MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 2 | Stephen Thompson, Merab Dvalishvili, Laura Sanko, Colby Covington & Francis Ngannou

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

This week, Mike Heck speaks with Stephen Thompson (4:25), Merab Dvalishvili (28:45), Laura Sanko (45:45), Colby Covington (1:18:58) and Francis Ngannou (1:45:30). 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAfighting.com. Now, here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Hi, welcome to the second edition of What the Heck on MMAfighting.com. My name is Mike Hack. Thank you all for watching or listening. Wherever it is, you find your favorite podcast.

I also want to give a big thank you to everyone who checked out the debut episode last week. The feedback was really good, much better than I anticipated. And it's my plan to keep on delivering great guests. Great lineups every week as this show will drop every Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern time on YouTube and all the podcasting places right around the same time. We're going to try to shoot for 10 a.m. Eastern time, but it could be give or take a few minutes as well. So I did want to address a few things right off the bat before we run down the lineup based on some of the comments I read. One, yes, I am aware that I have lost the battle with my hair. I am aware that my head is shiny with the lights because I shave it pretty much.

every day. Do I wish I had more hair? Yes. Have I accepted my fate? I really don't have a choice, but I appreciate all of you for noticing. Secondly, the backdrop here, here's the deal. When you are married like I am, there are certain compromises that you have to make. So when we bought and remodeled this house, this is going to be my designated office space. And that's mostly what it's been over the last few months. However, this room is about to become a guest bedroom. That's what my wife wants. So it's kind of a combo platter in here right now. Now, we do have a basement that's currently under construction, and one of the spaces down there will become the new office slash studio. I am very cautiously optimistic that within the next month or so, that job will be complete,

and the ambiance will be much different. But for the next few weeks, this is pretty much what it's going to look like. We're going to try to make a few tweaks in the meantime, so we're just going to kind have to deal with that. And lastly, one thing I wanted to touch on, the tough part about pre-recording interviews is that even in this sort of tumultuous time that we're in, the new cycle in MMA never stops. So the first four interviews of the show were recorded on Tuesday before UFC 249 reportedly found a home at Tachi Palace. Kudos to the OG Jeff Sherwood for putting that information out there earlier this week. So the first four chats. were done before the New York Times article was released.

So please keep that in mind with the Somewhere on Earth references. I still think that's hilarious. And with that, housekeeping is done. So here is the lineup for the second episode of what the heck on MMAfighting.com. Rounding off the show this week, we're going to chat with Francis and Ghanu. As you've probably heard by now, his fight with Jarzino Rosenstrike has been rebooked for UFC 249 on April 18th. We'll check in with the predator later on in the show.

you may have seen a couple of short clips of this conversation already on Twitter and Instagram, Facebook as well, but we had the chance to catch up with Colby Covington, and it's been a long time since I've had the chance to interview Colby Covington. I think it was right before the Damien Maya fight in 2017, and man, he had a lot to get off his chest, a lot to clear up in regards to Tyron Woodley and whether or not that fight was going to happen at UFC 249. So we'll talk to Colby Chaos Covington on the show. We're going to check it with Laura Sanko. ESPN reporter from Dana White's Contender Series. She's going to join us to talk about what's going on in the world. Plus, she's going to give her insight on the new main event for UFC 249 between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gage. Also, the rematch between Rosedomai Yunus and Jessica Androj.

Really enjoyed chatting with Laura Sank you'll hear that later on. Marad DeWalish, Willie, is going to join the show. UFC Bannamway, he's been on a tear as of late. He's won three fights in a row, had that impressive win over Casey Kenney at UFC Rio Rancho back in February. He wants to get a few things off his chest. We will chat with the machine coming up on the program. But first, we got to check in with the nicest M-Fer champion in the UFC. We're going to kick things off on a positive note in a tough time in the world with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

So leading off this week's episode of what the heck, the one, the only, the great, Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. All right, we kick things off in a perfect way, in my opinion. And obviously it's a tough time in the world. There's a lot of negativity going around. So I thought to myself, what can we do to brighten things up? We got to bring on the nicest MF or title belt holder, the number five ranked welterweight in the UFC. We need to bring on Stephen Wonderboy Thompson.

And here he is. Stephen, how are you, man? Doing good, man, doing good. You know, living the quarantine life, which, you know, I don't mind. I'm hanging out with the fam a lot. So we're just chilling. Still getting workouts in at the gym. because, you know, nobody else can come in.

So I do go in and break a sweat. But it's all good, baby. It's all good. I was just going to ask you about that because this obviously is a super interesting time right now, not just as a fighter, but, you know, like you mentioned, as a coach and an instructor at upstate karate in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Like, normally you're hosting after school programs. You're the one driving the bus around to pick up all the kids.

And now things have changed quite a bit. What has life been like in the middle of this pandemic? Well, Jim is still, our gym. Jim is still, we're closed, but we're doing online classes. So it's pretty cool to see all of our students tapping into our Facebook live and we're still doing classes on a daily basis as if they would in their normal times. But at home, we, yeah, man, it's different. It really is. I mean, I'm going to look back.

We all are 10, 15 years from now and be like, remember when the world was on quarantine? Like the whole, like the world is like in, and in quarantine. quarantine right now. It's crazy. I mean, when's the first time that's ever happened? Definitely in our life, lifetimes. I mean, when this all began, did you think that we would get to this point? Like, I'll be honest, I took it seriously, but I didn't expect things to get here, you know? No, I didn't at all. I didn't expect this, like, you know, to the point of where nobody can go out, especially here in South Carolina. I mean, there's like nobody here. So, but I saw where Greenville, South Carolina is like the most heavy, heavily like, I guess, traveled spot in the whole

United States right now. So I don't think that's a good thing. But yeah, I would have never expected that at all. It's crazy. It is. It's nuts. So let's talk about you, sir. You're coming off that great win at UFC 244 against Vicente Lucke and Massa Square Garden. Unfortunately, you suffered two broken hands in that fight. How are the hands doing all these months later? Are they back to full strength now? Yeah, hands are feeling good right now. That's what took so long, man. For some reason, man, the older you get, the harder you get, the longer it takes the hill. But I ended up breaking both my hands in the second round. It was my right hand that took the longest to hill. I think that's the one that took the most damage. But yeah, it's feeling good. You know, I can hit a bag right now.

My grip is fairly weak, but I'm doing physical therapy, working on strengthening it up. So we'll be back before you know it. So I'm excited. Did you know in the second round that you had broken both of them? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's funny because in a fight, normally when you get injured, you don't feel it until afterwards. You know, when the drilling goes down and, you know, the pain starts to, you start feeling everything.

But when you feel it in the octagon, you know that you're hurt. You know, I ended up dropping them with a left hand and broke my left hand there. and then while he was on the ground, I hit him with the right hand and fractured my index finger-knuckle, which sunk in pretty good. I felt both of them. I went back to the corner,

I was like, pops, my hands are broken. He's like, well, hit him with him anyway. So I'm like, all right. You know, everybody's like, why didn't you finish him in the third row? Why didn't you finish him? I was like, I couldn't. Like, I tried to hit him as hard as I could,

but it was like my body wouldn't let me do it. You know, I was like trying to hit him. And right at the last minute, I was like, I don't know, my body would like, pull away. You know, I would hit on, but I wasn't sinking it in. It's like my, it's weird. My body wouldn't let me do it. What is it about the relationship between Madison Square Garden and your hands, Stephen? I mean, the Mazadal fight, it was two broken thumbs, this time two broken hands. I mean, you won both of those fights, but still, what is going on here?

I don't know, man. I don't know. I want to have to really get a good tape job in, especially on my thumb or something the next time I step out there. Or I just fight guys with super hard heads, You know, I mean, Madzidol's got a melon on him. Vicente Lugay's got a melon on them. Both tough guys. Yeah, the first one, I broke both my thumbs. And then, yeah, this last one, I broke both my hands. What the heck?

So I got to get back on my hand conditioning, which is my number one priority right now. I'm not a whole lot of guys do hand conditioning, especially in Macyn. But us karate guys, old school karate guys, I've been around it my whole life. My dad's got freaking like watermelon's his knuckles. so I'm trying to get to where he's at. So next time I step out that, I'll break my hand again. What kinds of things do you do for hand conditioning, if you don't mind me asking?

Because I have no idea. Well, we have a macchua. I don't know if you heard of a maki. A maki is a wooden post. And there's a piece of leather. There's a smooth piece of leather wrapped around it, and then right below it, there is more of a coarse piece of leather,

which is used to condition the skin of your hand. But, on the smoother piece of leather, I'll hit it about 100 times with my two big knuckles and then I hit it about 100 times with my two smaller knuckles. What that does is, you know, when you're constantly, you're not hitting it hard, it's just a constant, just pat, pat.

And what it does, when you take in that little bit of damage to that area, your body's like, all right, I need to thicken up. So it starts sending calcium to that area and starts thickening it up, you know, making it harder. My dad goes to the extent of where he'll slap it a hundred times. And his hand, I remember as a kid, his hand is really dense, man, it's very thick, very, very dense. And his knuckles are core, he's got little calluses and stuff on him. But he used to discipline me, man. I would get in trouble. He would take the top of his hand and smoke the top

of my head and make me see stars, man. I'm like, me, right? Here start ringing. Oh, my God. Because there's five of us, you know, we're all alpha dogs. I got two brothers and two sisters and we would uh we would run around like crazy you know acting a fool and you know that's like the only one only thing we would listen to is a good smack to the skull oh man craziness and uh sort of speaking of the craziness is obviously like we talked about a lot of uncertainty in the world with the coronavirus a lot of people are out of work it's you know pretty much every major sports organization has shut down and postpone their schedules the ufc however they are moving forward with theirs beginning april 18th tony ferguson versus jose jrador

Justin Gachy at UFC 249's new main event. I've asked a lot of fighters about this, but what are your thoughts, Stephen, on the UFC moving forward during this crazy time? I think it's great. I mean, when everything else is shut down, I mean, they're taking precautions, obviously.

You know, I don't think they're going to allow anybody in the stadium, but I think he's got a private island or something that he's getting. I'm like, what? A private island? That's crazy. I mean, you know, I knew USC had money, but I don't know they had like that money. And it could be just like a, I don't know, like an acre of property out in the middle of the ocean.

I don't know. But yeah, they're buying a private island, which is crazy. But I think this fight is going to be, I think it's going to be a good one. I think it's really going to be a barn burner because, yeah, everybody wants to see the Kibib and Tony Ferguson. I remember the last time they were supposed to fight was I think UFC 209 when I fought Tyron Woodland. and I think Khabiben ended up having to be hospitalized or something for the weight cut. But Gaiji is just as exciting, just as tough

as anybody out there, and a dangerous opponent at that for anybody. So for him to step, I'm going to be like, let's go. I want this fight. For an interim title, I think it's going to be, I think the fans are going to love it. I really do. For Tony Ferguson, I don't know if I would have taken that, man.

I mean, that's a tough fight for anybody. like I said, you know. And, but Tony, Tony Ferguson don't care. He just doesn't care. He's, he's asking for it. So, yeah, for sure. I think it's a great fight for both of them. Do I have a pick?

No, I don't. I know they're both tough as nails. I think Gatje may have a hard time with, with the reach, you know, and how tall Tony Ferguson is. But that could play into his game. I figured the same thing, you know, Tony Ferguson walks forward. it's going to make the takedown a little easier. And if Gachi has good timing,

you know, Tony Ferguson could run into a right hand or a left hand. And you know he's got the power to do it. I mean, knocked out Barbosa like it was nothing. So solid fight. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know if you are, but I am. I think it's going to be great. I mean, that fight on paper.

I mean, how could you not be excited for it? I know that's like a weird time. And I feel like my colleague, we were doing a reaction video yesterday. Alex K. Lee said, the unfortunate part is we're not going to get the, the best of both of those guys. It's still a great fight, but we're still not going to get the best of each fighter.

Do you agree with that settlement? I do. I really agree. I do with that. I mean, you know, I don't know what the whole deal with Kibibu. He knows he's locked up in Russia. I don't think they're letting him come in.

So I don't know if he wasn't able to or if he's just not. Do you know that? Do you know the answer to that? I think it's kind of like a combination of the two because the borders are shut down, but then reports came out that maybe, if they got like a private plane and they got like permissions from the businesses to fly them out. It was just, Khabib, I guess his whole thing was no one told him where it was going to be.

And I still, to this point, don't even know if anybody really knows where this fight's even going to take place. Yeah, I heard, I think somebody posted up yesterday. It was like, you know, UFC 249 is happening in some spot of the world. Like nobody knows somewhere on earth. Somewhere on earth. I think you might have saw it. But yeah, nobody knows where it's at. So, you know, I don't think we will know.

It's going to end up just at the arena. Watch it be not even on a private island. Watch it be just, you know, they're just saying it is. I don't know. So, yeah, man, I mean, that is true. We're not getting the best of both. And everybody's been wanting this fight to happen for the longest time. Somebody said the coronavirus happened because that those two fights was booked.

I don't remember where I saw, but I thought it was hilarious. But of course, of course something would happen when you booked this fight. It's nuts. Yeah, because even after two of us, They tried to book it again for that Brooklyn card before the Dolly incident. I think it was that same card. That's right. And then Tony tripped over the wire and tore the leg and made his knee.

I mean, they have to do a 30 for 30 on booking this fight, right? Right. Yeah, they have to, man. They have to. God, it's just so wild. I mean, but when it does actually happen, whoever wins, hopefully, you know, they'll end up getting that fight, you know, if Tony wins. If Gachie wins, well, it looks like Gachie's going to be getting it.

But they've been wanting this fight for a long time. So hopefully it happens. And if Tony doesn't actually end up winning, they should just put it on anyway, you know. And it's not be a title fight. It would just be a fight. You know, so we'll see. So let me ask you this because Dana's got this plan. Like the international fighters, they're going to fight on the private island.

The fighters who are stateside, they're going to fight wherever this somewhere on earth ends up taking place. And they're going to book cards weekly for the next two months. starting on April 18. So let's say the UFC comes to you with an opportunity to fight over these next couple of months and your hands are good to go. And for people I've spoke with, if someone doesn't want to fight during this time, the UFC is pretty understanding, obviously, with everything going on the world. So if they came to you with an opportunity, main event on a big card or something like that,

would you take a fight right now? You know, for me, as a fighter, the fighter in me says yes. I would want to take the fight for sure. If they take the right precautions, which I think they are, you know, with travel and everything, It's just, you know, South Carolina is full of just grandparents, full of elderly people, you know, and we have a lot of kids at our school that are being raised by grandparents. So grandparents take them in their, you know, they're in their 80s and 90s. So it's something that would never want to bring back to them, you know, because, you know,

just the way things are going. So if they make the right precautions, then for sure. The fighter enemy says yes. the karate instructor in me says it would be it would be very difficult for me to do that for sure because you know this is my number one thing that I fight for the fun of it this is I just love to compete the money's a bonus but my job is right here at the gym you know that's what I love to do is teaching kids so I would have to sit down with the rent with with my pops the boss man and see what we go from there but the fighter in me says yeah I would love to

too. I would love to. Am I in shape now? Heck no. I've been snacking at home, man. That's all I'm able to do. I may fight at like 205. You know, that could be... I don't know. But, you know, I would have to start running or something. I don't know. What are you weighing right now? Are you near there? I was not that heavy. I was going to say. No, I'm not that heavy. I'm like, I mean, the heaviest, the heaviest I get, like when I feel fat, whatever, I'm, I'm, I'm like 200 pounds. And most guys in my weight class walk around at that, you know, I'm normally like a 190, 195 guy, and I stay right around there.

And sometimes I'll drop down to like 188 in the 80s. So my body weight goes up and down like crazy. Like, you know, holidays, it goes up, you know, and it's not the holidays. I stay around the 185, 190 area. So I'm not a big, I'm not a big welterweight to begin with. But I'm feeling it right now, man. When I walk, it's like, you know, you feel in the jiggle. You're human after all.

It happens to us all. I think we're all experiencing this right now. 100% man. I mean, all I have is Doritos. That's all I've been living off of the Doritos. And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That's about it. Yeah, I just made my son of peanut butter and fluff.

He's just crushing that sandwich right now. That sounds so good right now. I'm going to go home and make me one. There you go. That's where you do. A little give and take here, Stephen. Exactly. I was talking to James Krause about the pandemic and how things are being handled.

And his answer, I thought, was spot on because he told me essentially, like, I understand where everyone's coming from. I respect everybody's decision. But no matter what, someone's going to be upset with the answer that's given. Do you agree with that? Yeah, man. I mean, there's always going to be somebody upset. Always.

It really is. And, you know, I know that firsthand. I feel like I'm kind of a likable guy. but there's always that one person out there that just wants to like, you know what I mean? Especially on social media. It's the same. It's the same everywhere you go. There's going to be somebody that's just, it's going to be upset with whatever answer they get.

So, you know, and all you can do is just keep on, keep it on, man. You got to keep on, keep on, keep on. I know you've done a few interviews recently. It seems like Colby Covington is at the top of your list. And from a merit talk history standpoint, that makes all the sense of the world. But you know Colby. wants what he wants and he sort of ignores the rest of it. So if it's not Colby, who I guess from all indications wants to fight Tyron Woodley and that's a big fight, what else makes sense for you? I mean,

Leon Edwards is there. Gilbert Burns is nipping at your heels right now. Like what would make sense should Covington not be an option right now? You know, those are always the guys that I'm looking for anybody in the top five for sure. You know, you got Leon Edwards, you got, you know, I've already fought Tyron twice. I don't think anybody wants to see that again. But Colby Covington for sure. And Leon Edward would be, I mean, both guys very, very high level in their craft. And I think Leon Edwards is the better MMA fighter than both. I mean, he's got really good striking. And that's what he was in the beginning, was a good striker.

But now you're seeing him use his wrestling, his jiu-jitsu, he used against RDA. When he fought Vicente Lucke, you know, he took him down. I was like, what the heck, man, this guy? And those are the guys you really have to prepare for because they're different every time they step out there. And Leon Edwards is that guy, which is why he's on like a crazy, Fight winning streak. And Colby Covington, I mean, everybody knows what's going to happen when I fight him.

He's just going to shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot. And I mean, his striking doesn't even compare. So, I mean, yeah, I mean, could he hit you and knock you out for sure? But I've definitely fought better strikers than him. And I think Leon Edwards is definitely the better MMA fighter for sure. And those are the guys I want to fight right there. So, yeah, man, any one of them, I really don't care. at this point, you know, in my career, I'm rating number five.

You know, I got a small winner to kind of do what I want to do. And I want to fight the best in the world. I mean, who can say that, right? It's like, it's like, I tell people it's like an anime. You're fighting the best guys in the world. It's crazy. I'm like, heck yeah, man, let's do it. Tell my grandkids that, my grandkids say, yeah,

fought the best fighters in the world, you know, no big deal. A couple more things, man. I always appreciate the time. I saw a couple months ago you taped an episode of Family It was you and Holly Hall, Michelle Waterson, Sehudo, and even Forrest Griffin, who had to have been a wild card there. Oh my gosh. As someone who as a child wanted to be the host of Family Feud someday, I was a little bit jealous of seeing you post that on Instagram. What was that experience like being part of that show?

It was wild, man. You know, I think it's really cool. What shocked me the most was, well, I'd say what, what was really cool about it is I got to meet some really cool people. You know, I mean, we went up against the WBC, you know, boxing champions. You know, you had Ryan Garcia was in there. You had Redick Bow. You had Holyfield. So you had some really, some of my guys, some of the guys that I looked up to, you know,

growing up in the boxing world, especially Holyfield, watching him fight Mike Tyson. I was there, watch, you know, sitting in the floor watching him fight Mike Tyson and get his ear bit off. You know, that was the, like, just to see those guys was really cool. they're really, they're really likable and really cool people, man. And so, and to see

everything how it was filmed. It was really cool because if they mess up, they just kind of started over, you know, kind of started the script over. But once the game started, they could stop it

and, you know, start right back where they left off if they didn't like what they were saying, blah, blah, blah. So it was really cool to see how it was filmed. It had a blast, man. It had a blast.

I will say, Steve, I've been very, critical of the family feud hosts over the years, but I think Steve Harvey's killing it. I think he's doing a great job. I think he's doing a great job too, man. And, you know, I never really, I didn't get to actually hang out or talk, talk to him just while we were on the show.

That was about it. And because I think they were filming episodes back to back to back. So we were the first on. And then after that, he was going right into another episode with different people. So I never really got to hang out and chat with him. But he was a really nice guy. And on the show, he was a lot of fun. And he got the crowd going.

I think he's doing a great job. His story is crazy. Did I hear you say you, did you say that you were sitting on the floor watching Tyson Holyfield or you were actually at that fight? No, no, no. I was sitting on the floor in my undies, man. Okay. That was going to say.

That was the time my dad was like, I'll never fight up, watch a Mike Tyson fight ever again. I remember him saying, I'm never watching Mike Tyson fight ever again. You know, when he bit Holyfield's ear, ear off. And it was crazy because as soon as I saw Holyfield, I looked at his ears. And you can see where they were sewn back on. It was crazy. I know you and Wydenman have been gaming like crazy lately.

And the last time you and I spoke, Chris crashed our interview that we did in Boston. And you guys are talking about this game that you were both obsessed with at the time that I still can't remember what it was to this day. But what's the big game all the folks should be playing right now? Warzone. Modern Warfare, Call of Duty Warzone is the jam. It's the new battle royale game that we've been playing. So I got Chris back into streaming, I guess, because New York's on lockdown. Like, they can't go nowhere.

And so he has nothing to do. So we've been gaming like crazy lately. So we'll get on Twitch. He's Chris Wyman. I'm Wonderboy Faith. Twitch.tv slash Wonderboy Faith. So what was cool was the UFC had me host their Twitch and watch some of my fights. And I guess my fight when I watched myself get knocked out went viral.

And, you know, which is always, I think it's fun, man. I think the fans love it when they see me get knocked out or somebody get knocked out and watch themselves, dude. And it was fun. And yeah, it hurt me watching it again. But it was good. And then next thing you know, my Twitch started blowing up and it's getting better every day. And it's a cool way for fans to see you out of the fighting realm, just kind of be you. You know?

and that's the one thing that I rage. I rage when I play video games. That is it. I mean, when people are like, wait, did I just hear that come out of Wonder Boy's mouth? I'm like, I'm sorry, but video games make me rage, man. And as the, anybody else can talk as much crap as they want. It doesn't bother me. But when I play video games and I die when I shouldn't have died, I freak out.

I freak out, man. It's fun, though. Everybody gets to see me rage when they don't normally see me do that. But it's a lot of fun. Yeah, make sure you follow that because, I mean, you may never, ever see that again. And without it, you got to see Wonderboy Rage Out playing video games. First time for everything, right? And the other thing we got to check out is your YouTube channel.

Did I, I watched a couple of videos. Your intro to your last video, you said, I'm not wearing my leotard right now. What was that? Did you wear a leotard in a video? No, on Instagram. On Instagram. On Instagram. Did you see on Instagram where I did that I brought the 80s, uh,

was it like their aerobic Olympics back? We did like a really cool challenge. Everybody was doing these challenges. I was like, you know, I got to kick it up a notch. So me and my brother, Tony, who else with my YouTube channel, we ended up getting like these little leotards and shorts and the white, you know, fruffy socks and white Reeboks. And we did like a, you have to go check it out if you haven't seen it yet.

It's so freaking funny. Go to my Instagram. It's like right at the top. And I said, like who did it better and it showed us. I think Kim Pill. I don't have you ever heard of Kim Pill? Yeah. They did one with the aerobic Olympics, but we, so we

decided to do one. It was fun. It took some time to choreograph the dance moves, but we had a good time doing it. You have to check it out. Well, I know the next thing I'm doing once I get off the phone here. But Stephen, always a pleasure chatting with you. We've come a long way, you and I. We're doing these conversations for years

and now we're at a very professional setting here, and I appreciate that very much. I'm glad the hands are feeling better. Keep being you, man. Keep being that positive presence. And thank you for coming on the show, man. Anytime, my brother. And hoping we can do it again sometime. I appreciate you, brother. You have a good one. Be safe. You too, man. Thanks. As expected, great stuff there from Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, his insight on UFC 249 and whether or not he would even take a fight during this time. Pretty honest and pretty fascinating, honestly, if you ask me. Our next chat is with one of the rising

bannam weights in the UFC, which, in my opinion, 135 from top to bottom, is the most loaded. division in the promotion. The top 15 is great. 16 to 30 is really good too and even beyond that, honestly. Here's my conversation with one of those rising band-in-weights, the machine Marab de Wilesh Willie. We've got Marab de Wilesh Willie joining us. First of all, I want to give a big thank you on behalf of the MMA fighting staff for your contribution to the face-the-pane video that we did. You were the most animated person singing Face the Pain. That was amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much. First of all, fantastic performance.

Casey Kenney had looked great in his last few fights. You went in there. You neutralized him. I think he had 12 takedowns overall in that fight. Were you happy with that performance overall? Yeah, I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy. And I make another record.

And, yeah, I can wait for my next fight. And I'm happy that I make proud of my team and my country and my friends. And, I mean, I cannot ask more. That was good. We had spoke prior to that fight. You said that, you know, you wanted to go in there, make a statement against a guy who was ranked in the top 15. Do you feel like that was sort of your coming out party

that you sent a message to the rest of the division? Yeah, I think so. I think now they will, not everybody will take part with me. Everybody will be, like, more careful. I think, yeah, I think, like, a lot of guys in my class, they're not going to be happy fight with me. But I'm ready for everyone. I'm ready for everyone.

And I have big respect for top 15 guys, but that's all I want. I want. I want only top 15 guys now because I want to move forward and keep fighting. You live in train in New York, but you're originally from Georgia, the country, not the state. Did you get a chance to go back home after the fight and see your family and friends? Of course, yeah. After the fight, I take like 10 days off and I go to vacation in Georgia. That was best time.

Everybody's so happy, so proud of me. And I went to every day, I have to go every, like almost every national TV. I mean, every TV to every TV show, a comedy show, and I was so busy with doing this. And I was so happy, and it makes me more motivate. And it feels good. When you have to win and go to your country, you feel like celebrate there. So good. So good.

Is that typical for you? Does that happen after all of your fights? Or was that something that just happened after this Casey Kenney fight? I did before, I did after Brett Katon's fight, when I win Canada, May 5th, and I did, after, when I fought in Russia, September, I did after win, I go to Georgia, I win. You know, it feels good, but now I can't wait to win again and go to Georgia, celebrate there, because here, only place I can celebrate in the USA. say, when I go gym, of course, everybody happy and I celebrate there. And, but this is my family here, you know, because I'm emigrant here. Anyways, it's a big country.

And then, yeah, I have friends, everybody happy, but it's different. Yeah, it's so big. But in Georgia, it's small and everybody happy for you. And like, it's different. It's so different, you know, but it feels definitely good. And next time I want to bring my friends, Al Jom, Alaintha, Whoever wants to come, I mean, I want to bring everybody. Even my coach, Met Sarah, really long.

If they came to come, they're way deep. They can. I mean, they will be so happy for them. I mean, they are welcome. We're small countries, people. We love guests. We love visitors. We love tourists.

So you're like a rock star at home, right? Like, people recognize you and stop you on the streets all the time? It looks like, looks like, because they're like my story because I mean I went in Georgia I born villages where like Mount and I'm after when I was nine year old I moved to capital city and and after I was doing judo sample competition I started fighting and I I come by myself in Wessey and whatever I did I did by myself and I was working construction and now everybody happy for me because if I did, if I did, they can do it.

We have a lot of talent, like UFC fighters. And, of course, UFC is big. And when everybody saw, I mean, UFC, everybody's so happy for me. That's amazing, man. I mean, it's nice to get that notoriety. Plus, you're trying to help out others, too, who may be trying to follow down the same path. How important is that for you?

Yeah, it's very important. Actually, like, some guys, These Georgian guys, they look up me and they started fighting. Now they are pro. I have now one friend who started a fight because of me. Now he's 13 and no. His fight was in L-Fair. He just wins.

Zika Lazzichwili is a great fighter. And this makes me so happy because I don't even know. He just said he started a bad fight because of me and now he's 13 and no. I mean, it's amazing. And then I just want to show young fighters, young people, young, anybody, young kids to, like, a right way to become champion and become a good person and show another good way to stay healthy, stay strong, stay smart. And then stay away from alcohol, drugs, and video games, I think. And video games? I mean, I know a lot of my friends play video games, but after I stop, and I put more focus of myself.

And it's, I think it's better for me. Once I stop and I can more strong. I mean, I don't have anything. We cannot mention video games and alcohol, but, you know, for me, it's just losing time. You know, we can do something more important, I mean, I think. is sort of an interesting time to not be playing video games or doing those kinds of things because you go home, you go home for 10 days and then you come back and now we're in the middle of this global pandemic that's going on. How are you handling the quarantine life?

Like I know you and Al Jermaine are getting work in in the backyard. Like the one video I watched was an Instagram live and you kept hoisting somebody up over your head repeatedly. It was like every five seconds. Yeah, that was Alge's brother, you know, like. and he's Aljo's young brother he's a he's a fighter also he's a

he's a good fighter but like when I'm sparring with him I tell him always how I mean your brother beat me now I have to beat you up

like you know because Aljo always you know he's always always take me down and he's always untop me now and I try to do

same thing to his brother so because I cannot do the same thing to him no I'm just kidding I'm just kidding they both great we

We just make to chat their better, you know, and we're just training. But right now, we used to be sparring, and we pixel Aljo's garage. We organized, and we started training in Aljo's garage, and everything was good. But after I find out his wife, no, sorry, his girlfriend, Rebecca works hospital. And you know, you know now that this time it's very difficult, you know. I said maybe I should stay home and training by myself. Now I'm trying to run a stadium outside to shadow boxing because it's a I live with roommates, so I don't want to, I know I'll be fine, but I don't want to risk for, you

know, like it's a bad time now. So, but, but I was trying to fight also. I was trying to fight also. Like, this card, I tell UFC if they need me, I'm ready. Even I'm not training good. I'll be happy to jump in and fight. Yeah, that's funny you should say that because your manager actually reached out to me and was like, listen, Marab wants to fight. He wants to fight at UFC 249.

He wants to get back in there as soon as possible. So you're looking to get back, global pandemic or not. want to fight on one of these upcoming cards. That accurate? Yeah, man. Yeah. I mean, that's all I do. This is my job.

I love fighting. You know, I look this way. If I don't train it good, and my opponent should be the same thing, you know, like, and then let's fight. Even when we can fight, catch weight. I can make 35. I can make, I can fight 45. He wants, if someone wants 45, even 55, I don't care.

I just, you know, like, I'll be happy to jump in. fight. Now I just lesson, then now it's interview. I'm so happy that I'm far of the UFC and we still continue because all world sport stops. No one

doing anything. We just keep going forward and this is so amazing. UFC is great and I'm so blessed and I'm far of the UFC and this is I can wait. I think now how he says,

he's not going to stop. He wants to like international fight weeks or like he wants like keep keep making UFC UNs and hopefully not this but I think hopefully next one next UFC I'll be

I will jump in if they if they need me and they ask me I'm ready if someone someone wants fight with me please say mention my name and I want to fight So you mentioned learning what you've learned about the virus talking to Al Jermaine's girlfriend who's sort of in the thick of all of this right now,

with learning what you've learned, why fight now? Why fight now? Why not wait until this all settles down a little bit? Because I don't care myself. I know I'm healthy. I just want to keep it healthy and I mean, I don't scare coronavirus. I just don't want to like give it to coronavirus. I don't want to get and then give it to coronavirus somebody. But if you, If I fight UFC, you know, like then what I said, it's going to be most safe. Like fighters or commission or referees, they will be, we will be most safe, you know. And I just want, we will be fine. I just want to fight.

I know in August, you know, like it's like same thing. We, everybody have to go grocery store, like do shopping, like buy food. It's same. You know, we, I'm just going to maybe drive whatever it is. Even if they, they told me to come here, I will drive my car, or I'm going to bring one friend with me. Even my coach cannot come with me. I will drive there. And then they can take me with their own, I think, I plan or I don't know how to, you know.

Yeah, I was going to ask about that because Ray Longo has been very vocal about it. at the situation. He feels like these events should not be happening until things start to settle down. How has he sort of reacted to you wanting to fight sometime over these next several weeks? I don't even spoke about this, him. But it doesn't matter what, my coaches, Ray Longo and Metzera, they are always with me. Whatever I say, they say, yes, madam, let's go. So, and I know they will be always, always with me. I know they cannot come. I know that those Rai Longos and Metsera support means a lot for me.

This is everything for me. But even they cannot come with me, even I'm still ready. I still want to fight because this is, we got to, we cannot be stay home. And I don't want to be like, like, just, you know, I don't want to stay home. I can fight and, you know, I show people, we got to do something and, like, motivate people, I think. Just do me a favor. If you do end up fighting, bring a computer or a phone or something.

We need Matt Serra on Skype, shouting instructions to you, giving you advice because that's just gold when he's out there coaching and cornering you, right? Like, you have to have him there at least saying something, even if it's virtual, right? Oh, that's good idea, man. That's good idea. We gotta do like this. Yeah, that would be, that would be, yeah. He's, he's like, of course. Him and Raylon go together.

They are like always, always best. Always best. The last time we spoke, Rob, it was prior to the fight with Casey Kenney. You said your plan was to beat him. Then you wanted to fight Sean O'Malley. Is that sort of the A1 plan here? And if you can't get Sean O'Malley, does somebody else stick out to you that makes sense here? Yeah, I would love to fight Sean O'Malley.

I mean, I know he's, I know he is looking forward to, like, fight somebody like Dominique Cruz or somebody else, like, you know, like a big name. But I mean, please, if someone can make this fight, please make this fight, because I would love to fight with him. Big respect. But that's all I want. But if not, Kabib's cousin, Numa Gammedo just came in UFC. He's 12 and 0. He's a great record. I mean, that would be great too.

Or maybe he has to have fight one or two and then after I would love to fight with him. Other than this, anybody. Half 15 will be great. You're a very positive guy, Marab. I think everybody can see that throughout this conversation. You're a very happy guy. Maybe you can spread some positivity to the folks watching right now. What's your message to everyone in the middle of this crazy time in the world

that we're going to be talking about for years to come? Yeah, I know it's a bedtime. Like, we all confuse, like, what's going on, what happened? and when we will be back to normal life. But we got to stay positive and we cannot, like, depress ourselves. We got to keep training home. We got to keep work home. We got to spend time with our family.

And we're going to go through this. It's going to be over. But we got to be, we have to just keep going. We just, like, no depress, no, like, no too much sleep and like we gotta we gotta work we gotta make keep busy ourselves you know because this is bad this is better than everything you know we gotta keep keep ourselves busy you know the machine wants to fight ladies and gentlemen he wants to do it sooner rather than later always great catch it up with you marab stay safe all the best to you your family here your

family back in georgia i hope everyone's healthy and i hope everything works out for you and you can get on one of these cards thank you for the time Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you. I appreciate. Have a good one, everyone. All right, there you have him. Rob DeBalish Willie. The guy wants to fight. And with a lot of cards to fill over the next couple of months and with him already being in the United States, honestly, I'd be surprised if he didn't get booked to fight in the next couple of months to try to push his winning streak to four fights. So right now, let's get to our conversation with Laura Sanko. She has worn a lot of hats in the sport of mixed martial arts. And she wants to make

some history in terms of being part of these broadcasts in the future, plus some great insights. site on some of the big fights coming up on April 18th at UFC 249. Really enjoyed this conversation. Let us say hello to Laura Sanko. All right, we check in with our next guest. Do you all know her from ESPN covering the UFC? Dana White's contender series, she is just all over the place these days. Laura Sanko, welcome to the show.

How are you? I'm great. Thank you very much for having me. I'm hanging out in my workout shed. So you can see the workout equipment behind me. Not a very professional setup, but we're doing what we can in quarantine, Mike. That's right. I'm working on a basement remodel right now. I have a punching bag and that's basically it and a basement that needs to be refloored and sheet rocked and all that stuff. So we got to do what we got to do. I think we're good now.

There we go. I lost you for a second there. But continuing out, like, it's obviously great to have you here, but you sort of mentioned what's going on right now. We're in similar positions in regards to the coronavirus being employees, but also spouses and a parent to assume to be seven-year-old. So what is life like for you and the family during a pretty unprecedented time in the world?

Well, I have discovered very quickly that I am not a kindergarten teacher. surprise surprise it's it's been challenging um it's been fun in some ways because you kind of are forced to be creative with your time and and forced to be um a little bit more mindful of of what you're doing and where you're going and those are all good things but if i'm being honest with you i can't wait to get back to normal um i think my son can't wait to get back to normal he misses his friends at school but uh we're we're doing our best over here thank god he's not older because I don't think I could handle that common core map that they're teaching. I had a middle schooler, I'd be screwed.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. Essentially, because my son has no idea what's going on. He just thinks he's home from school, but he can't see any of his friends. And he's like kind of understood it. He's okay with it. Does your son understand what's happening in the world right now? Yeah, he does. He's kind of, he's picking up on, obviously, he has no context for realizing that this is really

unprecedented. And so even if you say that word in his life, it's like, well, this is just, this is what's happening right now. So in that sense, I don't think you understand necessarily the magnitude of it. He's a pretty quick kid, though, and he, yeah, he's pretty with it. He's not, we're big on not making this about fear and making it more about, hey, this means we get extra family time and we just need to be careful for the people around us. We're not worried for ourselves because I don't want to instill that in him, but, you know,

everybody's got to do their part and together, you know, that type of thing. That's the message we're really sending home. But this morning, he got really, really frustrated with our lesson at the moment. He was just stuck on something. And this will tell you a little bit about my parenting. He said, Mom, mom, can I please? Can I please use this to where I'm please? And we allow him every once in a while if you really need to express himself.

if he asks permission, every once in a while we allow him to curse. And I said, honey, do you really need to? Is this one of the thing? He said, yes. And he just goes, that effing guy, eating that effing bat, just ruined it forever. Oh, my gosh. Wow. We got some feelings out in kindergarten class homeschool this morning and kind of cleansed our waw, and now we're good to go.

I think you need to write a book, Laura. I mean, maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Certainly not a Parenthood manual. I'm not sure. So I'm curious with all this going on because around 13 or so months ago, you're coming off a crazy night in London. You're interviewing Jorge Mazdao after he knocks out Darren Till.

Leon Edwards showed up in the backstage area, and we have three-piece in a soda forever and ever. Now in 2020, it's a much different kind of craziness, one that goes beyond sports and fighting in general. What would you say has been the crazier start to a year for you, this year or last year? Well, this is definitely a crazier. I'll be honest with you, as much local MMA as I have attended over the years, while it certainly

took me by surprise because I've never had that happen during an interview, fights breaking out at an MMA event not really like that big of a deal necessarily. So I would definitely, this for sure takes the kick. I mean, a national, global shutdown is certainly, it's a new pace of life and man, it's tough because it's made me realize how much, it's made me realize how much I value my job, how much time my job really does take in my life. Because it's easy for me to think of,

oh, I only work when I'm on the road at an event, but it's made me kind of appreciate how much work I put up, I've put into coming up to an event, you know, the research and all that stuff. So I hope when everything gets back to normal, I will find myself valuing my job in my time with my coworkers even more because I definitely, I miss them.

We're on a big text room, so that's been fun, but something. Who's all in the group? My direct boss, Brendan Fitzgerald, Paul Felder, and a couple of other key producers. It's kind of like, certainly I'm more co-workers than that

than I'm tight with, but that's sort of the contender series crew that not only do we see each other at UFC events, but we're like the holding it down for, you know, all summer long type crew. I'm sure you've been asked about the thing with Mazadol a million times at this point, but did you at least have a feeling that night after everything went down and him talking to Brett Okamoto afterwards?

Do you think to yourself, even with this long road he's taken to get to this place, that, man, like this guy is about to get shot off into the stratosphere's here. This guy could be huge right now. I don't think I had enough of an appreciation for how big of a deal that was going to be, but I will say this. I have been a fan of Jorge Mazbadole for a very long time. Back in his strike four days, strike force day, excuse me. He fought my good friend and coach James Krausey years back.

So it's not like, the awesomeness of Jorge Mazmidal was not new to me. So in that respect, not necessarily surprising. I don't think I had enough of an appreciation for how much people love his pros. Just the way he talks, the phrasing that he uses, and his overall attitude, which is not at all put on or force is just who he is. And that's what people gravitate to. So I hadn't really sat down and done the math. I'm like, man, he really is a gangster. He says a lot of really interesting, funny, witty things.

And he does some crazy stuff like that. I mean, that's a recipe for success. It's a lot like Potter McGregor. I would agree with that. And in terms of getting back to work, it looks like the UFC is going to be getting back to work. on April 18th, the UFC 249 is going to happen someplace on earth. We don't know yet, nobody knows, and then we find out subsequent events that are going to follow. Did you think this would happen so quickly?

I will say this. Dana is a very determined individual, and I know people have a lot of different opinions about whether this fight should be taking place, but as the fan in me cannot help but appreciate the lengths that he has gone to and is going to to make this happen. I would love to tell you I knew about this ahead of time. I still have no idea what this is going to. I have no insider information to share. I wish I did. I can't wait to find out where they're taking these people because as I understand it, even the fighters don't yet know where they're headed for UFC 249. And then there's this island. Frankly, I am loving every minute of how this is unfolding. I think it's just.

genius. I think as long as the proper precautionary measures are taken, which it sounds like they're going the extra mile to make sure that that does happen, as long as we're all being safe, we need this. I'm sorry, I need this in my life. I mean, you're coming from multiple perspectives here, kind of like John Anick. He was on the show last week. You know, you wear the reporter hat. You're the mom hat. You get the wife hat. So there's a lot of factors in play during this pandemic. How are you handling it from those aspects? Are you going to be a part of, you know, the 249 broadcast or any of the subsequent events? So normally for paper review events, they have created a new role for me,

which is sort of this social media quick hits role where I do live hits throughout the fight night on the UFC's Instagram page and social media and that Facebook page. So for this one, because they're not going to have an audience and they're trying to use as few people as possible, I will not be involved in UFC 249. moving forward though it's completely my boss is like just listen hey you know we don't know yet i have nothing to tell you yet so just kind of stay tuned and stay bubbled up so i'm kind of got my bag halfway packed which it usually always is and i'm ready to go if they need me i would love to be able to make an appearance on fight island at some point fight island i cannot believe we're

having this conversation right now but that's where we are this amazing like when when you saw that interview and you saw those stories? How did you react to that? I, on one hand, I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot. Who does that? But you know, who does that? Dana White does that, right? Like, on one hand, how can you not be surprised that we're talking about holding fights on a private island in some undisclosed location where everyone will be jetted in and it's, you know, only invite to the island? Like, I have so many questions about the logistics for this. But anyway, I just, I'm excited for it. I want to know, I want to go there because I want to know the specifics.

Like, how does the food get on the island? What are we eating on the island? Is there a hotel on the island? Or do we get taken off the island to go sleep someplace? These are the questions I'm dying to know. There's the questions that I am now dying to know as well. This is just so fascinating right now. And there's a lot of criticism towards Dana.

And on top of that, let me just add, I don't want to. to know where these events are happening. Like, Dana, like, I think the mystery is, is everything to me at this point. Like, wait till, like, you don't have to tell the public until fight night. That's fine with me. I'm with it. At this point, why not? Why not? We don't need to know. I mean, maybe you just tell them, I guess a couple. I'm hearing, and I couldn't be wrong about it. I'm hearing that even the fight and that they are going to be transported together to one location and then taken to the island. I don't know this for a fact, but this is my understanding. I love that. I love that. Don't tell them where they're going. Heck, why not? Blindfold them. Yeah, I mean, tell them.

Just, you know, put a gag order on them. I don't want to know. I'm going to try to block myself out of it. We know that from tough. Those never ever work. But, you know, the less time you tell them, the, you know, less likely it is to get out. Yeah, I would agree with that. There's obviously a lot of criticism towards Dana. We touched on this earlier. But I feel with the criticism in this instance, like you're going to have negative people all the time. They're just going to find something to be negative about. But I think with this particular circumstance, I think people's hearts are in the right place in regards to the safety of the fighters. You know, like you having questions about Fight Island, we have questions about some of the things that are going to happen to

make sure that no one gets infected and so forth and so on. Your good friend James Krause told me last week when we spoke, he said, listen, I get all sides, but either way, someone's going to get pissed off with the answer. What's your take on that and how people are actually reacting to this. It's true. I think what you said is right. I think people's hearts are in the right place. I will say that when it comes to Dana in general, people love to hate on Dana for a multitude of reasons. And as someone who has grown to know him more closely the number of times I interview him, I'll tell you that my respect for him, I was never in the hater bucket at all, but my respect for him and what happens behind closed doors and what happens when the camera is not

on has grown leaps and bounds. But I do understand people's feelings about this. In general, I will say this. I live in Kansas City, Missouri, and I have friends that live in New York, and I have friends that live in San Francisco and Los Angeles. And I'll tell you that in talking to those people, this virus looks, this pandemic looks very, very different depending on where you're located, right? My life, while a lot of the stores I like to shop at in restaurants, I like to go to are closed right now, and I'm certainly staying on way more than I ever would. Hospitals here are not overrun. I have a friend who's an ER doctor, and, you know, she said, to be honest with you, certainly we've seen some cases, but like, it's not that bad. And I don't mean to make light of the

people who have gotten it, because I actually know a couple people who have dealt with it. And I certainly don't mean to make light of anybody who has lost someone to this. I know that there obviously are people who have, but I'm talking in the wide general population sense, Kansas City just feels a lot different. I think I would probably look at this whole situation differently if I lived in New York because it is different in New York. So it's easy for me to sit here. I guess what I'm saying it's easy for me to sit here in Kansas City and say, yeah, we should put on a fight. What's the big deal? You know, no one should have a problem with it. I am okay with people having a problem with it, but I don't.

And I'm happy that it's happening. And like I said, I'm confident that the people I work with, they are some of the most incredible people at putting on events. What they are able to pull off in a short amount of time is astounding. And I have all the faith in the world that they're capable of doing this in a safe way. And I think there's something to be said for lifting people's spirits and maybe creating, you know, this idea that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And we will get back to life and we will get back to working and things will, things will come back. Well, no matter what side of the fence you are on, April 18th, somewhere on this planet, UFC 249 is going to take place. There's a big newsday on Monday.

The whole card was released. And then we found out that Tony Ferguson is now going to fight Justin Gachie for the interim lightweight title. Now, we all wanted to see the fight with Habeeb. We all wanted to see it so many times. But this fight between Ferguson and Gachy, you know, 12 days notice, heck, 12 hours notice, this has to be a good fight, right? I mean, as a former fighter, and from an analyst perspective as well, this one has to get your mind racing, does it not?

It has to, okay? I, yes, I, of course, wanted to see Tony versus a beat. That's the fight that should make place, but it can't. So let's move on. Justin Gagee versus Tony Ferguson is insane. It is absolutely crazy. Both of these guys, the biggest takeaway, when I look at this fight, the biggest takeaway, neither of these guys has ever faced anyone like each other.

Tony Ferguson brings stuff to the table that you cannot find in anyone else. A lot of it is that mentality of always coming forward, no matter what's happening. He's so creative. He has this variety of weapons. He has cardio for days. And then you've got Justin Gaichi, who knocks a lot of people out with the big. biggest thing in his arsenal is the leg kicks. You're not going to find someone, especially not on 12 days a day to prepare the onslaught of leg kicks that Justin Keachie brings to a fight.

It's just too difficult to do. So I love that both of these guys are pressure fighters. Both of them have five-round level cardio. Both of them have, I don't think, I don't think this is, this fight's going to go to the map. But if it does, I'm super interested because Justin Gagy has the D1 wrestling credentials, but he never wrestles. This might be a fight where he would maybe choose to wrestle. Tony Ferguson, amazing off his back, though, so maybe not. I just, I like a fight where every day, every minute that I really, really start thinking about it,

I can convince myself that the other person's going to win. You know what I mean? I can play devil's advocate. I can make a very strong case right now that Justin Gitchie is going to bulldoze Tony Ferguson. I can make a very strong case the other way around. I love that. Gagy spoke with TMZ this week, and he said some really interesting things. One that really stuck out to me is he has this mindset before these fights that, you know,

this guy's better than me. He's luckier than me. He has everything going for him. I don't. And for some reason, he essentially needs to add as much to the adversity pile as possible because he thrives on that so much. So from your experience being in the fight game, how common is that? I think a lot of people operate with that sort of chip.

on their shoulder mentality. I don't know if they necessarily go to the links that Justin does. I think some people, you know, some people, it's the other way around and they do more of the positive self-talk. Like, I'm the best. No one can touch me. No one can stop me. You know, I'm at the best level of my game that I ever have been.

But I liked operating from a chip on my shoulder perspective because I had a hard time switching into that mentality because I'm not necessarily a natural fighter personality. Fighting does not come naturally to me. So I had to go there. I had to sort of force my head to be like, okay, this girl, this woman is trying to take everything from me. She, you know, I would, sounds weird, but like I would envision my opponent potentially hurting someone that I love, you know, to create that feeling that I had to go to that place. So maybe that's just how, how Justin is. Someone like Jorge Maslittle, I don't think he has to do anything with that. I think he just likes to fight, and there's no switch for him that needs to be flipped.

The switch is always on. So it's person to person, but it's fairly common. I think that people want to fight with that, like go out there and prove something, chip on your shoulder feeling. A lot of times when you pair up two fighters and a guy's been preparing for a fight for three or four months and he's fighting a guy who's taking a fight on like two weeks notice or less, you're just like, oh, advantage clearly to the guy who's been training all this time. But you got a couple of wild men in here, and Tony Ferguson and Justin Gachie,

where all bets are just going to be off here. Like, Gachi has his opportunity. He even feels like if he loses, he doesn't, like, change his position at all. He just remains right where he is right now. And if he wins, obviously, big things are going to happen for him. Do you think that that factors into the fight at all that Tony's had to, you know, had all this time to prepare for Habib. And Justin probably has been training, but not getting fight ready.

Oh, I absolutely do. There are so many X factors mentality-wise coming in this fight, that it's hard to know which one is really going to win out. you know, for Tony Ferguson to be preparing for Habib for, I mean, obviously we know at this point, not just one time, two times, three times, five times, five times. He has had a camp for Habib Narragamero and that's another very specific style of fighting. It's pretty obvious what you're working on when you're going to be fighting Hibb. Justin Gachie never shoots. He's got a great, great wrestling pedigree, but he never uses it. So, you know, take that entire part of your camp and other

than the exercise that you got from it. It's not really applicable in this fight. So Tony has that mark against him. He's also got this idea that he really is the one in this position that has something to lose, right? Certainly you're gaining fans' respect. You're gaining the UFC's respect in terms of stepping up and making this card happen. But the reality is you're facing a very dangerous guy in Justin Gachie.

He puts a lot of people's lights out. He's very effective. He's very powerful. and he's nothing like the guy that you were preparing for. Tony's got a lot to lose in this fight. Justin has a lot less to lose, as you said. However, Justin still has some amount of status to lose because for a long time, people,

the argument could be made that Justin could have been in this position as well. I mean, Tony's the rightful guy to be fighting Khabib. But Justin's right there. And if Justin has a bad loss, gets injured, you know, you never know what's going to happen and fight like this. A lot of people don't come away the same when they fight Tony Ferguson. He's a surgeon, and he will crush your hands.

He'll cut you up. And you never know what risks being taken by his own. I'm just so glad that it's happening. More happy to have fights to watch than anything else, especially this fight, because there's no way that these two will not have an entertaining fight. It's going to be bananas. You're getting everybody excited here. The other fight I want to get your take on, the rematch from UFC 2,

37, Rose, Naua Yunus and Jessica Androge. What a crazy fight that was because Rose looks so good in that first round. And many say, and you can agree with them easily that that was the best round of her career. And then in the second, you know, Jessica gets a hold of her, slams her in her head and the fight was over. And it was super scary to watch. But then Androge loses to Zhang Wei and Rose hasn't fought since the Androge fight. What are your thoughts on this rematch coming up at UFC 249? I love rematches because I'm kind of a fight nerd in the way that I like.

to think about how I can see things playing out. So I love the fact that you have a baseline. We know what happened the first time. And what that tells me is two things. Number one, as you said, Rose's game in that fight was the best I have ever seen in her career. She looked absolutely phenomenal. The maturation in her fight game

from the Ywani and Jenchik fight into that fight was absolutely incredible. Her footwork, her balance, her precision, her jack. She was absolutely eating Jessica Andrage up. And there are a lot of moments where you can see Jessica Andrage's face where she just didn't have an answer in that first round on how to close the distance and do what she does best, which is get in there, get her hands on you, dirty box, and lay punches that way. That being said, Jessica Andrage now has an idea of what she needs to work on. She has a very specific list of things that she needs to do. namely, I think she really needs to work on that outside kicking game.

I mean, Rose had a pretty significant speed advantage when it came to the footwork. The first thing when you do, when you're dealing with someone who has faster feet is to chop those feet apart, chop those legs down, slower down a little bit. And when you slow someone down, you also take away the power. And it's so funny to think of Rose as being a powerful puncher because she's not built like a powerful puncher. She doesn't throw like a powerful puncher the way that Jessica does. does, but she is powerful. She has knocked down, I believe, more opponents than anyone else in the

strong white division. You might have to factor me on that one. And then you've got Jessica, who's sort of, you know, she does, she throws like a little Vanderley Silva. You know, she's got power in every single punch, but they're very tight, and she is very short. So to be able to close that distance and effectively tangle with Rose, you either have to stick and move like you and I, Janjic did in the second fight, although I understand that she still lost that fight, but she did much better, of course, than the first one. Or you have to completely close the distance

and stay on her the entire time. But again, Rose is such a slick submission artist. You know, she was winning virtually every moment of that fight until she made a mistake. And even then, the mistake that she made, some people are like, that's such a rookie mistake. You always know that if someone picks you up, you let go of the submission.

That's true, but if you remember in the first round, she held on to the to the Camorra grip and almost arm barter. So it's understandable why she did a quick risk assessment in her head and held on to it, because it almost finished the fight in the first round. It just so happened that Androge was wise to it, was able to rotate her a little bit further. And then, you know, we had the knockout. But I think Rose sticks to the same game plan. And I think Jessica has to change quite a few things to make this fight look different. she's had the time and she's got the footage now to be able to do that. It's another really fun fight on this card, but, you know, kind of looking at it from top

to bottom, I'm a big under-the-radar guy. I like taking a look at under-the-radar fights, the next potential superstar, so to speak. What's sort of that fight that you're looking at, the one, you know, that may not be on people's radars right now heading into April 18th, but it will be afterwards on April 19th. What kind of sticks out to you? I don't know how under-under-the-radar it is, but as an individual, I think, He is under the radar, and that's Jorgand de Castro. Yorgand de Castro versus Greg Hardy.

There's two fantastic heavyweight fights on this card. I mean, when I saw Jarzina Rosenstrike versus Francis and Ghanem, holy cow, oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see that, but I think a lot of people, it's not under the radar. A lot of people know that that's going to be an absolutely incredible fight. Yorgand de Castro versus Greg Hardy, and no matter what your feelings are about Greg Hardy, you can certainly see that he as matured as a fighter. He's taking steps every single fight. He comes out there, and you can see he's added a little bit of a piece to his game.

But he's had some weird finishes, some inhaler gate. Stuff just has never been clean. Some kind of a weird style you know, imply that he's not clean. But, you know, the wins have not been perfectly definitive. And I know that he would like to have that. You were going to cash for a little. Oh, my gosh. I remember when he came on to the contender series,

he was basically purely a kickboxer, and he's taking on a D1, like three-time, all-American national champion wrestler in Alton Meeks. And he had been pretty open that his game plan going in. He said, I'm going to kick his leg. And if I could kick his leg three or four times, I'm going to win. And I thought, do you really want to kick a wrestler in the leg? Because that's pretty much what you don't want to do to a wrestler

because they're going to catch it, and they're going to take you down, right? Like, that's the 101 playbook on how not to fight a wrestler. He went out there, and that's exactly what he did. And when he landed those leg kicks, I mean, I've never heard a leg kick like that.

I don't ever want to see a leg kick like that again. He did exactly what he said he was going to do. And then first fight in the UFC knocks Justin Taff out cold. This guy is very exciting. He's got a lot of, He's got a fantastic kickboxing background. Comes from a really tiny island country off the coast of Africa. So he's lived a life of adversity.

And I get really excited about people who have stories that I can kind of, you know, get excited about. He's definitely one of those people. So this whole idea of where this fight's taking place, the circumstances under which people have been having to train, certain fighters thrive in that and certain fighters would not. I'm someone who likes routine. I like my stuff to be a certain way. I like to have things planned out. I like to things to work the way that I want them to work.

And if you have my personality type, you would not be doing well in these circumstances because I guarantee you no one's been able to fight or excuse me train that they're used to the way that they're used to training. And the logistics, the travel is your team coming with you? Are they not coming with you? So much is up in the air. And the type of fighter that Jorgand de Castro is coming from where he came from,

he had some difficulties when he was having his contender series fight as well, this is going to be no big deal for him. So that's going to be a very fun fight. Both guys coming off Contender Series. Yorgainda Castro is a stud. But you mentioned, I love, I'm just going to say it right now, I love the Contender Series. I've loved it every season that's come out.

I look forward to it. I mark it on the calendar. I love the fights. But like you mentioned, I love the stories behind these fighters because they're amazing. And I've gotten a chance to talk to a lot of them over the last couple of years. But, you know, being a part of that show and being able to help tell those stories and talking to these fighters after wins and even right after they get signed to the UFC and get to see their dreams come true, like how much do you enjoy being a part of that show? It's my favorite thing that I do by far. You know, I certainly do some things that would be considered maybe higher profile holding that ESP and Mike, you know, always feels kind of cool. But nothing, nothing compares to being inches away from someone who

just changed their life. And, you know, just that emotion radiating off of them. It's like a running joke that any moment now, Sanko's going to burst into like, unstoppable, ugly cry on television because I'm an emotional person and I get so invested in. every single one of these men and women that come through there, whether they win or lose, whether they get the contract or not, I spend so much time researching them. And I think having fought also, I know, I just, I know what it takes. I know the sacrifice that it takes to do this sport and to be able to share that moment with them in such a life-changing moment is just, it's incredible. It's by far my favorite thing that I do. If I had to give everything else up

in order to keep that, I would for sure. Has there been any discussion, especially after this conversation we've just had about maybe adding your voice as an analyst on the broadcast booth for the contenders series, like maybe a three-person boot, like as if you didn't have enough on your plate on Tuesday nights because you're interviewing the fighters, you're the ring announcer, you're running back and forth, you're going to get Dana's decision, all that stuff. But you have experience in that role and you were a professional fighter, and that kind of seems like that would be a big goal of yours.

Is it not? Yeah, I would love to do that. My hope is that I can, you know, weasel my way in there and make a case that there could be potentially a third voice in that booth at times. You know, I think, and it's not just women fights. You know, the female fights are certainly, it's the most obvious case to make that I might have some insight that my male counterparts wouldn't. But it doesn't really matter. You know, I know a lot of the guys coming through there. I certainly know the fight game.

And I think I could certainly add to the storytelling and the broadcast and the. analysis of what's going down. I hope that that happens. I'm down for it. It's interesting because during the contender series, the analysts or the commentators in that role, don't sit cage side because it's so quiet and they don't want the fighters to hear every single word

that the commentators are saying. But I've already had it mapped out in my head. I could do it. I could help color commentate the fight, run in there, announce the winner, run back, do the interview, and then sit back down. It's a triangle. It's very easy.

It's very easy. So, yes, I hope that I have the opportunity to do that, and I appreciate you suggesting that that's something that you might like to see. And I hope that there are others that would like to see it as well. We'll see. Yeah, or you could just do the interviews in the octagon, in the cage. You're already in there anyways. I can't remember.

There's some logistical reason why we don't do that, and I can't exactly remember what it is. But either way, easy enough. I mean, the little interview room I'm in is obviously a short walk. I think part of it, too, is they enjoy when the fighter walks past Dana before they go talk to me. A lot of good moments happen when the fighter interacts with Dana. So there's some television-y reasons. But yeah, I'm up for any of it. Why not?

I've learned so much in this conversation, Laura. I really appreciate you jumping on here, talking about everything, breaking down these big fights as we try to get back some semblance of normalcy here in the world. And I appreciate you jumping on. All the best to you and everybody at home. Stay healthy and safe. And selfishly, I look forward to hearing your voice on a UFC broadcast sooner rather than later. I hope so, Mike.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Invite me on. I have fun. Let's do again. All right. We're going to check in right now with Colby Covington. He always seems to end up in the news these days.

He was once again over the weekend. We heard Tyred Woodley's side of the story. He was on with ESPN, talking to Ariel Hawati. gave his side in regards to trying to get a fight put together with Colby Covington for April 18th, the UFC 249. Colby Covington, as you would expect, does not agree with Tired Woodley's stance on this. So we're going to hear his side of the story, and we're going to get to that right now. All right, let's move ahead to our next guest. A lot to discuss with this man.

Colby Chaos Covington joins the show. It's been a minute since we've spoken. Colby, how are you? I'm doing good, man. It's an honor to finally talk to you again. It's been a while. but you were one of the journalists that was there for the uprise and the rise of my journey. So, you know, it's good to talk to you again while I'm at the top.

Yeah, it's kind of surreal to go back and think about it because you were having a hard time finding fights the first time we had a conversation. You were out holding signs, you know, we'll, you know, you're outside, like, just hanging up signs, trying to beg for fights at this point. And now you're in this position you're at now. When you look back at those days, is it kind of surreal to think about? It is surreal, but, you know, I always believed in myself, and I always knew that there was going to be a time in a moment where I was going to be in this position for, you know, super fights and main event fights and big money fights. And, you know, now that it's here, it's great. But looking back on where we came from and where we started from, you know, for being on the corner begging for fights, literally I'd fight for free for food, just to eat. That's how bad I wanted to fight and how much I love to compete.

So to be here now and making multi-six-figure paychecks, it's a blessing and the best is yet to come. You haven't seen the best Kobe Chaos Covington yet. How has quarantine life been treating you? What have been up to during this crazy time? Has much changed for you? No, much hasn't changed besides maybe a little bit better social distancing and just being aware, you know, of washing my hands, what you're touching, if you're putting your fingers in your mouth or in your eyes or if you're going to pick your nose, you know, you've got to be aware. those things. Those are the things that you can spread the virus or you can get the virus. So, you know, if anything, it's just opened up my mind to being more aware of things around me and

just being more cleanlier and safer. So let's dive into what people want to know at this point. We saw UFC 249 is set for April 18th. The whole card is out. It's release and a fight we didn't see on there that people may have expected to see was a fight between you and Tyrod Woodley. So to sort of set the scene, after Leon Edwards was supposed to fight Tyron Woodley on that London card. Then it got canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. They were talking about moving it to the U.S. You stepped in.

You were offering to fight Tyron Woodley on less than a week's notice. Fight gets canceled. Now on Saturday, Tyrant and his team go on Twitter and they said that they have agreed to terms to fight you at UFC 249. He has since said that you have turned him down. He said your mom was Carol Baskins and all sorts of crazy stuff has come out on Instagram and things like that. But you and I spoke briefly on Sunday, but can we sort of clear the

air right here? Like what happened from your perspective and trying to put this fight together for April 18th? Yeah, you know, I offered up my services to fight the bitch Tyquil Woodley on six days notice. So if you don't, if you don't think that I'd fight the guy on 12 days notice, you must be out of your mind and you're delusional. You know, the thing is, is I'm not second fiddle. I don't play second fiddle to anybody. So what I'm trying to say is when the Tony and Kabib fight fell apart and they said that that fight wasn't going to go on, I called the UFC. I said, hey, I, I, I I want that main event slot. You know, I want to drag Woodley around for five rounds.

I want to fucking talk shit in his ear and an empty arena in front of the whole world to see him. But I want it to be on free TV because I want every single person in the world to be able to witness this ass beating. Witness me absolutely retired Tyrone Woodley. And so we never have to hear the fake news out of his mouth again. And, you know, once they found out that they wanted to do Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gage, they didn't really talk about that. They talked about maybe pushing the fight back a couple weeks, and now we're talking about maybe doing on Dana White's Fight Island. But let's be honest, you know, this is not a prelim fight. Yeah, Tyrone Woodley could have fought on the prelim versus, you know, Leon Scott or some guy named Dilbert.

But, you know, those are other bum, no-name job or fights. You know, you're talking about a king. You're talking about the main event. You're talking about the people's champ, America's champ. You're talking about Donald Trump's favorite fighter. I don't play second fiddle to nobody, especially some lightweight little job. gatekeepers. I'm a main event and I deserve a main event spot in five rounds and anything less. I'm not going to fight for it. So I want to fight for the people and I want to come out and I want to

and I want to end Tyro Woodley, but I want my main event slot and it has to be pushed back one week. So be it. So let the world know. Let Tyrol Woodley. We're going to do this. We're going to do this on Dana White's Fight Island. We're going to do a main event and the whole world's going to see how exposed he gets. So on Saturday, Tyron says, I'm in. We said yes. When did you and your team begin speaking with the UFC about your potential involvement from that point moving forward. Yeah, we've been talking with the UFC, my management team over at Ballengee Group. You know, Lloyd and Jeff, they do a great job of getting fights together and doing a great job of reshuffling deck for guys.

You know, they manage Ferguson as well. So they're a great management team. And I just leave it up to them. I offer my services. I really wanted to fight Tyrone and Will be on six days notice to save the UFC London main event because I thought that they were coming to the U.S. And I thought it'd be a great opportunity to save that fight and do it on ESPN for the people. While the people are stuck at home, I can be the one the savior to save sports.

Sports is dead. Everybody's dying for something. And they're dying for this fight because this fight is multiple years in the making. This fight is beyond personal. There is a serious beat between me and Tyrone and Woodley. And it needs to be settled. And the only way it's going to be settled is we're going to do it on Dana White's Fight Island. I'm going to end that bitch.

He's going to be dead. and then they can just throw his dead body to the sharks and the private island. So was there an official fight offer, just not in the main event spot? Was that the biggest point of contention here? To be honest, I don't think there was a fight offer. We came to an agreement. We were ready to fight him, but I don't know. They couldn't get the logistics right.

And I guess Sean Shelby and Hunter had a full card already for April 18th. So we're just going to go ahead with this. And they also recognized and realized that me versus Tyrone Woodley is a bigger. fight than Justin Gagey versus Tony Ferguson. And if you look at the numbers, any way you crunch it, that's just, that's, that's true news. That's not fake news. So this fight needs to be a main event.

Don't let Tyrone Woodley on the prelim so he can get three rounds because we know Tyrone Woodley's washed up. We know he can't fight. We definitely know he can't rap. So he needs to come take this ass beaten, take his losing paycheck, and go back to doing whatever the fuck he was doing talking about the Kardashians on TMZ or what the fuck he he likes to do on a spare time. So for you at this point, it doesn't matter if it's the 25th or May 2nd or May 9th, you're in.

I'm in 100% I'm on this interview today. I 100% put forward. If this fight doesn't happen, you'll know who the coward is. And that's Tyrone Woodley. If this fight doesn't come together, this is because the washed up Tyrone Woodley is scared to fight and he's looking for an easier paycheck. I'm in. I'm ready to go. I was ready to go on six days notice.

I was ready to go on April 18. It doesn't matter. Let me main event, Dana White's Fight Island, live on ESPN for the people, because I'm the people's champ, and I want to save sports for the people. On a serious, like, just seriously thinking about it, how likely, if you could give a percentage to it, do you feel that this fight will actually happen in the next month, maybe two months? Do you feel confident that this will be the fight that will be made, that you're going to fight Tyron Woodley sooner rather than later? man i promise you i'm on both hands and knees begging praying that it happens you know the thing is i've been running down tyrone woodley for so many years now this guy i mean we've trained together in the gym so he knows how good i am and he knows he can't stop me so you know this is the same guy that i scared into an elective shoulder surgery he was ready to fight lightweights when i was the number one

contender but then he got elective shoulder surgery and the division must move on i must defend my title and i fought a scarier guy this is also the same tyrone woolley that was scared to fight Robbie Lawler, and I had to come out and fight Robbie Lawler with half my face torn off it on four weeks notice with no training camp. This is also the same Tyrone Woodley that's coming out in an interview saying he's broke and he's desperate, and we all know he can't rap because that shit is pathetic, man. The shit he'd be rapping about these days is absolutely washed up garbage and, you know, I want to take the trash out. That's what I'm going to do with Tyrone Woodley. I'm going to take the trash out. And, you know, if we're talking about percentages and how likely it's to happen,

you know, it's 100% on my side, the ball's in Tyrone Woodley, of course. Is he going to take the ball and leave the yard? Or is he going to show up and take the ass beating like the pussy bitch he is? If for some reason, this fight can't get put together, is there anything else that will get you back in that octagon within this time frame? Like, especially during this time of uncertainty with the coronavirus. Is it the belt, any other fight stick out to you that would at least get you in there over the next two months if it's not Tyron Woodley? Yeah, there's really only a handful of fights that I'd be willing to take. Obviously, I deserve my rematch. You know, people aren't talking about how I won rounds one, two, and four, and I was beating Marty Fake Newsman up for 24 minutes between, before Mark Godder gave him a life raft and saved his life. That was a bullshit stoppage.

Fake rap. There was fake Nuchess. I mean, the corner audio, they stole my corner audio, and that played a huge factor in the fight because his brother's telling him in between rounds. Oh, his jaws hurt, you know, you're now go get him, you know. And that gives, you know, a little adrenaline boost to a fighter if they know a guy's hurt or whatnot. So, you know, besides that, you know, I won that fucking fight and I want my rematch with Marty fake news in one way or another. But, you know, I'm willing to come out and save the day.

I'm willing to save the day for the people. I'm willing to save the day for the UFC. And I want big fights. And Tyrone Woodley, it's a semi big fight. Everybody knows I'm the A side. No one gives a fuck about Tyrone Woodley because he doesn't give a fuck about us. He doesn't care about America. He's a calming fucking scum.

He's a liberal piece of fucking shit. And there's nothing fucking more heated right now in politics than the red versus the blue. And that's why this fight needs to happen. And if it doesn't, then I want my rematch with Marty Fake Newsman. I want a beat-up journeyman, street, Judas, Jorge Mosvital, or, you know, another big money fight. Maybe I stocked in soy boy Nate Diaz or Nick Diaz. Besides that, you know, I got none to prove. I've already won a world championship.

I'm the best fighter in the world. And, you know, I'm just going to keep defending my belt for the people and fight, you know, the most worthy opponents. It seems that in a way Tyron is also lobbying for a rematch with Kamaru. And he said he's kind of, you know, he's chalking that night up to a bad night. It wasn't him in there. He's kind of going after Kamara right now because he thinks you turn down the fight. Do you see the UFC going in that direction, any chance of that happening at this point? Zero percent chance.

You know, Tyrone Willey absolutely got decimated in that fight. He lost every second of every single minute of every single round in that fight versus Margie. fake newsman. So that's not, you know, you don't do a rematch after a fight like that. You know, you do a rematch after a fight like me where it's completely, it's a close fight, but I'm winning the fight. I won one, round one, two, or four. I dropped him multiple rounds, had it wobbled and almost finished him multiple times. You know, I threw a head kick and then he's faking an eye poke on the other side. Dude, there's cameras, Marty. Do you realize you're going to get caught on camera and people are going to replay this and see how you fake acted, a fake eye poke just to get momentum

and shift the momentum and get a little break because you're getting tired. I mean, do you not see that I kicked you right in the liver and you can't fake a nut shop? You know, maybe your ref was paid off. Mark Goddard is a fucking clown and good thing the border is closed because he needs to stay the fucking England and never come back to America because he's a fucking clown. No fighters should ever let Mark Goddard rep their fights. That guy has no fucking reason he should ever be in a fucking. an octagon. I mean, look at the fight. I mean, even the ending. I mean, there's seven shots

to the back of my head. He didn't do anything. And I'm intelligently defending myself and he stops out. And I stand right up. I'm like, what are you doing? I'm on a double leg, dude. I'm working, bro. Why are you fucking stopping the fight when we're, it's literally I'm winning the fight. I'm winning 24 minutes. The judges have me up on the score cards three to one. Like, what the fuck are you doing, Margar? This is a world championship fight. I signed up to fight to the death. When I fight in the oxgon, UFC knows it's killer be killed. And that's what we signed up We're not playing fucking patty cake. If you rob me out of being killer, if you killed, everybody knows it was a thick.

Everybody knows it was a fix. Everybody knows I got cheated. So I want my remaster. I already fake newsman. Or, you know, I can end Tycho, Wally's career. Or, you know, Journeyman Street, Judas, you know, he can get that work too. But if it's not any of those names, you know, I'm just going to keep trying to keep getting better. And, you know, you'll see me back one day.

Do you feel like the only way you can get that sour taste out of your mouth from that night is to fight Kamar Usman again? or do you just feel like you could get it out fighting Tyrant or anybody else at this point? No, I do. I seriously have the biggest chip on my shoulder bigger than I've ever had in my life. And there's only one way I'm going to get that chip off my shoulder, being able to get it run back with Marty Fake Newsman and have a level playing field. I mean, I'm not just talking about the bad reffing. I mean, the corner audio, you know, the commission made a joke out of the fight, you know,

before the fight, you know, there's a lot of stuff that happened to me that people don't know about. So my preparation and, you know, maybe, you know, getting my food tamper with before the fight, there's a lot of things that wanted to play. What I'm trying to say is that was my worst night and that was his best night and you saw what happened. I still should have won the fight. So what happens when I fight on an average night are my best night? Marty fake newsman will get blown out of the water and I will get my title back and he's got nowhere to hide, man. There's no other fight in the division that makes sense for him right now.

And once journeyman, Judas, street mastodal, you know, prices himself out of that fight. You know, Colby Chaos Covenant is going to come and save the day for the people and save the day for the UFC. Wait a minute. Your food was tampered with? What happened? Yeah, man. The thing was, is after the fight, you know, I had multiple interviews and I didn't want to come out making excuses. You know, I didn't want to come out, you know, saying, you know, this is what happened, you know, because I feel like great athletes like Michael Jordan, you know, he rides to the occasion through the food pores. And he rise to the occasion. You know, these things happen. But this really happened. You know, all my coaches were in the room the night before weigh-ins.

You know, I had some bad chicken. And I was puking. I puked probably 50 fucking times the night before wands. Didn't even have to cut weight because I was already on weight the night before because I threw up everything. And I was dehydrated and sucked up. And I never have to really cut weight. It's like a 10-pound easy weight cut.

So that really affected me. I just remember how it felt on fight day on Saturday. Like my legs felt weak, you know. My body didn't feel right, you know, and I feel like I was just getting touched to the body and like it felt like I was getting stabbed and that's never like that. I have a very strong chord but I just knew that the food poisoning played a big role in the fight and it wasn't my best performance and that's why I want to rerun with a fair ref on a fair playing field and I guarantee it'll be a completely different result. My hand will be raised. With everything happening to

you in dealing with everything with the weight cut and then on fight night, do you take solace in the fact that you still performed as well as you did that you were up on one of the judge's scorecards was even in the other one and that you went all the way to the end. And, you know, a lot of people felt that that fight shouldn't have been stopped when it was stopped. Do you at least take solace in that? I mean, I take a lot of pride and knowing that I am the best well to wait on Earth right now. There's no questions. There's no doubt about it.

You know, the Marty Fake Newsman is not on my level. He knows that now. He knows that that was his best night. You know, he got to take some time off. I had to go fight the world's scariest man, Robbie Lawler, two months before that fight, as a tune-up fight just to get to him because he's, He's faking injuries, faking excuses, just like he likes to do. That's why he's Marty Fake Newsman.

But I'm here to make the World 2A Division great again. And, you know, yeah, that was part one. But guess what, Mike? There's going to be a part two and there's going to be part three. There's going to be a sequel in a trilogy to this Marty Fake Newsman fight. I promise you that. You have not seen the last of me of Marty Fake Newsman. I'm going to get locked in the Octagon with him, and I'm going to end him for good next time.

How is your relationship these days with Dana White? Like you guys have been on this roller coaster ride for a little while. And it seemed like, at least in his eyes, you've turned the corner with him after that fight with Kamara Usman. How has that relationship been? Yeah, it's getting better. You know, he understands what I'm doing. He understands the business that I bring to this company. And, you know, I put myself out there, man.

And not a lot of these fighters want to put themselves out there because they're scared of the fall. But, you know, I know I'm not going to fall. I know I'm the best. And I'm willing to put it all on the line. and I'm willing to make it exciting and entertaining because that's what it's all about. This is entertainment show business. I want to make it exciting for the fans.

I want to give them some hope, some inspiration. And that's why I do what I do, man. You can hate me or you can love me, but you will be interested. And either way, I don't care, man. My haters, you know, they're just as good as the people that love me. So, you know, I'm trying to do good things and make it exciting for the fans again.

Do you as a fighter appreciate what Dan is trying to do right now during this global pandemic? like everyone shutting down, all the sports are taking a break. Dana is saying, you know what, we're going to go out there and try to find solutions and put on these fights and do them as safely as possible. Do you appreciate what he's trying to do to try to keep this train moving? Yeah, absolutely. How could you not appreciate what Dana's trying to do?

You know, he's trying to save the sports world. He's trying to give ESPN something to talk about. He's trying to give the people around the world that are stuck in their houses, you know, people are in quarantine. People are, you know, they can't go do anything. that, you know, people are at home and they're miserable, man. They've watched every Netflix show there is to watch. You know, they've done every home workout that they could possibly do.

They've done the extracurricular stuff that goes on in the bedroom. So what else can they do? They want to see sports. They want to see action. They want to see violence. They want to see entertainment. They want to be able to bet. I mean, these people are betting on the weather, if it's going to rain or not tomorrow.

Let's give them something really to bet about. Let's give them a high-octane. Best fighters in the world duke it out. You can bet on that, you know? So, you know, I got to commend Dana White for doing a good job of keeping everything together and finding a place for this, man. The fights will go on. I'm excited to get locked in that octagon again. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about your old friend John Jones.

We saw the news that came out about a week and a half two weeks ago. We got arrested DWI, the gun charges and stuff like that. We saw your brief reaction on Twitter. You know, how do you respond to it a week and a half or two weeks later? Yeah, you know, you would think that, you know, we've never seen anything like this before, you know, we're going through this pandemic, you know, this unprecedented time, you know, the coronavirus, people are stuck in their house, in their houses, and you would just think that everything is just, it's the craziest time ever in life. But then John Jones gets caught by the Albuquerque police again, for what, the seventh or eight time? Everything is normal in the world, people, I promise you. John Jones is still getting caught. He's still. a dirt bag. He's still cheating on his wife and doing drugs and doing stairways. And we can almost

go back to normal soon. So hang in there, people. You're going to be out of your houses soon. The world's coming back to normal. John Jones is still getting caught and he's still a piece of shit. And hopefully he goes to jail soon. I haven't been able to talk to anybody about this since Sunday night, Colby. But did you watch WrestleMania this weekend? No, unfortunately I did. I'm so pissed, man. I heard about it and I heard the rundown, but I'm pissed. I didn't get to see it. How was it? It was interesting. It was very interesting with with no audience. Obviously, I'm sure the two you heard about more than any were the, the Boneyard match with Taker and Stiles and then the Firefly Funhouse. Both of them were just

fascinating. Like, I highly recommend you watch both of them just because it's so, it's just so well done, in my opinion. Especially without fans, man. Those guys are true sports athlete entertainers, man, to put on a show like that for the world, you know, while everybody's at home at watching and, you know, you don't have the same energy from the crowd and the same adrenaline that you get when you walk into a full arena. So to see those guys out there putting it all on the line is, is very, I respect those guys, man. Those guys are some of the hardest workers on earth. And, you know, I hope to join them someday. You know, I got a lot of love and respect for Vincent man and what he's done for the business model of WWE. And, you know, my thing is I want to go over

to WWE and make wrestling real again. I want people, you know, to get behind it and think that it's real, you know. You ain't going off the top up on me because I'll take you out with a double leg. You ain't going to get up there. So, you know, I'm looking to go over to WWE and make wrestling real ground in the near future. And until then, you know, I'm going to be retiring all the old fogies over here in the UFC. What do you think we might see that? 2021, 2022.

Like, what sort of your time frame on making that WWE debut? Yeah, I would say probably 2021, you know, next summer, not this summer, but next summer. I've been practicing moves and really working on my promo and my skills and just control and slowing things down and understanding the art of wrestling. And I want to make sure when I go there, I make the biggest splash possible, you know, because I'm not here for, you know, a long time. I'm here for a good time. And, you know, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make money. So, you know, when I go over there, I want to make, you know, bring trunks, look.

loads of money and everybody knows i do good business i pull numbers people want to see me i'm entertaining you know and people are uh you know divided on me they hate me and they love me but you know it's all the same thing in the end of the day do you have a finisher picked out not yet that's that's that's that's to be determined you know i've been talking to bobby lashley and my friend you know he's a he's a teammate and uh curd angle obviously i walk out to his music for my fights so you know i keep a good touch with those guys and ronda rousey you know the greatest woman's mixed martial artist of all time. You know, it's good to learn from her and see her

and how she's handling the transition from MMA to pro wrestling. So, you know, I think I'm going to have a good grasp of it. I grew up amateur wrestling and, you know, I know how to act. I know how to sell and everybody knows I know how to entertain. So, you know, I think it's going to be a smooth transition when I go to the WWE in 2021. So you've spoken with Ronda since she's made the transition? Yeah, I've spoke with her.

couple times, you know, and, you know, I actually went and washed her one. She invited me out to Monday Night Raw when they had it in Miami in American Airlines Arena. So, you know, I went backstage, hung out with her and just chatted with her a little bit. It was just crazy the story. She was telling me, she was like, man, Colby, let me tell you the series, the best thing about this. You know when you go in for a fight, man, how much nerves are going in? You don't know what's really going to happen. It's so scary. You petrified. Man, you show up to WWE, man. You just love it. You're so excited. Man, you just want to learn and get better and put on good performances.

And it's just the energy levels and the adrenaline is just completely different. It's just, it's so much less stress in my life. And, you know, I'm happy I made it over here. And I want to keep working hard and keep winning more won titles and keep beating people up. A couple more things really go, Colby. I appreciate the time very much. I know you spoke with our good friends over at submission radio a couple weeks ago. You apologized.

You mended fences, so to speak, with Dustin Poirier. There were others on your team that you didn't. plan on mending fences with one you have already mentioned in this conversation. Has that changed it all over the last couple of weeks? Have any more fences been mended here or everything's still the same here? Oh yeah. Those guys are all my friends, man. Joanna, Dustin, Jorge.

Those are all my teammates, man. Those guys would never say anything bad about me. They would never do that. They only say nice things about me. So, you know, those are my teammates. And I have nothing but respect for those guys. And last thing for me, Colby, what's the message to everybody right now? To the UFC, Tyron Woodley, anyone who's listening and watching right now, what's the message here as we look to get you back in the Octagon and make this big fight happen?

My message to Tyrone Woodley, Marty Fake Newsman, Dana White, you know, anybody else that wants to come get this work. I'm here. I'm here right now. I raise my hand. I want tagged in. Let me in the Octagon. Just give me the ball. Dana, I will run it into the end zone. Let me save sports. Let me save, you know, this dark time. Let me give light in this dark time. Let me save sports, put it on three TV on ESPN. Everybody knows I'm a main event fighter, so I'm not fighting anything less than the main event.

And let's do this, man. I don't care. Let's go to Dana White's Fight Island. You know, you could put Tyrone Woodley's dead body with the sharks out there on the island. No one cares about him anyways. So let's do this, man. Give me the ball, Dana.

Give me the ball, UFC. I'm going to save sports and I'm going to do it for the people. Always a pleasure, Colby. Crazy times in the world, crazy times in MMA, and here we are talking like the good old days. Hopefully this all gets squared away. It works out in your favor and we can come to terms and get you back in there. I think everybody wants to see that fight at this point.

We've wanted to see it for a while now and hopefully we can make this happen. Thank you, Colby. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. Good talking to you. Stay safe out there, man. And, you know, we'll catch you on the flip side. There is only one Colby Covington, ladies and gentlemen.

So now you've heard both sides. Colby says he wants that fight. If it couldn't happen to UFC 249, he said as he wants to do it. After UFC 249, he mentioned Fighter Island. That's one of the misconceptions that even fighters are having right now. The Fight Island, having the private island, those are for the international fights. They have a place locked down, which reportedly is Tachi Palace. That's reportedly booked from April 18th.

And then every weekend for the next two months, once that event takes place. So there's plenty of time for it. There's plenty of space for it. And I think if you're the UFC right now, especially if you want to get things back to normal and give this thing a big boost, you do everything you can to get this fight booked for a main event sooner rather than later. That's a fight everybody wants to see. It's just going to be massive if they can put Covington versus Woodley together. As we head to our final conversation, let us check in with one of the top contenders in the UFC's heavyweight division.

He prepares to face Jarazino Roald. Rosenstrike, April 18th at UFC 249. Let us check in with the predator himself, Francis Inganu. All right, we move ahead to our final guest of the show. As you have heard by now, this man will face Jarzino Rosenstrike April 18th at UFC 249. Let us welcome the predator, Francis Ingano, to the show. Francis, how are you? I'm good life.

How are you? I'm doing great. Crazy times in the world, but in terms of your fighting career, you have a date. We have a reported location. You have the same opponent now. How are you feeling now that you actually have a date for this fight? You know, I'm feeling really good. It's been a very tough process, so we didn't know exactly what's going to happen.

But at the end, we finally make it and know where it's going to be, where the fight going to be. So I'm very happy about that. You've been a guy that's been asking, waiting for a fight for a long time now. It'll be around 10 months or so between fights by the time you step into the Octagon. As everybody knows, this fight was supposed to happen at that Columbus, Ohio event on March 28th. Once that event was postponed or canceled, were you beginning to think to yourself, especially with everything going on in the world? I might be waiting forever to fight Jarzino or anybody at this point.

Yeah. that's why I said it was kind of like a frustrating. But at the meantime, when he got, get postponed, you know, you couldn't blame nobody. He was just the war going crazy and everyone was victim. And obviously, more people was going through a lot more than you, you know, with this coronavirus out there. So, I mean, I kind of like found my way.

to stay positive with it. How have you been able to stay positive? What are some of the things you've been able to do to stay positive throughout this whole thing? Well, I've been doing my workout, my home workout, and think about those people who are out there struggling, being a victim or whatever. At least I'm healthy, I'm safe, my family are safe,

and I'm grateful for that, you know. Sometimes we can't have like skip on top of what is important because we're just chasing like something which is less important and we don't even take time to be grateful for what is important. Well said, there's obviously a lot of questions surrounding this event. Some of those are answered earlier this week when Dana announced the entire fight card, but you were in the news a few weeks back. You were telling the guys over at submission radio that the UFC did have you tested for COVID-19.

Have there been any more tests since you had that? conversation with those guys? No, no, no more test. But, you know, I've been trying, I try to stay away to be quarantined no matter what, you know, because at the end of the day, I don't want to get sick. Nobody want to get sick. I think we are all scared about this shit, but at the meantime, we don't want to give him everything, you know.

Right. Have you been given or your team been given any information on how this event will be handled from the medical side, you know, from testing, doctors, things like that? Have you been given any sort of assurances on that during Fight Week? No, we don't have a, we don't have a update about that. I was talking about that today with my coach Eric Nixik. And we were talking about thinking about what the USA might do for the insurance. part or do something like that. But I'm sure there's something, they are working on something. I'm pretty sure there is something that they're working on. I'm going to be like the insurance of the guarantee. So you feel confident when Dana says they're going to go above and beyond to make sure that the fighters and everybody involved is safe, you know, during this event. You feel confident that that will be the case. Yes. I honestly, I feel confident. about it because I believe I believe what he said and also the most important thing is not like

they are just throwing us out there they're going to be out there with us so and I'm I'm pretty sure they don't want to get sick either you know so everyone want to be safe so that it's good for everyone to have a good and safe environment to be at I know you spoke with our very own Damon Martin recently. There's going to be a couple of features coming out soon on MMAFighting.com in regards to that conversation. But now that we're here and we have a date booked, how are you feeling about it? Like, would you describe it as excited, like any additional nerves with everything going on in the world? How would you describe that feeling right now? You know, it's very, I'm very excited about it. Basically, like, now that the whole war

has stopped doing event. And then there, you know, it's very, I'm very excited about it. Um, basically, basically, like, now that the whole war has, um, the whole war has stopped doing event and then the UFC is definitely finding a way to do events so we're going to be the only one out there performing doing show I mean it's kind of like exciting and but at the meantime it's kind of weird a little bit like being in the arena empty arena fight you know so it's it's kind of a weird feeling but we'll get you excited at the meantime have you experienced anything like that before fighting in, you know, maybe not in an empty arena, but with a very small crowd like that? No, like that.

I mean, even my first fight, my first fight ever was in the arena with at least 2,000 people in there. Oh, yeah. So this is going to be new. Imagine a Francis and Ganu punch landing with, you know, with all that echo and you can hear it all. It's going to be really weird to hear and watch, right? Yeah, but I don't think why I would be there fighting. listening to the sound of my punches. That's right.

I'll be focused on my opening. In terms of your career, Francis, you've had, you know, you were on a good streak and then you had a couple of setbacks in the Octagon, but since the Derek Lewis fight, man, you've been on fire. Three straight wins, three first round finishes and you've spent like just over two minutes combined in the cage over those last three fights. What would you say is the biggest difference between the Francis and Ghana we saw fight Derek Lewis to the guy we're going to see on April 18th.

Well, there's a lot of different between that guy. I mean, I'm going to go a little bit one fight back. The Francis and Ghana who fought St. P. in January, 2018, you know, was a guy that was still learning. I mean, I just say I'm still learning the sport. I'm still learning the martial art. But I have understand a lot. I've gained a lot of experience.

know how to handle fight, you know. So it's a lot of way more experience and a lot of a lot of better fighter than bad. Even though you didn't walk out of Boston with the title that night, would you say that you needed that night, even though it didn't go your way, would you say like in terms of progressing your career and evolving in the sport, you needed that fight with SEPA, you needed a night like that to sort of go back to the drawing board and figure those things out. Definitely. That was something, that is something that I always think that will happen at some point in my life. So then rather be that soon than little, you know. You know, I didn't have a long career. I started at MMA very late, so I didn't know a lot of things in it. And my

rice was very, very fast. So I kind of like skip on top of something. Then from there, I have to have a better understanding for fight. You know, I was, before that fight, I was always concerned, like, what, what do the third round, third round looks like, you know? Obviously, in that fight, I had to, even though I was tired, I wasn't. looking good, but I was able to do like five rounds. And then when you go to something like that, you kind of like understand that, okay, if I get

prepared, if I train very well, I'm going to make it, you know, so it's not as bad as I thought, even though I didn't work out with the title that night. But yes, I think that was a very, very big step up for me. And now you're going to fight Jarzini Rosenstrike, who is a. very confident right now, Francis. Many people believe that the winner of this fight will fight for the belts the next time they step inside the octagon whenever that may be. And you've said in multiple interviews that you have not been overly impressed with Jarzino. Why is that?

Why haven't you been impressed with him? I mean, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen a fight that got me impressed. Like, the fight that led him to this fight, it just got lost. on that fight. I mean, I'm not underestimated skill. I'm not like taking him light, but I haven't seen like something that I would say, wow, this guy is an impressive, you know, obviously it's good, he has a good knockout power. And he's right to be confident. I've been

there before, you know, like when you have a win, win, strict wins, you feel like you are the man, you know, you're confident, you have everything. And that exactly where he is. Do you feel like you're kind of looking at yourself a couple of years ago, looking at Jarzino going on the streak right now? Do you feel like you're kind of seeing a little bit of the old Francis Ngano in Jarzino? Yeah, exactly.

I kind of like understand what this happened to him, you know, like his feeling to be above everything, to be like the stronger man, you know. But it's going to take him time to understand. how things work. So this is going to be a good learning experience for him, is what you're saying. Yeah. One of the questions I've seen constantly since this card was announced is why is the fight

between Jorgon de Castro and Greg Hardy higher up on the card than your fight with Jarzino? Like they're on the main card. Your fight's on the prelims. And I don't think you fought on the prelims since you made your UFC debut back in 2015. Like, how did you react to seeing your name on the prelims and having Hardy and DeCastro being on the main card? Okay. So, I mean, my reaction, I was very happy because I asked for. You know, it's kind of like the prilium, the supposed prilium, which is the ESPN card, is the one that I wanted, you know.

And then the main card is a pay-per-view. I think the ESPN one, who was the one that I was supposed to fight. My contract was on the ESPN. So who has more audience and free for now. So I wanted to fight on ESPN. So we asked the USA to put me on the ESPN. So that was our call. Yes, that was our call.

You don't have to tell us, Francis, but if you want to, that's fine. But do you know where this fight is happening? Like, you don't have to tell me where it is actually, but do you actually know where this fight is going to happen? Well, somewhere in California. So you know it's in California. But, I mean, like I said, you don't have to tell me, but are you aware of this right now? Are you just feeling like it's somewhere in California? I heard from some journalists today.

I mean, I haven't heard nothing from the USA, but. year, some body term is going to be somewhere there. All right. Do you have an official prediction here for this fight a little over a week away for UFC 249? How do you see this fight all playing out when you close your eyes and visualize it all going down? Well, when I visualize this fight, it might be some fight we're going to end.

Maybe the first or the second round, me do. what I used to do. You know, obviously I'm going to take, I'm going to take time to like, set an hundred through his game, feel good, and then strike. A couple more things before you let you go, Francis. I appreciate the time very much.

I know it's a difficult time in the world right now, but you have done a lot of good. You've been giving back. You open up a gym and Cameroon. You've established the Francis and Ganu Foundation. How fulfilling. has that been for you on this journey? Personally, something that has been really great.

I love it. You know, I do it because I want. And also like when I see this, those kids back then, I mean, they just record me myself a couple years ago. And I can still see myself among them being one of them. I'm capable of doing something for them at the meantime for myself today. You know, it's like a personal goal. It's something that I really, something that is really important for me.

Have you been able to speak to people back in Cameroon? How has that area of the world been dealing with the coronavirus and everything that's happening right now? So far, they are doing pretty good. It's not as bad as year, which I hope is going to stay like this. But it's very, it's not too much like here in the US or in Euro. So life is still going on. You know, obviously they close the border. Kids are not going to school anymore.

They're trying to reduce the risk to spray it out. But there is not a lot of, a lot of, a lot of cases. That's good. I'm finding some silver lining here. I wanted to mention this. We've been seeing a lot of YouTube content from you recently. I know you've been teaming up with the great Andrew Farity,

the gentleman behind that great documentary series, The Fight Game. How have you been enjoying putting out your own YouTube content these days? Well, since we were just home, I have to do, I was born. then I just have an idea to do my own homework out. Then I started to do the home workout. And it gets some good recall.

So I started doing it on YouTube, and I think I'm going to keep doing it, like posting it every time now. That's great. I've been enjoying it. I think a lot of other people have been enjoying it as well. Yes, and obviously for the documentary, and drew a very good job about that. He handles everything about the documentary.

The only thing I have to talk and tell you everything about it and it would start together. Yeah, so it's really good. I highly recommend you check it out on Francis' YouTube page. And lastly, Francis, when it comes to UFC 249 in these fight cards and what we're all dealing with these days, there are people who are all in for this and there are people who are completely against it.

So, you know, what is your message to everybody when it comes to this very different time in the world? Not just from a fighter's perspective, but, you know, from a human being side as well. You know, from my perspective as a human being for this, you know, we are at scale of something. We have something to go through. We have some risk to take.

Even without the coronavirus, every day we go out there take risk you know we step in the aftergo and put everything in the line to put the show to take care of our family and this is the same thing that we are trying to do the current didn't leave the coronavirus didn't give us a notice didn't let us a time to get prepared people might don't be ready there wasn't prepare for this and then still have to feed your family. And if they see the opportunity to go out there, I mean, it's still like going to the grocery store

to find a food, you know, for the family. Like when I work to the grocery store, there's more people in the grocery store than I bet you'll be in that arena, you know? So then I'm like, okay, what's the different? At least I'm going there to take these risks for something. I have to take a lot of risk worse for less than what I'm doing right now. way more risk for nothing, you know.

So, I mean, personally, I know that sometimes you have to take risk, you have to like think and just do what you have to do, what you like to do. Like I just get excited to be out there, fight, you know. Think about that instead of staying in my house, something that really gave me excited and

I would take the risk you know great stuff Francis I really appreciate this I know there's a lot going on in the world including your return to the Octagon next Saturday April 18th against Jarzini Rosenstrike and you know my perspective is you know whether you're into this or not at least this event in upcoming events

we'll be able to at least feel normal for for a few hours watching these fights so I appreciate the time all the best to you for the rest of the preparation in the fight itself on April 18th, Francis. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Thank you again for the opportunity and nice talking to you as well. Thank you.

All right, there you have it. Francis Inganu wrapping up episode number two of what the heck with Mike Heck on MMAFighting.com. Really enjoyed this one. Hope you guys did as well. We're going to do it again next week. Remember the show drops every Thursday. 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on the M.A. fighting YouTube channel and then wherever you're listening to your favorite podcast. So make sure

you subscribe on YouTube wherever you're listening. If you're an audio listener and you get these shows immediately upon release. So why take those extra steps when you don't have to? Work smart, not hard. That's what my dad always taught me. In addition, you'll get all of our reactions to the big news. You get the A-side live chat on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And then you get the great Eurobash podcast with Pizzie Carroll and Nile McGrath. Those drop on Tuesday. So in other words, we have you covered during this crazy time in the world at mhmapfiting.com, and we have no plans on slowing down anytime soon. So again, thank you for watching and listening. Until next time, have a heck of a week, everybody.