MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 22 | Shana Dobson, Julia Avila, Cheyanne Buys, Brent Primus & Joe Solecki

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

Check out episode 22 of MMA Fighting's What the Heck as Mike Heck speaks with Shana Dobson (8:58) to recap her massive upset win over Mariya Agapova at UFC on ESPN 15. Cheyanne Buys (35:57) discusses becoming the newest member of the UFC strawweight division after earning a contract on Dana White's Contender Series. UFC women's bantamweight Julia Avila (1:03:23) previews her upcoming rematch with Nicco Montano on Sept. 5. Former Bellator lightweight champion Brent Primus (1:25:05) discusses what he's been up to since finishing his second straight fight via submission in February and gives his take on rival Michael Chandler's free agency. Finally, UFC lightweight Joe Solecki (1:44:24) talks his impressive first-round submission win over Austin Hubbard this past Saturday night in Las Vegas.  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? Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of What the Heck on MMAfighting.com. I am Mike Heck. Hope you're all having a great week.

I am in a fantastic mood right now. It is like 65 degrees here in the beautiful burst. Markshire is here in Western Massachusetts. Fall is right around the corner and I'll admit I'm a big mark for fall. I love when it's in the 60s, nice cool breeze. This is great. Like I know summer is ending. My kid is pissed that summer is ending.

That bums some other people out, but, you know, fall is my preference. Although that means winter and snow are going to be here before you know it. And well, you take the good with the bad. That's the way I look at it. But you don't care about any of that stuff. You want to hear M.M. chatter you want to hear from the fighters and there's a lot to discuss this week a lot of great guests joining the program we're coming off bellator 244 we're coming off ufc on espin 15

ufc on espn 16 or ufc Vegas 8 is coming up this saturday that's headlined by anthony smith versus alexander rackich in a three-round light heavyweight bout which is now even more important because John Jones is no longer the UFC light heavyweight champion. It vacated the belt last week. And if you guys missed it, I did report on Tuesday that we've had a shakeup to the card already. Giga Chikaze is out of his fight against Alex Kassaris and Bruce Leroy will now fight newcomer Kevin Krum at that event at 145 pounds. Kevin has a ton of experience.

He's fought some guys who are in the UFC now or have been in the past. So good on Kevin Krum getting the call 30 plus fights as a professional. And he makes it happen. But the road to UFC 253 continues in Las Vegas this weekend. There is a lot of chatter about the location of UFC 253 and where that event will take place. Most people expect it to be on Fight Island or. somewhere in Abu Dhabi. So because people are asking me about it,

I'll give a quick update on that whole thing because I have been looking into it. I have been talking to some folks. I did see that on Wednesday, outlet AG Fight reported that Abu Dhabi is pretty much a done deal for September 26th. And as of right now, as I record this open, that's not necessarily wholly accurate.

So I'm told via multiple sources, The plan all along was to have UFC 253 at the apex in Las Vegas. That would be the top choice. That is still the top choice from everything that I've been hearing. The problem is the travel and getting all of these international fighters into the United States. Now, if the UFC can somehow pull that off, UFC 253 will happen in Las Vegas. But that is not looking lightly right now. hence the UFC pushing back the card a week.

And the immediate thought was once they pushed it back, and I thought this myself, that means it's going to be an Abu Dhabi. And that was actually not the thinking, I'm told, for the move. It was more of an, you know, okay, now we can have Abu Dhabi or have Fight Island as a backup plan, but it gives us an extra week on getting to work, on moving this card or keeping this card at the apex.

and that's why we haven't gotten an official announcement from the UFC with the card being a month away. Dana White was asked about it again on Tuesday after the Contender series. He said there's still no location. And yes, we've heard Dana say this a million times. He has this mentality of, well, we're not telling the media anything. But you think by now, especially when it comes to the fighters who need to make arrangements to travel from the United States

or other countries to Abu Dhabi, the members of the media who need to put their plans in place to go cover this event and the other events that will follow because when they do, I mean, as you saw in July, when they do these Fight Island cards, it's not just one event. It's a series of events. So the media members and, you know, UFC staff members, they're going to be there for a while, like maybe a month, maybe more. So as of now, there's, there's no 100% decision. on where that event is taking place. So Dana can be taken at his word here,

but I am told at this point from the people that I've spoken with, it is likely to happen at Abu Dhabi, but not official as of yet. If the UFC can pull this off at the 11th hour and get everybody to Vegas, it'll happen in Vegas, but if not, it will be in Abu Dhabi. So still sort of up in the air, but if I had to take a guess at this point,

it will happen on Fight Island. But that's an update on that, because a lot of people ask me about that. But let's switch gears, let's run down the lineup and get to the first interview of the program. Wrap it us up this week is Joe Selecki, who improved a 2-0 in the UFC this past Saturday with a first round submission win, a standing rear naked choke finish of Austin Hubbard. And this interview almost didn't happen because Joe's wife is about to give birth to their first child any day now. And they thought that Tuesday was the day. but it wasn't full on labor.

It was like early stages of labor. So the doctor sent his wife home and we were able to have a conversation. So Joe's a guy I've been high on for a long time. If you watch the post-fight show on Saturday, you know that I'm pretty high on him. I've been following him for a while. So great to have him on this particular program for the very first time. We'll do that to cap us up.

Bellator Lightweight Brent Primis will join us to discuss what's going on with him. Plus, we're going to get his take on his rival Michael Chan. Handler entering free agency and where he may end up. And I'll just say he doesn't think it will be in the UFC for reasons that you will hear later on in the show. Julia Avila is back on the program as she gets ready to face Nico Montanio on September 5th. Next weekend, it's a rematch from the Oklahoma regional scene. Back in January 2017, they fought for the HDMMA women's Bannamweight title. was the first time in Oklahoma history that two women headlined any card out there.

And it was for a title. It was Obila's third pro fight. It was Montanio's fifth. Avila got the win. I actually got to watch that first fight this week in its entirety. So Julie and I will discuss that. We'll discuss the big fight next weekend, the rematch in Las Vegas. That event is headlined by Alistair Ovarim taking on Augusto Sakai.

We have done a lot of contender series chats this season. which, spoiler, there are more to come early next week to get you ready for the next event on Tuesday. I love the contender series. It's been a great season. By the way, I'm going to say this into a microphone right now. I thought Anthony Romero got the big fat hose job on Tuesday. That kid is UFC ready, and he's one of the best talents they've had on the show this season, maybe in all the seasons. He's right up there.

So he sort of joins the list of guys that should have gotten contracts. with the likes of Austin Vanderford, Brendan Locknain, Tom Lee, Chris Curtis, and the list goes on. I think Anthony Romero is now on that list. And if I'm Bellator,

if I'm one of these organizations, I'm snatching that kid up big time. But to talk about what's happening this week, we have not had a fighter that has been featured this season on what the heck yet. But that changes this week as we're going to be speaking with Cheyenne Bayes

who earned a contract following a unanimous decision win over Hillary Rose. It was a great performance, and she has one hell of a story. We'll also get an update on her husband, J.P. Bays, who is part of the conversation as well. You'll hear that chat in around 20 minutes. But first, let's check in with one of the big winners from this past Saturday, a history-making performance. It's because this is going to go in the books as the biggest upset in UFC history, according to the odds makers, a second round TKO victory over Maria Agapova.

or Agapova, however you want to say. But let's kick off this week's show with Shana Danger Dobson. All right, we have one of the big winners from Saturday nights. UFC on ESPN 15 events. She defeated Maria Agapova via second round TKO and made some history at the same time. By odds, this was the biggest upset in UFC history. And we're being joined by Shana Dobson right now. Shana, how are you?

Hey, Mike, I'm doing good, man. It's great to talk to you again. And congratulations. considering, you know, everything that was seemingly against you here, the odds, the hype surrounding Maria coming in on the three-fight skid, to have this fight play out the way that it did, this had to have been the most satisfying winner of your career, was it not? Yeah, it felt really good. You know, we knew, we didn't really much feel the pressures of what was going on going in. We try not to focus on the outcome, just the journey, just the process. I knew that if I trusted myself,

trusted my training in my body, that it would turn out how it did. So, you know, I'm definitely excited about that. I guess we should start at the beginning of this tale because in June, Maria makes her UFC debut. She submits Hannah Seifers, who went up a weight class on Short Ois, take the fight. And after the win, she calls you out by name.

How did you react to that? Yeah, I wouldn't too surprised that Maria called me out because they had offered me a short-notice match with her, kind of like the beginning of COVID, back when the UFC was like, you know, we're still going to be putting on events. And, you know, I just wanted to make sure that I was making good decisions. Me and my coaches, wanted to make sure that we were being smart about it

because I hadn't had access to my coaches, my training partners, my gym. So I wanted to make sure, you know, this is this is top level. And we knew that our next fight was going to be, we had to go out there and show, show, you know, 100% of my growth. So I wanted to make sure that I was 100% ready. Yeah, because you were coming off that tough loss to Priscilla, Cacruera in February. You got finishing under a minute.

And you, you know, from all the times we've spoken, you've had all this, you know, belief in yourself. And losing three straight is very difficult in the UFC. but you got the opportunity to stick around here. Did you think that after the Catuaria fight that you might be done, that you might get released? No. Yeah.

I mean, I think that that was a pretty, you know, pretty fair thing to say that after that fight, you know, it was going to be, I was thinking that I wouldn't get another shot. And I was disappointed because that fight did, I didn't get a chance to, to show all the growth that we had made with team elevation. So, you know, I think, I believe in faith. I believe everything happened the way it did for a reason. And, you know, I'm glad I got a chance to show that, you know, I'm in here grinding and I'm growing.

And, you know, it's just continuous growth is what's going on. Yeah. You know, you mentioned Elevation Fight Team. They've found tremendous success over the last couple of years. This year they've really been bursting out as one of the top gyms in the sport. Justin Gachie's way. really put them on the map even more. So when did you make the move to elevation?

I had, so I had met Corey San Hagan when we both fought on the steep D.C.2 card. And, you know, he was kind of like, you know, anytime you're out in the area, come hit me up. My girlfriend's brother, he actually lives out in Denver. And he said, you know, if you come out here to train, like, we'll hold you down, you know, we'll give you a place to stay.

So, you know, I went out, checked out elevation, vibed really well with the coaches. And then it was December that we packed up everything and we, you know, we moved down. We just, we made that sacrifice that we know we needed for my career. And it was a great decision, you know, I love that team. I've never jelled like this with a team before, with coaches, and had just a holistic training.

So I love it. What have you made of, you know, being a Colorado resident now, just being out there living there now. Are you enjoying the process? I mean, obviously you're jelling well with your team and you got a big win and that's always something to celebrate. But just living there, moving there, what does that like for you?

Oh, man, it's different. When we moved in the winter, I realized it snowed way too much. It snowed like multiple times a week. I was like, oh, my God, like leaving for training. Go into training, leave out and then there would be snow all over my car. I was over it. me coming from the East Coast. I'm used to snow, but that was next level.

I'm getting used to it, enjoying the nature and the mountains and hiking and things like that that Denver has to offer. What do you think has changed in you since making the move? Because, you know, like you mentioned, the game never stops changing, never stops evolving, but as important as the physical is in the sport, it's the mental that carries a lot of weight

just as much, if not more. What do you think has changed for you in that aspect since you made that move? I think that the physical and the mental have kind of just, you know, accent. They kind of complement each other, you know, as far as the training. You know, we have systems in place. We have relationships that the coaches have with each other and the way they communicate, you know, that that help fighters grow. And pretty much the biggest thing for me was allowing me to be me and allowing me to be creative. and just teaching

me how to fight like me. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I was looking for that I wasn't getting before and that's made a world of difference being with these guys. So the fight gets booked and as we're getting closer and closer to it,

it's becoming the Maria show. She got the fight she asked for. She's the next star that the UFC's going to try to push and the odds are coming in. It's super inflated on her end. You're the huge underdog. I know you're not paying attention to it too much because you're focused on the fight and what you need to do. But there's got to be a part of you that's seeing all the noise and seeing what's happening here, right?

Yeah, like you said, Mike, I try not to pay attention too much. I tried to stay off social media. I didn't look at any of her social media or any of her interviews. You know, I respect her. She's a fellow martial artist. I respect her getting in the cage with me. But, you know, I wasn't, I wouldn't about to give that whole Maria Hype Train game. You know what I mean? As far as I was concerned, it was the Shana show. As far as I was concerned,

I was ready to shock the world. We, we, we said that. We said that before. As we, as we were walking out, my head coach, Sean Madden said, you ready to shock the world. I say, yes, sir, we got in there and that's what we did. So we were only concerned about me and my mission and what I had to do. People handle being underestimated in different ways, right? Like outside of the people around you and your team and your coaches, like nobody truly knows what you're going through. what you're dealing with and how you handle these things. Like for some people, I mean, it could just drain you. And for other people, it's complete fuel.

And I think, like, for me specifically, you know, I've dealt with this since moving over to M.A. fighting because there weren't a ton of people who had seen what I've been doing work-wise over the last few years to set myself up for the opportunity. And you're damn right. It fueled me. It still does. But at the same time, there is a part of you that's like, oh, man, like, I know what I'm doing. Like, how come nobody else sees it?

Why do they say these things? but you've sort of learned how to put that stuff to the side. How have you been able to do that? Me and my coach, me and all of my coaches, actually, we do a lot of mental training. We think that that's just as important as a physical training. So, you know, there was a brief moment. I was, look, I was betting on the previous card,

Steep A and DC3. I was betting on that card, and then I stumbled upon my odds, was like, oh my God, that's ridiculous. I had no idea until like the week before. It's like, oh, my God, that's ridiculous. You know, but, you know, I knew that was, I was like, man, that's, I hope everybody's tuning in then, because we're about to put on.

That's, that's all I could say, you know. They, they were hyping her up and, and she was the next prospect. And, you know, I was like, come on, man, like, give me some respect. I've been doing this for a minute. You know what I mean? I'm still young in my career, but I've been doing this for a minute. I've fought a lot of tough fights. I've been in there for wars.

I fought a lot of tough opponents. So, you know, the fact that they doubted me, you know, I didn't take it. I wasn't upset about it or anything like that. I was just, you know, I was just excited. I was just excited to see everybody's face, everybody that betted against me, everybody that thought for sure I was going to get in there and lose. I was just, I wanted to see everybody's face. It was funny.

A week ago, I talked to Daniel Paneda, who fought on the card the week before, or at UFC 250, and he beat Herbert Burns, and he was a big underdog heading into that fight. But he said that friends and family members of his all bet, like, huge money on him, that to the effect of he, his friends and family won over a quarter million dollars betting on his fight. Did anyone reach out to you and say, like, Shana, you want me some, some, some, some cheddar here. Yeah, a lot of people did. Somebody even cash at me. They cashed me so money. So I was like, if they cash at me, then they must have come out good. But yeah, my coach,

he didn't tell me, one of my coaches, my judicious coach, he didn't tell me until after he was like, yeah, I made some money up you tonight. I was like, you bet. He was like, yeah, hell yeah, I bet on you. I knew I knew it was about to get it done. So, you know, I had a lot of people believing in me. And I keep beating myself up because I wish that I had, bet on myself, but I don't, I think that's weird, I don't know, to bet on yourself on, but I wish I had, man. I really do. I wish I put up my whole fight purse on that. That would have been amazing. What was, what was the fight week like for you with, you know, with everything going on? We got a pandemic, quarantine, you know, multiple tests. This is your first fight since

the COVID thing began. What was that experience like for you? It was pretty different, but the UFC did a good job to make sure that, you know, the chances of anybody bringing anything in was very slim. I liked it. I like, we work so hard and trained so hard during fight camp, so the opportunity to just sit myself down and just chill and relax. Like, that's what I look forward to about Fight Week is just, you know, just focus on that one thing.

You don't have, I'm, I'm doing my master's program. I work full time on top of this. so not having to worry about that for a week and just focus on the mission and just focus on the fight night. I love that. So I was cool being locked away. You know, if we were going somewhere like tropical or something and I couldn't like go out to the beach or somewhere cool, I'd be like, oh, that sucks. But, you know, Vegas, I've been here enough to where it's like, and it's too damn hot. It's really hot out here.

Are you still? Are you still there or are you back home? Yeah. Yeah, I got my party shirt on. I'm still out here. I'm still out here. We go home tomorrow. But yeah, me and my girlfriend and her family and her friends,

we all chilled out here for a few days. We're just doing some quarantine celebrating. And then when I get back, when I get back to Colorado, I have to get my damn whizum teeth taken out. And then I know that sucks. I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out but then after that is back to the lab, you know? There you go.

Have you had any of the wisdom teeth taken out yet? Or is this the first time? First time, all four. I'm just trying to get it over with. I waited until after my fight, you know, I literally was like, okay, the week of my fight, the week after I want to get it done,

taking care of. So we don't have to worry about it no more. There you go. You're in for a whole lot of fun. Let me just tell you. Oh, man. I know, right. We saw how,

active Maria was in the fight with Hannah. She came out like a bad out of hell and she kind of turned that up, but even more of a notch on Saturday night with you. This was something you and your team, I'm sure, were more than adequately prepared for. Is that accurate? Yeah, we did a bunch of scenarios where, you know, she'll start fast. We did where she could start slow. Maybe she would inch in, you know, you never know. But we had a pretty good idea that she was going to start very quickly, very fast and the idea was just, you know, just see the shots coming, block the shots and make sure that when I fired my shots, that they counted that they would stick and they would,

they would, you know, make a statement to her and slower eyes down a little bit. So that's pretty much what we prepared for. And we drilled that, trained that so many times, so much throughout camp that it just felt robotic. It felt natural when I was in there. Yeah, it's got to be something, especially at this level, to see a fighter come out like that. Because, I mean, you fought aggressive strikers in the past,

but this was different. This was just like, boom, boom, here we go. This is style you don't see quite often at this level, right? Yeah, yeah. I think that, you know, I'm going to be honest. I guess that works for her sometimes. But also, you know, she's, what is she? She's nine and two now.

You know, she's fought, she's been in there. She's experienced. So, you know, that, that, uh, I guess, bullshit, I'm not buying it. You know what I mean? Like, I got, I had an adrenaline dump one time in my fight career, and that was my very first exhibition fight in like the basement of some, you know, kickboxing gym. You know what I mean? And, and at this level as a pro, you don't, you don't have an adrenaline dump.

You know, you just, I'm going to let you know, like, I was in there. She was in here, in there. We both know what happened. I landed good shot. She might have tired herself out a little bit, but not enough to be out of there like that. You know what I mean? I landed good shots. And that was my intention.

My intention was to make sure that my shots counted. And, you know, it worked out. It worked out for me. And, you know, I'm only saying this because I wish her well and I wish I hope I wish her a speedy recovery. I heard she had to go to the hospital after the fight. I wish her a speedy recovery. But, you know, we got to give credit where credit is due, man. And, like, you know, if she got tired, whatever, she didn't, the main outcome of the fight was because of what I did.

And, you know, we can't take away from all the hard work that I put in, all camp, you know, all the hard work that I've put in and all the sacrifices that I've made for, you know, this past year, these past, you know, eight months for my fight career to make sure that I'm doing what I need to do. So, you know, I just, you're the first person I talk to, you know, first media person I talk to. you know first media person I talked to after the fight besides fight at night so I'm going to go ahead and you know after hearing stuff on social media and stuff like that you know I'm going to go ahead and clear the air you know what I mean you don't have adrenaline dumps at your what is it 10th 11th pro fight you don't you know you you you might have got rocked you might have got rocked a few times and and that's it is what it is you know and again like I said all respect you know I reached out to her I don't think she's seen my message yet

reached out, thanked her for the fight, as always, and asked if she was okay. But, you know, at the same time, like, let's not, let's not make excuses. Let's let's call it what it was. And, and that's why we got it done Saturday night. Yeah, because, you know, that first round was super active. Like, you had your moment. She had hers. You know, she got on top. You had her back. Exactly. Yeah, the same exact pace. So, like, you know, you had to still weather that storm. You know what I mean? Like, regardless of whether she gasped or not, like, like, Like you had to weather it and you had to overcome it and still get the finish. Did you think after the first round that she was getting tired?

Did you feel that? Did you feel like it was just a matter of time here? I didn't feel her getting tired. I felt I felt pretty strong, like off jump. I felt strong in our in our exchanges in our in the clinch. She felt strong when she was on the top. But I could feel that, you know, just just. hours and hours of technique, just hours of having, having, you know, high-level grapplers on my back,

hours of being in the cage with high-level strikers, you know, just, it, that experience helped out a lot in this fight. But I feel, I know that there was a shot that I landed from the bottom that landed clean. I don't know if, I've seen like a couple people who said they saw that, but a shot that I landed from the bottom landed clean and that you know stumble her a little bit as she was trying to get up to go into the second but um I think that uh I mean I didn't really I guess I looking that looking back at the fight after I watched it I saw that she was getting tired but I feel like what put the put the icing on that you know put the accent on that was the shots that I landed the second round was was wild too because you know I think a lot of

of people did see her get up and go back to the stool and she didn't look great. But then she come out, she comes out pretty hot. You landed a high kick like right off the bat and then she took you down and you reversed it and that was the beginning of the end. When the referee is just pulling you up, first of all, before we get to like how you felt afterwards, it's an empty arena. You're hearing your coaches plain and simple. And you know, you had her. You're on top of her. You were on top of your landing and it seemed like you were going to transition to a submission. Was your team like yelling at you being like, no, no, no, no, no, no, get off. Get off. They were like, get back on top.

I was going to go for the rear naked because I felt her started. I guess that's when I felt her started the gas a little bit. I felt her I felt her start to the shots were building up. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to go for the choke. And they were like, no, stay on top, stay on top. And I was like, all right. So I got back on top. And yeah, that was, I trust my coaches.

Whatever they tell me to do, I'm going to do it. You know, they've been in there, you know, on the. side while we're sparring enough. They know me enough. And I'm glad. I'm glad I listened to them. It was an amazing moment when the fight was over because the rep pulls you off. You get up and you're running around. You're screaming underdog. You're barking at everybody, which was awesome. What did that feel like? Did it feel like a 500 pound weight lifted off your shoulders once the rep pulled you off? Yeah. I think that's exactly what it felt like. It felt like, you know, this, it felt like it felt like, like this, that last night or Saturday night was years in the making.

You know what I mean? Like it was, everything came together how it was supposed to. And, you know, just I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that I had a lot of doubters out there. I knew that people watching on TV were just waiting for me to get finished or her to get the decision or whatever. And it was just kind of like, you know, like, what's up now? like y'all saw that like you know you know you throw that's that's your prospect that's your prospect you know what I'm saying so that's that's what it was for me it was it was a huge relief

but like I me and my coaches say like we're we're excited but we're not surprised you know we knew what we came there to do and and and the only way that we were going to leave that arena was with our hand raised that was it any means necessary so it's vindication almost in a way as well Definitely, yeah, I would say that. So you told me that you glimpsed at the odds for UFC 252 and noticed that you were a sizable underdog in the fight. You took a glimpse at it. But did you know that you winning was the biggest upset in UFC history,

according to the odds? I didn't know that until somebody had told me in the back, you know, we made history tonight. That was the biggest upset. First I said it was the second biggest from Holly and Rhonda. and then after after it was, I guess, tallyed out, I was the biggest upset in history.

And, you know, that's what I'm in this sport to do is, you know, make history and do it for the culture, man. So I'm just excited about that. I, you know, that was probably a big thing about Saturday night that I was able to make history. and in such a positive way for me. Dana White spoke with the media after the event and said that he was personally against the fight being made

because of your record, but he said that Mick Maynard had your back and said essentially like, don't let the record fool you. Like I think she's a really good chance here. That has to mean a lot, right? Because the matchmakers over the years, they sometimes get a pretty bum rap.

This was a pretty cool story to hear to see that Mick had your back here. Yeah. make is always believed in me and and you know that really means a lot that really means a lot that he believed in me for this fight and he's he's seen me he's seen me from you know my me fighting on the local on the local circuit he's seen me from me trying out for the ultimate fighter and that means a lot to me that he was able to believe in me enough to to put me in there for this for this fight and you know I just I just want to keep

proving them right. That's all I'm, that's all I'm here to do. You get your first bonus in the UFC. How about that? It just keeps getting better and better for you. Yeah, I've been, I've been watching everybody get bonuses, man. I was like, man, it's got to be my time sometime.

But, you know, it's just, it's just been everything, like I said, everything came together perfectly this week. You know, I got, I got this upset. I made history and, you know, I got the bonus. And just, you know, I just, I'm excited, but, you know, I always got a, always got a, I can't get overly excited, you know what I mean? Because there's, there's always another hurdle, you know, another war ahead of us, another battle ahead of us.

So, you know, I'm enjoying it for now and then, you know, back to the lab. So where do we go from here? Like it's hard to be what you did on Saturday night. Your confidence must be sky high right now. When would you like to saddle up and do this again? Man, I got to first I got to get these wisdom teeth out. And then I'm going to talk to my coaches and, you know, I trust them. I trust them with my life, you know, obviously.

So whatever they think is best, whenever, you know, talk to my management and, you know, just heal up for my procedure and then get into it. There you go. Is there anybody that sticks out to you? I mean, I made this, we have a little matchmaking show on the site that we do. I suggested because Rachel Ostovich went on Instagram and said that she's going to be cleared next month, which I found one interesting because she was suspended retroactive to January, but maybe she got to reduce suspension or something.

And you guys were supposed to fight in February, right? We were. We were. That would be cool. That would be cool. We never did get that fight. That would be cool. That would be cool to get in there with Rachel.

And, you know, we were already prepared for that. She was already prepared for me. so that'd be exciting to see what that would look like some months later. So it was a great weekend for you before we let you go because you're still enjoying this vacation time for you head home and then you get the wisdom tea thing and I don't envy you at all. But what do you want to say to the people that have stood by you here? Because, you know, like you said, losing three straight,

especially in this sport, people come and people go. You've had a pretty darn good support system, it sounds like. What do you want to say to those people who have supported you along the way and have been there for the wins, the losses, and the greatest night of your career this past Saturday? You know, I just want to say thank you. You know, thank you for believing in me. Thank you for standing by me.

And, you know, I'm going to keep making you proud. You know, we're going to keep making history. And it's only up from here, you know. Thank you for hanging with me through the lows and through the highs. And right now, we're riding a good wave. We're going to keep that going. Congratulations, Shana. Amazing performance.

amazing night for you. Glad to see you back in the wind column and do it in such emphatic fashion. Good for you. Looking forward to see what's next for you and heal up those teeth. You get to chill out for a little while. Thanks, Mike.

I know, but I don't get to eat all the good stuff that I thought I did. Ice cream, right? Soup and ice cream's all right. All right. Get that good stuff. You got a $50,000 bones. You can get that fancy ice cream now.

Oh, that fancy, the gelato. Yes. There we go. All right, Mike, I guess I was good talking to you. See it. later. Hi. Congratulations to Shada Dopson.

Big win for her. Big spot to get it done. She gets her first UFC bonus. She snaps a three-fight losing streak. And her confidence seems pretty sky-high right now in a really good place. Obviously, the move to Elevation Fight Team seems to have done wonders for her. So we'll see if she can keep this momentum going. I actually spoke with her last year before she fought Sabina Mazzo.

And that fight didn't go very well for her. And when I heard that she had moved to elevation fight team, I thought that was that was such a tremendous move for her. No disrespect to whoever she was working before. But it's just a great move for her. And you could tell just by listening to her that she's in a much different spot than she was a year or so ago. Speaking of momentum, Cheyenne Bays has a ton of it after earning a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series last week with an impressive unanimous decision win over New England's Hillary Rose. Let's check in with. one of the newest members of the UFC roster right now.

So as you know, we've done a plethora of interviews pertaining to Dana White's Contender Series. A lot of pre-fight chats. We've had some post-fight chats with contract winners for the site. But for the first time this season, we feature a Contender Series fighter on what the heck. As we say hello to the newest member of the UFC Strawweight Division, earned a contract last week on the show with an impressive decision win over Hillary Rose. Cheyenne Bayes joins us on the program. Cheyenne, how are you?

I'm good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. So it's been a week or so since the fight went down, since you got the contract. Has it all kind of sunk in what you've been able to accomplish just six fights into your pro career? We try to think too much of it because, like, you know, now that I'm in the UFC, I've always known I can get to the UFC. So, I mean, I'm happy. Don't get me wrong. But now I'm like, okay, now it's onto my next goal, UFC championship. So for me, these are just little goals that I'm just. just achieving, but nothing's really like hit it. Like, I'm not taking too much out of it.

Just now I'm like, now the fun begins. So the way you sort of pictured it is the way you feel. Yeah, exactly. So you're only 25 years old, but going back and doing my research, you've been at this thing for a while now. Your first amateur fight, at least from what the internet tells me, was in August of 2013. So you were 18 years old. So I'm curious, when did this crazy ride begin? for you? Like how did this sport come into your life? Well actually tapology's wrong. Tapology doesn't even have all my amateur fights. It's only has 12. I actually had 17 amateur fights. I took my first one in June in 2013. Okay. I started training when I was in MMA when I was 15 years old but I just been fighting my whole life. I've been in

martial arts since I was like four or five years old. So did you know when you were like 15 and started getting into it that the UFC was the goal you were already sort of thinking about that road? I grew up in karate and taekwondo, so I never pictured UFC until I was around 14. I watched my first UFC fight with my family, and then next day you know what, I was like, wow, I want to train that. And then when I started training, I still had no idea about the UFC for like the first few months. Once I started watching the sport more and more, like, I realized, okay, that's the level I want to get to. And so since then, I've done everything in my power to make sure it's come true.

Were there any fighters as you were starting to pay more attention that were on your radar that you had to watch, that you enjoyed watching, maybe pick some pieces from? Yeah, GSP. He was like one of my favorites. He was the first fight I ever watched. And then also, I really like Junior Dos Santos when I was younger. He was like a big, big heavyweight or light heavy. Him and Kane, they were very fun to watch back then in the day.

For sure. So I really liked him. Women weren't in the UFC then. So, yeah, so those were the guys. But for female-wise, growing up in the sport, definitely, Yowanna. She's a beast. Yeah, I think there were some Yawanna comparisons on Tuesday night and after the win and get in the contract.

Your amateur career was, you know, compared to, like, some of the people your age that are pros now was a lot longer than a lot of those fighters. And you fought some really legit competition along the way. You fought Kaira Bataura, Jillian Robertson, Vanessa Demopoulos was your last amateur fight. You can certainly gain a ton of experience with that kind of output against those types of opponents. And obviously you had ups, you had downs, but eventually things sort of evened out. They clicked for you and you were off to the races. How important were those four years or so on the AMI scene to set you up for where you're at now?

I was an amateur for five years, actually. And within those five years, I mean, I traveled everywhere. I took the toughest fights I could. And when I tried pro, I was just, I had this confidence of being an amateur, I always am going to suggest to fight as much as possible and fight the toughest fights. Because as soon as you go pro, it doesn't matter what you did as an amateur. Unfortunately, like with my amateur record, I took really tough. The one that's not on topology, that I took my very first.

fight against a two-time Olympian. And I had no business probably taking that fight. I was fresh out of high school. I was 17 years old. I just turned 18, four days after the fight. So, I mean, my mom had a sign off for me in order just to fight this late. And, I mean, to fight your very first fight against an Olympic wrestler and Olympic judo, I mean, the confidence level after that fight has just carried over for the past seven and a half years that I've been fighting, you know, just take as much hard fights as possible as an and then when you go pro, it really does help your your mindset with, okay, I fought tough girls. Like, now it's just going to get tougher and tougher, but I just get better and better.

What was it like for you being a 17-year-old getting ready for your first fight? I mean, you're just getting out of high school. I'm sure you had a lot of friends that you were in school with. How did they react to that? How did your family react to it? No, screw the people in high school. Nobody's your friend in high school. Nobody cared about me.

I was in MMA. Nobody, people talked shit about it, that I was this fighter girl. And then I actually got expelled. And when I got expelled, they sent me to a new school, which was like one of those, like, primary bad schools. And my mom and my dad were like the very first day I went through. They're like, you're not a bad kid. And I had no reason of getting expelled.

So they're like, screw it. You can drop you out and you're going to start training for your first MMA fight at 17. Wow. My parents believed in me so much that they allowed. me to do that. And because of that, I was able to start fighting right away as soon as I turned 18. That's where my journey started. But I was 17 in my training camp. So my whole training camp, I knew for the fight for like three months. And it was four days after my 18th birthday, like I said. So in my training, I was 17. Fight night, I was 18. So it was really fresh out of the gates for me.

Wow, that's a crazy story. And it's amazing that your parents gave you that amount of of support for sure. Did you ever, did you ever go back and finish high school? How did that all work? Yeah, so I actually went through after I fought, I signed up for like this college class courses where you can get your diploma still at like your own time. And it was at like a local college in an area, but it took me a really long time. It took me like a year because I was always training then. I got it after like I was 18 or 19 years old. I got my diploma finally. It was just like from because I got expelled my senior year, it was like the first three months into my senior year. So those first three months of school, all that stuff I did, the school trashed it.

They didn't like put my grades over so I could just like finish where I started off at. I had to restart the whole senior year again. But I ended up getting it just to kind of say screw you guys and I got a diploma still. Wow. When did you, why did you get expelled? For fighting. For fighting? I got bullied.

A bullied a lot my senior year in high school going into my senior year. Just stupid stuff. Like nothing like that's crazy. But I just got bullied. Like just stupid typical high school stuff. And one day they like messed with my family. And when you mess with my family, that's like a no-no. So I went out there and I just beat their ass and went home.

And it was really bad. But yeah. Beats their ass? As in multiple people? Yeah. Anybody that wanted to come. they got it. So, but I mean, it's nothing to be proud of, but at the same time, when I'm a mom and my kid

gets bullied and the school does nothing for it, I'm definitely going to tell my kid to go piece all them up. So, yeah, my mom. My parents weren't mad. They knew it was bound to happen. I mean, you can only take so much as a human being, especially when you're that age, when you're like 16 years, 17 years old, not even, and people are bullying you in school. It's not nice.

So for me, yeah, luckily I can fight. Yeah. Yeah. That's for sure. Yeah, I have a seven-year-old, and that's, like, one of our biggest concerns is... It's horrible, you know, and it only gets worse nowadays. It's like, you know, I even heard about Paige Van Zand when she came out with that book, and she said she got bullied.

Like, you look at people and you're like, oh, man, you won't think that these people get, like, bullied. But school is so, man, I don't even want to be a mom for any time soon because I get so mad about stuff like that. If my kid ever gets bullied, man, I'm gonna just tell him, give him a three-piece. Yeah, he's got a, we got a punching bag here, so when he gets angry, he just goes and unloads on it. So, we're trying. You know, it's a scary place out there because, I mean, especially with the social media,

it's way different from when I went to school. Exactly. Social media kills nowadays. For sure. When it comes to your emmaker, you said that when you turn pro, the confidence really started to pick up for you. Do you remember, because I think heading into the Jillian fight, and I know the Tapology page isn't completely accurate, but it says at least there you would lost three fights in a row. You know, what sort of changed for you after that stretch? Because were probably, were you questioning yourself at all?

No, I wasn't questioning, but I was losing to girls that would just want to take me down, so I knew there was a hole in my game. I came from a really good striking school and a really good grappling school. And actually, the first lady I fought, Ingrid, the Olympic wrestler, she became my wrestling coach after that fight. I thought her wrestling was so good. I'd never been slammed so hard in my life. She lived like two hours from me, so I drove two hours every day just to go to her to train for two hours and then drive two hours back home almost every single day.

But it was getting to the point when I hit the three losses in a row, I was like, I need to go to a gym where I can spend all my hours of driving on the map because I was driving from school to school to school and in Florida it's not easy drives so after I hit that third loss in the row against gillian robertson which that fight gillian robertson i thought i won like i was in her interviews and pictures i mean i was completely fine out of scratch on my face and this girl was like as an amateur back then she was like nine and one or something and i like gillian but i beat that ass on the feet So when after the fight, I was just like, wow, I need to make a change now. So I packed up and we moved to Las Vegas to go train at Extreme Couture.

That is really what I think. I made my huge turn. But then after Extreme, I went out to South Africa. And that's where recently I feel like my game really elevated and changed. And now I feel like a complete mixed martial artist. So as most people will know by now, we've seen them pretty much entire interview you were married to that man j p bays also he was also scheduled to compete on the contended series this summer there's some date reshuffles and there was a

withdrawal from september 1st when did you guys meet when did you meet jp for the first time so we met a couple years ago uh he found me through my old coach my old coach uh was actually cornering one of our teammates out in south africa and they were at an after party and my husband actually asked my coach oh so like who's the the prettiest girl in the gym. And my coach was like, oh, you would like this girl. And he showed him me. And ever since then, he was, like, messaging me.

I mean, he was telling me, like, you're going to be my wife. I'm going to make you my wife. You're the prettiest girl in the world. And I was just like, I wasn't being super rude, but I wasn't being, like, the nicest, you know. I was, like, not riding back half the time. Like, it took a lot of messages for him. And then finally, just one day was like, okay, I'll write this guy back. I kind of like him.

And the next day you know, he was like, I'm going to come out to Vegas. And I was like all nervous. I was like, no, you won't. Next thing, you know, this man showed up at my doorstep in Las Vegas. And he was like, I'm not here because I'm making you my girlfriend. I'm here because you are my girlfriend. So that's where our love story story really started. He showed up in Las Vegas.

And yeah, he's changed my life. Wow. JP, you're an animal. You're a savage. It's the jungle. That is an amazing story. Because it's like, like, it's not easy to find love when you're involved in a sport like this. Like I've talked to so many fighters who have A, not been able to find it, B, thought they did find it and it didn't work out or C, it became such a distraction at times

because their significant others just couldn't grasp or even understand what this sport is like and what it entails. And you've got it with someone, obviously, who understands it, is involved with it, and has the same goals and aspirations that you do. How important has that relationship been in your career since you guys linked up in one of the craziest love stories ever told? Like I said, like, I completely elevated my game when I got with him. Like when I went to South Africa, like not only just physically, but mentally too. Like, we live the complete fight lifestyle. Like every single day we journal, every single morning we wake up and the first thing we do.

do is we journal together. We have our coffee and we write down if we usually have a plan for out the day. So we write down what we're going to do for the day. What's our training like? And we just keep each other so accountable. Like we're best friends. We're training partners. We're everything. So why wouldn't we, you know, we never fight. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. We never get to fight over stupid little things. Like we just, what would you describe? We just live the fight life and we understand each other fully. Yeah, that's all we do. So how are you, how are you doing, J.P.? Because you were supposed to fight what, next Tuesday? Yes, yes, sir. I was supposed to fight August 11 first. Right. And then, uh, yeah, next Tuesday.

But his work permit didn't come in on time. Oh, so are they trying to get you back on or? I still, I'm still waiting on the work permit. So it's, it's kind of difficult to book a fight, not knowing when it will arrive, But I guess it's also not fair on the opponents to tell them, hey, you're going to be fighting, and then there's a possibility of them not fighting me at the end of the day. So it's kind of hard. I just kind of have to wait it out until I have the permit. And then I can go back and see how many weeks is left or see if I can book a fight somehow. I know a lot of people are excited to see you get in there, so hopefully that works out sooner rather than later.

Uh, both, you know, Cheyenne got the ball rolling for, for the family here. Yeah, she said the standard real high, huh? Yeah, she did. Holy cow. And then after she's giving me all the credit and now it's put all these eyes on me. But yeah, she did a great job. There's like a such a Uriah Faber move to make to just shout out the team and shout on everybody else around you.

It was such a gangster movie. I loved it. But Shia, back to you. Hillary Rose is up here in New England. And, you know, I've followed her career for a little while. She is super tough as you found out on Tuesday night. It was a great battle. You looked amazing in the fight.

Did anything surprise you at all in those 15 minutes? Yeah, she stood and striked with me a lot more than what I thought she was going to. I was preparing for her to just try to wrestle me the whole time. I knew she was going to, like, eat a lot of punches because of the volume I throw. But she ate punches and just she didn't fall. she didn't go down. She didn't wrestle me as much as I thought. I don't know if it was because she felt my pressure in the first round from after the

grappling in the first round. I was thinking maybe she was like a little anticipated, but she was so game on the feet that I was like in the fight I was fine. But afterwards when I was like talking about it with my husband and my coach, I was like, wow, that girl was tough on the feet. Like she ate a lot of punches and she did not break. I was like, wow, I gave her a lot of. credit after like I even messaged her and I said thank you for the fight um you'll be back you know

she was really tough and she's a real nice sweetheart like we had straight up conversations in the fight you know when I told her to get the F up and I was like oh sorry I was like get the F up and I was like oh sorry and then she was like it's okay but you guys you guys couldn't hear that on the video but I'm just like afterwards I'm like this girl literally so I told her to get the F up and I did say sorry but she was like it's okay who's that nice like even in the fight we were up against the cage and she was putting her fingers in my eyes a little bit like nothing hard and I was like hey watch your fingers and we were in the clinch and she was like oh sorry and I was like no problem but I'm like why is she so like responsive and nice and even in the third round

I had her in turtle position you guys could see on the video when she was like laughing a little bit She was saying hello to my husband in the middle of the fight and why she's so nice. I even told her, I was like, thanks for being like the nicest person I've ever fought. Wow. But yeah, she was really funny. I was like, after the fight, I was like, man, her parents probably think I'm so mean because she's over there so nice. I was like, damn. But, I mean, someone had to lose and it wasn't going to be me.

You fighters, and I've talked to so many over the years, are your own worst critics. And you impress a lot of people. Like even some of the bigger names in the media space who rarely cover the prospect scene, who, you know, don't know that much about the fighters who compete on these types of shows. Even they were chiming in as well with how impressed they were with you. How would you grade your overall performance? Were you happy with it? I mean, obviously getting a contract's great, but were you happy overall with your performance?

Yeah, I was very happy. I only thing I wasn't happy with is in the clinch. She was really heavy on the overhooks, so it kind of looked like I wasn't doing anything for a little bit. But she was very technical, this girl. And I also had my guard up with her a little bit because I knew she was going to try the flying arm bar and stuff. But I do feel like I could have finished the fight in some areas. So I'm not too happy about that. But overall, I think I did good.

And I did what I had to do to win, and I put on a good performance. So I think I could just do better. I loved the end of the fight where you walked out, started talking with Dana, and you know, you had him follow you on Instagram, and you told him that you had sent him multiple messages about giving you an opportunity. Do you know how many times you had messaged him over the months and maybe years? Oh, yeah. Like for two years, I've sent him like 15 messages. And all I told him was I didn't want, I mean, I saw a lot of people like making comments about the thing. All I did was go up to him be like, can you write me back now?

I just wanted a response back to be like, I got your intention. So I told him, I was like, I've been writing for two years. I said, I just want a message back. And he actually sent me a message back and followed me. So I didn't follow myself. He followed me. So I just want to make that clear. I could not make him follow me.

I just wanted him to see my messages. Was there like a specific message that you sent him that kind of sticks up? Because you have to imagine he probably gets hundreds, maybe thousands of fighters hitting up those DMs, trying to get noticed, trying to get signed. And, you know, you want to try to find that happy balance of, like, I want to stay on his radar, but I don't want to annoy him either, but I have to get his attention. Like, was there anything you sent him that kind of sticks out? Yeah, I told him, like, a year or something ago, I told him, I said, I don't care how many

bitches I got a beat up till you know my name, but I'm going to be a star for you. And then I told him about, like, me getting my LFA fight. I messaged him after I won that. fight and then I messaged him when I found out I was going to be on contender and then I messaged them and my last message to him was Dana I'm going to kill this girl I promise and thank god I did thank God I did that was going to be bad if I didn't but I mean I had so much confidence in myself for this fight like I knew what I was up against but I also knew like I've waited my whole life for an opportunity to fight at the highest level and I was not going to lose

I told my husband, I said, it didn't matter who was put in front of me. Like, when you put something in your head, you're going to get it done. If you really put your mind to it. And I just have my mind stuck on winning. And, yeah. We've seen over the years how much Dana weighs finishes over decision wins on the contenders. Like, even though your performance was completely dominant, sometimes that's not enough. You know, when you have finishes.

You had two brothers on the same card getting finishes. So you knew they were getting contenders. and then Josh Parisian had done this twice already. He was on the ultimate fighter. You felt like he was almost as given as given could be. Were you concerned at all that you might not get one? No. No.

I knew if I could be myself, I was going to get a contract. I mean, unfortunately, like, I really need to start finishing girls because I have a lot of decision wins. But if you watch all my decision wins, they're all entertaining fights. Like, I just, I like to, that's my kind of style fight. I really like that. I just, I have the gas tank for it. I know I need to start finishing girls, but I'm also, I'm still working on it. Like every fight of mine, I'm just getting better and better. My power's becoming more.

Like, I know my boxing is good, but I just need to start getting a little bit stronger and putting some a little bit more heat behind those punches, which they're there, but they need to start knocking them out soon. But I'm working on it, but I know even if I go to the distance, I know that my style is entertaining. You can never be too sure. So like when I got to the chair, I was a little nervous because I was like, oh, I wonder what he's going to say about me. He's probably going to be like, this bitch is crazy. I mean, I don't know what he was going to say. But when he told me to get the F over here, I was like, hell yeah.

I was like, yes. But yeah, I mean, it was definitely a nice feeling, but I guess you can't be too short, but I was pretty sure. Well, now you're in. You're part of one of the most exciting divisions in the promotion. You're certainly in the deepest UFC women's division. I've been saying for years, the Straway Division can never do you wrong. It's always exciting fights. So many exciting potential matchups in your future, how pumped are you to be able to have the

opportunity to mix it up with some of these ladies? I'm really excited. I'm just taking one more week off of recovery because, I mean, I had a lot of injuries in this camp. But after this week, like, we're going on our, like, little holiday to go see some family. And me and him are both just like, oh, my God, like we want to go home and just train, train, train, but we're like one week, one more week off and heal up our body and we're like, then it's back to work.

But we're really excited. Like, I know me and the performance I had, I'm just excited to see if he'll be able to get an opportunity next or somehow when he gets his work permit. Like, he really deserves it also. So we want to be husband and wife champions one day and we're going to freaking do everything we can to make sure that happens. That's so cool because, I mean, once he gets there, I mean, the UFC's going to put you guys on the same card probably multiple times.

We did that for LFA, so, and we both won. So we still have, we can still make history. I know Montana and her husband both fall in the same card, but unfortunately, only Montana won. Her husband lost that night. So we're like, and now he's cut. So we're like, okay, we're the only husband and wife now. We have Amanda and Nina, but I don't think they're married yet. And then you have Disha and Raquel, and they're not married yet.

I was like, if we both fight on the same card and both win, we can make history. We've seen the UFC book contract winners, like, really quickly, turn them right around. A lot of them have their debuts, locked and loaded already. Are you hoping for the same thing, or do you want to take a little time before you actually have a fight on the books? So I actually just went and got an MRI done, so today before our trip. So as soon as we get back with the MRI and, like, I get back and see my doctor, I'm suspended right now for 100. 180 days, but I will probably end up getting cleared before that. So once I get cleared by the doctor, then we're going to start talking about contracts and whatnot.

Is there anybody sticks out to you that you just... No, I don't care. I don't care. I just fight with this five and one. So there's a lot of girls with smaller fights. I've already looked up the top, below the top 15, and most of them have fights right now, but there's a few that I've seen that don't. All right.

We are excited to see that debut, so you get back in there, continue to evolve in this wild and crazy sport of ours that we all love so much. I and congratulations on the win and on the contract. Welcome to the UFC. Thank you for the time. JP, I'll say it again, you are a savage. The way you got this all set up and put together, kudos to you, my man. Thank you. Thank you, soon.

Bye, guys. Take care. Man, what a great story she has. Her and her husband have as well, like that that is. that is quite the love story. JP is an absolute gangster, and all that worked out for him. I mean, that's testicular fortitude right there. That's guts.

That's confidence. So really enjoyed that conversation with Cheyenne Bay. A lot of hype surrounding her. She's a very bright future in the sport. And JP has a bright future as well. It's unfortunate we haven't seen him on the Contender Series because he needs that visa. Hopefully that gets sorted out sooner rather than later.

We get to see him get his shot. And who knows, maybe they can make history, fight on the same UFC card, both get UFC wins on that card and see if their goals can continue to come together and be accomplished now that one half of that couple is in the UFC. I have a feeling, JP, if he gets a win, especially impressive when he gets his opportunity to compete. He's not far behind. As we move ahead to our next guest, another surging fighter, this one in the UFC Women's Banimweight Division, A lot of excitement surrounding the raging panda, Julia Avila. She had an incredible finish of Gina Mazzani in her last fight.

She is back in the Octagon next weekend, September 5th against Nico Montanio. Let's get to that conversation on what the heck. Changing Panda time on the show is being joined once again by one of the bright up-and-comers at 135 pounds. Returns to action September 5th against a familiar foe in Nico Montano in Las Vegas. Julia Avila is here and joining us from work once again. How are you? Hi, I'm doing well. Thank you for having me, Mike. Absolutely. So now we're getting the, between the last interview and this interview, we got like the full view of the office cubicle here. Yeah, but I have rocks and teddy bears and a bunch of fight posters. Not surprising to anybody watching this right now, but you have been in

this position before where we've had conversations after an original booking was set to take because you were supposed to fight Nico on August 8th, and then it got pushed back because her coach, I believe, had tested positive for COVID-19. It took four different dates to get your second UFC fight, plus a short-notice replacement to boot. When you found out the date was being moved, were you like, oh, man, not again?

Yeah, I'm kind of over-right. I've been in camp since February of this year. So it's a little frustrating because I haven't been able to put on weight and develop my muscle strength as much as I could have. So, I mean, I'm still going to go out there and be the raging panda that everyone is expecting me to be. But to know that I can potentially be better is kind of frustrating. So after the last fight with Gina, did you take, like, any time off at all or is it right back after it? I mean, you don't take a lot of time off, but any spelling of the roses at all, I guess?

No. I don't take time off. I don't like to. So, I mean, I did have a couple of nachos here and there, but it's always training as usual. So for those who may not be aware, this is actually going to be a rematch from the regional scene over three years ago.

It was your third pro fight. It was her fifth pro fight, I believe. And you ladies headlined an event in Oklahoma City, HDMMA 7 for the 135 pound title. And sure, a lot has changed in the last three and a half years, But I'm sure that this was a very memorable night on this journey because first main event, first title fight. I'm sure there was a lot going on there. Was there not?

It was also the first time that we were the first Oklahoma women's headlining event for MMA, which is monumental. And I applaud her for taking on that center stage with me. But yeah, it was a very emotional day, a very emotional night. I won that fight and I got to share my belt with a little girl who had recently passed away from cancer. But that night she got to wear the belt and be a champion. So there was a lot of emotions there. I actually went back and watched the fight in its entirety this morning in lieu of this interview. And it was a great fight.

It was one of those fights that if someone had introduced it to me for the first time and said that both of you had 10 to 15 pro fights heading in, I probably would have believed you because it was very technical, but we did see the raging panda come out at different points, especially in the first round because she was circling, she was landing a lot of kicks to your legs into the body, and at one point, you just flip that switch and you started throwing these like overhead hammers, these Thor shots, and it was a great fight.

What did you take away from that night in particular in regards to like the in cage action itself? Oh, I was so sloppy. I was so young and so in a great. experienced. I think that by that point, I maybe had 10 minutes worth of cage time because, I mean, prior to that, I had two amateur fights that both finished in the first round. One of them was 21 seconds. All of my pro fights, except for Marion Renaud had finished in the first round, you know, within the first couple of minutes. So, I mean, I was just really, really an

So looking back at it, I was just wild and it's kind of embarrassing to watch. Really? I didn't think it was that bad. Oh, my gosh. I think the same thing with my fight against Marion. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did the things that I did. And I was just, like, I was just young, young and dumb. One of the cool things that stuck out is when you got introduced, but prior to the fight, the fans just went bananas. Like you had a lot of support that night, did you not? Yes, a lot of my coworkers, a lot of my friends and family, my yoga instructors, it's so fun to see just this eclectic group of people that normally wouldn't even be in the same building together, just come together and like fight for or just cheer one person on and have that commonality. And it's just, it's so cool.

It's so cool to see that and be a part of it. you talked about how emotional you were that day and after you announced the winner you just saw it kind of all pour out one thing that stuck out to me is when the ring announcer read off the scorecards there was a 48 47 there was a 49 46 and there was a 49 47 in there like a rare 10 10 round maybe like did you even look at that did you know that there is a 49 47 in there was that a mistake no i i actually don't even remember which is very, I mean, again, it speaks to my, my lack of knowledge and everything there. I was just excited that I won. So now you ladies get to do it again inside a UFC Octagon. This time you're going to do so as a top 15 fighter, which is pretty cool. When you saw Nico's name on the other side of the contract, how did you react to that? We were like, all right, let's do this again because you felt like you were sloppy.

let's show the world what's up this time around. Yeah, I did feel that a little bit. I kind of want to experience the ring with other people. I was really hoping for more of a mid-level fight to get my rankings up. But you know what? She's a stud and she was the inaugural flyweight champion for the UFC. She's no one to look over. So I know that it's going to be a good win when I do win.

and it's going to be in better fashion than the last time. And, I mean, worse comes to worse. It's 15 minutes instead of 25. She has obviously been through a lot since your first meeting, hasn't she? I mean, between going through the ultimate fighter, like you mentioned, became the first ever women's flyway champion in the UFC. The whole thing with Valentina and getting stripped of the title due to a bad weight cut, injuries, long layoffs, dealings with Usada.

I mean, she's had quite the road, right? Yeah, she's, there's been a lot of up and down, but she's still mentally strong and resilient. And so I think that's something that I'm going to have to deal with because as much as she is resilient in the outside, she is inside the ring as well. So I know I'm not going to be able to knock this girl out. So I'm going to have to be really strategic in my approach to this fight. The fans in MMA, there's no gray area. They're either like the best fans of the best fans of. in sports or they could be very fickle.

And when it comes to Nico, they have not been very kind towards her. I remember confirming this matchup for August 8th and like 95% of the comments were about, oh, she's going to pull out, she's not going to make it to the fight and so forth and so on. Is that fair? That's not fair. I mean, there's so many things that go into preparation to a fight and there's so, um, there's so many variables. Like I, I'm, I, I, I, I, I, you have to be understanding.

And as a fighter, I am understanding, but it is, it's heartbreaking that, you know, people that are on your team just kind of leave. You know, they jump off the bandwagon. And it's really hard to take. So I, I sympathize with her. I think that sucks. Is there a part of you that's kind of worried that she might not make it to September 5th? Just deep down? I know that's not something you're thinking about on the day.

basis, but is there a part of you that's like, oh, man, like, I hope she makes it? Whether she does or doesn't, the UFC will find a replacement. If she doesn't, I'm prepared for anyone that steps in front of me. I really hope she does make it because I think it'll be fun. I really respect her, and I know it's going to be a brawl, and I kind of need that. This is the first time either of you have run a past fight back for a second time. how much of a factor, at least from like a mental perspective, will it be knowing that you won the first fight back in 2017, might that play into the fight itself? Like, does it matter because it was so long ago? Or is there some sort of like mental thing there having that confidence knowing that you've already beaten her before? I mean, there's there's always that confidence, right? Because I always have to believe that I'm going to beat my opponent regardless of whoever they are. Otherwise, I've already lost. So, The confidence isn't because I've already beat her. The confidence is because I have full faith in my capabilities against beating her.

I mean, I take every fight as a new fight. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast. So, I mean, my past fights are mostly just a blur. How does it feel to see that number next to your name now? You're ranked number 14 in the world. You're officially a top 15 fighter in the UFC. What does that mean to you? Funny story.

Literally just happened. I had my one-on-one with my boss 30 minutes ago. He goes, so are you ranked now? And I said, yeah, you know, I'm like 13, 14, I think. Somewhere around there. He's like, whoa, that's cool out of how many. And I said, the world? Same that.

How else are you supposed to answer that? It's hard to print up the entire roster, be like, see all these dames? I'm number 14 out of these dames. That's so funny. How did he react to that? Yeah, he just, the same thing. We just laughed for a minute. An immediate change of the subject, I assume.

Yeah, I mean, we were at the end of our one-on-one, so I had my performance review and stuff like that. So, yeah, we were just talking about leaving the, um, uh, next week and I still work. Now that remote working has been popularized, I'm allowed to do a little bit of work here and there, but I mean, work wants me to focus on my fight and have that be my priority. That's pretty amazing because you're not going to find a lot of jobs that will, you know, kind of support other things outside of the office space. You certainly have that. That's got to mean a lot, right? Yes. I mean, I work for an amazing company, an amazing group of people that, But again, they come together and it's just this eclectic group of supporters that have joined Panda Nation and stand behind, you know, the Panda flag.

She's going to come in quite motivated, I'm sure, to avenge this loss, looking to get back on track. You're looking to come in and put an exclamation point on this all. How do we want up that first meeting at HDMMA 7? Oh, we finish it. Yeah, of course. And like I said, I know that it's not going to be a knockout. So I want to display a little bit of my groundwork, a little bit of my submissions. I only have one submission win and a couple knockouts.

So, you know, I'm kind of hoping that I find another submission. I would love that under my resume. I would love that against a formidable opponent such as Nico. So, yeah. I was talking to your manager this morning, and I said, oh, I just watched the first fight between Julia and Nico. and I saw a familiar face putting the belt around her waist. And he was like, oh, yeah, that was my show.

So you and Mikhail have known each other for quite some time, right? Yeah, before I moved to Oklahoma five, six years ago, he's going to kill me for saying this. He met my brother-in-law wearing a speedo, an American flagged speedo. And my brother-in-law said, my sister-in-law fights, you should meet her. And, you know, we did a Zoom call, you know, five or six years ago. And he was like, hey, I'll help you out, whatever you need.

You come out here. We'll get you hooked up. And it was a couple of years before he got established. And I got established. But, I mean, he's been with us since day one. It's no and all. When you tell that story, if you follow Mikhail on social media from TKO and my management, that doesn't surprise me at all. Like, you see pictures like that all the time

from him. He's probably one of the best follows in the social media game. It's hilarious. He's a character. He's a wonderful person, but definitely a character. Definitely a great guy. This has been a crazy year for you. It's been a crazy year for everyone else. But did I see you bought yourself a new whip, a new vehicle? What do we get? So we're working on it. Um, it's, uh, his name is Quentin. Quentin is, uh, still being shipped. So I'm actually carless. Um, luckily my, my in-laws have loaned me their car. But I mean, it's been a crazy camp with it being pushed back, me not having a car, um, physical ailments and just it's been up and down, but I'm a warrior and I'm no one's, uh, victim. So I'm going to go out there and I'm going to beat the hell

that is girl. There you go. So Quentin replaces who? I'm sure the Sheila? Sheila? Yeah. How long did you have Sheila for? Since 2012. It was the first car I ever test drove. Wow. Yeah. I just bought it right off the girl. Yep, I'll buy it. I fell in love with Sheila. How many miles did you have on it before you made the switch? A hundred and fifty. Nice. Yeah. Got some time out of that thing. And my road bike is actually older, and that one's starting to look kind of bad. So hopefully, you know, maybe I'll get that performance bonus this time. Yes.

I was going to ask you about that because I don't know if you watched the card this past Saturday. It was just a ridiculous night. There was lots of shuffle ups and some great performances. And Dana said at the Post-Fight Press conference, like, it was hard night to give bonuses to everybody, but I'm going to be writing some extra checks. Did you get a little something, something, despite not getting a bonus? Did you get a little boost, so to speak? I mean, yes, but not anything near what I feel I deserved and I've earned.

But it's, I am left a little disillusioned. It really feels like there's kind of a glass ceiling because not only did I make history in the women's UFC but like I did it better than the guys and for you know my boss to be like all right that's cool but these guys are going to get bonuses

but you're not that's it's just kind of a slap in the face understandable but now you get some extra motivation heading into next Saturday night now you can get that bonus and next time you see Dana White maybe you won't you know throw a head kick at him and we'll see You're right. Maybe that was it.

I saw it the other day. One of the big trends in MMA that we've seen when it comes to recovery is the cupping. Like you're seeing cut marks on a lot of backs. And I think that you got to experience that for the first time the other day. What did you think of the cupping phenomenon? Oh, my God. It's so cool. I love it. Like I said, there's been a couple physical ailments. So I'm like one recommendation away from doing. a blood sacrifice. So I tried cupping and I would try dry needling but I hear that there may be adverse side effects but like the cupping was so awesome. It just pretty cool. What'd you feel like afterwards? I felt good. A little swollen but nothing too bad. It's just I mean I still hurt but that's my life. But a little bit better. Yeah a little bit better.

there you go have you thought about what a second conversation with dano white would be like like have you thought about like how that might go if it happens again or are you just going to wing it like the last time and maybe throw something else's way definitely not throw anything but um i do feel like that um that star-struckness is going to be a little washed away and so i'll be able to conduct and respond a little bit more appropriately. You know, I would love to get face-to-face time with him. That's awesome. And, you know, get a little feedback on my performance and what I can do better because I know

there's always room for growth. So, yeah, I have kind of thought about it. I have kind of daydreamed about it. It would be super cool. But I know that's one in a million. I'm just grateful that I got that face-to-face time already. That's great. Are you under a four-fight deal with the UFC, to your knowledge?

You got two fights. So this one, then you'll have one fight left after this. You're hoping just finished Nico and let's not wait for this thing to go out. Let's renegotiate and let's make this thing happen. I'm a top 15 fighter. Let's get this thing moving a little bit. Yeah, hopefully. I mean, I would love to continue on with the UFC.

I mean, I have the goal of being the champion and I don't want to stop until that happens. So, and I do have a limited amount of time that I can accomplish that simply because I do want to be a mom. And I know that the older that I get, it's going to further along complications. So I don't want to rob myself of the opportunity of becoming champion, but I also don't want to rob my future child, the opportunity to have a healthy childhood. So there's that, that balance that I'm working on. So, I mean, as soon as I finish this fight, I mean, hopefully it's less than 22 seconds. We can come back and get another one maybe in January, February. There you go. Have you put a time frame on when you want to pivot to parenting?

Or is this just going to, when the time comes, you'll know? I want to defend the title once. All right. That's an admirable goal. I like it. And parenthood, I don't know, parenthood fighting, I mean, you're one, I'm the other. So we both probably have some war stories

to share with each other once that day happens. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I am looking forward to this fight, Julia. I think a lot of people are looking forward to seeing you follow up on that history-making performance against Gina Mizani. The last time out, thank you for the time, as always. All the best to you for the rest of camp

and in the fight next weekend. Thank you so much, Mike. You too. Take care. She's just so fun to talk to, Julia Avila. Big fight for her next weekend at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas against Nika Montanio. And it's been a minute since we have heard from Brent Primis, the former Bellator lightweight champion of the world. He has had a couple of fights with Michael Chandler. He defeated Michael Chandler, excuse me, at Bellator, NYC to become the champion.

It was kind of a weird finish, kind of what we saw with Cheeto Vera. and Sean O'Malley at UFC 252. And I feel like Brent may have gotten a little vindication with the way that fight went down. But he's now one in one with Michael Chandler. They ran it back. Chandler got the win. And Chandler is now a free agent, as you all know. He was on the show a couple weeks back.

So I wanted to have Brent on to give his thoughts on his rival's possibilities now that he is dipped his toe in the free agent water. So here he is my chat with Brent Primus. All right, we have Bellator lightweight contender, Brent Primis on the program. He was, I thought, scheduled to compete on Sunday at Submission Underground 17 against Richie Martinez. But I guess that may not be the case. But nonetheless, beautiful background, beautiful weather. He's got the shades rocking.

Brent, how are you, man? Good, man, enjoying the weather. There's like 87 a day in Oregon. So I might as well come out and do the podcast outside. There you go. So you're no longer competing on Sunday? What happened? I know I had a little injury and a strain in one of my muscles and I had to pull out.

I tried to, you know, I tried to recover it and heal it and do a bunch of rehab. And I just, I just couldn't do it, man. But it's not that bad. It's just I haven't trained in about like three, four weeks, four weeks. But I think I can start training next week. All right. So nothing too bad, nothing really to worry about. Just are and our more than anything, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you competed against Jake Shields a little while back, I believe it was in May, and you guys had a pretty hellacious battle, went to overtime, and then you got an arm bar submission to get the victory. To do that against somebody like Jake Shields with the grappling and the BJJ pedigree he's had over the years, what was that moment like for you? Oh, it was awesome, man. It was somebody that I kind of looked up to and watched compete and fight for, you know, a long time. So it was great to test myself and go against somebody with his caliber of Jiu-Jitsu. And it was awesome, man. It was kind of my first time doing that rule setting, the EBI rules too, you know.

So that's kind of cool. And just different, you know, so it's cool. I'm used to the IBGGF Jiu-Jitsu tournament rules and all that stuff. So it was cool to something else. It was cool. And you've been just on a tear as far as the submissions go in Bellator. You've won your last two back-to-back submissions. the Gogol plata from May of last year

was nominated for the World MMA Award submission of the year. That's got to be pretty cool, right? See your name up there? Yeah, man, it was awesome. It was cool, man. With the Google Plata, something that I get all the time, you know, so it was cool. Yeah, it was awesome.

Is this your first nomination for one of those? Yeah, yeah, it is. So Bellator is back at it. you know, obviously it's been a crazy year, the pandemic, everything's been shut down and starting back up, but Bellator's done three events so far, you know, once this pandemic really started to take shape, they got the fight sphere all set up at Bohegan. Have you been paying attention? What have you made of it watching it at home and sort of seeing what they're doing? Yeah, man, it's cool. I definitely, you know, talk to my manager, talk to my wife, and I need to

get a fight as soon as possible. I want to get in there, man. So that's the goal right now. I'm going to try to start getting back in it, starting getting to fight camp this next week. So hopefully I'll talk to Bellator and get something lined up. Yeah, because I think they got the 11th and the 12th. I think those are the next two, and then I'm not really sure where they're going from there. Are you going to try to get on one of those two cards, or is that too soon for you? Probably a little too soon. Probably one of the ones right after that one, I'm hoping. Have they thrown any dates at you, or have you heard of any dates? No, not really. And no, I haven't. And, man, I'm just,

really the biggest thing for me is like I wonder who I'm going to be matched up against next you know like that's I was supposed to fight Yamaguchi on July 17th and that got shut down to the COVID and so I'm not really sure how the travel is restrictions from Brazil to here but man I'm just really curious to see who I'm going to fight next who are they going to match me up with so yeah we'll see well one person that you may not get the chance to fight is Michael Chandler he knocks out Benson Henderson in the first round of the main event of Belta 243 a couple weeks ago. First off, did you watch that fight? And what did you think of it? I mean, that was a pretty pivotal one for your division.

Oh, yeah, I was definitely watching that for sure. Yeah, it was a good fight. I thought that Henderson was, you know, controlling. I mean, it didn't last long, but I thought that he was doing good and he just got caught. You know, Chandler threw that kick and he went to Southpaw's dance. And I think that kind of threw him off and he threw that, you know, that left straight and, you know, just caught him on the chin and how it goes, you know, those four-ons gloves are no joke and Chandler hits hard, so that's how it goes. But, you know, I'm hoping that he either, you know, I don't know, we'll see what goes happening, but I hope he stays.

That'd be kind of cool. And I think that third fight between us should definitely happen. Yeah, because, you know, now he's a free agent now. He's fielding offers. Dana White said he's interested. I'm sure everybody's interested at this point. You know, the win has sort of gotten people's imaginations running wild about where he could go, who he could fight.

You know, now that he could be potentially leaving, this is a guy that you beat to become a world champion in 2017. You're one and one with him through two fights. Potential trilogy is hanging out there. What are your thoughts on him potentially leaving? Oh, man. You know, I honestly don't see him going to the UFC. I see maybe one FC, but like I said, I wanted to stay.

I want him to stick around. I want that third fight. Yeah, you know, I want that third fight. I know I could have done better than our second fight, and I still have, I'm killing myself over it. But yeah, I want that trilogy fight for sure. Why don't you think he'll end up in the UFC? I feel like a lot of people, if you ask them,

that's what everybody wants to see. Seems Dana White is interested in that. Michael Chandler, obviously, He wants to do what the fans want, but he's a dad too. You can understand that. He wants to do the best thing for his family. So why do you think the UFC may not be the best option for him? I mean, I don't want to like, I honestly think that he just doesn't want to mess around with USADA.

And I don't think that, you know, I'm not going to say, oh, I think he's on steroids, but I really wouldn't doubt if he is, you know, and I just don't think he wants to deal with USADA. And if he does go to the UFC, then he's going to have to. definitely be straight and not be taking EPO or whatever all the crap, you know, that people think he's on or, you know, and he'll, a performance will drop like crazy if he goes to the OSE, and he's not taking what he's normally taking in Bellator. And so I don't see him doing that. You know, I think that he's at, you know, at the end of his career, kind of. And I don't think he wants to go get off what he's taking or doing, and just take the chance. Or maybe he's not. Just take the chance of, you know, go and getting whipped on in the UFC. But, um, I think he's going to stick to Belator or one FC is what I'm thinking. But yeah, we'll see. So you think he's on something? I mean, I just think there's a good chance that he is, you know,

a really good chance that he is for sure. And I know I've heard like Patricia and some of those guys say that he is and some other people. But I mean, if I had to put money in, I would definitely put money that he is over that he is not, you know, for sure. But, and I'm not going to name names, but even his last fight, I heard that there, I mean, I don't know. I just, I just think he, I'm not going to get too crazy about it. But yeah, I think that I don't think he wants to deal with Usada. I'm just going to say that.

I feel like that's a pretty common sentiment when it comes to this, because I talked to Michael a couple of weeks ago. We talked like about all of this, probably for like 35 minutes. We talked about a little bit of everything. and he addressed that right away. He was like, I see everything. I hear everything. I know people think I'm on steroids. And, you know, he addressed the use out of thing right away,

so he's not afraid of it. But I know you and Michael don't have a, you have kind of a personal graduate with Mike. Like, you guys have had an issue since the first fight. It carried over through the second fight. And then the last time I talked to you heading into the fight earlier this year, you had some not-so-kind things to say about Michael.

Is there a part of you that kind, of has accepted that this third fight may not ever happen because I know how much you want it. Yeah, I mean, a little bit, but man, you never know. Like I see myself, I didn't tell in my early 40s or 40s or whatever. And, you know, we could just be like retired and come out of something, we offer a bunch of money and us have that trilogy fight someday, you know. I don't know. But it's a small world. You know, I see, I think it could happen.

And I think it could not, you know. And if he goes somewhere, you know, maybe I could follow him and chase him, you know. So I don't know. We'll see. Because you have what, you have what, two fights left under your current deal? Is that accurate? Yeah. Are you planning on doing the same thing that he did, you know, kind of play out these

next two fights and see where your value is on the market or if Bellator comes with something a little bit sooner? You know, what are you thinking about? Like, what's your gut telling you right now? Yeah, I'm going to talk to my manager and I think I might, you know, fight these two last contract, my fights out or just fight the contract out. but you never know man uh i usually bell to where they always shoot me right and they uh usually i usually sign the contract before my contract's up usually usually usually give me a new one after you know

one of my fights or whatever but um i think that i might play this one out the free agency but i like i said man uh i like bellator they always uh i got to talk to the manager and we'll see how it goes i know you're not the biggest michael chandler fan on earth but with you approaching free agency shortly you get two fights to go are you paying attention to how this plays for him? Like, are you hoping that he gets a massive deal, which could potentially set the table for you and others in that position because you do have a win over the man? Yeah, I mean, I don't know, man. I don't want, I just don't like him. I think he's such a a shithead behind the camera and just such a poor sport and just, I don't know. So I don't know. I don't know,

man, whatever happens to him, good for him, but I just hope someday that we get that trilogy fight. And if he does go to Belator or UFC or one FC, then, you know, I'm not going to count us out not fighting ever again because, you know, it's a small world. And like I said, I could maybe chase him to wherever he goes. But I wish all the best for him, honestly, but I deep down, he's a little shithead, honestly. So both of them, you know, I don't know. I don't no, yeah, screw Chandler. All right, last thing on Chandler, and then we'll move on. All right, right.

For those who may not know, like, what specifically about Chandler rubs you the wrong way? Like, especially now, like, because you fought three years ago, then you had the rematch, I believe it was two years ago, maybe it was last year. I get so many dates and cards in my brain right now. But, you know, you guys are one in one. It seemed like things may have been cooling off. But like I said, the last time we spoke, you had some not so kind things to say about him. So for those who don't know, what specifically about Mike rubs you the wrong way?

Honestly, he's just like how he acted on that first fight. Like before we fought, he was telling everybody that, oh, Prince so good. Like, he's the one that I should be fired. He deserves his spot, blah, blah, blah. And then as soon as, you know, I won, he was just talking mad crap and I'm the shittiest fighter. And I'm just talking mad shit about me about everything he could, you know. And then not only that, the main thing, like, it kind of remind me

you like one of those guys that you know, you're training with and you submit them. And they scream, I didn't tap. I didn't tap. You're like, what, you know, what are you talking about?

It kind of like that. He's like, just like a poor sport little loser. Like, you know, we both know, he knows just as well as how I do that my kid causes a little nerve damage

and the little leg to go limp and everything like that. And we know that 100%. And same with Scott Coker. We all know it, but he just rode off the fans and just kind of I don't know, man.

Right there, it just tells you who he is. You know, like, if that happened to me, man, I'd be like, okay, man, you got a good shot. Next fight, I'm going to whoop your ass, you know, like. But how he just blamed it on him rolling his own little ankle. And it just, it's just weird because I've been practicing that kick for a long, long time. And it's so effective. And I've been dropping training partners with it. And, man, it is the craziest kick.

And I don't know if anybody knows, but I train with Colin Oyama. And that's where we've been practicing that kick like crazy. And Chito Avera just. and did the same freaking kick with Sean O'Malley, and then the fight before that, I don't know if you got Alex Perez, but he finished his fight. You know, same thing, that cat's kick,

pop, blah, blah, blah, blah. I guess it's a coincidence that three of his guys from, you know, Team Oyama or whatever have gotten that same exact kick. But it's just weird to me, you know, like, I don't know, someday I think the fans might catch on to that kick and know there's a nerve there and everything, and that's what happens when you get kicked there, your foot, you know, that nerve just drops or whatever.

But I could go on and on forever, and I just think he's a little poor sport, man, like how he dealt with that, you know. And then not only that, like, I wouldn't try to shake his hand. And my manager and my team went to go shake his hand and his team after that fight. And they didn't want to shake our hand or nothing. and the only person that did is Chandler's dad came up to me, and he shook my hand, and he's, he's the man. Chandler's dad is awesome, and so I don't know why Chandler's such a little turd when his dad's like that, you know, so.

But, yeah, so Chandler's a turd, and I don't like him, and hopefully we'll fight someday. I was going to ask you about the Marlon Vera win over Sean O'Malley, because I thought about you as this fight was playing out, and, you know, I felt like the reaction was similar because people were like, oh, it was rolled his ankle, whatever, and then as you watch the tape a little further, you realize it was the kick that set it all up. And that's what put Sean in jeopardy and ultimately end of the fight. Was there a part of you that, I mean, obviously you were happy for Marlon, but was there a part of you that was like vindicated in your in your own kind of weird way? Yeah, I mean, I've seen some of his comments on it, like a lot of the stuff. And I like,

it's so hard from that to comment and say things on it, you know, but, um, like I said, man, people just aren't educated about that kick and that nerve. And it just takes one kick to, you know, in the fight or at least make it so the guy can't step and walk and move on it and his you know start walking on his toes and um but you know i saw it and and it's just it's just a crazy kick man it doesn't look like much at all you know there's that nerve right there and it's just one of the things and then i saw sean o'malley came out and he said that his uh his coach or whatever wrapped his foot too tight and so that's why he did that i just think that's so funny man i can't that guy guys, a little sissy, just like Chandlerizing to myself. But, um, that's funny. But yeah, man,

it's for real. That kick and that nerve is for real. It is 100%. I feel like you and Benson is the fight to make. Like, I don't know if Benson will be able to turn around quickly as quick as you want to get ready and get back in there. But I feel like that this is the fight to make after what happened a couple of weeks ago. Plus, you know, what a name that would be to add to your resume, is it not? Yeah, man, that Benson fight was like who I was wanting really bad. And I was telling Bellator. That's who I want. And we get. We were supposed to fight like last year or whatever, and then I can't remember what happened. But, yeah, I mean, if that's, I just want somebody who's, like, if, you know, it sucks,

you just got knocked out by Chandler, but, you know, I want somebody who's going to get me next to that title fight or the title fight or, you know, so whatever Bellthor thinks is going to get me closest to that title shot, you know, that's what I want. I was wanting somebody that definitely, as soon as he lost, like, dang it, man, I don't want to fight somebody to just come off of a loss. you know, Benson Henderson, like you said, he's a big name. He's a champion what he's accomplished in his career and everything. And not like that, like anybody gets caught in the fight game or whatever. So he's dangerous and it's Benson Henderson. But yeah, we'll see what happens when I talk to Bellator. What do we do with this title situation?

Because I feel like it's going to be a long time before we see a title fight at 155. Yeah, gosh, man. It's crazy. I heard that I heard Patricio. say that he'll give it up if they give his brother a shot. And I'm cool of that. So me and Petriki Pitbull should fight for the vacant belt. That sounds good to me. I would love to take that fight. And that's another guy that I was supposed to fight a long time ago in Italy. And man, he's been built in Beltor for kind of, he's one of those guys when I think of Belator. I think of

him, you know, so it'd be kind of cool to fight him. And that sounds good to me. Let's do it. Let's you know, talk to Scott Coker and Scott Coker and Patricio sounded like he was down with it. So give it up and me and Patrickey will fight for it. Sounds good to me. There you go. How's fatherhood treating you these days? Last time we spoke, I believe your second one was just around. Your first one was still mimicking all of your movements, the pull-ups and the push-ups and the exercise.

How's that all going? Yeah, it's awesome. It's my little girl is like the smiley. All she does a smile. Like she wakes up and just happy and. She's starting to walk right now and she turns one next month. My little boy just turned three years old, which is crazy. But yeah, man, it's awesome.

And they're definitely like, you know, the highlight of my life. It definitely can be stressful and stuff sometimes. But it's awesome for sure. Absolutely. Brett, I appreciate the time. Great catching up with you. Hopefully we could see you back in the Bellator cage sooner rather than later. A big fight is definitely on the horizon for you.

and, you know, great catching up with you, man. And, you know, I wish we could have saw you compete Sunday, but it is what it is. And we'll see you back in that cage relatively soon, man. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate it. Some interesting thoughts there from the former Bellator lightweight champion, Brent Primus, like the rest of you.

I'm quite fascinated to see where Michael Chandler ends up. The UFC seems interested. Dana White has talked about Chandler a couple of times now. He's in a good spot, Michael Chandler, after that win over Benson Henderson. so we'll see where he ends up. I know Brent Primis hopes that he sticks around with Bellator so they can settle that trilogy once and for all. As we move ahead to our final guest this week, Joe Selecki, coming off his second UFC win, his first finish in the UFC,

first round submission went over Austin Hubbard this past Saturday night in Las Vegas. And no bonus. No bonus for Joe Seleke. A standing rear naked choke, you don't see that very often. In terms of the betting odds, this was one of the more competitive matchups on paper. I said this is my under the radar fight of the night. Schlecki goes in there, gets a finish, gets a huge win over a very tough guy. I thought he deserved a bonus.

But let's check in with the soon-to-be father to wrap up this week's show. Joe Selecki joins the show following his first round submission victory via standing rear-naked choke on Saturday night over Austin Hubbard. Now 2-0 in the UFC for the soon-to-be 27-year-old, soon-to-be dad. Joe, how are you, man? Yeah, man, I'm fantastic. It's been a heck of a couple days, so I'm just glad to be talking to you, and yeah, thanks for having me again. Yeah, I mean, the fight was one thing, but what did these last couple of days been like?

I know and you know, but let the people know what has been happening over these last 24 to 48 hours. Yeah, I got on the flight Sunday. We got home. Had a day to get some good food. I got back to training, of course, because it's just who I am, and I plan to take a week off and didn't because I'm stubborn. And then today, when I got to wrestling practice, my wife started going and having contractions, and I had to dip out and go to the hospital. Now she's in early labor, like I was telling you.

Apparently that means baby can come tonight, baby can come two weeks from now, be ready. So Wilmington is going to be my home base until the baby comes, no more traveling to train until the baby gets here. So it's exciting time, man. Yeah, unbelievable. And somewhere in between all this, I'll turn 27. I forgot about that until I had to the fight. And yeah, big week for us and our household. Yeah, no kid, man.

It was a big weekend for the Salty Dog Squad too. You got John getting another finish, John Salter, that is. You followed up with a submission of your own. Doesn't get much better than that for the squad, right? Yeah, it couldn't be any better. Absolutely. And then tonight we have Jamie Pickett's headline the contendez series, so that was really good.

He's really, really been working hard. You know, he had two attempts in the contendous series that didn't go his way and to see how he really changed his training camp and really embraced how we train here, which is it's miserable. You know, it's a grind. You have a camp ran by a wrestler, and that's never going to be a fun, blasey training camp. And he really, really embraced it.

And to see the changes he's made has just been amazing. But yeah, yeah, great week for us and our team. And now for Jim O, we have Implic Saga and I coming up Saturday, quick turnaround. One of the best human beings that you could ever know. And just seeing him have all the success is amazing. So a lot of big things coming for our network of guys that we train with. It's super exciting. Impa is, you're right.

He is probably the biggest sweetheart in MMA. I think I sent Impa a DM on Instagram like 14 or 15 months ago. And it was about setting up an interview after the contender series fight because I thought at worst he should have got a developmental deal last year and they just let him go. I'm like, if these other promotions don't sign this guy, they are absolutely out of their minds because this guy is a monster. So he responded to the DM 14 months later before his contender series fight and apologize profusely for not responding to me.

I was like, it's all right, man. That's so funny. Well, the road to get to your fight with Austin was kind of an interesting one because you were scheduled to fight him in June before Max Roshkoff stepped in on short notice and we all know what happened there. But what happened? Why weren't you able to compete on June 20th? Yeah, so we had talked about it.

And I think my management kind of said, you know, call that off. Don't do an article about getting sanctioned or whatnot. But I got nothing to hide. I had COVID. But once I guess I got a negative test, they were, I don't. They never clearly talk about it, but I'm talking about it. So whatever. Yeah, I had COVID.

I honestly, I could have fought. I was okay. I had some back pain, some gastrointestinal stuff. Cutting weight wouldn't have been fun. Obviously, that wasn't a responsible thing to do, so I stayed home. But, man, very tough to sit back and watch that fight on the 20th because, and again, nothing against Rushcroft. He actually used to train some in Wilmington here.

He crossed him with John a little bit here and there. Great Pad, great, great guy. But frustrating because I know who I know who I. I am and what I bring to the table and also what I fight for. I don't have the option to, you know, not to knock on him, but I don't have the option to be like, oh, I'm not having a good time. I'm just going to call it, you know, I have to come out of that third round. I can't lose my job. You know, you can lose a fight. You can't lose your job by quitting on the stool. So for me, that was really tough to sit home and watch because I just knew we had the makings

of like a fight of the night type fight, which is what I kind of thought Saturday was going to turn into. But yeah, kept at it. That same week, a couple other guys also, not many. but a few tested positive as well. So we kind of quarantined together. I made the joke. We were the undesirables. We drilled together. We did our cardio together.

So it was a delode week, if anything. It was kind of like fight week. You know, get a short workout in every day. And then right back into camp again. So I had 22 weeks to get to where we got Saturday night. But, you know, not uncommon with what's been going on. I think Calvin Cater was the one that had like 18 or 20 weeks before his last fight. And, hey, that's why the UFC has been so entertained during the quarantine,

not the other sports so much, is because we're going to be. meant for this. We're meant to adapt. We're meant for regional fights where a guy falls out. You take the next guy available. Who cares? You know? Other sports are not like that. They're prima donnas. So it's been amazing to see. And I was just one of the guys that had another crazy path to get here this time around. So it was, but it all paid off. Like my coach, my training conditioning coach Hudson Rose said is the vision is greater than the circumstances. Just keep the vision. And that's what we did. I really did that because of them. They helped me keep the vision the whole time. It's, you mentioned how this is just such a different sport than any other.

because I spoke to Max like two or three days after that fight and after that all went down for around 30 minutes and clearly distraught about what happened, dealing with some of these things that he dealt with that night his entire life, like no belief, not a lot of belief in himself and things like that. He was actually more angry that Austin wasn't getting the credit coming out of the fight.

It became about Max and quitting on the stool. What did you make of Austin really not getting the shine and it was all about Max quitting on the stool. Yeah, that's definitely unfortunate for him. But I think the good thing was, by the time our fight got announced, it switched back to him being the guy that breaks people. So directly after the fight, so it was weird. I watched that fight that night,

and when I was all hopped up on adrenaline, I was watching it from a competitor standpoint, not talking traveling and just going, okay, he looks slower than I thought in the Madsen fight, this, that'd be the other thing, he came out a little more hesitant. I could have done well here. I could have done that better.

Maybe he would have got me there, whatever. but I had confidence coming off of it. But then the narrative kept getting pushed about how he's the guy that breaks people and this and that. And then I lost a lot of night's sleep over that. I was like, dang, like, man, now I've got to think about this all the time. So, yeah, I think it's stunked that he didn't get the credit, but then I think he almost got so much credit going into our fight,

which he deserved. But it was like delayed gratification. They almost gave him credit once he got another fight. But yeah, I hate that for him because he looks phenomenal in that fight, man. You know, Max kind of slowed down. little bit in the second and watching him put water in the basement with those body shots and stuff like he showed a lot of killer instinct and I was you know the next 12 weeks from me picturing him doing that to me so it made for a not fun 12 weeks but it made me train really hard

so moments before the fight is about to happen you find out that you're getting the old the old bump up to the main card after we found out about the osp news obviously unfortunate for osp and alonso menafield but turned out pretty good for you how excited were you to get that spot or did it even matter to you? Oh, yeah, definitely mattered. A couple of things. One, Saturday was 75 hours long, I think. It was the longest day, actually.

If you checked the farmer's almanac, I think it was a 75-hour day they predicted. I got up at like 6.30, 7, couldn't fall back asleep just because it's fight day. But I was like, oh, I'm fighting at 3 o'clock. West Coast time, that's fine. I probably won't even eat lunch. I'll probably eat breakfast and a snack.

And then they call like 1240. They're like, hey, don't get on the shuttle at one. I was like, okay, when am I going? We don't know. You might be first fighting at me. car we're not sure but uh just hang tight i'll call you in a while and like an hour and a half went by and i was like i don't know what the heck's going on but uh then they call you like hey you'll leave at 4 30 i'm like well now i got to take a nap do you know how hard it is taking a nap fight day like

so i went in close the curtains put the office on so i'd have like lightheartedness and nothing worked i got like 10 minutes of sleep but whatever but yeah just an absolute blessing the other thing about that is frank yeah is my favorite old old-time favorite fighter so uh by some act of freak luck I go from like third prelim to main card, one fight before the comane on a Frankie Edgar. I'm doing my post-fight interview watching Edgar on the monitor. I was like, I don't know how we got here. Like 2017, I had a fight at CFFC and he was cornering one of his guys that he coaches. And after I won, I went over.

I was like, hey, I want to buy the guy. I was my favorite fighter all time. I can I get a picture? He's like, yeah, he's like, oh, you look really good, man. I hope to see the UFC one day. And now we're on a card together. Like, it just felt like a pinch me moment, you know? So crazy, crazy day.

It was the longest day in history. Somehow it was still only like 8 o'clock when we finished. finish. And just like that, it was all over. It's crazy. I know it's like crazy times. It's COVID and we're masked up and we're taking tests. We can't really be around each other. But did you have a chance to like talk to Frankie? You're like, hey, you know, you said you might see me someday. Here I am. No, you know, everybody sectioned off. It was crazy. We didn't see them in the PI just for a second. And my coach, Jeff Jimmo was talking to one of his wrestling coaches, which is funny because he didn't really know,

I know all Frank's teams. I've always been up that area. I've always watched them at fights, seen him at fights and stuff. And I think it was like the wrestling coach, Steve Rivera, he was like, my coach was talking to him about his shirt. He's like, oh, that school's a great school. They got this stud that wrestles out of their, you know, Sebastian Rivera. And then that guy was like, yeah, it's my son. And they started talking.

And then I was like, oh, man, I'm like, yeah, I know that guy. I'm like, Frank Yeag is my favorite fighter. And my coach is like, I had no idea. I didn't introduce you. I'm like, no, it would have got weird. It's all right. I don't need to do that. But, yeah, just cool to have, I snuck his autograph.

They gave us the poster when everybody signs it. He don't even know. I got an autograph. That's awesome. So the fight begins and, you know, we got to see you throw on the feet a little bit, like seeing that, because normally you take the fight down and submit guys in a minute. But this time we got to see you work to stand up a little bit. And then you took his back while you were standing. You had the body triangle in and you kept working hoping something would open up, soften him up a little bit.

And finally it did. The standing rear naked show gets finished. It's not something you see every day, Joe. But you look so like chill. It was like you're on vacation in that spot. It's like you're sitting out in the backyard lounging. Like how pivotal is that patience and relaxation almost as it looked in those types of situations? Yeah, I think that was everything.

I think that's what's going to be able to carry me hopefully further in this division and in this career is, you know, Jeff Jim O said it best is when we were quarantined all before we were back training together, he set it over FaceTime after the first fight. When I lost the fight, it changed everything for me. I never had to pull out like that. I lost the opportunity to go to work for my family. I lost the opportunity to climb the ranks. You know, there was a couple weeks ago after one of the cars we were all washing together.

Then I sat back and I watched a couple other people, you know, accomplishing their goals, climbing their rankings, getting wins. And I was venting about it in the car to my wife. I was like, you know, I just feel like it's not as my own doing. I got sick or whatever. But I'm missing out on these opportunities to, to A, provide. But B, you know, show what I can do. And then she got upset because then she was worried about the baby.

She started crying. I was like, I just want you to fight soon. And lo behold, that next couple days. got the fight. But point being is when I was consulting with Jimmo, we were talking about it, we got to a point where I lost the fight and I said, man, I don't know why I was so nervous. I killed to be out there this

weekend when it was the first time. And I said, look, I got to stop worrying about these opponents. I just got to worry about myself. I got to go out there and be the best version of me. And like, we both agreed. If they can beat us like that, fantastic. We're going to shake their hand and go back to the work on Monday and get back in there. And I think he said it best. It's like when you decided that you're going to put the best version of yourself in there and say, forget everything else, that's when you beat this guy. And that

It was probably 12 weeks ago. So I went out there the mentality of like, I'm already dead. I'm going to go out there. I'm going to fight like a dead man that's dead man walking, right? And like I even change my walkout song. I only, who cares, it doesn't matter. But like they used to walk out to the song. It was kind of just about like being slighted and like being on the come up and all that stuff.

And I changed it. It's called bury my bones, my whiskey Myers. And to me what I was thinking is like it's instructions for when you die. And like obviously I'm not being dramatic. But it's like that was my grown up version of walking me out. was like, no, I'm already here. I'm already got to where I'm going. I got to keep climbing the ranks, but now I'm coming out as a man, right?

So if I die, I hear great, then that's what I'm meant to do. But here's the instructions for when I go, and everybody will know why I'm here. I'm here to provide for my family, and I'm here to grow. So it was just that stoic approach. It just seemed to really, really help me go out there, very calm. I have my legs under me, and I was ready to get after. I didn't really care about much. What if that fight happened, like, everything lined up, but this was like three years ago?

because you've had issues with confidence in the past, if memory serves it correctly, but now we've sort of turned the corner. You know, what would have been like three years ago if you had stepped into that situation? Would it have been a similar thing, or would you have dealt with things differently? Well, I think it wouldn't have been similar because I think the striking wanted me to fight, you know, and we were talking about zero else's. I fought great strikers. I fought really tough guys that are like rugged like that.

And it wasn't even confidence issues. When I didn't have my confidence, I was just, you know, in the quiet rooms by myself or in the training room after practice thinking to myself, but it was never in a fight. I've always fought confidently, which is good. I'm always able to turn it off and perform. But the big thing was,

is when you fight those crazy strikers or, you know, he's a tough guy, is if you take them down quickly, before they've gotten a chance to feel you on the feet or you didn't get their respect in the feet, they have those ships there still where they're trying to get back to me. I'm like, okay, if I just ride this round now, I'll get back and I'm going to kill this guy, you know, I'm going to hit him or whatever.

Or if I just get this hand off my neck, I'm going to get out of here and this guy's dead. but I think because I gave him nowhere to go back to, you know, it was a very quick minute and a half of the feet or whatever it was, but I pitched a shutout, you know, and I think for him, I'm not accusing him of breaking, like I think what would happen with Max was breaking, you know, this wasn't breaking, but he definitely could have fought to choke harder. He could try a couple other things, and I think he just got to a point where I got on the chin,

he just kind of left it and let me under, which isn't in his nature. So I think I strategically just kind of systematically broken down, you know, I don't think he quit by any means. It's a super tough guy, but, I think, no, I wouldn't have been able to do that three years ago because I didn't have the ability to do that in the feet, calm down on the feet, or come out aggressive, or have the mindset to go, I don't care. I'm out here doing my job as a man. I'm providing for my family. I'm going to climb the ranks.

I'm going to show the world what I can do. And if it's a win, fantastic, I think it's going to be. But if not, I'm going to be in the gym on Monday. I can really fight free now. And I think getting here, getting the UFC, getting one win, but not getting two wins is only going to let me fight more freely because I've already surpassed my childhood expectations, you know. Have you watched it back at all? Yeah, just because my one cornerman, Zach De Leon, who's a really good training partner, came out because John couldn't be there.

He was my third corner. He was watching all the fights back. He's like a big fan like me. So we were watching back that night. He probably watched it back three times. I was in my room packing, like listening to my interviews. Like, oh, I hate my voice. I don't want to hear me.

Yeah, definitely some things we can take away to learn from, too. I don't think we've got to lose to learn. I definitely have some things already that I learned that week just in preparing for the game plan with my coaches. So I think that's going to be a really good takeaways. Yeah, one of the big reasons I asked is, and Casey lied in, our producer was on the line listening to this right now. What can attest to this? I thought the way Dominic Cruz was analyzing that position, like talking about what you were doing well, what Austin needed to do to break the body triangle and put himself at a better position.

It was just really well done and really well explained. It was kind of eye-opening for me since, you know, I don't really train. I'll go and hit the bag, but I don't do what you guys do by any stretch of imagination. He was breaking it all done. just like so perfectly. It was like I could actually like kind of figure out what to do to get out of it. But it was just really fascinating to see in here. Did you hear Dominic sort of break down that position as you were watching it back?

Yeah, as I watched it back. And it's funny because when we went in for the pre-production interviews or the, you know, the commentator interviews with him and John Annik, you know, Anna asked his questions and then it was Zoom. So then it went over to Dom for a couple. And I kind of got a free coaching lesson. It was funny. Like he, you can tell he's such an analytical type person.

And I'm one of my favorite fighters. but when I was like, oh, my plan, I'd like to get in boxing range. I like to use my faints. I like to get, you know, I can put him on his butt. I think that'd be a good idea. And he's like, well, you know, what about kicking range? Do you have anything for that? Like, you've got to get inside the kicking range.

He likes the calf kick. And I'm sure he did the same thing to Austin. Like he had blueprints that he thought how he should win. And you could see them trying to like, he wouldn't give us the answer, but we had to guess at it. But it's amazing to hear his brain work. And I thought he did a great job explaining it for people that aren't, you know, actively training in jitzu and things like that where maybe it made it seem less boring, too.

Look, Joe, I'm on the side of giving bonuses to as many fighters as possible on these cards. And, you know, I'm very happy for Shauna Dobson. It was a huge win for her. Biggest upset in UFC history. Huge night for her. Happy for Trevin Jones. Crazy story. I thought you got robbed of $50,000.

Like that was one of those, like on paper, as you talked about, you thought it might have been like a fight at night kind of thing. That was by under the radar fight. I thought you guys were going to battle it up 15 minutes, made the best man win. But you went in there and you did the damn thing. and very short time. You get a standing first round submission that we don't see very often. Like, I thought you got the hose job, man.

What say you? Did you feel like you're getting a bonus? I did. I didn't see any other fights, though, in their defense. But I was definitely relieved when I saw Dana's post-fight interview after the whole event saying he's like a lot of bonus-type checks are going out Monday. So that's fine. I'm just glad to come home with two checks, my win bonus and the show money. But yeah, absolutely. because I think the other crazy part, I didn't really know this.

We were joking in the room because we're just, like, bored all week. I was looking up the odds, joking around going, oh, it's a, you know, it's a minus 300 that we're going to go to three rounds. You know, it was like, everybody thought we were going to the full distance. Him, like, TKOA, me and the second was like plus 700. We were joking, like, me and my roommates in the law school is student loans hit. I was like, dude, we combined a little bit I have from last fight, your student loans. I take a dive in the second. We're going to Sizzler, like, joking around.

but what's funny is I didn't see the what if I submit him. Me submitting him in the first round was a plus 1,700. So I think that says at all. I do think that's, you know, at least some kind of bonus worthy because that's a stud. You know, that's a guy that has not been to – like I said, I don't have an Abu Dhabi gold medal. I've never even been to Abu Dhabi. I probably came to spell Abu Dhabi.

But he went with DiRamos, didn't get subbed. You know, he went with Martin Madsen and it was like a minute TKO his first fight in the UFC. And, you know, won the third round look phenomenal. he's been with some really, really tough guys. Roshkopf has a great grappling pedigree and, you know, couldn't submit him. So, you know, yeah, it is what it is, but it's okay. I'm never going to complain. Here's the thing is the thing that people don't do enough is praise the UFC, right?

We worked during a pandemic. It was a well-willed machine. Everybody was safe. We got COVID-tested so many times. And the other thing is nobody ever talks about the discretionary bonuses. You know, I put on a relatively boring, grinded out decision against Wyman. It's still got a bonus, you know, like eight weeks later. nothing crazy like a fight of the night bonus nowhere near that but still to somebody

that's starting out it meant the world and um i'll get the same thing like he said i'm assuming you know on sometime this week so uh gosh the fact they're still thinking of us they're still keeping us in mind and uh gosh i really can't complain about that if i'm getting more than i'm contracted to get i can't complain yeah well said so now you're about to become a dad which is amazing do you know are you having a boy or girl i'm having a little girl man the fighter's curse yeah all the fighters I don't have crazy. Do you have a name picked out yet? Yeah, we're going to go.

I said it on TV, so now my wife can't get maddened and say it here. Nora Lynn Selecki. Oh, there you go. Yeah. The photo of you guys on Facebook with the office t-shirts is the best thing I've ever seen. You have the regional manager. She has the assistant to the regional manager, and then the ones he says assistant to the assistant regional manager. It's just outstanding.

You mentioned trying to watch the office while you're trying to take a nap. I assume this is a show that just resists. It's a lot of ways. 100%. I can repeat it. And Salter's the same way. It's like that's our go-to. Like if we're all just hanging out,

and our wives are talking, like we're just sitting there watching the office like we've never seen it before. Quoting it all the time. It's just our favorite. I have those outfits. And then I have, I posted a picture on my story a couple days later.

I have the, it says, UFC logo and says, we are live onesie. I'm fighting hard for that to be the first outfit. But I think because it's a girl, it's not going to happen. But we'll see.

I packed it in my bag in Vegas just for some, I don't know, or whatever it was. But yeah, we're trying to get clever with this girl's got more clothes than than celebrity already. Like the gifts, it's crazy. We need a new outfit every day.

She's got like a little mini fur coat. It's ridiculous. She dresses nice than neither of us. So gosh, she's going to be spoiled already. The office is the best, man. Like, you could just never get sick of it. I could run it back like any time and it's fine. Always.

And the more I watch it, the more I become a nard dog fan. Like, I just, Andy, like, the first time I watched it straight through, and he drove me nuts. And, like, he didn't really grow on me at all. But now the more I watch, he's become my favorite. Yep, absolutely. So I assume with the impending fatherhood, end of the year, early 2021, before we get back,

I assume you want to kind of let the dust settle with all that and get a sort of get the feel of being a dad? You know, I don't, I think December would be perfect. But not for the reasons that I think everybody's going to think, like, I'm not going on maternity leave. I'm not going anywhere. I was back in the gym this week. and now my wife has a chaperone to train everywhere I go

since she's like after the contraction today she's done work so I'm like you're coming up me because I'm not missing this but I'm also not going to miss training so yeah I'll be ready the only reason I like December is so I can get in a in a strength cycle at my training condition coach for three four weeks just to build my body back I walked around super light for a long time trying to trying to maintain that striking range within weight cut so you know fights for short notice I'd like to build back up a little bit just so my body can take the pounding of having to train with John Salter and

Corcorample every day, all these animals that are big guys that are beating me up. But that's it. I just want to progress a little bit, get a couple of weeks to just get some game planning with my coaches on what I need to work on, put it into play and then get back. But I'm already back in training conditioning. I'll be back sporn tomorrow. Wrestling got cut short today because of the contractions, but I'll be back Thursday. So everything's full swing.

So if something does come up, I'll definitely take it. I'm not worried about the lack of sleep or anything like that because, A, I don't sleep much as it is on the caffeine addict. And B, my wife will be off to, you know, really, really be there for the baby, too. So one of us is going to stay working. That's going to be me for the, you know, the 12 weeks or whatever it is. But really, I just want December so I can have time to get better, not because I won't be training. So I don't think I need to get adjusted to being a father.

We're crazy in our house. Like, we got a dog before we had a place to live with the dog. We were living with my mother-in-law and she already had a dog, couldn't have a second one, figured it out. Then we got a second dog. We're like, we'll keep her. like we just do stuff on the fly and that's how we've done it with fighting and everything else. So we adapt really quickly in our house.

Nothing really gets us flustered. So I like to fight in the end of November, maybe December. Have you noticed like a change in yourself at all since the pregnancy was announced and kind of figured out that she's healthy and moving along swimmingly? Because, you know, once you see the baby, I can attest to this, everything's going to change like at a split second. But have you noticed kind of a change in yourself already? Yeah, I have purpose.

You know, I think I said that in one of the. post-fight interviews, I'm like the post-fight show or something is I'm done proving stuff to other people. And not because I have plenty to prove, but I can't worry about that, right? I just got to worry about doing my job. My job is to do everything I possibly can with fighting is to show up, make weight, train as hard as I possibly can, and then go to work, you know? Before it was about wins and losses and who said this about me on the internet and how good can I be? And does this person finally stop overlooking me? But now doesn't matter. You know, that's for ego. I want to be a world champion still. But first and foremost, I got to put bread

the table and set a good example for my kid. I just wanted to know who her dad was, which is going to be hopefully a hardworking blue-collar guy who carried himself well. And, you know, I want to just be known as somebody that exceeded my potential. If that's a world title, like I really think it could be one day, fantastic.

If it's not, but she's going to know I used every drop of every talent that I had and every hour that I had free. So that's what it's about now. And I think that's really helped me grow as a man. I don't know. It's just, I have purpose,

you know, purpose beyond ego, because ego is very motivation. Motivation is so fleeting. People talk about motivation. You're motivated one day. I go to bed motivate all the time. The next day my legs are tired from the airtime.

I'm not so motivated. It's purpose now. I have purpose beyond me, and I think that's one of the best things that I could possibly have. Yeah, that's well said. You shook me up a little bit with that one. I got some goosebumps right here, Joe.

Nicely done. Congratulations, man. Very happy for you. That was a great win, great performance. I still think you, and you don't really mind as much, but I was a little upset you didn't get a bonus. I thought you deserved that thing. But it is what it is.

Who am I at the end of the day? But, you know, congratulations on almost becoming a dad. Wish you all the best at that. And, you know, same to your wife and the dogs as well because things are about to change for you guys. And all the best, looking forward to seeing you back in there again, man. Yeah, Mike, thank you so much, man. I always appreciate you giving me the time,

especially because, gosh, you've blown up since the first time we talked. It was crazy, man. Now, look at this. We've got production. We're on MMA fighting. It's awesome. So thank you for always having me on, man. I saw the post by show you were fighting for me.

You've got really hurt of me or anything. And you're like, no, I'm telling you he's going to go far. Like, I just appreciate you having me on, man. I really, really appreciate the exposure. And all the best to you guys, too. Joe Selecki wrapping us up. One of the absolute nicest guys in the sport, no doubt about it. Happy for him.

Big win and intrigued to see what is next for him. I suggested maybe a fight with Luis Pena. Or there's a fight coming up soon. between Matt Frivolta and Roosevelt Roberts. Maybe Joe gets the winner of that fight. But congratulations to him and his wife on they're about to become parents. And as a parent myself, it's an exciting thing. It's a life changer.

No doubt about that. But thanks to everybody who checked us out this week. We appreciate it very much. Glad to see you guys. Also, enjoying between the links. The numbers on that program continue to get better and better. The podcast numbers have been fantastic. and I just love hosting that show.

You know, it's just the trash talk between the competitors. It's just great and a little bit of a tease, a spoiler, if you will. The matchup that between the links fans want to see is coming up this week. So stay tuned for that. And that's it. We're done. The rambling has come to an end. Big shout out to Casey Leiden on the production.

Esther Lynn on the graphics. And as always, to each and every one of you for watching and or look. listening to the program. We'll see you next time. And as always, have a heck of a week, everybody.