MMA Fighting - We Got Next, Ep. 1: Ben 'Big Tuna' Parrish & Matt Bessette

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

On the debut episode of We Got Next, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks with Ben Parrish (6:13) to recap his upset KO win over Christian Edwards to kick off the main card of Bellator 266 this past weekend in San Jose, proving the doubters wrong, how he got started in the sport of MMA, the genesis of his "Big Tuna" nickname, not currently being signed to the Bellator roster, his interest in fighting veterans such as Quinton Jackson and Yoel Romero, his mom getting booted off of MMA Reddit for defending him, and much more. Matt Bessette (45:24) discusses his dominant third-round submission win over Ryan Dela Cruz to capture the lightweight title and become two-division champion in the main event of CES 64 on Friday night and subsequently announcing his retirement, when he made the decision to call it a career, a painful injury he's been dealing with for the last several years that he's never publicly revealed before, if anything would get him back in the cage, the most memorable fights of his career, and more. 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

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The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Well, hello there, everybody. It is nice to talk to you again on this kind of a show. we welcome you to the debut episode of We Got Next here on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network, which will be an interview type of podcast. I know a lot of people have been wondering, when are we going to do another interview show, Mike? It is right now.

But this show in particular, we're going to be focusing on fighters that are looking to make that step or are currently making that next step in their mixed martial arts careers. First of all, I am Mike Heck. Thanks for checking out the show. And to give sort of the cliff notes explanation of the format on this program, for the most part, this is going to be a look at the up and coming talent in the sport of mixed martial arts. I have been saying forever when people ask for advice and all of that to interview everybody, interview the prospects. That's what this show mostly is going to be about, talking to names you may not know about, names you may not know about, names you will. may know about, but these names are getting that spotlight finally, making the most of their

opportunities. Fighters you could see in a high-level promotion or just competed for a high-level promotion, all sorts of different ways, different paths that we can take on this show. And I'm happy, very excited, actually, to help shed some light on that talent, on those fighters who have great stories and are ready to make their mark, ready to make some big moves in the sport of mixed martial arts. And this week, on our first show, we have essentially exact opposite tales, which will be a lot of fun to get into.

So this show is going to drop every Wednesday morning here on the MMA Fighting Podcast Network, and I'm fired up. Let us not waste any time. Let's get into this thing. We get two interviews to get to. And like I said, this week, a little bit of a different direction than most weeks will be on this show. So stayed tuned and that's that.

So wrap it us up this week. We're going to talk to Matt Bassette, 35 pro fights. He had two fights in the UFC, 10 fights in Bellator. But in the New England region, I grew up, lived in Massachusetts for almost my entire life. Matt Bassett is a name that is well known in the region. And he's pretty much been the face of CSMMA for a long, long time. And I bet you're thinking to yourself, how does. Matt Bissette, how does a guy with 35 professional fights, a guy that's been in the UFC,

a guy that's fought for Bellator many times, how does Matt fit in with the theme here? And to be honest with you, he kind of doesn't, but in a way, he sort of does because he's opening up a spot or two for the next wave of talent in the region because on Friday, the mangler, Matt Bissette, became a two-division CES champion. He was already the featherweight champion. He took on Ryan Dela-Cruz in the main event of. CS-64 for the vacant lightweight title. And Matt went out there and dominated.

It was one-way traffic. He went on to submit De La Cruz with this really slick and nasty reverse triangle. And in many people's eyes, I don't know, it's definitely up there. But in a lot of people's eyes, that was the very best performance of Matt Beset's career. And a lot of people feel like he's in the best form of his career right now. even then he gets on the microphone after the victory, becoming a two-division champion, and announces retirement from the sport.

So Matt Bassett's going to give his first interview since his sort of surprising announcement. And in this conversation, he reveals something that's pretty shocking about his fighting career over the last several years, including his UFC run, that he hadn't told anybody before outside of his coaches, his wife,

people in his pretty small circle. So stay tuned for that coming up a little later on. It's a great interview with Matt Bassette. I've been talking to Matt for years and was very excited to get to chat with him post-retirement. And you can judge for yourself, but I feel like this is a decision that's going to stick. But first, kicking us off this week, the very first guest on the show, there were some names, some breakout performances that had a lot of people in the MMA space talking this past weekend. We had UFC Vegas 37.

We had Bellator 266. We had the Bellator debut of Yol Romero. Phil Davis got the win. Anthony Smith had a great performance. But nobody had people talking in our great sport more about than Ben Parrish, a.k.a. big tuna. Big freaking tuna who kicked off the Bellator 266 main card on Saturday, on Showtime. And as a 7-to-1 underdog, making his first best.

Bellator appearance goes out there and pulls off one of the biggest upsets in the company's history. Knocks out Super Prospect, John Jones protege, Christian Edwards in 38 seconds. And that's just part of the story. Because this guy is very unique. He's a character, but in the best possible way. And like I said, he's big freaking tuna. He is big tuna. And I really enjoyed this conversation.

We talked about a lot of different things. we basically hit record and we got after it. And we talked for almost 40 minutes. And it just kind of flies by because it's just so interesting and so fascinating. So the first guest in the history of We Got Next is Big Tuna himself, Ben Parrish. After that, we'll hear from Matt Bissette. And then we'll kind of meet up once again to close up the show. So here he is, Big Tuna.

All right, we move ahead to, in my opinion, the man who stock rose more than anybody's this past weekend, regardless of promotion, Belator, UFC, any of them. Ben Parrish, who pulled off statistically, one of the biggest upsets in Bellator history this past Saturday at Bellator 266. Knoxville Christian Edwards took him just 38 seconds to do so. Short night at the office for Big Tuna, who is kind enough to join us right now.

Ben, how are you? Doing good, man. I'm a little tired. I actually really haven't slept since the fight. We stayed up super late walking the streets of San Jose and airplanes and all that after that. And just pure excitement too. Like I said, some guy asked me on Saturday night when we're walking around, what's it like, dude?

And I said, brother, it's just Sunday. I mean, it's Saturday, tomorrow's Sunday, and we're going to be back at it on Monday. So when I get done with this, I just got off work. I went back to work today, drop my daughter off at school, back to work. When I get done with this, right after work, I got another interview, and I'm driving straight to the gym. I've got two amateurs fighting in Memphis for Attitude MMA this weekend. And we're going to kick off the week strong, man, get right back on it.

You got to go from, you know, you go from fighter. Guy gets a big win, and now you've got to be dad, and you got to be, you know, Ben Parrish, the worker and just be a normal guy again. Is that, I mean, you've been doing this your whole career, right? It's not much of a transition. Is it at this point in your life? A lot of people, like in my family or messaging me saying, man, you're like famous now. And like, you're the closest to anything.

And I was like, no, I'm me. There's one of, I'm one of a kind, unique. You don't worry about fitting in when you're custom made. I try to tell everybody that all the time. and, you know, on top of having a coach Saturday, I'm also refereeing because they need somebody to do it. I referee on the commission here in Mississippi, and that'll be in Tennessee,

so it'll be my first or second time doing it there. I can't remember if I've ever went there. Wow. Are you judged, too, or have you judged any fights? I don't do the judging. My brother is a judge. I don't, because, I mean, Riffin, I'm going to tell you,

Rethin's harder than fighting to, and the fighter in me and even like with Christian Edwards and people have been like no man all day when I'm like man I'm gonna tell you I kind of feel bad for him

I don't feel bad about knocking him out I'm wrong but like you gotta think I just crushed his dreams and mine came true that's the nature of the sport and it's kind of painful to you know admit that but

had to be said I don't really like hurting people I really like winning though and I'm really good at doing that and yeah it is what it is but right back on top of things man I don't want to stop here and slow down yeah and what's interesting you talked about you know your family saying you're you're a celebrity now you're a star and I know you didn't seem all that surprised your circle of people were not all that surprised with what you did on Saturday night there were post all for social media take that line take that line and make yourself some money, but you have gotten a whole bunch of traction since the knock-go-win.

Did you expect all this attention because you were the star of the card? You were the star of the weekend in M&A. No, not really. I mean, they didn't love me when I was beating people up for 10 years. So, like, loving me now, it's great, but like, does it affect me? Nah, I'm going to tell you, I'd do a lot better fighting on television in front of however many thousands versus fighting here locally. where everybody I know is in the crowd watching.

There's more pressure I feel like there. But that being said, I would love to sell out the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, or the FedEx Forum in Memphis, because I know you get me, Hannah Guy, Jalil Willis, just to name a few, I don't know if you know who T. Cummins is, fighting for the LFA title this weekend. You stack all of us on there. you let me fight Rampage Jackson in Memphis to be pretty cool.

I'm telling you I'll sell it out. I've been getting a lot of messages from people all over, especially all over the South, but all over the world even, that if like they either had somebody bully them or they didn't have a lot of confidence, you know, you could fill in those lines however you need be.

They might be depressed, whatever. But, you know, I told them, I'm right here with you. I'm one of you. I'm one of you. I'm just me. You're just you. All you can do is be the best you. and nobody's going to be mad at you if you fall short every now and again, but you should always try your best.

And boy, that right there in itself, like I said, mission complete, man. Even one person telling me that, much less a couple thousand. But I've answered like every one of the fans that I could. And it's overwhelming. I need to hire somebody to do that. Were you, like a lot was made about, you know, the odds for the fight. Or were you noticing them throughout the bill? Like Christian is over minus 1,000 favorite.

Yeah, he was 6 to 1 the first time we were supposed to fight and 6 to 1 the next time. So I'm really like surprised that shot up the 8 and about even some places at it six. One place had it 1,600. Oh, really? Yeah, or minus 1,600. And if I had known that, I would have probably Pete, Pete Rose, that on myself, you know. I have I would be like that

and like man they didn't know I got some friends that's got some money in the mid-south MMA Mafia and dude they made so much money I posted a lot of the ticket stubs

that's starting to rain right now I posted some of the ticket stubs and one guy that owns a jewelry store in New York cashed in $30,000 man he was like man I just seen you And you, I said, man, no judge a book by is covering.

I'm like the American fadournics thing. You know, you like. Is that crazy for you to see, like, somebody winning 30 grand on a fight of yours? No, man, I stole it. And you enjoy that. You ride with me. I'm going to let you take that one for free, man. I don't even want to cut.

That's amazing. So I have so many questions for you, Ben. And we'll get back to the fight itself in a moment. But people clearly want to know more about you since Saturday. people want to know who Big Tuna is. And you've been fighting, you mentioned, you've been beating people off for 10 years, at least from like the record boards

that I've seen, like, topology and stuff, you made your amateur debut in 2013. You're from Tennessee. When did this all begin for you? Like, how did the legend of Big Tuna, the MMA fighter, come to be? All right. So in like 2008 or seven,

and I've been watching MMA since about 2003, maybe 2002. my dad's a big fan, Tank Abbott. Okay, you know who that is. I have. So, I mean, he loved Tank, and we watched, I think it's UFC 43 when he came back to fight Frank Mir. Because Frank Murr had, you know, they brought him out. They brought Tank out there to the ring, said we're going to bring some life back in the vision.

We were like, all my dad's like, whoa. We had to check that out. Dude, I just fell in love with it after that. And, you know, back in the day, they might would call me a touch. tough dude. I watched the ultimate fighter, Chris Leib and Forrest Griffin, all them guys. 2008, I was playing football, and they took me out of football because of my math grades.

And, like, I just had to count backwards from 100 in increments of seven to pass my neurological exam in California. And my math is really good. Like, I struggled with it. So I pretty much, pretty much while I dropped out of college, I did two years in junior college. And I was fighting, man. And I had some stuff.

of it always comes up in your personal life that's going to for it you and it was either stay in school and finish one more year or take the ball and run with the fighting career man and my first fight was in 2012 October 2012 another thing about that is like they watch these videos like i heard josh thompson talk about he watched some of my videos and john and i'm sure christian edward did too but can you not check the time stamp on the video when it was posted and you'll see like This is, you know, 2012 was about to be 10 years ago. Not even close. That was my very first fight.

It's not even close to the same techniques, shape, any of that stuff. So why would you even bank off a lot? But the site that, that guy fought me. He was like 2 and 0. He looked twice to my size. Even my own dad thought I was going to lose. A lot of people thought I'd lose my first fight, too. His name's Montreal Grant.

It's on YouTube somewhere. smashed him, bro. I mean, I beat them all. And it's just because I'm a master at what I do. And I think a lot of the image really plays into it. You know, they look at me, and I saw it when I fought the Mississippi State strength coach, Bob Steiner, when Dak Prescott and him were there, I touched on that. I hope he hears about that because I feel like when I starched him, I feel like the football

team, he didn't stay in Mississippi State very much longer after that. And I don't know if they hounded on him or made fun of him, too. but I mean, he's a tough guy. He would whip every one of those guys in their team if they ever did that. I don't know if they did, but I just want them to know, like, mad respect to Bob, especially, and love beating those state players. I kept on and on and on. I went undefeated.

I did have a loss as an amateur, but it was a really terrible call from the ref. The ref was just sure. It was awful. I rematch the guy and beat him, beat everybody else. I'm only lost as a pro, and people also. say how big and bad Christian was they've never heard of a guy named Teddy Holder that I beat for a regional title. He knocked out Tiago Silva.

He's a lot more dangerous than aforementioned Christian Edwards are, you know, a lot of people. Yep. And then I've worked the job and had all this other stuff going on the whole time. I worked at sawmills. I've built couches. I did desk jobs. I mean, I've done it all. and put myself through it, man.

Nobody ever helped me except my brother, my mom. And past that, my dad, I don't really, I love all the love and support that people are giving me. That has always been there. But, you know, like physical help or anything like that, they help me get through it. You know, there's been times that when I broke my leg, you know, I couldn't even walk and had to have help

jumping in and out of the shower. And to bounce back from that, And I told Morrow NEM that I would kick him with my left leg because, I mean, I will. I fear nothing. And when you're not, I don't know, I started going back to church a lot too here recently. And like when you don't fear dying, especially, and I thought I was going to die the night I broke my leg, they gave me so much pain medicine and just all things considered, the adrenaline dump, almost vegan diet, making middle weight. I've always gotten hurt trying to go to middle weight. I said, I'm just going to stop.

I've made it three times and I got hurt every single time. I tore my ACL. I burnt my hand and I burnt my leg. And I just said, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm going to stay at 2 or 5. When I hit people, they hit the ground. And, you know, I'm still faster than most light heavy weights are walking deep freezes. And I put them on ice, turn them inside out.

There you go. Can I ask where the nickname came from? Because there's nicknames out there that take over even the actual fighter name, like GSP and Thug Nasty. Like Big Tuna. I feel like Big Tuna. I feel like the nickname is taking out of life. Because Thug Nasty is my cousin, man.

I've known Bryce Mitchell since I was 19, since I started fighting since about 2012. We both fought on a show in Memphis, Tennessee together. But, yeah, Big Tuna. I have a boxing coach that I've worked with from Boston, Massachusetts, since Dr. Mark Romano, it's chiropractor. here in town. He's one of my sponsors now. He started calling me that. And I didn't know that it was because I got,

I kind of throw around a New York accent every once in a while. My dad was his fan. And it was because there's a mobster named that. I always ate tuna all the time. It's probably my favorite. I would rather have a two mistake than a rib eye most times. And there's also a movie called the other guys. Yeah. where he was he's like oh you big tuna if you were a tuna and i was lying i'd swim out and eat

you and he's just like no you could never do that he said that was something that i would say which is true never happened 900 pounds 600 pounds easy on any given day that's hilarious so um so but i thought for for a minute there because of you know you're a young man i thought maybe it was from the i know on the tv show the office and he called jim big tuna and i don't know anything to do with that. I'm going to catch a lot of flat from this. Man, I can't get into the office. You can't?

And I got actually recommended that to me. Wow. All right. Listen. I'll give it another chance. I mean, this was when my leg was broke, so I was in a lot of pain.

And nothing was really sitting well with me. So I just cut the TV off. Have you ever watched The Sopranos? Probably my favorite TV show, right? I didn't watch it until I broke my leg. As a matter of fact, I never seen it. but I felt like Junior when he was a prison in his own home.

You know, like, proclamation, they can't go train. Oh, man. Are you going to see the movie? Oh, yeah. And hey, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to hate on Deanna Bennett's coach. I don't know his actual name. I forgot. I had a lot going on.

But I asked him, they're from New Jersey. And I was like, oh, we got the many saints in Newark in here. And he goes, why does everybody always associate New Jersey with the support? Sopranos or Jersey Shore. And I was like, oh, man, shuttle down the anti-tallion movement over here still was talking about. They're like, okay, I know they give you a bad rap. I'll just love them along after that.

I can understand the Jersey Shore, but I think, come on. The Supranos is one of the greatest shows of all time. It's a good show regardless of, you know, anyway. So I liked a lot of what you had to say after the fight, and I know in the Post-Fight press conference and other different avenues of of putting your thoughts up there, you address the trolls. You thrive on the trolls. Has it always been like that for you?

Because some people ignore it. Others get powered up by it. Why is it the latter for you? Brother, I grew up playing in the Halo 2 and 3 and Call it Duty Lobbies. Like there's nothing they can say to me to hurt my feelings. And I've just always thrived off of it, man. It's like something about like actually wanting me to lose or get hurt. Anything, you know, all things considered to take.

could possibly say to me. I just take it. I'm like, okay, we'll put that back and remember this. We'll revisit this later. We could talk about it. And I did, man. I went full Jay and Silent Bob Strike back. Me and my brother taking turns, going back in the comments, you know, hit them with the question

mark, hit them with the quotes, screenshots, all of the above. I've even got flag. And now, mind you, I'm not like, I don't try to be super ugly to anybody. I've had some pretty, pretty ugly stuff said to me that I've got screenshots and I'd just laugh about it, but I called a guy a bitch. Because I said I would bitch slap him or something like that. And they threatened to ban me on Instagram. I screenshot it posted on my Instagram story.

They were threatening to ban me. And I'm like, do you understand how many things I've been called in the past two weeks? And it's okay. Listen now, I want everybody to hear this. I'm letting everyone harmed me verbally, physically, any of the above. Don't let me forget that note there.

I'm going to let you off the hook. I'll give you a pass. One last, one last time. Look at me when I say it. One last time. Do not doubt me again. Do not bet against me again. My own people here in town and at home,

surrounding areas, Memphis and Nashville, Little Rock, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, West Monroe. You know what time it is. Get on board, or you're going to be left out in the deep water. Last morning. And the bullying thing,

I've never been, let me clear that up too. I've never been bullied. You can imagine why. The few times it was attempted, they were thwarted because the neighborhood I grew up in, I was the youngest of 10 boys. My buddy, who's also an undefeated pro-imm-made fighter,

I'm going to try to get him back in the game. His name's Daniel Morgan. You remember his name also? If you think I'm dangerous, he literally invented people like I hit Christian. We come from a karate background. My base is I started in 2008 to lose weight. I had heart problems at a young age when I quit football. I think between me being kind of ADHD and a little excited, I forgot to touch on that.

That's really what got me started. I was like, man, if I'm going to play a sport, I'm tired of playing team sports where there's politics. And like, you know, I'm playing first and third down and the coaches' kids or whoever's playing. The who's who in the yearbooks get to play. Whatever, man. I want it to be on me. So I love fighting because you can't blame anybody but yourself the end of the day. And, you know, I think a lot of people are going to be really stunned when I tell you this.

Like, I don't even, I technically don't even really have a coach. My coach is my jitsu coach, Cody Floyd. he's Black Belt, but he's 170 pounds, and, you know, he's not a striker. I'm really more of a striker. We're really the coaches. So I'm literally training people while I train for these fights, and I've always done it that way. And everyone's always said, Ben, you've got to go to top team, Ben, you've got to go to Jackson's, Ben, you've got to go to Sanford, which I would love to go to Sanford, M&A with my guy Saul Rogers, Coach Jones. I love hanging out with those guys this week.

But I don't have to do anything. Let's be clear. They're not going to make me anything better except for the loops and the rounds. Right? Like I've been studying MMA for 10 years. So I'm going to say that like instead of going to college, I got a master's in mixed martial arts. That's my,

it's going to be it. Bryce Mitchell says the same thing, man. Bryce Mitchell's far and, you know, with the kids class. If they come in there and wants some, he's just doing the work. You do the work,

everybody. Like, they don't make it any more complicated than it has to be. Five minute round. I'm mixed martial arts. You know the rules, unified rules. If you don't go listen to Big John McCarthy, he helped write them. Did I hear at the press conference that you said,

because this is the third time this fight was booked with Christian Edwards, that you were, that if this fight fell off again that you were done fighting, is that? Oh, yeah. Okay, so why that decision? I walk through this. I'm, it's late or early March this year.

I'm at my girlfriend's house, walking around the front yard, playing with my dog. And manager calls me, and he asked me to fight the guy that fought Rumble, Gougu. For that Friday. And I was like, I mean, I don't need to, but I would love that. I would love to in theory, but, you know, they don't want to book it like on their next show.

Give me at least three weeks. And he was like, no, just don't worry about it. Just, you know, I'll call you back. And, well, like another week went by and he called me back, Matt Wobble with first round management, by the way. He called me back. He says, hey, man, if you're not going to believe this, dude, are you ready? And I was at work this day.

and he told me the deeds, the contract, all that. And I literally started to drive. I was like, hell yeah. How long do we got? He was like five and a half weeks on the dot or something like that. And I was like 240 pounds, 235. I don't even really know. And I was like, okay, well, I know what to do.

You just make sure everything's squared away and I'll be there. Fast forward montage, Uncle'sville, Connecticut, at Mohegan's son, made weight. I just had a feeling that more. morning when I woke up, something wasn't right. Call me crazy, but I hadn't been sure enough. And I actually told my corner, Nathan Medlin, that was with me, I was like, man, something don't feel right, dude.

This is, this never happened to me. I've never had an opponent back out one time and I got a replacement. And most of the other times that I had backouts or whatever shows canceled, just because I couldn't find anybody to fight from around here. They didn't want to risk it to get into there, man. and like Matt talked on that. You can be scared money, don't make money. You want to sit at home and fight cans.

Be my guess. Not me. I want to get shot out of a cannon. And that's what I want next. I want, you know, something fun, something, something the fans will want to see, man. Like I said, you saw the Crow Cops shorts, the Mauricio Shogun, ground, and bound,

and the Fador stand up. Like, I don't feel like I need to tell you too much else, man. They can think whatever they want. Like, I really, I don't care. I could tell that John and Josh, doing their little interview and hats off to them too. I hope they're not mad at me because I broke their balls a little bit. But, you know, here comes my neighbor.

Don't be alarmed here in a second. You're about to get to see what life in my neighbor was. But he, um, what's up? He comes, uh, he comes, you know, I took no disrespect, really. to what they said but like dude i know what i'm doing out here and if i tell you that i'm fast and it's not necessarily that i'm fast i may not be able to run a four flat anymore you know you would talk to mike heck real quick what's up man getting a whole big tune his whole neighborhood you see my car out here man i actually hit the i hit a 200 pound dough um literally the

week i was going to connecticut to fight christian edwards the first time and it's a lucky i mean it took I drove it home and it's like I fixed it. I got to get a new battery and some stuff for it. But it's a lucky I didn't seriously get hurt up by that. I'm seriously thankful by that. Like, I mean, it was, it was, should have come through my windshield. I had my Bible sitting on the dashboard and I think it's the only thing to save me. But so fight cancels.

Thank, thank God for Bellator. And they still pay me show money. They still paid me show money. and all that and and then I had go home and just sit there like

dang man now what never had that happen before no replacement and then they rebooked it immediately I was like awesome six weeks sorry about that

you never six weeks did it again man same routine same practice. You know what I mean? Like I said, you fight a tall,

skinny striker, there's only so many ways to beat it. There's only so many ways you can beat you. If you really watch, it's a lot to look at in 38 seconds.

I think Robin Black could probably figure it out, but watch my feet, watch my head, watch my hands. Just leave it at that, man. Then I'm literally,

like, I felt bad, and I thought it was just from back-to-back camps. I didn't take any breaks. Run down, felt terror. beat up I actually got cut you can't tell it now but the week I was supposed to fly out I got cut

pretty I mean I was bleeding pretty bad but I wasn't going to say anything and then Thursday I took with a Wednesday before all because I was so like just beat up I thought I could use the rest the exact same still grinded out five minute five five minute rounds on the pads with my guy Frankie Shugart and I'm feeling pretty good after that and then the Bellator people call me the doctor calls me and tells me I got COVID and I can't come and I chalked it up to

just being sore but it really had a viral infection and my body was just I mean my hips were hurt really bad my knees my elbow everything was hurting and then I lost my taste of my smell and I knew they weren't lying I knew it wasn't false and uh yeah Edwards still fought one and I honestly thought that they would I honestly thought that they would

bump him up. And I told him that after the fight. I talked to him after the fight and told him what I thought and what he needed, what I thought he should do. And I know he makes enough money now he can be really young, he's young, young. He's got all the time, man. He just needs to get better. Fix his defense.

Rework his offense. And everything else fall in place, man. They'll take care of him over there. But, I thought they would bump them up and didn't leave much hope for me. I told my manager to tell them, I mean, I'll fight anybody you got just for the chance.

It doesn't matter about time. I'm in shape. I went on vacation, come back, and then my manager thought maybe our best option was to do a regional fight and defend my championship here at home because he didn't think they were really going to play ball. I mean, look at me, look at my record, coming off a loss,

to be going from laying in the hospital bed for three days to fighting on national TV, opening up Showtime sports. I love Bellator's announcer. The only thing that I would have loved to hear would be Jimmy Lennon Jr., calling my name out. I mean, I think I did well on that, man. And get the win like that. I mean, I knew I would do it.

that. And if it didn't go like that, if I didn't lay him out or he didn't lay me out, I don't know what would have happened, man. I think I could have beat him anywhere, and I know he felt the same way about me. But I got a lot to show, and I don't think anybody will believe it when they see it. Like I said, they're going to discredit me, Mike. They're going to say it was luck. They're going to say all the lucky punch, flute, broke clock right twice a day, all to the above. And I was telling him, man, I think I'm going to retire if they don't. give me this fight or I'm going to do this regional fight. And if nobody wants to sign me after that, I'm just going to retire on top.

And as top as I can get because, I mean, I'm getting old. You know, I'm fixing it to be 29 next week. A lot of injuries. And so the only thing left for me, I just lived my dream, man, fighting on Showtime. You know, I've watched every strike force. I've watched so many boxing events on Showtime. anything left after me is making money and having fun. And if I'm not having fun, I don't even want to do it.

And it's got to that point where it's not fun. It's more like work than anything else. And it's hard. People don't understand how hard it is until you do it. But I never gave up. And I don't think anybody else should. Now, there comes a point in time. Like, I'm responsible also.

I have a daughter to think about, my own health to think about. I've just thought, you know, anything else for, less than what I would be making to fight for Bellator or any of these big promotions would just the risk would outweigh the worth and you know I might break my other leg or tear my other knee up and it's always a possibility and always will be but you got to be committed and anything like that

you know the monetary gain kind of helps and I don't I'd ever did it for the money man I just wanted the chance to show like we can get down down here that you know what they should do this is a million dollar idea. They really should hire like an MMA talent agent. I sat by the talent scout for the San Jose Sharks on my way home. He was going to Arizona and going somewhere else to. But I got to thinking like, and they should do that.

Like, I could do that. When I get done, I think when I get done fighting again, I think it's probably what I'll do because I know through all the up-and-coming guys from the top of Tennessee to the almost tip of floor. or amateur and professional. And this is all I've done for a little bit over 10 years, man. This is all I do. It's all I know.

That's pretty much icing on the cake for me, man. Just getting that W, they're showing them that I wasn't lying, telling the truth to set you free, you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Matt, you could talk to Matt. You could be Matt's talent scout for first round. He likes the up-and-coming guys anyways. He's got a good eye for talent anyways.

Believe me, I've talked about him. I don't know. Maybe I had to make him a believer too, but think about it. Think about if the UFC or Bellator had somebody hired to do that to make these people, do you find these people like me that you've been missing that can get on the mic and they can get in the ring. That's what you won't, man. You want those guys.

You need them. Or the sport's going to have. I'm not going to have enough for anybody. I'm just saying, you don't, there's certain people that you don't want to,

you don't want to get popular, but, yeah, you know, so you sent out a tweet earlier that caught my eye in a lot of other people's eyes, that your mom was booted off of MMA Reddit

because she was defending you against trolls. Is that true? What the hell happened? I don't really know. She was telling me about it earlier. I don't, I can't actually. confirmed that they booted her off, but I don't think she would make it up.

And I'm trying to run all my social media myself and stuff right now. But I got my brother helping me with my Twitter account. I don't really like using Twitter. He relays any information I need to know to me. He probably posted that. I actually didn't know that. But I did know that they booted her off the Reddit and she got on there. She probably just threatened them physically.

honestly. Like, we're not going to talk about it where I'm from. We just get it going. That's unbelievable. I can tell you, Ben, since Saturday, you have become a favorite amongst everyone here at MMA fighting. And actually, before I finished that thought, that was your first fight with Bellator. You get a big win. And I know you mentioned Hannah Guy. She was in a similar spot not long ago. She did not get a contract right after, at least at this moment. She didn't get a multi-fight deal. I know she's got a regional fight coming up. What is your status? is bellatory. Do you have a deal with them yet? Have you had any discussions after that?

Matt, Malky and A. can talk to him, man. I don't even, I'm not going to say I don't care, but I just want something fun. I'd love to make more money any of the above, man. I mean, I'm just happy to be here, really. Dream come true. Pass that, man. Like I said earlier, just have some fun, man. Come on.

Put me in there. I'm not, I'm, I'll fill in for that guy to fight Nimcoff. get serious like i don't fight for door if you won't me too did that be fine so let me let me let me tell you this all right because here's since saturday

I don't want to get out of here okay how did you get out of here wow escape artist no what we've been saying since Saturday is uh one bellator should lock you up ASAP they should sign you to a hundred

fight deal and not only that, they should strap the rockets to you. Big tuna. And the fight I think that we all thought should be made is you versus Yol Romero. And just throw you in there at the big dog, give you a big name. I know you mentioned Rampage, but just give you another chance to sort of shock the world. And I know you're both under the same umbrella. That's the fight I want to see.

What are your thoughts on you versus Y'all Romero? I think that's, no one would frown at that fight, Ben, not one person. I'd be down, man, let's do it. I'll fight Phil, I'll fight whoever. You know what Joe Elson? Manchester, London, Las Vegas, Cuba, I'm there, man, I'm here for it.

I just need to know you give me plenty of time because, like, this time, this time, now that I got a little notice, I hope, you know, I'm going to give it my everything. We're talking, we're talking three days. It's the whole nine. Like, I mean, right now, now I literally work seven to three pick my little girl up from school drive 30 minutes straight

to the gym work out for hour and a half drive home rents repeat some morning sessions some doubles you know as much as I can I just do you I work with the straps I'm given but man I'm telling you when you got this on lock I'm playing five card poker with seven cards my friend when do you want to get back in there when do you want to fight again either ace out or next year, beginning and next year, because most people are asking why did I go back to work today, man? It's easy to spend money. It's not easy to make it.

I've got a really good job. I'd like to talk with them to and get them on the same page as me. Like, I don't, I can't fight forever. So I always just want this to fall back on when I get older. Because I have to, you know, I gain Wade and all kind of stuff. I'll see you, bro. I think either ASAP or next year, but I want to put everything into it. I don't have any vacation hours left.

They probably let me off. But holidays coming up, man. I haven't had any time to spend on my daughter. Like I'm actually when I leave here and go to the gym, we're going to go train for an hour. I told her we had to go and do something fun, man, with her. Because I've been so busy, man. I don't get to spend a lot of time. and I've even told, like, a lot of amateur fighters,

and it's not about the money. I train them for free, but, like, don't waste my time. Like, when I told one guy, don't train him for a match. And he got to N-N-N-N-Vy, and I was like, how many times you worked out since last Friday when we talked about this? He started typing it for real long. I said, just stop typing and tell me the number zero. You know what I mean?

Don't waste my time. If I'm out here grinding, suffering with no free time, guess what? You don't deserve any either. Do you want to do this? not it's free. Agreed. Last thing, Ben, I know you want to spend some time with your daughter.

A few minutes ago as we record this, and I don't know if you posted this or your brother did on Twitter, a photo from eight years ago popped up. You got a pride hoodie on. You got a homemade belt on that's his... Okay. A photo came up on your Twitter is from eight years ago, and you got a pride hoodie on,

you got a homemade belt on that's people's champ. You get the long, flowing locks here. Yeah, I mean, it's some curious. I believe you. I believe you. If you could go back right now and talk to that guy in that photo for five minutes, what would you say to him? Keep going.

So what I'd tell him. The only thing left is the world championship. I'd rather get it sooner than later. Sit, man. There you go. Tell them the same thing. I'd also tell him, set your location. up there.

But even in the Edwards fight, there was a, there was twice I threw him and he just didn't. When I rear-legged him with my right leg, that one hurt, like hurt him. But like, he almost caught me with the cross there. But when he threw it, I knew that's the moment I knew that I had him because he just didn't have that pop. He was fully measured off. He should have really hit me hard, at least not me all balanced. And I said, man, you know what?

I may just jump inside and go toe to toe with him. make him run from me because he wasn't running from me his coaches failed him in that department i think i mean and and you know i told him he said in the interview he's just a jihitsu guy i slammed the high kick off his guard and was like oh you just jihitsu remember and i could tell right then he was like okay and they all when i when i low kick him really hard i know it has to hurt bad um he i seen it come over him like he's been to come try to get me out of there because he thinks he can and and i saw it man saw a perfect opportunity like Marrow said, he switched to South Paul and it cut over.

It's funny, Big John said it was similar to Bisping Rockhold. I didn't copy Bisping for anything, but we did watch that fight the day before the fight in the hotel room just moved aboard. So it's kind of funny to see that. Oh, wow. That's awesome, man. I think you've got a lot more fans now as well. Congratulations.

Incredible performance. I love seeing when guys and gals have their moments and they come up. almost out of nowhere in the national scene, the global scene, and their stocks rise as quickly as yours is right now. It's just an amazing thing to see. So well done to you again, Big Tuna. Looking forward to seeing what's next for you. And if I'm Bellator, I am getting on the phone of Matt Weibel and I'm signing you up for the long term. All right, we move ahead to one of the big winners in the sport this past weekend, made of NFCS 64, became the CES lightweight champion, his second title, pretty slick submission win over Ryan Dela Cruz, reverse triangle in the third round,

It was one-way traffic. And then he announces his retirement from the sport right in the middle of the CES cage. So let us say hello to Matt the Mangler Beset, who was kind enough to join us just a few days after this surprising announcement. Matt, how are you? What's up, man? I'm doing good. It's good talking to you as well. First things first, congratulations on the win, the second title, and on one hell of a career.

Matt, you and I, we've been having these chats for several years now. And I didn't think we'd be having this type of conversation at this point in our careers. Life is a wild ride. So a few days later, is there, would you say there's like a sense of relief, some weight lifted off of your shoulders now that the fight is over and the announcement was officially made? I think the weight was lifted off my shoulders as soon as I, as soon as he tapped out to the reverse triangle.

Today, I want to fight. It's so fucked up. I just been doing this for almost 15 years every single day. two, three times a day. It's all I wanted to do for so long. But like, I'm completely content with my decision. Like, I'm not going to be, you know, that guy that retires and then comes back two, three times. It's just, it's not going to happen. But it's just something that I've done every single day for so long that it's in my blood. Like, I want to fight. I want to compete. And like, training was always like, do it because you love it. But the end goal is compete when,

and get better, you know, grow your status throughout the sport. Now, like, the goal is different. The goal is just to, I guess, have fun and, you know, get better and then pass along my knowledge. And it's just something that I'm going to have to get used to. You kept telling you, and you're a terrific self-promoter, anybody who's followed you throughout your career. And you kept telling everybody, in essence, this is the fight you don't want to miss. If you watch one fight of mine, make it this one.

And I think we know why. And of course, this is supposed to be the big grudge match with Bruce Boynton. All people have to do is follow both of you on social media to get both sides of that story in regards to what happened there. But this seems, at least in my eyes, to be your decision for a while now. Like when did you have those conversations with yourself, your family, your team that this next fight, that's it. We're done. I mean, I think I honestly, I told everybody about it in like a Facebook live for, I think it was Facebook, Facebook live. back when I first got the call to the UFC.

My wife and I decided that fighting Jamal Emers was going to be my last fight. And that was at the beginning of 2018. It was going to be my last fight. And, you know, it was obviously a really sad moment. 12 hours later, I get the call from the UFC saying I'm fighting. So it was like, oh, my God. It was like everything changed at that moment. So, you know, I fought my fight in the UFC.

And then I got another fight in the UFC. and, you know, I lost both those with pretty close fights. And then it was like, all right, you know, we're out of the UFC, but I can't go out like that. I fought dueling and that was a great fight. And I just, you know, I felt that, that rush, that victory again. And I was like, you know, let's continue this. And like there was always on the talking to my wife, like, so what's next? So how many got left?

And we decided upon two left last year, like, midday. of last year. And it was going to be, they're both going to be for, so the goal was to, no, the goal changed a little bit, but there was going to be two left. And then I took the short notice, semi-short notice fight against Jeremy Kennedy for Bellator. That was one. And then it was going to be one more left. I also told Jimmy Jr. and Pat Sullivan that I was, I would like to take the lightweight strap and then drop down and defend the featherweight title one more time. But that was before we had a couple big doors open in our lives. So those, those aren't going to be addressed in this interview. But, you know, probably five months ago, maybe,ish,

it was 100% landed on that this was going to be the last fight. It was going to be September 17th, no matter who the opponent was. And that's why it was so frustrating for me that Bruce did what he did because there's no fight now. And it's not like there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing. It's been decided. I'm done. And my life is more than just cage fighting.

And, you know, I think people understand that. Most people understand that. Then there's going to be a select few. They're like, dude, you got to keep fighting not after a performance like that. And I'm like, I get it. Because in my back of my head, I'm like, dude, you got to. keep fighting, not after a performance like that. But I'm, I've been Matt Bissette a lot longer than I've been with Mangler.

So, uh, moving on. What was the walk to the cage like on Friday night? I mean, the decision was made, win, lose or draw, this was it. Knowing that was the last time you were making that walk, doing it in CES, you've been, I mean, CES is home to you. It's, you're one of the face of the company. You've believed in them. They've treated you so well and vice versa.

How would you describe that final? a walk to the cage. Yeah, it's, it's funny. That's a great question because I've had that walk, like the last walk about a million times in my own head in my head. Like, what's it going to be like? What song am I going to walk out to? How many people are going to be there? What's it going to be? How loud is it going to be? Where is it going to be? All this would like go through your head. And then like, you know, when I when I walked up to the CES curtain there, I was like, fuck yeah just got so content real quick and like real real quick and i honestly didn't think about anything else except for the cage so that walk to the cage it was just all business man there were people

to my right and left and like couldn't tell you exactly who was there it was just like fuck man business time and it was like as soon as that clicked in i never i didn't think about anything else other than the fight during the fight i didn't think about The walk, the last, the last Iran, nothing existed except for get it done. And I'm glad that happened because I've had, like I said, 36 fights, not one of the times have I ever thought about what was happening in my life outside of that fight. And that's one thing that's always crossed my mind. Like, am I going to be able to like not think about X, Y, Z while I'm in the cage?

And you're always like, oh, am I going to think about this, that, or the next thing? So you got a lot of, everybody's got a lot of stuff that's going on in their life. and are they being able to manage those emotions and thoughts throughout like the craziness and the fight? You know, I've never once thought about anything but the fight. And I've, uh, I guess that's just the, I don't know what that is. Maybe that's the, the gamer and the focus that I've had. When you sort of put that timetable on everything, like two more fights, September 17th,

this is it. How important was that for you to like have an ironclad number in place? Because like you said, especially in this. sport, it's Monday. You just retired on Friday. And the feeling you have just because you're so used to it is that I want to freaking fight again. Like I'm content with the feeling, but I want to go fight again. Like how important was that for you? Because it's it's hard to make that decision. 2018, you thought about it. And then things changed. There was two more fights. It has to be two more fights. Like how important was that to actually put a solid number on it? I guess. Honestly,

this is probably everything because there's always going to be that voice in the back of your head that says, dude you can do more you're you're you're killing it in training you know you're getting better that the fact that you just did what you did um for the the the second title two division champion for c s like nobody's done that you got to defend them you got to defend both you got it you can keep going and i know i can that's a frustrating part the frustrating part is like you're retiring on top you're retiring after a lot people can't ask me like dude that's the best performance you've ever had and i'm like i know damn it you know you know And it's like very, very, very, very few people can do that.

Very few people can just hang it up after something like that. They wait too long. They lose two, three. They become BJ Penn. They become Anderson Silva or they're just losing all the time. Chuck Liddell, you know, nobody wants to see that. And I never wanted that to happen to me because, you know, time is undefeated. Time is undefeated.

If you've waited around too long, you know, the younger, hungry, faster guys, they're going to catch up as you get slower. You know, it's just like if you're up here and they're down here, after a while, you're going to come down and they're going to go up. It's just, it's how it is. Time is undefeated. So I didn't want to fall into that. So I guess, you know, making that definitive decision to make September 17th,

my last fight was crucial. Like you said, it was a tremendous performance. You look great, dominant. You lock the triangle in on the third. tapped and then all that emotion came out of you. Like you said, it's all everything just the freedom, the weight lifted off of your shoulders. And I've seen you finish fights before. There's excitement. Sometimes you're a little bit stoic in there and making, you know, great, Will Paul takes great photos of the aftermath. You're making weird faces and there's blood everywhere. But this was obviously

very emotional. So outside of just weight flying off your shoulders, like how would you describe the feeling that came over you on Friday night once you tapped? Yeah, it was, it was, uh, like, I said during the fight, I don't think about that at all. And as soon, it was as soon as he tapped, I didn't think about the fight at all. All I thought about was the release. It was just like instantaneous where I was like, you're done. No more stress. Like you don't have to think about, you don't have to like, as soon as you're done, you don't go in the back like who's next.

What's next? You know, got to get back to training. It's just like just never, it seemed seemingly never ending grind. It seemingly never ending like mind. mind fuck of like just this battle that goes on in your head like who's next how the fight going to go it's it's so fucking stressful man if you've so stressful but all you do it's like it's like it drug me you just want more and more and it's crazy like there are people that have you know a hundred fights how do you go through that constantly i don't know how i went through it for 36 fights it's it's a lot

bro. And like people ask me at like five, eight, 10, 12 fights, they're like, I'm still nervous, man. I don't know if I could do this. Like, how do you do it? How do you stay stoic? How do you stay, you know, uh, at ease? I'm like, I don't. You just fucking figure it out, man. Um, it, it doesn't get easier. You just know what to expect is what it is, you know, um, like sprinting before fights. It sucks, but you just know what to expect. Um, so you just, you just, you just, embrace it. You just go in there knowing like exactly what's going to happen. All you're going to think about is cutting the weight. Once you get, you cut the weight. You're going to feel really good about making the weight. You're going to eat after your first meal. You're going to go, okay.

And your focus switches. Everybody else at the table is like, oh, so happy. Like cutting weight, you're fighting tomorrow. And then all of a sudden, like, you were happy. And now you're like, focus. You know what I mean? And then you go to bed that night and like you're okay. But as soon, if you wake up during the middle of the night, fuck going back. to bed because now you're like and i got 14 hours before the fight can i sleep and you're trying to nap during the day you're like am i going to be able to nap like what has this fight going to go it doesn't matter who you're fighting you can be fighting Diego nunez or you can be fighting uh who's my first fight uh christian craya you know you can be fighting the top the bottom whatever you're you still

have those same nerves and there's nothing you could do about it fight one fight 36 they're gonna be there. You just got to embrace it. How did you sleep Thursday night? Thursday night. I slept while I was in my own bed, so it was nice. But my daughter has had a little cold, just super stuffy past two weeks, and she has woken up countless times throughout the night, every night for two weeks. So my wife and her were going to go sleep at her moms, but that changed. So they slept at the house. So I woke up five, six times. I didn't sleep for crap Thursday night. And it was just like, whatever. It is what it is. Like she's my daughter. You know, at the end of the day, it's just one fight for the rest of my life. And I, you know, I'm dad for the rest

of her life. So that's, that's number one. I got to make sure she's okay. So I didn't, you know, I didn't go sleep at a, uh, I didn't go sleep at a, um, a hotel or, you know, ask Ashley to leave or anything like that. It's just like, you deal with it. You know, the pre fight, uh, free fight stressors. And then after the win, you get a nice sendoff from your friends, teammates, fans. What was that like the post-fight mangler after party? What's funny is, what is it like two, three days before the weigh-ins? My coach in this group message with my wife and Jeff, Dad, hey, just want to let you know

that there's a surprise party for you right after the fights. It's only 100 people can go because of COVID. But we didn't know exactly who to invite who you wanted. So here you go. And I'm like, the fuck. Like, dude, I got a fight coming up. The last flight. You're going to put this on me.

So now I'm going to invite like only 100 people. I got to make sure that they show up. I got to like, what are you doing, bro? And like it was funny but obnoxious at the same time. But we probably had like, I don't know, roughly 60 to 80 people in and out throughout most of the time. It was a perfect number and it was really cool. Russell did this perfect speech. The guy's amazing.

One of my best friends. Shout out to Russell Leak. He did a really, really good speech. It was really nice. And then he goes, all right, I'm going to turn the floor over to Matt. I was like, all right, doing this speech, I guess. So I had said some nice words. And then that was that.

It was just I have a couple of drinks, have some food. And yeah, awesome night. Yeah, Russell, I, I was the ring announcer for the last ammo card and Russell cornered a few fighters and dude, motivated me, man. I got up and yelled in that microphone after hearing Russell give some corner advice tunes around, man. That guy's a motivator, is he not?

He's got some, uh, he's a veteran. He's cornered a couple of fights at the lowest level and the highest level. A lot of guys that have just fought their first fight at the very lowest level of amateur. He's cornered a ton of just regular smoker fights. But even then, like Russell was talking to me last week, he's like, you watch it. somebody win their first smoker like my, my brother-in-law, Dominic, he won his first smoker and he was so pumped. And Russell said, you do a lot of times, you put your time in with a guy like that who's just in here every day, bust in his ass, and he has his first smoker fight.

And it's not even sanctioned, you know, it's just like go out there and do what you can. And he gets a victory. And like, you feel more rewarded after, you know, after he wins and after seeing him go through those emotions. and being excited and proud of himself, get more from that than you would, me after my first UFC fight. It's like those are two entirely different things on the spectrum, but at the same time, like, I get it.

I get it. That first fight is pretty amazing. We saw Russell on ESPN Plus a couple weeks ago because he was cornering Carlos Candelario, who fought on the Contender Series once again, lost a close decision. I thought he won that fight. I think everybody who watched that fight

thought he won that fight, and he gets a contract anyways, which is pretty cool. So you seeing that all play out and watching Carlos after everything he's gone through since the first time he's on the contender series to bounce back, fight, get a win for CES after the long layoff and then like a week and a half, a couple weeks later, going to the contenders series and get a contract. What was that like for you to watch? That was awesome, man. That kid puts in, he's just like me in a sense, like he just shuts up and works. Show up, shut up work.

That's it, man. Like, I think we're both different people during training too. I'd like to think myself as a goofball, someone who's just constantly playful. And I think Carlos is very, very loving, very playful as well. But then when it's time of train, it's just like laser-like focus. You're there for a reason. You're there to get better. And I honestly, I hope that's a little different now that I'm done fighting.

I hope that I'm a little bit more approachable. But, you know, he works, man. He just shows up and he works. and to see something, because he's had a lot of adversity over the years, too. He's broken his arm during grappling competitions. He's obviously tore his ACL in a fight. He's had several different things happened during fights during training that have put him on the fighting on the back burner over time. And he has had to, he's had this X amount of years training and competing, but only nine fights now, nine fights, right?

I think he's nine fights. He could have fought more, it could be to more had he been injury-free. So, but like I said, he just throw some windex on it and just gets back in the gym. You know, it's a shut up and train mentality, shut up and fight mentality. He's got that too. So it's good to see him achieve what he's always set out to achieve. So the door opens for him, professional homemade, that door closes for you, decision made, professional in May career is over.

You know this is a question everyone asks in time. likes these and you said you're content and you don't want to be that guy that you sponsor back and forth. But can you definitively say 100% you fought your final fight? Nothing will ever get you back? Yeah. So there's yes again. And the reason I say that is because two reasons. One, because my job is incredibly time consuming. And a lot of times I'm with my daughter first shift. I work second shift. As soon as my wife gets home, I leave. and then a lot of times I'm drafted to third shift also I'll be up for over 24 hours at a time so if I didn't train during that day that was with my my daughter while she slept now I'm not trained for two or three days in a row because I have to sleep the next day and then the following day I'm dead exhausted tired and I'm like a drafted again so like time is just like a lot of times you know if I'm working seven days in a row or nine days out of 10 my training schedule is all over the place so And it's really, really challenging.

The past two fights, I was my own training partner for 90% of the time. I was downstairs busting my ass, as hard as I could for as long as I could on the heavy back. I'd do like one 60 minute round as hard as I could the whole time. Or six, 10 minute rounds with a minute rest in between. Or like, you know, interval in-class or interval bike sprints or, you know, some sort of high-intensity lifting mixed with bike sprints down. There's something to like that I needed to simulate myself without somebody else, which is obviously very challenging. And the second thing is and the most important thing is I hate leaving my daughter.

I hate it. It's it sucks, man, because like, you know, you go to work, that's one thing. You have to do it. It's, you know, it's something you have to do. I don't have to fight, you know. And I always in my head now that I have her, it's just like, she's like, bye dad, I love you, dad. I love you, dad. Can I wave by?

And it's like, fuck my life. And it's, you know, I've done this for me for so long. And it, every time I would leave, she's two and a half now.

Every time I would leave, it felt so selfish. And I knew that, you know, you can't do that forever. And it hurt me. And I don't want to make, I don't want it,

I don't want her to be old enough to realize that it hurts her to. So. I'm done. Good for you, man. So you're you're happy with this decision. You're content. You're not a guy who lives with a lot of regret in my eyes. The many conversations, not a lot of regret coming from you. And you fought for some of the highest level regional promotions. You fought for the two biggest promotions in the world multiple times. Do you have any like, I don't know if regrets the word I'm looking for, but is there anything

you wish you could have done in MMA that you didn't get the chance to? Yeah, one all of my fights. I wish I never lost. That'd be sweet. No. You know, my only goal, I think, was to reach the pinnacle of the sport, that being the UFC and fighting the UFC. And I did that. But as soon as I was honestly, like, as soon as I signed the contract, I was like, fuck, I got one more goal now. That's winning the UFC. So the first fight was really challenging. Obviously, I took the fight in six days notice, had to cut 20-something pounds in five days, which, fuck. fucking blue. And then my, okay, so here you go. I'm going to say this because I never told anybody this, except for like my close, close train partners, maybe I coach and my wife. But I've had a fully torn ACL since 2016. And yep, fully torn. And I just, I'd fought. And it was really bad for

the Peterson fight. I actually tore my medial and lateral meniscus and my MCL the day before signing the contract to fight Peterson. But that was my only job at the time. So daddy's got to come home with money, which is how it is. If you don't, you know, had I taken X amount of time off, then I'm not making money. My wife's having to work more. I'm having to either do a crazy amount of privates or whatever. It's just a lot of, uh, a lot of stress that comes with that. And like I said, as soon as soon as I got, uh, as soon as I finished that reverse triangle, like a lot of stress and relief was lifted. There's many, there's many, many layers to that, quite that answer, right? So, um, yeah, I mean, I've been fighting on, uh,

one and one and a half legs for, uh, what five years, probably a little five years now. Jeez, man. Are you going to get, we're going to get this fix now, right? We're going to get to solve it. No? Honestly, I don't know. I don't know because, uh, honest, I, I've, I got the, the muscle around it, uh, doing what it's to and I'm, I'm walking a little differently. My bow leg is a little bit more on fleak.

Uh, I, I don't know. Honestly, I don't, uh, I don't be out for a year. I say, you know, I don't know. Maybe maybe when I'm older, maybe. Maybe. Then you got guys like Forrest Griffin who just, he, his, his, his tour fully too. and he just never got it fixed. And he dealt with it, you know.

So, fuck it. We'll see. We'll see. Favorite fight of your career? Like you've had some battles. You've had fights of the year in New England. In the Mangler catalog of fights. What's chapter one?

I dropped my phone. It's all good. I made this list the other day, or actually the other week for people. But I guess it's changed now. I don't, that was number one. Friday was number one. Yeah. That's the new number one.

And I think because of just all the implications that came along with it, how the fight went, how I felt I performed, how I felt before the fight, where it was, when it was, and the retirement involved, and all the reasons leading up to that. that decision of retirement. Yeah, just so much that came along with that. Number two being Diego Nunez.

Yeah. Number three, probably being Anthony Caponis. Anthony broke my nose six minutes into the fight, and I went on to win a very razor close split decision in 25-minute fight. There was blood all over the place, all over the place. And after the fight, it was, almost like you're expecting people like be cheering and like in amped and like they were but it was kind of golf clapping because they're like they just witnessed a fucking an absolute war so there's

like who won what the hell just happened that was insane and uh you know he's limping off into the into the corner because he's i just kicked him in the leg like 30 times his blazed leg was like black for a week um and my nose is jacked up there's blood all over the place and I I look up at the crowd and I, the first thing I popped my head was, blow us not rocket of blood, make a smiley face with it. So I was like, and I just go, I made a smiley face. And everybody goes, I just started dying, like just so happy. So I was like, and there were pictures of that smiley face of blood for a while.

I don't know where it went, but, yeah, that was at the Plinic Memorial Hall. It's like the old Coliseum style fights. That was a great, that was a great place to fight. Is that the fight you feel you grew the most from? Or is there a different fight that that takes that spot? Well, that was the first one that I had shown everybody really who I was. That kind of adversity, overcoming kind of adversity during the fight. And I think once people saw that, they're like, oh, wow, this kid's, he can win.

He's talented. He's got a lot of fight in him. But also, like, he don't quit. So I think that was like a, eye-opener for a lot of fans. But I always knew who I was. And then last question for me. Opponent, you wish you had the chance to fight that you didn't get to fight.

Come on. I mean, we know it's Bruce, but we know it's Bruce, but like dream matchup. I don't think, would you consider Bruce like the dream matchup? No, I just wanted to fuck him up. That's all I wanted. I just wanted to fuck him up. Listen, I'm going to say this before I answer that question. I'm not going to say names, but somebody important came up to me after the fight.

And they said, listen, Maddie, completely straight-faced. Listen, Maddie, if you showed up like that to fight Boyington, you would have completely fucked him up. And I was like, I know. This is what I've been telling you. This is like, I know. And they're like, oh, man, I just never seen you like that. I'm like, I would have fucked him up. And he goes, yeah, you would have fucked him up.

Like, without smiling. Just like, and I was like, fuck. I wish I had that fight. But, I mean, I guess other than that, other than that obvious answer, who do I wish I fought? Charles Rosa in the UFC. Yeah. That would have a fun.

Yep. Charles, I have a lot of respect for him. A lot of respect. There's no hate whatsoever for Charles. He works very, very hard. He always comes to entertain a lot like myself in that respect. He's a gamer, bro. He's got a lot of submissions.

He's got knockouts. Great cardio. Striking and wrestling and grappling to boot. I think that would have been a phenomenal fight. And I think that's one fight that I guess I wish happened in the, in the UFC even. I asked Shelby for that fight a few times, but it just,

it fizzled. Actually, I think I asked for the fight after, or either like right before my, my second fight or right after the second fight or something. But, yeah, it didn't work out. That would have been a cool fight. It would have been a cool fight.

New England versus New England. But Matt, congratulations on everything, man. Good for you. Like you said, you're content. I don't think just a lot of times I have these post retirement conversations and I'm like, eh, he's coming back. I have, I don't think you're coming back. So I believe you when you say you're done.

The reasons for it, very clear. And they make a ton of sense to me. So congratulations on the win. And I told the story on one of our podcasts the other day that early on, when I was getting my feet wet in this crazy sport of ours, trying to get to where I am at, not a lot of people gave me the opportunity to to interview them and you were one of the guys that said fuck it let's go let's have a conversation and look at us now matt we're bald we're got beards we're we're we're living we're families now we're living the dream matt we're living the damn dream

bald with beards but we have families so that's somebody loves this but congratulations not everything man it's uh those days stick out to me or remember that first conversation to see where you're at now to see that performance and see you go out on your own terms with two titles. Phenomenal stuff, man. Congratulations on everything. And when are we going to hear the news on these big doors that that you're not going to address specifically here?

Soon. All right. Yeah. Soon. Not super, super soon, but soon. Yeah. Soonish. Soonish.

All right, man. Well, good for you, man. Monthish. Monthish. Monthish. ish ish something ish good stuff man thank you again for the time and uh thank you for all the great performances and the great fights over the years yeah mike thanks for uh thanks for this man good talk to great stuff right there from map beset and he actually sent me the video of the moments where he

tore his ACL and it is pretty gnarly but i i just got to say it i know i speak for a lot of other people We wish Matt Bissette the very best on the next chapter of his life. He seems very happy. He seems very content with his decision despite saying on Monday when we had the conversation that he wants to fight again, he's ready to go, but I truly think he's done. I really do. And I've had these conversations before. A lot of times I don't necessarily buy it.

This one I buy full force. But congratulations to him on a fantastic career. Congratulations also to Big Tuna, Ben Parrish, what a star coming out of this past weekend. And why Bellator Brass didn't put a contract in front of him and hand him a pen to sign? Why didn't lock him up on Saturday? After that victory is, it's puzzled. It's beyond me. They need to strap the rockets to that guy right now because they got something here.

They should capitalize on that right now, lock him up, throw him a bit. big opportunity. I love the U.L. Romero idea. A lot of people think like, oh, you're six and one, five in one. You can't do that. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. And you should. You should do that. But that's the show. Next week, a more traditional show. We're going to talk to a couple of this season's winners on Dana White's Contender Series. One of these individuals earned a contract. It will be getting ready to make an Octagon debut, maybe by the end of the year. While the other got a victory, remain undefeated, but did not get a contract on the show.

One of the very few. In fact, as we record, the only winner who did not receive a contract thus far this season. So get ready for that on next week's show. Until then, I am Mike Hack. Thank you for listening to the debut episode of We Got Next. And just a reminder, stick with us over at M-A-fighting all week long because a lot is coming your way with UFC 266 coming.

up this Saturday night in Las Vegas. We'll see you next week right here on We Got Next.