sports

career that way. I mean, it's got to be way the hell up there, right? It felt good. And I found out that they went. Oh, it felt good. I found out it, uh, it wasn't going on my record. I mean, I, yeah, I guess it is what it is. It's like an exhibition. Yeah, I guess it didn't go on my record. So it's so goofy right now. But the win. I mean, it's still a win that you got announced the winner. And you got paid, right?

It was a win, but I was looking, I was, yeah, it's all good. It is. It is all good. All of a sudden, this keeps wanting to slide. I'm sorry about this. I don't know how to use my laptop on Zoom. Oh, that's all good. We'll be all right.

Come on here, buddy. it's all good man so yeah that was that was a wild fight that was a wild event seeing a metallic concert with fighting was uh exactly what you needed at the day after thanksgiving but next for you is the bkfc ring you're taking on julian lane of course there's no love loss between the two of you guys as of late we saw the video you're you're doing commentary in Tampa we see some papers or some pamphlets or some programs fly at your face headset drops you vanish and then we see some fan video. You guys are in the crowd getting after it.

What happened there? Like, why do you think he chose that moment to start throwing stuff at you to set this whole thing off? Because there was guardrails in between us and he was safe behind them. And, you know, I think about that moment. And I'm like, man, I should have just jumped over and tackled him or something.

And like, you know, I was just so, pissed off. I still am pissed off. And I mean, I'm just going to handle my business on February 19th. You know, there were a couple opponents in mind, but I feel like he gets the opportunity. And there was others who didn't get the opportunity

because they weren't someone that I should do business with. and, you know, not saying that he is someone I should do business with, but you know what? We're doing the business. He got what he wanted. He threw the cards at me. And I don't know who picked that time for him or that spot or if they set it up and they were trying to make the fight a little more popping.

But I gave them what they wanted too at the same time because I wasn't there to play no bullshit games or anything like that. Like I was talking on the mic and I was just like, you know, I haven't had my opportunity. I got to get a little taste of the bare knuckle before I got to do it for real. So, you know, and it was weird for me because I'm a professional. I understand that I have a pass. but, you know, with the guardrails and everything, I mean, in an open ring, when they say fight,

and then we start from a distance with my technique, my boxing abilities, it's going to just be a totally different show. There's not going to be bunches of people to be there to break it up right away or, you know, and the video didn't look great. it looked like, you know, we were just holding. I mean, that's the bare-knuckle clinch right there. Guys clench and then throw shots and, you know, it's just, I can't wait to get this motherfucker.

Did you, like, have you ever met him before? Like, was there any interaction? Was that the first time you've interacted with him? Yeah, that was the first time. But I saw him, I saw him see me. When he was up in the crowd somewhere, talking to people, walking around, I had some people with me that were like keeping drunk people off of me. They were watching my back. A couple of weird people tried to like come up on me in the show or whatever.

And, you know, I mean, obviously I can handle myself, but it's nice to have friends who care about you and want to help you when people are trying to be, you know, idiots. but I saw him see me up in the stands and he didn't want to come by at that time he waited for me to be behind that guardrail and the first thing he did when I got up was he backed up. He backed up scared. So he's just lucky that that guardrail was there

but I mean, we'll see when he shows up February 19th because I'm going to be there. I'm going to bust his shit. these BKFC events are pretty wild there's always some sort of craft fight or crowd interaction I went and covered pages last fight and I mean it seemed like every single fight there is a bare-knuckle fighter in the crowd that had an issue with a fighter in the ring and they were screaming at the fighter and the fighter as they're fighting could actually hear them so during their post-fight interview they're calling out the fan like it was just those events are wild like

Have you enjoyed the BKFC fighter way, so to speak, since you've signed and got new experience, live events and all that stuff? Even before I signed, I went to a BKFC event. It is a pretty good show. I had a good time. You know, I was trying to enjoy the last one. I guess I didn't really get to, but I already knew what was going to happen. And I told my girlfriend to stay home with the baby, stay back. You know, we don't really, I don't really go out without her.

She don't go out without me, really. You know what I mean? We're growing as people, you know, we're trying to get more independent and, you know, be together as well. So we each have our own things in life. But like, I told her, I was like, look, you can't go to this. You can't bring the baby to this because I already know how these idiots are going to be. It's going to be drunk people or people messing around or people. It's bare knuckle fighting championships.

We walk around bare knuckles. So one of these idiots is going to try to piss me off. And it's not hard. It's not hard. I will give you what you want. I'm for it all day. I'm gained. I'm ready at all times.

So, you know, the only, the only sucky part is that all the people that came to break it up, there was just too much force of people. You couldn't get through. I couldn't get through the guardrail. There was a big force of a lot of people's security. That's how I feel about it. The boss, man, you know, they were, they just, they smother you so you can't really moved and then it gets separated. So that's the only bad thing to happen was that I didn't get

to do to him what I wanted to do to him. And I'm going to get that opportunity in February 19. Who's going to be cornering you for this fight for the for the BKFC debut? How is that all going to be set up for you? How is what going to be set up? The cornering. Who's going to be cornering you? Well, my girlfriend likes being in the crowd. So that's cool. I would totally give her the front seat, but she prefers. I mean, with this, she could wear a dress in the corner,

but I mean, she likes to be in the crowd so she doesn't have to feel all the nerves of being there. So I got my boxing. coach that was with me at the Triller fight. His name is JT with technique boxing. I mean, I got him. I don't know who else is going to be there. I'm still working on that. So, you know, it should, we should figure those things out in the next week or two. So how do we get this, how do we get this all done? How do you go in there? I know a lot of big name ex-UFC fighters have come to KFC, some have found success, some have not.

You're obviously a very big name. You're looking to make a big impression on this promotion and its fans in the sport against a guy like Julian Lane who, let's be honest, like you said, he started this whole thing. So how do we get, how do we finish this thing at Knucklemania 2? I mean, I'm going to finish it by knocking him out. I mean, busting him up, making him bleed, cutting his face up, and finishing him doing the best I can to get him out of there. But in my contract, there's this thing that says,

Hey, hey, chill out. In my contract, there's this thing that says, if there's a tie at the end of five rounds, there is a sudden death round. And I think about Bobby Knuckles with the UFC when he said, And, you know, I hope it's a barn burner drag out fight that, you know, it's up by a hair. And, you know, you get, you knock him out in the last couple seconds of a great fight. I mean, I'm trying to go in there and be clean, though.

Not get touched. I'm pretty easy to touch. It happens. I expect it. I get hit sometimes. but I'm the toughest SOB there is and we'll see how he takes it when I hit him. I'm going to be in his face trying to make him bleed.

A few last things. Last month in Tampa, Florida, Jake Paul, who you know, returned to the boxing ring. He knocks out Taryn Woodley in the sixth round. What did you think of the fight? Did you watch it? How it ended? I was there.

Not a great fight. but obviously the ending was a holy shit moment and Jake Paul gets the big win and it was probably a billion dollar punch that he threw in that six rounds. So what were your thoughts on it? I don't know if it was a billion dollar punch, but it was a good right hook. He got Woodley, I guess. I haven't, you know, I know Woodley's made some jokes about it. I haven't liked any of the videos or anything like that. I said before the fight, you know, I got a, respect for both the guys. I sparred Jake. I've never had the opportunity to spar Woodley. Jake did a good job. I didn't watch the fight. I didn't see that fight. I watched the first one.

Woodley did good in the first one. So I was surprised to see that. I'm not really sure where Woodley's mindset was going into the fight. He says that he was great. No excuse. from him. Jake didn't. His job. A week, that week or whatever, but when I actually was at the BKFC event, I was, I had originally been hit up by, by Jake Paul's scene, and they asked me to come to Puerto Rico and Spar, and I was going to do it. But then my managers,

I have the same managers as T. Woodley. They kind of advised against that, and they didn't want, you know, and I was going to get $2,500 for it. And they were like, you know, Jake should be paying you $25,000 for what he's going to make this weekend, if you want to spar him this week or whatever. And then the real deal ender was, I asked for two tickets to the event.

and they were like, oh, we can't get tickets. I was like, all right, well, then I can't fucking come help you. Obviously, you didn't need help. I don't know. Maybe he wanted to try to beat on me. I hadn't been training.

I had just fought like a week before. And I was kind of under a suspension. But, I mean, I went to be KFC and fought Julian Lane for free behind a guardrail. So it looks like I was destined to punch somebody that day or, you know, that week. And also, you know, I want to fight Jake Paul. He, uh, I sparred him once.

But, you know, I, he don't want to fight me because you can hit me as hard as you want. And I'm never going to stop coming for you. And I'm going to land shots. I did land shots. on Jake. I had him running into some shots when we sparred. Yes, his first couple rounds, he did pretty good. He's longer, bigger. And, you know, he hit me with some shots in the beginning. I kind of wanted to get hit by the shots. I was like, oh, see how Jake punches. And he hit me, no follow-ups. Try to hit me again. I start making adjustments and start making him running to

shots, you know, I'm down for whatever, man. I'll fight anybody. That's why I end up going to, I went to the BKFC fight. I fought Julian there. And I can't wait to get a real opportunity to, uh, laying my knuckles on his face. Yeah. I thought your man, I thought Abe Powell, one of your managers, you obviously know very well, put out a pretty appropriate tweet after the fight.

He said, look, here's a reminder. Jake Paul hasn't fought a boxer yet. Mike Perry has fought a boxer and he beat the boxer. So maybe this is the fight to make. And I know there's talks about Tommy Fury and Caesar Savage Jr. And Paul's calling for Diaz, Mazdal, Usman, McGregor, whoever, all under UFC contracts. So that's not happening. So why not Mike Perry?

Why not Mike Perry? I think it makes sense. It goes to the theme, the boxing versus MMA. He wants to keep taking out these former UFC fighters or at least try to anyways. I think it makes perfect sense. I mean, any time, bro, any fucking time. I'm ready, though. I mean, I signed the contract.

I'm fighting February 19th, bare knuckle. Jake Paul don't want to step in no bare knuckle ring with me. If he wants to step in a boxing ring, MMA, we can do anything. We could do a grappling match. We could do a boxing match. We can do a bare knuckle match. We can fight anytime, anywhere. everybody knows I'm telling the truth.

I'm down. What are we waiting for? I work hard. I'm in shape. I look good. And I will. And yep, and I'll get hit. But I like that shit.

I'm kind of a freak. I like it. You can hit me all you want. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. Because I'm never going to stop. I'm not going to stop. You can hit me.

over and over and over and I'm going to keep making little adjustment and I'm going to catch you and you ain't going to like it when I hit you. Before that can happen, of course, you got to take on Julian Lane at Knucklemania 2. Your headlining that card should be a fun, wild affair in the bare knuckle ring and I'm very intrigued to see what 2022 looks like for you, Mike. I mean, triad combat's having their second event. I know your dance card is full right now, but if there's a third one, could probably see you on doing the damn thing. Maybe you fight Jake Paul.

Who knows? The sky's the limit right now, my man. So thank you for doing this. I appreciate it very much. And happy belated birthday to the youngster. And look forward to seeing you in the bare knuckle in the bare knuckle ring on February 18th or 19th, excuse me. Yes, sir. Thank you very much for the time as always. Noclemania. Thank you for your time. Let me go change his shitty diaper. I can smell it over here.

See you, man. Great stuff from everybody this week. big thank you to Mike Perry, Cody Stamen, Calvin Cater, and the champ for Anna Moreno, loaded up show this week. Hope you enjoyed it ahead of a very big weekend for the UFC, the first pay-per-view event for the UFC with the new price tag on ESPN plus 7499 moving forward. And boy, while I love these two title fights and I do like a lot on this card, might be a tough sell with a casual audience.

The UFC needs to promote that hell out of this card. I mean, they got to promote it like crazy. There's certainly a lot of interesting storylines. You get the former teammates. Francis's contract situation looming. That's, I mean, that is such an interesting story. I don't know how the UFC can promote that, but be a good way to do it,

especially with this new price tag. It's just, it's a very, very big fight for both Francis Angano and Sierra Lange. gone. The flyweight title fight is fantastic. And there are some interesting names on this card. Ilya Taboria, the Charles Dordane fight that's interesting. Some other, obviously, Michelle Paheda, Andre Fialo is interesting. But like I said, on paper, could be a tough sell, especially since UFC 271, headlined by the rematching Israel Adasania and Robert Whitaker. That is less than a month away. That's on February 12th. So you're asking a lot of

UFC fans and their wallets and their budgets, really. I mean, 74, that's 150 bucks in like three weeks. Not to mention all the other stuff. If you're going to pay for DeZone, if you're a boxing fan, if you're going to pay for Showtime for Bellator and just, you know, ESPN Plus as well, the monthly fee for that. I mean, you're asking for a lot right off the bat. But like I said, I'm, I'm,

I like the card. I love the two title fights. But we will have you covered for all things, UFC 270. Press conference goes down 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. We'll have the first way-in show of 2022 on Friday. Details to follow there. Preview show as well. Pre-fight show 30 minutes before the event,

answering all of your questions, all the post-fight coverage. Live on to the next one Sunday morning on YouTube as well. So there's a lot going on. So until then, everybody. I am Mike Heck. Peace out, everybody. We'll see you throughout the weekend.

And next week right here on We Got Net. Podcast Network.