MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 3 | Chase Hooper, Manel Kape, Gerald Meerschaert & Tyson Chartier

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

This week on What the Heck, Mike Heck speaks with UFC featherweight Chase Hooper (3:52), the newest member of the UFC's flyweight division and former RIZIN bantamweight champion Manel Kape (31:27), UFC middleweight Gerald Meerscheart (53:58), as well as the manager and head coach for Calvin Kattar, Tyson Chartier (1:18:20). Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? All right, welcome to the third edition of What the Heck on MMAfighting.com. My name is Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us this week. And every Thursday on MMA Fighting's YouTube channel and wherever it is, you find your favorite podcast. Now, what we last spoke on this particular program, so much changed in a short amount of time. It's just ridiculous between the news of Rose Namibunis being out of the UFC 249,

scheduled fight with Jessica Androge due to losing multiple family members to COVID-19, which horrible story. Our thoughts go out to Rose and her whole family, to the ABC going from UFC 249 being a non-sanctioned event to a sanction event in less than 48 hours, to Tachi Palace being the destination. to then the card being completely off for this Saturday. And now, as you probably seen at this point, the UFC is targeting May 9th for a return to action with a monster card if it happens. This is just one of the best UFC cards that has been put together in quite some time if we

can actually get to May 9th. We get Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gachie for the interim lightweight title. We have Henry Suhudo versus Dominic Cruz for the Bannamway title. Amanda Nunes versus Felicia Spencer for the women's featherweight title. not to mention, we have Florida and Nevada and the UFC Apex in the mix. And how can we forget about Fight Island? My head is spinning right now. There's just so much that has happened since the last time we were together on this particular program.

But you don't want to hear from me anymore. You want to hear from the guests. So let's run down the lineup because we have a very fun show. Lots of great guests. So here's how what the heck is going down this week. We were supposed to speak with UFC on ESPN reporter Laura Sanko again since our chat. week almost became completely irrelevant hours later once UFC 249 for April 18th was off the table. She's not able to make it this week, but we're going to try to get her back on the show in the

near future. But later on the program, we're going to speak to Tyson Charterier. He is the manager and head coach of Calvin Cater, who was supposed to fight Jeremy Stevens this Saturday. Obviously, that's not happening. But now that fight is being targeted for May 9th. So we'll check in with the captain of the New England cartel and see what's going on with that fight and a whole bunch of other stuff. A little bit later on, Gerald Mearshardt will join us. He's been one of the best falls on social media over the last month with his saxophone playing, his music knowledge. Plus, he had a big win at the UFC's last big pay-per-view, UFC 248 over to Ron win, so I'm very excited to catch up with GM3. We'll talk to the newest member of the UFC's flyweight

division. Manel Cape is going to join the show for the first time. If you're newer to the sport or mostly follow the UFC primarily. This may be the first time you will see or hear of this man, but this guy's a savage. He headlined, in my opinion, and many others' opinions as well. I know my producer Casey Lott, I would agree with this. The best fight card in all of 2019, Rise in 20 on New Year's Eve.

That event from top to bottom was ridiculous. He finished Kai Asakura in the second round to become the Rise in Bannonweight Champion, and now he is in the UFC, so we're looking forward to chatting with Metal Cape. But first, let's kick things off with a rising star in the UFC, the youngest fighter on the UFC roster. He's coming off a big win over Daniel Tamer at UFC 245 in his Octagon debut in December. People think he's Ben Ascran's son.

He's claiming that himself. Chase Hooper is kicking things off this week. So let us get to that conversation with the dream. All right, we have Chase Hooper joining us on the show. At the end of last year, he made his Octagon debut, finished Daniel Tamer via TKO in the first round. at UFC 245. It was a very impressive debut for The Dream, who is on the show right now. Chase, how are you, man? Good to see you. Hey, thanks. I'm good. I'm just trying to, you know,

deal with all the boredom from not having my normal schedule and kind of being locked down inside my house right now. I was going to ask how the quarantine life was treating you. It seems like just looking at your videos and your posts on social media, it seems like you have sort of an uncanny ability to keep yourself entertained in these types of situations. For sure. I kind of grew up having to do a lot of stuff to entertain myself, so I'm pretty good at, you know, wasting time. And, you know, I definitely like having a lot of free time, but after a while it starts to, you know, be too much. Yeah, I would agree with that. People are, you talk to different people and they're using this time to find some different skills, maybe take on some sort of hobby they've been putting off over the years. have you been able to find something new to help you maximize this this free time honestly right now I'm trying to focus on you know like keeping my weight similar so

I guess I'm trying to acquire the skill of not binge eating as much anymore and kind of you know being a little more measured with my diet other than that I don't know I've been roped into a lot of painting projects unwillingly but I've been doing it. So there's that. This has been kind of going back through the timeline. This has been a wild few months for you. As a nod, I mean, between the debut

to getting a lot of camera time, you're interviewing guys like Mike Tyson. Like, how would you describe these last four or five months? Has it just been a blur? Yeah, it's been crazy. Ever since, let's see, my last fight on Fight Pass, I think, back in July

or something, that's when all the media stuff started kicking off. Because I got to throw out like the first pitch for a MLB game. That was cool. And then I got to go to like a gator farm and stuff and then to fight, you know, a couple days after that. That was crazy. But yeah, I've been doing a lot of stuff with FightPass. Fight pass is super cool to me.

And it's been, it's been fun. I've been having a good time. Just, you know, flying around and doing weird stuff. like going to NASCAR, you know, interviewing guys before their fights, you know, getting to switch it on everybody. And, yeah, it's been fun. Were you a big NASCAR fan before you teamed up with FightPass to do these interviews? I didn't really know anything about NASCAR. The most I knew is that, like, my grandpa used to watch NASCAR races when he would like, you know, watch me or something while my parents were out, you know, running errands.

so I just see, you know, cars going in a loop. But it's definitely more interesting to watch in person, and I had to get time with it. I was talking to Mike Tyson. Was it terrifying? It was like, yeah, he was like, it felt kind of like the tigers that are at the zoo. You know, they're definitely, you're scared of them,

but they're, like, pretty mellowed out right now. I think he was kind of, from what I have heard, he's like being that he owns like Tyson Ranch and stuff now that he's big into weed he's definitely much more mellowed out than he used to be um but yeah he was uh he was a super cool guy super nice um i'm sure he deals with a lot of that stuff all the time so he kind of gets right into that like you know fan mode i guess but yeah he's a super cool dude so let's talk about 245 the fight with tamer i mean that fight was was wild for as long as it lasted i mean you took some big shots. You battled through it. You got the finish in the first round. You had to have taken a ton

away from that four, four and a half minutes and change. Did you not? Yeah, I was, uh, I was happy with my performance. I was happy it was a good fight. And, uh, the way it worked out, it was short enough, um, of a fight that they had, like, little gap. So I got to go on ESPN2. They showed my fight twice. Um, that was nice. But it was, uh, it was definitely, um, um, um, it was definitely, a fun debut. I had a good time with it. Like I went into the fight, I didn't care. I was there. I was happy. I was excited to just make it to the UFC and I was kind of ready to see what would happen. And, you know, he was definitely, I'm sure he'd been training for me to like try to shoot for that for a while. But, you know, I feel like my submission defense is pretty good. Even the shots that he caught me with, they weren't. weren't even like super hard. It was just, like I'm kind of still like Bambi, you know, a little bit. I wobble pretty easily. But it's not, it's not getting rattled or anything. It's just like weird balance stuff. I'm still figuring out my body. But yeah, like I think he caught me with like a first

overhand and it hit me like right in the orbital. So I didn't really feel that. It was just like a little like push, I guess. And then I think there was another one where he ended up hitting me in the and it was just those two big shots. But yeah, he was a tough opponent. Definitely got a lot bigger than he was at the weigh-ins. He must have been like 20 pounds bigger. But yeah, it was definitely a good introduction to the UFC and an introduction for, I feel like,

the UFC fans to me and my fighting style. Did you notice that he was just much bigger looking across the octagon for me? I'm sure you're thinking about a million different things. But as you're looking across the cage and you're seeing Tamer, you're just like, oh, my God, he's way big of than he was yesterday? Yes. And once we started grappling a little bit, I noticed it too. Because I was like trying to push him a little bit and they just wouldn't like, it's like trying to push like your older brother around when he's just, you know, way bigger than you and way more mature.

So it's like, you know, it's definitely fighting against the tide, I guess. but that's more my style anyways. I don't. I'm not super big on trying to force the issue. It's more kind of like pulling the guys into me and seeing what happens. I'm not super powerful. I'm not super explosive. So I kind of, you know, try to trap guys and stuff and see how it works out.

Did you think, I mean, I know you had a relationship with the fight pass. You were doing stuff when you were getting prepared for the Titan FC fight and then sort of building up from there. Did you think that you would be more thrust into these. roles even more so like you have in that you'd i guess for lack of a better term you're kind of blowing up like in that way do you like did you see this coming not this quickly um i know that ufc likes me i know that i have you know like i have something different i guess um i don't just look like the standard fighter like i'm not just some jacked with tattoos and like a beard or something uh you know i'm this skinny kid with you know an afro and like a little bit of

peach fuzz going on here. So I think that kind of sticks out. But, you know, like, there's probably only a few notable exceptions for people that have been getting as much exposure after just one fight. So I'm definitely super appreciative of that. And yeah, it's moving quick. And my thing now is, you know, like, they're helping me out in pretty much every way they can besides, you know, the fights and winning the fight.

fights. That's the only part I got to do on my own. So yeah, that's kind of on me right now. You seem really relaxed in those types of situations. Have you always been, I guess, cool in front of the camera, or are you actually just putting out a really good poker face and you're scared to death doing it? No, I definitely, I've definitely acquired that skill, I guess, or I've gotten better at it. I guess the point of a lot of the stuff I do with Fight Pass is that it's still kind of awkward, so that makes it a little funnier. But like I took video production in high school and those videos, there's somewhere on the internet. I've had a couple people like DM me the videos, but they're pretty bad. Like we can't even, like me and my buddies pretty much just would

mess around and film random stuff to get, you know, to get the grades in and, you know, past the class. But, you know, like we couldn't even stare at the camera. and like keep a straight face, let alone like have lines and figure that stuff out. So now I've definitely acquired more of the interviewing and more of the camera skills. And plus you've been sort of united with your dad, Ben Ascgren, with all of this. That's been a lot of fun to watch. How has that been? I mean, it just, you kind of threw it out there.

It became a thing. And now everybody just loves it. How's that been? Yeah. Actually, I was surprised it was more. Like, he kind of initiated a little bit. Because I remember after the fight, when I had to do all my media stuff, they were asking, like, oh, do you see what Ben Aspen said? And I was like, oh, I have no idea.

And then they showed me, and I was like, oh, you know, he said, like, good job, son or something. And that kind of kicked it off. But, yeah, he was super cool with it. We keep going back and forth. It's a good time. We were actually supposed to meet up when I went out for the McGregor Seroni card because Macy Barber was on there. who eat corners. But then she got hurt.

We were actually going to go out after the fights and get some ice cream and kind of, you know, put some content out. But, yeah, Macy got hurt, so it kind of, he got caught up with that, and it didn't really work out. And also before all the corona stuff started popping off, he kind of wanted me to come out and train with him at his gym. And I was going to, but then kind of, yeah, everything happened and it didn't really work out. So that's on the bucket list for 2020 at some point. Ice cream and or training with Ben Ascran. For sure. Both hopefully. There you go.

So I saw you mention on Twitter last week after the UFC announced the postponement of the upcoming events, beginning with UFC 249, that you were supposed to fight next month. When was that supposed to have? Was that the May 16th card that was supposed to take place in San Diego or was it a different card? Yeah, it was the San Diego card. I was it's kind of weird with all the quarantine stuff trying to still train and dye it down when uh you know like my training schedule is super minimal now because everything is you know like it's illegal to go to the gym and train so it's kind of uh it's a weird dynamic um to try to diet down when all you're doing is like sitting in your house all day and to also prepare to you know fight somebody else in in a cage um who's also preparing for it just as hard as you are when you can't go to the gym. But yeah, I think that was kind of, you know, UFC tried to do all that they could, but it didn't work out.

Maybe it's sounding like a lot of the fights are going to get rescheduled and kind of put on fight island. So hopefully I'll be able to keep the same opponent and kind of get on a private island. That'd be cool. I was just going to ask if you could reveal who the opponent was, but it sounds like from your conversations that this fight may still be on the table, I guess? Yeah, I don't know. I signed the contract, so hopefully. But I guess we'll kind of figure that out. And if the fight's still on the table, we'll find a, we'll find a fun way to announce it, I think. I was talking with some of my buddies over at Fight Pass and we'll kind of, we're kind of spit bonds to my Diaz. We'll see. When you think about Fight Island, because I think when Fight Island comes up and Dana Whiteley started talking about private islands and stuff, I think we all had this certain vision of what

Fight Island could be in our own ways, like what it could look like. Yeah. When you think about like the aesthetics and the look of, you know, beautiful, majestic Fight Island, like how do you see it? Is it beautiful? Is it even majestic? Like, how do you see it sort of laid out in your mind? First of all, I'm hoping it's tropical.

There's definitely like private island. I googled it. There's some off like the coast of Nova Scotia. That's not what I'm gone for. You know, Canada is nice, but it's not as nice as like Fiji or like the Caribbean. So that's what I'm hoping more of. Yeah, I don't know. Other than that, my, I'm hoping we're not fighting in a tent. I've done that before. But yeah, having an actual building would be nice with some AC. maybe some sweet dorm rooms to train with, you know, some of the other crazy dudes that just happened to fly out there and fight. It's cool that they said that they're going to let people train out there

to kind of get back to full capacity as much as they can before the fights. I'd definitely be interested in that. When was the last time you fought under a tent? Probably more of my amateur shows. I guess some of my early pro fights, before Contender Series. So it's probably been a year or two. But yeah, it's kind of hard in Washington

because the weather's pretty bad most of the time. There was actually one time where we fought inside, but they made us warm up outside in these little tents that they set up, and it was freezing. But there wasn't even like a mat or anything. We were just on like the tarmac. And it was, you know, it was interesting

for sure. Can I just ask you? I know it's not like too long ago really thinking about it. October 2016, I think it was Rumble on the Ridge. You make your amateur MMA debut, right? You're 17 years old. What was that night like for you? Like, you know, you're about to have your first MMA fight.

You obviously get the win. Is that a night that you look back on and remember fondly? Yeah. I guess a lot of my fights are pretty similar the way I feel. But the first one is definitely, It's definitely hard. I remember I was actually the first fight on the card, and then one of my teammates was the main event, so we kind of bookended it. But yeah, it was crazy, like, getting there at what, like four, and the show starts at, like, seven.

So you have three hours of just waiting around. I was sweating the entire way there. This happens at most of my fights, though. When we do the medical stuff, they always have to, like, check my pulse again or, like, rechecked. my blood pressure because it's just like the adrenaline's going at least or at least it used to. And then, yeah, so it's just crazy. Getting your hands wrapped and all that for the first time. Starting to hit pads.

You don't even know really what you expect. They're like, oh, am I going to go out there and get beat up in front of my family and then never do this again? Or, you know, am I going to win and we'll go from there? I had a lot of experience before that fight with a lot of like JJ2 tournaments and stuff coming up. But that's all like there's multiple mats. People aren't really watching specific matches unless they know you or your opponent, I guess. But here it's like an entire crowd of, you know, a thousand people or something that are just watching you and the other guy, you know, fight as hard as you can to try to, you know, hurt each other and see what happens. But yeah, I went out there, and it was kind of like a whirlwind.

I actually won my first amateur fight by TKO, surprisingly, from the feet. Definitely didn't carry over to the rest of my career. I remember actually probably the funniest moment of the fight. The guy's mouthpiece fell out, so then I just, like, stopped. I just waited for him to pick it up. And my coach was, like, yelling at me. He was like screaming like, no, no, no, no, keep going, keep going. The ref, the ref will stop it.

So I kind of, they made fun of me about that for a while. And then actually that one was at a casino too. So as soon as I got done fighting, they took me into the back room. And they were like, hey, you can't go out until you leave here. You know, if not, we're going to kick you out. That's so crazy. Do you remember who you fought that night? I don't really remember his name.

He was another amateur guy. Patrick Harris. I remember just because of Dugie Houser, Neil Patrick Harris that stuck out. That was actually his last fight doing my research. I've noticed that several of the guys that I fought, they haven't fought after. I don't know. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or if, like, you know. Yeah.

I don't know. You're a career killer, change. It's a weird thing. Like, I don't necessarily want to be that guy, but I guess for me, it's just all about keeping the momentum going and, you know, self-preservation. Like, I don't want to get beat up. Coming off the contender series, you got that developmental deal. And I've talked to fighters who have been on those kinds of deals. And they absolutely love it.

Like, they love the developmental deal because they can fight as often as they want. They can get some tough matchups. They can bounce around a little bit with weight classes. How beneficial did you find the developmental deal? Yeah, I was a huge fan of it. It was kind of difficult at first right after Contender to know that I wasn't quite ready for the UFC. But I definitely appreciate having the time to kind of mature and to kind of get more experience before jumping up to the big show. It was nice to at least have, like I know how much money I was going to be making instead of having.

having to negotiate it fight by fight. Like you do with all the local shows and stuff. So then financially I'm said, I don't have to worry about my bills. I can just focus on training. I can just focus on fighting. That was fantastic. And then, yeah, I was able to travel around, start doing more media stuff, getting used to flying somewhere,

then having to do interviews and stuff leading up to the fight, cut weight at a different location, weigh in and fight and then fly back home the next day. Very similar to how you have to do it for the UFC. And then, yeah, you kind of have that target on your head, so everybody's trying to fight you because they want to, you know, kind of steal that momentum. But yeah, I had a great time with the developmental deal,

and I think it really let me figure out my style. Let me kind of refine the weight cut. all the traveling stuff and just kind of get everything figured out so that I come into the UFC more prepared. I feel like that target is still on your back. I don't know if you feel the same way because I've interviewed a lot of fighters on the regional scene over the last year. A lot of these guys are real close to a UFC call or a contender series shot. And your name is the most popular name that comes out of these guys' mouths if they're 35, 45, 55. Do you like having that target on your back? Or is it, you know, do you sort of appreciate that at the end of the day, being a 20-year-old?

and all these people want to fight you. I think it's kind of, uh, I think it's kind of weird for people to call out the guy that's like younger, like significantly younger, but I, I understand for them why it makes the most sense. Um, it's,

it might seem like an easier fight. Like I'm not, uh, I'm not like a Jeremy Stevens or somebody that's going to just like mall you. And like you're going to come out like all just beat up, um, you know, like if I beat you,

I might just choke you out and then you're, you know, you walk home fine. So for them, it might seem low risk. I understand that. And with, like, higher reward based on all the, I guess, hype around me and, like, everything right now. But I just kind of try to take it fight by fight. Like, I don't really pay too much attention to that, especially with people outside

of the UFC because it's like we kind of, we're not even in the same organization. organization yet. So there's no point in me planning to fight all these, you know, like 30 guys that want to beat me up, you know, and that's not really the way I think about fighting. I kind of, I think about it more in like a competitive way than like, you know, I got to be mean to everybody and I got a mean mug and, you know, just kind of kill everybody in the division. I realize that it's like a fight-by-fight thing. You're not necessarily going to fight every single person in the division. So I kind of, you know, if somebody wants to fight me and then we end up signing a contract, then, you know, we'll go from there. But like just tagging Sean Shelby and Dana

and like a little Twitter post isn't going to, you know, that's not going to move the wheel very much. So I kind of take it at face value. Have you had, have you fought somebody, but have you fought anybody that you've actually had like animosity towards or beef towards? It doesn't seem like you're that kind of a guy, but maybe once in a while that's happened for you. I don't know. No, I'm not really, like, I think it was my last fight before Contender. I was actually fighting the guy, like, we were in the fight and the dude started like trying to punk me out. He started calling me like a bitch and stuff in the fight. And I remember just thinking like how ridiculous that was. Like I was kind of, I was already beating him. So I don't know what he was trying to get from me.

and then like, like, I don't know, I just thought it was kind of funny. I laughed a little bit to myself and then, you know, kept on fighting. Or like my debut for UFC, the guy tried to get in my face a little bit at the way ends. I also thought that was kind of ridiculous. Like, he was super respectful whenever I saw him before that moment. So I kind of, you know, I understand that people do it for the, you know, or for the, you know, the crowd reaction. but I don't really, I don't think of fighting like that. I'm not super emotional for fighting.

I'm more, more mental, I guess. I try to think about stuff overall. And yeah, I think that's more how I go into it. It seems like the biggest fight of your career is going on right now with Twitter. I mean, the blue checkmark, still not next to your name at this point, which I think is an absolute outrage at this point. What is going on with the blue check mark? How has this not happened yet?

Actually, USC just hit me up. They said, I guess they send out names to Twitter for them to hopefully verify people. But they said it could take another month. I'm guessing it's because of the corona stuff. Everybody's working from home. But yeah, Twitter's definitely taking their sweet time. And I guess there's nothing I can do about it. It puts more value on it, though, I guess.

as we're in this state of uncertainty right now obviously the blue check marks and be coming and you're off to the races but this might be a tough question to answer career goals for 2020 like where do you see you i know you take things fight by fight but you know i'm sure you're thinking about where i want to be here and where i want to be here where do you see yourself at the end of this year not only in the octagon but out of it as well i'd like to hopefully it's hard because of the corona stuff like i don't know how that's going to affect um you know these upcoming cards. I've seen Dana say that they're trying to have the same number of fights scheduled

for the year. Like they're still trying to make all the fights happen. So as long as that worked out, I'd like to get maybe two or three fights in this year, depending on when my fight that I already signed for happens. As long as everything's still on the table, I'd like to stay busy. As long as I can get three good fights, three good wins in. And I'd be happy with that. Outside, I guess, I just kind of, I want to start branching out a little more. Maybe kind of just making myself more valuable to the company, I guess. Like doing more interview stuff with FightPass, you know, maybe jumping on the UFC streaming stuff more.

Maybe if they need like another skinny kid with an afro for a Reebok model, I'll jump on that. or something if I'm not too beat up by the end of the year. There you go. You can have your own podcast. I mean, I can see you doing that. You know, you and Ben Ascreen, you could co-host it together. That'd be a lot of fun. I think more of my interesting side comes out when I am on the internet.

Like, I don't know how funny I can be on video or like, you know, on a podcast for a very consistent amount of time. I don't know. see. I definitely would like to put out more content, but I don't want to just pump stuff out and have people be annoyed by it or kind of have it be counterproductive. I'm trying to kind of walk that fine line between doing a lot and then doing too much. It's a good way to look at it. It has been an incredible stretch for Chase Hooper. Now, I want to know in the UFC, soon to be Twitter verified. He's the talk of the town right now, youngest fighter on the roster.

life is pretty good right now for the dream. Chase, I appreciate the time, man. All the best of you. Stay healthy and safe. Look forward to whatever it is next for you, man. Yeah, thanks. You too. I appreciate you having me on.

How could you not like that guy? Chase Hooper. Great stuff from the 20-year-old. Very interested to see what is next for him, which is of right now, could still be May 16th, depending on where these events end up taking place over the next several weeks.

So definitely something to keep an eye on. he expects to make that announcement in a very fun way with UFC Fight Pass. Coming up next, my chat with the newest member of the UFC's flyweight division. He is coming over to the UFC as the Risen Banimweight champion. He's been on a great run as of late, three straight finishes, and I really enjoyed this conversation. Here it is with Manel Cape. All right, we move ahead to one of the newest members of the UFC roster.

He ended his tenure with Risen by finishing Kai Asakura in the second round at Risen 20 on New Year's Eve. avenging a loss and becoming the rise in Bannamway champion in the process. Welcome to the UFC, Manel Cape. Manel, how are you, sir? Thank you so much. I'm feel good. Very excited for making a good fight in UFC. Before we get to what's going on and signing with the UFC,

I have to ask this question because I think most hardcore MMA fans will agree with me. I'm certainly not going to argue with it. Rise in 20 was the best event of 2019. Was it not? Yeah, for sure. Nothing else compares to that event. That was just from the first fight to the last fight, that was the best card of the year. Yes, yes, that's for sure.

For sure, 100%. Did you get a chance to watch the rest of the card? Like, were you watching it all as you were getting ready to fight that night? No, no, no. I just watched some fights in TV, of course, in TV, but I like stay focused in my fight. uh, tranquillity and, uh, like sleep a little bit after the, the fight shows. So, I just watch, uh, three of three, three, three fights, I think after the night. I mean, that's it. But, uh, because I like stay focused in my, like I said before,

I like stay focused in my, in my, in my fight to just think about me. Uh, that's it. Did you go back and watch the event after it was over? Uh, uh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. No, I don't watch the fight. You don't even watch it, like, even your fight after you won? You didn't go back and watch it at all? Ah, so just one time when it comes to Mayweather with Ten Shea, I fight in the same car and I go to watch this fight, but every time when I have a fight and finish my fight won,

I want to go and I want to left, I ride it. the Saitama or whatever when I fight and I want to go to some party, enjoy my victory with my friends. So once the fight ends, you're on to the next one. We're not worried about capacity more. No, no, I don't want to get about

fights. I just want to go and go out. That's it. Well, let's talk about that fight real quick because you put an exclamation point on a great show like we talked about, and it turned out to be the last fight you'll have with Risen, at least for the foreseeable future. You looked fantastic in that fight.

You got the finish. You got the shiny gold belt wrapped around your waist. Best performance for your career? Yeah, 100%. I think I have a good performance too with Takeh Mizugaki. I have a good performance. But I think that my last fight against Sakur is my best performance. I feel so good, you know.

I feel so hungry for this fight. I'm training a lot three times per day. So is this what I want when I come to rising? All the time I say that I will be a champion, I will be champions. So this is the opportunity that I don't will have more. So every day, every day I feel that I have the belt. I have the belt. So this is because I gave this performance.

I show this performance and I gave my best. And I believe in myself because I told that I will finish in second round. second round. So this happened, like I say. So you feel like everything's just falling into place right now. You're predicting when you're going to finish fights. You're predicting when you're going to win titles. It's all falling into place right now. So this couldn't have come at a better time for you. Of course, I put in my head, my last three fights, my last three fights, I say for myself, I don't, I don't will lose more. I will finish all fights in second rounds. And my last, my last three fights, I finish all three fights in second round by K.O.

So when you stay focused and you believe in yourself, these things can happen. It's not magic. It's just you have the power in your mind and things happen. What was sort of that conversation like with yourself at that point when you're like, no more, no more losing. I got to finish all these fights. What sort of led to that conversation within yourself to sort of turn things around? You know, because everyone fighting is in the car when it comes in my weather in this car. I think I lose myself a little bit with too much shine.

You know, I feel that I'm very famous in Japan and I feel a little bit lost. and I let this life control myself, you know. And I have more part of than trainings. Like, it's not me. I like training. I like stay focused. But have this time, I think that I'm lose a little bit, you know.

I lose my goal in this sport. I feel like, okay, I'm good. I cannot, I don't want to do more than anything. but this I lose this fight and I lose

the fight is a fight that I can win you know is my my opponent it's easy for me

but I lose this fight I think that life show me something for I learn you know

for I learn so I look in a mirror and talk with myself many times I wanted this I wanted to have

the the same goal when I come to the rising, so I need to stay more focus and forget everything, forget the party, forget this life that is not good for me. So I focus on myself, I talk with myself every time, every time. And so, I need to put something very important and put goals. You understand me? put goals and say for myself, I need win in this fight in second round.

I need work more. I need work three times per day. I need to do this for myself if you want to be a champion, you know. So these three last fights, I think I never stay like I stay hungry. After the features, I come back to the gym training, respect to my body, rest a little bit, but all time, all time, I stay practic, practice, practice my training and stay all time hungry,

hungry for victory, you know? So, and is this way that I want to follow. So it's almost like that last loss was more important than any of your wins in a way, right? Yeah, yeah, right, is this one I want to say. Of course, it's more important. So everything you, you've gone through, you're winning your last three fights, finishing those last three fights,

it led to you getting a contract with the biggest fight organization in the world. You made the announcement a couple of weeks ago. When did you officially get word that you were signing with the UFC? When did Penn go to paper? No, I think it's three weeks ago, three weeks ago. Yeah, and after my fight, after my fight. after my fight I received

some I received the invites from my management the first round they contact me that want to work with me okay I don't have any

you can work they have a good good fighters and they immediately come to the UFC you know they ask oh UFC won too much you in an organization,

what you think. In the first time, I think that I need to stay in Japan, you know, I need to stay in Japan because Japan is my home. I feel like a son and I want to defend my belt but talk with my coach, talk to my brothers.

So they say this is the good moment. It's not about just the opportunity, but the good moment. You come with three victories, you come like a champion, like you say before, that you want to be. So this is an opportunity for you, come to UFC, show your skills and be a champion in UFC, you know. So I can realize this is my goal, you know. It's like my dream.

They ask it when I come for this sport. So I think for myself, so I'm already champion, the rising. So why not come to UFC and be a champion too? Pretty interesting time to come in, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, 100%. How has quarantine life been treating you? You know, you told me you were still training, you're getting some work in, how has all this been going during a really crazy time in the world?

The first two weeks I don't training, but then I started training one week ago. I started training, start running, I started to do something. you know alone but here in Thailand is I think safety not have too much case I think seven seven seven case it's okay but they close all area you know they're close but you're just staying home you know just training in in 6pm when I have nobody in street no have nobody in street so I can do my training but all time I home stay focus read some books check watch some movies that's it what books are you reading right now what do you recommend uh i read a read a lot books now i i read a lot books now i i read some

book lebron james lebron james a book lebron james a book lebron james a billionaire athlete i'm i'm I'm start to finish this book and some other books that I like a lot. So there are people who are watching this right now that are probably seeing you for the very first time. And this is obviously the first time you and I have spoken. I like to ask sort of the MMA origin question because each story is different. They come from different perspectives. And according to the sheets, you made your MMA debut in 2008. 12. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but how did you find the sport? What made you think,

like, you know what, let's just start punching people in the face for a living? No, I started, I started firing. I start training, of course, in my 40 years old, my father is a former world champion boxing. So the sport, the sports game, combat sports game, they are in my family, in blood in my family. My old brother is a champion, African, champion, boxing champion. My young brother is a three-time

Olympic champion in Africa. So my another brother is a football player. Now he comes for boxing and them in May. And I have one more. They all do boxing, you know. I start boxing very early. I start kickboxing and jihito very early when I have 10 years old. And with 11, I start MMA.

This is not new for me. So it's in your blood. This stuff's in your blood. It's in your lineage, right? Yeah, yeah, this is in my blood. This comes with because my father, my father put me and my brothers in this world. We need, we need, we need, we need fireings, as a sport for men. So you have, you have this, this habit, you know, in your personality that, like, as kids, follow, follow, follow this, the job.

Do you remember your first M.MA fight? Do you remember how it all played out and what was sort of going through your mind? What was that like for you? Actually, I start the MMA in amateur, amateur, when my 15 or 16 years old, I made 10 fights, 10 victories. I have 10 fights in amateur, 10 vix, and then I jumped to professional with my 17 years old, 70 or 18. I don't remember yet, but 70 or 18. And I remember my first fight in Portugal. with more old than me, the fire more than me.

I think that I will fight with some guy at my age, but I fight with some guy more old than me, and I feel like it's okay. It's not new for me because in the matter, all the time they put guys more old than me, 10 years more old. And for me, it's a relaxed because all my life I fight, You know, so I'm tranquillate.

I feel like a fish in water, you know. Like that, yeah. And you won that first amateur fight. 15 years old? Yeah, yeah. Fighting a grown man, essentially? Yeah, yeah, yes. Finish it?

Finish. Yeah. Oh, man, how did that feel? You must have got a lot of street cred over there. I'm knocking out an old man like that. No, you know, I feel, but it's funny because, I win in first round I start

punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch punch and I think oh this guy will I will put him K-O but he don't give up you know and I feel so tired so tired and my coach is Brazilian clever and he say oh you you you hit hit hit hit now you're tired Now you're tired

Now come back, come back, come back Come back, come back So, but the The judge stopped the fight You know Because he has too much blood In the nose So I can rest a little bit

You know And I feel oh, I'm so lucky And then start again I can punch more and do chaos But I feel like Oh I need change my game I cannot just beat, beat, beat, beat, you know

Wild times, man. Now you start there and now you're in the UFC. You said you're going to be competing at 125 pounds. Why 125 over 35? Like, is it just, you know, a clearer path to a shot at a title or do you feel like you're just at your best at 125? So my weight, actually my weight is to 125. In rising, I just fight in 135 because not have nobody with big names. And I want a fight in Rising with big names, you know. So all big names stay in 135. This is because I jump for 135 in the rising because my weight is 125. But because I'm young, I still can, I still that I can cut a little bit more more weight so I can do 125. But 29, 29 years old, I want to jump for

135 and get one more belt 100%. It is 100%. So you have this all mapped out pretty much ready to go, 25 for a bit and then we're going to jump to 35 and try to win two titles. Of course. You're already jumping out there making noise. You called out Cody Garbrand I saw on social media for your first fight. Seems like he's probably going to get one more in at 135 before he makes the drop to 25. So kind of looking at it right now, and I know things are sort of up in the air right now, but who at 125 sticks out to you right now?

Like realistically, who do you want to fight in your debut to make that statement? No, realistically, you know, I'm a field that I'm a champion. I'm a world champion from rising. You know, I fight many guys from UFC like Yamako. I win. I fight with Kyosu. You know, I fight with Toki Mizug. I fight with Takei Mizugaki.

I win, you know. Takkeemizuagki fight with Kodi, Garbage, you know. So I'm a champion. So what makes sense? Fight with a champion, UFC. You know, I don't want to wait too much time. But if they will, I know that they will be. They will don't give me the champion of BFC, but they will give 100% some guy the rank number five or number three.

This is that I want. I want to fight with a big dog, you know. I want to handle with these guys. I want to show my skill that I can kill my division. you know, I feel, I feel like, now I feel like I'm unstoppable, you know. So this is that I want. So when I saw the Cody come to 135, this is, it's good, it's good. You say that you want to save the division.

And I think to me, wow, you don't save your belt, you and you want to save some division. It's okay. Have you been offered a fight yet? Like, I know we have the pandemic and everything going on right now, but were you offered a fight, you know, relatively soon. Has anything been sent your way to this point since you signed? I was for fight. I think I was for fight in the final of April, but, you know, this happened and I don't will fight in April, but I think that I will fight most soon as possible, I think.

Who would have, was there a certain opponent that they offered you or did you say keep April open and you'll fight that? I don't know. Already, I don't know. Already, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. know my open, but whatever they will bring them, I accept, you know, I never choose one fighter, so I'm here. Maybe they'll put you on Fight Island. You've obviously heard about Fight Island at this point. How do you, like when you picture Fight Island and Dana White saying, I got a private island,

we're going to host fights on a private island, like, what do you see, like when you imagine it? Like, what does it look like to you? Well, for me, you know, for me, you know, for me. me, um, these, these things, that doesn't matter for me, you know, it doesn't matter. I'm not, this does not make me excited. What makes me excited is the day the fight, you know. This is what makes me excited fight, you know.

It's not easy because in Iceland, it's not in water, it's not in sky, whatever. For me, what makes me excited is the day, look, Manel will fight against this guy. This is what I make me excited. me training, training more, what makes me look for his pitcher every day and say for herself that I will beat, I will hit it. So this is what makes me sorry though. Athlete for me doesn't matter. Whatever place they will send me for fire, I will fight. Assuming everything gets back to normal, you know, in some way so you can make your debut sooner rather than later, where do you think you'll end up being in the grand scheme of things

at the end of 2020. Like, end of 19, you win the rise in Bannamweight title, you become the hottest free, one of the hottest free agents in the sport, get ready for a UFC deal, you ended it on a huge note. How does 2020 end up for you?

What's your goal for 2020? No, my goal, you know, I say for myself, two years be a champion, you know. These years I know that it's impossible because these, what this happened, you know, what happened.

But next year, 100%, 100%. 100% this is my goal be a champion if they give me these opportunities for fight for show myself

for show my skills and prove that I'm the best I'm the best fighter most smart fighter in the world so I can prove that I can I can be a champion in one year

100%. Manel Cape everybody the newest member of the UFC's Flyweight Division great to have you on man looking forward to seeing you perform

and introducing yourself to a new crop of mixed martial arts fans sooner rather than later. All the best, do you, Manel. Thank you for the time and stay safe and healthy. Thank you, you too. Stay safe. Thank you so much.

Thanks, ma'am. Well, if you don't know the name right now, you may very well soon enough. Manel Cape joining us on What the Heck, and I thought it was kind of interesting that when he first got the UFC offer, you know, that's something that most fighters jump on right away, but Manel took some time, he weighed his options.

He knew he was doing quite well for himself in Japan and fighting for Rise, but in the end, he landed on the UFC roster and very exciting guy, very exciting prospect to keep an eye on. He's been doing it for a while, but this is the first time, obviously, that some of you may see him fight and definitely somebody to keep an eye on as we move ahead to our next guest coming off a big win at UFC 248 last month over Durran win. Always great. Chopping it up with Gerald Mearschart. This was no exception. Take a look. All right. We are now being joined by UFC Middleweight, and as we have seen on social media during this global pandemic, a very talented musician.

You've seen him shredding on the saxophone more than likely at this point. Plus, he's coming off a big win a little over a month ago over Duran win. Gerald Mearschart is here. Gerald, good to see you, man. How are you? Mike, glad to be here. Great to see you. I'm doing great. Congratulations on the win, obviously. We haven't spoken since that happened, but you got the submission in the third round.

With everything going on in the world, does it seem like that fight was forever ago? Yeah, it's been a long time. It's weird given right now because I'm still in my head. It kind of feels like I'm still on my small break, even though it's been forever, right? But after the fight, I didn't really get a chance to go back to the gym like I normally would. So as long ago as it feels, it's kind of like I never got to go back. So it's like, oh, yeah, I'm still on my rest period.

But, man, I am itching to get back in the gym. We need to open that stuff up soon. So besides entertaining the masses with your musical knowledge and musical, talent. How has quarantine life been in the Mearshard household? There's not a lot going on. I'm going to be honest. It's pretty

boring. I will say I don't understand all these people that I keep seeing like I cleaned my house for the 1300th time. I have cleaned my house like half a time. I haven't even done it a full time once. I don't know what you guys do for fun

But you have a new hobby. Have you tackled any projects or anything like that? Is there anything that you maybe haven't done that you've wanted to do that you've been putting off for a while with all this extra free time? Not really. I've done some yard work. It was, man, I'm living in Wisconsin. I tell you, it's ridiculous. Last week we had a day where it was like 70 and it was like the upper 50s for the other part of the week.

So I got a lot of, I got a new motorcycle recently. so I got a lot of riding in. And then this week, it's freaking snowing. You know what I mean? It's like 36. So it didn't stick, but it was coming down. So last week I got to ride a little. You know, I got some brush in the backyard.

I was burning in the fire pit just to get rid of it. And then this week it's just been back inside because, you know, it's still winter. Yeah, you might be able to hear in the background. We're working on some projects ourselves. You've got chainsaws going in the yard trying to cuts on some trees. But, you know, fun fact, I was actually a trumpet player. when I was a young buck. I was pretty good too.

It was a first chair, but then when I got to middle school, our music director pretty much told me that, you know, listen, Mike, I know you like sports and all, but you're probably not going to be able to play baseball in the spring if you're part of the band. And I was like, absolutely not. I just can't do that. So unfortunately, that was it for my musical career.

When did you start playing the saxophone? So for me, I knew that, like, most schools, they, like, kind of forced you to play clarinet first because I still don't know what it is. Like obviously I was attracted to playing the saxophone when I was young, and I still think it's a pretty cool thing. But a lot of people I've heard randomly, they're like, oh man, you play the saxophone.

That's so cool. I always wanted to do that. Never occurred to me that anyone would actually, like, want to play the saxophone that wasn't, you know, like a grade schooler. But I did it early, so I took lessons in the summer during fourth grade so that I knew how to play and had my saxophone already, so they couldn't force me to play the classifone. There's anything wrong with clarinet. It's just I do what I wanted to do.

So pretty much from fourth grade on through high school, I played a little bit in college. A buddy of mine, his dad owned a music store and like they had a service called Power Audio where they were, you know, all the local bands and stuff, all the old timers knew them. They would all play everywhere and set up all the audio equipment. So I helped out with that. I got to play and a couple like just small gigs here and there just hop in with the guy. so that was pretty cool. Who knew that your saxophone playing would be so useful in such a dark time? You've been able to brighten up a lot of spirits.

Did you know, did you expect the combination of, you know, the 1980s baseball player mustache, the George Michael dance moves, and the saxophone playing would be such a big hit? You know, when I was first going to do that, my idea was I can't. Everyone see me play the saxophone. Well, not everyone, but a lot of people saw me play it before already. So I was like, what can I do this to really make it ridiculous? And mom jeans with the sunglasses and a mustache was pretty much as ridiculous as I could get without, you know, donning some sort of apparatus.

So that's what I want to with. Those are like the best videos. So if you haven't seen them, I highly recommend you go and check out Gerald's Twitter page and Instagram pages. They're all there. They're fantastic. But let's go back to UFC 248. You get the win over Geron win. It was a fight that you wanted.

There was a bit of a story there. And in the end, you guys had a hell of a fight and you were able to get the finish in the third round. I know how self-critical you all can be in this sport. But sort of looking back at that night, were you happy overall with that performance? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. You know what I mean? I was coming off a tough loss. And, you know, it always feels good to get a win.

I always want to go out there and make it look easy. You know what I mean? I want to beat someone up and look good. doing it. But, you know, I got caught with a couple punches and like, being honest with myself, if you look at all my fights, I whether I have to or I don't have to, for better or worse, I make every fight a fight, if that makes sense. There's never

like a one-sided beat down. I always, you know, end up putting myself in a precarious situation where I have to kind of battle back or fight through some sort of adversity. And, you know, the truth of it is, as cool as to have a clean one-punch knockout. I like fighting people. So, you know what? I like getting in there and mix it up.

I saw a couple of people like, how'd you let a dude that short hit you? And I'm like, man, I'm out there to like play tag and run away. I'm going to fight somebody. So, of course, you know, you're going to get in the kitchen and be a chef. You're going to do a little sauce on the apron. And I'm all good with that.

You did say, well, we spoke heading into that fight, that you hadn't been overly impressed with Duran and what he had done in his career up to that point. After sharing a little over 12 minutes with that man in the cage, did he surprise you at all? Has your stance changed on that? He improved a lot. That was definitely, and of course I'm going to be a little bit biased because it was my fight.

But I feel even from the outside looking in that that was the best run when we had seen in the Octagon War fight in MMA, period. You know, he came very well prepared. I think he handled the body shots a lot better than I thought he would. Like he still backed off, but, you know, he didn't drop and like, he didn't gas himself out nearly as bad as I thought he was going to. but it was a pretty high-paced fight. So, you know, I think that's the best he's looked. I think had I fought the Duran Wednesday from the Spicely fight or the Darren Stewart fight, I think I would have finished him, you know, in the first or second round easy.

I think I would have caught him with one of those punches or he would have gassed himself out and I would have dug the body and he would have just keeled over. But, you know, like I said, he put in the work, he came prepared and he gave me a hell of a fight. You guys had some beef heading into that fight. Obviously, did you get a chance to speak with him after the fight in the cage or in the back and if so what was that conversation like i mean you know like i said i even said before the fight like once the fight's over it's done for me you know what i mean i don't know what the dude personally i got i hold no grudge against anyone really like he you know he didn't

really like we fought each other so he hit me i hit him back like he didn't say nothing about my family so like after the fight i went up to him i told him hey man you know uh you're that was a hell of a fight you know i know i specifically said i was like i know i talked about bullshit but you're one tough son of a bitch and I was like that was it for me I had nothing for respect for him after that so I mean I'm sure he feels the same way since your fight obviously things have been pretty wild with the coronavirus looking back at it had your fight been booked any later you know who knows when or if it would have even happened so is that kind of crazy to think about considering how much things have changed over the last month yeah man

I tell you I count my blessings every day that not only did I get in you know when I could still fight in front of a crowd, but it was the last fight where we had a full crowd. They saw, you know, you had Brasilia right after that, but it was nobody in the crowd and like, if I have to go fighting the apex, like Dana White keeps talking about, we're going to start having shows there. I'll gladly do it.

I got no problem not having a crowd, but it's nice, you know, it's always nice to put on for the fans live, for one, and two, just the timing of it happening right before kind of financially helps out a lot, get through however long this takes, you know what I mean? Because if I, you know, there's a lot of guys that

haven't fought since last year even. And they're going to be in a pretty bad way. So I count my blessings every day for that. The UFC moving forward at these events, it's been met with mixed reactions. And you mentioned fighters. Some haven't fought in a year. They need the money. It's natural. A lot of people are out of work right now. I feel for the fighters and have felt for them since the beginning of all this. But this has been met with like two different sides of the spectrum. But what are your thoughts on the UFC trying to move for during this pandemic, especially since all the other sports leagues have, have shut down for now. Yeah, well, clearly I'm going to be all for it, right?

I'm a fighter. And like for us, you know, it's a one-on-one sport. We saw Chale still had a submission underground with, you know, a cameraman or ref and two guys going ahead of himself being a commentator. So I feel like numbers-wise it's possible if they take the proper precautions. I understand the knee-jerk reaction. It's like, well, you're going to make guys travel and do this and do that. It's not just putting them at risk. It's putting other people on risk, so on and so forth.

But I have faith in the UFC that if they're going to do this, they're going to go through the proper channels. They're going to have people check the way they're supposed to. And again, in a perfect world, you know, we can all just stay home. No one has to do anything. And, you know, everyone gets whatever they want. But unfortunately, that's not how it works. And especially the way things are going right now, you know, you can't just keep printing money and giving out stuff.

And like, people haven't even got a lot of stuff yet. So if we can stay working, you know, give everybody else some semblance of normalcy, you know, give people at home something to watch live. I think it's a good thing. But again, you know, I get that there's pros and cons to everything. And I understand the reaction of like, you got to shut this down and this and that. you've probably seen it as has everybody else at this point there's been a massive backlash towards the mma media space once 249 was postponed like it created this really bad ripple effect with a with a lot of the different spaces within the sport between the fighters and the managers

and the coaches fans so forth and so on right from your perspective how do you think honestly the media has handled everything as a whole like do you do you subscribe to the theory that UFC 249 isn't happening this Saturday because of the media? I don't think it's because of the media. You know what I mean? I think even if they played it close to the chest and withheld the location, you know, up until the day, it's possible they might have been able to pull it off, but I highly, highly done it.

I don't think that information stays completely confidential up until fight date. Personally, I think that's, you know, impossible. So one point or another it's going to get out, people are going to make a stink, it's going to stop. I understand fighters and coaches' reactions to some of the, you know, quote, unquote, MMA media because they're like, that all their hearing is don't put this fight on, it's ridiculous, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they're kind of ignoring or foregoing the fact that everyone in the media is like, we want the fighters to get paid. You should take care of them. But part of taking care of them is not, you know, in their opinion, not putting us at risk and, you know, just giving us. I don't, supplemental income or something.

You know, I don't know what the suggestion would be, but that's the idea. So it's like, they're on our side, 100%. But most of us, we're going to back our guy in Dana, especially us in the UFC, and we want to fight. Like, we want to go there and fight. So I think it's like, it's not apples and oranges things, but it's like you're arguing two different points. Like the fighters are getting mad because are like, no, screw you guys, you're trying to shut it down. You don't know what's like, you don't love the fighters, blah, blah, blah. And the B is like, we got your back.

we're just telling this guy that he needs to stop, you know, being crazy. But we're kind of nuts, too. If you're a fighter, you got a couple screws loose. So we're, you know, we're going to back our guy. So I think it's, you know, like any other thing, it's a breakdown of communication and a big misunderstanding. And, you know, one thing I will say, and I was talking to Bronziter about this a little bit, especially in the MMA media. It's a very interesting space in the sense that, you know, a lot of people are getting their information via Twitter feeds and stuff.

So even if people write articles, you're going to share the link to that article, and it's going to get viewership because you put it on social media, right? It's not like people are, you know, back in the day, I would go through the rounds, I would check bloody elbow, I'd go on the underground, I check shared dog, on MMA junkie, you know, you make the rounds through the pages. Now we've got names and faces. I'm going on Twitter. And from, you know, even a journalistic standpoint,

a lot of people are struggling with separating the journalism part of it. and, you know, the opinion part of it on both sides because they're taking whatever that person says, like maybe they report on something, but also give their opinion. You know, I think personally that you should have a clear separation, and there are some people that do that, but then there are some people that will give you the facts and then they give you your opinion right after that,

which is completely fine, but it makes it harder for you to discern, like, are you writing an opinion piece or you're just giving us information? And then if you do give your opinion at all, especially like on Twitter, it's a freaking dumpster fire, man. Like you say one thing, whatever polar opposite side you're on, you're going to get attacked. And if you're somewhere in the middle, both sides are going to attack you to try to sway you one way or the other. So I don't think there's really winning in that situation. But I think that, you know, again, it's just kind of a funky thing where it's not like, here are the facts.

This is what happened. I'm not going to say anything. Everyone wants to hear that person's opinion on what's happening. Yeah, that's really well said. I agree with you. I think, you know, obviously with the fighters getting paid, that was one big point of contention for me. Like, no one wants to see fighters losing money. Nobody celebrated the fact that this event was postponed.

Like, I didn't see that anywhere. I think the big point of contention, and I was kind of indifferent through the whole thing. Like, did I think it should have been postponed? Yeah. Was I, you know, on top of the mountain, screaming, postponed this event every day? No, I wasn't. You know, it's, if they feel that they can make it happen and do it safely and everyone comes out of their healthy and everyone gets paid, I'm cool with that.

I think the biggest point of contention, at least for what I was sitting, was you say you're going to go above and beyond to make these events safe, and that's great, but how are you going to do that? Like, where's the transparency, like, where's the specifics. And I think that's where me and a lot of other people in the media were coming from is like, that's great if you're going to make this happen and pull it off. But how are you going to do it, you know? Exactly.

And unless you, like, here's our whatever 12 bullet points of how it's going to be safe X, Y, and Z. Until you present that, you can't really say that. And, you know, I'll give, well, I'm going to give Danes some leeway anyway, because obviously I agree with him. But even still, someone running a business, you can't just put out something that's like, okay, we're doing it by these steps, period. That's the way it's going to be flat on.

Stuff's going to change. Everything's always in flux. And you might not even know until it gets closer, but not even giving just a general outline of how that's going to be physically possible. Because maybe you don't know when you're, you know, he doesn't know he's still figuring it out yet. It doesn't sit low with a lot of people. And again, I think it's very important to be able in any instance to listen to what someone with your opposite viewpoint or even slightly different viewpoint is saying and take that information in. Like again, I'm always

going to want to fight. You know what I mean? I'm a fighter. I feel like I'm invincible. I know I'm not. Like the, you know, the skeptical part of me that believes in numbers and science. I know for a fact that it's probably not a good idea. But like I said, I'm out of my freaking mind, Mike. I want to fight somebody in a cage. I don't care if it's on freaking Mortal Kombat Island, sign me up. I'll freaking parachute in that mofo. I'll skydive for the first time in my life just so I can fight somebody. So again, but again, we both know that that's what I want to do. But I also understand that it's a very big possibility that that's not the best idea. So you know, you got to be open and willing to at least

hear both sides. And you know, guess what? I might know for a fact that it's a bad idea and I might still do it. You know what I mean? Going into fighting is probably not the best career move ever compared to what I could do with my life. But I did it anyway. So there you go. So if your number is called upon to compete over the next month or two, you're in, right? Oh, yeah. No, I'm there. It doesn't even matter. Like, I could have Dr. Fauci himself be like, you know, this is a terrible idea. You should really stay home. And I'm like, yeah, you're right as I'm walking out the door with my fight. It's a, it's a strange time with all these unknowns. You know, May 9th is targeted, but not done yet. But, you know, personally, I feel like this is going to happen. I feel like we're

going to have fights on May 9th. That's just, I don't have any scientific evidence to back up my theory, but that's kind of how I feel it's going to go down. But in terms of, what you want next. Like if you were to get that phone call, what makes sense to you, you know, once you do get back in there and fight? Is there anybody on your radar

that you'd like to scrap it up with? I did, well, I shouldn't say call out. I wanted to fight Ian Hinesh because that was just a guy I knew who was in the top 15. You know,

I thought that was a good fight. I saw before, and we're actually like in a group chat together too. It's like, I got nothing against the guy. I was just like, all right, you're in top 15.

I know if you are. I think it's a good matchup. I'll go with that. that one. I saw somewhere that he had signed a contract and it wasn't me so I was like okay you set up to fight somebody anyway whatever so anyone anyone in the top 15 period I'm more than happy to fight obviously they're not going to put me against anyone in the top five I take it you know what I'm saying but I'm thinking you know 15 to like 12 or 11 anyone in there I'm down for it.

Have they approached you with anything yet? No no and like I had like a very mild mild injury after my fight, so I still technically have to get cleared. You know what I mean? But May 9th might be kind of soon. I mean, I'd still do it if they said, hey, we need you May 9th. I'd be like, screw it. You know, I'll just fight with all my other weapons. I don't care.

But yeah, anyone 15 to 11, 10th, they'll let me. I'm down. Al-Mahmahmad is one of your teammates. He's also one of the best follows in the history of M.M.A. social media. and I really feel for the guy not being able to fight because he's been on this card since the beginning and then opponents falling out,

couldn't get another one, and then all the other chaos went down. There's been so many hurdles that this guy continues to have to leap over just to get into the cage and as of now he doesn't have a fight on the books. Not sure how much you've spoken with Bilal due to the quarantine, but how has he handled all of this

from the conversation that you have had with him? I mean, it sucks, but, you know, that dude is a grinder. He's going to keep training and stay ready no matter what. But one thing I will say is that Balaw blowing up so much on Twitter has to be the single craziest thing to me in MMA history. Because I remember before, they have like no followers.

And it's been the same M.O. from day one. He's just telling him like the cornyest freaking dad jokes every single day. And it's like, this is how he really is. I don't want anyone to think this is like a facade. Like that dude talks like this. They'll say jokes like that every single day. So every day I'm hearing these corny jokes And I'm like

Just shaking my head I love bad jokes But sometimes I'm like dude Like are you kidding me People think this is funny So like I know him in person And like he's like all about You know

The dry sarcastic humor And the delivery sometimes is great And sometimes you know It falls short on me But I see him just doing it every single day Just how he would say it to like somebody in the gym And people just keep eating it up I'm like

You guys are really gassing this dude up right now Like this is really working I'm so happy for him, but it blows my mind every single day I hop on there. Valas said some stupid thing and it's got a thousand retweets. And I'm like, what am I doing with my life? You're playing the saxophone. You're getting a lot of retweights too. But I mean, yeah, it's crazy seeing how much he, you know, has blown up on social media.

I was interviewing him when he was in Titan FC and then getting the UFC and so forth so on and just seeing his personality more so evolve in the public eye over the years has just been crazy to watch. Right. Well, and interesting point, too, I might, I was thinking about participating in him with this in Ramadan. I'm not Muslim or very religious, you know, at all to speak of, but, you know, just to support the homie and, like, get myself to not be such a fad eater in quarantine. So that's coming up. If I remember correctly, he said April 23rd or 25th, I think. I guess 23rd.

And it's supposed to, yeah, it's supposed to last a month. And then, you know, obviously he can tell you more about it. But, you know, it's kind of kind of the idea like Lent and Christianity where you, you know, take some stuff away to like appreciate better. But you basically don't eat or drink anything when the sun's out. So I think his rule was from like, I want to say something like 8 p.m. or something like that till 7.30 a.m. is like the only time you can consume any sort of sustenance. So I might have to hunker down and show some love for the. homie on that one. I'll let you know how that goes. But that's another thing too, man.

He needs to get a fight scheduled because he's trained to Ramadon before, but he had a gym to go to. Now training on your own and trying to do that. I mean, he's going to do it because that guy is like, I swear he'd get superpowers when he, like the last time he trained to Ramadan it was nuts. Like he just, he knew he had to work so much harder that it like gave him extra strength. But it's, it's going to be a trying time for him for sure. Yeah, hopefully we can get him back in the Octoon sooner rather than later. But I appreciate him. I appreciate at the time. Before you let you go, like we said, we're trying to put smiles on people's faces here. We're trying to stay positive. I think, I think you know where this is going. We're trying to

keep the content moving here and get the people what they want. I don't know what you're, I don't, I don't know what you're I'm just, I'm completely unprepared and unaware of what you're talking. We got to talk. I don't know what you mean. I don't have any songs in my thought. I'll just, you know. Let's do this. Let's do this right. Thank you, Gerald, for coming on. It was a pleasure to catch up. We'll be back with our next guest in a moment. moment before you get to that, the musical stylings of Gerald Mearshot. Just amazing stuff right there, right? Gerald Mearschart, serenating all of you with a quick song on the saxophone. Always enjoy catching up at GM3 as we head to our final guest of the show. We're going to check

it with the manager and head coach of Calvin Cater, Chison Chartier. And, you know, this guy has a lot of different perspectives on what has been going on over the last couple of weeks as a coach and as a manager. Calvin Cater is targeted for that May 9th car. that we've been talking about for the last couple of days to fight Jeremy Stevens. Once again, we're going to get the latest on that and much more right now with Tyson Chardier. All right, we have Tyson Chardier joining us on the show. He is the head coach and manager of Calvin Cater along with a slew of other fighters in the New England area. Rob Fon, Randy Costa, and others.

I wanted to get a managers and even a coach's perspective on everything that's been happening over the last couple of weeks. And I reached out to a lot of them, but there's only one man who said yes. And it's this man right here, Tyson Chardier. I appreciate this man. How are you? Hey, thanks for having me on, man. I'm glad I got a chance to just down and talk to you guys. Absolutely. So you and I had spoken a few weeks ago. It was actually my first interview with MMA fighting,

and we talked about how Calvin has been staying ready. You guys are fully prepared to fight Jeremy Stevens, April 18th. Then we found out a week or so ago that UFC 249 was postponed. The schedule was postponed indefinitely. Obviously, things have changed a lot since then, But when were you made aware that April 18th this Saturday wasn't going to happen? And how did you guys react to that? I think I found out when everybody else did Thursday, probably around what, like 630?

Thursday around 630. I think it was one of the journalists texting me and said 249s off. I'm like, yeah, funny. And then I went on Twitter and I saw Bracamoto's tweet and I saw Dana's video. So I call it Calvin. And I just told him. And he's like, you're joking. because we at that point we were all in you know we thought it was really finally happening you know the

UFC's telling us they're mailing the uh the coronavirus tests out to us for the next day and that they'll have instructions and how to you know self-administer just to there's one of the safety precautions that they were going to have and next to you know an hour later it's the show's off so cobb was pretty bum but um you know he had a right attitude he's like all right let's keep training he's like fight's going to happen at some point let's just keep training so uh now that's next day we did strength and conditioning and it was business as usual. We'll get more in depth with sort of like the current times in a moment, but, you know, from last Thursday when this event was off April 18th until, say, Monday or Tuesday when things

started to ramp up again, as a manager and a coach of a fighter this directly impacts, how would you describe these last few days? Like, is there a word that could even sum it up in your mind? It was just super frustrating. Like, it's tough when you can't be mad at any. anybody. You know, like at least if you had, you know, you're angry, but you don't have anybody to be angry at. You're just angry at the situation. It's nobody's fault. And I don't know if there's really a blueprint for how to 100% handle a situation like this. But it was more of like just, you know, I was gutted for Calvin because I know that he had put in up to that point 14 weeks of a camp that had already been moved from UFC 248, March 7th,

UFC 249, you know, April 18th, and then going through the last three weeks, training through a pandemic of the uncertainty, getting to that, you know, home stretch and then having it pulled out from you. And then not even being able to be upset with anybody. That was the frustrating part. It was just, it was just, there was like a couple hours there where I'm like, well, what do I do now? Now I'm quarantined just like everybody else.

And I'm out of work. And it was a little scary. And then we just decided we'll get back to work. And so that was a little bit of relief. but it's it was tough man it was uh it was a dark night so once this saturday was off the table you saw yourself things just erupted and not in a good way like the ms space can be a great place but it can get very dark very quickly and i think from thursday probably through saturday or sunday it may have been as negative as i have ever seen it like there are all these different teams the

the fighters, the managers, the coaches, the media, fans, the promotion, blame was being thrown everywhere. And even said to yourself, there's no one really to blame here. But the media took a beating. And listen, it is what it is. This is not meant to be a pity party whatsoever. We are used to the shade at this point. It comes with the territory.

But can you remember a more negative time in the space than where things were at the end of last week? Yeah, I tried to tone it out a little bit because, you know, you guys, all you guys do a lot for the fighters, even before. or anybody you're really going to, you know, build your brand off of, young fighters, local fighters, even some amateurs. So it's, you know, I always appreciate what you guys do, whether or not you're interviewing, you know, myself, one of my UFC fighters or an amateur. You guys are all grinding too. You guys are all in your own version of fight camp. And

and that's your job. And your job's not easy to, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, you're supposed to be on bias and just report on what's going on. I think that's what some people did. And I think the lashback was probably just because, like I said earlier, like you want to blame somebody, but you don't know who to blame and you're just so frustrated that it's not happening. And so people just lash out. And I think you guys might have been an easy target. And I think once, it was kind of a little bit of group think once one person points that direction, everybody kind of jumps on board. And it was unfortunate because, you know, at the end of the day, I think, you know, we're one of the fastest growing sports in the world. But we're still pretty small. We're

got a little niche. And I think we're as a community, we all have to stick together and support each other. Because without you guys, it'd be harder to get those ESPN deals. And without the fighters, you know, you guys wouldn't exist. And so it's, you know, it's very symbiotic. And I think we have to remember that sometimes. And sometimes you guys aren't always going to say everything we agree with. But your job is to kind of report on what's going on. So, you know, news is news and fighters are fighters. But, you know, we have to, you know, we have to have that symbiotic relationship and kind of like you know coexist and you know not banter in terms of the health and safety aspect of april 18th atachi pass can you can you tell us any of the

precautions of procedures the ufc had in place like i know you mentioned that they were going to send you guys tests so you guys if you guys were cleared then you were cleared to fly to to california and get ready for this fight but were you aware of anything else on that end once you arrived in California into the resort for Fight Week, some of the protocols? No, I think they were just trying to keep everything under wraps, which I think makes sense because then I think a lot of people would have scrutinized it. No matter what they do, they were going to be under the gun. They could have done everything exactly the right way, but I think people's reactions would

have been like, oh, my God, that's still irresponsible. Because, you know, I'm getting on my end too. I have people that I trust and respect their opinion telling me that I'm being irresponsible by letting my guys fight. And so no matter what they do, there's going to be people that are going to question and say that's wrong, they should have done more. So the way I understood it was they were going to send tests to our house. We were going to test on Friday.

It was like a finger prick or something like that, like a blood test. We just prick our finger. So let them know, like send them a picture of the results. And then as long as you were negative, then you'd be clear to fly on Wednesday. And then upon arrival, you'd get tested again. Past that, we hadn't been getting any of the instructions up to that point. And then, you know, a couple hours later, the fight was canceled. The only thing I had heard was, I think it was Kevin Lowell's article, and I don't know where he got that information, but it was talking about having, you know, treadmills in each person's room to help with cut weight so they didn't have to hang around with the group and maybe an outdoor track or things like that.

So I don't know. We hadn't been really told many details, but it's probably for a reason. And I've said this before. I got to think they have much smarter medical professionals than myself. smart attorneys evaluating every move they're going to make and then come up with the best plan to make this as safe as possible because, you know, one person gets sick and that's a PR nightmare for them. And that kind of leads us to where we're at right now because we reported the UFC was targeting May 9th on Tuesday afternoon. And then Tuesday night, Bernacamoto confirmed that report and then released a dozen bouts that are being discussed for that date.

One of which is Calvin Cater versus Jeremy Stevens finally getting this thing done. It's catching up to Tony Habib at this point. But from your perspective, have you been approached with that fight for May 9th? And where does that stand from where you sit? Yeah, I mean, we don't have contracts or anything, but we had told, you know, the UFC when this whole thing went, when they got canceled. Like the UFC, you know, as far as I know, the matchmakers, they called all the manager, the coaches that were involved to try to give them an update on what's going on and what the plan is moving forward. And it was basically, you know, you guys don't want to be in this pool anymore. just let us know.

And, you know, I like that they did that. And I let him know, like, Calvin's all in. Like, he's ready to go. You know, we're still going to train. And when this is ready to get rescheduled, just tell us the date. And that's what they did. They said, hey, you guys available for May 9th and we're like, we said we were.

So that's what we trained for now. Just, you know, tweak some of the things in the camp as far as, you know, what we're going to do this week and next week and the week after the final three weeks of training. And, you know, just making sure that we're peeking at the right time. Calvin's a very positive guy. you've talked about it. I've talked to Calvin a bunch of times over the years. You get this offer for the new date four or five days after the event is canceled.

I assume you get on the horn and you call Calvin and you tell him what's going on. He says he's in. But how is he react to it? He's like, are you kidding me right now like this quickly? Or how is he, is he just excited about it? Like, how does he react to it? Well, he was excited. You know, me and Calvin have a pretty good relationship where it's like 100% trust on both ends. Like I trust him as an athlete to be a professional. So I'm not like nitpicking anything he's doing in terms of his diet or anything like that. But he does the same thing to me. You know, I accepted the fight before I even called him.

And, you know, me and him have that level of understanding. And especially where I was manager and his coach, I think it's a little bit different than the traditional manager relationship. So I told Sean right away, I was like, yeah, we're in. And then I called Calvin. I said, hey, it looks like we're doing May 9th. I don't know any details. But let's just keep going.

And it didn't change anything other than the classes that I'm going to put together, the sessions are I'm put together during the next. next few weeks. I just tweaked those in the back end. But as far as Calvin knows, he was still coming into training, you know, yesterday, this was two days ago. So yesterday he knew we were meeting at 11 down in Somerville. So that's what we were doing. So it didn't change anything on his end, other than, hey, you're making weight on the 8th now. I know when we last spoke, Calvin was spending a lot of time in New Hampshire because they hadn't instituted the stay at home yet. Obviously, that's changed. If memory serves it correctly, it'd probably have like a day or two after we spoke. But, you know,

you talked about tweaking schedules and things like that. How much has really changed in terms of him staying sharp and putting in as much work as he possibly can to stay ready? No, so we obviously made some changes. You know, we used to be down at Luzon's a couple days a week and then go down to Rhode Island to work with one of his striking coaches and up to Maine. And, you know, we had quite a bit of driving that we would do. But now that everybody's under lockdown, a lot of the coaches are pretty available to come to us. And, you know, some of the gyms are closed. I know Joe's gyms closed.

And so we've been a gym here in New Hampshire and then went down in Mass that we've been training at. So we're down in New Hampshire three days a week on the mats and then in mass two days a week. And we know people that, you know, they own the gym and they're letting us use rooms, private sessions with just a few of us. So as far as, you know, the schedule, we maintain the schedule. We've just kind of blended sessions. So instead of getting on the mats twice a day, now I'm making it one longer session and then doing supplementary work at night. And a lot more coaches drive into us versus us driving to them. So it's been almost a little bit nice in a sense where I'm doing a lot less driving.

Usually I'm like 750 miles a week and now I'm doing like maybe 200. So it's been nice. There you go. You're saving money somehow, right? Saving on that gas. But even though gas is lowest it's ever been in Massachusetts, at least as long as I can remember. Yeah. I'm saving money at the barber for sure.

I'm just letting it rip until this whole thing's over. By the way, and I know you haven't seen a contract yet, but do you know if this is going to be called UFC 249, UFC 250. Do you know anything on that end? I know UFC 250 was supposed to be May 9, so I don't know if they're going to call it that, but I think I read in the ESPN article yesterday that it would be dubbed as UFC 249. I don't know if that's true. At the end of the day, it's just a different number on our about agreement. But yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what they do.

Yeah, me too. That was a discussion we had internally with members of the website earlier today. But so we're a little over three weeks away from May 9th as we speak right now. And as you know, as you've seen already, a lot can happen in three weeks. So how confident are you that we're going to see Calvin Cater compete on May 9th against Jeremy Stevens or anybody else for that matter? I mean, obviously there's the part of, you know, your brain that goes to like, hey, we're doing this again. But, you know, given some of the changes that have been happening, like, you know, the Florida governor saying the athletes are essential. and it even sounds like Vegas is talking about things. So, you know, Dana had done another article or an interview last night,

I think, saying that Vegas would be back open mid-May to do shows at the apex. And I guess Top Rank is even talking about doing shows at the apex for boxing. So it's a lot more encouraging now. When I hear this, you know, today for three weeks, then it was when we heard, hey, April 18th is going to happen. We'll figure it out. I think I'm a lot more confident now than it was in the last one. But we just got to be prepared for anything at this point.

Just all we can do is focus on what we can control. And right now that is train hard for the next three weeks, get ready to make weight on May 8th and get in the eight-sided cage regardless of what state it's in and fight Jeremy Stevens. Let's just say because we're being positive here, Tyson. Let's say May 9th goes off without a hitch. Everything works out. Questions are answered.

Everybody's happy. Calvin goes out there, May Knife and Beach Jeremy Stevens has an amazing performance. How are you going to remember these last couple of months? Like when you tell this story to your grandchildren someday, what will the mood be like? Like, how will you describe it? I mean, obviously, it's a cool story. I think this is one of the things that, you know, we talked about our parents about, like, oh, where were you and Kennedy was assassinated?

You know, there's a couple famous things that they had. You know, we have, what, the Challenger being exploding back in 85. I think I was like five. I remember watching that. the OJ case and then 9-11. Those are kind of the big milestones, and I think this is going to be right up there with that. We're going to talk about, hey, remember that when the coronavirus hit and everybody was in their house for a few months and hopefully ends up being something that was a drastic overreaction

because that means that we figured out how to solve the issue and get past this. But definitely it's going to be like a cool story. I feel like we're a little bit kind of like on a game show and we don't really know what the rules are right now and we're just kind of going through this, trying to figure out navigate the safest way to do it when really we don't even know what the safest way to do any of this is. And I think it's going to be a cool story. I mean, if it's a cool story, I mean, none of us got sick and no one died. So I hope it ends up being something like that. But, you know, it's hard to say, you know, I mean, you look back and hopefully it's just a cool story.

It's not like, you know, hopefully none of us get it. And, you know, I've had, uh, do you even know, anybody who's had it? I don't. I don't. Well, actually, yeah, no, I don't. I don't know anybody. I've seen people on Facebook say they have it or like someone I know says somebody that they know has it, but I don't know anybody personally that's actually, that's actually had it. So I was seeing the same thing. I was like, I don't even know anybody who has this. Who are those people, you know? But my older brother lives out in Idaho. He had it, like maybe three or four weeks ago and he recovered, but then his kids got it and his ex-wife. So their whole family got it. They're all fine now, but he said it was a beast. He said it was just killed his immune system. You know,

so it's obviously real. It's just crazy how many people have had it. And I only know, you know, one family member. But he's good. So fortunately, we're getting past this. Hopefully, you know, hopefully we're on the decline. Yeah, that is the most important thing here. A couple more things for a little ago. I know you and I have spoken about this before in private, but Rob Fond is one of your guys. He's a fighter. A lot of people are excited about. How is Rob doing? When could we potentially see him back inside the octagon if everything works out? Yeah, so he got an ACL surgery January 22nd, I believe. And then he did a few weeks out at the PI for rehab.

And now he's home rehab and three days a week. He's taking the time. He's put his head down. He's training hard. He's the surgeon's happy with where he's at. The PI staff is happy where he's at. The physical therapist is with now. They're happy with where he's at.

So, I mean, all things pointing, you know, the UFC told us that they think if everything goes according to the plan, he could get a fight at the end of 2020. So that would be the optimistic outlook on it, you know, barring no setbacks. But yeah, man, I'm excited for him to get back in. He's coming off beating Sergio Pettis and Ricky Simone. There's two great wins. And, you know, he's cracked the top 10 now. And so hopefully we get a big fight once he returns. Also, Peter Barrett is one of your guys. He was scheduled to make his UFC debut next weekend against Danny Henry. And this has got to be tough on him. He's been grinding on the New England regional scene for, it seems like, forever and like most fighters he's coming out the contender series just itching to get in there

how has he been handling all this uncertainty i talked to p on the phone uh yesterday and you know i just say hey listen they're starting to book fights so just stay in shape don't get too heavy and be ready for a call because you know he was supposed to fight a kid from scotland so obviously that fight's not going to happen you assume because of the visa issues doesn't sound like any international fighters are getting in so you know we're just waiting to get rebooked and find out what the data so he's training in you know he's doing a lot of training training at home. He's got a couple of training partners that go over with him now and

he's doing as much as he can to get in the best shape he can. And yeah, you feel for someone like him that's, you know, he's been on the regional scene forever. He's always dreamed about that walk to the octagon and now, you know, whether it happens in the next month or two or further, you know, the chances

are he's going to make that walk with no fans. Like his whole family and his support system that he's got, you know, he's got like 10 siblings or something like that. I think he's like 1 of 11. You know, his whole family's got a big supports system that all went out to the contender series last year, they're not going to be in the stands for that fight. So it's, you know, you feel for someone like that. You know, you never dream about making your Octagon debut, walk into the cage in an empty arena. So, you know, but at the end of

the day, Pete's a veteran. And, you know, he's going to do everything you can to get ready for a fight. And then fans are not, you know, he's going to put on a show. He's always doing excited fights. Tyson, appreciate the time, man. Great stuff. I'm glad we're able to make this happen. Anything else you want to get off your chest before we let you go? No, I just don't understand how no one else has ever told you to look like Rob Cordry. You should, you could be like a stunt double for him in ballers or something. You get beat up by the rock. That's so funny.

For those who don't know, this is a little inside baseball. Me and Tyson were chatting a little bit on Messenger last night. And we were talking about like different things. And all of a sudden he goes, by the way, did, did anyone ever tell you like Rob Gordor? I was like, I was like, I always get John Lester. And then he, he sent me a screenshot, like a split screen between me and him. I was dying, man. I was tears in my eyes.

That is so funny. I've never gotten that before. But now that I see the split, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to get this forever. We'll probably have to put this up on the video so people can see it for themselves. That's so funny. You guys, you know, just keep doing what you're doing. Congrats on the new gig. And, you know, hopefully we're talking about, you know, after May 9th,

we're talking about a big win and what's next for Calvin. Yeah. Thanks again, Tyson. Sending my best to you and Calvin and the team and to the whole chart of your clan. Stay safe and healthy. Keep those hands clean and we'll talk soon, man. Thanks, bro. All right, Tyson Chartier, everybody,

wrapping up another edition of What the Heck on MMAFighting.com. I did want to bring this up before we said goodbye. Be remiss if I didn't mention the unfortunate passing of one of our own, the great Anthony Kassie from the New York Post. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 48 from the coronavirus. And, you know, I'd never actually met Anthony, but his photos have left a lasting impression on everybody. Just amazing shots of UFC events, boxing events, all of the major sports.

But kind of going back and looking at different articles earlier today, I think the one that I remember he shot the most was this iconic shot of Derek Jeter walking down the hallway at Yankee Stadium tapping the I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee sign. Just iconic, amazing stuff. And it's sad that we even have to speak about this. But obviously all of our thoughts and prayers, well wishes go out to the family. friends of Anthony Kasi. It's just, it's kind of hard to transition from that. But as we put a bow on this episode of the show, so make sure you subscribe to the MMA Fighting Channel on YouTube, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, you get this

show, you get the A-side Eurobash, all the immediate reaction stuff. It's just, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot more added to that over these next few weeks. So make sure you subscribe to all that stuff. You can follow me on Twitter at Mike Kack underscore J.R. Big shout out to the legends, Casey Leiden and Esther Lynn for their hard. work behind the scenes and putting this all together. Thank you all for watching. And with that, have a heck of a week, everybody.