MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 21 | Marlon Vera, Derek Brunson, Vinc Pichel & Daniel Pineda

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

On this week's episode of What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks to Marlon Vera (5:25) to recap his first-round TKO win over Sean O'Malley in the UFC 252 co-main event. In addition, fellow UFC 252 winners Daniel Pineda (33:18) breaks down his TKO win over Herbert Burns, and Vinc Pichel (55:11) talks his unanimous decision win over Jim Miller. Finally, Derek Brunson (1:14:45) gives his perspective on the top storylines from Saturday night's PPV event in Las Vegas, Jon Jones vacating his light heavyweight title, and explains why a fight with Jack Hermansson makes the most sense after his win over Edmen Shahbazyan.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAFighting.com. Now, here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Welcome to a brand new episode of What the Heck on MMAfighting.com. Hope you're having a great week as summer is starting to wind down. The sun is going down a little bit earlier at night and it's starting to cool off a little bit here in New England. I'm not going to lie, I'm ready for fall.

September, October, that's my jam. But who cares about my seasonal taste? This is a freaking MMA show. UFC 252 is officially in the books. A lot. I mean, a lot has happened since we spoke a week or so ago. Stepe Mietchich, still the UFC heavyweight champion after defeating Daniel Cormier via unanimous decision in the main event.

We've talked a lot. about Saturday night on our post-fight show between the lengths, the A-side. We will a little bit later on this show. Actually, we're going to be talking about it a lot on this show, but it was an event. People were pretty upset about it on Saturday night and on Sunday, just furious with how things played out. I got to be honest, I didn't think it was that bad. Was it UFC 249? No.

Wasn't UFC 250? No. But maybe it's because I look at it. through a little bit of a different lens than most of the fans do. You know, that's the beauty of sports. We can debate. We can have differing opinions. That's what sports is all about.

So, Steve-Bestill champion. John Jones, no longer a champion. After vacating his title on Monday, we reacted to that as well. So you can go back into the archives here on YouTube if you want to get our takes on that. We also found out on Tuesday that Dominic Reyes will fight Jan Blahovic. for the vacant title. For the undisputed championship, we're going to have a new champion at 205 in the UFC

that is not John Jones, that is not Daniel Cormier, in the co-made event of UFC 252 on September 26th. 205 is getting a fresh coat of paint, and I'll be honest, I dig it. I dig it a lot, especially the fact that John Jones wants to go up to heavyweight. We want to see that for a while,

and it looks like he's taking that next step on his own. I am all in on all of this, this whole thing. I am all in. My chips are in the middle. That's for sure. Bellator is back on Friday, Belator 244. Ryan Bader versus Vadim Nemcoff will be the main event for the light heavyweight title. We found out that they're going to be doing back-to-back events on September 11th and September 12th,

which includes a title fight. Patrick Mix versus Juan Archelaida for the Bellator Bannamoy title. going to have a new bannamweight champion in bellator so they're they're getting after it got to got to respect it belator trying to get back into the mix here they got a lot of momentum they can have a good card on friday night they're going to be in pretty good shape the ufc is back in las vegas on saturday that event will be headlined by pedro munoz taking on frankie edgar and a bannamway fight frankie edgar finally gets in there in the 135 pound weight class and listen i am a a very positive guy. I know you, for those who just follow M.A. Fighting or only know me for M.A.

fighting, I think you've seen to this point through the first five or so months of my career here at M.A. Fighting, I'm a pretty positive guy. But this UFC event is, it is what it is. But, you know, we'll be watching. We'll be covering. We'll be reacting this weekend. But let's get into the lineup. Let's start these conversations, wrapping things up. up we're going to check in with Derek Brunson, the number seven ranked middleweight in the world. We're going to talk a little UFC 252 from his perspective, how he was watching it on Saturday, where he goes at 185. And also, I wanted to get his reaction to a tweet that he set out on Monday after John Jones vacated the title about pondering a move to 205.

We'll talk about and see what that's all about a little bit later on in the show. Vince Vichel got a big win on Saturday night. Nice to see him back in there. featured prelim. Over a million people saw him defeat Jim Miller at UFC 252. We'll check in with the man

with the dashing mustache coming up a little bit later on. Another big winner from Saturday night. Daniel Paneda returned to the Octagon after six plus years and he finishes Herbert Burns. He was a big underdog. Did so in the second round.

It was a tremendous performance and it paid off in more ways than one which you're going to hear all about in around 25 minutes or so. It's pretty wild. You'll understand. understand what I'm saying in a little bit. But first, outside of Steve A. Meitchitch, the biggest winner from Saturday night is this man.

He finished Sean O'Malley in the co-made event of UFC 252 via first round TKO. Here's my chat with Marlon Cheeto Vera. On Saturday night at UFC 252 in the co-main event, this man finished Sean O'Malley in the first round as an over 2-1 underdog. He's now won six fights in a row in the band-in-weight division. And in his mind, he's won seven fights in a row. And now big things could be in store for Marlon Cheeto Vera, who returns to what the heck for the second time in three weeks. Marlon, how are you, sir?

Good, brother. I'm feeling great. I'm grateful. I'm blessed. I'm feeling amazing. By the way, I just surf, so I'm feeling good. You go. You went into the UFC apex.

You did what you said you were going to do. You got the biggest win of your career. Besides surfing, how have you celebrated this big win? Certainly night, my coaches, my teammate, a couple of friends, my wife, my kids. We went to my manager house and, you know, we drink a couple shots. We fast, we eat good food and we have a good time. We talk about the future. And then we're in the right direction.

And so Sunday morning we eat again a little bit. And then I drove back to California. So I'm home now. day I definitely took it off. I literally was just sitting on the park, just getting some earth and just thinking about it, uh, letting all the motions sit down, things what's next, how can get better, what it can do. And then today, of course, I went to the water and got some, you know, some fun training, some like outdoors, but I served like for two hours. It was pretty good today. The waves were good today. So it's feeling good. I'm feeling great. It's good to be

Marlon Vera right now, right? Yeah, you know, you know, it's always good to be, you know. It's always good when you are somebody about yourself, you know, so I feel I keep that strong. I respect myself. I like myself and, you know, that's the way to go. What a difference a few months make, right? I mean, in May you had that controversial decision loss to Song Yudong, and you,

along with a lot of other people felt that you won that fight, you felt you were heading into Saturday night with that long winning streak, but you said, you know, it still sort of ticked you off a little bit that you were on the wrong side of that decision. Did Saturday night in the way that fight played out with Shot O'Malley, did that take that sort of bad taste out of your mouth?

Like, the bad taste out of a mouth went away, like the next day of the fight. I accepted, I let it go. I was like, okay, it is what it is. There's nothing I can do. And I believe because I think like that is because I can move forward, I can keep working because I wasn't thinking I'm coming off a loss.

Of course I'm not, I'm acting like a cocky or like an idiot, like, oh yeah, I won the five, blah, blah, blah, blah, you lost a fight. If you go to my record, there's a fucking red dot that I hate. But there's nothing you can debarred it, so you've got to move on. So I feel moving home will help me focusing for this fight, training her. And I was, I was very prepared for this fight. I was very ready. and I just knew something that people didn't knew, you know,

you know, when you have that feeling that you know you did everything, everything in your hands in order to win the fight, training, recovery, eating well, getting the best I can around to just to be ready. I did all that. I followed every single step, and it was weird. When I was walking to the cage, there was moments that I feel that I wasn't ready. But it's because I wasn't nervous. I was so calm.

I was so like, I'm so ready that I didn't feel ready. I was like, that kind of like, I was like thinking, I was like, fuck, what's going on with me? Like in the,

in the locker room, I was hitting me, I was grabbing a little bit and I was like, I don't have any feelings. Like, I feel like, like I'm dead.

Like there was no feelings. And then the nurse pump up and I was like, oh, thank God. I was missing you guys. Welcome. Welcome to my body again. But it was weird,

like all that morning of the fight, I was just, I was just cold face. So, You know, I guess it's experience, you know, when you better prepare. And this is one of the fights that I actually came with no pain on my body. Like, my feet wasn't banged down. My knees wasn't banged now.

You know, I kick a lot in camps. So, like, this is the first time. No shins, splits, no bullshit. So, you know, there's things that hurt. But at least the main things that always bug me wasn't there this time. And, you know, it's a blessing, you know, because we always go in there with pain. We have to hide him. Is the way you felt Saturday throughout the day and the lead into the fight, you know, that calm feeling, not having the nerves until closer to the fight?

Is that typical for you or is this one of the first times that's happened to you? No, it is typical because it's the way it worked, man. Like I really, I really put some massive work on my side. I really put everything from my side. Like, I show up to the gym and I'm smiling. I'm happy. I'm there. I'm not just going to the gym for a sweat, for going to the ticket emotions.

I'm there with a mission. And if I don't feel I'm getting better, I ask questions. I say something. Like, I'm never conflict with myself. I'm never, I'm never, like, I'm never sit down. I'm like, that's it. It's enough. It's never enough for me.

And I feel that's the reason I have succeeded in my career because I'm always looking for ways to get better, you know. And then I have good coaches behind me that every time I ask a question or without, our question, they find that hard to give me something extra, give me tips to get better. And I just feel it's work ethic, you know, in anything life. If you put everything from you, you're going to get it done. As we sort of talked about the last time you were on, there was a lot said and done in the build up to the fight in an attempt, at least it appeared so to sort of try to get in your head and get on your skin.

And you said you didn't care, you didn't give an F. It's part of the fight game. It is what it is. now that the fight is over, would you say that some of that trash talk fueled you a little bit or all that stuff that you sort of brushed off a few weeks ago? Did it actually motivate you a little bit more? Or did you really mean what you said that it didn't matter? I would keep my words.

Like it really didn't matter. Like I wasn't more worried or I wasn't more pressure, you know. You don't always pressure. You don't want to fucking lose. You don't want to be a loser. You don't want to be somebody that don't achieve. You don't want to be somebody that don't get it done. You don't want to come back home and you see your kids in the eyes and you just figure

about us, but you're like, you know, you're slacking in the gym, you're getting late, you're eating bullshit. Like when I see them, I'm like, if I lose a fight, let's see if even if I lose a fight, I know I'm giving everything from me. So at least somehow they can learn that from me when they grew up. like it's not about it's not about it's not about it's all about winning but at the end of the day sometimes you can not control that sometimes you just can't so I feel giving everything from me just make me that's enough that that's enough pressure my only pressure is wake up every morning

thinking I have to do work thinking that I have to get it done and that's about it like I'm not a perfect person I'm not I'm not I'm not the best I'm not the goat nobody's a goat that's just a fucking Bobo that they create for a couple of weeks and then somebody wins a couple of fights and oh we'll find a new one. So La Bobba is getting it done and that's what I chase. One person that the trash talk

seemed to get to was your manager, Jason House. He jumps on Twitter right after the fight and sent a message to Tim Welch saying something to the effect of. That's what I thought MFers, still think Cheetos is easy money. How fired up was he in the rest of your team throughout the week? Because it seemed like they took things a little bit more personal.

You know, everybody's different but I wouldn't agree with Jason if I wouldn't see everything that idiot was saying. He was literally coming after us from nothing. Like literally, like they won a fight, right? They won against Eddie Wine. And I was technically fighting somebody else. And then they started calling me out.

The coaches start calling me out. Wouldn't the fuck we see a high-level coach saying, like a coach can't have an opinion. I would like my people to fight ex-guy. But those guys were talking shit. They were like, oh, T, this is in money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I felt my answer to him when he said that after the one-old-tham fight, I roast him pretty good.

I was saying, look, dude, enjoy your couple minutes of fame because as a fighter, you were shit. And guess what? They keep calling me out. Now his fucking minute of fame is aware because he was like, he was about to become the greatest coach ever, right, if this guy wouldn't keep beating people out. Because that's how media works. He would become this massive whatever. I fucking stop all that shit.

How I control myself? I don't know, man. I don't know what's inside my head, but I'm pretty good at not paying attention to negativity. And then in defense of my manager, he was talking shit to my manager for no reason. Like Jason would make a post about whatever, like nothing to do with me or with any fighter,

and he will commend something like, be honest, easy money. There's like, don't go after people. And then on the embedded, this is the first time ever I didn't watch Embedded at all because I'm a nerd I watch every single UFC video

or whatever just because I was in there I was watching later when I go back home I haven't watched it yet so I'm gonna watch it the next couple days but I see a couple of clips he was like

Jason Parillo is giving false confidence I'm like not you're talking about my coach you're putting my coach in your mouth for nothing and then Parillo came on Friday night to my room

and he's like listen he wasn't mad he was just fired up he was listen you go tomorrow and you fuck the motherfucker up

because now that I'm fucking can put my name on his mouth and I was like coach since I'm a person that don't get pressure I get it done I won't do it for me

I will do it for us because he was talking about calling my other coach I was like you gotta quit that shit you're not you're talking about my coaches like

and then my wife sent a post at fucking Sean Meg about what's his name? Snoop Dog when he was yelling, O'Me, Amali, O'Meley, O'Mealie. He's like, oh, she just met a girlfriend, blah, blah, blah, when he's in bed with Cheetah. So I was like, I laugh. I told my wife, ha-ha. And I told her, don't even reply anything. Like, don't give him attention.

Because I'm like that. I really don't pay attention. It's weird. Those things don't bug me. But somehow I'm able to fucking. map so I take that because people is just mean in social media because they can say something and get away with it in other sports if you talk wild you get you get a sanction your team get a failure you you get money taken away from you but the UFC let us get away with that

which is cool I don't mind the trash truck I enjoy that I actually have fun you like you know my vocabular is pretty bad when I want to I enjoy it, but some people get away with things. The only problem is like they get baptized later on. So, you know,

if you want to talk while, make sure you bring a pet of balls to the cage. I learned that from Georgia, you know. Happens with Asking. Happens with me a couple times that people talk, talk, talk. Hey, when that shit is closed,

I'm a real one. Like, I know that. I'm not faking. I'm a real fighter. If I say in the corner of my house and you're talking shit, I'm going to fight you in the middle of the street. Guarantee. I don't care who you are.

So. Yeah, that interview we did a couple weeks ago really stood out to me when thinking about the fight because you had this look in your eyes where like there was this calm demeanor to you, but you could see like how fired up you were, but you were sort of, you're doing a great job of kind of keeping it in it, but you could see it in your eyes. Did you say you had a, before the O'Malley fight was booked, you were set to fight somebody else and then they made the switch what happened there yeah well they they offered me and jimmy river to fight because even before the fight wasn't announced we don't sign contracts but jimmy

reberta say on the on the hollani show that that he was supposed he was he was fighting me i was 8 so my manager told me like yeah that's the fight that maybe is going to happen so i was like fuck yeah that's a good fight and then omiley beat edie white and then he become the shit for being a fucking older man. Like, I respect everyone. Like, I grew up watching the guy, so I'm not talking shit on him right now. I'm not using this momentum to talk shit about him. He seems to be a pretty fucking cool guy.

So, but let's be fucking real. The guy being KO by Johnny Eduardo. I'm a hardcore fan. If Eduardo did that many years ago, why we are like, so like, oh, fucking chaos. Like, get the fuck out of here. That was a good K-O., but there's many Kio. but there's many chaos, there's chaos weekly, so whatever. So when he did that, he got a lot of momentum.

So he started calling me up. He started like, I want to fight Cheetah. In every single interview, I was like, everything your coach were saying, it was like looking in the middle that's too much overconfidence. Like, they're giving it a false sense of confidence. My coaches don't give me false sense of confidence. They were like, hey, you fucking say sharp.

Don't get the hit with that fucking right hand. He's good. They were being real to me. They're always been real to me. That's why I keep them because they're real. But his corner was like they were calling me out, calling me out. So the UFC were like, hey, the kid isn't his good moment. You want Cheeto?

We give you chito. But, you know, I'm in the rankings now, so I'm looking up. I want to move up. So let's get the fight down with Jim. That's a fight to make. I would agree with that. You guys had a pretty intense face-off on Friday. It's typical.

And then you guys got a little bit closer to each. other and then you you started saying a couple of things to him what did you say to him on Friday so this is this is how I approach things in Waynes I like you know get a good attitude get in front of each other you can be face to face but I never ever touch an opponent we're gonna fight the next day so while punch or risk the fight so I always tell to my team to my people to my friends that there is somebody touched me I'm not touching but I I'm just letting the hands go.

So I always get close. I always get close, but I never touch. I never touch. The minute we make a skin contact is fucking on. I'm letting it go. And I say this public, and I respect,

my opponents respect that. We can get in this our face. We can look each other in me. We can say a couple words, but that's about it. So he came a little fast, and he tried to, like, kind of like impressed me coming fast.

I was like, I don't even flint. I was like, dude, come down. I've been here. Just, you know, make whatever you want. So he wasn't saying nothing And then he put his feet close to me And I was counting in my head I was like three, two

Like he touched me I let it fucking go So I tell him What I tell him was like You want to touch me? Touch me You want to get a taste for tomorrow?

Do it right now Let's see if you have the balls Touch me And then he wasn't talking to me But I keep looking as he I was looking at his fucking eyes I'd like to see my opponents in the eye And then

The next thing essentially, yeah, that's what I expect. You're doing nothing, motherfucker. And I don't know, man. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but he looks down. I just tell me body language. I'm a person that I believe in energy. I believe in a vibe.

And if I see you're weaker than me, I'm going to capitalize from there. And, you know, I guess it's part of being so prepared that I'm just, I'm just, I just believe in myself so much. much. Did something happen before you walked to the octagon? Did I hear you say that? Yes, there were, there were, I don't know, I'm not sure who was yelling.

He was fucking slow. He's going to get Kyo. Fuck you, blah, blah, blah. I was like, I was literally, like, I was literally just, like, moving my head, like, you don't even know what's going to happen to you right now. You don't even, you don't even understand. But, you know, like, Dana White says, when you know, you know, if you really know, now you know, now you know

like I just knew something he didn't knew like you know fighting is fighting is a fucking weird thing dude and you just know man it's weird

like you just know it's like I don't even know how to explain it I just have it inside me and it comes down for preparation but they were yelling shit they were getting wild things

even hurt him when they fight the start he's like hey you can't talk like that like he literally told me to shut the fuck up because he was like fuck him is no look he's scared i was like dude i don't know why are you talking i scared i'm i'm

fucking signing out this to fucking die i'm not letting you take the money from my family where i'm not letting you taking my rankings i'm not letting you taking nothing from me right now we're gonna fight then i guess that's how they get fighters to think overthink or get weird I only listen to my corner That's a pretty positive thing about me I'm like sing to my corner The three guys in there If they say

If they say, fucking sit down I will sit down in the middle of the cage It's because it throws him I throws him hard And when the fight was over Of course I react I was like Go fuck yourself you son of a bitch

Like not talk now Like you want to get in my face I was expecting him to say something So I can drill him because you know you you cannot be that disrespectful you can you can and if you're going to be that disrespectful you better keep the same manner you win or lose you know if I'm insulting you and you beat me I will keep insulting you after the fight it was a pretty patient approach by both of you guys early on Sean threw a lot of feints who's landing some kicks to the legs in the

body you know after you start to feel those shots it seemed like your confidence was to go up and up and up as things progressed. It seemed like you're starting to figure out his timing as well with the feints and everything. When did you sort of realize that you had him figured out to that point? Because it seemed like you picked it up probably before the light kick that started the beginning of the end. Yeah. I will say, you know, he's a good fainter. He faints good and then he punch you.

So I prepare for that. I prepare for Don't buy don't faints. I have my coaches fucking fainting me. a lot and you know parrilla is very fast you know romea dancer is uh one of the one of the best moiety fathers in the u.s from fined yama he coached me too in the in the in the kickbox in moitai area and they were fainting me they were like telling me what to do when a fend happened you know you know you know you gotta you're gonna do the best you can in preparation but once you enter the cage now you have to fight because it's easy coaches can be like hey i want you to do this

this and that. That might be the truth, but them do it in their life is kind of hard. So I just believe if I invest that much in my preparation, you know, I was expecting that. So luckily, I'm a lucky person. I'm a blessed person. Things went my way. The big talk, obviously, was how the fight ended, the injury, et cetera. And at first, at least from what I saw, you were not getting the credit you deserved. And I tweeted out that you deserved all the credit regardless of how the injury occurred, which upon further review, it looks like that you caused the injury and the damage that led to how the fight was finished. We've seen different videos on social media and such.

Do you know, like, how the injury occurred? Like, at one point you pointed down after you landed a low kick. Did you know right away that you had hurt him? I feel it because, you know, as I said before, it's an energy team. You know, when he kicked me hard, I didn't, my energy didn't drain. And he sounds like I broke. I was like, oh, fuck, he kicked so hard. I'm going to throw the towel.

You kick me? I was like, okay, you kick me now? Now you're going to take mine. And I might take one of those too. So I thought the injury came from my check, but he came from my kick when I saw it later. And then when I kick him, he just didn't take it the way I check it, you know.

He's like, he learned a good punch behind the head. But, you know, I just took it well. Like, I just walked through that. And I feel that's what, break fighters, when you took the best from them and nothing happened, when I, when I kick him, he broke. So that means my conditioning coach is doing a great job in getting me ready, getting me strong, and I love to lift very heavy.

Like he has to tell me like, hey, no more lifting for you because you need to get ready for the fight. You need to be explosive. Because I use preference. I like to squat. But that gives me those big kicks, and I appreciate that. But, you know, I have a good team that gave me ready for that. And I said before, my story was just stronger than his.

There was talking about the early stoppage. I think as the video was shown, people realized it wasn't an early stoppage. But Sean obviously was in a lot of pain. He did go over and fist bump you after he, you know, before he got wheeled out on the gurney. Did you guys say anything to each other after the fight at all? I was quiet. I was like, I was like. I worse can't say what I did to him already.

So that's why I didn't took the time to insult him or going after him or, you know, or humiliating it. Because I already did everything I could do. So after that, I believe silence was just a stronger thing. So when he bombed my fist, I just bombed his fist and he just went away. So, you know, I think it's easy, you know, it's easier to say, you, it's easy to go after them, but I think about it, like, that could be me. So, if I wouldn't talk, like, if I wouldn't be talking that while and you beat me like that, I would love to just keep it quiet, you know, because, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

a, it's, uh, it's, uh, we're in the hurt business. So, I, I, I, I was thinking on going off, by then I was just like, be better than that, you know, you just stay quiet. Would you have any advice for Sean after this? I mean, because he was in an interesting position. The UFC was obviously trying to push him up the ladder. You probably didn't even see the promos on Saturday night, but Stephen A. Smith from ESPN was voicing these promos comparing him to like some of the rising stars, not just an MMA, but in like the entire sports world.

So it was clear what the UFC was trying to do here. You thwarted those plans pretty rapidly. But do you have any advice for Sean? Well, I got an advice for his man. He's done motherfuck and better be hypping my ass right now. I don't know, man. I don't really know him, so I don't really care. The only thing I would advise to him is, you know,

getting the fucking horse and start grinding. But, you know, when you don't have caring or, you know, sympathy for somebody, you just don't give a fuck. You know, I will save the advice for somebody I love and I care about it. We might fight in the future if you win a couple of fights, you know. So I don't want to get friendly or. or, you know, with two advice, you know, who the fuck I am to give him advice, you know,

go and figure your shirt on. Fair enough. Their own shit, not their shit on. Yeah. It was, you know, obviously a short night for you, but it was a very hard camp, like you said. I'm sure you're going to take this time, spend it with your family,

maybe take a well-deserved vacation. Jimmy Rivera seems to be the guy. I think a lot of people agree with that. When would you like that fight to happen? Any sort of timetable? I believe when the UFC come back to Vegas in November would be pretty cool fighting a band but I gotta make sure

I gotta see when my teammates are fighting because, you know, I don't want to jump in camp when coaches are away or stuff like that, but most important then I got to also make sure perfecting athletes can come with me

to the fight because, you know, they work with a lot of pro boxers and they just fucking know how to make me cut away and recovery and I'm probably mental person once something works for me I'm not going in any other direction

So I want to keep, you know, the team together, my coordinates and everything to be with me in the fight and make sure they can prepare me. Like we talked about the last time you were on here, you know, we talked about maybe you're doing your division of favor in this fight. You said you didn't give an F about them and how they felt about it, but it turns out based on the reaction from fighters, that's exactly what you did. They were giving you some shine, some of the top 35ers in the division. Now you're getting all this attention right now. You're jumping on some of these big shows. You're on Michael Bisbing's podcast the other day. how are you enjoying all this attention that you're getting,

this momentum that you have? You know, you can complain about these things, you know. That's what I was talking earlier with my wife. Like a lot of people want to be famous. A lot of people want to have all the attention. But deal with attention, deal with all these, you know. It's work. This is not like I'm chilling in a vacation or not.

You've got to take out of business. You've got to talk to the media. You've got to let them know what you want. And you've got to spread their work. so I'm working, I'm grinding right now, and it's pretty fucking sweet. I enjoy it. And I said it before. You got to learn how to play the game. You got to roll your dice correctly and take advantage of the momentum. You have to. Momentum is a powerful thing. And I do take advantage of that. Well, you deserve it all, man. Incredible win. Outstanding performance. You're certainly proof that things can change very quickly in the sport.

Congratulations, Marlon. Enjoy the victory. Enjoy the tie with your family. Emily, and we'll talk soon. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Huge win from Marlon Vera on Saturday night. Glad to have him back on the show. It's funny. There's still people on social media

that their sole purpose right now is to take this win and take the credit away from Marlon Vera because they're such big Shot-O'Malley fans. They watch the sport sometimes, but they watch for Connor and they watch for some of the bigger names. the rising stars, the shot O'Malley's, but this is just insanity. It's absolute ridiculousness

if you're not going to give Marlon Vera credit for that win. Either way, Cheater doesn't care. I don't really care either. I know what I think. I think most people would agree with my take on it. He deserves the credit. He won. He wants Jimmy Rivera, and that is the fight to make, in my opinion. Hopefully that's what the UFC can get done. As we move ahead to another winner from Saturday night's main card, a more than triumphant return to the Octagon. after six plus years for Daniel the pit Paneda. He gets a win, gets a finish, and a bonus. Over Herbert Burns, let's check in what Daniel Paneda right now.

What a return to the UFC was for Daniel Paneda on Saturday night. He finishes Herbert Burns in the second round via TKO, nearly six and a half years after his last octagon appearance. And he gets some extra mule and his bank account to boot. Daniel, congratulations, man. Welcome to the show. How are you? I'm doing good, brother.

doing a lot better now with that 50,000 extra. Are you back home or are you still in Vegas? I was, because I know I just got a fight coming up, so I didn't know if you were staying out there or not. No, no, no. I'm at home right now. Okay. I'm a baby girl.

So, yeah, I'm at home right now. You just had a baby girl? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two months. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. First one? Yeah, first one.

Man, so you're living the dad life right now. Does it change you at all? Do you feel different? I just a lot less sleep Not a sleeper No Baby girl stays up Oh there you go

I watched a lot of cheers That old TV show from the 80s when my son was born Because he didn't sleep either So I caught up on a lot of cheers During the early days So you'll get used to it Hopefully she Sleep becomes a sleeper quicker than my kid did

But let's talk about you man what a story this is. We found out in June, I believe, that you had re-signed with the UFC all these years later. How did that come to be before we get into your illustrious return on Saturday? Repeat that again? You were like freezing up. Oh, okay.

So we found out in June that you had re-signed with the company. So how did that all come to be before we talk about the actual fight? Oh, God, my manager hit me up. And we were going to take a, I think it was like a three, no, Three-day notice fight. And I said, yeah, I'm down. I'm down to fight. Three-day notice.

Screw it. Why not, right? I was like, we just got to do a little catch weight. And we went over there, commissioned and allow it. I guess it was too late, you know, like three days. I had to get all my medicals. So it didn't happen. But I guess Shelby's like, man, you know, you have to, you know, you have to, I want to say,

the boss to do it. So we're going to sign you again. I was like, cool. So, yeah, that's how I got signed. man, I took a fight in a three-day notice and didn't happen, but I got signed, so that was good. Who were you supposed to fight it? Oh, my God. He's very tall.

I don't know. I don't know his name. I forgot his name, but I know he was very tall, and he was undefeated. He's like a boxer, kind of, I think. I mean, it's supposed to be a good fight, and three-day notice. I was like, oh, shoot. I would have been part of it, man. I would have been really out of shape.

I wasn't in good shape in this one. Imagine another one I would have been done. Well, this obviously worked out better for you. It's been an interesting year, year and a half for you, because I guess to say that it's been a roller coaster ride would be kind of an understatement between the PFL run, your opponent missing weight for your first fight in July with them.

You get into the playoffs, you got two wins in one night to get to the finals against Lance Palmer, and then the positive drug test happens, the fine, the suspension, and all that. other stuff that went on. After all this, you end up back in the UFC. Like, what have these last 14, 15 months been like for you? It's been crazy. It's been crazy. You know, I mean, it just, you know, everything happens for a reason, you know, and I'm here. You know, now I'm the UFC and I feel a lot better. I'm happy, you know, just keep going and keep climbing the ladder. You're seeing a lot of your

some of your teammates, some of the guys you work with getting signed, like Ikeville in a way of it getting signed. I don't think I could have been happier for another guy, like on the regional scene getting signed to the UFC. Because I know how hard Ikes worked over the years on the regional scene, fighting for, for Fury FC and winning titles. And, you know, with his age,

he didn't think his opportunity would ever come. So when I found out that he got the call, I was like, holy cow, like that is amazing. You being a guy that's been with him for so long, he talks so glowingly about you every time I speak with him. What was that like for you to find, out that Ike finally got over that hump and got that call. Man, I was so happy for him, man.

You know, like, I literally, you know, I mean, I've never told him, but like, all I wish was like, man, I just, I just, I wish that he gets a chance to experience, you know, the UFC, you know, to make money. You know what I'm saying? Because, you know, all these little shows over here, they're cool and everything, but man, you don't make enough money to support your family, you know? And he's gone through a lot, you know, he's fought. He's an OG, man.

He's fought a lot. You know, so I really wanted him to make it. that he made it, man, I'm happy. You know, he just needs to work hard and try to stay in it, you know. And that's why he's out there in Couture, you know, working hard in Vegas. You know, he quit his job and he's freaking, he's all into it, you know, like he's going to freaking, he's going to win this weekend, man. So it should be good.

I'm very, I'm happy and I'm proud of him, you know, that he's doing, he made his moves, you know, and went to Couture to go train, you know, find some bigger people. Wait a minute. He quit his job? I didn't think he would ever quit that job. I'm not going to say quit. He took some time off, I guess. He took some time off while he tries to freaking, you know, get this fight.

Yeah, but I mean, I don't want to say he quit. I don't know how that works. I think he gave him some time off. All right. All right. Yeah. So a hiatus, not a quitting. Yeah, he didn't quit, but he's taking some time off.

All right. Fair enough. I was like, wow, I was like, he said such a cooling thing. He said he would never quit that job. So that was crazy. But good on him. I know he's had some changes, some shuffle ups with this fight. but glad to see he's getting back in there on Saturday.

But your fight with Herbert Burns, this thing came together very quickly, it seemed. When did you find out that this is a thing? Two weeks before the fight, man, they hit me up. And they're like, hey, would you take this fight? I'm like, yeah, I'll take the fight in a heartbeat. And I'll fight anybody. You know, you just tell me. And yeah, I mean, when they ask me to fight, I'm going to say yes.

You know, I mean, song is. Especially because I was just signing it was my first fight back. You know, I can't say no. So, yeah, man, I'll fight anybody. And as soon as they told me to fight them, I said, yes. I trained for one week. And then I took off to Vegas and, yeah, two week notice. And you had to cut a ridiculous amount of weight to get to the limit, right?

27 pounds. Damn. How much of that suck, man? Because, like, most of us, we can't possibly understand. how rough that can be, cutting all that weight in such a short amount of time. What was that like, you know, having to cut all that weight as you're getting ready for this return to the UFC that you've been hoping for for all these years? Man, it sucks, man.

It takes a big toll on your cardio, you know, like cutting all this weight, it just your cardio. It just drains you, man. It drains your cardio. Like, I'm already not in good shape. You know what I'm saying? Like my cardio wasn't all that because it's only two weeks. And then when you have to cut 27 pounds, you're just like, shit. I really got it, you know, and, you know, I wish, I wish they would have told me their camp would have told me, hey, let's do a catch rate at 150, you know, those five pounds count a lot, man.

I mean, they count a lot. And if they were to tell me, do catch weight at 1.50, I would have been like, nice. Yeah, I was going to say, because you're cutting 26, 27 pounds, you make it, and then you find out that Herbert missed by 3.5 pounds. Yeah, it's cool. You get some extra money in your pocket, but were you a little pissed on Friday? Yeah, oh no, I was. I was kind of mad, you know, but because like I said, screw his money, you know, like let me know so I don't have to make weight.

You know what I'm saying? Those five pounds, man. Those every fighter tell you, those last five pounds are the ones that hurt the most. Man, they hurt. You know, I mean, I guess he knows because he figured he didn't make weight, you know, but they hurt, man. They suck. Were you paying attention to like the chatter and the odds heading into the fight

and how people were viewing the matchup? because, you know, Herbert had been on a roll. He had five straight finishes. The last four in the first round, you were a pretty sizable underdog heading into the fight. Do you pay attention to that stuff at all? Yeah, big time. No, I do.

I do. You know, I sneak a peek, but I knew it because a lot of my peoples were like, oh, man, we're betting this much on you. You know, I just put some pressure on me, bastard. You know, a lot of people were putting a lot of, I mean, it's a lot of pressure, you know, when everybody tells you how much money they put it on you, know and I'm happy I like to be the underdog man I like I like to prove people wrong you know

I was an underdog in PFL you know I was what plus seven something yeah whenever Herbert Burns when I started with her burns I was plus four something I wish I would have stayed at for something made more money what was that you don't have to tell me who it was but what was the the most amount of money that you won somebody on Saturday night did they did you get a number at all? A hundred thousand. What? Someone won $100,000 on you? Yeah. Somebody that you know? That's crazy. Another guy won 80, I think like 84,000. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. That's wild. Vegas hates us. Did you, so you're talking about like you finding out that people are putting money on you. Did you know that these like massive bets were put it on you or did you find out

afterwards? Oh, no, I knew about it. I was like, yeah, at least buy me a freaking, hey, 10%. I'll take 10% whatever you I made. Yeah, they better buy you a car or something after. Take me out to eat, man. I'm going to get fat. Well, it better be a fancy place. $185,000 you won these people.

Yeah, man, that's the two biggest ones. I know one was $100,000, one was like $84,000. And then other people were like $10,000, $16,000, $20,000. but it's crazy. So over under, quarter million dollars are you won for people? Are we over that number or under?

A lot more. Oh my God. That's crazy. Yeah, I was such an underdog, man. And, you know, like the people that I train with, they know, they know, you know, that there's no quit in me, man. You're going to have to knock me out or put me to sleep

or stop me. You know, I don't just stop. So anytime that I'm in a fight, no matter what, we're going to keep on fighting. you know we're going to see who has more heart. And so those people who liked you before the fight, they're loving you now. So they're wiping the sweat beams with their $100 bills

that they just got from the betting window, thanks to you. Unbelievable. Oh, yeah. You know they were nervous, too, when they never ever took my back back. Like, oh, shit. I will tell you this. My little brother is not a huge MMA fan,

but when these big pay-per-views come on, I would say he's more of like a gambler with these fights at anything, but he told me, he said, he goes, I took Paneda and I took the under, whatever the, I think the over under was like two and a half rounds or something, or a round and a half, but you finished him like just under the,

or it was something, whatever the over under was, he took that and he bet it hard, and you finished him like right at the number. So you picked up some good money for him too. So my little brother thanks you as well. But the first round made him and everybody, else who bet on you very, very confident because you set the table for what was to come.

You took him down. You were on top of him landing the big shots. You beat him up throughout that entire first round. Your confidence back at the stool must have been sky high after those first five minutes, were they not? Oh, man. You know what? I was, you know, because, you know, he had so much high behind him, man.

I was like, man, is he really that good in Jijitza? Like, fuck, am I going to get cut right off the bat? You know, so it's nerve-breaking, man, you know, like hearing all these people, how good he is. all he does is jihitsu. His brother's saying that he's better than him. And as soon as I felt him, I was like, man, I can handle this guy, you know? Like I don't do a lot of jihers to tournaments, you know, but I do a lot of ground and pound. You know what I'm saying?

Like jihitsu, you know, I'm a black boy myself, you know, and I have a lot of confidence on myself, you know. I've trained with Makako a long time, you know, and Renan Chavez. And, I mean, classy. I mean, I've been with, I mean, Jeff Mancine. I've been with so many black brothers. I've trained with a lot of black guys. out, you know, so I felt confidence in myself, you know.

So I felt good. The second round, he comes out firing. He lands out pretty strong right hand. He takes you down. Takes your back like you talked about. He's trying to get submission. There it is. You're able to overcome it all.

And that led to that crucifix and you dropping those elbows and that thing was a wrap. I mean, what did that feel like, man? Just, you know, it takes your back. Not many people have survived that. And then you turn it over and you finish the fight. the way that you did. What did that feel like, man? Man, it felt good. It felt like, you know, like those two weeks were so long. It felt so long, you know, your first fight back, you're such an underdog. Everybody thinks you're going to get

demolished. All these people talking shit. I just, I love to prove people wrong, you know. I love it. That's, and the hype train that they had, it's just, derailed. The eye was gnarly. And it's still pretty gnarly right now. How concerned were you with the eye, like, in that moment? I mean, you're probably not thinking about it too much because you're trying to finish the fight, but did you think it was as nasty looking as it was probably when you saw yourself on the monitor?

No, I couldn't see. Out the first knee in the first round, when I threw the overhand right, he popped me. I guess the knee hit me right in my eyeball or something, but like I literally, I was blinded. So in the second round, he just made it even worse, you know? Like when he caught me with that right hand, And he just made it even worse.

But no, I was blinded the whole fight from my left eye. Yeah, I was, I couldn't see. It's funny because the talk on Twitter after the fight was won, what a performance, glad he's back, he looked fantastic. And then the other part of it was screenshoting a photo of the eye as you're talking to Joe Rogan. And they're like, holy crap. Like, what if this fight had gone to the end of the round? And he went back to the stool and the referee took a look at the eye.

and they brought a doctor and they might have stopped the fight. Like, do you think about that at all? It's like, yes, yes. I mean, it happened with me with Georgie, you know? Like, the cut was up here. And this time it's literally under my, you know, it was right under my, over my eye. So, no, no, that was nerve-breaking.

That's why literally, when I was elbowing them, I was like, oh, come on, stop the fight, stop the fight. I don't want, if I lose another fight to a freaking cut, I'll flip, I don't know, kill myself. Yeah But it worked out And then you got 50 G's How did that, like

How did you react? How did you find out that you got the 50 Gs? Do you find out on social media Did your manager call you and give you the good news? I was with my manager at the time. You were at the house? Oh, yeah. We were at his house and he told me

and we started going crazy. Man, what a night for you. That's the way to finish the fight. Yeah. Finish a night. That's the way to finish the night and find out you made the 50 Gs extra, you know? Doing on the main card of a pay-per-view right before a biggest heavyweight title fight of all time in the UFC.

Yeah. Plus. Yeah. And, you know, and a guy that was talked about so much, you know, to beat that guy is even better. Absolutely. Hey, man. It was a good night. So you know how this sport is, Daniel. You've been around long enough.

We don't let you savor the flavor of these wins for too long. Everybody wants to know, you know, what's next and things like that. And obviously, you got some healing up to do. and some things to take care of before we can talk about your next fight. But eyeballing it right now, looking at the calendar, when would you like to get back in there? You want to try to get back in there before the end of the year? Do you think you get back in there relatively soon? How are you kind of looking at it right now?

Take one more fight. I'm going to take one more fight before the end of the year. I want to fight one more time. I'm going to let this eye heal. I'm going to get a good camp going, and we're going to talk to Shelby, see what he's got going on, see what kind of fight I can get. You know, I want to climb the ladder. they see what they got herbert was pretty was in a pretty good spot so you know how it is

of these rankings or you know that you just jump and take that guy's spot is there is there anybody that sticks out to you because i have a suggestion if you don't have anybody let me know who you think i'm right like whoever okay so i i'm a co-host of like this matchmaking podcast we do for mhmat fighting dot com so i suggested because this guy had a big win a couple of weeks before yours, you versus Gavin Tucker. I think that would be a lot of fun. He's on a nice little run right now. Gavin Tucker.

I would have to look him up. I don't know he is. He just finished Justin Janes like two weeks ago. I'm not good with names at all. I get hit a lot. It's from Canada's got a lot of tattoos. Oh, really? I'm having to look him up, man.

See what's up. See what's up with that, you know? Be a fun fight. Yeah. Yeah, man, any fight, you know, anybody in the UFC would be a good fight. man, everybody's good. You know, there's no bums there. You know, they're all good.

It's not an easy fight there. Yeah, and the problem is for all your gambling enthusiasts in your life is you're not going to be as big of an underdog this time around. So they can still win some money. It's not going to be able to win as much. Right, right. Well, Vegas did it twice already, man. They messed up, such an underdog.

You know, hopefully they'll learn. I don't know how that works. I don't know who does it. Is it the casinos that do it or is it just the people? I think it's like a combination of the two. Yeah? I have no clue. I don't got no clue either.

I want to punch one of them. Yeah, but it paid off for everybody in your life. So maybe it should just keep throwing those odds like that. Yeah, man, keep on making me the underdog, man. Like that can keep on proving people wrong. I love proving people wrong. Favorite memory about this trip. I mean, obviously it was six and a half years to get back.

We're in the middle of a freaking pandemic. So it's not the glamorous fight week that one would expect when they return to the UFC, but it is what it is. Outside of the win and the fight and the bonus and all that stuff, like what are you going to take away from that, from that trip back? The finish. The finish? 27 finishes.

I still don't have a decision. And I'm going to keep it going. I think they need to give me a bonus for every finish I get. Hey, Black Beesby getting bonuses for every knockout, right? Give me a bonus for every finish. I don't have no decisions. You don't want to see finishes? I'll go finish people.

He was on the broadcast a bunch of times with his tweets shouting you out. Did you talk to him since the fight? I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm going to go whoop his ass pretty soon. I'm going to go fight his ass. He's looking good, man. Look at how he's all lean and mean.

He's killing him, man. I mean, he got good training. He's getting good training, man. It was good. He's killing people with that power. Derek got so much power. It's crazy. I'm telling you.

I used to take his back. and he'll just grab my arm and just be like, no. And I'm like, God, black, strong are you? You know, people can't just do that at me. And he just grabs my arm and takes it out. I'm like, ah, play. Yeah, that's one strong, so I'm going right there. He's rolling right now.

He says he wants to drop like 15, 20 more pounds. He's going to look like a totally different person. Yeah, man. He's a very athletic person, man, and, you know, and it's hard to submit. And I know that, you know, because I've rode with him, you know. Me and McCako, you know, and McCako is a high-level black belt.

You know, me and McCako rode with him. jump him. Like, Macaca will go, I will go, and it's hard to submit him. I mean, we're, and we start off in his back, and he's like, freaking hard to submit. That's why, you know, it scares me every time he's down there, man, whenever they take him down. But then he's like, it's time to get up. And he just gets up. He's just like, how's he just get him up? Crazy, crazy, crazy. Yeah, he's such a monster. And you're a monster yourself. That was an incredible win on Saturday night. Incredible story. Congratulations on everything. The win, the bonus. You know, you get an extra 20% to boot, so couldn't have gotten any better for you,

which, you know, the eye aside, it was a pretty fantastic return to the octagon for you. Congratulations. Definitely looking forward to seeing what's next for you. And all the best, enjoy the win and heal up, man. We'll see you soon. Thanks, brother. The Houston boys, man. We're killing it.

There you go. See you later, man. What a UFC return it was for Daniel Paneda. And it seems that that man won people a lot of money. And that's just like, the people he knew. That's just a ridiculous number. It's just wild.

Think about all the people who took dog shots on him on Saturday night, like outside of the people he knew. People, I mean, it could have been millions of dollars that he won people on Saturday night. Just wild. But congratulations to him. Huge victory over a rising contender at 145 pounds. It was nice to see Vince from Hell Pichelle back in action on Saturday night.

The guy has just dealt with so much on the health side of things throughout his UFC run, but he returned after around a 14 or so month layoff, took on Jim Miller on short notice. Gets a big win to add to his resume at UFC 252. So let's talk to him all about it. Vince Bichel makes his debut right here on what the heck. All right, let's check in with another winner from Saturday night at UFC 252. He defeated Jim Miller via unanimous decision in the feature prelim. Vince from hell, Pichel makes his what the heck debut.

Vince, how are you, man? What's up, Mike? How you doing? I'm doing great, man. It had been 14 months since we had last seen you compete. It seemed like this fight came together very quickly. I'm curious, when were you made aware of this opportunity to fight Jim Miller on a huge card like this?

I think I had like 12 days notice on the third. Monday the 3rd was a day that I found out about the fight. I accepted the fight. got announced Tuesday and started training. That sounds like perfect for you, though. Like you seem to thrive in situations like that. Yeah, I've been training already and I was honestly ready for a fight. I was looking for a fight.

I told my manager Jason like, get me a fight, say yes and tell me who it is later. Just say yes and tell me who it is later. I want to fight. I need to fight. I need to fight. I want to fight. Is that what happened? Yeah, basically.

So you didn't know is, so you said yes before you even knew was Jim Miller? Well, I told him too, but he came up. He still told me about it, but I was like, yes, let's take it. The only thing, the only thing we were worried about was my weight. So when I found about the fight, I was 182 pounds. That was my third. And then I had to cut obviously to 55 or 56. So that was the only thing I was really concerned about.

But you tried to get me to do like a catch weight. And I was like, nah, let's just do 55. I'll make it. How would you describe that weight cut? Actually, it wasn't too bad. My body, I'm super lucky, man. My body, like, really, really kind of cuts weight fairly good. I'm not a shitty eater.

I eat a lot, but I'm not, like, too bad of an eater. And so once I go on that diet, I think, like, two, three days later, I lost, like, six pounds in a day. Like, a lot of the weight just dropped off me. I mean, it probably didn't help that I ate like a family meal of lasagna the night before that feeds like a family of six. But like weight falls off me pretty good once I get on my diet. And it just just fell right off, man. It wasn't too bad.

The setup. The water part sucks. Yeah. The setup you have here is tremendous. Is this something like you've had for a while? Yeah, there's my little nerd station I got here. So I stream actually on Twitch. I stream my trainings.

I stream the pre-fight and post-fight of my last fight with Miller. I also did the same thing with Roosevelt Roberts. So I do stream some stuff. I stream a little bit of training sometimes, not when I'm like in a camp or nothing too crazy because I don't want these guys to know what's about to happen to a little fight, but I do stream, I play games as well.

So I got a pretty decent little PC set up here. There you go. The mustache game, as you know by now, just by looking to yourself in the mirror, is A-plus incredible right now. you and my colleague Casey Liden had a little moment at the scrum after your win talking about each other's mustache's mustache. I'm ready for his mustache as I can see it. Is this like a, is this a quarantine mustache or has this been a thing for a while now? I've actually had this mustache for a bit.

Right after I fought Roosevelt is when I kind of started growing it. And I think I just had like a beard, right? I let my beard grow out. But then I was like, you know what? I'm going to save it. I'm just going to, I'm going to, I'm going to shave it. I'm going to go with the stash. and I've had the stash for, geez, I want to say like six, eight months, at least.

I've had it for a bit. But I love all the comments and everyone, everyone, so many funny comments about it, but I love all the comments, how everyone loves the stash. We keeping it around? Oh, we're definitely keeping it. We're definitely keeping it. The guy brother's not crawling away from me. We're bringing the moustaches back.

I remember, because you and I are the same age. So growing up in the 80s, like all of our dads, all of our uncles, all had the mustache. And then like one day, you'd come home from work and it would just be gone and we were like, what? And then everybody's mustachees were gone too. So now we're bringing it back. It's so weird. Your face looks so weird. I remember that too. It's obviously, you know, never an easy night at the office when you fight a guy like Jim Miller. And I think it's fair to say about you as well. It's not, it's hard to not learn something about yourself when you step into a cage with a guy like Jim Miller, right?

Yes, very much so. I knew I was I was super confident going into the fight grappling with him. A lot of people I think sleep on my grappling because of my two losses are two wrestlers and I got submitted by Gillespie, right? But I think a lot

of people sleep on my grappling because of that, but I guess you know, after Saturday they're probably not going to anymore. Midway through the first round, Jim lands a takedown. He was working on different submissions. He tried like three to different ones, the guillotine, the Peruvian necktie.

I think there was a heel hook mixed in there as well. And none of those looked like they were all that fun to be in. Although the first round didn't go your way, you had to build some confidence knowing that you were able to do what most others in your position have not been able to do and get out of it. Is that accurate? Yeah, actually, the only real danger I felt like I was in the first round was that cap slicer, but I was defending it well.

I had my hand stopping his other foot from using it to apply more pressure. I had my other foot pushing on his hand so he couldn't really pull down that hard. So I was defending very well. And I think that gave me a lot of confidence, but I think that also told him like, oh, shit, this guy's not just going to go away, right? I think that was kind of discouraging for a miller, too, because I know it took a lot for him to get in those positions and squeeze on me a little bit. What about the third round?

Because, you know, I thought you, I think the best word to describe is you outgrimed him for the next 10 minutes. I mean, the third round did get dicey for a second with another guillotine choke. He finishes that so many times, but you were able to get out of it and get the win. Was that dangerous at all? Were you close to being finished in the third round, or were you good the entire time? No. I was good up until that guillotine. So that guillotine was very dangerous.

It wasn't dangerous at first. I had a pin against the cage. I had his neck on the wrong side, so he couldn't really get a good squeeze on me. But he adjusted and made that sucker tight as shit. And I had he had me in there for another few seconds, I would have had a tap. If I wasn't able to pull my head out from the sweat and just the fatigue that we both had, him especially in his arms from squeezing earlier, he probably would have caught me. I would have been another submission under his bum.

He would have walked away the winner that night. 14 months away, back in the wind column, second win in a row. Roosevelt Roberts was obviously a highly-todded prospect. You jump from that to Jim Miller, who has had as many fights in the UFC as anybody. that has ever stepped foot in the octagon. He's got the record now. He's definitely all the fan there. What do that mean to you to get your hand raised

and an opportunity like that after taking so much time off? And man, it means a world, man. Like, every fight, every fight is just so much more of an accomplishment right now that I feel at this age. And I'm just steamrolling, man. Like, I feel great.

My body's healed up. This fight that I went into with Miller was one of the fights where I didn't have any injuries. I didn't have a stub finger. I didn't have a stubbed toe. My knee wasn't tweaked at all. I wasn't sore anywhere. I wasn't hurting.

I wasn't tight anywhere. This is one of the few times that I've actually gotten into a fight and been 100% for the fight. So it was really great to get out there and do that. I had all the confidence in the world. Showing that I can grapple with one of the best jihitsu guys in MMA also was a big confidence booster for me. But I'm going to start getting this ball rolling, man. I got a lot of makeup time to catch up. with and you're definitely going to see me fight by the end of the year. I don't got any injuries.

I got some bumps and bruises. Got my ankles a little swollen. My elbows are sore. But other than that, like, I'm good to go. So you're definitely going to see me fighting at the end by the end of the year. That's great. I mean, obviously, it's no secret. You've, you've had quite the road in between these fights, between a motorcycle accident, the hip injury at the end of last year, make your way back and get a big win. So, like, what do we do now? Do you have to, like, wrap you up and bubble wrap at this point? because like we want to see you fight again. I just feel like maybe now's the time where things are starting, the stars are aligning here.

Would you feel that way? I think so, yes. And I'm a man, Mike, I'm a firm believer in things happen for a reason, man. And I think right now is just my, all the pieces are coming together in my life, which happens every so often. I don't believe in coincidence.

I just, I believe things are meant to weigh the way they are and things will always work out the way they're supposed to in the end. So I feel like that's just what's happening right now. Things are coming out good. I'm healthy. I spend a lot more time recovering on my body. My body feels great.

You know what I mean? I'm an old dog in this sport, but you wouldn't know the difference between me or one of the younger kids. So I feel great, nothing but confidence. We're going to be safe. We're going to take care of ourselves like we've been doing so we don't get injured.

And we're going to keep his train going. The lightweight division is just ridiculous, as you know. It's just loaded from top to bottom. I have to say, I think you might be the most underrated guy in this division. Like, do you believe that as well? Like, people forget that you've won six out of your last seven. You talked about the Gillespie loss, but that guy was tearing through everybody at the time. It just kind of happened that way.

If you're not the most underrated guy in the division, you have to be, like, right up there on that list, right? Yeah, I definitely feel like I'm one of the very underrated fighters. And it's probably just because of my lack of activity, right? Like, I've just been getting injured and I've had these times where I've had to take some time off. And I'm in such a person that I like kind of a kind of a put. this way where I like to play it safe, right? Like I want to make sure when I go out there and fight typically, like, I'm 100%. I don't want to go out there and be like, oh, shit, I wasn't all there.

Or, you know, I mean, I don't like having a weak link. So I like to go on this stuff fully confident, you know, in all my strengths. Very, very low versed on the weaknesses. And that way I can put on the best show I can, man. Do you have anybody in mind that you'd like to scrap it up with and keep this train moving or just whatever? Just whatever, honestly. I'm just a violent bachelor with anger problems so I told Shelby

you know what give me some options and we'll talk I want to fight by later this year and he's like all right cool I'll let you know he's like heal up let me know when you're healed up and you're back in the gym and he's like well we'll start talking I was like sweet so that's what I'm doing man you being 37 and

that's not a big number for me because I am 37 as well I feel like a common question you probably get in these interviews and you know maybe you don't is like you know how long do you have left to keep competing and I think if there's someone in this division who can be competitive for at least another four or five years and have these dog fights with all these guys, who knows maybe longer than four or five years, it's you, Vince.

Like, do you even think about that at all? Is that a question that gets asked of you a lot? It does get asked to me. And honestly, it's, it's hard for me to, it's hard for me to give people an answer because I'm going to let my body tell me when I need to stop, right? And although I do have injuries and everyone's like, don't you think that's like a sign like, you should stop? But I'm like, no, it's like the reason I'm getting injured from those parts is because I'm too stupid and no way any better for my own good, right? Like I just don't know him to quit sometimes.

I just go and go and go until something breaks, right? Like I go until failure. I'm that kind of guy. But I don't see, I don't see an end in the near future. My body feels great. Like I said, I've never felt better, been more confident physically in my body and my abilities than I do now. I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm in the 20s again, man. Like I can't honestly describe how good I feel.

And so one of the body tells me like, hey, we're getting a little slower, you know what I mean? Like maybe we can't be at this level anymore. Maybe we'll think about it. But me and him and having that talk just yet. How good is it feel to, I guess, feel the way you're feeling right now? I mean, you haven't felt this way in a long time. And now you have it, 37, you just coming off a big win, you know, is it like a freeing feeling that, at least for the time being, a lot of those nagging injuries and some of the things you had to deal with, they're behind you knock on wood it really is man and perseverance is a son of a bitch you know and

i honestly feel like the best way i could describe it how i feel right now and it's just like like i fell in love right it's almost like i like i just fell in love again and like i'm just i'm just feeling like top of the world like nothing can slim me down nothing can stop me i'm unfuck with the ball right now and and that's just how i feel that's just how i feel that's great a couple of things really you go that I wanted to ask you about one of which was you got the opportunity to take a trip to the Middle East and visit the troops in November around it was around like Thanksgiving time and I'd spoken to Carlos Spars I spoke to Alex Hernandez about it and they said it was such an eye opener for them it gave them some perspective on their lives and their careers for sure what was

that experience like for you um it was amazing man uh it was a little rough because that was I was injured my hip and that was like right before my surgery so I was kind of fall up through the end of that, you know what I mean, get my ass kicked by the troops. But it's a, it's a, man, if all I can really say is if anyone hasn't traveled, you need to travel the world. You need to go to places that scare you places that you don't think you'd normally want to travel to or you don't even think you'd have a good time enjoying and go there and watch how much you enjoy the place. For some of people that don't get to travel, don't get the kind of experience. And that right there, what we did is a once in a lifetime experience, right? Like not many people get to go visit and travel around with our troops.

We were in places that we couldn't even say where we were. Like we got to do stuff. We got to see commanders. Like we got to talk to like high branch military people. And it's like it's such a rare opportunity. Like I feel nothing about blessed to be able to do that. I think that was my one, two, three. That was like my third, fourth time.

I've done that. Second time I've been out there in the Middle East. Last time I was out there was like super hot, man. Oh my, my God. You did not want to go out there in summer real. It is like 140 degrees with like, 120% humidity. It is crazy. But honestly, I feel lucky to get to do that and hanging with our troops and see how those

guys live and the things they have to do and the things that we take for granted at home, but these guys sacrifice every day just for us, right? And they don't even know less. So like I feel nothing about blessed and super excited that I get that I've gotten to do those tours and kind of share some time with some guys and have them share their time with me. True or false, Shane Crutchin was the biggest pain in the ass on that trip. I mean,

I, we, uh, it's all my perspectives, you know, it's all my perspectives. I'm quoting Alex Hernandez. He wasn't too bad. I mean,

Shane, Shane is a little bit of a handful, but he's actually, Shane's a really good guy. He's got a good heart on it. I really do like Shane. I mean, I love Alex.

I love Carla, too. Lewis. Like, we all had a good time. Amanda, Amanda Early, the one who will put it all together for us. But, uh,

yeah, I feel like we were all a little bit of pan in the NASA at some point or another. So it's unfair just to say he was the biggest man. It was an eclectic mix of personalities, for sure, between you and Alex and Carla. It was like a recipe for some shenanigans, if you will. And we had fun. But I think mainly is because Shane was a, Shane's ex-Marine, right?

So, of course, and we're when he's talking shit to everyone, like, oh, well, if you're a Marine, maybe you'd be more of a man. You know what I mean? Like, he'd be little snide-ass comments like that, which is probably what they're referring to. But it was all in good fun. It was all good fun. It was an awesome trip. Everyone had a good time.

I had a good time. That's amazing. Meeting those, me and them for a lot of them, like Shane, that was the first time I met Shane too. Like, I've known Shane for a bit,

but that was the first time I've met him face-to-face. I knew Lewis. First time I met Alex and then first time I met Carla. So it was really awesome meeting them too. They were really amazing people too, man. Just so lucky. Yeah, really, really cool stuff.

Lastly, big title fight coming up in your division in October, Habib versus Justin Gaichie. That was just such a wild fight, man. What do you like in that way? What do you see in? Honestly, like, this is a really hard fight for me to pick now. At first, I was like, I want Gai Chi to win.

I want Gainchi to win. I want Gainchi to be the guy to take it back, right? But then again, like, Khabib losing his father, going through his stuff. I don't know what Kibu's future is if he's going to continue fighting, right, after he beats Gainchi or what, but in my eyes, if Khabib beats Gajee and beats him like he's beaten everybody else, like what more is there for Kibib to accomplish, right? Maybe to fight Tony. He hasn't fought Tony yet.

You know, I mean, McGregor's not going to come back. He'd be stupid to try to fight Kibb again. He'll just get smoked. You know what I mean? Like, what else does he have to prove? Maybe go up in a weight class, you know? But so, like, I don't know. I feel like, I don't know what he's going to do.

If he retired, I think that would be an awesome thing for him to do. but if not, dude, dude's a beast. I would love for him to win just because of what he's going through as well. So I don't even know who to pick anymore, man. Like, I want to gauge you in, but now I'm like moving more towards compete because he's like the adversary that he's got going on right now, right? Yeah. He wants to fight in October against Gachy.

Then he wants to fight George, St. Pierre and April. That's kind of his timeline. That's what he wants. Okay, damn. And George hasn't slammed the door on that. Everyone's calling George out. But if there's one fight, I think that might get George back in there. It might be Habib.

It might be because George knows it'll be like a wrestling match, right? And George is a big, strong dude. So that'd be a good fight to watch, honestly. I'd like to watch that play. Between Khabib and Gainchi, I don't know. I want a Gainchi to win. I still kind of want Gainchi to win because I think it would be such a good, feel-good story right, if you want to be the same. If Kabeb loses, like, I'm going to feel terrible.

I'm like, fuck, man, the guy just lost his dad. You know, he's kind of like Rocky losing Mick, right? Like, he's just a little bullish wall for now. Let's true for a good fight. That's a draw. How about that? And, you know, we're not disappointed. There's no loser.

Just the fans who paid 65 bucks. It'll be livid if that happens. Yeah. Just Gainchi or Khab will be disappointed because it's like, or actually, Kavit won't be disappointed because they'll still retain the title. But Gainty will. There you go. Well, great win, man.

And happy to see you healthy, happy to see you back doing your thing. All the best to you as we head into the next one, wherever that may be. Congratulations again, Vince, mustache game, top-notch. Can't wait to see how that thing continues to just fill out over the next several months. It's going to be like Raleigh fingers at the end. We're going to curl that thing around. I can't wait to see it. Well done, man.

Thank you, Mark. Thanks for having me, man. I have a good time. The mustache game is strong in that one, ladies and gentlemen. Vince Wichel, big win for him on Saturday night. as we move ahead to our final guest who had a big win a little over two weeks ago in the main event of the UFC's event on August 1st.

He defeated Edmund Shabazzian. Let's check in with one of the top middleweights in the world, Derek Brunson. All right, we got another first timer on the show this week. Very excited about this. In fact, it's the first time I had a chance to speak to this man in nearly four years looking back. But happy to be joined by the number seven ranked middleweight in the world

who a little less than three weeks ago hand in Edmund Shabazzian, the first loss of his career. Derek Brunson is joining the program. Derek, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. So before we get into what's going on with you and the big win and everything, I actually haven't had the chance to talk about UFC 252 on Saturday with the fighter

who actually didn't compete in the event itself. So I want to kind of get a different perspective on things if you don't mind. First of all, the main event, we saw Stepe Mietich, defend his title, gets Daniel Cormier, picked up the unanimous decision. Steep A looking lean in me and the hair game was on point. Obviously, the eye poke sort of put a damper on things, but in the end, Steepa goes out and gets the job done. What were your thoughts on how the made event went down on Saturday from a fan's perspective?

It was a good fight, you know. I don't take into consideration the eye pokes. D.C. poked him in the eye earlier, so it's a fight. Things happen. You got to readjust and make the changes. It was a great performance. Steve Bic came in there looking like he was in shape. He looked like a two-o-fiver but had the size of a heavyweight.

So it looked like he took the fight very serious, and he was able to get the results in his favor. It was a good fight from a game to end. This is one of those, like, tough fights to watch if you're kind of putting your fan hat on, right? Because we all want the storybook ending in sports. Like final fight, we want to see Daniel kind of ride off into the sunset with all the pageantry and retire.

as the heavyweight champion of the world. But at the same time, like, Steve is such a good dude. He's a firefighter. He's a first responder. He's like such a good guy. There's like no baby face and no heel here. It was tough to watch in a weird way, was it not? Yeah, it's funny, man.

If D.C. would have won and been the heavyweight champion again, man, I think he might have been enticed to get that third fight with John, you know. So I couldn't trust him on that fact, you know. But D.C. is a solid guy. You know, he does a good job commentating the fights. Like you said, Steepa is a well-rounded, very good person from all accounts. You know, he stand up for good things, stand up for the right things. So, yeah, man, it was tough to pick a guy you want to win.

I knew D.C. longer and I came up in Strike Force with him. So I kind of, you know, was favored towards D.C. But at the same time, you know, I like what Steepie does inside and outside the Octagon. Do you feel like Steepa's not getting enough love here for the win? No, Steve A don't get enough love. I mean, if you look at Steve A, you go to his social media, he gets like, I don't know, 20, 30, 40,000 likes on his photos, you know, people paying attention.

And if you go to, like, O'Malley, O'Malley getting 100,000 likes, you know. Some things in life aren't fair, you know, it don't really make sense. But, I mean, it is what it is. He's a champ and he's making a lot of money. He's able to take care of his family. So I don't think he cares. I think he'd go out there and do his job. But definitely a guy that's underappreciated.

Do you think DC's definitely done? Yeah, for sure. I think DC's definitely done. There's really nowhere or nothing for him to gain. I mean, if he was a champion, I think you could have enticed him for, you know, John Jones moving up to heavyweight. And I think that was kind of pre-planned. So I think you could have, you know, they could have threw a lot of money at him that he probably

couldn't turn down. But there's what he's going to go back and be the 205 champion, what he's going to be the heavyweight champion, what he's, you know, three or four fights. And D.C. is one of those guys who, you know, he looked at himself as, like, a top competitor. And he wants to be in title fight. So he's three out or I would say two away at 205 and probably three away at heavyweight. So it's really no point, you know, at his age and what do you have going on outside of the guy? You mentioned Sean O'Malley.

We saw him suffer his first loss at the hands and feet and elbow of Marlon Chito Vera. It was a huge win for Marlon. It was met with a little bit of some controversy early on, but as people sort of went back and watched the fight a little deeper, it seems like it was a very clean win. And you were just in a similar position as Cheeto, being an underdog against an unbeaten rising star. And much like yourself, he goes out and gets the job done,

what did you make a Marlins win outside, you know, of the fact that you didn't get to cash it on this, like, big parlay that you put up on Twitter? Oh, yeah. Well, so I don't think Shabazz is. and what's the kid name? What's the kid name? O'Malley.

I don't think Shabazzian and O'Malley are nearly at the same level. You're talking to undefeated guys, yes. But Shabazzian came in and, you know, beat a couple of guys he was supposed to beat to be, to be, like, you know, considered, like, next up. And then he came through and for a guy who's been ranked in the top 15 for years. Young guy, not an old Asian guy, but a young guy in Tavar. and he put a nasty combination on it and was able to knock him out.

Whereas if you look in the fight with Izzy, Izzy went five rounds with Tavares, so that gives you a little bit of a skill. You know, it's not like Tavares is old. You know, he had a guy who's young, who, you know, is very skilled, and he was able to finish him. So then he came and stepped up and fought a, you know, top team guy. Whereas O'Malley was kind of rank, he was ranking, circling back, you know,

it seemed like fights that was like playing into his favor, you know, Chito, I believe, was, you know, I don't know, he had a lot of fights in the UFC, a young guy. But I think Shabazzian definitely earned his hype a lot more, whereas, you know, Tito was, I mean, O'Malley was doing what he was supposed to be doing and getting great matchups, you know, not saying he's a talent, he's good, but he was getting great matchups to get where he's at. And since Saturday night, we've had all these changes in the sport. we've seen John Jones vacate the light heavyweight title. He's playing on jumping to heavyweight. Reyes and Blahovitch are about to fight for the vacant title. UFC 253.

Rumble Johnson's getting back in the testing pool. You put on a tweet on Monday that said something to the effect of, you know, you always wanted to eat and not cut weight. And then you had like the thinky face emoji going on. Were you serious about that? Are you actually pondering a 205 move? Or you just messing around and seeing how people react to it? It was a thought process, you know.

It was a thought process. But, you know, one of my teammates, Rumble, he's coming back. And I think, you know, he's coming straight into the picture, you know. So I'm close to where I want to be at middleweight. And Rumble's coming back in 205. And, you know, you got Burns fighting. And Oostman was a part of our training camp for so long. He just left, you know, because him and Burns fight each other.

But imagine that, you know, three guys or, you know, four guys searching, you know. It's a lot of good guys there. but I definitely thought about it, you know, just, and I know some of the thoughts when you're at Fight Week and cutting weight, you're like, man, why am I doing this? Why I keep cutting this weight? You know, it's not the funnest thing, but, you know, when it pays off, it's a lot better.

So you still feel like you can easily make that cut? Because 205, I mean, some of these guys are just huge. Like, people look at it and they think 20 pounds isn't that big of a deal, but, you know, there's some big dudes, some big boys at 205. Yeah, there are some big guys at 205, you know, but I'm a big eight. 85 and it would just take, you know, lifting weights and bulking and eating and getting a little bit of weight up. But I think at 205, the skill set isn't like 85. Like, I think what the more you go up, the less skill, the less skills, the guys have, but it starts to be more power, you know,

so it's kind of like give or take, you know. Is rumble still as terrifying as he was when he left? Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, that's why I'm ready for these. fights and people are like, oh, ever since I've been training down in South Florida, it's so many guys that are really good. Like, when I sparred Rumble, my chin is down where people used to say, oh, you'll keep your chin in the air. So that's not a problem when we're in training. I make sure I keep my chin down.

My hands really tight by my face, and I'm, like, working from there, you know, because Rumble is a guy who, you know, he hits hard and he don't try to hit hard. So you definitely have to make sure you pay attention to the small thing, so you're not getting caught with those big punches. Well, you, sir, are on a roll. right now. You get three straight wins. Recent one, we talked about against Edmund. That was a big one considering the placement on the card,

the stakes, the popping circumstance, et cetera. And you've talked about how things have changed since you moved to Sanford MMA and started working there. You've won all of your fights since making that shift over there. What else do you feel has changed over these last three fights? I'm just, you know,

starting to get, I wouldn't say smarter, I'd just say wiser and make better decisions when I'm on the other than I'm going. Risk and gambling. I'm trying to be more calculated than structure. And being down at Sanford, that's helped, you know, make those adjustments in each part of my game. As you know, momentum is everything in this sport.

A loss doesn't define you, but positive momentum does everything for your career. And you're on a good run right now. You're on a good run before the Robert Whitaker loss, arguably that went away from fighting for the title. Do you feel like if you're in a moment? much better spot now than you were four years ago? Like, how would you compare the two times in your career? Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm in a much better spot, you know, because, yeah, I was one away from a title shot. That fight with me and Whitaker was a title eliminated. But if I would have won that

fight, I still would have made the same mistakes in the next fight or the next fight after that. So, yeah, I feel like, you know, I'm a more matured technical version of myself. And I haven't slowed down or lost my athleticism or speed any. 185 is really interesting right now. There's some big fights coming up. Of course, you get the title fight with Izzy and Paul Costa, Whitaker and Jared Kennerer fighting in October. You've said it yourself, the Jack Hermanson fight

seems to be the one that makes the most sense, right? Like, especially with how the other matchups are looking and how things are official. Like, you and Hermanson is a no-brainer to me, right? Oh, yeah, you know, Hermanson is, you know, streaking, you know, he's had a good past two years. He's won some big fights. He's sitting in that four spot. He doesn't have a fight and he's not next for the title. So it's a fight that, you know, can put one of us next for that next title shot, you know, down the line, you know. So I think it's a

no-brainer. It's definitely a good fight to make it a division. Has that fight been discussed at all? Like, have you heard anything in that regard or? I mean, I think it makes sense. You know, I asked for the fight. You know, I haven't really got much. I haven't heard from Jack, you know, I haven't heard from the UFC. They don't really have any plans for him. I guess he's kind of sitting in that spot, maybe if somebody get injured or something like that. But as far as lining up a fight, I think that's the fight to make. You know, I jacked up my thumb a little bit in my fight.

So we're letting that heel a little bit, but I think, you know, November, December, I'm all for it. Does anything else even stick out to you right now? Like, I mean, there's the rematch with Romero maybe, but he was supposed to fight your eye haul. This Saturday, as a matter of fact, before he got injured. who knows how long Y'all is going to be out for. Does anything else even, like, make sense or stick out to you in this division, realistically? Not, it's a few fights.

I mean, Till, I like Till fight. He has a huge name. It does a lot for me. There's a lot for him also. Hermannsen, I mean, I think that's the fight that makes the most sense. You have Whitaker and Kennedy and they're fighting each other.

If my thumb was a little bit healthier, I would be all four if someone got injured. And even, you know, even still, You know, we heal up a little bit. I'm all four if someone get injured, whether it's Whitaker, Canada, there's other type of guys I'm focused on right now. Guys is a surgeon that's in that discussion of getting the next title shot.

Romero, that fight, I mean, it doesn't matter. I wish he was in a little bit better spot. He lost four out of five. And, you know, guys, then he'll never get another title shot. I want somebody with some pop and name recognition, you know. What do you think wins between Izzy and Costa? Oh, that's a tough one. It depends.

Whoever can oppose that well is five rounds, you know. Is he going to be looking to stick and move and will constantly be looking to walk them down. So whoever can get whatever they're trying to do off, I think that's who's going to win the fight. So we're getting to that point as parents, because you're a father, I'm a father myself, where school is about to kick off.

I think it may have kicked off in your neck of the woods. So are you going, are your kids going virtually right now? Are they at home doing the schooling? Yeah, they're doing the virtual schooling. So they're pretty much logging in for Zoom for 15 to 20 minutes, meeting with the classroom, talking with the teachers. Then I think they get off for 30 to 45 minutes and work. And then they do it again for the next class.

So they have like four or five classes per day. And they tune in for like 15 or 20 minutes to like discuss what they need to do on that day. Are you enjoying kind of balancing the two roles? Because you're kind of like a part-time teacher at the same. same time too. I'm dealing with it myself with a seven-year-old. His summer breaks on, he doesn't go back for like another month, but he actually gets to go back into the classroom when he goes back to school here in Massachusetts, which is going to be interesting. So how are you enjoying sort of balancing dad and, I guess, substitute teacher in a weird way? My daughters are 12 and 13, and they're

very mature. So they think they can know everything and can count on themselves. So it works out perfect. Oh, beautiful. So I'm just a guy making sure, okay, I'm checking on the power school, which is where the teachers grade the papers and making sure they done their work. And if they don't do the work, I'm like, hey, what's going on? Why is this missing? You know, so I'm just like overseeing and making sure that they get the stuff done. There you have it. A bow has been tied on UFC 252.

A bow has been tied on this episode of what the heck. Big thank you to the guests. Big shout to Casey Liden on the production. Esther Linn on the graphics. And of course, to all of you for checking out the program this week. We have your cover this weekend with M&M. MMA action like crazy. Bellator 244 on Friday.

UFC on ESPN 15 on Saturday or UFC Vegas 7 or UFC Fight Night, Munoz versus Edgar. I mean, just so many hashtags and names. I can't keep track of it all. Anyways, just keep it locked on MMAfighting.com. And we'll do all that stuff for you. You just follow along, all right? But that's it.

We're done. Again, thanks for watching and listening. And as always, have a heck of a week, everybody. Media Podcast Network.